Sleep Is For the Weak

PG-16/18 for adult topics and some pretty blunt handling of sex; official series website

I’ve been pretty hard on the domestic anime and manga industry for giving us nothing but wave after wave of the same derivative crap. Yes, I know that Japan is filled to the brim with shounen fantasy adventures where a young boy takes on forces greater than himself but still manages to triumph after turning enemies into friends, friends into enemies, and learning important lessons along the way and shoujo romances set in a high school with a strict hierarchical system where the new transfer student turns everything on its head, even the protagonist’s heart (also, everyone is a vampire). But that doesn’t mean that we need to read more than one version of the same story. In theory, only the best of the best should be translated and released in North America, but it sure doesn’t seem that way every week on my comic book store’s new manga rack.

That’s why I’m a big fan of Viz’s Signature line. These are titles that Viz has decided are in some different class from the rest of their manga - manga that try to do something new or at least differently. (Ed note: I’m pretty sure Viz’s Signature line is a natural evolution of their old “Editor’s Choice” line; in both cases, the titles involved are mostly seinen.) Sure, it means that the books are a bit more expensive, but it’s worth it. They’re bigger than the usual tankobon style that most domestic manga are released in, and with fancy french flaps and sturdier construction. But what I like about the Signature line is that Viz is saying to me that these titles are worth a look. This is a great system, and I wish other companies would adopt it. I doubt they will, because having a product line like this actually requires licensing good content, which seems to be very difficult for most companies.

So far the best Signature title is solanin (I’m not counting Ozama Tezuka’s Phoenix, because just like how they don’t count Shakespeare for the bestsellers list, you can’t judge people against the absolute classics). Solanin is, for lack of a better word, indie, both in terms of its context and style. Plot-wise, it follows Meiko, an office girl who quits her job after it becomes unbearable and settles into a year of lazy unemployment, and her boyfriend Naruo, a part-time graphic designer who’s trying to get his old college band to finally cut an album.

But what solanin is really about is that age in your life when you’re done with college and come to the horrifying realization that you have absolutely no talents or skills that separate you from every other person on Earth. When I realized this exact thing, I ran screaming to grad school and never looked back in a desperate search to avoid the real world for as long as possible.

The great thing about solanin is that it doesn’t go for the obvious route and take some kind of nihilistic view of the subject, where the characters bemoan how cruel life it. Only beatniks do this, and no one likes beatniks, not even their own parents. Rather, it simply shows real people trying to make a real life devoid of the usual conceits of the genre.

Unlike other manga about music, like Beck or Sensual Phrase, the entire point of the manga is that is the band - Rotti - isn’t particularly good or special. Like most aspects of the characters’ lives, it was kept going more out of inertia than for any reason in particular. The band is a metaphor for their lives; it’s nothing special but it keeps them entertained and gives them something to look forward to once in awhile. Maybe if they worked really, really hard, and with a bit of luck, they could have a bit of success, but they don’t want to invest that much effort.

The art in solanin is glorious - a perfect seinen style. It’s amazingly detailed and well-rendered; the backgrounds in particular are some of the best I’ve ever seen. It has a more Western feel than most manga out there. It can almost be mistaken for an American/Canadian comic, except for the fact that the art is much better than most Western comic art.

Not that the book doesn’t have some problems. I had a hard time keeping track of some of the characters. Some pop in, say something important to the plot, and are never heard from again. I also thought that the plot twist halfway through came out of left field. When I came upon it, I had to stop, think “wait, what?” and actually skip ahead a few pages to make sure that I’d read things right. The author does make good on the twist, leading to a great conclusion, but it was just a bit too sudden for my tastes. But these are really minor complaints.

Educated impression: Solanin is just a great manga. If you’re looking for something new and different, but not crazy in the way that most new and different things are, give it a look. And keep on looking at what comes out under the Signature line - so far nothing in it has failed to please. (Bad Jew)

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