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Jojo is back, plus what you missed in Shonen Jump!

September 18, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

Good news for fans of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Viz is going to release part 3 digitally, and if that catches on, there may be more…

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers look over this week’s new releases and discuss their Pick of the Week.

Lissa Pattillo looks at three series that were recently announced in Japan that she hopes will make it over here: You Higuri’s Princess Ledalia: The Rose Pirate, Makoto Tateno’s Vampire Romanshiki, and the Attack on Titan spinoff.

Derek Bown catches us up on the past few weeks’ worth of Shonen Jump.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest yuri news at Okazu.

Justin chats with freelance manga letterer Annaliese Christman, who works on a lot of Viz titles, including Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan and Psyren.

Lori Henderson looks at the BookScan best-seller list, what’s up at Vizmanga.com, and Kodansha Comics’ digital samplers in her latest Manga Dome podcast at Manga Xanadu.

Reviews: Ash Brown leads us through a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of 07-Ghost (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 15 of Arata: The Legend (The Comic Book Bin)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 20 of Bakuman (Kuriousity)
Ash Brown on vol. 25 of Blade of the Immortal (Experiments in Manga)
Chris Kirby on vol. 2 of Btooom! (The Fandom Post)
Mark Thomas on vols. 1-3 of Dragonball (omnibus edition) (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Eden no Higashitotsuka (Okazu)
Ken H. on vols. 1 and 2 of Happy-Go-Lucky Days (Comics Should Be Good)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Happy Marriage?! (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 22 of Hayate the Combat Butler (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Angela Sylvia on vol. 13 of Kamisama Kiss (The Fandom Post)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 21 of Kaze Hikaru (Kuriousity)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Kingdom Hearts II (The Fandom Post)
Dana Lynch on Knights of Sidonia (Culture, whatnot, etc.)
Michael Buntag on K-ON! College (NonSensical Words)
Kate O’Neil on vols. 7-8 of Loveless (omnibus edition)
Dana Lynch on Me and the Devil Blues (Culture, whatnot, etc.)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Midnight Secretary (Comic Attack)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Nightschool (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Blogcritics)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Omoi no Kakera (Okazu)
Erica Friedman on Onna no ko Awase (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 68 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Official Casebook, vol. 1: The Phoenix Wright Files (Manga Xanadu)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 11 of Pokemon Black and White (Blogcritics)
Lesley Aeschliman on Pokemon Adventures HeartGold and SoulSilver (Blogcritics)
Matthew Warner on vol. 11 of Psyren (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 12 of Psyren (The Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Puella Magi Kazuma Magica: The Innocent Malice (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 12 of Rin-ne (The Fandom Post)
Connie C. on Saikano: The Last Love Song on this Little Planet, X, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Comics Should Be Good)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 12 of Sailor Moon (Blogcritics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Sailor Moon Short Stories (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 15 of Soul Eater (The Fandom Post)
Anna N. on vols. 5 and 6 of Strobe Edge (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Strobe Edge (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 17 of Toriko (The Comic Book Bin)
Justin on Tropic of the Sea (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Nick Smith on Tropic of the Sea (ICv2)
Dave Ferraro on Unico (Comics-and-More)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 4 of Until Death Do Us Part (The Fandom Post)

One Piece, Vol. 68

September 17, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

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

It’s worth noting, when reading this volume of One Piece, how much fun Oda is clearly having writing every single chapter. His simple joy in drawing all this crazy stuff comes out from the page and just overflows into your brain. Be it giant slime monsters clearly based off of video games in his youth, the bodyswap continuing to humiliate Nami and Sanji (and ending at just about the right time so it doesn’t get old), or even our heroes happily commenting on how Luffy and Smoker are locked up in another seastone cage again, just like Alabasta! (Bonus points for it being Robin commenting, who was a villain at that point.) This manga is what happy feels like.

Of course, it’s not all fun and games – or rather, the fun and games continues to be contrasted with the atrocities that Caesar Clown is committing. Drug addict giant toddlers, poison gas corpses that look like something out of Edvard Munch, and Luffy getting completely punked in his first fight with Caesar, despite his supposed poison immunity… this is not simply a walk in the park the way other arcs have felt. We even have yet another mole for the bad guy who’s a Vice-Admiral with the Marines (and, Oda-style, has a hamburger affixed to his cheek. As he forgot it was there.)

We also see Kidd and some of the other Supernovas meeting to discuss Caesar Clown’s offer, and it reminds me of something that Oda has been showing us again and again: anyone with power in this world is highly likely to be evil or insane. Luffy and company are one of the few non-evil pirate crews, and, fittingly, Smoker and Tashigi’s group are one of the few non-evil Marine crews. When you live in a world like One Piece’s, with so much raw power out there to abuse, you run into people who will do all they can to hold onto it.

Luckily, our heroes are strong, and can’t be kept down for long. Everyone has their own bodies again, and Kin’emon, the samurai, has his full body back (and is really quite tall now). What’s more, Luffy and Law have formed an alliance! I suspect that Law will rapidly come to regret allying himself with Luffy and company, which to a certain degree involves throwing your self-image out the window and giving in to the goofy. I am amused that once again Luffy says, when being informed of a plan, “Yeah, OK, I got it”, and then merrily go off to punch things again. It’s not something anyone can stop at this point.

If there’s something that feels slightly dissatisfying here, it’s that Caesar Clown doesn’t feel like a big bad. He’s pretty scummy, and I’ll enjoy seeing him defeated, but the revelation that there’s someone behind him who’s the real mastermind makes a lot more sense, and as a reader, I’d really like to leap ahead to that battle. Till then, though, One Piece continues to go where it wants to with unlimited joy.

My Week in Manga: September 9-September 15, 2013

September 16, 2013 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

I posted two reviews here at Experiments in Manga last week. The first was for Yusuke Kishi’s novel of horror and survival The Crimson Labyrinth. Currently The Crimson Labyrinth is the only work by Kishi available in English, but Vertical will begin releasing the manga adaptation of his novel From the New World later this year. (The same From the New World recently had an anime adaptation, too.) I also posted my latest Blade of the Immortal review–Blade of the Immortal, Volume 25: Snowfall at Dawn. The last few volumes of Blade of the Immortal have been building up to the showdown between Shira and Manji; finally the time has arrived when they face each other.

There were a couple of interesting things that I came across online last week. First, there was an interview with Annaliese Christman, a freelance letterer for Viz Media. I didn’t know much about lettering, so I found it to be a very interesting read. The other item I wanted to mention was Dan Kanemitsu’s examination of the impact the upcoming Tokyo Olympics may have on censorship in Japan–Fear and Loathing in the Bold New Olympic Era. (Too long, didn’t read? CBLDF has a nice overview of the article with some additional commentary–Tokyo Olympics Emboldens Censors.)

Quick Takes

Fairy Tail, Volume 29 by Hiro Mashima. This is only the second volume of Fairy Tail that I’ve had the opportunity to read in its entirety. At this point my general impression is that it’s a fun, but rather generic series. I just can’t seem to shake the feeling that I’ve seen it all before. I do like the variety of magic styles, though. Most of the twenty-ninth volume focuses on the battle between five young members of the Fairy Tail guild and Hades, the guild’s former grandmaster. Although not entirely unexpected, there were some great moments during fight that really show off the group’s teamwork. Fairy Tail moves along quickly with plenty of battles and action sequences. For the most part, Mashima’s art works nicely. However, all of the cuts and scratches that the characters end up with over the course of their fights make them look like they all have scales, which is a little odd. Although for some characters, like Natsu with his dragon abilities, it’s rather appropriate.

Nana, Volumes 16-18 by Ai Yazawa. The more of Yazawa’s manga that I read, the more I am impressed by it. Nana is a fantastic series. The characters are complex and multilayered; the story is dramatic and absorbing without being overwrought. These particular volumes deal just a little less with the music industry and the bands as a whole. Instead, they delve more into the characters’ personal lives. Particularly important is the revelation of Nana and Shin’s pasts as well as their less than ideal family circumstances–something that proves to be very problematic. Also included in these volumes are two lengthy side stories. One shows Nobu and Nana’s relationship back when they were in school together. Similarly, Takumi’s complicated feelings for Reira is the focus of the other. The side stories are a really nice addition to Nana, giving the story even more depth. They show the importance of the characters’ relationships and how they developed over time to become what they are in the series proper. I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of Nana.

Saiyuki Reload, Volumes 7-9 by Kazuya Minekura. While the early part of the series seemed directionless, by the end of Saiyuki Reload Minekura has a great narrative drive going. Some of the plot elements and storylines do unfortunately seem to have been dropped or forgotten (though perhaps she pulls them all back in for the finale) but the manga does benefit from having a stronger focus. What is particularly interesting about these volumes is that the yokai’s side of the conflict is shown in more detail. Although there have been exceptions, for the most part the yokai have simply been the series’ monsters. Minekura makes it very clear here that the yokai are really not all that different from humans and that it is the humans who are sometimes the real monsters. Looking back, this has actually been one of the recurring themes in the series. Although Saiyuki Reload is ten volumes long, only nine volumes were ever released in English. It’s particularly tragic since the ninth volume ends on one heck of a cliffhanger.

Smut Peddler by Various. Smut Peddler had its beginnings as a three-issue indie minicomic series back in 2003. In 2012, Smut Peddler returned as a full-length anthology collecting twenty-six short erotic comics. Smut Peddler is a phenomenal collection of sex-positive, lady- and queer-friendly comics. I was particularly happy to see the diversity included in the anthology, not only in terms of the characters’ various identities but in genre as well. Smut Peddler contains science fiction and fantasy as well as reality-based works, both historical and contemporary. The stories are short, sexy, and sweet. Some are more serious and others are more humorous, but they are all heartfelt. I was previously familiar with and already follow the work of many of the creators included in the anthology, but there were plenty of artists and writers who I was encountering for the first time. (I now have even more creators I want to seek out.) Work has already begun on a second Smut Peddler anthology, currently scheduled for release in 2014. I can’t wait.

Velveteen & Mandala by Jiro Matsumoto. Reading Velveteen & Mandala was a rather odd experience for me. I was consistently engaged while I was reading it, but I wasn’t sure that I actually liked it. But after finishing Velveteen & Mandala I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head which to me is a sign of a good manga. The more I think about it, the more I want to read it again–it’s like a lingering and intense fever-dream (or nightmare.) Velveteen & Mandala is a very strange horror manga with strong psychological elements, extremely black humor, frequent pop culture references, and characters who all seem to be at least slightly insane. The ending’s big twist was something that I suspected from the very beginning of Velveteen & Mandala but that doesn’t make it any less effective. Velveteen & Mandala easily earns it’s 18+ rating–it’s gruesome, violent, and sexually explicit. The manga’s off-beat, weird, and bizarre horror and humor definitely aren’t for everyone, but if you can stomach it Velveteen & Mandala is a strangely intriguing work.

Pick of the Week: Satoshi Kon & More!

September 16, 2013 by Ash Brown, MJ, Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and Anna N 1 Comment

ASH: Although this week is relatively light when it comes to manga releases (at least when compared to the last few weeks), there are still plenty of great manga to choose from. I’m especially interested in Satoshi Kon’s Tropic of the Sea. Kon is probably best known in the West as an anime director—and a fine one at that–but he started his career in manga. With beautiful artwork and a focus on legends and water, there’s no way I’m passing up Tropic of the Sea.

MJ: I’m quite torn this week, despite the limited selection, as it’s difficult to ignore a new volume of Ooku. But it’s even more difficult to ignore something as new (to us, anyway) and intriguing as Tropic of the Sea. So I’ll stand with Ash on this one. The cover art alone has me sold.

SEAN: Given we have Tropic of the Sea out of the way, I’m going to take a chance on Sherlock Bones, the new shounen title from Kodansha. As readers who have read my Young Miss Holmes reviews know, I’m a sucker for all things Holmes and Watson, so the premise at least intrigues me. We’ll see how much it abuses canon. The writer is also one of the pseudonyms of the people who did Kindaichi Case Files, a low-selling but highly regarded mystery series from back in the day.

MICHELLE: I admit Tropic of the Sea is very intriguing, and that I’m curious about Sherlock Bones but I simply must throw Fumi Yoshinaga some love and officially pick Ooku. True, it’s not my favorite of her manga, but it’s still quite fascinating.

ANNA: I am also torn between Tropic of the Sea and Ooku! I think I’ll have to go with Tropic of the Sea though, since I’m finding that the most interesting debut of the week.

What looks good to you this week?

Otome Games Review: Destiny Ninja and Pirates in Love

September 15, 2013 by Anna N

So I’ve always been leery of manga adaptations of Otome games, just because I find the plots a bit too formulaic. Even though I do have a strong fondness towards reverse harem scenarios, so far the Alice in the Country of franchise is the only Otome game manga where I’ve felt compelled to read more than a few volumes. I’ve been very busy recently and needing a new distraction, so when I saw that there was a game out called Shall We Date: Destiny Ninja, I decided to give that a try. Falling all the way down the Otome game rabbit hole, I also started playing Pirates in Love as well.

Shall We Date: Destiny Ninja is available for android and iphone.

I decided to start playing this because the name “Destiny Ninja” was hilarious. I was even more amused after sitting through a few minutes of the prologue, where the ninja are identified solely by their personality traits. The choices were Aggressive Pompous Ninja, Wicked Mean Ninja, Mischievous Masked Dark Ninja, Indifferent Merciless Stubborn Ninja, Mean But With an Angel Heart Brother Like Ninja, or Sexy Foreign Ninja. I decided to go with Mischievous Masked Dark Ninja at first.

Dark Ninja is Hyosuke, who seems to spend most of his time alternating between making jokes or indulging in cold and calculating revenge. He’s got a bit of a split personality.

The heroine of the story wakes up with amnesia near a battlefield, with no clues to her identity other than the expensive clothing and necklace that she wears. She’s taken under the wing of a local lord and his shinobi, and one of the ninjas is assigned to protect her. The heroine slowly uncovers the clues to her identity while falling in love with her chosen ninja.

Destiny Ninja is free to play, but it has some cumbersome game elements that are basically designed to frustrate the player into spending actual money. You can only progress forward through each chapter if your ninja has energy. You can revive your ninja by feeding him rice cakes, which you can attain through purchasing or winning them in ninja lotteries, or getting more energy through leveling up. Each energy unit is only worth getting through about a couple dozen lines of text, so it takes a long time to get through several chapters. The energy units also fill up at a very slow pace without using rice cakes. Players can earn points and virtual money through befriending other players. There are stopping points and checkpoints along the way where you have to have extra items like shuriken and passes. You also have to accessorize your chosen ninja’s companion animal by giving it scarves and masks. While I think it would be entirely possible to progress in the game for free, you would have to have a great deal of patience.

The storyline is fairly standard, and when the characters end up going through a lot of ninja history plot exposition it cam be a tiny bit boring, but generally I was entertained. I’m almost at the end of the storyline with the first ninja I picked, and I started trying to play from the beginning again just to see how the story would differ with a different character. This time I picked the Indifferent Merciless Stubborn Ninja, who indeed seems to be both indifferent and merciless as advertized, although as the story progresses, he begins to seem less and less indifferent.

There’s a complicated love meter for the game where depending on the answers you give, you can get one of four endings with each ninja. This means that if you have an obsessive personality and actually want to experience all the endings, you will have to play through the game four times per character. There’s a “sweet happy ending” which is more emotional or a “lovey dovey” ending which is evidently more risque. In terms of general romantic content though, the entire game is about at the level of a slightly risque harlequin romance novel. The English translation for this game is also not very good, but you can still understand everything that’s happening.

The game interface for this game is a bit crowded, because there are so many little add-ons and extra tasks needed for you to complete the story. I found the visual clutter a bit endearing, although I did get frustrated at the slow rate of progression for the game, even after spending money on rice cakes to power up my ninja. It was so slow I decided to check out another game, Pirates in Love.

Pirates in Love is available for android and iphone

This game requires you to pay for stories after a free introductory chapter. The interface for the game is smooth and easy to navigate, there’s some background music for the game that quickly becomes annoying, and the art looks less like clip art. With each decision point the heroine has three options, and there are no extra mini-games or tasks to complete. Pirates In Love functions pretty much like a classic choose your own adventure novel. It is easy to go through the storyline for a character in about an hour and a half or so.

I figured that when playing a game with pirate characters, one has to go for the guy in the eye patch.

Hello there.

As much as I enjoyed the looks of eye patch guy, whose name was Eduardo, I didn’t care very much for the storyline. He seemed to treat the heroine like a dim-witted mascot most of the time, and while certain aspects of Eduardo’s mysterious past were very interesting, there was a bit of a misogynistic vibe that I didn’t care for too much. By the end of the story he is much less of a creep, and he does get style points for the eye patch. I found the game interesting enough that I decided to play again with a different character, Russell the arrogant fencing pirate.

This storyline focuses more on the hero gaining a more mature sense of his place in the world, and it wasn’t as complex as Eduardo’s journey where he deals with his past, eye patch, and various conflicts with other pirates. It was less annoying but also a bit less interesting than the first character I tried. This game does a good job of balancing appearances from all the characters in every story, so it is easy to start wondering about all the different outcomes if you tried to play through the game with yet another character.

For my third time through this game, I picked the womanizing borderline alcoholic pirate captain.

Captain Morgan’s story involved ensuring an island’s water supply, mysterious twins, him being chased through a towm by all the woman in port that he wronged before, a hydra, and pirate captain political maneuvering. It was probably the most entertaining of the stories I’d tried so far in Pirates in Love, and of course the heroine cures him of his alcoholism and womanizing by the time the story is done.

Pirates in Love was much less frustrating to play than Destiny Ninja, because once you’ve bought a storyline you can play it until the end, and you can also go back and switch your answers to try to get a different ending without having to pay any extra. I actually played through three full stories in Pirates in Love for less money than I spend on buying rice cakes and other items in Destiny Ninja. Overall, I think Pirates in Love is a better value for what you get from the game, although I do find all the ninja quite amusing. I found my first foray into Otome gaming much more entertaining than I thought it would be. I’m going to continue with both of these games, as there are a couple characters with stories I’m still interested in from Pirates in Love. I might just adjust to the glacial pace of Destiny Ninja and play it more casually, as the lag time in normal game play makes it a bit frustrating to follow the stories closely.

If you do decide to give Destiny Ninja a try, my invite code is:CqWB9YLrSW (we both get bonus rice cakes!)

Who exactly are these pirates in love with?

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: July 22 – September 2, 2013

September 15, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

Well, it’s been a while. I have to apologize for my long silence. Personal circumstances and a stressful stretch of months at work made it very difficult to get anything done outside of waking up, going to work, coming home, playing video games until I pass out, and then waking up to start it all over again. Now, to some that second to last part might sound like I was just being lazy. And yes, there was a certain element of laziness involved. But it was less motivated by being a slacker, rather it was because nine to eight hours a day working customer service will drain the desire to do anything, even something you enjoy, out of anyone.

But, with no real change in my situation in sight, rather than just give up, I’m going to just suck it up and pick back up where I left off. I love writing about manga, and if I don’t share my opinions here, then where else can I go that people will actually listen when I go off on an incoherent rant about Naruto, Bleach, and World Trigger?

Obviously covering the past month plus in detail would take too long. So instead I’m going to give a quick recap of what I’ve thought of the past few weeks of manga before getting back to producing this column at a weekly rate.

And because the order in which the chapters are posted changes from week to week, I will be posting my comments about each series in the order that I feel like talking about them. So, essentially it’ll be organized by what I liked most to what I liked least.

Cross Manage
It’s been a while so I can’t be certain, but I do believe I forgot to cover Cross Manage‘s final chapter. Astute readers may notice a correlation between the end of this manga and when I went on my extended hiatus. And yes, I would say that the two are connected. I really did fall in love with this series, and really do think it could have gone much further than it did. Sadly it would appear that the readers of Japan did not agree with me. And while this may just be a pipe dream, I hope that in the future our votes will matter in regards to which series will get cancelled. But, even if that does happen in the distant future, it won’t be enough to save this series.

Since it has been long enough since this series was cancelled, and my initial rage has subsided to a certain extent, I feel that now I can talk about this final chapter without making veiled and overt threats towards the Japanese readers for letting this series get cancelled.

And, like I had been saying, the ending really was satisfying. Sure there were some elements that didn’t get resolved, but it ended well by foregoing the “See, this is what you could have had route” that so many passive aggressive manga artists seem to go when their series is cancelled prematurely. As Viz brings out the digital volumes I’ll be reading the series again, so that I can at least enjoy one of the only sports manga I ever liked.

I know it’s a bit late, but please, I want to know how everyone else felt about this manga ending. Also, I feel it’s relevant to point out that I think there are certain series that have been going on for years with established fanbases that are making the rankings system extremely unfair towards new series. We know One Piece and Naruto are going to stick around, so why should anyone be voting for them? I say we need to take those series out of the voting pool, they will keep going no matter what, and open up the floor for new manga to get some votes. After all, beating series like One Piece, Toriko, Bleach, and Naruto is an insanely unfair requirement for new series.

One Piece
While I’ve been losing a good deal of my enthusiasm for Weekly Shonen Jump since the cancellation of Cross Manage, at least One Piece has been there for me all along (not counting those couple of weeks hiatus due to health reasons). And while the story has been great, with this last week revealing the nature of Don Chin Jao’s gripe against Garp in the most ludicrous way, I think events relating to Oda’s life have been far more significant. With his health issues it’s become clear that fans don’t mind Oda taking some time off. After all, if we have to go a couple weeks without new manga so that the series actually keeps going then that’s a small price to pay. It’s also helped to remind us that while a manga-ka’s schedule is insane and inhumanely punishing, the editors are also human and want their artists to stay healthy, as shown by how they’ve been insisting Oda take it easier and actually take scheduled breaks even after a month long hiatus.

While we love having weekly manga, I think the grueling schedule manga artists go through to provide us with manga is worth discussing. It makes the issue of piracy even more relevant, considering that so many of us are willing to take what they’re sacrificing their lives for for free. And granted there is distribution to keep in mind, after all how can one get manga that isn’t being officially translated, I think what we really need to do is spread the word about this magazine so that we not only get more series in this magazine, but so that other companies make it worth their while to start emulating Viz.

Toriko
Toriko the past couple weeks has shown that I may not be the biggest fan of our protagonist. He’s not awful, but compared to all the other characters I can’t help but feel like Toriko is a bit…dull. This series is the definition of Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, so it’s a shame when the protagonist feels a bit samey with all the other protagonists in manga. Still, everything else has been amazing in that silly Toriko way. The power levels of the players keep ramping up in ways that sometimes make absolutely no sense but I’m inclined to forgive it because this series just does ridiculous so well.

Nisekoi
Nisekoi has been a bit hit and miss over the past month or so. I’ve been enjoying it, but some chapters were weaker than others. I particularly haven’t been a fan of the Haru heavy chapters, but there have been some great ones. The teacher leaving her job after getting married was problematic for me, but you can always listen to the podcast as to why I thought that. The most recent chapters get into the old amnesia shtick, but I find that it’s working so far if for no other reason that it’s being used to hang a lamp shade on harem series tropes. Particularly the unspoken reality that most harem protagonists would be considered scumbags in real life.

One-Punch Man
The amazing thing about One-Punch Man is that it goes beyond just being funny. It has great action, and great characters. Sure Saitama is pretty one note, but he’s entertaining enough and the side characters, even brand new ones, get some pretty great moments to shine. I won’t lie, the Puri Puri Prisoner character is problematic in how it shows that Japan apparently has a ways to go in their social rights issues. Though it does make me chuckle to compare how most gays are portrayed in our media versus how they are portrayed in manga. Let’s just say that at least gays in our media aren’t being threatened with arrest for hitting on other men.

Bleach
Bleach has been off for most of the time that I’ve been gone. And no, this is not a case of correlation. I honestly could care less about this series as it is now. We’ll see where things go when it picks back up this week, but all that really needs to be said now is that this series has been dull for far too long. It better pick up with this finale, and I hope that Kubo is able to resolve things in a way that satisfies everyone. And if that isn’t possible than I at least hope he resolves everything in a way that satisfies me specifically.

Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z may not be the most sophisticated manga out there, but I can’t help but love its old fashioned simplicity. Sometimes all we need is a little punching and characters yelling out their attack names. Without all the extra complications. Granted Dragon Ball Z is hardly my favorite manga, but I really do enjoy reading these old chapters again.

Blue Exorcist
I love a good “traitor revealed” moment. And then I start questioning whether it actually makes sense. A month is a long time for me to suspend my disbelief, but we’ll see whether it actually makes sense this coming chapter. My best guess is that it’ll be a red herring. Or maybe I’m wrong and Blue Exorcist is about to be shaken up real well. Which would be really well done, considering that Kato was distracting us with the Rin, Yuki, and Shiemi triangle.

Naruto
I don’t like Naruto. I really don’t. And with so many other series to go over I don’t think it’s worth my time to list exactly why this series has been pissing me off of late. But don’t worry, we’ll go back to our regularly scheduled rants with this coming week.

Jaco the Galactic Patrolman
Toriyama keeps saying that we probably won’t enjoy this since it doesn’t have the stuff he usually puts into his manga. And I keep saying that I agree with that statement. Jaco is a fun enough diversion, but hardly a work of art. But, considering how harmless it is I don’t see why I should waste any time complaining about things the author would probably just agree with anyway.

World Trigger
I hate this series for one reason and one reason only. It’s dull, it’s predictable, the characters are getting on my nerves. But the one reason is that I feel like this manga artist is wasting their time. So many better series have been cancelled, and this lousy series can’t be bothered to actually make an effort to stop sucking. And even when it does try to get some kind of direction it’s in a direction that was overused a decade ago. And even the fight scenes, while competent at places, spend most of the time being dull. It infuriates me that this series is still going when I can think of at least two that have been published in this magazine alone that should have kept going.

And that catches us up. Look forward to more consistent releases as I put my big boy pants on and actually get stuff done despite my work schedule.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Strobe Edge, Vols 5 and 6

September 15, 2013 by Anna N

One of the reasons why I keep reading manga is that it still has the capacity to surprise me. I found the fifth volume of Strobe Edge exciting to read, because it went in a totally different direction from what I was expecting. I’d always expected that the love triangle between Ren, Mayuka, and Ninako would have to be resolved somehow, but I wasn’t expecting a big change to come from Mayuka this early in the series. Ren is deliberately holding himself back from developing feelings for Ninako due to his sense of duty towards Mayuka. She’s emotional fragile and stressed out with the demands of her modeling career, school, and her parents’ divorce. Ren has a finely honed sense of integrity and wouldn’t do anything to hurt another person, with the expense of actually subverting his own feelings in the process.

I always expect anyone in a shoujo manga with a modeling career to be evil, but Mayuka shows that she’s been slowly picking up on Ren’s distance, coming to terms with her own goals for how she wants to live her life, and she realizes that she’s the one who is going to have to take a big step forward on her own. The change in Ren and Mayuka’s relationship isn’t without pain on both sides, but everything is handled with a degree of emotional maturity and sensitivity that is notable. It is fun to read a shoujo series that explores the shifting relationships between characters with such nuance.

In the meantime Ninako and Ando are in the grips of adorable teenage awkwardness, as she attempts to bury her own feelings for Ren and Ando tries to show her that he’s the better choice for her. Ando’s shifted from the cheerful flirtations personality that he displayed in the first few volumes to showing Ninako just how much he cares about her. There was a fun bonus story in this volume that delved into the past friendship between Ren and Ando, and just where it went wrong. This is the type of bonus story that I really enjoy, as it gives the reader a glimpse of the characters in a slightly different context, and provides more background as the manga moves forward.

There’s emotional turmoil ahead in the sixth volume of Strobe Edge, as Ando’s antagonism towards Ren resurfaces and Ren is dealing with the aftermath of his breakup with Mayuka. The burden of popularity and extreme handsomeness weighs heavily on Ren, as he is girlfriendless for barely a day before the girls at school start circling him. Ninako assumes that Ren is sad, and doesn’t want to do anything to add to his stress. Even with Valentine’s day coming up, she doesn’t want to add to the mountain of chocolate he’s going to be receiving from all the other girls.

There are some fun action scenes as Ren and Ando (mostly Ando) work through some aggression on the basketball court. The antagonistic relationship between them takes a turn towards the hilarious as Ando gets injured and when he wakes up and spots Ren he yells “You’re what I have to wake up to?” If Strobe Edge was only focused on the relationship between Ninako and Ren, it has the potential to get boring fairly fast. But seeing Ren and Ando start to work through their issues feels like an important emotional breakthrough. Ando instructs Ren not to smile, and Ren assumes that it is because his smile is somehow hideous, but really Ando doesn’t like the inadvertent effect a smiling Ren has on all the people in his vicinity. The end of volume six offers the promise of a new beginning at the start of a new school year, with Ren and Ninako being assigned to the same class.

Strobe Edge is a good example of why sometimes it is good to give a manga series a few volumes to develop before giving up on it. I was a bit on the fence about this series after reading only the first volume even though I generally enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have thought from just the first volume that Sakisaka would have built up the interesting relationships between the characters and handled some emotional journeys without relying on some of the standard shoujo plot elements. In some ways Strobe Edge is a less angsty successor to We Were There, as both series explore similar nuanced psychological territory.

Review copy of vol 6 provided by the publisher.

Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 22

September 15, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume, and the two that follow it, are for me the high point of the entire run of Hayate the Combat Butler. Hata has a tendency to get sidetracked and lost in comedy asides, to the point where he’s started to parody his tendency to do so. Also, it’s becoming quite clear that someone is telling him that he has to keep the series going and can’t wrap things up. But that’s in Japan. Here, we’re finally getting to the good stuff. All the slow character development, glacial plot points, and G*ndam references lead to this confrontation in Greece.

For all that Hayate is a wacky harem comedy, it has some dark tones at its core. Mostly it’s been about the horrible parents of Hayate, Wataru and Hina, and the absent/dead parents of Nagi and Athena. But there’s also been a sense of aiming for your dream and failing that’s come up several times with Hina’s alcoholic sister Yukiji. She’s in Italy because the teacher (and old high-school friend) who has a crush on her is trying to make grand gestures so that he doesn’t have to actually confess. After a chapter of misunderstandings and beatings, the now drunken teacher wonders out loud how the cool, guitar-playing Yukiji turned into the lazy, shiftless, aimless young woman we all know. And the answer is that life happens. It’s why people make wishes, and dream of fairy stories. And create magical luck stones, for that matter.

Speaking of which, we finally get the confrontation we’ve waited 10 years for… well OK, four volumes. Hayate sees Athena, and calls out to her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know who he is. Or at least pretends she doesn’t know – as a very cute aftershot tells us, she is quite aware of Hayate but has some longer game, which involves that stone. The last volume gave us a few minor villains trying to get their hands on the stone, but now we move on to the more dangerous players. 16-year-old Athena looks like a dark queen, what with her black dress and princess curls (and healthy bust – clearly larger than any of the other girls in Hayate’s wannabe harem). We can only hope that she sides with her feelings over her need for that stone.

And so, having started the volume with Yukiji noting that sometimes things don’t work out, and dreams don’t come true, we end with the dinner date between Hayate and Hinagiku, who is determined to confess. Of course, Hina is mistakenly thinking that Hayate hates her because of her tsundere antics. And Hayate has worked out that Athena was lying, and is wondering what to do now and why meeting Athena is affecting him so much. So the dinner date is a masterpiece of distraction. Tragically, the two characters have revelations exactly at the WRONG time. Hina finally mans up her courage and starts to confess. And Hayate finally puts two and two together and realizes why he’s so devastated by Athena’s disfavor, and why he wants desperately to apologize: he loves her.

It’s an epic cliffhanger, to be sure. Hata certainly thought so, as Vols. 23 and 24 came out in Japan the same day. Sadly, that won’t happen here, where Hayate simply doesn’t have the sales. So we’ll have to check back in another six months to see how Hayate’s admission affects Hina, and whether it spurs him to return to Athena. The tension only gets higher from here.

Blade of the Immortal, Volume 25: Snowfall at Dawn

September 13, 2013 by Ash Brown

Creator: Hiroaki Samura
U.S. publisher: Dark Horse
ISBN: 9781595828835
Released: August 2012
Original release: 2009
Awards: Eisner Award, Japan Media Arts Award

Snowfall at Dawn is the twenty-fifth volume in the English-language release of Hiroaki Samura’s award-winning manga series Blade of the Immortal. Published by Dark Horse in 2012, Snowfall at Dawn collects the same chapters as the twenty-fourth volume of the original Japanese edition of Blade of the Immortal released in 2009. Blade of the Immortal first began serialization in 1993 and has covered a lot of ground since then. Starting as a story of revenge with a touch of the supernatural, the series mixes historical reality with the fantastic and later on even a healthy dose of horror. Snowfall at Dawn is part of the fifth and final major story arc of the series. With morally complex characters, dynamic artwork, and an engaging story, Blade of the Immortal continues to be one of my favorite manga series.

After their daring assault on Edō Castle, Baro Sukezane provides the diversion needed to allow his comrades Magatsu Taito and Anotsu Kagehisa, the leader of the Ittō-ryū sword school, to escape. They aim to rejoin the rest of the Ittō-ryū as quickly as possible while avoiding their pursuers. Among those trying to locate Anotsu are Asano Rin and Manji, her bodyguard and companion. Little do the pair know, but they are also being pursued. Shira, a sadistic murderer who holds a particularly intense grudge against Manji, is steadily getting closer to exacting his revenge. Accompanying Shira is Kawakami Renzō, a broken young man with his own reason for hating Manji. It’s only a matter of time before the four of them meet once again. The encounter is one that Shira has been preparing for and fantasizing about, taking great pleasure in anticipating and contemplating the pain and torment his plans will bring Manji and Rin.

The last few volumes have been building up to the confrontation between Shira and Manji. Unsurprisingly, their battle is the focus of Snowfall at Dawn. What did surprise me, however, is how comparatively tame it is physically when considering the perverse and barbaric nature of Shira’s past exploits and misdeeds. The potential for extreme physical violence between Shira and Manji is great. Shira is an unapologetic and twisted sadist while Manji is a man who is extraordinarily difficult to kill, making him an ideal victim and target. But Shira isn’t only interested in Manji’s physical suffering, he also takes great joy in causing mental anguish. Although there is still plenty of bodily harm and pain inflicted during the battle in Snowfall at Dawn, the psychological impact and agony caused by Shira’s attack on Rin and Manji is just as crucial to the fight. Out of all of the characters in Blade of the Immortal, Shira is easily the most unquestionably villanous and terrifying.

In addition to the showdown between Shira and Manji, Snowfall at Dawn also reveals Shira’s whereabouts during the long prison story arc as well as his involvement in the immortality experiments. Shira may be an utter bastard, but he’s had some unspeakable things done to him as well. As part of this, there is also a lengthy discourse in Snowfall at Dawn about the nature and limitations of Manji’s bizarre regenerative abilities. While vaguely interesting, it is largely unnecessary. Anyone who has been reading Blade of the Immortal should be well aware by this point that Manji’s immortality is imperfect; ample evidence can be found throughout the series. However, Samura hasn’t previously gone into such specific detail about it as he does in Snowfall at Dawn. Unfortunately, he has to interrupt the flow of the story in order to do so. Still, Samura soon returns to what really matters in Snowfall at Dawn–Manji and Shira’s battle, which will reach its conclusion in the next volume, Blizzard.

Manga the Week of 9/18

September 12, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and MJ 3 Comments

SEAN: Three weeks this September have a huge pile of manga, one is merely a small pile. This is that week. (Though some may get Yen titles one week early via Diamond.)

Genshiken has continued to prove that if you have a good enough ensemble cast, it doesn’t matter who the ‘lead character’ or stars are. It rotates students in, it rotates students out. Well, OK, Madarame and his not-quite-harem continue to be the focus of the 2nd Season. Vol. 3 is out this week.

MICHELLE: I must admit that I have never read any Genshiken.

ASH: I haven’t read any of the second season yet, but I did rather enjoy the Genshiken omnibuses. Guess I’ll need to catch up!

MJ: I’ve always been interested in this title, but missed picking up the first season, so I’ve never managed to get into it. I would like to rectify that at some point!

SEAN: The other Kodansha title, Sherlock Bones, you may at first glance think is meant for younger readers, especially once you see the premise “Sherlock Holmes reincarnated as a dog”. That said, I think there may be something I can do to tempt old-school mystery and manga fans to get this volume: “From the creator of Kindaichi Case Files.”

MICHELLE: … and also !!! That certainly tempts me!

MJ: What she said!

SEAN: Everyone knows that old-school manga titles are not really looked at by companies anymore. UNLESS… they’re by the late director Satoshi Kon, aka Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, etc. Tropic of the Sea was a single-volume manga he did for Kodansha’s Young Magazine in 1990, and it’s at the start of his career, before he became famous for other things. It promises to be riveting, from what I hear.

ASH: I’m really looking forward to Tropic of the Sea. That cover is simply gorgeous and the interior art I’ve seen is also striking.

MJ: I’m very interested in this as well.

SEAN: Bokurano: Ours must still have cast members to kill off in a tragic yet heartwarming and life-affirming way, as the series is still going. Here’s Vol. 9 from Viz, whose continued support of the SigIKKI line I will always appreciate.

MICHELLE: I’ve fallen somewhat behind on Bokurano: Ours, but I do like it.

SEAN: Lastly, Ooku: The Inner Chambers has a new volume. We’re caught up with Japan, and the series doesn’t come out all that rapidly anymore. But this just makes this alternate world tale of court intrigue a rare treat.

MICHELLE: Yay, more Ooku!

ASH: Indeed! Hooray for more Ooku!

MJ: Insert additional cheers here!

SEAN: What manga dost thou wish to acquire on the morrow?