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MANGA REVIEWS

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







—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)
Available Now
Where to buy


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