Sakura Namiki is a S romance shjo manga by Macoto Takahashi published in 1957 for the kashihon market. Takahashi is regarded as the most influential shjo mangaka during the 1950s decade thank to his stylistic contributions Sakura Namiki may not be his most notable manga but it is his most accessible one for nonJapanese readers. Nonetheless this manga should be of interest to people who enjoy shjo manga yuri manga or simply fine comics. 400https://i.ur.com/tv3GXg5.jpg For people who dont know S stories were the ancestors to modern yuri stories about relationships between girls not quite romantic but far stronger than close friendship. A S relationship is an exclusive and intimate relationship between two girls who become sisters S stands for sister if there is usually no kiss shared it follows the same dynamic than romantic relationships with dates lovetriangles jealousy et ctera. This genre was popular in shjo fictions during the first half of the 20th century but it declined steadily during the 1950s and 1960s decades it is nowadays an anecdotal subgenre of yuri fictions. Context Macoto Takahashi beside being a mangaka is a famous illustrator. He started at age 19 to draw manga in 1953 with works such as Dorei no jo or Akai kutsu . Most of his works were for the shjo market both rental akahon then kashihon and magazine markets although he did contribute a little to the gekiga scene too with some stories inside the magazine Kage. I am not sure when exactly he stopped to draw shjo manga the last traces of his storyworks I managed to find are in 1970 inside magazines like Shjo Comic or Shjo Friend he thereafter focused on illustrations only for the rest of his life. According to manga scholars his most influential works were made a little after Sakura Namiki published in Kbunshas magazine Shjo with ballet manga such as Arashi o koete in 1958 or Petit rat in 1961 for example. Takahashi was heavily influenced by the jojga illustrator called Junichi Nakahara famous for his illustrations inside prewar shjo magazines full of flowery S stories. 300https://i.ur.com/X3renl4.png Illustration by Junichi Nakahara in magazine Shjo no tomo 1937. According to the author Sakura Namiki was specifically conceived as a tribute to Nakaharas world most notably to Nakaharas own postwar shjo magazines tilted Himawari and Junia soreiyu. The manga 400https://i.ur.com/1qPkekz.jpg Yukiko right Maki center Ayako left. Macoto Takahashis manga arent known for their complex stories Sakura Namiki features a simple and straightforward lovetriangle inside a girls school table tennis club: Yukiko the protagonist is in love with Maki but Ayako is jealous and spreads mean rumors about Yukiko in an attempt to discredit her in the eyes of Maki. After some slight drama and a flashback Yukiko eventually manages to clear the misunderstanding with Maki and the story reach an happy ending with Yukiko and Maki being together. Really it is a simple innocent sentimental and almost nostalgic story with nothing much happening a gentle echo of a shjo era slowly fading away. It is the art and storytelling which makes this manga standing out Takahashi is an illustrator after all. 400https://i.ur.com/o8Ua52Q.jpg Beside manga and standalone illustrations Takahashi drew emonogatari a form of picture story that was popular in the 195060s decades: Sakura Namiki starting pages are pure emonogatari they serve at establishing an atmosphere and a setting for the manga. Whereas when the story properly starts the narration switches to a more conventional manga grammar. 400https://i.ur.com/qdijFh4.jpg But even then the storytelling relies heavily on an external narrator while the frames are large and feel very much like illustrations the fact that Takahashi signs some of them tells this much. In addition the frames contains a lot of nonnaturalist elements with decorative and emotional elements such as backgrounds shadows stars flowers musical notes and mental images frequently the scenery is not drawn and the characters are symbolically laid out within the frame. The page composition is also quite dynamic with a lot of white spaces diagonal lines and few unframed panels and layering. In short we see the nascent stylistic conventions of shjo manga it is not polished yet but it is still quite beautiful and skillfully executed. 400https://i.ur.com/g74wTSx.jpg The character designs are in the direct lineage of jojga stylistic conventions: they are pretty tall and slender with big and detailed eyes cute clothes and stylish hairstyles. Everything is done to transport the reader in a dreamworld rather than trying to depict the real world. 400https://i.ur.com/RprjVy1.jpg This manga is in a quite interesting position inside shjo history: with its setting and its S storyline it provides a fond glimpse of prewar shjo culture. While at the same time it foreshadows the direct future of shjo manga both thematically with the big focus on a ballet scene and stylistically where we start to see the character design and the decorative and emotional elements that will give shjo manga its identity. Takahashi will continue to develop his style in the following years joined by other mangaka like for example Miyako Maki or Eiko Hanamura for laying the foundations of shjo manga stylistic.