Matsumoto published manga from 2019 to 2023
© Taiyo Matsumoto, Shogakukan, Viz Media
The Los Angeles Times newspaper announced on April 25 that Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tokyo These Days (Tōkyō Higoro) won the Graphic Novel/Comics category of its 45th Annual Book Prizes.
Viz Media releases the manga in English, and it describes the story:
On his final day as an editor, Shiozawa takes a train he’s ridden hundreds of times to impart some last advice to a manga creator whose work he used to edit. Later, he is drawn to return to a bookshop at the request of a junior editor who wants his help dealing with an incorrigible manga creator who used to be edited by Shiozawa and now refuses to work with anyone else. For Shiozawa, Tokyo these days is full of memory and is cocooned in the inescapable bonds among manga creators, their editors, art, and life itself.
Matsumoto launched the manga in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Original Zōkan magazine in June 2019, and ended it in June 2023. Shogakukan published three compiled book volumes for the manga. Viz Media published the third volume in September 2024.
Viz Media published Matsumoto’s Tekkonkinkreet (Black & White), Blue Spring, GoGo Monster, No. 5, Sunny, and Cats of the Louvre manga in North America. Viz also released Fumihiko Sori’s live-action film adaptation of Matsumoto’s Ping Pong manga, while Funimation released Masaaki Yuasa’s Ping Pong anime series and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the Tekkonkinkreet anime film. Michael Arias is directing an animated adaptation of Sunny, with GKIDS producing.
Sources: LA Times, Michael Arias’ Bluesky account
AloJapan.com