Tatsumi, Truly the Master of Disguise

I really do have to say, I am truly impressed by all of the metaphors, allegories, secretive Asian cultural background stuff, and philosophy that Tatsumi hides in his short stories.
In Hell, he references the lack of "straightness" (or off-centeredness) of character on his title page with the dark building, hinting how the Japanese people all live under the shadows of the booming and are just as wrecked inside as the buildings on the outside. Plato's "allegory of the cave" and how that is played out by the character.
Just a Man, living under shame after the war; mundane life of boredom and directionless; the impotent "cannon."

But I think that his brilliance does not just stop there. Has anyone stopped and thought, "hmmm... some of these characters sort of look the same...wait...is that one, in this story too?" As much as the professor has claimed that although some look very similar, they are all separate characters. There is even no meaning of having them being related in any way.

BUT ARE THEY? AND IS THERE?

While his protagonists are rarely honorable men, usually aging perverts, disillusioned husbands, and grubby opportunists (as been mentioned in the "Oxford Culture Review"), that is not what actually bothered me. Going through the stories for the first time, I was unable to understand most of the endings. For some reason, the idea that there was a bigger picture behind everything loomed over me. The book sort of reminded me of the SuspenStories, where there is this certain detail that I could have missed while I was going through the pages. And then the characters, with their lack of artistic features, caught my eyes.
Mr. Hanayama and his family (Just a Man) looks very similar to the man and his family in Rash. Even the Nogawa (Sky Burial) looks like a younger version of Mr. Hanayama.
Nogawa's girlfriend (Sky Burial) seems to appear as a guest star in Night Falls Again.
Is the Akemi in Life is So Sad the same Akemi in Click Click Click?
Yamagami in Life is So Sad looks almost identical to Yamano in Click Click Click.


So are they really different people? In my opinion, it makes more sense if they are.
While each seemingly independent story has so many hidden messages between the panels, lurking within the gutters, they are not so independent of each other as they seem.
Assume that they were all the same people:

1. Mr. Hanayama = man living in the middle of the woods = Nogawa
In Sky Burial, the story began with the introduction of the Tibetan sky funeral rituals, indicating the main idea of the story. The section ended with the young Nogawa alone in the old building, with vultures crashing on his roof, literally. But how is that all connected? If you look closely at the last splash page, one of the vultures seem to have blended into the rim of the building. Some of the other birds looked like they came from part of the building as well. All of his neighbors and his friends left the building one by one after discovering the death of the old man next door, this could actually be seen as a sky burial ritual being performed by an invisible hand: the death of the neighbor is a metaphor as the death of the building. While the people inside move out, just as the innards are removed from the corpse, the body is just left out for the falcons to munch on. While the falcons emerge with the old building, the splash page indicates the renewal of life for the others who have moved out and started a new life, and the "death" of Nogawa.
While we take the same character and place him in Just a Man and Rash, it makes sense. In both of those stories, the main character kept on doubting what he has done in his earlier years. His extrusion from his family (or rather him running away), and his pointless life. After the "death" of his soul in his earlier years, he has lost goal in his life. The back-story to both of these characters are alarmingly similar, even the family members look almost exactly the same. DOES THIS SEEM SUSPICIOUS TO ANYONE?
Another thing to mention: his penis. Hey, he's already having problems having it stand up, so he's probably not using it as often. Usually in Asia, we have this saying: if you don't use something for long enough, it's eventually going to disappear/fall off. RING ANY BELLS ANYONE???


2. Akemi in Life is So Sad vs. Akemi in Click Click Click vs. Mariko in Good-bye
So what do we know about Akemi in Life is So Sad? Akemi 1.0 (in Life is So Sad) is a faithful woman who has been waiting for a douchebag for 4 years of her life just because she was in love with him. He even took her virginity, which is a HUGE thing in Asia for any of you who don't know. It is basically giving up your purity and it's a sign of devotion of the highest kind in Asian society. Especially for women of that time, it is unacceptable for women to lose their virginities before marriage and considered unclean and a garbage.
Being a bar hostess, Akemi has already been exposed to the many things going on in the night life. As she finally realizes that she needs to let go of the guy who took her virginity and move on with her life. That's when we're hit with the panel of her stepping onto the puddles of water that had been oh so meaningful to her in the beginning. Of course, with this motion depicted, I think that it's clear to the audience what has happened: she got over him. So. she had sex with him and then got over him with a smile on her face.
So if we were to look at Akemi, her timeline would be: Life is So Sad -> Click Click Click -> Good-bye. And how can we define this? How slutty/morally destructive she is. She shatters her own fantasy of love and dreams to be with the man that she loves as she realizes what a douche he is, then becomes more and more integrated with the night life, until she finally loses it and falls into that kind of lifestyle. Well, more like relies on that lifestyle to keep her afloat in life. By having sex with men, she cuts them off from her life, just like she did the first man. And that is the same solution that she came to when it was time to let go of her father. Doesn't this all make sense?
In the same way, the pervert in both of the stories (Yamagami in Life is So Sad and Yamano in Click Click Click) can also make a connection. Yamagami has been waiting for three years ever since Akemi started working at the bar, just so that he could be "hosted" by her. In the end of the first story, he gets what he wants. So after all those years of waiting, what is the second thing to do after having sex with her? Have more sex with her! And that's how he became a regular for Akemi.


So if we look at all of these characters in another light, maybe there is a hidden connection in these seemingly independent stories. Tatsumi not only hid all of those secretive messages in his comics, but also might be trying to drop a few hints between the stories to indicate the loss of humanity, hopelessness, and trapped in the same loop over and over again. This is what really makes Tatsumi the ultimate master, not only of manga, but also of disguise.