Kimi ni Todoke 9
Posted: August 31, 2011 Filed under: Kimi ni Todoke Leave a comment »Karuho Shiina – Viz – 2011 – 14+ volumes
I don’t know why I’m surprised every time a love confession happens before volume 17 of a shoujo series, but I am. I was still really enjoying this series without it, but volume 9 goes ahead and crosses that line.
Of course, this love confession doesn’t quite go the way you imagine. That surprised me a little too, since Kimi ni Todoke is all about sunshine and flowers. But this is probably the worst thing that has happened so far.
It’s interesting the way this is handled. Sawako and Kazehaya miss each other on a very fundamental level, and then don’t talk about it. It seems the situation can only get worse from there, but instead it’s an opportunity for all the people around Sawako to give her advice and gently nudge her in the right direction. Even after all this time, she lacks self-confidence, and that’s part of the problem. Kazehaya can only take so much, after all.
I can’t say too much without spoiling it more than I already have, but still. With addictive characters and the normal good vibes thrown so far out of whack here, I’m still really impressed by what this series has to offer.
Actually, this volume flew by, and it leaves off in a place that makes reading volume 10 immediately afterwards VERY IMPORTANT. I will do so now.
Zombie Loan 12
Posted: August 31, 2011 Filed under: Zombie-Loan Leave a comment »PEACH-PIT – Yen Press – 2011 – 13 volumes
I gave up on this series after three volumes. As interesting as the premise was (that you can buy yourself another chance at life), it was a little too fanservice-heavy for my taste. I always thought about giving it another chance, though, and I thought I’d try volume 12 to see how much the series had changed since then.
I was… lost, at first. It seemed like everybody, including the main character, was dead for real at the beginning of the volume, and the only ones left were Chika and Shito, the pair that Michiru met in the first volume. It didn’t make sense to me that Michiru was killed, but I was also a little bit impressed by this. There were characters and situations I was unfamiliar with at first too, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get a handle on things.
But then Chika and Shito are killed, too. Except they don’t really die. For some reason, they wind up in a video game. That doesn’t even make sense, but I’m willing to go along with it. Another character happens to do the debugging, and they use a password reset to get a better form for working their way through the video game, but apparently the idea was that they had to play through the video game to get strong enough post-mortem to enter some sort of… recycling bin in order to rescue everyone else who is killed.
Again, I don’t think this would make any sense even if I had been reading the whole thing. But I like it anyway. When they do get to the recycling bin, there are literal garbage trucks moving “data” around. None of the characters have a body, they are simply “data.”
I… I think I like it again. I don’t think this volume reflects what came before it at all, but I’m impressed by the off-the-wall logic here. I was surprised to see that this was the second-to-last volume. It didn’t really feel like a climax to me, but then again, the main character was dead, so what do I know.
There’s not even that much action. Mostly it’s just a lot of talking heads trying to explain to you why any of this makes sense. I tuned it out, because it doesn’t matter. Two characters died and wound up in a video game. There’s no explaining that. Also, this is the second volume I’ve read in two weeks that uses Akashic Records as part of the plot/power structure. It’s unusual to see that come up so frequently.
Anyway. I’m sold. I’m going to go back and give this series another try.
This was a review copy provided by Yen Press.
Grand Guignol Orchestra 4
Posted: August 31, 2011 Filed under: Grand Guignol Orchestra Leave a comment »Kaori Yuki – Viz – 2011 – 5 volumes
Hmm… it always takes me a bit to get my bearings in a new volume of this series. There’s a lot going on, and it can be complicated, but I like it. It’s definitely less complex and character-heavy than Angel Sanctuary, but it’s still probably best enjoyed by reading all the volumes back-to-back.
This volume starts off with a focus on Kohaku, the only member of Lucille’s orchestra who hasn’t had his own storyline yet. His storyline was a bit disappointing, since his situation was very similar to what happened to Eles. His story is a little anticlimactic as a result, especially since you know what the eventual outcome is. Not a whole lot of time is spent on him, and I was a little disappointed that he wasn’t fleshed out as much as Gwindel and Lucille. He’s still a fun character, though.
After a disappointing opening, things get much better when Lucille and company infiltrate Le Senat. I was a little baffled by this storyline. It’s suitably creepy, and Le Senat’s role and what they’re doing make sense in the context of the story, but I was confused since… they just send Lucille off to retrieve the Black Oratorio, the item that Lucille has been looking for, and he does. Granted, there’s a living corpse and a complex wind-based booby trap blocking his way, but not a whole lot of time is spent on this. Lucille just… goes and gets it, and brings it back. The Le Senat story ends abruptly after this, too.
If I’ve noticed a weakness in Yuki’s stories, it’s that she gets these really great, creepy ideas and then condenses them down and rushes out the details too fast. This series would be amazing if it spent a little more time developing the plot and characters, but as it stands, it’s just pretty good, with a lot of good ideas that seem to be wasted too fast. Then again, part of the charm of her stories is that there’s something inhuman about her style of horror writing, and lingering on it any further would take that away since it would give things a face, so to speak.
And in case you’ve forgotten, even with the quibbles I have with the story, the art is still very much worth reading this series for. Yuki does excellent period pieces, and this is no exception. It’s the main reason I put up with Fairy Cube, after all.
The end of the volume sets things up for the finale. Now that I know everything that’s going on between Lucille and Queen Gemsilica, I’m prepared to forget all of this and then be confused when the final volume comes out.
Just kidding. I have no idea where the story is going right now, which is rare. They hint at a kind of revolution, both magical and political. I’m intrigued.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Karakuri Odette 4
Posted: August 31, 2011 Filed under: Karakuri Odette Leave a comment »Julietta Suzuki – Tokyopop – 2010 – 6 volumes
I won’t lie. I read this entire series in one sitting. I stopped writing reviews between the volumes after the first three. But it was that addictive. Odette makes for a great main character, and it’s fun to see her grow and catalog the changes around her.
In this volume, Odette gets a new friend named Shirayuki. Shirayuki is a rich young lady who grew up in seclusion, and doesn’t interact with the outside world very well. This problem is only made worse by the fact that she can “feel” what people are thinking by touching them, so she gets angry when people say nice things to her face and think different things. But her power doesn’t work on Odette, since Odette is a robot. She gets angry at first when she can tell Odette is lying (mainly just to cover up the fact she’s a robot), but when she learns the truth from Professor Yoshizawa, she decides she wants to be closer to Odette.
So, Shirayuki enters school. She has some of the same problems as Odette fitting in. Since she’s grown up apart from society, she sticks out like a sore thumb, and doesn’t know how to talk to people. I loved the parallels to Odette’s story, and how Shirayuki and Odette were the same, but different. There’s a story about how Shirayuki was surprised by how many friends Odette had at school, and how she had the idea that she and Odette would be all each other had. There’s another story about how Shirayuki has to do things for and by herself, or they don’t mean anything. There’s another story where both Odette and Shirayuki learn a lesson about being lonely when they go to the lively home of a classmate (complete with ugly dog) and then to their respective empty houses.
It’s rare to see a shoujo story emphasize friendship as much as this. The interaction between Shirayuki and Odette is quite touching, and I loved that aspects of any normal life could be highlighted and made interesting again in stories about both girls. It’s Suzuki’s gift as a storyteller that she can get the most out of her characters like this.
But having said that, I read shoujo manga for things like the Asao chapter here. Odette gets a romantic rival, and the two spend the chapter competing to see who can get Asao to eat their cooking. While Asao’s preferences are never stated outright, he does seem to be quite friendly towards Odette.
Actually, the relationship between Asao and Odette reminds me a lot of the relationship between Ponta and Mirai from Guru Guru Pon-chan, where Mirai falls in love anyway even though he knows he shouldn’t. Except Asao hasn’t fallen in love, and Karakuri Odette isn’t really a romance. And in Guru Guru Pon-chan, it’s creepy even though the story goes all out to make that not the case. But it’s still a fine manga.
I love Asao as a character, though. That Odette’s romantic interest is a punk-ish kid is amusing to me. His infrequent interaction with Professor Yoshizawa (usually only when Odette breaks at school and Asao has to take her home) is also always funny, and his ambiguous feelings for Odette are all kinds of adorable. The scene where he throws Odette at the Professor, crushing the Professor’s model plane, and then makes the Professor sign a paper that says Odette will never bother him at school again, is one of my favorites in the series. Asao is a good balance of romance and humor, and I’m a sucker for that.
Two volumes left! Both of them are good ones.
Bad Teacher’s Equation 1 (omnibus ed.)
Posted: August 31, 2011 Filed under: Bad Teacher's Equation | Tags: BL 1 Comment »Kazuma Kodaka – June – 2011 – 10 volumes
this is an omnibus containing volumes 1-2
Normally I avoid any BL book with the word “teacher” in the title like the plague. Teacher/student relationships are really, really not my thing. But I agonized over this one. Usually, when June sees fit to publish an omnibus, it’s worth my time, and I’ve liked what I’ve read of Kazuma Kodaka’s work so far. So I took the plunge. It paid off.
I found the author’s notes in the back of the volume helped to give the series context. Apparently this was among the first wave of titles in BexBoy Magazine, one of the foundations of BL manga today. My attempts to dig around for more history are futile, since there’s a big blank in the 80s where it looks like doujinshi and June magazine were what BL fans had to enjoy, but it’s possible that this was at the beginning of a more “mainstream” BL genre, so to speak. That’s interesting to me, as is the fact that Kazuma Kodaka drew shounen manga before this, and then only BL afterwards.
Basically, this book is old, and looks it. It dates back to 1990, and the art reflects this. I like Kodaka’s very 90s hairstyles and character designs. There are a lot of mullets around, and the guys, including the students, are a little manlier than the bishounen types you usually find in BL manga. And, as expected, the fashions are hilariously dated. But other than that, Kodaka is a good artist, and the art is functional. I like series with older art like this, since it can get tiring looking at the same art styles all the time.
But my preamble about the history is mostly to explain the content of the book. I enjoy reading manga largely because I am a genre fanatic. I love seeing how well certain series do or do not fit into their genre categories. But this. I have no frame of reference for this series. It is unlike any BL manga, or romance manga in general, that I have read. It does fit some of the early 90s BL I’ve read in that series from that time tend to be more comedy-focused than romance-focused, but other than that… it took me a long time to get a handle on what was going on, simply because it doesn’t really fit into the usual categories.
If pressed, I would say that this series is mostly a coming-of-age story. There are couples in the story, but they aren’t romantic. There’s lots of comedy, but so far, it seems like the only character-focused parts of the story are about certain characters overcoming their personal problems with other characters. But even with that theme, it’s pretty positive overall.
The story starts off with Atsushi entering high school. So far, so good. The high school has a bad reputation, though, and the only reason he entered it was because he heard that his neighbor, a boy named Ma-chan, had recently been made the nurse there. Ma-chan was his childhood crush, but moved away before he could admit his feelings. So now Atsushi is bound and determined to confess his feelings. But when he gets there, he’s found that Ma-chan, a teacher named Shibata, is a care-free playboy type who’s rude, obnoxious, and utterly unlike the gentle Ma-chan of Atsushi’s memory. On top of that, Atsushi runs into another childhood friend who had a crush on him, a boy named Inagaki. Inagaki isn’t easily dissuaded, and he decides to stick by Atsushi’s side like glue. After Atsushi decides to be friends with Inagaki and love Ma-chan for who he is, he gets another bomb dropped: Ma-chan is just how he remembers him, the teacher Shibata is simply Ma-chan’s brother, Masayoshi. And the real Ma-chan, aka Masami, is dating another teacher at Atsushi’s school named Hagiwara.
So. Atsushi loves Masami. Masami loves Hagiwara, who loves him back. Inagaki loves Atsushi. Atsushi winds up falling in love with Masayoshi, eventually. Take that premise, strip the romance from it and fill it with comedy, then drop the characters into any number of situations. Basketball games. Hawaiian vacations. Races. Et cetera. There’s always a little something sweet to balance out the comedy, like the long-suffering Masami’s curse that Hagiwara will never, ever make a move on him. That rude guy Masayoshi is actually a great teacher despite his delinquent-like ways. That Atsushi can take his broken heart and deal with it how he will.
But it is mostly a comedy, complete with 90s-style slapstick and bad jokes. It’s totally not my type of series, and yet I find myself strangely drawn to the characters, even with no romance. I don’t know what to make of this first omnibus volume, but with the utterly weird character relationships, types, and strange plots (that are slightly less conventional than what I’ve said here, but only just), I couldn’t put it down. I was relieved it wasn’t a teacher/student romance, though, and I love that Masayoshi doesn’t return Atsushi’s feelings. Don’t change on me!
Anyway. I was confused and intrigued. I need a second volume to see where this craziness is going. But this only cements the June omnibus reputation in my mind. It’s true that it’s only the best series in these omnibuses.
S 3
Posted: August 31, 2011 Filed under: S | Tags: BL 1 Comment »Saki Aida – June – 2008 – 4 volumes
this is a novel
More of exactly what I want, more or less. This time around, there are some well-made counterfeit guns being circulated, and Shiiba does what he can to track down first the dealers, then the source. One of his informants this time around is a dangerous young man named Kuro, who keeps insisting that he has information, then basically meeting Shiiba for dates. Shiiba allows himself to be jerked around by this young man out of a desire to find the source of the guns, but it’s clear after awhile that Kuro’s leads aren’t going anywhere. More dangerous is the leader of the Godou Group, who is somehow tied up in Shiiba’s recent business. The Godou Group looks to be behind some recent big moves in the Yakuza community too, and of course Shiiba comes face-to-face with him before the end of the volume.
This volume was quite a bit more dramatic than the others. While there’s still plenty of Munechika/Shiiba scenes, most of the focus is on how ridiculously dangerous Shiiba’s current investigation is, and some impending trouble in the police force. The work-related drama is quite effective this time around, in a way that it wasn’t in the last volume.
And when things go bad, they go really, really bad. I feel a little silly for admitting that I didn’t see the twist coming until it was nearly on top of me, and because of that I was left guessing for much of the volume.
After the main story is taken care of, there’s some additional drama between Munechika and Shiiba. There’s a wonderful romantic scene between the two of them towards the end of the book, and a terrible cliffhanger that looks like it will start volume four off on the completely wrong foot. I’m dying to read the conclusion.
One thing that’s beginning to worry me is Shinozuka. From the first volume, I liked him as an older character that Shiiba looked up to and sought for advice. I liked that they had a shared grief, and I liked that the grief put space between them that started to heal. And maybe this is just because it’s a BL novel, but… I’m beginning to worry that there will be some romantic entanglements with Shinozuka. And that would really not be okay.
One final observation… you know, the song Moon River comes up an awful lot in manga. It happens to be Shiiba’s sister’s favorite song in a memory here, but I believe it had a lot of strong memories in Honey and Clover as well, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s may have come up in Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. And these are just the ones I remember. I think it’s come up a grand total of zero times elsewhere. Perhaps this is just a sign that I should watch that movie.
But before that, volume four will come in the mail. I will read it and enjoy every page, because I am easy to please.
The Eroicaverse
Posted: August 26, 2011 Filed under: Eroicaverse 13 Comments »Odds are, if you’ve read any article written by me since about 2007, you know that I have a deep love for the series From Eroica With Love, by Yasuko Aoike. As one of my new Friday Features, I’m going to take a look at all the various related series that Aoike wrote (hint: there are a lot). But I want to have an anchor post for these, and I also want to put off talking about Sons of Eve as long as possible. So instead of jumping right in, I’m going to talk a little bit about Yasuko Aoike here, plus link all the Eroica spin-off articles I’m going to be talking about eventually.
From Eroica With Love Spinoffs:
- Allman Stories
- Sons of Eve
- Seven Seas, Seven Skies
Some more info, and pretty pictures (one NSFW), after the cut.
Dorohedoro 4
Posted: August 25, 2011 Filed under: Dorohedoro 2 Comments »Q Hayashida – Viz – 2011 – 15+ volumes
I’m just speechless. I always am when I read a volume of this. It’s so wonderful. It continues to develop its plot while being about nothing. And every once in awhile, it does something shocking to make sure you’re paying attention.
I’m pretty sure the most shocking scene in this volume was when a monster-ized Noi eviscerated Shin. This is tangentially related to the plot, since it has to do with the nature of Ebisu’s magic. Apparently Ebisu’s skills might get us closer to the mystery of Caiman. We also learn a smidge more about the cross-eye gang, and there’s some knowledge that passes between Caiman and Nikaido. Other than that… there’s lots of meandering.
A big part of the middle of the book is, for no reason, dedicated to a baseball game. Fujita comes to the Hole to get revenge on Caiman for killing his partner, but instead is drafted into a baseball game between the hospital staff that Caiman works for and… a rival medical organization (I think they treat victims of magic abuse?). The rivals are mostly old men. When the boss is introduced, he has several hypodermic needles protruding out of his skull. When Fujita asks, he casually mentions that they are anabolic steroids. Shocking.
On Caiman’s team is a gigantic humanoid cockroach named Johnson. Because the other team is mostly old men, and Caiman’s team has people like Caiman, Nikaido, and Johnson on it, the game is easily won. They never speak of it again.
Eccentric is probably the best way to describe this series. Eccentric and shocking. I love that it is definitely going somewhere, but taking its time about it and stopping to smell the roses along the way. There’s nothing wrong with that, especially since Hayashida is really good at building up her unusual setting and giving all the details you could possibly want on it.
S 2
Posted: August 25, 2011 Filed under: S | Tags: BL 2 Comments »Saki Aida – June – 2008 – 4 volumes
this is a novel
Again, I am ridiculously fond of these June BL novels. I’ve had pretty good luck with them so far, and I’ve read quite a few at this point. They always meet my expectations. Romance, drama, passion, et cetera. As long as the characters go well together, I’m happy. Whoever picks the novels seems to hit the nail on the head every time.
S is particularly surprising, since I don’t normally like police-themed novels or comics (I looove police procedural TV shows, though). The police terminology that was my main problem with the last volume was scaled way back here, and it left more room for romantic entanglements.
Shiiba is still resistant to letting himself fall in love with Munechika, unable to separate work and pleasure. Sadly, this book is an object lesson in why that’s such a bad idea. There’s a handful of suspicious murders at the beginning of the book, and Shiiba is paired up with another detective who is in the process of infiltrating the yakuza and needs a contact for his S. His S is in the process of digging up information about one particular yakuza boss and his stash of guns. The S, a young boy, gets a series of bad breaks, and Shiiba takes a lot of pity on him. But then the case takes a turn for the strange when the boy reveals his true feelings, and the murders from the beginning of the story begin to look as if they have an unlikely culprit…
The romance between Munechika and Shiiba was downplayed a bit in this volume, which was a shame, but another pair stands up to take its place. I didn’t like it quite as much, but with both couples getting development through the whole novel, it was enough to satisfy me. Really, that’s all I care about.
And for good reason. Some of the police work still doesn’t quite make sense to me. At one point, a character is persecuted and hunted down after falling under suspicion. To be fair, he fled and was evading the police, but his actual crime? I’m pretty sure no judge in the US would have convicted him. Again, there’s some culture shock for me in this series, since it’s still difficult for me to wrap my brain around the specifics of the gun laws in Japan. But even so, the ending to this book struck me as extremely unlikely.
Even with a weak logical ending, as I said, the romance was the important part, and that was just fine. Lots of emotional porn in here, and plenty of steamy scenes as well. Nothing ever quite goes the way I think it will too, and while it’s not exactly reinventing the romance novel or anything, even slight variations are appreciated in novels like this. Again, if you read the summary and it sounds like it’s up your alley, odds are if you like romance novels, you’ll want to give these a try. I read all three of the ones I have in a day, and I’m dying for the fourth volume conclusion now. What can I say, I’m a sucker for this stuff.
