Anna N

Urameshiya Volume 1 by Makiko

Available online at Jmanga.com

I was hoping to cover more scary manga for the month of October and the horror themed Manga Moveable feast, but life got in the way and the only new spooky title I’ve managed to read recently is Urameshiya from jmanga.com. This is a historical variation on what I tend to call “spooky shop” manga, where a person with spiritual powers has to intervene in the lives of people who are affected by ghosts. It is a snowy night in Edo era Japan, and an attractive woman named Oyou has used up her welcome and the sake supply at a local tavern. The owner apologies and says that he has to ask her not to come anymore because she’s scaring the other guests. She leaves with the advice that he should throw some salt at the ghost that is standing in a corner and heads out into the night. A handsome man who turns out to be a not overly bright pickpocket stumbles against her. She catches him in the act and tells him that he has to buy her sake to make it up to her. Saji decides that he’ll put a different spin on things by taking her to his house and getting her drunk.

As they travel they cross a bridge with a lonely female ghost. Oyou prevents Saji from getting trapped and they end up spending the night together, but one of Saji’s neighbors turns up frozen to death after listening to the spirit. Saji asks Oyou for help getting back at the ghost that killed his friend. What follows are three long episodes where Oyou and Saji form an incongruous ghost-busting team. Oyou is mysterious and a bit snarky, never confirming her feelings for Saji. In contrast, he’s quietly smitten. He decides to move in with her into the spooky tenement that seems to be inhabited only by freaks of nature. They deal with a case of wronged love, a rapacious rich girl cursed with vagina dentata, and have an unfortunate run-in with a young fox spirit. I really enjoyed the art style in Urameshiya, which is old fashioned and stylized in a way that highlights the historical setting. Oyou and Saji both have glossy black hair, long flowing robes, and angular faces with gigantic eyes. Saji provides Oyou with a bit of a grounding influence, tying her to the real world. For all that Oyou protests that she cares nothing for the young thief, she’s actually incredibly protective of him if he’s threatened. Having only three chapters in a single volume seemed to give the author the room to more thoroughly set the scene for each episode. I enjoyed the relationship between Oyou and Saji, the space given to each monster of the week, and the historical setting of Urameshiya. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the next volume in this series.

Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 by Toya Ataka
One volume available on Jmanga.com

This shonen mystery manga creates a breezy and fun mash-up of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries combined with fantasy fighting elements. I was pleasntly surprised by the Sherlock Holmes adventures in this manga, which were made more entertaining by a genuinely creepy mystery and an irreverent approach in portraying the classic characters of Holmes and Watson. Here, Watson is an alarmingly competent and somewhat sarcastic tall drink of water, who affects a checkered eye patch that goes well with the checkered accents on his vest. Holmes is a tiny teenage whiz kid with a mystical shadow power that provides him with heightened powers of perception. Poor Holmes is also unable to control his tendency to blush. The first case the duo is tasked to solve hooks the reader effectively. A popular actress dies after giving a performance, with her teeth mysteriously disappearing before she drops dead in front of her audience. There are no witnesses to the crime, and Watson and Holmes have to piece together what happened as they interview the actresses patron and stumble across a creepy piece of jewelry.

Part of the fun of this manga for me was seeing the roles of Holmes and Watson swapped so effectively. Watson is worldly and sarcastic, taking the lead on the cases but having Holmes use his mystical powers to aid in the investigation. While Holmes is young and inexperienced, he’s still powerful and doesn’t hang back from taking initiative. Holmes’ shadow powers are illustrated effectively as his eyes turn into photo negative images when he calls on his shadow. Having mystical fight scenes take the place of more cerebral detection is only to be expected in a shonen version of Sherlock Holmes, but I found the entire volume entertaining. I’ll be on the lookout for the second volume.

Cross Game Volume 4 by Mitsuru Adachi

Picking up and reading Cross Game feels like a mini vacation sometimes. Adachi’s slow pacing and emphasis on everyday life creates a manga with a very natural tone and pacing, where events in the character’s lives pass by without artificial emotional drama. Ko starts working on his dream of getting to Koshien in earnest, as he starts playing regular high school baseball. Aoba’s handsome and athletic cousin Mizuki starts to attend Seishu Gakuen High School, sending most of the girls in the school into a tizzy until it is clear that the focus of his attention is Aoba. One of the ways Aoba and Ko are similar is the way they are somewhat oblivious to their own skills and attraction. Aoba goes on a date with Mizuki without being aware that there might be any romantic undercurrents, and Ko’s unassuming and hard working despite the fact that key people around him think he’s a baseball savant.

Ace hitter Azuma is so funny with his extremely narrow focus. He’s discussing a batter on a rival team and recalls his name, Keitaro Mishima, but he has absolutely no memory of one of his former teammates who has transferred schools. Mishima is forced to play down his full potential in order to not show up a senior player. Ko and Aoba continue their antagonistic relationship, but they also have moments of perfect understanding. When Aoba is standing alone on the pitcher’s mound Ko quietly walks towards home base and settles into catcher’s position, saying “You wanted to pitch, didn’t you?” When the Seishu Gakuen team plays against Sannou, they’ve been thoroughly scouted beforehand. The opposing team coach sees Ko’s inconsistent pitching and concludes that there isn’t much to his game while Aoba says while she’s watching in the stands “Guess he decided that he needed a little fielding practice.” The Seishu coach watches the game unfold with perfect equanimity, because while his team might have been scouted they are so new at playing together that they can’t help but be surprising.

One of my favorite moments in this volume of Cross Game happened towards the end of the volume, when Ko and Azuma are walking together discussing their upcoming game. Ko makes the pronouncement “I just have to pitch a game that Aoba won’t hell at me about.” Azuma’s typical poker face shifts infinitesimally and Ko asks “Was that a smile?” Azuma replies “Nope…I did not smile.” These little moments of character interaction set against the backgrounds of the playing fields and sky are what makes Cross Game so special. I’m still thoroughly gripped by this story.

Twin Spica is one of those series that is so uniformly excellent I sometimes have a hard time writing about it because I really just want to say “Go read this!” But that wouldn’t make for a very long blog post, would it?

Twin Spica Volume 4

Asumi and her classmates start their first real day of astronaut training. They are submerged in water wearing space suits and forced to complete a simulation of the type of movements they’d be expected to do in space. Asumi notices that her left hand is too weak, and this triggers a wave of memories of her childhood with her companion Mr. Lion. He showed her how difficult fine maneuvers are in space by having her wear a puffy glove and pick up marbles. Asumi’s father comes home to see his tiny daughter sitting against a wall working on grip exercises with a resolute expression on her face. Her dad comments “Life’s tough, eh?” Asumi washes out of the exercise but she’s determined to improve. These first few scenes really highlight what I like best about Twin Spica. Asumi’s childhood memories blend and inform her desire to get into space, and even though she’s not in the optimal physical shape to be an astronaut, she won’t back down from her goals.

On a class outing Asumi encounters a boy who comments that the uniforms of Tokyo Space school make him sick. Asumi’s classmate Marika is hiding her own health issues, and Asumi’s friend Mr. Lion appears to have a strange connection with Marika way back when he was alive. One of the things I like about Twin Spica is that while the story unfolds with some potentially weighty symbolism, the slice of life tone keeps it from being too precious. Instead an interlude with Mr. Lion and the spirit of his father seems appropriately mysterious, and Asumi’s adventures in Zero G plane training end up forging a bonding experience with her classmates through vomit.

Twin Spica Volume 5

Asumi’s encounter with the space hating boy Kiriu continues to effect them both. They’ve run into each other a couple more times, and he’s saving a rocket key chain that she dropped. He’s bullied at school, and it turns out that he was affected by the same space tragedy of “The Lion” that overshadows Asumi’s life. Despite his initial defensiveness, Kiriu and Asumi end up bonding a little bit. Asumi heads out to a more serious test of her skill as the trainees are placed in capsules and dropped of at random points in the wilderness. This is to simulate what might happen in the event of a crash landing, and Asumi is all alone without anyone to support her. An extended flashback sequence brings up more questions about Marika and Mr. Lion, as he’s shown as a young boy befriending a sick girl who seems to be trapped in her house most of the time. The boy builds a giant rocket model clubhouse out in the woods near her house, and the girl sneaks away to join him. Mr. Lion thinks “I never knew her name…their faces look similar but the age difference is too great.” When he visits his old clubhouse he sees the names Marika and Mr. Lion etched into a metal panel. Asumi’s struggles in the woods contrast with the young Mr. Lion’s attempts to befriend a lonely and sick girl.

Twin Spica Volume 6

Every few volumes Twin Spica will make me feel all weepy. Asumi manages to work her way through the wilderness challenge without a compass. When she meets up with her friends she’s surprised to see that they were all given compasses. I wonder if someone is deliberately trying to make Asumi wash out of the program. When Asumi sees that everyone is there except Marika, she decides to head back and search for her missing friend along with her other classmates. Marika has already been rescued and is resting safely, but when she sees what is happening on a monitor, she’s overcome with emotion. Shu quietly notices Asumi’s skills and concludes that she’s his biggest rival in the astronaut program. Kiriu and Asumi continue to spend some time together. Asumi has an encounter with a stoic astronaut who used to be a friend of Mr. Lion. He comes to lecture at the school and isn’t a particularly good storyteller, but Asumi runs into him after class and positions him on a bench with the ghost of Mr. Lion next to him. The ghostly Mr. Lion plays his harmonica and the astronaut is able to remember the days back when he was younger sitting with his lost friend on a roof. Mr. Lion quietly observes Marika. She’s affected when she hears a comment Asumi makes when her class completes an exercise of putting together a piece of equipment from spare parts, “Even though it’s the same thing with the same parts, it feels totally different.” Mr. Lion struggles with telling Asumi what he knows about Marika. There’s a constant tension between the past and the future in Twin Spica, as the different lives of the characters become more connected and intertwined. It makes for very rewarding reading, and Yaginuma’s simple and sometimes childlike character designs allow him to explore heavy emotional territory with a light and subtle touch.

I’d read the first couple volumes of this series and enjoyed the unique world building in this story about a young boy who wants to be a letter carrier in a world lit only by an artificial sun. The standard shonen quest storyline is fairly typical, but the art and settings are detailed and unique.

Tegami Bachi Volume 6 by Hiroyuki Asada

The sixth volume opens as Lag delivers a letter to a sick but rich young woman named Rei. She keeps getting anonymous notes that are lovely reminders of her hometown. Her new maid Kimidori is the source of the notes that bring her mistress comfort but the head servant takes credit for her work, bullying Kimidori into silence. Lag has to reveal Kimidori’s good works without breaking a promise he made to her to keep her secret. This story is focused on botanical images and nostalgia, as Kimidori uses flowers to produce a dye that evokes Rei’s favorite color. The second story delves into the psychology of loss, as in an abrupt shift Lag is working at a lighthouse with an elderly man he calls “Grandpa.” Lag’s identity seems to be completely forgotten in his new life, but he’s haunted by a shadowy monster at night and wonders if he’s losing his mind. It turns out that the loneliness of the old man has persisted after death, feeding one of the giant desert bugs that preys on emotions. Letter Bee Jiggy Pepper and Lag’s sidekick/dingo Niche come to the rescue.

Lag’s ongoing quest is to find the Letter Bee that inspired him to take up the job – Gauche Suede. Gauche has disappeared and is rumored to have become an evil marauder. Lag visits Gauche’s sister Sylvette to see if she can help him construct a letter that will bring Gauche back. Sylvette has some pretty dynamic action sequences as she fights from her wheelchair. The art in Tegami Bachi is one of the things that makes this series more enjoyable than most shonen series. The stark contrast of black and white is used in most of the illustrations, with sparing use of shades of grey. The contrast serves to emphasize that the characters are living in a fantastic world with artificial illumination. The barren desert that Lag journeys through is suitably menacing, as are the character designs of the monsters he encounters.

Tegami Bachi Volume 7 by Hiroyuki Asada

Most of the volumes of Tegami Bachi I’ve read focus on short stories centered around Lag and the people he meets briefly when he travels. Volume 7 really seems to propel the plot forward as well as give some back story about Niche, Lag’s tiny yet fierce companion. Lag and Niche are nearing the area where she was born and she abruptly announces that she was born 200 years ago, and it would be better if she didn’t attract any attention from the villagers. It turns out that the villagers had a symbiotic relationship with a powerful creature called the Maka, who serves as an elemental sort of protection against the giant killer insects that ravage Lag’s world. As with most cases when human encounter forces of nature that they don’t understand, the twin daughters of the Maka were abused and abandoned. Niche meets her sister, who appears in a much more mature form than Niche manifests. Niche’s sister is horrified that Niche is serving as a sidekick to a member of the human race, but is Lag still exactly human?

Some of the fight scenes in this volume were terrific. The hair blades that Niche uses for weapons become giant weapon constructs when used by her older sister. Gauche as the marauder Noir now seems to be targeting his old colleagues by stealing the mail. Lag’s role in shoring up people’s spirits through letter delivery may be much more important than he ever imagined. Overall, these were two very strong volumes, and I was happy for the chance to revisit this unique shonen series.

Review copies provided by the publisher

Library Wars is a predictable yet cozy series. There’s no doubt that Iku and Dojo are going to wind up together, and the plot does meander around their relationship with some cursory treatment of intellectual freedom and censorship issues. What I’ve really liked about the past two volumes is that instead of setting up predictable and artificial plot devices to keep the hero and heroine apart (Sudden Fiance! Artificial Misunderstanding! Evil Male Model!) the focus is on some of the secondary characters, giving us a chance to get to know the other characters better. The last volume focused on Komaki and this volume highlights Iku’s roommate Shibazaki.

Shibazaki has always been an interesting foil for Iku. She’s incredibly intelligent and self-possessed, which serves as a contrast to Iku’s impulsive and emotional behavior. Hikaru Asahina, a library patron, abruptly asks Shibazaki out and she agrees to see him after being pushed into the situation by a co-worker who is worried that her own crush is nursing some feelings for Shibazaki as well. Shibazaki thinks Asahina is a nice young man, but she becomes more interested when he mentions that he’s involved in studying issues centered around book burning. Asahina manages to crack through Shibazaki’s well-rehearsed facade. Some of his qualities remind Shibazaki a little bit of Iku, and we learn why she has a tendency to become attached to people who conduct their lives without pretense. Shibazaki was targeted by a bunch of mean girls in junior high, so in high school she dedicated herself to becoming popular with a cool and intellectual approach that resembled the practices of an undercover agent. Shibazaki’s personality traits of teasing reserve and constant deflection suddenly make a lot of sense!

Sibazaki’s slow approach to making another genuine friend is set against another storyline where everyone else in the library forces deals with a censorship issue. I thought this was a strong volume of Library Wars. The Shibazaki storyline was fresh and interesting, but there was plenty of Iku and Dojo action when they were dealing with the latest crisis of the week. I’m looking forward to the next volume.

The final volume! I’ve missed a couple volumes leading up to the grand conclusion of Detroit Metal City, but since most volumes of DMC are fairly similar it was easy to get into the story. DMC is broken up, and there’s a new metal king in town, “Lord God.” Lord God is a wannabe male model who has taken to death metal instead, turning his catwalk posing into a stage move called the “God Walk.” Negishi has run off to Paris to indulge his dream of producing syrupy sweet romantic music, but it seems like the French hate his true self. He is resolutely ignored whenever he plays his music on the streets of Paris to the point where when he gets hit in the face with a raw egg, he responds with thanks for getting some sort of reaction from someone. The remaining members of DMC want to put on one final show, but will Negishi come back from Paris in time?

Of course, there is never any doubt that Lord Krauser will make a final appearance in the last volume of DMC and he makes his entrance in grand style, after sending along video of him systematically violating every single symbol of Paris he can find. Krauser and Lord God have an epic showdown, and Negishi’s attempt to show his other side to his love Aikawa goes just as well as one might expect. My main problem with Detroit Metal City is that it was never as funny and shocking as the first volume. Once the reader knows the set-up, the subsequent volumes were all very similar. Still, I’m glad that a series this gleefully profane was brought over here. I will certainly never be able to think the same way about the national monuments of many countries, after seeing what Lord Krauser did to them.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Acting on Impulse by Natsue Ogoshi and Vicki Lewis Thompson
Available on emanga.com

I always enjoy Harlequin manga when they exhibit a strong sense of humor. Acting on Impulse is plenty funny as it details the adventures of a naive farmgirl who moves to New York City, determined to live a “metropolitan” lifestyle. Unfortunately Trudy’s expectations of New York are entirely drawn from popular entertainment, which results in occasional hilarity. Trudy’s landed a job as a lowly office worker at a PR firm. She’s friends with a couple in the city who decide that her arrival is a perfect opportunity to fix her up with confirmed bachelor Linc. They ask Linc to be Trudy’s tour guide and look out for her as she gets adjusted to life in the big city. When Trudy meets Linc she pronounces him almost as handsome as her favorite actor and asks him to intone the lines “Admit you want me. I’ll give you ecstasy like you’ve never had before.” They promptly enter into a relationship where they are dating but proclaiming that they aren’t dating, because she wants to experience the freedom of the city and he is afraid of commitment. Trudy’s excess of enthusiasm and bizarre expectations of city life give her more personality than I’ve come to expect from a Harlequin heroine. The art is a little rushed at times, but the characters are attractive and the funny dialog goes a long way to make Acting on Impulse fun to read.

Vengeful Seduction by Cathy Williams and Yukako Midori
Available on emanga.com

Vengeful Seduction is the story of a woman forced to betray her true love when an evil man blackmails her into marriage, only to be dramatically confronted by her past when her drunk husband kills himself and her father in a car accident. Shortly after dealing with her father and horrible husband’s deaths, Isobel is confronted with her ex-boyfriend Lorenzo. Now a successful businessman, he appears again in her life to buy and turn around her family’s failing business. He intends to get Isobel back too, but she’s determined not to be treated like a possession again. As Isobel and Lorenzo are forced to spend more time together, details about her evil husband and her father’s potentially shady business dealings emerge. This harlequin manga had a general feeling of doom and sadness, without the touches of humor that I tend to enjoy. If I’m reading something silly I’d rather have something to laugh about, as opposed to a story that while somewhat goofy takes itself too seriously. So, I am not a fan of Vengeful Seduction, but Acting on Impulse was fun enough to make up for it.

Online access provided by the publisher.