Blade of the Immortal 22
Posted: May 10, 2013 Filed under: Blade of the Immortal Leave a comment »Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2010 – 31 volumes
I forgot to write this one up! I thought I had forgotten to read it, but volume 23 made too much sense. A shame, because this was an awesome volume. I wound up re-reading it for the review to figure out if I actually finished it, but it was totally worth it.
This was a good aftermath/prologue volume, which shows us what happened to the official who was in charge of the experiments on Manji and wound up killing all the prisoners and almost flooding Edo castle. He’s ordered to commit suicide, but he gets 30 days to hunt down the members of the Itto-Ryu along with several death row inmates. Meanwhile, the new official that took his place makes a deal with Anotsu to get the Itto-Ryu out of Edo in 7 days, so the stakes are raised and the remaining members of the Itto-Ryu are hunted down. Except their numbers are only increasing, and they don’t really seemed too concerned.
Highlight: The conversation between Anotsu and the new official. I still don’t know which way that situation would have gone, which is something that very few series are good at.
That was the boring wind-down part. Elsewhere, there are adorable parting scenes between Rin and Doa, and lots of cute domestic stuff between Rin and Manji. Rin is pampering Manji due to his loss of an arm, and Manji isn’t that into it. Manji also looks like one of the Itto-Ryu members, so he’s also being hunted by the death row assassins, which is mostly just a silly feint.
There’s one… really intense scene between Manji and Rin. It took me by surprise, since romance isn’t something the series has bothered with all this time. It feels right at the time though, especially with Rin still buzzing after her victorious liberation of Manji.
Another nice addition is a pair of shinobi girls who are spying for the secret organization. They wind up staying at the same place as Manji and Rin without realizing who they are.
There’s also a cute scene between Anotsu and Rin at the end of the volume, which is more common as the series goes on, though still fairly unlikely.
Lots of good stuff on offer here, although that scene with Manji and Rin alone is worth the price of admission.
Excel Saga 2
Posted: May 10, 2013 Filed under: Excel Saga 1 Comment »Rikdo Koshi – Viz – 2003 – 27 volumes
I started this series towards the end, and I liked it well enough to go back to the beginning. The problem was, I was afraid to read additional volumes of it because the first volume was a bit too nonsensical for my taste. But I had bought the first few together, and I don’t want to read the later volumes that have accumulated without giving the beginning of the series a try again, so I dove in.
I… liked the second volume a lot better! Maybe I was in the mood for it this time more than the last, but the missions that Excel and Hayate did seemed a lot more cohesive in this volume, and the sense of humor has stabilized and just struck me as much funnier. Hayate’s sudden illnesses are much better timed. Doctor Kabapu was very funny. The terrible part-time jobs that they eventually skipped out on and stole food from were good, as was the fact they made the food last too long and it made Excel very sick.
There’s still not much plot to speak of, though it does seem like, somehow, Il Palazzo knows someone is after him, and Doctor Kabapu has organized the Environmental Security Administration to, uh… combat Hayate and Excel. I did like the chapters about that organization forming quite a bit.
As it is still kind of a gag series at this point, I don’t have much to add other than that. The humor was better, the stories seemed more on target, and I can see it’s going somewhere. I loved it, so I’m going to pick up volume 3 now that I’ve got the review for 2 out of the way.
Story of Saiunkoku 6
Posted: May 10, 2013 Filed under: Story of Saiunkoku Leave a comment »Kairi Yura / Sai Yukino – Viz – 2012 – 9 volumes
I do like this series. I like the art, the setting in ancient China, and I love the fact that the goal is for Shurei to become a civil servant, a difficult thing since no woman can be one. It actually sidelines the romance with the prince in order to achieve this goal, which is unheard of in shoujo manga. But I have a bad habit of reading the same volume I just finished when I pick this series up, so I’m a few volumes behind. Part of this is because many of the chapters deal with side stories, and all of them include a huge cast of characters I can’t be bothered to remember. My ardor for this series has cooled, but I’m going to try to read the last several volumes straight through and see if I can’t remember why I liked it.
This volume starts off on a bad foot, in the middle of a story about a character with multiple personalities from an outside city getting his token for the civil servant exam stolen, and Shurei and company have to have a big fight to get it back. In addition to the main set of men who usually look after Shurei (who all look the same to me, and don’t have distinct enough roles in the story anymore for me to tell apart), there’s an underworld set that’s helping her through this trial, none of whom are likely to factor into the story again. And if they do, it’s going to be with a side story like this that has no real bearing on the plot.
But this chapter does introduce a character that proves to be important for the second half, and is a young boy to boot, so I can tell him apart from everyone else. The second half of the book find he and Shurei in the same boat during their trial period as civil servants, as the others who passed the exam, and the instructors, do not want women and children joining their ranks. They’re forced to clean and do more paperwork than any of the other candidates. This part of the book was more enjoyable, especially seeing Shurei’s resolve to deal with it all in order to pursue her dream. But it was hard for me to believe all of her “friends” just sat back and let this happen as a character building exercise. It was a pretty intense hazing. But the clouds are breaking in the last chapter, so maybe the next volume will be cheerier.
On one hand, I hate to say this was a slow volume, because the post-exam story was exactly the plot of the series. But I was so uninterested in the first half of the book that I couldn’t really get into it. Let me see if volume 7 is any better for me.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
13th Boy 12
Posted: May 10, 2013 Filed under: 13th Boy 1 Comment »SangEun Lee – Yen Press – 2012 – 12 volumes
Hooray! So happy to see the end of this! It wound up being very satisfying, but admittedly, it would have been hard to upset me in almost any way here. I’ve loved this series all the way through, and any of the scenarios I was imagining would have been fine.
I can’t say too much without spoiling it, but one of the things I liked most about the ending of this one was that the usual romantic triangle was difficult (or impossible) to resolve without actually killing one of the characters. While most romance comics are content to pair up the other boy with someone else for a lukewarm ending, that wasn’t going to be possible here, so I liked the extra emotional impact.
I did like how everything was dealt with. One of the characters undergoes a personality change… actually, technically all three do, I suppose, but one was done well. Hee-So goes through a lengthy period as not herself, and watching her snap out of it at the very end of the book was quite rewarding.
I can really only comment on one other small thing, which is Christmas in the Eun household. I loved that all three girls asked for outrageous things, and their dishrag father did his best to get them all, despite their mother’s protests that they didn’t earn them. Plus, he put on a Santa suit to do it, which is just sweet.
Similarly, the epilogue was very funny, if only to see the extra bit added on about Hee-So’s terrifying older sister. That was quite funny.
Actually, the whole thing was funny all the way through, which was one of the best parts for me. Funny, sweet, eccentric, and just a little bit different from the usual romance comic. It’s worth picking up, and it was one of my favorites of the last few years. Too bad these Korean romance series don’t do so well, because I would love to read more by SangEun Lee. Or anyone, for that matter.
But! It looks like Goong is re-starting soon, so I have that to look forward to. That’s another incredibly addictive series.
Alice in the Country of Hearts 1 (omnibus ed.)
Posted: May 10, 2013 Filed under: Alice in the Country of Hearts Leave a comment »QuinRose / Soumei Hoshino – Yen Press – 2012 – 6 volumes
this is an omnibus containing vols. 1-2
I was a big fan of this series as it was coming out from Tokyopop, much to my surprise. I was thrilled when Yen Press picked the license back up, which meant I could read volume 6. I bought all three omnibus volumes again, and I’ve been buying all the spinoff series that have appeared from Seven Seas and Yen Press both. I was so happy that all of this has made it here.
Aaaannd… then I didn’t read them. I resolved to clear out at least some of my Alice backlog while I was on vacation, so I tackled the first omnibus again to re-acquaint myself with the series.
I’ve already reviewed it here, so I’m not going to get into it again (and, in fact, I am going to skip the second omnibus review unless I have something constructive to add). I liked it because it took a very tired idea, basing a story off of Alice in Wonderland, and made it into a completely different kind of story. The characters are the same, but the plot and circumstances are completely different. There’s also a mess of new characters, some new… areas (for lack of a better term), and the pre-existing characters don’t act like they should. But the best part is that the whole thing is absolutely crazy, and doesn’t make any sense. But it’s clear it’s working on its own logic, and the whole series takes its time revealing little pieces of the puzzle. Why do the residents of Wonderland murder each other so frequently? Why is absolutely everyone falling into a creepy kind of love with Alice? What’s up with the clocks and faceless people? How can Alice get home? There’s lots of stuff going on, and I found it to be worth my time to investigate.
One of the reasons all the characters fall in love with Alice is because this is based on a visual novel-kind of game for women, where Alice winds up following the story path of the many eligible suitors. That only made me like this series more though, since manga adaptations of other media (but especially video games) is usually very weak.
The mystery aspect did make me eager to re-read it to see if I could fit the pieces together sooner, plus it had been a year or so since I last gave it a try. I started this volume right after it came out, then put it down. Then I tried again, and put it down. I was determined to finish it this time, so I did, but I have to admit, a bit of the love is gone. Now that I know most of the mysteries, it’s frustrating to wade through all the admiration for Alice to try and make it to a section of story I can’t remember. Turns out, my memory for this series was pretty good. I do like it a lot, but I have little patience for series with a ton of characters right out of the gate like this.
Part of my difficulty might also be that I’m forcing myself to read this before I can tackle volume six, or any of the spinoffs I do want to read. Perhaps its best not to punish myself like this, but man, I really did think I would like this after a re-read. Hopefully the second omnibus fares better.
X 3 (omnibus ed.)
Posted: April 21, 2013 Filed under: X (X/1999) Leave a comment »CLAMP – Viz – 2012 – 18+ volumes
this is an omnibus containing vols 7-9
I always forget that the Twin Star bit doesn’t happen until much later in the series (the end of volume 8/beginning of volume 9! So late!). I sit and wait impatiently for it every time I re-read it, knowing that things can’t really get going until it happens. It’s the catalyst for Kotori meeting the last Dragon of Earth, and with generals all around, the battle truly begins.
After some rather heavy stuff at the beginning of the volume, we get little snippets of what every character in the series is up to, particularly in a “I was here when it happened” moment for X. Again, this series probably has way too many characters for its own good, and that’s without the very minor characters that we’re still keeping track of, but still. Zooming around to check all of them out was a nice touch.
Lots of Fuma, Fuma, Fuma in these volumes, and for good reason. It took me a minute to get used to this when it happened, but later on, I kind of liked it. One of my favorite scenes in the series wouldn’t be possible if this wasn’t the case, and I’ll talk more about that later.
Speaking of favorite scenes in the series… Subaru becomes more of a major player here. We get to see a rather heavy fight with Seishirou, though not the fight we really want. He’s a surly, depressed adult here, but towards the end of the volume he gets to do his Tokyo Babylon trick, and opens up to Kamui in a way that only he can. Not only because of his powers, but because he’s been here. This part always struck me as rather beautiful, even in the ridiculous context of X.
We also get to see one of the Kekkai landmarks fall here, just before all the big stuff goes down. I love that Seishirou is in charge of this, like he’s just enjoying the rampant destruction immensely. Though one wonders, if it’s that easy to rock the balance, couldn’t you just keep doing this for most of the landmarks, knowing that a Dragon of Heaven isn’t going to show up to stop you until you’re done? Whatever.
And the artwork. Do I really have to tell you it’s the best shoujo artwork there is? I’m a huge fan of CLAMP, and while their current stuff hasn’t been good to me, I still say that Mokona draws some of the absolute best shoujo artwork there is, and X is her best series. It’s just so pretty to look at, even if the whole thing is a bit complicated and difficult to work out.
Oh, X. My heart will always belong to you.
21st Century Boys 2
Posted: April 21, 2013 Filed under: 20th Century Boys Leave a comment »Naoki Urasawa – Viz – 2013 – 24 volumes
this is the second and final volume of the coda series to 20th Century Boys, for all intents and purposes volume 24
This is mostly going to be short and cryptic, since I don’t want to spoil anything. Needless to say, I enjoyed every page of this strange series, much more than I thought I would. It’s my favorite by Urasawa, which is saying something. I liked Pluto when I read it, but it seems a bit dark and slow lately, and I never really cared for Monster. But 20th Century Boys was different. It was ten times stranger than both of those series combined, yet without getting so out-of-hand that it was difficult to follow from volume to volume, let alone with a month or so between readings of said volumes. The character map in the front always made it easy to remember what was going on, and with who. And man. A lot of parts were just shocking, or triumphant, or awesome, or all of those combined. Usually something about every volume threw me for a loop. Reading this series was a ride, and it made me happy to pick up the volumes and keep up during a time when I haven’t been reading as much manga. Easily recommended to anyone looking for a good comic story. It’s a bit long for some, but it really is worth it. Great stuff.
I was so sad when my prediction didn’t pan out. Honestly, it would violate the theme of the series. But come on. It would have been so awesome.
There is a subplot about a last-minute bomb being a threat. Honestly, at this point I was done with the Friend’s surprises, but what the hell. One last time isn’t going to hurt anything. This sort of combines all the best points about the previous scares, including the fact that Kenji has to travel back into the past to find out what’s going on, the grass hideout, and a giant robot. The latter is always a treat in this series.
Extraneous bad guys are also still milling around. One of my favorites was an absolutely creepy nurse that was stalking Takasu. That nurse will give me nightmares for a long time.
I was wondering if it would end with a scene similar to the cryptic first few pages. It totally did. I love when that happens.
Also, the Friend’s identity still doesn’t matter. I also adored that about the series.
Oh, Kenji. Always the hero.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Bakuman 16
Posted: April 21, 2013 Filed under: Bakuman Leave a comment »Tsugumi Ohba / Takeshi Obata – Viz – 2012 – 19 volumes
A Nizuma volume! It’s been a while! Crow reaches first place, and the editors are worried that Eiji will make good on his previous stipulation that if he reaches number one, he can cancel whatever series he wants in Shounen Jump. He brings it up with the Editor-in-Chief, who promises him he can if he stays in first place for ten weeks in a row.
Word gets out, and the other artists and writers featured in the series gather to try and figure out which series Nizuma is likely to cancel. Many of them think that this will be +Natural, which hasn’t been doing well in the ratings and hasn’t been good story-wise in a long time. This triggers a dramatic storyline for Iwase, who no longer believes she’s good enough to write shounen manga. Anyway, after some debate, they decide to ask Nizuma himself. Nizuma doesn’t say, but a gauntlet is thrown, and all the artists decide to write the best stories they can in order to break Nizuma’s first-place streak and force him to start the ten-week run at number one over again. Nizuma enthusiastically agrees, and the whole volume becomes a contest to see which artists and writers can outdo themselves, and how.
It’s really, really exciting, guys. It’s still got all the geeky stuff in it about what would make their specific story good, and even people that seem like they wouldn’t be any threat, like Fukuda’s car series, get really good places. Interestingly, there’s always been a gap in the first and second place spots in the chart, a series that isn’t mentioned, which I always assumed was One Piece and something else. Hilariously, that disappears in this volume, so the only series in the top of the charts are Bakuman series.
The Perfect Crime Party storyline is awesome, and is about a play on a particular image. It’s very clever, though I admit I don’t know that I would be that impressed in real life as Bakuman seems to think I would be. Then again, I’m not reading it. It’s possible it would be completely triumphant in real life, though it sounds like it does a lot of reaching and weird logical leaps, as Detective Conan is wont to do.
Nizuma’s actual intention? Awesome, admirable, and completely understandable. It’s an Akira Toriyama kind of thing, actually, and I liked it a lot. Sadly, nothing about what he’s doing is revealed or shown, but I loved all the different character reactions to it.
The end of the volume starts another storyline about a bunch of old artists that come back with unbelievable stories. Bakuman acts like you aren’t supposed to know why this is and who is behind it, but I knew where this was going immediately. Perhaps because I’m 15 years older than the target audience, so I shouldn’t gloat too much.
Man, volumes that aren’t about Shujin and Saiko make me so happy. Volumes like this are what make Bakuman such an awesome page-turner, and it’s a shame so many people were turned off by the blatant misogyny and terrible main characters in the first couple volumes. I can totally understand, but the rest of the series is so good. It makes me sad that people always call out the misogyny when I recommend it, because while it is rather offensive, it’s a non-issue after the writer realizes the side characters are more interesting. And at this point? Awesome stuff. Seriously.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
13th Boy 11
Posted: April 21, 2013 Filed under: 13th Boy Leave a comment »SangEun Lee – Yen Press – 2012 – 12 volumes
I somehow almost forgot this series. It’s extraordinarily adorable, and it’s unforgivable I let the last two volumes slide to the bottom of my to-read pile. It deserves better than that.
This is winding up for the big finish, and honestly, there’s only a couple things that happen here. Hee-So begins to act strangely around Whie-Young, and can’t quite figure out why. It starts to happen more after they share some rather intimate kisses, and then she has some embarrassingly steamy dreams. A friend helpfully points out that she has a crush on him, and while she doesn’t believe it at first, Hee-So then switches into full gear and begins her whole boyfriend act, doing a complete 180 personality-wise, which creeps Whie-Young out.
I like this series a lot for several reasons here. One is that Whie-Young rejects her completely, telling her over and over again to be her usual obnoxious self, and Hee-So has to process that. Another section features a conversation with Beatrice. Beatrice still has a crush on her, and Hee-So knows that it’s cruel to discuss her feelings for Whie-Young with him, but he’s such a major part of her life, and Beatrice knows there’s something wrong, so she breaks down and tells him. During the course of this conversation, she reveals that the usual thing she does to get a boyfriend is to get excited and go after him with all she has, but she compares it with bargain shopping. She burns herself out on one, and then is on the eye out for the next big sale after the relationship ends. Even though she really likes Whie-Young, she knows their relationship will end sometime soon, and the thought depresses her.
Meanwhile, Whie-Young still has the weird life-threatening condition that means that he can’t really like Hee-So back. This is kind of funny to me, since it means that Whie-Young is a huge jerk to everyone, but Hee-So has never really been phased by this. Anyway, Beatrice is faced with a problem. He knows he will have to give his life in order to make sure Whie-Young doesn’t die and can have a proper relationship with Hee-So. While he is “irreplaceable” in Hee-So’s life, he will never be the man she loves. Plus, Whie-Young is on the cusp of dying, and all it’s going to take is one more instance of him using his powers just for Hee-So, which he can’t help but to do. Whie-Young refuses to take back what he gave Beatrice, however, since he created Beatrice in the first place in order to stop Hee-So from crying, and he knows losing him would absolutely break her heart.
I talked forever, but there’s really only a few points being made in this volume, and a lot of discussion to go with them. One of the other things I liked about it was that all the romantic interests sort-of had an even chance all the way through. That’s still the case going into the last volume. There are certainly heavy odds on one of the boys, but the situation isn’t one that’s going to be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction, so I wonder if it will be as clear-cut as that.
I think I’m going to go read it now, actually.
Sakura Hime 9
Posted: April 21, 2013 Filed under: Sakura Hime Leave a comment »Arina Tanemura – Viz – 2012 – 12 volumes
I haven’t read this in awhile, but it’s still addictively good, though I’m not sure how many fans it will win outside the shoujo audience. Arina Tanemura is always good for it, and this series is particularly good. I’m not sure that it’s my favorite, but it’s probably the most solid and enjoyable all the way through.
Less drama in this volume, most of which is dedicated to the odd friendship between Hayate, the young ninja who was accidentally turned into a frog, and Rurijo, a kind of Nataku/Golem-type creature that looks like Sakura and was brought to life by her brother. Rurijo is a particularly nasty villain. While all the others have a reason for following Sakura’s bitter brother, Rurijo does so because he created her, and she loves him.
This volume shows a wonderful side of her, though. While it can be a bit tiresome to see villains made to be “good” over and over again, I thought it was nice to see the bright, cheery side of her personality. And that’s pretty much all it is, her personality, as we learn later. I liked that part of it, too. We also get to see a new side to Hayate, who feels neglected by Kohaku. While he thinks of nothing but Kohaku, he’s not sure that she shares his feelings since she tends to be completely devoted to whoever she’s serving (in this case, Sakura). The friendship between Rurijo and Hayate is quite lovely, and was an unexpected bright spot in a story that has been tending towards darkness lately.
Speaking of which, we get some of that in the beginning when we learn about Aoba’s curse (which is pretty awesome) and settle the matter of cheating, alternate wives/spouses in general, et cetera. That part was never very interesting since there was no chance Sakura and Aoba were going to spit up. I wish there was, especially since Aoba was so terrible in the early volumes, but that’s not the case.
Tanemura expresses some dismay at having to draw Rurijo in the nude so much, which I thought was funny. As a golem-type creature, she needs to soak up a lot of water, so Hayate actually runs across her (and keeps meeting up with her) while she’s bathing. Being naked doesn’t really bother Rurijo, and that adds a lot to the personality thing I mentioned earlier, too. It’s nice to see that she can be naked without it being a super-sexual thing, too. Tanemura is right, it seems to suit her.
Tanemura talks a bit about the volume Fudanjuku Story that she was working on around the same time this was released. I mentioned before that this was totally coming out in English as an inevitability, but as she was talking about it here, I realized that it was apparently about some sort of idol group? In which case, it’s totally not coming out here. I was bummed, but an online summary I read just now made it sound like a very typical shoujo manga, so maybe she takes the band members and puts them in a school club, or something? In which case, there’s a chance, depending on if the manga’s only a small part of the book or the whole thing? I’m a little curious now. Then again, it’s also possible that Arina Tanemura’s manga aren’t selling that well in English anymore, which would also explain why it hasn’t been licensed. That would be most heartbreaking, though.
Basically, I’m still enjoying this immensely, and I am curious to see how it ends. I’ve expressed doubt over the end of a Tanemura series before and been surprised by Time Stranger Kyoko, but then again, Full Moon. She mentioned Sakura Hime was going to be long, but then ended it at volume 12. I’m curious to see how cleanly this happens. We’re mostly caught up with Japan, which means the next few volumes will come out slowly. That’s fine, because I do enjoy this series a lot and will be sad to see it end, something that doesn’t really occur to me much anymore. And I do hope to see more of her work in English. If not Fudanjuku Story, maybe her new series.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
