The Village of the Poes (Page 34)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith:
Anyhow, I can go home alive.
Baron Portsnell:
Ha ha…you took my son's word seriously? You are very credulous.
//Panel 2//
Glen Smith:
Is this jasmine?
Lady Portsnell:
Rose, sir.
Baron Portsnell:
…We live
//Panel 3//
Baron Portsnell:
in a peculiar…old-fashioned way.
Glen Smith's Narration:
It surely was old-fashioned. But Edgar's alleged adoptive parents whom I met that morning, Baron Portsnell and his wife…
//Panel 4//
Glen Smith's Narration
…were composed and spoke in pleasant tones…
SFX:
STARTLE
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith's Narration:
The color of the youth's eyes had not changed but his attitude was much softer.
//Panel 7//
Lady Portsnell:
Marybel!

The Village of the Poes (Page 33)

///Panel 1//
Glen Smith:
…Good morning; are you…Marybel?
Marybel:
Yes, milord from outside.
//Panel 2//
Glen Smith:
The same Marybel that I shot yesterday in the forest? Are you already…?
Marybel:
Yes, though I am not completely well yet.
//Panel 4//
Marybel:
Excuse me?
Glen Smith:
Pardon, eh…just…
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith's Narration:
Out of disbelief I touched her…on her neck was the gun wound, almost healed…
//Panel 6//
Glen Smith's Narration:
It is true she is recovering. Some unusual physical constitution, I guess, as the servant said. The next day everything was better.

Terve, Bom Dia, What's Up?

Hi. As I'd mentioned in a reply to someone's comment, I'm amazed to see interest in Moto Hagio from many unexpected places. Finland, Israel, Brazil, Portugal, India, etc., etc....Maybe this is because I'm American and have no expectation that most interesting Japanese literature is ever going to be translated (at least officially) into English. Also, being able to read and translate Japanese myself, I'm pretty ignorant of what goes on on the web in terms of scanlation activity and those sort of fan sites. If I really want to read something, I just have to crack open my dictionary and take a shot at it!

But as I'd mentioned in my comment, perhaps Moto Hagio's work is much more available in translation outside the U.S./English language market? I would be really curious to know. In any case, whether she's been translated into your language or not, it would be fascinating to hear how people have come to know about Moto Hagio, whose most well-known work goes back 30 years. What was the first thing of hers you read? What do you like best, or wish you could find translated into your language?

I'm not doing a marketing survey :-) I'm just appreciative of the varied fan base she seems to enjoy.

The Village of the Poes (Page 32)

//Panel 3//
Glen Smith:
Ahhhh
SFX:
SWING
//Panel 6//
Glen Smith:
…Marybel!?

The Village of the Poes (Page 31)

//Panel 1//
Old woman:
The sun sets now. Please return to the mansion. You won't find your way out of this village by yourself.
//Panel 2//
Glen Smith's Narration:
The Village of…the Poes…
//Panel 3//
Servant:
…Here, your meal is served. Yes, Miss Marybel is no longer critical.
//Panel 4//
Glen Smith:
Not critical!
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith:
Oh, with that injury, I was rather sure she wouldn't make it.
How is she…conscious?
//Panel 6//
Servant:
Baron and Lady are attending to her very closely now, but it looks like everything should be better tomorrow.
//Panel 7//
Glen Smith's Narration:
My dinner was just soup; no bread or wine. But I was relieved nonetheless…

Hagio's Interview "Hatachi — 20 Years Old"

In my earlier post I quoted a few paragraphs from an interview Hagio gave over 10 years ago, entitled "Hatachi." Hatachi means "20 years old," the age you reach legal adulthood in Japan.

This interview was included in a college project, "Hatachi," which is part of a course called Cyber University taught by a famous Japanese journalist/critic, Takashi Tachibana at the University of Tokyo. This project aims at collecting interviews with people talking about the time when they turned 20 years old. For Hagio, the year she turned 20 contained some pivotal events in her life.

Therefore I thought this interview may be of interest to many Hagio fans and decided to translate the whole document.

This interview with Moto Hagio was conducted on September 30, 1996, at Ikebukuro Metropolitan Hotel.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Situation

I was in Fukuoka at that time. I made my debut around the time I graduated from design school. A debut for a cartoonist means to have your work published in a magazine for the first time and get paid for it. I began submitting my work from the time I was in high school, and I got accepted at around my tenth submission. Since it had been a dream to become a cartoonist, I was so happy when I made my debut. I had lots of stories I wanted to draw. My parents had been against my career choice, but they seemed to give up after I started to get paid.

Pen Name

"Moto Hagio" is my real name. It sounded like a boy's name, so I was thinking of coming up with a pen name when I was making submissions, but I couldn't think of any. As for the origin of my name Moto, whenever I ask my father, he gives a different answer each time. For example, there was a virtuoso called Omoto-san among some Kyushu-based poets and I was named after him, or—do you know "Hamabe no Uta"? The lyric of the song goes: "Yuube Hamabe wo Moto Oreba" and that's where it came from—just like that, on a whim. And there is one [version] where it was "Mo" and "To" from Mozart[o], combined. My father played violin as a hobby, and my older sister is Sayo [little night] or serenade [jp.: night little music, ie: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik]. And my younger sister is Wakako [harmony song child], and my younger brother is named Genichiro [string first boy]. So I guess the 'Mozart' version may be the truth.

Childhood

Reading manga was banned. My parents were education-obsessed papa and mama, and they would say, perhaps just as rhetoric, that you have to get a perfect score on every test, that you cannot read anything but textbooks…just like that. That's the generation, the most faithful to Diplomaism [Note 1] from the postwar era of spectacular economic growth. But I completely dropped out from the competitive society during middle school. I escaped into the world of manga.

[Note 1] a set of beliefs that getting the right diploma ensures happiness in life, and which places high stakes in getting into the top schools at any cost.

Ever since I was little I liked stories and pictures. Even in kindergarten I drew pictures at every available opportunity. After entering elementary school I frequented the library to read books. Greek mythology and collections of world masterpieces. SciFi series for children also started to become available. If my mother found out I was reading such materials, she would scold me, so [I read them] only at school, in secret. Formally, I needed to get permission—"May I read this?"—from my mother. On Sundays the teacher librarian gave me the key. I kept reading there. Not that I didn't play outside, but isn't it not unusual to keep thinking about the book you didn't finish on Saturday?

I grew up in a coal mining town called Oomuta City. The aftermath of the Miike Coalminers' Struggle was still felt and I remember the tense atmosphere that enveloped the whole town. Trucks ran around full of men shouting their respective slogans and skirmishes broke out from time to time. But in the world of storytelling, no matter how much violence erupts there is always a proper resolution at the end. It is a complete and balanced world that gave me peace of mind. In many of my works, I also try to achieve an ending where you have salvation or healing. Of course that's not all I do, but I prefer stories with a clean resolution.

Manga Upbringing

Among my father's distant relatives was a bookstore owner. Whenever I visited he/she would let me read whatever I wanted. I always read manga there. Back then, there were only seven or so female cartoonists. Miyako Maki, Masako Watanabe, Hideko Mizuno, Yoko Imamura, Setsuko Akamatsu, and Toshiko Ueda. Who else? Anyhow, there weren't many, so Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishimori (now Ishinomori), Fujio Akatsuka, and many other male cartoonists drew shojo manga.

The cartoonists I liked were Osamu Tezuka, Hideko Mizuno, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Fujio Akatsuka, Masako Watanabe, Miyako Maki, perhaps. When I was in elementary school, I was just following examples and copying the pictures. I tried to copy the faces from various angles. Facing right, facing left, facing front, and back, and so forth. As for the way you draw eyes, Masako Watanabe would do this, or Miyako Maki would do that—I was like such an Otaku, wasn't I?

As I read lots of volumes, it gradually dawned on me—"Aha, I see how you draw manga"—a kind of pattern. I wanted to draw manga purely because I got so much pleasure out of reading them, not because I was unsatisfied with what I was reading, or in some spirit of critical response. For example after I read a beautiful manga about ballet, then I go, "Ah, I want to draw something, a story of pretty girls dancing." My motivation is very simple.

Prior to My Debut

In the middle school I had a friend who drew manga. It was she who taught me how to get the manga you draw placed in books so that other people can see them. Back then there was something called "Red Book"—not even a magazine, but some sort of simple publication that rental bookstores offered. Such publications accepted submissions from newcomers. That was when I learned that all cartoonists started out by submitting their work for publication. She told me that first of all, you must not draw on the both sides of the single sheet of paper. I didn't even know that. I didn't know to use a ruler to draw the frame border lines.

In the meantime, sixteen-year old Machiko Satonaka had debuted in Weekly [Shojo] Friend. Oh, wow, someone totally unknown could publish in a magazine just by submitting good pieces—and it finally became real to me.
By the time I was in high school I knew all the basics and started submitting work. Still, it was in the same spirit of participating in our school festival—my friends and I would show and discuss our work with each other, jabbering away in excitement.

It all changed at the end of my junior year. Tezuka Osamu's work called "Shinsengumi" came out as tankobon. When I was still in the lower grades in elementary school I had read the first half of it. I was anxious to know how it continued, so I brought my otoshidama [Note 2] to buy it. And I was completely knocked out.

[Note 2] a gift of spending money Japanese children receive from parents and relatives around the New Year's holiday. It can accumulate into a generous amount but parents generally force children to save it.

It was one of those stories Tezuka sometimes did about young men torn between the old world and the new world. Another example would be "Hidamari no Ki." Anyhow it was awesome. My state of shock lasted about a week. It was then that I really wanted to become a professional cartoonist.

We had often talked among friends about how tough it was to become a pro. It was just around the time Shotaro Ishinomori's "How to Become a Cartoonist" and "How to Become a Cartoonist Part II" came out. They depicted in a realistic way how much hardship he and his friends endured to pursue life as cartoonists. When he bought a daikon [large Japanese radish], for example, he would live on it for a week. The concept of willpower is completely alien to me, so I was vaguely thinking I couldn't endure a daikon a week. But after reading "Shinsengumi" I started thinking perhaps I could manage a daikon a week. But I don't like daikon, so I thought I would go with a potato a week instead.

From that point I began real serious efforts toward making my debut. I submitted about ten times but in the end it wasn't any of these submissions that I made my debut on after all. Just for once I wanted to see the editorial department of a manga magazine, and so I was introduced to Kodansha through the connection of a local cartoonist called Makiko Hirata. At that time I had an opportunity to have an editor take a look at my manuscripts. Then I was told, "Please write something short; I will take a look again." I was asked how soon I could send them one, and so I replied, thinking that I had better get it to them before they had a chance to forget, "I will send something in two weeks." Then I drew 20 or 24 pages and sent it in. That became my debut piece.

Period of Rejections

I made my debut in "Nakayoshi," and I was told the main readers of "Nakayoshi" were third graders. So I had to develop stories children at that age could understand. However, it was very difficult to create stories for the lower grades. First, the scope of kanji and words you could use was narrow. So I reread "Astro Boy" to study the dialogs for my reference. I learned its dialogs were really easy to understand. Yet they conveyed a very sophisticated content.

There was a story called "Episode of an Electronically Transferred Man". It was about a machine that could break down humans into atoms and transmit them like a human fax, which was called an "Electronic Transfer Machine." There was an accident during its experimental use and a man couldn't rematerialize himself and so wandered like a shadow-like ghost. That ghost caused trouble and Astro Boy came to deal with him. But the ghost sent morse signals to Astro Boy and explained his side of the story. Such a complex SciFi-like plot was conveyed in very simple dialogs. I was really impressed.

Now that I was about to debut, an editor was assigned to me. This time, instead of sending a finished manuscript, the editor would check on it at the plot, or synopsis, stage. Then you sent what we call a storyboard [jp ネーム], which is a very simple pencil sketch of the actual layout. If that got approved, then you could turn it into a finished manuscript. However, in most cases I got rejected at the plot stage. Even if I passed the plot stage, then my storyboard got rejected. About eight stories were rejected like that, and even I started to get distressed—perhaps I wasn't suited to this job.

Even though I was drawing what was interesting to me, I got instructions like "This is too difficult for children," or "This kind of subject wouldn't be popular." Or "How about sports-themed stories, because they are popular now." If I had liked sports-themed stuff, I would be able to draw it well, but somehow I couldn't. I seriously wondered why SciFi wasn't popular. If it was SciFi, I could draw it. This period lasted for about two years.

I was just a new face and pretty unknown to readers. I was thinking that perhaps I should follow the editor's advice and pursue popular themes until I established myself, and then I could start doing the stuff I actually liked. But I just couldn't draw what I didn't want to. On the other hand, I guess those people who draw popular stuff, saying, "This genre sells well now," do it because all in all, they actually like the genre. And it didn't look like I could fit in.

After much agony, I reached the conclusion that there was no point if I couldn't draw what I liked, since I wanted to become a cartoonist ultimately because I loved manga. So if it didn't work out after I gave it a try, I just had to give up.

Moving to Tokyo

With my publisher located in Tokyo and all, I ultimately wanted to move to Tokyo as soon as possible, but my parents wouldn't let me go. Around that time, I was asked to work as an assistant and that led to meeting Keiko Takemiya, a cartoonist. She had already moved from Tokushima to Tokyo. So when I mentioned how I also wanted to move to Tokyo but was prevented by my parent's opposition, she proposed to live together. An acquaintance found us a house—it was more like a tenement house with three adjoining units. And finally I was able to move to Tokyo. It was around October of the year I became 20 years old.

The house was in Oizumi Gakuen. We lived there together for two years. During this time I was very fortunate to get acquainted with many people, such as Ryoko Yamagishi, Mineko Yamada, and Nanae Sasaya (now Nanaeko). Since I had not had many manga friends before, I was so happy to talk about manga from morning to evening. I could also draw pictures without worrying about my parent's disapproving eyes.

Road to "Tooma no Shinzou"

One of the friends I made during the Oizumi Gakuen era was an avaricious book junkie, and she recommended a lot of books, like "Demian" by Hermann Hesse. As for Hesse, I had read "Beneath the Wheel" but its dark ending kept me away from other titles of his. But "Demian" was so good that I ended up reading all his stuff after all.

That person really liked the world of shonen-ai [Note 3]. She recommended those, too, even what one might call "porn", but I didn't like any of those. I would say "What's so great about this?" when I returned the book after reading it. In the meantime, Takemiya-san was also reading those stuff alongside me but it was she who got hooked. Later, Takemiya-san invited me to a movie. It was released as "This Special Friendship" [Japanese Title: "Kanashimi no Tenshi"] back then, but it is now available as a video called "Kishukusha."

[Note 3] I believe she was talking about Norie Masuyama, collaborator on "Kaze to Ki no Uta" by Keiko Takemiya.

The hero is a thirteen year old boy, and the story is about the upperclassman who loves him. It was such a beautiful movie—romance developing in a school. But at the end the hero commits suicide due to misunderstanding that he was betrayed. I didn't like such an unreasonable story without salvation and felt really sorry for the hero—it was too much to let him die like this…thinking he was betrayed. Then, I thought of drawing a story in which the hero dies but he gets something out of it in the end. That's how I got the original idea for "Tooma no Shinzou". When it came to that movie, perhaps I had some critical judgment.

From Closed Space to a Boys' World

I like closed space. That's why I depicted stories with such settings as dramas set within spaceships, or stories about the people who moved to another planet—no wonder I wouldn't be popular with readers. This is how closed space turned into a boys' world:

First of all, "Tooma no Shinzou" was a private work I began in objection to "This Special Friendship" and I had no prospect for publication. Back then I had many pieces like that just for fun. Since I was doing them for fun, I didn't get to finish them of course. But in "Tooma no Shinzou", the characters came to life pretty well as I drew. So I couldn't possibly publish this story, but I wanted to try a short story based on the same settings, and I published "The November Gymnasium."

Since the intended publication was a girls' magazine, I thought perhaps it was not a good idea to have a male protagonist, and I developed two plots, with all-girls' and all-boys' versions. Then in the all-girls' version the relationship got wet and sticky for some reason. I was wondering why the all-boys' version did better, and then I realized this:

After you get to a certain age, the male-female gender roles in society have been internalized in your psyche, and you cannot be free from them. Especially so for my generation. But when I draw all-boys' stories, I am not bound by those constraints. It came as a big surprise to me as I drew. That's what interested me in drawing a boys' world.

Regarding the Current Work, "A Cruel God Reigns"

Lately I am interested in the duality of love and violence. There is a Polish-Jewish philosopher called Alfred Lévinas [Note 4], and he was a Holocaust survivor. He argues, in sum, "The world itself is already collapsed and only thing that can call back the world is love. " He uses more complex words, but that's what I can say within the scope of the words I can comprehend. And he also says, "We are accountable for others." We owe it to the people we know as well as those we don't know. What I do here now can affect someone somewhere, and I am responsible for that. If you think of it that way, we would need God-like wisdom, wouldn't we? So when the interviewer who was listening to Lévinas asked, "Isn't it really tough to love everyone equally? Isn't it natural that we can love certain people a lot but no so much for some?", Lévinas answered, "Yes, there is an order of preference in love, and that's where violence exists." Isn't this brilliant? I think "All we need is love" is just a dream. That's the kind of things I have been thinking and that's the current [work] "A Cruel God Reigns."

[Note 4] Hagio mistook the name. His real name is Emmanuel Lévinas and she read a Japanese translation of "Emmanuel Lévinas: Qui êtes-vous?" by François Poirier (reference).

The Present and "20-year Old"

When I compare my present self to my 20 year-old self, I was bolder at 20 because of limited experience and knowledge. I had unwavering faith in what I believed in. After 20, you as a life form go down the path of aging and become more inclined to self protection.

For example, if I try to depict a pure character, there is a difference between pureness when you are 20 and when you are 30. In terms of empathy, it is much easier to empathize with a pure character when you are 20. When you are 30, you feel like it's phony. Like, "You can say things like that because you have overlooked this and that." Therefore, there are types of works you can produce because you are in your 20's, and there are characters you can depict because you are in the 30's. Come to think of it, you shouldn't put off doing your stories until you get older, really. You have to do your stories at each stage of your life, braving embarrassment as you go. Past 30, you cannot do "Tooma no Shinzou". Even now, I am too embarrassed to re-read it.

Message to Current "20-Year Olds"

What I realized once I started working was that the most important thing is human relationships. I have seen a number of cases of people who came out of top-rated universities and got jobs at publishers at the first shot but then totally floundered after that. If you are not good at building relationships, you drop out of the fast lane, and get isolated. What's most critical as an adult is to be trusted by others. How you empathize, how you can get along, how you keep your promises—your human networks grow relative to the degree of such sincerity.

Anyhow, there is nothing I would call a "message." I think it is best if you just find what you like to do, and do what you like. If you try what you like and it doesn't work out, then there is no regret. But when the world of adults enters into it and starts saying this is good, this is better, you end up getting confused. But confusion is good, too. There is nothing that goes to waste in life.

The Village of the Poes (Page 30)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith:
…Sundown Castle…where the Earl of Rutland lives…which direction is it?
//Panel 2//
Old woman:
…Never heard of it.
Glen Smith:
But it must not be far from here! I can't have gotten lost in the mists for that long!
//Panel 3//
Glen Smith:
What kind of village is this, exactly? Not one stalk of wheat or bean! No cattle whatsoever, and not a single human voice! Who governs here, and how does anyone earn their keep? Perhaps you make jam or perfume from all these roses?
//Panel 4//
Old woman:
We call this place the Village of the Poes.
//Panel 5//
Old woman:
We raise roses for our keep.
Glen Smith:
Roses? Just these splendid red roses?
//Panel 6//
Old woman:
You are an outsider, sir. Within this village, we have our own ways of doing things. Going back hundreds and hundreds of years. That's how we have come to be…we've survived by raising roses.

The Village of the Poes (Page 29)

//Panel 1//
Edgar:
Where are you going? You won't be able to leave the village. All the villagers know what happened.
//Panel 2//
Edgar:
No one would let you go.
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith:
Old woman…
Old woman:
Yes, milord from outside.
//Panel 6//
Glen Smith:
…What are you doing?
Old woman:
These will go into the soup.

The Village of the Poes (Page 28)

//Panel 1//
Edgar:
Nonsense...?
Do you have…any idea at all!
//Panel 2//
Edgar:
You tried to kill Marybel! She's my blood relation…my sister…my love, the only one within all the Heavens and the Earth!
//Panel 3//
Edgar:
I live only because of Marybel…for her only! Ever since she was little, ever since…I have stayed by her side, protecting her.
//Panel 5//
Edgar:
You said you would take full responsibility, didn't you? That's a given!

Effect Lines and other wonderful things

If you look at the Panel 4 of Page 27 in the previous post, you see Glen Smith's figure is covered with effect lines. I assumed effect lines indicate motion, so I wasn't sure what motion it referred to in that picture, and asked my husband for help.

He explained that effect lines are not just about motion. In this particular example, they indicate that attention is suddenly focused on Edgar. Perhaps a zoom would be used to achieve the same effect in a live action film.

We had an interesting conversation about how influential these effect lines have become. It turns out that they are even utilized often in anime, where characters are obviously capable of moving for real (as opposed to requiring symbols for movement, as in comics), but the lines are a carryover from manga tradition, and are also used as extra emphasis within these anime. It is such an integral part of the visual vocabulary of manga/anime, that when an American special effects guy my husband knows suggested to a CG director at Studio Ghibli that they use a motion blur effect (standard part of Photoshop and After Effects) instead, they declined.

Another issue Japanese anime creators faced when they tried to incorporate 3D CG was line weight. Line weight (in other words, the thickness of a line) is so critical in expressing personality and an emotional tone that to avoid the necessary standardization of line weight that CG would result in, animators tend to use it only for backgrounds, which are less important in setting the mood, and continue to hand-draw actual characters.

The Village of the Poes (Page 27)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith:
…How is Marybel…?
Edgar:
We don't know yet.
//Panel 2//
Glen Smith:
…I take full responsibility.
Please call your servant. I want to dispatch a message.
//Panel 3//
Glen Smith:
I'm a guest of the Earl of Rutland at Sundown Castle. I think they may be worried about me disappearing in the middle of the hunt—I just want to let them know I am here in this village…
//Panel 4//
Edgar:
There's no need for that. If Marybel dies, I'm going to kill you.
//Panel 5//
Edgar:
If Marybel turns out fine, I'll send you off without a scratch.
//Panel 6//
Glen Smith:
NONSENSE!

Edgar-Alice-Poe

It suddenly occured to me that Glen Smith's experience is something like the story of Alice in Wonderland. That tale, of course, is about a sensible girl who falls through a rabbit hole and finds herself in a strange, upside-down world. Although in Alice's case, it is clear that she has ended up in a very peculiar place, Glen Smith's initiation is only very gradual...he starts off on the wrong foot immediately by shooting Marybel, but it takes awhile in the expected turmoil of this incident for it to slowly dawn on him that his expectations, the way society is supposed to work for a fine, privileged gentleman like himself, are completely irrelevant. And like Alice, he can't escape. He would be physically unable to find his way out of the village. But in the meantime, even the villagers' diet is bizarre: nothing to eat but roses?

It's been interesting so far to note the different perspectives Moto Hagio takes within the various episodes of this Poe story. Charles was our first observer of this clan, until they uprooted themselves and left for a long interim, reappearing momentarily when he is a middle-aged man. Now, in "Village of the Poes," it would seem like there is a home not only for Edgar and his immediate family, but for an entire village of vampires. The mystery village would appear to be safe from the hostile, larger world, apart from a rare, bumbling outsider like Glen Smith. But yet, without giving away much of the story at all, a permanent sanctuary in time, in space, is the last thing Edgar and his family will have. They will spend most of their time in our human world. In camouflage, with rare flashes of their true selves.

So it's fascinating, again, to read through the Poes' saga and simultaneously experience a sense of wide openness (travel through both time and space, immortality) and extreme claustrophobia and inhibition (masking of one's self-identity, never straying from the clan). Moto Hagio handles this paradox with an extraordinarily delicate touch, yet below the surface there is constant friction. Which is one thing I'm admiring about this story; no fear, but a subtle sense of tension on every page.

The Village of the Poes (Page 26)

//Panel 1//
Servant:
…In the meantime, we may need some assistance from you. In any case, please wait here.
//Panel 2//
SFX:
SHUT
Glen Smith:
I'm a guest at Sundown Castle…
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith's Narration:
…That youth…I think his name was Edgar…
//Panel 6//
SFX:
SNAP!


Panel 4 is very interesting. Glen Smith is indoors and Edgar is outside. If this was a live action film, this composition would be nearly impossible—it requires exposure with really high dynamic range. Hagio really has a very cinematic approach in her composition, so I always imagine how it would look like in a live action film. Recently, I found out that there is a special technique called HDR Imaging that can handle this problem, but in actual film you would probably just pan from indoors to outdoors. Anyhow, I just wonder how Hagio developed such a cinematic sense. She may not be the first artist who's been successful with this, but she really stands out, even now, for pushing the cinematic capabilities of manga to the limit. While reading her work, you, the reader, feel like you can practically step into her three-dimensional world...at least I feel that way. She dissolves boundaries and creates scene after scene of fluid, dynamic energy on a flat page—not bad at all!

P.S. Here are some interesting example of HDR images.

The Village of the Poes (Page 25)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith's Narration:
…Roses…!?
//Panel 2//
Glen Smith's Narration:
…Roses…!
//Panel 3//
Servant:
This way, milord from outside.
//Panel 4//
Glen Smith:
Oh! Wait, please. Will the girl be saved? Do you have a good doctor here?
Servant:
There is no cause for worry…She is being taken care of upstairs now…
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith:
No cause for worry? I came here because I was concerned—and I cannot go back! It is I who injured her…
Servant:
There is no need for you to worry about Miss Marybel. You are an outsider.

Nostalgia and "Toki wo Kakeru Shojo"

Talking about nostalgia, I would like to discuss one topic that really interested me when I attended the "Cool Japan" Conference at MIT.

On the first day of the conference they screened "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shojo, or TokiKake)" and its director Mamoru Hosoda was present to discuss this film (interesting that he has connection to Miyazaki, because I thought the style looked similar).

Unfortunately, I made the fatal mistake of not going to the screening (I hadn't heard about TokiKake), and Hosoda was at the conference only for the screening, but I heard Ian Condry, the conference organizer, discuss his interview with Hosoda during one panel discussion.

Toki wo Kakeru Shojo is based on a juvenile SciFi novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka from the 60's, and it was cinematized in 1983 by Nobuhiko Obayashi (I saw his "Tenkousei" and I liked it a lot—even went to Onomichi where this movie was shot, an old beautiful seaside town).

The future plays an important part in "Toki wo Kakeru Shojo". When this movie came out, Hosoda was probably in high school, and back then, the future meant the 21st century. We are now in the 21st century, and the "future" didn't turn out anything like what was imagined back then. When Hosoda saw the movie, the world was a hopeful place. Man had reached the moon, and science and technology promised a bright future. Despite the Cold War, people were hopeful that we would eradicate wars and medical advances looked like we would find cures for terminal diseases sooner or later. And this world view was reflected in the original story.

But Hosoda wondered how such views would be received by today's young people. We are no longer sure what the future holds. So the first thing for Hosoda to do was to rethink the whole premise of the story in the context of the present and think about what would touch young people's hearts today.

Revivals of the old hit movies and TV shows are all too common these days, and I assumed that it was all commercialism—appealing to both the nostalgia generation as well as the young audience who never saw the original—and I didn't think very highly of such practices. I took it as a sign of a lack of creativity, and seeing that many of the directors of such derivative works are of my generation, I felt a bit shamed. Yet, I also felt an unexplainable attraction to them. Hosoda's explanation finally opened my eyes—my generation is in a sense obsessed with revisiting the past and looking back into the present to fill the gap between the what we had expected for the future back then and what we ended up with.

I'm so curious as to how Hosoda answered his own questions. I'm looking forward to seeing this movie someday.

The Village of the Poes (Page 24)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith's Narration:
Had the villager not appeared at that moment, I would have surely been killed by this boy.
//Panel 2//
Villager:
To the mansion…quick… And you, too, sir…
//Panel 4//
Glen Smith:
Is the girl…
Edgar:
Walk!
//Panel 6//
Glen Smith's Narration:
…What kind of eyes has he, blue as arctic stars…

Adult Coloring Books

Aki gave me an interestng tip on the latest fads in Japan: coloring books for adults. And, as you can see on the left, there is one for "Poe no Ichizoku", too!

Apparently, it is getting popular for adults to do coloring in Japan. According to this article, it started when a Tokyo-based publisher called Relief Systems started "Nurie Club (Coloring Book Club)" in 2004. Those coloring books feature western masterpieces like Leonardo da Vinci's or impressionists', so it is a lot more complicated than what you might get for your children. They are intended for adults (40+) as a way of relieving stress and stimulating brain activities. Thinking about color coordination is supposed to be good for that. Here is another article that gives more details about the origin of Nurie Club. With success comes competition. The publisher of the shojo manga coloring books is one of them (though they have long tradition as a coloring book publisher for children). The online shop Ambee Market takes overseas orders ;>

I always associated manga with youth culture, so I find it weird that this kind of stuff is popular with older generations, but it is simply a nostalgia thing in Japan, I guess. Does it mean younger people have no interest in older classics like "Poe"? I hope that all generations can discover and explore manga that was not produced during their own personal youths. Good works should supercede a particular narrow window of popularity.

The Village of the Poes (Page 23)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith:
I am Baron Glen Smith Longbart.
I was mistaken…I…
didn't expect to see children in such a place…
//Panel 3//
SFX:
WHACK
//Panel 4//
SFX:
THUD
//Panel 5//
SFX:
CLICK!
//Panel 6//
Edgar:
…Hand me the bullets!
Glen Smith:
…!
//Panel 7//
Villager:
Master Edgar!?

The Village of the Poes (Page 22)

//Panel 4//
Edgar:
Marybel!

The Village of the Poes (Page 21)

//Panel 2//
Glen Smith's Narration:
Well, which way is north? I can't be very far from my companions.
//Panel 3//
SFX:
RUSTLE
//Panel 4//
Glen Smith's Narration:
It's the deer I missed!
//Panel 5//
SFX:
BANG!
SFX:
RUSTLE

The Village of the Poes (Page 20)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith's Narration:
I was walking, thinking about the deer I had missed, when mist appeared—how rare for this season.
//Panel 2//
Glen Smith:
Carl! [Note 1]
Yoohoo, Carl!
//Panel 3//
Paris! [Note 2]
William!
Carl!
//Panel4//
Glen Smith's Narration:
I must have gotten separated from my hunting party. And it is dangerous to be wandering in an unfamiliar forest…
Glen Smith:
Oh well. It will clear up soon.
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith's Narration:
I heard…in an old tale my nanny told me, that when the mist clears there is another world…a village watched over by gods.
//Panel 6//
Glen Smith's Narration:
And that in this village, a hundred years pass in one night…
…The mist is mysterious…legends lurk.

[Note 1] Source text reads "カウル" or "Cowl", but this doesn't make sense.
[Note 2] Source text reads "パリッセ" or "Parissee", but this doesn't make sense, either.

The legendary village Glen Smith recalls here seems to be an amalgam (intentionally or unintentionally) of the Japanese fairy tale "Urashima Taro" with the legend of Brigadoon. In the tale of Urashima, three years spent in the netherworld equaled 300 years in this world. It is similar to the Rip Van Winkle story, except that the latter spans only 20 or so years. The Urashima story is often used in SciFi novels in Japan to explain Time Dilation or Twin Paradox in Einstein's Relativity Theory. Brigadoon is about a mysterious village that appears once every 100 years in the misty glen in Scotland, where people never age, but Time Dilation is not a big theme of the story. Irish stories of Oisín or the Voyage of Bran are also similar to the Urashima legend.

Why Hagio writes about boys

I found an interesting interview with Moto Hagio where she discussed how she ended up writing shojo manga, yet her characters and settings were almost completely male-dominated.

Shojo manga up until that time (and, arguably, this is currently true) focused on girls' friendships, rivalries, interests in boys and so forth. Feelings, relationships and an internal life are very important. Obviously, they were aimed at an audience of girls and women.

Shonen manga for boys featured male protagonists in a very masculine world, with a lot of action and adventure.

So with "Poe", "Tooma no Shinzou" and so forth, which clearly take place in settings where boys predominate, how could these works be classified as "shojo manga"? Or maybe I should be asking another question entirely: why would a female manga-ka want to write about boys, but in a nontraditional context?

It's also interesting to consider the pop culture that was thriving at the time. Musicians like David Bowie, T-Rex and David Essex had launched "glam rock," which celebrated the androgynous looks of both males and females. Album covers and fashion magazines showed women donning pinstriped suits, and men wearing feather boas, sparkly jumpsuits and outrageous platform shoes. Experimenting in unorthodox same-sex relationships was de rigeur within the rock-and-roll world. Like many young people at that time all over the world, the women from the Year 24 Group were into glam rock—you can see an influence in the way Hagio draws her young male characters so prettily, so fey and slender with their elegant attire, doe eyes and shaggy, tousled hair.

I wonder if Hagio Moto had a clear idea of who would comprise her audience for works such as "Tooma no Shinzo." (Although primarily she wrote to satisfy herself, it would be interesting to consider whether she had a clear idea of a target readership outside of herself.) But it does beg the question of who, ultimately, is more likely to be attracted to her subject matter. At first glance it would appear that Hagio offers something for everyone. Yet at the same time, it's just as easy to imagine girls being turned off by uber-masculine plotlines or settings, or—more likely—boys and men (and girls too) reacting squeamishly to the highly suggestive (if not flagrant!) depictions of boy-boy love. So it's a mixed bag, but at least at the time, there may have been more of an open mind regarding her subject matter.

In the end, what's important is that Hagio found her readers and maintained artistic integrity in writing freely on these delicate subjects. But who could have guessed the connection between the spaceships and boarding schools!

Here is the excerpt (full translation here):

Moving to Tokyo

With my publisher located in Tokyo and all, I ultimately wanted to move to Tokyo as soon as possible, but my parents wouldn't let me go. Around that time, I was asked to work as an assistant and that led to meeting Keiko Takemiya, a cartoonist. She had already moved from Tokushima to Tokyo. So when I mentioned how I also wanted to move to Tokyo but was prevented by my parent's opposition, she proposed to live together. An acquaintance found us a house—it was more like a tenement house with three adjoining units. And finally I was able to move to Tokyo. It was around October of the year I became 20 years old.

The house was in Oizumi Gakuen. We lived there together for two years. During this time I was very fortunate to get acquainted with many people, such as Ryoko Yamagishi, Mineko Yamada, and Nanae Sasaya (now Nanaeko). Now that I had many manga friends, I was so happy to talk about manga from morning to evening. I could also draw pictures without worrying about my parent's disapproving eyes.

Road to "Tooma no Shinzou"

One of the friends I made during the Oizumi Gakuen era was an avaricious book junkie, and she recommended a lot of books, like "Demian" by Hermann Hesse. As for Hesse, I had read "Beneath the Wheel" but its dark ending kept me away from other titles of his. But "Demian" was so good that I ended up reading all his stuff after all.

That person really liked the world of shonen-ai [Note 1]. She recommended those, too, even what one might call "porn", but I didn't like any of those. I would say "What's so great about this?" when I returned the book after reading it. In the meantime, Takemiya-san was also reading those stuff alongside me but it was she who got hooked. Later, Takemiya-san invited me to a movie. It was released as "This Special Friendship" (Japanese Title: "Kanashimi no Tenshi" ) back then, but it is now available as video called "Kishukusha".

[Note 1] I believe she was talking about Norie Masuyama.

The hero is a thirteen year old boy, and the story is about the upperclassman who loves him. It was such a beautiful movie—romance developing in a school. But at the end the hero commits suicide due to misunderstanding that he was betrayed. I didn't like such an unreasonable story without salvation and felt really sorry for the hero—it was too much to let him die like this…thinking he was betrayed. Then, I thought of drawing a story in which the hero dies but he gets something out of it in the end. That's how I got the original idea for "Tooma no Shinzou". When it came to that movie, perhaps I had some critical judgment.

Closed Space to Boys' World

I like closed space. That's why I depicted stories with such settings as dramas set within spaceships, or stories about the people who moved to another planet—no wonder I wouldn't be popular with readers. This is how closed space turned into a boys' world:

First of all, "Tooma no Shinzou" was a private work I began in objection to "This Special Friendship" and I had no prospect for publication. Back then I had many pieces like that just for fun. Since I was doing them for fun, I didn't get to finish them of course. But in "Tooma no Shinzou", the characters came to life pretty well as I drew. So I couldn't possibly publish this story, but I wanted to try a short story based on the same settings, and I published "The November Gymnasium".

Since the intended publication was a girls' magazine, I thought perhaps it was not good idea to have a male protagonist, and I developed two plots, with all-girls' and all-boys' versions. Then in the all-girls' version the relationship got wet and sticky [Note 2] for some reason. I was wondering why the all-boys' version did better, and then I realized this:

After you get to a certain age, the male-female gender roles in society have been internalized in your psyche, and you cannot be free from them. Especially so for my generation. But when I draw all-boys' stories, I am not bound by those constraints. It came as a big surprise to me as I drew. That's what interested me in drawing a boys' world.

[Note 2] Original text reads "女の子版の方は、どうも関係がネチネチしてしまう"—"ネチネチ" is a very difficult word to translate. What Hagio meant is that girls tend to have different dynamics and dimensions in same-gender relationships that she perceived boys don't have, such as different sensitivities, means of establishing hierarchies and managing relationships, a perceived style of 'clique-ishness' and so forth. In Japanese, such elements are described in water-related terminology. Thus I used the terms "wet" and "sticky" because they imply complicated, difficult, unclear relationships, in contrast to the cut-and-dried relationships within a boys' world.

The Village of the Poes (Page 19)

The second episode in "Poe no Ichizoku" is "ポーの村 (The Village of the Poes)". This was first published in the July 1972 issue of Bessatsu Shojo Komikku, 4 months after the first episode.

1972 was the second and final year of the Oizumi Salon, which was a center of activities for Year 24 Group or Fabulous 49ers, so called because many of the influential shojo manga-ka from this group were born around 1949 or the 24th year of the Showa Era. The salon was formed when Hagio Moto, then living with her parents in Fukuoka, moved to a shabby apartment in Oizumi, Tokyo ("It was more like 'O-izumi Row-house'"), as Keiko Takemiya's roommate in October 1970. In 1972 the group went on their first trip to Europe for 40 days, returning in late autumn. Then Hagio and Takemiya moved into separate, but still close, apartments in Shimoigusa, Tokyo, ending the "Oizumi Salon" era. (Hagio's CV)

This was an important period for Hagio—gaining independence from her parents who were not necessarily supportive of her career choice, and switching publishers from Kodansha to Shogakukan. Kodansha pressured Hagio to follow proven formulae, and rejected many of her stories. Shogakukan, on the other hand, was more accommodating with Hagio's desire to try unconventional stories. It was not only Hagio who benefited from this new freedom, but the genre of manga in general took another leap forward from that point in what could be expressed in terms of story, mood, characterizations and so forth.

Hagio's ex-roommate, Keiko Takemiya's classic SciFi shojo manga "地球へ(Terra-e)" was picked up for US publication by Vertical, Inc. So maybe "Poe no Ichizoku" still have a chance for US publication if Takemiya's work stimulate interest in shojo manga classics. Takemiya also did "Kaze to Ki no Uta" (1976), which was the first major shojo manga work that focused on shonen-ai.

Moto Hagio's impact on youth (Otaku) culture

This YouTube video is about a place called Otome Road (乙女ロード) in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo, where otaku girls gather to consume Otaku culture for women. (Otaku boys go to Akihabara.) The main attraction is fanzines known as dojinshi (同人誌) on BL (Boys Love) or shonen-ai. You can pretty much say the BL manga in those fanzines are equivalent to slash fictions. Those girls (known as "Fujoshi") also indulge in Cosplay (dressing as manga characters) and hang out at Cosplay Cafes to be entertained by hostesses dressed as men (Danso). With girls going to one place and the boys the other, no wonder Japan's birth rate is so low.

According to this essay by Bill Randall, Moto Hagio's "The November Gymnasium (11月のギムナジウム)" is:

a short story openly dealing with homosexual love between two boys at a boarding school. The story was one among many that had a watershed effect, making explicit the undercurrents just below the surface of girls' comics all along.

While "The November Gymnasium" does contain hints of shonen-ai, I don't think it is the real theme. It is really about a story of self-identify, and about coming terms with oneself, or even about the rejection of one's self and its ultimate consequences. The German boarding school, the transfer students, the school pet—those are just components to drive the story. Nonetheless, it is true that this work of Hagio is one of the first manga that introduced this "shonen-ai" element into the shojo genre, and enabled the "BL" boom and Otome Road phenomenon today. Before "The November Gymnasium," it was simply beyond comprehension to do an all-boy story for a manga intended for girls, period.

Along the long journey, however, it seems like the original question Hagio had posed was lost and taken over by Yaoi (no climax, no punchline, no meaning). That's too bad.

"The November Gymnasium" was published in the November 1971 issue of Bessatsu Shojo Komikku, about 6 months before she published the first episode of "Poe no Ichizoku." She would use the German boarding school setting again in the "Kotori no su" episode in the "Poe no Ichizoku" series and later revisit the theme raised by "The November Gymnasium" in another influential work of hers called "Tooma no Shinzou".

Thank you, Aki, for your comment

I got an interesting comment from Aki.

Hello, Nancy. I'm looking forward to the sequel. I copied the picture of the comics and made it the flip horizontal. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I want to put in the words into which you translated it. I think that it will become readable comfortably for those who read from the left if it does so. I want the comic of a flip horizontal to publish some day.

Thank you for your support. I am working on "Poe no Mura" right now. I am working in the order of publication. Hopefully I will get to your other favorites, "Kotori no Su" and "Penny Lane."

Aki talks about flipping the images and inserting my translation into the actual comics. This is an interesting topic. This process is called "layout" in the industry. When Japanese comics were published here in the recent past, the images are flipped to support the American custom of reading left to right, top to bottom. But the new generation of American manga readers actually prefer to consume manga in the original format, right to left, top to bottom. I rarely see flipping these days.

But this layout process is still quite complicated. It is not enough to insert translated words in balloons, because English translations tend to get much longer than the original text, and consequently difficult to fit within the balloon. Also, sound effects are problematic issues, because they often become part of the picture, and are therefore much harder to work with. Either you need to remove them painstakingly in Photoshop and replace them with the English translation, or you just leave them there and add the translation next to it. (Some publishers just leave the sound effects as they are, without translation, in the original Japanese.)

So, you see, layout requires very heavy editing. As a translator, you don't get involved in that process. So my dilemma is this: while I would love to see you do a layout, my translation needs to be changed in that process. If it were a real publication, it would be done by the publisher, so I wouldn't have any real control. I am translating "Poe" as a hobby now, so I am not sure if I am willing to go through this very painful process. If necessary, I would rather do the changes myself, but I am not a Photoshop person, as you can see from the poor image quality in my posts. (But this is also intentional, because I think people will find the image quality unsatisfactory and, ideally, go and buy the real comics to appreciate this very delicate, nuanced work of Moto Hagio to the fullest extent.)

One reason I started this blog is for our young American manga fans, many of whom are studying Japanese very hard. They tend to like the translation as close to the original text as possible. I am including my translation notes and commentary along the way for them. So they may not necessarily appreciate me reducing my translation to fit it into balloons. Words are very important in "Poe" to create its very romantic and haunting atmosphere. I am not sure how to cut then down. Perhaps this is one reason no one attempted to publish this work in America?

So, in conclusion, I think it is better if we left my translation as it is and don't do layout. Sorry.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 18)

//Panel 1//
SFX:
CRACK! RATTLE RATTLE
//Panel 2//
Charles:
The family that inhabits the blue mists and twilight, and lives forever…

End —January 1972—

Notable rightward slanting of the carriage in Panel 2, to illustrate how physically at odds the carriage's inhabitants are with the townspeople on the outside. Then in the next panel, Marybel is also shown veering away off-kilter, while the "reaction shot" of Charles shows him in balance and straight-up (though obviously stunned).

In Panel 4 we see that the rose Marybel holds (the one the middle-aged Charles has given her) wither away in her hand. In this episode, we are never told what Marybel and Edgar are, except for not aging at all over a long time and this very subtle hint.

Moto Hagio say in her interview that she got inspiration for the "Poe no Ichizoku" from "きりとばらとほしと (Mist, Roses, and Stars)" by Shotaro Ishinomori - published in 1962 when Hagio was still in middle school. I never read this manga, but Hagio was making a reference to this work when she depicted the rose dying in Marybel's hand.

In the interview Hagio says Ishinomori had a number of manga stories with time travel motif. In another interview she mentions "きのうはもうこない　だがあすもまた… (Yesterday comes no more, but neither tomorrow…)" by Ishinomori, which she says shocked her. The story is about a girl from the future who keeps coming back to the present, each time growing bit by bit. Hagio was intrigued by this whole concept. And she was looking for similar stories when she encountered "Mist, Roses and Stars". This turned out to be a story about a girl who turned into a vampire, told in three parts - past, present, and future. It was not a traditional gothic horror - rather it was from the vampire's perspective, and the same girl, never aging, appears across a vast time expanse, just the opposite to the structure of "Yesterday comes no more, but neither tomorrow…"

When Hagio thought of drawing a vampire story, she didn't want to do a horror story where a vampire approaches its victims with evil laughter, and she remembered "Mist, Roses and Stars", where a vampire was beautiful and sympathetic. Thus "Poe no Ichizoku", a multi-layered saga that covers a vast time range, was born.

In the interview Hagio mentioned Anne Rice. She saw the movie first, then read the Vampire Chronicles. She says she was relieved to find that "Poe no Ichizoku" predates the Chronicles by two years.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 17)

//Panel 1//
Charles:
You know it? But who taught it to you?
Song:
“So beautiful that the gods…”
Marybel:
Oh—
//Panel 2//
Edgar:
Let's go, Marybel.
//Panel 4//
Marybel:
My brother Edgar is calling me. The carriage is here; I have to go.
//Panel 6//
Song:
“…stopped time.”
//Panel 7//
Marybel:
Goodbye.
Charles:
Mary—
//Panel 8//
Charles (song):
And so the girl lives on, tomorrow,
//Panel 9//
Song:
And the next day…
//Panel 10//
Song:
…her lovely silver hair caressed by the breeze…forever a young maiden…

Then when Edgar appears, together with his family, Charles realizes that the impossible is true...and that Marybel and the girl within the song may be the same person. In fact, by singing this song to him over and over, she has been dropping hints to him all along, perhaps hoping that he would understand.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 16)

//Panel 1//
Charles:
Ah, you must be her daughter.
Wasn't your mother named Marybel…?
//Panel 2//
Marybel:
…Oh, I’m not sure. I am Marybel.
I…don’t know anything about my mother who gave birth to me.
//Panel 4//
Charles:
Then she must have given you the same name.
…I knew your mother.
I was a young boy at the time…
//Panel 6//
Charles:
My word, you’re smiling, aren’t you? Is it odd for this old man to be reminiscing on his first love?
Marybel:
No…not at all.
It’s an old story, isn’t it?
//Panel 7//
Charles:
Yes. It was thirty years ago…
You…you’re the spitting image of your mother as a little girl. I…
//Panel 8//
Charles:
That’s right…She taught me a song. It went like this:
“There was a girl, long ago…”
Marybel:
Oh, I know that one!
Song:
“…with translucent silver hair…”

(In a weird though irrelevant way, this scene brings me to mind of the initial encounter of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. I had to double-check to confirm that Marybel wasn't selling him flowers!)

It's also interesting to see how Hagio adeptly takes her time, teasing Charles with all these coincidences: the name "Marybel," the lullaby...making it slowly dawn on him that she could be...

And how quickly he reverts back to his own boyhood! He never forgot the song...in some ways, time stopped for Charles as well...It's such a tender, poignant scene.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 15)

//Panel 3//
Charles:
Twenty five years of marriage.
I ought to bring home some flowers…
Spring roses would be nice. Or perhaps hawthorn?
//Panel 7//
Charles:
…Excuse me, miss…
//Panel 8//
Marybel:
Oh? Yes?

I just love the different views of the middle-aged Charles making his way through the marketplace: He's dapper, resolute, genteel, yet weary...The market bustles with activity, but one young girl sits by herself, sniffing some flowers.

Considering Edgar's previous hovering over his sister, I wonder how she could be sitting there all alone...what happened to the others...but at least this gives Marybel and Charles the chance to make (re)acquaintances.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 14)

//Panel 1//
Charles:
Was it the next morning? Or the morning after that?
SFX:
SHRIE-E-E-K!
//Panel 2//
Charles:
Wh-what’s happened? What’s going on?
Mother's Voice:
Oh, Anna…Anna…Anna…
SFX:
WAIL
Maid:
Shhh—come here, Master Charles.
//Panel 3//
Charles:
My sister and the tutor…
They ran off together last night!?
//Panel 4//
Charles:
That idiot tutor!?
//Panel 5//
Charles:
But then…why wasn't I…at that time…
//Panel 6//
Charles:
Quick-witted enough to spirit Marybel away like that?
For a long time—I regretted this.
//Panel 7//
Charles:
A first love, once gone… is frozen in time.
Within my memories, the young girl never grows up.
As for my own lifetime, it trickled on…ticking away months and years.
Charles’ wife:
I’ll see you later, my darling. What time will you be back?
Charles:
I won’t delay. It’s our Silver Anniversary, after all.
Charles's narration:
Thirty years have gone by…

Despite the obvious turmoil in Charles' household caused by his sister's departure, it's still admittedly a huge relief for me to be back among people who shriek and display emotions, rather than lurk and glower! Still, Charles can never be completely in the moment any more..compared with his free-spiritedness he enjoyed before he met Marybel...From now on, he will always feel torn, and you can see him lost in his thoughts in Panel 6. What happened to the boy who ran around shouting joyfully, blowing into a blade of grass?

Then, he grows older and settled. Life seems to have treated him well, but still he has a somewhat sad air about him...

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 13)

//Panel 1//
Charles:
Marybel!
Marybel!
//Panel 4//
Charles:
You are leaving…
//Panel 5//
Marybel:
Thank you for your friendship, Charles.
//Panel 6//
Charles:
But I—Marybel…you know, I love you…
Edgar:
Let’s go, Marybel.
//Panel 7//
Marybel:
…Goodbye.
//Panel 8//
Charles:
That was the first time I set eyes on Marybel’s family.
//Panel 9//
Charles:
The beautiful lady who took in these two siblings…and the tall Baron…
//Panel 10//
Charles:
Before Spring turned to Summer…
Marybel was gone.

Whose shadow is cast down on the cobblestones in Panel 1? Somehow it's a disturbing image. There are effect lines to indicate movement; this is Charles, from this highly unusual vantage point, running to catch up with Marybel. How much time has gone by? The leaves on the tree in the backbround of Panel 3 still look lush and verdant, but the clothing worn by Marybel and her parents is dark and heavy-looking...definitely not spring-like. I personally wondered as to whether there were other get-togethers between Charles and Marybel from the time of their initial meeting and her departure. But there is no strong indication either way.

In any case, she is leaving, and in Panel 3 she looks nearly as forlorn as Charles. In Panel 5 she manages a very stiff, formal acknowledgement of their friendship. And in the next panel, he once again confesses his feelings toward her...while in the background Edgar looms, with eerie, menacing eyes.

In Panel 7 Marybel once again shows the happy, sweet expression she bore when they first met. In the next panel, in complete contrast, we see Edgar in the foreground, with his glowering parents behind him...all staring at Charles, with creepy, otherwordly expressions. The message is clear: You are not one of us.

The final panel confirms that yes, it is still Springtime when they abruptly depart. How many days could they have possibly occupied that house? What is their rationale in coming and going this quickly?

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 12)

//Panel 1//
Marybel's Song:
So beautiful that the gods stopped time for this young girl.
…They stopped time…
Charles:
…That is what you were singing the first time I saw you.
Marybel:
Ahh…That’s a really old song Old Hannah used to sing to us.
//Panel 2//
Marybel:
At bed time, when my brother and I were small, that’s what she sang to put us to sleep, as a lullaby.
Marybel's Song:
…And so the girl…lives on, tomorrow…
Marybel:
Then Old Hannah…passed away…
//Panel 3//
Marybel:
And then Mother and Father were kind enough to become our new parents.
Marybel's Song:
And the next day, and the next day, her lovely silver hair…
//Panel 4//
Marybel's Song:
…caressed by the breeze…forever a young maiden…
//Panel 5//
Charles:
Teach me that song.
//Panel 6//
Song's lyrics:
…translucent silver hair…

Here Marybel reveals a little bit of her past. The full story will be given in a later episode, but it is very interesting to see that Hagio had her grand saga all planned out by the time she penned her very first piece.

In Panel 1, there's something placid and reassuring about the sight of two people chatting under a tree; it is a good locale for opening up and sharing. On the left hand side of the panel we see a giant profile of Old Hannah, and on the right, a broken hourglass (I will admit that my husband had to tell me this was an hourglass) to represent the stoppage of time for the girl depicted in the song...and for Marybel herself, though Charles of course doesn't realize this.

The lines from this song that Marybel is singing are sprinkled throughout many of the pages of this story. Incidentally, since these lines were often truncated and in differing variations, and compounded by the inherent word-order differences between English and Japanese grammar, the consistent translation of these lyrics was a real headache.

As for the full lyrics, it is interesting to consider them as a lullaby...Would a typical child find a song about a girl who never grew up soothing, or disturbing? In Panel 3, Charles is scrambling for a reply. Although in Panel 5, he is now asking Marybel to teach the song to him. It's as if he knows this is the only part of Marybel that will remain with him.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 11)

//Panel 1//
Charles:
…Um, why don’t you open any windows? It must be dark inside. Like you have someone ill in there.
//Panel 2//
Marybel:
It doesn’t matter. None of us ever loves a house or a town, not my father, my mother, my brother nor myself.
//Panel 3//
Marybel:
We never stay in one place for very long.
//Panel 4//
Marybel:
We’re always traveling. We won’t be in this town for long, either.
Charles:
…Marybel!
//Panel 5//
Charles:
Well, then, you’ll be leaving someday…for somewhere else?
Marybel:
Someday, yes.
Charles:
Don't leave!
//Panel 6//
Charles:
Don’t leave! I won’t let you—please don’t go! Because I love you!
//Panel 7//
Marybel:
…There was a girl with translucent silver hair…
//Panel 8//
Marybel's Voice:
So beautiful…

In the first panel, Charles finally blurts out his base anxiety—that her family is a bit different, in a way that has already been remarked upon unflatteringly by his own household. Marybel's response is not defensive or angry, but yet she is resolute in explaining the family's typical pattern of leaving places quickly. In Panel 2 does she say, "いいのよ" in sympathy with Charles, or to brush him off? It's like she's saying, "This is how it's always been done; don't question it." Or is that her way of convincing herself that she has no choice in the matter? It is hard to read her facial expression: She appears stoic, guarded, but perhaps also feeling some sympathy for Charles and his obvious distress at her imminent departure. However, in Panels 6 and 7 she seems uneasy and conflicted with his sudden attachment (though it's likely that deep down, she's pleased).

This is a very poignant moment in the story, where we have a glimpse of a very lonely existence.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 10)

//Panel 1//
Maid’s voice:
They say he was walking toward the old mansion on the edge of town.
Charles:
That’s all? What’s wrong with that!
Maid:
You don’t understand, do you!?
That's exactly why…it's frightening!
//Panel 3//
Charles:
Your brother has been there the whole time.
Marybel:
Does it bother you?
Charles:
I don’t like it.
//Panel 4//
Marybel:
Then let's hide where he can't see us—this way.
//Panel 5//
Charles:
........

First of all, the perspective changes to a mid-range shot of this mythical stranger who walks down the street. Emotions are heightened by the expressionistic depiction of his flowing cape and the streams of wind curving across the page, along with the warped cobblestone road and buildings hovering on the left side of Panel 1.

Suddenly in Panel 2 it's daylight again, and we move to a brightly-lit closeup of Edgar...but the undulating wave of his scarf is a carryover from the previous panel, and his eyes bear a watchful expression. It turns out that as lovely as the scenery is in the gazebo with roses all around, Edgar's intense scrutiny cannot be ignored.

It is also interesting to see that Edgar appears to be overprotective of Marybel, and Marybel defies him a little bit here. She is much more open to external relationships. We will see.

Check Panel 5: something is on Charles' mind, which he's hesitant to express.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 9)

//Panel 1//
Edgar:
You…come back tomorrow…
//Panel 2//
Charles:
“Come back tomorrow…” And he’s the same age as me…
But as if he was a hundred years older…staring at me…with those cold, blue eyes…
//Panel 3//
Mother's Voice:
Charles…you ought to come home earlier.
We all worry about you!
//Panel 4//
Maid:
Master Charles, is it true you were playing with the girl from the old mansion on the outskirts of town?
//Panel 5//
Charles:
That's none of your business. I won't have it if you say anything to Mother!
Maid:
But still! That’s a strange household…Not even a single window open, did you know?
//Panel 6//
Maid:
As if something bad was going on there…the whole house is dead quiet.
Ah, did you hear? There is talk about someone walking down the road…!
//Panel 7//
Charles:
Everyone walks down the road.
Maid:
But in the middle of the night!
The priest saw it from his window…
A very tall man in a cloak…
At least, it couldn’t be anyone from this town…


In Panel 1 Edgar says to Charles "きみ…また　明日ね." Fourteen year olds don't typically address each other as "kimi". This second person pronoun has variety of uses, but it is often used by much older people when someone in the superior position speaks to someone inferior. "また　明日ね" would normally mean "see you tomorrow", but Edgar in this instance is trying to get rid of Charles. It comes across as very condescending, so I decided to translate it as above. Charles thought to himself that Edgar sounded a hundred years older than he, which, we would later learn, is the case.

If you live forever like Edgar and Marybel do, how does that affect your personality? In this story, it seems like Marybel remains at age 13 mentally as well, but Edgar appears much older than his physical age of 14. Matt Thorn asks in his paper "Adolescent Liminality in the Manga of Hagio Moto": "Hashimoto does not tell us why Edgar and Alan are fourteen. Why not ten? Why not seventeen? Why, for that matter, are so many heroes and heroines in Japanese manga between the ages of thirteen and sixteen?" He explains the significance of the ages of the characters. I think he makes a very good point.

In other impressions, note the suddenly faint outlines of the roses in Panel 2, once Edgar has intruded and spoiled the sweet time Charles and Marybel had been having.

Another interesting building perspective in Panel 3, perhaps emphasizing the house's statuesque proportions (and further reinforcing that Charles's family is wealthy?).

I happen to love the round-eyed, gossipy maid as a character. You get the impression that she's been frightening Charles all his young life with her tales, and only now he is finally getting old enough to rationally counter her melodramatic outbursts.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 8)

//Panel 1//
Charles' Narration:
I know that you know
I know that you know
Marybel:
Heee...Oof!
//Panel 2//
Charles:
Oops!
Charles' Narration:
…how sweet the girls are in Springtime—
//Panel 3//
Charles' Narration:
…how their eyes laugh and lure you in for a kiss.
//Panel 5//
Edgar’s Voice:
Marybel!
//Panel 7//
Charles:
…Who’s that?
Marybel:
What is it? That’s my big brother, Edgar.
//Panel 8//
Marybel:
Did you call me? What is it?
Edgar:
The evening breeze isn’t good for you. Come back inside.
Charles:
That’s…her big brother…

I've never had a protective older brother (or an older brother, period), and I always wanted one--but sometimes they can be too meddlesome! In fact, even from a distance, Edgar looks subtly menacing, perched up on on the second floor of the rose-covered "home". He is sincerely concerned for Marybel's health, but you can also read an edge in his voice, a desire to protect and isolate his sister from outsiders such as Charles. Maybe Charles, being a little brother himself, cannot relate to Edgar's watchfulness over his sister, or perhaps there's something else that stirs some anxiety in him? He's saying literally: "The older brother...that's him..." As if something doesn't sit quite right with the situation.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 7)

//Panel 1//
SFX:
RATTLE!
//Panel 2//
SFX
SLAM!
//Panel 3//
Charles:
Ahaaa…something happened with my sister…
Well, anyhow, I'll make my escape as well…
//Panel 4//
Charles:
Marybel.
//Panel 5//
Charles:
Marybel, tell me about yourself.
Marybel:
Ye-es?
Charles:
I want to know about…for example, when you were little.
//Panel 6//
Marybel:
When I was little? But…I’ve forgotten all about it. It was so long ago.
What about you? [Note 1]
Charles:
Me? From the time I was born…I’ve lived in this town…I have an older sister…
//Panel 7//
Charles:
The time of year I like best is Spring.
//Panel 8//
Charles:
But now, what I like best in the whole world…
//Panel 9//
Charles:
…is you…! Hey, wait!
Marybel:
HEE HEE HA HA HA
Charles:
Marybel!

[Note 1] Charles tries to find out Marybel's personal history, but she skillfully turned the tables on him to avoid the subject. It is a very critical survival skill for her, and it hints that she isn't as innocent as she looks.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 6)

//Panel 1//
Charles' Narration:
Amongst the roses of an overgrown garden, the conversation ebbs and flows…
With our cheeks flushed and our chests nearly bursting…
//Panel 2//
Mother:
Did you know a family moved into that old mansion on the outskirts of town?
//Panel 3//
Mother:
Baron Portsnell…supposed to be rather eccentric. He hardly bothered making acquaintances [Note 1] and there was not one maid within the household, I heard.
Father:
Fallen gentry, I suppose.
//Panel 4//
Charles:
But that girl wore a pretty Greek-style dress [Note 2]. It shimmered in the wind like a haze of heat. [Note 3]
//Panel 5//
Father:
Charles, you are applying yourself to your studies, aren’t you?
Charles:
Yes, Father.
//Panel 6//
Tutor:
Uhm…cough
//Panel 7//
Charles:
But then, the next afternoon…
We didn’t hear my sister’s horrid piano playing.
Tutor (SFX):
FIDGET FIDGET FIDGET FIDGET [Note 4]

[Note 1] Original text reads "あいさつはおざなり" , meaning "the greetings were just formality." In Japan, you are supposed to pay visits to your new neighbors with simple gifts when you move in to a new house.
[Note 2] There is no direct clue to tie this episode to a specific time, but the fashion indicates 1795-1820. Moto Hagio was studying Fashion Design before her debut as manga-ka. In "Marmalade-Chan" (Weekly Shojo Komikku April 1972), the main character, a fashion designer, says "A dress from 1801 - for the woman the high waist line dress is the most feminine. I like the silhouette from this era best." It seems like Hagio's own opinion, too.
[Note 3] The original text reads "かげろうが風のように見えたよ", which literally means "mirage looks like wind."
[Note 4] "いらいら" - this is an onomatopoeia, describing someone losing patience and becoming irritable. Those onomatopoeia make the Japanese language very rich, but they also make life as a translator very difficult.

I happened to translate the family name "ポーツネル" as "Portsnell." Portnell is an actual family name, but it would be "ポートネル" in Katakana.

You will see this consistently throughout this work, but another remarkable quality in the illustration--besides the physical perspectives of some of the panels, with their unusual angles and shapes to emphasize a building's height above ground or open space, for example--is the amazing attention to detail as well as historical accuracy of physical objects such as clothing, furniture and architecture. Everything seems to have been accurately researched to fit in the time period--for example, the tutor's china coffee cup in Panels 5 and 6, and the ornate room furnishings. Fabrics are depicted in painstaking, minute detail. And the time Hagio has spent drawing dozens and dozens of roses! Many illustrators employ "shorthand" to tell the reader, "You are supposed to be seeing a field full of flowers here," but Hagio presents a visual feast of rich, loving detail.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 5)

//Panel 1 //
Charles:
…Love surely hides deep within the growing bosom of a young girl…
And calls out to me…sweeter than any breeze, or lyric…
//Panel 4//
Charles:
When did you come here? …This house has been vacant for ages.
//Panel 5//
Marybel:
The day before. My name is Marybel.
//Panel 6//
Charles:
I’m Charles. I’m fourteen.
//Panel 7//
Marybel:
Hmmm. The same age as my brother Edgar.

Look at Panel 1. A hero or heroine surrounded by flowers is a cliche in shojo manga, but here it is in context. Charles' eyes are superimposed to indicate that this is the view seen from his viewpoint. Shojo manga also feature large, intricate eyes. Panel 3 is made up of two sets of eyes to show their eye contact -- the composition is in reverse of Panel 1, and you can see that it represents Marybel's viewpoint. These are visual techniques that emulate cinematic effects - the close-up of eyes dissolves into a long shot of a person (Panel 1), then cuts to the close-up of the face (reaction shot), which then cut backs to Charles' face.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 4)

For those unfamiliar with the Japanese comic format, let me give you a quick lesson. Unlike American comics, you read from right to left, top to bottom. I'll number each panel to indicate the order in my translation.

//Panel 1//
Charles:
I’m fourteen.
Every day I study at home
//Panel 2//
Charles:
with a fussy tutor for a companion.
//Panel 3//
Charles:
In the afternoons, we hear the sound of a dreadful sonata and he becomes restless.
//Panel 4//
Charles:
It’s my older sister, Anna, who’s playing.
Tutor:
Ah, ahem…
Charles, finish reading this, shall we?
//Panel 5//
Charles:
My sister is seventeen, beautiful.
SFX:
SHUT
//Panel 6//
Charles:
What’s really beautiful is…Springtime!
//Panel 7//
Charles:
And the afternoons are free…
I blow on a blade of grass, run around, yell at the top of my lungs…
And I sing a silly song.
//Panel 8//
Charles:
…a song?
A song…!
//Panel 9//
Marybel:
…was a girl with translucent silver hair…

Take a look at Panels 7 to 9: This is a shojo manga's signature style of fluid panels, which give us dynamic, warped space and create a sense of time. Hagio uses this technique very effectively to paint a certain atmosphere. Panel 7 also has a roundness to it that evokes the sun, and a feeling of warmth and joy, which is emphasized by actual rays of sun radiating from the upper part of the panel...These rays (or perhaps it is a breeze?) create a pleasing flow through Panels 8 and 9, and those panels themselves are vertical, slanted, shaped like rays of sunlight to mirror the sunbeams of the previous panel. Then in Panel 10 this fluid, joyful movement suddenly stops--we still see vertical lines, but they're prison-like bars, with Charles trapped behind them.

Translucent Silver Hair (Page 3)

Now, let me start with the very first of the "Poe no Ichizoku" series - "すきとおった銀の髪 (Translucent Silver Hair)." This is the cover art.

This story feels like a pilot episode - it is still pretty much in the traditional mold of shojo manga, featuring a girl and a boy, surrounded by flower petals and veils blowing in the wind.

Here we are introduced to Marybel and Charles, and Edgar and the rest of her family remain in the background. The "Poe" series later takes a turn toward more boy-centered stories, but here we have Marybel as the heroine of the story.

A bit about names of the characters. Naturally, the names are given in Katakana in the original, so the translator has to come up with the English spelling. Most of the conventional names, such as Charles, are easy. Marybel, or メリーベル, is a made-up name. I chose "Marybel" because of its association with Edgar Allan Poe. Characters in the series have names like "Edgar", "Allan" and "Poe", so it is hard to miss this connection. One of the famous works of Poe is "Annabel Lee." So I settled on "Marybel". Another possibility is "Merrybel", because her birth mother's name is "メリーウェザー", or "Merryweather". I know, I know, it is a family name, but "Merry-" and "Mary-" is written the same way in Katakana, so to a Japanese audience those names sound related.

It comes with a short verse - "とばりの影には 永遠の美 永遠の命" which I translated as "In the shadow of the veil lies eternal beauty, eternal life." Actually "とばり" doesn't mean "veil" - it is a word usually used in a figurative way in a construction like "夜のとばり" and signifies the abstract action of hiding something. I just used "veil" because it's present in the cover art. There is a lot of poetry in "Poe" so that is going to be the source of some headaches.

By the way, page numbers are based on "Shogakkan Sosho - Poh no Ichizoku 1" published on July 1, 1988.

My husband's experience with "Poe no Ichizoku"

The "Poe no Ichizoku" series began with "すきとおった銀の髪" (Translucent Silver Hair) in the March 1972 issue of Bessatsu Shojo Komikku (Extra Edition Girls Comics, a companion monthly publication to the weekly Shojo Komikku), and ended with "エディス" (Edith) in the June 1976 issue, and is made up of 15 episodes of various lengths.

For those of us who read Anne Rice ("Poe no Ichizoku" predates Rice's Vampire Chronicles), it may be hard to comprehend the impact "Poe no Ichizoku" had on contemporary Japanese readers at the time. So let me use my husband as an example.

My husband caught "Edith" while he was browsing manga magazines at his calligraphy school. He was really haunted by it - it was very obvious that he caught up with the ending of a very complex saga - but he couldn't do anything about it even if he wanted to read more. A few years later he got into an argument with an older female cousin about the merits of shojo manga vs. shonen manga (boys' manga), and she reintroduced "Poe no Ichizoku" to him (it is needless to say who won the argument). He read all four volumes in a single evening, which also added to the reading of this very moody piece - it is best read at dusk, he says. He was blown away.

Now that he got this "blood" from his cousin, he also tried to recruit more people into fandom. He says that people's reactions are typically divided into two camps - those who got similarly haunted by it, and those who just couldn't understand it (regardless of sex or age), because it went beyond the conventional confines of the manga form.

Many "Poe no Ichizoku" fans talk about a similar, very special private moment when they first encountered this work, and for the first time in shojo manga history, it counted many male readers among its avid fans.

Commercially, this work and its success opened the eyes of publishers who traditionally had a narrow idea about what their readers wanted. So shojo manga became a fertile ground for story innovation and my husband says he completely ditched shonen manga in favor of shojo manga. He thinks the impact went beyond the realm of manga. Animation series like Gundam or Evangelion, which both feature very complex narrative and detailed inner worlds, would not have been commercially possible without the success of "Poe".

About Poe no Ichizoku

It seems like everyone is reading manga these days. As for examples of the "classic" comic masterpieces that brought the artistic level of manga to a whole new level, many of the works of Osamu Tezuka, for example, are translated into English and even now can be found in print. Some decades after Tezuka came another groundbreaking manga artist, Moto Hagio. A very limited amount of her work has been translated into English at this time. (By this, I mean "officially" translated for publication.)

Hagio and her peers in the "Year 24 Group" transformed shojo manga (comics aimed at girls) into a rich expressive art form that we see today, with their ambitious stories that go beyond the conventional "boy meets girl" (or more likely, "girl meets boy") formula.

I've been a translator for a long time, and had some recent experience translating manga, but until recently I hadn't noticed that Hagio's work was on our bookshelf until my Japanese husband pointed this out--he had bought them a long time ago. At his suggestion I began to read one of Hagio's most influential and creative works, Poe no Ichizoku (The Poes). It's a series about a family of "vampanellas" (vampires), two parents and two siblings, who travel endlessly through time and space. It's a haunting, poignant work--and not a single volume of it is available in a published English translation.

Just as the Poes attempt to bring new "blood" into their clan, I want to introduce this fantastic vintage manga to new readers. I will take a relaxed approach, using small segments of the comic layout as a springboard for talking about anything interesting--decisions a translator makes, notes on cultural aspects of that time, unintentional anachronisms...anything is fair game for discussion. I just want people to appreciate the story of the Poes.