In reading Tatsumi, the one thing that seemed fairly consistent from story to story was the impact of the final panel of each story. More often than not, the final panel was a focus on a single character, usually with just that character in perspective or in focus, and often there is nothing said in the panel. From an macro point of view, I believe this is an interesting technique by Tatsumi, as his stories are dealing with subject matter, emotions, and meta-narratives unlike anything we've seen so far in this course. As I read, the dark subject matter was always there in the back of my head, but it wasn't until the story ended, often with a poignant, silent final panel that the gravity and meta-narratives of the story came flooding in. With a few stories, such as "Sky Burial", the final panel did not make a ton of sense to me, although that was probably because I didn't understand the story in general, but it shows the danger in leaving the story off with little explanation, as Tatsumi seems to like to do. The poignant final panel, in which Tatsumi often allows the panel to either speak for itself or include some coded, story-thematic dialogue, is a double edged sword. It can either leave the reader with a feeling something akin to awe and admiration at Tatsumi's artistic and story telling ability, or it can leave the reader dumbfounded and craving real closure or explanation for the ending of the story. As I read through Good Bye, I found myself oscillating between the two feelings whenever I ended a story.
I will add that I recognize the aversion to a feel-good, easily wrapped up ending. The context in which these stories were written did not have a feel-good aura. The end of World War II, with the dropping of the bomb and the subsequent fallout and social changes felt in Japan (as depicted in Tatsumi's comics), did not represent a feel-good ending for the Japanese people. Therefor, I think the endings of Tatsumi's comics are representative of life in Japan following the bomb. There was no real resolution, people were unsure of what was going on and what the future would hold. The way Tatsumi handled his endings were emblematic of these feelings, and in many way, if they had ended in the same way as the action hero comics we've read did, the stories would have lost their authenticity of the Japanese experience following the bomb and the war. Therefor, although I don't love the endings of Tatsumi's comics, and that his final panels that require a lot of interpretation on behalf of the reader, I find the endings to be more than appropriate, and enjoy them in the context of the whole book.
Gabe, your post touches on an aspect of Good Bye that really stuck with me. I've often found that I read through comics so quickly that specific details become foggy by the time we discuss them in class. This was not so with Tatsumi. I think this was largely because of the poignancy of his final panels. To me, these mostly open-ended conclusions implied all of the misery to come for Tatsumi's characters. I would agree that some are confusing, even unsatisfying. "Rash," in particular, only made sense after further reading on the significance of the mushroom to Japanese culture. Most, however, really worked for me. Japan has not healed, they seem to say. The uncertainty of the nation's future is reflected in the uncertain fates of the characters. I found each of the stories to be like the best episodes of anthology TV shows (The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror for example). Those, too, are most effective when their endings imply lingering dread.
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