My Boyfriend is a Vampire 1-2 (omnibus ed.)
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: My Boyfriend is a Vampire 3 Comments »Yu-Rang Han – Seven Seas Entertainment – 2011 – 14 volumes
Because I am a 27-year-old teenage girl, I couldn’t resist this one. It’s manhwa, which I had no idea Seven Seas published, and it’s also floating ambiguously somewhere between a regular girls’ comic and a BL comic. Not that I mind.
It is weird. The story opens with Gene, the main character… uh, dying. He then comes back to life, and realizes he’s somehow morphed into a girl. Then the story goes back a month in time to explain things a little better.
Gene is a very pretty boy. He constantly gets mistaken for a girl, asked out, and hit on. Because he hates this so much, he’s gotten into the habit of beating up all the boys that mistake him for a girl. One day, however, his best friend Saul asks him to pretend to be a girl in order to get a rather persistent female fan off his back. Gene hates the thought of this, but it was Saul who helped him hone his fighting skills, and he would do anything for him, so Gene agrees. While venturing over to Saul’s school, Gene encounters… strange people. They have a strange way of talking and forcing themselves on one another, and they’re also tough as nails. Gene’s attacks have no effect on them.
Later, Gene helps out a gang at his high school in much the same way, by pretending to be a girl in order to lure out a serial killer as well as a gang that has invaded their turf.
Without going through the plot of both volumes, that’s about as much story summary as I can offer. In this omnibus, the story catches back up to the prologue, and explains a smidge of what’s going on, but doesn’t get much farther than that.
I’m still trying to wrap my brain around this book. The vampires are a random element here, and the fact that Gene suddenly changes gender is another rather… odd twist, which is only made stranger by the last pages of the volume.
I don’t have much more of an analysis to offer past that. I feel like I just watched the first thirty minutes of a movie, one that I can’t quite make heads or tails out of, and I need to see more before I can pass judgement. The story is still not clear to me, and the characters still aren’t quite developed enough to comment on (the volumes are a little shorter than normal, the whole book is about 320 pages).
Even the art was… a little off. It almost felt like very good webcomic art. It was functional, and there wasn’t a whole lot wrong with it, but the figures and actions were all very stiff, and it felt a little plain for the usual girls’ comic. Stranger still, the artist seems to be a manhwa veteran, and has been drawing girls’ comics for at least 25 years. She has a huge body of work.
So where does the BL/girls’ comic aspects of the story come in? Well, Gene is an unwilling object of affection for all the guys in his life (and there are quite a few since he goes to an all-boys school). There’s also the barest hint of romance between Gene and Saul when the latter wishes that Gene was really a girl, because he can’t find anyone that can quite match him. Later, there’s a pair of vampire brothers who are all over Gene. So far, Gene is 100% male and rather offended by the advances. I could make a prediction if this was a regular girls’ comic. It might bear a resemblance to the excellent series Click (also Korean), where the main character, very male, suddenly finds himself female and has to slowly come to terms with that. But this series… may take a different turn. I don’t want to spoil it, but again, the last few pages of this book put a rather interesting spin on the usual gender hijinx. Hopefully.
I… I don’t know. I don’t know what to make of this. It was just weird. The good kind of weird, though, and I definitely want to see more, just to satisfy my curiousity. I can’t say I’m really convinced of either the story or the characters at this point, but it’s just so bizarre that I feel like I have to continue reading. It’s less generic than it looks and sounds, and is probably a pretty good October/Halloween read for any fan of girls’ comics looking for something that’s… maybe just a little off.
This was a review copy provided by Seven Seas.
Hyde and Closer 6
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Hyde & Closer Leave a comment »Haro Aso – Viz – 2011 – 7 volumes
I have a special fondness for quirky Shounen Sunday series. I don’t know if I’m just Shounen Jumped out, but I find myself quite taken with the strange, but endearing, twists the Sunday comics usually contain.
For instance, this is a series with wizards. Okay, I’ve read about a hundred of these. But the wizards in this series use their powers through little anthropomorphic dolls that follow them around. These can be Japanese Hina dolls, a suit of armor, or a teddy bear. Hyde, the teddy bear, has a move called “Texas Chainsaw.” He also smokes cigars and wears a fedora.
I know I shouldn’t fall for gimmicks after all these years. As awesome as that is, it doesn’t necessarily make for a good series. But this one is also only seven volumes long, so I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. I was a little surprised when the author revealed that the whole thing was ending next volume, because it sounds like it’s gearing up for a rather long second half at the beginning of the book. It has what sounds like about ten volumes worth of material for any other series, but I’m glad that all the usual filler and fighting is going to be condensed. Bleach could learn something from this.
It’s not just the cute gimmicks that make me like Shounen Sunday series, though. They tend to be a little sweeter, a little less ‘tude-filled than Jump series as well. Unfortunately, jumping in six volumes into this one, I’m getting shorthand for these characters, and they’re striking me as stereotypes. But none of them are really focused on in this volume, so they may have just been glossed over in favor of advancing the plot. To be fair, Ana and Shakka Shakka Mekki seem pretty awesome.
Coming in at the end, I don’t really want to comment on the story too much, but I did like what I saw. There was clearly a big finish to a major story arc, and Closer has the opportunity to use a very unusual and very forbidden weapon. In the run-up to the second story arc, we get to see Closer’s grandfather and the ultimate evil weapon for about a second, then the story flashes back to a hospital scene to better explain the bad guys and let the characters have a little fun. There’s some artifact hunting and standing up for your friends and whatnot mixed in there somewhere. It is a shounen manga.
One of the more interesting things about this volume, however, was the story told by the main villain. He talks about the two most evil people in the world. One of them killed people from inside the womb with sorcery. The other is a scary cult-born psychopath. Both are rather terrifying. One has gold plating in his teeth that spell out “hate.” The stories, and the characters, are shockingly violent and dark for this type of series. They do kill people, which is something that almost never happens.
Would I go back for the rest of this? Yeah, I bet it would be worth it. It seems like a lot of fun, it’s short, and maybe marginally better than yet another 30-volume Jump series. But again, that might just be my recent fondness for Shounen Sunday series showing through.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Raiders 7
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Raiders 1 Comment »JinJun Park – Yen Press – 2011 – 9 volumes
Here’s another series I’m picking up close to the end. This one’s the Korean equivalent of seinen-flavored, almost. Maybe it falls somewhere between the boys’ and men’s genres. Either way, it’s sort of rare for us to see a male-oriented manhwa in English, so this is a pleasant treat.
It actually struck me as similar to Black Lagoon, or Dogs. This volume, at least, was very action-oriented, and there was also a fair amount of politics backing the characters up. It seemed like there was something for the reader to sink their teeth into, as the characters seemed varied and interesting enough. The politics and world logic were almost reality, but with enough variations to make it an action-oriented fantasy (again, like Black Lagoon).
Unfortunately, this is not a good series to pick up in the middle. I had literally no idea what was going on. There are supernatural elements, but these weren’t clear to me until about halfway through. Unusually, it seemed like a fairly straight-faced take on zombies, which is something you don’t see very often. The characters seemed to struggle with partial zombie infections, and it seemed like something that could potentially be cured.
By the blood of Christ. Which, if I’m reading this correctly, is kept in Roswell. If you don’t cure zombies, apparently some of them turn into werewolves. This is exactly why I love reading comics.
The characters are infiltrating some sort of government facility in Roswell, but to be fair, it might just be some sort of overthrow, they might not be after the blood of Christ. It is necessary later in the book, though. Earlier, it’s implied that those that have partaken of the Host are turned into special sorts of monsters that can only be killed with relics like the Spear of Longinus.
Having said that, the Judeo-Christian themes are fairly downplayed, at least here. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of random symbolism flying everywhere. Just a few simple things.
It strikes me as a relatively cool, mature action series with supernatural elements, which is a bit of a rare combination since mature action series with supernatural stuff are usually fairly over-the-top in terms of gore and humor. But this one is also Korean, which is unusual indeed. This type of series isn’t usually my thing, but this one strikes me as a fairly good read. Again, it’s not something you want to jump in after volume one, because I was genuinely lost, but it’s worth giving it a try from the beginning.
This was a review copy provided by Yen Press.
Just Around the Corner
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Just Around the Corner | Tags: BL 2 Comments »Toko Kawai – 801 Media – 2008 – 1 volume
One of the things I really love about BL manga is that, usually, if I enjoy a book, I can look up the author and find another that has been translated into English. In this case, I was fairly impressed with this title, and when I investigated the author, I found that she had quite a bit published in English. One of the books was Cut, which I enjoyed immensely when I read it a year or two ago. Another was Bond(z), which I picked up off my floor immediately after I finished this book. She’s got several more, including Loveholic and In the Walnut, both of which are on their way to me as we speak. I really, really liked her books.
This book opens with a pair of bored, casual lovers. One might call them “friends with benefits.” Kiriya and Yuuya meet one evening while Kiriya is upset over being fired from his job for sleeping with his boss and Yuuya gets news that his career as a pianist is over. They console each other, and become casual sex partners after that. But Kiriya suddenly gets a new job, which at first means that they can’t meet up as often. Turns out the new job is as Yuuya’s substitute homeroom teacher. Not only has Yuuya been lying about his age, Kiriya is now in a position where he absolutely cannot be seen with Yuuya after school.
He definitively breaks it off with Yuuya, and Yuuya assumes he’ll be okay with that. After all, they weren’t lovers, and he did lie about his age. But little by little, jealousy slowly eats Yuuya alive, until he can’t bear to see anyone else talking to Kiriya. He begs Kiriya to take him back again and again, and Kiriya constantly turns him down. There’s the job, the age difference, and the lie.
Normally, I hate older-younger relationships, and teacher-student in particular, but starting the book the way they did erased those boundaries between the characters, and almost made the story about the limits of my own viewpoint. Can I really root for Yuuya when I take such a dim view of the age difference? Or when, yes, it clearly does endanger Kiriya’s job? Yuuya is not 100% likable, but he’s portrayed as devoted, but impatient and mature when it comes to approaching his feelings. He acts his age, and showing just what a difference there really is “in real life” between Yuuya and Kiriya, when no differences existed before is where this manga excels.
Really, Kawai’s strengths are writing great, believable characters. I don’t like either of the characters here as people, but I still think they’re great in the context of the story. She also avoids a lot of the more creepy BL manga behavior. There’s no noncon, no stalking, no force at all. Unusually, Kiriya is the uke, and he’s the one in control of the relationship.
It’s great stuff. Perfect for BL fans with a taste for more mature stories.
Please Save My Earth 9
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Please Save My Earth 1 Comment »Saki Hiwatari – Viz – 2005 – 21 volumes
…and after I fell for the good mix of sympathy and evil in Shion last volume, this volume goes back to making me feel bad for him. I shouldn’t, because he’s a bad person. Among the bad things he does, he tells Mokuren off simply because he realizes that nobody has done it to her face before, seeing as how she’s a Kiche Sarjalian and a kind of national treasure. He also tells Gyokuran off simply for being concerned for him, and can’t help himself when it comes to tormenting him.
On the other hand, as the volume continues, it becomes clear he’s simply the kind of person who can’t be happy. He admits it himself at one point, and he’s constantly comparing himself to Gyokuran and what Shion perceives are the countless blessings Gyokuran takes for granted, or the completely opposite existence Mokuren has led. He also can’t figure out why he can’t grow closer to women, and has trouble when it comes time to meet their families.
And to see him compare himself to everyone else and constantly come up short is heartbreaking. There’s an amazing scene along these lines when the crew first meets Mokuren. As she’s listing off her reasons for being there, each half page is dedicated to Mokuren, the other half to Shion’s exact opposite motivation and lifestyle. There’s no real good solution in the story to this problem, and it is what makes Shion so bitter and mistrustful of others.
Hilariously, he’s also the only one on the general crew who appears to not be there for research purposes. He’s an engineer, and seems to be tasked with keeping the outdated technology on the base running. He’s on call to everyone else’s repair whims. It is pretty funny to see everyone bossing Shion around.
We only see the beginning of the Shion/Mokuren relationship. Neither really seems to have an opinion of the other outside the fact Shion hates everybody, but it’s getting started. And Shion is right in that Mokuren has encountered very few blunt, rude people like himself, but she seems to take Shion’s behavior in stride. Or is taking what he says literally, since the incident at the very end of the volume can be read as Mokuren blowing off steam after Shion’s bad-tempered dressing-down.
Hiwatari talks about the response to her last set of author notes declaring PSME a work of fiction. She reprints some of the reader letters. It’s a little sad, but very interesting.
Also a little sad is the fact that the giant cat-man aliens make another appearance. Somehow, the new one melts Shion’s heart. He carries around an enormous bottle for it to suck from. Watching it do this is both repulsive and cute, and I’m not sure how that works. Reading about this cat and the Lian in the only letter Shion will ever get was a pretty powerful scene, though. Hiwatari really knows how to twist the knife.
Skip Beat 24
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Skip Beat 2 Comments »Yoshiki Nakamura – Viz – 2011 – 28+ volumes
I read this months ago, but it drifted to the bottom of my review pile. Every time I pick it up, I re-read it instead of writing about it. I can’t help but love and adore Skip Beat, and this is one of the best volumes. It’s one of my absolute favorite current series.
What makes this one of the best volumes? Well, the Valentine Wars. In a series where the heroine sets out to hate (in the most hilarious way possible) every guy who may have a crush on her, it’s hard not to revel in a Valentine’s Day storyline.
To make matters worse, Ren’s birthday is also on February 13th, so there’s a Ren storyline wrapped up in here. Of course, with Valentine’s Day as the theme, Ren is inevitably involved (sadly, he doesn’t get to give her a present, because that’s not how Japan works. In fact, I don’t think he could give her a present on White Day, which is Valentine’s Day for girls, unless Kyoko gave him something on V-day).
But Valentine’s Day isn’t just Ren. Because this is a super-evil shoujo manga, and that would be too easy. Ren is merely the handsome boyfriend candidate. The good one. There’s also Sho, the asshole that dumped Kyoko back in volume one, and Reino, another huge jerk from somewhere ten volumes ago. Both of these are bad men. Both are also trying as hard as they can to court Kyoko, mostly out of spite.
I love that expensive flowers and chocolates, homemade stuff, and other Valentines-related hoops, are jumped through all in the name of spite in this series. God is this good stuff.
Also a nice touch: The chocolates that Kyoko makes for Reino say “you go to hell” and have the word “hate” inscribed on them, as well as crying dog faces. This is why no comic is better than Skip Beat.
Also great: When Ren is in a full-blown rage, he hides it with a beatific, sparkling gentlemanly smile.
If I keep going, I’m just going to keep listing the funniest scenes in the book. Suffice to say, there’s humor as well as romantic stuff to look forward to, since not only is Ren on the cusp of not getting a Valentine’s gift, there’s also Reino showing up to accept one, and Sho acting childish, and all sorts of adorable/hateful romance to enjoy in a way that only Skip Beat can provide.
I LOVE THIS. Truthfully, I finally reviewed this volume because I told myself I couldn’t read the new one until I did. I love this series to pieces.
Clear Skies!
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Clear Skies! | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Akira Sugano – June – 2008 – 1 volume
this is a novel
I’m one of the biggest fans of these June BL novels. I like them most of the time, though to be fair, they definitely don’t reach out past their core audience. And even then, some of them can fall… a little short. But even the crappy ones can be enjoyed on some level. This has probably been my least favorite so far, and even this had its good points.
Taiga Obinata is an editor for a science fiction magazine. His most popular author is his childhood friend Shuu, a laid-back guy who constantly has to be browbeaten to meet his deadlines. One day, Shuu shows up at Taiga’s house and announces that he’s married the eldest daughter of the Obinata family and will now be living with the Obinata siblings. In addition to Taiga, the oldest brother, there is college student Akinobu, professional boxer Jou, and high school student Mayumi. All four live in constant fear of their older sister, Shima, who Shuu has married. Shima rules the family with an iron fist, and is a fickle woman, to boot. Case in point, she doesn’t announce her marriage to her siblings, and is nowhere to be found when Shuu and his younger brother Yuuta moves in.
This would have been a lot better if it didn’t read like an episode of Full House. Every dozen or so pages, it felt like it was teaching me a Very Special Lesson about what family means and why you should always listen to your brothers and sisters. The Obinata siblings find much out about each other once Shuu moves in, and all of the age 20+ brothers (Mayumi and Yuuta are younger, but everyone else is well out of their teens) seem to have no trouble dissolving into mushy scenes where they learn just how much they miss Shima, why it’s hard to watch Jou fight, why Akinobu is so quiet, Mayumi’s childhood trauma involving Taiga dressing as Totoro, et cetera.
To make matters worse, all of them have sob story backgrounds. The Obinata parents died when Taiga was just starting high school, and Shima had to quit school and prostitute herself to put Taiga through school. Shima, Taiga, and Jou are delinquents. All of the Obinata siblings love to brawl. Shuu and Yuuta have similarly sad backgrounds.
I did love the variety of characters, and it was interesting to see a huge family of men like this and watch them function in every day life. And there were lots of nice touches of humor. For instance, older sister Shima was such a bully, and such a Hanshin Tigers fan, that all of her younger siblings have Tigers-related names, as does the family dog. That’s why this book was so unique. But on the other hand, I got fed up with the Special Lessons. Really.
It’s also more of a family drama than it is a romance, and romance is what I want when I read these. Because this is a June novel, it’s not really a spoiler if I tell you that the childhood friends are the couple in this novel. But their relationship almost doesn’t happen. There’s one or two scenes that stir things up between them towards the end of the book, and a rather haphazard resolution in the final pages, but the romantic elements were not satisfying at all.
The way that Taiga came out to his family here… hm. I know that these scenes are never, ever realistic in these BL stories, but the fact that a house full of men simply accepted this without comment and bluntly cheered for him in the same breath was too much. I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief for that.
It’s not a good book. It’s probably at the bottom of my list of June novels. Still, though, it’s a quick read, and there were things to like about it. I don’t know why I like these so much, but I just have a hard time hating them. Maybe it’s because it only takes me as long to read one of these as two volumes of manga. I don’t know. Read this one if you’ve read all the others, but try something like I Want to Bite or Lonely Egoist before you pick this up.
Spellbound 1
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Spellbound 1 Comment »Tomoko Taniguchi – Fanboy Entertainment – 2001 – 0 volumes
I’m partial to the stories of Tomoko Taniguchi. She had a number of volumes published in English by CPM. Some were better than others, but I was a huge fan of the girliest of her volumes, like Call Me Princess and Aquarium. I’m pretty sure nobody remembers her but me at this point, but I always liked her books. I didn’t realize that this had come out from another publisher, so when I found out, I had to track down a copy. It’s a 32-page comic that cost me a whole dollar.
This is the first chapter of an incomplete story drawn specifically for the American market. Strangely, my copy has a variant cover drawn by Chiho Saito, of Revolutionary Girl Utena fame. This was presumably commissioned for the American market, too, and is a strange touch. It’s a very pretty cover, though.
Sadly, I don’t have much to say about the issue itself. It’s the first chapter of a magical girl series that never got off the ground. A heroine is introduced that isn’t very good at magic, but is slowly trying to learn. There’s a tough mystery woman to look up to, a secret organization, and a romantic interest. All the ingredients are there, and it’s fairly romantic, humorous, and everything a magical girl comic should be. Taniguchi also has very nice, girly art.
But there’s only one chapter of it.
I just learned that all the books I read by Taniguchi were actually written in the very early 90s. Apparently everything she’s done has been published in English, and it’s a little strange that she was asked to do this story ten years after she’d drawn her last series. I don’t have her other books to compare and see if the art changed much over the years.
On the other hand, it makes sense that her other books are from the early 90s. They have that early 90s naive girlishness to them that shoujo manga tend to shed as the decade went on. But she’s worth checking out, and this issue is a fun read if you spot it in a back issue bin somewhere.
Please Save My Earth 8
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Please Save My Earth 1 Comment »Saki Hiwatari – Viz – 2004 – 21 volumes
I think one of my favorite things about this volume (and probably the series) is probably Shion’s personality here. We’re given all these reasons to sympathize with Shion. He’s a war orphan, which is something he gets teased about mercilessly no matter his age. He’s having values forced on him that are contrary to what he’s experienced in order to survive. His loved ones died. And yet, Hiwatari writes his personality so that it’s near-impossible to sympathize with him. His contrariness towards the Lians is understandable, but there’s no real good reason for his attitude towards Gyokuran other than his hard life. Hard life or not, a rotten personality is what it is.
The same is true for Rin, too. He’s very Jekyll and Hyde, in that his ultimate goal at the moment appears to be somewhat altruistic, and he obviously has a soft spot towards Alice. But every time you find yourself warming up to him, he does something rotten, or reminds you that yes, he really is a selfish, terrible person. He may fit into some of the usual overbearing, terrible boyfriend stereotypes, but Hiwatari almost overrides that by constantly reminding you that a lot of what he does isn’t something to overlook.
So the flashback starts this volume, and I was a little surprised to see that it went all the way back to Shion’s childhood. I was also happy to see that it skipped ahead to his high school years pretty quickly, because Shion’s childhood is really depressing. He’s only just starting to meet the other characters at the end of this volume, but it’s interesting to see that Shukaido is a terrified confidante even in the past. I wondered if the Rin/Haru thing was almost a kind of friendship in the present, even though Haru was being forced through terrible means on his end, but it’s interesting that Shukaido is listening to Shion spill out his rotten guts without protest in the past. I wonder how that will eventually go.
And the only other comment I have is that I didn’t see that terrifying cat-man coming. I have no idea why that was even in there. It made me want to sleep with the light on.
But more disturbing than that are the author commentary columns in this volume. I had started giving up on these since Hiwatari has switched to commentary on anime and music (plus, it seems like there’s more than usual in this series). But in this volume, she uses the author talks to make her case about how Please Save My Earth is a work of fiction. She said the letters she’d been getting from readers… were from people who thought they were the characters, or had similar powers, or that reading the comic helped them to remember a similar past life for them. Apparently, she kept silent for so long because she thought they were just adolescents with passing interests, and that it was obvious Please Save My Earth wasn’t real. But her fans started to scare her.
I love that the series inspires that degree of devotion in people. That’s crazy.
Gorgeous Carat 2
Posted: October 9, 2011 Filed under: Gorgeous Carat | Tags: BL Leave a comment »You Higuri – Blu – 2006 – 4 volumes
Again, though this series is published by Blu, it’s fairly light on the BL. It’s basically non-existent in this volume, actually, aside from some compliments and possessive comments. But the phantom thief elements ramp way up in this volume.
I’ll be honest and admit I read the last three volumes of this, along with the Galaxy volume, all together. I began to wonder if Higuri had been inspired by From Eroica With Love, but it’s the later volumes that strike me as a cross between that series and Indiana Jones. In theory, that makes Gorgeous Carat one of the best series ever, but I’ll get to that another time.
There are two stories in this volume. The first is the resolution to the Noel storyline from the first volume. The Black Hand organization are still after the jewels hidden in young Noel’s teddy bear, Betty Deux. They capture Florian as he tries to save Noel, and Noir winds up having to swoop in and save the day. It’s a fairly classy, if low-impact story. Afterwards, I felt like there were slightly too many characters running around for me to keep tabs on. But Noel is a cute kid who sticks around, and the Florian/Noir escape at the end was worth waiting for.
The second story is the beginning of The Blue Devil of Maghreb, which lasts through the end of volume four. It starts with a scene revealing that Florian is eventually hooked on opium, then cuts back to a letter that Noir gets from Azura, an old friend. Noir’s gang of merry men set forth to Morocco, where flashes of Noir’s past are interspersed with the city streets, some gang violence, and the group’s entrance to Azura’s mansion.
Azura requests Noir’s help in decoding a treasure map from the Knights Templar. Noir is more than happy to help him do it, as Azura is something like a big brother from Noir’s time as an orphan in Morocco. Meanwhile, Laila becomes increasingly jealous of the attention that Florian gets from Noir, and there’s tension among the group members. But while Noir is reminiscing and trying to decode the treasure map, Florian stumbles into some rather shady dealings that Azura has with Paris gangs. To cover it up without killing an acquaintance of Noir’s, Azura forces Florian to smoke opium and become his lover. Florian tries to take his troubles to Ray, but Ray doesn’t believe that Azura could really double-cross him, so Florian is drawn deeper and deeper into addiction.
The volume ends with Noir captured, Florian possibly dead, and everything in a pretty bad place.
This new Azura story arc has all the makings of the classic, highly enjoyable romantic action comic. There’s the childhood friend who’s set up to double cross, a strained relationship between Florian and Noir (that is still unacknowledged by either of them, but since this is a BLU manga I think it’s safe to assume), an exotic location, a fabulous treasure as the goal, and eventually, a lot of international espionage as well. There’s a lot to like here, and again, Higuri’s art always adds a lot to period stories like this. Her Morocco is rendered beautifully, the costumes are just right, and all the new characters are beautiful and highly individual. I like the plot, but I love her artwork.
There was just enough going on that was exactly to my taste that I kept reading. I actually read the last three volumes of this series in one sitting. The forward momentum is a wonderful motivator in this case. Since the volumes still aren’t very expensive, it would be worth tracking down if you are at all inclined.
