Monday, April 30, 2012
MANGA CORNER: DOLL VOL. 1 BY OKADO TATSUYA (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH ANY OF THE OTHER MANGA TITLED "DOLL")
Embarrassment is a frequent source of humor in manga, but it's rare that a series is actually based upon embarrassment. However, Doll's opening scene is excruciatingly embarrassing for both parties. A young woman named Izumi drops in uninvited on her former art teacher (referred to only as "Sensei"), and finds the sex doll he's stashed away. Not one of the compliant robots of Japanese adolescent male fantasies, but an ordinary, inert, though realistic-looking sex doll.) In fact, he owns three sex dolls. While Izumi is disgusted, she sticks around. In fact, she insists, for reasons that aren't clear to me, that he bring the dolls out of hiding and display them openly. Further embarrassing situations follow: for instance, at one point Izumi is roped into helping one of Sensei's friends photograph his sex doll in bondage. Despite the subject matter, there is very little nudity, not even of the sex dolls, and very little crude dialogue. In fact, the manga is not really about sex at all. Instead, it's about the prickly relationship between Izumi and Sensei, to which the sex dolls provide a silent, and slightly creepy, counterpoint. We don't learn all that much about Izumi or Sensei in this volume, but their awkward conversations make enjoyable reading. The art is realistic-looking and flows smoothly, with the dolls falling appropriately into the "uncanny valley." Doll is 192 pp. and costs 533 yen. It's published by Kodansha and its ISBN is 978-4-06-314564-9. Its amazon.co.jp page is here.
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Embarrassment is a frequent source of humor in manga, but it's rare that a series is actually based upon embarrassment. However, Doll's opening scene is excruciatingly embarrassing for both parties. A young woman named Izumi drops in uninvited on her former art teacher (referred to only as "Sensei"), and finds the sex doll he's stashed away. Not one of the compliant robots of Japanese adolescent male fantasies, but an ordinary, inert, though realistic-looking sex doll.) In fact, he owns three sex dolls. While Izumi is disgusted, she sticks around. In fact, she insists, for reasons that aren't clear to me, that he bring the dolls out of hiding and display them openly. Further embarrassing situations follow: for instance, at one point Izumi is roped into helping one of Sensei's friends photograph his sex doll in bondage. Despite the subject matter, there is very little nudity, not even of the sex dolls, and very little crude dialogue. In fact, the manga is not really about sex at all. Instead, it's about the prickly relationship between Izumi and Sensei, to which the sex dolls provide a silent, and slightly creepy, counterpoint. We don't learn all that much about Izumi or Sensei in this volume, but their awkward conversations make enjoyable reading. The art is realistic-looking and flows smoothly, with the dolls falling appropriately into the "uncanny valley." Doll is 192 pp. and costs 533 yen. It's published by Kodansha and its ISBN is 978-4-06-314564-9. Its amazon.co.jp page is here.
