I've had a fascination with the 1960s-60s for a while now. It's difficult to say why, a significant portion of it is certainly how large of a turning point in human history it seems. To me personally, the time span between the end of World War 2, and the end of the Vietnam War is the beginning of modernity. Perhaps a more appropriate word instead of “modernity” could be the end of the world. Kurt Vonnegut wrote a humorous scene in “Hocus Pocus” where WW2 is described as a finale rack of the world. The last set of fireworks that would be shot up for the largest set of explosions in the set. Jiro Matsumoto writes stories where the setting is close to our own, but that finale rack was apocalyptic in an even more literal sense.
Everything is built on war, every facet of your life leads back to it. Army jackets wave against the wind as bomber planes fly off to fight a war you did not know was going on. A kaleidoscope of imagery creates inseparable bonds between the images of everyday sexual horror, flashbacks of pointless violence in war, and apparatus of capitalist society. How much is anything real? Does it matter anymore? The main character is a veteran, expert assassin, and while the war is over but it still lingers everywhere in his sight. And it is his sight we follow for most of the story. His hallucinations plague him day after day, the bodies of people he killed as immaterial as he makes himself during murder. And while the war is a suppressed memory, he nevertheless continues to fight it. He works as an assassin for the government now, in a gig structured similar to Chainsaw Man, down to even a Makima-esque figure acting as his boss. Although there's nothing supernatural here, the new law simply dictates that anyone can send the government to kill someone who killed someone close to you. All as a result of policies that star with excessive spending on war, leading to poorer social safety nets and shutting down prisons. This story does not take place during the finale rack, but its impossible to still not feel the burns.
Although it would be incorrect to only focus on the aesthetic similarity to western history. A passing familiarity with the history of Japan will greatly enhance this manga, especially the post war economic miracle and the eventual recession in the form of the Lost Decades that came about with the dawn of the Showa era. Although this manga strongly feels outside of time due to its alternative history setting. While I naturally can't speak first hand about this subject, I can assume there's a lot of catharsis to be found out seeing your malaise be reflected as your experiencing your standard of living fall down. It's difficult to not feel like the manga of Jiro Matsumoto can be quite pessimistic, but the view I prefer to take is that it's angry. It's punk. It's an angry work about angry people in an angry world, although the protagonist always seems to have a level head. Although god knows what's going on inside it, not like Kano knows either.
And just like punk, it's not all doom and gloom. The story can be incredibly fun. The manga can be divided into larger arcs, each with a predominant character facing off to some degree against our protagonist Kano. These confrontations are tense, full of thrills, and often even quite funny. Read this manga even if just for my No.1 girl-failure. This manga is also told at a breakneck speed, every vice is displayed in the most grotesque way. The amount of sex, drugs, and violence would make GG Allin blush, although he luckily is rotting away now. The almost psychedelic approach to storytelling and visuals are a staple of Matsumoto's manga. On that topic, all of his idiosyncrasies shine in here. Even with all that's written here I doubt you'll be able to expect a percent of the stuff contained within those pages.