MANGA: Bokura no Scramblues

Bokura no Scramblues – Mame March

Haru Kurosaki once heard a stranger’s song in high school that made him decide to finally follow his passions. Now, he’s a graphic designer who’s recently been put in charge of designing a CD jacket for the prodigy musical artist Eddie Astley. On the outside, Eddie is intimidating and aloof — but when Haru spots him at a rock concert, he realizes how wrong that assumption is. As he sees beyond Eddie’s surly exterior and catches a glimpse of the man beneath the affectation, Haru begins to think about the message and emotions that Eddie tries to convey through his music. And in trying to get to know more about Eddie for his design project, he discovers that music always has a way of transporting you to a vital moment from the past.

The mangaka must have been rickrolled once, hehe.

Our Scramblues is a tale of talent, inspiration, and the art of capturing an artist’s soul. Haru, a graphic designer and hardcore music lover, jumped at the chance to design the CD artwork of famous music prodigy Eddie Astley.

Eddie is from Britain but moved to Japan at a young age. He’s fluent in Japanese. The man is also notoriously temperamental. He rejected Haru’s initial drafts, so now the graphic designer is struggling to come up with a design worthy of the prodigy’s fabulous songs.

Haru decided to spend more time with Eddie to see what made him tick and hoped to hell he could capture that in his design.

While the majority of the plot focuses on the humorous interactions of the two MCs, part of it is filled with nostalgia mixed with grief at the loss of Eddie’s grandfather, also a talented musician who constantly encouraged him as a child. Eddie longs to capture those childhood songs he composed with him.

Eddie was an asshole but thawed little by little because of Haru’s sunshine-y charm. He initially tried to get under Haru’s skin by hitting on the supposedly straight man, but oooh, how the tables turned!

Haru’s guileless adoration and solid belief in Eddie’s talent, and just being a creature of pure happy dog energy crumbled Eddie’s walls and laid him bare. Add to that the childhood connection drama that initially broke hearts, but trust the eternal optimist in Haru to turn that into a powerful confession scene!

I liked the artwork, but I’m not a fan of how the mangaka drew the facial expressions. The ugly-cry faces and other intense expressions of the characters looked unattractive. But the characters look great in normal situations. Eddie’s appearance is yum!

As somebody obsessed with rock music all their life, I loved this behind the scenes glimpsed of an album’s creation. Though I was underwhelmed with Haru’s final design, overall, this manga is a wonderful ode to artists who pour heart and soul into their creations.

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