Features & Reviews

Bookshelf Briefs 6/9/15

June 9, 2015 by Michelle Smith, Sean Gaffney and Anna N Leave a Comment

This week, Michelle, Sean, & Anna look at recent releases from Seven Seas and Viz Media.

D-Frag!, Vol. 5 | By Tomoya Haruno | Seven Seas – I must admit we got off to a slow start with this volume, as the lunchbox plot was dull, and yet another Momotaro parody never took off. But once we introduced our new adversary, Tama, D-Frag! goes back to doing what it does best – humiliating its entire cast for the sake of comedy, while at the same time allowing them to be completely awesome. Tama fits right into the manga, and shows off a surprising childhood side of the seemingly indomitable Chitose (and Roka being an adorable yet incredibly weird baby). Actually, it’s Sakura who now gets the role of the indomitable fighter. Add in a few jokes about Takao’s chest (because without those, how would you know you were reading D-Frag!?), and it adds up to a strong finish. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 6 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – It’s time for a new arc, and Totsuki Institute’s Fall Classic, a “grand stage for fierce cooking battles,” seems poised to offer some tremendous shounen tournament fun featuring quite a few new characters. Before it kicks off, though, Soma’s dad stops by to encourage his son by trouncing him in an invigorating breakfast challenge (it’s nice to see Soma lose for a change!) and Soma realizes his scent-fu is not up to par when confronted with a master of spices. I’d forgotten how much this series reminds me of The Prince of Tennis, but volume six evoked those feels once again. It also, alas, evoked some ews with ickier-than-usual fanservice, though even Soma had his clothes blown off by some potent curry, so I guess that evens things out a bit. The volume ends just as the classic begins, so I am definitely looking forward to volume seven! – Michelle Smith

Girls Und Panzer, Vol. 4 | By Girls Und Panzer Projekt and Ryohichi Saitaniya | Seven Seas – This is a franchise, of course, and most of those who are buying the manga will already be familiar with the anime, which ends in the same way. (I imagine the light novel, which focuses on Saori, ends the same – don’t expect it licensed anytime soon.) So the manga, unlikely to show off more thrilling action scenes (though they are done very well indeed) shows us instead more of its focus character, Yukari, and her love of tankery. It can sometimes feel a bit odd – the emotional core of the story is Niho’s, and seeing it viewed through Yukari’s prism feels off. But overall, I think this was an excellent adaptation, and I’m surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. Sweet and fun. – Sean Gaffney

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 18 | By Julietta Suzuki | Viz Media – It almost felt like this series could end at the conclusion of the time-traveling arc, what with Nanami and Tomoe officially becoming a couple, but I’m glad it didn’t. It’s actually refreshing for her to get back to her old life, studying for finals so that she can go on the class trip to Okinawa. While I don’t love that Nanami is another in the long line of scholastically challenged shoujo heroines, I did like her being motivated by Tomoe’s resolve to absorb human knowledge, since he intends to be a more permanent part of her world. Too, the class trip brings greater definition to Nanami’s closest school friends and affords Nanami the opportunity to be very brave in attempting to save one of them from an aggrieved yokai. I admit to being a little lost about this whole Kirihito storyline, but was nonetheless thoroughly entertained. – Michelle Smith

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 21 | By Karuho Shiina | Viz Media – Sometimes, narratives I am consuming for entertainment purposes portray the agonies of youth so acutely that said consumption becomes a bit stressful. Such is the case with Kimi ni Todoke’s 21st volume, in which the cast enters their final year of high school and must decide what to do about their futures. I absolutely love that Sawako is nudged into pursuing her own goals more aggressively—it’s great to see her feeling energized about something—and the idea of Ayane going off alone to see new things and become the confident person she knows she isn’t, even though others think differently, is great. (We can has spinoff?!) But there are some hints that at least one relationship might end (and if it doesn’t, that’s probably worse) and many exciting yet bittersweet days are to come. It’s great, but it hurts. It’s great because it hurts. – Michelle Smith

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign, Vol. 5 | By Takaya Kagami and Yamato Yamamoto – I continue to enjoy the worldbuilding in this manga. The past two volumes were mostly concerned with training and fighting, so I was interested to see some of the backstory of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army get filled in when Yuichiro is called before some members of the high-ranking Hiragi family and subjected to an interrogation. The leader learns why Shinoa is disaffected from her family and also why despite his rank, Gurren is a target of suspicion. Yuichiro is determined to master his demonic weapons, hold on to his new found family, and try to turn his long-lost friend Mika into a human again. We’ll see if he can pull that off in the next few volumes. Seraph of the End is still an engaging series five volumes in. – Anna N

My Week in Manga: June 1-June 7, 2015

June 8, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Happy June, everyone! I’ve been super busy (I seem to say that a lot, don’t I?) but was still able to post a few things here at Experiments in Manga last week. The winner of the Ema Toyama Twosome manga giveaway was announced. That post also includes a list of manga available in English that feature novelists and other writers. The honor of the first in-depth manga review for the month of June goes to Masayuki Ishikawa’s Maria the Virgin Witch, Volume 2. Ishikawa seems to be trying to do a lot with such a short series (it’s only three volumes), maybe a bit too much. Even if he’s not able to successfully pull everything off, I still find Maria the Virgin Witch to be an intriguing series and want to read the rest of it. Finally, over the weekend I posted the Bookshelf Overload for May. I had a pretty big haul of manga and comics last month; I largely blame TCAF.

Elsewhere online there’s been some interesting reading to be found. Justin interviewed Kate Dacey (aka The Manga Critic) over at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Kate was one of my biggest manga blogging inspirations, so I’ve been very happy to see her recent return. Sean Kleefeld brought my attention to a panel on the history of manhwa. Drawn & Quarterly recently released the massive anthology Drawn and Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels. Joe McCulloch specifically looks at the volume’s manga content. Mangabrog has a translation of a conversation between Naoki Urasawa and Hisashi Eguchi. Last but not least, two licensing announcements were made last week that I’m very excited about: Viz Media is finally releasing a print edition of One-Punch Man by ONE and Yusuke Murata and Drawn & Quarterly is releasing more of Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitaro! (I loved the publisher’s first Kitaro collection.)

Quick Takes

Welcome to the N.H.K., Volumes 1-4 by Kendi Oiwa. Originally published in print by Tokyopop, Viz Media recently announced that it would be releasing Welcome to the N.H.K. digitally in the very near future. Tatsuhiko Takimoto’s original Welcome to the N.H.K. light novel was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed the anime adaptation, too. It was only a matter of time before I read Kendi Oiwa’s manga adaptation, though I am a little surprised that it’s taken me this long to get around to it. It has been a while since I’ve read or watched the other versions of Welcome to the N.H.K., but so far the manga is closer to the anime than it is to the novel, except that it seems a little more streamlined and perhaps even a little raunchier. Satou is a college dropout and hikikomori who has been targeted by Misaki, a young woman who is determined to rehabilitate him despite her own oddities and personal issues. In some ways, the more recent Watamote is reminiscent of Welcome to the N.H.K. Both series feature protagonists who are extremely socially awkward and both series can be hilarious, but they can also be somewhat depressing and painful to read at times, too. But, I am enjoying the manga version of Welcome to the N.H.K. a great deal.

xxxHolic: Rei, Volume 3 by CLAMP. Initially, I felt that it wasn’t necessary to have read xxxHolic in order to enjoy xxxHolic: Rei. However after reading the third volume, I feel I need to revise that opinion. It’s still not absolutely necessary to have read xxxHolic, but Rei makes a lot more sense and is much more meaningful if a reader has that background. I’ve actually not finished reading the entirety of xxxHolic, so while I was able to get the basic gist of what was going on in Rei, I did feel I was missing out on some important context while reading the third volume. However, I really like what CLAMP is doing with the series and I’m looking forward to reading the part of xxxHolic where Rei ties in directly. Rei has developed a marvelously ominous atmosphere that has a surreal, dreamlike quality to it. CLAMP’s high-contrast artwork in the series is great, too. At first, Rei felt directionless as though CLAMP didn’t really know what to do with the series, but the third volume begins to bring everything together in a way that actually makes sense. Of course, this also means the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles connection is becoming more pronounced as well, which can sometimes feel forced.

Ze, Volumes 7-9 by Yuki Shimizu. Despite it being a series that I tend to enjoy, it’s actually been a few years since I’ve read any of Shimizu’s supernatural boys’ love manga Ze. Although there is some dubious content (which doesn’t really surprise me much at this point), these three volumes reminded me what it is about Ze that I like so much: Shimizu has a knack for creating fascinatingly intense and complex relationship and power dynamics. The seventh and eighth volumes explore the backstories of Kotoha and Konoe; I was very satisfied with the explanation of their peculiar relationship and personalities. (Granted, most of the characters and relationships in Ze are pretty strange.) Ze, Volume 8 focuses on Shoui and Asari. Most of the story arcs have been two volumes long, but perhaps because their relationship has been developing in the background over the course of the series, the eighth volume is the only one specifically devoted to the couple. These three volumes are also very important in setting up the next and what I believe is the final story arc which will reveal more of Waki’s tragic history. I had forgotten how much of an asshole he can be, so I am curious to find out what made him the person he is.

Kimi ni Todoke, Vol. 21

June 7, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Karuho Shiina. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Margaret (“Betsuma”). Released in North America by Viz.

I’ve been reviewing this title in the ‘Bookshelf Briefs’ section for a long time. There’s been a lot going on since my last review, but one thing that amused me is that I was discussing Kento never shutting up, saying the wrong thing, and generally being extroverted all over the pages of what’s trying to be a quiet, peaceful manga. And hey, guess what’s still happening! After a brief period where I was beginning to like him and hoping he and Yano would work out, he’s back to being my least favorite. Meanwhile, another old villain makes a reappearance, and as she has in the past, spurs Sawako to try to apply herself and chase her dreams.

Given how Kurumi was originally introduced to act as a contrast to Sawako’s purity and general niceness, it’s highly amusing to see that they both want to pursue similar careers – though only Kurumi really gets this, and she is properly annoyed by it. In fact, Kurumi spends most of the volume on a low boil, possibly as all the main characters have hooked up with each other and she’s watching them all be happy. But Sawako has bigger concerns – she’s finally found happiness with Kazehaya, and while she doesn’t want to leave the town, she does envision going to a college that would temporarily separate them. While Kazehaya knows this and decides to try to pull his grades up so that he can go to college as well, he makes it clear to Sawako that this is her choice and she should feel confident in it. As always, they’re both really sweet.

Yano has never been described as sweet, but she’s usually tried to be the most mature of the bunch, and the most level-headed. Now we’re starting to see that facade crumble, particularly around Pin, who is easily able to see through her facade to the anxious teenager beneath it. And it’s fairly clear that, while Yano is happy with what she currently has with Kento, he’s not really factoring in what she really wants – college in Tokyo, a much farther distance away than the others are talking. It’s also far more difficult, and Pin admits she needs to pull her grades even higher if she wants sure success. (Pin is pure awesome in this volume, by the way, and while teacher/student romances are iffy, I totally get why this is also a ship.)

So while Yano frets, Kento is there… to propose to her, saying he wants to spend the rest of his life waking up next to her. Kento has always been forward and blunt, but my jaw actually dropped at this moment, and I wondered if it was a setup for something more. I got my answer later in the volume, where Pin has a disastrous meeting with him, where Kento admits he’d like to study interior design, but going to the same college as Yano is more important. His face in this scene is a sort of goofy, happy-go-lucky type that makes me want to hit it, as he’s not thinking about Yano here at all. To make things worse, she actually hears this outside the teacher’s office. Kento wants Yano as his girlfriend/wife, but seems to take it as read that she’ll be OK with this. And she isn’t.

A cliffhanger seems to show Kento starting to realize that something is wrong, but we’ll have to wait for a bit to see if it sinks in, or if things continue to go south. In the meantime, this remains must-read shoujo, and if you dislike angst, there’s always Sawako and Kazehaya, whose stressful situations are resolved through honest communication. Funny, that.

The Manga Revue: The Ancient Magus’ Bride and Evergreen

June 5, 2015 by Katherine Dacey

Are there publishers whose work you avoid? I’ll cop to feeling that way about Seven Seas, a company whose manga generally tilt too far towards the ecchi end of the spectrum for an old broad like me. In the last few months, however, the company has made some unexpected licensing announcements–The Ancient Magus’ Bride and Orange among them–that made me wonder if I’d unfairly dismissed their catalog. In an exploratory spirit, therefore, I’m dedicating this week’s column to two new Seven Seas titles: The Ancient Magus’ Bride and Evergreen.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 1
By Kore Yamazaki
Rated OT, for Older Teens
Seven Seas, $12.99

One part The Name of the Flower, one part Apothecarius Argentum, The Ancient Magus’ Bride freely commingles elements of romance, fantasy and horror, then seasons the mix with old-fashioned melodrama. The title refers to Chitose, a fifteen-year-old orphan with an unwanted gift: she can see fairies, ghosts, and other supernatural beings. For most of her life, she’s been passed between relatives and shunned by her peers. When sorcerer Ellias Ainsworth purchases her from an unscrupulous aunt and uncle, however, Chitose embarks on a new life as his apprentice and, perhaps, his bride-to-be.

I’d be the first to admit that the storylines often feel like they’ve been pinched from other fantasy manga, right down to a scene in which Ainsworth rescues Chitose from a malicious fairy. (Quick–name two Shojo Beat titles with a similar plot twist!) Though the plot has a been-there, read-that quality, Kore Yamazaki’s imaginative character designs and meticulously rendered backgrounds do not; his vision is so particular that the reader is plunged into Ainsworth and Chitose’s world as a participant, not a casual observer. The series’ other redeeming strength is its emotional honesty. Yamazaki convincingly depicts the characters’ grief and isolation without resorting to voice-overs or pointed dialogue–an impressive feat, given the plot’s reliance on such Victorian-lit staples as dead mothers and callous relatives.

The verdict: Although I’m not wild about the prospect of a May-December relationship between Chitose and Ainsworth, I’ll gladly soldier through another volume.

Evergreen, Vol. 1
Story by Yuyuko Takemiya, Art by Akira Kasukabe
Rated OT, for Older Teens
Seven Seas, $12.99

Full disclosure: I usually loathe the costume failures, manic pixie dream girls, and improbable harems that are stock-in-trade of shonen romances. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered Evergreen, a smart coming-of-age story that devotes twice as many pages to the hero’s complicated emotional life than it does the heroine’s predilection for wearing swimsuits.

What distinguishes Evergreen from, say, Suzuka, is its principal character’s palpable angst. Hotaka bears a figurative and literal scar from childhood: not only did he lose his father at an early age, Hotaka also had open-heart surgery to treat the very condition that claimed his father’s life. (In other words, he’s earned the right to be unhappy, unlike the heroes of Suzuka, Love Hina, and countless other shonen romantic comedies who brood without real cause.) As a result, Hotaka vacillates between fierce self-loathing and cautious optimism in a way that seems genuinely adolescent. His conversations, nightmares, and interior monologues reveal the degree to which Hotaka’s fear of being judged prevents him from forging a meaningful connection with dream girl Niki Awaya, the “tawny haired” captain of the girls’ swim club.

Lest I make Evergreen sound like a colossal bummer, rest assured that Hotaka’s angsty monologues are balanced by slapstick and jokes. Hotaka’s fellow manga club members, for example, bring a welcome jolt of comic energy to the proceedings, functioning as the series’ low-rent Greek chorus. There’s also a soupçon of fanservice for folks who like that sort of thing; artist Akira Kasukabe never misses an opportunity to depict Awaya in her bathing suit. (Actually, it’s a pretty chaste suit by shonen manga standards; you could swim laps in it without flashing anyone.) Awaya’s objectification is balanced by a positive portrayal of On-Chan, the sole female member of the manga club and Hotaka’s self-appointed wingman. On-Chan’s can-do attitude, enthusiasm for manga, and mean left hook aren’t novel traits, exactly, but taken as a whole, make her one of the more appealing, empowered female characters in the Seven Seas catalog.

The verdict: A pleasant surprise; count me in for volume two.

Reviews: TCJ columnist Joe McCulloch takes an in-depth look at Drawn and Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics and Graphic Novels, focusing on contributions from Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Shigeru Mizuki. Elsewhere on the web, Ken H. reviews Dream Fossil, a collection of short stories by Satoshi Kon, while Tony Yao tackles Orange, a time-traveling drama that offers a candid look at teen depression.

Sarah on vol. 1 of The Ancient Magus’ Bride (Anime UK News)
Tessa Barber on Anomal (No Flying No Tights)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 4 of Black Rose Alice (Sequential Tart)
Megan R. on Bloody Monday (The Manga Test Drive)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (Comic Book Bin)
Megan R. on Girl Friends (The Manga Test Drive)
Lori Henderson on vols. 9-10 of Goong: The Royal Palace (Manga Xanadu)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 3 of Hide and Seek (Sequential Tart)
Joseph Luster on vol. 13 of Knights of Sidonia (Otaku USA)
Seth Hahne on vol. 1 of Last Man (Good OK Bad)
Alice Vernon on vol. 1 of Log Horizon (Girls Like Comics)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 5-6 of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 2 of Maria the Virgin Witch (Experiments in Manga)
Jason Thompson on vols. 1-2 of Meteor Prince (ANN)
Joseph Luster on vol. 2 of My Neighbor Seki (Otaku USA)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 70 of Naruto (Comic Book Bin)
Amanda Vail on vols. 1-4 of Noragami: Stray God (Women Write About Comics)
Ian Wolf on vol. 1 of A Silent Voice (Anime UK News)
Theron Martin on vol. 1 of Sword Art Online: Girls’ Ops (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Tokyo Ghoul (ANN)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 27 of Toriko (Sequential Tart)
Terry Hong on vol. 8 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Book Dragon)
Sakura Eries on vol. 2 of Yukarism (The Fandom Post)

Are you a blogger who regularly reviews manga? Want to see your reviews included in our weekly round-ups? Leave a comment below so we can keep tabs on your latest reviews!

Maria the Virgin Witch, Vol. 2

June 5, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Masayuki Ishikawa
U.S. publisher: Kodansha
ISBN: 9781632360816
Released: April 2015
Original release: 2011

I was somewhat wary when I picked up Masayuki Ishikawa’s manga series Maria the Virgin Witch to read. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from it, especially considering part of the story is explicitly focused on the heroine’s virginity and sexuality. No that that is necessarily a bad thing, it just has the potential to go very wrong, very quickly. But because the series is by Ishikawa, whose Moyasimon I enjoy immensely, in the end I decided to give Maria the Virgin Witch a try. (At some point, I’ll likely take the time to watch the manga’s recent anime adaptation as well.) Although there were a few things that bothered me about the series’ first volume, by and large I was intrigued and enjoyed the manga, certainly more so than I had initially anticipated that I would. I liked the basic premise of the manga, particularly the quirky characters, and so I wanted to see what Ishikawa would do with the rest of the series. Maria the Virgin Witch, Volume 2 was first released in Japan in 2011. The English-language edition of the volume was published by Kodansha Comics in 2015.

Having drawn too much attention to herself by dramatically interfering with the affairs and wars of humankind, the young, idealistic witch Maria has been given an ultimatum by the Archangel Michael. Maria as been forbidden to display her powerful magic in front of humans or else forfeit her life. Additionally, should she ever lose her virginity she will lose her powers as a witch, putting her in a position where she must either choose her own happiness or the happiness of others. Since Michael has better things to do than spend all his time watching over a rogue witch, he leaves his messenger Ezekiel behind to ensure that Maria follows the rules. Whether Ezekiel is actually successful is another matter entirely. Maria still feels very strongly about aiding those who ask for her help and bringing an end to the war between England and France. With some assistance from her familiars Artemis and Priapus, she is able to take advantage of a few loopholes in Ezekiel’s charge, but it’s likely only a matter of time before Michael puts a stop to that, too.

Maria the Virgin Witch continues to be a strange combination of crude humor largely revolving around sex (or the lack thereof) and more serious philosophical and theological questioning. The introduction of Ezekiel allows Ishikawa to more fully explore Maria’s motivations and her view of the world and all that she believe is wrong with it. If God and his angels won’t step in to put an end to humanity’s wars and violence—even when people are praying for just that—Maria sees it as her responsibility to fulfill that role since it is within her power, albeit in a much more limited fashion. She acknowledges that she is no god; she is not omnipotent, neither is she omniscient. She can only do what she can. The second volume of Maria the Virgin Witch reveals that Maria is very much an outlier in her way of thinking. Other people and other witches who have the ability to influence the course of the war actually want to drag it out as long as possible. To do so is to their advantage. They believe the position held by Maria to be incomprehensible and incredibly naive. But some, including Ezekiel, find that their assumptions and beliefs are challenged by Maria’s idealism and earnestness and are forced to reexamine them.

Although the series is set during the Hundred Years War and references actual events and people, the second volume of Maria the Virgin Witch makes it very clear that the manga is less historical fiction and more fantasy fiction. While interesting, the worldbuilding of the series is actually a little confused, or at least not thoroughly explained. Magic has always been a large part of Maria the Virgin Witch, as have demons, monsters, angels, and other divine beings (including Valkyries for some reason), but the second volume introduces a mythical and mortal non-human race to the mix. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but it seems to come out of nowhere and means that the manga loses some if its focus, which is something that is particularly important for a short series like Maria the Virgin Witch to maintain. With only one volume in the main series remaining, I’m afraid that Ishikawa may not be able to fully develop all of the elements and themes that he is trying to incorporate. Even so, I still find Maria the Virgin Witch to be an intriguing although somewhat uneven series; I’m very curious to see how it ends.

Manga the Week of 6/10

June 5, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown, Anna N and MJ Leave a Comment

SEAN: Thank you for all those who bought manga to bring rain to the Northeast. You can stop now (keep buying manga, I just mean no more flash flood warnings). Meanwhile, what have we in this small week?

Kodansha gives us an 8th volume of shosei (I just coined it, whaddya think?) romance Say “I Love You”.

MICHELLE: Yay!

ASH: Shosei. I like it.

ANNA: I’m behind on this series, but I do enjoy it!

SEAN: Something that could not remotely be mistaken for an angsty teen romance is the 5th volume of D-Frag! from Seven Seas. Betcha it’ll be funnier, though.

Barring any further spinoff licensing (unlikely, I suspect), we also get the 4th and final volume of sweeter than I expected tank manga Girls Und Panzer.

Sublime is still Starting with a Kiss, but it’s Vol. 3, so perhaps they’ve gone further.

ASH: Perhaps, perhaps…

SEAN: (Amazon lists The World’s Greatest First Love 2 as well, but I understand from a Viz press release that this has been delayed to late July.)

Viz proper, meanwhile, has the 22nd Arata the Legend volume. Man. So many more volumes than Fushigi Yuugi.

MICHELLE: Yeah, that is really hard to believe. I like Arata, but it’ll never approach Fushigi Yuugi‘s iconic status.

ANNA: I feel bad constantly comparing Arata to Fushigi Yuugi, but I can’t help it.

SEAN: And a 9th volume of slice-of-life prison comedy Deadman Wonderland. (Spoiler: it is not a slice-of-life prison comedy).

MICHELLE: Heh.

MJ: Wow, I have fallen behind!

SEAN: Lastly, Magi hits a dozen volumes. And hasn’t slowed down its release schedule, a major accomplishment for Shonen Sunday titles.

MICHELLE: Yay, Magi! This one is already in my Amazon cart!

ANNA: Nice! I enjoyed the first few volumes of this series a bunch.

SEAN: Do you have a favorite here?

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, Vols. 5-6

June 5, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Satoshi Mizukami. Released in Japan by Shonen Gahosha, serialized in the magazine Young King Ours. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

Well, I can’t say I didn’t warn myself in my last review, where I described everything coming to a halt so that the author could do plot setup. And now that it’s set up, the guns are fired, with lots of cool action scenes, character development, and the introduction of Animus’ sibling Anima, who doesn’t talk much and seems to be able to grant even more superpowers. The series also continues to show off the connection between having cool superpowers and teenage angst and grief, which as fans of old school superhero comics know if the classic way to go about things. I have to say, however, that perhaps the most ridiculous yet tragic thing about my last review is when I was discussing Hanako’s oddness and suggested that she might not survive the series. Wow, in hindsight that is the worst thing ever.

This is not a series afraid to kill off its main characters, and to be fair I should have realized what was coming. Taro was one of the most ‘normal’ of the cast, and we weren’t sure what his wish was. The one thing we were sure of was that he was totally in love with Hanako and hadn’t told her yet. And, despite what her familiar tells her, he dies in a heroic, amazing way. Yes, he made his wish to resurrect her if she was killed and then tried to stop her getting killed anyway. But that’s love for you, and I thought it was fantastic. I also liked how Taro’s impact was felt on other characters through his food – his other main personality trait besides ‘likes Hanako’. I’m not sure how much I like the observation that his death is Hanako’s punishment for what her wish was, though – I think that’s placing too much of a burden on her.

I’d mentioned above that Anima has started to give powerups to the various Knights, and we see Yuuhi fight to ensure that he gets one… and lose. Yuuhi has always been at the low end of the totem pole when it comes to kicking ass, and I don’t see that changing as I think it’s perhaps the only thing keeping him likeable. We do see his growth here, though, as he encourages Samidare to talk with her estranged mother (who can’t seem to balance work and family well at all) even as he’s still estranged from his own grandfather. I’m still of the opinion that the Earth is not going to be destroyed, and I suspect it will be because he stops being such a nihilist. Leave that to the resident Nihilist Knight… I mean Owl Knight.

In the end, the scene that sticks with me most is the final one of the volume, where Hanako uses her ice powers to take out one of the golems in a fit of suppressed grief and rage, showing the emotions on her face that we haven’t seen since we met her. It extends to the others as well, as the death of Taro’s killer and Hanako’s sobbing allows all the other knights to show their own grief… even Yuuhi. It’s a good sign for the future. I eagerly await the next omnibus.

So Cute it Hurts! Vol. 1

June 2, 2015 by Anna N

So Cute it Hurts! Volume 1 by Go Ikeyamada

There has been a gap in cross-dressing shoujo series in the current shoujo beat line up recently, so I was intrigued by this series, which features both cross-dressing twins and juvenile delinquents.

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The twins in this series are a pair of fraternal twins named Megumu and Mitsuru. Megumu is devoted to history simulation games featuring historical figures with eye patches, and has found a small group of kindred otaku spirits at her all-girls school. Mitsuru has a much more casual approach to studies, a bit of a womanizing personality, and a penchant for fighting thanks to his attendance at an all-male school crawling with juvenile delinquents. Megumu and Mitsuru are an odd kind of opposite gender fraternal twins that might only exist in manga or k-dramas due to their identical appearance that allows them to swap identities. Mitsuru is struggling with make up work in history and proposes a week long switch to Megumu so she can take his tests for him. Megumu is not thrilled with this idea, but she finds herself going along with it when she wakes up one day to find that Mitsuru has stolen her uniform and left his clothes behind.

This volume focuses a bit more on Mitsuru’s undercover operation at Megumu’s school. He is taken aback when he realizes that the girls he usually relates to in superficial ways actually have personalities, and is particularly surprised when he sees the most beautiful girl in the school bullying a deaf student. He has a blunt way of relating to girlish clique problems, and promptly develops a crush on Shino Takenaka, actually deciding to study sign language on his own so he can communicate with her. The bullying plot is a bit standard for a shoujo manga, but it was nice to see Mitsuru deal with mean girl antics with refreshing directness, and when his enemy attempts to shun him, all the otaku girls band together and are not particularly concerned at any loss of social status.

Megumu’s storyline is a bit less dynamic, and more reliant on shoujo plot cliches where she accidentally stumbles into the embrace of Aoi Sanada, the eyepatch-wearing top delinquent at her brother’s school. Aoi is a bit annoyed and bemused at the sudden appearance of an underclassman who seems to not follow the usual social conventions at their school. Her habit of tripping does actually come in handy when she finds herself in the middle of a schoolyard brawl. So far, Megumu and Aoi aren’t given as much page time or character development as Mitsuru and his new friends, and I hope this gets balanced out a little bit in future volumes.

I found it amusing that towards the end of the chapters, there were over-the-top summations of love standing in stark contrast to the gender-bending comedic hijinks in the rest of the manga. Ikeyamada’s art is attractive, if a bit generic, but she portrays the action scenes and the highs and lows of teenage emotions with ease. I found this volume amusing, and there were some interesting hints of a love quadrangle developing that I’m guessing will be explored more in the next volume. So Cute it Hurts! might not have very much depth so far, but the first volume seems like a nice comedic addition to a summer manga reading list.

Bookshelf Briefs 6/2/15

June 2, 2015 by Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith Leave a Comment

This week, Sean and Michelle look at recent releases from Seven Seas, Dark Horse Comics, SuBLime, Viz Media, and Yen Press.

Alice in the Country of Clover: Twin Lovers | By QuinRose and Kei Shichiri | Seven Seas – Well, it’s better than the Bloody Twins volume, but I think I’m going to have to accept that I just don’t like the twins enough to enjoy a book where they’re the focus. Not uncommon in a series based off a datesim. But I tend to agree with Blood about their immaturity (he can be just as bad, but isn’t in this volume), and a plotline about Alice trying to choose between them is less ‘we need to see how they differ’ and more ‘they are a package deal’, as they don’t differ – I still can’t tell the two apart. Add to that some toned-down threesome jokes, which are still bothersome as half the time they’re kids, and you have another Alice spinoff that didn’t wow me. – Sean Gaffney

Drug & Drop, Vol. 2 | By CLAMP | Dark Horse Comics – It’s been hinted for some time, but this volume at last gives us the Wish crossover we knew was coming, and flat out tells us that Kakei and Saiga, our two leads’ erstwhile benefactors, are in fact Hisui and Kokuyo from Wish. I’m not sure how much enjoyment is lost if a casual reader is getting this dumped on them – not much, I’d expect – but it’s a nice bonus for fans, just like the Suki and xxxHOLIC cameos were. (Has Miyuki-chan shown up?) As for the manga proper, we get a lot of backstory dump, and ponder whether Kazahaya’s sister Kei was driven mad after being kidnapped, or if she was halfway there already. I’m still not sure where this is really going, but it looks pretty, and will appeal to CLAMP fans. – Sean Gaffney

Love Stage!!, Vol. 1 | By Eiki Eiki and Taishi Zaou | SuBLime – It has been ages since I’ve read any BL, especially an over-the-top comedic series like this one. Male Izumi Sena, a shy, frumpy otaku from a family of celebrities, was once drafted to play a flower girl in a commercial ten years ago and now has been bribed (with otaku merchandise) to participate in an anniversary sequel. Meanwhile, his lovestruck costar, Ryoma Ichijo, reels to discover the object of his decade-long affection is actually a guy (though it doesn’t take long for him to decide this isn’t much of an impediment). This is a frivolous, unrealistic series, but I do like Izumi’s character design and some inklings that he might have acting talent after all. I don’t know for how long this series will be capable of sustaining my interest, but I would at least check out volume two. – Michelle Smith

So Cute It Hurts!!, Vol. 1 | By Go Ikeyamada | Viz Media – Normally I am all about manga with exclamatory titles, but must regretfully say that So Cute It Hurts!! really didn’t do much for me. It’s the story of the Kobayashi twins, female Megumu and male Mitsuru, who end up switching places because Mitsuru’s busy schedule of Sunday dates is threatened by remedial history classes unless his history otaku sister aces some makeup tests in his stead. Whilst attending the other’s school, they each experience their first love. There are some interesting aspects, like the fact that both love interests have a physical impairment and also seem to know each other, but the two leads just don’t interest me at all. I’m used to cute and fluffy shoujo, but this feels more superficial than most. – Michelle Smith

Sword Art Online: Girls’ Ops, Vol. 1 | By Neko Nekobyou, Reki Kawahara, and abec | Yen Press – Let’s be honest: aside from one short story in Vol. 8, we’re not really going to see Lisbeth, Silica or Leafa as more than cameos in the SAO novels anymore. So it’s nice to see them get their own series, as they participate in a side-quest in ALO and meet a young woman who was also trapped in SAO, and is still dealing with the PTSD that comes from that. (Lisbeth casually notes that they’re the weird ones, and that most SAO players are never going near another MMO). In real life, Hiyori looks eerily like Mugi from K-On! (let’s hope her friend she lost in SAO wasn’t Ritsu). I’m not sure when the next volume will be coming out, but it should be fun for fans of these characters. – Sean Gaffney

Tony Takezaki’s Neon Genesis Evangelion | By Tony Takezaki and khara | Dark Horse Comics – It’s almost impossible to review something like this, a title that has a very, very specific audience. Do you love Evangelion? Are you OK with the characters behaving in a stupid way for the sake of bad jokes? If not, avoid this volume. But if you are, there’s a lot to love here. As with most gag manga, the jokes are hit and miss, but I think there are more hits than misses. There is a certain “I am seven years old” quality to many of these jokes, but again, this is what you get for buying a gag manga. I will simply enjoy Gendo and Fuyutsuki fighting a sentai battle in cheap costumes, Asuka being so horrified her sound effects turn German, and far too many “congratulations!”.-Sean Gaffney

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood, Vol. 2

June 2, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Hirohiko Araki. Released in Japan as “Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz Media.

It is possible, I suppose, that someone out there read the first volume of this series, featuring grandiose over the top histrionics galore, and felt “well that was OK, but it was just far too sedate and naturalistic. What would really make the series take off is if one of the characters came back as an immortal vampire”. Well have I got news for you! Araki ups his game here, turning the amp from 11 to 12 and delivering more action, more histrionics, and a whole lot more death and violence, while also adding a few trickster mentors and loathsome underlings. It’s still not a parody, honest: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure just is.

The highlight of the book may very well be the beginning, where Dio cuts loose and starts to not only kill people and steal their lifeforce but bring them back to life as hideous zombies. JoJo’s still looks up to Fist of the North Star after all, so there’s lots of heads exploding and eyes popping in slow motion here. That said, probably the most grotesque moment of violence comes later on, when Jack the Ripper (yes, that one – Dio takes him on as a disciple) attack the horse and wagon our heroes are in, kills the horses (and driver) by cutting their heads off, and then hides inside a horse corpse so that he can emerge, womb-like, from the neck like your worst nightmare. It’s around that time that you realize how “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” the first volume really was.

If there is any break from the nonstop action and hysteria, it comes in the form of Erina Pendleton, who went to India for several years to study nursing and attend the Tsukasa Hojo School of Heroine Design, and arrives just in time to attend to a dying Jonathan’s wounds. We see once again the steel that’s underneath her soft exterior, and even Speedwagon is forced to withdraw coolly (yes, Viz kept that, thank goodness) in her presence. Sadly, when he starts training and getting attacked by evil minions, Jonathan thinks he can’t let Erina get involved in this, and she vanishes once more. The same cannot be said for Speedwagon, who is both the ‘normal guy’ and Greek Chorus in this series – although how normal someone is when they use the power of their flaming hot abs to heal Zeppeli’s arm is a debate for another time.

I should also probably mention the narrative voice here, or rather the multiple ones. Araki has third person narration drop in from time to time, telling us how glorious everything is in full! blown! CAPSLOCK! But then Jonathan, Speedwagon and Dio also seem to have their own inner monologue, functioning as a narrative voice as well, and just as dramatic. It’s as if you took all the characters and gave them microphones so they could turn to the audience and soliloquize for a while. Honestly, the only normal thing in this entire volume is Zeppeli, whose attitude towards training has been used over and over in so many shonen manga (and yes, he probably got it from Ashita no Joe or something) that you don’t even bat an eye when he threatens Jonathan. But that’s OK, Speedwagon is there to bat them for you.

You can’t really casually read a title like this – you have to leap in full body and drown yourself in it. If you do, not only do you get top notch action and horror, but you also get things like Elizabeth I’s evil face as she condemns two nights to their deaths, where she looks like a yanki punk. I can’t wait for the conclusion of this arc.

My Week in Manga: May 25-May 31, 2015

June 1, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Last week was the last week of May, which means the most recent giveaway at Experiments in Manga is currently underway. There are still a couple of days left to enter for a chance to win an Ema Toyama Twosome, i.e. the first volume of both Missions of Love and Manga Dogs. I also posted a couple of in-depth reviews last week. The first review was of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Volume 8: Operation Odessa, which is the first volume to take place after the series’ extended flashback arc. It’s not my favorite volume in the series, but Kai gets his moment in the spotlight which I was happy to see. The second review was of Kazuki Sakuraba’s award-winning novel Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas, which I enjoyed immensely. Sakuraba is probably better known as the creator of Gosick, but Red Girls is a fantastic multi-generational epic.

I was actually at a conference for work most of last week, so I wasn’t able to keep up with news and announcements to quite the same extent that I’m usually able to. However, I still did come across some interesting reading. Aya Kanno, for example, has recently had some interviews posted. Over at Barnes & Noble’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Brigid Alverson talked with Kanno about defying expectations and Rebecca Silverman’s interview of Kanno was posted at Anime News Network. A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the first volume of Wayward which I quite enjoyed, so I found Katriel Page’s essay about how Rori embodies liminality to be particularly interesting. And over at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin wants you all to Meet the Man Who’s Translated a Thousand Manga Chapters—Dan Luffey.

Quick Takes

Cipher, Volumes 7-11 by Minako Narita. Despite being twelve volumes in Japan, for some reason the English-language edition of Cipher was collected in eleven. (It is the complete series, though.) I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of the series, and the sixth volume ends with a fairly dramatic twist, so I was anxious to read the manga’s conclusion. Cipher and Siva, being nearly inseparable growing up and at one point even sharing an identity, are now living apart with the entire country between them. Wracked with guilt, Cipher has moved from New York to Los Angeles, leaving his girlfriend Anise behind along with his twin brother. In general, this second half of Cipher tends to be somewhat more believable than the first, though there are still plenty of parts that aren’t especially realistic. However, Narita does an excellent job of exploring the emotional fallout and the changes in the characters’ relationships with one another that come about as a result of both Cipher and Siva learning to live their lives as individuals and each becoming his own person. New characters are introduced who play a very important role in this evolution, including Cipher’s Los Angeles roommate Hal and Siva’s fellow model Alex. In the end, Anise’s story ends up being secondary to that of the brothers, but she shows growth and development as well.

Cry to the Moon by Various. I discovered Love Love Hill relatively recently, but the collective releases some great comics, so I’ve been making a point to pick up its anthologies. Cry to the Moon, based on the theme of delinquents and animals, is the most recent Love Love Hill comics anthology. The volume includes contributions from eight different creators. I was especially looking forward to Saicoink’s “To My Dear White Dove: A Quiet Love,” a sort of alternate universe side story to her series Open Spaces and Closed Places (which I absolutely love), but I enjoyed the other works that were collected as well. Cry to the Moon has a nice variety of comics that range from the comedic to the bittersweet to the tragic. Many of the stories are based in reality while a few of them incorporate more fantastical elements. Some are only a few pages while others are more lengthy and involved. But no matter the length or the tone of the story, each of the comics collected in Cry to the Moon exhibits heart. What I love about anthologies is the opportunity to experience the different art styles and storytelling techniques of the creators involved. I also appreciate that the individual creators are given space in Cry to the Moon to write about their influences and inspirations for their stories and how they decided to interpret the anthology’s theme.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 3 by Hiromu Arakawa. I am largely enjoying The Heroic Legend of Arslan, it’s a great fantasy story with exciting battles and interesting worldbuilding, but I do wish that the characters and plot had a little more complexity and nuance to them. By the end of the third volume, I have some hope that this will eventually happen as the series continues to develop, but right now it’s just not quite there. Characterization in the manga tends to be painted with a fairly broad stroke and heavy hand. Some of the humor, while amusing, doesn’t always mesh well with the overall tone of the series, either. However, there are other things that The Heroic Legend of Arslan is doing well. I particularly like the series’ approach to action scenes and battles. There are plenty of examples of extraordinarily strong fighters showing off their incredibly powerful skills, but strategy and tactics are also incredibly important to how a battle plays out in the end. In the third volume, Arslan and his small contingent of supporters face off against more than a thousand soldiers, but thanks to careful planning, psychological manipulation, and effective use of the geographical terrain, for the most part they are able to come through unscathed.

Showa: A History of Japan, 1944-1953 by Shigeru Mizuki. This third and penultimate volume of Showa: A History of Japan addresses the time period of that era that I already knew the most about—the end of the Pacific War and the following occupation of Japan by Western forces. Even so, there were things that I learned reading the manga that I never knew before. Showa: A History of Japan continues to be told using two closely intertwined narratives. Mizuki outlines the larger developments of the war and Japan’s reconstruction, but he also incorporates the story of his own experiences and the experiences of his family. It’s this personal touch that makes Showa: A History of Japan especially compelling and hard-hitting as it drives home the tragedy of war and the dire circumstances faced by the soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict. Part of the third volume deals with some of the same events found in Mizuki’s Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, so I was already familiar with some of the story, but that didn’t make its impact any less effective. This volume reveals how Mizuki survived during war against all odds as well as how he survived after the war (another difficult feat), including his beginnings as a kamishibai and manga artist.

A Silent Voice, Volume 1 by Yoshitoki Oima. If the volumes that follow the first are anywhere near as strong, A Silent Voice is likely one of the best series to be released this year. (At least in print; technically, the manga started being officially released digitally on Crunchyroll last year.) The first volume of A Silent Voice is both powerful and heartbreaking. The story follows Shoya, a somewhat unlikeable young man and a terrible bully. He learns that his actions have consequences not only for others but for himself as well when he decides to make Shoko, a deaf transfer student, his next target. A Silent Voice doesn’t sugarcoat school bullying, showing just how vicious and cruel kids can be and how quickly they can turn on one another. Perhaps even more tragic is that some of the teachers do very little to put an end to it or to discourage the behavior. In some cases, they seem to even encourage it, or at least allow the bullying to flourish. There is a stunning lack of empathy from almost every character in the series. The majority of A Silent Voice, Volume 1 takes place during Shoya and Shoko’s middle school years. This actually occurs six years before the start of the manga, establishing the complicated nature of Shoya’s feelings toward Shoko and the exploring developments that led him to become the person he now is.

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 10

May 31, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Akitaka. Released in Japan in two separate volumes as “Umineko no Naku Koro ni: End of the Golden Witch” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press.

While Higurashi was divided into four Question Arcs and four Answer Arcs, Umineko plays it cagier, saying that the last four arcs are ‘Core Arcs’. Getting closer to the truth, but you’ll still have to dig for most of the answers. The first of these arcs, End of the Golden Witch, lives up to that name, as we skip most of the fluff and romance we’ve gotten in earlier arcs and go straight to what’s important: the Epitaph, the Gold, and the Murders. That said, there is one big difference: Lambdadelta and Bernkastel are in charge now, not Beatrice. And, as a result, everything is a bit twisted.

Ronove and Virgilia helpfully explain that our replacement game masters can’t do things impossible for Beatrice to do, but they can do things Beatrice WOULDN’T do. We see a bit of that in the scene with Natsuhi and Beatrice having tea together while reminiscing about her honeymoon with Krauss. It’s the sweetest scene in the whole volume, and has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with solving the game or defeating Beatrice. Yet Bernkastel takes delight in telling us, in Red Truth, that Natsuhi is simply having tea by herself, the conversation never happened. Beatrice used the Red truth to stop Battler going down false paths, or lead him closer to where she wanted him to go. Bern uses the Red Truth to be mean because she finds it hilarious.

This leads me to the new character that enters the series at this point. That’s her on the cover, Erika Furudo. No, not Rika Furude. No, not Frederica Bernkastel. Ryukishi said in a recent interview that he regards Rika looking like Bern to be similar to Tezuka’s ‘star system’, where Rock or Lamp might show up in any work as a “different” but similar character. Fans of Rika were already a bit surprised that Bern turned out to be a heartless villain (though honestly, they can’t have been TOO surprised… go read Higurashi’s darker moments again). Erika, though, is written entirely to irritate, to annoy, and to make the reader hate her.

I was wondering how Yen Press would handle translation for the scene where Erika sums herself up best, and I am very pleased it’s 100% as fans of the game will remember: Erika, fantasizing about seeing Jessica in tears after the epitaph is solved, leers as she describes herself as an “intellectual rapist” who enjoys wreaking havoc for the sake of it. Which makes sense, given that she’s basically Bernkastel imposing herself on the island as a self-insert. Even when Erika tries to make nice and simply be a goofy, slightly off-kilter young girl, it looks calculated and wrong.

There is another new character we see here, of course, which is the mysterious “man from 19 years ago” who keeps calling Natsuhi on the phone and driving her into hysterics. Natsuhi is accused of the murders by Erika in a sort of flashforward at the start of the book, so we know she’s in for a terrible arc. And indeed, as we’ll see in the next omnibus in September, she is not without horrible crimes in her past. But honestly, Krauss, Natsuhi and Jessica are probably my favorite of the four families, if only as they all clearly love each other and they’re all so BAD at showing it. (Krauss’ foray into Moon Tourism also doesn’t help.) Taking Natsuhi, who has trouble communicating even the most basic feelings of love and affection, and putting her through this is vicious.

We end this volume with what appears to be the First Twilight, so let me briefly discuss the manga adaptation here: it’s excellent. As with all other adaptations, things have been removed and shuffled around, but more than any other this one takes care to include everything important and show how important it is (such as the maid and baby being “lured” off a cliff to their death by golden butterflies and witches). The faces are also nicely done, particularly when Erika, Lambda or Bern is going creepy and horrible on us. And the cliffhangers are well-timed, driving you forward to see what happens next. As far as I can tell, the artist hasn’t really done much other manga, which is a shame; they do a bang up job here.

Umineko is still a wonderfully tense and intricate read, if you can get past the fact that everyone in it is a horrible person. We’ll see how things go once Erika gets to play The Detective next time.

Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas

May 30, 2015 by Ash Brown

Author: Kazuki Sakuraba
Translator: Jocelyne Allen
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421578576
Released: April 2015
Original release: 2006
Awards: Mystery Writers of Japan Award

Kazuki Sakuraba is probably most well-known as the creator of Gosick, a series of light novels which would later be adapted as a manga series, an audio drama, and an anime series. Two of those novels were released in English by Tokyopop. After her success with Gosick, Sakuraba would go on to write and publish mainstream novels and essays as well, several of which would earn her awards and nominations for her work. Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas is one of those novels. Originally published in Japan in 2006, Red Girls won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 2007. That fact caught my attention as I have thoroughly enjoyed other novels that have won that particular award, as did the striking cover design of the English-language edition of Red Girls. The novel was released in English in 2015 by Viz Media’s speculative fiction imprint Haikasoru with a translation by Jocelyne Allen. Although Red Girls is the third novel by Sakuraba to have been translated, it was actually the first one that I read and was my introduction to her work as a whole.

For a time, the village of Benimidori, found in the western reaches of Japan’s Tottori Prefecture, was largely controlled by two rival families: the Akakuchibas, known as “red above” and who operated a steelworks factory, and the Kurobishis, known as “black below” and who were prosperous shipbuilders. While the Kurobishis were nouveau riche, the Akakuchibas were an old, upstanding family, and so quite a stir was caused when a young mountain girl who had been abandoned in the village was selected to marry the family’s heir. That was Manyo, a clairvoyant whose ability to see the future would help guide the family through a number of crises, including the tragic death of her firstborn son. The responsibility to carry on the Akakuchiba name then fell to her daughter Kemari, a wild young woman who would also die young, leaving behind a daughter of her own. By all appearances, Toko, unlike her mother or grandmother, seems to be an ordinary girl, but she is the only person to whom Manyo confessed a closely kept secret—she once killed someone.

Red Girls is divided into three parts, each one respectively devoted to the retelling of the lives and legends of Manyo, Kemari, and Toko. Eventually it is revealed that Toko is the novel’s narrator, recording the stories that she has been told by and about her mother and grandmother in an attempt to identify the person whose death Manyo claims to be responsible for. People associated with the Akakuchibas have a tendency to die in unexpected or peculiar ways, and so Toko knows of several individuals who could have been potential victims. As with any family story passed on from one generation to the next, there is a certain amount of fiction and embellishment that is added to the retelling of events. As she investigates the unusual circumstances involved in the various deaths, Toko must also closely reevaluate everything that she has been told about her family, teasing apart the stories in order to determine what exactly is the truth, what has been exaggerated, and what details continue to remain hidden and unsaid.

In addition to providing an intriguing mystery that Toko feels compelled to unravel, the narrative found in Red Girls serves another, very important purpose. It is a way for Toko to come to terms with the history of the Akakuchiba family and her position within it, allowing her to take her place in a line of powerful matriarchs. It’s not something that she is initially prepared to do, feeling inadequate when compared to her grandmother and mother and their various accomplishments. Red Girls also situates the legend of the Akakuchibas—and a legend it is, full of peculiar and fantastical elements—within the greater context of Japan’s economic and social histories. As Japan changes over time, so must the Akakuchiba family and its members, and so must the way they think about themselves, their relationships, and their stories. Red Girls is a tremendous multi-generational epic, sometimes strange and sometimes mysterious, but always engaging and oddly compelling. I enjoyed the novel immensely.

The Manga Revue: Love at Fourteen

May 29, 2015 by Katherine Dacey

Thanks to everyone who responded positively to last week’s inaugural Manga Revue! This week’s column focuses on Love at Fourteen, a romance manga that’s garnered good reviews around the web. I’ve also rounded up the week’s most notable manga criticism below. If you’d like to see your reviews here, leave a note in the comments.

Love at Fourteen, Vol. 1
By Fuka Mizutani
Rated T, for Teens
Yen Press, $15.00

Love at Fourteen is an earnest, uneventful chronicle of first love. The teenagers in question are Tanaka and Yoshikawa, the tallest, smartest, and most responsible students at their middle school. Although they earn high marks and dutifully erase boards after class, they share a secret: they long to be as goofy and carefree as their peers. Their desire to cast off the yoke of maturity in favor of spontaneity becomes the catalyst for a chaste romance.

So far, so good: the premise has legs, and if Fuka Mizutani had better storytelling chops, Love at Fourteen might have offered young readers a meaningful alternative to the romantic histrionics of Kare First Love or Kare Kanno. Unfortunately, Mizutani relies heavily on interior monologues and pointed conversations to reveal what Tanaka and Yoshikawa are feeling, draining most of their scenes of tension, excitement, or ambiguity–the very qualities that make first love so memorable. Mizutani’s few attempts at generating drama fall painfully flat; moving Tanaka to a different row in the classroom hardly constitutes a meaningful impediment to her relationship with Yoshikawa, yet Mizutani dedicates two chapters to exploring the consequences of this new seating arrangement.

There’s nothing wrong with Mizutani’s commitment to charting the normal ups and downs of a teenage romance, of course; too many manga lean on false suitors, jealous rivals, or monstrous parents to prolong the inevitable union of the principle characters. Without a lively supporting cast, however, Love at Fourteen sinks under the weight of its principle characters’ personalities: doesn’t one of them play the bassoon or harbor a secret desire to break into voice acting? Generic artwork and stock scenes contribute to the impression of blandness, making this a tough sell for readers who demand more than from a story than sincerity.

The verdict: Tweens and young teens feel like the right audience for this book; older readers may find it too pat to hold their interest.

Reviews: Over at The Manga Test Drive, Megan R. takes two older titles for a spin: Cafe Kichijouji De and V.B. Rose. Shaenon Garrity devotes the latest House of 1000 Manga column to Taiyo Matsumoto’s Sunny.

Matthew Warner on vol. 3 of Ajin: Demi-Human (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Assassination Classroom (Comic Book Bin)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 10 of Black Lagoon (ANN)
John Rose on vol. 2 of Bloody Brat (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 13 of Blue Exorcist (Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on Chou Chou Nan Nan (Okazu)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 2 of Demon From Afar (The Fandom Post)
Sakura Eries on vol. 16 of Dengeki Daisy (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Emma (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Inu x Boku SS (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
A Library Girl on vol. 2 of Inu x Boku SS (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 17 of Kamisama Kiss (Sequential Tart)
Ian Wolf on vol. 1 of Let’s Dance a Waltz (Anime UK News)
Helen on Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Nick Creamer on vols. 3-4 of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (ANN)
Ken H. on vol. 2 of My Neighbor Seki (Sequential Ink)
Matthew Warner on vol. 74 of One Piece (The Fandom Post)
Ian Wolf on vol. 1 of Oreimo: Kuroneko (Anime UK News)
G.B. Smith on vol. 7 of Seven Deadly Sins (The Fandom Post)
G.B. Smith on vol. 8 of Seven Deadly Sins (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 5 of Terra Formars (The Fandom Post)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 1 of Tokyo Ghoul (Sequential Tart)
manjiorin on Tony Takezaki’s Neon Genesis Evangelion (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Sarah on vol. 1 of The World’s Greatest First Love (Anime UK News)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Vol. 8: Operation Odessa

May 29, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story: Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781939130686
Released: December 2014
Original release: 2011

Although I was vaguely familiar with Gundam before reading Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, the manga series was my first real introduction to the ever-expanding franchise. I was actually more interested in The Origin because it was created by Yasuhiko than for its Gundam connection, but I’ve been enjoying the series so much that I’ve started to look for other manga, novels, and anime set in the universe. Operation Odessa is the eighth volume in Vertical’s English-language release of The Origin. Published in 2015, the volume is based on the Japanese collectors’ edition released in 2011 and includes an essay by Makoto Yukimura in addition to a gallery of some of Yasuhiko’s color artwork for the series. The Origin is a reimagining of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime from 1979. The last several volumes of The Origin have been an extended flashback not found in the original anime series, but with Operation Odessa the manga returns to the story’s current timeline.

After successfully defending itself from Zeon forces at Jaburo—though not without significant casualties—the Earth Federation has set out to reclaim more of the planet and its aligned space colonies. The key to its plans is the newly developed and highly advanced Gundam mobile suit which the ragtag crew of the White Base was somehow able to deliver to the Federation’s headquarters mostly intact. The Gundam prototype will serve as the basis for a mass-produced mobile suit that will hopefully be able to rival those developed by Zeon. Up until this point in the devastating conflict between the two factions, Zeon’s impressive technological achievements have given it a distinct advantage over the Federation. But now the tide of war seems to be changing. However, neither side will remain unscathed. The battles are still incredibly destructive and the loss of life continues to be immense. Even so, the end of the war may still not be coming anytime soon.

The Origin began in space and has since moved Earthward, the space battles giving way to air and land battles. And now with Operation Odessa, sea battles have an important role to play in the conflict as well. With new arenas of warfare come new weapons, mobile suits, technology, equipment, and vehicles. It can actually be a little overwhelming at times, this sudden introduction of very specialized tools that don’t have much more explanation given beyond a name and a visual design. Inundated, readers are mostly left to glean the details of the differences in the capabilities and purposes of the individual units from their context within the manga. Much of Operation Odessa seems to be devoted to showing off these new toys of war in a way that is probably more meaningful to someone who is already well-versed in Gundam lore. Especially in the last half of the volume, the narrative tends to be jarring as it jumps from battle to battle, or from different points in the same battle, without much connecting material to smooth the transitions.

While Operation Odessa could arguably be considered overly focused on equipment and technology, it is important to note that the manga still has a prominent human element to it, which is what makes The Origin such a compelling series. In particular, Kai, one of the young pilots connected to White Base, is heavily featured in Operation Odessa and develops significantly as a character. For the most part he has largely been a secondary character who provides a fair amount of comedic relief in the series. Except now he’s quite seriously fed up with all of the fighting and even tries to leave, only to find himself drawn back into battle and the tragedy of war. As Yasuhiko has shown repeatedly throughout The Origin, those who are directly involved in the conflict aren’t the only ones who are impacted by it. Civilians and non-combatants must also take action out of necessity, doing whatever they can to survive and protect those they love. It’s a lesson that Kai must learn the hard way in Operation Odessa if he is to understand his own role as a soldier.