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Boys Over Flowers: Season 2

December 15, 2015 by Anna N

Boys Over Flowers Season 2 by Yoko Kamio

Boys Over Flowers Season 2 is available for free on a chapter by chapter basis on the Viz Manga app, Comixology, and on the Kindle.

I was a little hesitant about starting this series, which is a bit odd, because I absolutely adore Boys Over Flowers. I’ve collected the manga, and watched many of the tv adaptations of the property. I was worried that a return to Eitoku Academy would feel a bit stale. While this series doesn’t exactly feel fresh and new, Kamino is such an assured creator, it mostly won me over.

The social gap that was caused by the departure of the F4 has been filled by a new gang of students – the Correct 5. They are but a pale imitation of the F4, and they are lead by Haruto, a short boy with a penchant for superstition and ordering random quack objects out of the back of magazines. Haruto is joined in his misadventures by his right hand man Kaito, who seems reasonable and sane. There are two other male members, Sugimaru (the strong one), and Issa (mostly invisible). The Correct 5 is rounded out by Airi, a girl who you can tell is evil due to her curly pigtails.

The not-Tsukushi main female character is Oto, who is attending Eitoku while working a variety of side jobs. She used to be rich, but her family has fallen on hard times. She’s keeping up the pretense that she can actually afford to go to Eitoku, but the Correct 5 are determined to drive any poor students out of school, in order to try to better its standing. It seems like when the F4 left, much of the glamour that attracted students went too, and the school is struggling especially when compared to upstart Momonozono Academy.

Oto and Haruto meet when he isn’t able to send his butler in to the convenience store where she works to pick up his bizarre mail order packages. Haruto is worried about his secret being uncovered, and Oto isn’t afraid to try to blackmail him in order to keep her status as a student. One of the things I appreciated about Oto was her guarded personality. The first Boys Over Flowers was a bit more dynamic because Tsukushi was always so vocal, but Oto is doing her best to stay under the radar, to the point where she’s actually repressing her impulses.

Haruto is an absolute idiot, but he’s somewhat adorable in his lavish lifestyle, slavish devotion to the memory of Tsukasa, and bumbling reactions to Oto as he begins to realize that he has a crush on her. One of the things that I didn’t like much about the chapters that have been released so far, is that the rest of the Correct 5 haven’t really had their personalities filled in yet. I thought that the first Boys Over Flowers did a better job balancing out and introducing the cast of characters and giving everyone a chance to develop. To be fair, Kamino does realize this, there’s a side story about Issa making the point that he never actually shows up in the manga, so I’m hoping that there will be more plot development later on.

Kamio’s art is great – she has a facility with facial expressions that make the funny scenes teeter on the edge of caricature while still seeming fully human. Really, my main quibble with this series is that it does suffer in comparison with the original. It was a bit telling that one of the most exciting moments in this series was when one of the original members of the F4 popped back for a very brief cameo. There are cliffhangers at the end of every chapter, and it did want to keep reading once I got going. I appreciate that Viz is experimenting with a free, digital release for Boys Over Flowers Season 2 and I hope it leads to more digital shoujo!

Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler

December 15, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Shigeru Mizuki. Released in Japan as “Gekiga Hitler”by Jitsugyou no Nihonsha, serialized in the magazine Manga Sunday. Released in North America by Drawn and Quarterly.

It saddens me to be writing this review now that Mizuki has passed on, but I am pleased that his work is still coming out to entertain and fascinate us all. Showa just completed, we have this new Hitler volume, and Kitaro finally gets a broader release in 2016. He spent his life creating works that will remain behind long after his death. And that includes this book, which was called something like Hitler: The Graphic Novel in Japan, but has been retitled here. And it fits, as the Hitler we’re seeing here feels more like Mizuki’s than it does history’s. This isn’t to say that Mizuki hasn’t done his research: everything is carefully couched in the history that we know (which is not as much as we’d like to). But as the book goes on and we dig deeper and deeper into the darkness of Hitler and the Nazi party, he becomes his own caricature.

We start off with Hitler as a starving artist, not looking unlike what Kitaro might look if he grew up. Those familiar with Showa will know what we’re getting here, though he did this work first: a combination of historical textbook mixed with dramatized scenes. The dialogue not taken directly from Hitler’s speeches is very perfunctory and drab, deliberately so, I believe: these are real human beings deciding to commit all these atrocities in the name of power, and it wouldn’t do to make their evil more grandiose than it needs to be. As the book goes on, we continue to see Hitler’s rise to power and eventual realization, during World War II, that he’s on the losing side. Most of the major points are kept: his disturbing relationship with his niece, his failing health towards the end, his power of rhetoric swaying opinions – and when that doesn’t work, killing anyone who opposes him.

The introduction notes that Western readers might be surprised at how little the Holocaust was mentioned. I was *very* surprised – it gets one page, right near the end, but other than that and Hitler ranting about Jews a few times in the first half of the book, we get almost nothing about concentration camps or anything else – most of the WWII history is confined to troop movements and leadership positions. To be fair, there are a LOT of famous people in this book, and Mizuki wants to keep it simple by focusing on the politicians he’s sure Japanese readers will know. Still, it’s a startling gap in the book.

The best reason to read this book is Mizuki’s art, in particular his facial expressions. This has always been a strong point of Mizuki’s, but it’s almost sublime here, as his Hitler’s desperate, snorting face gives the pent-up emotion that the dry dialogue can’t necessarily carry. (Some of the funniest moments have Hitler reacting to horrible events with a simple “gyah!”.) Goebbels in particular is amazing, as Mizuki decides about 3 pages after his introduction to try to draw him like some sort of twisted Picasso face, attempting to slide off the page every time we look at it. It’s so fitting for Goebbels that I can’t help but laugh. Each caricature looks like the man portrayed, yes also exaggerates them to ridiculous heights.

If you’re looking for a good overview of Hitler’s rise to power, I think there are better books. But for a book showing us Shigeru Mizuki’s unique take on Hitler, and his ability to show off the man’s unique evil in his own style, this is a great choice. Also for amusement, try to add up the times we see Hitler doing the standard “Mizuki snort of rage” pose.

Pick of the Week: Overabundance

December 14, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Anna N, Michelle Smith and MJ 2 Comments

SEAN: There’s about a dozen titles I could pick here, including any number of debuts from Yen, or final volumes from Vertical, or even fantastic shoujo from Kodansha and seinen from Viz. But my pick of the week will be Kizumonogatari, the novel by Nisioisin that is the introduction to the popular Monogatari universe, showing how our hero got to be what he is today. I’ve loved this author’s work ever since I read the first Zaregoto back in 2008, and can’t wait to bury myself in it.

ASH: Sean’s right, there are plenty of great releases to choose from this week, including some of my personal favorites like Dorohedoro. However, I’m especially excited for the debut of Yowamushi Pedal. I’m very happy to see sports manga being released in English again and I don’t at all mind the series’ BL undertones, whether they be real or imagined.

ANNA: I’m also going to throw my vote to Yowamushi Pedal. Sports manga comes out so rarely here, I feel like every new title should be celebrated.

MICHELLE: My pick goes to volume one of Of The Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi. The art and the emphasis on the supernatural remind me of Natsume’s Book of Friends, which is one of my favorite series, but there are quite a few active mysteries and questions in this new series that presumably relate to its visual novel origins. Check it out!

MJ: There’s a lot to be happy about this week, including all my colleagues’ picks, so I’ll do my duty here and keep banging the drum for my beloved Pandora Hearts! We’ve been waiting a long time for this volume, and there is so much hanging in the balance! You can be sure this is at the top of my list this week.

My Week in Manga: December 7-December 13, 2015

December 14, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Okay! Last week I submitted my promotion dossier at work, which means I’ll be able to start paying more attention to Experiments in Manga again. I still have a few other life things preoccupying me at the moment, but I’m hoping to get back to my normal posting schedule by the beginning of the new year if not before. That being said, I only posted one in-depth review last week. Soji Shimada’s classic mystery novel The Tokyo Zodiac Murders was recently re-released in English, which seemed as good an excuse as any to get around to reading it. According to this interview with Shimada, if The Tokyo Zodiac Murders does well, the next book in the series might be translated, too, which I would definitely like to read.

As for other interesting things found online: Seven Seas’ ten-day licensing spree has now wrapped up. (The new license tag on Seven Seas’ tumblr is probably still the easiest place to see them all at once.) Out of all the announced titles the one I’m most curious about is Ichiya Sazanami’s Magia the Ninth which features master composers as demon hunters with music-based magic. (Sazanami is the creator of Black Bard which I likewise couldn’t resist because of the combination of music and magic.) And in case you need to catch up on all of the anime, manga, and light novel licenses announced in 2015, Reverse Thieves has you covered. Also of note, Manga Brog has translated an excerpt of an interesting interview of Kentaro Miura, the creator of Berserk.

Quick Takes

Captain Ken, Volumes 1-2 by Osamu Tezuka. I think that I’ve mentioned here before that I happen to have a particular fascination with Mars, which was one of the primary reasons that I was interested in reading Captain Ken. Of course, it didn’t hurt that series was also created by Tezuka. (Though granted, I would love to see more classic manga that isn’t by Tezuka released in English.) Captain Ken is basically a western in space—Mars has been deliberately developed to be reminiscent of the American Southwest, the primary mode of transportation is by (robotic) horse, and the Martians have met with the same tragic fate as the Native Americans. The series is an odd mashup of science fiction and western genre tropes and American history, including references to World War II and the dropping of the atomic bomb. (The portrayal of Americans, perhaps justifiably, isn’t especially flattering.) Captain Ken explores the same themes of anti-war and anti-discrimination found in many of Tezuka’s other manga. Overall, it’s an entertaining adventure story with a rather bittersweet ending.

Cross Game, Omnibuses 6-8 (equivalent to Volumes 12-17) by Mitsuru Adachi. I still don’t have much of an interest in baseball when it comes to real life, but I’m completely invested in the sport when it comes to Cross Game. I’ve come to care tremendously about the characters in the series and, because baseball is incredibly important to so many of them, by proxy the baseball is important to me as well. Cross Game‘s last three omnibuses focus on the final year of high school baseball for Ko and his classmates. In fact, the eighth omnibus is almost entirely devoted to a single game—the last opportunity for the Seishu team to make Wakaba’s dream of seeing them play at summer Koshien a reality. They’ve worked hard as a team and have several players who are individually impressive as well, but that never guarantees a win. I’ve watched the Cross Game anime series, which turns out to have been a very faithful adaptation, so I knew how things would end. Even so, the manga is incredibly engaging and has a ton of heart. I never expected to be so taken with a baseball manga, but Cross Game is excellent.

U Don’t Know Me by Rakun. After a somewhat dubious beginning, I ended up really enjoying U Don’t Know Me. Plot-wise there’s a lot packed into this one-volume boys’ love manhwa and the characterization is quite good as well. Seyun and Yoojin are childhood friends who have only recently come to realize that they share feelings for each other which are much more lustful in nature. While the manhwa is primarily about Seyun and Yoojin and the evolution of their friendship into a romance, their relationships with their friends and families are also extremely important to the story. Context is provided for their love for earch another and the implications of that love. My favorite part of U Don’t Know Me was actually the response of the boys’ parents upon discovering their sons’ intimate relationship. Initially they were shocked and upset, but they ultimately give their love and support and are very involved in ensuring the well-being of both young men. The realistic portrayal of this sort of positive acceptance seems to be something of a rarity in boys’ love, so it makes me particularly happy when I see it.

Bookshelf Briefs 12/14/15

December 14, 2015 by Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith Leave a Comment

Sean and Michelle are at it again.

Bloody Mary, Vol. 1 | By Akaza Samamiya | Viz Media – Given the glut of vampire titles on the market these days, I usually try to find something different about a debut that helps it to stand out from the pack. Sadly, I’m not sure I got anything from Bloody Mary, which has just gotten started but didn’t really leave me with a desire to continue. While not a BL title, the author has done a lot of BL, and the subtext is certainly there—the two leads are a somewhat puppyish uke and a somewhat sadistic seme. And there’s lots of secrets, and traditions, and amnesia, and a somewhat smug female vampire who I suspect will be dead in 2-3 more volumes. Honestly, while not a BL title, that may be its best audience—there’s something for them here. Vampire fans might want to look elsewhere. – Sean Gaffney

Chocolate Cosmos, Vol. 3 | By Nana Haruta | VIZ Media (digital only) – There’s no escaping the fact that Chocolate Cosmos is a stereotypical shoujo manga. In this volume, for example, Valentine’s Day has arrived and Sayuki Sakurai is determined to confess her love to baby-faced teacher Katsuya Hagiwara, oblivious to the fact that her childhood friend has feelings for her. That said, I applaud Hagiwara for shutting down her fantasies, and must say that I really do have no idea who Sayuki is going to end up with (though this is partly due to having zero insight into Hagiwara’s thoughts and feelings). Probably if this series were any longer, I would not feel so charitably towards it, but it’s short (concluding in the next volume) and pleasant, and sometimes those attributes are enough to induce me to see a series through to the end. – Michelle Smith

Crown of Thorns, Vol. 1 | By Yoko Kamio | VIZ Media (digital only) – Prickly loner Nobara Fukami has no patience for her fake and manipulative classmates. She’s also been hearing an eerie voice in her head since the age of five, and when she turns sixteen, the demon finally manifests corporeally and tasks her with creating orbs of human negativity that he’ll consume to gain rank in the demon hierarchy. There are reasons why Nobara is obliged to comply, but she’s a strong heroine and resists being cast in the servant role. After demanding to be treated as an equal partner, she ultimately finds that the demon (whom she dubs Lucio) understands her better than anyone else ever has. I really enjoyed this debut volume and am kind of bummed that the series is complete in two volumes. I hope we get Cat Street next! – Michelle Smith

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 9 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – Soma may be the star of the show, but as a Jump manga we also get to see the supporting cast develop and grow. Megumi’s arc was my favorite in this particular volume—she lost, yes, that was expected given the genre and the fact that it’s a tournament arc. But her excitement and drive to test herself further is what’s really important here. Likewise, Alice’s defeat is a humbling lesson on needing to see the entire picture when making a meal. I’m not sure if Soma’s going to win this thing—given the clichés of the genre, he should be defeated before the finals—but whatever happens, he’ll get something important out of it as well. Also, as always, completely hungry after reading this, this time for hamburgers. – Sean Gaffney

Komomo Confiserie, Vol. 2 | By Maki Minami | Viz Media – Komomo was a bit of a spoiled brat in the first volume, but having been appropriately humbled, she may be shifting a bit too much to the other direction, as she’s almost a saint in this book. Admittedly this is something that Maki Minami does in all her titles, as the men in them stand agog at the perfection of their respective love interests. This one’s not as long as Special A or Voice Over!, so we’ll see if it wears out its welcome before the end. ‘Til then, this isn’t deep, but is fun and light. Also, if you believe that “arranged marriage is likely void” line, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Don’t be surprised if this is a future plot twist—indeed, we may have met the other party already. – Sean Gaffney

Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi, Vol. 1 | Story by HaccaWorks*, Art by nanao | Yen Press – I didn’t know anything about this series before I started reading it. Literally, I judged it by its cover (“Ooh, pretty!”) and was intrigued enough to flip through it. The charmingly wispy-looking artwork convinced me that it was indeed my sort of manga, and now that I’ve read it I’m happy I took the chance. In look and feel, Of the Red… reminds me of Natsume’s Book of Friends, one of my favorite series, but it’s more plot-driven (thanks to its visual novel origins, I presume), as it takes place in a town whose station passing trains never seem to notice and whose inhabitants have a way of disappearing. Yue and his two new friends resolve to find out who’s responsible, but he hasn’t told them that he’s supposed to choose one of them for his next meal. I’m really looking forward to volume two! – Michelle Smith

A Silent Voice, Vol. 4 | By Yoshitoki Oima | Kodansha Comics – As predicted, things continue to get complex for our lead couple… well, not really a couple. Shoko may have realized she loves Shoya, but she can’t communicate this to him. And given Shoya is having trouble understanding the concept of basic friendship, I’m fairly certain he’s not remotely ready for love. Meanwhile, Naoka proves to be even more appalling than I was anticipating, trying to get us to understand that her victim blaming is just as valid. And worst of all, a tragedy leaves Shoko and her sister without one of the few good things in their life. A Silent Voice may not be a romance, but it’s certainly a dramatic potboiler, and I worry things will get even worse before they get better, but I’m there reading it anyway. – Sean Gaffney

Black Rose Alice, Vol 6

December 13, 2015 by Anna N

Black Rose Alice Volume 6 by Setona Mizushiro

I was disappointed when I realized a couple volumes in to this series that it was on hiatus in Japan. But by that time I was thoroughly won over by Mizushiro’s surreal and unique take on vampires and the tragic tone of the manga in general. It turns out that I shouldn’t have been worried too much, because while this volume doesn’t wrap up all the possible loose ends in the series, it does provide a satisfying conclusion.

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Dimitri is away, and Alice and the twins are living in the house, dealing with the aftermath of Leo’s death. The twins’ backstory is told through flashbacks, and it is just as dark as one might expect from this series. Neither twin seemed like particularly great humans, but Kai’s actions are particularly despicable, making his current more winning personalty stand out in contrast to his past actions. There’s a moment of levity injected into the household when Dimitri returns home with a human woman who he once saved from a horrible assault, promising to make her his vampire bride. Now Akari is all grown up, and determined to experience the most cliched date possible with Dimitri by her side. This prompts feelings of jealousy in Alice, and an emotional confrontation.

As far as endings go, this volume concludes with one that is about as happy as it is possible to get, considering that everyone is doomed. Black Rose Alice is such a delightfully odd series, one that doesn’t turn aside from the darkness in human (or vampire) nature. It is a more mature, and quirky addition to the Shojo Beat family. I highly recommend it. This is one of those series that I’ll take down from the bookshelf and reread every few years.

Planetes, Vol. 1

December 13, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Makoto Yukimura. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Morning. Released in North America by Dark Horse Comics.

This title has been a fan favorite ever since Tokyopop first released it back in 2003. Now it’s rescued, with a new translation, color artwork throughout, and a larger trim size as two omnibuses. This first one covers the first 12 chapters, ending with Hachimaki’s vision quest, which is an excellent cliffhanger. Rereading it, I was reminded why I found the series so enthralling – it combines interesting and flawed characters, a political thriller plot, and of course the beauty of space exploration, and why people want to go to space, though it makes sure to note that sometimes what people do to get to space can be morally questionable.

Like many titles, the series starts off feeling like a series of one-shots, possibly as it was – many titles are given a chapter or two before they get picked up, which also explains such glitches as Hachimaki’s hair. From the start, though, we have the basical – Hachimaki, Yuri and Fee command a debris collecting ship, making sure that the worst of the objects that litter space are removed so that there’s less risk of an accident. We open on one such accident, which weights heavily on Yuri, the first of our cast we really meet. Ironically, his character arc pretty much finishes in this volume, as he is able to let go of his wife’s death and move on. Likewise, Fee is a wife and mother whose biggest issues are trying to find a place to have a smoke in peace – she’s more of a mentor figure, as well as providing comedy through physical and verbal violence and in her spare time saving all of Earth from cosmic disasters.

No, it’s clearly Hachimaki, and later Tanabe, who are going to be the stars of our show. Hachi is really irritating in that “I am 23 and therefore know better than anyone else” sort of way, and spends much of his time angry at the world, his colleagues, and himself, not in that order. He wants to control his own destiny, but his idea of doing whatever it takes to achieve it feels wrong, especially since we get to contrast it with the creepy villain Locksmith, who is able to write off the death of hundreds in an explosion as good data for his next attempt. In contrast, Tanabe is all heart, and while she’s just as angry and headstrong as Hachi the narrative seems to be on her side most of the time. The two of them are also falling for each other hard, though Hachi finds this idea irritating more than anything else.

This is an expansive series that is not afraid to shift its focus and open up its cast. We meet Hachi’s eccentric father, down-to-earth mother and determined brother; a young girl who’s lived her whole life on the moon due to health issues; and of course various terrorists, who pepper the entire book trying to destroy everything Locksmith and Hachi are working on. No one is presented as totally right or wrong here, though certainly violence is shown to be the wrong answer in general. Towards the end of the book Hachi finally gets onto the crew headed to Jupiter, but a combination of three near-death experiences over the course of the first volume have him questioning everything about himself and what he’s doing. This reaches a point of ridiculousness at the end, when he’s able to somehow stay alive for a week in his spacesuit while having a vision quest.

Planetes is simply a great manga. It has an interesting plot, character growth and depth (Hachi is far less hotheaded by the end), and some gorgeous art. It also rewards us by showing the joys and sorrows of space travel, and why we should still strive to achieve it, despite everything. Even if you’ve already got the Tokyopop volumes, I recommended getting this spiffed up new edition. You can fall in love with it all over again.

The Manga Revue: Junji Ito’s Cat Diary

December 12, 2015 by Katherine Dacey

2015 has been a banner year for Junji Ito. In April, VIZ re-issued Gyo, Ito’s ick-tastic classic. Two months later, VIZ introduced readers to Fragments of Horror, the first new Ito title to arrive in the US in a decade. That was soon followed by the stateside debut of Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu, a humorous anthology published by Kodansha Comics. I first heard about Cat Diary back in 2011, when Ryan Sands posted a few images at Same Hat! It sounded like something I’d like–I’m on record as being an animal sap–so I was delighted when Kodansha announced plans to release it this year. Here are my somewhat biased thoughts on Yon & Mu.

Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu
By Junji Ito
Rated T, for readers 13+
Kodansha Comics, $10.99

On the surface, Junji Ito’s Cat Diary is a gag manga. J-Kun–a lightly fictionalized version of the author–reluctantly agrees to let his fiancee bring two cats into their home: Yon, a black-and-white cat with sinister markings on his back, and Mu, a Norwegian forest cat with a cute face and a wicked bite. Each story depicts Yon and Mu doing normal cat things, from coughing up hairballs to resisting unsolicited human affection. Readers familiar with Ito’s previous manga will get a chuckle at J-Kun’s over-the-top reactions to cat poop, scratched floors, and feather wands, as his grotesque facial expressions have been swiped from the pages of Gyo and Uzumaki. Surprisingly, these grimaces work just as well in the context of a domestic comedy, capturing the mixture of revulsion and love that cat behavior elicits. The uninitiated reader may also find these scenes amusing, if a bit excessive; surely a grown man realizes that cats can be jerks?

On a deeper level, however, Cat Diary is a meditation on human relationships. Though the ostensible plot focuses on J-Kun’s struggle to overcome his dislike of cats, the real story is Yon and Mu’s role in bringing J-Kun closer to his fiancee. J-Kun comes to love the cats–spoiler alert!–but the way in which he expresses those feelings demonstrates his journey from “me” to “we,” as his selfish concerns about the house give way to a shared sense of responsibility for the cats’ welfare. This human dimension of Cat Diary infuses it with a warmth that’s frequently missing from Ito’s work, and prevents the stories from reading like a collection of cat GIFs. (I can haz laffs now!)

On a totally shallow note, reading Cat Diary made me want to get my own Norwegian forest cat. I’m not sure if that’s an endorsement of Ito’s comedy chops, but it’s proof that he can draw the hell out of cute, furry things.

The verdict: You don’t need to be a cat person–crazy or otherwise–to enjoy this idiosyncratic manga, though a healthy respect for cats definitely helps.

Reviews: In the mood for shojo? Megan R. of The Manga Test Drive has you covered with in-depth reviews of The Demon Prince of Momochi House, First Love Monster, L♥DK, and Requiem of the Rose-King. Comics Alliance contributor Tom Speelman reflects on the legacy of Naruto, one of the world’s most popular manga.

Michael Burns on vol. 4 of Akame ga Kill! (Ani-TAY)
Megan R. on The Angel of Elhamburg (The Manga Test Drive)
Jordan Richards on vols. 5-7 of Assassination Classroom (AiPT!)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of A Bride’s Story (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 56 of Case Closed (Sequential Tart)
Lindsey Tomsu on vols. 1-3 of Dictatorial Grimoire (No Flying, No Tights)
Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Dragons Rioting (ICv2)
Michael Burns on vol. 8 of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (Ani-TAY)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of Horimiya (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lindsey Tomsu on vols. 1-9 of Kanokon (No Flying, No Tights)
Jordan Richards on vol. 2 of Komomo Confiserie (AiPT!)
Karen Maeda on vol. 4 of Master Keaton (Sequential Tart)
Sarah on vol. 1 of Merman in My Tub (Anime UK News)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun (ICv2)
Sarah on vol. 1 of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun (Anime UK News)
Austin Lanari on vol. 7 of New Lone Wolf & Cub (Comic Bastards)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 1 of Planetes (The Fandom Post)
Matt on vol. 2 of Prison School (Ani-TAY)
Matt on vol. 1 of School-Live! (Ani-TAY)
Josh Begley on vol. 6 of Vinland Saga (The Fandom Post)

Manga the Week of 12/16

December 10, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Michelle Smith, Anna N and MJ 2 Comments

SEAN: There are 39 titles due out next week. Thirty-nine. Let’s take a look. Try not to get lost in the deluge.

Attack on Titan’s 17th volume has a Special Edition with a DVD of Ilse’s Notebook, the side story from the 5th volume.

ASH: It’s really interesting to see special editions like this starting to come out!

SEAN: Fairy Tail has a 51st volume.

Kiss Him, Not Me! and L♥DK both have their second volumes which may interest shoujo fans.

MICHELLE: I suppose I will check out the second volume of L♥DK just to see whether it improves, but I don’t have high hopes.

SEAN: And Say “I Love You” has an 11th volume that is a must for shoujo fans.

MICHELLE: A definite must.

ANNA: I am way behind on this series! Maybe I will binge read during an upcoming vacation.

SEAN: Tsubasa has finally climbed out of its Reservoir and is ready to take on the world with the debut of Tsubasa World Chronicle 1. I am trying to contain my enthusiasm. See? :|

MICHELLE: I didn’t even know this existed!

ANNA: You know, I used to be a major CLAMP fan, and now I have CLAMP fatigue.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I think that has afflicted me, too. I never finished xxxHOLiC or the first Tsubasa series, despite owning them all, and now they both have sequels I haven’t touched. And then there’s that Gate 7 series, which utterly failed to make an impression with me.

ANNA: Most of my remaining feelings of affection for CLAMP are tied up in nostalgia for X/1999. So much angst and feathers!

MICHELLE: I have an enduring fondness for CLAMP Campus Detectives, but more so the anime than the manga. Oh, and Cardcaptor Sakura!

SEAN: It is rather sad that Man of Many Faces is still in my top 5 CLAMP works, given it was their first. (It’s out digitally next week as well, by the way! Rescued by Viz.)

ANNA: Cardcaptor Sakura is also great! Actually, I’m interested in reading Man of Many Faces, and I didn’t realize that it was out digitally.

MJ: I’m probably the only person here unlikely to succumb to CLAMP fatigue, I suppose, and while a Tsubasa sequel is not high on the list of what I’d really like to see most from them, I’ll surely check it out. Their artwork will always be a draw for me, and they have a knack for creating characters I can’t get enough of. Even when they write themselves into a hole (as they’ve occasionally done), I’ll stick around to the end.

SEAN: One Peace has a 5th (final?) volume of Aquarion Evol.

ANNA: I have some volumes of Aquarion I need to read.

SEAN: If you’ve somehow not read the brilliant and evocative A Distant Neighborhood books from Ponent Mon, they’ve got a Complete Edition out next week to correct that.

MICHELLE: I really liked A Distant Neighborhood.

ASH: Very glad to see this coming back into print!

ANNA: I haven’t read this, but I know it is wonderful, and I am also glad it is coming back into print.

MJ: It really *is* wonderful, and I’m so glad to see it coming back!

SEAN: And Seven Seas also has an omnibus of Mayo Chiki starting next week, whose audience is possibly a bit different from that of A Distant Neighborhood.

Vertical debuts a novel that will be of great interest to anime fans: Kizumonogatari: Wound Tale, the first (chronologically) of the popular Monogatari series from Nisioisin (author of Medaka Box and Zaregoto). I am VERY excited for its release, even though it has vampires – possibly that only adds to the excitement!

ANNA: Vampires are always exciting!

MEILNDA: I’m always willing to try something from Vertical, even if vampires are involved.

SEAN: Vertical also has the 12th and final volume of Mobile Suit Gundam the Origin. It’s a labor of love, and I’m sure that the Manga Bookshelf team, particularly Ash, are ready to congratulate them on its completion.

ASH: It’s true! This has been a fantastic release. Congrats, Vertical!

ANNA: Vertical deserves some sort of award for this lovely edition.

SEAN: And if Gundam is too realistic for you, try the second Ninja Slayer, also from Vertical.

Afterschool Charisma is a series I keep forgetting is still running, but here’s the 11th volume.

ANNA: I’m way behind on this, but I like it!

SEAN: And here is the 17th Dorohedoro, which I could never forget. Are these two the last remnants of SigIKKI?

MICHELLE: I believe so.

ASH: I love Dorohedoro so much.

SEAN: Master Keaton has a 5th volume already. I’ve fallen behind on this series.

MICHELLE: Me, too. I did start, but got bogged down somewhere in volume two.

ANNA: I am happy to report that this is one series I am not behind on! I enjoy Master Keaton.

SEAN: And a 4th volume of the insanely popular Tokyo Ghoul, which will war with Attack on Titan 17 for the top of the bestseller charts.

Yen On has five light novels out for the holidays. The 2nd Black Bullet will, I suspect, be as grim as the debut was.

The Devil Is A Part-Timer! has proven to be very likeable, and I hope the third volume continues the trend.

I remain surprised at how addictive Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? has become, particularly with that title. The 4th volume is also highly anticipated.

We’ve nearly come to the end of the long running Spice & Wolf novel series, with Vol. 16 being the 2nd to last.

And Sword Art Online’s 6th novel wraps up another arc, as Kirito and Sinon try to figure out the secret behind the Gun Gale Online game and those using it to kill players in real life.

MJ: I think I’m one of the few folks here who is pretty into SAO… how did that happen? In any case, I’m always ready for more!

SEAN: Yen Press has a number of debuts next week, beginning with Aldnoah Zero, which (like Rose Guns Days) gets a Season One appended to it. It runs in Manga Time Kirara Forward, but don’t expect it to be a 4-koma: this is a serious sci-fi title based on an anime created at the same time.

ASH: I haven’t seen the anime yet, but I am rather curious about the Aldnoah Zero manga.

MJ: I’m interested as well.

SEAN: There’s an 8th Barakamon, which I do recommend if you’re missing Yotsuba&!, even though the two titles have a somewhat different feel.

MICHELLE: I have a big stack of Barakamon that I really need to get around to reading.

MJ: I haven’t given this title its due, but I really should pay more attention to it!

SEAN: For those who don’t like prose, there’s the 2nd volume of the Black Bullet manga.

A ninth volume of Bloody Cross no doubt sees the series headed towards its endgame.

And there’s a third volume of eccentric fantasy Chaika the Coffin Princess.

Demon from Afar is up to Vol. 5, and no doubt continues to look very pretty and destroy all our hopes and dreams.

The third Emma omnibus also will look very pretty, but likely has 100% fewer corpses.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

MJ: I’m still excited every time one of these shows up, since I missed this series the first time around!

SEAN: And we get a 5th volume of He’s My Only Vampire. One of a large number of vampire manga out there, it’s trying to be our steady and doing a pretty good job.

MICHELLE: Definitely my favorite of the vampire gang.

ANNA: Is it odd that I haven’t read this yet? Probably.

MJ: I think that’s very odd indeed!

SEAN: Maximum Ride is not technically a manga, but it certainly sells well enough, so let’s mention the 9th volume here.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan is now at double digits, and I suspect will run till the author (Puyo, not the author of the original source) decides it is over.

Of the Red, the Light and the Ayakashi is based on a visual novel, and runs in Media Factory’s sorta-kinda-shoujo magazine Comic Gene. Expect prettiness.

MICHELLE: I’ve started reading this and it’s giving me some Natsume’s Book of Friends vibes, which is definitely a compliment.

ASH: Oooh, that’s good to hear! And the cover art is pretty, too!

ANNA: I’m always up for pretty sorta-kinda-shoujo.

MJ: I’m up for this, definitely, especially after reading Michelle’s comment above.

SEAN: Pandora Hearts has a 23rd volume, and it’s the first to come out in over a year, so I’ll let Michelle and MJtake over from here.

MICHELLE: I’ve fallen somewhat behind, so I am going to have a nice big marathon and it’ll be awesome. And then I’ll wait in desperation for the 24th and final volume to come out.

MJ: I have *not* fallen behind, as you might imagine, and have been anticipating this rather anxiously! My love for this series has not waned!

SEAN: Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie has a first volume, and is sure to appeal to fans of Homura who couldn’t get enough of the movie—ow, I think I cut myself on my sarcasm there.

MJ: I haven’t been able to maintain any interest in this series beyond the original anime. So many books. So little interest.

SEAN: There’s also a 2nd volume of Puella Magi Suzune Magica.

Rose Guns Days Season One gets a 2nd volume, as we learn more about this strange occupied Japan and the eccentrics populating it.

The Secret Sakura Shares is a done-in-1 omnibus that ran in Hakusensha’s LaLa and LaLa DX magazines, and I love that we’re seeing Hakusensha titles get additional publisher availability. That said, I suspect many readers will have trouble getting past the premise.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I don’t know about this one, but I’m gonna read it anyway.

ANNA: Hmmmmmm.

MJ: I just read the premise, and I agree I may have trouble getting past it. I guess we’ll see.

SEAN: Sunshine Sketch 8 finally bids farewell to its two gayest… sorry, oldest characters, as Sae and Hiro are graduating. But the series continues, and we gain some new students in the process.

Lastly, we have the first Yowamushi Pedal omnibus, as an incredibly popular shonen cycling series finally gets a chance in the West, despite a huge number of volumes extant. There are, I hear, one or two male fans. Somewhere. But for the most part, YowaPeda is known for its BL fandom, though the manga itself is not BL.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to this one a lot. Not for the BL but for its presumed sports manga-y aspects.

ASH: I’m certainly excited to see publishers giving sports manga another chance!

ANNA: I am always wishing for more sports manga, so I’m glad this is coming out.

MJ: Yay sports manga! Yay BL fandom! I’m ready for it all!

SEAN: That’s it. Finally. What are you getting?

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

December 10, 2015 by Ash Brown

Author: Soji Shimada
Translator: Ross and Shika Mackenzie
U.K. publisher: Pushkin Press
ISBN: 9781782271383
Released: September 2015
Original release: 1981

The British-based publisher Pushkin Press launched Vertigo, a new imprint devoted to classic crime and mystery fiction from around the world, in 2015. One of the six works selected for Vertigo’s debut was Soji Shimada’s first novel The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. Originally published in Japan in 1981, the novel would become the first book in a series of mysteries featuring Kiyoshi Mitarai. Shimada is an extremely prolific author particularly known for fostering the revitalization of honkaku fiction, a subgenre of Japanese mysteries that I was introduced to through The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, who Shimada mentored. Currently, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders is the only major work by Shimada available in English although a few of his short stories have been translated as well. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, translated by Ross and Shika Mackenzie, was first released in English in 2004 by IBC Publishing, but that edition has since gone out-of-print. I was very glad to see Vertigo bring the novel back.

In 1936, a set of grisly murders took place in Japan which came to be known as the Tokyo Zodiac Murders. Seven women, sisters and cousins, were found dead, their bodies cut into pieces and buried in remote locations across the country. A letter describing exactly how the women would be killed and dismembered would have made Heikichi Umezawa, their father and uncle, the primary suspect except that he himself had already met an untimely demise behind locked doors. Although over time many popular theories were proposed, the murders of Umezawa and the seven women remained unsolved for more than forty years. In 1979, new evidence came to light which inspired amateur detectives Kazumi Ishioka, a mystery enthusiast, and his close friend Kiyoshi Mitarai, a professional astrologer, to take up the case. Their investigation led them in many different directions as they searched for additional clues, but finally, more than four decades later, the murders are solved.

While there are some wonderful character moments in The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, especially between Mitarai and Ishioka—who is the one actually narrating the tale—the novel is much more focused on the details of the crimes and the related investigations than it is on nuanced characterization. Over the course of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, Shimada outlines all of the clues needed for the novel’s readers to solve the mystery themselves—they are given the same information that Mitarai and Ishioka have available to work with. In fact, Shimada briefly interrupts the narrative not once but twice, directly addressing and challenging readers to solve the case before Ishioka reveals the solution in the final few chapters. Granted, in addition to crucial hints, Shimada has also included plenty of red herrings to lead readers astray if they are not careful. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders presents a devious intellectual challenge, but it is solvable.

Although the cleverness of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders can be appreciated in its own right, much of my enjoyment of the novel came from directly engaging with the mystery. Readers can simply follow along as Ishioka and Mitarai conduct their investigations, waiting for everything to be disclosed, or they can take up Shimada’s challenge to try to uncover the solution on their own. First, the known facts about the murders are recounted by Ishioka in a fairly straightforward if enthusiastic manner. He then reveals how he and more specifically Mitarai became personally involved with the case, showing how their efforts ultimately led to the closing of a decades-old crime. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders is gruesome and shocking, but it’s also engrossing and introduces a likeable and somewhat eccentric investigator in Mitarai. Although The Tokyo Zodiac Murders was Shimada’s debut work, it is still considered by him and by others to be one of his best and I can understand why.