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 MangaChat: October 2009-- PART TWO
Written by Park Cooper
Concluding the MangaChat from two weeks ago, in which we learn what Park meant by that "And Yet..."
Read the first part here:
http://www.mangalife.com/features/MangaChatSeptember2009--PA.htm
Barb: I mean, I could easily get hooked on Slam Dunk...and that goes on forever!
3:28 PM I had trouble enough getting through all of Monster...actually, I couldn't...I had to just have you tell me how it ended.
I shudder to think how long Naruto will go on.
You know, I used to laugh when manga-ka wished on a new manga that it would make 100 plus volumes.
Park: I wonder, if Naruto's creator gives himself autonomic imbalance, if the guy doing Pluto will come in to finish it...
Barb: I don't laugh any more. It's totally conceived, especially with a shonen; especially a sports manga.
Park: Yeah, especially a sports manga, that's true.
You just have another tournament.
Barb: I've decided that 20 volumes is my limit. Heck, I even had a somewhat hard time finishing my beloved GTO because of it.
Park: Harlem Beat was 3-on-3 street basketball... and then she had them join the high school team for reals in Rebound.
Barb: Okay, my conclusion: I liked it, but I’m not going to allow myself to get hooked on it.
Park: Understood. No getting hooked on sports manga for barb.
And yet
Barb: See, they can go on almost as long as superhero comics!
And yet....
Park: Oh that's not the and yet.
Barb: REAL.
I’m hooked.
Park: The and yet is Real. Yeah, there you go. Real is, so far, not exactly a sports book. the sport of wheelchair basketball is merely... a theme
Barb: Totally, completely hooked.
Park: So you do have vol 5 there next to ya?
Barb: Yeah, a manga about a sport as opposed to a sports manga.
Yup.
Park: This one had more coherence to it than even earlier volumes.
Barb: You know, I tried to savor this volume, but I ended up chomping it up instead.
Park: Yeah... so we've read vol 5 now and WE HAVEN'T ACTUALLY HAD A FULL OFFICIAL GAME OF WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL do you realize that?
I only JUST NOW realized it
Barb: I always feel at the end of Real, "When's the next volume coming out?"
Park: Let alone a full official game of BASKETBALL back when everyone was walkin' around.
Barb: Yeah, you're right. It's not per se about "the love of the game".
Park: It's like Friday Night Lights but we go to commercial at the start of the game and come back later after it's over
the rich, rich, ripe fruit of characterization and relationship
and overcoming personal limits
...not that I watch Friday Night Lights.
Barb: Instead, it's about how wheelchair basketball gives the characters some sense of direction and autonomy in their lives; how it gives them dignity and a difficult but achievable goal to work towards.
Park: Yes.
Barb: I like Real for the same reason I like manga, period. The best manga are problem solving stories.
And the challenge of getting back one's life after an accident or an illness has got to be about the biggest problem out there.
Park: There was a touch of Naruto and Sasuke when baldy and guy-in-hospital got mad at each other and tried to kill each other-- see, Baldy is the bomb because he totally ignored the fact that Guy Currently In Hospital was not able to physically fight on the same terms
Because this is partially about being able to ignore that physical limitation!
And indeed as I recall they both laid into each other!
And that's not even volume 5!
Barb: At the end of a good problem-solving story, like Fruits Basket, a reader says, "If Tohru can solve her problems and those of that Sohma family, maybe I can solve my problems, too."
Park: What did you think of Baldy's scenes with Blond-girl-he-accidentally-put-in-the-hospital in vol 5?
I thought (among other things) they were well-paced and well-done in general
But after all, where o where is the fat that need be trimmed from Real? NOWHERE! THAT'S WHERE!
Barb: I thought it was pretty real, fairly painful, but not depressing. It may even end up being hopeful. Maybe, in time, she'll forgive him.
Real is all muscle and guts.
Park: Yes, Real is not actually DEPRESSING.
Barb: While some characters do pity themselves at the start, that's because it's part of the process towards acceptance.
Park: Depressing is [the movie] Pulse/Kairo, where there's nothing else you can do.
Barb: NOT DEPRESSING!!!! (Real that is!)
Real is inspiring, but not in a cheap or sentimental way.
Park: In Real, there's not a lot you can do ABOUT not walking like the old days, but there's a philosophy of there being a lot of OTHER things you can do!
Barb: It's an astounding book for adults and older teens.
Park: It would be BS if they DIDN'T pity themselves ever at all.
Barb: Yes, and that's pretty awesome. The philosophy thing, I mean.
Park: BS I say. BS! Yet no! Not Real!
Barb: My favorite manga for some time. Grade: A or A PLUS.
Park: A Plus, says I!
Review copies were provided by the respective publisher or publishers.
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