Volumes: 5/5 (Complete), In Print
Everyone
Genre: Memoir, Creating Manga, Art School
Summary: The well known mangaka of Princess Jellyfish, Akiko Higashimura, recounts her journey from a young full-of-herself artist in high school, to her beginning days at Sensei’s classroom honing her skills trying to get into Art School, then Art School, and then finally her long awaited manga debut. And then her early career from her first manga serialization to other one shot works. All this is written as a sort of letter to her Sensei, who became an important mentor and also a sort of a father figure in her life.
Review: It’s a mixture of a brutal honesty towards her younger, arrogant and somewhat selfish self as she reflects back on her youth, but also strangely inspirational as well. As the story progresses, she believes less and less in the benefits of having talent, and more in hard work, knowledge and self-discipline.
Her art teacher, addressed as Sensei in the manga, is quite a character. He looks like a Yakuza, has a mean face, and smacks his students with a bamboo sword and demands they redraw statue busts in charcoal, until he’s satisfied it’s their best work. But he also deeply cares about his students, and tries to ensure their success in any way he can. At one point in the story, he even helps her past a nervous breakdown when she can’t start her paintings for art school. Dropping everything and driving more than an hour in blistering heat without a car, on a moped, just to help her past her mental block. (If this sounds like a major spoiler, it isn't there's a ton of stories and this is just one of many)
She also talks about many many other things in her life- from trying to deal with pressure (or failing), her thoughts on looking for inspiration, drawing upon life experiences, her love of a monthly manga magazine, Bouquet, her favorite manga creators who inspired her, and so on. As well her friends, family and her college boyfriend.
Recommended: All in all, this is highly recommended. Of course it is probably of most interest to either fans of Princess Jellyfish, or those wondering what art school in Japan is like, or those who are interested in what goes into creating manga and how her career got started.
But it also works very well as a memoir and a bittersweet true story about the mentor-student relationship between her and Sensei on its own merits.
I would also give this to any aspiring high school artists who think they can get by on just talent and smack some sense into them, the way Sensei smacked sense into her*. Also, there is nothing objectionable for younger readers in here. (* figuratively speaking, please don't actually smack them)
Age Rating: PG: some nude models in art class
Other works by this mangaka in English (from Most to Least popular): Princess Jellyfish, Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Stories from 3.11 (1 story in an Anthology)
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