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Book Club - by Suhaili

Comedy - Book Club

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei manga review

February 5th 2010 07:00

Firstly, before I start with the review, I would like to apologize here for the lack of updates here. There are a lot of book reviews that I'd like to share here but I simply don't have the time to write it here as I haven't even finished reading some of the books. As you can see here that I've been writing manga reviews. I also have thought of writing business related book that I've read but I'm not sure whether to write it or not. So feel free to give your thoughts about it. I have no idea when will be the next update but I'll do my best to update this blog

Anyway, let's proceed with the review. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is written by Kouji Kumeta. This manga has also been adapted into an anime with many titles - Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. You can read Sayonara Zetusbou Sensei anime review here, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei anime review here, Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei anime review here and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei anime review here. Just to let you know that these reviews are written by me.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Kouji Kumeta, manga

Genres: comedy, slice of life

Theme: school, suicide

Synopsis: revolves around a very pessimistic high school teacher named Nozomu Itoshiki who tries to hang himself on a cherry blossom tree. Despite his best efforts, he is saved by a very optimistic girl known as Kafuka Fuura. She explains to him that it is simply unforgivable to hang himself on a day such a nice day, especially in front of such beautiful trees. She decides to nickname Nozomu "Pink Supervisor," offering to pay him fifty yen to do so. After having enough of the strange girl, Nozomu bolts to the school and starts his homeroom class, but the attempt was in vain as he finds that the girl is one of his students.

Comment:

To be honest with you, I haven't finished reading this manga yet but I just find it really amusing with this manga. The anime is really great because Itoshiki Nozomu's personality is really alive but the manga version isn't so bad after all. Somehow, I just felt that the anime seems faster so sometimes I don't seem to grasp the whole agenda but with manga, you can actually takes time to understand what sort of dilemma he faced (even though I admit his dilemma is totally ridiculous).

As far as the storyline is concerned, of course the storyline is tad similar with the anime but I'm not sure with the later parts of the storyline (let me tell you again that I haven't finished reading this manga yet). Initially, the storyline concentrate on introducing his students (where most of his students have weird habits) but I believe that the later parts of the storyline is a bit fuzzy where the storyline has become random. If my prediction is right, it's just the same with the anime version. What I actually mean random is rather than concentrating on a narrow scope of life, the storyline also focused on social problems occurred in Japan. Well, not necessary Japan alone but it can be throughout the world.

If you think that's boring, reread again how wacky the storyline in the beginning. The wackiness is just the same like in the beginning so you can also expect that whenever they talk about these serious issues, there will always be wacky illustrations and wacky expression. So, at the end of the day, it doesn't look serous after all.

Apart from that, what I really love the most about this manga is definitely the artwork. I might have missed this point in anim but in manga, I'm very much amazed with how you can actually see every single details perfectly. Well, you can say the artwork can be crowded but the details are perfectly.....well detailed. As far as the artwork is concerned, I believe this manga has the best artwork I've ever seen.

Have a look at the artwork yourself here:

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Kouji Kumeta, manga, scan

Overall, this manga can look pretty much normal on the surface but it's actually not. If you have been diligently watching the anime, you know that it's not the typical comedy anime or mnaga you have encountered. So yes, this manga rocks for its wackiness. Give this manga a try even though you're not really a fan of Kouji Kumeta.

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Yakitate!! Japan manga review

July 24th 2009 05:14

Yakitate!! Japan is a manga created by Hashiguchi Takahashi. This manga is also adapted into anime. You can read Yakitate!! Japan anime review here.

Genres: action, comedy

Theme: cooking

Synopsis: Azuma Kazuma, an energetic and dense young man, was introduced to the art of bread making when he was six. He decides to take the path of bread-making and become a baker right after graduating from middle school. Through his travels, he encounters many rivals and found work at the branch store of the most famous bread maker brand, the Pantasia.

Source: Anime News Network

Comment:

Well, as much as the storyline is concerned, I find that the storyline is very straightforward so you can understand the whole plot at a glimpse when you read this manga for the first few chapters. Yes, it's hilarious to hear Azuma is calling whatever bread he has created with Japan no. (insert the number here) even though the bread is obviously common to us such as croissant. With his dense attitude, this manga is truly enjoyable to read.

Now, if you have watched cooking-based anime such as Cooking Master Boy, you would expect the same thing in Yakitate! Japan. This is absolutely true because this manga also reveals the baking techniques that Azuma used. Initially, the story is all about the typical bread that we know but as the plot expanded, there will be more unique looking breads as the story progressed. If you're worried that the manga is boring because it only shows you the typical normal bread you've seen in the bakery, fear not because those unique-looking breads will fill your imagination.....and at the same time will make you feel hungry! I have to admit that the reaction shown whenever someone eats the bread can be over-exaggerating, but I think this is normal for this kind of manga to produce that kind of reaction. Those reactions are weird but it's actually giving you clue about the bread itself.

Since this manga is also adapted into an anime, I can only say that most of the storyline follows exactly like the manga but the only difference is that the anime has skipped the a few later chapters so you'll missed a little bit of fun here. It's worth watching the anime but if you love explicit content (not much actually), you can always read the manga to spice things up. What kind of explicit content is something that I don't want to explain here so you can always check this manga yourself.

Finally, the artwork. The artwork is amazingly neat with the nice panels and there are also a self-explanatory of certain jargon somewhere near the panel, I can only say that it's pleasant to my eyes. Take a look at yourself here:

Overall, I love this manga because this manga really expands my knowledge about bread generally (since I don't know the name for the breads I've seen). Besides that, there is also an explanation on how you can make a bread using a rice cooker and most importantly, this manga has a very good and easy to understand a storyline. I have to warn you that you need to read this manga after you had a very heavy meal. Otherwise, you'll wet your mouth because the breads are really appetizing XD.

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Does My Head Look Big In This?

February 10th 2008 09:10

A while ago I wrote an article about Randa Abdel-Fattah, click here to see what I had to say and how much I've back-peddled with this review. It's not that I disagree with my optimistic appraisal of Abdel-Fattah or her inspiring status as a potential role-model for young Australians, but what I am at odds with is how excited I sound at the end of said article in regards to reading her debut novel, Does My Head Look Big in This?. I was wrong to be excited. The book sounded good, and Abdel-Fattah's skills as a public speaker (no doubt honed by her dayjob as a lawyer) helped sell the book to me. In light of now having read the actual thing I have to admit that the book isn't actually all that good. Which is a shame, especially as so many people recommended it to me.

The basic premise of Does My Head Look Big in This? seems to be to do Looking for Alibrandi with Muslim-Australians instead of Italian-Australians. The main character, Amal, is a 16 year old muslim girl at a predominantly white-bread anglo-Australian private school. One morning she wakes up and decides that it's time to wear the hijab, the scarf that muslim women wear to cover their hair as part of their faith, and the book follows the consequences of this amongst her friends, family and peers at school.

There are various subplots that pertain to what it means to adhere to the islamic faith within Australian society and the book deals with themes of cultural and social identity and all that jazz. Abdel-Fattah works to dispel many myths about Australian muslims and islam in general, and she writes with a breezy, easygoing style in the hope of making it palatable to the average teen reader. The book has won a lot of praise for it's educational qualities and politcal correctness, and I think a few schools have picked it up as a classroom English text. It was roughly 30 pages into the book when I first had to suppress the urge to spew.

I'm sorry, and I understand the need to combat the common mainstream perceptions of muslim-Australian society, but Does My Head Look Big in This? takes it all too far - offering an embarrassingly politically-correct, squeaky-clean story with a heroine crafted far too self-consciously to the author's designs to educate the assumed bigoted masses of white Australia. I fear she may have been preaching to the converted - those who need educating the most are those who wouldn't touch this book with a 3 metre barge pole, and those who willingly pick up a book with a quirky rom-com style muslim girl on the front probably aren't all that prejudiced to begin with either. Amal comes across as too infallible and overly precocious rather than the headstrong smart-arse she describes herself as. The continuous rallying against the misconceptions of those around her get very tiring to read and after a while it feels like a bad fish-out-of-water sitcom or disney film where the put-upon protagonist teaches her co-stars (in this case mainly made up of up-tight anglos and anglo-wannabe muslims) how to live life and love it.

Maybe my own atheist leanings made it impossible for me to be less than heavily-subjective as this is, after all, a book about remaining faithful to one's religion. As a result I found all the hoo-haring hypocrisy about Amal liking some guy to be terribly overdone and overwrought, and at the end of the day I just found it to be as alienating to me as all the anti-muslim attitudes probably are to the author. I really wanted to like this book but every page of the way I found it a struggle and full of too many subplots with too little substance, and when I reached the last few pages I wasn't convinced that anything of any consequence had really happened since the novel's beginning. In light of this, a more apt title for this book would probably be Muslims are OK, as this is pretty much all the book has to say. Who knows, maybe I just can't read predominantly-girly teen-fiction... there's bound to be at least one whole genre of writing I don't like, and maybe I just found it. That doesn't really excuse my misgivings about this book though, but it should at least dissuade me from reading any other books like it in the future!

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High Society

January 9th 2007 08:15

'High Society' is one of comedian-turned-novelist Ben Elton's more popular and resonating books. From my perspective, which is by no means a definitive one, I'd say it was the point where Elton became (primarily) a writer. Sure he'd written quite a few books before, and good ones too, but it was this book's widespread success that marked the height of his talents... he pretty much reached his pinnacle as an author on this one, and has enjoyed commercial success with each novel he has released since.

'High Society' is an ambitious work for something so unashamedly aimed at a mainstream audience. Elton focuses on several characters, each one with a wildly different viewpoint into the world of drugs. It's like a British version of 'Traffic', only sometimes very funny, and altogether more forthcoming in the way of offering solutions to the drug problem. The primary plot of 'High Society' is driven by one Peter Paget, an obscure backbencher who is given an opportunity to introduce a new law into Parliament for discussion. Paget seizes his long-awaited chance to propose a legalisation of all drugs. It's an proposition that has a lot of enemies. The other politicians and media are in an uproar, but he has unlikely allies, one of whom is a high-ranking member of the police department, and it soon begins to appear that Britain may become the first country in the world to legalise all drugs...

It's not an entirely new idea, but Elton manages to imbue each and every page and character with life, wit and forthright arguments about whether drugs should or should not be legal. Elton doesn't just talk about the many ways a country might benefit from the legalisation of drugs, he shows us. He gives a view of all levels of the country's drug trade... from the scungiest and lowest level of prostitution and scumlife drug-dealers to the hypocritically cocaine-high journalists who seek to denounce and tear apart politicians like Paget for their own ends. Elton shows us all these aspects of society and the fall out from Paget's proposition through the eyes of several characters, most entertainingly of which (for my money) is the Robbie Williams-esque popstar Tommy Hanson, who endearing snorts and drinks his way through groupies, Alcoholic and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, the media, and various other hangers-on.

'High Society' is a highly entertaining and interesting book from Elton, and marks the meeting of his two previous styles, with Elton utilising his contemporary on-the-pulse comedy and marrying it to his earlier, politically-futurist 'what if'-scenario freewheeling. It makes for an excellent book that could've been a spectacular failure in the hands of a lesser writer, and Elton mixes the right amount of tragic and funny into it all to ensure that it never gets too depressing or flippant. And at the end of the day? He makes a good point, and the realistic ending is a familiar reminder of western society's flawed priorities. One of Elton's best books.

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Lolly Scramble

December 15th 2006 03:41

A friend of mine leant this one to me earlier this week, and I gotta say - wow. I really tore through this one, read it in a day. It was that good. I mean, I've always been a fan of The Late Show and Tony Martin, so I knew I'd like it - I just wasn't prepared for how well-written this was or what sort of book it would be

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Looking for Mr. Right

December 6th 2006 06:35

I read this book today. It cheered me up some. Normally I hate these kind of gifty books, usually because they're full of new-agey, pseudo-philisophical crap that makes my brain leak out of my ears in frustration. Thankfully, this book wasn't one of those

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Men Behaving Baldy - The Book

November 15th 2006 04:34

'Men Behaving Badly' was a comedy series that was voted as one of the best sitcoms of all time in Britain, and it ran for about six seasons (seven if you count the final special episodes). It was shown in Australia as well, and also had a bad American version made of it (starring Rob Schneider). I'm a huge fan of this show. Basically, it's about Gary - a real arsehole and generally pathetic man who manages a small security firm in Croyden by day, and becomes a 'drunken lord of misrule' by night, when he isn't breaking up with his long-suffering girlfriend Dorothy. For most of the shows' six or seven seasons he is joined by Tony - a somewhat more jolly character, though equally as badly behaved. Why is this being talked about in a blog about books? Well, the show actually had it's start as a novel

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The Alphabet of Manliness

October 19th 2006 11:08

Maddox (real name George Ouzounian) is perhaps best known for his phenomenal website 'The Best Page in the Universe' - a satirical, side-splitting and completely politically incorrect series of articles, cartoons and rants aimed at pissing on the moronic, overtly left-wing, easy offended, conservative and pretty much anyone else you can think of (The Best Page in the Universe). To put it simply, he's my kind of guy

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Can I Ask you a Personal Question?

August 21st 2006 06:23

Books and parties aren't exactly synonymous. In fact, you might even say they were exact opposites... but sometimes a handy little book with a good gimmick can help break the ice.

"Can I Ask You a Personal Question?" (how to REALLY get to know your friends) by Jonny Steele is this exact book. It can be useful for grilling your partner, some friends or getting a few laughs from a large group of people. It contains 1000 pertinent questions that can be asked of anyone, and - so long as nobody lies - it can be a lot of fun. The back of the book says of these questions, "Many are amusing, others are thought-provoking or even a little embarrassing. All will help you get to know yourself, your friends and your lover better

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FHM Bar Room Joke Book

July 26th 2006 09:22

Let's be honest here, most joke books are pieces of crap. Generally, when I come across a joke book in a bookstore, it's full of lame watered-down jokes that typically get trundled out month after month by your most annoying uncle. Even the so-called 'Adult' joke books or the 'Politically Incorrect' joke books are sanitised to the point of sanitising all the fun out of them.

FHM Bar Room Jokes

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Blast From the Past

July 18th 2006 05:03

Blast From The Past, by Ben Elton

'Blast From the Past' is one of Ben Elton's shorter books, and another damn fine $5 bargain I managed to pick up when my local Collins bookstore got taken over by Fox's 'Unleashed' bookstore brand. Like every other Ben Elton book I've read, this is both an amusing and thought-provoking read that seemed to fly by

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Dead Famous (Big Brother)

June 8th 2006 05:11

Dead Famous by Ben Elton

If there's one show that personifies reality TV it would probably be Big Brother. Somewhere in the vicinity of forty countries have made their own versions (more if you consider that the African and Pacific Island Big Brother shows are made up of several countries), and the media has been fascinated with the phenomenon for over five years now and doesn't seem to be letting up. It's with this in mind that I consider Ben Elton's timely satire 'Dead Famous' to have dated very little some five years after it's original publication. And unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your opinion of reality TV) I think it will be a valid novel for a very long time.

'Dead Famous' picks up on a fictional Big Brother-styled TV show. We start the story with some detectives, who are reviewing back tapes of the past 27 days of the show to look for clues... for someone has been murdered on the show and no one knows who did it! And the housemates have decided to stay in the house with the murdere, and they don't know which of them did it either

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