Slightly Biased Manga

CMX usually keeps the cover illustrations from the Japanese original (tragically, not the awesome bunko covers which makes the series look like a James Bond spy adventure starring Klaus), but I notice sometimes the illustrations get swapped out if Dorian is being too much a lady.

Anyway, a new volume of this series means another chance for me to express my love for it in great detail. I caught myself singing “Unchained Melody” while ordering this online, which made me feel stupid. When it came, I sat it next to my computer and waited for a bad day to roll around before I read it, because reading this would automatically make it the best day of the month.

This one ends the Seven Days in September storyline that’s been running the past few volumes. It ends, much to my satisfaction, with an awesome swordfight between Dorian and Salim with assists by Klaus. If that wasn’t enough for you, there’s feats involving a large fire at the end as well. Klaus doesn’t look as mad as usual when going about his business here, which seems a little odd, but far be it for me to stop him from being happy around Dorian.

There’s a side story involving the NATO Director’s birthday and all the alphabets throwing a party for him since the Major is away on a mission with Z. The party is Lawrence’s idea, who happens to be in town. Of course, Dorian et al happen to be in town as well (trying to spy on Klaus), and when Dorian finds out the Major isn’t around, he suggests having the party at the Major’s house. James helps the alphabets organize things within a budget in an awesome scene where everyone keeps calling James to see if they got a good deal or not. There’s some weirdness between Lawrence, the Director, and Dorian, and I believe Dorian wins a bet about whether or not the Director really likes him or not. I… wasn’t sure what was going on with that weirdness… but yes.

Of course, the Major comes back early, and he walks in with Z instead of the Director. The result is a perfect joke and one of the most amazingly immature scenes I’ve ever seen in a manga. This entire chapter was a work of genius, and there were a ton of really stupidly funny jokes that had me cracking up the whole time. Not good jokes, though, and nothing sophisticated. These were things like a character strolling into the airport and commenting on agents “E, F, and Gay,” or the Director spotting the Major while enroute to the party and just turning around, not wanting anything to do with the scene that was sure to unfold.

Once again: Marry me, Yasuko Aoike.

The next story, “Laughing Cardinal,” is also several volumes long, and starts off with the aftermath of that party, including an amazingly calm Klaus and his jumpy coworkers. I think one of my favorite things about this manga is that its characterizations are perfect. Not so much that the characters are well-developed, but that they interact well and make for funny jokes and situations. A bunch of things come to mind at the NATO headquarters at the beginning of this chapter, but it would be too much for me to name them all, and really, you have to read to appreciate.

The plot of “Laughing Cardinal” so far is that Klaus almost literally has only that phrase to go on to find out why a NATO agent died. Dorian… hm, wants to save some art that’s being demolished somewhere? I think?

I just… I love this manga so much. It is absolutely what I would like to be reading right now.