Second Round Barakamon vs. Fairy Tail

[Sky]

Barakamon Satsuki Yoshino		Fairy Tail Hiro Mashima

 

[haijihusbando]

This is rough, lol. Two very different genres and one is much more popular than the other. Anyways, since I nominated it, here's a small cheer for Barakamon, a personal favourite that I think deserves more attention :

Barakamon is one of those manga to me which exemplifies the slice of life genre, and it's one of those series which I find myself always coming back to whenever I'm feeling down, striking the perfect balance between comedy and heart-warming moments.

Synopsis:
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Seishuu Handa is an up-and-coming calligrapher: young, handsome, talented, and unfortunately, a narcissist to boot. When a veteran labels his award-winning piece as "unoriginal," Handa quickly loses his cool with severe repercussions.

As punishment, and also in order to aid him in self-reflection, Handa's father exiles him to the Goto Islands, far from the comfortable Tokyo lifestyle the temperamental artist is used to. Now thrown into a rural setting, Handa must attempt to find new inspiration and develop his own unique art style.

Characters:

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Barakamon has a distinct lack of melodrama, instead relying on its characters as the medium for its story. And, in that aspect, it delivers many times over. Seishuu Handa, our MC, is an adult calligrapher who is plagued with misfortune, whose growing relationships with the villagers around him leads him through a multitude of hilarious accidents throughout the manga. His characterisation is done so refreshingly well in an ocean of brick-personality protagonists, who are often defined by some personality trait or archetype, or a running gag, or as the moral saviour of the story. Instead, we get a character who is distinctly and believably human: he can be flawed, immature and vulnerable, yet not so much that it becomes grating and irritating. Yoshino makes us empathise with his thoughts and his behaviour without the need for long exposition, because he is a rare example of a main character who feels like he belongs comfortably within his own series, not sticking out like a sore thumb. And while there is not necessarily some life-changing transformation that he undergoes, it's equally rewarding to see him enjoy and experience human companionship in a new environment.

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All the kids in Barakamon form a central part of Handa's life and his development, but I'll focus on Naru Kotoishi, my favourite. She's slightly dumb, loud, and often annoying, especially to Handa. She goes around doing dumb things like eating and collecting bugs, making immature jokes. And that is exactly what makes her character so endearing: in an industry full of lolis and unnaturally mature kids, Naru (as well as the other kids) behaves exactly like an actual child would. The readers find her cute and lovable precisely because of her child-like energy and humour. Again, the realistic characterisation is what makes this series so good.

These are just two of a wonderful, lively and lovable cast, from all ages; Yoshino never fails to focus on the elderly, the young, and the middle-aged alike, and you never feel like you're reading a story filled with 15 year-old students only as I often see in others. It is the multitude of stories and relationships they share and develop along the way which I love so much.

Setting
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Barakamon is set in a village on the island of Goto, a place filled with nature to contrast the city environment Handa had lived in all his life. We get to explore the various traditions and quirks of living in the Japanese countryside, and all the natural beauty that you would expect. The setting itself contributes to the relaxing atmosphere and nature of the story - moments of calm are accompanied by equally calming natural backgrounds. The village itself is rooted in realism, while being sufficiently unfamiliar to the majority of us city-dwelling readers for it to feel refreshing and provide a sense of escape from the busy world. This is a balance that the manga maintains in many aspects of its delivery that I believe makes it such a great read, and again a balance which I often feel detracts from other slice of life stories when not executed as well.

Story​

I won't go into the details of the story so much as what I found so compelling about it as a whole. Despite the moments of immaturity from our characters throughout, the series itself is a lot more mature than what might be expected at first glance. Not so much that it tries to be an emotional sob-fest for the entirety of the story, but with heartfelt moments carefully placed in between well-timed comedy and hardship alike that are consequently made even more meaningful. The story is made with an understanding that there is beauty to be found in times of hardship, that life is full of both highs and lows. And with its heavy emphasis on characters, it also shows the importance of the relationships we share with people around us in everyday life.

What I find most impressive is how it weaves in this maturity and meaningfulness into the story very subtly without it ever feeling overbearing or 'preachy', and while it might not be the kind of series where you will find yourself welling up in emotion, emotion and feeling is something it never lacks.

Spoiler: The next 2 (sad) panels from the manga

So why do I think Barakamon exemplifies the slice of life genre to me? Because the manga realistically shows that our daily, uneventful lives are worthy stories themselves too that we should cherish, whilst also providing the sense of escape from our everyday lives in its setting and unique calligraphy premise. No dramatic break-ups, evil villains, love triangles or world-changing conspiracies in this story, yet in doing so it manages to be all the more memorable and meaningful.

I hope my overly-long campaign at the very least convinces anyone who hasn't read it yet to think about adding it to their list; it is one of the most pleasant experiences to read through, and it changed my perspective on the enjoyability of the slice of life genre. Highly recommend for anyone who needs a moment or two to relax - I would also recommend the anime to start off the series.

 

[ItsSamu]

I've only ever watched the anime (and really enjoyed it) but I've heard the manga for Barakamon is even better so it gets my vote!

 

[Orion]

No hesitation, Barakamon!!

PS: Naru is too precious for this world

 

[Erinyes]

Great pick, and great campaign Haji, , but this round my vote is going for Ft, it might be nostalgia, but i really have great memories even tho its not perfect, nothing is, i did enjoy the series, and had a lot of fun reading and watching it, back then, especially the 1st part up to tenrou.

 

[haijihusbando]

Great pick, and great campaign Haji, , but this round my vote is going for Ft, it might be nostalgia, but i really have great memories even tho its not perfect, nothing is, i did enjoy the series, and had a lot of fun reading and watching it, back then, especially the 1st part up to tenrou.

Thank you~ I love FT too so this is quite sad for me, and I completely understand the nostalgia thing. Loved your Totsukuni no Shojo campaign btw - good luck!

After seeing everyone's amazing campaigns I had to update my own campaign with some more artwork and manga panels, now it finally feels complete lol. Hope people keep voting for Barakamon! Here's one of my favourite panels as a sendoff:

 

[Erinyes]

Thank you~ I love FT too so this is quite sad for me, and I completely understand the nostalgia thing. Loved your Totsukuni no Shojo campaign btw - good luck!

Many thanks

Btw haji-kun , if you enjoyed Barakamon, i will definitely recommend you FLAT, its similar manga, with a lot of cute & fun moments, only 40 chaps btw (yotsubato too, but its more popular so i guess you already reading it)

Spoiler

fun moments

cuteness

friendship is magic moments

Sky will definitely hate me, lol taking avantage of his event to promote my babies thats totally the devil me

--- Double Post Merged, Jul 26, 2020, Original Post Date: Jul 23, 2020 ---

Jus a very little contribution :

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One of the strongest point of Fairy-tail is characters, so very quickly, i ve read a lot of manga some really great, i would rank some of them above ft plot/story wise, but for some reasons i find sometimes characters forgettable, and it happens a lot, its as if something in characterization, is missing, or they re not memorable enough (they dont necessary need to be, to make a manga great, it depends on the author focus and that doesnt mean they re bad either, far from it. It depends too on the lenght of the story, sure a 500 chaps manga and a 50 chaps manga dont impact the same way).​

Mashima managed to create interesting characters, most of them (at least main ones) have a deep background (for exple Erza has one of the best and sad backstory). Sure Mashima is not Togashi, but Fairy tail's chara design & characters personnality are great and works with the writing and purpose of the story. Dynamism between diferent charatcers (affinity/antagonism etc) makes them interesting and loveable (or hateable lol). I dont have time to write more details about it, but please give a chance to ft to make it next round, an I will try to do it in a better way,​