Ayako

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The late Osamu Tezuka needs no introduction. Over his lifetime he created dozens of classic stories that have helped shape manga and anime into what it is today. ‘Ayako’ is one of his lesser known works. Rather undeservingly so seeing as it’s yet another excellent demonstration of Tezuka’s imcredible storytelling abilities.

The story begins in 1949. Japan is slowly getting back on its feet following the devastating losses it suffered during World War 2 and Jiro Tenge, son of a wealthy family of landowners, has come back home. Reluctantly so, I might add, seeing as he finds out upon returning that not much has ... changed. His father Sakuemon (the head of the family) is still grumpy, condescending and more than a bit xenophobic while his older brother Ichiro tries his best to match him. The women in the Tenge family are treated as non-entities which reflects how sexist Japanese society was in that time period. The children, meanwhile, are raised to fill in similar roles once they grow up. There is one exception, though. A child named Ayako, a new niece of Jiro’s who is particularly favored by patriarch Sakuemon.

The story spans a time period of approximately 25 years and during that time a series of events, varying from shifts in the political climate to personal tragedies, take place that greatly affect members of the Tenge family in different ways. We see a family desperately clinging to their power as the world around them begins to change, an ambitious son who’ll use his children as pawns to win favor with his father, a man who gets caught up in espionage for shady agencies in order to build up a personal fortune and a child trying in vain to change his family from the inside out. The lynchpin of the entire narrative is young Ayako (hence the title). Her role as an innocent child is initially played straight but as the story goes on it eventually becomes clear that it serves a symbolic purpose. She represents an undying innocence that is cruelly repressed and (if possible) denied by a society that sacrifices integrity for personal gain.

This, in turn, is the major theme of this manga. And Tezuka deserves props for brilliantly exploring the way principles and innocence are corrupted in the face of selfishness. Other themes that pop up in the story ultimately serve to support it.

Some may be surprised at how cynical all of this sounds coming from the man who’s mostly known for rather upbeat stories (though he also wrote ‘MW’) but let it be clear. This is a very somber story with a very harsh view on human nature and society. It is nonetheless a very thematically rich and frighteningly timeless work that deserves to be read by any serious fan of manga.

It’s not all perfect though. There are a handful of events that are rather rushed and/or contrived, while most characters ultimately functions as little more than pawns in the grand scheme of things. Characterization is minimal seeing as their roles in the story are largely symbolic. Some may also find that Tezuka pours his (political) views on a little too thick at times. Tezuka was never one for subtlety.

The visuals of this manga are excellent. Osamu Tezuka’s ability to frame all sorts of emotions in tiny pictures is on full display and he doesn’t stuff his panels with unnecessary detail. Another great aspect of the art is the way the characters are designed. They’re all very distinctive and they really look different yet instantly recognizable as they get older. The art does a perfect job supporting the narrative which is the main attraction here. And in that regard, Ayako delivers in spades. Very highly recommended.

This is my first review on MAL. I posted this on Goodreads and figured I may as well post it here too. I am not a very strict reviewer, but hopefully this helps give some perspective.

This is my first exposure to Osamu Tezuka, and I must say that this lives up to his legacy. This is a historical piece and a commentary on the many cultural and political shifts in Japan from 1949 to 1973, as well as an analysis of an insidious family dealing with the ever-changing climate of the time.

We follow the once powerful Tenge family as they desperately cling to power by ... whatever means necessary, and the family politics and treachery that result from that. The Tenge family is depicted as rancid and rotting, with each family member being despicable in their own right; all but the titular character Ayako.

Ayako starts off as a background character, being 4 years old at the start of the story, but she gains relevance as she grows up and the family dynamics change over the years and decades. She is a fairly simple character initially, but after one pivotal point in the story, her significance becomes obvious as a symbol of the repressed purity and innocence by a family that only cares to keep their name in a position of power at any cost. I won't elaborate further, since you're better off reaching your own conclusions and I don't want to spoil anything.

As for the other characters, they are all fairly interesting and have their own arcs. Most of them go through drastic changes over the course of the two decades of the story, their arcs generally holding a lot of symbolism. It's fun to see them bounce off of each other and react to the changes in family dynamics and political climate.

Despite my love for this story, I do have a few complaints. The first of which is the lack of characterization. Most of the characters are fairly simplistic. They do evolve over the course of the story, but most of them are very straight-forward. This is more a product of the several interconnected characters and plot lines that Tezuka has to balance over the course of 19 chapters. However, I do think there is a beauty to how Tezuka writes them, and there is depth to be found in their interactions with each other and the world.

Another complaint, that also stems from the sheer amount of plot lines to be juggled, were the time skips. Obviously a story taking place over the course of 25 years will need to have time jumps, but sometimes it was unclear how much time had passed or what had happened in that time off-panel. Most of the big time skips were fairly obvious, as we were presented with narration explaining it, or we would see characters that had noticeably aged a discernible amount of years. Just sometimes, the smaller time skips would be somewhat unclear. I think these are very minor complaints in the grand scheme of the story, and I don't weigh them heavily against my score.

As for the art, it is generally fairly simple, but like the characterization, I think there is a beauty to it. Tezuka's strengths are facial expressions and paneling, which for the time was way ahead of its time, even compared to American comics of the '70s. Some parts do feel rushed, but Tezuka does prove that he can draw with more depth if needed, and he does succeed in showcasing his skill and versatility over the course of the book.

All in all, this is an amazing story, firmly cemented in its historical context. I imagine being familiar with this era in history and Japanese culture adds a lot to the story, but it can most definitely be enjoyed without. The strength of the book lies in its heavy use of layered symbolism, historical context, and cultural criticism. The weaknesses lie in the sometimes rushed plot and art and the use of some contrivances to move the plot. All in all, I rate this a very strong 9/10 and would highly recommend it to most manga and comics fans.

I was fortunate. Fortunate in that I had a learned individual informed me of the background in which ‘Ayako’ was created which allowed me to understand the reasoning behind many of the plot points and the overall theme.

Because the story would have looked awful without the understanding of that background.

The reason being that much of it isn’t presented well, and it ends up looking silly and vapid without the proper presentation. Eventually, the story does get around to leading readers in the right direction of understanding, but that is well over 50% into the story and it is still fairly easy to lose sight of.

Thing ... is that the themes within Ayako are actually pretty universal and timeless. Intra-family power struggles, changing times upheaving old knowledge/structures/understanding, complex individual personalities acting immoral in some cases and moral in others, and all forced within the rigid framework known as ‘society’.

However, the above themes get lost due to the seemingly simple and rather blunt story. The simple and crass characters. The simple and unsubtle plot. And so on. It's unfortunate, but the manga is really outdated, though it was likely good for its time. Today, though, even low-ranking modern manga tend to create superior stories with more well defined/created characters.

But, again, I was informed that much of the story was written as a sort of overview of post-WWII Japan and the feelings Tezuka has about the American occupancy and the dirty laundry of Japanese aristocracy. Due to that background knowledge, I had read the story while viewing all the characters within the story as symbolism rather than actual characters. Each character we are presented are representative of an aspect of Japanese society. They’re inter-connected and the actions of one ultimately affect the other in a sort of circle of tragedy, uplifting, and just plain ol’ life.

Through this view, it seems to me that the story made much more sense and the complexity which seemed non-existent seemingly came into play and became visible. The events that happened which seemed to have made little to no sense suddenly became understandable. As a result, Ayako became vastly more enjoyable.

Should everyone read the manga as I did? No, absolutely not. I believe manga (or any medium, really) is better experienced and perceived by individual's own taste. However, I think many people would enjoy Ayako much more so long as they do not accept everything at face value as I might have done had I not known.