Dive Deep Into Breathe Deeply

Husband and wife creative team “Yamaaki Doton” have won numerous Japanese awards for their original manga yet remained unknown in the English speaking world until the recent publication of their first English language translation. One Peace Books has done a great service to English speaking manga readers by providing an accessible adaptation of Yamaaki Doton’s masterwork tragedy manga Breathe Deeply, as published in Japan in 2010 as “X-saibou ha Fukaku Iki wo Suru” (X Cells Breathe Deeply).

Breathe Deeply introduces two high school boys, both deeply in love with a charming girl slowly dying of heart failure. Fifteen years after Yuko’s untimely demise, the boys, Sei and Oishi, have devoted their lives and energies to researching opposing philosophies of cardiopulmonary medicine. Oishi pursues advances in stem cel research and the growth of live organs for transplant. Sei verges on revolutionizing medicine with the development of synthetic organs indistinguishable from natural ones. Both men remain tormented by their lost love and adolescent regrets. Their fortunes rise and fall until a startling secret comes to light, bringing the two men back together again over their common past.

In Breathe Deeply, creators Yamaaki Doton create a complex, multi-faceted tragedy that incorporates romance, drama, suspense, science fiction, and crime, masterfully blending each component so that no parts of the story ever feel unnatural or out of place. The story evokes sympathetic emotional angst along with complex, provocative themes including the morality of medical research, the ethics of organ transplantation, the cutthroat internal politics of medical research, the conflict between compassionate subjectivity and objective science, and the conflict that exists been society’s desire and social convention. Underneath all of the complex and provocative themes lies a brutally heart-rending tale of sadness and loss, and the unending human struggle to prevent, mitigate, or inevitably accept tragic loss. The narrative prologue instantly draws readers into the story and forces readers to empathize with Yuko, Sei, and Oishi. This prologue is so effective that it quickly becomes devastatingly painful to read. The artwork and narrative, which creators Yamaaki Doton spent four years revising and perfecting, does such a superb job of capturing and expressing motion and emotion in revealing still frames that in only a few pages readers become so connected to the characters that the anxiety and grief within the pages powerfully transfers directly to the reader.

The story then leaps forward by fifteen years while continuing to reveal additional character and subtext through judicious flashbacks. The mid-section of the story replaces emotional torment with engrossing and intriguing drama until a surprise revelation kicks the story and characters into a suspenseful second gear that ratchets up the tension and resurrects deep emotional resonance. The narrative includes some strong profanity, some nudity, and brief adult situations, but nothing is sensational or exploitive. The strong language and scenes vitally animate the story and add further verisimilitude to a tale already vetted by numerous credentialed doctors and research scientists.

Visually, the manga vaguely resembles the draftsmanship of artists including Katsuhiro Otomo and Yoshihiro Sono. Even though the story is set in present day, it has an evocative, nostalgic tone that enhances the narrative’s sense of being haunted by the past. Unfortunately, the graphic art isn’t preserved or presented in the American edition as faithfully as could be hoped for. Introductory color pages in the 2010 Japanese publication are presented in monochrome in the translation. Tone reproduction is also darker in the English translation, sometimes blurring or hiding shade and detail more evident in the original Japanese publication. The alterations may not be the fault of One Peace Books, however. Original Japanese sound effects and background Japanese text is seemingly arbitrarily translated in the English adaptation, suggesting that One Peace Books may not have been provided access to ideal publication master files in the first place. Manga purists may be mildly perturbed over the English adaptation’s seeming arbitrary alteration of the original art. However, typical readers will find that the editorial decisions are consistently made in favor of easing readability. The dialogue translation flows naturally and appears practically free of errors excepting a number of lines throughout the book that lack proper punctuation. Once again, the grammar flaws are only noticeable and briefly distracting to the most observant and critical of readers. The book includes a short glossary providing definition and explanation of the medical abbreviations peppered throughout the dialogue.

The broad narrative concept of two young men pursuing opposing avenues of science out of devotion to their mutual love may seem reminiscent of director Makoto Shinkai’s 2004 anime film The Place Promised in Our Early Days, but the specifics of Breathe Deeply’s development are entirely different and far more substantial and affecting than Shinkai’s earlier story. Despite an American publication that visually looks a generation removed from the original Japanese publication, the narrative alone is strong enough to compensate for weaknesses in its presentation. Breathe Deeply is masterfully woven tragedy that will inevitably leave readers in tears. It’s a powerful, deeply moving story which absolutely belongs on the bookshelf of every reader that appreciates exceptional comic literature.