Status Updates From A Drunken Dream & Other Sto...

I enjoyed reading the interview with Moto Hagio at the end! She seems like a very interesting person. And I learned about many other cartoonists (/漫画家) that I need to check out! This has been such a wonderful read! I can’t wait to delve more into her work!

“The Willow Tree” (柳の木) was great! I love how most of the story is told silently through the art. The “willlow tree” silently watches through the seasons and the years as her son grows up and we too watch over him with her. And I love the fact that it was a willow tree, I really like their shape (it looks sad).

“The Child Who Comes Home” (帰って来る子) was sad but also filled with heartfelt moments, I enjoyed reading it.

“Iguana Girl” (イグアナの娘) was brilliant! The complicated mother-daughter (and sisters) relationship was so good. I loved the iguana allegory and the fairytale elements, it’s just wonderful!

“Angel Mimic” (天使の擬態) was good (minus the creepy romance choice). The area is superb!

“Hanshin: Half-God” (半神) was so good! I would read a whole story about them! Their complicated relationship (more like Yudy’s complicated relationship with her sister Yucy) and the art is just wonderful!

I did not expect a tragedy across time and space but I’m delighted! “A Drunken Dream” (酔夢) was very interesting! I would read a full-length story with that concept. “Time sees this same dream. It sees the same dream, again and again. This dream shall never fade. Time goes on weeping…drunken, singing, as it sinks down, to the depths of the dream.” such a cool idea!

I liked “Marié, Ten Years Later” (十年目のマリエ) it is not my favorite per se but I loved how atmospheric it was.

“Autumn Journey” (秋の旅) was my least favorite so far.

“Girl on Porch with Puppy” (ポーチで少女が子犬と) was surprisingly sinister and the message it conveys is nice. “Grown-ups are strange! How can they live without thinking about such fun things?”. I can’t wait to read another one (at this rate Moro Hagio will become one of my favorite (漫画家/mangakas or) storytellers!

I just read Bianca (ビアンカ) which is my first Moto Hagio (short) story ever and I’m floored. It feels so whimsical yet so profound and the art is just wonderful! “I saw what she did in the forest. If I were the forest I wouldn’t want to let her go.” Is an insane line. I cannot wait to read more!