The Otaku’s Manga Study #1c
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A place whose location no one discloses
An existence no one knows exists
It has been spoken of for generations as a sanctuary worthy of offering a ray of hope to one with a strong desire
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Suzunari! – Volume 1
Kaede Takamura’s teenage life swerves to the brink of insanity when she comes face to face with her twin…or does she? Suzu is practically the mirror-image of Kaede — except for having cat ears and a tail and being far more well-endowed than Kaede thinks any teenager ought to be. But the Takamuras have no qualms about bringing this strange, happy-go-lucky catgirl into their home. With Suzu completely ignorant of the ways of modern society, it’s going to be a very long year for poor Kaede.
Suzunari! is a release that is a bit older than the other two having received its first English release in July 2008 by Yen Press. Also differing from the other two is that while they focused upon the more serious aspects of family, Suzunari! is a comedy series that follows Kaede Takamura who wakes up one morning to find an almost exact duplicate of herself lying in front of her…. almost different due to the fact as this girl has cat ears. With her parents seemingly fine with the idea, brushing off the idea as “Wow, It seems I gave birth to another girl yesterday” and thanks to their connections, enroll her in the same High School as Kaede. The purpose of this series? Comedy, Zany teachers, a friend who likes to tease the two “sisters”, the resident pervert classmate and the all important quest of hiding the fact her NEW sister is a catgirl.
Unfortunately while the comedy was there for the most part and cultural references were left intact, I still couldn’t help but feel most of it had been done before in other series, the whole 4koma classroom comedy genre is borderline cliche nowadays with many doing it better. By the end of the story and several attempts to pull the storyline on track, the most I got from reading it was the opening colour pages…. Suzu was granted a wish by a goddess of a shrine to become human and meet her “sister”…. As it is assumed she was a cat before, she retains many of her cat like tenancies which is also cliche but resulted in a few chuckles on my part and turns out to be both similar and more skilled than her “sister” in almost everything except life skills which results in some tension between the two. The rest of the series humor relies on both their parents and friends which is pretty much mix and match.
In terms of design, the first few pages are in colour which is really pretty so kudos to Shoko Iwami, with the rest of the volume making use of 4koma style similar to many other comedy series such as Azumanga Daioh and GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class to name two examples. The level of design showcases a good level of skill with more attention to detail in the environments than other 4koma I have read and character designs that contribute to the comical plot and look visually appealing – although I have yet to see any 4Koma match the quality of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro which lacked in plot but succeeded in design. In terms of extra content in the volume… a two page message from Iwami, Translation Notes, a little bit of additional artwork and a preview of S.S. Astro. Your standard extras but suitable enough.
Overall, the storyline was lacking but the comedy was somewhat laughable at points. If you are new to this genre I feel you would enjoy it more than say… someone who has a sizable collection of comedy manga.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: D
Design: B+
Extra Content: B
Personal Opinion: C
Overall Score: C
