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Apr 18, 2022
Gokusen is a feminist riff on GTO. Daughter of a powerful yakuza gang become teacher to a (all-male) class of bad apples. The protagonist isn't pervy and there's two male romantic interests, but the formula is much the same: a random hoodlum decides to mess with our demure looking sensei or her beloved students, and she opens a can of whoop-ass to save the day. With a cast of yakuza and yakuza-tolerant characters, there's plenty of idiosyncrasies to go around for running gags.
Gokusen takes its time, meandering, so don't expect to binge thru the 150 chapters. The story and drama are light, each "lesson"
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lasting no more than a few chapters. It won't take your breath away, but it's got solid story-telling chops and knows to juggle the characters well enough that side characters have continuity to their own lives. Don't take it too seriously, as Gokusen features talking dogs in the side stories and lines which are referenced later in the main chapters. These side stories are pretty funny though and add a lot of charm to the usually stoic characters.
The biggest draw to Gokusen, though, has to be our female protagonist. Despite possessing boring shounen traits like a strong sense of justice and being dense, she simply oozes confidence. Looking like a Japanese Angelina Jolie in glasses and a ponytail, she is unfazed by everything but romance, and her no-nonsense attitude and mature competency work extremely well allowing the manga to stand out despite coming after GTO. It's refreshing for a female lead to be the one not taking any shit and going around delivering comeuppance, like some light novel protagonist. And since she isn't pervy, the gag set ups are a bit more varied and allows the side characters to shine in the comedy department.
Overall, Gokusen is a charming manga you can recommend to someone who might find GTO distasteful and over the top. It's an odd dichotomy where the female lead has such an iconic design and personality, while everyone else looks like background characters in a delinquent manga. While the chapters are many and the characters mostly forgettable, this could actually be a boon for rereads and enjoying the adaptations. Read it for the main character, and stick around for the good times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 20, 2022
Moyashimon is a one of kind work. It’s extremely dense, more like a fun college seminar than any other easy-going comedy in its genre. When a page of the manga is as a text-dense as any textbook, ranting about some fermentation process or reviewing the industry, one cannot help but appreciate how informative it is, and respect the passion of Ishikawa through the lengths he must have gone through researching everything necessary to break things down for us. Brilliantly, he uses cute anthropomorphized bacteria as a Greek Chorus, seamlessly transitioning from lesson to commentary to segue into the actual story. To
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tie in so much dry contextual information in an approachable way, and balance it with the large cast of characters and the overall narrative of Sawaki and his ability to see microbes, is a Herculean feat and so utterly original that Moyashimon defies categorization and should be seen as its own, new genre.
That said, Moyashimon should not be read by everyone. I tried Moyashimon once, years ago, but could not fully appreciate it then, grew bored midway, and ended up with a middling impression of it. It’s not a manga you’d want to read annually. It shouldn’t be read casually, as a comedy manga, or even near the end of the day. Moyashimon should be read when you have a relatively free week, with full attention, at the start of the day, and preferably with an open screen and google open nearby to encourage falling into rabbit holes and detours about various fermented food-making.
****
The theme of its characters is monotone, centered on the struggle of young adults to find their niche against the expectations of their family circumstance. Frankly, the character quality of Moyashimon is a mixed bag. Although they can be refreshingly original and realistically self-conscious of their own flaws, Ishikawa compromises their status as living, breathing characters by frequently assuming direct control of characters as analogues for him to rant. An organic group of people don’t take turns info-dumping every other conversation, at least, I don’t know of any group like that. The other major inelegance was its formulaic use of characters, who are introduced and included when convenient or financially expedient, and explicitly excluded from the action when not. Some characters are foil-clones of each other (exacerbated by Ishikawa’s tendency to draw all girls same-faced) just to bludgeon the point about the similarities between their situation. It’s so overt, the background characters and annotations by the author constantly lampshade about their irrelevance and joke about the “clones” themselves. Even when character development is done perfectly, like for Hasegawa “once shy, twice bitten” Haruka, the revolving door structure of the story, throws a damper on the momentum and keeps the readers at arms-length away from even the best of the cast. One can’t help but feel wishful for more opportunities to become invested in the lives of our colorful cast.
****
At its best, Moyashimon is a fascinating mix of information, comedy, wholesomeness, and awe. It’s got plenty of quotable pages and tidbits of trivia, plus some prescient takes regarding viruses, vaccines, and bio-fuels, for a late 2000s manga. At its worst, though, it is simply uninteresting, with pointless activities and soapboxing every dozen pages. For me, that low point was volumes 10 and 11, whose premises were based on flimsy motivations and misunderstandings, making it a chore to process. Attempts at romance were more often clumsy than graceful, and conspicuously infantilized older characters like Hasegawa, highlighting instances of disappeared characters making a comeback only to act out bits more suitable for shounen manga.
Moyashimon attempts to escape these flaws by not taking itself too seriously, and consistently reminding its readers that it is a fiction. However, this is not great remedy for when the manga becomes nauseatingly indulgent. Ishikawa lets his characters peddle the soy sauce/miso miracle-superfood-nippon-banzai narratives before Isekai novels drove it into the ground, and also doesn’t hesitate to mock other countries here and there, or reference imperialist Japan imagery. It’s refreshingly candid, but all these peculiarities of the characters and eccentric walls of texts erase the line between the author’s own opinions and his characters.
All that said, the lack of development with its main character Sawaki, reflected by his lack of presence even in this review, can be somewhat forgiven by the solid wrap-up in volume 13. When considering the dozens of parallel developments, and that Sawaki was still only a first-year in world this entire time, the horizon looks bright for the Itsuki Seminar, even in the romance department.
****
Like its title suggests, Moyashimon is a work that gets better with age, and eight years down the line, it has aged into a class of its own. What other manga will prompt one to spend Friday evening researching how to ferment soybeans and brew liquor? Not only is it educational and anthropologically valuable, it breaks down complex microbiology processes in a fairly approachable and entertaining manner, something way beyond the scope of a comedy manga, or any manga, really. I would have never been interested in such things had it not been for Ishikawa’s creative approach, which cannot be praised enough. The series has definitely earned its place on my shelves, and I suspect it will be a long time before we see another auteur exert themselves as much as Ishikawa did in producing Moyashimon.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 8, 2021
My Girl is a melancholy experience that leaves a lump in your throat while reading. It is about a quiet young man and his five year old daughter learning to navigate life after the death of the mother. The watercolor style of Yumeka Sumono lends well to this type of story, which is also nicely paced at only 44 chapters.
The author focuses mostly on the atmosphere and the emotional aftertaste each chapter leaves on its readers- at the cost of the mundane. The reader is like a rock skipping across a body of water, and we only see snippets of daily life, intrigues, conflicts,
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and relationships, as time goes by quickly.
This type of storytelling makes for a pleasant streamlined evening read, but does stretch suspension of disbelief. Characters surrounding the father-daughter duo are choreographed in and out of storylines, and each time they show up, manage to conjure up a hallmark moment for our protagonists before fading out again. There are some attempts of studying and developing these side characters, who are actually interesting, but unfortunately those attempts start and end in the same chapter. We never get to follow up and explore the aftereffects of their encounters beyond immediate dramatics, and thus, several characters wind up feeling "used" and forgotten.
The protagonists themselves are somewhat superhuman. While the father certainly struggles and is shown failing, he also never fails to overcome those challenges, sometimes off-screen, and is always shown well adjusted by the next chapter. The precocious daughter is even stronger, and beyond occasionally being allowed to act her age, is an endless source of wholesomeness. There were times when My Girl's cast felt alienating, because of either how pure they were or due to their abrupt exits.
Nevertheless, the repeating refrain of My Girl hammers home its message deftly: don't forget to stop and smell the roses, and definitely don't trample them on the way to the flower garden! Yumeka Sumono's storyboards are unbelievably good at leaving readers sentimental and teary-eyed. And with such an inspiring theme packed into a short and emotional read, it's a manga that I see myself coming back to in the future.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 8, 2021
When life gives you lemons, grab them without hesitation even if the fate of the planet is on the line. Such is the outlook of one exceptional man named Nakamaru Takehiko. Despite living as a NEET with his grandpa and sister in the countryside, he spends his days tilting at windmills to protect the happiness of his sister, the only thing that matters in his nihilist worldview. Believing he had slain the monster known as life, one day he suddenly discovers he is the very thing holding his sister back from a life of her own. Shocked, he flees home, to find and prove his
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independence so his sister can become happy...
"Saltiness" is a wonderful comedy that explores the meaning to living life through wacky, eccentric characters. Despite its mere 44 chapters, it manages to deliver character growth in spades, with hilarious dialogue that will leave you in stitches, serendipitous adventures, tragedy, and tackles heavier topics like mental illness, suicide and isolation.
From a deathmetal sushi chef who defecates on a car, to an aspiring hypnotist-become-cheesemaker, to a man who only responds with gibberish, the story is driven by Takehiko's encounters with equally absurd characters. Yet despite the absurdity of these larger than life characters, the manga reveals to us that they are all good people deep down struggling with ordinary human desires.
The pacing and paneling is seriously impressive. Minoru Furuya is a master at visual comedy and his thoughtfulness in what was drawn shows clear as day. To do what he does in Saltiness, with its abundant textless spreads, while setting up so many story lines, is spectacular. Saltiness is a manga I anticipate coming back to frequently, for both its storytelling chops and humanist themes. Hats off to the author, you couldn't ask for more in a manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 12, 2021
Hinamatsuri is a manga that excels at comedic delivery. Mangaka Otake Masao is brilliant at drawing facial expressions and paneling. The characters’ consistent reactions, the timing of the jokes, and their unexpected twists induce side clutching laughter.
Character dialogue and reaction faces are the bread and butter of Hinamatsuri. Chapters where storyline does not advance, are also when some of the funniest interactions between characters occur, because anything can happen and the colorful characters can be themselves.
The story is weak but adequate for a sci-fi-esque comedy. The setting, the ensemble cast of yakuza and co, are also somewhat unconvincing, but you tell yourself it’s okay
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because it’s all for fun. Nitta’s running gag of becoming increasingly badass through external events outside his control is a classic trope of stumbling to success without intending to. As is Hitomi’s path to a careerwoman.
However, because the comedy of Hinamatsuri relies on degenerating characters and embracing the ‘dame’ lifestyles many characters take on, the manga and cast do become parodies of themselves near the end. Otake’s lack of greater story is the double-edged sword that allows for the most unexpected funny chapters,but also responsible for the meandering plot and wishy-washy development and use of characters. Nitta’s yakuza friends who are introduced with a certain level of respect for their ferocity quickly become defanged and sidelined unless called upon as plot or gag devices. Mao’s kung fu cult and throwaway musician characters somehow becomes intertwined with central conflict, whereas other characters that seemed important early on, like the bar owner, Nitta’s family, and the other future characters become the real minor characters.
Of course, realism is obviously not a priority in a manga involving time traveling psychics and middle schoolers becoming trillionaires, but the accumulation of unrealism for the sake of running gags across 19 volumes does become palpable near the end. Whereas early volumes riffed off characters unexpectedly doing funny things when cornered, later on, nothing was impossible for the crew of psychics, syndicate members, and business magnates. The puzzle aspect is lost and we merely spectate the team performing the expected. The funny moments are still attempted, but in the last few volumes, the plot develops at a pace unnatural to the one we’ve become accustomed to. The quicker pace made the world of hinamatsuri feel as it were breaking down. While due diligence in resolving plot and characters was done, it lost what made Hinamatsuri so great to begin with- the comedic delivery between character dialogue and their reactions.
In the end, Hinamatsuri, like it’s characters, grows up, and loses some of its youthful charm. The characters mature, become more predictable, and goal-oriented. Nevertheless, Otake managed to create a large colorful cast of memorable characters, an impressive feat. Although one might not remember the plot to Hinamatsuri years from now, one will certainly remember the laughs and good times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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