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Reviews

Paradise Kiss, Vol. 3

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By Ai Yazawa. Released in Japan by Shodensha, serialized in the magazine Zipper. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc.

The cover of this final volume of Paradise Kiss features Yukari, looking gorgeous in that vaguely ridiculous way that haute couture always does, with butterfly wings on her back and roses on her breasts, staring off towards the camera looking like she’s about to cry. It could almost be one of her model shoots, except that none of them really want that kind of emotion – they want happy, relaxed, “wow, I want to be like her so I will buy this product” Yukari – or, when she’s modeling with George, “Wow, I want George so I will be like her.” Yukari is best in modeling when she’s self-assured and casual, which is the exact opposite of her teenage years and her relationship with George.

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There was a point about halfway through this volume when I’d really had it up to here with Yukari, as her self-loathing, jealousy, and highly wrought emotional state all come together at once with the arrival of Kaori, George’s old classmate and friend. Not only is she the one girl who seems to have resisted his advances – but she’s become successful, seems to have her act together, and also manages to be the one to advance the plot (and George’s career) when George himself is unable or unwilling to. And yet she’s not with George – and neither is Yukari, as after this scene I think George has realized that being with her as a couple is bad for both of them individually.

Yukari has realized this too, of course, but wants desperately to cling to what she has anyway. We’ve all been there – it’s our first love, so we’re determined to make it work even when there’s all sorts of evidence that it won’t. It’s hard to let go. In addition, it’s all too easy to let fear and self-hatred put things in a holding pattern as well. This is Arashi’s issue, who can’t understand why Miwako doesn’t hate him, especially as she knows she still loves Hiro. Of course, it’s because she loves Arashi, and is trying hard to make things work. They, unlike George and Yukari, have a relationship where they’re better people together than they are separately. Arashi’s still bad with words, but his inviting Hiro to the shrine visitation speaks volumes.

Of course, just because the two leads aren’t a good couple in the long run didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of love and affection there. George’s final gesture to Yukari is typically grandiose, but also shows how much she really meant to him, even if he didn’t always communicate it properly. It could be argued that the epilogue is a bit overly happy – Yukari is successful as a model and actress, George is designing Broadway shows, Arashi and Miwako have a kid – but that’s pretty much exactly what we want from the series. This was about a group of overambitious, overemotional overachievers. They crashed and burned in their teenage years, both in love and in the ParaKiss brand, but it only gave them more strength. Yukari gets told at one point, worrying about embarrassing herself on a catwalk, “Well, yeah, you’re gonna do that, all models do at first.” By not giving up, and keeping that drive for success and happiness, Yukari and her friends earn the right to their shiny happy ending. Even if, like Yukari, you’ll tear up a bit as well.

One Piece, Vol. 66

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

The cover to this volume of One Piece is very telling, given that this volume ends one arc and begins another. In the foreground, we have Luffy, Jimbei and Shirahoshi, but new events are creeping in in the background, with Big Mom’s pirates one the right and Smoker and Tashigi on the left. Things are in a state of flux, and we aren’t quite sure where the manga is headed next. (That is, if we’re reading the manga only by volumes, Most North American readers can now read Shonen Jump weekly on Viz’s site, where Punk Hazard has just finished. Viz seems content to have the volumes be about a year behind the weekly chapters.)

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Hody Jones having been defeated at the end of the last volume (and his comeuppance is highly amusing, and makes for a good capper to the “drugs are bad” plotline he and his mates had), all that’s left is to stop the ark crashing into the island and sinking it. Which is done, with the help of some ancient and powerful sea monsters who are mostly there to be mysterious. Then there’s the standard “we’ve won, let’s have a party” finale, which always gives us a nice two-page spread.

Most of what’s interesting about this volume, though, is the backstory we don’t really see. Robin has discovered the true nature of Shirahoshi, and it’s quite surprising. (And makes me wonder about Alabasta, which told of the location of another one of those ancient weapons – man, if it turns out to be Vivi, I’ll be highly amused.) Jimbei tells us that Akainu and Aokiji fought to see who would be leader of the Marines. It’s not a big surprise that Akainu wins, but Aokiji then resigning might lead to more surprises down the road. Oda sometimes compresses manga stories for time, and I suspect this is a battle he wanted to show but just never got a chance to. And of course this means the Marines are still after them, with Smoker and Tashigi, both now promoted, hot on their trail.

Speaking of Tashigi, the Marines seem to be treating her as they did Hina, which is to say half-awesome Captain and half sexpot. Hina, like Nami and Robin, didn’t really give a rat’s ass what they said. But Tashigi is obviously bothered by the sexism, and calls it out. Of course, I doubt very much this will stop it. Oda’s less sexist than some other Jump authors, but it creeps in here and there (look at how he draws most of the women now vs. 10 years ago), and I think Tashigi drawing attention to it just makes it more obvious. But hey, I’m glad to see her back regardless.

The Straw-Hat crew, meanwhile, leave Fishman Island to travel to, naturally, the most dangerous place Luffy can find (this is after going through a deathtrap waterspout with the help of some whales who aren’t Laboon, but could be his parents). There’s some lovely art here, and I like that, while the spout itself terrifies the designated crew members who get scared (Nami, Usopp, and Chopper), the terrifying visage of the New World just makes everyone happy. Well, happy till they reach Punk Hazard, with its ravaged landscape, fire-breathing dragons, and bottom halves of samurai. Oh, and half the crew already captured. Never let it be said that Oda paces things slowly.

If you love One Piece, you’ll love this. If not, this is absolutely not the perfect place to start – go back and read the early volumes.

Strobe Edge, Vol. 3

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Strobe Edge is the manga equivalent of comfort food and I find myself liking it more and more with each volume. The third volume explores the emerging love triangle between Ninako, reformed womanizer Ando, and unavailable but perfect Ren. Ninako is struggling a bit with wanting to be friends with Ren after being rejected previously, and things become even more emotionally traumatic when it seems like Ren is deliberately acting cold to her. Ren actually being a good guy, he is attempting to protect Ninako from the attentions of the Rejected by Ren Girl Squad, who have targeted Ninako with their bullying ways. This gets cleared up relatively quickly, but more complications are on the way as Ando’s feelings towards Ninako grow and deepen. The two guys in love with a slightly oblivious girl is a well-word shoujo plot device, but Ninako is oblivious and friendly that it is difficult to get annoyed with her. Sakisaka does a good job portraying the subtle ways that Ren and Ninako continue to be drawn towards each other. They have a random conversation about sweets and Ren reveals that he doesn’t think that his girlfriend even knows that fact about himself because he pretends to dislike them around her because she’s always watching her figure. Ren’s general protectiveness towards Ninako is unusual given is general indifference towards other girls. Ren’s actions like helping Ninako out at a school festival and providing extra math tutoring seem to go a bit beyond the limits of normal guy niceness.

Ando has plenty of feelings for Ninako but seems to be holding back both due to his awareness of her feelings for Ren and his realization that she probably couldn’t handle it. He hints around about his feelings and even confronts Ninako about her feelings for Ren, saying “You can’t love someone forever…without getting something back from them.” Ando’s brash personality is a big contrast to Ren’s more quiet thoughtfulness, but it is clear that he does actually care about Ninako and isn’t trifling with the idea of having a relationship with her.

I feel like Sakisaka’s art has grown a bit after three volumes. While the first volume focused a bit too much on Ninako’s blushing naivete, there are more comedic moments in this volume, mostly at Ando’s expense as he gets crushed in a subway car while Ren protects Ninako. When Ninako, Ren, and Ando all start a part-time job in a cafe, Ren and Ando are portrayed as the ultimate desirable waiters, smoothly taking care of everything, while Ninako’s enthusiasm almost makes up for her clumsiness. It is easy to see how well Strobe Edge fits into the Shojo Beat line and with so many series ending or about to end, I’m glad to have a newer series to follow.

Skip Beat, Vol. 30

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Skip Beat Volume 30 by Yoshiki Nakamura

I continue to be an absolute fangirl over the current Skip Beat storyline about the Heel siblings. It says a lot that 30 volumes into this series I’m still so excited each time I pick up a new volume. Even with some of my other beloved shoujo series like Boys Over Flowers, I think I was starting to get impatient for things to wrap up around volume 30 but as far as I’m concerned I would be perfectly happy for Skip Beat to continue on indefinitely.

Nakamura is very clever about how she’s structured Skip Beat, because while there are plenty of shoujo series out there that use show business as a superficial setting, she really uses the idea of acting and the challenge of portraying other characters to highlight the inner psychological turmoil of her characters. I begin to get a better sense of why Kyoko and Ren are portraying the abnormally close punked-out Heel siblings. Ren playing a actor playing a role of a violent criminal gives him a certain amount of distance from the role in his new movie, a role that is dangerously close to the person he used to be as Kuon. This volume shows Ren’s legendary control slipping a bit as even with the protective layer of Cain Heel, the self he thought was buried starts to resurface.

Kyoko as Ren’s sibling functions as an important anchor for him, but she’s beginning to get a bit disconcerted by her physical proximity to Ren, and while she is attempting to carry out her real life role as best she can, she isn’t able to stay entirely in character. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Skip Beat is how visually dynamic it is. There’s an extended action sequence at the start of this volume, but there’s plenty of visual interest as Kyoko and Ren both just process their thoughts about their situation. Ren cycles through different aspects of himself as we see the violent and non-reflective Kuon from the past, the grim Cain Heel role, and then glimpses of present-day Ren slip through the cracks in his performance as he interacts with Kyoko. It is nice to be able to count on Skip Beat for a reliable dose of shoujo manga goodness.

Barrage, Vols. 1- 2

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Barrage Vols 1 and 2 by Kouhei Horikoshi

Barrage is a bit of a rarity, a two volume complete shonen series. I tend to read less shonen than shoujo just because of my interests as a reader, but I also have a certain hesitation to commit to a long-running shonen series when there are so many shoujo series that I’m following. I think I enjoyed Barrage more just because at two volumes the story didn’t start to get spun out to the point where the manga overstayed its welcome.

Barrage is very loosely based on The Prince and the Pauper. Astro is a plucky slum kid in a futuristic world called Industria where the humans have completely been overrun by aliens, who function as a version of the mafia on the poor stressed planet. Astro has adopted other orphan kids and tries to hold down a job despite his difficult boss just so he can feed his adopted family. One day an arrogant prince named Barrage gets his attention called to Astro and proposes a switch in identities because the boys look so similar. A stray laser blast promptly sends the prince to his death, and a group of handlers take Astro to the palace. Astro agrees to serve as the prince, and he’s given help in the form of the Knight Tiamat, who is aces at fighting and incredibly frightened of women. Astro also demonstrates an uncanny ability to weild the weapon of the royal house, a bracelet called the Orgue which can transform into a powerful energy weapon based on the wielder’s intentions. The first volume mostly serves as set-up, as Astro takes his place in the palace despite his misgivings, and he learns that he has to travel from town to town to fight off the invading aliens. Astro’s motivation stems mainly from his desire to protect families in any form, and the stress that the aliens place on normal people trying to live their lives is almost unbearable to him. Tiamat is filled with exasperation at having to train a newly minted Prince imposter, but he also has some hope for the new state of affairs as Astro takes his responsibilities much more seriously than the previous prince.

The second volume settles in to more of an in-depth storyline as Astro and Tiamat head to a new town and meet Tiko, a young girl determined to avenge the death of her parents at the hands of the alien invaders. The art for Barrage is generally detailed and interesting, with plenty of variation in the aliens’ character designs. Barrage takes down a mountainous rock-like alien and one that looks a bit like a tadpole. Astro’s past is filled in a bit as he gears up to fight an alien who he previously knew in his life as an orphan. While by the end of the second volume I felt like there could have been at least one more volume of story, things were wrapped up nicely and I enjoyed being able to read a complete, short, shonen series. While there might not be anything super innovative about Barrage, it was fun to read and I thought that using the Prince and the Pauper as a set up made the basic story a bit more interesting that I would otherwise expect.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Comic Tribute

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By Various Artists, based on the franchise created by khara and GAINAX. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten direct to tankobon. Released in North America by Dark Horse.

We’ve been seeing more and more of these doujinshi anthologies over here in North America. Quite common in Japan, both official product and fan-produced, doujinshi in this case doesn’t mean porn featuring the characters (at least not yet; Kadokawa just announced another Eva spinoff and I think they’re running out of other ways to make it work), but getting other artists around the office to draw parody comics making fun of said franchise, with the tacit approval of the creators. Given that Anno is quite happy making fun of his own work, an anthology like this was probably inevitable. But the question is, is it readable?

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Well, yes, but only if you’re a hardcore Evangelion fan. As you’d expect, this volume makes absolutely no attempt to interest casual readers, and relies on everyone knowing not only the series itself but also the fandom and cliches regarding said series. The very first story involves the pilots dealing with their public approval rating dropping because they’re whiny and morose, there’s mocking of the fake “episode 26”, Shinji Ikari Raising Project, and even the live-action Eva that was in production at one point. Everyone is equally skewered, though admittedly Shinji gets the majority of the abuse here. And fear not, Eva fans who like to admire the girls, there’s lots of fanservice here, from normal “Ooooh, pretty girl” art from the Macross character designer all the way to leeringly horrible “Look, boobs!” parody as Misato and Ritsuko try to get Shinji to study by dressing in increasingly skimpy outfits.

That said, I feel pretty safe in saying this isn’t for everyone. It’s almost entirely comedy, with only the author of Loveless, Yun Kouga, providing a serious character study towards the end. Much of the humor relies on knowing the other titles the artist is famous for, which is fine if it’s say, the Sgt. Frog artist (who did the cover, of course) but verges towards incomprehensibility when you see artists such as Keiichi Tanaka and Tony Takazaki clearly making use of their own stylistic humor… which is lost on me. Given this is edited by Carl Horn, some liner notes might have been appreciated. Then again, given there’s a Sambo joke towards the end, maybe they were better off without them.

All that said, I did laugh quite a bit while reading this, even if it was sometimes “what the hell, this is so stupid!” laughter. Easily the best bits in here are the ones by Yushi Kawata and Yukito, “Neon Genesis Revolutionary Legend Evangelion”. They get three short chapters all to themselves, so I suspect the editors liked them as well, and have just the right amount of humor, snark, and insanity. Yoko Sanri’s Eva-san (the author of B Gata H Kei) is also fun, an amusing 4-koma Eva that feels like a relaxing breeze amidst all the loud Osaka comedy in this that tries a bit too hard.

I think Evangelion fans will like this, but even for them it may be a bit of a risk, as it’s simply so diffuse. The sort of book you’d describe as madcap. But recommended to Eva fans anyway, provided you don’t mind a lot of making fun of the cast. Oh yes, and Rikdo Koshi does a color page at the start, in case people wondered if my Excel Saga radar hadn’t gone off.

The Wallflower, Vol. 30

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By Tomoko Hayakawa. Released in Japan as “Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Friend (“Betsufure”). Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Recently, Vol. 30 came out of two separate successful shoujo series. Yet while the reaction of most online fans to Skip Beat! 30 is “Yay! I’m so happy that it’s still running!”, the reaction the The Wallflower 30 tends to be more “EEEENNNNDD!!! EEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNDDDDD!” Partly this is due to The Wallflower’s writer having little to no idea on how to resolve her romance without destroying her comedy, as I’ve noted before. But another reason is that The Wallflower is so episodic. If you jump from Vol. 6 of Skip Beat! to Vol. 25, you’re going to be somewhat lost. This is much less of a problem with this series, where even in this volume, where three of the stories interweave a small amount, each can be read on its own if you just happen to pick up that month’s Betsufure after a 4-year-hiatus.

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There is also, every chapter, the illusion that progress is being made and characters are growing. I’m not sure how much of it is deliberate, actually. But every chapter in this volume has that one moment where a character (either Sunako, Kyohei, or both) has that moment of realization where they understand what someone else is thinking and what needs to be done. Their empathy with Sunako’s aunt when she’s once again taken advantage of; Sunako noting that “I’ll just pretend we’re not friends” is a horrible strategy when trying to avoid having your friend get bullied; Kyohei realizing that there is a difference between ‘watching Sunako get embarrassed’ and real emotional and physical pain; and Sunako finding that regarding Kyohei as a ‘bright, shiny object’ as she always does is only what everyone else in the world has done to him forever, and he HATES it. You sense that everyone is gradually growing up… yet you aren’t surprised when they backslide next month.

Because everyone still serves the comedy. Which is how Ranmaru can be the most awesome fiance ever in one chapter and then (literally five minutes later in story terms) announce he’s going to go out and pick up more women. (By the way, props to Takenaga for calling him out on it – Noi wasn’t even there to impress!) Meanwhile, Tamao gets a bit more development here, but I’m not sure it’s to her benefit. She’s always been the nice, perfect princess who loves Ranmaru no matter what and doesn’t get angry, but now we see her life at school involves another, less perfect princess bullying her every day, and she simply takes it with a niceness that borders on surreal. Thank God Sunako shows up (looking gorgeous, by the way, one of the best ‘Sunako pinup’ shots in ages). Oh well, it could be worse – she could be Yuki, who the author has totally forgotten about.

This series continues to have all the weaknesses that it’s well-known for, and is not getting rid of any of them soon. (My favorite being the author’s complete inability to draw backgrounds half the time – the story could take place in a white void for all we know.) But it also continues to have all of the same strengths, and Kyohei and Sunako are both perfect for each other, even if they don’t see it. Best of all, the series is still funny, as everyone in this manga, except maybe Yuki and Tamao, are completely insane. Which is why we get shots of the leads dressed as PIRATES! in the first chapter here. Looking forward to the next 30 volumes!

Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game, Vol. 1

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I enjoyed the first series in this franchise, Alice in the Country of Hearts, but didn’t care for Alice in the Country of Clover at all. Fortunately this variation seems much closer to the original series in tone and execution. It is the unstable April season in the Country of Hearts and a circus headed by a new character named Joker has just arrived.

Alice seems to be having issues with both her memory and perception, aided by some mental meddling from Nightmare. Her occasional fugue states and general confusion serve to give this manga a hint of the sinister and mysterious atmosphere that I enjoyed so much in Alice in the Country of Hearts. Plotwise, there isn’t much going on as Alice goes around during April season saying hello to all the handsome male residents of Wonderland. We do get some world building bits when we see that Alice’s desires are creating a situation where there are more people with “roles” for her to interact with and there’s some nice back story filled in where we see glimpses of Alice’s life before Wonderland. There’s even a glimpse of the man from Alice’s past who is strikingly similar to the Mad Hatter but in some ways the flashback to Alice’s real life seems just as surreal as her dream world. Even though this volume is mostly exposition and getting reacquainted with most of the characters, I was curious to see how this version of the story would play out. After reading the first volume of Alice in the Country of Clover, I was wondering if any of the sequel series would appeal to me at all, but I am now wavering. Recommended for people who enjoyed the first series in this franchise.

Emerald and Other Stories

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By Hiroaki Samura. Released in Japan as “Sister Generator” by Kodansha, serialized in various magazines. Released in North America by Dark Horse Comics.

Well, first off, there’s not a samurai in this thing. It’s an anthology similar to the one we saw recently from Kaoru Mori, aka “I need to do something different occasionally and show off my chops”. As with most anthologies, the quality is highly variable, but the author is good enough that even the stories I didn’t really get into here had something to offer. It’s a good short story collection, all told.

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The collection itself was published by Kodansha, and it’s likely no coincidence that the three strongest stories in it ran in that company’s seinen magazine Monthly Afternoon, also home to Blade of the Immortal, the work that Samura is most famous for. This North American version uses Emerald as the title story (Sister Generator is an amusing title, but I think would convey the wrong image over here), and it’s a straight-up Western, with gunslingers, saloons, and an orphan playing a tortured game in order to save her family’s good name (and her chastity). As with the best Westerns, the morality is incredibly ambiguous, but there’s a heartwarming center to it despite it all.

The stories are interspersed with some short gag comics that ran in Ohta Shuppan’s QuickJapan for a while, all based around Japanese schoolgirls snarking around whatever fashionable trend they’re dealing with at the moment. It reminded me quite a bit of Furuya’s Short Cuts series, and while these aren’t quite ko-gals, there’s the same surreal quality to a lot of their conversations (probably my favorite is where two of the girls compare their fan fiction, and we find that one of them basically writes straight-up bad porn). I like these sorts of stories, but I can see how they might be a weak link for any other readers. Another weak link might be Shizuru Cinema, a short story from Media Factory’s Comic Flapper, which I think ended up being a little TOO weird and diffuse for me. (The same could be said about Brigitte’s Dinner, but that won me over with its stark imagery.)

The real winner, though, is “The Kusein Family’s Grandest Show”, a dark and twisted story about a family where all is not as it seems. I don’t want to give away too much about the plot – the way you can tell I really love a story is I either spend 5000 words or 6 describing it – but it shows a very dark take on daughters taking after their mothers, what we leave behind, and exactly what it means to fulfill a man’s dying wishes. The mood, dialogue, and sinister plot all combine to create something almost poetic – although it’s a subdued, erotic poetry. The whole volume is worth it for this story.

As with a lot of short story collections, you want to come out of them saying “I’ve got to get more of this author’s work!” As such, I’m really interested in both Blade of the Immortal and his other NA short story collection, Ohikkoshi. The man can certainly spin a tale. And if all else fails, you can take pride in his amazing mahjong hand, as seen in perhaps the most obscure manga in this collection.

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 2

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

And so the first arc of Umineko: When They Cry is finished, and even more than the first Higurashi arc, it shows us that what we’ve been reading for the last 1100 pages is simply a prologue for everything that is to come. It shows us the main players, allows us to see the family drama at the heart of everything, and of course has a number of gloriously gruesome murders, but you keep expecting the last page to be, with apologies to The Goon Show, Wallace Greenslade announcing “And this is where the story REALLY starts.”

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There’s a lot more emphasis on the mystery itself than there was in the Abducted by Demons arc, with each new killing propelling the remaining cast to desperately try to figure out how in God’s name they’re happening. This is made possible by the deliberate closed-in locked-room style of the series, which does not allow much in the way of escaping or trying to forget about everything. Thus Umineko is a more oppressive series than Higurashi, but it’s also more focused. Character allegiances shift rapidly, as Eva, one of the more sensible character in the first volume, proves to be incredibly nasty at trying to pin the crime on Natsuhi; Maria’s split personality is genuinely looked into as possibly being a product of her mother’s resentment; and Natsuhi herself finally takes control of the family at the expense of… well, a whole lot.

Jessica and Kanon are on the cover, but they really don’t get much of a look in beyond the fact that Jessica clearly has a crush on Kanon. (I understand the second arc focuses more on Jessica and George’s relationships.) But the inside cover tells the real story of this book, showing a frustrated and enraged Battler and a smug, grinning Beatrice wielding chess pieces at each other.

Then there’s the tea party. I’ve been reading through a couple of the Higurashi Visual Novels (available legally from Mangagamer, by the way – one of the few non-porn things they’ve done), and each of them ends with a short ‘tea party’ set in the cafe where the cast, out of character, go over what happened in the book and whether it was due to demon or human elements. That said, it’s totally independent of the VNs themselves, and was dropped from the manga adaptation as being irrelevant. Is was therefore a big surprise to me to see the tea party actually adapted for the manga… and it proved to be the biggest plot twist as well. It’s all very well and good to deny the existence of a witch who appears as shafts of light or butterflies, but her physical presence really throws Battler for a loop. And when he continues to deny her involvement… let’s just say things don’t end well for our heroes.

And so we seem to have a plot and a meta-plot, as Battler and Beatrice are now in competition to find the best explanation for the events at Rokkenjima (note that actually trying to stop the murders doesn’t seem to be an option anyone brings up this time). And then at the very end there’s a meta-meta plot, as Beatrice has her own tea party with another witch named Bernkastel… who we’ve seen in the Massacre arc breaking down the Higurashi plot with Rika. Indeed, Bernkastel looks exactly like Rika… and while Ryukishi07 has apparently said that the two are not the same, there’s clearly enough similarities that they’re connected in some way.

The balance between mystery and horror is what drives this series, as the author himself notes at the end. And while events may be more dramatic, gestures more declamatory, and events far more hopeless than Higurashi, the key is whether a reader wants to read on and find out more. I certainly do, especially since I want to find out more about Beatrice, who insists she’s behind everything, but hasn’t really given a reason why beyond “cause I’m evil like that”. I’m going to guess that’s not the real reason.

Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 21

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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.

I’ve given every volume of Hayate since I began this blog a full review, so want to keep up the tradition. Of course, that tends to mean I have to keep finding new things to say. Should I talk about how the North American audience views harems… no, wait, did that already. What about the relation between gags and serious… no, did that too. It doesn’t help that Hata is very slowly putting all his pieces into play for what promises to be an epic storyline… but it isn’t yet. As a result, we get a lot interruptions here, including some characters who haven’t appeared in so long that Hayate and Nagi have to direct readers to the appropriate volume.

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For those who like Maria, enjoy that cover, she’s barely in this volume. (To be honest, aside from one-shot chapters, she’s never really going to be relevant again, unless Hata comes back to her if/when he wraps this up.) The two major events in this book are a beach volleyball game challenge given by Gilbert, the aforementioned character who no one remembers anymore; and Sonia, the nun with a crush on Wataru, trying to steal the Ougyoku Stone. This Stone has come up once or twice since the series began, but here is where it starts to really play a major role, in that Nagi’s Machiavellian grandfather states if Hayate allows anyone to steal or destroy the stone for more than an hour, Nagi loses her inheritance. And there’s a lot of people who want that to happen, including Athena, now 10 years older and living in Greece. The stone is the gimmick that will drive the next few volumes.

The beach volleyball game is the funniest part of this volume. Gilbert immediately shoots himself in the foot by demanding Hayate partner with Hinagiku, as she’s so “weak and frail”. Unfortunately, Hina is dealing with her usual self-image and tsundere love for Hayate, so she decides to pretend to be as weak as Gilbert says she is. Complete with monotone “Eek” noises. Thankfully, Gilbert is *such* an ass that this only lasts for a couple of pages before she decides to kick his ass. (By the way, I note that now that Hata has revealed that Miki is in love with Hina, he’s allowing her to be a lot more open about it, demanding Hina wear a bikini and essentially lusting after her.)

The most romantic part of the volume is the one with Sonia, though she isn’t the reason why. She’s stealing the stone so that she can help Wataru get his *own* family fortune back, and therefore return Sonia’s love. Hayate is absolutely not the best person to figure this out, given that he has all the sensitivity of a hammer. Luckily, Ayumu is there with him, and once again makes you wonder why she isn’t the heroine of some other manga. She calms Sonia down, points out Wataru wouldn’t like her just for money, gets the stone back, comforts Hayate, *and* gets to kiss him (on the cheek) to boot. She would be the clear winner of any other harem manga, but is only a long-shot in this one. Which is a sign of how balanced Hata keeps his harem… and his readers.

Due to the typical low sales of almost all harem manga these days, the next volume will not be out till August. But Hata, for the most part, delivers what readers want – some fanservice, some laughs, some romantic tease, and a few sweet moments. If you read Hayate scanlated, get over the fact that your pairing may not win and buy the manga. As for new readers… why are you buying Vol. 21?

Knights of Sidonia, Vol. 1

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By Tsutomo Nihei. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Afternoon. Released in the United States by Vertical, Inc.

I will admit to being one of the few people reviewing this title who has not read either Biomega or Blame, the author’s previous series released here. As a result, I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into, except that the series looked vaguely Gundam-ey. And I have to admit, after finishing the first volume, I’m still not quite sure what’s going on. That said, it’s the sort of manga that rewards trying to find out, and there’s lots of little things here and there that make this well worth a read.

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This takes place somewhere in the future on a World Spaceship, a la Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky. Much of the plot is not told to us via exposition or narrative, but simply by immersing us in our hero’s day-to-day life and expecting us to figure it out as we go along. Our hero, Nagate, has been living secretly underground for years with his grandfather (I think), practicing blowing things up in a flight simulator. When he runs out of food (is his grandfather dead? And for how long?), Nagate goes to find some, and accidentally falls into the processing machine (one of the more morbidly funny scenes in the entire volume). After being discovered, he’s quickly indoctrinated into the military and added to a team whose mission is to battle the Gaunas, alien life forces intent on destruction.

Our hero is not much for words (or indeed facial expressions), so getting some battle scenes almost feels like a relief. My favorite part of the entire manga is probably the cruelest: we meet a new girl, Eiko, who is standoffish and avoiding all the superstition that the other pilots perform. Given she’s in the chapter title, we naturally assume she’ll be like Izana and come to befriend our hero, though given how prickly she seems it may require him to show initiative. But no! They go out to battle Gaunas, and she’s not only killed off immediately but her form is used to become a hideous monstrosity that almost kills off Nagate too. This fakeout was well-played, and I applaud the author for it.

Towards the end of the volume we get a few more new characters, who are a bit too new to really grasp on to, as well as an indication that Izana seems to have fallen hard for our hero. Clearly this is meant to be a series with a few volumes to it, and I imagine all will become clearer as I go along. I’m left, however, with a sense of distance about the whole thing. Nagate has difficulty emoting due to his upbringing (at least, that’s what I imagine), Izana seems naturally repressed, and through most of the volume I kept wishing that I could get closer to our heroes’ mindset while being unable to. I did enjoy Nagate defending Izana against a hotshot egotistical jerk pilot (who then breaks Nagate’s arm), and hope that we’ll see more elements like this. Knights of Sidonia as a series is cool rather than warm, but it’s still fascinating, and I look forward to working out what’s going on in future volumes.

Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, Vol. 11

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I am looking forward to the end of this series in an odd sort of way. The next volume will be the last and I’m looking forward to being able to reread the entire series in a couple sittings. There was quite the gap in publication between volumes, so I’m curious to see how the story plays out when I’m not waiting around for four years or so between volumes 9 and 10. Yuu Watase says in her author notes that her series tend to pick up towards the conclusion, and this is definitely true for this volume as Uruki confronts his family legacy, Teg and Urumiya deal with their celestial warrior destiny and the heroine Takiko continues to cough up blood while working bravely to save the country of Bei-Ja. There’s a good balance in the story as it presents plenty of emotional character arcs and action with a general feeling of impending tragedy.

Overall after reading this volume I was struck by how much self-sacrifice is a theme and how this contrasts with the somewhat lighter tone of the original series. Takiko’s devotion to her role as Priestess of Genbu is absolute, but her romance with Uruki does get a bittersweet type of resolution at the close of this volume. One of the things I’m going to miss about this series is the art. Watase’s distinct character designs never leave me confused about what’s going on, even with an extended cast and many subplots happening towards the end of the series. The action scenes are dynamic, and the costumes and setting are detailed enough to make me invested in the World of the Four Gods. I’m looking forward to the last volume, but I’m going to have a box of kleenex ready when I read it!

Harelequin Manga Quick Takes

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I went on a .99 cent shopping spree in the Harlequin manga section of the Kindle store recently, so here are some quick takes on bargain romance manga.

Maddie’s Love Child

The Maddie in question in this title is an Australian headstrong leather-garbed interior designer, who enjoys making rich and remote men fall in love with her and then stomps on their hearts. She’s also longing for a baby but not a husband, so she is determined to track down the perfect sperm donor. Miles McMillan, remote and rich British businessman comes back into her life. Maddie and Miles met previously but he rejected her advances because he was engaged. Now that he’s broken things off with his fiancee, he decides to return to Australia for business…and something else. Maddie and Miles start to date, but will her baby making schemes and romantic foibles, combined with his emotional reticence and uptight British ways result in a romance or just a whole bunch of emotional trauma? Maddie’s internal dialogues sizing up Miles’ fatherhood prospects (“My child would never learn his arrogance or cold pride. And I could give it all of my love!”) were pretty hilarious. The art in this title was a little stilted, but generally attractive. Maddie’s personality and forthright nature was refreshing compared to other Harlequin heroines, so if reading about emotionally distant British businessmen falling in love is one of the romance novel tropes that you enjoy, this title was worth the .99 cents.


Expecting the Boss’ Baby

In Harlequin world billionaire bachelors with attractive secretaries end up accidentally impregnating them FAR TOO OFTEN! Michael is a rich emotionally distant man who accidentally celebrates a business deal with his capable secretary Kate a bit too much. She’s now secretly pregnant and harbors feelings of affection towards Michael the millionaire robot, but he is oblivious and doesn’t want any sort of emotional connection with Kate. When he makes his feelings known to her, she promptly quits. Michael is emotional remote because he grew up in an orphanage, his only friends are a couple of other millionaires who dispense warped advice about women and relationships. When Michael realizes that Kate is pregnant, he’s determined to ensure that his child won’t grow up without a father. This was very much a middle of the road title for me. Both the story and art were about average in terms of what one would expect from a Harlequin manga adaptation. This is part of a trilogy, as I’m sure Michael’s millionaire bachelor friends also find themselves promptly married off in later installments.

The Royal Marriage

This title had the vaguely retro art that I tend to enjoy most when reading Harlequin manga. There are plenty of big eyes and flowing hair abounds as Gabriella, the Brazilian heiress finds herself trapped in a marriage with Prince Ricardo. Ricardo has the reputation of a playboy, but when Gabriella’s father dies, leaving her with no family and a will with some very odd provisions, she decides to go through with the marriage. Gabriella settles into her new rule as princess, while trying to figure out her feelings towards her new husband. There’s a bit of palace intrigue, and Gabriella is a bit sassier than the usual Harlequin heroine. Along with Maddie’s Love Child, this was the title I enjoyed the most out of this batch of four manga.

Word of a Gentleman

I tend to take notice when I find a Harlequin title with decent art, because mostly I tend to expect somewhat lackluster art. Of the batch, this had the worst artistic adaptation, with stilted, out of proportion characters. The sub-par quality of the lettering was also distracting. This was a bit of a shame, because aspects of the story were a bit interesting. Clarissa decides that she’s going to hire herself a poor husband in order to get away from the machinations of her evil guardian Uncle and the loutish pawing of her cousin. She fixates on Hugh Richfield, who actually decides to take her up on her offer to pay him to elope with her. Hugh and Clarissa take off for Gretna Green and have some adventures along the way. Unfortunately the happy ending where everybody suddenly becomes rich strains even my willing suspension of disbelief.

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 12

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It seems like most volumes of Kamisama Kiss involve human kami Nanami traveling to a new land or meeting some strange yokai. Fortunately this is a plotline that Julietta Suzuki executes so well with both art and story, I don’t mind a bit. I would happily look at a Suzuki art book because I find her character designs so entertaining. I’ve noticed that her underwater characters are often particularly inspired, so there is a lot to like about this volume, which features some major romantic happenings not for Nanami but for her yokai acquaintance Himemiko of the Tatara swamp and her human boyfriend Kotaro.

Himemiko has only appeared to Kotaro in human form, but her secret is going to be tested when her childhood fiance arrives to cause problems. Nishiki is a prince of a neighboring swamp who has grown up arrogant and cut off from contact from most creatures. His solution to his upcoming wedding is to kidnap both Nanami and her shrine, leaving her cut off from Tomoe. Nishiki has a formal way of dressing, accessorized by a scaly headband and fins at the side of his head. When he finds Himemiko in human form she pretends to not know what he’s talking about because she still doesn’t want to reveal her non-human nature to Kotaro. Kotaro gets injured during a confrontation and the god of the sea Ryu-Oh appears again, with his toothy grin, eye patch, and attitude problem.

Nanami struggles with her shrine being trapped at the bottom of a swamp and attempts to get through to Nishiki. Her utter disregard for high court yokai etiquette starts to wear the arrogant Nishiki down towards the end of the volume. His royal mannerism have even cut himself off from his own people, who boggle when they are shown the slightest amount of regard from their ruler. Himemiko and Kotaro start dealing with the true nature of their relationship, even as Nishiki starts to thaw a little bit and begin to understand that he doesn’t know much about the nature of love. Nishiki’s character evolves throughout the volume, and it is always good to see Nanami cause change just simply by being herself.

Even if Nanami and Tomoe’s relationship isn’t resolved yet, it is nice to see things moving forward for the other human/yokai couple in the book. I’m going to look forward to see what happens next at the conclusion of this arc, and if there’s a happy ending for the swamp Princess and her human it will be very interesting to see how Tomoe and Nanami react to that development.