Monthly Archives: January 2010

Oishinbo – Izakaya: Pub Food

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By Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Big Comic Spirits. Released in North America by Viz.

Ah, the final volume of Oishinbo Viz has planned. It’s been a great ride. I’ve certainly learned a lot more about food. And this volume is filled with little gems that make this series what it is.

One thing it doesn’t have, however, is a battle between Yamaoka and his father, Yuzan. I have to admit I’m almost relieved, as seeing those two screaming at each other can be very trying. Still, the battles were always exciting, and notably, in the ones we saw over here, our heroes lost most of them. It was very telling that youth does NOT beat experience in this manga most of the time.

The original manga is 103 volumes and still running, so Viz decided to release some volumes from Shogakukan’s reprints in Japan, which collect them into volumes separated by theme. (This particular reprint is Volume 12 in Japan.) This means that we’ve been treated to scattershot characterization, as we move from Yamaoka and Kurita being new colleagues on their paper to love rivalries to their marriage to their children without actually seeing a proposal, wedding, or birth.

However, even if the focus is always the food, we do still care about the characters, and we get some lovely final chapters here. One part I particularly liked was in a chapter dealing with Yamaoka getting offered a big job managing the food division of a multinational – one that comes with the string of his having to marry Mariko, who is Yuko’s rival for most of the first 45 volumes.

He is rather startled by this, and even more startled when a crushed Yuko (who is out on a date with Yamaoka’s own rival) suggests it would be good for his career if he married Mariko. We then cut to a shot of Yamaoka, Yuko, and the rival all looking depressed and upset, but (of course) not saying anything. Luckily, Yamaoka uses sardines to show that he would not feel right being handed a major food division just like that.

Another chapter takes place just after Yuko has delivered twin babies. She and Yamaoka are discussing naming them, and decide to split the name choices between them. It’s a surprise to see Yamaoka take this so seriously – but then, Japan places far more emphasis on a good name being absolutely necessary for a child’s development than the West would. Naming a child is serious business. Naturally, there’s a brief fight, but after some nice deep-fried oysters the children are named and all is well.

As you can see from those previous two examples, no matter how much characterization there may be, it’s all about the food. This volume is devoted to food related to the ‘izakaya’, the pub-like establishments seen all over Japan. They generally have more filling food than most regular old bars in Japan, but the food tends to be simple and uncomplicated, the better to reward a drunk salaryman after a long day.

And in a nice callback to a previous volume, we end the series with sake, as a young actor is having difficulty getting the right expression when he drinks sake on the set and needs Yamaoka to show him what the true joy of sake at an izakaya is like.

I’m very pleased that this series was brought over here, and even though it’s finished the format is such that Viz could do future volumes if they so choose (hint: sales would help this along). There are 48 reprint “a la carte” volumes in Japan, so they aren’t exactly running out of material. In the meantime, these volumes are an excellent overview of one of the most popular manga in Japan.

Sunshine Sketch Volume 4

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By Ume Aoki. Released in Japan as “Hidamari Sketch” by Houbunsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Sunshine Sketch is very good at what it does. It wants to be a cute and funny slice-of-life 4-panel comic about high school students at an art school, and that’s exactly what it is.

It’s certainly cute. The characters are stereotypes, but that’s not necessarily a drawback as long as an artist uses them well. Miyako, for example, is the spunky, energetic girl of the group, but can also be obnoxious when the situation requires it, or the spacey one, and of course it’s pointed out by the author that she’s the smartest and most talented of the group, despite her personality.

We do get two new characters in this volume, as the year passes and our heroes move up a grade. The new first years are Nori, who’s a computer girl who seems to be another ‘straight man’ character, and Nazuna, who is in the ‘normal’ track (she went to the school as it’s close to home, as opposed to all the others in the manga who are art students) and seems to be low self-confidence girl. Hopefully she will get more than that, as Yuno’s low self-confidence is generally enough for me.

It’s also got some good humor. Nothing here will make you laugh out loud, or even snort, but most of the gags will make you smile, either at the characters or in recognition. One of my favorite gags involved Yuno, our protagonist, procrastinating about what art track she wants to choose for her second year. She puts off making a decision by rearranging her entire apartment. The final gag shows her waking blearily the following morning, moving to get out of bed – and slamming into a wall, as she’d moved her bed.

This isn’t an Okazu guest review, but I would be remiss if I did not mention the yuri tease that the artist is now putting in a bit more. The final part of this volume is a non-4-panel extra comic going into Sae’s ‘rival’ Natsume, and how she met Sae. It’s pretty clear she was crushing immediately, and a combination of that and jealousy of Hiro led to her becoming what she is today. Likewise, Sae and Hiro get the occasional suggestion, notably when Sae says meeting Hiro for the first time, she thought Hiro was like a sugar candy. She says this with a huge blush, and the landlady is in the foreground with a “just kiss already!” expression of annoyance on her face.

Of course, there is one big problem here, and it makes it hard for me to unreservedly recommend this series. The art. I am used to the typical younger than they look moe style by now, but Sunshine Sketch really pushes the envelope. Its characters already look superdeformed, and then they have a further SD form that simply looks as if they were squashed by an anvil. And they really do look quite young. When Miyako is sometimes drawn relatively normally, and we see her substantial chest, it jars with the typical ‘7-year-old squishy face’ we get the rest of the manga. It also means when the author does try to draw sex appeal, it becomes very creepy. See: the cover of this volume for an example.

But if you can get past the moe-overload art, Sunshine Sketch is a good example of what it’s trying to be. Cute, fluffy, funny, and with the occasional life lesson.

S.A. Volume 14

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By Maki Minami. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume of Special A has, in many ways, the same issues that Love Com Volume 16 did in my previous review. The couples have mostly gotten together, and we’re mostly stringing things along until the editor says “OK, you can end it now.” This means that there are some plot twists that seem obvious and unnecessary.

Enter Iori Tokiwa, the new “number Two” and rival to Kei for Hikari’s affections. Of course, we know he doesn’t have a chance in hell, but that’s OK, because he’s not there to make us believe Hikari might choose someone else. He’s there to make Kei go insane as he bonds with Hikari. Iori and Hikari share a lot of the same interests, and seeing the “drive to succeed” that Iori has reminds you that this is one thing that Kei definitely lacks.

Finn is still around as well, but Finn at least brings a bit more to the table. Her identity is still a secret to everyone except Ryu, and she’s also clearly fallen in love with Ryu, leading to a nasty rivalry with the twins. This chapter was actually pretty good, showing how a deep family bond (which is what Ryu and the twins have, despite not being related) can be fractured all too easily by newcomers. The way Ryu solved the problem was absolutely perfect.

And then there’s Hikari, our clueless heroine. She’s probably the reason I enjoyed this volume more than Love Com, as I simply enjoy watching her be dense. She goes way past other clueless heroines on the dense-o-meter, reaching some of the highest levels I’ve ever seen. Great Hikari moments in this volume include seeing how much she loves to study (again, something Kei simply doesn’t really do with her), and the last contest between her and Kei, which she throws and then demands Kei tell her to stay away from Iori.

Kei won’t do this, of course. He can be a frustratingly smug hero at times (witness his caveman-like entrance into Iori’s apartment and forced kiss earlier in the volume), but he is much better at self-analysis than Hikari is, and notes that he won’t ruin her budding friendship because of his own jealousy. He also gets a rare instance of misreading Hikari in this volume, where he thinks she was offended by the aforementioned forced kiss (she was merely happy, but communicating poorly, as she always does).

Akira and Tadashi fair the worst. They’re the simplest couple, and were the first to hook up, so they now get almost nothing to do at all.

Special A is still fun, but there’s an air of ‘what the hell can I do to mark time next?’ to these last couple of volumes. The series ends with Volume 17, though, so perhaps we’ll be seeing the endgame showing up soon.