Nishi Keiko, Hagio Moto, and Sato Shio - Four Shojo Stories (Eng. trans.)
This is one of Viz's very first forays into the world of shoujo manga. I suspect Matt Thorn, the translator and shoujo manga scholar extraordinaire, picked the stories that would be included.
The four shoujo stories consist of Nishi Keiko's "Promise" and "Since You've Been Gone," Hagio Moto's "They Were Eleven," and Sato Shio's "The Changeling."
I was rather disappointed by the Hagio, given that she's a near-legendary shoujo mangaka, but I suspect her better work is in her longer series, like The Heart of Thomas. "They Were Eleven" is an SF novella in which Galactic test-takers are aboard a ship, in which there is an unknown eleventh member. There's some interesting bits on gender, but all in all, it was rather predictable, with too many info-dumps for me. Also, it took me a while to get used to the very early seventies art (stiff figures, large sparkly eyes, giant curly hair).
I had similar problems with the Sato, though the art there was more early eighties (I think). There were too many info-dumps as well, and having read a lot of SF, the surprise twist wasn't very surprising at all to me. There were some poignant bits regarding Sephiloth and his relationship with his ward, and for some reason, I kept thinking that it'd be a take on The Tempest.
Nishi's stories though... I ran out and bought her short story collection Love Song based on the strength of her stories.
The art is still a little dated, but it's wonderfully sparse and evocative. I can't quite say exactly why they caught me as much as they did. "The Promise" is on a girl trying to deal with her mother's new boyfriend, with the help of a mysterious friend, and "Since You've Been Gone" is on an adulterous husband and his wife during an earthquake. Neither of the stories are particularly surprising or go to unexpected places, but there's a certain wistfulness to both that struck me, and that, combined with the quality of the art, really made me fall in love.
I think I liked them because they were so unlike the Hagio and the Sato; Nishi's stories are very realistic, very small in scope. There aren't any grand worlds or twists, just people and their emotions. All the realizations are such small ones, and yet, so large.
Also, I am very glad I found Nishi via this book, particularly because I can hoot even more about finding this at cover price in a small corner of a small comic book store, since it's woefully out of print.
The four shoujo stories consist of Nishi Keiko's "Promise" and "Since You've Been Gone," Hagio Moto's "They Were Eleven," and Sato Shio's "The Changeling."
I was rather disappointed by the Hagio, given that she's a near-legendary shoujo mangaka, but I suspect her better work is in her longer series, like The Heart of Thomas. "They Were Eleven" is an SF novella in which Galactic test-takers are aboard a ship, in which there is an unknown eleventh member. There's some interesting bits on gender, but all in all, it was rather predictable, with too many info-dumps for me. Also, it took me a while to get used to the very early seventies art (stiff figures, large sparkly eyes, giant curly hair).
I had similar problems with the Sato, though the art there was more early eighties (I think). There were too many info-dumps as well, and having read a lot of SF, the surprise twist wasn't very surprising at all to me. There were some poignant bits regarding Sephiloth and his relationship with his ward, and for some reason, I kept thinking that it'd be a take on The Tempest.
Nishi's stories though... I ran out and bought her short story collection Love Song based on the strength of her stories.
The art is still a little dated, but it's wonderfully sparse and evocative. I can't quite say exactly why they caught me as much as they did. "The Promise" is on a girl trying to deal with her mother's new boyfriend, with the help of a mysterious friend, and "Since You've Been Gone" is on an adulterous husband and his wife during an earthquake. Neither of the stories are particularly surprising or go to unexpected places, but there's a certain wistfulness to both that struck me, and that, combined with the quality of the art, really made me fall in love.
I think I liked them because they were so unlike the Hagio and the Sato; Nishi's stories are very realistic, very small in scope. There aren't any grand worlds or twists, just people and their emotions. All the realizations are such small ones, and yet, so large.
Also, I am very glad I found Nishi via this book, particularly because I can hoot even more about finding this at cover price in a small corner of a small comic book store, since it's woefully out of print.