| Apr. 2nd, 2008 @ 09:46 am Sumomomo-momomo |
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Yesterday, I got the latest (9th) volume of probably my current favorite manga series, すもももももも (Sumomo-mo-momomo). So far, it shows no signs of stopping being awesome. Which is a hard, tenuous thing I wager, considering all the manga out there that started awesome but quickly (or very, very slowly) devolved into mediocrity (School Rumble, Blade of the Immortal, Bleach, etc). There are very few that keep going that retain the same kind of tone and spirit that there was in the first few episodes: Maybe it's just that good manga are so rare, that when ones like Yotsubato come out they truly stand out as exceptional, even after a few years have passed.
In any case, the story of the manga is found above at that link. Despite being turned into one of the shittiest anime I've ever barely watched (gave up after about 20 minutes), the manga continues to shine. I'm hoping that with the release of that truly crap anime, someone picks up the rights to translate the actual comic it is based on.
Book 9 in the series, and it's still funny. It still has moments of drama, touching moments, and through it all it still remains *new*. Like, you know how in most comics, we see a character web drawn (like in School Rumble) where character X likes Y, Y likes Z, Z likes A, and A hates everyone... and nothing *ever* changes. The manga plays off of those relationships, setting up funny or perilous situations built on the fact that it looks like the relationships are going to change, like the overall story is going to "progress", but HA HA it doesn't? Sumomomo-momomo remains different in the fact that it simultaneously has a story that moves forward with characters that change in relationship to each other over time, yet at the same time can keep a good "running gag" running indefinitely. It is magnificient, there truly is nothing like it: The same power-combo of production values, funny gags, good pacing, creative use of art, and an overarching story that (well, to me anyway) is interesting.
Hell, this manga can dive into a 1.5/2 book "martial arts tournament" (which is usually the death knell for any serialized comic: Once it goes there, like Bleach or Naruto or even Yakitate Japan, it *never* comes back), be interesting while it's doing so, and then when it's done, come back to the same pacing/structure as there was before the tournament. And do so in a way that that tournament was integral to the story, which changed the characters, and which the characters reflect on going forward (and not just a sidetracked aberration that is the author's way of stalling the story for a few months: Initiated, then forgotten when done).
This comic was the first breakout hit for the new comic company produced by Square-Enix (Enterbrain, "The Final Fantasy company"), so they might have pulled out all the stops: For all I know, the original author is being assisted by 10 art assistants and a panel/council of story writers all geared to keep this formula going. Whatever they've got going down when producing this thing, it's working. Creativity, art, story, humor: None of it has been compromized. Yet. I think a lot of us are waiting with baited breath for the other shoe to drop, so used to the Eventual Disappointment With Our Current Favorite Manga that we view the crumbling of a great manga as not an aberration, but as an inevitability.
Anyway, If you dig comedy manga, martial arts manga, then Get It. If you read manga in English, keep this one on the radar.
-Andy |
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