
It's 2027. Born in 2007, the main character K has no girlfriend and is part of a cultural minority with few friends. In a paperless age with no books, magazines and newspapers, K collects the old media of the 20th century. His little dream is to "make a book" with his friend 21LO! But it goes against the law to make books in the age when the distribution or even printing is impossible and severely restricted without an official government emblem...
EPISODE 12

NO LIFE KING by Seiko Ito
New 2009 bound edition. Hiroki Tsukuda is the artist who did the artwork. He is also known for taking a bashing for selling an original drawing to the national art museum in France. It was the late 00's when he achieved a peak in his popularity and belief in his art. He may have had no choice. It seems Hiroki Tsukuda is still popular overseas.
In recent days word of mouth or rumors are only for performers, but in the 80's it seems there were lots of urban legends thrown around. Things like mixing earthworms with fresh meat, dying due to a curse, determining one's personality by their blood type, and being watched by a soul in the previous life? Are these called urban legends?
It's said that people used to rely on fortune-telling and other beliefs to provide them the names for their babies, now they use them for lottery numbers. Also people used to rely on divination to build a house in a lucky direction.
As hard as it is to imagine, it is a fact that these methods were used in civilized society a mere 40 years ago. I can sense the atmosphere at that time. It could be something like reliving the first turn-of-century anxiety ever since this country has incorporated Christian year. How old will I be in the next end of the century!?
Text and images: Kurando Furuya, Hitoshi Odajima, Tomoki Kurokawa
Translation: Mariko Takei