Page 45 Review by Mark
The twins help out at their parents' supermarket, the only food outlet in town. Gretel is a natural beauty and a quick tempered sword-bearer. Hansel was born with a voice so strong that it could shatter the very mountains so he covers his mouth with an old tin can. Apart from that, everything is okay. Their father is on medication and cannot see the colour pink, Gretel's hairdresser sells exclusive diet food to those lucky enough to afford it and pigs, three stories high, carving up their bellies to be sold off.
Then the food supplies are cut off. Starving, the townsfolk are lured to Mount Hibari where they see a gleaming vista of mouth-watering wares. Here are the goods to fill their growling stomachs. Marshmallow sofas! Towering, cream-topped jellies! Strawberries as big as your head! All there for the taking. Stay forever, never leave, take all you can eat!
We know the regular Hansel & Gretel storyline so we recognise a lot of the elements but Mizuno has swapped things around. The children are the saviours, not those in peril. The witch's tricks reach further and are more like a big corporations as she diverts the healthy eating of the town to her free (fast) food mountain.
Mizuno stands apart from the rest of the (mostly North American) cute/grotesque cartoonists as she has a positive message, her re-readings of fairytales are not just gleeful attacks on childhood memories, calculated to appeal to those unsure of their approaching adulthood status. This doesn't sanitise her work, just make her wield the knife with more purpose. Artistically, she's linked to the super-flat art movement of Japan (Murakami Takahashi, Yoshimoto Nara, Ai Yamaguchi) but where the bulk of those artists are influenced by growing up amid manga and anime she keeps adding to the medium that has inspired her.
Viz, at her request, have pushed the boat out with the production of the book. Like CINDERALLA, the pages are on rough, pulpy stock, meant to imitate eighties superhero comics and the colours seep into the paper, managing to be both bright, garish and slightly on the turn. There's a sheet of stickers in the back and a cut-out diorama to make.
