Dosei Mansion Volume 6, the review
Dosei Mansion Volume 6: the story begins to take a turn gloomy and dangerous In Volume 5 we observed how Souta's experiment was starting to take some form and concreteness. For those who do not remember what it is, the experiment concerns the construction of a spacecraft to make a journey on Earth and pay homage to Mitsu's father who disappeared on it, but above all to find out if the research done on the planet long before was conducted seriously. To carry out this important mission, the engineer decides to involve the young Mitsu who for some time has been looking forward to visiting his dad or what remains of him. The boy, however, witnesses something strange since all the customers who have been helped by him in the past seem to be able to make a concrete contribution to the construction of the vehicle.
it Is as if the customers have had hid something and have had as an interest to get closer to the boy to better understand his character and to achieve the complete design of the vehicle. The protagonist, then, moves from a state of incredible happiness to a state of unbelief and partial disappointment, especially when he discovers that his partner Nishimaru has projects far from clear, and dedicated solely to the exploration of the planet . The problems increase when the same Mitsu finds himself the protagonist of an incident with potentially serious. In fact, thanks to this sad event, the guy manages to find out who the people are to him really close.
In the Dosei Mansion Volume 6, we discover, finally, the reasons of the strange behavior of mr. Nishimaru, to which is dedicated a large part of the entire volume. For the first time, we are catapulted into a class struggle that, as often happens, you fought from the bottom because of the abuses of power and violation of the rights taken from the top. In this case, we find that mr. Nishimaru hates viscerally to the top level after serious family events which have seen the loss of his first child when he was still in the womb of the mother and entry into a coma perennial just to Makie, his beloved wife. The dream of both was to go to live on Earth, a utopian dream, and which they knew could only arise to the inhabitants of the upper floors, but after the serious episode due to negligence on the part of the doctors (all of course of the highest floor) and the consequent dismissal from the work because of threats addressed to the health personnel, his desire to return to Earth he saw the light thanks to his friendship with mr. Souta.
In the course of history, we observe a few times Mitsu because the narrative actually focuses on various shots of the scene and incidents involving the people near him : it begins with the miss Sachi, and to save her cat, runs the risk of falling already from the space station, but is saved by a miracle, its from Mitsu, you continue with the mr Tamachi always less mysterious and more and more torn between the wish to return to the role of window cleaner, and the memory of the incident of mr. Akitoshi (the father of the Mitsu) and it ends with a big fire that hit the power plant, and obliges all residents of the lower layer to remain in quarantine in their own homes.
In all of this we are seeing some of the most sad and moving of the whole story so far read and observed : the event that shocked the mr. Nishimaru, the death of a security guard of the lower level to the fault of a guard of the upper layer and the memories of the incident of mr. Akitoshi on the part of mr Tamachi during a fainting. And the customer of Mitsu? There are still and there are those who insists to want to hire the guy, but this time they appear sporadically and only to give a helping hand to overcome various difficulties.
The narrative takes unexpected folds, and the art style of the following is Missing only one volume at the conclusion of the series of comics created by Hisae Iwaoka, and here we can observe a real space just in front of the whole narrative . The character of Mitsu is no longer the protagonist of the story, but becomes an actor while the real stars become the people close to him and, in particular, mr. Nishimaru and mr Tamachi . To them is dedicated a large part of the history of this sixth volume, and they are also the protagonists of some of the topical moments of the entire story so far read.
Finally we find that the social division in layers is not something well seen by all as so far had mistakenly imagined, but is simply a situation in precarious balance, destined to lead a revolt. Mr. Nishimaru is the perfect example of how social inequality is harmful especially in a situation as delicate as that of living within a station orbiting around the Earth and 35 kilometres distant from it. The windscreen washers are no longer giving the feeling of being heroes, but they become what is effectively the company believes that they are: of the inhabitants of the lower floor that are exploited by the inhabitants of the upper floors to perform tasks both expensive and risky.
In the meantime, mr. Tamachi begins to think concretely about his life , urged on by mr. Makoto who in the meantime has attached even more to the young Mitsu. Tamachi, however, continues to be very upset by the incident of mr. Akitoshi to this point, to have continuous feelings of guilt. We see, then, what many were waiting for which was the beginning of the roll-out of the key to the problem concerning the link between the father of Mitsu, his accident and mr Tamachi . The accident in the power plant is, finally, the icing on the cake because it obliges all residents of the only the lower level of quarantine. The social struggle, previously only hinted at, and in the mind of Nishimaru, he bursts powerfully as citizens, tired of the forced quarantine and the lack of aid from higher levels, they decide to force the lockdown and to go to the higher floors. The killing of a guard in the floor of the lower part of one of the upper floor is only the preamble to what we hope will be a final count .
The most interesting aspect of this Dosei Mansion Volume 6 is definitely the desire to place the character of Mitsu almost in the background while maintaining a high level of its importance in the entire history. Even if, in fact, the character is not physically present in the tables, it is in the minds of the characters, and when present is fundamental to the narrative. The story, in turn, becomes much more intimate, gloomy, melancholic and raw, and this is evident in the dialogues, but especially in the drawings. The art style becomes more marked, and emphasis is placed on the kinetics of the characters.
The facial expressions forgiveness preponderance of kawaii, but they retain the sweetness and the roundness also in the characters as Nishimaru that sometimes it is disturbing because of his injuries and his paranoia. The tables are of the most dirty, the most observable in flashbacks, or in memories, but are always incredibly detailed and meticulous in detail. It is precisely the merit of the excellent combination of designs-dialogues, if all of the sub-plots of melancholy present here manage to bring the reader to an emotional state such that it will be difficult to not have, at least, the shiny eyes.
The editorial point of view
regarding the editorial component , Dosei Mansion Volume 6, once more confirming a product of excellent quality . The cover is flexible and enriched, as always, with a jacket of fine workmanship. For the first time the cover has graphics and colors that are very cold where we observe the mr Tamachi while holding a rope broken at the end. An image of sad and melancholic atmosphere already from the cover, but powerful and important to the entire story. Always pleasant the idea of Bao Publishing to put the title of the original japanese (土星マンション) in the side edge. The binding is once again strong and durable, and the quality of the paper is of excellent workmanship with a good thickness, and roughness to enhance the drawings.
Conclusions Dosei Mansion Volume 6 was a real surprise. If with the fourth volume Hisae Iwaoka wanted to build a bridge between the linear story and the conclusion itself, with the fifth volume we observed on the other side of the said bridge, and with the sixth volume, we have followed one of the deviations, the most important of the entire narrative path.
Mitsu is no longer a young and inexperienced window cleaner, but a real man ready to take one of the trips to the most anticipated and risky of his life and to live a series of dramatic events. Its importance is undisputed, but is momentarily put aside in favor of secondary characters, the subplots, mysterious revolving, indirectly and directly, around the young boy. The story starts to take suddenly became more gloomy, melancholic and at times insane. At this point all we can do is expect a final powerful and memorable. We hope not to be disappointed.
