The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

This Art Club Has a Problem

What's It About? 

Hi, my name is Usami Mizuki. I'm a second-year member of the art club at Tsukumori Junior High, and I need to vent: this club has a problem! Why the heck isn't anyone besides me taking this seriously?! The club president doesn't do anything but sleep all the time, Cole-chan never even shows up, and Uchimaki-kun—oh, don't get me started on him. All he does is draw and obsess over his “2D waifus.” What is this, the manga club?! Hmph, whatever. Not like I care. Sigh. He's talented enough to win awards with a little effort—but uhm, don't...don't tell him I said that, though... Agh! Just how am I supposed to keep this club going?! Help me!

This Art Club Has a Problem! has a story and art by Imigimuru. Translated Dawson Chen and lettered by Camilla L. Published by J-Novel Club; PublishDrive edition (October 4, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

The title does not lie – this art club definitely has a problem. Or maybe even three – the only serious member is Usami, and even she's got her quirks; it's just that drawing apples over and over and over again pales in comparison to Uchimaki's waifu obsession, the fact that the club president spends his entire time napping and that Colette is…Colette. There's no other way to put that because the club's sole first-year member is a total force of insanity as she rockets from one thing to the next. It's frankly amazing that the art club still functions at all.

But it does, and that's the joy of this manga. Rather than relying too much on the typical tired tropes of school comedy, This Art Club Has a Problem! instead lets its characters' quirks power the narrative, letting us fill in the blanks from how they interact with each other. It's never overtly stated that Usami has a crush on Uchimaki, but we can see it in their dialogue and her reactions to him. Likewise, we can see that he may be ever-so-slightly beginning to rethink his 2D-Only policy when it comes to girls. (Maybe. If he has to, he guesses.) Both Usami and Uchimaki are awkward in the way that every teen with an obsession is awkward, and that helps to fuel the story. It's episodic and silly, but there's also something relatable in it – my unhealthy obsession with Jane Austen at that age is easily laid on top of Uchimaki and his quest for the perfect waifu painting or the way Usami holds up Paul Cézane's apple art as the pinnacle of fine art. They're weird, but they're our kind of weird.

After having seen the anime back when it was airing, I was surprised to find that this isn't a four-panel manga, although there are between-the-chapters bonus strips that are. It only marginally follows an overarching plot, and it nicely blends the absurd (the chapter where the club president pretends to be dead to hide that he and Uchimaki ruined Usami's painting is amazing) with the everyday, such as Colette pretending that she magically materialized her “lost” locket. Even better, the humor is good-natured and fairly gentle, even with the jokes about Usami's underwear that pop up twice. This is just a fun book, and if it doesn't have a lot to dig your teeth into, the easy-reading translation and clean, clear art make it so that that doesn't matter at all.