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Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vols. 1-2

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By Canno | Published by Yen Press

I haven’t read a ton of yuri manga, but even I have encountered the “all-girls school with multiple couples” setup before. Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl is another example of the same.

We begin with Ayaka Shiramine and Yurine Kurosawa. Shiramine has always been the perfect student, but she works hard for her grades. Enter Kurosawa, the lazy genius, who shows up and immediately takes the number one spot. Squabbling ensues, with Kurosawa going all sparkly when a furious Shiramine calls her “just a regular person.” It seems she’s been waiting for someone who might beat her. My problem with this couple is that Shiramine is not very likable, even if I sympathize with her frustration. Plus, I ended up comparing her “there’s no way anyone could love me when I’m not perfect” angst with that of Nanami Touko in Bloom into You, where the idea is executed with more depth and originality.

Thankfully, these characters soon rotate into the background as focus shifts onto Shiramine’s cousin, track star Mizuki. Kurosawa also happens to be great at running, and Mizuki is upset when the team manager, Moe, avidly attempts to recruit her. Moe is supposed to watch Mizuki the most, after all. It all turns out to be for a cute reason, and I like the M&M pairing much more.

Volume two introduces still more characters. Ai Uehara doesn’t endear herself to me by whining about the availability of third-year Maya Hoshino—“Mock exams are more important to you than I am!”—and the chapter where she tries to make her friend stay in town rather than going to the university of her dreams and then realizes that this makes her friend sad and then promptly trips and starts blubbering just about had steam coming out of my ears.

But, again, thankfully, we move away from the annoying character to someone more mature. Chiharu Kusakabe is Hoshino’s roommate and is in love with her. Hoshino seems to be aware of this, particularly after a clichéd “locked in the storeroom” incident, but doesn’t return her feelings. While Chiharu is busy pining for a sempai, she encounters a younger girl who begins pining for her. And, again, some cuteness ensues.

I’m definitely on board for volume three, but I wonder… will each volume introduce someone I profoundly dislike in the first half and then give me a couple to really like in the second half? I suppose I can deal with that, and I also want to see more of Mizuki and Chiharu.

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl is ongoing in Japan, where six volumes have been released so far. The first two volumes are currently available in English; the third will be released in August.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 1

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By Satoru Noda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Young Jump. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Eiji Yasuda.

Among my many thoughts on finishing the first volume of Golden Kamuy, the strongest one was “the author must be from Hokkaido”. And sure enough, that seems to be the case. Indeed, his other major manga series seems to be a sports manga devoted to the love of ice hockey. The show-covered woods are practically a major character in the series, adn they’re conveyed well, both in their beauty and in their ability to be deadly. And of course, they’re only one of the things that can kill you in this rather violent title. From the hero on the cover page, to various escaped convicts, to vicious bears and wolves, this is a series with the potential for a lot of gore. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be about that. Rather, it’s about a young man and the Ainu girl he meets trying to avenge her father and find some hidden gold.

The story takes place after the Russo-Japanese War, but not that far after, so I’m guessing 1906 or 1907. Our hero is a veteran who says he was discharged from the army for killing a fellow soldier, though honestly the way he frames the story makes it sound like he could be making that up. He’s prospecting for gold in the wilds of Hokkaido, only to find, like most prospectors, that easy money schemes don’t actually work in real life. The supposed reason he’s looking for gold is because the wife of a (now dead) war buddy of his needs eye surgery, and the gold will pay for it, but I suspect the real reason is that Sugimoto is one of those soldiers who can’t really survive well without a life of adventure in some way. And survive is what he does – he’s somewhat famous for being alive after several injuries that would have killed most men. He’s also a lot of fun, being written much like a standard “dumb but likeable jock” type from a sports manga, only older and filled with battle experience.

Asirpa is the other star of this manga, a teenage Ainu girl whose father was brutally murdered by the man who theoretically knows where this hidden gold is – in fact, it’s Ainu gold, as the man who is now a convict killed six men and stole the gold from them. Sugimoto frames their journey as her getting revenge for her father, but it’s notable that she doesn’t seem to frame it that way herself, being content to silently going along with him. As first I thought she was going to be one of those emotionless Ayanami Rei types, but she turns out to simply be naturally reserved, and also very competent at living and surviving in the woods. She’s an excellent foil to Sugimoto. The rest of the cast consists mostly of ex-soldiers who are also here to search for hidden gold, ex-prisoners who have a coded “here is the gold” tattoo on their backs, though it doesn’t quite work the way they’d like it to, and of course the appearance of a clearly despicable villain at the cliffhanger of this vo0lume.

Golden Kamuy is a bit of a bunny movie with less comedy, as Sugimoto and Asirpa contrast with each other but work well together. If you don’t mind a lot of death and blood, this is a solid action story, and a good addition to the Signature lineup for Viz.

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story

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First published in 2011, Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing became an international phenomenon, selling over seven million copies in 40 languages. The book inspired a two-part television drama, a follow-up called Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Tidying Up, and a veritable tsunami of related products and experiences including apps, seminars, and journals for documenting “what brings you joy every day.” In an effort to bring her message to even more readers, Kondo recently collaborated with artist Yuko Uramoto (Kanojo no Curve, Hanayome Miman) to create the most quintessentially Japanese tie-in product of all: a manga version of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Uramoto’s strategy for transforming a how-to book into a manga is simple: she turns the decluttering process into a narrative, using a fictional character, Chiaki, to lead us through the process step-by-step. When we first meet Chiaki, she’s a single, 29-year-old career woman living in a filthy apartment strewn with clothing, papers, sports equipment, dirty dishes, and bric-a-brac of every description. After her handsome next-door neighbor chastises her for leaving garbage on the balcony, Chiaki vows to change her life by calling — who else? — Marie Kondo herself.

Over the next nine chapters, Kondo gently but firmly helps Chiaki get control of her apartment. Before they tackle the clutter, however, Kondo asks Chiaki, “What kind of life would you like to live here?” Chiaki is taken aback by the question, but this visualization exercise is a cornerstone of the KonMari system, encouraging the client to think about decluttering not as a one-time effort but a first step towards living a more joyful, less harried life. Kondo then shepherds Chiaki through the discard process, helping Chiaki systematically assess all of her belongings, starting with the three biggest sources of clutter — clothing, books, and paper — before moving on to komono (odds and ends) and sentimental objects. Guiding all of Chiaki’s decision-making are two questions: “Does this item give me joy?” and “Am I using this item right now?”

As an adaptation, The Life-Changing Manga largely succeeds in teaching the KonMari method without recourse to talking-head panels. The graphic format allows Uramoto to show the reader how to store things, arrange a closet, and fold items into small rectangles that can stand upright in a drawer — one of Kondo’s signature organizational techniques. As befits a manga about decluttering, the artwork is both simple and cute. Though the character designs lack strong personality, they’re winsome enough to carry to the story and convey the emotional impact of using the KonMari method; by the story’s end, we appreciate just how elated Chiaki feels after liberating herself from the Tyranny of Stuff.

The manga’s most glaring fault lies not with the adaptation but the source material. Kondo frames de-cluttering as a one-size-fits-all remedy for life’s biggest problems, a point reinforced by the fictional Kondo’s conversations with Chiaki. As we learn in chapter two, Chiaki has a bad habit of falling for guys with hobbies, buying snowboards and tea sets so that she can get to know them better. Every time she breaks up with someone, however, she can’t bear to get rid of her newly acquired gear, developing elaborate rationales for keeping it. Kondo counsels Chiaki to get rid of these items, telling her, “If you hang onto things because you can’t forget an old love, you’ll never find a new love.”

There’s unquestionable value in Kondo’s insight that clutter accumulates when we’re not fully invested in the present, yet her philosophy is too reductive. A messy apartment might be a sign that you need to reconsider your approach to dating, but it could also be symptomatic of working such long hours that cleaning and organizing feel like a second, unpaid job. There’s also a whiff of sexism in the way Chiaki is depicted as a failure for being disorganized, messy, and single; it’s hard to imagine a salaryman character attributing his romantic shortcomings to a sinkful of dirty coffee cups or a jumbled closet, or viewing the KonMari method as the key to living a better, more fulfilling life.

That lingering note of sexism makes it hard for me to unequivocally endorse The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up. I think Kondo’s basic advice is sound, but I can’t quite shake the feeling that perfectly folded undies are being held up as a badge of true womanhood, rather than an artful way to organize your drawers.

THE LIFE-CHANGING MANGA OF TIDYING UP: A MAGICAL STORY • BY MARIE KONDO, ILLUSTRATED BY YUKO URAMOTO • TRANSLATED BY CATHY HIRANO • TEN SPEED PRESS • NO RATING • 192 pp.

Manga Giveaway: Summer Spookiness (Ghost Diary and In/Spectre)

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It’s that time again! The end of June is quickly approaching, which means the monthly giveaway at Experiments in Manga is now commencing. Summer has most definitely arrived in the Northern Hemisphere and it has been ridiculously hot in some places. One Japanese tradition is to tell ghost stories in the summer hoping that the chilling tales will help beat the heat. And so with that in mind, this giveaway will provide an opportunity to win the first volume of Seiju Natsumegu’s Ghost Diary and Chasiba Katase’s In/Spectre, published in English by Seven Seas and Kodansha Comics respectively. As usual, the giveaway is open worldwide!

Ghost Diary, Volume 1In/Spectre, Volume 1

Considering my well-established love of Japanese folklore and yokai it might just be wishful thinking, but recently there seems to have been a wave of manga in translation that incorporate traditional Japanese legends, ghosts, spirits, monsters, and so on. (I’m not at all complaining.) Whether they appear as main or supporting elements in a story, even just the promise that they’ll be included is usually enough for me to give a manga a try. Ghost Diary and In/Spectre, two of the more recent manga releases dealing with Japanese supernatural traditions, provide distinctly modern takes on Japanese folklore and mythologies. But while they do share some similarities, Natsumegu and Katase’s approaches are vastly different and the contrasts between the two series can be quite interesting.

So, you may be wondering, how can you a copy of the first volumes of Ghost Diary and In/Spectre?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about one of your favorite manga about Japanese folklore, ghosts, or urban legends. (Don’t have a favorite? Simply mention that instead.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

And there you have it! Everyone participating can earn up to two entries and has one week to submit comments. If needed or preferred, those comments can also be sent to me directly at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. They will then be publicly posted here in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on July 5, 2017. Good fortune to you all!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address in the comment form, a link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced–Manga Giveaway: Summer Spookiness Winner

Sound! Euphonium: Welcome to the Kitauji High School Concert Band

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By Ayano Takeda. Released in Japan by Takarajimasha, Inc. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Paul Starr.

One of the biggest surprise licenses from last year was this book, originally released as a stand-alone novel about the struggles of a high school concert band, which got made into a hugely successful anime. Note that I said ‘novel’ and not ‘light novel’ – there are no interstitial pictures in this book, which is the usual way to tell the difference about these sorts of things. But even beyond that, the fact that Sound! Euphonium does not take place in a fantasy world, at a magical academy, or even have Satan working at McDonald’s was a big point against it. But Yen took a chance on licensing the book, and I’m glad they did, as this is really well-written and dramatic, manages to show off in textual form the difficulties of playing music and the difference between ‘really good’ and ‘outstanding’, and most of all, it has in Kumiko one of the most fascinating protagonists I’ve met all year.

Kumiko is not a first person narrator per se, but the POV of the narration never leaves her, so in effect she functions as our eyes and ears for this book. She’s trying to “start anew” at a new high school, but can’t quite escape her concert band past, especially when her new friends also express an interest. Her childhood friend and not-boyfriend Shuuichi is also in the same band, as is her middle-school bandmate Reina. More on Reina later. Kumiko did not have a pleasant middle-school band experience, as most concert bands, where some instruments are more popular than others and some people get to solo while others don;t, is filled with politics and infighting, and the confrontations just wore her down. To a large degree the book is about helping Kumiko rediscover her love of the euphonium and band in general, and showing her how important it is to not simply glide along and have fun.

I had first heard of the anime as a “yuri anime”, and therefore was rather amused to note that the first half of the book featured precisely none of that. Indeed, Reina appears far less than you’d expect – she may as well be a minor character – until the festival, when Kumiko desperately tries to avoid Shuuichi asking her out (as it might actually force her to confront her feelings for him) and grabs Reina, saying they’re going together. Reina is fine with this, and takes Kumiko on a very romantic festival date. Despite Kumiko clearly being set up with Shuuichi, and Reina admitting that she’s in love with their teacher (what is it with Japan and teacher-student romances?!), it’s Kumiko and Reina who have the most chemistry together, as their body language and conversation reads like a couple rapidly falling for one another. I’d also like to mention Asuka here, the most fascinating character after Kumiko. She and Kumiko seem to be contrasted, if not as rivals, then as mirrors of each other, and their few scenes together are also charged – not with romantic tension, but with just tension. They ended up being my favorite scenes in the book, actually.

The book ends with the Kyoto Competition, and indeed ends somewhat suddenly with the reveal of the results. It was meant to be a stand-alone book, but the author ended up writing two more novels and some short stories afterwards, which were adapted into another anime season. So far Yen has only licensed this book, but I’d like to see it do well so we can see more of this cast – especially Kumiko and Asuka. Highly recommended.

Dorohedoro, Vol. 21

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By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hibana. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by AltJapan Co., Ltd. (Hiroko Yoda + Matt Alt).

I’ve often talked about the fact that I find Dorohedoro very satisfying to read while at the same time immensely confusing. It’s a series with a lot going on, and there’s a lot of characters and locations (and many of the characters also wear masks!). But we’re getting near to the end of the series now, and the author is finally starting to dish out some answers. And it works: this volume felt very strong plot-wise, and I was able to follow Ai’s explanations of what happened to him for the most part. It’s quite a tragic fate, like many of the other fates in Dorohedoro, but looking back on everything with Caiman, Ai, Kai and Aikawa you can nod your head and say “yeah, that makes sense”. Well, except maybe for Caiman, which is openly lampshaded when Nikaido admits she has no idea who he is now.

Speaki9ng of Nikaido, there’s an explanation of that “cliffhanger” ending from last time – she’s turning into a devil more and more, and is now much taller and getting cloven feet. Unfortunately for her, En is back in business, and he’s still obsessed with having her as his partner, but we’ll see how that goes. In fact, most of the band is back together, as Shin is sane again and reunited with Noi, and the rest of the decapitated heads are getting bodies again (though almost immediately they’re mushroomed by En, who’s trying to save them). And yes, poor Ebisu is still roundly humiliated, though as always it’s in the most hilarious ways – En remotely creates a mushroom body from one that’s on Ebisu’s head, which causes her head to end up as the remote body’s crotch – something she finds hilarious, as you’d expect. What follows is a long, protracted mushroom war, as En shows off how powerful and clever he really is – though even he may be no match for the devil Chidaruma, who is gloating triumphantly on the cover for a reason.

I know I’ve said this in seemingly every Dorohedoro review to date, but my God there is a lot of truly graphic violence in this book. Decapitations, eviscerations, blood and gore on almost every page. There’s casual deaths, casual eye gouging torture, and Ai’s entire flashback, which is filled with flesh-melting horror. This all culminates in Chidaruma slaughtering everyone in Haru’s flying house, so that the house itself begins to bleed. Never let it be said that Hayashida doesn’t know how to do grotesque imagery. The art is a plus as always, and even though I still sometimes get a few of the characters confused (particular when they have masks on), it doesn’t matter because there’s always something on the page to marvel at. Dorohedoro is speeding towards a climax (I think – it’s still running in Japan), and now that the books are a good 80-90 pages longer each time, there’s even more reason to run out and buy it.

Bookshelf Briefs 6/26/17

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Assassination Classroom, Vol. 16 | By Yusei Matsui | Viz Media – Most of this volume is taken up by the flashback showing us how Koro-sensei became what he is today. As you’d expect, it’s pretty tragic, but there’s also a bit of cognitive dissonance, as it’s hard to see the Koro-sensei we know today in that apathetic killer who appears at the start. But it’s the power of love that helps turn him, if not away from the dark side, at least into someone who cares about the right way to teach. Also, in case you didn’t hate Yanigasawa enough already, his portrayal as an arrogant abuser will help speed things along. Back in the present, our class is now divided—can they really kill Koro-sensei, or should they try to save him? Each volume of this series gets more and more gripping. -Sean Gaffney

Complex Age, Vol. 5 | By Yui Sakuma | Kodansha Comics – Phew. After a gut-wrenching fourth volume, I was seriously wary about reading this volume. Thankfully, however, it is far more encouraging than the last. True, Kimiko is still planning to give up on cosplay, and though she tries to sell it as wanting to devote herself to photography, it’s clear that what Rui (boo! hiss!) said to her had a role to play in her decision. But Nagisa meets her fiancé and can’t help but be happy for her best friend. Meanwhile, Hayama continues to cosplay and is having fun in her new job as an event coordinator. The bottom line is—the future needn’t be bleak, and Nagisa is left to wonder where her own limits are. With people at work and home seemingly inclined to respect her choices, could we possibly have a happy ending next time? I hope so! – Michelle Smith

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 5 | By Izumi Miyazono | Viz Media – I’d mentioned Kamiya’s ‘aggressive courting’ in the last volume, and here it walks way over the line into blackmail and emotional abuse. Kamiya has become a creep, and Asuka is rightly trying to do her best to pull away from him without it damaging either her career or Ryu’s. Ryu, meanwhile, is having his own battles with Kamiya, as each says that they don’t care about what Asuka is really thinking about. Frankly, I think Ryu’s doing a better job of it, and he’s also able to break things off with Sakura in a more permanent way. Still, Kamiya isn’t going away, and the volume’s end shows him trying to be the Sun rather than the North Wind. Frustrating at times, especially when Kamiya’s being a creep, but still good. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 18 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – Yes, Soma wins his battle, showing that the power of fantastic food is better than the power of bribery. This also means that the administration’s goons temporarily back off attacking Polaris Dorm, and we get a highly amusing celebration scene (with more horror from newbies at Isshiki stripping). The big impact comes in the middle of the book, as we learn that Erina’s father is attacking Polaris in particular due to a past with Soma’s father. In fact, he was unaware that Saiba was Soma’s father (the danger of taking the wife’s last name, a far more Japanese thing)… and moreover, Erina was unaware of it as well. In any case, more bad things are happening as the book wraps up, and I expect things will get worse soon. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss Him, Not Me!, Vol. 11 | By Junko | Kodansha Comics – Well, new rival turned out to be absolutely terrible, didn’t he? This volume consists of a lot of running around trying to stop Kae from getting forcibly married. Kae spends the entire main storyline in her “overweight” form, which surprised me, but it doesn’t stop her making an awkward but impressive escape attempt. Unfortunately, after that she mostly acts as a passive prize, only snapping and letting Mitsuboshi have it right at the end. And even that seems to be a case where she can only “win” by literally pounding him into unconsciousness with her bulk. There’s also a side story which is terminally ridiculous—which is good, as this manga needs to be over the top silly in order not to drown in problematic shoujo and fat stereotypes. Variable as always. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vol. 11-12 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | Viz Media – It’s rare you see a tie in a sports manga, but given this is only the qualifiers, a tie is what we end up with. Of course, this just means that Kuroko and company have to win their next match, and it ends up being against a bunch of goons who fight dirty. The leader of this team is fantastic in an awful way, showing off a couple of tragic backstories before taking them back with a smirk. Teppei and Junpei also get a lot of focus here, with a flashback that shows how they both joined the team and how Teppei got injured (and also how obvious an OT3 with them and Riko is). But they pass, and the Winter Cup is up next, with all of Kuroko’s old teammates. An extremely compelling basketball manga. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 24 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – Did I say the flashback would take up ‘some’ of this next volume? Sorry, I meant 90% of it, as everything turns horribly tragic and awful in the best backstory way, as Aladdin finishes trying to explain why metal users fighting each other leads only to destruction. There is some truly heartrending imagery here, with children burned to death and lots and lots of dead bodies. Couples we loved and found cute are beaten down by events, and of course Sheba dies, but not before giving birth to Aladdin. That said, I suspect we haven’t seen the last of Arba. It is really nice to see the main cast again, and I loved the “Alibaba is undercut” gag’s exquisite timing. In any case, the flashback is finally done—will we get more Morgiana now, please? – Sean Gaffney

Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi, Vol. 7 | By HaccaWorks* and nanao | Yen Press – A rather interesting thing happens in this volume: quite a few things are revealed and yet the overall story doesn’t get appreciably clearer! Yue and his friend Akitoshi are trying to rescue Tsubaki from the shrine, but before they can manage to do so, he’s whisked away to be tossed into a pond to give strength to Mikoto, who is fighting off Akashi, whose body now belongs to Yue because Shin stole it hundreds of years ago and oh, also, Shin is the progenitor of the Tsubaki family line and by the way, here’s the deal about Mikoto’s missing tail. So many things to try to keep track of and make sense of! Thankfully, Yue’s personal dilemma is a very compelling one. I’m invested in his outcome, even if I don’t fully grasp what happened in the past. – Michelle Smith

Sweetness & Lightning, Vol. 6 | By Gido Amagakure | Kodansha Comics – This is a particularly good volume of Sweetness & Lightning—there’s a bit more conflict than usual and it doesn’t always get solved through yummy food. Tsumugi gets attached to the lost kitty she and her dad have taken in, only for its real owners to come to claim it. Then, the gang goes camping and a couple of her friends get in a disagreement. Something similar ensues on Kotori’s school trip. And Inuzuka’s bossy brother shows up and offers unsolicited advice on various things. The best part, though, is when Tsumugi stays a while with her grandparents while her dad is chaperoning a school trip. Not the part where they eat locusts, but the time she spends with her great-grandmother, looking at pictures of her dad as a kid, and contemplating complex topics like getting old. Delicious food and some bittersweet feels? I am so on board with that! – Michelle Smith

Pick of the Week: Gems, Witches, Emperors and Vikings

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SEAN: I’ll be honest, most of my attention this week is focused on novels, what with Combat Baker and Nisemonogatari. But I picked a novel last week, so this week my pick is Land of the Lustrous, a new Kodansha series with gem wars but sadly not Steven.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to the second volumes of series whose debut volumes I liked a lot. Ordinarily, I’d pick Giant Killing, what with it being sports manga and all, but Flying Witch has an amusing kitty, and that gives it the edge this time.

KATE: I share Michelle’s enthusiasm for manga featuring cute animal sidekicks., but my vote goes to the digital-only release The Emperor and I, a comedy about a family living with an Emperor penguin. The story unfolds in short chapters of three to nine pages, so the formula isn’t as rigid as a 4-koma title; it feels a little bit like reading a collection of Sunday comic strips. Not sold? Here’s what I had to say about it back in May.

ASH: For me, my pick could be nothing other than Vinland Saga this week. The series has been consistently compelling from the very beginning. It’s also had great female characters from the start, but the most recent story arc allows the women in the series to shine like they haven’t before.

ANNA: I agree with Ash, I am very happy that new volumes of Vinland Saga are coming out after the series was paused for some time. It is rare for a series to combine great historical background with a truly compelling story and evocative art. Vinland Saga is my pick!

My Week in Manga: June 19-June 25, 2017

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My News and Reviews

Last week I posted the Bookshelf Overload for May, a rather lengthy list of manga, comics, and other books that have recently made their way into my home. One reason it was such a long was due to the fact that the Toronto Comic Arts Festival was also held in May and I’m always inspired to pick up a bunch of things while I’m there. Normally I post the Bookshelf Overload feature during the second week of the month rather than the third, but I switched things up this time in order to post my review of Yeon-sik Hong’s manhwa Uncomfortabily Happily closer to its release date.

Elsewhere online, Deb Aoki recently took a look at some of the major trends impacting the North American manga industry for Publishers Weekly–“Nine Reasons Manga Publishers Can Smile in 2017.” Otherwise, I didn’t really come across much in the way of manga news and announcements last week. While it may have in fact been a relatively quiet week, I suspect that I might have just missed things due to the fact that I wasn’t online much. (I’m in the midst of preparing lesson plans for an introduction to taiko course that I’ll be instructing over the summer.) Do let me know if there was anything in particular that you’ve found interesting lately, though!

Quick Takes

Cosmic CommandosCosmic Commandos by Chris Eliopoulos. Every once in a while a comic is directly sent my way that I otherwise would probably have never encountered. Cosmic Commandos, the debut graphic novel of American comics creator and illustrator Eliopoulos, is one such work. In part inspired by his own identical twin sons, Cosmic Commandos follows an unexpected adventure that a pair of twin brothers find themselves caught up in. Jeremy and  his (slightly) younger brother Justin have vastly different personalities, much to Jeremy’s dismay and embarrassment. In fact, Jeremy seems pretty annoyed and bored with a lot in his life, but that soon changes when a cereal box prize turns him into the hero from his favorite video game. Not only that, the monsters and villains from the game are now invading the town, too. However, they are proving to be much more difficult to beat in real life and, like it or not, Jeremy will need to rely on Justin’s help to save the day. Cosmic Commandos is aimed towards younger readers but some of the more subtle jokes and humor will probably be appreciated even more by the adults in their lives. It’s not a comic that I would normally find myself reading, but it was a fun and energetic story. There’s even a sequel in the works, Monster Mayhem, which sounds delightful.

Gangsta: Cursed, Volume 1Gangsta: Cursed, Volumes 1-2 written by Kohske and illustrated by Syuhei Kamo. I was surprised and impressed by how close Kamo’s artwork in Gangsta: Cursed aligns with Kohske’s artwork in Gangsta. This can probably be largely explained by the fact that Kamo is actually one of Kohske’s assistants for the original series, of which I wasn’t previously aware. Gangsta: Cursed primarily takes place before the events of the main series and is set during another time in Ergastulum’s history in which violence against the Twilight population was at a peak. Although there hasn’t been much story yet per se–for the most part the first two volumes of Gangsta: Cursed consist of one brutal action sequence after another–functionally the series serves as the backstory for Marco Adriano, who at that point was known as Spas. Unsurprisingly, considering that this is still Gangsta, his past is a tragic one filled blood and death. Indoctrinated as a young man to hate Twilights above all else, he is part of a group of particularly vicious Hunters known as the Destroyers. They have been instructed to kill all of the Twilights that they can find along with any normal human sympathizers, and they do. However, Spas is beginning to have doubts and seems to be quickly approaching a psychological breakdown.

I Am a Hero, Omnibus 2I Am a Hero, Omnibuses 2-3 (equivalent to Volumes 3-6) by Kengo Hanazawa. I’ll have to admit, although in general I’ve grown somewhat weary of the zombie subgenre, I’m finding I Am a Hero to be a gripping series. It can also be fairly gruesome and outright disturbing at times. Hanazawa has at this point established a good narrative rhythm, allowing both the characters and readers to have moments of respite (even if those moments are still frequently anxiety-inducing) in between intense, action-oriented, near-death experiences. Hideo, the lead of I Am a Hero, continues to be one of the most interesting characters that I’ve recently encountered in a manga, mostly due to the non-sensationalistic portrayal of the numerous mental health issues he deals with on top of simply trying to survive a zombie outbreak. Most everyone he knows has already died or has otherwise succumbed to the devastating infection, but as the series progresses further he does at least temporarily find some allies who can confirm that something terrible is going on in the world and that it’s not just all in his head. How long any of them will last is an entirely different matter though; the death count in I Am a Hero continues to be incredibly high and any survivors aren’t having an easy time of it, either.

Kase-san and Morning GloriesKase-san and Morning Glories by Hiromi Takashima. I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on exactly why, but I find the cover art of the first volume in the Kase-san series to be both cute and slightly off-putting. Fortunately, later volumes don’t seem to have the same issue. It’s also somewhat misleading as the interior illustrations are drawn in a completely different style, but one that I greatly prefer even though the anatomy can occasionally be a bit off. Like many manga, Kase-san and Morning Glories originally started as a one-shot story which is probably why the early part of the series feels very episodic. I’m not sure if the episodic nature of the manga will continue or if the series will develop a larger overarching narrative (which by the end of the first volume it seems that it might), but what I am certain of is that Kase-san and Morning Glories is adorable, light, and fluffy. There’s not much depth to the characters or stories at this point, but they are likeable and charming. The manga is largely seen from the perspective of Yamada, a young woman who loves to garden and who has recently found herself attracted to the titular Kase, one of the tomboyish stars of their school’s track team. Kase likes Yamada, too, but it takes some time for them to realize that their feelings are mutual.

Psycome: Murder Anniversary and the Reverse Memorial

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By Mizuki Mizushiro and Namanie. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

It is somewhat odd that I feel reassured at Psycome’s lack of ambition. At heart, this is meant to be a broad comedy, and as such it can’t give in too much to its premise. Despite having an innocent man in a prison devoted to making teen murderers into assassins, despite befriending a truly insane timebomb of a gas-mask wearing girl, despite finding out that your little sister seems to be genuinely disturbed… despite all that, the tone of this series has been light. Everything skews towards the cliche, towards the trope, towards the predictable. And yet you don’t really mind, because despite its flaws it’s sort of fun. That especially holds true for the 4th book, where we meet Eiri’s family and find they are a machine-gun nest of cliches.

Eiri herself is already quite the cliche, ticking off all the tsundere boxes very neatly. In case you think that she earned marks good enough to be able to leave the school, save your breath: she came in second to last, beaten only by the mohawk guy who spent the midterms in the nurse’s office. But her family have called for her, and so she must go. They’ve also asked for Kyousuke, which she finds disturbing. As for Ayaka and Renko, their grades WERE good enough to let them go outside for the reward, so they come along as well, because leaving Kyousuke and Eiri alone together is unthinkable. (Sorry, Maina, you’re just not important enough, though you do get the cover of the next book.) So everyone’s off to visit Eiri’s palatial home, which has the inscrutable mother, the little sister whose love for her sibling has turned to hatred, and the big brother who is creepy and a bit of a pervert. Oh yes, and murderous twin 9-year-olds, one male, one female, who are at least not named Hansel and Gretel. Eiri’s been called back home to try to solve the big problem: her inability to kill.

The climax of this volume is actually a giant anticlimax – by design, to be fair – and so most of the meat is devoted to the relationship between Eiri and her younger sister, Kagura. The moment you see Kagura and she attacks Eiri, you can see the entirety of her plotline laid out from end to end, and sure enough it’s all there – the hero worship, the frustration at being second best, the anger at being second best to an assassin who can’t kill. And of course the buried love she still has for her sister, which ends up coming out even after Eiri refuses to kill an innocent child to prove herself. The point of this book is to get Eiri – and by extension her family – to admit that it’s not that she can’t kill but that she doesn’t want to – that she finds it wrong. This is tied into the murder of her father as a child – Eiri felt the agony of her father’s death and her subsequent grieving, and even though she wants revenge, every time she made the attempt she though of others going through that and stopped. It’s good character development. Honestly, it’s more earned than the “I guess I do love you” tacked on at the end, which seems designed to keep things on a more even keel romance-wise – Kyousuke having spent much of the volume wondering if he really does love Renko.

Psycome is never going to be “really good”, but it’s still reasonably funny, and I like many of the characters. And we keep getting hints of the endgame plot, which I suspect will happen in the final volume. Recommended if you don’t mind cliches.