I will start by saying that I'm a little bias when it comes to Taiyo Matsumoto. I have always been a fan of sketchy style comics and stories like his and Katsuya Terada's, and Blue Spring is no different. In this collection of short stories surrounding youth at some of their most tumultuous times, Matsumoto does an excellent job revealing their discontent and sense of immortality right from the get-go. His style of art and penmanship reflects that same awkwardness and expressiveness you might find in any one of these characters and I believe that it is a great match.
While I don't want to give away every story, there are a few that stand out, like "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands", "Revolver" originally written by Caribou Marley and "The Family Restaurants is our Paradise". The first and third story previously mentioned were my favorites because they reminded me of a group of skate-boarders I grew up with, scrounging for nickels and dimes off everyone for bean burritos at Taco-bell, and later trying to outdo each other with stupid stunts that could break our necks. So with that I begin to identify with his stories.
In the first story, "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands", a group of restless students look to reaffirm there status as head of the class by attempting to put the lower disrespecting classmen in their place. Doing this is no small feat. The shear idea of just trying to prove yourself by hanging from a handrail on the rooftop of your school and letting go just to see how many times you can clap before re-grabbing the rail again is pretty tough! cNot to mention getting up in the middle of class to go do it. The first story also does a good job with mixing in a smaller sub-plot about a corrupt principle and his just as corrupt assistant having a love affair - breaking it off and then getting back together again. It makes for an amusing read.
I recommend anyone that likes their stories to be a little different and a little gritty to go ahead and pick this one up. Just one more thingctake some time to really look at the first three pages of Blue Spring. Those images reflect a lot about how Taiyo Matsumoto writes and illustrates... you don't really ever read the stories so much as you feel like you've witnessed them.
