After Volume 1 was released last September, featuring translation by Dan Luffey and lettering by Meg Argyriou, Digital-only manga publisher Star Fruit Books presents “Pop Life” Volume 2 which concludes the story. 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. “Pop Life” was previously serialised in Japan on the web magazine Funwaru Jump.
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As a recap, “Pop Life” Volume 1 introduced us to an unconventional household. Two single women of the same age but with different lives and backgrounds, Kinato Sakura and Chiba Akemi join forces and create a full-functioning collaborative family. Sakura was once a very popular mangaka but now she works only occasionally and on her own terms, and her teenage son Kaede is about to finish school. On the other hand, Akemi has a traditional company job and two smaller children, Taichi and Ruru, nine and eight respectively, who are still in grade school.
Volume 2 starts where Volume 1 left us, on a futsal ground. Sakura is recovering from a sprained ankle but now a lower back pain is bothering her and after trying again to play, she even pulls a thigh muscle. She doesn't take it well, depression sets in as, although these injuries they are not serious, they must remind her of the passing time and her fragility. Kaede too is not in a good spirit and when the two go out for lunch and a bit of quality time, Sakura drops a bomb. “What about we leave Japan after graduation and go to live abroad?” Soon after, Sakura will have to go back to her hometown for an aunt's funeral and memories and buried feelings come flooding in. Akemi too is nostalgic and, together with Sakura, she goes to visit her widowed father; it is an occasion to talk with her friend about serious matters like, getting old and planning the future. She is not sure how to sort out things in order to beat that sort of anxiety, but Sakura seems resolute to go ahead with her plan.
This second part of “Pop Life” has been an unexpected pleasure. In fact, there is a radical shift in tone from the cheerful and vital first installment which had set the foundation of Sakura/Akemi relationship and friendship. Volume 2 instead has a more episodic pace, while a deeply melancholic atmosphere pervades all of it. Passing time is the recurring theme, the undercurrent tension that runs through Sakura's and Akemi's minds. Sakura's phisical pains and injuries, children getting more independent, parents and relatives getting older or dying, all of these events pinpoit the fact that the protagonists are not getting any younger. Sakura's beloved fish and plants are there to tell us that life goes round in cycles, and a rather sad episode about Sakura's old cat Tora is a reminder of the role of companionship to get through life. Kaede and the children are more in the background this time, only few apparitions and an episode of Ruru learning rock climbing which is a sweet snapshot of young age's determination. But their gradual independence from the mums is one of the reasons of sadness in this volume, especially for Akemi.
This volume feels much more personal to the artist than the previous one and probably is. In fact, fiction mimics real life as Q-ta Minami too has left Japan and now lives abroad. In her afterword, the author explains that she decided to leave Tokyo because it had become a hostile environment to live in and instead, she wanted to be able to feel emotions in their full intensity, hence the “Pop Life” title from Prince song, whose lyrics recite: “Everybody needs a thrill”. Sakura, like her creator, is in a stagnant phase of her life, we see her in several tables, moping around, trying to work but defeated by a lack of “thrill” and motivation; however, she gets a renovated excitement organising her work and status as artist in residence for the future ahead. The friendship with Akemi is still there and more mature than ever. Their physical separation will not take anything away from the wonderful luck they stumble upon, to have found each other in a later stage of life.
As said before, the characters are realistic in their proportions and sketched with thin lines, lots of white and essential details. Sakura and Akemi look younger than their physical age, but this probably helps in concentrating on the feelings and in considering them as more intrinsically human than related to age. Q-ta's artwork is minimalist but full of nuances and body language that convey tons of emotions but never spoon-feeding the reader.
A beautiful and poignant reflection on life cycles and friendship, “Pop Life” closes the circle; we hope Sakura and Minami Q-ta are both doing well in their new home and looking forward to seeing their new work.
