Suzunari!

My opinion of the series

Having read through both volumes of Suzunari!, I wanted to share my thoughts. Here's what the blurb says:

Kaede Takamura’s teenage life swerves towards the verge of insanity when she comes face to face with her twin... or does she? Practically Kaede’s mirror images, Suzu happens to have cat ears, a tail, and is far more well endowed than Kaede thinks and teenager ought to be. But the Takamuras have no qualms about bringing the strange, happy-go-lucky catgirl into their home. With Suzu completely ignorant of the ways of modern society, it’s going to be a very long school year for poor Kaede...

Put simply, Suzunari! is one nice long double-act. Suzu is a totally OTT character; Kaede is the “straight man” - um, I mean, “straight woman”. Suzu is kind of an “odd person out” in the Manga; the main humour comes from Suzu’s reactions to everything, and Kaede’s reaction to Suzu’s antics.

Suzunari! has a simple but cleverly executed plot, which is never fully explicitly but gives the reader enough clues to figure things out. Who Suzu actually is, along with exactly how and why she is here, is not revealed until right until the very end and is left as the big finish for reading to the end of the second volume. It’s also not specifically spelt out, the author aiming for subtly rather than blatantness, which was actually quite a nice touch.

Unfortunately, apart from where the plot gets heavy at the ending, it’s mostly just sit-com. There’s too little plot, and what plot movement there that there is gets switched on and off like it’s working off a light switch; there’s no trigger other than the writer deciding to do a plot-related story.

However Suzunari! is packed with details, and weirdly becomes a very good Manga to reread; I actually found the second read through a lot better than the first when Suzu was no longer a mystery I found myself starting to understand things from her point of view, whereas on the first read I’d only understood Kaede’s thoughts.

Suzunari! references a lot of Japanese culture. It’s not to the point where you’ll need them to get the humour, but is to the point where there are a few pages of cop-outs - er, I mean “translation notes” - at the back of each book.

The Manga is very lighthearted and has a really cheery, happy tone thoughout. It’s probably a bit too moe/perverted; I know that’s what many people want nowadays, but I think it would have helped if it were just a little more subtle here.