INDEX
Everyday Encounters: Manga-Esque Nice Characters Making an Appearance
Konari: By the way, I’ve been talking to more of my neighbors lately. We never used to talk about things like, “It looks like it’s going to rain today,” so I think it’s a lovely time.
Okaya: Indeed. When you live alone, you don’t have many opportunities to talk about such things.
Konari: I talk to my grandmother over the balcony as she hangs the laundry out to dry, and she tells me, “It’s sunny now, but it might start raining in the evening. When I said, “Really, thank you,” she made a finger gun, pointed it at me, and said, “Bang! She pointed it at me and said, “Bang!
Okaya: What an amazing grandmother. It’s like a cartoon.
Konari: Yes, it is. She looks like the grandmother that Rumiko Takahashi draws.
Konari: Speaking of cartoonish, the salesperson at the renovation company I’m working with now is a young-looking woman. When I said, “I look forward to working with you,” she smiled and high-fived her boss when we decided to hire her!
Okaya: Right in front of me.
Konari: Yes. Then I thought, “I’m part of their story” (laughs). Now I am in her story as a mob character.
Okaya: Isn’t the client usually the main character ?
Konari: She works very hard and is very good at her job, so she seems to be the main character.
Okaya: I see. Cartoonists indeed look at things thinking, “I can draw this in a cartoon,” so maybe there is a sense that they don’t put themselves as the main character.
Konari: He even prepared samples of his own paint, and he does a lot of other things for me, but I’m supposed to go with him to a model room before Christmas! I’m supposed to go to a model room with him before Christmas! I was thinking, “What if I’m late and she can’t spend Christmas with her partner? In this story, I’m like Midoriko Kimura playing the role of Kramer.
Okaya: Why do you make such a correction. I don’t think the other side thinks that the customers think that way, do they?
Konari: I’m sure they are on line to their partners saying, “Sorry, I can’t go to work today either,” and it’s raining super hard, because of me (laughs).
Okaya: (laughs). It’s not your fault it’s raining, Konari.
Konari: Then a song by either Official Bearded Man dism or Aimyon came on.
Okaya: I was waiting alone at a restaurant where I had a reservation.
Konari: They said, “We’re about to close.” Oh, I mustn’t let them work overtime on Christmas!
Okaya: You can ask your grandmother at the laundry if it’s going to rain.
Konari: Yeah, “I heard it’s going to rain today, bam!” And. Oh, my boss at the renovation company looks a bit like Gershwin.
Okaya: There are too many good characters around!
Konari: Haha, it’s getting fun. I think I’ll give up choosing a door today.
Misato Konari Nagi’s Long Vacation 11
Friday, February 16, 2024
Price: 748 yen (tax included)
Akita Shoten
Izumi Okaya Ame ga Shinaikoto
Izumi Okaya
Ame no shikkoto” (The things that rain does not do) 1 & 2
On sale Tuesday, December 12, 2013
Price: 880 yen each (tax included)
Beam Comics (KADOKAWA)
Izumi Okaya
Izumi Okaya
Manga artist and illustrator. Debuted in 2011 with “Irodachi (Color Differences),” which captures everyday life with a unique sensibility. His books include “Sukimameshi,” “Zoku Sukimameshi,” “Gohan no Jikkuri 1 & 2,” “Mono Suru Hito 1, 2 & 3,” “Mitsuba Dori Shotengai de,” and the essay comic “Ooatte ga Yona Yona De” in which he asks popular authors about their ideal “last supper. In 2022, he won the 26th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize for Short Stories for his two works “Itoshi wo” and “Shirakiren wa Kirei Sasanai”.
