Aug 9, 2020
Doujin Work is a manga written by Hiroyuki (Aho Girl, Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to) between 2004-2008, it has a total of 76 short chapters compiled into 6 volumes (the last volume is a spin-off, the usual main characters don't appear). You're in it for a bizarre insane comedy here like all Hiroyuki's manga, even though this one was his first serialization.
The story is about a girl named Osana Najimi, a high school girl, who wants to draw comics and sell it at doujin markets in order to make money and live the good life, and her weird friends. Let's not fool ourselves, it is not
...
a coming of age story like Bakuman, this manga is pure comedy, we're not here to watch her progress, we're in it for the jokes, the manga wants to make the reader laugh.
The chapters are mostly 4koma but we get some normal short chapters from time to time. Volume 6 is written in a basic fashion. It took me an hour an a half to finish a volume, lots of stuff happens, the panels are small but I had a great time, not one page was wasted and I laughed or smiled all that time.
I find the setting interesting, I like to draw and I guess many people in the anime/manga community do that too, so this manga feels close to us so to say. But the appeal of it comes from the humor served to us by the author.
Talking about the comedy, it's insensitive, it's sexual, over the top, bizarre, weird, crazy. This is not for prudes, throughout the manga, the characters are discussing about the best way to draw sex positions, what is the best way to make their readers horny, will the readers use their doujin to masturbate? Najimi's two friends are also doujin artists and they draw hentai (R-18) of course.
Expect also lots of misunderstandings and dumb decisions, a rivalry between some characters (played for jokes of course). One weird thing that this manga has, and many people would probably stop reading it, is the romantic relationship between a middle school girl (who looks like a 12 year old) and a high schooler (who looks like a pro athlete). I get why this may look disgusting at first view (even the characters don't like it) but I didn't find it that bad, but what can I say, it's about each reader's taste.
As kinky as this manga is, we don't get sexy scenes at all, no ecchi, I think I remember a panty shot though.
We have 5 main characters (as per MAL)
- Najimi, our main girl
- Justice, this is his true name because why not
- Tsuyuri, Najimi's close friend
- Sora, she befriends the trio in the beginning of the manga
- Kaneru, doesn't appear as much but she's there
The character interaction is the best and I appreciated as much as Grand Blue's cast interaction. Najimi can't draw good but she's selfish and wants easy money from doujin (well, who doesn't think big at least one time in their lives? when I was little I had a plan to turn rich by selling my half used pencils, spoiler but it didn't work, Najimi's attitude is kinda like that), Tsuyuri, Justice and Sora are there for her, giving her advice and all that stuff. You would be surprised but we do get some character development, Najimi learns and evolves (personality), we also get to find interesting stuff about her.
Tsuyuri (friend with Naijimi and in the same class as her) is a hentai doujin artist, her circle is named Panty Revolution, she is into, let's say, "extreme" stuff and she acts like it, she has no shame yet she behaves like a distinguished person, well, that's because she has pride in what she does and she likes it. She loves to pick on Najimi but her ways are over the top and well planned.
Justice (in high school too) is a weird guy, over sentimental sometimes and a very good artist.
Sora is the voice of reason in the group, she's in middle school, not into hentai. She acts like the straight man sometimes (like Shinpachi from Gintama but not as energetic).
About the art, I found it good enough (pretty realistic too), the characters look ok, each of them with different body type and some individual characteristics. The backgrounds are very well done (like all Hiroyuki manga), you get the sense of space and the places you're at in the panels, be it the doujin market, Najimi's room, Kaneru's apartment, a random city street, all the panels are methodically drawn and the characters' faces are hilarious at times where they have to be.
The general consent is that the ending is incomplete (the 5th volume finishes, end of story), it's kinda true but ask yourself while you're reading the manga: does this needs an ending? some sorta high school graduation or will Najimi become a pro mangaka? or what will be the final romantic relationships? I don't think Doujin Work needs a well though ending, it was just a segment from the characters' lives, I don't want a 10 year time skip where Najimi is married and making manga, no! this, in my opinion, would destroy the general atmosphere that the author set. The whole point of Doujin Work was looking at our guys and girls drawing doujin and having fun like friends do, talking about random stuff and getting in trouble.
The 6th volume features other characters as mains and it's set 2 years after the end of volume 5, it has the same setting, so no surprises here, I don't know why this exists though but anyway, I read it and found it funny but not on par with the first 5 (mostly because of the lack of Najimi and co).
Read Doujin Work if you like Hiroyuki's manga or you're a fan of slice of life comedy, but the more intense one, sexual humor, misunderstandings, dumb jokes between friends, exaggerated drama for no reason whatsoever, extraordinary idiot characters (I counted two) that have jobs yet still act like total morons with no brain. This manga is a treat, don't waste time thinking about who ends up with who or Najimi's future career path, just enjoy the very moment you're reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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