Asatte Dance
Dance Till Tomorrow

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Originally serialized in the US in Viz's sadly defunct Pulp magazine, Assate Dance (from this point onward referred to by its English title Dance Till Tomorrow) tells the story of college student Suekichi who, much to his surprise, inherits 450 million yen from his recently deceased great grandfather. But the old guy couldn’t resist attaching a few conditions: in order to claim the fortune, Suekichi will have to graduate from college, marry, and establish a career. Having planned to drop out of school so that he could devote all his time to the theatre troupe of which he is a producer (more out ... of admiration for its leader, the lovely Ms Shimomura, than any particular ambition), he suddenly finds himself having to reassess his priorities. What’s more, a mysterious young seductress named Aya suddenly appears and attaches herself to him - and she knows of the inheritance.

And so begins Naoki Yamamoto’s hilarious adult romantic comedy. Dance Till Tomorrow boasts sharp, snappy dialogue and subtle characterisation, all punctuated with a hefty dose of humour and raw sexual energy. Protagonist Suekichi has to contend with a procession of oddballs, including an over-zealous actor, a frighteningly well-endowed (and questionably stereotyped) south Asian immigrant, a persistent ex-husband, and theatre loving Yakuza. Stressed, paranoid, and generally exasperated with the parade of weirdoes imposing themselves on his life, he skulks around with a perpetual, and comical, suspicious narrow-eyed glare.

While much of Dance Till Tomorrow’s humour is dry and deadpan, there are plenty of absurd moments: the ghost of Suekichi’s great grandfather occasionally appears before him to offer sagely (or not) advice, the reader kept guessing as to whether ghosts really exist in this world of Yamamoto’s creation or if these encounters are simply a symptom of Suekichi’s ever-worsening mental state. And in one of the funniest moments of the story, Suekichi - finally overcome with the stress of university, holding down a part-time job, his role as drama troupe producer and accountant, dealing with all the crazies, and Aya's advances - starts to exhibit physical symptoms of his anxiety. And though it seems cruel, you can’t help but be amused by his suffering.

But without doubt the manga’s best creation is Aya - the devious and manipulative sexpot who seems to take great pleasure in messing with Suekichi‘s increasingly fragile mind. She becomes a permanent fixture in his life, cropping up everywhere, seducing him, and generally driving him crazy. And the reader, much like Suekichi, is never quite sure of her true motives. Is she, as Suekichi believes, interested in nothing but his fortune? Or does she genuinely have feelings for him? While she seems offended by his accusations, she refuses to explicitly deny that they’re true. Instead, she exposes his hypocrisy; she may or may not be a gold-digger, but there’s no question that he’s only too happy to use her for sex. She’s a wonderful character, powerful and intelligent, and she knows exactly how to get what she wants. But as the story progresses we see different sides of her, and begin to question whether maybe she’s more than just a calculating nymphomaniac. Later, Suekichi becomes interested in another woman, who happens to be the polar opposite of of Aya, and this brings a new dimension to his character, too.

Dance Till Tomorrow is one of the more explicit non-pornographic manga I’ve read. Each volumes features at least two or three highly erotic sex scenes, mostly between Suekichi and Aya, and often blurring is required to obscure genitalia. But despite this, the sex never feels gratuitous or unnecessary; it's simply a part of life and it's depicted as such.

If there’s one sticking point, it’s Yamamoto's art. While the designs are attractive, particularly the women, from certain angles characters appear off model and, frankly, almost deformed. It is, however, something that the reader becomes accustomed to. Some characters are simply designed to be ugly, and there’s plenty of exaggerated facial expressions, mostly courtesy of the hapless Suekichi. Finally, the background art is adequate, doing what it needs to and little else.

In the back of the early books there is a brief interview with Naoki Yamamoto. In it he states that he writes “Ordinary stories about ordinary people - but they have to be erotic”. That sums up Dance Till Tomorrow perfectly. It’s a realistic and mature portrayal of adult relationships, and it’s funny too.

Just an all around "fun" manga to read. Right from the first chapter, you're thrown into a sort of confusing "should he really be doing this" type of experience. The main character, Suekichi is presented with a very "weird" and "random" girl who seemingly just wants him for his newly found (but can't quite get) family inheritance. So, let's roll out what I thought of it all.

Story:
Suekichi's grandfather passes away and he is left with the "future possibility" of claiming 450 billion yen if he graduates from college. But wait, Aya, a girl whom he finds lying next to him after his grandfather's funeral seems ... to want this money for herself. Can having sex with Suekichi really win him over that easily, or is there more to what she feels for him?

The story is funny, it's not very predictable, and there's a pleasant ending.

Art:
Really old school artwork. I didn't like it a lot, but not a lot to complain about.

Character:
Picture yourself in college. Suekichi is basically any ordinary guy that's trying to make his way in the world. The girls aren't stupid, and it's not a "we all love Suekichi show", so you'll probably like most of the characters.

Enjoyment:
Very enjoyable. Not really much more I could have asked for. You'll laugh a lot, and you'll ask yourself a few questions about what you'd do in certain situations.

Overall:
Give it a read. If you like comedy, nudity (sex scenes), and a good plot, you won't be disappointed.

I spent inexcusably long watching this one. I don't know why, it was just utterly frustrating and downturning. At one point I just decided to move it to the side and finish the manga translation by Viz first, so as not to torment myself with wondering. It worked. While I didn't like the ending one bit, I could regain my momentum.
Gotta say, the manga gets pretty wild in the later chapters. Which is not to say it gets good. It's a concentrated mediocrity, masquerading as a stoical and philosophical love story. Sorry but no. Yamamoto Naoki clearly just wanted to draw porn doujins but ... wound up at a "normal" magazine. The plot is superficial and banal, which wouldn't have been so bad by itself if it wasn't also trying to pretend to be something more.
But most importantly, it doesn't feel real. This manga is too sprinkled with jokes - though many of them are not bad, it robs the story of its immersive aspect - you can no longer empathize with characters quite as well. Not only that, there are too many characters to empathize with, none of which deserve it. The point I'm trying to make here is, we need fiction to read about people and events that are not real - that are better than those we meet in real life. Here, everyone (save for Freddie) is spineless, unscrupulous, unsympathetic. The characters are just hanging in the middle - they're too unreal and irrational to be evoking empathy, but not unreal enough to entertain.
In the end, it's just an extremely depressing and unrewarding manga, that's also unreasonably long for what it is trying to convey. A comparison with another odd show Orphan did, which actually has more in common with Asatte Dance than what meets the eye - Okama Hakusho. There, I was actually excited to finish the manga and wasn't disappointed by its later development, despite the story and even the whole premise being way cheesier and sketchier. Okama Hakusho was resolute and to-the-point with resolving the unavoidable love triangle, it never pretended to be a highbrow story about love, it consciously followed its groove as a sketchy anti-pro-gay-manga. In turn, Asatte Dance completely forgets its raison d'être by the time you make it to volume 3.
You could also make an argument that I'm just salty over this manga due to not being laid nearly as often as Suekichi does, which would be completely legit too.
Another odd comparison that came to my mind is Koi Kaze - I haven't read the source manga for that, but from the TV series I've seen I got the impression completely opposite to that from Asatte Dance: Usually, you'd start Koi Kaze (if ever) with aversion from just reading the synopsis. I personally grew extremely fond of it over the course of TV series, genuinely impressed by the touching, benign, and humane way in which they disposed of the initially degenerate concept - it's a deep and moving story about love and real, alive people under the veneer of doujinshi. Then there's Asatte Dance - a complete opposite of that, a doujinshi under the veneer of a romance manga.
It's good the OVA omitted the most irritating characters, but I still don't understand why it was made. Seems like the most ordinary "gold digger" story to me. Perhaps it was still a novelty at the time? At least it's relatively short and dynamic for what it's worth.