ASANO Inio (mature)

[Kaiten]

Welcome to the Asano Inio thread! Inio-sensei writes slice of life manga that mix surrealism, drama, and (often black) comedy. His series frequently question the difficulty of balancing our ideals and child hood dreams with real world needs during the early adult years. Few writers capture what it's like to be college age or newly graduated like Inio-sensei. Try getting to know his work, listed in chronological order below:

What a Wonderful World

Serialized In: Sunday GX (2002-2004)
Genre: Slice of Life, Drama, Comedy
Japanese Status: 2 volumes (complete)
International Release: VIZ, 2 volumes (complete)
Online Status: Volume 2, Chapter 12 (inactive)
Age Ranking: Older Teen

Being his first series, What a Wonderful World remains Asano’s most representative and successful work to date.

Composed of vignettes from the daily lives of a group of people inhabiting an ordinary neighborhood somewhere in Tokyo, the series is actually a comment about modern life itself and how we can survive in it despite all its rigors.

Amusing, melancholic, funny, strange, thought-provoking—Asano effortlessly shifts from one mood to another, creating stories and characters that are profoundly human and thus always involving. It’s a shame that not everyone will find the subjects the author describes equally appealing since some of them are distinctly Japanese. But overall, it’s a great collection that any discerning manga reader should check out.

Nijigahara Holograph

Serialized In: Quick Japan (2003-2005)
Genre: Drama, Psychological, Tragedy
Japanese Status: 1 Volume (complete)
International Status: Unlicensed
Online Status: 1 Volume (complete)
Age Ranking: Older Teen
Thread

Suzuki is a troubled boy. He's lived with uncaring foster parents for most of his life, alienated from the other kids at his school, owner of a cynical, unhappy mentality. Komatsuzaki is a violent, unpredictable bully whose head trauma causes him to act in mysterious, inexplicable ways. Arakawa is a no-nonsense, normal girl who pines after Komatsuzaki but can never have him. A teacher with just one working eye. A mother who committed suicide. A daughter in an endless coma. Attempted rapes, murders, extortion, sexual deviance, and a freakish explosion in the butterfly population. All of these elements are whirled together in a story spanning 10 years, a tale of blackness, pain, and apocalypse. And maybe just a bit of hope and redemption. It's a spiritual cross between the misanthropic suburban malevolence of Kyoko Okazaki's Rivers Edge and the eerie mysticality of Donnie Darko.

Hikari no Machi

Serialized In: Sunday GX (2004-2005)
Genre: Drama, Slice of Life
Japanese Status: 1 Volume (complete)
International Status: Unlicensed
Online Status: Volume 1, Chapter 5 (active?)
Age Ranking: Older Teen

The sun’s rays enter the city of light, as various stories unfold:

Bright, dark and harsh; a story filled with people from whom you’d want to avert your eyes. Yet, it’s close to reality; so maybe it’s true to humanity.

Like an old bond between a boy and a girl, a friendship is born between girls who rarely speak to each other.

A man who dirties his hands for money, and the girlfriend who waits for him to come home.

Solanin

Serialized In: Young Sunday (2005-2006)
Genre: Slice of Life, Drama, Comedy, Tragedy
Japanese Status: 2 Volumes (complete)
International Status: VIZ, 1 Volume Omnibus (complete)
Online Status: 2 Volumes (complete)
Age Ranking: Older Teen
Thread

Slice of life with a young couple, Inoue Meiko and Taneda Shigeo, and how everyday occurrences affect their lives. Meiko begins contemplating whether freedom without purpose is really the same thing as boredom. This is a retelling of a very common real life situation, perhaps enjoyable for an older fanbase. Art is different, there are no anime-esque deformations here.

Nominated in 2009 for the Eisner Award Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan. Nominated for the 2009 Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.

Before Dawn and the End of the World

Serialized In: Big Comic Spirits (2006-2008)
Genre: Drama, Slice of Life
Japanese Status: 1 Volume (complete)
International Status: Unlicensed
Online Status: 1 Volume (complete)
Age Ranking: Older Teen

Collection of one shots, companion to What a Wonderful World

Oyasumi Punpun

Serialized In: Young Sunday (2007-2008), Big Comic Spirits (2009- )
Genre: Surreal, Drama, Comedy
Japanese Status: 6 Volumes (ongoing)
International Status: Unlicensed
Online Status: 5 Volumes (active)
Age Ranking: Older Teen
Thread

Witness the titular Punpun - who is depicted as a tiny, caricatured bird in an otherwise normal human setting - as he copes with his dysfunctional family and friends, his love interest, his oncoming adolescence and his hyperactive mind.

Umibe no Onnanoko

Serialized In: Manga Erotics F (2009- )
Genre: Slice of Life, Alternative Manga
Japanese Status: No Compiled Volumes
International Status: Unlicensed
Online Status: Untranslated
Age Ranking: Mature

Art book containing two one shots.

Ctrl+T

Serialized In: Big Comic Spirits (?-2010)
Genre: Slice of Life
Japanese Status: 1 Volume (complete)
International Status: Unlicensed
Online Status: 1 chapter
Age Ranking: Older Teen (presumptive)

No Summary Available

Artist Page

[Akainu]

Just finished Solanin the other day and looking at some of the other covers it makes me wonder... it looked a little bit too realistic at times, almost as if a photography was redrawn, maybe? that possible? don't know if mangaka use such techniques, especially this one ^^'

[Kaiten]

Some of his more recent series use digital art/photography for the backgrounds. Pun Pun definitely does.

[Josef K.]

http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=78302

His latest manga, I really hope it gets scanned, just by looking at that cover, I think it will be great.