Tag Archives: fumi yoshinaga

Review: All My Darling Daughters

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Let’s face it – every single person reading this review right now has seen a sitcom. These shows are a pervasive part of TV culture in the United States, and the reason that they do well is because they are very easy to relate to. But sitcoms come and go. There are only a few names that stick out when I think about sticoms, because the shows are a dime a dozen. Sitcom pitches happen each season, and only a few manage to make it. The reason for this is that it takes a special type of writer to understand what makes a sitcom tick. There have to be plenty of zingy one-liners, sure. But what makes a sitcom a powerful show as opposed to a string of laugh tracks is its human interactions and family dynamics.

I would like to say that the reason why All My Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga is so wonderful is due to its strength in these areas. It does have zing, it does have great interactions and family dynamics. But unlike most sitcoms, it has a depth and persuasive tone that cannot be expressed by any “awwww” soundbite.

All My Darling Daughters is a collection of five separate, yet connected stories. The center of the web is Yukiko, a headstrong business woman in her late 20s who lives with her mother, Mari. When her mother announces that she is getting married to an aspiring actor younger than Yukiko she met at a host club, Yukiko goes ballistic. She has never had to fight for her mother’s attention before, and now, this interference separates her and makes her feel alone. The two fight. Any reader could expect there to be a reconciliation, and there is, but it is certainly a Yoshinaga one; a wordless panel, daughter sobbing, slouched, her mother protecting, loving, caring, leaning on her daughter’s back.

The strength of this collection does not waver in the second story, although it is quite a bit more sordid than the first tale. I have seen other reviewers say that this was a weak part of the book, but I disagree. Although the story definitely wouldn’t make daytime television, it crafted a relationship so bizarre and twisted that the, should I say, heartwarming ending was a real surprise.

The powers of All My Darling Daughters reach their crescendo in the third act, which has two halves. The story of a girl looking into arranged marriage is not a usual sort of fiction we generally get from manga, but Yoshinaga is adept at developing relationships, and gives us an interesting look into the world of arranged marriage in Japan. It is a testament to her skills as a writer that she is able to do so much in so little time. She gives two people a scant 11 pages, and you can feel a sense of tension and hopefulness that ultimately is betrayed by one of the most poignant and true-to-life statements I think I have ever read in a comic book.

The other stories in this collection backtrack to our Yukiko’s past, detailing the lives of two of her friends in school, and her relationship with her grandmother. Each story is thoughtful, well developed, and a joy to read, but neither reaches the level of the third act.

Viz Media has given All My Darling Daughters an excellent release. The Signature line, with its colored page inserts and larger page size, is an excellent format for the book. More importantly, stories like those found in All My Darling Daughters are not necessarily money-makers, and I am glad to see Viz take a chance with it.

As a collection, I would have been pleased with any one of the five stories presented in All My Darling Daughters. Together, they have made All My Darling Daughters one of the better short story collections I’ve seen published in the United States. The book has the best of what makes sitcom television entertaining, with a healthy dash of strong women, developing characters, and uncommon settings for good measure. And, unlike any sitcom, there are no laugh tracks here. There are no “awwws,” no measured pieces of comedy or forced gags. Just intelligent, well illustrated storytelling. All My Darling Daughters was a true pleasure to read, and reinforces my belief that Fumi Yoshinaga is one of the best living comics writers of our time.

Talking Points: Why Do You Like Fumi Yoshinaga?

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I recently decided to go ahead and purchase Fumi Yoshinaga’s All My Darling Daughters.  A review will be forthcoming once the backlog I’ve already written get published (I like the once weekly schedule, so we’re looking into the middle of February already). Once I finished the first chapter, I was amazed by the quality of the character writing. This book mixes up family and interpersonal psychology with some really powerful storytelling.

Yoshinaga was a tough nut for me to crack. The first few times I read her stories, I wondered why I liked them so much. The first volume of Ooku was especially telling, since I hated (and still do hate), the Fakespeare translation that the book has been saddled with, but I couldn’t put the books down. I have not been on the Yoshinaga train for all that long, but for a time I was puzzled by how much her work resonated with me.

After reading All My Darling Daughters, I decided to take things public and ask everyone. What is it that you like most about Fumi Yoshinaga?

For me, it comes down to characters. Only Mitsuru Adachi can come close to Yoshinaga’s ability to construct characters, and even he falls short in places. Yoshinaga has an irreplaceable spark for developing complex, interesting, and sometimes broken characters that readers can identify with or cheer for. In the first chapter of All My Darling Daughters, even the supposed antagonist, Ohashi, turns out to be a really wonderful character. The main character, Yukiko, although prickly and demanding, is both a great stand-in for readers and a well written woman.

I could go on all day about the characters of All My Darling Daughters, the subtlety of their construction and development, but these people that Yoshinaga creates are what make her manga such a wonderful experience for me.

What makes Yoshinaga a good read for you?

Review: Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy

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When it comes to Fumi Yoshinaga, I’m fairly used to excellent manga. You could make a convincing argument that Ooku: the Hidden Chambers is one of the best titles, if not the best title in Viz Media’s Sig IKKI line (I might argue that Children of the Sea is better, but I digress). Likewise All My Darling Daughters and Antique Bakery offer a lot of great stories from one of the best mangaka currently in print in English.

Yoshinaga is also one of the few writers that is licensed by multiple publishers here in the US. Digital Manga Publishing was the first to pick up her work, while Viz followed shortly behind. Even TokyoPop is in on the game, having published some of her BL work in their Blu Line. Now, Yen Press has joined the crowd to bring us a one-shot volume of foodie manga titled Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy.

Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy is part autobiography, part restaurant review.The main character, Y-naga (yes, really) is a mangaka who draws BL comics, and spends almost all the time she isn’t sleeping or working out eating food with friends. Her fellow mangaka, foodie friends, assistants, and previous roommates all meet at nice restaurants and eat while Y-naga expounds on the virtues of young gizzard shad or shira-yaki.

One of the things I found most interesting about Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy was that it functions as a restaurant guide. It gives you practical advice about places to eat in Tokyo, and tells you what to expect when you eat there. The afterwards to each chapter give you a little map to help you find the restaurant, along with directions, parking availability, and operating hours. Yoshinaga also gives advice about portions, select foods to eat, and whether or not the restaurant takes reservations.

While this book might be a helpful English guide to cuisine in Tokyo, that portion of the book is almost useless to the non-traveling manga reader. Still, that portion of this book is definitely a nice showcase for Yoshinaga’s ability to illustrate food, although at some places, that ability seems varied. Her depictions of foods in chapters #9 and #12 are very well illustrated, but the sushi in chapter #4 is a bit lacking. This is fairly nit-picky, but important in a food-based manga.

On Twitter, a few manga reviewers said that they didn’t care at all about the food portion of the manga, and focused solely on the character interactions. For readers not interested in foods, this is where any enjoyment, and perhaps the sole enjoyment, of Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy comes from. Yoshinaga, as always, is adept at portraying characters that interact in a way that seems natural and polished without meaning to. It was very easy to move through this manga, even when people were spouting off about the true wonder of the food they were enjoying.

I do have issues with Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy. First, I am not at all pleased by the way Y-naga and other characters talk about food. Almost every character in Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy has moments when they fill an entire panel full of food text. This happens a bit in Oishinbo, another foodie manga, but in this case, Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy has taken the act of the monologue to a new extreme.

Another thing I noticed is that it feels as if Yoshinaga wants to talk about her favorite foods, has written a manga to detail them, but she doesn’t want to feel like she’s teaching students or talking down to people. She spends the rest of her time drawing herself as an ugly, frumpy cartoonist or writes insults into her friends dialogue. This is… bizarrely psychological, and not necessarily pleasant.

Stepping away from the content for bit, Yen Press has shown that it has what it takes to deliver high-quality comics. Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy is excellently produced, and has high ink and paper quality. The color insert at the front of the book was a nice touch which I enjoyed.

Overall, I think that Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy is a fine showcase of Yoshinaga’s ability to write and create good manga, but because of the narrow way that its subject matter is presented, I can’t give this book two thumbs up. If you are looking for a comic that can show you a few good places to eat in Tokyo, then Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy is a must-have. For everyone else, this book delivers a brief look into the world of Fumi Yoshinaga, and her food escapades, but doesn’t deliver excellence.

This review is based on a copy of the book provided by the publisher.

Can Food Manga Work?: Lessons From Not Love But Delicious Foods and Oishinbo

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I do not know if I have ever publicly expressed this, but here goes: I absolutely adore Fumi Yoshinaga.

When I originally signed up with Manga Village to write reviews, I set in on Antique Bakery because I wanted a big project and a good review to come out of it. Originally, I did not know what to think about the books, but I grew to love them (I still haven’t composed a review of the books that I feel inclined to publish, but I’m working on it constantly). I have also come to enjoy other Yoshinaga work, including the “Fakespeare” of Viz Media’s translation of Ooku: the Inner Chambers. Yoshinaga has a talent that is nearly unmatched in the manga world, and her name is mentioned with reverence among the manga community. A few other manga bloggers, Daniella at All About Manga and Lissa at Kuriosity, have agreed with me in thinking that there’s a sort of “I buy anything Yoshinaga” fan club, which makes her writing especially attractive for publishers.

One of Yoshinaga’s recent releases here in the US is the gorgeously produced Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy from Yen Press. The book essentially details Yoshinaga’s social calendar, and displays good places to eat around Tokyo while stressing her love of food and friends. The interesting thing about Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy (NLBDF from here on out) is its focus on food. We’ve seen food manga before, but NLBDF is quite a bit different because, unlike other food manga introduced to readers in the US, the stories in NLBDF are not trying to necessarily teach you something about food or make food into a giant competition. You see this more in Yoshinaga’s previous work as well. Antique Bakery, the series that  made her name here in the US, discusses food quite a bit, but this one-shot volume is more focused on Tokyo cuisine than on pastries and cakes. The result is that NLBDF has a somewhat different feel than that of Antique Bakery.

My point in all of this is to highlight another Yoshinaga series, Kinou Nani Tabeta? (What Did You Eat Yesterday?) which is both a foodie manga like NLBDF and a license request from yours truly. The book has a few issues that I would like to bring to the forefront of this discussion, because I think that specialty manga have a few issues, especially when it comes to translations of manga about culturally specific content. The problem with Kinou Nani Tabeta? may in fact be that its focus is on cooking and preparing food, without taking the chance to explain what is going on. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it turns out to be fairly important. Let me use another foodie manga, Oishinbo, as an example.

Oishinbo is a foodie manga that’s been in print for longer than I’ve been alive. It uses a basic conflict between father and son as a way to deliver food-themed stories week after week. Importantly, Oishinbo attempts to explain the foods it talks about, in one way or another. It teaches cooking methods, gives information about ingredients, and takes political stances all based on food. It keeps things relatively simple.

To help out even more, Viz Media licensed the Oishinbo a la Carte volumes instead of the entire 104-tankoban series. Oishinbo a la Carte comes in different flavors, such as “Japanese Cuisine” or “Vegetables” instead of volume numbers. These feature-focused selections help non-Japanese readers understand their content, because the content is lumped into specific categories. To help even further with these stories, Viz Media gave Oishinbo extensive translation notes to help explain what is going on in the stories. This sort of information is especially helpful, and a must-have for stories with a high amount of cultural content. This is of note for a manga like Kinou Nani Tabeta? because the series does not focus on teaching about food, but rather the experience of buying and preparing it for meals.

Oishinbo can be a little easier to understand because it only breaches one topic at a time, even if that topic is a variation on a similar theme. If a series like Kinou Nani Tabeta? is going to work in the US, the methods used by Viz Media in its Oishinbo releases need to be the standard by which other specialty manga are published.

Since this is a license request, I would feel remiss if I did not give all my wonderful readers a plot synopsis. Kinou Nani Tabeta? is a manga about two gay men that live together, the way they manage their food budget, what they eat for dinner, and how the two both deal with the stresses of life. As you all should be fairly aware by now, my love of slice-of-life stories has no end, and this Yoshinaga work is essentially scratching that itch.  Both characters are middle-aged, which makes Kinou Nani Tabeta? peculiar in that its main characters are not the stereotypical characters you see in a manga. The series doesn’t necessarily focus on the sexual part of their relationship, either, but rather their emotional interactions and every day bickering and conversation. It’s a comic that really bucks convention, and I think that it is a good candidate for publication here in the USA.

One must ask, however: does the complexity of Kinou Nani Tabeta? keep it from being publishable? My opinion is no, but I have reservations about the content. There is obviously a market for Fumi Yoshinaga and her writing, and there is a market for food based manga (otherwise NLBDF would not have been published, right?). That being said, special care must be taken to explain the differences between foods, their meaning in the context of meals, and their preparation, even when it’s little things like the difference between types of seaweed like wakame and nori. If publishers are going to take the risk to publish  specialized content that is culturally-oriented, they must do so in a way that helps the reader find meaning behind foreign words yet doesn’t insult their intelligence. It is a tricky line to walk, but ultimately will separate the wheat from the chaff of manga publications.

Oishinbo is one of my favorite series in print, and for good reason. The series is smart, thoughtful, and presented in a way that is neither too dumbed down nor too cryptic to understand. If a series like Kinou Nani Tabeta? is to be published in the USA, these same standards need to be put in place to ensure a beautiful, readable comic.

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(Thanks to Matt Blind, David Welsh, Sean Gaffney, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber, and Lissa Pattillo for answering questions and talking with me as I figured out what I wanted to say in this post)