Kujibiki Unbalance 1 (Paperback)

~ Kio Shimoku (Author), Koume Keito (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Originally, Kujibiki Unbalance was an imaginary manga and anime series enjoyed by the characters of Genshiken, a popular series about otaku (geek) culture and its fans. Genshiken was written and drawn by Shimoku, who provides the story here for Koume. Because of its origin, Kujibiki Unbalance was meant to be stereotypical, so it comprises clichés. Kujibiki means lottery, and the setting is a high school where everything is decided by random draw. The lead is a regular guy, his best friend is a cute girl, and their antagonist is a mean genius with cat ears and a love of explosions. There's a ruling school elite to order them around, upskirt panty shots, a destructive giant robot, a little girl with superpowers, flashbacks to childhood friends, a harem gathered around the lead and, surprisingly, the occasional profanity. The characters appear very young, yet there's plenty of emphasis on the body parts of the girls in very short skirts. For fans of the original Genshiken, there's a self-congratulatory three-page bonus at the end in which the characters read this volume. (July)
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From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up—Kujibiki Unbalance, already an anime series, takes place in Rikkyoin High School, where all decisions are made by kujibiki, a lottery game. This full-length manga previously existed as a "comic-within-a-comic in the creator's "Genshiken" series (Del Rey). On the first day at his new school (selected by lottery, of course), Chihiro and his friend Tokino find themselves chosen as student council president and vice president, respectively, for the following school year. After dismantling a bomb and fighting a demon swordsman, Chihiro and his team realize that "winning" the kujibiki and serving as school leaders require far more than anticipated. The graphics are classically manga, with a definite slant toward the style in "Sailor Moon," and with the sci-fi and fantasy twists of Anthony Horowitz's Stormbreaker, Kujibiki goes beyond the visual and provides a new take on the current high school spy phenomenon. With frequent close-ups of breasts, glances up skirts, and odd sexual relationships, this book is a better fit for public libraries and high school libraries with flexible collection-development policies.—Sarah Krygier, Solano County Library, Fairfield, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (July 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345506286
• ISBN-13: 978-0345506283
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #397,975 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enter the second season...., July 24, 2008

By	N. S. Michael (New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I first saw Kujibiki Unbalance it was playing in the background of Genshiken as a spoof anime within an anime. It was very shallow, but strangely entertaining as it lampooned the various archetypes and tropes of the medium. Then, about halfway through the manga, the spoof hit another idea that occurs rather frequently in the culture... the second season that's an alternate universe. Same characters, mostly, and pretty much the same basic setup in terms of story, but it's a world reset (for examples, look to the plethora of Tenchi anime).

And that's what we have here.

KujiUn, the manga, starts us off at the second season reset with completely new character designs and party makeup. Instead of playing second fiddle to Tokino's clueless president, Chihiro is now picked for the top role himself, returning the tradition of the main character in the most important position. Tokino is still here, of course, but instead of the vapid, mushroom hungry flake of the first season, she is now a genki childhood friend type who may or may not be head over heels for Chihiro. Komaki and Izumi were both dropped from the roster and replaced by Renko who has been put into tsundere-loli-moe overdrive (super-science/cute cat ears and all) and Izumi's younger sister, Koyuki, to capitalize on her vulnerable-loli moe'ness.

Yes, I'm bandying about very specialized terms here that the uninitiated won't know off-hand (though they've probably heard them, at the very least SOMEwhere, in a discussion about anime).... Moe, loli, tsundere, etc., are all very important in the anime lexicon, which is why they're overdone to the extreme here... both for cuteness and for the irony.

In any case...

KujiUn's premise is the lottery... as in, EVERYTHING is chosen by lottery and one's luck plays a great deal in their life's path. For example, normally Chihiro's luck is the worst ever... but, somehow, he's managed to win the lottery to become the next student council president, with Tokino his second. Does that mean whomever was going to become the next president was destined to suffer much misfortune? Or is his luck starting to change.

It's a very flexible universe, heavy on fantastical elements that stretch the bounds of one's suspension of disbelief... but that's, of course, due to the intentions of the author to put those archetypes and tropes into high gear and lay them bare for all to see how ridiculous we are for enjoying them... while still making a decent adventure/slice-of-life/romance story to read (and buy).

The art is most certainly different from what we came to expect "last season" in Genshiken, but that's because Koume Keito-san is doing the drawing this time around and, as such, the designs have much more contrast and are distinct from Kio-sensei's. Look for more of Keito-san's work in the upcoming Spice and Wolf manga adaptation which I forsee being released after the anime hits the states (Kadokawa USA apparently has the rights).

My final verdict is divided. Harcore fans of Genshiken will purchase this if only for the bonus chapters Kio-sensei put at the back of the book. Your casual anime/manga fan will probably enjoy it due to the sheer bulk of fanservice represented in the pages... but it's not the tightest story or best concept outside of the meta aspects I descibed above.

I recommend a read for the general fanbase, with a buy for the meta crew.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cute, but..., October 25, 2008

By	ChibiNeko "Sooo many books, so little time!" (Whereever I go, here I am.) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Let me get started by saying that I loved Genshiken from top to bottom. I fell in love with the story idea of Kuji-Un, as it was originally an in-story joke to the series. The whole point of Kuji-Un was for it to be the stereotypical anime series that otaku go nuts over, with love triangles, bizarre characters, aliens, magic, and pretty much any other anime stereotype. You could literally name a cliche & it would be in there somewhere. The whole point of it was that it was a parody of all anime cliches & it served it's purpose very well in Genshiken. Now it's a manga & anime of it's own, and unfortunately it doesn't shine quite as brightly on it's own.

The plot surrounds Chihiro & his childhood friend Tokino as they try to make their way in their new school. However this school has a peculiar way of choosing their student body government- they choose it by random drawing rather than by election. Chihiro soon finds himself as the president, and that it's not so easy to run this student gov't. In fact, if he or any of the others fail in even one task they'll be expelled! Meanwhile, the mysterious current president Ritsuko has ties to Chihiro from the past that keep resurfacing...

All in all, this *is* a cute manga, but it's still somewhat mediocre in comparison to others out in the genre. Fanservice is pretty high in this book & sometimes is a little annoying when it's in a scene it shouldn't be in. The characters are all pretty bland, so I wasn't really able to get into any of them or their problems. The biggest problem with this series in a nutshell is that it's a parody in-joke that tried to suddenly take itself seriously & put out a real series. It just isn't working. Fans of Genshiken will love this series, but most others will not be impressed. Good thing it's only 2 volumes.

5.0 out of 5 stars A+, June 11, 2009

By	C. Saetern "Taka Suzushii" (California, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A great manga. Only 2 volumes total from what I see. If you have this, you must get the anime series. Funny, action packed, and some drama. Overall, a little to short of a story but flows straight forward.