When Buddha and Jesus are roommates in Japan, lots of funny situations happen!
This is a very entertaining manga about Jesus and Buddha living in modern day Japan. A lot of the jokes are slapstick and I think if you have some basic knowledge about Jesus, it makes the jokes even funnier. One of the highlights is when Jesus vaguely talks about his past with a gangster in a sauna, who somehow thinks he’s an important yakuza’s family member. There’s even a meta joke of Buddha reading the Buddha manga by Osamu Tezuka and crying about his life. There are a lot of references that you might have to flip back to the glossary to look over if you want to understand some jokes.
Artwork
Nakamura-sensei is also known for Arakawa Under the Bridge (available in English from Vertical) and the artwork is okay, but nothing extremely amazing to talk about. It does well as a gag manga where they exaggerate reactions in order to get you to laugh. Overall, very pleasant to look at and re-read.
Recommend?
If you’re a fan of humor in reference to religion, you’ll enjoy this a lot. I would put this under a “try it before you buy it” category, as it could be a hit or miss and many libraries have the compiled editions in their catalog now. Why not add a quarantine book that’s a slice-of-life from when things used to be normal?
Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Please note: this was for the E-Book edition of volume 1 and not the omnibus print edition.
Seinen, slice-of-life, comedy, supernatural
Kodansha Comics
April 23, 2019
E-Book
150
Alethea Nibley, Athena Nibley
Jacob Friedman
Lys Blakeslee
