"Happy Mania," the epitome of aggressive love comedy, was serialized from 1995 until 2001 in Feel Young women's manga magazine. Its protagonist Kayoko Shigeta, is a 24-year-old part-time worker who thinks of nothing else besides finding a boyfriend. Her coworker Takahashi likes her, but she shows no interest in the dull guy who wears glasses. As soon as she meets a guy who is anywhere near good-looking, she instantly falls in love and spends the night with him, only to be dumped soon after. This is a pattern she repeats countless times.
"I need someone more attractive. I want a cool guy who wouldn't fall in love with the likes of me." With such contradicting ambition, it is easy to see why she can't find happiness, but the true strength of this protagonist, nicknamed Shigekayo, lies in the fact that she can't be discouraged. She charges ahead like a steam engine through the barren wilderness that is her love life, and I found it fascinating that I gradually began to empathize with her and eventually found her be a dedicated person and even somewhat sweet. I had to keep reminding myself though, that the author, mangaka Moyoko Anno, has labeled as her "someone you should never try to emulate."
Nineteen years after the completion of the series, it was such a big surprise to meet Shigekayo again, now 45 years old. This is this year's top news in the world of manga. In the first series, Kayoko and Takahashi marry (for the time being) before the curtain closes. However, at the very beginning of the new series, "Go! Happy Mania," Kayoko is confronted by Takahashi who wants a divorce. He now loves someone else, a complete role reversal in the relationship between the two after 15 years of marriage. Kayoko later disguises herself and follows Takahashi in an attempt to find out about her husband's new love.
I would never have expected such behavior from the younger Shigekayo years ago. Has she changed? Not really, because she still firmly keeps to her personal philosophy on love: No one can make a vow to love someone forever. Perhaps she has become slightly more mature, as she is properly "jealous" of Takahashi's new love interest, and when she finds out that his love is one-sided, she even takes pity on her husband.
Don't hold back! Remain true to your desires no matter where they lead you! -- If this is the statement by which post-Heisei era (1989-2019) women live, then the Shigekayo we saw in the first series was a caricatured version of "a monster of desire." She was, therefore, pathetic, delightful and new, so much so that there were boos from some of the readers. Now, as Shigekayo sets off again into the wilderness, she is cloaked with a certain air of sorrow, which was previously nonexistent. In spite of that, Shigekayo in her 40s looks stronger and more attractive than in her 20s.
Did Shigekayo reboot herself in an effort to somehow put an end to the "story of endless desire"? The first word of the title is a play on words. The kanji used is sometimes read as "go," which in Japanese means "after" or "later," and shares its pronunciation with the English word "go." Anno is a talented mangaka who has always shown a sharp sensitivity to the times and expressed them in her manga. That is why I feel that she may be about to create a masterpiece that signals a new turning point in women's manga.
-- Kanta Ishida, Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer
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