Gossip Girl Manga Preview

MTV has a five-page preview of the Gossip Girl manga from Yen Press.

It didn’t give me the guilty thrill of watching the series, though. First, the narration is wrong. Instead of from a sardonic observer, the never-identified website owner, who both obsesses over and despises the people she covers, the voice here is Blair’s. Who is drawn more like a bikini model than the fashion follower and trend setter she is.

I thought the other characters were generic — most everyone has the same face — which made it difficult for me to know who was who. And Chuck was just totally wrong. He reminded me more of a blend of Fred (from Scooby-Doo) and Alexander Cabot (from Josie and the Pussycats) than the slimy-yet-fascinating guy who doesn’t get enough screen time. But then, that’s the problem any adaptation faces, not having the actual actors to inhabit what may be underwritten personalities and make them unique. Maybe in collected form, with lots more pages, the series will hit the mark for me more closely.