

Story and Art by Ohara Shinji
Copyright © 1997, 1998 Ohara Shinji




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by Eric "Scanner" Luce
The beaten path is a familiar place, where one tends to know what is around
the next bend. One also knows where to run and where to walk, as well as
where it ends and begins. Because of its familiarity, it is a nice and
comfortable place to be.
Sometimes though, it's just not enough, and there is a yearning for
something interesting, unusual, off-kilter. Perhaps not intense. Perhaps not
gripping. Something quirky that makes you wonder "just what is this
about, anyway?" This is SUMIRE GAHOU.
"Gahou" means illustrated magazine and "Sumire" is the name of the
main character in this story. It centers around four high school
students involved in a newspaper club: Hoshino Sumire (17), a second year
student; Hayase Kotoko (17), also a second year student; Uenoukouji Kouji (16),
a first year student; and Buchyou (18). The antics start at the beginning of
the school year and their club is attempting to recruit new members. We soon
learn that one of the reasons why they have a
hard time getting new people: Sumire's methods are a bit unorthodox. Perhaps
daunting is a better word. While declaring boldly that as Clark Kent said
"the pen is mightier than the sword," she
jabs her mechanical pencil lead in to the concrete wall (without breaking
the lead.) In order to pass her muster, prospective candidates must be able
to do this. With such
outlandish behavior, she pretty much drives off all the people who are
potentially interested in the club.
There is also the matter of her appearance. Sumire is unusually tall
for her age, speaks in a rather rough and immediate manner, and smokes
(when none of the people around her seem to). Her best friend,
Kotoko, thought she was at least a third year student when they first
met, which was on their first day of being first year students. Kotoko
appears to be quite the normal school girl. Shorter than others in her
group and quiet, she is very much the opposite of Sumire. We do not know
Buchyou's given name. That is all he is referred to as. He is rather
large and wears dark glasses all the time. He is as mysterious in his
actions as Sumire seems to be. However he is quieter and after
some time, he does not seem half as weird as Sumire does.
The fourth member of this gang, Uenoukouji ends up fitting in quite
well. He is a rather curious fellow and seems to have a crush of some
sort or other for Sumire despite (or perhaps because) of all the stuff
she puts him through. He could have his pick of the clubs since he
seems unusually fit, but he comes back to the newspaper club sort
of like a moth to a flame.
The story is broken up into sequential episodes that do not have anything
holding them together besides chronology. Eventually the reader will notice
character development happening but it is
frequently understated or besides the point. So, what is the point? To
follow these people, Sumire in particular, through their lives as students
and members of a newspaper club.
As an example, in one story they manage to put their paper up on the web. It
immediately gets a rather large number of hits. Sumire finds this whole
world wide web thing rather engrossing and sort of falls into it. All of her
friends and the rest of her life gets the 'internet widow' treatment as she
spends all her time sucked in to browsing the web. We even learn the
author's home page (
http://www.yo.rim.or.jp/~wohara/.) Sumire gets so involved in this
strange world that she tries to plug herself in to the modem line. Luckily
her friends, mostly Uenoukouji, manage to snap her out
of it.
The art seems very rough and primitive. The reader may tend to imagine that
this is the first story written by Ohara Shinji. Actually it is not, and his
previous work (BOKU WA OTOUTO) has the same rough feel
to it. As you read the story you see that this is the author's style and
although it matures over time there is not much variation. This is the way
he is drawing these characters. After some time, the reader finds the style
ends up fitting them well. They are themselves a bit off-kilter and because
of this, they become very attractive. They engage you. Ohara Shinji uses a
rather fine line but it is drawn very sketchily.
Although there is a decent amount of kanji used in the text a number of the
combinations thought to be difficult have furigana to assist the
reader. Those still learning the basic characters should consider it a
challenge. As you learn how to read these characters the story will reveal
hidden treasures worth the effort.
SUMIRE GAHOU takes getting used to, but this is one story that ends up
pulling the reader along as he wonders exactly what is going on. The curious
thing is this: as you read the story it starts to make sense.
Those looking to take a fun jaunt off of the beaten path should give SUMIRE
GAHOU a
try. 
Published by Afternoon KC
Two volumes, continuing
¥480 (each)
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