Manga Tak | Weekly Podcast
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Manga Tak | Weekly Podcast
@mangatakpod.bsky.social
🎧 Weekly Manga Pod on the best 1st Volumes
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I hope we get more of this kind of thing in English, as this comic / essay combo is an ideal way to learn about and enjoy the work of artists I was completely oblivious about!

I’ll go back to some more Tatsumi from here, but this was a great detour on this little history trip!
December 6, 2025 at 11:39 AM
There's also an incredibly detailed essay at the back of the book from Ryan Holmberg and Mitsuhiro Asakawa that I'm taking my time reading through, but it's an incredible resource for gleaming more context into Tsurita and the industry during the 60s/70s. More of this please!!!
December 6, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Tsurita also pushes sequential panels into the abstract a lot, which is why I guess why she was such an important contributor to Garo despite it being a "bit of a boys club"... Her work is just
constantly exploring what's possible with the form!
December 6, 2025 at 11:30 AM
The main reason to pick it up though imo is that she's just doing some cool stuff with panel sequencing. I was reminded of the 'time' section of @scottmccloud.bsky.social’s
Understanding Comics a LOT reading this book as it's a reoccurring element throughout the book
December 6, 2025 at 11:29 AM
But l'd be selling the book short if I just told you about the more melancholy aspects: it's often really funny and more importantly, you can see the moments where Tsurita is just having fun making the comic, and that's infectious as a reader!
December 6, 2025 at 11:28 AM
There's definitely a feeling of sadness running through most of the work for me, with death and a sense of suicidal ideation being a pretty constant thought out, but they're also just all so interesting, at times even beautiful, that I was able to put that to the side and enjoy them regardless
December 6, 2025 at 11:26 AM
It's a very striking collection of one-shot, short stories from one of the pioneering female voices in Manga. They're dark, often tragic tales that are as experimental as they are profound.
December 6, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Finished reading 'The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud' from @dandq.bsky.social last night - l'd eyed up this book for ages because of the striking cover, but otherwise went in with no knowledge of Kuniko Tsurita
December 6, 2025 at 11:24 AM
I’ll wait for ‘Good-Bye’ to arrive before I continue reading the rest of his work, but I am really, really looking forward to reading more of his work!
December 4, 2025 at 6:16 PM
I think I’m going to remember the broad strokes of some of these stories for the rest of my life. There’s a haunting quality to some of them that’s hard to shake… I also can’t believe that ‘Beloved Monkey’ ran in a Shonen magazine hahaha
December 4, 2025 at 6:14 PM
The stories are grim and have the same curiosity about desire, taboo and the darker shades of humanity that The Push Man did, but the writing becomes tighter and the artwork really kicks it up a notch.
December 4, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Then I moved on to read Abandon The Old In Tokyo and thought “Oh. Now I totally get what folks see in him.”
December 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
I thought given the ‘Gekiga’ label and a lot of the sexual themes in the stories, that these kinds of things would be Tatsumi’s MO and I could see why people would like that (and indeed I found the rawness pretty interesting myself), but I wasn’t convinced he’d be a Mangaka I fell in love with…
December 4, 2025 at 6:04 PM
The stories in The Push Man were all pretty strong, and considering their ages (the shorts are from 1969), they felt both modern thanks to their tone, but also retro because of their subject matter and art style…
December 4, 2025 at 6:00 PM
After the wonderful introduction by Adrian Tomine, I really wasn’t sure what to expect from Tatsumi’s work. I knew of the man before picking these volumes up, but it at least gave me a bit of a background into him as a creator to start off on the right foot
December 4, 2025 at 5:54 PM
So I decided to start denting this colossal pile by starting with Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s work and going back to the beginning of @dandq.bsky.social’s releases with The Push Man Abandon The Old In Tokyo
December 4, 2025 at 5:51 PM
While I got a digital review copy from Titan, I’ve once again ended up ordering it physically for the collection.

Talking to an Italian friend who’s just got volume 10, it also seems the series only goes from strength to strength from here, so I’m excited to read on!
December 4, 2025 at 8:05 AM
It’s nice to be able to see what the book is about already from the second volume, as while I liked the first volume, I wasn’t sure where it was going and I’m now very curious to read on!
December 4, 2025 at 8:01 AM
This week on Manga Tak Plus, I’ve continued Sanda after covering the first volume of Paru Itagaki’s series on the podcast! I’m a little late as @titanmangahq.bsky.social released it already in November, but I’m glad I went back to it!
December 4, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Dark Horse just out here, casually teasing Appleseed Deluxe?! Be still my beating heart!!!
December 2, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Have an absolute ton of incredible, historically important manga at my finger tips… I just don’t know where to begin hahahah! Expect some mini reviews of all of this over the coming days! @dandq.bsky.social
December 2, 2025 at 7:09 AM
It’s an excellent series and with the final volume out now, you’ve got no excuse not to go read it all!

Thanks to the folks a Tokyo Pop for providing a digital review copy while I await for the physical one I preordered to arrive!
November 19, 2025 at 6:31 PM
I’m sad to see this series end, but excited to see what Tsuno does next! Their writing and characters are excellent, so I hope we get more of their work in English!
November 19, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Apologies folks - I’ve been neglecting this account a bit recently while I was traveling! But dropped a new review for ‘You Can’t Live All On Your Own’ by @tsunomizoko.bsky.social and published in English by @tokyopop.bsky.social!
November 19, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Japanese medicine box design has a real blank VHS cassette cover feel to it and I’m honestly here for it…
November 5, 2025 at 8:00 AM