Profile: Ebine Yamaji
Manga writer Ebine Yamaji lives in Tokyo. Her novels, which include Sweet Lovin' Baby, Indigo Blue and Free Soul, are known for their rich portrayals of the lives of young women, and several have been serialized in Feel Young magazine, as well as published by Shodensha. In 2006, her manga story "Love My Life" was made into a well-known movie of the same title starring Asami Imajuku.

Readers interested in purchasing her books (Japanese text only) should visit www.s-book.com.

copyright Ebine Yamaji 'Free Soul'/Shodensha Feel Comics

―Was your debut piece also a story about two girls?

No, not at all. It didn't even have the feel of a love story, instead it had more of a comedic touch to it in places. It was more of a humorous work.

―After "Love My Life", you wrote a number of stories about two girls in love. Why was that?

Yes. After touching on that theme in "Love My Life", it continued to tug on me - I just felt that it worked.

―Do you feel that there is any difference between portraying male-female love stories as opposed to female-female ones?

It's more fun to write stories about two girls. Up to that point, I had never really enjoyed telling straight love stories. I just felt that my heart wasn't into it - I didn't get the same feeling of satisfaction from working on them. But once I produced a girl-meets-girl piece, I just realized that it was so much fun - I loved it! So, actually, recently I've been thinking to myself that if I try to approach working on straight love stories the same way that I do gay ones, then they may go better (laughs).

―(laughs) The mature and relaxed nature of your work is really what stands out most. Do you think that these reflect traits in your own personality?

Really? Personally, I'm not at all mature or relaxed (laughs)! Indeed it seems like some people tend to think of me as having something of a 'cool' persona - a lot of people say that I look like someone who'd be out clubbing and drinking a lot (laughs). But I'm not like that at all.

―I read in the Afterword to Sweet Lovin' Baby that your aim is not to specifically bring up gay issues in your stories. However, I think that many lesbians gravitate towards your work because the problems they encounter are so sensitively portrayed in a realistic sense - it's hard not to feel touched by it. For example, Free Soul portrays, amongst other things, how the mother of the main character, Keito, cannot accept the fact that her daughter is a lesbian. What sorts of messages have you received from readers regarding points like this?

Well, I did receive letters from women opening up about their own troubles, like people telling me,"I'm gay and wondering if it would be alright to come out since I haven't yet." So, in that way, I'm really very glad that my stories were realistic enough to strike a chord with readers. When I write stories, I put all that I've got into them. But once that work is published, everything is in the hands of the readers, and how the story is read is entirely up to them. However, though my stories do involve love between two women, to me they are really meant to explore the many sides of human relationships, rather than just love alone. Therefore, I think that anyone who would say that I am a writer of 'romance manga' doesn't quite get the whole picture. In my mind, romance is just simply one part of our personal relations, and what I want to portray is not just limited to romance but rather the whole of 'the human drama'.

― I see. I read in Anise that your mother helped with your work on love scenes involving women together. I found it so funny. (Note: 'Anise' was a Japanese lesbian magazine issued from 1996-2003.)　

Yes she did! For example, when I needed some material to help illustrate a kiss scene, I'd ask her to close her eyes and making something of a kissing face - and then I'd take her picture. Stuff like that (laughs).

―What was that like? (laughs)

It wasn't a big deal really (laughs). At the time all I knew was that I needed to get pictures to use as illustration resources. I mean, to a degree I was also kind of asking my mom to humor me, too (laughs).

―Does this mean that your mom is aware of and understands the lesbian content in your manga?

Yes, you could certainly say that. I don't particularly bring up the content of my work for discussion, but when I finish a book I do make a point to give a copy to her. But since her generation doesn't really read manga, she doesn't know how to read the stories really (laughs). She just flips through reading the illustrated stories, but then will stop to read the afterword and other solid texts properly. But, I suppose she does also come back to me with advice for my illustrations as well. Like, "The balance between black and white is not so great here - there's too much white," or, "Can't you put a little more sharpness into this one?" and so on (laughs). I have explained to her the fact that there is gay content so, even though she may not have read it, she does understand the kind of work I'm doing.

translated by rayna