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Review

by Rebecca Silverman,

Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto

GN 4

Synopsis:
Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto GN 4
All good things must come to an end, including Sakamoto's first year of high school. But before that happens, he needs to help a friend get through a fancy French dinner, rock at karaoke, and try once more to make Kubota-kun's mother see sense. Can he do it? Of course – after all, he's Sakamoto!
Review:

It's hard to believe, but with this volume of Nami Satō's breakout manga, our time with Sakamoto comes to an end. Whether it was planned this way or not, each volume ends up representing one season of Sakamoto's school life, and so with volume four we reach the end of the year, finishing up with graduation. Of course, since this covers Sakamoto's first year in high school, the graduation isn't technically his, but there is still that element as far as his character is concerned, leaving us with the same question we had at the beginning – is Sakamoto even human?

Of course, before we can get to that point, Sakamoto has a few things to clear up for his friends and classmates. One of the highlight chapters of this volume is Sakamoto's turn as a manners coach for second-year thug Sho, he of the fabulous hair. Sho is the eldest of four brothers, as it turns out, and his father is beginning to think of remarrying. He's currently trying to woo a classy (and wealthy) woman and needs Sho to come out to a high class French restaurant with them to show off his elite manners. The only problem, of course, is that Sho doesn't have any elite manners. So who can he turn to but Sakamoto? But when he explains the situation, Sakamoto says that there really isn't time for a full etiquette lesson…so he climbs into the same extra-large tux as Sho and acts as his arms. It's like terrible sketch from “Whose Line is it Anyway” that somehow works…and the best part is that no one seems to notice that “Sho” has four legs as well as being extra muscular that evening. As always, the suspension of disbelief that Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto relies on makes the story – yes, Sakamoto himself is amazing, but the way that he manages to make everyone see only what he needs and wants them to is equally skillful, as is the twist to this particular chapter.

Conversely, the weakest chapter is a return to Kubota's creepy mother and her obsessive crush on Sakamoto. When Kubota is home sick, she puts on his uniform and takes his place in class in order to hang around Sakamoto, whom she by now knows is not a fictional character come to life. Not only does this continue the distasteful joke about sad, desperate K-drama-obsessed housewives, but it also takes away from the initial chapter about her, with Sakamoto's ingenious solution to the problem. While this does resolve her issue and have a bizarrely good joke about making curtains into boobs, the overall premise of the Mrs. Kubota chapter is just uncomfortable and a bit mean, making it stand out in the book for all the wrong reasons.

The theme for the volume, if it could be said to have one, is the idea of moving on, as both Sho and Mrs. Kubota are helped to do in the aforementioned chapters. To this end the final two chapters of the book focus on the actual school graduation ceremony and end-of-the-year celebrations of Sakamoto's class. While most of the group is happy to share photos of Sakamoto, Atsushi (or Ah-chan) finds himself growing increasingly upset with his perfect classmate, making him easy prey for Fukase, the third-year who refuses to graduate. This sets things up for an epic Sakamoto-style showdown at the actual graduation, giving Sakamoto a final chance to strut his stuff in the most impressive way possible, even orchestrating the removal of Fukase in his own special way. It's a fitting final act for the always-amazing Sakamoto.

But who is Sakamoto? We're really not much closer to knowing that when the series ends, which is in parts perfect and frustrating. There are clues in this book especially – he speaks fluent French and German (the German bit is particularly good, combining highbrow and lowbrow humor), he has never seen snow, and at the very, very end we see that he does have more emotions than he tends to show us. But that doesn't take us any closer to really understanding why he is the way he is. It doesn't really matter – when you come down to it, his inscrutability is a large part of the joke in the series. It is the one thing that doesn't really get any closure in this final volume, however, which makes it feel a little less tidy than it might have otherwise.

That's how best to describe Sato's art as well – just a little less perfect than it appears to be on the surface. While there's a very nice solidity to her characters, and I particularly like that Sena continues to be drawn as slightly chubby even as he parades around in his underwear all the time rather than trim or comically obese, there's also something just enough off about everyone's proportions that it can make you a little twitchy when reading. It's just close enough to “realistic” (in manga terms) without actually being realistic that it can be a bit uncomfortable. Fortunately Sato's page setup has grown clearer and smoother over the course of the series, balancing this out somewhat with ease of reading.

With this volume, Sakamoto waltzes off in a cloud of perfect sakura petals, marking the end of the series as he moves on to new adventures. While it is sad to see this absurdist comedy finish, Sato wraps it up nicely, making this feel like a natural ending. There's a nice sense of threads gathered up, even if one of those threads is Mrs. Kubota, and while we might not like to see this conclude, there's something to be said for not dragging out a story.

Grade:
Overall : B
Story : B
Art : B-

+ Nicely wraps plot threads up, still very funny, we see a glimpse of real emotion from Sakamoto when it counts
Art can be a little off in its proportions, Mrs. Kubota chapter doesn't quite work, snow chapter is a little weak

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Production Info:
Story & Art: Nami Sano
Licensed by: Seven Seas

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Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto (manga)

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Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto (GN 4)

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