Mar 15, 2019
In a world where the production system puts constant pressure on mangaka and where the story and characters of manga are controlled tightly by the editor to please the readership and make them feel comfortable by not breaking their comfort zone and bringing them exactly what they expect, Ayako Noda tried to break this vision by creating a mise en abyme in which its characters would be aware that they are inside a com-ics and try to escape from the readers gaze.
Starting with this premise, Watashi no Uchu explores the relation of an author to its characters and questions their free will.
Everything begins with
...
Alice Tsunomine, a transfer student, who will be quickly intrigued by Uchu Hoshino, a shy and introvert student who would rather keep being isolated in his room. The story really begins when he reveals to her that everything that surrounds her is in fact, a manga. This isn't done for any comical or realistic purpose but to make the story more 'fake'.
From the moment they are revealed this fact, the characters can see the dialogue bubbles, allowing them to read thoughts of others, they are aware of the paneling and try to alter it, change its focus to choose what it shows. They will become gradually become able to see an unknown entity observing them and invading their privacy, this entity be-ing of course us, the reader, which they qualify of monster.
Uchu knows he’s going to disappear when the works ends. He knows he can’t die: when he tries to commit suicide by jumping from the roof, trees appear as if by magic to sof-ten his fall. If the characters don’t even have the power to control what happens to them, what do they exist for?
When we look at a work of fiction, we choose to accept the reality of this other world: this is called "suspension of disbelief". By deliberately pointing out that this only a story, the reader is excluded from this story, he isn't immersed in the world anymore. The author does not create a complicity with the reader, it does the exact opposite: it reminds him that he is only simple spectator and leaves him powerless to the develop-ment of the story. It tackles subjects of determinism and the creation process of the story, how powerful the writer can be and the limits of what she can do on the story. It seeks to show how intrusive the reader can be on the very work they want to be au-thentic and what are the consequences of trying to alter it.The characters will turn seeking to break free from this illusion, to emancipate from something they have no control of.
Ayako Noda goes so far as to completely exclude the reader by drawing herself inside the manga, talking casually with her characters without caring about the readers gaze. That makes it a kind of private story that the readers are not supposed to look at.
It seems important to note that Ayako Noda was serialized in Ikki, in which artists like Taiyou Matsumoto, Hayashida Q or Daisuke Igarashi were also serialized and also try-ing to break the mold and try new things in terms of drawing styles and narration. As such, ayako noda’s art is quite experimental and as mentioned playing with the pan-eling ad with what characters can see or not depending on their “awareness”. This leads to brilliantly mocking some tropes, some side characters are in love and flowers will ap-pear upon romantic situations leading to incomprehension from our main characters. She also modifies the title of her work when Uchu decides to leave the story or alters dialogue of repeating pages. This play on forms can immediately be spotted just by looking at the covers which embodies this mystic frontier between fiction and reality.
Watashi no Uchu ultimately puts forward some problems specific to this medium and delivers a wonderful treat as far as experimental modification go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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