Overcoming Insecurities with Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love Manga Creator mamakari
by Jeremy Tauber,
What were your sources of inspiration when penning this manga?
mamakari: In a counseling session I attended before, I learned about "cognitive distortions," which piqued my interest. The idea that how we think and how we feel can affect how we see things... Since then, I tried to incorporate that idea into my manga. I also wanted to synthesize the idea and a popular manga genre, which my editor advised me to do.
What made you want to devote a manga to the idea of body positivity?
mamakari: I didn't originally intend to focus on “body positivity.” At first, I just vaguely thought, “I want to draw a cheerful and happy girl.”
However, as I mentioned earlier, to effectively portray a character who changes her way of thinking and perspective, I needed to make the protagonist someone who is originally introverted and has intense insecurities. The insecurity could have been anything, like having a flat nose or being extremely shy, but since it's a manga, I chose to focus on her body to make it easier to understand.
mamakari: I have many aspects of my appearance that I'm not happy with, but I see them as part of who I am. I spend my time, sometimes with awareness of them, sometimes without awareness of them. It took me a long time to feel that way. I struggled with it, especially when I was younger. So I believe I can understand how people can be so preoccupied with their looks.
Progress has been made in American society toward being more body positive, although there is still considerable pressure to maintain a thin physique. Do you find the same holds true in Japan? What are the Japanese views on beauty and body positivity?
mamakari: In Japanese society, many people still have a kind of obsession with being thin. From my perspective, it seems that kind of obsession affects younger people the most. I believe the recent spread of social media and anxiety-mongering ads is part of the reason. On social platforms in particular, you often come across information about appetite-suppressing drugs—and it's worrying how easily they can be obtained. It's incredibly hard to shake off the narrow idea that “thin equals beautiful,” but I find hope in the fact that so many people love a character like Yumeko.
Given the theme of the manga and how it's executed, what do you want readers to take away from all of this?
The main plot is essentially how a woman becomes the epitome of body positivity, but I noticed that there's a murder mystery thrown in there, too. When did you decide that this element of murder mystery would be thrown into the mix?
mamakari: It was fairly early. I didn't set out to make body positivity the main focus; instead, I intended to write the story primarily with elements such as infidelity, amnesia, and misadventures.
The amnesia part of the story is nice, since it adds another layer of mystery to the story while allowing Yumeko to forget about all of the self-loathing she inflicted on herself. The dynamic is interesting, but what specifically made you decide that Yumeko had to be an amnesiac?
mamakari: At the beginning, I tried to describe whether changing one's mindset or perspective can affect how they see the world. However, I found that that's neither easy nor quick; it takes a lot of time and effort. So I thought, “What if one day her inner self suddenly changed, as if she'd become a completely different person?” And because this is a manga, I also wanted to avoid it feeling like a self-help book, so I settled on giving her amnesia—making her personality change along with her memory.
mamakari: Perhaps the biggest difference is the fact that the main character gets involved in a criminal case. In my previous works, the main stories centered on small mysteries tied to romance, daily life, or interpersonal relationships. However, in this work, I've introduced a detective case—the classic whodunit style of mystery. It's my first time taking on that kind of challenge.
Though this work may seem completely different at first glance, I believe the underlying wish to express and support strong, determined women is quietly woven into every one of them.
A lot of this is about office life. How much of your own work life has influenced the depictions of 9-to-5 life in the manga?
mamakari: When I was an office worker, I mainly worked as an operator handling data processing. I haven't experienced any other job except manga assistant—so almost none of my experience was useful in that sense.
What challenges and/or opportunities arose when adapting the manga into an anime?
mamakari: For me personally, there weren't any special difficulties, but the animators may have struggled with expressing Yumeko—after all, we don't often see a plus-sized heroine in anime. I was also able to participate in character design and production at key moments, and I'm deeply grateful that everyone treated me with respect as the original author. I even had the chance to observe the voice actors' recording sessions twice. To have such a precious experience—life really is full of surprises!
As for new opportunities, several publishers that read this title have contacted me to offer new work. I regret to say that I'm currently so swamped that I had to decline most of those offers, but I'm truly honored to receive such offers many times.
I know that Kazuomi Koga directed this anime after already directing See You Tomorrow at the Food Court earlier this year, meaning that he's already done two anime this year where food is a focus. Did you have any discussions about food with him and the staff at all?
mamakari: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to talk about that, but since I love eating, I will definitely watch the series!
At the beginning, Yumeko made ramune soda-flavored potato chips. Would you ever want to try one?
mamakari: I don't want to try it. I'm not really a culinary adventurer. The only potato chip flavor I've loved since way back is seaweed and salt.
The Plus-sized Misadventures in Love! manga is available to read digitally on MangaPlaza and in print from HarperAlley. The anime adaptation will premiere on Crunchyroll on October 6.
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