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A review by meepelous
All My Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga
4.0
At first I wasn't too sure about this manga, I was really impressed by how the short little vignettes really built on each other. This might be technically a collection of short stories, but there's really no way to read them except from cover to cover. Each new scene giving us a more detailed idea of what being a woman in Japan has meant to Fumi Yoshinaga.
Because that is what this amazingly moving story is really all about. Exploring what it means to be a female to a level that is still uncommon. This was a real window for me (as a westerner) into the similarities and differences between our cultures.
That said, the stories were also very universal in nature as well. A lot of what these women are facing is the same thing they face on every other continent. I really enjoyed the way in which Yoshinaga takes a look "beyond the headlines" as it were. Opening her book with women acting in ways I initially thought were silly, but continuing to dig deeper to reveal the very real and heartfelt motivations that had lead these women there. Helping us to understand and appreciate what their lives have been like, rather then drawing snap judgements based off of the results.
Overall the art struck me as fairly standard for a manga, but that is by no means a bad thing. The artwork is very consistent from page to page and I never felt like it went too far into the over-the-top cartoonish realm of eyes the size of small moons! A down to earth story, there's a lot of talking heads, but the faces are very expressive and the page layouts were varied and interesting.
Because that is what this amazingly moving story is really all about. Exploring what it means to be a female to a level that is still uncommon. This was a real window for me (as a westerner) into the similarities and differences between our cultures.
That said, the stories were also very universal in nature as well. A lot of what these women are facing is the same thing they face on every other continent. I really enjoyed the way in which Yoshinaga takes a look "beyond the headlines" as it were. Opening her book with women acting in ways I initially thought were silly, but continuing to dig deeper to reveal the very real and heartfelt motivations that had lead these women there. Helping us to understand and appreciate what their lives have been like, rather then drawing snap judgements based off of the results.
Overall the art struck me as fairly standard for a manga, but that is by no means a bad thing. The artwork is very consistent from page to page and I never felt like it went too far into the over-the-top cartoonish realm of eyes the size of small moons! A down to earth story, there's a lot of talking heads, but the faces are very expressive and the page layouts were varied and interesting.