Papillon 2
Posted: July 30, 2009 Filed under: Papillon Leave a comment »Miwa Ueda – Del Rey – 2009 – 6+ volumes
Actually, I quite enjoyed the continued positive force behind this series. I was a bit sad that the energies shifted away from the boy she liked and towards… well, a rather obvious target. Actually, I quite hated that, because it seemed like the series was better than that and wouldn’t go the obvious route. It was drawing me a picture though, and I should have known it was inevitable.
Student/Teacher. Yeah. At least he’s an intern, and not really a teacher at all. I guess.
Ageha’s transformation continues for the better, and I was so glad that all the characters supported her in all her serious efforts to better herself. She feels self-conscious since she sees it as moving more towards being like Hana, and there’s a completely ridiculous subplot in this volume involving her mother and Ageha thinking that her mother doesn’t love her and only loves Hana and only likes her when she’s more like Hana… whatever. The resolution to that was as unsatisfying as the plot itself. But aside from that, everything about Ageha’s changes has been great.
The sibling rivalry is still present, and Hana makes a couple plays to take the boy in question away from Ageha. Hana also proves to not be the big bully you would expect her to be, since she turns down several opportunities to “cheat,” so to speak, and really mess with Ageha. She also reprimands people for talking badly about Ageha. I like that Hana is actually not as bad as that type of character normally is.
Aside from the whole… yeah, teacher/student thing, I really like this series. It’s an unusually positive shoujo drama, and a lot of the usual character types and situations are reversed, which makes reading it pretty fun. I’m looking forward to picking up the next couple volumes.
Gestalt 2
Posted: July 30, 2009 Filed under: Gestalt 3 Comments »Yun Kouga – Viz – 2009 – 8 volumes
I still like this series, if only because I get a big kick out of the RPG structure. It really is a lot like reading an RPG in manga form (and not just an adaptation, that takes only the story, but with subtle winks at progress in the game), and I get a big kick out of the characters constantly comparing levels and classes. There’s a lot less spell assignments and whatnot in this volume, but there is a nice section where the characters sell a valuable item, buy a whole bunch of equipment with the money (complete with discussion about how they would like the more expensive equipment, but can’t afford it), and then realize that the item was a rare coin they needed in order to board the ship to get where they were going. A tournament was involved with obtaining a replacement. That may or may not be directly from an old school RPG, but again, it was close enough that I dug out Dragon Quest and played it.
There are a few problems, though. Obviously, if you aren’t approaching it from the RPG angle, a lot of the content is going to be a bit tedious (which I think is brilliant, because that’s exactly what playing an RPG is like). Those games aren’t known for their excellent plots. Two other major problems with this volume lied in some similar character designs, particularly between Shazan and Olivier, two members in the main party who are both tall, blonde men with glasses. A lot of the other character designs are pretty generic, though I do like the designs on Ouri and Suzu, the other main characters, and I liked the attention to detail paid to the costumes and whatnot. One of the other problems that sprang up in this volume are the indistinct action scenes. The characters cast a lot of magic, but it’s not at all clear what the magic is doing, how it is affecting its victim, or in some cases, what is even going on in the fight. Suzu fights two other dark elves at the end of the volume that intentionally look like her, and those pages are a huge mess as far as the action scene goes.
Part of this may have something to do with the artist’s continuous apologies between chapters for skipping months of serialization and generally causing problems at the magazine Gestalt ran in. This suggests she missed her deadlines frequently, which… well, could be for any number of reasons, but also suggests that parts of the story are rushed and perhaps not as carefully considered as they should be. I could be reading too much into that too, though.
In general, I still really like what’s going on. Ouri gets to be a better and better character with each chapter, and this volume introduces short in-between chapter segments, one of which spells out what happened to Ouri as far as her handicapping in the contest with her siblings goes. Most of the other in-between stuff was pretty silly, but I did like those few pages. And I like the fantasy elements they keep introducing, like a disgraced order of knights, charms and amulets used to lure people… I am completely taken in with how much of the content feels like it really is straight from a video game. Take that as you will, but I like it.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Gakuen Prince 2
Posted: July 30, 2009 Filed under: Gakuen Prince Leave a comment »Jun Yuzuki – Del Rey – 2009 – 6+ volumes
I reviewed this title for this week’s Manga Minis column at Manga Recon, so check out the review over there.
This runs contrary to Papillon as being the most insane, trashy shoujo drama you can possibly think of, and I absolutely love every page of it. Well, maybe love is a strong word. My conscience screams at me as I read it in a way that it does only when I read, say, the Merry Gentry novels. I know it’s terrible, and I know what’s going on is horrible, and I know that my brain is dying a little with every page. But that doesn’t stop me from loving it dearly.
I also love the added touch of making all (?) the chapter titles relate to novels. “The Sorrows of Young Rise Okitsu” and “Azusa Mizutani, or the Unbearable Lightness of Mind,” and “Noriko Fuwa – Perhaps a Vice Amply Rewarded” comically invoke de Sade, Kundera, and Goethe. According to the notes, the chapters themselves have nothing to do with the novels, but the fact the references are there for no reason is pretty cool. The fourth chapter in this book stumped me, though – “I’ll Leave You Without Hesitation.”
Old and Rental Manga
Posted: July 29, 2009 Filed under: Miscellaney 11 Comments »As I said, I have been planning to do articles on various topics for a long time now. I decided to do this one first since I read A Drifting Life about a month ago, and that made me curious enough to purchase the two later books I’m going to talk about.
Basically, I’ve got three books here published between 1947 and 1956 that I thought I might show off a bit. I thought they were interesting, and I don’t have much to say about them aside from showing the images, so be warned that the following will be very image intensive. Also be warned that I don’t have a scanner, so the images will be blurry and dark. I apologize. I’m editing them now, and I’m kind of embarrassed, but I still want to write the article… so bear with me.
And, as always, I hate posting images, but I couldn’t help myself when it came to these books. If anyone has any objections, I will take them down, just say the word.
Papillon 1
Posted: July 28, 2009 Filed under: Papillon 1 Comment »Miwa Ueda – Del Rey – 2008 – 6+ volumes
Part of me was a little afraid of starting this, because as much as I loved Peach Girl (which was a lot, it’s still one of my favorite shoujo series, second in addictive trashiness only to Hot Gimmick), I disliked the later volumes and hated Sae’s Story. I haven’t tried any of her other series, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from Papillon.
Realistically… it’s a kinder version of Peach Girl. Put Hana in place of Sae and you get the dynamics of the points of contention so far, though Hana seems against Sae-style underhanded tactics, and also seems to invite challenge from Ageha. It also has a significantly more positive message, where the Kiley role (complete with guy that looks almost exactly like Kiley) is a guidance counselor offering good advice to Ageha instead of going after her as a romantic interest. It’s actually the Toji-like Ryuu that has the childhood connection to Ageha in this series, instead of Kiley, who has the unrequieted past love angle.
But… let me talk about it for anyone who isn’t absurdly familiar with Peach Girl. Basically, Ageha stands in the shadow of her twin sister, and the series is about her remaking herself to be the person she wants to be in order to stand up to Hana and get Ryuu, the boy of her dreams. It’s a much healthier form of rivalry than these series usually go for, and apparently Ueda put a great deal of research into how school guidance counselors work, so it’s possible that the series will work out rather positively, whereas Peach Girl was horribly depressing… well, most of the time. Not much happened in this volume except the very beginnings of the transformation of Ageha and Hana stealing her boyfriend away.
But already I’m addicted. In fact, I’m going to read the second volume right now. Curse you and your addictive series, Miwa Ueda.
Honey and Clover 7
Posted: July 28, 2009 Filed under: Honey and Clover 3 Comments »Chica Umino – Viz – 2009 – 10 volumes
Aww. It’s all about Takemoto and his trip this volume, and the moment he reaches his destination is so stunning and full of emotion without being overt about it it made me want to hop on a bike and recreate the moment myself. One of my favorite moments in manga, hands down, is the reappearance of Morita a couple volumes ago, which was just so funny and touching and perfect that it assured classic status for this series regardless of anything else that had happened. The “point where the rain ends” almost matches it, but would have been the high point of practically any other series that could have pulled it off so perfectly.
Takemoto does a lot of other things that are notable, including nearly deciding that his calling in life is cooking for a group of nomadic shrine restorers, dealing with serious hemorrhoids, and meeting up with Hagu at the end of his trip. This series is absolutely unmatched when it comes to dealing with life and all its weirdness, and this volume is a good example, both because of Takemoto’s trip to find himself and a situation between Yamada and Rica where Rica asks her to start making pottery pieces for her company. The total awkwardness of this situation is described in great deal, and the pros and cons of it are examined by a number of characters, most of whom are in favor of letting Yamada deal with the emotional fallout for herself.
There’s another short story at the end of the volume. Now I can’t decide which I like better, the one about Mayama’s coworker wearing ugly shirts, or this one, which brings back Lohmeyer, who is still one of my favorite characters even after not appearing for six volumes. He’s just so… manly. Even in a fursuit, the old men loved to be comforted by him. It was so wrong, and yet so right.
I praise We Were There to high heavens, but this series is probably better. It’s hands down one of the best series I’m reading right now, and like I said, the absolute best at just showing its characters living life and tackling all its challenges with their friends and a sense of humor. I don’t love the characters in any other series the way I love this group, and it’s because they are portrayed so realistically, and react to problems the same way a real person would (for the most part… maybe Morita doesn’t).
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Record of a Fallen Vampire 1
Posted: July 28, 2009 Filed under: Record of a Fallen Vampire 2 Comments »Story: Kyo Shirodaira / Art: Yuri Kimura – Viz – 2008 – 9 volumes
I got some more volumes of this, so let’s see if I can’t work my way to the newest English volume.
Reading this volume after starting further in, my feelings were kind of split here. On one hand, I do wish I had started here, because the first volume paints a picture of the lonely Vampire King working against all odds to find his Queen and be together with her again. It’s very romantic, and this volume sort of humanizes Strauss in a way that the others haven’t, since it’s here that he meets and takes in his Dhampire apprentice, and we also see how he restrains himself when fighting for the safety of humans, and how fondly he speaks of the old Vampire Kingdom, stuff like that. It’s interesting to see the genesis of the conflict between Strauss and Renka, which hinges on the death of the former Black Swan. Killing the Black Swan, just as he’s killed all the previous Black Swans, is the only truly vicious thing that Strauss does, but on the other hand, the Black Swan is also probably the biggest threat to him and the only person that would be likely to pursue Strauss to the point of death, since that is her destiny, so the death makes sense.
But really, it amused me that Strauss was depicted as the mooning lover in this volume, since that’s not at all how he’s portrayed later. I’m not entirely convinced of the opposite now, after reading this, but seeing him in full-blown tragic mode was great.
All that is good stuff, and really helps me figure out some additional pieces of the story. But on the other hand, there’s not a whole lot in the first volume to distinguish it from a regular vampire-ish action series, aside from the fact the story is well-told. We’ve got the brooding Strauss looking for his queen, an elaborate human curse out to stop him, and Dhampires that are trying to prevent his waking of his queen too, since the two of them combined possess the most powerful magic known to exist. Nothing there really stands out, and for me, the appeal lies in the way the story twists later, so I’m sort of glad I didn’t start with this volume. On the other hand, I’m a sucker for well-told vampire stories, so it’s likely I would have been even more delighted with the later volumes since I probably would have taken this at face value and loved it.
But let me see where things go in volume 2. I know volume 3 is where it begins to get nutty, and I’ll probably re-read 3 and 4 before moving on to 5 and 6.
Vagabond 4 (Big ed.)
Posted: July 27, 2009 Filed under: Vagabond 3 Comments »Takehiko Inoue – Viz – 2009 – 30+ volumes (this big volume is 10-12)
On one hand, Vagabond has a very simple formula, which consists of Musashi drifting from opponent to opponent learning valuable spiritual-type lessons about the art of fighting. I can see how this wouldn’t be entertaining for everyone, and five years ago, it wouldn’t have been a fun read for me, either. But there’s also something very compelling about it.
I like it because I really, really like Miyamoto Musashi. Despite the fact that he’s a bloodthirsty killer, there’s something sort of innocent in his approach and simple in his way of thinking. He approaches everyone in the same way, and with the same one-track mind, and I love seeing his world expand as all the oldies offer their particular pieces of advice. Here, he has a sort of revelation while he’s trying to figure out whether or not he will kill a sword master in his sleep. I probably would have liked him less if he had, because that really accomplishes nothing except bragging rights, something he has no interest in. But instead of killing him, he sees a vision and ponders what it means to be invincible, and how the old man can be both invincible and vulnerable to a sword attack while he’s asleep and very sick.
His best moments of childishness are always about Otsu and Jotaro. Having them as part of the story is quite excellent, not only because they are both the only people on Earth that love Musashi, but because they do a good job humanizing and bringing his childish and simple nature to light. He thinks a great deal of both of them, and the promise that they will encounter each other later in the story, even if it’s something as simple as the reunion with Otsu in this volume, is a great draw for me.
I also kind of like the way the story is still about people wandering around with their paths intersecting periodically, both intentionally and unintentionally. The story mostly follows Musashi, but it also keeps tabs on Takuan, Otsu and Jotaro, and Matahachi… and Matahachi’s mom. Other characters come and go too, and I like the “it’s a small world” nature of the encounters.
The art continues to be amazing, too. There was nothing jaw-dropping like the fight last volume, but it continues to be a huge draw to this series for me.
Whenever I read something by Takehiko Inoue, I always find myself seeking more of his work. In this case, Real 5 spurred me to reading this, which is unusual since I usually let omnibuses like this sit before I read them. I had this one a matter of days and polished it off in an evening. Inoue, and Vagabond, are just that good.
Sand Chronicles 6
Posted: July 27, 2009 Filed under: Sand Chronicles 2 Comments »Hinako Ashihara – Viz – 2009 – 10 volumes
I had pretty much the same problem with this volume that I had with the last one, which was pretty much that I can no longer sympathize with Ann, who seems to have everything she wants and just isn’t happy with it. She breaks up with Daigo for some reason, because being with him is complicated and sad. I can sort of accept that this links back to the fact that she knew Daigo when her mother died six years ago, but I don’t know why it should impact her relationship. But fine. She isn’t happy, only sad, so she does something about it. Then she starts dating Fuji. Except she’s not happy dating Fuji, because she loves Daigo and would rather be dating him. And then is jealous that Daigo is also dating someone else, and this makes her so sad that she can’t be nice to Fuji anymore.
I realize that there are probably a lot of people that can connect with Ann, but I think I fail because it’s just not in my nature to be as sad as Ann is. I’m trying to come up with a less negative ways of phrasing that, but basically I have never had to deal with depression, which I realize is something Ann is probably struggling with, and it’s something that can be quite serious in real life. But having never experienced it for myself, stories like this fall flat because I don’t understand why Ann just can’t be happy.
I still like this story okay. It’s well-told, and the bittersweetness of the relationships is quite excellent. Despite the fact I hate Ann a little bit for treating Fuji so poorly, I like seeing her and Fuji together, and I wish something happy would come of it. Most of all, I like the main theme of the series, which is that time and life marches on despite anything else that may be happening with your life. I’m eager to see where the story goes now that the characters are no longer in high school. I suppose it won’t be terribly different for college life, but maybe the change of pace will brighten Ann up a little. Her grandma gave her a bit of a pep talk at the end of the volume too, so hopefully that’ll help a little.
But We Were There has pulled ahead of this story since I like the story better (the emotions are a bit more complex in that one) and I understand why all the characters do what they do in that series, even if I don’t necessarily agree with it. Both are quite good though, and very much worth reading.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Angelic Runes 1
Posted: July 27, 2009 Filed under: Angelic Runes Leave a comment »Makoto Tateno – Digital Manga Publishing – 2009 – 3+ volumes
I reviewed this over at Manga Recon, so you can check out the full review over there.
I haven’t hopped onto the Makoto Tateno bandwagon yet, but I feel I may after reading this one. I loved it, even though I went in expecting to hate it, and it’s kind of hard to turn me around when I feel that strongly. It also helps that this is one of the few really good girly fantasy series out there (apparently it’s josei fantasy, which is pretty amazing), and I am totally starved for fantasy and gimmicks like the characters talking to angels and demons and using special magic that aren’t totally terrible. If this is your kind of thing, you won’t be disappointed.
