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Reviews
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Friday, 26 February 2010 |
 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DIGITAL MANGA PUBLISHING | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | TOKO KAWAI | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 229 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | MA | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 01/27/2010 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 02/26/2010 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SANDRA SCHOLES |
Tanizaki owns the famous In the Walnut art gallery, and along with his apprentice Nakai he forms a particularly rewarding relationship albeit one he has no idea about other than the fact he loves him dearly. They were the best of friends at college and now they have the chance for a decent loving relationship. He really has no clue about who Tanizaki really is, though and the problem is he has a rather dark past as a con-man and general cheat. Will Nakai get to the bottom of why he is the man he is in this first volume of a gripping manga by the author of the Cut series and Loveholic. This story at first is pure humour as Nakai does not understand the way modern art works, dismissing minimalist works as crap, and not art in his own opinion - and that is just one of the funny parts of this story. The reason for his not understanding the stuff that gets put on exhibition at In The Walnut is he's a filmmaking apprentice, but that doesn't stop him being in love with Tanizaki. One of the other reasons for liking this so much is the way Toko mentions the painting restoration part of owning an art gallery like theirs into the story. It is an interesting jaunt into how art is restored to its original form and the way Tanizaki explains it to Nakai is in a fun and educational way. Toko Kawai’s art is simplified yet gives the reader a personal look at her characters as she wants them to be seen. Tanizaki is rough around the edges looking aesthete who views art differently to Nakai who has no artistic background and sees most of what is around him in the gallery as rubbish much to the annoyance of Tanizaki, though he isn’t that keen on the way his boss likes to drag him into a naughty embrace now and again, especially when customers tend to come through the door at the same time!
IN SUMMARY:
This is manga with a serious edge to it – wonderful and fabulously creative. |
