“My name is Jesuido Namazuko. I sing every night at The Pool Of Blood, a pub frequented by disgusting demons after work. One day I was about to fall victim to their weapons when, just as I thought my time, the time of my death, had come, I suddenly started singing a song that I liked. I touched the strings of their hearts and, for this reason, they spared my life. Thus I became the singer of the riverbed.” The intro off the dust jacket acts to frame the harrowing life of Namazuko, a journey steeped in tragedy and atrocities captured in Daisuke Ichiba's eclectic stylistic approach.
Known as an artist foremost, with previous publications of his work acting as zines or showcase of his art, Daisuke Ichiba's “The Life of Namazuko” offers the first glimpse into a defined narrative work. Available via Hollow Press, this manga also comes via a publisher at the forefront of underground comics focused on exemplary presentation.
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Touching on the release first, the edition was given a lot of attention in bringing the work of Ichiba back to life, including some needed cleaning of lines from the faded original prints. Additionally, the unorthodox delivery of dialogue in both placement and structure lead to having to reframe some of the text to help with flow of the English release. Thankfully, these updates and tweaks work beautifully with the edition, and make the best presentation of the source material to come out of Hollow Press's Japanese related content. The presentation is ‘simply divine' and gives a lot of excitement to the prospect of the publisher releasing more narrative heavy works from Ichiba.
Ichiba's artwork can be best described as disorienting, using traditional form in his characters (particularly female nudes) that can quickly become amorphous through the transformation of body or landscape. This is also echoed in his use of collage and incorporating real photography into his work, often with real faces posed on top of non-essential characters. These odd creations end up feeling less human than the drawn subjects, as their disembodied smiling faces makes them removed from the world Ichiba constructs. This approach captures a extraordinary chaos that is unique to its creator. Ultimately, if it is something the reader can embrace, the experience is bound to be gleefully disturbing.
The narrative can be a bit difficult to navigate, with many pages working well alone highlighted by either lovely prose, indulgence in misery, horror or dark humor. Sometimes these elements mix together, such as Namazuko's refusal to sing for demons putting her in the dreary, yet comedic, position of having to trim pubic hair from them as her service for navigating the afterlife. Granted, the story to some will seem to just wallow in misery as Namazuko's life has no real silver lining, as she suffers greatly for her mothers crimes and there is little reward for her trials. Ultimately, the enjoyment of the story depends on the reader's tolerance of witnessing another's misery.
Sadly, it feels that Ichiba's particular brand of disturbing will hold limited appeal, whereas ‘similar themed' fringe artist Shintaro Kago has risen in popularity. While this is just guesswork, the pop aesthetic of Kago seems to be a more universally appealing aesthetic versus Ichiba whose approach reaches similar levels of discomfort with less gore and sex due to the less fantastical delivery. Undeniably, it is an odd niche to fill that kind of hovers, just outside of simple definitions like ‘ero guro' or horror, but one that Ichiba unapologetically inhabits on his own.
Wonderfully disturbing and gorgeously presented, if any of the artwork or my words resonate to your own tastes, I can't recommend this title highly enough. I am simply ecstatic at the prospect of Hollow Press further exploring the work of Ichiba, and fans of the underground should make haste to check out this release.
yeah, i just finished reading this horrorific yet gorgeous looking work and i appreciated so much the way this manga interacts with the reader, the narrative is structured on many levels and sometimes can be hard to be understood, but yeah it’s cool like you don’t understand if you’re reading Namazuko’s thoughts or her mother ones, even sometimes i felt like it was Ichiba himself who suddenly entered the manga to engage with the story or the reader.
There are also things i didn’t understand if they had an intentional purpose or were absolutely casual or to put effort to the disorienting drawings, like the political manifestos that appear in some paintings… well, at least i have to re-read this volume.
i never read Shintaro Kago, i think i have to fix it.
Oh and sorry about my english, i’m from italy sooo yeah i tried my best to explain my thoughts :)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the work. It is certainly something I have come to revisit a few times and I think I would have addressed a few more things in my original review since then. The book does feel like it combines different charchter narratives as well as personal insight from the creator, which can be disorienting but also offers a really unique read from a profound talent.
I am glad you liked it, and yes Kago is also great. The nice thing about Hollow Press is they release the stuff in Italian as well.
yes, the founder is an italian guy, he’s doing an enormous job with Hollow Press. Sad that they don’t get more visibility and sales.