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Archives for April 2009

Goong: The Royal Palace 2 by Park SoHee: A-

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From the back cover:
With the wedding ceremony complete, Chae-Kyung and Prince Shin are finally newlyweds… but now they have to spend their first night together! And, as she tries to get accustomed to life as a princess, homesick Chae-Kyung finds no comfort in her haughty husband who seems determined to antagonize her at every turn. Will the crown prince’s attitude ever change? Is the dream of marital bliss doomed to be a nightmarish marital blunder?!

Review:
As much as I enjoyed volume one, this volume is even better.

It begins by outlining the procedures of a traditional Korean wedding, including a nifty scene where Shin and Chae-Kyung are being conveyed across town via palanquins through a very modern downtown area. Cool as this is, it’s what happens next that’s truly worthy of praise. There are a few chapters that consist almost solely of conversations between Shin and Chae-Kyung and they are absolutely fascinating. They’re both very complex characters with their own way of looking at things, and even though Shin does seem to do more than his share of the antagonizing, Chae-Kyung is also pretty prickly at times. Still, even though there’s a lot of bickering going on, it’s never frustrating to read.

There’s also not as much comedy this time, which I appreciated, since the art during those segments is so unappealing. Still, the comedy in this series is pretty amusing, as it grows from the story rather than interrupts dramatic moments. A great example is the scene where Shin and Chae-Kyung, about to spend the afternoon smiling for the public as they ride along a parade route, practice mouth-stretching exercises beforehand. It’s basically a two-page spread of them contorting their faces in amusing ways and is very cute.

Lastly, I am enjoying the further development of the other prince, Yul. His late father was older brother to Shin’s father, and so was the original Crown Prince. In fact, when the old king and Chae-Kyung’s grandmother promised that their grandchildren would marry, it was actually Yul that the old king had in mind. When Yul’s dad died, however, the line of succession shifted to Shin’s dad and ultimately to Shin himself. Yul’s nicer, if more melancholy, than Shin and since volume one has remarked more than once on Chae-Kyung’s cuteness. There’s a nice scene between Yul and Chae-Kyung in this volume and one can’t help but think how much happier they both would be if the marriage had taken place as originally conceived. There’s a great part at the end when Yul watches the happy couple drive off after school, in which he says, “You’re in my seat.”

Also, the end of this volume—involving Chae-Kyung’s growing physical attraction to Shin—leaves one very eager to read the next. Luckily, I have it on hand.

Click 1 by Youngran Lee: C+

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From the back cover:
Joonha is a normal, healthy boy of sixteen who has cruised through life without too many problems. Imagine his surprise when a recent trip to the bathroom suddenly reveals that he’s not normal at all! With a shriek of “Oh, my God!!!,” he finds himself missing, well, something he never thought he could live without.

As it turns out, his family is abnormal in the weirdest possible way. After puberty, their chromosomes undergo some kind of mutation, which converts their bodies into the opposite sex!

Review:
There are a few things that bothered me quite a lot about Click, even while I think it’s fundamentally fairly interesting and I plan to keep reading.

1. Before spontaneously turning into a girl, Joonha is the most thoroughly infuriating chauvinist pig imaginable. He treats girls like his playthings in an attempt to teach them the feminine virtues of obedience. When the girl he likes confesses to him, he blows her off, saying that it’s her duty to “wait gracefully until you are chosen.”

2. When Joonha begins to live as a girl, he’s more tolerable, but I can’t help but think that this is because he suffered such a tremendous blow to his pride. The remorse he shows for his past actions is more along the lines of, “I should have kissed her” rather than “I shouldn’t have treated her that way.” It’s still ultimately about what’s in it for him.

3. None of the other characters are really all that likable, either. Joonha’s friend from childhood, Jinhoo, comes closest. The fact that he merely expresses mild disapproval of Joonha’s treatment of girls, however, speaks volumes.

4. Joonha’s parents are annoyingly chipper and dim. When he asks why they didn’t tell him about the family’s tendency to change genders, they claim they forgot about it. Yes, I know, I always take stories with wacky premises too seriously, but this is just too ridiculous to be suffered quietly.

There are a few good moments scattered throughout, though. My favorite is the scene in which Jinwoo and Heewon (the girl who confessed her feelings to Joonha) share their hurt feelings about Joonha’s sudden disappearing act. The art is also quite nice. It’s interesting to note, too, that once Joonha begins living as a girl, he doesn’t embody the same ideals of feminine behavior that he once held.

At this point, it’s hard to care about the story or any of the characters, but I plan to give it a couple more volumes at least to see if it gets any better.

Claymore, Vol. 14

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By Norihiro Yagi
Viz, 191 pp.
Rating: T+ (Older Teen)

Volume thirteen sent Clarice and Miata on a mission to execute Galatea and as volume fourteen begins they finally find her hidden away in the holy city of Rabona. As it turns out, the Organization’s discovery of her was not an accident but actually planned by Galatea in hopes that she, along with the Claymores sent to kill her, would be powerful enough to destroy an Awakened One (former number 2, “Bloody Agatha”) who has been menacing the city. The rest of the volume centers on the battle with Agatha, which does not proceed quite as Galatea hoped, followed up by a couple of thick extra chapters which provide more backstory on Priscilla, Isley, and Clare.

The most interesting aspect of this volume is the relationship between Clarice and Miata, which becomes quite touching during the main battle and leads to an emotional breakdown for Clarice, who is intensely frustrated by her own weaknesses. It’s not clear yet just what role she plays in this story overall but her character is intriguing and certainly destined for something special. This volume’s greatest weakness is the drawn-out battle with Agatha which goes on just a bit too long, though by the end it is clear that there is much excitement ahead and the last few pages of the main story are seriously kick-ass.

In any long series, it is inevitable that some volumes will move the story along more substantially than others, and though volume fourteen falls into the latter category, it is obvious that everything playing out here is necessary setup for what’s to come. For fans who love a battle this volume delivers nicely, and there are enough fantastic gems of information in the extra stories (particularly concerning how trainees become warriors) to satisfy the rest.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at PopCultureShock.

Claymore 14, All Hail Crunchyroll

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Morning! Just a quick update before I run out to an early morning meeting (ugh). First of all, I have a short review in this week’s Manga Minis, for volume fourteen of Claymore, a series I like a lot and one of the few shonen series I have reviewed at MR. If you missed my review of volume thirteen back in December, here it is! It was actually my very first review for Manga Recon. Oh, the nostalgia.

Secondly, I just want to take a moment and appreciate Crunchyroll. We originally bought a membership in order to watch new episodes of Shugo Chara!! Doki as they came out, but yesterday we started watching three new series (we’ll probably keep going with two of them) which were being simulcast here at pretty much the same time as in Japan. It was exciting, seriously. I mean, this is what we’ve all hoped for, right? That someone would start to provide legally what was previously only offered by fansubbers–subbed anime available here at the same time (or shortly after) its release in Japan. Hell, I’d have gone for episodes aired even a month or so afterward–that’s still a huge improvement over the years-long wait for dubs I’m not going to watch anyway–but I admit there was something kind of thrilling about knowing we were watching at approximately the same time these episodes were airing for the very first time. Thank you, Crunchyroll, thank you. You are awesome. It’ll be interesting to see how Funimation’s Fullmetal Alchemist streams stack up!

Goong: The Royal Palace 1 by Park SoHee: B+

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I reviewed the first volume of this long-running manhwa for Comics Should Be Good. Check it out!

This volume was published by ICE Kunion in May of 2006, after which the series languished in licensing limbo. After a delay of over two years, volume two was published by Yen Press in July of 2008 and the series has been coming out every few months since then. As of January 2009, there are currently 18 volumes published in Korea.

100% Perfect Girl & FMA Squee

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First off, I have a review up this morning at Manga Recon, for volume nine of NETCOMICS’ manhwa soap opera 100% Perfect Girl. I’ve had a rough time with this series as its heroine is repeatedly dragged through hell by the men who supposedly love her, but if you love a soap opera this may be the series for you.

In other news, I was thrilled to see this morning (thanks to ANN) that Funimation is going to be streaming the new Fullmetal Alchemist anime series within days of its airing in Japan! Now that the manga is so far along, I have real hope that the new adaptation may be able to approach Arakawa’s genius. There are few stories I love as much as this one, and to be able to watch the new anime series legally as it airs is more than I’d expected.

I hope this means that all this new streaming going on is working out just as the studios hoped, and that this will become the new model (or at least a new model) for anime distribution. We’ve already got a membership at Crunchyroll so that we can stream Shugo Chara! in high quality each week (and we’re excited about trying some other series as well), and aside from a few technical glitches here and there, it’s been a fantastic deal.

Fruits Basket, Volume 22

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Here is the last of my “quick” reviews for this week! Please enjoy it!

Fruits Basket, Vol. 22
By Natsuki Takaya
Published by Tokyopop

9781427806833
Buy This Book

With the level of drama that volume 21 of Fruits Basket provided, it was hard to imagine that the next volume could actually be stronger, but it is. Still barred from visiting Tohru in the hospital, Kyo decides to face down his own demons by visiting his father who rejected him so many years ago. It is a painful meeting and provides nothing even close to reconciliation, but Kyo is at least able to declare his determination to live regardless of carrying the cat’s curse. Meanwhile, Akito makes the decision to end the curse entirely, resulting in emotional scenes for everyone and Akito most of all.

This is an incredibly lovely volume with everyone’s hearts laid bare and by the end, when the true, heartbreaking story of the curse is being revealed (“…that the Cat’s wish was finally granted”), I had tears in my eyes. What’s especially skillful about Natsuki Takaya’s storytelling in this series is that she balances the romance and the supernatural story just right, ensuring that the reader is equally interested in the outcome of both, so that when the story really finds its conclusion it is satisfying on more than one level. Not only that, she manages to make each of the character’s personal arcs intensely compelling, even those of minor characters, so with all of these achieving their dramatic climax at once, the effect is really quite stunning. It’s impressive too that after all this time, the character whose story here is probably the most moving is Akito’s. “I don’t have to be ‘special’ anymore. I don’t have to be ‘God’ anymore,” she says just before her final goodbye, filled with both terror and relief. “I can just be… me. Right?” …

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