HIBIKI: SHOUSETSUKA NI NARU HOUHOU

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

• 

  LittleBig

  30/100
  A manga about the literature industry which ironically commits just about every mistake a good novel should avoid

  Emulating the gratuitously pompous and cheeky style of the eponymous main character, I'll go right out and say that this manga is lame as fuck.

  Continuing with said style, to add some vague and vapid criticism so that people will believe I actually have something of value to say and am not just throwing a trite analysis around to sound smart, the main problem with this manga is that it abuses our suspension of disbelief to a point it becomes not only annoying but borderline ludicrous. It's like reading an impression of the literary establishment through the lens of a complete outsider, who never before set foot on the endeavour of writing a novel. And, considering this manga commits about every mistake a novel should avoid, that is not surprising.

  Now to the actual review: the problem starts right away with the main character. Mind you, she's not only a very capable writer who can very well face up to some of the best of her generation, no: she's this kind of unbelievable, unearthly talent who's incapable of committing a mistake and leaves anyone who reads her words utterly flabbergasted. At the beginning, the editor did point out that her style was rough, but that little fact was just ignored through the story to universal appraisal. Nevermind that even the greatest novels of all time all have flaws and are not continuously great, and some didn't even impress critics when they were first published and only found acclaim years later: this 14yo girl has just produced a flawless work. Really, how hard is it to tone down your character to a believable level, especially when writing an artist of a field the author clearly has no experience with?

  The manga claims that Hibiki's novel "views on life and death" (whatever that means) and hazy nostalgic feelings are what makes it special, however we are never given any kind of reason to believe there's anything remotely special about the way Hibiki thinks or see the world or about herself, because all she ever does is act like a complete asshole and an overaggressive bitch who should probably be put into a restraining jacket. It's like the author's impression of how a "true" author should act like came right off a WWE special. She also claims to read a novel a day like that's supposed to be impressive, which makes me think the author completely missed the point of reading.

  The thing is, she's a boring as hell character. It's no wonder the only reason people around her find her interesting is the same reason they would amuse themselves by seeing russian car crashes on YouTube. She's basically an on/off switch character with no relevant personality; only the off part is slightly broken, since she's either wreaking havoc or being less but not totally not-an-ass all the time.

  The problem with a lot of manga authors is that they deem enough to tell rather than show. In this manga, we are constantly told how amazing Hibiki is, but we are never shown any reason to really buy any of that, especially since we are not ever given a word of what she actually wrote (because that certainly would be the final blow to our suspension of disbelief). If anything, all we are shown is that she's unstable as hell and should seek professional help.

  Actually, character is mostly absent here. Rika is the only character who's any close to interesting or can convince us she's a decent writer, and even then she's just reaching average. Her novel idea is actually pretty evocative, rather than the dull and vague "life and death" that we get about Hibiki's. To be fair, only the two of them plus the editor have any relevance at all in the story. There's another guy whose whole deal is being a massive creep, but it has been 37 chapters and we still have no idea what relevance he has to the story.

  The art is terrible. Not much to say about it, anyone can see that. And even then, for some reason, the author thought it a brilliant idea to give every female but Hibiki a cleavage so sumptuous it completely disrupts any attempt at anatomy. It's like seeing the drawings at the back cover of a 13yo's notebook.

  The manga also adheres to the "deal with it, wimp" philosophy of some seinen manga, but different from Asano's harsh realities, all it accomplishes is being artificial and, at most, cute. It's almost offensive seeing that flat (in both senses, if you may) 14yo girl who acts like your usual and annoying rebellious teenager teaching adults how to live life. If anything, Hibiki is that kind of person whom life has never teached any valuable lesson.

  Really, what makes me the most surprised is that this manga actually won an award.

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