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Forum - View topicNEWS: Senior Adviser Kosaku Shima Manga Ends, New Series Begins on March 24
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blooperboy
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This looks, weirdly interesting. I'm curious about the series now.
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BlueAlf
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Man, from what originally began as just a one-shot, it's pretty amazing how far this series has come.
Too bad it's mostly still unavailable in English. |
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Blortle
Posts: 22 |
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The original series -- Section Chief -- is being fan translated right now and I think it's well worth the read though maybe not quite what you'd expect. It feels like as much a window into Japanese society, life for an upwardly mobile middle class professional and the view of Japan on a global stage -- especially in the United States -- in the early 1980s as much as it's about the corporate and career politicking. To give an example, the second volume takes place almost entirely in New York City as Shima's been offered the chance to spend the year there as part of his company's (Hatsuhiba, the series' equivalent of Panasonic) American branch which will in turn raise his profile when he returns to Japan. So a lot of it is spent on the culture shock and observations of American society compared to Japanese society which never feels like the author saying one is better than the other. In fact, a lot of the series so far seems to present things in a rather neutral manner, allowing the reader to make up their minds about whether something or the other is good or bad. Also there's sex. Lots of sex. Shima isn't really faithful towards his wife and the deterioration of his marriage because of it and prioritizing his career over his family is, at least as far as what's been translated, a large part of the overall story. Though it does also feel a bit like wish fulfillment on the author's part at times in Shima being able to get pretty women into him just from a first meeting. At the same time, though, his dalliances often times come back to bite him in the ass so who knows? It's something I'd probably pick up were it officially translated and licensed because I feel like beyond the story (which gets surprisingly gripping after the first volume as the author gets a better handle on what he wants to do), it's good for the sociological aspect too as a way to examine modern Japanese society as the series, I assume, largely happens in semi-real time. I imagine, however, that no English publisher aside from the smaller ones like Denpa would ever be interested in touching it as it would be incredibly niche. |
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