Slightly Biased Manga

I continue to be surprised by how entertained I am by this title.  It’s an all-ages title and really quite wonderful.  I don’t like it quite as much as +Anima, which makes me forget that it is an all ages title, but I still found myself caught up in the story.

This volume has only a chapter or two of the characters on the road before everyone gets to the Book Depository.  One of the early chapters explained the mechanics of bringing the characters from books to life, and also explained who could do it and why.  There was a really sad story involving a mother and her little boy that played out, and we also find out why it’s necessary for the illustrations to stay dry once they leave the book.

Once at the depository, Kiichi winds up staying behind with a terrible headache.  At this point, he’s no longer wearing a hat, which is surprising.  He himself has come to terms with being an oni, but it seems like the sort of thing you’d still want to hide in a crowded area soas not to draw unwanted attention to yourself.  The message is a positive one, in any case.  He winds up by himself while Mototaro goes inside and finds some medicine for him, but outside he makes a friend and shows off some super-human feats of strength in the process.  Nobody seems that impressed by his ability to control a rather large illustration gone wild, but Mototaro seems to see the significance of it.

Inside the depository, Mototaro meets up with a scholar who offers to meet up with Kiichi and tell him about onis, but his intentions don’t seem to be that… er, pure.  We find out why so many people are gathered at the depository, what the role of the establishment is, and a little about the mythology of the world as well.  The mythology we get to hear about is a creation myth for that world, which I kind of liked, but the present customs are somewhat linked back to it as well.  I liked finding this level of detail here, and I was even more pleased when the myths started basically coming to life by the end of the book.  The story ends on a pretty epic cliffhanger, and I’m really looking forward to the next volume.

I mentioned that this doesn’t quite make me forget it’s an all-ages title while I’m reading it, and I think the main reason for that is probably just the fact the characters are a bit flat.  Granted, every single one of them is interesting and very well done, a detail you don’t often find in stories like this, but they’re just not developed that much yet.  The nature of the series being what it is (about the characters from books coming to life and the mythologies from the books coming to pass and all), it also feels like this is the way it should be, because you’re more aware of the characters being… well, characters in a book this way.  It doesn’t bother me, and the story is compelling and detailed in a way that makes it fun to read, so I’m pretty much in for the ride at this point.

I think I mentioned this before, but I really like finding all-ages titles like this every once in awhile.  The kind that you wouldn’t hesitate to give to an 8-10 year old and are also really fun to read.  The story’s gotten very serious as of the end of the volume, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the next one.  I’m surprised there’s four volumes, because what happens here is pretty… climactic, so I’ll be interested to see where the story goes once that is resolved.

Also, I got an arc of this from CMX, but I decided to wait a couple weeks to review it until the full version came out.  Then the company I ordered the full version from didn’t ship it until a week or so ago, so now I feel really bad for waiting so long.

This one won me over in the first few pages.  It opens with a little boy spying on a young man and a little girl.  The young man is making oni jump and dance off the page.  Then a short flashback starts.  The main character, Kiichi, is an orphaned boy who’s been thrown out of his village for being an Oni, or demon.  The village found out about this when his mother died and he was seen without his cap on for the first time, uncovering his telltale stubby horn.  Lots of mushy stuff follows where his friends reject him, grownups turn on him at his mom’s funeral, etc.  What can I say?  All it takes to impress me is a little magic and a little sentiment, apparently.

The story is actually about Kiichi joining the young man (a librarian) and the little girl (of mysterious origin) on a journey to learn about and find other oni.  It’s kind of a simple story with simple characters so far, but there’s just enough unique magical elements thrown in to be pretty fun.  The librarian, or at least the librarian we are following, has the power to bring parts of books to life, and also to return books that have come to life back to their pages.  Kiichi seems a bit faster and stronger than a normal kid, but it’s refreshing to see that he is not faster and stronger than, say, a bandit and other strong adults.

The setting is ambiguous, but it is a historical rural setting, where the librarian travels from village to village with books.  Apparently the librarians are the only ones who are allowed to handle books, which are
stored in several depositories throughout the country.  It’s implied that the librarian may be more than a librarian, so I’m not sure if all of them have magical powers or whatever.

Like I said, the story is sort of simple and somewhat ambiguous so far.  As it stands, the characters are on their way to the nearest depository, where Kiichi will meet someone who can tell him about Oni.  The backgrounds and purposes of the other characters are left somewhat up in the air, and the characters don’t have much depth yet.  I’m not sure how long this story is (it looks like it’s at least another volume), but it seems like it’s set up at the moment to either take a really long time in getting to the depository, or not take long at all and have the characters part ways or something.  It’ll be interesting to see what direction it takes.

It’s simple and fun so far, so I’m pretty excited to see where it goes.