Michelle Smith

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

Bloody Cross, Vol. 1 | By Shiwo Komeyama | Yen Press – Has there been something missing in your life ever since JinJun Park’s Raiders came to an end? Well, you’re in luck, because Bloody Cross is here to fill that void! Seriously, with its stark black and white artwork and religious themes, I was getting some major Raiders flashbacks while reading this! Tsukimiya and Hinata are mixed-race angels who have been placed under a deadly curse by God and they’re working together to break it, even if it means double-crossing each other at every opportunity. There are some elements I’m not fond of—Tsukimiya is a half-vampire angel because of course she is, not to mention the random fanservice and infantile female demon foe—but I was genuinely surprised by the way the volume ended and I think I may have to check out volume two just to see how Tsukimiya and Hinata get out of that predicament. Not quite recommended, but not bad, either. – Michelle Smith

Demon Love Spell, Vol. 5 | By Mayu Shinjo | Viz Media – I am beginning to suspect, especially given the cute little omake at the end of this volume, that this will be one of Shinjo’s titles where the sex doesn’t arrive till the very end. Which is fine, particularly if the storyline remains as strong as the one we see here. Kagura and Miko move out to their own place, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re getting it on – her father is still wary of trusting an incubus. But Kagura is easily the least jerk-like of the Shinjo heroes we’ve seen translated over here – ironic, given he’s a demon – which makes it easier to deal with both of them getting jealous over the course of this book. All this and an interesting dovetailing of demonic possession and the entertainment industry, where people will likely not realize you’re different. This is Shinjo’s best Viz series to date. – Sean Gaffney

RIN-NE, Vol. 13 | By Rumiko Takahashi | Viz Media – “Pleasant but pointless” is how I would sum up this most recent volume of RIN-NE. True, one might apply that label to most of the series, but volume twelve did have the Black Cat Ranking Exam, which was a nice change of pace. Volume thirteen features one-chapter cameos by antagonists like Masato the devil and Rinne’s deadbeat dad and introduces a supremely unfunny sibling duo that specializes in scythe modifications, including one made of bonito flakes that helps cat spirits pass on. (That bit, at least, was kind of cute.) Nothing is outright bad, but I do have to wonder how Takahashi’s editor keeps from yawning when ideas for new chapters are proposed. Perhaps Takahashi is so revered—and her sitcom stylings so familiar and comforting—that no one minds when her stories go nowhere. And, really, I guess that’s why I’m still reading, too. – Michelle Smith

The Sacred Blacksmith, Vol. 3 | By Isao Miura and Kotaro Yamada | Seven Seas – There’s a fair bit of fanservice here, and gratuitous dressing up as maids (very common in fantasy not-quite-medieval stories). But there’s also a lot of worldbuilding, as the arrival of a young woman and her entourage proves to be far more serious than I had initially thought. The selfish ojou front quickly drops away from Charlotte, as we see the desperate young woman beneath, and the bond between her and her three guardians is very well told. There’s also some excellent action sequences here, as Cecily takes on said guardians in an indoor battle that destroys the building but saves the day. All this plus an ominous warning of a future bad guy. Of Seven Seas’ recent fantasy titles, this has been far and away my favorite. -Sean Gaffney

Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Vol. 2 | By Maki Minami | Viz Media – I was pleased that the first half of this volume fleshed out Hime’s group of ‘misfits – indeed, the male love interest barely appears in this volume at all. Instead, we continue to show that despite her dreams, Hime is at her best with male roles – something underlined by her posing as a male at the end in order to satisfy her producer’s plans. On the more dramatic front, her mother proves to be the classic horrible shoujo mother as seen in so many series, and the sadness comes from seeing how Hime has grown so used to it that it doesn’t even register as sorrow anymore – just a weary determination to one day show her mother she’s not useless. Even Haruka, the aforementioned producer, is taken aback – and knows that to succeed, the first step for Hime is to get out of that house. Mission accomplished. -Sean Gaffney

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

Alice Love Fables: Toy Box | By QuinRose and Mamenosuke Fujimaru | Seven Seas – This is pretty much what it sounded like, a series of short stories, all romance-themed, on QuinRose’s 3 properties. Arabians Lost is the first (and dullest), Alice in the Country of (blank) gets the majority, and Crimson Empire rounds it out. I’m most familiar with Alice, so those were the most enjoyable, even if they lack the twisted core I like in my Wonderland. She gets stories with Peter and Grey as love interest, something we haven’t gotten books for yet. And the Blood story is really adorable and sweet. As for Sheila, she’s the most interesting of the three heroines, but is rarely served as well by her male leads, so her stories don’t really gel as much. Still, nothing here truly bothered me, and it’s a good stocking stuffer for Alice fans. – Sean Gaffney

Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 13 | By Kyousuke Motomi | Viz Media – By now everyone knows that this is one of the best shoujo manga coming out today, with laughs, thrills, excitement, and frustratingly unconsummated romance that gets even more tantalizing here. Heck, even Akira, who’s been a horrible thorn in the side of our heroes, looks like he may get a bit of redemption after all, once we hear of his tragic past. (You know, the one every character in this series has.) What I really noticed in this volume was the way the art has matured. There’s a scene with Riko receiving something belatedly from Soichiro, and it’s made even more intimate by our never seeing what it is (even though we know). It shows a lovely subtlety that contrasts with the wacky “what color are Teru’s favorite panties” schtick that’s going on next door. I will be so sad when this ends. – Sean Gaffney

Kimi Ni Todoke, Vol. 18 | By Karuho Shiina | Viz Media – This volume, set during Christmas, is the perfect manga to read while curled up by a fire and enjoying some hot chocolate. Lack of communication has caused some issues with Sawako and Kazehaya’s budding relationship. They have a breakthrough around Christmastime, and finally acknowledge how much they care about each other. Sawako and her friends Ayane and Chizu get together for some post-date gossip, as each girl has new romantic developments to report. The whole gang gets together at Sawako’s house for a party, and even Sakako’s overprotective father begins to acknowledge how good Kazehaya is for his sheltered daughter. This slice of life manga works through plenty of emotional developments in a warm and cozy manner, making it the perfect volume for some winter relaxation. – Anna N

Midnight Secretary, Vol. 3 | By Tohmu Ohmi | Viz Media – Things continue to be hot and heavy in the 3rd volume of this josei paranormal romance series. Kaya’s extreme competence as a secretary allows her to work for a subsidiary office by day and then return to her lover/ex-boss and vampire Kyohei at night to serve his secretarial, carnal, and blood bank needs, but her double life begins to take a toll on her. Kaya collapses, and it results in Kyohei trying to rearrange his life to accommodate their new unusual lifestyle. Along the way he begins to realize that he might actually care for Kaya, even though she is a human woman. This series is top notch paranormal romance for those who enjoy that kind of thing, which I certainly do! – Anna N

Skip Beat!, Vol. 32 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – For those who love the love triangle between Ren, Kyoko and Sho, you will revel in this volume and all its glorious horribleness. Sho in particular is in fine form, showing off both his consummate skill at reading Kyoko and his complete and total immaturity when it comes to what she wants or needs. (I could do without Shoko starting to fall for him, though.) He tries the same mental manipulation on Ren, and while it may not work while Sho is there in person, Ren’s distrust of himself is enough to make it niggle regardless. This all comes to a head in the hotel room, where a phone call from Sho causes Ren and Kyoko to both fall out of character… or maybe, given the incestuous subtext between Cain and Setsu, the character and the self may be bleeding together. I warn you, the cliffhanger will drive you nuts. Can’t put this down. -Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 32 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – What a dramatic volume! It definitely feels like the beginning of the end here, with Kyoko getting an inkling of what might’ve happened in Ren’s past, Sho pushing her buttons expertly and getting her to declare that she’ll never fall for Ren (lest she lose herself even more than she did with Sho), and then Sho promptly informing Ren of this fact. Poor Ren’s barely hanging on by a thread (a thread named Kyoko) and with two guys out to possibly snag her affections, he snaps and breaks character when they’re supposed to be on assignment as the Heel siblings, scaring her with the darkness he’s desperately trying to hide. It’s not that I want this series to end, but these developments definitely have me excited for a grand finale to come! – Michelle Smith

This week, Sean, MJ, & Michelle look at recent releases from Kodansha Comics, Yen Press, Seven Seas, and Viz Media.

Cage of Eden, Vol. 12 | By Yoshinobu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – There really is an awful lot of being threatened by giant predatory animals in this series – indeed, that makes up about half of this volume – so it’s nice to see a return to the basic question posed by the series. Where are they, why is the entire place filled with animals from conflicting time periods, and can they even escape at all? A rather disturbing stone monument is found, with words the cast can’t read, not being fluent in Latin, but we can – Requiescat In Pace. The idea that everyone is, in reality, dead and this could be a rather horrific afterlife is a downbeat one, and I’m fairly sure that it won’t turn out to be quite that bad. Still, we get another death here, and one worries that soon we may start running out of young, nubile teen girls to bathe naked in rivers. -Sean Gaffney

The Infernal Devices 2: Clockwork Prince | By Cassandra Clare & Hyekyung Baek. | Yen Press – This adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s prequel to her popular The Mortal Instruments series began as seemingly perfect girls’ “manga” fodder—so much so, in fact, that its careful adherence to shoujo manga tropes made it feel a little cold and emotionally manipulative. In this second volume, the series out-shoujos itself, with its increasingly spunky heroine and a cruelly dramatic love triangle. But while you might expect all this to reinforce the first volume’s contrived feel, in actuality, it finally gives the series some real heart. Clare’s supernatural world is still less interesting than the people she’s placed in it, but that hardly matters in the face of true romantic torture. I’m officially hooked. – MJ

Oresama Teacher, Vol. 15 | By Izumi Tsubaki | Viz Media – Just when I start to think that Oresama Teacher maybe isn’t for me, along comes a volume like this one. The first couple of chapters were pretty boring school trip hijinks, but then I found myself unexpectedly captivated by the attempts of a doll-like member of the student council to win over Shibuya (the Public Morals Club’s newest member) with her finely honed cute act. Probably it’s because I enjoy skewering the transparent schemes of manipulative people, but I actually really liked their chapters together and now kind of want them to end up as a couple. I didn’t expect much at all from Shibuya when he first appeared, but now I definitely find him more interesting than Kurosaki, the main character, which doesn’t exactly bode well for the series. Still, it’s enough to keep me reading, if not rereading. – Michelle Smith

Slam Dunk, Vol. 31 | By Takehiko Inoue | Viz Media – To properly convey how much I love sports manga in general and Slam Dunk in particular, I kept a tally of how many times this volume made me verklempt. The total? Eight. I just find it so moving when someone finds the thing that they love and the “unwavering resolve” to go after it, changing the trajectory of their life in the process. True, the series doesn’t end like I had expected, but I actually think the most important thing that needed to happen occurred a bit earlier on—Sakuragi and Rukawa finally recognized each other as trustworthy teammates. There’s a great moment where Sakuragi recovers a loose ball and trusts Rukawa to deliver on it, a gesture that’s later repaid when a blocked-in Rukawa counts on Sakuragi in a crucial moment. The change in their eyes as they regard each other is so palpable it gives me goosebumps to contemplate it. I heart this series like whoa. – Michelle Smith

World War Blue, Vol. 3 | By Anastasia Shestakova and Crimson | Seven Seas – Any goodwill I may have possessed towards this series is gone by now, as it tries to tell a story with cute video game references but can’t rise above the most hackneyed cliches. So we have aggrieved siblings who chafe at the policies of their peaceful country and strike off on their own; we have the ‘weak’ member of the party reminded that war is hell and that she has to contribute and stop worrying that she’s useless (she’s even slapped, because of course), and the tragic narration “this was the last time we would ever fight together” setting up future events that I don’t care enough about. Even the side story, about a female slave with ridiculous strength who is rescued by a rather casual hero, leaves a bad, somewhat sexist taste in the mouth. It’s a shame, this started off with promise. – Sean Gaffney

Yotsuba&!, Vol. 12 | By Kiyohiko Azuma | Yen Press – I’ve said before that I enjoy Yotsuba as a catalyst more than an actual character. Luckily, she’s rarely on her own in this volume, and her interaction with everyone else drives the humor and the heart. Torako is learning to be just as good as Asagi at handling Yotsuba, even if it’s in a grumpy truculent way. Fuuka and Shimau are hilariously weird and cute as a team, spotting the potential of Yotsuba and awkward pumpkin costume straight away. And the camping trip that takes up the 2nd half is filled with exactly what we want in the series: the wonders of everyday life, people being adorable dorks, and lots of cute. Yotsuba’s final page quote makes one think the series is ending (it isn’t), but honestly there’s far more that can be done here The wonders of childhood are limitless. – Sean Gaffney

Yotsuba&!, Vol. 12 | By Kiyohiko Azuma | Yen Press – New volumes of Yotsuba&! are sadly few and far between these days, but at least each one is solidly consistent and guaranteed to raise a smile. True, nothing much changes, but the series does have its own internal slice-of-life continuity, with Yotsuba’s newfound fascination with tying bows factoring into future chapters not to mention the repercussions of her naughty adventure with paint. “Everyone gets blue hands sometimes!!” on its own might not read as much of a punchline, but Azuma’s excellent (as ever) depiction of Yotsuba’s body language effortlessly communicates how embarrassed she is by her predicament, and it’s nice to see how her dad handles her misbehavior. Too bad it’ll probably be at least another year before volume thirteen. – Michelle Smith

Voice Over! Seiyu Academy, Vol. 2 | By Maki Minami | Viz Media – As pleasantly sugary as Hana to Yume series are known to be, I admit that I found the first volume of Voice Over! Seiyu Academy to be more sickly than sweet. Its perky, dim heroine and and obvious romantic setup, though certainly no grave sins in the context of current shoujo manga, languished within a lackluster premise. Volume two begins pretty much the same way, as heroine Hime and her gang of student seiyu “stragglers” trudge through a tired plotline involving the value of friendship. Fortunately, a late-volume twist changes things for the better, utilizing an equally overused trope that somehow feels just right here. Can a shoujo manga live or die on its precise combination of clichés? Time will tell. Tentatively recommended. – MJ

This week, Sean and Michelle look at recent releases from Viz Media.

Midnight Secretary, Vol. 2 | By Tomu Ohmi | Viz Media – As ever with the josei series we’ve seen Viz license in Shojo Beat, this second volume is dedicated to much angsting and lying to oneself. Unlike most Shojo Bdeat series, all the angsting ends in a fairly hot sex scene, which actually feels earned, mostly as we do get to see both Kaya and Kyohei making the same journey. Kaya “But I’m just a secretary” drives the first half, and Kyohei’s “Vampires should not love humans” drives the second, but they’re essentially the same concerns; each is losing themselves to the other, and it’s scary. I am pleased that we continue to focus on how good the two of them are at their jobs, and I suspect that Kyohei’s family will play a larger role as things go on. In the meantime, enjoy all the fretting and frothing leading to a whole lot of pleasure for all concerned. – Sean Gaffney

Psyren, Vol. 13 | By Toshiaki Iwashiro | Viz Media – I like the fact that so much attention is given in Psyren to showing us how the villains came together as a team. Usually the heroes band together with the power of friendship, etc., so it’s nice seeing it coming from the other side, with folks having agendas other than ’cause we’re evil like that’. Also, given Jump action series almost never really focus on the romance, I also liked seeing Sakurako freaking out at what her alternate self did with Ageha, even if it was played for the broadest comedy. (As was Maria being jealous, which was also very cute). Then it’s back to the Psyren world for more fighting, as things get livened up by the addition of a genuinely unhinged serial killer on the villain’s side – the flashback to his victims being found is chilling. Hopefully the series cam keep the momentum going, next volume looks like all fighting. – Sean Gaffney

Rin-Ne Vol. 13 | By Rumiko Takahashi | Viz Media – Never let it be said that Rumiko Takahashi’s comedy hasn’t been consistent as we travel from UY to Ranma to Rin-Ne. Her characters are funny because they are all gloriously selfish asses who are truly horrible to each other for the most petty reasons. There is the occasional heartwarming bone thrown here, but even then you never know when it will be yanked away from you, as with the chapter with Rinne’s horrible father. Even Sakura gets in on the act, not having issues with Rinne being a thief, but musing he wouldn’t be so bad at it if he were. Even the ghosts everyone is helping are petty, vindictive and shallow. If I hadn’t been reading Takahashi for almost 20 years now, I’d be fairly repulsed at this entire cast. As it is, it feels like putting on your favorite old electric blanket. – Sean Gaffney

Strobe Edge, Vol. 7 | By Io Sakisaka | Viz Media – One of the things that makes Strobe Edge so great it’s that it’s often sweet, but never sappy. Some of the best moments occur when mature-seeming character show their vulnerabilities and insecurities to the select few they care about, which means these scenes area always firmly rooted in character. The primary focus of this volume is the growing closeness between Ren and Ninako and the latter’s unwillingness to let go of their friendship to try for something more, especially since she knows Ren is still sad after breaking up with his girlfriend, unlike the other girls in school, who are eager to nab him without truly knowing him. Then there’s Ninako’s friend, Sayuri, who is worried that her current boyfriend has fallen for another girl just like her last one did. I suppose there’s nothing really new here, but it’s done so well that I just don’t care. – Michelle Smith

Sunny, Vol. 2 | By Taiyo Matsumoto | Viz Media – How does one craft something that’s sad but simultaneously uplifting and charming? Introspective and yet a page-turner? I have no clue, but thankfully Taiyo Matsumoto does and has instilled those qualities in Sunny. I especially love that the kids in this series (who live together in a group foster home) are not idealized. They tell lies, act tough, fail to show gratitude for their caretakers, and hang out with the wrong crowd but Matsumoto shows us the vulnerabilities that make them behave this way. One can’t help but feel for them, with the painful truths they’re confronting at such a young age. My favorite chapter involves relative newcomer Sei taking the latest arrival under his wing, only to say goodbye when the boy’s mother actually keeps her promise to come for him. It’s just beautifully done all around, which is yet another reason why you should be reading Sunny. – Michelle Smith