hiroki endo – hang
an iron hook / we had to fasten him with a hook / we had to tell him something / with a hook / while the dirty floating bundle / fell / drop / by / drop / from where the / missing / would fling a stone upon us
First of all, thank you for the warm welcomes from everyone who commented on my first post. Looking forward to getting to know the anime blogging community.
Secondly, Hiroki Endo IS GOD.
And that pretty much sums up my reactions and feelings about his works. But for the sake of proper blogging, I should probably elaborate.
I reread “Hang”, one of Endo’s short stories from Tanpenshu over this past weekend. Now I am going to rave about it.
The cast of characters in this short comprises of school girl Megumi who might be missing more than a few screws, perpetually exasperated Shokichi who gets dragged along for the ride against his will and is taken advantage of in every situation [and probably likes it], and Megumi’s brother (or at least his consciousness) who lives on after his suicide attempt in a contraption that looks conspicuously like a rice cooker.
The world that they live in violates one’s sensibility because of the numerous surreal elements that contrast with “our” world, and yet it still bears the same inherent flaws. Giant TVs hanging from the sky announce disjointed reports of the progress on cable installation and repairs, relocation of the citizens, population control, and government endorsement of contraceptions. Throughout the short story, the trio travels from one cable station to another, striving to find “the end of the world”. The plot is purposely underdeveloped and incomplete, no backstory is given on how the world got to be in that condition nor is there any background information on the characters. The lack of history highlights the immediacy by which the characters live. There is a sense of repressed hysteria and muted despair throughout the manga as the panels nonchalantly jump from the scene of a ruined city to the setting of a cozy hotel room. Cue hot, neurotic sex, cue anxiety and ambivalence, cue arms and legs and bodies overwhelmed and trembling while facilitating various philosophical discourses with their deceptively simple dialogues and capricious decisions.
The big revelation comes at the end [SPOILER – SPOILER] after the masterfully subtle build up, as Shokichi flies Megumi over the edge of the world in a stolen jet. The sight that we are presented with is horrifying and beautiful and devastating and wonderful all at once, impossibly breathtaking to say the least (taking into account that it’s depicted in the limited medium of a manga panel).
Picture this: The world is just a oversize mass of land being suspended in midair by cable wires. The government obsesses over population control because if there are too many people then the mass would be offset from the center of gravity and that would put the world in danger of tipping over and falling into a literal nothingness. And heaven, in this strange world, is simply (definitely, unquestionably) the point from which the world hangs.
Endo’s ability to depict the universality of the human experience in narratives that subverts the conventional and redeems the overrated is what makes me beholden to him for the overwhelming experience of simply reading his work.
I am scared of so many things. I’m scared that I won’t be able to keep up with my school work. I’m scared that I am not fit for college, that this really isn’t for me because I don’t even like reading or writing or any of this academic bullshit and maybe I’m just deluding myself into staying here because I am scared to consider the alternatives. I’m scared that even if I were to somehow make it past all of this and graduate from college, that in the end I would realize that none of this toil and suffering was worth anything and I would still find myself out on the streets, cold and hungry and miserable. I’m scared that I am not competent or efficient enough to compete with others because I am so sure that I am somehow inherently defective and inferior and therefore life will weed me out and leave me in the dust. All of these conditions that a person has to live with, this constant, painful awareness of one’s own existence, it’s too much and it’s so hard and most of the time I am scared shitless. But none of these things can be helped. Everyone deals with these uncertainties, everyone grapples with their own inadequacies and struggles to live a life that they find most bearable and fulfilling alongside [not in spite of] their insecurities.
Despite all of the uncertainties, the literal hanging doom above their heads, all of the sadness and the insanity carried over from the stricken past, people will keep on fucking, keep on struggling to understand their existence and all the conditions that comes with it, keep on failing and hurting and despairing, but ultimately they will keep on living.
“Hang” leaves behind this luminous sadness that’s profoundly uplifting in its ability to be violently thought-provoking and simultaneously kind with its gentle reaffirmations of a life worth living.
Hiroki Endo is a prodigious storyteller and wonderful artist. I am humbled and chastened by my reading experience. Highly recommended.
Tags: hiroki endo
April 27, 2008 at 2:40 am
I’ve noticed (from For Those of Us Who Don’t Believe in God) that Endo deals with the existential drama of mankind. We try to find meaning in our life’s journey, and although we are unsure as to what shall or will happen, we still struggle and remain human.
Your description of Endo reminds me of Camus, as he was an existentialist. As to whether this holds water or not, I shall know soon.
April 29, 2008 at 7:48 pm
very interesting post. I’m definitely going to check out this Endo guy. If he can inspire anyone to write so honestly about their insecurities then he must be worth his weight in gold
April 30, 2008 at 1:41 am
ooooo
A manga reader! Refreshing!
Yeah, Endo’s stuff is great, but unfortunately I read most of his stuff when I was little; so alot what would be both fascinating and confusing. What makes manga so great though, is the fact that you can read it anytime and depending on the time, age, mood, circumstances, etc… it can give a totally different impression! So with that said, I’ll be picking up on Endo again.
Also, I’d like to recommend a mangaka: Asano Inio; he’s an and coming guy but alot of his stuff is very contemporary much like Endo in his time.
Asano has a diverse resume, but if you want a darker psychological work you’d like Nijigahara Holograph… which is a ambitious, whopping 300 page book that requires reading through a couple times…literally!
May 1, 2008 at 3:37 am
[...] to her blog in the channel. Back then, her only post (other than her introductory one) was about Hang, a manga by Hiroki Endo. In fact, it remained to be her only post (other than her introduction) on [...]