Shisei is the first collection of short stories of Shizuka Nakano, a female artist with only sparse contributions to the medium who first became known thanks to the story called "Waon Apartment" which allowed her to win the Seiichi Ayashi Award as a newcomer in the AX magazine.

If there is one thing that is clear when opening this anthology, it's that she is heavily inspired by children's picture books, presenting themselves like modernized fairy tales confronting adults or teenagers to the inner child residing inside of them.

Although they could be called simplistic or sometimes rather naïve toward their subject matter but it fits the overall aesthetic of Shizuka Nakano that tries mainly to render them lively and vibrant and definitely succeeds at that. While keeping a constant basis for her art, characterized by being very round and cartoony but mostly by her constant use of half-screen tones in every and each pannel that serves to replace the lack of colors of the manga format – the stories will completely change form depending on her layouts and on the theme of her stories, her narrative flow is really something to be admired. She also doesn't use many dialogue to tell the story, the situation is rather explained through the use of a 3rd person narrator to make it closer to a picture book.

Worth mentioning in detail is the first story drawn especially for this collection, Catcher in the Chocolate, about a dentist depressed about terrorizing every children who visits him who becomes in his dreams a Messiah allowing children to eat chocolate all day long without any repercussion. As if raining from the sky, the chocolate seems like it was made to fall directly right into the mouths of these kids, this dream will end when one of them hits the dentist on the head. Slight hints of red and brown scattered in it serves to reinforce the ethereal feel and make it quite memorable. There's also Waon Apartment which is probably the most skillfully made of this collection as it brilliantly uses music sheets and musical notes to link her panels as well as musical notes to symbolize the progressing and deteriorating relationships between the characters.

I could also talk about the story of a scientist trying to collect the stars emanating from people he strikes with his hammer, the one narrating the legend of a man marrying a nine-tailed fox or even the encounter between a highschool girl and a cinnamon smelling spirit contained in a stained-glass window…
What is sure is that every story shine as bright as a star and contribute to instantly make of Shizuka Nakano an artist to be remembered.