Because absolutely no one asked for it…more thoughts on manga MD-i is bringing over!
Fire-Hot Aunt (Oi!! Obasan), by Katsuki Izumi (Serialized in 2011 in Monthly Shounen Champion)
The main gist of Fire-Hot Aunt is that due to ridiculous family circumstances, 15 year old Toru has an aunt who is the same age as him. Like I said, ridiculous family circumstances. Toru thought he could get away from her after being doted upon her while growing up, but soon discovers her attending his school in Tokyo. Why? Because she claims she just wants to go to the same school as him.
As it turns out however, Sugako, the aunt, might have had another reason to come all the way down from Chiba. That may or may not have anything to do with her being called “Medusa, The Legendary Monster” or “The Evilest of the Worst in the history of Chiba.”
In trying to figure out what this manga reminds me of, I think of Gintama and its obnoxious humor and delinquent works such as Great Teacher Onizuka (though Shonan Junai Gumi might fit here) and Yankee-kun to Megane-chan. Fire-Hot Aunt attempts to combine the two, and I think it kinda pulls it off? The problem is however this was localized, which ranges from passable to “why?” Maybe someone can inform me on this, but, uh, high school students are “first-graders?” THINK you meant to say first-year. Some parts of the dialogue feel lacking while others are fine. So in some areas it works, in others not so much.
I think this is solid. Maybe it can get better from here since the art works for a comedy, and there are some good jokes. You’re just gonna have to be careful with where the text goes.
Lemon Angel, by Jun Watabe (Serialized in 1997 in Weekly Young Jump)
The most I could gather from reading Lemon Angel (which I learned got an anime) is it stars a girl named Medaka Ogawa and her friends Rie and Satomi. The three are young high school girls learning about life — in this case, sex and kissing. The first chapter shows the main character masturbating, getting groped on the train, and getting felt up by her hot gym teacher that she admires. In other words, I don’t think there’s a central plot or storyline. It’s a slice of life involving girls learning about romance, but in a way that’s lewd as hell. Don’t you dare read this in public. Or…maybe at all? The art style by Watabe is enticing, but if this was intended to be a comedy, it’s not funny.
It’s probably not helped by the stiff, robotic like translations for most of the chapter — at one point I was confused at what was going on, which is probably not a good thing. So combine that with no central plot, you get a manga like this that’s nothing special. And with this translation/editing (and sometimes lettering) combo, it’s not worth your time.
Kasane no Tao (Kasane no Michi), by Ken Kawasaki, Techu Imatani (Serialized in 2010 in Manga Sunday)
This was the best manga I read out of the bunch this time. First, the negatives: this seems to be a theme with the stuff I’ve read so far from Media Do, but I can’t understand why the Japanese text is not removed:
Is it due to lack of time? To be “authentic”? The only thing I know is that it’s a waste of space, and detracts from the text. It’s been a while since I’ve read scanlations, but I don’t remember the JP text staying in even those. For something you’re selling to the general public, it’s gotta be way better than scanlations.
ALSO, I have no idea what happened to the print to digital conversion here:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in reading digital manga (Well, until I noticed it in this and Fire-Hot Aunt). It’s like the manga was graphically transferred and scanned on one of those graph notebooks you used in math class. There are 37 pages in this first chapter — all of them have this here. That’s pretty awful. The good news is if you read it on an app (I read it on ComiXology), you won’t notice this issue. I only noticed it because I wanted to grab some screenshots so I went to the web version. Yikes.
The only other issue with Kasane no Tao is the dialogue, which could be a big one for some. For me, I liked it a lot. The story is about tomboy Kasane (who dropped out of school because she hated the drama), her family’s dire financial situation, and her talent for golf. Her life changes when a famous golfer attends the place she works at and sees her skill. That golfer then tells her if she wants to make a lot of money, she’ll need to enter the world of pro golf.
In a weird twist, I feel this manga explains golf well for a first chapter. No, they didn’t actually get into the basics of the game, but how you’re swinging your club, the position, etc. It was really fascinating. Combine that with the personality of Kasane, who manages to keep it real (“I want to be rich!” when asked what she wants to be), I’m hooked. I think I want to read more of this. Really sucks the quality is lacking in key areas though.