Features & Reviews

Manga the Week of 4/29

April 23, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 1 Comment

SEAN: The last week of April is pretty much KODANSHA WEEK, with only two exceptions.

There’s a 3rd Attack on Titan Junior High omnibus, which is highly recommended for those who enjoy seeing how far an adaptation can go, those who enjoy seeing their favorite characters being very silly indeed, and those who like to quote one-liners on Tumblr.

Maria the Virgin Witch is a title I was very conflicted about after reading the first volume, but I’ve heard that it improves, and it’s a short series, so I will give Vol. 2 a try.

ASH: The series has a lot of potential, so I’m curious to see how it develops.

SEAN: There’s a 4th volume of supernatural comedy Noragami.

And a 7th of addictive shoujo potboiler Say “I Love You”. (I will never let go of those quote marks. It would be like leaving the ! out of Skip Beat!.)

MICHELLE: I have fallen behind on this one. Must rectify!

SEAN: Lastly, a 3rd volume of xxxHOLIC Rei, which I will continue to read as long as there’s a possibility of more Himawari/Doumeki/Watanuki OT3 shenanigans.

MICHELLE: I still have not managed to finish the original xxxHOLiC. Bad manga fan!

ASH: I was glad to see it recently announced that CLAMP is resuming work on this series after its hiatus.

MJ: This! I will be reading this.

ANNA: When will they finish X/1999? WHEN?

SEAN: In non-Kodansha news, there’s a new Alice in the Country of Clover from Seven Seas, this time focusing on Elliot: The March Hare’s Revolution.

And Vertical Comics gives us a 9th deluxe hardcover edition of Gundam The Origin.

ASH: There was a delay on this volume’s release to address some printing errors, so I’ll be happy to see it finally arrive!

ANNA: Need to get caught up on this!

SEAN: Still catching up from last week? Or does something here leap out at you?

Shades of London, Books 1-3 by Maureen Johnson

April 23, 2015 by Michelle Smith

The actual title of this post should be “Books 1-3 plus that novella that came out in 2014,” but that was rather inelegant.

The Name of the Star
When Louisiana native Rory Deveaux’s professorial parents take a sabbatical in the UK, Rory jumps at the chance to attend boarding school in London. The early chapters of The Name of the Star depict her acclimation to life at Wexford, befriending her new roommate (Jazza) and developing a flirtation with one of the male prefects (Jerome). Because the phrase “boarding school in London” is totally my cup of tea (har har) and because Rory is amusingly snarky, I was already loving the book at this point, and that’s before I even got to the part with Jack the Ripper and ghosts!

A copycat of the notorious killer is on the loose, and since Wexford is located in Whitechapel, many of the crime scenes are nearby. After a near-death experience by choking grants Rory the ability to see ghosts, she actually witnesses the perpetrator (who has mysteriously failed to show up on any CCTV recordings of the murders) which brings her to the notice of a special secret police squad tasked with controlling any unruly members of the spectral population.

Several more fun characters are then introduced, and here I must compliment the narrator of the unabridged audiobook, Nicola Barber, whose facility in accents made me feel like I was listening to a BBC show. (I especially liked that Callum, a former football hopeful now dispatching meddlesome ghosts on the Underground, sounded rather like Lister from Red Dwarf!) In fact, I think this would make a pretty great BBC show, with its mildly diverse cast and the fact that the heroine is not merely brave (she eventually assists the squad in their ghosthunt), but funny, too. Admittedly, there were a couple of moments where Rory did some dumb things, but one could argue she didn’t really have better alternatives.

I haven’t loved a book this much in quite a long time, and I am both happy and bummed that there are two more (only two more!) in the series currently.

The Madness Underneath
It is with true regret that I must report that The Madness Underneath suffers from an unfortunate case of Middle Book Syndrome. A crack created at the end of the first book seems to be providing a way for the buried dead of Bedlam to make it to the surface, and Rory’s newfound skills as a human “terminus” are effective in dispatching one murderous ghost, but this plotline fizzles out partway through. (Sidebar: it’s a crazy coincidence that this article comes out the very day I finish this book!) Then Rory falls in with a cult whose philosophy and goals don’t make a lot of sense, and shortly after her costly rescue, there’s suddenly a cliffhanger ending. If I had to wait for book three, I would probably be peeved that that’s all there was.

That is not to suggest that nothing of merit happens, however. I actually really liked how Rory’s return to Wexford was handled—how she was just simply incapable of caring about things she used to care about. So far behind in schoolwork that it’s overwhelming, she can’t muster the desire to try, and yet is blindsided when it is suggested that perhaps she ought to withdraw prior to exams. So caught up in the ghosthunting gig, boyfriend Jerome’s suspicions (and then guilt over same) become just another nagging problem, so she ends their relationship. I liked that Callum feels more antagonistically towards ghosts than the others do, and yet everyone seems to respect each other’s point of view. I liked the Marc Bolan reference. And, of course, before the more serious stuff starts to happen, there are at least a dozen lines of dialogue that made me laugh. (There’s also a dream featuring ham lunchmeat that I think might be an homage to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode “Restless.”)

Even though this particular installment was kind of disappointing, I continue to look forward to subsequent books just as much as before.

The Boy in the Smoke
This short novella visits four defining moments in the life of Stephen Dene, leader of the ghost police, offering insight into the thoughts and background of a notably reticent character. Some of these incidents have been referred to in previous books, but not in this much detail.

“The Forgotten Boy” recounts a time when Stephen’s parents forget to fetch him from school at the end of term. (They’ve gone to Barbados instead.) His sister Regina comes to his rescue, determined to save him from a life doing what their parents expect, but she’s erratic and Stephen soon figures out that she’s using drugs. In “The Break in the Chain,” Stephen is attending Eton when he gets word of Regina’s death by overdose. (His parents “worked out their grief at a resort in Switzerland.”) He manages to carry on for several years, determined to fulfill his duty of succeeding at Eton and carrying on to Cambridge, until a visit from his unfeeling family leads him to commit suicide (in a scene that is absolutely riveting).

“The Specialist” find Stephen recovering at a psychiatric hospital and being recruited by Thorpe to lead the reformed team. And in “The Boy in the Smoke,” Stephen has finally achieved his dream of becoming a police officer. Practically the first thing he does is search for Regina’s ghost, only to find she did not return. Lastly, he fulfills his promise to come back to visit the ghost who saved his life and this slim little book comes to an end that left me rather verklempt.

Is this book essential to understanding the Shades of London series? No, but I’d say it’s essential to understanding Stephen, and very definitely worth the time.

The Shadow Cabinet
What do you get when you take a series that first beguiled me with London, boarding school, Jack the Ripper, and ghosts, and then remove half of those things? A book that is reasonably good but which I just cannot love with anything approaching the ardor I originally felt.

The Shadow Cabinet offers a lot more information about the cult and their goals, introduces the concept of powerful stones that prevent London from being overrun by spirits as well as a secret society tasked with protecting them, and unleashes creepy, evil siblings Sid and Sadie upon the world. More attention, though, is devoted to Rory’s personal plight. Now in hiding from family and friends after running away from Wexford, she and the team are searching everywhere for one of their own who they believe has become a ghost.

The resolution to book two’s cliffhanger is pretty satisfying, I must admit, and I found that I did care a lot about whether certain characters made it out of Sid and Sadie’s proximity unscathed. I also really liked getting to know more about Thorpe, the group’s MI-5 overseer, and that Rory apparently receives permission to tell her two closest friends from Wexford what’s really been going on. And then there’s also the part where Stephen asks the bad guys, “Do you want to test that theory?” which surely must be another Buffy reference, right?

I’m still looking forward to the fourth book, which I believe is going to be the last in the series, but I must admit that my expectations are lower now than they once were.

No Game No Life, Vol. 1

April 23, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On.

I can only imagine that being someone who wants to read No Game No Life for the plotting, characterization, worldbuilding and excellent sense of dialogue is sort of like being someone who genuinely does read Playboy only for the articles. There’s that realization that you’re sort of enjoying something except for that one thing, but that you can’t actually tell people about it or recommend it to anyone, and it’s intensely frustrating. This is particularly the case with NGNL because the fanservice is so… unimportant. Yes, having Sora be a bit of a loser pervert allows Stephanie to feel conflicted so that she doesn’t simply give in and start crushing on him right away, but as for Shiro… there’s just no need for naked 11-year-old bath fanservice here.

Luckily, in prose format, this is a bit easier to gloss over. Ignoring the art (provided, unusually, by the author, who got his start as an artist for light novels, which perhaps also explains a lot of the service), I’m still really drawn into this world and these two broken losers who are brought into it. I had reviewed Seven Seas’ manga adaptation a while back, which covers about the first third of the book, and it applies here as well. Sora and Shiro have glorious overconfidence that’s really a mask for their crippling social issues, which can only be resolved when they aren’t separated from each other. This even extends to relationships, as Sora, while he does say “fall in love with me” to Stephanie (before, I think, he really grasps how things work here), points out straight away that nothing can happen for the next seven years as he literally can’t have Shiro not in the room so is waiting till she’s 18.

Much of the second half of the book is devoted to a chess match which has an excellent premise – the pieces move based on your determination, and won’t sacrifice themselves if they don’t want to. This is disastrous for genuine logical minds like Shiro’s who see every scenario provided the rules are correct, but Sora is familiar enough with warfare and dynamic speaking (seriously, Sora’s speeches are amazing in this novel… love the JoJo’s reference) to get the whole board on his side. It’s a great way of showing how [ ] works as a team. Likewise, I loved their discussion with Tet at the end, where it’s revealed he’d never lost before he met them, and they point out they’ve both lost many, many times… to each other. They know how to use that feeling to win again.

There’s a lot left unspoken here that I want to read more volumes to find out about. Actually seeing some of the other races, whether Sora or Shiro will actually bother to rule or just push everything onto Stephanie, whether Stephanie actually does have feelings for Sora or if it’s just the mechanics of that world at work… I’m likely going to read on, because of a keenly developed ability over years of reading questionable material to put my fingers in my ears and say la-la-la. But sadly, in the end this is another series, even in novel form, I can only recommend to the ‘otaku’ demographic it’s going after. And honestly, I suspect most of those people will be screaming ‘boycott, deal breaker!’ because she’s spelled Chlammy anyway.

God’s Boat

April 22, 2015 by Ash Brown

Author: Kaori Ekuni
Translator: Chikako Kobayashi
U.K. publisher: Thames River Press
ISBN: 9780857282491
Released: December 2012
Original release: 1999

One of my favorite books that I’ve read in the past few years is Kaori Ekuni’s debut and award-winning novel Twinkle Twinkle. Because I enjoyed it to such a great extent, I made a point to seek out more of Ekuni’s work to read. Sadly, God’s Boat is currently her only other major work to have been released in English. The novel was originally published in Japan in 1999. Later it was selected as a part of the Japanese Literature Publishing Project—an effort to promote the publication of modern Japanese works in translation across the globe. The English translation of God’s Boat by Chikako Kobayashi was released in 2012 by Thames River Press, a publisher based in the United kingdom. Ekuni is a respected author in Japan and has won several prestigious awards for her work. However, she doesn’t seem to be very well-known among English-reading audiences, which is a shame. I wish that more of Ekuni’s work was available in translation; her writing is excellent.

Yoko Najima lives alone with her young daughter Soko. She left her husband soon after Soko was born as the result of a passionate love affair. To make ends meet, Yoko teaches piano and works at bars and restaurants. There are three things that she counts as true treasures in her life: piano, Soko, and Soko’s father. But he has disappeared and has been gone for nearly a decade, promising that one day he will return for her. Without him by her side, Yoko feels like she doesn’t belong anywhere. Every few years she moves from one place to another with Soko in tow, afraid that if she gets too comfortable and begins to blend with her surroundings he will never find her. Yoko and Soko drift along together in life, but as Soko grows older she becomes weary of the process of moving and starting over again and again. She wants to make some lasting friendships, establish roots, and find stability. But her mother yearns for nothing more than to be reunited with Soko’s father. She is desperate to see him once more.

Much like Twinkle Twinkle, the narrative of God’s Boat alternates between two, not quite stream-of-consciousness, perspectives. The story gently progresses, at times seen through Yoko’s eyes and at others seen through Soko’s. God’s Boat paints a very intimate portrait of these two women and of their relationship with each other. A little at a time, their most private thoughts and personal memories are revealed, creating a framework from which Ekuni explores themes of love, family, grief, and loss. The novel begins in 1997, when Soko is nine years old, and ends in 2004, following them from Takahagi, to Sakura, to Zushi, and then finally to Tokyo. Yoko doesn’t change much as the novel progresses, but Soko grows significantly as she matures from a child into a young woman, which forces her relationship with her mother to evolve as well. In part, God’s Boat is Soko’s coming-of-age story as she learns to cope with her mother’s eccentricities while living under the shadow of a father she never knew.

In the epilogue, Ekuni states that while God’s Boat “is simple and quiet, the tale is one of madness. Even now I believe it to be the most perilous novel I’ve written thus far.” For the most part, God’s Boat is a very straightforward narrative about the everyday lives of its characters. The madness that Ekuni refers to is subtle, more obvious in retrospect but present from the very beginning of the novel. At first, God’s Boat is fairly unassuming, but tension slowly builds as Soko matures until the novel takes a sudden and devastating turn near its conclusion when the precarious state of Yoko’s mental and emotional stability is laid completely bare. Looking back, the developments aren’t so surprising—eventually reality must invade the romanticized existence that Yoko has created for herself and her daughter. Even so, I was not expecting God’s Boat to be nearly as hard-hitting and emotionally wrenching as it ends up being. The novel is one that will stick with me for quite some time, a testament to Ekuni’s skill as an author.

Bookshelf Briefs 4/20/15

April 20, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N and Michelle Smith Leave a Comment

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

Gakuen Polizi, Vol. 2 | By Milk Morinaga | Seven Seas – I had wanted Gakuen Polizi to get a bit less insubstantial, but I’m not sure this is what I meant. After fairly swiftly dealing with the evil rival who showed up for last volume’s cliffhanger, and who’s not all that evil after all, the final arc delves into the world of racy photos for money and spirals into teen prostitution. This includes a teacher whose talk about artistry of innocent half-nude schoolgirls trumping petty legality does not sound far off from some yuri fans. Oh yes, and there is a bit of yuri in here after all, though due to Aoba’s denseness we get a confession and kiss AND it doesn’t go anywhere. Fans of yuri will likely still enjoy this, but the last volume was far too moodswingey for me. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars, Vol 5 | By Yuto Tsukuda, Shun Saeki, and Yuki Morisaki | Viz Media – Volume five of this series is a bit of a transitional one, as the big storyline centered around the competition at the Totsuki Resort gets wrapped up and Soma finds himself with a chance to go home for a little break. Unfortunately, there’s a culinary crisis at the street market near Soma’s family restaurant, with a new corporate fried chicken chain threatening all the businesses. Soma digs in and comes up with a solution with his childhood friend Mayumi and he even imports meat expert Nikumi from school for extra help. This made for an entertaining interlude right before the next competition at cooking school starts. Food Wars has grown on me a bit with each volume and now I’m finding it consistently entertaining. – Anna N

Meteor Prince, Vol. 2 | By Meca Tanaka | Viz Media – Meteor Prince comes to a close in this volume, though not before a couple more aliens (Tania, Io’s rather obnoxious and clingy “true mate,” and Yuro, his ruthless younger brother) show up to erect obstacles to our lead couple’s happiness. I was a little disappointed that the origin of Hako’s spectacularly bad luck was never revealed, but there were other good things, like her awesome parents and protective little brother, and an ending that had just the right smidge of a drama for a two-volume series but rectified it all pretty swiftly and sweetly while still showing us Hako determined to take more control of her own destiny. If you miss the breed of shoujo that CMX used to release, you really ought to check out Meteor Prince; I have a feeling it’ll be on your wavelength. – Michelle Smith

Meteor Prince, Vol. 2 | By Meca Tanaka | Viz Media – Despite taking place after the main couple gets together, I thought this was the stronger of the two volumes of Meteor Prince, as we see all the various fallout that comes from this decision, and Io’s insistence that in the end he doesn’t care. Given this is a manga that began with predestined soulmates connected by wavelengths, the decision to show how in the end it’s people’s own choices that are important is an excellent one. Of course it’s not very original – there’s a comedic fiancee, a jealous little brother, and the choice between duty as a prince and romance. But for a series that is only two volumes long, Meteor Prince wraps everything up nicely, and the size feels just right. – Sean Gaffney

My Love Story!!, Vol. 4 | By Kazune Kawahara and Aruko | Viz Media – I have to admit, we finally hit something in this manga that I was less than satisfied with. I did not like Hayato, and felt his behavior, which involved getting his crush to resolve her feelings for Takeo so she can move on to him, was creepy and far too sympathetically told. That said, it’s hard for even that to penetrate the fuzzy adorable feeling anyone gets reading this. We get more here of Takeo thinking over and over again that people just don’t like him in ‘that way’, and seeing time and time again that it isn’t true. Which is cliched, yes, but also helps to point out how negative reinforcement as a child or teen can have major self-worth consequences down the road. Thank goodness he has Suna and Rinko. – Sean Gaffney

Requiem of the Rose King, Vol. 1 | By Aya Kanno | Viz Media – I have now sampled three series by Aya Kanno, and they’re so different from one another that I am quite impressed! Based on Shakespeare’s Henry VI and Richard III, Kanno’s latest retells the story of The War of the Roses—with plenty of bishounen in significant roles—but instead of perpetuating the “hunchback” version of Richard, gives him a different body image problem (and quite a nifty character design!) that should affect the familiar tale in fascinating ways. My main complaint is that I don’t remember my history well enough to know if some actions attributed to Richard here, like the almost seductive way he cajoles his father into not giving up the fight for the crown, actually happened, or if Kanno is writing him somewhat inconsistently. In either case, I am definitely on board for volume two! – Michelle Smith

Toriko, Vol. 27 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – The power of positive thinking is what drives the first half of this volume, which is still devoted to a serious of battles at the shattered remains of the Cooking Festival. It takes Toriko a long way, to the point where we think that he’s going to be able to take out Starjun, but… in the end, all of our current heroes may not be enough, and not even Setsuno and company can turn the tide. Luckily, there’s a few more old-timers who’ve yet to arrive that may help out. There’s been a lot of fighting and very little food lately, and I am looking forward to seeing the outcome of this battle, even if things aren’t looking all that good for Toriko or Komatsu right now. – Sean Gaffney

Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

April 20, 2015 by Michelle Smith

book description:
When Davy tests positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome, aka “the kill gene,” she loses everything. Once the perfect high school senior, she is uninvited from her prep school and abandoned by her friends and boyfriend. Even her parents are now afraid of her—although she’s never hurt a fly. Davy doesn’t feel any differently, but genes don’t lie. One day she will kill someone.

Without any say in the matter, Davy is thrown into a special class for HTS carriers. She has no doubt the predictions are right about them, especially Sean, who already bears the “H” tattoo as proof of his violence. Yet when the world turns on the carriers, Sean is the only one she can trust. Maybe he’s not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

Review:
We meet Davina (Davy) Hamilton in March 2021, when she is about to graduate from her prestigious prep school and proceed on to Juilliard. Davy is a special snowflake musical prodigy who is also gorgeous, with a studly boyfriend many other girls covet. She’s also not shy about congratulating herself for these things.

Her privileged existence comes to an end when routine screening reveals that she carries the gene for HTS—Homicidal Tendency Syndrome. She is promptly uninvited from her swanky school and sent to a class for “carriers” at the local public school, where some of the kids are obviously creeps but others seem as normal and harmless as Davy insists she is. Carriers are treated poorly by society, and when an angry group of them perpetrates a mass shooting, all carriers are rounded up and sent to detention camps. Davy and a couple of classmates, however, are diverted into a program where they train to kill on government command.

While there were a few things I liked about Uninvited, I must admit that it was not especially good. Original-flavor Davy is not a sympathetic character, but she does eventually realize that she used to be a pretty crappy person and that her friends and boyfriend never truly cared about her. I also found the repeated references to music in her head puzzling—as a musician myself, it’s true that I usually have a song (or at least unformed noodling) in my head, but I thought this was normal for everyone, and not a sign of genius as we are evidently supposed to believe here.

Too, the writing is sometimes weirdly choppy, and I’m not sure what the point of that was. Is it simply bad writing or is it an attempt to convey how grim the situation is? If that’s the case, why use it during a scene where Davy’s boyfriend seems to accept her, kill gene and all?

I need this. So much. His arms. His love.

That’s just one example. I confess that I eventually started internally reading these in a flat robot voice to amuse myself. Jordan sometimes seems to mix up musical terms, too, like when Davy refers to the “pitch” of an aria, or that her body sways to the “harmony.” Plus, there were two instances of “y’all” being spelled “ya’ll.” Can you become an editor without understanding how contractions are formed? Apparently, at Harper Teen you can!

So, irritating main character, bizarre writing style… what is there to like? Well, the concept itself is kind of interesting, and because I didn’t particularly care about anyone, their misfortunes didn’t cause me any anxiety. The portion of the novel set in the training program is the strongest, with Davy becoming determined not only to become strong in her own right, but buying into the claim that if she does well enough, the government will have the neck tattoo proclaiming her as a violent carrier removed.

In the end, I find myself interested enough to read the sequel, Unleashed, though I am very grateful that this series is not a trilogy.

My Week in Manga: April 13-April 19, 2015

April 20, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Two more in-depth manga reviews were posted at Experiments in Manga last week, and once again they were both for manga. Though, unlike the week before which featured newer manga, last week’s reviews focused on a couple of older titles, one of which is actually out of print. That would be After School Nightmare, Volume 3 by Setona Mizushiro. This is the last volume in the series that I had previously read before embarking on my monthly horror manga review project, so I’m particularly curious to see where the manga goes from here. But, since next month’s horror manga review will be Mushishi, Volume 3, I’ll have to wait until June to find out. The other review posted last week was for Yak Haibara’s Sengoku Basara: Samurai Legends, Omnibus 1. Technically, it’s an adaptation of the Sengoku Basara 2 video game, but no familiarity with the games are needed and it stands alone as its own work. In addition to the incredibly over-the-top and badass characters and fight sequences, there’s actually some legitimate history mixed in as well. I find the series highly entertaining.

There wasn’t a lot in the way of manga news and announcements that I saw last week. (Granted, I was pretty busy paying attention to more pressing matters). If I missed something noteworthy, please do let me know! I would, however, like to mention Vertical’s ask.fm account, which continues provide a bit of fun in addition to excellent insight into the North American manga industry. I was particularly interested in the answer to a question about the impact of libraries on book sales since I happen to be a librarian. Also, Seven Seas has an ask.fm account, too, which I tend to forget about for some reason. Elsewhere online, Organization Anti-Social Geniuses has an interesting article about a used bookstore owner who nabbed more than 400 volumes of manga without even really knowing a thing about manga. Finally, two of Deb Aoki’s manga articles for Publishers Weekly were recently released from behind a paywall: Manga Publishing Update, Spring 2015 and Manga Publishers Try Games, Erotica to Grow Market.

Quick Takes

Karneval, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 1-2) by Touya Mikanagi. Gareki is a fairly successful thief, but when a burglary doesn’t exactly go according to plan, he becomes the accidental protector of a strange young man called Nai and the both of them suddenly find themselves drawing the attention of Circus, a powerful association charged with dealing with criminals and situations regular law enforcement can’t handle. When Karneval was licensed, a resounding cry went up from its fans. I can definitely understand the appeal of the series. It has action and adventure, some sweetness as well as darkness, heroes with tragic backstories, mysteries and secret (and not-so-secret) organizations, quirky and attractive characters and designs (mostly men, but a few women as well), and so on. But although I thoroughly enjoyed parts of the first omnibus of Karneval, it didn’t quite grab my attention as much as I was hoping, or expecting, it would. I think this may be because the worldbuilding doesn’t feel as cohesive as I would like it to be. Mikanagi is smashing together some interesting and engaging elements and ideas, but they’re not quite meshing yet. However, I suspect the connections will become clearer as the series progresses.

Manga Dogs, Volume 3 by Ema Toyama. The third volume of Manga Dogs is also its last. It’s an amusing gag manga, but I think three volumes is just about right for the series. If it was stretched out for too much longer, it would likely become tiresome. Manga Dogs requires a high-tolerance for shallow characters, foolish comedy, and general absurdity. Although there is something of an overarching storyline, Manga Dogs tends to be fairly episodic, relying on the jokes to carry the manga more so than the characters or plot. As for the plot, at this point in the series Tezuka’s manga Teach Me Buddha is unsurprisingly in danger of cancellation as is the school’s manga program. Tezuka and the three air-headed male students who have attached themselves to her must work together in order to stop that from happening. Anyone who has read the first two volumes of Manga Dogs probably already has a pretty good idea of how well that works. I find Manga Dogs to be funniest when the humor directly ties into the manga industry or the mangaka’s creative processes. Although it’s taken quite seriously by Tezuka and the others, I’d actually be interested in reading Teach Me Buddha as a parody of shoujo manga; it has the potential to be funnier than Manga Dogs manages to be.

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Volume 1 by Miki Yoshikawa. I first learned about Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches when it was added to Crunchyroll Manga. I heard very good things about it at the time, and it sounded like something that I would enjoy, so I was very pleased when Kodansha Comics picked it up for print release. I’ll admit, I tend to enjoy body-swap manga, especially when there is some gender-swapping involved. (Which, now that I think about it, is probably more often the case than not.) Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is one of the most entertaining examples of that particular subgenre that I’ve read recently. At this point, the series is definitely being played as a comedy. The trigger for the body-swapping is kissing, and there certainly is plenty of that in the first volume. Girls kissing guys. Guys kissing other guys. (Perhaps later on in the series, there will even be girls kissing other girls.) There are kisses for everyone! Not unexpectedly, there is also a bit of fanservice. However, for the most part it doesn’t tend to be overly sexualized and generally makes sense within context of the manga. Yoshikawa used to be an assistant to Fairy Tail‘s Hiro Mashima; some of that influence can easily be seen in the artwork of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches.

12 Beast, Vol. 1

April 19, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Okayado. Released in Japan by Fujimi Shobo, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dragon Age. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

When something sells, it makes perfect business sense to get 5 other things that are similar to that thing. This tends to irritate a certain type of reader, but it’s true. This is why I joke about the newest vampire manga being licensed all the time – vampire manga tend to sell. Even the really mediocre vampire manga. The same holds true for ‘real people end up in fantasy/game world and are forced to fight’. Oddly, it doesn’t really hold true for ninja manga – Naruto was a huge hit, but other attempts to bring ninjas over here haven’t quite caught on. And of course there’s the ever popular ‘lots of fanservice and suggestive sexual scenes with no actual sex’ manga genre. Add to this the realization that Monster Musume was a much bigger hit than expected (I think) and the desire to license something else by the same author, and 12 Beast is perhaps one of the least surprising licenses ever.

Of course, the question is, what happens when you try to take multiple popular genres and cram them all into the same work? The answer is a bit of a mess, unfortunately. Our hero is the heir to a ninja school who would much rather spend his time playing games, and who is quite happy to humiliate himself in order to avoid any sort of trouble. Of course, this can’t possibly stand, so into his world comes Aero, who is a bird-woman demanding that Eita come and save her people with his amazing hero skills. He spends much of the volume trying to run away, or at least talk sense into the berserker bird-woman soldiers whose idea of attacking the enemy is ‘hit it till we die’. But naturally, when push comes to shove he gets to show off his awesome ninja skills and talent at battle analysis (via gaming, which we all know from other manga is a perfect preparation for real warfare). And of course he starts to amass a harem of bird-women who are falling for them, possibly as he keeps rubbing their wings, which are oh so sensitive.

If you imagine that last paragraph read out by me in a sort of flat monotone, you get my general impression of the book. I will give Seven Seas credit, the adaptation is excellent, and almost a reason to get the book on its own. It’s filled with humor and in-jokes from page 1, where we not only get a reference to No Game No Life (another SS series), but also a nostalgic reference to “attacking its weak point for massive damage”. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the manga itself, which, like its hero, is content to coast. Almost everything here has been done better somewhere else. Hell, even the blatant fanservice is not as blatant as it is in the author’s other title Monster Musume. Basically, if you’re looking for a hero coming to a fantasy kingdom and saving the day, amassing women as he does so, and want to collect the entire set of manga that feature this plot, pick this up. But I’d wait till the very last to get it.

Sengoku Basara: Samurai Legends, Vol. 1

April 17, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Yak Haibara
U.S. publisher: Udon Entertainment
ISBN: 9781926778334
Released: April 2012
Original release: 2007-2008

Sengoku Basara, an outrageous reimagining of the people and events of Japan’s Warring States period, is a franchise that started out as a series of video games but expanded to include manga, anime, and radio shows among other media. Although I have been aware of Sengoku Basara for quite some time, I’ve somewhat surprisingly never actually played any of the games. Instead, my first direct experience with the franchise was through Yak Haibara’s manga series known in English as Sengoku Basara: Samurai Legends, an adaptation of the second game, Sengoku Basara 2 (which is also the Japanese title of the manga). The first volume of Udon Entertainment’s Samurai Legends was released in 2012. It’s actually an omnibus collecting the first two volumes of the Japanese edition, published in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Normally, I tend to shy away from video game adaptations, often finding them to be less than satisfying, but I liked Haibara’s artwork and so made an exception for Samurai Legends. I’m glad that I did, because the manga is a tremendous amount of fun.

June 2, 1582. Akechi Mitsuhide leads a rebellion against Oda Nobunaga, setting fire to Honnou Temple and burning those inside alive. With Nobunaga dead, Japan’s temporary peace is disrupted as warlords once again battle to gain control over the country. The power vacuum is quickly filled by Hideyoshi Toyotomi with the aid of his impressively skilled strategist Hanbei Takenaka. Currently, they’re in the best position to seize complete control, but they aren’t the only ones taking advantage of the recent upheaval. In the east, the young and brash Masamune Date is itching to make his move, his chance encounter with Shingen Takeda’s protegé Yukimura Sanada spurring him on. Meanwhile, further to the west, Takeda is locked at an impasse with the “God of War” Kenshin Uesugi. While the balance of power is shifting swiftly and dramatically, the appearance of the vagabond Keiji Maeda on the field of war only seems to hasten events.

The Sengoku or Warring States period was an extremely tumultuous time in Japan, lasting from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Conflict was nearly constant as alliances between military factions were repeatedly forged and broken, making for an exciting setting for a franchise like Sengoku Basara. While fairly loose with its interpretation of historical figures and events, one thing is for certain: the action and fighting in Samurai Legends is almost nonstop. It’s also ridiculously over-the-top and over-powered. Characters are incredibly strong and resilient. They each have their own style of fighting and distinctive weaponry that, frankly, are often absurd. I mean, Date fights with three swords in each hand and Takeda’s battle-axe is as big as a horse. And that’s only two examples. Samurai Legends includes anachronisms and is hardly realistic, but the manga’s badassery is bombastic, dynamic, and highly engaging as a result.

Surprisingly enough, there actually is some legitimate history mixed into the raucousness that is Samurai Legends, but the manga was never intended to be a primer or to be taken too seriously. Though I will admit, I do find it much easier to remember who was who historically having been exposed to their highly-fictionalized counterparts. The manga has a very large cast of important and memorable players. Though Date is arguably the lead in the series, every faction involved in the conflict has at least one moment in the series in which it takes precedence. Samurai Legends isn’t particularly subtle or nuanced with its story or characterizations—more often than not it’s just one spectacular fight scene after another—but the manga’s humor and intense drama, exciting action, and sheer audacity have their own charm and appeal. Honestly, I never expected that I would like series as much as I do, but I get a huge kick out of Samurai Legends and find it to to be extraordinarily entertaining.

Gangsta Vols 4 and 5

April 16, 2015 by Anna N

As I embarked on getting caught up on Gangsta, I found myself very grateful for the character bios and plot summaries in front of the volumes. The first couple volumes focused on the slightly more intimate lives of Alex as she meets and is taken in by the Handymen Worick and Nic inter cut with various scenes of violence, but the series is now headed into a full on gang war, and it is useful to be reminded of just who is who in the ever expanding cast of characters.

Gangsta Volume 4 by Kohske

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The fourth volume deals with the personal problems of the characters as well as introducing more members of the sprawling underworld in the city of Ergastulum. The handymen are cleaning up after an attack, and Alex is distracted with memories of her younger brother. After shaking the dependency on the drugs she was previously addicted to, more of her normal memories are starting to come back, but she’s not yet able to recall the details of her past life. One of the things I like about this series is the artful way Kohske portrays her action scenes. Alex goes on an errand for the Handymen, and when she happens on a scene where another woman is being attacked, she grabs a stray piece of lumber and rushes in to defend a stranger without thinking of her own safety. Alex is about to get attacked herself, when on the next page a single panel of Nic in motion, mid-leap behind her attacker shows that the problem is being taken care of with almost frightening efficiency.

Alex and the Handymen go to a party thrown by the Cristiano Family, one of the weakest mafia families who is also the most charitable when it comes to taking care of Twilights who would otherwise not have a place to claim sanctuary. The head of the family is a tiny young girl named Loretta, who pragmatically surrounds herself with skilled bodyguards. An equally young twilight hunter shows up at the party and sets off a bloodbath. Another hunter names Erica appears, and while the Handymen and their allies manage to fight off the attack, they sustain huge losses in the process.

Gangsta Volume 5 by Kohske

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In this volume it seems clear that the mafia factions in Ergastulum are going to be headed into war. The team of Destroyers becomes more defined, and the situation for regular Twilights not affiliated with an organization is looking worse and worse. Alex has gained even more of her memories, remarking to Nic that she knew him before, only to not get a response. Worick is forced to use his sense for objects to identify corpses, and he and Nic are separated throughout most of this volume, with dangerous consequences. The Destroyers begin to tear through the city, and identify themselves as agents of the Corsica family. Still, even in the middle of a tidal wave of violence, there are quick scenes of normal daily life, when Nic hands Alex a mug as soon as she wakes up from some disturbing dreams of her past. Nic heads off to help out Loretta, and Worick is left to help fend off an attack at the Monroe family house. Things are looking fairly grim for the found family the Handymen have built for themselves. We’re starting to get more caught up with the Japanese release of Gangsta, and I know I’m going to start getting impatient as the wait between volumes grows longer.

While Gangsta does feature plenty of action and grim themes centered around drugs, class issues, and the mafia, the core story circling around Alex and her relationship with the Handymen ensures that the violence in the manga always seems to have a narrative purpose. Koshke’s narrative start small and builds up to a intercut scenes of a sprawling cast headed into some serious confrontations is building more and more suspense and tension as the series progresses. I’m also always impressed with the variety of character designs and defined looks as the manga includes more and more characters. I’m glad that Viz is continuing to give quality seinen some serious attention in the Signature Line with this title.

Manga the Week of 4/22

April 16, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, MJ, Anna N and Ash Brown 2 Comments

SEAN: I feel that the “Yen Press” week of every month is just going to be like this now, and we will simply have to accept it.

Before Yen, though, there’s also enough from other publishers to make it a big week anyway. Gantz is still not over, as the 35th volume from Dark Horse will attest.

Kodansha debuts two new series. The first, Let’s Dance a Waltz, is from shoujo master Natsumi Ando, and I reviewed it here.

MICHELLE: This was not on my radar, but I think from your review that I might give it a pass. Thanks for the warning about the “overweight girl transforms to find love” trope.

MJ: Yeah, that’s a deal-breaker for me, too.

ANNA: And me as well.

SEAN: There’s also Your Lie in April, whose anime recently finished. Will folks pick up the manga even though they know how it ends? Come on, how can you resist those adorable faces on the cover?

ASH: I’m a fan of music manga, so I’ll be following it. In fact, I’ve already reviewed the first volume!

MJ: Now, this I’ll give a try!

SEAN: Seven Seas’ A Certain Scientific Railgun has reached double digits, but can it last much longer with Misaka in this much trouble? Or will a certain guy come to her rescue again? I think we know the answer to that, but read it anyway, it’s good.

Clay Lord: Master of Golems is probably the debut with the least buzz this month, but it’s a Zero-Sum title, so I know MJwill be interested if no one else. It’s about, unsurprisingly, a young man who can create golems.

MJ: Yes. Yes, yes. “Zero-Sum” is pretty much all it takes. And it’s interesting to see this coming from Seven Seas, whom I generally count on to publish manga I would not like at all. So I’m anxious to be proven wrong about that.

SEAN: Udon is putting out another “Manga Classics”, this time of Dickens’ Great Expectations. Pip pip, cheerio!

MJ: I could get interested in this.

ANNA: I need to check out a Manga Classics one day!

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 4th volume of Witchcraft Works, which I’ve fallen 3 volumes behind on, alas.

It has been almost 5 years since the last Black Lagoon volume, and the author insists that it was not “put on hiatus” or anything like that. (The author is notorious for not finishing his series, and may be worried he can’t do the same here.) In any case, for those who forget, the last volume ended with Rock being reminded how far his moral sense has fallen. Can he recover? I talk about that here.

MICHELLE: Wow. I kind of forgot about Black Lagoon.

ASH: It’s been a long time!

SEAN: Viz is re-releasing the manga Gyo in a 2-in-1 omnibus, and I recommend it for all seafood lovers.

MICHELLE: But will it still include the amazing short story, “The Enigma of Amigara Fault”?!

SEAN: And there’s also the 4th Perfect Edition of Monster, which is not quite as body horror as Gyo but is disturbing enough anyway.

There are two flavors of Vagabond next week. We have Volume 37 for regular readers, and the 12th VizBIG edition for newbies.

ASH: I’m a VizBIG reader myself, but either way this is a great series.

ANNA: I also like the VizBig editions of this series very much.

SEAN: Yen On has been trickling out new titles for some time now, but this is the biggest month yet, with 6 different novels all out next week. We start with The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, a comedic fantasy which seems to lean heavier on the comedy, at least so far.

ASH: The anime adaptation was surprisingly entertaining, so I’ll definitely be giving the original series a try.

SEAN: Just in time for the anime debut, we have the 2nd volume of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? The first volume wasn’t terrible, but also didn’t knock me out. We’ll see how the 2nd fares.

MJ: I’ve been considering giving this one a try.

SEAN: Log Horizon is another light novel whose manga made its debut last month, but I understand the plots aren’t too similar. I’m interested in seeing how different this experience is from Sword Art Online.

No Game No Life seems like one of those titles that I will do much better with as a novel – the manga intrigued me, but man that fanservice was rampant. It’s easier to ignore in textual format if nothing else. I want to read this for the codependent heroes, really.

Spice & Wolf has no truck with these newbie Vol. 1 novels. It’s already at Vol. 14, a mature, fully developed title.

Lastly, Sword Art Online wraps up its Fairy Dance arc, which I’m sure will relieve many of its readers. Will Kirito defeat the world’s smuggest villain? What do you think?

MJ: I suspect he will, and I’ll be there to find out.

SEAN: Now on to Yen proper. Akame Ga KILL! has its second volume out, and I suspect will get even darker than it already began.

And on a slightly milder note there’s also the 4th Barakamon.

MICHELLE: I plan to get caught up on this soon.

ASH: Barakamon grows on me a little more with each volume.

MJ: Same here.

SEAN: I’ve been enjoying Inu x Boku SS quite a bit, so am sad to see that its author passed away recently. We have a few volumes to go still, though. Here’s the 7th.

Kagerou Daze is another ‘release the manga a month before the novel’ title, and I believe may be tangentially tied into the Vocaloid franchise, being based off a series of songs that tie together. Its plot is far more serious than you’d expect from that description, though.

If you ever wondered whether Joan of Arc was a magical girl, why not try new Puella Magi spinoff, Tart Magica? (Spoiler: it won’t end well. Is that even a spoiler for this franchise? Or this historical figure?)

If you enjoy busty shinigami, lecherous leads who are prevented by plot circumstances from actually doing anything, and more harem comedy than you can shake a stick at, then you’re the right audience for So I Can’t Play H!. Unlike many other recent titles from Yen, only the manga is licensed at this time.

The second Sword Art Online: Progressive manga should wrap up the first ‘arc’ of the novel, and give Kirito and Asuna fans a lot to be happy about.

Lastly, we get the 7th Tena on S-String, much quicker than we got the 6th volume.

What in this giant mound of manga and novels makes you most excited?

Black Lagoon, Vol. 10

April 16, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Rei Hiroe. Released in Japan by Shogagukan, serialization laughably sort of ongoing in the magazine Sunday Gene-X. Released in North America by Viz.

If everyone has in fact forgotten about Black Lagoon, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised. I wondered why I’d never reviewed it here, then realized the last volume came out in 2010, before I started blogging manga. Rei Hiroe’s past series have not so much ended as stopped, and I have a sneaking suspicion that this one may do the same. The end of this volume has him a) apologizing to readers for this volume taking so long to come out, and b) adamantly insisting the manga was not on a hiatus. This despite the fact that after putting out this new volume of Black Lagoon, we seem to be in the midst of another drought. Sunday GX’s website has a Black Lagoon section, but it’s mostly about a new game, I believe. In other words: enjoy this volume, but expect to forget it all over again soon.

Of course, enjoying this volume may be difficult in any case. Not because of any real quality issues, but because the author is deliberately reminding readers what sort of world Roanapur is, and how deep Rock is now embedded in it. The last volume had Fabiola calling Rock out on his ambiguous morality, even if he did manage to save the day. Here he seems to still be taking that to heart, to the point where he’s gotten too jaded to actually be himself – much to Revy’s annoyance, as a cynical and bitter Rock is not something she likes to see (or finds attractive). Then there’s the return of Greenback Jane, who was played for mostly light relief in her debut arc but now is pretty much horrible. She cheerfully leads a woman into a deathtrap for her own means, justifying it by the woman’s inability to have a successful cover story. And her sexual activities with Benny have become almost constant, to the point where, after hearing a suggestion that she might drag Rock into them as well, Revy pulls off one of the best threats in the entire series.

But let’s talk about the woman I mentioned above, Feng Yifei, who if pretty much deliberately introduced to be Rock’s female counterpart, and succeeds in that she’s likeable and we are rooting for her, as opposed to most of the rest of the cast where we just sit back and watch the catastrophe. She’s clearly drawn to Rock, and he to her, but my biggest interest was in how Revy saw her, and I was very pleased. I think there is a bit of jealousy in there, though Revy would never admit it. But more to the point, Revy not only sees in her what she saw in Rock, but actually wants to help her as a means of helping Rock out of his funk and getting him to be the moral guy again. It’s terrific character development, really.

There’s a lot more I could talk about here, including the hilarious and disgusting appearance of Sawyer the Cleaner, the Chinese politics that mostly passed over me but seemed serious enough, or the appearance of three goofy assassins for hire who call themselves the Four Brothers (you’ll see). But basically: Black Lagoon 10 is much like 1-9, only you really get it rubbed in your face here what a scummy, amoral world this is. Even Gangsta seems lighter and fluffier in comparison. Despite that, it’s still a good read, especially for action fans. Just… don’t expect Vol. 11 anytime soon.

After School Nightmare, Vol. 3

April 15, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Setona Mizushiro
U.S. publisher: Go! Comi
ISBN: 9781933617244
Released: April 2007
Original release: 2005

After School Nightmare is a ten-volume manga series created by Setona Mizushiro which has prominent psychological elements and an unsettling atmosphere. The series is currently out-of-print in English, but fortunately most of the volumes are still relatively easy to find. I initially read the first few volumes of After School Nightmare after borrowing them from my local library and made a point to collect the entire series based on the impression left on me by the early part of the manga alone. However, I never actually read any further than the third volume, in part because I found the series to be so effectively disconcerting (which I don’t necessarily consider to be a bad thing, especially for what could be considered a horror manga) and because some of the themes in the series are pretty hard-hitting and true-to-life, even if they are explored in a fantastic way. After School Nightmare, Volume 3 was originally published in Japan in 2005. The sadly now defunct Go! Comi released the English-language edition of the volume in 2007.

Every Thursday, Mashiro and a small group of other students attend a special class after school required for their graduation. In it they enter one another’s dreams, taking on forms representative of their true selves and forced to face the darkness that resides in their hearts. Many of these forms are so unlike the students’ appearances in their waking lives that it’s often impossible to know for certain who is who. At least that was true before Itsuki Shinonome joined the class. The youngest student at the school and a genius with an incredible intellect, he is prepared to leverage that privileged information in any way that he can in order to leave high school behind as quickly as possible. Knowing that Mashiro is desperate to uncover the identity of the student who takes on the form of the Black Knight in the dreams, Itsuki makes him a deal. In return for Mashiro helping and protecting him, as well as closely following his orders, Itsuki will reveal the name of the student who is the Black Knight, but only after he is able to complete the class.

Over the last few volumes of After School Nightmare Mashiro has become increasingly obsessed with the identity of the Black Knight, and with good reason. He was assaulted by the Black Knight within the dreams and suspects that the knight may be the same person as Sou, another student who has been very forceful about his feelings for Mashiro. Mashiro wants to confirm whether or not his suspicion is correct, but he hasn’t really completely thought through what he will do with that information once he knows the truth or fully considered exactly how having that knowledge will change him. Already Mashiro finds himself thinking more and more about Sou—the thin line between hate and love becoming blurred to an even greater extent—and this has had major impacts on Mashiro’s other relationships, particularly on the one with his girlfriend Kureha. Something that Mizushiro has done especially well in After School Nightmare is capture the complexities and turmoil of interpersonal relationships and how they affect one another.

Through the genre of dark, psychological fantasy, After School Nightmare touches upon issues related to identity, gender, and sexuality. Although all three can be closely intertwined, gender specifically is frequently at the forefront of Mashiro’s mind since his body has both male and female characteristics. He is so concerned about being seen as a man by others that he immediately rejects anything feminine about himself, blaming that side of him for all of his weaknesses instead of taking full responsibility for his actions and feelings. But as Itsuki points out, girls have to deal with plenty of challenges and unfair situations every day of their lives; simply existing within society requires and demands incredible strength from them. Mashiro’s attitude towards gender roles in the first two volumes of After School Nightmare was very traditional, so I’m glad to see his rigid assumptions and beliefs being shaken up a bit. Of course, this will force him to completely reevaluate who he is as a person, which will be a difficult and perhaps even traumatic process, especially as he was already struggling with establishing and accepting his own identity.

Bookshelf Briefs 4/14/15

April 14, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and Anna N Leave a Comment

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

Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Vol. 4 | By Ark Performance | Seven Seas – A step down from the previous volumes, mostly as we take a brief break from the thrilling action scenes to focus on a) a naval captain having erotic dreams about a 17-year-old girl, and b) the fetishization of Takao, who’s even using phrases like “I’ll let you see my engine’. Thankfully, the majority of the volume remains excellent. In particular, the odd friendship between Haruna and Makie, as the former realizes that they have far more in common than you’d expect. Meanwhile, we see something happen to Gunzou that we hadn’t expected – he’s defeated, and it doesn’t sit well with him at all. Oh, yes, and is his childhood friend not quite dead? Despite the fanservice, still very recommended. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 5 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – Tempted as I am to have this review simply say ‘Note: Food Wars! is a cooking manga’, I will add that this is quite a strong volume. We see Soma learn the value of TPO (Time, Place, Occasion) in his cooking and survive the hotel contest. We see him return to his old restaurant and get help from his childhood friend (remember her? from Chapter 1?) and Ikumi to take down a fast-food chain. And perhaps most importantly, we see Megumi Tadoroko: Ping Pong Goddess. It does sound as if we’re going to head into a longer arc starting with the next volume, though, complete with a new arrogant jerk for Soma to take down. All this, and Erina was in it as well. Remember her? The supposed heroine? – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 5 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – It’s perhaps the highest compliment I can give a series to say, “I could happily marathon fifty volumes of this series,” and that is precisely how I am feeling about Food Wars!. While I liked the chapters in which Soma helped his hometown neighborhood market compete with a fried-chicken chain, what I liked best was the conclusion to the intense cooking camp, which saw timid Megumi achieving greater confidence, and actually performing better than Soma in a grueling challenge. Yes, we saw him rise to the occasion and pull out an impressive win, but I liked that he easily admitted that he’d made a mistake and was determined to learn from it. And then he reflected that he was glad he’d come to culinary school after all. You guys, the cock protagonist is evolving! This is hitting my sports manga buttons, big time, and I love it. – Michelle Smith

He’s My Only Vampire, Vol. 2 | By Aya Shouoto | Yen Press- As this series is coming out concurrently with Shouoto’s Kiss of the Rose Princess, I am unable to resist comparing them. I’d have to say that, despite my vampire fatigue, this one is far superior. It’s a later effort from Shouoto—a bit darker (though the tone veers a bit lighter in this second volume), more mature (earning an OT rating), and better plotted, with several story threads in play from the start. It does still seem to be shaping up to be a male harem sort of series, but the introductions of new guys are better paced. Too, Shouoto seems to have developed a better sense for comedy, and I encountered no jarring goofy gags disrupting dramatic moments. Okay, yes, there are some standard shoujo tropes, and Aki’s possessiveness of Kana is plenty creepy, but there’s enough about this series to recommend it. Consider me pleasantly surprised. – Michelle Smith

My Love Story!!Vol. 4 | By Kazune Kawahara and Aruko – Every time I pick up this manga, I’m reminded that intense soap opera plots and meanness aren’t necessary ingredients for a captivating shoujo manga. Ai comes back home with Hayato, a friend from school who is determined to learn the identity of the Takeo Goda that she has a crush on. Hayato then encourages her to confess her feelings to Takeo, so she will get some closure. Takeo and Yamato’s relationship is too strong for any attempts at breaking them up, and they are both too naive to pick up on the undercurrents of emotion surrounding them. Later, there are more problems when Takeo’s assumption that he’s unpopular turn out not to be true. There’s something that is just so sweet about the unlikely love story portrayed in this manga, and the humor contrasted with the bits of drama that only serve to make Takeo and Yamato more and more in love with each other ensures that My Love Story!! makes me smile whenever I read a volume. – Anna N

Skip Beat!, Vol. 34 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – Lory’s Love Me group isn’t there to help his wannabe actresses find true love, it’s there to help them realize that they can’t simply shut off that part of themselves and expect their acting to reach the next level. As a result, his confrontation with Kyoko about her love for Ren feels more like a catharsis than anything else, and it’s beautifully done. Of course, his plotting and scheming is about to be taken down by one thing he is unaware of, which is the past that Kyoko has with “Corn”. While I have some issues with Ren taking advantage of her naivete about fairies to keep his identity a secret, this can’t help but be utterly adorable – or should I say corny? Still top-tier shoujo. – Sean Gaffney

One Piece, Vol. 74

April 14, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

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

It has to be said, Oda is perfectly fine with repeating himself provided that it makes a good story. And as long as we’re still highly entertained, I think that’s fine. Certainly the Usopp sections of this volume were my favorite part, even if their basic shape felt a little familiar. We see Usopp in over his head, talking about how he’s a hero while having no idea what to do. We see him attempting to run away, only to return because of his guilty conscience. and we see his “victory”, as it’s a truly grotesque face that makes miniboss Sugar pass out and save the day – not unlike what happened with Perona in Thriller Bark. But of course this is how Usopp grows stronger, and I expect big things from him soon. He’s not allowed to start beating up bad guys or anything, due to Oda’s desire to always have that basic ‘type’ on the crew, so you need moments like this.

Meanwhile, you absolutely need Sugar to pass out, because the danger has been ramped up as Robin was turned into a toy. It actually happens so casually amidst the chaos that it’s a surprise when we see her Raggedy Anne body, and we see her desperation as she realizes that her fate is totally in Usopp’s hands now, even if he doesn’t remember her. The concept of the toys in general, and who they used to be, is a grotesque sort of horror even for Oda, and it’s almost a relief when we finally learn what we’ve suspected for some time now, which is that the Tin Soldier who’s tried to protect Rebecca is in fact her father. As I said, the beats may be similar to other storylines, but they’re good beats.

On the lighter side, Oda has occasionally done mild shout-outs to other Jump artists in the past – I’m thinking of the big giant ‘shock faces’ he’s used from Enel on down, which are a straight rip of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo – and so I have to think that the minor villain whose minions go on about him being too hardboiled is a reference to Gintama, which sadly I think most readers will miss given its cancellation here in North America. Other than that, though, there’s not a lot of room for humor in this volume. Things are turning even more deadly than before, and our mystery savior who’s helping Luffy by taking his place in the arena can’t even stop to reveal who he really is (we all know who he really is, but let me keep up the pretense.)

This is not a perfect volume – Scarlet’s backstory was rather sexist, something Oda’s at least made attempts to avoid in the past, even though he’s been backsliding a lot lately. And of course, being in the middle of 11 chapters that are just ‘a giant fight happens’, the plot moves forward only incrementally. Still, now that Usopp has scared the bejabbers out of Sugar, we should start to see things get cleared up. Unless of course it leads to even wider chaos. But this is One Piece, what are the chances of that happening?