August Books 2) With The Light… vol 7, by Keiko Tobe

As she reached the (premature) end of her efforts, Tobe started use the ongoing manga series of a boy with autism to look at other issues in Japanese society. Hikaru’s mother must still deal with him hitting puberty; the entire family has to move to his unsympathetic grandmother’s house, which means re-enacting a lot of her earlier hostility to his very presence in her life; but there are also some diversions into her right to to lead her own life without scrutiny from the younger generation, and the question of providing contraception for underage women (the latter feels somewhat pasted in, and was presumably a reaction to something going on in Japan at the time). As always, Tobe’s art and prose are nicely observed and convey what it’s like to live in a society I don’t know with a problem that I do know.

One thought on “August Books 2) With The Light… vol 7, by Keiko Tobe

  1. Well yes, with a Roman invasion by land, there is no need for London to exist at all – presumably there would be a strategic town controlling the land bridge, and then one might expect the capital to be further inland, somewhere around Oxford, say, or maybe Leicester?

    Good point about the circulation – clearly there will be some effect, though how significant it would be, I don’t know. At the very least, we might suspect that there woud be a lot less expansion of the Germanic peoples, so maybe the Celtic areas extend further east, as far as the Elbe at least? Does that make things easier or harder for the Romans? I would guess easier – similar tactics should work in Gaul east of the Rhine as succeeded in the Celtic provinces historically.

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