The end of this very strange soccer saga ends….strangely
Creative Staff
Story: Ryuji x Gotsubo
Art: Ryuji x Gotsubo
Translation/Adaptation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
For once, it looks like the Chikubushima High soccer team might have a shot at the national tournament (provided all their players actually show up to the matches!)! Rakuichi may have the raw talent that makes him an INVALUABLE asset to this bizarre mess of a team, but his enormous ego interferes with his ability to make good decisions on the field. (Seriously, dud. Just pass the ball.) As Rakuichi continues to irritate the heck out of his teammates, the foundation of the team, Azuchi, is out of commission, and captain Matsuri is losing interest as the power of the Principal’s bribes wanes. With even tougher opponents to come, will the stars and supporting players of Chikubushima manage to pull TOGETHER and secure victory?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The second omnibus volume of Sasameke covers the second half of volume 3 and volume 4 and 5 (as released in Japan). This covers the remainder of the series and, presumably, the end of the story. This omnibus is all about the soccer games. Within this book are all of the preliminary matches and even the championship match of which the winner will go on to the National Tournament.While I kind of liked the first omnibus because it focused heavily on the comedy and the bizarre characters; I kind of can’t stand the second half of the series. With a lot of manga series, the artwork improves over time or at least finds its creative center and becomes its own entity. With Sasameke, the art got worse!!! I absolutely could not stand looking at this manga. Since approximately 80% of the story in this book is all soccer matches we see nothing but rushed, almost stick-figure like art that is not only a strain to look at but also impossible to understand. I had no idea what was going on during the matches despite lots of panels showing me what was going on. I relied entirely on the commentary of the characters to know what was happening. Granted , this is only the case for ALL the matches with the exception of the final match shown in the book. With the final match shown in the book the pacing is drastically slowed down and the artwork is allowed to breathe. During the match I actually started to get into the manga again as it became interesting and exciting again. But that all ends in the third to last chapter so…it doesn’t matter.
The one aspect I really enjoyed from volume one was the insanity of the manga. The supporting characters were so unique that I really had a lot of fun with it. In this volume all of that is pushed to the side. There is still a lot of comedy here but because of the strong focus on the games…the comedy is senseless. I mean that literally. Most of the jokes and comedic situations are so haphazardly composed and strung together with a million other ‘jokes’ that it is just nonsense. I like nonsense but this was just pointless. Also, most of the comedic plot-lines that were being setup previously are all but forgotten. There is nothing with Maiko’s psychotic mother, barely anything with Maiko herself, Matsuri is absent so frequently that he isn’t even shown that often in the manga so we can see the craziness he is getting into outside the game! Everything was a build up to nothing!
What makes it even worse for me is that the floor completely goes out from under the potential of a good story. Rakuichi was a really interesting, messed up character in the first volume. I was looking forward to him developing and growing as a person so that the story could really take off and be about teamwork or something solid like that. Instead, all potential for character growth is squandered. Rakuichi is magically even more egotistical and self-obsessed than before! He’s a down right annoying, sickening character. Then we come to the games themselves. The team never practices, half the member never show up for the games, and Rakuichi is insufferable. Yet they keep winning! This isn’t a shonen trope where the good guys always win…this is just relying on that trope to keep the story going. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, in this story that can somewhat warrant these outcomes. I was getting sick of it while reading! I was impatiently waiting for them to lose a game so they would be out of the tournament and maybe something interesting with the characters would happen.
To round off this absolute mess is the ending. What ending!? The story moves to a part in the plot and then leaps ahead 6 months. Then we get a chapter that is building up to the next big event in the story and then the final chapter takes place two months after that and things just happened. In the past is when these things happen and we are informed of these things by the characters reminiscing about them. Then there are particular events that are revealed that make even less sense! The sad part is, the manga knows it is being ridiculous. The characters comment quite a bit about how nonsensical and absurd the ending is but it never felt like a big joke to me. It just felt sloppy, rushed, and not all that thought out.
In Summary
I feel kind of embarrassed that I liked volume one of Sasameke. I like crazy manga and volume one was wonderfully wacky and that allowed me to look past the terrible artwork. Volume two is the biggest disappointment I could have imagined! The story got so terrible that I couldn’t ignore the art. The art got even more terrible to where I could barely read the book! The final pages of the book tease that a sequel manga, Sasanaki, was made. If it ever came out here I might check it out but at this point I am left with a very sour taste in my mouth and RyujixGotsuba will have to do something pretty great to wash it out.
Content Grade: D+
Art Grade: D-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: C+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: June 21sth, 2011
MSRP: $20.99
