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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Deanna Gauthier

About Deanna Gauthier

Deanna Gauthier is a hardworking Library Assistant and aspiring writer with two cats. She is an avid music lover and finds that the best way to destress is to sing along with her iPod, Toto, at the top of her lungs (while no one else is around). She has found her true passion in life is manga and is doing her best to work it into every aspect of her work and personal life. Her family and friends have been heard to joke from time to time about the need for an intervention. Besides manga, Deanna enjoys baseball, roller derby, concerts, and movies (all of which have taken a backseat to manga lately).

Love*Com, Volume 14

January 1, 2010 by Deanna Gauthier 2 Comments

Guest Review: Love*Com, Vol. 14
By Aya Nakahara
Published by VIZ Media

Review by Deanna Gauthier

love*com14
Buy This Book

In this volume, Risa and Otani’s relationship is once again under attack. To Risa’s horror, her own grandfather has hired a woman to seduce Otani and break them up. Even worse, Otani believes the sob story he’s been given by the beautiful, buxom Hitomi and accuses Risa of lying to him about her grandfather’s scheme. When the truth comes out will it matter who was wrong and who was right now that a jealous and conniving Hitomi has tricked Risa and left her at the mercy of two yakuza thugs?

This is a romantic comedy so of course a plotline like this will never end as tragically as it could. Still, it is the darkest plotline (and Hitomi, the character with the blackest heart) to appear in Love* Com. Being the gullible reader I am, I believed Risa was in real danger. The threat of rape just doesn’t sit right with me as fodder for comedic misunderstanding. Love*Com has always delivered liberal doses of fluffy silliness along with angst as Risa and Otani discover what they mean to each other and learn what it means to like someone, let alone be in love with them. The mangaka, Aya Nakara, has characterized her manga as intended to bring a smile to the faces of her readers and give them even a moment of enjoyment in their lives. In that regard she has always delivered in spades. I found plenty to laugh about in this volume as I have in the volumes that preceded it–not to mention warm and fuzzy moments to make me smile. Risa and Otani are such innocent and awkward leads–two loveable stumbling idiots who are absolutely made for each other. I do not mean to pick on Nakahara too much for this storyline. It just struck me as too serious and dark a dilemma for an otherwise non-threatening shojo romantic comedy.

Speaking of non-threatening, this volume marks the return of the clownishly-drawn, not-too-bright punks who Risa’s brother nearly came to blows with in the previous volume. Nakahara’s artwork is strongest when it comes to facial expression, especially the eyes. Yet the facial features of her yakuza are drawn with very thin lines and no shading, reducing them almost to doodles that look like they don’t quite belong in the same universe as our main characters. I don’t particularly like the design and execution of the yakuza characters. It feels sloppy in comparison to how beautiful (or at least human) the rest of her characters look most of the time. However, I do feel Nakahara successfully uses this same technique of reducing the facial features of the rest of her cast to thin lines that stretch or contort into odd shapes to comically express certain emotions more strongly. It’s funny, but it’s only just now, fourteen volumes into the series, that it occurs to me: Nakahara uses this instead of drawing chibis!

I really am enjoying this series. It has given me reason to smile when I have really needed it during the dreary fall and winter days, and it holds up well to re-reads. It is definitely one for my keeper shelf. I look forward to the final three volumes!

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: love*com, manga

Wild Adapter

February 9, 2009 by Deanna Gauthier 15 Comments

Before I get to Wild Adapter, there are three other things I am very happy about right now:

1) Sharing manga leads to wonderful suprises: My sister has pre-ordered Bleach Volume 26 and Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 18 for me “in support of the manga industry” and as a thank you “for supplying happy, happy reading.” I was completely touched and more than a bit watery-eyed. Of course she will get to borrow these volumes from me when they arrive ;) Heh. Do I have an awesome sister or what? She’s even way ahead of me on reading Nana!

2) Mangatude. I’m having lots of fun there but I think I may be operating outside one of the goals of mangatude, which is to trade manga you don’t want for manga you really do want. Instead of stabilizing or shrinking, my manga collection keeps growing. You see, I have a lengthy wish list, but I did not have a lot to offer in trade. So instead of being patient I’ve been stocking up on popular titles from my local Half-Price Books stores that I can use to trade for the titles I cannot find. I’m hopeless. I know. But its an approach that is working.

3) Volume 1 of Natsuki Takaya’s new series Phantom Dream. It is now in my possession! I did a happy dance when it arrived. Its not often that I buy manga brand new, relying on my public library’s fairly extensive collection and haunting the used bookstores in the area, but for an author or series I love, I have a really hard time waiting.

Which brings me to my hopefully spoiler free review of Wild Adapter Volume 1, by Kazuya Minekura. …

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Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: kazuya minekura, manga, mangatude, natsuki takaya, phantom dream, wild adapter

Thank you. Here, have some monsters.

January 22, 2009 by Deanna Gauthier 19 Comments

Thank you all for the warm reception to my introductory post! It was great to read the comments and discussions. Ed and Grace, I’ll definitely have to post my thoughts about Ranma ½ when I read more volumes. And Jun is definitely tempting me toward Boys Over Flowers. My library does not have Basara or One Thousand and One Nights so I’ll have to be on the lookout for used volumes.

I also have a question for everyone. I’m considering going to Sakuracon here in Seattle this April. It will be my first anime-con so I am interested to hear if you have any advice or opinions about this particular convention or anime-conventions in general.

As promised, I’ve returned to talk about Life Volumes 1-8, Canon, and Seimaden Volumes 1-10. Of the series I have started this year, there have been some standouts, like Life and Only the Ring Finger Knows (which I’m going to save for my next post). And then there are the series I just have to shrug my shoulders over and even find myself giggling about inappropriately, like Canon and Seimaden. Spoilers after the jump if you have not read these series
…

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Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: manga, manga:canon, manga:life, sakuracon, seimaden

Hi. My name is Deanna and I’m a mangaholic.

January 11, 2009 by Deanna Gauthier 33 Comments

It is an honor beyond measure to be invited by MJto be a guest blogger. I have such a deep respect and admiration for MJ’s thoughtful reviews and insightful analysis of manga. Honestly after my initial excitement over the invitation abated a little, I froze for several days in a fit of self-consciousness. But manga means too much to me to pass up this wonderful opportunity to share my love of it with more people.

I cannot promise the eloquence and insight that you have come to expect from MJ, but as so many of my favorite characters say, I will do my best.

…

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Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: introduction, manga, xxxholic

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