Much as I like ongoing manga stories, I’ve always liked the short story form in both prose and comics. SOS (Viz) collects short shôjo stories by Hinako Ashihara, who makes great, varied use of the more contained structure. There’s real variety to the three tales here, but they’re connected by a strong observance of emotional nuance.
In the lead story, good-natured high school student Yû is close to the end of her romantic rope. All of her crushes seem to end with Yû setting the boy up with another girl. It leaves her with a large circle of grateful friends, but she’s frustrated with her role as everybody’s matchmaker. Handsome classmate Raku clues her in to the secret dating service he runs with pretty, chilly Nono, and Yû thinks her problems are solved. But Raku is approaching her as a potential co-worker, not a client.
Not surprisingly, Yû takes her work very seriously and becomes emotionally invested with the plights of her customers. Ashihara mixes things up nicely in a relatively short span of pages, blending comedy, romance, and some surprisingly dark undertones. She has a deft hand for balancing the different tones, though, and they all support the theme of interpersonal connection. Grant Morrison has described his current string of Vertigo mini-series (Seaguy, We3, and Vimanarama) as super-compressed. Think of this as super-compressed shôjo: it could easily have played out over a stack of digests, but Ashihara has contained it in a satisfying shorter form. She makes the most of a nifty premise while creating an appealing cast of distinct characters.
“That Sweet Organ Song” is probably my favorite of the trio of stories. It’s a bittersweet period story of romance, loss, and the unexpected ways that love can bloom and endure. Set in Kobe in the 1920s, it features shop girl Setsu and rich boy Shotaro. They meet cute when Shotaro puts one of Setsu’s terrible poems to music. The pair connects through their out-of-step dreams: Setsu wants to transcend her circumstances and become a teacher, and Shotaro wants to escape his family’s expectations to become a composer. Mutual support turns into romance, and a variety of cultural obstacles pop up in their path. To say any more would give away the touching, sad surprises that make this story special. Suffice to say that Ashihara shows a fine grasp of tone, using it to ultimately uplifting effect.
“The Easy Life” traces troubled times in a high-school romance between overly agreeable Mami and her thoughtless boyfriend Yohei. Spoiled-but-charming Yohei routinely takes Mami for granted to the point where she can’t ignore it any longer. She’s believably torn between maintaining the status quo (Yohei’s selfish, but he isn’t all bad) and protecting her self-respect. It’s a low-key, introspective story of people deciding what they want, what they’ll give up to get it, and what it says about them that they want it in the first place. It’s refreshingly free of screwball-comedy scheming, focusing instead on conflicting emotions. It’s got a nicely ambiguous ending, too.
Ashihara’s art serves the stories well. It isn’t exceptional for shôjo, but it’s nicely expressive. She’s got a good facility for character design, using it to highlight the distinctly emotional natures of her cast members. Varied backgrounds and camera angles help convey heightened feelings, too.
SOS is a nice introduction to Ashihara’s work, and it puts her on my list of manga-ka to watch. The short story form allows her to demonstrate an impressive range of tones and a real facility for character-driven writing. The book makes me eager for more short-form manga and for more offerings from this particular creator.
(This review is based on a preview copy provided by Viz. SOS is set for release in March.)