Check out Cindy Yang’s 3:50 minute 2d animation Noon on Youtube. Noon is a beautifully observed and rendered slice of life in Taiwan. Street vendors sell food to the crowds. Students eat lunch. Commuters ride the MRT, standing, swaying, cramped, including a man in a green coat. Others sit dozing in the same train carriage until jostled awake. Meanwhile a woman sleeps in her quiet apartment with nothing but the sound of a wind chime in the breeze. Her restless cat moves around the bed. The man in the green coat comes home and goes to sleep next to her. The woman gets up and cooks. All the little sounds of life, like food simmering in a wok, or breaking apart chopsticks, add texture to the animation. It’s a dreamy, relaxed movie, and the gentle music complements it well.

READERSVOICE.COM: What are some of your favorite books and can you tell a bit about them?

CINDY YANG: My favorite book (or manga series) is probably Sunny by Taiyō Matsumoto [a 224-page slice of life manga based on the author’s own experiences in a foster home]. He’s also the creator of the famous manga Ping Pong [a comic about table tennis, serialised from 1996-97] and Tekkonkinkreet [Two orphans named Black and White live on the streets of Treasure Town, and mug, steal and fight to survive] .
Unlike these two adventure stories, Sunny is stories of the children in an orphanage called Stars’ Garden. Its subtleness in storytelling contrasts with the heavy topic, which leaves the audience with an even more powerful impact after reading it. The other manga series that I really like is Children of the sea by Daisuke Igarashi. This one is a bit like an adventure story but with some philosophical thoughts about the origin of all sorts of life: the ocean. It’s also beautifully drawn, as if you’re watching a movie when reading. I really recommend these two manga series!

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