User 01 | Manga artist, Fujiwara Aoko

User / Manga artist Fujiwara Aoko "The Serious Princess and the Stationery Prince" is set at a university in Kyoto and depicts human relationships that unfold through episodes related to stationery. This is a must-read manga for stationery fans. We spoke to its author, Fujiwara, about his relationship with stationery, both as a work tool and as a subject of his work.

AAKO FUJIWARA
Manga artist. In 2006, his work "Where. Where. Winner of the Kawaguchi Kaiji Award at the 21st MANGA OPEN (Kodansha)". The following year, in 2007, his work "Colors" was selected in the general category at the 52nd Chiba Tetsuya Award (Kodansha), and in 2008, his work "After the Dream" won an honorable mention at the 65th Newcomer Comics Award (Shogakukan). Her representative works include "Design no Iroha" (Morning Two / 2010) and "The Serious Princess and the Stationery Prince" (Monthly Spirits / 2020).

The subject is the most familiar tools.

Jot down ideas in a notebook or ink your manuscript.

Even in this age of digitalization, like many manga artists, stationery remains an indispensable companion to Fujiwara.

I thought it would be interesting to take a different perspective and delve deeper into these everyday work tools, so from among several candidates, I chose stationery as the theme for the series, and thus "The Serious Princess and the Stationery Prince" was born.

I am fascinated by the stories behind tools.

Fujiwara says he is attracted not only to the appearance and function of stationery, but also to the background behind its creation.
For example, in an episode on the theme of pencils, while researching how pencils became popular in Japan, students learned about the origins of elementary schools and discovered that the transition from writing brushes to hard pens was related to alphabet education.

The results of this spirit of inquiry can be experienced by readers through the perspective of Kanoko, the main character of "The Serious Princess and the Stationery Prince."

The dialogue for manga is handwritten in a notebook. Typed text makes it easy to rearrange, but it doesn't leave behind the original ideas or the process of trial and error.

A pen-pal network that makes wonderful use of fountain pens.

He says that meeting the penpal network was one of the good things about working on the stationery manga.

A pen pal network is an initiative in which people exchange five letters at first, and if they hit it off, they exchange personal information and find friends to send letters and postcards to at seasonal turning points, such as Christmas cards and New Year's cards.

Apparently many fountain pen enthusiasts attend the event, which is not just a place to collect fountain pens and engage in nerdy discussions about them, but also a place where they can actually use the items as tools. Here are some thoughts from readers: They say that handwritten letters bring them great joy because they convey a lot of information through the paper, the writing implement used, and the handwriting.

This is communication where the purpose is to write, without rushing for a reply.

Fujiwara prefers a style of writing that is more like a chat about what's going on in his life than formal writing. He says that when his work life calms down, he starts writing casually, even if he doesn't have anything in particular to say. There is no rush to reply like there is with email or social media, because the emphasis is on communicating in writing rather than expecting a response. On Twitter and the internet, people tend to focus on using headlines that grab people's attention, but he says that letters suit him well because he can communicate at his own pace without feeling pressured. On the other hand, he seems to be quite particular about the aesthetic beauty of postcards, and the best part of writing them is worrying about the address, stamp, and layout of the text. Although the serialization of "The Serious Princess and the Stationery Prince" has come to an end, she said that she would like to continue exchanging letters in addition to her creative work.

Post-interview notes Fujiwara-san's serialization of "Kimejime Hime" has now settled down and she is enjoying her leisurely time. He told us his thoughts on letters and correspondence, which he couldn't fit into an article, and it made me want to start writing letters myself. We tend to compare handwritten letters to emails and social media. They may be the same tools for conveying feelings, but this talk reminded us that there is a big gap between "typing" and "handwriting." The photo above shows Fujiwara's recent favorite, a Postalco ballpoint pen. He says that the key to its design is its sophisticated design and rugged functionality. It's one of the writing instruments I admire. (TAG STATIONERY STORE Staff M)