Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Michelle Smith

Fairy Tail 1 by Hiro Mashima: B-

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From the back cover:
Cute girl wizard Lucy wants to join the Fairy Tail, a club for the most powerful wizards. But instead, her ambitions land her in the clutches of a gang of unsavory pirates led by a devious magician. Her only hope is Natsu, a strange boy she happens to meet on her travels. Natsu’s not your typical hero-he gets motion sickness, eats like a pig, and his best friend is a talking cat. With friends like this, is Lucy better off with her enemies?

Review:
This series was praised on a couple of review sites I read, but I have to say I’m kind of underwhelmed so far. I think my main problem with it so far stems from the characters, who are fairly annoying and reckless. The wizard guild members pride themselves on thumbing their noses at authority, and one has to wonder how they keep getting jobs when they’re famous for destroying public and private property.

There’s definitely potential, though, and later chapters that began to explain Lucy’s magic were more to my liking. I’m quite impressed by the art, as well. I adore any panel that depicts a city, because Mashima does them particularly well, and though we’ve got the stereotypical spiky-haired hero and buxom girl for the leads, some of the other character designs are very original. Like the Taurus spirit Lucy conjures who looks like a man-cow in superhero briefs. With six nipples. His appearance led to the one line that I actually did giggle at, when he saved them from a dangerous situation and Natsu gratefully cried, “Cow!!”

So yeah, I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would, but I’m willing to give it a couple more volumes to catch my interest.

Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian: A-

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From the back cover:
it is the dawn of the 19th Century; Britain is at war with Napoleon’s France. Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson’s navy, is promoted to command of H.M.S. Sophie, an old, slow brig unlikely to make his fortune. But Captain Aubrey is a brave and gifted seasman, his thirst for adventure and victory immense. With the aid of his friend Stephen Maturin, ship’s surgeon and secret intelligence agent, Aubrey and his crew engage in one thrilling battle after another, their journey culminating in a stunning clash with a mighty Spanish frigate against whose guns and manpower the tiny Sophie is hopelessly outmatched.

Review:
I can’t help but compare this to the Hornblower series, so let me get that out of the way. Jack Aubrey is so Hornblower’s point-for-point opposite that I have to wonder if it’s intentional. He loves music, he craves companionship, and he’s not terribly clever. In fact, he’s a little dense and given to verbal blundering. His Lieutenant, who spends most of the book critical of Jack, gets it right when he says he possesses a “beefy arrogant English insensibility.”

I can see why Stephen Maturin finds Jack to be endearing, but I personally claim the good doctor as my favorite character. He’s somewhat morally ambiguous (or at least not opposed to questioning established conventions) and sardonic, but also affectionate and resourceful. I like how his ignorance of nautical matters is used to acquaint the reader with the workings of a ship, and I actually had a moment of squee later on when he ends up steering the sloop in a crucial moment.

I’d heard this series described as “Jane Austen on boats,” and I can see from where the comparison springs. There are several social gatherings with the rich and foolish in attendance and the manner in which some of them cluelessly spout very silly things would be quite at home in one of the interminable parties Emma Woodhouse was forced to endure. The writing is pretty witty in general, though O’Brian doesn’t stint in depicting the soldiers as the drunken, violent, filthy, whoring fellows the majority of them are.

By far, the best part of the book is the friendship between Aubrey and Maturin. There are several scenes between them that I love to pieces, like when Stephen is called upon to escort a misbehaving Aubrey from a party, the time Aubrey consults an imaginary Stephen for advice, and the awesome scene where Aubrey freaks out about a snake and climbs on a chair while Stephen nonchalantly laments a hole in his stockings. They are really quite slashy. I approve.

Lastly, I wanted to mention a very useful website. The book’s dedication is written in Latin and, because I am the kind of person who cannot abide not knowing what it means, I looked it up on Google and was led to A Guide for the Perplexed, a site with the ambitious undertaking of translating all foreign phrases in the series. I feel very fortunate to have discovered the site before I had ventured farther than the Author’s Note, so that I need never dwell in ignorance!

Boys Over Flowers 18 by Yoko Kamio: B+

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From the back cover:
When the Makino family’s finances hit rock bottom yet again, they decide to move to the countryside so Tsukushi’s father can earn a living as a fisherman. Poor Tsukushi is left behind in their apartment to try her hand at independent living. A few guests stop by, one most unwelcome—Tsukasa’s mother! Tsukushi stands up to the domineering woman, effectively declaring war. Then a housewarming gift from the F4 wreaks havoc on the apartment, leaving Tsukushi homeless! Will anyone take her in?!

Review:.
It feels pretty weird to pass the end of the story I know from the anime and still have half of the series left. I suppose that’s not all that unusual—Fruits Basket and Kare Kano are in the same boat—but the Boys Over Flowers anime was twice the length the others were, and still didn’t cover everything. I must say, I much prefer how things ended with the Shigeru situation in the manga; the end of the anime was pretty silly as well as rushed and unsatisfying.

The plot continues to be entertaining, though sometimes stretches the limits of plausibility just a little too much. I’m not sure how I feel about Tsukushi working as a maid in the Doumyouji mansion. On the one hand, I’ve heard that these next ten volumes or so are someone’s very favorite, and on the other, it just screams “shoujo trope” to me. Tsukasa is also being dense about what she’s doing there, and that annoys me, too.

I really liked Rui and Tsubaki in this volume. There’s a great scene where Rui and Tsukushi are heading home after spending the night at Shigeru’s villa. She’s lost in thought, so he has fun poking her face and fixing her hair in silly pigtails and stuff. I guess Tsubaki didn’t really do anything particularly awesome, but she did tell the story of her lost love that was hinted at in a recent volume, which I appreciated.

It’s strange not knowing what’s coming; I hope I like it.

Boys Over Flowers 17 by Yoko Kamio: A-

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From the back cover:
Tsukushi and Tsukasa get some quiet time together after they escape the mess of his birthday party, but this quiet can’t last for long. Tsukasa’s feelings for Tsukushi have at long last been made clear, but Tsukushi is more confused than ever about her feelings for him. Meanwhile, Tsukasa’s domineering mother, Kaede, is brewing up plans to keep them apart forever, and she might have found just the thing to do it when she introduces him to his new fiancée!

Review:
Lots of interesting things happened in this volume. Essentially, Tsukushi encouraged Tsukasa to go for it with Shigeru—who was offering on a silver platter everything Tsukushi had denied him, saying, “I can fall in love with you if you want”—and he was so peeved at her he actually did it.

I loved seeing Tsukushi’s hurt reactions to witnessing them together, and was significantly weirded out (in a good way) by the scene where he kissed the other girl. In other romantic rival plots I’ve read, the male lead never seems to actually go that far though, to be fair, he only did it once Shigeru bullied him into it.

The best thing about the relationship, though, was that it provided Tsukasa some room for growth. Although he could’ve easily taken advantage of Shigeru, he didn’t. That’s not really anything new for him, true, but it showed him in a good light nonetheless. The truly significant outcome was when he told her she just wasn’t the one, he was actually able to apologize (something he has had issues with in the past) and seemed to have true sympathy for her pain. Progress!

I also really loved the scenes between Tsukushi and Rui in this volume. Although some latent attraction might still exist, they acted more like friends, with Rui coming to her aid and helping her to relax and laugh amid tense situations. She said, “I no longer feel tortured and frustrated anymore, when I’m with him. Even if my feelings for him can no longer be called love… I think I’ll always like Rui Hanazawa.” Aww.

Wanted by Matsuri Hino: C+

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In the late seventeenth century, orphaned Armeria sings with a traveling musical troupe. Luce, the nephew of the wealthy governor at whose estate she is performing, is the first aristocrat to treat her kindly, and when he is subsequently captured by pirates, the young girl resolves to find and rescue him. Eight years later, Armeria has finally found the ship of the pirate responsible and, disguising herself as a boy, ventures aboard to find out what has become of her first love.

If you’re reminded of the plot of The Princess Bride, then you should be, because there are some similarities. Wanted is a far less coherent and satisfying story, however. It’s more like a series of vignettes—the one with the navy, the one with the map to a rare musical score—than anything else, and cuts off with disappointing abruptness.

It definitely has some good points: secrets that would normally be used to prolong angst are revealed early on, there are some genuinely fun moments, and the deckhands are pretty entertaining. On the negative side, Skulls is fond of nearly ravishing Armeria and tells her she’s useless far too often for my liking. The fact that she often proves him right by constantly requiring rescue just makes things worse.

As a final note, the bonus story at the end should be avoided at all costs; it manages to be confusing and dull simultaneously, which is not a winning combination.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce: C

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From the back cover:
Evvy, the fierce young stone mage introduced in Street Magic, has accompanied her guardian, Rosethorn, on a mission to study a mysterious plant die-off. With the help of Luvo, who is the living heart of a mountain, Evvy discovers the real source of the threat, which is far greater than anyone had imagined.

Preventing a natural disaster may cost Evvy her life. Even more frightening, doing so may require her to melt her own heart of stone… and to open herself to human contact.

Written by Tamora Pierce specifically for the voices of Full Cast Audio, Melting Stones is an unprecedented publishing event: the first time a major novel from a best-selling author has made its debut on audio a full year ahead of the print version!

Review:
I’ve enjoyed all of the other books in the Circle of Magic series, but Melting Stones nearly bored me to tears. Here are the main problems I had with it:

1. Evvy herself. She was whiny and cranky, and prone to doing risky things. When Luvo cautioned her against a rash action, she said, “If you’re going to natter and scold, don’t come with me!” As a result, she got into a dangerous situation and all I could think was, “He tried to warn you, dumbass.” Additionally, this attitude meant she had to learn (and I had to endure) a Very Important Lesson.

2. Profound monotony. 90% of the book was Evvy either rhapsodizing about, talking to, or casting her magical self underground to travel within rocks.

3. It was more juvenile than the others in the series. The “real source of the threat” that Evvy discovered turned out to be two volcano spirits, characterized like petulant kids. Evvy’s narrator also contributed to the childish feel. The character’s supposed to be fourteen, but sounded about twelve. Not only that, she sounded like a twelve-year-old putting on her best story-time voice for a group of five-year-olds. If you can successfully imagine someone going on—at length and in detail—about rocks in such a voice, you’ve begun to understand my pain.

I might have enjoyed this somewhat more in a print edition, since I would’ve interpreted Evvy’s thoughts more maturely than the narrator did, but honestly, I don’t think it would’ve made much difference.

Kare Kano 10 by Masami Tsuda: B-

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From the back cover:
When Maho confesses her true feelings for Takashi, he admits that he’s not the man she thinks he is. With the arrival of winter comes an end-of-semester school trip to Kyoto, where a little love and tenderness just might fill everyone with good memories, glad tidings, and the sweetest of dreams.

Review:
This volume was comprised of three sections that stand alone from the main plotline.

Maho’s Love Story-
The first two chapters were a flashback to when Maho, then a 9th grader, fell in love with a 27-year-old dentist and eventually persuaded him to begin (chastely) dating her. I liked Takashi and his initial reluctance, and at least their relationship isn’t intimate, but it’s freaky to envision them even smooching.

The School Trip-
Yawn. There was more unfunny comedy in this one, featuring a lot of the gang acting obnoxious in public. About the only thing of significance that happened was Yukino and Arima finally deciding to call each other by their first names. They also indulged in a blush fit when their hands accidentally touched, which is so odd for a couple who has had sex. Apparently there has been no follow-up whatsoever.

Act Zero-
I’m a little confused by this, because I don’t know whether it’s supposed to be what actually happened or what Yukino imagines happened. Anyway, this is another flashback, this time to when Yukino and her eventual friends took the entrance exams for their high school. And this brings up a point…

Yukino’s sister Kano laments that she’ll probably never go to the same school as her sister again because she’s not smart enough to get into Hokuei. So how on earth did Tsubasa get in?! This is a girl who leaps out of upstairs windows and eats pine cones! I don’t get it.

These stories were okay, but they weren’t great. They’ve also inspired me to take a bit of a break from this series.

Kare Kano 9 by Masami Tsuda: B

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From the back cover:
The culture festival begins with a bang—Kazuma’s band Yin & Yang rocks the house, and the curtain finally opens on Aya’s play! But not everybody’s mind is on songs and spotlights. Poor Tonami hopelessly pines away over the elusive Tsubaki, who is the kind of woman who loves to be free—even if it means being alone.

Review:
I’m so glad we got to see the entirety of the play! It takes up most of the volume, but winds up having several themes that resonate with Arima and his current crisis, like a lead who’s trying to cover up his imperfections and tells another character, “If you knew the real me, I’m sure even you would hate me.”

The experience of accomplishing something with her friends energizes Yukino and she resolves to start trying other various things and states that she’s no longer going to obsess about being first in the class. Arima sees this as her leaving behind for good the little world that only they two shared. As her voiceover recalls that she truly regrets not hearing his call for help, creepy Arima reappears for the final panel.

Unfortunately, Tsuda-sensei now says that before we get to the meat of the “Arima arc,” we’re going to be treated to some stories featuring the other characters first. Whee.

Kare Kano 8 by Masami Tsuda: B

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From the back cover:
As preparations for the culture festival continue, Soichiro realizes that there are actually two sides to his personality, one that is gentle and giving, and one which is frighteningly violent and possessive. It is a development that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Yukino, and she worries that it will damage their relationship. Meanwhile, Tonami and Tsubaki finally realize that they have fallen in love with each other.

Review:
The back cover blurb has been edited to remove made-up words; it actually says “frightingly.” I also didn’t notice Yukino worrying that Soichiro’s personality issues are going to damage their relationship. All she says is, “Sometimes, I feel like you’re a completely different person. I wonder why.”

Anyhoo, this volume is kind of disjointed because there are so many balls in the air. Tonami is really growing on me as a character; he’s far more interesting in the manga than he was in the anime. In fact, he’s a more developed character than his love interest Tsubaki, and she’s been around longer. The scene in which they admit their feelings for each other would’ve had more of an impact if I could’ve understood how she came to be in love with him, for it’s really not clear.

Arima continues to angst, but there’s a great chapter near the end where a hurricane forces him to stay the night with the Miyazawa family. Feeling Yukino’s presence all around, he sleeps well and without nightmares, even though a storm rages outside. Some things he thinks do have me wondering whether he’s supposed to actually be going crazy or not. It seems possible.

The rest of the volume is occupied by culture festival plans and a boring bonus story whose only redeeming feature is that it doesn’t pair up the two characters I expected it to. In the main story, there are also a few painfully unfunny “comedy” scenes featuring boob-grabbing and Tsubasa inanely jumping out of an upper-story window to glomp on her stepbrother below.

Lastly, I am really peeved at all the untranslated text I’m seeing. TOKYOPOP generally does not translate sound effects, which sucks but is expected, but they’re also not bothering with actual sentences which I then feel compelled to try to look up and make sense of. I’m so glad I managed to learn the kana, or else I’d really be annoyed.

Kare Kano 7 by Masami Tsuda: B

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From the back cover:
The second semester has begun and everyone’s busy with tests, practices, and activities. It’s time to prepare for the culture festival and Yukino has been asked to perform in a futuristic sci-fi play. There’s instant drama when Tonami, a transfer student and old friend of Soichiro, comes back on the scene after three years. Tempers flare and competitive natures run wild.

Review:
This volume is comprised mostly of planning for the play that Yukino and friends are going to be performing at the cultural festival. While not the most riveting fare, this stuff is pretty interesting, because it shows Yukino being great at organization and getting various administrative tasks accomplished. I’m dismayed by how infantalized Tsubasa is in these segments, though.

Initially, there isn’t much fallout from what happened at the end of the previous volume, except one question from Arima to make sure that he didn’t hurt Yukino in any way. Most of the rest of the time, he hangs around looking dejected while she chats with other guy friends of hers. One of these guys is new character Tonami, who has a grudge against one of Yukino’s friends. I’m meh about this story—Yukino’s friend (Tsubaki) is largely unsympathetic now and completely so in the flashbacks—but Tonami is kind of amusing, particularly when he wonders what Arima (his idol back in junior high) is doing going out with such a strange girl. And, okay, the smooch in the tree was sweet.

Right at the end, things get cooler, with Hideaki warning Tonami to keep his distance from Yukino, because Arima is possessive and has a temper. This leads into another visit from Arima’s nightmare self and a genuinely creepy final scene where he encounters Tonami in a darkened corridor and gives him a super evil look. And Yukino has absolutely no idea that all of this darkness is lurking within him.

And yeah, okay, the story could totally get taken over by Arima’s angst, but I still like seeing him be all freaky. It’s certainly the most interesting thing going on in the series currently.

Kare Kano 6 by Masami Tsuda: B

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From the back cover:
It’s not long before Soichiro’s back from a very successful tournament, much to Yukino’s delight. Now they can spend some time with each other before school starts again. Yukino notices that Soichiro’s matured a lot, which stirs up new feelings in her and makes her fall in love with him even more. Soichiro’s feelings for Yukino deepen as well, and he has some difficulties dealing with that and some family issues.

Review:
This volume was strangely unaffecting. Although I loved Yukino’s struggles to confess her feelings to Arima in the first couple of volumes of the series, her problems here with telling him that her feelings have grown and her eventual confession scene just weren’t all that interesting. Arima’s obnoxious family also made an appearance, but their horrible treatment of him came across as unrealistic rather than upsetting.

This was also the volume where Arima and Yukino do the deed. I knew they would, having seen the anime, but it was still so out of the blue story-wise. In one chapter, Yukino was freaking out ‘cos he touched her boob, and just a few days later, they were consummating their relationship. For teen couples, isn’t there usually an interval of gradually intensifying fooling around between these two occurrences?

The aftermath of this event totally reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and what happened after Angel and Buffy slept together. After Yukino had gone home, Arima had a nightmare in which a cruel version of himself showed him an instance of early childhood abuse he suffered. When Arima wondered why he was remembering this, the nightmare him said, “Because you dared to think you could be happy… I’m a part of you. I’m half of who you are on the outside. I’m the shadow under your feet.”

Dun dun dunnnnn.

Interior Desecrations by James Lileks: B+

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From the back cover:
Warning! This book is not to be used in any way, shape, or form as a design manual. Rather, like the documentary about youth crime Scared Straight, it is meant as a caution of sorts, a warning against any lingering nostalgia we may have for the 1970s, a breathtakingly ugly period when even the rats parted their hair down the middle.

What does this have to do with furniture? Nothing. Everything. The kind of interior design you’ll see in these pages is what happens when an entire culture becomes so besotted with the New, the Hip, the With-It Styles that they cannot object to orange wallpaper—because they fear they’ll look square.

Please not that the author and publisher are not responsible for the results of viewing these pictures.

Review:
Lileks is the brains behind The Gallery of Regrettable Food and his site, The Institute of Official Cheer, hosts several other regular features that “humiliate the defenseless past.” I don’t always find his stuff funny, but sometimes it does amuse me, so when I found this book for $1.98, I knew it had to be mine.

The contents of the book are organized by type of room and follow the general format of a full-page color photo on one side and a few paragraphs of snark on the opposite page. It’s an easy read, and would probably be ideal bathroom material for those who like that sort of thing. As usual, I didn’t find everything funny. There were lots of drug references and some occasional crude humor that didn’t appeal to me. Every now and then, though, some particular turn of phrase or visual fancy would strike me in the right way and crack me up.

The designs were indeed genuinely horrible—inducing numerous headshakes, “wows,” and “holy craps”—and Lileks has a knack for picking out something one missed on first glance and finding something amusing to say about it. Probably the most insane room in the entire collection is the bathroom straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It has silver lamé bolster pillows and two toilets.

There was one, though, that I quite liked. The furnishings were crap, but the architecture of the room was really neat. It was high-ceilinged and had an entertainment unit along a wall (boasting a state-of-the-art reel-to-reel player!) and then a ladder built into the adjoining wall that one could climb to access a library loft above. How cool is that?! I want one! Then again, I actually like the wall o’ walnut paneling in my living room, so perhaps my taste is suspect, too.

Love*Com 8 by Aya Nakahara: B+

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Risa and Ôtani are finally going out, but she’s uncertain about how she’s supposed to act around him now. She’s got this preconceived notion of what a girlfriend should be, and internally beats herself up each time she fails to live up to that ideal. It helps some when Ôtani sets aside his natural reticence and introduces her to people as his girlfriend, but he still hasn’t articulated exactly why he loves her, and she’s having a hard time imagining what he could see in her.

Later, Ôtani’s neighbor, Mimi, finds out he’s got a new girlfriend and is furious. The beautiful and tall middle schooler has harbored a crush on him for years, but abandoned hope because she thought he only liked tiny girls. A lot of Mimi angst follows, and while it’s creditable that Risa sympathizes with her plight, the way this new character suddenly dominates the story is rather irksome.

Eventually, though, I realized that her purpose is to solidify the main couple’s relationship. We see that she really poses no threat to them at all, that Ôtani’s feelings never waver, and that he and Risa really are made for each other, rough edges and all. Having fulfilled this destiny, may she now go quietly away.

While this particular volume didn’t focus on the leads quite as much as I would’ve liked, it still excels at depicting the insecurities and awkwardness of this period in a relationship. That’s no surprise, since Love*Com has nailed many other aspects of first love. I’m sure it will continue to do so in the volumes to come.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

7SEEDS 5 (Japanese) by Yumi Tamura: B+

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Book description:
With the rest of Team Summer B settled nearby the shelter at Mt. Yufudake in Kyushu, Arashi and Natsu decide to journey to Kanto to see what has become of their homes and families. Joined by Semimaru, they soon encounter Team Autumn, who were released three years ago and who have built a secure village. The only problem is that a tyrannical couple treats the others like slave labor, and the team’s guide is too weak to put a stop to it. Is this the kind of desperation Team Summer B will eventually experience?

Review:
It becomes apparent in this volume that we’re not only bouncing around in time a little, but that the various teams were released at different times, as well. The story of Team Winter recounted in the last volume actually took place fifteen years ago, while Team Autumn has been working to survive for three years. Also, in the last volume Hana found a note in a stockpile that was actually left by Natsu in this volume, if that makes sense.

Anyway, there’s a lot of traveling going on in this volume. Although I was looking forward to the teams meeting up, it kind of amuses me that Arashi, Natsu, and Semimaru suddenly seem to run into every team but Hana’s on this outing. Like, in the whole of an empty and desolate Japan, they just happen to walk in the direction where Team Autumn has built their village. I suppose having common clues for where to look for the stockpiles helps a little, but still.

Team Autumn is pretty horrible, and the Summer B folk are scarred by the experience, so when they meet gentle and kind Taka from Team Winter, they end up suspecting him and slipping away in the night. Just a few days later, he runs into Hana from Team Spring, and she (who has met no one else yet) accepts him. It’s very sweet. It also shows just how close Arashi and Hana are to each other without knowing it.

Alas, not much more than this really happens in the volume. Walking, angsting, big dangerous animals, reckless puppies. That about sums it up.

7SEEDS 4 (Japanese) by Yumi Tamura: A-

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Book description:
It’s been confirmed that the desolate land is indeed Japan, though the teams still don’t know what happened or what year it is. Team Spring—having lost their guide, Yanagi—travels to Mt. Fuji to look for another of the stockpiles, only to find that the volcano has erupted and is no longer there. Just as their hope is flagging, Hana notices some manmade signs directing them to another mountain to the east. The members of Team Winter face their own hardships from the start—between equipment failures, man-eating tigers, and Hokkaido’s bitter cold, some of them will not survive.

Review:
The majority of the chapters in this volume featured Team Winter. I’m a little torn about the introduction of other teams into the story. On the one hand I want to see them and what they’re doing, and on the other, there are already tons of characters as it is. Right from the start, Team Winter’s story is a bit more grim than the others, however, as a few of their number do not survive the thawing process, and I got into it more than I thought I would.

More shocks and twists in the story follow, and since I’m not the kind to go around suspecting such things, I really enjoyed the various surprises. The main protagonist of this group is Taka, who believed himself to be weak until inspired by the example of boisterous Fubuki, another member of the group. It was good to see how Taka had progressed by the end of the story, though the appearance of a couple of precious puppies at a crucial point was a bit silly (but sniff-inducing nonetheless).

So, as it stands, each of the teams has now located a stockpile of goods and is camped out nearby. Arashi and Natsu have passed through where Hana’s team is and left a note, though Hana, of course, still has no idea that Arashi is alive. I’m eager for the teams to meet up, especially since I have no idea what to expect from the story after that happens. I have faith that it’ll be something really cool.