出会いすぎる曲がり角 A corner of too-frequent encounters

If you're into manga and anime, you've probably seen it before. The so-called "Toast of Tardiness" trope in which a schoolgirl, late for school, rushes out of her home with a piece of toast in her mouth, only to collide into a boy at the street corner, has been used and parodied so many times it almost needs no introduction. It has appeared in everything from Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, K-On! and Puella Magi: Madoka Magica.

So, when 南波タケ Take Minaminami, an illustrator who often portrays moments in the everyday lives of children (as well as cats), was commissioned by Kodansha Ltd. to create the book cover design for a new mystery anthology entitled 「非日常の謎」hinichijō no nazo (mysteries from the out-of-the-ordinary), he turned to the Toast of Tardiness trope for inspiration.

When Minaminami introduced his wonderful illustration on his Twitter account, the post went viral, garnering over 201,000 likes and 28,000 retweets at the time of writing.

As a schoolgirl with a slice of bread in her mouth runs towards the corner, we can see the end result of innumerable "encounters" on the ground, and a highly unconventional warning sign showing two people bumping into each other. How could so much bread pile up in one place? How could there possibly be so many incidents at the same corner in such short succession that nobody had time to clean up the mess? And then the mystery deepens when you realize that, in addition to plain toasts, untoasted slices, and toast with jam, there are also things which couldn't possibly survive a full-speed dash in such pristine condition like toast with a thick slice of bacon and an egg sunny side up neatly resting on top, not to mention things which wouldn't even fit in a schoolgirl's mouth, like a whole loaf of bread or a package of sliced bread.

What is this corner? Is it a convergence point between multiple dimensions? A rift in the space-time continuum? The mystery deepens the more you consider all the possibilities and implications. Of course, these details could simply be added for laughs, but the overall effect creates a clever juxtaposition between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Kodansha Taiga's mystery anthology 「非日常の謎」

In a follow-up Tweet, Minaminami revealed that his illustration was a commissioned book cover-design for a mystery anthology published by 講談社タイガ Kodansha Taiga, a novel bunko label launched in 2015 aimed at novel fans in their twenties and thirties.

Here is the actual cover of 「非日常の謎」hinichijō no nazo (mysteries from the out-of-the-ordinary):

The six short stories making up the anthology are:

• 芦沢央 You Ashizawa 「この世界には間違いが七つある」kono sekai ni wa machigai ga nanatsu aru (There are seven mistakes in this world)
• Tatsumi Atsukawa 阿津川辰海 「成人式とタイムカプセル」seijin-shiki to taimu kapuseru (The coming-of-age ceremony and the time capsule)
• Kanata Kimoto 木元哉汰 「どっち？」docchi (Which one?)
• Kyo Shirodaira 城平京 「これは運命ではない」kore wa unnmei de wa nai (This isn't destiny)
• Yume Tsujido 「十四時間の空の旅」jūyojikan no sora no tabi (The fourteen-hour flight)
• Yuu Nagira 凪良ゆう「表面張力」hyōmen chōryoku (Surface tension)

And then, we should add to this Take Minaminami's illustration as the seventh work, participating in the theme of "mysteries from the out-of-the-ordinary". As you can see, the title, 出会いすぎる曲がり角 deaisugiru magarikado (A corner of too-frequent encounters), is also printed on the cover.

You can pick up your copy of 「非日常の謎」hinichijō no nazo when it goes on sale tomorrow, March 12th, 2021. You can learn more details on the anthology, read a sample (Yume Tsujido's story) and find out where to purchase it in paperback and e-book at Kodansha Taiga's website here.

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Take Minaminami links

If you'd like to enjoy more of Take Minaminami's illustrations and designs for book covers as well as advertisements for commercial products, see the following links:

• Take Minaminami on Twitter
• Take Minaminami on Instagram
• Take Minaminami official website
• email: tooiikara@gmail.com