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Bookshelf Overload: October 2014

November 2, 2014 by Ash Brown

I knew October was going to be rough on my wallet since there were a lot of manga that I was planning on picking up. Most of October’s acquisitions were the result of preorders, but there were a few impulse buys as a result of some major sales. There were some out-of-print materials that I was happy to welcome into my home, too. For example, I’ve recently become rather enamored with the Boogiepop franchise, and so I made a point to pick up all of the manga and related music albums that were released in North America to add to my collection. As for the new October manga releases that I was particularly excited to see, Kodansha and Vertical made an especially good showing with Vinland Saga, Omnibus 5 by Makoto Yukimura, No. 6, Volume 9 by Hinoki Kino, and Tsuina Miura and Gamon Sakurai’s Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 1. (Expect in-depth reviews of all three in the near future.) I’m also very excited to read the All You Need Is Kill manga illustrated by Takeshi Obata and Setona Mizushiro’s Black Rose Alice, Volume 2 from Viz. Technically they won’t be released until November, though; I was simply lucky enough to get my copies a little early. October was a good month for independent comics, too.

Manga!
Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 1 written by Tsuina Miura, illustrated by Gamon Sakurai
All You Need Is Kill written by Ryosuke Takeuchi, illustrated by Takeshi Obata
Apple and Honey by Hideyoshico
Black Rose Alice, Volume 2 by Setona Mizushiro
Blue Morning, Volume 5 by Shoko Hidaka
Boogiepop Doesn’t Laugh, Volumes 1-2 written by Kouhei Kadono, illlustrated by Kouji Ogata
Boogiepop Dual: Losers’ Circus, Volumes 1-2 written by Kouhei Kadono, illustrated by Masayuki Takano
Castle of Dreams by Masami Tsuda
Dengeki Daisy, Volume 15 by Kyousuke Motomi
Disciplinarian by Inochi Wazuka
The Flowers of Evil, Volume 11 by Shuzo Oshimi
Food Wars!, Volume 2 written by Yuto Tsukuda, illustrated by Shun Saeki
The Judged by Akira Honma
Kamen, Volume 2 by Gunya Mihara
Knights of Sidonia, Volume 11 by Tsutomu Nihei
Last Portrait by Akira Honma
Legal Drug by CLAMP
Lone Wolf and Cub, Omnibus 6 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Goseki Kojima
Heartbroken Angels, Volumes 1-2 by Masahiko Kikuni
Magical Girl Apocalypse, Volume 1 by Kentaro Sato
New Lone Wolf and Cub, Volume 2 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Hideki Mori
A New Season of Young Leaves written by Venio Tachibana, illustrated by Akeno Kitahata
No. 6, Volume 9 by Hinoki Kino
Nyotai-ka!, Volumes 2-3 by Ru-en Rouga
Sunny, Volume 4 by Taiyo Matsumoto
Twittering Birds Never Fly, Volume 1 by Kou Yoneda
Vinland Saga, Omnibus 5 by Makoto Yukimura
Whispered Words, Omnibus 2 by Takashi Ikeda
Witchcraft Works, Volume 1 by Ryu Mizunagi
World Trigger, Volumes 1-2 by Daisuke Ashihara
Ze, Volume 9 by Yuki Shimizu

Manhwa!
Aron’s Absurd Armada, Omnibus 3 by MiSun Kim

Comics!
My Japanese Husband Thinks I’m Crazy by Grace Buchele Mineta
Oh Joy, Sex Toy, Volume 1 by Erika Moen
RAV by Mickey Zacchilli
Smut Peddler 2014 by Various
Snackies by Nick Sumida
Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince
YU+ME: Dream, Omnibuses 1-2 by Megan Rose Gedris

Artbooks!
The Art of Angel Sanctuary, Volumes 1-2 by Kaori Yuki

Film!
Edge of Tomorrow directed by Doug Liman

Music!
Boogiepop: Music Album Inspired by Boogiepop and Others by Yuki Kajiura
Boogiepop Phantom Original Soundtrack by Various

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror

October 31, 2014 by Ash Brown

Creator: Junji Ito
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421561325
Released: October 2013
Original run: 1998-1999

Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, originally released in Japan between 1998 and 1999, is one of the most well-known horror manga series to have been translated into English. Viz Media has actually published three different English-language editions of Uzumaki, not counting its initial serialization in the monthly manga magazine Pulp. The first edition, published as three individual volumes, was released between 2001 and 2002. These volumes were reissued in a second edition between 2007 and 2008. And then, in 2013, Uzumaki was released by Viz in a deluxe, single-volume hardcover omnibus complete with color pages and gorgeous production values and design. (Though I had previously read and enjoyed the series, it was the spectacular omnibus edition that finally convinced me that Uzumaki was a manga that I needed to own.) An emphasis should be placed on the “gore” of gorgeous–Uzumaki, while it has deservedly been called a masterpiece of horror, is most definitely not a work intended for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.

Kurouzu-cho is a small, quiet seaside village under a curse. It’s manifestation starts with the Saito family. First, Mr. Saito begins acting strangely, developing an unhealthy obsession with spirals. This leads to his demise and in turn his wife understandably becomes terrified of spirals as well, her complex becoming just as severe as her husband’s. In the end, their son Shuichi is the only one left in the family and his girlfriend Kirie Goshima is his only ally. Already uncomfortable with Kurouzu-cho, the fate of his parents convinces Shuichi that the town is contaminated with spirals, though most people believe this to be his own form of insanity. But stranger and stranger things begin to happen in Kurouzu-cho. Kirie becomes witness to so many bizarre occurrences and horrifying deaths that she can’t deny that something is very, very wrong with the town. Tragedy after tragedy befalls Kurouzu-cho, its inhabitants, and anyone unfortunate enough to enter the immediate area as events both figuratively and literally spiral out of control.

At first, Uzumaki seems as though it’s a series that is mostly episodic. Each chapter is largely told and seen from Kirie’s perspective and explores an individual incident involving spirals in some way. But as the manga continues, the stories become more and more closely tied to one another, eventually forming a single, coherent narrative. As previously mentioned, Uzumaki is very graphic, the images that Ito creates, while mesmerizing, can be extraordinarily disturbing and gruesome. But there is more going on in the manga than gore and body horror; there is also a very strong, and very dark, psychological element to Uzumaki which makes the entire series especially effective in its terror. Uzumaki is bizarre and surreal but at the same time is completely convincing in its unnatural horror. It’s hard to believe that something so benign as a simple shape–a spiral–could be so terrifying, but Ito accomplishes the seemingly impossible with Uzumaki. It’s an exceptionally disconcerting work.

Although the imagery in Uzumaki is frequently disturbing, grotesque, and even nauseating, almost as frightening are the characters’ reactions–or, in many cases, their non-reactions–to the terrible events surrounding them. Shuichi is one of the very few people who seem to be completely aware of what is happening in Kurouzu-cho, but he is barely able to maintain his own sanity and becomes increasingly haunted and withdrawn. Surprisingly, hidden within the nightmare that is Uzumaki, there is actually a love story of sorts, granted a tragic one considering the nature of the manga. Despite everything, Kirie is always there to support and look out for Shuichi and his well-being. And even when Shuichi is nearly catatonic and barely able to function within society, he repeatedly risks his life to save hers. But in the end, Uzumaki is ultimately an incredible work of horror. There are things that I’ve seen in the manga that I will never be able to unsee. And I will never be able to look at spirals in quite the same way again.

Manga the Week of 11/5

October 30, 2014 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Anna N, MJ and Michelle Smith 6 Comments

SEAN: November does not have quite as many books as October, but that’s only due to Thanksgiving week providing a minor break. The other three weeks try harder to drown us in books.

Dark Horse finishes off its Trigun re-release with the 5th Trigun Maximum omnibus, depriving me of additional attempts to mock Nightow’s art style, at least until the next Blood Blockade Battlefront comes along.

Attack on Titan 14 focuses more on Levi and Hange, for fans of those two (no, it doesn’t have any shipping fuel).

ASH: I found the thirteenth volume of Attack on Titan to be particularly good, so I’m looking forward to reading the fourteenth.

SEAN: The third and final volume of Alice in the Country of Clover: Knight’s Knowledge will no doubt see if Alice and Ace can resolve their respective psychoses and find peaceful happiness. God, I hope not. They’re far less interesting that way.

Seven Seas has been hyping their print release of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, and with good reason: it’s an excellent series, with a nice take on ‘what if the superheroes who had to save the world wanted to destroy it instead?’ It’s come out digitally twice, but get it in print, it’s worth it.

ASH: I plan on checking this series out!

ANNA: Huh, this wasn’t on my radar before, but this sounds interesting!

MJ: What Anna said!

SEAN: The Sacred Blacksmith lost me with Vol. 5, so I have no further jokes to spend on Vol. 6.

And the penultimate volume of Zero’s Familiar Chevalier, which will hopefully be able to wrap things up nicely by the final volume, as the author has passed away, making more series unlikely.

Vertical has the 5th volume of seinen foodie manga What Did You Eat Yesterday?.

MICHELLE: Yay!

ASH: Yay, indeed!

ANNA: Triple yay!

MJ: There cannot possibly be enough YAY!

SEAN: The rest is all Viz. Black Rose Alice was pretty dark in its first volume. Will this second one lighten things up a bit, or continue on its gothic pace?

MICHELLE: I found this quite a unique take on vampire mythology, so I’m looking forward to volume two.

ASH: Although I was sad to see the story leave Vienna so soon, I loved the first volume of Black Rose Alice and am very curious to see how it continues to develop.

ANNA: I enjoyed the first volume too. It has an interesting take on vampires, which is quite tricky to pull off. Also the thematic tone of this series sets it apart from other supernatural manga.

MJ: I’m so happy to be reading this series, and I can’t wait to dig into the second volume!

SEAN: Bleach hits Vol. 62, and I think a person is fighting with another person somewhere in it. At points they brag about how they can’t be defeated, I’m guessing.

MICHELLE: Ha!

SEAN: Blue Exorcist looks like it was getting ready to head into a darker arc last time, and I think that’s what we’ll get here. Can’t wait, this is always good.

There’s also a 5th D.Gray-Man 3-in-1, speaking of shonen series with a high female readership. In fact, in North America I’d argue D.Gray-Man has an almost exclusively female readership…

Dengeki Daisy is almost over! Waaaah! Here’s the 15th, penultimate volume.

MICHELLE: I haven’t always loved this one, but I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

ASH: I’ll miss it, too.

ANNA: I love this series. This is one of those manga that’s going to have a permanent place on my bookshelves.

SEAN: High School Debut has its 4th 3-in-1 as well.

MICHELLE: Getting closer to the one with new material!

ANNA: There’s a volume coming out with new material? I am excited!

MJ: Wait, what? New material? Ooh.

MICHELLE: Yep! The fifth omnibus will contain volumes 14 and 15, which I believe will contain short stories published after the series officially ended.

SEAN: Kiss of the Rose Princess is this month’s new series, from Shojo Beat. It’s an Asuka series, so I expect it’s most likely fantasy, and also probably reverse harem. Am I right?

MICHELLE: I don’t know yet, but I’ll check it out.

ANNA: Surprising no one, so will I.

MJ: Surprising… also no one. Me too.

SEAN: And for non-reversed harems, here’s the 6th volume of romantic comedy Nisekoi.

Did you not pick up One Piece? Shame on you. Here’s a 2nd giant Box Set so you can catch up all at once. Now. I’ll wait here all night if necessary.

The 5th and final volume of Phantom Thief Jeanne should wrap everything up, though I’m not sure if it will be happy or bittersweet.

ANNA: The ending of Phantom Thief Jeanne is bonkers in the best possible way.

SEAN: The 5th Ranma 1/2 omnibus introduces Ukyou Kuonji, who is another character who invites controversy. Well, they all do, really. It’s that kind of fandom.

Have you had enough 3-in-1 omnibuses yet? No? Good, here’s Skip Beat! with its 9th.

Spell of Desire’s first volume was solid but didn’t wow me. I’m hoping for more wow in this second one.

MICHELLE: And more kittens!

ANNA: I’ve read this already and I continue to enjoy this series.

MJ: I talked about this a bit in Monday’s Off the Shelf. I’m not exactly *wowed*, but optimistic about this series.

SEAN: Tegami Bachi, you’ve hit Volume 17. As ever, I have no idea what to say about you. You seem to have caught up with Japan now.

Ultimo hits double digits even as it’s been announced it’s ending soon.

Lastly, if the One Piece box set wasn’t enough for you, here’s one for Vampire Knight.

If you were expecting the manga deluge to end, more fool you. What suits you from this tsunami of manga?

3 Things Thursday: Pretty Pictures

October 30, 2014 by MJ 4 Comments

Wow, this has been a weird week. I mean, really, seriously weird. Weird on levels I can’t quite talk about here. But whatever the weirdness, it is in times like these that I really just want to look at something pretty. No, seriously. That’s the only thing to be done. So today, that’s what we’re going to do. It’s Thursday. And these are…

3 manga spreads that are just freaking beautiful:

You’ve seen them here before… you’ll see them again.

1. The Heart of Thomas | by Moto Hagio | Fantagraphics

2. Please Save My Earth | By Saki Hiwatari | Viz Media

3. xxxHolic | By CLAMP | Del Rey Manga

I have more. So many more. But this will do for now. Got favorites of your own? Gimme!

Vampire Knight, Vol. 19

October 30, 2014 by Sean Gaffney

By Matsuri Hino. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine LaLa. Released in North America by Viz.

And so after 19 volumes, we come to the end of this particular journey. Yes, there’s a novel due out next month, but for the main manga, this is it. There’s even a limited edition, which has (in my opinion) a better cover art picture and a limited edition hardcover artbook, which features some lovely character pieces. Vampire Knight has always been a series that I’ve found to be of the moment. I may forget what’s actually going on the moment I put down the book, but while I’m reading the book, I’m swept along by the drama and emotions going on within. This last volume takes that and amps it up even further, as Yuki and Kaname compete to see who can out-self-sacrifice each other.

This is not to say there aren’t some issues. The incestuous subtext that’s been bubbling under the entire series becomes text early in this volume, and while it’s not dwelled on, I can’t say I was all that happy with it. Most of the supporting players who had large roles earlier in the series are reduced to little more than cameos here, though again it was excellent to see Yuki’s human best friend, Sayori, pop up to remind us that the world isn’t entirely vampires. (Nice flashforward as well.) And of course the entirely of this volume seems to feature both Kaname and Zero trying their best to protect Yuki by removing any agency she might have to strike off on her own, which usually makes me growl, but…

Yuki isn’t having any of it. The series has balanced a knife edge as to whether Yuki will finally slip and become a princess who needs to be protected and rescued or a knight who does the rescuing, and it’s to Hino’s credit that the final decision is Yuki’s, and it’s to live up to the title. Possibly the best panel in the entire volume shows Yuki, in her school uniform and sword in hand, dragging Aido (who is literally flapping in the wind” while shouting “We’ve got an academy to protect!” It does a heart good to see this.

As for Kaname’s master plan, well, in the end there’s not much they can do about it, but they do manage to find a sort of deus ex machina that can be fired off after a thousand years. The epilogue shows that all of the hatred and political intrigue that has dominated vampire life (and the series in general) seems to have dissipated. And Yuki and Zero are together, though this is given really short shrift – in the end, it’s not about whether Yuki ends up with her brother or her classmate, it’s about Yuki working with others to save both vampires and humans. Romance is an afterthought.

Vampire Knight’s pleasures may be fleeting, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable. A lot of Vampire Knight’s covers have featured the main characters looking out at the reader, and the limited edition one does the same, with Yuki, Zero and Kaname lying exhausted yet satisfied (yes, yes, OT3), and saying to the reader, “We’re done. Is this enough?” It’s a very good conclusion.

Bookmarked! 10/29/14

October 29, 2014 by Brigid Alverson

Welcome to another edition of Bookmarked, our weekly feature in which Kate and I, and an invited guest, discuss what we’re reading this week. These are not formal reviews—they are more like works-in-progress, and we totally claim the right to have opinions about manga we haven’t finished yet. Our guest this week is Justin S, founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Take it away, Justin!

Justin: Last week, Deb and Kate ended up choosing My Love Story!! as titles they’ve been reading recently. Brigid chose Barakamon. Both are titles I’ve also read in the past week and probably would have chosen for this column had they not been covered already. I’m only bringing this up because I just want to say you should definitely be checking out those works as they’re both pretty great.

But I think I have a fairly solid backup to those two titles, and while it’s been finished for a while now, it still manages to chill me every time I turn the page: Monster!

For Vol 2 of the Perfect Edition of Monster, the search for cold blooded killer Johan is on for Tenma and Anna, while they both have to deal with their troubles: Tenma’s been framed for murders he didn’t commit, while Anna has to delve into the seedy backgrounds of Frankfurt and avoid getting into unnecessary trouble. During their search, the past of Johan—how he got himself into the situations he did as a child, the people involved with him, his true personality, or personalities—are uncovered, and this discovery only leads the two to conclude one thing: They must stop him, at any cost.

Monster is always going to be a weird beast for me. I’ve read this story a couple of times, yet each and every time I read it again, it feels like something new happens and I’m taken aback. In this omnibus format, the experience of seeing seemingly minor characters like Heckel the thief and Schumann the doctor (who lives in a remote area) and how they influence the story this time around is exciting and fresh! Yeah, we know who the story really revolves around and those guys ultimately are the focus, but I find that in re-reading some works, sometimes the other things, like the supporting characters, take your attention that makes you appreciate the ongoing journey. In this case for example, just seeing a regular nurse treat a kid that Tenma, who is wanted for murder, gives to her and has to leave for some time, and then watch her give the kid to someone else—that someone else happened to be abusing the kid—even though rationally, she is supposed to give the kid up because he’s the guardian and has no knowledge of how he’s been treated, makes me angry. Predictable, probably, but being predictable can be a good thing if everything else is set up properly. That is one of the reasons Monster still continues to be so great even despite time passing by, and I can only thank Viz enough for re-releasing it in this brand new version.

Another manga that’s gotten my attention is on Crunchyroll. It has something to do with “delinquent, former gang leader” “Teacher” and “immature schoolkids with a host of problems.”

That practically sums up Fujisawa’s latest GTO iteration, Paradise Lost. As the sequel to GTO, it’s still grounded in the same roots that’s made the series popular: Onizuka is not the normal teacher, most of his co-workers are out to get him fired, and he has to deal with problem kids… that also are out to get him fired. This time however, he has to deal with students who are also idols, which means they bring their stardom (and their fans), along with their sense of superiority and arrogance, to the classroom. Needless to say, Onizuka doesn’t stand for that, especially if that means treating the lesser classmates that may not be stars but have an importance nonetheless, like trash.

I knew going in that I was probably going to like this new version of Onizuka, but I’m surprised I like it as much as I do. It’s still the same as all the others, but the angle of working with a former model, teaching a bunch of kids that are destined to be famous, and seeing how he does it considering how they act inside and outside of school has been neat. It’s gotten pretty crazy recently with one idol who can’t stand Onizuka, to the point where he decided it’d be cool to let one of his stalker fans kill Onizuka. But as always, Onizuka finds a way to survive it, though whether he’ll have success teaching him a lesson…well, he probably will eventually, but it’s still too early to say. Anyways, while the art still remains somewhat of a distraction, this is still classic GTO, and hard to turn down.

Well, the art does have its good moments.

Kate: I had a similar experience re-reading Monster this summer: I found myself more interested in the subplots and supporting characters than in Tenma’s quest to find Johann. I often feel like Urasawa does his best work on the periphery of the main story, populating it with memorable people who feel truer-to-life than his lead characters. He also does a better job of wrapping up these brief story arcs; much as I love Monster, Pluto, and 20th Century Boys, Urasawa can’t end a series to save his life.

Speaking of older gems, I’ve been reading the first volumes of Kaiji Kawaguchi’s time-traveling thriller Zipang. Kodansha published a bilingual edition in 2002, and while they didn’t translate the whole series, it’s still a good read. The premise is uncannily similar to The Final Countdown (1980), a cheesy Martin Sheen-Kirk Doulgas flick in which an American aircraft carrier is accidentally transported back to 1941. The crew then must decide whether to use their superior weaponry to thwart the bombing of Pearl Harbor or allow history to follow its textbook course. Zipang tells a similar story from a Japanese perspective: the crew members of the Mirai, a state-of-the-art destroyer, find themselves deposited in the Pacific theater on the eve of Midway. You can guess what happens next: characters debate the ethics of altering the space-time continuum while engaging in some good old-fashioned sea battles. This time-traveling gimmick has been done to death, but I have a terrible fondness for hyper-serious manly-man manga, especially when the pacing and artwork are as crisp as Kawaguchi’s. I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to read the whole series–at 43 volumes, it’s easy to guess why no American publisher would touch it—but can’t help but wish that Crunchyroll would license it.

Brigid: I also have been reading My Love Story!!, and I especially enjoy the art and the way that Aruko uses patterns and screentones to express emotion—every time Yamato does something that Takeo finds unspeakably cute, his profile is filled with streaks of lightning. It’s totally over the top, but that’s what makes it so funny.

I’ll weigh in on Monster as well: I agree with Kate about Urasawa’s endings. The end of Monster made me want to throw the book across the room. It’s a shame, because Urasawa is a master storyteller, and I love following all the story threads, so it’s disappointing when the series just goes “pfft” at the end.

I started a couple of promising series this week. One was Noragami, a comedy about a homeless god, Yato, who makes up in attitude for what he lacks in tact. The book begins with Yato somewhat reluctantly helping a bullied girl—as so often happens in manga, the chief culprits are not her jerky schoolmates but supernatural creatures called ayakashi. Yato slashes them to ribbons with the help of his shinki (“divine weapon”), a girl who becomes a knife at his command, but then his shinki leaves. Perhaps this is one of those manga that started as a one-shot chapter in a magazine, because this first chapter stands completely apart from the rest of the story.

What happens next is a bit confusing: A girl named Hiyori is hit by a bus and almost dies, or has some sort of near-death experience, and while she seems to have recovered, she keeps slipping out of her body. She attaches herself to Yato, and it looks like maybe she will become his new shinki, but noooo, some other dude shows up at the end. So I’m not sure where the Hiyori thing is going. There’s plenty to like about this book anyway, though, with lots of humor in this book (including the fact that Hiyori is a closet wrestling fan) and just enough action. Adachitoka lays on the screentones with a heavy hand (and not as skillfully as Aruko), which makes the art hard to look at sometimes, but the characters themselves are well drawn and well defined. I’ll be on board for at least one more volume of this one. Bonus points for the extensive translation notes in the back!

I thought that World Trigger might be something special, as Viz released the first two volumes at once, but it seems pretty average. It’s your basic Shonen Jump story about teenagers protecting the world (or in this case, Mikado City) from invaders from outer space, the Neighbors. The group of protectors is called Border, and they have the usual tightly fitted uniforms and cool weapons (they get a special battling body when they fight, which minimizes damage to the actual body). There are a couple of twists in the book: The main character, Osamu Mikumo, is a low-level trainee who isn’t much of a fighter. However, he is a very ethical guy who won’t allow a classmate to be bullied or allow one of the bullies to be eaten by a space monster that pops up out of nowhere. The bullied classmate is the new kid in town, who seems a bit more clueless than he ought to be. It’s hard to say more without giving the plot away, but there is a bit more to it than your average fighting-the-monsters story. If you like a book with a lot of battles, this is one to try, but by the beginning of volume 2, I had had enough.

Manga Giveaway: Sherlock Bones Giveaway

October 29, 2014 by Ash Brown

The end of October is fast approaching, which means it’s time for another manga giveaway at Experiments in Manga! I’m not entirely sure why, but my review of the first volume of Yuma Ando and Yuki Sato’s manga series Sherlock Bones is by far one of the most frequently visited posts at Experiments in Manga. It’s been more than a year since Kodansha Comics published the volume in English, but the review still gets plenty of page hits. And so, for this month’s giveaway, I decided that I would give people the chance to read the actual manga. As always, the giveaway is open worldwide!

I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed Sherlock Bones. The premise is inherently silly–Sherlock Holmes reincarnated as a puppy–but perhaps in part because of that, the series can be a lot of fun. Sherdog is tremendously smart, despite occasionally being distracted by his more canine tendencies, and he’s cute, too. But probably most important for a detective and mystery series like Sherlock Bones, the crimes and how they are solved are consistently interesting. Additionally, readers who want to have a more interactive reading experience can actually search for and find the clues needed to solve the crimes within the pages of the manga.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Sherlock Bones, Volume 1?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about your favorite or the most unusual detective/crime-solver that you’ve encountered reading manga. (If you don’t have one, simply mention that.)
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).

There it is! Each person can earn up to two entries and has one week to submit comments for this giveaway. If preferred, entries can also be sent via e-mail to phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. Your comments will then be posted in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on November 5, 2014. Best of luck!

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: Sherlock Bones Giveaway Winner

Morning Manga Spotlight: Paradise Kiss

October 28, 2014 by MJ 1 Comment

I pondered for a blatantly ridiculous amount of time over this week’s manga recommendation for my teen students. I considered another classic epic (Please Save My Earth), a couple of overlooked romances (Rasetsu, Crown of Love), or perhaps something for my pre-teens (Shugo Chara!). My most serious consideration, however, went to Ai Yazawa’s yet-unfinished (but totally glorious) romance/friendship epic NANA. As the subject of my first, and still most famous, “persuasion post,” Why You Should Read NANA, it’s pretty obvious that I’m a long-time fan, and recommending it seems like a no-brainer—at least for my older teens. But the more I thought about it, the more I found myself thinking about the things it lacks. NANA has a great deal to offer of interest to my teens… beautifully written characters (many of whom are pursuing an artistic field), complicated relationships, career angst, epic friendship, and (of course) gorgeous, gorgeous artwork. Things it doesn’t have, however, include genuine interaction/conflict with parental figures, anxiety over education, or queer characters of any kind—stuff that is important and relevant, particularly to my older teens.

Fortunately, I don’t even have to stray outside the same artist’s catalogue to find all that, and more. Which brings us to Yazawa’s much-celebrated (at least here at Manga Bookshelf) josei series, Paradise Kiss. Originally serialized in the women’s fashion magazine Zipper, Paradise Kiss tells the story of a high school senior named Yukari, who finds herself recruited by a a group of college fashion design students to model for their senior project. The encounter is life-altering for Yukari, as it not only forces her to face some hard truths about her own future and academic prospects, but also sweeps her into a tumultuous romance with George, the group’s charismatic, mercurial designer.

With all that in place, if you’re expecting a standard romance, you’d be gravely mistaken. While Yukari and George’s relationship is certainly central to the story, its essential disfunction is really the point. And though it manages to heat up the pages pretty intensely at times, the story’s real stars are, to my mind, its supporting characters, particularly diminutive seamstress Miwako and trans pattern-maker Isabella, who regularly battle it out in my heart for the position of “favorite character.” I’ll admit that Isabella usually wins. From our Off the Shelf column on the series:

Isabella is my favorite character in the series by far. In fact, I even joked when this title was first chosen for the MMF that my contribution would be an essay entitled, “Why I love Isabella” (or something along those lines). Not only is she a wonderfully warm and nurturing character, as you mention here, but she’s also the one who is best able to see the truth about everyone else, unhindered by insecurity or personal bias.

Additionally, she’s just about 100% responsible for my ability to like George, which took a hell of a long time to develop, to be honest. It took me several times through the series to get over my deep intolerance of George’s refusal to take responsibility for his role in the lives of others, and it was only Isabella who was able to convince me that George’s unquestioning, immediate acceptance of her true self made him worth reconsidering.

You can read the rest of that article or my original review of the full series for more on my complicated feelings about George, but perhaps the better idea is simply to read the series yourself!

Originally published in North America by Tokyopop, the series was recently rescued by Vertical, who gave it a beautiful new visual treatment (larger trim size, high-quality paper, gorgeous new covers) and a new translation, which has some ups and downs. On the upside, Vertical’s translation removes some of Tokyopop’s mild censorship (particularly in terms of George’s sexual preferences and other similar topics). On the downside, the prose is noticeably more awkward in some spots, one of which I detailed in my review of the first volume. In any case, I own both versions of the series, so local students who are borrowing can consider these issues and choose their poison.

The truth is, no matter which print version you’re able to pick up, you’re in for a beautifully-drawn, emotionally complex story, told in a remarkably concise fashion. To quote myself, “I feel that I could go on forever and still fail to do justice to the sheer exquisiteness of this series, so I’ll wind things up here. Suffice it to say that Paradise Kiss, with its complex look at beauty, longing, and personal discovery, truly is a bit of manga paradise.”

Alice in the Country of Diamonds: Bet on My Heart

October 28, 2014 by Sean Gaffney

By Sana Shirakawa, Quin Rose, and Nana Fumitsuki, based on the game by Quin Rose. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

The Alice spinoffs, which is to say everything but the 6 main books that Tokyopop/Yen Press put out, have always had an issue to deal with which is to say that they’re made for readers in Japan who have played the original games that the series is based on. North America hasn’t really had that luxury, even though we do now have a somewhat machine-translated tablet version of the Hearts game. So there’s always a risk that you read something that requires, if not prior knowledge, at least passing familiarity with the game world you’re in. Or, as in the case of this light novel, you have a product that lots of times seems to read like an advertisement for a game you can’t get over here.

That isn’t to say this isn’t a good novel, it’s quite well-written. The prose flows well (excellent translation by William Flanagan), and Alice and Blood, the main stars, sound like themselves. The premise, as you may have guessed, has Alice dropped in another world, a la Clover or Joker. But whereas Hearts had Alice looking for a passionate love, and Clover had Alice develop a relationship based on friendship turning to love, here she’s further in the past of Wonderland, no one knows who she is, and everyone starts out disliking her intensely. (Hence “Diamonds”.) Alice has her hands full trying to deal with this, and it’s not helped by ending up at Hatter Mansion with a Blood Dupre who’s far less adept at being aloof yet teasing than she remembers.

This book is drenched in the Blood/Alice ship, and fans of other ships won’t get much here. Eliot fans should particularly stay away, as he’s abused and beaten by Blood throughout, usually when he’s trying to shoot Alice. As for new characters, the White Queen and her Black Rabbit barely get a look, so most of what we get is Jericho Bermuda, the Gravekeeper, who seems to be based on Carroll’s dodo bird. He’s Alice’s oasis of calm in the excitement of dealing with Hatter mobster wars, and it’s frustrating that most of the hints we get about him being a “walking dead man” are not answered here.

There aren’t the sharp edges I like in some of the other Alice spinoffs – Alice doesn’t think of Lorina once, and most of her worries once she’s fallen in love come from a fear that she’ll switch countries again. The Hatter family are more battle ready and drenched in blood than the earlier games, as they’re still gaining power. But mostly I think this is a good book that makes a reader yearn to play the game. We want to see what’s up with the White Queen switching between child and adult form, like the Twins used to do. (They’re just adults here.) We’d like to see why the Black Rabbit seems to hate Alice (inverse of Peter, I expect.) Joker was mentioned to be here as well, but remains unseen. Jericho looks to be the author rewriting Mary Gowland to be less irritating, but who knows?

So this is a very good novel for Alice fans who want to dip into prose, or Alice/Blood shippers. But it also frustrated me, as it offers many questions without answers as well.

Off the Shelf: The Return

October 27, 2014 by MJ and Michelle Smith 2 Comments

MJ: *tap* *tap* Is this thing on?

MICHELLE: What’s this strange noise?

MJ: It seems to be the sound of… AWESOMENESS. Or, y’know, typing. One of the two.

MICHELLE: Oh, it’s starting to come back to me now. You’re Belinda, right?

MJ: Yes, and you’re… Michael?

MICHELLE: More or less! And I’m feeling the strongest desire to tell a really stupid joke, for some reason…

MJ: And I feel the unexpected desire to listen to one. So, shoot!

MICHELLE: Let’s see…. how about… What did one lawyer say to the other lawyer?

MJ: I don’t know, what?

MICHELLE: “We are both lawyers.”

MJ: That was… actually kind of funny. Wow. And now I’m feeling the strange urge to ask you a question. Is it okay, Michael, if I ask you a question?

Wait, that was a question. Um. Er. Another question?

MICHELLE: Go right ahead, Belinda!

MJ: Okay, here goes: Have you been reading any manga lately?

MICHELLE: What a timely query! As a matter of fact, I have!

MJ: Do tell!

MICHELLE: Well, one of the things I read was the latest volume (17) of a much-beloved series, Natsume’s Book of Friends by Yuki Midorikawa. This has really become one of the few series where I have to read the new volume as soon as it comes out. It’s episodic, which is not normally my thing, but with this series, it’s just got such a languid fairy-tale feeling to it that I honestly hope it never ends. I am perfectly okay with the lack of urgency.

Possibly I have made the series sound dull, but it really isn’t. Natsume is eager to learn about yokai and their ways, so it’s more a tone of… respectful discovery? Something like that. Anyway, the first two chapters here involve a yokai who looks like a teenage human and the girl who loves him. It’s a classic case of immortal-guy-teen-girl love wherein the guy knows that it’s not going to end happily, but the girl is insistent upon pursuing it anyway. And Natsume can’t help but cheer them on. A third chapter finds Natsume drafted to join a yokai game of hide and seek while Nyanko-sensei is off getting drunk.

I was a little disappointed at first that there were only three chapters about Natsume and that other two delved into the past of Shuichi Natori, famous actor and exorcist, but I should’ve trusted Midorikawa more, because I ended up liking them quite a lot. It turns out that Natori originally became an exorcist to help assuage humans’ fear, so his intentions were good, but at the same time we know that Natsume will later have cause to question the practice of exorcism.

Sorry for rambling on there, Belinda. In short: I continue to love this series.

MJ: Despite the fact that I let this series go a while back, I find that I’m genuinely happy to hear that it is still lovely in the ways that it was always lovely. And maybe a little regretful that I did let it go… but maybe with its episodic nature, it would be possible to still peek in every once in a while. You make that sound very tempting.

MICHELLE: Oh, I’m really sad to hear you let it go. You probably could pop in without missing too much, though Natsume has slowly been growing more confident and social, interacting with his classmates a little more and seeming at peace with his new living situation. Other than that, things are pretty much the same.

What’ve you been reading, if not Natsume?

MJ: Well, I’ve also been spending time with the latest volume of a beloved series, though in my case, the series is Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts. I’ve loved Pandora Hearts for a long time, for various reasons, particularly its endearing characters and its pretty, pretty artwork. Plotting, as you know, has had its ups and downs, at least in terms of coherence, but the tension has always been there. This has escalated dramatically in the past few volumes, and given everything that ultimately happens in volume 21, it’s kind of hilarious to note that it almost feels like a bit of a rest, at least to start.

After numerous betrayals, revelations, and deadly battles, this volume opens with most of the original gang (Oz, Alice, Gil) regrouping in a relatively secure location without much idea as to how to proceed. This state of affairs doesn’t last long, but it feels oddly peaceful, just for a moment, and even Oz, who has been through so much, seems rather like his childish self again, if irreversibly tinged with sadness.

This sense of quiet is short-lived, and soon the tension and new revelations start piling up again, but it’s to Mochizuki’s credit that this continues to feel fresh and exciting. The story’s many twists at this point read mainly as well-plotted and perfectly paced—and thank goodness, considering how quickly and frequently things change now in this series. Every time it feels like things are finally about to come clear, we discover that everything we thought we knew was wrong.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I haven’t even mentioned my favorite character, Xerxes Break. He features heavily in this volume as well, but I think there’s almost nothing I can say that isn’t incredibly spoilerful, so I’ll leave it there for now. Needless to say, his fate holds my heart cruelly in its grip, and that grip is only getting tighter.

You know, I often find myself disoriented when I first start reading a new volume of Pandora Hearts, but even picking up this volume several months late, I was able to just right in, and now I can’t wait for more. Fortunately, the next volume is due out soon!

MICHELLE: I’m a few volume behind with Pandora Hearts, but I do know what you’re talking about with those calm-before-the-storm moments that Mochizuki sprinkles in there. I left off with a very Loveless-style cliffhanger involving Gil’s allegiance, and I thought he was my favorite character, but now you’ve got me worried about Break, so perhaps I was wrong about that. I clearly need to get caught up!

MJ: You have so much heartbreak and renewal (rinse, repeat) to come, my dear Michael. So much. And I suspect I do, still, as well.

So what else have you pulled off the shelf of late?

MICHELLE: Hey…. ‘Off the Shelf’… That’s got a nice ring to it.

MJ: I thought so!

MICHELLE: Well, I seem to recall that we both found Yuuki Kodama’s Blood Lad to be an unexpected delight. I’ve also been reading the related Bloody Brat, in which Kanata Yoshino replicates Kodama’s art style with eerie accuracy and basically offers up a series of four-koma comics and silly short stories starring the characters. The second volume has just been released.

I’ve gotta say, these are not fabulous jokes. You’re really not missing anything if you don’t read it, even if you’re a Blood Lad devotee. However, after initially thinking to myself how I wasn’t even being moved to smile, this volume really grew on me. It was just so unrelentingly doofy that I found myself enjoying it somewhat despite myself.

There are no deep themes here. There is absolutely no plot here. There are lots of jokes about crotches and wolfboys who can’t help but fetch sticks and catdudes experiencing the flehmen response in reaction to natto. I probably cannot stress enough how silly it is, but on the whole, it’s actually kind of charming.

MJ: You’ve left me feeling rather conflicted here, I admit. I do love Blood Lad with the fire of a thousand suns. But I’m not entirely sure my life is empty without four-koma silliness (which tends not to do well with me, in general). The crotch jokes aren’t helping to convince me. Should I be convinced? Will I actually find it charming?

MICHELLE: I find I cannot answer you with assurance either positively or negatively. I think this is probably one of those things where you just have to see for yourself. For me, it’s worth it to get another nugget of Blood Lad, especially since it’ll be a long time before we get another installment of the main series.

Read anything else this week?

MJ: I did indeed! Finally, this week, I caught up with the first two volumes of Tomu Ohmi’s Spell of Desire, the latest in Viz’s line of semi-trashy josei manga rebranded as shoujo for North American readers. To be clear, despite the description I just gave, there’s definitely a level on which I enjoy these series, but with the frequency of these newer releases I’ll admit that the standard tropes are beginning to wear.

In terms of these standard tropes, Spell of Desire is nearly indistinguishable from Ohmi’s earlier series, Midnight Secretary, which just finished its run with Viz earlier this fall. In both series, a supposedly plain, sexually inexperienced heroine is compelled by unexpected supernatural circumstances into a decidedly erotic but nominally utilitarian relationship with a handsome, mysterious, and emotionally unavailable man, whose obvious romantic feelings are apparently invisible to the heroine, who feels she must squash her own growing affection so as not to cause trouble for anyone. Add some varying details (the particulars of the supernatural circumstances, workplace, and clothing preferences) and this is pretty literally the premise of both series.

I can’t deny that I’m tired of this premise. I’m tired of the contrived supernatural relationship, the heroine’s persistent self-denial and low self-esteem, and the level of reverence given to mysterious, controlling men. I really could not be more tired of these things.

Fortunately, there’s still something about Spell of Desire that is keeping me interested. Maybe it’s the morally ambiguous animal familiars. Maybe it’s the ongoing mystery surrounding the heroine, Kaoruko’s, mother. Whatever it is, I’m grateful for it, and I expect I’ll keep going with this series, at least for the time being.

MICHELLE: Whenever mysterious, controlling men are deemed sexy, I always think about Kate Beaton’s Dude Watchin’ with the Brontes.

I haven’t yet read the second volume of Spell of Desire, but I too found something about the first volume that compelled me to recommend it. I especially appreciated that the lead male was at least kind to ailing kittens.

One of the things I liked about Midnight Secretary was that the heroine was extremely proud of her professional competence as a secretary and doesn’t relinquish that, so I have hope that Kaoruko will have a bit more spine than one expects, too.

MJ: I have such hopes as well. And as much as I cringe at certain popular josei tropes, I can’t help but be grateful when anything intended for adult female readers is released over here. Even when there are vampires. Or witches. Or anxious virgins in their twenties. (Wow are there a lot of those in josei manga.)

So, Michael… now that we’re wrapping up this column, how does it feel to be back together again? I, for one, am feeling kinda giddy.

MICHELLE: It feels pretty good! We should do it again sometime!

MJ: I agree! Until then…