Forum - View topicREVIEW: Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You Volume 1 Manga Review
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1330 |
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The smoking aspect is the least interesting facet to this series, but it's one I easily ignored right away as "something the characters are doing that I don't want to do". The review really seems to focus on "smoking's bad, mmkay?" more than the actually character work.
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Songdragosa
Posts: 31 |
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Checked out of this "review" on the first paragraph. Too much unnecessary grandstanding by the writer.
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LightningComet
Posts: 51 |
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Considering the lack of a PSA warning of the harm smoking causes on the chapters I read, I'm glad the reviewer, Kevin Cormack, took the time to pick up that slack. Many thanks for that!
All that aside, I would argue that one (such as myself) can enjoy this series despite those few problematic elements; the emotions of the characters shine through, and the central relationship does indeed feel genuine. Although I do believe there is at least some glamorization of smoking, what makes this series work for me is that, while the characters do unfortunately smoke, they talk about entirely other matters. It's true that they do occaisonally discuss things that only smokers would care about/relate to (notably, as said in the review, how their habit can put them in conflict with others around them), and that doing so does bring them marginally closer, but I see this story as being more about people who are brought together that both just happen to be smokers rather than two smokers, rejected by everyone else, finding kinship in each other while actively hurting themselves. This is not that kind of manga; they have lives and personality outside of their vices, as everyone does, and those are what the story truly cares about. If you're uncomfortable with the premise being contingent on people meeting each other almost entirely because they share a vice and forging a deeply emotional connection beyond that, both points of which specified right there in the title, then this manga may not for you. |
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malvarez1
Posts: 2148 |
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This seems to be an uncommon opinion, but I agree with the writer’s stance on smoking.
I don’t see why people are complaining- the review was still positive! |
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njprogfan
 Collector Extraordinaire Posts: 1233 Location: A River Named Toms |
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Not a smoker and never will be, but after reading this review it's on my buy list, (and that's what all good reviewers accomplish). Good job!
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Ming Yi
Posts: 218 |
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I can see why people are complaining. The reviewer is entitled to his opinion about smoking, but he spends a good part of the review mentioning on how bad/gross it is from beginning to end. It really takes away from the focus on the story when a third of the review is talking about how bad smoking is and how you shouldn't do it. (I absolutely hate smoking, by the way.) I feel like the reviewer hasn't really learned anything from the reception of his review of Kabi Nagata's manga, because I could still see that he's focusing way too much on the health aspect (and making condescending remarks about it) than the fiction aspect. |
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JustMonika
Posts: 1166 |
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I was a smoker for 25 years before quitting and switching to vaping so this is definitely for me, lol
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2617 Location: Germany |
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There aren´t that many working-class romance manga that admit that they are such stories. Sekitou Elegy comes to mind and Smoking Behind the Supermarket too ends up going into that. Not that it´s much of a romance. Anyway, cigarette smoking rate (2023) 15.8% (2023). Tobacco Use rate (2023) 16.5% (2023): https://www.smokefreeworld.org/health-science-research-2/health-science-technology-agenda/data-analytics/global-state-of-smoking-landscape/state-smoking-japan/
Sasaki grew up in the bubble economy and so did the manager. Both are burned out by work and have no life outside of it. Yamada, who should have been born in the late 90s, is a lower class burned-out goth chick living on nearly minimum wage. These are the exact people who would smoke a pack a day. The only way to not get an R for smoking in films these days is to have a setting that justifies it and I think we have a bingo here, with it being a Seinen work on top. The enviable anime can only get a midnight slot, unless it gets a late afternoon drama, so no children can be harmed I think. The sales justify both. Streaming shows don´t have to deal with that, so you see a more realistic world in TV-14 productions. Like One Piece 2023. Yakuza 8 still has a smoking protagonist and Sanji continues to teach kids the health benefits of smoking in a children's time slots as Oda himself never quit so Japan remains a different world. Even poor Bond hasn´t lit a cigarette in the films since 1989, but Brosnan got to smoke cigars till his last film in 2002. Craig got to play a pill-addicted alcoholic with consent issues but even one cigarette is simply too much for the virgin eyes of the PG-13 audience. Comic Bond still smokes though (and turns his enemies into mincemeat) as there is no MPAA to deal with or advertisers. That´s where US pop culture is right now. Even Wolverine and all other heroic Marvel characters have been banned from smoking for 2 decades in the comics, wiping out core character traits. Cigarettes and cigars have further been edited out of old comics. Hasn´t stopped Jackman from smoking a stogy in most of his appearances. All under Fox of course, so never again. |
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taster of pork
 Posts: 596 Location: My House |
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I like series that have interesting conversations, so I'll give this a shot. I never got into Cigarettes, but I do smoke premium Cigars on occasion.
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kgw
 Posts: 1197 Location: Spain, EU |
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The slow burn cigarette romance is cute, but the smoking is not an anecdote, as more than once we are having explanations on how about tobacco, etc. had an effect on Sasaki and Tamaya/Yamada's life (more than Clark Kent/Superman, this is Sailor Moon/Usagi).
So, I also agree with the reviewer opinion about smoking. I wonder if when reviewing a work, we can criticize unhealthy social or romantic attitudes, creepy "romantic" behaviour, but not say a word about unhealthy drug habits. Specially when we're dealing with a work aimed to a younger public* * nobody cares about seinen vs. shonen outside Japan; unless is rated-18 material, "if it's manga it's for kids". |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10033 Location: Virginia |
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I got this volume Wednesday and read it this weekend. I found it an enjoyable read. I can't say it glamorizes smoking in any way. The two main characters are sitting in a back alley with the trash cans and are complaining about how smoking makes them social pariahs.
All I can say to the reviewer is lighten up. If you must say something a single sentence will do it. I don't smoke, never have. My parents were good, bad examples. However, I can read about people smoking and not feel morally stained. I also don't drink to excess but I can read about Japanese office workers getting shitfaced. Alcohol can kill you a lot faster or can give you a life of decades of misery. Mankind has found innumerable ways to ruin their lives. Reading about those ways can be interesting without being a participant. The glory of fiction, novels, manga or anime included, is that you can briefly inhabit someone else's skin with out suffering the consequences. Must a reviewer of a story about an assassin include a disclaimer that they don't condone murder? |
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NieR
 Posts: 220 |
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I just want to see Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You get an anime series.
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tywhoppity
 Posts: 226 |
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One of the strengths of this manga are the characters; Jinushi gives even the side characters time to grow and flesh out. Tayama/Yamada is just what many of us have to do IRL; having to adopt a different persona in the working world from one's original.
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jmckenna15
Posts: 147 |
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He is a practicing medical professional so I think he can be forgiven for pointing out the negative health effects of smoking, particularly in a manga that doesn't do this either yet it is a front of center activity they share. The fact he still gives it an A grade though should temper most concerns as to whether he's knocking it for that reason, especially if it's the only "con" that he can point to.
It has great Call of the Night vibes going for it, so I'd be more than down to watch that. Also it's one of the few (if not the only) manga that's gotten a Gigguk video about it that hasn't been turned into an anime yet, as well as being a Next Manga winner that is yet to get an announced adaptation. |
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