In the wake of Natsume Ono mania, it was only a matter of time before her first series came to our shores.
Creative Staff
Story: Natsume Ono
Art: Natsume Ono
Translation/Adaptation: Joe Yamazaki
What They Say
An apartment in Italy. In four of the rooms live four single men with singular personalities. Into this peculiar ménage steps an exchange student, the new tenant of the fifth room. Brought together by chance, friends by choice, they pursue their dreams together as the days drift gently by.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
La Quinta Camera is Natsume Ono’s first manga series. To be more matter of fact, it is a web comic she created in 2003 that helped her become a professional manga-ka. Viz Media presents the book in their standard Signature line packaging. Just cause I use the term standard does not mean it isn’t a great presentation. I am a big fan of Viz’s packaging of their Sig titles. La Quinta Camera has a really nice shine to it that other titles lack and really beautiful color presentation of the main cast on the covers. On the front insert flap is a description of the manga, written in Italian! I really appreciated this little touch. It helps keep the story in it’s own world, the story is set in Italy, and somehow just feels really genuine with all the Italian text.
The art of this book is probably the hardest thing to get past. By now everyone is used to Ono’s extremely simplistic art style and probably really likes it. Her style is definitely unique and a large component to the overall composition of her stories. But since La Quinta is her very first series, and a web comic, the art is even more simplistic than her other series. For me personally, the art borders on ugly. It is fitting but certain panels just don’t look good and pulled me out of the story just so I could gape at the artwork. A lot of the minor supporting characters even start to blend as the book progresses to where I had to pause and figure out who was who. It isn’t too difficult but the fact I had to do that is a negative to me.
The content of the book itself is something I wasn’t expecting sight unseen. I figured this would be like Ristorante Paridiso where we would have a lot of one-shot stories revolving around a common cast of characters. The first story introduces us to Charlotte, a foreign exchange student who has just arrived in Italy to attend University and study Italian culture. Over the course of the first chapter we follow her initial adventures through the city where she meets a myriad of strange yet interesting locals. At the end of the chapter Charlotte finally arrives at the apartment she will be staying at and finds out that all the ‘strange’ locals are her new roommates. It’s a really good setup chapter that I felt really let us know who Charlotte was and the kind of interesting things we can expect from this manga.
Then the second chapter begins, and Charlotte has already moved out of the apartment! It’s now winter and we can only guess as to the length of time that has passed. It turns out he story is not about Charlotte and her four roommates. That was my instant and firm impression after the first chapter and because I have previously read Ristorante Paradiso I assumed this was going to be a similar approach. It turns out this manga is about the four men who live in the apartment. The subtitle to La Quinta Camera is the English translation of the title: The Fifth Room. In each of the stories a new exchange student moves into the fifth room of the apartment and there are miscellaneous events that happen. This totally caught me off guard but by the time the third chapter began I was not only used to it but liked the concept.
Over the course of the six chapters a lot of time passes and we really get to know the characters and their individual histories and quirks. Sadly, right when my interest level was peaking and I was really getting into it (it really is just like a soap opera to be honest) it’s over. It is probably for the best because character arcs had gone full circle and there is a definite ending to the story being told. It just bummed me out that I really liked the first chapter, got hit in the back of the head with the second, and was finally really into it by the fifth chapter just to have it end.
After the story is over there are three ‘bonus’ chapters. One story is the background on Al, whom I always thought was the most interesting character, and the other two are side stories that take place within the main volume but revolve around Akio, a Japanese exchange student who stays in the apartment for a chapter.
Overall, this is a really sweet manga to read. It shows Ono’s roots and the story composition that she would later refine into Ristorante Paradiso. But is it fair to compare La Quinta Camera to Paradiso? Probably not because Paradiso is so good! La Quinta Camera is a good book, but it has its flaws as well. Because of the revolving roommate element we get introduced to characters that are really fleshed out and start to care for the character just to….poof…have them gone by the next chapter. The exchange students are the reader insert characters. We are these characters and get to glimpse into the lives of the four main characters. That concept in itself is genius! We just get to peek into their world and experience a memory. The trouble is, these characters are really good! I don’t want just subtle glimpses into their lives. I don’t want a year to pass between each chapter and find out the chracters have grown and changed but no idea what helped them grow. Ristorante Paradiso was fantastic at this approach because we always felt close to the characters so that the vignettes were palatable and interesting. Here we aren’t allowed to get to close and that sense of alienation really hurts the manga overall.
In Summary
La Quinta Camera is a good, interesting character piece with wonderfully fleshed out characters that is really enjoyable to read. However, the forced distance between the reader and the story prevents it from becoming an Ono masterwork. That coupled with the really early Ono art style keep this book as a history piece for Ono enthusiasts and completionists. If you are interested in reading Ono, there are far better examples out there. Once you become an Ono fan, this is a fine addition to her catalog; just don’t start here.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: C-
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: July 19th, 2011
MSRP: $12.99
