This is my first Matsumoto manga, and it won't be my last. Taiyo Matsumoto really knows how to elicit a very specific feeling and tone.

These short stories aren't great stories in themselves; they don't have any plot or character development. They are tone pieces through and through. The art isn't all that great either, but it oozes with charm and really captures that punk rock vibe that's present throughout the book. I loved how there were tons of graffiti, to the point that the bottom of the page was chock-full of annotations from the translator. Loved all the music references too (Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Sex Pistols). Really helps cement the type of tone Matsumoto is going for. All in all, this manga is a perfect snapshot of teenage delinquency in the 80s and 90s in Japan, and the blues that fueled it.


I'll leave you with two quotes from Matsumoto's after thoughts at the end of the book:

[talking about teenage delinquents] "In retrospect, I realize that for these youth, for whom the present was already the past, the camera was an important item. But at that time, when their actions didn't quite make sense, I was strangely attracted to them. They answered to reason with their fists and never questioned their excessive passions. Their frankness and their sense of being true to themselves won me over. They were my heroes."

[after talking about how those delinquents now have families, are responsible, etc] "No matter how passionate you were, no matter how much your blood boiled, I believe youth is a blue time. Blue - that indistinct blue that paints the town moments before the sun rises. Winter is coming."