Choco Mimi 1
Posted: June 15, 2009 Filed under: Choco Mimi 6 Comments »This was some seriously cute stuff. The cute artwork overload reminded me a lot of Junko Mizuno in a way, except this was way more flowery where Junko Mizuno is usually disturbing. Strangely, the girls in this series are in 8th grade, but it seems like a much younger girl is probably the target audience (which is appropriate enough given that this was a VizKids title). The format for the story was 4-panel gag strips mixed with 1-2 page comics. The jokes center around Choco and Mimi, two best friends, one is serious and cute, one is ditzy and cute. Choco also has a crush on a “cool” boy nicknamed Andrew, and later, a cute boy named Mumu is introduced that seems like a rival/romantic interest for Mimi, but kind of isn’t. All four are friends. There’s also a teacher that hounds Mimi. There are also various pets.
Interspersed throughout the book are character profiles, side stories, and copious fashion tips for every occasion based on the individual styles of Choco and Mimi. There’s also a sticker sheet. All of these are pretty nice extras for a book aimed at little girls.
The jokes are a strange mix of kind of funny, no joke at all, and an occasional awesome joke. I was laughing sometimes, and I kind of liked the book for what it was, a collection of gag strips for little girls about two girls being friends. Their friendship is never on shaky ground, and the overall mood is a very positive one. I wasn’t all that interested in fashion, but it’s probably something I would have liked in grade scale based on the cuteness factor alone. I wouldn’t have LOVED it, but I probably would have liked it all the same.
And with no overarching plot or direction, gag strips and fashion tips are about all I can comment on. If the intended recipient likes cute, fashion, pets, friends, and gags, they’ll probably like this.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Hoshin Engi 13
Posted: June 14, 2009 Filed under: Hoshin Engi 1 Comment »From the description given in the preview from last volume, I thought the plot backed off from the epic sennin fights a bit to focus on a virus threat in the Sennin and human world. I was actually kind of disappointed by this, because this actually already happened, and Taikobo figured out how to vaccinate everyone. It would be a real shame if such an unusual plot device was reused for no real reason. I thought maybe the preview was somehow a mistake and an older one was used, but it also specifically mentioned Kingo Island being threatened, which wasn’t an issue the last time it happened.
Viruses play absolutely no part in the story in this volume, and instead we get the most epic sennin fight we’ve yet encountered. Kingo Island and Mount Kongrong are at full war, and the two locations are physically flown through the air to engage in battle. It’s… kind of weird and unexpected in a series grounded in history and traditional fantasy. I guess there are the occasional mechanical paope, but still, it’s a little strange. It’s still awesome though, regardless of whether it belongs.
At Kingo Island, we are introduced to a spokesperson for the twelve elite sennin (the group in charge over there) named Otenkun. Otenkun’s character design is… er, a little out of place, since he’s pierced up the wazoo, wears black leather, chains, and eye makeup. Again though, somehow Hoshin Engi pulls off the anachronism, and Otenkun actually has one of the best character designs in the series. He’s up to something, and while Bunchu is the one that is waging the war without most people’s consent, Otenkun seems prepared to let it go on to a certain point.
Strangely, Taikobo is in charge of the Kingo Island attack instead of Genshi Tenshon. I suppose he is the master of strategy… but he’s also the one that just drained all the energy off the mountain in order to fight Chokomei, so there’s that, too.
On a side note, I’m not sure why it didn’t hit me until this volume that Kingo Island was composed of youkai sennin (sennin that were originally objects or animals) and that Mount Kongrong was only human sennin. I’m sure this was explained right away, but maybe I didn’t understand it back then. Everything made so much more sense after that.
Anyway, a major focus of the volume was Yozen sneaking over and infiltrating Kingo Island in order to disable their shield Obi-Wan Kenobi style. Yozen gets caught by one of the twelve elite sennin of Kingo Island and is trapped in his alternate dimension. Since Yozen is a genius, both he and Taikobo are confident that he can escape, however, some interesting plot points come forward after he uses his tremendous amount of power. I can’t imagine it having the effect that Outenkun describes, but I’m sure the implications will be more complicated than they seem.
Maybe the virus stuff is Otenkun’s plan for next time, or the reason behind why the two worlds are suddenly at war? All I can say is that I love the crap out of this series, I’m pretty much used to the core cast (though 24 new characters joined up this volume with the elite sennin from each side), and I’m very, very curious to see how the plot plays out. In all honesty, I like this sennin world stuff a lot more than the human conflict… which, strangely, seems to have resolved itself this volume, though I’m sure a war will still happen. I can’t see the plot moving back to the war unless there are heavy sennin roles in the battles, which violates all the rules of the Hoshin Project. I want to see how that is worked around. I’m sure it will be unexpected and delightful.
Audition 2
Posted: June 14, 2009 Filed under: Audition 1 Comment »Yeah, things got off to a pretty amazing start in this volume. After some preliminaries where the boys fool Buok and introduce themselves to one another, the actual training to be idols gets underway. Aside from being innately talented, none of them know the first thing about making real music, so they start out several steps behind everyone else in the competition.
Most of this volume is spent introducing the eccentricities of the characters… most of the focus is put on Raeyong, the youngest member. He’s pretty extreme and more than a little nuts. He frequently goes off on tangents, has random outbursts, and does things like wear newspaper hats to school. This is explained in the book as a manic-depressive personality, but it seems to go far beyond that. Dal Bong and Mickey hit it off right away despite the fact that Mickey is mistaken for a woman, and Chul sits back and watches everyone do their thing. Their roles in music don’t come up until the very end of the volume, but their collaboration on their song of choice (a fictional concept album called “Swan Song,” which features a song that builds on itself until it finishes with an amazing flourish that culminated in the band members committing suicide immediately after). They all squabble and go back and forth about other songs, but they all four agree that Swan Song is the one they absolutely must perform for the first leg of the competition.
There are other complications, too. Myung-Ja has been blacklisted by most of her music industry contacts by Dukchool, the one who stands to take control of the company if she fails to fulfill the terms of her father’s will. As a result, the group can’t get real insturments and doesn’t get a new recording studio. But it seems like the boys are pretty happy with what they had in the end.
The only complaints I had were, surprisingly, with the art. I loved Chon’s art in DVD, and I didn’t notice so much in the first volume of Audition, but she uses a lot of techniques/bad habits that took me years to learn to stop doing. One of the things that bothers me most is “high hair,” women with hair that is laying down, but it’s laying down on a skull that is much higher than it should be. There are also likely intentional abnormalities with the positioning of the features on the face that bother me. There are lots of art faux pas that I forgive, but non-stylized anatomy blunders are a big no-no for me.
But I’m dying to see the boys in the competition and where they go musically from here. It’s clear that Big Stuff is in store, so I hope that volume three sees the light of day somewhere, somehow.
Song of the Hanging Sky 1
Posted: June 14, 2009 Filed under: Song of the Hanging Sky 3 Comments »You know, I didn’t realize I wasn’t buying any Go! Comi series until someone pointed out that they were one of the few studios that don’t allow for Right Stuf sales. I always bought After School Nightmare elsewhere since I don’t like to preorder things I’m going to want to read right away, so I actually didn’t notice I hadn’t been following anything else. I thought I’d change that with this, which sounds like their most critically acclaimed series at the moment.
It’s really, really unique! It’ll be a good replacement for After School Nightmare, even though the series are nothing alike. It’s got a really ambiguous sense of time and place, which lends itself well to the fairy tale nature of the story. A man who is escaping the war (I’m not sure he explicitly states that it is World War II or if it was just heavily implied) camps out by himself in a remote, wintery land and accidentally stumbles across a tribe of bird people. He can’t communicate with them, and initially they want to kill him in order to keep their existence a secret, but later they adopt him in as part of their tribe.
Most of the story focuses on the human, Jack, and the small boy he finds named Nuts. Nuts is scared and resists Jack at first, but eventually the two bond. Nuts is so fond of Jack, in fact, that the tribe reads the bond on Nuts’ soul and decide to change his name to “Hello,” the word that Jack tried to get Nuts to say. As time passes, Jack and the bird people eventually learn a common language and Jack even helps them trade in human villages to raise their quality of life.
A lot of the story focuses on the fact that the bird tribe is about to go extinct and their old ways are dying. Lots of signs point to this in the first volume alone, including repeated prophecies from the tribe shamen/seers, the fact that some of the older members of the tribe disappear, the fact that they adopt some human ways, and, more seriously, that there haven’t been any new children born to the people in a long, long time. The story also reflects a quiet maturation and coming-of-age in Hello and his friend Wolf, who seems jealous of the bond that Hello and Jack share (father/son, while Hello is technically Jack’s “father” in the eyes of the tribe after the adoption, Jack is the one that watches over Hello). The bird people will also likely have to deal with the war sweeping through their land and invading their solitary life, as Jack already has. There is also a chance that one of the women who has recently come of age will choose Jack as a partner rather than one of the bird men. There is some talk that the tribe, since it is so small, is too closely related (hinting at inbreeding, but there are no signs of it), so I’m quite curious to see if merging with human society will somehow help save them.
The artwork also has a certain soft, sketchy quality that lends itself well to a storybook tale like this. There are lots of interesting details in the designs of the bird people, and although most of the book took place during a rather bleak winter, I also liked the scenery.
It’s an absolutely wonderful story, a nice balance between fairy tale, coming-of-age, and perhaps an anti-war message as well. Despite the fact that the outlook for the bird tribe is incredibly dark, there was a wonderfully positive mood throughout the book. I’m definitely going to pick up the second volume the next chance I get. It looks like there are at least two more volumes available, so I imagine I’ll be dying for more once I polish off the second.
Reborn 12
Posted: June 14, 2009 Filed under: Reborn! 1 Comment »Akira Amano – Viz – 2009 – 26+ volumes
This volume was much easier to get into than the last. Last time the rules for a tournament were established, and a lot of the strange mob/time warp/different factions stuff came into play. This volume was only mid-tournament story, and benefited immensely from featuring a battle between a knife wielder and a dynamite user in an exploding school for most of the volume.
Tsuna and his group aren’t actually faring that well against the Varia, and due to a misstep at the end of the last battle, are in pretty bad standing in the tournament. The battle that takes up the majority of this volume is between the Storm Ring bearers. I think the titles indicate a fighting style rather than special powers, because neither of the contestants in this battle really have special powers other than trying to outsmart the other. The varia opponent, a pyschopath named Prince Ripper, is pretty crafty, but Gokudera is pretty good at turning his tricks back around on him.
The humor is rather hit-and-miss. On one hand, I enjoyed Gokudera’s teacher’s complete apathy for how his student learned or fared in battle (and, to be fair, his point is that Gokudera has to think for himself rather than just told outright how to fight). On the other hand, he also made a lot of breasts jokes, so that put things back at zero. Tsuna’s also too much a goody-goody for my taste, since he’s constantly yelling out not to get hurt and that his friends are more important than the rings, and how they should do it for Lambo, who was taken down last time. Ugh. His philosophy will probably win in the end, of course, since it’s pointed out that the varia are kind of heartless and lack the teamwork the… uh, “family” needs in order to control the Vongola rings. Mmm… yeah, Reborn is pretty eccentric, to be fair, but from what I’ve seen, there are a lot of other series that do the exact same thing better.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Parasyte 7
Posted: June 12, 2009 Filed under: Parasyte 1 Comment »It’s clear in this volume that the series is coming to a climax and will be winding down immediately after the business at hand is taken care of.
The biggest event to take place here is the roundup of parasites that work for that mayor. The government orchestrates an elaborate scenario in order to separate civilians and single each of the the parasites out. The parasites realize immediately what is going on, and things degenerate into a bloody mess towards the end of the volume. Though the army does make it clear that civilians will not be harmed, they pretty much shoot anything that moves and indiscriminately kill humans that are suspicious, try to flee the scene, or just defy orders.
This is shown in contrast to a speech given on how the parasites are just like any other creature on Earth that keeps the food chain in check, and that humans aren’t so special that they can avoid the fate of every other creature on the planet… and then an insinuation that it would only be a handful of years more before humans destroyed the food chain on Earth for good and that perhaps humans are, in fact, the parasites. It’s powerful stuff, and given the outcome of the person that gives the speech… well, it’s even more powerful after that. It sums up most of the basic themes in just a few pages. It’s even more interesting if you remember that Iwaaki has explicitly stated that it’s possible that the parasites aren’t extraterrestrial in nature.
There’s also an interesting plot thread involving a serial killer the army brings into the investigation. His motives are explained in depth, but basically, because he can sense the inhuman killing urges in the parasites, he becomes the only person other than Shinichi that can immediately spot a parasite… the theory being that they are just like him, a serial killer. He’s a pretty healthy wildcard to add to the equation so late in the game.
Towards the end, there is… a sex scene. Given Iwaaki’s art, it’s somehow ugly, but also powerful in context. Shinichi wrestles with himself and his nature before, during, and after.
Then the final battle with the 5-in-1 parasite happens. But that’s for next volume. July won’t come fast enough.
Hoshin Engi 12
Posted: June 12, 2009 Filed under: Hoshin Engi 1 Comment »I like having more than one volume of this series to read at once. It’s good, but the plot is so massive and the cast is so vast that the amount of time it takes me to get my bearings is better spent when I can keep them for at least one more volume. I’ll probably read 13 tonight.
This volume didn’t have that many characters in it, and was actually just a fight between Taikobo and Chokomei. Well, the first couple chapters featured a fight between Taikobo and Chokomei’s horrible sisters, but they were dispatched pretty easily, so the meat of the volume was Chokomei. Chokomei is actually an awesome character, and I was pretty excited when Taikobo admitted he would have to fight him seriously. Taikobo is powerful, but he doesn’t really go all-out in this battle since most of his efforts go to protecting Supushan.
Now when I say Chokomei is awesome, it’s because he does things like this. In the middle of the volume, he declares Taikobo dead. It’s easy to tell when someone has died in this series because of the whole Hoshindai business. This happens. I know it wasn’t… you know, a true thing, because not only did this happen in the middle of a volume, but this is only, like, halfway through the series. Chokomei and everyone else thought it was a true thing though, and he celebrates by rolling end credits, making an epic end sequence, and declaring the series over. The last panel of this chapter features… a preview, drawn in a completely different style, for “National Ennui Academy.” This panel looks exactly like a preview for a new series, including advertising Shounen Jump magazine’s street date, saying that it would replace Hoshin Engi next week, and that “the time is right for this gem of a sports manga!” This would be a fine thing, except the next chapter continues the joke by running “National Ennui Academy” for several pages. It starts out with a title page where the small type introduces the main character as a replacement for Taikobo, then the story gets underway with a new transfer student running late with toast in his mouth (!!!) and getting attacked by a girlfriend/childhood friend and a romantic rival for her on his way to school. Then the characters of Hoshin Engi cut it off and talk about how godawful it is.
It was magical. I laughed pretty hard, but I can only imagine how much more effective the joke was in Weekly Jump. I like to imagine that there was a special front cover illustration for it, too. I would have died had I been reading it there at the time.
Then the fight with Chokomei continues. He’s a Youkai Sennin, and he ends the battle with his original and rather destructive true form, which is pretty interesting. Taikobo comes through in the end with an insane tactic that I approved of. Chokomei is sealed in the most elaborate way you can imagine, just like his ending to the series and his battles and everything else about him. I loved Chokomei, he was such a ham. I love how, despite the insane number of characters in this series, they all manage to have their own personalities too, and none of them really stick to stereotyped guidelines. One of the reasons I like this series is because it’s difficult to predict its structure and what its characters will do. It’s insane to keep track of, but very rewarding.
Chokomei’s sisters were horrible as well as awesome. They had names like “Queen,” “Madonna,” and “Venus,” but were comically drawn old women wearing clothes they really didn’t need to be, like nurse outfits and stuff. Madonna was a huge woman that needed to keep eating in order to use her powers. Venus kept having these fantasies about things that could happen between her and Taikobo. They were just great, and it seems like they will be sticking around. Sigh. Unfortunately, the series did not need more characters.
Also… Taikobo seems different at the end of the volume, and the whole Hoshindai thing with his soul isn’t really explained to my satisfaction and/or I think he was lying. It looks like the next volume moves on, unfortunately, so it may be a little while before this is sufficiently explained.
Captive Hearts 5
Posted: June 12, 2009 Filed under: Captive Hearts 1 Comment »Well, it ended like any good shoujo manga should, which is about the best thing I can say about Captive Hearts.
It maintained the status quo all the way through. I never really got into the story or characters, and even in this volume a lot of what was happening was silly and repetitive. In China, Megumi and Suzuka run into a village full of people cursed by the dragon god that are looking to seek vengeance. They figure out that Suzuka is protected by it, so lots of attempts to evade capture and get away from the village happen before the climax. Of course Suzuka winds up wanting to save these villagers too, who are nothing but cruel to her and wind up causing Megumi a lot of harm. Lines about breaking the curse and scenes were Suzuka tries to do something and is protected by Megumi are repeated ad nauseum. I thought it was a lot shallower than most comparable shoujo series, but it’s not so bad that it’s unreadable, and I’m sure there’s any number of people who will enjoy it for the love story. It’s just wasn’t really my thing.
I still had a lot of problems with the story’s pacing and setting. Frequently the scene would cut and I wasn’t sure where the characters were or how much time had elapsed. It’s never a huge problem, and it only bothered me at the beginning of the book, but I felt like it was worth mentioning all the same. I was also pretty furious about the total cop-out about Suzuka’s parents we got at the end of the book. I mean… come on.
I did like the scene where the dragon god found his true love at the end though. It was cute, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Silver Diamond 2
Posted: June 10, 2009 Filed under: Silver Diamond 3 Comments »I liked the first volume so much I immediately picked up the second as soon as I finished writing the review.
You know, this series strikes a fine balance between plot and shounen ai. Every time I think the shounen ai is too much and/or not really all that good a fit for the situation, more of the plot is revealed and I am distracted by how good it is. The pace helps a lot. Most of what is going on is kept a mystery, including who Narushige is, why everyone calls Chigusa a monster, and what exactly the deal is with the other world. We get a lot of background in this volume, and some of those questions are answered, but the bigger questions, like what Rakan’s link to the other world is, and what the prince of that world is plotting, are left for later. It’s great, and written in a way that makes you want to keep reading.
The character development is coming along slowly, though. I like Rakan because of his initial cheery introduction, but he becomes rather moody in this volume and actually loses some of what made his personality unique last time. Chigusa is just a cool character in general, but he lacks emotion and personality because of it. Narushige is stoic and seems to like his distance, so he;s something of a blank slate at the moment, too. On one hand, Narushige and Chigusa’s personalities don’t really bother me, but on the other hand, I feel like more exciting characters would make things better.
It’s still a pretty addictive series, but I hope there’s more character development in the next volume. I don’t have volume 3 yet, but the fact I ordered it immediately after I finished this probably means that this is somewhat better than a lot of other stuff I’m reading now, even with its slight flaws.
Detective Conan 28
Posted: June 10, 2009 Filed under: Case Closed 1 Comment »Gosho Aoyama draws really cute bear cubs.
Most of the book consisted of a mystery based on one of my favorite Japanese legends. I don’t know if it’s a specific legend or more of a folk tale/folk wisdom, but apparently it states that eating the flesh of a mermaid gives you eternal life. It unfortunately doesn’t come up that often in manga, but Rumiko Takahashi’s excellent Mermaid Saga is the best interpretation I’ve seen.
The Mermaid Island mystery was quite good, but again, part of the conclusion hinges on a detail that doesn’t translate well (dental records attributed to the wrong person for insurance reasons, something that would be insane hard to pull off in the US), so it’s not all that solvable… though I figured out the trick to immortality pretty early on in the story, and as soon as Heiji doubted Conan’s theory, I knew who the culprit was, too, even if the logic wasn’t quite right. It’s about as big and epic as the Moonlight Sonata mystery from the earlier volumes, and there are a lot of similarities story-wise, too. Both take place on islands, both have murders that continue to go on as the plot unfolds, both feature the main characters summoned by a mysterious letter, and both… I don’t know, involve fire. This one was more interesting because of the mermaid legend that serves as a motive, and also because there are never really any suspects besides an old drunk man who is obviously not going to be the one behind everything.
The volume also contains the majority of the case involving the bear hunt and the Junior Detective League from last time, an interesting case that sets up an extremely believable culprit and works backwards, and the beginnings of another story that looks to involve a case from Inspector Megure’s past. The middle case was quite good as well, and would have been my favorite had the volume not contained that excellent mermaid story. There was even a surprise special guest at the end.
Also, at one point while sizing up a nice girl, Detective Moore thinks to himself “Papa like!” which I found more than mildly disturbing. But it’s charming things like that that keep me coming back for more. This series is addictive in a strange way, and I couldn’t care less that it doesn’t really go anywhere, I enjoy everything about it immensely.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
