style guide: matsumoto tomo

I've been a huge fan of manga since I was fourteen or fifteen, especially the shoujo genre. I don't read as much as I used to, but I was flipping through one of my favorites and started thinking about the fabulous style of these characters. Yes, 90% of shoujo involves girls in either a sailor uniform or the tomboy uniform of jeans and a t-shirt, but some mangakas have an inerrant sense of cool that is reflected in the wardrobe of their characters. One of these is Matsumoto Tomo, of Beauty is the Beast and Kiss. I mean, check out Kurogawa Misa's outfit on the cover of Chapter Two of Beauty is the Beast:

http://www.mangareader.net/1232-42553-2/beauty-is-the-beast/chapter-2.html

The short-sleeved jacket/long-sleeved shirt combo gives that cool 80s vibe, and the scarf is fantastic. 

Or what about the youthful, polka-dotted shirt Eimi is wearing in Chapter 5? 

It has a childlike quality that is untempered by self-awareness. I think that's one of the things I really love about shoujo--many of the mangakas have managed to maintain a sweet, youthful feel that many Americans associate with the 1950s; there is still a purity associated with adolescence, and the kisses are simultaneously awkward and deeply meaningful. It's the same sort of feeling that I get when reading about the relationships between Meg and Calvin, or Vicky and Adam Eddington, in Madeleine L'Engle's books. These characters are somehow both younger and more rational, more grown up, than those in many of the stories we tell ourselves today, in movies and books and webcomics. It's rather lovely to see.

Not that Matsumoto Tomo doesn't address more mature themes (as well as mature style) in Kiss and other works; I just appreciate these pockets of simplicity.

Pax

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