Suppli, Vol. 1

Suppli #1

by Mari Okazaki, おかざき真里

The skies are always clearer after a storm... After her boyfriend of seven years dumps her, Minami realizes she's shut out everything else in her life. Now, at twenty-seven years old, ambitious Minami throws herself into her advertising job and experiences lifeâ "and loveâ "for the first time. From Mari Okazaki the edgy, provocative author of Sweat & Honey, comes a tale of rediscovering love.

Genres: Manga, Josei, Romance, Graphic Novels, Comics, Japan, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Mari Okazaki (Japanese: おかざき真里, Okazaki Mari) is a Japanese manga artist.
Okazaki was born in Nagano in 1967 and grew up in the region of Kansai. She graduated with a major in Design from Tama Art University and worked in advertisement for a number of years.
Okazaki had been publishing illustrations and short comics since high school, although her professional manga career started around 1994. In the early 2000's she left her day job to become a full time cartoonist and illustrator.
Okazaki comics have appeared in josei magazines (marketed to an audience of young adult women) as well as seinen magazines (marketed to an audience of young adult men). Her longest completed manga series to date are the josei Suppli, serialised from 2003 to 2009, and the seinen A-Un, serialised from 2014 to 2021.

Reviews

[Timothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series that was highly recommended by a couple of manga review sites, Suppli so far has been a disappointment with volume 1. It seems to have all the charm of a primetime office soapopera, minus all the drama. This volume has been somewhat of a slog to go through, as the focus of this volume is of our 27 year old protagonist, Minami Fujii, going through a mid-life crisis. She's 27, but she's still unmarried; she has a boyfriend, but she's having doubts; she has a job, but it's been all stress and little satisfaction. These types of stories have been done before, but Suppli seems to have a difficult time effectively balancing these plot points with any rhyme or reason. One moment, it's an office story about the advertising industry, but then later it switches gears into a romance.

Granted, real life is messy and confusing, and that's what the author seems to be channeling. But usually in such cases, there's at least a compelling character for us to follow. Without such, the story would be no better than following a stranger to work and hear her or him just mope and complain about life.

Considering that this is the beginning of an 11 volume series, my hopes are that this is all due to the necessity of having to introduce all the characters, and that the story will start to pick up later.

[Michalyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim and what a pleasant surprise. I tend to get bored of shoujo titles so it was great to find something more mature and targeted at women in their 20s. The main character is a 27 year old whose eyes are suddenly opened when she's dumped by her boyfriend of 7 years. The art is lovely and the writing strong. I'm enjoying the realistic portrayal of the character's struggles to balance work, life and love. At the end of volume 1 there are already 2 budding romances and both are getting more complicated by the minute. I'm eagerly awaiting volume 2.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather liked this one, partially because it felt like I was reading a dramatized biography of Em's life this last year. (Dear Em: you are much better off than the main character. But I think you'll enjoy the similarities anyways.)

27 year-old Minami leaves her boyfriend of seven years and realizes that she has nothing but her job to claim as her own: no interests, no friends, no life. This first volume shows how she goes about setting things to right and the difficulties involved with that. The thing that impressed me the most, however, is the amount of brutally honest details that Mari Okazaki gave for the recovery process of getting over a long-term relationship.

The only reason this series didn't earn 5 stars is because the preview for the second volume totally ruined the ending scene of the first volume. Bad editorial staff!

[Wiktoria (^˵◕ω◕˵^) · Rating 3 out of 5]

{3.3}

[Rainy-Night-Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars 🌠

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

After breaking up with her boyfriend of seven years, Minami dedicates herself anew to her work in advertising. But before long, she has two very different men seeking her attention. The art in this manga is clean and gorgeous, and I love how the mangaka attends to small details in both her art and the story.

[Aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was lovely!
The art is great, some of the panels and spreads are so beautiful.
The manga is about twenty-seven year old woman who works in an advertisement agency. Her boyfriend of seven years broke up with her so she’s navigating life afterwards. There are potential for blossoming romance but it’s too early to tell. I don’t often read josei manga so it’s interesting.
The “selling” point of the manga for me are the art and the lowkey disaster Fuji (the leading lady).

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the story but not the way it's written- way beyond things being lost in translation.

The art is VERY spare in detail and looks hurried.


Shelved as erotic because I suppose it's going to be soon but the "explicit/mature: sexuality + sexual nudity" ratings on each cover are a complete lie because NEITHER exist within this volume.

[Arielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art is pretty and the main character is interesting and relatable. There is a lot of symbolism which I loved. However, the story is confusing at times and the two main love interests are boring and unlikable and I didn't find myself rooting for either of them.

[Tab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda Meh. Nothing much happens. It's rated Mature, but nothing mature happens (maybe the more mature themes pop up later in the series). May read next volume, but not going out of my way to track the other volumes down. The art was beautiful.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[TT · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, gave this series a shot years ago, not for me. Not great.

[Jillian -always aspiring- · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very reminiscent of series like Tramps Like Us/Kimi wa Pet and Tokyo Tarareba Girls. Kinda brutal and unapologetic about how “older” women are treated in the workforce and society at large.

[Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art stile is my gem... Also I am liking a lot the storyline and the characters.

[Emma Johnson]

DNF I think I might have read it before but don’t remember

[Cal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right after their first read through of this volume, my partner sent me a picture of the page where our main character is crying in front of her fridge, illuminated by its light and surrounded by expired groceries. It's a striking page and I have been meaning to read this series ever since but have only been able to get around to it recently. Predictably, I found myself wishing I had picked it up much sooner. It's absolutely gorgeous and the art conveys emotion so well despite the story focusing on a woman's mundane day-to-day.
Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but slice of life stories like this hit me much harder than they used to. I still love more fantastical stories, but there's something about adults just trying to get by that keeps drawing me in time and time again. This manga handles the struggles of growing older, an unfulfilling job, and complicated love life without getting too boring or repetitive. It also covers the difficulty of being a woman in the workforce without becoming trite. I really enjoyed this volume, and am looking forward to reading the other translated ones in the future.

[Raffaella · Rating 5 out of 5]

« Ci sono cose di cui non ci si accorge se non si è innamorati. Una è che io sono costruita intorno a delle priorità...e quella di piacere agli uomini non è tra queste. »

Fujii è una donna qualsiasi, non ha alcuna specialità, non ha niente che la renda favolosa o diversa dagli altri, è solo una persona che va avanti nella sua vita con tutto quello che ha, rimane coinvolta da vicende sentimentali come tutti e ne esce distrutta come succede a tutti quanti nella vita. Mi piace proprio per questo, perché a differenza della solita eroina da manga che per forza deve avere qualcosa che la renda speciale, Fujii potrebbe essere chiunque, potrei vedermi in lei così come potrebbe qualunque altra donna ed è una cosa che per quanto mi riguarda trasmette molta familiarità al lettore.

Ho trovato la narrazione dei fatti molto scorrevole e i discorsi molto semplici da seguire. Solitamente, i manga che descrivono quotidianità sono alla lunga noiosi, ma per quanto riguarda il primo volume non ho sentito affatto questo peso, mi è sembrato che l'autrice sapesse destreggiarsi bene con il genere e mi piace il modo in cui racconta anche solamente i pensieri della protagonista, come ha impostato il rapporto tra donne e donne/uomini, nell'ambiente del lavoro così come all'esterno.

[Miss Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Minami a super likeable heroine in this! Which is good considering I bought the first five volume of this series at Anime North and it'd be a shame to have spent all that money and not liked it. I'm enjoying the slice of life feel, I find josei is particularly good at giving me protaganists who are a bit lost with their personal relationships in a way I find relatable and appealing. Plus Minami seems like a sweetheart, I really like that her relationships with other women consistently tend towards admiration over antipathy (oh for a world were this was not something that merited commenting or pleasure). I think it also did a good job showing how messy it is trying to get over a breakup. 4 stars

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. This manga was okay. I probably won't pick up additional volumes, though. I decided to try out a manga with a more adult/mature plot (vs. the high school romance sort of shojo I often pick up). This manga follows 27-year old Minami as she says goodbye to her boyfriend of seven years and attempts to put foolish romances behind her and focus on her career in an advertising agency. The artwork is great (characters are well drawn), but I was just generally bored with the story and didn't find any solid interest in Minami's life and struggles as a newly single career woman.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first time reading Japanese manga. For American readers who are not used to graphic novels, you must read this one back cover to front cover and from right to left. It takes about 30 pages to adapt, but then it comes easy after that. This is more of a girls romance book than anything, as the main character is dealing with the breakup of a long-term relationship. She ends up having the choice of two guys, but at the end is uncertain she's made the right one. It's a series... so it's "to be continued" at this point.

[Reader17 Der · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was different I liked it but I think I need to read the next volume to see where this leads. This is about an older women (not really that old but in her mid 20’s) she and her boyfriend break up. She realizes that she only has work and she had her boyfriend of 7 years. Now she is throwing herself into her job to forget but at the same time she starts going out the people from work and she is discovering new things.

[planetkimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't help but compare Suppli to Tramps Like Us, and so far it lacks the zaniness and "OMG - that did NOT just happen!" factor that I adore in TLU. I'm hoping that things pick up a bit in volume 2.

Also, Fujii's presentations that were rejected by the board were pretty cringe-worthy for me. Been there, done that. Maybe I'm just in the mood for something more fantasy and less reality.

[Izzy Rey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is like a soap opera and it describes what is like to want to not be the spinster and to be caught between wanting to be loved and wanting to be successful and what it means to a woman who isn't quite too old to decide which of the two to dedicate more time to...just fab! If you're in your mid-twenties or thirties you'll understand...unless ou're married and have kids already. It may just tick you off then.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy this series quite a bit--the art is gorgeous, and the main character is relatable. And it's a more serious story than most of the manga I read, dealing with an adult woman waking up and taking a good look at her life after a seven-year-long relationship with her boyfriend ends. There's still angst, but it's of a more mature sort than you see in your typical high-school drama.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find the angst filled lives of people my own age to be considerably less interesting than when it involves high school students...I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because I don't want to spend the time I have away from work reading about people who spend too much time at work.

Same for volumes 2 and 3.

[Bianca Woods · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first volume intriguing, but didn't feel a strong connection to the characters by the end. I felt like the story had the potential to eventually either get completely boring or reel me in, but I think it'll take another volume or two to know for sure.

Nice to see some Josei manga on the market though.

[Dimitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book, It's goes deep for just a manga. Its about how a woman at age 27 has wasted most of her young years with her boyfriend. Not getting good ideas for her job and having a boyfriend who has lost feelings for her mad her a cold and heart less woman, and when her boyfriend of 7 years dumps her she has a huge wake up call.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice art. I think this may be the same mangaka that did Kimi wa Petto? (Nope, I just checked, doesn't look like it is... Similar feeling to the main character, and a similar feeling of the conflict women deal with in the workplace in Japan, though.)

[Nelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice josei manga. The art is really good, with nice layouts. Although the plot is not that original, I found the details about the protagonist's job interesting. She's a nice young woman, not annoying or stupid as I've seen in other josei titles. Will keep reading this series.

[Suzanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

The concept is was caught my interest. However upon reading the first book I found myself losing grasp of the character and her relationship. Maybe it was a badly translated scan, but there was no development. As though pages were missing and it jumped around.