Humorous, enjoyable, crazy and fun! “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow” vol. 5 marks the final volume of the manga series. With a film adaptation hitting theaters in Japan in June 2013, for us stateside, we can enjoy this storyline about a 42-year-old slacker, who quits his corporate job to become a manga artist. Will he succeed? A recommended volume and series that I recommend!
© 2007 Shunju Aono/Shogakukan. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow – Volume 5 (俺ã¯ã¾ã 本気出ã—ã¦ãªã„ã ã‘)
STORY AND ART BY: Shunju Aono (é’野 春秋)
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shogakukan, Inc.
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Ikki Comix/VIZ Media, LLC
RATED: T for Older Teen
RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2013
Life begins at 40, whether you’re ready for it or not.
This is the story of a forty-year-old salaryman who quits his job to pursue his dream of becoming a manga artist–and the family that has to put up with him. While not terribly unhappy, Shizuo Oguro can’t fight the feeling that something in his life just isn’t right, so he walks away from his stable (yet boring) day job to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Unfortunately for his family, this journey also involves playing video games all day while his teenage daughter and elderly father support him. Will Shizuo succeed in creating a true manga masterpiece, or will he be just another dropout living a life of slack?
When you are a man in your 40’s, to quit your corporate job and to focus on being a manga artist, when most companies want younger talent… many people would think you are crazy.
In the case of 42-year-old Shizuo Oguro, he has this carefree attitude. He rather work at a fast food restaurant, so he can focus his on his manga dream. He can’t really draw and his stories tend to be about his life and his experience or the end of the world.
But now is the time for Shizuo…will his manga get published or not?
Find out in the conclusion of Shunju Aono’s “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow” vol. 5!
About “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow”?
A 42-year-old man who quits his salaryman job to become a mangaka (manga artist/writer). It seems like a straightforward story…perhaps, one that sounds like a mid-age crisis but trust me on this, “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow” is one of the most enjoyable manga out right now from Viz Media and it’s protagonist, possibly one of the quirkiest, laziest character that I have ever read about in my many years of manga reading.
Once in a while, I get the opportunity to read a manga that comes out of nowhere and just surprises the hell out of me. “I’ll Give It My All..Tomorrow” (Ore wa mada Honki Dashite Nai dake) by Shunju Aono is one of those manga series.
A storyline that relies on no supernatural storyline, nor the characters being the top of their class, very rich or very beautiful or handsome. In fact, the illustrations are not the greatest either, but it’s the storyline of one man trying to make his dream come true and choosing to do it at the age of 42.
Aono won the “Young Magazine 45th Chiba Tetsuya Award” in the Newcomer’s Category in 2001 and in 2005, won the 17th Ikkiman Ikki Newcomer’s Award and debuted with “Somato” (Kaleidoscope) which would eventually become his manga series “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow” and is featured on Ikki Magazine.
Here we are in 2013 and the film adaptation is set to hit theaters in Japan on June 16th and a new novel and new manga featuring Shizuo titled “Ore we Moto Mada Honki Dashite Nai Dake” was released in Japan in May 2013 and also a novel version.
And now, the final volume of “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow” will be released in the USA courtesy of Viz Media in June 2013.
The story revolves around a man named Shizuo Oguro who turned 40-years-old. He’s a single father with a teenager named Suzuko and lives with his father. He also just quit his corporate job which he had worked as a Subsection Chief for over 15 years and is now trying to “find himself”.
Now, jobless and lazy, Oguro sits at home playing with his Sony PlayStation 2 and because of is lack of doing anything, angers his older father and his daughter pretty much has accepted that her father is a person who is not really ambitious and is quite lazy.
But with all the cajoling from his father to get a job, Oguro decides that his goal in life is to become a manga artist.
The problem is that Oguro is not an artist, nor does he have the focus to write a good story and each time he submits one to a manga publisher, it’s not the right content they are looking for (their nicest way to reject him).
But Oguro is determined to create a manga series and to step things up in his life by working a fast food job that will allow him to make a little money but work on his new passion in trying to create a manga.
In the first volume, Oguro continually gets chastised by his father to get a job, meanwhile he finds out that his smart daughter has been earning money by becoming a prostitute, finds a job at a fast food restaurant and because of his age, the younger people refer him as “manager” despite not being one. He also meets a younger guy named Shuichi and befriends him.
Shuichi is like a younger version of Oguro and is unable to keep a job and tends to get himself in fights.
Volume two continues to focus on Oguro as he tries to become a manga artist and prove to his father that he’s not a slacker, meanwhile Shuichi thinks about his life and wonders if he will be like Oguro.
In the previous two volumes of “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow”, we have sen how this guy work at fast food, trying to find a place to stay for a little while when his father gets on his nerves about finding a job and for the most part, trying to work on a manga series which the manga company he tends to bring his final drafts to, have kept rejecting. Also, Oguro takes on the pen name “Person Nakamura”.
But now with volume 3 of the manga series, Oguro is now 42-years-old and his father is losing patience while in his mind, he is close to quitting his job at the fast food restaurant and feels his manga will be published. But it looks as if things may look better for Oguro as Murakami, his editor of EKKE Magazine seems interested in getting Shizuo Oguro’s manga published.
With volume 4 of “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow”, just when it seems as if Oguro now has it made as a manga artist, after impressing his editor at EKKE Magazine. It actually made an impression, but in the wrong way. For the editor, Murakami, it made him become inspired to do what he has wanted to do in life and pursue it and that was to quit his job as a manga editor and pursue his dream of becoming a woman.
Now that Murakami has left, he is given a new editor, a female editor named Unami. But unlike Murakami, she absolutely despises Oguro, mainly because her father quit his high-paying job to become a novel writer and forced her mother to work dead-end jobs to support the family. And seeing that Oguro has a daughter and an older father, she is not so thrilled about him, nor does she feel he has any talent nor a story to write for the Ekke younger audience (as Oguro’s manga is about an older man trying to live his life).
Meanwhile, for Miyata-san (Oguro’s best friend growing up) is enjoying his life at the bakery and cooking for his son Masao, but what happens when he is given news by his ex-wife that she is remarrying an American and is planning to relocate with her son to America and wants him to forget her son in order for him to get used to his future step-father.
With both 40+ year-old men facing a new crisis in their life, how will they deal with it?
And here we are with the final fifth volume of “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow”!
Shizuo Oguro now has that opportunity to create a manga that will get published, if he listens to his new editor Unami.
Meanwhile, Miyata-san makes a decision that without his son no longer with him, he might as well die. And for Suzuko, she now has the opportunity to pursue her dream in Finland, but we learn her backstory, answering questions about her life, her relationship with her father and how tough it was for her to be raised by her father and grandfather.
For the last two or years, I have read “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow” because of how the story presented is real and just different from other manga released in the U.S.
The artwork is not great but it fits with the overall story about one man who was never a great father or employee, just wanting a new life direction in this late ’40s and that is to become a manga writer/illustrator.
Because he hasn’t had too many social experiences, nor anything true manga experience, he’s mostly a 40-something man, who plays video game and tends to vegetate at home, to his father’s chagrin. His daughter accepts him for what he is and people at work, they accept him for what he is either. Just a man who does what he has to, to pursue his goal of getting a manga published.
Does the real artist/writer, Shunju Aono have anything to do with the character of Shizuo Oguro? I’m not sure entirely sure.
But what is known is that his manga series has its fans and now a movie adaptation of this manga series is about to be released in theaters Japan in June 2013!
With this final volume, it’s more of a reality check conclusion of a man named Shizuo who continues to follow the path of writing his own manga, a friend named Miyata who is depressed now that his son has moved in with his mother and new husband to America, while another young man Shuichi tries to find himself (and hopefully he doesn’t become like Shizuo).
To conclude this final volume, we see Shizuo trying to create a manga and having it published.  But working with his new editor Unami and making it sure it reaches the readers. Problem is that Shizuo’s way of thinking is unusual, so what the editor wants, he tends to come up with something different.
Meanwhile, Miyata has become suicidal after his son leaves him. His son was his world and his bakery shop was what paid the bills. But what happens when he leaves farewell notices to Shizuo and Shuichi?
And last, what happens to Suzuko and why has she had this carefree attitude when it comes to her father’s way of doing things?
All is explained in this final volume and it’s ending feels real and not some hashed up, happily ever after, banal storyline.
“I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow” is indeed a rare treat to see released here in the US. The manga is different in not just storyline and its characters but also Aono’s style of illustration and for those wanting to try something more realistic but also humorous and odd, this is one manga series I can easily recommend. It can also be quite amusing, especially if you are one to have friends who is a slacker like Shizuo Oguro.
Humorous, enjoyable, crazy and fun! “I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow” vol. 5 and the entire series is definitely recommended!