To understand Zenith , one must first understand the singular mind behind it. Born in 1964 in Kamakura, Japan, Tagame grew up in a family with distant samurai ancestry, a fact that would later inform the rigid codes of masculinity and power that saturate his work. Ironically, the man who would become the world's most influential creator of gay manga was forbidden from reading it as a child, with the sole exception of Osamu Tezuka's works. He later studied graphic design at the prestigious Tama Art University.
The plot of Zenith (the English title is taken directly from the Japanese publication) is a stark and brutal fable. While the official Google Books description cryptically states that it follows "a man for democracy" who is "captured by a military regime," Japanese fan reviews provide a much more graphic and complete picture. Zenith -english- Gengoroh Tagame
For English-speaking fans, accessing Zenith can be complex. While Tagame's mainstream titles like Our Colors are widely available through publishers like Pantheon Books, his older erotic works have a more niche distribution. To understand Zenith , one must first understand