24 Jul / The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud by Kuniko Tsurita, translated by Ryan Holmberg [in Shelf Awareness]
An English-language debut, The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud is a label-defying collection of Kuniko Tsurita’s gekiga – literally, “dramatic pictures,” referring to more serious graphic work for adult audiences. Organized chronologically from 1966 to 1980, the historical compilation includes Tsurita’s early magazine submissions as a teenager, as well as pieces written five years prior to her premature death at 37 in 1985.
Tsurita explores the role of women through numerous shorts in unexpected formats: the near-wordless “Woman” chronicles the tragic life of a rejected prehistoric woman; “The Tragedy of Princess Rokunomiya” explores stifling feminine standards of behavior and beauty; “My Wife Is an Acrobat” is a literal performance of womanhood. In other emerging themes, a careless regard for humanity dominates: in “Nonsense,” a murderer kills only evil-doers; in “Anti,” a fatal accident morphs into a riveting film; and in “Calamity,” execution befalls the innocent. Surreal solitude looms as the world seems to disappear in the titular “The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud”; invisibility just happens in “Sounds”; isolation prevails in “The Sea Snake and the Big Dipper.”
In their illuminating ending essay, translator Ryan Holmberg and manga editor Mitsuhiro Asakawa place Tsurita firmly in the graphic canon: “Tsurita may well be the earliest female cartoonist anywhere in the world who succeeded in producing comics … without being hemmed in by the commercial demands or the gender-based genre conventions and stylistic strictures of mainstream publishing.” Drawn & Quarterly’s meticulously curated presentation ensures Tsurita’s legacy will continue to gain deserved recognition internationally, decades after her untimely death.
Discover: Recognized as one of the first women pioneers in Japan’s gekiga – serious manga – industry, the revered Kuniko Tsurita finally makes her English-language debut, 35 years after her premature death.
Review: “Graphic Books,” Shelf Awareness, July 24, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020