Satanic Sweet

[MangaDex]

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

This is a really great little story. The boredom of the everyday, innovative storytelling, and ultimately surprisingly sweet emotions. Hope it gets uploaded sometime.

 

[totallynotmike]

Hey, thanks for the upload. It was something fresh and dare i say exciting, at least for me.

 

[sedition]

@mikegnesium I saw you post about this manga in another manga's comments and had to come check it out, was great, thanks for the recommendation lol

 

[Nariod14]

Is it normal that i only see chapter 6 up? Where can i read it if not?

 

[faytfinx]

wow I liked that a lot more than I expected. shame only one chapter was scanlated but it was great! surprisingly cute too ahaha.

 

[octavioh]

I won't read the ending while waiting a few more years for the other 5 chapters, so just.. > onegaishimasu! 😃

 

[kakukaku]

I'm hooked! I really hope that the other chapters will be uploaded. Although I read it thinking it was a oneshot and it surprisingly works too! Weird, original love story. Def recommend

 

[Acaeralazarus]

What a masterpiece, just wow. I wish it was longer...

Thanks for scanlating!

 

[MikeShoemaker]

First off, the description is entirely misleading: It's a collection of Tomiko Yamashita's, six one-shots. If you're used to the sober tone of her later day works, such as Ikoku Nikki or Hibari no Asa, then this might surprise you. It's very absurdist, comical even. And yet, her expertise with story telling, and her distinctive, minimalist art style represent her, at points, at her best. It's Tomiko Yamashita through and through, even if it is a tad unpolished.

Prominently, money, debt collectors, and age gap relationships, both platonic and psuedo-romantic, favorite themes of hers, play a prominent roll in many. It is interesting to compare her work of ten years ago to her work today. Oft times when doing so, we find a sort of 'diamond in the rough'. That is to say, something more emotive, if clumsy about it. This rings true in Satanic Sweet. The paneling in particular is something she has grown much better with in time, it is not horrible, or even bad in 2012. But it is not the level she brings to Ikoku Nikki.

Special attention should be given to Chapters 5 & 6, "Beautiful Movie" & "Mud". In the former, in the same way Wim Wenders winds Song of Childhood through his seminal 1987 film Wings of Desire, the monologue weaves through the tapestry of the chapter, and we get a great end in the sort of "This story has never ended" vein as Mind game. It's a great reminder that life is indeed a series of boring moments that end up forgetting, punctuated by those brief moments of clarity that stay with us for a lifetime.

In the latter, we start off with a bang. That three page opening to chapter is not only visually arresting, it makes full use of one of manga's greatest strengths: that being, what you can depict can go as far your imagination can stretch. It also sets the tone for the rest of the story in the limited time it received, a real masterstroke with the limited time it receives. Amongst popular Japanese media, we rarely, if ever, see a woman as dominant as we do here. She is in complete control of her teacher, and when push comes to shove, it is she who fires the final salvo, she who closes the gap between them. It was a refreshing perspective on what could have been something very trite, despite the interesting subject matter.

Overall, if you love Tomiko Yamashita, you'll love Satanic Sweet. It's a nice peek into a more unpolished, emotive phase, in the same way that Touch is for Mitsuru Adachi.