Perversion paranoia

A consistent trope that ties most of these graphic snippets together is impotence, especially in the men after the war. Tatsumi's commentary on the effects of losing the war for the Japanese became blatant in "Good-Bye" when we see Mariko's father saying "It ain't my fault we lost the war" with slouched shoulders drinking away juxtaposed with gleeful American soldiers with Japanese women in the following panel. There is a great sense of shame in all of the characters, especially after sexual release, or the inability to properly express themselves sexually. This impotency is internal, and we see one character, in Rash, attempt to overcome his sexual obstacles with willpower and perhaps he does so successfully. 

 

Most of the male characters are ashamed of their fetishes, taboos (Father in goodbye, The father in just a man for romanticizing about his young secretary, the cross-dresser, the foot fetish guy, the man who wanks it in the park) and whether it's the impotence that drives them to these specialized forms of sexuality, or it's their fetishes themselves that drive them to impotence is unclear. I think it is clear that this sense of shame greatly manifests itself as self-hate and is not always rational. In the story 'Night falls again' on 137, we see a speechbubble that says 'pervert', but there is no tail that would attribute it to the stripper, it just hangs there. Two pages later, a women he is walking close to is also placed next to a speech bubble with no tail that says 'pervert'. Coupled with her reaction at him walking away, it could be inferred that she never said 'pervert', but it was imagined by the male protagonist because he thinks of himself as a pervert. There is a lot of self-hate in most of the characters, and it seems to manifest itself in sexuality.