Black Lagoon 9
Posted: June 10, 2010 Filed under: Black Lagoon Leave a comment »Rei Hiroe – Viz – 2010 – 9+ volumes
Ugh. I just realized this and Kobato both ran in Sunday GX. That’s like the time I realized all the insane things that ran regularly in Young Animal (Berserk, Detroit Metal City, Futari H, March Comes in Like a Lion), except I really hate Kobato and it doesn’t belong.
Anyway. I think this series has won me over, and I was happy to see that skipping a volume didn’t leave me in the lurch. The characters are still trying to track down the killer maid, except I think the last volume must’ve focused on Revy and a few side characters, and this one instead focused on the American soldiers, the Lovelace kid, and bringing the whole story to a close.
This is a long volume, and you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck here. There’s tons of action, and while I started the volume with a bad attitude about the action scenes, I wound up enjoying all of them quite a bit. There are occasions where individual panels don’t quite make sense, but I can tell what’s going on in this volume a lot more than I could the previous ones.
With all the story here, there are some extraneous talking scenes (the Lovelace kid has way too much story time, and the scenes where the killers ponder their lots in life seem a little out-of-place), but most of it still felt like a necessary evil, stuff that we had to get out of the way before the story could move on.
The ending… mmm, I wasn’t completely satisfied with it, but I think the best part was what Fabiola said to Rock on the way out. As much as I’ve read, what she said was complete fabrication, and he seems like a good guy in the middle of all the bad, but everyone takes it very seriously, including Rock. I do like her point, though, and it did make me go back and think about him.
The actual resolution to the story was a little wonky and underwhelming, slightly off from what I’d expect of Black Lagoon, but all the same, it seemed pretty consistent with all the talking and whatnot in this volume.
I think Dogs is still my current go-to title for gratuitous and stylized seinen action, but it’s been awhile since I’ve read that one. I need to pick up the new volumes of that, and the old volumes of this series (it looks like we’re caught up with Japan and will be for quite some time), and see how the two compare. Black Lagoon may come out on top in terms of over-the-top action. Neither has much of a role in this book, but I think the Revy/Rock duo (with one good for insane battles and the other serving as a wussy balance) is my favorite part, and I think the early volumes will focus on them a lot more, along with explaining just what exactly Rock is doing with the Black Lagoon in the first place.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
edit: aww, I should have saved this and had another all-Black manga night, and invited Black Jack and Black Bird to the party, maybe pick up some old volumes of Black Cat and see where the night goes.
Black Butler 2
Posted: June 10, 2010 Filed under: Black Butler Leave a comment »Yana Toboso – Yen Press – 2010 – 9+ volumes
Hm… yes. On one hand, I had a deal with Black Butler that if it dumped its annoying manor characters, I would be its friend forever. On the other hand, it scared me by putting said characters in the very first chapter (making it about those characters, in fact), and then proceeded to tell the story of Jack the Ripper. Again. Without really adding anything interesting.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m sick of hearing about Jack the Ripper. If there was a moratorium on all fiction that mentions or references that killer, I would be very happy. It’s interesting, but it’s been done absolutely to death. While we do get a very well-researched version of the story here (honing in on key facts to structure the story around, and also using the real Jack the Ripper victims and settings), it’s as I said, there’s not a whole lot new to this version. We see the characters discuss and research the case (Ciel and Sebastian, along with his society-crazy Aunt, her butler, and another random character for silliness), and when they figure out their suspect, the story comes up with a reason to make Ciel cross-dress, there’s a near-miss involving some sort of black magic ritual, something else comes up later… hm. Not even the supernatural twist at the end did much for me this time, simply because that character was awful and didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
The story carries over into the next volume, which bodes well since this series seems to do better with longer stories. I also like the fact that new supernatural twists have been introduced in each volume. I also like the Victorian England setting, combined with the supernatural stuff. It’s… just not very good yet, though. It’s getting there, and I think I’ll like it in a few more volumes, but there’s a lot of disappointing key elements at this point.
Baby & Me 4
Posted: June 10, 2010 Filed under: Baby & Me 4 Comments »Marimo Ragawa – Viz – 2007 – 18 volumes
I know that a lot of people are into slice-of-life series, but I think a lot of people pass this one over. You shouldn’t, especially if you also enjoy shoujo manga, and I promise the premise isn’t as silly as it sounds.
I’m so happy I was able to discover this series. It’s not something I would normally pick up (the character designs on the babies put me off, and the premise of a fifth grader looking after his baby brother also isn’t to my liking), but the stories are told exactly how I like it, and it’s hard to resist the old-school charm of the art.
There’s no ongoing plot, every chapter is just a peek into the lives of Takuya and Minoru. Sometimes together, sometimes with just one or the other. The stories are extremely detailed and realistic, and contain nothing that would make you doubt the fact that Minoru and Takuya exist somewhere. Chapters like Takuya going out on a date with his friend and his crush as the third support wheel, Minoru having a dream inhabited by fantasy versions of people he knows, outings to summer festivals, helping Minoru get over his fears of a scary story he heard in preschool… all of it is subject matter, and all of it is surprisingly interesting and can make you tear up a little at the drop of a hat with its sincerity. Minoru and Takuya’s mother is dead, but that card is played surprisingly rarely in this volume, and the stories are still a little melancholy in spots.
Sometimes the parts with Minoru don’t ring true (were he and his 4-year-old friends really afraid of a psycho killer while running through the summer fair?), but I can’t get over how realistic Takuya’s fifth grade life comes across. One of the early stories here was my favorite, where Takuya has to help his friend Gon ask out a girl, then actually go on the date with the two of them since Gon is too scared. Takuya doesn’t quite know what to make of Gon’s crush, and hasn’t really pondered what love is yet. He still doesn’t really, and merely wonders when it will happen to him, making this chapter way better than it would be in any other shoujo manga.
There are also stories with a lot going on. A story about the summer festival can cover many different topics, like older siblings picking on younger, revolts in the younger set, money problems, problems with respect and favoritism, and also seeing how older siblings can also spoil their younger ones. There’s a somewhat disturbing chapter where the two brothers befriend an old man that morphs from something of a comedy about the boys not wanting to talk to a stranger to a very disturbing story about abusing the elderly and a man contracting Alzheimer’s.
This has a little bit of everything good about shoujo manga in it. While things like Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross can still act as the perfect examples and the textbook, it’s series like this that nail down all the good things you can do when you tell a story to young women and really show you the best parts of the genre. It’s wonderful stuff, and I wish there was more like it.
Ikigami 1
Posted: June 10, 2010 Filed under: Ikigami Leave a comment »Motoro Mase – Viz – 2009 – 8+ volumes
Of all the series I wanted to go back to the beginning with, this is the one that needed it the least. All the volumes of this series stand really well by themselves, and as long as you read the back of the book and know the premise, the two stories per volume are basically one-shots.
The advantage to reading volume one is that we see where Fujimoto began to doubt his job and the worth of the Ikigami system. He is relatively ambivalent about it in the first story, but after a coworker is executed for expressing his disgust with the system, he is frightened by his job. It also doesn’t help that his first case wound up being a young man who decided he would get revenge on those who bullied him in high school, one of those cases where the person gets the Ikigami and goes crazy. To be fair, he had every reason to do so. Points to Ikigami for pointing out that he should have done it years ago, when something like that would have mattered and the bullies would have remembered him. That was the moral of the story, actually.
The second story is more sentimental, about a young man served with an Ikigami after ditching his musical partner in an attempt to get famous quickly. His career move was a lousy one, and he struggles, but he winds up going out with a bang in one of the most ridiculously sentimental scenes in this admittedly schmaltzy series. I usually like it, but not even I could really enjoy this second story by the end.
All the same, I do like this series. The release pace is just right for it too, since I don’t think I could do more than one volume at a time. It has an excellent premise, and I almost always enjoy the stories, but too much together will make me begin to doubt its raging sentimentality and probably ruin it.
Saint Seiya 19
Posted: June 10, 2010 Filed under: Knights of the Zodiac 1 Comment »Masami Kurumada – Viz – 2007 – 27 volumes
This was released in English as Knights of the Zodiac.
Yes. YES. This is what I wanted from Saint Seiya. Thank you, Hades, for wandering into Sanctuary and raising hell.
Favorite moment: Mu delivers a Kenshiro line when he passes one of the Hades knights and says something to the effect of “Aldeberan struck you with his horns. There’s no use fighting an opponent who’s already dead.” To which the knight acts confused, then promptly explodes. After being alive for the length of time it took to hold a conversation and exchange attacks with Mu.
Also? Seiya’s dead again. I’m sure it won’t be for long, but you know. These things happen.
So yes, so far the Hades saga is great. They don’t even waste time with a transition or exposition. I think Princess Sienna is beheaded within the first few pages of this volume, and the fighting only gets better from there. Lots of people walking around in cloaks to hide their true identity, only to reveal that it’s an underwhelming surprise later. Then they issue their greatest attacks at one another, only to find that they are ineffective and they need to use their greatest greatest attacks.
I have to admit, though, I do like the focus on Mu rather than the Bronze Knights. The four main characters do put in appearances, but I suspect it will still be awhile before they enter the story proper. If the series has one flaw, it’s that it has way too many side characters, but on the other hand, it really makes no difference at all who these characters are. Canon and Saga? Meh. Knights that died several volumes ago at Sanctuary? Meh.
The open graves are nice. I know I’m supposed to recognize the names of all those characters, but the fact that we learn of their resurrection by surveying the cemetery is an awesome way to do it.
Also awesome: another glimpse at the Unicorn Knight, possibly one of the wussiest in the series. Also, Aphrodite, the Pisces Knight makes another appearance with his roses, to reinforce the idea that this is a volume of weaklings kicking each other’s asses, so the best is yet to come.
Claymore 16
Posted: June 9, 2010 Filed under: Claymore 5 Comments »Norihiro Yagi – Viz – 2010 – 17+ volumes
I know I say this every time I get a new volume of this series, but even without knowing anything about what’s going on, even jumping in the middle of a plot-heavy shounen series, Claymore is great stuff. I still really need to go back and start from the first volume, and I will. With six months between new books (I assume we’re caught up with Japan), hopefully I’ll be able to pick up at least a few volumes before 17 comes out in January.
The hardest part for me is that the story jumps around to different groups of characters, but all of them have an interesting story, so I’m not all that lost. Or rather, I am lost, but I’m enjoying the ride enough that I don’t care.
This volume opens with exposition, an old man explaining to a group of three women what’s up with… what appears to be the villain. We see the villain, along with a woman she’s kidnapped, and learn that what she has planned is bad for the world indeed. Another big clue that she was evil was the fact she had cut off the captive woman’s arms and legs and was making her do some sort of reading without them. So… I’m pretty sure I was right on that one.
Elsewhere, we meet up with a group of two women traveling south. They meet up with a Claymore who explains the southern situation to her, how she wouldn’t advise they go any farther, et cetera. They ignore her, and engage in what is a pretty awesome fight scene, made even better by indestructible zombie dolls programmed to eat demon flesh. This scene (which I’m pretty sure I’m missing the nuances on, the zombie dolls are probably really awful in a way I’m not getting) was great, not only as a way to break up all the exposition, but also just as an action scene as well. It had interesting enemies and the fight itself was great, made even better by the fact we got to skip over the boring parts where the zombies were killed again and again as they wore their enemy down.
Now, this review isn’t useful to anyone who actually reads the series, since I’m not familiar with any of the characters or creatures. But from an outsider’s perspective, the volume’s great, and that’s an impressive feat from a shounen series sixteen volumes in. Even if it’s taken a dip in quality in the recent volumes, I don’t really care, because I’m ready to start at the beginning and be taken on an epic action fantasy ride.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Gentlemen’s Alliance † 8
Posted: June 9, 2010 Filed under: Gentlemen's Alliance † Leave a comment »Arina Tanemura – Viz – 2008 – 11 volumes
Don’t you just hate it when you get a volume of shoujo manga that’s full of short stories? Arina Tanemura is bad about this, but I imagine fans do want to read her short stories sooner rather than waiting for a collection. Still. There’s only three chapters of story in here. There’s a short chapter about Ushio, a couple gag chapters about the pets, and a longer short story unrelated to the series. It could be worse, but I really just wanted to press on with the story.
And the story is still addictive. Ushio works through all her dark personal issues and comes out on the other side, but I’m a little disturbed by the way Haine has to trick her into it by giving her exactly what she wants. I did like that Ushio wasn’t shy about forcing her feelings on Haine, and that the relationship between them was treated just like any other, but I hated that we saw it for all the wrong reasons. I know they don’t really exist outside the 70′s and modern moe, but I’d love to see a shoujo manga featuring a nice female couple. Tanemura seems more than capable, especially after the Maora/Maguri coupling went down with relatively little fuss (aside from Maora) in this series.
With Ushio out of the way, Haine can drama things up again by saying she’s doing all the things she tells Ushio not to, like dwell on the fact she hates herself and letting her past and depressing family history hold her back, et cetera. Drama like this just does not fit the sunny Haine very well, and I’m sad we’re going through a bunch of non-romantic drama in the near future. On the plus side, it looks like we’re going to get to see a lot more of sukeban Haine, and that’s my favorite part of her character. There’s a funny scene where her former gang members try and come back for her, but it looks like not-so-funny stuff will be coming up soon. I’ll still love it, because there’s just something about Haine dressing as a yanki after seeing her in that super-girly uniform that makes me smile.
Elemental Gelade 11
Posted: June 8, 2010 Filed under: Elemental Gelade Leave a comment »Mayumi Azuma – Tokyopop – 2010 – 18 volumes
On one hand, I’m happy to see any of Tokyopop’s old series, and it makes me happy that they not only were able to return to publishing, but that they were able to continue what were hopefully some of the best series they had to offer. But because this is the internet, and I am an entitled fan, I just have to ask: Seriously? Elemental Gelade?
Obviously I’ve been reading since the first volume, or I wouldn’t be picking up volume 11. But it’s been a long time since 10 came out, and this volume isn’t very good, so the sour grapes are creeping in. When you have people with gibberish names that have gibberish job descriptions at organizations with gibberish titles, and your volume is full of this as exposition, there’s nothing you can do except wade through the crap and hope that the main characters can pick you up at the end of it all.
And they do. The main characters in this series are at least likable, and a little romance is beginning to pick up between Cou and Ren (in that Cou is beginning to get jealous of the thought that Ren might have someone waiting for her in Edel Garden). The four main characters wind up in another interesting fantasy future-city, and split up to comb the levels. Lots of the city, its culture, and the wackiness of the characters are on display here (especially with the Arc Aile agents), and those are really the best of what this series has to offer. The fact that we had to face the bad guys again, and we moved yet another link up the chain to find out the old enemies were really just henchmen for a greater evil… well, I get tired of it.
There’s also a fight scene at the beginning. With all the changing forms, singing, type matches, stuff blowing around, half-synchs and whatnot, it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s happening.
I’m sorry, Elemental Gelade, you just aren’t very good.
More points to Tokyopop, though, for the lengthy summary they had in the beginning of the volume. I was happy to see it after the long break, and I think it’s necessary in a series like this that feels the need to make up words to describe everything.
Saint Seiya 18
Posted: June 8, 2010 Filed under: Knights of the Zodiac Leave a comment »Masami Kurumada – Viz – 2006 – 28 volumes
The English title is “Knights of the Zodiac,” the Japanese title is “Saint Seiya.”
It’s been too long since I read a volume of this series, but I think it’s safe to say that I am so ready for the Hades saga. I mean… the Poseidon stuff just wasn’t epic enough. We had three knights killing themselves again and again in the face of Poseidon’s cosmos, and Seiya fired off an arrow again and again knowing it would spin right back around and hit him… and others took the arrow for him, too. Eventually, after all the Libra cloth weapons fail, they just start throwing themselves at the pillar that holds Sienna/Athena.
Outside, Ikki is fighting the last remaining Mariner/Poseidon Soldier/knight, and theirs is a battle of words. Words like “The full force of that attack would have driven you insane, be grateful that I showed mercy” and things like that.
And yet, with the deaths over and over again, with all the spared sanity, it just wasn’t ridiculous enough for a volume of this series, let alone one that wraps up a major story arc. Even with Shiryu wandering around completely blind and still managing to throw down his special moves, even with people taking blows full of cosmos without a cloth to shield them, even with the epic final panel of Seiya walking out with Sienna in his arms… none of it was enough.
I need undead Knights of Athena. And I need it now. Thank goodness I have a few volumes of the Hades saga on hand with me.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 26
Posted: June 7, 2010 Filed under: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 4 Comments »Hirohiko Araki – Viz – 2010 – 100+ volumes
published as volume 14 in America
Well, it’s June 7th. Around here, that is both my birthday and the birthday of Hirohiko Araki. Usually some sort of dance party takes place, but last year I expanded that in order to talk about Araki’s early work Mashonen B.T. and the first part of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. This year should have been extra special given recent events, and I was planning on doing a similar post this year for Jojo Part 2 and Gorgeous Irene (another early work), but I am away for my birthday and wound up not having the access to image editing software, a scanner, and drivers for my digital camera I thought I would have, so unfortunately the bulk of the party will need to be postponed a week or so.
All the same, we can still dance. The songs are the same as they were a couple years ago (ie I’m recycling my images), but still worth listening to.
One thing that struck me about this volume… Vanilla Ice really beats the crap out of Iggy. You may remember from last year that I noticed a canine abuse trend in Araki’s work, and the only sign that he may have liked dogs a little bit was Iggy. Well… not so much anymore. Iggy is not treated well in this volume. Now, I know it sounds horrible when I say it, but in the context of the series, and with what I assume is a running gag through all of Araki’s work, it was pretty funny in context. I know I’m going straight to animal hell to be eaten by dogs for eternity for saying that, but I just calls ‘em like I sees ‘em.
Also worth mentioning is that the villain they fight this time around is Vanilla Ice. Not mentioned in the book is the fact his stand is called Cream. Vanilla Ice puts up quite a fight (the hardest by far in part three, so far anyway), but there’s still room for about three pages of resistance from Kenny G, whose stand is Tenor Sax. Oh, you’ll see.
Vanilla Ice goes up against Polnareff, Avdol, and Iggy, with the Jojos and Kakyoin wandering around elsewhere for the entire volume. Cream’s power is the disappear into another dimension, and he can pull anyone and anything into the dimension with him. The trio is taken by unpleasant surprise immediately, and Iggy and Polnareff begin their mystery fight angry. The problem is that, in the other dimension, neither Avdol’s Magician Red nor Iggy’s nose can sense Cream’s movement, so he can appear to wipe anybody out from anywhere at anytime. And they can’t strike at Vanilla Ice, since he hides inside his stand and seems able to withstand the dimension traveling.
This is a sad fight more than anything, and is less puzzle-y and funny than most of the previous ones have been. Even at their most intense, over-the-top gags usually appear. That’s definitely not the case in this volume, and not even Polnareff can crack jokes after what happens at the beginning. The fight is brutal, since neither Iggy nor Polnareff can get any hits in, and Cream frequently clips them and makes body parts disappear. The solution doesn’t come until the last chapter, and it’s surprisingly simple when it does… though it’s not quite as wacky as the solutions usually are. Of course, after D’Arby the gamer, we probably needed something a little more straightforward.
There’s also a short chapter that takes a look at Suzie Q Joestar, the Elder Jojo’s wife, and her visit to her daughter Holly. Suzie Q is a cute, clueless old lady, and it’s nice to see her, but without part 2, her appearance doesn’t really mean much here.
Dio also makes several appearances. The chapters periodically cut to his silhouette elsewhere in the mansion now, and there’s a chapter at the beginning of the book where Dio makes Vanilla Ice immortal and proves just how loyal Ice really is. There are two volumes left in this storyline, both of which focus on the final fight with Dio, which means all the crazy stand user fights are over. I hope you’re ready for some vampiric stand on stand action, because that’s what you’re going to get.
I’ve got a half hour left of dance celebration on my end, and I plan on making the most of it. Again, keep an eye out for the belated Arakifest. I feel bad I couldn’t post it today.
