Translucent Mini Review (manga)
December 11th, 2007 by Nothayama
PG-13 for teenager issues; official series website
Translucent is the story of a girl who turns invisible and the boy who loves her despite this freakish deformity. That’s pretty much all there is to say about the plot of this manga. The two volumes that are currently published in English are padded with romantic hijinks and random humor – the setup and pacing of the comic are very similar to another seinen romantic comedy for the 18-25 male set, Love Roma.
Only, you know, bad.
There are tons of stories out there that manage to be funny and engaging and interesting without much ever happening. Almost every love story is, in part, about the small things that bring two people together and the little problems that keep them apart. For a story like that to work, though, its characters can’t be generic and they definitely can’t be boring.
The main girl’s translucent disorder is supposed to be a metaphor for her feelings of invisibility and unimportance, but she doesn’t act like a person who goes unnoticed by the people around her. Instead of building a character with actual problems, the manga-ka decided to fall back on the old seinen cliché of the sweet, shy, demure girl and leave it at that – all the while pretending that he’s being deep by beating us over the head with a physical invisibility metaphor that isn’t even reflected in the character’s personality. Would a girl who feels passed over and unnoticed have a random boy beating down her door by chapter two, and professing his undying devotion halfway through the volume? Would she have no trouble communicating with the loving family and friends who surround her? Wouldn’t dealing with some of these issues make the comic seem, I don’t know, like it was worth the time it takes to read it? The male lead is hardly worth mentioning – I assume his good-natured stupidity is supposed to be charming, but it just comes off as annoying.
Also, Dark Horse is trying to claim that this is a shoujo manga. Manga publishers, learn the difference between a shoujo romance and a freaking moé seinen, please! If the manga-ka’s a man and the main girl’s a walking fetish, it’s probably not a comic aimed at girls. Is it really that hard?
Initial impression: Don’t bother. (NotHayama)