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Title: Cosplay Koromo-Chan
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents have nothing to worry about in regards to content. "Cosplay Koromo-Chan" is squeaky clean, despite the absolutely stupid Teen rating Dr. Master has decided to bestow on this book. On the other hand, this book is FAR more stupid then most kids can comprehend, so maybe that Teen rating was slapped on because the publishers were thinking of the kids. Isn't that sweet? |
In the anime and manga world, there is one type of fan most of us more "mature" fans would love to pretend doesn't exist. That type of fan is the cosplayer. Cosplayers are much like Trekkies, in the sense that they dress like their favorite anime characters, reenacting their favorite scenes, and sometimes being a general pain in the butt to people who just go to conventions to shop and meet the editors of their favorite books. Some cosplayers are fun, and do interesting things with the costumes they make, but other times they are just annoying. When you have someone who is dressed like Inu-Yasha hanging out in front of the local bookstore all day pretending to be the character for everyone else to see, then I think that person has got a SERIOUS problem. Sometimes when you see someone taking cosplay more seriously than they should, you make a joke at their expense, and everyone gets a good laugh most of the time.
But does this form of humor lend itself to a whole book? I'm not convinced it does. Mocking cosplayers wields about as much fun as mocking Trekkies and whatever they call “Star Wars” geeks: it's funny for a moment, but ONLY for a moment. To mock too much gets tiresome and, in some cases, mean-spirited. However, "Cosplay Koromo-Chan" is a book that attempts to take an "on-the-minute" joke and make it work for a whole book. The end result is simply dreadful. It has been a long time since I read something so dreadful that I couldn't even finish it, but "Cosplay Koromo-Chan" fits that bill. The book was written by "Mook Presents," and I'm not sure whether that's the person’s real name (those Japanese are crazy sometimes) or if it's a surname the company came up with because no one wanted credit for this mess. I'm personally leaning more toward the latter. "Cosplay Koromo-Chan" is not a story-driven book. It's basically a comic strip collection in the same form as "Peanuts" and "Garfield." Yet it's a comic strip that offers no laughs, no smiles, and no sense of joy. It's just a collection of poor sketches trying to be funny, and failing miserably at doing so.
The basic storyline of "Cosplay Koromo-Chan" revolves around Koromo Amanoha, and in case you couldn't guess from the title, Koromo is a cosplayer. She's so much of a cosplayer that she shows up to school everyday in a new costume. Koromo's friend Haoru makes Koromo's costumes. Since Haoru makes the costumes, the teacher overlooks Koromo's dress code-breaking wardrobe on a daily basis since Haoru is the teacher’s pet. That's about it, really. Okay, so I kind of expected the story to be a little iffy in the first place. After all, how many comic strips in the American newspapers (save "For Better or For Worse") have actual storylines? Yeah, not a very long list, is it? So with that in mind, I know that I am grading "Cosplay Koromo-Chan" based on its humor level. And on that level, "Cosplay Koromo-Chan" commits the most horrible, most despicable, most dishonorable disgrace of them all: it's not funny. At all. You will not chuckle when you read this, you will not smile, you won't even nod your head in mild understanding. You will just read this book and be bored to death. The artwork is also horrid. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to expect from a gag manga, but what I see in "Cosplay Koromo-Chan" isn't good. The artwork isn't funny either. I'm not sure it even classifies as real art. It's flat, lifeless, and just there to break up word balloons that contain no text that is worth reading.
I'd post screenshots of the artwork, but the artwork is so poor it would be a waste of my time to scan it, and a waste of your time to see it. Just look at the cover posted above, and imagine that character looking even more simplistic in the actual book. Is there anything good about this book? Yes; the book is a few inches taller and wider than most manga books out there. Whoop-dee-doo. With that in mind, I give you my most basic evaluation: don't buy this book.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -