Utsubora

"You write because you're alive.You're alive because you write.Still,does living really require anything to put on a scale against itself?"

The sole reason why I picked up this manga is because I came across this obscure manga review on youtube and the synopsis looked intriguing but what I found was possibly the best manga I've read.I read the manga twice in one day and I don't think I've read any Psychological Thriller that kept me second guessing myself throughout their entire length.This is feels like something right out of Satoshi Kon's mind and it's fitting cause the manga reminded me of Perfect Blue.

The story revolves around a famous author named Shun Mizorogi whose creativity seemed to dry up and haven't been able to write anything new for awhile thus he succumbs to plagiarism.The only issue is the true author whose work he stole comes to meet him and commits suicide in a very mysterious circumstance.Once she is dead her twin sister shows up and thus the mystery begins for Mizorogi to keep up with what's fiction and what's reality.

The unreliable non-linear narration makes it tricky to understand.Specially when the narrator himself has a hard time distinguishing who is real and who is fiction.The manga itself is so hard to keep up with because of the different motivations each character has also the motives themselves serves as meta-narration for how the characters perceives what writing means and for the ones who write it is perceived as to what living is.There's a brilliant metaphor which is tied to Mizorogi's sexual impotence and how it represents his ability to write.Also watch out for an amazing monologue about the duality of both human eyes and how each helps the other to construct a proper object.

Just read this.You won't be disappointed

Utsubora - The Story of a Novelist.

To an author, to write is to live. What happens if you can no longer write? What then, is life?

When I first came across this book, I knew nothing about it nor its author. The cover art alone intrigued me enough to want to pick it up, and I'm glad I did. The art on the inside was off-putting to me at first because because the characters, especially the male ones, looked like typical Yaoi or Shonen Ai character designs. Which means that they may be shown to sometimes have unusual, broad shoulders, be incredibly handsome in the face, or suffer from Yaoi basketball hands. The male characters may have some visual tropes from those more erotic comics but the women are also drawn very beautifully. With that said, it would be really unfair to judge this book by character design preferences because there are a lot of good things going for this book.

As the title of the book implies, Utsubora is the story of a novelist. The main focus of the story is about an author and what happens to him when he succumbs to the lows of plagiarism. Filled with mystery, drama, and sensuality, Utsubora is a fun read. In the end, Utsubora is also a smart book that will have you guessing what exactly is going on with the cast of characters in the book.

At the end of the book, there are some extras. Including an Illustration Story and Translator Notes. I really appreciated the translator's notes segment because it included interesting, informative cultural facts of things seen in the story and its the closest you can get for having commentary for a book. I feel this really adds to the cultural understanding of parts of Utsubora

Utsubora is Asumiko Nakamura's first book published in English, and I enjoyed book enough that I would definitely pick up another book by her if it were ever published.

Recently published in North America in a single, thick volume by Vertical Inc., Utsubora is definitely worth checking out.

Nakamura Asumiko is known for her dark, dramatic-themed works (and BL too). While Utsubora, even though it is both dark and dramatic, feels different than her other works. It is strange why it was never nominated for any notable awards despite its many praises from Western publishers. Nevertheless, this was Nakamura-sensei's only English-licensed manga.

To describe elaborately about the manga would ruin its ‘thrill’. Utsubora is a story, about the story itself, which blurs in lies and truths. What happens to a creator if creativity is taken out of the equation? This story is just like a plagiarised work, where we often think how trustworthy the content is. As a result, the unreliability of narration plus the convoluted truths (that are possibly lies) allows for readers to read it multiple times and would come to different conclusions every time. As well as questions raised with answers that are probably unreliable too. Should we trust Mizorogi Shun the narrator? Who and how trustable is Aki Fujino? Why?

One notable character is Mizorogi. He is mainly the eyes of the story’s narration. At times the story does not add up, which is questionable to say that: a) He had been lying to us, the reader, or, b) His situation in his career results the deterioration of his ‘vision’.

Despite it not having the genre tag 'horror' it personally felt like one. Because of the ambiguous truths, readers reflect back and are haunted with its ending. But one thing is for certain – Mizorogi Shun was an author.

A woman with a dead yet captivating look on the cover of this manga, along with the subtitle - The Story of a Novelist - caught my interest from the very beginning, so yesterday I decided to give Utsubora a try.

With a daring and confusing introduction, Utsubora starts a story full of lies and deception, attraction and sensuality, mystery and confusion that camouflages all its truths and answers to any question you may have. A narrative that challenges the reader to differentiate between the lie and the truth, an intelligent book that deals maturely with many topics that are not seen so much in the manga. Asumiko Nakamura is known for her somewhat dark and cold approach to human nature to bring out all the passion we can find within ourselves. If we add to this a well-executed mystery, we are left with this marvel of manga and story.

Utsubora tells us the story of a creator, an author who loses his passion for what gives life to a writer, his writing, and falls into plagiarism, and all that this entails. The distortion of reality that occurs in the manga reminds me slightly of Perfect Blue, and how the pressure can deteriorate our vision of what is true.

Artistically, the manga is very beautiful, both for the designs of its characters and for the line and cleanliness of all its pages. It is important to emphasize the importance and detail in the characters' faces, especially in the eyes, which are kept beautiful all the time, and how erotic and sensual the drawing can be sometimes. Besides, the paneling helps a lot to reinforce the core message of some scenes and to give greater fluidity to the most revealing and enigmatic dialogues.

In general, very surprised with this manga, I liked it much more than I expected and I would be happy if you gave it a chance. Rarely have I found such mature, enigmatic, mysterious and poetic story in only 2 volumes of manga.

Out of 100 Nobles watching...
94 were impressed
6 weren't old men who like their mystery drama's

Utsubora was a very enjoyable read for me. I found it sitting on display at my local library having no knowledge of the authors precedent in writing BL material and was really entranced in this story of an author and his muse.

I don't think I'm much of one for book's about authors/mangaka, but the mystery element and the drama surrounding this particular set of characters kept me interested all the way through... I found the art style very pleasant and the lewd bits help to keep pages turning too hehehe.

For reasons unknown some of my favorite stories wind up being written by authors who primarily write BL; despite the genre not being for me it seems when a BL author branches out into something else it hits all the right places for me.