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james_desantis 's review for:

Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
4.0

Whoa this was...really good. Especially when the main character can be a complete dick.

So the story is about moving on with life. From one relationship to another, to learning who you are, if you're happy with your life, if you want to work at being better, and if you need to accept not everything will be your way. This is a story of Ben Tanaka who is really kind of a prick. Over critical of everyone, he also just kind of jackass, makes fun of his own race and such, and can't stand traditional things. On top of that he always wants to fight. Not to say all the people around him don't always act wonderful because they can be assholes too but his behavior isn't the prime of example of how to act that's for sure.

Good: Dialog. It's natural and really well done. They feel like people and their hardships are very much real and you might have went through it. The side cast is great, and Ben's main friend is a hoot. I also loved Ben because he's a asshole but that's who he is, and the stories doesn't change him. The hardships don't get fixed in one story, nor should they.

Bad: Some of the later pages get a little dragged down and I wasn't inlove with the ending. I got what they were going for but it didn't stick with me. I also thought sometimes people were acting childish but that's to show how human they were, still frustrating.

Overall this was really enjoyable. I'd probably rate it around a 3.5 to a 4 and recommend to check it out for a slice of life type comic. You might be surprised like me.