Cinderalla

Cinderalla is a manga series, published by Koushinsya in 1995; later an English version was released by Viz Media in 2002. It is a book written and illustrated by Junko Mizuno, and is one in a line of her new version on old fairy tales. Her new ones include: Hansel & Gretel, Princess Mermaid, and Cinderalla. In the English book there is an interview between Izumi Evers and Junko Mizuno. Andy Nakatani has translated the interview into English.

Plot
Junko Mizuno’s Cinderalla is a new version of the old Cinderella. Cinderalla is a young woman who is a waitress in her father’s yakitori restaurant and life couldn’t get any better for her; that is until she got a phone call one day from the hospital. She runs as fast as she can, but she is too late, her father has died. He had eaten too much food and died. So poor Cinderalla has to bury her beloved father. After sulking in her house, her friendly little mouse friend tries to cheer her up by telling her about the old cemetery. Its looks like her father might come back as a zombie to be with her, so she leaves to visit his grave when the sun goes down. All the zombies rise up and she is reunited with her father. They hurry to the restaurant to make yakitori for all the hungry customers when one of the birds flies away, her father quickly runs after it. He finds it with a beautiful zombie girl who he falls in love with. Her name is Caroline and she has two daughters Akko and Aki, her new stepmother eats constantly and her two sisters don’t help at all. Aki bothers the customers asking them to marry her while she’s trying to seduce them and Akko doesn’t appear to be doing anything at all.

After a long night at work she returns home to find her step sister Akko admiring her quilt which she made by hand, she asks her to make a bra for her, When she refuses her zombie stepsister removes her boobs and yells at her. She agrees as long as Akko puts them back on. The four zombies leave for they must be back when the sun comes up.

Cinderalla has to make bras for Akko, extra food for Caroline, keep Aki from striping at the restaurant, wait on the tables, take care of the house. Scatter brained from all the work she must do Cinderalla loses the latest bra she was working on for Akko. She looks for it in the house, then out side in the garden, when a zombie boy ridding a turtle shows up. He asks what she’s looking for, an embarrassed Cinderalla lies and says she’s looking for a button; he offers to help. When he can’t find it he takes a button off of his striped pajama shirt and gives it to her; with that he takes his leave. What she didn’t know the twins next door had taken the bra. For the next few days Cinderalla thought of nothing but the prince, all day and night.

Cinderalla’s strawberries have gotten huge in her garden and attract a poor starving fairy. While the fairy is eating the twins capture her and are planning on dissecting her. However Cinderalla hears the fairy’s cries along with her trusty mouse they storm the place and save her. The mouse hits the boys with her tale and they tell them off. When back at the house the fairy tells them her story. She must leave her home and cannot return until she has magickal powers. Cinderalla allows her to stay at the house until she gets her powers and can go home.

When Cinderalla goes to work the next day Aki is blowing her nose in the back. Cinderalla looks at the discarded paper and it’s the prince’s dinner show, which is the zombie she had fallen in love with. She finds a part time job and practically runs on coffee all the way until the 31 of August, to get enough money for a ticket. Even with all the money she gets she needs 500 more yen, she checks vending machines and finds it. She gets all dressed up and leaves for the graveyard. When she goes to buy a ticket she can’t because she is alive and not a zombie. Sad and disappointed she goes home and gets drunk with her friends. The fairy tries to turn her into a zombie and it works! She rides on the back of her mouse and the fairy tells her that the magick would ware off at dawn. She thanks them at leaves. At the show she watches the Prince make his entrance from the ceiling, unfortunately for her he falls and lands on top of her. She passes out and wakes up in a bed with him next to her. After making love, he tells her his story about how he died. At the end she realizes that the sun is coming up and quickly dresses and leaves. She trips and her eye falls out, but there’s no time she continues to run. Once back home she resumes her normal duties, warring glasses to compensate for the loss of her right eye. The Prince looking for Cinderalla tells every one on The Dead Pon’s Wideshow about the beautiful girl whom he wants to marry. Cinderalla leaves immediately to find him; while all the zombie girls pluck one of their eyes out and leave them behind to try and trick the prince. Meanwhile at Cinderalla’s house the fairy has been locked in an egg and is now coming out as the twins watch from the window. Cinderalla arrives on her mouse as the Prince is fooled thinking Akko is Cinderalla. Her fairy friend shows up all grown up and turns Cinderalla back into a zombie. Cinderalla runs in and stops the wedding, having proof that she is the reel love of his after life. She had a stage costume she had promised to make him. Akko saying Cinderalla had stolen it they fight for the package. Setsuko the mouse brings her mice friends and all the missing eyes. Akko runs away as her eye chases her. Prince finds out the truth and gives her, her eye back. He puts his costume on and she gets dressed for their weeding.

In the end Cinderalla made a fortune with her giant fruit that grew from yakitori sauce. Her father’s yakitori restaurant was remodeled, bigger and better. Prince did dinner shows at the restaurant; Setsuko managed all the employees. The fairy became a celebrity so she’s seen on TV a lot. Aki married a reporter from the eye ball incident, Akko chases after foreign idols, and with all the money Cinderalla made she bought Caroline a pancake making machine, that the twins tried to take apart.

Book
The book also has a bonus story about how Caroline got her condition with having a never-ending appetite. Stickers are also included at the back, as well as a look at Junko Mizuno’s Mizonic Fantasy soft vinyl toys and other models. Papa’s Professional Cooking is another short story that it includes, and a little tale of the prince and the doctors that he knew.