Marie Kondo transforms into a comic book
She’s now in cartoon form
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Everdeen Mason.
In her new book, “The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up,” Marie Kondo is a comic book character.
This odd little shoujo manga book, originally published in Japan, follows the tale of a fictional messy woman named Chiaki Suzuki. An earnest workaholic, Chiaki never cooks and has a disaster of an apartment littered with trash on the balcony and items on every surface. She never invites people over because of the mess. When her attractive neighbor comes over to complain about Chiaki’s balcony trash (rightly so), he gets a glimpse into her apartment and is disgusted.
What is Chiaki to do? Marie Kondo — or rather, Manga Kondo — takes on Chiaki’s case, and over 185 pages, the pair get Chiaki’s life back together.
In this manga, illustrated by Yuko Utamato, we realize she doesn’t cook for herself anymore, that she doesn’t enjoy her life, that she doesn’t have a way to move forward. Through the KonMari method, she learns how to value the things around her, and thus herself. (To anyone who’s read a Kondo book, this will sound familiar.)
In one of their first lessons, Chiaki is deciding what books in her hoarder’s den to keep or throw away. She feels sad at the idea that an author has written and sold a book only to have it discarded.
“You wouldn’t like it if someone got rid of the book you wrote, would you?” Chiaki asks, her hands balled into fists, her mouth wobbly with emotion.
Manga Kondo stops her with a hand up and her mouth in a half-moon smile. The little black-and-white Marie seems resigned to her fate, in a way.
“Actually, if it doesn’t bring joy, I’d rather they did,” she says
