Apr 19, 2023
This will likely be the only review I post, but I wanted to give my opinion on this manga since it seems to differ from the rest. Long story short: Show-ha Shouten! rocks, but if you are looking for a straightforward comedy manga you are in the wrong place.
Show-ha Shouten is, at its core, a battle manga. The central plot focuses on the development of the two protagonists, their victories, their losses, and the things they learn. For them, making jokes is not so much a matter of making us as the audience laugh, but learning what techniques will make the audience in the manga
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laugh. Things like timing, delivery, physicality, suspense, and subversion are all explored as though they are a science. But why? Well, for comedians, this is how comedy works.
Show-ha Shouten! resonated with me the way Haikyuu may resonate with those who played volleyball in High School. Many of my high school days were spent watching old SNL re-runs, analyzing the efficacy of Monty Python sketches, and longing to perform comedy in front of a live audience. I would memorize the way comedians shifted their cadence, noting how even the slightest inflection could impact the way a joke landed with an audience; I developed a greater sense of physicality through comic theatre performance, learning what it meant to play with the audience; I would go to stand-up comedy performance and watch the audience more than the comedian to see how they leaned into each joke and waited for release. To me, comedy was a passion, a science, and an art form all in one. Many people I talked to were shocked when I explained that the process of learning how to be funny was a distinctly unfunny one and that I spent more time studying than I did laughing at any jokes.
All of this is to say, Show-ha Shouten! is about the drive it takes to make people laugh. This series is about passion, failure, rehearsal, and lots of studying. It is about the rush that enters a comic’s heart when an audience laughs and the anxiety of entirely bombing a set. It is for every person that watched comedians, learned from them, and genuinely wanted to be just like them.
I believe everyone should give Show-ha Shouten! a chance. You may not be walking away in tears every chapter because of some fantastic one-liner or incredible visual gag, but you will walk away with a greater sense of the passion and hard-work that goes into comedy. Through the competitions you will begin to understand the vulnerability this form of performance necessitates and the dedication of those who choose to compete in this field professionally. You will also meet some fantastic characters along the way. I think this manga has some incredible partnerships and I think that is a given when considering how intimate comedy can be. There are also some pretty kick-ass women in the manga and a discussion of misogyny within the comedy realm (though how appropriately this is handled is subject to debate).
Show-ha Shouten! may not be a traditional battle manga, but it is an interesting one and an exciting addition to an increasingly diverse genre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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