Sekaichizu no Ma (2013) by Yuichi Yokoyama Manga Review

A centerpiece of visionary author Yuichi Yokoyama’s opus, “Sekaichizu no ma” (lit. “The Room of the World Map,” a title inspired by Mussolini’s war room known as “La sala del mappamondo”) is a modernist journey where the human body – including those of the protagonists – is reduced to a mere cell of the urban organism, portrayed as the paradoxical space where functionality and purposelessness coexist. Buy This Titleby clicking on the image below In an unspecified megalopolis, a group of three is en route to a secret location where a business partner awaits them to finalize an important deal. Being confused as they wander through the skyscrapers looking for a ferry that would get them to the other side of the river that cuts through the city, they fortuitously run into the employees of some shady company, offering them a ride. Once on the other bank, they manage to get to the rendezvous on time, but the man in the room of the world map still needs to wait for an extra guest. What is the nature of their business, and why cannot the host proceed without the latecomer’s approval? An artist who has had manga critics in awe and bewilderment since his debut in 2004, Yokoyama is considered the pioneer of the neo manga current, a definition freshly coined to describe his breakaway from conventional storytelling and panel composition. Indeed, “Sekaichizu no ma” provides almost no landmarks, neither visual nor verbal: the city that stretches in front of the main characters presents a deceptive geography, to the point that they lack the words to describe it properly – in fact, the dialogues are as naïve as those of little kids trying to figure out how to get their bearings in an unknown neighborhood. Interestingly, these characters do not look even that ‘main,’ as their design – made out of a combination of oval shapes and straight lines, as if they had been drawn by an infallible mechanical arm – is not much different from that of the other nameless pedestrians walking through the city, each seemingly driven by a clear yet unfathomable purpose. Combining Giorgio de Chirico’s dreamlike perspectives with the dynamism and the fascination with geometry of Italian Futurism, “Sekaichizu no ma” is a sort of fever dream where larger-than-life onomatopoeias trespass the gutters, which are supposed to separate one panel from another. However, inasmuch as noises are the real protagonists of “Sekaichizu no ma,” they have the power to have page margins expand, with single panels turning into full-page illustrations that further complicate the understanding of the chain of events. Consistently with his previous works, which have influenced contemporary artists beyond Japanese borders – try reading Taiwanese graphic novel “The Train” by Chihoi and compare it with Yokoyama’s “Travel” from 2006 – Yokoyama persists in his exploration of humanity as a function of its technical achievements: in a world reduced to sun-obscuring concrete blocks, what remains of civilization? However, this does not imply that in “Sekaichizu no ma” civilization is not the subject at all. On the contrary, the trio and their determination in closing their mysterious deal are perhaps the epitome of what human civilization should become, according to the tenets of late industrial society: a body that moves efficiently as one, without even questioning the purpose of their movement. Tags:Chihoineo mangaSekaichizu no maThe TrainYuichi Yokoyama