B.O.D.Y. 10
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: B.O.D.Y. Leave a comment »Ao Mimori – Viz – 2010 – 15 volumes
Because Ryoko and Ryu are apart in this volume, it reads more like a regular shoujo manga. Nothing even remotely disturbing happens. It was a nice break after the last creepy volume.
Ryoko decides to give Ryu space, but after he vanishes without a trace, her friends push her into looking for him. She’s not sure how she feels, since he seemed so sure he didn’t want to be with her, but since she still likes him, well… you know. The search continues into the next volume.
The second half looks at Ryu, who now lives with his dad in a remote cabin while he blows off school. His dad wants him to chill out and get himself sorted before he goes back to the city. Ryu’s aunt and cousin come to visit, and a relationship is set up between Ryu and the cousin. The cousin doesn’t like to be touched by boys.
Okay, I lied. It is creepy. But in B.O.D.Y. terms, that cousin could just be the girl next door.
It’s a little easier to like Ryu and Ryoko after this, and Ryoko even stands up for herself a couple times (though she mostly lets herself get pushed around by her friends, who make all the decisions for her). Maybe… maybe they’ll get back together and be normal people. And maybe it’ll be all romantic and nothing else horrible or stupid will happen. Maybe B.O.D.Y. can pull it off.
I feel so bad about hating this, because Ao Mimori seems like a really nice person. Her side notes are entertaining, and they’re easy to follow since she talks about Animal Crossing and American television shows, along with silly things about drawing the manga and talking to Karuho Shiina, the mangaka of Kimi ni Todoke. Her author notes are often the best part, and I normally hate shoujo manga author notes. I just wish her manga were easier to like. It’s just… not. I’m sorry, Ms. Mimori.
Knights of the Zodiac 22
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: Knights of the Zodiac Leave a comment »Masami Kurumada – Viz – 2008 – 28 volumes
This… this volume had plot in it. I don’t even know what to make of that. It’s mostly exposition and explanation. I guess we need some reasons as to why the Gold Knights of Athena have turned traitor, and, of all the things to explain, how living Knights can enter Hades. It’s pretty cool that we learn about that, and yet two Big Bangs colliding goes mostly unnoticed at the beginning of the volume.
Does the reasoning behind the traitorous Gold Knights make sense? Mmm… yes? And no? I mean, what is going on is revealed as suddenly, then disregarded, as quickly as anything else in this series.
There is one major event having to do with Athena. She suddenly takes an active and somewhat tragic role in the battle, and the story does pause to consider this longer than it has anything else so far. It’s kinda cool, what’s going on, and I’m curious to see what kind of role Athena will ultimately play. I’m sure it will be spectacular.
No exciting fights this volume, though the Bronze Knights re-enter the fray, only to be completely disregarded by the Hades Knights as too low-rank.
Then they jump into hell.
The end.
B.O.D.Y. 9
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: B.O.D.Y. 4 Comments »Ao Mimori – Viz – 2010 – 15 volumes
Okay, this series is just gross. I’ve been decrying it since the beginning, but mostly for the stupidity of the characters and the frustration of watching them wreck their relationship over and over again. It’s one of the trashiest series I’ve ever read, and I only continue to pick up new volumes out of morbid curiosity.
What do I get here? Fistfights, right at the beginning. Also, some of the dumbest arguments I’ve ever read, where Ryoko is accused of cheating on Ryu with a boy she’d met one time, something that could have been cleared up had she said anything rather than letting Ryu and the boy get into a fight. It still could have been cleared up, but instead neither Ryu nor Ryoko want to listen to reason or trust one another, which is par for the course in this series. A teacher with a crush on Ryu berates Ryoko, telling her she’s being selfish and shouldn’t be with Ryu when someone who cares as much as she does is available. Ryoko believes every word she says. Later, the teacher strips and tearily offers to have sex with a group of high schoolers who find out Ryu is a host, saying she’d do anything to keep that a secret. Ryoko… somehow thinks this is admirable, taking it to heart that the teacher really would do anything for Ryu, and who is she to date him?
Thankfully, the volume ends with one of the club boys telling all three of the characters that there is something wrong with them. Then, Ryoko and Ryu break up. Again.
More than the stupid fights, I cannot deal with these selfish, petty characters. Ryoko can’t stand up for herself and is willing to take verbal abuse from every character to heart, neither she nor Ryu can listen to reason, Ryu is crazy possessive, that teacher is just messed up, and the last straw for me was offering sex to cover up that secret seen as something admirable. I just cannot deal with that. Hot Gimmick was plenty trashy, but even it was less abusive than this is. And while Gakuen Prince has a gross premise, at least it realizes it’s crossing the line and doesn’t take anything seriously. Everything here is portrayed in an earnest and realistic light. Is a girl reading it supposed to put themselves in Ryoko’s shoes? I sure hope not.
Seriously. What is wrong with this series? Do you know how much it takes to get me to cringe at a shoujo manga? Maybe that’s why volume 11 hasn’t been solicited yet. I hate to see a manga series cancelled, especially if it only has five volumes left, but part of me wonders if it crossed some other sick, disturbing line. But how much worse could it get?
Ah, well. The valentines on the back cover are very cute.
Dogs 4
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: Dogs Leave a comment »Shirow Miwa – Viz – 2010 – 5+ volumes
This volume gets interesting once again. There are some complicated politics at play in this series, but taking them in a little at a time is the way to go. Badou is the main character here, and we catch glimpses of his past as he tries to dig up information on just exactly what is going on with all the craziness lately.
The cover illustration is pretty great, it’s a wraparound illustration of Badou in the theater that the end-of-volume battle takes place in. The gun, flowers, and popcorn on the back cover is a nice touch too, but I like his expression a lot. I like the art style in this series in general. It’s very high contrast, and while many panels have been stripped of their backgrounds, when the backgrounds are present, they’re fairly detailed, leaving the potential laziness of the other panels looking like a stark mood choice.
I also like the eccentric characters on both sides of the conflict. Badou busts in on a mob boss complaining pathetically about an (admittedly major) injury he sustained in a fight with Badou and Heine. Badou doesn’t find what he’s looking for there, but his sudden entrance means he’s chased all the way to his home base cathedral by that mob, where he yells for Heine and the sword girl, who casually eliminate the entire mob. It’s a pretty funny scene, and I like that about Badou. While the other characters have mostly serious, melodramatic stories and pasts following them, Badou keeps it light and silly while still sticking with the cool action vibes of the series.
There’s nothing light or silly about the snatches of flashback we get while Badou wanders around looking for information. His brother is the one that taught him the ropes in information brokering, and some mystery event killed his brother and took Badou’s eye. Badou doesn’t really dwell on it, but he remembers as he’s gathering information anyway, since he’s currently engaged in the type of dangerous mission he swore he’d never do again. By the end of the volume, we’ve met Badou’s demon from the past, though we have to wait until next volume for an explanation and resolution to the fight.
This volume is mostly exposition, and it does a good job of beginning to sort out some of the more complex information we’ve been getting while taking things slow and employing the light humor and slick style that I’ve come to expect. I’m fond of this as a senin-ish action series, and while it’s not at the top of the list, it’s still worth reading for anyone looking for this type of story.
Very! Very! Sweet 6
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: Very! Very! Sweet Leave a comment »JiSang Shin / Geo – Yen Press – 2010 – 8 volumes
Okay! Things are starting to right themselves in a shoujo-manga way. The four main characters are no longer pursuing depressing paths, where they hope and wish that the person they have a massive crush on returns their feelings, and things are looking much more positive and healthy towards the end.
For some reason, Erica’s always given me a bad vibe. She’s never really done anything underhanded or more deceitful than loving Tsuyoshi, so I’m not sure where all the hate came from. She gets burned pretty badly in this volume, and shot down in a way that she finally can’t ignore. One of the other characters points out that she’s always been a good sport about Tsuyoshi, and I realized there wasn’t really any reason to hate her. I suppose in other stories, she’s usually the bratty, clingy ex-girlfriend that tries to set up the heroine, but not in this one. She turns out to be more of a friend than anything, and she gets along with everyone very well.
Meanwhile, the language barrier continues to pique my interest. Tsuyoshi confesses his feelings to Be-Ri in grand style, but in Japanese. Be-Ri mishears his “daisuki” (I like you) as “Ya ee saekki” (you bastard), with hilarious results. Tsuyoshi laughs at this later, and finds a more genuine way of confessing his feelings later, turning the mistranslation into a heartfelt sentiment. Meanwhile, Be-Ri’s sister’s boyfriend still confesses an interest in Be-Ri. She’s had a crush on him, so she’s confused about that. On a secondary plotline, Be-Ri’s sister is trying to figure out who it is that she really loves.
There’s lots of absolutely adorable moments as Tsuyoshi tries to find a way to get his feelings through to Be-Ri. Again, I love the language barrier in this series, I wish that was a plot device that was used consistently more often (the only other series I can think of that used it occasionally, off the top of my head, is Hana-Kimi). It’s a cute shoujo romance with genuinely strong and likable characters (in fact, Be-Ri’s strong will is central to the plot of the series), but again, if you don’t like girls’ romance comics, there’s not going to be much here to sink your teeth into. And yes, I will continue to repeat that at the end of every review until something interesting happens.
Evil’s Return 4
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: Evil's Return Leave a comment »Hwan Shin / Jong-Kyu Lee – Tokyopop – 2005 – 4 volumes
And this train wreck comes to a close! There’s actually more sensical plot development in this volume than in the other three volumes combined, as Chail, Sunwoo, and Mirae track down Yumi/Soha. They reach the town where she’s being held, and I had Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure flashbacks as the Heavenly Father, the ultimate enemy, was shown to bear a passing resemblance to Dio and controls a town tucked away in the mountains with vampiric/evil servants (which… bears a slight resemblance to part one of Jojo, but not really). The team fights possessed priests as the Heavenly Father leads them up to a mountain. There, some nonsense happens and the series comes to an abrupt and hilarious end.
I don’t even have any additional commentary for this one. There’s nothing else to say. Lots of gore and T&A, the plot had to be read off the back of the book because so little was said, and nothing made sense. But it was sort of entertaining in its badness. It also reads quickly, so if you’re into crappy manga/manhwa, you’re not going to be plodding through a lot of dialogue. And the ending really was unintentionally funny with its repetitions of an earlier story and the way it just… ends.
I would recommend the early volumes of Arm of Kannon if you’re looking for gory, nonsensical, bad manga, or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure if you’re looking for gory, awesome manga. But if you’ve read both and know what you’re in for… give this a whirl. It’s terrible, but if you’re the right kind of person, you’ll have a little bit of fun.
Bleach 33
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: Bleach 4 Comments »Tite Kubo – Viz – 2010 – 48+ volumes
Okay, yes. This volume was marginally more interesting due to the big Nel reveal. I… thought there would be something about Nel and her friends later in the story, and I’m happy to see it work out in Ichigo’s favor. I was a little worried she was in disguise. She’s a pretty cute girl, and plenty noble too, both in the present and in the lengthy flashback we get to see.
Her friends, Pesche and Dondochakka, look like they have a story to tell coming up, too. Their faces weren’t shown, but whether that was because they will revert later on or because it doesn’t matter what they used to look like, I’m not sure. They are good guys though, and their devotion to Nel is touching.
Honestly, Nel’s devotion to Ichigo, and vice versa, is also pretty cool, especially when the chips are down. It’s great to have someone like that on your side, especially when a powerful new opponent with a gigantic spear shows up to kick you when you’re down. Enough with the endless parade of bad guys, already.
Elsewhere, bad guys continue to beat up on Renji and Uryu. Nothing much to say there. His techniques are pretty cool, and a little different than the usual powerful slashes and energy blasts, but not much comes from them. I’m… not sure if that fight’s over due to the interference of Dondochakka, or whether Dondochakka and Pesche just left and Uryu and Renji are still there.
Bleach won me back. Tentatively. The next volume preview shows me that a whole bunch of characters are about to join the fray, though, and I am NOT liking that. Hooray for more abstract energy blasts and big slashes for volume after volume!
I Hate You More Than Anyone 9
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: I Hate You More Than Anyone 2 Comments »Banri Hidaka – CMX – 2010 – 13 volumes
Another CMX series that I’m sad to see incomplete. I liked it more and more with every volume, and reading this one only reminded me how much I’d miss the violent love between Kazuha and Senko, or the currently smooth relationship between Kazuha and Maki, or the budding and still adorable relationship between Senko and the elder Honjo.
“I Hate You More Than Anyone” gains another meaning here, as we learn about the past between Maki and Saki. Saki’s mother was a… sad woman, and Maki takes out a lot of his frustrations on his foster family, namely Maki and his mother Karen, but also his father. The whole story behind Maki, Saki, and the woman that Maki fell in love with is all told here, so there are no more secrets.
Does it help make Saki more sympathetic? Not really. He’s still pretty cold-blooded, and the things about his past and childhood, along with the stuff a lot of people say during the flashback, are pretty ridiculous. Also, lots of melodrama. But it was still pretty enjoyable. And perhaps this means we’ll see less of Saki in the future, now that his ugliness in the past isn’t hanging over Maki.
Also, we get more “I Hate You More Than Anyone” when Kazuha relives her earliest impressions of Maki, and Maki reciprocates the hate when he reveals when he first met Kazuha. It’s pretty silly and mostly sentimental, but I loved to hear the retelling.
Then follows the fashion show, which I just didn’t have the heart to get into since I knew we would never see the outcome in volume ten. There are still lots of choice moments, mostly involving Senko and the elder Honjo, both together and separately.
I don’t really have that much else to say. It’s a silly, romantic story with lots of ups and downs, but it somehow feels better reading it here than the somewhat more romantic and sentimental stories (I mean, I like it, but there’s only so much We Were There melodrama one can read). Hidaka has a very fun, character-oriented style, and I loved her exaggerated silliness in the end. I liked this more than V.B. Rose, the other Hidaka series I read, and while I’m sad to see that there won’t be any more of this series, I’m happy that Hidaka’s other series seems to be almost completely translated at this point. I’m going to have to catch myself up!
Children of the Sea 4
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: Children of the Sea 4 Comments »Daisuke Igarashi – Viz – 2010 – 4+ volumes
For the record, as of right now, there are 2,500 reviews on this site. I am vaguely proud and also vaguely embarrassed. Moving on.
Hmm. I wonder what happened with this series. It looks like a new volume hasn’t come out in Japan since July 2009, and the new chapters on the SigIkki site stopped in October. I wonder if Igarashi is on hiatus or something?
Anyway, I am still extremely torn on this series. I think it is wonderfully cosmic, and a very wild ride into topics that aren’t often explored. With discussions of what conditions have to be like on a planet in order to generate an ocean, descriptions of life on a galactic and primordial level, and the sea life still agitated and preparing for some cataclysm or rebirth, It’s hard not to appreciate the scope of this series. It is ambitious, and studies nature, the environment, life, and its meaning in a way that is rare in most literature.
I also like the continued use of sea-based folklore to inform the narrative. We only get two such stories in this volume, but I really do appreciate the magical touch and local flavor of these stories. They are utterly unlike one another too, not just story after story of someone’s grandmother spotting a strange creature. Their point is mostly to lend an element of mysticism to the sea, something they do very well.
But I still have problems with the abstract nature of the main plot. All these vague things are happening in aid of an outcome that, after 1,400 pages, neither the characters nor the readers can even guess at. The characters are merely tools we are using to observe these forces of nature, and I also don’t really like that. This volume in particular just seemed like a series of unrelated events that take place one right after the other. They illustrate the theories that the characters are discussing, to some degree, but they don’t really mean anything. They mostly just look pretty.
A lot of my issues come from personal taste, though, since I don’t usually enjoy stories that dip this far into the theoretical. But it is kind of hard to read. I feel bad admitting that, but I just have trouble picking a volume of this up, knowing it won’t make much sense or really go anywhere.
I love looking at it, though, and that helps a lot. The art is fantastic, and its strange organic forms and rough shapes suit the discussion of the sea, the creatures, and the people that live around it perfectly. There are actually very few words for as long as the book is, and that’s so that we can appreciate the scenes of Ruka swimming through a whale’s stomach/underground cavern, people covered in jellyfish, the tribal forms painted on the bellies of whales, antarctic landscapes, beautiful scenes of shell divers, extinct shark species, studies of antarctic plankton, and all sorts of other interesting asides. I enjoy the side content more than the main story, and that’s largely due to the wonderful art.
It’s definitely not for me, but I can see that it is a great series. Do I think it would appeal to a lot of people? Honestly, no, and that’s a shame since it is so wonderful. But I’m happy I’ve had the chance to read it. And I do wonder where it’s eventually headed.
Tsubasa 28
Posted: December 29, 2010 Filed under: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 3 Comments »CLAMP – Del Rey – 2009 – 28 volumes
UGH. Wow, so things got way more convoluted than I could have possibly imagined. Time travel was really scrutinized and explained in a very explicit, complicated way, and I… just didn’t enjoy it very much. I felt like I should be able to write a thesis after I finished, or something. It was all very technical. And unfortunately, the characters were lost in the explanation. They were the best part.
Was it worth it? I hated the later volumes, because the explanation for the simple things that I enjoyed early on was near-incomprehensible. But I do love the characters, and I loved all the cute stories and dimension hopping, and I loved Fai. The first half was worth it, at least, and if you’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound I guess. And it’s hard not to grow attached to something you’ve followed for years.
For non-fans of CLAMP, it’s probably not worth it in the end, and the experience in the early volumes is definitely enhanced if you have at least Cardcaptor Sakura under your belt. There’s a lot of cute shoujo moments pulled from CLAMP’s earlier series, mixed with a lot of swooshy abstract shounen action. It’s pretty gender-neutral, and for everybody, but it’s hard for me to believe that the crowd this was probably originally intended for could wrap their heads around the explanations.
Now, I’m going to cut and talk myself through this finale. If you don’t want to be spoiled silly, don’t read below the cutoff.
