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Reviews

My Little Monster, Vol. 1

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By Robico. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Dessert. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

(This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher.)

After an extended period where it seemed that only Nakayoshi titles could get licensed in North America, Kodansha Comics is slowly edging its way back into the more mature shoujo market, starting with this title from the older teen magazine Dessert. (Brief nerd aside: Dessert arose from the ashes of Shoujo Friend, Kodansha’s main ‘older teen’ magazine, which also spawned ‘Bessatsu Shoujo Friend’, aka Betsufure, home of The Wallflower et al. In case you wondered where the Fure came from.) As you can see by the cover, our two lead characters are just absolutely delighted with life and each other, and this is their sweet, fluffy love-love comedy.

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Oooooookay, maybe that’s not quite accurate after all. Haru, the male lead, is the monster of the title, a freakishly strong, freakishly weird loner who doesn’t have any real friends, mostly as his reactions to any social situation are so far off the map from any reasonable human interaction he drives everyone away. As for Shizuku, she just wants to get perfect grades so that she can grow up to be rich, and has absolutely no time for nonsense or friendship. Which is a shame as she’s starring in a shoujo manga, so you know that she’s going to be dragged into shenanigans, if unwillingly.

I want to note that, though he’s nowhere near WataMote levels of social maladjustment (this is still a normal shoujo manga), Haru can be very hard to take for the average reader. I could have done without his forcefully dragging Shizuku into an alley at one point, and later forcefully kissing her without her consent. It stems from his ignorance of the basic norms of society, but that doesn’t make it any easier to see. We’ve also just barely begun the series, so there’s no real explanation as to why he’s like this beyond “well, he’s wacky like that”. I hope as the series goes on he gains some depth, as he seems a bit like a Manic Pixie Dream Boy at the moment.

I was far more interested in Shizuku. As the volume goes on and you see the way she interacts with people, you begin to notice that she’s not really the normal, slightly snarky girl she initially comes across as. Indeed, for all that Haru goes on about the need to have friends, Shizuku is equally solitary, and has closed herself off from emotions so much that she has difficulty dealing with then when they need to emerge… which can result in sudden explosions, such as when she realizes Haru is the #1 student in the school (if only he weren’t suspended at the start of the year). I suspect as this title goes on we’ll find she needs this interaction even more than Haru does.

We also get a couple of other characters set up to be regulars… Natsume is the slightly overwrought, ditzy type who contrasts well with Shizuku, and Sasayan is a sports-oriented boy who knew Haru from his previous school and I suspect will turn out to have a dark past or somesuch. This manga doesn’t really break any new shoujo ground. But it’s put together well, the characters are intriguing, and it can be funny (if a bit unnerving) much of the time. It’s 12 volumes total, so we’ll see how long it can keep this up. Definitely a solid first volume, though.

Attack on Titan: Junior High, Vol. 1

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By Saki Nakagawa. Released in Japan in two separate volumes by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

(This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher.)

Attack on Titan has been such a breakout success both here and in Japan that spinoffs were inevitable, and indeed there are now at least four distinct spinoffs, all available (or coming soon) in English. Two of these are dramatic prequels covering life before the fall of the Wall and Levi’s past. One, out via the online Mangabox site, is a straight-up 4-koma gag comic. I had assumed that Junior High would also be that sort of title, but no, it’s got actual plot and sequential art. It is, however, aimed squarely at comedy, and some of the comedy is very funny indeed.

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If you’ve ever read one of the several thousand High School AU fics on Fanfiction.Net, you know where this series is going. Eren and company all go to a junior high that’s quite unusual… it’s divided into human and titan sections. This appalls Eren, who has a hideous grudge against the titans for destroying his life five years earlier. (This being a gag manga, how his life is destroyed will be a punchline.) With the help of his exasperated yet overprotective childhood friend Mikasa, nerdy shut-in Armin, walking appetite Sasha, and “rival” Jean, will he be able to get through school life without making a fool of himself?

Of course not. Seeing Eren make a fool of himself is part of the point of this series. In fact, no one in the entire cast is spared ritual humiliation. Everyone’s personality traits are exaggerated and deconstructed. Eren’s constant anger is combined with a sort of shonen hero effect. Mikasa is still sort of crushing on Eren, but thankfully this isn’t made too explicit. Annie is definitely crushing on Eren, but seeing her interaction with Mikasa is funnier. Sasha is sadly two-dimensional, but at least it’s a funny dimension (her family’s poverty makes for some of the best side-comments). Some cast get very little screen time (Bertolt, Ymir), but this is likely due to this running at the same time as the main series was, so they hadn’t had their big reveals yet.

Indeed, this spinoff actually gives some folks a bit more development than the regular series. Hitch, Annie’s snarky co-worker in the Military Police, is here a snarky princess type, working with Annie on the Student Council, and her personality works well with everyone, but especially Jean. Levi’s squad are back from the dead as 2nd year students, and each get some of the amusing quirks we saw in the original. Nothing here is really deep or meaningful, but I’d hardly expect that from a manga of this sort. If you take Attack on Titan very seriously, you likely rejected this when you heard the title.

Lastly, I want to mention the translation. For some odd reason, this title has not been scanlated online like all the other Titan titles. This proved to be a godsend to translator William Flanagan, who is thus allowed to adapt loosely in order to make things even funnier without fear of fans pointing at an over-literal translation online and crying foul. So expect some Western Culture references mixed in. Best of all, the subject of Hange’s gender is made into a running gag (which I imagine must be Western-only, as in Japan it’s much easier to be gender-ambiguous) which mocks everyone who takes offense to Hange being anything other than ‘uncertain’. Not since Excel Saga have I read a book where it looks like the translator is having as much fun as the reader.

Don’t expect more than a light-hearted comedy AU here. But it’s very good comedy, with lots of quotable bits. In fact, let me leave with one of my favorite lines, from Mikasa as she tries to get hikkikomori Armin to come to school for the athletic festival:

“It’s true that you’re clumsy, talentless, and constantly weirding everyone out. And we know that in the match you’ll just flail around like a terrified toddler fleeing a birthday clown. You don’t have to worry about that. Everyone’s ready to accept you as the freak show weakling that you are.”

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Vol. 5

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

So when does one choose to end a cash cow? Particularly if the cash cow is a spinoff of an even bigger cash cow whose author seems to have dwindled down to 2 books a decade? Well, the answer is that you don’t – you need to keep the audience interested in these characters for as long as you possibly can, and if the main Suzumiya Haruhi series is on hiatus while its author deals with trying to wrap yup the monster he’s created, and the manga has to end as it can’t make up new Main Storyline stuff – well then, you keep the spinoffs going for as long as they are able.

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(For the record, I have generally assumed that when dealing with spinoff titles like these, the main plot is being created by the artist, with the writer only signing off on suggestions and censoring plots he wants to handle himself. Thus I assume that Puyo is in charge of both this and the Haruhi-chan manga, but I could be wrong.)

This volume really reads like the author was intending to wrap it up here. Yuki and her AU counterpart have a talk in her mind, after which she’s back to normal with no memories of what happened before… which is a bit of a pain to Kyon and Ryouko. Luckily it’s summer vacation and Haruhi returns to drag everyone through a series of fun activities. You can see Puyo starting to wrap things up. Haruhi reveals how things changed for her 3 years prior, and shows how she developed in a different, slightly more sedate direction due to Kyon’s unthinking response. There’s a sense she’;s moving on from him here. Likewise, Kyon manages to resolve the awkwardness he feels around Nagato, and we finally get to the big confession…

…except there are fireworks, so she doesn’t hear him. And he immediately pulls back, noting that it’s OK if he said it, and now they can go back to their happy carefree days. We then move on to a slight homework arc, and return to the school for the 2nd half of the year, which features Haruhi trying to figure out how to inveigle herself into the culture festival despite not going to that school, and the return of a very familiar face.

Yes, if you write a spinoff featuring the most popular Haruhi character in a starring role, it makes sense to bring in the big breakout character of the last few years as well. So Sasaki’s back. What will her return mean for the relationship between Yuki and Kyon? Probably not a lot, to be honest. But it will at least keep it dragged out for another couple of volumes, which is all Kadokawa asks, really.

I really do enjoy this title. I wish the art rose above mediocre, but given the popularity of Attack on Titan, mediocre art is not a big setback anymore. Puyo specializes in quiet, introspective emotional moments, and the humor here is gentle and mild – it’s probably to contrast with the Haruhi-chan 4-koma he also writes. But I simply can never get out of my head the fact that this is a cash grab for a large anime franchise, and the addition of Sasaki and pullback from an obvious ending do nothing to assuage my worries in that regard. As always, recommended for Haruhi fans.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Vol. 4: Jaburo

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Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Volume 4: JaburoCreator: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story: Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654988
Released: December 2013
Original release: 2008

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s manga series Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin was my first real introduction to the massively popular Gundam franchise. I was somewhat hesitant to enter into the fray; Gundam can appear rather daunting to a newcomer considering the sheer number of series and alternate timelines involved. However, I was already a fan of Yasuhiko’s other manga. If I was going to start anywhere with Gundam it made sense for me to start with The Origin. So far, in my admittedly limited experience with the Gundam franchise, The Origin has been my favorite rendition of the story. The manga is a retelling of the original 1979 anime series with which Yasuhiko was also involved. Jaburo is the fourth volume in the collector’s edition of The Origin, initially published in Japan in 2008 and released in English by Vertical in 2013. The guest contributor for Jaburo was Yokusaru Shibata, which I believe makes it his manga debut in English.

After a far too brief stalemate in which fighting had all but ceased, the war between the self-proclaimed Principality of Zeon and the Earth Federation has quickly begun to escalate once more. Escaping from the destruction of the Federation’s Side 7 space colony, the ship White Base is carrying with it the Federation’s best hope to regain technological superiority over Zeon–the newly developed Gundam mobile suit. Crewed by a mix of civilians and inexperienced military personnel and doggedly pursued by some of Zeon’s finest commanders, White Base has surprisingly been able to persevere. The ship is drawing closer to Jaburo, the Federation’s headquarters on Earth, but the journey will still require passing through Zeon-occupied territory. The mission’s success and the crew’s survival will not only depend on their own inherent skills and talents but the support received from what remains of the Federation military and its dwindling resources.

While the war between Zeon and the Federation continues on a grand scale, Jaburo reveals some of the very personal reasons why the individual soldiers have chosen to fight that war and why some of the civilians have joined in the battle as well. Over the last couple of volumes in The Origin, Zeon has suffered several deaths of particular significance. Garma Zabi’s death has served as a rallying point for Zeon’s forces as a whole, but Ramba Ral’s death has triggered a much more aggressive vendetta from those who knew him best. They are less concerned with Zeon’s cause than they are with their own personal revenge. But neither side of the conflict is immune to the effects of war. In Jaburo, it’s the Federation and the crew of White Base who must face some severe losses of their own. Death and destruction has not been lacking in The Origin, but growing to know the characters, what they hold important, and what they are willing to die for make their demise even more potent.

In addition to the excellent character development found in Jaburo, I was also particularly impressed by Yasuhiko’s artwork in this volume. The color work is especially effective. In general, I have largely favored Yasuhiko’s black and white illustrations in The Origin, but the color artwork in Jaburo is simply gorgeous. The lush greens and blues of the Amazon and South America are beautiful, contrasting with the reds and oranges of fires and explosions as humankind continues to destroy itself. Yasuhiko’s black and white art in the series remains very strong as well and has a fantastic “old school” feel to it. The battles are fierce and dramatic, but Yasuhiko handles the chaos in a controlled manner that still retains a sense of pandemonium. The story has moved from space to Earth and so the technology, mobile suits, and strategies have to be adjusted for the new environment. Both the characters and Yasuhiko are aware of this, and it shows in Jaburo. I’m continuing to enjoy The Origin and look forward to reading more.

Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishōnen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature

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Writing the Love of BoysAuthor: Jeffrey Angles
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816669707
Released: February 2011

I’ve recently become rather enamoured with Edogawa Rampo and his writings which is how I happened to come across Jeffrey Angles’ Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishōnen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature. Published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2011, the volume is an extension of Angles’ 2004 PhD dissertation “Writing the Love of Boys: Representations of Male-Male Desire in the Literature of Murayama Kaita and Edogawa Rampo.” Angles is currently an associate professor of Japanese literature, language, and translation at Western Michigan University. His primary research interests include translation, modern Japanese poetry, and romance and sexuality in Japanese literature, and especially the portrayal of same-sex desire. All of these subjects are at least touched upon if not thoroughly explored in Writing the Love of Boys. They are all topics that I am particularly interested in as well, so I was rather pleased to discover Writing the Love of Boys while searching for more information on Rampo and his works.

In Writing the Love of Boys, Angles examines the expression of same-sex desire, and specifically male-male desire, in Japanese literature during the late Taishō era (1912-1926) and early Shōwa period (1926-1989). In doing so he focuses on the work of three authors in particular: Murayama Kaita (1896-1919), who was also a poet and a painter; Edogawa Rampo (1894-1965), an incredibly influential writer of detective and mystery fiction among other things; and Inagaki Taruho (1900-1977), whose avant-garde work is noted as being particularly innovative. All three of these authors produced work that either incorporated or directly addressed male-male desire of both homosocial and homoerotic nature. Writing during a time in which attitudes towards sexuality in Japan were changing due to the influence of new medical and psychological approaches, Kaita, Rampo, and Taruho portrayed male-male desire in a way that was different from their immediate predecessors. Placing them within this historical and literary context, Angles also shows how their work would influence creators who followed them as well.

Another subject that is particularly important in Writing the Love of Boys is the erotic grotesque nonsense movement and fad of the 1920s and 1930s. Ero guro literature allowed its authors to explore the bizarre and the strange, including sexual desire that was considered by society to be perverse. However, although Kaita, Rampo, and Taruho were all involved in the rise of ero guro literature, Angles argues that their portrayal of male-male desire was frequently sympathetic and even subversive within the context of the genre which generally used sexuality for the purpose of titillation. Of the three authors that Angles focuses on in Writing the Love of Boys, it is Rampo who is the most well-known in English and who has had more of his work translated. Reading Angles’ analyses and translated excerpts of these three authors’ work, I can’t help but lament the fact that more of their writing isn’t currently available in English. But even though most of the works discussed in Writing the Love of Boys have yet to be released in translation, it is still interesting and valuable to learn about their place and importance within the literary and queer history of Japan.

For me, one of the most intriguing parts of Writing the Love of Boys was the literary lineage that Angles outlines, beginning with Kaita, who influenced Rampo, who in turn collaborated with Taruho, who was a direct inspiration to Takemiya Keiko, one of the creators whose work in the 1970s would lay the foundation for the entire boys’ love genre. In fact, much of the conclusion of Writing the Love of Boys is devoted to the lasting influence and legacies of Kaita, Rampo, and Taruho that can be seen in boys’ love manga. Angles credits Taruho as one of the authors who began developing an aesthetic of male-male desire for a female audience; several of his stories, including his debut, were published in magazines for women. This is one of the links that Angles uses to tie these three authors to the more recently developed genre of stories featuring male-male love primarily written for women by women. To some extent it does feel a little tangential to the work as a whole, and it was somewhat jarring to jump from the 1930s to the 1970s and beyond, but there is a legitimate connection. I found Writing the Love of Boys to be incredibly fascinating; it ended up addressing more of my interests than I initially realized it would–queer theory, ero guro, and even manga, in addition to many other topics.

Soul Eater, Vol. 18

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By Atsushi Ohkubo. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Soul Eater is an ensemble cast, but as with most ensemble casts, some characters are more lead than others, and so Soul Eater really stars Maka and Soul. Throughout the series we’ve seen the growing closeness between the two, and the confidence that they now have. Which is why the chapters on Envy and Sloth that they both go through are so traumatic. It’s such a shame that Maka, deep down, really has these issues with her. Of course, Maka is all of us, and you can never quite get rid of that core of self-loathing, no matter how much confidence you have. Luckily, Maka has Soul to snap her out of it.

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As for everyone else, the Lust chapter actually plays out a lot faster than everyone thought, once the basic ‘what if they all changed sexes’ gag is done. Naturally, the more repressed a person is, the longer it takes to change back, which gives us an excuse to watch Tsubaki and Liz be humiliated. Gluttony, Wrath and Pride are excuses for character-based humor, as Black*Star and Patti pig out and we have to deal with the return of the most annoying sword in the world, which even Liz can’t wield in order to save Kid. (There’s some amusing 4th wall breaking here, as it’s noted that Black*Star screaming at Excalibur is buried in the gutter of the book.)

Speaking of 4th wall breaking, the art itself undergoes a change in the Sloth chapter, fitting in with what Maka and Soul are going through. This is probably the most disturbing part of the book, as Giriko shows up and threatens to rape Maka using extremely crude language, which (being in an existential crisis) she just sits there and takes. Luckily, Soul is there to come to her rescue, and she’s able to supposedly kill Giriko, though this may prove trickier than they expected. “People don’t explode when you kill them!” Is this meant to be another commentary on shonen tropes?

And then there’s Kid. We’ve had his obsessive-compulsive disorder used for humor for so long that it’s a bit jarring to see it be so serious now. And, truth be told, it’s a great way to get Kid to turn to the side of evil – point out that the best way everything can truly be symmetrical forever is to make everything become nothing, the empty symmetry of nonexistence. It’s chilling. Luckily, we have the one man whose ego is so big that facing off against something like this is nothing, and the cliffhanger sets us up for the big fight between Kid and Black*Star. The first time they fought, Kid wiped the floor with him, but I suspect things will go differently this time.

Soul Eater is slowly makes its way towards a big confrontation, but the journey is also fun, and this continues to be one of the best shonen titles out there.

Dawn of the Arcana Vols 11 and 12

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Dawn of the Arcana Vol 11 by Rei Toma

Dawn of the Arcana is a series that I think is best experienced in mini bursts of 2 or 3 volumes, simply due to the deliberate pace of the storytelling in the manga, as well as the fact that it sometimes takes a half volume or so for my brain to kick in with my memories about what happened in the previous volume due to all the relationships developing and the shifting nature of the geopolitical situations happening in Toma’s world. Usually I’m far too impatient to let the volumes pile up like this though!

After 10 volumes, the new status quo for red haired socially outcast with alarming powers of precognition Princess Nakaba and formerly arrogant but really a nice guy who has a social conscience inspired by the power of love Prince Caesar is to be separated. Nakaba has returned to Senan, determined to do some ruling in her own right, and Caesar is back in his home country of Belquat, dealing with his evil family. This volume shows the emotional impact of Nakaba’s power, the Arcana of Time, as she is determined to save the outcast child of a village that is in the direct path of an avalanche. This becomes a story that further explores the position of the humanoid animal hybrid race called ajin, as Lala the child with bunny ears is actually the product of a human/ajin encounter, leading to her abandonment. Lala has one human friend, and Nakaba’s ever present ajin protector Loki is there to save the day as always.

Loki always seems to have a new revelation every few volumes, either about his emotions or background, and a secret is revealed in this volume that shows that he and Nakaba have even more in common than I previously thought. While there’s the more conventional romantic storyline with Caesar and Nakaba, I actually find Nakaba’s relationship with Loki much more interesting, as they trade off protector duties in unexpected ways. Nakaba decides to take power in her home country, and her choices are largely driven by wanting to prevent Loki from going too far for her.

Dawn of the Arcana Vol 12 by Rei Toma

Everything keeps zipping along, as now that Nakaba and Caesar are in power in their respective countries, they have a chance to finally see each other again, when Caesar is ordered to invade Senan. Nakaba’s been looking in on Caesar and remarks that he’s going to start a revolution, so she’s “Here to lend a hand.” Nakaba’s power also provides Toma with a great way of providing more backstory about her characters. Nakaba looks back at Caesar’s father when he was young, even though Loki warns her that it might be difficult for her to see because she’s “too kind”. Nakaba sees King Guran’s first meeting with his unconventional first queen, the commoner Sara. The unhappy ending of this romance provides a reason for why King Guran might have ended up so twisted and bitter, but it doesn’t prevent a confrontation that is sure to cause even more fallout to happen in the volumes ahead.

One of the things that I really like about the art in this series is that it is so clear and easy to read. Toma might not have the most intricate backgrounds or innovative approach to paneling, but I’m never left puzzled about action scenes or finding that I have to go back and reread a page to make sure I understand the sequencing. The wordless exchanges between Nakaba and Caesar and the sidelong glances between Loki and Caesar do more to express the tensions between the characters than several pages of dialog. Overall, these were two very solid volumes in a fantasy series that is always surprising me with unexpected depths. I’m looking forward to the next few volumes to see what will become of Nakaba, Caesar, and Loki (well, really mostly Loki).

Blue

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BlueCreator: Kiriko Nananan
U.S. publisher: Fanfare/Ponent Mon
ISBN: 9788493340971
Released: 2006
Original release: 1997

I first discovered Kiriko Nananan’s work while reading Secret Comics Japan: Underground Comics Now. Two of her short manga–“Heartless Bitch” and “Painful Love”–were included in the volume. I was quite taken by the pieces and so was determined to find more of Nananan’s manga in English. Sadly, very little has been translated. Another of her short manga, “Kisses,” was collected in Sake Jock: Comics from Today’s Japanese Underground, an early English anthology of alternative Japanese manga. Nananan debuted in the avant-garde manga magazine Garo in 1993, which is one of the reasons her work is found in these “underground” collections. She is particularly well-known for her short manga; Blue is her only long-form manga to have been released in English. Originally published in Japan in 1997, Fanfare/Ponent Mon published the English edition of the manga in 2006 after releasing a Spanish-language edition in 2004. Blue has also been translated into French and German. The manga was also popular enough to receive a live-action film adaptation directed by Hiroshi Ando in 2002.

“The sky that stretches out above the dark sea. The school uniforms and our desperate awkwardness. If those adornments of our youth held any color it would have been deep blue.” Thus begins Kiriko Nananan’s Blue. Kayako Kirishima, a senior at the Hijiri all-girls high school, is fascinated by her classmate Masami Endō, the young woman who sits directly in front of her. Endō was suspended from school the previous year. Because of that and her general attitude, many of the students at Hijiri find her difficult to approach. But Kirishima eventually musters up the courage to finally talk to Endō. Her fascination becomes friendship and eventually love. But their relationship isn’t an easy one. Uncertainty, worry for the future, and past regrets all have an impact on Kirishima and Endō and how they relate to each other and to the rest of their friends. Love can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be painful. As high school draws to an end, they must face the inevitable changes in their lives either together or alone.

Nananan’s artwork in Blue is very simple, almost minimalistic, and yet it is also incredibly arresting. There is very little shading employed. In fact, the use of negative and white space is just as important to the manga’s composition as the deep black of Nananan’s ink work. It has a distancing and cooling effect. The fragility of Kirishima and Endō’s relationship is reflected in the fragility of Nananan’s lines. At times the pages are nearly empty, giving a sense of loss and contemplativeness, as if the feelings of the two young women are in danger of disappearing altogether. Body language is especially important in Blue. Hands in particular are a recurring motif and are very expressive–they reach out to grasp someone or to push them away, they hide a face in shame or frustration. Nananan shows intimacy of varying degrees in Blue through the characters’ actions and touch. It can be extremely sensual, but it can also be very chaste.

Blue has a reflective, poetic, and lyrical quality to it. The manga is a fairly simple and straightforward story of first love which is both sweet and sad. However, Nananan is adept at capturing the realistic complexities of love and all of the feelings associated with it–the jealousy and heartache as well as the happiness and joy. Kirishima is constantly thinking about Endō. Even when she isn’t immediately present on the page Endō is the focal point of the manga and always on Kirishima’s mind. The two of them obviously care deeply about each other and so it is particularly unfortunate that they seem unable to be completely open and honest with each other or with themselves. They are both young and don’t always make the best or most mature decisions. Blue is told from Kirishima’s perspective as she looks back from some point in the future to her high school days with understandable sentimentality. Although the manga is frequently melancholic and intensely emotional, it never comes across as melodramatic. Blue is a beautiful and striking work; I would love to see more of Nananan’s manga translated.

Wandering Son, Vol. 6

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Wandering Son, Volume 6Creator: Takako Shimura
U.S. publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 9781606997079
Released: January 2014
Original release: 2007

Wandering Son is currently the only manga by Takako Shimura to have been released in print in English. Although I would love to see more of her work translated and published, I am particularly grateful that it is Wandering Son that has been licensed for print release. (Fantagraphics’ large format hardcover edition is simply lovely, too.) Wandering Son is a beautiful series that explores the young protagonists’ search for personal identity and addresses issues of gender and sexuality in a very sincere, sensitive, and accessible way. Wandering Son often hits incredibly close to home for me which is one of the reasons that I personally hold the series so dear. I’m not sure how popular the series is in general, but it has been well-received by critics both inside and outside of Japan. The sixth volume of Wandering Son was initially published in Japan in 2007. Fantagraphics’ English-language edition of Wandering Son, Volume 6 was released in 2014.

As the school’s cultural festival approaches, the students are hard at work preparing for their classes’ projects. Chiba and Shuichi are trying to put the final touches on their script for a gender-swapped version of Romeo and Juliet despite some of their classmates’ well-intentioned interference. To Chiba and Shuichi the play is much more than a simple seventh-grade class production. It’s also a very personal expression of their desires: Chiba wants to see Shuichi in the role of Juliet and Shuichi wants to be seen as a girl. In some ways their version of Romeo and Juliet is a reflection of Shuichi and Takatsuki as the two of them are faced with challenging society’s established gender roles and expectations. Shuichi and Takatsuki’s bonding over the play is a source of immense frustration for Chiba. She’s in love with Shuichi, and Shuichi has feelings for Takatsuki, but Takatsuki isn’t interested in pursuing those feelings. The result is that there’s quite a bit of drama both on and off the stage.

For my part, I’m glad to see Shuichi and Takatsuki becoming close again after their relationship was disrupted by Shuichi’s confession of love. Thankfully, they were able to work through that and are once again able to lean and rely on each other as friends. This is particularly important for the two of them since they share so much in common. The additional support is something that Shuichi especially needs. At the beginning of Wandering Son, Shuichi was a very meek and hesitant person. However, as the series has progressed, Shuichi has grown, becoming much more assertive and confident and is now able to begin to express in words needs and desires. In a very touching scene with Takatsuki, Shuichi sums it up quite nicely, “It’s my wish. You as a boy…me as a girl…a happy ending for everybody.” It’s really the first time that Shuichi has been able to be so clear and forthright about the their situation. Happily, it’s not the last time that it happens, but it is a very formative and noteworthy moment.

One of the things that Shimura captures remarkably well in Wandering Son is the natural development of the characters and their relationships with one another. Wandering Son is a story about growing up and determining not only who you are as an individual but who you are in relation to other people; how people see themselves in addition to how others see them. Life itself could be said to be a performance. It’s particularly interesting then that in Wandering Son, Volume 6 so many parallels are made between Shuichi and Takatsuki’s real life and the very deliberately crafted Romeo and Juliet production. Through it they are able to reveal a part of themselves for everyone to see. It may not be a particularly subtle narrative technique on Shimura’s part, but it is a very effective one. The play echos their experiences, emphasizing specific aspects of their lives and relationships not only for the characters, but for the readers as well. Wandering Son continues to be an absolutely wonderful series. As always, I am very much looking forward to the next volume.

Oh, Tama!

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Oh, Tama!Author: Mieko Kanai
Translator: Tomoko Aoyama and Paul McCarthy
U.S. publisher: Kurodahan Press
ISBN: 9784902075670
Released: January 2014
Original release: 1987
Awards: Women’s Literature Prize

Oh, Tama! is the third volume of Mieko Kanai’s work to be translated into English. The first was The Word Book, a collection of her short stories from the 1970s, while the second was a short novel called Indian Summer. Both Oh, Tama! and Indian Summer are a part of Kanai’s Mejiro Series–a group of novels tied together more by location and characters than by an overarching plot (though some events do cross over from one novel to another.) Indian Summer is actually the third volume in that series while Oh, Tama!, even though it was translated later, is the second. Oh, Tama! was originally serialized between 1986 and 1987 before being collected and released as a single volume which went on to win Kanai the Women’s Literature Prize in 1988. The English-language translation by Tomoko Aoyama and Paul McCarthy, released by Kurodahan Press in 2014, is based on the 1999 Japanese edition of the novel. I was very pleased to receive a copy of Oh, Tama! through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.

Tsuneko is pregnant. No one except for her and maybe her half-brother Alexandre (if he really is her half-brother) is entirely sure who the father is. Natsuyuki was one of the candidates, but for various reasons instead of being given the role of “father” he has had the responsibility of caring for Tama–Tusnkeo’s pet cat, also pregnant–thrust upon him by Alexandre. It’s a rather strange turn of events, especially when Tusneko leaves the country and Tama becomes one of the only remaining links to her left in Tokyo. The other potential fathers-to-be are trying to find or at least contact Tsuneko, which eventually leads them to Natsuyuki and Tama. In yet another bizarre twist of fate, one of them, Fuyuhiko, actually turns out to be Natsuyuki’s very own long-lost half-brother, making for a rather odd meeting.

There’s actually not much of a driving plot to Oh, Tama!. Instead, Kanai focuses on the mundane lives of the characters. Even the novel’s setting is unremarkable–almost the entire story takes place within the confines of Natsuyuki’s small apartment. Tama provides a focal point from which Kanai explores the interpersonal relationships between Natsuyuki, his friends, family members, and neighbors. The characters in Oh, Tama! aren’t particularly exceptional people although they’re all slightly quirky, eccentric, and offbeat. Their relationships also follow that same pattern of being just a little peculiar and unusual. I actually quite like Natsuyuki and the others and find their interactions, though fairly low-key, to be delightfully amusing as well as realistic. According to one of Kanai’s afterwords, the characters in Oh, Tama! are actually based on real people, so perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising that their relationships, in all of their strangeness, should also feel so natural.

The translators’ introduction to Oh, Tama! describes the novel as “a treasure chest of rich and varied parody, allusion and intertextuality.” Since I haven’t actually read many of the works being alluded to, many of the references (even when pointed out) were a little lost on me. However, I could appreciate what Kanai was doing. Personally, what appealed to me most about Oh, Tama! were the characters themselves. Natsuyuki is a fairly laid back sort of guy, but this tendency (mostly because complaining or actually trying to change things would take too much effort) puts him into some odd situations. Alexandre, who seems to delight in messing with people, is often more concerned about Tama and the kittens than any of the people around him. I found their slightly antagonistic friendship and their interactions with Fuyuhiko and the others to be highly entertaining. I greatly enjoyed Oh, Tama! and its quirky, understated humor. So much so that I plan on reading the next novel in the Mejiro series, Indian Summer, in the very near future.

Thank you Kurodahan Press for providing a copy of Oh, Tama! for review.

Vinland Saga, Vol. 2

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Vinland Saga, Omnibus 2Creator: Makoto Yukimura
U.S. publisher: Kodansha
ISBN: 9781612624211
Released: January 2014
Original release: 2006-2007
Awards: Japan Media Arts Award, Kodansha Manga Award

The second Vinland Saga omnibus, released by Kodansha in 2014, collects the third and fourth volumes of Makoto Yukimura’s historical manga series originally published in Japan in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Vinland Saga first began serialization in 2005 and has since earned Yukimura several honors, including a Japan Media Arts Award in 2009 and a Kodansha Manga Award in 2012. Vinland Saga was a series that I had been hoping would be licensed in English for years and so I was understandably thrilled when Kodansha picked the series up. Kodansha’s edition of Vinland Saga is quite nice–hardcover omnibuses which include color pages and have a larger trim size than the publisher’s previous releases. Vinland Saga is Kodansha’s first deluxe manga; personally, I think it’s a series which deserves the special treatment. I was not at all disappointed with the first omnibus of Vinland Saga and so was eagerly awaiting the release of the second.

In the early part of the eleventh century, England was under frequent attack by Vikings. In 1013, after years of fighting, England’s King Ethelred has been driven into exile in France while King Sweyn of Denmark proceeds with his invasion of the country. The Danes aren’t entirely united though, and many of the king’s forces are more like mercenaries or bands of pirates than they are loyal followers. Some groups, such as those led by Thorkell the Tall, have actually aligned themselves with the English in the conflict. Others, such as Askeladd’s band of warriors, fight under King Sweyn simply because he currently has the more advantageous position and the chance of reward is therefore much greater. But there is some infighting among Askeladd’s ranks as well. The only reason that Thorfinn, a skilled young fighter, follows him is for the chance to seek revenge against Askeladd for the death of his father. In the meantime, Thorfinn serves both as one of Askeladd’s most valuable and most expendable assets.

I enjoyed the first omnibus of Vinland Saga a great deal, but I think that I probably enjoyed the second one even more. Yukimura has struck an ideal balance between exciting action sequences and combat and the more personal and emotional character development of the fighters who are involved. Vinland Saga is both epic and intimate in its scope. War is occurring between nations, but it is the characters’ individual struggles that make the story so visceral and compelling. Many of the warriors in Vinland Saga are bloodthirsty, seeking glory and taking pleasure from battle itself rather than from any sort of perceived noble cause. But there are exceptions. Thorfinn despises this fighting for fighting’s sake. However, while his search for revenge may arguably be more righteous, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s in the right. Askeladd, too, has some very legitimate justifications for fighting. But while his skills as a warrior and strategist are commendable, many of his actions are deplorable.

The depth of characterization in Vinland Saga is impressive. In this omnibus, Askeladd in particular is shown to be a much more complicated figure than he may have first appeared. Vinland Saga, Omnibus 2 delves into part of his backstory, which only begins to reveal his motivations and who he really is as a person. Yukimura’s attention to detail in Vinland Saga extends beyond the characters themselves. The amount of research he has conducted allows him to portray the time period realistically, taking into consideration major historical events but also incorporating religious issues and matters of the day-to-day lives of royalty, mercenaries, and common folk. The artwork, too, can be incredibly detailed. The landscapes and environments are beautifully rendered and each character, even the multitudes of unnamed combatants, have distinctive designs. Vinland Saga really is an excellent series. I’m enjoying it immensely and am extremely happy that it’s finally available in English.

Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 23

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By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume wasn’t really supposed to be read on its own – it came out in Japan at the same time as Vol. 24, as it’s one big epic storyline resolution. But here in North America, where Hayate’s sales sort of suck, we get this volume now and Vol. 24 in late summer. That said, it’s not like this is incoherent without the other volume, it just leaves us with another nasty cliffhanger. More to the point, everything is finally tying together as the universe sets out to make Hayate’s life miserable, and he helps it along as best he can.

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Not that Hayate is the only one suffering – we get the aftermath of Hina’s confession, as her heart is shattered into little pieces but she still manages to say the right things to Hayate. There are many characters in this series who are at their best when they’re absolutely miserable, and Hina’s is one of the bigger examples. That said, I suspect she’s not simply going to sit back at the hotel for the rest of this arc and let Athena steal the show…

Nor is Nagi, though she doesn’t really appear much in this volume. Hayate’s self-worth is tied directly to the fact that Nagi ‘saved’ him from his old life, and therefore when Mikado (who is really being a horrible old bastard here) forces him to choose between Nagi’s happiness (as losing all her wealth will destroy her) and Athena’s (as she may very well die if Hayate doesn’t intervene), it’s snot surprising that he freezes up and goes into a bit of a blue funk. It’s not so much a Lady or the Tiger choice as it is two kinds of tiger.

And then there’s Athena (who has a comedy relief servant, Makina, who is appropriately a bit of a dark Hayate to Athena’s Dark Nagi). There’s a bit of possession by evil going on, so her desire to get the King’s Jewel at all costs it wrapped up in that. Her feelings for Hayate seem to be genuine, though, and it’s telling that the evil inside her is allowed to take over when she realizes that Nagi is the one who saved him and the most important woman in his life right now. This leads to summoning giant demonic spirits to kill Hayate once and for all. Thank goodness for Isumi…

…who arrives just in time to lose her first battle in the entire series (as possessed-Athena points out to her, “You’ve never had to face someone stronger than you, have you?), so our heroes have to run away for a bit. Isumi also gets to be infodump girl, informing Hayate that even if they destroy the stone, the shock of the thing that’s currently possessing her being destroyed may kill Athena. He really does have no good options here. Well, except this is a shonen manga, so he can go back and plead with her to listen to reason some more. I suspect that’s what we’ll see next.

At the time this came out, a lot of folks were wondering if this might be the conclusion, and if Hayate would actually end up with Athena. No fear (it’s up to Vol. 39 in Japan now), but this is still an excellent buildup to something big. Can Hayate win despite his amazing powers of self-hatred?

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.