Penguin Revolution 1-2 by Sakura TSUKUBA
This is a series that kind of got away from me during the period when I wasn’t really reading a lot of manga. I wasn’t particularly drawn in by the story synopsis (a girl who sees wings? really?) but enough friends liked it enough that I gave it a chance. Glad that I did. Like the majority of the CMX shoujo series, it’s short, cute but it has enough twists in the story to keep you amused throughout.
Yukari Fujimaru belongs to that subset of shoujo heroine whose family life is less than desirable. She lives with her deadbeat father, who is so irresponsible that his wife left him because she couldn’t take his flighty money schemes any longer. We find out early on that because of her family’s weird financial situation, all that Yukari wants in life is a stable government job, boring as that may be.
But as fate (and shoujo manga plots) would have it, Yukari’s life is going to be far from boring. You see, she has the sight — the ability to see beautiful wings on people with the potential for stardom. She first discovers this ability when her mother took her to see a play, and since then, she hasn’t forgotten how wonderful it was to see those wings.
Things become complicated when she meets Ryouko (or more accurately, Ryou), an upperclassmate who is a talent at the Peacock Agency, and through a series of events, ends up as his manager… which, I suppose, is a shoujo solution for her situation: she gets a place to live (since her father has skipped town and left her homeless) and she gets to use her ability in a perfectly appropriate & practical manner.
Despite that overly long and wacky plot summary, I’m really liking this series. I love that it’s yet another manga series about the Japanese idol-making industry, and the machinations and politics that go on behind the scenes. It cracks me up that the talents even have names for their ranks in the company, e.g. “crows” and “penguins,” with the former outranking the latter. Plus, it’s probably one of the first manga series that I’ve read where they actually depict a scene where characters have to play along with one of the stunts in a Japanese variety show. Basically, the idol talents have to sit in a tub of very hot water and how long they endure the heat is how long they can plug their latest movie. It’s so weird, but also so funny at the same time.
I think it’s a rare instance that I actually don’t like a manga that I write up, so I’m sorry if it seems that I recommend every single thing that I read. But I think you’re missing out on a great series if you don’t try Penguin Revolution. It’s been funny and cute so far, and I have a feeling that even when I get to end it won’t disappoint either.