Sean and Michelle weigh in on some new manga from Kodansha Comics and VIZ Media!
Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu | By Junji Ito | Kodansha Comics – I laughed, I cried, it was better than cats. Seriously, though, I enjoyed this tremendously. Manga artist J-kun is less than enthusiastic about his fiancée’s creepy-looking cat, Yon, coming to live with them in their pristine new home. Soon, however, he is learning to wield a cat toy in an appropriately tantalizing manner, attempting to convince a cat to sleep on his bed, and worrying desperately when kitten Mu has a health scare. There are some great examples of non-verbal storytelling here—I especially like the depiction of the battle for cat tower supremacy—and fabulous panels capturing the frenzy of kitties at play. It’s not all light-hearted, but that just makes it more wonderfully poignant. Very highly recommended. – Michelle Smith
Maid-sama!, Vols. 3-4 | By Hiro Fujiwara | Viz Media – There are several things I enjoyed in this volume, such as the fact that Aoi’s desire to dress in women’s clothing isn’t treated as something perverse or strange, and basically anytime Misaki shows off how much she cares about everyone around her and how observant she is. But Usui continues to suck the joy out of the series. It’s not just that he’s perfect and does everything effortlessly—I’ve loved characters like that before. It’s that his presence makes Misaki weaker, and I don’t mean because she’s falling in love with him, I mean she becomes a weaker character in general. This puts me in the odd position of reading a romantic comedy for everything but the romance. Oh well. – Sean Gaffney
Nisekoi, Vol. 12 | By Naoshi Komi | Viz Media – There’s no overarching plot for this volume, which instead gives us a series of one-shots that seem like a Nisekoi’s Greatest Hits in a way. We show off Raku’s bond with Chitoge, his bond with Onodera, Onodera’s sister being jealous and also falling for Raku at the same time, Tsugumi’s continued issues with self-worth and self-hatred, Ruri’s stoic awesomeness, and everyone waffling about the love quadrangle. It all ends up at a summer festival, where the need to keep up the pretense of dating and the fairly large number of people who know that this is a false front hits a wall. It leads to a good cliffhanger. Overall, though, this is pretty much just killing time while the author spins out some longer plot points for the future. – Sean Gaffney
One-Punch Man, Vol. 3 | By ONE and Yusuke Murata | Viz Media – There’s an expansion of the cast in this new volume, with several new heroes who may or may not crop up again. We also get a sense of the organization behind it, and how superheroing in this area has a lot of political back and forth behind it. But the series lives and dies on Saitama, and his reactions and lack of reactions are what make it worthwhile. There’s a lot of these here, and I’m not sure which I like more, his honestly inspirational speeches about perseverance to a superhero thinking of quitting, or his flat ‘what’ gaze at… well, many, many things. All this plus actual female heroes in the series, even if they’re just cameos. I look forward to seeing where this goes next. – Sean Gaffney
Oresama Teacher, Vol. 19 | By Izumi Tsubaki | VIZ Media – I never thought I’d say “wow!” about a volume of Oresama Teacher, but volume nineteen delivers! I absolutely loved the fairy-tale feel to the first few pages, where we get an inkling of the arrangement between Momochi and Hanabusa—it really gets one in the mood for what follows. And what does follow is Kurosaki, Yui, and Saeki going to Hayasaka’s house after he fails to return to school after being suspended, and discovering all sorts of things about his life, not the least of which is his first name. Tsubaki-sensei imbues the palatial Hayasaka home with a nicely creepy, “it was a dark and stormy night” sort of feeling, but in the end the truth of it all is both better and worse, and actually ties in with some things we’ve noticed about Hayasaka in the past. Tsubaki-sensei deserves a gold star for this one! – Michelle Smith
Say “I Love You,” Vol. 10 | By Kanae Hazuki | Kodansha Comics – Given this runs in a sort of josei magazine in Japan (Dessert is one of those ‘borderline’ cases), I’m actually surprised that it took until the 10th volume to see the events that happen here. It makes sense, though—the main couple doesn’t have nearly as many issues as, say, My Little Monster, and given that the main obstacle to a deeper love has been Mei’s own self-worth issues, once those are dealt with with a truly wonderful and heartwarming Christmas, it feels earned. What’s more, the reaction of her friends is excitement and joy, something I also greatly appreciated. Each volume of this series builds on the last, and my only concern is that I expect some roadblocks to keep the manga active. -Sean Gaffney
Yukarism, Vol. 4 | By Chika Shiomi | Viz Media – It is refreshing to read a series that seems exactly the right length, without plots drawn out or cut short. In its final volume, we get a resolution of the ongoing magical time-travel reincarnation, and it involves lots of self-sacrifice, anguished screams, and quite a bit of blood as well. The threat of a love triangle was always defused once we knew the relation of Kazuma and Yumarasaki, and instead we get misguided obsession, followed by forgiveness. I am also pleased that things were resolved without a mindwipe returning it all to the way it was before—that’s how it was headed, but the author refused to go down that road. This manga gets my vote as the biggest surprise of 2015—it’s a keeper. -Sean Gaffney