Sunshine Sketch, Volume 4 is meant to be read as a slice-of-life manga.

The problem with this is, to be compelling to me as a slice-of-life, a story needs to be a slice of life that is new to me and it needs to be a slice of life big enough to include character growth and maturity.

Sunshine Sketch is less a slice-of-life than a slice-of-fiction, and an incredibly narrow, unchanging fictitious world in which little ever changes.

We are meant to believe that a year has passed at the Hidamari Apartments, that Yuno and Miyako have moved up as 2nd-years and new students have entered the apartments as 1st-years. But Yuno and Miyako have not changed at all, and the new students take the place of the bicycle and the cat from the previous volume, as props with which the ensemble can run the same gags as always.

Sae and Hiro still have the same ambiguously gay relationship, and while new student Nazuna sort of implies a minor crush on Sae, we spend far more time pondering her popularity with the guys. Nazuna is also so low-self-esteem as to be painful to watch. Nori might be fun, in a series that wasn’t going to cover the same territory over again.

Entrance Ceremony, School Festival, Finals, Christmas, New Semester, Valentine’s Day…etc, etc. This is not slice-of-life, this is slice-of-slice-of-life, one endless rehash of the same dozen moments of high school, with new characters that change nothing. In some sense, this is high school from the point of view of the teachers, a cycle of events that repeat over and over, with only the names shifting to show that time has passed.

George R. once quoted me as saying that the value of sequels is that we are able to spend more time in the company of characters we love. I’ve now spent four volumes with the characters of Sunshine Sketch and know nothing more about them than I did four volumes ago.

Kate Dacey wrote vehemently about why 4-koma comics do not translate well and this manga makes a great example for her argument. There is nothing here to grab a reader; nothing unique, compelling or relevant. I’m more than happy to watch a few moments of peaceful time slip by, but this series is the manga equivalent of watching paint dry. Read any panel and it will read like any other panel. Character reactions will be overblown in proportion to the minor pun or misinterpretation in lieu of a funny punchline. “WHAT!?!” they will say, instead of “hah,” at one of Miyako’s jokes. Yuno will continue to be slightly awkward and not know what she wants. Hiro will be passive-aggressive about food, Sae will be an artist who writes or a writer who draws.

What makes slice-of-life compelling is watching the character over time, watching the slow, small changes that signal maturity. Aria does this. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou does this with genius. Sadly, Sunshine Sketch has us watching the slow passage of time, with no changes visible. Time spent, but not particularly well.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 6

Law of Marginal Manga Return – If the characters in the fourth volume are pretty much the same as they are in the first volume, and you don’t have a plot to catch the reader’s attention, you’ve failed to create a good manga. Plot or character – you’ve gotta have at least one.

My thanks today to Okazu Superhero Amanda M. for allowing me to articulate this new Law, by sponsoring today’s review!

I’m dedicating today’s review to YNN correspondent and sometimes Guest Reviewer here at Okazu, Mara, for turning me on to this series.

Jormungand, Volume 1 is a surprisingly silly look at a grim business – the business of arms dealing. Considered coldly, this may well be one of the most vile occupations possible for a human, since there’s no way to even pretend to be doing anything helpful. Arms dealers profit off of misery and it is in their best interests to keep wars going, (something briefly touched upon in Madlax, as we learn that Friday Monday and his organization are fighting the war strictly to keep the war from ending, so they can make money arming both sides.)

When you think of arms dealers, you might not immediately envision a young, attractive, cracked (but not psychotic,) woman, but that’s what you get in Jormungand – a young woman with the whimsical name Koko Hekmatyar. Because I am the way I am, I looked up her last name and discovered it is an Afghan name. Plausibility is fun.

The story starts with the addition of a taciturn “child-soldier” who hates arms dealers, to Koko’s crack squad of lackeys. I was deeply concerned that the story was going to wallow in Jonah’s tragic past and make us care about him, but thankfully not. Instead, Jonah is whisked into the middle of a crackpot situation in which Koko and her lackeys have *way* more fun than is reasonable killing people. And worse – we have way too much fun watching it. The reason side of my head says, “I really don’t want to be enjoying arms dealer shenanigans” but the comics-reading bit says, “screw that.” It helped when Jonah started to feel that way too.

Koko is crazy in a good way. Not like Balalaika from Black Lagoon, who embodies cool competence. Instead, Koko represents the light comedy style of military leadership, made famous by B.D. of Doonesbury. Only unlike B.D., Koko is more often the joke perpetrator, rather than its brunt.

Yuri in this series is represented by one of Koko’s lackeys, Valmet. Valmet wears an eyepatch, (the medical kind), but is nonetheless hypercomptent with weapons. She states plainly that Koko is the only one she’ll go to the wire for, and is seen many times blushing at the Koko in her head and sometimes even the actual Koko outside her head. She fantasizes about holding Koko in her arms and at least once has the stereotypical nosebleed at Koko’s cuteness. So, yeah, she’s on the team. No one who is sane will expect anything to happen between them, howver. Any fun you’re going to have here will be watching Valmet watching Koko. Valmet herself has a rival/admirer, Mildo, but she’s packed off at the end of the arc. She’ll be back, I have no doubt.

The upshot here is, Jormungand is a fun, action-filled story full of entertainining psychotics, murderers and people who spend their lives helping people kill other people, with a teeny hint of eau de Lys just below the ear.

Ratings:

Art – 7 A little quirky good, and a little quirky bad
Story – 7, It’s not going to be high literature, we just want to see people shoot things
Characters – 8 Koko’s what makes it all work, but once she made Jonah spit-take, I even liked him
Yuri – 2
Service- 11 for military equipment otaku, otherwise, 1

Overall – 8

Thank you Mara, this was the kind of thing I like spending my money on. Even if there is no Yuri in it at all, I’ll be getting the next volume. ^_^

Way back, when I read the original Viz adaptation of the Silent Mobius manga, there was only one thing I felt I was missing. In the original Japanese editions, there was some seriously servicey- nice art under the dust covers. Not having the dust covers, the English edition failed to have the art.

When I heard that Udon was redoing Silent Mobius my first reaction was “why?” Sure, the original is out of print. Okay, so it’ll be back in print, that’s cool. But they were touting an all-new translation and I was pretty skeptical that they were going to manage to be better than Matt Thorn. Unless they gave me my dust cover art. Then I’d be happy.

Before I critique the reproduction, let me say that I just love the story of Silent Mobius. Powerful, all-female group of cops, fighting creepy unearthly baddies and having real, adult relationships with each other and, in the case of Kiddy and Katsumi, with their boyfriends. Like…wow, you just never see this kind of thing any more. Nowadays Yuki would be drawn to look 6 and the rest would be powerful only in between being powerless and giggly.

The series itself has a lot of my hooks – adult women in uniform, magic, fighting, Rally Cheyenne…. As many times as they release this series, I’m probably willing to read it. :-)

The absolute, flat out best thing about the new Udon edition of Silent Mobius: Complete Edition Volume 1 is the reproduction. It’s orders above the old Viz edition. I’m sitting here with the both of them side-by-side and there is no comparison. Udon has added in a color image gallery and is presenting the book unflipped, as well. All very good. Still no dusctover art. Boo-hoo.

The translation is fine, until it isn’t. There’s no appreciable difference for most of the story, because “Look OUT!!!” is going to read the same no matter who translates it.

And then, jarringly, Nami’s ofuda, which were sensibly translated as “talismans” in the Viz edition, were called “labels.” Labels? What the…? I feel like a Dilbert comic hashing this one thing over and over but…. I have this weird hope that new editions with new translations are *better* than the original – that they might leave less changed, more intact, that they assume that the reading audience is intelligent, perhaps educated and definitely educatable. So when I get a new edition that dumbs a smart sci-fi/fantasy story down for the *one* person who might accidentally pick it up and not know what an ofuda is, then I’m not all that blown away.

As for Yuri, I need to state that Ralph and Kiddy are one of my favorite straight couples, and I think the idea of Kiddy x Katsumi is delusional. However, speaking of delusion, as I said in my original review of this manga “I maintain that Rally is totally gay (using only my gaydar and my unflappable belief that lesbian manga characters are, in fact, cooler, better looking and more competent than the other characters around them.)”

So, while the technical reproduction is Aces and the color pages are spiffy, I’m hung up on the use of the word “labels” and lack of dust cover art.

What this proves to me (again) is that the one edition of this series I’ll keep on my shelves is the original Japanese edition. Then I have the art, the page quality and a translation (you know, the one in my head) that I can live with. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Service – There is service, but there’s very little loser-ness to it. Nothing wrong with enjoying attractive men and women’s bodies. Let’s call it a 3.

Today’s thanks is directed at Okazu Superhero and “Friend of Yuri” Eric P for his kind sponsorship for this review!

Okay, I think I got it. (I’d say “correct me if I’m wrong,” but when have you ever hesitated to do that?!)

Everything that comes out of a tsundere character’s mouth in tsun mode is treated as if it’s “Opposite Day.” If he whines that he doesn’t wanna do it, it really means he’s going to save the world in a second or two and if she says he’s annoying, it means she likes him. Am I close?

So, in Lucky Star, Volume 2, we’re specifically told that Kagami is tsundere so, when she protests that the chocolates she’s giving Konata are just out of obligation, you’re all “wink-wink-nudge-nudge,” right?

Of course, we are also told that Yu is a cop on a rampage, free and easy, but kind of hyper and in her own world, which in my book is four completely different personalities, but hey, whatever works for you.

The single outstanding quality of this manga is the translation – but not in a good way. This volume has an editor credited – some part of me expected to see “Alan Smithee” on that page, but no, someone actually took credit for the job he didn’t do at all, even a little.

I’m not tsundere, btw. When I say mean things, I mean them. If I tell you, “You bore me, go away” it does not mean I think you’re really cute and I want you to stick around. It is never “Opposite Day” in my house. But with tortured and abused sentences more common than simple, clear ones I don’t think I’m overstating the problem. The translation here is *bad*. Bad as in, “we don’t really have anyone here who is even a good enough writer/editor to see how bad it is.”

Once you get past the translation, what’s left is a series made from very typical Japanese comic strip humor, in which Konata takes the role of the audience. It’s cute when she says she played games all night – it’s creepy when the creepy guy next to you in class says it.

So, after reading Volume 2, which deals with more calendrical hijinks – New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, College Exams, etc., I’ve developed this theory: Kagami cannot *stand* Konata. She finds her exasperating and hopes she crashes and burns horribly.

You can have your Kagami and I’ll have mine. :-)

Ratings:

Art – 3
Story – 3
Characters – 6 Now that I’ve reinterpreted Kagami to suit myself, I like her more. Why not – you did it.
Yuri – .5
Otaku – 7 Gaming and CompAce/Comptiq in-jokes

Overall – 3

My sincere thanks to Okazu Hero Amanda M for sponsoring today’s review and giving me the chance to apply my very own of Fan Delusion to this series! ^_^