Amnesia Labyrinth 1
Posted: February 27, 2011 Filed under: Amnesia Labyrinth Leave a comment »Nagaru Tanigawa / Natsumi Kohane – Seven Seas Entertainment – 2011 – 2+ volumes
I wasn’t sure what to think of this volume. I was creeped out and intrigued in turns, and ultimately, I wanted hooked enough to wish for the second volume and some answers for the mystery. I gotta say, I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would within the first couple pages.
Granted, the book starts with a murder. A kid gets pushed in front of an oncoming train. There are few hooks better than that in the first few pages. Then, the action switches over to Souji, a rather stoic and soulless boy, and his homecoming. He’s greeted by three very enthusiastic sisters, and as the volume goes on, we learn that these sisters are not only overbearing, but creepy as well, and several make passes at Souji that he simply ignores. He has agreed to come back to his family’s home for personal reasons, though officially he is taking his place as heir after the unexplained absence of his older brother.
The other side of the story is a murder investigation going on at Souji’s new school. Three unrelated students have died, and Souji is drafted to help find out who the killer is by an outgoing girl named Yukako. This part of the story reminds me a lot of Spiral, a series I’m quite fond of. The whole book did, to some extent, with the murder investigations that the main character helps out with due to his intelligence and connections, the messed-up family situation, and the male main character and spunky female character tied into intelligence activity.
Throughout the course of the volume, we are shown the increasingly more sordid family life Souji leads, information and background of all the murder victims at his school, and a relationship that seems to be forming between Souji and Yukako. The elements of the story are a little chaotic and don’t seem to have much to do with each other, but by the end of the volume, the reader is given just enough information to be hungry for more. We don’t know anything about the killer or the root of the complicated and messed-up situation at Souji’s house, and it seems confusing throughout, but a few revelations by the end of the volume means that enough makes sense that… well, we need an explanation.
I like the hints of the supernatural we get at the end of the volume. The entire story was rooted firmly in reality and most of the problems seemed psychological in nature, but the last few pages imply that some of the problems might be supernatural in nature. Maybe not, but I’m curious either way.
The series shares a writer in common with the Haruhi Suzumiya novels, and while I’m 50/50 on him at this point, I do like the way his stories come together in the end. I’m not sure if Amnesia Labyrinth is more than two volumes, but if it is, I’ll be very curious how he puts everything together next time. The parts with Souji’s sisters really put me off due to their implied (sometimes very heavily implied) sexual undertones, but the overarching mystery is interesting enough that I was willing to overlook those parts. It also helps that later, the story reveals that one or more of the sisters might not be related, despite the titles he uses for them throughout.
This was a review copy provided by Seven Seas Entertainment.
Neon Genesis Evangelion 12
Posted: February 27, 2011 Filed under: Neon Genesis Evangelion 4 Comments »Yoshiyuki Sadamoto – Viz – 2011 – 12+ volumes
Let’s see if I can connect the last several reviews I’ve done: So, Neon Genesis Evangelion is referenced/parodied in Genkaku Picasso. Genkaku Picasso is drawn by Usamaru Furuya, who has recently had his adaptation of Osamu Dezai’s No Longer Human licensed by Vertical. No Longer Human is central to the plot of the first Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime novel. How about that? Three unrelated works connected together. Though I think using Evangelion in that game is cheating. For more connections, how about the fact that, not counting reprints, Oh My Goddess and Evangelion are probably the two longest-running (time-wise) manga in English, and both are edited by Carl Gustav Horn?
Anyway, I’ve never read any other volumes of Evangelion, and I’ve only seen half of the anime series. This is incredible, given my otaku roots go back to 1998, when Evangelion was still something you watched lest you be ejected from the internet. It just wasn’t much my thing. Despite this, I know the characters and plot better than series I actually did watch back then, so I wasn’t completely lost when I picked this up.
Admittedly, I was a little lost, but it was pretty easy to pick up. NERV appears to be under attack by a rival agency, and most of the volume is spent trying to locate Shinji, convincing him to fight in the Eva unit, and also watching Asuka fight in her Eva unit despite being sick/injured. There are some really great character-to-character scenes amid all this action too, including a heart-to-heart between Gendo and Shinji that is later interrupted by Misato telling Shinji to do things for the exact opposite reason as Gendo. Gendo’s a great character as far as villains go, and his openly brutal psychological abuse is really something to behold. I liked him here, if only because I wanted to see just how bad his “motivation” was going to get.
The Gendo/Shinji/Misato scene is a good one, even without knowing much of the context for it, but the true highlight of the book for me was the wonderful scene between Misato and Shinji later, as Shinji is boarding his Eva unit. I was unsure whether or not Shinji really knew what Misato was doing, and I loved that after all that she did, Shinji’s Eva was surrounded by bakelite (?!) and was completely inoperable. Even though it was out of context for me, that scene was still extremely powerful.
I also like the art in this series quite a bit. I can’t comment on the character designs at this point since they are too iconic for me to really… critique, but I like Sadamoto’s linework and the background details he includes. There’s something very sterile about all the scenes in NERV (I’ll freely admit that this might not be NERV, I assume it is), and the detail isn’t very intricate, which goes with the idea that NERV is a military facility. The action scenes are very dynamic, and I was surprised by how clear and dynamic everything was. The fight scene with Asuka was another favorite part of the volume for me, and that was largely because the art was so good.
How close is the plot of the manga to the anime? How far is it from the end? I have no idea, honestly, but I did like what I read here. Do I like it enough to go back and read the rest? Mmm, probably not, especially after giving the anime a try, but I am happy that I read this volume, and I think fans of the series that have been waiting for this will be pleased. It’s a good one, even from a non-fan perspective.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Book Girl 1: Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime
Posted: February 27, 2011 Filed under: Book Girl Leave a comment »Mizuki Nomura – Yen Press – 2010 – 15 volumes
this is a novel
I’m always reluctant to start another novel series… but the ones that get licensed in the US are always so well-chosen that it’s hard to pass them up. Plus, the title of this was “Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime,” which is pretty much a guaranteed buy from me. What can I say?
It’s a mystery (another favorite of mine), but it takes some time to pick up as the main characters are introduced. We meet Konoha and Tohko, the two sole members of the book club at their school. Konoha is a child prodigy, a winner of a young novel-writing contest whose subsequent novel was best-seller material. The pressure got to him, and today he lives in obscurity, burned out and jaded from the ordeal. Tohko is a book girl. She eats books, vividly describing the tastes of classics as she chows down on the pages. She’s also Konoha’s sempai, and bullied him into the book club so that he would write “delicious” stories for her to consume. She isn’t aware of his past, but he’s the only one at the school that knows she consumes the written word.
The plot of the novel kicks off when Tohko agrees to help an underclassman girl named Chia write love letters to a member of the archery club she admires. Chia doesn’t have the confidence to write her own letters, so Tohko forces Konoha to do it for Chia. One letter turns into a daily chore when Chia swears that the boy, named Shuji, really likes the letters she gives him. Konoha contents himself with the fact he seems to be making Chia very happy… until he learns that there may not be a Shuji. And that he looks just like a student who died at the school ten years ago. And when he tries to investigate both, he only comes up with blanks.
This was a bizarre book in many ways, but I think its strongest point is that it would fit on the shelf right alongside any other young adult literature. I’m a big fan of giving light novels a cover to make them more comfortable outside the manga section of the bookstore, and this fits the bill while keeping the same cover art as the original (I’m definitely not against changing it, for instance, it works great for the Haruhi Suzumiya novels). Also, the content of Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime is mostly just a straight-up mystery. While YA literature covers a large number of genres, many of the light novels I’ve read have very manga-centric plots, whereas this has a more general feel to it. Good news for me, a bookstore employee, trying to put this into the hands of the masses (although I work at a used bookstore, so me putting it into the hands of the masses has little impact on Yen Press’s success outside word of mouth).
I also love the plot progression. It has a dark prologue and some hints in a bold typeface and diary-style format that indicate a murder may have been committed, but the actual story starts off with a peaceful scene in the book club. It continues in this vein as Konoha writes the love letters for the blissful Chie. And then things go wrong, first when Chie runs crying through the rain, then when all the niceness just caves on on Konoha and the book turns into a full-blown mystery, complete with a conclusion where a character threatens suicide. It’s great stuff, and it was hard to put down once the darker elements really got going. And I loved how it saved the explanation for the diary-like darkness to the very end. I was misled the whole time.
It was a quick, easy, enjoyable, and genuinely good read. And it left enough mysteries surrounding the main characters that I’m really looking forward to picking up the second book. It’ll probably be another mystery, but I do so love Konoha and Tohko, and they’ll be there, too.
Genkaku Picasso 2
Posted: February 22, 2011 Filed under: Genkaku Picasso Leave a comment »Usamaru Furuya – Viz – 2011 – 3 volumes
In case you missed it last time, I LOVE Usamaru Furuya. Honestly, I am completely and ridiculously biased about this series, but I still think it’s great, and I think that a lot of the problems I had with the first volume were solved in the second. The reason I came forward with that disclosure first thing is that I’m not sure how they are solved, because it does a lot of the same things. But I liked this volume a lot better, and the best gimmicks about the art and story are being put to good use.
The structure of the chapters is the same. A classmate of Hikari’s (new every time) is having trouble, and Hikari complains about his arm rotting until he accidentally finds a way to “draw the darkness of their heart,” then complains some more until he enters his drawing and accidentally solves whatever moral problem the person was having. The topics are a little more indepth this time, including two unusually touching stories about gender identity. One from a character who finds himself increasingly uncomfortable as a male, and another from a girl who can’t identify herself as a girl because of childhood teasing and builds barriers to function in her current relationship. Other stories touch on ambition and jealousy. A couple of the stories are multi-chapter this time, too.
The topics of conflict with the featured characters were more complex, and while I still feel like the characters were going through the motions to solve the problems, they were much more interesting to read. The characters du jour also did a good job of talking through what was bothering them in every case, and once again, I can’t get over the surreal pencil drawings and landscapes Hikari enters into in every chapter. It’s truly the highlight of the series for me, the fun it has with the art. So I guess the second volume really did improve on the first.
There were some bizarre pop culture references that took some puzzling in most cases. The second story arc pivots on an Evangelion, but not really Evangelion, anime that the couple (one that Hikari helps in the last volume) enjoy together. Hikari gets to pilot the Eva unit in the heart landscape and everything. Later, there’s a Walt Disney World parody called Borise World. While the Evangelion dodge was an easy one to figure out, it was the fact William Borise was obviously Walt Disney that linked the two… I have no idea where Borise comes from Disney, assuming both are spelled and pronounced the way I think they are. There’s also a Morning Musume reference in one of the later stories.
I’ve grown to like the characters. They’re pretty one-dimensional, sure, but that’s the point. I love cranky Hikari, who only ever complains and never really solves anybody’s problems. As a result of the “heart landscapes,” he also finds himself in increasingly awkward positions, such as on the floor spying on an intimate couple, playing a character’s clarinet in secret to try to get a feel for her, and more and more in the bathroom, where he can draw in peace without his increasingly large number of “friends” bothering him. For all his quirks and misanthropy, everybody he helps seems to genuinely like him in return, though I love that he is largely unchanged by this.
I’m afraid a lot of people were scared off by the first volume. Don’t be! If you were at all intrigued by the experimentation there, things are much better in this volume, I promise. And by much better, I mean the stories have been fine-tuned and things are less annoyingly formulaic. It’s more of the same, but better, and it gives the truly unique elements of this story a chance to be properly appreciated.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Rin-ne 5
Posted: February 20, 2011 Filed under: Rin-ne Leave a comment »Rumiko Takahashi – Viz – 2011 – 5+ volumes
So one of my problems with the series thus far is that it’s hard to read both Rin-ne and Sakura. The story is beginning to hint at the two of them being a couple, but really, Rin-ne is the one that gets worked up when a rival shinigami girl starts hitting on him. Sakura being completely emotionless becomes a “thing” here, since with her acting like that, Rin-ne really can’t tell what she’s thinking when Ageha randomly shows up to court him. He’s… sort of the same way in terms of stoicism, but he’s a bit easier to read since he’ll do anything for tiny amounts of money, seems to always be depressed, and clearly has a crush on Sakura. I do like that Sakura’s complete lack of emotion is a plot point, though. Hopefully that will get fun later, or Rin-ne will develop a bit more of a personality to balance her out.
The short stories are still a little zany for my taste, but there were a couple fun ones this time around. My favorite was about a Haunted Cedar at Sakura’s old elementary school that she, Rin-ne, and Tsubasa exorcise together. It’s pretty straightforward, with a ghost from Sakura’s past and an evil spirit, but I think my favorite part was the yo-yo tricks. It also had a cute ending, which is a little out of the ordinary so far.
Other stories include one about a ghost whose dog haunts the library, a mystery ghost grabbing the ankles of the track star, a haunted bento, and the end of a story from the last volume that introduced Ageha the shinigami, whose older sister is romantically involved with Rokudo’s dad. Most of them make more of an attempt at humor than genuine scary/supernatural subject matter, and the humor is falling flat for me, but there’s something about them that is rather addictive. All the stories are in a 3-chapter story arc, and it’s hard not to finish and immediately start the next one. There’s no real plot development or major goings-on this time around other than the beginnings of the Sakura/Rin-ne pseudo-relationship, but I can tell that the dance around these two will take a long, long time to resolve itself. Sigh.
Ageha and Tsubasa are sort of the same character at this point, exorcist/shinigami that are head-over-heels in love with one of the main characters. I like Tsubasa a little more than Ageha, but only because he is so energetic and free with his sacred ashes. That joke still hasn’t gotten old. Ageha is all right as far as a secondary female romantic interest goes, she’s a lot girlier than Sakura and isn’t afraid to show a little affection towards Rin-ne. Rin-ne is torn on this point, since he doesn’t want to encourage Ageha, yet can’t turn down free food.
Honestly, it’s more-or-less the same story it was in volume one, but the characters are starting to grow on me, and it becomes harder and harder to put down with every volume. I still don’t like it nearly as much as the other series I’ve read by Takahashi, but it’s beginning to get that sitcom-y quality to it, where I’ll come back for every volume just because I like the characters and enjoy watching them do things. I’m still hoping for a little direction plot-wise within the next couple volumes, though.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Ratman 2
Posted: February 20, 2011 Filed under: Ratman 1 Comment »Sekihiko Inui – Tokyopop – 2010 – 7+ volumes
The second volume did not disappoint. I love nearly everything about this series. The plot, the sense of humor, the fact that the silliness can sometimes be incredibly cool, the twisted moral message I know it’s building up to, and I even like the main character learning by trial and error how to be a good bad guy in a world of super-corrupt heroes.
The second half of the book focuses on a story where Shuto goes to a hero awards ceremony and gets to meet all the people he’s been idolizing. This, of course, goes wrong when he has to transform into Ratman and break up an extremely destructive fight between a drunk sentai team, then tough out a fire set by a character that did it to make himself look good and Ratman into more of a villain. It’s a great story, and it shows the balance between humor and drama perfectly. There are lots of silly heroes running around doing silly things, and Shuto reacts appropriately. But ultimately, it’s a story about how Shuto, a “hero” outside the organization and supposedly working as a bad guy, is way more of a hero than any of the guys that do it for a living. He’s also just a short high school kid, which drives it home that much harder.
The first half of the book looks more at Shuto trying to do good as Ratman. Strangely, this book is devoid of “evil” tasks that Ratman performs for his organization, but Shuto doesn’t help Ratman much himself as his do-gooding often turns into compromising situations. The fact that Ratman is really sinister looking also doesn’t help any, and many people actively resist his aid.
I don’t have that much to add that I didn’t say last time. This is a wonderful series. It’s nothing too amazing or flashy, but I love sentai stories, and this is exactly why: they are absurd while often spinning a wonderful story amid all the humor. This and Heroes Are Extinct are the best in English (and yes, I will plug Heroes Are Extinct any chance I get). I wish they were more popular.
Venus Capriccio 2
Posted: February 20, 2011 Filed under: Venus Capriccio 1 Comment »Mai Nishikata – CMX – 2009 – 5 volumes
This series is adorable. It isn’t the height of CMX shoujo cuteness (I’d argue for Stolen Hearts), but it’s pretty close, and for a lot of the same reasons. There’s a solid couple (or maybe almost-couple) that’s really affectionate to each other. This series is interesting in that the male romantic interest is not only the driving force in the relationship, but is also much younger than Takami. There’s also a great music theme to all the stories, which works for just about everything in this volume.
How about a story where Takami waitresses at a club? Akira signs up for the same job to protect her from drunks, but it also happens to be the club where he plays piano sometimes. We get to learn about Akira’s past and piano playing habits courtesy of a piano competition that everyone pressures him to enter. And a new piano teacher at Akira and Takami’s school puts pressure on Akira to man up or lose Takami to the newcomer.
It’s episodic, but for character-focused series like this, it works, especially when the characters are so likable. Takami’s tomboyishness and soft edges make her a lot of fun to watch, and she is equally likely to blow up at Akira or realize that he’s been doing something wonderful to protect her. Akira’s very cool and rather smooth for such a youngster, but it’s fun to see the new teacher Oda rankle him, or to see his soft spot for Takami. It’s also touching when you learn his family situation and how much playing in contests truly terrifies him and why.
The piano contest takes up a big chunk of the volume, and it’s a great story for both Akira and Takami since we can see Takami get excited and hone her skills, while Akira grows more and more terrified of failure as the day draws closer. They support each other, open their hearts, and do the usual shoujo manga thing. What can I say? It works really well here, again, because Akira and Takami are likable and easy to identify with.
I’ve already read the third volume (I must’ve been in a bad mood, because I don’t remember liking it this much or I would have certainly picked up more), but I do have the fourth volume in my to-read pile. Unfortunately, CMX closed up shop before releasing the fifth and final volume, which is a shame. This is another great series that will go unfinished.
Gunslinger Girl 1 (omnibus ed)
Posted: February 19, 2011 Filed under: Gunslinger Girl 2 Comments »Yu Aida – Seven Seas Entertainment – 2011 – 12+ volumes
This omnibus contains vols. 1-3
I’m always thrilled when a series gets a second chance, and even more thrilled when the second chance appeals to fans of the original. I’ve heard a lot about Gunslinger Girl, but never picked it up when ADV was releasing the manga. Now Seven Seas has picked up the title, and is opting to release material previously seen in English in an omnibus format. Omnibuses are a really good value for people looking to start a series, and people who’ve already collected the volumes don’t need to wait while six volumes they already bought come out to get to the good stuff.
This series is indeed well-liked, and it’s one of the few series I hear people recommend in real life when talking about anime. From what they’ve described, it sounds like a very faithful adaptation of the manga. Basically, there is a secret Italian organization that rescues mortally wounded little girls and “conditions” them into superpowered android killing machines. Not literally superpowered, since they can’t really do anything outside the limits of the human body, but they are certainly faster and stronger than little girls, their reflexes are fine-tuned, they are masters with a host of deadly weapons, and are difficult to kill. The chapters are mostly one-shots, sometimes little vignettes about the girls, sometimes a look at their missions, and occasionally they are longer and connected stories about some of the political situations the girls are up against in Italy, namely a terrorist organization named Padania.
Honestly, this is the type of thing that sounds too fanservice-y for my tastes (if it wasn’t fanservice, why would the characters be little girls?), but I heard so many people say that it’s better than that that I had to give it a try. And they’re right. The Section 2 secret agents are little girls, but rather than have it just be about their fights and panty-flashes (which, yes, are unfortunately in there), there are a lot of stories about the little girls themselves, what they like to collect, how their friendships work, what happened that put them into Section 2, and their relationships with their partner agents, called “brothers” in Italian. And there’s no comedy or overt fanservice during these stories, it’s all pretty sober and sweet stuff. It’s meant to contrast to the times when they thoughtlessly mow down bad guys to protect their “brother,” complete a mission, or protect their identity. It works well, although they do straddle a strange line in many cases, since they are just shy of being normal little girls. Their “conditioning” tips them quite far onto the android side, and other than the relationship with their “brothers,” who they adore (refreshingly, in a very older brother and non-romantic way), their links to others cannot be trusted.
The story does do a good job of balancing action scenes, the quiet downtime with the girls, and the politics that increasingly dominate towards the end of the omnibus. The politics are based on a real situation in Italy, but greatly exaggerated, of course. Morality is a major theme, such as whether it’s right to make the girls into androids despite the fact they are all happy to do their jobs. Their memories are also purged, and many were pulled from horrendous situations, the first of which is likely the worst. Their happiness may just be a result of their conditioning, and the drugs that are used to condition cause dependence and memory loss if used too much, which we see in one of the girls named Angelica. There’s also the moral question of the jobs they do. They sometimes kill innocent people in the line of duty for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and some of their jobs are also in a gray area, though the girls don’t seem to register when they are doing right and wrong. All of this comes off as quite disturbing, which, again, stands in contrast to the normally happy girls.
I love the Italian setting. The mangaka goes to great lengths to include many details, including the backgrounds and agencies the handlers/brothers were in before joining Section 2 and the politics they are involved in. Padania is a great detail, of course, but the characters discuss the Messina bridge at length, and we also get to tour many different cities and regions in Italy, and even hear a little about what makes them special. I so rarely see manga that is not set in Japan or a fantasy world, and even when I do, normally there are some details tossed off as “hey, the characters are here, this is the big tourist stuff they’d see.” All the details here are part of the plot, and I enjoy it immensely.
Overall, there were a lot of disturbing overtones, but the story and pacing kept these in check, and the mood varied so much throughout that I was pretty impressed when I got to the end. I’ll admit that, as much as I like the research that went into all the politics, heavily political stories like this was at the end aren’t really my thing, and that seems to be the overarching plot so far. I do like the one-shots with the girls, but it feels like a lot of what could be said was presented in this volume, so I’d be curious what else we’d get to see as the story goes on. Do they eventually start to break down due to the conditioning drugs? Is it really possible to endanger their lives as superpowered androids? Will the “brother” relationships grow less awkward? What about Claes, the “brotherless” agent, or Angelica, the agent on the verge of a breakdown? There are still a lot of possible directions, but it looks like we’ve met most of the main girls and know their feelings and backstory.
It’s definitely a lot better than the premise sounds, and it succeeds in taking a very fanservice-y subject and making a pretty good story with it while largely avoiding the creep factor. It’s for sure worth checking out if you’ve been listening to the hype all these years.
This was a review copy provided by Seven Seas Entertainment.
Sensual Phrase 3
Posted: February 19, 2011 Filed under: Sensual Phrase Leave a comment »Mayu Shinjo – Viz – 2004 – 18 volumes
As silly as this series is, I think its saving grace is that there is never any question of loyalty between Sakuya and Aine. Even when the usual shoujo manga plot devices get thrown their way (Aine lying to Sakuya in order to spare his feelings, and in one hilariously obvious scene, Aine believing that Sakuya is cheating on her), there’s never a doubt in Sakuya’s mind about Aine. And Aine is almost always the same way. With that as its base, there’s all manner of trashy and unbelievable goings-on, but it’s all good, because at the end of the day, nothing is going to split Aine and Sakuya up.
Suspension of Disbelief Theatre continues, in the meantime. Sakuya’s rich and important brother gets the better of him, and Aine finally succumbs to his threats in order to save Sakuya (from a serious, but somehow laughable, situation). What’s the best way to get back at his brother? Maybe suspend Lucifer with no warning, indefinitely, and take an unannounced trip to America? Well, that sounds good. It also makes you wonder just where the brother’s money and influence comes from.
That’s another thing to like about this series. Plot points that usually take volumes to run through the paces in other series take a matter of pages, or maybe a chapter. While, in theory, the condensed story is probably a little sloppy, I love that this series is full of no pretenses. It knows exactly what its readers want.
And after that messy brother business, they get it. A whole lot of unbelievable smut. And “smut” really is the best word for it. It’s not out-and-out filthy, there’s just a ton of innuendo, some barely-shown sex scenes between Aine and Sakuya (although they are certainly having sex, and it does show the two of them in bed together a lot), and much discussion and song lyrics on the subject of sex. One of the plot points at the end is how Aine can’t write filthy lyrics about wanting sex because she’s no longer a virgin, so Sakuya says “No more cock for you until you can write again.” It is entirely straight-faced about delivering such lines, but they are also hilariously blunt.
That mix of complete seriousness with hilarious dialogue is why I love this series. Plus, it isn’t pretending to be anything but what it is. It merely pays lip service to the shoujo manga genre. It’s an H manga for teenagers, through and through. There’s probably something to that.
