Michelle Smith

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

Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Mad Hatter’s Late Night Tea Party, Vol. 2 | By QuinRose and Riko Sakura | Seven Seas – If this were the first Alice volume that a casual reader had read, I think they’d be pretty satisfied. At only two volumes, Alice and Blood not connecting doesn’t last long, there’s lots of discussion of the basic themes of this world, and we get some mafia madness with a few timely rescues. As someone who’s been following all the spinoffs, though, it’s all a bit same-y. It’s likely a lot easier with the game, where you can purchase one copy and explore all the different routes. Here, as individual manga series, it’s like starting over again each time, with a slightly diminished return. Some of the spinoffs make it worth seeing what they do to poor Alice, but while this is skillfully done, there’s nothing here we haven’t read before, so in the end it’s inessential. – Sean Gaffney

Crimson Empire: Circumstances To Serve A Noble, Vol. 3 | By QuinRose and Hazuki Futaba | Seven Seas – With the Alice series, while she’s quite a good protagonist, I tend to be more interested in her male partners. In this series, it’s the reverse – I find the men rather dull, but Sheila fascinates me. There’s a core of self-loathing to her that Alice simply doesn’t have, even with the tragedy in her life that she’s forgotten. Indeed, even after her lover wins the day, and the two admit they’re in love, Sheila still thinks nothing has changed, except now she’ll be bodyguard for a different man. Sheila IS her profession, which is assassin/bodyguard ninja maid. Anything else is just beyond her, both subconsciously and consciously. And that’ means that despite its happy ending, Crimson Empire seems a lot more melancholy than Alice in the Country of Hearts. – Sean Gaffney

Fairy Tail, Vol. 33 | By Hiro Mashima | Kodansha Comics – After a somewhat teeth-grinding Vol. 32, it’s nice to see *some* things go our heroes’ way in this volume. Mirajane wins, as expected, but she gets the comedic fanservice win – though it does end in a powerful finish. Elfman also impresses, taking the fight that was supposed to be Erza’s and managing to be the manlier man. There’s a few other amusing things here as well, which is good, because there are implications of very dark things to come. Saber Tooth and Raven Tail are looking like even worse guilds than we expected, and the way they’re treating their members (female, of course – Mashima tends to have his women suffer nobly) is horrid. And what does Lucy have to do with everyone’s plans? This volume has a good balance between ‘tournament battle’ and other plot, overall.. – Sean Gaffney

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 15 | By Yuki Midorikawa | Viz Media – I don’t even know where to begin in expressing my utter adoration for this series in general and this volume in particular. There’s just so much to love: the wistful tone, the episodic stories that still advance the overall plot; the comic relief provided by Nyanko-sensei; the yokai, who are often sweet, sad, and endearing; and, of course, Natsume himself, who is better able to discover the reasons for yokai activity at a former exorcist’s home than anyone else and single-handedly responsible for resolving things peacefully. As if all of this weren’t great enough (and it is), the last chapter in the volume is a special episode about Toko and Shigeru, the distant relatives who took Natsume in when the rest of his family had written him off as disturbed. It is simply lovely and prompted many a sniffle. Natsume’s Book of Friends is a true gem. – Michelle Smith

NightS | By Kou Yoneda | SuBLime Manga – Having enjoyed Kou Yoneda’s No Touching At All back in 2011, I was pretty eager to check out NightS, even though it’s a compilation of short stories, which aren’t really my thing. None of the stories included here is terribly unique in premise—an attraction between a “transporter” and a yakuza, a fairly standard high school romance, love blooming at the car dealership—but Yoneda fills her stories with intelligent, natural-seeming dialogue and characters (well, at least the adult ones) with interesting personality quirks and flaws that impact how they approach relationships. While the format prevents achieving much depth, and hence prevents the volume from matching No Touching At All for quality, it’s nonetheless an enjoyable read. – Michelle Smith

Pokemon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened | by Momota Inoue | Viz Media I have to admit, I am not really all that interested in Pokemon, but Pokemon fever is raging through my kids’ elementary school, so I read this book with them. This is a stand alone one-shot movie adaptation centering around the story of an ancient Pokemon called Genesect who has suddenly awakened, causing trouble for the present day Pokemon and their trainers. Mewtwo takes on an important role in dealing with the Genesect, although Ash and Pikachu also contribute. The art is consistent, my kids enjoyed spotting all the Pokemon, and they smuggled it out of the house to show off at school. So if you have young Pokemon fans, I feel safe in predicting that this manga will appeal to them! – Anna N

Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration, Vol. 2 | By Nobuhiro Watsuki | Viz Media – This wraps up the revisiting of Rurouni Kenshin prompted by the recent live action movie. Really, the original series was so great, revisiting the series in a slightly different form wasn’t really all that necessary. Still it was nice to be reminded of Watsuki’s facility with character design, especially the villians, and most characters from Kenshin got a little bit of a showcase. This second volume featured more turns from Saito and Yahiko, as they also battle in the Meiji era. Even Watsuki’s author notes seem to indicate that he was going through the motions a little bit, pointing out small things that he changed that he ended up regretting. Really, the original series is so much more charming than this version, most people would be better off just picking up some of the VizBig versions if they are interesting in reading this shonen classic. – Anna N

This week, Michelle & Sean (okay, mostly Sean) look at recent releases from Viz Media, Kodansha Comics, Seven Seas, & Vertical, Inc.!

Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 13 | By Kyousuke Motomi | Viz Media – Dengeki Daisy is at its best when focusing on the romance between its leads, Teru and Kurosaki. Unfortunately, the past several volumes have focused on the “code virus” that Kurosaki created back in his hacker days and the search for information on the nebulous baddies who sought to use it. Although I have the feeling that we’re supposed to find all this cyber espionage stuff very exciting, the details are so vague that it ends up being rather boring. It’s better than episodic randomness, though, and I have to give the series credit for its heroine being able to get herself out of tricky situations and for a central romance where the age gap is acknowledged as an issue. Plus, there are a few nice, quiet moments here that are almost enough to make me overlook the ridiculousness of the last couple of chapters. I’ll probably keep reading this one to the end. – Michelle Smith

Fairy Tail, Vol. 32 | By Hiro Mashima | Kodansha Comics – The danger of telling a story where injustice happens to our heroes and they’re meant to be angry and frustrated with it is that the reader may end up being a little TOO angry and frustrated in sympathy, to the point where it affects their enjoyment of the volume. That’s where I ended up in this volume of Fairy Tail, which starts going though its tournament arc. I was expecting losses – after all, every hero/team has to come back from adversity. The combination of cheating from the other side and the extra dollops of humiliation felt a little too real, sadly, though you could argue that this is because I’ve come to care about these characters so much. I am hoping that Volume 33 (already out, I’m running behind) will help to balance the scales a bit. – Sean Gaffney

Kimi ni Todoke, Vol. 18 | By Karuho Shiina | Viz Media – The cover art pretty much describes the mood of this volume – it starts with a kiss, and doesn’t let up on being romantic and heartwarming for the entire length. Sawako and Kazehaya have resolved their lack of communication problem, Ayane and Kento are now officially a couple, and as for Chizu… well, she’s working on it. Slowly. I loved the fact that the majority of this was just given to telling everyone what’s been going on in their lives – after seeing Sawako and Kazehaya’s guessing games recently, it felt even more satisfying. Even her father seems to have finally admitted to the fact that Sawako is growing up and has a boyfriend. I expect the next volume will be more devoted to college and the future, so I will enjoy this for what it is: a celebration of how we got here. – Sean Gaffney

Knights of Sidonia, Vol. 6 | By Tsutomu Nihei | Vertical, Inc. – The harem antics continue in Sidonia’s 6th volume – more and more characters are falling for Tanizake, and we even get ‘walking in on naked girls’ and ‘comedic choking of the hero’ here as well. However, this plotline exists, I think, to emphasize further the sense of wrongness that exists throughout this universe. There’s just so many things that already feel off about everything going on, even discounting the evil body horror antics of Kunato. The artwork, which I’m still getting used to, helps further by continuing to use characters who look a lot alike, particularly during battle. This can be annoying, but also contributes further to the sense of distance and otherness that emerges from this series. The goal is to do all this while still retaining reader interest, which Nihei has absolutely done. Also, poor Izana. – Sean Gaffney

Midnight Secretary, Vol. 3 | By Tomu Ohmi | Viz Media – Having set up the premise of this series over the previous two volumes, Ohmi now begins to tear it apart for dramatic effect, as first Erde, the company Kaya was reassigned to, asks her to stay permanently, and then Kyohei resigns from his own position, striking out on his own. All of this, of course, plays second fiddle to the real story here, which is that these two are falling deeply in love and cannot keep their hands off each other. I’m actually surprised that the vampire part of this story isn’t playing a larger role – this could be edited to be non-supernatural fairly easily. Also, this title is rated M and lets you know it – the sex is red hot, and at one point you see Kaya staggering down the street, barely able to walk straight after their intense lovemaking. Right now, this tops Happy Marriage?! as Viz’s spiciest title. – Sean Gaffney

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 15 | By Yuki Midorikawa | Viz Media – It struck me as I read this new volume how segmented Natsume’s relationships with all of his (human) friends are. For all that the series has shown Natsume starting to open up, trust and appreciate people again after so long being closed up, he still tends to keep everything to himself – and more importantly, take on everything himself. I fear this may get him in trouble soon, and not just him (there’s a suggestion in this volume that Taki’s spell circle is far more dangerous than it seems – and it’s seemed pretty dangerous). This is, however, balanced out by the 2nd half of the book, which is adorable, heartwarming, and shows the strengths of both humans and yokai. Darker tones may be arriving soon, but for now I will continue to enjoy this shoujo yokai manga’s relaxed and unhurried pace. – Sean Gaffney

Zero’s Familiar, Vols. 6-7 | By Noboru Yamaguchi and Nana Mochizuki | Seven Seas – As you might expect, I enjoyed the dramatic plotline that wrapped up here more than the attempts at fanservice and wacky harem antics. The discovery of the Dragon’s Raiment is a nice tie-back to the start of this series, and it was also a relief to see what we knew would eventually happen – Louise finds the magic that she is truly suited for, and turns out to be terrific at it. (That said, an entire battleship VANISHED, but no loss of life? Keep telling yourself that, princess…) The pacing sometimes suffers here, and I find the art, particularly in dramatic moments such as the side story with the Princess and late Prince, does not always convey emotional turmoil very well. Still, as an adaptation, this is probably good enough, and we’ll get another portion of it later this spring. – Sean Gaffney

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

Demon Love Spell, Vol. 5 | By Mayu Shinjo | Viz Media – Miko’s father allows his daughter and Kagura, the lecherous incubus, to move out together, but not only will he be withholding financial support, he also places a curse on Kagura’s nether regions that prevents the advent of sexy times. Miko is determined to become more powerful than her dad so that she can break the curse, and it’s nice to see both her abilities improving and a teenage girl with a healthy interest in getting it on with her hot boyfriend. Briefly it seems that she and Kagura will be opening a demon consultation office, but this gets derailed when Kagura becomes a pop idol to earn money and various jealousies and complications ensue. Demon Love Spell may not be the best shoujo manga I’ve read, but it’s definitely the best Mayu Shinjo manga I’ve read, by a wide margin. I think I might even go so far as to recommend it! – Michelle Smith

Magi, Vol. 3 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – Morgiana graces the cover of Vol. 3, but she really only appears at the end (there’s also a surprise reappearance of Layla from Chapter One). That said, she makes good use of her minimal screen time, deciding to effectively become Batman/El Santo in order to stop some bandits. As for Aladdin, he’s still trying to figure out his purpose in life, which is given new direction by defining our title – well, semi-defining it. Magi are those who can choose a king. I have a sneaking suspicion that I know who will be chosen by the end of this series, but let’s leave that aside for now. The rest of the volume deals with noble Queens, evil Viziers, and the benefits and drawbacks to your village coming under protection. Not quite as awesome as the first two volumes, but still solid. – Sean Gaffney

Nisekoi: False Love, Vol. 1 | By Naoshi Komi | VIZ Media – The back cover blurb for this debut volume describes Nisekoi as a “laugh-out-loud feel-good manga series,” but I only mustered a smile once and halfway through wanted nothing more than to be able to stop reading it, already. Getting tired of a premise and characters 100 pages in is not a good sign! Raku Ichijo and Chitoge Kirisaki are the children of rival gangsters, but they don’t realize this until their fathers force them to pretend to be in love in order to prevent all-out gang war. But there’s nothing amusing about their pretense, because practically all they do is hurl insults at each other until finally one of them does something fractionally nice, causing the other to reevaluate them a tiny bit. I think my synopsis makes it sound less grating than it really is, actually. Suffice it to say that Nisekoi is definitely not my cup of tea. – Michelle Smith

Soulless: The Manga, Vol. 3 | By Gail Carriger and REM | Yen Press – After her werewolf husband reacts badly to her should-be-impossible pregnancy, Alexia and friends flee London to escape both the ruthless gossip and the vampire assassins intent on preventing the birth of her child. As someone who is not steeped in the mythology of the novels upon which Soulless: The Manga is based, I sometimes find the adaptation to be a bit confusing and disjointed. Such is the case in volume three, which has the added problem of an antagonist who is glimpsed only briefly. (Seriously, a scene-stealing yappy dog makes more of an impression.) Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the read! The dialogue is witty (a line about hedgehogs made me laugh out loud) and I like the characters. REM is also especially good at drawing amusing facial expressions and portraying werewolves’ personalities while they’re in their lupine forms. I may feel a bit lost sometimes, but I’m always entertained! – Michelle Smith

Strobe Edge, Vol 8 | By Io Sakisaka | Viz Media – I have to confess that this is the point where I started feeling a tiny bit impatient with Strobe Edge Ando’s ex shows up and as one might expect, immediately throws an obstacle in the progression of Ninako and Ren’s budding romance. She tells Ninako that Ren and Ando used to be best friends until she came between them, and now the love triangle with Ninako will make things even worse. Ninako is determined to suppress her feelings yet again, just when she was on the verge of confessing to Ren. The couple prevented from getting together because of good intentions and lack of communication is a shoujo staple, and I’m starting to wish that this series would start wrapping up even though I do like reading it. Sakisaka’s art gets better and better, and while the plot might be a little pedestrian, this is one of the prettiest and most visually well-executed shoujo titles out there. Still recommended! – Anna N.

Toriko, Vol. 19 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – Most of this volume is dedicated to two things: 1) Watching Toriko eat food no matter what the cost to his body (with a brief break to beat up a giant bear monster) and 2) Everyone loving Komatsu, and I do mean everyone. Here his devotion to food and food preparation help to turn a man who specializes in cheating, draining memories and generally being evil towards the light side simply by sheer virtue of Komatsu’s… well, virtue. (Mustn’t forget about Coco, who also does a terrific job here as the brains of the team.) The fact that this is a very popular manga with BL fans should surprise absolutely no one. All that said, we are basically watching a giant game of Memory for an entire volume, so be prepared for a bit less action and punching than previous volumes. But just as much food. -Sean Gaffney

It’s all Viz this week, as Michelle, Sean, & Anna take a look at several recent releases.

Arata: The Legend, Vol. 16 | By Yuu Watase | Viz Media – It’s hard to describe “that Shounen Sunday feel” to someone who’s never read a series from that particular magazine, but boy does Arata have it! This volume is a perfect example, in that the gang is theoretically doing something pivotal in collecting ancient musical instruments to battle a “demonized” Sho who uses sound as a weapon, but the majority of the enterprise is portrayed comedically, with one gag revolving around enemy attacks that gradually destroy the characters’ clothes, leading to a panel where Arata makes a heroic declaration whilst clad in barely there short-shorts. The whole thing has a certain Rumiko Takahashi vibe, where the interplay between the characters seems to be the main point, so it’s pleasant enough, but renders the cliffhanger ending kind of ho-hum. I’ll probably have forgotten all about it by the time volume 17 comes out in March. – Michelle Smith

Dengeki Daisy Vol 13 | By Kyousuke Motomi | Viz Media – Dengeki Daisy has settled into a bit of a formula, but fortunately it is a formula that I love. The McGuffin in this volume is the last will and testament of M, but the team realizes that they’ve actually been manipulated into searching for it despite their misgivings. Kurosaki and Riko have a significant talk, and Teru finds one secret hidden in her cell phone, leading to the team getting some suitably bizarre, funny, and useful information from her dead brother, even though he did set up a strange funhouse scenario to put everybody through their paces. Dengeki Daisiy is reliably quirky and at times very serious and suspenseful, which is hard to find in shoujo manga land. Still very highly recommended. – Anna N

A Devil And Her Love Song, Vol. 12 | By Miyoshi Tomori | Viz Media – Having wrapped up most of Maria’s issues in the last volume, we’re left with Shin, who is disgusted and ashamed with himself for not being totally self-sacrificing and pure. Thus, as he’s got to go to America anyway to get operated on, he decides this is a perfect time to split with Maria – this despite the fact that he notes to others he’ll love her for the rest of his life. Sigh. Needless to say, Maria is sad, frustrated and angry in equal measure, which all comes out at what may be the best Ave Maria performance we’ve seen the entire volume. It’s not all angst and depression – Maria asking her friends for advice about sex is quite funny, and I am intrigued to see how Maria’s burgeoning YouTube career will go. Still, it’s a good thing we’ve one volume to go – I want these kids to be happy, dangit. -Sean Gaffney

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Vol. 18 | By Hiroshi Shiibashi | Viz Media – Because we need to get the backstory for the Hundred Stories group, this entire volume takes place in Edo Japan at the time when Nura’s father was a young and brash man stating to take up his new role as leader. It’s refreshing to see a few more glances at some other characters, particularly Rihan’s first wife Yamabuki, who seems to have a permanent attack of the melancholics, as well as a group of young kids who, because it’s easier to draw, bear a striking resemblance to our normal human cast. In amongst this walks Sanmoto, one of the more loathsome and disgusting villains we’ve seen in a series with no small amount of loathsome and disgusting villains. He’s entirely human, too… at least until the cliffhanger. A good solid volume for Nura fans. -Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat! Vol 32 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – Each new volume of Skip Beat! makes me cackle with fangirl glee. Emotions are running high in this volume as Sho exhibits his jealousy about Kyoko’s relationship with Ren, not that Kyoko will pick up on that. Ren’s carefully constructed psychological barriers are beginning to crumble, and Kyoko with her trademark insight into anyone but herself is able to quickly see that he’s not acting like “Ren” or “Cain” but as a third party that she doesn’t even recognize. While Ren is in a panic over Sho and Kyoko being in close contact again, he reveals his own insight into her personality, pointing out that she is in no way equipped to deal with men, and he knows that she still has some deep emotional wounds to heal from.Ren’s actually acting like himself for the first time in many years, which has me eagerly awaiting the next volume. – Anna N

Voice Over! Seiyu Academy, Vol. 2 | By Maki Minami | Viz Media – I just can’t explain what it is about Voice Over!… As with volume one, the second is undeniably generic, but I can’t help liking it. Things get off to a slightly aimless start, with a plot in which the “stragglers” of the voice-acting program must help a visual artist find a new crush so that she’ll be inspired to create an anime for them to dub, but this ends up dovetailing into a new direction for Hime, whose talent for princely male voices is at odds with her desire to voice cute female characters. I’m not sure she’s ready to embrace her obvious true destiny yet, but she’s determined to make something of herself and cease being a disappointment to her mother, which leaves me cautiously optimistic that this series is about to get a little more focused; for now it’s earned a third volume read, at least! – 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