Kayt O'Bibliophile’s Reviews > Hide and Seek > Status Update

Essay by mangaka at end is great. Overall, def of interest from historical perspective. Suspect stories would hit harder if read by children, as originally published for. Specific 1970s shoujo flavor is a delight even when the melodrama and shallow characters persist.

Illustrations great, but intro needs work. Why was artist “much surprised and embarrassed” to discover they were published in SM Magazine rather than SF Magazine as she thought?
(SF Magazine= Japanese sci-fi mag published 1969s to now. SM= probably a sexual, potentially bdsm-related magazine)

The Snake God. The human element is appropriately horrible; the “isolated village that has its own terrible religious/cult ritual” is…y’know, a trope. I’m more distracted by that than the actual story.

They have straight-up forgotten to put the English title (The Snake God) on the title page. The Japanese title is there (Hebigami-sama), the other things got English text “shocking!” “The young woman will finally get her revenge!” “The day of the snake god’s selection approaches” but literally no English title.

Bloody Diary Pages. Cheesy melodrama, but at least it’s pretty cohesive.

Rainy Days. Would have been so much better without the thievery subplot (fixed and handwaved by attack of conscience). Not horror, barely trauma.

My Mother’s Necklace. Melodrama.

Our First Family Trip. Well, that one was actual horror. True to life. Might actually give me nightmares.

Death of a Bum. Once again, a short story that ends in regret but also feels very simplistic. Feel like I’m missing context for Emiko’s devotion to her doll, but otoh, I don’t actually fault a character for being that devoted; goodness knows I’d probably also mourn for years if the stuffed animal I’ve had since birth went missing.

Relevant thoughts because my library has this cataloged under YOSHIKO as the surname. Later when I’m on the computer, I can do more research to see if there’s an accepted standard version, but it’s bothering me.