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The Fall and Rise of Milton in Peepo Choo

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Note: For the purpose of this post, Peepo Choo will refer to the manga by Felipe Smith, while “Peepo Choo” will refer to the in-story manga.

In Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo, the main character Milton is a Chicago teenager and otaku who finds the opportunity to escape his life by traveling to Japan. Hopelessly dorky and even mistaking the gibberish language of his favorite show “Peepo Choo” for actual Japanese, the series initially feels like it might set him on the course for disaster and despair. Indeed, upon the revelation that “Peepo Choo” was an absolute flop in Japan and even ruined the lives of its creators, Milton is forced to re-evaluate all that he’s lived for up until that point. However, the comic is more than just a sobering wake-up call to nerds to stop living in delusion, instead delivering hope to otaku not just in spite of but because of those cultural misunderstandings.

The main reason that the truth about “Peepo Choo” is such a shock to Milton is that it found success in the United States because it was sold as the anime closest to Japan. The way its distributor “Japa-tastic” marketed it, “Peepo Choo” was proof that everyone in Japan loved anime as much as they did, that people cosplayed to work, that conflicts were a relic of the past, and that they could be understood just by living there. Having the series turn out to be completely unpopular in Japan flies in the face of all of that, but the dismal failure that is “Peepo Choo” actually does more to contribute to Milton’s growth and recovery.

We learn that “Peepo Choo” was the last manga ever made by a beloved children’s author named Ringo Plum. Coming off of the success of his latest title, Ringo Plum decided to create something for adults, pouring all of his talent and efforts into a comic that would be special in a way no other had been before. It was different, but too different, as its theme of universal understanding could not come across to the general Japanese public, who was too put off by the inscrutable visuals of “Peepo Choo.”As one character in the comic puts it, “Peepo Choo” was a little too ahead of is time, and yet Milton is able to fully understand the title and its peaceful message. He was able to do what most of Japan could not. Taking that into consideration, the fact that the series was unpopular in Japan is not an indictment of “Peepo Choo” or its American fans (nor is it an indictment of the Japanese for not “getting it”), but rather a sign that Milton himself is incredibly perceptive even if he is an ardent Japanophile. In other words, while Milton may have been an otaku with a warped image of Japan, his view on “Peepo Choo” is second to none, and it is not just despite but also because of his misconceptions. Even after he learns the truth of “Peepo Choo” and its lack of popularity, his openness and desire to understand others allow him to first, see that manga and anime still have an enormous presence in Japan (just not as omnipresent as he originally thought) and second, win the heart of the character Reiko (who might just be getting her own post dedicated to her).

“Peepo Choo” found success in the United States through deceptive marketing, but that unscrupulous tactic allowed fans in America to give the series a chance when its native readers would not. Whether the ends justify the means in this instance is not a relevant question, and it is simply how things turned out. Even though Milton made a number of mistakes along the way, how and why those mistakes were made are just as important to showing Milton’s true character as they are to darker and more disturbing characters in the story. As Milton is the main character, his particular tale leaves Peepo Choo feeling much more positive than one might expect it to, and that slight disconnect makes the message of understanding in both “Peepo Choo” and Peepo Choo all the more potent.

You wa Culture Shock: Peepo Choo Volume 1

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Felipe Smith is an American artist who found his way to Japan and became serialized in an actual manga magazine. His resulting comic, Peepo Choo, is a fusion of the two cultures, feeling like both and neither at the same time, but unlike many others actually manages to succeed in creating something unique.

Peepo Choo follows a young otaku, Milton, living in the south side of Chicago. Forced to hide his anime fandom to survive the harsh urban environment, Milton finds reprieve in anime, particularly his favorite title, Peepo Choo and sees Japan as an ideal paradise from which he can escape his life in Chicago. When he wins a ticket to Japan, he sees it as an opportunity to really be himself, but learns that his dreams and reality don’t quite line up.

The first volume of Peepo Choo can create an odd initial impression. The art is very in-your-face. The heavy amount of sexual content and violence can seem out of place even knowing that there are plenty of sexual and violent manga out there, and the way in which it makes fun of geeks can be a turn-off for the geeks reading it. However, there are reasons for all of this, and it’s not simply to offend everyone.

Peepo Choo appears to glamorize sex and violence, but does so in a way that also simultaneously removes much of the fetishism in both. The “Peepo Choo” meta-series itself that Milton so adores resembles superflat artwork crossbred with Pokemon, looking not like anime so much as the impression someone completely unfamiliar with it might get from watching an episode. And while Milton comes across as pathetic, he’s also a very good and righteous person in his own way.

Most, if not all of the characters in Peepo Choo are horribly flawed in different ways. Paralleling Milton is a yakuza member who has so fallen in love with the “American gangsta” aesthetic that he has adopted a wardrobe (cowboy hat included), attitude, and name (“Morimoto Rockstar”) that is a garish parody of the lifestyle, essentially trying to obtain the life that Milton is trying to escape. Supermodel Reiko has an as-of-yet unexplained violent streak to her. Comic book store owner Jody lords it over his customers by telling them how pathetic they are, but is only covering up his own insecurities. Everyone wants to be more than they are, or at the very least feel like there are two conflicting sides to them.

Yet, despite all of these human faults, all of the characters show some degree of goodness and altruism through their otherwise broken personalities. And so while the message one might initially take from Peepo Choo is “hopelessness,” there is also a glimmer of progress and growth in all of them, or at least the potential for such. In a way, it reminds me of Ressentiment, which also has a similar theme of the beauty in ugliness.

Is Peepo Choo going to be uplifting, or is it going to be a heel to the face of fans? Honestly, as of Volume 1 I cannot tell. The story can easily go in either direction, and while I hope for the former I can’t make any guarantees.

Pick up Peepo Choo Volume 1 if you feel like something different. It’s not like any manga you’ve ever seen, and it also goes to show that perhaps the way to achieving that manga dream is to do something unique.

Thanks to Vertical Inc.’s Ed Chavez for providing this copy.