Second book Florent Chavouet after Tokyo Sanpo, Manabe Shima takes us this time on the small island of Manabe (300 inhabitants), so in a totally different universe from that of Tokyo (13 million inhabitants ...). The author moved to the island with his notebooks and pencils for 2 months in the summer of 2009 and his stay makes us live as if we were there.
The designs are even more detailed than in Tokyo Sanpo (change of paper and pencils, from what I understood), it's still funny, and from the previous book there is much more interaction with locals, which is actually quite logical: we move from a megalopolis where everybody is anonymous, in a microcosm where everyone knows each other, and where the small French armed with his notebooks hardly pass unnoticed! We discover not only the island of Manabe, its landscapes, its buildings, its history, but also a little Japanese and their ways (plural because we realize that following the characters is very contrasted) to behave visitors from oversea.
Beyond the colored drawing and super fun to watch, beyond the delicious travel stories, we also learn a lot about Japan and here in particular on Japan ruralo-micro-island.
This book finally gives us only one desire: to do as Florent and visit from one of those little Japanese islands.
Hopefully a third volume, on a third type of Japan!
