Moto Hagio helped reinvent and bring critical acclaim to shojo (aimed at 10--18-year-old girls) manga in the 1970s and beyond. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories collects short comics stories originally published in monthly magazines. It begins with 1970's "Bianca" and ends with 2007's "The Willow Tree." In between is "Marié, Ten Years Later" (1977), in which two friends destroy their perfect romantic and creative harmony. Also: the haunting "The Child Who Comes Home" (1998), "Autumn Journey" (1971), "Girl on Porch With Puppy" (1971), "Angel Mimic" (1984), and the conjoined twin tragedy Hanshin: Half-God" (1984). In the titular title story, "A Drunken Dream" (1980), two scientists, one a priest, meet on a space station orbiting Io. But they have met before and are destined to meet again. In "Iguana Girl" (1991), a child appears to her mother and herself as a hideous anthropoid iguana who will never be able to fit into the human world...but her mother has a secret.

Manga scholar and translator Rachel Thorn also interviews Hagio, who discusses her art, her career, and her life with wit and candor. Lauded in Japan, she has an international following -- her work has been adapted into anime, television, theater, audio dramas, and more -- and appeals to readers across generations.