{"id":42948,"date":"2018-04-02T21:07:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T01:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=42948"},"modified":"2018-04-03T07:44:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T11:44:49","slug":"jq-magazine-manga-review-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2018\/04\/02\/jq-magazine-manga-review-city\/","title":{"rendered":"JQ Magazine: Manga Review \u2014 \u2018CITY\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

“If nothing else, CITY<\/em> is a reminder that big city chaos can be entertaining.” (Vertical Comics)<\/p><\/div>\n

By<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Rashaad<\/em><\/strong> Jorden<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(<\/em><\/strong>Yamagata<\/em><\/strong>–<\/em><\/strong>ken<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, 2008-10) <\/em><\/strong>for<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>JQ<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. <\/em><\/strong>A<\/em><\/strong> former<\/em><\/strong> head<\/em><\/strong> of<\/em><\/strong> the<\/em><\/strong> JETAA<\/em><\/strong> Philadelphia<\/em><\/strong> Sub<\/em><\/strong>–<\/em><\/strong>Chapter<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em><\/strong>Rashaad<\/em><\/strong> is<\/em><\/strong> a<\/em><\/strong> graduate<\/em><\/strong> of<\/em><\/strong> Leeds<\/em><\/strong> Beckett<\/em><\/strong> University<\/em><\/strong> with<\/em><\/strong> a<\/em><\/strong> master<\/em><\/strong>\u2019<\/em><\/strong>s<\/em><\/strong> degree<\/em><\/strong> in<\/em><\/strong> responsible<\/em><\/strong> tourism<\/em><\/strong> management<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em><\/strong>For<\/em><\/strong> more<\/em><\/strong> on<\/em><\/strong> his<\/em><\/strong> life<\/em><\/strong> abroad<\/em><\/strong> and<\/em><\/strong> enthusiasm<\/em><\/strong> for<\/em><\/strong> taiko<\/em><\/strong> drumming<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em><\/strong>visit<\/em><\/strong> his<\/em><\/strong> blog<\/em><\/strong> at<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>www<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong>gettingpounded<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong>wordpress<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong>com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Work often gets in the way of fun times. But if you incorporate some creativity into your life, that doesn\u2019t have to be the case.<\/p>\n

Enter the world of Midori Nagumo, the protagonist of the comedy manga CITY<\/em><\/a>. In this first volume (which began serialization in Japan in September 2016) from creator Keiichi Arawi<\/a> (Nichijou<\/em>), Nagumo is a very broke college student whose landlady is constantly hounding her for money. Her roommate Niikura refuses to lend her money when she realizes what Nagumo\u2019s true intention is.<\/p>\n

Nagumo has to resort to other avenues to raise money, such as stealing a clay figure with the aim of selling it. But she clumsily drops the object, rendering it shattered. Crazily enough, immediately afterwards she\u2019s offered a job at a restaurant (where the incident happens).<\/p>\n

Our protagonist accepts the job but still has issues. It doesn\u2019t help that her landlady has a police officer help \u201cmove\u201d (or steal) all of her stuff so she wouldn\u2019t escape (as the stolen items are actually collateral). In the middle of the volume, Nagumo reflects on her life, telling herself that if she could continue to have lots of happy moments, she\u2019d be unbelievably thrilled with her life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Even a job doesn\u2019t prevent craziness from happening\u2014not surprising because she complains about the struggle of wanting to do something fun. Speaking of craziness, the story concludes with Nagumo barging into the office of a magazine after Niikura mentions an issue of that magazine contains \u201cgirl power tips.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChaotic\u201d would be a fair term to describe Nagumo\u2019s life. That word might also sum up the series in general. CITY<\/em> contains its share of amusing (if not bizarre) moments, such as the landlady and Nagumo engaging in a wrestling match after the old lady accuses the young woman of not paying rent. In addition, a guy\u2019s \u201clucky item\u201d from a daily horoscope turning out to be a short skirt would classify as an oddity.<\/p>\n

At times, reading the dialogue will leave you scratching your head because it\u2019s uncertain where the book is taking you. There are a couple of chapters in the book when it\u2019s rather unclear what happened (or who the subject of the dialogue is supposed to be). Even the order of the manga appearing in this volume leaves something to be desired. Nagumo\u2019s first day on the job appears later in the book when you get the impression that she would be starting at the restaurant much sooner\u2014after all, one of the main themes is how she plans to juggle life with a job along with the temptations of big city fun. In addition, the conclusion of the Arawi\u2019s work will have you scratching your head. It\u2019s quite unclear what\u2019s happening as the thought of \u201cthat\u2019s the end?\u201d popped into my head upon finishing the book.<\/p>\n

Maybe the disorder is quite fitting: Nagumo is seemingly never certain of how life will play out, so why should the book play out in an orderly fashion? If nothing else, CITY<\/em> is a reminder that big city chaos can be entertaining.<\/p>\n

For more on CITY<\/strong>, visit http:\/\/www.vertical-comics.com\/books\/city_01.php<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

For<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0more<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>JQ<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>magazine<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0book<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0reviews<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>click<\/em> here<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Rashaad Jorden\u00a0(Yamagata–ken, 2008-10) for\u00a0JQ\u00a0magazine. A former head of the JETAA Philadelphia Sub–Chapter, Rashaad is a graduate of Leeds Beckett University with a master\u2019s degree in responsible tourism management. For more on his life abroad and enthusiasm for taiko drumming, visit his blog at\u00a0www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com. Work often gets in the way of fun times. But if you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[75,4,40,12,291,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-articlejournalism","category-books","category-cartoonillustration","category-jq-magazine","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-baI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42963,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42948\/revisions\/42963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}