PART 2 of 52 ONESHOTS in 52 WEEKS
梶本あかりの『彼女の特等席』 “Kanojo no Tokutouseki” by KAJIMOTO Akari
Kanojo no Tokutouseki (known in English as Her Special Seat) is a oneshot by author Akari Kajimoto. It won an annual oneshot contest held by publisher Square Enix (the 29th Young Gangan Manga Awards) and went on the become the author’s first published work, featuring in a 2017 issue of Young Gangan magazine. Since then, Akari Kajimoto has been serialised in Shounen Jump Plus with her series Kuchi ga Saketemo Kimi ni wa (known in English as Even If You Slit My Mouth), which shares some aspects with her debut.
The oneshot is set in a quiet café, staffed by a young man and visited seemingly by just one young woman, who always shows up wearing a face mask. Despite eating big portions, the woman’s stomach is always growling. She sits in the corner of the café, her back to the sole staff member, and polishes away her meals out of sight. Curious about the woman, the young man waits for her to start eating one day and approaches, but when he sees the woman’s face, he is shocked to find her mouth is slit from ear to ear.
Initially, I thought the story would unfold as a tale of a woman with a facial disfigurement, who finds comfort concealing herself behind a mask, with the quiet café setting a bit of a haven for her to enjoy food away from prying eyes. Yet it unravelled as something else entirely.
In Japan there exists an urban legend known as kuchisake-onna, which translates to slit-mouthed woman. It is one of many figures from Japan’s rich folklore, with its origin said to date back to the Edo period in the 17th century. There are several similar descriptions of this malevolent spirit, but generally it seems she asks the unsuspecting whether or not she is pretty, only to kill or maim them depending on their answer. In the manga the character is a little less petrifying — her purpose is to scare children back home when they’ve been staying out too late.
What follows in the oneshot is a bizarre yet endearing exchange between the slit-mouthed woman and the young café worker, involving a burger that would give The Menu a run for its money. It’s a relatively undemanding read, but it is easy to see why the oneshot was regarded well in the annual Young Gangan Awards; it’s idiosyncratic, with detailed art work and a distinct narrative that is perfect for the format at just over 30 pages. Akari Kajimoto’s writing is jovial and fun, with her contemporary rendition of the initially sinister slit-mouthed woman the source of much entertainment. The character is one author Kajimoto continues to feature in her current series, the aforementioned Kuchi ga Saketemo Kimi ni wa.
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Morning, Roo 