Swan by Ariyoshi Kyoko: A Review by Nicole Beguesse

Artwork © Ariyoshi Kyoko

Swan by Ariyoshi Kyoko
Review by Nicole Beguesse

People often ask me what my favorite comic is, and I reply "Swan". Unfortunately, it's a manga that almost no one knows about. So I try to explain what's so great about it in a sentence or two. But then I get tongue-tied since any simple explanation falls far short of capturing this manga's sheer beauty. So here I'm going to give you a taste of what this manga's all about.Swan is a manga about ballet.It originally ran from 1976 to 1981 in Japan, and it was very popular. Over the course of 21 volumes, we follow the triumphs and hardships of Masumi Hajiri as she struggles to become the world's top prima ballerina. StoryMasumi is a 16-year-old ballet student living in a small town. She is "discovered" by the famous ballet director, Alexei Sergiev, who invites her to audition for a new, prestigious ballet school in Japan. From there, she launches her career, which takes her touring across the world. A large cast of friends, rivals, mentors and love interests ensure that there's never a dull moment.The story itself is pretty exciting. It's basically all the soap-opera elements of a classic shoujo series, crossed with the action of a shounen sports title. Every volume has at least one major dance contest or competition. But since ballet isn't so much of a sport as an art-form, frequently the battle is within as well as without. As Masumi grows, she learns to become closer to her creativity and to the true spirit of dance. Swan's lessons are inspiring to any artist who strives to work straight from the heart.Unlike lots of other manga I've read, the storyline remains exciting throughout every volume. The characters are engaging and eccentric, making them seem just like old friends. There's tons of drama too- Medical problems, love problems, backstage rivalries, anguished pasts...there are always new challenges to face!

Art

Visual storytelling is where Swan really excels. The art style is excessively shoujo. All of the characters are supremely beautiful, and the layouts are frequently bombarded with rampant flowers, blossoms, sparkles and the like. Luckily, the decorations aren't just slapped on there— the artist carefully arranges her compositions to convincingly portray the current emotion in time.

(Oh yeah, you have to read it from right to left.) Instead of using a grid layout, the artist treats every page like a collage of forms— each moment sweeping into the next one. No two pages are alike.

Now, since this IS a sports title, you would think that the storyline would get repetitive after a while. (And on any other sports title, I would agree.) But Swan's artist somehow infuses every moment of dance with such spirit, energy, and individuality it seems as though every dance is a mini-masterpiece of graphic story-telling. She truly sees the comic page as a type of canvas, and she's a master at depicting speed and action.

The layouts are simply amazing, and always memorable. The composition of panels, pages and figures to convey motion strikes me as genius.

Miscellany

I'll hand it to you— Swan is not a perfect manga. There are some flaws that might turn off first-time readers. Sometimes the characters seem TOO beautiful; The males are hard to differentiate from the females and at times the faces get deformed by their enormous saucer-eyes. I would only recommend Swan to those people who are already familiar with shoujo conventions... since Swan really takes it to a whole new level. On the other hand, once you are familiar with the art style, you barely notice it. Something else that might seem strange to readers are the characters' fashion sense: But keep in mind that this was written in Japan in the 1970's. The manga really has held up remarkably well, leaving no evidence of its timeliness, except for the weird clothing. Luckily, if you are willing to look past these eccentricities, you are in for a real narrative treat.

Conclusion

Swan continues to be a profound inspiration for me. The inspriring themes and gorgeous artwork never fail to take my breath away. If you want to see more of this stunning artwork, or to find out whether Masumi becomes a prima ballerina, you will have to read the manga for yourself! It's printed in English by CMX, an imprint of DC Comics (gasp! You didn't see that one coming, did you?).