Guest Review
Higurashi: When They Cry, Vols. 4-5
By Ryukishi 07, Yutori Houjyou, and Jiro Suzuki
Published by Yen Press

Review by Megan M.

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A newcomer to the small hamlet town of Hinamizawa, Keiichi Maebara makes friends quickly among the students at his new school. He also learns that the town has a history of grisly murders occurring on the night of the local Cotton Drifting. What’s more, some of his new friends seem to be intimately (and tragically) involved in the town’s gruesome history.

Based on a popular murder mystery game, Higurashi: When They Cry depicts multiple versions of a single story, drawn by various artists. Volume four wraps up the “Cotton Drifting” arc and volume five begins the “Curse Killing” arc. The difference in approach between these two volumes is most easily demonstrated by discussing their art styles. Yutori Houjyou’s art in “Cotton Drifting” is a fairly standard in terms of character design, but dark, creepy, and occasionally shocking. Her characters, even the more lighthearted ones, have a depressing air of gravity to them. Jiro Suzuki’s art in “Curse Killing,” on the other hand, is in broad slapstick, featuring plenty of visual humor and moe character designs (along with the usual fanservice). I found the adjustment jarring, and volume five’s borderline-inappropriate comedy kept me from being able to care about the tragedy surrounding the characters.

One interesting note: unlike similar stories, which tend toward gratuitous display of female corpses, Higurashi doesn’t play gender favorites when it comes to victims. Though it’s true there are more female corpses than there are male, there are also far more female characters overall.

I consider it to almost be a crime to watch Clue (a brilliant black comedy from the 1980s) without watching all the endings, so I’m intrigued by a canon that centers around different possibilities in a single story. Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite work for me. Though Higruashi: When They Cry is by no means bad manga, I don’t think it’s a series for me.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

Guest Review: Love*Com, Vol. 14
By Aya Nakahara
Published by VIZ Media

Review by Deanna Gauthier

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In this volume, Risa and Otani’s relationship is once again under attack. To Risa’s horror, her own grandfather has hired a woman to seduce Otani and break them up. Even worse, Otani believes the sob story he’s been given by the beautiful, buxom Hitomi and accuses Risa of lying to him about her grandfather’s scheme. When the truth comes out will it matter who was wrong and who was right now that a jealous and conniving Hitomi has tricked Risa and left her at the mercy of two yakuza thugs?

This is a romantic comedy so of course a plotline like this will never end as tragically as it could. Still, it is the darkest plotline (and Hitomi, the character with the blackest heart) to appear in Love* Com. Being the gullible reader I am, I believed Risa was in real danger. The threat of rape just doesn’t sit right with me as fodder for comedic misunderstanding. Love*Com has always delivered liberal doses of fluffy silliness along with angst as Risa and Otani discover what they mean to each other and learn what it means to like someone, let alone be in love with them. The mangaka, Aya Nakara, has characterized her manga as intended to bring a smile to the faces of her readers and give them even a moment of enjoyment in their lives. In that regard she has always delivered in spades. I found plenty to laugh about in this volume as I have in the volumes that preceded it–not to mention warm and fuzzy moments to make me smile. Risa and Otani are such innocent and awkward leads–two loveable stumbling idiots who are absolutely made for each other. I do not mean to pick on Nakahara too much for this storyline. It just struck me as too serious and dark a dilemma for an otherwise non-threatening shojo romantic comedy.

Speaking of non-threatening, this volume marks the return of the clownishly-drawn, not-too-bright punks who Risa’s brother nearly came to blows with in the previous volume. Nakahara’s artwork is strongest when it comes to facial expression, especially the eyes. Yet the facial features of her yakuza are drawn with very thin lines and no shading, reducing them almost to doodles that look like they don’t quite belong in the same universe as our main characters. I don’t particularly like the design and execution of the yakuza characters. It feels sloppy in comparison to how beautiful (or at least human) the rest of her characters look most of the time. However, I do feel Nakahara successfully uses this same technique of reducing the facial features of the rest of her cast to thin lines that stretch or contort into odd shapes to comically express certain emotions more strongly. It’s funny, but it’s only just now, fourteen volumes into the series, that it occurs to me: Nakahara uses this instead of drawing chibis!

I really am enjoying this series. It has given me reason to smile when I have really needed it during the dreary fall and winter days, and it holds up well to re-reads. It is definitely one for my keeper shelf. I look forward to the final three volumes!

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Guest Review: Honey and Clover, Vol. 8
By Chica Umino
Published by Viz Media

Review by Lorena Nava Ruggero

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Love triangles abound in this slapstick-happy manga that mixes comedy with a wistful thoughtfulness that can only be indulged in while attending college. Tiny Hagu gets a bad case of the hiccups and the men in her life try to help her, but only Takemoto’s trick stops the hiccups. A parallel is then drawn to another relationship when Mayama helps Rika with her own case of the hiccups. Despite Mayama’s desperate attempts otherwise, Rika is still aloof with him. But, when notification of an important project comes through–the last project Rika’s late husband had planned–things between them change.

Later, with help from Fujiwara Design co-workers Miwako and Yamazaki, Nomiya finds out just how much he cares for Yamada. Meanwhile, Yamada is busier than ever thanks to her ever-growing clientele. Unfortunately, much of the work keeps her close to Rika and Mayama, and watching them together is slowly killing her inside even as Nomiya tries to distract her from the pain.

This is another well done volume, with an overarching theme of how we try to help one another through pain of one kind or another–whether it’s the pain of the hiccups, pain from love or the pain of living, each of the characters in this volume are trying to help one another in some way. Umino portrays this theme both humorously and with an emotional depth I’ve come to expect from this series. There are several different narrators throughout this volume, all of them lovesick from Takemoto and Nomiya to Mayama and Yamada. While Nomiya and Takemoto are mostly at peace with their feelings, Mayama and Yamada are more desperate and visceral about it. The parallels and juxtaposition provide an interesting perspective.

There’s more exploration of the secondary cast of characters in this volume, specifically Miwako. In one chapter, Miwako takes Yamada to “Health Land,” a spa wonderland of sorts, to help her decompress and forget about Mayama for a few hours. The trip shows just how much of an “old woman” Miwako is, from her love of fruit-flavored baths to massages. It also provides an interesting moment for philosophical thought: according to Miwako, Health Land is egalitarian since it reduces everyone to the same floral muumuu, thus removing class barriers and even gender differences!

As far as artwork goes, it’s much of the same as before–a mix of Umino’s trademark schizophrenic sketching with delicate linework that communicates the characters’ fragile, yet, extreme emotional states. Lucky for readers, there’s also another beautiful vista in the sand dunes of northern Japan, where Nomiya and Yamazaki are working on a project in Tottori. It’s a nice change from what we’ve seen thus far. However, Umino’s true skill is shown when she draws comedy. Whether it’s the pack of unicorns protecting the ever-oblivious Yamada’s maiden virtue, the tropical delights of Health Land or Takemoto’s painfully hungry examination of flowering kale, laughs are surely soon to follow. There’s an undeniable and deliberate joy in these panels that is hard to ignore.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again–Honey and Clover is not only one of my favorite josei series, but it’s also one of my favorite manga series. There’s abundant physical comedy and an entertaining cast of characters, as well as an emotional vulnerability and thoughtfulness that come together in such an endearing way that it’s hard to not like this series.

Review copy provided by the publisher. To read more reviews by Lorena Nava Ruggero, visit her manga review blog, i ♥ manga.

Guest Review: Vampire Knight, Vol. 8
By Matsuri Hino
Published by Viz Media

Review by Megan M.

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Cross Academy is divided into two groups of students: the Day Class, made up of seemingly normal high school students, and the Night Class, whose members are actually vampires. Protecting the human students from the vampires are Yuki Cross (the headmaster’s foster daughter) and her childhood friend, Zero Kiryu. Yuki has always had a strange relationship with the head of the Night Class, Kaname, on whom she must rely to explain the mysteries of her past. Fortunately for Yuki, circumstances have reached a point where Kaname has no other choice but to do so.

I read the first three volumes of this series when they first came out in the U.S., but eventually dropped it. While I found the main plotline interesting and liked Yuki and Zero, I found Kaname to be extremely creepy and his relationship with Yuki even more so. The real deal breaker for me, however, was that the entire cast (excepting Zero) behaved as if Yuki was one of Kaname’s personal possessions. Having now read this volume, there is virtually nothing I can say on this topic that would not be considered a major spoiler, but suffice it to say that the story itself now appears to support this view of Yuki. Not only has Kaname been firmly established as a love interest, but we also learn that Yuki was literally created purely for the purpose of being Kaname’s bride. There are other plot elements that briefly appear–the mythology of the vampire hunters and the dangers of twin hunters, for instance–but these items are clearly secondary.

In addition to giving life to the creepiest implications of the story’s core premise, the overall quality of the series seems to have declined. In early volumes, I recall that Yuki had quite a bit to do. In this volume, she literally does nothing but run around in a nightgown. In addition, Zero does nothing but point his gun and angst. Only Kaname has anything of real substance on his plate, which unfortunately consists of obsessing over Yuki and seeking revenge. Had I not read previous volumes, I would wonder if Hino’s characters were capable of anything but angst (alternately tragic and angry), aside from some supporting characters, whose range extends to ominous, mysterious, and tragic.

The series’ art has also suffered a serious decline. In the past, I’ve found Matsuri Hino’s art to be too cluttered for my taste–more focused on looking pretty than storytelling–but her designs and backgrounds were interesting and appealing, and her art very detailed. Unfortunately, she has degenerated to substituting backgrounds with white space or hazy textures and her characters have become so generic that they are difficult to tell apart except by hairstyle.

I decided to give Vampire Knight another try thanks to a growing fondness for other gothic shojo titles over the last two years. Unfortunately, whatever it is that CLAMP, Higuri You and Kaori Yuki have, Matsuri Hino doesn’t.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Guest Review: Bamboo Blade, Vol. 2
By Masahiro Totsuka and Aguri Igarashi
Published by Yen Press

Review by Megan M.

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Kojiro is his school’s kendo coach and is always broke and hungry. When his senpai, the coach of a rival school, bets him a year’s worth of free sushi that Kojiro’s girls’ kendo team can’t beat his, Kojiro can’t resist. The only problem is that despite his recent acquisition of Tama, the daughter of a dojo, he only has four girls on his team, one less than what’s required. That’s assuming that his other new member, Miya, can work through her behavioral issues, and that the elusive member, Saya, can actually be tracked down and make it to practice. Meanwhile, Saya and Miya (neither of whom realize the other is a teammate) become enemies when Saya scolds Miya for smoking on school property.

Not having read the first volume, I’m uncertain as to whether the bet is the central plot of the series or simply a prominent subplot. I had heard of “Bamboo Blade” but been leery of it, as the description painted a picture of a school-based shonen series with a pervy teacher and a lot of fanservice, though I was curious enough about the subject of a girls’ kendo team to give it a try. Thankfully, my suspicions appear to have been wholly unfounded, as this volume is extremely clean and the closest thing Kojiro comes to having wrong thoughts about his students is to bemoan the fact that they don’t trust him with money. Actually, despite his engaging in underhanded plots to address the problem of not having enough team members, he may function better as a coach than most teachers in manga.

The book is genuinely funny and its characters engaging. Of the characters, my favorites are Saya, who is obsessively driven to find her true calling in life, and the much more laid back (almost spacey) Kirino. The two obviously appear to be best friends. Thankfully, Kojiro and his students aren’t portrayed positively at the expense of making their rivals evil or cruel and both teams and coaches are presented as humorous and engaging, with plenty of focus on the friendships between teammates. The art is a bit cartoonish and the designs are nothing new, but it’s functional and the characters are easy to distinguish. More importantly, the action is very easy to follow, something that’s important in a series that focuses on the mechanics of a sport.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, given my suspicions regarding the premise, but I ended up enjoying it far more than I expected to, and am looking forward to reading more, especially as it appears that the next volume will focus even more on practice matches between the two teams.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Guest Review: With the Light, Vol. 5
By Keiko Tobe
Published by Yen Press

Review by Lorena Nava Ruggero

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In this volume, little Hikaru is growing up fast. Now in the fifth grade, Hikaru has a new teacher and several new classmates as he finishes his last year of elementary school. While Hikaru’s new teacher left his old school in scandal, can the newbie instructor handle the group of four disabled students on his own?

Meanwhile, Sachiko is advocating on Hikaru’s behalf and helping other parents get the public services their children are entitled to receive. Towards volume’s end, Sachiko visits junior high schools far and wide to see what might be the best fit for Hikaru. Is the neighborhood school best for him, or what about the school for the disabled? With so many choices, will she make the right decision for him, or will Hikaru struggle all his life because of his autism?

I really enjoy this series — the first two volumes I reviewed were so emotional, they brought me to tears. While I hadn’t read any volumes since the second one, I did not seem to miss too much in the two volumes I skipped. While this volume wasn’t as emotionally affecting as the first two were, there were still poignant moments aplenty. From the vice principal’s interest in the special education class to Ishida coming to Hikaru’s defense when he gets bullied, there was a lot of insight into the community that supports Hikaru’s day-to-day life. It was also nice to see Sachiko helping other mothers, specifically the mother of a dyslexic classmate of Hikaru’s.

While I appreciate its raw emotion, what I like so much about this series is what I learn about autism as I read; there are many great teaching moments explained for the benefit of readers. This series really highlights the support that disabled people need in the community — from special education to the understanding needed from others unfamiliar with autism. While it seems like an uphill battle for Sachiko and Hikaru, there are little victories along the way. It’s a reminder of how important advocacy can be for young children, especially for those that need additional support in school.

As far as the artwork goes, it’s very life-like with minimal use of the other visual embellishments often seen in shojo manga. The realism also shows in the age progression of various characters. While I often dislike a heavy use of screentone, here Keiko Tobe is even-handed in its use, and takes advantage of the technique’s ability to impart or emphasize certain emotions. It’s very effective without being overtly obvious.

Overall, this is a touching, well-told, and educational josei story about the special relationship between a mother and her autistic son. While it would be easy to gloss over certain moments, Tobe shows this story in stark detail, while softening its blunt edges with emotions that tug at the heartstrings. If you’re looking for a josei manga that is about more than some 20-something’s love life, I’d strongly recommend With the Light.

Review copy provided by the publisher. To read more reviews by Lorena Nava Ruggero, visit her manga review blog, i ♥ manga.

Guest Review: The Antique Gift Shop, Vol. 9
By Lee Eun
Published by Yen Press

Review by Megan M.

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Bun-Nyuh, who still hates the supernatural world and tries to pretend it isn’t a part of her life, thinks to finally free herself from it by closing her shop and dumping the remainder of her grandmother’s antiques, all touched by the supernatural, in the river. This, of course, does not have the desired effect. Before we can get to that, however, we must first wrap up Lee Eun’s skewed version of “The Little Mermaid,” which began in the previous volume and features a rather self-centered mermaid convinced that the fairy tale got things completely wrong and that she must rescue her prince from life with his obese girlfriend (who is a former ballerina).

I confess that I ended up not caring much for the mermaid plotline, at least partly because I couldn’t follow much of it. I’m not sure who pulled who from the river, who found who in the river, or, for that matter, if anyone even lived. I also have no idea if the prince grew a spine, the mermaid finally thought about someone besides herself, or if the ballerina regained her self esteem. All three, I think, were meant to reflect various parts of Bun-Nyuh’s personality, but the conclusion of that arc was too confusing for it to really work for me.

In contrast, the return to Bun-Nyuh’s story is the series at its best, with the creepy atmosphere combined with Bun-Nyuh’s zany temper and insistence on barging ahead with whatever she wants to do. Having deprived herself of both Mr. Yang’s protection and the presumed protection of her grandmother’s antiques, Bun-Nyuh is now at the mercy of the force they’ve been protecting her from the entire series. Instead of a threatening villain or scary monster, however, what she encounters is a strange young man who claims to be a childhood friend she doesn’t remember, revealing many things about her half-remembered nightmares and recollections throughout the series.

Lee Eun’s characters always look a little unfinished to me, their faces often seeming to have only the barest of features (an odd criticism of manhwa art, I know) and the bodies just short of elongated. This, however, is very well suited to the spooky atmosphere she creates and her depiction of the supernatural elements is often stunning. In this volume, the scenes in which Bun-Nyuh seeks to avoid being alone in the rain and the scenes where she imagines Mr. Yang is with her (Or maybe he was–I never trust those things unless he actually confirms them) are particularly effective.

This is not a particularly well known manhwa, not really fitting the mold for what seems to create licensing hits, but it is one of my favorites, and I’ll be sad to see it go when it wraps up in the next volume. Hopefully Yen, or another studio, will license another of Lee Eun’s works soon.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Guest Review: Angel Diary, Vol 10
By Kara and Lee YunHee
Published by Yen Press

Review by Megan M.

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This volume concludes the conflict between Dong-Young, Bi-Wal, and Bi-Wal’s brother Ryung (who would be the King of Hell were it not for his white hair). I have read all the licensed series from this manhwaga team (the others being Demon Diary and Legend>) and Angel Diary is my favorite of the three, but I haven’t enjoyed the most recent volumes as much as I did the previous. I signed up for the story of the crossdressing Princess of Heaven who is hiding out on Earth to escape marriage to the King of Hell, her mysterious admirer, and all the otherworldly shenanigans that surround them. Recently, it’s been delivering less on that and more on “he’s not really an evil villain, he just does bad things due to an angsty past!” Unfortunately “he’s only bad because of his angst” characters tend to not work for me.

This volume seems to bring an end to that, however, returning the focus to the series’ more interesting characters. Namely Dong-Young, Bi-Wal, their friends, and Queen Hong. This volume has some real highlights, particularly Dong-Young’s rather ill-timed explanation of her relationship with Bi-Wal, and her rather limited idea of what a relationship between brothers should be like. I was annoyed, though, at the regular reminders that she isn’t very smart. Still, I like my love confessions in fiction to occur in the middle of battle and I’m glad that the series is letting her rescue both Bi-Wal and Doh-Hyun in battle. Bi-Wal also finally seems to be returning to his old outgoing and clever self, hopefully putting aside his more recent “silent, angsty, and inscrutable” act. Hopefully, the next volume will have more of the charm of earlier volumes, and will fully return the focus to the story’s principal characters.

Kara’s art, I suspect, leans a bit too close to the standard “cute” shoujo style, but I’ve always been fond of it, big eyes, pointy chins and all. Their (Kara is actually a team of two artists) lines tend to be clean, their character designs distinctive, and the layouts are easy to follow. It is, I think, very well suited to what is essentially a very fluffy approach to an epic, mythic romance.

Angel Diary may not be for everyone. It’s very lighthearted for a story about star-crossed love between the Princess of Heaven and the King of Hell, and rarely focuses on romance as much as one would expect for the setup. It also avoids falling into the territory of being a light comedy, and the seemingly conventional takes on genderbending mask rather unconventional roots. It’s always been right up my alley.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Gin Tama, Vol. 14
By Hideaki Sorachi
Published by Viz Media

Review by Megan M.

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This volume of Gin Tama continues the arc began at the end of volume 13, in which Otae’s childhood friend, Yagyu Kyube, returned to Edo and claimed her as “his” bride. Gin and Kagura joined with Shinpachi to rescue her and Hijikata and Okits joined with Kondo to rescue her, to prevent Kondo from ending up married to an alien gorilla princess (the Shinsengumi are rather desperate to avoid that). This is actually an aspect of the plot that I don’t care for, given the treatment of the gorilla princess in volume 13, but it wasn’t followed up on here.

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Guest Review: The Antique Gift Shop, Vol. 8
By Eun Lee
Published by Yen Press

Review by Lorena Nava Ruggero

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This volume is split into two distinct stories related to the volume’s namesake. In one, a mysterious Nepalese goddess, or kumari, comes a-calling to the Antique Gift Shop and she has an amazing gift for sales. Hoping that she may soon be free of her commitment to the store, Bun-Nyuh is both amazed and ready to call it quits. When Mr. Yang questions the kumari’s motivation and stands in the way of her making sales, Bun-Nyuh decides to take him up on his offer of leaving the store at any time when his services are no longer needed. Of course, the moment he leaves, Bun-Nyuh finds herself realizing the truth behind the kumari. Will Bun-Nyuh ever rid herself of the burden that is the Antique Gift Shop?

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