PART 12 of 52 ONESHOTS in 52 WEEKS
中野さやの『バイバイ ラブレター』 “Bye-Bye Love-Letter” by NAKANO Saya
Bye-Bye Love-Letter is a oneshot by author Saya Nakano, originally published in Ribon magazine at the end of 2007. It became her penultimate oneshot, followed only by Dreams of the Stars the following year. Despite a successful run of short works written between 2006 and 2008—all of which featured in various editions of Ribon—author Nakano has been absent on the scene since, with Bye-Bye Love-Letter remaining her most accessible and publicised work.
It tells a chapter in the life of Emi, a 15 year old girl infatuated with her classmate Hajime. Emi is shy and awkward, and lacks the self-confidence to approach Hajime, so she expresses her feelings to him in secret love letters which go undelivered. Emi’s world changes when Hajime approaches her instead, and the two connect through their passions of writing and art.
While it makes no efforts to avoid clichés, Bye-Bye Love-Letter is nonetheless a surprisingly enjoyable and emotive read. Saya Nakano’s world is fanciful and rose-tinted, but her storytelling expertise shines through in its empathy and accessibility. The author deftly communicates feelings of desire, infatuation, jealously and elation to capture a touching snippet of young love that is familiar and relatable in spite of its sometimes sugary exterior.
Emi is a shy writer and Hajime an assured artist. Wrapped tightly in their passions and developing their art, the two become lost in their worlds, often blanking out their surroundings. Author Nakano does a fantastic job in bringing the two together through shared feelings, working her way into their deeper desires and exploring self-confidence and artistic diffidence in an almost poetic fashion.
To top this off are just over 30 pages of stunning artwork, with crisp detail and absorbing panel arrangements able to rival the best in shoujo manga. Each page is eye-catching and varied, with the panels often mimicking a collaged effect in their creative layering. The characters, with their enormous eyes and miniscule noses, are quite typical in design, but overall the artwork is impressive.
At its most crude, Bye-Bye Love-Letter is a story you’ve read before, but the draw here is certainly Saya Nakano’s virtuosity. The formulaic aspects do little to nullify what is an absorbing romance, told with two passionate and empathetic characters who feel well matured despite the story’s short length.
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Morning, Roo 