My attention span continuing to shrink for the past couple years Ive recently immersed myself in anthologies. Ive had an unnatural aversion towards anthological works but the likes of Kon Kumakurahttps://anilist.co/staff/124608/KonKumakura and panpanyahttps://anilist.co/staff/119531/panpanya have graciously rekindled the nostalgic flames and pleasure of reading Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Things They Carried years ago. From the two aforementioned mangaka I suppose you could out my taste for surrealism captured in mundanity. And now I add Natsujikei Miyazakihttps://anilist.co/staff/118988/NatsujikeiMiyazaki to that list. 620https://i.ur.com/g53BQab.jpg Try listening to postrock or shoegaze while reading this Im typically deterrent towards the heresy of simultaneous indulging of music and reading but Natsujikei Miyazaki has a sublime sense of tranquility fostered from the otherwise tedious balance of clueless surrealism and blunt mundanity that makes listening to these genres a great experience. More concisely its somewhat like listening to the powerline humming from Serial Experiments Lain. Which shouldnt be a difficult nor obtuse metaphor considering how wonderfully denpa this anthology is. Packed with motifs of death ostracization disassociation and an overarching mishmash of quaint surrealism and reality Theres Nothing Wrong with Me is something that works in perfect congruence with its anthological structure. That is the result is of lesser importance than the process read as ending and story. The profound appeal of anthologies is their focus on themes and catharsis than a wellstructured story. In the case of Natsujikei Miyazaki she fits somewhat quirky somewhat dull somewhat pessimistic somewhat optimistic plots with delicate beauty in the span of a littleunder 30 pages. Typically starting off with trodden protagonists situated with social disassociation and/or ostracization they come to experience a cathartic shellbreaking by the end. One sociallyreclusive girl by the hands of her grandfather breaks out of her fortified home with the words of a classmatebecomefriend one doll hobbyist husband is ostracized by everyone but his daughter encourages him one reclusive apartment hermit bids farewell to the only other resident leaving. I prefer vaguely spelling out these stories beginnings and ends because its more of a drastic spoil to tell the middle. 620https://i.ur.com/bq6lNTf.jpg Lines that could break at any moment Natsujikei Miyazakis most defining trait is perhaps her delicate minimalist artstyle. Keen on lines more like sketching whiskers that appear drawn under the slight influence of alcohol. Though what I describe her artstyle comes off like a dessin theres certainly a polished sense in the midst of the the incomplete feel of it as little sense as that sounds. Simply put Miyazakis art is all too easy to identify. A biased love for frail pretty girls Miyazaki oft puts the most attentiontodetail to their shimmering glistening eyes and may also at the same time amusingly cast off the male characters with dull dotted ocular windows. Adding to the visual fragility smiles or emotions are more oft than not absent on the characters faces as if they may break if an ounce of force was applied to raising the sides of their mouths upwards. As if to compensate for her characters husks of fragility Miyazakis climaxing page spreads breath color and life into these rather pessimistic monochrome stories. I mentioned the surrealism in Miyazakis style but not to confuse it with a fantastical sense of surrealism. These page spreads best explain what I meant with how pictureperfect zealous exaggerated they are as if they were staged photographs or album covers. The beauty of Miyazakis artstyle is more than subjective than others but its one that Im grateful to have stumbled upon in the recent times. 620https://i.ur.com/ik8d4u6.jpg 620https://i.ur.com/zTiYhrl.jpg 620https://i.ur.com/gTD6jWI.jpg Conclusion Natsujikei Miyazaki writes Theres Nothing Wrong with Me with delicate and touching pessimism and optimism in the face of social disassociation and loneliness. Anthologies have a thematic beauty unique to their shortliveness and a range of stories and Miyazaki plays them perfectly. Capturing her characters quaint escapes from feelings of disassociation in only a couple dozen pages each time the plot doesnt matter so much as the little uplifting notes they end on. Speaking more on delicacy Miyazakis art is like peering at the threads of a spiderweb with the Hubble Space Telescope. Paying minute detail to the simple lineart is much more appealing seen than thought. First glance may cast an unpolished unrefined lazy sense off the paper but MIyazakis inputs fragile beauty into her work. Inclined towards apathetic expressions pathos is paid off moreso by the actions of the characters predominantly by the highlighted page spreads indicating the climax of a particular story. Actions speak louder than words would be too cheesy of a line to spout though. Theres Nothing Wrong with Me reads off in a similar vein as eating alone during school lunch at the start of the year and eating with newgained friends later. 8 chapters capture an empathetic sense of social disassociation perhaps through rather ridiculous analogies but nonetheless felt to the core.