Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Family Complex by Mikiyo Tsuda review

Family Complex

Author/Artist: Mikiyo Tsuda

Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing

Rating: T - 13 and up

Genre: Shojo, Comedy, Slice of Life

Grade: B+

The Sakamoto family is known for being exceptionally beautiful with the exception of Akira. He feels out of place because he sees himself plain looking. This book contains stories following all members of the Sakamoto family. We first see how Akira handles being the ordinary member of "The beautiful Sakamotos." We then follow Harumi, a 17-year old high school and Akira's older brother, through a day in the life and how his beauty makes him feel like an outcast. After Harumi we are introduced to Natsuru, a 16-year old high school student and Akira's older sister. She attends an all-girls school and is showered with gifts constantly. She looks like a young teenage boy and so she attracts a lot of attention from the girls. Her story involves her past and how she has a hard time relating to both boys and girls. Fuyuki, 10-years old, is Akira's younger sister. She has the tendency to over think things and so she has a hard time relating to those around her. We finally arrive at the parents story, Nanami and Hidetoshi, both age 41. The opportunity to see how the two of them met is quite the story. Towards the end, in the afterwords, we get to see how things are going with all these characters that we have grown to love.

The main stories are quite enjoyable. The story for Natsuru has a yuri twinge to it, which isn't quite my thing. Tsuda-sensei could have done without the Detatched Retina Diary. There were a few humorous anecdotes but with it in the middle of manga was kind of a let down. For the most part this is an enjoyable manga. I saved the best part for last. If you remove the dust cover (this is a DMP publication) there are bonus panels printed on the front and back covers!

***Review Copy purchased at Borders***

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