Satisfaction Guaranteed (manga)

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Tokyopop's first volume of Satisfaction Guaranteed
よろず屋東海道本舗
(Yorozuya Tōkaidō Honpo)
Genre Comedy, Drama
Manga
Written by Ryo Saenagi
Published by Hakusensha
English publisher
Magazine Hana to Yume
Original run 1999 – 2002
Volumes 9

Satisfaction Guaranteed (よろず屋東海道本舗 Yorozuya Tōkaidō Honpo) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ryo Saenagi (冴凪亮 Saenagi Ryō).

Plot

Shima Yoshitsune and Suruga Kaori are "Anything Inc.", an all-purpose person company. They rely on each other greatly: Kaori depending on Shima because he is afraid that his other personality, Kyo, will eventually take over, and Shima on Kaori, because Kaori's smile reminds him of his father's. Shima and Kaori first meet in Volume 1 when they were trying to track down Kaori's stalker. In this case Shima had to cross-dress as a girl so they could find and stop Kaori's stalker, also known as "Mr. Snowman."

Characters

Shima Yoshitsune
An 18-year-old "midget", the boss of Anything Inc. His parents died two years ago in a fire caused by an arsonist. To this day, he is terrified of fire, nearly fainting at the sight of smoke. He seems to be very talented at cross dressing as a girl. Shima has come to rely on Kaori more and more as the series progresses, to the point that Kaori can help calm Shima down when he's having a panic attack.
Suruga Kaori
A 16-year-old model and Shima's best friend. They work well together, and Kaori depends a lot on Shima. When around Shima, his other personality, Kyo, doesn't get out as much. He created Kyo to get away from the pressures of the modeling world, but he is afraid that Kyo will eventually take over completely and Kaori will no longer exist. He is said to be the most handsome member of the cast. He has a good relationship with Shima. He seems to believe that he cannot show weakness and is always smiling and not letting other people know if he's tired or sick or the like. He is a strong stabilizing force for Shima, him in balance when he gets too riled up or has a panic attack.
Kyo
Kaori's alter personality. Kyo is a cold, ruthless person who doesn't seem to take other people into consideration. He told Shima that Kaori is his everything, and he would do anything to protect Kaori, no matter who else gets hurt. In volume 7, it is revealed that Kyo has knowledge of the man who burned Shima's house down and killed his parents, though Kaori is unaware of this.
App
His name stands for "All Purpose Person" and Shima considers him to be his rival. He, like Kaori, has a dual personality, Hyuga Shuhei. Shuhei is only App when he has his wig on. He is engaged to Hotori, the girl who asked for Anything Inc.'s help in chapter 3. It has been noted that Kaori and App look similar. In later chapters, he begins to have a larger presence. He helps Kaori out several times, and he meets Kyo, though he doesn't understand why Kyo exists. He offered his services to Kaori once, when Kaori helped save App, but in volume 7 remarks that Kaori "was never going to take him up on that offer", because he prefers to do everything on his own.
Mai
A school girl who shows up in volume 4, chapter 'Avenging Angels'. Otherwise known as 'Repo-girl' Mai, like App and Shima, is the boss of another 'anything agency' and specializes in beating up bad boyfriends. She gets paid with homework. She mentions that she knows Kaori from somewhere, but they can't remember the meeting. In volume 7, Mai remembers where she saw Kaori before. Two years ago, in front of a burning house, Mai remembers seeing a beautiful young person watching the house burn. She thought the person was a girl. When she saw some pictures of Kaori's earlier modeling days, she realized that Kaori was who she saw outside Shima's house.
Shizuka
Kaori's sister. She is married, and she owns a theme park that Kaori and Shima go to twice. The first time, they go to help solve a mystery of sabotage. The second time they go because Shizuka invited them to try out her newest attraction. Shizuka appears to know why Kaori created Kyo in the first place and was the one who told Shima that Kaori had Kyo long before he started modeling. She does not tell Shima any more than that, preferring to let Kaori tell Shima on his own.
Chikuzen Yoichi
A cop on the police force. He used to be Shima-san (Yoshitsune's father)'s partner before Shima-san died. Now he works on his own cases, and he wants to find the arsonist. In volume 6, chapter "Crossroads", it showed that Shima-san could look past Yoichi's tough-guy delinquent exterior and treat him like a regular good guy. Yoichi appeared to hold Shima-san on a bit of a pedestal and was devastated at his death. He helps Shima and Kaori out on their cases occasionally.

Production

The "story" for Satisfaction Guaranteed came after Saenagi's editor requested that she create a series based on two boys; she imagined that there was a "dramatic height difference" between the two, with the shorter one being older.[1] Saenagi named characters Shima Yoshitsune, Suruga Kaori, and Hyuga Shuhei after ancient regions in Japan; Hyuga is a Western Sea Land, while Shima and Suruga are both Eastern Sea Lands.[1]

In reaction to responses that she drew "too many guys" in her series, Saenagi explained that read mostly shōnen works instead of shōjo while growing up, which affected the genders of characters. However, she did state that she "like[s] to draw girls", but feels that she "[isn't] good at it".[1]

Media

Manga

The first volume of Satisfaction Guaranteed was released by Tokyopop in the United States on July 11, 2006.[2] Currently, the company has released 7 translated volumes.[2]

Volume list

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Volume 7

Reception

Reviewing for Mania, Patricia Beard rated Satisfaction Guaranteed with a C+. Beard praised the artwork, writing that the "blending of shoujo sensibility and shounen energy" was "very appropriate for this series about a do-it-all agency run by two cute guys".[3] However, she commented that it "lacks the polish and confidence of her later work" and was "not terribly clean". Overall, Beard felt that the stories are "weak" but that "there's enough entertainment in the interaction of Shima and Kaouri to make this series worth a read."[3] Additional comments stated that "persistence will pay off" when reading the series because the art and stories improve with each volume.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Saenagi, Ryo (July 2006). Satisfaction Guaranteed. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. p. 205. ISBN 1-59816-532-1.
  2. 1 2 "Manga + Comics: Satisfaction Guaranteed". Tokyopop. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 Beard, Patricia (August 9, 2007). "Satifsaction Guaranteed (aka: Yorozuya Tokaido Honpo) Vol. #01". Mania. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
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