Search DVJ 2.0

Pull Quote:

It will never go down as one of my top 10, but I would definitely like to find out what happens next.

DVJ Photo

Adverts

Comic Party

Review by Kaylanii Xie

Author: Sekihiko Inui

Company: TOKYOPOP

Length: 192 pgs (7 chapters 1 side story)

Category: Comedy

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, language)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Kazuki is a college student lacking direction until his friend Taishi introduces him to the world of doujinishi. Mizuki, another friend of Kazuki's believes that all things anime are a complete waste of time. After spending the day at the comipa, or Comic Party, Kazuki is hooked.

After being pushed and prodded by Taishi, he agrees to write and self-publish a doujinishi. When Mizuki finds out what he is planning, she tells him in no uncertain terms what she thinks and storms out of the apartment. Kazuki's first attempt is a complete success, so much so that Yuu, another writer, asks him to do a collaboration for the next convention.

This is where things begin to get weird. Mizuki is pissed, but watching his back. He is attempting to expand his horizons again, while dealing with very pushy partners. With all this going on, will his next comipa be a success or failure?

DVD VISION TEST

ARTWORK: The artwork is generally well done, detailed and not overly stimulating. The few lightly shaded drawings are noticeably so and the dark ones are, well...dark. I did, however notice that most of this manga was gray. Gray pictures are, in their proper place, very moving and beautiful. There are several good examples in this manga, but mostly, they are simply flat and under contrasted.

There are a few highly detailed pieces that caught my attention and held it for several pages. These moments do not happen often in this book. The extra effort put into these few images feel like they are done for show. I have to give credit to Sekihiko Inui for his great work in those instances.

SOUND EFFECTS: The kakimoji is not overly conspicuous. I like the fact that not very much of it was in English. The thoughts of the characters, those that were not completely obvious, were written in English. This leaves a nice contrast between sound effect and internal dialogue.

EDITS: No edits have been noted.

EXTRAS: Included in this volume is a brief photo essay on "What is Cosplay" and a manga term glossary.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Comic Party may be billed as a "comedy" but it's not that funny. It plays more like a manga version of "Otaku No Video". Sekihiko Inui takes a little too long to get the story going. He also throws in a couple of subplots that really don't go anywhere. I am sure that the pay off is later on, but I don't have that kind of patience.

TRANSLATION: The translators for this piece did a fair job. The basic interpretation and structure were grammatically sound. There were some very simple structure reversals in the first three or four chapters, however. Inadvertent perhaps, but noticeable nonetheless. Sound translation had a few very simple errors that, unless I were translating, I would never have noticed.

CHARACTERS: Kazuki strikes me as a pushover. He doesn't really even want to go to the comipa with Taishi. I think he only follows Taishi out of boredom. He then finds doujinishi interesting, but is not moved to Taishi's level of obsession. He also lets Yuu push him into a collaboration that he deems a luke-warm use of talent and time.

Taishi is a highly pushy and manipulative character. He practically shoves Kazuki into his first comipa and considers him recruited into the writing ranks before he has even made up his mind. His use of "comrade" is overdone and reeks of obsession. It even borders on communist. There are other available appellations that can be used. He is a simple, yet dramatic character that I found easy to dislike. Others will deem a fan boy after their own heart.

Mizuki likes her bat. That is almost all there is to say. She beans people with it for a number of reasons. There is almost no line to distinguish between her friends and people she cannot stand. Other than that she is very opinionated and reminds me of someone very close to my heart. Me.

FAN SERVICE: A few tame panty shots that really don't serve any kind of purpose. There are plenty of references to other mangas, like "Macross 7 Trash" and I think To-y.

THE 2 VIEW

This was a new one for me.

I started out completely hating this story. I thought it was shallow and underdeveloped. I didn't even want to finish it. About halfway in, I proved to myself how much patience I have. While not overly shallow, it is just a bit on the kiddie side of the pool. Once things start rolling, it is a very good piece.

Sekihiko Inui very slowly brings out his dry humor in this manga. At the beginning, I noticed little to no development. Time and attention remedied that. His sense of humor leads me to believe his feelings about doujinishi are much more pronounced than he is willing to show in Kazuki. His use of Taishi may be a vent for all the emotional and explosive things he would like to write about.

I am not really sure where Mizuki comes in. She seems to be the potential love interest, but Yuu also fits that basic role. I suppose variety is the spice of life, but too many options lead to my imagination hitting overdrive. This is never a good thing when trying to tell a story.

The use of Mizuki's emotional attachment to Kazuki is the one thing I found truly funny. Initially, her incredibly violent behavior hides a very pathetic kind of attachment. As she showed her quiet support to her "man", she had me empathizing with her love-stricken plight. Like most women, I may like a guy, but it's hard for me to admit it.

The art work is another thing that I was unable to understand at first. I didn't comprehend why he would go into exceptional detail at seemingly random points, and then draw "standard" the rest of the time. When I reached chapter eight, I came to realize that this was intentional. The pieces that were overly detailed and extremely beautiful emphasized whatever major event that was occurring. Two great examples are the appearance of the one person that scares everyone (chapter 5) and where Yuu and Kazuki are trying to make copies (chapter 8). These scenes are done to such perfection, I remembered these parts long after I had finished the book. This is now one of my favorite things about the manga.

The fact that I liked this story, after complaining about it to the rest of the staff amazes me. It will never go down as one of my top 10, but I would definitely like to find out what happens next. Go figure, I actually changed my mind.

Return to Top

Back to the Manga Review Page