Surprised I haven't dedicated a entire thread to this manga before, it's currently my favourite so yeah, i'm really passioante about this topic, so this thread is long.
Shimeji simulation is the latest manga by tsukumizu yuu (Will refeer to them as "tkmiz" for the rest of this thread, creator of Girls last tour and flan wants to die, and it might be one of the most unique manga/work of fiction i've ever seen.
The plot is "Simple", it's the first day of highscool, Shijima wakes up, and decide to exit from the closet she had been living in for the last couple years, when she looks at the mirror, she discovers a mushroom had grown in her head.
whenever she goes to school, she ends up meeting our second protagonist, majime, a very outgoing person with a fried egg in her head.
After that, they become "friends" and the rest of the manga is just these two characters, living their normal lives, as a regular SoL manga.
However, we cannot forget, this is tkmiz we're talking, so this world isn't normal, and it takes total control of the story.
Whenever you start reading the manga, this is something you notice pretty quickly, why are the characters wearing random objects in her head?, why is there a hole-digging club?, why are there 4 random electric pole that connects between themselves and not anywere else?, why does that street feature impossible geometry?
The further you go in, the destortion of the world only becomes more and more apparent, being totally extreme in the later volumes. The manga is about this, how do people live their lives in a world as strange as shimeji simulation.
IN adition to this, tkmiz uses the world to talk subjects such as apathy, making this a very philosophical manga, mainly from an absurdist perspective.
however, you can totally miss all of those undertones, I surely missed it during my first read of the manga, however, whenever I thought about shimeji simulation, I started to like iot even more, causing me to re-read it again, taking ntoes on everything that happened in the manga on a google docs to truly understand it, it was after that re-read that it became my favourite manga ever.
Also, tkmiz is apparently obsessed with fish, since every single chapter has at least one mention of a fish, or something fish-shaped or anything, it's the ideal fish-manga.
I've mainly talked about the narrative, which again, it's awesome, but not only that, the art is amzing, having a couple of my favourite manga panels of all time.
The characters expression are exaggerated to the max, reflecting better the characters feelings and thoughts, which is a very inetersting art-style to take.
Every little aspect of the manga seems curated to nearly perfection, the narration is smart, the jokes are funny, the art is great, I cant really point anything I dislike about this manga.
it's such an unique experience, it's a manga you can read as if you're watching bocchi the rock or the end of evangelion, I'm not going to link were to read it directly becasue idk if I can and i've put too much effort in this thread to risk it, but if you just google shimeji simulation manga read you will come with a couple of pages that have it.
Currently, there are only 4 volumes of this manga out, with more still ongoing, it's not a very long read, I really recommend everyone to just give reading it a shot, and if reading it's not your thing, there is an extended cut of the original first chapter in video form, fan-subbed into english.
not only that, but if you understand spanish, the spanish scanlation for this manga, acutally features fan-colored panels, which might make it easier to read if you haven't really ever read manga before.
really, this manga is GOOD, give it a shot.
EDIT 12/05/2023: Images died, updated links so they work
Shimeji simulation is the latest manga by tsukumizu yuu (Will refeer to them as "tkmiz" for the rest of this thread, creator of Girls last tour and flan wants to die, and it might be one of the most unique manga/work of fiction i've ever seen.
The plot is "Simple", it's the first day of highscool, Shijima wakes up, and decide to exit from the closet she had been living in for the last couple years, when she looks at the mirror, she discovers a mushroom had grown in her head.
whenever she goes to school, she ends up meeting our second protagonist, majime, a very outgoing person with a fried egg in her head.
After that, they become "friends" and the rest of the manga is just these two characters, living their normal lives, as a regular SoL manga.
However, we cannot forget, this is tkmiz we're talking, so this world isn't normal, and it takes total control of the story.
Whenever you start reading the manga, this is something you notice pretty quickly, why are the characters wearing random objects in her head?, why is there a hole-digging club?, why are there 4 random electric pole that connects between themselves and not anywere else?, why does that street feature impossible geometry?
The further you go in, the destortion of the world only becomes more and more apparent, being totally extreme in the later volumes. The manga is about this, how do people live their lives in a world as strange as shimeji simulation.
IN adition to this, tkmiz uses the world to talk subjects such as apathy, making this a very philosophical manga, mainly from an absurdist perspective.
however, you can totally miss all of those undertones, I surely missed it during my first read of the manga, however, whenever I thought about shimeji simulation, I started to like iot even more, causing me to re-read it again, taking ntoes on everything that happened in the manga on a google docs to truly understand it, it was after that re-read that it became my favourite manga ever.
Also, tkmiz is apparently obsessed with fish, since every single chapter has at least one mention of a fish, or something fish-shaped or anything, it's the ideal fish-manga.
I've mainly talked about the narrative, which again, it's awesome, but not only that, the art is amzing, having a couple of my favourite manga panels of all time.
The characters expression are exaggerated to the max, reflecting better the characters feelings and thoughts, which is a very inetersting art-style to take.
Every little aspect of the manga seems curated to nearly perfection, the narration is smart, the jokes are funny, the art is great, I cant really point anything I dislike about this manga.
it's such an unique experience, it's a manga you can read as if you're watching bocchi the rock or the end of evangelion, I'm not going to link were to read it directly becasue idk if I can and i've put too much effort in this thread to risk it, but if you just google shimeji simulation manga read you will come with a couple of pages that have it.
Currently, there are only 4 volumes of this manga out, with more still ongoing, it's not a very long read, I really recommend everyone to just give reading it a shot, and if reading it's not your thing, there is an extended cut of the original first chapter in video form, fan-subbed into english.
not only that, but if you understand spanish, the spanish scanlation for this manga, acutally features fan-colored panels, which might make it easier to read if you haven't really ever read manga before.
really, this manga is GOOD, give it a shot.
random images
This one is official artwork too
This one is official artwork too
EDIT 12/05/2023: Images died, updated links so they work