MICHELLE:
I’m sure everyone has heard someone say something like, “It was like a scene out of a horror movie!” Recently, a quote like that got me thinking… are there scenes that occur in our daily lives that are reminiscent of manga plots?

For me, I’d have to say my life most resembles The Walking Man, by Jiro Taniguchi (though with less tree-climbing). I live a fundamentally peaceful and quiet existence with a spouse who looks at the world pretty much the same way I do and we are inclined to enjoy the little things in life. And, although it hasn’t yet been released, I suspect my life will also bear some resemblance to Nyankoi! (due from CMX in July, Nyankoi! is the story of a boy who’s cursed to grant the wishes of 100 cats) for I’m continually doing the bidding of my four felines.

What manga is your life most like?

MELINDA:
This is a pretty loaded question, wow, but brilliant! I pondered for a while how honest I should be on this. Eh, what the hell.

Right now, my life most resembles Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare. Everyone is running around with their deepest fears and insecurities laid bare, hurting each other in the name of self-preservation, too broken to have any capacity for compassion or real honesty. I’m just tiptoeing through, unsure of who I can trust, searching for something, anything that might be the key to moving on to the next stage in my life, even if I have no idea what that life might be.

I’ve led a pretty varied existence, however, through many different stages of life, so I’m not concerned that this will last for too long. For instance, I spent my teen years living inside my own head in a world much like Please Save My Earth, followed by college life straight out of Nodame Cantabile. After that, I lived almost a decade as a touring nomad like Kino no Tabi (not a manga, I know, just humor me), then another few years playing around in the singer-songwriter world (I’d like to say NANA, but probably it was more like Solanin). Toss in a little Color-style soul-mate romance (I’m not sure which guy is me, but probably Takashiro) and some We Were There angst, and that’s a pretty fantastic life overall, wouldn’t you agree?

CHLOE:
I agree with Melinda; this is a hard one. Obviously college, dorm living and wacky young adult antics call to mind Nodame Cantabile for me as well, although I run more towards vaguely OCD Chiaki than free-spirited (and apartment-squalor-tolerator) Nodame. That said, I’ve been living solo in a northwest-central Tokyo apartment in between, so NANA is particularly pertinent in its urban, nightlife oriented vibe…although I confess I never went to Jackson Hole (much touted in the comic) because there are better late night circuits and live concerts to be had elsewhere. Honey and Clover comes to mind too, if only because the characters’ very real concerns about eating cheaply and affording meat in urban Japan! (Y1000 for steak! Y700 for blueberries! Small wonder cup noodles are a student’s best friend…)

MICHELLE:
Heh. Now I’m picturing you eating croquettes with mayonnaise and wistfully wishing for the return of your classmate with the meat connections!

MELINDA:
I think in terms of Nodame Cantabile, I was most like Mine—determined to be cool and musically irreverent but getting drawn into the classical world anyway and really falling in love with it. I didn’t end up pursuing it as a career (I was a singer who ultimately chose musical theater over opera, eventually abandoning both in favor of the folk scene) but it sank deep into my soul. I think too, like Mine, there is a rough edge I never lost and never really wanted to.

ERIN:
Ha ha!

My college experience was more like Genshiken. Sci-Fi Club was not exactly an anime/manga/games club, but there were people who liked all three things. I still hang out with all my Sci-Fi Club friends eight years later.

The girl in Suppli is close to my age, but I’ve never had to pull an all-nighter at work. I recently read the Kodansha bilingual Office Lady Revolution… but that doesn’t really reflect my OL experience either. I haven’t read any manga about twentysomethings and thirthysomethings planning their weddings. (V.B. Rose does NOT count.)

My high school experience was a bit like High School Girls, but not quite as… retarded. In high school I fell more into the “Arty girl” group, but I can identify with Eriko, who gets good grades but is considered an idiot by her friends. I faced off against one friend for the title “Klutziest Girl in the World,” but I lost.

SAM:
In terms of my life so far, it’s been an interesting mix. I’ve really remained local to Boston, growing up and going to school in the South Shore, then going out to Milton for Freshman Year and then coming up to Emerson in the city. Though I’ve moved about 10 times in the past two years (I don’t suggest it), I’ve always retained a really close-knit and special group of friends, each with their weird quirks and talents. So, even though I feel like I’m going out on a limb here, I am going to say that One Piece fits me the best. Obviously, I am not a rubbery and exuberantly loud boy, nor am I a seafaring scallywag (I am actually more of a landlubber) but I think I have the same heart and “let’s get a bunch of outcast people together for adventures” attitude towards my friends that Luffy does.

MICHELLE:
Wow, these are some awesome responses! Somehow I knew Genshiken would figure into Erin’s answer.

Since I didn’t talk about past me I shall add that, although I’ve not actually read Nodame Cantabile, my college experience in pursuit of piano performance degrees was probably closest to that. Especially if there’s a character who gets really burnt out in grad school and acquires tendinitis and secretly loves The Beatles way more than Beethoven.

In high school, I attended an absolutely wonderful performing arts high school which was like heaven to me compared with the public schools I’d gone to previously. A place where it was okay to be smart and a little weird! I felt like I’d finally found a place to belong, which reminds me of Tohru’s experience with the Sohma family in Fruits Basket.

ERIN:
Oh, I wanted to mention that in college I also felt a kind of Honey and Clover trepidation about my future.

I hope my future life moves more towards Oishinbo and Drops of God!

CONNIE:
I agree, there are lots of awesome answers that came up here. It’s a good question too, a real thinker. I considered it all day at work.

I read Paradise Kiss my freshman year of college, and it immediately resonated with absolutely everything about my life at the time. I had moved from a small rural town to Chicago, from a very traditional and overachieving-oriented academic atmosphere to a conceptual art school, and was overwhelmed by the city and all the people I met at college. At the time, I thought the school was a near copy of Yazagaku, too. There was even a Tsutomu vs. George-type situation going on, exactly, with everything that went along with that in the story.

I find my current life to be a mix of Red-Colored Elegy and Solanin (without the music). I’m not particularly ambitious and don’t have a lot going on, so I can always see me and my roommate in stories like that about adults that are just going to work and coming home and living life, et cetera.

Also, I think I need to read Nodame Cantabile.

ERIN:
Auuughh! Red-Colored Elegy and Solanin are both depressing! I hope you’re OK. Actually, I really like Red-Colored Elegy, but I didn’t like Solanin after the twist in the middle.

Noah is saying just now that his life is like Bobobobo because he’s very hairy (with hair powers), and every time he says something people’s jaws drop and their eyes bug out.

MICHELLE:
Hair powers? Oh dear.

Your earlier comment about Oishinbo, Erin, and this one as well serve as a handy segue to my follow-up question, which is: “What manga do you wish your life was like?”

This is definitely another toughy; I’ve been aware I was going to ask it all along and even I don’t have a ready answer. Although I have fun reading about adventures, I don’t think I’d really want to be having any of them. I don’t want to battle monsters or see spirits or have a heavy burden of destiny hanging over me. I don’t want to be a ninja or have a harem of bishounen.

When approaching the question as simply which manga would I like to inhabit, perhaps simply as an observer and friend to the cast, then I think I’d have to go with High School Debut. It’s warm and charming and seems like a pretty cozy place to dwell.

SAM:
I wish, I wish I was a fish!

But seriously, I think what my life lacks right now is a good amount of mystery! I think the manga I would wish for my life to be like would be Pluto. I like the suspense behind not fully understanding what is going on as well as the ethical and philosophical questions that come up. Plus, there would be robots. Who doesn’t enjoy the metallic, yet warm, company of a robot?

Put me in a suit, replace my hands with guns and throw me into the future!

ERIN:
I, too, would like to live in the world of Pluto, with robots. I swear I’m not just saying that because I want a robot to cook and clean for me! (I hope in that future robots are very affordable.)

I would like to live in the world of Hikaru No Go. Being really good at Go seems like a very pleasant life, although it’s probably quite stressful to defend one’s pro title all the time.

I’d like to live in the pleasant world of Kitchen Princess. I don’t want to BE the Kitchen Princess, but if I went to the same school I could eat at her café for lunch every day. The same goes for Yakitate!! Japan—I could be taking advantage of delicious bread shops if I lived in the same universe.

I just have food on the brain, I guess.

MICHELLE:
Actually, I gave serious consideration to saying Hikaru no Go myself, but it would have to be with the caveat that I actually possessed some talent at the game which is sadly not the case.

CHLOE:
I dunno, even if my go skills were masterful (they are not) I feel like shonen could get a bit stressful at times. I’d personally like a nice slice o’ life title to amble around in in the future—Aria comes to mind, if only because Kozue Amano’s Neo Venezia is so detailed you can’t help but wistfully turn the pages. That said, the sportsy outdoorman and mountain climber in me would be thrilled to wind up in something more along the lines of Summit of the Gods—because really now, mysteries and mountain climbing at the same time strikes me as a the ultimate hardcore sport.

CONNIE:
Ah, my life isn’t quite that depressing, Erin, though reading stuff like that always makes me imagine situations where it could crash and burn. ^_^;

The manga I think I would most like my life to be like… hm. I’m in kind of the same boat, where I can’t muster the energy to get excited about adventures or anything like that. Aria is a good choice, though. My head is full of nothing but From Eroica with Love at the moment, so I’m also inclined to mention that I would not mind being an aristocratic and globe-trotting art thief. And I will be honest and
admit that Ooku sprang to mind immediately and was the only one I could think of before reading everyone else’s responses.

MELINDA:
Hmmmm… this is a complicated question for which I have multiple answers, which is perhaps why my life tends to take so many drastic twists and turns. I actually do have interest in grand adventure and there is a big part of me that is very attracted to the idea of a life like Sarasa’s in Basara or Ed’s in Fullmetal Alchemist. To some extent, returning to a nomadic Kino no Tabi life would fulfill this, though I’m not sure I’m really cut out for it anymore at my age. On the complete flip side, however, part of me longs for a life like Yotsuba&!—an existence that would allow me the time and mental space to really appreciate life’s small joys with true child-like wonder.

Most realistically, however, and closest to my heart is the suggestion already being tossed around of Hikaru no Go, which is not to say that I could realistically dream of life as a Go pro, because I really, really could not. What I mean, rather, is a life spent pursuing something with that level of passion and making a living from it, which is something I’ve done before and long to do again.

MICHELLE:
Awesome responses, all! I think that’ll do it for this roundtable. Thanks again for your insightful participation; I hope we and our readers know each other a bit better now as a result!

If your life is like a manga, or there’s a certain manga world you’d love to habit, chime in in the comments and tell us about it!