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Complex Age Vol. 1 Kindle & comiXology

by Yui Sakuma (Author, Artist) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 36 ratings

Part of: Complex Age

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Hush Couture Twentysix year old Nagisa Kataura has a secret. By all appearances, she’s an average tempworker, but beneath her businesscasual exterior she’s a devoted cosplayer. Transforming into her favorite anime and manga characters is her passion in life, and her hard work and creativity has earned Nagisa respect amongst her cosplay cohorts. But to the rest of society, her hobby is a silly fantasy, so she has to keep her two worlds separate. However, as demands from both sides of her life begin to increase, she may one day have to make a tough choice – what’s more important to her, cosplay or being "normal"

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01GT6BNMM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kodansha Comics (June 21, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 21, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 618780 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 216 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,120,518 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #15,374 in Manga
- #36,072 in Manga Comics & Graphic Novels

Customer Reviews:
4.1 36 ratings

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4.1 out of 5

36 global ratings

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Josh

Enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2016

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The series is enjoyable so far. The art is pleasing and the characters are interesting. It comes with Volume 1 of this story and the original one shot of the same name that the author made.
It covers a topic that is worth having a conversation about, that being "does growing old mean you have to give up what you love because society thinks you should?" I personally think giving up what you love because of the expectations of others is silly, and I'm hoping that this series ends on a somewhat happier note than the original one shot that is included did.
My only issue while reading it was at certain moments, I cringed because of the actions of the main character. She comes off as elitist, and, at first, it makes it kind of hard to feel any kind of empathy towards her. She tones it down after the first time she does it, and I start feeling sympathetic towards her later for it.
If a story about cosplaying interests you, I would recommend you try it out.

One person found this helpful

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Niche

Cosplay for the New Adult Woman

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2023

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This might be my favorite josei title. It's a serious look at female cosplay otaku without making them borderline dysfunctional or BL obsessed fangirls. The story deals with fandom, it's enthusiasm and ideals, and the toxicity and gatekeeping that can arise from it and of course cosplay. It also tackles the judgements leveled at women straying from social norms and pursuing their hobbies rather than romance or careers as well as those directed at age and appearance. Friendship, costuming, fangirling, and introspection over holding onto the loves and hobbies of youth versus aging out of them whether you want to or not are all main themes of the series.

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Catherine

Great story and includes translation notes and explanations of cosplay ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2016

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Great story and includes translation notes and explanations of cosplay terms used in the story! The editors really went above and beyond with this book taking care to give translations for all the little shop signs and exclamations used in the book and including a whole section at the back where they explain some of the translation choices, I wish more publishers did this!

If you are in your 20's or 30's and new to manga I think this is a really good place to start. The storyline is, at least for me, relatable and there is no expectation made that you already know everything about Japanese culture.

2 people found this helpful

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kiki

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2017

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Finally a manga about cosplay! Can not wait to get the rest of the series.

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2017

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I really enjoyed this series: 33, Female, USA

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Justin

A story where it feels like manga-ka Yui Sakuma understands cosplay and understands me

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2016

I have been both a comic reader and a cosplayer for quite a few years now and surprisingly these two hobbies rarely cross. It’s true that I cosplay quite a few characters from comics but I rarely come across any kind of comic (manga, webcomic etc) about cosplay, and those that I have found have been less than impressive. I usually attribute this to the fact that most comic book artists aren’t also cosplayers, both are very time-consuming hobbies after all, but whenever cosplay does come up in a story I usually feel like the creators just don’t “get it,” like how cosplay in Genshiken is meant more as a way for the manga-ka to show off what series are popular at the time than to provide insight into the characters with their costume choices. In these stories you don’t have long sequences showing the characters making or shopping for the outfits, complaints about how hard it is to get dressed etc, it’s just window dressing for a larger tale.

Complex Age is a story where it feels like manga-ka Yui Sakuma understands cosplay and understands me.

Nagisa is on the older side for cosplay; she’s 26, has a job that doesn’t seem to involve a lot of overtime or outside commitments, and cosplay is her main hobby. Nagisa does cosplay from multiple fandoms but it’s clear that her true love is for the children’s magical fighting show “Magical Riding Hood Ururu.” Nagisa does a stunning cosplay of the main character Ururu; she painstakingly tailors her outfits to create the illusion of anime character physiques and she’s even taken a posing class for better photographs. Nagisa also isn’t alone in her adventures; she has true friends that she’s met through cosplay and while Nagisa is snippy and bossy at times she also channels this into educating and helping newer cosplayers.

I’m an American cosplayer so this story doesn’t perfectly reflect the cosplay scene that I’m familiar with but a lot of the other little details matched up with what I’ve heard about the Japanese cosplay scene and many of the moments are universal as well. There are the those unkind, spontaneous thoughts you have when you see an imperfect cosplay, the people who cosplay in a group more to be with their friends than because they have an undying love for the series, and that person who would really be a dead ringer for character A but they really want to do character B instead because they just like their personality better.

The “role-playing” part of cosplay comes up more subtly in this story. Nagisa cosplays Ururu a lot because she likes being her and the attention she receives. Sometimes she even likes the negative attention! When another character messages Nagisa telling her about a very explicit up the skirt photo Nagisa just laughs and says “this is the tax we pay” and this twisted mindset makes a little bit of sense. For Nagisa this “tax” means that she’s still “good enough” to warrant the attention, she can still convince other people that she is Ururu. Conversely, it’s a comment Nagisa overhears about how she’s “too old and giant” (ie, nobody should be paying any attention to her) that really tears her down.

That idea brings me to the one worrisome part of the story (other than the characters saying you can dye a wig by boiling it for two hours; please do not boil even your heat-resistant wigs for this long); this volume also includes the original Complex Age one shot which is a radically different story about an aging lolita who, despite having good friends in the community just like Nagisa has in hers, gives up the fashion at the end. Every time I see a story with this harsh ending, that you must be adult and professional even in your most private moments, it makes me cringe, and for a story that feels this true to life seeing an ending like that feels like an attack from within the fandom itself.

In some ways cosplay isn’t very new at all — it originated at Worldcon in 1939 — although it was only after several decades of being kicked around around the world that it has arrived at its current form. And that current form is far more recent than most people seem to realize. I recently saw a cosplayer posting photos from their first con in 2004 and the level of cosplay looked nearly identical to what I saw at my first con in 2008. I don’t believe that cosplay is a fad but I do believe that the fandom isn’t quite sure how to age with it. Ut’s far more common to see people drop the hobby altogether due to real world interference than say, become more involved in historical costuming, quilting etc. This feels especially odd as actors embrace their “nerdy” sides and other people have turned their nerdy interests into careers by being Youtube stars and such, although few other hobbies are as obviously and irresolutely nerdy as cosplay. Cosplay is sometimes the hobby where you vie for attention and simultaneously hope no one recognizes you at all, which it looks like Nagisa will be dealing with in the next volume.

- Helen

6 people found this helpful

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Jessica A

Not Awful, But Kind Of A Bummer

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2019

This manga is the story of a woman who is all about cosplay. She's a complex character, sometimes unlikable, but overall sympathetic. She has to deal with judgy people and come to terms with cosplayers who look more like her beloved characters than her. It's not a bad manga, but it's definitely not for me. I feel worse after reading it, feeling bad for the main character who lives in a world where she is judged by her hobby and her age. The short the manga is based on is especially depressing for me, dragging the rating down. I hate when people feel too old for what they love, so this is a no from me, dawg.

2 people found this helpful

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Katy B

If you haven't read the one-shot, this is a pretty good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 14, 2017

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This first volume of Complex Age also includes the one shot that it was based on which started out with quite a different premise. Luckily this is included at the end, because if it had been at the beginning of the volume I think I would have found this story to be more of a let down. I can see why those who had already read the one shot before reading this continuation/re-imagining would be disappointed, but on its own I think that the first volume of Complex Age is still a decent start to what could be an interesting story.

Nagisa Kataura is a twenty-six year old temp worker who also happens to be a cosplay genius. She's fantastic at making costumes, posing for photos and getting into character, but she can also behave very snobbishly towards other cosplayers at times which, to me, made her a bit off-putting as a character. However, her insecurities still make her an interesting character to read about; she's very tall, which makes her self conscious at times, and she feels easily threatened by other people who could perhaps embody the characters that she likes to cosplay better than she can. She is secretive about her hobby because she doesn't like to be judged. This makes her quite relatable to the audience - who doesn't have some kind of embarrassing hobbies?

The story has been well translated and localised; you can tell that the publishers have thought about how best to tweak the dialogue while still getting the meaning across (e.g. the speech quirks of the magical girl character that Nagisa cosplays as).

The art is pretty, and the mangaka has done a great job of portraying cosplay; there are scenes where multiple people are cosplaying the same characters, and you can see the subtle differences in their costumes which is a great touch.

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