Suzu “Mikke” Miyake was the #1 cabaret girl at her place…but she gave it up. Instead of living that life, she spent all her savings and moved to Ginza to be with the man of her dreams, Takuya, and run a bar. However, she discovers something’s wrong. First, the name of the bar wasn’t changed — it was supposed to be called Mikke — second, an old man she’s never met before follows her into said bar; third, none of the renovations she requested were made.
Fourth? Takuya’s not there!
Worse than all of that? Mikke meets another girl that was also promised the bar by Takuya, Shoko Amemiya, and she has worked as a bartender already. All of which to say — they clash, from personalities to both of their dreams. Shoko wants to run a popular bar, while Mikke aims to create one of the coziest in Ginza. However, after Mikke proves her worth with a worthwhile cocktail, they both work together and watch over the bar until Takuya comes back. So their bar “Towser” is open, though establishing a presence AND staying away from predators will become a big challenge for the two.
Immediately you can tell Takanashi did her research on the types of boozy drinks for The Watch Cats of Ginza. From the amount of detail of the bottles to the descriptions, it’s definitely cool to get my Drops of God fix in a manner like this. Now after reading volume 1, I wonder if there’s too much information. Like maybe there were instances where a shorter explanation for the meaning behind a bottle was needed. However, I think it’ll vary, as learning about what drink is good to order to show love, and what not to order instead was neat.
What definitely stands out are the characters, and they’re pretty fantastic. You have the bubbly but stubborn Mikke, who just wants to live her life out in Ginza, paired with the determined Shoko, later dubbed “Amesho” by Mikke. Their initial meeting was prickly, but not totally unfair. Both were told a lie by someone they trusted, but why should either of them give up rights to the bar after they sacrificed a lot? It ultimately was settled in a manner that made sense, and them working together at the bar is fine.
What makes it better is how they…don’t mesh. With Mikke’s skills as a cabaret girl and Shoko’s bartender past, it’s a combination that immediately doesn’t work. Mikke’s carefree personality is at odds with Shoko’s, who has something she wants to prove. It’s not just to Takaya — but to dudes who said there could never be a female bartender. In addition, they now have to deal with the locals of Ginza in an offbeat location, which means meeting sketchy characters who might want a drink. Like an old man who wants to collect his rent (spoiler: Takaya’s but now Mikke/Shoko’s rent!). Or a bald mafia looking dude who has superstitions when it comes to betting on horses. Or two guys fighting for a job and their boss’ affection. It’s a mix of stories that challenges the two, and how they deal with it is great to read.
I’m not the biggest fan of the art. It’s certainly passable and I do like how Mikke is designed, but some parts look pretty awkward. The designs of the bottles/drinks are good, but the characters just don’t always look right. In the end though, it’s not a huge deal-breaker, but it is unappealing. Despite that, this is a fairly good read, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend you read this, especially if you’re up for two talented women running a business.
But it’s hard to recommend a manga where the localization is this atrocious.
Two things: One, the other Media Do titles I’ve read and reviewed, The Love and Creed of Sae Maki and Kasane no Tao, had a fairly strong localization. So it’s not like all of the titles the company has put out is horribly bad.
However, when I did my Media Do manga tour series, The Watch Cats of Ginza was one of the ones with the bad localization, and I was prepared to skip it. But, and now we’re onto Number Two: I brought this and volume 2 during a sale the company had. It was cheap enough so I finally went for it.
If they expect people to purchase something where the editing or quality control is poor enough to let dozens (!) of repeated bubbles go unchanged and expect people to pay for it, maybe charge a $1. Maybe less. It’s that bad.
It’s not just the same lines being repeated. There are misspellings, some odd lettering, some odd flows, and there’s not a single chapter that feels mistake free. When that happens, a bit of doubt creeps into your mind: “Like, what words went untranslated or left out?” “Is this character saying the correct thing?” Now, I’m not the sharpest when it comes to certain things like this. It generally has to be obvious for me to tell if a character is saying something wrong. And sure, 226 pages is a lot, so mistakes can happen…though for the manga industry that’s kinda a standard page count. But across the board the mistakes are careless.
Simply put, it’s not a good look to put out a work that’s riddled with errors and expect people to buy it. Even for cheap. Furthermore, when you see some of the good stuff that is out, how can Media Do put this out there and give it a pass? I can only fear reading volume 2, which is disappointing. I think this is a fairly strong read, and worth a shot. But I honestly can’t recommend it without telling you that this localization is awful. From there, you’ll have to decide for yourself if you want to give this a try.