Friday, April 2, 2010

Futagami Double - Manga About Doubles


Short Summary: Futagami Sousuke, 14 years old, is a normal student, wishing to live a normal life. But everything changes the day he sees a doppelganger of himself in his house. Since then, the girl he has a crush on, Amane, will introduce him to another side of his world he had no idea about, and there won't be anymore of the dear peaceful days for Futagami.

Introduction: This is a one-shot manga, which I think is that they only release one chapter as a prototype for a possible release of an actual series; or is just a manga that is one chapter. So hopefully this turns out into an actual series because I read it and thought it was good. I stumbled upon this after looking of the what other works the illustrator of Mayoi Neko Overrun! did since the art style from that series is godlike. The author and illustrator for this series is Yubaki Kentaro who also did the art for To Love-Ru, which was both a manga and anime. I didn't read or watch To Love-Ru though because the main character is one of those I hated- random guy gets harem of girls for no good reason. Mayoi Neko Overrun! is getting an anime release this spring though, which I'm looking forward to. I looked at the trailer and thought that the detail of the characters was very subpar in the anime compared to the manga, but the Seiyuu cast is pretty top tier so that might make it worthwhile. I'd still watch it for Chise no matter how bad it is though. Anyway, because of Mayoi Neko Overrun!, people are complaining that Kentaro doesn't have the time to work and develop Futagami Double.

Long Summary (Spoilers):

So the manga starts off with our 14 year old male protagonist, Futagami, being emo about not getting the opportunity to get closer to and have a chance to talk with Amane, a girl he has a crush on and believes that his high school life will end up being completely boring.

Entering high school as a freshman and complaining about your life is pretty emo

He goes home one day and hears something strange thinking it's his mom. He walks toward his parent's bedroom and is stunned in silence at what he saw. At first I thought he just walked into his parents having sex and was intrigued by what would follow. But the next page, the author just cut the scene back at school with Futagami asking himself what the hell he just saw.

Mom, dad, are you ho-? omg i'm 14 and wat is this?

That day in the classroom, Futagami ends up being grilled by his classmates because they all think they saw him at the train station and were calling out to him but he didn't respond. The main character gets all worked up saying they mixed him up with someone else, but all his classmates insist it was him and joke about there being a doppelganger of him. During cleanup, our main character looks up what a doppelganger is and reads that if you see your doppelganger, you will end up dying, so he refuses to believe that that's what he saw. Amane, who overheard the accusations in the classroom earlier walks ups to him and asks what exactly it is that he saw. Futagami gets surprised and freaked out by Amane.

Caught looking at porn on his cellphone

Amane explains to him that what he saw was something called an ID, which is a collective being formed out of your thoughts you have. Normally thoughts dissipate immediately, but in rare cases they linger and form an ID.

He probably has some residual feelings in his pants right now

Our main character doesn't believe this at all, until Amane pulls out water from a nearby pail with telekinesis saying she can bend the laws of physics with willpower alone.

She could give handjobs without getting her hands dirty

Futagami asks who the heck Amane is, but Amane just randomly decides for them to both ditch school and go search for Futagami's ID. She's afraid the ID will 'fall into negative', which is when the ID will have so many emo depressing feelings that it ends up trying to kill the original. She explains to Futagami that that's how her brother died five years ago, and she doesn't want it to happen again.

So basically instead of committing suicide, you'd just make it a homocide with the killer being yourself

However, just then Futagami's ID shows up right behind him and tries to strangle him, but Amane sees it and shoots it with a water gun, I think. She attacks it with her powers, but another woman shows up and save's Futagami's ID. She happens to be an ID who has successfully killed the original. She then accuses Amane of being a slayer, a person who hunts IDs. Amane says IDs are the reason for the mass killings recently and that's because IDs feed off the human conscious to sustain themselves.

Women who tear off their face are scary

Both Amane and Futagami end up being pinned by the IDs and can't get loose. Futagami is about to get killed, but then realizes that the ID is formed from his thoughts. So in dramatic fashion, he consciously transfers to the thought of saving Amane his ID. He ends up transfering his whole consciousness to his ID and the ID ends up turning from black, to supersaiyanish with eyes and hair glowing and ends up saving Amane and defeating the other ID using powers that defy physics.

Usually it's the guy telling the girl to run in stories

I'd make that face too if I got a goodlook under her skirt

Clearly super-saiyin mode

I'd trust someone with glowing blond hair

Putting an arm through the girl you like, groping a little too far there

Obligatory breast touch to break up any developing feeling of romance

Amane delcares that Futagami should become a slayer and hunt IDs because he has the responsibility to protect other people. Futagami is all sweatdrops because his boring life is going to be changed and Amane just acts super cute and gives a giant smile.

What is this guy 'ehhhhhing' about? I'd totally want to fight alongside a cute girl if we both had superpowers

Is that a K-On Yui face in the second panel?

Conclusion:

So I thought it was really really good for a one shot with definite potential. I like how it mixes in slapstick comedy well with the story and action. I'm a sucker for comedy like that. I hope Yabuki Kentaro decides to continue this after he's done with Mayoi Neko Overrun! The main character seems pretty godlike already with the matrix-like powers, so it'd be interesting to see what type of route or situations they use to utilize or develop his powers further.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i agree with you. i hope they make it a series. i'm looking forward to it..

watch did doubles said...

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