Taiyo Matsumoto is one of my favorite creators of all time and working on this book scared the hell out of me. I'm pleased with the results, however, and the reviewers were as well.

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Product Description

From the author of the masterful TekkonKinkreet, Taiyo Matsumoto's Blue Spring is a short story collection focusing on the lives of a small group of disenchanted high school students. Although spring usually connotes the blossoming of new life and a time of nurturing and anticipation, the spring for these characters is "blue." They can't wait for school to end and the summer to come. Their lives are balanced on the edge of a knife as they flirt with crime and their own deaths in the form of a deadly rooftop game. Each character has a different story to tell and the rebellion, questioning and frustration of these youths are palpable.

 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #206126 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781591166450
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Taiyo Matsumoto is the cult favorite artist of GoGo Monster and NO. 5, both published by VIZ Media. In 2008 Matsumoto received a coveted Eisner Award for his omnibus volume TekkonKinkreet: Black & While which was also made into a popular alternative anime film. With line work that mirrors his story lines in a combination of smooth and rough styles his work makes for a truly unique look and feel in manga.

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Customer Reviews

Summer, boredom and dead end lives
Well, that was interesting. I am still digesting the experience, not sure what to think of it. Blue Spring is a collection of short stories, all centered around high school guys, mostly thuggish and poor, and on the boredom and frustration of their pointless existence.
"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" is about a game in which boys will hang over the railing on the school roof, let go of the railing and clap before grabbing it again. Whoever does the most claps wins, and if one of them screws up he'll fall to his death.
"Revolver", my favorite story and the longest in the bunch, concerns three guys who get their hands on a revolver and three bullets, and what they do next.
"Mahjong Summer" is about highschool baseball players discussing their loss as the play mahjong, "Suzuki-san" is about a boy's initiation into the Yakuza, "Peace" is about murder, "The Family Restaurant is our Paradise" is about the pointless, neverending squabbles of a group of friends in a family restaurans, and "This is Bad" is a pointless but kinda fun chase sequence story.
From all the stories I get a sence of nihilism and quiet despair, of boredom and the sence of lives that have no purpose and are going nowhere. Matsumoto is a master of setting the mood, you can feel it drenching you. So why only 4 stars? While the book definetly affected me emotionally, it was a difficult book to get through. In order to convey boredom you have to show it, and certain parts were hard to slog through. Also, Matsumoto can sometimes be too surreal for his own good. the various random grunts, non-sequers and plain weirdness can make reading his stories a confusing experience - you loose the thread, all the white noise drowns out coherence.

Overall, if nothing else this book is a unique experience. Flawed, but effective.


- Quick revision - just wanted to add that the author of this book is Taiyo Matsumoto, the author of "Black and White" and "No.5", not Joe Smith as Amazon.com indicates.

Great early work from Taiyo Matsumoto creator of Tekkon Kinkreet
Not as weird as his Graphic Novel No. 5, but much more satisfying than Black & White. Blue Spring collects several sequential stories revolving around the lives of students at a school for juvenile delinquents.