I tore through two manga digests this weekend, and my interest in the genre growing. The mere fact that it can encompass stories as wildly different as HOT GIMMICK and SGT. FROG makes it worth consideration.
HOT GIMMICK Vol. 1 was a total surprise to me, a challenging and disturbing story of a young girl navigating the suffocating caste system of a company housing complex. Miki Aihara is telling a story that wouldn’t be out of place next to the novels of Thomas Hardy or the Bronte sisters, with a sensitive heroine struggling to maintain her dignity in a world where she has no power. That heroine is Hatsumi, a 16-year-old who finds herself under the thumb of a cruelly manipulative young man as she tries to protect the reputation of her sister and family. Ryoki, the son of the venomous queen bee of the complex, uses his gifts of intelligence, wealth, and status to torture Hatsumi. Whether due to an ingrained sense of superiority or some more serious flaw in his nature, he seems unable to help himself. Hatsumi, due to her basic decency and insecurity, can’t seem to stop him, even as her feelings blossom for a childhood friend, Azusa, a pin-up model. She’s in an impossible position, largely because of the placidity that the hothouse environment of the complex has imposed on her. Despite her best intentions and an innate sense of right and wrong, Hatsumi’s first response seems to be to sublimate her own desires. It would be horribly frustrating to read if it weren’t so fascinating in its cultural context. Instead of appearing spineless, Hatsumi is entirely believable, sympathetic, and fascinating. HOT GIMMICK isn’t a title I’m eager to devour; its themes are too troubling for that. But I’ll definitely be picking up other volumes.
So what a pleasure it was to find a loopy palate cleanser in SGT. FROG Vol. 1. Sergeant Keroro, the alien frog of the title, has come to Earth to conquer it. As menacing alien presences go, he’s undermined a bit by his Muppet-like appearance and devotion to Gundam model sets. His mission compromised, he finds himself somewhere between prisoner and pet of the Hinata family, comprised of kindly nerd Fuyuki and bossy older sister Natsume. In a refreshing twist, mom Aki is delighted by the addition to the household, to Fuyuki’s relief and Natsume’s horror. See, Aki is a manga editor, and she’s thrilled to have such an obvious source of inspiration under her own roof. In this volume, the cast expands to include the borderline bi-polar pair of the devoted Private Tamama and his human captor Momoko, who’s nursing an obsessive crush on Fuyuki. Throw in a few ghosts and an alien warrior princess and you’ve got a grab bag of manga stereotypes, but creator Mine Yoshizaki’s touch is so lighthearted and energetic that everything ends up getting turned on its head. The chapters race along with a reckless eventfulness that verges on attention deficit disorder. Charming and hilarious. I love it.
So, what should I try next?