To me, Matsumoto Taiyou is the Wong Kar Wai of the manga world.  He writes brilliant pensive stories that are both grand in scope and intensely and unrelentingly personal.  He is exists to contradict himself-his art is cartoony, but his stories deeply mature.  His drawings are somehow primitive and complex.  His pacing feels both incredibly slow, and yet somehow absolutely dense.  He is, much like the main characters  in Tekkonkinkreet, both Black and White.

Mashing images that almost look lightboxed or hand traced, yet contain unconfident squiggles and dots proving no mechanical reproduction could have yielded such pictures, Taiyou almost winks at the audience as he plays with perspective, mixing realistic buildings with unrealistic horizons.

 

The influence of European illustrators (notably Moebius) is undeniable in his work.