[Manga] Fujimoto's Short Story Collection 1: "17–21"

At the same time that Fujimoto published the well-received "ルックバック" (Look Back) before publication, he also announced that the short stories that had been published in the past would be compiled into a volume, using the age at the time of Fujimoto's creation as the standard for the volumes, divided into "17-21", "22-26", one book per month from September to November 2021, will be published one after another. For me, a new fan who entered the pit of Fujimoto from "Chainsaw Man" and fell into the teacher's charm since then, the publication of the short stories in the early stage is really a great boon. Style evolution over the years.

At the beginning of the month, I received "17-21" which was published in October. I didn't expect that the Japanese already had "22-26" to read when they crossed the ocean. It was so sour. After reading it, since you are a crazy fan, you still have to record your experience.

"17-21" includes four short stories by Fujimoto, namely "Tinba に は Niwa トリがいた" ("There are two chickens in the garden"), "Sasaki くんが哳弾弾めた" ("Sasaki-kun stops "Blind"), "Love is Blind" ("Love is Blind"), and "シカク" ("Four Corners"/"Assassin"). Let's quickly talk about what each article is doing:

• "Garden には Niwa トリがいた" / "There are two chickens in the garden"

Contribution of 17-year-old Fujimoto. A very confusing story from the beginning of the title - if you read it in Japanese, the title of this story is "Niwa Niwa Niwa Niwatori Ga ita". It's really messed up (well, to put it another way, it makes people smile).

The scene at the beginning of the story is a common Japanese school comedy: the high school boy who wakes up in the morning, the mother who sends him out, the girl who arrives to welcome him to school with him. Nothing special except that the characters are all ugly. It was not until after entering the school, as the male protagonist in charge of feeding the chickens entered the courtyard with corn, that readers suddenly discovered the world view of this story: the protagonists are ugly for no reason! They are aliens! The two "chickens" in the courtyard were actually two humans pretending not to be eaten by aliens.

As for what happens next, it really shouldn't be a spoiler, please buy and see for yourself. When I read it, I kept sighing that Fujimoto had developed this style of giving people a big surprise (scare) every time he turned a page since he was 17 years old. It’s like watching an ugly campus story at the beginning, but two pages later, it turns out that it’s a horror movie about aliens invading the earth. The plot of “There are Two Chickens in the Garden” takes a twist; I just thought Fujimoto wanted to discuss “People eat chicken, It's also reasonable for aliens to eat people," and the next second he introduced something new for you.

With such a big brain hole in 34P, at first glance it is Fujimoto's work.

• "Sasaki-kun stopped the bullet" / "Sasaki-kun stopped the bullet"

The protagonist of this article is also a high school boy. The protagonist, Mr. Kawaguchi, the teacher of the Sasaki worship class, worships her as a goddess. One day, terrorists broke into the classroom with guns. In order to save Mr. Kawaguchi who voluntarily sacrificed his life in exchange for the safety of his classmates, Sasaki-kun stepped forward and caught the bullet fired by the terrorists...!

The biggest theme of this article is "common sense". The reason why Sasaki admired Mr. Kawaguchi started from a career consultation. Sasaki's father, who died young, told him that he would go to the moon after his death. Sasaki believed this, but he was always laughed at by those around him, so Sasaki's dream was to become an astronaut and go to the moon to see if his father was really there. Facing Kawaguchi-sensei, Saaki felt that his dream was difficult to tell, but Kawaguchi-sensei replied "I am a god". Kawaguchi-sensei encouraged him "there is no such thing as 0% in the world, it's just because the probability is too small, so everyone treats it as 0" and "change my common sense after meeting my father on the moon." And it is with this sentence "there is no possibility of 0% in the world" that Sasaki stopped the bullet in the terrorist attack, and with the same sentence, persuaded the terrorists to regain their expectations for life.

• "Love is blind" / "Love is blind"

Once again, we have the protagonist of high school boys. On the eve of graduation, the student council president wanted to confess to the girl who had worked hard all the way, and summoned the courage to ask her to go home with him (it's normal, this is not Fujimoto...), but he didn't expect to be interrupted by troubles on the way. No matter who he is facing, the male protagonist is dismissed by saying "I は そ れ ど こ ろ で は な の で す" - "I am not doing this kind of thing now", but Cheng Yaojin, who was killed, went from a school teacher to a robber on the road. In the end, even the aliens who want to destroy the earth appeared...

This is a very cute sketch, nothing special to say!

• "Shikaku" / "Four Corners" / "Assassin"

I look forward to what this title will be translated into if a Chinese translation is published in the future. The Chinese characters for the Japanese title "シカク" (shikaku) can be "four corners", "dead corners", "assassin", "perspective"... There are very complicated meanings to associate with. The protagonist is finally not a high school boy, but a girl. The well-known killer "Shikaku" is a cute girl who has been hated by her parents since she was a child because of her quirky personality. One day, a male customer came to the store who asked Shikaku to kill him, but Shikaku couldn't kill him no matter how he killed him. It turned out that the guest was a vampire. The vampire has lived for 3,500 years and is already bored. Seeing that Shikaku can't give him a relief, he leaves indifferently, but he doesn't know that Shikaku has sprouted love for him...

In general, when I look back at "17-21" with "Fire Fist" and "Chainsaw Man", I inevitably want to look for the familiar Fujimoto, and I did see a lot of Fujimoto's later elements in the early stage. form.

For example, in terms of character prototypes, Fujimoto's iconic crazy girl made her first appearance in "シカク"! Whether it is the director of "Fire Fist" or the Pawa of "Chainsaw Man", readers can recognize some shadows from Shikaku: eccentric, out of place but cute, and very self-conscious and willful about his own cuteness The skills with honesty, killing and torture are superb, and there is no common sense... In addition, in "Sasaki くんが咳弾漾弾めた", there is also a Kawaguchi-sensei who is looked up and worshipped like a goddess ; And the images of Shikaku and Sasaki who seek to understand without being understood, and are reborn once they get a redemption, also slightly foreshadows the kind of people who are willing to fully entrust themselves to each other when デンジ meets Makima in "Chainsaw Man". obsession.

On the other hand, "Tin に は Niwa Tori が い た", "Sao に く ん が 哳 弾 め た", and "Love Blind" all have plot twists of "creating something out of nothing". It's a bit like the opposite of Deus ex Machina, where the author makes trouble fall from the sky (terrorists who come suddenly, aliens who suddenly descend to the surface), and a bit like a Russian nesting doll, unpredictable when peeled back What color is the next floor (the courtyard has the whole world view and role of chickens). The development of the story has no clues (or people can't see it) in the early stage of the story, which makes readers unprepared to be intimidated by Fujimoto's "freedom" again and again, but this is also the true mark of Fujimoto's works.

The fighting and killing scenes in "シカク" have a dark comedy flavor, and the blood is always accompanied by a bit of absurdity or a pleasant atmosphere of downplaying it, which is simply the Daigo flavor of Fujimoto's long stories. However, there is an obvious difference between Fujimoto's short stories and long stories, that is, in the short stories (except for the chicken in the garden), the stories all come to a successful conclusion, and every difficulty is overcome by "love" - Sasaki stopped the bullet, and the student council president was there Confession is not about destroying the atmosphere of the earth, Shikaku is so funny that the vampire actually celebrates his birthday at the end of the story and looks like he has completely lost his suicidal thoughts (in fact, even if there are chickens in the courtyard, isn't the heroine's escape due to love?). In his postscript, Fujimoto said that when he was 17 years old, he encountered a great earthquake and felt a deep sense of powerlessness, and he doubted the use of what he did. If in the short stories those unsolicited disasters can be overcome with will and love (is this a pessimistic thought or a warm encouragement and hope), then in the long story Fujimoto seems to give up this bright structure, but "no amount of happiness will be taken away" ("Chainsaw Man"), "repel one disaster and another" ("Chainsaw Man"), "whatever you do is wrong" ("Chainsaw Man") Flame Fist"). One reviewer mentioned that the sudden and violent deaths of the characters in "Chainsaw Man" reflect Fujimoto's experience in the earthquake to some extent - the ordinary happiness that デンジ wants is unstable, and can be at any time. Threatened and shattered at any time. Perhaps reading Fujimoto's short stories with this awareness will add some observational aspects to understanding his works.

Looking forward to the next "22-26".