Reviews

Shades of London, Books 1-3 by Maureen Johnson

April 23, 2015 by Michelle Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Game No Life, Vol. 1

April 23, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

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

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

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

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

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

God’s Boat

April 22, 2015 by Ash Brown

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

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

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

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

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

Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

April 20, 2015 by Michelle Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12 Beast, Vol. 1

April 19, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

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

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

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

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

Sengoku Basara: Samurai Legends, Vol. 1

April 17, 2015 by Ash Brown

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

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

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

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

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

Gangsta Vols 4 and 5

April 16, 2015 by Anna N

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

Gangsta Volume 4 by Kohske

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

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

Gangsta Volume 5 by Kohske

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

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

Black Lagoon, Vol. 10

April 16, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

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

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

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

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

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

After School Nightmare, Vol. 3

April 15, 2015 by Ash Brown

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

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

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

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

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

One Piece, Vol. 74

April 14, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

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

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

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

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

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

Accel World: The Twilight Marauder

April 12, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Reki Kawahara and Hima. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press.

This was a good volume of Accel World, though I think I enjoyed it a bit less than the other two. It can be exhausting to read for extended periods. Kirito may rub people the wrong way, but at least in game he’s fairly matter of fact and confident in himself. Haruyuki’s issues – his self-hatred, the bullying he’s endured and can’t reveal, his desperation to keep his friends safe and keep their friendship, and his tortured love for Kuroyukihime, who he still holds up on a giant pedestal – permeate his narrative voice, and while that’s excellent in a realistic way – are visceral and explain the actions he takes, and you understand why he despairs or does seemingly stupid things. But as escapism, you’re left wanting a bit. Particularly as this book has a cliffhanger.

It doesn’t help that Kuroyukihime is conveniently absent from this volume, off to Okinawa and sending Haruyuki adorable videos of herself in a bikini. (I do like that her friends whipped off her hoodie to reveal the bikini, showing that they seem to be supporting the love between the two of them far more than the rest of the school – or indeed Haruyuki himself – might.) So the new threat is dealt with by our trio of childhood friends, one of whom is brand new to Brain Burst, and given this is volume one of a two-volume set (something that Kawahara is very fond of, as SAO fans are aware), they fail rather miserably. (The cliffhanger involves the seeming betrayal by one of said friends, but I suspect that absolutely no one is actually fooled by this. (checks TV Tropes page) No, wait they were. Sigh.)

As for the new characters, Nomi will hopefully gain more depth in the fourth book, as he’s very much the sneering, posturing villain here, determined to bully Haruyuki (who is very quick to accept this, as if nothing else it must feel familiar) and keep Chiyuri as a “pet” (more casual sexism, though given Nomi is about 11 years old at least there aren’t any rape threats like in SAO.) He’s there for readers to hate and root for our heroes to destroy, that’s about all. I liked Sky Raker a lot better, who gets to be the one who trains and inspires Haruyuki in Kuroyukihime’s absence, but who also seems to have an intense backstory involving trying to rise above a disability – and how it can fail despite all your best efforts. I’d like to see that scene someday.

Of course, much of her story is there to give inspiration to Haruyuki – he’s the hero, and that means that most of what goes on is for his benefit. This can be tragic, like with everything that happens with Nomi, but it can also be hilarious, as with the return of Ash Roller, who will not stand for this meek, uncool and despairing Silver Crow, and proceeds to take him on the bike ride from hell just to pep him up. I suspect I’ll enjoy this volume more, though, once the next one comes out and completes it.

(Also, can we get an embargo on any story involving a boy trapped in the girls’ shower? Even if it’s for dramatic reasons?)

Your Lie in April, Vol. 1

April 10, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Naoshi Arakawa
U.S. publisher: Kodansha
ISBN: 9781632361714
Released: April 2015
Original release: 2011
Awards: Kodansha Manga Award

Your Lie in April is the first and so far only manga series by Naoshi Arakawa to have been released in English. Arakawa is still fairly early on in his career—Your Lie in April was only his third major work—but the series earned him a Kodansha Manga Award in 2013 for Best Shōnen Manga. The first volume of the eleven-book series was originally published in Japan in 2011. In English, the manga was released by Kodansha Comics in 2015. The entirety of Your Lie in April was adapted into an anime series between 2014 and 2015, which is how I first learned about the manga. My interest in the series primarily stems from the prominent role that music has to play in the manga. Music is something that is incredibly important to me and continues to be a major part of my life. Probably unsurprisingly, I tend to enjoy music manga. And so, I was particularly happy to receive an early copy of Your Lie in April from Kodansha for review.

Kosei Arima was a child prodigy, admired for his skill and success as a pianist, winning competition after competition. But ever since his mother died and he had a breakdown in the middle of a performance on stage when he was eleven, he hasn’t been able to play the piano. Not for others and not even for himself. Piano was such an integral part of Kosei’s life that he seems to be somewhat lost without it and he hasn’t been able to completely let music go. Several years have passed since then, leaving Kosei a rather withdrawn and gloomy young man. But then he meets Kaori Miyazono, an extremely passionate violinist who attends the same middle school that he does. Kaori plays the way that she wants to play, disregarding traditional interpretations and technique to make the music her own. Though he is still reluctant and hesitant, watching Kaori’s enthusiastic, free-spirited performances has reignited something within Kosei and she and his friends are determined to see him play once again.

A particular challenge faced by music manga like Your Lie in April is expressing sound in a visual medium. It takes more than simply throwing notes on the page to effectively convey the feeling of music in a comic. For the most part, Arakawa handles this aspect of the series quite well. The music itself isn’t heard, but the expressions and reactions of the listeners and musicians, the impact created by the music, can readily be seen. Perhaps the best example of this in Your Lie in April, Volume 1 is Kaori’s performance during a violin competition. The violinists before her are poised and fairly reserved in their playing, but Kaori uses her entire body to emote and express the music. This and the stunned faces of the audience members make it very clear that her invigorated style is drastically different and unexpected. But while music is obviously an important part of Your Lie in April, the real focus of both the artwork and the storytelling is on people’s experiences of that music.

Kosei’s relationship with music, and specifically with playing the piano, is a complicated one. He is struggling with intense psychological distress and it is revealed very early on in Your Lie in April that his mother physically, and very likely emotionally, abused him as well, trying to force her own dreams onto her son. Whether he is aware of it or not, Kosei’s feelings towards music and the piano are very much tied up with his feelings towards his mother. Underneath a relatively calm exterior is a turmoil of conflicting emotions that includes both love and hatred and even some fear. Deep down, Koesi does still seem to have the desire to continue playing the piano, though he denies it to himself and to others. It’s something that he will have to face head-on eventually, but Kaori’s influence threatens to make it something that he will have to deal with sooner rather than later, perhaps even before he’s really ready. I am very curious to see how Your Lie in April continues to develop and the steps Kosei may take to overcome his trauma.

Thank you to Kodansha for providing a copy of Your Lie in April, Volume 1 for review.

Let’s Dance a Waltz, Vol. 1

April 9, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Natsumi Ando. Released in Japan as “Waltz no Ojikan” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Natsumi Ando’s back again, this time with a shorter series – this is only three volumes long, I believe. Which is good, as I felt the pacing was very rapid for a shoujo manga like this – it would only make sense if it was going to be wrapping up fairly quickly. I’m not sure if this was deliberate or not – her previous series, Kitchen Princess and Arisa, were both double digits. But short doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a failure, and there’s much to like about Let’s Dance a Waltz, with its grumpy hero held back by an incident in his past, and a self-deprecating heroine with an unfortunate first name.

First off, a word of warning: the moment I saw that our heroine, Hime, was overweight and a bit frumpy, I thought “she’s going to lose all the weight and be gorgeous by the end of this volume, isn’t she?” And sure enough, that’s exactly what happens. She too has a tragic backstory, as her mother, who was the one who named her (Hime means princess, something that gets hammered home quite a bit in this series) passed away from tragic backstory disease when she was just a little girl. (This is a common disease befalling young women in manga – young men tend to have dads disappear (the scum), not die off.) Still, the mother may have had good intentions, but it’s left Hime teased her entire life thanks to the wonderful world of Japanese schools, whose bullying is always important for character development.

Our hero, Tango (no, I’m not making these names up), is dealing with similar peer pressure problems, but from the opposite direction – he’s handsome and popular, and in accordance with his name actually is an amazing dancer. But he doesn’t dance competitively anymore due to a mistake he made in his childhood that haunts him, and prefers to be the class clown, breakdancing and avoiding any mention of the fact that his mother runs a dancing school (because dancing is not “cool”, and kids turn on cool kids who are now uncool faster than anyone except perhaps girls with the name ‘princess’. Tango can be quite the jerk through this volume, but we know he just needs his true love to make him straighten up.

Though there were a few times I was surprised through the first volume – secondary couple Yusei and Sumire, who have no issues whatsoever (possibly as they have standard Japanese first names) are dedicated to helping the two wannabe lovebirds rather than, say, getting jealous, which is what I was suspecting of Sumire when I first saw her – but for the most part this is a manga that runs on timeworn cliches. But this is fine – Ando is an expert at this sort of thing, and it’s nice to sit back and just let a skilled artist take you where she wants to go. At three volumes, this seems like exactly the right length for a sweet manga about a couple who can connect to each other though the wonders of ballroom dancing.

Maria the Virgin Witch, Vol. 1

April 8, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Masayuki Ishikawa
U.S. publisher: Kodansha
ISBN: 9781632360809
Released: February 2015
Original release: 2010

I’ll admit, when I first heard about the manga series Maria the Virgin Witch, I was more than a little skeptical. I’m not particularly interested in witches, which seem to be nearly as common as vampires in translated manga these days, and the emphasis placed on the heroine’s virginity seemed like it could be a little suspect. But then I realized that Maria the Virgin Witch was by Masayuki Ishikawa, the creator of Moyasimon, a quirky manga about microbes and fermentation that I enjoyed immensely. (Sadly, only two volumes of Moyasimon were ever released in English.) If for no other reason, I wanted to give Maria the Virgin Witch a chance because of my love for Moyasimon. I’m very glad that I did; the first volume turned out to be a very promising and intriguing start to the short series. Maria the Virgin Witch, Volume 1 was initially published in Japan in 2010 while the English-language edition was released by Kodansha Comics in 2015.

During the first half of the fifteenth century, England and France were still locked in the Hundred Years War, many of the battles being waged on French soil. Maria is a powerful but young witch living in France. She abhors the killing and senseless violence and so does what she can to disrupt the conflict and protect the villages and people who live near her woods. She has discovered one particularly effective method: by sending an owl familiar in the form of a succubus among the leaders of the armies on the eve of major battles, they often lose their will to fight or their interest in the impending confrontation. However, sometimes more direct action is required and Maria will summon great beasts to wreak havoc and chaos on the battlefield. But causing such a spectacle carries with it the danger of drawing the attention of Heaven and the risk of incurring the wrath of the Archangel Michael. There is a proper order to the world, and Maria poses a threat to it.

Maria’s outlook on life (as well as her and her familiars’ character designs) does tend to be more contemporary than the rest of the manga’s setting, but I really like her as a character. She has strong convictions, and she is prepared to act on them, doing what she can to right the injustices she sees in the world. Michael and others criticize her for her interference and audacity; Maria is very forthright with her feelings and opinions. She is young, and perhaps a little naive, but I admire her earnestness. Despite her anger and frustration, she has yet to become embittered by the world. Maria honestly and wholeheartedly cares about people, especially those who are powerless or taken advantage of. Though some of her methods might not be considered to be particularly respectable by most, she and the people she protects believe her to be a force for good. Even so, Maria is considered to be a heretic by the Catholic Church, an institution for which she quite obviously holds no love.

Although Maria the Virgin Witch explores some fairly serious subjects—religion, morality, power dynamics, sexuality—the manga also includes a good deal of humor. Much of the comedy has to do with sex in one way or another, but some of it simply relies of the quirkiness of the characters. Maria, for example, is old enough to be curious about sex, but is still completely embarrassed at even the mere thought of seeing a man naked. As a result Priapus, the incubus she creates, is rather indistinct where it counts and is generally just put in charge of cooking and running errands. The first volume of Maria the Virgin Witch can be a bit crass at times (personally, I could have done without the repeated “cry for me like a little whore”-type comments), but overall the manga is a surprisingly layered work. The more I think about it, the more it grows on me, and the more I want to read the rest of the series. So far, Maria the Virgin Witch is a very interesting mix of historical fiction and fantasy that can be both entertaining and sobering.

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Vol. 1

April 7, 2015 by Sean Gaffney

By Miki Yoshikawa. Released in Japan as “Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

The debut volume of this series has a war between a plotline I love and a plotline I always find discomforting and embarrassing, and ends up taking it in a rather sedate direction. Of course, this is clearly a slow burner – we’re already a volume in and we have no idea who the seven witches are. But in the meantime we get to see the titular lead, Yamada-kun, make all sorts of amusing faces, and see various high school romantic comedy hijinx. This has been out on Crunchyroll for a while now, so I know that things will ramp up soon, but I was actually surprised at how little happened in this initial volume.

Yamada is a delinquent, which I always love, although he’s sort of a sanitized delinquent. Even Onizuka (who appeared in the same magazine 20 years ago) was allowed to have bad habits. Here he’s just a guy with bad grades who sulks around the school wondering why things aren’t more interesting. He also may seem slightly familiar to those who know of Yoshikawa’s former series Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, which also featured a lead delinquent (of a sort) and their supposedly straightlaced female equivalent. The plot kicks in when he accidentally falls down the stairs, dragging a young girl down with him and forcing them to swap bodies, because they fell down the stairs in a high school manga and that is what inevitably happens in these sorts of things.

Urara is more interesting, if only as she takes much of this in stride. While Yamada is busy freaking out, her reaction is more sedate. Of course, she might be quite happy to take a vacation from her body, as we see (through Yamada’s eyes) that she has a lot she has to deal with. She seems fairly stoic, but as she warms up over the course of the volume it becomes apparent that it’s more repressed emotions than anything else. The dynamic between the two of them is interesting but fairly mild, except, of course, for the kisses that allow them to swap bodies at will. As we gain more cast members (Miyamura, whose attempts to convince Urara to continue high education by trying to find blackmail material and ogling her cup size, did not impress me) we will no doubt gain more dynamics.

At the end of this volume, even with the addition of a new girl who promises to make life miserable for everyone, we’re not one step closer to knowing what’s going on. We haven’t met a witch, and we’re not sure why Yamada suddenly can swap bodies with anyone he kisses. Given the author’s success with her prior work, I imagine she has a lot more leeway to develop things the way she wants without the fear of getting cancelled after 15 chapters. Which is fine, but it does lead to a first volume that’s merely average, even as I know it gets better later. Still, if you like school romantic comedies with an emphasis on the comedy, and want to step in before the inevitable harem plot starts up, this is the volume for you.