I’ll Give It My All... Tomorrow Vol. 1 (Manga)
Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: May 2010
Price: $12.99
Creator: Shunju Aono
Format: 208 pgs.; B&W
ISBN: 978-1-42153-365-0
Age Rating: Young Adult
ICv2 Rating: 3 Stars out of 5

What if, at the age of 40, you decided to give up your job and become a manga artist?  No training, no plan, no idea how to do it, just a vague dream.  Is the kind of person who would do that the kind of person who would succeed?  That’s at the core of this story, which manages to be both bland and engaging at the same time.

The central character, Shizuo Oguro, is so much an “everyman” character that it’s easy to feel sorry for him, but also easy to see that many of his problems are self-created.  He’s lived for years so caught up in his own non-life that he doesn’t really know his own daughter, and his father only views him with ongoing disdain.  He exists, rather than lives, as he aimlessly meanders toward his manga dream.

His interactions with others, rarely to his benefit, are interesting to witness, but also painful to watch.  His self-deception sometimes borders on serious delusion, even when he tries to do the right thing, and it is difficult to know when he’s being a good guy, and when he’s just trying to avoid trouble in some twisted way.

Still, it’s easy for the reader to want him to succeed.  It just isn’t going to be quick or easy, if it happens at all.  The artwork is as restrained as the story, nothing bad but never exciting... which is the point, I think.  Readers who can root for a self-made underdog will like this, but it will be too slow and mild for some readers.

For adults, due to some content issues and the writing style.

--Nick Smith: Librarian Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.