Personal Collection: Shio Sato's Unused Early Charmuro Manuscript (1979)

 

(Shio Sato, penname of the novelist and illustrator Simone Yotsuya's untitled manuscript from early to mid 1979.)

I acquired this piece from M last year while on my trip to Hyogo. It goes without saying that I was in no short supply of looking over part of the works that belonged to such a prolific Charma artists in their day. While Simone's obvious attachment to Charma seemed to wane by 1984 to 1985 proper, she herself situated and continues to through the lens of her modern day work. Recently, Simone showcased some of her older work as reprints at a Saint Seiya themed doujinshi event at the beginning of the year. While the event was relatively small and seemingly invite only (many events like so are typically organized on platforms such as Twitter and LINE), Simone is clearly still active. 

Upon looking at this piece, its quite mysterious in its framing, if not experimental. Simone's trail as a BL parody artist is relatively undocumented and grey, though given some of their parody work in the 1979 imprint Selection, one can assume that their hand possibly was slightly entrenched in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman at one point. Its not for certain, and in my various conversations with individuals such as M, Ren Kishida and Makoto Takeno, no one seemingly knew when these doujinshi activities began. 

What is certain, however, is that Simone's earliest work is, through an obvious lens, Charma related. To have a Charmuro (in this case, the visuals are not romantic) piece in a visual stead presents a unique look at an artist in their earliest inceptions. 1979 was a unique time for Simone - some of the earliest volumes with the circle Lets Play Around With Char were penned right around this time, albeit that they found resounding fame at Comiket by 1980 proper. 

This particular manuscript, according to M, was never published, nor was it intended to be. Simone handed off hundreds of items to M in the early 1990s. By that time, the latter had begun illustrating primarily for commercial manga and novels, perhaps at the behest of a changing demographic and visual market for BL. Post the bubble crash, subculture magazines had long stopped publishing Aniparo works, especially with queer themes. While seeking employment, Simone's visual hand changed to mirror hyper mature, masculine men and their waifish, often times purple haired partners. 

Bisexual and even hetero themes on the table, Simone's doujinshi activities picked back up once again in the 1990s with Shikiko Yamaai's Walkure imprint. There was also the founding of the circle Pygmalion with the mangaka Yuuko Morioka - Everything from Area 88 to Yu-Gi-Oh was covered as a topic, and with Simone's serious lines, one wonders what this piece of Charmuro truly meant.

The piece in question is highly unique in that its not drawn on a standard piece of draft paper or manga manuscript. Clearly, it wasn't meant to be directly published, perhaps, though the nature of self publishing didn't always warrant elegant lines. Many young women (and men) contributed drawings and cuts (loose, often small illustrations that were used in the margins of FC manuscripts) on whatever they had to their devices. Was this piece a cut? The size is quite large and would easily get rejected for a smaller margin. Is that why it was never used? 

Drawn with ink or G-pen and further screen toned, the wild energy of the piece suggests an earlier foray into the series and its works. Its not conclusive about my statement of their activities around 1977 or so, however, the scene depicted of Amuro and Garma is inventive and keen to Simone's later sensibilities - Char's telltale smirk and long, cowlick-esque hair hangs in his face as he schemes. As it was a part of Simone's belongings at the time, there is a possibility that I may be able to acquire others in the future. My conversations with Ren Kishida painted a picture of a hyper keen, intuitive, if not wickedly clever, artist and provocateur. Just like Char, Simone seemingly had always been three steps ahead of her contemporaries at times.