Ashita no Ousama (1996)

 

Volumes: 10

Chapters: 53

Status: Finished

Published: 1996 to 2001

Genres: Josei

Authors: Yachi, Emiko (Story & Art)

Synopsis

A country girl in the big city, Yu doesn’t quite understand just how hard it is to make it big. So when she’s enraptured by a play, she immediately declares it her life’s mission to become a great actress. Unfortunately, she has no knowledge of the craft, no experience, and no skills aside from making good curry—not that that kind of thing would ever stop her.

Ashita no Ousama is the sort of manga that kind of…surprises you. You look at it and you don’t really expect much, but once you get into the swing of it, you start to realize how carefully and quietly this show subverts expectations to create a unique, if naive story about ambition and success in theatre.

Of course, my fondness for the manga was probably already sealed from the get go. I love it when one art form discusses another art form, even though theatre, being so complex in its action and staging, didn’t seem perfect for illustrative manga. Emiko Yachi takes a different approach- focusing intently on the behind-the-scenes of theatre, rather than actual performances. There’s a lot of research that’s been done into the technique of expression, and more importantly, the psychology of theatre. It’s so fascinating, seeing how actors and directors coexist and how each must go about embodying the persona they need for each play. I was so surprised to learn Yachi didn’t know anything about theatre before the manga, because she flexes and applies her research so well. The manga’s themes of ambition, rivalry, constant ‘levelling up’ reminded of a lot of sports anime/manga, and the rush of adrenaline I got whenever Yuu managed to execute a play was the same as watching Hinata perform a perfect spike in Haikyuu!. And a lot of the plays actually sound so interesting. Like, I would love to watch these in real life! The manga itself prefers to infer the performances via single splash pages, and the artstyle supports this. The lankiness of the character designs and the way the characters dance across the stage during performances reminded me of Art Nouveau posters for the Moulin Rouge, especially in the way they interact with other in these loose floating poses, seemingly free of all laws of gravity and perspective. As the manga progresses, Yachi becomes increasingly confident and her understanding of theatre starts to show as performances become longer and more elaborate. Yachi’s art is undeniably shoujo, but it’s shoujo grounded in strong drawing technique. Sometimes she relies too heavily on repetitive emoticons to represent emotion in her characters offstage, but it never got to the point of being distracting, and as an emotionally light story, it all came together well in the end.

 

Another aspect of the manga that appealed to my personal tastes was the premise. The idea of someone discovering something they love purely through coincidence, and then throwing themselves wholeheartedly into pursuing that love without fear is something that I admire- it appeals my silly sense of romance. It’s not too ridiculous about it – Sasaya Yuu’s initial attempts at theatre aren’t successful at all- but her determination to succeed in theatre against all odds was so admirable, even when she was clearly barking up the wrong tree. She’s this wonderful mixture of super-proactive/determined and all sweetness, meaning she could power the plot whilst keeping all the charm and good-heartedness of your typical shoujo protagonist. It was entertaining and refreshing to see a female lead who knew what she wanted and actually made strides to obtain it. It was also refreshing to have my expectations subverted in other characters like Touya, who was not the aloof ‘prize’ I thought he would be, but a genuinely nice person with his own struggles and insecurities despite his talent and skill. As Sasaya climbed up the ranks and gained power, Yachi took steps to bring Touya down from his seemingly unreachable pedestal to make his character more human. There’s romance too, but Yachi wisely assumes that we already know who is going to get together, and the strong cast chemistry meant that whenever the romance did briefly come into the foreground, it made perfect sense. The manga refuses to sink to pointless cliches and moves at lightening speed, as it strives to keep a drama-fee plot occupied by a cast of mature adults who handle conflict responsibly and don’t draw anything out unnecessarily.

However, conflict is necessary for a good story and Ashita no Ousama’s fast pace means that conflicts are not as well-developed as they should be, or get built up only to have a somewhat unconvincing resolution. It is justified mostly, because of the proactive nature of our protagonist and the manga’s insistence on everyone being rational adults, but sometimes I felt it could had more of an impact had it indulged more heavily in its drama side. Another side-effect of the pace is that the manga, as time goes, fails to make much of an impression. It’s very much an ‘in the moment’ piece of work, where it impresses there and then, but when you’re done and dusted, you realize you actually can’t remember much of what actually happened in the first place. I think the ending contributed a lot to that. It concludes things nicely, but it’s also incredibly rushed and lacks tension, because we knew what was going to be happen. It didn’t sour my experience, but I feel like it could have been better, especially considering how strong the rest of the manga was.

Nevertheless, Ashita no Ousama really is a beautiful, solid portrayal of theatre and a wonderful insight into the art form. It’s mature, funny and anchored by a lovable protagonist in Sasaya Yuu. If you’re looking for a relaxed, but solidly executed and intelligent story, this is the one for you.