So what can I find to say that's new? Not much, really, but I was struck by how fundamental the use of metaphor is in this book. It starts almost from the beginning, around page eight or ten, when Masaomi compares Tsurugi to a sword, and later to a spring gale. Ishihara continues, piling metaphor on metaphor around the central one: the romance as a duel.
Speaking of gales, it's worth nothing the title of the first chapter, "The Wind Cometh." A wind, in Japanese culture, as far as I've been able to tell, marks a change. We have a similar image, "A change in the wind," but to the Japanese, as nearly as I've been able to puzzle out, the mere fact of the wind in itself is sufficient. (Note that in Makoto Tateno's Ka Shin Fu, the wind is a central image, as well.)
Ishihara noted that it took her three years and a range of drawing styles to complete Kimi Shiruya?, and one can see the change in the art, but it really is a progression, from a rather rough, strongly graphic style to a much more elegant and subtle presentation. The spread below is one of my favorites in the book, since it demonstrates the development of Ishihara's drawing style and points up the role of metaphor in the story: Masaomi is allowing his relationship with Tsurugi to develop -- to "ripen in its own time."
It says something, I think, that I can come back to what is, after all, a romance in comic-book form two years later -- and one directed toward teen-age girls -- and still find it not only appealing, but terrifically sophisticated, especially since I've gained so much more experience with the medium in that time. I guess that means I should continue to trust my instincts.
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