Features & Reviews

Brilliant Blue, Volume 1

August 10, 2009 by MJ 5 Comments

Brilliant Blue, Vol. 1
By Saemi Yorita
Published by DMP/DokiDoki

Shouzo Mita is the heir to a construction business who left home after school to make his own way, not intending to return until at least the age of thirty. Life has other ideas for him, however, dragging him back years early to fill in for his father who has suffered a back injury. His first day on the job, he is re-introduced to a number of old school friends, including Nanami Ushijima, once a pasty-faced, chubby, slow little kid (with the nickname “white piggy”) who now has the looks of a pop idol. Nanami’s still a bit slow, especially in terms of social skills, but he’s cheerful, kind, and a skilled electrician with an unusual knack for numbers. Unfortunately, Nanami’s been taken advantage of by Douwaki, a slick businessman with a taste for pretty young things, who has manipulated Nanami into a questionably consensual sexual relationship. Watching from the sidelines, Shouzo is less than happy, partly because he hates seeing a vulnerable guy like Nanami being used, and partly because he’s developed feelings for Nanami himself. Later on in the story, Shouzo discovers that Nanami has never gotten his electrician’s license thanks to the difficulty of the written test, so he takes it upon himself to study with Nanami and help him pass the test.

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Paradise Kiss, Volumes 1-5 (Full Series)

August 8, 2009 by MJ 16 Comments

As my final offering for Girls Only Week, I’m going to finally write about a series I’ve been planning to talk about for some time: Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss. This isn’t my first time reading the series though it is my first attempt at putting something down in words about it. I was surprised, however, how differently it read for me this time around. I expect it’s a series that will continue to change over time for me, as my own perspective on life changes, something that I think very clearly demonstrates its universal appeal. So on we go.

Paradise Kiss, Vols. 1-5 (Full Series)
By Ai Yazawa
Published by Tokyopop

Yukari Hayasaka is a student at an elite high school whose only clear goal is to get into the right college, spurred on by her parents’ wishes. As noble as it appears on the surface, this half-hearted ambition can’t possibly hold up when confronted head-on by a group of students from Yazawa School for the Arts (shortened as “Yaza Arts”) who spot Yukari in the street and beg her to act as model for their entry into the school’s upcoming fashion show. Representing their own indie label (“Paradise Kiss”) with great passion and ambition, the students finally manage to persuade Yukari to participate. As they open her mind up to a world beyond good grades and college entrance exams, designer George Koizumi also opens her heart to love and sexual desire. As the series continues, Yukari’s life is transformed completely thanks to charismatic George, adorable, Lolita-styled Miwako, punk rocker Arashi, and elegant, transgender pattern-maker Isabella, each of whom comes to care for her in his or her own fashion. Eventually deciding to pursue a career as a model, Yukari must face her parents’ opposition and her own personal obstacles in order to make her own way.

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Fullmetal Alchemist, Volume 19

August 7, 2009 by MJ 6 Comments

Here on the penultimate evening of Girls Only Week, I talk about the most recent volume of my favorite long-running shonen series which just happens to be written and drawn by a woman. Is this a coincidence? One must wonder. Meanwhile, enjoy:

Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 19
By Hiromu Arakawa
Published by Viz Media

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In this volume, Hawkeye reveals the truth about President Bradley’s son to Mustang, though he finds it impossible to believe. Ed is badly injured in the attempt to take down Kimblee and ends up purposefully disappearing along with a couple of Kimblee’s men. Finally, Al is discovered by Scar and Winry’s group in time to warn them away from Fort Briggs, though it isn’t long before he suffers a repeat of last volume’s experience in which he begins to feel pulled out of his body. All of this feels almost trivial, however, compared to this volume’s real story, which reveals the origins of Father and the homunculi (down to their names), as well as the distant past of Ed and Al’s father, Von Hohenheim, and the dark history they share.

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Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Vol. 1

August 7, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

Tegami Bachi has all the right ingredients to be a great shonen series: a dark, futuristic setting; rad monsters; cool weapons powered by mysterious energy sources; characters with goofy names (how’s “Gauche Suede” grab you?); and smart, stylish artwork. Unfortunately, volume one seems a little underdone, like a piping-hot shepherd’s pie filled with rock-hard carrots.

The problem lies with the story: manga-ka Hiroyuki Asada takes a simple premise and gussies it up with fussy, poorly explained details. The story itself may remind readers of Banya the Explosive Delivery Man or The Postman, as Tegami Bachi‘s principal characters are also mail carriers — or, in the series’ parlance, Letter Bees — who traverse dark wastelands to deliver letters and packages to the far-flung residents of their homeworld. In the case of Tegami Bachi, that homeworld is Amberground, a planet illuminated by a single, man-made star that hovers above its capital city, Akatsuki, where the wealthiest, most powerful citizens live. Amberground’s cities are separated by country inhabited only by Gaichuu, giant insects whose metal exoskeletons are impervious to most weapons, save the shindanjuu, or heart gun, the preferred sidearm of Letter Bees.

How, exactly, the shindanjuu works is never satisfactorily explained, despite its prominent role in the story. I had to consult the appendix, which defines “heart” as a magical, omnipresent energy that penetrates and surrounds most living beings, not unlike The Force. (The Gaichuu, lacking heart, are vulnerable to its awesome power, especially when it takes the form of hollow bullets). The shindanjuu also enables Letter Bees to experience other people’s memories in a vivid, almost hallucinatory fashion. As with the magic bullets, the gun’s dream-sharing capacity gets only a cursory explanation; the dream sequences are hella confusing, requiring several readings to figure out whose memories we’re seeing.

Tegami Bachi‘s other shortcoming is its two principal characters. Gauche Suede, the older, more experienced Letter Bee, is a stock shonen hero: a confident, tough-talking loner who turns out to be a softie under his cool, competent exterior. Lag Seeing, the younger one, begins his journey as a package — he’s one of Gauche’s deliveries — and decides to become a Letter Bee after Gauche safely guides them through Gaichuu-infested territory. Lag, too, is a familiar type, the slightly dim but very sincere Kid on a Mission who views mail delivery as his true calling. Both characters have sad back stories involving female relatives — again, a standard shonen trope that does little to enrich the story.

The artwork, on the other hand, is genuinely striking; Tegami Bachi is one of the best-looking titles in the Shonen Jump catalog. Hiroyuki Asada’s landscapes are beautifully rendered, giving a clear sense of Amberground’s geography, technology (they’re in the nineteenth-century Bavarian phase of development, to judge from the architecture), fauna, and flora. And man, what flora! In one amusing sequence, Lag fights Gaichuu in a forest of giant broccoli. Does make you wonder, though: how do those florets get so big without sunlight?

Asada makes effective use of screentone to capture Amberground’s perpetual night, reserving true black for the sky and for a few important details: Gauche’s jacket, the Gaichuu’s carapaces. He incorporates star imagery into almost every scene without it ever seeming cheesy or heavy-handed; the stars have symbolic importance, to be sure, but they also serve an artistic purpose, bringing light and contrast to a layout that might otherwise be a murky mess.

If I seem unduly harsh in my assessment of Tegami Bachi, it’s only because it has the potential to be good — really good, if Asada focuses more on character development and less on mystical hoo-ha. The premise lends itself to both a Delivery of the Week format, in which each chapter functions as a stand-alone story, and to a more traditional Boy on a Quest narrative, in which Gauche, Lag, or both set out to rescue the people they love. Either way, I’ll be picking up volume two to see if the storytelling rises to the level of the artwork.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC. Volume one will be available on September 1, 2009.

TEGAMI BACHI, VOL. 1 • BY HIROYUKI ASADA • VIZ • 200 pp. • RATING: TEEN

We Were There, Volume 5

August 6, 2009 by MJ 1 Comment

We Were There, Vol. 5
By Yuki Obata
Published by Viz Media

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It’s been a week since Nana broke up with Yano and though Nana’s trying very hard to move on, Yano is really not doing well at all. A friend’s attempt to bring him on a group date is a complete failure, resulting in a drunken, late-night visit to best friend Takeuchi’s and a close brush with drunk dialing (or at least drunk texting). Things for Yano really don’t improve over the course of the volume either, as Nana is visibly irritated with his (admittedly weak) attempts to win her back, and Takeuchi takes advantage of Yano’s uncertainty over his feelings for his deceased ex in order to pursue Nana himself. Meanwhile, Nana is simply trying to get over her own heartbreak against all odds. The volume ends with a cruel cliffhanger, softened somewhat by an enlightening side story featuring a younger Yano and Takeuchi and the perils of unrequited love.

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Children of the Sea, Vol. 1

August 5, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

The ocean occupies a special place in the artistic imagination, inspiring a mixture of awe, terror, and fascination. Watson and the Shark, for example, depicts the ocean as the mouth of Hell, a dark void filled with demons and tormented souls, while The Birth of Venus offers a more benign vision of the ocean as a life-giving force. In Children of the Sea, Daisuke Igarashi imagines the ocean as a giant portal between the terrestrial world and deep space, as is suggested by a refrain that echoes throughout volume one:

From the star.
From the stars.
The sea is the mother.
The people are the breasts
Heaven is the playground.

How, exactly, sea and sky are connected is the central mystery of Children of the Sea. The story begins in the present day, as a woman promises to tell her son “about a giant shark that lives deep beneath the waves,” “the ghosts that cross the sea,” and “the path that connects the sea to space.” We then jump back to a defining moment in Ruka’s childhood when, on a visit to the local aquarium, she saw a fish disappear in a bright flash of light – what she describes as “a ghost in the water.” Ruka doesn’t think much of the incident until she meets Umi and Sora, two humans whose bodies are better adapted to life in the ocean than on land. Under the watchful eye of her father and his assistant Jim, the boys live at the aquarium, venturing out into daylight only to visit the hospital and swim in the open ocean. Eager to know more about Umi and Sora, Ruka sets out to sea with them, where she watches the boys swim with a second “ghost in the water”: a luminescent whale shark that leaves a starry wake in its trail.

As Ruka struggles to understand Umi and Sora’s connection to the shark, she begins to realize that a profound change is taking place at sea. Thousands of common fish are disappearing from aquariums around the world; rarely seen deep-water species are washing ashore on Japanese beaches; and dugongs are visiting waters normally too cold for such tropical creatures. What these events mean is not yet clear, though they all seem like manifestations of the same phenomenon.

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Daisuke Igarashi is a masterful storyteller, liberally mixing genres – the coming-of-age story, the scientific mystery – to create a unique drama that’s eerie and compelling. As fanciful as the story’s details may be, Children of the Sea maintains a firm grip on reality, thanks to its memorable, true-to-life characters. Ruka, in particular, is a fine creation, a strong, independent girl who reacts with her fists instead of her mouth, has trouble making friends, and burns with curiosity about the things she’s seen. Umi and Sora, too, both have distinctive personalities; whatever their role in the story’s eventual denouement, neither are portrayed as innocents or naifs but as smart, worldly, and sometimes prickly individuals who are in a desperate race against time.

Igarashi’s expert storytelling is beautifully complemented by his artwork. He favors a naturalistic style, rendering every element of the layout in his own hand rather than relying on tracings or prefabricated backgrounds. As a result, his pages are visually complex but thoroughly organic; every element of the design feels essential to establishing the story’s location in space and time. His characters are realistic, though their proportions are slightly awkward. Their large heads and big hands make them seem otherworldly and fragile, especially when contrasted with the large, powerful animals they encounter at sea.

If you’re not yet sold on Children of the Sea, I strongly encourage you to visit Viz’s IKKI website, where all eight chapters of volume one are available for free online browsing. Be warned, however, that this poetic, graceful, and thought-provoking story may cast a spell on you, too, making you reflect on the truth of Jacques Cousteau’s comment that “The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.”

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC.

CHILDREN OF THE SEA, VOL. 1 • BY DAISUKE IGARASHI • VIZ • 320 pp. • RATING: OLDER TEEN (16+)

Click 6-8 by Youngran Lee: B-

August 5, 2009 by Michelle Smith

I’ve decided to absolve myself from the entirely self-imposed edict that I review each volume of a series separately and start offering multi-volume reviews on this site. The final three volumes of Click seemed like an ideal place to start, since it was getting to be challenge coming up with new things to say about each volume when taken individually.

The romantic angst ramps up as we approach the conclusion, with Jinhoo realizing he has feelings for Joonha (and, believing Joonha is male, proceeding to be melodramatic and tortured about it) and Heewon being depressed because of her own pathetic behavior regarding same. (Meanwhile, Taehyun’s family resolves to learn the true gender of the person who has captivated his heart. I hesitate to include that in the angst category, though, since it’s pretty pointless and boring.) One has to wonder why all of these characters are in love with Joonha, since she’s only somewhat less of an ass now than she used to be.

In any case, Joonha seems to feel about equal affection for them all (judging by a conversation with her father at the beginning of the seventh volume) and they all know about each other too, resulting in fisticuffs between Taehyun and Jinhoo at one point. Jinhoo, the presumed favorite, breaks up with his girlfriend, Hyejin (whom he realizes he cares for but has never truly loved), and finally, finally comes out and asks Joonha, “Why does everyone say you’re a girl?” Alas, it’s here where the series takes a turn for the dramatastic, for as Joonha begins to respond to the question, Jinhoo’s phone rings with news that Hyejin’s entire family has been in a car accident. Dun dun dunnnn.

From that point on, the kooky just keeps on coming, with two of the contenders for Joonha’s affection removing themselves from the picture for pretty much unnecessary reasons. The way the two scenes parallel each other is kind of interesting, though, and I finally have some sympathy for (okay, this is a spoiler, but did anyone really think this person would be the one?) Heewon who was feeling like a dupe for ever falling in love, but who now seems to be more at peace with the way things happened. There’s also an entirely random kidnapping that made me laugh out loud, it was so ridiculous.

I’ve seen where some have found the ending of this series to be unsatisfying, and I can see where they’re coming from. My problem’s not with the ultimate pairing, though, but rather with how it was carried out. Like Beauty Pop, instead of actually showing the protagonist confessing her feelings to the person of her choice, the story instead jumps forward in time a few years to a point where they’re a recognized couple already. What a cheat! Plus, they’re not acting much differently than they ever did, and it seems to have taken four years for any kissing to transpire!

Click continues to be a fast read through to the end, and while the endless drama is part of it, the art’s another big factor. The page layouts tend to be pretty simple, with large panels and not a lot of backgrounds to stall the eye. This presents a problem, though, because without any pace-slowing, transitional panels, one can be zipping through a brief scene with Taehyun’s family and suddenly, disconcertingly, turn to a page on which Jinhoo is dramatically announcing that he’s postponing his return trip to New York. It happens fairly often and is jarring each time, like zooming along the interstate then suddenly slamming on the brakes.

Ultimately, I’m glad I read Click. Yes, it could be cheaply manipulative and ridiculous, and no, I didn’t much like any of the characters, but it was a fun ride all the same.

March on Earth, Volumes 1 & 2

August 4, 2009 by MJ 1 Comment

We are now three days in to Girls Only Week here at There it is, Plain as Daylight! Today I review Mikase Hayashi’s March on Earth, a sweet two-volume series about a young teen raising her nephew alone after her older sister’s death. Don’t forget to check out this week’s earlier reviews, for volume six of Peach-Pit’s emotionally rich magical girl series Shugo Chara! and volume two of Yun Kouga’s shonen fantasy series Gestalt!

March on Earth, Vols. 1 & 2
By Mikase Hayashi
Published by CMX

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When Yuzu’s parents died, it was up to her older sister to take care of her. Now that her sister has been killed in a car crash, only Yuzu is left to care for her sister’s two-year-old son, Shou. Determined to do for her sister’s young son what her sister did for her, Yuzu takes on this responsibility with her whole heart. Fortunately, she’s got a kind landlady with two sons, each of whom dotes on Yuzu and Shou (particularly the older son, Seita, who harbors a not-so-secret crush on Yuzu) so she is far from alone, no matter how bleak things might seem to Yuzu in the loneliness of night. Over the course of the story, Yuzu pieces together a family for herself and Shou, first with the discovery of the man who is Shou’s father and finally including the family who already loves her, regardless of the lack of blood relation. She also faces questions about her own future and whether or not her own dreams can exist alongside her commitment to Shou.

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Gestalt, Volume 2

August 3, 2009 by MJ 1 Comment

Gestalt, Volume 2
By Yun Kouga
Published by Viz Media

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This volume begins on a fairly dramatic note, as Father Olivier is possessed by something clearly unfriendly and very powerful. Ouri manages to drive out the intruder (using a pretty interesting tactic involving an incubus whose usual role is as “the monster that gives you wet dreams”) and the group’s quest continues after a short break in which more background is given about Ouri’s personal mission and how she acquired female form. The real drama of this volume, however, involves fortune-teller Shazan, whose participation in a local tournament (the prize for which is an item needed for the group’s transport) causes his true identity to be revealed. The volume ends with both Ouri and stray elf Suzu facing dangerous foes who also happen to be their siblings.

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Shugo Chara! Volume 6

August 2, 2009 by MJ 5 Comments

Shugo Chara! Vol. 6
By Peach-Pit
Published by Del Rey

As volume six opens, Kairi is becoming more troubled over his role as Easter’s spy within the Guardians and especially his mission to distribute the “Wishing CD” to students at Seiyo Academy. Rima is struggling as well, both with her parents’ constant fighting and their overprotective behavior, particularly their insistence that she quit the Guardians. It doesn’t take long for either of these issues to be resolved, for better or worse. Meanwhile, Amu faces demons of her own as she finds herself once again forced into battling teen pop idol Utau (still working as a puppet for the evil corporation, Easter) who is now character transforming with Amu’s wayward guardian character, Diamond. Winding up to a final battle involving all the Guardians, Utau, and Ikuto, several new character transformations, and at least one unexpected guest, you’d think that was enough for one volume, but there is yet another surprise in store for Amu by the end.

Let me be perfectly up-front from the beginning. I love Shugo Chara! It is one of my very favorite series for younger girls and a great example of the way a talented team like Peach-Pit can take all the trappings of a standard shojo formula (in this case, the “magical girl” genre) and use it to tell a rich, thoughtful story that successfully explores the dreams and fears of children and adults alike. Its core concept–that all children have a “Heart’s Egg” that holds the potential for their most personal dreams–is honestly adorable, but more than that, it allows the story to delve into questions of desire, ability, hope, hopelessness, insecurity, self-awareness, and even gender identification (yes, really) as the series goes on. Its heroine, Amu, whose outward persona and inward personality are constantly at odds, begins the story by making a heartfelt wish to find “the courage to be reborn as the person I want to be.” Her wish brings her heart’s egg into the world to hatch as a shugo chara (guardian character)–a tiny, human-like representation of her would-be self. Where the story gets brilliant, however, is that Amu ends up giving “birth” to four different guardian characters over the course of these six volumes, representing all the many aspects of who she might be, making it clear that there is no one future self for any of us–but rather a wide array of potential selves, any of whom we may become or destroy, depending on our choices and desires.

This concept looms large in the series’ sixth volume, as Amu finds herself facing her own would-be self in battle. Yes, these mangaka have managed to create a literal fight between their heroine and a single piece of her inner self that is not only clever but actually quite stunning to behold. The children’s “character transformations”–magical incarnations of their would-be selves created by a bonding between them and their guardian characters–are a highlight of the series, and Amu’s transformation here is an enormous step forward for her. In the end, she discovers that believing in herself is what is truly important, even if she doesn’t yet understand who that is.

What draws me so to this aspect of the story’s premise, is that it contradicts the too-common idea that there is just a single destiny possible for any one person and that we must each choose one future for ourselves, no more, no less. Children these days are encouraged to make “permanent” decisions about their lives or careers earlier all the time, which is something I’ve found quite disturbing over the years. As someone who has already experienced several major career shifts in my life and explored many different versions of my would-be self, I suppose I feel akin to Amu, but my feelings about this go far beyond the personal. I really believe it is important to encourage children to acknowledge all their varied potential when they are young, and to make it clear to them that there is always possibility beyond what is right in front of them, even as adults. This series embraces that kind of thinking and that definitely contributes to my affection for it. It also doesn’t hurt that Amu’s would-be selves demonstrate that there is more to any girl than can be portrayed by a single stereotype. Between cheerful, athletic Ran, outspoken, artistic Miki, and girlish, nurturing Su, Amu can’t be placed into any neat shojo category (nor would she ever stand for such a thing) and that’s the kind of message I think young girls need to be getting from their fiction.

Another major theme in this series is cooperation, and that comes strongly into play in this volume as well. Just as Tadase finally achieved his first character transformation (“Platinum Royale”) in volume five, here the two remaining transformation-less Guardians achieve theirs as well, which is not only exciting but also frankly awesome (in the case of Kairi, whose “Samurai Soul” is beyond cool) and surprisingly cute (Yaya’s “Dearest Baby” uses a flock of rubber duckies as a weapon). Though Amu remains the most powerful of the group, as their enemies become more formidable, the children discover quickly that they always fight more effectively if they work as a team. This volume is quite action-heavy, containing at least two major battles. While this means that there is not as much page time given to thoughtful characterization in this volume, these battles are the culmination of all the careful plotting and character development the mangaka put into the first five volumes, and they provide quite a nice payoff. On a quieter note, something I mentioned in my review of volume five was how telling I thought it was that, despite his obvious personal conflict, Kairi was the one boy of the group able to appreciate and admire Amu for who she actually is (rather than who she might be), and this volume offers a major payoff in that area as well. Lastly, look for a subtle hint at the return of a beloved character who has been gone far too long!

As always, the art is a real highlight of this volume. Though this series adheres to the usual sensibilities of shojo for young girls–big eyes, sparkles, flowery backgrounds, and ornate paneling–it is done so cleanly and so well that it’s impossible not to admire it, even as a jaded adult. The style always adjusts to fit the character’s moods as well, as is most evident in an early scene with Rima, which is drawn in an uncharacteristically subdued manner, appropriate to her deep sadness at the time. The final chapter of the volume is honestly stunning, as both Amu and Utau achieve new character transformations, ending with a desolate look at Ikuto’s position that evokes true loneliness.

As this review becomes quite obviously over-long, I think it’s clear that I have a lot to say about this series, and I think my level of admiration probably comes dangerously close to hyperbole. It’s really satisfying, however, to read a series that makes me want to go on and on like this in praise. For those who think manga like Shugo Chara! is kids’ stuff (or perhaps more to the point, “girls’ stuff”) I urge you to set those preconceptions aside and give it a try. This series nicely demonstrates just how emotionally complex and genuinely moving sparkly, girly manga can be.

Sugarholic, Volume 1

July 30, 2009 by MJ 7 Comments

Sugarholic, Vol. 1
By Gong GooGoo
Published by Yen Press

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After the house she lives in with her mother and grandmother is destroyed in a landslide, twenty-year-old slacker Jae-Gyu is sent away from her rural hometown to live with her older brother in Seoul. With little money and even less optimism, she gets off the bus in the big city, only to lose her money and make an enemy (a good-looking but arrogant guy whose shirt she accidentally tears) right off the bat. Things get no better once she finds her brother, who is obviously engaged in shady business and really doesn’t want her around. She does find some refuge in her best friend, Hyun-Ah, whose family moved to the city a few years back, but even that is marred by the re-emergence of Hee-do, a childhood playmate Jae-Gyu bullied repeatedly, who is now an up-and-coming pop star harboring a long-held crush on her. Then to top things off, she gets embroiled in the middle of some kind of dangerous family trouble involving the torn-shirt guy (a martial artist named Whie-Hwan) who insists they pretend they are in love with each other in order to save himself from being sent out of the country.

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Tears and Manga

July 29, 2009 by MJ 32 Comments

So, I picked up volume four of Pluto earlier this evening, anxious to dig in to the latest volume of my favorite manga series this year. My plans were dashed less than a chapter in, however, when I became so emotional that I actually had to put it down. Since this volume is new, I’ll avoid any details. Suffice it to say this was a fairly small incident (relative to the scope of the work as a whole) that just happened to hit me unusually hard. This isn’t a fatal issue, of course. I’ll pick it up again once I feel I’ve recovered, perhaps in a less vulnerable moment. Nor is it a criticism of Pluto, by any means. I want to be moved deeply by fiction. That’s why I read it. It’s a powerful testament to the craft of both Tezuka and Urasawa that the series is able to affect me so strongly.

What this experience brings to mind now as I remain here uselessly in my chair, not quite ready to pick up anything else, is other moments in manga that have brought me to tears. …

Amefurashi: The Rain Goddess, Vol. 1

July 28, 2009 by MJ Leave a Comment

By Atsushi Suzumi
Del Rey, 240 pp.
Rating: T (13+)

Gimmy is a teen boy living in a a desert town that gets its much-needed water by making offerings to the Amefurashi (rain goddess) living in a nearby nimbus tree. When the Amefurashi sends a request (usually asking for a doll) someone in the town must fulfill it or the rain will not come. When Gimmy is asked by the town’s wise man to make a doll for offering, he sets in to the task gamely, but as the appointed time approaches he begins to panic that he can’t finish it in time. Determined to get their older brother off the hook, young twins Mil and Mel dress up as dolls and place themselves on the wise man’s doorstep in a wooden toy box, pretending to be the offering. The wise man has the “dolls” sent to the altar and Mil and Mel are ready to celebrate their victory, but of course the Amefurashi comes along too soon and whisks them away.

When he realizes what’s happened, Gimmy climbs the tree to rescue them, but is himself captured by the Amefurashi, who turns out to be a cute little girl brandishing a whip. Gimmy tries various tricks to get his brother and sister back, including promising more dolls to the Amefurashi (who follows him back to town), but nothing goes as planned and ultimately the Amefurashi is so weakened by her excursion that her tree and the town come under threat from a rival rain goddess who wishes to gain control of the town’s rain for herself.

Though Amefurashi‘s premise on its own sounds like great folklore, the execution is so light and breezy, all the things that could have been truly compelling about it—the missing children, the weakening of the tree, the disastrous consequences for the townsfolk, even the Amefurashi’s obsession with dolls—are shunted to the side in favor of wacky action scenes (like the kids attempting to fight a giant flying caterpillar invading the tree), dull jokes (like Gimmy being taken for a “pest” and later an “ant”), and shots of the Amefurashi (who goes by the name “Sora”) looking feisty with her whip. There’s a lot of potential buried in this story, but most of it is brazenly ignored over the course of this volume.

Sora is alternately arrogant and bratty, powerful and helpless—childish to the extreme though her calling is so serious. The rival rain goddess later explains that Sora (and her tree) are yet immature, but it still seems odd that someone so much a part of nature would be so ignorant of the ramifications of her own actions throughout the volume. She is, at least, genuinely distraught over the fate of her tree which leads her to contemplating her purpose in life. Gimmy is a typical nerd hero, good at making things (including an experimental skateboard he loses to Sora early on) and somewhat bashful, but with a hero’s heart underneath. The twins, Mil and Mel, are just plain adorable.

By the end of the volume, it appears that Sora, Gimmy, Mil, and Mel are going to be heading off to save Sora’s tree (and ultimately the town) together, which has potential to create something almost as compelling as the folklore aspects might have been had they been truly explored. This may bring a little more cohesiveness to the story and should deepen the characterization somewhat.

Suzumi’s art is fun, expressive, and easy to follow, providing one of the highlights of the series so far. The visual storytelling shows off the mangaka’s strengths nicely, though the story itself lacks the same depth of skill. Though at this point, Amefurashi is nothing special, it does show potential for growth.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at PopCultureShock.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Volume 2

July 28, 2009 by MJ 1 Comment

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Vol. 2
By Motoro Mase
Published by Viz Media

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Fujimoto is becoming accustomed to his job as the harbinger of people’s doom, but he’s not sure if that’s a good thing. The volume opens as his girlfriend tells him she’s leaving him because she feels crushed by the weight of his work. Meanwhile, the work goes on and this volume introduces two new victims of the government’s Social Welfare Act. Both stories are tragic, of course, perhaps even more so than those told in the first volume, though both victims also end up changing other people’s lives for the better, one through the work he’s able to during his short life, and the other, sadly, through her death.

Despite whatever “good” has been done by these individuals, however, there is still no evidence that the government’s systematic murder of its citizens is actually a positive thing at all. One emerges from this volume hoping against hope that Fujimoto might find the stomach to start a rebellion of some kind, not that he’s yet demonstrated anything approaching that kind of fortitude. His deepest conflict right now is whether to let himself grow colder still toward the unfortunate souls he must visit (on the way to one last-minute Ikigami delivery, he asks his driver to make a stop at the video store so that he can avoid paying a late fee) or whether he should try to discover some philosophy of life and death that he can use to help heal their pain. This is the extent of what he can manage emotionally at this point.

I found the individual stories in this volume even more compelling than those in the last, which is certainly something that will keep me reading. I do hope the story will find a new direction to explore before the manga’s current formula becomes tedious, as it undoubtedly will should it continue on like this much longer. For the moment, however, what is offered here is more than enough to keep readers engaged. Ikigami continues to be a fascinating and well-told story with fantastic art to match.

Volume two of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit will be available on August 11th, 2009. Review copy provided by the publisher. Click here to read my review of volume one.

Dororo, Vols. 1-3

July 27, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

If Phoenix is Tezuka’s Ring Cycle, Wagnerian in scope, form, and seriousness, then Dororo is Tezuka’s Don Giovanni, a playful marriage of supernatural intrigue and lowbrow comedy whose deeper message is cloaked in shout-outs to fellow artists (in this case, Shunji Sonoyama instead of Vicente Martin y Soler), self-referential jokes, pop-culture allusions, fourth-wall humor, and a bestiary of bodacious demons.

Its hero, Hyakkimaru, is born under a black cloud, thanks to a deal his father, Lord Daigo, struck with forty-eight devils: in exchange for political and military power, Daigo allowed each demon to claim one of his unborn child’s body parts. After his son’s birth, Daigo places Hyakkimaru in a basket and, against his wife’s wishes, sets the baby adrift on a river. A kind doctor rescues and raises Hyakkimaru, eventually building him a new body that transformed the legless, armless boy into a fighting machine equipped with an exploding nose and sword prostheses. It doesn’t take long, however, before Daigo’s minions begin attacking Hyakkimaru and menacing Dr. Honma. In an effort to spare his mentor’s life, Hyakkimaru bids farewell to Dr. Honma and embarks on a quest to reclaim his body from the demons who aided Lord Daigo.

Hyakkimaru soon acquires a traveling companion: Dororo, a pint-sized pickpocket with a big mouth and a bad attitude. Despite Hyakkimaru’s efforts to rid himself of Dororo, the kid bandit vows not to leave Hyakkimaru’s side until he gets his hands on one of Hyakkimaru’s swords. The two wander a war-torn landscape, stumbling across fire-ravaged temples, starving villages, bandits, profiteers, homeless children… and demons. Lots of them.

dororo2 Though much of the devastation that Hyakkimaru and Dororo witness is man-made (Dororo takes placed during the Sengoku, or Warring States, Period), demons exploit the conflict for their own benefit, holding small communities in their thrall, luring desperate travelers to their doom, and feasting on the never-ending supply of human corpses. Some of these demons have obvious antecedents in Japanese folklore — a nine-tailed kitsune — while others seem to have sprung full-blown from Tezuka’s imagination — a shark who paralyzes his victims with sake breath, a demonic toad, a patch of mold possessed by an evil spirit. (As someone who’s lived in prewar buildings, I can vouch for the existence of demonic mold. Lysol is generally more effective than swordplay in eliminating it, however.) Hyakkimaru has a vested interest in killing these demons, as he spontaneously regenerates a lost body part with each monster he slays. But he also feels a strong sense of kinship with many victims — a feeling not shared by those he helps, who cast him out of their village as soon as the local demon has been vanquished.

dororo3 For folks who find the cartoonish aspects of Tezuka’s style difficult to reconcile with the serious themes addressed in Buddha, Phoenix, and Ode to Kirihito, Dororo may prove a more satisfying read. The cuteness of Tezuka’s heroes actually works to his advantage; they seem terribly vulnerable when contrasted with the grotesque demons, ruthless samurai, and scheming bandits they encounter. Tezuka’s jokes — which can be intrusive in other stories — also prove essential to Dororo‘s success. He shatters the fourth wall, inserts characters from his stable of “stars,” borrows characters from other manga-kas’ work, and punctuates moments of high drama with low comedy, underscoring the sheer absurdity of his conceits… like sake-breathing shark demons. Put another way, Dororo wears its allegory lightly, focusing primarily on swordfights, monster lairs, and damsels in distress while using its historical setting to make a few modest points about the corrosive influence of greed, power, and fear.

If I had any criticism of Dororo, it’s that the story ends too abruptly. Neither hero has reached the end of his journey, yet neither seems firmly resolved to continue his quest; they simply part ways at Hyakkimaru’s suggestion. I’m guessing that Tezuka was avoiding the obvious, sentimental conclusion suggested by a major revelation in volume three, but even that would have been better than slamming on the brakes at an arbitrary point in the narrative.

Weak ending notwithstanding, Dororo is one of Tezuka’s most accessible series, free of the historical and cultural baggage that can be an obstacle to enjoying his more ambitious, adult stories. If you haven’t yet explored Tezuka’s work, have found titles like Apollo’s Song too fraught for your tastes, or are wondering why this somewhat corny, boy-versus-monster manga beat out critical favorites like Monster and solanin in this year’s Eisner race, Dororo makes a perfect (re)introduction to Tezuka’s unique storytelling style. Highly recommended.

This review is based on complimentary copies provided by Vertical, Inc. for the purposes of a review. I have not received any form of compensation from Vertical, Inc. in exchange for publishing my opinion of this book.

DORORO, VOLS. 1-3 • BY OSAMU TEZUKA • VERTICAL, INC. • NO RATING