Gente Volume 1

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By Natsume Ono. Released in Japan by Ohta Shuppan, serialized in the magazine Manga Erotics F. Released in North America by Viz.

I enjoyed reading Ristorante Paradiso, the slice-of-Italian-life manga Viz released back in March, but at times it felt more like a series of snapshots. You got the feeling that there was a lot being left out in order to make Nicoletta and Claudio’s story be the primary focus. Likewise, after reading the flashback with Lorenzo and Gigi, I wanted to see more about the restaurant pre-Nicoletta, how the crew assembled and where they were before.

So did Natsume Ono, as we now get Gente, a 3-volume prequel to the series. Of course, that doesn’t mean that this is any more linear than its companion volume. Reading Gente is a bit like drifting from room to room at a party, picking up scraps of conversation as you go. Luckily, it’s a high-class party, and the people there are intriguing. We sense there will be change right from the ‘cast’ page at the start, which features several people we never met in Ristorante Paradiso.

And so we get an anthology of Gente short stories, which works fine. The volume starts slow, and it’s odd seeing Olga, the mother from RP, being treated so sympathetically here, but it works with the mood. Things pick up with a fascinating story of infidelity, filled with tension as you wait for things to break apart, which is oddly unrelieved as they don’t. Given Olga’s redemption in RP, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that not only one, but TWO questionable couples in this volume decide to stay together and give it another try. It makes for a lack of ‘big moments’, but feels good.

Gente reads well even if you haven’t read RP, but there are stories that reward people who know the previous story. We already know Vito, the bald guy with goatee from the restaurant, was married to a college student in the prior volume; now we see how it happened, with his running into his future wife at the gym. This was my favorite chapter of the volume, even if Vito seems a little too good to be true (but then, I am not this manga’s primary audience). I particularly liked how we were led to believe that he would be following an abusive husband downstairs to ‘give him a good talking to’, but in fact what happens is a real discussion, leading to a better result.

The volume wraps up with an outdoor picnic, as the 4 previous stories all tie together with the 5th, which writes out Lorenzo’s friend Marzio, who is leaving the restaurant due to a bad back. The sense that we’re getting snatches of a conversation is most intense here, when we’re at an actual party, but again the closest we get to a crisis is Claudio and his ex-wife meeting, and even that is merely a conversation.

If you like, well, things actually happening, this is not the manga for you. This is a manga about people talking to each other, and the action is minimal. Still, they’re likeable people, and there are many scenes here that show rather than tell, a nice level up from Ristorante Paradiso. If there’s a fault, it’s that things are a little *too* perfect here. It’s an idealized Italian world of attractive perfect men, and makes no bones about it being anything else. But I found it peaceful, relaxing and enjoyable, and want to read Volume 2.

School Rumble Vols. 14, 15 & 16

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By Jin Kobayashi. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Del Rey.

(Note: School Rumble is a series that has finished in Japan. It is very difficult for many fans, especially hardcore fans of the series, to avoid spoiling the ending. I am going to do my best to avoid revealing anything beyond the volumes I review here today, and I advise anyone making comments to do the same.)

Generally speaking, with a few exceptions pure shonen romantic comedy doesn’t do well here in North America. Be it comedy with occasional romance (such as School Rumble) or romance with occasional comedy (such as Strawberry 100%), the New York Times bestseller lists reach for shoujo series when they want romance, and the shonen tends to involve ninjas and vampires instead of wacky complications.

This is probably one reason why we’re seeing School Rumble in the 3-in-1 format, and it’s a shame, as it’s got a lot going for it. Its comedy is great, and the humor can come from anyone or anywhere. It has four ‘leads’, but anyone can carry a chapter or even an arc on their own, and does. Its cast is HUGE, leading to the aforementioned habits of anyone carrying a chapter. There’s an odd fantastical tone to it at times, meaning even MORE anything can happen (One girl is slightly telepathic, another telekinetic, but we usually only see that for comedy). And the author knows how to write a romantic kudzu plot, gradually giving one couple an edge, then another, keeping you reading avidly in an effort to find out just who everyone ends up with.

The series stars, supposedly, a cute and perky yet dim girl named Tenma Tsukamoto. Very early on, however, the spotlight is stolen by three others; hothead biker with a heart of gold Kenji Harima, rich and gorgeous yet grumpy tsundere Eri Sawachika, and Tenma’s meek and shy sister Yakumo. The kudzu romance is that Tenma loves Ouji Karasuma, a very quiet and weird young man in her class. Harima loves Tenma, to the point of obsession, and believes that anything anyone says to him in some way revolves around his getting her to know this. Eri and Yakumo both love Harima, mostly as, since his mind is utterly devoted to Tenma, he treats them as normal young girls and doesn’t hit on them.

After this, it’s almost enough to let the comedy write itself. These three volumes put the focus squarely on Harima’s relationship with Eri (Yakumo will get her turn later, the series balances them nicely). Harima doesn’t think before he does anything, for the most part, and when he does it’s mostly mistaken ideas about what Tenma would think of him, or what he can do for her. Meanwhile, Eri thinks far too much, trying to figure out Harima’s every little sullen gesture and noble defense, and getting extremely worked up about the whole thing. And then there’s the school trip to Kyoto, also being visited by a group of English high-schoolers on a foreign jaunt.

Most of these three volumes are devoted to tangling things even further for our three leads, or quiet revelations that add to our perception of them. The most intriguing was probably a flashback to Tenma and Yakumo’s childhood. Tenma is exactly the same as she is today, but Yakumo is quite different. Seeing her personality like this is very intriguing, and makes one wonder how she changed to become the shy and loving younger sister she is now. There are also occasional flashes of serious here and there. Tenma’s friend Mikoto (who appears on the cover) breaks up with her boyfriend of a few months, mostly as they simply didn’t connect. It’s refreshing to see a breakup in manga not be due to cheating or hideous backstory or some other trauma, but simply as it’s not working the way you thought it would. Likewise, we see Mikoto and Asou (the boy) afterwards, and their melancholic (yet not heartbroken) reaction to it all is very well handled.

There’s a lot going on here, and so much more I could cover. This is a fast-paced series, and in 3 volumes you get a lot going on. The regular chapters (each volume ends with several ‘side story’ omake chapters) do end on a big cliffhanger note, as it would appear that Eri has finally discovered Harima’s true love, and is very unhappy about it. Jin Kobayashi is excellent at keeping everyone on the edge of their seats, desperate to find out what happens next and how things will resolve. Of course, that will have to wait for the scheduling of Volumes 17-19 from Del Rey, which may be a bit. But I think it’s worth the wait to see more laughs and more horrible romantic misunderstandings.

Walter Lantz Cartoons Part 5: Knock Knock, Fair Today, Hysterical Highspots in American History, Woody Woodpecker, The Screwdriver

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It’s late 1940, and Walter Lantz has found a cartoon star that does OK, if not great – Andy Panda. Lantz is still trying other stars, though, knowing that Disney and Warners have several established superstars. He’s also helped along by the hiring of WB director Ben “Bugs” Hardaway to write for him, best known for being the creator of a prototype that wasn’t Bugs Bunny, but would, after several years, become a character given Hardaway’s nickname.

Ben was clearly very fond of the screwball rabbit he’d done for Warners, as the first Andy Panda he worked on featured a very similar insane screwball. Only instead of a rabbit, this one was a woodpecker. Andy (who is still a child, but has lost his cutesy widdle voice, thank God, and just sounds like a normal young cartoon boy) and his father are trying to relax at a cabin, but a relentless pecking is driving them nuts. It’s Woody, in his debut, and voiced by Mel Blanc. In these first few cartoons, Woody is less a character than a force of nature, being utterly insane and prone to hysterics. Andy’s poppa, of course, is from the slow burn school of anger, so you can imagine how well they get on. And Andy wanders through trying to put salt on Woody’s tail (my favorite gag is when Woody whips out a mug of beer to salt, then blows the foam in Andy’s face). In the end, the nuthouse comes to take Woody away, but they prove to be just as nutty as he is, gibbering and hopping madly about.

Two cartoons follow also clearly influenced by Warners, this time the Tex Avery school of spot gag travelogue. Both Fair Today (going around a county fair gags) and Hysterical Highspots in American History (newsreel parody of US history gags) are decent enough, but neither really reach out and grab you, and it’s clear that Lantz isn’t as comfortable with the formula Hardaway brought with him, and didn’t take to it like he did the insane Woody. I did note that the latter cartoon had a reference to the (peacetime) draft, showing we’re headed towards World War II.

Knock Knock got VERY good word of mouth, and not for Andy Panda or his pop. Lantz immediately started cranking out more Woodpecker cartoons, with the year 1941 featuring 3 more. I watched 2 here, one being the self-titled Woody Woodpecker, and the other the aptly named Screwdriver. Both trade on one basic plot: Woody is genuinely mentally unhinged. Warners, with Daffy Duck, almost immediately began toning him down after his initial appearance. Woody hasn’t hit that point yet.

In Woody Woodpecker, the forest animals are all half-disgusted, half-terrified of the insane bird, who already has his own theme song (“Everybody thinks I’m crazy! Yes sirree, that’s me, that’s me…”), and the Universal opening already has the ‘ha-ha-ha-HA-ha’ music with the logo. Eventually even Woody listens to their advice, and goes to see a fox psychiatrist. Sadly, the fox is a fox because Ben Hardaway likes bad puns, and is just as insane as the woodpecker. Seeing Woody battle a force equal (well, almost) to his own is a novelty, but you can see why most screwball cartoons have them go up against dumb guys or tough guys rather than equally crazy loons. The cartoon ends, as Knock Knock did, with the fox acting insane and jumping around.

The Screwdriver has Woody in his speed-happy jalopy trying to run from the long arm of the law, and is a better cartoon, inasmuch as the antagonist is a dumb guy (the cop trying to catch him for speeding), and it has more memorable gags. It’s seen far less often on TV, but that’s likely due to Woody’s racist impression of a Chinaman rickshaw driver towards the end. Woody sings a variation of his ‘crazy’ song again, and is still voiced by Mel Blanc. Best gag has him approaching a four-way stop, grabbing the arm of a blonde girl in another car who’s signaling a turn, and spinning her and her car around like a top. After leaving her dazed in the middle of the road, he drives off, commenting “That’s the dizziest blonde I ever went around with!” The cartoon ends with the cop (in jail) having gone insane, gibbering and jumping up and down. For the third Woody cartoon in a row. Get a new ending, guys.

Like Tex Avery with Bugs Bunny at first, Lantz knows he has a superstar at last, but is not quite sure what to do with him other than make the same cartoon with variations. And worse, Mel Blanc is signing an exclusive with Warners, and he’ll need a new voice for Woody. Not to mention the spot gag parodies didn’t take off. Maybe he should try cartoons based more around jazz – that’s worked in the past. We’ll see what he does next time…