"Leng is a large island in the Jade Sea, off the southern coast of Essos. To the north is the city of Jinqi in Yi Ti. East of Leng are the Shadow Lands, while to the south are the Manticore Isles. The island of Marahai is to the southwest. Leng is ruled by god-empresses."
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Tanbi to Heroine - Literary classics adapted into shoujo manga
I want to talk about the book of my dreams: Mangaka! Sekai Bungaku - Tanbi to Heroine (マンガ化! 世界文学 耽美とヒロイン). It's a compilation of shoujo manga from the 1970s and 1980s which are adaptations of classics from world literature. Each manga has a little introduction about its artist, and the work it was adapted from. Thank you, our Tosho no Ie overlords.
It came out in 2022, and I'm so happy to own this book. After watching Aoi Bungaku and falling in love with what they did with Kokoro there, I've always wanted to see more anime/manga adaptations of literature. Seeing how authors/directors give the works their own interpretations while still staying faithful to the original work, and not trying to do a 1:1 adaptation can be great, as long as they don't jump the shark. Speaking of which, I even liked Gankutsuou despite the bizarre 3D space mecha fights because Edmond Dantès was still there. I can't get mad at it when the director gets the core of the work right.
Anyway, I want to present this awesome book and the manga collected in this volume!
Hagio Moto – Shiroi Tori ni Natta Shoujo (白い鳥になった少女)
Adapted from Andersen's The Girl Who Trod on A Loaf, and first published in Bessatsu Shoujo Comic 1972/12.
Hagio tells the story from the point of view of the girl who becomes a bird at the end of the tale, which is a very nice touch.
2. Mizuno Hideko – Cendrillon (サンドリヨン)
Adapted from Grimm Brothers' Cinderella, and first published in LaLa 1977/9 & 11.
With Mizuno's exquisite art, this Cinderella adaptation is the perfect fairy tale. On the first and last pages Hideko-tan breaks the fourth wall to give us information about the original work, and going "bruh, these are supposed to be tales for kids but some brutal stuff goes on in them. What's with all the mutilations and eye-gouging?!" It's adorable!
3. Maki Miyako – Hanakagerou (花陽炎)
Adapted from Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, and first published in Big Comic for Lady 1987/2.
This excerpt is taken from vol. 2 of Maki's Genji Monogatari adaptation, and depicts a scene that doesn't exist in the original work: Hikaru meeting Lady Fujitsubo for the first time. I must say that all that Genji Monogatari Japanese went over my head ;_;
4. Miuchi Suzue – Takekurabe (たけくらべ)
Adapted From Higuchi Ichiyou's Takekurabe, and first published in Hana to Yume 1977/1 & 2. This story is actually part of Miuchi's Glass Mask. In the manga, it was acted in the third act, “Kaze no Naka wo Iku.” Compiled in vol.s 3-4 Hana to Yume comics version, vol.s 2-3 of Hakusensha Bunko, and vol.s 3-4 of the digital ebook.
Conveying the subtleties of the character through the way Ayumi and Maya acts is quite ingenious. We get adaptation-ception with this one, and I loved it. It really made me want to read the book to get to know Midori better.
5. Sakata Keiko – Okisaki to Nemuri Hime (お妃と眠り姫)
Adapted from Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, and first published in Comic Tom 1989/1.
I haven't read Sakata's works, but she always strikes me as being the odd one in the shoujo scene. And this manga just strengthened my conviction. Her adaptation of Sleeping Beauty focuses on the ogre mother of the Prince, and her loneliness. Which is another ingenious way of going about adapting a fairy tale from a completely point of view. Her funny-looking art and humor adds to it.
6. Fumizuki Kyouko – Shiroki Mori no Chi ni (白き森の地に)
You get this color image I found online, because scanning this gorgeous double spread was impossible. And it's in grayscale in the book.
Adapted from Louis Hémon's Maria Chapdelaine, and first published in Bessatsu Shoujo Friend 1977/3.
I had no idea about this story, but wow, Hémon sure lived a life... This story that takes place in Canada feels really comforting. I'm surprised this didn't get an anime adaptation. Sure, it's not long enough for one, but it'd make a perfect comfort shoujo. "Comfort shoujo" as in people dying and the protagonist growing up after being hit by misery and having to make life-altering choices. I can see why this was popular in Japan.
Feast your eyes on this color Rapunzel illustration from the Yamagishi artbook I have.
Adapted from Grimm Brothers's Rapunzel, and first published in Bessatsu Shoujo Friend 1974/6.
Queen Yamagishi does not disappoint: We go full psychological and read about how parents ruin childrens' lives by projecting their shortcomings in life onto them, and their twisted sense of "love" can be worse than a sorceress's curse. Prince charming therapy time, baby!
8. Sato Shio – Bijo to Yajuu (美女と野獣)
Adapted from Madame de Beumont's Beauty and the Beast, and first published in Papermoon Shoujo Manga Fantasy Shoujo Manga – 1001 Nights (5.11.1980).
This short yet poignant adaptation really brings out the love in the story. She distilled the tale, and left what touches your heart the most in these 8 pages.
This work was also originally published in full color, and it's so gorgeous that I bought the book it was first published in. I hope to have it within the month.
So yeah, if you need to gift something to your old-shoujo loving friend, you now know what to get :)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
“How very arbitrary and irrational is the behavior of the god of Sumiyoshi. If the god so wants Genji to move to Akashi, then he should just come out and say so, instead of sending these storms and portents and jet streams, and in general subjecting him to the most horrid uncertainty.
“Yet a feeling of nearness to the dead and to the gods, whose chief requirement seems to be that one go to sleep from time to time, must have brought wonderful comfort to the troubled. Genji awakens from a dream of his father with feelings not of fear but of bliss, as of returning to childhood, and what he most wants is to go to sleep again (to approach the dead on their own terms). Might not the cheerful resignation that is among the more appealing of Japanese traits derive as much from Shinto (life with the gods) as from Buddhism?”
—Edward G. Seidensticker, Genji Days (entry for October 12, 1972)