Tokyo Love Story – Review

Are you a shojo lover? Then you can’t miss this old-time romantic comedy series, set in Tokyo in the 1980s, which follows the adventures of four boys, illustrating their strengths, weaknesses and love problems. A pleasant rediscovery of the manga by You smoke Saimonquite well known in Japan, which thanks to BAO Publishing it will finally be able to be read by the Italian public too. He will succeed Tokyo Love Story to collect the due appreciation even after all these years? Find out with our review!

Two loves for four

The four volumes of this series tell the stories of as many protagonistswhich mix and intertwine, describing a world made of pleasant routines disrupted by what seem to be insignificant events and daily conversations between peers. Kenichi, Kanji Nagao and Satomi they are in fact three classmates who are emigrated to Tokyo to seek work and fortune, having reached the threshold of twenty years. Nagao in particular was the last to move to the busy city, to work in a commercial agency; here he meets Rika Akanaa colleague with a character almost opposite to his: if the boy is composed, precise, a little shy and very rational, the woman is instead a free spirit, who acts following her instincts and without mincing words.

Rika takes a liking to Nagao, and despite the boy’s apprehensions the two begin to hang out outside of working hours, creating a lively little group with Satomi, the girl with whom Nagao has been secretly in love for years, and Kenichi, his childhood best friend, who is however known for being a carefree womanizer. What could ever happen to the four friends in a capital full of stimuli and temptations? Find out by reading our considerations on the famous manga by You smoke Saimonso captivating that it has already received two television adaptations!

A sitcom without wrinkles

This title reaches the Italian public after several years, in the wake of the rediscovery of unpublished works promoted by the incredible increase in audiences and sales, which last but not least saw the recovery of the now acclaimed success of “The Journey of Shuna” by the same publishing house. The work in fact dates back to the period 1988-1990, and can be felt in the many themes covered: firstly for the “ancient” social complaint on the perception of inferiority of those who come from the countryside compared to city people, where everyone is more open, richer, more modern, even on a relational level; a concept that those who have been reading for a long time know very well, and which decades later has retained its charm.

Secondly, there are all those exchanges of jokes from times gone by (those that raise a fuss when the historical context is not known, a bit like the stories of Carl Barks) which are slightly bad, but functional to the plot: the scene where Rika is compared to a dog when she is calmed down, during various interventions with customers or during discussions with the boss. A series that is therefore as old as can be Nintendo in the background of a cartoon from the second volume, but however current: the desire to grow up as opposed to the desire to remain adolescents, the search for ideal love which clashes with the more frivolous and physical choices, relationships in the workplace and those born by chance. Even the clichés (like that of the notes or the umbrella) are constructed in a realistic and dynamic way, with many situations transferable to 2024 without problems, and this is one typical characteristic of great works.

Relationships in the big city

I just came out with Dear Sacchan that I already find myself with another title full of turbulent relationships: complicated relationships, oscillations between friendship and love, betrayals, all in one small group of acquaintances. The story starts by showing us how the various characters know each other, listing their main characteristics through a series of small and pleasant events, which will have the function of outlining the “teams” of this difficult match. After their introduction, linked to work and character, the implications and machinations begin, which they become more and more casual under the streetlights of the big city of Tokyo, with its temptations. The plots are the ones we all know: affairs, harassment, relationships with clients, jokes, impulse choices, first loves, traumas and memories, in short. everything we learned from the various TV series.

This dynamism shows everything a spectrum of feelings, often related to how the protagonists deal with the relational issue: some seriously, some without any restraint, some with plans and some following the flow, but always with vivid and direct narratives. To enrich the scene there are then all those marginal but real aspects, such as office chatter, the pleasure of gossiping, the malice and uncertainty of everyday life. The author then, in a generally sudden and detached way, throw some pebbles made of anxiety which for a moment spread panic and fear in the reader, before sinking into this pool of lightheartedness: Rika for example, who represents the driving force of the story, seems to overcome all wickedness, envy and jealousy, and even though she remains secretly marked by them , most of the time she behaves like a character capable of cheering up and entertaining, like a stand-up comedian.

A delicate revisitation

As underlined several times, we are faced with an “old” style, far from the majority of current titles, yet perfectly integrated into the narrative: clothes and hair, for example, reveal the whole 80s component of the storyas well as the simplicity of the faces, which also they know how to convey all the necessary emotions with just a few lines. Even the composition in cartoons, although transgressing from the traditional 4-Koma, is fully in line with the period, for a narrative more based on speeches and the development of the story than on the graphic aspects; here we see the biggest difference compared to modern manga, where we also find two sides occupied by the same illustration.

Surely the original work also gained from the layout work carried out by BAO Publishing: the enlargement compared to the tankobon format of the first edition has certainly made the representations lighter and cleaner, with some scenes appearing cleaner and more readable with this treatment. Even the screens and lines have gained, and the quality is especially noticeable when moving from scenes colored in a nuanced way (like the first pages) compared to those with clearly divided blacks and whites, where the illustrations are clean and delicate, even where darks abound. Thanks also to this revisiting (starting from the cover of the volumes) and presumably to an excellent translation job, the story is clear dynamic, flowing, and with a good narrative rhythm.

Who do we recommend Tokyo Love Story to?

Tokyo Love Story it might seem like a jaunty, not very serious series, like many shojo of the time, but the more you continue reading, the more the target tends to maturenecessary to fully understand the themes and speeches illustrated by Fumi Saimon: if the nude scenes are practically left to the imagination, the topics, including references to sexual tourism and betrayals, could be more difficult for children, although the story certainly aims at a wide audience. The drawings are in fact simple and delicate, the more “comic” format, and some scenes are similar to those of the sitcoms we loved, like How I met your mother. Of course, it’s a nice little brick (almost half a kilo per volume) but the price is more than acceptable to recover this series in anticipation of a probable release of the still unpublished sequel in Italy, that is Tokyo Love Story: After 25 Years.