Curate of Curiosities

Volume 1 is called "Heart-Stopper." This...certainly bodes well.

The description for this volume is already in English, so I don't need to translate it. Here it is anyway.

Hello, my name is Zita. But here, at the La Gaufre hospital, everyone calls me "Baldy" I have a type of leukemia that seems to be especially fond of my body. Because of all the treatments I have undergone, I now only have a few tufts of hair left on my head. So I prefer to shave my head bald. Hence my nickname.

Pretty weird name for a little boy, huh.

"Dear Death, do you have a peepee?"

That's practically the very first thing you see when you open up this volume, said by our protagonist. Meet Zita, a young girl keenly aware of her own mortality. Yes, that's indeed a girl. The cover may have hinted at this, but this kid has cancer. Leukemia, to be more specific.

The third thing is that she's turning 13 in a few days, and everyone at the hospital is invited!

That's right, everyone! This includes all the nurses, and this one kid who has a disease that no one in this hospital can identify! Fun times for all!

In honesty, though, some of the other kids have pretty mundane ailments, such as Aaron, who's just a burn victim.

His parents can't visit him for whatever reason, so his elderly neighbors have to show up in their stead. Twice in fact. Like it's some kind of running gag or something.

Yeah, this took me a while to pick up on too. It wasn't exactly clear from looking at the cover to this thing, so no need to rub it in!

There's two others, one with multiple bone fractures who, naturally, gets her invitation ripped up, and Anais, who's Korean but Zita calls her Made In China regardless.

Last but not least, next you have Petey, who practically lives right next door. Because there has to be someone for our heroine to be utterly smitten with.

But things will never work out between them, because he thinks that she's 10. And that's being a bit generous, she doesn't look a day over eight!

But never mind that, looks like he's already spoken for. By the clearly adult nurse that visits him. How did this manage to get an English translation again?

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, but you'll all be sorry once I grow boobs!"

You know what, you know what? We are less than halfway through this volume, and I'm already had enough. Just stop talking. Please.

No, not like that!

Huh? This is...there's definitely some deep symbolism behind this panel that someone could make a half-hour long video essay about.

And just two pages later, the good doctor is doing CPR on her. Just so Serge Ernst has an excuse to draw her without her shirt. And I'm certain this won't be the last time this happens, either.

...I'm gonna be put on a watchlist for buying this, aren't I?

Oh, remember how I said everyone was invited. Looks like I was wrong, there's one person left out. It's Evelyn, her roommate. And all because her mother, and not her, called her a slur or something while visiting them one day. Yes, I get it, calling kids slurs is bad, but you can't just blame someone who didn't actually do anything wrong!

Further, there's still one person that has yet to answer her invitation...

Now regarding her little episode, it really doesn't bode well for her, especially when combined with her leukemia. If this were a one-off thing, it would already be bad enough, but this has apparently happened a few months before. Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but I have the feeling that this kid's simply not long for this world. Nothing like dealing with the ever present specter of death in your kids' comics, huh?

Anyways, back to inviting the mostly adult staff to a 13-year-old's birthday party. Man, you sure are desperate, getting all the staff members to come to your party. Of course, I'm not sure if I can fully trust Razibus here, either.

Enough about this; All is forgiven since it turns out that Evelyn's mom is only racist because her new boyfriend is. Yeah, I think I'm online enough to get this, even if the target audience is not.

Ah don't worry. Even though you've been stuck here for a good three quarters of your life, and there's no guarantee that you'll live to see your 14th birthday, things will get better for you...maybe.

Never mind, I spoke too soon. Her mom won't be able to make it in time for her birthday, and just to rub salt in the wound, she falls over again!

So, it looks like we have a pattern with her fainting spells, they seem to happen every time she feels she's been abandoned, she suddenly keels over. And all this despite all tests on her coming back normal. This comic seems to be pretty grounded so far, so there's no chance that there'll be some weird paranormal reason for this, right?

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

In a train station cafe, a woman is beside herself with concern. She left her cellphone at home and missed her train, so there's no way she'll be able to--it's Zita's mom. Surprised? No guarantee she'll make it to the hospital in time, though.

Back at the hospital, the party has begun!

As a side note, the party's being held in a room themed after Yakari, which is a comic I've definitely heard of before.

And here comes the lady of the hour...wearing a belly dancing outfit!? Is that what she went to Razibus for?

Razibus, where and how did you get that outfit in such a small size? For the love of God, please stay away from children.

You know what?

...I'm only fooling. She delivers this little speech about how, as I had suspected, her heart stops whenever she feels lonely, but she now has all the love she needs, so it might not ever happen again, and then her mom shows up right at the very last page. The end!

And there you have it. This comic has significantly more than one volume, of course, but none of them have been translated to English. I'm pretty sure that you can figure out why.