Hotel Africa Vol 1
Jun. 13th, 2008 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreI wish to lodge a complaint. Ok, not a complaint, but the back cover blurb said that our narrator was Elvis. I…I thought they meant Elvis Elvis. Even though they, you know, didn’t really claim that. I just assumed. Somebody comment and say they thought the same.
Anyway!
July, Elvis, and Ed are three former film students who met in school and are now struggling to make it in the film industry. There seems to be one of those OT3-ish-not-quite-triangles going on between them, with Ed in love with Elvis, Elvis in love with July, and July being pretty closemouthed on the subject. (All this is set up in the first chapter.) Our main character, Elvis, is the son of a small town girl from Utah named Adelaide who met her first love, a black Elvis impersonator, when she ran away to Vegas one summer. However, he died in an accident a year later, and she went back home with their son. Several years later, she suggested to her mother that they turn their house into a hotel, since it was so big.
Their first guest is a mysterious young man named Geo, who declares himself to be in love with Adelaide, and becomes a permanent resident of the hotel. After Geo, more guests come pouring in, each a little different from the last, but none staying long.
The series, so far, is effectively two slice-of-life stories, split between the modern story of July, Elvis and Ed’s friendship and troubles (and, in this volume, how they met) and the world at Hotel Africa as viewed through Elvis’s four-year-old eyes. Little Elvis, incidentally, is devoted to redefining the word “precocious,” and is cute enough to squish. While I find the modern story interesting and definitely want to see what happens there (this volume focuses mostly on July’s issues with her famous screenwriter mother, and how the three became friends) I find myself much more interested in Hotel Africa itself, and it’s residents and visitors. While I sincerely hope the series ends with something along the lines of Elvis going home for the holidays to a happily married Geo and Adelaide, I have a feeling that the manhwa will go in the angst and loss direction instead.
Also, while Tokyopop gives this a higher price than most of their manga ($12.99) it's in a larger size, has 14 color pages, and is around 250 pages. I thought it was a Dark Horse book when I saw it at the store, until I spotted the logo. (It also seems like it'd fit in more with Dark Horse of Del Rey's lineups, but whatever.)
Anyway!
July, Elvis, and Ed are three former film students who met in school and are now struggling to make it in the film industry. There seems to be one of those OT3-ish-not-quite-triangles going on between them, with Ed in love with Elvis, Elvis in love with July, and July being pretty closemouthed on the subject. (All this is set up in the first chapter.) Our main character, Elvis, is the son of a small town girl from Utah named Adelaide who met her first love, a black Elvis impersonator, when she ran away to Vegas one summer. However, he died in an accident a year later, and she went back home with their son. Several years later, she suggested to her mother that they turn their house into a hotel, since it was so big.
Their first guest is a mysterious young man named Geo, who declares himself to be in love with Adelaide, and becomes a permanent resident of the hotel. After Geo, more guests come pouring in, each a little different from the last, but none staying long.
The series, so far, is effectively two slice-of-life stories, split between the modern story of July, Elvis and Ed’s friendship and troubles (and, in this volume, how they met) and the world at Hotel Africa as viewed through Elvis’s four-year-old eyes. Little Elvis, incidentally, is devoted to redefining the word “precocious,” and is cute enough to squish. While I find the modern story interesting and definitely want to see what happens there (this volume focuses mostly on July’s issues with her famous screenwriter mother, and how the three became friends) I find myself much more interested in Hotel Africa itself, and it’s residents and visitors. While I sincerely hope the series ends with something along the lines of Elvis going home for the holidays to a happily married Geo and Adelaide, I have a feeling that the manhwa will go in the angst and loss direction instead.
Also, while Tokyopop gives this a higher price than most of their manga ($12.99) it's in a larger size, has 14 color pages, and is around 250 pages. I thought it was a Dark Horse book when I saw it at the store, until I spotted the logo. (It also seems like it'd fit in more with Dark Horse of Del Rey's lineups, but whatever.)