Sumire 16
 

Anybody read this? It's about a 30 something puppeteer who carries a life size highschool girl puppet. The guy never talks and never does anything on his own but lets his puppet do it for him. And did I mention the puppet is attending highschool?

This manga is pretty funny. A fairly shallow plot but it's so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh.

Two year old epic necro thread ftw! :D

I found this gem last night after seeing it mentioned somewhere on the web. This is a great manga, the completely silly premise, the comedy, and the almost "slice of life" nature to the story make this an easy read that you can relax and laugh with. Sometimes you'll forget it's just a puppet. My only complaint is that there isn't more to read.

Highly recommended. :)

The story seems pretty interesting. I searched a bit and realise there is also a sumire 17. So what's the difference between the 2?

From what I understand, 16 is actually a "retelling" of 17. I haven't read 17 yet so I can't confirm that however.

Looks interesting!!!!

Sumire 16 is indeed a retelling of Sumire 17. I never bothered to check on the actual reason, but the author finished two volumes of Sumire 17, and then moved to a new magazine and restarted the story in a different way (probably difference of opinion with his editor or some such thing). Sumire 17 is slightly darker than 16 and the stories are all different, but it has the same feel.

There's also a dorama of it out. All I can find is the raw.

On topic... the manga is pretty damn funny.

Gave it a read since I saw this topic here, and it was a decent laugh. The chaps were too short, felt like it went by so fast, but it gave me quite a number of chuckles along the way.

Sumire 16 > Sumire 17. Maybe it's just because she deals with other, chap-specific chars w/o using/hanging with/doing it with her friends or something. Yeah, I think that's it. Other than that, they both feel exactly the same. The pi joke and that judo guy seeing the old man with Sumire was so totally hilarious, I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw those parts :heh:, particularly the pi one. That one could ONLY be done in manga form, i thought it was pure genius.

This gem of a manga has ended. Or rather, it probably did a while ago but the scanlation has now also finished. Amazing series with a perfect ending, it's a tragedy that there isn't more, but just as the last chapter tells us, its time to move on. In the spirit of such an end, though, I felt like this was a great chance to give it a shout out and hopefully introduce its heart and charm to some other people.

Possibly on par with Onani Master Kurosawa in terms of honest heart emerging out of an absurd and apparently creepy premise, I prefer this work for its greater coherency and consistency overall. Please give it a go again if you used to follow this series and stopped, or check it out instead you've never seen it before, and let's send it off with a bang.

Anyway, as a parting question, anybody know if the author's next work has come out yet and if it's gotten off the ground? Given the art, its not altogether surprising that this was his debut manga but for that reason it would be interesting to track him as he goes along.

Thanks, I'll have to go hunt it down.

You should definitely read a few chapters of Sumire 17 before finishing up 16, it makes the already emotional ending even more cathartic. (I also prefer 17's first few chapters to 16's, they give a much clearer impression about the premise.)

A very nice manga, even though I wouldn't give it the maximum score it is definitely a candidate for an almost-perfect one. And the well executed crazy premise puts it up there along with the great memorables.