Paperakyu by MATSUNAGA Toyokazu

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Paperakyu
By: MATSUNAGA Toyokazu
Genre: Psychological, Comedy, Surreal
Serialized: Web Comic

The tale of a young boy with an infectious disease called "Paperakyu."

By the mangaka of Bakune Young and Ryuuguuden

Thanks for letting people know here, though I doubt many will try/like it.

Matsunaga is beyond odd, not exactly everyone's taste but you never know. Bakune Young and Ryuuguuden were pretty popular in ages past, if I am not mistaken. At least popular by the standards of quirky, dada-surreal, alternative manga at least.

If anything, he's hugely underappreciated. Even in Japan, Ryuguden did so poorly that the guy just lost confidence in himself; meanwhile untalented hacks make tons with their shitty Jump manga.

I heard something about that, apparently he has not drawn any manga in seven years and has not bothered finding a publisher. Paperakyu is basically doujin, and available for free too. I'm not sure what the commercial expectations for a manga about children riding a penis shaped train to an underwater mermaid palace published in a low circulation alternative magazine were, but certainly they were not met :/

Yeah that's the worrying part, you can't expect that kind of manga to sell much, but apparently it didn't even meet the bare minimum expectations in terms of sales... Just by the by, in case it isn't clear, I'm the guy that did the English adaptation of Paperakyu. I asked Matsunaga if he was okay with this, and he was even very glad I took an interest to that extent.

It's always good to see quality manga fall into capable hands. Thanks for the releases Barba!

Matsunaga's style is so left field I think he would be better off in an avant-garde magazine like AX. Paperakyu would fit in very well there, as would his previous series.

Throughout the first two chapters I was getting that sad feeling, and thought of this manga as pretty tragic and then every time kids or someone else then Paperakyu and his father(?) appeared I was hit of how the world treats people who are poor and are regarded outcasts from "their society". It's funny how surrealism is nothing more then realism it self as we know it modern times.

And is this illness also known in real life or did the mangaka make it up? And I do not get the singing at times, it's like two different people are singing, like that thing on his head is a person of it's own. I liked the can jumping thing, really a light motif in this manga. Pretty good and unique piece of literature/art(manga).

I asked Matsunaga about the title, how he came up with it and if it was a real thing (the depicted disease or something else), but he said it was just something he came up with in grade school and that he always liked the sound of it. What's interesting is that there's actually a page somewhere in Bakune Young v3 of a character reading a manga called Paperakyu, accompanied by the face of Sachio. So it's something that's been stuck in his head for a long time.
Thanks for the feedback btw, this kind of manga doesn't get it a lot! I agree about the atmosphere, there's a strange mixture of lightheartedness and sadness in Matsunaga's stuff.

I seriously need to read the rest of this guy's mangas. :D
I mean he seems quite creative and his ideas have been in his head for a long time(reminds me of Oda). Interesting how the kids don't really know Sachio's real name and instead call him by the disease.

Well anything to start a discussion about the story. :)
Which one overpowers do you think? In this one he seems to add more tragic parts and lighten them up a bit at the end.

That's what I like about his stuff, he isn't afraid to tread into the darker parts of the human psyche, but he always puts things into perspective by adding something goofy to the mix.
His series also have a huge sense of unpredictability to them, you seriously never can tell how anything will play out.

I am thinking the dog policeman will have a bigger role in it, like you said the magnaka is unpredictable so it seems like it may happen. We may see him again, so far I want to follow the fathers story more then Sachio's, it seems to be more interesting. And the three kids may have a change of heart about the whole situation, they are imitating the can jumping thing after all.

Also are next chapters to be expected soon? I know this is not yet released in a magazine but still?

This will probably remain a webseries only, unless something crazy happens. But chapters are expected to come out monthly, so the third one should be out (raw) in a good week or so? Then again, Matsunaga has neither editor nor deadline to respect so it's entirely up to him.
He's obviously still winging it right now, so I don't think he himself knows exactly where things will end up.

Really sad, I mean he did start it, sort of, I hope he finds the inspiration to keep on going with this one, while I wait I should catch up on other stuff from him.

Ryuguden and Bakune Young are both pretty mind blowing.
I honestly needed a while before I could come to terms with the insanity that is Bakune Young. Ryuguden pretty much had me from the get go.

---------- Post added October 01, 2011 at 02:30 PM ---------- Previous post was September 26, 2011 at 09:24 PM ----------

3rd chapter's out!