Palepoli

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From Clamp to Urarsawa to Tezuka, each series from the respective authors have distinct art styles that can be recognized through the course of their works. Some have even became staples in the world of manga art that many authors try to incorporate into their own series. Now what if one author decides to rather experiment with multiple styles in both structure and character models rather than sticking to one consistent style? Throw in some extremely sexual scenes and grotesque gore while adding a cup of cynicism and you have Usamaru's four panel series, Palepoli.

As one may expect from a four panel manga, there's ... no real plot and the whole series runs on comedic gags. In Palepoli, many of the gags are extremely adult rated that ranges from grotesque deaths that are handled like child's play to full on sex scenes that are treated like a joke.The series is also not afraid to poke at touchy subjects as incest, suicide, and even satirical jabs on religious symbols are common. In between all of this also includes references to other works (Such as Golgo and Doraemon) and allusions thrown in. Overall, the humor is very hit and miss as some of the gags start to repeat over and over with little change. Some scenes also just left me with disgust as the manga attempted to see how much it could shock the reader.

The art is the real star of the show. These panels range from being very detailed and realistic, to simplistic and cartoony, to everything in between. Bizarre facial expressions and and even optical illusions are also utilized which makes for a unique experience like no other.

If you want something different in style and structure and don't mind overly sexual and bizarre scenes, then I'd recommend giving it a try as it's a ride that one will never forget.

Without a doubt, this is not a manga for everyone. As I am writing this, another review that gives it a rating of 1 reads:

"I understand that there are different styles of writing, but this just takes it way too far. Darker themes and artwork is fine, but almost every single page left me in utter disgust and repulsion. If the purpose was to poke fun and amuse the reader, then I cannot express just how miserably it failed."

Indeed, this manga often takes dark themes way too far, beyond any reasonable standard within a civilized society. Yet where I differ from the other reviewer ... is that not only was I often amused, more often than not the throwaway comic strips genuinely presented something that encouraged me to think. Of course there were also moments where I was shocked or disgusted, but the way that those emotions are elicited are truly unique to this manga. (granted there could be others like it but I haven't read all the manga).

So the question is, why have I reread this manga multiple times? This is the first review I have written, and I certainly don't plan on making reviewing manga a habit. I just want to do my best to articulate why I enjoyed this manga as much as I did

Quick scores:
Art: 10/10. Insane art for often very throwaway jokes. Not only skill wise, but conceptually often very interesting.
Enjoyment: 10/10. Rest of this text wall will try to explain why lmao
Story and Character: they're comic strips with occasional callbacks and some recurring characters, but ultimately aren't that important imo
Overall: 10/10

If I had to describe this manga succinctly, I would call it something like a compilation of bastardizations of cultural iconography. It is a comedy not in the way a slice of life might be, but in the way that that it provokes thought in a completely apathetic dispassionate manner I suppose.

Now all I can really do is try explain why I liked it, not how it should be viewed. But if I were to think about it, on rereads I read it in the same frame of mind I had when watching say, serial experiments lain, or watching angel's egg. Usamaru Furuya is a horror mangaka, but he specifically said that this manga should be read as a comedy. I can vaguely categorize the comic strips present into a few (keeping in mind the bastardization of popular icons):

I wouldn't really consider these spoilers because the manga isn't plot driven, and these are actually the most surface level comics that guide you into appreciating the others in my opinion.

Absurd/Surreal: One of the four panel comics features two young kids egging on beetles to fight eachother, except instead of a beetle, one of the kids has a miniature Jesus Christ, who loses. In reaction to which, one of the kids comments "Jesus is pretty weak huh." Its not funny because of a good punchline, or wit or anything – its the premise, followed by the effort of good art having been put into it, while also juggling something that could easily be construed as offensive; to not only use Christ's image but to lower him to that of an insect, then have him lose. This could be plenty offensive to a devout Christian, but in general no one really cares when jokes are made at their expense so :^) whatever

Cynical Reimaginings/Bastardizations: If you are not aware of the fable of The Honest Woodcutter, read it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honest_Woodcutter
In parallel to this fable, in Palepoli a woman drops her child into the river, and whilst she is panicking, a goddess emerges from the river holding two babies both identical to the one she dropped. The goddess asks: "Which child hath thou lost? Dost thou mean Shingo, the one who will grow up to be a [redacted] and serial killer who dismembers many women... or Shingo the pervert who will abduct many children and make backpacks from their skin". The woman says that neither are her Shingo, and the Goddess rewards her honesty by giving her both babies, much to her dismay. Conceptually, something like this happening would be horrific. But the decision to make it parallel a fable such as the honest woodcutter, makes it comedy gold when you take into account outside cultural icons and how social interactions normally operate. The manga is FILLED with comics like these where you recognize elements from other sources.
A simpler one would be the opener where cherub aims his bow at a kissing couple, lets the arrow fly, which upon impact, bolts the young couple's heads together, killing them.

Artistic flex and bathos: There are multiple panels where it is just the artist putting an immense amount of work, and drawing very grandiose depictions of stupid things. Or drawing very dignified art except signing off by making a core component something stupid and low brow. Think if leonardo da vinci had drawn the mona lisa with a doodle of a poop for the face. Of course the humor of drawing a poop over the mona lisa would be low brow humor, but what does it become when from the moment the art was conceptualized, it was intended to look like that? Another example I would put into this category is a 4x4 page where every row is a different perspective in the same store, and they are chronologically progressing at the same pace. Except say, one of the rows is the camera view from a guy who is taking creepy underskirt shots of a woman browsing magazines. The application of high level art to crude or stupid topics, is the contrast that appeals to me in this category.

The reapplication of cliche themes to dark topics: Now this is probably the most difficult one for me to explain and navigate. If you have any sort of past trauma especially related to sexual abuse, you almost certainly should avoid this manga. Because this, in my opinion, is not a case of "looking past the topic" to appreciate the jokes. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that you should view the joke and topic together, but impersonally. Let me try paint the picture. Imagine: what is your reaction when you see a trope in anime that has just been done to death that it has become beyond cliche, and you either view it somewhat condescendingly or just think of it as a cute, overused trope? The easiest one I can describe because it is most explicit, is the trope of two guys who fight, but then they come to respect eachother and shake hands at the end right. But here instead of fighting, it is a competition of performing the most depraved sex. But that does not fully justify what I am trying to depict –– what I need you to imagine is the mix of a bunch of thoughts and emotions: "oh i recognize that trope, how cute/overused/boring" mixed with "well that was completely fucked up" as a result of intentionally using the most overused formats to depict a topic that is beyond taboo to talk about in any context but as a tragedy. By virtue of how it is socially unacceptable to talk about these events as anything but tragedies, even using the most overused trope in conjunction with the worst tragedies, I was blindsided emotionally in a way nothing else has done. You would find similar parodies and setups in Gintama which is much more lighthearted, but the topic does indeed make a difference, which is why I say it is not just a matter of looking past the topic.

Of course, not every joke sticks its landing. Many of the inanely dark comics miss their mark, or perhaps were less potent than purely insensitive and disgusting. But that is precisely what made me appreciate the ones that achieved something different –– art is nothing without contrast and constraint. But the question is, did these miss the mark? Or were they merely bastardizing a trope that I was not aware of? For example if I did not know about The Honest Woodcutter, I would lose a layer of appreciation for the Goddess comic strip. Anyways I probably sounded like a pretentious cunt through all this and I do admit I have an infatuation with the high brow media but :^) what can you do eh

Finally, who I think would enjoy this:
This is somewhat of a hard question to answer, I would be reluctant to openly suggest this to anyone unless I knew them very well. I am also reluctant to use "dark humor" as a qualifier, because everyone thinks their sense of humor is dark until its something that crosses the line. I guess if you look at my profile you can somewhat build up an image of me but this manga is truly one of a kind in my mind. I think if you like comedy and horror, that is a good starting point. Being a aware of general pop culture iconography and tropes such as the salaryman/spartacus/doraemon/religion/mythology etc etc, various art style such as pointillism/cubism/surrealism/sculptures etc etc and think you are able to view this not merely as a comedy or horror, but as art, I think you would enjoy this far beyond you would have ever imagined.

I will say though, sometimes its a fuckin pain to read. The ordering of the 4 panels threw me off at first, and the vertical text is more often than not spaced annoyingly

Last word I guess; imagine if god had a random joke generator machine, and for two thousand years he generated jokes. The acceptable jokes are passed to humanity, and the jokes that go too far are put away in a box. It is 2020, and you find this box. You look into it and you find a joke that is clearly written in the style of the 1800's; it had its time, got beaten to death and faded out of favor. However the one in the box, while indeed was generated in the 1800's pertains to a topic that you have never seen that joke in the context of, and the topic is still just as relevant/fucked-up today. Certainly it is new to you, but everything after that –– whether it is funny, appropriate, or should have been found at all, is up for debate.

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”

Palepoli is a good example of what happens when someone tries to make something too different and unique: they end up with something that is most definitely irreplaceable because no one else would want to mimic it.

I understand that there are different styles of writing, but this just takes it way too far. Darker themes and artwork is fine, but almost every single page left me in utter disgust and repulsion. If the purpose was to poke fun and amuse the reader, then I cannot express just how miserably it failed.

Other works with mature themes usually ... have a meaningful purpose: teach a life lesson, draw empathy, etc. However, Palepoli has no purpose other than shocking the reader beyond comprehension in the most vividly vile way possible.

The one redeeming quality was the creativity in how the author structured his 4-koma's. Content aside, it was pretty cool how he set up each panel in relation to one another.

Other than that... no. If I could give a score below a 1, I would.