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Sunny, Vol. 1

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It makes me feel good that there are still new series coming out from Viz in the Viz Signature imprint. Sunny by Taiyo Matsumoto is also an addition to the trend of nicely packaged manga hardcovers. With a slightly larger trim size (the same as the other IKKI titles) and color pages before most chapters, this is a volume that will delight manga collectors looking for something nicer than the average paperback. I’ve only read Blue Spring by Matsumoto before, I really need to get around to reading Tekkon Kinkreet.

Sunny is written in one of my favorite fiction formats – a collection of interrelated short stores with shifting main characters that are all tied together. The Sunny of the title of the book refers to a broken down old Nissan Sunny car that sits in the back of a group home for abandoned children. The Sunny is a secret hideout, place to stash porn and other illicit materials, and a means of escape for a group of kids that doesn’t have much security or fun in their daily lives. The volume opens with a brief glimpse of foster home chaos, quickly inter cut with a scene showing the imagination of Haruo, who sits in the car imagining that he’s bleeding out in the desert like a tragic movie tough guy. Haruo’s reverie is abruptly interrupted by Junsuke, an overly hyper snotty-nosed kid who eagerly announces that there’s a new arrival in the house. The readers of Sunny and the new kid Sei both get an abrupt introduction to the children’s home as Sei goes through the house and sits in the Sunny with Haruo and Junsuke. When Sei says that his mom is going to pick him up before summer Haruo says, “No way you’re goin home. You got dumped.”

Sunny captures Haruo’s frustration and anger about his own situation, combined with his helplessness about being able to change anything. Junsuke struggles with his instinct to grab anything shiny, even stealing from his classmates at times. While Haruo is a central viewpoint character, Sunny fluidly moves among different points of view, showing Megumu’s concern for a dead cat and the real-world concerns of older kid Kenji. While there’s a lot of hopelessness in the lives of the kids who live at the home, they also stick up for each other and come together when one of them goes missing.

Matsumoto has a scratchy pen and ink style in his drawings, which incorporate cartoonish elements like circles for rosy cheeks. Washes of ink in varying intensity and hand-drawn textures instead of screentones give Sunny a hand-crafted feel that stands out among more corporate glossy manga. Matsumoto’s detailed backgrounds firmly establish the neighborhood the kids live in, as well as the run-down environment of their house. Overall, Sunny is exactly what I’d expect from the Viz Signature line – a nuanced work that is set apart from more commercial manga due to its artistic and literary value .

It Came from the Sinosphere: The Duke of Mount Deer (Part 2)

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First, a Song!

I’ve never seen any of the TV adaptations of The Duke of Mount Deer, but I do like the opening song of the version starring Tony Leung and Michael Miu.

Hey, I Know That Place!

I have never been to China. While I know where places like ‘Beijing’ are, a lot of the action in these stories takes place in rural areas I’ve never heard of. Likewise, my knowledge of Chinese history is very, very basic, so when certain prominent historical figures pop up I know little, if anything, about them.

But while I’ve never been to China, I have most definitely been in Taiwan (I’m in Taiwan now).

This novel has many references to Taiwanese history and places in Taiwan, and eventually our protagonist even goes to Taiwan.

Furthermore, I read part of the novel in Penghu, which was a stronghold of Shi Lang, one of the characters in the novel. So, while I was reading about the fictional Shi Lang, I was learning about the historical Shi Lang by wandering around his old stomping ground.

A view of an old village in Wangan, Penghu County.

This village in Penghu was around when the events of this novel took place.

So, for once, not only did I understand a lot of the historical references being dropped and know quite a few of the places being mentioned, they were mentioning places which I have physically visited and have vivid memories of. For example, at one point Wei Xiaobao thinks about five concubines of King Ningjing. I have visited the temple dedicated to the five concubines, and seen the very wooden rafter where they hung themselves.

I had not expected to see places I’ve been to in my travel around Taiwan to pop up in a Jin Yong novel. It’s exciting to see a bit of one’s life represented in fiction, and it made my reading experience even richer.

The Island

Something that comes up again and again in Jin Yong stories is 2-8 characters going to an island where they live together in isolation from the rest of humanity. Or maybe they go to a remote mountain instead. This is the happiest part of the characters’ lives, and if/when they leave the island/mountain, they suffer.

In other words, happiness is setting up one’s own isolated micro-society, while people living within a huge, hierarchal society are doomed to suffer. There, I’ve just summarized about 5000 pages of fiction.

(this section contains some spoilers for this novel)

But there is one protagonist who is not happy with living on his own island, namely Wei Xiaobao.

He thinks the greatest pleasures in life are watching theatre shows, gambling, and having sex with beautiful women. But on the island, only the ‘sex with beautiful women’ is an option, which is why Wei Xiaobao doesn’t want to be on the island in the first place. He does try to gamble with the beautiful women, but since they are not really into gambling, it’s not much fun. Then some gamblers come to the island, so Wei Xiaobao gets sex with beautiful women and gambling. But he’s still unhappy. Then a theatre troupe comes to the island … no, I’m making that one up, but I bet even if a theatre group had come to the island and performed for Wei Xiaobao every day, he would still be unhappy.

It is then said that Wei Xiaobao can only be happy in a bustling city, such as Yangzhou or Beijing. But I wonder, is that really it? He seems happiest when he’s with his friends. If his friends were on the island with him, would he be so unhappy?

In any case, I find it interesting that Jin Yong subverts his own island/mountain fantasy.

deercauldron2

Not a Good Person

Jin Yong has received many complaints from readers about the novel because the protagonist is … not a good person. Jin Yong’s response is that protagonists don’t have to be ‘good’, his novels are not supposed to be morality textbooks, and nobody is completely ‘good’ anyway. He does say to any impressionable people who may read the novel that Wei Xiaobao’s loyalty to his friends is a virtue, but aside from that, his behavior should not be imitated.

I like to pride myself in being someone who wants complex characters with shades of grey and all that … yet Wei Xiaobao also frustrated me. Which makes me realize that I also like to sort characters into ‘good people’ and ‘bad people’, much as I don’t like to admit it.

Wei Xiaobao simply does not fit in the ‘good person/bad person’ dichotomy. He some some horrible things in the story, and never regrets them, let alone apologize for them. He also does some good things at personal cost to himself. At times I would be cheering him on, and then think ‘wait a minute, I’m cheering on the guy who did [horrible thing].’ And then there were times when Wei Xiaobao was suffering, and I would think ‘that’s not fair.’

Many of Wei Xiaobao’s ‘bad’ features are actually him living out fantasies we are not comfortable to admitting we have. For example, he is too lazy to study, and always finds clever workarounds for actual work. Many of use would love to have the benefit of work being done without doing the work ourselves. And while I personally do not have fantasies about having sex with a harem of beautiful women, based on some of the search results I’ve gotten, this seems to be some people’s favorite part of the story.

I have Asagi from Basara on my mind lately (thanks, MJ) and even he fits in the good person / bad person dichotomy. He’s a bad, broken person who becomes a good, healed person. Wei Xiaobao, however, is not broken – in fact, he is the least angst-ridden of all Jin Yong characters. While he does grow up over the course of the story, whether he becomes a ‘better’ person is open to debate.

To a large extent, Wei Xiaobao is just adapting to his environment. He often gets rewarded for lying and cheating, so he lies and he cheats. He grew up around people who treat young women as sex objects instead of as people, so he treats young women as sex objects instead of as people (though he gets a little better about this towards the end of the story). Older women tend to shower affection on him when he flatters and papmers them, so guess what, he flatters and pampers older women. His friends express their gratitude when he tries to help them, so he tries to help his friends. While Wei Xiaobao is individually repsonsible for his actions (especially since it is demonstrated that he CAN resist his social conditioning), to a large extent, his virtues and flaws are reflections of the society he lives in.

What a vexing character.

Wei Xiaobao and His Mother

(this is mildly spoilerific)

For most of the novel, Wei Xiaobao hardly thinks about his mother at all, and he certainly does not wonder how she’s doing. Finally, he returns to Yangzhou and sees her. From her point of view, her young son had disappeared years ago, and no matter how hard she searched for him, she couldn’t even find a clue about his whereabouts. She is understandably extremely upset about his long absence, and makes sures Wei Xiaobao knows it. At the same time, she is overjoyed to know that her son is alive and well. Wei Xiaobao also observes that she is getting older, and that some day she will need somebody to take care of her.

At first, this encounter doesn’t seem to change Wei Xiaobao, but looking back, that was a major turning point in his development. Before their reunion, Wei Xiaobao has a very self-centered lifestyle – everything is about making himself safe, comfortable, and happy. After being separated from her again, Wei Xiaobao actually misses his mother, and worries about how she is doing. And it’s not just his mother – Wei Xiaobao starts considering how his actions affect other people, not to manipulate them, but because he starts to care about their well-being. He realizes that there are people who depend on him. And thus his carefree existence is finished.

This is actually not unlike my own life. I haven’t seen my own mother in years, unless you count the *one* conversation we had over Skype last year, which incidently was the only time I talked to her in all of 2012. She would probably count that, for she said was that it was so wonderful to see her daughter’s face moving and smiling again after having not seen me for so long. Though I don’t think my behavior is nearly as harmful as Wei Xiaobao’s, I am currently living a self-centered life myself. I am only taking care of myself, and though Wei Xiaobao and I do very different things for fun (well, we do have ONE passion in common – live theatre), we are both trying to please ourselves to the greatest extent feasible.

I consider my eventual reunion with my parents to be the end of my carefree existence, for I see that, between my parents and myself, the direction of the caregiving is going to reverse. One reason I value my current self-centered lifestyle is that, by my reckoning, I will never be able to live like this ever again.

Availability in English

This novel has been published in English as The Deer and the Cauldron by John Minford. I haven’t read any of it myself, but this translation gets very, very mixed reviews. Currently, it’s out of print and expensive, so I suggest borrowing it from a library.

The cover of the third volume of the English language edition.

There is also an incomplete fan translation by ‘Foxs’. I’ve looked at it, and it’s very literal (on purpose, according to Foxs). It’s not the smoothest reading experience in English, but it’s close to the original Chinese. Some people say that the best way to read The Deer and the Cauldron in English is to read the Minford and the Foxs translations side-by-side.

Conclusion

A lot of people say this is Jin Yong’s best novel, and dammit, they are right, this is Jin Yong’s best novel.

If you can get the Minford translation from a library, or get the novel in a language you understand by some other means, then this novel needs to be on your reading list now (caveat: I am not going to blame people who avoid the novel because of the sexual abuse it depicts).

I am a bit sad to finish this novel. I had held off on reading this for a long time because it is the last Jin Yong novel. Now, I will never read a fresh Jin Yong novel ever again. Re-reads are not the same. That said, this was the right novel to save for last.

Thanks, Jin Yong. It was a great ride.

What does it say about Sara K.’s life that she saw some Beijing opera, learned how to open up encrypted filesystems with a liveCD, and was bitten by wild leeches in the same week?

The Sacred Blacksmith, Vol. 1

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By Isao Miura and Kotaro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Seiken no Katanakaji” by Media Factory, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Alive. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

In general, the review of Sacred Blacksmith is simple. This is a fantasy manga that takes place in a world recovering from a Demon war, which features girls with swords, bandits, elf-girl companions, etc. If you like fantasy like that, this is probably right up your alley. It doesn’t seem to have too much problematic content so far – the hero completely and utterly outclasses the heroine, but she also gets her share of badass things to do. If I have any complaints, it’s that I wasn’t really ‘wowed’ by anything in it – “a pretty good read” is not a bad thing, but doesn’t add up to 500 words very often.

sacredblacksmith1

There is the old standard “the anime changed things and made male fans hate the girl more” discussion, which I’ve used before in talking about Zero’s Familiar. Cecily as seen in the manga is an OK swordswoman who gets by on guts a lot, but doesn’t back away from an enemy and has a few badass moments towards the end of the volume. In the anime, I’m led to understand, she’s a lot less competent, because… well, no idea. She’s also a tsundere, and we know how much male Western fandom hates them. The manga at one point does the “it’s my fault I’m naked in front of you but I’m embarrassed so will hit you anyway” standard, and I was amused that Luke immediately called her on this.

As for Luke, he clearly has a tragic past, and does not suffer fools gladly, but at least isn’t outright horrible to Cecily, possibly as this isn’t a shoujo manga. His familiar Lisa is there to be adorable, and she is indeed cute as a button. The art is also very good at showing the awfulness of the demonic casting, and several scenes made me wince as people were basically possessed (and sometimes consumed) by monsters. There’s sort of a tense peace going on as the book begins, and the plot is no doubt going to be attempting to stop that peace.

There’s also a lot of discussion of katanas, which are unknown to this fantasy world that is no doubt supposed to be Western Europe. Lisa even has a long, mostly textual discussion at the end of the book on how they are made and why they are superior to straight Western swords. The katana is a nice weapon, but there’s just a touch of ‘and this is why Japan is better’ to the whole thing (not that this is exclusive to this series – off the top of my head, Attack on Titan is doing similar things as well). The action scenes are solid as well, which speaks well to the artist. I never had to go back and reread to figure out what was happening.

So while there’s nothing really wrong with Sacred Blacksmith after one volume, I’m not sure it has enough oomph to really excite me either. It seems like the authors are making tick boxes on a ‘fantasy anime franchise’ checklist. Hopefully a second volume will give me a bit more to chew on.

Bookshelf Briefs 6/3/13

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This week, Sean, MJ, and Michelle look at recent releases from Seven Seas, Yen Press, Viz Media, Kodansha Comics, and Vertical, Inc.

joker2Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game, Vol. 2 | By QuinRose and Mamenosuke Fujimaru | Seven Seas – Despite the cover showing a seductive moment between Alice and Peter White, there’s less romance in this series than ever before – and the series is all the better for it, as it’s allowed to dig a bit deeper into the darkness that haunts the entire Alice series. The cast make it perfectlyu clear that their goal is simply to keep Alice distracted and not thinking of returning to her world – and that having her fall for one of them is merely a means to that end. But Joker is a wildcard – at least one of his personalities is – and he’s just as determined to dredge up all the things everyone wants Alice to forget – particularly her older sister. This is possibly one of the more twisted spinoffs of the Alice series, and thus one of the most intriguing. – Sean Gaffney

areyoualice1Are You Alice?, Vol. 1 | By Ikumi Katagiri and Ai Ninomiya | Yen Press – Given the number of titles that currently match this description, one simply has to ask, do we really need another manga series involving characters from Alice in Wonderland? If that series is Are You Alice?, the answer is… I really don’t know. The premise is this: bishonen “Alice” falls into the clutches of several more bishonen playing roles like the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat. In order to win his freedom, Alice must kill the White Rabbit, as per rules set in place by the (bishonen) Queen of Hearts. Violence and BL subtext ensues. Though there are some intriguing aspects to this series’ first volume (for instance, former “Alice” candidates have lost their identities once they’d failed), it’s difficult not to see it as an excuse to dress up a bunch of pretty men in pretty, pretty costumes. Whether there’s really more to it remains to be seen. – MJ

arisa10Arisa, Vol. 10 | By Natsumi Ando | Kodansha Comics – With the King’s identity revealed at the end of volume nine—and coming as no great surprise—we turn now to some explanation of how things came to be as they are. Arisa has awoken, and after a period of coldness that her twin, Tsubasa, thaws with her shoujo heroine powers, begins telling her sister the truth about the origins of the wish-granting sovereign of Class 2-B. I can’t say that the explanation is particularly plausible or anything, but at least it offers us a break from characters suffering from amnesia, falling down stairs, or finding themselves in other positions of peril thanks to over-the-top evil villains. For a series that started off promisingly, Arisa became kind of snickerworthy in its later volumes. I’m still going to see this one through to the end, but I doubt this’ll be something I’m interested in rereading in the future. – Michelle Smith

cageofeden10Cage of Eden, Vol. 10 | By Yoshinobu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – While not spoiling anything specific for this volume, it’s worth noting that after so many volumes where the only characters who die are minor students we don’t really care about, here we see both the death of a major character as well as the non-death of a villainous character I was totally expecting to die. In a series like Cage of Eden, keeping the suspense and surprises coming is the entire reason for reading the series, so that’s definitely a good thing. Well, I admit many may also be reading this for the fanservice, and this volume gives them a long, involved bathing scene with lots of nude women. The cliffhanger teases a couple of answers to our questions, but in general we’re still just watching everyone battle huge animals. But really, this volume is about (spoiler)’s death, and they died well. – Sean Gaffney

demon3Demon Love Spell, Vol. 3 | By Mayu Shinjo | Viz Media – So I’ll admit that, despite my immediate adoration of Demon Love Spell, previous experiences have kept me on edge, and some part of me has waited fearfully for that thing to happen—you know the thing—that moment when I’d be suddenly expected to find a super-controlling love interest super-duper sexy. I mention this now, because it almost happened. There’s a moment early on, when hot demon Kagura, jealous as all hell, demands that heroine Miko “Shut up!” and “Stop arguing,” and in her mind, she apologizes. My heart sank, truly. I thought I was done for. Fortunately, the moment passed quickly and never repeated itself; furthermore, the rest of the volume is just as charming and funny as the rest of the series has been so far, and I found myself taking phone photos of particularly charming moments. Don’t scare me like that, Demon Love Spell. Please? – MJ

shonan9GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Vol. 9 | By Toru Fujisawa | Vertical, Inc. – I admit, there were two things that disappointed me in this final volume. One of the bad guys changed his stripes in a very convenient way, and I’m not sure there was enough buildup to make it work. The other is the 2nd half – the GTO story proper finished halfway through, and the rest is devoted to the Twins from an earlier arc dispensing Onizuka-style justice in their own high school. It’s just not as much fun watching them as it is watching Onizuka, and feels more like a typical Shonen Magazine fanservice chapter. But that still leaves lots of Onizuka being awesome, and a big chase, and a jetpack out of nowhere, and all the other fun ludicrousness we’ve known from this series. And, in the end, most of the kids get a happy ending. Which is all we really wanted. (Romantic resolution? Ha!) – Sean Gaffney

bookstore2Welcome to the Erotic Bookstore, Vol. 2 | By Pon Watanabe | Yen Press – This was an intriguing experiment from Yen, and I’m glad they put it out. That said, I feel it’s safe to say that one volume of this series was absolutely enough. The second volume has less about the lives of the heroine and the various employees around her, and more examination of customers and their kinks. Including some fetishes that I’d really rather not get to know the reason behind, thanks very much. The message here is positive – as long as it’s not hurting anyone, sex is a wonderful and varied thing. But after a while the plotless gag format took its toll on me, and I was sort of flipping quickly towards the ending. If you’re a completist, then by all means pick this up. But for those who were simply curious, I’m pretty sure Vol. 1 will meet all your needs.. – Sean Gaffney

Off the Shelf: Sunny, Lone Wolf & Cub

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MJ: Good morning, Michelle! It’s been a while since we met here, just the two of us. I miss it!

MICHELLE: Me, too! I really enjoy talking about manga with you.

MJ: So, with a whole slew of debut volumes to catch up on, we’ve decided to spend the next few columns on mutual reads only, so we can give these books the attention they deserve. Michelle, would you like to introduce our first selection for this week?

sunny1MICHELLE: Sure!

Sunny is the latest series by Taiyo Matsumoto (Tekkonkinkreet, GoGo Monster) to be released in North America. Serialized in Shogakukan’s IKKI magazine, Sunny is a slice-of-life story about kids living together in a group facility. Their circumstances vary—some might be orphans, but it seems that most have parents who are unable to care for them for some reason—but one thing they have in common is the use of an old, broken-down Nissan Sunny as a kind of playhouse.

Junsuke is a snotty-nosed kid with a penchant for shiny things. Haruo is a white-haired boy whose play-time daydreams always involve being a cool, grown-up version of himself. Sei is the new kid, taciturn and utterly opposed to thinking of the facility as his new home. Episodic chapters ensue, and somehow Matsumoto uses quick, short scenes in such a way that the pace feels frenetic and leisurely at the same time. Hyper, but with that “we’ve got a few hours ’til dinnertime” quality, if that makes sense.

MJ: Oh, what a wonderful way to describe the general feel of this book! The book’s structure and pacing seem so in tune with a child’s sense of time—that feeling of impatience on top of the endless landscape of imagination. These kids have more reasons than most to escape into their fantasy worlds, but they spend just as much time being shuffled along the familiar routines of childhood. Meals, school, sleep, play—their daily lives are similar to most young kids, but with an edge of anxiety most of us were privileged to do without. And it’s these points of anxiety that make Sunny feel moving and real, and not a nostalgia piece in the slightest.

Some anxious moments that stood out for me were things like teenaged Megumu’s instinct to head for the nearby bridge when one of the home’s children goes missing, because being left to die in the river is actually her own worst fear, and young Junsuke’s desperate bouts of kleptomania. I was also very moved by Haruo’s fitful attchement to visiting adult Makio, the one person to whom he’s willing to confess that he dreads seeing his own mother because seeing her only makes not seeing her that much harder.

Also, while the Sunny itself is certainly central to the story, somehow it’s the kids’ time spent out of the Sunny that shows us who they are even more than their stolen moments alone with their imaginations. That’s not what I would have expected, but Matusmoto is so deft at revealing his characters through their actions, everything they do feels significant.

MICHELLE: There were so many things here that I loved. I love that Matsumoto depicts what it is that the kids are imagining, particularly Sei’s fantasy ride back to the place he considers his true home. I love the ridiculous song Junsuke makes up. I love the way Matsumoto’s art—not pretty but still oh-so-charming—delivers some poignant moments, like a subtle establishing shot showing the home as a place of warmth to go to when it gets dark (both literally and figuratively). I love that he never actually says “and this little kid is Junsuke’s brother,” but simply shows it through their physical similarity and interaction. And I love the whole bit at the end where said little kid, Shosuke, is intent on informing everyone he meets that he found some four-leaf clovers when, in fact, this is actually a lie.

You know a manga is exceptional when even the presence of a dead kitty isn’t something that upsets me (because the kitty is treated with the utmost respect).

MJ: The scene with Megumu, Haruo, and the kitty reminded me immediately of one of my favorite scenes from one of the later volumes of xxxHolic, in which Doumeki confides to Kohane that he’d decided to help Watanuki after having witnessed him standing alone in the rain, cradling a dead animal and wondering if he’d be left the same way one day. Yet as moving as the xxxHolic scene is, and as strongly as it affected me at the time, with Matsumoto’s straightforward storytelling in place of CLAMP’s self-conscious drama, I found that the scene in Sunny moved me more.

MICHELLE: I must admit that though I own other works by Matsumoto, I haven’t read them yet. I’m thinking that will have to change, and pronto. Because when I finished this volume, what I felt most was “I want more.”

MJ: I own no other works by Matsumoto, but I will soon. I felt the same way.

MICHELLE: Luckily, Sunny isn’t a oneshot—it’s up to three volumes in Japan so far—so eventually there will be more.

Speaking of renowned creators whose work we’d not read before, want to introduce our next selection?

MJ: Sure!

lwc1Moving swiftly from contemporary to classic, our second read this week was the first omnibus volume of Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s Lone Wolf and Cub, just released by Dark Horse Comics. Though this series first ran in Futabasha’s Weekly Manga Action in the early 1970s, and Dark Horse has been publishing its English-language editions since 2000, these new omnibus editions offer new readers a chance to experience Lone Wolf and Cub, and in a larger, easier-to-read format than Dark Horse’s original small-trim editions. This is a series I’d spotted many times in book stores and comic shops over the years, but never picked up, at least in part because of the small size. Now I feel rather silly about it, of course, because I’ve clearly been depriving myself!

The book opens by introducing us to Ogami Itto, a master samurai now traveling as a ronin along with his toddler son, Daigoro, known collectively to most as “Lone Wolf and Cub.” The story’s structure is largely episodic, but though early chapters focus on tales of Itto’s fearlessness and skill (as well as his terrifying reputation across Edo-era Japan), we later discover that he took the “assassin’s road” as a last-ditch attempt to clear his family’s name after being wrongly ousted as the shogun’s executioner. In fact, one of the most oddly chilling scenes in this omnibus is one in which he leaves it to his infant son to decide whether he’ll join his mother in the afterlife or accompany his father on his blood-soaked journey, based on whether the son chooses to crawl towards a bouncy-ball or a knife.

The series is action-packed and very compelling, filled with creative swordplay and expressive artwork that carefully depicts both the beauty and brutality of the era, but its greatest draw for me as a reader is Itto himself, whose sense of honor in combination with his unforgiving career path presents us with a protagonist as complicated and problematic as the era itself.

In a modern series, I think a character like Itto would be written as a sort of “assassin with a heart of gold.” He’d be someone we could root for wholeheartedly even when he killed—a sort of Edo-era Mal Reynolds. But Koike and Kojima’s protagonist is no such thing. He’s reliable, trustworthy, and eminently honorable, but he always gets the job done, no matter who it is he’s been sent to kill; he could never be considered merciful, and only occasionally compassionate. He defends those he believes to be vulnerable or in the right, but only so long as it doesn’t interfere with his mission. And he’s utterly unapologetic at every turn, even when it comes to the plight of his son. I find him fascinating.

MICHELLE: That would’ve been a great introduction even without the Firefly reference!

I’ve never read Golgo 13, but I do have to wonder whether Itto might be a comparable hero to that famously inscrutable lead, in that he is consistently shown to be a major badass. This is a guy who’ll commit a robbery to get himself sent to prison to be nearer to his target, and once he discovers that said target is on death row, he kills a bunch of his fellow prisoners in order to pursue his goal. He’s not just deadly with a sword, he is a brilliant strategist, and not above using Daigoro in his plans. (And he’s also able to satisfy the ladies even when his life is in jeopardy.)

At first, I was intimidated by the sheer size of the omnibus (over 700 pages!), but found that Kojima-sensei’s artistic style boded well for quick reading. The panel layout is simple, but Kojima does especially well with establishing a sense of time and place, and I quite loved the establishing shots we get for each new location Itto finds himself. My only complaint about the art is that a lot of the clients and other characters look like. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to remember seeing anyone in particular before, but usually there are clues in the text that help to dispel confusion.

Daigoro is the most endearing aspect of the story, as one might expect, but his presence for all these gory scenes is kind of disturbing. There’s one panel in particular in which he and his father are watching an opponent slowly topple, and once the guy finally goes down, Diagoro smiles. It made me wonder how warped he is gonna be! Of course, with all this bushido business, probably he’ll just be some hardened warrior who greets the concept of death casually.

MJ: Heh, yes, there’s a chapter late in the volume that gives us the beginnings of a look at the man Diagoro might one day be, in which he fearlessly attacks much older characters with a look that one describes as, “eyes that see between life and death… the eyes of a swordsman able to place his heart in the nothingness of mu.” Later, Itto asks his son if he’s going to be able to reap what he’s sown, as Daigoro has thrown an entire household into deadly turmoil. Somehow, I imagine he’ll grow to be an even scarier adult than his father, assuming he lives that long.

I, too, was intimidated by the length of this omnibus when I started, but I was stunned to find myself suddenly at the end, it read so easily. And it’s definitely worth the time! Most of my favorite stories were at the end of the volume.

MICHELLE: Yeah, that part about Daigoro’s eyes was rather creepy. I can’t help but feel bad that he’s been shaped by witnessing all this slaughter, yet cannot deny the appeal of watching his dad dispatch his enemies with such skillful ease. I guess probably the mangaka wanted us to feel this way.

MJ: Yes, I’m sure that’s the case. One of the things that I think makes this manga so interesting, is that its sense of morality is so clearly of another time and place. Often, modern storytellers will insert their own sensibilities into a period piece, either viewing it with rosy nostalgia or, perhaps, horror. But Koike and Kojima leave it entirely up to us to figure out how we feel about an era in which the value of a person’s life was viewed so differently than it would be today—and the value of death, for that matter. It can be hard to swallow at times, but it’s never sugar-coated.

I’m really grateful for the opportunity to delve into this series at last! It’s certainly worthy of its classic status.

MICHELLE: Well said! And I, too, am glad we decided to check this one out. As much as I love Takehiko Inoue, I actually enjoyed this more than Inoue’s Vagabond, and will probably keep reading it!

Sankarea: Undying Love, Vol. 1

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By Mitsuru Hattori. Released in Japan as “Sankarea” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

I have been running into the same sort of problem lately with many new manga, even though most of them are completely different on the face of it. They all seem to boil down to the same thing when I review them, which is “quite readable and even better than I expected, the big downside being crushing unoriginality”. This probably does the title a disservice, as originality, particularly in recent Japanese manga, is what DOESN’T sell. In general, what readers want is “something familiar with a slightly new spin on it”. And Sankarea provides that in a perfectly readable way.

sankarea1

I should note that the cover you’re seeing is one created by the artist especially for the North American market. The original Japanese cover just has Rea staring at the reader in that sort of cute seductive ‘girl posing’ way, with absolutely nothing to suggest what the content within is like. Except, of course, the title, which is a play on words based off of a very popular zombie movie (seen over here as Zombi 2, and one of the most terrifying movies of the late 70s, if I recall.) Kodansha decided that they’d need more than ‘generic cute girl staring at reader’ to sell this, so asked for the more… gruesome shot. I approve. It’s a better cover.

As for the content, it’s mostly a fairly standard romantic comedy. Nice if somewhat weird hero, who has a cousin who’s busty and secretly likes him, as well as a younger sister who’s an emotionless stoic. At his all-boys school, we see him with his two friends, one of whom is girl-crazy and overdramatic, the other pleasant and unmemorable. They are most impressed by the perfect Japanese princess girl who’s going to the all-girls’ school across the river, who is gorgeous and popular. Except that it turns out she has a secret, which our hero quickly finds out.

So far so boring, but it’s the nature of the secret, and the nature of our hero’s weirdness, that perks things up. Rea’s father is not so much possessive as disturbing. We don’t see a lot of him in this volume, but given she’s talking about him taking nude pictures of her and his increasing paranoia at Rea being touched by other men, I think Daddy’s shaping up to be our main villain here, with a side of incestuous creeper. (To the book’s credit, this ISN’T played for laughs at all – after all, he’s not an older brother.) As for Chihiro, he’s trying to resurrect his dead cat using a magic potion that turns things into zombies. Which is presented as mildly eccentric – he’s a normal guy at heart, he just wants to bring back his cat. From there, things start to go desperately wrong.

Rea is probably the best part of the title – she’s written very well. Her sheltered upbringing is warring with her desperate Attempts to get away from her father’s smothering. Her immediate attraction to Chihiro could be read as romantic, but could also be read as a little bit unnerving – fitting for a title like this. Her zombification (yeah, sorry if I spoiled that for you, as if the cover didn’t) reads almost like a rite of passage – she demands Chihiro “accept responsibility” in a seductive voice, equating death/resurrection with loss of virginity.

The question is which direction this goes in. If it continues to do fanservice and comedy (and there is quite a bit of fanservice – particularly from Chihiro’s cousin Ranko), I’m not sure it would keep my attention. But there’s a lot of potential for both depth and darkness here. If it manages to mine those two veins, Sankarea could be a real winner.

Manga the Week of 6/5

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SEAN: Can’t talk, too much manga!

The 2nd Blood-C from Dark Horse. CLAMP’s character designs surrounding another storyline. I was bored to tears by Vol. 1. Does it improve?

MICHELLE: No clue.

ANNA: I cannot bring myself to care about this, and as someone who read a bunch of CLAMP back in the day, that makes me a little sad.

MJ: I think that doesn’t actually compromise you as a CLAMP fan, Anna, because it’s not really CLAMP… just someone else’s storytelling with CLAMP-looking characters in it. And. Yeah. I can’t get into it either.

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SEAN: Lone Wolf and Cub has been a quiet perennial for Dark Horse over the years, and it’s getting an omnibus release to introduce it to those who missed it the first time round. Which would include me.

MICHELLE: Oh, interesting! I was unaware of this.

ANNA: Yay! I read the first 6 or so volumes of this, and I’m happy it is getting a rerelease.

MJ: I’m definitely excited about this. It’s one of those series that has intimidated me with its length, so I’m thrilled to have a second shot at it!

SEAN: Kodansha has Vol. 5 of Attack on Titan, which is now officially Huge In Japan, and with the appearance of the anime I suspect will get even bigger in America. Get in on the ground floor now, kids, this is a keeper.

MJ: I’ve seen this series getting incredible buzz on Twitter, Tumblr, and other fannish spaces, that’s for sure.

SEAN: Seven Seas has another (another!) Alice in the Country of _____ spinoff. Well, given they’ve all hit the bestseller lists, you can’t fault their logic. This one stars Ace (the “of Hearts” in the title), who is possibly the most unhinged character in the series. Mmmm, can’t wait.

MICHELLE: The Ace pairing is the hardest for me to imagine, but we shall see!

ANNA: Ace is my favorite Alice character just because of the ever growing body count that piles up wherever he goes (I’m sure that says something about me but I’m not going to speculate what that means). I’m sure I’ll be buying this.

MJ: I’m really lukewarm on this series, yet even I am intrigued by the thought of an Ace-centric spinoff.

SEAN: I’ve been surprisingly entertained by Haganai, the best of Seven Seas’ ‘Moe Fall of 2012’ series, which digs deeper for both its comedy and sympathy, and is not afraid to make its horrible people deeply lonely and somewhat broken. That said, it still is a bit creepy. Fair warning.

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If you want to talk about the touchstones of Yuri Fandom in North America, among the Maria-sama Ga Miterus and Utenas of the world, Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossom Pink was the first big hit from Ichijinsha’s “Yuri Hime” magazine. It’s actually an anthology of stories based around a high school, and the various girls’ love passions within. This was the precursor to Girl Friends, which came out over here first. Everyone I know read the scans. Now buy the manga, dammit. :)

MICHELLE: Ooh, somehow I missed this one, too!

MJ: I did too! Count me in!

SEAN: Vertical has the third volume of Knights of Sidonia, which surely has run out of ways to make everything bleak. Of course, I look forward to it proving me wrong.

MICHELLE: I don’t normally go for bleak, but Tsutomu Nihei has got my number.

ANNA: Another “yay!” from me for bleak mecha manga!

MJ: Yes, yes, YES. I’m all about this series.

SEAN: And then there’s Viz. Dawn of the Arcana has hit the big 1-0. And leaves me even further behind.

MICHELLE: I continue to enjoy this one.

ANNA: This is one of those series that gets better as it goes along, for sure.

MJ: Indeed.

SEAN: Demon Love Spell continues to be the Mayu Shinjo book of choice for those not fond of her Sensual Phrase/Ai Ore types of heroes and heroines. I want more fun, more cute romance, and perhaps more hot semi-consensual dream sex, because Shinjo has to have SOME kinks in there.

ANNA: I really enjoy Demon Love Spell! This volume was fun.

MJ: I’m definitely looking forward to more of this! It’s pretty adorable.

SEAN: A Devil And Her Love Song 9 is spinning out its new subplot, and rapidly running out of ways to break up its hero and heroine. Will we get more love triangles? Will Maria be snarky? Will that irritating teacher finally get his comeuppance? My guess is yes, yes, and no.

MICHELLE: I recently got caught up with this one, so I’m looking forward to staying current. Surely that teacher must get his due eventually!

MJ: We can only hope.

SEAN: For those who missed Dragon Ball, and the Dragon Ball VizBIG editions, there is now a Dragon Ball 3-in-1. There are ALWAYS new fans of Dragon Ball.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan 15 is STILL. IN. KYOTO.

One Piece 67 means we are 2/3 of the way to 100 volumes. And we’re also starting the Punk Hazard arc in earnest. There is some comedy gold in this volume I don’t want to spoil.

MICHELLE: Yay, One Piece!

SEAN: There’s also an omnibus of One Piece, featuring Chopper’s introduction.

There’s two Pokemon books, which I usually ignore here despite them selling very well indeed. So: Black and White 10 and Diamond and Pearl 8.

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And there’s Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration’s debut, which I am… not optimistic about (my favorite Kenshin character is Kaoru, so I’m used to disappointment) but will give a shot.

MICHELLE: I read the first few chapters for a Going Digital column a while back. It’s not horrible, but I am rather afraid of what will become of the glorious Kyoto Arc.

ANNA: This is OK, but reading it made me want to reread the original series more than it made me interested in this revised parallel series. I need to unearth it from my storage closet.

SEAN: Sakura Hime is edging towards a conclusion, but Vol. 10 is not it. Tanemura fans are sure to love it.

ANNA: I need to fill in the gaps in my collection and just mainline this series sometime. Tanemura is fun when you are in the mood for super-girly shoujo.

SEAN: Skip Beat! 31 continues to edge closer to Ren and Kyoko’s inner demons. This volume is still mostly Ren’s, as Cain Heel’s persona, as well as BJ’s, continue to distance him from his current ‘role’ as Ren Tsuruga.

ANNA: The Heel siblings storyline in this series fills me with glee.

SEAN: Slam Dunk is basketball! 28 volumes of it! (Must catch up one of these days…)

MICHELLE: Slam Dunk and Skip Beat! are two of my absolute favorites. I will definitely be procuring them both.

ANNA: A new volume of Slam Dunk is always an excuse to celebrate.

SEAN: The last Toriko split Komatsu off from Toriko and Zebra, and rescue seems a very long way away. Since Komatsu has become the main reason I read the series, I’m intrigued to see how he manages to survive this.

And lastly, there is Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal 3, whose title is so representational of its content that to summarize would only seem vulgar.

Does anything in this huge pile interest you?

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 11

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

First off, this review has spoilers for the volume, as it’s kind of hard to discuss it without them. Second, this volume is a first for me. I’d never seen the dubbed Sailor Moon anime, and for the most part always read the manga before I saw the subbed anime – probably one reason I like the manga so much. Stars is the one exception, and I worried that I would inevitably find the manga wanting, as I seemed to when I first read it years ago. And to be fair, there is a bit of ‘let’s drag this out for one more apocalypse’ to the story. I also found it hideously rushed, even more so than usual for Takeuchi, but am putting that down to seeing the anime first. All that said, there’s still piles of stuff I want to talk about.

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I always recalled this being the most depressing arc, and there is certainly a lot of bleakness and death. But I liked how the volume began with everyone happy and content. Minako has now joined the others in high school (Rei is still at her private school), and everyone’s getting involved in club activities and various things that aren’t being senshi. It’s peaceful days, folks. Also, the introduction of the Three Lights leaves room for humor, particularly Yaten’s catty remarks to Michiru, leaving her in a rare instance of losing her cool. And much as I find Chibi-Chibi as puzzling as the rest of the cast, I was amused at everyone’s attempts to figure out who the hell she was.

And now on to the trauma. This is a vicious volume of Sailor Moon, probably the worst to date. By the end of the volume, all the senshi bar Sailor Moon are either dead or presumed dead. Indeed, Mercury and Jupiter get taken out so early they barely get a chance to appear. What’s more, these deaths look deadly, if you’ll pardon the expression. Takeuchi uses the same “flesh melting off” death mask she’s used before when minor villains are dispatched, and having it happen to folks like Mars or Venus seems wrong. Worst of all is Mamoru, who’s killed in front of Usagi at the airport, something so trauma-inducing that she blocked it out for months afterwards. And while Seiya and the others do note that if the Senshi Star Seeds survive, they can be reborn, it honestly feels like he’s talking about reincarnation. Or heaven.

Mars and Venus do get a few cool things to do before they’re dispatched. Rei infiltrates Minako’s school, a nice mirror to the short story where Minako did the reverse – or at least it would be if the re-release didn’t shuffle the short stories off to the end. They draw out the Three Lights, amusingly, by Minako going over the top about finding herself a man. Yaten calls her on this, noting that their duties to Usagi mean there will never be room for love in their lives (Minako in particular has heard this before – see Code Name: Sailor V). Minako smirks, and admits that this is true. She then leans into Rei and notes that the two of them have no use for men. It’s meant to be “duty over love” and threatening the Lights, but can easily be read as homoerotic if one chooses. And many do.

Speaking of senshi in general, one interesting thing going on here is the use of innocents from other planets as a sort of “failed Senshi” – their planets were destroyed by Galaxia and they’re being brainwashed/forced into attacking Earth. It’s interesting because of the Lights’ insistence that they’re all just as genuine as our heroines – on another planet, for example, Iron Mouse was Sailor Chu (yes, yes – it’s Nakayoshi, folks). Tying Lead Crow into Phobos and Deimos and Tin Nyanko into the cats thus works even better – I loved Luna’s accusation to Tin Nyanko that she’s defiling Planet Mau’s ‘One True Hero”, Sailor Mau. The Sailor Moons of other worlds are being used to kill off the cast of Sailor Moon. Which is really horrible if you think about it.

Even more than previous volumes, I find this one works best when you immerse yourself in it rather than try to understand each nuance. There’s too much going on here. But for the Sailor Moon fan, there are always so many rewards that the experience is never dull. It all ends next volume (except for the short stories).

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: May 27, 2013

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CoverBad news manga fans. Eiichiro Oda was hospitalized about two weeks ago, and because of production schedules that means that for this week and the next we won’t be getting any new One Piece chapters. Fortunately because Shueisha gave a definitive target date for the next chapter we can assume this means Oda-sensei has recovered and will be ready to go. It really goes to show that in a statement he apologizes for not having the next chapter ready. When we read manga we need to remember that these creators work very hard. If you haven’t purchased a Weekly Shonen Jump subscription from Viz then you really should consider to do so. These creators put their health at risk to give us the manga we love. They deserve our support and the best support is financial support. We can’t really call ourselves manga fans if we aren’t willing to go that far.

Naruto Ch. 631
This was a very confusing chapter for me. On the one hand I was expecting to hate the inevitable Team Seven reunion. Instead I’m just ambivalent. I think I’ve used up my anger in other areas of my life, and can’t gather up any kind of reaction here. I guess that’s the worst thing I can say about any manga. After many years of raw emotional reactions the worst thing a manga can do is leave me with nothing to say. I mean, this is a big, big moment for the manga. There should have been some emotional impact. But there was nothing. Except confusion and bemusement. I mean…really? That’s what we’re doing with Sasuke?

Naruto

I did appreciate that Sakura has actually been brought back into the story. Though I can imagine shippers aren’t appreciating the conflicting messages. For a while it seemed like Hinata was in the lead for Naruto’s affection, but now we find out Naruto apparently has been assuming Sakura is kind of his girlfriend. Would have been nice to actually have heard of this earlier. I think that’s where most of the Naruto hate comes from. Kishimoto brings up ideas and plot threads and then ignores them when it’s convenient. It makes it impossible to make predictions. But not in a good way. It’s like being asked to solve an exam when half of the questions have been cut out. And then the first halves get taken away and replaced with the second halves. It’s infuriating.

Oh hey, Naruto got a reaction out of me after all.

One-Punch Man Ch. 017.2
Not much to say this week, since it’s the second half of a complete chapter. One-Punch Man tends to be a bit hit and miss. Except rather than being good one week and bad the next, it’s good one week and amazing the next. Which really puts everything into perspective. I can’t really complain when I don’t have an opinion one week because it was, “just good.”

Bleach Ch. 538
I know there’s a lot of Bleach hate out there right now, and has been for quite a few years. I think by this point Bleach has disappointed me about as much as it possibly could. And unlike Naruto it isn’t constantly sending conflicting messages. So I have my hopes for the series, but since my expectations are very low I can be pleasantly surprised when some chapters are not completely horrid. This chapter was interesting enough for allowing us to see many different characters. But it didn’t have one single drive. It’s difficult because Bleach has so little content per chapter that skipping around is a risky business. It takes a mostly uneventful chapter and spreads that across many different scenes. This time it worked pretty well. The small snippets we got were good enough. I particularly enjoyed Mashiro’s scene, and Komamura’s scene raises some interesting questions. Maybe now we’ll find out what exactly the deal with him is.

Bleach

Cross Manage Ch. 034
I really, really like this manga. While a lot of the information about Lacrosse we learn this chapter feels like it should have come earlier in the series, somehow it works for me that the focus for the first several chapters was on the characters. I hope after this we can get back to the other characters, but for now if this is the end for this manga I think I’ll be satisfied. But, because we can’t know if the manga will continue I really can’t predict what will happen. There are many reasons for them losing this game, and many for them winning, depending on whether the manga gets cancelled or lives on. Somehow this tension makes Cross Manage an incredibly exciting manga to read. I hope it continues, and think that the quality has improved enough that it should survive the next round of cuts as well.

Toriko Ch. 234
I really couldn’t remember what happened this chapter. I had to reread it to remind myself. I may love Toriko, but I won’t put it on a pedestal it doesn’t deserve to be on. I still love the series, but this really wasn’t a very impressive chapter in the long run. Which is a shame, since this arc has been amazing. It’s a bad sign that the quality seems to drop the moment the focus is back on the main character. I might need to think about this trend a bit more. Hopefully next week will start picking up again.

Toriko

World Trigger Ch. 015
Maybe Toriko was a bit weak this week, but at least it isn’t World Trigger. Series like World Trigger give me hope for Cross Manage. It may be unfair to cut a new series short so early on. But I can’t believe in any kind of fairness in this world if Cross Manage ends before a series as boring as World Trigger. It’s been fifteen chapters, and we have no idea what the point of this series is. Maybe having your character shout, “I’M GOING TO BE KING OF THE PIRATES!” is a bit simplistic. But at least with that we know where we stand. Here we know nothing besides the basic premise.

Okay, so there’s a war. How do we stop the war? Yuma is being hunted by Border. Is this something we should be worried about? What are the characters going to do about it? Are they going to need to protect him? Why is he in the human world in the first place? Is he there for craps and giggles? Is her running from something? Why is he the main character? Someone, please tell me! World Trigger doesn’t have a plot, it has events—unconnected events that have no driving force. Why? I’m not sure, but if I had to point my finger at the culprit, it would be the idea that shounen manga is too childish. I get the sneaking feeling that there might be some manga artists trying to make it more “mature”. And the best way to do that is to get rid of the most simplistic elements. Unfortunately that leaves us with nothing but a meandering mess of a series. Simplistic shounen writing traditions may be, but there is an elegance in their simplicity. And their willingness to actually answer my questions.

Nisekoi Ch. 075
I will always appreciate Nisekoi‘s willingness to complicate the plot. It can take the tropes of the romantic comedy drama and play with them in ways that are satisfying and sometimes unexpected. It raises questions that very clearly will be answered later. It may not answer the questions right when we want it, but at least it lets us know we will eventually get there. As far as this chapter is concerned I fully expected the new girl to be a new romantic interest. What I got instead was so much better. She might still be a romantic interest, but I hope we skip that trope.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 016
I never really got how bad King Kai’s jokes were. I read this series in French the first time I read it. But it took the English version to show me how not funny this guy is. And it’s not a, “Oh haha look how not funny he is, that’s funny!” It’s more, “Uh…he’s not funny…and that isn’t funny.” I feel like Goku must have felt during that scene. But just imagine, what if he’d refused to train Goku in martial arts and instead insisted he become a comedian. What a different series this would have been.

Dragon Ball Z

Overall I think this week was very, “meh”. Nothing overtly terrible, nothing incredibly wonderful. We had some good chapters, we had some dull chapters. We had a couple really good ones. But nothing unexpected. Let me know what you thought of this week in the comments.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to last week’s episode, http://burninglizardstudios.blogspot.com/p/manga3-archives.html

Demon Love Spell, Vol. 3

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Demon Love Spell Volume 3 by Mayu Shinjo

It is nice being able to read a Mayu Shinjo series that I can wholeheartedly enjoy. There are so many overly serious paranormal romance stories out there, it is still refreshing to visit Demon Love Spell for a bit of a comedic spin on the genre. Bumbling shrine maiden Miko and overly alpha male incubus Kagura are just goofy enough to be funny but not ridiculous, and their relationship has enough character-based humor that it is easy to root for them as a couple.

This volume opens with the overly theatrical banishing of a demon by Sou Yamabuki, a former pupil of Miko’s father. Kagura in chibi-form gets jealous that Miko is crushing on Yamabuki on TV, but she assures him that she thinks he’s the coolest. At school the next day Miko gets a bunch of attention from other guys and excitedly assumes that she’s now popular with boys. Miko and Kagura go on an actual date with some great moments where Miko blackmails Kagura into ignominious activities like eating hamburgers by threatening to shrink him again. The ending of the date is interrupted by Sou, who promptly banishes the source of Miko’s new found charms – a weak succubus demon. With Sou, Shinjo explores the old standby “sudden fiance” as he decides that he needs to marry Miko in order to take her away from Kaguya. Sou also reveals that while Miko’s ability to apply her power might not be the best yet, she’s actually extremely gifted. Sou’s desires seem to center more on gaining demon fighting power than truly caring for Miko. Kaguya decides upon an extremely unorthodox method to fend off his rival, but it does show how much he actually cares for the priestess. The next main story in the volume focuses on the sudden appearance of a handsome snow demon who spends some time protecting Miko when Kaguya storms off in a huff.

I still sort of wish that some of Shinjo’s other, earlier series would be translated over here. Sensual Phrase has most other English-translated shoujo beat for unadulterated melodrama. But Demon Love Spell is a nice substitute. It has the humor of Ai Ore without going too far out into left field, and the relationship between Miko and Kaguya is nicely balanced due to the power imbalance inherit in him spending a good portion of each day as mini-figure clipped to her handbag. This was a satisfying volume of this series, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with Miko’s newly revealed power in future volumes.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Vol. 4

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By Nagaru Tanigawa and Puyo. Released in Japan as “Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press.

This volume of Nagato Yuki-chan is pretty much impossible to review without spoiling the major plot twist that happens in the first chapter, be warned.

So, when we last left Yuki, she was about to be hit by a car, ending our cute little AU spinoff before it really began. Luckily, it doesn’t do major physical damage. That said, there’s something… odd about Yuki after the accident, which Ryouko, being the perfect best friend and oneesama, figures out right off the bat. Yuki seems more serious, speaks more precisely, isn’t a giant goofball, and acts more like another Nagato Yuki that readers may be far more familiar with. Yes, that’s right, this series that is an AU spinoff of a movie where Kyon crossed over into a world where Yuki was a shy adorable human is now crossing back over with the canon and dealing with a very different Nagato.

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Please note that nowhere in the actual text does it say this. Indeed, there’s very little ‘explanation’ given at all. Yuki has an alternate personality due to the accident, which acts much like Nagato from the main Haruhi series, and everything resolves at the end of the volume with a similar lack of explanation – her mind re-orients itself and Nagato essentially says goodbye. Indeed, some may argue it’s not the canon Nagato due to the amount of emotions shown by this version – ranging from embarrassment at her stomach growling to a full-on body blush when Ryouko suggests that she may be in love with Kyon. But then again, Nagato in canon is an alien whose emotional growth is deliberately stunted by her masters. Here, she’s in a real human body and has no such tethers. So dealing with these feelings makes sense.

More to the point, Ryouko and Kyon’s reactions to this new Nagato are pitch perfect (Haruhi and Koizumi are conveniently absent for tests, so this book is pretty much just Kyon, Nagato and Ryouko). They’re both worried about what’s happened to Yuki, but both instinctively realize – even if Kyon’s much better at expressing it – that this Nagato is also her own person and shouldn’t just be treated as a clone or as if she’s “taken over” Yuki’s body. (Ryouko worries even more than usual here – also, great meta-joke about her saying she’ll just stab Kyon to relieve her stress.) There is a lack of conflict here that in most series would serve to make things rather boring – but this is the light and fluffy Suzumiya Haruhi spinoff, so it makes sense that there’s no accusations or attempts to return Yuki to her head – just calm acceptance, patience, and watching Nagato grow as a character of her own – to the point that she also falls head over heels for Kyon.

I’m not sure what the fallout from all this will be – whether Yuki will have memories of the time she spent as Nagato (it seems unlikely from what little we see) or whether Kyon will be able to deal with a love confession that wasn’t really – but I will admit that this volume really is a major step forward by Puyo, and the best in the series. Which is still light and frothy, but now deals with its characters on a level equal to its source.

It Came from the Sinosphere: The Duke of Mount Deer (Part 1)

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The_Deer_and_the_Cauldron_(鹿鼎記)

I’m going with the title “The Duke of Mount Deer” because a) it seems to be the most common title for this story in English and b) I like it more than the other titles for this in English. It’s also known as The Deer and the Cauldron and Royal Tramp. If I had to come up with a title for this story, I would pick What the **** Are You Doing, Wei Xiaobao?, which I think better conveys the spirit of the story than any other title.

The Story

Wei Xiaobao is a teenage brat from Yangzhou who goes on an adventure to Beijing. There, he gets captured, taken in to the Forbidden City, and has to pretend to be a eunuch called “Xiaojiazi” to keep his head attached to his shoulders. He’s instructed to go looking for the “Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters,” and becomes friends with another boy in the palace called Xiaoxuanzi. Why are they friends? Because Xiaoxuanzi likes to beat Wei Xiaobao up.

I’m going to stop there, because I really don’t want to spoil the next twist in the plot. Let’s just say that Wei Xiaobao has an interesting life.

Background

This is Jin Yong’s final novel. If you don’t know or don’t remember who Jin Yong is, you may consult the archives.

The Jin Yong Anti-Hero

The Jin Yong TV Tropes page puts this very succinctly:

Wouldn’t Hit a Girl: Most of his protagonists except for Wei Xiaobao.

The typical Jin Yong protagonist is:

– hardworking / dedicated to improving his martial arts techniques
– is chaste (or at least wants to be chaste)
– feel a sense of Han Chinese nationalism (though some feel it more strongly than others, and their feelings about this are often complicated)
– is willing to die for the people he loves and/or his principles
– actully want to make the world a better place, or at least do the just thing

By contrast, Wei Xiaobao

– is too lazy to become a real martial artist (he won’t practice because it’s boring)
– is way less sexually inhibited than other Jin Yong protagonists
– does not give a shit about Han Chinese national (he doesn’t care whether or not somebody is Han Chinese, nor does he care whether or not the Han Chinese control China)
– is not willing to die for anything, though he is willing to fake his own death
– does not care about making the world a better place

Wei Xiaobao is not just an anti-hero. He’s an anti-Jin-Yong-hero. You really have to read several Jin Yong stories and then read this one really appreciate it.

And quite frankly, it’s refreshing to read about a protagonist who does not have the typical Jin-Yong-protagonist hangups.

That said, Wei Xiaobao is not a complete opposite of other Jin Yong protagonists. Most Jin Yong protagonists are child-like/immature/naive (pretty much the only exception to this is Qiao Feng, though Chen Jialuo is arguably neither child-like nor immature), and Wei Xiaobao is … child-like, immature, and naive. I think that the child-like quality is actually more essential to Jin Yong protagonists than, say, their sexual philosophies. What is at the heart of the stories is a sense of wonder while exploring the world, which is a child-like approach (though mature adults can do it too). To me, this is a key signature of Jin Yong’s style which sets apart his stories from most other wuxia.

Qing Dynasty Curio Box

Much of the imperial collections of the Qing Dynasty court are in Taipei, and a fraction is on display at the National Palace Museum.

A photograph of a Qing dynasty sandalwood curio box full of various little trinkets.

This image comes from Qing Dynasty Treasures on Pineterest

The Qing Dynasty court loved curio boxes. First of all, the boxes had creative designs, often to show off the contents in unusual ways, or with secret compartments. The contents could be artifacts from thousands of years ago, weird baubbles imported from Europe, or the fine work of the imperial artisans (and many other things beside – it could be anything that would fit into a box and delight the viewer).

To me, this novel feels like a Qing Dynasty court curio box, which is appropriate, since most of the novel does take place in the Qing dynasty court. There are lots of secrets to be uncovered, and lots of plot twists to delight the reader.

I want to give examples, but every single example would be a spoiler, so instead I am going to make something up – Wei Xiaobao notices that a middle-aged man always appears at a gambling house in Beijing on the 7th day of the month, that this mysterious man is an excellent martial artist, and that this man wants to hide, not find, the “Sutra of 42 Chapters.” Wei Xiaobao eventully finds out that this “man” is actually a woman – specficially Qingqing from The Sword Stained with Royal Blood. After Wei Xiaobao discovers her true identity, Qingqing captures him and takes him all the way to Brunei, where she has a beautiful daughter who decides that Wei Xiaobao is an excellent punching bag.

This doesn’t actually happen in the novel, but it’s like the things which do happen in the novel.

Language

This novel is very playful with it’s language, which I’m sure gives the translators painful headaches a wonderful challenge.

Wei Xiaobao himself is illiterate, and is too lazy to even learn the Cyrillic alphabet (Wei Xiaobao knows some Russian), let alone the Chinese writing sytem.

However, because he needs to pick up imperial etiquette mighty quickly to keep his head attached to his shoulders, he ends up learning this formal imperial language quite well.

What he does not learn, however, is how to speak as an educated person. Or rather, he learns it, but incorrectly. For example, there is a phrase – ‘it’s hard to chase four horses’. Wei Xiaobao always says it as ‘it’s hard to chase a dead horse’ (the Chinese word for ‘four’ sounds like the word for ‘death’), and furthermore often uses the phrase for totally inappropriate situations.

Of course, while Wei Xiaobao cannot use proper formal Chinese, he is a poet of gutter Chinese. This novel is full of foul language, and some of the humor comes from Wei Xiaobao using foul laguange inside the Forbidden City. At one point, Wei Xiaobao says something like ‘[character] is wearing a hat of fine emerald’. People who are familiar with the Chinese language can figure out that this is a very salacious comment. And then, some members of the imperial family pick up some foul language from Wei Xiaobao…

The contrast of the stiff, formal imperial Chinese with gutter Chinese is yet another level of fun in the novel. The prose in this novel may not be as beautiful as in some of Jin Yong’s other novels but, well, beautiful prose would miss the point.

I read this edition.

I read this edition.

Sexual Abuse

At one point in the story, Wei Xiaobao overhears some people forcing a girl (probably around 10 years old) to drink something. Wei Xiaobao assumes that the drink is drugged, or at least is alcholic, and that they plan to rape her. He is totally indifferent to this.

We then learn that, where Wei Xiaobao grew up, this happened all of the time, and that all of the adults around him went along with this. In other words, he was taught that raping 10-year-old girls is OK.

This explains at LOT.

The parts of the novel which I enjoyed least were the sections where Wei Xiaobao was persistently sexually harassing people. On the one hand, yes, Wei Xiaobao is a very clever prankster. If he were, say, finding clever ways to pee all over his enemies’ beds (like a certain other Jin Yong protagonist), I would have had a blast.

But while I think pranking is fun, sexual harassment is not fun. I’m not saying this to be politically correct, I mean that, in my guts, sexual harassment feels bad.

So here I was, with long sections of this novel which would have been a lot of fun if Wei Xiaobao’s pranks had not been a form of sexual harassment. It was a drag.

(the rest of this section has spoilers)

Of course, Wei Xiaobao wouldn’t actually rape anybody, would he? He’s so cute and adorable, and most of the beautiful female characters could easily beat him to a pulp.

One of the most common defences of rapists is “but he’s such a charming guy – he can’t be a rapist” (or variations of this defence). Also, when people mention that they are being sexually harassed (for example, female bloggers receiving rape threats from anonymous commenters), they’re often told that there’s no danger, and that they should just ignore it. There’s also this myth that most rapes could be prevented by potential victims being armed, or learning self-defence, when in fact this would only prevent a minority of rapes.

Well, I have to give Jin Yong points for realism. Wei Xiaobao was raised to think that rape is OK, and nobody expelled this notion out of his head. When one of his victims complain about the sexual harassment, other chracters explain it away by saying that Wei Xiaobao doesn’t have any bad intentions, and that she shouldn’t take him too seriously. And the physical capabilities of his targets is irrelevant if he drugs their drinks.

The one thing which I cannot buy is that two of his victims start liking him after Wei Xiaobao rapes them. I’m not going to say this is absolutely impossible, but as a reader, I need a damn good explanation in order to believe this (even in a work of fiction). I do not get any explanation. Therefore, I had to edit my headcanon to keep the story functioning inside my headspace. It is simply not in human nature to start liking your rapist (unless there are a hell of lot of interfering factors at work).

Wei Xiaobao himself is also a victim.

At the very minimum, he’s the victim of non-consensual BDSM. It is also possible that he is a rape victim himself. The novel does not state whether or not he consented to sex with that specific character, but given a) his previous experience of non-consensual BDSM b) the fact that she often uses threats to make Wei Xiaobao do what she wants and c) Wei Xiaobao tries to avoid her precisely because he’s scared that she will cause him physical harm, I have my doubts.

Just because Wei Xiaobao himself is a perpertrator does not mean it is okay to sexually abuse him. Two wrongs do not make a right, especially when it comes to sexual abuse. I admit there were times when I wished someone would kick Wei Xiaobao in the nuts, but even that would only be okay in certain circumstances (such as self-defence).

Does Wei Xiaobao take his feelings of being on the receiving end of sexual abuse, and connect it to the way that he is making his victims feel? Of course not – Wei Xiaobao is terrible at empathy.

I’m Not Done!

Next week, I will continue to discuss this novel. If you can’t wait for the conclusion, it’s “READ THIS NOVEL!”

***

Sara K. is dealing with major technical difficulties right now. If you liked this post, you should thank Sara K.’s father, for if he hadn’t impressed on her that she should always be prepared to run a computer without using a hard drive, there is no way this post would have been finished on time. Right now, she is running the computer off a Class 10 SDHC card, which is thanks to her uncle’s suggestion.

Bookshelf Briefs 5/27/13

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This week, MJ, Michelle, and Sean look at recent releases from Yen Press, Vertical, Inc., and Viz Media.

bloodlad3Blood Lad, Vol. 3 | By Yuuki Kodama | Yen Press -I’ve liked Blood Lad from the start, but what’s most impressive about it is that it’s constantly surprising me with the ways in which it increases my affection. Though its fun, well-developed characters and humorous meta have been the series’ biggest draws so far, it goes further with both in this latest omnibus by making the meta about its character development. As Fuyumi’s true connections to the demon world are revealed, Staz agrees to a “curse” that forces him to respect her will by only allowing him to do anything with her for which she explicitly grants her permission. So now, after mulling over the difference between being the hero and the anti-hero, Staz must actively work to ensure that the objectified female love interest is granted full agency by the story itself, or (as far as he knows) risk his own death. I *heart* you, Blood Lad. – MJ

btooom2BTOOOM!, Vol. 2 | By Junya Inoue | Yen Press – I’m rather torn on how I feel about BTOOOM!. On the one hand, it’s a quick, action-packed read about people on a deserted island being forced to participate in a deadly real-life version of a blow-’em-up video game, and the implication that the protagonist’s mother sent him into this environment on purpose is at least moderately intriguing. On the other, it’s completely lacking in any sort of depth, has mediocre art, and seems to revel in its gross and/or explicit content. A new player, a homicidal fourteen-year-old, is introduced in this volume, and of course we have to see him in the act of committing his particularly disturbing crime in the past. And the preview for volume three is entirely about whether a female player is going to be sexually assaulted, complete with extreme crotch closeup. While I don’t hate this series, this volume left me feeling unclean. I think I may be done. – Michelle Smith

limit5Limit, Vol. 5 | By Keiko Suenobu | Vertical, Inc. – This volume begins as harrowingly as the last ended, but its trajectory after that I found truly surprising. As the original group is finally confronted with the truth of Usui’s death, they’re left with a problem that may truly be too much for them to handle. Amidst all the horror and chaos, one thing that has remained neatly black-and-white for the group up to this volume has been the subject of murder; guilty or not guilty? These were the only choices. So what to do now that things have become suddenly muddy, even on this point? What began as a tense survival tale has grown increasingly more complicated over the course of the series, finally forcing its characters into a position where they’ll have to make judgements they clearly aren’t prepared for. And I’m truly on the edge of my seat. Highly recommended. – MJ

psyren10Psyren, Vol. 10 | By Toshiaki Iwashiro | Viz Media – I like how Psyren keeps its characterization grounded in the plot. After last volume, I was expecting “Research Subject 7” to be a sort of smiling mommy mentor type. Imagine my delight that she has nasty mood swings, is completely broken after all the trauma she faced, and removes herself from the battlefield as the best way to help our heroes. As for our heroes, they’re back in the present now (with some nice acknowledgement that if they win, the “future” Elmore Wood gang are stuck), and it’s back to trying to work out how to stop all this. Which may be even more difficult given that Sakurako seems to be losing her memories… and sense of self. At times Psyren feels like a sprawling mess, but when it’s on, it’s as exciting as any Jump series. I look forward to seeing how they march toward the ending.– Sean Gaffney

strobeedge4Strobe Edge, Vol. 4 | By Io Sakisaka | Viz Media – My favorite part of this volume was the attention paid to “beta couple” Daiki and Sayuri. I was afraid that after the first volume they’d be making only token appearances, but given that this is a manga about how difficult high school love affairs can be, it’s great to see everyone having to deal with it. Long-distance relationships can be especially rough, as they both learn. As for the rest of the cast, they all compete to see who can be the best at suffering stoically. Ren wins, of course, because he’s trying to be everything for everybody. I am rather impressed that Ninako has managed to keep her shiny happiness through these four volumes without really inching into depression for too long. I hope the same can be said for Mayuka, who the cliffhanger seems to indicate will be headed for a breakup soon.– Sean Gaffney

Personalizing Feminism in Basara

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(Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Yumi Tamura’s Basara.)

basara13When you’re discussing a 27-volume series like Yumi Tamura’s Basara, there’s inevitably a lot to be said that can’t be said in a single roundtable discussion—even when that discussion is nearly 10,000 words long! I was able to get some of the more fannish overflow out of my system by way of last week’s Fanservice Friday, but one topic I’m still obsessing over, even after our roundtable discussion, is feminism in Basara, and how it relates to both the story’s politics as a whole and to me personally as a reader.

Despite the fact that I openly identify as a feminist, it’s something that I don’t talk about often, at least not in specifics. And the primary reason for this is that I’m not a student of feminist theory—or really any theory at all (unless you count music theory, and I think you’ll find that most people don’t). I’ve never read any books about feminism, or taken a class, or attended a talk on the subject. I can’t speak as an expert or scholar, or even as a well-informed layperson. I don’t even have the academic background or vocabulary with which to fake it. I rarely talk about feminism, because I don’t want to talk ignorantly about feminism, and that’s pretty much where things stand.

My identity as “feminist” comes largely out of ideas that have been part of who I am ever since the moment I realized, as a child, that there were people in the world who inexplicably made assumptions about me based solely on my gender. It simply didn’t make sense. Though, as I became old enough to comprehend it, I realized that there were ways in which the household I grew up in conformed to traditional ideas about gender (both certified teachers, my mother balanced part-time work with most of the childcare, housekeeping, and cooking, while my father worked full-time), neither of my parents seemed remotely concerned that I followed more naturally in my dad’s footsteps and showed no interest at all in domestic pursuits.

I liked pretty dresses, ballerinas, heated political debates, science fiction, kickball, and digging up worms in the back yard, and nobody ever suggested that there might be anything contradictory about my tastes. I was allowed and encouraged to just be “me,” to pursue my natural interests wherever that led me, and the idea that there might be limits on that, for any reason, seemed patently absurd. I knew instinctively that I was a capable, complete person, and that my individual potential was just that—individual. Nothing else made sense. My parents taught us about things like “women’s lib” and “male chauvinist pigs” (somewhere in the late 70s my sister and I acquired t-shirts with the slogan, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”) but the whole thing seemed kind of ludicrously obvious. Nobody really thought otherwise, did they? It was all right there. The whole world was right in front of me, in all its glorious mystery, and I was a free agent. What did my gender have to do with anything?

As I got older, and my world became more obviously gendered, things made even less sense. Though certain girl-tagged items were, to me, obvious draws (YA fiction and prettyboy teen idols dominated much of my free time in my pre-teens) popular concepts of what it meant to “be a girl” in midwestern ’80s teen society—the hairspray, the conversation, those quizzes in Cosmopolitan—just felt wholly alien, as did most other girls I knew. I struggled to look and act like them, but I simply didn’t fit the mold, no matter how painfully I squeezed and prodded. Having finally hit upon something apparently beyond my capabilities, I wondered if I even was a real girl, given the growing evidence against it. It was my 8th grade English teacher, though, who finally, inadvertently showed me the way. When, as we studied Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, she admitted that she thought that Hester deserved to wear that big, red “A,” I knew suddenly that whatever that teacher was, I decidedly was not. And that’s when I began to really think about and identify with the word “feminist.”

basara-dreams-smOut of all that, whatever it is that my personal “feminism” is and grew out of, that’s the feminism of Basara. It’s the feminism of a girl who just is what she is, whether she’s falling in love or leading a rebellion against an oppressive regime. Whether she’s using her own name, her brother’s, or no name at all, she’s all herself, all the time, and she couldn’t possibly be anything else. And though she’s not consciously fighting a feminist cause, she’s forwarding one with her politics in general, as well as by simply existing as herself and exercising her own undeniable agency.

Basara‘s feminism, however, is not just about its formidable lead. Shoujo manga as a whole is heavily populated with spunky heroines, many of whom lead overtly heroic lives, especially in fantasy series like Basara. Often, however, these heroines exist largely alone in a world of men. They are exceptional girls and women, of this there’s no doubt, but that’s just the thing—they’re exceptions. Even in current shoujo fantasy series, like Dawn of the Arcana or Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden, heroic women are supernaturally-endowed or pre-destined beings to be protected and fought over, anomalies in their worlds, often despised and opposed by other female characters (who may or may not be evil love rivals).

Basara begins with some fantasy tropes firmly in place. Sarasa is the “child of destiny,” and she initially disguises her gender in order to lead her revolution. But as her journey brings her in touch with numerous other women whose individual dreams and circumstances have caused them to cross her path (and, in most cases, join her cause), the matter of hiding her gender becomes more of a lie she doesn’t know how to get out of rather than anything of genuine importance. And when she’s finally forced into revealing the truth, it’s a relief to everyone.

Which isn’t to say that being a powerful woman in Sarasa’s post-apocalyptic Japan is easy. Chacha, the pirate captain who joins Sarasa’s (Tatara’s) army after their initial confrontation, spent her young life constantly having to prove herself in order to take on her natural role as a leader. Renko, the outspoken publisher of a newspaper in Suo, is persecuted and (literally) crucified for criticizing Momonoi’s regime. And Kiku—the one female among the White King’s “four nobles” acknowledges more than once her frustration and sense of powerlessness in her role. But, like Chacha and Sarasa, Kiku eventually learns to love who she is and to take control of her own destiny.

basara-morekiku

I think it’s notable that the White King, who is eventually revealed as the series’ primary antagonist (I don’t say “villain,” because ultimately this story doesn’t so much have villains as is does just people who have been badly damaged by their circumstances), is a woman whose sense of self was utterly destroyed by the role she was forced into as a young woman in the royal family. She’s a tragic figure—one that Tamura refuses to soften with any kind of last-minute redemption, or anything approaching a happy ending. The damage done by the patriarchy is real and irreversible, says Basara, and there’s no way out but to dismantle it completely.

And dismantle it Tamura does. I talked a bit in our roundtable about what I see as social anarchist principles at work in Basara, and these are inextricable from the series’ feminism. Women lead the story’s rebellion because it is women, forced to view the corrupt power structure from the outside, who are able to see clearly the damage that’s been done and what’s required to forge a completely new path. Men are valuable allies in Tatara’s revolution, but it’s the women who are teaching them (and each other) how to live better lives. When Sarasa finds herself shattered by the realization that the man she’s fallen in love with and the man she’s vowed to destroy are one and the same, though it’s Ageha who shelters her through her subsequent mental breakdown, it’s her mother‘s words that finally help Sarasa to shed the hate that she’s been subsisting on all through her career as “Tatara.”

One particularly moving scene in volume thirteen takes place in Suo city, at the site of Renko’s crucifixion. Though in the next volume, Sarasa and her army will arrive to remove Renko from her cross, Renko’s artist lover, Hozumi, (who is also Momonoi’s son) arrives to show her that she’s made a difference. Having lost use of his arms as punishment for aiding Renko, Hozumi kneels before her to paint as a demonstration of his support and understanding.

basara-art

“I was born into a rich family,” he thinks as he works,” I had nice clothes to wear. I ate good food. Until I came to Suo and met Renko, I knew nothing about the world. If I try to make a speech now, it can only sound naive. I just don’t want anyone to shed blood.”

“I love you,” he thinks as he paints a field of green around her, but the subtext is, “Thank you,” and “You saved me.” And as he demonstrates, silently, what he’s learned from Renko, Sarasa is learning it too. In the wake of Renko’s sacrifice, Sarasa glimpses a world in which individual creativity and expression is more powerful than the sword, and where fully-realized individuals can come together peacefully to work for the common good.

I mentioned in the roundtable that I thought it was notable that though Tamura clearly views some forms of government more favorably than others, Sarasa never attempts to establish any government at all, and a later side story reveals that the government that does spring up after the rebellion has already fallen into corruption less than a full generation later. Ultimately, Basara rejects not only the violent, decadent patriarchy that Sarasa and her comrades fight to bring down, but any system at all that threatens the compassionate autonomy Sarasa and her allies represent.

basara27Perhaps the greatest demonstration of Tamura’s rejection of patriarchal norms, however, is in her publishers’ apparent need to reinforce them, at least on the surface.

When I got to the series’ final volume, I was surprised at its cover, featuring what would appear to be the wedding of Sarasa and Shuri, with a sort of weird, plastic, pod-people feel to it.

“Do they actually get married?” I asked myself, flipping quickly through the volume for some sign of matrimonial activity.

“Hmmm… Shuri proves to Sarasa that he’s no longer the “Red King,” Tamon gets the Genbu sword, Asagi adopts an orphaned child (what?), no… not here… cute owls… no.”

And the answer is… no. Though Sarasa and Shuri do apparently stay together and definitely produce offspring, there’s no indication whatsoever that they bothered to walk down the aisle—nor does that even seem likely given the way they’ve decided to live. In fact, it’s explicitly stated at one point that they’re not married. They are lovers, for sure, and partners, absolutely. But husband and wife? If it happens, it’s offscreen.

There is one couple who gets married during the course of the volume—with very little page time, and the ceremony is not shown—but even that short story is focused on the couple’s determination not to change as individuals despite their arranged marriage. “Just because we’re gettin’ married doesn’t mean it changes anything. You don’t have to change. And I won’t either.” At best, it reads as the reluctant acceptance of a generally objectionable institution.

So what’s up with that cover? Was it so important that the series appear to wrap up with a traditionally “happy” shoujo ending that they had to retcon one in? I can’t know the answer for sure, of course, but wow does it create some real cognitive dissonance.

Fortunately the contents of the book itself are consistent with the raw, heartfelt feminism that drives the series overall, and the volume ends with the image of the child, Sarasa, facing that glorious, mysterious world with the same sense of power and free agency I felt as I gazed at the fields and woods beyond my childhood backyard.

basara-world3

All images © Yumi Tamura/Shogakukan, Inc. New and adapted artwork and text © Viz Media. This article was written for the Yumi Tamura Manga Moveable Feast. Check out Tokyo Jupiter for more!

Basara, Vols 13-16

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Whenever I pick up and read a few volumes of Basara, I’m always struck by how much story and emotion Yumi Tamura is able to pack into a few pages. I’d started rereading Basara last year, but got distracted by having too many volumes of shiny new manga. The Manga Moveable Feast seemed like a great excuse to dig up these volumes again. These volumes cover Sarasa’s journey as she escapes from prison and wages war on the desert city of Suo, only to encounter the Red King. The battle doesn’t go the way either of them planned.

Sarasa is able to escape Abashiri prison with her comrades, but she doesn’t have time to settle back and appreciate freedom again. It is time to head south and take up the struggle to determine the fate of Japan. Ageha leaves Sarasa, saying that he can’t become a crutch to make things easier for her. She has to execute her plans on her own, based on her convictions. Shuri heads to his precious desert city of Suo, but things have changed there for the worse as the administrator there Momonoi attempts to remake it in the image of Kyoto by displacing the poor and blowing up buildings. Asagi prevents a reunion between Sarasa and Shuri in a southern market, because he thinks if they each find out the truth about each other now, it would be “too dull.” Sarasa and Shuri both head to Suo with drastically different purposes.

The struggle in Suo is portrayed in mental as well as physical terms. Sarasa meets up with Hozumi, Momonoi’s son who his a non-violent artist. His girlfriend Renko runs an underground newspaper in the city. Sarasa starts unsettling the city by plastering notices that “Tatara was here” on the walls, and even flying the message from a kite. Sarasa starts to reflect a bit about what it means to be both a strong and feminine woman after spending some time with Renko. Hozumi stages his own form of protest by painting elaborate pictures on the walls of buildings slated for destruction, so people hesitate to blow them apart.

When Shuri sees the wreckage of Suo, he’s angry at what it has become. Momonoi brutalizes both Hozumi and Renko. Sarasa and Shuri both go after Momonoi for different reasons. Sarasa is nervous about being in close proximity to the Red King, the man who destroyed her village. Shuri sees that he’s not welcomed as a savior in his treasured city, and begins to reflect that his previous philosophy about a good leader inspiring fear was mistaken. Sarasa’s reinforcements come, but her plan to use Momonoi’s own explosives to cut off the palace kills the water supply for the city. The Red King’s army executes a tricky sneak attack, and the star-crossed lovers seem like they are headed towards mutual destruction. Sarasa is devastated when she realizes that she’s bring more destruction to the people of Suo. A horrible sandstorm prevents the battle from progressing further, but rather than regroup with her comrades, Sarasa runs off and finds Shuri in the chaos.

It is a little unbelievable that Sarasa and Shuri have managed to keep their identities from each other for so long, especially considering the way they both tend to show up and meet each other right around the time that Tatara and the Red King have a skirmish. It is clear now that part of reason is that they honestly don’t care, and they are both blinded by love for each other so much that they aren’t going to stop and ask inconvenient questions when they could just enjoy each other’s company. This idyll is very short, and the Red King and Tatara’s army clash the next day and Shuri and Sarasa finally get a glimpse of each other from across the battlefield.

What follows is one of the most emotionally devastating scenes in the series, as Sarasa and Shuri react to this newfound knowledge in different ways. Sarasa slips into a fugue state, forcing out commands to kill the Red King, while Shuri mechanically tries to kill himself at the suggestion of his followers because his group is so clearly outnumbered by the rebel forces. Both armies flee the battle as King Ukon’s army approaches and Ageha takes Sarasa away in an attempt to bring back Tatara. Ageha thinks “Was he…that good? Why not just take me instead?” Ageha concludes that Sarasa isn’t his “woman worth dying for” and decides to leave. Sarasa ends up finding shelter with a local priest and his family, but her destiny isn’t going to let her sit back and do nothing.

Sarasa strikes up an odd friendship with Kikune, one of the White King’s spies. Sarasa and Kikune end up befriending Lady Purple, the Black King’s estranged wife. Lady Purple ends up being another type of mentor to Sarasa, but Sarasa’s emotional healing really begins when she’s reunited with her mother. In a very nurturing way, Sarasa’s mother asks her some pointed questions about the reasons why she was fighting and what she wants the future of Japan to be.

There’s some funny yet poignant exchanges happening as Asagi has rescued Shuri, who is undergoing his own emotional rehabilitation. Asagi is all but twirling his non-existent evil mustache in an attempt to get Shuri to have some sort of emotional reaction to him, but Shuri calmly accepts the prospect of being sold into slavery by his half-brother.

Overall, these volumes server as a great emotional climax to the first half of the series. The central mystery about what would happen if Sarasa and Shuri would find out about each other has been answered, and now they have to pick up the pieces of their lives yet again. While Ageha might have given up on Sarasa, it is clear that her destiny as Tatara will not allow her to just retire into the countryside and life out the rest of her life peacefully. Shuri has his own set of trials ahead, and it will be interesting to see how both of these powerful leaders manage to build a new Japan with such strong and well-connected enemies lining up against them. One of the strengths of Basara is the way Tamura will intersperse shorter, more personal adventures into the larger struggle with the extended cast. Having Sarasa and Shuri both on their own a little bit, without their customary support systems allows them to grow more as individuals, making the battles much more human. I’m glad I set aside the time to get back with my Basara rereading program, and I’ll likely finish up rereading the rest of the series outside of this week’s manga moveable feast.