Keshiki 7 (Mikumari)

Part of the Keshiki project: a series of 8 short stories translated from the original Japanese and available as separate pamphlets as well as part of an overall boxed set.

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A schoolboy is in his senior year when he attends Comiket, a comic market in Tokyo. There, he meets a married woman ten years his senior, a cosplayer who goes by the name of Anzu. Drawn to his resemblance to a character from an anime series, he and Anzu begin an intense affair. Over time, he becomes increasingly wary of his relationship with Anzu, but, at the same time, he finds himself unable to leave her.

Barton's translation masterfully captures the witty, boisterous tone in which Kubo writes, rendering for us in English the inner thoughts of a teenage boy growing up in Japan. Dealing with themes of sex, fertility and the female boy, Mikumari explores the complex relationship between private desire and popular culture in modern times.