Image source: Manga-News — via manga-news.com
Mangaka Tokushige Kawakatsu, already known in France for Tokyo Blues and The Dog Thief in the Anthropocene, returns to publisher Le Lézard Noir's catalog next week with the one-shot Gritted Teeth, Head Held High (originally Yasegaman no Setsu), an adaptation of a partly autobiographical novella by writer and ophthalmologist Shizuo Fujieda, created in 2024 for the Torch website. Described by the publisher as a bittersweet, genuine tale of a woman's emancipation that should appeal to fans of filmmaker Mikio Naruse, the 280-page one-shot arrives in France on August 26 at 19 euros, translated by Laurent Lemercier. The story, set in 1950s Shizuoka, is narrated by an aging doctor whose niece Honami, who normally lives in Tokyo, keeps unexpectedly fleeing to visit him and, this time, seems reluctant to leave, eventually confiding a dream of hers to him.