IC in a Sunflower
Encyclopedia
is a science fiction
josei manga written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara
. It is a collection of seven, unrelated short stories
which appeared in the Japanese manga magazine Feel Young
from 1994 to 1997. The stories were then published in Japan by Shodensha
on October 18, 1997. Tokyopop
licensed IC in a Sunflower for an English-language release in North America, and published it on January 2, 2007. IC in a Sunflower was positively received by English-language critics and readers. Reviewers identified various themes and literary elements in the collection, and generally enjoyed the short stories and art.
The seven short stories consist of Mihara's 1994 debut , set in a future in which an AIDS
vaccine destroyed the desire for sex; , which focuses on a young woman haunted by her childhood sexual abuse; , which deals with the events surrounding a couple and their robotic housekeeper; , which centers on a boy in love with a girl caring for her elderly father; , which revolves around a captured mermaid; , which features a disturbed college student; and , which is set in a future where human cloning
is practiced.
, a format that Mitsukazu Mihara
frequently uses for her narrative. The stories are unrelated to each other, each featuring a different protagonist. The stories of IC in a Sunflower sometimes incorporate a twist ending.
revolves around a future in which teenagers do not have a desire for sex, as a result of an AIDS vaccine. The story focuses on Irori, who is taught about sex in school and encouraged by his parents, but ultimately neither understands nor has a desire for sex.
focuses on a woman who struggles to create a happy life for herself despite the childhood sexual abuse done to her by her older brother. Her parents refused to believe her, and upset, she bites her doll and develops a compulsive habit of biting. Later, as an adult, she settles down with a husband and child, but after discovering her battered doll which triggers memories of her unhappy childhood, she bites her child.
centers on Vanilla, an android who keeps house for an old man married to a younger, unfaithful
woman. The man treats Vanilla well, and the two have tea in the garden; his wife, in contrast, abuses her and allows her lover to do the same. After the old man reveals his plans for divorce, his wife murders him and orders Vanilla to bury the remains. Vanilla obeys, although she recognizes that the remains were of the old man. The story ends with Vanilla in the garden, keeping her promise to the man by having tea when the sunflower
s bloom.
In , a boy falls in love from afar with a girl taking care of her elderly father. After she fails to appear with her father one day, he finds her dressed in mourning clothes
with a smile on her face and burning the basket she kept with her.
focuses on a captured mermaid
and her refusal to speak. Her captor attempts to pull her out of the bathtub where she had been living, and she remembers that she was a girl whose mother had tried to drown her and herself in a lake years ago. Her mother died, but she survived and imagined herself as a mermaid. She then wakes up from her delusion, finding herself in a hospital instead of a bathtub, and can begin to recover.
revolves around a college student, who collects rocks and is tormented by his memories of dissecting a frog. After learning that his girlfriend is pregnant, he becomes upset and tosses her into a busy highway.
Set in a future where human cloning is practiced, focuses on Tou, a clone sent to live in an orphanage of humans as part of an assignment. There, he meets a cheerful girl named Riika and after some time, she is taken to be killed for her organs. It is then revealed that Tou only thought he was a clone.
—a clothing style influenced by the Rococo
style and the Victorian
and Edwardian eras. She explained that that particular style conveys the duality of her characters: "It's about showing the delicate balance of 'delicate, yet strong,' or 'selfish and wild, yet lustful.'" Mihara has been involved with the shaping of the Gothic Lolita style—a subset of the Lolita fashion which incorporates dark colors—through her artwork; she illustrated the first eight covers of the fashion magazine-book Gothic & Lolita Bible
and later returned to illustrating the covers with the twenty-seventh volume in fall 2007.
Reviewers have identified multiple themes and literary elements in the manga. According to Mania Entertainment's Nadia Oxford, Mihara uses minimal dialogue and narrative, instead conveying emotion through the behavior of the characters. IGN
's A.E. Sparrow stated that the theme of the stories was the meaning of humanity, while Oxford wrote that the manga contains "themes of dystopian society
and the fragile nature of the human mind." Sparrow thought that mental instability figures prominently in the stories. According to him, "Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids" deals with "the nature of sex," while Oxford believed that the story raises the question of the declining birth rate of Japan and other developed countries. Jason Thompson
, author of Manga: The Complete Guide
, considered "The Sunflower Quality of an Intergrated Circuit" to have elements from film noir
. By featuring a mute mermaid in "Fish Out Of Water", Mihara makes an implicit reference to the fairytale "The Little Mermaid
", according to Oxford. The treatment of the elderly, children, or the unborn is the focus of some of the stories, according to Sparrow. Sparrow and Dan Grendall of Ain't It Cool News
speculated that "Alive" focuses on the meaning of living.
from 1994 to 1997; Mihara made her debut as a manga artist
with "Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids" in 1994, which won a contest in Feel Young. The short stories were published by Shodensha
in a bound volume
, (ISBN 4396761716), in Japan on October 18, 1997. For her stories, she generally draws inspiration from real-life problems in society or unhappy times in her own life.
Tokyopop
licensed IC in a Sunflower for an English-language release in North America, along with four of her other works: The Embalmer
, Beautiful People
, Haunted House
and R.I.P.: Requiem in Phonybrian
. Beni Axia Conrad translated IC in a Sunflower from Japanese, and Nathan Johnson adapted it for an English-language audience. Tokyopop published it on January 2, 2007 (ISBN 978-1-59816-769-6). However, Tokyopop's North American branch stopped publishing on May 31, 2011.
's 2007 Reader Poll for the best new josei manga, manga targeted towards women. Douresseaux praised the collection as "easily some of [Mihara's] best work made available in English." Sparrow highly recommended the manga, describing it as "a darker counterpart to Beautiful People." The art was a frequent source of praise among reviewers, although Grendall wrote that some of the older stories had art not on the same level of refinement as her later work Doll
. Mihara's storytelling also went over well with critics; Oxford commended Mihara's ability to create unrelated short stories, something not commonly seen in manga. Rating the manga two-and-a-half out of four stars, Thompson enjoyed some of the stories, but felt that the occasionally predictable endings or "ideas" that the story failed to expand upon hurt the manga. Upon learning that her illustrations and stories in general had been positively received in the West, Mihara was surprised and pleased "that people are overcoming the cultural barrier and just getting the message!"
Appearing as a serial
in Feel Young from 2000 to 2002, Mihara's science-fiction josei manga Doll examines the relationships between the eponymous androids and their human owners in the future. The narrative primarily consists of unrelated short stories, but also develops an overall plot involving Ichiro, a man who illegally remodels the androids, and his revenge against the corporation which creates them. The character Vanilla from IC in a Sunflower appears in Doll as one of the nine prototype
s.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
josei manga written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara
Mitsukazu Mihara
is an influential Japanese illustrator who helped to influence the Gothic Lolita look through her illustrations, particularly as the cover illustrator for the first eight volumes of the Gothic & Lolita Bible...
. It is a collection of seven, unrelated short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
which appeared in the Japanese manga magazine Feel Young
Feel Young
Feel Young is a monthly josei manga magazine published by Shōdensha in Japan. Manga artist whose stories have run in this magazine include Moyoco Anno, Mitsue Aoki, Mitsukazu Mihara, Kiriko Nananan, Mari Okazaki, Erica Sakurazawa, Ebine Yamaji, and others....
from 1994 to 1997. The stories were then published in Japan by Shodensha
Shodensha
is a Japanese publisher of mostly non-fiction magazines and books, though it has recently begun publishing light novels and manga, including magazines which contain both...
on October 18, 1997. Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
licensed IC in a Sunflower for an English-language release in North America, and published it on January 2, 2007. IC in a Sunflower was positively received by English-language critics and readers. Reviewers identified various themes and literary elements in the collection, and generally enjoyed the short stories and art.
The seven short stories consist of Mihara's 1994 debut , set in a future in which an AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
vaccine destroyed the desire for sex; , which focuses on a young woman haunted by her childhood sexual abuse; , which deals with the events surrounding a couple and their robotic housekeeper; , which centers on a boy in love with a girl caring for her elderly father; , which revolves around a captured mermaid; , which features a disturbed college student; and , which is set in a future where human cloning
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
is practiced.
Plot
IC in a Sunflower consists of seven short storiesShort story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, a format that Mitsukazu Mihara
Mitsukazu Mihara
is an influential Japanese illustrator who helped to influence the Gothic Lolita look through her illustrations, particularly as the cover illustrator for the first eight volumes of the Gothic & Lolita Bible...
frequently uses for her narrative. The stories are unrelated to each other, each featuring a different protagonist. The stories of IC in a Sunflower sometimes incorporate a twist ending.
revolves around a future in which teenagers do not have a desire for sex, as a result of an AIDS vaccine. The story focuses on Irori, who is taught about sex in school and encouraged by his parents, but ultimately neither understands nor has a desire for sex.
focuses on a woman who struggles to create a happy life for herself despite the childhood sexual abuse done to her by her older brother. Her parents refused to believe her, and upset, she bites her doll and develops a compulsive habit of biting. Later, as an adult, she settles down with a husband and child, but after discovering her battered doll which triggers memories of her unhappy childhood, she bites her child.
centers on Vanilla, an android who keeps house for an old man married to a younger, unfaithful
Infidelity
In many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...
woman. The man treats Vanilla well, and the two have tea in the garden; his wife, in contrast, abuses her and allows her lover to do the same. After the old man reveals his plans for divorce, his wife murders him and orders Vanilla to bury the remains. Vanilla obeys, although she recognizes that the remains were of the old man. The story ends with Vanilla in the garden, keeping her promise to the man by having tea when the sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
s bloom.
In , a boy falls in love from afar with a girl taking care of her elderly father. After she fails to appear with her father one day, he finds her dressed in mourning clothes
Mourning
Mourning is, in the simplest sense, synonymous with grief over the death of someone. The word is also used to describe a cultural complex of behaviours in which the bereaved participate or are expected to participate...
with a smile on her face and burning the basket she kept with her.
focuses on a captured mermaid
Mermaid
A mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature with a female human head, arms, and torso and the tail of a fish. A male version of a mermaid is known as a "merman" and in general both males and females are known as "merfolk"...
and her refusal to speak. Her captor attempts to pull her out of the bathtub where she had been living, and she remembers that she was a girl whose mother had tried to drown her and herself in a lake years ago. Her mother died, but she survived and imagined herself as a mermaid. She then wakes up from her delusion, finding herself in a hospital instead of a bathtub, and can begin to recover.
revolves around a college student, who collects rocks and is tormented by his memories of dissecting a frog. After learning that his girlfriend is pregnant, he becomes upset and tosses her into a busy highway.
Set in a future where human cloning is practiced, focuses on Tou, a clone sent to live in an orphanage of humans as part of an assignment. There, he meets a cheerful girl named Riika and after some time, she is taken to be killed for her organs. It is then revealed that Tou only thought he was a clone.
Style and themes
In IC in a Sunflower and all her works, Mihara uses character designs incorporating Lolita fashionLolita fashion
is a fashion subculture originating in Japan that is based on Victorian-era clothing as well as costumes from the Rococo period, but the style has expanded greatly beyond these two. The Lolita look began primarily as one of modesty with a focus on quality in both material and manufacture of garments...
—a clothing style influenced by the Rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
style and the Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
and Edwardian eras. She explained that that particular style conveys the duality of her characters: "It's about showing the delicate balance of 'delicate, yet strong,' or 'selfish and wild, yet lustful.'" Mihara has been involved with the shaping of the Gothic Lolita style—a subset of the Lolita fashion which incorporates dark colors—through her artwork; she illustrated the first eight covers of the fashion magazine-book Gothic & Lolita Bible
Gothic & Lolita Bible
is a quarterly Japanese fashion "mook", a combination of a magazine and book, which focuses on the Gothic and Lolita fashions. It was first published in 2001 by Index Communications, and is a spin-off of the Japanese fashion magazine Kera....
and later returned to illustrating the covers with the twenty-seventh volume in fall 2007.
Reviewers have identified multiple themes and literary elements in the manga. According to Mania Entertainment's Nadia Oxford, Mihara uses minimal dialogue and narrative, instead conveying emotion through the behavior of the characters. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's A.E. Sparrow stated that the theme of the stories was the meaning of humanity, while Oxford wrote that the manga contains "themes of dystopian society
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
and the fragile nature of the human mind." Sparrow thought that mental instability figures prominently in the stories. According to him, "Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids" deals with "the nature of sex," while Oxford believed that the story raises the question of the declining birth rate of Japan and other developed countries. Jason Thompson
Jason Thompson (writer)
Jason Thompson is a manga critic, journalist, writer and comics artist.-Life and career:...
, author of Manga: The Complete Guide
Manga: The Complete Guide
Manga: The Complete Guide is a 2007 encyclopedia written by Jason Thompson and published by Del Rey which provides basic details and short reviews of over 1000 Japanese manga titles that have been translated and released in English in North America...
, considered "The Sunflower Quality of an Intergrated Circuit" to have elements from film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
. By featuring a mute mermaid in "Fish Out Of Water", Mihara makes an implicit reference to the fairytale "The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid
"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...
", according to Oxford. The treatment of the elderly, children, or the unborn is the focus of some of the stories, according to Sparrow. Sparrow and Dan Grendall of Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News is a website founded and run by Harry Knowles, dedicated to news, rumors and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic-book and action genres...
speculated that "Alive" focuses on the meaning of living.
Release
Written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara, the seven short stories of IC in a Sunflower appeared in the Japanese manga magazine Feel YoungFeel Young
Feel Young is a monthly josei manga magazine published by Shōdensha in Japan. Manga artist whose stories have run in this magazine include Moyoco Anno, Mitsue Aoki, Mitsukazu Mihara, Kiriko Nananan, Mari Okazaki, Erica Sakurazawa, Ebine Yamaji, and others....
from 1994 to 1997; Mihara made her debut as a manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
with "Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids" in 1994, which won a contest in Feel Young. The short stories were published by Shodensha
Shodensha
is a Japanese publisher of mostly non-fiction magazines and books, though it has recently begun publishing light novels and manga, including magazines which contain both...
in a bound volume
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
, (ISBN 4396761716), in Japan on October 18, 1997. For her stories, she generally draws inspiration from real-life problems in society or unhappy times in her own life.
Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
licensed IC in a Sunflower for an English-language release in North America, along with four of her other works: The Embalmer
The Embalmer
is a manga series written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara. It is serialized within the magazine magazine Feel Young, and currently has been collected into 6 volumes by Shodensha. The Embalmer was previously licensed for English release by Tokyopop, and four volumes have been released. The...
, Beautiful People
Beautiful People (manga)
is a drama josei manga by Mitsukazu Mihara. It is a collection of six short stories and was published by Shodensha on October 20, 2001.-Plot:...
, Haunted House
Haunted House (manga)
is a comedy horror manga written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara. Known for her short stories and characters dressed in the Gothic Lolita fashion, Mihara continued her use of death-themed material in Haunted House, a volume of one-shot chapters focusing on the teenage protagonist's attempts to...
and R.I.P.: Requiem in Phonybrian
R.I.P.: Requiem in Phonybrian
R.I.P.: Requiem in Phonybrian is a manga written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara.-Release:Written and illustrated by Mitsukazu Mihara, the chapters of R.I.P.: Requiem in Phonybrian were collected into one tankōbon volume and published in November 2000.Tokyopop licensed the manga for an...
. Beni Axia Conrad translated IC in a Sunflower from Japanese, and Nathan Johnson adapted it for an English-language audience. Tokyopop published it on January 2, 2007 (ISBN 978-1-59816-769-6). However, Tokyopop's North American branch stopped publishing on May 31, 2011.
Reception and legacy
IC in a Sunflower was positively received by English-language reviewers and readers. The manga ranked eighth on About.comAbout.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
's 2007 Reader Poll for the best new josei manga, manga targeted towards women. Douresseaux praised the collection as "easily some of [Mihara's] best work made available in English." Sparrow highly recommended the manga, describing it as "a darker counterpart to Beautiful People." The art was a frequent source of praise among reviewers, although Grendall wrote that some of the older stories had art not on the same level of refinement as her later work Doll
Doll (manga)
is a series of short manga stories written by Mitsukazu Mihara. In the United States it is published by Tokyopop.-Summary:DOLLs are human-like androids manufactured by the SG Corporation. A DOLL can fulfill many varied needs and serve any number of purposes, including personal assistant, secretary,...
. Mihara's storytelling also went over well with critics; Oxford commended Mihara's ability to create unrelated short stories, something not commonly seen in manga. Rating the manga two-and-a-half out of four stars, Thompson enjoyed some of the stories, but felt that the occasionally predictable endings or "ideas" that the story failed to expand upon hurt the manga. Upon learning that her illustrations and stories in general had been positively received in the West, Mihara was surprised and pleased "that people are overcoming the cultural barrier and just getting the message!"
Appearing as a serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
in Feel Young from 2000 to 2002, Mihara's science-fiction josei manga Doll examines the relationships between the eponymous androids and their human owners in the future. The narrative primarily consists of unrelated short stories, but also develops an overall plot involving Ichiro, a man who illegally remodels the androids, and his revenge against the corporation which creates them. The character Vanilla from IC in a Sunflower appears in Doll as one of the nine prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
s.
External links
- IC in a Sunflower at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...