While I'd love to create a post analyzing Okazaki's most renowned work in her hayday of manga making leading to a research assignment on Japanese social society in the 90's, for now I'm just going to review her manga.
The overall summary is that it's a manga about a famous woman named Ririko. Ririko is at the top of her career and is considered one of the most, if not the most, beautiful woman in Japan. Little does the world know, it's all fake. Multiple, full body plastic surgeries, led to her beauty but also her body's decay. In order to maintain her appearance and her body, multiple touch up procedures and additional surgeries are necessary. Her deteriorating mental and physical state because of this leads her manipulative personality, controlling and using those around her.
Upfront you can tell that it's going to be social commentary about Japan in the time period it was made. The main idea, beauty is only skin deep. This ideal is rampade through the story. It exists in Ririko who suffers in her pursuit to prettiness, in her assistant who suffers because she was dazzled by a beautiful woman who leads her down a path of destruction, and through Ririko's replacement when she is becoming more and more irrelevant. The story is character driven rather than plot driven.
The art reflects the world she wants to show. In the manga even the beautiful characters are overexaggerateed. The features in the characters aren't made to be super pretty and hyped up like in most shoujos where even the regular girls are the prettiest people you could imagine, but like in Flower of Evil and in other joesi and seinen comics where everyone just looks vaguely normal. Maybe slightly more appealing than others but essential they all had the same thing. Distinguishing features exist on characters by themselves while Ririko has everything. She has a small, round nose, long, slim arms and legs, is bony and is tall. She looks fake and altered.
Ririko is pegged as a beautiful, innocent person but she is deeply manipulative and strangely strong while being a bit pathetic. While having very evident breakdowns throughout the story, she also tends to be the strongest person, only second to the woman who catered to her personality and wish to be beautiful. It's interesting because she calls her mother, which she is not. But she calls her mother to signify that she is her creator. But we'll paddle back to her in a little bit. Ririko controls the weak willed people around her easily. She brings her assistant on board to her almost immediately just by showing her attention. Her stylists all cater to every whim and her producers refuse to upset for fear of her falling apart. It doesn't help of course. Ririko is already too far gone at the beginning of the manga and at the end. Her one fear is disappearing, becoming unimportant. So she manipulates the people around her so that she is the center of their attention. In the end, she got what she wanted, she became an enigma, and a myth. But I won't get into that for fear of spoilers.
Now onto the other characters! Two of the most interesting second to Ririko is mother and the assistant. While originally, the assistant was a upfront girl with her life controlled, once she started working for Ririko it all of sudden unravelled. She became weak, and in complete control of Ririko to do as she wanted. This ultimatley led to Ririko's downfall, but it was interesting to watch a person succumb to something that they originally did not believe in or believed to be taboo. Mother, Ririko's caretaker and producer, is also interesting. She uses Ririko the way Ririko uses others. She matches Ririko's personality in the way that she treats people showing that that's where she got it from. It's also later shown that Ririko wasn't always a terrible person in the pursuit of being pretty when her innocent and chubby little sister is brought it.
Altogether, the manga showcases a lot of different plot elements through the characters. The characters show how manipulative things can be and how superficiality is useless. Overall, it's a great manga and worth the read.
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