ワンダンス 9

ワンダンス [Wondance] #9

by Coffee

カボと壁谷はB-BOYのバトルの大会「OVER THE PAST」当日を迎えた。B-BOYの独特な熱気で満ちた会場からカボがプレッシャーを感じていると、壁谷は言う。「今日は結構ワクワクしてんだ」高校対抗バトルで熱戦を演じたカボと壁谷。2人の2on2が始まる! 一方、アッセイの作品に参加する湾田は、先輩ダンサー・莉音からアドバイスを受ける。練習を通じてお互いを知っていく中、話題は湾田さんの「好きな人」の話に……。

Genres: Manga

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2022

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanda is still off doing her crew thing and Kabo’s partnered with Kabeya for their first b-boy competition as a team. It’s very much some time apart, but that’s not to say they aren’t on one another’s minds despite that.

Give me all the volumes of this series. With a dang good story and those eye-popping dance sequences, this is one of the most eclectic books I’m reading right now and it’s all the better for it.

I can easily see how this art style wouldn’t work for people, being so stylized, but man do I ever love it. As long as this continues to be such a visual feast for my eyes, I doubt I’ll let it have less than five stars. It is so unique to look at, but easy to follow.

And Coffee knows what they’re doing. Amidst all the usual movement, there’s a specific sequence of Kabo dancing, you’ll know it when you see it, that just blew me away. It’s legitimately one of the most fluid things I’ve ever seen on a printed page.

Elsewhere, Wanda manages to make a new friend with somebody who looked like they were going another direction with, which is a nice touch, largely because said person can tell that what looks like a potential romance at their gig is anything but.

This gives space to discuss the stagnating romance between Wanda and Kabo, which is turning out to be actually really well done. There’s a lot less ambiguity to this, at least as far as Wanda is concerned, and I appreciate that it’s not a matter of figuring themselves out. It’s a question of if they even should.

Yeah, it’s a little more practical than most teens often are, but these are two driven individuals who have their own goals that may not even align any more and that would be a hard blow for both of them. It’s a really great angle to take on the tortured path of manga romance.

The b-boy competition is pretty solid and also showcases Kabeya in his turn from competitive enemy to new found friend, as is the way of the manga narrative. Still, his personality hasn’t changed all that much and he’s an emotional punk at times, although points in his favour to how he reacts to Kabo’s revelation.

Kabeya thinks he’s very clear about what he’s saying and when and to whom, but he tends to shoot from the hip and not reflect much on the potential consequences of his actions. Which is how he ends up destroying a phone and making a nemesis in one go. The ‘I never said that’ before being shown that he did, in fact, say that gets his personality across in a single sentence.

It’s something new for Kabo to play off and they make for an interesting team. We’ll see how the climactic bout goes next time, but there’s something fun about moving through the usual beats (cough) of a battle sequence in a dance competition setting (see also: food competition manga).

So you have the action I love, character development that really works, a great spin on the romance, all to the usual standard. The only thing that doesn’t land well is the boys’ team name, which the translator does their level best to get the running joke across to the English audience, all power to them, but it doesn’t quite work.

5 stars - as usual, this thing just kills every time. It doesn’t move fast off the dance floor, it really wants the reader to marinate in those bouts, but it never feels like it’s dragging. The rare long form story I can say that about.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He loves me, he loves me not" is not what I'm looking for from this manga, though I do like Kabo and Wanda's interactions a lot. They're still in separate realms for now, but they're still on each other's minds, and that's working just fine for me. It's more realistic than close quarters (and accompanying claustrophobia, for me) for the entire thing. It'll make their reunion as dancers even better. :)

What I'm here for remains the stunning, vibrant depictions of various forms of street dance. While I can't easily connect the songs named in the dance sequences directly to the moves performed by the dancers, the art has a unique expressionistic energy that draws me in every time. Translating dance and performer-audience energy to a whole different medium must be a Herculean task. Author "Coffee" graciously thanks several people he consulted during the making of this volume.

My favorite scene during this volume was when Kabo finally shows Kabe his phone with the informational screen showing that he has a stammer. It was a moment of vulnerability for him, and Kabe responds in a way that's very appropriate for him. It's sweet that Kabo draws people to him who see him as Kabo, and not "Kabo, the guy with the stammer," even if that isn't how things would be likely to play out in real life.

[Isabell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels as if there were a gap in the narrative during this and the last volume. E.g., Rine and and one of the protagonists were not friendly before and this, inexplicably, has change in the meantime.

[Snail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful movement in this volume.
Love seeing Kabo’s growth and how his quiet, gentle personality comes through in his dance.

I miss Wanda—though it’s fun to see her bond with female characters, and I am enjoying the friendship developing between kabo and kabe.

[鯊 · Rating 4 out of 5]

沒時間建頁面所以先直接紀錄：續集第10(2023/02/21)集我看了。