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Reviewed by Park Cooper Okay, next up is volume two of REAL, the wheelchair-basketball series from the creator of the super-big-deal non-wheelchair-type basketball manga series SLAM DUNK. Here’s my previous review of volume 1: http://www.mangalife.com/reviews/Realv1.htm Okay, so what’s happening in volume 2? --Togawa’s working hard to master his poor working-with-a-team skills so that he can keep playing basketball, because he’s fired up by the goal of beating Nagano, the guy who beat him so badly in volume 1. --Nomiya is having trouble holding down a job—he’s got that restless, vaguely existential anxiety that everyone had in Viz’s recent epic Solanin. --In the hospital, Takahashi is starting to face his paralysis... not come to TERMS with it yet, just to FACE it... and boy, is THAT a world of emotional hurt. But most of all, we get the story of the rare disease that caused Togawa to end up in a wheelchair, and it’s arguably the most touching and memorable part of this volume. This is a kid who loved to RUN. What else is there to say? The art is good. It’s really not beautiful, but it’s good. That’s key for the realistic, often-painful world of this series. The characterization is good. The plot is good, though slow. Sure, you manage to feel some of Nomiya’s pain as he, hidden by having the hood up on his hoodie, watches his old school basketball team blow it without him. It’s painful. But let’s not dwell on the fact from the side of YOU managing to feel his pain. Focus on how the MANGA is able to MAKE you feel his pain somewhat. And yet, there’s also the flavor of bitter rejection mixed in, of sour grapes, of “maybe they deserved this if they thought they could do without me...” Except that said bitterness just makes the whole emotional situation worse, not better. I dunno. It’s good. It’s hard to talk about it without spoiling it. --Plot: involving, but more to the point, not overdone. --Setting: Well, you know, I think it’s Tokyo, but will we ever really get tired of Tokyo as a setting? --Theme: Life sucks, and you have to be strong and determined not to let it beat you, especially since you live in Japan, where life sucking and being unsatisfying is just sort of unsurprising in the 21st century. The author will show you how much it sucks and how unfair it is, and will therefore proceed to show you how hard you must try in order to keep life from winning and making you the loser. --Conflict: life in Japan in the 21st century, whether you have your health, or, particularly, not. And yet, don’t think that it’s just depressing. It’s just... ...I’m trying to find a way to say this other than “Real” and I’m failing. Maybe that’s the point. I give this a Mangalife grade of A-. 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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