Manga Synopsis

I was checking out some mangas being sold in the local bookshop, and I noticed a trend with the summaries. You know, the synopsis of the story written on the back cover of the manga?

Manga synopsises are terrible. First of all, there're way too many mangas in the market right now, and not many of them are of good quality. (Then again, I'm picky. Which brings me to...) Second, people tend to have different tastes in what they like and what they don't like. As someone who wants to buy a manga or comic book or whatever, I want to know exactly what kind of manga/book I'm getting without having to do research on the Internet.

Some manga synopsises are just too damn generic, ambiguous or nebulous.

"Join the hilarious adventures of an ordinary schoolboy who turns into a magical girl! Takoyaki-kun must protect his secret as he tries to live a normal life with his fun friends."

Okay, so I get the gist of the story, but there are about three other series on the other shelf with a similar magical girl comedy theme. What kind of adventures is Takoyaki-kun having? How is it any more hilariouser than the other (apparently) funny stories I want to buy?

Synopsises with question marks just annoy me.

"Ebiko is a giant robot who battles the evil forces of the Gyudon Empire, but when she's not keeping the earth safe she's disguised as a clumsy schoolgirl! Will she stop the great Gyudon Empire and pass her exams? Will she ever unleash the true power of her Sushibot creator? Will she ever find the meaning of love?"

Stop teasing me, you teasing tease! Besides, the only people who'd ever care about the answers would be people who are already following the story.

And then there're these...

"The manga that spawned the hit anime series is here! Follow the hilarious adventures of the shy ninja boy, Tempura-kun, who has to cope with living with a dozen sexy pirates!"

Manga summaries that capitalise on the existing popularity of an anime series are okay, I guess, but if it's really the manga from a 'hit' anime series, then you don't have to be told which anime it came from. And if you didn't realise that the manga was from the 'hit' anime series, then perhaps the anime wasn't that famous to begin with. Besides, I wouldn't want to buy a series solely because the anime has a million fans or something.

(As an example, maybe the million fans like the hit anime because they like the hot ninja-on-pirate or ninja-on-pirate-on-pirate-on-pirate ecchi, but I'm more into the sexy giant robot-on-giant robot action genre.)

Anyway, as much as I rant, there was something I liked during my bookshop raid earlier today. Check out the cover of Koromo-chan:

http://www.troubleseekers.com/images/copyright/cosplay_koromo-chan_cover1.gif
http://www.troubleseekers.com/images/copyright/cosplay_koromo-chan_cover2.gif

I really like the synopsis - it's eye-catching, creative and more importantly it tells the potential buyer what kind of style or flavour of manga he/she/it can expect. I'm sure Koromo-chan isn't the first manga/comic book to have an illustrated synopsis, but I think it was well done. In any case, it convinced me to buy the book, since it looked precisely like the kind of manga I'd like. It was a good purchase. :D

Well, that's my rant. I know one particular person on this blog plans to publish some mangas of her own, and I wanted to tell her that I think illustrated summaries trump boring text synopsises any day of the week.

On a side note, I think I should make a manga starring a giant robot ninja who transforms into a clumsy school girl and has to hide her secret from her housemates, who are all sexy magical pirates. They will all be named after food because it's 3am, and I'm as hungry as I am delirious.

Will she ever find the meaning of love? That's an obvious yes, because there'll be plenty of hot, sexy giant robot-on-giant robot action.