Features & Reviews

Black Rose Alice Vol 3

February 2, 2015 by Anna N

Black Rose Alice Volume 3 by Setona Mizushiro

I’m glad that Viz is bringing out this series now, because I never collected beyond the first couple volumes of After School Nightmare, which I really regret now. So I’m happy to be able to read another Setona Mizushiro series, and so far my expectations for a manga that is both captivating and weird have easily been met.

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In the third volume of the series Alice and her vampire suitors have established a daily life revolving around tasty desserts, with occasional vampire feedings and some light jealous bickering here and there. The stakes for who will procreate with Alice are much higher though, as Leo’s afterlife is about to run out. Leo and Alice always have had a bit more of a natural friendship compared to the other vampires in the house, and now Leo’s courtship of Alice is kicked into high gear by the knowledge of his impending death. Alice likes Leo very much, but she isn’t sure if he’s the one vampire she wants to choose.

In the meantime, Leo strikes up an acquaintance with a novelist who has a terminal disease, and offers her some vampire aid in order to help her finish her last novel. There are obvious parallels between their situations, as the novelist wants to finish one last work, and Leo has to procreate with Alice or he’ll disappear forever. Maximilian and the twins are concerned about Leo, but he forbids them to tell Alice of his impending death, because he doesn’t want to influence her decision.

Maximilian is devastated when Leo calmly faces his own death, but Leo says that he wouldn’t do anything differently and forbids Maximilian from telling Alice the truth. The tonal shifts of this series are really interesting. Each volume seems to be expressing a different main emotion, and the third is a shift away from the kooky slice of life vampire reverse harem scenario that was unfolding in the second volume. There’s sadness and regret in this volume, along with an increasing urgency on the part of the vampires to proceed with their campaign to get Alice to choose them. All along, Mizushiro’s clear and delicate artwork mixes with the elements of body horror that unfold in the manga to create a general feeling of unease and surreality as the story continues. This has got to be one of the oddest shoujo series currently coming out, and it is rapidly becoming my favorite!

Bookshelf Briefs 2/2/15

February 2, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, MJ and Anna N Leave a Comment

This week, Sean, MJ, & Anna look at recent releases from Viz Media, Digital Manga Publishing, and Yen Press.

Happy Marriage?! Vol. 10 | By Maki Enjoji | Viz Media – My favorite moments in this series always occurred when mismatched couple Hokuto and Chiwa had an “us against the world” attitude towards their various trials and tribulations, so I was happy to see that there were some great moments where they supported each other in the final volume of this series. Hokuto deals with the inexplicable violent attacks and family plots by temporarily divorcing Chiwa, saying that he wants to start over with a new marriage once his family situation gets sorted out. Chiwa marches in to confront the Mamiya clan, and Hokuto makes his family confront some unpleasant truths. The volume ends as happily as one would expect from a couple who makes a habit of fighting and making up all the time. I thought some of the later volumes in this series were a bit thin, but everything is now nicely wrapped up. Overall, I enjoyed this series and would be interested in checking out some of Enjoji’s other works. – Anna N.

The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat, Vol. 3 | By Okomeken, Sou Sagara and Kantoku | Digital Manga Publishing – The resolution of the Tsukushi plotline is the weakest part of this volume – the buildup was great, showing Tsukushi trying to push her sister away despite her clearly loving her. We even get the classic ‘hero gets so angry at character he punched them’, only what with Yoto being who he is, that goes very badly indeed. It’s just the denouement that’s the problem, where Tsukushi reveals she wants to go to America so that she can legally marry her sister – seemingly unaware that lesbian incest would still be illegal. It’s played entirely for laughs, and didn’t work for me at all. Oh well, at least the relationship between Yoto and Tsukiko is cute and heartwarming. – Sean Gaffney

Inu x Boku SS, Vol. 6 | By Cocoa Fujiwara | Yen Press – Reincarnation can be a pain in the ass to deal with, whether you remember your past life or not. Watanuki already had issues with being weak and not wanting to be protected before, but now that Carta, his crush, is 5 years older than him, as well as much taller and more mature, he simply can’t deal with it. Meanwhile, Carta thinks that he’s pushing her away as he hates her. Then there’s Ririchiyo, who DOESN’T remember her past yet, and everyone comments on how much pain this is causing Soushi. Honestly, Soushi is so good at hiding who he really is that this is debatable, but that’s partly the point. Ririchiyo can’t figure him out and neither can we. She does get her memory back, so we’ll see how things go next time. – Sean Gaffney

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan, Vol. 9 | By Puyo, Nagaru Tanigawa and Noizi Ito | Yen Press – This being a gag manga, it’s difficult to move the story along as such, because there really isn’t one. But the plot does advance along with the original Haruhi LNs, and so Yasumi is now in the SOS Brigade, even if no attempt is made to show off the real aspect of her identity. It allows for another character to bounce off of, and Yasumi is fun. The more interesting development, though, may be Kyon finally seeing chibi-Asakura, and the two of them being strangely accepting of each other – indeed, only Kyon seems to understand her desire to be a shopkeeper. As that last sentence might suggests, Haruhi-chan’s strength remains its gags. Get it for those. – Sean Gaffney

Pandora Hearts, Vol. 22 | By Jun Mochizuki | Yen Press – In a series as tense and tumultuous as Pandora Hearts, it can probably be assumed that the series’ penultimate volume would be particularly so. And, in fact, this is the case. Still, I’m not sure I was fully prepared for just how anxiety-inducing this volume would actually be for me, and those who know me well can probably guess that the source of this angst can be boiled down to two simple words: Xerxes Break. The volume opens with the most gloriously Break-y chapter a fan could wish for, and continues largely in this vein to the end (though there’s plenty of Ada, Vincent, and Echo awesomeness to be enjoyed as well). It’s an extra-long volume, which I dearly hope will be the case for the series’ finale, which has not yet been completed. Oh, Pandora Hearts, sweet Pandora Hearts, your promises are many. I desperately hope you’ll keep them. Eagerly awaiting this story’s conclusion. – MJ

Spell of Desire, Vol. 3 | By Tomu Ohmi | Viz Media – It’s surprising, perhaps, that I’m still following Spell of Desire, after openly admitting how weary I’ve become of its timeworn premise and tropes. And this volume stays true to form. There’s some plot here, regarding heroine Kauruko’s official entry into the coven of black witches and the consequences of such for both her and her standard supernatural love interest, Kaname. But the truth is, this volume is mostly sex. Caught up in a desperate ritual, Kauruko loses her virginity to Kaname early in the volume, followed by much more of the same, accompanied by the familiar pattern of repeated declarations of devotion/ownership alternating with worry/guilt. It’s all in the spirit of trashy josei fun, of course, but there’s not quite enough plot in this volume to be engaging beyond basic smut value. Maybe next time? – MJ

Voice Over! Seiyu Academy, Vol. 9 | By Maki Minami | Viz Media – You can tell we’re getting near to the end of this series. The romance is starting to return to the fore, both in Senri’s utter inability to see what Shiro is to him, his discovering Shiro is also a voice actor, and Mizuki stepping up his game to get Hime to see how he feels about her, even if that may mean sabotaging what she has with Senri as “Shiro”. I’ll be honest, we’ve been following Shiro’s adventures for so long that even I was startled to see Hime in her normal hair-down state. I suspect the next volume will be a giant pile of disasters, and though I’m sure it will all end well I do wonder if a scandal may intrude. That said, Minami’s strengths are shown here – her flair for comedy and her overly happy lead. – Sean Gaffney

My Week in Manga: January 26-February 1, 2015

February 2, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

The Female Goth Mangaka Carnival wrapped up last week. In addition to my recent Spotlight on Mitsukazu Mihara, I also contributed two other related posts. The first was Experiments in Manga’s latest giveaway. There’s still time to enter for a chance to win Junko Mizuno’s Cinderalla. I also posted a review of Asumiko Nakamura’s manga Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist. It’s a dark and twisting tale, and one that I come to love a little more each time I read it. Completely unrelated to the Carnival, last week I also reviewed Yasunari Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain, a classic novel about growing older and family relationships.

Elsewhere online, Viz announced that it will be bringing Shotaro Ishinomori’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past back into print, which I’m looking forward to a great deal. Media scholar Henry Jenkins is posting lengthy, in-depth interview with Patrick W. Galbraith, “In Defense of Moe,” talking about manga, anime, and otaku studies (Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4|Part 5|Part 6). Digital Manga has launched its next Tezuka Kickstarter to publish Osamu Tezuka’s two-volume Alabaster with a stretch goal to reprint Swallowing the Earth (again). A recent update for Digital Manga’s Finder Kickstarter includes a link to a list of boys’ love titles that are currently in stock. Perhaps most importantly, it indicates which manga are available in limited quantities.

Quick Takes

The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 2 by Hiromu Arakawa. The particular weakness of the second volume of The Heroic Legend of Arslan is that while the battles and sieges are proceeding at a good pace–and Arakawa’s fight and action sequences are excellent–there is a relative lack of character development. Unsurprisingly, considering that the manga takes place during a time of war, there are important, dramatic deaths, but emotionally they aren’t especially effective since readers hadn’t had the opportunity to really get to know those involved before their demise. At this point, many of the antagonists and even a fair number of the series’ protagonists are missing complexity and nuance. Thankfully Arslan himself does show a little growth by the end of the volume, but attention is mostly given to the war being fought and some of the political intrigue behind it all. Granted, those are very important aspects of the series since they are what Arslan must overcome. However, I am hoping that future volumes will spend more time examining the characters as people. Intense, bloody battles are all well and good, but I want to more completely understand the motivation and drive behind them.

My Neighbor Seki, Volume 1 by Takuma Morishige. I was originally only vaguely curious about My Neighbor Seki, but after watching the absolutely delightful anime adaptation last year, I knew it was a series that I couldn’t miss. The premise is deceptively simple: Yokoi sits in the last row of seats in her classroom right next to Seki, a boy who is always goofing around at his desk. Yokoi finds this incredibly distracting, especially since the ways in which Seki amuses himself can be spectacularly elaborate. Often she’s astounded by Seki’s audacity, but on occasion she can’t help but to join in or interfere with what he’s doing. Of course this means she’s often the one in danger of getting into trouble with the teachers for not paying attention in class. The individual chapters in My Neighbor Seki may be short, but the sheer creativity displayed by Morishige, and in turn by Seki, is quite impressive. The original My Neighbor Seki manga is just as wonderful as the anime was; I’ll definitely be following the manga to its end. (In Japan the series is currently ongoing with six volumes having so far been released.) My Neighbor Seki is funny and charming and a marvelously entertaining read.

Secrecy of the Shivering Night by Muku Ogura. After reading the first volume of the short boys’ love series Castle Mango, I decided to seek out more of the artist’s work. Currently the only other manga of her’s available in print in English is Secrecy of the Shivering Night. Unlike Castle Mango, Ogura wrote the stories collected in Secrecy of the Shivering Night in addition to illustrating them. The volume includes four short boys’ love manga which, other than tending towards the more sweet or romantic and having slightly peculiar lead characters, are all unrelated. The setup for the titular story is perhaps the most curious and seemingly far-fetched–a young man who is afraid of bright lights and another young man who is afraid of the dark end up as dorm roommates–but the resulting relationship dynamic is surprisingly satisfying. Their opposite phobias, but even more so their opposite personalities, make them an adorable couple. Secrecy of the Shivering Night isn’t an especially outstanding collection, but the stories are generally cute and a little bit quirky, which are characteristics I happen to particularly enjoy, and Ogura’s artwork has a pleasant softness to it.

Terra Formars, Volumes 2-4 written by Yu Sasuga and illustrated by Ken-ichi Tachibana. If the first volume of Terra Formars largely felt like a stand-alone prequel, that’s because it was. The second volume begins twenty years later. An exceptionally fatal disease is becoming more prevalent on Earth which requires a new mission to Mars in order to research a cure. Shokichi Komachi, one of the two survivors from the previous Mars mission, leads a crew of one hundred men and women genetically modified to survive the conditions and lifeforms found on the planet. Terra Formars continues to be extraordinarily violent with an incredibly high body count, though considering the first volume I was actually surprised by how many people are left alive by the end of the fourth. It seems as though there might be an actual plot to Terra Formars, but it’s mostly just an excuse to show epic, over-the-top hand-to-hand combat between opponents with astounding, superhuman abilities. I still dislike the visual design of the humanoid cockroaches immensely, but at least there’s an attempt in these volumes to better explain their appearance. The portrayal of women in the manga has slightly improved, as well.

Princess Tutu directed by Junichi Sato. I picked up Princess Tutu more on a whim than anything else when I saw it on super sale. Although I vaguely remembered hearing good things about the anime, I honestly didn’t know much about the series. I’m very glad that I own it because Princess Tutu is marvelous. I do find it somewhat difficult to describe in a way that does the justice, though. The story follows a girl called Duck who really is a duck. She’s under an enchantment that allows her to not only take human form but to also become the magical Princess Tutu. Through the power of her dance she restores the shattered heart of a prince who had sacrificed himself to save others. That all might sound a little strange, and parts of the anime are admittedly weird, but the series is also very good. Stories are just as real as reality in Princess Tutu, and just as potent if not more so. Bits and pieces of classic ballets, operas, and plays can be found throughout the series all mixed together to form a unique work. I absolutely loved the anime’s use of orchestral works not just as background music but as meaningful additions to the story, emphasizing the significance of the characters and of their actions and, for those who are familiar with the pieces, even revealing some of the plot.

Spell of Desire Vol 3

January 31, 2015 by Anna N

Spell of Desire Volume 3 by Tomu Ohmi

Well, there have been plenty of suggestive scenes in the first couple volumes of Spell of Desire, but finally in the third volume accidental witch Kaoruko and her mother’s favored protector Kaname get it on, due to witchy aphrodisiacs, necessary spell casting, and their growing yet not fully acknowledged feelings for each other! What more would a reader want in a josei paranormal romance?

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Kaoruko has been delivered to the coven, and they decide it is necessary for her to fully become a black witch in order for her to gain some control over her powers. Black witches can’t be virgins, so they’ve decided to set Kaoruko up with an incubus in order for her to start down the path towards black magic. Kaoruko is drugged into compliance, but she’s still not cool with the idea of being with anyone but Kaname, and fortunately her knight protector decides to intervene in the ritual deflowering, breaking several rules in the process.

Kaname and Kaoruko end up seeking refuge in a house in the woods owned by an impressive looking white wolf (this is a crossover appearance with a character from a series that hasn’t been translated into English yet), and Kaoruko learns a bit more about Kaname’s background and why he’s so devoted to her mother. As always in this series, Kaname’s commitment to the Witch Queen causes Kaoruko to have doubts about their future. When the couple return to the coven, Kaoruko meets more of her mother’s knights, and Kaname is punished horribly. Kaoruko is determined to learn more about witchcraft so she can protect him.

A bunch of new characters get introduced in this volume, and the plot grows more complex as Kaoruko starts to learn more about the differences between white and black magic. It’ll be interesting to see what she can accomplish once she’s fully in command of her powers. I continue to enjoy Ohmi’s art, and I enjoy the way Kaoruko’s power still manifests as vine-like tendrils that curve around the panels of the manga. This series is only 5 volumes long, and this volume served as an effective middle volume, showing Kaoruko about to start gathering more knowledge and power. I recommend this series for any fans of paranormal romance manga!

The Ring of Saturn

January 31, 2015 by MJ 1 Comment

The Ring of Saturn | by Kaiju | Chromatic Press – “Sometimes it is not about forcing something to work… it is about simply learning to absorb what is beautiful.” These words come from the mouth of English composer Gustav Holst—not the actual historical man, perhaps, but a compelling portrait indeed as envisioned by cartoonist Kate Rhodes and animator Jennifer Xu, credited here collectively as “Kaiju.”

Set during Holst’s tenure as director of music at West London’s St. Paul’s Girls’ School during the First World War, Kaiju’s short comic “The Ring of Saturn” tells the story of Miriam Frayne, a promising young pianist studying with Holst at St. Paul’s. After performing a solo piano arrangement of Holst’s “Saturn: The Bringer of Old Age” (part of his famous orchestral suite, The Planets, which Holst is in the process of orchestrating over the course of the comic), Miriam is approached by a young astronomer, Rasim Rahal, who expresses his appreciation of her performance. Visibly distraught, Miriam forces a polite response and flees as quickly as possible.

Unhappy with her own playing, and doubtful of her ability to do justice to “Saturn,” Miriam begs Holst to be allowed to play something more “appropriate,” and it soon becomes clear what that means to her. Young and filled with the verve of nationalist pride, Miriam is vastly more comfortable with the decidedly uplifting character of Holst’s “Jupiter” (“The Bringer of Jollity”) than she is with the haunting ambiguity of “Saturn.” It is only when wartime tragedy hits close to home that Miriam finds herself beginning to understand what is beautiful and even necessary about “Saturn’s” relentless uncertainty.

It is admittedly difficult to discuss a short comic like The Ring of Saturn without giving away its entire plot, but rest assured that any developments revealed here are not remotely the point. Yes, you may assume that Miriam’s wartime tragedy involves the death of someone close to her (and you’ll know who that is likely to be within the comic’s first twenty pages), but these specifics are important only on the surface. Even Rahal, who seems perfectly poised to be Miriam’s love interest, is ultimately significant only for the ways in which his greater life experience helps to shatter Miriam’s patriotic innocence.

Kaiju’s visual storytelling is stunning—expressive and visceral, particularly towards the end of the comic, where the crux of Miriam’s emotional journey plays out over the course of eleven dialogue-free pages. This sequence, enhanced only by a few crucial sound-effects, is as beautifully envisioned as the best classic shoujo manga, and similarly well-executed. If these were the only eleven pages in the entire comic, they could stand alone as an eloquent expression of one young musician’s moment of truth. That’s how powerful they are.

Enamoring artwork aside, it would be remiss to minimize this comic’s most brilliant element, which is its grounding in the real-life history of Gustav Holst and his music. Though some historical details may be altered for the sake of the story (Holst’s original arrangements were for two pianos, not one, for instance), Holst’s essence remains intact. That he valued himself more as a teacher than as a composer is felt keenly here, and to my mind, deepens the reading of his musical output as much as it does the story at hand. Like many children of musical households in the 20th century, I was brought up on The Planets, and though I rather thoughtlessly abandoned them in later years in favor of the more overtly complex works of composers like Prokofiev and Stravinsky, my appreciation of them in context of Holst’s commitment to teaching and the beginning of World War I has been decidedly enhanced by this comic. Holst notably approached each planet not from an astronomical viewpoint, but an astrological one—specifically in terms of its emotional and psychological associations rather than its mythological namesake—an approach that works exceptionally well as the premise for a character-driven comic.

But perhaps most significantly, what Kaiju has proven here is that it really is possible to craft a wholly satisfying, emotionally resonant comic in under 100 pages—and to do it without resorting to wordy exposition, over-crowded panels, or excessive dialogue. The Ring of Saturn is an elegantly crafted comic that should draw attention not only to its talented, artistically mature creative team, but also to Sparkler Monthly and Chromatic Press’ output as a whole. This is exactly the kind of comic we need more of.

The Sound of the Mountain

January 31, 2015 by Ash Brown

Author: Yasunari Kawabata
Translator: Edward G. Seidensticker
U.S. publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 9780679762645
Released: May 1996
Original release: 1954
Awards: National Book Award

Prior to reading The Sound of the Mountain I had only read one other novel by the distinguished Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata–Thousand Cranes, one of the three works to have been cited when Kawabata became the first Japanese recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I enjoyed Thousand Cranes and have been meaning to read more of Kawabata’s work for quite some time now. Although it probably isn’t his best known work to have been translated, The Sound of the Mountain does have the distinction of being one of Kawabata’s longest novels. The volume was completed in Japan in 1954 after having been serialized for five years. Also in 1954, the novel was adapted as a live-action film directed by Mikio Naruse. The Sound of the Mountain was first translated into English by Edward G. Seidensticker in 1970 for which he won the National Book Award for Translation.

Shingo Ogata is an aging businessman in postwar Japan. His memory has started to fail him, his hair turns whiter as each day passes, many of his friends and acquaintances have already died, and he begins to be plagued by peculiar dreams. There is nothing he can do to halt the steady decline of his mind and health, but what concerns him most is the decline of his family and the unraveling of his children’s marriages. The philandering ways of Shingo’s son Shuichi are an open secret but his son’s wife Kikuko remains devoted to him, although perhaps even more so to Shingo. Shingo’s daughter, too, is having marital problems. The situation may or may not be temporary, but she has left her husband and is currently living in her parent’s home along with her young children. The house is full, the family’s relationships are strained, and Shingo is conflicted over what he should be doing about it all and over his developing feelings for Kikuko.

The Sound of the Mountain is a relatively quiet novel. Shingo has his personal struggles and internal strife, and there is plenty of family drama, but the work largely consists of snippets of the everyday lives of the Ogata household. None of the characters in The Sound of the Mountain are particularly exceptional in any sort of way. Their lives and their troubles, while certainly having a great impact on those around them, are mundane. Kawabata’s characterization of the individual family members is often very subtle and nuanced, as is his portrayal of the intricacies of their interpersonal relationships. As much as The Sound of the Mountain is about Shingo growing older, it’s just as much about the transformation of his family. All things must inevitably come to an end. Shingo knows this, and knows that his life, too, will eventually end, but he still feels guilty about and responsible for the direction his family and his children are heading.

It’s been a few years since I’ve read it, but overall I think I probably prefer Thousand Cranes over The Sound of the Mountain. However, the two novels do share some similarities: a focus on people and how they interact, a sparse writing style laden with symbolism, and so on. In the case of Thousand Cranes it was the Japanese tea ceremony that provided an underlying framework for the narrative while in The Sound of the Mountain it’s Shingo’s dreams and the change of the seasons–the steady progression of time. The Sound of the Mountain has a resigned, melancholic air to it. The novel isn’t particularly uplifting, but in some ways it can be comforting to see a realistic depiction of a family trying to come to terms with the changes both in their lives as individuals and in their relationships to one another. The Sound of the Mountain captures those fleeting moments of joy and of unrest, revealing that in any stage of life people are at least partially defined by those closest to them.

Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist

January 30, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Asumiko Nakamura
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654766
Released: June 2013
Original release: 2010-2012

Although several of Asumiko Nakamura’s manga have been licensed for digital release, Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist is currently her only work that has been translated into English and made available in print. I truly hope it isn’t the last to be seen from her; although I was already familiar with Nakamura’s distinctive art style, Utsubora was my introduction to her manga and I loved it, and with each rereading love it even more. With the arrival of the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival, I was inspired to take another, deeper look at the manga. In Japan, Utsubora was a short, two-volume series published between 2010 and 2012. The English-language edition of the manga was released in 2014 by Vertical and collects the entire series in a single volume. Due to its mature themes and its erotic content, Utsubora is one of Vertical’s relatively few manga specifically intended for an audience of adults who are at least eighteen years of age.

Although Shun Mizorogi is still considered to be a successful and respected author, it has been quite some time since he has written anything of note. As a result, he has become withdrawn and is tormented by his lack of ability. Finally, his most recent work Utsubora shows great promise. A return to his roots as an author, Mizorogi has given his fans and critics what they have been waiting for. But when a young woman plummets from the top of a building to her death, the apparent suicide somehow connect to Mizorogi, the authorship of Utsubora begins to be called into question. Both Mizorogi’s close friend and fellow author Yatabe and his newly appointed editor Tsuji suspect something. Even Mizorogi’s niece Koyomi, who lives with and adores him, is able to recognize that her uncle has been behaving out of the ordinary. Utsubora and a young woman named Sakura Miki are the only remaining connections Mizorogi has to the death of Aki Fujino, and they are consuming him.

Utsubora is a dark and twisting tale. Nakamura’s distinctive artwork is exceptionally effective in adding to the manga’s moody, erotically charged, and slightly disconcerting atmosphere. The lines of her illustrations are very thin, creating at the same time a sense of sharpness and focus as well as a feeling of softness as they cut and curve across the page. Nakamura’s art in Utsubora is undeniably sensual and arresting. The eyes of her characters are particularly expressive and draw attention to themselves. The artwork of Utsubora, much like the manga’s story, can simultaneously be vaguely ominous and oddly beautiful. It’s really quite stunning and Nakamura is incredibly skilled. Through her artwork and through the body language of her characters, she is able to convey their uncertainties and their desires, their inner turmoil as well as their outward actions. Overall, Utsubora is an intense and even compelling work.

The plot of Utsubora is complex, the relationships and connections between the characters forming a tangled knot that is drawn tighter and tighter. The manga can be confusing and there is quite a bit of ambiguity that is never completely resolved. The only person who really understands everything that is going on is Sakura, and she is deliberately manipulating the situation, mixing together both truths and lies in order to influence those around her. She can’t control everything, though, and some matters in Utsubora are only tangentially related to what she is trying to accomplish. Although sometimes obscured by layers formed by the other characters’ personal struggles and pasts, the core of Utsubora is the despair surrounding Aki, Sakura, and Mizorogi. Granted, most of the characters are reaching their breaking points and are in danger of losing themselves completely; Aki’s death was simply the catalyst that triggered a dramatic sequence of events from which very few will emerge unscathed.

Manga the Week of 2/4

January 29, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Anna N, Michelle Smith and MJ 3 Comments

SEAN: Did you enjoy your quiet month? Good, cause February is back to business as usual, and every week has some chunky bites of manga. Let’s look at next week. FYI, Diamond Comics has every Viz title coming out 1-2 weeks earlier than usual, for some reason – I’m ignoring that. And JoJo’s was delayed.

ASH: Oh, no! JoJoooooo!

ANNA: I do not approve of this.

SEAN: Dark Horse has the 7th Blood Blockade Battlefront, which I understand has an anime coming out soon.

Seven Seas gives us a 5th volume of oddball slice-of-A Centaur’s Life.

And the 10th volume of Haganai, whose cast still doesn’t have many friends.

The rest is all Viz. We have a new Assassination Classroom, filled with attempted death and heartwarming lessons.

ANNA: Bring it on!

SEAN: We have a 3rd volume of Black Rose Alice, and I’d like to remind the Manga Bookshelf team that they can’t pick it two weeks in a row. :)

MICHELLE: I won’t, but I am still super happy to see it!

ASH: I’m happy to see it, too!

ANNA: I might pick it again! You can’t stop me!

MJ: Heh. I didn’t pick it last time, so it’s up for grabs!

SEAN: Bleach 63 features, I’m guessing, fights.

Food Wars 4 also features fights, but of a culinary kind. Save the Megumi!

MICHELLE: I have developed a serious fondness for Food Wars.

ANNA: I do not yet have a serious fondness, but I like it much more than I expected to.

SEAN: The 10th and final volume of Happy Marriage?! wraps up next week. It’s been a very up and down series, but overall I’ve enjoyed it.

MICHELLE: It’s not something I can picture myself rereading, but it has been entertaining.

ANNA: Me too. I’m glad to have read it, but I don’t think I’ll be rereading it.

SEAN: High School Debut has its 5th and final omnibus. The big news is that it has lots of material that never came out in print before – I believe Vols. 14 and 15 are unique to this volume! It’s also print-only, so go get it.

MICHELLE: !!!!!!!!!!!!1 (Heh, I swear that typing that 1 was legitimately an accident, but I’m leavin’ it!)

ANNA: Woah! I’ve got to pick this up!

MJ: Ooooooooooh.

SEAN: If you thought Honey Blood was over last time, well… it was. But Tale Zero is an epilogue, or prologue, or pilot. Or something? In any case, this is the last Honey Blood-related product.

MICHELLE: I have a vague memory of one of the author’s note sections during the series proper mentioning that this would contain the original oneshot. Not sure about that, though.

ANNA: I’d like to see more from this author eventually.

SEAN: We have the 25th and final volume of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan. I enjoyed this a lot more than I’d expected, and probably more than it really deserved, but way to go, mid-range Shonen Jump title. You were licensed when many other 20-30 volume Jump series were not.

One Piece has its 11th omnibus. It’s in Water Seven now, one of its best arcs.

Spell of Desire hits Vol. 3, and I hope manages to resolve the rather icky cliffhanger Vol. 2 left us with.

Voice Over has its 9th volume, and seems to be slowly, very slowly, meandering towards its climax.

MICHELLE: Here’s another title I’ve grown to love unexpectedly.

MJ: I need to check back in with this series.

SEAN: World Trigger has Vol. 4, and is another on the list of ‘series I should know more about’.

Did you miss Yu-Gi-Oh! the first time around? Here’s an omnibus to catch up on.

And Yu-Go-Oh Zexal 6 gives you more Yu-Gi-Oh than human nature can possibly stand.

There’s a lot of ‘meat and potatoes’ shonen and shoujo here. What suits your fancy?

Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 25

January 29, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

I had said last time that after the emotional catharsis and darkness of the Athena arc that we’d fall back towards comedy here, and that’s somewhat true, but the fallout from that arc still lingers. Athena describes to Hayate how she was rescued from the castle at the end of the world, and it turns out to have been none other than Hayate’s brother who achieved it. We’d seen him in silhouette before, but here we finally get to see his face, mostly so that he can have a distinguishing scar that lets Hayate reassure Athena he’s not dead or trapped. (Even though we haven’t seen him in years… he’d better have a damn good reason for leavin g Hayate to the mercies of his parents).

Athena’s parting is also bittersweet, though there’s a tease that implies that she isn’t giving up entirely. But she sees Hayate talking about how much of his life he owes to Nagi, and realizes that she can’t take that away from him now. So she confesses to him, again, but in the past tense, implying that she’s moved on. I try to remain unbiased in my reviews, but I fully admit to being an Athena fan, so this saddened me. Don’t get me wrong, I love Nagi and Hayate’s relationship, but if they’re going to end up together I do think that a) she needs to mature a bit, and b) he needs to show at least a smidgen of attraction to her. We’re slowly seeing the first but not the second, and with Athena is was very nice to see two people who really did desire each other.

After this, it would be hard for the rest of the volume not to feel like an anticlimax, and it does struggle to keep the same level. Hina being cursed with donkey ears is amusing but goes nowhere, and Hayate trying to figure out what’s haunting an old mansion (turns out to be cats) is a bit pointless. Possibly the most interesting part of the volume is a flashforward showing Nagi rushing to the top of a tall building to scream in pain and frustration about someone named Ruka, followed by a title page featuring a new character (spoiler: it is Ruka). We wonder if we’ve done some sort of time skip, but no, it’s just a tease, and we’re soon back to the aftermath of Greece, with Nagi having to leave the mansion.

Nagi’s idea to be a landlord and rent out a building is actually quite clever, and of course will lead to many comedic situations – don’t be surprised to see the building fill with many of our cast. But it’s also a symptom of her biggest flaw, which is her dedication to inactivity – this is a way to make money by sitting around and doing nothing. Nagi can’t apply herself to any hard work that doesn’t pay off instantly, and it will come back to burn her in future volumes. For now, though, Athena is gone, and Hayate the Combat Butler prepares to enter a newer, less dramatic story arc. That said, don’t expect the drama to simply disappear. It just won’t be 24/7 like it was in the last two volumes.

Manga Giveaway: Cinderalla Giveaway

January 28, 2015 by Ash Brown

It’s the end of the month which means it’s time for another manga giveaway! Because the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival is currently underway (featuring the work of Kaoru Fujiwara, Maki Kusumoto, Mitsukazu Mihara, Junko Mizuno, Asumiko Nakamura) I decided to do a tie-in giveaway. This month you all have a chance to win a copy of Junko Mizuno’s Cinderalla as published by Viz Media. And as always, the giveaway is open worldwide! (However, you must be at least eighteen years old to enter.)

Way back in 2010, I had the opportunity to attend the Best Manga You’re Not Reading panel at the American Library Association’s annual conference. It was there that I was introduced to the work of Junko Mizuno, and specifically to her manga Cinderalla—a psychedelic retelling of the classic tale of Cinderella with zombies, yakitori, and pop idols added in for good measure. I had never seen anything like it before and I loved it. Mizuno’s brightly colored artwork in Cinderalla shows her mastery of a very distinctive and even beautifully stunning creepy-cute aesthetic. Quite a few of Mizuno’s manga have been released in English—and I’ve enjoyed many of them—but I will always remember Cinderalla as being my first.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Cinderalla?

1) Have you ever read anything by Kaoru Fujiwara, Maki Kusumoto, Mitsukazu Mihara, Junko Mizuno, or Asumiko Nakamura? If so, tell me what you thought in the comments below. (And if you haven’t, you can simply mention that.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

And there you have it. For this giveaway, each person can earn up to two entries and has one week to submit them. If needed or preferred, comments can also be sent directly to me via e-mail at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. I will then post them here in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on February 4, 2015. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the Carnival!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address in the comment form, a link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced—Manga Giveaway: Cinderalla Giveaway Winner

Bookshelf Briefs 1/26/15

January 26, 2015 by Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

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

Alice in the Country of Clover: The Lizard Aide | By QuinRose and Job | Seven Seas – It’s never a good sign when the main story of an Alice volume ends two-thirds of the way into the book, and it’s doubly bad when they have to pad it out with Crimson Empire. But the main problem with this is that it stars Gray Ringmarc, who is one of the characters we’ve met and cared about the least in these volumes. He’s introduced in Clover, and without the games as a base, there’s not as much impetus to care about him compared to major players like Blood or Ace, or even Boris, who got seven volumes to get fleshed out. Add to that that Alice is less damaged here (making her less interesting), and the art being subpar, and you have a thoroughly unessential volume. – Sean Gaffney

Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Vol. 3 | By Ark Performance | Seven Seas – Much of this volume involves the battle between the heroes and the bad guys’ and it’s well-told, making things tense and fleshing out the villains a bit more while still keeping them mysterious. Unsurprisingly, the villain that survives is the stoic one on the cover. More intriguing is the brief look at what makes Gunzou tick; Maruri clearly is carrying a torch for him, but says that she can’t be around him as he’s too perfect, which is also his greatest weakness. This scene was needed as Gunzou’s implacability was indeed becoming a weakness for the series, but now that we see there may be something behind it, it bears further study. A cut above the ‘girls and war machines’ subgenre. – Sean Gaffney

Girls Und Panzer, Vol. 3 | By Girls Und Panzer Project and Ryohichi Saitaniya | Seven Seas – Speaking of the ‘girls and war machines’ subgenre, as well as titles created by a committee, our band of tankery girls has another battle this time round, with the stakes raised considerably. Indeed, perhaps raised a bit too much: seeing Miho be told that if they lose, she’ll be disinherited is bad enough, but adding to that that the entire school will be shut down if they lose seems a bit over the top. That said, seeing this particular battle take place in snowy conditions adds a bit of spice to the tank battle, and while the outcome is not yet in doubt (it will be once we hit the finals), it’s close enough to keep us interested. This wraps up next volume, and should have a good ending. – Sean Gaffney

Jaco the Galactic Patrolman | By Akira Toriyama | Viz Media – Though I failed to love Dr. Slump and have yet to try Dragon Ball, I typically enjoy Akira Toriyama’s one-volume manga, and Jaco is no exception. Silly, charming, and absolutely suitable for all ages, this is the story of a diminutive, posturing (yet occasionally genuinely kind of badass) galactic patrolman who crash lands on earth and into the solitary life of widower scientist Omori. At first he’s ready to eliminate earthlings on account of all the crappy ones he meets, but he eventually encounters some good ones, too, and bravely saves a lot of lives without hesitation. Okay, yes, there are a couple of jokes about burps, boogers, and pee, but catering to the target demographic is certainly understandable and the end result wasn’t offputting to this totally middle-aged lady. I think it’s time I faced the fact that I clearly must try Dragon Ball – Michelle Smith

Kiss of the Rose Princess Vol. 2 | By Aya Shouoto | Viz Media -This series is nine volumes in total, which surprises me, as this reads more like the middle volume of a three-part series. We’re introduced to a childhood friend of Anise’s, and he not only turns out to be a missing knight, but also an evil knight, and also a love rival, and oh yes, an Osaka hothead. Plus we get a rather startling revelation about Seiran, which I won’t spoil here, but does shake things up quite a bit. Add to that the return of Anise’s emotionally abusive father, who needless to say is unhappy, and you have something that should be reaching a dramatic climax next time. Except it isn’t. Oh well. The title continues to hold my attention as good meat-and-potatoes shoujo. – Sean Gaffney

Missions of Love, Vol. 10 | By Ema Toyama | Kodansha Comics – We continue to deal with the worst people ever, as Yukina finally gets a confession, but still has trouble dealing with the aftermath of her first love. She orders Shigure to make her forget, but that’s easier said than done, particularly with Akira still trying to sabotage things. This culminates in her going on romantic dates with both of them, which lets the reader know how she feels (Akira is the ‘like a brother’ sort of love), but she remains in the dark. Meanwhile, Mami seems to be trying to get over Shigure, and seems to like Akira, even if she doesn’t know it. And who’s this new guy? He has a sneer, must be evil. If all this sounds exciting to you, you’ll love it. If you think “they all sound like terrible people”… you may love it as well. – Sean Gaffney

My Love Story!!, Vol. 3 | By Kazune Kawahara and Aruko | Viz Media – Much of the first half of this third volume consists of Yamato trying to push their relationship forward a little – we’re talking kisses on the cheek here, but Takeo can’t even comprehend that, being the innocent sort who’s never really had to think about that aspect of love before. This suits Yamato just fine mostly, as I think she wants to take things slowly as well (just a little faster than he does), and she also likes his outgoing-do-good self the best and worries that he might try to change it to suit her – which indeed he does try (and fails) here. After all that romance, we then get a final chapter that’s filled with hilarity. This continues to be the sweetest shoujo around. – Sean Gaffney

My Week in Manga: January 19-January 25, 2015

January 26, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Last week I posted a review of Chōhei Kambayashi’s award-winning novel Good Luck, Yukikaze. Because I had enjoyed Yukikaze, the first novel in the series, I was looking forward to reading its sequel. Sadly, although there is some tremendously thought-provoking material in Good Luck, Yukikaze, I found it to be incredibly frustrating as a novel. Also posted last week was my first (and what will probably be my most substantial) contribution to the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival: a spotlight on Mitsukazu Mihara. I’ve previously written a little about her manga series The Embalmer, but this time I took a brief look at all of her manga that was released in English and examined some of the recurring themes found in her work.

Speaking of the Carnival, the hosts at The Beautiful World posted an excellent introduction which includes biographical information of the featured artists as well as an overview of gothic fashion and literary themes. Elsewhere online, Mangabrog has translated a conversation between Hiroaki Samura and Masashi Kishimoto. Chromatic Press has some additional comments on making Sparkler Monthly back issues free to read. (Most importantly, the magazine needs 1,000 subscribers by the end of July 2015 to ensure it survives into its third year.) And some great news from France, Jiro Taniguchi and Baku Yumemakura’s manga series The Summit of the Gods (a favorite of mine) is being adapted as an animated film.

Quick Takes

Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn by Hugo Pratt. A portion of Corto Maltese, a seminal comic created by Italian artist Hugo Pratt in 1967, was previously translated into English, however that release was criticized for its use of altered and reformatted page layouts among other things. Under the Sign of Capricorn is technically the third Corto Maltese collection, but it’s the first volume to be released in the series’ new English-language edition from EuroComics, IDW’s newest imprint. The goal is to release the entire twelve-volume series using the original artwork and oversized format over the next few years. Under the Sign of Capricorn is a great looking comic, the high-quality paper and large trim size shows off Pratt’s superb black and white artwork. The titular Corto Maltese is a sea-captain who, though he claims to have no enemies and to live only for himself, frequently finds his life in danger as he tends to side with the underdogs in their battles against those who hold power over them. (He’s a fantastic character.) Under the Sign of Capricorn is a collection of connected adventure stories, many with a slight touch of the supernatural and a lot more humor than I was anticipating. I’m looking forward to reading more of the series.

Noragami: Stray God, Volumes 2-3 by Adachitoka. It took a little while for the first volume of Noragami to settle on its tone, but these two volumes have managed to achieve an excellent balance between the series’ humor and drama. They also explore more of the manga’s worldbuilding and delve more deeply into the mechanics of the gods’ relationships with their shinki. New characters and adversaries have been introduced as well. I initially thought that Noragami might be an episodic series–it certainly has a setup that would lend itself well to that format–but it looks like the manga will have an ongoing and increasingly complex plot. In a series about a low-level god of war who is trying to raise his status and gain followers, it’s not too surprising that other Japanese deities make an appearance in Noragami. However, some of them are portrayed very differently than their traditional counterparts. I was greatly amused by this, but then I already have some knowledge of Japanese religion and mythology. There are translation notes provided for readers who aren’t as familiar, but the delightful incongruities probably won’t be as effective without some prior understanding. However, overall enjoyment of Noragami doesn’t rely on esoteric expertise.

Tough Love Baby by Shiuko Kano. While it’s not an exceptional boys’ love one-shot, Tough Love Baby was actually fairly solid. This was a pleasant surprise, especially considering my frustrations with some of Kano’s other early works. (And Tough Love Baby is one of her earliest.) Another pleasant surprise–since I’m into that sort of thing–was the somewhat reversible nature of two of the characters. Despite being the secondary couple, I was actually much more interested in the relationship between Tamotsu and Sora than I was in the relationship between Yoshino and Sachi. This was mostly because I ended up particularly liking Sora. (Tamotsu can be a bit of a jerk, though on occasion he does try not to be.) Sora is diminutive throughout high school, but undergoes a tremendous growth spurt upon entering college. Even though he’s much taller than everyone one else, adorable is still the best word to describe him. In some ways, Sora’s story actually parallels Sachi’s. After a three-year absence, Yoshino returns to discover that the cute thirteen-year-old boy he had developed feelings for has grown up to become a juvenile delinquent. Tamotsu is one of Sachi’s friends and a fellow tough guy, but he happens to be in love with Sachi, too. Which brings the story back to Sora, who greatly admires and falls for Tamotsu.

Akame Ga Kill!, Vol. 1

January 25, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Takahiro and Tetsuya Tashiro. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I frequently say to people that I don’t read depressing manga, or horror manga, or anything where the basic plot is “let’s try to find a dim light of hope in between the chapters of lovingly detailed murder and torture.” And to a certain extent this is ridiculous, given how much I love Higurashi, Umineko, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, etc. So I tend to give these series a try, to see if they’re my thing, or to see if they would appeal to their intended audience. So, regarding Akame Ga Kill!, I will admit straight up that it is not my thing. That said, if you like dark fantasy along the lines of Berserk, but with a few more strong women kicking ass, and don’t mind the constant brutal violence, this is absolutely a good title to start picking up, as it does those things very well.

I think most manga readers by now have learned never to read the solicitation or back cover copy for any given volume, as it has a tendency to spoil, especially for first volumes. That said, I think most readers would be savvy enough to know that when our hero, already depressed at how the big city is nothing but a pack of lies, and having all his money stolen by a buxom thief, is taken in by a very beautiful and nice young princess and her also beautiful and nice young family, that SOMETHING HORRIBLE IS COMING. Particularly when said girl is not the stoic swordswoman on the cover. And sure enough the sweet young thing has not only tortured to death many young people in the name of… well, being insane, but her older sister has a taste for the research scientist from hell. And worst of all, his two best friends are the last two victims, one surviving just long enough to tell him he he has to be strong and go on.

Enter our heroes, who the main lead will end up joining. They’re a wacky band of misfits, and include the cover girl, the buxom thief (who I notice never does give his money back, and seems to essentially be Mitsune from Love Hina), and the tsundere with twintails who totally isn’t falling for him (and also drags out a ‘wheel of morality’ with all of Gangan Joker’s main series on it, including many other Yen licenses, though they haven’t picked up Corpse Party just yet). Gradually our hero shows what he’s made of and begins to impress the others despite himself, and they open up to him, telling their backstories so that we don’t need flashbacks at all.

This may seem a bit cliched and yes, it is. But it’s laid out nicely, the art is good, and you begin to like this ragtag band of assassin misfits even as you realize that this is the soft of series where you shouldn’t get too attached to anyone. That last point is likely why I won’t stay aboard, but if you like dark fantasy with a bit of an otaku bent, Akame Ga Kill! should be right up your alley. Also, fear not, Akame does in fact kill in this volume, thus proving the untranslated title correct.

Random Musings: Spotlight on Mitsukazu Mihara

January 23, 2015 by Ash Brown

For the last two weeks of January 2015, the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival is focusing on the works of Kaoru Fujiwara, Maki Kusumoto, Mitsukazu Mihara, Junko Mizuno, Asumiko Nakamura. While I’ve read and enjoyed manga created by almost all of those women, Mihara is the mangaka that I’ve read the most of and am most familiar with out of the group. (Granted, that may in part be due to the fact that of the five she has had the most manga licensed and released in English.)

The Creator

Sadly, there doesn’t actually seem to be very much information available in English about Mitsukazu Mihara beyond a few well-established facts. She was born in Hiroshima, Japan on October 17, 1970 and for a long time was based in Osaka. (I believe she may now be working out of Tokyo.) She made her manga debut in 1994 and has been writing and illustrating ever since. Mihara is often credited as being particularly influential in refining the Gothic Lolita sensibility and she frequently served as a featured illustrator for the Gothic & Lolita Bible magazine.

Between 2004 and 2007, Tokyopop released many of Mihara’s works in English, beginning with her series Doll. Mihara is particularly known for her short manga with twists–even her long-form works tend to be fairly episodic–and she frequently employs darker themes and includes heavy psychological elements in her stories. Her manga is influenced and inspired by the problems and issues that she sees in society as well as by her own personal traumas. As she states in an interview from 2008 in the debut issue of the North American edition of Gothic & Lolita Bible, “Often, my greatest work is born during the bad times.”

The Manga

Although IC in a Sunflower (1997) contains some of Mitsukazu Mihara’s earliest work, the volume was actually the last of her manga to be licensed in English. A collection of seven unrelated short manga, the volume includes her award-winning debut “Keep Those Condoms Away from Our Kids.” Another of the collected stories, “The Sunflower Quality of an Integrated Circuit,” would later be tied into her series Doll.

While there is some absurdity and black humor in R.I.P.: Requiem in Phonybrian (2000), the volume’s darker elements take precedent. The manga follows the angel Transylvanian Rose who has rescued the soul of a suicide, but he isn’t particularly happy about this turn of events, nor is he particularly interested in his new responsibilities of cleansing other souls. The manga starts out fairly episodic but quickly coalesces.

Beautiful People (2001) is another collection of Mihara’s short manga and includes six unrelated stories. The volume features a range of genres and sub-genres including science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, post-apocalyptic fiction, contemporary drama, and suspense. In general, like much of Mihara’s work, the manga included in the volume tend to be darker in tone, but there are moments of brightness as well.

The manga that Mihara is probably most well-known for, at least in English, is her six-volume Doll (2000-2002). The manga is a series of loosely interconnected stories of androids and angst that are tied together by the end of the final volume. Although the Dolls are an important part of the series, the focus of the manga is much more on the humans and their relationships to the Dolls and to each other.

Because it’s primarily a comedy, Haunted House (2002) stands out from the rest of Mihara’s manga available in English. Granted, it still has elements of horror in an Addams Family sort of way. Sabato Obiga is a teenager who desperately wants two things in his life: a girlfriend and a normal family. Unfortunately, the eccentricities and occult interests of his “death flavored” relatives would seem to make both an impossibility.

My introduction to Mihara’s work was through her series The Embalmer (2003-2013) and it remains my personal favorite of her manga. Sadly, only four of the series’ seven volumes were released in English. I’ve actually written a little about the series before, specifically in regards to the main character and the role of embalming in the story. Less fantastic than many of Mihara’s other manga, the series has a strong grounding in reality.

The Themes

There are many themes and variations upon them that appear and reappear throughout Mitsukazu Mihara’s work. One of the most prominent elements in Mihara’s manga is the inclusion of families. Even Haunted House, which is so unlike many of her other works, has a family at its core. The families in Mihara’s manga are often broken and in need of healing, but underlying all that turmoil and trauma is an understanding of the immense importance of family and the profound influence, both positive and negative, that a family has on its individual members.

Similarly, there is an intense longing for love and connection that pervades Mihara’s work. Her characters are searching for someone they can be close to, someone they can trust, someone they can reach out to. Sometimes this is found within their families, and sometimes they are forced to look outside of them to satisfy those needs. Love takes on many different forms in Mihara’s stories, and its potential to end in tragedy is just as real as its potential to end in redemption.

Maturer themes dealing with sex and sexuality have been present in Mihara’s work since the very beginning. Her debut manga “Keep Those Condoms Away from Our Kids” (collected in IC in a Sunflower Circuit) tells the story of a near-future Japan in which the birthrate has plummeted because younger generations have completely lost interest in sex. In the post-apocalyptic vision of “World’s End” (collected in Beautiful People), a peculiar twist of fate means that a lesbian and a gay man may be the only survivors. Perversion, fetishism, bondage, and sadomasochism can be seen in much of Mihara’s work as well, but perhaps most obviously in Doll.

Although frequently viewed through the lens of speculative fiction, Mihara isn’t afraid to look at the harsher realities of life and the darker sides of human nature. Abuse, obsession, sexual violence, and other harmful deviant behaviors can all readily be found within her work. Many of Mihara’s characters are suffering, whether from the actions of others or from their own personal demons and psychological disturbances. There is tragedy, sadness, and pain in both their lives and their relationships. Life isn’t always pretty, and Mihara doesn’t shy away from that fact in her manga.

People can be cruel and are capable of terrible things. As is seen again and again in Mihara’s work, it takes a human to be inhumane. The monsters in her stories are often the ones showing the most empathy and caring for others. Sometimes those monsters are literal–like the vampire in “Blue Sky” (collected in Beautiful People). Sometimes they are beings of human design–like the clones in “Alive” (collected in IC in a Sunflower) or the Dolls. And sometimes they are other people who are for one reason or another shunned, abandoned, or reviled by the rest of society. But there is some hope in humanity that remains–people are changed, often for the better, by their interactions with those “monsters.”

Death and dying are themes that frequently make an appearance in Mihara’s work, but at the same time an immense respect and reverence for life can always be seen. Matters of life and death are most realistically examined by Mihara in The Embalmer, the series focusing on those left behind to grieve the deaths of their loved ones. The characters must respond to that loss of life in a very personal way and their relationship with death is constantly changing as a result. Requiem in Phonybrian and many of Mihara’s short manga take a more fantastic approach to death and the afterlife, but emotionally it is all still very real.

Mihara’s manga deal extensively with dualities. This is visually epitomized in the Gothic Lolita aesthetic which Mihara frequently incorporates into her work, but it is also present in the narrative themes that she explores. Light and darkness. Beauty and ugliness. Innocence and perversion. Love and hate. Purity and corruption. Human and inhuman. Hope and despair. Life and death. They are pairs of concepts that are so closely intertwined that it is simply impossible for them to be separated from each other.

They are all also qualities that exist simultaneously within a single person or a single story. Although often viewed as positive or negative characteristics, Mihara’s work shows that they aren’t necessarily inherently good or bad. Rather, it’s a fixation on a particular ideal or other imbalance in those qualities that truly causes harm. Mihara’s stories, just like individuals, contain many complexities, contradictions, and layers. They can be shocking and surprising and may often have more depth to them than might first appear.

Off the Shelf: Food & Fantasy

January 22, 2015 by MJ and Michelle Smith 2 Comments

MICHELLE: Hey, check it out! It hasn’t been a whole year and we’re totally back again!

MJ: It’s a Christmas miracle! Or something.

MICHELLE: It must be! This week there’s one debut that we both read—shall we start with that one? Would you like to do the summarizing honors, or shall I?

MJ: I’ll give it a try!

This week, we both dug into the first volume of Yukarism, the latest from Chika Shiomi, author of Yurara and Rasetsu. The story centers around Yukari, a seventeen-year-old boy who, according to a fortune-teller, was born without forgetting his previous life. The fortune-teller seems to have been on to something, as Yukari has such a strong sense of Japan’s Edo period that he’s been able to write numerous historical novels set in that period without any research at all. But though Yukari is keenly aware that he has this uncanny sense for the past, the details only begin to come together for him when he meets a classmate named Mahoro, whose chance presence in his life awakens his full memories, sending him back in a dreamlike state to his previous life as an oiran in the pleasure district, and even to the scene of his death.

MICHELLE: Nicely done!

As this is a short series—complete in four volumes—we ought to get resolution to the low-key mystery of that death in a fairly straightforward fashion. Already there is a suspect in Takamura, one of Yumurasaki’s (the oiran) customers, who is pretty creepy and known to wield his curse-making talents as an assassin. As the volume concludes, it seems likely we have met his present-day incarnation as well, though I don’t get much sense of our present-day characters in peril.

Initially, I would’ve said I didn’t get much sense of our present-day characters at all, but once the reincarnation of Hitoha, Yumurasaki’s attendant, showed up, Mahoro did start acting a little more lively. It does seem, though, that in this first volume at least, the priority was on establishing the concept.

MJ: I’m find that I’m both distressed and pleased to hear that this series is complete in four volumes. On one hand, I applaud succinct storytelling when done well, and I do have a lot of faith in this artist. On the other, if it indeed is done well, I’ll be very sad to see it go. So far, I’m feeling optimistic, though I’ll agree that the present-day characters are less distinct at this point than their past-life counterparts, but as you say, that begins to ramp up a bit near the end of the volume. One exception on that front, however, is Yukari, at least in my opinion. His character is fairly well-established (and nicely linked) in both the past and present, and I do appreciate the way he so easily falls into his former self. He and Yumurasaki are so clearly the same person at the core, and this is only enhanced by Shiomi’s efficient yet expressive art style.

While this volume is mainly setup, it does set things up pretty clearly, at least. I suspect we’ll discover soon just why these people have been brought back together in this time period, and perhaps even why they’re so easily able to reconnect with their past selves. I’m quite looking forward to it.

MICHELLE: I absolutely agree about Yukari and Yumurasaki clearly being the same. It’s Mahoro who seems so different from her past self that it’s puzzling. Maybe Yukari’s wrong about who she really is? That’s an intriguing possibility. In any case, I am definitely on board for the rest of the series!

MJ: I suspect there’s a lot more to Mahoro (and her past self) than we yet know! And yes, I’m definitely on board for finding out!

So what else have you been reading lately?

MICHELLE: I actually checked out another Shojo Beat debut from VIZ, Kiss of the Rose Princess by Aya Shouoto!

This nine-volume series is about a girl called Anise Yamamoto who was given a choker by her father with the warning, “If you ever remove it, a truly terrifying punishment will befall you.” She duly wears it until one day a bat-like creature flies into her. The choker disappears, but in its place is a card. By kissing it, she can summon Kaede, her hot-headed classmate. Turns out she’s some sort of sovereign that has knights at her disposal. Instead of Anise going around collecting the rest of the cards, the bat (Ninufa) just gives them to her, so now she has four bishounen at her beck and call. Anise wisely wonders, “This isn’t punishment, is it?”

In addition to Kaede, there’s the princely student body president, a grumpy goth dude (who is apparently not quite human), and a frail and delicate boy. Supposedly, the power of the cards was sealed until a demon lord resurfaces, only he hasn’t yet, so… What is this story going to be? Is it a comedy? The reveal of the president’s masochistic predilections is played for laughs. Will the demon lord ever show up, or are we in for more stories with plots like “we’ll work together as a team to create a new main gate for the school festival”? I honestly don’t know what to make of this one.

Ultimately, I suppose I will read more in the hope that this will possibly turn out not to be something generic.

MJ: Right now, I feel like I’m reading some kind of alternate universe reboot of Cardcaptor Sakura. Am I wrong?

MICHELLE: I can see how you’d think that, and it is true that each knight supposedly has a different specialty (attacks, discovery, alchemy…), but because she isn’t compelled to collect more cards or go up against an enemy, Anise isn’t actually using these cards the same way Sakura does, and it’s much less compelling so far. That said, volume two has just come out, so perhaps that’ll give me a better idea of the direction in which the series is heading.

What else have you been reading?

MJ: I’ve finally now caught up on the latest volumes of one of my favorite series, Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, specifically volumes five and six. I suppose it’s a testament to my harried life that I would have let more than one volume of this series linger in my to-read pile, but it’s also telling that when I have real time to sit down and read, this is the series I choose first.

Something I’m always struck by when I read this manga is just how well Fumi Yoshinaga’s style works with this foodie/slice-of-life mix. Her sense of humor and ability to infuse casual anecdotes with real relationship-building makes the storytelling feel substantial even when so much page time goes to food preparation. With that in mind, there’s quite a bit going on over the course of these two volumes, but perhaps the most significant bits of the storyline have to do with Shiro and Kenji’s new acquaintance with another couple, Mr. Kohinata and his younger boyfriend, Wataru.

Shiro is originally introduced to Mr. Kohinata by Mr. Tominaga, the husband of the woman with whom Shiro often splits groceries. Though both Shiro and Mr. Kohinata recognize the absurdity of the introduction (Mr. Tominaga seems to believe they’ll naturally have lots in common simply because they are both gay), they actually do strike up a friendly acquaintance, and soon the two couples are having dinner together and meeting up to watch Mr. Kohinata’s company baseball game. There’s a lot of humor involved, but the real significance of this new friendship is in the way it influences Shiro to begin feeling more comfortable as part of a gay couple in public. By the end of volume six, he’s even invited Kenji to go grocery shopping with him in their own neighborhood, which may seem like a small thing, but is a pretty big deal for Shiro—a fact that does not elude Kenji in the slightest.

I often see comments here from readers who dislike Shiro, and I admit that I really don’t understand it at all. Yes, he’s emotionally reticent, and yes, his professional life is a complication in terms of how open he feels he can be in his personal life. But he expresses his caring for Kenji in so many ways—and vice-versa. I am pretty deeply in love with their relationship and the ways in which they continuously learn to work around each other’s fears and insecurities in order to continue to support each other, emotionally and otherwise.

Also, the food. THE FOOD. I get so hungry when I read this manga. It’s a good thing I have a cooking-savvy husband of my own. How do I relate to Kenji? Let me count the ways.

MICHELLE: I am with you on being baffled that anyone would dislike Shiro! I would challenge those folks to read through the end of volume six, which not only includes the public grocery-shopping invitation but the real reason for Shiro’s intense frugality, and see how they feel about him then. He may not be demonstrative, but he really does care, and is thinking of Kenji’s long-term health and happiness.

It’s interesting how my reaction to the food works, because if it’s something unfamiliar, I kind of go, “Oh, that looks tasty,” but if it’s something known and delicious, then I will become a slavering craving-beast. Latest trigger? Gyoza!

MJ: Yum! Though of course that seems to be my reaction to everything they eat in this series. Now… time for some lunch!

MICHELLE: Suddenly, this Stouffer’s frozen entrée is not looking up to par.

MJ: I feel that.