Loading
Search
▼ KANTA ON MANGA / Count On a Fried-pork Deejay To Lay Down a Sizzling Groove
- Category:Other
By Kanta Ishida / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior SpecialistThe manga this week
Tonkatsu DJ Age-taro
By Yipiao, Yujiro Koyama (Shueisha)
When I finished reading the manga featured this week, I was reminded of the famous phrase: “As beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella” by poet Comte de Lautreamont. Not that I know a lot about surrealism. I just happened to come across this phrase a long time ago in a manga by Mineo Maya.
Age-taro, the eponymous hero of “Tonkatsu DJ Age-taro,” is a languid youth, learning the family business from his father who owns a tonkatsu deep-fried pork cutlet eatery in the backstreets of Shibuya. One day Age-taro delivers a tonkatsu boxed lunch to a club in the Dogenzaka area, and through this experience becomes completely enchanted by club culture.
One night, when dancing and in a good mood, it suddenly dawns upon him that the tricks used by club deejays to “ageru” (raise) the spirits of the guests and manipulate the dance floor follow the same principles and have the same groove as his dad’s “ageru” (deep-frying) of tonkatsu!
“I wanna be a guy who can ‘ageru’ both tonkatsu and customers at clubs!” And so Age-taro started to seek to be the legendary Tonkatsu DJ, a master tonkatsu cook who is also a cool club deejay.
The musical beat is the rhythm of shredding cabbages; both music-mixing and deep-frying require good hearing; and a round tonkatsu plate corresponds to the round turntable. Such combinations may not sound particularly special, but the author of this manga is unusually successful in fusing two completely different things: tonkatsu and deejaying — just like the poet who wrote of the chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella.
I love tonkatsu eateries, but I don’t go to clubs in Shibuya. Nevertheless, I became interested in the job of a deejay by reading this manga. And this is just the beginning. Weird combinations — such as rap with rakugo traditional comical storytelling and Bon-odori dancing with deejaying — appear one after another in this manga, and impress me to no end.
“Tonkatsu DJ Age-taro” has been provided free since 2014 on the Shonen Jump + mobile manga app. Despite this, the paper version sells well, and the “Age-taro” phenomenon is expected to open up possibilities for the e-manga business.
Honestly, I was rather taken aback by the crude amateurish drawings. However, in Volume 5, which is the latest, the lines seem to have been drawn with some confidence, and there are even artistic touches. Ambitious, forceful manga can properly “ageru” the spirits of their readers.
Ishida is a Yomiuri Shimbun senior specialist whose areas of expertise include manga and anime.
Tonkatsu DJ Age-taro
By Yipiao, Yujiro Koyama (Shueisha)
When I finished reading the manga featured this week, I was reminded of the famous phrase: “As beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella” by poet Comte de Lautreamont. Not that I know a lot about surrealism. I just happened to come across this phrase a long time ago in a manga by Mineo Maya.
Age-taro, the eponymous hero of “Tonkatsu DJ Age-taro,” is a languid youth, learning the family business from his father who owns a tonkatsu deep-fried pork cutlet eatery in the backstreets of Shibuya. One day Age-taro delivers a tonkatsu boxed lunch to a club in the Dogenzaka area, and through this experience becomes completely enchanted by club culture.
One night, when dancing and in a good mood, it suddenly dawns upon him that the tricks used by club deejays to “ageru” (raise) the spirits of the guests and manipulate the dance floor follow the same principles and have the same groove as his dad’s “ageru” (deep-frying) of tonkatsu!
“I wanna be a guy who can ‘ageru’ both tonkatsu and customers at clubs!” And so Age-taro started to seek to be the legendary Tonkatsu DJ, a master tonkatsu cook who is also a cool club deejay.
The musical beat is the rhythm of shredding cabbages; both music-mixing and deep-frying require good hearing; and a round tonkatsu plate corresponds to the round turntable. Such combinations may not sound particularly special, but the author of this manga is unusually successful in fusing two completely different things: tonkatsu and deejaying — just like the poet who wrote of the chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella.
I love tonkatsu eateries, but I don’t go to clubs in Shibuya. Nevertheless, I became interested in the job of a deejay by reading this manga. And this is just the beginning. Weird combinations — such as rap with rakugo traditional comical storytelling and Bon-odori dancing with deejaying — appear one after another in this manga, and impress me to no end.
“Tonkatsu DJ Age-taro” has been provided free since 2014 on the Shonen Jump + mobile manga app. Despite this, the paper version sells well, and the “Age-taro” phenomenon is expected to open up possibilities for the e-manga business.
Honestly, I was rather taken aback by the crude amateurish drawings. However, in Volume 5, which is the latest, the lines seem to have been drawn with some confidence, and there are even artistic touches. Ambitious, forceful manga can properly “ageru” the spirits of their readers.
Ishida is a Yomiuri Shimbun senior specialist whose areas of expertise include manga and anime.
- March 11, 2016
- Comment (0)
- Trackback(0)