Created by: Inio Asano
Chapters: 12
What do I see here? It’s another M in the Day’s column of the calendar. And you all know what that means, don’t you? Uh-ha! It’s time for another manga review!
This week around we will be talking about quite possibly my favorite mangaka of all time, Inio Asano and his nearly impenetrable puzzle-box of a manga, ironically titled Nijigahara (Rainbow-Field) Holograph. Let’s break it down.
THE PREMISE:
A set of interconnected stories spanning 10 years in the lives of people who inhabit a city and have nothing in common apart from knowing a girl who sits by the Nijigahara embankment and says that a monster will come and bring an end to the world as we know it.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT:
There is a near voyeuristic quality to stories in manga. Sure, such stories have a beginning and a conclusion. We finish experiencing a story and we forget about it. We think that that’s the end for the people in it. But things never really end, do they? What we experience is just a snippet in the lives of these people. A collection of moments which can never be representative of all the time they’ve been alive.
Our past becomes our memories and we feel them creeping around the corners of our minds only to come to the surface unannounced in the most unexpected of forms. Every so often we encounter a moment, when we wake up and are unable to recall where we are or what time it is. We mistake evenings for mornings and wonder what’s real and what’s a memory. A dream.
When you’ve lived long enough, days start to blend into moments and a lot of these moments just pass us by without warning and by the end of our life, all we’re left with are a handful few. The memories we hold on to throughout our life are not necessarily happy ones but if we were to be rid of them, there will be nothing left of us. No one to remember and no one who remembers us. No life that we led. No matter how much we wish for it to be otherwise, a life is only of as much value as the number of people who are affected by it. That’s the proof of having lived; its corroboration.
Nijigahara Holograph is a manga about the strange, beautiful and terrible sorrows of living. It’s barely 300 pages long yet it is able to depict the lives of the many people who inhabit the world surrounding the Nijigahara embankment in vivid detail and the ways in which each of them influences the lives of others around them while holding on to deep, dark secrets of their own.
It’s funny how those times when we are walking along on the street and see a stranger with a familiar face, we make up stories for them in our heads. We create a life of our own, for them. But the reality is almost never as we imagine it to be. Because other people are sad, broken creatures just like us. And in most cases, the secrets they hide in their pasts make them the way they are. If you don’t know about a person’s past, you can never really claim to fully understand who they really are.
Just like any other Inio Asano manga, the characters portrayed in Nijigahara Holograph feel real as can be. There are no clichés or people-shaped caricatures present here. Everyone is their own person with their own story to tell. Asano portrays these people going about their lives without even a hint of romanticism. He knows how sad and broken we all really are. How we hold on to past regrets and wish for things to be different. How we say we are moving on and moving forward while all we do is stand in a place and repeat the same days over and over till eternity.
Nijigahara Holograph is a story which is not meant for us to read by just skimming through its pages. It’s a story for us to solve and derive our meaning out of. What I get out of it will be a lot different from what you get. And that’s where the sheer genius of this manga lies. It’s an enigma but one that’s utterly fascinating and rewards meticulous analysis. If you are someone who has the patience and the willingness to do that, this is a story you absolutely should not miss.
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T READ IT:
Like I said, this is not a manga that lends itself to casual reading. There’s a lot of symbolism and plenty of motifs scattered throughout. Some of which aren’t entirely clear even after a couple of re-reads. And that being said, this is an Inio Asano manga. So, if you’re unfamiliar with his work then I would like to point out that his stories are infamous for their brutally realistic depictions of depression, loneliness and mental instability. Nihilism is something every Asano manga delves into and Nijigahara Holgoraph too doesn’t shy away from any of these. So, if any of these themes are not what you like to read about in your manga and you lean more towards heart-warming stories with silver linings, I’d suggest that you steer clear of this manga.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Nijigahara Holograph was the final manga in the catalogue of Inio Asano which I hadn’t gotten around to. I have now read up on everything he’s put out and I adore just about everything by him. That being said, Nijigahara Holograph would still place right near the top of his works (maybe even in the top three) for the sheer ambition at display here. It may look like a daunting and impenetrable read at first. But give it a couple of chapters and you might just be amazed at what’s in store.
SCORE: 9.2(+0.5, -3.5)/10
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With that, we conclude this week’s coverage. Next week, I will be reviewing the manga chosen through the votes of last week’s poll, Junji Ito’s Voices in the Dark. To have your favorite manga get reviewed the week after, be sure to vote in this week’s poll here!
And feel free to leave the titles of any manga you think needs more attention down in the comments below and I will be sure to include it in later polls.
As always, thank you for reading and see ya next Monday! ^^
Might I recommend some more manga for this segment?
Astra: Lost in Space by Kenta Shinohara (Complete at 5 volumes)
Beasts of Abigaile by Spica Aoki (Complete at 4 volumes)
Akage no Anne (Anne of Green Gables) manga by Yumiko Igarashi (Complete at 3 volumes)
Cosmo Familia by Hanokage (Complete at 3 volumes)
Oh, I have already seen the anime of Astra and Anne of Green Gables. So, reading those manga while knowing the story might not be as enjoyable.
But both Beasts of Abigaile and Cosmo Familia look really interesting! I will be sure to add them in the upcoming polls. Thanks 🙂
Well, the anime for Astra cuts out some important details that the manga had, and the manga for Anne is very different from the anime, and much more shoujo-ish in its artwork (and made in the 90s), but that’s alright.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t entirely get what happened in this manga but I think with a couple of closely spaced reads the message can be unraveled so I might just give this another go especially since I do love the authors other works that I’ve read. Oyasumi Punpun was absolutely phenomenal and Solanin for what is a really simple story hit like a truck. I also like how you mention (in summary) that the meaning of this will be highly subjective. That’s a really good point and I totally missed that when I read this.
Lastly, this review was a great read.
Yes. I do believe that Asano always intended for people to take their time and actually think about this story to get the most out of it. Reading it just the one time is simply not enough. I myself didn’t understand a lot of things during my first read-through but upon repeat revisions – as we know the eventual fates of the characters involved – the story does unravel beautifully. I’d highly recommend that you give it another read. And yes, I would place this right behind Oyasumi Punpun and Solanin among Asano’s works. It’s probably his least accessible manga but that makes it even more rewarding.
Also, I am glad you liked the review! ^-^
The name Asano did not ring the bell, but the artwork made me 90% sure its the same artist as Punpun. Just one look at the 1st image and I was completely sure about the tone of the work.
After Flowers of Evil that I read years ago, Punpun seemed like an easy fit. I think Punpun wasn’t perfect, but it was still extraordinary work of art. I love these works man. I’m looking forward to this one.
Btw, does anyone else also find Asano’s works (or at least Oyasumi Punpun) similar to Oh Great’s!? Shūzō Oshimi (Flowers of Evil) seems to take his stories quite seriously, and the mood never really lets up. But Asano appears to like inserting a chaotic element that is comedic, fantastical or even nonsensical or perhaps downright trolling. The music guy, ufos and random shit – I mean it was hilarious and I loved that. And it really made me think of Oh Great’s Air Gear, which was – well, full of attention to the present, the ecstatic vividness of now, full of groove and constant excitement – the characters of Air Gear are are overflowing with it and it is so fascinating, makes you almost able, to grasp that something that they see.
So I was surprised to find that sort of thing in Oyasumi Punpun and I thought it mixed well with the rest of the manga, it showed that perhaps living truthfully and fully can only be done if you have a screw loose. If that is the case – what does it really say about the society?
Anyway, I wonder what this work is like. And, you guys keep giving me more work…
I’d say Flowers of Evil does share some similarities with Asano’s works. Depressed yet realistic characters, the unrelenting despair. And fans of the former would definitely like his works.
“No matter how much we wish for it to be otherwise, a life is only of as much value as the number of people who are affected by it. That’s the proof of having lived; its corroboration.”
Getting philosophical there, haha. 😉 Is that a theme of the manga or just one of your own thoughts (perhaps induced by the manga)? I personally don’t believe a life should be measured solely by the number of people affected by it, though. Is it something that many people desire? Absolutely. And I do agree that trying to change the world and the people around you for the better is a worthwhile goal. But does a life absolutely *need* corroboration by others to be worthwhile? To that I would say no. If someone finds happiness in isolation instead of social achievements, I would say that is perfectly fine. So what if your life doesn’t affect other people? In the long run, we’ll all be forgotten anyway.
By the way, I wouldn’t say that Asano’s work is unusually “realistic”, per se: he zones in on a particular sliver of the human experience that isn’t touched upon very often, of people for whom life is a perpetual struggle, who do not find redemption, who are – as you put it – sad and broken creatures. But not all people are like that! Everyone has their own struggles, of course, and you won’t find a single human being without significant flaws. But acute mental illness and self-destructive behavior of the kind that characters from his work struggle with is, I would say, relatively rare, and I personally find his work quite hard to relate to as a result (though I’ve only read a few volumes of Oyasumi Punpun). Is it realistic in its depictions of such issues? It might very well be. But the less troubled folk that you see in most manga aren’t necessarily unrealistic (though they often are, of course): most people simply are not broken beyond repair, and really can find some redemption after a temporary breakdown.
“most people simply are not broken beyond repair”
I think there are two concepts here. What you said AND that most people can not change. The person may be broken just a bit, but the inability to change and be destined to forever repeat the same mistake a suffer from it, often without realization, could be considered broken beyond repair.
So depending on how one looks at things, the breakdowns and no redemptions may be considered a useful amplification, rather than convenient distortion of the reality.
I would also add that just having a big smile and big friend list may be deceiving. If you count how many extroverts are probably dying from inside, eaten by depression the moment they close their doors and become alone, I dont know man. Sounds broken to me. Then again, such person could probably say the same thing about any introvert too. It is hard to nail where the boundary of being broken is, not only can this seem relative, people also usually live the way that makes them comfortable – makes them happier – than they would be in a fixed environment that does not accommodate them. This is a luxury. And luck.
The difference between normal and broken may very well just be that. A matter of the right conditions being possible for the right person. An antisocial person can flourish tremendously if he hones and exploits his talent. Just as easily, a social bee can wither and die without its dose of attention, appreciation and affection. Both may seem extreme, yet the people would be no different that most of the people out there.
I wasn’t trying to say that Asano’s work is “distorting” reality, just that its representation of human beings is partial and incomplete rather than singularly realistic. I agree that there are useful lessons we can take from his work: if there weren’t, it wouldn’t be so highly rated. My point was just that, for most people, life isn’t as bleak as it is for the characters from his work, that they aren’t a good representation of the average human being. But “sad and broken people” like that are out there, of course, and I agree that most of us will probably be able to recognize ourselves in at least some of their traits.
As for where to draw the line between “normal” and “broken”, I agree that this is a matter of degrees, and that there is no clear dividing line between the two. To expand a bit on the metaphor, though, I would say that the issues that most people struggle with are more like cracks on a vase: though it may be hard to notice them at first (especially when it’s presented in favorable lightning), they are undoubtedly there, and some of those cracks may be impossible to fix. However, under normal circumstances, the vase won’t break: people are generally fairly happy with how their lives are going and able to function normally. Of course, if you put a lot of pressure on the cracks – the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or a relationship, or a religion – the vase may well break: as you wrote, people need the right conditions to flourish, and if those conditions disappear, then their happiness will be undermined. But for most people, those are exceptional occurrences, and indeed ones from which they can largely recover. Some people, though, are not so lucky: they cannot find happiness or function normally even under what most people would consider normal circumstances. And those unlucky souls are the ones I would call broken beyond repair. They needn’t be radically different from ordinary folk: their issues may just be more extreme. Even so, to say that most people are just like them is, in my view, an exaggeration: everyone hides cracks beneath the veneer, but only some people are genuinely broken, let alone irreparably so.
Well, Animosh, I think all of his manga really do make you contemplate life and the meaning of human existence. Personally, I am more into psychology than philosophy. You know, ‘Why people do things’ instead of ‘What’s the meaning of things’.
Also, I do get your point in saying that a life lead in solitude is still worthwhile but maybe only for the person living it. If someone affected the lives of others too, maybe these other people would have been equally glad of the person’s existence. That in itself is a worthwhile achievement.
As for how you said you don’t find Asano’s manga realistic, what I meant is that he’s realistic in the portrayal of the themes he’s trying to depict, mental illness and depression being the core ones out of them. I wouldn’t say that everyone would relate to his stories but those who do, can tell how realistic they are.
Thanks for explaining! I’m personally also quite interested in psychology (though I love philosophy too), but with regard to mental illness I tend to prefer a more “detached” point of view, like in Ethics-sensei, over the more “engaged” point of view (where you take the perspective of the person suffering) in Asano’s work. If you can’t relate to a character very well, the latter approach can be quite exhausting, because the emotional connection to sustain your interest in the story just isn’t there (whereas the former approach only requires an intellectual one). But who knows, maybe I’ll have better luck with a different manga by Asano!
As for your other point, I fully agree that connecting with other people is a worthwhile goal: I would just add that it isn’t the only such goal. But going by what you said we are probably in agreement on that front. 🙂
Yes, Ethics-sensei takes a very observatory approach to similar themes. Which too is an interesting take on them. It’s a shame the manga isn’t quite as popular.
As for Asano’s other manga, I’d suggest you check out Solanin. Oyasumi Punpun is not a good starting point into his works. It’s a near 150-chapter amalgamation of all his ideas and beliefs. And it can be pretty heavy for a newcomer.
Solanin on the other hand, is rather short (28 chapters) and eases the reader into Asano’s themes and philosophy. If you don’t like that too, then maybe his manga just aren’t for you.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll put it on the list. A shorter work does seem a lot less daunting than Punpun’s 13 volumes of relentless darkness and depression. 😉