Swan (manga)
Swan is a shōjo manga by Kyoko Ariyoshi. This manga series is the representative work of Kyoko Ariyoshi, which is the most famous ballet manga and has been highly evaluated.
The shōjo magazine Margaret serialized the story in Japan from 1972 to 1981. 21 volumes were released as Margaret comics series by Akita Shoten in Japan.
In North America the story was published by CMX, but the series was abandoned after 15 volumes due to the closure of the imprint. The plot mostly follows a young girl, Masumi, as she struggles to become a ballerina. By 2011, the manga had over 20 million copies in circulation.
Plot
The first volume begins with Masumi sneaking backstage after a Tokyo ballet performance in order to express her admiration for the lead dancers, Alexei Sergeiev and Maya Plisetskaya. However, when she meets the stars, Masumi becomes tongue-tied and clumsily begins to dance the Odile Variation from Swan Lake. Sergeiev and Prisetskaya graciously excuse her, saying that nothing could give them more happiness than her physical expression of appreciation, and Masumi returns home slightly embarrassed. Later, Masumi receives an invitation to enter a nationwide ballet competition. The competition is being held to discover the best ballet students in Japan, in order to invite them to an exclusive ballet school designed to improve the quality of Japanese ballet. Her impromptu dance for Sergeiev and Prisetskaya captured the attention of Sergeiev, and so Masumi goes to Tokyo in order to compete.Once there, Masumi meets Sayoko Kyogoku and Hisho Kusakabe, who both witnessed her clumsy Black Swan at the theater. They are now competing against each other. However, the three become friends, along with Aoi Yanagisawa, Kusakabe's friendly rival. Out of the eight finalists, Masumi, Sayako, Kusakabe, and Aoi are all accepted. However, Masumi is obviously the weakest of the eight. She must un-learn the bad habits she picked up at her former ballet school.
Future volumes continue Masumi's entrance into the competitive world of ballet.
Characters
;Masumi Hijiri;Sayoko Kyougoku
;Hishou Kusakabe
;Aoi Yanagisawa
;Kaoru Aoishi
;Alexei Sergeiev
;Leonhardt von Christ
;Larissa Maximova
;Lilliana Maximova
;Serge Lavrovsky
;Sydney Ekland
;Fernando Cardenas
;Balanchine
;Margaret Brown
;Lucian Stanley
;Edward Lucas
;Stephanie Austin