Kimi ni Todoke 2
Posted: September 16, 2009 Filed under: Kimi ni Todoke 7 Comments »Karuho Shiina – Viz – 2009 – 8+ volumes
Ah! I just finished reading this! Too cute for words! Part of me feels secretly bad that I liked something that is literally injected with as much niceness as any book could possibly take, but the result is… well, too nice not to like.
Misunderstandings run rampant through this volume, and Sawako spends most of the story here feeling bad. Someone is spreading rumors about her new friends, and that someone is apparently her. Yano and Yoshida don’t believe she’s spreading the rumors, but when they overhear Sawako telling someone that they aren’t friends, and when she says point blank that she doesn’t like them… well, what can they think? Of course Sawako was telling one of her old classmates that she wasn’t friends with Yano and Yoshida because she couldn’t presume to be freinds with them, and she got cut off when she started saying “I don’t like you, I adore you.” So, you know. Don’t worry though, Yano and Yoshida can’t get Sawako’s niceness out of their heads, and Kazehaya is watching Sawako crash from a distance, so you know something good will happen in the end.
Like I said, the niceness is almost too much. A couple classmates that pick a fight with Sawako at the end of the volume are eventually driven away because Sawako has no wish to fight and just keeps talking about how nice Yano and Yoshida are. Yano and Yoshida also put a lot more thought into their relationship with Sawako than any high school students ever would.
But it’s just so cute. I can’t begrudge it its niceness, especially when, as I said, the result winds up being so enjoyable. After all the bad stuff that happens here, when things are straightened out and Yano, Yoshida, and Sawako are better friends because of it, and Kazehaya is looking on with his crush on Sawako written all over his face… I mean, isn’t this what every shoujo manga should be like?
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Real 6
Posted: September 15, 2009 Filed under: Real 1 Comment »Takehiko Inoue – Viz – 2009 – 8+ volumes
This volume focuses mostly on Hisanobu rather than Kiyoharu and Nomiya, though the story takes a brief look at both of the latter boys. Nomiya seems to be spending a lot of time with Kiyoharu and his basketball team, and acts as their loud, semi-unwanted cheerleader who also manages to raise their spirits and give them good advice from the stands. Kiyoharu seems to be in a good place right now, and Nomiya has found peace with the fact that he should hold down a job and save money until he figures out what he wants to do with his life, since that’s all he can do. The realization seems to make him happy, as do the basketball games that Kiyoharu’s team are starting to play, so you can see how Hisanobu is the one that needs all the TLC right now.
Last volume, he basically told his poor mother off when she tried to convince him to go back to school. This doesn’t sit all that well with her, and Nobu’s father shows up to care for him when she falls ill from overwork, malnutrition, alcoholism, and stress. Caring for Nobu isn’t all that difficult since he refuses to talk, go to his therapy, or even really leave his bed. The doctors decide that spending time with his estranged father might somehow provide the emotional catalyst Nobu needs in order to find some sort of meaning in life. We get a long flashback where we learn how much being with his father meant to young Nobu, and… well, nothing really conclusive about his present state happens, just a lot more sad and terrible things.
On one hand, you could look at it as if the character isn’t progressing and the pace of the story is slow. But the truth is, I am extremely touched by the treatment of Hisanobu since suddenly being rendered disabled like that isn’t something anyone would take well, let alone someone who thought as much of himself as Hisanobu. There just isn’t anything I can think of that would make Hisanobu want to go on living, quite frankly, which sounds a bit worse than what I actually mean (he’s not contemplating suicide, but his thoughts are always negative and never really move towards just how he’s going to live the rest of his life, only how others will see him in the present). I’m sure it will be a long time before Hisanobu can begin to come to terms with what happened to him, which is more realism than I would credit any comic with. I wonder if we’ll ever really see him happy, but I’m curious to see the catalyst that will bring him back to his therapy.
The other interesting thing about Hisanobu’s situation is that triggers that would inspire characters in other series only serve to bring him down. Notably, at the beginning of the volume, his girlfriend shows up in tears complaining of how he didn’t tell her he was transferring hospitals. He doesn’t really consider her his girlfriend, and seemed surprised to see her since he’d told her off rather harshly last time she’d visited. She says some nice things, and then reveals that she’s working a lot of hours in order to afford a surgery for her dog that would require it to have its back legs amputated and replaced with wheels. She complains that the vets wanted to have the dog put down, but she couldn’t see why not using its legs meant it wasn’t allowed to live.
Rather than taking that to heart, Nobu asks himself if he should really be allowed to live. It’s rather disturbing.
And that’s why everyone should be reading Real. It’s not at all about basketball, but about these wonderful characters dealing with difficult things in their lives more realistically than you will see in any other manga series.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Le Chevalier d’Eon 7
Posted: September 15, 2009 Filed under: Le Chevalier d'Eon Leave a comment »Story By Tou Ubukata / Manga By Kiriko Yumeji – Del Rey – 2009 – 8+ volumes
I reviewed this volume for the weekly Manga Minis column at Manga Recon, so you can check out my review over there.
I said pretty much everything I want to say over at Manga Recon. This is one of those series that I know is kind of crappy, but I like a lot anyway. I keep wishing it did things a little differently, but that’s just not in its nature, and it would probably be a lot less cool if it went anything like how I imagined.
Also, I just looked up the Japanese volumes to post the volume number here. I hadn’t really noticed, but I am very amused by the fact the breasts keep getting larger and larger on the covers of the recent volumes. For 7 and 8, if I didn’t know any better, I would think it was an H manga.
You’re So Cool 2
Posted: September 15, 2009 Filed under: You're So Cool Leave a comment »YoungHee Lee – Yen Press – 2008 – 6 volumes
I have been in something of a shoujo drought here on the site lately, since my shoujo indulgences have been entirely composed of frequent re-reads of From Eroica With Love. I do have a few girly things lying around, so let’s see about injecting some romance back into things here.
As I tend to mention every time I review one, I love these cutey Korean series and they very rarely disappoint me. I like the strong heroines, the weird and elaborate scenarios that tend to spring up, and I love the cute romances and the love/hate relationship between the main couples in many of the titles. You’re So Cool is a good example of the cutey Korean comic genre I love so much, and it only gets better in this volume, which always seems to be the case with this type of series.
Surprisingly, after revealing himself to be the king of jerks last volume, Seung-Ha begins to soften ever so slightly towards Nan-Woo here. He does chase her around and threaten her and make her do things against her will, like study, and generally menace and make her life miserable, but then he tends to leap to her rescue and save her from the jealousy of other girls and even the advances of other guys. He also, unusually, forces her to study so that she won’t fail her exams, something that seems inevitable initially since Nan-Woo is… well, strong-willed, but not necessarily all that smart or interested in school.
Chan-Gyu knows Seung-Ha’s true nature and keeps trying to intervene and steal Nan-Woo away, but Seung-Ha insists that he will keep the girl with him as long as she is fun to tease. This reeks of unspoken jealousy, and I’m curious to see how this develops. I know I’ve seen a thousand romantic triangles before, but the good ones still snare me anyway.
There’s also a couple subplots that seem to be running untouched. Nan-Woo still lives in a house that is inexplicably populated by young men and no real adults, and one of the men, Jay, is developing a friendship with another guy. Now, the friendship seems to be good for Jay and is picking up his spirits, but the other guy seems annoyed despite the fact he keeps indulging Jay. And then he starts to inexplicably have feelings for him. I don’t know. That might be interested. I’m more interested in who Jay and the other boy are, and why they live in a house with no parents. There’s also some background details revealed for Seung-Ha, but it’s a pretty predictable well-to-do-family that neglects their son scenario.
Notably, this volume featured the most perfect depiction of a character’s thoughts drifting I have ever seen. While Nan-Woo is studying, it’s literally a huge thought balloon where thoughts associate themselves with one another and lead her completely away from her studies and through a variety of brief randomness. It’s very funny, and it’s strange touches like that that make reading these cutie Korean comics fun.
If you like romance manga, and shoujo, I think you’d be a lot cooler if you were reading this series. I’m just sayin’.
Happy Happy Clover 3
Posted: September 14, 2009 Filed under: Happy Happy Clover Leave a comment »Sayuri Tatsuyama – Viz – 2009 – 5 volumes
I don’t really have all that much to add over what I said last time about this series. It’s an all ages title, about friends of the forest-type animals (a group of four bunnies and their friends, which includes flying squirrels, falcons, foxes, and all sorts of other things). They get into various types of trouble and learn very important lessons. Or sometimes not, but all the stuff that goes on is pretty cute without being overbearing and moralistic.
The two chapters that stood out the most to me was one near the beginning where Clover believes her best friend Mallow has turned her back on her without a word and started hanging out with other people. Clover learns that you should never assume the worst about your BFF, though in this case Mallow runs away from Clover every time she sees her, so I’m not sure how that works.
The other was a fun story where Clover suddenly decides to get a board game she loaned to her friend Blackberry. The problem is that Blackberry is a bear, and she has to sneak into Blackberry’s house without waking him or his mom up. Blackberry wakes up anyway, and in order to prevent him from going berserk (I don’t know, either), they tell him he’s having a dream and play the boardgame with him. See? Very nice story.
Other themes include asking for help when you need it, avoiding procrastination since sometimes it affects others, and… uh, knowing when your neighbor has a twin that makes fun of you?
There’s lots of silly stuff here, and it’s a pretty fun all ages read. It’s not something I would ever pick up myself, but for what it is, it’s pretty fun.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Ludwig II 1
Posted: September 12, 2009 Filed under: Ludwig II | Tags: BL 2 Comments »You Higuri – June – 2009 – 2 volumes
the English edition is an omnibus-size release, the original was 3 volumes long
I’m not entirely sure why I felt compelled to pick up another You Higuri series. Traditionally, I like to read everything by any author I pick up that has been published in English, but the love/hate relationship I have with Cantarella has scared me off of the likes of Seimaiden, Gorgeous Carat, and Crown. But Ludwig II just looked so romantic it was hard for me to turn down, even though it’s probably more like Cantarella than any of the other series translated into English.
Except… somehow, even though this came out a few years before Cantarella, this is everything I want in Cantarella and more. Usually I would expect the storytelling to be a little rougher in an earlier work, but Ludwig II is pretty much absolutely everything I look for when I read a silly historical romance comic. It’s Very Romantic. The main character indulges in fantasies at the apparent neglect of his kingdom. He’s insane, and insanely in love with someone who loves him back. It’s dramatic, sad, tragic, and full of good stories. I can’t get over how much I loved absolutely everything about this book.
The short prologue lets us know that this isn’t a happy story. A woman, Ludwig’s cousin, tells us how he does not fit in with the rest of society, that she and he were the only two that truly understood each other, and that he is, in fact, dead.
And the story moves on from there, taking its time and skirting and swirling topics and plots around in a way that very much makes it read like the fairy tales and heroic legends that Ludwig loves so much. No time is wasted in establishing the main relationship (he is a manservant at the palace, and they are very devoted to one another), but their relationship, while important, is usually only an accompaniment to whatever is going on. Political troubles that Ludwig is unwilling to confront move in and out of the story, as do treachery and betrayal among his counselors and those he trusts. Ludwig’s unwillingness to take a firm stand for or against Prussia is taken as a side affect of his dreamer attitude, but he does it in the best interest of his kingdom as well, since he believes staying low and unnoticed will help keep his subjects from having to engage in a war.
Because he is more interested in his stories, building castles, and his patron Wagner and his operas, a lot of people think he is crazy or unfit to be king. He is in control of his senses, and seems to be fully aware of what people think of him and just doesn’t care. He does lose himself occasionally, usually with horribly violent results.
Aside from poltical intrigue, there are also a few stories about things like Ludwig’s engagement to his younger cousin (the sister of the soul mate mentioned in the prologue) and surviving ill-planned attacks by his lover’s twin brother. The story of his engagement is as tender and emotional as it is heartbreaking, surprising in a “yaoi” manga, though I hesitate to apply that label to this series. Amazingly, Ludwig’s feelings towards others make themselves known to the reader without anything being said, which is part of why this title appealed to me so much. The characters themselves are also likable, or at least Ludwig and his lover were. And surprisingly, after the whole “soul mate” thing mentioned in the prologue, that path is not taken in the story. To marry one’s cousin doesn’t seem to be taboo (and probably wasn’t at the time, since a lot of European royalty was indeed a little incestuous), and the soul mate is the wife and mother in another kingdom. Her absence and loss isn’t really spoken of in the story or evaluated by the characters, but you can still tell that there is a lot between them.
There’s some nice bonus material in the back about Higuri and her editor taking a trip to Germany/Bavaria and learning about and visiting the places she was writing about. I was amused and terrified by the postcards she showed of the real Ludwig II, which I thought were a joke at first. I don’t think they are, though, I suspect they may actually exist, especially given Higuri’s hilarious comments about them.
As I said before, this is a magical story, and it seems to go out of its way to bend over backwards and suit my tastes. It has everything in it that I wanted out of Cantarella, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the romance, the characters, the seemingly accurate historical details, the way his madness and sanity are dealt with, and just about everything else about it. The second volume is definitely on my short list of books to read ASAP when it comes out at the end of the month, and I’m a little sad it took me so long to read this volume.
Short Cuts 1
Posted: September 12, 2009 Filed under: Short Cuts 2 Comments »Usamaru Furuya – Viz – 2002 – 2 volumes
This series is composed entirely of one-page gag comics about high school girls. I had read some of these before in Pulp, and I didn’t think they were particularly funny. They are almost insulting given the fact that Furuya’s superior gag comic, Palepoli, appears in a couple other books that came out around the same time, but not as a collected volume. I think Palepoli never appeared as a collected volume because Palepoli is a more conceptual book, and most people probably wouldn’t be entertained at all by it. Short Cuts has a lot of sex jokes and dick jokes, which will always be funny to a broad range of people. The one thing they have in common is that they both have Golgo 13 parodies, but Palepoli has the superior parody, so it wins anyway.
Here’s the thing about Short Cuts: I find myself in a Catch-22-type situation posed by many of the comics in the book. A good example is one where a girl gives her boyfriend chocolate sculpted in the shape of a limp penis. She explains that she cast it from her brother, and asks if he likes it. He says yes to please her, which makes her angry for the obvious reasons. So he says no, and she gets really upset that he didn’t like her gift.
Do I admit that I liked Short Cuts, and have anyone that knows about the book think I am a horrible, depraved pervert? Or do I say that the book was terrible and that there’s no way anyone would like it and make a liar out of myself? Do I like chocolate shaped like genitalia, or do I hate gifts from my significant other? It can only be one or the other.
And when I say it is full of one-page gag comics about school girls, I mean it. It is 120 pages of gag comics about school girls. School girls getting stuck on desert islands with otaku. Scenarios where old men turn into stuffed animals so that it’s less vulgar when they proposition high school girls that want to go out on paid dates. Awesome ones where old men alter their school dress code so that their girls will have to wear shirts with faces painted in blood on them, barbed wire, and metal spikes along with the requisite short skirt. Even the ones starring the artist are about him and school girls. There are a few anime/manga parodies (Rose of Versailles, Golgo 13, Makoto-chan, Doraemon) that cast the characters as school girls. My favorite was the Makoto-chan parody, which was horrible, but I have no doubt accurately reflects exactly what that series is like save for the fact Makoto-chan was a high school girl instead of a grade school boy. I know I will hate that series if I ever read it, but I need to read it anyway. Also, that comic contained the phrase “bye-o-nara,” which made me laugh really hard and is still making me giggle every time I think of it.
There are also some things in here I will never un-see. The comic where the girl takes her bra off to reveal a screaming pair of heads that perform oral sex on a man simultaneously, somehow while continuing to scream, will stay with me for some time.
It’s amazing. Really something special. An acquired taste for sure, though.
Also, somewhat criminally, this series has end notes that rival Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service in awesomeness. I didn’t realize this until I had gotten to the end, which in retrospect probably means I’m more of a geek than I’d like to admit since it didn’t occur to me that there might be a little help needed and not everyone would understand that time-traveling kids crawling out of a desk and thanking Nobita was a Doraemon joke. I just learned that Kaihime Karie is a good example of “Shibuya sound,” something I’ll keep in mind next time I read Detroit Metal City.
Berserk 30
Posted: September 10, 2009 Filed under: Berserk 7 Comments »Kentaro Miura – Dark Horse – 2009 – 33+ volumes
And with that, I’m caught up. Boo. I had forgotten that Dark Horse was switching paper stock until I read this. It’s noticeable, but doesn’t really strike me as a bad thing. I like my manga pulpy.
Anyway. There’s a huge, HUGE fight at the end of this volume. Actually… make that through the entire volume, but it gets particularly intense towards the end. And sort of funny. Guts kills a single gigantic demon tiger that crashes a high-society ball, then slays a herd of gigantic demon tigers that bust in after that one is dead. Then the town is sieged by horned demons. Guts slays them. As the heroes make their escape, a gigantic elephant behemoth larger than the buildings, similar to the one they fought a couple volumes ago, appears out of nowhere. Flanking it are the horned demons. Riding on demon tigers. Guts clashes epically with the elephant monster, and then as a finisher, jumps off the top of its head and slays several of the tiger-riding demons, tigers and all, as they are about to attack Schierke and company. I mean, it’s awesome, but it’s also way over-the-top in a hilarious way.
I think I enjoyed these fights even more because Guts had an audience. I laughed as panel after panel featured nobles, aristocrats, soldiers, townspeople, and pretty much everyone not in his party staring in open-mouthed shock as he fought. I’m glad that the series stops to acknowledge what is happening is insane every now and again.
There’s lots of important plot developments, like the very religious aristocrats of the port city having to suddenly accept the existence of magic when the demons appear and Farnese, the daughter of the most influential man in town, uses witchcraft to save them. Her father doesn’t quite accept it, but her brother and new beau do. The two new characters… while I don’t really want them in the party, they are at least amusing for the time being. The beau, Roderick, is a knight-in-shining-armor-type of guy who just isn’t equipped to slay the demons like Guts and company. Farnese’s brother is a coward, though, and has no problem cowering behind little Schierke in a fight. I kind of liked that.
And… now I have to wait for new volumes like everyone else. Bah.
Rasetsu 2
Posted: September 10, 2009 Filed under: Rasetsu Leave a comment »Chika Shiomi – Viz – 2009 – 6+ volumes
I had forgotten how much I like this series. I hesitate when reading it, because I keep thinking of it as a sequel to Yurara. It’s related, and kind of a followup, but not a sequel, and happily, absolutely no knowledge of Yurara is required to enjoy it.
Rasetsu is still bracing herself to be hauled away by a demon, and she’s still looking for her one true love in order to prevent that from happening. Of course, she has two strategically placed male coworkers that may fit the bill. The series seems to be pushing for Yako, the holdover character from Yurara. I prefer Kuryu, the jovial guy who has power over people with words he speaks. Yako is cranky and he and Rasetsu frequently get into fights, so he’s just not pleasant to have around. Kuryu is a bit of an enigma, though, and it’s hinted that he has more power than he lets on. He makes infrequent passes at Rasetsu, so I can hope, but… this being a shoujo manga, I’m sure Rasetsu will wind up with Yako in the end. Especially if he was popular enough to warrant a place in this series.
The story is still mostly one-shot chapters about Rasetsu, Yako, and Kuryu busting ghosts. There’s nothing new or exciting on that front, but I do enjoy the one-shot chapters quite a bit. The situations are interesting, and Rasetsu herself is a great character who takes all this haunting business with a refreshing degree of levity.
It’s got a lot of good things going for it, but I haven’t been completely hooked yet. I’ll probably keep reading, because hooking me will probably only require a little bit of drama or romance, something that could easily be added to the formula here. I’m pretty easy to please.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Berserk 29
Posted: September 10, 2009 Filed under: Berserk Leave a comment »Kentaro Miura – Dark Horse – 2009 – 33+ volumes
I know I’ve probably mentioned this a lot, but Miura’s artwork is nothing short of astounding. In this volume, I frequently had to stop and marvel over single page illustrations or double page spreads where a sweeping panoramic view of a city or ballroom was drawn with every single brick in place and no less than 100 people (I just counted) drawn in. Granted, some of those people are indistinct silhouettes in the background, and the vast majority are drawn without faces, but most of the people are also drawn with detailed formal clothing that’s different for each person. The man can draw horrible monsters and eyeballs flying out of split skulls, but he can also draw ballroom scenes with equal love and care, it seems.
I liked Isidro’s epic pirate fight at the beginning of the volume. He tried so hard for Schierke, and it was nice of her to acknowledge him. I also liked that the Captain Hook-looking man called Isidro’s weakness out – that he doesn’t fight with the intention of killing his opponent. Isidro realizes at the beginning of the fight that he’s never drawn blood on another person before. I kind of don’t want to see Isidro become a battle-hardened warrior like Guts, but on the other hand, he wants to be one so bad that it tortures him.
Farnese and her troubles take up most of the second half of the volume. I guess the fact that she was useless was the point, because it has come up a few times in the past, and now she is separated from the group and everyone is regretting that she’s not around to cook and watch Casca. She’s also been bonding with Schierke, which I kind of don’t like. Admittedly, I’ve gotten used to her. I still think she’s kind of useless, but she’s a good member of the party, and does help fill out the group of women and children that stand in sharp contrast to Guts’… er, whole persona.
At any rate, I’m reading volume 30 tonight. I am addicted.
