Yuugure e

Nazuna Saito began creating comics in her forties, winning a newcomer award after submitting a story to a major Japanese publisher. She worked steadily through the 1990s before pausing her career to care for her sick parents. In her sixties, she taught drawing at Kyoto Seika University and found renewed inspiration among her students. Her storytelling focus shifted, and she produced works such as *In Captivity* (2012) and *Solitary Death Building* (2015), which explore aging and death. Earlier stories like *Buy Dog Food and Go Home* and *Offshore Lightning* examine middle-aged men trapped in cycles of self-pity and introspection, balancing humor with a sense of their emotional isolation. *In Captivity* portrays three siblings dealing with their mother’s dementia and her difficult personality, while *Solitary Death Building* follows elderly residents in a housing complex as death affects their lives. The collection includes a range of short works that reflect on personal loss, memory, and the passage of time.