Inu-Yasha 1 (Big ed.)
Posted: November 8, 2009 Filed under: Inu-Yasha 5 Comments »Rumiko Takahashi – Viz – 2009 – 56 volumes
This omnibus contains volumes 1-3 of the series.
Incredibly, I haven’t read any of the Inu-Yasha manga, despite the fact I’ve read at least parts of all of Takahashi’s other series. It’s probably her most famous, at least in the US. I know the plot pretty well, and I knew I would like it since I like pretty much all of Takahashi’s other work, but I just never started buying the series. There’s a lot of it, and starting from the beginning is a daunting task. Luckily, we’ve got the Big editions now, and it’s the perfect time to jump in. Notably, the Big editions are unflipped, which isn’t that important to me, but it’s there if that’s what you were waiting for all these years.
It’s… well, it’s Inu-Yasha. It is what it is. Reading it was a little strange, because it wastes no time jumping right into the plot I was expecting. Kagome falls into the well, she finds Inu-Yasha, they start fighting demons, the Shikon Jewel shatters, then they start gathering the pieces. There wasn’t a lot of exposition accompanying any of that, and most of the background and details come as things move along. It doesn’t feel rushed at all, just very fast-paced, and it was interesting to see the details dealt with in progress rather than as a wall of text or explanation from one person.
Explaining things as the story moves also helps to keep things very simple. You don’t know about Inu-Yasha’s father until Myoga and Sesshoumaru show up, and even then, it’s only that his father was a dog-demon and that Sesshoumaru is his brother. They fight. That’s really all there is to it, and the story moves on to the next demon, but all the same, the fight is interesting, as is the simple links between characters. There’s no elaborate backstory (as of yet), and not a lot to remember about Sesshoumaru except that he’s a demon and that the two brothers do not get along. I know he’ll be around a lot in the future. As far as the demons go, there’s similarly no metaphysical explanation offered for their existence or powers. They all take different shapes and do different things, but that’s just the way things are, and no explanation is necessary. I liked it since it kept the battles very interesting and, again, very simple since there wasn’t a whole lot to know aside from the fact that they are fighting a frog demon that possessed a lord. Myoga offers some color commentary to the fights later, but it’s never more than “Oh, that’s a frog demon! It’s super-old and more dangerous than it looks! Be careful!”
The bigger question to me was how I would like it, since I’d read Rin-ne first. I liked Rin-ne all right, but the problem was that both the main characters are pretty vanilla in the first volume. Both series deal with the supernatural, but in Rin-ne it’s exorcising ghosts with quirky stories in the present, whereas Inu-Yasha fights surprisingly gory fights in the distant past. On the whole, Inu-Yasha seems to be quite a bit better, at least based on the single volume of Rin-ne that I’ve read. Kagome is still a pretty vanilla character, but Inu-Yasha at least has an entertaining evil streak to him, and it’s fun to watch Kagome and Inu-Yasha work together. By the end of this big volume, romance is beginning to be vaguely implied between the two, but they play off each other a lot more than Rin-ne and Sakura do, and Kagome has a reason to accompany Inu-Yasha (she can see the jewels, he can’t), something that Sakura doesn’t really have in regards to Rin-ne.
One thing I got a really big kick out of is the fact that the present still plays a role in the story. I didn’t realize that time passed the same through both worlds, and that Kagome could go between the two at will. I love it when Inu-Yasha just shows up in the present since he’s so… well, anachronistic as well as a demon, and I like that Kagome still has to worry about her exams. I’m sure this is downplayed quite a bit as things progress, but all the same, I love the contrast and the nonchalant way that Kagome deals with it.
I have to admit, the simple formula had me addicted by the end of the Big volume. I’m really looking forward to the next. Takahashi just has a way of writing that’s super-easy to fall into and enjoy. There’s not much more to it than that. I would say that it’s also good because of the familiarity with her type of story, but other than the way the characters act, Inu-Yasha really is quite different than everything she’s written before. It’s like a bizarre mix of Mermaid Saga (my favorite of her series) and… I don’t know, Ranma 1/2, with the way Akane and Ranma were always at each other. I’m sad to see the series is on a quarterly release, I was hoping for bimonthly due to the length. Well… there’s always 40 volumes of the regular size available if I get too desperate.
Also, I don’t think there’s a hyphen in the title of Inu-Yasha, but I prefer it that way, so… you know. My site and all.
Otomen 4
Posted: November 6, 2009 Filed under: Otomen 6 Comments »Aya Kanno – Viz – 2009 – 9+ volumes
I don’t know, every time I read a volume of this, I become more and more convinced that it’s impossible to hate it if you like shoujo manga at all. On one hand, it’s cycling through story cliches, but on the other hand, it’s doing that on purpose. I can’t figure out if it’s trying to make fun of the overused stories, or its characters, or both. It’s hard to see through all those sparkles, but it’s funny stuff no matter where the humor lies.
I forgot how much I liked this series, then promptly remembered within the first few pages when Asuka took Ryo’s dad to a strangely cutesy department store, populated by stuffed animals and only the most adorable merchandise shops. Ryo’s dad seems to hate every minute of it, and has a hard time dealing with the… floweriness of it all. The faces the two make while in the shops are funny enough (the dad is super-embarrassed, and Asuka cycles through ecxtacy and shame), but what really put the whole thing over the top was Princess Mary’s Hide-and-Go-Seek pasta. It really was one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen.
The second half of the book is taken up by a storyline involving the group spending summer vacation working at a shop owned by Yamato’s uncle. The “getting there” part is quite funny, and the story knowingly and ridiculously rushes through the sequence of events that puts just the students in charge of a run-down, unpopular and old-fashioned shack competing with a very modern snack bar. Everyone uses their individual talents, be they ultra-manly or super-girly, to ultimately make the shop a success, but both chapters with this storyline feature competitions with Tonomine, Asuka’s rival and secret otomen who loves to do makeup. Tonomine cracked me up for a reason Juta mentions later in the story – he’s the usual bespeckled cold-type boy that these stories always have, except he really is super-arrogant and never really shows another side to his personality. That’s a real shame, because I think otomen should stick together.
A new character is introduced, a really tall, quiet boy who likes flowers and sneaking up on people to decorate them with flowers. I mean, he loves flowers. Way more than Asuka loves baking and sewing. He’s quite creepy, and a wonderful addition to the story. He reminds me a lot of another really famous character who is silent and likes sneaking up, except the name and details are escaping me at the moment.
Reading this after Detroit Metal City is probably a bad thing, because the style of humor is the same. Both succeed by doing the exact opposite of what is expected in the story setup, with some additional help from the way the side characters react (though Otomen isn’t as gag-driven as Detroit Metal City). Each chapter is basically a one-shot where Asuka fumbles through a situation where certain things are expected of him, but he succeeds because he likes girly things. Usually the other characters run contrary to what you would expect too, like Ryo having ultra-manly hobbies while still being mostly girly, the creepy flower boy, or the girly boy who would be absolutely devastated if he found out Asuka had such un-manly hobbies. There are occasional hilarious male fantasies that break up all the sparkles and jokes otherwise. Otomen brilliance lies in the fact you can read it like a regular shoujo manga, too. You can ignore the humor, and just enjoy it for the sparkles and all the shoujo manga things it does.
I think it helps that Aya Kanno has mentioned more than once that she hates girly things, and isn’t well-suited to drawing a series like this. I can only imagine Otomen getting popular as a kind of mangaka hell for her, but on the other hand, I think that’s why the humor works so well… it’s a super-girly shoujo manga drawn by someone who secretly hates super-girly shoujo manga.
I have to say, I am a little disappointed that there’s not a lot of forward momentum in the plot, but as long as Juta keeps calling attention to this and the story is perfectly aware of what it’s doing, I’ll keep reading. The new character also blew my mind, and I’m very excited about getting to see more of him. I believe I was promised an Otomen band as well, and I just can’t stop before I get to see that.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Ooku 2
Posted: November 5, 2009 Filed under: Ooku 1 Comment »Fumi Yoshinaga – Viz – 2009 – 5+ volumes
I wondered about the format of this series, but this volume answered my question. I think. Here, we jump backward in time to the first female shogun and a monk she coerces into becoming her catamite. The story this time is much darker than the first volume, and I was quite shocked when the story actually went down the dark path it promised, rather than whimsically taking all its threats back at the threshold to show that the shogun wasn’t a bad person. This happens twice, the first as a measure to get the pious monk into the inner chambers, and the second when the shogun finally appears in front of the monk.
Unlike Yoshimune in the first volume, the Shogun in this volume (who is without a name, officially, and is covered up to the best of everyone’s abilities) is very much a villain for most of the volume. I kept trying to sympathize with her. For awhile, the nurse/advisor character took the majority of my wrath, since everything can easily be blamed on her. But the Shogun isn’t that pleasant, either. From the first time she appears, she gives the reader reason to hate her, and most of the good things she does, or anything sympathetic, is balanced out with something obnoxious. But by the end of the book, Yoshinaga turns the tables, and in the last few pages, I begrudgingly admitted that the match between the poor monk forced to give up his vows and the Shogun looked to be a good one. I couldn’t believe how masterfully revealing her backstory explained every heinous thing she did, and even made me feel bad for her. I hated her so much. There is no other story that could make me hate a character, then make me like her, all in a single volume.
The monk character was a good one, and balances out the Shogun’s evil quite well. His role is apparently based on a true story, though with the genders switched. He’s very sincere about his vows, and we find out later that the position he reached at the beginning of the story was his main goal in life. He really, really does not want to join the harem, but does anyway in an incredibly powerful scene that borrows some of the devices and expectations mentioned above. He continues to hold his own in the court, speaking up when he feels strongly and bending when something isn’t worth fighting for.
The only link between this volume and the first, other than the premise of the men dying out, is the fact that the other members of the harem wage jealous wars on one another over who gets more of the Shogun’s attention. I like this element of it, and it’s pretty hilarious given the fact that you can easily imagine the scenarios playing out in a court of women as well.
I rarely mention artwork, but I very much enjoy Yoshinaga’s art. It’s sparse, but well-composed, and the composition and subtle ways she conveys emotion through facial expression and repetition are absolutely masterful in this story. It just wouldn’t be the same without the soft touch and insight the artwork offers. The last page is one of my favorite illustrations in the book, it looks very much like a woodblock print piece.
About the only thing I don’t like about it is the Early Modern English that all the characters use. It takes me out of the story, especially when words like “quack” come up and I have to look it up and verify that it actually is a ridiculous slang word from 500 years ago. But otherwise the presentation is quite good. There are translation notes in the back that help out with the difficult Japanese historical references, and the book itself maintains all the bells and whistles from the first, like the flaps on the cover and the vellum title page before the color illustration in the front. I’m also very fond of the minimalist design of the whole thing, and I love that there are no ads in the back to shatter the mood.
Basically, this volume is much different than the first, but no less amazing. I was very fond of the fact it took the expectations from the first volume and warped them to make the story much darker than it could have been otherwise. And even with the darker and depressing story, the ending still managed to make the reader sympathize with the characters. I don’t think anyone has a talent for making characters quite like Fumi Yoshinaga, and this really is one of her best and most well-developed series. I do wonder if each volume will have a different story to tell with different sets of characters, or if they will all tie together in the end, as her series tend to do. I can’t wait to read more.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Berserk 31
Posted: November 5, 2009 Filed under: Berserk 1 Comment »Kentaro Miura – Dark Horse – 2009 – 34+ volumes
I got really pumped while trying to explain Berserk to someone today, so I was glad that the newest volume came in yesterday.
Now, if you had told me that I would be enjoying Berserk for the cuteness factor awhile ago, even two or three volumes ago, I would have thought you were lying. But here I am, with an entire volume of Guts and Schierke forming the world’s most adorable team, and I really can’t get enough. I nearly died when Guts gave her a piggyback ride. I see now why Chica Umino drew an alternate cover to volume 33. It just fits.
Part of me thinks I should be more creeped out, but the key factor is that there is nothing (absolutely nothing) sexual, even implied, in their interactions. For Berserk, this shows an incredible amount of restraint. Schierke has her schoolgirl crush on Guts, but Guts sees her as a valuable ally, and treats her like an equal in the team, which is a wonderful contrast since he’s the gigantic strong guy with a metal arm and huge sword, and she’s just a little girl.
Those two steal the show here, and a big part of the volume was a fight where Schierke… was magically along for the ride in Guts’ mind as he fought in the Berserker armor. With her there, he gets to stay himself while he fights, and she gets to offer adorable encouragement and worry about him getting hurt, with him just glancing up and not saying anything. Nobody worries about Guts like Schierke does, and I think he is taken aback by the pleas to keep well. Aww.
There’s also monsters, which you would expect. The Kushan empire is invading the city, and in addition to an entire gigantic army of… well, monster soldiers that Schierke and Guts dispatch (complete with a scene where Guts runs for cover with Schierke under one arm and Isidro under the other), there is also a Kushan magic user that is able to summon gigantic, powerful familiars. There’s also a kraken the size of the entire harbor thrown in for good measure, and an apostle who’s face just appears in the clouds and doesn’t have a physical body. Guts easily outsmarts his techniques.
There’s also a great “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” scene towards the end. I was delighted by Guts’ response, but honestly, I would have been pleased with either answer under those circumstances.
Mostly this volume was just fights with no exposition, and I still loved every page. That this volume was still so cute even when gigantic monsters were being slaughtered most of the time says quite a bit about this series, I think.
Oh, Berserk. Don’t ever stop being awesome.
Arm of Kannon 2
Posted: November 5, 2009 Filed under: Arm of Kannon Leave a comment »Masakazu Yamaguchi – Tokyopop – 2004 – 9 volumes
Oh, Arm of Kannon. The plot really, really doesn’t make much sense, but all I need to know is that three organizations seem to be clashing. The chemical company, the government, and Mao and whoever is keeping him. In addition to the chemical company (the ones that made Mao), there’s also the unit of badasses that they dispatched that seem to be tearing the government’s elite, Black Lagoon-like warriors to shreds. But their battle isn’t over, so maybe those government soldiers will win one for humanity.
The plot is most certainly not why I’m reading this. I’m reading this for the repulsive fight scenes, which are so far living up to my expectations. They aren’t quite as splatter-riffic as the first volume here, but we get more variety. The superhuman warriors tht the chemical company dispatches all have different methods of fighting, including psychological warfare, spider webs, and frying people on a subatomic level by assimilating them into their bodies, and those are all fun to watch. Androids are involved, as are people who weild “psychic swords” and can “see” weakness. Whatever. Mao himself plays almost no role, but the next volume promises he’ll jump into the melee.
Several specimins escaped when Mao broke out of the chemical company, and for whatever reason, they are monster-fying the flora and fauna in the forest the characters are searching. I’m hoping that escalates, but I don’t think the action will stay in the forest much longer.
I actually like the art in this series quite a bit. Despite being dated from 2002, it looks very early 90s shounen-ish, a lot like Bastard with better composition. The panel layouts are well-chosen, the character designs are suitably grotesque, and the art is extremely high-contrast, which adds to the nightmarish atmosphere.
It’s still not very good, but it is living up to my expectations and is thus far an entertaining read. I like it.
Aromatic Bitters
Posted: November 5, 2009 Filed under: Aromatic Bitters Leave a comment »Erica Sakurazawa – Tokyopop – 2004 – 1 volume
I was not very much into josei when Tokyopop was releasing it, which is a real shame since they published some truly great stuff. I would love to have seen where the Passion Fruit line would have gone, and it’s a shame that this Erica Sakurazawa line had to come to an end. The Aromatic Bitters cuts off before it finishes, and there is no followup volume, but it also doesn’t really feel like there needs to be. Of course, I just finished Ooku, where it’s more than okay to leave loose ends, so I may just be misjudging the story here.
I liked this quite a bit, and would compare it to some of my favorite devices in older-guy BL series. The characters are in their thirties, and Sayumi, the main character for the first half of the book, begins a passionate relationship with a younger man, telling herself that her live-in boyfriend of five years is probably cheating on her, and there’s no passion in their relationship, anyway. Other chapters switch perspective to tell the story from the point of view of Sayumi’s boyfriend, and then later, there’s a a semi-unrelated side story about Hide, Sayumi’s friend.
I loved the switch in point of view to Sayumi’s boyfriend. So often in these type of stories, we only get the female’s point of view and the male is victimized. Telling his side adds another layer, and we start to see that perhaps Sayumi should not be so swept up in passion… another unlikely moral in this type of story.
Hide’s story is more sympathetic and… well, just sad. There’s not much to be done for Hide, but she has some consolation. It’s probably not all that healthy to be doing what she’s doing, but all the same, the opportunity presents itself at an opportune time.
The book ends with a “to be continued,” but as I said, it doesn’t really feel like it needs to. The conclusion to the story at the end of the book is positive, if not concrete, and the mess that Sayumi is left in feels appropriate, though there is a very neat way for her to get out of it.
I liked this better than most of the LuvLuv books, and I also like it quite a bit better than some of the more contemplative, love-crazy josei stories that are available. Stripping the humor and making the story very simple helped it immensely, and I think I’m going to go ahead and pick up the rest of these Erica Sakurazawa volumes some time in the near future.
One Piece 22
Posted: November 5, 2009 Filed under: One Piece 4 Comments »Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2009 – 55+ volumes
I don’t have a lot to say about this volume. There are a lot of epic battles being waged, mostly between Luffy and Crocodile. One of my favorite things about the series is that everyone seems put off by Luffy’s insistence that he will most certainly win the fight, no questions asked. Even someone as arrogant and straightforward (ie, not as goofy as some of the other big bosses in the series are) seems mildly shaken by this. They cycle through several stages of battle, and by the end, Crocodile is very upset that he has killed Luffy several times and Luffy still lives. So yes. They still fight. The cliffhanger to next volume is that Crocodile “Still doesn’t get it!” I suppose we’ll see how Luffy survives being run through with a poison hook next time.
At one point Luffy fills himself to bursting with water, which, with the gum gum fruit, means he fills up like a gigantic water balloon. Hilariously, since Crocodile had literally run him through with a hook, he leaks water out the front and back through the holes pierced through his midsection. Deadly, but funny.
One of the best thing about this volume was Miss Father’s Day. She shows up at the end and has one of the best character designs in the series so far. It’s a shame she only sticks around for a couple chapters.
What else… lots of running around trying to stop the fight, then trying to find the bomb in the town square so that it doesn’t blow up and kill every soldier in the kingdom. That gets held over to next volume, too. The Marines show up, but they don’t have a role to play yet. Poor Tashigi just gets beat up by Miss All Sunday and left.
Speaking of… the only really interesting thing about this volume is that we find out more about Miss All Sunday. She can read a language that nobody else knows, which is why Crocodile is keeping her around. Their aim was to find a stone tablet that reportedly had the position of some ultimate weapon (pluton?) on it. We also find out that Miss All Sunday sunk a fleet of Marine ships at the age of 7. She is a scary lady, but gets suddenly wimpy when Crocodile turns on her.
I had forgotten about pluton. Maybe it’ll still have a part to play in the story. Hmm. Speaking of, in the title page story playing throughout this volume about Hachi, we see a little mermaid that re-appears 30 volumes from now. I had forgotten that she shows up first here. Well, remember her.
Yeah. One Piece is usually amazing… but this Alabasta story is slow. Very, very slow. I’ll be happy when it’s over.
Claymore 15
Posted: November 3, 2009 Filed under: Claymore 5 Comments »Norihiro Yagi – Viz – 2009 – 16+ volumes
I thought this was a weekly Shounen Jump series (and it was, at one point, but now it is Monthly Jump Square), so I was a little surprised that the volumes were coming out in English so slowly. I’m thankful that I read two back to back, though, since I got to see just how good the story is here.
I like fantasy stories, and I like them even more when they stay relatively straight-faced. Claymore has no humor, and this volume reveals just what the scope of the series really is. There is a huge reveal here, and I was quite impressed that it was completely understandable and worked so well as a turnabout to everything even for a new reader like me. I do think I’ll go back to the beginning of this series eventually, but I think I’ll read a few more volumes first just to make sure all the elements are working how I think they are.
Most of all, I enjoy the warrior system that has been established. It’s explained further here when everything is unveiled, but I just like that there’s a special class of women that slay monsters and can be saviors or pariahs depending on the town. I also like that there are further subdivisions. The women are half-human and half-monster, but it seems like there are (of course) more variations on this, and I’m interested in a character from Clare’s past who seems to have joined up with the story in this volume.
There are a lot of characters here, and I’m a little bummed that so many warriors suddenly joined the main cast. I’m also a little put out that the two main characters from the last volume don’t seem to be players in the story at all. But Clare is the main character, and she takes the story over again after the leader of the warriors explains the situation to everyone. The other warriors remain relatively faceless, which I appreciate, because I just don’t want to follow that many people, and I like when secondary cast stays low key.
The next volume comes out in June. I may pick up some additional volumes before then, or I may wait until I’ve read one more volume, but I know for sure I’ll be reading more. It does have a little bit of a vanilla taste to it, but I can’t help but like series like this.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Fushigi Yugi 1 (Big ed.)
Posted: November 3, 2009 Filed under: Fushigi Yugi 8 Comments »Yuu Watase – Viz – 2009 – 18 volumes (this Big edition is volumes 1-3)
Ooh, I never, ever thought I would be reading Fushigi Yugi, or any other series by Yuu Watase. As I’ve mentioned before, I read quite a bit of it while it was serialized in Animerica Extra and hated it. But it’s such a classic, and I’m quite fond of what I’ve read of Genbu Kaiden, and the VizBig volumes are really awesome, so FY wound up having a lot going for it. Plus I bought this on sale, yet another bonus.
I quickly remembered what I disliked about the series. One word: Tamahome. Or maybe, “Tamahome!” The crying out to be saved happens pretty frequently. I was hoping I was just remembering wrong, and that the cries for Tamahome had been greatly exaggerated over the years, but no. Miaka cries out to Tamahome to save her and to be with her quite a bit. It’s annoying, but it’d be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Though the lengths Tamahome and Hotohori go to in order to save Miaka border on ridiculous. My favorite so far is where they both stab each other in an effort to give Miaka their blood when she is bleeding. This serves absolutely no purpose since they are in the middle of the forest, and they both know this, but they go ahead and stab themselves anyway. Through the power of magic, they wind up giving her their blood later anyway. She claims it is very hot.
Miaka herself, other than the constant damsel in distress routine, is far less annoying than I remember. Perhaps it was because I was closer in age to her when I first read it, but I can write off most of her antics as childish and appropriate now, or at the very least, in line with how heroines in manga frequently act. She’s a lot braver than the constant rescues cast her in my memory, and she usually winds up in trouble because she’s trying to do something good, like find Yui or stab herself to save the others from a mirror image of herself. She’s not terribly likable or unique, but for a main character, she’s all right. Maybe I’ll grow to like her more as I keep reading.
Hotohori was a complete enigma to me. I have absolutely no recollection of him, which was a little frightening to me since he’s the king and all. It may be that he’s not featured as prominently after these first few chapters and that’s why I don’t remember him well, but I remember most of the other Suzaku warriors, and even one or two of the Seriyuu warriors. Just not Hotohori. He’s all right, another okay-but-not-great character, but he has the royal “We” going for him, which I still don’t remember and probably should.
So far, my favorite characters are Tamahome and Yui. Both have interesting roles, though Tamahome is quickly falling into the cookie-cutter love interest hero-type role. I liked that he was so greedy, though, and I liked that he didn’t fall immediately for Miaka, and I still like his cute little sister. Yui has always been one of my favorites, though I think she was a little scary when I was going through this for the first time. She’s a good friend, and she’s also got good reasons to be mad at Miaka by the end of the volume here.
Mostly, I’m enjoying the shoujo fantasy atmosphere. It’s hard to argue with a solid plot like a junior high girl getting sucked into a book and being forced to gather warriors in order to summon a magical being and make a wish. There’s lots of opportunities for fun stuff to happen, both in finding the characters, being introduced to the characters, and in the summoning itself. Add in the rival kingdom, and you’ve got a decent story in the hands of any writer that could go on forever, and Watase is admittedly doing wonderful things with it. She’s using a lot of common shoujo plot devices, but they probably seem a lot more trite today than they did when she used them (well… maybe not), and to be fair, I like it a lot because of the cheesy romance and all that.
The beginning of the story was new to me, I picked up the story in the chapter when Yui is introduced. The chapter after that I know word for word, probably because I read that issue one thousand times when I first got it. It’s a little weird I remember it so clearly ten years later, though. Reading it again now was surreal, because I remember how baffled I was by the visual gags, the sense of humor, and the references to people and places that went completely over my head at the time since I hadn’t read the rest of the story.
I like it. Not as much as Basara, but I like it a lot more than I remember, and it’s easy to see how it secured its status as a classic. I’ve got another big volume to read, but I’m definitely going to breeze through the entire series with no problems.
