Sean Gaffney

By Io Sakisaka. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Bessatsu Margaret (“Betsuma”). Released in North America by Viz.

As many readers of this blog know, give me a choice between a new series that’s daring, bold, experimental and avant-garde and a new series that’s more of the same as all the other series except with different bits, and I will go for the latter every time. I appreciate the value of alt-manga, but am far more happy reading Vol. 97 of Shoujo Girl X. Usually because every time I do, even if it seems like it’s going to be more of the same, there’s always something that ends up drawing me in. These series all have to compete in Japan with 7,000 other high-school romances. There needs to be something that stood out enough to have it be a success there and get licensed here. Which brings me to Strobe Edge.

The cover really says it all – it’s hard to look at and not feel ‘well, it’s a bit overly sweet, isn’t it?’ without even reading the content. And the first half of the book doesn’t seemingly do much to change that opinion. Ninako is naive and a bit flighty, but not overly ditzy. She’s got a group of close female friends (who so far have stayed her friends, yay!) as well as a male childhood friend that everyone assumes she is in love with, mostly as he is clearly in love with her and that’s how these things go. Ninako, however, isn’t sure what she feels for Daiki is love. And she has *no idea* what these feelings she has are when she runs into Ren, the school heartthrob and all-around mysterious guy.

As I said, so far so normal. If I told you Daiki was blond and Ren had black hair, I assume you’d be totally unsurprised. But gradually I started to realize that more thought was being put into the plot than I suspected. Ninako may seem flighty, but she thinks hard about everything, and once she realizes that what she’s feeling for Ren is love, all sorts of extra problems come up. As for Daiki, he is obviously the ‘unlucky childhood friend’ who is there to provide the love triangle, but this does not make his crush on Ninako any less weighty, especially as we see its origins. He’s a nice guy, as Ninako herself says, and we feel for him even as we root for Ninako to get together with Ren, because that’s how these things go.

The second half of this volume really picks things up, and I was quite startled a few times. Ren, for one, is not really the aloof loner type he presents… or at least not around Ninako, which is a good sign. Of course, things aren’t as simple as ‘if I just worked up my courage to confess, we’d be together’. Ren’s own life intertwines with Daiki’s in very unexpected ways, and as Ninako herself notes, when you fall in love with someone the feelings don’t merely vanish just because you get rejected. I suspect the plot of much of Strobe Edge will deal with that, given the large number of unrequited relationships we bring out here.

Strobe Edge begins with its heroine thinking about what it means to be in love, and I suspect that’s what the whole series is going to be about. It’s working with stock shoujo manga types, but what it’s doing with them is interesting. Which, as I said before, is exactly what I look for in ‘normal’ shoujo manga.

By Ema Toyama. Released in Japan as “Watashi ni xx Shinasai!” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

There has been a certain growing trend in shoujo manga that gets licensed over here lately, pulling away from the overly perky/helpless female lead in favor of someone a lot more sarcastic, cold, and awkward. And I for one could not be happier. Yes, it can be argued that this type of shoujo doesn’t sell quite as well as Black Bird and the like, but its heroines are usually a breath of fresh air, especially given how they deal with the heroes, many of whom remain the same heartthrob of the school types.

Yukina, the heroine of Missions of Love, is not quite as sharp as the two other heroines she calls to mind, Kanoko from ‘The Secret Notes Of Lady Kanoko’ and Maria from ‘Devil and Her Love Song’. But then this did run in Nakayoshi, which caters to a much younger demographic than the other two titles. The author’s comments even notes that she was told this isn’t really the sort of thing Nakayoshi does. So I suspect that the goal here may be to see how long Yukina’s natural-born snark can win out against the narrative trying to get her to say ‘what is this strange feeling in my heart?’ This is not helped by this being her own goal as well.

Yukina is a secret popular cell-phone novelist, a genre that has not really taken off in North America yet… I think the best description would be drabbles strung together into a narrative. Her talent and intelligence have made her quite a draw, but her social ineptness means that her works lack a certain… heat. So she wants to find out how love feels, but is not callous enough to ask some normal guy to show her what this Earth thing called kissing is. That’s when she spots Shigure, the popular male in the class, getting hit on by someone else. And rejecting her politely. And then… ticking off her name in a book?

Yes, finding out about love is all right as long as there’s no actual emotion involved. So now that she knows Shigure is a jerk, she can feel free to emotionally blackmail him. This is the meat of the book, and also the best part, for several reasons. Shigure has gotten through life by observing people’s likes and faults and playing up to them – he even has a notebook full of traits to note – but Yukina is not only better than him at it but doesn’t need to write it down. He tries to blackmail her right back a few times, unsuccessfully. She’s probably just what he needs. Yukina, meanwhile, is not without fault – she hasn’t mentioned her books at all (she is, after all, a secret author), so her come-ons to Shigure sound even weirder than we know them to be. It’s hard to learn about love when you have no concept of real social interaction.

I didn’t even mention her cousin, who seems poised to be the romantic rival if the cliffhanger to Vol. 1 is anything to go by. But I suspect he won’t be too much of an issue. The reason to read this is the same reason we enjoy watching the best screwball comedies – to see the guy and girl exchange barbs and grow closer even as they both try to manipulate each other. Good stuff. (And, despite the Japanese title, decidedly G-rated.)

By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan as “Mahou Sensei Negima!” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

With this volume, we finally wrap up the Magic World arc that began almost half the series ago. Even Ken Akamatsu admits that it took a lot longer than expected (which may have ended up having a bigger influence on the end of Negima itself – more on that later), but at least the finale gives us a lot of the shonen tropes we like Negima for best: lots of shonen battles, enemies becoming friends, everyone reaching out with their bonds of friendship to save a fellow classmate… you know, the works.

First off, despite Negi’s best efforts, he and Fate are destined to fight for this final battle. Even if you get the sense that it’s less due to a difference of opinion and more because they really want to. This leads, as many shonen fights do, to a flashback, where we get a better look at the inner workings of Fate’s mind. He’s not just a stoic, he’s a cynical stoic, deliberately crafted to be different from the arrogant and hotheaded Secundus by his creator. This seems to annoy Fate, who I think wants some surety in his life. Unfortunately, part of being human is lacking that surety. As he flashes back to a girl he was unable to save, and to Nagi and Rakan talking about what humanity really means, he finally gives in, and agrees to at least listen to what Negi says.

If you know shonen, you know what comes next. That’s right, they’re both taken out by an influx of MORE enemies. Negima does seem to rejoice in hammering on its cliches, but it does so in such a assured way that you can’t really blame it. This is a Boy’s Own story, and this is how they go. So the enemies show up, and then our heroes have their own teachers and mentors show up to help them, and so forth. Meanwhile, the actual 3-A class is tasked with trying to wake up Asuna, who is still being a giant unconscious magic battery. Naturally, this requires the entire class, even those nowhere near the battle, as well as Yuna and Sayo (conveniently cured).

And it works, and thus Asuna enters the fray (the cover should have clued you in). And this… well, this is where Akamatsu starts to go a bit off the rails. He’d already had pacing problems earlier, resolving Setsuna and Mana’s fights in about 4 pages so he could get them out of the way (and we never see Tsukuyomi again, as the extras for this volume note). Now he has to deal with what happens when one of your characters is basically The Messiah. And, just like Usagi in Sailor Moon, he knows that if you’re going to have the Messiah card, you have to play it eventually. And so, after finally defeating the Lifemaker (whose identity is a plot point that isn’t remotely resolved here, so I’ll ignore it), Asuna proceeds to resurrect everyone and everything. And I mean everything – we hear her muttering about plants and animals as well.

And while this leads to many heartwarming scenes of our heroes being reunited with those who sacrificed their lives for them, it does bring up the point of where to go from here. Any ongoing threats are going to be next to impossible to take seriously. And by now the audience of Negima really is not going to be content to going back to the wacky “oh no, sensei saw me naked” Love Hina shenanigans. We have a giant pile of unanswered questions – Nagi, Arika, Asuna’s fate, Chao – but are those going to require a whole new adventure arc?

Despite the many, MANY unanswered questions, I’ll be honest with you – if you want a very open-ended but satisfying ending to Negima, Vol. 36 is a really good place to drop the series. For those who want to see how everything is resolved in the last two volumes, I will be reviewing them in time. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Still, this volume is recommended, provided you aren’t allergic to Asuna Ex Machinas.

By Naoko Takeuchi. Released in Japan as “Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

The third arc of Sailor Moon ends here, with more apocalypse than ever before. Given that this arc was all about trying to prevent the Senshi of Destruction from waking and destroying everything – and that in the end they basically fail – it makes total sense that there’s a lot of, well, destruction. Of course, Saturn is not the Plot-In-A-Box that she was in ancient times anymore – she’s also Tomoe Hotaru, and thus can take things in a different direction.

We pick things up, however, with Hotaru still very much being a disembodied spirit held back by Mistress Nine, the Black Lady of the S arc, who is possessing her body. Hotaru thus uses her disembodied spirit power to help save Chibi-Usa, who proceeds to take off with Mamoru so she can join the others for the end of the world, then destroys her body and Mistress Nine’s taking them both out. Of course, this leaves the traditional final boss, a miasma of evil energy. Luckily, our heroes have an insane amount of power, especially when Usagi let’s the Power Of Christ… erm, the Holy Grail compel her and pours a large amount of sweetness and light into the darkness… which just makes it grow stronger and stronger. Whoops.

Sailor Moon, being who she is, decides to turn herself into a giant nuclear bomb and throw herself into the maw of the enemy. This, as if to show the universe finally throwing up its hands and saying “OK, I’ve had all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”, seems to be what inspires the talismans (with very little input from their three owners, who mostly get to join the Inners is standing around gasping “Sailor Moon!” a lot) to do what they have to do – resurrect Saturn to destroy everything. Saturn, of course, being Hotaru. And give Takeuchi credit – she does indeed destroy everything. Saturn has an INSANE amount of power, and we briefly see shots of the few bits of Tokyo that weren’t taken out by the villains falling over dead and crumbled.

Of course, Saturn does this knowing that they have an ‘out’ clause – Sailor Moon, who is now SUPER Sailor Moon, can resurrect everyone and everything. So after Saturn shoves herself and Pharaoh 90 (the villain, in case you had forgotten) into a different dimension, Moon proceeds to do just that. Everyone and everything not evil (well, supernaturally evil) is resurrected – including Hotaru, who is now a little baby and presumably lacking cybernetic implants.

This arouses the other Outers’ maternal instincts, in a scene that screams ‘crap I only have 10 pages to wrap this up’ but oh well. They grab Baby Hotaru, thank the others, say they’ll surely see them again, and take off in their private helicopters to a land where they can presumably raise Hotaru and be really freaking rich. All they leave behind is a shot of them nude from the shoulders up in the sky, a classic ‘they may be dead but we will always remember them’ shot only slightly marred by their not actually being dead. This whole arc, honestly, has lost something in textual description, and really does sound less silly and more epic if you read it. It’s quite good.

The last third of the book is the start of the fourth arc, which brings us a new set of villains, a new set of adorably quirky minions (the Amazoness Quartet, who get a lot to do in the manga, and the Amazon Trio, who don’t), and a new theme, this one being dreams. Everyone is now in high school (and Makoto has a real uniform that fits at last), and Chibi-Usa is ready to finally return to the future. But don’t sigh with relief just yet. She can’t quite make it due to unknown forces. Could it be the unicorn that appears and begs her for help? Could it be the evil-looking Circus that’s just gotten into town? Or could it be that she still needs to grow up (as does her mother), with Chibi-Usa whining about wanting to be adult and Usagi whining about how kids have it easy. If you’ve ever watched a wacky Disney movie, you can see what the cliffhanger of this volume will be!

Super S’s arc starts off slow here, but will really pick up next volume, as it (finally!) focuses on the other Inners and their own dreams and desires. Still the epitome of magical girl shoujo, even if I sometimes wish it would take a bit to catch its breath.

By Shimura Takako. Released in Japan by Enterbrain, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Beam. Released in North America by Fantagraphics.

One of the things that impresses me most about this manga is how much everything seems to be in flux. Nitori and Takatsuki’s gender identity disorder is the most obvious, but nothing else seems to be clear-cut at all, just as kids feel right around middle school. In this volume we see their secret get revealed to the class, and though a majority of the fallout focuses on Nitori and Takatsuki’s feelings, we also get to see how it affects people like Sasa, who’s just concerned that her friends are all pulling apart, or Seya, who’s falling for Nitori without really knowing the truth, but whose feelings continue to be an issue even after he finds out.

We also meet a new character, Makoto, who takes a surprisingly large role in this volume. He’s surprisingly mature, being a bit more confident in his desires, more ‘intellectual’ in his speech and manners (watch his cutting remarks to Maho when she’s about to insult him), and no doubt also far more emotionally fragile than he lets on. He reminds me a bit of Saori, but she still wears her heart on her sleeve. He’s also shown to be quite attracted to Nitori, which is something we haven’t really gotten into given the age of the protagonists, but no doubt will as the manga advances. What will happen when sexuality starts to come up?

I was pleased to see us moving beyond the school in this volume, with Maho dragging her brother along to her modeling audition. I continue to enjoy reading about Maho, a very ‘bratty big sister’ character whose head you can nevertheless easily get inside. Loneliness and lack of self-confidence lead to some of the more impressively awful scenes in the book, as she sets up Seya on a ‘not date’ with her brother dressed as a girl. That said, after Makoto dresses her down, I think she’s starting to think more about what she’s doing. The final scene, showing her and Nitori defending each other against the overly pushy modeling crowd, is quite heartwarming.

Then there’s the scene with Takatsuki and Yuki. This is a manga that takes place in a slightly lighter, fluffier world than reality, so things don’t turn too dark, and there’s a sense of ‘easily forgiven’ to the whole thing. At the same time, though, Takatsuki’s panic and fear is palpable on the page, and reminds you once again that these are just *kids*. Yuki’s behavior also ties in with Maho’s earlier, and the modeling girls at the end, in that they’re treating Nitori and Takatsuki as objects, even if it’s unconsciously. Takatsuki, who’s already upset that they both got found out but that Nitori is taking the brunt of the class’ reaction, is especially upset by this. Neither she or Nitori are dolls that people can play with as they please, or substitutes that they can live vicariously through.

It took a while for me to get around to reading this volume, but as always I was immensely impressed when I finished it. As I said, this isn’t quite ‘reality’, but it still handles everything realistically, and shows the emotions that everyone goes through. The middle school years are a giant state of flux, and therefore a great place to examine the gender issues that Wandering Son does. Roll on, Volume Four.

By Keiko Suenobu. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Bessatsu Friend (“Betsufure”). Released in North America by Vertical.

Keiko Suenobu is a name that might be familiar to those manga readers with long memories. Tokyopop put out several volumes of her shoujo manga Life before Kodansha took their licenses away, and it was a decidedly different shoujo manga from the usual fare. Not that it didn’t feature high school girls, dating, rivalries and bullying, etc. But it also discussed topics such as suicide, self-mutilation, body hatred, and rape, and did not try to give us the usual ‘you will defeat the bullies if you get emotionally stronger!’ message that most manga do. It was quite popular in Japan, winning awards and spawning a live-action drama. And now Vertical has licensed her next project, which takes high school popularity and tosses it into the middle of the unknown wilderness.

If there’s one big issue I had with Limit, it was this: I feel the accident that causes the plot to happen should have been on Page 175, rather than Page 45. We’re introduced to a class and get a quickly sketched out plan of who’s popular and who’s unpopular, with the main characters briefly touched on. But given how much of what happens focuses on Morishige and her feelings of hatred and revenge, I wanted to know more about the class dynamics and in particular about the class’ ‘queen’, Sakura, and our heroine Mizuki. As it is, being thrown into the deep end along with Mizuki helps give a feeling of uncertainty and fear, but it also makes her rather flat. If we’d had a couple of chapters that faked us into thinking this would be a typical coming of age (albeit serious) shoujo, I think the added depth would have helped.

That said, there’s a lot to like here. Teenage drama is something that Suenobu specializes in, and it’s all over the place here. The manga manages to give us the overly dramatic histrionics we’d expect from privileged teens caught in a disaster without making it too annoying or causing it to get bathetic. One might argue, given this is a manga dealing with the ‘strata’ of Japanese classrooms and bullying to a degree, that making the bullied school outcast the main villain is helping to contribute to the ‘blame the victim’ mentality that kids constantly deal with. But this story doesn’t seem to be about bullying per se, nor does it seem to have only one antagonist.

Where the story really shines is in the relationship between Mizuki and Haru, and how quickly group dynamics can change when the catalyst of the group is removed. Even close friends don’t know everything about each other, and here Mizuki finds that her peer group is just as rife with self-doubt and paranoia as she is. Being a popular girl is a two-edged sword, and what may seem to Mizuki like trying to blend in and bond with all the different girls is seen by others as switching sides deftly to avoid getting singled out. Which, as we see in a flashback, is exactly what Mizuki was doing. If you don’t open up or take a stand, you don’t get hurt.

This series looks to be six volumes total, so we’ve only just begun to see how it’ll play out. And I’ll be honest, I have a feeling that some cast members will soon be joining the rest of their classmates in sweet death (coughChikagecough). Hopefully we’ll see more development from our heroine, and more broken social dynamics driving the plot. Mostly as now that it’s broken, I want to see how it gets put together again. Will we get to see the girls work together and forge new friendships? Or is this just six volumes of slowly killing each other?