@Home

@Home Cover

The Summary:

I'm reviewing this manga to basically showcase just how broad the spectrum of manga really is. @Home is set in a (nonfictional) maid cafe located in numerous sections of Japan... what has basically become a little maid cafe empire. Their website can be found here, and there's an English section down at the bottom as well. And in case you wanted the Japanese made cafe treatment, but don't know enough Japanese to order your omelet with your name written on it, they even have English speaking maids to awkwardly wait on you.

Anyway, this cute little manga is written by a well-known (mostly) shoujo-ai author by the name of TAKAGI Nobuyuki, and it's got his usual lightly-veiled lesbian references intact. Unlike most of his other fair, however, this one was published by a shounen magazine and... is written exactly the same way as his seinen stuff... which is really light, fluffy, and without any real conflict or resolution. It's one volume long, and doesn't try in the least bit to hide the fact that it was probably funded entirely by a maid cafe as a marketing stunt.

Colors are given for introductions

The manga focuses on 3 pretty distinct stories, all following the main heroin, a young lady by the name of Sakura. Sakura is the most recent addition to the staff of @Home, and by tradition, all waitresses refer to more senior staff members as big sisters. Our little firecracker of lollipops and gumdrops, Sakura, is extremely excited to finally have a new little sister to call her own, but what's this? The new girl is a tomboy! *Gasp* Will Sakura be able to convince her to join the team as a maid instead of a butler? Will she ever believe that she looks cute in a dress? Will she never appear again for the rest of the story? Yes.

There are two more equally vapid and ultimately harmless stories involving Sakura, a beach cafe, and the lesbian waitress that is obsessed with her; followed by Sakura and the tiny lesbian that wants to idolize her but fails miserably.

Sakura's not a lesbian, by the way.

Is it worth reading?

You wouldn't know it from up there, but I actually kinda liked this manga. When I'm in the mood for something a tiny bit cute while still maintaining a little sense of the male genres, I've been known to seek out Takagi specifically. His characters have that apathetic 'I'm not REALLY in love with you, I just really respect you' vibe that you don't find in many 'romance' authors. It's like Maria-sama without the terrible high school girl melodrama. Anyway, like I said above, the story is harmless. The older waitress that has a raging hard on for Sakura is actually quite funny, and Sakura's blissful ignorance makes it a-okay in my book.

That said, it has no plot. The characters have no advancement, no internal struggles, and no back stories. For all the reader knows, they all live in dumpsters in the alley, breathing solely for the purpose of coming to work in the morning and having a not-so-interesting day, culminating in talking about pretty much nothing while they disrobe and head back to their respective dumpsters. The oddest part to me is that they actually bothered to summarize the story on the back cover of the manga.

Manga facts:

• If you want to have some real fun, go to the actual @Home where you can play a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos with a very bored teenage girl dressed in a maid costume for 500 yen. Win and earn Moe Moe Coins. I feel pathetic just writing that out.
• And other facts... Damn, I'm sorry, the entire premise of this manga sort of offends me... it's like those terrible Tora no Ana comics in the back of every manga magazine printed after 1990, only in book form. I'm just waiting for the McDonalds manga where Ronald has to break the Hamburgler out of Azkaban and then throw the Fry Guys into the fires of Mordor, only to be stabbed in the back by Grimace, in a Coca Cola-fueled rampage.

Snoopy's Recommendation:

I obviously can't recommend this particular manga. If you're a fan of Takagi's other work, then you'll probably like it well enough, but I recommend starting there first. Hmmm... I guess Magie Parie is probably as good a starting point as any other. As far as translated stuff goes, I believe some people have snatched up some of his stuff... you're on your own for links, though, I'm lazy tonight.

Last

Last, Volume 1 Cover

The Summary:

TAMAKOSHI Hiroyuki is an extremely prolific author, best known for his Boys Be series of stories, as well as the Gacha Gacha franchise, specializing in light love stories with a tendency to dress his female characters in short skirts and/or bikini tops. However, he has also made departures from this formula, and today's manga is one of those departures. Last: We are for the Future (ラスト～僕らは未来のために～), is rather unique in the annals of shounen love stories... it's like Groundhog Day, where the protagonist repeats a series of events over and over... only he repeats his entire life, starting at a pivotal moment during his high school class trip.

We follow Takada Kanta, a friendly popular student, who spends all of his time playing with his two best friends... one of which happens to be the girl he loves, while the other is his love rival. Normal so far... even a bit cliche. When his best friend tells Kanta that he wants to confess to their friend (her name's Hina... I'm skipping most of the names for brevity, you'll thank me later), Kanta, being the wishy-washy character that we've all come to expect in these types of stories, claims that he has no special feelings for Hina. Of course, that was a lie, and Kanta mopes for the rest of the night, thinking 'oh man, what-am-I-gonna-do', until he wanders over to Hina's hotel room (they're on a class trip, remember) and runs into her outside. She pulls him in for drinks and they get to talking... turns out Hina has a crush on him and one thing leads to another and they kiss right as the 3rd wheel comes into the room to confess his love. Kanta freaks out, still claiming that he doesn't like Hina in that way, leading to a terrible break in friendship ("then why did you kiss me?" and "How could you do that to Hina?"). The domino effect leads to a lowering in his status in school, his self esteem crumbles, and he's hit by a car as he's running after his last spare change.

First page of chapter 2

And that is half of chapter 1. Now, see, where it actually gets interesting is the fact that Hina isn't the main female lead. It's her roommate on the class trip, the cold and quiet loner of the class, Sudou Riko. After the car accident, the now adult (all-be-it, totally worthless) Kanta is thrown back to the moment before Hina kisses him. Realizing that he's reliving his life's greatest mistake, he pushes her away as the door flies open, and claims that he was outside of her room to meet up with Sudou. Why? Because... she's his girlfriend. She plays along with the gag, and the rest of the story revolves around their relationship and the mysteries of why Kanta is repeating his life.

Is it any good?

I really like this manga. It's a light shounen read with lovable and fun characters, actual measurable character growth, and a bit of a twist ending. And, thank the Manga Gods, the characters don't have one of those terrible 'revelations' that was obvious from the very beginning. For people who are just starting out with Japanese and want something that isn't too complex yet has a good amount of 'real' text to work through, this is a good one to pick up. 

I believe I mentioned it before, but this is a short one... I'm of the assumption that it was started with the intention of making it only 2 volumes, but if it was canceled the author did a good job of finishing it with no glaring cutoff points or missed opportunities. Actually, it's one of the best things I've read from him and I wish he'd stop making semi-hentai seinen stories about incest long enough to write another one like this.

Manga Facts:

• Published in Shounen Magazine Special starting in 2008 (technically, it was in 2007, but the magazines are dated 2 months off, so it started in the first 2008 issue).
• The author's official website was last updated on my 24th birthday (I'm 27, by the way).

Snoopy's Recommendation:

I say... read it. It's good. If you absolutely, positively HATE cleavage or the occasional sexy leg, then I suppose you can skip it. But it's so short, and so light that I can't see anyway disliking this manga. So I guess, I'll say that people who like love stories should read it. I'll even include people who mostly like shoujo stuff... it still works.

Scissors

Scissors Volume 1 Cover

The Summary:

Like this. Only not as awesome.

Manga number two on my list, this time going with a light shounen classic from a current manga superstar, Scissors, by HASHIGUCHI Takashi (of 'Yakitate!! Japan' fame). Scissors is a short-lived story following Kariya Katsuhiko on his quest to become the greatest hairdresser in the world (stick with me here). Katsuhiko is at constant odds with his father, a barber who believes that hair should be out of the way, end of story, no artistry needed. Our young protaganist disagrees, and the pair have a serious fight, after which his father gets the last laugh, turning Katsuhiko's precious hair into what the Japanese call a 'punch perm', which is basically a tightly curled Asian Afro. Taking this insult as the final straw, the young man leaves his home on the day of his middle school graduation, saying good bye to his precious little sister Kirina, and using the last of his money to make his way to Tokyo. Once he arrives, he begs and pleads to be an apprentice at every famous shop in the city, to no avail. Finally realizing that his terrible hair could be the root of his problem (see, I made a hair joke there... root), he finds a small shop by the name of 'Scissors' where he meets a man who can only be described as a Beatles cosplayer named Komatsu, who takes his gangster hair and turns it into... porcupine hair? He's apparently a genius. Suspension of disbelief, I guess.

I got nothing to say.

Anyway, through his determination, our main character lands a job as an assistant at Scissors, eventually working his way up to stylist and shop representative. The duty of the representative? To have hair styling battles in front of huge crowds, of course.

And what makes it worth reading?
I think of this story as the spiritual precursor to Yakitate!! Japan. The ridiculous settings, extreme reactions, over the top drama, and hilarious characters are all present and accounted for, with the formula simply not yet perfected. I think it goes without saying that at just 3 volumes, this particular story isn't Hashiguchi's best work, but it's certainly original, has the same great art you expect from him, and is quite good for what it is. Pacing starts well, with talent being discovered, relationships formed, etc, but once it becomes clear that the manga won't be lasting very long (Comics Gatta, the magazine publishing this series was to be discontinued, and this particular manga wasn't popular enough to move to another magazine), things get rushed; rivals are introduced, then removed, competitions are cut short, and character development happens in giant leaps... so basically, it suffers from premature cancellation anxiety, which is a pity.

Manga Facts:

• Scissors ran in Comics Gatta (a now-dead magazine from Shogakukan, which also publishes Shounen Sunday) in 2000, lasting 3 volumes.
• If you look closely (or not so closely), there are quite a few character designs that return in Yakitate!! Japan... hm.

Reuse character design? Check.

Snoopy's Recommendation:

There are two types of people who should read this manga: People who enjoyed Yakitate!! Japan (even if you only enjoyed it until it started getting stupid, this one has the same feel as the beginning), and people who enjoy stories about hairdressers.