Teru Teru x Shonen Mini Review (manga)
June 29th, 2008 by Lianne
PG-13, I think, for some romance, violence, and a few adult jokes; official series website
If you love ninjas, but you’ve had enough of in-your-face ninjas and sexy ninjas, you can try Teru Teru x Shounen and its adorable ninjas who pine for affection. And it doesn’t have that stupid “ninja magic” crap, either - this is low-tech, unmystical ninja stuff, with jumping between rooftops and hanging upside down from trees and throwing shuriken while becoming one with the night. If you’d rather see a ninja do a backflip in sandals than summon a giant frog to do his bidding, this manga is for you. Of course, this is assuming you like your manga with ADHD.
The plot is amusing enough - a handful of young, modern ninjas are trained in a little village until they’re teenagers, at which point they’re thrown unceremoniously into public school. And it’s for more than just hijink value, since one is a ninja princess or something, so another is her bodyguard, and yet another is the friend of the bodyguard who wants to be HIS bodyguard, and there’s some secret the princess is hiding, and there are grown-ups with them and men in suits who want to kidnap them and shitkeepshappeningandwedon’treallyknowwhy. Bits and pieces of the plot are revealed over time, but never very much, and it’s easy to be distracted by the character moments and the jokes. Unlike a lot of other manga I’ve read, I don’t think the problem here is that the mangaka wants to waste our time or finds incongruous jokes more important than maintaining a consistent tone - I honestly think she just wants to do so much that she can’t focus. On the plus side, that means the manga zips along at an insane pace, with no joke or feeling or plot point lasting more than a few panels, so there’s lots going on and anything you don’t like will be gone in three seconds. On the down side, that means you have to pay a lot of attention when you read, but all of your focus doesn’t really pay off as each volume (I’ve read two) ends with things in much the same way as they started.
The biggest shame about this manga is that I can tell how much talent the mangaka (Shigeru Takao) has. The art is fantastic: it’s simple, but expression and effective, and layered with sweet and sexy. She’s also very good at humor, as her art lends itself well to visual jokes and her written jokes aren’t half-bad, either; the half-dozen panels dedicated to the ninja-trained high schoolers trying to play basketball for the first time made me laugh out loud. Unfortunately, with all her talent, she can’t pare down what she wants to do into what she should do. It does, however, make me want to seek out other series she’s written, preferably something more recent - maybe her storytelling skills are stronger elsewhere.
Do note that CMX did a lovely job on the English version of this series. The script by Tim Rogers is so good that I don’t doubt the jokes are funnier in his version and the plot more coherent, perhaps. But there’s only so much you can smooth out with a good script.
Initial impression: Don’t bother. *sniff* I really wanted to like this. (Lianne)
Reading Teru Teru x Shounen can be difficult to the frantic pacing (I haven’t finished either). Don’t let that scare you off Shigeru Takao’s recently ended Golden Days. It’s definitely an improvement–the pacing is relatively relaxed and the art more consistent (and very pretty as she tries to capture the look of an era). The main character finds himself in an odd situation, unsure of his own identity and place in life. The manga moves slow enough that you can actually see the characters experience those emotions.
I’m definitely going to look up Golden Days, then. Much thanks.