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Lame catch-up post

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Life is a pretty weird thing, and it’s rendered me largely unproductive in the past couple of months, even here on the internet, where I am usually able to ramble on without rest. In April, I took a tour of the midwest for the latest round of FP auditions, which was a pretty nice trip. Not only did we see a lot of very talented folks, but I also got to meet up with a friend in Indianapolis the evening before my flight home, which was a wonderful bonus! May brought me to auditions in New York, where I also visited with a friend during her last week in Manhattan, and had dinner bought for me by another friend in honor of my birthday, which was the next day.

Speaking of birthdays, mine was filled with manga (glorious manga!), including the elusive Maison Ikkoku volume 3, which for some reason is impossible to get, and Banana Fish, volumes 8-19, which makes my collection complete! …

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Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers: B

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From the back cover:
Murder strikes too close to home! Lord Peter, noted detective, scholar, and bon vivant, is summoned to the Wimsey family retreat, which offers country pleasures and the thrill of the hunt. But when the prey turns out to be human and quite dead, wearing slippers and a dinner jacket, the thrill wanes. The victim is the fiancé of Lord Peter’s sister. And the accused? None other than Lord Peter’s own brother, the Duke of Denver. Despite overwhelming circumstantial evidence, Lord Peter is certain his brother is innocent and launches his own investigation. Can he find the truth in time to save the family name and spare his brother the gallows?

Review:
Clouds of Witness is a decent enough mystery, I suppose, but it won’t rank as one of my favorites.

I find it difficult to nail down a precise flaw that prompts my lack of enthusiasm, but I think it’s personal drama for the investigators (as in P. D. James or Elizabeth George) that I am missing, and I know I oughtn’t expect that from Sayers. The investigation is very clue-driven, and includes a few lucky coincidences. They didn’t bother me as much as in Tey’s books, but I do wonder whether Whose Body? was similar and I just didn’t notice it.

The best part about Sayers is that it’s often quite amusing, not just the little remarks that people make but also the way Peter’s quirks are dealt with. I especially appreciated a scene where he punctuates his words with little digs into his pipe, and the drunken epilogue was also cute. Less cute was Peter’s miraculous recovery from a gunshot wound to the shoulder that’s never mentioned again, even when he is hauled bodily out of a bog by a rope under his armpits a mere four days later. Oopsies.

7SEEDS 2 (Japanese) by Yumi Tamura: A-

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Book description:
A strange man on the island who helped free Arashi and Natsu from some carnivorous plants gives them a clue as to why they find themselves in this predicament—it’s not a kidnapping, it’s “a government project.” The four castaways decide to climb a rocky outcrop from which they can survey their surroundings and get an idea of what is going on and where they are. But what will be waiting for them up there?

Review:
The story progresses nicely in this volume. Some answers are revealed regarding the government project, a few additional castaways are discovered, and the group decides to leave the dangerous island. The larger cast and the communal goal brought a Basara-like feel to the proceedings.

And just as the first group is launching out to sea, we meet another group of castaways in the same situation. One of them is Hana (who looks a great deal like Sarasa), the girlfriend of Arashi in the first group (who looks a great deal like Shuri). Natsu has a bit of a crush on Arashi, but Hana is far more worthy of him. It’s kind of interesting to not want the heroine to get the guy, though I guess Hana qualifies as co-heroine by this point.

I actually find this second group more interesting so far. Their circumstances are similar—more with the giant, predatory insects—but Hana’s smart and resourceful and also has to confront a lecherous guy who thinks he’s in charge, which makes for better reading than a timid girl freaking out about giant crocodiles.

One of the best things about the story is that now that the groups know about the project (though some don’t entirely believe it), they’re coming to wonder how many years have actually gone by since they were frozen and are driven to get away from the islands and find out what’s become of Japan and the world. I’m really looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

7SEEDS 1 (Japanese) by Yumi Tamura: B+

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Book description:
The last thing Natsu remembers is going to sleep in her own bed. She awakes on a sinking ship in the company of three strangers, each with no memory of how they got there. After managing to reach a deserted island, the four need to overcome their differences and work together to find out about the inhospitable, strange island where nature appears totally out of balance. What happened? How did they get there? And will they be able to survive?

Review:
Yumi Tamura’s Basara is one of my favorite manga series, so I was really interested in reading 7SEEDS, a series she began in 2002.

The premise is an interesting one, though comparisons with the TV show Lost are probably inevitable. This first volume mainly covers the four castaways exploring the island, discovering that most living things—animal, plant, or insect—really really want to eat them, and being suspicious of one another.

The heroine of the piece is Natsu, and she’s a little annoying so far, as she’s very timid and seemingly unable to think for herself. There’s two guys—the nice Arashi and the not-nice Semimaru—who are both really afraid of bugs. My favorite character so far is the ruthlessly practical Botan, who seems to have more of an idea of what’s going on than any of the others.

Tamura does well with dramatic moments—the frequency of thunderstorms on the island helps to furnish ominous lightning as needed—and it’s never dull, though it’s pretty much just setup so far. The art is essentially unchanged from Basara and though Arashi looks a great deal like Shuri and Natsu like Kikune, they’re still distinct enough in expression that I don’t think one would confuse them. I really like how Botan is drawn; her competence just radiates.

I’m sure Basara wasn’t a hot seller for Viz, but I hope they or some other company will license 7SEEDS for American release someday. We need more good sci-fi shoujo!

The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman: B

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From the back cover:
It’s 1881, and life has been good to Sally Lockhart. Unlike most Victorian women, Sally is completely independent, with her own successful business and a comfortable home for her young daughter, Harriet.

But Sally’s whole world is about to collapse. A stranger emerges, claiming to be both her husband and Harriet’s father and threatening all that she has—her business, her child, her very sanity. Sally realizes with growing horror that there is a guiding hand behind this deceit: someone who hates her so passionately that he has devoted years to bringing about her ruin. And there’s only one man that could possibly be…

Review:
No tears this time, but the best ending line ever made me crack up. Pullman has a real knack for unexpected perspectives. In the last book, it was Chaka the dog, and here it was Harriet, Sally’s two-year-old daughter. The (lamentably few) sections from her point of view were among my favorites in the book.

Structurally, The Tiger in the Well was similar to the first book in the series, The Ruby in the Smoke. For quite a while, things didn’t make much sense. There were two different story lines going on and because it wasn’t apparent why I should care about anything not involving Sally, the second story (involving Jews and socialists) was very boring. Pullman did bring everything together eventually, but it took rather too long for my tastes.

Another difference about this book from the others was that Sally largely had to face the peril alone. The threat of losing custody of Harriet drove her out of her comfortable existence and into hiding in parts of London she’d never had cause to visit, caused her to encounter poverty, misery, and exploitation that she’d not previously been exposed to. She also had to care for Harriet on her own and realized how much she was missing by choosing work over Harriet and leaving her in a nurse’s care.

That said, I really missed her friends, especially Jim. Without them, too, Sally wasn’t always as fearless, and sometimes let herself be swept along, as with a patronizing solicitor, longer than usual before finally snapping back to her determined self. These lapses were hard to endure, and sometimes even felt a little out of character.

My last complaint is that the identity of the villain was completely obvious throughout the entire book. Pullman was forced to include a mention of something near the beginning so that readers who started with this book would later understand the significance of the big reveal. To me, that just gave it all away. Also, the reader received several clues that Sally did not, so when she finally put it together, it was not as climactic as it could’ve been.

Even with all of these things to grumble about, I ultimately did still enjoy the story. It got a lot better in the last third or so, once Sally had some allies to help her out and had regained her spirits. The ending hints at her future happiness, as well. Though there is one more book in the series, it does not actually focus on Sally, so it’s nice to have an inkling about how she’ll spend the rest of her life.

Kare Kano 5 by Masami Tsuda: B+

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From the back cover:
School’s out! But since Soichiro is going to be away competing in a kendo tournament all summer, he and Yukino are forced to spend their vacation apart. Will their romance be able to survive the separation? Yukino decides to spend her free time hanging out with her gal pals, but soon her friend Tsubasa announces she’s leaving home. Tsubasa’s upset about her father’s plans to get remarried, and freaks out even more when she meets her new brother-to-be. Yukino tries to be there for her friend while still nurturing her relationship with Soichiro from across the miles.

Review:
I liked this volume a bit more than the last one, even though Arima was hardly in it.

The first couple of chapters dealt primarily with Yukino’s new friends and really felt like an entirely different series as a result. Most aren’t completely likeable, but I suppose that makes them good matches for Yukino. Tsubasa’s story about her dad bored me at first, but I was surprised to find that I actually really liked Kazuma, her stepbrother, and enjoyed the chapter where they get to know one another a good deal.

There was also a lot of focus on Yukino’s family, which was cool. We really see her family a lot more than families are seen in the other manga I read. From learning about Tsubasa and Hideaki’s situations at home, she also began to realize that perhaps she hadn’t really understood what kind of a strain Arima’s family situation has put on him. At least the tribulations of the supporting characters actually had some kind of impact on the main couple.

Kare Kano 4 by Masami Tsuda: B+

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From the back cover:
A pretty little girl named Tsubasa, an old friend of Soichiro’s from junior high, comes back to school. When she sees her beloved Soichiro with Yukino, Tsubasa gets extremely jealous and goes on the warpath to try to get Soichiro for herself. Meanwhile Maho, another girl who’s jealous of Yukino, gets all the girls in class to gang up against Yukino and give her the silent treatment. Yukino decides she has to face these problems on her own, without relying on Soichiro…

Review:
I had mixed feelings about this volume. Tsubasa’s jealousy-inspired antics were pretty annoying, and I got rather tired of the time devoted to the anonymous female students as they worked out (through somewhat incomprehensible logic) that one girl had manipulated them into snubbing Yukino due to her own personal vendetta.

That said, there were more nice, quiet moments between the main couple and I was also happy to see Yukino straightforwardly face the consequences of her deception and also start to make some friends. Tsuda totally used Meg Cabot’s trick of giving each prospective friend some kind of hobby or interest, though. It was pretty silly when three girls in turn introduced themselves and their hobby in the same sentence.

This volume also included a short story written early in Tsuda’s career, about a planet of rabbit people and the human political prisoner who crash lands on their planet and then saves their village from a forest fire. No, really. It wasn’t awful, but neither was it particularly good.

Kare Kano 3 by Masami Tsuda: B+

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From the back cover:
Things are going well for Yukino and Soichiro. They have accepted each other for who they are, and have truly become boyfriend and girlfriend. But they’ve been concentrating more on each other than on their schoolwork, and it shows. When the two best students in school suddenly let their grades drop, it draws the attention and concern of one of the teachers. He wants Yukino and Soichiro to break up so they can concentrate on their grades again. And he even calls a dreaded parent-teacher conference to tell their parents his concerns. Will Yukino and Soichiro split up for good?

Review:
This is as far as I got through the manga my first try, but I can’t remember whether that was due to an ebb in the story’s awesomeness or if the rest of the volumes weren’t out yet and I just got so far behind I figured I’d just wait ’til the whole series had been released.

In any case, there’s a real slice-of-life vibe to this volume that is both good and bad. Yukino and Arima share some quiet moments that are quite nice and while I like that they had to face the academic repercussions of spending so much time together, three long chapters on the topic is a bit much. Yukino is also starting to feel the consequences of the other girls in her class realizing she’d been duping them with her perfection act.

Kare Kano is still a very good read, but like any relationship, it’s moving past the opening dramatics and settling into something more comfortable. I’m a little concerned because in the anime, it was soon after this point that the focus drifted from the main couple to the supporting cast (who I found far less interesting). I hope the same isn’t true of the manga.

The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman: A-

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From the back cover:
The year is 1878, and the spirited Sally Lockhart, once again defying Victorian sensibilities, has gone into business for herself. When one of her clients loses a large sum of money in the unexpected collapse of a British shipping firm, Sally sets out to investigate. But as she delves deeper into the identity of the wealthy and elusive industrialist who owns the doomed company, she uncovers a plot so diabolical that it could eventually subvert the entire civilized world—and if Sally’s enemies have their way, she won’t live long enough to see it happen.

Philip Pullman continues the nerve-shattering story of his canny and courageous heroine in this second Sally Lockhart mystery.

Review:
Pullman made me cry like a great big sap again! And more than once, this time.

The Shadow in the North took place 6 years after the first book in the series, and the main characters underwent some changes in that time. Sally, awesomely, attended Cambridge and set up her own financial consulting business. Fred, the photographer, was personally much the same but had been trying unsuccessfully for years to get Sally to marry him, which led to several wonderful half-loving, half-antagonistic scenes between them. Jim, the erstwhile office boy, grew up into a young man with a taste for action and a way with the ladies.

By far, the characters were the best part about the book. I loved each of the three main characters, but found many of the random people encountered as part of the investigation to be interesting, as well. I was also quite fond of Sally’s dog, Chaka. Probably because Pullman took care to show how much the fiercely loyal and protective dog loved her. Okay, yes, this was one thing that made me cry.

I didn’t think the mystery was all that interesting, though. The question was more “how do these things fit together?” and largely dealt with industrial misdeeds. Perhaps that was the point, though. This case, which might seem rather mundane on the surface, ended up impacting the characters most profoundly. And since that is what’s most important to me, I still enjoyed the book very much.

A note on the audio edition: Anton Lesser was again amazing as narrator, but I think the book might actually have been censored. While referencing my paper copy, I noticed that one paragraph, prelude to an act of physical intimacy, was excised and that some lines of post-coital dialogue were altered. The omitted bits were kind of clumsily unsubtle, so it’s possible that Pullman himself did a rewrite at some point, but it does make one suspicious.

Love*Com 4 by Aya Nakahara: A

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From the back cover:
Risa has finally realized that she has feelings for Ôtani and can’t wait to confess her love. But dense Ôtani won’t take her hints! With the help of all their friends and a romantic beach vacation, can Rise get her affections past his thick head?

Review:
What makes this series special to me is actually its normalcy. Simply put, it’s about a girl in love with a guy friend. Her internal agonizings and doubts over the fact are realistic and understandable.

In this volume, Risa was determined to make her feelings known to Ôtani. Hints fail, so she tried telling him outright, to no avail. His continuing cluelessness was kind of unbelievable, but he finally got the message. I was kind of bothered by all the yelling and name-calling that ensued in these chapters—I get that Risa was trying to act like her old self around him, but it just seemed more pervasive than before. I’d be glad to see this aspect of their relationship go by the wayside.

With these complaints, it might seem strange to grade it so highly, but Risa’s struggle was really well done. And there were a few great moments between them, especially after Ôtani realized it was him she liked. He thought it over very seriously, and I thought his eventual response to Risa was realistic, given the circumstances. I look forward to seeing where things go from here.