tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5114353219480265259.post5108835394810136413..comments2024-01-07T14:25:51.724-08:00Comments on Sgt. Tanuki's Lonely Hearts Club Blog: Nakamura Hikaru: St. Oniisan (2007-present)Tanukihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010917992146986329noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5114353219480265259.post-71329653250536255442011-10-20T17:03:36.034-07:002011-10-20T17:03:36.034-07:00I like this one too, but one thing I find is that ...I like this one too, but one thing I find is that I can't read a whole book in one sitting. (This isn't a criticism of the series itself, though, since it was pretty clearly designed to be episodic, and not a sustained novel-like narrative.) The setup-payoff see-saw just gets to be too much, even though each one tends to be quite clever in its own right. <br /><br />(My all-time favorite has got to be the sequence dealing with Buddha's embarrassment over having said "天上天下, 唯我独尊" immediately after he was born. Great example of how Nakamura integrates the wildly varying [implicit] theological perspectives on what kind of person Buddha was into a single convincing character.)<br /><br />"There's plenty of blasphemy in here, but it's all so good-natured and light-hearted that it's hard to imagine anybody getting too het up about it. ... the whole series [has] this really benign glow."<br /><br />This is really true. You can imagine a much darker comedy with basically the same premise expanded a bit: "Jesus and Buddha live in an apartment together... meanwhile, human trafficking, child soldiers, flooding, and famine." I can't help but feel that this is how it would shake out in the English-speaking comics world. That'd be edgier. Nakamura is more about the honobono aesthetic than edginess.<br /><br />It isn't only that, though... I think that most of the warm glow comes because Nakamura tends to *assume the best*. For example, there's no cop-out on Jesus: he doesn't harp on it or anything, but whenever it comes up, he really does act as if he loved and cared for literally everyone. But there is a sort of cop-out on the afterlife, to which (it seems) everyone gets to go -- there's no eternal suffering. And if I recall correctly, even major negative figures like Mara (and Satan? Judas? Can't remember if they've come up or not) are depicted as more lonely/awkward/misguided than seriously malevolent.<br /><br />We have this series the shelf at my wife's cafe (along with "Kino nani tabeta?", the only other manga to receive such honors) and they are the most read books there.Matthttp://no-sword.jp/blog/noreply@blogger.com