JWH Author's Voice Vol. 8 interview with Shiho Torii
W hile Japanese manga has attained worldwide renown, a new subgenre of this pop-art form has emerged and has been making waves over the past several years in Japan. Known as the "comic essay," it usually features illustrated anecdotes from the authors' everyday life and is told from a distinctively female point of view, focusing on subjects like marriage.This fall, the very first English edition of a comic essay will debut in North America, the UK, and Europe from One Peace Books. Titled, So I Need to Lose 15 Pounds, this book by Shiho Torii tells the story of her resolve to lose 15 pounds within 5 months by tackling 27 different dieting methods. 'I've always wanted to work on the subject of dieting,' says Ms. Matsunaga, the editor of the book. Matsunaga met Torii through her website where eye-catching samples of her works were posted. Although Torii had never created a comic essay before, Matsunaga took an immediate liking to her illustrations and commissioned her the work. 
“It was fun but challenging to lose 15 pounds and visually detail the story at the same time,” says Torii. “Some of the methods were really humiliating, especially the colon-cleansing one!” Torii recalls with laughter. Other dieting methods such as hypnosis and the one involving NASA’s developmental equipment are not easily accessible to the general public, but their accounts in the book are very up close and personal, offering many vicarious thrills for sure.Apart from being entertaining, the book is also a solid repository of information on the subject of health and dieting. “To my surprise, I received lots of thank-you letters from teenage girls. It just goes to show how much Japanese girls are obsessed by dieting on a routine basis, which I don’t think is a necessarily good thing for them,” says Torii. 
The comic essay is written in a highly idiomatic style. “That’s why the translation task was hard in a sense,” says Robert McGuire, the translator and supervisor for the project. “The English edition has already been catching attention from various media sources before its debut,” McGuire added. Torii was also hopeful. “I have absolutely no idea how my book is going to fare in overseas markets, but I would hope this new style of manga will open up a new market and create a trend,' she said.Koji Chikatani Senior Agent Japanese Writers' House / TranNet KK | |
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