Confidential Confessions Recommended

Publisher
Tokyopop
Writer
Reiko Momochi
Artist
Reiko Momochi
Country of origin
Japan
Year
2001

Confidential Confessions V. 3

By David Rasmussen
22nd Oct 06

Manga becoming a social outlet for the troubles that face young adults of today seems to be the rage. Titles like this, LIFE, and so forth seem to carry a deep message and a stance against things like prostitution, suicide, sexual harassment and so forth. It’s often like you are reading something that takes a shot at you like a knife stab to the gut, twisting and gutting you as you read.

Chances are if you have been reading this genre, you might be reading Confidential Confessions. If not? Well now’s as good a time as any, what with the short Confidential Confessions Deai being out right now (only instead of carrying a variety of topics in five volumes it focuses on one topic).

But we’re here to talk about the five volume series which came first, a harsh glaring light at real problems facing people today (from a Japanese viewpoint) doesn’t promise a happy ending (though occasionally we at leasts get a good ending which… well… might not happen in Volume 3 this time out). Without a doubt this series is one of the harshest slices of life slash reality without being overdone to the point of uselessness.

Volume 1’s focus dealt with suicide and prostitution.
Volume 2’s focus dealt with sexual harassment, of which I’ll go into abit.

Suzuki was attending an exclusive all-girls high school solely on the rep of their famous tennis coach who has everyone talking, too bad the real person is nothing like the image.
The guy is rude, obnoxious, and he likes to talk dirty to his girls and occasionally fondle his girls from time to time. And when he’s not talking dirty or feeling his girls up, he’s having them do inappropriate things like giving massages, and so forth. So is this something to get up in arms about? You betcha.

It takes awhile, and a lot of resistance from the school who was more interested in their rep and fine sports program over the rights of girls (even the girls themselves balk at punishing him and struggle hard to “protect” the pervo) but eventually they are all dragged enmasse kicking and screaming into the light as their naughty tennis coach finally gets his. Also the brief topic of subway groping gets addressed and dealt with in a far faster manner than the whole Tennis Coach thing… wow, how quick.

Volume 3 focuses on two topics. Drug abuse and… ?
First one out deals with the troubled Kyoko who is struggling hard to make good grades to appease her parents, but no matter how hard she studies it seems she’s never destined for those 100% scores that her parents have an addiction to (and her father being a total jerk about her scores doesn’t help her one bit). So in short she ends up getting dragged into a world of drugs, gangsters, the mob and so forth which for the short term suddenly makes her grades better (after she starts hitting on the speed) but only leads to trouble once the gangsters get into the action. And to think this all started when her retarded friends got her hooked on speed, which only causes more stress in her household and yet… maybe… can also cure this family of their ills which caused this problem in the first place… if it doesn’t get Kyoko killed first.

Second story has a boxer who has a girlfriend which is quickly destroyed by a jealous rival who hates their love… but then that’d be unrealistic. It doomed to die because the guy (boxer) mostly has a pinhead for a trainer because, apparently, boxing is more important than love… good one, guy, good one. Nothing is more important than love, especially a sport where two people beat each other for the crowd’s enjoyment ala the Gladiators of old (Burgess Meredith this guy’s trainer is so not.)

So, to accentuate my point, I am sure Burgess Meredith would have cuffed this old coot and called him a “bum”… and you know what? He is so a bum. Bum.
Oh, but what about the lady in question? Find out what happens to her when it looks like the whole boyfriend thing isn’t going to work out. Breakdown time.

Confidential Confessions Breakdown the 3rd
What’s Hot?
Confidential Confessions has always been a sharp blade in the TOKYOPOP “arsenal” that digs down and “taps” into some hot button topics, drawing blood and (hopefully) dialogue on these things. The recent Deai might not have had this wide scope (focusing on one topic over the many varied topics of the original Confidential Confessions) but it is still recommended along with this.

It’s unforgiving, and it’s realistic. It does it’s job and it does it well, and it shines a light on topics some may not be most comfortable talking about (either in schools or in society). Don’t want to wait for a dialogue to “appear” on important topics like sexual harassment, drug abuse, rape and so forth? Start reading this and form your own opinion on the subjects as they are presented here. It’s something they should require students to read in high schools ‘cause it’s relevant, even if it is a manga series from Japan, it is relevant and something high school students should read.

What’s Not?
Sure the whole it’s never always a good ending thing is one of the selling points of the title but sometimes it can be such a downer, and while the second half of Volume 3 isn’t a bummer ending it isn’t the best either… maybe it’s just me, but believe it or not that is NOT a NOT for this title… in fact it’s a selling point that might get you into this more than you would have if the ending had that sappy ending format.

Moments to Remember?
Eh… that’s abit of a hard thing, but it’s memorable all the same.

What to Ignore?
I can’t think of a thing to ignore.

Overall?
I think I said all I can say about this one, so let’s wrap by giving this it’s due with a Silver Recommendation Star for being something worthy of recommendation to high school reading lists. Nuff said.

-- David Rasmussen 22nd Oct 06