▪	RELEASED BY:		DARK HORSE
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		KAZUHIRO OKAMOTO
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / BW
		▪	PAGES:		192
		▪	RATING:		12+
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		07/18/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		09/05/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		CHRISTOPHER SEAMAN

With the recent influx of schoolyard manga from Japan and Korea, one must admit as a reviewer all the titles begin to blur together after awhile.  With certain sameness among the titles comes certain predictability, leaving it harder for artists and writers to come up with original stories, and harder for readers to find them.  TRANSLUCENT GIRL, a short manga by Kazuhiro Okamoto, published by Dark Horse, is one in the crowd, that despite the invisibility of the main character, stands out prominently for its humor, sensitivity and intriguing premise.  Sweet without being saccharine, this is one story that can be enjoyed by more than the teens in its target audience.  Adults who have a lot of experience working with young adults will find some resonance in the content, where translucence is not just a physical problem for some people, but also a state of mind.

Shizuka Shiroyama is an eighth grade student who deals with all the usual stuff teens go through at that time in their lives.  If you’ve read any schoolyard manga, you already know the problems without me having to list them.  However, what sets Shizuka apart from her peers is a strange medical condition- Translucent Syndrome- that causes her to become transparent or even invisible from time to time.  Stress, among other factors, can bring on episodes, and once a cycle begins, it can take days or weeks to wear off.  A part of this collection of self-contained stories deals with Shizuka facing elements of this strange medical condition.  How her friends, mainly the ever loyal, and persistent Mamoru Tadami help her cope with the various problems that come with being invisible fills in the supplementary plot of each story.  Along the way, Shizuka and Mamoru become closer together, with the latter showing signs of falling for his invisible girl.  But it is not easy for either of them, as Shizuka must do things like act in the play while having an episode, Mamoru must literally fight Shizuka’s father to make him realize that she needs to move on in her life, and others like the talented and popular Okouchi-san and Keiko, the artist, sometimes make life a little more complicated through their actions than is necessary.  Still, each story has a tidy little ending, leading nicely into the next.  Problems find ways to be solved.  For one thing, Mamoru has developed a way of using cosmetics on Shizuka to make her stand out a little more, drawing his own art skills and interests in plastic modeling to help her.

This manga is really easy to read, and easier to like.  The artwork is nicely done, with good tone and line work to clearly delineate characters and settings.  The plots are not too involved, and the stories self contained enough that you can read it in several sittings over short periods if necessary.  But the real strength in this manga, and the factor which made this reviewer interested in it when reading the blurb from Dark Horse in PREVIEWS, was the more interesting examination of how translucence can be a problem for all people, whether they are physically afflicted or emotionally so.  We all hear about the teenager who either wants to be invisible or who feels that being ignored by his or her peers that he or she is so.  When one can be defined as being invisible on so many levels, what else can we explore in stories like those that make up TRANSLUCENT GIRL?  The popular girl wishes she had the condition so she could move among others with a greater peace of mind.  The artist feels that physical transparency should also mean she is untouchable as well as invisible to her spurned boyfriend.  The father, who is an invisible man at work, drifting unnoticed past his colleagues everyday, is also afflicted in some way, in that he literally has no presence in a space.  Which is more tragic?  Kazuhiro Okamoto leaves much for discussion on these points.

EXTRA:
There are several short one page manga pieces at the end of the various stories.  Called OMAKE, they are cute and entertaining in their own way; well worth reading.  A city map of Nantara, where the story is set, is included at the end of the manga.  Dark Horse previews follow.

IN SUMMARY:
TRANSLUCENT GIRL is a treasure- thoughtful, sensitive, and very, very funny, in a sweet loving way.  Young and older readers alike will find much to identify with in the pages of this multi-layered romantic comedy from Dark Horse, from the likeable characters to the predicaments they all face as variously translucent people in a complicated world.