Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Blog

Pick of the Week: Jiu Jiu, 5 Centimeters & more

by , , and 2 Comments

SEAN: Given that there’s about 40 gazillion titles coming out this Wednesday at Midtown Comics, narrowing down a pick of the week is hard. I am therefore going to do what I usually do in these cases, which is assume my colleagues will pick the more ‘upscale’ titles and go for my own personal biases. Jiu Jiu is Viz’s latest Shojo Beat series, and it’s from Hana to Yume (and its spinoff), a magazine I adore. It combines shoujo romance with fantasy, as most of the currently licensed crop do (hey, you go with what sells), and features a heroine who is cool and can kick ass when required. Who could ask for anything more?

MICHELLE: Actually, even though I know I should pick the third volume of Wandering Son because it’s bound to be awesome, my heart is drawn unerringly—over other greats like One Piece and Ooku—to the 28th volume of Skip Beat!. I think it says a lot about the series that it inspires such loyalty and genuine expectation so long into its run. Also, I have successfully gotten a coworker addicted. Muahaha!

MJ: I think we can all agree that Wandering Son is a must-buy. But since there will be much more of it to come, I’ll give my vote this week to a single volume release—the manga adaptation of Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters Per Second. I’m a fairly devoted fan of Shinkai’s work and vision, and as this adaptation is based on my very favorite of his films, it’s not a release I’m willing to miss. There are images from this melancholy film that are among my favorites in any medium—moments I carry with me day-to-day, even now. And while I expect I’ll find the manga’s strengths to be different than the film’s, it’s hard for me to imagine Vertical licensing this if it had no strengths at all. So, despite my usual skepticism over adaptations of this kind, I approach this manga optimistically.

BRIGID: Wow, so many good books to choose from! I’m loving Drops of God, so I’ll want vol. 4 of that, and I’ll be going for 5 cm too. But in the dog days of summer, I go for the simple pleasures, so my first choice this week will be vol. 1 of the Kitchen Princess omnibus. I’m ready for some sweet, sweet shoujo, and Kitchen Princess delivers, treading very familiar ground with the story of a cheerful orphan at an elite boarding school who solves everyone’s problems by cooking for them. It’s charming, funny, and broken up into short story arcs so I can pick it up and put it down whenever I like. Yeah, I’ve read it before, but summer is a good time for reruns, so bring it on!

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Takehiko Inoue MMF Roundaup: Part Four

by

It’s the fourth quarter, and your co-hosts have banded together to take you through the final stretch!

Anna joins me for a special Let’s Get Visual column dedicated to Inoue’s artwork, where we discuss pages from Real and Vagabond.

And speaking of Vagabond, we both weigh in on the series, with Anna tackling the two most recent VIZBIG editions to be released (nine and ten) and me checking out the first one. Ultimately, it looks like neither of us has found a new favorite over the course of the MMF, but we still both enjoyed branching out!

A big thank you once again to everyone who contributed and left comments. MJ of Manga Bookshelf will be hosting the next MMF, which will focus on works by CLAMP.

Vagabond, Vols. 1-3

by

By Takehiko Inoue | Published by VIZ Media (first VIZBIG edition)

One of my goals for this Manga Moveable Feast was to finally read some of Vagabond. I’ve been collecting the VIZBIG editions since they started coming out, which means there were ten of these on my shelf (with their spines forming a group portrait) unread. Now that I finally have read some of Vagabond, I’ve found it so different from the Inoue I’m familiar with—and yet containing some of the same themes—that I’m rather at a loss for words.

Shinmen Takezo is the son of a legendary swordsman, though we don’t really find that out until volume three. Since the age of thirteen, when he killed a man who came to Miyamoto village looking to challenge its strongest occupant, he’s been ostracized by all save a couple of childhood friends and he’s recently been off to battle with one of them, Hon’iden Matahachi. They both survive a bloody battle, but Matahachi takes up with a thieving widow, leaving Takezo to return to Miyamoto with tidings of Matahachi’s survival.

To make a long story very short: Takezo meets with an unfriendly welcome and is manipulated by a clever monk named Takuan into reevaluating his life. Four years later, now going by the name Miyamoto Musashi, he shows up in Kyoto looking to challenge the head of the Yoshioka sword school, and though he defeats many of their members, he learns there are still those stronger than him. A drunken Matahachi accidentally sets the blaze that allows Musashi to escape, and the VIZBIG ends with him realizing that the old friend he left for dead might actually have survived.

Even though I knew this was about swordsmen, I somehow didn’t expect it to be as gory as it is. There are a lot of death blows being dealt here, as Musashi is obsessed with measuring/proving his strength against others and willing to sacrifice his life to this aim. That said, at times the art is absolutely gorgeous, and there are a few color pages that look like bona fide paintings. The scope, layout, and pacing of the story all lend it a cinematic feel that is genuinely impressive. There’s one scene early on, when Musashi turns around to face the one opponent left standing and it’s genuinely terrifying.

But yet, I mostly found it unaffecting. I expect there will be more insight into the main character as time progresses, but for now he’s so closed off, so proud of his strength and being hailed a demon that I can’t grow fond of him or endorse his goals. I have a feeling I’m not supposed to. I did identify with Matahachi a lot, though, especially his inferiority complex in regards to his friend and his inability to follow through with the heroic deeds he imagines himself performing. I like Otsu, the fiancée Matahachi left behind, and I’m intrigued by Takuan, the monk. I’ll keep reading for them, if nothing else.

One thing about Musashi reminds me a lot of Hisanobu Takahashi in Real. As a child, Hisanobu was attempting to master a particular basketball move that his father showed him. He worked very hard on it, but was never able to show his father because the latter abandoned the family. Musashi has also been abandoned by his mother and shunned by his father, and part of his drive to test himself seems due to the desire to show them his strength, show them that he doesn’t need to depend on anyone else. Musashi is a real historical figure, not a character Inoue created, but it seems like he’s drawn to these confident yet wounded types.

Ultimately, I can see why Vagabond is hailed as a masterpiece, and I will certainly keep reading it, but my heart will always belong to Inoue’s sports manga, Slam Dunk in particular. The heart wants what the heart wants!

Vagabond is published in English by VIZ Media. Single volumes up through 33 have been published, as well as ten “VIZBIG” editions comprised of three volumes each. An eleventh VIZBIG edition is scheduled to be released in December. Inoue has recently resumed the series in Japan, so the upcoming release of volume 34 (October) will be the first new Vagabond released in English in two years.

Let’s Get Visual: Takehiko Inoue

by and

MICHELLE: It’s been a while, but Let’s Get Visual has awoken from its hibernation in time to celebrate the Takehiko Inoue Manga Moveable Feast. Joining me for this occasion is special guest host Anna Neatrour, who is also co-hosting the MMF with me! Welcome, Anna!

ANNA: Thank you! I am excited to join in on a Let’s Get Visual post for Takehiko Inoue, because I think he is one of the top contemporary manga artists. He has an incredibly detailed and realistic style that really sets his manga apart from other series.

MICHELLE: I just started reading Vagabond the other day, and there was one close-up picture of Takezo drawn with extreme care and obvious skill, and I thought, “Y’know, this should be the image that all manga fans carry around to immediately dispel the misconceived notion that all manga looks alike and/or involves big, sparkly eyes.”

ANNA: I think that Inoue’s style (particularly in Real and Vagabond) is probably more reader-friendly to Western comics fans who haven’t read much manga before.

MICHELLE: Yeah, probably so. I’ve often thought that Western comic fans would probably like a bunch of seinen manga if they’d give it a chance.

Anyways, I suppose we should proceed to get visual! The images I’ve chosen are the very first pages in the very first volume of Real.

Real, Vol. 1 (VIZ Media)

I chose these images because they demonstrate how well Inoue is able to communicate Togawa’s character here without needing any words at all. Okay, sure, this guy is in a wheelchair, but he’s clearly driven. He’s pushing himself, possibly to the point of pain (if that’s what that one black panel represents). He has bulging muscles, so he’s clearly been at this a while. He’s moving fast. He may have a disability, but it doesn’t mean that he can’t take being an athlete seriously.

And then you turn the page and see that he is all alone. Inoue pulls back to show the entirety of the gym to emphasize Togawa’s solitude, and if that wasn’t enough, we get a glimpse of the empty school campus, as well. This sets the stage for what we later learn (which you mention in your review)—that Togawa’s attitude toward his wheelchair basketball team does not mesh well with his hobbyist teammates. Here’s a guy who is giving it his all, and he is the only one.

There’s just so much we can tell from this elegant introduction that it kind of blows me away.

ANNA: I agree that one of the things I like best about Inoue’s art is how much the images are able to contribute to the storytelling of his manga without overtly telling the audience anything. The themes touched on in the images you showed are addressed again later in the manga. Togawa’s ego and isolation contribute to his central struggle in the manga, and at the same time his willingness to practice all by himself shows just how dedicated he is to his sport.

MICHELLE: I will always, always be a big fan of nonverbal storytelling, so Inoue really wins my heart here by going above and beyond impressive art.

Want to tell us about the images you picked?

ANNA: The panels I chose were from Volume 26 of Vagabond, collected in the ninth VIZBIG edition of the series.

Vagabond, Vol. 26 (VIZ Media)

One of the reasons why I love Vagabond so much is that the fight scenes are never merely about two people fighting. There’s always a psychological or philosophical element involved. We see Miyamoto Musashi in a midst of battle against 70 members of the Yoshioka sword school, an ambush he willingly walked into. As he battles, he’s focused on centering himself and living in the moment. The close-up panels of his face show the process of self-reflection even as he is mowing down his opponents.

MICHELLE: That’s a really striking sequence. I like how he seems to be looking off into the horizon as he tells himself to have no aspirations for the future, as if to acknowledge the existence of other paths that he’s not allowing himself to take. Granted, I’ve not read the series that far—I’m barely on volume two—but it almost seems to me like he could walk away from this fight if he wanted to, but he’s not letting himself do it. Is that anywhere near the case?

ANNA: I don’t think Musashi is capable mentally of walking away from a fight like this. There are a lot of things that lead up to this sequence of many chapters where Musashi takes on the entire sword school, but one thing that struck me about the battle as a whole is that while you see Musashi getting beaten down and injured, towards the end Inoue almost has the reader concluding that it was really unfair to the 70 men who were planning on ambushing and attacking Musashi from behind that they had to go up against this one particular single opponent. Vagabond’s
fight scenes are always interesting, even when they stretch on for hundreds of pages, simply because the exquisitely rendered battles are contrasted with the internal struggles of the people who are fighting. Battle is as much of a mental exercise as it is a physical one.

MICHELLE: That’s an interesting point! So far I’ve only seen a few fights, and there hasn’t been much on Takezo’s (as Musashi is known at that point in the story) mental state yet. But I definitely admired the pacing and structure of Inoue’s artistic approach to battle—even watching Takezo just turn around and notice one opponent still standing becomes something frankly terrifying.

ANNA: One the things I enjoy about Vagabond is seeing the way Musashi changes over time. The man fighting the sword school in these panels has a measured sense of self and an inner stillness as he fights opponent after opponent. This is totally different from the way Takezo is portrayed in the earlier volumes, where he is more arrogant and animalistic.

MICHELLE: I definitely look forward to seeing how he gets from point A to point B. I admit, I still prefer Inoue’s sports-related series, but there’s just no denying that Vagabond is a masterpiece.

Thanks to everyone for reading, and we hope we’ve inspired you to check out some Inoue!

Women Write About Comics: Interview

by Leave a Comment

Good morning, Manga Bookshelf readers! I have a quick link to share this morning, to a not-so-quick interview I gave last week to Claire Napier at the blog carnival Women Write About Comics. Claire asked me some really great questions about manga, blogging, female representation, and storytelling in general. It was a real pleasure to talk with her.

The interview is here.

I hope you’ll check it out if you have a moment (or, uh, twenty). And if you’re a woman who writes about comics (or a man who has our backs), take a look at the blog carnival in general and how it works. It’s a great opportunity for us to really expand our conversations, blog-to-blog, and I’m hoping to participate soon myself. The latest topic is Harassment in the Geek Blogoshere, which will be running through July 7-8. You can also check them out on Twitter and Facebook.

Takehiko Inoue MMF Roundup: Part Three

by

What started as a trickle has become a steady stream as the Takehiko Inoue MMF begins drawing to a close!

At Experiments in Manga, Ash brown checks out the second Vagabond VIZBIG omnibus, particularly praising the way battles in the series have lasting repercussions for the characters.

At Manga Report, Anna digs into the past for highlights from the Inoue archive page.

Animemiz posts about Inoue’s artwork at the New York City Kinokuniya location.

At Manga Village, the gang collects a bunch of quotes in praise of Inoue’s Slam Dunk and Lori Henderson gives Vagabond a try but ultimately concludes it’s just not her thing.

Lastly, be sure to check out this really interesting article at Manga Therapy that ponders the notion of strength, as depicted in Vagabond.

My thanks to all the contributors!

Takehiko Inoue MMF Roundup: Part Two

by

I’ve got a few more Inoue-riffic links to share with you today!

First up, Lori Henderson at Manga Village looks at volume 22 of Slam Dunk, the most recent volume to become available in English, and points out that this is one sports manga where the sport itself is perhaps more important than the typical shounen theme of striving for improvement.

Next, MJand I devoted last night’s Off the Shelf column to a discussion of Inoue’s seinen wheelchair basketball series, Real, which we pretty much rave about unreservedly.

Lastly, my lovely cohost Anna contributes another review (love the Peter Sellers reference in the title!), wherein she shares her thoughts on the first six volumes of Slam Dunk. You might recall from our introductory post that she had yet to try the series, but I am happy to report that she likes it! She also writes really good concluding paragraphs, like this one:

One of the reasons why I liked it so much is that there’s a general feeling of warmth that you get when reading this manga. Sakuragi is often made fun of, but he’s portrayed with affection. He even inspires a bit of grudging respect from his teammates as his basketball skills keep getting better. As a bonus, the reader also gets treated to a variety of ’90s fashions and hairstyles. Inoue’s enthusiasm and love for the game informs the manga, making it seem more personal and interesting than a shonen manga that is developed by committee with the aid of magazine polls. After reading Slam Dunk, I can understand why it was one of the top-selling manga in Japan. If you haven’t tried reading Slam Dunk yet, don’t be an idiot like me and wait for several years—just pick up a few volumes as soon as possible.

What she said!

Manga Bestsellers: 2012, Week Ending 6 May

by Leave a Comment

Comparative Rankings Based on Consolidated Online Sales

last week’s charts
about the charts

##

Manga Bestsellers

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [494.8] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [455.0] ::
3. ↔0 (3) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [442.0] ::
4. ↔0 (4) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [408.1] ::
5. ↑2 (7) : Black Butler 9 – Yen Press, Jul 2012 [399.0] ::
6. ↓-1 (5) : Negima! 34 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [394.4] ::
7. ↓-1 (6) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [384.8] ::
8. ↑6 (14) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [361.9] ::
9. ↑1 (10) : Naruto 55 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [335.0] ::
10. ↑6 (16) : Black Butler 8 – Yen Press, Jan 2012 [310.2] ::

[more]

Top Imprints
Number of volumes ranking in the Top 500:

Yen Press 80
Tokyopop 75
Viz Shonen Jump 74
Viz Shojo Beat 56
Kodansha Comics 43
Viz Shonen Jump Advanced 38
DMP Juné 17
Dark Horse 16
Vizkids 15
HC/Tokyopop 12

[more]

Series/Property

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon – Kodansha Comics [1,205.4] ::
2. ↑1 (3) : Naruto – Viz Shonen Jump [875.2] ::
3. ↓-1 (2) : Black Butler – Yen Press [849.2] ::
4. ↔0 (4) : Maximum Ride – Yen Press [604.8] ::
5. ↑2 (7) : Warriors – HC/Tokyopop [588.5] ::
6. ↔0 (6) : Negima! – Del Rey/Kodansha Comics [580.6] ::
7. ↓-2 (5) : Highschool of the Dead – Yen Press [545.3] ::
8. ↑9 (17) : One Piece – Viz Shonen Jump [478.5] ::
9. ↓-1 (8) : Rosario+Vampire – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [442.4] ::
10. ↓-1 (9) : Blue Exorcist – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [423.5] ::

[more]

New Releases
(Titles releasing/released This Month & Last)

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [494.8] ::
6. ↓-1 (5) : Negima! 34 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [394.4] ::
8. ↑6 (14) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [361.9] ::
12. ↑5 (17) : The Betrayal Knows My Name 3 – Yen Press, Apr 2012 [295.3] ::
13. ↑5 (18) : Warriors SkyClan & The Stranger 3 – HarperCollins, Apr 2012 [294.6] ::
15. ↓-7 (8) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 8 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Apr 2012 [279.5] ::
23. ↓-1 (22) : Highschool of the Dead 6 – Yen Press, Apr 2012 [239.9] ::
24. ↑96 (120) : One Piece 62 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [235.6] ::
28. ↓-7 (21) : Durarara!! 2 – Yen Press, Apr 2012 [223.3] ::
29. ↓-4 (25) : Skip Beat! 27 – Viz Shojo Beat, Apr 2012 [212.6] ::

[more]

Preorders

5. ↑2 (7) : Black Butler 9 – Yen Press, Jul 2012 [399.0] ::
14. ↓-2 (12) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [288.9] ::
16. ↑3 (19) : Sailor Moon 7 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [274.1] ::
19. ↑7 (26) : Sailor Moon 8 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2012 [256.2] ::
27. ↑84 (111) : Ouran High School Host Club 18 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jun 2012 [223.5] ::
51. ↓-12 (39) : Finder Series 6 Passion within the View Finder – DMP Juné, Jul 2012 [163.0] ::
67. ↑102 (169) : Skip Beat! 28 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [129.9] ::
71. ↑9 (80) : Negima! 35 – Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012 [126.9] ::
72. ↑3 (75) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [124.3] ::
83. ↓-11 (72) : Dance in the Vampire Bund 12 – Seven Seas, Jun 2012 [113.0] ::

[more]

Manhwa

307. ↓-62 (245) : Priest Purgatory 1 – Tokyopop, Aug 2010 [38.4] ::
348. ↓-39 (309) : Bride of the Water God 9 – Dark Horse, Oct 2011 [32.8] ::
496. ↑164 (660) : Black God 16 – Yen Press, Apr 2012 [20.9] ::
506. ↑124 (630) : Color Trilogy 1 The Color of Earth – Macmillan First Second, Apr 2009 [20.4] ::
618. ↓-99 (519) : Ragnarok 1 – Tokyopop, May 2002 [14.8] ::
829. ↓-80 (749) : Bride of the Water God 10 – Dark Horse, Jan 2012 [8.0] ::
838. ↓-60 (778) : Toxic (anthology) 1 – Udon, Jul 2012 [7.9] ::
942. ↑29 (971) : March Story 3 – Viz Signature, Oct 2011 [5.5] ::
1131. ↓-122 (1009) : INVU 5 – Tokyopop, Nov 2009 [2.8] ::
1237. ↑401 (1638) : Bride of the Water God 11 – Dark Horse, May 2012 [2.0] ::

[more]

BL/Yaoi

51. ↓-12 (39) : Finder Series 6 Passion within the View Finder – DMP Juné, Jul 2012 [163.0] ::
68. ↑10 (78) : Private Teacher 3 – DMP Juné, May 2012 [129.8] ::
72. ↑3 (75) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [124.3] ::
87. ↑64 (151) : Gravitation vols 3-4 collection – Tokyopop, Aug 2009 [112.0] ::
90. ↓-11 (79) : Ai no Kusabi (novel) 7 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [109.0] ::
96. ↑186 (282) : Private Teacher 2 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [100.7] ::
122. ↑83 (205) : Love Mode 1 – Tokyopop Blu, Nov 2005 [86.3] ::
142. ↓-28 (114) : Vassalord 3 – Tokyopop, Sep 2009 [76.8] ::
158. ↑69 (227) : Good Morning – DMP Juné, May 2012 [71.4] ::
162. ↓-12 (150) : Finder Series 5 Truth in the View Finder – DMP Juné, Dec 2011 [70.9] ::

[more]

Ebooks

8. ↑6 (14) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [361.9] ::
9. ↑1 (10) : Naruto 55 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [335.0] ::
11. ↔0 (11) : Maximum Ride 5 – Yen Press, Dec 2011 [297.1] ::
20. ↑4 (24) : Maximum Ride 1 – Yen Press, Jan 2009 [254.9] ::
31. ↓-4 (27) : Blue Exorcist 1 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Apr 2011 [212.3] ::
40. ↓-8 (32) : Naruto 54 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [182.5] ::
44. ↑10 (54) : Maximum Ride 2 – Yen Press, Oct 2009 [169.8] ::
50. ↑1 (51) : Maximum Ride 3 – Yen Press, Aug 2010 [166.1] ::
54. ↓-1 (53) : Naruto 53 – Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2011 [154.3] ::
57. ↓-10 (47) : Maximum Ride 4 – Yen Press, Apr 2011 [149.6] ::

[more]

Digital unlocks second Tezuka license, Utena manga-ka starts new series

by

It’s that time of the week again: I checked out the list of this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek, and Lissa Pattillo gave her take in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Sean Gaffney has a look at next week’s new manga, which look absolutely stellar, with new volumes of Wandering Son and Drops of God, as well as the manga adaptation of Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters per Second.

Digital Manga’s Kickstarter drive reached its goal of $20,000 to publish Osamu Tezuka’s Unico, so the second new license has been unlocked: Tezuka’s Atomcat, a feline spinoff of Astro Boy. And if they reach $26,000, which looks likely, they will have yet another license to announce. Christopher Butcher and Johanna Draper Carlson voice some concerns about Digital using Kickstarter this way, but at the newly revived Manga Widget, Alex Hoffman argues that it’s an appropriate way to market a book, although not really necessary with a Tezuka property.

With the year half over (that was fast!), Kate Dacey asks her readers: What are the best new manga of 2012… so far? You can vote for up to five in her poll.

At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle Smith presents the first roundup of posts in the Takehiko Inoue Manga Moveable Feast, and at Manga Bookshelf, Michelle and MJ devote this week’s Off the Shelf column to Inoue’s Real.

Jason Thompson devotes this week’s House of 1000 Manga column to the samurai manga Satsuma Gishiden.

Matt Blind has another list of manga best-sellers, this one for the week of April 29. Sailor Moon is still going strong, but it has a bit of competition.

Hey, all of a sudden it’s summer con season! Anime Expo is this weekend, and Deb Aoki has the manga highlights for you. And plan ahead, because Arina Tanemura is going to be the guest at AnimeFest in Dallas at the end of August.

Manga Therapy posts a video of author Helen McCarthy giving the history of manga in just nine minutes.

Ash Brown is giving away a copy of vol. 1 of From Eroica With Love to one lucky reader.

Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at Monthly Gessan, the monthly cousin of the weekly Shonen Sunday.

BIG news from Japan today: Chiho Saito, the creator of Revolutionary Girl Utena, will launch a new series, Torikae Baya, in the next issue of Shogakukan’s Monthly Flowers.

Reviews

Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (omnibus edition) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Flowers of Evil (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Kitaro Collection (Three Steps Over Japan)
A Day Without Me on vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess (omnibus edition) (GAR GAR Stegosaurus)
Anna on vols. 1-5 of Real (Manga Report)
Erica Friedman on Yume Yori Sutekina (Okazu)
Erica Friedman on Yuri Anthology Dolce (Okazu)

Alice In The Country Of Hearts Omnibus, Vol. 3

by

By Quin Rose and Soumei Hoshino, based on the game by Quin Rose. Released in Japan as “Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~” by Mag Garden, serialized in the magazine Comic Blade Avarus. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I have a sad confession to make. You see… I forgot to spoil myself for the end of this manga. I know, it sounds unusual. After all, you are my faithful readers, and know me well. You know that I traditionally spoil myself rotten. And indeed, later on in this review I will be discussing ‘the big spoiler’, be warned. But when Tokyopop released Vol. 5 of this series, they hadn’t yet gone under, and there wasn’t as big a need to find out what was going on. Afterwards, well, I just forgot to. What this means, though, is that for once I came at an ending with no idea what would happen, and thus managed to be both surprised and pleased. Which is especially surprising given the ending’s hardly happy…

In a previous review of this series, I had noted that what I enjoyed most about it was that all of Alice’s choices for her ‘reverse harem’ were so broken. And even though there was a good deal of ‘and she changes them with her pure heart and friendship’ to it – this is still an adaptation of an otome game, after all – many of them stayed pleasantly psychotic and bloodthirsty anyway. Indeed, Ace was probably my favorite character, as he recognizes and is actively fighting against what Alice represents. There’s also some good backstory given throughout, especially regarding Blood Dupre, Vivaldi, and Eliot March. You get the sense that life actually happened before Alice arrived, which is hard to achieve in a setting like this.

I understand, having spoiled myself NOW, that fans of the games were a little annoyed at the opaqueness of the manga, especially towards the end. There’s apparently a whole lot left out about the nature of Peter White, etc. (Which doesn’t seem to bother me as much, mostly as I loathe Peter White. The manga apparently turned up the ‘jerk’ level on several characters, and he was the worst of them.) This is the nature of such adaptation, though, and I recall Higurashi fans being similarly annoyed with the anime. The question is whether one can get a gleaning of what actually happened from what the manga writer givens us. And I think the answer is yes, though it’s only a gleaning. (Apparently the manga writer didn’t understand the game’s ending.)

Here’s where I talk spoilers, by the way.

We’ve had Alice in Wonderland for most of the manga series, but occasionally she gets these pangs of conscience that she really should “wake up” and return to the real world, as her big sister is waiting for her. And as she interacts with the others, the vial she was given at the start fills up with liquid. When it’s full, she can return. And so she does, despite some misgivings, and others telling her not to, and those strange headaches she gets sometimes. And when she returns, she finds… well, actually, she doesn’t. Blood Dupre goes screaming off grumpily into the ‘real world’ after her and forces her to return. Having gotten approval to do this by Nightmare, who can now ‘Seal Off’ Alice’s memories again. And then we see her older sister in a coffin.

And suddenly the entire premise is thrown on its ear. Suddenly instead of ‘a teenage girl lands in a magical fantasy land where she must decide which hot guy she likes best’, it would seem that the land itself is attempting to prevent Alice from sinking into what is presumably hopeless despair in the real world, and that her sitting with her sister having tea and talking books is actually the dream. And that the vial which fills up as Alice interacts with the others is likely to be filling with ALICE’S feelings, not the guys falling for her. And we see why she gets so upset when all the others in Wonderland keep trying to murder each other (well, besides the usual reason anyone would).

So what we have here is a bunch of sociopathic clockwork people attempting to rise above their station and change themselves, even though that is completely impossible, and also help to heal the heart of a broken and damaged young woman devastated at a death in the family by sealing off her memory and keeping her in a fantasy world filled with blood and chaos. And that’s fantastic. Discomfiting, but fantastic. In short, this manga is more for Higurashi fans than for, say, Ouran fans. Highly recommended, and re-reading all 3 omnibuses in one stroke definitely helps as well.