Future Diary 2
Posted: November 30, 2009 Filed under: Future Diary 3 Comments »Sakae Esuno – Tokyopop – 2009 – 9+ volumes
Anyway, yes. I read volume one back in June and liked it, but basically forgot it existed until I was cruising through volumes during recent Right Stuf Tokyopop sale. The series has an interesting premise (a tournament where people with different types of diaries that tell the future in different and very specific ways are fighting to become God, basically), but I wasn’t all that thrilled with the tournament structure. We got a taste of what the competition would be like when two of the twelve contestants go completely crazy in volume one, and I was worried the rest of the series would just be a repetition of those events.
As of volume two, I couldn’t be more wrong. Things break down here. The main character, Yukiteru, has teamed up with Yuno, another diary user that can basically save him in every situation with her diary that focuses on everything that happens to Yukiteru. She is completely obsessed with him, in a creepy-but-useful kind of way, in volume one, and Yukiteru and the narrative take her stalking tendencies in stride. Things begin to look up for the couple, and there’s a chapter or so where the two go on a date and are otherwise getting along, but then the Yuno support is yanked unceremoniously out from under the story, and the rest of the volume gets a lot darker and more disturbing as the pair infiltrate a cult headed by another diary user and run into yet another who is completely and utterly insane, a blind superhero that is out to destroy whatever he can in the name of “justice.”
The tournament is still spoken of, and the diary users refer to each other by number in the tournament, but the dynamics turn into which diaries trump the others in practical ways. For instance, the leader of the cult has a Future Diary that shows her what is going on through the eyes of her 1,000 followers, but that information isn’t useful if the followers can’t be trusted to know what they are seeing. An escape diary is no good if you have been taken into custody and there really is no escape. A justice diary… well, might not be much good if it turns out you are not on the side of justice, I suppose. The followers example is the most practical and direct, but I’m looking forward to how the other diaries are used to trump one another.
The story also becomes a game of “who to trust.” Yukiteru is meeting a lot of different people for the first time, and by the end of the volume, most of them have proven to be completely unhinged and untrustworthy, including at least one person he does need to trust and keep with him. And the ones who seem the most unhinged at first may be the ones who are speaking the most truth.
It’s by far the most interesting series I’ve picked up from Tokyopop in a long time, and it is also genuinely scary. I have a hard time reading it before bed, simply because the story keeps subverting and doubling back on itself in the most unsettling ways possible, and with some disturbing imagery to boot. It also seems to have a knack for doing this without revealing too much of its hand. I’m still waiting for an explanation on two of the character’s particular brands of crazy, and luckily I have volume three handy to help me out.
Basically, it’s quite well-written, despite the fact it’s set up to be a tournament series with a “someone becomes God” outcome, and it’s also pretty scary. I love it. I’m going to read the third volume right now.
Future Diary 1
Posted: November 30, 2009 Filed under: Future Diary 4 Comments »Sakae Esuno – Tokyopop – 2009 – 9+ volumes
I reviewed this volume for Manga Recon, so you can check out my review over there.
Actually, I reviewed this back in June. I can’t believe I forgot to link it over here. I didn’t realize it until I saw there was no Future Diary category. Anyway, blah blah blah, I liked volume one way more than I thought I would, interesting premise, let’s see where it goes from here. Coming up next: volume 2.
Also, volume nine has a completely insane cover in the context of the series (and, yeah, possible spoilers, I guess, though I can’t make heads or tails out of it). I have no idea how that bodes for the future, but I like it.
GoGo Monster
Posted: November 30, 2009 Filed under: GoGo Monster 3 Comments »Taiyo Matsumoto – Viz – 2009 – 1 volume
Wow. Now, you may notice this book retails for $27.99 (and if you didn’t… well, it retails for $27.99). I knew this would be a hardcover, and long, but wow, that’s quite a sum for a hardcover. But let me tell you, this is one of the nicest presentations I’ve ever seen on a volume of translated manga. Possibly the nicest, period. The book is a slipcased hardcover, and the slipcase is a heavy cardboard sleeve rather than a box. This is to show off the fore-edge, which has the pages dyed red and decorated with a monster design similar to the color artwork on the cover. All the page edges are dyed red, but only the fore-edge has the designs on it. It’s not something I’ve ever seen on a book before. The book itself is a glossy hardcover, and the illustrations on the sleeve are the same as on the cover, except instead of the color image of two boys, there is only a black and white drawing of Yuki, an interesting detail given the nature of the story. No volume summary can be found on either the sleeve or the book itself, which is a little unusual. Also unusual, but something I found to my liking, is that the story starts on the endpapers of the inside cover, the first page of story is the page glued to the inside front cover. There is no preamble whatsoever. There’s a single, non-glossy color page that comes in after the introduction.
I just had to get that out of my system. It really is a lovely book. The story is no slouch, either. I love Taiyo Matsumoto based solely on my limited experience with Tekkon Kinkreet, Blue Spring, and the first couple volumes of No. 5. Mostly I love his art in general, and Tekkon Kinkreet in particular. His stories can be a bit out there and somewhat hard to follow, but they are always rewarding in the end. This one walked the line between sense and nonsense, but that appeared to be the point and themes of the piece, and it was quite an amazing read.
Yuki, a third grader, is the only one at his school that can see and hear them. They inhabit the school and cause minor mischief, and he plays his harmonica for them on the roof and is friends with their leader, Super Star. Them live on the other side, but at the beginning of the story, Yuki tells us that the others have come and will upset the balance between this side and the other side. The others are more malevolent than them, and their appearance heralds a change for the worse in the student body at the school. But again, Yuki is the only one that can see them and the others, and over time, they eventually stop talking to him all together. Because of his insistence of the existence of them and the others, he is made into an outcast at school, and has no friends.
At the beginning of the volume, a transfer student named Makoto sits at the desk next to Yuki, and spends the entire story trying to be friends with him. As conditions at the school get worse and worse while Yuki continues to incessantly describe the takeover of the others, Makoto sits through his talks patiently and tries to spend as much time with him as he can. There is a third boy, named IQ, who wears a box on his head. He is highly intelligent and, similarly, an outcast because of his box, and he begins talking with Yuki, insisting that the others is simply a metaphor for his own loneliness and the world closing in on him, and them is a substitute for the friends he doesn’t have.
The story gets increasingly surreal while we try to figure out whether IQ or Yuki is right, and whether or not Makoto will finally get through to Yuki. The story is ultimately about friendship and the supernatural, as well as maturing and growing up. The entire last quarter of the book is a bit difficult to follow as Yuki and IQ disappear and take a journey together, but it never crosses the line into uninteresting or completely incomprehensible, and there’s always Makoto anchoring everything back into reality.
There are several storytelling devices that lend themselves later to the surreal narrative, including the graffitti and broken glass that permeates the school, Yuki’s fondness for gardening, and IQ’s obsession with the rabbit hutch. There’s also the changing of the seasons and the school year that factor into the narrative, and the changing of IQ’s box based on how… sane he may or may not be at the time.
The thing that makes this story succeed is the way that we are given almost no detail or insight into the situations at hand. We are told what Yuki knows, which isn’t much about what’s going on. There is a quiet to the way the characters deal with one another and unspoken things sit between them, and the same quiet goes along with the surreal trip through the end of the story. We are never really told what is going on, and many events are left up to the reader’s judgement and interpretation. I love stories like this, particularly since many manga are too saturated with details, and nothing is really left up to the reader to even infer.
The art is incredible, as we would expect from Taiyo Matsumoto. It’s not quite as good as in Tekkon Kinkreet or No. 5, but to be fair, there is less to work with here since the story never once leaves the school grounds, so we are left with the school, boys in school uniforms, and flowers and rabbits to work with. Even with such mundane subject matter, however, Matsumoto uses his eye for detail, abstraction, viewpoint, and panel layout and design to enhance the work further. The story would likely be mundane and uninteresting in the hands of another artist, but Matsumoto’s art really brings everything to life.
In the end, I still prefer Tekkon Kinkreet, but I don’t mean that to take away from this book at all, because Tekkon Kinkreet is probably one of my favorite books of all time. GoGo Monster is an absolutely fascinating read, and while it is almost too strange towards the end, there is enough of a balance between what the reader knows and what is left up in the air that it leaves you desperate to discuss the story with someone after you finish, which is always the best kind of story. Matsumoto always delivers an experience that differs from most manga out there, and his work stands up well with the best of any comic series from any country you could come up with, really. I would dearly love to get my hands on more of his series.
Gimmick 8
Posted: November 30, 2009 Filed under: Gimmick Leave a comment »Youzaburou Kanari / Kuroko Yabuguchi – Viz – 2009 – 9 volumes
I wondered how this series would finish up, since it seemed like the plot hinged on interesting one-shot stories involving special effects makeup. It finishes like any good shounen series should, with a tournament. On one hand, it’s a tournament involving special effects makeup, which is definitely new and exciting. On the other hand, it’s a shounen manga tournament. I’ve seen it a thousand times before.
One of the things that made me laugh last volume was Kohei’s fondness for his “special spatula,” an item he wore around his neck as the usual shounen talisman/relic of the past, except in this case it was… you know, a makeup spatula. For doing special effects. Well, he clutches that a whole lot more in this volume. Other people have their special spatulas, too. There are the usual pitfalls, balance issues, unfair fights, battles with friends, self-sacrifices, blah blah blah… not even my interest in what the characters were doing could distract me from the fact that it was literally taking the path of least resistance to end the story.
The only truly detailed effect we get to see is a life mask, which the characters have to make as realistically as possible using only ingredients from a grocery store. We learn about what ingredients can be used in a pinch, how certain things mix together, techniques for coloring and whatnot, and a lot of other things besides. There are other challenges, like making vampire makup and scars and aged makeup, but other than a protip about actors and elderly makeup, we don’t learn too much about the others.
Kohei goes into the final volume to face the evil version of himself, clutching a handful of spatulas that are special to all his friends that didn’t make it through the contest. Again, I am still thoroughly amused by the theme of makeup and special effects for the series, especially since it is discussed in such detail, but man… I can’t do such a blatant use of shounen manga plot device. But I do have the last volume, so let’s see where this goes in the end.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Arm of Kannon 5
Posted: November 30, 2009 Filed under: Arm of Kannon 1 Comment »Masakazu Yamaguchi – Tokyopop – 2005 – 9 volumes
I was right, I don’t like it as much now that Mao is gone. On the other hand, I was not expecting the wheel of reincarnation to whip back around and give us the same characters once again. Mao seems to be represented in a magician named Shinjuro, and the Isurugi monk is represented by a charismatic gang leader named Rou. The arm doesn’t seem to be as powerful this time around. I think it’s implied that Rou has it, but he is neither insane nor as powerful as one who possesses it is supposed to be. But only Shinjuro is the only one who can match him, which may bring about some serious business later.
I’m not entirely sure that the characters are supposed to be reincarnations. The Isurugi monk was supposed to be immortal, after all, and it isn’t stated overtly that these characters are reincarnations. But the name of Rou’s gang is “Re-Birth” (keep in mind, the series is called “Birth” in Japan), and Mao’s face melts into Shinjuro’s face on the very first page in what I take to be some sort of symbolism, so… you know, take that as you will. That’s just Arm of Kannon being awesome.
I still like it, even though there’s not much to it. The symbolic stuff has stopped in this volume, and while I’m not a big fan of the storyline stopping and picking up with new characters, I like this about as much as I liked the first volume, so maybe these characters will grow on me again in the upcoming volumes. I hope that we don’t get a third storyline later, though.
We Were There 7
Posted: November 26, 2009 Filed under: We Were There 1 Comment »Yuki Obata – Viz – 2009 – 13+ volumes
I am ridiculously fond of this series. I got this volume a week or so ago, and was sad that time has prevented me from reading it until now (I know I’ve read other things this week, but I’ve got strange rituals that rank some of those above this in terms of priority). Again, it’s probably my favorite shoujo manga from this year, and it does so many things right, the main thing being that it captures real emotion and awkwardness in a relationship better than any other manga I’ve read.
It’s also extremely dramatic and bittersweet, and there’s always a sense that something bad will happen immediately. It often does, and it’s always the end of the world for these characters. I can see a lot of people being put off by this, because there is very rarely anything happy that interrupts all this drama. All the same, it’s pretty good stuff.
It starts falling into Sand Chronicles traps in this volume, though. Promises are made, characters say they are getting better, will try hard to keep the other person’s feelings in mind, and then just fail spectacularly for no reason. There are a couple minor misunderstandings at work, but the misunderstandings aren’t the problem, and thankfully most characters get over them fairly quickly. The real problem here was that Nana refused to listen to Yano, or talk to him, or even give him the time of day to try and apologize and make right what he’d done, which was that big a deal (but, of course, meant the world to Nana). I liked that several characters made the point that Nana was simply doing it out of… whatever, and unless she let Yano talk to her and admit she was at least partially in the wrong, Yano would stop trying to make up to her.
This was, keep in mind, a volume after the characters pledged their renewed and undying love for each other and promised they’d do whatever they could to make wrongs right. Sigh.
I’ll come back for more. Again and again. Because I am ridiculously addicted. Despite the heavy drama and repetition of the same stuff, it’s an amazing series and I love reading it.
Merry Family Plan
Posted: November 26, 2009 Filed under: Merry Family Plan | Tags: BL 2 Comments »Sumitomo Morizumi – Netcomics – 2009 – 1 volume
I reviewed this for the Manga Recon, so you can check it out over there.
This was one of those rare BL stories that breaks out of a lot of the genre traps and reads more like a josei story. It’s romantic, and touches on issues like coming out to family, planning for the future, working through sexual and emotional issues you don’t see in typical BL stories, et cetera. The age range of the characters also goes from high school to adults, which is nice, too.
Netcomics has been putting out some really high quality BL series lately. Great stuff. This was the author’s first book, and I’d love to see more by her.
Gimmick 6
Posted: November 26, 2009 Filed under: Gimmick Leave a comment »Youzaburou Kanari / Kuroko Yabuguchi – Viz – 2009 – 9 volumes
I have the last few volumes of this, and I sort of brushed it off until I found out that it’s actually about special effects artists and stuntman. That immediately ranked it above any other series I was planning to start. Unfortunately, this volume starts badly, with one of those scenes where the main character is accused of groping and then beaten up by everyone when he actually wasn’t doing anything, but thankfully it recovered quickly and things improved from there.
This volume starts a chapter or two into a story about a pop idol who was being harassed by someone in her crew. She turned to Kohei, the makeup artist, and the rest of the story is the two of them bonding while they try to evade the bad guy, who is after the pendant that proves she’s the daughter of the New York City mayor. It wasn’t all that hot, and there was only one or two instances where the makup and special effects even came up. I was really worried that the series was less about the makeup and more about these badly-done hero-type stories.
It wasn’t. The rest of the volume was really, really good. The second story was about Kohei’s friend Kannazuki. Kannazuki’s a stuntman, and the story takes a look at what his job entails, just how important it is, and also at how some of the movie effects are done. There was a story about his mom and a rivalry with the lead actor in the movie they were working on. It’s simple stuff, but winds up being interesting when supplemented with all the fun movie stuff.
The next story was about Kohei teaching a loner boy how to make a mask for his school play in order to impress the other kids in an effort to make friends. There wasn’t much of the plot, but there was an incredible amount of detail about how a rubber mask was made. Again, very interesting.
The last story, one that seems to carry over into the next volume, was about someone impersonating Kohei and ruining his reputation on sets Kohei hasn’t even visited. The imposter and Kohei have a duel, and we learn about how makeup can go bad, workarounds for problems that come up, and also how CGI affects people in the traditional effects industry. Again, interesting stuff, and pretty funny to boot.
I can’t say much for the plot or characters aside from the fact they serve as a wonderful vehicle for all the other stuff about movies, makeup, and special effects that are being learned here. The first story proves they don’t work very well without the themes of the series, which is fine. It’s a great read so far with just the info. It’s like Oishinbo, in a way, except for movies instead of food. And Oishinbo is way more serious about what it does.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
xXxHolic 14
Posted: November 24, 2009 Filed under: XxXholic 7 Comments »CLAMP – Del Rey – 2009 – 15+ volumes
Boy do I like this series. It comes out slowly, and I know that I love it, but it doesn’t really hit me until I’m reading a new volume just how great it really is. This volume is a good example of why.
One of the characteristics of the series is that Watanuki cooks for everyone, especially Domeki, Himawari, and Yuko. Lately, we’ve come to realize that as intrinsic as his cooking skills are to him, he doesn’t ever eat his own cooking. Lately he’s been teaching Kohane to cook, but this volume takes the theme a step further and discusses how a person’s cooking characterises them. Another theme of memories of the body, rather than the mind, is also brought to bear on the discussion. Another character shows up for Watanuki to teach, and it’s interesting how the discussion of food and its meaning is twined throughout the entire book.
Unusually, Mokona and Domeki are the teachers of much of this lesson. It’s unusual for Yuko to step out for these things. There’s lots of foreshadowing concerning this, and I worry quite a bit about what this could mean.
We are also seeing a lot of discussions on Watanuki’s existence. I’m still not entirely clear on this, but I’ll get to that in a minute. Watanuki’s willingness to self-sacrifice has been present since the early volumes, but it was constantly shown to be a negative quality, as a way for Watanuki to destroy himself. This volume also takes a look at Watanuki’s current feelings on the matter, as well as the feelings of those closest to him.
Now, Watanuki’s existence. I’m… so, I’ve been reading Tsubasa off and on. I’m behind in the English version, but I’ll be honest and say I have a hard time with the direction the plot took concerning… you know, twins and existence and whatnot. I know what was going on, but it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, and from what I’ve read, I’m not the only one who’s been left in the dark. It’s unfortunate that Watanuki has to be drawn into the same sort of mess.
Let me mark this out for spoilers. I’ll just cut it here, and you don’t have to read further if you aren’t this far into the series.
Wild Ones 8
Posted: November 24, 2009 Filed under: Wild Ones 1 Comment »Kiyo Fujiwara – Viz – 2009 – 10 volumes
I do like this series more and more with each volume I read. I still don’t think it’ll ever be one of my favorites since I just can’t get into the characters, but it helps that it hasn’t gone back to the boring filler that I hopped in on.
This volume had a cute side story about Azuma, Sachie’s other suitor, and a little girl he meets at the hospital. The little girl is in a similar situation with her grandmother that Azuma finds himself in with his grandfather (ie, both are loved, but both grandparents might not have much time left), and he takes the little girl under his wing in a rather sweet chapter that has bonding in every possible way it can. In the next chapter, the same little girl takes a trip with Sachie, Azuma, and Rakuto to the zoo.
Things are still weird between Sachie and Rokuto after she let her feelings slip while they were doing the servant business, but apparently the slip was subconscious, because she spends the entire volume wondering “what’s wrong with me?” These types of stalls are my least favorite, because… come on, what teenage girl is going to be this clueless about her feelings? Whatever.
There’s lots of cute stuff between Sachie and Rokuto, however. There’s a short school subplot about Sachie getting bad grades, and then everyone winds up on a trip to Hawaii (? it was sort of a budget trip, it may not be Hawaii) that segues into a story about Rokuto’s past.
I’m not as curious to read the next volume as I was this one, but I have a feeling I’ll probably like it a little more when Rokuto gets more character development. We’ll see.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
