#Okazaki Kyoko

[lllbdwn97]

River's edge

[sadamina]

Helter Skelter, art by Okazaki Kyoko

[houkagokappa]

[keythekeythekey]

Slayyyyyy

[engshoujosei]

River’s Edge

Releases in English on June 27th, 2023.

Licensed by Kodansha, published by Vertical

From renowned author, Kyoko Okazaki, the creator of Helter Skelter and Pink, comes a story of adolescence filled with friendship, drama and intertwined relationships of six high school friends. At the edge of the city not far from the sea, a field of goldenrod sways in the breeze, its veil of amber flowers obscuring secrets underneath. Old bones and forgotten memories rest in silence, waiting for someone to dig them up. This is where the lives of six young men and women intertwine in ways both tragic and extraordinary. Decaying secrets are revealed as they forge friendships from pain, find betrayal in pleasure, and stare into the face of death itself—in a field of gold by a stagnant river, under the smoke-filled skies.

Status in Country of Origin

1 Volume (Complete)

Tags:

Adapted to Live Action

Adultery

Angst

Animal Cruelty

Bullying

Dark Ambience

Drug/s

Eating Disorder/s

High School

Important Non-Romantic Relationship/s

Japan

LGBT Character in Non-Yaoi/Yuri Manga

Multiple Protagonists

Nudity

[yaoi-reading]

Helter Skelter

[soft-manga]

tokyo girls bravo

[strangemonochromes]

Helter Skelter // Kyoko Okazaki

[patrickbatewoman]

Helter Skelter, Kyoko Okazaki, 2003

[animefeminist]

Coming of age as a queer teen in Okazaki Kyoko's River’s Edge

Content warning: discussion of historical homophobia, bullying, disordered eating

Spoilers for River’s Edge

On a chilly winter night, Wakakusa Haruna is led to a field of goldenrod near her highschool by her classmate, Yamada Ichiro. As a show of thanks and friendship after she rescued him from bullying, he promises to show her his “treasure.” The two teens trek through the tall grass until they reach this treasure: a dead body. 

This scene serves as the symbolic center to Okazaki Kyoko’s River’s Edge (1993-1994), where, despite its morbid and nihilistic undertones, the body is a source of connection and possible community between three young people all disenfranchised for their own reasons: “normal” and seemingly popular girl Haruna, closeted gay teenager Yamada, and their underclassmen, young model Yoshikawa Kozue. The body and the secret of its existence can be interpreted as a symbol of their outsiderness, and more specifically their queerness. Though this series is not primarily discussed as a queer manga, it does explore and reflect Japan’s “gay boom” in the early 1990s, both skewing and addressing contemporary media tropes. River’s Edge features a range of queer representations within its central cast, from frank depictions of closeted life and homophobia to more ambiguous depictions of attraction, making it a layered piece of LGBTQIA+ media and a powerful time capsule of the state of queer representation and queer life in Japan during this period. 

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[yonamatsuri]

[houkagokappa]

[keythekeythekey]

Oh the way I cheered when this came in mail ❤ I am so glad it will proudly stand on my bookshelf

[engshoujosei]

Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly

1 volume

Licensed by Vertical (now part of Kodansha)

Through round after round of extensive plastic surgery and vigorous maintenance, Ririko has become the absolute manifestation of beauty, and becomes a wildly successful model, actress, and singer. However, soon, her body, unable to withstand the burdens of surgery, begins to crumble, and along with it so does her mind, as she plummets towards a frightening and inevitable end. Note: Won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Grand Prize in 2004.

Status in Country of Origin

1 Volume (Complete)

Tags:

Abuse

Adapted to Movie

Antihero / Antiheroine

Anxiety

Award-Winning Work

BDSM

Bisexual Character/s

Celebrity/ies

Cheating/Infidelity

Cruel Female Lead

Dark Ambience

Depression

Detective/s

Drug Abuse/Addiction

Emotional Manipulation

Female Centric Plot

Feminism

Fetish/es

Frankenstein

Idol/s

Jealousy

Makeover/s

Manipulative Female Lead

Masochist/s

Mental Breakdown

Mental Illness

Mentally Unstable Character/s

Model/s

Modern Era

Nudity

Plastic Surgery

Pop Culture

Psychological Manipulation

Psychological Trauma

Reflections on Human Nature

Scandal/s

Selfish Protagonist

Sexual Coercion

Showbiz

Social Commentary

Suicidal Thoughts

Suicide/s

Surrealism

Time Skip

Unfulfilled Dreams

Violence

[foolsparadise1986]

RIVER’S EDGE, Kyoko Okazaki/岡崎京子

[akolnoix]

you can't stop: move, move!! it's already begun