The Adult Beginner is a big fan of picking up manga and casually flipping through it at the comic book store while grinning.
The drawing style! Hilarious! Fascinating! Beyond stylized!
Never bought and read one, because, I mean, where to start? Which story about cute clothes and crushes do I wanna invest my time in?
Enter Swan, by Ariyoshi Kyoko.
Swan follows a talented Japanese ballerina who apparently is blonde?
Set in the 1970′s, so lots of omg outfits.
And long arms and legs and hands.
Arms and legs forever, you guys.
Good imagery for ballet class.
Be long like Masumi-chan.
Looooong.
Longerrrrrrrrrrr.
That comic book was my favorite when I was a kid. It was such a long time ago, I don’t remember the details, but were those Japanese ballerinas blond? I remember that they have huge eyes and long, long limbs, but blond? There were English girls with blond hair (it was black and white at that time, but their hairs were “shiny”) in the comic book.
Yeah man, checkout the covers. Issue 2 there shows Hiriji Masumi with the bangs and Kyogoku Sayoko behind her, just as blonde as the day is long.
Did a quick google search asking why the blonde hair? Interesting but not particularly answer-full search. Apparently it just comes down to being the illustrator’s prerogative, they can do what they wanna do.
So we Japanese girls grow up with those Ballet Manga and aspire to be ballerinas. And this epic story still continues after 30 years!
See also the Ballet Bag’s Ballet Manga article:)
http://www.theballetbag.com/2010/07/16/ballet-manga/
Naomi, thank you for this link, it’s awesome
Hello Ladies,
I keep thinking the Swan team should do a special issue with the RB’s Melissa Hamilton… legs forever x 2
BTW, thanks for the mention Naomi !
You guys rock