Week Three: Gegika

Cigarette Girl by Masahiko Matsumoto was a difficult read- I wasn't quite sure what was going on the first time I read through it, but flipping through it again was a little bit more insightful overall.

What was most intriguing about Cigarette Girl was the fact that the characters portrayed in the manga were not your typical ordinary day-to-day people, but rather people in more unique circumstances. The characters were a little harder to relate to because of this, but even so the underlying undertones of personal failing from each of the characters helped bridge the different stories together in a way that worked pretty well. By reading the short stories multiple times, a lot of the little hidden elements reveal themselves and it becomes more obvious as to why such a dreary-looking manga feels a little more lighthearted and comical.

Overall, Cigarette Girl was a pretty good representation of how life just happens, and how people just keep moving forward regardless. There was no distinct ending to a lot of the short stories, which kept me wondering about what would happen to the characters. This was my first look into the Gegika style of manga, and while not necessarily my cup of tea, I was definitely intrigued and may check out a few more in the same vein.