I'll Give It My All... Tomorrow Volume 4 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Shizuo Oguro was a 40-something salaryman until he quit his corporate drone job in order to pursue his dream of becoming a published manga artist.  Shizuo is also on a journey of self-discovery, which means that his high school-age daughter, Suzuka, and his father, Shiro, support him.  Shizuo lacks the talent, discipline, and skill to be a mangaka (manga creator), but he won’t let that stop him as he tries to break into the manga magazine, EKKE.

As I’ll Give it My All… Tomorrow, Vol. 4 begins, Masaki Murakami, the editor who favored Shizuo’s work, quits.  Now, Shizuo has a new editor, a young woman named Aya Unami.  Unami thinks that Shizuo should give up because he is a middle-aged man, and we learn why she takes his efforts so much to heart.  Also, Suzuka breaks shocking news to her father about her professional future.

THE LOWDOWN:  Like Bakuman, I’ll Give it My All… Tomorrow is a character story about people working to become manga creators.  Bakuman blends shonen and shojo elements and is about young creators trying to create shonen (and sometimes shojo) manga.  I’ll Give it My All… Tomorrow is a comedy/drama about people yearning, searching, and chasing.  The quest for manga often seems like a mere subplot instead of the primary plot.

I think creator Shunju Aono is telling stories about people being forced to deal with adult issues.  What makes this manga interesting is that several characters, from 20-somethings to even middle age, have never really had to make adult decisions or face adult issues.  So the comedy comes from watching characters that have recently entered adulthood forced to be adults.  What is both funny and sad is to see a character like Shizuo trying to start over as a grown-up professional when he perhaps never started.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for a good life drama with lots of comedy will enjoy I’ll Give it My All… Tomorrow.

A-