Taking another experience of her own life, mangaka Kabi Nagata shares her three week hospitalization and struggles with alcohol in My Alcoholic Escape From Reality.

Experiencing sharp stomach pains, mangaka Kabi Nagata goes to a clinic to get some answers, as no medicine or painkillers worked. To her shock, they diagnosed her with pancreatitis along with a fatty liver and immediately hospitalized her against her wishes. Nagata revealed that this is a result of her recent alcoholic tendencies, which were in part of her art and writer’s block. While in the hospital for about three weeks, Nagata began to take a look at who she was and how she ended up in that bed. Unfortunately, her troubles don’t exactly end after being discharged.

Mangaka Kabi Nagata is no stranger to autobiographical manga. In fact, My Alcoholic Escape From Reality takes note of that in the first few pages with a conversation with her father. This adds a wonderful and horrific layer to the subject Nagata tackles. Previously, Nagata wrote My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness which details her mental health and coming out, as well as two volumes of My Solo Exchange Diary that continue to detail her mental health and moving out on her own. In My Alcoholic Escape From Reality, the manga is very raw and almost unforgiving of herself as she admits her drinking is an issue. This is even visible in her art style, as she tends to depict herself as an exhausted mess, no matter when or where she is. Nagata doesn’t focus solely on her medical issues while in the hospital, as she recounts her professional life. She reflects about her worries of being only known for memoirs and unable to pursue fiction. While the story is fairly linear due to recounting her hospital stay, her rambling and jumbled flow truly does reflect her experience during those three weeks and beyond. My Alcoholic Escape From Reality continues Nagata’s journey through life, showing that one never truly stops growing as a person.

My Alcoholic Escape From Reality is currently in English available from Seven Seas Entertainment. In addition, her other works have also been published by Seven Seas Entertainment including My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and My Solo Exchange Diary.