Tatsumi's Authenticity

Throughout Good-Bye Yoshihiro Tatsumi seamlessly balances the use of text and image to tell a series of short stories. His stories are unique in that they are grounded in realism, presenting an honest depiction of post WWII Japan as well a thoughtful articulation of the mundane. His comic's are highly appealing given their authenticity, and his willingness to explore real, human experience as opposed to stories of sci-fi or fantasy. Emphasized by the illustration of nonspecific faces his characters maintain an anonymity, in which the reader can relate and inhabit. Compared to the other comics we have read this semester Tatsumi's work is refreshing. His comics facilitate a consistent pace of reading and his ability to develop meaningful short stories is admirable. I'd argue that rather than pessimistic his work takes a risk in portraying flawed, humanistic characters. Similar to Adele Blanc-Sec his characters are morally ambiguous, making harmful decisions but expressing guilt for their actions; he acknowledges complexity to even fuller degree than Tardi. Tatsumi establishes the mood and atmosphere of postwar Japan in which national identity was lost, but from a more pragmatic perspective his decision to place his stories within a specific historical time period is highly effective in connecting to the reader.