While working there, he encountered people commonly considered "misfits," "lowlifes," or "damaged," who regularly sold their blood plasma.
[11] One main character, Kesei Sabu, was a trained kamikaze pilot, and he roams the streets of Tokyo, looking for fights with men and encounters with sex workers.
[1] Many of the characters in the book live in precarious housing situations, including temporary homes and rundown buildings.
[1] Ryan Holmberg wrote that Kesei Sabu and Mr. Aogishi were "...the two paradigms of Japanese masculinity that Tadao kept returning to while drawing for manga magazines Garo and Yagyō in the '60s and '70s.
"[1] Gregory Smith wrote in PopMatters, "One notable feature of these works is the absence of post-war progress or vision of the future.
Tsuge creates an eternal present devoid of any benefits of an improving economy or possibility of climbing out of a landscape of ruin and defeat.