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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

September 21, 2010 by MJ 3 Comments

Pick of the Week: House of Five Leaves

Taking a quick break from my recent Vertical kick (though you can expect to see them back in this slot next week), and eschewing my usual PotW source, Comicopia, I hereby name Natsume Ono’s House of Five Leaves as my latest Pick of the Week!

Unlike many others, I haven’t fully jumped on the Natsume Ono bandwagon (though I do like Ristorante Paradiso quite a bit), but this series… oh this series. It hits me in all the right ways, with its passive, conflicted protagonist and shaky moral center.

Here are a couple of quick quotes from my recent review on Off the Shelf, where I discussed both my love for the story’s “hero,” Akitsu, as well as the volume as a whole:

“He’s just about as lost as a person could be, and yet there’s a survivor’s instinct somewhere in there that keeps him living and makes him weirdly compelling, despite his limp personality. I can’t help liking him and it’s definitely not out of pity. Ono’s unique art style is especially poignant here, too, and I think that really helps develop the character … The story moves quite slowly, but that’s really not the point. It’s all about this strange, vulnerable man, and whether he can truly discover family in a bunch of morally ambiguous outlaws. I had a lot of difficulty stopping after the first volume. It grabbed me that strongly.”

For more info, check out Viz’s latest press release on the series. Or just go buy it.

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Filed Under: PICK OF THE WEEK Tagged With: house of five leaves

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anna says

    September 22, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    Hmm, I think I wILL buy it now after all…! I read the preview, it looks great.

    Reply
    • Melinda Beasi says

      September 22, 2010 at 12:56 pm

      It really is, I hope you enjoy it!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Anti-Berserk law struck down « MangaBlog says:
    September 22, 2010 at 7:27 am

    […] Dacey, Brad Rice, and David Welsh look over this week’s new manga, while Melinda Beasi reveals her Pick of the Week at Manga […]

    Reply


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