One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 9
By Han SeungHee & Jeon JinSeok
Published by Yen Press

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With the disgraced sultan Shahryar on the run and brother Shazaman hot on his trail, the Caliph names Emir Jafar as temporary sultan of Baghdad, passing on to him the task of taking back Jerusalem from the western invaders. Though he has no choice but to comply, Jafar has other matters on his mind such as uncovering the truth about Shazaman and Fatima. Thankfully, with a bit of luck and a bit more stealth, Jafar stumbles upon a horrifying secret which reveals that Shahryar is, stunningly, the sane brother, despite his history as a misogynistic serial murderer. Meanwhile, Shahryar and Shazaman face off in the desert as raging storms turn the terrain into a flash flood zone. Over in the western camp, King MacLeod is putting the moves on Sehera, by which I mean giving him books, namely 14th-century Chinese historical novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms which becomes this volume’s story-within-a-story.

Like volume eight, this volume suffers a bit from the affliction I like to call “Lack of Sehera,” but there is plenty of plotty goodness to fill the void, particularly concerning the history of Shahryar and Shazaman’s relationship with each other and with their childhood friend Jafar. With current events juxtaposed against scenes from their childhood, it’s hard not to feel pain for both brothers and impossible to avoid the question of just how both of them became so irretrievably twisted as adults. Though, thanks to Sehera’s influence, Shahryar has begun to seek a kind of personal redemption, Shazaman’s emotional wounds remain open and untreated, infecting him to the core.

Aside from this volume’s drama between brothers, a real highlight is Sehera’s retelling of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which ends the volume with a painful lesson for MacLeod who may be about to learn that despite Sehera’s devotion to duty, his loyalty ultimately belongs to another. Though what appears here is obviously just a tiny fragment of the original Chinese epic (which stands at 800,000 words and 120 chapters) it is more than enough to entice readers to seek out the source material for more. This was, apparently, a strong motivation for its inclusion in the story, as the volume’s endnotes reveal writer Jeon JinSeok’s desire to introduce the testosterone-heavy novel to a new generation of female readers who may not have been otherwise encouraged to check it out. Though I’m unable to speak for the young women of South Korea, I can certainly confirm that his plan has worked on me.

With several characters’ lives hanging in the balance (really) by the end of the volume, the tension in this series shows no sign of letting up anytime soon, and with only two volumes remaining, readers face a single burning question: how to survive the wait until the next volume.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

I’ve made quite a few manhwa-heavy posts in the past six months or so, starting with Let’s Talk About Manhwa, in which I declared my love for Korean BL comics and asked for recommendations for all kinds of manhwa. The comments to that post were fantastic–filled with recommendations upon recommendations, only a fraction of which I’ve managed to get to at this point. I’m reading as fast as I can!

The truth is, I’ve really fallen in love with manhwa. It has many of the traits I most love in Japanese manga–lots of epic, dramatic, character-driven, single-creator stories with lovely art and well-paced, finite plots–but each these traits has its own particular quality unique to manhwa. I believe that even if I was presented with flipped manhwa (reading right-to-left like Japanese comics) I would be able to tell at a glance that it was made in Korea–something that has been proven to me already, actually, in the case of one of my favorite single-volume Korean BL stories, U Don’t Know Me. Some of this has to do with the art, particularly the character designs which favor a a particular kind of cheek and chin, full lips and heavily lined eyes, but the storytelling has its own flavor too, with its spunky, outspoken (often even violent) girls and arrogant, swaggering boys.

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Reviews have been appearing here in short bursts lately, but I should be back to a more rigorous schedule soon. Shouldn’t the summer be relaxing? :) A few short items:

- For those curious about my non-manga-related activities, I have joined the staff at Act Too Studio, coaching young singers and actors alongside two incredible teachers who also happen to be my parents. I’m pretty excited. Here is some information about us, and here is a page full of people saying we (and by “we” I mean mostly my folks) are great. We are also developing our website as we go, so if that’s your kind of thing, keep an eye out for new content!

- Just yesterday, I got myself on the list to review 801 Media titles, so look for a little more yaoi content here from time-to-time! They also introduced me as a new reviewer in their blog!

- As a testament to my deep love for Yen Press’ One Thousand and One Nights, my review copy of volume eight arrived on my doorstep just yesterday and was immediately pushed to the front of the line (and believe me, it’s become quite a long line). Don’t miss my review!

- On a very different note, I reviewed a new volume in another of my favorite series this week–volume seven of Mushishi. I suppose the contrasting nature of these two series should put aside any lingering worry I might have about this blog not representing me (or my tastes) fully. :) ETA: Also, translator William Flanagan has linked to my review on his Facebook page, filling my fangirlish heart with glee!

- The ever-fabulous Danielle Leigh posted a shojo round-up a day or two ago, and we ended up rambling on together in comments about NANA. Look for more of this to come. /cryptic

I wonder how much of this actually constitutes “news”? Ah, well. More reviews tomorrow!

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 8
By Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok
Published by Yen Press

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At the end of volume seven, Sehara sacrificed himself to save his sultan by offering to accompany the crusaders out of Baghdad as Lord McCloud’s bard in exchange for the safety of Shahryar and company. This volume begins as the events are being relayed to Sehara’s sister, Dunya, revealing further details of the exchange including an unexpectedly touching (and unusually erotic) good-bye from Sehara in which he kisses the end of Shahryar’s sword.
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I have a mini review out at PCS today for volume seven of manhwa series One Thousand and One Nights. This is such a beautiful and well-crafted series, and I could easily have written a full-length review of this volume so I will add some things here that I did not have room to say in my mini. Bonus: I get to say them here with wholly unprofessional abandon. :)

First of all, let me address the new political turn the series has taken, because that’s probably the thing that most sets this volume apart from the others. Though politically and theologically I’m sure it would be easy to poke at some of the author’s statements made through the characters (Sehara, mainly), but to do that would be missing the point. Fiction is all about expressing ideas, which is what the author does here–and very effectively at that. His notes at the back of the book are incredibly revealing, too. “There are always greedy people who have profited from war. They create a reason for war, and the rest of us go along with it. Young and innocent lives are uselessly sacrificed,” he says, mentioning too that at the time of his writing, Korea had the third highest number of soldiers in Iraq (after the US and England).
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That title makes it sound like a new fighting game, or a superhero comic, but there it is. :) I said in my last post that there was a lot I had to say about Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok’s One Thousand and One Nights that didn’t make it into my Manga Recon review, and one of those things was elaboration on a particular statement from the review. I said at one point, regarding the relationship between the two main characters in the story (Sultan Shahryar and his “Scheherazade,” Sehara):

“Their relationship is reminiscent of that between Ash Lynx and Eiji Okamura in Akimi Yashida’s classic shojo manga, Banana Fish (though more overtly sexualized), as both stories feature a pure, open heart coming to the rescue of a man with too much blood on his hands.”

More than that would have been out of place in the review, but I’d like to discuss it further here. The truth is, Sehara and Eiji are very much alike, and both of them are of a particular type that draws me to a story like Touya Akira to a goban. My “bullet-proof” character-type if you will. Both are unusually pure of heart, but in a wonderfully understated kind of way that fills me with delight.

Ash and Shahryar, however, though each a fearsome leader with a bloody history, differ in one especially significant way that I’ll explore after the jump!
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First of all, I’m glad I stopped using LiveJournal as my main blog a while back, considering the news that is circulating today. I’m posting this mainly for those of you who are reading on the LJ-mirror of this blog, but also to whine about how I’m going to have to spend time making sure I backed up all the freakin’ fanfiction, most of which I was hoping never to look at again. Oh, *sigh*. On the heels of this news, Squeaky has posted over at InsaneJournal to reassure users of that site’s financial stability.

Secondly, Deb Aoki has added a poll about 2008’s new shonen manga to go along with yesterday’s shojo poll. Both polls are open for several weeks, so there’s even time to read up on what you’ve missed! Apparently there is a seinen poll coming up too! Keep your eyes on about.com!

Lastly we come to my main reason for this entry, which is to point you all toward my full-length review of the first six volumes of One Thousand and One Nights, a manhwa retelling of the 9th century classic, over at Manga Recon. I’m especially excited about this review, because I hadn’t heard much about the series before I was sent the review copies, and I completely fell in love with it, which was pretty damn exciting. I’m sure this will happen many more times as I continue at Manga Recon, but after such winners as Hanky Panky and Make Love & Peace it really was an intoxicating experience.

I actually have a lot more to say about it than I could fit in the review, so I may talk more here later on. For now, check out my review!