From Moto Hagio one of the founders of shojo (manga aimed at girls) comes a career spanning collection of ten of her finest works. From a sci-fi dream of eternally doomed love in A Drunken Dream, a girl that hates her beautiful but mindless conjoined twin that sucks all the life from her in Hanshin: Half God, to a beautiful girl that thinks she’s an iguana in Iguana Girl these tales of love and loss have touched hearts for years and now they are yours.
This is a really brilliant collection, because it allows you to see a history of the best in shojo all in one volume. Hagio’s style and skill changes over the years, but all her tales are beautiful and timeless. Like modern fairy tales, these stories cross across time, langue, and culture. Even though the subject matter goes from realistic to sci-fi to all sorts of other interesting places, the stories and line work of the art is simple and straightforward. My favorite stories are the three mentioned in the summary above and The Willow Tree, a brilliant story told with almost no dialog in very simple half page panels. The twist to this one is sad and touching and made me reread the story immediately. This is an excellent collection of manga for anyone that likes well written, intelligent manga.
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