The most important thing I can say about Eren the Southpaw is I that I like it. I think it’s good – like, seriously good. It’s non-linear in ways I really enjoy. Not just chronologically but thematically. But with all the time-leaps and POV shifts everything is interconnected, and you can see that connective tissue under the skin at all times. But I do wonder – who’s the target audience for this thing? I would have thought if anybody was reading it, it was working adults and artists. But how in the heck is this shounen, and not seinen? Not only that it moved to Shounen Jump+ after starting out a web manga and got 25 volumes. Go figure.
The writer here, Kappy, is an interesting figure. He was born in 1985 and worked at an ad agency, so the math on whether this series is at least somewhat autobiographical speaks for itself. Despite his art background he doesn’t draw most of the series he’s published, including Hidarikiki no Eren. It seems pretty clear that no one who hadn’t lived this material could write what we’ve seen in the past two episodes. And from what I hear of Japanese corporate culture I would be inclined to believe there’s not as much dramatic embellishment as some might think.
The title character continues to exist more a a concept – or a kind of gravitational force – than anything else. The focus here shifts to Kamiya, who we met last week. This time it’s his formative years (age 19) which are unpacked. His senpai at college Yanagi-san hooks him up with an animation student named Youtani Kou, who’s working on a short film for his graduation project. Kamiya is an arrogant SOB who thinks he can do everything, and Yanagi (who winds up at the same agency) is clearly trying to indoctrinate Kamiya into the idea of teams.
Youtani is an upbeat and patient sort, which you’d have to be to deal with Kamiya at 19. He’s also talented – his “A Single Drop” is pretty impressive for a graduation film. Kamiya is sort of dragged kicking and screaming into the real world of creatives. And while he obviously retains his (unpleasant) core personality, the Kamiya we see as a professional obviously has accepted the politics of corporate life. That doesn’t mean he won’t fight to do things his way. And he’s not exactly a pleasant boss to Kouichi or the third member of the team, Mitsuhashi Yurina (Micchan). But in his douchebag way he does believe in them, and is trying to show them how to get ahead.
The tale of the “Sunny Try” campaign is even more convoluted than it was presented as last week (from Kouichi’s perspective). The ¥300 million thing is the tip of the iceberg – the company is actually looking for a new main partner for their ¥23 billion annual ad campaign. Kamiya winning a young designer award is why the company was invited to compete in the first place, and he was requested. But the suits still try and take over, trying to take the effort away from Team Kamiya and give it to a “super-team”, basically trying to reserve power for those who’ve done more sucking up.
Kamiya is able to talk his way into keeping the bid in the hands of his team. But when they win it, the president of the company themself orders that the ongoing work be yanked from the team and given to the brown-nosers supergroup. There’s nothing Japanese businesses love more than commissions and meetings and deference to seniority – it all amounts to a kind of enforced mediocrity. This is why Kouichi was dumped from the team despite his design winning the bid. And in fact the company winds up using his original design anyway when their all-star team can’t come up with anything worth wiping your ass with.
In New York, Eren (who finally makes an appearance) recognizes Kouichi’s work in a book of trendy Tokyo advertisements, and offers a smiling “you suck”. But suck or not, he won – so suck on that. We don’t think about it much, but the lot of a graphic designer really does kind of suck. No matter how hard they work on something or how good it is, in almost every case no one outside their own circle has any idea who created it. That derisive comment from Eren shows that Kouichi at least broke through that barrier, and that has to count for something. Too bad he has no idea.
