Note this is less a review and more a recommendation video I wrote for my YouTube. This is just my script but I still think people interested in getting into Tsutomu Takahashis work or the zankyou manga can take away some stuff from this. link I would recommend that you watch the version for the audio and visual experience but it is here either way.https://youtu.be/eGtdts6r38g Intro The Japanese word Zankyou is translated to the English word Reverberation roughly meaning the persistence of a sound after its source has stopped and this definition would become an unlikely metaphor that would center the main theme of this manga. A manga about a scumbag in society on his way to change his life on the edge of sanity with a gun and 5 million yen. A story about resisting the absurd. Tsutomu Takahashi Tsutomu Takahashi is a man who puts his heart and soul in his craft and by reading any of his works this is instantly apparent. He has a distinct philosophy which he writes and illustrates in his works. The man has a large history infecting several of his works as the man has been a rock star bike gangster ECT but its his philosophy writing manga that gives his work an interesting air. While he has many things to say about the manga writing process the most prominent ideal he has would be about how he writes his characters. As he said in his Manban to mangaka Naoki Urasawa speaking on his ideals in relation to character resistance. Its like resistance against the absurd. Standing up to it you know? Maybe you could say I draw humans resisting. Which means I believe in them. That humans arent so stupid. You could also call that resistance rock and roll I think. He writes about characters resisting and relates this to music. When he draws he likes to draw like a live performance and when he writes he writes to change people. He said in his Manban about the impact he trys to create in the people who read his Stories. Its impulse. I want to give them an urge. When I heard the Sex Pistols for the first time I felt like a bolt of lightning hit me. It was like a shock strong enough to change someones life. If I could give people that kind of shock too. I would be happy. And so the stories he makes are very raw and real and alive. They have lots of emotion and heart that can be heartbreaking and beautiful. Always working to not only to shock the reader but to impact their hearts. Its special because he backs it up with substance he is not making these harsh and juvenile moments for nothing. They all work to build or reveal a certain impact in our characters or us the reader. Making his work feel alive. All working together with the theme giving you somewhere to place that impact into. Because what could be more impactful than the abnormalities and unpredictable nature of out own lifes. I want to create things that have ambiguity. I want to create things that arent calculated. Its a blast you know? Way more fun than the predictable. This is the way he writes these stories human resistance against the absurd this story is the journey of Satorus resistance against his cruel and absurd circumstances. Synopsis Theres a heat wave but every year I feel the heat less and less. Maybe my body isnt the way a normal persons is? The story starts with Satoru living next to a dying former Yakuza. When asked if he wants anything in life he says no thats the kind of boy Satoru is. But when presented with an offer of a gun and 5 million in exchange for the Yakuzas life Satorus life is given the chance to change to continue flowing along and staying a useless empty sound or to make a change to leave the waters grip. So he decides to change his life and take up the mans offer and now instead of flowing he starts to fly. He kills the man and crosses a line to become the stopping force to end the sound and change his fate. Im crossing a line will I be all right? All right what does all right mean? Do I want a normal life no I dont I just want to feel the warmth of summer. The warmth of summer this change Satoru wants in his life in order to feel this warmth. This is the selling point of the story its these characters arcs changing their lifes and changing the sound they dont want to hear in their lives. The structure of this manga and its overlying message is the definition of reverberation itself. Reverberation or known in Japanese as the mangas title Zankyou. the persistence of a sound after its source has stopped the persistence of sound being the sound in our lives or the absurd in our lives that lives endlessly. This is different for everyone but its something we try to shut out. The force that stops the sound is the resistance this is different for everyone but it is the change we need to excape the sound or absurd. This is the structure of these characters arcs. As Satoru goes to change he brings others with him and they start to change too this is how the story combines the theme of mans resistance to the absurd along with the amazing character arcs of our characters. Characters Its character and their arcs in learning to change and becoming that stopping force or resistance they need to be in their life to stop the sound or absurdity they live in. Everyone in this manga has an endless sound or absurdity in their life that they need to become a force to stop. For Satoru is it his life as a scum in society with no meaning in his life. For Daigo it is her life as a slave and endless ridicule for being a crossdressing man. For Kaiya it is his life afraid if his parents will leave him again. They all fill the Sound or Noise portion in the metaphor of reverberation. And the emotional journey that comes with them becoming the force to stop the sound portion of the reverberation is the beauty of Zankyou and its character journey. Satoru To avoid spoilers on our other characters journey Ill focus on Satoru this guy is an asshat. He seems emotionaless and only cares to fulfill the old mans request. Killing becomes a escape for him and an answer to his problems what is he escaping though? His weakness his sound. He believes that if he gives in he will only be trash just like how he was before he crossed the line. And so he heavily is dependent on his weapons to give him artificial strength a desperate hold needed for him to change at least thats what he thinks. This is apparent as Daigo got to see him when he was strong and when he desperately pretended to be strong saying to him that it truly made him lose his charm but even with this they can bond over one thing a need to destroy something to end their sound. Then time goes on and as he gets to understand Daigo and Kaiya and he starts to learn how to have a family. To feel and care for others and find some meaning in his life through family its very faint but its there. He crosses more lines and slowly changes. And then after a unfortunate series of events in this shitty world that trys to keep them down he has to become desperate to change his familys fate and brings change upon his family along with him. Put simply and to not spoil the ending made me cry one of the best Ive ever seen. I would love to talk about it but I feel this is something I shouldnt talk about and you expirences it. Its what these characters do to fight it back that is a blast to read. Because it tackles many different subjects and ideas personal to our characters and gives them a feeling for what the sound and stoping force means to them and in return we start to reflect on ourselves as the readers. Meaning Even with all the serval things I mentioned the meaning in Zankyou is open to interpretation and I think the only right answer is the one you find. I spent days thinking about this story after reading it loving what I read but not being able to put my finger on why. Only writing and rambling could express why I loved it so much. This is a story about resisting your fate and becoming a force to stop the sound you dont wanna hear in your life. This is a message everyone can relate to. Because the sound will echo on if you let it the noise we block out may never stop but by becoming the force we need to be in our lives we can change the sound. We can turn the pain to happyness we can change our fate thats beauty in resisting the absurd.