Psy na mangę, tom 1

GDGD-DOGS #1

by Ema Tōyama

Podczas gdy inne 15-letnie dziewczyny martwią nadchodzącymi sprawdzianami w szkole, pierwszymi miłościami lub temu podobnymi sprawami, Tezuka Kanna musi martwić się goniącymi ją terminami oddania kolejnych rozdziałów i ciągle spadającymi wynikami jej mangi w ankietach. Czemu? A temu, że Tezuka pomimo swojego młodego wieku jest już profesjonalnym mangaką! Gdy dowiaduje się, że w jej szkoła organizuje kurs rysowania mangi oczywiście od razu się na niego zapisuje... choć gdyby wiedziała, że w wyniku tej decyzji będzie musiała wziąć pod swoje skrzydła trzech chłopaków marzących o tworzeniu mangi to zapewne postąpiła by inaczej! Każdy z nich ma bowiem bardzo dużo zapału do pracy lecz nic poza tym. Czy uda jej się coś z nich wykrzesać i zmusić do narysowania czegokolwiek? No i czy nie ucierpi przez nich jej własna praca?!

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor, Shojo, Romance, Young Adult

Paperback

First published October 6, 2011

About the author

Japanese Name: 遠山 えま

She made her debut in September 2003 in the monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi with her story, Tenshi no Tamago ("Angel's Egg", no relation to the anime movie of the same name). Gokkun! Pūcho is considered her best representative work. Tokyopop has licenced it under the title Pixie Pop. All of her works are published by Kodansha, and they are enjoyed mainly by preteen and teen girls. None of her series have yet become anime.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

The school is so bad it doesn't even have teachers. So, three clueless mangaka wannabes ask Kanna, the one girl in class who has already debuted, to teach them. She doesn't really want to.



If you're a big manga reader you'll get more in-jokes and references to famous mangaka (for instance, all the characters are named after one, usually related to Tokiwa-sou) but it's fun even if you miss that element.

[Mehsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short review for the complete series (all 3 volumes).

Another one of my bargain hunt manga volumes. :P Well, at least 2 and 3 are, I had to search for 1 so I could read this series.

The series about a mangaka, well, she just started and just debuted and is pretty much doing badly, named Kanna. She starts with a manga course at a school, and meets 3 hot, but very stupid and annoying guys. And thus the adventures of this group begin.

I have to say I was a bit annoyed with the guys at first. The first volume especially I just didn't like them that much, though I warmed up to them, and in volume 2 and 3 I just liked them a lot. They were still idiots, they were still annoying Sensei, but they were also sweet, helpful, determined, and wanted to help Sensei and make their dreams come true as well.
I also loved how much difference there was between the three of them. Yes, they were good looking, but each one had a totally different personality.

Kanna, well I did like her, and it was quite interesting to see her work on her manga, but also see how she handled things like covers, her manga getting compiled, see her try to get her manga not get cancelled (then again, I wonder why it wasn't cancelled sooner). Sorry for that last part, but we do see a bit of her manga, and it looks badly drawn at times, the story is terrible, and I just can't imagine that this has been going on for months, and even caused her debut. I guess that is the whole point though, as the only ones who truly like the manga are the guys. And they just like it because they like Sensei, and they are impressed she reached so far already.

I was worried there would be romance between the guys and the girl, but thankfully that doesn't happen (sorry all those who were looking forward to it). The girl is totally not interested in 3d, only cares about 2d characters, even celebrating the birthday of one 2d character.
And even if she cared about guys in real life, she probably wouldn't have glanced at the guys. She finds them mostly annoying and thinks that they are idiots (which they are).

I am not sure who thought a manga course would be a good idea, and I also expected a bit more from it, but instead it is mostly them doing nothing at all. :| I had hoped for lessons, for some information, for some fun things, but instead it was just bland and not there.

Still I liked the story. Still I loved the characters. Still I quite like the art, though it was a bit rough at times, and the eyes especially creeped me out at times.

I did enjoy this series, and I can imagine why it is only 3 volumes. The story is complete, the story is done. They could continue, but I quite liked how this one made the circle (that started at the first volume) complete (considering the story she now has to write/draw).

I would recommend this series if you are looking for a silly manga about manga. And if you don't mind annoying characters. :P

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com

[Bibliothecat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review for complete series



15-year old Kanna has already made her first debut as a mangaka and has just signed up for her school's new mangaka course. She prefers the world of manga and thus leads a very anti-social life - her main motivation for joining the course is to have a legitimate reason to work on her manga while at school. Unfortunately, she is joined by three boys who have scarcely ever held a pen in hands but who are dead set on becoming mangaka. When they realise that Kanna has already made her debut, they decide to make her their teacher.

I'd say Manga Dogs is an ok manga and will highly depend on whose hands it falls into. This is comedy and parody pure - there's not an ounce of seriousness to it. And that's perfectly fine if you know what you're getting into. But the premise and Tōyama's other works can easily make you expect some form of romance going down here (note: there's zero romance in this manga).

This series consists of very short chapters, all of them presenting typical aspects of manga fans and creators in a humorous and often over the top manner. A lot of the jokes were indeed funny and I think avid manga readers can relate to it. I think my personal favourite episode must have been when the three boys unknowingly found themselves in a BL aisle and Kanna desperately tried to get them out to, in a sense, preserve their innocence (note: she didn't succeed).

I think the main drawback of Manga Dogs is that it relies on humour entirely. Kanna and the three boys are rather precious characters but there is zero growth for them or the plot. By the end of the story, the boys still haven't really learnt a thing about drawing manga and Kanna's career doesn't progress (note: she's always ranked last or second last). It's all good fun but the lack of plot makes it a very slow read - there are only three quite thin volumes and it feels like forever to get through them.

What's not a drawback is the art - it's Tōyama's at her best; very nicely drown characters, super cute expressions and hilarious chibis. While I don't think his manga is for everyone, it can be quite fun if you know what you are getting into.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty average Toyama for me. Of the three series of hers I’ve read thus far, I would definitely put it below Aoba-Kun and Vampire Dormitory. This is cute but it never lives up to its premise consistently enough for my liking (also, I admittedly missed a ton of naming jokes going by the excellent translation notes at the back).

It starts off strong, with our lead character Kanna narrating herself shojo manga style, and some spot-on takedowns of conceptually bizarre manga (Totem Pole and Me still makes me laugh). Kanna’s interactions with the titular manga dogs are usually fun - the story of where pen and ink come from was great.

There are enough good parts to make this worth a read but it just didn’t hit me the way I wanted it too. Still, it hits more than it misses so it’s hard to fault it too much.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a Goodreads Give Away many years ago

[ayanami · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comedy about a girl who enrolls in the manga program at her school and gains three idiotic disciples. It's basically a gag manga with no real plot. Funny and cute but not charming enough to make me pick up the following volume.

[°⋆. chaos ࿔*:･ ୧ ‧₊ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, it was nice. But I just couldn't get myself to finish the entire volume. It was just too slow for my liking. But I loved the characters (especially Specs Delusion hahahah) but I just got bored of it. Trust me, I pushed myself to reading it but I just couldn't push myself no longer.
3/5

[Zach Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won the giveaway for this book, it was fun and witty, if you like ema tōyama you'll like this book

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Normally I love this mangaka, but this story didn't progress at all. The characters aren't likeable, and the same basic scene is carried out again and again. I'm not interested.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the worst of the reverse harem genre but hardly the best.

Short summary: Loner Kanna Tezuka is one of the few members of her high school's (failing) manga major, she is determined to learn how to improve her skills, anything that'll mean her manga doesn't get dropped from the magazine that publishes it, while also keeping the fact she has already debuted a secret. However, when Fujio Fujio, Dan Naisen Shota and Mitsuo Akatsuka join the major her plans are thrown into disarray. The boys are eager to debut simply as quickly as possible and when they learn that Kanna is published they start viewing her as their teacher. Hanging off every word she says.

So first the good: The comedy is actually handled pretty well, some of it flies over my head not being a native of Japan or knowing as much about Japanese pop culture but the physical comedy is well timed and tends to hit more than it misses additionally none of the boys fall into the more abusive tropes of the genre, they are all at least genuinely good guys.

The not so great: Each chapter is a short self-contained comedy story which neither further the plot nor adds any character development. Any development seen is usually meant to be the set up for a punchline that subverts the idea any of the characters have changed in any way. There is also no romantic chemistry between Kanna and any of the boys, she is very much not into them, and since she's the PoV character it's made plain in her thoughts she finds them more annoying than anything else. This does make some of the fanservice or romantic scenes more uncomfortable than anything else since Kanna is also very clearly uncomfortable. This is way more subjective but the art style also isn't the most polished, which doesn't necessarily mean a manga is bad, after all, One's series One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100 were still wildly popular when they were still just web manga in One's own art style, but Manga dogs really doesn't have the same phenomenal storytelling behind it to back up a less than amazing art style.

Conclusion: There is some potential hope with the last chapter of this volume introducing a new character which throws a wrench into the current dynamic but I'm not really holding my breath. Overall it's just an okay title, not worth really roasting but also not something I'd really recommend to even other fans of the genre.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This manga is about a Manga class that starts up at Kanna's school. Little do the other students know, she has already debuted! Kanna plans to use school time to work on her published manga series, but when three pretty boys show up asking her how to draw manga, she doesn't know what to do! Keeping her secret and teaching some guys to draw manga who are in it for money rather than the art itself will prove to be a challenge.

I picked up this manga at a used book store and thought it looked interesting and different, but it is actually kind of boring and plain. The plot is very dry until the very end when someone steals Kanna's manuscript, but the main plot aside from the last five pages does not have me wanting to read the next volume. On another note, the art is fantastic and the genre is interesting, focusing more on a career rather than high school drama or romance, so that was a nice change.

[78sunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,6 von 5 Sternen
Das war mal wieder nichts für mich. Der Zeichenstil war super knuffig und hat mir daher sehr gefallen. Man kann die Charaktere gut auseinander halten und der Humor, der durch Gestik und Mimik herüberkam sehr genossen.
Der Humor der ganzen Geschichte dagegen hat mich nicht angesprochen. Ich fand alles sehr albern und übertrieben. Die Story an sich, um eine angehende Mangaka und 3 Jungs, die ebenfalls mehr oder weniger selbst Mangas zeichnen wollen, hat mich ziemlich gelangweilt. Irgendwie passierte nicht wirklich was und es wirkte alles sehr repetativ.
Der Manga wird nicht in meiner Sammlung bleiben und ich werde die Reihe auf keinen Fall weiter verfolgen.

[haven ⋄ f (hiatus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was so boring. There wasn’t anything enticing in it.

The summary sounded interesting, so I thought I’d give it a spin. It turned out to feel like extras for a bigger story. It didn’t have an overall story that was compelling or influenced the characters.

The characters were okay, but didn’t have any motive. The art was alright too. It’s just the plot that made this lame.

[Rubi · Rating 2 out of 5]

No plot

I've read Ema Toyama before and loved them but this....idk where it's going. There is no plot, the school isn't serious, the characters want get rich quick schemes not manga, and she has already debuted but is struggling....
Something strange happens at the end but not sure where it's going.
I wanted to love this....hopefully Vol 2 is better 😅

[Jillian -always aspiring- · Rating 3 out of 5]

2020 Read #235

3.5 stars

This was a lot of fun as both a manga-focused story and a gag-filled comedy. I really enjoy Toyama’s series when she doesn’t let things get taken too seriously in the story. It’s entertaining and fun without ever getting too heavy.

[Cristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bastante tostón. Personajes absurdos, historia + absurda todavia pero no tiene esa magia y eso especial que tienen sus otras obras. Este ha sido aburrido de narices..pero lo leo porque lo tengo aqui. A ver que pasa con el 2

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
This was a very funny story about a girl who draws manga and gets stuck teaching her 3 delusional classmates how to be a mangaka. This is a very easy series to pick up and put down, mostly due to the 10 page chapters. It gives us a glimpse, into what creating a shojo manga is really like.

[Yuiko · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really bored of this

[Hisgirl85 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...nice art, but boring and just not for me

[scarlettraces · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5) Toyama's comedy is way more my cup of tea than her, er, non-comedy.

[Madz H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay.

[David Doel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I found the translation notes to be more entertaining than the manga.

[Jacynthe · Rating 2 out of 5]

J’ai dévoré la série Vampire Dormitory de la même auteure, mais ça s’arrêtera au premier volume pour cette série. L’histoire et les personnages ne m’ont pas accrochés du tout.

[Ronin Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really generic, no plot, bad characters.

[Rubencb28 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Download last version in https://actualizar.net/manga-dogs/

[Kathryn Catania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story and its fun to watch the main character deal with her new classmates and a real job.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with a lot of these, it's dramatic and silly teen angst. I liked it some but not enough to read the rest of the series.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was kinda……lame tbh

[Ducket Draws · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very goofy and funny but no real plot trajectory? It felt like each chapter was just the same bit over and over again without anything ever really happen.

[S.Q. Eries · Rating 1 out of 5]

In Summary

Manga Dogs Volume 1 manages to end on a cliffhanger, but I’m not particularly interested in the ultimate fate of Kanna’s manga career. Her unlikeable personality and lackluster work make her a difficult protagonist to root for. Her three handsome classmates give the initial impression this series is a reverse harem, but they mainly serve as a chorus of dumb, dumber, and super dumb. Some of their antics may garner a laugh or two, but on the whole, it’s hardly witty or entertaining.

The Review

Manga Dogs is meant to be a comedy. Unfortunately for Kondansha, its humor tends to fall flat. This is partly because jokes involve a lot of cultural references–in particular, manga references that go back over half a century. For example, character names are twists on mangaka from the 1950s and 1960s. Then there’s the actual interaction between the characters. The back cover blurb touts Manga Dogs as a “sharp-wicked satire of the manga world.” While it does focus on the travails of manga creation, the story is better labeled snarky than sharp-witted.

Because it is a satire, reality gets flung out the window, and the main character Kanna Tezuka enters Tokiwa High School’s brand-new manga major only to find she has a whopping total of three fellow classmates and zero instructors. Kanna’s already made her manga debut and working hard on her first series so it doesn’t really bother her–until her pretty boy classmates start pestering her for lessons.

Kanna’s not the easiest protagonist to warm up to. She’s neither cute nor sociable. She has no friends. There’s no need to cheer her toward the holy grail of publication because she’s already attained that. Although she’s desperate to keep her series Teach Me Buddha! going, her work is so uninspired and subpar I want it to get canned.

As for the supporting cast, they are meant to be a reverse harem. There is the blonde prince Fumio Akatsuka, the serious glasses type Fujio Fuji, and the loli shouta Shota Ishinomori. However, no romance is blossoming between Kanna and any of these three stooges. The boys are deeply passionate about manga and equally delusional about what’s required to succeed as a mangaka.

Chapters are very short (generally ten pages), and most are self-contained arcs. The majority boil down to the boys fantasizing about the glorious rewards they will reap for the manga they’re too lazy to actually create and Kanna alternately losing her temper and mocking their stupidity. Therein lies Manga Dogs main weakness. Whereas other parodies, such as Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, create humor by taking the many stereotypes and tropes of a genre and turning them on their heads, Manga Dogs presents minor variations of Kanna getting mad at the boys unrealistic views, and that gets old fast.

Extras include the opening illustration and table of contents printed in color; translation notes; mangaka afterword; and short bonus manga.

For more manga and book reviews, drop by my blog Keeping It In Canon!