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After "She and her Cat" and "Blue Period", the short story collection "Nude Model and Other Stories" presents another work by mangaka Tsubasa Yamaguchi on the US market.
The three stories in "Nude Model and Other Stories" were originally published between 2015 and 2022 in Kodansha Publishing's Afternoon magazine, which also contains "Blue Period". The eponymous short story was published by Tsubasa Yamaguchi after she won the "Four Seasons Award" of the Monthly Afternoon Rookie Prize in 2015. The other two short stories, "Girl" and "Kamiya", were published in the same magazine in 2022.
How was "Nude Model and Other Stories"?
With her short story collection "Nude Model and Other Stories", the mangaka of "Blue Period" reveals a new facet of her work with a collection that is thematically very different from a high school student's struggle to become a great artist.
The volume begins with the 45-page story "Nude Model". It revolves around high school student Niko Momose, who, after losing a bet, is asked by his friends to sleep with the outsider girl Natsume, who lives only for her passion for painting. At first he tries to keep his promise by taking advantage of Natsume. He offers to serve as a model for her paintings and even decides to pose naked to arouse her. Niko has no idea that Natsume has long since seen through his plan and that he has become her plaything.
Built on a test of courage and wrapped in the weight of self-loathing and isolation, "Nude Model" bears an uncanny resemblance to Yamaguchi's Blue Period. Yet in the same breath, it immediately dissolves into something else entirely. The tone is much darker. You don't spend much time with the characters in this oneshot, but the impression they leave on the reader is strong. The idea of showing his true self naked and unobstructed as a metaphor not only for how Niko behaves to hide his true self, but also for how Natsume perceives Niko, is well realized.
The second story, entitled "Girl", is about Yada, a teenager who, like many other boys his age, thinks a lot about sex, girls and masturbation. Yada also shows little respect for some of his female classmates, including making fun of his classmate Asahina, who has a large bust and is rumored to have slept with the gym teacher. When he can no longer make do with classic porn, he records himself screaming lustfully with a girl's voice. As these strange recordings are successful with other boys, his need for recognition drives him down a path that ultimately proves dangerous.
At two chapters, "Kamiya" is the longest story in the volume. It is about Sachi Tanaka, a young doctor who believes she has failed in her profession. She originally wanted to become a surgeon, but her phobia of blood forces her to scale back her ambitions. When she hears about Kamiya, a mysterious club in a disreputable neighborhood where the boys are supposedly blood-sucking vampires, she sees her chance to overcome her phobia. But at what cost? Although she falls more and more in love with Yohan, who sucks her blood in a sometimes almost erotic way, and although she knows that he is only playing a role for a customer, she gives in more and more to lust and falls into a dangerous spiral.
Leaving aside the fact that painting forms the background to the first story, with "Nude Model and Other Storys" Yamaguchi is addressing a more mature audience and showing us a different side to her work. All three stories are dark, twisted, sensual, sometimes even erotic. The first story is very much about nudity. "Nude Model" is like a secret journey into our inner selves, where people shed everything, clothes and prejudices alike, to reveal their unknown side.
The second story deals a lot with eroticism before the plot reaches a dark turning point (be sure to read the content warnings at the beginning of the volume). The third story is a disturbing thriller right to the end, in which the protagonist falls into an increasingly toxic spiral of addiction.
Using themes such as stalking, abuse of power and emotional manipulation, Tsubasa Yamaguchi explores the relationship with the body and the forbidden and plays with the power of the unspoken.
In Yamaguchi's unmistakable drawings, each story unfolds its own charm. Her drawing style already captivated me a few years ago when I read the single volume "She and her Cat". It is by no means perfect and certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but for me it convinces with its diversity in character design and its unmistakable recognition value. "Nude Model and Other Stories" shows how her unique graphic style with soft strokes lends itself wonderfully to sensuality and shadow play.
Kodansha is publishing the title under its Vertical label, but this means that the format does not match that of "Blue Period", which was published in a larger format. On the other hand, the volume scores points with its particularly attractive dust jacket, which takes up the structure of a painting and thus perfectly matches the theme of the collection.
In conclusion
With "Nude Model and Other Stories", fans of mangaka Tsubasa Yamaguchi will get their money's worth. The artist presents a fascinating and dark collection of stories with three works that are definitely worthwhile and offer interesting approaches.
New stock of "Nude Model and Other Stories" is on its way to Walt's Comic Shop!
*It is important to note that due to the subject matter of the collection, the US publisher recommends an 18+ age rating. In addition, the second story has a content warning regarding sexual abuse.
Nude Model And Other Stories
€11,01
€12,95
I could model for you...In the title story, a high school delinquent tries to seduce an introverted artist in his class as part of a cruel game, but learns some unexpected things about himself when she turns the tables. Then… read more
