My Neighbor Seki Volume 1
My Neighbor Seki volume 1 by Takuma Morishige is something truly unusual — a refreshing read that celebrates curiosity, creativity, and imagination. It’s the kind of series that would never be created over here, but not because of weird cultural reasons or fan service or any of the other manga stereotypes. I can’t see someone here putting out a successful series about subtle battles with authority, about doing your own thing on your own. In this country, it would be much larger and feature direct confrontation and validation of Seki’s activities, instead of simply being a small dose of weirdness.
My Neighbor Seki is quiet but fascinating. Yokoi and Seki sit next to each other at the back of the class. Seki doesn’t pay attention — instead, he does bizarre, wonderful things at his desk, distracting the good girl Yokoi from her work.
For instance, Seki uses erasers (a lot of erasers) to create a domino chain of effects. Or he turns chess pieces into warriors for a battle. Or he creates animations out of go pieces or sets up a mail service for class notes or knits or does origami.
Sometimes the events leave the classroom. One story features outdoor activities, as Seki paints cat faces using a line marker (normally used for ruling a field). Another has an insensitive classmate interfering with a Ouija board reading during science lab.
My favorite was the disaster drill chapter. Seki has been playing with a robot family — only since he’s Seki, they don’t battle, they have cozy domestic scenes — and takes them along to do the right things during the practice emergency.
Seki never gets caught by the teacher — he’s got an almost magical ability to clear his activities away in a second — but Yokoi is often called out for not paying attention. Their emotions, expressed silently (or through internal monologue), are cartooned beautifully, as are Seki’s activities, particularly those that feature a slow reveal of what he’s actually doing.
This series is marvelous. I never knew what would happen next, and reading it made me appreciate the wonder in everyday activities while being more content with small moments of imagination. (The publisher provided a review copy.)
6:26 pm
Isn’t that just a great comic? I loved every minute of reading/re-reading it and had a lot of fun reviewing it!
1:37 am
Looks like it could be as much fun as Azuma’s YOTSUBA or Furuya’s PICASSO? I see the two first volumes were advertized in Previews last November and February, I hope it’s relisted some time!
6:28 am
I don’t know Picasso, I don’t think. Yotsuba is a good comparison, although Seki is less wide-eyed about the world.
9:02 am
It was “translated” as GENKAKU PICASSO, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genkaku_Picasso — short stories about an Asperger-lite teen at school, from the author of SHORT CUTS and MARIE. (Many chapters are darker than YOTSUBA, Usamaru Furuya has a twisted sense of humor!)
By the way, it would be useful if you could show a sample page or two. After posting, I went looking for the first commenter’s review and the domino-chain page at http://www.panelpatter.com/2015/02/my-neighbor-seki-vol-1-by-takuma.html is really funny.
(Though here, after your summary of the context, the mere cover is hilarious!)
8:44 pm
Oh, right, I tried that, but you’re right, that series is a bit dark. Thanks for the feedback on including art — I have to admit, I’m protective of my books, so I rarely want to scan them, for fear of damage or not being able to get it flat enough for a good image.
1:30 pm
Ah yes, a lot of glue-binding fall apart that way. (The few times I’ve wanted to show someone something I couldn’t find online, I used a digital camera to capture the half-open book, transferred to computer, and cropped — but the whole process felt like work.)
I noticed some reviews seem illustrated with a phone cam’s picture, maybe there’s an app to easily edit and beam a photo to the computer? (Anyway, with the rise of digital comics and e-galleys, it should become increasingly easy to just use screenshots.)
2:40 pm
Yes, another benefit to online review copies — although the watermarks, depending on the company, get in the way.