Look, I love Rainbow Rowell, I love Fangirl, and I love comics. How, then, could Fangirl, the manga, not be a homerun for me? I think my gripes begin and end with the art style. I could rant about how this isn’t manga, seeing as manga literally means a Japanese comic book, but plenty of people have said their peace about that already. It’s in a “manga style,” I guess, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, even if it remains quite sus. No, what bothers me most is that that “manga style” is altogether devoid of personality. These are lovable characters that leap off the page when Rowell writes them, except here they are bland, black-and-white pretty faces that somehow all seem like they were ordered from the same catalog. Like, okay, you’re committing to copping the “manga style,” instead of actually hiring somebody Japanese at the very least to do it, but then this is what you land on? If I didn’t already know and love the story, if this was my introduction to it, I wouldn’t continue reading. The writing is still intact, yet it’s there in the context of this nothing art. I’m amazed that Rowell would sign off on this; in her Marvel comic runs, she works with some of the most talented illustrators in the game, so she knows what good illustrations look like. Sigh. I don’t even know if the completionist in me will drive me to finish the rest of this, honestly.
