Evyione: Ocean Fantasy 1
Posted: April 23, 2009 Filed under: Evyione: Ocean Fantasy Leave a comment »I reviewed this volume for Manga Recon, so you can check out the review over there. I did a better job writing about it there than I did here, I think.
This was one of my favorite first volumes of last year. I mention this whenever I can, but anyone who likes Bride of the Water God should definitely check this series out. It’s a lovely story with gorgeous art. Plus it’s hard to not like a really good story with mermaids (or mermen) in it.
Goong 3
Posted: April 23, 2009 Filed under: Goong 3 Comments »So Prince Shin is a real jerk. It seemed like he was getting nicer, and he was even beginning to confide in Chae-Kyung a little bit. But he goes back to mistreating her in pretty short order. His behavior at Prince Yul’s party was nothing short of appalling.
To be honest though, Prince Yul’s behavior leaves something to be desired in this volume, too. I still have no idea what the ulterior motives were for inviting Shin’s old girlfriend to his party. There’s a scene where Shin spells out exactly why his old girlfriend attending the party was awkward. It seems to make everyone else mad, but I thought it was a pretty awesome thing for him to do. I mean, how often are these awkward shoujo situations actually addressed like that? Almost never. Nobody else at the party appreciated it (I thought he did it to diffuse the situation a little, which wasn’t the case), but I sure did.
Actually, I really, really like Shin’s method of dealing with things. It’s his reactions that make him a jerk. For instance, he’s pretty straightforward with everything about Chae-Kyung. Chae-Kyung isn’t nearly as direct with him because she’s shy and he’s pretty agressive and teases her mercilessly. One of the main points of contention is that Shin actually hears Chae-Kyung when she asks if he still likes his girlfriend. Shin is prepared to give her a straight answer after thinking about it for awhile, but Chae-Kyung doesn’t actually want to know. She reacts poorly when he tries to tell her, and… well, he acts even more poorly (and kind of scary) to her. I don’t think I’ll ever trust him, but I definitely like his straightforward nature.
The cliffhanger from last volume isn’t resolved as… jucily as I thought it would be, but it did help shed some additional light on Shin and his direct nature.
And… for additional intrigue, Yul makes no secret of the fact he is sort of attracted to Chae-Kyung, and Shin makes no secret that this infuriates him. Also, Yul’s mother is trying to score some points in the palace. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on (only because my only monarchy knowledge comes from England, and the Korean system is a bit different), but ultimately she wants Yul to rank above Shin as the Crown Prince. Hmm.
If you couldn’t tell, I am 100% hooked on this series. As I said before, it’s really amazing how it puts the typical shoujo royalty story in a modern perspective, and how well it shows Chae-Kyung’s suffering, even after she’s drawn into her storybook marriage. The drama is all good, and the characters, both good and bad, are really shaping up wonderfully. I can’t read these volumes fast enough.
This was a review copy provided by Yen Press.
Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom 5
Posted: April 23, 2009 Filed under: Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom 4 Comments »I was ridiculously excited about reading this volume. The Kazuma cliffhanger from last time was just too much, and I was barely reading anything the first part of the book until I got to the part where he reappears. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on as soon as you see the first page, actually, but it takes awhile to reveal things.
Actually, it takes the whole book to reveal what exactly was going on with Kazuma. I was not disappointed, even though what happened to him was much different than what I had imagined. Not only was it different, it deals with what Kazuma’s payment with a different twist than what you usually see for these time-as-payment things. I was quite impressed with what was going on with him.
I was equally impressed by his motives, and Nora’s reaction to them. This doesn’t come until the end of the book. To be fair, they are kind of shounen manga-y, but in the context of the series, between those two characters, it was great. Plus, the entire volume kind of builds up to first Kazuma, then Nora’s reactions. And then there’s a great fight at the end that serves to reinforce their decisions.
While all this stuff is being explained, the characters are almost constantly fighting. I actually wasn’t paying attention to these fights at all while the plot was being explained. I’m not sure if that was because the fights were bad or the plot was that good. Probably the latter. The fight scenes are actually pretty decent… but again, not the best thing this series has going for it.
I LOVE THIS SERIES. I have a feeling nobody else can appreciate this series like I do, but I love it. Mostly this has to do with the mysteries it sets up for itself surrounding Kazuma, the way the characters are “training” Nora, why Nora is important, and what exactly is going on between the Dark Liege Army and the Resistance. I was drawn in because I wanted to know what was going on (and what is going on is quite interesting), and I continue to be impressed with the way everything is unfolding and being explained. It’s quite good.
But again, I think a lot of people will read it and see a middle-of-the-road shounen manga. It does use its share of typical shounen plot devices. Nora is the biggest trap, because he’s very egotistical, but in a comical way, and the other characters enjoy insulting him and knocking him down a few pegs. The dog jokes are still going on, but I actually didn’t find them all that annoying. Sometimes they’re even a little funny.
The cliffhanger for next volume involves Nora, and what exactly his deal is. Not even Nora is sure why being Cerberus, the hound of Hell, is significant, and why it is that both the Dark Liege and the Resistance show such a high level of interest in him. He’s arrogant, and he just wants to be stronger, but next volume we’ll find out why it is that Nora being stronger is a bad thing.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Real 4
Posted: April 21, 2009 Filed under: Real 1 Comment »This volume was all Kiyoharu. While we did get his backstory in volume two, this is the rest of it. Basically, volume two was everything that happened before he lost his leg, and this was everything that happened afterwards.
Because I had commented in volume two that Takahashi seems like the saddest case since his accident is recent, this volume proceeds to take Kiyoharu, my favorite character, and show just how badly he felt and how long it took him to recover from his amputation. It’s… quite sad and very difficult. One scene in particular, where he has a nightmare about his leg ripping off during a race, was pretty powerful stuff, especially seeing his reaction after he woke up. It conveyed absolutely everything you needed to know about what happened and what his mental state was.
Seeing him pick himself up after what he perceived to be an event that ended his life, and seeing what it was that helped him change his outlook (and what kept his outlook negative for so long), makes his incredibly positive attitude even more amazing.
Also, I kind of laughed when I saw his day job. It came out of left field.
I am starting to worry about Nomiya, though. He’s still directionless, and he’s still a pretty strong guy that wants to make something of himself. His failure in this volume was as a result of something he believed in… and come to think of it, most of the time he seems to lose out for standing up for what he thinks is right. But at this point, he has literally nothing going for him. Let’s hope that nice things are in store.
What an amazing series. I was left fully satisfied by everything that was offered in this volume. Plot, characters, messages, artwork… all of it is good. You just can’t fault Real on anything.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Love Code
Posted: April 21, 2009 Filed under: Love Code | Tags: BL Leave a comment »I read this book for the Manga Minis column at the Manga Recon, so you can check it out over there.
The book itself? It’s a Juné BL title. Err. Not really worth checking out. I may have been a bit harsh on it though, since I have yet to read the first and third volumes in the series. I’ll probably read the third this week. Maybe… maybe it will make this volume good. All signs point to no, though.
Full House 1
Posted: April 21, 2009 Filed under: Full House 3 Comments »I mentioned the Right Stuf sale in the sidebar, and if you have any inclination, you should indulge in those ridiculously cheap CPM volumes, I believe the sale runs until the 27th. Just looking at all the wonderful manhwa they had makes me quite sad, I wish they hadn’t gone under. Anyway, I took advantage of the sale to pick up the four available volumes of this series. Now, I’ve fallen in love with everything I’ve read by Sooyeon Won, and Full House is apparently her most popular series, with an insanely popular Korean Drama to go along with it. My expectations were very high.
Now, I’m reading Full House, and I am rather surprised by what I see. Both Let Dai and Devil’s Trill were melodramatic and dark. Full House is a by-the-book romantic comedy. Not even so much in a manga sense, but in a Hollywood sense. A woman is mysteriously kicked out of the house her late father designed one day, apparently because it was somehow acquired by the hottest actor around. While fuming over this a couple days later, she is struck by a car driven by none other than said famous actor. The sparks fly, and the two absolutely do not get along. The woman wants her house as settlement for the car accident, and when the actor will not accept the deal, she proposes they get married so that she can have the house that way. They both have a good laugh before verbally abusing each other some more. But the actor’s manager sees it as an opportunity to beat a recent string of bad press surrounding the actor, and before you know it, the two are engaged.
What?! Where are the broken hearts? Where’s the weepy protagonist? Where are all the events keeping the fated couple separated? Where are the dramatic monologues? Where’s the couple destined to be together? Certainly not Elle and Ryder, they hate each other.
I have faith it will get much better, though. Hopefully it will happen before I get to the fourth volume, which was all that was published in English. I doubt it will get to the levels of melodrama that the other two series have, but I’m willing to bet we’ll get to see some wonderful character development before all is said and done. Plus, with the forced loveless marriage, this volume made me think of Goong, another Korean series I really like with the same theme.
I’m having trouble finding information about the series (even the Korean wikipedia entry for Sooyeon Won failed me), but the artwork in this series is so far behind what it was in Let Dai I’d venture a guess that this came out years before, or, at the very least, this series ran for years and Let Dai just looks better than the volume I’m reading right now. Her art isn’t bad, but it’s got a mid-90s quality to the hair, fashion, and screentones that are used. About the only thing my research dug up was that Won is currently working on Full House II, which just reinforces my belief that this is her most popular series by far. I’m sure it’s awesome, and I’m looking forward to reading what I can of it.
As different as it was from what I was expecting, I still think it will surprise me by making me love a really deep, well-thought-out romantic comedy.
I Saw It
Posted: April 20, 2009 Filed under: I Saw It 3 Comments »Here’s something a little different. Usually I review graphic novels, but this was a one-shot 48-page comic from 1982, so there’s no volume to compile it into. This is also kind of an interesting title. It’s the predecessor to Barefoot Gen, Keiji Nakazawa’s short story that was eventually developed into the series. Unlike Barefoot Gen, this is 100% autobiographical and is told in first person.
The most interesting thing is seeing how closely the events in Nakazawa’s life paralleled those in Barefoot Gen. It’s pretty much verbatim, actually, except this is obviously a lot shorter. The family size is about the same, he’s in the same place when the bomb hits, his family meets the same fate, he winds up with his mother and brother, all of it is pretty much the same. I almost didn’t want to read the second half because I was worried that it would spoil Barefoot Gen for me. There’s so much more detail in the series, though, that it… well, can’t be spoiled in a 48-page comic.
The content is just as nightmarish, though. Maybe even a little more so than in Barefoot Gen, since it’s in first person and everything has been condensed. The woman with the glass embedded in her body and the people dragging their skin on the ground are still some of the most horrible mental images I can think of. Aside from the fairly triumphant ending to the story, where he becomes a popular manga artist just like he’d always dreamed (ever since seeing “New Treasure Island,” in fact), the entire thing is just a tragedy. This and Barefoot Gen are literally two of the saddest stories I can think of, and… I don’t know, reading them sort of makes you feel hopeless, in a way.
It’s definitely worth reading though, especially if you read Barefoot Gen. An autobiography like this isn’t really the type of thing you happen across very often in English, and there really isn’t a more compelling story to tell about one’s life than being a Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor. Don’t be fooled by high Amazon prices, you can actually find the issue for $1-$2. Also, it’s been colorized, which is kind of novel.
Captive Hearts 4
Posted: April 20, 2009 Filed under: Captive Hearts 1 Comment »This just seems a whole lot better after reading the first volume. I think it helps that Hino has improved somewhat in four volumes, so the random humor and cluttered panel layouts have since been at least somewhat refined.
The story is still pretty much in the same place it’s been in this entire time, though. The difference seems to be that both Shizuka and Megumi admit and accept each other’s feelings, so everything is out in the open. Shockingly, there’s a very steamy scene prompted by Shizuka, which is not… well, you know, series like this just don’t do that. Characters hold hands and blush about saying what they’re thinking out loud and stuff. It was very much a surprise.
I was also kind of surprised the scroll showed up before the end. I’m not sure what the point of having the boy from earlier in the series wind up in possession of it is, but he comes back for a few panels. You know, just in case you missed him.
And it looks like things will be moving to China for the last volume. I kind of wonder how that will turn out. I’m sure there will be an adventure with lots of romance and magic and whatnot. It’s really come a long way since the first volume, but it’s still kind of a bland series. I know she’s gotten better since Captive Hearts, so it’s probably okay to hate this series just a little bit.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
One Pound Gospel 4
Posted: April 20, 2009 Filed under: One Pound Gospel 1 Comment »Here’s the last volume, which actually does wrap up with a conclusion. The conclusion is a recent addition to the series (2007, I believe), but it’s always nice to see a writer going back to finish an old work. It also gives me hope that she’ll one day conclude her fantastic Mermaid Saga series.
There aren’t really any surprises here, but again, it’s pretty awesome that she finished it. One thing that bothered me was Sister Angela’s meddling relative. While I can understand Kosaku’s stubbornness in accepting the fact that a nun isn’t allowed to have a romantic relationship with a man, I don’t know why the relative keeps trying to set her up. Sister Angela can be Kosaku’s friend and keep going to his matches as long as she keeps shutting him down like she does, but that relative had no excuse to take her to host clubs and out on dates and stuff. And to add insult to injury, she would force Sister Angela to go, then blackmail her by saying she would tell the Mother Superior where she’d been. It was… bizarre.
Kosaku and Sister Angela’s respective choices in the final story segment were most heartbreaking. Kosaku’s because you knew he understood Sister Angela’s position after all this time, and Sister Angela’s because… well, just because. That’s hard.
A fine ending, truth be told. I’m always pleased when my Takahashi series have a concrete conclusion.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Dogs 0
Posted: April 17, 2009 Filed under: Dogs 5 Comments »Wow. After reading the bland summary on the back and flipping through and looking at the somewhat plain art, I was not expecting to like this series at all. So I was pretty surprised when this wound up being really enjoyable.
While the art is plain, it can get away with it because it has a good sense of composition and panel layout, which is fairly important in an action series like this. And sometimes simplistic art helps out fight scenes a lot too. Anyone who has read Trigun Maximum can tell you detail is sometimes a problem.
The book itself is composed of four short stories about four different characters who intersect in different ways. The characters are all somehow involved in crime and/or the underworld. Of the three, the girl named Naoto, who uses swords, is the only one who hasn’t encountered the other three characters yet. Apparently she was pulled out from under the corpses of her parents and trained in the use of the sword by the man who killed them. She remembers nothing except her hatred of this man. Her story is probably the least interesting, though she does get what is probably the best action scene in the book.
Mihai seems like a retired assassin with the only actual mob connections. His story’s mostly about how the boy he raised killed his lover, both of them are now after each other, et cetera. He runs into Badou during the next story, which is about the strange life Badou leads as an informant who doesn’t really pick sides. Badou then appears in Heine’s story. Heine doesn’t really have a job, other than an apparent bodyguard and/or partner for Badou, but his story is about how he was… genetically manipulated, and trying to save a girl who has the same problems.
Of the four, Badou’s story is the only one not riddled with cliches, and he’s also the comic relief of the series. While the stories are about the girl out for revenge for the death of her parents, the boy who wants to kill the people that changed him into something inhuman, and the man who’s past haunts him, the style and pacing make up for what it lacks in plot. Plus, each story is a quarter of the book, so they don’t really go on long enough to get boring, and are just long enough so that they explain each character. I liked the format a lot.
I’m also quite curious to see how this will be developed into a series. I actually do want to see how all these characters get together and what they wind up collaborating on, because it seems like the groundwork has been laid for what could be a pretty epic story. I also tend to be fairly impressed with Ultra Jump series (Steel Ball Run and Tenjho Tenge, but Battle Angel Alita also runs there… as does Bastard), so I am kind of looking forward to the first volume now. Plus, Viz’s presentation with this series is really awesome. the volume is oversized, with some metallic foil used in the title, there’s a double-sided color pull-out in the front, and the inside covers have some cute cartoony versions (I would say “chibi”, but I hate that term) of Heine and Badou. The presentation is worth the couple extra bucks you’re paying for it.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
