Manga Monday: Sketchy
Sometimes you read something and it punches you right in the heart, but in like, a good way. I never thought a manga about skateboarding would have that effect, but that’s the power of Josei for you.
Where to read: Kodansha (Like a lot of the manga I read, I got it through my local library. Support your local library!)
Sketchy is about skateboarding, but it is also about rediscovering passion, purpose, and finding community through trying something new.
Sketchy follows a group of women as they learn to skateboard. Each of them has a different reason for taking it up, from becoming a trailblazer in the world of skateboarding films to figuring out who they are after their lives collapse, but they’re all looking for something.
Ako, with whom we start the story, is in her thirties and feels listless and directionless. She watches as her friends get married, have kids, and build futures and careers that are out of her grasp, even if she wanted them. But then a female skateboarder drops out of the sky and changes everything.
Ako signs up for a skateboarding class, becoming an active participant in her own life instead of just going through the motions. She remembers what it means to have fun, and Sketchy shows us just how important that is.
And then she inspires others to do the same.
Sketchy has a strong undercurrent of women supporting other women. When Ako and her friend Shiho show up at the skate park, knowing almost nothing, the more experienced female skaters (younger and far more effortlessly cool) are just excited that they’re there.
This is in direct contrast to Ako’s other “friends,” who have a weirdly competitive relationship and don’t seem to really see Ako, and Shiho’s less-than-stellar family, who excuse and even encourage her more successful cousin’s behavior with a “boys will be boys” attitude.
The story shows us just how lonely and unfulfilling this competition and lack of understanding is for all involved, in direct contrast to the amazing things that happen with support and a willingness to just openly think your friends are rad.
While even Sketchy can’t convince me that skateboarding would be a good idea (it would be dangerous to all involved), it serves as an excellent reminder of just how important it is to find things to put yourself into wholeheartedly, and that you’re never too old to learn new tricks.
