Manga Review: Tuxedo Gin Vol. 11 by Tokihiko Matsuura
Things were looking up for Ginji Kusanagi. He’d just won his first professional boxing match at age seventeen and was finally going to have a date with his crush Minako Sasebo. Unfortunately, he’d also angered a gang, and was run over by a car. Dying, Ginji was contacted by a cherubic spirit which alerted him to a loophole in the reincarnation system. If he reincarnated as an animal, lived until its non-suicide death, and kept his nose clean, Gin could return to his human body as though he hadn’t died! Because Minako’s favorite animal was penguins, that’s what Ginji chose to be. Now he’s Gin-chan, Minako’s pet penguin.
This comedy manga ran fifteen volumes, but what I have is #11. Gin’s more or less settled into life as Minako’s pet, aided by the other penguins in Irie City. Gin’s forbidden to tell any human who he truly is, but those who know him are aware that he’s uncannily intelligent for a penguin.
The volume begins with a chapter featuring Minako’s little brother Ko. His tomboyish friend Tomoko was being picked on by the class president (who is a little jackass) and when she and Ko defied him, the president threw her schoolbag in the river. The jerk plans to spread a lie at school that Ko was the one who did it, and because Ko is already unpopular, this might work. Gin realizes he saw the bag earlier while fishing, and organizes the other penguins to search for it.
Next, the gang visits a dagashi (old fashioned candy and toys) shop that’s fallen on hard times, and try to drum up business for the elderly lady who runs it. Hijinks ensue.
This is followed by a more serious story in which Mike, Gin’s best penguin friend, is wounded by an arrow. It seems that there’s someone in the neighborhood “hunting” pets and small animals for sport. Bad news for Minako, she spots the suspect trying to hurt Gin and now must be silenced!
Back to hijinks as the Irie Tourism Board wants to take a picture of Minako kissing Gin for a poster advertising their penguin population. This arouses jealousy in female penguin Linda (you can tell she’s a girl by the head bow) and she decides to prevent the kiss by any means necessary.
It’s Valentine’s Day! Ko has gotten one tiny “obligation chocolate” while the class president has thirty boxes of chocolate from adoring girls. (In reality, twenty of those boxes were ones he bought himself and had delivered to make himself look even more popular.) Tomoko wants to give Ko a chocolate treat, but as a tomboy she’s not really hep to how this is supposed to work. Tomoko enlists Gin to help, and hijinks ensue, including the class president trying to steal her chocolate so that Ko won’t get any. (Have I mentioned he’s a jackass?) In the end, Tomoko’s gift is flawed but sincere, and Ko appreciates that.
The back half of the volume is a continuing story. After Gin’s reckless compassion results in him not dying on schedule, the spirit finagles a change in whatever system reincarnation uses. Ginji suddenly wakes up in his human body, naked. He hides while trying to figure this out, and Minako goes to a ski resort.
Ginji finally realizes that now that he’s human again, he can talk to Minako directly. So he’s out the door. But first he needs to evade the police because they’re not happy about flashers! More difficulties keep him from speeding to the resort, including a blizzard and a manhunt for a violent escaped convict. Meanwhile, Minako is stranded in a mountain cabin with the disguised convict. Can Ginji rescue her before he reverts to being a penguin? Cliffhanger!
There’s a certain amount of mood whiplash here. Most of the material is comedy hijinks, but then we have these despicable villains causing real harm. The class president in particular is the kind of child who refers to himself as an “elite” and is exactly not the person who should be running for office, but absolutely does.
The art is okay, and the penguins are cute.
Content note: Bullying, animal abuse, sexual assault (nonconsensual kissing) between animals, male-oriented fanservice, including brief toplessness. (Ginji’s nakedness is played for laughs.)
Overall: An okay manga. Recommended for penguin comedy fans. I’m told there’s a Disney live-action adaptation stuck in production hell.
