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The topic of this series is the creation of manga. This can be quite educational for us Americans who aren’t familiar with the way that comics are written in Japan. We follow the lives of manga artists Kazuki, Yuu, Eimi and Subaru as they try to make their deadlines and get their books sold. Other main characters include Mizuki who’s Kazuki’s girlfriend, a male manga-lover who is willing to do anything to make his manga successful (particularly in posing as a Yaoi model), and Chisa a struggling publisher. These characters interact with each other as they all try to perfect the art of their manga, which leads to some fairly fanatical reactions and outrageous situations. The feel of this book is a little different from the lat two volumes. The previous two were more focused on the emotional connections between the main characters, but this volume doesn’t address the emotional side nearly as much. This is more a compilation of stories of manga artist insanity and eccentricity. An example could be Yuu and Eimi’s argument over the amount of special features that they will publish their books with. They wok themselves up from color pages in the book and eventually begin making claims that their books will have the ability to transform into vehicles. The artists build on each other’s insanities until a completely ridiculous situation finishes the story. This is how most of the stories in this bookwork, which isn’t all-bad. It just isn’t as satisfying as the previous books, which were more diversified in the types of stories in the collections. The art of this book is similar to the last two volumes. The various artists all draw the characters in the same “big-eyes” style, but they each bring their own personal style to their stories. The look of the art gives a humorous feel to the stories, and it really makes the characters likable and somewhat innocent looking. I’m impressed at how similar the characters can look when drawn by the varying artists. I don’t really have a particular favorite story in this book, but I think there is one worth mentioning. There is a story that reveals that Taishi’s glasses provide him with special powers, and that he has been using these powers to assist Kazuki on his quest to become a great manga artist, because “Kazuki’s manga can conquer the world!” A very strange story in a collection of many peculiar stories. I have to say that this was my least favorite book of the series so far (with the second being my favorite). I still liked it, but it didn’t have the same feel of the other books. I still look forward to seeing more, and do enjoy the format of this series. If anything the outrageous content of this book may appeal to a different audience, perhaps bringing in new fans to the Comic Party series. -brant-
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