Review: "Embrace Your Size" by Hara

Embrace Your Size by Hara
Translated from the Japanese by Alethea Nibley
Published November 2022 via Yen Press
★★★

Interesting look at body image (and insecurities, and positivity) in the context of Japan. I love the illustrations here—manga, which is hit or miss for me (often solely due to personal preference), but Hara conveys a lot in simple sketches, and a lot of the drawings are super cute. For the most part good messages throughout. That said, I found the book very repetitive—I think it may have been written as a series of standalone pieces, but in any case a lot of the stories/plot points were repeated over and over again.

I haven't been to Japan, but everything I've heard suggests that it's even harder there to be plus-sized than it is in the West. Hara touches on this a couple of times (in the context of wondering how things are different in other countries, and observing that for many fat women there are more clothing options in the West); I'd have loved to see the repetition trimmed out and the extra space given to some research on the subject.