Quojuz

Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 10:44 pm

I hadn't been reading much manga lately, so I went to the bookstore to see what was worthwhile, and a new series by Haruko Kashiwagi would naturally catch my eye. So I bought the first volume of course.

Oh. My. God. This manga is horrible. It's about a guy who comes to Tokyo to attend college, where he lives with three sisters who he happens to have never met before. Who happen to be voluptuous nymphs, all three of them. Who happen to find the guy attractive, even though they're related.

That sounds like a abysmal premise I know, and I wish I could say "but no, we're talking about Haruko Kashiwagi here, such is her brilliance that she can turn even the lamest-sounding premise into a poignant and meaningful work". She doesn't. It's as bad as it sounds. I can't believe that this is the same person who did Hanazono Merry Go Round and Onimushi.

Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:52 pm

Even Geniuses can have a 'lady in the water' moment...

Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:42 am

Yeah this was a really terrible manga. Fortunately it didn't get past 2 volumes.

Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:13 am

Since it ran in Big Comics Spirits (exactly why, we will never know), even I have gotten a peek at that thing.
And it really has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:52 am

pnyxtr wrote:

Since it ran in Big Comics Spirits (exactly why, we will never know)

Actually, I think the concept of Quojuz is a perfect fit for Spirits, or any of the other weekly seinen mags. If they aren't the place for sexually-charged manga with a male college student protagonist, then I don't know what is.

This is nothing but conjecture, but my guess upon reading that first volume was that maybe she had enough of doing artistically meaningful series, and wanted to cater to a more general audience (the type of guy who would always skip Hanazono when reading Spirits, and went instead to Tokyo Eighties or something). Which bombed, I suppose, if was canceled. Or maybe she decided to put it out of its misery herself? I dunno.

But in any case, to me it seemed like Kashiwagi was trying to be someone who she isn't with this series.

Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:43 am

Hmm, I still don't think it fits in there all that well, but then I bet us mad manga piratez don't usually get to see the worst Spirits has to offer.

I would be much less surprised if it was in one of those that consist of 99% shitty boobies manga. (The remaining 1% being pictures of boobies instead of drawings. Examples; Young King, Young Animal and so on.)

Scoundrel Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Posts: 403

If that "lady in the water" comment somehow tries to imply that mr m.
nightshamalawyan is a genius...

well.

i really dont think anymore needs be said.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

I second/third the "my god it was horrible" sentiment.

Quote:

This is nothing but conjecture, but my guess upon reading that first volume was that maybe she had enough of doing artistically meaningful series, and wanted to cater to a more general audience (the type of guy who would always skip Hanazono when reading Spirits, and went instead to Tokyo Eighties or something).

Who the hell would read that though? That would be like reading a Nariko Enomoto manga that was straight porn without the detached emo aesthetic, or a Naoki Yamamoto manga featuring two well-grounded, psychologically stable characters who had missionary sex.

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:40 pm

In my defense I originally was trying to think of the lamest novel by Dostoyevsky... but couldn't think of one I didn't like. So I went with something more contemporary.
Still off topic... I haven't even seen Sixth Sense.