Watashi no Mura

Jun Hatanaka is a gekiga artist mostly known for his series "Mandalaya no Ryouta" that ran for 10 years between 1979 and 1989 with over 50 volumes. The series was centered around the son of a hot springs owner who liked to peep on women in the baths and each chapter saw a different person getting sexually harassed or raped. Hatanaka is one of these authors that mainly wrote for the mass with bawdy and vulgar stories revolving around sex and Watashi no Mura, which came out in France under the title "Mon Village", seems to belong in the same category as Mandaraya no Ryouta.

After finishing this manga… I just don't see anything that could be even remotely enjoyable about it. Watashi no Mura is about Ayu, a young lady who is bored from her daily routine in the city where she's writing for a local newspaper. To get a breath of fresh air, she decides to spend some time in the village of Mizusawa where one of her friend is living. Did I mention how Jun Hatanaka was about depicting people constantly having sex? Because that's literally the only thing happening here and it becomes quickly incredibly repetitive and monotonous without any gags to make it a bit entertaining.

I could get over it if it had other things to boast, especially since I'm usually a fan of anything set in the countryside because of the calm and bucolic atmosphere, the detailed landscapes, or in some cases to see outcasts and people living outside the limits imposed upon by life in society, but it doesn't deliver on any of those fronts. Or it actually IS about uncivilized people but you get zero development on them, nothing about their way of life, their customs,etc… The only thing you do get to know is that they're constantly horny and fuck around all day.

The art is pretty awful as well and while it's not unusual for gekigas to look a bit bland, unrefined or unstylized, this definitely belongs to the bad kinds, it's lacking in a lot of details, in the sceneries, the expressions and in the perspectives which are often messed up, and I don't think anyone would find the characters or the sex scenes appealing which is a bit ironic there because I think that's the only thing that could keep the reader's attention considering everything else sucks. It's disappointing because I thought the back cover looked really cute.

One of the subplots that is mentioned in the beginning is that the village risks getting swallowed due to the construction of a dam but this part never gets addressed and there's not any point brought against it. Worse, it will actually make you want to burn this place to the ground because of how barbaric and how close to the caveman everyone is.

Now I have no clue if some of his other manga are better than this but I really wonder how this kind of thing could've been popular at any given time.