Aoi Honoo

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A blue blaze may seem weak but it hides an infinite potential!
A blue blaze may look dull but it won't take long till it shines of a hundred colors!
A blue blaze may feel cool but it will turn hotter than the deepest realm of hell!
A blue blaze will come out stronger, stronger, STRONGER!! Stronger and mightier than everything the Earth has ever known!

Aoi Honoo is the culmination of everything Shimamoto has experienced over the years, mixing autobiographical elements with his typical over the top presentation. Through the journey of Honoo Moyuru who's trying to refine his skills as a manga creator while attending the Osaka ... University of Arts, he's also telling the story of his youth, of his struggles and the different people he got to meet who would change the industry in their own ways.

One of the main element of this story is how it goes over the birth of Gainax with Hideaki Anno serving as the main rival of the protagonist along with some of its original foundators like Takami Akai, Hiroyuki Yamaga and Toshio Okada. It really goes into details into how it was created, their inspiration and thought process to try and innovate in the sci-fi genre, depicting their very start with their parody of ultraman or the creation of the Daicon films (which was the latest big event where I'm at).
If it was only about Gainax, Aoi Honoo would lose some of its interest, it is most importantly a major testimony to the production of animation and manga in the 80s about the transmission of knowledge between a previous generation and the new one. Moyuru being the epitome of an otaku, he gets interested in everything that he deems worthy to learn from, giving us the occasion to put a lot of works, to learn why they were influential and even learn more of some artists that never got a shred of attention in the West. There's of course some artists that take the spotlight like Mitsuru Adachi, Leiji Matsumoto or Rumiko Takahashi, I can imagine because Shimamoto has a particular fondness for them, especially Lum who seems to be an obsession for him and appears frequently in his fantasies, same goes for Harlock and Maetel to a lesser degree. These artists take the spotlight but in the global picture it isn't that important because it mentions so many artists and their particular contributions to the medium that you never cease to be amazed by how rich and valuable the sector is. What I particularly like is how it does not only deal with manga artists but also goes quite in depth with animation, how the real robot trend initiated by Tomino came to exist, the different constraints animators had to go through to make the image fluid, what makes a chara-design interesting, it even shows how live-action movies influenced his viewpoint, Bruce Lee and Star Wars especially, which is a great coming back to the source of creation and to the birth of modern manga illustrated with Tezuka's Takarajima who himself tried to reproduce the different shots in his panels.

Aoi Honoo is filled with references and pop culture of the time, showing the impact and the new things they have brought for the otaku culture in terms of creativity, inspiring talented and visionary young artists to go even above that and find new ways to transcend their own medias. It's also impressive in the ways it manages to communicates its cheer and raw passion, not following a strictly factual and documentary-like fashion allows it to be at the same a bigger than life coming of age story and makes us root for Moyuru Honoo who has to not get overwhelmed by the talent of his peers and give the best of himself to stand on the absolute top. Shimamoto has always been brilliant with comedy and this one doesn't have to shy away from his other works, his wide range of crazy characters manage to be very relatable as well, there's a tons of varied situations with the main character being confronted to his wildest fantasies and his talent to make everything very expressive and over the top shines all the more in this series.

There is only one step between Yoshihiro Tatsumi's "A Drifting Life" and Kazuhiko Shimamoto's "Blue Blazes". An absolute must-read.