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Hiro Mashima

The Manga Review, 8/19/22

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Attention manga shoppers! Kodansha is currently holding a blow-out sale on digital manga. And when I say “blow out,” I mean it: they’re offering deep discounts on over 3,000 titles, with first volumes priced as low as 99 cents, and later volumes discounted 50%. It’s a great opportunity to try a buzz-worthy series such as Blue Period, Boys Run the Riot, Knight of the Ice, PTSD Radio, or Witch Hat Atelier; to catch up on long-running favorites; or to check out classic titles such as Black Jack and Princess Knight. Don’t wait, though; the sale ends on Monday, August 22nd.

MANGA NEWS

The July NPD Bookscan Numbers are in, with My Hero Academia, Spy x Family, and Kaiju No. 8 topping the list. Also making a strong showing on this month’s bestseller list are Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Chainsaw Man. [ICv2]

Have you completed this month’s Seven Seas Reader Survey? If not, don’t miss your opportunity to make licensing requests and give feedback on new and upcoming releases. [Seven Seas]

Coming soon to the Azuki platform: Red Riding Hood’s Apprentice: Final Testament to the Moon (Glacier Bay Books) and Doomsday Cleaning (Star Fruit Books). [Azuki]

Job alert: VIZ Media is currently looking for a Copy Editor. [VIZ Media]

Help Erica Friedman celebrate the 20th anniversary of Okazu by participating in a treasure hunt! The winner will receive a t-shirt of their choice from the Yuricon store. [Okazu]

And speaking of Erica Friedman, she and Rica Takashima (Rica ‘tte Kanji?!) will both be guests at Flame Con this weekend. [Anime News Network]

Blood on the Tracks, Blue Period, and Cat + Gamer are among the titles competing for Best Manga at this year’s Harvey Awards. Also making the cut are Chainsaw Man, Red Flowers, and Spy x Family. [ICv2]

Cartoon Crossroad Columbus (CXC) announced that manga scholar Frederik L. Schodt will be the recipient of the second annual Tom Spurgeon Award, which “honors those who have made substantial contributions to the field of comics, but are not primarily cartoonists.” Schodt is author of three books: Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (1983), Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (1996), and The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution (2007). In addition, he has translated a number of manga into English, including Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama’s The Four Immigrants Manga. [CXC 2022]

FEATURES, PODCASTS AND INTERVIEWS

If you’re a parent, teacher, or librarian in search of STEM-friendly comics, look no further than this helpful list compiled by the experts at No Flying No Tights. [No Flying No Tights]

Brigid Alverson posts a brief but thoughtful tribute to illustrator Sho Murase, who passed away earlier this month. [ICv2]

It’s Witch Week at Mangasplaining! Join the crew for lively discussions of Witch Hat Atelier, Witchcraft Works, and Witches, then stay for the bonus discussions of Fuyumi Soryo’s MARS and Yayoi Ogawa’s You’re My Pet (originally published in English as Tramps Like Us). [Mangasplaining]

The latest Manga Machinations podcast focuses on Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou as well as two manga/Marvel crossovers: Wolverine: SNIKT! and Secret Reverse. [Manga Machinations]

What did David and Jordan think of Monster Hunter Orage? Tune in to the latest Shonen Flop episode for their thoughts on Hiro Mashima’s other battle manga. [Shonen Flop]

ICYMI: Ashley and Loyola Rankin dissect the first eight volumes of Love*Com (Lovely Complex). [Shojo & Tell]

In honor of Sailor Moon‘s thirtieth anniversary, Christopher Chiu-Tabet revisits the first eight issues of Codename: Sailor V. [Multiversity Comics]

Jocelyne Allen flips through the pages of Keiko Takemiya’s Kokuhaku. “The takeaway for this volume… is pure vibes,” she notes. “The seven stories in the  collection technically have plots, but these tales are mostly about the feels. Because the stories themselves inspire questions like ‘how?’ and ‘why is this happening?’, and the smaller details of what is going on aren’t really relevant. Takemiya is using science fiction to dig deep into psyches and emotions and relationships because this is shojo before it’s SF, and shojo demands feels.” Someone license this, please! [Brain vs. Book]

Elias Rosner interviews Ryan Holmberg about translating Yamada Murasaki’s Talk to My Back. [Multiversity Comics]

Over at TCJ, John Holt and Chikuma Teppei  translate Natsume Fusanosuke’s essay “The Transgenerational Manga Sazae-san and Its Meaning.” In their preface, Holt and Teppei attribute the enduring cultural appeal of Hasegawa Machiko’s series to its long-running anime adaptation. “Like The Simpsons, the animated Sazae-san has been a fixture of Japanese television for decades,” they observe, “but unlike Matt Groening’s creation, Sazae-san has been a wholesome staple of family life, still operating by the terms of 1950s and 1960s culture in new episodes today. Therefore, although it lacks a Simpsons-level criticality, Sazae-san is still a mirror of society. As Natsume argues, the manga and anime create a kind of touchstone to what was good about Japan in the late 20th century. In this way, Sazae-san not only entertains, but also it curates a way of life that may be now remote or even alien to the lived experience of contemporary viewers in Japan.” [The Comics Journal]

REVIEWS

Scott Cederlund reflects on the radical empathy of Gengoroh Tagame’s Our Colors, while Eric Alex Cline explains why he won’t be picking up volume two of Rooster Fighter. “Whether one finds the series worth following will largely depend on if they share its ridiculous sense of humor, and if they’re willing to overlook incredibly blatant bigotry in character design,” Cline observes. “The major con is that some of the monster designs are lackluster, and the last one in particular tanks the fun vibes with a sudden veer into blatant transphobia.” You’ll also find new capsule reviews at Women Write About Comics, where Masha Zhdanova looks at three new VIZ titles, and right here at Manga Bookshelf, where Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, and I tackle Rooster Fighter, Shadow House, and Wandance.

New and Noteworthy

Ongoing and Complete Series

My Week in Manga: October 17-October 23, 2016

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My News and Reviews

Last week was yet another week during which I wasn’t online much, though this time it was because I was on a short family vacation in Ohio to visit my folks. I did however still manage to post my review of the absolutely wonderful children’s book Are You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko. The book, fully illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri, combines a biographical narrative of Kaneko’s work and life written by David Jacobson along with a selection of Kaneko’s poems presented in both the original Japanese and in English translation. Are You an Echo? is a beautiful book that adults will be able to appreciate, too; I wasn’t previously familiar with Kaneko’s poetry and am incredibly glad to have been introduced to it.

Although I was busy with family last week, a few things did catch my eye online: Vertical’s Fall 2016 manga licensing survey is now live for those interested in suggesting titles that they’d like to see the company publish in English; The Mystery Writers of Japan have released a very useful website in English which includes great information such as an outline of the group’s history and a list of recent English translations of the members’ works; As for cool queer comics Kickstarters, there is a newly launched campaign to collect Tab Kimpton’s delightful Minority Monsters comics in a single volume along with additional bonus content.

Quick Takes

Fairy Tail, Volume 55Fairy Tail, Volume 55 by Hiro Mashima. With all of the recent developments in Fairy Tail it seems like the series might in fact be reaching its final story arcs. Granted, Mashima could just as easily stretch things out for quite a bit longer as he has repeatedly done in the past. Often Fairy Tail feels rather directionless to me, as though the creator is making things up as he goes (which he has admitted to) or isn’t sure exactly what he wants to do with the series. That being said, when Mashima actually manages to bring together disparate storylines and plot developments together in a way that makes sense and seems planned from the beginning (even if it actually wasn’t) the results can be thrilling. The fifty-fifth volume of Fairy Tail opens with one of the biggest game-changing reveals in the series as Natsu and Zeref face each other down. It’s a dramatic encounter and works tremendously well. Sadly, the rest of the volume isn’t quite as strong as its opening and many of the other plot twists and backstories feel forced at best. Still, this most recent story arc is probably my favorite out of those that I’ve so far read. (I started reading Fairy Tail part way through, so there are several arcs that I’ve missed.) I especially appreciate how it gives the tournament arc, which grew increasingly tedious, a greater purpose in the series as a whole. The action sequences and battles continue to be an exciting part of the manga as well, and there are plenty of those to be found in this volume.

intense1Intense, Volume 1: Night on the Red Road by Kyungha Yi. I’ve deliberately been keeping a lookout for new print releases from Netcomics, but even if I wasn’t Yi’s Intense would have caught my attention. The series’ cover artwork is stunning and the manhwa’s production values and quality is some of the best that I’ve seen from Netcomics. Intense was originally released in six digital volumes, but the print edition has been collected into four. The interior artwork, though it’s not in color, is just as beautiful, striking, and moody as Yi’s cover illustrations. The story is likewise very moody and at times can be extremely dark and violent. The series follows Jiwoon, an assassin and bodyguard for a crime syndicate who has been temporarily assigned to a red-light district. There he encounters and is drawn to the mysterious Soohan who works there as a sort of handyman. With their melancholic, slightly detached personalities, it seems as though the two young men likely share a fair amount in common, so much so that the tragic backstory revealed in the flashbacks interspersed throughout the first volume could easily belong to either of them. If nothing else, Intense is certainly well named. The manhwa is heavy and intense both emotionally and psychologically, moreso than many other boys’ love stories I’ve read. I definitely plan on reading the rest of the series and I’m very curious to see how the relationship between Jiwoon and Soohan develops.

Paradise Residence, Volume 3Paradise Residence, Volume 3 by Kosuke Fujishima. Admittedly, it has been quite some time since I’ve read the first two volumes of Paradise Residence, but I really don’t remember the characters being especially infatuated with motorbikes and motorcycles which is something that is quite prominent in the third and final volume. Maybe I just completely missed it before and that’s why it seemed to suddenly come out of nowhere, but the resulting story is nice. However, it’s another sudden development that becomes the dramatic focus of the rest of the volume–due to some unfortunate circumstances, the dorm is scheduled for demolition rather than renovation and the young women living there must do all that they can to save their beloved home. They come up with a rather creative solution to their problem that, while it strains believability, is impressively audacious and clever. Paradise Residence is a series that I enjoyed much more than I thought or expected I would. It doesn’t really have a lot of substance or depth to it, but it’s a pleasant slice-of-life manga set in an all-girls high school. Though not particularly nuanced, most of the characters are generally likeable. Even with the occasional bit of drama, Paradise Residence tends to be a fairly quiet and low-key series. The artwork is attractive, too, although Fujishima seems fond of drawing characters with one eye closed; I’m not sure if they’re supposed to be winking or what.

Spoof on Titan, Volume 1Spoof on Titan, Volume 1 by Hounori. In general the manga spinoffs of Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan depend on readers having at least some familiarity with the original series, although to varying degrees. Spoof on Titan perhaps requires a little more than many of the others as the humor relies heavily on knowledge of the characters and their personalities. Unlike Attack on Titan: Junior High, the other Attack on Titan comedy series, Spoof on Titan is firmly set in the world of the original manga. Granted, it’s a much more friendly version of that world–the Titans, though mentioned frequently, barely make an appearance and the death, destruction, and violence has been greatly toned down. The gore and darkness of Attack on Titan aren’t really to be found in Spoof on Titan. Hounori’s illustrations and character redesigns are pretty cute, too. Spoof on Titan is a four-panel comedy manga which is a format that I tend to really like when it’s done well, but the comics in Spoof on Titan tended to be fairly hit-or-miss for me. Some of them legitimately made me laugh while I barely cracked a smile at others. Overall, though, I am largely enjoying the series and find it amusing. I’m not sure that I would necessarily want to binge-read Spoof on Titan, but the series can be fun in small doses. The first volume reads like a collection of comedic Attack on Titan bonus manga, which is essentially what it is even if Isayama himself isn’t directly working on the series.

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My Week in Manga: August 1-August 7, 2016

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My News and Reviews

Last week brought some very good news! Sparkler Monthly‘s Kickstarter campaign for its fourth year was successfully funded, so we’ll all be getting another twelve months of phenomenal new content in addition to all of marvelous the Sparkler Monthly content that already exists, most of which is freely available online. Somewhat related to that, last week the winner of Experiments in Manga’s Sparkler Monthly Year 4 giveaway was announced. I was hoping to post the wrap up to my horror manga review project last week, too, but it looks like that should be going up sometime this week, instead.

Speaking of Kickstarters, there were two recently launched projects that specifically caught my attention last week. The first is a project to publish the second volume of Moonshot, a comics anthology featuring indigenous creators. The first volume was very impressive and earned multiple awards and honors, so I expect the second volume will be great, too. The other campaign is for the first print volume of Der-shing Helmer’s webcomic The Meek. I haven’t actually read The Meek myself yet, but I’ve heard very good things about the series.

Elsewhere online (well, I guess specifically at Anime News Network), it was a Seven Seas sort of week: Deb Aoki interviewed Okayado, the creator of the massively successful Monster Musume, at Anime Expo, the transcript of which has now been posted. I haven’t had time to listen to it yet, but the most recent ANNCast featured Jason DeAngelis, Adam Arnold and Lissa Patillo from Seven Seas. And in licensing news, Seven Seas will be releasing Atami Michinoku’s The High School Life of a Fudanshi.

Quick Takes

Fairy Tail, Volume 52Fairy Tail, Volumes 52-54 by Hiro Mashima. Despite its immense popularity, for me Fairy Tail fairly tends to be fairly hit-or-miss. Mashima readily admits that he doesn’t always know where he’s going with the story and characters, but every once in a while he manages to pull it all together to form something truly grand and epic. I have to admit, I’m really liking the most recent story arc of Fairy Tail. Once again, the members of the Fairy Tail guild are responsible for trying to save the world, but the enemies that they face this time are so strong that it’s not something that they will be able to do alone. To me, this showdown feels more personal than some of the previous world-altering battles. Granted, that impression may in part be because my reading of Fairy Tail has been somewhat fragmented. However, I greatly appreciate the more character-driven arcs of Fairy Tail. These three volumes explore the past of Fairy Tail and the guild’s connection to Zeref, the dark wizard cursed to live forever who is trying to find a way to end it all. (This I believe is all explored in greater depth in the Fairy Tail Zero spinoff, which I suspect I would likely enjoy.) The battles in this story arc are well-paced in addition to being suitably dramatic and over-the-top, fitting for a conflict that will determine the fate of the world.

Haikyu!, Volume 1Haikyu!!, Volumes 1-2 by Haruichi Furudate. Due to my increasingly busy schedule, I’ve only managed to watch the first few episodes of the Haikyu!! anime adaptation, but that was more than enough to determine that I wanted to read the original manga when it was released in English. I find that even though I’m not especially interested in sports, I really enjoy sports manga, and so far Haikyu!!, about a boys’ high school volleyball team, doesn’t disappoint. Like many other sports-oriented manga, Haikyu!! features characters who are in one way or another exceptionally skilled or naturally talented athletes. What makes Haikyu!! stand out from other sports manga that I’ve read is that it emphasizes teamwork in a way that I’ve not usually seen–the manga’s not just about great players who are simply part of the same team, it’s about teammates bringing out the best in one another, finding ways to effectively complement their strengths and weaknesses to form a group that’s more capable than any one individual. The characterization is pretty great in Haikyu!!, too, which is particularly important for a series which will likely have a fair number of characters to keep track of. I really like the characters in Haikyu!!; they all have very distinctive personalities. If Haikyu!! continues as strongly as it begins, I’m definitely in for the long haul with this series.

UQ Holder!, Volume 7UQ Holder!, Volumes 7-8 by Ken Akamatsu. There’s something about UQ Holder! that rubs me the wrong way. Frustratingly, I haven’t been able to identify exactly what it is about the series, especially as there are parts of the manga that I actually like. I do wonder if part of this dissonance is caused by the fact that I’ve never read Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Although UQ Holder! initially seemed to be a stand-alone spinoff, lately it seems to be tying itself back to the original to a greater extent; I feel like I’m missing some important context. Much of the humor in UQ Holder! seems to fall flat for me, too, even when I can tell that what I’m reading is intended to be funny. The series also seems to have a bit of an identity crisis, as though Akamatsu can’t quite decide what type of story it’s supposed to be. At this point, UQ Holder! has now suddenly veered into becoming a martial arts tournament; previous incarnations of the series included a murder mystery, among other things. The martial arts tournament was a good choice, though–the battles in UQ Holder! are generally the most entertaining aspect of the series. The tournament also gives the characters an actual, definitive goal to focus on rather than their more ambiguous ambitions. These volumes also delve more into Evangeline’s backstory, which was good to see.

My Week in Manga: July 18-July 24, 2016

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My News and Reviews

Other than the regular My Week in Manga feature, there were no posts from me last week at Experiments in Manga. I was, however, able to make some progress on my review for the final volume of Setona Mizushiro’s manga series After School Nightmare. I hope to finish and post the review in the very near future, and then officially wrap up my horror manga review project.

Elsewhere online last week, I came across two interesting interviews: a translation of a 2006 conversation between Taiyo Matsumoto and Fumiko Takano as well as an interview with Kazue Kato, creator of Blue Exorcist, from Anime Expo 2016. The San Diego Comic Con took place over the weekend and there were a few licensing announcements to come out of the event: Kodansha Comics is planning a deluxe edition of Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell; Udon Entertainment has acquired Yuztan’s Dragon Crown manga adaptation in addition to more artbooks, Manga Classics, and a Street Fighter novel; and Viz Media will be releasing a Princess Mononoke artbook as well books based on RWBY.

Finally, in part due to a suggestion made by a regular reader of Experiments in Manga, I’d like to start more regularly mentioning some of the crowdfunding projects that I’m either supporting or that have caught my eye. In the past, I’ve tended to only mention projects that were directly or tangentially related to manga in some way, but I’d like to begin highlighting other campaigns as well. And so! Natasha Alterici is raising funds for the second volume of Heathen, a beautifully illustrated comic about lesbian Vikings. Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide and a comic creator in his own right, is printing a poster map of alien invaders. Bones of the Coast is an anthology of horror comics inspired by the Pacific Northwest.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to give the Sparkler Monthly Year 4 campaign another shout out. (If you follow me on Twitter, that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing for the last week or so, and will probably continue to do so for a while.) I really love everything that Sparkler Monthly/Chromatic Press is doing, and will be legitimately heartbroken if the Kickstarter doesn’t succeed.

Quick Takes

Fairy Tail, Omnibus 2Fairy Tail, Omnibus 2 (equivalent to Volumes 6-10) by Hiro Mashima. When I first started reading Fairy Tail, I ended up jumping into the series around the twenty-fifth volume. Fairy Tail has a huge following, but it just didn’t seem to click with me. However, now that I’ve read some of earlier volumes, I think I finally more fully understand the appeal of the series. Fairy Tail is a fun and exciting manga with likeable characters and an emphasis on friendship and found family. One of my complaints about Fairy Tail in the past has been that it often seems directionless. Even this early in the series Mashima readily admits to making things up as the he goes with no concrete plan in place. He even seemed surprised when he realized that the series would reach ten volumes. (And it’s now over fifty and still ongoing.) Interestingly, this lack of direction didn’t seem to bother me as much as it has before, I think in part due to the fact that Mashima spends a fair amount of second omnibus exploring the main characters’ back stories which provided the needed amount of focus. I liked getting to know the characters better, something I missed out on by starting with a later story arc. Also, Kodansha’s massive, oversized “Master’s Edition” omnibuses show off Mashima’s artwork and are a great way to catch up on the series.

Princess Jellyfish, Omnibus 2Princess Jellyfish, Omnibus 2 (equivalent to Volumes 3-4) by Akiko Higashimura. I am still incredibly happy that Kodansha Comics is releasing a print edition of Princess Jellyfish. I’m also glad that the series seems to be worth the risk and is doing fairly well for the publisher so far. I am especially looking forward to reaching the parts of the story that weren’t included in the anime adaptation. While there are some differences, for the most part the second omnibus fall entirely into what was adapted for the anime. Because of that I’m not at all surprised by any of the plot developments, but I still am thoroughly enjoying the story and characters. I also get a kick out of the visual nods to classic shoujo manga that Higashimura scatters throughout the series, usually when something particularly dramatic is going on. Princess Jellyfish is probably first and foremost a comedy, but through its humor it explores issues of gender roles and expectations. There is a fair amount of relationship drama, too. At this point in the series, Kuranosuke is trying to come up with a plan to raise the funds needed to save the Amamizukan apartments from being demolished and in doing so becomes more and more attached to Tsukimi. As for Tsukimi, she’s dealing with her own personal and romantic turmoils.

A Silent Voice, Volume 7A Silent Voice, Volume 7 by Yoshitoki Oima. The first volume of A Silent Voice left a huge impression on me, and the series as a whole has consistently been one of the strongest stories that I’ve recently read. Granted, A Silent Voice isn’t always an easy read and the subject matter can be pretty heavy. Bullying, depression, social anxiety, suicide attempts, and other tough issues all come into play. Oima isn’t afraid to let the relationships between the characters be extremely messy and complicated. I especially appreciate that Oima doesn’t just slap romance on the situation like magical bandage that will fix everything or erase the misdeeds of the past. From time to time, I was a little worried that might happen, but A Silent Voice takes a more nuanced and much less stereotypical route with the story. If anything, the romantic feelings just complicate matters further. The characters themselves are realistically and believably flawed people. Frankly, they can even be unlikeable, they still remain interesting and compelling. Many of them are struggling with mistakes that they have made and are dealing with devastating regret. But by the end of the series, the characters able to begin to look forward towards the future instead of wallowing in what can’t be changed; their pasts have shaped who they are, but won’t be the only thing that defines them.

My Week in Manga: October 26-November 1, 2015

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My News and Reviews

A few different things were posted at Experiments in Manga last week. The most recent manga giveaway is currently underway, for one, and here’s still time to enter for a chance to win Barakamon, Volume 1 by Satsuki Yoshino. Last week I reviewed Vinland Saga, Omnibus 6 by Makoto Yukimura. The series continues to impress me a great deal with its story telling and character development. The fate of the series in English will be in part determined by how well the sixth and seventh omnibuses do (the seventh omnibus is currently scheduled to be released in December); I truly hope that Kodansha will be able to release more because Vinland Saga is fantastic. Finally, over the weekend, I posted the Bookshelf Overload for October.

I’ve been extremely busy with all sorts of life stuff, so while I’m sure there were plenty of interesting things going on in the realm of manga online, there were only two that really caught my eye last week: Shojo Beat posted a short interview with Rinko Ueda and Chris Butcher wrote about his experience interviewing Masashi Kishimoto at New York Comic Con. Also as a heads up, because I am so extraordinarily caught up in things going on at work and at home right now, I’ve decided to go a little easier on myself with my blogging schedule for November (and probably for the first half of December as well). Instead of the usual Monday-Wednesday-Friday posting schedule, in the upcoming weeks I may just be posting on Monday and Thursday. Hopefully things will calm down and I can get back to writing more soon!

Quick Takes

Fairy Tail, Volume 50Fairy Tail, Volume 50 by Hiro Mashima. After so many arcs in which the Fairy Tail guild was fighting to save the world, I’m particularly enjoying the beginning of this most recent arc in which Fairy Tail doesn’t technically even exist anymore. Although there are some epic, world-altering developments occurring in the background, for the moment the story is focusing on the much more personal crises of the disbanded guild as it rebuilds itself. It’s a nice change of pace, though I’m fairly certain it won’t last for very long. A year or so has passed since the members of Fairy Tail parted their separate ways. Quite a few of the magic users have managed to power up during that time, allowing Mashima the opportunity to come up with some exciting and interesting new skills for them in order to show just how badass they’ve become (and they were strong to begin with). Some of the fan service focusing on the female characters in Fairy Tail continues to feel very out-of-place and distracting, but at least the women are frequently some of the strongest and most well-developed characters. The male characters are the subject of fan service from time to time, too, though never to the same extent.

Tokyo Ghoul, Volume 1Tokyo Ghoul, Volume 1-3 by Sui Ishida. The glut of vampire and zombie manga continues—and I’m not really a devotee of either of those subgenres—so I especially appreciate that Tokyo Ghoul makes use of an entirely different creature, the titular ghoul. In the case of this particular manga series, ghouls largely pass as normal humans assuming that they can master their intense hunger for human flesh. After an encounter with a ghoul that nearly leaves him dead, Kaneki finds himself in the unique position of partly belonging to both the human world and the world of the ghouls, and yet it will be a struggle for him to survive in either of them. In Tokyo Ghoul, humans are just as capable of being monsters. And Ishida isn’t afraid of killing off prominent characters, whether they be human or ghoul, so there is a constant sense of danger. Sadly, I think the emotional impact of the deaths was somewhat diminished since readers hadn’t yet had the chance to really get to know the characters involved as individuals. Still, kudos to Ishida for potentially making good use of some shocking, unexpected developments, especially as some early parts of the first volume were a little predictable.

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Volume 4Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Volume 4 by Miki Yohsikawa. Although the fan service in Fairy Tail tends to bug me, the fan service in Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches doesn’t really bother me at all, probably because it’s better incorporated into the story itself. Admittedly, it can still be gratuitous from time to time. Since the manga in part deals with body-swapping, it makes sense that there would be some focus on the characters’ physical traits. Plus this particular volume includes the obligatory beach and onsen scenes. One thing that really impresses me about Yoshikawa’s artwork in the Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is that it’s obvious from the characters’ facial expressions and body language when there has been some swapping going on. This actually ends up being explicitly pointed out in the series when one character develops a crush on a specific combination of personality and body type. The witch count continues to grow in the series as does Yamada’s group of friends while he begins to work out a theory explaining why everyone has the powers that they do. I’m still really enjoying Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches. Though largely a comedy, it has some heart to it as well.

My Week in Manga: August 31-September 6, 2015

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My News and Reviews

A few different things posted at Experiments in Manga last week. First up was the announcement of the Yumi Tamura Giveaway Winner which also includes a list of mangaka whose work the giveaway participants consistently enjoy and follow. For the second post last week, which also happens to be the first in-depth review of September, I took a look at Takeshi Matsu’s second English collection of erotic gay manga Dr. Makumakuran and Other Stories which I quite enjoyed. Overall, I think it may even be stronger than his first collection, More and More of You and Other Stories, which I also liked. Finally, over the weekend, I posted August’s Bookshelf Overload for those of you interested in what sorts of things I’ve picked up recently.

A little over a month ago I posted my responses to a game of manga tag. Well, that game is still making the rounds! Most recently, I discovered that Daiyamanga’s Krystallina took the opportunity to talk about her collection. Elsewhere online, Shojo Beat posted a brief interview with Kimi ni Todoke‘s creator Karuho Shiina. And in licensing news, Seven Seas has picked up three more manga: Nanatsuki Takafumi and Risumai’s I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner, Amemiya Yuki and Ichihara Yukino’s Battle Rabbits, and Takeoka Hazuki and Tiv’s Masamune-kun’s Revenge.

My News and Reviews

An Even More Beautiful LieAn Even More Beautiful Lie by Kei Kanai. It was the lovely, ethereal, and sensuous cover of An Even More Beautiful Lie that initially caught my eye and first brought the boys’ love one-shot to my attention. And, except for the creepy way that Kanai draws some of the characters’ eyes, I really liked the interior artwork as well with its strong inking and solid blacks. I enjoyed the basic premise and setup of the story, too, but ultimately I felt a little betrayed by the manga. Kurosu is a university student studying art. He’s particularly fond of the paintings by Yukari, a fellow student, genius artist, and something of a recluse. Yukari’s life is devoted to painting. Sometimes while in the grip of inspiration he’s so focused on creating that forgets to eat or even sleep. Which is why it’s fortunate that he left his umbrella on the train—returning it gives Kurosu the excuse he needed to talk to Yukari and the two grow close; Yukari now has someone who not only cares about his paintings, but cares about his well-being, too. I wish An Even More Beautiful Lie would have continued in that vein, but instead there’s an abrupt shift in the story’s tone that’s and a horrible, unnecessary rape scene. But at least it’s not between the two leads and their relationship remains intact.

Fairy Tail, Volume 49Fairy Tail, Volume 49 by Hiro Mashima. The forty-ninth volume of Fairy Tail brings to an end the Tartaros story arc while beginning new one. Since Igneel dominates the cover, I was hoping for an epic showdown between dragons. There is a pretty good fight, but sadly it’s over fairly quickly. In fact, the whole Tartaros arc seemed to be wrapped up sooner than anticipated. And indeed, Mashima mentions in the afterword that it was cut short. Even so, it ends in a suitably dramatic fashion and the next arc promises to be very interesting. Of course, Mashima does have to retcon a few things to really pull it off well. That’s one of the things about Fairy Tail that I’m consistently frustrated by—although Mashima claims to have thought out the story well in advance, due to the lack of adequate foreshadowing and what seems like constant rewriting, I’m not convinced. And as the series continues to grow in length (I don’t see Fairy Tail ending any time soon), keeping internal consistency is going to become more and more of a challenge. Even though magic is obviously a major part of Fairy Tail, I think it’s been used one to many times to backtrack the narrative when Mashima has written himself into a corner; major plot and character developments lose their impact if they can so easily be waved away later on.

Prison School, Omnibus 1Prison School, Omnibus 1 by Akira Hiramoto. Some people, like me, may be familiar with Hiramoto as the creator of the acclaimed manga series Me and the Devil Blues, a supernaturally-tinged historical drama about a blues musician. Prison School is a completely different manga that, except for Hiramoto’s tremendous skill as an artist, has very little in common that earlier series. Prison School is an absurdly dramatic and over-the-top comedy. Even though the manga can hardly be taken seriously it will still likely be incredibly offensive and obscene to a large number of readers since the most powerful characters—the young women of Hachimitsu Private Academy’s shadow student council—are also the most sexualized and fetishized. The men in the series are all varying degrees of despicable, and they unapologetically revel in it. And yet, if one can stand the stunningly less-than-flattering portrayal of just about every character in the series, Prison School can be immensely entertaining and engaging. Considering all of the perversion, sadomasochism, nudity, and violence in Prison School, it’s certainly not a series that I would recommend to everyone, though. I expect that Prison School will be a divisive series, but I’m still intensely curious to see how the manga plays out.

My Week in Manga: May 11-May 17, 2015

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My News and Reviews

Well, I was hoping to post the recap of my recent visit to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival last week, but I haven’t actually managed to finish writing it yet. (Things have been very busy at work and home, and the taiko performance season is ramping up, too.) So, the plan is to post it sometime later this week instead. Fortunately, I did have a couple of in-depth manga reviews in reserve for last week just in case the TCAF post fell through. The first review, Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi, Volume 3, is a part of my ongoing monthly horror manga review project. Mushishi continues to be one of my favorite series. This particular volume is notable as it reveals some of Ginko’s backstory. Last week I also reviewed the most recent installment of Bruno Gmünder’s Gay Manga line, Mentaiko Itto’s Priapus, which is a highly entertaining collection of gay erotic manga. The volume marks Itto’s official English-language debut and contains some pretty ridiculous stories and characters.

While I haven’t managed to fully report back on TCAF 2015, other TCAF posts are already being made. The Comics Reporter is making an effort to create an index of stories and references, but I specifically wanted to point out the recordings of some of the panels at The Comics Beat. Other items of interest from elsewhere online include Ryan Holmberg’s most recent What Was Alternative Manga? column at The Comics Journal—Blood Plants: Mizuki Shigeru, Kitaro, and the Japanese Blood Industry—and the 2015 edition of Advice on Manga Translation from Manga Translators over at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. As for licensing news, Kodansha Comics announced a deluxe omnibus edition of Fairy Tail and Dark Horse will be adding a few new titles: Kentaro Miura’s Giganto Maxia, Spike Chunsoft and Takashi Tsukimi’s Danganronpa, and Kengo Hanazawa’s I Am a Hero, in addition to rescuing CLAMP’s RG Veda.

Quick Takes

Attack on Titan, Volume 15Attack on Titan, Volume 15 by Hajime Isayama. Although it certainly has its moments and its own peculiar charm, Isayama’s artwork has never really been one of the strengths of Attack on Titan. There has certainly been improvement over the course of the series, and some of the individual panels and sequences are fantastic, but the artwork in this particular volume is terribly inconsistent and sometimes doesn’t even make sense to the point of distraction. But what Attack on Titan lacks in artistic finesse, the series makes up for with its large, engaging cast of characters and its constantly evolving story. Granted, with plot twist after plot twist after plot twist, the story is frequently on the verge of getting out of hand. Fortunately, Isayama reins it in a bit with this volume, allowing several of the story threads to play out and come to some sort of resolution before throwing something completely new into the mix, once again ending with a cliffhanger. Sometimes I miss the days when Attack on Titan was closer to being straight up horror, but all of the recent political intrigue can be interesting, too.

Fairy Tail, Volume 47Fairy Tail, Volumes 47-48 by Hiro Mashima. Thanks to Mashima’s afterword in the forty-seventh volume, I think I’ve finally figured out why Fairy Tail has been frustrating me recently—it’s his admitted lack of foreshadowing. The sudden plot developments that seem to come out of nowhere, although some of them are admittedly pretty great, make the series feel very disjointed and to some extent even directionless. Instead of inspiring feelings of excitement in how the story is progressing, Fairy Tail often inspires bafflement over its twists and revelations. In the same afterword Mashima indicates that he hopes to improve the foreshadowing, but he also says that he’ll be including plenty of red herrings as well, so I’m not sure how much that’s going to help. But even considering the unevenness of the series’ narrative, there’s still some good fun to be had in these two volumes. There are dragons, epic battles, and plenty of opportunities for the characters to demonstrate just how powerful they have become and just how badass they can be. Mashima is even able to work in some additional backstory for some of the characters amidst all the chaos.

Love at Fourteen, Volume 1Love at Fourteen, Volumes 1-2 by Fuka Mizutani. I was actually taken by surprise by how much I ended up enjoying the first two volumes of Love at Fourteen. I had heard good things about the series, but I didn’t really expect that I would be so taken with a series about the romantic turmoils of middle school students. Tanaka and Yoshikawa have been close friends for some time and that friendship has started to blossom into something greater. They are becoming more aware of themselves and of each other. But their school doesn’t allow dating at such a young age, so they do what they can to keep their relationship a secret. So far the series is a chaste, slowly developing romance, but realistically that’s how it should be. Love at Fourteen is charming and somewhat nostalgic without being syrupy sweet. There’s even some queer representation—a girl who has fallen in love with another girl—which I’m always happy to see. However, I will admit that I am a little concerned about how the relationship between the music teacher and one of the other students may develop since some of her behavior towards him has been has been borderline if not blatantly inappropriate.

Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage RanCarried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran directed by Akitaro Daichi. I am just now discovering Carried by the Wind; I completely missed when it was first released and happened across the thirteen-episode series more by accident than anything else. I’m glad that I did, though, because it is a tremendous amount of fun. Carried by the Wind is a comedic homage, without quite being a parody, of samurai films and television series. Tsukikage Ran, a skilled swordswoman, is a wandering ronin who would much rather drink a good bottle of sake and take a nap than get into a fight. Meow is a talented Chinese martial artist who means well but tends to get herself into trouble with her meddling. Although their attitudes and personalities are almost complete opposites—Ran is cool and collected while Meow is brash and prone to outbursts—the two end up becoming traveling companions of sorts. Each episode of Carried by the Wind stands completely on its own and generally follows a somewhat predictable story arc with Ran and Meow righting some sort of wrongdoing. But with its humor, marvelous lead characters, and great fight scenes, Carried by the Wind is a highly entertaining series.

My Week in Manga: March 16-March 22, 2015

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My News and Reviews

Two more reviews were posted at Experiments in Manga last week. Only one was of a manga, but the other book does include illustrations! I’m a little behind in reviewing the series, but I finally wrote up my impressions of Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 6. (Just in time for the seventh volume to be released later this week!) There’s some really nice character development for Shiro and, as always, delicious-looking food. The second review posted last week was for Haikasoru’s anthology of short fiction Phantasm Japan: Fantasies Light and Dark from and about Japan which collects twenty-one horror-tinged stories. It has a great range of contributions and authors and is an excellent followup to the The Future Is Japanese anthology.

I’ve been busy at work and the taiko performance season is ramping up, so I’ve not had much time to pay attention to the manga news over the last week or so. (Let me know if I missed something good!) However, I did see that Manga Brog posted a translation of interviews of Inio Asano and Daisuke Igarashi from the magazine Manga Erotics F in 2012. And speaking of Asano, Vertical Comics apparently made a license announcement a couple of weekends ago—an omnibus edition of Asano’s A Girl on the Shore. Asano’s Nijigahara Holograph left a huge impression on me last year, so I’m really looking forward to reading more of his work in English.

Quick Takes

Attack on Titan, Volume 14Attack on Titan, Volume 14 by Hajime Isayama. The cover of the fourteenth volume of Attack on Titan has a Western flair to it (“Western” as in the genre) and, surprisingly enough, so do the contents. I found the introduction of the trappings of the American Old West to be a little bizarre in a setting that has largely been European-influenced, but it is what it is. I never expected there to be a guns-blazing saloon shootout in Attack on Titan, but it is an admittedly exciting scene even if it does feel a little out-of-place. Also somewhat surprising, not a single Titan makes an appearance in the volume except for flashbacks. The series’ focus has shifted from the fight against the Titans to the conflict inside of the walls as humans are pitted against each other. The Survey Corps is in the process of trying to reveal some major conspiracies to the general public, schemes that the Military Police and government would rather not come to light, so things get pretty violent. All in all, even considering the odd Western elements, it’s an excellent volume of Attack on Titan with some great action sequences, character development, and plot progression.

Fairy Tail, Volume 44Fairy Tail, Volumes 44-46 by Hiro Mashima. The Tartaros arc of Fairy Tail continues with these three volumes of the series. Fairy Tail is facing off with a guild of demons which is attempting to eliminate all magic except for its own curses. For the most part, it’s battle after battle without too much story development. Major sacrifices are made by Fairy Tail (sadly, some of them lose their significance and impact when Mashima doesn’t completely follow through with them), and a new antagonist is introduced, the extremely powerful King of the Underworld, Mard Geer. Reading Mashima’s afterwords at the end of each volume, it seems as though he has tried to carefully plan out the important events and battles of Fairy Tail. Even so, it feels as though the series meanders getting from one major plot point to the next, almost as if Mashima is making the story up as he goes instead of having a definite endpoint in mind. However, the fights can be exciting and the characters continue to evolve, or at least power up. I was pleased to see the forty-sixth volume turn the manga’s focus back onto Gray, though, bringing his most recent story arc to a satisfying conclusion.

Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 10Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 10 by Mitsuru Hattori. There have been parts of Sankarea that I’ve really enjoyed, and parts of the series that I really have not, but overall the tenth volume frustrates me more than anything else. Mostly it’s because of the narrative structure and the fact that several important backstories are crammed into the volume. I almost wonder if Hattori realized that he was running out of time to bring the series to a proper conclusion. (There is only one more volume after this one.) It is good to finally find out more about Chihiro’s grandfather and all of his research into bringing the living back to life. And there are some great horror elements to that particular story, as well. I just really wish the revelation hadn’t taken the form of a huge infodump given by a conveniently revived zombie. However, I did like the different art styles that Hattori used to distinguish Chihiro’s memories of his mother and the story about Chihiro’s grandfather from the rest of the manga. And I am curious to see how Sankarea will end. It’s been a strange if somewhat uneven series about zombies and love, part horror manga and part romantic comedy.

My Week in Manga: December 8-December 14, 2014

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My News and Reviews

Two reviews were posted at Experiments in Manga last week. The first was of Frederik L. Schodt’s classic survey of manga originally written in 1983 but slightly revised in 1986 and with a new introduction added in 1997, Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics. It may be a few decades old, but it’s still a fantastic work that is well worth reading. Last week I also reviewed Hikaru Suruga’s Attack on Titan: No Regrets, Volume 2, the final volume of Attack on Titan‘s short, shoujo spinoff which focuses on Levi and Erwin’s backstories. I wasn’t quite as fond of the second volume as I was of the first, but I did enjoy the series. It’s definitely a must-read for fans of Erwin and/or Levi and I appreciated how it expanded the setting of Attack on Titan.

Elsewhere online, Kodansha Comics announced the license of Naoshi Arakawa’s Your Lie in April. An Indiegogo campaign was launched to create a stop-motion film adaptation of Moyoco Anno’s The Diary of Ochibi manga. Vertical linked to an older article about Prophecy and how French Manga Fans Inspire the Work of Tsutsui Tetsuya. (The first volume of Prophecy was recently released in English and it’s fantastic.) And last but not least, Muse Hack posted an interview with Mikhail Koulikov of the Anime and Manga Studies Blog. I’ve been following Koulikov’s Anime and Manga Studies ever since I’ve discovered it. The blog is a great resource for anyone interested in the academic pursuit and scholarly study of Japanese pop culture.

Quick Takes

Fairy Tail, Volume 43Fairy Tail, Volume 43 by Hiro Mashima. There was very little Gray in the forty-third volume of Fairly Tail which made me a little sad, especially after the buildup in his character and story over the last few volumes. But with a series like Fairy Tail, which has a fairly large cast of characters who regularly play an important role in its plot, time needs to be spent with those other characters as well. Fairy Tail always seems to have one or two moments of fanservice that, at least for me, detract from the story being told. The clothing and armor choices for the female characters in particular tend towards stereotypical fantasy design–showing more flesh than would be appropriate for battle–but at least the women in Fairy Tail generally have well-developed personalities and are very capable characters in their own right. Often, they’re even stronger than the men. And to be fair, there’s male nudity as well as female nudity in Fairy Tail, though as might be expected from a shounen manga, generally not to the same extent. Fairy Tail is now well into the beginning of the Tartaros arc of the series in which the members of the Fairy Tail guild must face off with a dark guild of demons which is trying to eliminate the entire Magic Council.

Kiss All the Boys, Volume 1Kiss All the Boys, Volumes 1-3 by Shiuko Kano. For the most part I enjoyed Kiss All the Boys more than Kano’s earlier series Yakuza in Love, but ultimately I felt a bit cheated by its conclusion. While in some ways I’m glad that most everything ends happily for the characters, I’m not convinced that that’s really how things would have played out and some of the eventual pairings are troubling. But while Kiss All the Boys may not be the most believable series, at least the convoluted relationships are for the most part interesting even when they are appalling. The series hinges on Tetsuo, a straight thirty-something hentai artist with a fifteen-year-old son born from his youthful indiscretions. At least he’s supposed to be straight. Conveniently for the manga, he soon finds himself entangled in relationships with several other men–his next door neighbor, his best friend and editor, and even the boy his gay son has a crush on. Tetsuo is an asshole, but at least he knows he’s an asshole. He does make some effort to rise above his nature but unfortunately never quite manages to succeed. For the most part Kiss All the Boys is intended to be a comedy and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but I couldn’t help but worry for the youngsters left with terrible adult role models.

Yukarism, Volume 1Yukarism, Volume 1 by Chika Shiomi. I haven’t previously read any of Shiomi’s manga, but I was looking forward to Yukarism because of its promise of interesting gender dynamics, reincarnation, and historical romance. Although Yukari Kobayakawa is only seventeen, he has already made a name for himself as an author of novels set in the Edo period. He never has to do any research though since he subconsciously draws inspiration from his past life as a courtesan in the era’s pleasure district. Except for that particular twist, at this point Yukari actually isn’t a very interesting character. He’s very reserved, self-absorbed, impassive, and completely unfazed when he begins to slip back and forth between his past life and his current one. Many of the people surrounding Yukari in present-day Japan are reincarnations of people he knew in the pleasure district although they don’t all seem to be aware of that fact. There’s definitely some potential for romance in Yukarism, but after only one volume that doesn’t appear to be the series’ main concern yet. Instead, the mystery surrounding the deaths of Yukari and the others in the past seems to take precedence, although the connections between all of the characters in all of their incarnations is an important element as well. I’ll be curious to see how the series continues to develop.

DevilPartTimerThe Devil Is a Part-Timer! directed by Naoto Hosoda. I’ve been meaning to watch The Devil Is a Part-Timer! for quite some time now, but I was recently reminded of that intention when Yen Press licensed both the light novel series by Satoshi Wagahara on which the anime is based as well as at least one of its manga adaptations. While the anime is entertaining, the ridiculous premise is more hilarious in theory than in execution–The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is actually played fairly straight. But it’s still a fun and consistently amusing series. I particularly got a kick out of Satan diligently working in the fast food industry as a way to take over the world (he takes his job very seriously) and the portrayal of Lucifer as a hikikomori with an online-shopping addiction. For the most part, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! nicely balances its comedy with its drama. Although it has a conclusion, the ending of the series lacks finality and some of the characters introduced were never really put to good use, as though additional seasons were initially planned for but never manifested. (At least I haven’t heard anything about a second season.) Overall, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is funny series and a nice change of pace from all of the anime centered around high school or middle school students. I might just give the original novels a try when they’re released in English.

My Week in Manga: September 22-September 28, 2014

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My News and Reviews

Last week unintentionally turned into an Osamu Tezuka Week at Experiments in Manga…sort of. First of all, this month’s manga giveaway features Tezuka’s Triton of the Sea. Tell me a little about the merfolk you’ve encountered in manga for a chance to win the first omnibus of the series. (The winner will be selected and announced on Wednesday, so you still have a little time!) I also reviewed Dororo, Volume 3. Out of all of Tezuka’s manga that has so far been released in English, Dororo is one of my personal favorites. It’s currently available from Vertical in an omnibus edition which contains the entire series, however it may not be reprinted. I highly recommend picking up a copy sooner rather than later if it seems like a series you’d be interested in. And then for something completely different, over the weekend I reviewed the tenth-century classic The Tale of the Cavern (also known as The Tale of the Hollow Tree) which has absolutely nothing to do with Tezuka, but everything to do with music, love, and Heian-era court life.

In other news, the second volume of Lianne Sentar’s Tokyo Demons is now available for purchase as an ebook from the Sparkler Shop, which means the print edition will be released in the near future as well! (If you missed my early review of the novel, I loved it.) And speaking of Sparkler, the membership drive is still going on. If Sparkler Monthly doesn’t get at least 1,000 subscribers it most likely won’t be able to continue beyond its second year, which would make me extraordinarily sad. Please consider supporting Sparkler Monthly, if you can!

Elsewhere online, Shonen Jump is soliciting questions for Takeshi Obata, who will be a guest at New York Comic Con this year. If, like me, you can’t make it out to NYCC, Obata’s panel will thankfully be streamed live online. (Hopefully it will also be recorded.) In London, the Cartoon Museum is currently showing the exhibit Gekiga: Alternative Manga from Japan. To coincide with the exhibition, The Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain wrote a brief introduction to gekiga. Finally, Vertical released a particularly interesting post on its Tumblr account about manga’s English-language market and specifically about the pricing of books.

Quick Takes

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Volume 19Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Volume 19 by Yukito Kishiro. Last Order was my introduction to the Battle Angel Alita universe. It’s probably best described as an alternate ending to the original series. While I was never as taken with Battle Angel Alita as much as other people seem to be, there were parts that I really enjoyed: interesting characters and character designs, martial arts, great action scenes, and so on. But the plot just never seemed to pull together in a way that satisfied me. I didn’t realize or expect that the nineteenth volume would be the final volume of Last Order. It’s also one of the most frustrating volumes as Kishiro seems to rush through the story in order to bring everything to some sort of conclusion and, in my opinion, fails to do so. Even more disappointing is the fact that Alita doesn’t even really make much of an appearance in it. Apparently there is yet another Battle Angel Alita series that will soon be starting in Japan, but I have no idea how it relates to Last Order. There was certainly enough left confused and unresolved in Last Order that there’s plenty of material for Kishiro to choose from.

Devils and Realist, Volume 2Devils and Realist, Volume 2 written by Madoka Takadono and illustrated by Utako Yukihiro. Although I mostly enjoyed the first volume of Devils and Realist, I was unsure how far I wanted to pursue the series and so decided to read at least one more volume. After reading the second installment, I can say that I’ll probably be reading even more of Devils and Realist in the future. Generally stronger than the first volume and more even in tone, the second volume takes a slightly more serious and dramatic turn. The series’ humor is still present though, interspersed among the more life-threatening events of the manga and the story’s other dangerous mysteries. Yukihiro’s artwork and character designs are very attractive, and as a whole there are some definite homoerotic undertones to the manga as well. Readers’ enjoyment of Devils and Realist will probably largely depend on how well they like the lead and his personality. I, for one, am greatly amused by William’s refusal to believe in the supernatural despite it staring him in the face as he stubbornly tries to come up with any other possible explanation for the strangeness going on in his life.

Fairy Tail, Volume 40Fairy Tail, Volumes 40-42 by Hiro Mashima. I’ve only read two series by Mashima–Fairy Tail and Monster Soul–but out of those two, I find that Fairy Tail is the better manga. The long Grand Magic Games tournament arc has now finally reached its conclusion with the fortieth volume. While I did find some of the Games enjoyable, for the most part I’m happy to be moving on to battles that actually have some real purpose and meaning behind them beyond securing bragging rights; I tend to enjoy Fairy Tail more when it feels like there’s something at stake. I’m glad to see the beginning of a new story arc that promises just that–things are starting to get a bit more serious again. (Granted, there was the whole dragon invasion during the Games arc; the possibility that the world will be destroyed is a pretty big deal.) It also looks like Gray will be getting some significant page time, too, which I’m not going to complain about. The Fairy Tail Guild’s latest mission requires Gray to confront his painful memories and past tragedies. It isn’t a pleasant experience for him, but he is also able to draw incredible strength from it.

Hetalia: Axis Powers, Volume 6Hetalia: Axis Powers, Volume 6 by Hidekaz Himaruya. Perhaps by this point I should no longer be surprised, but I always seem to unexpectedly learn something new whenever I read Hetalia. Sometimes it’s a historical tidbit, and sometimes it’s actually something more closely related to current events. This particular volume of Hetalia features micronations and Molossia makes an appearance among several others. (I had never even heard of Molossia before, and it’s in Nevada!) The Nordic states are also an important part of the sixth volume, which includes Iceland. (Ever since writing a report on Iceland in the sixth grade, I’ve always been interested in and fond of the country, so I did get a kick out of that.) Often the humor in Hetalia does require some familiarity with or prior knowledge of world history and politics to really appreciate it, so in the process of trying to make sense of some of the jokes I find that I’m learning about all sorts of interesting things. Admittedly, Hetalia frequently makes use of stereotypes as part of its gags, which some people may find offensive and has generated a fair amount of controversy.

My Week in Manga: September 15-September 21, 2014

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My News and Reviews

Two manga reviews were posted at Experiments in Manga last week, both with a bit of queer bent to them. First, I took a look at Wandering Son, Volume 7 by Takako Shimura. Wandering Son is a series that means a tremendous amount to me personally, so I’m always happy when a new volume is released. (And speaking of releases–Fantagraphics assured me that the eighth volume will be published sometime next year.) My second review from last week was of Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 4, which I continue to thoroughly enjoy (even though it can sometimes make me hungry when I’m reading it).

A while back I, and a handful of other people, were interviewed by Justin Stroman about why we buy manga. He turned it into a pretty great article, so I hope you’ll check out Why It’s Worth It to Buy Manga over on Manga Bookshelf. As a followup of sorts, Justin also posted Life As a Manga Fan in the United Arab Emirates at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses which was a fascinating read. Another interesting interview from last week was Tofugu’s conversation with translator and interpreter Jocelyne Allen who has translated a ton of manga among other things. Also of note: Breakdown Press recently announced its next alternative manga publication–Masahiko Matsumoto’s “The Man Next Door.”

Quick Takes

I've Seen It All, Volume 1I’ve Seen It All, Volumes 1-2 by Shoko Takaku. The featured guest of this year’s YaoiCon was Shoko Takaku. I realized that I hadn’t actually read any of her work, so I decided to pick up I’ve Seen It All. Dr. Saikawa is a specialist in men’s health, specifically addressing concerns dealing with genitals. By chance he meets and soon falls in love with Asano who is blessed with a “cock of peerless beauty.” I’ve Seen It All easily has the most references to penises that I’ve ever come across in a boys’ love manga. Saikawa is completely unfazed about it–it is his job after all–and no one else seems to be either which just makes the manga even funnier. Asano and Saikawa are adorable as a couple. It was also nice to see that they both try to make sure that the other enjoys their more intimate moments (of which there are plenty). The other characters are pretty great, too. Despite some of the more realistic elements of the series, I’ve Seen It All leans slightly more towards the silly and sweet. Happily, there is at least one more volume of I’ve Seen It All; I just hope that the rest of the series will be translated because I loved the first two volumes.

Monster Soul, Volume 2Monster Soul, Volume 2 by Hiro Mashima. I’ll admit, I did enjoy the second and final volume of Monster Soul slightly more than the first, but it’s still not a series that left much of an impression on me. Where the first volume was largely episodic, the majority of the second volume of Monster Soul focused on one story–the Black Airs’ efforts to rescue the souls of an entire kingdom of humans from the clutches of the Drei Kommandos. In the process, Mashima takes the opportunity to delve into the back stories of the individual members of the Black Airs. I personally appreciated that the characters were further developed, but the series is too short to really take advantage of it all. Although Monster Soul doesn’t stand out much, it is generally entertaining. The action sequences in particular are fairly well done. Admittedly, there are a few annoying character quirks that don’t make much sense within the context of the story as a whole, such as Mummy’s propensity for stripping for no particular reason. Overall, Monster Soul feels more like a prototype than anything else. It is very energetic, though.

Time KillersTime Killers by Kazue Kato. While I largely enjoyed Kato’s manga series Blue Exorcist, I never seemed to be quite as taken with the story as so many others were. However, I’ve always been fond of Kato’s artwork. And so, I was very interested in reading Kazuo’s short story collection Time Killers. The anthology collects eleven short manga selected from over a decade’s worth of Kazuo’s work, including some of her earliest and debut stories. Many of the manga included in Time Killers simply consist of whatever elements Kazuo felt like exploring and mashing together, completely disregarding what readers might be interested in. The manga ends up being a somewhat odd conglomeration with a strong indie feel to it, but I rather enjoyed its quirkiness. The collection also includes a story that is derived from the same source material as Blue Exorcist, which was interesting to see. It’s also worth noting that Time Killers is probably the nicest release that I’ve seen from Viz Media’s Shonen Jump imprint. It has a slightly larger trim size, includes beautiful color pages, and is printed on high-quality, glossy paper, too.

My Week in Manga: June 23-June 29, 2014

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My News and Reviews

Another three posts last week! It’s the end of June, so I decided to have a Juné Manga Giveaway. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, so there’s still some time left to enter for a chance to win a copy of Momoko Tenzen’s boys’ love one-shot Flutter. Last week I also took a closer look at the two Gengoroh Tagame manga recently published by Bruno Gmünder, Endless Game and Gunji. (And speaking of Bruno Gmünder, more titles for its Gay Manga line have been announced! Look for Mentaiko Itto’s Priapus, Takeshi Matsu’s More and More of You, and Tagame’s Fisherman’s Lodge in English later this year.) Finally, I posted a review of Kaoru Ohno’s historical novel Cage on the Sea which is about the survival and eventual repatriation of the Japanese holdouts on Anatahan Island after World War II. It was a story that was sensationalized in the 1950s,  but Ohno’s thoroughly researched novel is a much more nuanced portrayal of the events and people involved.

Quick Takes

Fairy Tail, Volume 38Fairy Tail, Volume 38 by Hiro Mashima. While the battles and challenges could be entertaining, I’ll admit that I had started to grow a little weary of the Grand Magic Games arc of Fairy Tail. Thankfully, a secondary (which has now become primary) plot was introduced which has much higher stakes than who will be declared the winner of the tournament. The possibility of the world being destroyed by the return of the dragons is a pretty big deal, after all. The lengthy buildup of the Grand Magic Games pays off in this volume though as the tournament reaches its conclusion. Actually, I think it’s one of the better volumes of Fairy Tail to have recently been released. Most of it is devoted to the various battles which are taking place, the Guild members showing just how much they’ve grown and how strong they’ve become in a very dramatic fashion. Friendship, loyalty, and teamwork have always been vital to Fairy Tail, but it really shows in this volume. Even though there is a focus on the action and fighting, there are also some important plot twists and story developments in the thirty-eighth volume, too.

My Love Story!!, Volume 1My Love Story!!, Volume 1 written by Kazune Kawahara and illustrated by Aruko. I absolutely adored the first volume of My Love Story!!–it’s funny and charming, and the characters are incredibly amusing and endearing. Although Takeo is heroic, enthusiastic, loyal, manly, and strong, he’s not traditionally good-looking, so people often overlook his better qualities. He falls in love easily, but all of the girls he likes fall for his attractive best friend Suna instead. (So far, Suna’s turned them all down, though.) But when Takeo saves a girl named Yamato from a groper on the train it seems as though his chance at love has finally arrived, if he isn’t too dense to realize it, that is. Takeo’s developing romance with Yamato is delightful, but his close friendship with Suna is marvelous, too. I’m not sure for how long the creators will be able spin the series’ basic premise without it feeling drawn out, but the manga is currently still ongoing at six volumes in Japan. Regardless, I’m looking forward to the next volume immensely; My Love Story!! is easily one of my favorite manga debuts of 2014.

Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 7Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 7 by Mitsuru Hattori. Bub’s condition continues to decline, so Rea has decided to leave for the ZoMA research facility, hoping that her unusual form of zombism will provide a clue to save him. (Is it sad that an undead cat is actually my favorite character in Sankarea?) Chihiro isn’t about to let her go on her own though, in part because he still feels responsible for Rea and wants to protect her, but also because he’s very interested in visiting the “zombie holy land.” Sankarea is a quirky series which tries to balance horror and romantic comedy. This volume actually succeeds fairly well in that. Chihiro has always expressed interest in zombie girls, and he is very excited to meet more of them at ZoMA, which causes him to reevaluate his relationship with Rea. Does he like her simply because she’s a zombie? Would he still like Rea even if there was a way to revive her? Considering Chihiro’s reactions to the other zombies, I could actually see Hattori going either way with the story. The seventh volume is a solid addition to the series, and ends on a pretty intense cliffhanger.

My Week in Manga: June 2-June 8, 2014

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My News and Reviews

Three posts last week! The first was the announcement of the Oi, Oishinbo! manga giveaway winner, which also includes a list of some of the food manga that has been licensed in English. And speaking of food manga, last week I reviewed Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 2. I’m really enjoying the series and am thrilled that it’s being released in English. I also reviewed Blade of the Immortal, Volume 29: Beyond Good and Evil by Hiroaki Samura, which is pretty much the beginning of the end of the series. I love Blade of the Immortal, so I’m interested to see how Samura will wrap everything up and who, if anyone, will survive its conclusion.

Things have been a bit hectic in my life lately, so I’ve not been able to pay attention to all of the news and announcements recently, but I did catch a few things on Vertical’s Twitter account. Apparently, its warehouse is down to the last 24 copies of Message to Adolf, Part 1 and it may or may not be reprinted. So, if you want a copy, you should probably grab it sooner rather than later. Adolf was my introduction to Osamu Tezuka, and it remains one of my favorite works by him. Also, Vertical was at AnimeNEXT and made a new license announcement—Dream Fossil: The Complete Short Stories of Satoshi Kon. Though it wasn’t perfect, I enjoyed Kon’s Tropic of the Sea a great deal, so am looking forward to this collection as well as the other Kon manga announced by Dark Horse a couple of months ago.

Quick Takes

Monster Soul, Volume 1Monster Soul, Volume 1 by Hiro Mashima. For readers intimidated by the length of Fairy Tail or Rave Master, Mashima’s two-volume Monster Soul sets a much lower bar for entry to his work. During the Human-Monster War, the Black Airs were an elite group of exceptionally powerful monsters. Now that the war is over, and the monsters have lost, they mostly try to keep to themselves. But with human poachers, a ghost with an agenda, and another monster picking a fight, trouble seems to find them anyway. Monster Soul is somewhat episodic, but Mashima does seem to be developing some sort of underlying plot. Since the series is only two volumes long though, it probably can’t be particularly convoluted or in-depth. That being said, I’m not entirely sure what direction Monster Soul will be taking. The story moves along very quickly, there are numerous fights, and the characters are boisterous. I wasn’t blown away, but the first volume of Monster Soul could be entertaining.

Otomen, Volume 16Otomen, Volumes 16-18 by Aya Kanno. I’m not sure that Otomen really needed to be eighteen volumes long, but I enjoyed every volume of it. The series just makes me so incredibly happy. It can be ridiculous and eyeroll-worthy at times, usually deliberately so, but I love it. The characters, while they don’t have much depth, are incredibly endearing. Kanno plays around with gender roles and expectations in Otomen, that’s one of the major points of the series, but never in a denigrating way. The not-so-subtle message of Otomen is that it is just fine to be whoever it is you are. These final three volumes find Asuka and many of the others in their last year of high school. They begin drifting apart for various reasons, the biggest being the influence of Asuka’s mother, and it is heartbreaking to see. Kanno has never hesitated to make use of well-worn tropes and plot developments in Otomen–frequently the series verges on parody because of that–but I was a little unsure about the memory loss arc. Ultimately though, the series ends in a very satisfying way.

The Seven Deadly Sins, Volume 1The Seven Deadly Sins, Volumes 1-2 by Nakaba Suzuki. Back in my undergrad days I took a fantastic course that focused on the use and portrayal of the seven deadly sins in music and literature, and so Suzuki’s The Seven Deadly Sins manga immediately caught my attention. At first, I was a little uncertain about The Seven Deadly Sins. It took a few chapters to really grow on me, and when present Meliodas’ lecherous tendencies still seem more like a tired cliché rather than any sort of legitimate character development, but the series has great potential. The Seven Deadly Sins are a group of extremely talented warriors who may be the only ones capable of stopping the Holy Knights from destroying Britannia. It isn’t yet known why the group goes by “The Seven Deadly Sins,” or what sins the members have committed to earn their monikers, but I’m assuming that will be revealed sometime in the future. The Holy Knights are the ones being framed as the series’ villains, but the Sins aren’t entirely good, either, which I appreciate. With interesting characters and epic battles, I’m looking forward to reading more.

The Sleep of ReasonThe Sleep of Reason: An Anthology of Horror edited by C. Spike Trotman. Edited by the same person who has been coordinating the new Smut Peddler anthologies, The Sleep of Reason collects twenty-six short horror comics. Some of the creators (like Jason Thompson and Carla Speed McNeil, among others) I was already familiar with, but there were plenty of other contributors whose work I was encountering for the very first time. That’s one of the things I love about anthologies like The Sleep of Reason–they introduce me to new artists that I want to follow. I also love being exposed to so many different styles of art and storytelling. There is some blood, death, and gore in The Sleep of Reason, but the collection isn’t a splatter fest and relies much more heavily on the psychological aspects of horror rather than on violence. As with any anthology, some of the stories are stronger than others. I’m not sure that I even completely understood some of them, but they all were eerie, disconcerting, and creepy. The Sleep of Reason is a great collection; definitely recommended for fans of horror.

My Week in Manga: April 14-April 20, 2014

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My News and Reviews

There were two in-depth reviews posted at Experiments in Manga Last week. The first review was of Torajiro Kishi’s manga Maka-Maka: Sex, Life, and Communication, Volume 1 as a part of my Year of Yuri review project. Maka-Maka is definitely a mature title and there’s quite a bit of sex and physical intimacy, but I think it’s one of the best adult-oriented yuri manga to have been released in English. Sadly, it’s very out-of-print. The second review was of The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows, a collection of two of Edogawa Rampo’s better known short novels of suspense. I though they were pretty great, but then again I tend to be rather fond of Rampo’s works.

As for a few other interesting things: Jason Thompson takes a look at the mahjong manga The Legend of Koizumi in the most recent House of 1000 Manga column. (Ed Chavez apparently wanted to license the series. It’s unlikely to ever actually happen, but we can dream!) Yen Press had quite a few license announcements of its own to make, including the establishment Yen On, an imprint specifically devoted to light novels. Dark Horse also announced some exciting licenses–more manga by CLAMP and Satoshi Kon. Toh EnJoe won the Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation for his work Self-Reference Engine, one of my favorite books released last year. And speaking of awards, the 2014 Eisner Award Nominees have been announced. Manga up for an Eisner Award include The Heart of Thomas, The Mysterious Underground Men, Showa: A History of Japan, 1926–1939, The Summit of the Gods, Volume 4, and Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist in the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia category and The Strange Tale of Panorama Island in the category for Best Adaptation from Another Medium.

Quick Takes

Bad Teacher's Equation, Volume 4Bad Teacher’s Equation, Volumes 4-5 by Kazuma Kodaka. Bad Teacher’s Equation has come a long way since its first volume. The series was nearly a decade in the making, so it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that it underwent some significant evolution in both artwork and storytelling, including some unexpected plot developments. In the series’ afterword, Kodaka notes that Bad Teacher’s Equation “mirrored the history of boy’s love comics throughout the ’90s” and that it was her first foray into the genre. It started out as a comedy, but by the end of the series, while there is still a fair amount of humor, it has become much more serious and even addresses some of the challenges that face same-sex couples in a more realistic fashion. I particularly enjoyed the fourth volume because of this and because of its focus on Masami and Toru’s relationship. They are the most consistently believable couple in Bad Teacher’s Equation. Although I wasn’t always convinced by Masayoshi and Atsushi’s relationship in the series, for the most part I did really like how things played out for them in the final volume.

Click, Volume 1Click, Volumes 1-4 by Youngran Lee. The basic premise of Click is fairly absurd–Joonha’s family has a strange genetic mutation which causes their bodies to change sex shortly after they reach puberty. Of course, this was never actually mentioned to Joonha and so he’s understandable concerned when at the age of sixteen all of a sudden he seems to have turned into a girl. At first, I thought that Click was going to be a comedy, but that’s not entirely the case. There are humorous elements, Joonha’s parents, for example, are a rather unusual pair and their scenes are generally played for laughs, but the manhwa is much more about the drama (and melodrama). It might not be the most realistic series, but there’s actually some interesting exploration of gender, gender roles, and gender identity in Click. Joonha isn’t a particularly pleasant person and on top of that he’s a misogynistic jerk, too. His sex change is a rather traumatic event for him and he’s now stuck in between genders. His body is female, and he tries to live as a girl, but his personality and way of thinking hasn’t really changed that much.

Drifters, Volume 3Drifters, Volume 3 by Kohta Hirano. I’m still not sure that I entirely understand what the underlying plot of Drifters is supposed to be, but I’m not entirely certain that it matters much at this point, either. At least not to me. I enjoy Drifters for the series’ outrageous characters and battles more than any sort of coherent story. I also appreciate Hirano’s use of historic figures in the series, although it does help to have at least some vague idea of who they are outside of the manga. Admittedly, Hirano’s interpretations are extraordinarily liberal and irreverent. Most of the characters exhibit varying degrees of insanity and there’s not much subtlety or nuance to their characterizations, either. So far, Drifters has been a very violent series. The third volume is no exception to this and battle after battle is fought. I have noticed some continuity errors in the artwork which can be distracting or confusing, especially when they occur in the middle of a fight scene. (Past volumes had this same problem, too.) In the end, Drifters still doesn’t make much sense yet, but I continue to find it to be highly entertaining.

Fairy Tail, Volume 37Fairy Tail, Volume 37 by Hiro Mashima. It’s the final day of the Grand Magic Games, the results of which will literally determine the fate of the world. The danger of course is that Mashima may have over-hyped the Games’ finale; the victory of the guild that ultimately wins is described as being impossible and highly unusual. But if there’s going to be a tournament arc, that’s certainly one way of making it crucial to the development of the story. I consider it to be a good thing. While the Grand Magic Games were diverting, for a while there they didn’t seem to have much of a point except to serve as an excuse to have high-powered wizards doing battle. And there’s plenty of fighting in the thirty-seventh volume, including several confrontations that occur simultaneously. Sadly, compared to previous battles, I didn’t find them to be especially engaging. The most interesting fight is the one between Erza and two other extremely skilled and strong women, Kagura and Minerva, which has several scenes which are particularly dramatic. Mashima does have to cheat and mislead readers with the artwork a bit to achieve some of those moments, though.

SamuraiFlamencoSamurai Flamenco directed by Takahiro Omori. Samurai Flamenco is an anime series that celebrates superheros and superhero shows. It uses a strange mix of silliness bordering on parody and seriousness, but it somehow works. Samurai Flamenco begins very realistically, with Hazama acting as a vigilante. He’s not particularly competent at first, but he makes up for that with his enthusiasm, passion, and belief in justice. It also helps that other people are drawn to him and his cause. On the surface, the middle portion of the series seems like a very typical superhero show with monsters and evil organizations. The villains’ character designs are frankly ridiculous. But then the anime returns to a more serious approach and the final episode pulls everything together perfectly. I did enjoy the humor of the series but I probably appreciated the more realistic examination of what it means to be a superhero even more. I quite enjoyed Samurai Flamenco and found the characters, all of whom are just a little bit strange, to be both likeable and interesting.

My Week in Manga: February 3-February 9, 2014

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My News and Review

Last week I announced the winner of the Vinland Saga manga giveaway. The post also includes a list of the manga with memorable snowy scenes that were mentioned during the contest. (Just in case you haven’t had enough snow where you are this winter.) And speaking of Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga, I also reviewed the second omnibus of the manga. I’m really loving the series and enjoyed the second volume even more than I did the first. Over the weekend I reviewed Mieko Kanai’s award-winning novel Oh, Tama! which I greatly enjoyed. I know quite a few people who find it to be a boring work, but I found it to be delightfully low-key with a quirky sense of humor.

As for news and interesting reading seen online this week: The fourth issue of the international edition of Monkey Business will be released later this month. I quite enjoy Monkey Business, so I’m looking forward to it. Seven Seas answered a question about some of the decisions that go into licensing manga for omnibus release over on its Tumblr. At Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin posted a great List of Where You Can Buy Anime/Manga in 2014. Hooded Utilitarian’s Ng Suat Tong writes about some of the best online comics criticism of 2013, including some great articles on manga that I hadn’t previously come across.

Quick Takes

Dictatorial Grimoire, Volume 1: CinderellaDictatorial Grimoire, Volume 1: Cinderella by Ayumi Kanou. I have a feeling that Dictatorial Grimoire may very well be one of those manga that is so bad that it’s good. The story is admittedly a bit of a mess and sometimes doesn’t even make a whole lot of sense. However, I can’t deny that I had fun reading the manga. It’s all sorts of ridiculous. (I’m not sure that all of it is entirely intentional, though.) Otogi Grimm is the descendant of the Brothers Grimm which turns out to be a rather dangerous thing to be. The Brothers made a pact with demons offering up the lives of their descendants in exchange for the stories that formed the basis of their famous fairy tales. Many of those demons–such as the progenitor’s of Cinderella and Snow White–are now after Otogi in one way or another. He does seem to maintain some control over them, though it’s never explained how he learned, developed, or perhaps inherited this power. I did love that Cinderella is a complete masochist, although that fact is used mostly as a gag rather than for any meaningful characterization. I was, however, amused.

Fairy Tail, Volume 34Fairy Tail, Volume 34 by Hiro Mashima. The thirty-fourth volume of Fairy Tail gets off to a good start with the conclusion of Natsu’s confrontation with the Saber Tooth Guild. Then it’s back to the Grand Magic Games for the third day of competition. After a nice buildup to the day’s challenge event, called Pandemonium, Erza’s epic battle is largely reduced to a two-page spread. More time is spent on what basically amounts to target practice for the other teams than on what could have been a glorious combat sequence; it was extremely disappointing. Some of the other fights in this volume fare better, but others are completely rushed through. I’m more interested in the plots going on behind the scenes than I am in the tournament itself, but it seems that to some extent Mashima has given up on the Grand Magic Games. Even the event challenges, which were initially interesting because they required some actual thought and strategy to be put into them in addition to magic and martial skill, have become little more than all-out brawls in this volume. That, too, was a rather disappointing development.

Manic LoveManic Love by Satomi Yamagata. Manic Love is a prequel of sorts to Yamagata’s Fake Fur; it delves deeper into the back story of Maki Sonoda, an important side character. Yamagata jokes in the afterword that she had challenged herself to write a manga that was half nude scenes, so there’s quite a bit of sex in Manic Love. But it’s actually handled quite tastefully and the sex scenes are an important part of the manga and the themes with which Yamagata is working. As was the case with Fake Fur, Manic Love explores the relationship between romantic love and sexual desire and how they can influence each other. Sex is used as a form of communication and connection between the characters in addition to being something that they enjoy. One of the things that I particularly liked about Manic Love is that each chapter it told from a different characters’ point of view. Maki is in what is probably best described as a sort of love triangle, but it’s one without hard feelings or anger. It’s interesting to be able to see that unusual relationship from multiple perspectives, including one from someone who is outside of that triangle entirely.