Totally Captivated 5
December 23, 2009
Hajin Yoo – Netcomics – 2008 – 6 volumes
Because the story was not dramatic enough, here’s all the drama for the 2-volume conclusion to the series. Things are still going great at the beginning of the volume, and Mookyul and Ewon are still in the middle of their hot and heavy romance. Ewon even begins to enjoy himself a little and let himself fall for Mookyul completely, which makes for an even prettier picture since Mookyul is so head-over-heels for him.
Then the thing with the director comes up again. After the two needle each other while Ewon is very drunk, Ewon finds out his worst fears about the director are completely true. Ewon then tells Mookyul to choose between him and the man who raised him as a father for no real reason. Mookyul says he is insane and flat-out refuses, and Ewon leaves him, taking the separation quite badly. They both take it badly, but Ewon is the more self-destructive of the two, surprisingly, and he also uses his friends badly in the situation. I did feel pretty bad for his friend Moon, who had been carrying a torce for Ewon for years and only gets to be one of several sleazy rebound men.
The humor is still there (one of my favorite things from this volume was that Ewon had entered Mookyul into his phone as “Grade School Bully Eun”), and I still like that about the series, but both Mookyul and Ewon are in a bad way here, which can only mean that they’ll make up and do awesome stuff together next time. Not before a whole bunch of bad stuff goes down first, though. Mookyul is being set up for a hard fall in this volume, and his enemies are out to get him professionally here, too, so look forward to that.
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 17
December 23, 2009
CLAMP – Del Rey – 2008 – 28 volumes
Things sort of go back to a semblance of normal here, or they do the best they can, at least. There’s a complicated bargain struck with Yuko that helps save Fai’s life, but it’s not as much on the up-and-up as Yuko makes it sound (as far as Fai’s well-being goes, anyway). We do get a random plot event from XxXholic explained, however, which is never a bad thing. I was pleased to see that water come back into play here.
Kurogane’s genuine concern for Fai is quite touching, as is his sacrifice, as is what appears to be Fai’s… er, reaction. Fai is my favorite character, and it’s because of things like this. He’s quite chipper when he becomes conscious, but he reveals that his pleasantries are actually stripped of what he had given them before, and he gets quite serious when he finds out what the group has let Sakura do for them.
Sakura puts herself at risk as the final leg of the bargain, in order to pay Yuko. This is probably the first time this has happened, and I wasn’t expecting it at all since Sakura is so terribly lucky. I figured she would just dodge everything and come back unscathed, but she pays the price, and aknowledges that everyone is paying a price for her selfish whims, anyway. She also uses a gun, which was kind of weird.
There’s also an interesting plot point surrounding a feather still present in the X world here, and Fuma unveils the fact that he is (unsurprisingly) related to Seishirou. I’m going to have an X fangirl moment, so forgive me and just skip to the next review. Subaru/Kamui seems to be the preferred pairing in this story, which was an interesting fan pairing from the original X. But we do get to see a little bit of Fuma torturing Kamui, although in a much less hardcore and more goodnatured way than we see in X. Kamui is resistant to it, and attacks him for Subaru’s sake, and stops when Subaru asks him to stop. But Subaru also seems to have had dealings with Seishirou, and asks after him. This also implies Seishirou/Fuma, another interesting pair from X. Of course, both “pairs” in Tsubasa are of the brotherly nature and not romantic at all, so their not pairings in the traditional sense. Which leaves the way all the more open for the heavily implied pairs from the original series.
Subaru’s such a nice boy. It’s so nice to get to see him again. I wonder what his final fate will be in X, or if we’ll ever get to see it.
One Piece 29
December 23, 2009
Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2010 – 56+ volumes
I don’t have a lot to say about this volume. We see more of the fighting between Eneru’s army, the Straw Hat Pirates. and the Shandians. We also learn just how insane Eneru is. The title “kami” is used pretty seriously throughout the arc (there are several jokes about praying to kami/god in certain instances), but Ganfor confirms that the title holder isn’t really “kami” and is just the ruler of Skypiea. Eneru thinks differently, however, and does consider himself God. Everyone pretty much agrees with him, since his devil fruit power is allegedly invincible. The numbers are whittled away until we get closer and closer to Eneru’s prediction from the beginning of the fight. None of the fights are that notable, save for the fact that all the contestants have to dodge a gigantic snake that is rampaging because Luffy is beating it up from the inside. Later, he insists on escaping by letting it poop him out. He insists on this several times. None of the other characters like him very much for it.
I like Eneru a lot. He’s cruel, but he’s also far less dark and depressing than the other villains we’ve seen so far. He laughs a lot, and although his eventual goal seems to involve killing everyone on Skypiea, it’s eventual outcome is interesting, especially considering all the valid points he makes and the fact he’s lived in the sky all his life. Not that I’m condoning the methods, or all the murder, but he’s interesting all the same. If it turns out to be world domination in the end, I’ll be disappointed, though.
The scene in the last pages of this volume is still one of the most extreme and hilarious I’ve ever seen in a shounen manga. It also involves Eneru, which is another reason to like him.
Once again though, part of the fun I had reading through this part was anticipating how he was going to be brought low. As soon as they unveiled what his power was, I saw where it was going, and seeing everyone talking him up as invincible only made me more impatient for the inevitable. We don’t get satisfaction this time around, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be put off for another full volume.
One of those small, creative, One Piece touches I enjoy is that Eneru’s throne is on top of a giant beanstalk, for no reason, and everyone calls it a Giant Jack. I’m not sure why I take such pleasure from that, but it made me smile every time it came up.
Also in this volume, the new title page short story starts, this time starring poor Ace. Given the current storyline, it’s a shame I’m reading this now. I hope the poor fella’s okay in the end.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Bloody Kiss 2
December 23, 2009
Kazuko Furumiya – Tokyopop – 2009 – 2 volumes
I reviewed this volume for the weekly Manga Minis column at Manga Recon, so you can check it out over there.
This was the final volume of Bloody Kiss, and it was pretty much the same as the first. Nothing at all special, but still an enjoyable read, and not nearly as terrible as the vampire cliche would lead you to believe.
Totally Captivated 4
December 21, 2009
Hajin Yoo – Netcomics – 2008 – 6 volumes
This was where things really started to heat up. I was afraid things would begin to get more dramatic and serious, since some of the major issues in this volume include a bad encounter between Mookyul and Ewon’s friends and Ewon suspecting Mookyul of an affair with his adopted father (which sounds kind of funny in that super-messed-up soap opera way when I write it out). Fortunately, Totally Captivated keeps its sense of humor even at the most depressing of times, and I was alternately laughing and… I don’t know, completely engrossed in the story this time around as the romance heated up even more and Ewon’s little icy heart began to melt.
It’s the little touches of humor that I appreciate. The way Mookyul is drawn with a little super-evil face when the style switches to SD for a gag. The way Mookyul holds whatever conversation he wants wherever he wants, which includes detailed descriptions of his sex life in front of his men. Ewon’s frequent light touches and random jokes he makes in every situation that are genuinely funny. It’s stuff like that that makes Totally Captivated better than just a romance.
But there’s the romance, too. As I said, things got pretty intense in this volume. Ewon begins to grow nervous and wants some space, but Mookyul is completely in love with him and Ewon realizes that he can’t pull away. There are some rough spots, as I’ve mentioned before, and the two still fight pretty intensely. The one thing that always bothers me is that Ewon doesn’t seem to enjoy sex with Mookyul. Mookyul has to trick him into it, and he always seems to want to get away. This volume does cross the line to a point, since Mookyul keeps going when Ewon says no, but Ewon doesn’t seem that upset when he wakes up, and is touched that Mookyul stayed up to watch while he slept. The “I love you” stuff starts after that, too, and that’s handled in a way that only Mookyul and Ewon could do it.
This was my favorite volume in the series, I think. Really excellent stuff. Great romance, humor, and pretty much everything I look for in girls’ comics.
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 16
December 21, 2009
CLAMP – Del Rey – 2008 – 28 volumes
Okay, I’m just going to jump right back into the swing of things here. I picked a bad place to stop, because this volume starts right in the middle of an action scene and contains one of the biggest pieces of story explanation in the series. Reading it in English did help immensely, and I finally understood all of what was going on here (Kamui calling Syaoran “game” was pretty awesome, and I finally understood the subtle differences between Syaoran and “Syaoran,” aside from the latter going on a murderous rampage and all).
The X setting was marginalized in favor of the explanations and dimension-crossing and the breaking of the seals and reclaiming of the souls and divying up of the magic powers, but I still got to see Kamui and Subaru, so I was a happy camper. Additionally, when “Syaoran’s” murderous rampage started, he began by bending the cocky Kamui over and nearly ripping his arm off, so that was another great scene.
And then there’s poor Fai. I still don’t like what happened to him here, but I did like how upset Kurogane got over it. Much like CLAMP seems to have hung a sign in XxXholic that says “we would like to slash these two, but this is a men’s magazine” in relation to Domeki and Watanuki, the same thing happens here with Kurogane and Fai. Fangirls have been with it from the beginning, but it becomes harder and harder to deny in the story from here on. Harder than in XxXholic, where it’s not… all that prevalent, but still.
Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom 9
December 21, 2009
Kazunari Kakei – Viz – 2010 – 9 volumes
Ahh! I was worried about this! I wasn’t sure how the story was going to fill out another volume, since most everything wraps up nicely in volume 8. It doesn’t fill the whole volume, and the second half features two short stories, including one that was the pilot for the Nora series. I liked the short story quite a bit, since it lacked the plot about the resistance and was mostly about Nora and Kazuma making each other angry and being themselves, which is what I love so much about this series. Usually I dislike pilot chapters like that, since it’s clear that the ideas evolve quite a bit by the time they get turned into a series, but this time, all the good ideas were right there to begin with, which is pretty cool.
The second short story was unrelated to Nora. It was called “The Severer,” and was hilariously terrible. The dialogue was so bad that I suspect the person doing the adaptation had a lot of fun punching it up with lame-but-still-awesome English phrases.
The conclusion to Nora absolutely crushed me. I like this series quite a bit, and I was hoping that with an extra-long ending we’d get to see a lot of wrapup with Kazuma and Nora, but there’s one last conflict, and the story ends abruptly on what seems like a cliffhanger. Literally, the final chapter just cuts off in the middle of an action scene, with no resolution. It’s totally unfair. There’s a sequel series called SUREBREC: Nora the 2nd, but it hasn’t been licensed in English yet. Tragic. I hope this was popular enough to warrant releasing the sequel.
As I’ve said before, I have a ridiculous fondness for this series, which has a lot to do with Kazuma and Nora being great characters that work together quite humorously. The plot was only average, but that was easy for me to overlook since I tend to like demon-oriented series. Nora and Kazuma more than made up for any weaknesses in the plot, though. There were some really cool plot twists along the way, to be fair, and I was more-or-less highly entertained until I got to the end. This was probably one of my favorite shounen series from last year, and while it seems like a mediocre offering, it’s definitely worth reading from the beginning.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Enchanter 10
December 21, 2009
Izumi Kawachi – Digital Manga Publishing – 2009 – 19+ volumes
Hmm. There haven’t been any new volumes of this since February. We can probably assume that it doesn’t bode well for the future of this series in America. Can’t say I’m all that surprised, given the fact I hardly ever see the series discussed and don’t think it did too well, but I have a soft spot for it.
I’m kind of torn about what’s going on here, because what I liked initially about this series (the magical systems and the enchanter/demon system used to make magical implements) has fallen by the wayside in favor of character development. While the series does have a tendency to introduce a lot of random characters and not come back to them, they always wind up interacting with Eukanaria and Haruhiko, so those two always wind up getting developed at least a little while the side stories focus on the other characters. In this volume, we get introduced to yet another new character and his sister. The new boy interacts with Eukanaria quite a bit while he searches for Mercurio, and by the end, he’s decided to take the offer of another demon to become her Enchanter. But while all this is going on, we see more of the childlike joy Eukanaria seems to take in everything, and we see Haruhiko interact with her, and Yuka, and start to try and figure out why it is he does what he does. Interesting stuff.
Admittedly, there are far better series for character development, and this still has quite a bit of t&a in it. It’s pretty manic, and keeping up with the manic energy of all the characters, as well as keeping track of all the side characters, tires me out. There is an overarching plot, but the stories rarely return to it. And the storytelling is a little disorganized in general. But there’s something kinda fun about it, too, and I think it’s just that I’ve grown attached to Haruhiko and Eukanaria after all this time and would love to see how they end up.
I.N.V.U. 5
December 18, 2009
Kim Kang Won – Tokyopop – 2009 – 5+ volumes
You know, I like this series. It may have the record for most infrequent volumes in the history of English manga/manhwa releases, but the volumes do keep coming out, and I like Tokyopop a lot for that, especially since it would have been so easy to forget the series after so many years had passed without a new volume. Has it really been two years since volume 4? Holy crap, I thought that came out last year. I am growing too old for my own good.
There’s also the fact that this is awesome, which makes the infrequent volumes… mmm, not worth the wait, but certainly worth reading when they do come out.
The only character that I didn’t immediately recognize was Hajun’s fiancee. I had completely forgotten he was engaged, actually, though that’s not a fact that will likely escape my notice in the future since much drama happens around his fiancee. She seems intent on ruining Hali’s life if she continues to be close to Hajun, but, you know… true love and all that. Hajun and Hali’s relationship gets closer and closer in this volume, and I kind of wonder where it will go from here since this series seems to take their age difference and the fact he’s her teacher pretty seriously.
Hali’s life is already pretty messed up, though. She has more problems with her mother in this volume, and finally has to move out of the house when her father insists that she quit her new acting job in order to save her mother’s sanity. Seeing Hali act like herself, and seeing her in ads, seems to destroy her mother’s sanity, and she gets violent in this volume. Rather than getting the mother professional help, her father seems to think quitting her job is the solution to their problems. Yeah.
Unfortunately, Sey and Siho weren’t in this volume so much. Nor were Jae Eun or Simon. Those four are my favorites, so I was sad to see that at least another year will go by before their stories advance. Jae Eun does get a hilarious surprise on her last page of the volume, though.
Who else… Rea and Hajin’s brother. They’ve got a little something going on, maybe, and Rea develops a career contrary to the one she thought she might have. This seems to be a more positive direction for her, and I’d love to see it go further in the next volume or so.
I.N.V.U. is still great and ridiculously addictive, and I’m thinking about re-reading the earlier volumes when I go back home next week, just so that I can remember. It’s just the right mix of shoujo drama between a group of friends with different, but interesting, paths in life. Now how long will it be before we see the continuation? The conclusion? Well, I’ll still be here.
