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Yoshinaga Fumi: Kodomo no taion
Yoshinaga Fumi has this odd ability to write good manga with happy endings which make me depressed. Take the story, Kodomo no taion. A 13-year-old boy comes to his father and tells him he might have made a girl pregnant. The father takes the girl to a gynecologist. The whole story is simple but illustrates family love and the hardships of puberty very well, and even ends happily. And I'm depressed after reading it! What's that about?
Maybe the feeling I experience isn't actually "depressed", but more like "setsunai". Which is, um, difficult for me to convey. Dictionaries will give you translations such as "painful" or "trying", but it's not actually a pain ... erm. Although I wasn't pregnant at 13, I do know painfully well both the love/hate you have for your parents in that age, and the feelings of an adult as he loves someone he knows he'll never understand. (If that makes sense.) This remembered pain sinks in slowly and lasts (for me) quite a while after I have finished a Yoshinaga book, and then, equally slowly, the joy of these humans emotions sink in.
God, that was difficult. I do like Yoshinaga, if that wasn't obvious. She's just a difficult author for me to read. Which isn't a bad thing in this case.
Category: Shojo/ladies | Posted by Alicia at October 1, 2004 11:54 AM