While Club 9 is serialized in Dark Horse's Super Manga Blast, I pretty much only read the stories in trade paperback form, so it's been almost two years since I last checked in with sweet, innocent (yet sexy) Ginza girl Haruo Hattori. As expected, Kobayashi hasn't skipped a beat, and this collection of stories has the same terrific sense of humor and remarkably likable protagonist as the other two volumes of Club 9. This volume starts off a little weirdly, as it picks up midstory from a volume that came out a couple years ago, but it quickly gets back into a rhythm of Haruo's many suitors, her country bumpkin naivete contrasted with Ginza girl sophistication and more than a little bit of bawdy slapstick comedy. If you've never read Club 9, this isn't the place to start, but volume one absolutely is, because we're now three volumes in and the book remains fun, funny and engaging.
There is a certain familiarity to Club 9, because while Haruo has evolved from the country bumpkin that she was in the first issue, she is essentially still an innocent in a city and job that doesn't really have a lot of innocents. Kobayashi does a good job getting mileage out of the changes that Haruo has undergone in a hilarious strip where she encounters an old schoolmate and instinctively launches into her Ginza tricks before clumsily covering them up, and indeed the gags still feel pretty fresh, but I can see the pattern getting old after a time. Fortunately, it hasn't happened yet. Kobayashi continues to invent a variety of interesting characters to meet up with Haruo, and finds new variations in her Ginza girl job, including the purchase of a spectacularly expensive gift for her or her realization that an older client base means attending more funerals than she's used to.
The central attraction of Club 9 is definitely in seeing Haruo's innocent viewpoint on the borderline sleazy world of Ginza girls that she's found herself in. Kobayashi makes everything that Haruo goes through, from someone trying to buy her affections to an old man copping a feel, seem sweet and funny rather than exploitative or disturbing. Part of that is the good nature with which Haruo handles everything, but a lot of it comes in Kobayashi's characters, who all come across as generally benevolent. There are no scheming villains here, even if some of the men do hold schemes in their hearts to win Haruo's affections. Hanazono's purchase of the car for Haruo, while over the top, comes across as a genuine gesture rather than an attempt to buy her like a prostitute. Ken Nakamura's affections for Haruo also seem real and honorable, even if his desire to take the girl away from a friend is less so. Even the Chairman groping Haruo comes across as funny rather than lascivious, thanks in no small part to the goofy appearance of the Chairman and Haruo's nonplussed reaction.
Kobayashi has shown in both What's Michael? and Club 9 that he has excellent comic timing. There's a hilarious three-pager in this volume where Haruo confuses her cabbie by changing from her everyday student look into her Ginza girl outfit, and though it's an obvious joke, Kobayashi makes it funny with the visual change from the two Haruos and the reaction of the driver. Kobayashi also does great humor with exaggeration, from Haruo's shocked reaction at her new car to the verge of exploding reaction from the manga crew when Haruo drops by, and with giving lively characterization to basically inanimate characters, like an impatient "Tessie" waiting for her owner in the hotel's garage.
Club 9 is at once sexy, innocent and fun. The premise, about a country girl starting to work in a Ginza nightclub, sounds like one that couldn't continue for long before becoming repetitive, but Kobayashi has done a great job so far of keeping things fresh and interesting.
