Description:

Seiichi Hayashi produced Red Colored Elegy between 1970 and 1971, in the aftermath of a politically turbulent and culturally vibrant decade that promised but failed to deliver new possibilities. With a combination of sparse line work and visual codes borrowed from animation and film, the quiet melancholy lives of a young couple struggling to make ends meet are beautifully captured in this poetic masterpiece. Uninvolved with the political movements of the time, Ichiro and Sachiko hope for something better, but they're no revolutionaries; their spare time is spent drinking, smoking, daydreaming, and sleeping--together and at times with others. While Ichiro attempts to make a living from his comics, Sachiko's parents are eager to arrange a marriage for her, but Ichiro doesn't seem interested. Both in their relationship and at work, Ichiro and Sachiko are unable to say the things they need to say, and like any couple, at times say things to each other that they do not mean, ultimately communicating as much with their body language and what remains unsaid as with words. Red Colored Elegy is informed as much by underground Japanese comics of the time as it is by the French Nouvelle Vague, and its cultural referents range from James Dean to Ken Takakura. Its influence in Japan was so large that Morio Agata, a prominent Japanese folk musician and singer songwriter, debuted with a love song written and named after it. "I wanted to live like Sachiko and Ichiro; to have aspirations even while living stoically and humbly." --Morio Agata (Source: Drawn and Quaterly)

Description:

The city of light is a town above a hill, called that because it's surrounded by the sun, but it hides an obscure side. There, lives Tasuku, a young kid who works as a 'messenger' for a mysterious group who organizes suicides on the phone. At the same time other youngsters like him are trying to survive the everyday's life: Satoshi changes one occasional job after another, Momoko is the daughter of a prostitute who abandoned her. Finally there's Hoichi who is always involved in dirty business, among which is the suicidal group, but at least he has a dream: earning enough money to buy the whole place and turning it back into the country village he was born in.

Description:

Twenty-three-year-old Yuriko Togawa dropped out of college six months ago. In the past, her classmates envisioned her as a reliable and independent person even though she saw herself as the opposite. Yuriko wants someone to provide for her needs, not the other way around. Thus, when she meets her former colleague Horita Tomotsugu, she hopes that romance will spark between them. Horita had a great ambition of debuting his band together with Yuriko. However, as time progressed, he slowly succumbed to reality and became an office worker instead. Encountering Yuriko reminds him of what was once his dream, and he aspires to reignite it with her. Despite the two having different motives, Yuriko decides to lend him a helping hand after going through a myriad of events. Yuriko and Horita's story is just one of the compelling narratives in Subarashii Sekai. Entwined with their tale are several other short stories, each depicting the arduous, painful, and realistic hardships of mundane life. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Description:

Punpun is an ordinary young boy growing up in Japan whose age of innocence has reached its end after his father is arrested for spousal abuse and putting his mother in the hospital. With his uncle looking after him, Punpun grows into adulthood facing a series of events which change him, for better or worse, forcing him to contemplate just what it means to be an adult. (Source: ANN)

Description:

In a world where all feeling is artificial and where everyone is a potential drug addict, nothing has really changed: the excess is near at hand and very few substances are considered dangerous and put under strict control by a hygiene office, which has full power over the drug addicts who are in an extreme condition. The main character is Kabu, a little peddler and heavily addicted. Used to any kind of hallucinogenic trip, he is able to feel happiness through the ecstasy of the drug, while at the same time hypocritically hating those who gave birth to this society which has forced him to excess. After an overdose caused by mixing two incompatible drugs, he spends his days looking for stimulants until he encounters an enigmatic man who offers him a new kind of illegal substance: UltraHeaven. From that moment his incredible journey begins, where dream and reality are fused in an undivided world, causing him hysterical or joyful reactions and unrestrained pains. But what really is UltraHeaven and who's really behind it? And who is the guru who is promoting meditation as a powerful way to influence the whole universe surrounding us? With the help of a special amplifier helmet, Kabu starts a trip into the deep and hidden layers of his consciousness, diving into a nightmare he would otherwise never discover... (Source: MU)