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Boy TrouBLe 2
4 years ago
General
Ever fallen -- I mean really fallen -- for someone totally out of your league? If so, you'll understand the achingly funny appeal of GO FOR IT, NAKAMURA!, a one-off manga written and drawn by Syundei (Seven Seas, 2018). Maybe you were never like Nakamura -- a closeted, socially inept gay teenager who finds it easier to talk to his pet octopus than to other people -- but it's easy to sympathize with him, seeing him obsessed with a cute boy in his class. Hirose is outgoing, athletic, popular, and barely aware that Nakamura exists, and for all the confident smooth talk in the timid Nakamura's imagination, his pathetic RL attempts to get close to Hirose invariably end in public humiliation.
Maybe this is one of those comics best appreciated by those who've been there, but who hasn't been there? The author never even bothers to inform us what Hirose's sexual orientation is, not that it matters. This manga isn't about romance, it's about the fact that even a loser like Nakamura doesn't have to be alone. Love and friendship are wherever you make room for them to grow. Don't let me downplay Syundei's drawings: they are hilarious.
When I say that Natsuki Kizu's GIVEN, VOL. 1 (SuBLime, 2020) is pure soap opera, I'm not putting it down -- giving readers what they've seen several dozen times over is the lifesblood of comics, after all. Here, it's the drama that arises when a student rock trio is disrupted by the arrival of an otherworldly vocalist who captures the heart of the group's hotheaded guitarist, but it's the style of the storytelling that's everything, from Kizu's masterly pen work to her artfully naturalistic dialogue to the double page spreads where some amazing music is being played and sung in the reader's imagination. It's as if this manga was conceived and executed as the script and storyboards for an anime series, right down to the fanservice shots of guitarist Uenoyama's clothing-averse older sister. In fact, GIVEN has already been adapted into an anime, which I look forward to seeing (and hearing) someday. But again, a good series doesn't have to be original; it can follow its well-worn serial path to the point of predictability if it's done with stylishness, and stylishness is what GIVEN has in spades.
Nagisa Furuya's MY SUMMER OF YOU, VOL. 1 (Kodansha Comics, 2021) is the slow-burning story of two boys who are so into movies that they agree to go on a pilgrimage to three (fictional) film sites. Wataru is surprised, but not distressed, to learn that Saeki, the hottest guy in class, is (inexplicably) into him as well, but as long as it's agreed they're just friends, there's no problem, right?
Yeah, right. This story takes its time to get to where we know it's going, but that's okay with me. A crucial scene on page 80 has our two leads in the briefest of exchanges:
"This is plenty for me, anyway."
"Yeah."
They're talking about a meal in a restaurant, and about so much more than that. It's like poetry. It's moments like this that make an overcalculated soap opera like GIVEN feel like it's trying too hard. I like the artwork, too: Furuya's panels are attractive, efficient, and carefully detailed when necessary. It's easy to linger over them.
https://www.amazon.com/Go-Nakamura-Syundei/dp/1626928878/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1NKHY2C71HXF5&dchild=1&keywords=go+for+it+nakamura&qid=1635369937&qsid=147-3421416-2144051&s=books&sprefix=go+for+%2Cstripbooks%2C104&sr=1-1&sres=1626928878%2CB092H92QY4%2C164275756X%2C1975324358%2C1642750603%2C1632367041%2C1974715876%2C1642753289%2C1944937307%2C1645051986%2C1947215469%2C197471182X%2C1421523213%2C1645058581%2CB09H362ZRR%2C1626928886&srpt=ABIS_BOOK
https://www.amazon.com/Given-Vol-1-Yaoi-Manga-ebook/dp/B0849K81JH/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635369992&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-You-My-Vol/dp/1646512049/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1QT7DYFRJW0P8&dchild=1&keywords=my+summer+of+you&qid=1635370049&qsid=147-3421416-2144051&s=books&sprefix=my+summer%2Cstripbooks%2C100&sr=1-1&sres=1646512049%2C1646512448%2CB09F8T6VQT%2C1645059588%2CB09K1TWQHD%2C0517885565%2C1732596379%2CB09K1TTXDB%2C1982129476%2CB09K281X4Y%2CB09JVM2YL3%2C0241470714%2C9388369882%2CB094FHXTRD%2CB00L1PXKU0%2CB08FKLS6X7&srpt=ABIS_BOOK
Maybe this is one of those comics best appreciated by those who've been there, but who hasn't been there? The author never even bothers to inform us what Hirose's sexual orientation is, not that it matters. This manga isn't about romance, it's about the fact that even a loser like Nakamura doesn't have to be alone. Love and friendship are wherever you make room for them to grow. Don't let me downplay Syundei's drawings: they are hilarious.
When I say that Natsuki Kizu's GIVEN, VOL. 1 (SuBLime, 2020) is pure soap opera, I'm not putting it down -- giving readers what they've seen several dozen times over is the lifesblood of comics, after all. Here, it's the drama that arises when a student rock trio is disrupted by the arrival of an otherworldly vocalist who captures the heart of the group's hotheaded guitarist, but it's the style of the storytelling that's everything, from Kizu's masterly pen work to her artfully naturalistic dialogue to the double page spreads where some amazing music is being played and sung in the reader's imagination. It's as if this manga was conceived and executed as the script and storyboards for an anime series, right down to the fanservice shots of guitarist Uenoyama's clothing-averse older sister. In fact, GIVEN has already been adapted into an anime, which I look forward to seeing (and hearing) someday. But again, a good series doesn't have to be original; it can follow its well-worn serial path to the point of predictability if it's done with stylishness, and stylishness is what GIVEN has in spades.
Nagisa Furuya's MY SUMMER OF YOU, VOL. 1 (Kodansha Comics, 2021) is the slow-burning story of two boys who are so into movies that they agree to go on a pilgrimage to three (fictional) film sites. Wataru is surprised, but not distressed, to learn that Saeki, the hottest guy in class, is (inexplicably) into him as well, but as long as it's agreed they're just friends, there's no problem, right?
Yeah, right. This story takes its time to get to where we know it's going, but that's okay with me. A crucial scene on page 80 has our two leads in the briefest of exchanges:
"This is plenty for me, anyway."
"Yeah."
They're talking about a meal in a restaurant, and about so much more than that. It's like poetry. It's moments like this that make an overcalculated soap opera like GIVEN feel like it's trying too hard. I like the artwork, too: Furuya's panels are attractive, efficient, and carefully detailed when necessary. It's easy to linger over them.
https://www.amazon.com/Go-Nakamura-Syundei/dp/1626928878/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1NKHY2C71HXF5&dchild=1&keywords=go+for+it+nakamura&qid=1635369937&qsid=147-3421416-2144051&s=books&sprefix=go+for+%2Cstripbooks%2C104&sr=1-1&sres=1626928878%2CB092H92QY4%2C164275756X%2C1975324358%2C1642750603%2C1632367041%2C1974715876%2C1642753289%2C1944937307%2C1645051986%2C1947215469%2C197471182X%2C1421523213%2C1645058581%2CB09H362ZRR%2C1626928886&srpt=ABIS_BOOK
https://www.amazon.com/Given-Vol-1-Yaoi-Manga-ebook/dp/B0849K81JH/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635369992&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Summer-You-My-Vol/dp/1646512049/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1QT7DYFRJW0P8&dchild=1&keywords=my+summer+of+you&qid=1635370049&qsid=147-3421416-2144051&s=books&sprefix=my+summer%2Cstripbooks%2C100&sr=1-1&sres=1646512049%2C1646512448%2CB09F8T6VQT%2C1645059588%2CB09K1TWQHD%2C0517885565%2C1732596379%2CB09K1TTXDB%2C1982129476%2CB09K281X4Y%2CB09JVM2YL3%2C0241470714%2C9388369882%2CB094FHXTRD%2CB00L1PXKU0%2CB08FKLS6X7&srpt=ABIS_BOOK
