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is a Japanese
manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
one-shot written and illustrated by
Ryoko Yamagishi is a Japanese manga artist. She is one of the Year 24 Group, a collection of female artists who innovated (girls') manga throughout the 1970s. Her major works include and '' Terpsichora''. Life and career Ryoko Yamagishi was born on Septe ...
, originally published in the February 1971 issue of the
manga magazine are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics an ...
'' Ribon Comic''. Focusing on the romance between two students at an all-girls
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
in France, it is considered to be the first work in the (female–female romance) genre. The manga was published during a significant transitional period for manga (girls' manga) as a medium, characterized by the emergence of stories with complex narratives focused on social issues and sexuality; this change came to be embodied by a new generation of manga artists collectively referred to as the Year 24 Group, of which Yamagishi was a member. Yamagishi drew inspiration for ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' from her interest in male–male romance fiction, particularly the novels of Mari Mori, but believed that a female–female romance story would be more palatable to the teen girl readership of ''Ribon Comic''. Following its publication in ''Ribon Comic'', ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' was republished several times in anthologies of short works by Yamagishi. ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' was one of a number of works of manga that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s which depicted intimate relationships between female characters; it was, strictly speaking, not the first manga to depict a female same-sex relationship. It is nevertheless widely regarded as the originating work of the genre due to the extent to which its plot conceit of a tragic romance between a stern dark-haired girl and a naïve light-haired girl became an archetypal story formula, recurring frequently in manga that depicts romance between female characters.


Plot

enrolls at a
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
all-girls
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
in France formerly attended by her late mother, where she is roomed with the rebellious . Though Simone is initially hostile towards the naïve Resine, the two girls gradually grow closer, with Simone going so far as to recite a love poem by
Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...
in front of their class that she dedicates to Resine. A performance of ''
Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...
'' is organized to celebrate the school's fiftieth anniversary, with Simone cast as
Romeo Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lord Montague, Lord Montague and his wife, Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lady Montague, Lady Montague, he ...
and Resine as
Juliet Juliet Capulet () is the female protagonist in William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. A 13-year-old girl, Juliet is the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet. She falls in love with the male protagonist Ro ...
. During the performance, Simone passionately kisses Resine on stage. Rumors begin to circulate that the relationship between Simone and Resine is of a romantic nature. Distraught by the rumors, Resine cuts all ties with Simone and leaves the boarding school. Unable to bear Resine's rejection, Simone enters a period of reckless self-destruction that culminates in her goading a man she has started dating into stabbing and killing her. Upon learning of Simone's death, a devastated Resine vows to never love again, and to mourn Simone for the rest of her life.


Production


Context

The genre focuses on intimate relationships between female characters, encompassing a spectrum from
romantic friendship A romantic friendship (also passionate friendship or affectionate friendship) is a very close but typically non-sexual relationship between friends, often involving a degree of physical closeness beyond that which is common in contemporary West ...
s to lesbianism. While the genre was not formalized until the early 2000s with the establishment of dedicated fiction magazines, the history of the genre spans to the beginning of the 20th century. Beginning in the 1910s, a genre of fiction depicting romantic friendships between female characters referred to as Class S emerged. Class S stories were regularly published in publications and (rental books), notably ''Hana Monogatari'' (1916–1926) by Nobuko Yoshiya and ''Sakura Namiki'' (1957) by Macoto Takahashi. Around 1970, magazines began to publish stories that extended beyond traditional Class S story formulas to depict lesbianism and other intimate relationships between female characters, such as ''Glass no Shiro'' (1969–1970) by Masako Watanabe, ''Secret Love'' (1970) by Masako Yashiro, ''Futari Pocchi'' (1971) by Riyoko Ikeda, ''Maya no Sōretsu'' (1972) by Yukari Ichijo, and ''Aries no Otometachi'' (1973–1975) by Machiko Satonaka. ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'', published in February 1971, belongs to this canon of works. These shifts reflected a broader reorientation of manga towards more narratively complex stories that focused on social issues, politics, and sexuality, and came to be embodied by a grouping of manga artists collectively referred to as the Year 24 Group, of which author
Ryoko Yamagishi is a Japanese manga artist. She is one of the Year 24 Group, a collection of female artists who innovated (girls') manga throughout the 1970s. Her major works include and '' Terpsichora''. Life and career Ryoko Yamagishi was born on Septe ...
was a member.


Development and release

Yamagishi began her career as a
manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...
in 1969 after being hired at the manga (girls manga) magazine ''Ribon Comic'', a supplement to the manga magazine ''
Ribon is a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Shueisha on the third of each month. First issued in August 1955, its rivals are '' Nakayoshi'' and '' Ciao''. It is one of the best-selling manga magazines, having sold over 590million c ...
''. ''Ribon Comic'' targeted a readership of girls aged sixteen and older, primarily published new and relatively unknown authors, and had an editorial focus on self-contained short stories that frequently addressed social issues. Yamagishi was fascinated by stories that depicted camaraderie and deep bonds between men, beginning with ' by in her youth and later discovering the (male–male romance) novels of Mari Mori while in college. However, she considered her interest in homosexuality and
homoeroticism Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, including both male–male and female–female attraction. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be tempor ...
to be abnormal and strange, and initially did not wish to depict the subject when she became a manga artist. She chose to instead create a story about female–female romance, believing that it would be more readily accepted by the teen girl readership of ''Ribon Comic''. That story, , was accepted by her editor and published in the February 1971 issue of ''Ribon Comic''. was advertised on the cover of the issue as one of a series of long stories published in that issue. The first page of the manga was printed in full color, an unusual practice for manga magazines at the time, while its second page was colored in orange, purple and white. ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' has been republished several times in anthologies of short works by Yamagishi. Shueisha collected the manga along with two other short stories by Yamagishi into a compiled volume of the same name, published under the Ribon Mascot Comics imprint on September 10, 1973.
Hakusensha is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV series. The com ...
reprinted the volume under the Comics imprint on August 10, 1975.
Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines ...
included in volume 28 of their series of Yamagishi's complete works, published under the Asuka Comics Special imprint on March 4, 1988.


Reception and legacy

While ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' was not the first manga to depict a female same-sex relationship, it is nevertheless considered to be the first work in the genre that would become known as . Manga scholar Yukari Fujimoto argues that ''Shiroi Heya no Futaris status as the originating the work that originated the genre can be owed to the extent to which its plot became an archetypal story, significantly influencing works in the genre in the years following its publication. Manga critics Yoshihiro Yonezawa and Yōji Takahashi consider ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' to be typical of the "radical" social issue-focused output of ''Ribon Comic''. Yonezawa notes that the manga deviates significantly from Yamagishi's subsequent editorial output, more closely resembling (girls' novels) and the works of author Nobuko Yoshiya. ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' was favorably assessed by the manga magazines '' Yuri Shimai'' and ''
Comic Yuri Hime is a Japanese manga anthology magazine published by Ichijinsha. It began as a quarterly publication in July 2005, but was issued bimonthly on odd months from January 2011 to December 2016, when it became monthly. Kanako Umezawa has served as ''C ...
'' in their 2012 retrospective of the genre.
Yuricon Yuricon was an anime convention geared toward fans of yuri anime and manga. The first Yuricon event was held in 2003 in Newark, New Jersey with about 200 attending, although Yuricon has existed as an online entity since 2000. The event was or ...
founder Erica Friedman writes that she appreciates the "hyper
melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...
tic" aspects of ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'', comparing it to American lesbian pulp fiction published during the same period. Critic Karen Merveille, writing for the French publication ''Manga 10,000 Images'' in 2010, stated that while she considered ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' overly pessimistic, it nevertheless has merit as a pioneering work.


Analysis


"Crimson Rose and Candy Girl"

Resine is a character defined by her guilelessness and shyness, contrasting Simone's rebellious delinquency; though their differing natures initially cause conflict, they gradually grow closer before being tragically separated. While similar dynamics appeared frequently in romances of the 1970s regardless of gender or sexuality, such as Candy and Terrence of ''
Candy Candy is a Japanese series created by Japanese writer Keiko Nagita under the pen name Kyoko Mizuki. The main character, Candice "Candy" White Ardley, is a blonde girl with freckles, large emerald green eyes and long hair, worn in pigtails wi ...
'' (1975–1979) and Gilbert and Serge of '' Kaze to Ki no Uta'' (1976–1984), manga scholar Yukari Fujimoto credits ''Shiroi Heya no Futaris expression of this dynamic with originating a common story formula that she dubs "Crimson Rose and Candy Girl". In these stories, "Rose" is a beautiful, strong, and enterprising dark-haired girl, while "Candy" is a naïve and more feminine light-haired girl. This dynamic is roughly analogous to the
butch and femme ''Butch'' and ''femme'' (; ; ) are Masculinity, masculine (Butch (lesbian slang), ''butch'') or Femininity, feminine (Femme, ''femme'') identities in the lesbian subculture that have associated traits, behaviors, styles, self-perception, and s ...
dichotomy in broader lesbian culture, and its Japanese equivalent and . The characters grow closer to each other, oftentimes bonding over a shared problem such as familial drama, causing their relationship to become the subject of cruel rumors and threats. The story concludes with Rose dying, typically by suicide, in order to protect Candy from scandal. Fujimoto writes that the Crimson Rose and Candy Girl dynamic, as established by ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'', became the archetypical depiction of female same-sex romance in manga. Notable examples include ' (1974) and ''Kurenai ni Moyu'' (1979) by , ''Kanojotachi'' (1982) by , and ''Ibutachi no Heya'' (1983) by . Manga depicting female–female romance gradually drifted away from the tragic Crimson Rose and Candy Girl formula over the subsequent decades, with works that featured a less tortured "Rose" and a "Candy" who more willingly acknowledges and accepts her feelings of same-sex desire. Friedman considers ''
Citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. ''Citrus'' is nativ ...
'' (2012–2018) by Saburouta, a major manga of the 2010s, as a positive "ripple" of ''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' in this regard. James Welker of Kanagawa University argues that Crimson Rose and Candy Girl narratives represent a form of " lesbian panic", where the character – and by extension, the author – refuses their own lesbian feelings and desires.


Style

''Shiroi Heya no Futari'' uses a romantic style that had become recently popular in manga of its era, characterized by large-eyed protagonists with long, flowing hair, as well as the heavy use of symbolism and decorative elements. The dramatic and tragic atmosphere is reinforced by the French environment, the use of swirling leaves and petals that punctuate different scenes, and by literary references to
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
and Rilke. Friedman notes that the manga was "meant to be cutting edge" in its treatment of its setting – the characters wear 1970s fashions, and attend clubs and bars where they smoke cigarettes and drink – but that these elements may seem "dated and campy" to a modern reader. The two protagonists are visually constructed as opposites. Each is associated with a flower – Simone with a rose, connotes passion but also suffering with its thorns, while Resine is associated with the soft and fragile daisy. They are additionally contrasted through black-and-white dualism, most obviously visible in Resine's blonde hair and Simone's black hair.


Notes


References


Bibliography

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External links

* {{Ribon 1971 manga Anime and manga set in France Hakusensha manga One-shot manga Romance anime and manga Anime and manga set in schools Shōjo manga Yuri (genre) anime and manga