Friday, January 02, 2009
MANGA CORNER: THE MELANCHOLY OF SUZUMIYA HARUHI CHAN, VOL. 1
About a week ago Gia (via MangaBlog) reported that in Japan, the second volume of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi chan, the "official gag manga" for the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, is expected to outsell the latest volume of the straight manga adaptation. As it happens, I bought the first volume of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi chan a few months ago, though I haven't read it yet. It's a mix of 4-panel strips and short stories. Gia stated that the second volume has an eroge*- playing Yuki. In fact, Yuki plays eroge in the first volume as well. What's more, she does so wearing headphones whose earpieces are shaped like bunnies. In another running gag, one of the characters from the anime returns, but shrunk down to only about a foot tall, and is treated like a toy by Yuki.
I can't really say much about the manga without having read it. But my impression, for what it's worth, is that its humor is:
1. very otakuish, and
2. dependent upon familiarity with the Haruhi Suzumiya anime and/or light novels.
I don't like the art, largely because I dislike the caricature-like style Puyo, the artist, uses here. However, the infrequent action sequences are well-done. Perhaps comedy is not Puyo's forte.
Volume 1 of Haruhi chan is published by Kadokawa Shoten. It's 164 pages and costs 540 yen, and its ISBN is 978-4-04-715062-1. Here's a machine translation of its Amazon.co.jp page.
*Erotic computer game.
About a week ago Gia (via MangaBlog) reported that in Japan, the second volume of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi chan, the "official gag manga" for the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, is expected to outsell the latest volume of the straight manga adaptation. As it happens, I bought the first volume of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi chan a few months ago, though I haven't read it yet. It's a mix of 4-panel strips and short stories. Gia stated that the second volume has an eroge*- playing Yuki. In fact, Yuki plays eroge in the first volume as well. What's more, she does so wearing headphones whose earpieces are shaped like bunnies. In another running gag, one of the characters from the anime returns, but shrunk down to only about a foot tall, and is treated like a toy by Yuki.
I can't really say much about the manga without having read it. But my impression, for what it's worth, is that its humor is:
1. very otakuish, and
2. dependent upon familiarity with the Haruhi Suzumiya anime and/or light novels.
I don't like the art, largely because I dislike the caricature-like style Puyo, the artist, uses here. However, the infrequent action sequences are well-done. Perhaps comedy is not Puyo's forte.
Volume 1 of Haruhi chan is published by Kadokawa Shoten. It's 164 pages and costs 540 yen, and its ISBN is 978-4-04-715062-1. Here's a machine translation of its Amazon.co.jp page.
*Erotic computer game.
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