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There are many splendid comic books which aren’t translated into English
or other languages yet. Today I introduce one of them. The title is
Tableau Gate by Rika Suzuki.
As I wrote in Comic Review 1, the Japanese comic world has been in the
mess since 90's and not many talented people come out. Most of my
favorite comic artists have been active since 80's but the artist of
this book is one of rare exception. See the pictures on the cover!
Beautiful, aren't they?
Rika is originally an illustrator, she claims so even after her big
success as a comic artist. She visited a publisher named Kadokawa
Shoten to sell her illustrations at first. But the editor who saw
her works suggested to her to create a comic. So the Tableau Gate was
born.
But as I said the Japanese comic world is no longer flourishing,
publishers tend to give up the publication of comic magazines these
days. The magazine which Tableau Gate was on was one of them. The story
was also stopped with it and the artist engaged in other works for 7
years until Tableau Gate was resumed.
The way how the story was resumed is also a story. The editor who
suggested to Rika to create a comic moved to other publisher named Akita
Shoten. It is one of the oldest publishers which publish comic books
mainly. The editor wanted Tableau Gate back on the road again there.
Easy to say, but as the story was once published by other company, it is
very difficult to republish it from a different one, especially in this
case. It's true that many other stories were stopped when the magazine
was closed and have been dead since then. But with the editor's strong
effort, the story was able to move to another company and rebirthed
as a bland new version.
I want to say that it's in reality a "rebirth". The main characters are
mostly same but the story was refreshed and that is much better than
before. Moreover the drawing skill of the artist was greatly improved
and say, no one can complain about the beauty of it. Rika says it's
owing to the editor and the readers who had been waiting for so long.
The gratitude of the artist clearly expresses in the pictures. I think
the beauty of it is the artist's pure feelings for her story and her
readers.
Well, now I write about the outline.
There is a boy named Satsuki who lost his mother long ago and do not
know who his father is. He only has his grandfather who is strict and
severe, always hard on his grandson. The reason is not only because
Satsuki is his successor and the one who inherits his big fortune but
also Satsuki resembles to his father very much. The grandfather loved
his daughter strongly, so he thinks Satsuki's father plundered her
unfairly.
Satsuki was disowned and expelled from the marvellous residence in
England at last and moved to Tatehama city in Japan. The house he moved
into was also luxurious but the boy lives alone and lonely. Satsuki
feels he is a trash and the empty big house is a dump.
But one day he received a package. It was a book called "tablet", which
is the origin of the disturbance after that. He received it and opened
it, so something strange came out of the book and flew away. While he
wondered what was happened, a little girl named Lady jumped into the
house through the window. She said she had been searching for the book
and reached here all the way from England. Knowing that Satsuki broke
the seal and released the tableaus, she got very angry.
What are tableaus? Those are something like spirits or fays which have a
special power respectively. They obey the orders of their master who
knows their names. Lady was the master until she lost the book but once
they ran away, she has to make them approve her as their master and tell
their names to her again. But getting back the tableaus is not an easy
work. Some want freedom and there is one who wants to be the master
himself. Lady ordered Satsuki to help her recover them. As she decided
to live in the house until all the tableaus come back, now he has one to
live with, which is a good thing for him. And as the tableaus come back
one by one, they become his family.
As the 22 tarot cards are the themes, there are 22 pages in the book. A
tableau lives in each page. So 22 tableaus must be there but most of
them are no longer in the book. Getting back them is the adventure of
Satsuki and the girl Lady.
**************
I'd like to talk more about the story but it is too long to be a blog
entry. So the main reason why I recommend it will be on here in the mean
time. Anyway full of love and messages from the artist are in Tableau
Gate and there is also a very interesting philosophical background. It's
OK to enjoy it as a fantasy but it's also enjoyable to find out a
profound meaning of a good story. That is the real Japanese comic.
Categories:
books/comics
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