Igort/2 and Naoki Urasawa[2].
In the picture, cited from : 'Asadora' by Naoki Urasawa, vol.2
‘In medias res’ we come to light – and we know well that no preparations in the world can surrogate being born into reality : but it is also ‘in medias res’ that passing to adults occurs and, if our memory does not falter, it is to these flashes that we owe one’s recovery of a step decided on our own, not at all imposed but instead adopted, specifically, by a subject.
‘In medias res’ the child girl Asa Asada finds herself, and she is at a crossroads[3] : crying at the destruction of her house at Nagoya and of almost her family due to the gygantic tiphoon that crossed Japan in 1959, or instead receiving the instructions from the veteran aviator Haruo Kasuga – once ‘hero of the heavens’, as himself repeats and repeats – bleading from a shoulder wound and already unable to move his right hand. It is the Old Kasuga, so immobilized, who tells the little girl what she will have to do to hold the control stick of the plane : and Asa – always the last in her large family – chooses to pass to adult, lucidly executes the maneuver – only glimmer with chances – until bringing to safety three of her ten brothers who had escaped together with that doctor Tanaka who delivered the last of the three.
‘In medias res’ is, as a matter of facts, this not easy technique which crowds with emergencies the pages of a story where the protagonist did not choose to find himself, or herself : but the concatenations come to us absolutely correct. What’s the logic then ?
Beacuse ‘manga’[4] can invent the graphic lines to express any motion, natural or human, and can also decide the cuts of the sequences to increase their effectiveness, but they don’t have many other tools at disposal, as instead we are used to demanding, as traditional spectators that we are. It’s drawing as a physical perception of events that maintains contact with the story, which remains engraved before you even see it, more for listeners of image, in short, than for clerics of the word, and this is what can disappoint the conservative.
Asa is a character, not a real child girl : and this well knows Naoki Urasawa who created it without ever losing contact with the perceived, with the reliability of his own memory. But she is a child girl who gets to use logic, that mild and terribly realistic logic, neglected by the group because it is not zero balance and would be difficult to justify.
So provocative is such a realism indeed.
Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – February 1, 2024
[1] In ‘lezionidifumetto.it’, ‘Cinema Urasawa : la regia di un mangaka’ / https://www.youtube.com/@lezionidifumetto when introducing ‘Asadora!’ vol.1, IgorT defines ‘in medias res’ the narrative technique by master Naoki Urasawa’ : a technique which already the latin poet Horace presents in his ‘Ars poetica’ // Master of the graphic novel and illustrator, screenwriter, director, musician, Igor Tuveri – or Igort – is born in 1958 at Cagliari : he starts in Bologna, and he publishes already at the end of 1970s. His first solo album is released in 1980, published by Italian Records and entitled ‘Radetzky e gli isotopi’; now he is a regular collaborator of Linus, Frigidaire, Alter Alter, L’echo des Savanes, Vanity e The Face. In 1983 he is among the founders of Valvoline, a few years later he is in Paris with Metal Hurlant, among whose founders is Moebius. In the 90s he moves to Tokyo, where since 1991 he begins a collaboration with the publishing house Kodansha, which will last fifteen years. In 2000 he is co-founder with Carlo Barbieri of the publishing house Coconino Press. In 2002 he publishes ‘5 è il numero perfetto’, which in 2003 wins the award for the best book of the year at the ‘Bookfair’ of Frankfurt and which in 2019 becomes a movie starring – among others - Toni Servillo, Valeria Golino, Carlo Buccirosso, directed and dramatized by Igort : it is previewed at the Festival of Venice, and then presented at several other international Festivals. Again with ‘Coconino Press’ Igort publishes ‘Fats Waller’. Then the series ‘Baobab’ starts. In 2010 he already lived in Ukraine and in Russia, and with Mondadori he publishes ‘Quaderni ucraini’, to which ‘Quaderni russi’ follows and in 2014 ‘Quaderni giapponesi’. In 2017 he announces he is leaving ‘Coconino Press’ and so ‘Quaderni giapponesi’-vol.2 comes out for ‘Oblomov Edizioni’ : in 2018 he receives the audience award at the ‘Biografilm Festival’ of Bologna. Again in 2018 he is appointed director of Linus. In 2019 ‘Quaderni giapponesi’ are shown at the British Museum at the exhibition about ‘manga’ at care of Paul Gravett. In 2023 (May-September) the exhibition ‘Igort. Attraversare le forme’ is presented at Pisa, ‘Palazzo Blu’.
[2] Master Naoki Urasawa is today probably the best ‘mangaka’ in the world. He was born in 1960 at Fuchu, in Japan, and begins drawing very early, at about four years old as himself remembers, but only at twenty-two – after a childhood of solitude and silence where ‘mangas’ were his only companions – when he is just on the threshold of the degree in Economics which he will obtain at twenty-three at the Meisei University of Tokyo, he chooses to work as a ‘mangaka’, that is author of ‘manga’ : he has just won the competition of Shogakukan publisher for emerging talents, the ‘Shogakukan New Comic Artist’ and he already faces the prospect of working on commission, publishing houses in Japan are infact absolutely demanding. Urasawa fears losing his undoubted creative ability which distinguishes him and indicates him as an author who prefers complex plots, with a special capacity to reproduce psychological situations and expressions. He debuts in 1983 with the serialization of ‘Beta!’, and then the solid collaboration and friendship with the editor Takashi Nagasaki that proved fundamental in tackling those twenty years of work during which he will be commissioned 140 finished tables per month. Other successful works follow – broadcast on television too by the state broadcaster in the traditional program dedicated to ‘manga’ – up to ‘Monster’ (1994-2001) where Urasawa, who as a child had known anguish and terror, achieves his ambition of working on Stephen King’s texts : however the continuous application to multiple works at the same time – his own characteristic since the beginning – to which he often adds unexpected collaborations, bend him inexorably. The birth of his daughter makes him decide to express his passion for drawing in different ways, he wishes to spend more time with his family and so, without ever stopping drawing, he dedicates himself also to his beloved music creating notable recordings, and to television programs where Urasawa interviews and makes known the working method of different ‘mangaka’. In 2003 he carries out the new series ‘Pluto’ and other successful series always for Shogakukan, up to ‘Asadora!’ which starts in 2018 and it is still ongoing. His indispensable references are certainly the legendary Osamu Tezuka with whom Urasawa collaborates in his beginnings, and Katsuhiro Otomo, director and mangaka himself. With Urasawa, ‘manga’ definitely goes beyond the boundaries of Japan, maintaining their values and culture firm, but with an unprecedented capacity for identity that knows how to confront manga without provincialism with authors and audiences around the world. (See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGCIVfAwOw - ‘A tu per tu con Naoki Urasawa e Jim Lee’, IgorT interviews Naoki Urasawa and Jim Lee during ‘Lucca Comics 2023’, in ‘lezionidifumetto.it’).
[3] ‘Asadora!’ by Naoki Urasawa, serial graphic story, vol. 2 – translat. M. Capriati, Italian edit. 2021 ‘Panini SpA’
[4] In the Japanese language ‘manga’ indicates in general any comic, without however identifying with ‘graphic novel’. The ancient tradition of ‘manga’ brings them closer to Japanese 14th century theatre, to dance, masks, caricatures : manga will influence all the visual art in Japan up to the contemporaries artists, just as the Western 19th century art, and especially the Impressionism.
