Pretty Girls: Inio Asano
October 1st, 2010 by david brothers | Tags: inio asano, manga, pretty girls, solanin, what a wonderful world!
Inio Asano: wiki, Anime News Network
Books: solanin
Why? Asano’s stories are my thing because he pretty much nails mid-20s ennui, but he also draws really, really cute girls. Fashion-wise, they’re kind of hipster girl cute. They have that carefully crafted off-kilter thing going on, a lot of scarves and patterns, sometimes tops and skirts that look a little like grandma clothes, lots of layers, and hair that’s either short or worn so as to appear short. A little quirky, but calculatedly quirky, right? Asano’s girls feel very contemporary.
They have really cute faces, too. They’re kind of doughy. More like, their faces bend under the weight of their emotions. Smiles go from one ear to the other, eyes squeeze shut, certain girls have duck lips, and your commonly accepted proportions for faces don’t matter at all. Expressiveness is what counts, and his brand of particularly cartoony, exaggerated expressiveness is what makes Asano fresh.
The freckles across Meiko’s nose in solanin help a lot, too.
Similar Posts:
- What A Wonderful Book!
- The Song Is Over: Inio Asano’s Solanin
- 6 Writers: Inio Asano
- Solanin Movie Trailer Released
- Pretty Girls: Kenichi Sonoda
I just wanted to say that I can’t thank you enough for talking about Asano on here. I stumbled back into manga with Pluto, then you pointed me to Solanin/What a Wonderful World, and they’ve both become favorites.
Have you read Nijigahara Holograph? It was what actually introduced me to Inio Asano. Its ridiculously bleak, almost a slap in the face to his other work.
I just wanted to say as a non-artist who’s just now getting around to thinking critically about comic art, the two big things that are stirring my pot right now are
1) Matt Seneca’s blog
2) This series right here