Kaku Hito E - Oneshot
- Thread starter MangaDex
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Fed-Kun's army
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yes, i know you, old familiar pain...
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the thing i find most remarkable about this oneshot is the way kouno-sensei plays with the medium to convey her thoughts. we are presented with what would normally be interpreted as a person writing a fictional character, but by keeping the character stylized and making the sketch realistic, what we instead receive is the opposite: a fictional character writing a real person. it is a clever and a little bit fun way to play with the audience's perception.
when we read the middle schooler's hand-drawn story, the narrative becomes autobiographical; on the rough, lined pages of a notebook, the author muses about her past and her difficult relationship with being a professional artist. in the end, her purpose (her drive as an artist) is handed down to her by her own creation. on the pages, the author wakes refreshed as if she had a dream, and in the "real life" of the story, the character feels inspired to turn a circumstance of bullying into something optimistic.
as of today, kouno fumiyo is 56 years old. she has been drawing manga professionally for, as the oneshot's summary states, 30 years. she has had a full life's worth of experiences to draw from, but when she sat down and searched herself for her raison d'etre, she found loneliness-- loneliness which has followed her since her earliest days, with which she is intimately familiar, and through which she can connect with others.
the conclusion she drew at the end of this self-reflection feels profound without feeling pretentious. art, and the stories she tells, are the vehicle through which she can reach others. the difficulties she's familiar with can become the strength of others. this understanding, implicit or explicit, has powered her through the times when she's constantly worried, and the times when she wants to give up and run away. or at least, in the 12 pages of this short story, that's what i'm picking up.
as a reader, i love love love more than anything the ways the mechanical structure of a story can make an audience engage with a narrative, so this oneshot really stood out to me despite its short length. this is the first story i've ever read from kouno-sensei (i happened to stumble across it on the day it was released), and from this alone i got the sense that she is an experienced storyteller. however, i can only praise is what i've seen with my own eyes. i'm looking forward to finding more of kouno-sensei's work in the future.
when we read the middle schooler's hand-drawn story, the narrative becomes autobiographical; on the rough, lined pages of a notebook, the author muses about her past and her difficult relationship with being a professional artist. in the end, her purpose (her drive as an artist) is handed down to her by her own creation. on the pages, the author wakes refreshed as if she had a dream, and in the "real life" of the story, the character feels inspired to turn a circumstance of bullying into something optimistic.
as of today, kouno fumiyo is 56 years old. she has been drawing manga professionally for, as the oneshot's summary states, 30 years. she has had a full life's worth of experiences to draw from, but when she sat down and searched herself for her raison d'etre, she found loneliness-- loneliness which has followed her since her earliest days, with which she is intimately familiar, and through which she can connect with others.
the conclusion she drew at the end of this self-reflection feels profound without feeling pretentious. art, and the stories she tells, are the vehicle through which she can reach others. the difficulties she's familiar with can become the strength of others. this understanding, implicit or explicit, has powered her through the times when she's constantly worried, and the times when she wants to give up and run away. or at least, in the 12 pages of this short story, that's what i'm picking up.
as a reader, i love love love more than anything the ways the mechanical structure of a story can make an audience engage with a narrative, so this oneshot really stood out to me despite its short length. this is the first story i've ever read from kouno-sensei (i happened to stumble across it on the day it was released), and from this alone i got the sense that she is an experienced storyteller. however, i can only praise is what i've seen with my own eyes. i'm looking forward to finding more of kouno-sensei's work in the future.
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