Otomen 1

I’m a little ashamed to admit that I was looking forward to this volume just as much as Pluto for my most anticipated new title for 2009.  I still can’t resist cutesy shoujo, and the premise of a manly man liking girly things, coupled with the fact this series is insane popular in Japan was really all I needed to be very excited.  It also didn’t hurt that I enjoyed Aya Kanno’s Blank Slate, too, though that was a totally different type of series.

I was a little disappointed through the first two or so chapters, since the series does exactly what it says on the box.  Asuka is captain of the Kendo team and nationally ranked in a couple different martial arts.  He strives to be manly as possible, but just can’t quite deny himself the pleasures of cooking, sewing, reading shoujo manga, and other rather feminine activities.  He tries to hide it from the girl he likes, Ryo, but being in love only makes him want girly things harder.  The jokes are pretty predictable at first, and it’s obvious that the relationship is the type that will stall forever and the two will finally hold hands in the last volume.  I was worried this was going to fall far below my expectations, which would have just crushed me and made me doubt all new shoujo manga.  Of course, to make up for the predictability of the jokes, this manga sparkles harder than any other series I’ve ever seen.  The screentone on the page will blind you if you stare too long, like looking into the sun.  In light of the following plot device, I think this is probably intentional and, if so, pretty hilarious.

By the third chapter, it turns into a really bizarrely engrossing meta-type series.  Asuka’s friend Juta is secretly a shoujo manga artist.  Not just any shoujo manga artist.  He appears to be the most popular shoujo manga artist in the most popular shoujo magazine, Hana to Yume (or Mame, as you prefer).  Asuka secretly reads and loves Juta’s manga, and so does every girl in school.  Aside from being about Asuka liking girly things and constantly at war with his manly side, the series is also about Juta following around the pair and putting them into situations that he then converts into the newest installments of “Love Chick.”  The main female character in Juta’s series is actually Asuka verbatim, right down to her name.  It’s a really weird and devastatingly effective plot device, since it calls attention to shoujo plot devices while indulging itself in the same plot devices.

I’m not sure if it’s a critique or what.  I don’t think it is, because a lot of the other elements aren’t really developed that well as of yet.  But I have to say that I’m rather excited about the places a manga-as-inspiration-for-manga can go.  Thankfully, it’s already pointed out the fact that Ryo and Asuka’s relationship isn’t going anywhere, so here’s hoping that particular hurdle will be cleared soon.

On a side note, I wish the magazine could have stayed “Hana to Yume,” because I honestly can’t think of a more girly name for a shoujo manga magazine than “Flowers and Dreams.”

On a side-side note, I was a little disappointed that the pun in the word “otomen” was never explained, especially since Juta takes to calling Asuka an otomen in the series.  “Otome” is like a beautiful girl, and the extra “n” at the end makes the second half of the word English and rather masculine and opposite the original word.  Explaining the pun also explains why Asuka is an otomen rather than an otoman.  I could be totally wrong, since I’ve not once caught a Japanese pun before, but I’m pretty sure that is the intention of the title.

I’m very much looking forward to where “Love Chick” goes.  I know I shouldn’t be excited about it, but I also feel like I have to know what Asuka will do when he finds out Juta draws his favorite shoujo manga.  With the huge popularity of the series, I’m also pretty confident that the main couple’s relationship will pick up and the characters will get way more depth than they had here.  There are just so many good places this series could go.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.