In the tightly packed medium of manga, Atsushi Kaneko is an anomaly. Author of cult and iconoclastic works such as Baby, Floor, muerteco EITHER Search and destroy, this 57-year-old author stands out for cultivating his freedom of tone for thirty years. A status that he consolidates with evolvereleased April 12 by Delcourt/Tonkam, which twists the codes of superhero history to echo the rage of modern youth.
“I’m not from the manga world, strictly speaking,” says Atsushi Kaneko of her rejection of traditional manga codes. “Since my beginnings, I have been a bit of a patch. As soon as I set foot in the manga, my idea was to break everything. The result would have been exactly the same if it had evolved in another area. This appetite for destruction was the driving force behind my creation.”
“There is a fairly mainstream manga world, corseted, very focused on marketing, but at the same time there are spaces where you can move more freely,” he continues. “I have the opportunity to evolve there and be able to express myself however I see fit. This straitjacket also stems from the fact that many authors tend to believe that self-censorship is necessary to fit a certain mold.”
“Beauty in Flowing Blood”
With their ultraviolent stories, what would happen natural Born Killers of Oliver Stone for a children’s film, Atsushi Kaneko rightly rejects any form of self-censorship. His stories, often compared to those of Quentin Tarantino, often depict teenage boys and girls trying to break free from the limitations imposed by society, and physically monstrous adults out to kill them.
Deeply concerned with the evolution of the world, he has taken it upon himself to tackle society’s failings more openly up his sleeve, precisely to help teenagers. “It’s an age where you set a lot of limits, where you tend to close in on yourself.” With evolvewants to show them “that they have a multitude of paths within their reach”: “Beyond superheroes, evolve speaks of the despair of youth”.
The click occurred at the beginning of the decade. “This emergence of new conflicts, this tendency for extremes to become more and more [m’inquiète]. There really was an urgency to talk about this situation more frankly. It was time for me to express my anger more frankly, to express what I had inside of me.”
His drawing bears witness to this anger: shattered brains, bloody faces, destroyed spines are omnipresent in his stories. “I don’t have a particular tropism for that, but even if it means drawing them, I want to give them a certain aesthetic. There is a certain beauty in the blood that flows.” He also prefers flat shades of black, to give the impression that his heroes are emerging from the darkness.
A work that has become more accessible
Paradoxically, the mangaka has also learned to control himself over the years. Forever marked by punk rock, which from very early on made him want to “break all kinds of moulds”, he admits having had difficulties channeling that energy towards Baby, one of his first works, which the IMHO publishing house has just published in France. “I think it’s a mess, both in terms of the script and the drawing. It’s a bit messy.”
“I had a technical problem at the time of Baby“, he confesses. “I still did not have the necessary technical means to suggest certain things. There was always something very raw about violence. Inside evolvenow it is represented in a more indirect way, with the aim of leaving more room for the reader’s imagination”.
Since his transition to digital, his line has gained in delicacy and precision. “There’s a real lightness,” he agrees. “With digital, it’s easier to correct my line. It’s become more comfortable.” Her work has also become more accessible and her audience has grown. “Many people who had never read Kaneko read Search and destroy AND evolve“, greets his editor, present during the interview.
“Digital also freed me”
These changes also reflect his “very, very orderly” life. He doesn’t have “many mangaka friends” and concentrates on his art. “I have a daily life that is absolutely not punk! In the morning, I wake up at 7 am and go for a run, every day.” He then gets to work. “The daily goal is to draw two full pages, from preparatory drawing to final inking. I usually hit the finish line around 7 or 8 pm. Then I have a drink!”
His work sessions are marked by music. “In each series, when I start thinking about the stage, I put myself in an atmosphere by listening to specific songs. In the case of Search and destroyit was obviously the song of the same name by Iggy Pop. evolvewas World’s End by Skeeter Davis, electric music and experimental hip hop”.
This rhythm allows you to refine each page. After thirty years of racing, he shows no signs of weakness, despite a bit of fatigue in his eyes. “Switching to digital has saved my life. I don’t have to complain about any particular pain in my hand. Digital has also freed me from the psychological pressure of failure. I can start over as much as I want with each hit. Change my life.”
“Always a form of regret that lingers”
But Atsushi Kaneko remains a tortured artist, in perpetual vacillation, never satisfied with his work. “I don’t get a chance to take a lot of time off, but I think if I had too much time left, I would fall into a kind of existential angst. The fact of continuing to work is rather life. saving.” five volumes ofevolve They have already appeared in Japan. He “ideally” plans to do eight.
True to his punk ideals, he can’t stop thinking and creating. “I get bored extremely quickly. I’m always looking for something new. Every time I start a new artistic production, my goal is to do something I’ve never tried before. Onceevolve will come to an end, the idea is to go for something that I have never experienced before.
What is left for you to do? “I give my all every time, but I never feel like I’ve really achieved anything. There’s always a form of regret that lingers. If I had to work for something, it would be to never regret anything at all. I feel like I can always do better than what I’m doing.” at the moment”.
There is a long way to free yourself from regrets. Especially since some are even tattooed on their body. Atsushi Kaneko has a carnivorous plant tattoo from little shop of horrorsdesigned by him. “Getting a drawing of you tattooed is inevitably something you’ll regret at some point. I draw much better today than I did then! But it’s part of my story. So I accept it.”
Source: BFM TV
