I spent the other year in Japan, where everyone reads manga. It is the perfect accompaniment for the hour long soporific train rides that are a characteristic part of daily life there. I made what I thought to be a considerable effort to seek out translated manga in an effort to try and get on the same page as everyone else. I was rather surprised, irked even, to find all the kids reading them when I returned home. However, it is only since I got back that I found some manga that I really liked.
I admit to a possible involuntarily rolling of the eyes at the mention of “graphic novel”. I know there have been many groundbreaking and award winning works by the likes of Art Spiegelman, Joe Sacco, Charles Burns and so on; all of which have put the graphic novel firmly in the realm of serious art, and rightly so. The two here are distinct form of graphic novel (ugh, those words); Japanese manga. Manga has a very long history, and I think this makes it less self conscious about what is trying to do; they make no claims to be anymore than entertaining reading.
The first manga that stopped my eyes from spinning Genshiken, follows a club, clubs being a fundamental all pervasive part of Japanese life, the Genshiken or “The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture” (modern visual culture being manga books, manga T.V shows, video games etc) is a group otaku: an otaku being sort of a Japanese nerd, usually boys, obsessed with manga, video games, collecting weird memorabilia, and dressing up as their favourite manga hero. In addition, some of the groups club activities are somewhat lurid and I’d rather not detail them here in the fear that it may give the reader the wrong idea. (although my dear reader is now probably imagining something far worse… which maybe more their fault than mine).
The series starts with Saki Kasukabe who is distressed to find her good looking, (that is to say he looks nothing like an otaku) if somewhat clueless boyfriend to be, is an unrepentant otaku. As a consequence, she is forced to hang out with the ‘freaks’ in their clubroom, all in attempt to get him to look up from the video screen and see what is right under his nose.
The writer and illustrator, Kio Shimoku gives us characters that may not sound that appealing but are endearing nonetheless. The otaku, despite all Japan’s famous cuteness, craziness and just plain bizarreness, are generally reviled. The sensitive depiction of these somewhat outsider characters is part of “Genshiken’s” charm. Reading “Genshiken” made me painfully nostalgic for the country I’d left (not that I engaged in any of the activities of these freaks!) It helpfully provides an unobtrusive and enriching glossary for the various Japanese and otaku customs and gives an overall feeling of arm chair travel.
The second of these Hayate, the Combat Butler, is much more of a screwball comedy; delightfully dismissive of reality. Hayate, who has supported his wastrel parents all his life finds that on Christmas eve, his parents have gambled away all his wages and have sold his organs to the local yakuza to pay their debts (I believe this manga was sold to an American cartoon network, where parts of the plot had to be “softened”).
Fleeing the yakuza he decides on a desperate plan to kidnap a young girl Nagi Sanzen’in for a ransom, but she mistakes his demands as a confession of love and in a last ditch attempt at making a serious kidnapping Hayate introduces himself by name over the phone to the would be victim’s parents. Through an unlikely and humorous series of events Hayate is employed as the butler for the absurdly ( cartoonishly, even ) wealthy Nagi.
“Hayate” makes for an entertaining read because it takes full advantage of the medium, gags (for want of a better word) are coming at the reader from such a variety of different and unexpected places. It reminds me somewhat of “The Simpsons” in that nearly aspect of the format can be manipulated by the writer and the artist. As an example, “Hayate” will often give characters dialogue which steps outside the story; addressing the reader making them complicit in the writer’s angst. For instance a character maybe thinking out loud as to whether a particular scene is deserving of a colour panel, or a character may question if another character’s speech is really their own or simply the author desperately trying to cover up gross inconsistencies in the plotting.
Like a lot of other people I have always thought this medium has wealth of potential that was often, inexplicably confounded with a number of well worn sometimes celebrated conventions, that were not intrinsic to it. So for anyone thinking along similar lines, and to anyone else I heartily recommended these two as entertaining read anywhere fun. Finally they are only the first in series, so there is a slightly (some times more so) addictive quality that can take hold.
