Happy Mania
- Thread starter MangaDex
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HUGE thanks to the people making the effort to upload this lost manga! Been wanting to buy this but wasn't sure if it'd be good. Turns out it's good, but too late to buy it now. I did see some dirt cheap but didn't make sense to invest in a series and have missing volumes that are super expensive/impossible to find. ¯\(ツ)/¯
Dex-chan lover
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- Feb 17, 2023
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This is genuinely great. The four chapters posted so far rank high among the best cringe comedies I've read.
Happy Mania catalogs the romantic catastrophes of one Ms. Shigeta, an attractive young bookstore clerk whose entire being is laser-focused on Hot Boyfriend acquisition. She approaches her chosen task with delusional zeal, narcissistic insecurity, and a flair for truly appalling choices. Initially, the character and her situation seem relatable, setting us up to expect an edgy but well-behaved comedy of modern urban manners, perhaps like a 20-something version of Sex and the City. Shigeta, however, has other plans. She hits the gas and blazes full speed into life-wrecking psychological collapse.
The chaos is observed and attended by Takahashi, an earnest young man who nurtures an unrequited interest in our hot mess anti-heroine. While the specifics of Shigeta's meltdown do make for mortifyingly hilarious reading, it's hard not to wonder with Takahashi at the end of chapter four what he actually likes about her. Despite a narrative that encourages us to share her first-person perspective, Shigeta seems to possess no positive qualities. At every turn, she shows herself to be superficial, self-involved, unreliable and cruel.
Mangaka Anna Moyoko's art mixes shoujo/josei styles with a splash of fashion illustration. While fairly crude, it serves her writing well and helps connect the narrative's surface events to its deeper themes. Even in her flaws and damage, Shigeta reflects the fashion, beauty and lifestyle media that likely shaped her (which is to say, the cultural expectations placed upon women in general). She suffers from low self-esteem and body dysmorphia, blindly worships appearances, and understands happiness only as a product of male attention. A brittle shell of desperation with nothing inside, it's little wonder that she's coming apart at the seams.
Recommended to anyone with an interest in the art form. Even 20 years down the road, the opening chapters of Happy Mania feel unique and lacerating sharp.
Happy Mania catalogs the romantic catastrophes of one Ms. Shigeta, an attractive young bookstore clerk whose entire being is laser-focused on Hot Boyfriend acquisition. She approaches her chosen task with delusional zeal, narcissistic insecurity, and a flair for truly appalling choices. Initially, the character and her situation seem relatable, setting us up to expect an edgy but well-behaved comedy of modern urban manners, perhaps like a 20-something version of Sex and the City. Shigeta, however, has other plans. She hits the gas and blazes full speed into life-wrecking psychological collapse.
The chaos is observed and attended by Takahashi, an earnest young man who nurtures an unrequited interest in our hot mess anti-heroine. While the specifics of Shigeta's meltdown do make for mortifyingly hilarious reading, it's hard not to wonder with Takahashi at the end of chapter four what he actually likes about her. Despite a narrative that encourages us to share her first-person perspective, Shigeta seems to possess no positive qualities. At every turn, she shows herself to be superficial, self-involved, unreliable and cruel.
Mangaka Anna Moyoko's art mixes shoujo/josei styles with a splash of fashion illustration. While fairly crude, it serves her writing well and helps connect the narrative's surface events to its deeper themes. Even in her flaws and damage, Shigeta reflects the fashion, beauty and lifestyle media that likely shaped her (which is to say, the cultural expectations placed upon women in general). She suffers from low self-esteem and body dysmorphia, blindly worships appearances, and understands happiness only as a product of male attention. A brittle shell of desperation with nothing inside, it's little wonder that she's coming apart at the seams.
Recommended to anyone with an interest in the art form. Even 20 years down the road, the opening chapters of Happy Mania feel unique and lacerating sharp.
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