Slam Dunk 7
Posted: October 19, 2009 Filed under: Slam Dunk Leave a comment »Takehiko Inoue – Viz – 2009 – 31 volumes
I had to get out of Real mode when I started this volume. The first page has a sort of fight going on while the boys are playing basketball (or, at least, there is a basketball in the first panel, and it is clear they are on the court), and I was initially very shocked that they weren’t in wheelchairs. Not that much of that goes on in Real, but still.
I was very amused by how the fight between Hanamichi and Miyagi resolved itself. This series has a knack for switching between the tense, action-y scenes and goofy humor. I love the humor, and I love Hanamichi, which is important for volumes like this where the only thing going on is a long fight scene. But I loved the long fight scene, too. The characters weighed the pros and cons of getting in a fight, and when the punks that broke into the gym started hitting the girls and the guys with glasses, that’s when they decided to rumble. I liked it.
I also like that it’s not all about basketball. I have only read a handful of sports manga, but even Eyeshield 21 or something like Hikaru no Go, which are great series I count amongst my favorites and series that have far more going for them than just the sport, don’t take breaks as long as this series between games or training/whatever. It makes Slam Dunk a much more interesting read, even considering how old it is. Its characters still aren’t up to Hikaru no Go or Eyeshield 21 levels, but they’re well on their way.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Monster 14
Posted: October 19, 2009 Filed under: Monster 1 Comment »Naoki Urasawa – Viz – 2009 – 18 volumes
Happily, more pieces fall into place in this volume than are introduced, which means that we’re probably getting ready for the climax. I’m glad things are gearing up this far back, because I think I’m going to requre a lot of explanation in order to make sense of everything that’s happening. Of course, the main plot – Tenma needs to kill Johan because he is a psychopath – is very clear, but you know. I need the mystery parts explained to me. The Red Rose Mansion and how Johan and Anna’s mother played a role and all that.
To tell you the truth, there are a few pieces introduced here. Anna is cared for by a puppeteer, who seems to know an awful lot about what went on at the Red Rose Mansion, and apparently Anna has memories there as well. There’s a few different pieces to the Red Rose Manor puzzle, one is what the puppeteer says went on, one that Anna remembers, the true identity of the puppeteer, his relationship to the children’s book author of interest, and of course, what is actually happening.
One very interesting thing in this volume is that we finally get to see the night that started the whole story from Anna’s point of view. We actually hadn’t seen the events (as far as I remember), but being told was more than enough to carry the story. It’s got a lot of impact to see it from Anna’s point of view after all this time, especially after we get to read a few more children’s books to inform Anna and Johan’s situation even more.
I’ve got a theory about Anna, so now I’m curious to see what her final role will be.
Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom 8
Posted: October 18, 2009 Filed under: Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom 1 Comment »Kazunari Kakei – Viz – 2009 – 9 volumes
I still love this series, but it has to wade through the mess of mediocre shounen manga ending here. It’s kind of lame, honestly, since it is literally all about Nora and Kazuma wanting to win so badly that they conquer evil. I didn’t really pick up on a better reason than that for their success. They just wanted it more. And all the generals and bad guys are in this volume, running around while both the human and demon world are being destroyed… I never really bothered much with the side characters, aside from the ones that were around from the beginning, so most of these random characters thrown into the final fight are lost on me. Oh well.
I still can’t help but like the whole final battle mindset though, especially since I’m so fond of Nora and Kazuma. I kept hoping one or both of them would get to be the Dark Liege, though it was made rather clear last volume that the current Dark Liege is quite popular, and she is one of the main characters, so a death/fade away isn’t very likely. Nora and Kazuma’s partnership and teamwork is fun to watch, especially when Nora is controlled and commanded to kill Kazuma. The other fairly amazing thing, what made it worth sitting through the rather boring final fight, was what Kazuma admitted about both himself and Nora. Not so much the friends crap, because we’ve seen that inferred, but more about himself. It was pretty amazing, and made even more so by being in character. We did get one callback to the beginning of the series that I was very glad for, and I was hoping to see it again before all was said and done. It went down a little differently than I imagined, but it was still pretty cool, despite the fact it was a huge shounen manga cliche.
There’s one more volume, but the way this volume finishes… it’s like it would only take about one chapter to wrap it up. Well, except for the whole “Kazuma is an adult now” thing. I’m kinda curious to see how that will be handled. I’m sure it will be hilarious and terrifying.
I love this series. I love it even when it crashes and burns. I hope very much that the sequel series will start coming out when this concludes, though I suspect I won’t like that nearly as much since I’m a little less impressed with every volume of this series, but all the same, I’d love to see more of Nora and Kazuma.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Pluto 5
Posted: October 18, 2009 Filed under: Pluto Leave a comment »Naoki Urasawa – Viz – 2009 – 8 volumes
Admittedly, I get more of a conceptual pleasure out of Pluto than I do actual entertainment value, which is okay. The story is more about exploring its themes, and it does this masterfully. At this point, I’m still trying to ponder setting armies of robots against one another to fight a war, and the story looks at that problem from both sides, how it affected the robots involved and also what the humans were thinking at the time. There’s also the themes of the limited range of emotions robots can experience, and some eerie scenes of bitter disappointment when robots have to feel sadness for the first time. It also looks at robots dealing with anger and hatred, two emotions purposely left out of their AI routines in order to avoid harm or death to humans. Sometimes it happens, though.
Gesicht has to deal with anger in this volume. Again, it’s eerie to see scenes play out where the robots just have to deal emotionlessly with whatever is happening to them, and the abuse Gesicht takes from the man he’s protecting is one of those times. But then he does get angry, and his memories return to him, and he suddenly remembers what anger and hatred are really like. He has to talk to Brau again, who seems quite pleased with his revelation, and then he has to do something incredibly selfless anyway, all the while asking if anger and hate are things that go away. It’s just… sad. Also sad are scenes where robots wish they hadn’t been allowed to adopt since they wouldn’t have to feel sadness at losing their children in that case Gesicht covered all those years ago.
More interesting is the ending, when Dr. Tenma comes in and begins discussing his AI programming. The point is made that AI can never replace human intelligence, as was the case when he tried to replicate Tobio Tenma. But he claims that he made the perfect AI routine, one with the information from all six billion people on Earth in it, that the computer was left to sort out and deal with, but was unable to. He claims that the only way to tip the balance when the computer can’t deal with something is to give it the anger and hatred it’s not allowed to have otherwise.
And there you have one of the main themes of the series, I think. There’s also a fight between Pluto and Hercules, but this was much less interesting since we’ve seen fights like this before and know their outcomes. I’m not sure where the story is going at this point, but I think we will have a grand, if evil, revival sometime soon. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Also, the comic is once again printed with one panel in color when the field of flowers representing Pluto is shown. It’s still an amazing technique, and really… really makes the difference of Pluto’s personality stand out. I’m looking forward to seeing it explained.
Ikigami 3
Posted: October 16, 2009 Filed under: Ikigami Leave a comment »Motoro Mase – Viz – 2009 – 7+ volumes
I’m still enjoying this series immensely. This volume again contains two stories. “Life Out of Control” is about the neglected son of a campaigning politician who sees his death as a way to get revenge, and “The Loveliest Lie,” about a man who lost his parents in a car accident and has been trying his whole life to get into a situation where he can adopt his blind sister and give her a better life. He is into crooked money-making schemes, so he lies to her continuously, even about his own death.
I know I shouldn’t be that impressed, but I was fascinated by the fact that these two stories offered two very different and not-exactly-0pposite takes on how to spend one’s last day. I think I was more impressed with this volume because one of the stories last time, the one about the girlfriend dying, is more of what I would expect in these types of stories. Revenge, and acting out an elaborate crime, is not a reaction I would expect from an ikigami, especially acting out against a family member, but that’s just me being completely uncreative. Similarly, the scenario where the boy who’s worked hard to re-adopt his sister is surprising because I can’t imagine spending my last day hiding my death from my only family member. Both situations are quite fascinating, and I enjoyed them immensely since I had no clue how they would resolve themselves, aside from the character’s deaths.
There’s still the over-arching narrative. I’m probably missing out on some of this by not having read the first volume, but I was surprised that the National Welfare System (the reason the characters are dying is in an attempt to get people to realize the value of life) is quite popular among the citizens in the series, though to be fair it’s rather apparent that you aren’t allowed to speak out against it, too. The main character of the series, the one who delivers the Ikigami papers, is having doubts about the rightness of the system, though he’s getting more and more comfortable with his job, too. I liked that the last story involved him directly, though he wound up breaking several policies to help out.
It’s fascinating. I could do with several more volumes of just these stories, if they continue to be as different from one another as these last two volumes. I’m still not all that interested in the delivery man or his thoughts, but seeing him struggle with his job is interesting, and puts the deaths in context since, especially in this volume, everyone else always seems to be okay with the randomness of them.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Monster 13
Posted: October 16, 2009 Filed under: Monster 4 Comments »Naoki Urasawa – Viz – 2008 – 18 volumes
I was pretty sure I’d feel better about Monster when I got back into the flow of the story, which seems to be the case. I was a little sad that this volume was all about introducing a new character, Tenma’s lawyer, a man who’s dedicated his life to defending people falsely accused of crimes because of his father’s imprisonment and death in a famous espionage case, and then undermining his role and completely blowing apart his beliefs on the last page. I just don’t know how to take that.
I was also a little disappointed that Tenma committed a crime in this volume. It’s true that nobody believes a single word he says about the truth because Johan just doesn’t exist, and when, for no reason, one of his enemies shows up as the partner for his lawyer and threatens the life of Eva… well, of course he’s going to have to take matters into his own hands. But it was important that Tenma was completely innocent, and now I have to wonder how things will go for him. Well, it’s not like things could get much worse, really, since he was already a fugitive, but morality was on his side. The moral ambiguity in the crime he committed is interesting, because he’s not a true criminal, but still.
Also, I can’t say I didn’t see that coming. I figured that would happen as soon as it became clear that he was really being taken into custody.
But yes, on to the next volume. I think I’ll have more thoughts once I’m a volume or two further back into the story.
Black Bird 2
Posted: October 15, 2009 Filed under: Black Bird 7 Comments »Kanoko Sakurakoji – Viz – 2009 – 8+ volumes
I remember thinking the first volume as being kind of lukewarm, but I started reading this… and I remembered it was ridiculously suited to my taste. Demons? Brides of demons? Silly plot devices involving licking wounds until they are healed? Childhood loves? A little smut? Oh, it has everything I want in a shoujo manga!
The story improved quite a bit in this volume. I think the biggest difference was that Misao is finally coming around to Kyo, and having the two of them together, treating each other relatively well, is pretty exciting, mostly because it opens the series up to silly smut possibilities. There’s lots of ridiculously romantic dialogue, followed by lots of making out. It’s also got surprisingly raunchy humor for a shoujo manga like this, everything from lines like “my little tengu is raising his head” to jokes about one of Kyo’s vassals having an STD… the levels of raunch are unprecedented. They talk about sex all the time, and there was a rather dangerous scene where one of the villains very nearly… er, “ravished” Misao, but sex doesn’t actually happen.
I wouldn’t say it’s one of the greatest works of shoujo manga ever, and I wouldn’t really compare it with my favorites. I often say that certain medicore manga series are excellent when they strike just the right fancies in the reader, and this may be a case of that for me, though I still think this might be slightly better than medicore even wthout all the extra fun stuff. It’s a little too cheesy and cliche, but it keeps a pretty tight reign on its hokeyness, and with all that other stuff for me to pay attention to, like the romance and the demons and the taking of the brides and whatnot, I am 100% satisfied with pretty much everything I got in this volume. And next volume promises to be just as good, since the cliffhanger is something along the lines of Misao worrying about being “spirited away” by the Tengu prince.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Age Called Blue
Posted: October 15, 2009 Filed under: Age Called Blue | Tags: BL Leave a comment »est em – Netcomics – 2009 – 1 volume
I was dying for this. While I’ve long ago given up on my prudishness about reading the online series at Netcomics, I still prefer a printed book, and I decided to wait until the print version showed up to read this. It was hard, because it was right there, online, and it was so cheap. I’m glad I waited though, because est em is worth it.
The main theme of the volume is musicians, specifically a repeat appearance from characters that appeared in Seduce Me After the Show. But more on that later. The last two stories, the unrelated ones, were what intrigued me most. One is about an artist and student who communicate via a blue book in a bookshop and have a very quiet, but passionate and blue paint-covered love affair that ends badly. I liked this story because the artist comments specifically on the unusual blue color of the book they use to communicate, which made me think of IKB, the most striking blue color I can think of. When the artist covers the naked Lucian in blue and the two roll around and make love on a white canvas, that further cemented the link to Yves Klein, since that’s what Klein does, among other (mostly insane) things. It also helps that the story takes place in France and Klein was a French artist. The artist in the story is named Michel, but I would be surprised if Klein didn’t inform the story at least a little. If it was possible, this made me love est em even more, because Yves Klein is one of my heroes.
The story itself was excellent, of course. Subtle, the relationship unspoken, the twist and the sad ending most heartbreaking despite the fact almost no romantic dialogue passes between the men. And that sex scene is probably one of the best I’ve ever seen in a yaoi manga, and it’s only a page or two long.
The last story, called… ни пуха ни пера or “Without Feathers, Without Wings,” which is, I guess, a Russian “good luck” sentiment? It’s about two men who dream of becoming cosmonauts and flying to space together, and wind up actually doing it. Or, rather, one does when the other is injured. One of the men is called Yuri, the one that winds up flying on a Soyuz mission. They reference Gagarin and his speeches. The interesting thing is that Yuri is the name of a real cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, one that died during a mission, but in a jet. The Soyuz mission death was Vladimir Komarov. So once again, a story partially based in fact, but not quite. I liked that a lot, especially since it’s told as a retrospective from the unnamed man’s point of view as an old man walking a dog.
That story is a little shorter, and it was not quite as good as some of the others, but it was still quite superb for a story of that length, and not even all that shounen-ai-y.
The bulk of the book, as I said, involves musicians. In the original story, it’s about a young guitarist named Billy meeting an older man named Joe in a bar the night after his rock idol Pete, a guitarist, dies. Turns out Joe is the vocalist from Pete’s band, the Rebels. Torrid stuff follows. In this book, the story is about Billy and his roommate Nick. Nick is sort of a catalyst in the first story, since he’d stolen all of Billy’s money and his guitar and run off. The first story in this volume picks back up with Nick’s return. Nick is kind of a free spirit, but a brilliant lyricist and vocalist, and he can always manage to write lyrics to match Billy’s guitar. They begin to get famous, but the other members of their band hate dealing with Nick’s erratic behavior. The relationship between Nick and Billy is more heavily implied than it is overt, until you get to the end, when Billy has to decide between Nick and music and comes to a conclusion that only est em could convey this well.
The other stories about the boys are all over the place chronologically, from an alternate take on the Billy/Joe meeting to a meeting between Nick and Pete just before Pete dies, to when Billy and Nick first meet, to a nice story about Joe and Pete. All of it is good stuff, telling just enough story and showing just enough emotion that the rest is left up to the reader.
It’s the sensitivity, I think, that I love most about est em. Her stories have just enough plot and just enough romance that the reader interprets far more from every gesture, every action, every meaningful glance, than they would in a typical book of short stories.
How did this compare to her other two? I think I still liked Seduce Me After the Show the most, with Age Called Blue next and Red Blinds the Foolish third. But all of them are excellent. Even if you aren’t a fan of yaoi, these are just good stories, and this volume is pretty yaoi-light as far as that goes… not a lot of graphic sex (even the blue paint scene isn’t terribly graphic). I would encourage anyone looking for a good read to pick up this or any of her other books.
Monster 12
Posted: October 15, 2009 Filed under: Monster 7 Comments »Naoki Urasawa – Viz – 2007 – 18 volumes
Since I have failed completely at actually talking about horror manga, how about a thriller? I still need to finish this series, and October is a fine time to do it.
Unfortunately, it’s hard going back to Monster after reading 20th Century Boys. That is the superior work, and… Monster is sort of a complicated and slow read after that. There’s lots of stuff going on, and at this point, I’m not sure how much of it is relevant. In this volume in particular, there’s appearances by a lot of characters that must have been from the first couple volumes. In context, their relationship to Tenma is clear, but it bothers me that there’s bits of story I’m forgetting. I can remember all the important things, and having that character chart in the front of the volume helped immensely since I could reply all the various plotlines as I read the names and little descriptions. But it’s still hard to keep straight who’s who and who knows what, and how much some characters know is very important.
There is a LOT going on. How much of it will come directly to bear on the Johan/Tenma face-off? That’s the part I care most about, and I’m still very interested in the mind games Johan plays and in Lunge’s chase. But Dr. Reichwein? Shuwald? I’m not all that interested in those characters any more, though they’ll probably stick around since Schuwald has a direct connection through his lover to Johan and Anna’s mother and Reichwein is probably useful, in his way. They both are coming in handy during the current plot development, but again, I’m not all that interested in what they’re currently bringing to the table, even if it is directly related. I suspect Grimmer is another character that will soon fade into the background, reappearing every once in awhile with something important to say. I like Grimmer, but he’s just another piece.
The best part in this volume was at the beginning, when the little boys that played with Grimmer try tracking down Johan. The chapter where they give chase is called “Detective Boys,” and the direct reference to Detective Conan made my night. But when the little boy was caught by Johan, lectured, and then set loose in some sort of Reeperbahn-type area… that is what I like about Monster. Johan being absolutely heart-stopping sinister and ruthless, but in a very hands-off way. It’s terrifying. He’s one of the best villains I’ve ever seen. And that’s why Monster is still worth reading, even if I am recently enamoured with 20th Century Boys.
Again, too, I’m also a big fan of Lunge. I know he could probably be considered a background character at this point, especially since his job has pretty much just been done for him, but the way he is methodically collecting his information and keeping pace with Tenma, and how he is probably still barking up the wrong tree… it’s interesting to me. It’ll be fun when Tenma and Lunge go head to head again.
Orange Planet 2
Posted: October 15, 2009 Filed under: Orange Planet Leave a comment »Haruka Fukushima – Del Rey – 2009 -5 volumes
I reviewed this for the weekly Manga Minis column at Manga Recon, so you can check out my review over there.
I normally find the good in everything, and I love shoujo to death. But I frequently have problems with shoujo aimed at a younger audience, and this is one such series. I hate it, honestly, and it is hard to read. I’m just not twelve anymore, and I don’t have the energy.
