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Lunchtime indecision

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My mind is quite scattered today. I spent my unusually long commute this morning (thanks, construction season) pondering Great Truths of Our Time, such as “Dunkin’ Donuts has better coffee than McDonald’s,” and “Those who ignore ‘yield’ signs are douchebags,” and since then I’ve encountered quite a bit of online conversation that has caused me to develop Deep Thoughts. First, some comments in Michelle’s blog got me thinking about my futile struggle with assigning grades in reviews, followed by an e-mail exchange that gave me a few new thoughts on yaoi (and wow, reading that old post, I’m struck with how much clearer a perspective I have on the subject now). Finally there came Lissa Pattillo’s post about Twitter which inspired some reflections on my own tweeting experience. In the end, however, here I am at lunchtime with no real direction to speak of. So I put it to you, dear readers (poll after the jump):

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Click 3 by Youngran Lee: B-

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From the back cover:
Joonha, the transgender headcase, and Taehyun, the hotshot rich kid, are actually becoming buddies—so much so that they even team up to take down a card shark at the casino Taehyun’s family runs. Is the friendship about to turn into something… more?

Meanwhile, figures from Joonha’s past keep popping up—and stirring up real trouble. His old friend Jinhoo, now a star piano player, is back in Seoul and not going anywhere. And former nice girl Heewon: is she really as nasty as she acts, or is it all a front? Could she be the reason why brainy Jihan suddenly isn’t wearing his glasses anymore?

Review:
I’m not sure what it is about Click that makes it so addictive. I think perhaps the emphasis on character relationships over anything else is partly responsible, because the plot itself is pretty much just day-to-day things, even though what passes for day-to-day in Taehyun’s life is his stepfather accusing him of being gay, plotting business takeovers, winning at high stakes poker games, et cetera.

Also, now that the mechanics of Joonha’s gender change are out of the way, the uncertainty of the other characters regarding her true gender is pretty interesting. Taehyun’s definitely attracted to her, but unable to really convince himself she’s a girl. Heewon, despite Joonha telling her outright that she’s a girl (though she made up a story about having been a girl all along) is in denial and insists to her friend that Joonha’s a guy. And Jinhoo is completely clueless, though the volume ends with a cliffhanger in which he seems poised to find out (or to at least spot Joonha in a girl’s uniform).

I also love the wordless reunion between Jinhoo and Joonha and the fact that when Joonha tells Taehyun she’s starting to like him, she doesn’t mean romantically (at least, I don’t think so), but rather means that she wants to be like him, a cool badass kind of guy. I can almost like Joonha now, but her nasty personality emerges once again when confronted with Jinhoo’s girlfriend. I also can’t stand Heewon, with her profanity, violence, and propensity for ordering people around like they’re her servants.

I think of a B- as meaning, “I enjoy this despite its flaws,” which fits Click pretty well.

Love/Knot

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By Hiroko Ishimaru
Digital Manga Publishing, 200 pp.
Rating: M (18+)

Keigo Someha is a private detective who retrieves a boy he finds collapsed in the street and brings him home. To his shock, the boy (Emiya) asks to stay with him forever, which Keigo refuses until it turns out that Emiya has extrasensory abilities that can help Keigo in his work. Unfortunately, Emiya can also see Keigo’s hidden secrets, including the fact that he moonlights as an assassin. When Keigo discovers that Emiya has escaped from a secret government facility he tries to protect him, but with a tracking device implanted in Emiya’s neck the government is capable of finding him anywhere. Soon Keigo and Emiya realize they have fallen in love and Keigo becomes even more determined to wrest Emiya from the powerful grip of the government.

This manga has numerous elements that could make up an interesting story but they are all so underdeveloped that there is honestly no real chance. All the most intriguing bits–Keigo’s side job as an assassin, Emiya’s life-long isolation from the real world, the government project Emiya is being used for–are addressed only on the most surface level. Keigo mentions how surprised he is to fall in love after so many years as a killer, but he displays no evidence of any psychological damage or any real attachment to the job, so when he finally declares he is going to give it all up for Emiya’s sake, it’s about as dramatic as if he’d declared he was giving up sweets. Emiya’s innocence ends up being used only as running gag and a rather creepy device for explaining his ignorance in bed. The government project is barely explained and its main scientist’s sick fixation on Emiya is too shallow to be believed. The story’s art is serviceable and blandly attractive, but fades quickly from memory.

On the upside, Keigo and Emiya’s relationship is warm and consensual, even if develops much too quickly to be real, and there are a few nice scenes played out between them. Unfortunately this isn’t nearly enough to make up for the lack of depth throughout. Perhaps in a longer series, these characters could have been more fully realized, but as it is, Love/Knot fails to provide any real insight into the human heart.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at PopCultureShock.

Hitohira, Vol. 3

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By Idumi Kirihara
Aurora Publishing, 174 pp.
Rating: T (13+)

Timid Theater Research Group member Mugi takes the stage in her first leading role in the performance that will determine whether the club must be forced to disband. After a rocky start, she finally comes into her own as an actress even while club president Nono loses her voice onstage. Unfortunately, the club’s best efforts are not enough, and it is the official theater club that wins the fight for its existence. After the Theater Research Group’s members part ways, spunky freshman Chitose (an official theater club member still harboring a crush on senior Research Group member Takashi) suggests to Mugi that they have a Christmas party with the senior members of both their clubs to bring them all together again. The party is a success, but there is heartbreak in store for both girls, as Chitose is rejected by Takashi and Mugi finds out that her best friend, Kayo, is leaving to study overseas.

This volume is short on focus but this actually matches the emotional states of the characters quite well, ensuring that the reader feels keenly the shaky ground everyone is treading on for most of the volume. With all the primary characters at loose ends, it’s hard to see where things will go at this point, but fortunately the story is strong enough now to carry that kind of uncertainty and still compel readers to care what happens next. Though Nono’s voice has become a serious problem, her story takes a back seat in this volume, giving more attention to Mugi’s personal relationships (both with Kayo and love interest Kai) and the void left in her life after the dissolution of the club.

Despite the scattered feel of this volume, Hitohira continues to become more appealing as it goes along, providing more insight into its engaging group of characters as they struggle to discover their individual paths.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at PopCultureShock.

Manga minis + a lecture

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Good morning, all! I have a couple of reviews in this morning’s Manga Minis, for volume three of Hitohira (see my reviews for the first two volumes here and here), and for DMP/June’s BL one-shot, Love/Knot.

So, something that keeps coming up between me and another reviewer dear to me is a deep insecurity about our own reviews that kicks in whenever we read something written by the other. I think her reviews have an incredible clarity and power of description that immediately tells the reader whether or not a book is something they want to read–something I feel entirely helpless to achieve. She thinks my reviews are thoughtful and especially insightful into the emotional world of the characters, which she envies on some level. Basically, she thinks her reviews are missing the “big picture” and I think mine are missing the point. Most of the time, I think we just admire each other in a very constructive way that inspires us both to do our best, but sometimes we become disheartened by our perception of our own skills, and that’s when I think I have to pull out some kind of lecture on the subject for both of us to listen to. This is my attempt at that lecture. …

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You Will Drown in Love by Hinako Takanaga: B+

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Part companion volume to You Will Fall in Love and part sequel, You Will Drown in Love gives Reiichiro’s perspective of events as he reconnects with his long-lost best friend, Haru, and learns of Haru’s relationship with his younger brother, Tsukasa. After Haru rejects his confession of love, Reiichiro talks it over with his employee, Jinnai, who’s been giving him advice on a variety of topics ever since Reiichiro came on board as the manager of the fabric store where they both work. When Jinnai tells Reiichiro he loves him, both men must overcome some of their own bad habits if they’re going to be able to make a relationship work.

You Will Drown in Love is the kind of sequel that enriches rather than cheapens the original. Although Jinnai does not appear at all in You Will Fall in Love, by dovetailing the two storylines together, his friendship with Reiichiro is allowed to grow while the events of the first book play out and develop into love when Reiichiro’s involvement in the tale of Haru and Tsukasa comes to a close. As a result, he didn’t feel like an afterthought, but rather as someone whose opinions informed Reiichiro’s actions in the earlier work.

Like the first story, this is one of the more romantic boys’ love stories I’ve read, free from outside obstacles to the relationship or angst that makes no sense. The problems Reiichiro and Jinnai face arise because of their natures—Reiichiro is both naïve and sensitive while Jinnai uses humor as a defense—and are far more difficult to conquer than a mere lusty rival. My one real complaint is that Reiichiro’s naïveté is overdone to the point of unbelievability—what grown man would utter a sentence like, “Guys don’t normally kiss each other, right?” I do, however, adore his final line of the volume, which I will not spoil.

With its emphasis on communication and trust, this boys’ love romance is a cut above the rest.

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

Crimson Hero 10 by Mitsuba Takanashi: B

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The six members of the Crimson Field High School girls’ volleyball team have come a long way and are now participating in the Newcomers’ Tournament, an important stepping stone to their ultimate goal, the Spring Tournament. They win their first two rounds handily, but are faced with a tough opponent for the third round. Meanwhile, Nobara and Yushin are still keeping their feelings for each other a secret.

Even though I am far from athletic myself, there is something about sports manga that I adore. Crimson Hero does particularly well at giving each teammate a moment to shine and in recent volumes, each of the supporting girls has improved her skills in some way or another. The matches are also a lot of fun and easy to follow. Frankly, I wish there were more of them.

I’m a little frustrated on the romance front, though. Nobara has liked Yushin for a long time, and was firm about this even when she realized that another boy, Haibuki, had feelings for her. Now, when Yushin has finally reciprocated, Nobara’s suddenly starting to be affected by Haibuki, thinking things like, “These days your smile messes with my heart.” I was really hoping this series wouldn’t go down this road; the fact that it seems poised to do so is disappointing.

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

solanin

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Good morning, all! I’ve got a busy day ahead, but I wanted to point you to a review I posted last night, just barely making it in time for my self-imposed deadline (I love deadlines) in my column at Comics Should Be Good (reprinted here after the demise of CSBG), for Viz Media’s Eisner-nominated manga solanin.

I really liked this manga, but you know reading over my review again this morning… well, I think I said a lot of things I don’t actually believe. Heh. Because the truth is, I still do believe in following wild dreams. I don’t think adulthood is about accepting mediocrity and resigning yourself to a lifetime of meaningless jobs. I think maybe the only difference between me and the twenty-somethings in solanin is that I know it isn’t that simple. I know you sometimes have to endure the job you hate (or maybe find one you hate just a little less) in order to do the work and take the time required to pursue larger dreams. I know that letting go of the dreams of my youth isn’t the same thing as letting go of dreams in general–it’s just making room for new ones. I think it’s possible for dreams that appear crazy or unrealistic on the surface to actually be completely feasible as long as you’re willing to put in the work. And I don’t believe that we only have one chance in life to get things right, but that these chances turn up over and over again, ready to help us fulfill new dreams.

I guess I still believe that greatness is possible, and that I suppose I’m still clinging to my youthful notion that I was meant to contribute something meaningful to this world. I suppose that could be unrealistic, but I’ve never regretting believing it.

In any case… solanin. It is a beautiful manga with a lot to say, and I’d recommend it to pretty much anyone, and particularly to fans of western comics who I think might find it more palatable than a lot of other manga. Also, since it was just nominated for an Eisner, it’s a great time to encourage folks to pick this up! Enjoy. :)

solanin By Inio Asano Published by Viz Media

Twenty-something Meiko Inoue hates her office job, loves her underemployed boyfriend, and gets frustrated with the endless supply of vegetables her parents send her from home which just end up rotting in her fridge. After her boyfriend, Naruo, casually suggests she quit her job, she actually does (much to his surprise), though this brings her much less satisfaction than she’d hoped. Quitting provides relief but not direction, so amidst hours of mindless vegging and video games (while attempting to ignore impending financial doom), Meiko turns her focus on Naruo’s life by encouraging him to revive the rock band he left behind after college. Naruo’s child-like excitement as he finally lets himself indulge in an old dream is enough to invigorate both of them for a while, but eventually the reality of the adult world forces them to face their limitations head-on and evaluate what makes their lives worthwhile.

Solanin captures perfectly that particular time of life when each of us is first faced with the question of whether to pursue our heart’s wildest dreams or to instead seek happiness in less obvious places–that time when we determine whether we can (or must) succumb to a mediocre existence and what that even means in the first place. Is getting by day-to-day in the company of a familiar loved one enough, or must we strive for something grander–something that will outlast our meager human lifespan? These are issues that can (and do) persist throughout life, but there is something unique about those early years when it first becomes clear that it is even a question and the frequently paralyzing fear and uncertainty that goes with that.

While this could easily manifest itself in a self-indulgent angst-fest, fortunately mangaka Inio Asano addresses the subject with wry humor, simple honesty, and a real affection for his characters in their best and worst moments. He also avoids passing obvious judgement on their choices, letting their conflicted thoughts and frustrated lives stand on their own without (for the most part) inserting unnecessary drama into the mix. The downside of this is that the pacing occasionally suffers, particularly when the story shifts to focus on supporting characters, though this is a minor quibble at most. Meiko and Naruo are more than compelling enough on their own to sustain the story’s momentum, even through its slower patches. Asano’s understated sense of drama, bare-bones honesty, and thoughtful characterization take us back to a time when we all sought that intangible something–that soft, distant beacon in the murky haze of adulthood that, if only we could reach it, might somehow allow us to taste the exhilaration of freedom without leaving behind the comforts of home. He also reminds us of what most of us already know: the beacon is a mirage.

What this manga does not provide is escapism. There is no great purpose realized, no higher calling discovered, no deep secret revealed to carry the characters off into the sunset. Life’s perfect moments must inevitably pass into the mundane, and though this might suggest pessimism, that is not the tone of this comic at all, which is perhaps its greatest strength. If there is something profound to take away from solanin, it is that there is no universal measure for happiness or success, and that a life spent searching for something greater may ultimately have less meaning than one that is simply unexceptional.

One of the most striking things about this manga is the art, which is expressive, clean, and above all, distinctive. The character designs in particular display the same course honesty as the characters themselves, with realistic body-types and average looks. There is not a single overly-pretty character in solanin, which is surprisingly refreshing.

Originally published in two volumes in Japan, Viz’s release combines both into one double-length volume in the larger trim size characteristic of their Signature series, which includes two small sections of color pages, with a thick cover and high-quality paper, giving the book a nicely satisfying weight. Recently nominated for a 2009 Eisner award, this slice-of-life manga offers unique art, thoughtful characterization, and a refreshingly unromantic perspective on the transition to true adulthood.