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REVIEW: Sunny GN 1

This lack of spelling out what a character is feeling is one of the strengths of Sunny's introductory volume. Perpetually snot-nosed Junsuke is devoted to finding four-leaf clovers in a ritual designed to get he and his little brother out of the home and white-haired Haruo continually uses the Sunny to escape not just the home, but reality altogether. That combined with the fact that his hair appears to have turned white during his tenure at Star Kids tells us a lot more about his character than any of his spoken words. Of course there are exceptions to Matsumoto's rule of show-not-tell, but in most cases he manages to make them equally as powerful. One of the few girl characters to get a larger role, Megumu, is deeply touched by the death of a stray cat, and Matsumoto allows her to vocalize precisely why this is. There is a slight hint of the overdone in her words, but showing her continued fear in later chapters without having her say what she is doing soothes some of the melodrama.

While I do understand how some might not like Matsumoto's art—it is a strong fusion between more traditional manga cliches and European comics, as he was influenced by his stay over there—I'm not sure if describing parts of it as "grotesque" is fitting. I think more of heta-uma when thinking of "gross" art. His stuff can certainly be exaggerated, as you note, but that is commonplace for manga/anime. What makes it a non-issue for me is how well he integrates those charicatures into a given series. Taro's man-child body or Junsuke's cheeks and hair aren't at odds with other character designs as, say, Doctor Tokita's ridiculous obesity in Kon's Paprika. They fit the tone of magical realism in the series as Matsumoto accomodates his style to whatever the work demands (as in GoGo Monster, Ping Pong, Takemitsu Zamurai, etc.).

Apologies for being pedantic, but I do believe Taiyo Matsumoto to be one of the most visually impressive manga-ka of all-time! His work is really refreshing—I'd love for Viz to return to and complete his Moebius-inspired No. 5—and while it may not be as conventionally "beautiful" as Inoue or Miura, it's incredibly organic and expressive while still being very pleasing.

Don't apologize; you're defending an artist you respect. I should have clarified that I meant "grostesque" in the artistic sense, what the OED calls "In a wider sense, of designs or forms: Characterized by distortion or unnatural combinations; fantastically extravagant; bizarre, quaint. Also transf. of immaterial things, esp. of literary style." It's still not the perfect word for what I was trying to say, but I hope that makes more sense.

I'm glad you enjoyed the review! I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of this series - much as I love gooey shoujo and action-packed shounen, this kind of literary story is a welcome entry into the English language manga catalog and my library specifically.