シャーリー

Synopsis

Yet another Edwardian manga from Kaoru Mori, "Shirley" is an evocative glimpse into the daily life of an endearing and diligent 13-year-old London girl after she finds a job as a live-in maid with a cafe owner. The original five chapters of Shirley, as well as the oneshots about Nelly and Mary Banks, were first published as doujinshi around 2000-2001. In 2003, these seven chapters were collected in a single volume, published by Enterbrain. Mori would later return to Shirley with chapters published irregularly in Harta: two chapters in 2006, two in 2010, two in 2013, and two in 2014. These eight chapters were subsequently collected in a second volume, published in 2014. Additional singular chapters were published in Harta in 2018 and 2019, followed by chapters in Aokishi in 2021 and 2023. Volume 1 also includes short stories about two other maids: "An Afternoon with Nelly and Me", a story about a maid who becomes the playmate of the young son of the house where she serves. "Mary Banks", the story of a maid working for an elderly master who loves playing pranks on his servants, yet she still cares for him. Just "Shirley" or "Shirley Medison/Madison"? When published as individual chapters in magazines, the title is "Shirley Medison", while the tankobon volumes are named simply "Shirley". When CMX published the series in English, they translated her name as "Shirley Madison", but the name of the volume remained "Shirley".