Iguana no Musume

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I am pretty sure this collections contains 5 stories, most of them revolving around character analysis and in general just a window on human nature and in a lot of cases parental relationships with their children. All of these stories are amazing, I read them from different collections, but I remember I was fighting tears when reading the first three.
Bittersweet is the theme of the book.

1. Iguana no Musume (Iguana Girl)
This is one of the most realistic, terrifying and touching representation of a scape goat child. Rika is that child. When she is born her mother sees her in the shape of an iguana and ... for this reason will treat her always as the second choice, while dearly loving her other daughter. Rika grows up always being criticized by her mother. It was incredible hard but so satisfying to see that things are not easily black and white and loving your mother will in many case be with you even in these difficult situations.

2. Catharsis
Another heartbreaking parental story. The protagonist is a young man preparing for college, but since his best friend died he had been running from home day after day. The story touches on the need to sometimes break contact with your parents, with apathy and depression and mourning. The scenes that depict the meetings between the protagonist and the parents felt so realistic, incredibly human.

3. Gogo no Hizashi (Afternoon Sunshine)
Another bittersweet story, this time exploring a woman who is realizing she might be a stranger in her marriage. She then meets a younger man in her cooking club and starts to feel like life has returned, like she is young again and she can live once more. Oh boy, that ending. Please, just know be ready to fully cry while reading this volume.

4. Gakkou e Iku Kusuri (The medicine to go to school)
The story follows the life of a high school student who one day wakes up to find all the people around him turning into objects and animals. They still talk to him, but all their faces have become unrecognizable. The only people who still look human are his best friend and the girl he has a crush on.
This one was a bit harder for me to understand, slightly enigmatic, but I do believe it is trying to explore the need for connection, and to really see others for who they are.

5. Yuujin K
A very short story (I think only four pages) about two young men, one clearly in love with the other and bullying him through school years.

A provocative collection of short stories. The first three were my favorites in no particular order.

The first one is Iguana no Musume, which is the story you see in the synopsis and cover. It's a narrative that flows seamlessly and does a good job of portraying the protagonist's complex and even expands on her view of the world and how that changes. Beyond that is how it addresses death and new life. There's just so much in this story that makes it so thoughtful and lovely.

The second one has a male protagonist. I like how the story concerns friendship between a man and a woman ... and addresses the idea of how not everything of that sort has to be romantic, it's a refreshing idea that the protagonist directly addresses, with a satisfying end for the protagonist.

The third was stunning. There is so much to work with regarding the misogyny of late 20th century Japan, and seeing two generations (and the one between that) unwrap that was truly impactful in its execution, all the way to the ending. There's also the element of self sacrifice, and the idea that the mother protagonist was. She had so many chances in life and in the story itself to change things, yet didn't, and now her daughter who actually stands up for herself outwardly (instead of relying on someone to dig those things out of her like with what happened with the mother) gets appreciated for those things and rewarded with a more fulfilling life. I can't explain this in its entirety as it resonates with some personal circumstances, but some people, especially parents in a nuclear family, hole themselves into a position where the things they've learned in life actively benefit others, and that's just their role. They can only cope with what they've built for themselves, whether out of willful ignorance or not.
My only complaint is how the relationship with her ugly husband was handled, because despite what I stated above, it was filled with unnecessary resignation. Most especially it was unnecessary given the conversation with her daughter where she calls her out on that. However this was all quickly wrapped up because the couple shared camaraderie that was never shown until the very end? Really. Given what her daughter said there would be no problem in the mother choosing a more peaceful life for herself.

The fourth story did not resonate with me as it was way too gimmicky with the "everyone is now unrecognizable," how that situation began, and how that was executed psychologically with its resolution. Kind of boring despite being wacky.

The fifth was just your standard BL dynamic and I'm not into BL. Good thing it was the shortest.

STORY: 6

Meet some people, going on with their own situations and trying to understand each others. Iguana Girl is a collection of five short stories with slices of life and a topping of surrealism. Nothing epic, just some adequate feelings.

ART: 6

A fine 90s style.

POLITICAL POTENTIAL: 6

... Characters are trying to overcome their problems within the short time of each story. They have some empathy and are not too self-centered, lovely.

FEMINISM: 7

One story focuses on a middle-aged woman with compassion. Another story depicts a painful mother-daughter relation, but the abuser is not just depicted as a villain. A third story has a boy who suffers, and, instead of turning to cynicism and desires of revenge, like so many characters, he learns to express his emotions in order to heal!
There's even the 'young boy and girl alone in the room', and, it's not turning into that manga trope where the boy looses control and assault the girl! 🥳

CONCLUSION: 6

A nice, heart-warming, short read that is deeper than you expect.