I am Shingo: summary and presentation of Kazuo Umezu's work
The aforementioned series that began in 1982 and ended in 1986, in reality, is not really horror, but one of the few works by Umezu that are part of the Science Fiction genre. Io Sono Shingo therefore arrives in Italy thanks to Edizioni Star Comics which, after noting a great growth in the popularity of the mangaka in our country, thanks to its particular media representation in the Eastern world and its being incredibly bizarre and eccentric, has seen fit to publish one of his most important and famous works.
Umezu has always been famous for using a unique and inimitable stylistic trait, characterized by the incredible exaltation of human expression. If this was initially only a fundamental feature of the horror genre, in Io Sono Shingo it is found within a more real and everyday setting. More intimate topics such as love and melancholy are dealt with, but it is done through the growth and development of a latest generation work robot.
The robot, between curiosity and love
The robot is the central focus of a story set in 1982 that features Satoru, a funny and funny elementary school student. He is basically a rebellious and very eccentric kid (a sort of allegorical representation of the author Kazuo Umezu) with a great passion for technology and for anything even vaguely futuristic. One day the boy's life is completely turned upside down when a mysterious and particular mechanical robot arrives at the factory where his father works.
Satoru is ecstatic, especially when he watches him perform even complex tasks with a practically zero margin of error. During a school trip to his father's factory, little Satoru also makes the acquaintance of Marine, a little girl who immediately breaks into the boy's heart. The center of their knowledge will be the robot and the desire for knowledge, strong in both, which will allow them to grow and unite by learning the mechanics of the new tool.
The robot (initially called Monroe and then Shingo), from the first volumes, is as if he represented the narrator of the story. He explains how he manages to learn the reality that surrounds him through the meetings of Satoru and Marine who, in turn, try to strengthen their knowledge thanks to the common interest that is present within the factory. Their strong curiosity, reinforced by the classic feeling of butterflies in the stomach given by the first crush, gives rise to both new feelings and new ways of communicating with each other and with the unknown technology.
The importance of the family in modern society
However, there is no lack of problems and obstacles imposed by their respective families. This is another relevant theme of Io Sono Shingo since the family represents the centrality of the life of the two children who, day after day, move towards the suburbs giving priority to other interests. Certainly Umezu wants to pose a very heated criticism of the consumerist and capitalist society which continues to give great importance to the figure of the father (in particular that of Satoru) who, however, is portrayed as a rough man and who places a great interest only towards the job.
I am Shingo
Just the father, endowed with a disproportionate ego, when he sees his central figure as a parent begin to falter because of Monroe, begins to hate with all his strength the exact day he decided to let him enter his assembly line. A day that saw the dismissal of many workers no longer needed by the manpower and that technological optimization could cause it to be repeated continuously. This too is one of the many accusations and analyzes on modernity conducted by Kazuo Umezu's masterpiece.
The humanization of the robot and the robotization of humans
In reality, what Umezu showcases in his I Am Shingo is the slow, yet powerful and currently unstoppable process of globalization. The robot tries to be a human, while the human itself tries to overcome its mental and physical limits by trying to equal the machine. This contrast is shown mainly in the narrative of the work which depicts and describes the aforementioned concept with a very ambiguous duality.
The author's style is so precise and realistic that it seems disturbing, yet it is so detailed and delicate that it makes the reader fly in a whirlwind of sensations ranging from amazement to anger and from melancholy to happiness. Everything is even more mystified by the fact that the protagonists are essentially two children and by the presence of a particular robot that performs the role of narrator.
I am Shingo
The world of I Am Shingo appears almost fairy, far from the wickedness and rawness of adults. Despite everything, important topics such as the exploitation of workers, technological development, a sense of responsibility and above all love, albeit between two elementary school children, are still dealt with.
Each theme, even the crudest, is argued with extreme delicacy by the author without ever being afraid to do so, but in turn without ever exaggerating. The reader finds himself reliving a constantly evolving society like the man-machine relationship and the love relationship between the two young protagonists.
The work was written in 4 years and includes 10 volumes (the version brought by Edizioni Star Comics sees 7). Since its first release in 1982, it has been considered a milestone in Japanese culture, tradition and mythology. Small note: if the first volume should seem a little futuristic, it is from the second volume onwards that the story begins to follow the science fiction branch.
The love relationship between the two boys becomes stronger and unexpectedly true despite the age and the robot, which in the meantime acquires more and more awareness of itself by also changing its name to Shingo, represents the good and evil of life of young people in love. So you just have to start immersing yourself in a story that will captivate and excite you page after page.