Well, this is going to be interesting. I made a decision to review as much regular manga that I can, so even shonen comedies shouldn’t be beneath me. I generally make a point of actively avoiding talking about comedies, because what do we know, there’s only so many ways to say something just isn’t funny. But screw conventions, if I have to write 4 sentence reviews then so be it.
Here’s every single manga (with an SK webtoon) that I’ve read this week, along with three or four among them that I’ll cover from here on out. I’ll be writing separate reviews on the latest chapters of the manga that I’ve decided to cover here on out from this list, where I can get more in-depth.
Seitokai Yakuindomo Chapters 1-392
I admit it here, Tozen Ujiie’s works have been a “guilty pleasure” of mine for quite some time now, to the point that as far as his 4koma are concerned, I’m convinced that the man is a comedy genius. For the uninitiated, his style of humor is stupidly crude, consisting primarily of dick jokes and enema gags – it’s anti-PC humor at its finest, but I don’t like it just for the sake of it being different.
I’m someone who can appreciate both spectrums of comedy, be they lowbrow dick jokes or “highbrow” humor – so, what actually grabbed me with SYD more so than any of his previous work was its quirky cast, and Ujiie’s really creative word-play on the Japanese language to come up with clever puns. Though I often lose his comedic intent through translation, it’s pretty neat when I can catch onto something. A story is nowhere to be found in SYD, but I see it as the equivalent of a Japanese comedy skit in manga form, where on the other hand Puchi Puchi Tan Tan has a little bit more cohesion as a story (at the cost of consistency in comedic tone). I look forward to talking about this and learning more about Ujiie’s wordplay.
Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san Chapters 1-30
You know when you read a new shonen manga, and it instantly feels like an illustrated storyboard for an anime? This is about our protagonist as he deals with a ghost girl who lost her memories and (for the sake of To Love Ru level of fan service) can strip her ghostly clothes.
Yeah I hate this very much, maybe if the fan service was toned down by 100% I could appreciate the light-yet-brandless level of comedy offered here. The main character is also stupidly overpowered, so there’s no reason for me to care about anything at stake. Quite possibly the extreme spectrum away from the average spineless harem male lead. But oh well, this is bound to get an anime adaptation so I’ll probably have to talk about it then (I predict it’ll come out in Spring 2018).
Continue reading “Manga Shelf – Girl the Wild’s, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko, & More”