Michelle Smith

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

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