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Pick of the Week: Magi & more

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potwMICHELLE: While I really do enjoy Say I Love You. and look forward to its sixth volume, I’ve been in a more shounen-y mood lately, and so must pick (again, and probably not for the last time) volume ten of Magi, which is, like, an adventure saga with heart.

SEAN: As for me, I only get to do it twice a year, so I will pick the 25th Hayate the Combat Butler, which still makes me laugh an awful lot, thus fulfilling its function as a comedy, and also makes me like a girl that the hero is never going to end up with, thus fulfilling its function as a harem comedy.

ANNA: I will have to go with Say I Love You. I do enjoy this series, but I’m a few volumes behind. Time to stock up!

ASH: There are several manga being released this week that I’m interested in, all the way from A to Z. (Seriously, from Ajin to Ze.) But I’m actually going to go off list for my pick and choose Netcomics. Over the last few weeks, Netcomics has been releasing much its back catalog digitally for the Kindle–including Let Dai and Black-Winged Love, some of my personal favorites–making it even easier to get into Netcomics’ comics.

MJ: I will copy Ash this week, because really, Let Dai on Kindle? Be still my heart! Netcomics has started releasing some print volumes again recently, too. More about that here soon!

What looks good to you this week?

New Shojo Beat Titles Announced

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qqsweeperVIZ announced two new acquisitions: Kyousuke Motomi’s QQ Sweeper, and Arina Tanemura’s Idol Dreams. Both manga will be published under the Shojo Beat imprint, and will debut in fall 2015.

Speaking of new licenses, Crunchyroll just added Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth: Side P4 to its manga line-up.

Never underestimate a ninja’s powers: volume 68 of Naruto ranked fifth on the Nielsen BookScan Graphic Novel Chart for January 2015. Other manga making the top 20 included the first volume of Attack on Titan and the omnibus of All You Need Is Kill.

Johanna Draper Carlson breaks down the numbers for DMP’s latest Kickstarter campaigns.

Erica Friedman compiles the latest yuri news from around the web.

Over at Nagareboshi Reviews, Sarah compares Soul Eater with its prequel Soul Eater NOT!

Ash Brown catalogs his January manga acquisitions, then posts some brief reviews.

Manga expert Helen McCarthy offers a sneak peak at her latest publication, How to Draw Manga Made Easy, due out in April.

Don’t click on an empty stomach! Ed Chavez shares some mouth-watering photos from the official What Did You Eat Yesterday? blog. Also at the Vertical Tumblr: a candid Q&A session about licenses, sales, and beer pairings (!) for shonen, josei, gekiga, and cat manga. Click here for part one; click here for part two.

What’s it like to work for Crunchyroll? Justin Stroman interviews software engineer Evan Minto about his transition from manga blogger to industry insider.

Police in Burrell, PA are investigating a fifth grade student for posting a Death Note-inspired message inside Stewart Elementary School last week. Local media outlet WPXI reports that the school has notified the parents of the six boys listed on the so-called “death note,” and is taking additional measures to address the situation. According to Anime News Network, this incident marks the seventh time that an American student has faced disciplinary action for imitating the hero’s actions in Death Note.

News from Japan: Katsumasa Enokiya’s Hibi Rock and Satol Yuige’s Ku – Neuntöte Vampire are wrapping in February and April, respectively. The final chapter of You Higuri’s Gakuen Heaven: Double Scramble will appear in the March 7th issue of Monthly Magazine BExBOY.

To mark the release of the first volume of Tsubasa: World Chronicle, CLAMP has penned a bonus chapter for the February 17th edition of Shonen Magazine.

Shojo manga-ka Io Sakisaka is having a busy year: in addition to writing an epilogue for the now-completed Strobe Edge, she’s also at work on a new series for Bessatsu Margaret. Look for the first chapter in the July issue.

Kazuma Kamaichi’s popular Heavy Object novels are getting the manga treatment again; look for Heavy Object A (Ace) in the February 27th issue of Dengeki Maoh. Million Doll, a manga about an idol otaku, is being adapted for television by Asahi Production for a July premiere.

Reviews: Put on your scuba gear–Shaenon Garrity devotes the latest House of 1000 Manga column to Daisuke Igarashi’s atmospheric Children of the Sea. Over at Okazu, Erica Friedman reviews Whispered Words, an all-too-rare example of yuri in English.

Sheena McNeil on vol. 13 of 07-Ghost (Sequential Tart)
Nic Wilcox on vols. 1-2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Mad Hatter’s Late-Night Tea Party (No Flying No Tights)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Deadman Wonderland (Comic Book Bin)
Alice Vernon on vol. 1 of Dorohedoro (Girls Like Comics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Food Wars! (Comic Book Bin)
Nick Creamer on vol. 2 of Genshinken: Second Season (ANN)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Hakugin no Gymnasium (Okazu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Happy Marriage?! (Comic Book Bin)
A Library Girl on The History of the West Wing (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 1 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Phantom Blood: Part One (The Fandom Post)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 16 of Kamisama Kiss (Sequential Tart)
ebooksgirl on vol. 1 of My Neighbor Seki (Geek Lit Etc.)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 6 of Nisekoi: False Love (Sequential Tart)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 9 of No. 6 (ANN)
Matthew Warner on vol. 73 of One Piece (The Fandom Post)
Kayleigh Hearn on Sakuran (Deadshirt)
Josh Begley on vol. 5 of Vinland Saga (The Fandom Post)
Julia Smith on vol. 1 of Witchcraft Works (The Fandom Post)

My Week in Manga: February 2-February 8, 2015

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My News and Reviews

A small variety of posts went up at Experiments in Manga last week. First up, the Cinderalla manga giveaway winner was announced. The contest was a tie-in to the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival, so the post also includes a list of the featured creators’ manga available in English. The first in-depth manga review for February was Saki Nakagawa’s Attack on Titan: Junior High, a parody spinoff of the immensely popular Attack on Titan franchise. The series’ funniness can be somewhat uneven, but it can be absolutely hilarious at times. And posted over the weekend was January’s Bookshelf Overload, revealing the absurd amount of manga that came into my household last month.

Elsewhere online, Viz Media’s Shojo Beat announced two new licenses: QQ Sweeper by Kyousuke Motomi (the creator of Dengeki Daisy, which I rather enjoy) and Idol Dreams by Arina Tanemura. Organization Anti-Social Geniuses posted The Very Unofficial Guide to Discovering Manga in 2015, which is a nice overview of demographics, publishers, where to read and buy manga, and so on. Den of Geek has an interview with comics historian Graham Kolbeins, one of the editors behind Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It and The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of Gay Erotic Manga. Finally, Otaku USA interviews Patrick Macias about Hypersonic Music Club, his collaboration with artist Hiroyuki Takahashi and the first of Crunchyroll Manga’s original series.

Quick Takes

Sky LinkSky Link by Shiro Yamada. Like many boys’ love mangaka, before making her professional debut Yamada started by creating doujinshi (she seems to have been particularly fond of pairing Gintoki and Hijikata from Gin Tama together). Sky Link is Yamada’s first original manga and is currently the only work of hers available in English. The volume collects two unrelated boys’ love stories, the titular “Sky Link” and “You through a Kaleidoscope.” Unfortunately, neither of the short manga are particularly satisfying; while her artwork can at times be quite lovely (occasionally her characters’ eyes are unintentionally creepy), Yamada definitely has room to grow as a storyteller. “Sky Link” had too many disparate elements to it. It could have worked quite well as a longer series, but as a short story Yamada didn’t have enough time to effectively develop the plot or characters and everything is left frustratingly vague. Ritsuki is a first year college student with some sort of troubled past who has caught the attention and affections of one of his new professors who, it is later revealed, has a troubled past of his own. “You through a Kaleidoscope,” a fairly standard high school boys’ love romance, isn’t as ambitious but is more successful as a result.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Omnibus 1Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Omnibuses 1-2 (equivalent to Volumes 1-6) by CLAMP. I originally read the first few volumes of Tsubasa back when it was being released by Del Rey. Because I was borrowing it from the library and people had a tendency to steal volumes Tsubasa and its sort-of crossover series xxxHolic, I never got very far with the series. I’m glad that Kodansha is bringing Tsubasa back into print, because it really is an immensely enjoyable adventure tale. And because the setting is constantly moving from one dimension to the next, CLAMP is able to have a lot of fun with the clothing designs and worldbuilding from one short story arc to the next. The drive of the series is the search for Princess Sakura’s memory, pieces of which have been scattered throughout space and time, but the remembrances of her and the other characters form an important part of the story as well. I do think I’m enjoying Tsubasa a little more my second time trying to read it. I’ve now been exposed to more of CLAMP’s work, so I can better appreciate the references being made and the alternate-dimension versions of characters from the group’s other manga. (Seeing couples originally from X actually have a chance at happiness is both touching and heart-wrenching.)

UQHolder3UQ Holder!, Volume 3 by Ken Akamatsu. I enjoyed the third volume of UQ Holder more than I did the first two, but the series has yet to win me over. It seems as though the manga is starting to focus a bit more, which it desperately needed to do, but that may simply be because Akamatsu spends very little time on trying to develop a coherent plot and primarily sticks with the action sequences. The third volume is almost entirely devoted to a sequence of fight scenes. Right now the battles in UQ Holder are probably my favorite thing about the series. They are entertaining, exciting, and extremely energetic. And because immortals are involved, they can be pretty epic, too. The damage inflicted on both persons and property is impressive. Many of the characters, even the non-immortals, have superhuman powers of some sort. Incredible strength, quick regeneration, shape-shifting, and magic—either alone or in combination—are only a few examples of the over-the-top abilities found in UQ Holder. But as entertaining as the battles can be, from time to time the action is unclear. Something will happen and it will be extremely difficult to understand exactly what or how. I’m not even going to try to attempt to explain why Yukihime suddenly loses her skirt for seemingly no reason.

Bookshelf Overload: January 2015

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Well, 2015 is off to a rather impressive start when it comes to the somewhat ridiculous amount of manga making its way into my household. Thanks to some gift cards, major sales at my local comic book shop (where I picked up a ton of out-of-print manga), and one of the biggest boxes of review copies that I’ve ever received, my wallet isn’t hurting nearly as much as it might initially appear. (Thankfully.) There were still quite a few preorders in January, though. I was particularly pleased to see the third volume of Black Rose Alice by Setona Mizushiro (which I believe was technically released in February and I just happened to end up with an early copy), as well as What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 6 by Fumi Yoshinaga and the debut of My Neighbor Seki by Takuma Morishige. Ken Niimura’s Henshin is another interesting, and rather delightful, release from January. (Review to come soon!) As for out-of-print finds, I was very lucky to come across a complete set of Museum of Terror, an anthology series from Dark Horse of some of Junji Ito’s horror manga. I was also able to fill in a couple of missing copies from my Tramps Like Us collection, which made me happy.

Manga!
Air Gear, Volume 32 by Oh!Great
Alice in the Country of Hearts, Omnibus 3 by Soumei Hoshino
Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit, Volumes 1-2 written by Owl Shinotsuki, illustrated by Delico Psyche
Apple and Honey: His Rose Colored Life by Hideyoshico
Attack on Titan, Volume 14 by Hajime Isayama
Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, Volume 3 written by Ryo Suzukaze, illustrated by Satoshi Shiki
Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 2 by Saki Nakagawa
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Omnibus 5 by Yukito Kishiro
Black Rose Alice, Volume 3 by Setona Mizushiro
Cage of Eden, Volume 16 by Yoshinobu Yamada
Does The Flower Blossom?, Volume 1 by Shoko Hidaka
Earthian, Volume 4 by Yun Kouga
Fairy Tail, Volumes 44-46 by Hiro Mashima
Finder, Volume 7: Desire in the Viewfinder by Ayano Yamane
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Volume 4 written by Yuto Tsukuda, illustrated by Shun Saeki
Hands Off!, Volumes 1-8 by Kasane Katsumoto
Hands Off!: Don’t Call Us Angels, Volumes 1-2 by Kasane Katsumoto
Henshin by Ken Niimura
The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 2 by Hiromu Arakawa
IC in a Sunflower by Mitsukazu Mihara
Lone Wolf and Cub, Omnibus 7 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Goseki Kojima
Manga Dogs, Volume 2 by Ema Toyama
Missions of Love, Volume 10 by Ema Toyama
Museum of Terror, Volumes 1-3 by Junji Ito
My Little Monster, Volumes 5-6 by Robico
My Neighbor Seki, Volume 1 by Takuma Morishige
Noragami: Stray God, Volumes 2-3 by Adachitoka
Oishinbo, A la Carte: The Joy of Rice written by Tetsu Kariya, illustrated by Akira Hanasaki
Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 10 by Mitsuru Hattori
Say I Love You, Volume 5 by Kanae Hazuki
R.I.P. : Requiem in Phonybrian by Mitsukazu Mihara
The Seven Deadly Sins, Volumes 5-6 by Nakaba Suzuki
Terra Formars, Volume 4 written by Yu Sasuga, illustrated by Ken-ichi Tachibana
Tramps Like Us, Volumes 11-12 by Yayoi Ogawa
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Omnibus 2 by CLAMP
UQ Holder, Volume 3 Ken Akamatsu
What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 6 by Fumi Yoshinaga
Whispered Words, Omnibus 3 by Takashi Ikeda
Will You Be My Cute Crossdresser? by Mitohi Matsumoto
Witchcraft by Yamatogawa
xxxHolic, Omnibus 4 by CLAMP
xxxHolic: Rei, Volume 2 by CLAMP

Manhwa!
Give to the Heart, Volume 2 by Wann
The Tarot Café, Volume 4 by Sang-sun Park

Comics!
Never Forgets by Yumi Sakugawa
Prince of Cats, Issue 6 by Kori Michele Handwerker
Starfighter, Chapter 3 by HamletMachine

Nonfiction!
Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan edited by Mark McLelland, Kazumi Nagaike, Katsuhiko Suganuma, James Welker
Infamy: The shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II by Richard Reeves

Anime!
Ai no Kusabi: The Space Between directed by Katsuhito Akiyama

Film!
Ping Pong directed by Fumihiko Sori

Music!
Aku no Sanka (Flowers of Evil soundtrack) by Hideyuki Fukasawa

Noteworthy Manga of 2015

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In a recent poll, Japanese retailer Honya Club asked bookstore workers, “What manga should we read in 2015?” Topping the list of recommendations was The Ancient Magus’ Bride (which has been licensed by Seven Seas) and My Hero Academia. On the strength of the cover art alone, I’d love to see Takadaike no Hitobito licensed:

Takadiake_Cover

Is the end in sight for Golgo 13? Creator Taiko Saito has hinted that his long-running adventure series is entering the home stretch. Golgo 13‘s first chapter debuted in 1968–47 years ago!

Otaku USA interviews Patrick Macias about Hypersonic Music Club, a joint collaboration between Macias and Japanese illustrator Hiroyuki Takahashi.

Scott Green previews Happiness, a horror manga from the creator of Flowers of Evil.

Alenka Figa lists five anime and manga with solid, nuanced queer characters.

And speaking of queer manga, the Huffington Post interviews Graham Kolbeins about Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It.

Wondering how to discover great new manga? Justin Stroman posts a comprehensive guide to the US manga market.

Heart of Manga host Laura M. lists the current serializations in YOU, a josei magazine for older female readers.

The Manga Bookshelf crew discuss next week’s new manga.

VIZ just announced two more digital license rescues from the CLAMP catalog: The One I Love, an anthology of short stories, and Wish, a four-volume series about a man who rescues an angel from a tree.

Stop the presses–Attack on Titan has been bumped from this week’s New York Times Manga Best Seller list by Akame Ga Kill!, Soul Eater, and Black Butler.

Reviews: If you haven’t subscribed to Sparkler Magazine, MJ’s enthusiastic review of The Ring of Saturn might just persuade you to give it a try. MJalso joined fellow MB bloggers Sean Gaffney and Anna N. in compiling this week’s Bookshelf Briefs.

Kate O’Neil on vol. 10 of Afterschool Charisma (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Assassination Classroom (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 2 of Attack on Titan: Junior High Omnibus (Experiments in Manga)
Anna N. on vol. 3 of Black Rose Alice (Manga Report)
Megan R. on Boys Over Flowers (The Manga Test Drive)
Lori Henderson on vols. 43-44, 46-47 of Case Closed (Manga Xanadu)
Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Drug & Drop (ICv2)
James on Golgo 13 (Kotaku)
Ken H. on vol. 7 of From the New World (Sequential Ink)
Jocelyn Allen on How Are You? (Brain vs. Book)
Alex Hoffman on In Clothes Called Fat and Pink (Sequential State)
Nick Smith on Jaco the Galactic Patrolman (ICv2)
Anna N. on vol. 1 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part One: Phantom Blood (Manga Report)
Helen on vols. 1-3 of Millennium Snow (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Laura on Pearl Pink (Heart of Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 9 of Umineko: When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Attack on Titan: Junior High, Vol. 2

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Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 2Creator: Saki Nakagawa
U.S. publisher: Kodansha
ISBN: 9781612629186
Released: November 2014
Original release: 2013-2014

I was actually a little surprised by how much I ended up liking the first omnibus of Attack on Titan: Junior High. Created by Saki Nakagawa with input from Hajime Isayama (both of whom actually attended the same design school, though that fact is more of a coincidence than anything else), Attack on Titan: Junior High is specifically a parody spinoff of Isayama’s immensely popular manga series Attack on Titan. More generally, the series is also a parody of just about any manga with a school setting. Attack on Titan: Junior High is an odd mix of Attack on Titan and contemporary school life that actually manages to work much of the time. The second Attack on Titan: Junior High omnibus, released by Kodansha Comics in 2014, collects the third and fourth volumes of the series’ original Japanese edition, published in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Kodansha was kind enough to send me a review copy of Attack on Titan: Junior high, Omnibus 2 which, because I enjoyed the first omnibus, I was particularly happy to see.

Life isn’t easy for the human students of Attack Junior High. Not only do they have to worry about the normal sorts of challenges encountered at school–getting a passing grade in class, surviving the ire of upperclassmen, daring to ask another student on a date, ensuring their clubs aren’t suspended, and so on–they also have to worry about the rest of the student body, the Titans. It doesn’t help that Attack Junior High’s principal just so happens to be a Titan as well, meaning most of the administration looks the other way as the Titans terrorize the much smaller students, the victims of bullying and stolen lunches. But then there’s the beloved teacher Mr. Erwin Smith who on the surface seems to favor the Titans when in actuality he harbors a deep-seated hatred so intense that it rivals Eren’s. Considering Eren’s single-minded commitment to taking on and taking out all of the Titans, this is rather impressive.

There is no denying that Attack on Titan: Junior High is an utterly ridiculous manga series. In general, I think that overall I probably enjoyed the first omnibus slightly more. The novelty of the spinoff has worn off some, but the second omnibus still managed to make me laugh on multiple occasions. I do find that the series works best for me when it is directly riffing on the original Attack on Titan manga and its fandom rather than playing around with more generic story tropes. Granted, from time to time those parodies can be entertaining, as well. But ultimately Attack on Titan: Junior High tends to be rather uneven with its humor. Sometimes the manga can be absolutely hilarious, but just as often the attempts at comedy just aren’t very funny. Unsurprisingly, many of the jokes in the series require readers to already be very familiar with Attack on Titan to really appreciate them, but it’s those readers for whom the series is intended to begin with.

Attack on Titan: Junior High and its style of humor certainly will not appeal to everyone. It’s not particularly clever and much of the manga can only be enjoyed by readers who are already predisposed towards random, absurd, and frequently nonsensical comedy. The English translation and localization of Attack on Titan: Junior High is fairly loose in sections, adding a few jokes here and there and freely changing pop culture references to ones that will likely be more recognizable to Western audiences. I’m not sure how funny or effective some of the changes will be in a few years’ time since they often refer to recent events, but for now they are amusing. The best gags are those where Nakagawa takes the characters of Attack on Titan and emphasizes and distorts their personality quirks to extremes. One of the most appealing things about the original Attack on Titan is its ensemble cast, and that is true of Attack on Titan: Junior High as well. Fortunately, that’s something that doesn’t rely on timeliness.

Thank you to Kodansha for providing a copy of Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 1 for review.

Manga the Week of 2/11

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SEAN: It’s Velentine’s Day week at Manga the Week of, and I wonder how romantic these titles are?

Ze from 801 Media has hit double digits, and is still the most popular manga among titles with two letters in them. (Sorry, ES).

MICHELLE: Tezuka’s MW: *kicks a rock*.

SEAN: I feel ashamed for forgetting about MW. All right, sorry, Ze. I have no jokes to make about you at all. Hang your head.

ASH: I was actually just thinking about Eternal Sabbath the other day…

SEAN: Dark Horse gives us more manly manga with a 4th Samurai Executioner omnibus.

A 6th volume of Say “I Love You” from Kodansha gives us more shoujo angst.

MICHELLE: Woot!

ANNA: Yay!

SEAN: And there’s a 3rd Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle omnibus as well.

MJ: I think there’s a general feeling of “ho hum” regarding this omnibus release, but I’m really happy to see it. I read this series by way of library copies and volumes borrowed from friends, and I’ve been eyeing it as a way to finally collect it for myself. So, yay!

alice7

SEAN: Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus & Liar’s Game has been my favorite Alice spinoff, and I am sad to see it come to an end with this 7th volume.

ASH: I recently finished reading Alice in the Country of Hearts and really enjoyed it; this might actually be the spinoff I tackle next.

ANNA: I liked the main series but have never been able to get more than a couple volumes into a spinoff.

MICHELLE: Same here.

SEAN: Dragonar Academy has a 5th volume.

And we get the final volume of I Am Alice: Bodyswap in Wonderland, making this a double-Alice week.

Vertical has the 3rd volume of Ajin, which has demi-humans (are there panhumans?).

ASH: Demi-humans, pan-humans, omni-humans, in-humans, etc., etc.

SEAN: And another gritty title from Vertical, the 2nd volume of Prophecy, which continues to not feature a giant mutated bear. I suppose that’s not technically a flaw.

ASH: No, no bears, but still one of the best manga series that I’ve read lately.

SEAN: Viz has a quartet of titles, beginning with the 7th volume of Deadman Wonderland.

I reviewed Hayate the Combat Butler 25 here. Can it follow up from its recent dramatic turn?

And Magi has Vol. 10 arrive, which I anticipate will be awesome. Just a guess.

MICHELLE: And woot again!

SEAN: Lastly, there’s a 6th volume of the Tiger & Bunny manga, which likely has far more BL fans than actual BL titles like Ze.

ASH: And you didn’t think you had any jokes about Ze to make!

MJ: Ha!

SEAN: That’s actually not that much romance. What looks good to you?

Assassination Classroom, Vol. 2

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By Yusei Matsui. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

In this second volume, there’s a bit less focus on the actual assassination attempts as Matsui starts to try to expand the cast and show us more of the horrible world they live in. We meet the principal of the school, who exudes pure cynicism and hatred from every pore, and it’s quite apparent that he will not allow Class 3-E to succeed. Scapegoats who learn to better themselves have no value to him, and so he changes the rules to ensure that they are hated and despised. What it’s doing to the kids themselves doesn’t seem to matter to him – I think if they all killed themselves the day after graduation he wouldn’t spare it a second thought – but in my mind, it’s the values he’s placing in the A-D classes that’s far more chilling.

ac2

Of course, this is meant to contrast with Koro-sensei, who may be an alien out to kill us all but is also determined to give these kids self-confidence to be the best they can be, and takes it personally when all his hard work goes wasted during the midterms. This is nicely contrasted with all the moments where Koro-sensei is simply an eccentric idiot – the reasn that we don’t get to bored or irritated with him is that he has so many flaws and bad habits in among his invulnerability – flaws that are dutifully being written down by our narrative voice Nagisa (calling him the protagonist of this series seems oddly wrong), and flaws that are abused, seemingly, by the new teacher and assassin introduced here, Irina Jelavich.

A brief aside. For those who hoped that with the forced addition of ‘Koro-sensei’ we’d see honorifics in this series, sorry, Jump editorial practice will only allow it if it leads to an untranslatable pun. Thus ‘Bitch-neesan’ becoming ‘Bitch-sensei’ is not going to happen, and instead we see ‘Ms. Bitch’ becoming ‘Ms. Vitch’, which also neatly allows Viz to soften things up a bit. Bitch or Vitch, though, Irina certainly makes a horrible first impression, on both the cast and the readers. She’s an omniglot and talented assassin, but it’s clear that she only knows how to assassinate through seduction, and when it comes to actually keeping her cover as a teacher she’s useless. That said, she does seem to be easing up a bit, particularly when she sees how Class 3-E are treated by the rest of the school. I could have done without the tentacle rape joke, though given what Koro-sensei looks like I suppose it was inevitable.

We see the students here as well, but so far they seem to be more of a cast herd rather than having deeply drawn personalities. Nagisa is the strongest, being the keen observer (though he’s weak for busty women, like most teens – and indeed like Koro-sensei). Kaede hasn’t really said much at all (though I did love the ‘my brain is up here’ sign she held up, a wonderful translation choice, as I think the original just had her complaining about Irina’s large breasts). And Karma may be the smartest in the class, but he made far less of an impression here. The end of the volume promises that may change soon, though, and I’m hoping that this is the sort f series where everyone gets some attention paid to them. Though ‘a lot of them are only bit players so I try not to make them too unique’ doesn’t bode well.

Overall, this is still an addictive series, even if I feel it has some issues with character. Irina is an amusing addition to the cast, and I hope we will eventually get jokes about her that don’t involve her being a femme fatale who’s really just a ditz. More to the point, the stakes are raised with the introduction of the principal, as now we really see what Koro-sensei and the class are up against. Go get this.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 1 Phantom Blood Vol 1

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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 1 Phantom Blood, Volume 1 by Hirohiko Araki

I read this volume without much background in this series other than knowing that it was a huge and long-running series in Japan, has a bit of a cult following in Japan, and the books that Viz had been releasing under the shonen jump line started midway through the series. This volume goes back to the earliest story arc in the series, kicking things off with the English nobility, bloodthirsty Aztec masks, and people beating the crap out of each other.

The story kicks off in old school shonen fashion, where a scantily clad woman is sacrificed to the wearer of a mysterious stone mask who proclaims that his accessory drinks the blood of the living. Bones from the mask pierce his skull, but he’s still alive and taking on even more blood sacrifices, not worried about staining his stylish leopard skin pelt cape because he has found the secret to eternal life!

The story then skips over to England, where an evil red-haired young man offers his dying father some medicine. Dio’s father tells him a story about how he accidentally saved the life of a nobleman named Joestar when he came across the wreckage of carriage he was intending to scavenge. Brando tells Dio to go to the Joestars when he becomes orphaned, and Dio does, thus starting the torture of poor young Jonathan Joestar. Dio is immediately adopted as a second son by the Joestar family, but since he is basically the spawn of Satan and Jonathan Joestar is like a friendly naive puppy, things do not go well with the new brothers.

Dio is basically a human form of a cancer, undermining the heir to the Joestar family whenever he gets a chance. It has been a long time since I’ve read a shonen manga this manly! There are speed lines and yelling on almost every page. Jonathan and Dio engage in fistfights and boxing matches, where one blow will end up knocking a half dozen teeth into the air. Towards the end of the book the legacy of the blood drinking Aztec mask is further explored, and Jonathan finally begins to get proof of Dio’s nefarious deeds. The art is really dynamic although the proportions are often a bit off. Often one of the muscular bodies of the main characters will look like it is supporting a shrunken head. If Rob Liebefeld and Tetsuo Hara of Fist of the North Star mashed up their styles you might end up with something like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, except Araki can actually draw feet. I’m sure the art gets much better in subsequent volumes, and even though it wasn’t always to my taste I couldn’t deny the effectiveness of the energy of the many battle scenes in the manga.

As a main character, Jonathan Joestar lets himself be taken advantage of for far too long, but he does manage to battle back as shonen heroes always do. The hardcover edition is really nicely designed, with color pages shifting to further tonal pages where the black and white art is enlivened by shades of orange. This volume ends on a cliffhanger, and I do want to know what happens next, as I assume it will involve more stone mask blood drinking and face punching. I can certainly see why this is such a long-running and popular series in Japan. Recommended for those who want a major dose of testosterone in their manly manga.

Manga Giveaway: Cinderalla Giveaway Winner

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CinderallaAnd the winner of the Cinderalla manga giveaway is…Olivia!

As the winner, Olivia will be receiving a copy of Junko Mizuno’s Cinderalla as published by Viz Media. This giveaway was a tie-in to the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival which celebrated the work of Junko Mizuno as well as Kaoru Fujiwara, Maki Kusumoto, Mitsukazu Mihara, and Asumiko Nakamura. I asked entrants to tell me a little about their experiences reading manga by any of the creators of that group. Be sure to check out the giveaway comments for everyone’s detailed responses. The responses were great, so thank you all for sharing! For those of you who are curious about which manga from these creators are (or were) available in English, here’s a handy list:

Kaoru Fujiwara
If You Wanna Destroy the World (through JManga and now unavailable)

Maki Kusumoto
Dolis

Mitsukazu Mihara
Beautiful People
Doll
The Embalmer
Haunted House
IC in a Sunflower
R.I.P.: Requiem in Phonybrian

Junko Mizuno
Cinderella
Hansel & Gretel
“The Life of Momongo” (collected in Secret Comics Japan)
Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu
Princess Mermaid
Pure Trance

Asumiko Nakamura
Chicken Club
Classmates
Double Mints
Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist