Since this week has sort of naturally slipped into “manga that vaguely annoy/disappoint/vex me” week, I think this is a perfect time to review Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 5 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ ). ^_^;

Being an otaku takes a lot of work and a lot of money, as we’ve learned in the previous 4 volumes, but it also takes a kind of compulsion, a need to be there for the singers you’ve all but adopted as yours. In Volume 5, the Cham Jam otaku follow their idols to an overnight camp, where they get to do camping chores and sit at the campfire with them and get commemorative pictures and to Tokyo for their first show in the big city.  It’s not at the Budokan, but the group does get to take a picture outside the Budokan, so that’s something.

I was going to be really snarky and say “and then a thing happened,” but as I think about it, a number of things happened, it’s just that the scale of “happen” is so small for this series. There’s always a side story within the group itself,  this time, it mostly focuses on the group in Tokyo and them trying to keep their energy up after a 10-hour van ride into the city. I’m more and more convinced that two of the group are a couple, but just not telling anyone (Yumeri and Yuuka, maybe, I have a hard time keeping them all straight. I only recognize Maki and Maina of the 7 Cham Jam members at a glance. I am a terrible otaku and Hirao’s art leans slightly more realistic than fantastic. The Cham Jam members all have hair that looks normal and is varying shades of black and gray. Maina wear twin tails, when she takes them out, I have no idea who she is.)

In the meantime, we’re still watching Eri and she’s definitely changing, albiet very slowly. We get to see her at her bakery job, which she genuinely enjoys and which gives her time later in the day to do the otakuing she needs. We also get a glorious moment when Motoi brings along his younger sister Rena, who used to be a Cham Jam otaku, too and we can see Eri in the company of another woman her age outside the otaku world. It felt very refreshing, even as, of course, Eri, Motoi and Kumasa mostly talk about the group.

Most importantly, during handshake time, Maina and Eri *finally* have a short conversation with no mishaps. It’s banal and keeps to the established territory of fan/idol interaction, but they manage a whole few minutes together.

The more I read this story, the more I desperately hope it’s meant to be a cutting commentary on the utterly brutal idol industry, and the equally brutal hobby of being an idol group otaku. Otherwise, it fills me with despair. (Yeah, I know, I know, I keep bringing it on myself.) The idea that this manga is getting an anime is already annoying, but it will probably be meant to be a comedy and I will just want the world to burn. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – I don’t even know anymore~~~~
Character – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – 2 Their eyes meet, they have a conversation, no plants fall and Eri doesn’t end up injured. They are practically married.

Overall – 7 

If the crushing awfulness of idol/otaku relations is an intentional target, I would like it so much more, but I think crushingly awful is just what the artist does.

Here we are at Hirao Auri’s latest attempt to drive me into an early grave. In Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 4 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ ) nothing happens. Nothing happens in the most dramatic and frustrating way possible, which I grudgingly admit is the creator’s style, after all. A style I named manga interruptus, in between fantasies of strangling the author while reading Manga No Tsukurikata.

On their way to Budokan (which is the end goal, as the title clearly states) the ladies of Cham Jam participate in other group idol festivals, including one in far-off Hiroshima. Tickets are hard to come by and super-fans’ lives are put on hold to make it possible for them to be there to root their special idols on. 

Cham Jam runs into a former member who now has a new act, and we spend time with a few of the idols – Maki gets a lot of page count this time – getting a better idea of their internal lives, so the author can derail his own story and delay any conclusion. Manga interruptus indeed.

Superfan Eripyo and idol Maina are all pained, intense, needy looks from about 8 feet apart, but every time they are standing face-to-face, touching hands for the prescribed number of seconds allowed per purchase, they become tongue-tied and incoherent. That happens several times this volume, so it can be more and more fun as the story creeps along. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Argh
Character – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – Argh

Overall – Argh

I never learn, do I?

I’m starting to think that Hirao Auri-sensei has a bad case of manga interruptus. Is the creator a master of tense, unresolved (unresolvable) sexual tension or is it a case of “string ’em along, the suckers’ll get what they deserve.”? I’m honestly not sure.

But apparently, I, like Eripyo, deserve to keep being disappointed by her inability to bridge the gap between her and the subject of her hopeless obsession, pop idol Maina. Surrounded by shifts in and around the group, Maina is “gambare”ing as hard as she can and Eri is exhausting herself at any number of part-time jobs in order to support her.

In Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 3 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ ) things are starting to stretch to untenable stress. Eri’s Mom is wondering when she’s going to stop working like a child and get a real career. 

Kumasa is having the best luck at connecting with his favorite idol and even Motoi has a moment or two, but Eri is exhausted, constantly broke, and eternally frustrated as all she wants is to be there for Maina.

Maina is working as hard as she can and wants desperately to thank her number one fan, but all they can do is stare at one another, awkwardly, unable to think of the right thing to say, holding sweaty hands at the handshake events.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8, dammit
Character – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – 4 I’m running out digits to cross, with the need to strangle the author.

Overall – 8

Argh and argh. But I guess I get what I deserve, since I keep coming back.  If this series goes 8 volumes and all we get is a reset, I better hope the judge understands, because I’m gonna lose my mind. ^_^