Manga: Happy!

[Augury]

Actually, I also read volumes 1-8 of this just a few days ago. I also agree that the series is really good, and that the title is rather misleading. Happy! deals with a lot of misfortune and struggle... the title could be renamed to be "Are you Happy?"


--story stuff below (spoilers)--


Although I read the eight volumes that are released in one go, the abundance of evil bitches in the story became a bit of a turn-off in the later volumes. I haven't read Urasawa's other works, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are characters that are easy to hate in the other stories. After seeing Choko cook up her nasty schemes chapter after chapter I feel that the mangaka wants me to want her to get caught or beat up. She fits the villian role well... the extent to how far she goes to make life miserable for Miyuki is rather extreme.

The portrayal of the masses is also a bit depressing. On the one hand there are the women that are so easily fooled and manipulated by Choko. Some of them are just plain stupid and their patheticness rubs off against the reader. On the other hand, it seems like Urasawa is making a point about at least some portion of the Japanese public (a criticism?) by their expectations of how someone should act. Some instances that come to mind are the media being angry, suspension from matches for light arguing, middle aged men desiring a cute girl, or gamblers cursing the players instead of themselves when they lose.

I think Urasawa also has a pessimistic view on people's characters as well. All (nearly all?) of the characters have flaws that are made visible throughout the story. The coaches as minor characters stand out to me in particular. They are very selfish; all of their actions are motivated by personal gain. Even her new coach, who seems to be able to actually help Miyuki, is most interested in making money off of her. After reading this far the manga makes me feel sad for many of its characters, especially since (it seems to me) Urasawa appears to be hinting that this reflection of the general public is not too far off from reality.

In any case, despite that all of the material I've written is negative, I thought this has been one of the better stories I've read and I was rather disappointed when I realized I had caught up to the current releases. I think that Urasawa did present a feeling of hope throughout the story so far that is able to hook readers into wanting more.


--end story stuff(spoilers)--


On another note, I tried uploading volume 2 to mangatraders earlier...yesterday around noon. After waiting for 3 hours after step 1 (uploading?) I gave up. Does it normally take this long? The night before I was able to upload volume 4 in about 10-20 minutes.

I already took care of the other volumes, don't worry about it.
-Budweineken