Erica Sakurazawa Vol. #02

By Mike Dungan     June 02, 2004
Release Date: September 01, 2003



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Erica Sakurazawa
Translated by:Yuki Nakamura
Adapted by:

What They Say
Wherever you go and whatever you do, may your guardian angel watch over you! Natsu finds her husband with another woman when she comes home early from work one day. When he asks her for a divorce, Natsu doesn't really feel sad for some strange reason. All she can think of is what she has learned from her relationship with Ken how she can move forward. Angel Nest reveals what happens when an angel visits Natsu and her life takes on a whole new meaning. Erica Sakurazawa reveals what happens when real people are touched by an angel.

The Review
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the back cover blurb says, Natsu, a young married woman comes home to find another woman in her bed and her flustered husband trying to explain. She's not overly upset, though, as their relationship was on the rocks already. He moves out, and her life goes on as before, just not with Ken, he ex-husband. One night, however, an angel appears on her balcony. She clutches a teddy bear and will only drink Bombay gin. She never speaks, but sleeps in the same bed as Natsu. Natsu begins to think of her as a sort of stray that she's adopted. Emi, the woman Ken was cheating with, appears at Natsu's door. Ken is stalking her and won't leave her alone. She asks Natsu to let her stay, and surprisingly, Natsu takes her in. Emi can see the angel, which freaks her out at first but she quickly takes to the angel.

Natsu, who works for a publishing company, interviews a famous, successful cookbook writer, who turns out to be Emi's mother. The truth is that Emi's mother isn't a terribly good cook. Emi and her mother's assistants come up with most of the recipes. Emi's always felt abandoned by her workaholic mother, and still cries at night from the loneliness. While shopping, Emi runs into Ken at the supermarket. He's with a young girl who looks to be in high school. Later, while recounting the encounter with Natsu, she tells her since they're both free of Ken, she's going to move back in with her mother and consider her future one more time. They both realize that although it's only been a few days, they've actually formed a real friendship, and the parting is a little sad. When Emi leaves, the angel leaves, too, and Natsu is back on her own again.

The second half of the book is a series of stand-alone chapters. First we meet two life-long friends, one gay and one straight, and the young girl they befriend at a bar. In another chapter, a woman goes on vacation to a tropical island that was supposed to be for her and her businessman boyfriend. Unfortunately, he's delayed for what he says are business reasons, but she knows it's his other girlfriend. She a young local man have an affair while waiting for her boyfriend. In the last chapter, a young man, bored and depressed, "borrows" a Mercedes someone left idling in front of a convenience store and goes joyriding. In the back seat is a woman whom the owner of the car just picked up at a party. The young man and woman go to the beach and make a connection with each other.

Comments
Erica Sakurazawa has created several josei manga stories for adult women, and Tokyopop has been collecting them and presenting them as series in their own right under her own name. Her stories are loose accumations of normal people and everyday coincidences and the occassional bit of the fantastic. Her characters are believable, the sort of people we know and deal with every day. She cleverly shows us how small, chance encounters and events can be a turning point in people's lives, if only they recognize them as such.
Her art is as loose as her storytelling, with a thin, light touch and a minimun of detail. Backgrounds are mostly non-existant.

The book is printed in a matte finish with the title logo printed with a glossy finish. The desing of the cover is modern and attractive, without looking pretentiously hip. The printing inside is about average for Tokyopop. Some pages are paler than they should be and large areas of screentone show excessive moiring. Sakurawaza's art style is very minimalistic, and better printing would help showcase it. It's not bad, it's just not good, either.

Erica Sakurazawa's stories of urban loneliness and disaffection are quietly sad but always with some small moment of redemption. If you'd like something with a touch of the fantastic, but can do without the magical transformations, then try Angel's Nest.