Manga Monday--Oreimo: Kuroneko Vol. 1 Out This Week!

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Manga Monday—Oreimo: Kuroneko Vol. 1 Out This Week!

04/13/2015 11:48am

Ruri Gokou, otherwise known as Kuroneko (“black cat”) is often described as a “fan-favorite character” in the Oreimo series. I would like to argue that this term isn’t quite correct, and that there’s a better one:

Breakout character.

This definition comes from the great Internet quicksand tar-pit sinkhole known as TV Tropes, a collection of scholarship about everything that is important to human endeavor—the recurring themes found throughout all of cultural history, from the great epics of Homer and Virgil to whatever Real Housewives, Gundam, WWE, and Westerosi stories sing you to sleep and occupy the empty minutes of your brain. To quote TV Tropes, “What's a writer to do when a minor character that they created for a show suddenly becomes much more popular than the other members of the cast? Why, re-write him as a (if not the) main character of course!” And indeed, Oreimo: Kuroneko (whose Japanese title translates as “I can’t believe my junior/underclassman is so cute!”) is precisely an example of the trope. Fortunately, because it’s about Kuroneko, it is an excellent example, at that.

What would the lovely, sunny character of Kirino be without her dark mirror image? Where Kirino is girlish and fashionable, Kuroneko is unsmiling, grimly determined, and as Gothic Lolita as it gets! But, just as Kirino possesses hidden depths, there’s more to Kuroneko than being a sharp-tongued black hole of eldritch gloom. She is a loving guardian to her two little sisters, a talented manga creator, and a blushing young teenager who has a crush on Kirino’s supportive brother Kyousuke and isn’t quite sure how to deal with her feelings…just like so many of the rest of us! Sure, she has the support of her good friend and fellow otaku Saori, but ultimately her issues and problems have to be solved by Kuroneko herself, and herself alone. She walks a dark and lonely path, but tirelessly aiming toward the promise of love, belonging, and creating her own anime series, and she will not be defeated so easily! (Still, though…it’s hard. Love and desire are hard, and so is high school.)

One thing is for sure, though: Kuroneko is brave, bold, ambitious, and unafraid of emotion. As the Oreimo series’ breakout character with her very own manga series, Kuroneko promises to fascinate and entertain as only a Queen of Darkness can!

Oreimo: Kuroneko

Volume 1

ISBN 978-1-61655-629-7

$10.99

Ruri Gokou, otherwise known as Kuroneko ("black cat") returns this week in the first of a new five-volume manga series, Oreimo: Kuroneko. It's the sequel to the previous Oreimo series and has the same creative team behind it, led by manga artist Sakura Ikeda. Ruri is often described as a "fan-favorite character" in the Oreimo series. I would like to argue that this term isn't quite correct, and that there's a better one:

Breakout character.

This definition comes from the great Internet quicksand tar-pit sinkhole known as TV Tropes, a collection of scholarship about everything that is important to human endeavor—the recurring themes found throughout all of cultural history, from the great epics of Homer and Virgil to whatever Real Housewives, Gundam, WWE, and Westerosi stories sing you to sleep and occupy the empty minutes of your brain. To quote TV Tropes, “What's a writer to do when a minor character that they created for a show suddenly becomes much more popular than the other members of the cast? Why, re-write him as a (if not the) main character of course!” And indeed, Oreimo: Kuroneko (whose Japanese title translates as “I can’t believe my junior/underclassman is so cute!”) is precisely an example of the trope. Fortunately, because it’s about Kuroneko, it is an excellent example, at that.

What would the lovely, sunny tsundere character of Kirino be without her dark mirror image? Where Kirino is girlish and fashionable, Kuroneko is unsmiling, grimly determined, and as Gothic Lolita as it gets! But, just as Kirino possesses hidden depths, there’s more to Kuroneko than being a sharp-tongued black hole of eldritch gloom. She is a loving guardian to her two little sisters, a talented manga creator, and a blushing young teenager who has a crush on Kirino’s supportive brother Kyousuke and isn’t quite sure how to deal with her feelings…just like so many of the rest of us! Sure, she has the support of her good friend and fellow otaku Saori, but ultimately her issues and problems have to be solved by Kuroneko herself, and herself alone. She walks a dark and lonely path, but tirelessly aiming toward the promise of love, belonging, and creating her own anime series, and she will not be defeated so easily! (Still, though…it’s hard. Love and desire are hard, and so is high school.)

One thing is for sure, though: Kuroneko is brave, bold, ambitious, and unafraid of emotion. As the Oreimo series’ breakout character with her very own manga series, Kuroneko promises to fascinate and entertain as only a Queen of Darkness can!

We love fandom, and we love YOUR fandom! Send us your fan art to display on the Dark Horse tumblr and Instagram accounts! You can provide electronic submissions to oreimo@darkhorse.com (high-resolution .jpgs are great), and paper submissions to our snail mail address:

Oreimo: The Off-Kai

c/o Dark Horse Comics

10956 SE Main St.

Milwaukie, OR 97222

Remember, only send copies, or things you can part with, because your submissions cannot be returned. But we would LOVE to see them!

—Jemiah Jefferson

Oreimo: Kuroneko Vol. 1 is on Sale April 15.

Check out preview pages here!

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Manga Monday—Oreimo: Kuroneko Vol. 1 Out This Week!

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Manga Monday—Oreimo: Kuroneko Vol. 1 Out This Week!

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