Review of Satisfaction Guaranteed
Review of Satisfaction Guaranteed
Satisfaction Guaranteed is another shonen-ai title. For more info on shonen-ai, please see the previous review entry of Kyo Kara Maoh.
The big question is whether or not it is a good, compelling read, worthy of your ten dollars as a shonen-ai fan or a beginner to the genre. To quote Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame in his review of Spore, "In short, NO. In long, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."
From now on, all manga reviews will be subdivided into three categories: The Art, The Story, and Bringing It Together
The Art
As usual, the art is the primary reason why I picked up this title in the first place. It's only natural as that's the part that is easiest to evaluate as you make your purchasing decision in the store. Overall, the art is good. The characters are well-defined visually and emotive. Above all, they are cute. In any shonen-ai title, this is essential.
Taking note of the previous use of the word "overall," you probably expect that there's a "but" coming. You'd be right. Puzzlingly, the character visuals conflict with the story's reality. Shima, the shorter one in the book scan above and main character, is a self-described "jack-of-all-trades" services for hire. In other words, customers come to him with a problem and pay him to solve it, the end result being a short mystery story of some kind.
"But Zelgadis," you say, "This section is supposed to be about the art! Why are you talking story now?"
Shut up, you impatient twit. I'm getting to my point, which is that, according to the story, Shima is barely making ends meet in this endeavor. Don't let the cover art fool you! In the manga, Shima dresses as though someone stuck his feet in a bowstring, drew it, and fired him straight through an Armani Exchange boutique. Really, the kid changes his trendy, silly hat as often as Gwen Stephani freshens up her screw-me-now-baby red lipstick. And that's just his hat! This kid is supposed to be dirt-poor?
Kaoru, the taller one in the picture and the other main character, is supposed to be a fashion model. In the manga however, he looks as dowdy as Estelle Getty in a floral nightgown next to Shima. Shima's trendy new getup always springs out at you whenever he changes into a trendy, new outfit, which is all the time. Kaoru, by comparison, hardly ever stands out at all, except in the few scenes when he's modeling.
This in itself wouldn't be a problem, but Shima the fashion whore takes way too much focus on the story. If Kyo, the fashion model, were like that, it would make sense in context. Someone really should check the author of this manga and make sure he's not cross-eyed.
The Story
If you're good at drawing, make art. If you're good at writing, make stories. But for the love of God, if you can't do both, don't make manga! Again, overall the art is good. It's primarily the story which gets this manga dropped back into my trade-back-to-the-manga-store pile. It's a shame too, because the beginning is very promising. Shima, as previously mentioned, is an 18-year-old entrepreneur with a sort of detective agency. His parents both died in a house fire when he was young but managed to save Shima in the nick of time. The result is that Shima has a paralyzing fear of fire and commitment issues.
Kaoru is a fashion model with a split personality. When he's modeling, he's Kyo, a stoic, icy 17-year-old. Outside of modeling, he's Kaoru, normal teenager. The manga goes to unimaginable lengths to explain to us, the stupid readers, that Kaoru decided to join Shima's little business as a volutneer assistant because something about Shima makes him feel better. Are we all clear on that? Good!
Wait, you say you're not clear?
Guess what. Neither am I...
Okay, even if that was the only problem, it's not a big deal. Let's face it. All anime and manga fans out there know that a significant amount of suspension of disbelief is necessary to derive maximum enjoyment. We manga fans are used to the occasional "Precious Moments" statues in the Louvre forms of idiosyncracies. It goes with the territory. This is more of a fire ant in your birthday cake. Where there's one, there's more. The Satisfaction Guaranteed story has enough fire ants to bring down a herd of cattle.
After explaining the characters' situations in the first volume, that's it. There's no more. The author doesn't develop the characters further. They stagnate like a perpetual puddle of pee that never evaporates. Instead, the duo simply bounce from job to job, mystery to mystery, always teaching a bit of a lesson to the incidental characters of the section, but never learning anything about themselves. After the second volume, it is pretty clear that you'll find little more here than a lot of repetition.
There is an effort to mix things up a bit, but that never goes anywhere either. The author creates a foil to Shima in the form of App, a wealthy socialite with the yawn-inspiring motiviation of impressing his girlfriend. Oh, and App has a split personality too. Are we seeing a pattern here yet, boys and girls?
Okay, so what about the "ai" part of the "shonen-ai?" Well, that falls flat too. There's always some half-assed sexual tension bubbling just beneath the surface, but it never gets any deeper or shallower than that. Again, another instance of the author creating something and then going nowhere with it.
Bringing It Together
Satisfaction Guaranteed could have been good. It could have been interesting. The foundation for the story is strong, but the author doesn't seem to be capable of carrying out any perceptible character development at all. Shonen-ai is renown for shallow silliness, but this is just too shallow for even fans of the genre to enjoy. Save your money.
ISF
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