This is part of the summary that mangatraders.com has for Ise Katsura's Onani Master Kurosawa.
This was one of mangatraders' series of the week for the week of May 15th (along with Aogiri Natsu's Flat), so I found this on the front page. I read the summary and was compelled to actually read the series just to answer all the questions now bouncing around in my head (some of which were: "wtf?" "how?" and "why?").
Well, I read it, all four volumes, and spent most of that time either laughing or disturbed.
Before I start explaining the story, I'll mention the first thing that someone reading this series will notice: it's not inked. The whole series looks as if it was sent to the publisher just drawn and shaded in pencil, and that's probably what happened. That doesn't mean it doesn't look good, the drawings are well done and if it were inked it would look like any other manga. The reason for this, I think, is that Kurosawa is a doujinshi (self-published work).
Anyway, moving on. Spoilers ahead.
So the story moves along right from the first page where we find our main character, Kurosawa Kakeru age 14, masturbating in the girl's bathroom on the 3rd floor. Despite the title and summary, this really isn't the main focus of the story (there's a plot? ...sort of, it's more a slice-of-life manga than anything else), but it is a big part.
We go on to learn that this is a daily occurence for Kurosawa. Every day after school he waits in the library until he's sure that the school's practically empty so that he can hide out in the 3rd floor girls' bathroom and have at it. This has apparently been going on for about a year now. He eventually gets caught in the bathroom, of course (even if the summary hadn't said it everyone would've seen it coming), by a female classmate named Kitahara Aya.
Kitahara is being bullied by some other girls in her class, and has been for a while. Two of her bullies are in class with her (I forget their names) and are constantly forcing her to embarrass herself in public. Feeling sorry for her, I guess, Kurosawa decides to get back at the two girls by stealing their uniforms and ejaculating on them before returning them to their rightful owners (all this is done in secret, naturally). No one figures out it's him that did it and the two girls tone down the bullying a bit.
But Kitahara eventually realises what Kurosawa did and purposefully confronts him in the bathroom. She knows what he's doing in there, but she could care less about that. Surprisingly, she hasn't come to tell on him, she's come to ask for his help. She wants Kurosawa to use his 'special method' and get revenge on some other girls that have been mean to her. And if he doesn't go along with it, she'll tell everybody what he's up to.
And there is main focus of Onani Master Kurosawa: revenge. The story also serves to tell the readers how the two main characters are arseholes.
(Kitahara and Kurosawa)
We'll start with Kurosawa. Now, he's not really a bad guy, at all. He's kind of shy and a loner, and he's only got one friend in class: Nagatsuka, the class' king otaku. And that's how Kurosawa looks to the average observer. But readers of the manga are basically inside his head, since the manga is told from his point of view, and we know that he's kind of a jerk. He's kind of arrogant, he thinks he's above everyone else, and he doesn't really seem to like anyone. Except for girls, he likes girls a lot. Also, his fantasies during his bathroom time are slightly disturbing as they involve whatever girl he's after that day and him in very rape-ish situations. They also suggest that he doesn't really respect women, especially since he refers to the girls around him as 'lessons' or 'meals'... our hero, ladies and gentlemen.
Kitahara also has two different faces, depending on where you're looking from. She's even more shy than Kurosawa. She really has no friends and seems scared of everyone around her, which is probably because she's constantly being bullied and made fun of by almost everyone. She's also very small and wears huge glasses, so she has that cute and innocent look. And then she gets close to Kurosawa and he (and us readers) find out that she's kind of scary. And vengeful. And bitter. Throughout the story, she basically wants Kurosawa to perform these gross acts of revenge on other girls who've done anything from outright bully her, to just laugh at her in the background. At points she's so hell bent on getting these things done that she even starts to scare Kurosawa, especially when she targets the girl that Kurosawa develops a crush on.
Yeah, Kurosawa gets a crush on a girl, and that series of events takes Kurosawa from being just a teenager with an odd passtime (seriously, do it at home), to a teenager in love, to a jerk.
At some point in the series, Kurosawa can't make it to his bathroom right away and spends more time in the library, that's where he first starts to get to know his classmate Takigawa Magisteru. They get to talking and the more they hang out the more Kurosawa realizes how much he likes this girl. He even starts looking forward to his time in the library (as opposed to just waiting for it to be over so he could move on to the bathroom), and he goes so far as to hope to meet Takigawa outside of school. It even gets to the point where fantasizing about her as he masturbates makes him physically ill, as in he actually vomits (an interesting insight as to how he actually views his bathroom activities).
During this time, Kurosawa becomes more likable, and I started rooting for him. On the flip side is Kitahara, who becomes more unlikable and pessimistic and even predicts that Kurosawa's happiness won't last.
It doesn't, of course, as Kurosawa comes to class one day and comes face to face with the fact that the girl he's in love with is now dating his only friend (Nagatsuka, mentioned above). There's a full page dedicated to Kurosawa's reaction, and it almost hurt me. The expression on his face and the knowledge of what was about to go on inside his head actually made me go 'ouch'. And that's probably the last time I ever sympathized with him, because then he just goes into full on asshole mode.
In retaliation, he agrees to Kitahara's revenge plan on Takigawa and makes a mess of Takigawa's school bag. Takigawa becomes traumatized by this, and the series ends with our two mains continuing on their revenge spree.
(One of Kurosawa's fantasies)
So yeah, this really is a pretty unusual story, but it's a pretty good read. The art is nice, the story moves along fairly quickly, it is fairly interesting. Also, the masturbation scenes and fantasies aren't too explicit, not much is really shown, although it's pretty obvious what's going on.
And now to explain the humour in the whole deal because I don't think I said anything yet that could be considered as funny. Well, the story doesn't really have a lot of humour in it, at least from my point of view. Nope, the really funny part of this manga only comes up if you've watch/read/are familiar with/are a fan of Death Note.
(This is Kurosawa. You can't not see the resemblence here if you tried.)
Kurosawa Kakeru is Yagami Light. There are differences (mostly because I'm pretty sure that Kurosawa has a functional soul), but they're so alike it's not even fit. Their thought patterns are similar, and they even look alike. Also, the stories are kind of the same. Light kills criminals with a notebook, Kurosawa... masturbate-revenges people... it's the same idea, trust me.
There's such an association there that one of the names people call this series is Fap Note. Also, the scanlation team that worked on this manga made their credit page look like the rules page from the Death Note.
I even realized this before I saw the credit page. I was reading it and I said to myself that Kurosawa is an awful lot like Light. And that's where most of the humour comes from, I find. Because I spent most of this time imagining Light in place of Kurosawa, which made things that much more funny.
So yeah, that's Onani Master Kurosawa. It's a pretty interesting little series, and it has a lot of laughs if you're a Death Note fan. It's also more of a character study than a story. There really isn't a set plot, but it's pretty fun to watch the characters react and change to what's going on around them (even if our two mains aren't always very likable). It hasn't been liscenced in English, but it is available to read online. It also got some pretty good reviews on mangaupdates.com.
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