Nami Sano

I have made a point to borrow as many manga from my local library as possible. This decision was fueled partially to fray the costs of buying hundreds of volumes a year, but also as an attempt to get the library to purchase more manga titles. One of my recent borrows was Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto Vol 1 by Nami Sano, a manga in a genre my husband refers to as ‘strange people doing strange things' but but would also fit into the wonderful 'beautiful boys who do things well' genre.

The story is about Sakamoto, a high school boy who is good at everything. He’s good a great student, a great athlete, and is good at a wide variety of hobbies. On top of that, he’s very clever, always able to get around any situation that may arise in creative and surprising ways. This manga follows Sakamoto through his school days.

The view point this manga is told in fits the story beautifully. We never quite see the story told from Sakamato’s point of view. It is most often told through the eyes of those around him. Those who hate him, those who would try to use him, those who admire or adore him – it is through them and their interactions that the reader gets to know Sakamato.

Sakamato is a very skilled individual, seemingly good at everything. He’s good at schoolwork, sports, and he’s attractive. Needless to say, this leads to some people worshiping him while others want nothing more than to show the world that Sakamato is human just like the rest of us and concoct plans to do just that. This, of course, is easier said than done. Humorous situations abound in this manga as people try to one up, use, or humiliate Sakamato to no avail.

There isn’t much in the way of character development as far as Sakamato is concerned. But those around him do grow. The change in the side characters who we see the story through is very apparent. Nearly everyone Sakamato comes into contact with is changed in some way. Sakamato himself, however, remains much the same throughout the manga.

There is not a terrible amount, if any, overarching plot to this manga. However, I don’t think it really needs one. This is a comedy, with one humorous, slightly unrealistic scene popping up after another. The volume is rather episodic with different chapters telling different stories surrounding Sakamato. It’s fairly fast paced and very easily digestible.

Many school based manga have art that is enjoyable and clearly speaks to talent, but doesn’t have the sort of detail and nuance that something such as, oh, a high fantasy based on beautiful settings, would have. Simply put, that type of attention to detail and background is often unneeded, with focus on expression or storytelling filling in that void. But the artwork in this manga falls clearly outside many of the usual norms I find in school setting manga. Backgrounds are fully drawn, not falling into the stark white backdrops often found in shojo titles. Faces are expressive, and detailed. The illusion of movement is beautifully drawn with several pages in particular standing out, the most notable of which shows several characters moving around a fire.

Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamato by Nami Sano is a series I’ll be continuing with. Though it may not have much in the way of an overarching plot, it is fun nonetheless. If you like lighthearted comedy and a more episodic structure to your manga this is one title you’ll probably want to check out.

This review originally found on Looking Glass Reads.… (plus d'informations)

Excellent! It's just like the anime. Sakamoto is this ridiculous character that everyone either loves or hates. He's great a literally everything. So much so that even the people who hate him for it, eventually begin to fawn over him like the people who love him.

We literally know nothing about him other than the fact that he's awesome. He's never caught unawares, people who try to prank him end up having it turned around on them, he knows the answers in class, he helps people.... It just...he's absolutely ridiculous, larger-than-life. The whole thing is just hilarious. I'm glad I got the manga. There are little editions that aren't in the anime. Little comments and actions that basically expand on the anime.

I think this review sounds ridiculous, and it probably does, but in my defense, I'm at hour 21 of a 24-hour readathon and I think I'm bordering on delirious. Plus the whole this is just insanely funny. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next volume.… (plus d'informations)

Sakamoto tutors Yoshinobu (the bullied kid from volume 1) while deftly avoiding and finally defusing Yoshinobu's amorous mother. Then Sakamoto outwits a teacher bent on believing he's trouble, even managing to add the teacher to his list of admirers due to a kind act he performs. Then there are a few shorter episodes: dealing with a slug in cooking class, drawing a classmate in a way that manages to be both flattering and insulting, and saving a classmate during a fire drill (?). The volume ends with a group of delinquents pursuing Sakamoto and always just missing him. As they try to find him, they hear about his past mysterious exploits. Then there's an incident involving a delinquent trying to pick a fight with Sakamoto and ending up in a bizarre push fight against him.

I don't know why I requested this. I shouldn't have. I disliked the first volume, which I felt had too much an "uncanny valley" feeling to it to truly be funny. I mean, this series is supposed to be a comedy right? I'm not misunderstanding?

I had similar issues while reading this volume. I'm sorry, but Sakamoto makes my skin crawl, and I can't bring myself to laugh at the situations he deals with. I wonder if a different artist would change things. Technically, Sakamoto and the things he does aren't that different from the occasional humorous bits in Black Butler, where Sebastian accomplishes seemingly impossible feats in order to properly serve his master. I love that stuff in Black Butler, but it doesn't work for me at all here.

The first part of this volume was particularly awful. Yoshinobu's mother struck me as a pitiful woman, and I disliked that the volume seemed to be asking readers to laugh at her and her efforts to corner Sakamoto. Not only that, she was attempting to molest a teenage boy - not something I'd consider good comedy material.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (plus d'informations)