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Dance Till Tomorrow #1
Dance Till Tomorrow, Vol. 1
An adult adventure from the pages of Pulp: Manga for Grownups.
216 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
About the author
Naoki Yamamoto
124 books15 followersNaoki Yamamoto ( 山本直樹 Yamamoto Naoki) is a male Japanese manga artist. In his early years, he also used a pen name Tou Moriyama (森山 塔?) as well as Mori Touyama (塔山 森?) for his adult-oriented works, but nowadays he no longer uses it.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 4, 2021
#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. (Collect them all!)
From the July 1998 edition with a theme of "Manga Month!":
INTRODUCTION
It's manga month!
Viz Communications has been America's major importer/translator of Japanese comics for about a decade now. Eight months ago, Viz launched one of its boldest titles, PULP: MANGA FOR GROWNUPS. As the title suggests, PULP is an anthology which features adult-oriented stories: more complex and more sexual than your standard manga imports. (Alert: You're going to see a plethora of nudity and sexual content warnings in this month's column. Obvious white-outs and obscuring speed lines lightly censor most stories, but this is pretty racy stuff, folks.)
I like the idea behind PULP, though the execution has been a little sloppy. In my reviews below, I'll try not to punish the Japanese creators by remarking upon the barely adequate lettering and extremely stiff dialogue imposed upon their work by Viz's production staff and team of translators, but I want my audience to be aware that PULP does not contain the top-of-the-line Japanese to American adaptation seen in the likes of LONE WOLF AND CUB or even MAI, THE PSYCHIC GIRL which is reviewed below. I hope the quality of PULP's adaptations improve, but I am happy to have access to the material regardless.
This month, Viz is collecting several of the more popular serials from PULP into trade paperback format. If you have a little money left in your budget after buying all of DC Comics #1,000,000 issues, here a few collections you might want to consider.
MAY I CUT IN?
DANCE TILL TOMORROW (Viz Communications)
If asked to predict, I would have thought a story about an unlikable jerk surrounded by weirdos and being manipulated by a flirty twit would be my least favorite serial in an anthology of Japanese comics. Yet DANCE TILL TOMORROW is the fun and funny highlight of every issue of PULP.
The unlikable jerk is Suekichi. He's a harried and unimaginative college student who has just -- but not justly -- hit the jackpot. He stands to inherit from his dead grandfather a stamp collection worth $4.5 million. There are some strings attached, of course: Suekichi cannot receive the fortune until he has finished college, married, and established a career. This is a real challenge for our slacker hero, as he is on the verge of dropping out of college so he can pursue theater production and his amateur theater troupe's director, Masami Shimomura.
The flirty twit is Aya Hibino. Claiming to be a distant cousin of Suekichi, she is the only person other than Suekichi and the grandfather's lawyer who knows about Suekichi's inheritance. The lawyer fears she is a golddigger, seducing Suekichi to get at the fortune. Suekichi mostly finds her annoying -- she keeps showing up on his doorstep or, if the window is open, inside his apartment -- but that doesn't stop him from jumping into the sack with her. You see, he's too shy to approach Shimomura, the object of his affections, but he's too much of a jerk not to take advantage of Hibino.
The weirdos are the members of the Bondage Horse acting troupe. One actor, playing a frog, constantly wears his frog mask to every rehearsal and social gathering. Another actor requires half an hour to prepare himself for the role of Farmer Number Four. The biggest weirdo is Shimomura, the director, who appears to be perfectly normal on the outside and in most situations, but writes absurdist plays and seems to love associating with such a pathetic group of people. Even worse, she is not absolutely repulsed by Suekichi.
DANCE TILL TOMORROW is madcap romantic comedy with a dab of the ludicrous and a dollop of gratuitous sex. (The nudity and graphic sex mean this title is not for children.) Even though I don't like any of the characters, I do find them amusing and must know how the "love" triangle will work out. Frankly, Suekichi doesn't deserve either girl or the windfall he is to inherit, and I'm pulling for an ending which leaves him twisting in the wind. And DANCE TILL TOMORROW creator Naoki Yamamoto (with the help of translator Matt Thorn) may be goofy enough to do just that. The devil-may-care tone and uneven-but-breezy art of DANCE TILL TOMORROW makes it the stand-out gem in PULP's box of stones.
Grade: B
From the July 1998 edition with a theme of "Manga Month!":
INTRODUCTION
It's manga month!
Viz Communications has been America's major importer/translator of Japanese comics for about a decade now. Eight months ago, Viz launched one of its boldest titles, PULP: MANGA FOR GROWNUPS. As the title suggests, PULP is an anthology which features adult-oriented stories: more complex and more sexual than your standard manga imports. (Alert: You're going to see a plethora of nudity and sexual content warnings in this month's column. Obvious white-outs and obscuring speed lines lightly censor most stories, but this is pretty racy stuff, folks.)
I like the idea behind PULP, though the execution has been a little sloppy. In my reviews below, I'll try not to punish the Japanese creators by remarking upon the barely adequate lettering and extremely stiff dialogue imposed upon their work by Viz's production staff and team of translators, but I want my audience to be aware that PULP does not contain the top-of-the-line Japanese to American adaptation seen in the likes of LONE WOLF AND CUB or even MAI, THE PSYCHIC GIRL which is reviewed below. I hope the quality of PULP's adaptations improve, but I am happy to have access to the material regardless.
This month, Viz is collecting several of the more popular serials from PULP into trade paperback format. If you have a little money left in your budget after buying all of DC Comics #1,000,000 issues, here a few collections you might want to consider.
MAY I CUT IN?
DANCE TILL TOMORROW (Viz Communications)
If asked to predict, I would have thought a story about an unlikable jerk surrounded by weirdos and being manipulated by a flirty twit would be my least favorite serial in an anthology of Japanese comics. Yet DANCE TILL TOMORROW is the fun and funny highlight of every issue of PULP.
The unlikable jerk is Suekichi. He's a harried and unimaginative college student who has just -- but not justly -- hit the jackpot. He stands to inherit from his dead grandfather a stamp collection worth $4.5 million. There are some strings attached, of course: Suekichi cannot receive the fortune until he has finished college, married, and established a career. This is a real challenge for our slacker hero, as he is on the verge of dropping out of college so he can pursue theater production and his amateur theater troupe's director, Masami Shimomura.
The flirty twit is Aya Hibino. Claiming to be a distant cousin of Suekichi, she is the only person other than Suekichi and the grandfather's lawyer who knows about Suekichi's inheritance. The lawyer fears she is a golddigger, seducing Suekichi to get at the fortune. Suekichi mostly finds her annoying -- she keeps showing up on his doorstep or, if the window is open, inside his apartment -- but that doesn't stop him from jumping into the sack with her. You see, he's too shy to approach Shimomura, the object of his affections, but he's too much of a jerk not to take advantage of Hibino.
The weirdos are the members of the Bondage Horse acting troupe. One actor, playing a frog, constantly wears his frog mask to every rehearsal and social gathering. Another actor requires half an hour to prepare himself for the role of Farmer Number Four. The biggest weirdo is Shimomura, the director, who appears to be perfectly normal on the outside and in most situations, but writes absurdist plays and seems to love associating with such a pathetic group of people. Even worse, she is not absolutely repulsed by Suekichi.
DANCE TILL TOMORROW is madcap romantic comedy with a dab of the ludicrous and a dollop of gratuitous sex. (The nudity and graphic sex mean this title is not for children.) Even though I don't like any of the characters, I do find them amusing and must know how the "love" triangle will work out. Frankly, Suekichi doesn't deserve either girl or the windfall he is to inherit, and I'm pulling for an ending which leaves him twisting in the wind. And DANCE TILL TOMORROW creator Naoki Yamamoto (with the help of translator Matt Thorn) may be goofy enough to do just that. The devil-may-care tone and uneven-but-breezy art of DANCE TILL TOMORROW makes it the stand-out gem in PULP's box of stones.
Grade: B
February 3, 2018
3.7/5
The original monthly magazine once known as Pulp: Manga for Grownups came as a pleasant surprise to me. I'd never heard of it before, especially since, at the time I'd first learned of its existence, it'd already been out of print for over a decade. Think if Shonen Jump showcased the exact opposite of mainstream: showing manga that was obscure and generally unheard of by the general manga population. These stories were bizarre, trashy, crude, sometimes violent, often graphic in nature, and very adult, printed on newsprint paper miraculously held in place by two big staples in their spines. It featured the oddball, trippy Bakune Young, the goofy Heartbroken Angels, Banana Fish, Strain, and others... like Dance Till Tomorrow.
I liked some of these enough to start buying the individual volumes should the opportunity arise. This one is fairly simple with its plot: everyman Suekichi finds himself to be the recipient of his late great grandfather's 4.5 million yen inheritance IF he graduates college, gets a job, AND gets married. Ouch. To make matters worse, an attractive and mysterious girl named Aya appears in his life. She appears to only be after his money. Or is she...?
There are other complications, but I won't go into details. Bottom line though: I like the story despite its lack of originality; I like the characters, whose personalities seem real enough to almost pass them off as humans instead of caricatures, and the humour is great because it doesn't rely on cheap gags and recycled bullshit. It feels natural and for the most part, genuine.
The artwork could use some improvement, though. It does the story well enough, but sometimes it's a bit sloppy. Oh well.
The original monthly magazine once known as Pulp: Manga for Grownups came as a pleasant surprise to me. I'd never heard of it before, especially since, at the time I'd first learned of its existence, it'd already been out of print for over a decade. Think if Shonen Jump showcased the exact opposite of mainstream: showing manga that was obscure and generally unheard of by the general manga population. These stories were bizarre, trashy, crude, sometimes violent, often graphic in nature, and very adult, printed on newsprint paper miraculously held in place by two big staples in their spines. It featured the oddball, trippy Bakune Young, the goofy Heartbroken Angels, Banana Fish, Strain, and others... like Dance Till Tomorrow.
I liked some of these enough to start buying the individual volumes should the opportunity arise. This one is fairly simple with its plot: everyman Suekichi finds himself to be the recipient of his late great grandfather's 4.5 million yen inheritance IF he graduates college, gets a job, AND gets married. Ouch. To make matters worse, an attractive and mysterious girl named Aya appears in his life. She appears to only be after his money. Or is she...?
There are other complications, but I won't go into details. Bottom line though: I like the story despite its lack of originality; I like the characters, whose personalities seem real enough to almost pass them off as humans instead of caricatures, and the humour is great because it doesn't rely on cheap gags and recycled bullshit. It feels natural and for the most part, genuine.
The artwork could use some improvement, though. It does the story well enough, but sometimes it's a bit sloppy. Oh well.
September 15, 2018
This doesn't become what I would call erotica or related until the second volume- I'm shelving it as such for the sake of the series.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews