365 Days of Manga

The back cover describes it as “a cross between Harry Potter and Sailor Moon!”, and yeah, no, it’s not.  The similarities with Harry Potter begin and end with both series involving magic, and the similarities with Sailor Moon begin and end with both being manga.  I feel a more apt comparison would be Kiki’s Delivery Service, but that’s not perfect either.

Attempts to neatly categorize media by fitting it into a box with other media aside, Someday’s Dreamers is a cute little series.  Yume’s magical studies and struggle to find the right way to make others happy with her magic is sweet, and her successes are sweet as well.

This is another book I had preordered and was looking forward to reading, and fortunately I didn’t wait as long to read this.  I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a “horror fan”, but I love Junji Ito’s work and his style.  I’m not sure it scares me in a normal fear sense, but it definitely gives me a sense of claustrophobia in a way (if that makes sense).  This collection is no different.

A couple of the stories I had read previously but didn’t remember too much about: Painter, which I had read when it was published and translated in Dark Horse’s Museum of Horror release; and Greased, which I read as part of Yami no Koe.  I didn’t remember much at all about Painter but it’s always nice to see Tomie.  Greased, however, seemed familiar in the beginning and was DEFINITELY familiar when Goro started squeezing his face full of pimples on his sister.  Gave me a good shudder.  I like pimple popping videos as much as the next person who likes pimple popping videos, but still...

The titular story was pretty disturbing.  Skin full of holes, bugs crawling in, wind blowing through--pure nightmare fuel.  Same with Honored Ancestors, both the image of the family’s skulls all attached to one another and the idea of having to live like that, with all the memories of your ancestors and them all chiming in on what’s going on.  And Marionette Mansion found a way to make puppets even creepier, which is something I wasn’t sure was possible.

My favorite story in the book was Hanging Blimp.  It just hit the buttons of surreal and horrifying for me, definitely something I could see nightmares coming from.

I have mixed feelings about Fashion Model however.  It was creepy to me in the end, but so much of the initial setup seemed to boil down to “this woman is ugly and doesn’t fit into a fashion magazine--SPOOKY”.  Ultimately there are definitely very creepy/unsettling things about her but I’m so tired of “ugly” being a sign of evil and stuff, idk.  At least for me having Tomie in the same book kind of balanced that part out.

So overall, definitely enjoyed it.  Still have no idea what these ramblings are or will be in the future.  And that’s all for now.

This is a manga that I can totally understand the hype over.  I enjoyed it.  It made me laugh, it made me feel things, it made me want to hug the artist. Her struggles with depression were intensely relatable for me, and there were many quotes that resonated with me enough to write them down.  I can also sympathize a lot with the feeling of doing things and living life the way others (parents) want, rather than how you would really like to.

My experiences as an LGBT+ woman are very different from Nagata’s and I am grateful that she shared her life experiences with the world, especially something as personal as a first time sexual encounter (with an escort at that), and grateful that it has been translated so that English speakers can see from the perspective of another person in another culture.  The art is simple but incredibly cute, and I don’t really know what else to talk about other than gushing about how I enjoyed it.

I really feel autobiographical manga is a fantastic way to get new perspectives and information, and it sucks that it’s not a genre that gets attention from English language publishers.  I really can’t wait for the release of My Solo Exchange Diary later this year.  Nagata’s journey is one I would love to keep following.