Ritsuko published a successful first novel, but since then it's been a blank page syndrome.
Having become a housewife, she lives a lie with her husband who dreams of having a child without suspecting that his partner is taking the pill.
When Ritsuko learns of the suicide of an old friend, the very one who inspired the hero of her bestseller, she decides to investigate.
His new editorial manager, a passionate and fiery young man, accompanies him...
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"In the world of creation, many people seem to think that a main character should be very bright, positive, optimistic... It's not necessarily something that interests me,"
says Akane Torikai to
Figaro,
in videoconference.
In
Saturn Return,
her latest manga published by Akata, the designer has chosen an ambiguous heroine,
“difficult to grasp”,
who tries to hide her discomfort and her injuries from those around her.
A character who resonates with Japanese society in all its complexity, to which we become attached, as we discover his traumas.
“I have never been fond of fiction in fantasy worlds or which embellish reality”,
adds the author, whose previous series published in France,
In the grip of silence,
dealt head-on with rape and harassment.
The author likes cutouts based on large horizontal bands or, as here, vertical ones.
“I always tend to think of my storytelling and layout as a double spread,”
she explains.
SATURN RETURN 2019 Akane TORIKAI / SHOGAKUKAN
More accessible,
Saturn Return
counterbalances the darkness of its themes (suicide, depression, etc.) with the presence of lighter characters, such as the editorial manager, who brings a certain dose of humor.
The "investigation" part of the story also works perfectly, with its share of revelations and a well-balanced suspense.
This balance between psychological drama and entertainment is the result of a fruitful collaboration:
"Compared to my previous manga,
Saturn Return
is the work on which I had the most exchanges with my editor and where there were the most interventions,
admits Akane Torikai.
I wanted to reach a wider audience.”
Everyone has internalized some form of misogyny, including women, and it's a bit hypocritical to say that it doesn't concern us at all.
If we don't accept this dark side, we won't be able to fix society.
Akane Torikai
Nevertheless, the mangaka does not hesitate to bluntly show sexism vis-à-vis women, which involves the objectification of their bodies or an assumed contempt.
We feel a desire to put ourselves in the place of certain characters who are sometimes odious, even detestable.
"
As a woman and a feminist, I would like misogyny to disappear completely, but to do that, you have to be able to communicate with people who don't think like me,"
says Akane Torikai, who pre-publishes her manga in
Big Comic Spirits .
,
a seinen magazine, that is to say for young men.
And to add:
“On Twitter and social networks, people draw an impassable line between their way of thinking and that of others.
We all live in the same society.
Whether we like it or not, all of these ways of thinking are inscribed in each of us.
Everyone has internalized some form of misogyny, including women, and it's a bit hypocritical to say that it doesn't concern us at all.
If we do not accept this dark side, we will not be able to repair society.
Ritsuko and her husband Kazufumi in volume 2 of
Saturn Return
.
SATURN RETURN 2019 Akane TORIKAI / SHOGAKUKAN
Extremely talented in depicting faces and emotions, especially tears or fits of anger, Akane Torikai draws her inspiration from TV series or cinema.
"I've always been very interested in acting, how they interpret roles and feelings,
" she says.
In everyday life, I also tend to be marked by ambivalent expressions.
I still remember the face of my former companion when we had violently argued!
Women should make sure to be nice to men, to make life easier for men.
It's something that I don't find normal
Akane Torikai
For Japanese women, these extreme emotions are not meant to be expressed in the open.
A social pressure that the mangaka denounces:
“Women must always make sure not to be angry, to remain in attitudes of passivity, of listening, of being attentive… As soon as a woman expresses something that does not don't go in that direction, we will immediately label her as a “problem woman”, or even say that “it's monstrous”.
Women should make sure to be nice to men, to make life easier for men.
It's something that I don't find normal.
I have noticed that some young people think that if you are not capable of being loved by men, then you have no value.
I find this serious and problematic.”
The comic box
"I draw the characters and the bubbles until inking, then my assistants do the sets, then I do the shading in shades of gray",
explains the author, who works in a traditional way on
Saturn Return.
SATURN RETURN 2019 Akane TORIKAI / SHOGAKUKAN
Taken from volume 1, this sequence involves the heroine Ritsuko Kaji and her husband Kazufumi Noda.
It begins on the right panel with a certain tenderness but ends with the heroine's paralyzed gaze, following the shocking reply:
"I want to sleep with you so that you become a mother",
summing up the sexual act to the function procreative.
“This sex scene shows a discrepancy between two characters who don't have the same expectations.
Her goal is to procreate, but she just wants to feel love,
explains Akane Torikai.
He is convinced that if they manage to have a child, it will mend their relationship.
On her side, a real malaise lives in her but she does not express it, she hides it from her husband.
Remember here that Ritsuko takes the pill without her husband being aware of it, which is not trivial in a country where this drug has only been authorized since 1999. In Japan, the husband's consent is also required for surgical abortion. .
The abortion pill will be put on the market at the end of 2022... but once again subject to the consent of the spouse.
“Women are dispossessed of their freedom to choose what concerns their own body… It's always the 'outside' that wants to control women's bodies”,
regrets Akane Torikai.
She also learned of the existence of this abortion pill in a comic book by Aude Picault,
Ideal Standard,
which comes out in pocket on June 24.
Whenever motherhood or pregnancy is mentioned, everyone in Japan tends to show only the idealized aspect.
Akane Torikai
"Whenever we talk about motherhood or pregnancy, everyone in Japan tends to show only the idealized aspect: 'It's wonderful, it's life in the womb! Even if it's difficult, you can take it upon yourself!” It's something, since childhood, that I find difficult to accept, the fact that under the pretext that there is something good, it is necessary to erase the sufferings which go with it ”,
confides the designer.
Let's hope that her manga will encourage the opening of a constructive debate and a release of women's speech, after the failure of the #MeToo movement in the archipelago.
Saturn Return,
by Akane Torikai, translated by Gaëlle Ruel, Akata, 8.25 euros per volume (three volumes available, ongoing series).
Many thanks to Bruno Pham for the French-Japanese interpreter, and to Junko Minagawa for his assistance.