Gen-Yon Tsushin is Garo | Trattviva Takeshi

Hello, I am music writer and editor Trattviva Takeshi.

Everyone, do you know Garo?

The Legend of Garo

The manga magazine "Garo" was born in 1964.
There, even with almost no publication fees, artists were able to draw to their heart's content.
The editorial department did not interfere with details, allowing for free and edgy styles.

Yoshiharu Tsuge's "Nejishiki," the strange nonsense of Yoshikazu Ebisu, the early works of Jun Miura...
Many talents known as the "Garo-kei" took flight from there.

What editor-in-chief Katsuichi Nagai valued most was:
"Giving artists a place to express themselves rather than focusing on business"
"Keeping the elimination of discrimination from the world as a foundation"
Just those two things.

What Flows Through Gen-Yon Tsushin

Gen-Yon Tsushin is similar.
Rather than compensation or efficiency, it values an "atmosphere where you can write as you like" and "publishing discomfort as it is."

Criticism, concepts, and works intermingle,
and it is okay to have pages that make you tilt your head, wondering, "Does this not have to be a 4-koma?" or "Tarako tarako tarako?"

The editorial team not intervening strongly.
That itself is the editorial policy.

From Garo to the Present

The artists born from "Garo" went beyond manga, spreading into art, literature, and subculture.
The "Garo-esque" experimental spirit still lives on in zines, indie manga, and contemporary art.

Gen-Yon Tsushin also bleeds out beyond the boundaries of contemporary 4-koma,
"I don't understand the meaning, but it's interesting"
"It's rich precisely because it deviates from the rules"
continuing to affirm these sensations.

Gen-Yon Tsushin is Garo

Even without publication fees, there is freedom there.
Edgy styles are welcomed,
and new talents sprout.

Thinking of it that way, Gen-Yon Tsushin is the modern-day Garo.
If Garo existed in the Reiwa era,
perhaps it would have looked just like this.

(Text: Trattviva Takeshi)