Here are some details on the as-yet-unavailable-in-English manga titles included in this year’s slate of Angoulême award nominees. I apologize in advance if my translations of the French synopses are on the inelegant side. Some of the titles are a little on the obscure side, so I’m not entirely sure about their publishers of origin, either. If you have any more accurate details, please pass them along, and I’ll correct the post.
Je ne suis pas mort, Hiroshi Motomiya, Delcourt
“Okada Kenzô, 60 years old, is laid off the day before his retirement, after a life dedicated only to work. His wife and children leave him, and leave an empty bank account. After a failed suicide, he starts a new life in the wild… An astonishing chronicle of isolation.”
Originally published by Shueisha in Business Jump and Weekly Young Jump.
Le Vagabond de Tokyo, Fukutani Takashi, Le Lézard noir
“Yoshio Hori, 22 years old, is a true victim of the economic bubble of the 1980s. He settles for day jobs at the building sites of Tokyo, subsists on freeze-dried noodles and squanders his pay in hostess bars. His only other choice is life in a lonely room….”
Collected by Seirinkogeisha, though I think it might originally have been published by Houbunsha starting in 1990.
Une sacrée mamie, Saburô Ishikawa et Yôshichi Shimada, Delcourt
“Akihiro, eight years old, had to leave its birthplace abruptly to go to live in open country, with his grandmother Osano grandmother. Poor but merry and proud, she succeeds in providing for her grandson by working as a housekeeper… A delicious family chronicle, with in backdrop Japan of beginning of 1960.”
Originally published by Shueisha in Business Jump.
Sarutobi, Osamu Tezuka, Cornelius
“Adventure, fantasy and humor in Japan of the end of 16th century. Osamu Tezuka shares the exciting life of Sarutobi, a trainee ninja, and, as always with the master mangaka, each page is a subtle combination of energy, finesse and humor. A treat.”
Originally published by Kodansha in Manga King.