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Cat Street 2 (Japanese) by Yoko Kamio: B+

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From the back cover:
Ever since she entered the school El Liston, Keito’s life has begun to change. Recovering from social withdrawal, she has made friends for the first time in seven years. There’s Rei, a formerly famous soccer player; Kouichi, a genius with an IQ of 200; and Momiji, a Gothic Lolita. As she slowly starts building new relationships with people, she begins to develop a little passion, and then… ?!

Review:
I’d praised Cat Street last time because the focus was not on romance, and just as I was thinking, “Well, maybe a little would be good,” Keito realized that she had feelings for her childhood friend, Taiyou. How it played out was quite different from other shoujo I’ve read.

Taiyou is an interesting character. Rather than allow Keito’s friend Rei, who used to be a phenomenal soccer player, to wallow in his past failures, he keeps engaging him on the topic and eventually helps him return to the sport he loves. Keito realizes he did the same with her while she was a shut-in, visiting her house frequently to try to get her to come back to school. So, essentially, she begins to like him because he is a good person, not because he is hot.

Even better, all of Keito’s new friends begin to support her in her efforts to get together with Taiyou. This isn’t limited to Momiji, the girl; the boys who would also be after Keito in most other series are also encouraging and helping her in her efforts. Alas, it turns out Taiyou has recently begun dating one of his classmates. In a completely awesome example of showing not telling, a weeping Keito encounters this girl, Hirano-san, who proves how like Taiyou she is by refusing to leave Keito alone, comforting her, and even crying on her behalf. I love that the romantic rival is not some evil wench, but also a thoroughly nice and good person.

Less successful is a subplot in which Keito’s old theatrical rival engages the help of a student studying cosmetology at El Liston to get a photograph of Keito, which he accomplishes by giving her a makeover and claiming he wants to save images of his work. Pretty smooth. It’s sad, though, that the nudging he gave Keito about returning to the acting world seems only to’ve been so the rival could face her in that realm once more and achieve a proper victory over her.

Cat Street is a very enjoyable series so far; I love that the heroine has a network of supportive friends. I guess it’s inevitable that Keito will return to the world of acting, but I hope the story won’t drift into silly confrontations with overly-devious foes.

Gaba Kawa by Rie Takada: B-

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Rara is a demon who has come to the mortal world for the first time. She’d told everyone back home that her goal was to drag human souls into darkness, but really she just wants to meet the celebrity demon du jour, Hiroshi Akusawa, and become his girlfriend. When a dashing boy called Aku saves her from falling off a building, she’s convinced she’s met Akusawa. That is, until she meets the real Akusawa, who is not at all dreamy, and realizes that the other boy is a mere human.

It’d be easy for Rara to claim Aku’s heart using magic, but she wants him to fall in love with her for real. Some of her female classmates (yes, the younger demons all attend high school) advise against pursuing him, claiming that he is weird (on account of having been abducted by aliens) and gay (on account of having been spotted hugging his best friend). Rara, undaunted and clueless, decides that donning a boy’s uniform is the way to win his love, leading to my favorite line of the volume:

I don’t care if he is a gay alien. Once he gets a look at me in this, his heart will be mine.

Rara is warned several times not to use her magic to benefit a human, but as she gets closer to Aku, she can’t help lending him a hand when he could use it, like when his ability to see spirits results in him being pestered by wayward souls. As a result, she begins to lose her demon powers, which include things like invisibility and flight, and faces punishment for her actions from her demon brethren.

The concept is fairly unique, but Rara is still more or less your traditional clumsy, not-too-bright shojo heroine who somehow manages to make the hottest guy in school fall for her. Add to that the clichés of the boy who can see spirits and the old “trip and smooch” maneuver, and it winds up being pretty well-trod territory after all.

Still, while Gaba Kawa may be fluffy and familiar, it’s also pretty fun. I’m inspired to check out more by its creator.

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

Blank Slate 2 by Aya Kanno: B

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If there’s one thing notorious criminal Zen can’t stand, it’s being controlled. At the end of the first volume, while he and his doctor companion, Hyakka, were liberating Amatan prisoners from a Galay Army facility, he fell into an involuntary trance after which he awoke with no memory of his violent actions. Now, he resolves to find the person responsible, which means finally getting some answers about his forgotten past.

Said answers are gradually revealed throughout the volume, and manage to be interesting but more or less what I had expected. Perhaps that’s why this volume, like its predecessor, was a little difficult to get into at first. Also, one major revelation that I hadn’t seen coming was telegraphed in advance. Alert readers get suspicious when you only show us parts of someone’s face, you know!

That said, I have to admire the economy of the storytelling—no extraneous information is offered nor is any essential detail lacking—as well as the way the series ends. Aspects of the climactic conclusion are melodramatic, but I like that we actually end up rooting for Zen, even after witnessing the evil of which he is capable.

Blank Slate presents an entertaining and thought-provoking story, even if the execution stumbles here and there. And at two volumes, it’s short and affordable. An afternoon spent on this series would not be wasted.

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

Hanky Panky

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Hanky Panky
By Koreaki Kamuro
Deux Press, 176 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)

Koreaki Kamuro’s Hanky Panky is a collection of short boys’ love stories, each with the sole purpose of putting good-looking characters in bed with each other. The scenarios created to get them there run from unmemorable to unbelievable. In the first story, for which the volume is named, nerdy college student Manaka runs a host club after hours, and finds himself in a predicament when one of his classmates, Doi, applies for a job as a host. In this case, the plot relies entirely on the reader’s ability to believe that Doi does not recognize Manaka at the club only because Manaka isn’t wearing his glasses. Sorry, but this really only works for Superman.

Other scenarios include a man who runs into the soccer coach he crushed on in his youth, and a romance at an employment agency (entitled, “One Sweet Position”). There are a few touching moments between characters here and there, but overall, things like plot and character development are shunted aside in the rush toward the stories’ true objective: sex.

Even the sex, however, is not particularly well-written or well-
drawn. The sex scenes are all short and very similar. The art, which
is serviceable at best throughout the volume, becomes downright vague during these scenes, and in some of the panels that depict only pieces of the characters’ anatomy, it can be difficult to tell for
sure what’s going on. On the upside, all the sex is consensual, and
the relationships portrayed are mostly healthy and often loving.

The character designs are generally as unremarkable as the stories themselves. All the men are pretty, but generic, and though the stories are completely unrelated to each other, the characters are drawn so much alike, at first it is difficult to tell.

Ultimately, though Hanky Panky fails both as fiction and as pornography, it is too bland to be offensive on either count.

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

Bakuman, Bakuman, Bakuman

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You know, I really thought that my early love-affair with manga from Weekly Shonen Jump was over, once I finally realized that Hikaru no Go was an exceptional series, and I wasn’t going to love every boys’ manga like that. Sure, I’m still enjoying some Jump series, but as I’ve further developed my own tastes, I’ve definitely moved in other directions. I’ve even dropped my Shonen Jump subscription to pick up Shojo Beat instead. But then came Bakuman to suck me right back in.

I’m sure a lot of you remember my big stink over the sexism in the second chapter of Ohba and Obata’s Bakuman. None of my feelings about that have changed, and yet somehow, after only sixteen more chapters, Bakuman has become one of my favorite series. It’s gotten to the point where I’m constantly scanning manga news sites to find out if anyone has licensed it yet so that I can be certain of one day owning it in shiny little books. My excitement over this manga has been coming on slowly over the past few months, but the newly released chapter eighteen finally sealed the deal.

Spoilers for Bakuman ch. 18 after the jump! …

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Suppli 2-3 by Mari Okazaki: A-

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Minami Fujii works in the planning department of an advertising agency. At twenty-eight, she’s still trying to make a name for herself and is known for pulling all-nighters and juggling multiple projects. Mostly, this can be attributed to genuine dedication, though Minami also uses work as a distraction from her turbulent romantic life.

After her boyfriend of seven years breaks up with her and promptly gets married, Minami begins to notice the people around her and makes friends with some of her coworkers. Two of the men are interested in her and, after briefly being tempted by the impulsive Ishida, she ends up choosing Ogi-san, who is still hung up on his ex. After agonizing periods during which she’s convinced that he isn’t interested in her (even though they’ve slept together), they begin officially dating, though things are not as perfect as either would’ve wished. Minami still feels strangely lonely in Ogi-san’s company and the presence of his ex (with whom Minami must work on a project) makes it difficult to be sure of his feelings.

Meanwhile, the rejected Ishida is pursued by another coworker whose plight parallels Minami’s own. Add to this a saucy freelancer, the married producer with whom she’s having an affair, and his lascivious cameraman with an appreciation for Minami’s posterior, and you get quite a tangled web of workplace relationships, infidelity, unhappiness, and insecurity.

This might seem too convoluted to follow, but it’s not really a problem. The focus is primarily on Minami, but does shift at times to the other women characters and their situations. I appreciated seeing what they thought and said about the protagonist, too, particularly the difference between what they were thinking inwardly and what they were actually saying to her face. Another female character of note is the forty-something Hirano, who presents Minami with an example of a woman who has devoted her life to her work and yet has nothing to show for it. Just before being unceremoniously transferred, Hirano gives Minami all the credit for a daring decision, attempting to give a leg up to the girl in whom she sees so much of herself. It’s a truly wonderful moment.

Alas, not all of the workplace action is so terrific. Minami’s many projects are virtually indistinguishable, and the scenes involving them include vague dialogue like, “Let’s feature the product here.” It’d be easier to care about what was going on if more details of a particular project were known, or if one actually succeeded in getting to the commercial production phase. Most of them get derailed by rewrite requests, and it’s frustrating to never see any of Minami’s harried efforts come to fruition. Also, in this office it’s apparently acceptable to skip out on meetings for projects to which you’ve been assigned. Must be nice!

As Katherine pointed out in her review of volume one, the art can be symbolism heavy at times. Women out to snare their men are shown carrying hunting traps, for example, and when Minami is sleeping with Ogi-san, there’s often water nearby, threatening to cover and drown her, much like the welter of feelings she’s experiencing.

I do like a lot of the workplace art, though, particularly how Minami’s scattered thoughts are portrayed. Often, panels of her in work mode are mixed with what is distracting her, like the messy state of her book-strewn desk or memories of an intimate moment with Ogi-san, and sometimes she walks about conducting business while thought bubbles going “jumble jumble” accompany her around. When Minami gets especially frazzled, the art reminds me of Chica Umino’s (Honey and Clover), with scribbly eyes and flailing limbs.

The third volume concludes with Minami and Ogi-san sharing an impromptu casual meal, during which she confides in him her work-related fatigue and finally allows herself to lean on him for support. Not realizing at the time, as the retrospective narration points out, that it was a mistake.

And that’s it! That’s where we will forever languish unless TOKYOPOP resumes publication of this series. Please join us at Manga Recon as we cry, “Save Suppli!”

Review originally published at Manga Recon.

The Voices of a Distant Star

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The Voices of a Distant Star
Adapted by Mizu Sahara
Original concept by Makoto Shinkai
Published by TOKYOPOP
Rated T (13+)

Based on Makoto Shinkai’s short film, The Voices of a Distant Star is a story of two young people separated by space and, more importantly, time. As the people of Earth carry on an intergalactic war with a technologically advanced alien race, fifteen-year-old Mikako is called into service on the U.N. spacecraft, Lysithea. She leaves behind her childhood friend, Noboru, just before they would have entered high school together, and right at the age when their friendship is on the brink of deepening into something more. Their sole means of communication is low-priority electronic mail using their cell phones, and as Mikako travels light years away the time it takes for their messages to be delivered increases, reaching over eight years for a single delivery before the story’s end.

Over the course of the story, Noboru grows to adulthood on his own while Mikako remains a teenager, her middle-school days barely behind her. As Mikako’s messages begin to arrive farther and farther apart, Noboru first tries to free himself from his doomed attachment, but he eventually abandons this in favor of working toward an opportunity to join the rescue party being sent out after Mikako’s ship, in hopes of reuniting with her.

Voices of a Distant Star was Makoto Shinkai’s first work released after his award-winning five-minute short, She and Her Cat. Created entirely on his home computer, it was completed in 2002. Its themes of loneliness and separation, revisited often in his later work, are perhaps most stunningly portrayed in this short film. While the film was focused tightly, even narrowly, on the two main characters, for the manga adaptation Mizu Sahara adds some additional context to each of their lives, introducing us to two shipmates of Mikako’s, as well as some friends (and even a short-lived girlfriend) of Noboru’s back on Earth.

The effect of this is twofold. On one hand, it is gratifying to see Mikako discovering kindred spirits on her journey. On the other hand, it becomes even more clear just how cruel the situation is. Both are affected, but especially Noboru, who is so firmly attached to Mikako that he is unable to connect with anyone in his present life, which, unlike Mikako’s, is rapidly passing him by. At one point in the manga, after more than a year with no messages from Mikako, Noboru begins to form an attraction to a girl in his class, but just as he might have finally broken free and allowed himself to live in the present (his present), a message finally arrives. This is incredibly romantic from a certain point of view, of course, but from another it is simply horrifying, demonstrating clearly just how destructive and hurtful a relationship like this might be. It is also good storytelling, and it’s impressive that a manga adaptation of such a moving film is able to achieve even greater effect here than the original. The idea that two people, each acting out of sincere love for the other, can still end up hurting one another terribly is one of those unfortunate truths of life that most people would prefer to ignore. Mizu Sahara makes that impossible here.

One difference in the adaptation that is less effective is the way Sahara handles the ending. In the film, the futures of both Noboru and Mikako are left unresolved, with Mikako fighting to save her comrades, and Noboru heading off to unspecified Armada duty. There is hope that they might meet again one day, reinforced by a vision Mikako has just before her squadron falls under attack, but both characters seem to have come to terms with the uncertainty of that hope. The manga, however, works very hard to bring them back together, sending Noboru off on a mission to rescue the survivors of Mikako’s last battle. The film ends with Mikako and Noboru, light years apart, each sending the same mental message to each other, “I am here,” to which the manga adds, “… Because we are destined to meet again.”

Again, this is a very romantic notion, but not as powerful, or even as conclusive as the open ending of the film. There was a kind of comfort in knowing that both characters had finally embraced their own lives and come to a place where simply understanding that the other was out there was enough, at least for the moment. In pandering to the reader’s (and perhaps her own) desire to bring the characters back together, Mizu Sahara has created an ending that is weaker and less satisfying.

That said, the manga is absolutely beautiful. The art is nicely detailed and very expressive, and the panel layouts, including the placement and style of dialogue and narrative text, make the story visually interesting and easy to follow. The additional material adds more layers to the relationship between the two main characters, like the scenario in which Noboru attempts to repair a favorite hair clip of Mikako’s, forced finally into giving up and buying her a new one to hide his failure. There is an extremely touching moment later where he admits this to Mikako (which of course, she’s known all along) that is very nicely written. Sahara also spends more time exploring both Mikako’s and Noboru’s feelings about Mikako’s appointment to the Lysithea, which is very revealing for both characters.

Regardless of the manga’s differences from its source material (both weak and strong), as a standalone piece, Mizu Sahara’s The Voices of a Distant Star is ultimately successful in telling a thoughtful, heart-wrenching story that is both visually and narratively appealing.

Review originally published at PopCultureShock.

All the titles I thought of sounded dirty

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This is a going to be a pretty strange little entry, I think, consisting mainly of bunnies and boys’ love. First of all, my husband took new photos of our bunny, Kino, the other day, and I wanted to share because, well, bunny. You can see them here on flickr. My favorite is this one.

I was going to ask for people’s opinions as manga fans on NY Comic Con, because I thought I might go, but then I realized that it is on the same weekend as UPTAs this year, which I am committed to attend for work. Very sad!

So, okay, boys’ love manga. I know I always say I’m not really a fan, and then I end up talking about it anyway. It just so happens that in the past week or so, I’ve ended up reading one of the nicest BL volumes I’ve personally read, and one of the worst. I won’t talk about the worst right now, because I’ll eventually be writing a review of it for Manga Recon. The other, though, I will discuss a little.

The book is Hinako Takanaga’s You Will Fall in Love, which I first became aware of thanks to Johanna Draper Carlson’s very thoughtful review at the beginning of the month. Her review is really right on, and there isn’t much I can add to that, except to say that what it really made me wish for was more of itself. I don’t mean more stories like it (though that would be fine too), but rather I wish it could have played itself out over a longer period, so that the characters and their relationships could have been more fully developed.

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