Husky and Medley – Manga Review

Japanese Title: Hasukii x Medoree

Genre: Yuri Romance

Length: 1 volume

Positives:

Accurate uses of 2channel speak.
Based on a true story (according to 2channel).

Negatives:

Art is cheap.
Text bubble ordering is inconsistent.
Amateurish dialogue.
Fan-made quality is noticeable.

(contains nudity and sex)

Husky and Medley is the alleged true story of a Japanese high school girl, who uses the message board 2channel for advice on how to seduce her crush and the subsequent relationship. Much of narrative uses communications from the forum thread, so if you don’t understand the 2channel jargon, many points may go over your head, especially the humour. If you don’t know the jargon, I recommend looking it up first.

The two girls are sweet and reading their text messages is funny; however, the dialogue is rather poor. While the text messages and forum posts sound accurate, the dialogue was probably approximated for the manga, and it shows. The dialogue is so awkward and unnatural. Think of what happens when you first meet someone. You introduce yourself, maybe you don’t quite catch his name and call him ‘man’ for the rest of the conversation, too afraid to ask, until he says his name again at the end. Maybe his accent makes a few words difficult to understand, so you laugh at what you think is a joke, hoping you guessed right. You sigh inwardly with relief when he laughs with you. Despite this, you like the guy and have a good conversation. Now, when recounting the event to a friend later, you say, “Oh, I met this guy, Steve, and he told me this funny story about baguettes in the Large Hadron Collider.” You don’t mention, likely don’t even think about, the awkwardness and confusion, which is fine when talking to a friend. For literature however, those moments of confusion, those little details, are what make good dialogue. Husky and Medley has none of those details, that nuance. It becomes especially noticeable in the latter half where dialogue overtakes forum posts to tell the narrative.

All that said, Husky and Medley is still worth checking out. The basis on a true story makes it more exciting and intriguing to read.

(If you enjoyed Husky and Medley, check out Densha Otoko for a similar 2channel romance between an otaku and a beautiful woman out of his league.)