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I, Richard by Elizabeth George

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Book description:
Hailed by The New York Times as “a master of the British mystery,” award-winning author Elizabeth George is one of our most distinguished writers, cherished by readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Her first collection of short stories is an extraordinary offering that deftly explores the dark side of everyday people—and the lengths to which they will go to get what they want most…

In these five tantalizing and original tales, George plumbs the depths of human nature—and human weakness—as only she can. From the chilling tale of a marriage built on an appalling set of lies that only death can reveal, to the final, title story about a penniless schoolteacher whose ambition turns murderous, I, Richard is filled with page-turning drama, danger, and unmatched suspense.

Whether the setting is urban or suburban, affluent or middle class, no one is safe from menace. Thanks to Inspector Thomas Lynley, a squabbling group of Anglophiles discovers a killer in its midst. But little help is on hand when a picture-perfect town is shattered by an eccentric new resident’s horrifying pet project. And when a wealthy husband is haunted by suspicions about his much-younger wife, it becomes clear that a man’s imagination can be his own worst enemy…

Review:
Well. That was different! And not, I’m afraid, in a terribly good way. I’ve furnished ample avidence of my admiration for George’s mystery novels in the past (and intend to read more of them in future), but I wasn’t too enamored of these short stories, primarily because most are variations on the theme of “things go wrong for the unsympathetic protagonist.” And that is not my favorite theme upon which to dwell. But let us forge onward into specifics!

“Exposure” is a rewrite of an earlier story, “The Evidence Exposed.” It concerns a group of Americans taking a summer course in The History of British Architecture who have come to Abinger Manor, residence of Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley’s aunt, for a tour. The characters are the highlight of this one, and though the crime is rather silly and the culprit’s motive murky, I still rather liked some of the quick portraits painted of those enrolled in the class. Lynley doesn’t get much to do, though, and poor Helen is relegated to being charming without actually, if I recall rightly, having a line of dialogue.

“The Surprise of His Life” is, ironically, possessed of an utterly predictable conclusion. After a lengthy introduction, in which George reveals drawing inspiration from the alleged crimes of O. J. Simpson, we meet a wealthy businessman who has begun seeing a psychic. She warns him to expect an external shock, so he goes off into all these flights of fancy about his wife having an affair and hires a private investigator who takes pictures of her with another man and… it’s just so obvious what’s going to happen that waiting for it to actually occur is maddening.

“Good Fences Aren’t Always Enough” is a weird little tale about the residents of Napier Lane, who are striving to be designated as one of their town’s Perfect Places to Live, and the small, grey, Russian immigrant whose overgrown, rat-infested yard stands in their way. Willow McKenna, a former foster child now obsessed with the idea of a big family and cozy community, is a fairly likeable lead and this, at least, didn’t end like I thought it was going to. It was a lot more… ordinary, in the end.

“Remember I’ll Always Love You” is the second story to feature a couple’s life ruined by extreme suspicion. Charlie Lawton’s husband, Eric, has just died at the age of 42. As she seeks out his parents, Charlie begins to realize that Eric was keeping a lot of things from her. A lot of really, really major things that are so out-of-left-field that she’s left reeling. This story is sort of admirably constructed in terms of what you think you know that it turns out you didn’t really know, but it feels flat somehow.

Lastly we have the title story, “I, Richard,” which contained both the high points and low points of the collection for me. I intensely disliked Malcolm Cousins, the ambitious would-be historian who has been engaged in an affair with the wife of a friend with the express purpose of coming into possession of a prized artifact when that friend should finally succumb to a weak heart. Malcolm is a sleazy git who gets what he deserves, but George uses him as a mouthpiece for some exonerating theories in support of Richard III, and that part I liked. The challenge is, of course, writing a modern-day story concerned with Richard III and not having it be too much like Josephine Tey’s marvelous The Daughter of Time, and George succeeds in that regard, I suppose.

Ultimately, this isn’t essential reading for fans of the Lynley/Havers mystery series. Lynley appears briefly in a story, but does very little, and there’s absolutely no bearing on anything that happens in other books. I’m not sure if I’m glad I read it or not, but I know for sure that I’ll not be doing so again.

Off the Shelf: Shoujo staples & other stories

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MJ: Well, hi.

MICHELLE: Howdy!

MJ: It’s been a while since we did a regular column. I’m not sure what to say.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I was looking back at those today. Our last two columns have seen us both talking about the same series, and fairly epic ones at that! Oh no! Will our regular column measure up?!

MJ: I guess we’ll just have to try it and see! So, what have you been reading this week?

MICHELLE: Some very enjoyable things! First up is the third volume of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, which came out a couple of weeks ago.

For those who were put off by some of the silliness in Codename: Sailor V or by Usagi’s crybaby ways earlier on in this series, volume three should quell any doubts you may possess that Takeuchi can really bring out the big dramatic guns. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere previously, the pacing of the manga is approaching breakneck speed, so here we are in volume three and the first arc is already drawing to a close. But first, this occurs, and actually I am going to frame it in such a way that it’s as Buffy-esque as possible, ‘cos that’s what I do:

Usagi’s boyfriend, Mamoru, suddenly starts acting like a different person. He’s cold and cruel and is now working with the enemy! “Is this man somebody else now?!” she wonders. “Do I have to defeat him?! Kill him?!” A terrible evil is about to be unleashed upon the world and the only way to seal it up is to defeat the man she loves! But she does it. There’s a sweet kiss, and then there’s a sword.

Some fairly significant similarities to the end of Buffy‘s second season, I think! Anyway, I don’t want to spoil too much of it, but it’s pretty great. The second arc launches very quickly with the introduction of Chibi-Usa, a young girl who literally falls from the sky and starts observing Usagi and those around her. I was pleasantly surprised by how sympathetic Chibi-Usa is in the manga. She comes across more as lonely and frightened than bratty, and certainly more intriguing than the gemstone-named band of siblings who are facing off against our heroes.

Also pleasantly surprising was the copy editing this time. Typos have been a major problem with this title, and I’m happy to say I didn’t see a single one here. So, kudos on that, Kodansha. However, my fangirl heart just about broke when I saw Jupiter’s attack, “Sparkling Wide Pressure,” interpreted as “Spark Ring Wide Pressure.” Ordinarily I wouldn’t comment on translation choices, but man. This one really hurt.

MJ: I have to say, I can’t wait to read this. Seriously. I have it on my shelf and I WANT TO READ IT NOW. And I don’t have any fangirl preconceptions, which I’m gathering might be a plus for this series.

MICHELLE: I’d say so. There are many things I love about the anime, but there are definitely areas in which the manga is superior. One is, of course, Takeuchi’s lovely artwork, which is very flexible in terms of depicting Usagi as someone goofy and as someone elegant and mature. She frequently looks graceful in the manga in a way that she does not in the anime.

Still, it makes me sad that first-time readers might’ve thought that was really Jupiter’s attack phrase. I’ll have to be vigilant about pointing out things like that for their benefit!

Anyways, what’ve you been reading this week?

MJ: My first selection for the evening is a very different brand of shoujo than Sailor Moon, though also quite enjoyable. I’m speaking of the first volume of Miyoshi Tomori’s A Devil and her Love Song, just recently released by Viz.

I know you’ve read it, Michelle, but for the uninitiated, our heroine is Maria Kawai, a transfer student recently expelled from an elite Catholic school. She’s a girl who has always had difficulty making (and keeping friends), mainly because of her inability to control her harsh (if truthful) tongue. Maria is unusually perceptive, but most of what she has to say is decidedly not what people want to hear, and she gets off on the wrong foot pretty much immediately at her new school. On some level, Maria wants to fit in, but she’s just not cut out for the spirited shoujo sunshine role, and she’s pretty well aware of it.

Thanks, perhaps, to her very good looks (and a lovely singing voice), she is sort of befriended by two boys in her class, happy-go-lucky Yusuke Kanda and surly Shin Meguro. The two boys are, on the surface, typical shoujo love interests, and it feels immediately obvious that Maria will end up with cranky guy with a heart of gold, but just as Maria does not quite fit any of the standard heroine molds, neither do these two, who each have their own ways of dealing with the pressures of classroom socialization. So who she’ll ultimately end up with (if she ends up with someone at all) is anyone’s guess.

Like another of my favorite recent shoujo series, We Were There, this volume succeeds in part by taking familiar shoujo stereotypes and making them into real people, and I appreciate that very much.

I was pretty enthralled with this debut volume, and I’m looking forward to seeing where things go. My one small fear is that all the other girls in school (who so far have only really bullied Maria) will continue to be vilified to the end. I really dislike girl-hating stories for girls. But the first volume is written with such a sure hand, I feel confident that we’re in for something better than that. It’s the kind of manga that (so far) is continuously surprising.

MICHELLE: You’ve hit upon so much of what I loved about the volume! I like the boys, but Maria herself is the most compelling at this point, as she clings to her faith that things eventually will work out, that they will someday understand her if she just keeps trying. It’s pretty moving, actually!

As for the other girls, a comment left on my review suggests you’ll be pleased with their development, saying, “all the peer enemies are eventually shown to be more than their stereotypes.”

MJ: That is very heartening to hear! Though, again, I had high hopes, given nuanced the main characters have been so far. I’m happy to hear that my faith isn’t misplaced!

So, what else do you have for us this week?

MICHELLE: Well, speaking of nuanced characters… I read volume two of Wandering Son by Shimura Takako, presented in a gorgeous hardcover edition by Fantagraphics.

This is the story of two transgendered children, Shuichi Nitori and Yoshino Takatsuki, and their struggles to express their true selves. Lately, Shuichi and Yoshino have been going out in public dressed as a girl and a boy, respectively, and have befriended an adult woman named Yuki. They also go on a class trip and decide to start an exchange diary.

Okay, plot-wise, that may not sound like much, but it’s what Takako does with it that’s so special. Where volume one largely focused on how the characters themselves perceive their differences from other kids, this volume shows some ways in which others perceive those differences. Some responses are negative, like Shuichi’s seatmate on the school trip, who accuses him of squealing like a girl and calls him a “faggot” before Shuichi actually musters the strength to tell him off.

Some responses are neutral, like when Shuichi’s sister Maho discovers his secret. She’s not horrified, but she’s puzzled. At least she’s making an honest effort to understand as best a junior-high girl can. And then some responses are overwhelmingly positive, like when Shuichi and Yoshino’s friend Chiba AWESOMELY channels Anne of Green Gables as a means to dealing with taunting. I really love her.

Because this gamut of reactions is presented, and because daily life continues to transpire, the characters’ struggles seem even more sincere and realistic. Knowing that the misunderstanding they face now will only get greater the older and more certain they become, we realize just how fabulously lucky they are to have each other, even if they have to be careful not to exclude their other friends.

My one complaint is that a volume seems to go by so quickly that I am soon left bereft, pining for the next one!

MJ: This is another volume staring at me from the shelf that I’m simply dying to read. I need to take a month’s vacation and just read, read, read! I loved the first volume, as you know, and I’m thrilled (if not remotely surprised) to hear that it continues on in an equally lovely fashion. I admit I’m made even more anxious to read it based on that Anne of Green Gables thing. OH, MY HEART.

MICHELLE: I knew that part would please you!

I do have to ding Fantagraphics for the wording of their “story so far” section, though, which contains the sentence “The two spend their days going on somewhat perverse dates.” Now, true, certain dictionary definitions of “perverse” might reasonably apply in this situation, like “disposed to go counter to what is ordinary,” but that word also comes with connotations like “wicked” and “sinful” that should best be avoided. Surely they could’ve found a suitable synonym! Grumble grumble.

MJ: I’ve been pretty unhappy with the language they’ve used while marketing this series, so that doesn’t surprise me, I guess, but it’s still regrettable.

MICHELLE: What’s your second topic of the evening?

MJ: My second read this week is the perfect example of everything Wandering Son is not. That would be Hisaya Nakajo’s Hana-Kimi, a shoujo staple now being re-released in omnibus format by Viz. It’s a popular series I’ve never read, so definitely I’m the target audience for a release like this.

Unfortunately, I’d say my reaction to it was pretty mixed. While Wandering Son tackles gender identity with tender realism, like most other manga I’ve read with themes revolving around gender-bending, Hana-Kimi plays it for laughs, making sure to keep all the confusion safely on the outside. This isn’t unexpected, by any means, but it suffers gravely in comparison to a more thoughtful work.

So, Mizuki is a teen athlete who so deeply admires a young Japanese high jump champion, Izumi Sano, that she leaves America (where she lives abroad with her family) to come back to Japan and enroll in the all-boys boarding school Sano attends. Of course she must disguise herself as a boy, and of course she ends up being Sano’s roommate, because what good would a gender-bending romp be without lots of shower and clothing snafus?

Things progress pretty much as you might expect, with many of the boys finding themselves attracted to Mizuki and and one in particular questioning his sexuality based on these feelings. Meanwhile, Sano doesn’t know what he wants, and Mizuki isn’t even quite clear on the fact that she’s got the hots for him, despite her obsessive behavior. The school doctor, Hokuto, is a breath of fresh air, genuinely funny in a wonderfully wry way. Otherwise, though, it’s all distressingly… standard, I guess would be the term.

Oh, Michelle. I think that twenty years ago, I might have eaten this series up with a spoon, but I admit I was finding all the misunderstandings and hijinks fairly wearying. On the upside, spunky Mizuki doesn’t spend too much time being a shy wallflower, and Sano figures out her secret pretty early on (unbeknownst to her), so there isn’t quite as much blushing and farce-like door-slamming as there might have been otherwise. Still, if I’m looking for cross-dressing silliness, I think I’d just rather watch You’re Beautiful.

MICHELLE: Sometimes you come up with some absolutely perfect turns of phrase. “Making sure to keep all the confusion safely on the outside” is an example, encapsulating everything Hana-Kimi is in a nutshell.

Where you are the target for this reissue, I am not, because I have actually read it all before. In fact, one of the first reviews I ever wrote was of a volume of Hana-Kimi. So believe me when I tell you… it kind of gets worse. Oh, there are certainly some terrific volumes near the end, but there’s a lot of filler before then, and then the end completely and utterly fizzles to the extent where, though I did finish it for the sake of completeness, once I’d done that I promptly sold it. “Not a keeper!” There are aspects I kind of miss—Sano sure is pretty, especially early on—but I just can’t forget how dissatisfied it left me.

All that said, I hasten to add that I applaud any slightly older shoujo title coming back into the market in a fresh way, and hope that Basara, Please Save My Earth, and Boys Over Flowers will find their way to new audiences in the near future.

MJ: Sano is pretty, indeed, though I find I keep mentally comparing him to another depressed, recovering athlete, Eiji Okamura (Banana Fish), and you realize of course he has no chance with me in that comparison.

So, do you think we’ve lived up to the glory of our last two columns? We did discuss some pretty wonderful series tonight!

MICHELLE: I think we did! And it was pretty shoujo-licious, as well, which is a nice change of pace.

MJ: Agreed! Well… I guess this is goodnight!

MICHELLE: Until next week!

Wandering Son, Vol. 2

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By Shimura Takako. Released in Japan by Enterbrain, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Beam. Released in North America by Fantagraphics.

In Volume 2 of Wandering Son, as you would expect, we begin to discover that just because you have someone to share your dreams does not necessarily mean that they become easier to achieve. Shuichi gets more of the focus here, and he’s starting to realize just what he’s getting into with his desire to be a girl. His sister is angry and suspicious of him… while at the same time being fascinated about dressing him up. Classmates are being cruel as only children can. But it’s actually a simple classroom assignment to write down what you want to be when you grow up that almost breaks him this volume. The future is scary.

In volume 1 it was Saori that drew my attention, but in this volume it seems to be Maho, Shuichi’s sister. She’s clearly presented unsympathetically at times, and I get the feeling that things will only get worse in that regard. But I love how things are never as cut and dried as “good guy” and “bad guy” in this series, especially with the children. After all, Shuichi may be the hero, but Maho is having to deal with being a young girl as well, not to mention her brother is dressing up as a girl, to the point where one of her classmates starts to fall for Shuichi. The characters develop from their situations, which is all you can ask for in this sort of work.

Meanwhile, the young woman we met in Volume One, Yuki, gets her own secret revealed. It’s not particularly surprising to me – I was more surprised that she was unaware of Shuichi and Yoshino’s identities. Yuki’s boyfriend, though, does lead to one of the funniest (and most cringe-inducing) scenes in the entire volume, where he looks at Yoshino suspiciously and then decides to verify her gender. Yoshino’s reaction made me laugh, but at the same time, I’m amazed she didn’t slug him… or run off. Yuki notes that it’s very rare to have two friends like Shuichi and Yoshino are. In addition to the transgender issues, the core of each volume is, of course, the friendship they have, and I hope that it continues to develop.

The second half of the volume is a class trip, and shows us that Shuichi is having difficulties with the other kids in his class. He’s so softspoken that he tends to get picked on, and one boy in particular is pressing him to see just how far he can take it, calling him “faggot” and mocking him on the bus. You don’t have to be familiar with transgender issues to understand what’s going on here (though this being manga, I would not particularly be surprised were that bully redeemed a ways down the road). Then there’s Saori, who, unlike Shuichi and Yoshino, can’t just sit back and let injustice go. She’s reminded of Anne of Green Gables, a book which most Western readers will know, and it leads to a truly wonderful scene. I like Saori, but given her high-strung nature I worry that she’s going to have even more trouble growing up than our two leads.

As with the first volume, the second one ends with an essay by translator Matt Thorn, this one dealing with transgender and homosexuality in the united States and Japan. (Neither Shuichi nor Yoshino’s sexuality has come up in the manga yet, but I’m fairly certain it will at some point.) Matt’s essay is excellent, noting the similarities and differences in the prejudices among cultures. Wandering Son, of course, will be dealing with family, and friends, and classmates. It’s not really going to have the option of viewing transgender issues from a distance the way a lot of Japanese folks can. Let’s hope Shuichi and Yoshino can weather the storm.

Manga the Week of 2/8

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*whine* Mercy!

We’ll start with some manwha, as Dark Horse has Vol. 10 of Bride of the Water God, the story of a girl and her gods.

Kodansha Comics has the 3 manga that came out this week, because Diamond is always one step behind. There’s Negima 33, which contains possibly the funniest joke in the entire series, as well as some of the most tear-jerking moments. Deltora Quest puts out its fourth volume of Emily Rodda-based fantasy. And if you like cute 4-koma goodness, there’s the 2nd volume of Shugo Chara-chan!

I apologize to Vertical, and Onizuka. I love GTO, and next week sees the release of the first volume of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan. It’s basically exactly what GTO fans want to see in terms of new material: Onizuka being an idiot, Onizuka being badass, lots of horrible children that need his special brand of ‘befriending’ (Onizuka and Nanoha would get along great), and a cameo by Urumi for you obsessives. It would absolutely get the picture this week, except my heart belongs to Maria. I hope you understand. Buy this anyway.

I’ve been waiting for this one it seems like forever, and it’s finally here. A Devil and Her Love Song is basically all the things I like in a shoujo manga in one package. Strong heroine without being overly dense. Likeable guys who have depth to them. Bullying being realistic but not dominating the entire series. And Ave Maria. This is my big release of the week.

It comes along with 80 bazillion other releases from Viz. We started with shoujo, so let’s continue with it. Ai Ore! Vol. 4 is now normal volume size, and also now runs in Asuka. Will the romance be any sweeter? … Probably not. Dawn of the Arcana puts out its second volume, which ties together political intrigue and forbidden romance. From Hakusensha, there’s new Kamisama Kiss, Library Wars, Natsume’s Book of Friends and Otomen. Lastly, there’s new Story of Saiunkoku (I’m still bitter about the beard shaving), and new Sakura Hime (because Viz has to publish at least one Tanemura title or they all die from the gypsy’s curse.)

Shonen time. First of all, Hayate, why are you here among all the Jump stuff? Also, why are you out a month earlier than I expected? Not that I’m complaining. Hayate the Combat Butler 19 is still funny, still not cancelled, and still not even close to resolving any romantic pairings. (Yes, it’s back to being funny. I’ll let you know when it gets serious again… around Vol. 23, I believe.)

Jump stuff! Bakuman 9, which will no doubt have lots of great Jump/publishing anecdotes and info mixed with treatment of female characters that makes my skin crawl (though I hear it’s improved. A bit.). There’s Bleach 38, not quite sped up (how does one speed Aizen up? The man has to move at his own pace, I tell you…). The highly underrated Blue Exorcist 6, continuing to flesh out Bon’s backstory. Another volume of Nura, which has been matching Kamisama Kiss and Natsume’s Book of Friends yokai for yokai. (They need to have a Yokai-Off.) Slam Dunk is up to Volume 20, which makes it about 10 volumes ahead of how far I thought it’d get. I sense the hand of Shueisha’s Japanese owners behind this one. Good stuff, though. Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee and Toriko have both hit Volume 8, and… really could not be more different from each other, aside from being shonen.

Lastly, there’s two game tie-ins. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Platinum Vol. 4 (I presume Platinum is good? Were there silver and gold prequels?), and Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS Vol. 2, a series with so many spinoffs and sequels I cannot possibly make glib jokes about it (I let Medaka Box do that for me).

Something for nearly everyone next week. Anything you plan to buy?

Kicking off the Year of the Dragon

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Daniella Orihuela-Gruber shares her personal top ten manga list at All About Manga.

Kate Dacey will be hosting the next Manga Moveable Feast, which will focus on Osamu Tezuka, at The Manga Critic.

Lori Henderson celebrates the Year of the Dragon with a roundup of manga that feature dragons. And Three Steps Over Japan spots some Dragonball Kai postage stamps!

It’s Luffy vs. Buggy in Derek Bown’s latest Combat Commentary piece at Manga Bookshelf.

News from Japan: A shoplifter stole all 64 volumes of One Piece from a bookstore in Shizuoka Prefecture, carting away ten volumes at a time in his duffel bag. Store personnel noticed the guy but the store was full of holiday shoppers, so they didn’t twig to the crime until the next day, when they noticed the missing volumes. The Freezing: First Chronicle spinoff manga has come to an end in the most recent issue of Comic Valkyrie.

Reviews: Carlo Santos takes an unvarnished look at a stack of recent releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

David Brothers on 7 Billion Needles (4thletter!)
Kristin on The Art of the Secret World of Arrietty (Comic Attack)
Lori Henderson on vols. 11-20 of Black Cat (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on Boys Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Cafe Latte Rhaphsody (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on Green (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 3 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of No Longer Human (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Sakura Hime (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 5 and 6 of The Story of Saiunkoku (ANN)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 2 of Wandering Son (Good Comics for Kids)
Connie on vol. 6 of Wild Adapter (Slightly Biased Manga)

Combat Commentary: One Piece Vol. 3, Ch. 18-20 – Luffy vs. Buggy

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And we save the best for last. Not necessarily the best fight, but most certainly the best series. One Piece is interesting when compared to the others of Jump‘s Big Three. As opposed to starting strong and losing steam as the years passed, One Piece did the exact opposite. It has become a war cry for One Piece fans trying to get new readers into the series, “Just make it past the first nine volumes, make it to the Arlong Arc and you’ll be hooked.” With oddly cartoonish art and stories that fans generally rank among the series’ worst, the early chapters of One Piece belie the powerhouse of a manga it would later become.

But surely there must have been something that drew readers in? After all, every manga fan knows that One Piece is easily the world’s number one manga (at least sales-wise). So what let it survive beyond its infancy? Well, if you’ve been reading this column for the past two weeks, chances are you have an inkling of my answer to this question.

Also, since this column is still new, I’m always testing new ideas for formats. Let me know what you think of this version.

What Happened?
After defeating the tyrannical Axe-hand Morgan, Luffy and Zoro find themselves drifting on the ocean with no food and no way to navigate. Luffy tries to catch a bird to eat, but ends up on an island occupied by the dread pirate Buggy the Clown. Luffy runs into Nami, who initially turns him over to Buggy in order to get to his treasure map, but then saves him at the last second. Luffy beats Mohji the beast trainer, and Zoro beats Cabaji the acrobat, leaving Luffy and Buggy ready for the final battle.

(click on images to enlarge)

What Happens?
Buggy’s devil fruit powers give Luffy a hard time at first, but before long he is able to take advantage of Buggy’s weaknesses. Buggy tells Luffy about the time he was an apprentice on a pirate ship with Luffy’s idol, Red Haired Shanks. After Shanks inadvertently ruin’s Buggy’s plan to sell a valuable devil fruit, Shanks then saves Buggy’s life, but earns his eternal ire. With some help from Nami, Luffy is able to defeat Buggy easily, sending him flying with most of his body parts missing.

What does it mean?
Compared to the straightforward action scenes in Bleach and Naruto, One Piece can often rub fans of those series the wrong way with how it portrays action. The early fights, especially the first three in the series (Alvida, Ax-Hand Morgan, and Buggy) come across as just ways to show off how cool the main character is.

Buggy stands out among the early fights, because he is the only antagonist Luffy faces (before Logue Town) that has devil fruit powers. While later on in the series every villain worth his (or her) salt has devil fruit powers, this early in the game it was a big deal. None of the other characters had powers like Luffy. What makes this fight stand out so much is how creatively these powers are put to use. Luffy always finds ways to make his strange power combat-worthy, but to see another character doing the same thing makes this fight stand out in a sea of sword-swinging and punching fights.

This is what makes Buggy’s status as a “joke villain” so strange. While he is portrayed as a serious threat, the ease with which Luffy deals with him (after some minor set backs) doesn’t quite match up. It feels as if Buggy could have either been taken seriously or written off as a complete joke, and seeing him as a little of both is jarring to say the least—still fun, but a little too much in the middle to make for easy classification.

Though Luffy is still portrayed as an invincible protagonist, Oda manages to throw in some tension by giving Luffy a weakness that Buggy can exploit. Luffy’s hat, given to him by Red Hair Shanks, is the only part of him that can be effectively damaged, and Buggy takes advantage of this.

But Buggy is not the only person who can take advantage of others’ weaknesses. As he learns to his suffering. Luffy takes advantage of Buggy still feeling the pain of his separate body parts. And with only two eyes, Buggy cannot both hunt down Nami (who is getting away with his treasure) and protect his lower half.

After this point, the seriousness of the fight dissipates, and Buggy goes from being a threat to being the the fight’s buttmonkey. While the transition is a little jarring, it helps that Oda does not switch back and forth. When Buggy is threatening, he is threatening, but once his weakness is discovered, Luffy takes full advantage of it, and Buggy becomes a joke. So in its own way, the shift from serious to gag goes as smoothly as it possibly could have.

This fight ranks as one of the best in the East Blue arc, solely because it stands out as the first real threat Luffy faces, as well as only one of two villains that have devil fruit powers. Compared to Kuro and Don Krieg, Buggy is one of the more memorable One Piece villains. The shift from serious threat to comedic foil may be jarring for some, but it’s One Piece in a nutshell. No matter how dangerous the situation, there’s always a good laugh to be had.

Shonen Jump makes the leap to digital

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The big news this week is the launch of Shonen Jump Alpha, Viz’s weekly digital edition of Shonen Jump, which will replace their monthly print magazine. Crunchyroll has a wide-ranging interview with Viz VP and general manager Alvin Lu, and John Jakala kicks the tires on the new magazine and finds a few glitches. The biggest problem: Despite Viz’s push to speed up releases of the English-language series, they still lag the Japanese releases by quite a few chapters—and since SJ Alpha runs each chapter two weeks after it runs in Japan, readers are left with a gap in the stories.

The Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast has wound up, and Ash Brown posts roundup posts for day two and day three, as well as a final roundup, at Experiments in Manga. Over at Manga Bookshelf, MJ and Michelle Smith devote their latest Off the Shelf column to Furuya’s No Longer Human, and at Slightly Biased Manga, Connie explains why Palepoli should be translated into English.

The Manga Bookshelf team (myself included) discusses their Pick of the Week. What’s yours? Also at Manga Bookshelf, Matt Blind posts a new set of recent manga bestsellers and a Manga Radar column about up-and-coming future releases.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest yuri news at Okazu.

Three Steps Over Japan looks at a seasonal Japanese magazine, Jump Next.

Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo will be a guest at this year’s San Diego Comic Con.

Makoto Tateno (Yellow) and Tomo Maeda (Beyond My Touch) will be guests at MangaNEXT later this month.

If you’re reading this in the Philippines, take a minute to take Khursten Santos’s survey on Philippine anime fandom at Otaku Champloo.

News from Japan: A Japanese manga called It’s Not My Fault I’m Not Popular has apparently become a hit on 4chan (Anonymous is scanting it, although the scanlations seem to be hosted elsewhere), and the latest volume bears a cover line celebrating that: “A smash hit on the overseas version of 2chan!!” Princess Resurrection manga-ka Yasunori Mitsunaga has a new series in the works that will launch in the April issue of Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Sirius magazine. Yūki Kodama’s spinoff of Sakamichi no Apollon will start in the May issue of Shogakukan’s Monthly Flowers.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf gang posts a new set of Bookshelf Briefs to greet the new week. Ash Brown post an unusually varied weekly roundup at Experiments in Manga.

Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan (Okazu)
Kate Dacey on The Art of the Secret World of Arrietty (The Manga Critic)
Anna on vols. 9 and 10 of Basara (Manga Report)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Dawn of the Arcana (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kristin on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Durarara!!! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Genkaku Picasso (Experiments in Manga)
Shannon Fay on vol. 5 of Highschool of the Dead (Kuriousity)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 15 of Higurashi: When They Cry (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on Houkago Kanon (Okazu)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Mardock Scramble (Manga Widget)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of No Longer Human (Experiments in Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Sailor Moon (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Comic Book Bin)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Short Cuts (Experiments in Manga)
Ben Leary on vol. 16 of Slam Dunk (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of Tears of a Lamb (Blogcritics)
Ken Haley on vol. 6 of Vampire Hunter D (Sequential Ink)
Kate Dacey on Yakuza Cafe(The Manga Critic)

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 3

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By Naoko Takeuchi. Released in Japan as “Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

I had forgotten how much compressing the 18 original volumes into 12 (and 2 side-story books) would speed things up. That’s right, we’re already at the end of the first arc and starting the second! Indeed, you can definitely tell that, had Sailor Moon not been a huge success, Nakayoshi would have likely ended it here, right before Chibi-Usa arrives. But then, had that happened, we wouldn’t be discussing it now.

For fans of the anime, that’s Sailor Mars on the cover. You might not recognize her as she’s looking cool, calm and collected. :) In the actual manga, though, things really aren’t going so well. Mamoru has been possessed by Metallia, and even if Jupiter and Venus manage to kill off Beryl, things aren’t going to end quite that easily. (Speaking of which, a couple of things to note: a) there’s an ongoing gag about Venus’ sword being too heavy to use. Done for comedy in Vol. 2, it’s now quite serious, as Venus has a lot of trouble actually wielding it. That said, even if Jupiter (who is much stronger) gets in the first blow, it’s Venus who actually kills Beryl. b) Wasn’t there a shot of archaeologist Beryl being possessed by Metallia in a previous volume? I guess we’re assuming, like the Four Generals, that once they were converted to evil, they couldn’t be saved. Keep an eye out for villains killed in Sailor Moon going forward, and see how many were once human…)

Unfortunately, Mamoru is still evil, and so it’s up to Sailor Moon to kill him for the good of the world. Which she actually does, even using Venus’ huge sword. And then, very startlingly, she proceeds to reverse the sword and kill herself. Or at least, so it seems. I dunno, maybe it’s because of the anime episode 45 and 46, but I find the ending to the first arc in the manga somewhat confusing. It would appear that both Sailor Moon and Mamoru were ‘saved’ from a deadly blow from the sword; Mamoru by a crystal containing the essence of his four Generals, and Sailor Moon by Mamoru’s watch. This… seems a bit too pat. On the good side, Moon is just as awkward with a heavy sword as you’d expect. Honestly, none of them look comfortable with it.

The action then moves to the North Pole, where, in order to wake Sailor Moon and Mamoru, the senshi decide to sacrifice their lives. This involves using their transformation pens to somehow use all their power to wake Sailor Moon, and again kind of pales in comparison with the anime. But that’s not the manga’s fault. But now Sailor Moon is alive, and can use the power of love, the power of prayer and the power of basic light over darkness to defeat Metallia. Now she’s finally reunited with an unpossessed Mamoru, and they kiss. And then she… finds out her friends are all dead. Oopsie. (Note we see them in pools of blood, which are all drawn as ‘clear fluid’ rather than the typical ‘black blood’ you see in monochrome. I suspect this may be to make it less horrifying – they’re drenched in it.) Luckily, Sailor Moon can resurrect the dead with her new powerup, which she proceeds to do. (If you’re rolling your eyes at this, get used to it – it’s not the last time we’ll be seeing it.)

Yay! Happy ending, everyone’s alive and going back to school, Usagi has a boyfriend, and all is well… wait, who’s this kid? Yes, Chibi-Usa drops in, and sets the stage for the second major arc in the manga, which is generally called Sailor Moon R in deference to its anime counterpart. Chibi-Usa… is a brat at times, even in the manga. But at least in the manga it’s very clear that she is, at heart, a very scared child, and that much of her behavior is due to panic and stress as much as anything else. She arrives out of the sky with her mind-controlling ball that looks like Luna and immediately proceeds to ingratiate herself with Mamoru, get accepted into Usagi’s family, and get on Usagi’s nerves. And she’s also after the Silver Crystal… which the villains are also after. Is she a villain?

Yes, we get a new set of villains here as well, with the Black Moon Family. More on Prince Demande later, as he’s a truly horrible ass, but here we just get to see bits of the main villains. Instead, they send out disposable minions, each with the powersets to match up against a specific senshi, to capture them. And it actually works quite well, as first Mars, then Mercury are captured by the enemy and… well, not killed, but moved off the board for a while. This, by the way, results in the deaths of the minions. This is not the anime, no redemption for you! There are also, by the way, some lovely scenes of Ami, Rei, Makoto and Mamoru interacting with their friends in daily life. The friends don’t get big roles, but it helps to show that the cast are (mostly) quite popular and well-liked.

I’m not sure if there were any extras in this volume in Japan; there aren’t any here, I can tell you. But regardless of that, this was a solid volume of Sailor Moon. More battle-oriented than most, which means I like it a bit less than the others, as Takeuchi’s battle scenes can get confusing. But as we leave our heroes, the Senshi are now down to three. And somehow, I have a feeling that the start of Vol. 4 will end with Jupiter getting abducted as well, as that’s how these things go. Is this what happens when you find yourself on the cover?!?!

Yakuza Cafe

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Yakuza Cafe is a pleasant surprise, a cheerful, smutty send-up of gangster manga that playfully mocks maid cafes, foodie manga, and yakuza culture.

The titular gangsters are the Fujimaki Clan, a once-feared crime syndicate who’ve launched a legitimate business: a yakuza-themed cafe, staffed by the clan’s former foot soldiers. Though the food is tasty, and the waitstaff comely, the cafe is all but deserted — that is, until Shinri, the clan leader’s only son, discovers the root of the problem: no one can brew a decent cup of tea! Not to worry: Shinri just happens to be an expert on the subject, thanks to his grandmother, a tea connoisseur so dedicated that she grew her own leaves.

Of course, Yakuza Cafe is yaoi, so there’s also a romantic subplot running in tandem with the shop’s rehabilitation. That storyline involves Shinri and a brooding, muscle-bound thug named Mikado, who’s famous for his fiery temper. Though others warn Shinri not to become emotionally or physically involved with Mikado, Shinri finds himself irresistibly drawn to Mikado and his elaborate dragon tattoo. (The tattoo, it should be noted, is almost a character in its own right.)

Yakuza Cafe has three things working in its favor: a cast of handsome men, a clever premise, and a deep affection for the genres it parodies. Shinano Oumi draws elegant, if generic, characters in a variety of pleasing shapes and sizes: broad-shouldered types for readers who prefer rugged men and slender, snappy dressers for those who favor metrosexuals. Oumi doesn’t just populate her story with attractive characters, she inserts them into a situation that’s ripe with comic potential: what could possibly go wrong when former hit men serve tea and pastries to teenage girls? Of course, none of these scenarios would be funny if Oumi overplayed them, but she uses a light touch throughout the story, whether she’s borrowing ideas from The Drops of God — grandma’s tea expertise could easily spawn a manga of its own — or putting a BL spin on a gangster manga cliche. (Mikado tries to slice off his own pinky in order to atone for his relationship with Shinri.)

The main drawback to Yakuza Cafe is the romance. Shinri and Mikado’s attraction is explained by means of a very tired shojo trope — The Handsome Senpai From My Childhood — and never properly developed. That’s a pity, because the other lengthy story in Yakuza Cafe, “The Crimson Seal,” achieves a much better balance between the main story and the budding relationship between a college grifter and a Fujimaki foot soldier. “Seal” also offers the manga’s only really emotional moment, culminating in a Tragic Death as sincere and silly as anything in Crying Freeman. (I say this with love.)

Whether you’ll enjoy Yakuza Cafe boils down to a simple test: do you read yaoi for the stories or the pictures? If the former, you’ll find it entertaining, with passably exciting bedroom scenes; if the latter, you may not find enough visual stimulation to hold your interest through all the maid cafe and yakuza jokes.

Digital review copy provided by Digital Manga Publishing.

YAKUZA CAFE • BY SHINANO OUMI • DMP • 168 pp. • RATING: MATURE (18+)

Yakuza Cafe

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Yakuza Cafe is a pleasant surprise, a cheerful, smutty send-up of gangster manga that playfully mocks maid cafes, foodie manga, and yakuza culture.

The titular gangsters are the Fujimaki Clan, a once-feared crime syndicate who’ve launched a legitimate business: a yakuza-themed cafe, staffed by the clan’s former foot soldiers. Though the food is tasty, and the waitstaff comely, the cafe is all but deserted — that is, until Shinri, the clan leader’s only son, discovers the root of the problem: no one can brew a decent cup of tea! Not to worry: Shinri just happens to be an expert on the subject, thanks to his grandmother, a tea connoisseur so dedicated that she grew her own leaves.

Of course, Yakuza Cafe is yaoi, so there’s also a romantic subplot running in tandem with the shop’s rehabilitation. That storyline involves Shinri and a brooding, muscle-bound thug named Mikado, who’s famous for his fiery temper. Though others warn Shinri not to become emotionally or physically involved with Mikado, Shinri finds himself irresistibly drawn to Mikado and his elaborate dragon tattoo. (The tattoo, it should be noted, is almost a character in its own right.)

Yakuza Cafe has three things working in its favor: a cast of handsome men, a clever premise, and a deep affection for the genres it parodies. Shinano Oumi draws elegant, if generic, characters in a variety of pleasing shapes and sizes: broad-shouldered types for readers who prefer rugged men and slender, snappy dressers for those who favor metrosexuals. Oumi doesn’t just populate her story with attractive characters, she inserts them into a situation that’s ripe with comic potential: what could possibly go wrong when former hit men serve tea and pastries to teenage girls? Of course, none of these scenarios would be funny if Oumi overplayed them, but she uses a light touch throughout the story, whether she’s borrowing ideas from The Drops of God — grandma’s tea expertise could easily spawn a manga of its own — or putting a BL spin on a gangster manga cliche. (Mikado tries to slice off his own pinky in order to atone for his relationship with Shinri.)

The main drawback to Yakuza Cafe is the romance. Shinri and Mikado’s attraction is explained by means of a very tired shojo trope — The Handsome Senpai From My Childhood — and never properly developed. That’s a pity, because the other lengthy story in Yakuza Cafe, “The Crimson Seal,” achieves a much better balance between the main story and the budding relationship between a college grifter and a Fujimaki foot soldier. “Seal” also offers the manga’s only really emotional moment, culminating in a Tragic Death as sincere and silly as anything in Crying Freeman. (I say this with love.)

Whether you’ll enjoy Yakuza Cafe boils down to a simple test: do you read yaoi for the stories or the pictures? If the former, you’ll find it entertaining, with passably exciting bedroom scenes; if the latter, you may not find enough visual stimulation to hold your interest through all the maid cafe and yakuza jokes.

Digital review copy provided by Digital Manga Publishing.

YAKUZA CAFE • BY SHINANO OUMI • DMP • 168 pp. • RATING: MATURE (18+)