Inside Mari vol. 1

After “The Flowers of Evil” and “Happiness” this is Shuzo Oshimi’s third series about a girl who takes a boy down a path in life that he couldn’t have imagined.  Like the latter series, there’s a supernatural aspect to this story about college dropout and social recluse Isao. He spends his days jerking off and playing videogames while also making the daily trip to a local convenience store.  Not for anything the store sells, but to see the girl who he considers to be its “angel.” This description of the story may seem like it’s headed into stalker territory, except that the actual beginning of the volume has Isao waking up in this girl’s, Mari’s, body.

That’s right, “Inside Mari” is a body switch story where a twenty-something loser winds up in the body of a pretty, popular high school girl.  We get the expected gags about how he has difficulty acclimating himself to being in a girl’s body and her school social life presented in a pretty straightforward fashion.  In fact, much of this first volume plays out exactly as you’d expect this kind of story to. That Oshimi takes his time in establishing Isao’s new life doesn’t work in the story’s favor either.

It isn’t until the volume is two-thirds over that the mangaka starts to deviate from expectations.  When Isao makes a visit to the convenience store he frequents, he sees a very familiar face that happens to throw the central premise of the series into question.  Then one of his classmates, Yori, sees through his attempts to fake Mari’s life and becomes quite insistent about getting the right girl back in the right body. That her interest in Mari appears to be more than personal is also interesting to consider.  While these things do suggest that Oshimi has a plan for where to take this series, my interest in it mainly comes from the fact that “The Flowers of Evil” overcame a similarly slow start to be a great read in the end.  That makes this first volume of “Inside Mari” one best enjoyed by established fans of the mangaka.