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Reviewed by Kat Collyns In England, Greenwood is a place where thieves and rogues gather. Apparently. “Here is Greenwood” the manga is a “boy's life” manga written by Yukie Nasu. It’s a manga about a boys dorm, by a woman, for a female audience. When Kazuya Hasukawa’s older brother and only known blood relative, Kazuhiro, marries Sumire (who just happens to be Kazuya’s first love), he decides to go and live in a dorm at high school. Due to a stomach ulcer he misses the first month, and then winds up in a dorm with Shun Kisaragi, a female student who, for certain reasons, has been raised as a boy. Kazuya, like most comedy slice-of-life heroes, is terrified of sex and women in general. It takes no more than a hug from Sumire to make blood gush from his nose (the nosebleed is a Japanese convention to show that a guy’s turned on). He’s also very naïve and stupid - perhaps unbelievably so, but I doubt anyone would read this kind of thing for its sense of reality. Kazuya wishes to separate himself from the weird folk that make up the rest of the dorm. This volume introduces plenty of minor characters, but most of the plot is centred around Kazuya, Shun, and the two sempai’s (upper class men) who live in the room next door; Shinobu Tezuka and Mitsuru Ikeda, both of whom are devastatingly handsome. They spend most of their time bullying Kazuya, despite him being student president and dorm head. The different chapters have episodic feels; each seems like a little self-contained story. There’s no real overall plot: each section has its own setup and resolution. However, the seasons change and the characters remain consistent. Personally, I like this way of doing things. It was originally serialized in magazine called "Hane to yume", and this keeps the same feel. This manga is very Japanese. It’s unapologetically so: this wasn’t written with any idea that a Western audience might pick it up. If you ask me the best manga is like this: foreign. But some people do like to read something that seems more familiar. The characters are almost clichéd, but this is intentional; it almost seems like a parody of the genre at some point. However, it’s entertaining in its own right. There are a lot of jokes about shounen ai and feminine guys, things which are probably only relevant to you if you’re a fan of shojo manga. The art is very 80's shojo. The eyes are big, the noses are pointy and up-turned. The art varies a bit throughout the book, but it’s consistently girly and matches the style of the story well. Everything's very girly, floaty and pretty, and I love it. I watch my anime with subs and hate mecha. If you feel the same way, you might like this. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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