Danica Davidson
October 18, 2024 
Oba Electroplating Factory is the latest collection of works from Yoshiharu Tsuge, the famous and influential mangaka who wrote Nejishiki. All of the stories here were originally published in the 70s.
“Boarding House Days” has two men talking after not seeing each other for a while. One describes how he married the boarding house landlady.
The titular “Oba Electroplating Factory” shows the roughness of factory work and the people involved, including a young boy who is working like an adult.
In “Someone I Miss,” a cartoonist writes a story about a previous affair he had, and wants to return to where it happened.
“Realism Inn” has a cartoonist go on a trip for inspiration for his comics, and he ends up at a grotesque inn.
“The Incident” opens with a car almost running into a man on a narrow street and takes it from there.
“Wasteland Inn” shows an artist trying to find a way to buy a house so he doesn’t have to pay rent, and he meets with another artist in the boonies.
The final story, “Yoshio’s Youth,” is by far the longest story. It once again follows a cartoonist and his struggles with money and art.
A number of themes repeat throughout the book, most noticeably its repeated concentration on cartoonists as narrators. The cartoonists show the many struggles artists deal with, like money issues, writer’s block and creative freedom. One artist comments that he’s writing whatever comes to mind, and sometimes it feels as if Tsuge is offering up fragments of bigger stories. They’re open to interpretation and have psychological insight. Tsuge’s artwork ranges from the more basic and comical to amazingly detailed and realistic, and his stories like to take on both the mundane and the eccentric, just as they involve the grotesque, sex, insecurities and grit.
Oba Electroplating Factory ends with a long afterword from translator and comics historian Ryan Holmberg, giving more detail on Tsuge’s life and work.
Story & Art: Yoshiharu Tsuge
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Translator: Ryan Holmberg
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
