Last week, a copy of Cromartie High School Vol. 4 (by Eiji Nonaka, ADV) accidentally wound up in my reserves. It was a slow week, so I let it ride. After giving the first volume a quick browse, I wasn’t really motivated to pick it up, though I’d heard good things about it.
What an odd, odd book. It’s absurd and utterly deadpan, and it very rarely makes much sense, but it doesn’t really seem to need to. Robots? A gorilla? An angry horse? A guy who may or may not be Freddie Mercury? Everything just seems to blend in without much comment, creating an atmosphere that’s discordant and weirdly relaxing at the same time.
It isn’t a consistently great book, in my opinion. At points, it isn’t much better than the fight manga it parodies. But the highs are insanely so, like when two thugs talk about thinking globally and acting locally while mucking out a stall. And it’s almost always likable.
So I’ll chalk this one up as a happy accident and keep Cromartie High School in reserve. A little pointless, rambling absurdity is a good thing every now and then.
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It’s a good thing I’ve found another regular title, because it looks like one of my favorites, Kindaichi Case Files, has fallen off of Tokyopop’s publishing roster. I got an e-mail pointing out that there was no next volume listed on the Tokyopop site. A subsequent e-mail to Tokyopop got this response:
“Thanks for writing! We will take your suggestion into consideration! However, we currently have no plans to release that title, sorry! But you never know! Please keep your eyes open on www.TOKYOPOP.com for a list of our latest releases!”
So it looks like the extra-thick “Playing the Fool” will be the last installment we’ll see for the foreseeable future. I believe this would qualify as a bummer.
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So once again it’s up to David Taylor and Immelda Alty to lift the spirits of the manga faithful. Their Love Manga Advent Competition begins today and runs through Dec. 24.