VOTE: Manga Review of the Month - May/June 2021

[ellymate]

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Only one entry, so it's an auto win, please vote a and share your opinion

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Review #1

Manga Title: Game Shop BL (Game-ya BL)
Manga Artist: Higefusa
Manga cover picture:


Review:

First of all, I have to say I was really glad I stumbled upon this gem. This is a slice-of-life story crossed with somewhat fantastical/supernatural elements, with a good balance of humor, drama, and pop-culture/game references. It has 4-koma pages (that link together) as well as regular pages.
What I like about stories are the new elements they bring that let me learn something new. Not every story can do this, since depends on what one has personally seen before, but Game-ya BL manages to do this with the elements of game design and development. I could tell, just by reading, that the author had personal experience in the game development industry (and the author's bio seems to confirm this) in the way they write about the workflow process, the types of people working there, and how they react to different work demands.
This story brings both a down-to-earth and a supernatural twist to the "transported to another world" and "inside a video-game" plot elements. In the later portions of the story, one can definitely see a theme addressing the philosophical concepts of free will versus divine intervention.
Anan Naoyoshi is an optimistic and emotionally open salary-man (love a honest man who can cry), while Takeshi Orono (Nobu-san) is an older, down-to-earth, and no-nonsense gruff lead planner at the game studio. Even the side characters like Anan and Nobu-san's coworkers are entertaining and interesting people (and we also get to see the main characters' family in later parts of the story).
The art was what initially drew me to this story, because its style reminds me of a fun and casual comic: practical and entertaining at once- but the plot and story elements are what kept me reading on, because I just wanted to see what came next.
Try it!

[frano]

Thanks so much for the review, I havent read Game Shop BL yet. Its on my list and I look forward to it.