Sean Gaffney

By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume, and the two that follow it, are for me the high point of the entire run of Hayate the Combat Butler. Hata has a tendency to get sidetracked and lost in comedy asides, to the point where he’s started to parody his tendency to do so. Also, it’s becoming quite clear that someone is telling him that he has to keep the series going and can’t wrap things up. But that’s in Japan. Here, we’re finally getting to the good stuff. All the slow character development, glacial plot points, and G*ndam references lead to this confrontation in Greece.

For all that Hayate is a wacky harem comedy, it has some dark tones at its core. Mostly it’s been about the horrible parents of Hayate, Wataru and Hina, and the absent/dead parents of Nagi and Athena. But there’s also been a sense of aiming for your dream and failing that’s come up several times with Hina’s alcoholic sister Yukiji. She’s in Italy because the teacher (and old high-school friend) who has a crush on her is trying to make grand gestures so that he doesn’t have to actually confess. After a chapter of misunderstandings and beatings, the now drunken teacher wonders out loud how the cool, guitar-playing Yukiji turned into the lazy, shiftless, aimless young woman we all know. And the answer is that life happens. It’s why people make wishes, and dream of fairy stories. And create magical luck stones, for that matter.

Speaking of which, we finally get the confrontation we’ve waited 10 years for… well OK, four volumes. Hayate sees Athena, and calls out to her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know who he is. Or at least pretends she doesn’t know – as a very cute aftershot tells us, she is quite aware of Hayate but has some longer game, which involves that stone. The last volume gave us a few minor villains trying to get their hands on the stone, but now we move on to the more dangerous players. 16-year-old Athena looks like a dark queen, what with her black dress and princess curls (and healthy bust – clearly larger than any of the other girls in Hayate’s wannabe harem). We can only hope that she sides with her feelings over her need for that stone.

And so, having started the volume with Yukiji noting that sometimes things don’t work out, and dreams don’t come true, we end with the dinner date between Hayate and Hinagiku, who is determined to confess. Of course, Hina is mistakenly thinking that Hayate hates her because of her tsundere antics. And Hayate has worked out that Athena was lying, and is wondering what to do now and why meeting Athena is affecting him so much. So the dinner date is a masterpiece of distraction. Tragically, the two characters have revelations exactly at the WRONG time. Hina finally mans up her courage and starts to confess. And Hayate finally puts two and two together and realizes why he’s so devastated by Athena’s disfavor, and why he wants desperately to apologize: he loves her.

It’s an epic cliffhanger, to be sure. Hata certainly thought so, as Vols. 23 and 24 came out in Japan the same day. Sadly, that won’t happen here, where Hayate simply doesn’t have the sales. So we’ll have to check back in another six months to see how Hayate’s admission affects Hina, and whether it spurs him to return to Athena. The tension only gets higher from here.

By Naoko Takeuchi. Released in Japan as “Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Run Run. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

There’s an important thing to keep in mind when reading this first of two collections of short stories that were interspersed throughout the series’ run: they didn’t run in Nakayoshi. They ran in a sister magazine, run Run, which was also home to Sailor V. Run Run no longer exists today, but I seem to recall when it was around that its core audience was girls about 2-3 years younger than the usual Nakayoshi audience. And that’s not even getting into the fact that these are quick side-stories Naoko dashed off in between chapters, so are naturally going to be a bit more comedic and fluffy than the core plotline.

If all of this sounds a bit defensive, well, let’s just say that ‘light and frothy’ doesn’t begin to describe this volume of Sailor Moon extras, most of which are very silly and not exactly lending themselves to deeper analysis. Four of the stories star Chibi-Usa and her friends (with occasional rescues from Sailors Moon and V), while three others detail the struggles of the Inners to pass high school exams. The first one is around the R continuity (Chibi-Usa has just arrived, and is meeting her very busty friend Momo… Ranma fans will immediately be reminded of Shampoo), but most of the stories take place around the SuperS continuity – indeed, a few of them were adapted into the SuperS anime – with the final one seeming to be around Stars, given it has Hotaru.

This is not to say I did not 100% enjoy these stories, as I did. I like Naoko’s style of blatant humor, and she has a knack for amusing caricature faces. The Chibi-Usa stories at the beginning are pure fun for kids, with the kids getting into danger and having to transform to get themselves out of it. The story at the end is slightly longer and attempts to have more depth, but there’s only so far you can go when you find out that Naru’s sister is not only a kogal but is also named Naruru. It’s good to know that Japan has horrible naming sense as well. (Also, kudos to Mari Morimoto for the translation of this chapter, which was filled with topical Japanese slang that Chibi-Usa and Hotaru pointed out and lampshaded throughout, thus making it virtually unadaptable. A very nice job.)

My favorite part of the book, I will admit, are the three stories focusing on the Inners. Makoto’s is probably the weakest, but we do get some amusing scenes of her procrastination through cooking and housework, and also hear about her late parents for what may be the only time in the manga OR anime canon. (They’re killed in a plane crash when Makoto was a little girl, which is used here as both an amusing gag and to have Mako gain sympathy points from her friends.) Ami’s First Love is probably the best written of the three, and it’s no surprise that the anime adapted this into a short film for theaters. Ami can be very tightly wound, so seeing her coming unglued at finding a student who’s just as perfect in studying as she is is hilarious, particularly when she gets so upset by this she seems to make herself ill.

And then there’s Rei and Minako. I’ve discussed how much I love this chapter before, silly as it is, and that hasn’t changed. The manga version of Rei – cool, collection, a bit ‘ice queen’ – is in such contrast to Minako’s extrovert that it makes sense that she’d want to see what Rei’s life at school is like – and yes, she’d want to ask if Rei farted. I think that Minako regards Rei as a bit too perfect, and this is just her own tactless way of trying to reassure herself that Rei is human after all. Of course, all that her visit to Rei’s perfect Catholic school ends up doing is tweaking Minako’s own insecurities – and that leads to Rei seeming genuinely upset at Minako getting angry, showing she *isn’t* the perfect ice princess. Rei is likely very lonely at that school where she only has admirers, and just can’t express her friendships in the way that Minako wants her to. Still, they manage to bond by… well, Rei being possessed and trying to kiss Minako. And afterwards being crankier than ever. But Minako’s feeling good again, and that’s what’s important. Bless these children.

So if the Sailor Moon series was a full-course meal, then this is dessert. Don’t go into it expecting anything more than delicious sweets that are easy on the eyes but not all that good for you, and you should be fine. Also, Rei has never farted. She is better than all of us.

By Tomu Ohmi. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Petit Comic. Released in North America by Viz.

I often joke when discussing licenses that the thing most companies tend to look for is “does this manga have vampires in it? And are they hot??”. But of course in general there has to be more substance to it than that. We need smart, compelling characters, we need some intriguing backstory, and of course we do need some nice seductive romance. With Midnight Secretary we get two out of the three, and I suspect the intriguing backstory will come in future volumes as this develops more of a plot.

Kaya is a young woman living with her mother who is highly skilled but has one big problem (at least it’s a problem to her): she has a face that makes her look far too young. So, in order to get the secretarial work that she’s so good at, she does her hair up in a tight bun and wears glasses, looking very much like the cliche of what we think good secretaries should be. Like most Petit Comic heroines I’ve read about, her family has fallen on hard times, and her father has passed away from being incompetent… um, from stress. Luckily, she has a new job as secretary to the company director. Unluckily, he’s a womanizer, arrogant, and unimpressed with her looks. Oh yes, and he’s a vampire.

I am pleased that we get the reveal to this right off the bat, and that, after a bit of soul searching (and some blackmail on Kyohei’s part) she manages to file “vampire” under “things I have to manage in my boss’ day”. Indeed, Kaya takes her job very seriously indeed, and once she accepts what Kyohei is, she’s quick to research everything about vampires (most of which, amusingly, is wrong) and try to deal with the issues. And yes, sometimes that involves his sucking her blood, but only in emergencies. And it’s totally not one of the most erotic experiences she’s ever had, nope.

Kyohei’s brother is the executive director, and Kaya notes he isn’t a vampire, something I was prepared to have be wrong but no, it appears that is the case. It’s amusing to me that most of the drama in this fist volume comes less from Kyohei’s vampiric tendencies and more from the corporate intrigue. Kaya is far more valuable to him for her smarts and her spying ability than as a free meal ticket. Of course, he does eventually get her hair down and glasses off, and we start to see the smoldering passion that will no doubt justify this series’ 7-volume length. Indeed, by the end of Vol. 1 Kyohei is finding that other women’s blood just doesn’t do it for him, and he adds ‘blood for me’ to the endless list of Kaya’s tasks.

This is a fun series, with a more capable heroine than I’m used to seeing in this type of title. I wonder if we’ll get more of Kyohei’s vampire backstory as the series goes on, or if it will stick to corporate intrigue. And of course how these two will fall deeper in love. It’s another spicy romantic josei series from Shojo Beat. Fans of romance and the supernatural will snap it up.

By Kaoru Shintani. Released in Japan as “Christie High Tension” by Media Factory, serialized in the magazine Comic Flapper. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

The Young Miss Holmes series wraps up here with an omnibus of the final three volumes, and also takes a departure from canon, as only the first story, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, is a Watson story published by Conan Doyle. That said, some of the titles of the remaining stories here may be familiar with Holmes and Watson, particularly the “Canary Trainer” mentioned in “The Adventure of Black Peter”, and the infamous “Giant Rat of Sumatra”, mentioned in the “Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” story. Shintani makes a decent effort at leaving the Holmes canon, and it allows him to do a bit more with Christie than simple sleuthing, particularly in the finale, which is basically an action movie with very little detecting.

The canonical Holmes story, Solitary Cyclist, does a decent job of having Christie and Sherlock join forces. Violet Smith is an old friend of Grace, Christie’s governess. Christie herself is chomping at the bit to become more independent, while still retaining a childlike air (particularly in the Circus chapters). That said, she’s not only more mature than most girls her age but far more modern, discussing how she has no desire to be a young lady the way the Victorians see them, and is already taking her savings and starting a pension plan to allow her servants to retire happily. It’s a good way to try to drag Holmes into the 21st century a bit, while still maintaining the charm of the original. (That said, I could have done without the appearance of Queen Victoria herself, in the weakest part of the book.)

The book is not faultless, of course. There is less nudity and gore than the first two omnibuses, but there’s still lots of corpses for an All-Ages rating, and Comic Flapper and Shintani still seem to sexualize Christie more than is necessary on a few title pages. The use of ‘moneylenders’ once or twice comes with some Victorian stereotypes, although it’s not really bad unless you’re looking for it. (Indeed, most of the villains here suffer from “I am ugly and therefore a villain” disease, which is quite common in comics and manga alike.) “The Dying Message” and “The Flying Dancer” aren’t too bad, but are weaker than the other stories we see here.

The Canary Trainer story is easily the creepiest of the book, featuring murder, suicide, child slavery, hypnotic suggestion, and child prostitution. It also merges Christie and Holmes the best of the five stories seen here, as they start out pursuing two totally different cases that only turn out to be the same thing right near the end. However, in a shocking display of canon ignorance, Shintani may have drawn Mycroft Holmes as slim. Luckily, there’s an out: everyone who says “that must have been Mycroft” didn’t actually see him. Perhaps it was Sherringford. Let’s go with that.

Things come to a head with the 7th volume/last third of the book, The Giant Rat of Sumatra. This helps to avoid the stereotype of “foreign villains” by sending a troup of good guys from India to help protect Christie from the thuggee bad guys. They are, of course, led by a young woman who is basically the Indian version of Christie, complete with tomboy mannerisms and snarky retainers. She’s good in a fight, however, which is a bonus, as Christie decides to simply go to ground in her mansion and let the villains come to her. Which they do, in one big final conflagration.

The series ends with the return of Christie’s parents, which marks a good stopping point – I’m sure they won’t totally stop her getting into adventures, but no doubt she will have to slow down a little. Shintani is currently writing a sequel, Christie London Massive, featuring a 17-year-old Christie, a whole new cadre of battle maids (led by Nora, no fear, she’s still there), and perhaps a familiar adversary of Sherlock Holmes thrown into the mix. Of course, that’s Japan. Whether it comes out here or not depends on how well the print and E-Book versions do. I had a ball reading them, particularly as a Holmes fan, and definitely recommend picking up the whole series.

Also, there is a dodo. For some reason.

By Kyoko Okazaki. Released in Japan by Shodensha, serialized in the magazine Feel Young. Released in North America by Vertical.

When I first heard about the new title that Vertical had licensed, and its basic premise, I started to formulate in my head an idea of how it would probably go. We already knew it would be about modeling and plastic surgery in some way. It was not a great leap forward to imagine there would be a younger, more successful rival, a controlling mother figure, and the hubristic slide into inevitable tragedy. And technically, that’s all present and correct in this volume. But that doesn’t begin to describe what a stunning ride this is, and how much you get drawn into its characters and storyline.

Liliko is the star here, and she’s far more self-aware than I was really expecting. She starts at the top of the modeling game, but it’s taken a lot of work to get her there. Moreover, a secondary plotline throughout the book discusses the shady characters who did her plastic surgery, and how the law is getting closer and closer to them. Really, while Liliko is flagrantly horrible at many points in this book – she notes at one point that she’s so broken that the only thing that gives her satisfaction is breaking others – she’s no worse than na lot of the top strata in the business she’s engaged in, which uncaringly throws away stars once they lose their looks or get embroiled in scandal.

Actually, the character I was most fascinated with throughout the book was Hada, the young woman who starts as Liliko’s gofer/assistant and ends up falling for her hard, in all the wrong ways. I was initially expecting Hada to end up killing herself – there are a few suicides in this book, and I wondered if one of the corpses I saw would be hers. Then, as things got worse, I realized that it was more likely she’d wind up arrested. Then I wondered if she’d be the chief witness for the prosecution. Then, as things really spiraled, it became clear that there was no separating Hada and her easily led boyfriend from Liliko for any period… not while they’re still completely codependent on each other.

There was one thing I didn’t think worked here, or at least that didn’t resonate with me as much as the rest of the book. Takao Nanbu, Liliko’s boyfriend at the start of the book, likes to speak in a philosophical, slightly smarmy way, and he simply grated on my nerves with all the Tiger Lily stuff and talk about past lives. Certainly he added a different element to the story (and oh do I feel bad for his fiancee getting caught up in Liliko’s psychotic drama), but especially towards the end I felt his monologues were simply overdone.

It’s hard to discuss the main selling point of this manga, as it’s basically an underlying tone. So much happens here that could be termed a car crash, but Okazaki is so compelling a storyteller that you read on anyway, even as modeling turns to adultery, assault and multiple suicides. The title is completely appropriate – and no, despite the song getting a mention right at the end, I don’t think it’s entirely talking about The Beatles. The Helter Skelter is a British amusement park ride (tornado slide for U.S. readers) that is a wild, out of control ride that makes the reader want to go back to the top when they hit the bottom. Likewise Liliko hits rock bottom at the end of this book, but that doesn’t mean that we should count her out, or that this is the end. Her story (and possible new downfall) is only beginning.

By Hajime Isayama. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Sometimes books just read FAST. You pick up the book, start turning the pages, and the next thing you know you’re looking at the preview. That’s definitely the case with this volume of Attack on Titan, which is nonstop action from beginning to end, and its pace is just unrelenting. We see Armin being clever, Reiner being badass, Eren learning that being in a military organization is a hard thing for a hothead to do, and lots of mass destruction and slaughter of the survey team in general. As if the cover didn’t already tip you off.

Armin noted at the end of the last volume that the female Titan who dominates this volume is intelligent, and boy do we see that here. She knows how to protect herself, she’s mercilessly cruel and sadistic (you can see the amusement in her face when a soldier begs her to let him go, and she starts spinning him around till he’s so much meat before doing so), and far, far harder to get rid of than the run of the mill titans we’d seen to date. It takes Armin, Jean and Reiner all of their combined skills just to get away and try to shove the titan in the right direction.

As for Eren, he’s having the same problem that a reader might be having – he spent 5 volumes training and bonding with a group of friends and comrades, only to be torn away from them and forced into a group he barely knows and who doesn’t seem to like him much (excepting the resident mad scientist). Not to mention people still won’t let him go berserk and just start killing Titans, possibly as it’s incredibly stupid. He does begin to get an inkling of what military discipline is like here, as Levi straight up tells him he can do what he wants but reminds him of what they’ve all been fighting for. In the end, despite his rage and tragic past, it’s just not all about Eren.

Speaking of his new squadmates, I appreciated the flashback where we see how well they work together as a unit. Given a series like this, you tend to dismiss anyone who doesn’t have a bio at the front of the book as “cannon fodder”, and the fact that they had pictures but no text didn’t bode well. But the fact is Levi’s squad has survived longer than Eren has outside the walls, and they’ve killed more Titans than he has too. Their well-oiled machine shows Eren that he can turn his rage and anger into something useful to them. And his trust is rewarded in the end, as the female Titan is captured due to the efforts of the entire team.

This was a thrilling volume, and uplifting compared to previous ones. Of course, that means next time it will likely be even more depressing, but hey, you take your victories where you can. When humanity is fighting an unstoppable enemy, you enjoy seeing them fight back. The art needs more improvement still (Dear Isayama: your faces all look alike. Love, Sean), but otherwise it’s another winner.

By Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and GAINAX. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazines Shonen Ace and Young Ace. Released in North America by Viz Media.

This fourth omnibus from Viz will be the last for a while, as Japan hasn’t even announced when the final volume is coming out yet. I assume it will be released simultaneously here and Japan, as Vol. 13 was, and that there will be a gap between that any any 5th omnibus. That said, there’s more than enough here to keep Evangelion fans busy. So much happens in this omnibus that it’s a bit difficult to know where to begin. One thing is for certain, though, and that’s the ongoing massacre of everyone Shinji loves and holds dear is still going to happen. Business as usual, folks.

Kaworu was introduced far earlier in each successive adaptation of Evangelion, probably as fans took him so quickly to their hearts. That doesn’t mean that he gets to be all warm and fuzzy, though he’s trying. I think it’s clear he wants to comfort Shinji and make him feel better, but he has no idea how people deal with grief – or indeed, emotions in general. He tries to make up for that by physical closeness, but Shinji, who’s already somewhat sexually confused due to simply being a teenager, lashes out at him. The manga makes things bigger – both Shinji’s rejection of Kaworu’s advances of friendship (or something more), and of his admitting how close Kaworu really got to him. In the end, Kaworu wanting Shinji to kill him manages to be rather heartwarming and sweet, in an Evangelion way.

And, in the opposite direction from heartwarming and sweet, we have Ritsuko, who has realized all along that Gendo is using her like he uses everyone else, but has been too wrapped up in her desire for him to really try to do anything about it. Gendo throwing her to the wolves of SEELE seems like it was a wake-up call, and she proceeds to give him the biggest ‘fuck you’ that she possibly can, with Misato and Shinji as witnesses. The idea of Rei being a clone is something that we’ve basically accepted, particularly given we see her get killed early on in this volume and then show up with the same body but without the emotional attachment to Shinji she had grown over the series. Despite that, the scene showing all the Rei bodies in the vat, waiting to be the next one, has not lost any of its power. It’s almost a relief that a suicidal and self-loathing Ritsuko destroys them all.

I talked last time about how Asuka gets much less to do in the manga, and that’s still true in this volume – until the end. Sticking her in her Eva may have been a safety precaution, but it was also the best possible thing for her psyche, as she manages to come to terms with what her mother was to her – and then goes to town on SEELE’s invading Evas, in the most glorious battle sequence we have seen to date in the series. Seeing Asuka, who has spent her entire life overcompensating for feeling useless and unwanted, take out these fakes with strength and purity of heart, is a beautiful thing, even if she can’t quite save the entire day. Mostly as it’s questionable as to whether there will be a tomorrow to be saved.

Because the JSSDF is invading NERV, and the orders are to kill everyone – even people who surrender, even people begging for their life. This we see, and it’s absolutely terrifying. It comes to the point where only Shinji in his Eva can save the day, but he is absolutely emotionally dead after everything that has happened to him (and remember, the timeline for the manga seems to be far faster than the anime one). Luckily, he has Misato,who gets her finest hour in the final part of this volume at the same time that Asuka is getting hers. Misato has always sort of straddled that line with Shinji between feelings of a mother, of a sister, and of a woman. It fits well with the rest of the series, where Shinji can’t tell if he loathes or is attracted to Kaworu, Ritsuko’s desire merges with her anger, and Gendo imprints her dead wife onto a clone that is both her and not her at the same time – something that she gets but he may not. All of these things are what makes up humanity – and that’s what Misato has to convince Shinji to save.

Has she done that? Well, you can get Vol. 13 right now and see for yourself, but whether we manage to get an ending that isn’t covered in orange goo is another matter. The manga has ended in Japan, so it’s a matter of Kadokawa scheduling the final volume. either way, it’s been an amazing ride. The manga world of Evangelion is still my favorite.

By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ikki. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s worth noting, in case people have somehow forgotten it amongst all the gyoza and goofiness, that this series is incredibly terrifying at times. Everyone’s pasts are brutal and horrific, and it’s made almost all of them into morally ambiguous killers. The corpses that litter Dorohedoro are almost uncountable. And one of our good guys has a flashback in this volume showing that he collected these corpses and experimented on them. Meanwhile, Ebisu is learning the hard way that you can’t go home again.

Actually, the Ebisu plotline was probably my favorite part of this volume, if only for the 80 shades of wrong it contained. For one, the entire plotline with her parents is just nightmarish. Their daughter disappears, they are distraught, broken… so they pay a sorcerer to bring her back. And he… is a man with a paint tube mask, something that sounds much funnier than it is given that’s also how he recreates Ebisu. Only it isn’t Ebisu, to the point where her own parents fled their home. And now Ebisu returns to find herself under attack by her own doppelganger. Of all the disturbing art and violence that we get in this volume (yes, even the final scene), Ebisu having her head slashed open is the one that will stick with me. Just… urgh.

Meanwhile, we continue to get flashbacks to the guy that I think is Caiman’s past. His name is Ai, and he’s a sullen teen, all right. He also goes and gets himself killed fairly fast, or so we think. As it turns out, when Shin and Noi dig up the grave, there is a distinct lack of Ai there. It has to be said that Dorohedoro is a very dense manga, and its hints, when they arrive, are not necessarily very revealing. Caiman’s past in particular is difficult as we’re given the fakeout of his being connected to Risu, which turned out to be not quite true (but also yes, it is totally true).

And finally, En wakes up again, and boy is he pissed off. It’s worth noting just how overpowered En is in comparison to everyone else in this manga. He arrives and just completely owns everyone, even Caiman, who is immune to magic… which really doesn’t help when mushrooms are erupting from all of your internal organs. Now En has Nikaido again, and Caiman appears to be dead. He’s appeared to be dead before, but this time he has his own head (maybe) back, and the lizard head is a thing of the past. Maybe.

Leaving aside the batter-fried shrimp sorcerer at the end of the book, this was a fun, if a bit confusing, volume of Dorohedoro. Yes, explanations are thin on the ground, but the story never suffers from the lack of them. I suspect that the story is going to switch back to the cross-eyed gang for a bit given that cliffhanger (and we also get a really sweet/disturbing scene of the cross-eyes reminiscing about their completely insane leader, who I think is also Ai? Caiman? Whatever…). Wherever the story goes, though, I’m right there with it.