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The past week or so I've been getting back into reading manga. I never stopped, but I have only been keeping up with a single manga - Sono Bisque Doll (My Dress-up Darling). I don't read much else, but I started reading more, as a way to get myself out of my office.
// Author disclaimer: I get a bit rambly - this isn't the most insightful write-up. Just was some fun I was having using my new writing setup!
Or "Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun", is a comedy manga parodying off of the shoujo manga tropes. It's a 4 panel comedy much like Azumanga, Wasteful Days of Highschool Girls, and Kaguya Love Is War - and it's romance adjacent - so it was right up my alley. The plot synopsis is:
> "The titular Nozaki-kun is a shoujo manga-ka. His biggest fan, and secret admirer Sakura gets roped into becoming an assistant for him. And the manga follows these two, Nozaki's other assistants, and their classmates as they try and balance making manga with highschool romance."
But like I said, being a parody, its heightened to the extreme, and the stories play off common genre tropes and make for good comedy.
I was recommended the anime online and gave it a shot and loved it. It's absurd and the characters are all lovable. It honestly stayed fairly true to the manga as well, so it made starting to read it much easier (sorta) at least gave a foundation for each character which helps (since it has quite a few unique cast members).
I seldom watch anime, reality I seldom watch TV or movies - so when I do it's usually if I am REALLY enjoying it and if I can overcome the mental barrier of commiting to a show. I tend to fall off of animes I find are "mediocre" or "fine" - and it can be a chore to continue (cough cough 86 cough). I tend to click more with 4-koma (4 panel) mangas and their anime adaptations since they tend to be short vignettes and help keep my attention. And for comedies it means the stories don't drag too much.
I am reading the official Square-Enix publication - which has only released up to Volume 13. At over 120 issues and thousands of chapters, I can firmly say this is an easy 9/10 from me. For a silly romance comedy it's managed, for me, to keep my laughing and staying fresh. While if you drew out the plot from page 1 to page 2000 it'd be well... that dot. But like a cartoon sitcom, sometimes having little fun stories that don't expand some grander plot is a lot of fun.
Since my rating of 9/10 has no context I'll maybe give a bit more context: The anime adaptation in my opinion is a must watch - and may be the best place to start - but if you're even remotely familiar with Shoujo mangas, enjoy slice of life, and especially if you like romances I can't recommend this enough - most of all if you're into ridiculous parody comedies. This is THE parody for slice of life romances. I'd say it's what One Punch Man is to the action shounen, or Gurren to Mechas, this is that for romance. It takes every trope exaggerates it and knows how to play with them so well.
Part of what I really enjoy with this manga is the cast. It's a tight cast with 7 main characters that have been present since basically the first volume:
Nozaki-kun and Sakura-chan (our main characters)
Mikoshiba (and his Visual Novels and figurines)
Hori senpai and Kashima (are they? aren't they?)
Seo senpai and Wakamatsu (is Waka okay?!)
If I had to give my favorite couple I'd have to go with Seo and Waka. While the entire main cast is hilarious and has amazing moments, these two always get me, and have probably the closest thing to an actual romance going on. Most are either one sided (Sakura, Ryosuke) or well whatever is going on with Hori and Kashima
Something about a dopey just love struck boy with a complicated set of emotions and a senpai that doesn't know how to show their affection - it's comedy gold.
But that's what I like the most - each romance has its own unique feel, that is relatable in some way - even when exaggerated.
The art and dialogue does an amazing job making you care so much and WANT the romances to finally happen! But at the same time the comedy keeps you coming back and even though it never gets realized - there are still meaningful progress and changes to where it stays fresh.
The anime focuses far more on Sakura and Nozaki but the manga balances everyone really nicely.
I'd compare it to the silliness of Azumanga and the balanced rotating cast of Wasteful Days of Highschool Girls. But don't let these comparisons give any impression of this being a "cute girls doing cute things" - this cast is roughly balanced perfectly, and focuses more on the handsome men than the women.
Something I've noticed is more and more lately, I've found myself connecting more with female created manga and animes. These comedies bring a female perspective, even with this being published in a shounen magazine, and same with Sono Bisque Doll (which gives off mega sapphic vibes) - you still feel like you're viewing things from the lens of a female - which I like!
// disclaimer: please always take caution inserting queerness where it has not been officially stated or is canon. Metaphors can break down and actually damage peoples perception and cause more trouble than it's worth. That said this has just enough canon queerness and it's a bit of fun to try and apply real-world queer identities into an older (early 2010s) manga.
So, like a good queer person, it's my duty to pick out anything remotely queer in a piece of media:
Kashima, in canon, is a cross-dressing tomboy. But she is our school prince, and the model for Nozaki-kun's main character (male) in his manga. And that may just be it? You could probably make a case for being gender fluid, non-binary/agender (though she's comfortable being called a girl it seems), demiboy. As she presents fairly masculine, and its been made the case most of her feminine presentation is for others, less herself (her skirt).
In manga most often a person who is queer is bucketed as a crossdresser, so its not surprising a manga that started a decade ago isn't pushing boundaries with firmly declaring a character as trans or anything firm in the lgbtqia+ space (especially since Japan isn't the most broadly forward with these things (in my limited experience)).
But I do enjoy having a character that not only is queer, but who is very okay with queerness. A running gag is she misunderstands Hori senpai and his discussions around the shoujo manga - thinking he desires to be a princess. And not only is he her crush (sorta?) but shes fully onboard to help him realize his dream. (For clarity: the joke here is not that he wants to be a girl, but she totally misread the situation - rarely, if ever, is gender really the butt of the joke, nor Kashima's cross dressing - the joke is her aloofness) The closest we get to her gender being the joke are misunderstandings were she is believed to be a boy (going off canon - she is a girl) leading to people assume she's somones boyfriend leading to jealousy or just another misunderstanding (its less that SHE is a BOY but more her being mistook as male leads to the misunderstanding as most characters are canon straight).
Spoilers for Sono Bisque Doll (My Dress-up Darling) up-to chapter 86. (further than the official US translations).
This manga hits a similar itch for me. It's charming, funny, about a niche topic (cosplay, where Nozaki-kun is a manga-ka)
This has been dragging as it's based in arcs with a linear story. Time progresses in this manga, at a snails pace. And with a semi-monthly release schedule (barring breaks) each arc can take up to a year or so - meaning we're reading chapters that don't make any progress.
A 4-koma inherently avoids this level of "that's it? nothing happened!" because by nature - nothing really DOES happen. But I cannot judge too much since I read most of this manga in volumes so I wasn't waiting by the computer each month for its release.
But Sono Bisque also has crossdressing/queer-ish characters - which is fun. And can be quite sapphic at times (without being too lewd). And taps into the eyes of a female anime fan a bit which is nice. I'd recommend it if you're into cosplay - but take your time reading it, since if you catch-up it's a LONG wait. The anime adaptation was good!
So this was a bit tangent-y - sorry about that! I don't think I've ever written a review of non-music media. I have no one else to talk to about this stuff so I figured I'd write something up here for anyone interested.
If you're curious definitely check out the anime - it might still be on Netflix. It really captures the tone (FYI - I watched in Japanese w/ subs so I can't speak to any dubs (and I did not watch it on netflix so IDK if they did their own subs) of the manga. Then grab some volumes and go from there! The covers most of the main parts from volumes 1-4ish (could be wrong - but at least 1-3). I did have a bit of struggle rereading what I had seen but it's not 100% coverage so there are still fresh jokes!
So if you see the volumes in store, give it a skim! This is likely in my top 5 non-gundam anime/manga series.
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