Aquarium 2000 CPM Press   Buy It Now

Even if the popularity of anime starts to die down, which I believe at this
point, the chances are very slim, there's always manga to fill in the void.
Having talked with a friend recently that works at a video chain, I've been
informed that for the most part, anime seems to have become quite a hit with
females, so the obvious thing to do is get some manga stateside that's geared a
little more towards them. Face it, aside from Betty and Veronica, there were
very few comics in the United States that went for a female audience, but
that's never been the case in Japan. Aside from having titles that appeal to
both sexes, there are also the ever-popular shoujo titles, something that many
have already heard in conjunction with anime series such as Sailor Moon. That
brings us around to Tomoko Taniguchi, someone who definitely isn't a stranger
to the romance genre, and it seems that Central Park Media is banking on
brining the Japanese shoujo genre to a whole new audience, without the usual
blend of magic girls.

Aquarium is a collection of three short stories, all geared a little more for a
female audience but without the atrocious storylines that you'd find in one of
those romance novels that your grandmother reads all the time. However, these
also aren't the super cheerful tales of love and romance, and tend to take on
other attributes for the most part, occasionally trying to take on a more real
life approach.

The first story is entitled, oddly enough, "Aquarium," and tells the story of
Naoka Uchiyama, a young girl who has recently started life at a new high school
having recently graduated junior high. However, Naoka has long had a crush on
one of her classmates, but having failed her entrance exams that would place
her in the same school that he's going to, Naoka has been forced to go to an
all girl's school. She spends much of her time outside of school at a local
aquarium, and it's there that she meets Haruki Usami, and although he tries to
woo her, she ultimately must make a choice on who her heart really belongs to.

"Aquarium" is the longest of the three stories contained in this manga; the
other two, "The Flying Stewardess" and "The Heart is You Kingdom" are shorter
in length. Stewardess tells of Shoko Aoki, a stewardess who meets up with a
former classmate on a faithful flight who might finally give her some romance
relief in her otherwise hectic, but drab life. "Kingdom" focus on Matsushita, a
young girl who has had a crush on Suzuki for a while now, but is far too shy to
say anything. A church sermon brings back long forgotten memories, but perhaps
not just for her.

Again, this isn't the usual brand of overly sappy romance stories, and even
"Aquarium" brings up an attempted suicide, something that comes as being rather
unexpected. For a male perspective, while the stories are readable, they simply
aren't the sort of thing that manages to keep my attention for any great length
of time. I suppose that it could be that these are written for a woman's point
of view, but that's not to say that there's anything wrong with that. A male
romance story usually starts with something like, "Dear Penthouse: I never
though this would happen to me, but."

For the most part, Ms. Taniguchi's stories really are written a bit bland,
lacking the more sophisticated approach to story telling that I'm rather
accustomed to. However, I image that it would be a more difficult to work with
this type of a writing I imagine, and that's why even though you may see a bit
of a love element in mecha stories, but it's never going to take precedence
over the story at hand. Often times as well, the dialog doesn't seem to be too
well thought out, and seems to jump around a bit. In light of this though, I
will bring up the fact that for younger readers, especially if you have a young
preteen girl in your house that's just starting to hit a point of going boy
crazy, this is perfect for her.

The art isn't bad, having a very similar quality to some of CLAMP's work, but
don't go looking for anything too high end either. The characters are the main
focus here, and things like highly detailed backgrounds are almost an
afterthought, and at times, are almost absent. Thought I'm not too well versed
in the shoujo genre, I have in fact paged through quite a number of my wife's
imported manga, and usually after making a crack about there not being psychic
powers or any combat, I have noted that the artwork isn't' necessarily the main
focus here. It's the story.

I really doubt that males will find much appeal here, but for younger females,
and even those that want to read some form of comic aside from US titles, like
The X-Men and all the other super hero titles, although I do know there are a
few of you out there that do in fact enjoy these titles, or simply can't get
into other imported manga, this is the solution here. Besides that, having a
romance manga under your arm is a little more hip than toting around the latest
Danielle Steel novel. It's at least worth a look, but for me, it's just not the
sort of thing I'm into.

-mike-
 

Genre: Romance   Written & by:: Tomoko Taniguchi   Art by: Tomoko Taniguchi   Pages: 200