Hey all, long time no see! No need to leave, as that title ties into the title of this (Sunday!)'s review, Kaiki Sasaki's Sayonara Puroro! In a bid to keep the blog active and the twitter threads manageable, we've decided to have oneshot reviews here, and the first is...a wild one to say the least.
(Issue #14 of 2023 of Weekly Shonen Sunday where the oneshot was featured.)
To get started, this oneshot was second place winner of the Sunday New Generation mangaka contest.
(Advertisement for the Sunday New Generation prize)
As one can probably infer, this is a competition newbie mangaka can enter for cash prizes and having their oneshot published in webry (which is usually what occurs) and the main Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine itself. I'm not sure who or what decides whether an entry will see publication in both, but I wouldn't at all be surprised if it's a popular vote. That of implies that WSS is much higher profile than Webry, which makes sense in a way since while Webry is a major part of Shougakukan, WSS has been around much longer and thus has a bigger cultural impact.
In any case, one can enter every month (as indicated in the flier above, "You have 12 chances to enter and win!") and the deadline is the second week of the month. The top prize is seven million yen and of course publication in either webry or the main magazine. Second place nets the winner five hundred thousand yen and of course publication in either or (or both) publications. Sasaki-sensei's work is in this category that we're here to discuss today.
As for Sasaki themselves, I wasn't able to find much on them. Not surprising as they are a newbie after all, but I am disappointed they didn't get an author bio page as some tend to. The only time we get to hear from them is the TOC comment for WSS issue #14.
It simultaneously doesn't say very much but speaks volumes about the trajectory and style of the one shot. Though, enough beating around the bush about it, let's dive in.
The oneshot begins with a girl witnessing a spaceship hurtling toward the earth and foretells of an encounter that will change her life. Pretty standard stuff so far. Sasaki's artwork seems fairly polished too! Though it only gets wilder from here.
The girl whose name is Tsukiko Tsunami introduces herself to the survivor of the crash after finding their arm and handing it to them all with a calm affect, a real character defining moment. She speaks in a cutesy manner befitting her cat ears (adding a "meow" to the ends of her sentences) all while the being that lost the arm repairs itself. I dig seeing this from the being's point of view, as it allows for an ominous underbelly to what seems to be a cute interaction.
It's then that the audience gets their first glimpse at this being who looks like a humanoid girl. It responds to Tsukiko with "Prororo" which she takes to be its name and thus a strange, but heartwarming friendship begins as seen above. I love the Doraemon/Gurren Lagann reference in the third panel as Tsukiko compares Kaminaemon and Simobita's (not their real names) friendship to their own as a robot and human.
Tsukiko's age isn't indicated at first, but in a few pages the story moves forward to her middle school days so I'd assume she was maybe around 10-12 when she and Puroro met? Either way, she's grown into a more sullen less "nyahappy" young lady. She's apparently gone as far as dying her bright hair black! Though perhaps the biggest change is she spends far less time with Puroro now. It's sad, but these things happen as one gets older and yearns for more, and thus different things.
The Narration also reveals that Tsukiko has fallen in love with the boy depicted above. Not surprisingly, Puroro doesn't get what love is, but does understand that this is why Tsukiko isn't as into hanging out with them as she was before. Yet, Puroro doesn't react with jealousy, rather it thinks that perhaps if she can bring this boy and Tsukiko together, then that'll repair their relationship and they'll go back to what they were before. Oh poor, sweet naiieve Puroro...Even assuming this boy were normal, the chances that things would return to what they were before are slim to none. Especially since --
He is far from "normal." (This is by the way, him sneezing.) Again, Sasaki's artwork is incredibly good for this, especially if it's only their first work.
Puroro being the good lil' robot it is, runs to Tsukiko to bring the fact that the boy she's crushing on isn't human to her attention, but finds her crying on the roof for reasons unknown. I assume up until now Tsukiko has just assumed she knows what Puroro has been saying, because it has to pantomime its thoughts to her (as cute as this is) rather than saying them outright, as it still can't say anything other than its name. That being said, she does more or less figure out Puroro is talking about the boy, Makigai which is impressive, but then the reason why she's crying becomes clear --she did try to confess to him, but he's more interested in Puroro. While in a normal context she might have been more likely to lend an ear to her robobuddy this is just horrendously bad timing.
Tsukiko gets into her feelings and lambastes Puroro asking why she has to be so dang special all the time. Pink hair, cute mannerisms, being unable to talk, etc. It's not outright said at this point, but I feel as if Tsukiko ditched all the things that made her special to fit in rather than making a conscious choice, and now is jealous that the net gain for her is nothing. The boy she likes is more interested in the girl...bot thing she used to be rather than who she is. She's so angry that she doesn't realize Puroro starts to...speak normally?? And it says it purposely hasn't changed because if it does, it'll no longer be the Puroro that became friends with Tsukiko in the first place.
Honestly I only included this page because of Puororo's expression in the bottom panel as it literally uses it's whole body to point out Tsukiko is in danger, haha. It illustrates well how fun Sasaki's artwork is, even as it reveals the danger lurking behind Tsukiko --another Puroro?! Again, horrendous timing as Tsukiko was just about to have a breakthrough and perhaps say she does care about her friend.
And now things get really wild as the new Puroro attacks Tsukiko and the Puroro we know, but a hero rushes in and saves them --Makigai, who we already know isn't normal but the truth is even stranger than that --he's the mech unit for a tiny alien survey corps, and reveals that Puroro is a autonomous exploratory unit named "Purikura" (which is obviously a play on the super popular magical girl anime franchise "Precure.") There's the implication too that the tiny alien Snuil (Forgive me for the spelling) has been watching Puroro for some time as he continuously calls it that rather than it's actual name. Anyway, the Purikura unit is set to attack the earth soon and he's here to stop them --except the one way to do so is for Puroro to transform and fight them, which is why he was interested in it.
Yeah, same Tsukiko, lol. She's having a difficult time processing all this information thrown at her at once, Though is still just as calm as she was back when she found Puroro as a kid. I guess some things don't change, huh. Though the alien reveals that five years ago an accident occurred that caused one of their ships observing earth to crash and a signal to go out for the other Purikura units to eventually attack Earth. This leads to Tsukiko arguing with the alien as to how he could have possibly screwed up for five years and it retorts that living on Earth is a war in and of itself, while Puroro's like "Wow this problem makes the issue of Tsukiko and I's friendship seem pretty pointless, huh?" The comedic whiplash is amazing, and I'm here for it.
Though the maudlin kicks in when Puroro realizes its true nature would make it difficult if not impossible to remain friends with Tsukiko. I actually got a little sad when Puroro's thoughts go from "I want to be friends with Tsukiko" to "Can I even be friends with her when my true form looks like that?" in reference to the other Puroro's that appear. Which appear they do when the mothership decends and looks like a giant Puroro head that makes the eponymous "Purorororo" sound. It'd be ominous if it weren't just a little bit hilarious, too. Sasaki's sense of humor goes oh-so-well with breaking up this moment in a way that's poignant and of course funny.
I wondered for a bit if this was just an unintentional effect of the pacing of the story and not deliberately invoked by Sasaki, but this page confirms that they have full command of the story. Tsukiko has rightfully started freaking out as Puroro wonders to itself why things have to change in the first place? Be it Society, people, and relationships. In a flashback it's revealed Tsukiko is the target of bullying and surprisingly Puroro reveals it was able to talk even back then when it asks its friend if it's true nature as a robot is the reason why she's being bullied. Whether it's to spare Puroro's feelings or the truth, Tsukiko replies that she's the problem and further states that she'll give up all the things she enjoys and live as a normal girl instead. It's because she changed that Puroro figured it shouldn't, perhaps having a false epiphany from this moment. There are things that should change, and things that shouldn't. Wisdom comes from being able to understand which is which. And now Puroro realizing what has to be done also decides to "change."
At this point of the oneshot it's clear this is an allegory to Precure and Gurren Lagann so this transformation shouldn't be too surprising, but it is pretty cool. Though I admit I like cuter Puroro more.
And of course Hatsune Miku too for good measure. Sasaki's throwing in all kind of anime/gaming pop culture references and it's a wonder to behold. It feels like the series is totally going off the rails and has become a comedic romp until Tsukiko tells her friend to come back safely and all of the stakes come hurtling back. Within all of this craziness is the tale of two best friends --a thing that shouldn't change in a malestrom of things that are. Puroro promises to return and goes off to fight the robot hoard.
Kaiki Sasaki, you're a madman. I hope Shougakukan doesn't lose you in the shuffle for serialization. Having an artist wear their inspirations on their sleeve like this should be embraced all the more.
Puroro wins against the robot hoard but loses power and hurdles down to Earth seemingly ending it. Interestingly the tiny alien speaks to it for a little bit, thanking it for it's hard work and promising to look after Tsukiko in it's place. Fast forward to three years later where the giant eye from the mothership still rests on a building and as people do, everyone has moved on and looks back on this as a strange story. Heck, the news report in the panel above refers to the case anicdotally before moving on to a Panda being born in a zoo.
A girl works in a store and gets off in time to meet her friend --Tsukiko who asks how her new part time job is going before offering to buy dinner. The girl is referred to as "Puroro-chan" but clearly looks different, and I admit there are parts of this I don't get. Is this the alien guy? Did Puororo survive and become human? Or is this another one all together? It's not clear really, which is a minor point in this otherwise very good oneshot. Still I'm willing to overlook this if only because the ride to get here was just that good. As I mentioned before, the story on it's face is just a weird tale between an even weirder friendship between robot and human, but Sasaki weaves in there a bit of social....I don't want to say commentary since that burdens this story with a weight that it deftly avoids to tell a sprighty tale, but something akin to that. I said in the thread for this issue that it feels like something akin to what Tatsuki ChainsawMan Fujimoto would write with the artwork sensibilities of Inio Asano and it turns out I was at least half right, haha.
Ultimately this is a story about change. Some things despite our hardest struggles will change, some things won't, and then there are things that shouldn't. To successfully navigate life one has to balance all three of these, which is often more than feels fair, or even managable but that's why we have bonds with others to help us get through. Sayonara Puroro may not be outright advocating this, but it's a fun reminder that change doesn't necessarily have to be scary and in changing we find things that we treasure. To that, I think it's a worthwhile read and can see why Sasaki won second place in the new Sunday Generation prize. Here's to a hopefully long, interesting career full of changes to Kaiki Sasaki. Though if there is something that they shouldn't change it's being under Shougakukan's umbrella of magazines!
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