More from Commarine:
Kashimashi is essentially a high school drama with a twist and a bit of sci fi. The story is about a lovable loser named Hazumu. Hazumu has a crush on a his school mate, Yasuna, but he is so shy, he never gets the nerve to go talk to her. By accident he bumps into Yasuna in the woods sorrounding thier town. To Hazumu's surprise, they become friendly, which makes him even more nervous to reveal his crush. Eventually, by the encouragement of his best friend Asuta and his childhood friend Tomari (whom incidentally has a crush on Hazumu), he confesses his love. Unfortunately, Yasuna shot Hazumu down as quickly as he confessed. Heartbroken, Hazumu hikes up to his favorite spot on a mountain to think about the recent events. This is were the sci fi aspect comes into play. As Hazumu sulks, an alien space ship loses course and crash lands on the spot Hazumu resides on the mountain. The aliens, being a peaceful race, broadcast the accident to the world and express their sympathy to Hazumu. To rectify their mistake, the aliens repair Hazumu's damaged body with one mistake, they turned him into a girl. This turn of events raise a lot of questions and brings about some interesting situations.
The first prevalent situation is the world wide coverage of Hazumu's life. I personally like aspect of the story because gives the feel of a real world response. In other anime/manga weird magical and/or sci fi events happen, no one ever notices except the people who are directly effected by the event. The other situation is how Hazumu's relationship with his/her friends are affected. With his/her best friend Asuta, can they keep the same male buddy friendship dispite the fact that Asuta now has a crush on Hazumu? With Tomari, Hazumu's childhood friend, can she handle the fact that the boy she has a crush on is now a girl and be able to pursue a relationship despite the fact? With Yasuna, by far the more interesting situation, can Hazumu be able to realize Yasuna's new found interest is due to his new female body and will that change his crush on her? Finally with himself/herself, can Hazumu be able to cope with being a guy in a girl's body or will he have to change his mindset fully into a girl which may also include his sexuality?
I'm what people call a lateral thinker. Unique and 'outside the box' thinking always interests me. The questions presented in this plot are the main reasons it got me hooked. The story gives rise to the question of sexuality itself. Can a person choose their sexuality or is it hardwired in them since birth? Also, if a person suddenly switched genders, will their sexual preference still be the same despite their body? Judging from the first volume, I have a sense that the story is strong and will keep interested enough for me to buy the next volume without much thought.
Time for another installment of Commarine's picks. This month I'm reviewing manga. Let's begin:
Kashimashi
Unbalance Unbalance
The next is a Korean manga named Unbalance Unbalance (or Unbalance X2). Jin-Ho, a normal high school kid, finds a wallet in a book store and sets out to find its owner. He eventually discovers that the wallet belongs to a collage age looking woman named Hae-Young. Everything seems right until Hae realizes she is missing money. Days later, at the beginning of the school year Jin-Ho's class is assigned a new homeroom teacher which, to his surprise, turns out to be Miss Hae-Young, the same woman with the wallet. Thus begins the story of two very stubborn people, their frequent battles over their ideals, and the way they relate to each other as the school year progresses. The story itself is a variation of Please Teacher, but with different, more combative personalities. Though the story is not very original, the biggest interest for me is reading the day to day life of Korean culture and how it compares to Japanese and American life. It's always refreshing for me to see how other cultures contrast and compare to the our culture (it's one of the reasons I like anime about normal Japanese life). So if like to read a story in a another culture, I recommend this book.
A dark manga about a school in chaos and how people can change in a world without law. Sho is sixth grade boy who one day goes to his elementary school on what seemed like a normal day. Suddenly and without reason, the school disappears from the face of the earth and is transported in to a desolate and lifeless land.
Isolated and with no sign of life anywhere outside the school the teachers and students first attempt to maintain order while trying to find a way back home. The situation eventually devolves as conflict shatters order and chaos unsues. This Lord of the Flies style plot really interests me because it explores the human response when law and order is no longer in play. In order for a society to exist (such as a school), it must have rules and forms of punishment when the rules are broken. When those are removed, it creates a quagmire where people could to anything they want without fear of reprisal (ie: teachers begin killing, another hordes the remaining food for himself). The anarchy also causes the kids to lose grasp of reality and start believing in unreasonable theories just to cope (the third graders begin burning other students as a sacrifice and the kindergarten class believe they can fly back home and start jumping off the building to the pavement below).
This forces Sho to try to create order by rallying his classmates and to find ways to cope with the very twisted events they come up upon. The art is an old school style (like Astroboy) art which makes the darker events in the book so much more disturbing. I personally like this book because it ties to my personal belief that the true nature of a person really comes out only in times of strife. It is when no one is watching when true heroes rise and the dark souls emerge.This is a very dark story almost on par with Battle Royale, well worth the read.
The Drifting Classroom
