Yuki Fumino

My News and Reviews

The winner of The Royal Tutor manga giveaway was announced last week at Experiments in Manga. As usual, I also used the giveaway as an excuse to compile a thematic list of manga–in this particular case, a list of some of the manga available in English which feature royalty. This week I’m (once again) probably going to be switching around my regular posting schedule a little bit. Normally, this week would feature the Bookshelf Overload for July, but I’ve been working on an in-depth review of Kazuki Sakuraba’s A Small Charred Face which I would like to post sooner rather than later.

There are a few interesting things that I’ve recently encountered online that I’d like to share. First of all, MariNaomi has created the Queer Cartoonists Database (which does include mangaka), a followup of sorts to the Cartoonists of Color Database, both of which are fantastic resources. Khursten Santos and Thomas Baudinette, both scholars of queer themes in Japanese media, discuss gay manga, boys’ love, and such on the latest episode of the Fujojocast. Also, hat tip to Khursten for pointing out the recent audio recording and transcript of Masafumi Monden’s fascinating talk A Portrait of Shōjo: The Poetic Ambience of Japanese Girlhood.

As for some of the Kickstarter projects that have caught my attention lately: Sweethearts of 1989 is a queer romance comic by Kale Jeffery which is also in part an homage to anime and manga from the 1980s and 1990s. Zainab Akhtar is campaigning for a second volume of Critical Chips, an anthology of comics and comics criticism. (At least one essay will be about manga, specifically Taiyo Matsumoto’s No. 5.) Allison Shaw’s ongoing comic adaptation of the Greek myth of Persephone looks lovely. And of course, the Sparkler Monthly Year 5 campaign is still underway and could use a boost to help fund another twelve months of fantastic new content.

Quick Takes

I Hear the Sunspot by Yuki Fumino. Although in Japan it was serialized in a magazine that focuses on boys’ love manga, Fumino didn’t originally envision the story of I Hear the Sunspot with that in mind. However, even if the potential for the manga’s to lead characters to become romantically involved was added at a later point, their relationship grows and develops beautifully. After an illness in middle school resulted in permanent hearing loss, Kohei has struggled not only with his sudden disability but also with finding acceptance and understanding from others. Now in law school, Kohei has become withdrawn and has closed himself off from his peers, though that doesn’t stop his more outgoing and personable classmate Taichi from trying to become his friend. As the importance of their unexpected friendship naturally takes hold both Kohei and Taichi have their own issues to deal with, but it is obvious that they care tremendously for each other. As a whole, I Hear the Sunspot is a lovely story, but the nuanced characterization and character growth in the manga is particularly excellent. The depiction of Kohei’s hearing loss and how it has impacted his life and who he is also handled very well. I wholeheartedly loved I Hear the Sunspot.

Liselotte & Witch’s Forest, Volumes 1-3 by Natsuki Takaya. While waiting for the next volume of Twinkle Stars to be released, I figured I might as well give another of Takaya’s recently-translated manga series a try. (Liselotte & Witch’s Forest is actually one of Takaya’s most recent manga period, although I believe in Japan it’s on hiatus at the moment.) So far, while I am still enjoying the series, Liselotte & Witch’s Forest doesn’t work as well for me as either Twinkle Stars or Fruits Basket. I think the biggest impediment is that there seems to be a significant imbalance in the tone of the manga. The underlying story is dark and tragic–Liselotte & Witch’s Forest largely following in the tradition of Western fairy tales–but the narrative often relies heavily on lighthearted humor to carry it out. As a result, it feels as though Takaya can’t quite decide whether the series should be a drama or a comedy; every time something serious happens it’s countered by something ridiculous and it doesn’t always mesh well. It also takes a little while for the story to take off, although it’s interesting once it does. A young woman of noble birth, the titular Liselotte is now living in exile along with two servants, her stubborn cheerfulness obscuring the anguish she feels.

Stages of Rot by Linnea Sterte. The comic Stages of Rot is the first published work by Sterte, an illustrator and animator currently based in Sweden. I wasn’t previously aware of Sterte’s creative output before reading Stages of Rot, but if the comic is at all representative, it will be well worth seeking out more. Although Stages of Rot does include some dialogue and narration, the comic is largely wordless, the strength of Sterte’s gorgeous illustrations easily carrying the flow of the narrative. The story unfolds in five chapters, each of which uses a different palette of muted colors to depict the passage of time and the evolution of nature and civilization within the fantastical world that Sterte has created. The title is derived from the comic’s narrative impetus–the body of a giant sky whale has crashed to the earth, the creature’s death allowing both life and conflict to flourish in ways that would have otherwise been impossible, the accomplishments of one era in some ways dependent on the decay of another. If nothing else, the comic is visually stunning, but the themes exploring the cyclical nature of life and death are also marvelously executed. Stages of Rot is a curious, beautiful, and ultimately hopeful work; I am very glad to have encountered it.

This week, I’m taking a closer look at two new coming-of-age dramas: I Hear the Sunspot, which focuses on a college student who’s going deaf, and She and Her Cat, which focuses on a young woman who’s making the transition from full-time student to full-fledged adult.

I Hear the Sunspot
By Fumi Yukino
One Peace Books
No rating; 200 pp.

My least favorite cinematic convention is the meet-cute, that moment in every rom-com when the principle characters first cross paths under improbable circumstances — say, reaching for the last box of Klondike Bars at the local supermarket, or hopping into the same cab on a rainy night. I Hear the Sunspot begins with just such a scene: Taichi, a good-natured spaz, plunges headlong down an embankment and lands on top of Kohei, a stoic young man who’s hard of hearing. What follows this clumsy introduction, however, is a surprisingly nuanced character study.

Taichi and Kohei’s relationship unfolds in fits and starts, with Taichi initially doing most of the talking — and eating. (One of the story’s running jokes involves Taichi’s seemingly bottomless appetite for home-cooked meals.) As the two spend more time together, Kohei reveals how he lost his hearing and why he shuns his classmates’ company, prompting Taichi to open up about his own troubled past. Anyone hoping that their emotional bonding will lead to a steamy love scene will be sorely disappointed, however, as I Hear the Sunspot is not really a boys’ love title, a point that author Yuki Fumino cheerfully concedes in the afterword. True, Taichi and Kohei share a kiss, but that gesture best is understood as an expression of how much their friendship has transformed Kohei’s life, liberating him from a prison of silence, loneliness, and anger. Fumino ends the story on an upbeat, if ambiguous, note that doesn’t offer the kind of neat closure that a rom-com might but feels right for this heartfelt story about temperamental opposites finding solace in one another’s friendship.

The bottom line: Aside from a few melodramatic moments, I Hear the Sunspot steers clear of Afterschool Special cliches and BL tropes, offering readers a thoughtful meditation on friendship and disability. Recommended.

She and Her Cat
By Tsubasa Yamaguchi (Adaptor) and Makoto Shinkai (Creator)
Translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian
Vertical, Inc.
No rating; 180 pp.

“The Earth turned quietly on its axis. And in the world, her body and my body were quietly losing heat. That was the day that she brought me home. And that’s why I am her cat.” So begins She and Her Cat, a manga adaptation of Makoto Shinkai’s first animated film, a five-minute short depicting the relationship between Miyu, a recent college grad, and Chobi, the stray she rescues from an empty field. In Tsubasa Yamaguchi’s capable hands, Shinkai’s concept has been transformed into a series of elliptical vignettes told mostly from Chobi’s point of view. Chobi watches his owner wrestle with the normal challenges of early adulthood — long hours at work, estrangement from friends — not fully comprehending why these seemingly ordinary developments reduce his owner to sighs, tears, and vacant stares.

Though Chobi’s voice doesn’t always sound convincingly feline — he notices when his owner doesn’t wear make-up, for example — there’s a simple honesty to his interactions with Miyu that sells us on Yamaguchi’s approach to the material. Every chapter establishes the rhythms of Chobi’s day with a few statements that are repeated throughout the book: “I’m fond of the irritation I feel when I can’t see her,” “She was beautiful again today when she came home.” Art-wise, Yamaguchi shows us Miyu and her apartment as Chobi sees them, whether we’re peering up at Miyu’s face from the floor or surveying the kitchen from atop the refrigerator. Yamaguchi also does an excellent job of evoking the change of season; though the script plainly indicates the time of year, Yamaguchi’s illustrations capture small details — the intensity of the sunlight, the gentle movement of the air — that a cat might plausibly notice.

The bottom line: The story’s quiet, uneventful depiction of the pet-owner bond offers a warm reminder of how comforting animal companionship can be, as well as a bittersweet acknowledgment of our pets’ inability to fully understand our day-to-day triumphs and follies. Recommended.

My Week in Manga: July 31-August 6, 2017

Short Takes: I Hear the Sunspot and She and Her Cat