Cigarette Girl by Masahiko Matsumoto - The Stresses of Marriage

To start, I thought the artistic style of Cigarette girl was weird - weird, yet it felt perfect for the type of characters that are seen in the story. The way every character's lips are sticking out of their silhouette reminds me of the dreaded 'duck face' trend that graced the internet for some period of time a while ago. It was a selfie-phenomenon where people would, for some reason, poke their lips out (I assume to look like they are blowing a kiss of some kind to look attractive). These people were flamed on the internet for looking so silly and I myself also thought it was a weird wave of how people took pictures of themselves - annoying almost - but these 'duck faces' placed in the context of just the art style of Cigarette Girl placed a lot more innocence and character on the story's universe. Even if the people weren't doing anything, it always looked like they were reacting to the world around them in some way (o3o).

With that said, following Hidari-san's story of trying to approach relationships was funny yet made me feel almost sympathetic for the character. Being that bum that he is while also not having being the smoothest of men meant he suffered a lot of awkward moments while trying to approach various women. One part that stuck out to me as especially funny was when he was told to squeeze the hand of his cigarette girl. He heeded this advice and squeezed her hand, after falling down the stairs and having her come to his aid. A frame of milk spilling followed a couple panels later by the greasy man who gave him the advice saying, "Didn't ya say you blew your load without actually doing anything?" was hysterical.

I know that marriage is, not unlike a lot of what seems to happen here, constantly pushed upon the upcoming generation once they become of age. A few of my friends have told me their parents are constantly bombarding them with "WHEN ARE YA GONNA COME HOME MARRIED? WHERE ARE MY GRANDCHILDREN?" This story was a more, I guess, realistic picture of what it's like to be in that situation - where the pressures of your parents nearly force you to find a significant other.