The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Adults' Picture Book

What's It About? 

Erotic manga author Kudou's friend Haruki passes away, leaving behind his young daughter Kiki and a note bequeathing her to Kudou. Strange as the situation is, Kudou commits to making a real family for the girl―so when he meets a woman who reminds him of his late friend, he fires off a marriage proposal on the spot! By blood, friendship, love, or circumstance, family is family...

Adults' Picture Book is a manga with story and art by Kei Itoi, with English translation by Stephen Paul. This volume was retouched and lettered by Alexis Eckerman. Published by Yen Press (March 19, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

Remove the superpowers from SPY x FAMILY, and you'll get something like Adults' Picture Book: the story of an unlikely family thrown together by chance, and the bumps in the road as they attempt to mesh their incongruous lives together. There's Kudou, an erotic manga artist who is still pining over his deceased best friend, Haruki. There's Kiki, Haruki's four-year-old daughter, whom he has entrusted to Kudou. And there's Fusako, a woman working at the tax office who somewhat resembles Haruki. When Kudou notices the similarity, he impulsively asks her to marry him—and even more surprisingly, Fusako accepts.

Going by the publisher's description, I was not expecting Adults' Picture Book to be as queer as it is. There are some pretty overt references to Kudou's bisexuality, and one of his friends even suggests that his haphazard union with Fusako is a "lavender marriage." Kudou still has it pretty bad for Haruki, and half of the book is told in flashbacks. But back in the present, there's a glimmer of chemistry beginning to develop between Kudou and Fusako, despite the abrupt and overly formal beginning to their union. Kudou is carrying a lot of baggage, and we know hardly anything about Fusako, but the story leads in a romantic direction of love after loss.

Nor was I expecting this manga's content to be quite so tame. The description advertises Kudou's salacious career as an erotic manga artist, and the title Adults' Picture Book is suggestive in itself. Still, Kudou's work is never depicted or even described. His career is played for laughs instead of titillation. The art style, which is loose and scribbly, has a playful innocence to it that couldn't be further apart from erotica. That said, such a simplistic style made it hard to tell some of the secondary characters apart.

Much like SPY x FAMILY shines brightest when it focuses on Anya, I particularly enjoyed the parts of the story about Kiki. As somebody who lives with a four-year-old, I found her to be a charming and lifelike portrayal of all the best parts of a kid that age: the silly questions and surprisingly astute vocabulary (from overhearing the adults who underestimate her). She doesn't exhibit any big feelings or tantrums that would usually characterize a huge break in her routine like, I don't know, getting a new mommy and daddy. She may not be quite a realistic portrayal of a four-year-old, but that makes the manga a lot more fun. She offers a much-needed injection of joy into the story's slow-burn romance and somber moments of grief.

This manga is strange, with a very mundane and melancholy atmosphere. I couldn't help but feel very put off by almost every person who talks throughout this volume. I don't immediately mean that as a detriment because if the story's whole point was to make me ask a series of questions, it succeeded. I guess I'm just caught off guard because these weren't the types of questions I was expecting to ask myself when reading an adult romance that involves an adopted child.

For example, I didn't think I would be constantly questioning the sexuality of our main character as much as the other characters in this book because the way that everything is framed feels different than what I'm used to in these types of narratives. Kudou is a character put in a rather unorthodox position, more or less left to adopt the young daughter of one of his best friends with whom he may or may not have incredibly specific feelings. Whether or not those feelings were romantic or familial is up in the air, but it's clear that sorting out those feelings and how they relate to the modern day is an ongoing discussion. This is a character piece where the appeal is in the little conversations that happen between events. I would say between "major" events like suddenly getting a fiancé and moving in together, but the story doesn't treat those things like major events. Everything just happens in this book and I kind of like that.

It doesn't feel like all of these things are happening without purpose. Rather, it feels like that purpose hasn't been made apparent to us yet. I feel like I am being manipulated in the sense that your average person would not act like how our main cast is acting in this book, but that's part of what makes it so interesting. It's like I'm getting a glimpse into an unorthodox couple that is bound by something, but the story is about finding out what that something is rather than it being the foundation of the story itself. Everything is laid out with these long pauses, which work great for comedic timing, but it also really sets in the more adult tone of the narrative. It's not an overtly happy story, but it's not an overtly tragic one either. Adults' Picture Book isn't adult in that it's mature due to blood or sex. Instead, this is a story about what it feels like to be an adult, complete with all of the awkwardness and instability that comes with that. I don't know if I've done a good job of selling this story, but I do recommend it if not because it is arguably one of the most distinctly different things I've read for this guide, and I'm very curious about the follow-up.