Miki Yamamoto, Creator of A Smart and Courageous Child Manga

Miki Yamamoto‘s work isn’t what most people think of when they hear the word “manga.” Eschewing a typical manga style, the creator and picture book scholar has a deft hand with telling stories that rely equally on text and image, bringing women’s lives to the page in ways other manga creators don’t. Her single-volume book A Smart and Courageous Child explores a couple’s first pregnancy and their emotional trajectories as they go from thrilled to fearful, examining the role news and the written word impact people. It’s a unique book that is also hauntingly familiar, and we had the opportunity to ask Yamamoto about the book, her process, and what she wants to convey.

You’ve published both picture books and manga and as I understand it, you have an academic interest in picture books. What do you see as the defining link between the two forms of storytelling? Can illustrated texts, like manga, fill a similar need for adults as picture books do for children?

MIKI YAMAMOTO: I have chosen picture books as a subject of my research, but my own interest is in expressing stories through illustrations, which is common to both manga and picture books. Manga and picture books differ in the way illustrations and words are used, the structure of the book, and the distribution of art on the pages, but I think these differences have been blending since 2000. The fact that manga are being read by so many adults in East Asia, including Japan, is proof that manga is established as a medium for adults to appreciate. The only people who think manga are for children are those who don’t read them much or don’t know much about manga. However, it’s unfortunate that in Japan picture books are thought of as something only for young children, and children should move on from picture books and read words. I hope older children and adults will also pick up picture books and realize they are an excellent medium.

What do you think is the most crucial element of the relationship between text and images? How do pictures work to replace words, and how do you believe that affects readers?

YAMAMOTO: Rather than saying that illustrations are a substitute for text, I would say illustrations convey messages to people in a different way than text. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and while communication may seem to be the exclusive domain of text, illustrations can also express a wealth of ideas. Reading text and seeing illustrations to find meaning are very different concepts and give different impressions to readers. In that sense, even if writing is clearer and easier to understand, there’s meaning in choosing to communicate through illustrations. For example, by choosing different means to convey what you want to say, such as over the phone, by email, or by writing a handwritten letter, you give slightly different meanings to the same text. I think it would be interesting to choose illustrations as one of those options. Sending a letter with only text and sending one with an illustration attached creates different meanings.

What interests you the most about illustrated storytelling? Is it something you’ve always been interested in?

YAMAMOTO: Whether the message is conveyed or not is dependent on the creator’s responsibility. Of
course, when it comes to expressing things through text, some people do it well and some don’t. Similarly, when it comes to illustrations, there are good and not-so-good ways to convey things. To communicate something through illustrations is by combining various elements such as small facial expressions, gaze, posture, movement, line thickness, composition, and light-dark contrast, etc. Manga authors and picture book authors need a variety of ideas to convey things through illustrations, and they have a responsibility to seek expressions that readers can understand. This doesn’t mean they simply need to be skilled in precise and realistic expressions, but rather the expression must be “appropriate” for what they want to convey, so there’s no easy-to-understand correct answer. This depends on the discretion and skill of each artist and vocabulary hasn’t been developed yet, so I feel it’s worthwhile to explore this further.

Sara collects a lot of picture books throughout A Smart and Courageous Child. How did picture books inform the story? What did you want to show by Sara’s collecting them?

YAMAMOTO: Some readers probably thought Sara was a little too excited during her pregnancy and had more expectations than necessary for her child. The picture books Sara collects are a symbol of the expectations and desires parents sometimes have for their children. However, this doesn’t mean children who read picture books are guaranteed to be happier or smarter. Personally, I don’t recall having many picture books read to me as a child. As depicted in the story, I think what parents expect from picture books overlaps with what parents expect from their children. Such excessive expectations can be a bit of a nuisance for children, and Sara and her husband adjust their naive expectations and desires in the second half of the story. However, the issue I was thinking about while drawing was if you can’t have sweet expectations about having a child, it’s difficult to even think about having a child in the first place.

There’s an abrupt shift in Sara’s reading after she learns about Malala Yousafzai where she begins to look at books about Anne Frank and other child victims. Why did you choose Yousafzai’s case as the one that transformed Sara’s feelings?

YAMAMOTO: Rather than me choosing Malala, this story started with her incident. Like Sara, the main character, I learned on the news that Malala had been shot and the perpetrator had asked, “Who is Malala?” The shooter tried to shoot a little girl because she didn’t listen to him. On the other hand, because of the rules they impose on women, such as “not standing out” and “covering their faces,” the gunman didn’t know which girl was “Malala.” I felt it wasn’t just her who was targeted, but women, us. When Sara started reading books about Anne Frank, Iqbal Masih, and other children who had been killed, it was because I wanted to show this wasn’t a new event, but something that repeatedly happens.

One of the most striking scenes in A Smart and Courageous Child is when Sara screams at the obstetrician to get the baby out of her, and there’s the sense that it’s about much more than simply being past her due date. What did you want readers to take from that moment? What is Sara expressing beyond a desire not to be pregnant anymore?

YAMAMOTO: Sara feels she can no longer bear this difficult problem. Of course, there is no answer to this problem, so it’s painful to face questions that only lead to confusion and worry. Furthermore, this is Sara’s first experience with pregnancy and having a child, and she doesn’t have the answers to what she should do. Despite this, she’s tired of the pressure to behave in an appropriate “motherly” manner, and of being told “you should do this, you should do that” by people who aren’t directly involved in her pregnancy. In other words, Sara is crying out she wants to regain control over her own body.

Sara’s journey from ecstatic to fearful feels like it could be something many parents experience throughout a pregnancy (or waiting for a child in another way, like adoption). What did you hope for readers to understand about the process of having a child on an emotional level?

YAMAMOTO: Some readers with children have told me, “I’ve never had such anxiety,” or “You worry too much,” so I guess how people perceive this world is different. While making this series I thought people who have never had children, and who are wondering whether to have them are particularly experiencing this fear. There are many unreasonable things in society, and some people may feel they can’t have children in such an unstable society, while others may want to have children even if they feel anxious. I don’t intend to give an opinion on which way people should go. All I would like to ask is that readers use their wisdom and courage to make this world a place that welcomes new people and where we are tolerant of each other.

Can you tell us about the thought process behind drawing A Smart and Courageous Child? Why did you decide to use color rather than black-and-white images? Why did you use red as your most eye-catching color? What impression did you want to leave readers with after they looked at the images?

YAMAMOTO: In my older manga I preferred using monochrome, thick, and rough lines. Rather than following the typical style of Japanese manga, I preferred a freer style of expression as an underground manga author. I really liked that style, but there were some problems. The biggest one is that in Japan there is a custom of different art styles for manga for women and manga for men. In particular, the style of manga for women is limited, and women weren’t picking up my works because my art deviated from that style. Although I’ve always drawn on the theme of women’s lives in my works, I’ve rarely met female readers of my works. This time, especially with the theme of children, I wanted more women to read my work, so I decided to incorporate soft colors, which are said to be more popular with women. I have mixed feelings about this, but I arrived at this art style because of negotiation between my ideal illustrations and the actual real world. I
planned to draw with a limited number of colors, with a base of black, gray, and beige, so red was convenient because it would be the focal point. Red gives a sense of energy and passion, but it also has a sense of danger. So, that ambiguity made it easy for me to use it.

Many outdated stereotypes hold that fathers have less of a role to play during pregnancy and infancy than mothers, something the relationship between Sara and her husband seems to refute. What do you hope readers take from the way the two characters support each other?

YAMAMOTO: This work had a larger theme of social issues rather than marital problems. Therefore, it depicts how even a kind, gentle, and good husband can have problems like this depending on the social situation. Also, even ideal, trusting couples can have misunderstandings due to differences in physical experiences. Unfortunately, neither society nor marriage can be perfect all the time. Problems will never be eliminated, but I think a good husband or partner is
someone who is at least proactive in addressing problems.

Do you have anything you’d like to say to your English-language readers?

YAMAMOTO: I’ve had some of my work partially translated into English in the past, but this is my first English version. The “English-speaking world” is so broad, so I can’t imagine what kind of reaction I’ll get from the wide range of readers. I recently read an anthology called Menopause and was impressed by the work of American female comic artists. I fell in love with the works of Linda Barry and Mimi Pond, whose works were full of individuality and humor. If I had read their work when I was younger, I think I would have felt it was okay to draw manga in a freer style. I think I will be introduced as a “not a typical Japanese” manga author, but I would be happy if people knew there are artists in Japan who draw diverse manga. I would also like to take this opportunity to learn more about manga in English-speaking countries, manga from all over the world, the work of my predecessors, and the work of new artists.

A Smart and Courageous Child will be released by Tokyopop on November 19, 2024.