A group of girls in school uniform sit in a circle… bending spoons. They stand in an circle, concentrating, they do classwork. They summon the alien ship, they rest. Then they do it all over again. In Class X, by Itou Hidemi, these girls are indeed special.
The narrative is told in a mostly silent pantomime, with few words, especially at the beginning. At first it almost seems like related, but unconnected scenarios. As the story evolves, we realize we are seeing a complete tale, one that will take on some sincerity, pathos and end with a surprisingly climax.
Yes, there is Yuri, two of the girls develop a romantic relationship in the style of a war-time couple who meet and connect in time to part, forever. It absolutely works.
The art is as you see on the cover, simple, almost childish, one girl’s polka-dotted underwear visible, as they stand in a circle.
This whole book was a surprise and a delight. Thanks to translator Jocelyne Allen of Brain vs Book, who turned me on to this obscure, but wonderfully astonishing story.
Ratings:
Art – Not to my taste, but meant to do a specific thing
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – 4
Yuri – 8
Overall – 9
This week was brought to you by the letter ‘X’. ^_^
This sounds like a really intriguing manga, both for its tone and art style. The art reminds me of a style you see in a self-published comics: deceptively “simple”, emotionally driven, but very aware of how comics are made, which makes it interesting to read how it will break the rules. I don’t know if it’ll ever get picked up, but I would certainly be interested in reading it one day.
As it is largely pantomime it would probably be possible to understand it even if one did not read Japanese, and just had a translation tool.