Dolls (1995 manga)

Dolls

North American cover of Dolls volume 1
観用少女
(Kan You Shoujo)
Genre Drama, Horror, Psychological
Manga
Written by Yumiko Kawahara
Published by Asahi Sonarama
English publisher
Demographic Shōjo
Magazine Nemurenu Yoru no Kimyou na Hanashi
Original run 1995 – 1999
Volumes 4

Dolls (観用少女 Kan You Shoujo, lit. Ornamental Girls) is a collection of short manga stories by Yumiko Kawahara. In the US, it is published by VIZ Media. It was serialized in Nemurenu Yoru no Kimyou na Hanashi ("Mysterious Stories for Sleepless Nights"), as stated in volume 1 of the English version of Dolls.

Story

The stories revolve around some special dolls, the Plant Dolls, and the people who buy them. The dolls choose their owners, and desperately need their owners' love; they often reflect their owners' personalities for better or worse. Each story is independent of each other, though there may be references to knowledge learned in previous stories. Some stories have a fairy-tale like quality: they are eerie fables meant to warn against certain actions. There are several non-Plant-Doll related stories included in the Viz-released volumes as well.

Plant Dolls

Plant Dolls are living dolls. They drink milk warmed to body temperature three times a day, and take sugar cookies or cake once a week as fertilizer. Each doll is unique, though the same "model" can be available. They are "so expensive the price will make your eyeballs pop out," and the accessories and care do not come cheap either. Plant Dolls look like young girls, but given improper treatment, they can mature. This is especially true if they are given anything to eat or drink other than milk and cookies. When they cry, their tears become valuable jewels called "Tears of Heaven". Plant Dolls are shown to have very lovely smiles, often deeply touching those who see them. There are two known models of Plant Dolls: potpourri dolls and singing dolls. Potpourri dolls take perfume balls with their meals and soon a pleasant scent can come from them. One of the earliest known singing dolls was Olympia, but she was later deemed an irregular model because she wasn't nourished for over a week but stayed the same way.

Volumes

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Reception

Comic World News's Michael May praised the "creepy and thoughtful" stories and the "intricate and delicate" art, and stated that the series focused on "the concepts of love and selfishness and how they connect."[1] Mangalife's Kathryn Ramage enjoyed the "sadly touching, even haunting, sometimes unsettling, and even occasionally funny" short stories.[2] Conversely, Megan Sutton of Animefringe criticized the "hard to follow" story panels and the uninteresting stories which were "too short to have any sustainable plot".[3]

References

  1. ↑ May, Michael. "Dolls Volume 1". Comic World News. Archived from the original on December 14, 2010. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  2. ↑ Ramage, Kathryn. "Dolls v1 Review". Mangalife. Archived from the original on January 7, 2006. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  3. ↑ Sutton, Megan (January 2005). "Animefringe: January 2005 - Manga Shorts". Animefringe. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
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