Sean Gaffney

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.

We have arrived at the end of “The End Of The World” arc, and just as predicted, things quickly turn sour. This is not a fairy tale with a happy ending, but a story of two children getting broken, one by supernatural happenstance, the other by his own “loving” parents. Hata has said he had this arc planned nearly from the start, but it kept getting put off. My guess is Sunday’s editors wanted to wait till the series was popular enough that it could withstand 10 chapters that are nothing whatsoever like what has come before it.

These three final chapters to the arc are heartbreaking. I’ve gone on about Hayate’s parents before, so won’t do so now (they’re loathsome monsters, FYI). The rift between Hayate and Athena, though, is that of two six-year-olds who find that sometimes you say things you can’t take back. We don’t know exactly what happened to Athena’s parents, though certainly we can guess based on her reaction here. And so they fight (and Athena seems to be possessed by evil at some point), and she tells Hayate to leave. Which he does. And again, words you can’t take back. There’s a nice mirror of both children looking up desperately to hope the other has returned, only to find cold reality instead.

We have no idea how Athena left the castle, but we do get Hayate’s aftermath – and we also meet his brother! Yes, a family member of Hayate’s who is not hateful and deceptive. While you’re left wondering why his brother leaves Hayate with those parents, his advice is certainly good… though it comes a little too late. And so Hayate is resolved to become the best he can be, but also closes off his heart to a certain degree. He’s also resolved, if he ever meets Athena again, to tell her that she was right and he was wrong, at least in regards to his parents.

And hey, what a coincidence! Athena is now 10 years older, and in Athens! And dressed entirely in black – not suspicious at all! But I doubt we’ll see her again. After all, it’s not like the entire cast is going to wind up in Greece anytime soon…

So we have the rest of the volume, which is devoted to the entire cast, in various ways, ending up on a holiday in Greece. We’re not there yet, of course, so it’s also an excuse to catch up with characters shoved to the side by the enormous Hayate/Athena story. (Nagi and Maria lampshade this, in one of the funnier parts of the book.) Maria in particular gets a rare focus here, as she goes on a pretend date with Hayate, who is being stalked by a mysterious girl who is obsessed with him and wants him dead. (Well, no, not really.) They’re cute together, but you’re reminded that Maria still sometimes sees Hayate as a toy to dress up rather than as an actual male – she’s far less comfortable when reminded of that.

And then there’s Ayumu and Hinagiku, who continue to bond here – in fact, Hina makes a big sacrifice in order to advance her cause in a contest (the winner of which gets two tickets to Athena – subtlety went back out the window once Athena left the manga, in case you weren’t aware). And Nagi seems to be starting to learn the value of money – very slowly. And of course, there’s Fumi, who in a manga composed entirely of eccentrics manages to outdo them all – her answer for the ‘what is a fire station symbol’ question makes your jaw drop.

Casual readers will get nothing out of this, as it’s entirely dependent on knowing the characters. But longtime Hayate readers will enjoy it, and may be happy we’re back to the standard comedic antics after a long hiatus of drama. And Volume 19 is only 5 months away, rather than 6! Progress!

By Yasuto Yamamoto. Released in Japan by Futabasha, serialized in the magazine Manga Action. Released in the United States by Futabasha on the JManga website.

Just as we see here in the West, a lot of Japanese manga thrives on ‘fantasies’, and having the reader imagine a world in which they (or rather, the character they are meant to identify with) were really awesome. For boys this could be ‘what if I was a super ninja?’. For teenagers it could be ‘what if I was surrounded by various girls all trying to get into my pants?’. And for 35-year-old salarymen, married with kids but balding, bullied at work, and dealing with disrespectful in-laws, the question might be ‘what if I had been born a ninja?’.

This is the problem that our hero, Nobuo Matsuri, is dealing with. He was raised by his clan to be a ninja, an instrument of secret death. But then he met Aya and fell in love. Now he’s abandoned his ninja ways and is trying to make it in the world as a lowly salaryman. He’s not attractive, he tends to back down from any conflict at work, and he is generally seen as a goofy screw up. But all this is to conceal his old life from his wife and kids, and his old clan are still sending enemies out to kill him at every turn. Luckily, he still has his ninja skills.

At times, this manga almost reads like a parody. The situations can be ludicrous, though they’re always taken seriously. Nobuo not only has his gorgeous wife, who’s devoted to him and with whom he has amazing sex (which we see several times – this is a mature title), but a co-worker at work was rescued by his ninja self, and has unknowingly fallen for him. She’s cute too. The contrast between Nobuo wanting to have a simple, everyday life yet being constantly beset by insanity can be a bit head-spinning – at one point he’s trying to save his daughter from a sadistic teacher (who in turn it’s revealed was sexually abused by his own mother) who believes that all children are just dolls, and then he is at a party where rich guests decide to set a lion on him and see how much fun can be had watching him get eaten. As I said, you’re wondering if it’s meant to be this serious.

But yes, of course it is. The ninja scenes are played with the utmost seriousness, and Nobuo may be overweight and balding but that doesn’t mean he’s past it as a ninja. He tries to avoid killing his enemies, but will do so if pressed. And the ninja combat scenes do look pretty badass. As for his family, his daughter seems to have unknowingly inherited some of his ninja talents, as seen in the arc with the teacher, and his hateful mother-in-law, who belittles him every chance she gets, may have a dark secret of her own. As for his wife, well, she’s unaware he’s a ninja (so far – there’s a cliffhanger) and generally sees him as this lovable but great guy. Her character is therefore a bit flat. Her strongest scene comes when she’s rejecting the old high-school lothario who’s now trying to hit on her since he’s rich and successful and her husband is a loser. Needless to say, she stands by her man.

JManga’s translation is fine, but the lettering does pose a problem. A lot of the series takes place in the evening, and features Nobuo’s inner monologue as he thinks about true love prevailing and why must all this happen to him. Unfortunately, the text is also black, with a very fine white border. This makes it very hard to read, especially as it’s presented next to the unaltered Japanese text (just for the inner monologues, the dialogue uses standard word balloons) which has a much stronger white border and is much easier to read. I realize that there’s space issues involved here with the translation, but hopefully it’s something that can be fixed in future volumes.

Parody or no, Ninja Papa is not a manga to be taken seriously. However, if you like watching ninjas get waylaid at every corner, taken on many assassins at once, and then return to their hot wife and beautiful family, well, you are likely the audience Ninja Papa is going for. Fight on for love, Nobuo!

By Naoko Takeuchi. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Run Run. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

And here is where it all began – Takeuchi’s first big success (which was immediately subverted by its own publishers and then cannibalized into Sailor Moon) and the debut of Minako Aino, the only senshi besides Usagi not to give off that ‘I am ostracized from my peers and need a purpose in life’ vibe. Mainly as she and Usagi are the everyday heroines, and therefore get the everyday lives. Indeed, their families could be almost identical, minus Usagi’s younger brother. There are a few differences, though.

In fact, the cover pretty much gives the biggest one. Usagi is a sweet, but reluctant superhero who has to be dragged into her first few battles as villains are scary. Minako has no such issues. She is athletic, hyperactive, and ready and willing to leap into being a superhero, after a few initial shocks. She’s battling Dark Kingdom enemies as well – though these are far more of the monster-of-the-week variety – but she also uses Sailor V to catch bank robbers and generally ‘do good’. Not that she’s perfect – she also uses her magic tools to cheat at homework, and wonders at one point how to make money out of all this – but Minako’s proactiveness seeps through every panel here.

Usagi also had her main cast – she met Mamoru, Ami and Rei almost immediately. Minako pretty much just has Artemis there to poke her into doing the right thing and groan at her hijinks. Yes, she technically has a best friend (who, sadly, does not have a T-shirt reading ‘I am not Ami Mizuno’ like earlier scanlations gave her) and an annoying otaku classmate like Umino (the otaku actually gets more screentime than the best friend, oddly enough), but most of the time Minako sets out on these missions on her own, and you can tell that by the time they got to integrating her into Sailor Moon (especially the anime) they wanted to play up the Lone Wolf aspect of her.

The manga is very episodic in general – unlike Sailor Moon, which has a feel of an epic romance almost from the start, Sailor V looks like an action comedy, and doesn’t really gain depth until midway through it. The series ran very irregularly in Nakayoshi’s spin-off Run Run, and once Sailor Moon started, you’d see long breaks between chapters – sometimes yearly breaks. You can pretty much see the exact point the series goes from regular to irregular – it’s lampshaded by having Minako pass by Usagi in the final panel of the chapter.

Some other interesting things to note. Minako and Artemis here are communicating with a mysterious ‘boss’ who’s giving them orders – something which may puzzle those who know Sailor Moon. Is it Luna? No, can’t be, she won’t wake up Sailor Moon for about a year. (I did like Minako being 13 here, a year younger than Usagi in Sailor Moon, which means no timeline issues when the other senshi in Sailor Moon note Sailor V’s been fighting evil for over a year now). The identity of the power-that-be is an intriguing mystery.

Likewise, one of the highlights of each chapter is seeing Minako use her disguise pen to change into a different outfit, complete with pose – note how they’re timed to match the page turn, students of manga art! Usagi did this at the start of Sailor Moon as well, but it gets dropped once the manga gets more serious. My personal favorite when when she turned herself into a male teen idol – and seemed pretty much fine with it. (Bet she experimented when she got home too… *whack* Ow.)

The final chapter might give us a taste of what’s to come in the second and final volume of Sailor V. It’s more serious in general, and for the first time Minako’s disguise pen is used for serious purposes. There’s a more melancholy feeling to it, and it actually bookends nicely with the opening chapter. You sense that Minako is not going to be able to continue in the wacky adventures line for much longer. But for now she is, and thank goodness. Minako is my favorite of the ‘main five’ senshi, and I’d read the Japanese version of this (in 3 volumes) with a text translation years and years ago. It’s fantastic to see it here, and see Minako fight for (and sometimes run roughshod over) justice.

By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

We are perhaps in a golden age of strong, spunky shoujo heroines. Minako from Sailor Moon is back in the spotlight. Iku from Library Wars is beating up those who would dare censor books. And now we have Mafuyu from Oresama teacher, who may have to dress up like a guy due to circumstance, but has shown that she is the one to bet on in a fight over anyone. Heck, I think she could take out Ichigo from Bleach if she tried.

It is entirely possible that this is not someone’s brand of humor, but it just happens to be mine. Mafuyu is wonderful. The way that she finds herself thinking like a thug in order to solve problems. And even better, the fact that she’s still learning as she goes, where she finds for the first time what it means to have someone you like injured because of you. And then, of course, there’s pretending to be a gay boy rather than a girl in order to fool the easily fooled Hayasaka. And any interactions she has with Takaomi are fantastic, if only as he can still wrap her around his finger without even trying.

There’s an awful lot of fighting in this manga, so much so that I wonder if it might be better marketed to Jump fans. Even better, as with last volume we see that Tsubaki is actually training her readers on the mechanics of being in a fight. Last time it was escaping from being tied up, here it’s how to dodge and parry, something that poor Hayasaka and his straight-ahead mind have simply never learned to do. Mafuyu’s actually quite a good teacher, but she’s up against a formidable opponent here, and I hope Hayasaka starts taking her lessons to heart before he dies.

I particularly enjoy seeing all the characters that you think are there to be goofball and comic show their inner badass. Maizono, Mafuyu’s masochistic third in command from her old gang, shows up to bring her a present. He never finds her (a given, since he asks the two guys who don’t know she’s a fighter), but we get a good chance to see that while he’s a goofball in front of her, he can fight like a demon when pressed. In fact, it’s notable how Mafuyu’s big problem in her new school is that she DOESN’T have a gang yet. Her old friends were trained fighters who all knew each other’s best strengths and weaknesses. Here she only has Hayasaka, who refuses to duck.

And lest we think that Mafuyu has it all together and isn’t an idiot as well, there’s that final chapter, where she completely forgets that she can’t swim. There’s a bit of romantic tease in it (really the only tease in the whole volume), but it’s second to simply laughing at everyone. There are no subtle characters here. Oresama Teacher is in-your-face gags about a girl who simply cannot stop being a delinquent fighter. And that’s why we love it.

By Naoko Takeuchi. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

I will try my best, but don’t expect me to be unbiased here. This is one of the most anticipated re-releases in the last 10 years, and I have been waiting for what seems like FOREVER. And now, it seems, it’s finally here. Sailor Moon is back, and she is Usagi Tsukino again, and the series, as reprinted in Japan with updated art (and a few rewrites of dialogue) from Takeuchi herself, is ours once again.

I can’t really summarize, so I’ll just try to give my thoughts. I really liked this volume. Takeuchi is clearly taking the time to develop a very different heroine from Minako’s Sailor Venus, one better suited for the long haul of character development, like the best shoujo heroines. As a result, Usagi may grate on some in this volume, especially if they’re reading it in conjunction with Code Name Sailor V. She doesn’t want to be a hero. She finds lethal danger terrifying, strangely enough. Luckily, she has various weapons and allies at her disposal, and (leaving aside the poses for the reader) does a good job despite her faults. What we really notice her is her ability to make friends, and get even the hardest of hearts to open up to her. Even Rei, who’s the coolest (and grumpiest) of the cast, is worried about her instantly.

Speaking of the other senshi, I like how they’re all different yet share a similar background of feeling as though they don’t belong. Ami is looked on as a prodigy, with all the good and bad that this implies, and seems to have taken it a bit too much to heart. “All that I’m good for is studying”, she says at one point, making one wonder if she has the typical “education mama” behind her. Rei, in contrast to her anime counterpart, gives off a cool and frosty aura, and has those who visit the shrine wonder if she uses supernatural miko powers for evil purposes. As for Makoto, well, she’s dressed like your standard 80s shoujo manga girl gang member. She’s huge, left her school for ‘unknown’ reasons, and no doubt has knives under that skirt. Scary girls, all of them.

Except, of course, they’re all nice as pie. (Well, OK, Rei is nice as sour cherry pie. But give her time.) What’s more, being a senshi gives them all a new purpose, and all three seem to feel as if this is the destiny they’ve been waiting for. It’s actually spelled out by Makoto, in her speech towards the end of her chapter. Fate brought them together. Now, Usagi’s backstory doesn’t match theirs – she’s well-liked and has no issues with lacking a purpose. So Sailor Moon isn’t quite as defining for her. It’s almost as if she has yet to discover her true role…

I had forgotten how fast things move in the manga. Most of Western fandom is more familiar with the anime plotlines and pacing, where it’s a good 8 episodes before we even meet Ami. Here we’ve already got 4 of the 5 main senshi before the book is out, and the entirety of the first ‘arc’ will be finished by Volume 3. This is a pacey series, which does not have patience for long protracted battles the way shonen manga does. Sailor Moon’s battles are fairly perfunctory and noticeably lacking in awesome moves. How the villains die is not quite the issue here. However, this does allow the main plotline to become relevant, and there are no monsters of the week. The search for the Silver Crystal (and the Princess) are what everyone is concentrating on, and Jadeite and Nephrite don’t get many second chances before they are dispatched. (By the way, the senshi kill off the bad guys here. Get used to that, much more than the anime.)

There’s some great humor here, but unlike the action comedy that is Sailor V, this is pegging itself as an epic romance. That Mamoru is Tuxedo Mask surprises no one, as clearly he and Usagi have that ‘destined’ look when they first meet in Chapter 1. After all, they bicker with each other. (By the way, the whole ‘secret identity’ thing gets kind of tossed aside right away here. Sailor Moon calls out the real names of her fellow senshi right off the bat, and there seems to be no issue of ‘why don’t they get that it’s the girls they know?’ here, as no one really sees them closely unless they’re unconscious or a villain.) The climax to this volume is actually more effective than the original Volume 1, which ended one chapter earlier. It makes you want to get more right away.

The presentation here is fine. I’m sure there are some translation issues, but I didn’t bother to get out my old Tokyopop editions and do a line-by-line compare. Nothing jarred enough that it made me want to verify anything, which is just fine. I particularly enjoyed Sailor Moon comparing Tuxedo Mask to Lupin III. (Usagi, you’re no Fujiko-chan.) This is the reprint edition from Japan, meaning we get nice new pretty covers (no stickers, though), and Kodansha’s usual liner notes. I do miss Takeuchi’s author’s notes in the originals, but she removed them from the reprint, so what are you going to do? They are basically more variations on ‘I am a busy and fluffy shoujo writer!’ in any case.

If you’re a big Sailor Moon fan, you’re going to be buying this anyway. If you’re not, well, Usagi may grate on you a bit at first, but give her time. The series is worth it. And the women in it kick eight kinds of ass. (Usagi, OK, does not kick as much ass. At least physically. But she gets to be the emotional core.) As we get further into the series, everyone will get even better. Highly recommended.

By Kan Sakurai and Jun Hayase. Released in Japan by Futabasha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Manga Action. Released in the United States by Futabasha on the JManga website.

Given that JManga is trying to release various types of manga that would not normally be licensed in North America, it was inevitable that we would get a manga devoted to food. Yes, we’ve seen over the top titles such as Yakitate!! Japan and Iron Wok Jan, and Viz even managed to punch out a few volumes of Oishinbo, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Japan loves its food, and loves to read manga about people talking about it. And with Ekiben Hitoritabi, we get cross-pollination with another Japanese obsession… trains.

Our hero, Daisuke, has just celebrated his 10th anniversary, and is quite happy running a bento shop with his wife Yuko. She has noticed, however, that he gets a wanderlust in his eyes when he reads train magazines. And so for an anniversary present, she buys him a railway journey – a trip around Japan, on various slow trains (many of which don’t exist anymore, which shows how fast Japan is modernizing, as this manga began in 2006) which will allow him to see the countryside, obsess about trains, and eat various specialty bentos made by the locals.

Train bentos are genuinely famous in Japan, and each station stop tries to make theirs unique and appealing for the weary traveler. Of course, Yuko is not going with him on this trip – someone has to stay behind and run the business. So we see Daisuke set off alone to marvel at scenery, engines and food. About three chapters in, the author recalls what magazine this runs in, and adds a cute girl reporter, Nana, who is tracking down a story and runs into Daisuke on the train. Coincidentally, she also runs into him later in the volume, and serves the purpose of being the designated female in this manga – as well as being equally obsessed with food. She’s not as obsessed with trains, which allows Daisuke to spout the odd bit of history throughout.

Most manga like this run the risk of being dry, and indeed there were several times in this volume that I wanted something to happen other than talking about trains and food. There’s not really a plot here beyond seeing Daisuke going from station to station. And though he occasionally eyes Nana while sweating slightly, or begs forgiveness of his wife in his head for doing so, there’s honestly no indication that he and Nana are destined to have an affair – a good thing given he’s on an anniversary trip given to him by his wife! No, we aren’t heading forward, we’re meandering.

On the other hand, if you are interested in trains or Japanese train bentos, this is a treasure trove. The food is lovingly depicted and described, and you can tell that the authors had a ball researching this. Enthusiasm for the food is tempered by a melancholy nostalgia when discussing the trains, as invariably they start talking about various trains and lines which are defunct, or have been replaced solely by high speed rail. When we do see a unique train car, it’s drawn with the same attention to detail as the food – there’s honestly quite a good balance between the two obsessions here.

Artwise, aside from the food and the trains, things are fairly stiff. The faces aren’t quite as hard to get used to as Oishinbo, to be fair. Daisuke is a stocky, bearded guy, very appropriate for his profession and love of food. (Another manga by the author in the 1990s, about fishing, also featured a stocky bearded guy with a hot wife – methinks I can guess what the author looks like.) Nana is cute rather than sultry, and I’m hoping in future volumes the two develop a brother-sister type bond – though this does run in Manga Action, which features at least three series I know of with lovingly depicted adultery in them, so who knows?

I enjoyed this manga, but let’s be honest – unless you’re really interested in bentos or trains, you won’t find much here. It’s a narrow market, but plays to that market with all the strength it’s got. And yes, after reading it, you WILL be hungry.

By Yoshinobu Yamada. Released in Japan as “Eden no Ori” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Sometimes, when reading yet another shonen manga, I do wonder why authors keep going to the same bag of tricks. The same character types, the same plot beats, all cliches. Then you read a title like Cage of Eden and it makes sense. It’s because they’re proven winners. People have succeeded with this plot and these types of characters over and over again. So while originality is totally lacking here, no one is reading Cage of Eden for that. You’re reading it to see how the heroes will possibly get out of this one.

And so we meet our cast: our hero and ‘class clown’ Akira, who acts up in order to cover for his feeling inadequate against his smarter, more handsome friends; his childhood friend Rion, who has grown up to be gorgeous and busty, and he is absolutely not in love with nope uh uh no way; our hero’s cool friend (I bet his teeth glint when he smiles); the computer nerd type who doesn’t want to socialize with people not in his intellectual league; the vaguely psychotic punk looking for a fight; and the useless adult figurehead.

After a brief ‘here is a class returning from their summer vacation school trip’ scene, we get into the plot proper, as the plane crashes. Our hero wakes up in the midst of a seemingly deserted island, quickly meets up with the geek kid and the crybaby stewardess, and sets about trying to figure out where they are, where everyone else is, if they can ever get home, and… wait, why are there prehistoric monsters here?

I should mention first off that the fanservice is really out in force here. Cute teenage girls, hot naked stewardesses, panties flashes galore. Of course, it’s not just sex. There’s a heaping helping of gore and violence here as well, and a large number of cool looking extinct or imaginary animals. If you define fanservice as giving the fans what they want, then the whole volume is basically this.

As for the rest, it’s nice seeing Akira take on the hero role that he clearly owns so early on. Given the situation they’re in, a lot of “Eh!… No way!” is here, but when it’s life or death, Akira proves surprisingly competent, while still remaining a realistic ‘normal guy’ trapped in a horrible situation. As for his companions, Shiro may be a nerd, but his smartness isn’t limited just to books; he looks to be a long-term planner as well. And Kanako, the stewardess… well, she’s the type who will either get killed off next volume or suddenly show she’s been badass all this time. I’m not sure which right now.

The title is rated OT by Kodansha, and with good reason. There’s a scene towards the end that shows mob mentality and panic in action, and not only is there a lot of blood, but several graphic rapes are hinted at. This is clearly meant to show that the heroes are completely cut off from civilization, and it works; it’s quite disturbing.

So this is manga candy, a page-turning thriller that you won’t be going back to over and over to get the hidden depth, but which is a lot of fun as you’re reading it. Hopefully in the next volume our heroes will continue to discover other classmates, battle large animals, and try to discover what the heck is going on. Well, assuming our hero wasn’t just killed on the last page of Volume 1…