Maniac Road is a comedy about the run down Ijima Electronics and Appliance store, located in the back streets of Akihabara (the Mecca of electronics in Japan). On its last leg, the store had nearly gone out of business, until three sisters-the store owners-hire the resourceful Takezou. With a stroke of genius, Takezou, has the sisters dress in costumes and refashions the store into the perfect shopping ground for Japanese "otaku" (those who absolutely crave manga, video games and Japanese animation). Business begins to boom and the adventure is on, as the three sisters meet some of the strangest and most eccentric characters of the growing Japanese manga/anime scene. But the road of the mania is full of potholes and a major entertainment corporation plans to muscle in on the small store's success.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
LET ME EDUCATE YOU IN OTAKUDOM,
By Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Maniac Road #1 (Paperback)
After failing to acquire the "Special Limited Edition P Hyoro Meeko Wars III" fantasy love simulation in the Akihabara section of Tokyo, the otaku capital of Japan, Takezou Muto falls down on the street in a fetal ball, prepare to end his life. Well, not seriously, but he is an "otaku", after all. Three sisters find him laying there in front of their struggling electronics store and one of them actually mistakes him for a pile of garbage! Realizing her mistake after she field goal kicks him into the refuse bin, the girls take him in. They tell him that their father died 3 years ago, leaving a ton of medical bills behind and the care of the store to them. They haven't been able to make ends meet and the collectors have come knocking. The day is saved when Takezou stumbles realizes that their father was a famous model kit builder whose work is prized by otaku in the know and finds a goldmine of his stuff in a store closet! Haruna, the oldest motherly sister, recognizes Takezou's potential and asks him to turn their electronics store into an otaku Mecca. Isuzu, the youngest one, gets excited because she's an otaku too, while Aoba, the high-schooler sister, hates everything about the whole scene because she has already stereotyped in her mind the kind of people that are interested in such things!
While this book is not as drop-dead funny as Cromartie High, it is quite humorous in its own way. You get the sense that the author is trying to educate you in otaku passions, and that's not a bad thing. For example, I never knew there was such art in building battleship models. Another funny part is when they have air rifle battles out in the woods and you have all these guys modifying their guns,(battery-powered, solid wood stocks,etc.)This first volume kinda hits on all the main topics of the Japanese subculture, including cosplay, military, anime, and manga. It's worth reading for the humor and the interesting facts you learn. I would also recommend the following dvds: Otaku No Video and Comic Party (also a manga).
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