Perhaps this collection appeals to fans of
the original game, but Kindred Spirits on
the Roof underwhelms as a standalone manga. Cameos pop up, as though we
should care about them, and maybe players of the game do. But none of the
characters in this work are compelling or distinct. What we have here are
graphic novellas that feel slight and unsatisfying.
Both stories share Shirojo high-school as a
setting, but otherwise do not overlap. The first story focuses on Shiori. She
still pangs with guilt over fleeing her best friend, Mako, when Mako confessed
her love for Shiori. With the help of her new friends, Hina and Seina, Shiori
must learn to stop running from her problems, and her feelings.
The second story concerns a girl, Hase, who
adores seeing female friendships. She
loves her voyeurism so much, she joins the quiz club just to pour over the
friendship of the club’s two leaders, Tomoe and Sasaki. Together they aim to
win the national quiz tournament. And will Tomoe and Sasaki’s friendship become
something more? (Not even a spoiler: it will.)
Anyone uninitiated into KSotR should hold their wallets back. As
for how the initiated should act, I can’t say, because I have never played the
VN. Maybe the players will find this spin-off just as mediocre. I hear the game
is very good. Apparently, it presents lesbian coming-of-ages with tenderness
and depth. The manga does not display such skill. Perhaps players who’ve spent
hours with these characters (I assume the game contains these characters), will
bring character depth over with them. Maybe the characters have quirks and
nuances that did not have the necessary knowledge to notice. Perhaps the cameos
will seem more welcome and less distracting to the players. Perhaps I’d
understand why, for no reason, two ghosts appear.
The first story did not strike me as terrible,
merely cliched. The difference between cliché and universal is in the execution.
The story explores coming to terms with your past actions and your current
feelings. Those times when one must swallow their hesitance, their fear for
societal consequence, and act for the sake of others’ and themselves. The
writer undermines these perennial themes with platitudinous execution. Shiori
‘ran’ from Mako when she confessed her love. Shiori has never stopped
‘running’, but if she wants to grow, she must stop ‘running’. (Because she’s
literally running from her problems –
get it?)
Shiori stops running when her friends give
her words of wisdom, and aid her reunion with Mako. The writer introduces these
friends, Seina and Hina, with two twenty-five words text boxes. These boxes
contain such unique traits as: ‘[Hina-san] doesn’t talk much, but when she
does, she makes it count.’ And: ‘[Seina-san’s] a hard worker at the centre of
the class.’ Over the rest of the story, they get little more characterisation
than this. They barely get as much characterisation as this.
As for our main character, she is a little
bland, but her turmoil is compelling. We do feel her shame and self-doubt (even
if said emotions are expressed in cliché). What’s more, the story does not bog
down in self-doubt. Outside of her uneasiness with Mako, Shiori smiles, she has
friends, she has goals, talents. Albeit, those friends, goals, and talents are shallowly
painted.
Unfortunately, for a love story, the love
is not convincing. Shiori and Mako fall in love because… this is a love story.
That seems to be the main reason they get together: the genre requires it. Key
to the story is Mako’s confession to Shiori, but I felt no chemistry on
Shiori’s side towards Mako. This story could have limited itself to themes of
reconciliation. Or it could have put more effort into the love story.
But although rote and not romantically
convincing, I prefer the first story to the second. The first story may express
its theme platitudinously, but at least it has a theme. The first story has no
compelling characters, but at least it has a somewhat compelling protagonist.
The second story slogs along, sans theme, sans character, with only a
superficial sweetness.
In the second story, you’re not sure who
the protagonist is, and you suspect the writer didn’t know either. As the story
begins with Hase’s narration, we assume she’s the protagonist. But no, the
story arc focusses on the two girls Hase voyeurs on, Tomoe and Sasaki. It
focusses on their love, and their goal to become quiz champions (or something,
it’s too dull to remember).
Framing narrators have a respectable
legacy. Holmes has Watson, and Gatsby has Caraway, but in these cases, Holmes
and Gatsby – the characters being framed – are interesting. And there are
insights to be had by looking at them through another’s eyes. But none of
Tomoe, Sasaki, nor Hase have depth. We have an uninteresting couple seen through
the eyes of an uninteresting narrator.
The second story’s illustrations worsen the
shallowness of the characters. By itself, the art is decent, full of fresh-faced,
dewy-eyed characters. Unfortunately, all the girls have the same fresh faces
and dewy eyes. Only length and shade of hair differentiates them, but in
close-up even these differences vanish. It’s already difficult to care about
what’s being said, but too often I don’t even know who’s talking.
But maybe there is something in the second story, something self-aware and subversive.
(Warning: I’m about to give this manga too much credit.)
KSotR
is not a good manga. Its first story only reaches
competency. Why does it exist? Well, because it spun-off from a semi-popular VN.
But why else does it exist? Because it serves a niche. A lot of readers (I will
swallow my pride and count myself among them) will read it because it is yuri. Like an action film buff will watch
any old action trash for its generic bombast (and I mean generic in both
senses), a yuri fan will read any old
yuri manga because of the central
love-story between two women. They could be the dullest women in the world, but
as long as they’re in love. Yuri fans
are quite like Hase, the voyeuristic narrator of the second story. She calls
herself a ‘girl who loves friendly girls’
(emphasis theirs). She joins the quiz club not from any interest in quizzes,
but because two ‘friendly’ girls head it. She would have joined any old club,
so long as two ‘friendly’ girls headed it. And what ensues is a quiz tournament
that she has no real stake in, just as we the readers have no real connection
to the story.
The writer probably did not intend this.
Perhaps they did intend Hase as an audience stand-in, but in a less subversive,
more ‘Hey, she likes thing you also like’ kind of way. I guess I’m just trying
to find something redeeming in the second story.
But while I can’t recommend the second
story, I’d say maybe try the first. Only if you’re a fan of yuri, of course. If you’re not, there
are far better examples of the genre out there (just take a look at my previous
reviews). But as I said, fans of a genre are generally willing to put up with
mediocrity for the sake of beloved tropes. That said, buy this on the cheap, it’s
not worth $20.99US.
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