Wish It Was Invisible

 

If you’re like me, then you use a Samsung Android phone.  And that means that your Google page when you first go on the internet immediately bombards you with ads or with the news of the day.  For a short while, back in the early months of 2022, the top article on my home page was always an invitation from Shonen Jump to look at a free preview of their apparent “new hit” Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible.

 

I did read this first preview chapter, and found it to be nothing worth writing home about.  But then I saw the first physical copies of Volume One available at my local Barnes and Noble, so I figured I would take a look.

 

Sadly, my opinion did not change.

 

Long story short, Junta Shiraishi is basically invisible to everyone at his school.  Other students sit on him and he must work hard to make sure that the teacher (who oddly resembles Ochanomizu from Astro Boy) does not mark him absent by mistake.  The only one who ever seems to notice him is classmate Nagisa Kubo (for plot reasons).

 

The series itself has very average artwork and mild amounts of comedy, but is also deadly boring.  Funnily enough, the first volume includes a translated version of the original pilot chapter that was submitted to Shonen Jump in the first place, and it somehow feels worlds better than the actual finished product that we wound up getting.

 

One small thing that seperates Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible from something like Teasing Master Takagi-san or Komi Can’t Communicate or something like that is that not only does Shiraishi have a baby brother named Seita, but Kubo also has an older sister named Akina.

 

And that’s it.

 

Finally, I should say that even the title of the work seems a bit misleading.  As I see it, the title seems to be saying (or at least implying) that Shiraishi actively wants to remain invisible, but the troublesome Kubo just will not leave him in peace.  She will not allow him to just sit there stewing and wasting his life away.  (This is clearly not the case; Nagisa is a funny-ish character who’s trying to break Shiraishi out of his shell, but there’s nowhere near as much drama as my first interpretation of the title would have led me to believe.)

 

My advice to you, dear readers, is to pretend that this series is invisible.

 

Sasaki And Miyano And Me

 

 

Let me get this out of the way: I am aware of BL and gay rights and all that.  I am “woke”, in the proper sense of the term, in that I do my best to be open-minded and tolerant and understanding of all innocent people who have never done anything to me or other innocent people and are just trying to live their lives.

 

That being said, I am not much for yaoi or BL (boys love).  I am 100% straight, but I do find titillation in sexuality of all kinds.

 

But the other day (literally, the other day), I found a copy of Sasaki and Miyano Volume One.  (And, I believe, it has also recently gotten an anime, if anyone’s interested.)

 

The reason I talk about BL is not only because the series is a BL, but also because a lot of the story and humor derive from the whole BL phenomenon.

 

Cute underclassman Miyano, the BL fudanshi (male fanboy perv, as opposed to fujoshi, the female fangirl perv) just happens one day to witness a bullying incident.  He is right in the middle of calling for help when delinquent upperclassman Sasaki tells him that [Sasaki] is going in to break them up.  Three months later, the two of them are on their way to developing a potentially-more-than-friends relationship.

 

The art for this series is good, especially the eyes on Miyano, plus each main character introduced in Vol. 1 is different enough from all of the others that I can tell them apart easily.  That being said, one can easily mistake it for a 4-koma gag-a-day comic from the formatting, which may turn some readers off.  Also, the wordings and speech balloon placement can, at times, make it hard to keep of who exactly is saying what to who at any given time.

 

A lot of the humor comes from the unintended cringe of Sasaki casually saying something about BL (his own fascination with which Miyano is trying to keep on the down-low, the “BL DL”, if you were) and Miyano frantically trying to shush him.  But there is also slapstick and traditional “Japanese humor” (as I call it) involved, so there is some variety.

 

Sasaki is just dumb and lazy enough to carry the odd joke here and there, and Miyano has definitely got the whole “cute but self-conscious about it” thing going on.  Together their antics almost make me smile.

 

And, while Sasaki does at times struggling to understand exactly what his new feelings for Miyano are, it is always treated with respect.  There is no homophobic bullying (at least in Vol. 1) and nobody finds this possible attraction to be odd or off-putting at all, save for possibly Miyano.  It is played as a gentle, heartfelt introspection.  And major points for showing/mentioning actual girls as well, rather than keeping the series all-male as some yuri/yaoi series are wont to do (even if the story does take place at an all-boys school).

 

It's an ordinary falling-in-love slice-of-life manga that just happens to have LGBT+ protagonists, that's all.  The feelings are what's important, and they are carried off quite well.

I could probably compare it to Kase-San and Morning Glories, a similar yuri manga I read a couple of years aback, albeit with boys instead of girls and working the jock angle rather than the fudanshi angle.  I also don’t seem to recall Kase-San and Morning Glories to be all that funny.

 

But they are both cute, innocent slice-of-life manga with LGBT+ protagonists, so that’s something, right?

 

PS: I also wound up going to the bookstore the other day, so I do have a list of other manga that I am meaning to read ASAP and then review for you, so stay tuned!

 

Another Alice, Another Wonderland

 

 

Ryohei Arisu is a disillusioned slacker stuck living in the shadow of his perfect little brother.  The sadness of everyday life surrounds him and his future does not look bright.  Until one night, when a massive and unusual fireworks display transports him and his two friends into a strange new world, a world where deadly games are played both for great prizes and for the right to continue living for another day. 

 

This manga series initially released in the US as a live-action Netflix series.  I tried to get into it, but who has the time or the patience these days to sit around and watch a 45-minute episode, let alone multiple ones in a row?  Plus I watched it in the English dub with subtitles, and that always gets me messed up, thinking about the minute differences between what the dub says and what they actually say.

 

Me, I preferred the manga, in case it wasn’t obvious.  With a manga, one can take one’s time reading it-not that I did much of that with how cerebral, fast-paced and action-packed it was.

 

The games are really think-y and would be almost impossible for anyone without a ton of lateral thinking and strategic ability.  Nothing about where the players are or who brought them there is explained, which serves as an excellent hook for people to keep reading.  We even get a brief scene of some fanservice from female player Shibuki.

 

Me, I have already some familiarity with author Aso Haro’s work from an earlier series known as Hyde and Closer (which I would also highly recommend), but this one is a lot more grown-up and even darker than his first one (if you can believe it).

 

And, yes: there is a vague “Alice In Wonderland” theme running through the work (if the main title wasn’t enough of a hint for you).  Hints and clues and in-game information pages are based on classic playing cards, and we have already seen characters named Chishiya (Cheshire Cat), Arisu (Alice) and Usagi (Rabbit, as in White Rabbit).  Some people may find that annoying, preferring to stick mainly and/or only to original work, but as long as it sticks to only sneaky little side references like those, I am not complaining.

 

The characters also manage to show a lot of themselves (or at least have the implied potential to), and the same goes with growing as people.  With his life on the line in games involving serial killers and flaming arrows, Arisu finds within himself a desire to live.

 

Would that we were all so lucky…

 

Is This Still The 20th Century?

 

 

A long time ago, volume after volume of Naoki Urasawa’s “Monster” was released in the US.  I read every volume I could get my hands on, if only to make sense of all the mysteries that were teased throughout the work.  It seems to be a hallmark of Urasawa’s that he never just plops the main conflict and the main villain and their main goal down right in front of you.

 

No, you have to work for it.

 

And the same holds true for 20^th Century Boys.  The story jumps wildly between the present day, what is implied to be the future, and the friend group’s shared past growing up in the 1960’s-70’s.

 

Several loose threads are present: a mysterious group that is led by a mysterious man with mysterious powers and up to no good, an unknown threat to the world itself, and an unseen group of heroes who will eventually defeat this threat.

 

To be honest, there is so much going on in this series that is almost impossible to tell where it all begins.

 

A children’s group in the 1960’s-70’s has a bunch of mundane adventures, witnesses history and discusses deep topics.  In the present day, many people connected to the group are meeting with mysterious fates.  And one member from the old group has started a cult, based around their old playtime secret symbol, and gained strange powers with the implicit intent to destroy or otherwise upend the world.

 

We follow Kenji Endo, our protagonist, as he attempts to unravel this twisted web of intrigue.  And, as he does, so do we.

 

As I said before, the whole business of following all the threads and finding out how they all connect is a big part of why one reads something like this.  It’s like Evangelion, or Urasawa’s previously-mentioned Monster in that way.  The artwork is stark, enough to fit the serious themes that, yes, are still present in a story containing a worldwide cult with mysterious powers.  We get to watch the protagonists and others as they grow up and try to find their way in a world that is not always kind to them.  There is a real gritty realism to it.

 

That being said, there are a lot of characters and, yes, threads to keep track of, so it can sometimes be hard to remember what is what, particularly if you buy/read only one volume at a time.  By the time you have finished reading Volume 1, you may very well have forgotten all of it by the time you get to Volume 2.  (Which would be more than understandable.)

 

And the time jumps are definitely not helping.

 

That being said, this series is allegedly one of Urasawa’s best-known works.  Monster wasn’t too bad, either, and that is the only series of his that I am actively familiar with, so that is my only frame of reference.  So I get the feeling that 20^th Century Boys is also going to wind up being something I was glad I read, and held onto for as long as I could.

 

Links and Updates, Updates and Links

 Dear Readers,

Here we are, at more than four months since my last manga review.  As always, you can blame the pandemic, my own lack of time to spend at the bookstore, and my local library system being too slow to get in anything actually good half the time.

 But all is not lost: I come bearing news related to some of my favorite series, ones that I have even mentioned before on this blog!

1. Spy X Family has recently gotten an anime!  It's true!  You can find it online in both subbed and Funimation dubbed format, depending on where you look.

And, if you're one of those people who likes to try things out before you buy them, like myself, there are plenty of free clips available on Youtube.

I have been following the series in the official English-language Shonen Jump manga format ever since Vol. 1 and, I must say, it has yet to disappoint me, even up to the current latest release of Vol. 7.

2. Both Black Clover and My Hero Academia are nearing their ends.  This news leaves me with a heavy heart, as I have blogged postings extolling the series since their first volumes released on our shores.

I follow the manga of My Hero Academia every week on the Shonen Jump website, but for Black Clover I have only been following the Funimation English-dubbed release on Toonami.  (I felt as though I had no choice at the time, given how quickly the anime overtook the English release of the manga.)

My point is that I can only pontificate on the current state of the manga for My Hero Academia.  Months after the greatest war we readers have ever seen, the villainous All For One continues to warp/fuse together with his protege, Tomura Shigaraki, the Symbol of Fear.  Izuku has been betrayed, found a new ally, and is currently teleported away from the main battle.

Meanwhile, Dabi's past is revealed as he faces Todoroki, and Shigaraki's power continues mutating and growing out of control.

I mean, we know that Izuku will survive and go on not only to narrate the story, but also to "become the greatest hero in the world", but he and his friends are still facing an uphill battle.

But at least Black Clover is taking a three-month hiatus in order to work on their final arc.  Academia, however, looks like it's going to be a doozy.

3. Do you readers remember when I said that I had found a site with free translations of the One Piece In Love ("Koisuru One Piece") manga, but I didn't have the link for you?

Well,  now I do!  And here it is: https://scansofmetsudo.weebly.com/one-piece-in-love.html

Boy, do I sure hope that works!

The link above should take you to the work of a dedicated fan who, with his friends, has managed to translate all of the manga's Volume 1 chapters and one or two of Volume 2's.

Well, readers, that's all for now.  But please, stay with me and, with luck, I will once again one day have new manga reviews, written just for you!

Beauty and the Beast (As Seen on Disney+)

 

My Love Story "Ore Monogatari"

 

As always, this book was relatively new at my local library the last time I went there.  There was no sticker saying when exactly it arrived, but I am just going by the pristine condition of the actual book itself.  All I know is that the series has been out in the States for a relatively long time already.

 

(Side Note: As we move into Year Two of Coronavirus quarantine, I have seriously begun to debate on whether or not to continue the whole “found it at the library” spiel that I do, or just chalk it up as a given.  Ooh, or maybe leave a special remark any time I DON’T find it at the local library?  Because God knows I’m not going to the bookstore any time soon!”

 

For years, the big-hearted yet ugly Takeo Goda has watched girl after girl fall for his hot best friend Sunakawa instead of him, even though he was the one who actually liked them back in the first place.

 

The thing is, Sunakawa always turned them down, in no uncertain terms, with even a touch of meanness thrown in here and there.

 

So, when Takeo saves a sweet girl named Rinko Yamato from a molester on the train, and Sunakawa just happens to be there, Takeo feels like he knows where this is going.  After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

 

What follows is a looong first chapter (one of the bigger problems with the series) of Takeo failing to realize that, whenever Rinko invites him out somewhere to thank him for saving her, it is not an excuse to meet with Sunakawa.

 

The author of this series, Kazune Kawahara, also wrote the series “High School Debut”, which also wasn’t half bad, albeit so bog ordinary that I stopped reading after the first three volumes.

 

What works in this series is its blurring of the lines between believable characters and unbelievable characters.  I mean, it’s believable that Takeo would not believe that an attractive girl like Rinko would be into him.  The sad truth of this world is that outer beauty is all that some people see, plus, again, he has his entire history with Sunakawa backing him up.  But, at the same time, it is slightly unbelievable that anyone could be so oblivious to the fact that anyone actually likes him, to the point where he and Sunakawa are forced to pull off ridiculous, anime-esque schemes in order to Takeo to hear the truth straight from Rinko’s lips, as, unsurprisingly, he does not initially take Sunakawa at his word when he tells him point-blank what is up.

 

There is also plenty of Japanese-style humor in the work, surprisingly, whether it be Takeo’s being forced to catch a falling I-beam and lift it off of Rinko and Sunakawa, or Takeo’s general appearance in general, looking much more like he would be more at home in something like Mob Psycho 100 or One-Punch Man.

 

But, believable or not, it is the characters that really drive “My Love Story”.  (The artwork is detailed and pretty enough, I suppose, but that’s beside the point.)  Sunakawa and Takeo are true friends and true men, where Takeo constantly puts aside his own feelings for the sake of Sunakawa and his relationships (even though they never really work out), and Sunakawa’s brusqueness actually turns out to be him standing up for Takeo when every girl who asks him out badmouths his giant friend.

 

There’s even something sweet about Rinko’s desiring closer physical intimacy (of the simple closeness and hand-holding kind; these are Japanese high school kids, after all), contrasting with and despite Takeo’s declaration that he will not touch her until she’s ready, out of the need to not frighten or harm her with his size and strength.

 

All in all, as usual, I am not disappointed that I took the time to pick up and read this manga, but I wouldn’t exactly say it left me jumping for joy or broke any new ground.

 

But maybe it’s right for you.