Kobayashi, Chieko – The Two Primas

Website (where you can order the comic)

The Two Primas

One day, I would love to learn the origin story for the “action lines” that are in manga comics/anime. You know the ones, always in a scene with something dramatic happening, where suddenly everybody in the panel/on the screen look shocked, but they’re completely static while the lines behind them show… tension? Motion? I know in some of the older cartoons they were used to help portray action while not needing to animate it because of their tiny budgets. I’ve never fully understood it, but by now they’re a completely accepted part of the genre, so I should probably just shut up about it. Anyway, how about this comic? It’s the story of an accepted ballet star taking in an old friend who has had trouble fitting in at other ballet troupes in the past. This seems to be because this other lady got into ballet not because of any love of it, but because she has a rare form of athlete’s foot that is only alleviated while in ballet shoes with her toes pointed downwards. It turns out that this group is in danger of losing their funding, and it’s also revealed that there’s a nefarious plot underway to kill it entirely, which I probably shouldn’t get into here. Chieko admits in the afterward that she made up a lot of ballet stuff, but it all seemed accurate to me. Granted, I also don’t know that much about ballet, so don’t get mad at either one of us if you’re an expert and find this comic to be filled with factual errors. I wish there was a bit more time to flesh out these characters, but other than that it’s a solid enough story, with not a single image of athlete’s foot if that sort of thing grosses you out. $5