The Amazon kindle store is far from becoming the Netflix of Manga, but from time to time it offers free samples of whole volumes (to make you want to buy the rest of the series). If you have a Japanese kindle account, it is worthwhile checking out the kindle store occasionally. The last time I did, I downloaded almost 40 volumes for free, including really popular titles like “Anjin” (3 volumes), “Blame” and the two titles I review in this article.
As these downloads give me the chance to try out manga I would probably not start reading if I had to pay for them (there is no manga cafe I could go to either), I’m excited to see what I discover and I’ll try to update these kind of reviews throughout the year.
Inuyashiki Vol.1 – Oku Hiroya; 2014
After years of corporate servitude, Inuyashiki Ichirō who rather looks like the grandfather of his children, finally manages to buy a private home for himself and his family. The “dog mansion” (Inuyashiki), a typical middle class home, located behind a big, modern building owned by a successful mangaka (is that you, Oku?) meets with little enthusiasm. Then a stomach cancer diagnosis pushes the early aged salaryman into an existential abyss that makes early Walter White look like an enviable fellow. Luckily, with the help of alien intervention, Inuyashiki somehow turns into a cyborg superhero. So much for the premise.
There is something very ugly going on here, apart from Oku’s hideous art. It is that the impoverished and neglected elderly are played out against morally impoverished juveniles. Poor vs poor. Of course some of these social problems do have their roots in reality. In the manga we see a homeless man speaking in a northern dialect, a former worker, now jobless, and then there are young boys on a killing spree (“cockroach extermination”). Similar things can be read in “Tokyo Ueno Station” or “The Homeless go up in Flames”. But aren’t there greater enemies to fight?
Remember “Death Note” protagonist Yagami Light in his approach of killing criminals, but never addressing the structural causes of crime? These manga follow the same patterns as boulevard newspapers do and perpetuate a society which blames the weak. Who’d approve a manga about a victim of society with superpowers who actually fights against the cause of social injustice? Imagine that instead of aiming for petty criminals, Light would raise his pen against billionaires and war criminals. No, let’s slaughter the homeless, petty shoplifters and drug dealers. And schoolgirls. Lots of schoolgirls. But that is a whole other story.
Sorry, I got carried away, and as there are still 10 volumes of “Inuyashiki” I have to catch up to, which I probably will not do unless a manga cafe opens in my neighborhood, I cannot tell where this series will head for sure. Without doubt, this manga is a page-turner. Which is fine, but not enough for me.
One really nice touch was the introduction of the series antagonist, a psychopath and soon-to-be mass murderer. He cries when reading the newest chapter of “Wanpi” (“One Piece”) in Jump. Isn’t that how a member of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult introduced himself in Murakami Haruki’s “Underground” (” I cry when I watch Ghibli films”)?
Ijiranaide Nagatoro-san Vol. 1 – Nanashi; 2018.
After seeing the insane amount of passion otaku can put into spreading pornographic imagery past censorship laws this year in a certain chapter of a certain Jump series, I was quite hesitant to pick up this fanservice gag manga. The last genre title I read was “To Love-ru darkness”, and rest assured, this series is rather timid in comparison.
“Ijiranaide Nagatoro-san”, a manga I’ve seen several times in convenience stores when I still lived in Japan, relies for its first volume on the character dynamics between its two leads, nameless Senpai and Nagatoro-san seen on the cover. The timid Senpai is an aspiring manga artist who first meets Nagatoro in the library where he wants to work on his drafts. He sees a group of four girls loudly gossiping and laughing while the library is unattended. Obviously Senpai hates these kinds of girls and tries to ignore them, assured that they will never seek contact with the likes of him. However, Nagatoro-san unexpectedly breaks the fourth wall of otaku self-isolation. From there on she continues to suddenly appear in front of him, making fun of him with exposing Senpai to unwanted sexual arousal (yes, definitely unwanted). For example, she writes her name 長瀞 with her finger on his shirt, almost causing him to have a heart attack. In another chapter she suggestively washing his hands (WTF). I’m waiting for the chapter in which she brushes his teeth. Or probably I’m not.
This manga tries to excuse its constant horniness by the fact that Nagatoro is completely acting on her own will, and Senpai is just the victim of this “sexual harassment” he starts to enjoy. Of course, all of this is just a softcore SM-fantasy. And it works surprisingly well, mostly because of Nagatoro’s original character design.
Nagatoro is what I would call the rare type of a black-haired Yankii. Yankii’s are considered vulgar and promiscuous, many dye their hair blonde and tan their skin. Hidden behind the sadistic mask, she is also a tsundere-type, reminiscent of Nana from the manga “To Love-ru” I mentioned before. More traits: A smug smile, hair clips, a tieless school uniform no socks. Why do I even mention this?
Ever since I read Azuma Hiroki’s philosophical study “Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals” I almost unconsciously dissect popular manga characters. According to Azuma, otaku creativity is based on the assembly of well known character traits in new combinations to create a fresh character or story that can be reused as a new trope. If you think that’s schematic, well, that is exactly how Otaku in Japan talk about the 2d-realm. In this way, I really appreciated Nagatoro-san for developing known tropes into a new, unique character.
Dokugokan 