The COVID-19 Pandemic and Manga Artists

The “April 1, 2020” episode would be published on June 15, then the “April 2, 2020” episode would be published on June 16, and so on. In this manner, each artist would be assigned one day out of 100 days, and the series would progress day by day. The number of participating artists far surpassed the initial plan of around 50, ultimately reaching 109 artists.

First to step up to the plate was the nationally beloved manga artist Tetsuya Chiba, known for the famous manga Ashita no Joe [Tomorrow’s Joe] (story by Asao Takamori, 1967-73), among others.

Suzuki: “Mr. Chiba said, ‘There’s something I’ve been wanting to draw,’ and immediately accepted the project within just two replies. I asked for it to be in black and white, but he said that he absolutely had to draw it in color. I was delighted when he delivered a work that was exactly like the ideal I had imagined.”

Suzuki: “The world today is amazing—you can become a hero simply by staying at home. The fact that food service and retail sales workers wear face shields is taken for granted now, but people living a century later are bound to think, ‘Wow, there was a time when people in customer service wore face shields.’ When you read works created long ago during the war, for example, the “emotional” aspects of peoples’ lives, such as love in the midst of the war, are much the same as they are today. ”

“But the devices and systems that appear in their lifestyles are different. In the past, there were things like having to be first connected by a switchboard operator in order to make a phone call. Or, in my school days when we didn’t have cell phones, calling a girl’s house meant that her father might come on the line (laughs). Another aim of this project was to have the artists depict these little details of life.”    

Suzuki decided to approach the COVID-19 pandemic by taking advantage of the characteristics of the widely read medium of manga. He shared with us a personal episode that formed the basis for his idea for the project.
“I once found my late grandfather’s pocket-book from when he served in the war as a young soldier. When I read it, there was no indication of his emotions, only factual records such as when and where he went. It made me realize the value of things written during the war when people didn’t know whether Japan would win or lose, about whether they thought going to war was a beautiful or agonizing thing. This is what MANGA Day to Day aims do. I thought it was also important to simply record current lifestyle norms as a person living in the present, and I mentioned that in my written request to the artists.”

After serialization of the project ends, there are plans to combine the manga and literature versions of the project together in a single book. Suzuki, who has been involved in manga editing for over 15 years and is currently also in charge of web media, says that in adapting to the changing times, he is always exploring methods of presentation that make the most of the different characteristics of print and online media.

Suzuki: “When I was younger, I found out about works of manga through print-based media, and from there my interest expanded to the anime version or character merchandise. But recently, the most convenient touch points for readers to discover a work are e-books and the internet. Due to the nature of this project, I chose Twitter as the method to reach the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time. Nowadays, I think print media is, in one respect, the ultimate fan merchandise item. On the other hand, however, articles on the internet have the characteristic of being impermanent because they can become inaccessible to readers at any time. Print media is stronger over the long term. I want the printed book to have a gorgeous binding that will last for another century.”

“MANGA Day to Day” created a day-by-day account of the emergency situation during the COVID-19 pandemic in real time. How will the lives of the people it depicts be perceived by readers a decade, five decades, or a century from now?