Josei

Recently I’ve been reading a lot of josei. It is, of course, the demographic I’m ‘supposed’ to read, but they hardly make it easy to do so. As I understand it there’s much less recognition of josei even in Japan – there is no separate awards category as there is for shounen, shoujo and seinen. But that is compounded when it comes to English translations, whether commercial or amateur. I would love to be able to push some money Tsubana’s way by buying Mikake no Nijuusei; while the scanlators have given up half-way through Amakusa 1637, despite it being nearly a decade old, leaving me in the lurch. Is it because the manga audience is disproportionately male? I think not. As the shopkeeper in this article suggests, it seems girls are captivated by the visual world of manga, even when all they can get their hands on is the meagre selection of very commercialised shounen it’s possible to buy in most bookshops. Rather, the neglect of josei is more to do with the cultural attitudes of those who publish and scanlate stuff, which tends to be a fairly small, fairly male community.

Not that men can’t enjoy shoujo or josei, or that women can’t love shounen or seinen (which, incidentally, many of us seem to do anyway!), but I suspect they feel they shouldn’t, because these products have been gendered.

Anyway, this post is becoming too heavy. Away with the demons of seriousness!

I have already mentioned it once in this article, but I have loved every moment of Amakusa 1637. It has everything. Except good artwork (it’s a little old-fashioned and lacking detail). Plot-wise, it is simply astonishing – exploring ideas of fate, destiny, belief, messianic figures (and how those messianic figures feel), divine intervention, and so much more … The only thing that could ruin it is if there’s a great denouement at the end which dissipates all of the glorious ambiguity. We don’t know why Natsuki and the rest are in 1636, nor whether they are really changing history or simply realising it. Is Natsuki really simply a human any more? Her periods have stopped, she has become ever more charismatic and beautiful as either a man or woman, and her swordfighting abilities are beyond what they ever were. In earlier chapters she protested that she was no servant of God, sent there by divine providence; but clearly, no matter what the physical causes of the translocation, she has been sent there by some kind of fate, destiny or will of God – and as if this wasn’t clear enough, she keeps ‘accidentally’ forming miraculous signs. To a certain extent the power of belief figures heavily as a theme in Amakusa, so perhaps it is the power of belief and expectation which is transforming Natsuki: but in any case, she is transforming into the messianic figure they are waiting for. I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see whether the characters can actually improve history!

It has a great set of characters, too, with the right balance of likeable people, gitfaces who turn out to be good guys, and polite, respectful evil people. There’s a mechanically competent character, which gratifies me more than you can imagine, and of course there’s Eri, who serves the useful narrative purpose of knowing everything the others need to know – but she’s more than that, of course; I found her a character I could sympathise with very easily (as a fellow lesbian and history fan). I appreciate that there are plenty of ‘getting sent to the Sengoku’ manga around, but I don’t think many of them have the complexity and the intellectual credibility of Amakusa 1637 – a lot of them try hard to be sophisticated, but just end up a bit pretentious by saying far too much. The best place to read Amakusa is through Evil Flowers’ own e-reader.

Mikake no Nijuusei is a delightful lesson in economy, packing so much meaning and human drama into just six normal-sized chapters. It is thoughtful and elegant, a demonstration of true mastery of the form, as well as a highly original concept. You should read it. Even if you’re an 80-year-old man who’s never read a comic before. It is really edifying, if that’s the right word.

The comments I’ve often seen on Chronos Deep are simply unfair, disliking the protagonist for crying too much and being too ‘weak’. Well, I’m sorry, but we have to break this idea that showing strong emotion equals weakness. This boy has found his family dead, suddenly, and is conscious that it’s his fault; then he comes as near as dammit to killing all of his classmates too – frankly, it would be disturbing and ‘weak’ in the head to not feel strong emotion. The proof of the pudding is that he endures all of the trials of the story, and saves the world etc. etc., despite (or rather, because of) being more honest with his emotions than most male manga protagonists. So if you’re one of those people who thinks a strong hero never cries, watch Kokoro Connect, and you’ll soon see that people who try too hard to be ‘strong’ and ‘heroic’, like Taishi, have too much yang and snap under pressure.

There’s plenty of fun to be had in the world of josei, where the characters are deep and the stories dark and mysterious. If you feel up to something a bit more substantial than most manga, josei is a great place to look, no matter what your sex or gender. The more we read it, the more they’ll translate it, and the greater the likelihood they’ll get to the end of Amakusa 1637! So pleeeeeease, for my sake, READ IT! READ IT NOW!

Mwahahaha.