The Clan of the Poes (Page 79)

//Panel 1//
Allan:
Oooohhh…
//Panel 3//
SFX:
TUG
//Panel 4//
SFX:
LICK
Allan:
Hooo…
//Panel 6//
SFX:
WRAP
//Panel 8//
SFX:
BRRRR!

The Clan of the Poes (Page 78)

//Panel 1//
Allan:
Aaah!
//Panel 3//
SFX:
CLOP
//Panel 5//
SFX:
THUD
SFX:
SLIDE

The Clan of the Poes (Page 77)

//Panel 1//
SFX:
GALLOP
//Panel 2//
SFX:
RUSTLE
//Panel 3//
SFX:
GALLOP GALLOP
//Panel 4//
Equestrian 1:
Huh…pretty good.
Equestrian 2:
He visits these riding grounds from time to time.
//Panel 5//
Equestrian 2:
A scion of the trading company.

There is something very cinematic and dynamic about this scene. I can almost hear the horse's hooves and the dirt flying, and it brings to mind other film scenes where an expert rider is being observed by other admiring people. So this one scene further emphasizes just how priviledged, and yet how solitary, Allan is.

The Clan of the Poes (Page 76)

//Panel 1//
Edgar:
Were you awake?
//Panel 2//
Marybel:
Did you have a fight with Father?
Edgar:
The usual. How do you feel?
//Panel 3//
Marybel:
How long do we stay in this city?
Edgar:
Until you're cured.
//Panel 4//
Marybel:
I'm not ill!
Edgar:
Just stay calm and rest.
//Panel 5//
Edgar:
Would you like some of my blood?
Marybel:
I feel bad…it happens so often lately…
//Panel 6//
Edgar:
Don't hold out till you're about to faint; just tell me.
I don't mind at all.
//Panel 7//
Edgar' Narration:
Marybel… Poor Marybel
//Panel 8//
Edgar's Narration:
If only the days kept passing just as they always had…
She wouldn't be carrying this burden on account of me…
Living this cursed existence…

I had a great deal of trouble with Edgar's thoughts in Panel 8. Even trying to write down what he is saying literally is difficult with this particular grammar construct; in addition, it's such a subtle idea in Japanese. But as close as I can get to the literal meaning (while still making sense in English, so I had to change some word orders) is: If the days were passing without change/as they had been before, then it would have passed/been over with/gone through/ended (up okay) without falling into this terrible situation because of me…but (it did).

There are some Japanese people whose feedback on this project was an expressed concern about how to effectively capture the "poetry" of Hagio's prose. I sense that this is one of those passages where that poetry is meant to be highlighted…and it was extremely difficult to convey that in English.

One reason is that the idea she is trying to express is very complicated and condensed as well. I don't want to give too much away at this point, but there was a time when Edgar's and Marybel's lives were relatively carefree, and then one day something happened…and from that point nothing was ever the same. So if the days had only kept moving forward uneventfully, just as all the days had done so up till that point, they wouldn't have the situation they were in today.

The Clan of the Poes (Page 75)

//Panel 1//
Sheila:
Why, they were such agreeable doctors.
The older one had a stately beard
and the young one was handsome!
Edgar:
They appeal to you?
Then just pounce on them and suck their blood!
//Panel 2//
Baron Portsnell:
Edgar…! How horrible…
What do you mean by 'pounce'? It's initiation!
We welcome the chosen to our clan!
//Panel 3//
Edgar:
Let's put it this way: We are vampires!
//Panel 4//
Baron Portsnell:
Stop using such a scandalous, "human" word!
Edgar:
Why put on an act?
It's all the same!
We're monsters who can't live without sucking blood!
//Panel 5//
Edgar:
The reason we left the village and came to the city was
to get new blood, new victims!!
Baron Portsnell:
Edgar!

The Clan of the Poes (Page 74)

//Panel 1//
Sheila:
The long carriage ride…
SFX:
SWING
//Panel 2//
Sheila:
…must have worn her out, for sure.
//Panel 3//
Clifford:
Your daughter seems anemic. Does this happen often?
Sheila:
…Yes …She has such a weak constitution…
//Panel 4//
Sheila:
We came to this town for her treatment. If we could find a quiet house on the outskirts of town and relax…
Clifford:
I see.
//Panel 5//
Baron Portsnell:
Thank you for all your trouble, doctors…
Dr. Caster:
Don't mention it—we are honored to make your acquaintance, Sir!
//Panel 7//
Edgar:
What a doctor—leering at Mother like that!

Death in Venice

In an interview I read somewhere, Moto Hagio mentioned a few movies she saw back in her Oizumi Salon days. One was "This Special Friendship" that became a basis for "Tooma no Shinzou," which I discussed in my blog. Another was "Death in Venice." So I found two clips from those films on YouTube. I have never seen either of the movies, but gosh!

In "Death in Venice" you see bourgeoisie family vacation life, formal dinners, children and mothers dressed impeccably in turn-of-the-century style. We just saw the grand entrance of the Portsnells at a hotel—apparently a gathering place of the wealthy in the city—and an impressed old man, Dr. Caster, says "It's a perfect picture!" Guess where it came from!


(Music - Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.5 in C#m, the fourth movement)

Here is a bonus link: Casting call for Björn Andrésen for his role in "Death in Venice."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKsgUwxGQHQ

By the way, this is the only occasions where the Portsnells make a splashy appearance to the public. They are ususally more subtle in other episodes.

The Clan of the Poes (Page 73)

//Panel 1//
Dr. Caster:
What a pretty picture…it's a piece of art! Don't you think so, Clifford?
Clifford:
Yes I do, Dr. Caster.
//Panel 2//
Edgar:
That young man across from us is eyeing Mother.
Baron Portsnell:
Hush, just eat the bait.
//Panel 3//
Edgar:
Bait? Who's the bait, here…
//Panel 4//
Sheila:
What's the matter, Marybel?
Marybel:
…I'm not hungry.
Sheila:
Have some; it's good for you.
//Panel 5//
Marybel:
…But I really don't…
Sheila:
Marybel
//Panel 6//
Clifford:
Pardon us!
Sheila:
…Oh, you are…
Clifford:
We are doctors, don't worry. This young lady…where is your room?

The Clan of the Poes (Page 72)

//Panel 1//
SFX:
AHH!
//Panel 3//
SFX:
MURMUR
//Panel 4//
Hotel Guests:
You, there…Who are those people?
Waiter:
Baron Portsnell and his family…just arrived at the hotel this afternoon from London.
//Panel 5//
Hotel Guests:
From London…!
No wonder they're so elegant…just look at their attire!

The Clan of the Poes (Page70-71)

Title:
The Clan of the Poes

The Clan of the Poes (Page 69)

//Panel 1//
Villagers:
Farewell, Portsnell family. Please stay well.
—It's sad to part with acquaintances of such long standing…
Please come back to this village someday!
//Panel 2//
Sheila:
Good-bye, all! Please don't forget us.
We will return someday to this village, the home of our clan!
//Panel 3//
Villagers:
…Please …beware
Take extra precautions
with the town and its townspeople …
//Panel 4//
Villagers:
Good-bye, Portsnell family. Good-bye, farewell.
//Panel 5//
Edgar & Marybel:
Farewell, Village of the Poes…village where the roses bloom!


The Portsnells are leaving the Village of the Poes. But this is not the first time. As I mentioned before, the incidents in the stories go back and forth in time. So a lot of Poe fans have experience building a chronology of the saga. We have already seen that in "Translucent Silver Hair," the Portsnells also lived for a short while in an unspecified town and met Charles when he was 14 and then when he was 44. Based on the fashions in that story, I placed the first incident between 1795 and 1820, and therefore the second incident between 1825 and 1850. The number of the Poe fan sites as well as the Japanese Wikipedia article on Poe seemed have a consensus that the first incident was around 1815, and the second 1845.

If so, this is at least the third outing into the human world for the Portsnells. We can place this current story at around 1880, based on Dr. Clifford's line on Page 120. Poe fan sites and the Japanese Wikipedia says this incident was in 1879. In "Translucent Silver Hair" Marybel tells Charles how her family "never stay in one place for very long. We’re always traveling. We won’t be in this town for long, either." So either they left the village more frequently, or once they leave, they stay out for a while visiting various locations.

The Clan of the Poes (Page 68)

//Panel 2//
Marybel:
…I was taking one last look…
Edgar:
We'll be back…to this village, this mansion, this home…
//Panel 3//
Edgar:
It's time to go. Mother's been calling us.
SFX:
SNAP
Marybel:
Edgar, your bad habit again.
Edgar:
Huh?
//Panel 4//
Marybel:
Don't pick the roses—your hand is all scratched up.
Edgar:
Oh.

The Clan of the Poes (Page 67)

//Panel 4//
SFX:
SNAP!
//Panel 5//
Edgar:
Ow.
//Panel 6//
Sheila:
Edgar! Marybel! Edgar!
//Panel 7//
Edgar:
I'm here, Mother.

Now we embark on a new episode in the Poe saga. Remember that I'm posting these stories in the order they were originally serialized, but that each story is self-contained and independent of the others and so their serialization order and the chronology within the stories are completely unrelated. Incidents in time go back and forth and all over the place as you read from one story to the next. But this is part of what makes the experience thrilling and unpredictable. If you hang in there, you will bit by bit piece together the story of Edgar and Marybel.

The lineage of Vampires in Shojo Manga

In this interview Hagio only discusses "Mist, Roses, and Stars," but there were other vampire stories in the history of shojo manga. When Hagio was still in high school, then-sixteen-year-old Machiko Satonaka debuted with "The Portrait of Pia" (1964), which was about a girl's love with a vampire (reference).

In this blog, Tommie (the blogger) writes about the lineage of vampires in shojo manga, and provides quotes from the special feature "THE Shojo Manga!!" in the September 1992 issue of CREA, which included several interviews with shojo manga cartoonists.

Tommie quotes Suzue Miuchi, who says:

"A piece doesn't emerge [out of a vacuum] like a sudden mutation, really. If you are a shojo manga cartoonist, then when you read a piece, you get a real sense of which works the author may have read passionately when she was little, or [how she] may be influenced by such cartoonists now, etc."

And as proof, Tommie introduces the connection between "Mist, Roses, and Stars" by Shotaro Ishinomori and "Poe no Ichizoku" by quoting Hagio:

"I thought the story of non-aging immortals could be interesting. That's how I got the idea for this work ["Poe no Ichizoku"]. When I was in elementary school Mr. Shotaro Ishinomori did an omnibus about a vampire entitled "Mist, Roses, and Stars." It's a story about a girl who became a vampire in the age when people rode horse carriages, and she lives on to the present when cars zip by, and goes all the way to the future where rockets fly around… That left me with a lasting impression."

Then Tommie talks about "It's Galaxy Manor!" by Toshie Kihara, which features space aliens from the Transylvanian System who are also vampires. She reports that she found Edgar from "Poe no Ichizoku" appearing in a poster (cameo appearance) on page 253!

It was not just Hagio, but Yumiko Oshima and other shojo manga cartoonists all made cameo appearances, underscoring the close relationship they maintained.

Tommie also compiled the list of shojo manga pieces that feature vampires since "Mist, Roses, and Stars." Great job!

"Poe" was born - Interview by Moto Hagio III

(Continued from Installation 2)

Moto Hagio Interview (Installment 3)
*So was born "Poe no Ichizoku"

—Some say your magnum opus "Poe no Ichizoku" was influenced by Mr. Ishinomori's short "Mist, Roses, and Stars" (1962). Is it true?

Hagio: Yes, it was. I think I read "Mist, Roses, and Stars" when I was in middle school as a one-shot short in an extra issue of some magazine, just like I read "Yesterday Comes No More, But Neither Tomorrow…" Back then, it seemed like (Mr. Ishinomori) was into time lag—stories that jumped around between the past and future—and he did some full-blown time-shift stories for shojo manga, which were very rare. At that time, I thought "Mist, Roses, and Stars" was such type of story. It was about a girl who turned into a vampire and lived through the past, present and future. So, much later, when I thought about drawing a vampire story, what came back to me out of the blue was "Mist, Roses, and Stars." I thought, "Rather than be confined to one era, one scene, or one town, where a vampire appears, I could draw the past and future of the scenes as well." In "Mist, Roses, and Stars" you have the same scenes in the past and future, but the protagonist doesn't age. So I went, "Hot dog!" (laugh) As for vampire stories, I had read a Japanese edition in a manga called "Dracula the Vampire" by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, but I couldn't finish it because the images were too scary. I was under the impression that vampires were scary, so I don't know what went wrong when I decided to draw [vampires], I remembered the vampire in Mr. Ishinomori's story was beautiful, so I thought I would want to do it myself if it was a pretty vampire.

—I don't think there were any vampire stories that weren't "horror" back then.

Hagio: I don't remember anything else. So I went to see several movies when I decided to draw vampires, but I got scared whenever there were innocent families or a protagonist and they got attacked one by one by vampires laughing, "Mwahahaha." (laugh)

—Those are basically horrors. "Poe no Ichizoku" was special because it was drawn from the vampires' perspectives.

Hagio: Recently, there are some that are written from the viewpoint of vampires, such as The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. I first saw it [Interview with the Vampire] in the film, and I thought it was cool and started reading the novels. When I discovered that they came out about two years after I did "Poe no Ichizoku," I broke out in a cold sweat, thinking "Oh, god, thank god I was first." (laugh) [the rest is omitted from translation]

(End)

"Poe" was born - Interview by Moto Hagio II

(Continued from Installment 1)

Moto Hagio Interview (Installment 2)
*Even the fighting scenes were sexy

—They say Dr. Osamu Tezuka and the so-called Tokiwa-so generation cartoonists were actively incorporating cinematic approaches in manga and innovative compositions. What do you think were Ishinomori's individual characteristics in his approaches?

Hagio: I think the most singular characteristics of Mr. Ishinomori were his poetry and his delicate pen strokes. I think cinematic approaches and compositions existed before Dr. Tezuka, but he advanced the techniques in laying out the page with a literary sensibility to such a point that it felt like you were really watching a movie, flowing naturally from one panel to the next. Then I think Mr. Ishinomori adapted his style to something we can only call "Ishinomori Rhythm."

—Do you mean there was something particular to his style, that was different from Tezuka's?

Hagio: There are significant similarities among Mr. Ishinomori, Ms. Hideko Mizuno, and Dr. Tezuka in drawing styles and the overall flavor of their layout. Ms. Mizuno and Mr. Ishinomori even collaborated in the beginning. But there are individual characteristics nonetheless, and Ms. Mizuno's strokes were very gorgeous and glittering. Mr. Ishinomori's were delicate and fragile, especially when you see his work in shonen manga [magazines]—you notice that his contribution stands out for its delicateness, like a handsome boy in the middle of fearsome warriors. (laugh) Dr. Tezuka drew in a round style but his strokes were sharp and hard. They appeared very solid.

—And you, Hagio-san, were influenced by those pioneers, too?

Hagio: Today we can use various ways to divide a page into panels, but you seldom saw "Variable-shape Panels" in shonen manga magazines back then, and you could follow the panels in a flow. I learned such rhythms—the pacing—of the layout from them. Dr. Tezuka, Mr. Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Mr. Ishinomori, and Mr. Tetsuya Chiba, they all have their own pacing and stage direction. This may sounds strange, but you can follow all the lines in a balloon. I thought it was a given, but when I became a pro and Gekiga came out, I couldn't read in one breath all the lines in balloons because they were very verbose. (laugh) So I realized this was a very important technique. When it comes to Gekiga, I cannot read [balloons] without taking a breath in the middle. Then I forget what was depicted in the picture while I am reading.

—You ended up just following the lines.

Hagio:

Yes, yes! It just becomes an illustrated story. Cartoonists from Mr. Ishinomori's generation placed just enough lines in a balloon for one breath, no more, no less. It's not tiring to read them, and they were easy to absorb. Back then even my brain was plastic and flexible, so I could just remember a manga of this length (one-shot short) for about a year, with all compositions and lines. I absorbed them like photographic papers. But that didn't work for Gekiga. (laugh) [the rest is omitted from translation]

(Continues to Installment 3)

"Poe" was born - Interview by Moto Hagio I

There is a website called "Ishinomori Shotaro Complete Comic Works" run by Kadokawa, which is dedicated to the late Shotaro Ishinomori. It includes interviews with such notable people as Go Nagai (Cartoonist), Katsuhiro Otomo (Cartoonist/Animator), Sakyo Komatsu (SciFi Novelist), Yasutaka Tsutsui (SciFi Novelist), Mamoru Nagano (Animator), Hiroshi Fujioka (Actor), Shinichi Suzuki (Animator), Hideaki Anno (Animator), Jun Miura (Critic), Keiko Takemiya (Cartoonist), and, of course, Moto Hagio. You may recognize some of these names and be very curious about what they say, but this time I am going to focus on Hagio and only those bits that I find interesting to keep it short.

The interview is about Ishinomori, so it is not of our immediate interest, but there are some passages that reveal a great deal about Hagio. So I am going to translate only those passages that are relevant to our topic of interest: Hagio. Her interview was posted to this website on Nov 15, 2005.

-------------------
Moto Hagio Interview (Installment 1)
*009 was my idol

—Today I would like interview Ms. Moto Hagio about Mr. Shotaro Ishinomori's personality and his works. Hagio-san, I assume you read Ishinomori's work in your childhood. Do you remember any works of his that impressed you back then?

Hagio: Yes, back when I was in elementary school, there was a rental bookstore nearby. "Yesterday Comes No More, But Neither Tomorrow…" (1961) was in an extra issue of some magazine and I was blown away when I read it. Around that time, I rented "Shojo Club" regularly and had read "Emiko Story" (1962). And I then read "Funny Funny Funny That Girl" in "Weekly Margaret" (1964—). Then a bit later, I got obsessed with "Mutant Sabu" and "(Cyborg) 009."

—What was it that impressed you in "Yesterday Comes No More, But Neither Tomorrow…?"

Hagio: A girl comes from the future and she grows older and bigger (each time she appears); that idea, of a sort of time-layered structure, was in itself intriguing to me and I was wowed by it. I had also been reading "Ghost Girl" on and off since the second grade. It was about the 4th dimension, and the answer to the question, "How could she get inside the enclosed room?" was also based on the time gap (idea), and so I was interested in that one too. Besides, his drawings were cute.

—Not only was Ishimori popular among women in his shojo manga era, but also for his shonen manga works like "009," wasn't he?

Hagio: Yes, [the rest is omitted from translation]

(Continues to Installment 2)

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 66)

//Panel 1//
Edgar:
…since she passed away.
Louis:
Ah…oh, I see.
//Panel 2//
Edgar:
So what's your interesting story?
Louis:
Yeah, I have an aunt called Margrid and…
//Panel 4//
Louis:
Well… it's not that interesting. Sorry for stopping you. It was a joke… Sorry about your sister.
//Panel 5//
Allan:
Edgar!
//Panel 6//
Edgar:
See ya!
Louis:
…Hmmm.
//Panel 8//
Louis:
…No way, can it be…?

End "Glen Smith's Diary" June 1972


Now we come to a full cycle of life, and we see Edgar again. Good thing Louis decided not to say anything, because Edgar would have taken care of him if he found out what he knew.

Anyhow, I am really impressed with how Moto Hagio packed nearly 65 years of history surrounding four generations of a family into 24 pages of manga, and how complete it feels. I never felt like I was rushed. Moto Hagio is a master storyteller indeed.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 65)

//Panel 1//
Margrid:
Papa, would you like to join us for tea?
Pierre:
Oh, yeah!
//Panel 2//
Pierre:
Dianaaaaaa!
Wo-wo-wo!
Margrid:
You're always so noisy!
Louis:
Huh?
//Panel 3//
Louis:
Ha, it's funny! I know someone in my school who looks like this vampire in the story, with the same blue eyes and curly hair.
//Panel 4//
Pierre:
Of course!
//Panel 5//
Pierre:
It's about the immortals! He must be that very person!
Margrid:
Papa, acting goofy again!
//Panel 6//
Louis:
And he has the same name! Edgar.
//Panel 8//
Edgar:
…I did have a sister named Marybel, but it's been a while…

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 64)

//Panel 1//
Louis:
But that's not true, is it? It can't be true.
//Panel 2//
Margrid:
Perhaps—I really don't know. But…
when I heard the story from Grandma Elizabeth, I believed it. I was ten.
Louis:
Let me read it, can I?
//Panel 3//
Margrid's Narration:
It's been seventeen years since then. I—Margrid Hessen—live
Note:
Aug. 1959
//Panel 4//
Margrid's Narration:
In Bremen with my jolly Papa Pierre Hessen, just the two of us.
SFX:
CLING CLING
Margrid's Narration:
I make my living writing ordinary short stories.
//Panel 5//
Margrid's Narration:
My mama, Anna, and Grandma Elizabeth passed away a long time ago…
SFX:
PEEEE—
Margrid's Narration:
My brother Pierre never returned from the war…
//Panel 6//
Margrid's Narration:
My older sister Hella is married and lives nearby. And her only son Louis comes by occasionally when school is off.
//Panel 7//
Margrid's Narration:
And I hope…I get a chance to publish this old diary of Glen Smith someday.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 63)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth:
Glen Smith was…
Julie's Voice:
Oh, if we could only live in such a village of blooming roses for days on end… How wonderful…
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth:
You see, just to keep going is a very hard thing.
You only have to follow the passing days, but it is so hard at times…
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
that weak people—particularly weak people—dream dreams that never come true.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Glen Smith searched for the village…
Glen Smith reread his old diary again and again…
Glen Smith chased happiness in the village of the immortals beyond the grasp of time…


This was a troubling scene for me. More than 3o years passed since Elizabeth first found the diary, and she has been returning to its pages just like her father. Her deceased daughter, Julie, was also fond of reading it. Are they all weak people who looked for an escape in an impossible dream?

I am not sure about Glen Smith, but Elizabeth weathered the harshness of life pretty well, rolling with the punches—the loss of her family ties in England, her husband, her daughter, and her grandson. But she never clung to her past, always moving forward.

In the beginning we saw that Edgar lost his sister Marybel. We will learn the exact circumstances in later episodes, but we will also learn that Edgar could never completely recover from just this one loss with all the special power he has.

So I am not sure what Elizabeth means in this scene—she has been nothing less than brave and strong. But this is her parting words with us readers, as the story moves on to the next generation.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 62)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth:
It was a long, long time ago…
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth:
Glen Smith stumbled upon the Village of the Poes, where immortals lived and roses bloomed.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
It was a village in a valley far, far away from the flow of time in the human world, where you had no strife, no poverty, no despair…
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth:
The villagers lived on in an intimate love shared by the whole clan.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
To join the Poes, you just accept a bite on your neck—
//Panel 6//
Margrid:
Oh dear! Those are vampires! I heard a scary story from my brother Pierre!
//Panel 7//
Margrid:
Was my great-grandfather a vampire? Did we have a vampire in the lineage of the Longbarts in Britain?
Elizabeth:
No, no, Glen Smith was…

Notice how the background is in black while Elizabeth tells the story of the Poes, with her body within the panels set at unusual angles, and fanciful, dream-like imagery as well as the rose motif.

She relates a very warm image of the Poe clan, doesn't she? Margrid's reaction, though, seems standard for anything connected with vampires. Her brother has obviously been teasing her about them.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 61)

//Panel 2//
Pierre:
Perhaps we should move to Celle. My older brother lives there.
Anna:
Celle!? Why on earth?
Elizabeth:
Anna, I agree that it would be better for your children.
//Panel 3//
Anna:
Aaaah, war, debt, medicine, school, bread for dinner! Worries! And now a move!
//Panel 4//
Margrid:
Waaa!
SFX:
THUD
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
Margrid!
//Panel 6//
Margrid:
Um, sorry, Grandma, I just wanted to get on top of the window sill.
Elizabeth:
What a tomboy! Causing trouble during the move!
//Panel 7//
Margrid:
Oh, an old book—I broke it.
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth:
Never mind… This is the diary of your great-grandfather.
//Panel 9//
Margrid:
Great-grandfather's? Why do we have such a thing?
Elizabeth:
…

A lot of stress and tension on this page, from war implications of the radio in Panel 1 to Anna's worries about the move, to Margrid's fall (I could totally push the envelope, and compare this to Adam and Eve's "fall" from blissful ignorance in the Garden of Eden)—well, it is true that now the next generation is about to come face-to-face with the Poe legend. What kind of impact on the family does it have, to carry the knowledge of this story? Note how in the last panel, Elizabeth hesitates in answering.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 60)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
People always want happiness over unhappiness, wealth over poverty, domination over subordination...and so
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
On the day Margrid turned seven, Germany invaded Poland.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
Are you going off to war, Pierre?
Pierre:
I'm not going. I'm a teacher, Mother.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth:
What do you teach at school?
Pierre:
Mathematics. Arithmetic, Axioms, Law and Geometry.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
If I became a teacher, I would want to teach history.
//Panel 6//
Pierre (Jr):
If I don't go, who will protect Mama, Grandma and my little sisters!
//Panel 7//
Pierre (Jr):
I am the only boy in the Hessen family!
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Why can't we hold onto our happiness?
Even for just a little while longer…
//Panel 9//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Time goes by, people live and die, singing a song of the flow of history
//Panel 10//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Even for just a little while longer…

Elizabeth already has a foreshadowing of the fate of her grandson, or at least a highly fateful view of the war ahead. It is notable that her own personal conflict (being an Englishwoman) is never brought up. But she would suffer loss no matter which side she were to take up, because she is a mother, a grandmother and a human being.

In Panel 3, the senior Pierre refers to Elizabeth as "Grandma" in the original text. I don't know about the German tradition, but this is typical in Japan. People refer to each other from the perspective of the youngest family members for some reason. So once kids are born the spouses will almost always call each other "Mother" and "Father." Then when they become grandparents, it's "Grandma" and "Grandpa," and their adult children will begin calling them that too. I don't know why this is, but I have to put up a fight to keep my husband from calling me "Mom"! When my daughter has children, I have to stop him from calling me "Grandma"!

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 59)

//Panel 1//
Anna:
Grandma!
Elizabeth's Narration:
The following year, eldest son Pierre was born to Anna and Pierre.
Elizabeth:
Oh, you got the same name as your Papa.
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
The year after, first daughter Elena was born.
Anna:
Grandma!
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Then second daughter Berta entered the world.
Pierre (Jr):
Grandma.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Then came the third daughter, Hella.
Anna:
Grandma!
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
…four years later, the fourth girl, Margrid, was born.
Pierre:
Why do we keep having girls!
Anna:
We are a matrilineal family.
Pierre:
Will it all fall on me to keep everyone fed?
//Panel 6//
Berta:
Ha ha ha ha
//Panel 7//
Anna:
Berta Berta
//Pane 8//
Note:
Jan. 30, 1933
//Panel 9//
Anna:
One less mouth to feed
//Panel 10//
Anna:
Good-for-nothing! You call yourself a teacher? We're deep in debt. You're incompetent!
Pierre:
Get out if you don't like it!
Elizabeth:
Now, now, children. Let's go to my place.


More names that don't sound German. Perhaps the Hessens come from Alsace-Lorraine? Is it because Elizabeth is an Englishwoman? On the other hand Berta (or Bertha) and Hella are German names. I knew a Helle (she was Danish), but in German the it is spelled Hella. It's tough to figure out names from Katakana.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 58)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Next fall, when she was seventeen, Anna got married to Pierre Hessen, a jolly young man…
And we moved from Berlin to the old Hanseatic city of Bremen.
Note:
Aug. 1922
//Panel 2//
Pierre's Song:
Oh dabadaba dandaaaba
//Panel 3//
Anna:
Listen to him, Mama, that habit of his! He is like that every morning! Can you believe he is actually a teacher, like that!
Elizabeth:
Tony played the cello. He has a nice voice.
//Panel 4//
Pierre's Voice:
Anna, Anna, give me a morning kiss!
Anna:
Hey, you snuck food, Pierre, jam is on your mustache!
Elizabeth:
Heh heh.
//Panel 5//
SFX:
SWING
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
When was it…that I opened the window like this…to let in the breeze…
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
As Germany gradually overcame poverty, it seemed that happiness also returned thanks to my daughters' marriages…
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
It's been 21 years since I crossed the sea… I will be called 'Grandma' when my grandchildren are born…

At last some lightheartedness and happiness returns to Elizabeth's family. Although Elizabeth doesn't have her own husband anymore, she is still an integral part of the family life of her daughters. And she is already looking forward to the next generation!

Just a few notes. First, the names of the characters. This story is taking place in Germany, but the names are not very German. I considered using Ludwig instead of Louis, or Peter instead of Pierre, but I decided to go with what the text says.

In Panel 7, Elizabeth's line could have been translated as "it seemed that happiness also returned to my daughters' marriages…" if I take the text literally, but this translation implies that her daughters' marriages have been less than happy. They just got married, and there is no specific reference to domestic disputes in their marriages at this point in the story, so I rejected this version.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 57)

//Panel 1//
SFX:
DO-O-ONG
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
In those dark days came a little happiness—the marriage of my eldest daughter, Julietta, blessed and full of love…
Note:
June 1921
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
But the young couple—
Julietta:
Mama, I love you.
Elizabeth:
Hurry, board the train. You'll miss it.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
moved to a faraway town on the Rhine.
Julietta:
Mama! Mama, I love you!
//Panel 6//
Anna:
…Mama, I am with you, I will stay with you for the rest of my life. I won't go off like Papa or my big sisters did. I won't leave you alone.
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth:
No, you have to leave one day, Anna, someday, as a bride.
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth:
…just as Mama followed Papa.


Here is another example of cinematic effect: the toll of the church bells makes a cross-fade from a funeral toll to a wedding toll as we transition from the previous page to this page.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 56)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth:
What's wrong with your eyes, Julie?
Julie:
Eh? Nothing, my vision just got blurry. …It's eye strain.
//Panel 2//
Julie:
Mama, you were an aristocratic princess, weren't you?
Elizabeth:
Well, heh heh, a long time ago.
//Panel 3//
Julie:
I think what my grandfather wrote in this diary really happened.
//Panel 4//
Julie:
Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could only live in such a village of blooming roses for days on end, the rest of our lives?
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
As if burdened with all the sorrows and hardships of the family…
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:　
Without warning, in the winter of her seventeenth year, Julie…
SFX:
DINGDONG
Elizabeth's Narration:
…passed away.
Note:
Jan. 1921
//Panel 7//
SFX:
DONG DONG
Elizabeth:
She never complained.
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth:
Not a word—not even "I'm tired," or "It's so tough."
SFX:
DONG
//Panel 9//
Julie's Voice:
If we could only live in such a village of blooming roses for days on end…
//Panel 10//
Elizabeth:
Not a word…

So Elizabeth was once a member of the aristocracy, but that could have been another lifetime, and she barely acknowledges that this ever was her situation. It seems that while Glen Smith was trapped in the past, she is squarely living in the present—certainly the future holds little for her, either.

The word "苦しい" (kurushii) which we find in Panel 8 generally describes something painful and difficult, but it could mean many things in Japanese, from actual physical pain to a student struggling to pass his or her entrance exams, to a general degree of suffering which people experience due to war, famine, economic hardship and so forth. In this case it could have been a few possibilities, but I opted to interpret this as the overall difficulties that Elizabeth's family, not to mention the country as a whole, were going through post-Great War (obviously we know it as World War I, but of course people at that time didn't know yet that the next one was coming!).

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 55)

//Panel 1//
Anna:
No, Mama. No, Mama. Mama…
Elizabeth:
Anna, Anna, what are you saying? I am not going to do anything, Anna.
//Panel 2//
Anna:
I thought you were going to jump. Don't scare me, don't scare me.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Ah, crossing the sea as a bride, to the homeland of the man I love…
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
It must have been illness that caused me to feel down. It turned out my body was losing strength.
//Panel 5//
Julie:
Stay in bed if you don't feel well, Mama. Don't work.
I will leave the milk on the table in the kitchen.
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
The second oldest, Julie, would run home during a short lunch break from the beauty parlor
and take care of the household. It was she who looked the most like Tony.
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Every now and then, I would ask Julie to read to me, in her soft voice, that old diary of Glen Smith…
…and I felt comforted somehow.

It is interesting to me that Elizabeth would find Glen Smith's diary to be comfort reading. To me it is a very strange, eerie tale, in particular one that had haunted her father for so many years (and has major impact on the next generation, and beyond, as you will eventually see). My husband surmised that she might find it comforting simply because the diary is a reminder of her childhood and old life in England.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 54)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Germany lost, and bore the blame.
Note:
Nov. 1918
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Our daughters were old enough to work at the laundry and the beauty parlor, but
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Our lives were difficult. Everyone was poor.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Everything was so tough. Things seemed to keep turning for the worse…
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Shall we go back…to England?
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Now that I have no husband, should I hang my head and beg my family for money, and cross the North Sea once again?
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
…I'm crossing the North Sea as a bride…
//Panel 9//
Anna:
Mama!

Elizabeth reminisces on her memory of crossing the North Sea against her relatives' wishes when she thought of returning to England. When Moto Hagio came to Tokyo against her parents' wishes, she faced a period of uncertainty where her stories got rejected one after another, as detailed in this interview. Just like Elizabeth, I wonder if Hagio might also have anguished about returning to her parents. We often face such moments of weakness in life.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 53)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
The "Glorious and Vigorous War," as the Kaiser referred to it, started in July of 1914.
Everyone thought: "Oh, this will end by Christmas."
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Since up until now nations had been fighting endlessly for power around the world in the Boer region, Morocco, the Balkans—
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
…but
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
The war dragged on. Then
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
…people became poorer, famished, children cried. Old people were chilled to the bone. There were strikes…but the war continued.
//Panel 7//
Tony:
Compulsory recruitment. They're short of troops. I'm going to Kiel.
//Panel 9//
Elizabeth's Narration:
That was my gut feeling. That Tony wouldn't be coming home.
Tony:
Elizabeth Elizabeth Take care of the children…! …I'll be home soon!
Elizabeth's Narration:
He won't be coming home.
Tony:
I'll surely be back soon!
//Panel 10//
Elizabeth:
You promised, Tony, you promised so many things, so much happiness, and you are leaving those promises behind, Tony.

Now the family life of Elizabeth and Tony is about to run up against the hard and brutal forces of history. As I have some background knowledge on the lives of Germans during and after the wartime, I can see that Moto Hagio researched very carefully on this subject.

I searched but could not locate the exact quote for the "Glorious and Vigorous War", though I'm sure the Kaiser did make some similar reference to the Empire's guaranteed victory.

Elizabeth's thoughts in Panel 10 really were really difficult to translate. What it says literally is, "Tony the liar (or, a bit more polished, "You lied, Tony." This is repeated three times, so it's extremely important within a very critical scene. However, having discussions with my husband, I was pointed out adamantly that "うそつき” does not necessarily have that very negative meaning associated with it in English. It can indicate a more hapless situation, where fate and other forces outside of one's free will act to set a course which goes against a promised or hoped-for result. So Elizabeth is not actually calling Tony a liar or betrayer, but in her anguish is realizing that all the dreams that Tony had for their life together are, unfortunately, about to fall apart through no fault of their own.

Of course, , the word can literally mean "a lie" in the judgemental sense you see in English, but a more mundane use of "うそ" means something like "Really?" which high school girls use a lot. Some people with a limited command of Japanese often take this literally as "you're lying" and get offended.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 52)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
In a tiny apartment in Berlin, Europe's flower garden,
Julietta was born, then Julie, and then our youngest, Anna. —We were happy.
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Very happy.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth:
Tony, Tony
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
…Tony, we're going to war!
Tony:
Don't worry. It will end quickly. The German Empire will win.
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Quickly…?

This was a nice illustration of Tony's and Elizabeth's happy married life. I really like the image of Tony playing the cello inside their tenement apartment while the kids scamper around.

As for the text, "Europe's flower garden" was a literal translation, but I couldn't find any hard proof that this or anything resembling it is or was an actual nickname for Berlin. So if anyone knows, please tell me, as well as the background for this moniker. Then again, perhaps it is only Elizabeth's personal impressions of Berlin, as a lovely place where flowers bloom all over the city.

In Panel 4, Elizabeth literally says, "You, you" (あなた、あなた). I can't speak for German couples, but this is what wives commonly call their husbands in Japan. Given names are rarely used among spouses.

The objects spilling from the basket in Panel 3…I have no idea what they are. Coconuts? That wouldn't make sense…Again, help me out if you have inside information!

In the next panel, Tony assures Elizabeth that the war will end soon. This is apparently how most people in the German Empire thought in real life. Unfortunately for all the various countries involved, that didn't turn out to be the case.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 51)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Aunt:
A musician…!! I'm against it.
Elizabeth!! Such a man with no social standing, or money…
and he is a Prussian!
…If you won't listen, I will cut all my ties with you.
He's deceiving you, poor thing.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Under the cold, unspoken acknowledgment of my brothers, aunt, and relatives, I crossed the North Sea to his homeland—Germany.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
At the bottom of a heavy trunk I placed the diary of my father, Glen Smith.
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Farewell, England. My memories. My fairy tales.
I'm crossing the sea as a bride.
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth:
Tony…
//Panel 8//
Tony:
I will make you happy.
//Panel 9//
Tony:
I'll never let you go.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 50)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
He was eight years older than me, a kindly man who said he was from the "ends of the oceans"
We met at an outdoor concert.
Note: End of September 1900
//Panel 2//
Tony:
Then everyone said, "The stand probably grew legs and chased after a pretty girl."
//Panel 3//
Tony:
I don't like it. I can't live with that sort of music.
//Panel 4//
Tony:
I'm not tired. I'm just lonely, all by myself.
//Panel 5//
Tony:
Music…is good. Music is a good thing.
//Panel 7//
Tony:
Please marry me.

A pastoral outdoor concert setting, leafy trees, concertgoers strolling in the warm end-of-summer afternoon…What could be more pleasant a backdrop for a love (or at least attraction) at first sight? Note how Hagio draws Tony and Elizabeth at a slightly skewered angle in the first panel: not only is this visually striking, but in this way she can manage to fit in the entire length of Elizabeth's long skirt, the natural focal point of the panel, but and at the same time retain the tall, vertical panels below in which Tony is discoursing all his various opinions (with one reaction shot from Elizabeth, in Panel 6). Moto Hagio is a master in the elegant use of her panel space. Also, it's subtle, but Panels 2 through 7 are not shaped like perfect rectangles. This perhaps reinforces the casual, informal tone of Tony's and Elizabeth's conversation and afternoon together.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 49)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
A village of eternal life…a village of eternal life…
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Narration:
What on Earth…could this be? How strange. But…why?
Those pages, opened again and again—the yellowed pages of a diary from thirty-odd years ago
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
My father reading it again and again, for thirty years.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
What was on his mind…
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
What was on his mind…

So...her dad apparently is, or was, obsessed with this "village of blooming roses." In truth, it is speculation that he returned to the diary over and over for thirty years—Elizabeth had never seen him actually reading it, after all. So is it really Glen Smith's active obsession, or his daughter's assumption that any diary kept for so long would be referred back to, over and over? We never find out more information that could have been given to us, like veiled references that he may have dropped to his family during all that time, for example. Elizabeth is completely surprised, and taken aback, by the diary's discovery. And the things written within were clearly incidents locked in his head, and in his diary.

Even assuming that Glen Smith had reread the diary many times over the years, would that have been an attempt to keep telling himself that this had really happened—or to reassure himself that it never happened? There is much that is tantalizing to consider, but barely hinted at here.

"What was on his mind…" was another tricky line. It literally means, "Thinking what…" However, "What was he thinking?" definitely has a strong negative meaning in English, so I had to consider a lot of different approaches, and this one seemed most apt.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 48)

//Panel 1//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
The 13th of July I've decided, after all, to record what has happened.
On the 7th I went hunting with my friends. I was caught in mist and separated from my party.
//Panel 2//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
I mistakenly shot a girl who had bounded out from a bush.
Elizabeth:
Shot…
//Panel 3//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
I was led into a village where roses bloomed in profusion…where…there lived immortals…
//Panel 4//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:　
An old woman plucked roses
A baron and baroness drank rose broth　　
A young girl smiled
—On a stormy night…a young boy sucked blood from my neck
//Panel 5//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
The Village of the Poes…! A village of roses, inhabited by vampires…!
A village where an immortal clan lives on and on, forever…!
//Panel 6//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
On the third day I got back. No one had heard of such a village. I searched…but never found it.
Elizabeth's Narration:
What is this? A tale conjured up by my father, the romanticist?
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
A dream? What on Earth is this?
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
No one will ever believe this story. I can only record it here.
//Panel 8//
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
The 13th of July 1865 Glen Smith

Movie "Summer Vacation 1999"

I was looking up "Moto Hagio" in YouTube and came across this video. Inspired by "Tooma no Shinzou" by Moto Hagio, the story takes plance in an all-boys boarding schoool (their characters are played by young actresses). Now, I have no idea what this movie is about, but when I saw this clip, I felt a bit "hazukashii" (embarrassed). It is not really part of my culture that women play male roles. But this is part of the culture in Japan, and especially for Shojo Manga, because of the Takarazuka Revue - an all-female musical theater company they have a huge female fan base.

Osamu Tezuka grew up in Takarazuka City and went to see Takarazuka Revues when he was little. So when he started drawing Shojo Manga, he was said to have been inspired by his childhood memory of the revues to do "Princess Knight." So the Takarazuka Revue and Shojo Manga have a strong connection at the root.

So it may not be very strange for this movie to cast actresses in boys' roles, but it looks silly to me. In fact, "Tooma no Shinzou" was dramatized by an all-male theater company Studio Life (that's also popular with women). Personally, I would be more interested in that.

Japan has no shortage of "bishonen" or pretty boys, so why bother with an all-girls cast? If someone is planning to dramatize or cinematize "Poe no Ichizoku", please consider using real boys.

So I have two questions.

1. I have never seen "Poe no Ichizoku" dramatized or cinematized (my husband heard a radio drama when he was young, but he said it was not good). Is "Tooma no Shinzou" more popular in Japan than Poe?
2. If we could produce Poe movie, who would you cast (Japanese or westerner, but real men)? David Bowie could have done it when he was younger, but I am not very familiar with who is available today.
   

Give me your comments!

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 47)

//Panel 1//
Servant:
Oh, my—a diary of the deceased…we don't know what secrets it holds, Miss—we should burn it.
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth:
That's no matter—it's a daughter's privilege. Or are you saying you can't unlock it?
Servant:
I can do it with a single wire. It's not rusted.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
Thank you! I'll read it in private!
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth's Narration:
My father's diary…
and from 1865! When he was 20, before he married.
SFX:
RUSTLE
Elizabeth's Narration:
Well, now…he must have been a handsome youth.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
As I expected, it began with a love poem.
The days of my father's youth…
His pining after beautiful young girls…
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Lost love…and then
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
A village of blooming roses?
Glen Smith's Diary Entry:
The 4th of July I went by invitation to visit the Earl of Rutland at Sundown Castle.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 46)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Aunt:
Oh dear, Elizabeth, now what have you started?
Elizabeth:
Oh! Hello, auntie, I'm just putting things away…
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth:
This study of my father's—my eldest brother told me he would like to use it.
Elizabeth's Aunt:
Well, yes, ths is a nice room. It would be a pity to let it go to waste.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth's Aunt:
How are you? You look a bit better. I was worried.
My tearful little niece…
Elizabeth:
I'm fine, auntie.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth's Narration:
My father Baron Glen Smith Longbart was
//Panel 6//
Elizabeth's Narration:
a good-natured man who didn't like trouble—a timid worrier and romanticist…
//Panel 7//
Elizabeth's Narration:
and he adored me so, because I was his youngest and had my late mother's amethyst eyes…
Elizabeth:
Oh?
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth:
…a diary—it's old…

The line the aunt says—"My tearful little niece"—gave me a lot of trouble. Literally, it would be translated as "Youngest child [who is a] crybaby." The term "crybaby" can be used affectionately in Japan, but I doubt that is the case in English, at least as far as I know. Also, to have the aunt refer to her as "youngest child" just sounded so odd in English. I know, they are really big on age ranking within families in Japan. So in Japanese, there would be nothing strange about it, even with the aunt referring to her niece in such a fashion.

In Panel 1, that breeze blowing through the room seems pretty strong! I'm debating whether it is a sign of upheaval and disturbance (note the aunt trying to hold onto her hat), or else the literal "breath of fresh air" and hint of refreshing change and openness to come.

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 45)

//Panel 1//
SFX:
DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG
//Panel 2//
SFX:
DONG DING DONG
//Panel 3//
SFX:
CLANG CLANG CLANG
//Panel 4//
Narration:
Glen Smith's death - Christmas Morning 1899
//Panel 7//
SFX:
SWING

The relentless pealing of the bells lends a sense of urgency and agitation to the deathbed scene, even though their sound must be coincidental in timing to Glen Smith's death. And in the fourth panel, you see members of his household and family rushing into the room, although he is an old man, and surely his death was not unexpected. No matter, we feel the emotional upset from that scene, in contrast to his peaceful-looking face, practically hidden under the covers of his huge bed. Something so mysterious is hinted at right at the end of the life of this very proper, upright man. In the last two panels, Elizabeth opens the window to let in fresh air, and maybe some new-found truth about her father?

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 44)

//Panel 1//
Title:
Glen Smith's Diary
//Panel 2//
SFX:
RING
//Panel 3//
SFX:
RING DONG RING DONG

Glen Smith's Diary (Page 43)

Wow, that was a long interview. It was very interesting and I have a few things to comment on, but let me shift gears and go back to the "Poe no Ichizoku" translation.

The third episode "Glen Smith's Diary" immediately follows "The Village of the Poes" in the August 1972 issue of Bessatsu Shojo Komikku. From this point on, the readers will be treated to the "Poe" episodes every month until "Kotori no Su" ends in the July 1973 issue of Bessatsu Shojo Kommiku.

• Advance notice appears in Feb 1972 issue: "I am dying to draw a story of a vampire brother and sister."
  
• Transparent Silver Hair: March 1972 Issue
• The Village of the Poes: July 1972 Issue
• Glen Smith's Diary: August 1972 Issue
• Poe no Ichizoku: September - December 1972 Issues
• Marybel and Silver Roses: January - March 1973 Issues
• Little Birds' Nest (Kotori no Su): April - July 1973 Issues

The third episode is only a one-shot short but it starts out with a prologue and ends with an epilogue, in anticipation of the the larger scale saga that follows. This episode is in itself a mini-saga, but curiously it follows the lives of ordinary people, not vampires. I actually like this episode a lot. I hope you enjoy it, too.

//Panel 1//
Allan:
Who should it be?
//Panel 2//
Edgar:
We'll decide.
Louis:
Ed!
//Panel 3//
Louis:
Hey, I've got an interesting story. Your last name is Portsnell, isn't it? —Edgar Portsnell.
Edgar:
Yeah.
Student:
Louuuis, Louis, can you get the seat by the window for me!
//Panel 4//
Louis:
Got it!
Yes, and if you happen to have a sister named Marybel…
//Panel 5//
Louis:
then it gets even more interesting.
Last week when I was at my aunt's place, I found an old diary—
//Panel 6//
Edgar:
…I did have a sister
//Panel 7//
Edgar:
named Marybel.

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part IV-3)

(Continued)

Sakai:

You are quite a humanist.

Mizutama:

That's like a life-long spell that all people who grew up on Tezuka are cast into.

Hagio:

It is a bit different from humanism. It's okay if someone is purely a villain, but in "The Mote in God's Eye" there is a species called Warriors, as well as those aliens who breed them. I have to question the setup where such aliens who breed those Warriors exist. For example, even if fierce bears and lizards fight, it's in a different vein, but they're still members of a biological system, right? With these Warriors, that part is completely missing.

Sakai:

You mean, it's very mechanical.

Hagio:

That's right. Even if you enter into a battle, how do I say, I think there is a fateful encounter in it. So whether you are out to destroy your opponent or close the gate, if there is a conflict within a character, it is much more interesting to us as humans. It is too simplistic to leave out all these things just because they are villains.

Mizutama:

So you look for justification in a villain.

Hagio:

The reason why I was reminded of Tezuka was that, in his works, internal struggle is always present in the protagonist's actions.

Mizutama

"The Adventures of Rock" is all about that. "The Birdman Chronicles," too.

Hagio:

Right.

Mizutama:

So was "Zeroman."

Hagio:

Tezuka has empathy even when he depicts disfigured characters.

Sakai:

By the way, you have not done any SciFi lately…

Hagio:

Mmmm, that's right, not lately. Sorry. I'm involved in a long-term serialization. This will end in one year. I have been saying it for three years, but I would like to go back and try some more SciFi once that's done.

Mizutama:

Yay! I'll look forward to it. Oh, of course I enjoy reading the current serialization, too, but please also do SciFi, that's what I mean.

Sakai:

Ah, what a conclusion. (laugh) Thank you very much for today.

(End)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part IV-2)

(Continued)

Hagio:

Talking about strange space aliens, what was it, the one with the Earth occupied by several different kinds of space aliens. That humanoid one, what was it called…

Mizutama:

Sorry, it doesn't ring a bell.

Sakai:

Occupied?

Hagio:

There are plots and subplots, but you've got rock-shaped aliens, who make enormous efforts to move just one centimeter. In addition, Simak also features strange space aliens. But I actually don't like Simak's view of space aliens very much.

Sakai:

What don't you like?

Hagio:

Isn't it somewhat grotesque?

Sakai:

When it comes to space aliens you get two kinds. With one, the external shape may be human-like or not, but they think like humans. But there are people who depict aliens as something completely different from humans. Which kind do you like?

Hagio:

I like them both. But when Heinlein depicts a bad space alien, he tends to make it really grotesque, and I don't like it very much. There are cases where I would like to complain to the protagonist [author?] to think more about biology. When it comes to that, eh, that author who did "Ender's Game…"

Mizutama:

Isn't that Orson Scott Card?

Hagio:

I like his view of space aliens. So I am sorry, but I don't like the view of space aliens in "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournelle, either. I don't know what to say, but once you create a character in life form, it's wrong not to have any sympathy toward it. The authors make them into massacre machines. Tezuka would never have done it that way, I think.

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part IV-1)

(Continued from Part III)

Mizutama:

Ah, well, let us get back on track here—I think between Dick and Varley on the timeline was William Gibson. Have you read him?

Hagio:

I don't like so-called Cyberpunk and I haven't read any [of his stuff] yet.

Sakai:

So, like "Kirinyaga," you actually like SciFi that externally feels like traditional SciFi.

Hagio:

That's right.

Sakai:

How about the stuff with tons of space aliens?

Hagio:

I like that, too. For that, what I like best is a manga called "Number 7" by Osamu Tezuka.

Sakai:

Speaking of space aliens, I don't recall any shojo manga that were filled with strange space aliens.

Mizutama:

How about "They Were Eleven?" There were a lot of them.

Sakai:

Yes, but they were all basically humanoids. Nothing really strange.

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part III-3)

(Continued)

Hagio:

In that story, each episode shows mysterious monsters called "Angels" being sent in, one by one. For some reason they target the same spot each time, and people fight back. But those various parts of the backbone [of the story], things you wonder why as you watch, are all left unexplained. I didn't expect that even by the very end, you wouldn't get an explanation.

Mizutama:

Ah, such questions—you would still have a lot of them after watching the theatrical releases.

Hagio:

That father, was he a spy in the end?

Sakai:

No, not really. (laugh)

Mizutama:

That father, he just wanted to find happiness for himself. (laugh)

Hagio:

Who were those shadowy people who controlled the father from behind the scenes?

Sakai:

You mean "Seele?" I am not sure, either. In the end, you don't find out anything.

Hagio:

Oh, really.

(Continues to Part IV)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part III-2)

(Continued)

Mizutama:

Do you have any particular type of SciFi you're especially fond of these days? Like, "I am such a sucker for stories with such and such gadgets."

Hagio:

Mmmm. Computers going insane—that's interesting to me. Ever since "2001: A Space Odyssey" I find computers interesting. In the Seafort Saga, was it? —There was a funny computer, too.

Sakai:

The one that goes insane very easily.

Hagio:

Yes, very easily and neatly. So humans calculate using various other methods, rather than computers.

Sakai:

Is it because they go insane that you find computers interesting?

Hagio:

Yes, it is. Because, if you have a computer, be it within spaceship or in a city, its existence implies in a sense that you've conceded full power to it. And if that goes crazy, what else could be more suspenseful?

Mizutama:

So it's fun to think about the possible variations, isn't it: if this happens then it leads to that, and so on. (laugh)

Hagio:

Yes, that gets exciting! (laugh) Oh, by the way, this may be a bit of a jump but I've also gotten fairly hooked by the story of "Evangelion." I saw it after all the episodes had been aired. I borrowed it from someone who highly recommended it. I watched it in sequence from the beginning. I was only told, "You will be surprised at the final and penultimate episodes."

Mizutama:

Wow, that's a very sinful bait that you got tossed. (laugh)

Hagio:

So as I watched, I was wondering how I would be surprised, like when I had been reading "Kirinyaga," thinking about the possible developments. Like, would it go this way or that way. Then at the end—I couldn't believe the ending at all.

Sakai:

Wa haahahaha

Hagio:

But I thought the settings and situation were very interesting.

Sakai:

Have you seen the theatrically released "ending?" [Note 1]

[Note 1] The "Neon Genesis Evangelion" series has three movie version "endings" and I am not sure which one Sakai is referring to. None could be considered an "ending"of the story, actually. A live action version is being produced in the U.S. and THAT is supposed to be the true "ending."

Hagio:

I have it but I haven't managed to watch it yet. Those who watched it told me, "You still don't get [the story] even if you watch it." So I don't know what to do, should I watch it and reconsider? Have you seen it?

Mizutama:

Yes, but please don't ask me to explain it. (laugh)

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part III-1)

(Continued from Part II)

Sakai:

So what do you read these days in terms of SciFi?

Hagio:

"Steel Beach" was very interesting among things I've read recently. Now I'm looking forward to the final installment that I heard is coming soon—the "Kirinyaga" being serialized in "SF Magazine."

Mizutama:

Ooooh.

Sakai:

Ooooh. I'd better call Hayakawa Shobo and tell them they should write "Acclaimed by Moto Hagio!" on the obi [Note 1] when it gets republished as a book.

[Note 1] Obi is a strip of paper dressed on books in Japan like a belt or obi (the word traditionally refers to a sash for kimono) to cover the lower part of the book's cover where promotional copies are placed. These days almost all books published in Japan come with obi, and your book's resale value will go down without it, so my husband tells you not to throw it away. I find them irritating, since they come loose (you have to keep re-wrapping it around the cover) and don't really have any function other than for PR.

Hagio:

You see, the pacing of the writing is very relaxed, so I cannot help but use the 3% of my brain to think about how it ends. Then at the end, it reaches an [unexpected] conclusion after overturning all the possible variations I could come up with myself—that gives me such pleasure: "Ah, you could make that move!" So for the final installment I have been enjoying thinking about the possible variations.

Sakai:

John Varley often depicts worlds in which sex gets interchanged. [Note 2]

[Note 2] Sexual ambiguity and androgyny are common themes throughout Hagio's works as well.

Hagio:

Yes, "The Ophiuchi Hotline" was also about a society where sex change occurs frequently, but I felt it was more of a fantasy if you depict it without involving personality. But in "Steel Beach" the changes are made at gene level. As the male protagonist transforms into a woman, the author describes how he becomes aware of his gradually feminized self during the process. That was interesting.

Mizutama:

Was it in "The Phantom of Kansas," included in the anthology "The Persistence of Vision," that a protagonist is about to be killed by his sex-changed clone—well, he gets killed in the end—but there is a clone and the one that didn't get a sex change is the original. The story was more focused on identity than the ethics of cloning.

Hagio:

Oh, that sounds interesting.

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part II-6)

(Continued)

Mizutama:

But Hagio-san, if you had had the good fortune to have many SciFi friends, and had discussions like, "I read this and it was fun!", then don't you think that your "Oh boy, do I love SciFi!" feeling could have gotten sublimated or dissipated, and you ultimately might not have gone to the trouble of drawing SciFi manga?

Hagio:

Mmmm. I wonder. (laugh)

Mizutama:

Don't you agree? (laugh)

Sakai:

Wow, you are so pushy. (laugh) Didn't you have any SciFi friends?

Hagio:

No, I didn't. There were friends who would let me talk about it, but they wouldn't take any interest themselves. This was in middle school or high school. Conversations usually ended with "But that's a fabricated story after all."

Mizutama:

And if you tried to get them to read, they would turn it down insensitively like, "Space aliens are not really…[my thing]" (laugh)

Hagio:

Yes, yes! (laugh) Oh, I remember—when Taku Mayumura was serializing the novel "The Mysterious Transfer Student", I happened to be reading it in "The 7th Grade Course" or "The 8th Grade Course." I really enjoyed it a lot. Then much later, I read Mayumura-san's interview about why he chose that setting. He was told no space aliens, no future society, no anything. But they still wanted him to write a SciFi piece, so he decided on a parallel universe. I was impressed that even an author of that standing had to deal with such headaches.

(Continues to Part III)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part II-5)

(Continued)

Mizutama:

I think there was a considerable number of people who were introduced to "SciFi" through your manga. In fact, weren't there many girls who were first exposed to Bradbury through reading your adaptations in Weekly Margaret?

Hagio:

Yes, I got several fan mails to that effect back then.

Mizutama:

In those days, Hagio-san, I feel you were not only letting your readers enjoy "SciFi" through your manga, but also providing the chance for them to encounter SciFi in traditional literary form [as opposed to manga form]. It came across from your works that you were not only an excellent cartoonist who drew SciFi manga, but also an ardent reader of SciFi. What hit me like, "Ah, this cartoonist really loves SciFi," was in "March Hares in Droves…" There was a little scene on the side, off the main plot, where a bespectacled girl and boy ran into each other and she dropped some books she was clutching in her arms. As he picked up the books, the boy said, "Wow, those are all Ballard—do you like New Wave?" As he was helping her, the girl said, "Yes, but I like Aldiss even more." That sort of conversation.

Sakai:

Sheesh, what a dialog! (laugh)

Mizutama:

But it was like this: If you are an adolescent SciFier who meets and falls in love with SciFi, you go on happily reading the various SciFi stories, but all the while feeling a bit lonely because you have no one to talk with about it—if you have that kind of feeling, then this is a fantasy you would dream of at least once! (laugh) Of course it is not that you need the opposite sex, but it's like, "If only I had a friend I could talk about SciFi with!"

Hagio:

Wow, thank you for remembering such an old piece. I probably got "Long Afternoon of Earth" from a rental bookstore and read it. Naturally, it is sad if you don't have a SciFi fan you can talk to.

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part II-4)

(Continued)

Sakai:

Who decided which stories to adapt?

Hagio:

I did.

Sakai:

You picked your favorites?

Hagio:

Yes, but I also considered the target audience of Weekly Margaret—I picked my favorites as well as what I thought would be suitable for the readers. In truth, I thought "The Fog Horn" might not be very accessible, but that was my most favorite from Bradbury back then.

Mizutama:

But how about the story about finding a buried woman?

Hagio:

That's "The Screaming Woman."

Mizutama:

I feel that was less accessible to the readers of Weekly Margaret than "The Fog Horn."

Hagio:

Well, but there is definitely a girl in the story. While "The Fog Horn" has only a middle-aged man and a monster.

Mizutama:

Oh, is that how it goes? (laugh) But it's a masterpiece, "The Fog Horn."

Hagio:

It's a masterpiece indeed.

Sakai:

Then, the SciFiers who encountered and were won over by Hagio-san in "They Were Eleven" got blown away when they read the sequel "The Horizon in the East—The Eternity in the West."

Mizutama:

And then we got "Silver Triangle," and "Ten Billion Days and Hundred Billon Nights," then "Marginal." I also liked "Heiresses in the Cabbage Fields," [Note 1] which reminded me of Lafferty. Oh, by the way, while "Marginal" was serialized I recall being really excited, with a strong gut feeling that you surely must also love "The Left Hand of Darkness."

[Note 1] "Heiresses in the Cabbage Fields" (1973)—the apartment where the Year 24 Group gathered was also in the middle of the cabbage fields. The manic mood in the piece perhaps conveys the reminiscence of the life there.

Sakai:

What an opinionated fan! (laugh)

Hagio:

Ah, I did read "The Left Hand of Darkness." It was so good that I chased down everything by Le Guin. "Marginal" was about a world where only men were born. Incidentally, you've probably heard the news stories about a recent survey of shellfish along the coast of Japan. The study indicates that these shellfish have all been feminized because of endocrine disruptors in our environment. When my manager heard this news, she said, "That story in 'Marginal'—that was really about shellfish, wasn't it!?" I replied to her, "That's right, actually." (laugh)

(Continues)

SF Online Interview with Hagio (Part II-3)

(Continued)

Mizutama:

Ah, but I now remember female protagonists became more prevalent in your works after that. "Star Red," "A, A', " and such. It was also a girl who played the bigger role in "Mosaic Helix."

[Note 1] The image on the left is linked to Amazon.com where you can order "A,A'" translated by Matt Thorn.

Hagio:

Yes, but that girl in "Mosaic Helix" wasn't good.

Mizutama:

Wasn't she?

Hagio:

No she wasn't. Because partway through, she got trapped in the crystal.

Mizutama:

Well, but I liked that girl. Oh, this may be from a different period in terms of publication, but you published manga adapted from short stories by Bradbury in Weekly Margaret, didn't you?

Sakai:

How did it got started? [Note 1]

[Note 1] Hagio had been working with Shogakukan for her publication. Weekly Margaret was published by Shueisha.

Hagio:

That started when I met an editor from Weekly Margaret and we went out for drinks. Back then, I had seldom been treated to meals, so I couldn't decline any assignment requests after such meals. (laugh) So when I got an offer from that editor, I was shrinking away, saying, "I work so slowly, I can't do it." But that editor somehow found out that I was a big fan of Bradbury, and said, "We would get the adaptation rights if you could do it."

Mizutama:

Wow, what a great editor.

Hagio:

So I thought to myself, "Jeez, if I decline this I'll never have another opportunity to draw Bradbury manga in my life."

(Continues)