From Ai Yazawa’s tale of first love and high school to Machiko Kyo’s heartbreaking historic fiction, your summer reading list has girlhood as its double feature
I’m No Angel by Ai Yazawa
Nobody writes about the messy, complicated woes of love that plague Cupid’s hapless victims like Ai Yazawa. Her magnum opus Nana remains unfinished but while her fans wait for her to finish that cult classic, her earlier work I’m No Angel has finally got an official English publication. After writing Marine Blue, Yazawa faced a conundrum – her stories did well, but she felt that they didn’t quite create that impact she was hoping for. Her editor pointed out that while the boys in her manga were always drawn attractive, the same could not be said of the girls. Since her manga was set to be serialized in Ribbon magazine whose primary demographic were elementary school girls, Yazawa decided to set her story in a school and shelved the idea for a story revolving around a band for her later work, Nana.
It’s a year of firsts for Midori Saejima. Her first year of high school, being part of the first batch of students at the newly minted Hijiri Academy and the first time she falls in love at first sight. The object of her affection? Akira Sudo, looking every part the textbook delinquent bad boy, complete with a pompadour and a motorbike. When they’re both elected to be on Hijiri Academy’s first Student Council, with Akira as President and Midori as Vice President, the latter is on cloud nine to be at such closer quarters with her crush. But it’s not all smooth sailing for Midori, between her duties for the Student Council, hiding her obvious crush, keeping up with schoolwork and navigating high school, the waters of Hijiri Academy are very choppy.
I’m No Angel takes you back to simpler times of old school Shōjo manga (considering its serialization was from 1991-1994) through Yazawa’s distinctly stylish yet grounded aesthetic.
Cocoon by Machiko Kyo
Under the warmth of the Okinawan sun, Mayu describes winter to San and what happens during a season San has never seen – how the cold makes your breath appear like a trail of silk, wrapping around you like a cocoon. “I tried imagining it. Our voices becoming threads, forming a cocoon…” San narrates. This cocoon is delicately spun over and over throughout the story; layers and layers so thick that the terrible reality should not be able to break through.
Cocoon is a work of historical fiction, set during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. At that time, high school girls were stationed on the front lines as a nursing unit called the Himeyuri Corps, witnessing with eyes far too young the horrors of war. Ill-equipped with next to little knowledge of medical procedures, San and her friends tend to the wounded soldiers performing amputations, undertaking dangerous supply runs all at the cost of their own lives. Mayu tells San not to worry, a magic spell is going to make sure their cocoons will not break. When their unit is disbanded, San and her friends need to make their way home through the battlefield where getting hit with stray bullets or being burned alive are the least threatening concerns.
The illustrations are simple, fine lines, childlike expressions juxtaposed with the gruesome aftermath, flowers as bright and red as the blood spilled on the ground, in watercolor. All the male characters (soldiers, in this case) are drawn in blobs of white as a result of San’s refusal to acknowledge the existence of what can hurt her. San’s story is not just fiction but a true reflection of the ugliness and barbarity of war.