Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Archives for November 2011

License request day: Shimane no Bengoshi

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I have a weakness for PBS series about professionals living in small communities, from All Creatures Great and Small to Doc Martin. I also love manga about people’s work. I believe I’ve found a perfect fusion of these two pet entertainments.

It’s called Shimane no Bengoshi, written by Masahito Kagawa and illustrated by Tetsuo Aoki, and it’s currently running in Shueisha’s Business Jump. I must warn you that the cover image I’m about to display may shock you.

That’s probably the most modestly proportioned woman I’ve ever seen depicted on the cover of a Business Jump title. And she isn’t holding an automatic weapon or wearing lingerie, or both.

Her name is Mizuho Yamazaki, and she’s a hard-working and principled lawyer serving the underrepresented population of Shimane Prefecture. To do so, she travels around on her bicycle, presumably helping elderly couples write wills, settling contentious divorces, facilitating adoptions, and so on. I can’t quite see her mounting a defense in a highly charged murder case, but there isn’t a ton of information on this title. Still, it’s been described as “slice of life,” so I feel fairly certain that she deals more with the routine details of the legal profession rather than the high drama.

Kagawa is also writing a title with the legendary Shotaro Ishinomori , which is certainly a vote of confidence. Aoki seems to be no stranger to manga with a travelogue quality, and I’m quite intrigued by the idea of his Koufuki no Hito, which is about farms and food.

And, honestly, episodic manga about a bicycling lawyer just hits all my buttons. It’s been adapted into a live-action drama, and if the lawyer could talk to dead people, she’d already have a series on CBS. I doubt I’d watch that series, as it might involve an Arquette, but I’d absolutely read Shimane no Bengoshi.

 

 

Manga the Week of 11/9

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Thank you to all who have patiently seen my blog not updating for days due to the nightmarish power loss here in New England.

Now, next week. Bandai has the second volume of their Tales of the Abyss manga tie in, Asch the Bloody. I somehow suspect the series is not much like Evil Dead, but may be wrong.

DMP has some more BL. The second volume of the amusingly titled Bad Teacher’s Equation. Volume 2 of Border, which seems a lot more dramatic. And a one-volume manga called Yakuza Cafe, which I imagine will have Yakuza… running a cafe! See, who said 5 days with no power impaired my ability to write?

Speaking of BL, or at least BL light, Kodansha has the 2nd and final volume of Until the Full Moon. Which has a teenage vampire/werewolf bishie betrothed to a playboy vampire bishie. In other words, you would think it was a license to print money.

Udon has the 3rd volume of Mega Man Gigamix, which really gets no blogger love whatsoever. Come on, where’s the Mega Man fans? (Yes, I know, pot meet kettle.)

And then there’s Viz, acknowledging that nobody parties like it’s 1999 anymore, with their re-release of CLAMP’s most apocalyptic series, X. I have a general “I like happy endings” objection to this series, especially given it takes the fun couples from CLAMP School Detectives and writes them in here to be part of the disaster, but luckily the series has been on hiatus in Japan for years, so likely I’ll never have to worry about the mass deaths that will inevitably be supplied at the end.

In non-X news, there’s new Dogs: Bullets and Carnage, which has more than two characters, but you’d never know it by the fandom. There’s a new Inu Yasha omnibus, which I believe will have Vols. 25-27. And new Rin-Ne, where Sakura will continue to not get angry. That’s her trait. ‘And Sakura?” “She doesn’t get angry. A lot.” and of course a new Pokemon Black & White, which is filled with the sort of things that makes people Pokemon fans.

What appeals to you?

Yurara, Vols. 1-5

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By Chika Shiomi | Published by VIZ Media

Yurara Tsukinowa can see spirits and sense their painful emotions, but she can’t actually do anything to help them. Or so she thinks. When a new school year finds her in the same class as Mei Tendo and Yako Hoshino, two hunky boys who use their spiritual powers to ward off vengeful spirits, she ends up helping them out, but not entirely alone. You see, Yurara has a guardian spirit—also named Yurara—and it’s this spirit who manifests when spiritual nasties are afoot, causing regular Yurara to adopt the spirit’s good looks and feisty personality until the threat is dealt with. “That was awesome!” Mei proclaims after spirit!Yurara’s first appearance. “She’s beautiful and strong!”

At first, the series is pretty episodic. Before Yurara came along it seems the boys simply drove off the spirits—Mei possesses offensive powers of fire while Yako’s water-based abilities lean toward the defensive end—but now that she’s around to actually communicate with the ghosts the encounters typically end with the spirit being able to pass on peacefully. The exception is the case of Mei’s mother, a ghost who claims to be hanging around so that her husband and sons can’t bring chicks over, but who is really worried about protecting her son from an evil spirit.

As time goes on, Yurara begins to learn more about the boys and is especially intrigued by cheerful, glompy Mei, whose skirt-chasing demeanor is really a way to hide his sorrow over the spirit-induced death of his first love. When Yako asks whether there’s someone Mei loves, Mei replies, “You should know. There is… but she’s not here.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back on it now, the plight of loving someone who is gone and will never return actually comes full circle, alighting upon Yako by the end of the series. Because the more he’s around Yurara, the more Mei falls in love with her. She returns his feelings in her normal guise, but when under the influence of spirit!Yurara, she’s drawn to Yako instead. This makes for much confusion, as you might imagine.

The latter half of the series is primarily focused on this romantic triangle/square, and I ate up all of the attendant angst with a spoon. I sighed a bit when a contingent of mean girls harrasses Yurara for hogging the boys’ attention, but was pleased when she actually ended up befriending one of them. Really, this shoujotastic twist on a supernatural tale was exactly what I was craving when I began Yurara, and so I found it very satisfying. My one quibble is that early on, Yako seems to acknowledge the fact that he’s in love with “a phantom of a person no longer of this world,” but later seems surprised to realize that it’s the guardian spirit who loves him and not Yurara herself. Perhaps that’s not so much a flaw, though, as it is something to ponder over.

I shan’t spoil the ending except to say that I liked it and that it paves the way for Rasetsu (now released in its nine-volume entirety by VIZ), in which a slightly older Yako meets a girl who reminds him very much of spirit!Yurara.

Ultimately, Yurara is not a masterpiece, but it was exactly what I wanted it to be and I enjoyed it very much. Now on to Rasetsu!

Yurara was published in English by VIZ. All five volumes were released.

A Bride’s Story, Vol. 2

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For those who note that very little happens in Kaoru Mori manga, I must inform you that there is a pitched battle in the second volume of A Bride’s Story (Yen Press). Normally, this would be confined to Mori’s bonus comics and consist of a hyperactive, hilarious difference of opinion with her editor, but it actually happens in the narrative here.

Amir’s relatives try to reclaim the young woman, hoping to offer her in marriage for a more valuable alliance. But Amir is very taken with her young husband, as he is with her. The lesson here is to never underestimate a group of determined villagers with a big pile of bricks. The lesson is also that Mori can really stage an action sequence when she puts her mind to it. In addition to being exciting, these sequences shine with character-driven moments and really give you a sense of Amir’s new community.

Of course, me being me, I’m equally taken with the very long sequence where Amir’s sister-in-law teaches her daughter about embroidery and the family’s traditional designs. What can I say? I’m probably even more partial to scenes where next to nothing happens as I am to ones where lots does.

It’s a little hard to come up with anything new to say about a given volumes of Mori’s manga, because she’s so consistent. Her art is lovely, her attention to detail verges on hypnotic, and her clear fondness for her subject matter is infectious. I just love A Bride’s Story, maybe even as much as I loved Emma (CMX).

 

Manga Giveaway: Happy Hallowe’en! Winner

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And the winner of the Happy Hallowe’en giveaway is…Maxy Barnard!

As the winner, Maxy Barnard will be receiving the first volume in Moyoco Anno’s marvelous fantasy series Sugar Sugar Rune! For this giveaway, I asked entrants to tell me about some manga that got them in the mood for Hallowe’en. I received some great responses, so please check out the comments for more details. Thank you to everyone who participated and spread the word about the giveaway. I hope to see you all again for next month’s giveaway, too!

And now, without further ado, a brief list of manga to get you into the Hallowe’en spirit (in one way or another):

Berserk by Kentaro Miura
Demonbane written by Nitroplus and Takashi Tanegashima, illustrated by Yūki Tanaka
Franken Fran by Katsuhisa Kigitsu
Goth written by Otsuichi, illustrated by Kendi Oiwa
InuYasha by Rumiko Takahashi
Mushishi by Yuki Urushibara
Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun by Shin Mashiba
Rosario+Vampire by Akihisa Ikeda
Shaman King by Hiroyuki Takei
Sugar Sugar Rune by Moyoco Anno
Vampire Princess Miyu by Narumi Kakinouchi and Toshiki Hirano
Vampire Princess Yui by Narumi Kakinouchi
The Wallflower by Tomoko Hayakawa
The Wanderer by Narumi Kakinouchi

Upcoming 11/2/2011

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Like that house in the neighborhood that always offers the best haul on Halloween, the ComicList has lots of appealing choices this week. I’ll focus on three.

I doubt it will be a barrel of laughs, but I’m eager to read No Longer Human (Vertical), Usumaru Furuya’s adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s acclaimed, apparently depressing novel. I haven’t read it, but the book was heavily featured in Mizuki Nomura’s Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime (Yen Press), which was awesome. Furuya’s work is always interesting to me, even if I don’t particularly like it, if that makes sense.

I was pleasantly surprised by the first volume of Bloody Monday (Kodansha Comics), which overcame the total familiarity of its teen-hacker plot with rock-solid execution. Volume two is due tomorrow.

And oh, mighty Isis, is that the fifth volume of The Story of Saiunkoku (Viz) I see? It is! Okay, so I already bought this at the bookstore over the weekend. I’m still excited for the seven people who buy it through their local comic shop.

Over at the partially snow-bound Manga Bookshelf, a weather-reduced Battle Robot offers its Pick of the Week and some Bookshelf Briefs. We’ll take a week off from The Favorites Alphabet this week and devote all of our energy to hoping that our afflicted members get their power back soon.