Digital-only manga publisher Star Fruit Books announced their debut license “Pop Life” in June. Volume 1 was then released last September, featuring translation by Dan Luffey and lettering by Meg Argyriou. The author, Minami Q-ta, class 1969, started her career when she won a competition for young cartoonists and made her professional debut in 1992. Since then, she has written stories for magazines aimed at both male and female audiences, often drawing inspiration from her own experience, describing childhood as well as the difficult entry into adulthood.
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“Pop Life” tells the sweet story of an unconventional household. Two very different single women, Kinato Sakura and Chiba Akemi, join forces and create a full-functioning collaborative family. They are of the same age but with very different stories behind them. Sakura was once a very popular mangaka and – as all in her profession – leading a life completely dedicated to work. A brief initial flashback shows us a young Sakura dealing (barely) with her then little son Kaede and a male figure who bitterly regrets his family commitments. Fast forward to today, the man is long gone, Sakura works only occasionally and on her own terms, and Kaede is now a shy teenager juggling between a part-time job and correspondence school. On the other hand, Akemi has a more traditional company job and, despite being Sakura's peer, has much smaller children, Taichi and Ruru, nine and eight respectively, who are still in grade school. Things seem to work out pretty well in this way, since Sakura has more spare time in her hands and can take care of the children and the cooking, which she does with new-found passion. In fact, in her busy mangaka days she had often neglected Kaede and – well – herself too, and now she is trying to slow down, enjoy the small things and spending some quality time with the kids, allowing Akemi to concentrate on her time-demanding job.
Although Pop Life universe is anchored in everyday life, don't think that this is just a “slice-of-bore” narration. The manga focuses a lot on the relationship between the two women and there is lots of drinking & chatting and cool things the two friends do; Akemy sings in a band in her spare time and Sakura decides to start Futsal. Children are refreshingly left on a second tier of the narration; even teenager Kaede is realistically depicted as a mum-avoiding boy.
The idea of sharing life and collaboration within the family is explored very well, especially in two parts of the story. First, when during a school camp Akemi's girl has an allergy episode, Sakura takes care of the problem completely; she talks with the doctors, double checks the medicines and gets on a plane to go visit little Ruru. It is a beautiful episode that shows how close this little unconventional family is. Later, when the refrigerator breaks down, we witness another heart-warming spontaneous gesture from Akemi. There is not romance in this odd family but – undeniably – lots of love.
The style of Minami Q-ta's artwork could be defined as soothing, not an adjective usually associated to manga drawings, but it certainly matches the definition of it: tranquilizing or calming, comforting. It is a relaxing reading, not only for the interesting slice-of-life plot but also for the bright and well-balanced visual. The characters are realistic in their proportions and sketched with thin lines, with lots of white and details. There is also a good deal of cooking and eating, but don't expect a trendy food show-off. It's just Sakura's sheer joy in rediscovering the pleasure of good homemade simple food and the happiness in sharing.
With its female friendship main theme, “Pop Life” may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it is a good-mood-inducing experience and it gently proposes a collaborative model of life that has nothing to dislike about and lots to consider. Moreover, even if it's not your manga genre of choice, it makes a refreshing in-between read.
