Anna N

This week, Michelle, Sean, and Anna look at recent releases from Viz Media, Seven Seas, and Yen Press.

Blood Lad, Vol. 3 | By Yuuki Kodama | Yen Press – Blood Lad remains the frontrunner for the “Surprise Favorite of 2013” award in my book. True, I could not possibly be less interested in the machinations of Staz’s dastardly older brother, Braz, but there are plenty of characters that I unexpectedly like quite a lot, including Staz’s little sister, Liz, who is like the Yotsuba of the demon world, and the slouchy, laid-back dragon in this volume, who ends up steering our leads onto a new and intriguing path. And true, the fanservice is not my style, but the humor usually is. Also, I especially like that the series goes places I don’t expect—we begin the volume with Fuyumi (the ghost of a human) having been kidnapped, and I was all set for some demon power struggle to ensue, but that is actually not where things go at all. I look forward to more! – Michelle Smith

Demon Love Spell, Vol. 3 | By Mayu Shinjo | Viz Media – I have to admit, Shinjo is doing a really good job making me sympathize with the incubus here, particularly in the first half of this volume. In particular, the confrontation between Kagura and Miko regarding her semi-arranged marriage is one of the best scenes so far, really laying out how conflicted Miko is, but also that how she’s handling it is absolutely the wrong way to go about things. As for Kagura, while he admits to pretending to be weaker than he is so that he can get more from Miko, he’s actually being fairly considerate given his creator. I’m not sure if we’ll be seeing his “human” self again, though. The second half is less interesting, but still pretty solid, and shows why these two haven’t gone further in their relationship – Miko’s feelings are still too fragile. Good stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, Vol. 3 | By Yomi Hirasaka and Itachi | Seven Seas – This volume exists pretty much to introduce the rest of the main cast. Maria, the 10-year-old nun who’s somehow supposed to be their faculty advisor, is there to be adorable and brattish, just like a typical 10-year-old, and piss off Kodaka’s little sister. That said, I am so grateful Kadota continues to treat both his sister and Maria as cute little kids rather than the manga getting into lolicon areas. Well done. Then again, with a new character like Rika, is more sexual talk really needed? Adding her to the cast is like throwing a bomb into a room, and while she’ll best be remembered in this volume for the mech-on-mech BL doujinshi she shows the others (which is indeed the highlight of the volume), I’m more interested in what her presence will do to Kodaka, Sena and Yozora’s friendship. – Sean Gaffney

Library Wars, Vol. 10 | by Kiiro Yumi | Viz Media – This volume wraps up the somewhat silly banned words storyline and sends Kasahara on a mission in her hometown to protect freedom of expression in an art exhibit. There are catty librarians and subverted organizational hierarchies to deal with! In addition, Kasahara’s secret of being a combat member of the Library Defense Force may be exposed to her family. The feelings between Kasahara and Dojo are growing, and it is fun seeing how capable and mature Kasahara has become as she manages to handle a bad hazing incident all by herself. This was a solid volume in the Library Wars series, with a bit more emotional depth than usual. – Anna N

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Vol. 15 | By Hiroshi Shiibashi | Viz Media – The good news it it looks like the Kyoto arc will wrap up with the next volume. The bad news is that it’s still going on in THIS one, meaning there’s a lot of fighting, and a lot of minor villains whose faces I struggle to remember. That said, there is one very interesting thing going on here: the villains appear to be winning. Even if they may not destroy Kyoto, I’m pretty sure they’re going to pull off their resurrection no matter how much Rikuo tries to get Hagoromo-Gitsune to remember who she really is. As for the fights themselves, they look OK, but can be pretty chaotic – and honestly, I’m not reading Nura for the fights. Let’s finish up the equipping and fearing and get back to more slice-of-life yokai plots, as this arc is trying my patience. – Sean Gaffney

Tiger & Bunny, Vol. 2 | By Mizuki Sakakibara, et al. | Viz Media – Although it feels nearly as much like a Saturday morning cartoon as the first volume, the second installment of Tiger & Bunny at least gives readers a few welcome glimpses into the life of a corporate Hero and fleshes out its supporting cast a little bit. Unfortunately, I find practically all of the supporting cast more interesting than the lead characters—veteran Hero Kotetsu (a.k.a. Wild Tiger) and his newcomer partner Barnaby (unwillingly nicknamed “Bunny”)—and their relationship, which is characterized by much repetitive bickering and questioning whether their company-mandated partnership can really work. Even giving Barnaby some dead parents and a shadowy organization to seek out can’t make him compelling, but maybe it means we’re in for a storyline deeper than “Oh noes, a gang of thieves stole a diamond from a museum!” Here’s hoping. – Michelle Smith

Toriko, Vol. 16 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – As opposed to Nura, Toriko’s arcs are usually just about the right length: Mellow Cola wraps up here, after a suitable amount of fighting and cooking, and we’re off on new adventures. I like the way Komatsu, despite remaining a non-combatant, is being worked into the fights in ways that don’t involve him just constantly being rescued. His use of the ancient cookbook to tell Toriko and Zebra how to stop the Salamander Sphinx. That said, the lack of major females in this series tends to mean that Komatsu serves that purpose as well – it’s hard not to hear Toriko and Zebra arguing about who’ll partner with him and not think of various BL answers. Still, Toriko and Komatsu are more concerned with the return of Starjun, and what evil he’s going to be bringing to the table. Not the best, but still good. – Sean Gaffney

This week, Sean, MJ, and Anna look at recent releases from Viz Media, Yen Press, Kodansha Comics, and Vertical, Inc.

Cross Game, Vol. 6 | By Mitsuru Adachi | Viz Media – I’m finally finishing out this series! Picking up the 6th volume after a gap in my Cross Game reading reminded me again what a master of manga Adachi is. For a series where on the surface not much happens other than a bunch of kids preparing to play baseball, there’s so much subtext and subtle psychological development being portrayed, that this manga is a delight to read. Ko continues to hone his skills, but the sudden appearance of Akane, a dead ringer for his childhood love Wakaba, causes a bit of consternation in the neighborhood. Romance is more of an undercurrent in this volume as Aoba slowly realizes that people may appreciate her for something other than her pitching skills. – Anna N.

A Devil And Her Love Song, Vol. 9 | By Miyoshi Tomori | Viz Media – Well, that went south in a hurry, didn’t it? The first half of this volume is actually quite heartwarming, despite the opening. It gives the message “forcing yourself on others is wrong”, but also allows the others to forgive Shintaro and allow him back into their inner circle. Moreover, Maria is bonding even more with her friends, and Shin is getting over his own hangups regarding the piano. He decides to do a big, extravagant performance for Maria, at the end of which he will tell her his real feelings. AND THEN IT ALL GOES SO WRONG. Leaving aside horrible assault guy, who ensures she never gets to the performance, it’s more of a classic “misunderstanding comfort as a confession” that leads to the depressing cliffhanger we get here. I really cannot wait for Vol. 10. – Sean Gaffney

Durarara!! Saika Arc, Vol. 2 | By Ryohgo Narita, Akiyo Satorigi, and Suzuhito Yasuda | Yen Press – We continue to have two different stories going on here, and they aren’t quite interweaving with each other until the very end… or so we think. First off, there’s the attempts by Celty to find out what’s going on with Saika, the demon blade that’s slashing people and has professed a deep, stalkerish love for Shizuo. Secondly, and probably more interesting to me, there’s Anri and her attempts to deal with her teacher’s sexual harassment. Anri’s natural emotionless facade doesn’t make the discomfort of this situation any less striking, and the occasional dream she’s having of a happy birthday with her parents turns into a nightmare rather rapidly. Plus, for all that the blade supposedly loves Shizuo, it does seem to be going after Anri an awful lot. A fun, complicated mess (yes, that’s a compliment). – Sean Gaffney

Fairy Tail, Vol. 26 | By Hiro Mashima | Kodansha Comics – Well, the villains are posing on the cover of this volume, so it is not a particular surprise that they come in and completely kick our heroes’ asses, as shonen villains often do at first. Even worse is the identity of the old man who seems to be behind the group of villains… and Makarov’s betrayed reaction. There are one or two jokes here, mostly revolving around Elfman and Evergreen, the couple that isn’t. But for the most part, this is simply pure serious fighting, with lots of people getting knocked unconscious and/or near death. And hovering over all of this is Zeref, who just wants to be left alone – supposedly – but Ultear isn’t having any of that. It looks like we’ve got a long way to go before any of this is wrapped up, to be honest. Oh and hey, was that a Laxus cameo I just saw? Foreshadowing! – Sean Gaffney

Knights of Sidonia, Vol. 3 | By Tsutomu Nihei | Vertical, Inc. – I’ll admit, this volume really surprised me. No, not the deaths of even more pilots. And no, not the flashback which showed us the origins of Tanikaze’s birth (at least once I figured out it was a flashback – come on, use black borders like other mangaka do!). No, what really startled me was the middle of this volume, where all of a sudden it became a wacky romantic comedy with a love triangle. It’s actually even more amusing given the artist’s usual unexpressive style. That said, that’s just a moment, and for the most part this volume is serious business, as we try to figure out why Tanizake is piloting every single goddamn mission, learn more about the placenta they captured, which is a little TOO good at mimicking humans, and depressing the hell out of Izana. Still riveting. – Sean Gaffney

Pandora Hearts, Vol. 16 | By Jun Mochizuki | Yen Press – Recent volumes of Pandora Hearts have been so chock-full of twists and revelations, that every time I’ve thought that I discovered what was really going on, I’ve been proven wrong in the next volume. This continues with volume sixteen, and it is by no means a bad thing. Things start out lightly, as though to provide a healing balm for last volume’s tragedies. Yet, just when I thought I’d been shocked to the core, something much more shocking is revealed, and oh… GAH. I’m kind of dying at this point. It’s all extremely well-plotted (better than I thought Mochizuki had in her, to be frank) and cleverly painful. Meanwhile, Xerxes Break continues to be the most endearing character ever, and his relationship with Sharon is almost too charming to bear. Thanks, Pandora Hearts, you always come through. Increasingly recommended. – MJ

BTOOOM!, Vol. 2 | By Junya Inoue | Yen Press – No, sorry. You don’t get to have vivid shots of “cool violence”, showing lingering closeups of blown-up corpses and a young deviant raping dead women, culminating in a teaser for the new volume whose entire point is “will this hot girl get naked and raped? Tune in to find out!” … you don’t get to do that and then have the hero go on about how violence is wrong and that it’s self-evident that Kira is a psycho. The manga itself is not practicing what it preaches, and there’s basically no reason not to identify with Kira rather than Ryouta if you’re a typical fan of hentai doujinshi where things like this happen. This *isn’t* hentai doujinshi, but it’s aiming for a similar market – guys who like sexy danger, sexy corpses, and sexy assault – and it’s pretty much lost me. Sorry, BTOOOM!. I’m sure your backstory is interesting, but bye. – Sean Gaffney

Limit, Vol. 5 | By Keiko Suenobu | Vertical, Inc. – I admit I’m starting to hit my limit with Limit, and I’m a bit relieved that it’s wrapping up with Vol. 6. My main problem is that I don’t like Hinata that much – yes, he’s not supposed to be likeable here, but I don’t even sympathize with him in a “what a broken guy” way. I was bored to tears during his long monologue. Luckily, Konno is a far more interesting protagonist, and when she’s in control of the narrative things get quite good indeed – particularly the attempt on her life, which was probably the best scene in the book. I’m not entirely sure how this is going to end – it cold go either way, despite the occasional page or two we get devoted to the grieving families – but I’m hoping the final volume has put murder and long, tortured monologues behind it and gets back to a fight to survive. -Sean Gaffney

New Moon, Vol. 1 | By Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim | Yen Press – Now several volumes in to Yen Press’ adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s incredibly popular Twilight saga, I’m more convinced than ever that graphic novels are the ideal format for her storytelling. Though Bella’s obsession with her controlling undead boyfriend is no less disturbing than it ever was (and New Moon, in particular, suffers from one of the most trying cases of Guy #2 in YA fiction history), without Meyer’s cringe-worthy prose dragging them down, these books are vastly more palatable than I ever dreamed they could be. Young Kim’s TV-pretty artwork continues to suit the story’s tone, and though some of the italic text in this volume is questionably readable, it’s possible we’re better off missing some of Bella’s internal narrative. If you’re looking for great girls’ comics, there are far better series available. But if you’re determined to read Twilight, this is absolutely the way to go. – MJ

One Piece, Vol. 67 | By Eiichiro Oda | Viz Media – When I recently talked about the first arc of the “New World” segment of One Piece for Off the Shelf, I described it as fun, but not the series as its best. The problem was that the characters weren’t invested with what they were doing. Happily, that changes with volume 67, which manages to not only be genuinely funny and absurd in several places—not the least of which is the fact that four members of the crew wind up swapping bodies—but also involves injustices that fire our heroes up (particularly Chopper). This is the best volume in a while, and on top of that, there’s some juicy political intrigue at the end when a fellow pirate proposes an alliance with Luffy in his plan to depose one of the Four Emperors. I have no idea if Luffy will go for it, but that could really take the story in an exciting direction! – Michelle Smith

Oresama Teacher, Vol. 14 |By Izumi Tsubaki | Viz Media – This is my favorite stress-relief manga. The ridiculous comedic set pieces in Oresama Teacher entertain me so much that I don’t even mind the lack of forward -moving plot. In this volume Mafuyu manages to restore Kanon’s faith in the male species by saving her while dressed up as Natsuo, a scrappy boy student. Takaomi gives Mafuyu a lift back home for a school break, resulting in a ridiculous scavenger hunt on her old stomping grounds as a juvenile delinquent. We get a brief and hilarious glimpse into Mafuyu and Takaomi’s past, as we see her hanging out with him when she was a young girl and he was the revolutionary gang leader who united rival high schools. Overall, this was a fun volume to read, and Takaomi has been absent from recent volumes, so it was nice to see him more present in the story again. – Anna N

Skip Beat!, Vol. 31 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – I wonder if this arc is coming out due to Nakamura missing all the awesome blood and violence she used to draw with Tokyo Crazy Paradise? In any case, they’re still filming as Cain Heel and his sister Setsu, and Ren is still having tremendous difficulty dealing with it. The timing of the chapters here is quite interesting, really – several scenes are flashbacks later on, which allows us to get the maximum drama when Setsu walks in on a murder attempt. (Again, I note I have genuine issues with how the cast handles method acting, but pretty much have to let that go.) I’m also pleased we’re still seeing Sho here – he’s an immature brat, but as a character I love how he interacts with Kyoko. Far more than Kijima, who I merely find a smarmy bastard. Ah well, Skip Beat! 31 is fantastic as always. – Sean Gaffney

Soul Eater, Vol. 14 | By Atsushi Ohkubo | Yen Press – Another chapter of fighting, but things are starting to get a bit desperate – indeed, our heroes suffer a major loss (not a death, I don’t think, and I have no doubt this will be the next major “arc” of the series. The cover is quite stark and memorable, and reminds me that it’s the weird art that drew me into this series in the first place – indeed, the scenes with Soul and Maka as puppets is some of the creepiest stuff I’ve seen in Soul Eater, and this is from a series that had a snake crawling down a little girl’s throat. But they’ve finally hit Arachnae’s base, and Black*Star seems to have emerged victorious, so I suspect we may be nearing an ending of sorts. Excellent shonen with lots of fights, great characters, and weird stuff going on all the time. No surprise this is running in the same magazine that Fullmetal Alchemist did. -Sean Gaffney

Thermae Romae, Vol. 2 | By Mari Yamazaki | Yen Press – Thermae Romae‘s debut volume was enjoyable, no doubt, but even as I reveled in Mari Yamazaki’s playful humor and detailed artwork, I’ll admit to having harbored grave doubts regarding its sustainability as a series. Gag manga in general tends to wear quickly with me, and I couldn’t help but wonder how much mileage a single gimmick could possibly provide, however beautifully drawn. I must now apologize for my lack of faith. With much study and obvious passion, Yamazaki-sensei has created much more than a gimmick with her time-traveling Roman bath engineer, and his story remains both genuinely funny and oddly moving—especially during this volume’s last few chapters in which Lucius has found himself trapped in modern Japan with no apparent means of return. And is romance on the horizon as well? Thermae Romae succeeds as both comedy and long-form storytelling—a rare combination indeed! Highly recommended. – MJ