In March 2018, Akata released two new titles. On the one hand Game – between our bodies a romance between adults, on the other The Virginity past 30 years, a documentary illustrated in the form of manga, and it is the latter that we will talk about today!
Virginity after 30 years, suffering and desires on a daily basis
Original title : 漫画ルポ 中年童貞
Alternative title : Manga rupo chûnen dôtei
Authors : SAKURAI Toshifumi (art) NAKAMURA Atsuhiko (script)
French publisher : Akata
Original publisher : Leedsha in Japan
Release date : 22/03/2018
Number of volumes : one-shot
Status : Series completed in Japan
Price: 14 €
Synopsis :
In Japan, a quarter of men between thirty and fifty years old would never have had sexual experience, which represents more than 4 million individuals… virgins! It is the lives of eight of them that are staged in this sociological manga. Real lives, between suffering and desire, hope and pride, shame and public humiliation… With a strangely tender and non-judgmental look, but also very acerbic on society, Sakuraichi reveals their intimacy, denouncing at the same time all the hypocrisy of the system. A system that wears out individuals, kills them slowly. Despite humanly unacceptable situations, the authors refuse to compromise, and offer us an unvarnished vision of a very real Japan. Victims and executioners at the same time, are not the "late fleas" described in this collection after, after all, only the result of the excesses of an overly dehumanized society?
After the excellent and crazy Ladyboy vs Yakuza, Bargain Sakuraichi allias Toshifumi Sakurai returns for a new title in a totally different style in duet with journalist Atsuhiko Nakamura. In virginity past 30 years, he is mainly concerned with imaging the investigations of his associate, who went to meet multiple profiles of late fleas. If the decline in the birth rate in Japan is a case known to all (or almost), Atsuhiko Nakamura wanted to understand its causes. And if in fact, analyses show that arranged marriages are less and less common in the land of the rising sun, can we deduce that this is the only reason for this situation?
If several media show us a Japanese society eaten away by hikikomori, lonely, addicted to video games / anime, the reality highlighted in these investigations shows that these people are only one population among many. In fact, only one observation is present in all the cases interviewed, late fleas (as they are named in this book) experience real difficulties in maintaining healthy relationships with women. This phenomenon can be explained by the isolation that some voluntarily show, but also by a society that turns a blind eye to school bullying, or that highlights an extraordinary competitiveness in the school system, which leads to a rejection of society for those who are not part of the elite.
After reading Virginity After 30 Years, I find it difficult to feel sympathy for these people plunged into the spiral in which they find themselves, however, each of the testimonies highlights a part of responsibility of Japanese society. In any case, I found this reading very enriching, since it evokes concerns, which can hardly be suspected without being confronted with them directly.
