Starting off reading Ayako this week, I found the cover of this book to be amazing. The simplicity of the typeface and the mirror of just one figure being drawn on the front, and then the grim reverse of the lower half of a hanging figure on the back. The subtle rose tint to the cover adds a great touch too. Coming from a background of knowing Tezuka from his work on Astroboy and one of my favorites of all time Metropolis, Ayako was a huge surprise. Not because of its nature of dealing with the topic of Japan post WWII and the inner workings of societal relations, but the real brutality of this manga and Ayako being banished to the storeroom, and the depiction of incests role and diverse affects on families and the societal bearing. I found the land distribution aspects interesting and the political backing great as I am not an avid reader of manga or watcher of anime relating to real world politics / happenings and the closest to hard political narratives I usually get is in Gundam and the lengthy political happenings there haha. Being such a manga putting Ayako in despair, as a reader I just knew there was nothing that could be done for Ayako, and Tezuka created the characters really well in the fact that I felt despair throughout the manga but knew there was nothing I could do as there didn't seem to be any way for a turn around to happen. It just did not seem the type of manga to do so. Through the manga however there were many points I actually laughed and a lot where I just sighed due to the reality of the manga and its situations dealing with life.
