In Volume 8 of Manga no Tsukirikata (まんがの作り方) something happens, but it’s too late to salvage this series.

First Masato suddenly develops a cute sempai, although he never seemed to belong to a club or anything. There’s a lot of talking about making manga and deadlines, but not that much doing of it. We stop all the talking and not doing that much to play some ping pong…then suddenly we learn that Morishita, surrounded as she is by a guy hopelessly in like with her, his talentless and graceless sister with whom she is hopelessly in like and Takeda who hates her, and both Kawaguchis, but admires her professional alter ego, admits to being in a professional slump. Imagine that.

Having admitted that, the manga artists all decide to reapply themselves to their work, no one pays any attention to Masato and Kawaguchi asks Morishita to go out with her, probably for real this time. Maybe. We hope.

Just in case we enjoyed any of this even a little, the extra story is about a girl who becomes famous showing off her underwear, but is surplanted in popularity by a girl who shows her bra to make us hate ourselves all over again.

8 Volumes of this “Yuri” manga without so much as the scrapings of actual emotional connection. It’s not even worth excoriating.

Ratings:

Art – Mostly competent
Story – Nonexistent
Characters – Hesitant
Service – Extant
Yuri – Irrelevant

Overall – Thank the gods that’s over.

But still, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. for making it possible for me to finish this thing. How does a series so boring get 8 volumes?

Before you even ask, yes, I’m just torturing myself by continuing to read this series. ^_^;;

In the first four volumes of Manga no Tsukurikata (まんがの作り方), we were introduced to Kawaguchi, a former mangaka who decides to take up the pen again, Morishita, a famous manga artist in her own right, and who is in love with Kawaguchi, and Takeda, who is a great admirer of Kawaguchi and of Sachi, Morishita’s professional penname.

In addition, we encounter Kawaguchi’s younger brother and her editor who seems to be seduced by the same glamour that Morishita is affected by. I call it a glamour because the Kawaguchi we’re seeing has…well…nothing going for her. She’s not too smart, not terribly creative, kind of lazy and yet, everyone loves her.

In response to importuning from her editor, Morishita decides to move to Tokyo and somewhat inexplicably Takeda decides to go with her. In the beginning of Volume 5 Kawaguchi visits them. In the early pages of the volume this panel appears:

For any number of reasons I think it a perfect analogy for the entire series.

In any case, Kawaguchi visits Morishita and Takeda, and we get to watch her reaffirm that she likes having Morishita around, but still doesn’t actually love her.

The rest of this volume is taken up with Takeda’s crisis of identity as she finally, painfully comes to terms with the fact that Morishita is her favorite manga artist, Sachi and while she adores Sachi and is thrilled to be able to help Sachi by doing housework and cooking for her, she really cannot stand Morishita.

And, erm…that’s about it for this Volume.

So, hey, more happened than in previous volumes, so I guess that’s good.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 6

It always feels like this series is going to do something…and then…it never does.

This volume comes packaged with a short original doujinshi, “Ryuuna to Ichiko” in which a house fire brings a “cool” girl closer to the “nerdy” girl in class.

I believe it was during my review of the third volume of Manga no Tsukurikata (まんがの作り方) I kept asking myself “why am I reading this?” Now I’ve reached the fourth volume and the question has become “what is this manga even about?”

This not a rhetorical question, either. Originally, the series was about the successful-despite-her obvious-mediocrity Kawaguchi, a mangaka with no original ideas who decides to use a young woman’s affection for her to provide fodder for her Yuri manga – a theme chosen entirely because “it’s popular now.”  I have never found Kawaguchi even slightly sympathetic. Morishita, the young woman in question, was slightly more sympathetic, but is also kind of clueless and annoying. After you go out with someone for a year and they never want to touch, much less kiss, getting a clue ought to be high priority.

Then a third artist enters the ring – Takeda. Takeda is a jerk. She resents and dislikes Morishita and admires Kawaguchi. She steps in as an assistant, but it comes at the price of a constant stream of bitching.

Now, in Volume 4, Morishita’s editor (remember, Morishita’s a popular mangaka in her own right) cajoles her into moving to Tokyo – obviously to hit on her, but Morishita’s has been getting a lot of being clueless practice in, so she doesn’t notice. And even more bizarrely, her roommate of choice is…Takeda.

I just have absolutely no like for any of these characters. They annoy the living heck outta me. I honestly wish this manga would decide what it’s about and go do that or just wrap up and go away.

Almost every reviewer I read agrees that a series that is incredibly bad, offensive or annoying is still better than one that is merely dull. This series is dull *and* annoying.

There is no Yuri in this story. There is a totally boring one-sided crush that is shaken out every few chapters to appear relevant, but is actually very threadbare and full of holes.

Ratings:

Art – Okay
Story – Zzzzz
Character – Grrrr
Yuri – Ugh
Service – Probably

Overall – Whatever

And geez – do any of these three know how to draw a manga? The way they spill ink on paper makes me want them to them all to get a job at a Family Mart or something.