The Fall 2017 Manga Guide

In This Corner of the World

What's It About? 

Suzu, a young woman in the Japanese seaport of Kure, lives a life of no great distinction. Though World War II rages just beyond the Japanese islands, though her brother and her husband Shusaku are both members of the Japanese navy, though the fateful day of nearby Hiroshima's atomic bombing inches closer, for her the war means little more than beautiful ships arriving in the harbor, limited rations and bargaining for sugar with black-market dealers. Slowly, however, the cruel realities of the war come home, threatening to annihilate the idyllic life she and her newfound family have made for themselves in this corner of the world. Released courtesy of Seven Seas to coincide with the home video release of Sunao Katabuchi's award-winning adaptation, this edition of In This Corner of the World compiles all three of the original Japanese volumes into one collection now available for $27.99.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating: 5

There are war stories, and then there are wartime stories. In This Corner of the World, the inspiration for the film of the same name, is the latter, a story about the everyday lives of people caught up in wartime. Although it is set in Japan, specifically in Kure, near Hiroshima, it could have been written about any family in any country during WWII, and indeed it shares a lot thematically with the novel The Book Thief, which takes place in Germany. At its heart, In This Corner of the World is about what it means to live through a violent time in history when all you can do is go along with what you're told and live your life.

The protagonist, Suzu, is a little girl when we first meet her, growing up on the outskirts of Hiroshima, before an arranged marriage takes her to Kure. There's a wonderful symmetry to her first meeting with her husband: the two were nearly the victims of a kidnapper when they were very young, something she's largely forgotten, but the way she rescued them has stuck with him, eventually leading to his marriage offer. At the end of the book, shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima, the two are there again when they interact with a man similar to the one who tried to abduct them. He still looks hairy and monstrous, but now we can see him through a different lens: where before he was an oni, now we can see him as lost soldier, trying to find his way in the world.

That's Suzu's chief concern as well: just trying to find her way. Through her interactions with her husband's family, most of whom are welcoming, people she meets in town, including a prostitute her husband once had an affair with, and the boy she would have married given her own choice, Suzu comes to understand different aspects of herself, and we get to see her become a more fully realized person, rather than just a character in a story. Given that the author says that she based some of this on her own family's experiences living in Kure, it's not surprising that the story has such familiarity and resonance, and if you've ever heard people who lived through the war talk about it, you'll recognize attitudes and activities even if they were in a different country. That's one of the largest strengths of the book – it may be manga and it may be set in Japan, but it tells a universal experience.

Through varying art styles that range from pencil sketches to watercolor to more traditional manga panels, In This Corner of the World uses its art as well as its words to create the feel of a time and place. It isn't a happy story, or even a particularly hopeful one at times, but it is a piece of history brought to life in a way that's easy to appreciate and understand from a time and place that shouldn't be forgotten.

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Austin Price

Rating:

In This Corner of the World is as homey, as quiet as its title would suggest. While the story is set in Hiroshima at the tail-end of World War II, readers could be forgiven for forgetting that save the time and date that introduce each chapter to demonstrate how close Suzu and her family are to cataclysm.

The war is nothing to them but a day-to-day frustration that carves itself into their life not by the tragedy it brings, but in the way it changes their errands, their patterns. The passing of Suzu's elder brother barely warrants a mention at first; even the chapter detailing his funeral plays it off without any attempt at pathos. The recipe for “Lord Kusonoki's rice,” though, or a detailed description of the contents of an emergency kit, by contrast, warrant near whole chapters. There's little straightforward momentum to the story and no great arc. It might more accurately be described as a journal, collecting every little stray thought or idea that crosses Suzu's mind, from her guess at random villagers' thoughts to the proper procedure for hemming clothes.

This sometimes interminable accumulation of daily details and minutiae seem intended to add a permanence to this world. As if by presenting these million-and-one banal features in just the right order, Suzu might present a kind of mathematical equation that proves she did, indeed, occupy this place and this time. It's an incredibly striking narrative effect that contrasts painfully with the fine-sketched pencils, the light inks, the almost-abstract hatching and shading creator Kouno uses to render the backgrounds in this world. They're beautiful, but beautiful in the way that the impressionistic paintings they owe so much to are: these lines are so wispy and insubstantial they look like ripples on water that would disperse at a splash from the smallest rock – or, more appropriately, a bomb.

The result is a book of overwhelming melancholy all the more painful because it's so ordinary. There are no grand emotions on display here; these are not great and tragic people. They're not even pitiable; none of them are wretches beyond saving. They're normal, as Suzu's old crush Mizuhara has it: "it's the world around (them) that's gone cockeyed.” So while it seems slightly despicable that the death of niece Harumi only seems inserted to inspired regret in Suzu where the loss of her hand warrants a two-page spread, the truth is that Kouno is not mourning mere flesh but everything that hand – which “had grabbed Harumi-san's hand in June,” which had “cut the wrong parts of elder sister's coat last November,” which “had drawn so many leaping rabbits in so many years” – symbolized.

It's remarkably subtle and beautiful work that is maybe just a shade too subtle. If it's capable of stirring some emotional recognition it is not always certain to stir the emotions themselves; Kouno could afford to be a little more blunt. For all of that, though, it's still a masterwork, still worthy of total attention.

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Amy McNulty

Rating:

The complete collection of In This Corner of the World is an edifying read, an enlightening look at the lives and attitudes of the average Japanese citizens during World War II. Though it's difficult for many to read about the Axis powers from their own point of view, the military is only at the edges of events. The war is ever-present, responsible for families losing their entire ways of life, for conscription, for rationing, and for required “volunteer” efforts to support the military and prepare for assault on Japanese shores. However, there's no combat in these pages—just the view of bombers overhead and the aftermath.

The hard work and devotion Suzu, the protagonist, puts into her daily life practically bleeds off the page, though the characterization in this manga feels shallow. That could be an intended effect, a way to demonstrate how wholeheartedly the Japanese citizens supported the war without complaint, even as they almost starved and sacrificed their loved ones to the war. Suzu doesn't walk around spouting patriotic war propaganda; she simply shows her patriotism through completing the tasks asked of her with a smile. However, it's hard to believe that she remains so optimistic and without complaint even as she's asked to marry a man she hardly knows and deals with an emotionally abusive sister-in-law who takes an instant disliking to her. Fortunately, the rest of the family, including her husband, is kind to her, but Suzu's bright nature in the worst of times seems almost improbable. Her artistic ability is the only thing that defines her outside of her role as supportive daughter, then wife and daughter-in-law, and the way the war impacts her ability to have that small creative part of herself is a plot point, but it rings hollow in the end. Almost no character is anything but obliging and optimistic, other than Suzu's sister-in-law, and even she gets over devastation too quickly. Still, that's not to say there aren't compelling small moments of emotional connection between characters.

Kouno's art is distinct, lending a sketch-like quality to every page in an almost perfect echo of Suzu's own interest in sketching the world around her. Backgrounds are minimal but suitable to the simplistic, if tough, lifestyle the main character leads. However, the simplistic art sometimes detracts from the seriousness of the story.

In This Corner of the World clearly has something to say, but the message, though present, is lost beneath shallow characterization and glossed-over devastating events. However, it does present a look at how the well-intentioned and hardworking people of Japan were living during one of the darkest times in modern history—and how they could support their military at incredible cost to themselves. In This Corner of the World is well worth a read for any manga reader, for the most part, the manga reads like a dry history lesson instead of an engaging story told in a historical setting.