 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | KOUJI SEO | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 208 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | M | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 09/23/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 12/15/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Suzuka is a mature work about relationships, and people, and all the misunderstandings and crazy things that happen when you mix those things together. It’s really quite entertaining – it’s like a slice of life, but with more conflict and angst than your regular serving. Not to say there aren’t some laughs in there too, because there certainly are! Suzuka gets an M rating mostly for the mature content related to sexuality and adult situations of that nature, but it isn’t done in any kind of exploitative way – it’s just mature subject matter meant for mature readers. It’s worth mentioning that Suzuka did so well as a manga that it is now also available as an anime on DVD from FUNimation Entertainment, so that is a good indication of how great this manga is – not just any manga gets turned into a television series. In volume nine, some big revelations are breaking loose whether the people involved want to hear them or not! Yamato finally gets up the nerve to tell Suzuka how he feels, but she just can’t seem to get over Kazuki, a track star who bore a striking resemblance to Yamato. Kazuki died before Suzuka could confess her love. Now Suzuka, nursing a broken heart, is afraid to love again. A sudden kiss from Yamato complicates matters. Could Suzuka finally be ready to move on? Time will tell as Suzuka volume nine brings us closer to the end of this story! The quality of the art is still just as good as it ever was, and this volume gets a specially larger amount of dramatic facial expressions born from it due to all the inherent drama of the plot. The close-ups and dynamic angles on the characters as they argue or admit to things they’ve wanted to say really help to bring everything across in the right way – they seem very much alive and real in their emotions. The art still manages to be both fun and mature – it has a sense of being for a mature audience, but doesn’t skimp on being fun on a number of visual levels. The books in this series are of course a larger than usual format as you will have noticed, so the art is going to be larger in turn. The book is about half an inch wider and taller than most regular manga - and in this case bigger is most certainly better. Character designs are great, especially for the girls (go figure) – each one is quite different and you can see their attitudes and who they are being very well represented by the visuals. The images presented are able to take up a larger space, so things like emotion and detail are conveyed much better. The artist really takes advantage of the space he is given and fills up the entire page – you just can’t say enough good things about that and the difference it makes to a reader. The plot itself is also as good as ever, but especially nail-biting as some big secrets come to light. We as readers have been waiting just as long as the characters involved to see how some things will work out, so it’s more than entertaining to see the results of some admitted feelings. The extras include in-depth translation notes, and a preview of the next volume of Suzuka. The translation notes are especially appreciated and always help to fill in the gaps of understanding when it comes to deciphering what the Japanese are trying to say with some of their different cultural references and whatnot.
IN SUMMARY:
Suzuka balances great art and dramatic story to bring us a very entertaining manga series for the mature audience out there that don’t want to stop having to read manga after they have “grown up.” The larger format of these books is a huge plus – bigger is better when it comes to manga! |
