Just a day with the girls.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kosuke Fujishima
Translation/Adaptation: Stephan Paul
What They Say
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Hatsune Takanashi is a girl of simple tastes. Curry and friends are among her favorite things, but more than anything, pudding is her true love in life. She’s begun her new high school life at Kitsuka Academy, an all-girl boarding school high atop a mountain, and is looking forward to making new friends and eating some great food. Hatsune is guaranteed to have new and exciting experiences, but with a grade-schooler house mother, a mean rival who uses fermented soybeans as her weapon of choice, and a foreign exchange student who doesn’t seem to understand how clothes work, her new school life is sure to be interesting…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Kosuke Fujishima is best known for his manga classic Oh My Goddess!, and while I’m vaguely familiar with the premise of that, I had no idea what to expect with Paradise Residence. The back cover quickly lends itself to “slice of life with girls” which made me hesitant; as a girl, these slice of life stories never seem particularly realistic. I don’t know that Paradise Residence is particularly more realistic than others in its portrayal of actual female friendships, but it turns into a pretty pleasant read.
Like a lot of these slice of life stories, your enjoyment and investment in the series for the long haul is going to completely depend on how you view the main character, and in Paradise Residence’s case it would be the goofball Takanashi. The first chapter has real risk of falling flat and isn’t the best starting point, as we find out all Takanashi’s stereotypical quirks — goofy, oversleeps, and likes pudding. She’s not much different than a lot of other heroines (Usagi from Sailor Moon pops into my mind) and if that immediately puts you off, no one can blame you. But, if you stick it out, the story starts to warm some; Takanashi has genuinely funny moments — like trying to find the dorm mother that everyone else has seen but her — and it begins to feel like one silly sitcom full of girls. There’s not a lot of depth here admittedly, but in some ways that a part of the charm. There are no huge arguments or pained backstories or romantic entanglements; the girls like one another, always, everyone like Takanashi despite her quirks, and there’s a general sense of “we’re lucky to be together here.”
There are plenty of other girls and women in the series — the goofy Hatsune and the stereotypical blonde English-speaking Stephanie for example — but they can admittedly sometimes be hard to tell apart. While I like a lot of the dynamic between other girls and Takanashi, the lack of depth also means they can be a bit one note. It keeps the series pretty light in general, but it’s a double-edged sword.
Kodansha has released a brick of a first volume as an introduction, chock full with almost an extra half of volume of bonus content. This includes a sort of “volume 0” that collects numerous one-shots released prior to Paradise Residence’s eventual serialization. In some ways it would have been better to stick these cuts at the beginning of the volume, as they provide more context to the character relationships than the first “real” chapter provides. We also get to see how some of some of the character relationships and dynamics changed in-between. Other bonuses also include color art from the series, and you really get the sense that Kodansha went all out on this omnibus release.
In Summary
Paradise Residence, while not necessarily worth clamoring over, is a nice, light slice of life that I would recommend. Part of me hopes we’ll get some basic backstory on at least some of the girls but I don’t necessarily expect it; sometimes it’s just nice to see a group of people consistently get along.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: March 15, 2016
MSRP: $13.99
