Oomori, with her own stage presence a satire of the Japanese “cute-girl-gone-bad” trope, sings about the simple desire felt by most all young people- if only life were like a movie! Sometimes the pressures placed on life are almost overwhelming- Where is my youth?-she sings, as if by not living according to the adventure narrative of a Shounen manga, or the romance narrative of Shoujou manga, one hasn’t lived at all. The second pop culture item that merits a comparison with Kitchen, decidedly lesser known, is a song by the J-Pop artist Seiko Oomori, entitled “Shoujou Manga Shounen Manga” or “Girl’s Manga Boy’s Manga”. Both characters craft their own stories, but get sacrificed anyways as a poetic, beautiful figure to remain dear to the protagonist’s hearts as they undergo their own journeys. Eriko became the woman that she is out of an essential choice: to raise a son as a mother. And Eriko, who is murdered by a jealous man who wanted her love, chose to transition from male to female after the birth of her wife’s son, Yuichi. Gren tries to create his own narrative as he fights for revenge against his old gang, but ends up getting shot dead in a botched drug deal. This figure also naturally resists its own deification, and fights against their own supposed role of scapegoat.

However, the transgender figure become a scapegoat, killed off by violence in ruthless societies: a capitalistic and wild-west space age in Bebop, and the madly wealthy but on-the-brink-of-collapse bubble era 90s Japan in Kitchen. Such a figure, Gren in Bebop, and Eriko in Kitchen respectively, is a universally desired Other of peerless beauty. A trope shared between Bebop and Kitchen! In the episode “Jupiter Jazz”, forty minutes of bloody noir montage, it introduced Americans to the trope of the dazzling transgender woman/man. Cowboy Bebop is legendary for its aesthetics but is a lot more than cool animation and slick jazz. The first: Many fans of anime television are familiar with Shinichiro Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop, a show that has taken on impressive cult significance in America today, and even recently inspired a live action Netflix adaptation.

In order to best introduce this beautiful work of fiction, I would like to point to two other items of Japanese popular culture, one known by some Americans, and one not. I do not presume to be a translation expert, but instead I hope to shed some light on a brilliant work of fiction and propose my own method to translation that can capture the essence of this essential work. Over the next three blog posts, I will be describing my approach to translating one of the great masterpieces (and one of my personal favorites) of 20th century Japanese literature: Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto.

About her by banana yoshimoto