Cigarette Girl is an anthology of short stories from the late Masahiko Matsumoto 19342005 whose name is painfully obscure even within the gekiga movement an influential time period in manga history that pushed forward a huge variety of artistic techniques. From cinematic adultoriented realist narratives which are the bulk of Yoshihiro Tatsumis oeuvre to avantgarde surrealistic film/musicmishmash expressions a la Seiichi Hayashis Sekishoku Elegy the gekiga movement sought to go beyond the Disneyinspired creations of Osamu Tezuka which were primarily aimed to a younger audience. Yet despite this rise of alternative comics Matsumoto was considered a unique and sadly overlooked artist within his peers and ultimately within the canon of manga. Inspired by the films of the worldrenowned Yasujiro Ozu Matsumoto illustrates bitesized panels reminiscent of the trademark pillow shots often seen in the directors work as well as the short mundane exploits of the everyday Japanese urban personwhich work in contrast to the dark edgy themes of his contemporaries. Unlike the 1970s trend of tragic Japanese New Waveinspired dramas reflecting the struggles of young adults Matsumoto portrays a more nuanced and grounded side of society telling seemingly insignificant vignettes of the average 4.5tatami room tenant whether it be a mans woos for the woman in the cigarette store the interactions of a condomselling lady with her customers or an office workers romantic struggles represented by the red highheels she borrowed from the shoe repair store. As such it is not hard to realize why Matsumoto was unappreciated during his time. Amid the revolution of mangas cultural landscape of conflictdriven protagonists Matsumoto himself remained faithful to his style and even differentiated from the term gekiga dramatic pictures calling his output komaga panel pictures. It is also unfortunate that at the time of this writing Matsumoto and his work remains largely ignored by the Englishspeaking community despite the global attention given to his colleague and rival Tatsumi who also leads the foreword of this anthology. In his foreword Tatsumi recalls: What Matsumoto had was the ability to use a subtly humorous naivet especially in the drawing of genial average peoples lives to bring out their charm. Looking back over Matsumotos work again after thirty years the pathos of the man at the time of publication comes through bright and clear. November 2010 Matsumoto may have been forgotten but the essence and timelessness of his themes remain resonant. The lighthearted and subtly comedic approach of his work makes an interesting outlier within gekiga and in many ways it might have been the progenitor of the contemporary sliceoflife we have gotten to know. I would personally recommend this to readers interested in the history of manga but other people looking for something different might also find some value out of it.