This Week in Anime

The Interior Worlds of Tomoko Yamashita

Sylvia
Coop, I want to talk to you about something very serious. A literal life or death situation. I've been quick on my feet so far this season, but I fear my luck will soon run out. There's somebody out there with my name and number. Somebody who wants to hurt me. To end me. And I want to ask if you can help.

Her name is Tomoko Yamashita. She's been terrorizing me for twelve weeks. And I fear the Journal with Witch finale may finish her nefarious job.

Not you too! Is nobody safe from her terrible ambitions of connecting her audience more intimately with both themselves and the diverse interiorities of the people we encounter each day? Is all hope lost?

Probably, I guess. But if I have to be murdered and turned inside out by a writer, I'm glad it's by one as talented as Yamashita.

If you've been keeping up with my episode reviews, you know I've been head over heels for Journal with Witch from the beginning. Heck, before the show even debuted, I was on board based solely on the fact that it features a 35-year-old novelist voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro. That's big time Sylvia-core.

Sadly, though, I am disappointed in myself for not really being familiar with Tomoko Yamashita's oeuvre before this point. I'd heard of her, but had never read her. And that feels even more ridiculous knowing what I know now, because she's hardly a newcomer. She's been publishing works professionally for almost two decades at this point.

Unfortunately, the passage of time (and licensors) has reduced what was already a small number of translated works available from her. She's also written a bunch of single-volume works that have never been localized. Part of me hopes that the critical success of the Journal with Witch adaptation will spark more interest in bringing her more eclectic material overseas, but I'm not counting those chickens when the Journal with Witch manga hasn't even been licensed yet! Seriously, what are we waiting for?

True! White Note Pad, in fact, randomly showed up on some digital storefronts earlier this year as individual chapters, which is weird, but better than nothing. In fact, I'd call it much better than nothing!

It's a classic body swap setup, as 38-year-old mechanic Shogo Kine switches brains with 17-year-old student Hana Odamaki. They meet up one year later, when "Hana" has become a model while "Shogo" has been floundering. It's also an incredibly nuanced and thoughtful work. Like yes, there's the requisite salaciousness that comes with the exchange of age and gender, but more central is Yamashita's penchant for the patient exploration of her characters' psyches.

Also, having read this and speaking as somebody who is both in my late 30s and currently experiencing female puberty at the same time, I can't help but reiterate the point I made at the beginning of this column. Yamashita has me dead in her sights.

It's a messy situation and a messy work, but not the same kind of messy as, say, Inside Mari's take on this subject. Yamashita uses this "what if" as a means of exploring how we all blend ourselves with our friends, family, and acquaintances in ways that typically go unnoticed yet bear a lot of importance. The difference here is that "Shogo" and "Hana" can't help but see those effects.

Midway through the story, they conclude that it's already too late for them to switch back—not for some magical reason, but for the simple fact that they've lived too long as each other by that point. They've already each become their own melange. The rest of the story, therefore, is instead concerned with the subtleties of their bond and their growth. Again, I think it's a very singular and affecting way of tackling these fundamental issues of identity. And it's certainly a sign of Yamashita's knack as a writer.

I think it's also interesting that the theme of an adult and a teenager mingling their lives together reappears (under far less supernatural circumstances) in Journal with Witch. Yamashita clearly isn't afraid to revisit and reexamine old ideas, and I'm sure that lessons learned through White Note Pad helped turn Journal with Witch into such a sophisticated work.

That's real. My situation isn't the same—I have a day job that involves neither anime nor writing. It pays the bills, and I honestly don't mind it most days. But I know I would feel much less happy and less fulfilled if I did not have this job here, or some other avenue through which I could write on a regular basis. This is nourishment. It's painful, and it's difficult, and it never really gets any easier. But I would not want to imagine my life without it.

Granted, I also resemble Makio in many ways that have nothing to do with looking flatteringly unkempt while hunched in shrimp-mode over a keyboard, but we don't have to go into all that right here, right now.

More seriously, I do also love how the story handles Makio's neurodivergence. It makes sense that it would have caused friction in a lot of her relationships, and that years of living alone with it would have instilled in her unhealthy coping mechanisms. But Journal with Witch chooses to acknowledge and process this part of Makio rather than kneejerk condemn it.

I don't want to repeat too much of what I've already written in the episode reviews, but suffice it to say: it's such a rich and rewarding text. And I think you only get that with a writer as experienced and mindful as Yamashita. I doubt she could have written Journal with Witch nearly as well at the start of her career. Heck, you'd only need to look at her longest work to date, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, to pick up on how she's grown as a mangaka.

Oh man, imagine them living in the same complex. The hijinks. The horrors.

So, as you may be able to tell, Tricornered Window is BL, which is Yamashita's bread and butter. It's how she got started. And she wastes no time here. We get straight to the manhandling, on both the physical and astral planes.

Like, Hiyakawa and Mikado's dialogue barely even counts as innuendo.

That makes sense! In interviews that were conducted after Tricornered Window's conclusion, Yamashita herself reflected on its rocky beginnings. She leaned more into BL staples, like the exaggerated top/bottom dynamic between Hiyakawa and Mikado, especially playing up the notions of taboo and violation of consent. You can read her thoughts on this and other neat topics in Rebecca's interview from 2021.

However, as the manga progresses, you can see Yamashita push boundaries in different directions, as she tries to put together a more complicated story that still fits in the framework of BL. Or, perhaps more accurately, she tries to hone her personal approach to BL. This other interview with Pixiv goes into a bit more detail, as she talks about the different kinds of stories that influenced her and inspired her to take a more nuanced tack.

The result is a much more interesting work. Halfway through the series, it draws on cults, family trauma, cycles of abuse, and other rich psychological topics that paint these characters' interiorities. Erika, once a creepy antagonist, gains more depth and more of a role. Yamashita feels comfortable enough to explore other shapes a relationship can resemble. Mikado pushes back and confronts Hiyakawa. And Hiyakawa, beneath his toxic behaviors, becomes a compelling mystery to solve. Overall, the further Tricornered Window gets along, it feels like a more ambitious and successful story that makes me all the more invested in Hiyakawa and Mikado's dynamic.

Yeah, I don't want to give too much away, but it's worth pursuing! And while I've heard...mixed...things about the anime adaptation, Yamashita's art and compositions in the manga are consistently exquisite.

It really makes me all the more impatient to read Journal with Witch's source. I want to see the kind of heat Yamashita brings.

I've also heard the adaptation excises and rearranges enough that it should be able to conclude its take with its remaining episode. And certainly, the crew behind the anime knows what they are doing. Josei manga adaptations are already few and far between, and ones on Journal with Witch's caliber are practically unheard of. This show is a blessing and a triumph. I don't mind if it doesn't end up being a "complete" transposition of the manga.

And trust me, assuming I survive past Sunday, I am going to be so annoying about this until somebody licenses Journal with Witch in English. Do you want me to bring it up in every subsequent TWIA and episode review I write? I'll do it if that's what it takes.

Don't even get me started on Crunchyroll's recent track record for physical releases. Or those C-suite bigwigs at Sony might learn the true meaning of "write with the intent to kill."