Manga Tuesday; Gokinjo Monogatari

Manga:  Gokinjo Monogatari    

Written by: Yazawa Ai

Genres: Drama, Romance, School life, Comedy, Shoujo, Slice of Life

Volumes:  7

Anime: Yes, and for some reason it reminds me a bit of Doraemon

own/ library/ borrowed/ read online

read online via the sites: www.manga.animea.net and www.mangareader.com

completed/ ongoing

publisher: Shueisha

Summary:[From ShoujoMagic]: Ever since he was small, all the girls in the neighborhood have fawned over Tsutomu Yamaguchi, whose name came from a song and whose adorable face closely resembles the monkey character Monchichi's. Even back then, it was enough to make his friend and neighbor Mikako sick. Now that he's a little more grown, Tsutomu looks like the lead vocalist of Manbou, Ken Nakagawa (Midori friend/boyfriend from Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai; we meet main characters from Tenshi on market/fest), and that makes him even more popular with the ladies. But Mikako--now a trendy teen with modern sensibilities--couldn't care less. Or could she...? Gokinjo Monogatari is a sharp-witted and stylish slice-of-life story! 

Review:

This is Paradise Kiss

I really love this story. It's really funny and sweet and girly and there is lots of arty stuff and fashion and guess what? Those are all things I absolutely love! And even though it's old, you don't actually notice it, like you normally do with mangas, really, I only know it's old because the change in drawing through the years of Ai Yazawa's work and because I saw it on wikipedia. The clothes are stylish, even now, the art is original and cartoon-like and apart from technology, it could have been written today.

The story has a kind of a part two: Paradise Kiss (I will probably review this sometime as well). You can read both stories apart, but I would recommend reading Gokinjo Monogatari first, since some characters will be in Paradise Kiss as well, and it's nice to see what they turned out to be while you already know them.  Furthermore Paradise Kiss is, I think, a very different story. It's a lot more serious and stuff. It's really a josei story, while this is really a shoujo.

Rating:

5/5

Some things about manga for non-manga readers :P :

Manga is a Japanese cartoon or comic. There are lots of them in all kind of different genres (really from porn to manga for little girls). Of most mangas there is a new chapter released every month, so that's why some are ongoing (it also can be that the translation group is a bit slow. DON'T EVER GET ANGRY BECAUSE OF THAT THOUGH! Manga's are translated by volunteers, and not very much people speak both English and Japanese well enough to translate them. If your bothered by it, join such a group! They are always looking for new members! Also editors and cleaners are needed!).

If you are too lazy to read, of most mangas there is an anime to watch ;)

If you consider reading manga pay attention! Manga is written from right to left!

some terms:

Shoujo= Manga for mostly teenage girls (it can be very childish, it can be really mature)

Shounen= Manga for mostly teenage boys (example: Naruto )

Josei= Manga for older women (the manga site says: late teenage and adult audiences, this is usually because the characters in the manga are not in high school anymore, this doesn't mean it's not fun to read if you are younger)

Seinen= Manga for older men (also for late teenage and adult audiences, also usually fun to read if you're younger)

School life= is sometimes quite interesting because the japanese school life seems very different than what I am used to

Shoujoai= girls love

Shounenai= boys love

Yuri = let's just say: the more advanced version of girls love

Yaoi= the more advanced version of boys love

One last note! I won't be here for the next three or for weeks since I will be in Portugal then! I will post again after those weeks! Laterzz