Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: FROM FAR AWAY

While Fushigi Yugi was the first manga series to popularize the concept of shojo isekai in the 90s, there was a series that came out at the same time that in my opinion is far more interesting (and 100% less rapey!)

FROM FAR AWAY (Kanata Kara), by Kyoko Hikawa.  First published in 1993, and first published in 2004.

PLOT:

When Noriko is caught up in a bombing, she finds herself whisked away to a strange new world, one she had only seen previously in her dreams.  There are all sorts of strange creatures and landmarks, and she can't understand a thing anyone's saying.  All she knows is that Izark, the brave warrior who found her and protects her, is the only person she can trust.  Little does she know that she and Izark are players in an ancient prophecy, one that would bring death and destruction to this new world...

STORY:

Isekai stories - even shojo isekai stories like this one - are at heart power fantasies.  They are stories where ordinary people can possess incredible magic power, the hearts of countless members of the opposite sex, and change the world, whether they are overworked salarymen or teen girls.  What strikes me as different about From Far Away is how much it eschews the more indulgent trappings of the genre and feels more like a traditional fantasy tale.

I think one major reason for that is that it's told far more from a a first-person perspective than most shojo isekai stories.  That's mostly because Noriko is not blessed with the ability to speak or understand the language, so the reader has to rely almost entirely on her internal monologue to understand Noriko's thoughts and feelings towards the events around here. This far more of a convention you would expect from a book (especially a light novel, as that's basically how Yoko's story is told in The Twelve Kingdoms) than you would from a manga. 

Then there's Izark.  Since Noriko is unable to communicate and wholly unprepared to deal with things like giant man-eating worms or pterodon-riding warriors, it's Izark who plays the role of traditional fantasy warrior hero.  He's strong, stoic, and ambiguous, leaving the reader to try and grasp his personality alongside Noriko.  The interesting thing is that Izark has some awareness of Noriko's connection to the prophecy, and the few times we are privy to his thoughts shows that his stoic front hides a sympathetic heart. 

That doesn't mean that Noriko is just a useless load, though.  Since we see so much of her internal monologue, we see her slowly but surely build up her courage, employ some basic medical skills, and use her empathy for others to find and make allies.  We also see her make the first steps towards learning the language and trying to communicate with Izark.  Her efforts may be smaller in scale and more based around emotion than action, but there's still something heroic about her efforts to change what few things in this situation are in her control.  It gives things a sense of balance, despite their disparate skill sets and experience, and all together it makes for a combination that even now feels kind of unique for shojo isekai.

ART:

This manga might have started in the early 90s, but stylistically it's still very much stuck in the 80s.  This is most obvious in how Hikawa draws Izark and the other men in this series.  While her style is not quite as aggressive as some others, the big, flowing hair and big pointy chins are more typical of shojo art from that decade.  While she's perfectly competent when it comes to action, Hikawa's real strengths lie in her paneling and fantastical details.  There are some really lovely sequences here, especially at the start as Noriko drifts in gentle, dreamlike sequences from one world to the next.  She also clearly savors drawing all the weird fantasy elements, such as the various monsters and costumes.

RATING:


From Far Away was overshadowed by Fushigi Yugi in its day, but I think From Far Away has aged far more gracefully than that series.  The reason for that is that it draws more on literary fantasy conventions than on shojo fantasy ones, brings a sensitivity and thoughtfulness to the leads' thoughts, and avoids the more indulgent and immature parts of its genre.  It's the perfect antidote to the Shield Heros and Goblin Slayers of the modern age, and it deserves to be rediscovered by modern readers.

This series is published by Viz.  This series is complete in Japan with 14 volumes available.  All 14 have been published; the physical volumes are out of print, but the digital volumes are currently in print.