A deadbeat student dodges her elderly street fightin’ landlady. An impressionable lad is conned into wearing a miniskirt by his cheeky old pops. A newspaper cartoonist about to be unemployed, the Japanese version of Dudley Do-Right and a peeping tom with cameras dotted everywhere for some as-yet-unknown revenge all make up some of the cast of Keiichi Awari’s daffy sit-com CITY, set in a lively small urban neighbourhood - and the first volume’s not bad!
The first half of the book is a bit dull. I wasn’t that taken with the penniless student trying to cobble together the rent money or her landlady’s attempts to get it. The doormat officer is also just meh – the humour was a bit too slapstick-y and kiddie-ish for me.
The series starts to find its legs though as the book continues. The woman who lost her points card was an odd little digression but such a charming story. The whole crispy noodles farce genuinely made me laugh as did the dad teasing his idiot son for putting on a miniskirt and walking around town – that joke got funnier the more it went on! And the student and her mate making duck faces as a potential means for making money was unexpectedly hilarious too.
The first volume’s second half made me chuckle so many times it went from being a duff read to a half-decent one and made me immediately buy the next book in the series. I don’t know yet if this title is all that but if you’re after a silly but enjoyable manga, CITY might be worth a look.
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