Features & Reviews

Tiger & Bunny, Vol. 1

April 28, 2013 by Anna N

I watched the first episode or so of the Tiger & Bunny anime when it seemed like Tiger & Bunny fever was gripping the nation (or at least the percentage of the nation that I follow on twitter). I thought the premise of the series was clever and it was well-executed, but while I found the show entertaining I didn’t follow up and watch the series. I was curious to see if I would enjoy the manga as well.

Tiger & Bunny has an interesting take on modern-day superheroes. Superheroes of various kinds do good – but only for the sake of ratings on a reality tv show. The superheroes all have corporate sponsorships, focus-group tested costumes, and scripted catchphrases. The lone superhero with some integrity is the hopelessly old-fashioned Wild Tiger, whose power is to increase his physical abilities 100x for only five minutes. The manga opens with an action sequence intercut with reality tv production, as the producer of the show offers commentary and scoring on the real-life mayhem. The heroes all jockey for screen time, but Tiger’s attempt to help ends in humiliation as he falls out of the sky only to be saved by the pedigreed rookie Barnaby Jones Jr. Jones’ armored suit gives him the appearance of bunny ears and he is not happy that his first job onscreen is “rescuing an old man.”

Barnaby is ordered to team up with Tiger, and a super-powered Odd Couple is created. Tiger is full of idealistic advice and war stories, and Barnaby is focused on screen time. There’s a supporting cast of heroes which features gay stereotype Fire Emblem, silent and sturdy Rock Bison, tiny kung-fu girl Dragon Kid, the disgustingly heroic Sky High, and the icy Blue Rose. The look and feel of the manga mirrors the visual style of the anime, as the mangaka was also one of the animators of the tv show. Overall, I found this manga entertaining, both due to the bickering nature of the developing relationship between Tiger and Bunny, and the conflict between the commercial nature of the super hero world and Tiger’s unshakeable code of ethics. I can certainly see why the anime was so popular, and it is nice that the manga gives fans the option of experiencing the story in a different way.

Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Vol. 38

April 28, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

(This review shamelessly spoils the entire volume.)

And so Negima ends, at least for now. This volume gives me very complicated feelings. It starts off with some of the most teeth-grindingly annoying chapters we’ve had in ages. We then get possibly some of the best chapters in the entire series. And it all ends with a flashforward that answers everything we didn’t really want answered, avoids answering things we did, and undercuts the moral that it had just given several pages earlier. In short, while there’s a ton to adore here, this volume is… a bit of a mess.

Let’s start off with the end of the Battle Royale to beat Negi up for toying with girl’s hearts. Which only gets worse when the cheerleaders manage to force out of him that he does have romantic feelings for someone. The fact that Negi is way underage (as are all the girls, really, but 15 isn’t really all that underage in terms of fandom shipping, whereas ten is) has been a point of contention throughout the entire series, with many fans finding the fact that people are making jokes about seducing Negi vaguely discomfiting. As such, laying it all out in the open makes it even worse, since it’s clear from the writing (good on Akamatsu showing this) that Negi simply isn’t mature enough to handle something like this. It really makes the reader dislike characters like Yuna (who I quite like apart from this) and Haruna (who I don’t really like much at all, to be fair) who keep pressing things, especially as it’s all done just so they can have another melee chase sequence and a gratuitous last-minute pactio.

We then get the sequence with Asuna. This is the polar opposite of what I talked about above. It’s subtle, well-handled, and almost perfect. Asuna says that she’s come to terms with being a magic ‘battery’ for 100 years (which everyone thinks will erase her personality, by the way), but coming out of it in the future and discovering that yes, indeed, everyone is dead by now is absolutely devastating for her. The emotions in the scene where she reads the time capsule are amazing, and it makes the climax (and sudden appearance of the two obvious characters to suddenly appear) even more awesome.

There was some controversy about the ‘easy’ resolution to Asuna’s fate when this first came out, mostly as Western shonen manga fans are always desperate for a ‘dark, unhappy’ ending for some reason I can’t quite figure out except they’re all teenagers or something. I was very happy with it, mostly as it made perfect sense given everything we’ve seen before. Negima has abused time travel shamelessly ever since Chao was introduced, why shouldn’t it resolve the entire thing by using time travel? It makes everyone happy, solves the ‘how do we get enough magical power for 100 years’ question, and is a giant emotional pile of tears. Win all around, this part of the manga was fantastic.

Right after Asuna’s return, when Negi and everyone else are asking future-Eva and Chao about what happens from now on, Eva points out that the future is a blank page, and that they don’t have to rely on knowing what will happen. And I really wish Akamatsu had taken his own advice. He says that this is ‘one possible ending’ and that ‘this world is possibly the happiest’ – though given only 7 years or so have gone by, it still has a ways to go. And, well, it ‘ship sinks’ the four main fan pairings. Now, to be fair, harem manga, especially lately, are well-known for having inconclusive endings. Authors and editors don’t want to upset fans who are invested in one particular girl, so they like to leave things vague. That said, we still don’t know who Negi ends up with when he grows up… but we know it’s not the girls he had the most character development with. Which… suck, really. I suppose it’s my fault for getting emotionally involved in the ship tease despite everything.

More annoying, however, is laying out the fates of every single main girl. The future is a blank page… now let’s write in it. If you’re going to do an open ending, leave it open! Special mention must be made of Chisame’s future, by the way. It’s absolutely, 100% in character… and all the more depressing because of it. Why would you do that? She had possibly the most character development, along with Nodoka, of the entire cast! And now, in the future, she’s a hikikomiri shut-in who helps Negi behind the scenes. We see her staring grumpily at her computer… just as we did at the start. She’s not even cosplaying anymore. Having seen the possibilities, she has chosen to stay the hell away from them. Bleah.

Oh yes, and we still have no idea what happened to Negi’s mother. Akamatsu hints that it may be left to the anime (which, given the anime’s final movie was FAR WORSE than this manga’s ending, is not something I look forward to.) We do, at least, hear that Setsuna and Konoka get married… though in typical ‘must be as vague as possible’ tradition, it’s left uncertain (but obvious) if it was to each other. The reason for this car-crash ending, by the way, is rumored to be that Akamatsu and Kodansha got into a fight about materials and he cut the manga short. They presumably patched things up, as he’s preparing a new series for them, but that doesn’t really help Negima. Maybe he’ll come back to it, but then I’m still waiting for Shirow to return to Dominion too.

So in the end I remain dissatisfied, but I will try to remember all the great fun I had reading this series. Given Ken’s goal was to avoid doing just another Love Hina-style harem comedy the way Kodansha wanted him to, I think he succeeded admirably. We grew enamored and invested enough in this world, its hero, and its many, many heroines that we are allowed to get up in arms when it all falls apart. Love it or hate it, few were indifferent to this volume of Negima.

The CMX Project: Cipher

April 26, 2013 by Michelle Smith and Karen Peck

MICHELLE: Hello, and thanks for joining us for the second installment of The CMX Project, in which we turn our attention to Cipher! (Please kindly overlook the fact that this column was promised for February; life has a nasty habit of upending one’s plans.) This month we’ll also have a special guest, but before the big reveal, how about another of your fabulous summaries, Karen? (Since you did so well with
Land of the Blindfolded!)

KAREN: Goodness, Michelle, all that praise is going to go to my head!

This month we have Cipher, by Minako Narita. Published by Hakusensha, it ran in Lala and Lala DX in the early/mid-’80s. Narita began working in the ’70s, with an eight-volume series (Alien Street) coming before Cipher. She would later go on to do a sequel to Cipher, Alexandrite, and her current work is Hana Yori Mo Hana No Gotoku, coming out very slowly in the bimonthly magazine Melody.

Cipher is the story of Anise, a girl in high school in New York City in the 1980s, and how she pursues a friendship with former child star Siva, breaking through his cool detachment with the force of her personality. Through Siva, she meets his twin brother Cipher, and discovers a mystery surrounding the brothers—that they’ve been changing places with each other for years. Which one is which? And why do they do this? I feel as if I’m not crafting a summary that does the story justice; instead, I hope our conversation will unfold just like the story—there’s a lot of layers to peel back, but I found the effort to do so very worth it.

But before I start going on and on, Michelle, please tell us about our special guest this month!

MICHELLE: Well, I have the good fortune to be Facebook friends with none other than Asako Suzuki, who was director of manga at CMX from 2006 until its untimely death! I shared our Land of the Blindfolded column with her, and when she mentioned that her favorite CMX series was Cipher, I invited her to join us!

Welcome, Asako!

ASAKO: Hi Michelle and Karen! Thank you for having me, and thank you VERY much for this wonderful project remembering CMX! I am honored and excited to be with you today to talk about my favorite manga series, Cipher!

Cipher is a very special manga series to me, and I have lost count of how many times I read it. In fact, I have just read the entire series (of course in Japanese) not long ago.

MICHELLE: Can you tell us how Cipher came to be licensed and published by CMX?

ASAKO: Actually, I inherited Cipher with some other early acquisitions when I joined CMX. That being said, before I joined CMX, I assisted the acquisition team and made some suggestions. Cipher (and [a] few other titles that were eventually published) was one of the titles I recommended, but I didn’t know if DC Comics had acquired it or not until I started my position. When I saw it on our production schedule, I was very happy!

KAREN: Wow, Asako, that must have been a great surprise to come into CMX and see Cipher there!

Now that I’m past the awesome summary-writing part, I can give my opinion—that I loved this title. I went in with preconceived notions—that this was That ’80s Manga. And while yes, it is very much set in the ’80s, it’s not done with artifice. It’s clear that Narita adored American pop culture—she even mentions doing a Thompson Twins doujinshi!—and it’s all done so lovingly. Real teens are a part of the music, movies, and current events, and it’s only in hindsight that the ’80s seem so cheesy. She also doesn’t gloss over some of the gritter aspects of the times—New York was still recovering from a terrible ’70s. Ironically, Cipher and Siva’s apartment is now in a very trendy area!

What surprised me was how the story was very much a coming of age tale—and not just for the heroine, Anise, but for the boys as well. At times, especially in the second half, she’s much more in the background, but her role seemed to be as much as a catalyst to make the bigger, darker story of the twins happen. Anise is still very childish at 16—there’s the very funny part where it’s pointed out that she really, really needs to start wearing a bra—despite her maturity and insight in some areas, she’s having a hard time seeing herself as growing up.

And then we have our former-child-star twins, Siva and Cipher (whose real names are Jake and Roy, respectively). Michelle and Asako, what’s your take on them? And do you still love the ’80s?

MICHELLE: Similar to Land of the Blindfolded, this is another case where focus drifts from the heroine and onto the two boys in her life, who each have past trauma to deal with. Anise isn’t as perpetually sunny as Kanade, but she’s still much less interesting than the twins. Or, rather, I felt like Narita-sensei was less interested in exploring her as a character. It was especially odd to me that we never learn what her focus is at the performing arts school! She narrates in volume one that “lots of people come to this school hoping to become painters, dancers, musicians, or actors.” So, which is Anise? What is her ambition for being there? As someone who actually attended a performing arts school, your “major” was vitally important.

So, that said, I feel a little grumpy that the boys got so much more love, but can’t deny that they’re pretty fascinating. I especially like when the story begins to focus more on Siva and we see events from his perspective that we later see again from Cipher’s perspective. Siva felt that Cipher’s openness made him more easy for his parents to love, while Cipher felt that Jake’s reliability made his own behavior seem childish in comparison. I also really liked how the friends they make while they’re apart affect them.

ASAKO: I am a huge fan of Anise; she was my hero! The reason why I wanted to come to the United States was because I wanted to be like, and live like her. To me, Anise was more realistic and easy to relate to compared to other manga protagonists, thanks to Narita-sensei’s amazing psychological descriptions throughout the series.

Narita-sensei is an amazing writer; I can easily tell how much she loved her characters, and she treated each differently. The way she shifted focus from one character to another was just incredible. I actually had a deep conversation with one of the manga editors in Japan (can’t say who!) about Cipher and how talented Narita-sensei is!

See, Narita-sensei introduced Cipher and Siva to us through the eyes of Anise and once we got to know the twins better with Anise, we were able to learn more about them individually through the twins’ perspectives. If Anise stayed as the center of the story the whole time, the story would have been shallow. With appearance of Dana, the focus was subtly shifted to Jake, and we got to know the secret of the twins and why Jake was protective yet envious of Roy. Then we learn more about Roy in LA… I really enjoyed the multi-dimensional story telling.

Speaking of details, have you noticed of the characters’ mix-and-match wardrobes? That’s amazing!

Also, there is something I have always wanted to know and never understood… can I ask you both a question? When you say “manga from the ’80s,” what does that mean? How do you distinguish the manga from the ’80s from the recent ones and why would you get less excited about manga from the era? That always puzzled me…

KAREN: Michelle—I wondered that too! I was really hoping she would have some great talent that drove her to commute all the way in from Queens!

I missed Anise during the second half of the series when the twins separated. She was still there, but the second half was really about the twins apart, and each making friends on their own, without having the other to hide behind. I don’t understand why some places categorize this as a shounen-ai title, the only love is friendship and the twin’s kissy-kissy… is anything but that.

There’s a lot of subtle tonal shifts in the story—the Dana storyline being one of them—a beautiful, talented young girl on the verge of falling in love and being loved is tragically, suddenly killed, and it has a way of breaking apart the entire premise of the story. The twins don’t just grow apart, they fly apart—Roy quite literally to the West Coast, leaving Anise behind. The ruse of one twin playing another will never work again, so they had to be apart, and make friends on their own terms, and the switching between coasts feels like two different stories but… they mirror each other, like Cipher and Siva did. Alexandra and Hal are different people, but they carry their own insecurities and pasts into their friendships—friendships they needed as badly as Jake and Roy did.

I didn’t notice the wardrobes, except that I loved how detailed they were. Narita-sensei must have been importing magazines! It stuns me about the accuracy of the details—reading this series sent me into a flurry of research (yes, with the extensive use of Google Maps) and it’s amazing that she did this in the pre-internet era—unless she was here herself? Asako, do you know any of that background? She did three series set in the US so it really seems she had a feel for the place.

To answer your question, Asako, and “’80s manga” generally means the style of art that I think is viewed as rather old-fashioned—not as extreme as ’70s manga, but it still looks “dated.” However, Narita-sensei’s art doesn’t suffer as much in comparison, and I think the rep that this title has for being an ’80s manga has is because it’s set in the 1980s, and references to George Michael and Hall and Oates are funny to a modern reader who looks at it all through a lens of nostalgia. I personally adore older manga, and wish there was more of it, but sadly publishers have said it doesn’t sell—that’s one thing I loved about CMX was that they brought out Swan and Cipher.

Speaking of art, I found it very well done, and I really want to hunt down one of those out-of-print artbooks now!

MICHELLE: I think there’s a general sense of affectionate amusement about most things coming out of ’80s culture, really. I love ’80s manga, personally, but yes, I did find it pretty funny when a dancing Cipher is deemed to be as cool as Michael Jackson, or when Narita-sensei professes in the comments, “The source of my strength, just like always, has been The Thompson Twins.”

Asako, you make a great point about Narita’s layered storytelling. I didn’t think of it like that—introducing us to the twins first through Anise’s eyes, then widening the story’s scope with a purposeful sequences of events. I really loved each brother’s relationship with his newfound friend. We learn that Roy felt that he behaved childishly in his past, and so perhaps he had tried to grow up too fast and hadn’t enjoyed some of the simpler pleasures that Hal makes it his mission to introduce him to. Jake felt he always had to be the reliable one—in fact, he wanted to be needed—but then he makes friends with Levine (aka Alex, Alexandra), who is sensitive but also resilient and tough.

When Jake first meets Levine, he can’t bear to think of Roy and Dana at all, but gradually he allows himself to think about them, and then to talk about them. When one of Dana’s relatives has a baby and names it after her, Jake instantly adores the girl, and ends up breaking down a barrier with his mother for her sake. It all seems to happen very naturally. Too, I love that when everyone meets up again at the end, Hal and Levine are completely baffled that anyone could’ve ever mistaken one twin for the other.

And I, too, appreciated the details that Narita-sensei got right. I was delighted to note that, in one scene, characters are eating an Old El Paso dinner kit of some sort.

ASAKO: In the first volume of the Tankobon edition, Narita-sensei talks about her trip to NYC, and she shares some pictures that she took during the trip. It sounds like she toured different neighborhoods to choose the neighborhood where twins and Anise should live. I thought it [was] funny but I was impressed at the same time that Narita-sensei even took pictures of TV commercials she watched in her hotel room. (Did you notice Cipher was watching a Betty Crocker’s new cake mix commercial?!) Very detailed artist.

Ah, thank you for explaining about the ’80s manga. To be honest, I have never thought of manga [as] “dated.” Well, in retrospect, I did notice different printing/layout techniques and art style. Maybe I am more comfortable with the ’80s manga because that’s what I grew up reading. Haha.

Back to Cipher, may I ask who is your favorite character(s) and why? I’m curious.

KAREN:That’s great to know some of the background of the creation! I think we’re all so spoiled with just being able to Google everything that people forget how hard it was to do research on such mundane topics—like cake commercials—in those days.

Asako, since you’ve had the advantage of seeing the Japanese versions, I had two questions—what is volume 12 of Cipher about? I’ve seen it listed on information sites and on Amazon.jp—is it side stories or does it add something? Also, have you read the Alexandrite sequel series—how is it in relation to Cipher?

My favorite character in Anise. She’s the entry to the world, and even when she’s in the background, she plays an important role. For all of the ways that she seems a little less mature, she shows such kindness and understanding, and that’s what breaks the shell around the twins. She can tell them apart at the end of the “challenge” but chooses not to—but she’s already opened up their world. I like her spirit, and watching her mature through the course of the series. It may not be as dramatic as what happens to Roy and Jake, but she becomes an important part to helping Jake discover his new life and gives Roy the space he needs until a reconciliation can happen.

I also like Hal—he’s so goofy at first but turns out to be so endearing.

MICHELLE: I really like Hal, too, but I’d have to say my favorite is Siva. I like his complexity in that he’s the reliable one who is secretly dependent upon being depended upon, and I like how experiencing love (for both Danas, the original and her namesake) frees him to become his own person and to begin to understand the pain of others.

ASAKO: To be honest with you, I don’t remember what was in the twelfth volume. As soon as the bunko edition came out, I gave my tanko edition to my best friend (here in the US). That was long, long time ago. I vaguely remember it was about Levine, but I am not entirely sure. I’m sorry!

Dealing with the difference between tanko edition and bunko edition was a challenge for CMX. We had to make the English edition of the original tanko edition off of the bunko edition—does that make sense?? (:D). The pagination and proportion differences required a lot of effort on our end, and what’s more, cover materials were provided in transparencies (positive films), so they had to be scanned, cleaned and color corrected before we could use on the covers. It happened many times for other CMX books, too, but some of the cover images were not available from the licensor, so we had to scan art books or whatever the resources we could find (and of course, with Licensor permission and extensive approval process) to come up with something.

KAREN: That’s great information, Asako—but I think CMX did a great job, the covers especially were very pretty. Other companies seemed to have problems reformatting the Hakusensha-style “box on the cover” design to something that works in the American market, but this was very well done. Speaking of artbooks, I’m going to have to chase down that out-of-print artbook that came out way back when.

Cipher is thankfully one of those titles that’s easy to collect—it’s all out-of-print, of course, but most volumes go for well below cover, and a couple of others are above cover but nothing crazy—it’s an easy one to collect, so that shouldn’t be a deterrent to hunting down and enjoying this title. Yeah, it’s set in the ’80s, but there’s so much more to it than that.

MICHELLE: We hope we’ve inspired you to check it out, and would also like to extend our very sincere thanks to Asako Suzuki for joining us for this conversation!

ASAKO: Thank you for having me! Looking forward to more CMX reviews in the future!

MICHELLE: You’re in luck, because Oyayubihime Infinity is up next!

Manga the Week of 5/1

April 25, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and MJ 2 Comments

SEAN: Given that most companies regard 5/1 as 4/31, it’s no surprise that there’s not a lot of stuff this week. Trust me, that giant pile of Viz will be waiting for you on 5/8. In the meantime, let’s turn our attention to other offerings.

It has to be said, the most anticipated book for this week is definitely not for the kids. That said, the buzz for The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of ‘Bara’ Manga is really high. This is not cute BL with pretty androgynous boys manga. This is MANLY gay manga, with lots of MANLY bondage and discipline. In fact, it’s quite violent and filled with sadism, I hear. But if you want a taste of something different, and don’t mind explicit stories, Picturebox has the collection for you.

MICHELLE: Sometimes one can be glad something exists without really wanting to check it out for themselves. This is one of those times.

MJ: I might check this out, though my threshold for sadism is relatively low.

SEAN: Vertical’s lone print offering this week is Vol. 4 of the Stan Lee penned Heroman, which is a must for manga fans who also love Stan Lee.

MICHELLE: I do have to wonder how many such fans exist.

MJ: I wish I could like this, just for Vertical’s sake. I really do. Does that count for anything?

SEAN: The big news from Vertical is digital, though, as three of their series are available on Kindle and Nook as of April 30th. 7 Billion Needles is gripping sci-fi horror, Drops of God is a wine lover’s dream, but the big news for me is the now out-of-print series Twin Spica getting its first two volumes out. Twin Spica is the brilliant and heartwarming epic about a girl who yearns to be in space, and it never did as well here as I’d hoped. Here’s hoping that a digital release will give it new fans!

MICHELLE: That’s a hope I can share!

MJ: Now, this is something to cheer about. It makes the whole week, really!

SEAN: So what’s your kink this week?

Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble

April 25, 2013 by Anna N

Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble by QuinRose and Hazuki Futaba

I have a weakness for romance titles with ridiculously long titles in either manga or prose format. There’s something about the inherent ridiculousness of a title like “The Sicilian’s Ruthless Marriage Revenge” that makes me want to read it! If a romance title has five words or more, I’m usually entertained if I’m in the mood for some light reading. My decision to pick up Crimson Empire was largely due to the title, combined with the fact that it is another Quinrose title. I enjoyed the first Alice in the Country of Hearts manga adaptation well enough, so I was curious to see if I’d also like a different manga title from the brand without the literary connection.

Crimson Empire has a potentially amusing protagonist in Sheila the former assassin turned royal bodyguard and head maid, but the story in the first volume isn’t all that compelling as it mostly involves Sheila meeting an endless progression of handsome men. This is only what one could expect in a manga based on an otome game, but there were enough interesting elements that I would probably check out the second volume. This manga opens in a very dark way as one of the turning points of Sheila’s childhood is portrayed when her assassin trainers tell her to kill a random man. She does fulfill her duty, but not without a lot of trepidation. Years later Sheila is ready to accept her first official assignment, and she ends up as a bodyguard to the royal Prince, instead of joining the assassin league that has served as her foster family.

Prince Edvard is blond, charming, and the target of frequent assassination attempts which Sheila foils. He also might be a bit of a sociopath, as his outward personality masks an inner emptiness and pathological self-regard. Edvard’s older brother Justin is the tall, dark, handsome, and tsundere hero of many a female protagonist’s dreams. His outward hostility towards Sheila leads her to wonder if he’s behind all the attacks on his brother, but Justin always seems to be in the right place at the right time if Sheila needs a bit of help. There’s an almost too-large cast of supporting characters that Sheila meets as she goes about her duties. While the art is capably executed, it doesn’t have much of a distinct style. Fortunately the character designs are all very good, which helps the reader distinguish a little bit between the Brainy One, the Mischievous One, the Sorcerers One, the Demonic One, the Well-Dressed One, and the always essential Guy Wearing Glasses.I’m being a bit snarky, but overall I did like reading this manga, and I would follow the series if the next volume shows signs of a more interesting plot. If any more characters are introduced I might give up on the series because I can barely remember everybody! Fans of reverse harem manga would likely enjoy Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble, and at least Sheila’s bodyguarding duties give her a more interesting background than many of the heroines of the genre.

Dorohedoro, Vol. 9

April 25, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ikki. Released in North America by Viz.

This bright pink volume of Dorohedoro feels very much like the calm before the storm, or the sort of thing that ends with the tag ‘End of Part One’. There’s not as much pulse-pounding action here, and the revelations are still mostly hinted rather than stated outright. But we’ve almost got Caiman’s past, and we’re starting to learn Nikaido’s, and it’s going to turn out SO BADLY for both of them, isn’t it?

I especially feel as if I may have seem the last of Caiman, at least as Caiman, and that’s a shame, as he’s such a big, lovable doof. With a lizard head. But he’s always wanted to retrieve his memories, and is now starting to see the downside to all of that. Unfortunately, it’s not really something he can stop doing, either. Hayashida, by the way, does a terrific job of showing just how agonizing Caiman’s ongoing headaches are – including giving us an x-ray of his brain to drive it home!

Meanwhile, Shin and Noi are also hot on the trail of the cross-eyes’ boss, despite him possibly being dead. This leads us to the funniest moment of the series, where we meet the boss’ grandfather, and react to his appearance. Even in the most horrible moments, Dorohedoro still finds a way to be completely ridiculous, and it’s a big reason why I love it as much as I do. If this series didn’t have a high level of comedy and weirdness, it would simply be too bleak to function.

Meanwhile, I can’t really feel bad for Chota – who brought it all on himself, and makes things even worse towards the end. What we do get via his character, however, is the start of Nikaido’s backstory, as she began to keep a diary while at En’s so that she didn’t lose herself. (I’ll be honest, at first I thought the diary would be a giant fakeout, but the flashbacks do seem to make it genuine.) Little Nikaido is absolutely adorable, and you know her backstory is going to be amazingly wretched, so I’m just enjoying the tiny kid messing around with time magic while I can.

And of course I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss the omake chapter at the end. Shin and Noi are my favorite characters in the series, and I also tend to ship them. So far, though, any in-series romance has been just tease. It’s clear that Noi has a crush on Shin, but his feelings for her have been more ambiguous. Now we get a flashback to Shin from ten years ago, forced to attend a masquerade ball by En where he has to dance or get poked by devils with a pitchfork. (This sounds like most of the junior high dances I attended, only everyone usually chose the pitchfork over dancing with girls.) Shin looks adorably cute here, and his dance partner even more so. I love seeing side stories like this.

All in all, another solid volume of Dorohedoro. I see in addition to Scott Pilgrim’s creator giving a blurb, the man behind King City is also praising the series. Viz should be happy. It may not generate Naruto sales, but Dorohedoro has become one of their prestige series, and needs more love. And gyoza. It always needs more gyoza.

Comic Conversion: The City of Ember

April 24, 2013 by Angela Eastman 3 Comments

The City of Ember | Novel: Jeanne DuPrau / Yearling | Graphic Novel: Dallas Middaugh & Niklas Asker / Random House Children’s Books

Over 200 years ago, the City of Ember was created by the Builders, and now the citizens exist in a perpetual darkness only broken by the electric lights in their homes and lining the streets. But the lights keep going out, and the city’s power source, an ancient generator that no one understands, is constantly failing. Twelve-year-old Doon is determined to find the solution and save the city, but keeps hitting dead ends until his friend Lina finds a strange paper inside a lock box. Thanks to her baby sister, the words—written with the strange, typed script of the Builders—are only half-legible, but she can make out one: Instructions. Certain these are instructions for an exit, Lina and Doon set to deciphering the words so they can follow the directions out of Ember. But with everyone so certain that there is no escape, they find more resistance than they bargained for.

Released in 2003, Jeanne DuPrau’s The City of Ember gave us a teen dystopian novel before The Hunger Games was even a thing. There have since been three sequels and a 2008 movie adaptation, but it wasn’t until September, 2012 that Random House published a graphic novel adaptation. Adapted by Dallas Middaugh and illustrated by Niklas Asker, the comic takes DuPrau’s deeply shadowed world and attempts to bring it to life.

The City of Ember has an immediately interesting premise: two children in a city with perpetually depleting supplies who together find a way to save their people. The characters don’t know why they are there, and they don’t even know why it is always so dark (though readers will probably make their own accurate guess about that). The characters are also much more layered than expected. Doon wants to figure out the answer and save everyone, but it’s partly because he wants the glory of being Ember’s hero so his father, a kind man, can be proud of him. He’s also plagued with a volatile temper that often hinders him. Lina has fewer of these problems—too busy taking care of her sister, a toddler, and her ill grandmother. But she is sometimes overcome with desires—the best job, a pack of colored pencils (rare), a can of pineapple (rarer)—that she momentarily loses sight of important things, like Doon’s concern or her sister. These all add up to make Doon and Lina more sympathetic, as we see pieces of ourselves in them, and even increase our anxiety and investment, as we see how they’ve gotten in their own way before they even realize.

The big problem I had with the novel was the pacing. While the opening gets us right into the story with the choosing of jobs and Doon’s concern over the power and food supply, it’s mostly a slow buildup of information until about a third of the way through the book, when Lina finally finds the Instructions. And after that things move slowly as Lina struggles over each word and tries to get others to help her, like the mayor or her flighty friend Lizzie, who obviously don’t care about her discovery. Things do pick up once Doon gets involved and they start to solve the puzzle. Also, the anxiety does build up at the end as we see how Doon and Lina messed up in their decision to wait on revealing their discovery, and find themselves on the run.

Asker did a decent job portraying the darkness of this world in the graphic novel, even filling the gutters with black, and his detailed sketchings of rooms and buildings display the drabness of everything: the cluttered rooms, and clothing and items drained of color from their multiple uses. Asker also understands the importance of silence as he draws out moments like Doon’s exploration of the Pipeworks, and seems to know that narration is entirely unnecessary if his art and panel order are clear, such as when Lina discovers her grandmother has died in the darkness of night.

Dallas Middaugh must have noticed similar issues with the pacing when he adapted the story. Very quickly we see that he cut things out to keep the story from coming too much to a pause, like Lina’s friend Clary (whose important actions are performed by Mrs. Murdo) and even Lina’s failed attempts to show the Instructions to people other than Doon. Trimming the plot helps the pace of the story, but it also alters the emotional effect many of the novel’s scenes had. One big example, which seems very small, is when Lina goes to buy colored pencils from the shop. First, because we missed the prior scene of her aching to just go look at them, we don’t get Lina’s experience of coveting something that others don’t have, which becomes important when Lizzie and then the mayor are discovered to be hoarding rare food. This also diminishes our perception of Lina’s guilt when she loses her sister, Poppy, because she’s too busy debating on whether or not to buy the pencils. So while Asker does an excellent job of showing us a stricken Lina as she watches Poppy sleep later that night, we don’t have as clear of a sense that this is her fear combining with her own extreme guilt.

Jeanne DuPrau’s original novel has a fascinating premise that is riddled with anxiety from the first pages. Its slow trek towards the point keeps it from being as immediately exciting as something like The Hunger Games, but DuPrau starts to make up for this in the faster-paced climax. Middaugh and Asker’s adaptation moves the plot along more quickly and manages to convey enough background information through invented dialogue. But certain things are lost—Lina’s guilt, Doon’s temper, and the panic of other citizens that causes some to run out into the the darkness in hope of finding light—that diminish the characters, flatten them, and turn them into people we’re just not quite that invested in. So while The City of Ember graphic novel effectively gets the story across, it just doesn’t have enough feeling to put it on par with the novel.

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: April 22, 2013

April 23, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

April 22 Cover Page Bit of a short issue this week, or at least it feels like that for me since I stopped trying to decipher Yugioh! Zexal. It may be lax of me as a reviewer to ignore that series, but the only way for me to give it a fair shake in any kind of review would be to actually do my research and read the series. But, let’s face it, I could already tell you from chapter one it wouldn’t be interesting—and I haven’t seen anything since then to change my mind.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 012
Dragon Ball Z (I refuse to call it Dragon Ball since saying “Dragon Ball Ch. 012″ would be inaccurate) really is at its best during chapters that would be nothing but talking heads, were Toriyama not so good at utilizing panel layout and camera angles to make even the talkiest of scenes dynamic. Again, it’s impossible to comment on these chapters without letting my prior knowledge of the series color my perspective, so I’ll limit it to saying that I’m amused by how Gohan actually goes through with his plans to become a scholar, despite everyone saying it’s such a waste. Follow your own dreams, not those others inflict on you. Even if you’re talented at something, it doesn’t mean you are required to pursue it. Sure people that want to do what you’re good at will think it a waste of talent, but that’s not what matters. It’s really a good lesson for all of us.

One Piece Ch. 706
There aren’t many creators who could take a character who was beaten down like a putz and have him come back as a legitimate threat. Not only did Bellamy come across as a threat, but he actually is one of the two characters I predict to win Block B. Oda set up the fights to take advantage of the fact that we all expect Luffy to win, and managed to introduce doubt in the other two blocks by focusing on four characters in the two blocks, either of which could win their respective blocks. So it’s certainly suspenseful when normally it would not be.

Also, Nami is going to be furious if she finds out Bellamy stole the golden pillar that was supposed to be theirs.

One Piece

One-Punch Man Ch. 014
Oh Hammerhead, I’m so glad you didn’t die. He makes a great final punch line because he is the opposite of the usual. Instead of someone dying, it’s someone living when they shouldn’t. Sonic’s expression is also the scariest thing I’ve seen all week. That is all.

One-Punch Man

Bleach Ch. 534
While this chapter was not as engaging as the past few chapters have been, I quite liked it compared to the chapters before this flashback. I think it’s because this is a story I’ve been waiting for a long time, but also because it eschews the baggage Bleach has accumulated in the past years. I think Kubo is capable of telling good stories, but he’s overburdened himself with years of continuity. Sometimes you just need a fresh start, and this story is as close to a fresh start as we’re going to be getting for a while.

Nisekoi Ch. 071
When I found myself rating One Piece as the best chapter this week, I realized that I was doing what I had sworn I would not. I was ranking it number one because I always rank it number one. But this week that honor goes to Nisekoi. The setups for the final punchline were all wonderful, and the punchline itself was just hilarious. Every chapter I think I have a new favorite character, and every time I find myself proven wrong yet again. That’s it—just give this series a harem ending, I won’t mind. I can’t pick which girl to root for anymore.

Nisekoi

Toriko Ch. 230
This chapter of Toriko was the embodiment of “But wait, there’s more!” in manga. There are so many unexpected reveals and awesome cliffhangers that I can’t focus on one. Nor do I want to give anything away. Let’s just say that an unimportant character from early on in the manga comes back in a big way, and another fairly important character who only showed up once changes sides. And then Zebra. Just Zebra. You think he’s peaked in awesomeness, but then you find out you are once again wrong.

Toriko

World Trigger Ch. 011
What could have been a pretty major threat, and has been the main threat for the series’ run, turns out to handled in a montage. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out there are more gates opening in strange places, because nobody functioning as a writer in any kind of professional capacity could ever possibly make such a basic writing blunder in such a high stakes game. Could they?

We’ll have to wait to see what happens. But hopes are not high. A shame, truly, considering how much I enjoyed the first chapter.

Cross Manage Ch. 030
How does this series keep getting better!? Last week I thought it would be disastrous if Kaito skipped the match. And either he has the most common sense of any writer, or he’s reading my mind. If the latter, please pay attention, Kaito-sensei, I have a few ideas for some omake material. This chapter really showed how good Cross Manage could be as a straight up sports manga. Which just doubles my enjoyment because I already was enjoying it as a character piece. Considering possible upcoming cancellations and series ending their runs I wouldn’t be surprised if Cross Manage lives to fight another day. It better, it’s survived this long and gotten this good that canceling it now would be an abject shame.

Cross Manage

Despite being a short issue, this week’s Weekly Shonen Jump was very strong. Perhaps the lack of Naruto skewed the overall quality. One more week, and then we’re off for Golden Week. I’ll be craving new manga chapters all week, but at least I get to take a break just like the manga authors do that week.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to last week’s episode, Episode 044 – April 15, 2013 – The Naruto Conundrum: Why Do We Hate Sasuke? | Mutant Turtles Gaiden and Super Turtles.

It Came from the Sinosphere: Yanyu Mengmeng (TV Drama) Part 2

April 23, 2013 by Sara K. 1 Comment

Pouring Sugar on Stakes Thrust through the Heart, or TV Drama vs. Novel

The plot between the novel and this TV adaptation is mostly the same, aside from the addition of new characters (the Li family, Keyun, Du Fei, Ji Yao), and expanded roles for Erhao, Mengping, and Fangyu.

However, the feeling is significantly different. The TV drama does a lot of sugar-coating. For example…

[HUGE SPOILER WARNING + TRIGGER WARNING FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE / SUICIDE, skip to “End Trigger/Spoiler Warning” if you want to avoid spoilers and/or triggers]

In the novel, Mengping is gang-raped and gets pregnant. When she can’t identify the father, her father stop treating her as his daughter, or even as a human being. After a back-alley abortion gone wrong, Mengping spends most of the novel in the hospital, out of sight. By the time she gets out of the hospital, her mother is in prison, her father and sister are dead, her younger brother is in an orphanage, and she has to live with her older brother, who is penniless.

She is also gang-raped, emotionally discarded by her father, and gets injured in an abortion in the TV Drama. But in the TV drama, her loving sister cares for her after the rape, and her boyfriend agrees to marry her even after he knows what happened. Furthermore, her boyfriend tracks down the rapist and personally punishes them, with some help from Mengping’s father, who starts treating her as his daughter again once a man (her boyfriend) agreed to marry her. Mengping and her boyfriend (later, husband) live happily ever after.

Then there is Ruping.

Mengping and Ruping

In the TV drama, Ruping commits suicide. After the suicide, all of the characters are heartbroken, blame each other for her suicide, blame themselves, and pour out all of the love they felt for Ruping but didn’t express properly while she was alive.

In the novel, when Ruping commits suicide, the characters either a) hardly notice or b) are upset because her death inconveniences them. None of the characters are depicted being sincerely sad that she is dead (well, maybe He Shuhuan is sincerely sad … to some extent).

In the TV drama, Ruping is mistaken to think that nobody loves and cares about her. In the novel … she is mostly correct.

[END TRIGGER/SPOILER WARNING]

Though the plot is mostly the same, these little differences add up to a very different message. In the novel, the message is “What goes around, comes around.” Since what goes around is pain and abuse, what comes around is not pretty. By contrast, the message in the TV drama is that, deep down, everybody loves each other, they just don’t know it, and that love can get you through everything. That is a VERY different message.

Why Was the Message Changed

So … why does the TV Drama sugar-coat the story?

I have some ideas.

First, the novel was written in the 1960s. Many people in Taiwan, including most of the characters and Chiung Yao herself, had been in China during the Chinese Civil War, and were still recovering from the aftermath. The rest of the population had experienced WWII under Japanese rule and the 2/28 Incident, which was also very traumatic. The novel was also published during the height of the “White Terror,” when Taiwan’s authoritarian government practised strict censorship and imprisoned anybody who was inconvenient to the people in power.

By contrast, the 1980s was a much more forgiving era. The economy was booming and standards of living had risen. Taiwan was already moving towards democracy, and in 1987, just a year after this drama aired, martial law was lifted. things didn’t seem so bad.

Then there is Chiung Yao’s own personal circumstances. At the time she wrote the novel, she was a young mother, and had either just ended her first marriage or was about to end it (I couldn’t find a timeline to double-check the order of events), but in any case, ending a marriage while caring for a young child is stressful. She relied on the money she made by writing to make ends meet, so if she had stopped writing, or if her writing hadn’t sold well, she would have been in trouble.

By contrast, in the 1980s, she was financially secure and independent, had well-established and extremely successful writing career, and had been happily married to her second husband for years. Chiung Yao herself says that she couldn’t have written the novels she wrote as a young woman at a later age because she had stopped experiencing such sharp, forceful feelings.

It’s entirely possible that a TV drama faithful to the spirit of the novel would not have been allowed to air in the 1980s. I think that Taiwanese TV nowadays wouldn’t produce a TV show with even the 80s drama adaptation’s level of emotional harshness. Audiences would not receive it well.

In fact, based on the reviews I’ve read, the 2000 adaptation of Yanyu Mengmeng is even sappier than the 80s version.

Why I Hate This Story

For starters, I hate most of the characters … Yiping, Ruping, He Shuhuan, Lu Zhenhua, Xueqin, etc. In the novel, just about the only significant characters I didn’t hate were Fu Wenpei (Yiping’s mother) and Fang Yu. I don’t hate any of the new characters (Keyun, Du Fei, etc.) who were added to the story in the TV adaptation.

Yiping has ulterior motives for going out with Erjie.

Okay, I did feel more sympathetic to Yiping in the TV drama, so I suppose I don’t hate TV!Yiping, but that’s mainly because I felt everybody else was treating her unfairly. Everybody was telling her that she should set aside her hatred for the Lu family, that she was their daughter, and that she should learn to love them. I, on the other hand, felt that not only was Yiping entitled to resent the Lu Family, but I was advising her to cut off contact with them as soon as feasible. Her father abused and neglected her for more than ten years, and her siblings either contributed to the abuse/neglect, or refused to offer any help to Yiping … and never ONCE in the entire drama do they apologize to Yiping and admit to her that they were wrong (his father quasi-apologizes to her mother). If any reconciliation is to happen, I think the Lu family (particularly his father) is responsible for the first move, and before there is a clear and sincere apology, nobody should tell Yiping to let go of her bad feelings about the family.

That’s not to say that I approve of Yiping’s actions – on the contrary, I advised her (in my head) to forget revenge so she can get the Lu family as much out of her life as possible. I also advised her to dump He Shuhuan, particularly considering how inclined he is to use physical force to control her in the drama (at least in the novel he’s not physically abusive). Yiping needs a sassy gay-friend, not a self-centered borderline-abusive boyfriend like He Shuhuan (I personally think Yiping was doing Ruping a favor when she ‘stole’ He Shuhuan, but I know Ruping disagrees with me).

When Yiping wants to get away from Shuhuan, he grabs her, carries her as she’s kicking and screaming, and pins her to a fence. What a charming boyfriend.

And how could I hate Ruping? Mainly because she seems very passive-aggressive to me. She repeatedly claims that she loves Yiping like a sister but … well, it never translates into her actions. When Yiping needs help, Ruping does nothing (and I don’t buy that Ruping doesn’t have enough courage, because she certainly has enough courage when her other siblings get in trouble). And when Yiping is going through some really terrible things, Ruping is caught up in her own selfish concerns. Yiping, at least, is honest about the fact that she is not looking out for Ruping, and even tells Ruping so.

Ruping needs a cool-old-lady friend.

What’s worse, Yiping, Shuhuan, and Ruping are all bookworms. To Yiping, novels are like water, and reading is one of her main mechanisms for getting through the day. Shuhuan has a large library. Yiping loves 19th century European novels – Tolstoy, Bronte sisters, etc., while Shuhuan enjoys contemporary foreign literature. Ruping is a fan of popular Chinese-language literature, particularly romance and wuxia (I find it intriguing that she is an wuxia fan, considering that she’s a total doormat who wouldn’t hurt a fly). I also identify as a bookworm, and I suspect most people who read the novel are bookworms to some extent, so this makes the characters more like the readers.

In Shuhuan’s library.

And that brings me to the crux of why I hate the story – I can see myself in the characters, and it’s an awful part of myself. My family is much more functional than the Lu family – but even I know something about the resentment which builds up between family members, and how it can drive people (myself included) to do terrible things. You could say that I am Yiping’s daughter (my mother as a young woman had some things in common with Yiping). In the TV show, and especially in the novel, I could feel that a) what the characters were doing was wrong and b) understand why they were doing it because, under similar circumstances, I would have the same impulses.

I hate being shown that I can be an awful person.

I seriously considered not watching the TV drama because I hate the novel that much.

My Reaction to the Drama

This is hands down the most addictive TV drama I’ve seen in Chinese, and one of the most addictive things I’ve watched in my life. Even though I already knew the story, I simply had to keep going. As soon as one train-wreck has happened, it’s possible to see the next train coming to pile on the damage.

In some ways, the TV drama is much better written than the novel – many supporting characters are much more fully realized, and the suspenseful elements are more deftly crafted.

And the tears. Oh the tears. In my mind, I’ve re-titled the drama “River of Tears” because of the effect it had on me.

But towards the end of the TV drama, I stopped engaging with it because it started to seem a little false to me. The story wants to go to awful places, but somebody puts on the brakes, assuring the audience, ‘no, it’s not really that awful’.

The ending of novel feels profoundly sad because it feels true. The more optimistic ending of the TV drama does not feel true to me.

Availability in English

Currently, this is not available in English, and since it’s a Taiwanese drama from the 1980s, I am not going to hold my breath. Still, if any Taiwanese drama from the 1980s has a chance of being licensed by a streaming service with English subtitles, it’s this one, or another one of the 80s Chiung Yao dramas.

Conclusion

Nowadays, before I pick up a Chiung Yao novel, I have to ask myself whether I am ready to tear out my heart and put it through the washing machine for cycle. I’ve read that Yanyu Mengmeng is the rawest of them all, but based on some of the summaries I’ve seen, I suspect some of Chiung Yao’s other novels might wrench me even more. She is a genius of pressing emotional buttons.

For a heart-warming Chiung Yao story, read Princess Pearl. Otherwise, beware!

Next Time: Datang Shuanglong Zhuan (novel)

Why is it that Sara K. only found out that the Takarazuka Revue was coming to Taiwan AFTER the tour was over????? Now she’ll actually have to go to Japan to see them perform live. Oh well, if she ever has the chance to see them in Japan, it will probably be better than seeing them in Taiwan.

Angel Sanctuary, Vol. 1

April 23, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Kaori Yuki. Released in Japan as “Tenshi Kinryouku” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media.

It’s worth noting that this came out in the mid-to-late 90s in Hana to Yume, which these days is better known as the home of series like Oresama Teacher and Skip Beat!. It evolved rapidly in the early years of the 21st century, because back in the late 80s-early 90s there was a lot more darkness and a lot more androgyny in the magazine. And one of the best examples of this is Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary, a 20-volume series about angels, demons, impossible relationships, and above all strange things happening so fast the cast cannot get proper time to angst (but they manage to work it in anyway).

First of all, yes, as my Manga Bookshelf colleagues have noted, this first volume is a bit tedious at times. There’s a lot of setup, a lot of putting pieces in place, and a lot of backstory that really doesn’t make much sense. We also don’t get enough time to like Sara’s friend as herself before she’s immediately possessed/killed/whatever. That said, I think that the volume manages to succeed anyway, almost entirely on mood. Everything is tense here as we wait for horrible things to happen to our lead, Setsuna, who is a typical troubled teenager with an atypical love for his sister, Sara. He’s having enough trouble trying to shut out his own lustful desires, he really does not need folks coming down and saying he’s the reincarnation of an angel. In fact, his hotheaded and impulsive personality is very reminiscent of a shonen protagonist. But boy, is he in the wrong series.

I mentioned the incest elements, and it’s worth noting how they’re handled. Given that here in 2013 there is an overabundance of incest in almost every manga or anime designed for the otaku, you’d think it would lose its thrill. But this is not here to titillate. Setsuna’s feelings are powerful and deep, and they horrify him. I loved that the first thing he did was check the family register to make sure that one of them wasn’t secretly adopted – he’s read other shoujo manga, I see! But no, he doesn’t get an out that way. And of course Sara feels the same way, though I don’t think either of them is quite aware of the depths of their love just yet. It helps that, familial relationship aside, they make the cutest couple in the book – which, to be fair, is not about romance. Well, not shoujo schoolgirl romance anyway.

The art is another strong point here – at times, it’s the only humor in the series, and I love some of Setsuna’s facial expressions and asides. Given that the series is about angels and demons, there’s also a lot of androgyny on display here, and I guessed wrong about the gender of two of the characters TWICE before nailing it down. (Kurai and Arachne also provide much needed humor here, I should note.) But overall, if I was to use a word to describe this series, it would be overdramatic. And I don’t necessarily mean that just in a bad way. It’s a great series for teenagers – particularly, I think teenage girls would eat this up – as everyone is pretty and your forbidden love is, literally, the end of the world.

Bookshelf Briefs 4/22/13

April 22, 2013 by Anna N, Sean Gaffney and MJ Leave a Comment

Today, Anna, Sean, and MJlook at recent releases from Viz Media, Yen Press, and Vertical, Inc.

07-Ghost, Vol. 3 | By Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara | Viz Media Some of the worldbuilding in 07-Ghost is a bit incoherent, and I have to admit that I’m not exactly following all the permutations of demons that beset young orphan castoff prince Teito as he is studying to become a Bishop in the Barsburg Church. That being said, I enjoy the general atmosphere of this manga very much, and there’s usually a visually arresting moment in each volume that makes me want to read the next. In this case, Teito dives into the fountains at the church and discovers a secret underwater world connected to the cell where rebel Bishop Frau is being held. A bit of backstory was filled in in this volume too, so while I might not enjoy the demon of the week so much, I am still interested in this story. – Anna N.

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Vol. 8 | By Toru Fujisawa | Vertical, Inc. – The story was always going to get more serious before it wrapped up, and that’s what we see here. We’ve seen lots of emotional abuse in the past 7 volumes – neglect, abandonment – but the series does not shy away from physical or sexual abuse, and the bookends here are harrowing. Sakurako’s father returns with a crooked lawyer and doctor, and it’s only by outcrooking him that they manage to get Sakurako away. And Ikuko, who’s been mostly a minor presence here, finally gets a focus, as we see what she’s gone through at the hands of her mother. There is very much a sense of “Onizuka will help these kids, but who will help the ones in real life?” to this volume, with sexual abuse statistics included. If you’re looking for badassery, that’s here as well, but this volume works best when it’s ramping up the parental horror. – Sean Gaffney

Kimi ni Todoke, Vol. 16 | By Karuho Shiina | Viz Media – I’ve mentioned my general distrust of Kento before, and it’s good that both the author and Ayane realize this – as, later, does Kento himself. He and Ayane do have something in common, which is that they’re used to wearing a ‘playboy/girl’ facade to a degree, but have never really allowed anyone to really get inside their heart. It’s a very different kind of awkwardness when compared to Sawako and Kazehaya, who both suffer from terminal shyness and repression, or Chizuru and Ryu, who are having to redefine a very comfortable friendship into something different. This all leads up to the Christmas party, where romance is traditional. This volume also has some very cute art by other Margaret artists at the end, including Natsumi Aida of Switch Girl!, a title I’d love to see here. – Sean Gaffney

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Vol. 14 | By Hiroshi Shiibashi | Viz Media – In general, humor has been thin on the ground since we hit the never-ending Kyoto arc for Nura and company, so it’s terrific seeing Tsurara’s pointless jealousy as she realizes that ‘equip’ is something that can be done with anyone who’s close to Rikuo, and not just girls who are in love with him. Cue huff, and Rikuo’s bafflement. The rest of this is pure fighting, though, mixed with a bit of horror every time we cut back to Nue, or even get a flashback. There’s more death of innocents than in most Jump titles. Also, lots of familiar yokai designs – one of the antagonists here looks just like a yokai from Natsume’s Book of Friends. Still, things look like they’re gearing up to a final battle and climax. Of course, I’ve thought that before and been wrong. -Sean Gaffney

Pandora Hearts, Vol. 15 | By Jun Mochizuki | Yen Press – Oh, Pandora Hearts… dear Pandora Hearts, cruel Pandora Hearts. As expected, this volume is filled with fallout from the previous installment, some of which is scary, some oddly poignant, and some deeply tragic. Though Mochizuki’s storytelling continues to be occasionally abstruse, I find more and more that I’m completely willing to re-read as needed in order to truly catch on, volume-to-volume. As always, I’m struck by the emotional effectiveness of her artwork, which often provides clarity when the text does not. One wordless two-page spread in particular comes to mind (it’s part of the “deeply tragic” section). Though it would be impossible for new readers to even dream of jumping in at this late date, I’ll continue to recommend this for a good, epic read. This volume’s final page is permanently etched in my mind. – MJ

Slam Dunk, Vol. 28 | by Takehiko Inoue | Viz Media There’s not much to be said about Slam Dunk other than a reference to its general awesomeness, but this volume featured some art that reminded me a lot of Vagabond in the surreal moments that were frozen in time as Shohoku’s game against Sannoh continues. Panels focusing only on Sakuragi’s limbs as he jumps bring home the physicality of the game, and there’s are some insane visuals as Akagi is broken out of his fugue state when his hulking father steps on the court and shaves a piece of daikon radish on him. Sakuragi is rallying the team as only an idiot can, and if Akagi is able to overcome his opponent, scrappy Shohoku might just win the game. – Anna N.

Toriko, Vol. 15 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – The gentleman on the cover with his face shredded is Zebra, the fourth and most dangerous of the Heavenly Kings. They’ve always been eccentrics to date, but Zebra acts genuinely unhinged at times. Other than that, and Zebra getting the same vague mancrush on Komatsu that everyone in Toriko gets, this is another manga where you watch it for the amazing worldbuilding, as it’s a cornucopia of strange creatures, awesomely terrifying landscapes, and incredibly dangerous food. This is a more serious volume, than usual, though there is some humor (particularly involving the warden of Honey Prison, who has magical pheromone powers. I’ll be interested to see how things continue, as for once Komatsu is on his own in a deep labyrinth, with little protection from his stronger friends. – Sean Gaffney

Off the Shelf: Angel Sanctuary, MMF Edition

April 21, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 8 Comments

MICHELLE: Hey, MJ! When two angels meet, what do they say to each other?

MJ: Well, judging from the title we’re reading this week, something like, “Die, die, DIE!”?

MICHELLE: The punchline is technically “Halo!,” but I admit that your suggestion is much more appropriate!

I can’t remember whose turn it is to summarize, but I have a feeling you’ll do a great job with Angel Sanctuary, so want to give it a go?

MJ: I’ll do my best!

So, this month’s Manga Moveable Feast is dedicated to the works of Kaori Yuki, an artist whose work I’d had essentially no exposure to at all before the past few days. Though most of her existing work in English was published before I became a manga fan, Viz Media’s new practice of re-releasing older shoujo series in digital form has suddenly made one of them easily available. As Michelle has already indicated, that series is Angel Sanctuary, currently being released at VizManga.com.

Angel Sanctuary begins with the story of Setsuna Mudo, a scrappy high school student with a reputation for fighting, though his weakness as a fighter is that he falls asleep at the sight of blood. His other, greater weakness is that he harbors strong feelings of romantic love for his younger sister, Sara—feelings that she unfortunately returns in kind, which is a source of deep shame for them both.

As it turns out, Setsuna is actually the reincarnation of Alexiel, a powerful angel who long ago rebelled against the growing cruelty of the angelic realm, following the disappearance of God. Alexiel was ultimately defeated and sentenced to be reincarnated into misery, over and over again, but not before sealing away her twin brother, Rosiel, who had led the fight against her.

Though Alexiel has never retained memories from one reincarnation to the next, she’s been protected through all of them by a demon-like personage who makes agreements with humans to carry out their deepest wishes in return for taking control of their mortal bodies to keep himself in Alexiel’s company. In Setsuna’s lifetime, this demon lives in the body of Sakuya Kira, Setsuna’s oldest friend and protector.

(click images to enlarge)

Meanwhile, Rosiel’s faithful seek to awaken him from exile by way of a video game called “Angel Sanctuary,” which sacrifices the lives of the humans who play it in order to gather the power required to return Rosiel to corporeal form. This quest is led by Katan, a former lower being who was elevated to angelic status by Rosiel back during the height of his power.

MICHELLE: Nicely done! (Of course, the backstory doesn’t come out nearly as cleanly or clearly in the actual manga, but after a first volume that is, frankly, somewhat of a mess, the pacing for these revelations improves a good deal.)

After tainting himself by taking innocent human life, Katan is dismayed to find that Rosiel, whom he had hoped would end an ongoing power struggle in Heaven, is insane (and probably always has been) and obsessed with tormenting Setsuna to the point that Alexiel awakens, so that he might kill her.

Meanwhile, Kurai and Arachne—two demon survivors formerly protected by Alexiel—also seek the awakening, but for different reasons. This is complicated when Kurai falls in love with Setsuna, since he would cease to exist if Alexiel were to return.

MJ: I’d actually like to return to your parenthetical point up there, because this is really a pretty big deal. After all, I think we both originally thought we’d simply stop after the first excruciating volume, and it was only duty that pushed me on further, at which point I discovered that the story really does get going at long last. Before that, Angel Sanctuary is, to use your words at the time, “quite the slog.”

Unfortunately, some fairly crucial revelations (in terms of making this story work at all) are withheld until the third volume—I’m thinking particularly of the truth about Alexiel’s painful reincarnations. Up until that point, Setsuna and Sara’s agonizing love story feels more like some kind of authorial fetish rather than a meaningful plot point, and given that this is one of the most important relationships in the series, I think this contributed greatly to the “slog” impression, at least on my part. Admittedly, I’m also vastly more interested in the relationships and general character development than I am in the series’ complicated angel mythology, so perhaps this affected me more strongly than it might others, but damn. A little explanation earlier on would have gone a long way towards compelling me forward with something approaching enthusiasm. As it is, I crawled my way to volume three with hands and knees increasingly bloodied. It was not pleasant.

MICHELLE: My experience was quite the same. I don’t have exact quotes to hand, but something about Yuki-sensei’s author-talk columns gave me the feeling that she was congratulating herself for her audaciousness for tackling the subject of incest, so that put me off somewhat. And I have almost no interest in angel power struggles at any time, so hard-to-decipher angel power struggles are even less compelling. This ties in with what I think is the chief flaw of Angel Sanctuary in the early chapters—information overload, before we’ve had time to get to know or care about these characters.

There’s a telling note at the end of volume two, actually, where Yuki-sensei writes:

When someone says, “If you take this part slowly, there’ll be more feeling.” I have to reply, “But this chapter needs to go up to this part of the storyline.” And so, I cut out some, but it’s not enough, so I end up taking out sappy dialogue.

I think she should’ve listened to those people a bit more! Not that I necessarily want more sappy dialogue, but taking things more slowly might’ve, for example, allowed readers to be able to see Sara as her own person—someone who turns out to be stronger and more interesting than I initially expected—before focusing on how she and Setsuna are in love with each other.

MJ: Yes, exactly. I was surprised to find that, by the end of the third volume, I was actually beginning to care about their relationship. And that in itself should be surprising, because it’s the kind of relationship I normally would find compelling from the start, if I cared about the characters in the slightest. It’s worth noting that amidst the recent spate of fanservice-laden, incest-themed moe titles we’ve been seeing, Satsuna and Sara’s plight reads as particularly poignant. It’s never played for laughs, it’s genuinely heartbreaking—it’s got classic romantic tragedy written all over it. It’s more Flowers in the Attic than I Don’t Like You At All, Big Brother!! and I’ll admit I ate that series up with a spoon when I was a teen.

(click images to enlarge)

MICHELLE: And though it may be tragic, it’s not as if the characters are playing at a bit of drama. One of the first scenes that got me interested in Sara occurs early in volume two, when Rosiel’s flunky has distributed pictures that look as if Setsuna and Sara are kissing, and she’s been called in to the office at her school. The nun lectures, “Feelings of love between brother and sister belong only to silly, spoiled girls who have fantasies of being some tragic heroine.” Sara’s internal denials of this were what, for the first time, made me realize that she truly was equally serious in her love for Setsuna.

And thankfully, despite the shaky start, I did come to care about other relationships in the series, too. I have a great deal of sympathy for Katan, for example, who sacrificed much for Rosiel’s sake, only to be cast aside for not being obedient enough. And then there’s Kira, who was the one bright spot early on and who continues to be fascinating, as he at first denies that he could possess any affection for Setsuna the “mere human,” but eventually must acknowledge that the merger with his human host has rendered him capable of love.

MJ: I agree—both the relationships you mention here end up being very compelling, and I’d like to discuss them both, too. Let’s start with Katan and Rosiel, because it’s one that gets fleshed out a bit earlier than the others, I think. What I find most heartbreaking here are Katan’s realizations over the course of the first few volumes, because he really is so loyal. He sees Rosiel as a true savior, and is utterly devastated when he finally realizes that, with the exception of himself, Rosiel has acquired all his devoted followers by using some kind of magic capsule to turn them into mind-controlled puppets. I found it particularly interesting that it wasn’t just the discovery of Rosiel’s means that horrified Katan, but specifically that Rosiel resorted to this method when many of his puppets actually had been truly loyal to Rosiel before they were turned. The fact that Rosiel was unwilling to trust that he could lead by appealing to others’ free will seemed to be what really upset Katan.

Then, of course, when Rosiel reveals that he’s not even willing to trust Katan‘s long-proven loyalty, it’s like a dagger to the heart.

MICHELLE: I genuinely loved that reveal about Rosiel’s army, both for the emotional impact on Katan but because it also sparked a tiny glimmer of interest in the angel power struggle. Katan’s dismissal made me wonder—and you’ve read farther than I have, so you might know the answer to this—whether he might eventually defect to the other side and help to defeat Rosiel.

MJ: You are *so* right. After endless pages of wordy exposition filled with names like “Raziel,” “Zaphikel,” and “Sandalphon,” and who’s who in the angelic hierarchy, having a little genuine intrigue and, for lack of a better word, humanity thrown in the mix was a lifesaver. I think this whole thing, including the realization that Rosiel has genuinely gone mad, also helps to make all the characters sympathetic in some way, which is a big deal for me, honestly. I’ve never really been interested in epic stories of good vs. evil (because I don’t really believe in the purity of either one), so the more Yuki grays things up, the better. I like things messy, in every way possible.

It’s this kind of nuance that really makes Kira’s story shine as well. We’re only just beginning to understand his true nature, but one thing that has become central to the story in volumes three and four is his own realization that he’s developed human attachments, and what that means for everyone involved. I was incredibly moved by scenes featuring Kira’s human father, who could not learn to hate his son, even after finding out that the Kira he’d raised from age eleven on wasn’t even his son at all. Some of this may come after the point you’ve read to, but oh, Michelle, it’s some of the best writing in the whole series so far.

MICHELLE: I agree entirely about the scenes between Kira and his father, in which we learn that Kira has been behaving awfully in an attempt to cause this man to abandon his love for his son in preparation of a time when Kira no longer needs that body, and he ends up dying for real, this time. (All of which is at the request of the original Sakuya, with whom demon!Kira is seemingly able to hold conversations.)

Honestly, with supporting characters like Katan and Kira around, I pretty much don’t give a flying flip about Rosiel and Alexiel’s conflict and drama. Perhaps Yuki-sensei will be able to make me care about that, as she was eventually able to do with some other plot elements.

MJ: It’s true, the whole Rosiel vs. Alexiel story is the least interesting thing to me in this entire series, at least by the end of volume four. Which is not to say that I have no interest in them as characters, but despite the fact that they are holding on to this old rivalry so tightly, it’s really their relationships with the other characters that make them who they are in the present. I suppose this is the real tragedy that only the reader can see, and perhaps that’s even something Yuki-sensei is trying to show us—that if Rosiel, especially, could put aside the thirst for power that drove him mad in the first place, and actually recognize the real love and loyalty available to him, vengeance might lose its urgency. I suppose this really is just a lesson for Rosiel, as it seems clear that Alexiel actually prefers to be Setsuna than herself. An early scene that caught my attention is one between Alexiel and Kurai, in which Alexiel admits she’d like to be reborn as a man.

Actually, gender, and particularly unhappiness with one’s biological gender, is an ongoing theme in this series. And while there are some fairly problematic elements in Yuki’s discussion of the subject, there’s so much discussion that it’s difficult to dismiss it all as the usual heteronormative manga gender-bending. It’s difficult to smash the gender binary in English, because we’re so dependent on gender-specific pronouns, but at least one character refers to herself as a “third gender,” and Kurai, for example, manages to be much more nuanced than the typical “tom boy” characterization. So as weary as I get with the endless statements about women only needing to be beautiful and to be protected, there seems to be some deeper thought behind it all.

MICHELLE: Oh, yes, I meant to bring up those statements. I thought it was interesting that most of the lines like “A girl needs to be protected; only then will she be beautiful and gentle” and “Find yourself a guy who’ll protect you” come from one character: Alexiel. That made them a little easier to stomach, like these are her opinions for some reason—she also implies that if she had a man’s love, she might never have conflicted with the other angels—and not necessarily the mangaka’s. True, Setsuna idealizes Sara and believes she must be protected, but then Yuki-sensei shows us that Sara’s not so weak or oblivious, after all. So, I wasn’t as irked by those comments as I otherwise might have been. (But, y’know, still a little irked.)

MJ: I’ll be interested to see where that line of thinking goes as the series continues. I’d like to think that these are beliefs that Yuki-sensei is interested in proving wrong, but it would be foolish to get my hopes up too high on that point.

As I flip through the first few volumes, looking for accompanying artwork, I realize that there are a whole host of characters we haven’t brought up at all, and I have to believe that this is mainly because, so far, they’re really just a part of the whole angelic political turmoil, in which neither of us has the slightest interest. I think it’s quite telling that the characters we have discussed are the ones who have become important in other ways.

MICHELLE: I feel like probably we should talk about Ruri, Sara’s friend, but I really don’t have much to say about her, since we see her as her actual self only briefly. Really, her fate just falls under the “Rosiel schemes to torment Setsuna” heading. And we haven’t even mentioned the super supreme angelic being everyone’s so in awe of, because he simply has no impact on the story as a character. He just appears once and, like, reattaches Setsuna’s arm. (Sidebar: there is a fair amount of arm reattachment in this series.)

MJ: I’d actually be interested in reconvening our discussion sometime after you’ve read volume four, because that’s when the “super supreme angelic being” (aka “Adam Kadamon”) finally becomes something truly significant in the story. The beginning of volume four offers up revelations on most of the topics we have discussed as well, including Kira and his father, Rosiel and Katan, and even Setsuna and Sara, whose story only becomes more poignant as Setsuna finds that he must force himself awake from a dreamworld in which he and Sara are a run-of-the-mill high school boyfriend and girlfriend (no familial ties at all), coexisting happily with all of their friends. Everything comes to a head in the beginning of volume four, leading to the beginning of a new arc just a chapter or so in that I’m hoping will finally make the story’s supernatural politics into something meaningful.

MICHELLE: For all its stumbling at the beginning, I think I’m invested in Angel Sanctuary enough to continue with it, so I am amenable to that suggestion!

MJ: I look forward to it!

Volumes 1-5 of Angel Sanctuary are currently available at VizManga.com. For more of the Kaori Yuki Manga Moveable Feast, keep your eyes on The Beautiful World!

Kanokon, Vols. 1-2

April 21, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Katsumi Nishino and Rin Yamaki. Released in Japan as by Media Factory, serialized in the magazine Comic Alive. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

As I’ve noted before, in general these days I try to give every new Vol. 1 a chance and a review. Sometimes, though, I suspect on seeing the advance solicit that I know I’m just hurting myself. Kanokon was that sort of title. Moe foxgirl on the cover. Runs in Comic Alive. Harem title. Lots of overt fanservice and sexuality with little actual sex. Male lead whose sole good quality is his endearing niceness. That said, I was hoping at least for a chance to write a scathing review with lots of amusing vitriol, a la Sasameke or Qwazer of Stigmata. But the manga doesn’t even hit those levels of bad. It’s simply a mediocre-to-fair yokai harem manga.

The title is another of those abbreviations that are becoming increasingly needed in a world where every book coming out has a title like “My Light Novel Can’t Possibly Be This Awkwardly Phrased” (AwkPhr for short). In this case, Kanokon stands for “Kanojo wa Kon to, Kowaiku Seki wo Shite”, or “She Coughed With a Cute Little “Yip”. (eeeeurgh…) Seven Seas does helpfully have a couple notes at the back explaining this, as well as a few other culture notes. As for the plot, if you were asked to write a harem manga for comic alive and given the premise of yokai, this is probably what you’d come up with. New transfer student Kouta is from the country, and thus attracts the attention of the popular girl Chizuru. She turns out to be a fox yokai, and has not only fallen for Kouta but can also merge and take over his body to a degree, though it depends on their feelings for each other. Cue angry brother, angry classmate, angry fellow yokai, and teachers, all of whom would like to see Chizuru be a bit more reticent and a lot less horny.

From what I understand, the anime got a lot more blatant, or perhaps this just feels worse when you see it as moving images. In any case, I was not nearly as horrified as my friends who saw the anime said I would be. Instead, it was more of a malaise. There does appear to be an ongoing plot that has potential to get interesting (and thank God this was in omnibus format, as if it had just been the first half it might have been unbearable). That said, the story has some very dumb stuff in it in order to allow the plot to function, particularly how, in creating a juvenile delinquent school for troubled yokai, they then allow totally normal humans to attend, for reasons I cannot fathom. (Yes, yes, learn how to blend in, etc. Still, highly dangerous.)

With all that said, I went into this knowing it was not a series for me. It does, however, have a fanbase of people who love this sort of thing. Cute fox girls, titillation, some fights, and a lead non-entity they can project themselves on who has a girl falling all over herself to sleep with him (and I’ve no doubt there will be more girls added later on). It does its job well for those readers, and thus is not actively radioactive. It’s simply not my thing.

Adventures in the Key of Shoujo: Sailor Moon, Vol.7

April 20, 2013 by Phillip Anthony Leave a Comment

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 7 | By Naoko Takeuchi | Published by Kodansha Comics USA | Rated: T, Ages 13+

What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours! I was going to write down a red hot review after finally, FINALLY getting through volume 7 of Sailor Moon. Then sleep and fatigue set in and I had a think about it. So now I’ll temper my steel as some of my thoughts last night don’t make a whole lot of sense the day after. So let’s begin!

We find our heroes recovering from their last battle and wondering about the mystery behind the Mugen Academy—specifically why the new Sailor Senshi Sailors Neptune and Uranus are so antagonistic toward the rest. Meanwhile, Chibi-Usa is starting to worry about her new friend Hotaru Tomoe, a girl whom we met briefly in volume 6. Hotaru is the daughter of Professor Tomoe who runs the Mugen Institute, which is part of the Mugen Academy. Are you following me so far? Because I can help matters by telling you that Mugen Academy is evil. We know this because Master Pharaoh 90 and her/his (I don’t want to guess at this point) minions, the Death Busters, are in cahoots with Professor Tomoe. See, the ol’ Prof is attempting to build the perfect life form, and he thinks the best way of doing this is by bonding life energy onto creatures of Tomoe’s design. What Chibi-Usa doesn’t know is that Hotaru is hiding a secret. I like how Hotaru clearly understands that her father’s work and she herself are dangerous, and that she tries to shield Chibi-Usa from the truth while trying to have a life. The poor girl just wants to be normal, but because of who and what she is, anyone innocent around her is in danger.

The thing that annoyed me about the last volume is the change in tone for Neptune and Uranus. Before, they were playful and a bit mysterious but now they are openly hostile toward Usagi and the rest of the team. They believe as protectors of Silver Millenium (the kingdom on the moon that Usagi and the rest once lived on) that they have to go ahead of Usagi who, as the future Queen, is in their care. They want to stop the ascension of Sailor Saturn who is only supposed to arrive on the scene when the world must be destroyed. This presents me with an interesting conundrum: if the two Sailor Senshi wish to prevent the destruction of, well, everything then they have to kill another Sailor Saturn before she can become a Senshi, then doesn’t that mean that they knew they would have to kill her from the get go? Plus, wouldn’t killing her go against being a team? It’s not really explained, so I’m left with these questions. Thankfully, Takeuchi doesn’t confuse the issue by having them explain the whole nature of the Silver Millenium and the pre-destiny of the Senshi. Still, Usagi’s constant cries of “Let us help you and work together!” and the Outer Senshi’s replies of “NOOOO! WE have to do this on our own! IT’S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!!!” are confusing, as they are unnecessary.

One of my favourite characters from earlier volumes is Sailor Pluto. Sailor Pluto met her end in a previous volume and I missed her, because while she came across as very formal, her love for Chibi-Usa allowed a crack in her armor; she became my secret favourite Senshi (don’t tell Sailor Venus). Now, we spotted her in a reincarnated form at the end of volume six, and here she turns up again as Setsuna Meio, a researcher of all things. That’s not important because she’s back as Sailor Pluto as well. Strangely, while the other Senshi all became their alter-egos after coming into contact with Usagi, Pluto, along with Neptune and Uranus, already know that they are Sailor Senshi. This means they already know their jobs better than the others and they sometimes come across as older sister types despite being the same age. Pluto’s personality isn’t as full-on as the other two, but she’s not the same Pluto as the original version. The formality isn’t quite there yet, and she does love the other Senshi, but she feels as Neptune and Uranus do and wants to deal with the Mugen Academy without the Inner Senshi.

As for the fight with Mugen itself, the team receives a new power level and Usagi becomes Super Sailor Moon and lays a Chuck Norris-style beatdown on the minions of Master Pharaoh 90 (what’s with these ridiculous names!?). The others do try and fight against Mugen but they are quickly overwhelmed by the bad guys and Professor Tomoe (who goes all Dr. Jekyll and becomes a monster using his own research). He gets put down in the blink of an eye, so there’s something to be said for planning ahead. The greatest danger the team and Usagi are up against is something that I’ve been meaning to talk about since the character of Chibi-Usa was introduced. Hotaru goes mad with the creature that is inside of her and the creature, in lashing out, accidently absorbs the crystal energy that Usagi and Chibi-Usa both share. Chibi-Usa, being Usagi’s daughter, carries this ’round in the form of a crystal avatar. When it is removed, Chibi-Usa becomes fatally ill. Mamoru stays with her while Usagi goes to bring the smackdown on Mugen and get Chibi-Usa’s energy back. Now, this leads to said point of order. How does Usagi view Chibi-Usa? She and Mamoru ARE Chibi-Usa’s parents in the future so Mamoru clearly has paternal instincts toward his future daughter. But Usagi seems to fight for Chibi-Usa at every turn without showing any sign that she sees her as a daughter. It’s not like when she fights for the other Senshi—she fights for them in her own way. When Chibi-Usa is threatened, Usagi pulls out the big guns and not in a proactive way. When Usagi powers up and saves Chibi-Usa, she finds strengths and powers that she didn’t realize she had. Maybe this is her way of saying “this is my daughter, evil-doers, and I will kick your arse if you threaten her!”

The end of the manga calls for a showdown between the remains of Hotaru and Usagi. Whatever is left of Hotaru’s physical body is under the direct control of Master Pharaoh 90 and has destroyed the lab, the buildings and the academy. I don’t know how they’ll cover this up come the morning! Something happened to Hotaru’s spirit which leads me to believe she will be quickly resurrected in the next couple of volumes. I know I’m giving somewhat short answers here but this stuff literally comes up at the last second in the volume so I have no information to go on. Whatever happens, Sailor Moon is as always a mixture of the good, the bad and the unexplained.

Manga the Week of 4/24

April 18, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ and Michelle Smith 6 Comments

SEAN: It’s a healthy fourth week of the month here at Manga the Week of Central, with something for everyone. Let’s delve deeper.

Dark Horse gives us lucky Vol. 13 of Bride of the Water God, which is manwha, so I defer to those who know it better than I do.

MJ: This series is incredibly beautiful to look at. I’m behind a few volumes at this point, but it’s one of those I absolutely try to keep up with in print, just because it’s so pretty. It’s a keeper.

SEAN: There’s also Vol. 27 of Gantz, where bad things continue to happen to everyone, but at least they’re all in rubber lycra outfits.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: Unico has shipped to most of its Kickstarter backers by now, but it finally hits retail next week. I have a review out that gives a deeper opinion, but suffice to say it’s cute, sad, and a little bit weird, like the best of Tezuka. Also, although there are lots of Pink Lady refs, be assured there is no Jeff Altman.

MJ: Children’s manga is rarely my thing, but your description is pretty compelling.

MICHELLE: Yeah, “cute, sad, and a little bit weird” sounds like a winning combination to me.

SEAN: Kodansha seems to have indicated that sales for Bloody Monday are meh, so I suspect this may be the penultimate volume over here. It’s still filled with action, intrigue, and lots of dead folks.

MJ: I dropped this early on, not because it wasn’t interesting, but because it wasn’t interesting *enough* to earn my money, volume after volume. I guess it’s not just me.

MICHELLE: I bought a couple of volumes but then never read them. I like the creative team, but just never found the time.

SEAN: Fairy Tail is a quarter of the way to 100 now, as Vol. 25 continues the S-class battles, with Fairy Tail fighting itself to see who is strongest. I suspect a third-party will get involved and ruin everything, myself…

The last of Del Rey Manga’s four debut series reaches its end, albeit at Kodansha Comics. Negima hits Vol. 38, with an ending that, um, well, it’s certainly something people talk about! Aheh. I’ll have more to say in my review, but let’s just say: Fandom *hates* Where Are They Now? endings.

MICHELLE: Even though I’m not a Negima! fan, it’s still something of an achievement that it’s finally complete in English.

SEAN: And then there’s Yen. The latest Alice spinoff, My Fanatic Rabbit, ends with its second volume. I really liked the balance between romance and psychosis, and hope it stays even in Vol. 2, though I admit I’m not optimistic.

Another lucky 13, with Black Butler. Though given the sheer power of its cast, I don’t think they really need to worry about black cats. I understand this volume has some nice Sebastian revelations.

MJ: I wish I could like this series. I would really like to like it. But every time I try, it’s a complete failure.

MICHELLE: I’m planning to talk about this volume soon on Off the Shelf, so I look forward to hearing about your attempts. For me, this is a series I kind of like, or at least find easy to read, but have no intentions of rereading.

SEAN: Ah, Bunny Drop has hit Vol. 8. I think this means that the matter of “that spoiler” may now be discussed. And may I say I’m almost relieved? In any case, I’m sure it will be SAFE AND FUN.

MJ: I’m really looking forward to seeing how this plays out! I have a lot of faith in the mangaka.

MICHELLE: I’m a bit more dubious, but will certainly be finishing out the series.

SEAN: A new series, in handy omnibus form! Yen has the first 2 volumes of Doubt, whose cover has everyone wearing bunny heads, but trust me, Bunny Drop this ain’t. It’s another survival game title, where you learn not to get too attached to anyone at all.

MJ: I suspect this may not be for me, but I fully intent to give it a try! These omnibus releases are great for that, because you get a really substantial go at it.

MICHELLE: Maybe it’ll turn out to be kinda fun, like BTOOOM!.

SEAN: Is This A Zombie? 4… yeah. Moving on.

Kieli has its 8th novel published. The story of a girl who can see ghosts, and her relationship with a man named Harvey. Who is not a 6-foot-tall pink rabbit, though it would fit with this week’s accidental theme.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 15 continues to adapt the 7th novel, and has steadily improved, though not to the point where I can say “you don’t have to read the book”. Because you do.

Pandora Hearts is also at 15, and I think I will yield to MJfor this one.

MJ: Oh, Sean… as you know, this series basically owns my soul. I’m expecting an enormous amount of drama in this volume, given where we left off. I’m expecting at least one heartbreaking loss. And I just can’t wait. Expect a flustered review of some kind to show up over the next week. I think this one’s gonna be a doozy.

MICHELLE: I’m a few volumes behind with Pandora Hearts. Clearly, I must rectify this.

SEAN: Lastly, there’s the 8th novel of Spice & Wolf, a title that always reminds me of Playboy Magazine, in that people always say they read it for the economics.

Getting anything interesting this week?