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One Thousand and One Nights, Volume 8

June 25, 2009 by MJ 1 Comment

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 8
By Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok
Published by Yen Press

At the end of volume seven, Sehara sacrificed himself to save his sultan by offering to accompany the crusaders out of Baghdad as Lord McCloud’s bard in exchange for the safety of Shahryar and company. This volume begins as the events are being relayed to Sehara’s sister, Dunya, revealing further details of the exchange including an unexpectedly touching (and unusually erotic) good-bye from Sehara in which he kisses the end of Shahryar’s sword. …

Mushishi, Volume 7

June 24, 2009 by MJ 6 Comments

Mushishi, Vol. 7
By Yuki Urushibara
Published by Del Rey Manga

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The seventh volume Yuki Urushibara’s quiet, supernatural series strikes a particularly sinister tone as nearly all its stories expose the ugliest aspects of humanity. First, “Lost in Blossoms” involves a family who has been keeping one woman alive for hundreds of years by feeding her on a sap-like mushi and grafting her head onto younger bodies whenever hers is about to die. “At the Foot of Lightning” studies a mother who is utterly unable to love her own child or even care that he exists. “The Ragged Road,” told in two parts, delves into the darkest secrets of the Minai family–the most ancient line of mushishi–and what they are willing to do to themselves (and each other) in order to maintain their calling. Only the second story, “The Mirror in the Muck,” displays any kind of real hope for humanity, as its heartbroken heroine makes the choice to live on, even in pain, instead of allowing a mushi to steal her existence. Though these tales are almost uniformly bleak, the series remains no less beautiful or mysterious than it has from the beginning.

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Short Takes: The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Oishinbo A la Carte: Japanese Cuisine

June 24, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

This week’s Short Takes examines two manga aimed at adult audiences. (Notice I didn’t say “adult manga,” which is a different kettle of fish altogether, and not the sort of thing I typically review. Just sayin’.) The first is The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Dark Horse), a macabre series about a five oddballs who work with the recently departed; the second is Oishinbo a la Carte: Japanese Cuisine (Viz), a mouth-watering look at Japanese cuisine, from sushi and sake to ramen.

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The Cat in the Coffin

June 22, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

The year is 1955. Twenty-year-old Masayo, an aspiring painter from Hakodate, apprentices herself to Goro Kawabuko, a handsome widower who teaches at a Tokyo art college. In exchange for a weekly lesson, Masayo agrees to keep house for Goro and tutor his daughter Momoko, a strange, withdrawn child whose only companion is a regal white cat named Lala.

Masayo, who comes from a humble background, finds the Kawabuko household enchanting. Or, more accurately, she finds Goro enchanting. Goro epitomizes urban chic, hosting lavish parties, listening to jazz, and wearing the latest Western fashions. Realizing that Goro is beyond her reach, Masayo instead focuses on Momoko; if she can gain the girl’s confidance, perhaps she’ll have a claim on Goro’s heart as well. Masayo must first demonstrate her affinity for Lala, however, as the cat exerts an almost maternal power over Momoko, responding to her mistress’ quicksilver moods with an emotional intelligence that borders on human.

Masayo’s tenure is threatened by the arrival of Chinatsu, a beautiful sophisticate who seems intent on marrying Goro. Chinatsu competes with Masayo for Momoko’s affections, touching off a battle royal between the two women. Watching their struggle unfold, we begin to see through Masayo’s guileless pose: she’s as masterful a manipulator as Chinatsu, using her relationship with Momoko to drive a wedge between Goro and his fiancee:

For a wicked moment, I savored the momentary discomfiture that flickered across the faces of Goro and Chinatsu. Momoko had shown precious little interest in Chintasu; indeed, she had all but ignored her. And then she came running to me. It occurred to me then that aside from Goro, nobody was closer to Momoko than I was. That thought made me feel even more elated.

Like Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” The Cat in the Coffin draws its power from “the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy,” presenting itself as a domestic drama about a naive young woman who falls for her worldly employer. Yet the book has an oppressive, eerie quality that lends itself to several tantalizing readings: that Lala may be possessed by Momoko’s dead mother, that Momoko herself is a bad seed. By the novel’s end, the reader may believe Masayo’s account of events — and even feel great compassion for her — while questioning her involvement in them.

It’s this level of narrative complexity that elevates The Cat in the Coffin from romantic pot boiler to literature: we’re seduced by Masayo’s modest, self-effacing comments before we recognize that she’s an unreliable witness. One can certainly read The Cat in the Coffin as an atmospheric mystery, but it works on many other levels as well: as a meditation on jealousy, as a young woman’s sexual awakening, as a portrait of life in occupied Japan, as a parody of the Victorian governess novel. I’d love to see Vertical translate more work by Mariko Koike, as she brings an uncommon level of wisdom and literary sophistication to a pulpy genre.

Review copy provided by Vertical, Inc.

THE CAT IN THE COFFIN • BY MARIKO KOIKE, TRANSLATED BY DEBORAH BOLIVER BOEHM • VERTICAL, INC. • 190 pp.

The Cat in the Coffin

June 22, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

catcoffincover The year is 1955. Twenty-year-old Masayo, an aspiring painter from Hakodate, apprentices herself to Goro Kawabuko, a handsome widower who teaches at a Tokyo art college. In exchange for a weekly lesson, Masayo agrees to keep house for Goro and tutor his daughter Momoko, a strange, withdrawn child whose only companion is a regal white cat named Lala.

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Black Bird, Volume 1

June 20, 2009 by MJ 7 Comments

Black Bird, Vol. 1
By Kanoko Sakurakoji
Published by Viz Media

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Misao Harada has been able to see demons and spirits all her life, though they are invisible to everyone else. As she’s gotten older, they seem to follow her more and more, making her daily existence difficult to tolerate. The only good thing she associates with this hidden world is the memory of a little boy who lived next door when she was a child and who could also see the strange things that followed her. He left ten years ago, promising to return, and though Misao treasures her memories of him as her first love, as her sixteenth birthday approaches she is starting to wish she could let him go and just find a normal boyfriend. Unfortunately, when she is finally approached by a boy she likes–a popular school athlete–he turns out to be possessed by a demon who wants to eat her in order to obtain eternal youth. Evidently, Misao is a very special kind of human of which only one is born every hundred years. Her blood and flesh offer extended life to any demon who tastes it, and marriage to her will grant prosperity to his entire clan. Misao’s childhood love, Kyo, comes to her rescue just in time, but he reveals himself to be a demon as well (a powerful tengu with spectacular black wings), determined to marry her as the head of his clan. Though it becomes clear that Misao requires Kyo’s protection to keep from being eaten or snatched up by other eager demons, she is heartbroken by the discovery of his motives and does her best to resist him and the seemingly inevitable future he insists that she accept.

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Tea for Two and Assorted Links

June 19, 2009 by MJ Leave a Comment

Just a quick collection of links to share today! As my Anime Boston coverage finally went up early this morning, I realized that there were a few recent reviews of mine at Manga Recon that I’ve failed to link to from here. Check out the AB coverage for discussion of some of the panels I attended, particularly Saturday’s “What Is Boys’ Love?” which I know I tweeted from in some distress at the time.

Recent reviews at PCS include GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, Tail of the Moon Prequel, and (by far my favorite of the three) the first two volumes of Tea for Two, an engaging BL series from Tokyopop.

Also, I’ve reviewed a couple of fantastic volumes here over the past few days–volume five of Yen Press’ addictive girls’ manhwa Goong and volume 17 of one of my personal favorites, NANA, which was in my possession for only a few hours before I allowed myself to read it (and would not have lasted that long if I hadn’t set it up as my incentive to finally finish the AB coverage).

I have more reviews of upcoming Viz titles on the way, as well as Yuri Monogatari and The Manga Guide to Physics, so stay tuned!

Boys Over Flowers 23 by Yoko Kamio: B

June 19, 2009 by Michelle Smith

boysoverflowers23 From the back cover:
Tsukushi ends her visit at her parents’ quiet seaside home and returns to Tokyo. She is welcomed back with a “girls’ night out” and ends up meeting a ton of guys! Unfortunately, they all turn out to be losers. In fact, one of the boys is downright terrifying and bears a striking resemblance to a certain curly-haired ex-boyfriend! Could they be related?!

Review:
The fishing village story line wraps up fairly decently, actually, with some nice awkwardness between Tsukushi and Tsukasa (in which she has trouble not confessing her love), the “No-Account” dude being reunited with his girlfriend, and, back in Tokyo, the Makinos being given use of a condo by Shigeru. It turns out that all of Tsukushi’s rich friends wanted to lend her accommodations and had talked about it at length to figure out whose generosity would put the least strain on her. Aww.

Of course, Tsukushi is determined to get a job so that the Makinos no longer need depend on Shigeru and so that she can fund her brother’s high school ambitions. Sakurako dangles the carrot of a high-paying job that she knows about and manages to get Tsukushi to attend a group date along with Shigeru and Yuki. These scenes with the four girls hanging out (and trying to help Tsukushi forget Tsukasa) are a lot of fun and I hope we see more of them together. I can even forgive the ridiculousness of encountering a Tsukasa look-a-like on the date and Tsukushi’s subsequent moron moment as she keeps mistaking him for Tsukasa.

As usual, the final scene of the volume offers some particularly scrumptious angst between our two leads. It’s worth noting that Tsukasa, who had said that if the two-month dating experience didn’t work out that he would let her go, is being true to his word and not exerting any effort to get Tsukushi back. I’d like this scene better if the Tsukasa look-a-like didn’t show up at the end, but it still serves to acquaint Tsukushi even further with her true feelings, so I can’t complain much.

I can complain about the Story Thus Far, however. Usually, this is pretty decent but this time it contains errors. It says of the final chapter in volume 21 that “Tsukushi does not reveal the real reason for leaving Tsukasa, and instead, tells him that she no longer loves him.” Er, that’s completely untrue. She specifically mentions his mother and the threats on her friends’ families. Also, how could you tell someone you no longer love them if you’ve never told them you love them in the first place? What she did do was allow Tsukasa to think calling things off was easy for her because she had no feelings for him.

NANA, Volume 17

June 18, 2009 by MJ 1 Comment

NANA, Vol. 17
By Ai Yazawa
Published by Viz Media

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“But now I just want one thing… the courage to face things once more.”

This volume begins in the future timeline, with Hachi meeting Shin at apartment 707 during the Christmas season where she discovers an envelope left in the mailbox containing photos of Nana singing in a faraway club. The scene is unexpectedly moving and it put tears in my eyes right from the beginning of the volume which never truly disappeared. Though much of this book focuses on the storyline begun in in the volume sixteen regarding Nana’s biological mother and the related Search exposé, what this volume really does is bring Nana and Hachi back together–something guaranteed to fill my heart with joy. Having been manipulated by the Search reporter into confronting Nana’s mother (though this confrontation is ultimately fruitless), Hachi first spends some time hiding out at her parents’ house in shame, but once the story finally hits she runs straight to Nana’s side, much to everyone’s relief. This volume also takes a surprisingly frank look at Mai’s past, including how she became “Misato Uehara,” and delves more deeply into the complicated relationships between the members of Trapnest, focusing on Reira in particular.

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Boys Over Flowers 22 by Yoko Kamio: B-

June 18, 2009 by Michelle Smith

boysoverflowers22 From the back cover:
Tsukushi has left her on-and-off boyfriend Tsukasa, his mansion, her school, and Tokyo altogether! Down and out, she heads for the seaside village where her family has gone to live and work. Unfortunately, her parents are about to be run out of town. Just then, visitors from Tokyo arive!

Review:
What a disappointment! After the awesomeness at the end of the last volume, I was expecting something much better than this. Instead, we get a ridiculous plot where Tsukushi flees to the fishing village, where her incredibily annoying parents have told everyone that Tsukushi is engaged to Doumyouji and are racking up bills with the expectation that he’ll pay them. She also meets a slacker surfer guy who is waiting around for the girlfriend who left him to return and who has garnered a reputation as a “no-account.” Inexplicably, everybody in the village seems irate that Tsukushi is hanging out with this dude, and there’s a completely dumb scene where they all turn out at her parents’ house to confront her.

Meanwhile, Tsukasa is reverting to his violent ways, threatening his friends with bodily harm when they come to talk to him about what’s happened and being cruel to a girl who takes advantage of Tsukushi’s absence to confess her feelings for him. This, at least, is better than the fishing village story line and I kind of love the scene where Rui, having seen Tsukushi on TV (some kind of program was filmed at the beach and had Tsukushi in the background), goes to goad Tsukasa into going to see her, pushing all the right buttons by exaggerating her frail condition.

Ultimately, the best part of the volume is the ending, in which Rui and Tsukasa turn up at the village just in time to prevent some angry mob action. Yes, it’s completely goofy, but that Rui came himself (thinking he had failed to motivate Tsukasa) is actually pretty sweet. I’ve learned my lesson, however, and shan’t be anticipating any greatness out of the next volume just because this one ends well.

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