Manga Review: Comic Party Vol. 5 by Sekihiko Inui
Note: This review contains SPOILERS for earlier volumes and the video game.
Kazuki Sendō is a mediocre college student who is somewhat adrift in life as his talent was deemed insufficient to qualify for art school. His buddy Taishi Kuhonbutsu invites Kazuki to come along to an event at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center. This turns out to be Comic Party, a fannish gathering where amateur manga artists sell their doujinshi, home-made comics magazines.
Fired up by the enthusiam of the otaku (extreme fans) community, Kazuki gets talked into forming a “circle” (partnership) with Taishi named “Brother 2” to create doujinshi. Kazuki will handle the artistic duties, while Taishi focuses on the production aspects such as printing and licensing. Kazuki’s childhood friend Mizuki Takase considers otaku to be smelly, bad-mannered creeps and objects to Kazuki going into fanwork. (She eventually lightens up about this and even learns the art of dressing up as favorite characters, cosplay.)
Kazuki hones his craft and becomes a popular doujinshi maker while interacting with a number of pretty girls who are also in the doujinshi trade.
This seinen (young men’s) manga was based on a popular dating simulation video game that also got an anime adaptation.
In this, the final volume, Kazuki engages in a sales battle with the arrogant Eimi, then gets a chance to break into professional manga creation. While he’s struggling with this new career path, Mizuki has her own crisis as she sees the man she…loves, okay, she loves him! moving away from her into a world she doesn’t have a place in. Kazuki and Mizuki must resolve the issues in their relationship before he can complete his professional debut.
As is common with dating sims, Kazuki is a rather bland fellow, mostly distinguished by kind-heartedness and a strong work ethic. This allows the more quirky supporting characters to carry most of the action as they bounce off him. And as is common with adaptations of dating sims, many of the branching paths where he would be romancing girls other than Mizuki have been cut short.
There’s a good evocation of what it’s like to be a fan in a creative community, making your own art or stories, and enjoying those of others–and sometimes clashing over matters that are rather trivial in the end.
The art is okay, and the fanservice is not overdone, but the girls do tend to suffer from “sameface”, relying on their hairstyles and accessories to be told apart.
The series was printed in the United States by now-defunct Tokyopop and is unlikely to be “rescued”, so copies may be difficult to track down. Mostly of interest to those interested in the doujinshi community.
And here’s the anime opening, notable for being shot from Kazuki’s point of view, so the protagonist doesn’t appear at all!
