“Sensoron” might be considered a non-fiction manga, though the “non-fiction” aspect of it might be subject to debate… I also think it sucks as a manga – more like an illustrated polemic.

I am not interested in those idiots and the ex-soldiers I can respect are only the guys who’ve kept the silence with regret or succeeded in telling the truth without excuses or exhibitionistic repentant rituals. I feel the similar tone in representative senchuha artists like Kihachi Okamoto, Futaro Yamada, Shigeru Mizuki, Seijun Suzuki, etc. Their nihilistic and humourous tone is very different from senzenha artists who’ve experienced liberal Taisho era. Yes, this kind of argument is limited to intellectuals and artists, but it seems to me that Mizuki represent more popular tone and his stories have the capacity for evoking the souls of the mass including my grandfather.

Roy asked about the publication history of those Mizuki volumes – there was a made for TV version of a mish-mash of several Miuzki war stories last year that caused Soin Gyokusai Seyo! to become a bestseller. That resulted in compilations like the Daikusen one that you have and a few more – Aa Gyokusai, Aa Taiheiyo I&II – being put together.

It is really unfortunate that Mizuki is not more popular in the English-speaking world. Part of the problem is that you see Evangelion begin described as “old” (it came out in 1995). US anime/manga fandom has little sense of the history of the medium – older masterworks like Tezuka`s BlackJack are more or less ignored by manga buyers in favor of the new Jump stuff. I think that the French have a much better appreciation for older titles.

So much so that NonNonBâ won the Best Comic Book Price last year at the Angoulême International Comics Festival (biggest comics festival in Europe).

Most of people are “indifferent” to others’ faith, so I believe that it’s surprising for many japanese to see western media focusing on PM’s individual religious faith.

There existed two christian PMs before Aso in post-war Japan and a famous pre-war PM Hara Takashi was a Catholic, although I don’t know well David Hara kept his faith.