Ranked #1359

Family Complex (Manga)

Family Complex is another of Mikiyo Tsuda's masterpieces which i enjoy to this day :P
Published before the parent story "Princess Princess" this Manga focuses on the family of the Sakamotos' who are abnormally beautiful apart from 14 year old Akira who feels "normal" from the rest.

The story takes the form of taking the point of view of the various siblings and parents about life in the family and what it means to be "beautiful" and that beauty is not as glorious as it may seem to be.
It also has very powerful messages about looks and family life in general while adding that bit of comedy that adds to the story and likability of the characters.
The art is great (as expected from Mikiyo Tsuda) with not to little, or too much background or detail and does the story a good deal as well :P
Perhaps the best part of the Manga is the likability and unique personalities of the characters and the humor of the family in general.

Overall, i throughly enjoyed this Manga as well as Tsuda's other works and would recommend it to everyone :)
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Have you ever felt like the odd one out in your family?

Akira Sakamoto does, reason being he’s the only normal looking one in his family. He comes from a family of 6, the 3rd oldest child out of four and is completely plain. He didn’t even have a problem with his looks until other people started to point it out. The manga follows not only him, but his parents, older brother Harumi, older sister Natsuru and younger sister Fuyuki and their troubles in daily life which mostly comes down to their appearance, social influence and behaviour. Each chapter is dedicated to a member of the family from their point of view (The parents are lumped together into one chapter) and is just as funny and uplifting as each other.
Harumi is having trouble making real friends that aren’t always polite to him or act as servants.
Natsuru reflects on her time in the 6th grade - back then she didn’t think she had a place amongst either boys or girls.
Fuyuuki doesn’t know how to express herself and say what’s actually on her mind.
The parents past is also shown, how they met and how their extreme looks brought them together.

The drawings are bold, clean and clear. There usually aren’t any backgrounds but it doesn’t really matter in my opinion in this short manga volume.
This my favourite work from Mikiyo Tsuda, author of the ‘Day of Revolution’ and ‘Princess Princess‘, the latter now an animated series which Akira and his family also plays a part in. It’s my favourite one because it’s the most I or any person for that matter can relate too and isn’t incredibly far-fetched, which I must admit, her other works tend to be. The family atmosphere is a good theme that isn’t usually the focus of a manga, it’s a nice change to have a family that works well together as opposed to the typical dysfunctional one.
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