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Reviews

Book Girl and the Scribe Who Faced God, Part 2

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By Mizuki Nomura. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen Press.

And so we finally get to the book that wraps everything up, and it’s appropriate that it also dips back into the previous seven books so much. Everything here has been interconnecting far more than we expected at the time, and, as Chie herself noted, people did not get magically healed after the tragic events that happened to them. Still, most everyone seems to be working things out to a certain degree as they graduate. Even Konoha, who has finally come to terms with the fact that once he removes writing from all of the triggers it presents to him, he actually loves doing it.

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Konoha has been a very frustrating character to read through this series, and can be that way here as well, at least for the first half. His relationship0 with Nanase is sweet and innocent and pure poison to absolutely everyone involved, even if Ryuto’s attempts to break them up through threats and violence are even more dumb. I actually feel bad for Nanase – not only does she lose out on Konoha in the end, but she also ended up being the least developed character, really. The tragedy in her focused book happened to her best friend, leaving her to be the prime example of the pure tsundere shonen heroine that pines away even as she knows deep in her heart that something is wrong. I hope one of the side-story sequels in Japan features her and gives her more depth.

Ryuto and Tohko tie together, of course, and while I still think he makes every wrong decision imaginable in this series, I can now sympathize with Ryuto’s intentions and see why he tries to torture himself so much. He and Chie still make a weirdly twisted couple, and her actions towards the end were not surprising but still managed to pack a punch. As for Maki, she finally gets what she wants out of life. Her painting of Tohko included. She’s an excellent positive example of how to beat overwhelming odds through sheer determination, and probably still my most favorite character in the series.

Finally, Tohko and Konoha, and the backstory with Tohko’s parents. This is where most of the plot twists come in, some of them mere lines after the last. I have not read Andre Gide’s Strait Is the Gate, the book that features so heavily, but it ties into Tohko’s life heavily. Tohko in the end is simply an incredibly nice girl who wants to see people happy and doing what they do best. She also knows that Konoha needs to write, and his rejection of her basically hits all if her emotional trauma buttons. I’m still not sure I like the idea of them as a romantic couple – I think they’d be excellent best friends and a writer/editor team. But they’re the best part of this book, and I liked that it was Konoha who got the big dramatic speech tying the tragedy into the book this time around.

Book Girl has been a roller coaster of teen trauma, and really didn’t have *too* much supernatural content – Tohko’s nature really isn’t examined all that much. It’s the perfect novel series for someone who wants a book for teenagers but wants to avoid all the cliches that plague most Japanese light noels that are translated into English. Character you care about, twisty plots, and an overwhelming love of books. I want to read it all over again. Luckily, I don’t eat books, so I can do so fairly easily. (Tohko must hate e-readers.)

Harlequin Manga: The Tycoon’s Pregnant Mistress and Her Sheikh Boss

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The Tycoon’s Pregnant Mistress by Maya Banks and Nanao Hidaka

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The Tycoon’s Pregnant Mistress manages to hit some sort of Harlequin manga trifecta, because the pregnant mistress in question gets cast off, kidnapped, and develops amnesia in the first 30 pages! The woman with the eventful life is Marley, and her boss is a slightly dimwitted Greek tycoon named Chrysander. Marley finds out that she’s pregnant and attempts to have a meaningful talk about their relationship with Chrysander, only to be shut down and promptly kicked out when Chrysander discovers top secret business documents in Marley’s handbag only minutes after his extremely suspicious secretary pays him a visit at their home. While he might be successful in business, Chrysander has very little insight into human nature, as he kicks Marley out onto the street, where she is immediately scooped up by kidnappers, appearing four months later in an advanced stage of pregnancy!

Chrysander is very suspicious of his pregnant former mistress who has amnesia, but he is determined to Do the Right Thing and decides that he’s going to take care of her and her child. Marley attempts to get her memories back, all the while being slightly bewildered by the continued presence of Chrysander’s skanky secretary and his distant nature. The art for this title is about average for a Harlequin manga, it is attractive despite some slightly odd proportions, and while it doesn’t have the lush 80s retro vibe that I tend to love the most in these manga adaptations, everyone’s hair is glossy and there is a profusion of brooding greek tycoons.

Her Sheikh Boss by Carol Culver and Earithen

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The story for this manga is fairly predictable, but I really enjoyed the art for this title, which had a loose sophisticated style that reminded me a bit of Walkin’ Butterfly. Claudia is a highly efficient secretary working in the United States for Samir, the prince of a country in the Middle East. She’s indispensible for his business, and he decides to take her along when he goes home to his country. Samir tends to view Claudia as an efficient piece of furniture, and when Claudia goes on her trip she is profoundly dismayed to find out that her boss his traveling back to his family in order to get engaged!

Claudia has developed a secret crush on her boss, and she struggles with her feelings as his family regards her with suspicion. As Claudia visits Samir’s country he begins to see her as a woman for the first time, as she throws herself into new experiences with enthusiasm. His fiancee seems very unenthusiastic, perhaps due to the handsome male servant that follows her about wherever she goes. The art captures Claudia’s transformations and shifts in moods easily and there’s plenty of billowing hair and the occasional camel. While the illustrations aren’t necessarily very detailed, there’s more variation with the paneling and I found myself just as entertained by the art as the story. The complications that keep Samir and Claudia are resolved nicely, and overall I found myself pleasantly entertained.

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 5

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Kei Natsumi. Released in Japan in two and 1/2 separate volumes as “Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Banquet of the Golden Witch” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press.

In Umineko fandom, there are two manga arcs that are considered to be the absolute best at adapting the source and adding actual expressions and action, and Banquet is the first of these (the other is End, if you’re curious). The artist from the first arc is back, but this one gives her far more to sink her teeth into, with Beatrice seemingly getting replaced as people actually bother to… solve the epitaph this time around! Meanwhile, given the first arc was Natsuhi-heavy and the 2nd focused on Rosa, the cover of the 3rd arc should not surprise you…

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Yes, that’s Eva biting her pinky on the cover… and yes, that’s also Eva behind her grinning insanely. Sort of. We get flashbacks at the start of the book to Eva as a teenager, dealing with being the smartest of the siblings but having a father who’s an abusive misogynist and a brother who realizes this is basically the only way he can ever have power over her. The flashbacks blend together with the present, as Eva arrives in 1986 for the Conference, and we see teenage-Eva stay behind, acting as sort of a ‘inner voice’ for Eva, driving her forward and giving her help/admonishment.

The First Twilight takes out all the servants (plus Kinzo), leaving us with the parents for a far more extended period than we’ve seen before. Which, if nothing else, reminds us once again how toxic this family is, even as they’re trying to hide from a killer. Speaking of that Twilight, we also meet a few new people, Ronove and Virgilia. Ronove seems like your typical ‘demon butler’ sort, there to give small hints, dole out tea, and be a bit too gay for battler’s liking. (It is worth noticing that Genji’s last name is Ronoue.) As for Virgilia, we see at the start that she was Beatrice back when the Beatrice we know was a young girl, and has been hiding inside Kumasawa until she emerges to chastise her former student. There’s a lot of double identities here, which is quite important as the series goes on.

Speaking of the Beatrice we know, there’s a lot of interesting things going on with her. She’s still really cruel and nasty, to the point where the omnibus ends with Battler slapping her after she laughs at the antics down on Rokkenjima. At the same time, she’s far less aloof and more likeable here, and I’d go so far as to say she’s even cute. This is also the first time I’ve really been able to buy the flirting that she and Battler do. We also get some backstory on her supposed history on the island; we see her as a young girl at the start, and later on a teenage Rosa runs into Beatrice imprisoned in Kuwadorian, Kinzo’s secret mansion on the other side of the island he created because he’s just like that. Sadly, Rosa leads her off the edge of a cliff (by accident, I note, she’s not an abusive mother just yet) and she dies. And Beatrice notes in read that she’s definitely dead down there. Curiouser and curiouser…

This arc has been described as “Umineko for Dummies”, as the fans apparently told Ryukishi07 that he made the first 2 arcs too hard to figure out what was really going on (except, well, “it was magic”, which they were reluctant to say). Ergo, this one really is a lot more anvilicious with its hints to Battler/the reader, describing the idea of Schrodinger’s Box as a way to avoid answering the “magic vs. human culprit” question in the first place, the use of ‘imaginary friends’ and identity theft, and Beatrice as a shared title. This culminates in Eva managing to solve the epitaph (though Rosa was close behind, give her credit), and finding the gold, which really does exist. As a result, she inherits the title of Beatrice… or rather, her teenage self does. And when her teenage self realizes she is unwilling to share the gold with anyone else, well, the murders take an even more grotesque turn. One might even go so far as to say that this game as been hijacked…

So again, if you’re looking for human culprits here, the obvious question is “Can I trust what I’m reading? And who can I not trust?” By the end of this first omnibus, you should have a pretty good idea. This is another good (and huge) adaptation of a fun and increasingly convoluted story. Will we get to sympathize with Beatrice even more next time? If so, which Beatrice will it be?

Also, Yen, you tried, and I appreciate the reluctance to use the fan version everyone knows already, but “Karub Kamy Crokatch” is no “Sucker Merry Barrels”. Love Natsuhi’s reaction, though.

Kafka on the Shore

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Kafka on the ShoreAuthor: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Philip Gabriel
U.S. publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 9781400079278
Released: January 2006
Original release: 2002
Awards: World Fantasy Award

Haruki Murakami is an international best-selling author and one of the most recognizable Japanese novelists currently writing worldwide. Therefore, I find it somewhat surprising that I actually haven’t read much of his work. Before picking up Kafka on the Shore I had only read two of his books–1Q84 and Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche–in addition to a small selection of essays and interviews. 1Q84 was my introduction to Murakami; it was both an incredibly frustrating and invigorating experience. I loved parts of the novel but strongly disliked others. 1Q84 probably wasn’t the best place to start reading Murakami, and so I’ve been meaning to give another one of his novels a try. I settled on Kafka on the Shore, originally published in Japan in 2002, for several reasons. It’s one of Murakami’s best-known works. Philip Gabriel’s 2005 English translation won the World Fantasy Award. The novel’s young protagonist basically runs away to a library. But mostly, I wanted to read Kafka on the Shore for the sake of one character, Oshima, with whom I happen to share quite a bit in common.

Fifteen-year-old Kafka Tamura, though that’s not his real name, has just run away from home. He leaves behind his father in Tokyo just as his mother and sister left the two of them behind more than a decade ago. Kafka’s plan is simple–travel to a faraway town and make a place for himself in a library. That’s how he finds himself in Takamatsu, over four hundred miles away from the home, father, and life that he wants to escape. There he seeks out the privately owned Komura Memorial Library where meets Oshima, an assistant at the library who takes Kafka under his wing. Meanwhile, strange events are unfolding around Kafka and the people in his life. Back in Tokyo, a man by the name of Nakata with the ability to talk to cats finds himself pulled into Kafka’s story. Though the two have never met they share a strange connection with each other that neither of them are entirely aware of or expected.

The chapters in Kafka on the Shore alternate between Kafka and Nakata’s individual journeys. Kafka’s chapters are written in first-person present, giving them a very intimate and immediate perspective, while Nakata’s are written in third-person past, creating more distance. At first the two stories seem to be completely unrelated, but as Kafka on the Shore develops the tales steadily draw towards one another and connect  in shocking ways. Kafka and Nakata’s paths never directly cross but they do influence each other and those of the people around them. Ideas, concepts, and turns of phrase, not to mention actions and their consequences, echo throughout the novel, tying seemingly disparate events together into a cohesive whole. There is a lot of loneliness in Kafka on the Shore. The characters are searching and reaching out for these sorts of connections and relationships, both consciously and subconsciously. They are individuals yearning to find what is missing from themselves and from their lives, often disregarding time and reality in the process.

Much as with 1Q84, there were parts of Kafka on the Shore that I adored and other parts that I found immensely frustrating. In general, I preferred the earlier novel over its later developments. For me, Kafka on the Shore worked best when it was more firmly grounded in reality with hints of the unexplainable, mysterious, and strange rather than the other way around. As the novel progresses it becomes more confusing and dreamlike. That in and of itself isn’t problematic, but towards the end of Kafka on the Shore Murakami begins introducing bizarre elements seemingly out of nowhere that do very little to develop the plot or the characters. Readers looking for closure from Kafka on the Shore may be disappointed as there are plenty of threads left unresolved by the time the novel reaches its conclusion. Despite my frustrations with Kafka on the Shore I am glad that I read the novel. I appreciated the importance giving to books and the influence of music; I found the characters intriguing; and although the story goes a little off the rails, I liked Kafka’s peculiar journey of discovery and coming of age.

Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, Vol 12

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Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, Vol 12 by Yuu Watase

I’m sure it sounds odd, but I was actually a bit nervous about picking up the final volume of this series that I’ve been enjoying so much, simply because I’ve been a bit frightened of the ending. I knew that plenty of deaths would be occurring. This is no big secret, since the heroine Takiko has been dying of tuberculosis throughout the series, and the presence of a couple ghostly Genbu Celestial Warriors in the first Fushigi Yuugi series gave enough hints towards inevitable tragedy that a certain air of melancholy has hung over this manga, giving it an additional theme that has offset all the fantasy adventure I’d expect from a Yuu Watase series.

When I put this volume down, I realized I was wrong to be nervous, because the ending was the best one possible given the set of circumstances the characters found themselves in. The final confrontation with the Qu-Dong army has arrived, and even though Takiko has married the Uruki, now Emperor of Bei-Jia, all the efforts of her Celestial Warriors aren’t going to fend off the eternal winter that is going to threaten all the people of Bei-Jia. The Celestial Warriors fight gallantly, but Takiko is determined to see her destiny as a priestess fulfilled, even if she ends up being consumed by the god that she summons. There are plenty of quiet moments between the characters mixed in with the battles, and each Celestial Warrior gets a bit of a sendoff. Tomite teases Takiko one last time. Hatsui is courageous in battle. Inami deflects volleys of arrows with her hair, arranged in a giant web. Naname undergoes an unexpected and meaningful last transformation.

Throughout everything that happens in this final volume, the connection between Takiko and Uruki remains strong and supportive. As a heroine, Takiko’s quiet and unwavering determination really sets her apart, and I thought that this series exhibited more maturity in storytelling than the first Fushigi Yugi series. This is one of my favorite Yuu Watase series, and that’s saying a lot since I’ve read and enjoyed most of her manga. I’ve read all the volumes of this series as soon as I’ve been able to get my hands on them, and the only thing that has marred the reading experience is the long wait between volumes! I really want to set aside some time and read the whole series again in a shorter span of time, to see what I think about it without having to wait months and years between volumes. Overall though, I don’t hesitate to recommend Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden to anyone who enjoys fantasy and adventure shoujo.

Higurashi: When They Cry, Vol. 24

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Karin Suzuragi. Released in Japan as “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Matsuribayashi-hen” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press.

When we last saw Rika, she had just recovered her memories of previous lives… or so we thought. As it turns out, the cliffhanger wasn’t that she was missing a bunch of memories, but just missing one specific world: the last one, the Massacre arc. Realistically this makes absolutely no sense, but dramatically it’s necessary, so that “this” Rika can have Hanyuu explain things all over again to her (which also shows us the strength of Hanyuu’s resolve), and also so that Rika can have the appropriate surprised and amazed reactions when things actually start going her way.

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For once the adults get the cover image, as we see Akasaka, Tomitake, Irie and Ooishi walking in a determined fashion. And most of the first half of this volume revolves around their own concerns. Akasaka can finally release the guilt from past lives of forgetting about Rika by showing up in the nick of time (Rika even lampshades this, torn between sobbing in happiness and being angry), Tomitake is forced to realize that yes, he may be in love with a psychologically disturbed woman who will be killing him later on, Irie finds that just because Rika’s the Queen Carrier does not mean that everything can’t go wrong if she dies, and Ooishi deals with the very real and adult concern that if this turns out to be a lot of fuss over nothing, he’ll lose his entire retirement pension and be ruined. Oh yes, not to mention his reaction to finding the Sonozakis are not, in fact, behind everything.

Takano also gets some POV here, and it’s as horrifying as it is revelatory. What starts out as being honest anguish about her feelings for Tomitake (this is likely the first time she’s ever fallen in love, so she simply has no idea what to make of it) turns into a PTSD-laced loathing that ends with her flashing back to the orphanage – again – and realizing that if she’s screwed up her Grandfather’s Research because of this “kill everyone” plan, than it would be better for everyone if she’d died back there. Still, by the end of this volume, she’s back in the driver’s seat, and Tomitake is captured.

Ryukishi07 includes a lot of shonen GAR (look it up on Urban Dictionary) in this volume, which does not *quite* go over the top. Partly it’s because much of it is subverted by the bad guys ruining everyone’s amazing moments – only Akasaka succeeds in being too cool for the room. Tomitake’s daring and dramatic escape… ends with him captured. Shion’s noble self-sacrifice to let the others get away… ends with her being hostage bait. Just as with the Massacre Arc we kept almost getting a happy ending only to see it vanish, here we almost have things end in tragedy a lot. Luckily, Akasaka is the exception to this rule, as he gets to swoop in with the dramatic rescue, which is so filled with cliche that Rika decides to doodle on the ground rather than watch any of it.

(By the way, Yen translators, nice job with Akasaka as the speeding bullet and Tomitake being more powerful than a locomotive. Too bad Shion can’t jump all that high.)

Speaking of the Sonozaki twins, they get the cover art that wasn’t used here (it’s on the inside front), and a lot of the focus towards the end is on them. Shion arrives in the story late and upset that she was kept out of the loop, but that’s sort of been her role throughout almost all of these worlds, with only Massacre being the exception. I was surprised that she outright stated to Mion that she wanted to be the “big sister” again to protect her – I’ll assume this is sotto voce, though who knows, maybe Mion actually told them everything about the permanent switch at some point – and amused at her noting to Keiichi that she can’t teach him to use a Kalashnikov in time to stop the bad guys. (It’s not that hard – she’s likely bluffing.) For KeiMii fans, by the way, Shion outright tells Keiichi Mion is in love with him, and his reaction is less “wait, what?” and more “why are you bringing this up now?” Keiichi, Mion and Rena really need to have a long talk after this is all over.

And so at the end of this volume, Rika is rescued, and things are looking up for everyone except Tomitake, who’s been captured by the bad guys. Next volume is the final one (of the main series, that is… please license Dice-Killing, Yen) and so we will at last see what we’ve been waiting for so long: a happy ending. In any case, this penultimate volume is filled with humor and heart, and fans will love it.

Attack on Titan, Vol 1

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Attack on Titan Vol 1 by Hajime Isayama

At this point, given the ubiquity of Attack on Titan on manga best seller lists, reviewing it is a bit like reviewing the air, but I decided to finally get around to reading this series when Mangablog alerted me to the crazy deal for the kindle edition of the first volume that was running recently. Sometimes I have no trouble reading manga on my Kindle Paperwhite, but I had more difficulty figuring out what was going on with the art with the reduced size, and quickly switched over to reading this manga on my iPad instead.

I’ve been reading a bunch of post-apocalyptic fiction recently, just because there are so many YA dystopian novels out there, and I’m also in the middle of reading Justin Cronin’s The Twelve. Attack on Titan is an interesting twist on the dystopian genre as many years into the future humanity has retreated into walled cities in order to protect themselves from the Titian, giant zombie-like humanoid creatures who enjoy eating human flesh. Eren is in many ways a fairly typical brash and opinionated shonen hero, whose close companion is a quieter and seemingly more pragmatic girl named Mikasa. Eren is worried about the complacency his town seems to be developing, as Titans haven’t attacked it for a long time.

Sure enough, a devastating attack on the town follows, as a Titan bigger than anyone has seen before easily breaches the wall, causing panic and confusion in the town where few humans are equipped to deal with a direct attack. Years later, Eren and Mikasa are ready to take their work assignments in the town, and they have to choose the safer duty of directly protecting the townspeople or joining up with the riskier survey corps. Eren wants to avenge his family, and Mikasa is quietly determined to follow him in order to protect him.

By far the weakest element of Attack on Titan is the art. The characters are drawn stiffly and not in proportion. For much of the time Eren and his comrades are yelling at each other, with facial expressions that don’t have very much variation. At the same time, the more detailed renderings of the Titans are plenty creepy, with their musculature visible on their bodies due to lack of skin, wide jaws, and shark-like rows of teeth. In contrast to the art, the worldbuilding in Attack on Titan is excellent, and it is clear that Isayama has spent plenty of time plotting out the events in his future history, thinking through the weapon systems and defenses the humans have constructed, and setting up the relationships between the characters in an interesting way. The first volume ended on a cliffhanger that was both shocking and weirdly refreshing from a manga plotting perspective, making me wonder a bit if Attack on Titan is going to be serving up a bit of metacommentary about manga plot cliches. Even though the art was fairly awkward, I was still able to follow along with the action sequences, and the Titans were genuinely unsettling, with their grimacing silence and habits of eating people in one gulp. I’m a little leery of taking on such a long series, but I can certainly see why Attack on Titan is so popular.

No Longer Human, Vol. 3

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No Longer Human, Volume 3Creator: Usamaru Furuya
Original story: Osamu Dazai
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654377
Released: February 2012
Original release: 2011

Osamu Dazai’s semi-autobiographical novel No Longer Human, originally published in Japan in 1948, has had a least three manga adaptations. Of those, only one is currently available in English–a three-volume series by Usamaru Furuya. I have been interested in Furuya’s work ever since I read Lychee Light Club, and so I was very happy when Vertical licensed his No Longer Human manga series. No Longer Human, Volume 3 was first published in Japan in 2011 while the English-language edition was released in 2012. The original novel was a fairly dark work. While Furuya has taken some liberties with his version of the story–using himself as a framing character and updating the setting to contemporary Japan, among other changes–the No Longer Human manga is also quite dark. Furuya argues in the afterword that his ending is somewhat more uplifting than Dazai’s, but it is still severe. Vertical describes the third volume as “the devastating finale” which is incredibly apt.

Disowned by his family and the survivor of a double suicide, Yozo Oba’s life was falling apart. Getting by on his good looks, he lived for a time as a kept man until he ran away from that situation, too. But then he met and fell in love with Yoshino, a young woman working at the cigarette shop that he frequented. Yoshino and Yozo elope and have now been married for a year. For the first time in his life Yozo is genuinely happy. He has a wonderful trusting wife who loves and accepts him for who he is, the only person with whom he can be completely open and honest. He’s gainfully employed, his manga for children is popular and selling well and with the extra income from his side job drawing erotic illustrations, he and Yoshino are able to live quite comfortably. Yozo still carries some guilt over his past, something that his supposed friend Horiki never lets him forget, but he’s now starting to look forward to his future. And then it all comes crashing down. Yozo’s perfect fantasy life is destroyed and he is destroyed along with it.

Having previously read Dazai’s orignal novel (several times, actually), I was all too aware the direction that Furuya’s No Longer Human was heading. Actually, from the beginning of the manga series alone it is known that Yozo’s story is not a happy one. But knowing what’s in store does not necessarily make it any easier to witness it happen. There is nothing that the reader can do but to watch the events unfold. Yozo is doomed from the very start. Something happens to this young man, seemingly loved by all, to cause his life to completely shatter. He should be in the prime of his youth but becomes so broken that most assume him to be more than twice his age. The third volume of Furuya’s No Longer Human outlines his final and ultimate downfall, the one from which he is never to recover. It’s made even more tragic because he has finally experienced true happiness and contentment only to have it torn from his grasp.

Throughout the No Longer Human manga the tremendous disconnect between how Yozo views himself and how others perceive him has been shown. It’s one of the driving forces behind the story. Up until the very end people insist that Yozo is a good person, but to him it has all been an act. He holds a pessimistic view of the world and recoils from humanity. What many people would consider to be a source of hope and salvation only guarantees Yozo’s undoing. Eventually he becomes a drug addict which only amplifies his fears and anxieties and further damages his precarious state of mind. His increasingly twisted and tormented psyche is reflected quite clearly in Furuya’s artwork. No Longer Human is an unrelenting and even terrifying tale. Even at his worst I can still see a little bit of myself in Yozo. It’s perhaps because of this that I find the series to be so effectively gut-wrenching. Furuya’s adaptation of Dazai’s novel is excellent, bringing his own interpretation to the story while staying true to the dark heart of the original.

Genkaku Picasso, Vol. 3

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Genkaku Picasso, Volume 3Creator: Usamaru Furuya
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421539201
Released: May 2011
Original release: 2010

The third and final volume of Usamaru Furuya’s short manga series Genkaku Picasso was originally published in Japan in 2010. Viz Media released the English-language edition of the volume in 2011 under its Shonen Jump imprint. Genkaku Picasso was initially serialized in the manga magazine Jump SQ. Furuya mentions in the series’ afterword that he was somewhat surprised to have been approached to create a manga by one of the Jump SQ editors since he didn’t consider his previous work to have had much popular, mass appeal. (Furuya made his debut in the alternative manga magazine Garo and is particularly well-known for some of his more avant-garde work.) Genkaku Picasso was originally intended to be only two volumes long. Happily, Furuya was able to expand the series to three volumes, which allowed him to tie everything together in the way that he wanted. Although I enjoyed the first volume of Genkaku Picasso the manga starts out a little unsteady. But by the end, Furuya has created a fantastic series.

For most of his life, Hikari Hamura has been content to keep to himself and concentrate on his drawing. He’s earned himself the nickname of Picasso from his classmates (much to his dismay as he greatly prefers the work of Leonardo da Vinci), but up until recently they have mostly ignored him. Picasso is as strange and gloomy as he ever was, if not more so, but many of his classmates are beginning to feel drawn to him for some unknown reason. What they don’t realize is that Picasso has been helping to solve their personal problems. After nearly dying in a bizarre accident Picasso has gained a strange ability that allows him to see and draw the darkness that exists in another person’s heart. He can enter into those sketches, and by changing them he influences his classmates lives, hopefully for the better. This power is something that Picasso has tried to keep hidden from the others but it becomes difficult for them to disregard his increasingly odd behaviour, especially when he seems to know things that they would never reveal to someone else.

Genkaku Picasso starts out as a fairly episodic series. Generally, I found the longer stories–those lasting several chapters–to be more successful than the shorter ones as they feel less rushed and more thoroughly developed. It’s only really during the second volume that it becomes clear that there is also an overarching plot. The details of that larger story are completely reveled in the third volume of Genkaku Picasso. With a little bit of a lead in, “Hikari’s Story” takes up nearly half of Genkaku Picasso, Volume 3. It’s the longest story in Genkaku Picasso and is what pulls together the entire series. Up until this point in the manga, while Picasso has certainly been the protagonist, the stories have largely focused on his classmates and the issues that they are struggling with. But in “Hikari’s Story” their roles are reversed and it’s Picasso who needs help. It’s an extremely effective turn of events that brings the series full circle quite nicely.

The ending of Genkaku Picasso is actually a little heart-wrenching. Picasso starts the series almost a complete loner. Except for Chiaki, who hung out with him despite his protests, most of his classmates simply took no notice of him. Picasso was perfectly fine with this, or at least that’s what he told himself. As Genkaku Picasso progresses, Picasso slowly gathers people around him as he helps them with their problems. But it’s not until the third volume that he actually admits that he has friends and that he actually wants friends. Picasso has to be completely honest with himself and with the others, which in reality is a very terrifying thing to have to do. With “Hikari’s Story” the entire series becomes about Picasso and shows the tremendous amount of growth that he has gone through. I’m very glad that Furuya was able to extend Genkaku Picasso and give it a marvelous conclusion. Even considering its somewhat awkward start, Genkaku Picasso is a wonderful series. I thoroughly enjoyed its quirky humor and characters, its engaging artwork, and its somewhat peculiar but ultimately heartfelt story.

Short Cuts, Vol. 2

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Short Cuts, Volume 2Creator: Usamaru Furuya
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781591160694
Released: August 2003
Original release: 1999

Originally serialized in Young Sunday, Short Cuts was Usamaru Furuya’s first manga created for a major, mainstream publication. It was also his first manga to be completely released in English. His debut work, Palepoli, was serialized in the alternative manga magazine Garo and has only partially been made available in English. (Select excerpts from Palepoli are available in Japan Edge: The Insider’s Guide to Japanese Pop Subculture and Secret Comics Japan: Underground Comics Now.) Short Cuts began its serialization in 1996, two years after Furuya made his manga debut. The second collected volume of Short Cuts was initially published in Japan in 1999. The English-language edition of the volume was released by Viz Media in 2003. This was after Pulp, the magazine in which Short Cuts was being serialized in English, was canceled. I very much enjoyed the first volume of Short Cuts and so am happy that both volumes, though sadly now out of print, were released.

Short Cuts is a darkly comedic and vaguely surreal gag manga and satire. Each cut–there are exactly one hundred of them in the second volume–is a short manga only a page or two in length. As in the first volume, there are some recurring jokes, characters, and setups, but even the related cuts can generally be read on their own. Any sort of overarching plot is nearly nonexistent. Kogals and the kogal subculture, which were particularly prominent in Japan while Short Cuts was initially being serialized, remain the most common topics in the manga. However, there are plenty of other subjects that Furuya uses for his material, often the stranger the better. He draws inspiration from Japanese pop culture and celebrities, other manga creators (frequently mimicking their individual styles in the process), and even history and contemporary politics.

In the afterword to the series, Furuya mentions that Short Cuts was initially intended to be “light, pop, and sexy” but as the series progressed it became a bit stranger until “old people and weirdos stood out.” I’m pretty sure Furuya includes himself when he is talking about weirdos. Increasingly, the gags in Short Cuts refer to the trials and tribulations of manga artists and illustrators. Furuya has several personal avatars in Short Cuts who either break the fourth wall to interact with the cuts or are the stars of their very own. With the second volume the humor in Short Cuts has become even more self-aware. Furuya is not afraid to make fun of himself or his manga. Another recurring character is a kogal named Mai. (The frequency of her appearances actually becomes a joke in and of itself.) She’s a delightfully peculiar young woman with an even odder family. In some ways, Mai and Furuya together are representative of the series as a whole and the relationship between creation and creator. The ending of Short Cuts–if a series without much of a plot can be said to have an “ending”–is actually rather touching because of this.

Short Cuts is a very strange manga, which is probably one of the major reasons that I like it so well. I enjoy Furuya’s chameleon-like artwork in the series as well as his absurd, dark, and surreal humor, all of which can admittedly be rather raunchy and vulgar from time to time. Many but certainly not all of the gags in Short Cuts rely on the reader having at least passing familiarity with Japanese culture and society, but there are plenty of notes from the translator included for those who might need a bit of extra help. Overall, I think I slightly preferred the first volume of Short Cuts over the second, though I can’t seem to identify exactly why that is. I was still consistently amused by Short Cuts, Volume 2 and Furuya can still make me laugh out loud. Short Cuts remains one of my favorite gag manga, but its peculiar sense of humor and sharp social commentary definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste.

No Longer Human, Vol. 2

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No Longer Human, Volume 2Creator: Usamaru Furuya
Original story: Osamu Dazai
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654223
Released: December 2011
Original release: 2010

Usamaru Furuya’s manga series No Longer Human is an adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s 1948 semi-autobiographical novel No Longer Human. Furuya’s manga adaptation began serialization in Weekly Comic Bunch in 2009. The second volume of the series was published in Japan in 2010 while the English-language edition was released in 2011 by Vertical. No Longer Human was the second manga by Furuya that was published by Vertical, the first being the one-volume Lychee Light Club. Although Furuya’s No Longer Human is based on Dazai’s novel, he has taken a few liberties with his rendition, one of the most notable changes being that the story is now set in the 2000s instead of the 1920s and ’30s. Furuya has also inserted himself into the manga as a framing character. These changes, as well as others, are actually quite effective. It is not at all necessary to have read the original No Longer Human to appreciate Furuya’s interpretation of the story.

Yozo Oba attempted a double suicide with a club hostess named Ageha, but only she drowned while he survived. He’s come to the realization that although he doesn’t want to die, he doesn’t want to live, either. Yozo has long since been disowned by his family and the one person for whom he held any sort of honest feelings is now gone. He spends his days directionless and in despair, slowly recovering from a torturous situation partly of his one making. He desperately wants some meaning to his life, but has failed to discover what that might be. At one point he thinks he’s found it, only to have it snatched away from him. Yozo was once adored by all and even in his current pitiful state people are drawn to him and dare to care about him. He uses this to his advantage, putting on airs to get what he wants and needs, recognizing all the while how distasteful it is. Yozo uses people and he knows it. To him, life is still an act.

No Longer Human is a dark and troubling manga series. Yozo doesn’t treat himself well and treats those around him even worse. He is extremely manipulative and frankly can be a terrible person. And yet at the same time Yozo is a tragic figure; No Longer Human is heart-wrenching. While I don’t find his portrayal in the manga to be as sympathetic as it is in the novel, there are still points with which I can empathize. Yozo has a fear of people and their expectations of him that prevents him from being authentic. He’s repeatedly told that he is a good, sweet, and kind person, but this is the last thing he wants to hear. Yozo’s extraordinarily anxiety-ridden and conflicted over it because he see the life he is living as one big lie. He is very aware of his dishonesty and how he misleads people, but continues to do so because he is so desperate to be liked and accepted. Occasionally he manages to express some feelings of legitimate remorse and genuine caring, but more often than that it is already too late to undo any of the damage done.

No Longer Human, Volume 2 follow Yozo from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness and back again. Those glimmers of hope that Yozo will be able to turn his life around make his failure to do so even more anguished as he lets chance after chance to slip through his fingers. Furuya’s artwork in No Longer Human suits the story well, capturing Yozo’s internal and emotional turmoil and dragging the readers along for the ride. Furuya provides disconcerting glimpses into Yozo’s psyche, visually expressing his suffering through imagery of suffocation (harkening back to his near-drowning) and showing the ugliness he sees in the world. No Longer Human isn’t necessarily an easy read and it can be emotionally exhausting, but I find it to be incredibly compelling and difficult to turn away from as well. Yozo may not often be particularly likeable, but as with so many of the other characters in the series I can’t help but wish the best for him no matter how doomed he seems.

Genkaku Picasso, Vol. 2

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Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2Creator: Usamaru Furuya
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421537542
Released: February 2011
Original release: 2009

Genkaku Picasso was the second multi-volume manga series by Usamaru Furuya to be released in English. The first was a seinen gag manga called Short Cuts which, like Genkaku Picasso, was published by Viz Media. Genkaku Picasso is very different from Short Cuts. It’s an example of one of Furuya’s few shōnen manga and is currently his only shōnen series available in English. Furuya is an extremely versatile artist, changing styles, genres, and demographics to suit his needs. He had his start in alternative manga, but Genkaku Picasso, while quirky, is a more mainstream title. Initially serialized in Jump SQ, the second volume of Genkaku Picasso was released in Japan in 2009. Viz Media published Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2 under its Shonen Jump imprint in 2011. I found the first volume of Genkaku Picasso to be intriguing, but more uneven and less compelling than some of the other manga by Furuya that I had read. But with the second volume, the series finds its footing.

After a bizarre near-death experience, Hikari Hamura, given the nickname Picasso by his classmates, finds himself in an even stranger predicament. Chiaki Yamamoto, a victim of the same accident that nearly killed Picasso, is now small enough to fit in his pocket and is sporting angel wings. Picasso himself has gained the ability to see into people’s hearts and minds. Compelled to draw what he sees, he can literally enter into the psyches of others through his illustrations. Using this newfound power, Picasso is able to help his fellow classmates. Not that he really wants to go to all that effort. In fact, he’d much rather be left alone to concentrate on his artwork. But unless he wants to let his arm rot away–another peculiar consequence of his accident–Picasso must do what he can to help those around him. With Chiaki’s assistance and prodding he has successfully resolved some of his classmates problems and has even gained a few friends in the process, but Picasso is still incredibly reluctant to get involved.

Although there has always been an ongoing story in the series, the beginning of Genkaku Picasso felt fairly episodic. However, with the second volume the series starts to become a bit more cohesive. The stories in the first volume seemed to be resolved a little too simply and cleanly, but as Genkaku Picasso progresses it becomes apparent that it’s not really that easy. Picasso has helped some of his classmates (though they are only aware of that subconsciously) but they continue to have problems; he hasn’t solved everything for them. The first volume’s stories had a “one and done” sort of feel to them while the issues in the second volume, even after they are initially resolved, are long-lasting challenges. They are things that the characters may very well struggle with for the rest of their lives. I much prefer this approach since realistically matters of the heart and mind are not so easily mended. I think Genkaku Picasso becomes a stronger, better series with the inclusion of these more complicated and nuanced narratives.

From the very beginning one of Genkaku Picasso‘s strengths has been its artwork, something that continues to be a highlight in the second volume. Furuya uses a variety of art styles in the series. Picasso enters the drawings he creates of other people’s hearts. They are filled with beautiful, surreal, and even disturbing imagery, allowing Furuya to creatively illustrate and explore the characters’ internal states of mind. But probably the greatest reason that I find the second volume of Genkaku Picasso to be more effective than the first is that the problems that Picasso must help to try to solve happen to be more relevant to me personally. For me, many of the stories in the first volume were little far-fetched while those in the second volume are a bit more realistic and universal. Most of them focus on love, romance, gender, or sexuality which are themes that I have a particular interest in. I could personally identify with the characters in Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2 in ways that I previously couldn’t. I did enjoy the first volume of Genkaku Picasso, but I was able to appreciate the second volume even more.

Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game, Vol. 2

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I enjoyed the first Alice in the Country of Hearts series much more than I expected to. I’ve since tried out some of the sequels here and there, and I think this series is one that I’ve enjoyed the most, just because the storyline seems to echo back to the first series in both theme and tone. While most of the other Alice series that I’ve read tend to focus more on what I think of as the core cast of characters, Alice in the Country of Joker introduces the Circus as a new place and the mysterious Joker accompanies the Circus. It is April season, which is a different and unsettling time for the inhabitants of Wonderland.

The second volume of the series continues with many of the things I enjoyed about the first. There are flashbacks to Alice’s previous life that hint at the psychological issues that might cause her to take refuge in Wonderland. Alice is reminded of her sister as she spends time with the obsessive white rabbit, Peter White. Blood Dupre continues his flirting campaign, but the influence of the Circus and the barrier that Nightmare placed in Alice’s mind are in conflict. There seems to be a cyclical conflict between the Circus and the rest of Wonderland, and Alice is trapped in the middle of it. The unsettling tone and hints of suspense were more of what I tend to look for in one of these many Alice stories. So far, this is the main spinoff series I would make a point of recommending to fans of the first Alice in the Country of Hearts. I still miss the art from Soumei Hoshino in the original series. There isn’t anything really wrong with the illustrations of the adapter here, but Hoshino’s art was more delicate and surreal, adding another dimension to the Wonderland portrayed in these stories.

Fairy Tail, Vol. 32

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fairytail32Fairy Tail, Vol. 32 | by Hiro Mashima | Yen Press – The Grand Magic Games start in earnest with a game of “The Hidden” where the contestants must discern which of their opponents is real, in a way that makes me think Hiro Mashima was playing a bit of Assassin’s Creed at the time he wrote this story. Gray and Juvia try to win it for Fairy Tail, but the sinister Raven Tail marks them and constantly harasses them until they end the game at the bottom ranks.

From there, the tournament continues into regular combat with Fairy Tail doing their best but due to outside influence both Lucy and Jellal (who is disguised as Mystogan) lose their battles, ending with both their teams in dead last. It all ends, after some other battles from the different competing guilds, with Charle making a dire prediction for their future.

Where I enjoyed the last volume a lot more than I thought I would, this volume was a couple steps backward for me. The biggest problem is that we see exactly why tournament arcs are such a tiresome trope in action manga. It’s nothing but fights for several chapters as we get through all the non-Fairy Tail wizards. That’s not to say the fights aren’t interesting. In fact Mashima does mix things up by including other types of competition, and Lucy and Jellal’s fights are well done. In Jellal’s case it’s a matter of just being really funny, but Lucy’s fight is another matter.

While the outside interference and unfair methods practiced by Raven Tail during Lucy’s fight really make us hate them, I find that the fight falls flat because I am unable to suspend my disbelief that nobody would notice that Flare is threatening Bisca and Alzack’s kid to keep Lucy from fighting back. Are we seriously supposed to believe that these two don’t even bother looking at their kid from time to time? Even if they aren’t worried about her being kidnapped, being surrounded by friends and all, isn’t it common practice for parents to at least glance at their child every once in a while? I’m pretty sure that if I were a parent I would like to keep my child at least in my peripheral vision.

And if they were keeping her in their peripheral vision, how did they not notice the speck of bright red that suddenly appeared in the corner of their eyes! It’s all used to make Natsu look cool, which we’ve had more than enough of, when a different manga artist would have played how obvious the whole thing was as a laugh.

But the biggest problem with the volume is the stretch of individual fights right towards the end. We get the big game, we get Lucy’s fight, but then suddenly we get a bunch of characters fighting that we don’t care about. And while Jellal and Jura’s fight is great, we’ve still been fatigued on fights in general by the end and the volume itself doesn’t leave a good taste in our mouths. So as far as essential volumes of Fairy Tail go this one is not among them. There certainly are worse volumes out there but were I not an avid collector, as most manga fans are, I’d consider skipping this one.

A major problem this time around, even compared to last month’s volume, is the excessive fanservice. The fight with Lucy and Flare is impossible to take seriously solely because most of the panel layout seems to be to show off the assets of the fighters in the most erotic way possible. I don’t like to dismiss Lucy as the fanservice character, since she has had some great moments in the series, but her inclusion in the story is feeling more like she’s the one selling all the copies of this series to a target demographic of teenagers who haven’t figured out how to type the word “hentai” into google.

And yet, complain though I might, I do still enjoy this series. This just happens to be a volume that doesn’t have the useful distraction of good story or humor to distract from Mashima’s descent into complete ecchi artist.

Excel Saga, Vol. 27

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At last, after 11 years, we have the 27th and final volume of Excel Saga translated. To sum up my review, I was pretty much satisfied with the ending. it still managed to be very confusing, and I’m still a bit iffy on the details of Il Palazzo’s origin and the Cores, but emotionally, the story hits all the right beats, and thematically, it resolves itself beautifully. With that in mind, let’s go through some things one by one and see if we can dig deeper into things, though in no particular order.

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Misaki and Iwata, first of all. We started the series off with Misaki as pretty much the only one in the entire group who had normal reactions. Indeed, the one time we were supposed to infer that she was upset and blushing deeply, she had her back to us so that we couldn’t see her expression. I have no doubt that Rikdo was doing this deliberately to save it all for this ending. Misaki’s had a very bad last few days, and her nerves were already starting to get a little shredded even while they were trapped in ACROSS’s base. Then she has to deal with Iwata, who she’s always had complicated romantic feelings towards, having sacrificed himself for her. Except… as they arrive back at their own base, it turns out that this was in fact a robot controlled by Iwata while his body healed – a fact that Umi is rather surprised everyone was not aware of.

While Iwata’s robot body has, at times, been occupied by various opposing forces, I think we have to accept that some of the time we’ve seen him act more maturely it has actually been him acting more maturely. Character development in Excel Saga is rather hit-and-miss, to be honest, but if we can accept that Misaki has come to terms with her feelings for Iwata – as she seems to do after the big reveal here – than we have to accept that Iwata has become less goofy and more heroic because of his own feelings for her. Honestly, saving her at the cost of his own life is the sort of super sentai thing that Iwata would love anyway, and I suspect even if that was his real body he’d have done the same thing.

In any event, after seeing Iwata’s malnourished but very much human body, alive and reasonably well, Misaki snaps and gives him a Big Damn Kiss. And then a Big Damn Beatdown. And then she finally cracks, sobbing helplessly in a full-page closeup, as we finally see everything catch up to her in the best/worst way possible. Naturally, for someone like Misaki this is the most humiliating thing imaginable, so it’s not surprising she immediately bolts. That said, after recovering she and Iwata have seemed to come to terms with whatever it is they have, and he’s even living with her (Mostly as he’s still legally dead), which she can deal with with only the most minor of blushes. It’s very heartwarming.

Watanabe and Sumiyoshi get less focus, but each also gets resolution in their lives, even if they can’t quite escape working for Kabapu. (I will leave the revelation that they’re all his descendents to the side, and then walk away and leave it to be thrown out by the waitress afterwards.) Watanabe gets his heart’s desire, only to have it ripped away from him when ACROSS revives and takes over the world. But then, at the very end, he does get Hyatt back, or at least “Ayasugi”. (This is actually a change from the ending in the Young King Ours magazine, but I’ll get into that later). Likewise, Sumiyoshi is alive and well, though how much he actually wanted the return of Ropponmatsu 2 into his life is questionable.

As for Shiouji and Umi… sigh. This is one of the bits of the ending I’m not thrilled with, to be honest. Shiouji being a lolicon has been with us since the moment he was introduced, though, and even though Rikdo tried to dial it back a bit and explain it through the introduction of Miwa, it’s never really gone away. As for Umi, well, she’s in love with Shiouji, and if he’s found a way to loli-fy her FOR SCIENCE, I can see her going along with it just to make him happy. But it’s not remotely healthy, as he himself indicates. I find it more interesting that Menchi ends up with Umi… I suppose it might be the closest thing to Teriha that Excel can give her. (This was also changed for the book ending.) In any case, let’s leave the scientist and his loli off to the side as well.

Momochi, it turns out, was nothing more or less than the most capable executive assistant in the world, and though I wish she’d gotten more depth, I will content myself with that. As for Kabapu, I’ve never really liked him, mostly as he’s not all that likeable. There’s a brief fakeout here where you think that Rikdo might actually kill him off, but in the end he’s back to laughing insanely and plotting wars against Il Palazzo, mostly as he really doesn’t know how to do anything else. It ends in his abject surrender much faster than usual, though, and he’s forced to dress in an embarrassing costume (not that he is remotely embarrassed by it) and join ACROSS himself Even post-invasion, he’s bored and wants to blow stuff up. Kabapu is an eternal child, really.

Hyatt and Elgala get to survive and live on Earth having some modicum of a regular life. This is a change, as I’ve noted earlier, from the original magazine ending, where Hyatt, Elgala and Menchi were forcibly abducted and taken on Il Palazzo’s ship along with Excel. It was an amusing ending, but it was a bit too cynical and comical, I expect. Seeing Hyatt get the change to start over with Watanabe (who is thankfully no longer remotely evil) and Elgala grump about life but at least no longer being a fugitive from justice, is more heartwarming. There’s also some interesting dialogue that implies that Hyatt and Elgala are similar to Excel in many ways, and it notes that Excel “fixed” them by returning them to the apartment complex like this – indeed, the core notes they were “unique failures”. Both have occasionally exhibited supernatural endurance – in Hyatt’s case, though undeath, and in Elgala’s by merely surviving being near Excel. They are untapped potential. I wish them well.

Sigh. OK, let’s talk Cores. There is still much of this I don’t quite get, I will admit, but suffice it to say that there seem to be multiple cores that can control multiple artificial humans. This is complicated by Tenmangu, Shiouji’s father and the maddest of the mad scientists we’ve seen. (Notably, his face is never quite shown, leaving him to look a lot like the hero of a dating sim – perhaps School Days, given what a loathsome man he is at heart.) He’s the one who’s seen controlling Il Palazzo – basically, he’s the “competent” Il Palazzo. There are also two cores, a chaos and an order core. The chaos core is the one that’s put into Miwa’s body – through Tenmangu – but I think it’s also what was “let out” by Excel’s hand at the cliffhanger for Vol. 26. This is the ‘horndog’ Excel we briefly see here – the core is enjoying being back in a human body, and is quite willing to experiment on Misaki, Umi, Il Palazzo, or anyone else who might want to get it on.

This leads me to a side note – how much does this tie into Holy Brownie? Holy Brownie is an untranslated/unscanlated fantasy series that Rikdo wrote for the tie-in magazine Young King Ours+ at the same time he was writing a lot of Excel Saga. It stars two ‘Brownies’ – Piola and Fio – who are sent to Earth by God to try and advance humanity by urging them to attempt impossible tasks. It was filled with nudity, sexual situations (sometimes involving minors), and comedic violence, and was a lot darker than the premise suggests, so do not ever expect to see it over here – it’s also out of print, so scanlations are also unlikely. In any case, the relationship between Il Palazzo and the Chaos Core possessing Excel reads a lot like Holy Brownie, it changes Excel’s hair black and develops ‘flat line’ eyes much like Holy Brownie, and things aren’t helped by the Core calling Il Palazzo ‘Pio’. Honestly, I expect even if I had read Holy Brownie translated, I’d still be confused, but clearly there’s a tie in somewhere here.

In any case. The Chaos Core has a lot of memories that look familiar to us – we’ve seen them as far back as Vol. 4, when Excel first got amnesia – and seem to imply that much of what went on throughout Excel Saga was carried out for the benefit of Il Palazzo. That said, Excel doesn’t really care much about any of this. We see a sort of ‘Herman’s Head’ landscape in her mind (yes, yes, go Google it), where the ‘default’ snarky Excel watches those memories and rails about how confused she is (probably speaking for the reader, to be honest). We also see Teriha, who is only concerned for the safety of Umi and the others – and once ‘reabsorbed’ into Excel, Excel suddenly grows concerned as well, so therefore we might think of Teriha as her conscience in some way. We also see a crabby military sergeant Excel type, who seems to represent the ACROSS soldier in her. The end of the manga implies she has almost infinite personalities that she can control, and the two amnesia arcs we saw in the series were different ones coming to the foreground.

Excel makes a very good point to Tenmangu here, though – she isn’t a follower who simply trails after Il Palazzo. She’s his John the Baptist, blazing a trail so that he may pass without hindrance. She’s the advance guard. And more to the point, her love for Il Palazzo is pure and innocent (given her implied creation by Il Palazzo, I think this is a good thing), so what really gets her to fight back and take over her own mind once more is the chaos core starting to make out with him – this makes her cry tears of blood. But take control she does, and once Excel is back in the house, there’s no stopping her. Remember the incompetent goofball of Vol. 1? Yeah, she’s long gone. Excel can eliminate the Chaos Core, beat the crap out of Tenmangu and make him her lackey, start a war (with many mini-Excels also strongly reminiscent of Holy Brownie) to take over Fukuoka, and eventually use a robot army to take over the world. This is how far she’s come.

…and then they’re ll bored, and decide to abandon earth and leave. Il Palazzo and Kabapu’s boredom has been an issue throughout the series, with each noting that, as Mai famously put it, “Victory is boring.” Excel has no desire to actually FIX Earth, despite its corrupt nature, or even run it via their secret organization. World Conquest is simply the end goal, and once that’s done, there’s nothing keeping her there (old ladies aside – nice final joke there, Rikdo). What matters is that she’s succeeded and pleased Lord Il Palazzo, and that the others who helped her are as reasonably happy as they can be. With that, it’s off to outer space, because that’s where Il Palazzo wants to go. It’s not a satisfying ending in terms of the plot so much as a satisfying ending in terms of the mood. The themes of Excel Saga are resolved.

Favorite moments in this volume:
—Possessed Excel groping Elgala and Misaki, one last blast of fanservice from our perverted author.
—the aforementioned crying blood
—the shot of Excel holding her arm back from killing everyone in the room
—”Umi, you’ve got to call her name LOUDER!”
—”Is it your core that feels sad?”
—’Il Palazzo’s dramatic rope pull to save the day (briefly)
—all of what follows, as Excel reaffirms her core values and defeats the Chaos Core
—”Whoa, check it out! It’s like a solidified mass of my abstract loyalty!”
—”Doing things is what I, Excel, do!” (What would Elgala say about Excel stealing her speech patterns?)
—the cliffhanger with Misaki falling into the abyss
—Iwata’s Big Damn Hero moment
—Misaki’s complete breakdown
—Elgala and Hyatt’s faith in Excel, complete with “she wouldn’t die even if you killed her”.
—Kabapu falling asleep, looking as ancient as he ever has.
—”IS THIS THE DRUNKARD’S DEN?!”
—seeing Dr. Black Jack and his nurse, as well as our favorite Matsumoto parodies, one last time
—the last third of the book essentially being Excel Saga’s Greatest Hits
—Golgo 13 Hyatt, with little chibi-Excels
—the “fuck everything” expression on Misaki, Iwata and Sumiyoshi’s faces
—Elgala strapped into a dangerous death machine, just because we needed her humiliated one last time
—”Suicide bombers are so lame.”
—Misaki dressed as an ACROSS member
—Kabapu’s ridiculously tight-crotched outfits.
—Excel browbeating Tenmangu
—the Excel Robot Army conquering the world in two pages
—Watanabe and “Miss Ayasugi” meeting cute – again – and Elgala’s disgust at this
—the final two page spread of Excel, happy and content in Il Palazzo’s arms

I offer tremendous thanks to Carl Gustav Horn, Kyoko Kondo, Viz Media, and everyone involved in bringing us this series. My love knows no bounds. It’s also entirely available digitally in North America, for which I thank Shonen Gahosha giving permission. I love this series to death. Go buy it. HAIL IL PALAZZO!