Reviewed by Jeanne Johnson

    Weird tales are pretty much Shinohara's specialty. Even her long-running Facade series works off a strange premise- I mean, strange even for Japanese manga. In a way, this collection of little stories takes us to territory more familiar to the western reader. Half are set in places you'd expect odd things to happen-Edwardian England, where an art dealer sees an artist with pink wings invisible to everyone else; Venice, where an American tourist is recovering from his lover's death from AIDS; an old house in the French countryside, where a young orphan girl goes to meet her benefactor; Paris again, where an artist finds why he's been searching for a certain shade of red all his life. Very subtly, behind each of these stories there's a western novel or author helping to set the stage. Dorian Grey, Death in Venice, Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe- all these add their resonance to the Japanese story. It seems Shinohara has a vision of the west as a place where odd things happen. Ah, the lure of the mysterious Occident!

    Several stories recall the old Twilight Zone series. A young man on a date loses his younger brother on a merry-go-round; an American Indian college student starts having strange dreams; a modern Tokyo office worker suddenly becomes convinced he's a man who disappeared forty years ago. This last is the only one with a specifically Japanese setting, and it works beautifully as both a Japanese fairy tale and a weird tales episode. The Japanese elements (references to Urashima Taro, who became unstuck in time, as well as the local policeman who of course is the person who recognizes the names the man keeps giving- 'Oh, granny who used to live down the street. But she's been dead ten years.' Over here it'd have to be a long-resident neighbour) segue seamlessly into the Twilight Zone atmosphere (the baffled girlfriend, the suave and
sinister narrative.)

   Then there are two shorts on the subject of vampires. One plays off the classic association of the vampire with sex and death, but with a lovely twist. And in another a vampire consoles a shaggy dog on a hot day.

    Shinohara's drawing style is one you either love or loathe, and I can never decide which it is for me. I've pretty much given up trying to decide. Now I just think of it as 'Shinohara' --distinctive in these days when many mangaka's styles are inseparable to the casual eye.