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Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: decisions, decisions

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We’ve got an embarrassment of riches coming in this week at Midtown Comics. Check out picks from Michelle, Sean, Kate, & MJbelow!

MICHELLE: Decisions, decisions! I am definitely keen to read quite a few of the volumes on this week’s Midtown Comics release list, but ultimately I’m going to have to cast my vote for volume 61 of Eiichiro Oda’s masterful One Piece. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and “they” must be on to something, because I’m really eager to see the rest of the crew again after the past few volumes, which featured Luffy on a solo quest to save his brother, Ace. Not only that, we’re about to embark upon the current arc of the series, which is very exciting indeed!

SEAN: We do indeed have an embarrassment of riches this week. My pick goes to Vol. 9 of Dengeki Daisy. A lot of Betsucomi manga tend to have their heroines in constant peril, and indeed that’s exactly what happens in Dengeki Daisy. What makes it work is that Teru does not whimper and wonder why all this keeps happening to her – she’s a very active Penelope, so to speak. This series has been in the middle of an ongoing very serious arc, which has been disconcerting to those who loved the comedic antics between Teru and Kurosaki. But the action and drama has also been skillfully handled, and you keep hoping that all this intrigue will end well so that the leads can live happily – if abusively – ever after.

KATE: Oh, the dilemma! I’m tempted by the first volume of The Earl and the Fairy, even if it sounds like a forgotten Lawrence Olivier/Marilyn Monroe movie, and I’m delighted to see that VIZ is re-releasing the early volumes of Skip Beat! as an omnibus. The title that most excites me, however, is the King City trade paperback. You may remember King City from the days when TOKYOPOP had a robust line of OEL comics. Though widely praised, Brandon Graham’s sci-fi comedy wasn’t a particularly good fit with the rest of TOKYOPOP’s catalog; the humor was too weird and subversive, and the art didn’t strike readers as particularly “manga-esque.” TOKYOPOP put the series on hiatus in 2007, then allowed Graham to bring the series to Image Comics. The TPB collects the entire series — 400+ pages — in a tidy, economical package. If you missed it the first time around, it’s definitely worth a look.

MJ: Wow, it really is a tough choice this week! It’s hard not to go for the final volume of No Longer Human, Usamaru Furuya’s adaptation of the classic novel, which Michelle & I fawned over in a recent installment of Off the Shelf. There’s also a new installment of Chi’s Sweet Home, and this week’s new omnibus release of Skip Beat! finally gives me a chance to get into that long-running series. In the end, though, I guess I’ll be the one to go for The Earl & the Fairy, artist Ayuko’s adaptation of the light novel by Mizue Tani, out this week from Viz. I’m always a sucker for a new shoujo series, and this one looks intriguing. I haven’t always been a fan of light novel adaptations, but having been so thoroughly won over by last year’s The Story of Saiunkoku, and eager to give this one a try!

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

GTO: The Early Years, Vol. 11

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By Toru Fujisawa. Released in Japan as “Shonan Jun’ai Gumi” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Vertical.

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Tokyopop released the first 10 volumes of the SJG omnibuses, but then stopped 3 years ago (they seem to have stopped before they folded, in fact, so we can ascribe it to mediocre sales more than anything else, I expect). Luckily, Vertical has picked up where they left off, and say that if sales are good they may go back and re-release the first 10. That said, this is not GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, where you can simply hop right into the story with minimal info. The series was up to Vol. 21 and 22 in Japan (the volumes collected here), and it shows. New readers are advised to go here to catch up on the characters so as not to be confused.

That said, it’a not impossible to read this without huge knowledge of what has gone before. I had fallen way behind in my SJG reading, but was able to pick up where I left off with minimal confusion, mostly as this is a delinquent manga, and so just expect lots of people hitting other people. When Onizuka was in GTO, and even 14 Days, he still gets into tons of fights, but at least there he’s slightly more successful at not wanting to get involved in them. Here, in high school, there’s simply not enough impetus (beyond “getting laid”, still his primary motivation) to not be the leader of a gang. Mostly as Onizuka and his best friend Ryuji are *really good* at being gang leaders. They don’t do evil stuff, they inspire loyalty, and they protect the weak. They’re the gang you only see in Japanese manga like this.

Of course, Onizuka is still recognizable even if he’s younger (though, being that it’s school, be prepared for everyone to say Eikichi more than Onizuka – it is his first name, after all). Mostly in his complete inability to score with the opposite sex. By now we’re far along enough in the series that his friend Ryuji is living with his girlfriend, the sweet (at least sweet NOW) girl Nagisa, but Onizuka still strikes out, for the exact same reasons as in GTO: he’s an absolute idiot about it. And just like in GTO, there are girls who are clearly in love with him and would be happy to be with him if he’d only get a clue. Chief among these being Shinomi Fujisaki, who clearly likes him but is also far too similar to him for things to work out. (It doesn’t help that he sees her as a little sister.) I like the girls in GTO, who come in many different types and varieties, and the gang aspect of the plot means we get a lot who can kick any guy’s ass. Shinomi is, along with Azusa and Urumi from GTO, one of the most important women in Onizuka’s life. Expect to see more of her.

There’s also some terrific comedy here – the author likes to break up all the gang fights with one-shot chapters that are hilariously silly. Here we have two opposing tough guys trying to outbluff each other, only to have everything completely ruined by the escalating war between their respective girlfriends. Possibly the funniest chapter, though, was seeing Golgo 13-esque huge guy Usagi and his family, who are all named after Sailor Moon characters – and all look like they stepped out of Fist of the North Star. Despite having a punchline that you can see from space, it still works beautifully.

Be warned – with GTO and 14 Days in Shonan, you can sit through the manga without necessarily being a fan of big, epic fights. (well, just about.) That’s not something you can do here. GTO The Early Years shows us how Onizuka came to be the guy we know, and that means a lot of gang wars, fights, and blood. No one is killed – this still runs in Shonen Magazine, after all – but it’s a manga about young kids who get into a lot of fights. If you can respect that, there’s a lot to love here. Well, except maybe Onizuka’s hair. He did himself a big favor when he lost the perm.

Manga The Week of 3/7

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First week of the month, which means it’s a landslide. As always.

Midtown lists Zetsubou-sensei 13 from Kodansha, which I got today. It also has Cage of Eden 4, which I didn’t get today, and Air Gear 22, which I simply don’t get. In many ways. (Two very fanservicey titles, and Zetsubou-sensei. Which I suppose has service this volume as well, but… it’s not really the same.)

Vertical has the 3nd and final volume of Usamaru Furuya’s manga adaptation of No Longer Human, which promises to bring things to an appropriate finish. That means no picket-fence and two-car garage, I’m reckoning. You may have a better chance of getting that in Chi’s Sweet Home 8, which is not drawn by Furuya. (Though the mind reels at how he’d draw a chapter of it…)

Then there is the terrifying pile of Viz. Let’s start with shoujo, as we have another debut this month. The fantasy romance The Earl And the Fairy, based on a series of light novels, debuts. It looks very pretty, but I’ve heard good things about it anyway. There’s a new Black Bird, which is apparently wrapping up soon, having possibly run out of new ways to appall me. Dengeki Daisy should wrap up this current arc with an epic finish (I think… maybe? Long arc, anyway.) Kimi ni Todoke is almost caught up with Japan, but not quite, as we get lucky Vol. 13 here. La Corda D’Oro hits Vol. 15 with a new release (perhaps it’s speeding up now that it’s over in its home country). Oresama Teacher is apparently still not satisfying everyone, but I still adore it. Stepping on Roses is STILL NOT ABOUT SHOGI. And we get some re-releases of two of Viz’s most popular series, with 3-in-1 omnibuses of Hana-Kimi and Skip Beat!.

As for shonen? Bleach has a 2nd character book, showing that its fans are devoted enough to actually make a character book sell – quite a rarity in North America. There’s new Naruto and One Piece to slam into the bestseller charts. And new Psyren, which… well, probably won’t, but is still interesting. In Sunday manga, there’s new Rin-Ne and Arata. (Speaking of which, what ever happened to Sunday’s digital initiative? Did the weekly chapters die for the non-Takahashi stuff now as well?)

Lastly, there’s a new Volume of Fluffy Fluffy Cinammonroll, which just makes me hungry.

That’s a lot of manga. Is there anything you can’t live without?

Higurashi: When They Cry, Vol. 17

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Karin Suzuragi. Released in Japan as “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Tsumihoroboshi-hen” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Powered. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I will admit, very little happens in this volume of Higurashi, at least in terms of actual events. Rena’s paranoia grows, the others realize just how far she’s gone, and they resolve to save her. That’s about it, along with one other revelation. But that said, this was a fantastic volume of Higurashi, mostly as it rewards the readers who have been following along with the first volume.

We haven’t quite seen Higurashi get as ‘conspiracy happy’ as it does here, and that’s mostly due to the choice of protagonists. Keiichi was the newcomer, so his paranoia was stemming from not knowing his new friends well enough. As for Shion, everything about her revolved around Satoshi, making her manipulable in that sense. Rena, though, has already killed and is well on her way to the madness we’ve seen before. So it’s time to break out the silly guns. Yes, we get ‘aliens are causing it all’, along with ‘it’s a parasite burrowing into people’ and ‘my dead friends have been replaced with exact duplicates’ as well. Sadly, not only are many of those actual common diagnoses with folks who have paranoia, but several of them might be true. We’re still not sure what’s actually causing everything. And now we find that one of the series’ perennial corpses – Takano Miyo, the sleepy-eyed nurse – may have been dead 24 hours before she was supposed to have died.

So Rena’s not doing very well, and Keiichi, the one person she can trust, immediately goes and tells Moin about this. From Rena’s perspective, it’s the worst kind of betrayal. From *our* perspective, we’re cheering. At last, we’ve stopped distrusting our best friends! And true to form, Mion is able to put his mind at ease and also help start a search for Rena, who’s gone missing. Rena is, of course, hiding from everyone who is plotting to kill her – i.e. everyone. And unfortunately, the one to run into her first is Rika. We’ve gradually become aware that Rika can remember the previous iterations of this manga, and would appear to be very different from the small child she appears to be. She’s never been quite so bleak and uncaring as she is here, though. Some of what we see is clearly Rena’s ‘paranoia-vision’, but some of it is clearly a person who is exhausted and has just given up – and who has seen a bit too much of the nasty side of humanity. Rika’s cynicism here is the opposite of what we want to see in Higurashi, which makes it heartbreaking.

(She’s also drinking wine as well, which can’t be good for her. And talking to an offscreen voice we can’t see.)

After this, Keiichi tracks down Rena, but she’s prepared for him. She reveals Keiichi’s past to us. Given that everyone else in the manga has a tortured, tragic past, it makes sense that Keiichi would have one as well – it’s not as bad as the others, but it definitely shows us why he might be the way he is, and why he’s so tolerable of the girl’s goofy antics at his expense. And given that, like Keiichi, Rena has also shown signs of being very intelligent but hiding it under a mask of goofy, it helps to connect them even closer. If Rena wasn’t driving him away, that is.

So a guilt-ridden Keiichi confesses what he did before he moved to Hinamizawa to his other friends. And they’re OK with it, forgiving him, noting they were all little brats as well, and pointing out that being friends doesn’t mean telling everyone every aspect of your lives. It was good to hear that, especially from a comedy-horror manga. Then, just as Keiichi is coming to accept their forgiveness… he remembers the events of Book 2. Remember Book 2? The first arc? Seeing a shot of Mion’s head getting beaten in with a bat, especially as we weren’t expecting the flashback, is very startling. and now Keiichi’s in even worse shape. He thought he just had to be forgiven for his own past – now he has to atone for the other Keiichis as well!

Rika’s the one to notice the big thing, though – Keiichi REMEMBERS ANOTHER ARC! She even calls this an impossible miracle, noting that she’s the only one who remembers them. That said, it’s to Keiichi’s credit that this doesn’t turn him into a gibbering heap – remembering Rena desperately trying to save him (and it was terrific, if horrifying, seeing the events of the first arc as they actually happened – with Keiichi’s paranoia fueling his murders) makes him even more determined to avoid her going through the same thing. Even better, this actually galvanizes Rika. She notes that this world is beyond saving – this isn’t the last arc – but decides to help Keiichi anyway, as Rena is her friend and it’s the right thing to do.

So everyone’s forgiven everyone – except for Rena, who’s scratching at her bloody throat and getting out her billhook to prepare to kill everyone in the village in order to save them. (Something, notably, she and Keiichi had regarded as ridiculously stupid at the very start of this volume.) Will Keiichi be able to stop her madness? The previous evidence suggests the answer is no, but who knows? One more volume to go to find out.

Bookshelf Briefs 2/27/12

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This week, Michelle, MJ, Sean take a look at new releases from the Digital Manga Guild, Viz Media, Dark Horse Manga, and Vertical, Inc., while Kate offers up an unusual Tezuka find as she wraps up this month’s Manga Moveable Feast!

Ata | By Tamaki Fuji | Digital Manga Guild – I’ve reviewed quite a few books now from various groups in the Digital Manga Guild and most have been pretty good. And then there was Ata. It’s an absolute mess, with lousy art and mistakes galore. Releasing a book with an error on practically every page just goes to show that passing DMP’s proficiency tests is not sufficient to guarantee a quality product. But maybe it’s “rediculous” to expect them to be able to spell “speical” words like “fufilling,” especially when it’s “hard to breath” near the tree when it “bares” its fruit. You’ll note that I haven’t said anything yet about Ata‘s story, and that’s because I was so overwhelmed and distracted by the dozens upon dozens of easily preventable mistakes that I was unable to become invested in it. The shoddy work of this group ruined the manga for me. Avoid at all costs. – Michelle Smith

Bleach, Vol. 38 | By Tite Kubo | Viz Media – If there’s one thing Bleach seems determined to remind me, it’s that I’m not its target audience. And while this may seem like an obvious conclusion for a 40-something woman reading a shounen battle manga, the thing about Bleach is that originally I was. Tite Kubo won me over easily in the series’ early volumes, with well-developed relationships, a terrific sense of humor, and an ability to make readers care about a large cast of characters, both friend and foe. Though later volumes have devolved into increasingly tedious fight sequences featuring increasingly disinteresting enemies, he’s won me back, time and again, as recently as volume 36. Sadly, with this volume, he’s lost me again. Despite one short, dramatic scene revolving around the defeat of Ikkaku, the volume overall hinges on the reader’s interest in fights for their own sake. Unfortunately, that’s just not enough for me. – MJ

Gate 7, Vol. 2 | By CLAMP | Dark Horse Manga – Back in December, I described Gate 7 as “my kind of CLAMP,” and while I believe this still may well be the case, the series’ second volume doesn’t put in much effort to prove it. Volume one’s greatest weakness was a glut of exposition, and that trend continues here, as CLAMP introduces us to a whole slew of brand new characters before we’ve had a chance to fall for the ones we already have. The result is shaky pacing and glassy-eyed confusion, exacerbated by an onslaught of historical information likely to send most western readers thumbing their way repeatedly to the book’s (thankfully extensive) endnotes in the hopes of reaching solid ground. Though as a long-time CLAMP fan, I’m willing to grant the artists a few more volumes to create some emotional stakes worthy of my investment, many readers may find their patience waning by the end of this volume, and I’m not yet confident enough to urge them on. Not quite recommended. – MJ

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 7 | By Julietta Suzuki | Viz Media – There’s a lot of manga cliches going on here, honestly. Which is not always bad, but when I saw Nanami telling Tomoe that he had to stay behind while she went to the meeting of the Gods, I knew it was a classic “if only she’d explained” moment. Sigh. Other than that, this volume introduces a lot of new kami, as we delve into just how much prejudice Nanami has to fight to be accepted as a god herself. Of course, for those who want romance, there’s Chapter 38, which is almost a perfect ‘date’ chapter, and sure to warm the heart. Overall, though, this felt like a transitional volume of Kamisama Kiss, setting up the plots that will be taken care of in the next volume. Still good stuff, though. – Sean Gaffney

No Longer Human, Vol. 3 | By Usamaru Furuya | Vertical, Inc. – After enjoying the first two volumes of No Longer Human more than I’d expected to, I was really looking forward to the final volume, which seems an odd thing to say, given the extent of the extremely grim things that tend to happen in this series. We begin one year into Yozo Oba’s marriage to cheerful and innocent Yoshino. They’re happy together, but shortly after a friend points out that Yozo must eventually pay for his past crimes, something terrible happens to strip Yoshino of her trusting personality, and the change in her destroys Yozo’s happy fantasy. Forced to confront the awfulness of humanity, he spirals into drug abuse and madness. Furuya depicts Yozo’s descent into ruin with creative, effective imagery, which results in some odd moments where readers are admiring the art whilst something profoundly unsettling is actually happening in the panel. Dark and strange, No Longer Human may not be for everyone, but I still recommend it. – Michelle Smith

Nura: Rise Of The Yokai Clan, Vol. 7 | By Hiroshi Shiibashi | Viz Media – This volume of Nura is neatly divided into two parts. The first deals with Yura, who is finding herself confused as to the true nature of the yokai… and is suspecting that Rikuo is involved somehow. What’s worse, her two older brothers show up, and explicitly state that there is no such thing as a good yokai. Anyone who says they see the world only in black and white morality is never going to be a good guy in manga, but these two are surprisingly well handled. And Yura gets some nice bonding with Rikuo (another potential romance? This isn’t getting harem-ey, is it?). The second half is mostly a flashback to how Nura’s grandfather met his grandmother, and interested me mostly for seeing Tsurara’s grandmother, a lot less perky and a lot more sultry in the Yuki-Onna department. As always, recommended for Jump fans. – Sean Gaffney

Otomen, Vol. 12 | By Aya Kanno | Viz Media – The best part of this volume, to me, was seeing the flashback to Asuka’s mother in school, which strikes me as an amazing story… which we don’t see. Indeed, Aya Konno explicitly says she wanted to draw more of it, but didn’t. Oh Otomen, why do you always sidestep my expectations? Instead, we get the expected resolution between Asuka and his father (if you hadn’;t guessed who it was, you weren’t reading hard enough), which is nice and sentimental but not as deep as I’d have liked. I hope we get more of his mother in future. The best part of the book was the final chapter, a terrific side story with Amakashi and a rather stoic high school girl, which did what I wanted the main story to do. Otomen seems to be heading into its endgame, so I hope we’ll see some better resolution of the main plotline. And more Ryo! – Sean Gaffney

Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga | By Philip Brophy | National Gallery of Victoria – This slim, handsomely packaged book is, in fact, the catalog for an exhibition mounted by the National Gallery of Victoria back in 2006. As such, it has all the virtues and faults of a museum product. On the plus side, the book contains immaculate reproductions of Tezuka’s work, from his very earliest stories — Metropolis, Crime and Punishment — to his final manga, Ludwig B. Editor Philip Brophy has paired these images with numerous statements by Tezuka about his characters and creative process — an impressionistic but effective strategy for helping the reader understand Tezuka’s artistry. On the minus side, the contextual essays run the gamut from very good to hopelessly vague; readers looking for biographical information will find Helen McCarthy’s The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga a more comprehensive introduction to the master’s life and work. – Katherine Dacey

Pick of the Week: Picks & anti-Picks

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This week’s haul at Midtown Comics inspires both some enthusiastic picks (and a couple of emphatic anti-picks) from the Battle Robot. Check them out below!

SEAN: Can I make xxxHOLIC my anti-Pick of the Week? :) Seriously, though, even though Midtown isn’t listing it, my store is getting in the 13th volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei. Over the last several volumes, the manga has found its way, almost ceasing to be about any of the characters at all. I can’t even recall the last time Nozomu tried to kill himself. Instead, it devotes itself to a typical cliched behavior every chapter, and then picks it apart until it explodes. And if that means less attention to character development, well, the characters are exaggerations to begin with, so it’s less about deepening them and more about honing them into sharp, cutting blades. Which is why, in this volume, they proceed to butcher an entire prison full of guards. Want to learn why? Read the book!

BRIGID: Although GTO tempts me, I’m going with vol. 2 of Gate 7 as my first choice. Although the first volume had its flaws—storytelling that managed to be both unclear and repetitive, to be specific—the art is beautiful, and by the end of the book CLAMP had me firmly in their grip with the promise of a historical/supernatural story set in old Kyoto. CLAMP can be really terrible or really good, and I’m hoping that after a stuttering start, this book will fall into the latter group.

MJ: Well, Sean, I’m going to cancel out your anti-Pick by picking it! Yes, I’ve heard the same disheartening things about the ending of xxxHolic as everyone else has (well, without explicit spoilers—so please don’t spoil me now!) but I’ve loved this series for 18 volumes, and I’m longing to read its conclusion for myself. Unlike many readers, I’ve actually quite enjoyed the series’ post-Young coda (see my thoughts on volume 18 here). Watanuki was my reason for reading from the very beginning, and he remains so to this day. I just have to see how his story ends, for better or worse.

MICHELLE: Don’t spoil me on xxxHOLiC, either! I still need to finish Tsubasa! Anyway, I’ve probably picked this series before, and I’ll probably pick it again, but I must cast my vote this week for the seventh volume of Itazura Na Kiss. This series has its ups and downs, with moments both delightful and infuriating, but I still look forward to each double-sized volume. I’m especially keen to see whether Naoki gets any nicer or Kotoko any more competent, but somehow I doubt that will happen any time soon.

KATE: My pick is Tenjo Tenge…. NOT! (I chalk up that feeble joke to the lingering effects of Vicks Vapo-Rub and cough syrup.) While I second Michelle’s enthusiastic endorsement of Itazura na Kiss, I’m casting my vote for volume three of Border. Technically speaking, Border is yaoi, but it reads more like The A-Team than Bad Teacher’s Equation — well, if Murdock occasionally made out with Mr. T. I guess that doesn’t make Border seem very entertaining, but I really enjoyed the first two volumes’ mixture of melodrama, suspense, and teamwork. This is yaoi for readers who like a big dose of plot with their smut. Oh, and lots of handsome men in camouflage.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Manga the Week of 2/29

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It’s a 5th week that’s really a 4th week, so there’s actually quite a lot of manga shipping.

Dark Horse has a very busy week compared to their usual (their usual being no manga at all lately). A new volume of Gantz, which is at 21 volumes yet still providing the violence and latex outfits everyone wants. Speaking of what everyone wants, Volume 1 of Gate 7, much like its predecessor Kobato, featured CLAMP trying a bit too hard to be CLAMP. I’m hoping Volume 2 goes a little lighter on their standard tropes and heavier on plot and characterization.

I wish I didn’t have to give it the cover spotlight, but it’s the final volume, and it used to be awesome, so here it is. Del Rey’s last manga series ends with the publication of Vol. 19 of xxxHOLIC. The early volumes of this series were possibly the best thing CLAMP has ever done not named Card Captor Sakura. This last one… is out this week. :)

A trio of new manga from DMP. After much delay, we get the 7th volume of Itazura na Kiss. Featuring everyone’s least favorite hero. Let’s hope he gets a sweet moment or two this time around. There’s also Vol. 3 of the awesomely named Bad Teacher’s Equation, and the more sedately named Border. Both by the same author. I wonder if she did them at the same time?

Midtown comics lists Vol. 4 of cyberpunk series Mardock Scramble as coming in next week. My shop says it is also getting the 13th volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, which will answer the all-important question, “Can a translator last longer than 4 volumes on this series without burning out and leaving?”

Vertical has Volume 11 of its brand new series, GTO The Early Years. Yes, both those things are correct. Vol. 1-10 were released by Tokyopop, and Vertical is picking up where they left off. Known in Japan as Shonan Jun’ai Gumi, this series lasted even longer than GTO, and is how the world first got to know Onizuka. This volume should contain Vol. 21-22 of the original. Ed says if sales are good, they may go back to put 1-10 back in print. Get it! Onizuka rules!

Lastly, Midtown lags a week behind everyone else, as most of Diamond’s shops got Vol. 5 of Tenjo Tenge this week. It has kicking! And boobies! It is hard to imagine a more appropriate manga for 13 year old boys. Who, of course, should not be reading it. At least not in North America. M for Mature, folks.

So what appeals to you this week?

Toriko, Vol. 8

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By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s been a while since I did a full review of Toriko, but this is a good volume to talk about, as it’s less fight and more food oriented. After finishing off the cliffhanger from last volume (and getting to meet several of the side-villains face to face), Toriko reunites with Komatsu and goes to Gourmet Town, the #1 town to get fantastic food. While there they meet up with a legendary chef, the elderly but insanely strong and intelligent (as with most elderly manga women) Setsuno, who gives the two of them a taste of a legendary soup. A soup that is still incomplete, and needs one more ingredient. This leads to the cliffhanger of this volume, as both Toriko and Komatsu must journey to “Ice Hell” to find said ingredient…

In general, successful Jump series seem to fall into a pattern of “fighting + friendship + X”, where X is a variable. Plus ninjas, plus pirates, plus mangaka, plus Nisioisin… that type of thing. Here it’s food, and while much of Toriko is sitting back and watching insanely strong men battle each other, the food is not just an added extra to make the story palatable. First of all, even with the occasional ‘reader suggestion’ thrown in, the different types and varieties of food show off the author’s prodigious imagination. But food also controls the plot and the main characters. They live for it. A lot of the scenes in this volume will be familiar to fans of Oishinbo or similar titles – the initial reaction of happiness, followed by a description of what they just ate, possibly delineating the ingredients used. This is Jump foodie manga.

This volume also has several strong scenes between Toriko and Komatsu, including Setsuna, reminiscing on her own partnership with Jiro (who she was also romantically involved with), noting what good partners Toriko and Komatsu make. Now, I don’t think that any Jump title currently running is written primarily for the magazine’s growing BL audience. No, not even Reborn. But certainly a lot of what attracted the BL fandom in the first place is here – men in close friendships, with lots of bonding and fights and befriending former enemies. Komatsu is in many ways the perfect uke, and he’s surrounded by strong partners – not just Toriko, but also Coco and Sunny from previous volumes – all of whom initially see him as rather pathetic but then grow to treasure him as Komatsu’s true talents in food preparation are revealed. There’s also a dearth of women in this story – Rin has been around, and she has a crush on Toriko, but he completely ignores it. So while this isn’t a BL story, it does have everything that drew BL fans to Jump in the first place, and does not go out of its way to disappoint them.

I’m impressed by the world building going on here. A lot of titles like this give off a feeling that the author is making stuff up from week to week, but several of the plot points here seem to be well planned. Komatsu’s naivete is useful in this regard, as Toriko can explain various things to him, but there’s a casualness to it that doesn’t make it seem like exposition. I particularly liked the references to the Colonel sending a duplicate to Ice Hell rather than himself – it’s made mysterious while also being obvious for the reader.

Toriko is great fun, and looks to be starting another big arc. Hopefully it will continue to balance its big fights and male bonding with more delicious food. Recommended for Jump fans.

Pick of the Week: Soulless, Higurashi, Kizuna

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Things pick up this week at Midtown Comics, just in time for Presidents’ Day. Though we’re a bit short-staffed at Manga Bookshelf today, MJ, Sean, & Michelle have some books they’re excited to buy!

MJ: I’m a bit torn this week, I have to admit. On one hand, I’d like to recommend the latest volume of Nabari no Ou—the only manga to ever get me even remotely interested in ninja—or perhaps volume four of Bloody Monday, which I can’t help liking, despite its unbelievable premise. But after reading Kate’s recent review of Soulless, I think it’s won my vote. An “agreeable mishmash of Young Sherlock Holmes, Underworld, and Mansfield Park, with a dash of Jules Verne”?? Where do I sign up? I’ll be the first to admit that Yen Press’ “manga” adaptations of popular novels have mostly missed with me, but this one sounds like it’s right up my alley. Definitely a must-buy!

SEAN: As I noted in my Manga The Week Of post, I always get happier when I see a new volume of Higurashi: When They Cry. A combination of harem manga, horror manga, and mystery, it’s the bonds of friendship elements that keep me coming back. One Piece fans popularized the Western use of ‘Nakama’, a word meant to convey a close bond between a group that’s not quite family or friends, but something deeper – something unshakeable. Of course, with the Higurashi series that type of relationship is a long and unstable process, and we’ve seen in past arcs how mistrust and paranoia can ruin everything. Rena’s friends have helped her hide a corpse in the last volume… but was that really the right thing to do? Gripping stuff.

MICHELLE: There are certain titles that, when I see them on this list, everything else just sort of falls away. So, while I am definitely very keen to read Soulless, I must seize the opportunity to recommend Kazuma Kodaka’s landmark BL series, Kizuna, now in its fifth (and presumably final) volume. Maybe the trials and tribulations of yakuza in love just isn’t your thing, but the way the stories are told and the unique artwork are things that every BL fan should experience.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Going Digital: February 2012

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Welcome to the latest Going Digital, Manga Bookshelf’s monthly feature focusing on manga available for digital viewing or download. Each month, the Manga Bookshelf bloggers review a selection of comics we’ve read on our computers, phones, or tablet devices, to give readers a taste of what’s out there, old and new, and how well it works in digital form.

This month, we’ll take a look at VIZ Media’s new manga for the NOOK Color, as well as a couple of titles from JManga. Device, OS, and browser information is included with each review as appropriate, to let you know exactly how we accessed what we read.


E-Readers

VIZ Manga on the NOOK Color

In last September’s Going Digital column, I wrote about my experience reading manga on a Kindle. The review included such sentiments as “Wow, this looks like crap,” and ended with this pithy observation:

I guess paying $6 for a Kindle edition of a book I didn’t like very much is better than paying $13 for same, but my advice to those considering reading manga on their Kindle is simple: “Don’t.”

So, when I was presented with the opportunity to check out the titles VIZ has made available for NOOK devices, I was quite eager to see how the experience would differ. As it turns out, the NOOK vastly outperforms the Kindle in all areas but one, and that one is not a deal-breaker.

The loaner model NOOK Color I received came pre-loaded with a few VIZ titles, so I can’t comment on the ease of buying and downloading manga from the Barnes and Noble site, but it looks pretty straightforward to me. There’s a WiFi connection on the device, so you can shop directly from the reader, as well. Books are accessible in the Library, which displays a nice gallery of color covers instead of a plain text list of titles. Simply tap the cover of your book of choice to open, and you’re good to go.

The first offering I perused was volume 31 of Bleach, and when I saw its cover come up full-screen, so crisp and beautiful, I am pretty sure I uttered a “wow” aloud. The inner pages are just as sharp, with clean, white backgrounds and legible text. Navigation is easy—gently tap the right side of the screen for the next page (granted, this is a little counter-intuitive when reading manga, as normally you’d be turning to the left) and the left side for the previous page. Tap the middle and a menu pops up, where one can scroll amongst all the pages in the volume and manage bookmarks, which one sets by pressing the “+” icon in the top right of the screen, creating a little digital “dog-ear” effect on the page.

At this point, I still hadn’t figured out how to zoom—I’m definitely a late adopter where technology is concerned, so there was a bit of a learning curve with touch-screen navigation—so I thought I’d check out some shoujo, which is known for its teensy asides and author-talk sections with small text. I found examples of both on a page of Absolute Boyfriend, and personally found the text legible, but once I discovered the “reverse-pinch method” of zooming in, it was a definite improvement. The screen is larger than the Kindle, so a single page looks pretty good as is. The NOOK’s got an auto-rotate function, which means that the display will shift to landscape mode if you turn the device on its side. This is helpful when you want to enjoy the scope of a two-page layout from an artistic standpoint, but not really practical for reading that way, unless you want to stay zoomed in all the time.

There are only two complaints I have about the NOOK, and one is exceedingly minor. In most respects, the sensitivity of the touch screen is a good thing, but as I held the device, I somehow kept placing my thumb in such a way that caused the system to repeatedly alert me to my lack of new notifications, which was annoying. The second issue is more significant, and that is that the NOOK is pretty heavy. According to Barnes and Noble, the NOOK Color weighs 15.8 ounces, but mine (with protective cover) clocked in at 20.8 ounces, which is equal to three print volumes of manga. Obviously, this is not extremely heavy, and even the fact that the latest Kindle supposedly weighs less than six ounces could not ever induce me to recommend it over the NOOK Color where reading manga is concerned. – Michelle Smith


Web Browser

Morita-san Wa Mukuchi Vol. 1 | By Tae Sano | Takeshobo, Manga Life Momo | JManga.com | Windows XP, Firefox 10.0

Readers of print manga in North America will be very familiar with the type of manga we get with Morita-san. It’s what’s termed a ‘4-koma’ style manga. Basically the equivalent to American comic strips such as Peanuts or Beetle Bailey, They’re 4 panels, mostly vertical, with quick punchlines and gag humor. Yes, there are the occasional serious 4-koma series, but they are definitely the exception. We;ve seen the high school band series K-On!, the high school eccentrics of Azumanga Daioh, and even spin-offs of popular titles like Haruhi Suzumiya and Shugo Chara.

This series has a lot of the same types of ingredients. With the exception of a token male or two to get one-liners, the cast is almost entirely cute and female. It takes place in a typical high school. There’s no real plot to speak of – we follow our heroine and her friends through the school year, being amused at their comedy antics. However, despite all of this, I found Morita-san to be quite a fun and pleasant experience. It has a very good hook. The heroine, the titular Morita, doesn’t speak. Note that she *can* speak – she just never gets a good opportunity. Either she thinks too long about what to say and everyone moves on, or she gets flustered, or the timing is wrong… as such, she spends the volume as a sort of ‘silent support’.

Her friends, and this is another reason I found this fun, don’t really bring this up or hold it against Morita at all. It’s just a quirk, like her best friend Miki’s being boy-crazy, or Hana’s being shy. They treat her like a good friend, and don’t even mention the silence – they always ask her opinion on things and the like. And Morita herself is a likeable heroine, being nice and sweet without getting overly sappy. (Her parents help here – her mother vacillates wildly between sweet adoring wife and jealous harridan, and it’s noted Morita got her reticence from her upbringing.) There’s even some mild yuri tease here, involving the cool Student Council President who everyone loves, as well as an unnamed girl who keeps trying to stalk… um, strike up a conversation with Morita only to misread whatever situation is going on. If you’re going to read 4-koma, it should be as fun and likeable as this. -Sean Gaffney

Hyakusho Kizoku, Vol. 1 By Hiromu Arakawa | Shinshokan, Wings | JManga.com | Mac OS 10.7.3, Chrome 17.0.963.56

As most Manga Bookshelf readers will already know, I’m a huge fan of Hiromu Arakawa’s epic shounen series Fullmetal Alchemist. In fact, the series even made my personal top ten. I consider Arakawa to be a truly exceptional storyteller, so when I heard that JManga was offering something new from her, I immediately ran over to read it. I was not disappointed in the least.

From the pages of the eccentric shoujo magazine Wings, Hyakusho Kizoku is a series of humor-tinged manga essays detailing life on a Hokkaido dairy farm. Though, on the surface, Hyakusho Kizoku may seem to share little in common with a fantasy epic like Fullmetal Alchemist, fans of FMA will quickly recognize Arakawa’s easy sense of humor, as well as her ability to create compelling, recognizable characters with just a few deft strokes.

The series is openly autobiographical, filled with anecdotes from Arakawa’s childhood and teen years that cover everything from her father’s habit of visiting the cow shed in winter wearing only his underpants, to a bit of light authorial ranting on topics like pesticides, government demands, and why Hokkaido would be better off as an independent country. And though her humor is a highlight, it’s not the only way in which Arakawa shows off her strengths. One particularly haunting lesson about the fate of a sick, newborn calf had me tearing up as I read—a feat achieved mainly through just a few poignant strokes of Arakawa’s pen, as she drew her own mournful, childish face and that of the unsuspecting calf.

If I sound like a hopeless fangirl, well, perhaps I am. But it’s a devotion well-earned by any author who can entertain equally well with action-packed fantasy and facts about cow dung. And fortunately, JManga does their part as well, offering up a clean, readable adaptation that lets the series’ conversational style shine.

While Hyakusho Kizoku may not be every FMA fan’s cup of tea, it certainly is mine. Highly recommended. – MJ

Manga the Week of 2/22

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The fourth week (but really the 3rd) of February gives us quite a few titles to choose from. And for once, none of them are from viz – it’s the other publishers that get a look in.

Dark Horse gives us the 20th volume of Oh My Goddess, which means they have now caught up with the ‘unflipped’ editions. Honestly, it’s a sign of how popular this series is with their fans that they even went to all the trouble of this giant re-release, and I’m impressed. As ever, Carl Horn supplements the releases with letters and endnotes. Going forward, starting with Volume 41, it’s all heading forward into the future, rather than reliving the glorious past.

As always, DMP’s yaoi publications always end up with the best titles. This week we have ‘Gentlemen’s Agreements Between A Rabbit And A Wolf’, which sorely needs a tiger in there as well, but I won’t quibble as I know it would destroy the beautiful seme/uke balance the title provides. And in more sedate titles, we also have the 5th volume of the deluxe reissue of Kizuna.

Kodansha gives us the 4th volume of 24-style thriller Bloody Monday, and the 4th volume of fantastic dinosaur art series Gon. Two series that really are unlikely to ever cross over. (Gon doesn’t appear in Cage of Eden, does he? Cause that would just make my year.)

Seven Seas is giving Midtown the 3rd volume of A Certain Scientific Railgun, which many other Diamond customers – including me – got this week. There is still no sign of the parent series, A Certain Magical Index, but Railgun is entertaining enough.

That’s right, it’s my blog, and so Higurashi gets the image again. The Atonement Arc hits Volume 3, and no doubt will feature increasing paranoia and bloodshed. Can the ircle be broken, or are we in for another depressing reset? Well, we won’t find out yet, but certainly this will ramp up the tension. Also from Yen, we have new volumes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (the normal manga version, not the SD one); ninja manga Nabari no Ou; ecchi harem fantasy catgirl samurai… thing Omamori Himari; the awesomely insane Soul Eater; and a new volume of Sumomomo Momomno, which is still going, to my surprise. it’s hit Volume 11 too! Sheesh, kids these days…

All this and the debut of Soulless: The Manga from artist REM! What interests you this week?

Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 19

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By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

Hayate has reached the point now here, popular and enjoyable as it is, its cast is simply too large to use in one complete plot. So while I said last time that the cast was all going to wind up on a holiday in Greece, there are exceptions. And so Wataru, Saki and Sakuya end up in Las Vegas, which coincidentally has its own subplot waiting in the wings for them! This would be highly unrealistic and a detriment to any manga that is not as silly as this one, but (even after the Athena arc) the reader still has a tendency to say “Yeah, OK, whatever.”

The Las Vegas chapter introduces Wataru’s mother, who is… not a nice woman. Oh sure, on a scale of one to Hayate’s parents she’s still small time, but it’s clear she loves gambling and is not above humiliating her son and his friends just to show off how lucky and powerful she is. (You get a sense of where the manga is going with her when we see a flashback where Wataru hands her a doll he has made. It appears to be Nezumi Otoko from the children’s series Gegege no Kitaro. Oh kid, little do you know your mother is more like that doll than you think… In any case, the cliffhanger for this volume involves Wataru’s mother gambling with Saki (who doesn’t know how to play cards) for Wataru’s fate. It also includes Sakuya as a fanservice magnet, something that I think started in Japanese fanart circles and that Hata might have picked up on. Unlike those circles, Sakuya stays (mostly) decent, though.

Meanwhile, earlier in the manga, we get a chapter devoted to one of the Idiot Trio, Miki. She’s arguably the most intelligent and perceptive of the three (given she got a 36 on her most recent exam, this is very arguable), but that’s not really why we get this chapter. For a manga where every single woman seems to be in love with the hero, it is refreshing to see someone who isn’t. And, Ayumu’s teasing of Hina aside, we haven’t really had any yuri in this manga to date either. Now we get both – Miki is not interested in Hayate, mostly as she has her heart set on someone else. It can be a bit disheartening to hear Miki say she knows she’ll be rejected so has no plans to confess… but, knowing Hinagiku like we do, Miki’s probably correct. Oh well. Maybe she’ll get lucky if Hayate ends up with someone else! (By the way, notice how Hayate immediately makes the connection between Miki’s vague allusions and Hina. He’s very perceptive in anything not involving himself.)

Other than that, well, there’s plenty of humor in this volume. Which is good, as folks read Hayate for the gags. For those who worried that we’d be returning to the mood of the previous 2 volumes, that’s not happening right away. Of course, not much else is happening right away either. By the end of the book, half the cast are either in Greece or Vegas, but our hero and heroine are still stuck at home. The main flaw of this book is that, for everyone except maybe Maria fans, very little happens in this volume. We left off with the cast getting ready to go to Greece (where Athena awaits, let’s remember), and we’re still waiting here. Ah well. At least we haven some ominous foreshadowing with Hayate’s ‘King’s Jewel’ given to him by Nagi’s jerkass grandfather. Foreshadowing of dark, terrible events is always welcome in comedy gag manga.

Pick of the Week: Longshots

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Shipping slows down a bit this week at Midtown Comics, but the Battle Robot finds ways to spend their money, as always.

KATE: Though two of my all-time favorite shonen series appear on this week’s shipping list — those would be InuYasha and Kekkaishi, by the way — I’ll let another Battle Robot blogger sing their praises. My vote goes to The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty, a lovely coffee-table book featuring concept sketches, movie stills, and interviews with the creative team behind the Studio Ghibli film. Though the text is not as informative as it could be, the images are flat-out gorgeous; anyone who read Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, the book that inspired Arrietty, will be pleased at the way Studio Ghibli has brought her tiny characters to life. You’ll never look at a button or a thimble the same way again!

SEAN: This week seems to contain a lot of series that I’ve either never read or am so far behind on that a recommendation would be ridiculous. However, my own comic shop is getting a title that Midtown isn’t, the 3rd volume of A Certain Scientific Railgun. The second volume took a turn for the serious, which was greatly to its benefit, and I’m hoping that it will continue to keep up the pace. I’m also hoping for fewer tedious groping gags with the “lesbian” in the cast, but I’m fairly certain that I’ll be out of luck there. Still, give this Seven Seas series a try.

MICHELLE: I’m in a similar position to Sean this week: while I’ve been collecting Kekkaishi and 20th Century Boys, I am dreadfully far behind, and there’s no power on this earth that could induce me to read Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time. But there is one title on the list that I’ve read and loved, and that’s InuYasha. I can’t really comment on the VIZBIG editions themselves, having bought each volume of the series singly, but I love the warm, ensemble sitcom feeling of the series overall, and envy those who get to experience it through these editions for the first time, since the art is printed in its original orientation, which didn’t happen with the single-volume releases until some time in the late thirties. Notorious for meandering reptition, sure, but for me, InuYasha is manga comfort food at its finest.

MJ: I’m going to go off-list and into the digital only realm this week, to recommend volume one of Keiko Kinoshita’s You and Tonight, due out soon at eManga from the Digital Manga Guild. I was a big fan of Kiss Blue, a two-volume series from the same creator that was released on DMP’s Juné imprint, and I’m actually working on editing another of her short series for my reporter’s stint at the DMG. I’m consistently impressed by Kinoshita’s subtle humor and delicate touch (she’s even won me over to the dreaded BL Anthology), so when I saw that another group was working on You and Tonight, it immediately jumped to the top of my list of must-buy BL. I’ve always been a fan of the best-friends-turned-lovers trope, and given that this was also the premise for Kiss Blue, I’m gathering that it’s a favorite of Kinoshita’s as well. The first volume is already available for the Nook and Kindle, so I expect it’ll go live on eManga in just a day or two. Now the question is, will I be able to hold off until it appears for sale on the iPad? Only time will tell.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Bookshelf Briefs 2/13/12

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This week, Kate, MJ, Sean, & Michelle take a look at recent releases from Kodansha Comics, Vertical, Inc., VIZ Media, Yen Press, Digital Manga Publishing, and JManga.

Bloody Monday, Vol. 3 | Story by Ryou Ryumon, Art by Kouji Megumi | Kodansha Comics – I can see why Bloody Monday appeals to teenage boys: not only do its adolescent heroes get to kick ass and match wits with evil adults, they also get to ogle beautiful villains and work alongside cute classmates. For an adult reader, however, the plot mechanics are too creaky to overlook the obvious wish-fulfillment angle. Too many scenes bog down in obvious explanation, as characters repeatedly tell each other things that one would hope world-class crime solvers would know — even if they’re only sixteen. The action scenes remain the series’ strength, as they’re the only time the exposition-dense chatter and obvious voice-overs are silenced in favor of good old-fashioned chases and shoot-outs. It’s a shame that Bloody Monday is such a mixed bag, as its paranoid, the Russians-are-out-to-get-us plot could be the basis of a terrific, globe-trotting thriller. – Katherine Dacey

Chi’s Sweet Home, Vols. 7-8 | By Konata Konami | Vertical, Inc. – Now that I own a cat, I’ve developed an even deeper appreciation for the genius of Konata Konami. So many of the details in Chi are beautifully observed, whether Chi is stalking new “prey” (a goldfish, a feather duster) or calculating the distance between two high perches. Konami also depicts new pet ownership with accuracy and warmth: like the Yamadas, I’ve spent a lot of time reading cat books in an effort to decode Francesca’s behavior, feed her the right food, and interpret symptoms of illness. I can’t speak to Chi’s relationship with Cocchi — my cat’s only animal companion is a frustrated herding dog — but even that feels right to me. A must for cat fanciers. – Katherine Dacey

Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 8 | By Kyousuke Motomi | VIZ Media – Make no mistake, this is easily the best volume of Dengeki Daisy yet. Okay, yes, part of the cliffhanger from last volume just sort of fizzles out, but it leads to Teru finally getting the full story (through flashbacks) about Kurosaki’s past as a dangerous hacker and his relationship with Soichiro and the various former coworkers with whom he still associates. Although mangaka Kyousuke Motomi can’t quite manage to write a compelling mystery plot—any attempts to hint at some vast conspiracy are generally vague and uninteresting, though we do get a little direction on who’s orchestrating the attacks on Teru—there’s still some good stuff here for fans of these characters, especially in the way Soichiro draws a young, heartbroken Kurosaki out of his shell. I do have to wonder, though, whether returning to the present day will feel like a let down after this. – Michelle Smith

Fairy Tail, Vol. 17 | By Hiro Mashima | Kodansha Comics – I have to admit, Mashima is starting to lose me here. There’s a lot going on in this volume provided you like fights – but if you’re not a big shonen fight fan, the only thing to grab a hold of is the big plot revelation, which brings back someone who I’m not really sure we all wanted to see back. Yeah, I know ‘no one dies in shonen comics’ has become somewhat of a cliche, but this just felt very underwhelming. It doesn’t help that I still have trouble holding the new characters in my head, be they heroes or villains. On the plus side, Erza being out of the action for most of the volume gives Gray a chance to shine. And the cliffhanger, involving Loke, makes me really want to know what happens next. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to save a substandard volume of this series.-Sean Gaffney

I Love You, Chief Clerk! | By Keiko Kinoshita | JManga – BL anthologies are probably my least favorite type of manga to review. With a handful of exceptions (est em, for example), BL mangaka, at least those currently published in English, seem to be especially inept at the admittedly difficult art of telling a satisfying, well-developed story in just one or two chapters. Happily, Keiko Kinoshita proves herself to be one of the exceptions. Despite its simplistic title, I Love You, Chief Clerk! is a charming collection of short romance manga that manage to get right to the heart of their stories without feeling rushed or skimpy. Kinoshita deftly introduces her characters and defines their relationships, past and present, with just a few sure strokes. She’s not concerned so much with resolution as she is with creating a few truly genuine moments, and that’s all it takes to bring her adorable short stories to life. Gratefully recommended. – MJ

Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 7 | By Kiiro Yumi and Hiro Arikawa | VIZ Media – While readers have been reading about the not-quite-romance between Kasahara and Dojo, the plot has been slowly building up, and this is the volume where a lot of the plot cannons are fired. Following up on last volume, Tezuka gets a lot of development here, and I was also pleased to see Shibazaki’s lunch dates continue. But the real meat of this is the plot with our heroine, as a conspiracy tries to frame her and she has to lay low while her friends figure out who’s behind it. Seeing the social and normally upbeat Kasahara being so beaten down and downtrodden is quite heartbreaking, and more so when we know she’s “trying to be strong” – exactly what Dojo *doesn’t* want. For those who wanted more library wars in this manga, this is the volume to get.-Sean Gaffney

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Vol. 11 | Art by Haku Tsugano, Story by Nagaru Tanigawa, Characters by Noizi Ito | Yen Press – The eleventh volume of Haruhi Suzumiya irresistibly reminded me of a classic Star Trek plot line, in which a rift in time, a strange illness, or an amnesia-inducing event causes the crew to act out of character. For Harhui and her friends, the sudden rash of odd behavior begins when they’re banished to an alternate dimension; only by solving a math puzzle can they return to their normal lives. Newcomers will find this volume a difficult place to begin exploring this unique series, as the story relies too heavily on the reader’s prior knowledge of the characters. Die-hards, however, will find more of what they like: humorous interplay between characters, off-beat mysteries, and occasional bits of fanservice. -Katherine Dacey

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 11 | By Yuki Midorikawa | Viz Media – I know this is a monthly manga, but at times the author really seems to plot her arcs out to the individual volumes. The first half shows Natsume bonding even more with Tanuma and Taki (OT3!!!… sorry), and finding that he can rely on them to be there for him no matter what. Then in the 2nd half, we see that as much as he may want to open up, it’s simply not that easy given what he goes through every day… and what he went through as a child. We are our upbringing, after all. There’s also some nice yokai examination here – even the “nice” ones are still distrustful and uncomprehending about humanity. This even applies to Nyanko-sensei, who’s still saying he’s only hanging around to get the Book of Friends after all this time. Rather than admitting the deep bond he and Natsume have forged. Terrific stuff.-Sean Gaffney

No Longer Human, Vol. 3 | By Usamaru Furuya, Based on the novel by Osamu Dazai | Vertical, Inc. – In the afterword to volume three, Usamaru Furuya admits that as a teenager, he “found beauty” in the hero’s “ruinous lifestyle.” That admission is key to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of Furuya’s adaptation of No Longer Human. On the one hand, it’s immediate and visceral, depicting a young man’s fall from grace in symbolically rich imagery; Furuya has succeeded in translating an ambiguous text into a feverish nightmare of father-hate and drunken debauchery. On the other, many of the nuances of Dazai’s text have been filed away, making Yozo’s transformation seem more pedestrian than it did in the novel; it’s a Lifetime movie about addiction, minus a third-act redemption. Still, for readers new to Dazai’s work, Furuya’s adaptation provides a sturdy bridge between the original novel and the present day, showing readers that No Longer Human is as relevant now as it was in 1948. – Katherine Dacey

Only Serious About You, Vol. 2 | By Kai Asou | Digital Manga Publishing – Though I know of a few gay men who read and enjoy BL manga, the fact remains that it’s a genre written by women for women. Reading this second volume of Only Serious About You, however, made me think that here is a series I would recommend to any gay man, pre-existing manga fan or not. The evolution of the relationship between single dad Oosawa and his former customer, Yoshioka, is handled with sensitivity and realism, and the bond they share caring for Oosawa’s daughter, Chizu, is seriously touching. Yoshioka had a tough childhood, and helping to raise Chizu is like a healing experience for him, and when reserved Oosawa finally decides to accept all that Yoshioka’s willing to give, it’s sniffle time. The sense of family among these three is palpable, and a great example of the loving home two men can provide a child. A lovely, lovely story. More by Kai Asou, please! – Michelle Smith

A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 1

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By Miyoshi Tomori. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Viz.

I must admit, when I first started reading A Devil and Her Love Song, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Maria. Sure, she was blunt, and I quite like blunt heroines, but she seemed just a bit too stoic for me. Was she really going to be able to carry a 13-volume shoujo manga. Also, the genki blonde male co-star was really getting on my nerves. Then within a couple of pages she shows us how much of that ‘get on my nerves’ attitude was a facade (hint: all of it), and does a head tilt that must easily be seen to be believed. You’d think she was totally mocking him if she weren’t so deadly serious and incapable of understanding sarcasm. That was when I began to love Maria Kawai.

Speaking of those two guys, there not nearly as reverse harem as I might have expected. Shin is likeable right away, especially for long time readers of shoujo manga, and I’ve a feeling that he and Maria will be the main couple. Yasuke is perhaps more interesting to me personally, however. I noted that he annoyed me at the start, and that really didn’t precisely go away as the volume went on. I did like the growing sense of unease that he feels, especially as Shin notes that his act isn’t really working as well as he thinks. Maria is simply the only one willing to call him out on it. His best moment is right at the end, where he opens up to Maria and reveals how much of his life is a deliberate lie. Usually the “broken bird” type in manga like this is someone like Shin – grumpy, cynical, worn down by past events. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Yusuke in future volumes.

Back to Maria for a bit, as I wanted to discuss something else that separates this series from most other generic shoujo mangas with a blunt, in your face heroine – her faith. Japan has a very casual relationship with Catholicism, and its depictions in shoujo manga tend to simply involve the Catholic School as a setting – the strict nun teachers, praying to the Virgin Mary about someone’s love life, etc. Maria, however, seems to have a genuine faith. Not in an active, religious sense, but more a faith in the good in man, and belief in oneself. It’s a very personal faith, and one I can easily identify with. Of course, that faith also brings with it a great helping of sin, and Maria certainly seems to have a low opinion of herself – something that’s helped along by everyone around her.

For Maria is highly empathic. Which unfortunately, combined with no social filters, leads her to tell everyone exactly what she thinks, and point out the obvious walls that everyone puts up to protect themselves from being hurt. Maria has no such walls, and so is hurt all the time, to the point where she almost seems dulled to pain. Almost, but not quite – her “date” with Shin not only shows us that she can be passionate about something (even if it’s goth-loli shoes), but that she is aware of how she is to other people. She holds herself to impossible standards, and when everyone around her says she’s a horrible person (usually for calling them on their shit), it only reinforces her lack of belief. Back to faith again – Maria wants to believe in herself, in a Maria Kawai who she can love and be proud of. But since she hates herself, this faith has nowhere to go. Except into singing “Amazing Grace”.

The old hymn appears a few times throughout this volume, sung by Maria, who has a beautiful angelic voice. When I grew up, I didn’t realize that I was taught a “censored” version of the song – the lyrics in the 2nd line that I learned were “that saved and set me free”. The original, of course, carries a far greater sense of self-loathing – “that saved a wretch like me”. It is this version that Maria sings. She believes herself unworthy of being saved, but desperately wants to be. (I will note that this manga does feature a cast of female classmates who all hate the heroine, a peril in many shoujo manga. But Maria doesn’t exactly warm the heart. I’m hoping as the series goes on, we’ll get her some female friends.)

I could keep writing – I found a lot to talk about with this series. Probably a sign of how good it is. Go and get the first volume.