TRASH

by Sanami Matoh

Will Anderson is the nephew of a modern-day Al Capone. But when he runs into a man and his pet penguin in Central Park, Will's life turns complicated! He is swept up into the "business" of the Trash Company, an odd-jobs outfit whose main work involves stolen jewels and a whole lotta trouble!From the creator of FAKE comes a hilarious action-packed comedy filled with gangsters, guns and cute guys!

Genres: Manga, Fiction, Action, Graphic Novels

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2006

About the author

Japanese: 真東 砂波
Also read Sanami Matou.

Reviews

[Fenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tl;dr: the story, characters, and pacing are a complete mess, but it's entertaining to read once if you can handle the chaos.

So on the one side we have a family with ties to the Italian mob. Will is the mostly innocent nephew in this scenario. On the other side we have an "odd jobs" company which cleans houses to stake them out and then steals riches on their return. Guy is with this group for unknown reasons.
The book contains two plotlines, one about a corrupt mobster and one about an orphaned boy and his aunt. I liked the second story, the first less so.
Regarding the chaos: a pet penguin, tiny girls drawing guns from nowhere, nonsensical personality switching, being utterly food-motivated, ending on a kiss for no reason.

2.5 stars. If you want a proper Matoh introduction, go for Fake.

[Kimchi]

DNF

[Francine · Rating 3 out of 5]

11 February 2017:

Pros: the story is entertaining, the pacing and paneling are good, the character design and art style are distinguishable, and the action sequences aren't bad either.

Cons: the introduction (that thing with the hotdog) is weird, the penguin doesn't add anything to the plot, Crosse is a deus ex machina character, the kiss at the end was abrupt and appears to break with the genre, and this was obviously supposed to be the first volume in a longer series that never took off.

Overall, even though the cons sometimes pulled me out of it, I liked this volume. I kind of wish there were more.

__

12 February 2020:

I like the concept of this manga, but the execution doesn't align with what I'm looking for. (It almost feels more like manwha?)

Because this series was cancelled so soon, a lot of questions are left unanswered, and that really brings down the score for me. Who is Crosse? Why is there a penguin? Was this series supposed to be BL? We'll never know.

It's not bad per se, I just wouldn't recommend it. There are a lot of really great manga out there that you should read instead of this.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sanami Matoh has one of my favorite styles. This is yet again another masterpiece. The only bad part is that apparently the series got cancelled before it could really develop. This leaves you feeling like nothing was resolved at the end of the volume. Besides that it was really good. Matoh-sensei writes good female characters, a rarity in the boys love genre. She has good dialogue, plot, and interesting characters. I really enjoy her work.

[Emily G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted this as soon as I saw it was to be published because I am a huge fan of FAKE by Sanami Matoh and I must admit this didn't disappoint, there was even a hint of shounen-ai at the end! The only thing is, are there going to be more volumes? There were a lot of questions raised especially about Will/Crosse.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because it's Sanami Matoh, mangaka of the famous and lovely series FAKE, and aside from liking her art style, I also like her way of telling a story. She didn't disappoint with Trash, although, I wish it was longer than one volume.

Definite Matoh style of storytelling and character interaction. A fun read <3

[Ingenue · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Sanami Matoh's women; I HATE the total lack of plot or meaningful resolution in this.

[Arlene Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have made a great series. It was wonderful but it felt like a throwaway - ends abruptly and is way too short.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this a lot. I wish there had been a sequel or series.

[Ericka annamarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

sadly this book is not a part of the series. it's very funny and has a lot of mystery and you'd think there'd be more to it but so far it has only been the one book.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Trash is an unfinished series by the author of Fake. Taking a cue from Get Backers, we have a motley assortment of characters doing odd jobs. It's your typical criminals with a heart of gold but the writing is solid and there are some interesting twists.

Story: Will has a connection to the criminal underworld he would like to forget. When he inadvertently becomes involved with an 'odd job' crew, his life is about to take a new and very odd turn. Add in jewelry heists, confidence jobs, and a very large penguin - and you get a very unusual series.

It is stated that this was supposed to be an ongoing series but the author had to commit to other stories and therefore never got around to finishing this. As such, this first volume is all that has been published and can be considered unfinished. That is unfortunate since it seemed to just be hitting its stride when it abruptly ends.

We have the usual BL archetypes but the focus is on the characters rather than plot or interactions. It's a diverse set of individuals each with their own over-the-top motivations and interests. Main character Will is unfortunately rather dull and the typical 'clueless but with a big heart' kind of guy who falls in with the wrong people (who end up being the right people, natch). Everything else in the story is rather incidental to creating crazy characters.

The giant penguin is a throwaway (it felt so random) and there's nothing really new under the sun here. But the action is done right and the denouement of the 'trash jobs' is always quirky and unexpected. It's a shame it was never followed up by the author.