is a manga by Moto Hagio

Moto Hagio

is a manga artist born on May 12, 1949 in Ōmuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, though she currently lives in Saitama Prefecture. She is considered a "founding mother" of modern shōjo manga, especially shōnen-ai. She is also a member of the Year 24 Group...

 published in Petit Flower

Petit Flower

was a Japanese manga magazine published by Shogakukan. Founded in 1980 as a quarterly magazine, in 1981 it changed to bimonthly, then monthly from 1984 to 1988, when it again became bimonthly. The magazine became defunct in May 2002, and was relaunched as Flowers in April 2004...

. It was adapted into a television drama

Japanese television drama

, also called , are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including murder romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, and many others...

 in 1996.

It is about a young girl, Rika, whose mother views her as being ugly, and favours her other daughter, Mami. Rika thinks of herself as ugly and as an iguana

Iguana

Iguana is a herbivorous genus of lizard native to tropical areas of Central America and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his book Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena...

, but after her mother's death, realises that her mother was also an ugly iguana.

Iguana Girl reflects Hagio's own relationship with her mother, and it took her "years to write this story". Hagio saw an iguana in a documentary on television and identified with it, feeling it was "lamenting its failure to become a human, just like me".

Manga

This story was first published in the November 1991 issue of Shogakukan

Shogakukan

is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...

 Josei

Josei

also known as or , is a term that refers to the target demographic of manga created mostly by women for late teenage and adult female audiences. Readers range from 15-44. In Japanese, the word josei means simply "woman", "female", "feminine", "womanhood" and has no manga-related connotations at...

mangazine Petit Flower

Petit Flower

was a Japanese manga magazine published by Shogakukan. Founded in 1980 as a quarterly magazine, in 1981 it changed to bimonthly, then monthly from 1984 to 1988, when it again became bimonthly. The magazine became defunct in May 2002, and was relaunched as Flowers in April 2004...

. Shogakukan delivered the tankōbon

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

 release not until 1994, and it benefited a re-edition in 2000. It will be translated into English as part of the Moto Hagio anthology A Drunken Dream and Other Stories

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories is a Japanese manga anthology written and illustrated by Moto Hagio, collecting a variety of her short stories originally from 1970-2007.-Publication:...

by Fantagraphics in 2010.

Television drama

The screenplay was by Kazue Okada, and the episodes were directed by Kazuhisa Imai and Shinjo Takehiko. The cast included Miho Kanno

Miho Kanno

is a Japanese actress and J-Pop singer. Her nickname is Kanchan . She was born in Sakado, Saitama, Japan.- Biography :In 1992, Kanno made her debut as a member of a group called Sakurakko Kurabu Sakura Gumi after passing the orientation for the TV variety show Sakurakko Kurabu...

, Yoshinori Okada

Yoshinori Okada

is a Japanese actor. He has starred several TV series such as Atsuhime and Nobuta. O Produce as well as movies such as Densha otoko . He is a high school graduate and does not have a college degree...

, Rena Komine, Hitomi Sato, Koji Yamaguchi, Miyuki Komatsu

Miyuki Komatsu

is a Japanese actress.Her roles include:* Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name: Sanami* Oh! Oku- References :...

, Takeshi Izawa, Kanako Enomoto

Kanako Enomoto

Kanako Enomoto is a Japanese actress and model.-Biography:Kanako first attracted public attention at age 12 when she was selected the Astel phone company's spokesmodel. By 14, she had become one of the many "J-Idol" girls with the publication of her first photobook, "Fourteen"...

, Naomi Kawashima

Naomi Kawashima

is a Japanese actress, singer, and radio entertainer. She was born on November 10, 1960, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan and graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University...

 and Masao Kusakari. The theme tune to the series is Elton John

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

's "Your Song

Your Song

"Your Song" is a ballad composed and performed by English musician Elton John with lyrics by his long-time collaborator Bernie Taupin. It appeared on John's self-titled second album in 1970....

". The television drama was released on DVD in 2001.

Ep#	Title	Director	Original air date

Reception

Noah Berlatsky criticises the characterisation of the mother. George Gustines, writing for the New York Times on great graphic novel

Graphic novel

A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

s for 2010, called Iguana Girl "oddly appealing and surprisingly bittersweet".

Further reading

• Clements, Jonathan
  Jonathan Clements
  Jonathan Clements is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shihuangdi , as well as monthly opinion columns for Neo magazine...
  
  ; Takamuro, Motoko (2003) The Dorama Encyclopedia Stone Bridge Press ISBN 978-1-880656-81-5