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Off the Shelf: Bakuman, Seiho, Geek

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MJ: *Brrrrr* It’s cold up here!

MICHELLE: It is extremely nice down here! Long-sleeve-shirt weather at the most.

MJ: *whimper*

MICHELLE: Don’t feel too bad; at least you’ve got takoyaki. Fat chance of ever finding that down here!

MJ: I will cling to fried octopus as the one virtue of my region. So, read any manga this week? With or without takoyaki?

MICHELLE: I read a fair bit, but it was takoyaki-free. This included volumes six and seven of Bakuman。, a series about two boys’ quest to achieve manga stardom that I seem to enjoy more and more with each installment.

In volume six, Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Takagi are working hard on their manga series when Mashiro suddenly collapses. His ailment is treatable but requires three months in the hospital, during which time their series goes on hiatus. Pretty much this entire volume is people arguing whether Mashiro should be allowed to draw while in the hospital, then whether the terms for the series coming off hiatus are fair. Mashiro eventually regains his health, but in the beginning of volume seven, they receive the bad news that the hiatus has dealt a blow to the popularity of their series and it has been canceled. Dubious about the advice they’re getting from their editor, the boys dive into the process of getting a second series serialized. This volume is mostly full of arguments about which one they want to do, what their editor wants them to do, etc.

And you know what? It’s all awesome. I love that Bakuman。 is able to achieve such dramatic tension over concepts like “What if the series that gets the go-ahead is not the one they really want to do?” or “Is Mashiro actually right to insist on a serious story? Is their editor right? Or is he incompetent?” I suppose these might not sound like riveting plots to some, but they kept me turning pages like a mad fiend and when I finished I wished there were more, which brings Bakuman。 into the elite company of series like Slam Dunk, which leave me actively pining for another volume.

The characters have also matured a great deal, both intellectually and physically, which is something this series has in common with another title with art by Takeshi Obata, the much-loved Hikaru no Go. Their attitudes toward women are much different now, for example, and I especially like how Takagi is now so candid about how much he values his girlfriend Miyoshi’s advice and includes her in everything that’s going on. Mashiro, meanwhile, is getting somewhat feistier, and if I had a nickel for every time the antics of kooky rival/friend Eiji Nizuma made me smile fondly, I could at least afford a taco.

MJ: I really enjoyed this volume as well. I wasn’t as keen on the subplot with Aoki and possible girl complications for Takagi, but in a way this is a positive sign. It’s taken me a while to care a lot about Takagi and Mashiro’s fates as artists (instead of gravitating towards supporting characters), but that’s what I was focused on here. I love the conflict with their editor, and I can’t wait to see how their final decision pans out.

MICHELLE: Y’know, one of the critiques Eiji tosses off about their work is that the characters they create lack heart, and I think that in some respects Mashiro and Takagi did, too, at first. Now I’m beginning to see them more as fully realized characters and that makes all the difference.

MJ: Well, I started off my week with the final volume of Kaneyoshi Izumi’s Seiho Boys’ High School! This was, in fact, my pick of the week, and there are a number of reasons why.

The focus of this volume is Maki’s relationship with Erika, which is on the rocks, particularly as Maki begins to suspect that she’s seeing Kamiki on the side. This kind of thing is nothing new in shoujo (or anywhere else), but what’s really refreshing is the way it all plays out. Nothing is as simple as it seems, and love can’t possibly conquer all, especially for two kids just barely figuring out who they are. Most high school romance tends to pretend like young love is forever, and those that don’t usually lean towards either intense cynicism or melodramatic angst.

Seiho goes in none of these directions. It acknowledges the inherent transience of most teen romances while really giving the characters their due. Maki and Erika are both hurting and both wrong, but they’ve got real futures in front of them, with or without each other.

This series really has been a surprise from start to finish. Originally, it was fresh, funny, and surprisingly candid about the true personalities of teen boys. It’s still those things, but also it’s become really poignant, in the manner of some of the best recent shoujo, like Sand Chronicles and We Were There. I wish it was a bit longer, so we could see what happens when Maki gets out of school, but ending here does make this a nice, relatively short series.

The extra story included at the end of the book is less my cup of tea, so I was pretty sad to realize that it would take up a full quarter of the volume. But it’s not like I would have gotten more Seiho without it, so I can handle the disappointment.

MICHELLE: I have been terribly remiss regarding Seiho, but there just came a point where six of the eight volumes were already out and I figured, “Might as well wait.” Seeing it compared to such standouts as Sand Chronicles and We Were There makes me even more eager to experience it. I really adore strong, subtle shoujo like this that manages to transcend all those shoujo clichés without ever once sacrificing its essential shoujoness.

MJ: I do too, and I didn’t really expect that in Seiho. The series was really a surprise.

So, we’ve both read the next selection, and given your opinion of the first three volumes, which I think was a bit different than mine, I’m pretty interested to see what you think of volume four of My Girlfriend’s a Geek. Wanna hit us with a quick summary?

MICHELLE: I’ll do my best!

So, college student Taiga has been dating his fujoshi girlfriend Yuiko for a while now and has gotten to know her well enough to realize that she will immerse herself in scandalous BL fantasies if he tells her he’s begun to tutor a middle-school boy who embodies the very definition of an uke. So, he keeps this quiet, and the evasions plus his distance while he works to get into his desired program at school finally prompts some genuine response from Yuiko’s part. They have a long-overdue conversation in which Taiga is able to get some things off his chest, and finally it seems like there may be some genuine hope for their relationship.

What I most wanted from the first three volumes was to see Yuiko and Taiga really engage each other, for Yuiko to seem fully present in the real world, and we finally get that here. Her attempts to get Taiga’s attention, when all she’s doing is irritating him by distracting him from her studies, were extremely sympathetic, and I felt I was finally getting a glimpse at her perspective of their relationship. I had previously read it like she was going overboard with her fujoshi tendencies, but now I realize that she’s just been teasing him half the time, hoping to get an amusing rise out of him. Okay, this still isn’t much fun for Taiga, but it helps me to understand her.

MJ: I think I enjoyed the first three volumes more than you did, or maybe just as someone who has been heavily involved in a similar type of fandom as Yuiko, I could relate to it all on some level. What was missing for me, though, was some sense of what they really meant to each other—that they were really boyfriend and girlfriend—and I finally feel like I got that here. With both of them feeling insecure in the relationship but also anxious to save it, I finally feel like I really know where they stand with each other.

I think where we may not quite see eye-to-eye here, though, is on what Taiga gets from the relationship. I appreciated that he actually *said* in this volume that he found indulging her whims “kind of fun” because, honestly, it’s felt like that to me from the start. Sure, he complains about it all, but he gets genuinely caught up in it sometimes, and I can’t help but feel that he wouldn’t keep up with it all if he didn’t enjoy being pushed into her fantasies a bit. And I’m glad to see that in him, because it’s a lot more interesting than a story about a guy who just has what we might expect to be typical straight boy reactions to everything she does. It makes the relationship feel more real to me, too.

MICHELLE: I see that in Taiga now, but I interpreted his behavior in earlier volumes as sort of… mollifying Yuiko because he wanted to have a hot older girlfriend. He wasn’t repulsed, but he was puzzled and overwhelmed by her fervor. Now, though, it seems more like he really gets Yuiko as a person. I love the scene near the end where he’s studying and she compliments him—possibly for the first time without a personal agenda—and he reveals he’s working on the BL novel for her again. How her face lights up! It’s not as if I would ever expect her to not be herself, but it seems like she’s going to take her friend’s example to heart and really appreciate having found a guy who’s willing to actively indulge her.

What it boils down to is that they just make a lot more sense to me now as a couple. I look forward to the final volume!

MJ: I agree, I’m really looking forward to the final volume, and I may even wish there were more! I’m interested in digging into the novels as well. My original expectations for this series were very low, and it has easily exceeded them.

MICHELLE: I was originally more interested in the novels, but having seen the excerpt at the end of the first manga volume, now I’m not so sure. The Taiga equivalent seems awfully spazzy.

I should note here, too, that mangaka Rize Shinba’s BL manga is also enjoyable. You and I have reviewed Intriguing Secrets and My Bad for BL Bookrack with favorable results.

MJ: Well, you know me, I’ve never had a problem with “spazzy.” And yes, I do recall that we’ve enjoyed Shinba’s BL. I guess she’s probably got some personal insight to offer to these adaptations.

MICHELLE: Seems like!

I speak up at CBLDF

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A while ago, I was asked to write something up for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund about what the Canada Customs case meant to me.

I was pretty pleased to be asked, but when I thought about it the case, honestly my mind was just flooded with fear. That’s how I feel when I think about anybody being arrested or prosecuted for owning comics. So as I worked on the piece, that’s what I tried to express. I hope I made my point.

You can read the post, Voicing an Opinion: Manga Bookshelf’s MJ Talks Canada Customs Case at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website, to find out what I’m so afraid of.

The Favorites Alphabet: F

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Welcome to the Favorites Alphabet, where the Manga Bookshelf battle robot gaze upon our respective manga collections to pick a favorite title from each letter of the alphabet, whenever possible and ever fearful of the mournful bitterness of the runners up. We’re trying to stick with books that have been licensed and published in English, but we recognize that the alphabet is long, so we’re keeping a little wiggle room in reserve.

“F” is for…

Firefighter! Daigo of Company M | By Masahito Soda | Viz – On one level, Firefighter! is meat-and-potatoes shônen: it’s got a young, brash lead who wants to be the best at what he does; a rival who excels at pushing the hero’s buttons; and a sexy big sister character whom the hero adores. On another level, however, Firefighter! is a classic procedural, showing us how firemen practice their trade, interact at the house, and respond to conditions at every fire. The series definitely cants more towards shonen tournament manga than procedural; as Jason Thompson observed in Manga: The Complete Guide, Daigo’s company fights more dangerous fires in a week than most firemen will see in an entire career. Still, the series’ brisk pacing and sense of dramatic urgency make it one of the most entertaining titles in VIZ’s vast shônen library, even when the story strains credulity. -Katherine Dacey

Flower of Life | By Fumi Yoshinaga | Digital Manga Publishing – Although it works perfectly well as the amusing story of a forthright (perhaps overly so) teen named Harutaro who has just returned to school after a bout with leukemia, Flower of Life also offers many subtle meditations and musings on the nature of friendship. Seamlessly woven into stories in which a memorable cast of characters enlivens even the most tired manga clichés (school cultural festival, anyone?), these themes imbue the work with insight and depth, just as one would expect from Fumi Yoshinaga. On top of all this goodness, you’ve got Harutaro’s personal journey, where he discovers both an abiding love for manga and the ability to lie. This extraordinary series is not one to be missed. – Michelle Smith

Fruits Basket | By Natsuki Takaya | Tokyopop – This was a tough letter, especially with Fullmetal Alchemist just sitting there, but once again I went with the obvious pick.  Fruits Basket was something I discussed with my friends constantly while it was still coming out, and remains a beloved favorite.  Tohru’s struggles – first to try to bond with the Sohmas, then to try to break their curse, then to resolve her feelings towards Kyo, all wrapped up in a surprisingly deep cover of guilt and self-hatred – are fascinating to watch, and it helps that the side characters are just as fascinating if not more so.  And so much of Fruits Basket is about forgiveness – something the readers sometimes had a lot more trouble with than the characters, especially when it came to Akito.  But in the end, as a manly male who will also happily read First President of Japan and other manly titles, Fruits Basket is my pick as it’s made me cry more than any other manga. – Sean Gaffney

Fullmetal Alchemist | By Hiromu Arakawa | VIZ – Though I’ve often credited Hikaru no Go with getting me into manga, it was Fullmetal Alchemist that guaranteed I’d stay.  With its deeply relatable characters, impressively tight plot, and clean, well-paced storytelling, Fullmetal Alchemist proved to me that my new love for the medium was much more than a fling. Alternately heartbreaking and jubilant without ever feeling strained, Fullmetal Alchemist is a deceptively smooth read, even in its most emotionally and visually-packed moments. I often feel like a broken record when I sing this series’ praises. But the truth is, I just never stop being wowed by Arakawa’s discipline and skill. She makes epic look easy. – MJ

Future Lovers | By Saika Kunieda | Deux Press – All of the letters in this alphabet have posed a certain degree of difficulty, but “F” is a positive bloodbath. After serious consideration, I’ve decided to go with the fact that this two-volume series offers something very unique: it’s the gayest yaoi I’ve ever read. In a lot of comics in this category, you’re as likely to encounter issues of sexual orientation as you are concepts of particle physics, so some recognizable context is always welcome. In the case of Future Lovers, that context is layered over a wonderful, messy, evolving romance between two very likable, believable characters. Beyond the tricky issue of their feelings for each other, stalwart Kento and cynical Akira deal with the way their relationship will fall out at work (they teach at the same school) and with their families (particularly Kento’s traditional – but very funny – grandparents). It’s real-world romance, and it just plain works on every level. – David Welsh

What starts with “F” in your Favorites Alphabet?

Manga the week of 10/12

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Hallelujah, hallelujah. Midtown Comcis has finally taken the first step, admitted they had a Kodansha problem, and is getting in 3-4 months worth of titles next week. I won’t list them here as I’ve been listing them here in previous weeks while whining. No more whining! Hooray!

As for non-Kodansha things, there’s a new Vampire Hunter D novel out. It’s the 17th, showing that the difficulty selling Japanese novels here in North America does not particularly extend to novels with Vampire in their names.

And Viz has their typical 2nd week, aka ‘non-Jump or Beat stuff’. We get the 15th Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, which may be the final one depending how the author’s contract reads. He moved from Shueisha to Kodansha, acrimoniously, and is continuing the series there in the magazine Evening. What this means here… we don’t know yet.

Cross Game Vol. 5 gives us Vols. 10 & 11 of the original Japanese release, and introduces a character who’s guaranteed to shake things up… though this being Adachi, that generally means their eyes widen somewhat.

We also have the 40th (!) Volume of Case Closed, The 6th Hyde & Closer, the 28th Kekkaishi, and the 7th Maoh Juvenile Remix (this volume remixed by Frankie Knuckles) from our friends at Shonen Sunday, an imprint which NEEDS MORE LOVE AND SALES. But is, admittedly, probably not getting either anytime soon. Sigh. I don’t get North American readers.

Lastly, we have the new March Story, a manga by a Korean artist that runs in Sunday Gene-X; the 17th volume of Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys (hasn’t Bolan had his car crash by now?), and Yen is putting out the 2nd Twilight graphic novel, hopefully to get more money from readers so they can license other things.

What are you buying so you can read it on your way to Comic-Con next week?

JManga Slashes Prices! (Well, Temporarily at Least)

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Even though I grumbled a little at JManga’s prices, I was mostly okay with paying the equivalent of $8.99 for a manga that would likely never get licensed for a North American print release. Still, because I wanted them to do well enough to stick around for a long time, I hoped they would reduce their prices, perhaps emulating VIZ’s $4.99-per-volume pricing strategy.

Well, happy news! JManga is having a “sale” where they’re doing exactly that. Not only that, they’re making the surprising goodwill gesture of refunding users 50% of the credits they spent under the old pricing structure. “Holy crap!” I said aloud, when I read that part.

The one drawback to this is that they haven’t been adding many new series lately. I’ve pretty much bought all the ones I wanted and am waiting for either new stuff or some second volumes to become available. I now have a hefty points balance without much to spend it on.

Anyway, if you’ve been holding back on JManga before, now’s a great time to check it out. And hopefully increased interest will show JManga that $4.99 is the way to go and this will become a permanent thing.

Show Us Your Stuff: Burning Lizard’s Collection

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Welcome to the third installment of Show Us Your Stuff, now back at The Manga Critic! If you missed Daniella Orihuela-Griber’s contribution, click here. I’ve also created an archive for this feature here at The Manga Critic, which you can access from the “Features” menu or by clicking here. Today’s contributor is Derek Bown, a writer, student, and shonen manga enthusiast who runs the review site Burning Lizard Studios. Without further ado, here’s Derek in his own words.

Hey, I’m Derek, sometimes known as Burning Lizard. I run an anime, manga, and anything-that-catches-my-fancy review blog. I’m an avid reader and collector of manga, and in the past few years my manga collection has doubled several times. (Especially since the Borders liquidation.) I figured that since I’m like every collector out there: I’m just not satisfied unless I show my collection off to someone. So here you go internet, here is my manga collection.

What was your first manga?
Either One Piece or Ranma 1/2. Both were series that I originally experienced as anime. After my local TV stations started airing only reruns, I turned to the manga to get the rest of the story — which turned out to be crucial for One Piece, since there was an actual story to continue. Ranma 1/2 just managed to both entertain and piss me off towards the later volumes….

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My Girlfriend’s a Geek, Vols. 1-3

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By Rize Shinba (manga) and Pentabu (story) | Published by Yen Press

The good news is that I liked My Girlfriend’s a Geek more than I expected to. The bad news is that I’m not sure if I should feel particularly good about that.

Taiga Mutou is a penniless college student in need of a part-time job. When he spots Yuiko Ameya—who fits his ideal of the “big sis-type”—in the office of one prospective employer, he devotes himself to getting hired and thereafter attempts to find opportunities to engage her in conversation. He’s largely unsuccessful until a bit of merchandise goes missing and she helps him look for it. They talk a bit more after that, but it’s not until she sees him in a pair of glasses that she really begins to take notice.

At first, Taiga is puzzled but pleased that certain things about him meet with Yuiko’s approval—in addition to the glasses she also appreciates his cowlick and has an unusual level of interest in his methods for marking important passages in his textbooks. When he finally asks her out and she confesses that she’s a fujoshi (“Is that okay with you?”) he’s so exuberant that he agrees without really understanding what that entails.

From that point on, My Girlfriend’s a Geek is essentially a series of situations in which Yuiko’s fujoshi ways make Taiga uncomfortable, and here is where my conflicted feelings begin. On the one hand, it’s absolutely true that Yuiko did try to warn him and that she shouldn’t have to pretend to be someone she isn’t. On the other hand, she is so caught up in her BL fantasizing that she never considers Taiga’s feelings, and even ceases to refer to him by his actual name. Taiga is always the one doing the compromising, and when it seems like Yuiko might be on the verge of doing something nice for him, it usually turns out that she has some self-serving motive.

And what if Yuiko’s character was male? How would this read then? She frequently concocts scenarios in which Taiga is getting it on with his friend Kouji and expresses the desire to take pictures of them together. If she was a male character saying such things to his girlfriend this would be the epitome of skeavy behavior! I seriously wonder whether she likes Taiga for himself at all, but that’s not to say he’s blameless here, either, because it’s hard to see what he could like about her except that she fits the bill for the cute older woman he’s always wanted to date.

All that said, there is still quite a bit to like about this series. For one thing, it’s often quite amusing, especially Taiga’s reactions to Yuiko’s flights of fangirl and the fictional shounen sports manga (with shades of Hikaru no Go and The Prince of Tennis) that Yuiko is obsessed with. For another, it does occasionally touch on what it’s like to discover that someone you fancy has this bizarre secret that you’ve got to try to cope with if you want to stay together. Taiga occasionally laments how far apart they are emotionally, and though we’ve yet to really see inside Yuiko’s head, her attempts to sustain a real-life relationship remind me some of Majima in Flower of Life, another hard-core otaku with a moe fixation.

There’s only two more volumes of this series and I plan to keep reading, but I hope that these characters will manage to achieve more of an equal relationship. Even if Yuiko could just learn to see Taiga’s exasperation and take some genuine step to engage him on a serious personal level, then I’d be happy.

My Girlfriend’s a Geek is published in English by Yen Press. The fourth volume has just come out (to be featured in this week’s Off the Shelf!) and the fifth and final volume is due in December 2011. They have also released the two-volume novel series upon which the manga is based.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

Upcoming 10/5/2011

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It’s a huge week of eagerly anticipated arrivals on the ComicList, so let’s get right to it!

Drawn & Quarterly releases the collection of Kate Beaton’s super-smart, super-funny Hark! A Vagrant strips. I’ve read some of these online, mostly in the context of someone linking to individual strips and rightly noting how super smart and super funny they are, but I’ve resisted reading all of them, because I wanted to hold the book in my hands and enjoy all of these comics in dead-tree form.

NBM delivers Takashi Murakami’s Stargazing Dog, which is about a down-on-his-luck guy who gets through tough times with the help of his loyal canine companion. Early word on this is that it’s lovely but will probably make me cry buckets, so I’ve stocked up on handkerchiefs. Here’s a preview.

If you missed it in hardcover (as I did), Emblem Editions gives you a paperback opportunity to enjoy Scott Chantler’s Two Generals, which portrays World War II through the eyes of average soldiers. Chantler is a marvelous cartoonist, as evidenced by his Northwest Passage from Oni Press, so I’m really excited about this one.

Osamu Tezuka’s The Book of Human Insects (Vertical) reaches comic shops. I reviewed the book last week; it’s excellent, particularly for fans of Tezuka’s unique brand of noir.

Viz is also dumping a ton of new titles on the market, many of which were discussed in the current Manga Bookshelf Pick of the Week and Bookshelf Briefs. Of the series I’ve not yet personally mentioned, I would highlight the fourth volume of Kazue Kato’s increasingly excellent Blue Exorcist and the ninth volume of Yuki Midorikawa’s always lovely Natsume’s Book of Friends. I’m also led to believe, by a reliable source, that Toshiaki Iwashiro’s Psyren becomes a lot better than the first volume would suggest, which is certainly possible; most of the first volume of Blue Exorcist was flat-out awful, and that’s become one of my favorite shônen titles.

But enough about my incipient poverty; what looks good to you?

 

Shocking Pink

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By Yasuiriosuke. Released in Japan as “Pink Shock!” by Max Corporation Tokyo, serialized in the magazine Comic Potpourri Club. Released in North America by Project-H Books.

(This review is of an explicit title, be warned.)

You’ll note there’s no picture of the cover in this review, and with good reason – it’s covered in nude women. Shocking Pink is the first in Digital Manga Publishing’s Project H line, a chance to see if folks will actually pay for pornography for guys the way they shell out if it’s BL for girls. They announced 3 titles to start with, and this is the first, a harem version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, finished in one volume.

The plot is actually quite busy for porn. Takaaki is a grumpy 20-something, working 3 different jobs to try and escape the debt his parents got into after their business failed. Then one day a busty pink-haired girl named Ryuubi shows up at his door, pays off all his debt, and announces that she’s the reincarnation of Gentoku Ryuubi from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. She’s here to take over the world, and wants Takaaki – who is apparently the reincarnation of Koumei Shokatsu – to be her chief strategist.

Of course, not much battling goes on. Our hero is reluctant to believe the words of a clearly insane women. However, once she strips and starts to seduce him, he ends up going along fairly quickly (if grumpily). We quickly meet her two compatriots, Kan’u and Chouhi, both of whom are different personality types and also quite willing to sex him up at the drop of a hat. And then we discover he also has a large-breasted childhood friend, Moutoku, who’s been tsundere for him for years but has never done anything about it. Is she going to just accept all these new women in his life?

The characters are right out of a typical hentai dating sim, though there are a few interesting variations. The adorable shy girl has a split personality that turns her into an evil sadist, a nice way to fit two types into one girl. And Moutoku’s sister not only doesn’t have sex with the lead male (she’s happily married, and does have sex with her husband, fear not), but also has an eyepatch and a backstory more interesting than most of the other girls. Eventually we do have a battle of sorts, as our heroine and her new harem face off against Moutoku and her family to see who gets to keep screwing Takaaki.

The sex is, with one exception, fairly tame, and also fairly consensual. The girls are all sex-starved, and Takaaki is the sort of guy who is reluctant to do anything until people are naked in front of him, then just goes along. The exception is during the competition, where Moutoku’s twin cousins kidnap Chouhi and plan to blackmail her into giving up. Of course, they had to pick the girl who has an evil split personality. She quickly turns the tables, ties the siblings up, and then forces them to have sex with each other. It’s the only non-consensual scene in the book, and also involved incest and urination, as well as the implication of mind-control (the two love what Chouhi does to them so much they become her slaves). I note they’re also supposed to be in “prep school”, and are clearly the youngest of the entire cast. However, for the sake of legality, they are of course over the age of 18.

In the end, this is what it is. 200-odd pages of nonstop sex with a thin plot wrapped around it. That said, it could have been much worse. This lacks the faceless gangrapes seen so often in many Japanese hentai manga and doujinshi, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms plot, though never actually used well, at least attempts to make things interesting. In fact, the main argument against it is the heroine, a shallow Haruhi Suzumiya-alike who never gets to be remotely likeable, unlike almost every other woman in the book. Nevertheless, I have to say this book delivers what Project-H promised to give us.

Pick of the Week: Festival of Viz

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There’s a flood of Viz titles coming in to Midtown Comics this week. Check out the Battle Robot’s picks of the bunch below!

DAVID: It’s the first week of the month, so Viz follows its customary practice of flooding the shelves with new volumes of shônen and shôjo series. While they could certainly learn to pace themselves, I won’t complain if it means I can get my hands on the fifth volume of Julietta Suzuki’s Kamisama Kiss. This series is turning into a fine example of Suzuki’s ability to balance antic comedy and nuanced emotion, which is always a good recipe for satisfying shôjo. One of the things I particularly like about Suzuki’s work is that she respects her readers’ intelligence and doesn’t need to underline every romantic beat, choosing instead to highlight unexpected moments rather than dwell on the ones we can all recite by heart. The result is a series that fluxes confidently between sweet, silly, urgent, sad, and suspenseful. I’m always happy to spend more time with these characters.

KATE: My vote goes to the fourth volume of Blue Exorcist. I’d be the first to admit that the series covers well-trod territory: it’s got combatants of the cloth, a magical academy where exorcists learn their trade, and a tortured hero who straddles the demon and human worlds. But Kazuo Kaito’s elegant art and quick wit bring this very tired premise to life, making it easy to forgive the frequent capitulations to shonen cliche: characters declaring they’ll “do their best,” sloppy but talented fighters winning the grudging respect of their more disciplined peers. I’m not convinced I want forty more volumes of Blue Exorcist, but what I’ve read so far is good, solid fun.

MICHELLE: There’s a lot on this week’s list—which includes the final volumes of both Eyeshield 21 and Seiho Boys’ High School—that I personally plan on purchasing, but the one I look forward to with the most glee is volume 25 of Yoshiki Nakamura’s Skip Beat!. Although our heroine Kyoko Mogami is still fueled largely by the desire for revenge, she gets more serious about the craft of acting every day while remaining believably oblivious to the romantic feelings of her biggest mentor, renowned actor Ren Tsuruga. Somehow, Nakamura is able to make all of this feel fresh and new, and in volume 24 revisited the well-trod shoujo territory of Valentine’s Day with truly amusing results. I look forward to seeing what happens next!

SEAN: As always with Viz blitz weeks, there’s any number of titles I could talk about, including the aforementioned final volume of Seiho (I love Eyeshield, but it should have ended 3 volumes before it did). And I really want to pick Hark! A Vagrant as well, but it manages to not be manga. So my pick this week goes to a new Weekly Shonen Jump series, the first from Viz in quite some time. PSYЯEN sounds like a standard battle manga, with the only difference being the tournament arc starts right away as opposed to 9-10 volumes in. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by many of the more recent Jump efforts (Nura, Blue Exorcist), and the art looks good. I’m hoping for another fun, exciting series that manages to have fights without letting the manga get overwhelmed by them. And Volume 1s are the best place for that!

MJ: Well, it’s been mentioned a few times, but I’ll be the one to come down firmly on the side of volume eight of Seiho Boys’ High School. This is the final volume of the series, which has managed to remain as brash and funny as ever, while also presenting one of the most moving, realistic portrayals of teen romance I’ve seen in a while. I’ll be discussing this more in this week’s off the shelf, but it’s not that often that shoujo manga successfully balances both the all-consuming heart-burst of young love right alongside its inevitable transience, without degenerating into serious melodrama. This fun, light-hearted series has turned out to be much more poignant than I ever expected, and at just eight volumes, it’s a nice, easy-to-collect length, too. Definitely recommended.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?