VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
CARTOONIST: Maki Enjoji
TRANSLATION: JN Productions
LETTERS: Inori Fukuda Trant
EDITOR: Nancy Thislethwaite
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9540-5; paperback (November 2017); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK
SP x Baby is a manga written and drawn by Maki Enjoji (who also created Happy Marriage?!). It was serialized in the Japanese shojo manga magazine, Petit Comic, from 2014 to 2015. VIZ Media published an English-language edition of the manga as a two-volume graphic novel series, entitled SP Baby, from 2017 to 2018 under its “Shojo Beat” imprint.
SP Baby, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 5) introduces a young woman named Tamaki Hasegawa. One day, she is on the way to a much-needed job interview when she stops to help a young man whom she believes is being assaulted. That young man turns out to be Kagetora Sugou, the nephew of the prime minister of Japan.
Kagetora starts to pursue Tamaki to be his bodyguard because he was impressed with the way she handled the assault. At first, Tamaki is put off by Kagetora's playful, teasing demeanor. She is determined, however, to get a job so that she can earn money to prove herself as a good worker and to help her younger brother, Taishi, pay for college. Although she does accept the job, Tamaki does not realize that she and Kagetora have met before...
The SP Baby manga is from one of the reigning queens of shojo romance manga, Maki Enjoji. She specializes in chronicling the evolution of a romance between people whose personalities clash, as seen in VIZ Media's current Enjoji project, An Incurable Case of Love.
SP Baby Graphic Novel Volume 1 isn't so much a love story as it is a “Me Too” era violation. Kagetora is a bore and does not respect Tamaki's space. He acts like a privileged brat, and his actions sometime border on being criminal. Tamaki is plucky and determined, but if she really had any good sense, she would quit her job as Kagetora's bodyguard. In fact, if she had trusted her feelings, she would not have taken the job in the first place.
Vol. 2 is going to have to come up with a really good reason for Kagetora's behavior and personality. It will likely have something to do with the characters' shared pasts. I do give credit to JN Productions' translation, which really conveys Tamaki's struggles to succeed and her stubborn determination to get what she wants. And, as usual, I thoroughly enjoyed Enjoji's art and graphic design.
4 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseauxa a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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