Iou Kuroda

At the back of the English translation of this work the editor describes Sexy Voice and Robo as having a "European" feel to it, especially in Kuroda's depiction of Tokyo. I think he's on to something. Kuroda's illustrations seem to be primarily brushwork, and they're beautiful, very fluid and unique. Besides the two protagonists and a few other characters, this really doesn't have a "manga" feel to it at all. The cadence, in particular, was a little strange. Kuroda eschews normal means of depicting the passage of time in "sequential art" (e.g. often the dialogue from one panel the the next seems to be unrelated, as though a few minutes have passed between characters without any explicit signal thereof). This technique makes Sexy Voice often disorienting and arrhythmic, but not in a "bad" way. On the contrary, Kuroda seems to have been aiming for this lopsided, disjointed kind of effect on purpose. Overall, this manga is more memorable for its the atmosphere it evokes and Kuroda's artwork than the strength of the story, but what's wrong with that?… (mehr)