To start off with, I did like this manga a fair amount. The characters are hit or miss, but they play off each other well. The premise is pretty run of the mill, the only part that elevates it is just how much agency Hibiki is given, even for the main character. It really is her story, and one gets the feeling not even the author could change that.

However, there are some issues with it. The first and most consistently annoying one to me is the emphasis on "talent." This is far from a unique gripe of mine with this manga, it's common across a lot of them. But it seems to posit that writing is an ability you're born with, and if you're not, you can't be a good writer. That's bullshit. Writing is a skill that anyone can master, just like any art. No one is born a writer.

The second problem I have is, ironically enough, this manga is suuuuper wordy. Some panels are just half (or more) speech bubbles. I ended up skimming just whole pages of text that didn't advance or clarify. And while the art is not the greatest, I would have liked to have seen more of it. It did have a certain charm to it.

Lastly is just something that might be unavoidable. I don't read or speak Japanese, and this manga deals with what appears to be traditional japanese literature. What is "pure literature?" The first 2/3rds of the manga deal with it almost exclusively, but after reading the entire thing, I have no idea what it is. The manga tries to explain it a few times but it's entirely unclear. Is this a language/cultural barrier? Could be, but it left me feeling distanced from the story. And that brings up another issue, which is that we never get to see anything Hibiki writes. She gets heaps of praise, to the point of being literary Jesus, but we never get to see any of it.

Overall, if you need something to read, you can do a lot worse than this. It inspired me to try submitting my own stuff to publications again, which is something at least. But it lacks in some pretty essential places. Strong 6 to a light 7

This story is ostensibly about a school-aged genius author, but that part is all Tell, no Show: we rarely see Hibiki writing, and the most we learn about *what* she writes is the story titles and synopses. That's just a deeply unsatisfying and fundamentally flawed way of depicting a story about genius. If you want to write a *good* story about a craft, whether it be acting or writing or volleyball or whatever, you have to be something of an expert on the topic, and the mangaka fails at this part.

What remains of the story is Hibiki being something of a bull in a china ship. She's all willpower and defies any attempts to control her. That part of the story is amusing, albeit somewhat repetitive.

The main character is praised for every thing she does. She can do no wrong. When she's doing anything wrong, it becomes right and everyone else is at fault. If she gets caught, then they instantly forgive her. It's frustrating to read this because of it. Anything an adult says or thinks in regards to her is nothing but praise. Simple wish fulfillment.

By chapter 43: This manga makes me feel uncomfortable because it is trying to do too much all at once. It tries to present the various aspects of an author's world, but it doesn't really dive deeply into anything, and so all these 'aspects' became superflicial and gimmicky. As Hibiki's talent cannot be truly shown, only referred to through via other characters' eyes, her interactions with them are crucial to her own portrayal. Yet after 5 volumes, every character other than Hibiki is pretty much fusing together into one vague, generic persona that has nothing to offer other than being overwhelmed by Hibiki's personality (her talent is just tool to push the storyline). This is terrible because Hibiki herself gets increasingly shoehoned into a rigid heroine position. She carries the blinding 'hero halo' around and can never do wrong. Here, I don't mean that there aren't people like her, who are awkward and violent and stubborn while also extremely good and wise (concerning her area of talent), I mean that her actions, regardless of the right or less right (lol) ones, lead to pretty much the same reactions from everyone around her. Everyone is becoming one dimensional, which leads to Hibiki becoming one dimensional. I keep feeling like the author was afraid to give Hibiki true backlash - those caused by differing world view, lifestyle, personal philosophy, etc. Rika came closest to that, but even then it's over too soon - the closure was made to be much more dramatic than the character's process of inner growth, I felt as if little had happened ?). My speculation for vol 6 is that the media play dirty and shine a bad light on her. If so, everything is even worse, because such types of plot point put her in the victim position - karma element would be down played, because thus far, everyone has been really tolerant of Hibiki. Even if Hibiki learn a moral lesson from that, it'd be a weak one.

As an old man who's been reading manga as a hobby for 9 years, I've learned to never forget that it's an entertainment medium first and foremost, just meant to be fun, and therefore always feeling free, normally, to use the same old settings and stories again and again.

But sometimes a mangaka doesn't, and instead breaks new ground, like here. This story seems to be about, of all things, the production of literature--why and how its creators do it, and ditto for its editors and publishers. This exploration of a world so totally foreign to manga's usual subjects is conducted via a collection of smart and likeable characters, starring above all a firecracker of a teenage writer. If you've been looking for a story about a "strong woman", Hibiki's the real deal.

Characters aside, the drawing is serviceable, that is, sufficiently realistic to convey a story that's firmly set in the real world, and the storytelling is exemplary: It's easy to follow what's happening, who's who, and what they're most likely up to. At the same time, there is absolutely no way to predict what this collection of distinctive people will do next. And above all, Hibiki at this point, 15 chapters in, dominates the proceedings as the bomb who may always go off again at any moment. The suspense is absorbing.

Recommended unreservedly to seinen lovers.

... Last updated on May 21st, 2018, 8:54am

By mangaka style of drawing, it make you think, this is seinen manga. At the same time, people all around are no naive, many weird things happen, and resolve very easy (or even not give you a pressure and go through it like nothing happen - it's a good point in my opinion.). However, it is easy to read and don't pressure you too much.
I like it with the way it is. easy to read. bring you a little smile all the time.

Honestly, this work is really good: thought provoking, decent art, small dabs of humour, interesting plot, awesome protagonist, and so on. It has plenty to say about life, and Hibiki's lack of restraint is often quite satisfying (especially where self-centred jerks are involved). It has just one problem: its portrayal of genius and talent, in fact, I take issue with serval points it has on this topic. These are (without giving anything away), genius, including literary genius, always shows up early; the less common sense, the better the author and the more they have to say; and talent being limited (once you run out of things to say, that's it). While it isn't entirely off the mark, and strong talent tends to come with some kind of unique trait they bring to their work, this isn't always due to an unusual perspective. It could be insight, sensitivity, compositional sense, you name it. Additionally, going back to the same topic isn't necessarily needless: the initial work might not be the final product, a mere change of focus may have significant effects on the exact direction, there might be variations on a theme, the author might be searching for the right product. All of these can easily be seen by looking at the biographies of numerous authors of Literature (or "pure literature," as the manga calls it): while individuals such as Emily Brontë seem to prove the manga's narrow perspective on the topic, there's also her equally talented sisters, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jane Austen, Franz Kafka, John Keats, Natsume Sōseki, and many more. Finally, there seems to be an objective scale of talent in this novel, which is gut-wrenching (besides, the Arts are subjective). Because such statements are all over the place in Hibiki, which I otherwise find captivating, leaves me wanting to logically tear down all of that gammon and spinach to Yanamoto-sensei's face (not that I know Japanese). In summery: tread carefully.

... Last updated on April 12th, 2018, 4:53pm