By Seimu Yoshizaki. Released in Japan as “Kingyoya Koshoten” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ikki. Released in North America by Viz.
One of the things I’ve always liked about having a site like SigIkki is that it gives us a better sense of reading from a manga magazine. We’ve had this on and off in North America for years, but Ikki is not very much like Shonen Jump, which (at least in its Western incarnation) reads very much like variations on a basic shonen theme. Seinen titles especially have a wider variety, and magazines like Ikki which specialize in ‘alternative’ works even more so.
When things are collected into volumes, you obviously lose this feeling. This is why I suspect that gag strips like Bobobobo-bobobo do so poorly here – removed from the context of blessed relief after a bunch of serious Naruto and Bleach chapters, it just reads like 200 pages of screaming in your face. And I think that Kingyo Used Books may suffer similar issues away from Ikki.
The plot itself is no great shakes, being merely a slice-of-life series of vignettes based around a used manga bookstore that theoretically has anything you want. It’s very much like the fantasy legend of the shop that will sell you whatever you desire, but isn’t there the following day. Unlike that legend, though, Kingyo Used Books sticks around, and its sales aren’t as tinged with horror. Instead, we have a sales pitch, couched in very polite terms.
I’d say that this is an attempt to get more adult Japanese to accept that they can still read manga even when they’ve grown up (indeed, this is the exact plot of the first story), except that it runs in Ikki, a magazine that has a circulation so low that only hardcore adult manga fans would be reading it anyway. In essence, then, this is preaching to the converted, showing the reader that, yes, you can be completely obsessed with manga and still manage to have a normal, fulfilling life – there are few stereotypes here, with most of the cast looking handsome or pretty – indeed, the main otaku character, Shiba, seems to have girls hitting on him. (We still know very little about Natsuki. I hope she doesn’t become a tsundere.)
Incidentally, this is apparently the 2nd series set around this store, with a prequel having appeared in Ikki called Kingyoya Koshoten Suitouchou. I wonder if this sets up Natsuki working at the store, how she and Shiba met, etc. It’s about 3 volumes. This series Viz has licensed, by the way, is 9 and still running.
The premise of each chapter is the same. A person has a crisis of faith, winds up at the bookstore, finds a manga that reminds them of their dreams, and ends up feeling better and more fulfilled. At the end of the volume, we get a great write-up of the ‘featured’ manga for each chapter, most of which are at least a quarter of a century old or more. Don’t expect to find these in English soon, as the list reads like one of David Welsh’s License Request Day lists. Of the 7 titles featured, only Dr. Slump is out in North America, and that didn’t exactly set sales records on fire. It’s great to get the info, including publishers then and now, and I’m pleased that Viz is translating this faithfully.
Also, kudos to the licensors at Shogakukan for allowing the mangaka to mention any series she wants. Seeing Zetsubou-sensei and Hayate the Combat Butler’s constant censoring of their rival’s titles reminds you of the trouble merely mentioning other works, and it’s great seeing little credits showing something is a Shueisha or Akita Shoten title so that this isn’t just talking about Shonen Sunday or Big Comic stuff. Indeed, in Chapter 1 the reunion group mentions four old shonen manga – one each from Jump, Magazine, Sunday, and Champion.
The cover is quite pretty, though I don’t really care for the design of the back. I appreciate that there may not have been interstitial art for a back cover, and it helps to show the somewhat textbook feel that the series can occasionally get into, but that’s no excusing the fact that it’s still dull.
As a 200-page book, this is good but can get a bit similar, like eating donuts for every meal for 4 days. On the other hand, as a monthly chapter in Ikki magazine, coming in between the fantasy dystopia of Dorohedoro, the realistic struggling of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow, and the deconstructionist nightmare of Bokurano: Ours, it’s a relaxing breath of fresh air. I think when I get Volume 2 of this, I may read one chapter at a time, with a One Piece or Excel Saga in between. Cleansing the palatte, as it were.
