Sleep Is For the Weak

Oh, definitely PG-16 crudeness in here; amazon website

Dear Ai Morinaga,

Long time reader, first time writer. I just wanted to say that I think the simple, tame humor of My Heavenly Hockey Club doesn’t represent you at all. That’s a Del Rey title, it has a bunch of volumes, and your art is updated and lovely. It’s about silliness and cuteness and what’s most likely to sell to a wide audience. But you’re not really about silliness and cuteness, are you? No, you’re better represented by The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry-chan, a twisted little manga with varied art published through Media Blasters, a little book about sadomasochism and weeping animals and boy’s love (kinda?). I can see that you find the archetypal sadistic hottie schoolboy with glasses funny, especially when he’s hitting people and anally violating his pet frog. You like to make fun of other manga, like the most ridiculous of boy’s love (kinda?), and you like to make jokes that girl mangaka are usually too dignified to make. You’re crude, aren’t you? And you love it. You think bestiality is funny. You think a boy who claims to not be gay but still gets off hurting other boys is funny. And you like pee jokes, don’t you?

Well, maybe the average shoujo reader isn’t your average reader, but your pee jokes are embedded in such biting satire, such unashamed funniness, such devil-may-care cruelty that you make me laugh like a crazy person. Your true colors are dirty, mean, and so, so funny. I love you. Please make more manga, and please let the English-speaking world have its own copy.

Love,
Lianne

Initial impression: P.S. I think more people would like your manga if they just gave it a try, especially if they left their preconceptions about shoujo manga behind.

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