Cigarette Girl

The first time I read Cigarette Girl I was confused; “I don’t get it,” as well as “Was that it?” came out of my mouth. And yes, I said the first time because, after sleeping on it, I decided to try reading it again to see if I missed something. I’m glad I did, since there were a few things that I didn’t catch the first time around. I definitively feel as though this manga is best read slowly. A lot of the charm comes from the images and silence in the stories, and most of the time it’s what isn’t said that is more important than what is said. I’ve realized that the short vignette-style stories aren’t meant to be read back to back, but rather on their own. Reading it a second time I began to fall in to that time in history that was Japan in the 70’s that Matsumoto portrays. Different lives and encounters of men and women constrained by societal convections, worrying about finding a husband or wife before their time is up, or otherwise having difficulties to express their feelings and emotions. The door to door condom saleswoman “Happy-chan” chapters were especially weirdly funny.

I liked the comical art style, but it had a fatal issue in which the characters looked very similar. This was to the point where I would get constantly confused as to which character it was, taking me out of the immersion at times. Each of the characters feels, to some extent, unfulfilled. They wander through life, and sometimes they are given glimpses of a brighter future, but often, when they pursue these hopes, they fall short of realizing their dreams, and they regress to how they once were - perhaps how they will always be. Not much happens in the stories, not much gets resolved. Sometimes, as in life itself, things just end. It’s definitively a different narrative that leaves much to be desired, yet leaves me wanting more (I felt a similar way after watching the Miss Hokusai movie.) It may just be that I am used to being entertained in a certain way and this is unfamiliar storytelling why I couldn’t fully love the manga. I do appreciate the work in its own right as a Gekiga style manga and I sensed that there was a wistfulness and subtlety to these stories that was enjoyable.