Quirky Comedy Manga

Honey and Clover Vol. 2 (Chica Umino, various/Josei)

I don’t consider this series to be “slice of life”, a term I have no use for but even if I did, I think those who begin reading this expecting that sort of thing are going to be in trouble. It is a quirky comedy about art school students and is more interested in subverting the group comedy genre then offering a realistic look at art school students. And for me, that’s a good thing.

The subversion is primarily based around character types. I want to read more before getting in to this too deeply but it should be clear enough that the main cast kind of resembles a cliché student comedy assembly of characters but not exactly. Hagumi is the child-like character… who acts and is treated like a child. Takamoto is the generic/romantic leading man… who secretly loves Hagumi. Morita is a brigade of clichés combined; the colorful outsider, the inventive schemer, the inconsiderate/blunt tell-it-how-it-is guy… who is only interested in money and himself. Mayama is the cool, down to earth guy… who is actually a stalker. And lastly, Yamada is the alternatively sweet and strong girl… who isn’t really either.

That aside, the manga series that this reminds me of the most is Dragon Head. Sure, they’re completely different on the surface but the authors employ the same approach to how the story is told. They both choose one psychological state, and render the entire narrative through the eyes of that state, so to speak. In Dragon Head, the state was comprised of chaos, fear, general fucked up-ness, ect. Here, it’s a state of childishness, immaturity and naivety. Consider how the year project deadline rush episode is handled, or the visit to the zoo episode. While this approach almost ensures a good series will be produced, it generally doesn’t produce a great series because it’s inherently limiting.

I don’t blame people for being turned off by the way the series is told. But I think it’s important to note that the author goes to great lengths to make the character’s static state seem unappealing. I was personally struck by an early the scene where Morita uses karma to explain another character’s bad luck and everyone goes along with it like it was somehow sane. Of course, there are also some good aspects to how the characters currently are, particularly in how they deal with romantic troubles. Morita is able to use his love of money to escape the pain of rejection. Mayama and Yamada are still able to maintain a superficial friendship even after one of them rejects the other.

More of that

Operation Liberate Men Vol. 1 (Mira Lee, ?)

This series belongs to the girl gets transported to fantasy world to save the day genre. In this fantasy world, females rule over males in an immensely cruel fashion. The heroine is supposed to be strong enough to save the males.

I thought this was unbelievably dull considering the slightly bizarre premise, though I have one positive thing to say about it. The initial meeting scene between the heroine and the man who brings her to the fantasy world was good, because of the way they’re both attractive enough to cause passing females to try picking them up. I wish there was more unexpected bits like that here but once the serious us vs. them narrative starts up it’s all down hill because all the focus is now on establishing the background of the fantasy world. In particular, we’re shown how evil and ruthless the female rulers are.

The heroine even decides that the females of this world really are bad and changes her mind about wanting to join them, which had been her real motivation for agreeing to come to the world. I think I would have liked this volume a lot better if she had joined them any ways. It would give the heroine a cruelty outlet to vent her frustrations towards reality, which is the sort of thing that should really be more prominently featured in these escapist fantasy stories.

I promised myself before starting that I would read two volumes before deciding to continue this series or not but honestly, I don’t think I’d make it through the next one.

Love Roma Vol. 3 (Minoru Toyoda, Afternoon/Seinen)

The only episode that really stands out to me is the vacation episode. The first part of this consists of the central group of class mates going on a boat ride to their vacation spot. This initial chapter climaxes with a pointlessly sentimental scene revolving around the lead couple agreeing to make good memories together. In isolation, this chapter would have been bad but when considering what happens next…

After arriving at the island, the group is informed that they have to work for their food and bed. Not only does this force the lead couple to spend their vacation working, it also splits the group into two classes, those who can pay out of their pocket and those who have to work. This collision between reality and the reader’s expectation to see a fun vacation episode makes the sentimentality of the previous chapter seem much more desirable, if not necessary. Fortunately it’s also shown how such sentimentality is entirely restricted to private interaction between the two leads and never able to expand out to include the rest of the classmates.

Non-reviews

Rose Hip Rose Vol. 1 (Tohru Fujisawa, Young Magazine Uppers/Seinen)

I have to admit that I’m curious about shonen authors who go on to write for seinen magazines. It suggests to me that their shonen titles may have been stronger than I would have initially guessed. Of course, there are also a number of less optimistic ways of looking at the transition.

Any ways, this series is really another entry in the action heroine genre, but told from the point of view of a regular male teenager. This volume started off relatively well. The two leads meet on the subway and quickly come to dislike one another. After the heroine moves in to the same building and transfers to the same school things only get more frustrating for our hero, as she’s in a position to blackmail him.

Normally the aggressive aspects of the powerhouse heroine in these types of series are only on display against bad guys but here they’ve been redirected to a (somewhat) innocent bystander who is verbally abused and threatened at gunpoint. Sadly the potential for a strong series fades away when a mutual enemy enters the story. By the end of the volume, after fighting off the enemy together, the two leads have new found respect for one another. I’m still not sure how I feel about the hero’s sudden change from hating the heroine to wanting to protect her as soon as trouble arises.

Kekkaishi Vol. 4-5 (Yellow Tanabe, Shonen Sunday/Shonen)

I really need to start taking “it sucks in the beginning but soon gets better” warnings more seriously because I think I’ve been won over. Initially I thought this was too manipulative and typical. Now I’m finding the protagonist’s struggle between family expectations and personal desire kind of interesting, especially now that the protagonist has decided to challenge some traditional assumptions directly. This struggle seems fairly common to a number of Shonen Sunday titles I’ve read and I’m curious as to which side will win out here. I still don’t like any of the characters but since the manipulation sticks out a lot less now, I’m enjoying just being able to read this from a more objective standpoint than normal.