#its miyano for context go figure

[abblegum]

butt.

[tanenigiri]

Review #6: Dekoboko Sugar Days

Japanese title: 凸凹シュガーデイズ (Dekoboko Sugar Days)

Story and art: Atsuko Yusen

English publisher: Tokyopop

Number of volumes: 2 (complete)

A sweet story with some surprisingly salty characterization.

(This review contains story spoilers.)

It’s pretty obvious considering all the series I’ve covered so far (and the ones I have lined up), but I’m very much drawn to quiet stories with heavy internal conflicts. Instead of big action sequences or impressive displays of magical abilities, I’m a huge sucker for well-done emotional breakdowns, conversations of both the heartbreaking and heartwarming kind, and those scenes where all that’s happening physically is a stare or a hug, but you know there are a lot of things left unsaid between the two characters. Even if it gets to the point where the scenes start to resemble each other, I still eat those stories up like candy.

So it was funny going into Dekoboko Sugar Days and suddenly getting none of that emotional gut-punch - or, at least, very little. Granted, I did expect this to be a lot more light-hearted when I read the title and the blurb, but I still went for it since it seemed like a cute story to the tune of Sasaki and Miyano, and if I’m lucky I could get an Our Dining Table out of it. After all, “dekoboko” roughly translates to “bumpiness” or “unevenness,” so I figured with a term like that in the title, there has to be more to the story than meets the eye.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. This story follows high school students Yuujirou and Rui, who pretty much share the typical grumpy kid + cinnamon roll childhood friends dynamic except for one noteworthy distinction - Yuujirou’s height is 165 cm (a bit below 5’5”), while Rui’s is 186 cm (a bit above 6’1”). We very quickly find out that this is a point of insecurity for Yuujirou, both in general and in the specific context of Rui, as an incident in their childhood placed Yuujirou as Rui’s “protector” in both of their eyes - and Rui as a crush in Yuujirou’s.

Naturally, I found myself drawn to Yuujirou’s internal conflict, as it’s one of those types of insecurities that seem superficial at face value but can affect a person quite heavily. But after reading the story, I realized that I became more fascinated not with how this affected Yuujirou on a personal level - though it was still interesting to see that side of his character play out - but how the story presented it and dealt with it. Since this story is a lot more light-hearted than the plots I’m used to, I was surprised to see that even if this insecurity was something weighing heavily in Yuujirou’s mind, Dekoboko Sugar Days still treated it with the same humor and carefree vibe that carries throughout the whole manga.

At first, I found it a bit of a waste - there’s a lot that the story can do with Yuujirou’s height complex, and there’s so much potential for those emotionally heavy scenes that feed my soul. But after rereading it, I do think that the story made the best call in treating it the way it did. Not only was it able to present a pretty serious topic without breaking its humorous vibe, but it also became a good way to highlight that this issue is, at the end of the day, much bigger in Yuujirou’s mind than it actually is.

And the story points this out pretty early on - Yuujirou’s close friend and classmate, Umino, remarks that Yuujirou would have an easy time getting together with a girl if he wanted to, and Chapter 2 confirms this with Yuujirou impressing a bunch of girls while he’s in judo training. I also found it interesting that the story chose to withhold the whole judo captain detail until this point when the perspective shifts to Rui’s, as it once again highlights that Yuujirou’s height complex is making him think much too lowly on himself when he actually has a lot going for him.

This is also when we begin to find out that Yuujirou’s feelings aren’t as one-sided as he believes, though Rui does need some external forces to help him realize it. True to his musings that Yuujirou is a lot more popular with the ladies than what his protector thinks of himself, Rui finds out from his own close friend and classmate, Takenaka, that Yuujirou is beginning to spend more time with a first-year girl. There’s a really interesting tidbit in this part of the story where Rui acknowledges Yuujirou’s height complex, saying that his protector looks much better with the girl as she is shorter than Yuujirou. Me being me, I wish the story explored this a bit more, but I’m already happy with how Rui recognizes that his protector’s insecurities are serious - a stark contrast to how Umino laughs it off (though with good intentions).

The story eventually leads to a funny sequence where the main pair simultaneously admit to themselves, and subsequently to their respective classmates, that they’re in love with the other. I found how the manga initially presents this as vertical halves of the same page with intersecting thought bubbles a really great stylistic choice, and part of me hoped that it would’ve continued for longer, though I guess the novelty would’ve faded if it ran for more than a dozen pages. It eventually culminates in a heartfelt confession, though it’s of course injected with the story’s over-the-top humor.

While there’s a part of the “over-the-top”-ness of the story that I can do without - the physical gags, for one - I do think that, overall, it adds to the unique charm of Dekoboko Sugar Days. It might not seem like it’s taking its characters seriously, but at several times in the story, that’s exactly what it calls for - looking at the situation through a mostly humorous lens. The fact that it still delivers a heartwarming story along the way is a testament to how it can balance all these ingredients quite nicely.

Random thoughts I couldn’t fit elsewhere:

I should mention that Takenaka does have a crush on Rui, and while I thought this was gonna go down a love triangle route, he does recognize how much Rui cares for Yuujirou, and it’s even implied that he’s the one who gives Rui the confidence to confess to Yuujirou. I like how the story didn’t end up with the two fighting over Rui, and of course, it’s made better when Umino gets in the picture (which I will absolutely talk about when I get around to reviewing the sequel).

Speaking of which, Umino hands down has the best lines in the story. Not only does he get a pretty funny and honestly quite insightful meta joke at the start, but he also reads Yuujirou like a book near the end. It’s nice how he really has Yuujirou’s - and later on Takenaka’s - backs, and Yuujirou should really consider himself lucky for having such an open-minded and observant friend.

The bits leading up to the story’s more graphic scenes in the end show some interesting hints of insecurity and awkwardness between the main couple as well. It’s to be expected, of course, as neither Yuujirou nor Rui are shown to have experience with any kind of relationship prior to this, but once again the story tackles these insecurities with an interesting mix of hilarity and sincerity that’s nice to see. I also found it hilarious that the bonus chapter dealt with the completely opposite problem of what the final chapter deals with.

(Also this is one of the best pieces of afterword art I’ve seen. 10/10.)

Thanks for reading! I found Dekoboko Sugar Days to be a nice change of pace to all the other manga I’ve read so far, and while I still find myself liking the emotionally heavy stories more, it’s good to read something that’s set to make you laugh instead of cry once in a while. I do have a review lined up for its sequel later in the month, and from its English title alone - Dekoboko Bittersweet Days - it’s not gonna be as saccharine as this one.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Prince of Stride: Alternative 2 – 12 | ACCA 1 | Hand Shakers 1 | Nanbaka 15 | Marginal #4 1

(ep 2)

I don’t think I noticed this last time, but the dropped item is a Stride headset.

“…that won’t affect your future…”

That technique, where the memory becomes “movie footage”…I like it. Plus, Kyosuke was basically half of the reason why I stuck around with this show…haha.

“Fubun ritsu” at least translates directly…

Without context, the dialogue sounds pretty funny, especially because Diane should be (half) British and maybe should’ve picked up on the fact D’s sounds like…well…

The “D for Demon” pun is an English only one. The D in the Japanese is for doge (and not Doge, mind you). Doge is short for dogeza, or putting yourself on the ground and bowing furiously (to regain respect, for example).

Even Kadowaki is into the photoshoot!

Ah…without fanservice, this show would never get off the ground. Judging by how well sports anime fare from having pretty boys, that is.

There seems to be a theme of “letting go” in this, which makes it a perfect character study for One Wish They Never Wanted. Unfortunately, I’ve basically finished the story now…

Note tobu is also the word for “to fly”.

It vaguely bugs me that every time the subs go “Takeru”, the Japanese goes “Fujiwara-kun”.

The dude’s name is Asuma (you can hear it in the Japanese clearly), but the subs said “Yuma”.

I never questioned it, but…why is there laundry in the Stride clubroom?

I dunno about shogi, but apparently “a mistake leads to progress”.

(ep 3)

Andromeda is a maiden in the mythology. So Reiji’s right. Also, he’s voiced by Mamoru Miyano. You can’t go wrong with the dude.

Who in Dante’s Inferno is the flashing light head man?

Yeah, I wonder where the “Mee-chan” comes from too.

LOL, biology joke. Luckily, I understand it.

Sometimes Takeru sounds too deep for a teenager.

(ep 4)

Sometimes the humour can be a bit hard to follow in this show, but the visual quality is second to none!

Riku specifically asks to trade bentos, so the “trade bites” thing is deceiving.

I dunno what the “Japan Deep” is, but I think this is it.

Gelidium jelly. Aka agar…in some cases.

Back to Takeru observing muscles. It doesn’t get overdone, which is a good point of this show.

Basically Nagatsuka is Yamato from Nanbaka…haha.

The English is really good around the “on your mark” bit.

(ep 5)

Apparently you can get a motorcycle licence starting at the age of 16. I’m not good with balancing though, so a bike is hardly appropriate for me.

That shot of Hozumi, with the “Kuga” locker in the back…hmph. Nice foreshadowing/suspense shot.

I can’t quite make out what Ayumu’s saying when the subs go “Bering Sea”, as I don’t know the equivalent in Japanese. However, it most likely isn’t “Bering Sea”.

I don’t know what the equivalent to the “KGB” thing is either…Update: Okay, I know it now. It’s “ka ge be”, at least in its audio version.

(ep 6)

What are the helicopters for?

There was a kaitenzushi that Kuga-senpai passed…(hey wait, what am I saying? Kuga’s not my senpai!)

The English on the subway sign behind Yuri is really good. Why are these fine details in this show so good?!

It’s moments when a character smiles and you smile along with them, that’s why I watch anime.

I think “Yuniko” was a parody of UNIQLO, a Japanese brand. Apparently they’re pretty cheap, and I’ve been able to find it in my home city for a good few years now.

Really? Gainaxing? On Diane? I must’ve wiped that from my memory.

Hozumi, don’t leave Kuga-senpai hanging!

(ep 7)

*nods* Heath, Riku, I know your feels.

I dunno what a Kankokukan is…

I think they mean the Sea of Okhotsk…since that’s close to Japan. At least there was a warning that this would indeed be stupid talk and nothing more. However, the “Stop getting creative with my memories!” means that that gibberish was actually a bunch of locations in Japan, characterised by that weird stuff in the animation. I bet only people who are really acquainted with Japan and its geography would get it…because I don’t.

I dunno what a “Jangara” is. Or what “Jangara ramen” is.

It’s really hard to tell who’s bros with who here. Probably because they have completely different hair colours.

If you watch the Riku and Asuma scene carefully, you can see Ayumu, Hozumi and their Saisei counterparts sliding on the balls in the room behind them.

In the back of the “salt to the enemy” scene, it says shio (in romaji), salt (obviously) and shio (in katakana). On Riku’s bag, it says shio (in kanji).

Myogenesis.

Poor Mr Dan…

Shizuma! That loose hairstyle suits you so well!

Batsu ge-mu, LOL.

That Reiji really seems to like Kobe products recommended by Takeru, huh?

Here’s a little something on the Tamaya and Kagiya bits. Kadowaki-ya is a pun on that.

LOL, that manservice.

(ep 8)

4th wall break…?

Hokkaido is known for being snowy…so yeah, “northness” it is.

Of course, when they say “Lee”, “Chan” and so on, it’s Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The Dragon Awakens belongs to…I dunno, actually.

Is Riku’s hair black when his face is hidden by the magazine (last part of ep with credits)?

(ep 9)

I only just found out, but that fanboy from Saisei, Kaede? He’s voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga, meaning he’s Yuri Katsuki (Yuri!!! on Ice). Kyosuke is voiced by Junichi Suwabe, making him Viktor Nikiforov. Yeah...that happened 3 seasons before Yuri on Ice...

Stick figures…that’s not a very conventional way to save on anime budget, but it’s a way nonetheless.

Gendo pose!

Seriously? Toilet humour? At least it didn’t last for too long.

There’s a box in the hallway that says “Aomori apples” on it.

(ep 10)

Did I just see Kyosuke with no eyes…? No, the aliens got his eyes too! That was so close to a perfect run (pun intended) without those face stealing aliens!

The question about snow is just an equivalent to “something impossible happened”.

“The devil getting sunstroke” was probably due to it being really hot.

Panda bread…the reason why it even exists is because pan da means “It is bread” and panda…is panda.

I know that feel, Riku… I’m only average, I used to not be so average…and that’s the sad part about me.

The rainbow of change…I hope it comes for me too.

(ep 11)

A high touch is a high 5, by the way.

LOL, 5th Symphony. Of course…

LOL, Shizu-man. A cross cultural pun…you don’t see those very often. Update: Apparently, that’s “Oshizu” in the Japanese.

That deadly look in Reiji’s eyes…it’s hard to look away from.

(ep 12)

Hopefully this show helps to motivate me long into the future…!

*yells into the breeze* …Idiots!

Even Hachiko has an EOS decoration, LOL. Hachiko is a dog known for his loyalty, having waited for his master right up until his death. However, his master had died before him.

So whose plan was it to see Honan in the first place (in regards to Galaxy Standard)?

Naked Speed…? What kinda name is that?

So did they…never mind. You know at the end.

Ah, bookends. At least they’re satisfying, even if they’re a little cliched.

The end of summer will last forever…until the winter comes. Heh. Of course I’d see that viewpoint. (Whaddaya mean, I’m too much of an optimist to be a constant whiner? I assume you’ve been through the POSA eps with me so far, and some of them twice.) Anyways, hope to see you again when our decisions once again collide…

Update: The name “Amatsu Ida” was on my mind and I couldn’t figure out why until I realised it’s the same pun as Tenya Iida’s. The POSA staff must’ve thought they were really funny, eh? Also, I thought they all had numbers in their names (Tasuku Senoo, Bantaro Chiyomatsu etc.) but I was wrong about most of them. However, there’s continuity between Shizuma and his bro (they both have the “horse” kanji, Asuma is “playing horse” – playing as in “frolicking” and such – while Shizuma is “quiet horse”) and Tasuku is “task” in katakana.

(ACCA 1)

I’m here because of Natsume Shingo and the stuff he showed on One Punch Man.

Okay, question. How do you spell Jean(?)’s name?

I love how there’s one shot that looks like it’s going to be a mouth to mouth kiss but turns into a secret telling instead.

Fweh? So, the part about the 13 districts suddenly starts to have echoes of the Hunger Games in it, and considering I suddenly decided to implement a Hunger Games parallel/parody into one of my fics one day, I know the exact makeup of such a story.

You can’t really tell Eider’s surprised aside from her open mouth…okay then. Moving on.

There was some very limited animation during that conversation (where Jean learns ACCA won’t be dissolved).

I don’t live in a family of four, so I actually questioned the squabbles over the flan for a second there.

“…or an ACCA chopper.” Speak of the devil, it’s a chopper! *Ahnold voice* Get to za choppaaaaaaaaaa! (Haha.)

What’s up with white uniformed Yurio’s hat? (Assuming Nino is the black haired dude.) Update: Turns out Nino has blue hair, while Knot is the dude with black hair. White uniformed Yurio’s name is Rein.

Pan = bread, apparently in Portuguese as well as Japanese. Also, Rein likes donuts and since he’s the “police” in this area…that sort of seems like a cliché…?

Mauve is the only one I really recognise (aside from Jean), after downloading all the ACCA icons I wanted before I saw this show. Mauve has some really distinctive hair. I recognise Rein from the icons, but not his name…hence the last dot point.

Trembling grey-haired dude’s hand was…actually pretty funny.

I love how Mauve is characterised by indigo hair that moves in the wind. It makes for some very limited yet LOLworthy animation.

Apparently, the café in the east staition (?) has American coffee (albeit lowercase) and blended coffee. Someone managed to stick that in…I’m impressed.

The ED looks arthouse, and I mean that in a good way. So…basically, although this seems to be a weaker showing than SGRS, it looks pretty good and I’m keeping it on for another ep.

(Hand Shakers 1)

Thought it had potential…but then the previews came out, and yet again, I have stumbled across the…problematic anime…of the season.

If there’s one thing I have to question, it’s the giant turtle on one building’s wall. Who thought a giant turtle on a wall was a good idea?

Yeah…if there’s any way to describe me after I see Gainaxing + torture, it’s “losing all attention”. Plus, they didn’t really explain anything yet about this boy who’s (according to the CR synopsis) called Tazuna or his girl Koyori. The CGI is hardly impressive either.

Gainax counter no. 2. Yet again, the scene is hardly impressive by any count. I think they’re trying to go all out with their visual techniques, and they’re achieving nothing.

When the camera specifically rotates around Pres’s mammaries…you know that’s a problem. Problem no. 2 is that I focussed more on a (purple) ad that says “Do Tarot Divinations!” instead of Tazuna. One last chance before I nope out of here, and that’s only because AniList was down earlier today just as I was using it.

Gainaxing no. 3. That’s it – I’m out of here.

(Nanbaka 15)

*groans* After Hand Shakers, I need therapy…ugh. I decided to rewatch a lot of my “worst shows ever” after Hand Shakers, too, which should very well explain my sore throat, feeling of a headache and any other symptoms I may exhibit during this simulcast commentary.

Rin! Rin! Hi! Hi! sounds more nasal. That’s what’s wrong with it.

Shut up…in English? I guess so.

Liquid nitrogen, in English? Hmm. Futamata-sensei’s good...or maybe just whoever was responsible for that.

Ooh…pretty screens…dang you, Hitokoe for being in the pretty screens’ way.

Poor Hitoshi. Doesn’t that hurt?

Where did the splat sound effect come from?

Why do they have to be so direct about…erm, that stuff? Hitoshi wears…those?

You said there were other traps here, eh? *raises eyebrows*

CGI prison bars…? Really? Plus, Hitokoe, you’re already annoying.

Even if parts of this ep were a letdown, Nanbaka is much better than a series of my worst anime…in a row. Ugh. *shivers*

(Marginal #4 1)

Idol anime are hard to access, so I’ve finally got one to cover…maybe.

Minimal CGI…that’s good. No gripes there, then.

Huh. It’s rare to find kanji that are assigned completely different romaji to their usual ones. Tsukuru has its own kanji, but those kanji are for bukatsu or club activities.

I knew it was coming…but L and R? In English, it just sounds uninspired.

Kirihara’s yet another Toshiki Masuda role…haha. Of course.

Marimo? The lil’ fluff moss?

I was confused at first about this “Starclusters” thing, but it turns out it just means the fans. Like Beppu Apes.

Yet another weird name I was prepared for, but got overwhelmed by when it showed up in the show proper. Shy…what a weird name…

I dunno why, but I react more to Lagrange Point’s hair being implausible rather than Marginal’s.

Hah, biology joke. That Atom is such a Masuda character, it’s cute.

Okay – complicated pun time. That kanji (it means “well”, as in the one with the water in it) is one letter I, but the word for “good” in hiragana is two Is but they sound roughly the same.

Of course, the iPun comes from iPhones, but the Taisho era is definitively Japanese.

The I-400 exists…but no one handles things like that at an elite school, right?

Tetranacci exists too, but…you know.

You can tell from their behavious that despite their hair colour, they really are bros, that L and R Nomura.

I think they tried too hard with L…or is it R? Welp, it’s one of them. The gaming twin. Update: It’s R. L’s the green marimo one.

Wow. Swanky room, kid.

Okay, whose idea was it to make Korean barbecue sauce flavoured soda?

Mayuge means eyebrows…

These guys are genre savvy. The specific word I used to describe them were “hideously genre-savvy”, but they hit the sweet spot between “too cliched” and “too much savvy, they ruin the entire genre”.

Wait, who gave the tomato then?

Mai is apparently the name of the group’s manager.

Okay, I’m keeping it on for another episode or so. It’s not completely out of the box, but it’s likeable.