CITY, 4 by Keiichi Arawi Review

So CITY is basically my favourite new comics title!

There wasn’t much I disliked about this fourth volume so I’ll get those minor gripes out of the way first. Niikura chasing Mimineko who’s stolen her pendant went on a bit too long. The Where’s Wally?-type finale – while creative - really brought the momentum to a screeching halt and didn’t add much. That’s it!

(As a total aside, I had a cat growing up called Mimi so I was pleasantly surprised to see a cat called Mimineko appear in this book. In Japanese “neko” means “cat” – I had a Mimi the cat in real life and there’s a Mimicat in this book! They look nothing alike but they share a mischievous nature.)

The main story is Nagumo and Nice Man getting kidnapped by the wealthy Ms Tanabe and being taken to one of her towers in her mansion for a slap-up dinner and awards celebration for being awesome. Ok – a lot of CITY’s plots are completely absurd so you’ve just gotta go with them! Asking questions like “Why…?” won’t get you anywhere! And they’re really so funny that it doesn’t matter.

Nice Man wants out of the awards ceremony because he’s too nice and humble – Nagumo wants the opposite because she’s the opposite! To get out of it, they must go through each floor of the tower – with names like The Chamber of Math Hell and The Chamber of the Blood Lake – and defeat each boss. If they lose just once, they must “endure” being pampered in a luxury spa and fed delicious food! Except each floor’s boss is a total idiot who screws themselves over without any help from anyone, much to Nagumo’s increasing annoyance, and it’s too funny.

The schoolkids – Matsuri and Ecchan – are normally the weakest part of the series but they were pretty good in this one. Ecchan mispronounces words in a country bumpkin style. I know – that’s all? Yes – and trust me, it’s plenty! None of the storylines sound substantial at all – an entire class tries to make a dozy student’s lunchtime nap as comfortable as possible, one of the football team discovers a mythical snake-like creature, a trio of local business owners fail to find someone and get drunk instead – but Keiichi Arawi’s comic timing and melodramatic treatment of such seemingly-banal material puts them in a class of their own.

There’s a lot more that tickled me funny bones but I won’t list them off here, and it’ll sound like more nonsensical raving anyway. As you can tell, I’ve fallen hard for this silly comedy manga and I’m highly recommending it as an enjoyable, genuinely funny and crazily imaginative comic.