Not a Dance Manga

Dance till Tomorrow Vol. 3 (Naoki Yamamoto, Big Comic Spirits)

Unfortunately I didn’t get around to discussing this series earlier but for those unfamiliar with the premise: Suekichi is a struggling college student who inherits a large fortune from his grandfather but won’t see it until he finishes college, marries, and establishes a career. A woman, named Aya, hooks up with Suekichi at the funeral after overhearing this, and presumably tries to start a serious relationship with him in order to get a piece of the pie. The running gag is that despite knowing Aya’s intentions, Suekichi can’t resist sleeping with her and so she accuses him of only being interested in her for sex even though she’s only interested in him for his money.

Although the series seems to borrow from gag manga, particularly with its growing cast of returning side characters and the blatant fact that Suekichi will never be strong enough to escape his predicament, I like to view it as more of a rewrite of classic Hollywood screwball comedies from the 30s and 40s. Generally in these movies the leads are superficially at war but deep down really love one another. The big differences here are the low-class setting, the unglamorous characters, the frequent sex, and the tension between wish fulfillment and practical financial considerations. This last point is mainly reflective of the Suekichi’s central conflict but it is most openly exemplified through the never ending struggles of Suekichi’s drama production troupe, where the members just want to dress up, tell stories and live by their passions but are always short of money and performers.

This volume introduces two new side characters. The first is Freddy, an immigrant from Southern Asia who wants to work and return home rich but keeps spending his money on beer as soon as he earns it, pretty much assuring he’ll be a loyal bottom-level worker for life. It’s a pretty unflattering portrayal even though it’s always clear that he’s still “one of the gang” despite annoying cultural differences. If nothing else, there’s a political dimension to the otherwise simple and repetitive (trapped) gag manga side character. I’m guessing there’s more going on here but my only point of reference is Shampoo from Ranma ½, an immigrant from China who after moving to Japan is saved from her barbaric ways and opens up a successful café. Neither are the happiest portraits but I prefer this manga’s version. There’s also stuff about the Suekichi’s feelings of sexual inferiority that isn’t very interesting.

The other new character is invented as part of a scheme to break apart our leads. She’s a typical pure girl who wouldn’t be out of place in any manga really and is a predictable choice as Aya’s romantic rival. The thing here is that the author thinks such a girl doesn’t exist or at least if she did, she wouldn’t be interested in someone like Suekichi. The only other thing I want to say about her is that she can be surprisingly artful, or abstract, when talking openly with Suekichi which is a degree of nuance you don’t normally see with performing/faked characters.

In what world is a new Shonen Sunday manga not worth checking out?

Cirque du Freak Vol. 1 (Takahiro Arai, Shonen Sunday)

You can tell this was adapted from a novel because of how little this first volume indicates about how the rest of the series will play out, its real aim is to act an extended prelude. However taken on its own, this volume stands as a good antidote for another one of Yen Press’ escapist titles for male children, Chao Peng and Weidong Chen’s An Ideal World. Loosely, An Ideal World is about a troubled young male that gets transported to a fantasy world, learns to make the best of whatever life throws at him, returns to his regular life and things become great because of his attitude change. The idea is that the real world and the fantasy world are extensions of one another and this is put across through the constant, detailed use of a bright colored palette. Cirque du Freak is rendered using a very limited color palette, with an abundance of solid blacks and whites. The constant and effective use of shades, applied with a superior sense of space, give the artwork a distinct appearance. This artistic choice reflects the contrast between our leads’ everyday life and their increasing involvement with the “Cirque du Freak” freak performance show. Needless to say, the dichotomy here is explored with more complexity than in An Ideal World.

Most of the emotional moments in this volume aren’t handled well and I suspect it’s intentional given how well some other moments are handled. I’m primarily thinking of Darren and Steve’s tearful reunion and Steve’s mom realizing she’s been neglectful. There’s an awkwardness to them that better reflects how such scenes come across in reality that is normally removed for enhanced impact. The one big moment that was nailed perfectly comes near the end, Steve declares that he’s going to become a vampire hunter. This declaration doesn’t stem from heroism but desperation. He’s struggling to somehow remain involved in the fantasy. But hey, this is a shonen manga. There’s going to be fighting at some point.

One of the most prominent aspects of this book that I’m uncertain about is how immorality fuels most plot points, particularly those most common to preteen fiction. It starts innocently enough with Steve sneaking out to get tickets for the freak show after his teacher told the class not to go because of the exploitation involved. The next thing you know, Darren and Steve are witnessing their teacher being abducted and don’t even care. Never before has the removal of adults for the sake of children’s adventures come across so literally and unappealing. And yet the selfishness is the force behind the book’s main story line, which involves Darren stealing a pet spider from one of the freaks. Rather then giving Darren a simple comeuppance, the book reaches a climatic moral dilemma where the villain is counting on Darren making the wrong decision. Based on what I’ve just said, you can probably guess what happens. What’s revealed by the result is that Darren’s immorality and impending isolation are linked, though rightfully or unjustly so is the question.

Hold on to your hats

The following are some “series overview” thoughts on manga I’ve recently started or completed reading. Some contain thoughts on series’ final events.

After School Nightmare (Setona Mizushiro, Princess)

I just laugh trying to think what a hack mangaka would have done with this same story. I imagine the final product would end up looking a lot like Ouran High School Host Club. Mashiro wouldn’t suffer from gender confusion. She’d be cheerfully indifferent to the world around her. Kuresha would be rewritten as a squeeing fan girl. Sou’s sister complex would be exploited for cheap gags and there’d never be any doubt that he’s anything but the best suitor for our heroine. Koichiro’s parents would come to accept their son as who he is. Of course he’d always have been acting as “who he is” throughout the series and the conflict would have no real impact as far as the reader or other characters are concerned. And lastly, the nightmare scenes would be replaced with various debt-fueled reverse-harem vacation scenes and fairy tale remakes. Fortunately we don’t have to worry because After School Nightmare is nothing like that.

Barefoot Gen (Keiji Nakazawa, Weekly Shonen Jump)

This series is widely recognized as a classic autobiographical look at the after math of the Hiroshima bombing in World War II. However after reading the first volume I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the author is also an excellent genre deconstructionist. The genre in question is Shonen Jump action/adventure. But it goes beyond having Gen battle against his teacher, the neighborhood head, ect, and making his special power be the ability to gnaw off fingers. The community has adopted the traditional Shonen Jump values and they’ve been corrupted. Everyone is obsessed with the dream of Japan achieving victory in the war. They’re willing to persevere through starvation and poverty to achieve this dream. They form friendships with like-minded people and use teamwork to beat down and ostracize any one who doesn’t toe the line. It’s only with the fall of the bomb that an ideological cleansing takes place and new values begin to present themselves…

Beck (Harold Sakuishi, Monthly Shonen Magazine)

The first volume of Beck contains one of my favorite scenes in any manga. Our hero Koyuki and his friend have been caught sneaking around the girls swim team’s change room. The real problem here is that his lost friend and romantic interest is on the swim team. While certainly an embarrassing moment for him, something unexpected happens afterwards. She recalls when they were younger Koyuki was a ball boy for a local baseball team. It’s an embarrassing memory but it’s still a shared memory and it seems to help bring them closer together after their long separation.

The Drifting Classroom (Kazuo Umezu, Shonen Sunday)

I wasn’t completely won over by this until the start of volume three. Most stories about children or teenagers getting transported to fantasy worlds don’t show the world they came from after they’ve disappeared. In this version the protagonist’s mother receives a call from her son and then appears to go insane, insisting that she can find him. When there turns out to be value behind her seemingly crazy actions, I was floored. Comparably, the desolate fantasy world has a straightforward crazy is bad and normal is good ideologically.

One of the complaints I’ve heard about this series is that it promotes the idea that fear should be used to keep students well behaved. I admit that before hearing this complaint I didn’t understand why the new school counsel heads were all former troublemakers or why the crazed cafeteria worker was shown mercy. But after thinking about it, I don’t have a problem with this. Readers understand going in that this is a horror series and the manga shouldn’t be criticized for offering an honest portrayal of the effects of fear. Besides, the positive aspects of fear are all too overlooked in any artistic medium any ways.

Me and the Devil Blues (Akira Hiramoto, Afternoon)

My impression of the first volume was something along the lines of: expressive visuals backing a compelling but simplistic narrative. I maintain that’s somewhat true of the second volume but it still felt like it was now operating on a much higher level, especially during the first half (volume 3 in Japanese releases). Most generally I’d say the narrative structure is fairly brilliant. First McDonald’s myopic community is established which then leads to the enlightening yet emotionally and politically defeatist conversation between RJ and Ike. Intertwined is Clyde’s artistic and political awakening nighttime journey through McDonald’s mansion. This is followed by scenes where Clyde struggles with his inability to project his personal anguish onto the animated town. Next Clyde does what we were expecting all along, fulfilling our expectations with the genre, which on the surface looks like heroism but I doubt any one could help but take it as a bit of a lose.

Sugar Sugar Rune (Moyoco Anno, Nakayoshi)

I respect the effort to bring the typical josei theme, along with Buddhist ideals, into the magical girl subgenre and explore the tension between career and love aspirations that a magical world queen candidate faces. What’s also interesting is that the author may have felt that a shoujo manga vehicle was the most effective way to bring friendship to the forefront of the matter. The last two volumes didn’t do much for me but there’re a couple of things worth noting. I was troubled when a certain player character was killed and I believe that was intended. It was as if his death was just a part of the moral restoration that occurs at the end of good verses evil stories even as it’s vaguely suggested he had very recently found “the one”. I also appreciated the political message behind the decision to make ecole/hearts a type of fossil fuel and how the ties into the last-minute revelation. However, at the end of the day, I prefer the author’s manga about people trying to get laid.

Ranma ½ (Rumiko Takahashi, Shonen Sunday)

This was never a waste of time but I was disappointed that as the volumes went, the author was content to revel in popular clichés rather then try completely different things. I’m going to go with the majority opinion and say that overall the series was overlong and the ending was a big letdown. The final arc was a dud but I doubt many dispute that either. About the ending, I’ve more or less known what happened for about as long as I’ve known this series but I still didn’t like it. I was actually looking forward to them failing to tie the knot because these are two very self centered and immature people and it would also follow suit with the gag manga format… where nothing ever changes. But then the author says that they did so eventually any ways. The explanation I’ve heard is that it was so fans could continue to fantasize about who ended up with who and I agree but that’s disappointing as well because it makes the author look like a hypocrite for the anti-doujinshi sentiments expressed earlier in the series.