'Monogatari Bi (物語美)' and the Beauty of Imperfection in the works of Shimizu Reiko

It seems fair to say that those who have encountered the works of Shimizu Reiko would inevitably grope for a word to describe the unspeakable beauty in her works. The other day, I found one such newly-coined word at a Japanese fansite, and it is monogatari bi (物語美). Here is my translation of the term as defined by the Japanese fan:

It is difficult to explain monogatari bi, but it is different from the artwork and characters being beautiful. It is about the work in its entirety having no flaw and no vulgarity that makes one sense the aesthetic touch that permeates the entire work. Combined with story-telling and attractive characters, a unique beauty is born.

The Japanese fan also gave an example from the ending of Ryuu no Nemuru Hoshi (龍の眠る星), one of Shimizu-sensei's earlier works. Without spoiling the ending, here is my translation of her comment:

There is a secret longing for beautiful ruins with no sign of living humans in this. To put it another way, what I like is that there is a feeling that living is vulgar, but through depicting a world in the near future where the realm of life transcends this vulgarity, life is not repudiated.

(Source: ttp://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~fleur/zakkicho002.html)

I think this Japanese fan sums it up rather nicely. In addition, there is always this beauty of imperfection in her works that gives the story a touch of sadness that haunts the reader for a very, very long time:

[Spoilers of the ending of Kaguya-Hime ahead]

I have always said that the Kaguya-Hime is a bit of a disappointment among Shimizu-sensei's works. Her strength lies in compact short stories, not in long-running series where she tends the plot convoluted. But one thing that I really like about Kaguya-Hime is the ending. Here Kaguya-hime (ie. Akira) marries a royal king on this earth (ie. Miller as King Julian), and spends 60 years on this earth before she is carried back to the celestial realm. By all measure, the 60 years they spend together as husband and wife is picture-perfect: Akira does say she loves Miller after a few years of their married life (though he tells her that she does not need to say such things to him), and as time goes by she stops mentioning her first-love Yui. They have a son whom they both love. But after 60 years, Yui returns to take Akira back to the celestial realm, and the earthly king (who has now grown old) is left alone on this earth, all his life vanishing before him as though it were a dream. And 'the truth' which he has always sensed as Akira looks up at the night sky as though she is searching for the missing moon is that she is living on earth to 'serve' her time, and once the time is up, she will be taken away to where she originally came.

There is nothing surprising about this ending per se - though there is this undeniable sadness that one cannot quite put into words. Shimizu-sensei's stories tends to end with:

1) Characters transforming to another form of existence one way or other. She always leaves the door of imagination open as to where the transforming characters have gone. There are always those who leave, and those who are left behind.   

2) A general note on the humbleness of human existence in vast scheme of things in the universe.

To come back to Kaguya-hime, what are the imperfections in what ought to be a picture-perfect life? Besides, the above-mentioned 'truth', I would say it is Akira losing the 'sparkle' she had in her girlhood. When we first met her at the beginning of the series before she gets embroiled with Yui, she had that 'sparkle' as a young woman who had never fallen in love with any man. That 'sparkle' is dimmed by the time she falls in love with Yui - she is just not as 'shining' as she was before. You see still flashes of that 'sparkle' from time to time for most of the story, but that sparkle is more or less put out by the time we see the middle-aged Akira at the end. There is... something tragic about Kaguya-Hime losing her shine in her human existence as she fulfills her roles as wife, mother and queen...

Having said all of the above, I still feel that I have not even begun to scratch the surface of the beauty in Shimizu-sensei's works. She is deep. She is.

Comments

[usagijen]

I wholeheartedly agree with you on this. Shimizu Reiko's Magic really wowed me. As for Kaguya Hime, I haven't gotten myself to read it coz of its length, but I do know that it's a wonderfully crafted sci-fi masterpiece.

[Wabisabi]

If you like 'Magic' you should check out '22XX' which I think is even better than 'Magic'.

[Ialda]

I here I'm stuck with the French translation of Kaguye Hime and their 2 release per year. By the time it finishes, I will be as old and dimmed as Akira at the end of the series. Oh well...

Very enlightning article. I like this concept of 'Monogatari Bi' as I feel it what I'm looking for in shoujo manga since reading Kakinouchi's Kyuketsuki Miyu for the first time some fifteen years ago. I'm eagerly looking forward to your future posts on the same subject ^^

[Ryan A]

The concept term described has a certain allure about it. I will be checking out this creator simply for the fact that shoujo always interests me, as do beautiful things.

Very interested ^^

[Wabisabi]

Ialda:

I guess you can probably learn Japanese faster than they release the volumes... Which volume have you read up to so far? I guess I spoiled the ending for you with this post...

Akira being dimmed is just my personal interpretation. It is not sometime that is spelled out per se in the story, just my one-sided observation.

Ryan A:

I love beautiful things too. In fact, I live for beauty of this sort. ^-^ Now, if only this term could gain wider currency...

[neobanzia]

I've always had a taste Shoujo that I indulge in periodically. I've started collecting X/1999 and I'm wondering why I've resisted for so long. :]

I tried looking up Shimizu Reiko's work in English but I can't seem to find any. Hopefully some translated printed works exist?

[Wabisabi]

Check this out:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Reiko%20Shimizu