Kanpai! (aka: Kimi no Unaji ni Kanpai!) Vol. #01

By Julie Rosato     September 17, 2005
Release Date: September 13, 2005



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Maki Murakami
Translated by:Christine Schilling
Adapted by:

What They Say
Yamada Shintaro is training to become a monster guardian--his job is to protect the monsters from harm. But when he meets Nao, a girl from his middle school, he suddenly falls in love...with her neckline! Shintaro will go to any lengths to prevent any disruption to her peaceful life--and preserve his choice view of her neck!

The Review
A little black comedy that proves being a monster's best friend isn't always easy!

Packaging:
The color scheme isn't the best here. TOKYOPOP uses a slightly-cropped version of the original cover image depicting Shintarou, Nao and Ponta, but places it over a new background of gold & brown. The background design looks like a fashioned claw-mark or jagged shadow but it's lost behind the art and capped by an uninspiring black logo. There is also a bright yellow blurb stating the title is from the author of Gravitation. The whole thing clashes rather horribly. The back cover sports the original small circular image of Shintarou and Ponta. There is an inconsistency with the spelling of Shintarou's name between the blurb on the back cover and the pages inside. Color plates at the front of the book are reproduced in black & white.

Artwork:
Murakami uses a mixture of comedic and dramatic styles, so her pages can range from the very clean to the very busy. Linework is solid and the character designs are very cute, though fans of her other series will see some familiar looking faces here. The frequent character close-ups and frantic pace of many scenes often reduce the background art to speed lines or toning, but when present, backgrounds are given fair detail. The layout is straightforward, but Murakami effectively paces both story and emotions through her generous mix of panel activity. TOKYOPOP's art reproduction is a bit dark and therefore occasionally obscures details in the deeply-shadowed panels.

SFX/Text:
SFX are left mostly untranslated in this volume, though action or sound words found inside bubbles, panel-wide screams, and most signs and background text are footnoted or overlaid. Murakami's hyper dialogue and action scenes make great use of SFX and this title would do better to have them translated, though the lack thereof doesn't hinder the understanding of what is happening in the panels.

A big plus is given for leaving honorifics and yen intact. However, there are a few Americanized colloquialisms and references which felt a bit out of place. Otherwise the translation generally reads well, with no noticeable errors or typos, but I have a feeling it may have been, at times, somewhat loosely adapted.

Contents:(please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Shintarou is a monster guardian-in-training, in charge of freeing monsters from the exorcists who strive to hunt them down. The story begins on the night of a full moon, when Shintarou interrupts a fight between an exorcist bounty hunter and a werewolf, the culprit behind a series of local killings. Disposing of the exorcist and freeing the werewolf, Shintarou disappears into the night. The next day finds Shintarou enrolling in the local junior high, but his reception is less than welcoming - not surprising, seeing as he neglected to clean up after his night of hunting and showed up covered in blood. Here he meets Nao and instantly falls in love with the nape of her neck. She, however, instantly turns him over to the police as the serial killer suspect.

Ignoring the clues that Shintarou is innocent, Nao leaves the police station and is attacked on her way home by a familiar looking man -- the same exorcist Shintarou killed the night before! Shintarou, having broken out of jail with help from his guardian rabbit Ponta, intervenes and once again disposes of the exorcist, this time with a little help from his new werewolf friend. Nao’s heartlessness knows no bounds, but Shintarou is unfazed, for her nape is truly grand. In addition, by some bizarre circumstance, the werewolf's spirit has been transferred to the body of the once-again expired exorcist. Thus class 2B finds itself with a second new student, ex-werewolf and now resident dog-boy, KenKen.

More supernatural hi-jinks are in store when Shintarou discovers that Nao is being haunted by a ghost who claims to be her boyfriend. Outraged that his view of Nao's nape is constantly obstructed by ghost hanger-on Yabe, Shintarou vows to help Yabe fulfill his wish so that he may pass on. Meanwhile, the class erupts in chaos due to the appearance of a shinigami summoned to take Yabe away, and Miko, an underclassman and skilled exorcist. Miko, who had come to investigate her secretly harbored suspicions about Shintarou, fights against the shinigami and declares war on Shintarou and his friends in the process! A fierce battle ensues, but with a little teamwork from the supernaturals, things are resolved and even Yabe’s wish is granted. Unfortunately, things don’t stay quiet for long, as the next day class 2B finds itself with yet another new student: Yabe's soul had been restored to his body upon the granting of his wish, and he's come back to make Nao his!

Nao's intolerance of the constant meddling in her perfect plans for popularity sends Shintarou on a detour to New York where he tries to immerse himself in work to forget his love for Nao's nape and the trouble he's caused her. Readers are treated to a touching scene in which Ponta praises Shintarou's progress and maturation. A mystery begins to unfold here about just what Shintarou's true nature is, but before we learn any more, he receives a summons for help -- Miko has again instigated a deadly fight back in homeroom 2B.

Returning to Japan to protect Nao and face off against Miko once and for all, Shintarou engages in a life-or-death match of rock-paper-scissors with the young exorcist. However, Miko knows more than she's letting on, and it appears there’s more to her than meets the eye. Her accusations and casual disregard for monster life trigger a vehement response in Shintarou and Ponta is forced to send a request to their master for help.

Who is their master, and will he make it on time? What is Miko's true goal? What is happening to Shintarou? Miko succeeds in delivering the fatal blow, but….what's a little death to a monster guardian with a secret?

Comments
I’ll admit that I had a difficult time grading this book. I love Maki Murakami; I love her special brand of crazy. I love that her art can be stunning and stylish in one panel and humorously grotesque in the next, and the way she switches between the two with ease and abandon. Also, it’s the little things in manga that make me love it so, and she’s a master of small touches. I adore the wackiness that goes on in her backgrounds and how her characters are all slightly unhinged. Critically speaking however, she’s at times inconsistent and often asks a lot of her readers with her fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants storytelling. Relying on a lot of slapstick and situational humor, the sight gags can get outrageous, and sometimes her story ideas seem to run rampant, as though they’re going straight from head to pen, with little planning in between.

Nonetheless, this volume had me laughing out loud from start to finish -- from the trademark physical comedy, to little things like a ghost being made to stand in the hall, the marriage proposal, or Murakami’s take on the antics of a dog-boy (woof!). The characters, while not especially deep or well-developed, are extremely entertaining and some of the funniest moments occur in the background with the supporting cast. The story moves along briskly - Murakami knows how to give her characters an entrance and how to end a chapter, and doesn’t hesitate to give readers plenty of opportunities to question just what the heck is going on. Sometimes you just need a book that does that. Her editorializing isn't particularly original here, and foreshadowing elements are neither surprising nor executed in the cleverest manner, but I was constantly tickled by something as I read along, so for that alone I'd happily recommend it as a comedy.

Finally, for anyone left wondering by the blurb associating this title with the author’s previous work, there is no boys-love content in this title. Also to those for whom this sort of thing matters, this series is, to the best of my knowledge, incomplete at 2 volumes.