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Silver Diamond, Volumes 1-4

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Silver Diamond, Vols. 1-4
By Shiho Sugiura
Published by Tokyopop

sd1Rakan Sawa is a relatively normal seventeen-year-old boy living on his own after the death of his mother and grandfather. He likes to study, cook, and take care of the house, and he craves normalcy on all fronts. So he’s got this little issue where the trees and flowers in his yard seem to grow abnormally well, so what? Even when things aren’t quite normal Rakan can do his best to ignore them, and he’s awfully popular at school for all the lovely cut flowers he brings in every day. Unfortunately, all pretense of normalcy flies out the window when a tall, handsome man falls into his backyard from another world. …

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Fairy Tail 6 by Hiro Mashima: B

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From the back cover:
Hotshot Natsu and his cool rival Gray are fighting to stop a calamity demon from being revived by Gray’s fellow disciple Lyon and Zalty, a master of lost magic. But while they try to defeat the bad guys, the magical ice binding the demon keeps melting. Then a grudge between Fairy Tail and a rival guild turns to all-out war!

Review:
In the Author’s Note at the end of the volume, Mashima says that he doesn’t do much planning ahead with his story. I think that shows with the way the Deliora arc plays out. There are a couple of switcheroos that, while they very well may have been intended from the beginning, make me suspect a last-minute easy out. Also, Lucy’s sudden escalation in importance at the end of the volume comes out of nowhere.

That’s not to say the result isn’t entertaining, though. The battles between Gray and Natsu and their opponents are pretty fun, with some new ice techniques from Gray and a new kind of magic—the ability to control time as it relates to objects—for Natsu’s opponent. Shounen staples like having faith in one’s companions, preventing one’s rival/ally from completing a noble self-sacrifice, forgiving the enemies’ sins due to mitigating angst, and delayed-reaction spurting wounds abound.

Though it’s disappointing that our heroes face virtually no punishment whatsoever (aside from some very creepy spanking the Master administers to Lucy) for undertaking an S-class quest (played up as an offense worthy of expulsion), the story picks up a bit once they return home to find that Fairy Tail headquarters has been virtually destroyed by a rival guild called Phantom Lord. Throughout the volume, less prominent members of Fairy Tail had been introduced on the chapter splash pages, and just as I’d been thinking I’d like to see some of these folks get to do something cool they’re given an opportunity to do so in a rather awesome brawl when Fairy Tail pays the rival guild a retaliatory visit.

Even though Lucy’s capture at the end of the volume is not the most original shounen plot device, some of the Phantom Lord opponents look interesting, so I’m looking forward to what’s to come.

Boys Over Flowers 20 by Yoko Kamio: B+

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boysoverflowers20From the back cover:
Tsukushi has agreed to be Tsukasa’s girlfriend! But there’s a hitch—she’ll go out with him for only two months to see if she can truly love him. Tsukasa is off to a bad start when he ends up smacking the womanizing new boyfriend of Tsukushi’s friend, Yuki, at the end of a double date, making Tsukushi furious. Then Sojiro of the F4 helps Yuki by exacting a little revenge on her playboy boyfriend and the two wind up on a date together. Tsukushi is worried to death about Sojiro taking advantage of her good friend. The question is… who is using whom?

Review:
I had a really hard time grading this one.

The case for a B: There are some frustrating moments in this volume. Tsukushi doesn’t believe Tsukasa had a good reason for hitting Yuki’s sleazy boyfriend and lectures him about resorting to violence, only to do exactly the same when she encounters the guy herself. She does, at least, recognize that she was in the wrong. Also, her preoccupation with Yuki’s plight later on prevents her from noticing Tsukasa’s adorable awkwardness after an important development in their relationship, and in general, several promising moments fail to pay off as satisfactorily as one might wish.

The case for a B+: Enduring all of the frustrating moments makes the sweet ones all the better for being so hard-earned. I love how Tsukasa drops everything to help Tsukushi look for Yuki and how Tsukushi actively reaches out to hug him for the first time when he doubts their chances of succeeding as a couple. Later, when the two of them have been manipulated by Sojiro and Yuki to tail them on a romantic pseudo-date, there’s more good stuff, with Tsukushi earnestly asking Tsukasa to stay with her and saying, “I don’t know what I’ll do if you go.” Of course, Tsukasa is totally won over by her cuteness. Also, Tsukasa demonstrates how much he has changed by saying to Yuki, “And Yuki… find yourself someone better than this.” Tsukasa, actually kind of caring about Tsukushi’s commoner friend? Now, that’s progress!

In the end, the impact of the good scenes outweighs my frustrations, and I come down on the side of the B+. I have this feeling, though, that this sort of balance is going to be the norm until they finally, finally genuinely get together.

GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, Vol. 1

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By Satoko Kiyuduki
Yen Press, 120 pp.
Rating: Teen

GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class is a four-panel manga featuring a group of five moe-style girls enrolled in a graphic design course, possessing unique personalities that are used at one point in the comic to illustrate different tones of a single color. The characters are motherly Namiko, tomboyish Tomokane, serious Miyabi (aka “Professor”), glasses-wearing Kisaragi, and fashion-plate Nodamiki. As the five girls go through their studies, learning about color, technique, and tools of design (from paints to computers), they also have a lot of fun, both with their tools (painting the linings of their school uniforms, for example, which brings about unintended consequences) and with the trappings of ordinary school life.

Though the author claims, “… regarding the art information in this manga: You shouldn’t really trust it,” there is still a lot to learn for those of us with no knowledge of color or techniques at all, and that’s actually the greatest draw of this manga for English-speaking readers. Though the comic strip is obviously humorous, as with many four-panels, the translated jokes are very much hit or miss, with more misses than hits in this particular case. The characters are a fun and whimsical mix and the volume is enjoyable, but outside of the genuinely interesting artistic instruction and related jokes (about mold growing in the poster paint, for example), there isn’t any other element that consistently succeeds.

The artwork is standard moe fare–tiny girls with giant eyes, generally indistinguishable from each other aside from their hair and accessories–and as such, rather bland. The book’s frequent color pages fare better, both in general expression and in their ability to convey ideas about art.

Though GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class is not stunningly humorous or emotionally engaging, it has some fun moments and a wealth of interesting information for those curious about art.

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

Boys Over Flowers 19 by Yoko Kamio: B+

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boysoverflowers19From the back cover:
When Tsukushi is left homeless, she has no choice but to become a maid in the mansion of her on-and-off boyfriend, Tsukasa. Not only that, but she becomes his own personal maid! Her duties include the dreaded task of waking him up in the morning, a job normally left to three people. Then Tsukasa orders her to come to his room unseen at midnight, causing Tsukushi to panic. Will this pull them closer together or push them further apart?!

Review:
This volume gets off to somewhat of a slow start, with Tsukushi freaking out about being Tsukasa’s personal servant, convinced that he’s going to use the position to take advantage of her. Of course, this doesn’t happen, and they end up having a midnight stargazing date instead that culminates with a pretty straightforward conversation about the state of their feelings. The final outcome is that they begin dating on a trial basis to allow Tsukushi two months to figure out if she loves Tsukasa or not.

It was a little odd seeing Tsukasa being so patient at the beginning of the volume, and I’m not sure where that came from. The experience with breaking things off with Shigeru? Knowing that Tsukushi had defied his mother and believing that it was for his sake? I’m not sure, but when he returns to his canankerous ways later in the volume, it was almost a relief.

The last few chapters, after they’re officially a couple, really are the best. Tsukushi and Tsukasa double-date with Yuki and her new boyfriend and Tsukasa does an admirable job at keeping his temper in check even though the boyfriend is a real git. It’s great! Also, I like seeing Tsukushi talking to Yuki and Tsukasa talking to his friends about the relationship. I always like it when both members of a couple have some support from their friends.

In short, I think this two month trial dating period is going to be awesome.

High School Debut, Volumes 1-10

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High School Debut, Vols. 1-10
By Kazune Kawahara
Published by Viz Media

hsd1Haruna Nagashima is a former middle-school softball champ, determined to start off her freshman year of high school on a brand new foot by becoming attractive to boys and finding her first boyfriend. Despite her exceedingly diligent research of current styles and trends, her efforts to attract a boy seem hopeless until she meets Yoh Komiyama, a popular, good-looking upperclassman with an unusual eye for what makes girls look their best. Though initially reluctant, Yoh finally agrees to act as Haruna’s “coach” to teach her how to make herself attractive to boys–his sole condition being that she promise not to fall for him. Of course she eventually does fall in love with him, finally confessing after a chapter or two of anguish, certain she’ll be rejected.

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Sumomomo, Momomo: The Strongest Bride on Earth, Volume 1

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Sumomomo, Momomo: The Strongest Bride on Earth, Vol. 1
By Shimobu Ohtaka
Published by Yen Press

sumomo
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Momoko is the only child of one of the most powerful martial arts families in Japan. Since her father does not believe that she, as a woman, is capable of mastering the arts of their clan, she has been trained her whole life to become strong enough to be worthy as the wife of the world’s strongest man (deemed to be Koushi Inuzuka, son of another clan), with whom she must bear super-strong progeny. …

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Bleach, Vol. 27

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By Tite Kubo
Viz Media, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen

Volume 26 ended with Arrancars invading Karakura Town and everyone rushing in to protect it, including Orihime, who was forced to take her own human-friendly route back from Soul Society instead of traveling with Rukia. As it turns out, the attack was waged with the sole purpose of isolating Orihime whose unusual healing power has caught Aizen’s interest, so that she can be abducted away to his headquarters at Hueco Mundo. Orihime is given twelve hours (and an invisibility bracelet) to put her life in order before she must acquiesce, with her friends’ lives on the line. She is also allowed to say goodbye to one person, provided she is undetected, and the scene in which she does that is one of the best and most touching in the series so far. Meanwhile, Soul Society must regroup in order to face the threat of the Arrancars—which is more immediate than they’d calculated—and Ichigo and his friends are ordered to abandon Orihime, who has been labeled as a traitor, and join them in their preparation.

This really is one of the strongest sections of this entire series, and the fact that it comes so far in demonstrates more storytelling skill than Tite Kubo is generally given credit for. This volume contains even fewer outright battle scenes than the previous, but the atmosphere is fraught with tension throughout and quite a few of the main characters are given the opportunity to shine, particularly Orihime, Rukia, and Ichigo. That there are numerous (perhaps endless) battles to come over the next few volumes seems inevitable, but the stakes are high enough to promise a major dramatic payoff for those who see this arc through to the end.

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

Gestalt, Volume 1

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Gestalt, Vol. 1
By Yun Kouga
Published by Viz Media

gestalt
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Father Olivier is a young priest with low-level magical powers who leaves his order to seek out an island called “G,” where it is said that any explorer’s wish may be granted by the exiled God who sleeps there. As he begins his journey, Olivier ends up performing a miracle for an innkeeper who welcomes him as a guest. It’s a small miracle, which Olivier considers payment for his room, but the innkeeper insists he accept a thank-you gift in return. The “gift” turns out to be a pretty, young slave woman named Ouri, who has had a spell cast on her to keep her from speaking. Initially refusing to take a human as a gift, Olivier is eventually persuaded by the slave herself, who does not want to be sold off to the highest bidder. …

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Detroit Metal City, Vol. 1

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Detroit Metal City is a rude, raunchy comedy that’s both a satire of death metal culture and a loving portrait of the folks who labor in its trenches. When we first meet the series’ hero, twenty-three-year-old Soichi Negishi, he’s wearing a fright wig, kabuki makeup, fangs, and a pair of knee-high platform boots that look like they were swiped from Paul Stanley’s closet. Soichi is the lead singer and guitarist for Detroit Metal City (DMC), an “evil core death metal band with a huge following.” Onstage, Soichi adopts the persona of Krauser II, Lord of Hell, spitting lyrics about rape, torture, and mutilation; offstage, however, Soichi is a sweetly metrosexual young man who loves Swedish pop music, Audrey Tatou movies, and shopping for stylish clothing in the Daikanyama district. How, exactly, Soichi ended up singing in DMC is something of a mystery; by his own admission, he left his parents’ farm hoping to start a “hip indie pop band.” Five years later, however, Soichi is living in Tokyo and performing in DMC while doing his utmost to conceal that fact. Try as he might, however, he can’t quite limit his loud, violent persona to the stage, as Krauser has an unfortunate tendency to manifest himself whenever Soichi is depressed, angry, intoxicated, or feeling rejected by Yuri, a pretty young magazine editor who shares Soichi’s passion for perky tunes.

The tension between Soichi’s two musical personae turns out to be a brilliant framing device for the story, allowing manga-ka Kiminori Wakasugi to have his cake and eat it, too. As Krauser II, Soichi can sing the kind of crudely misogynistic lyrics that might otherwise offend because we, the readers, know that DMC epitomizes everything Soichi disdains in real life — in effect, Soichi is our surrogate, expressing indignation for us so that we might laugh freely at the risque jokes. At the same time, however, DMC gives Soichi an outlet for expressing the darker side of his personality—for de-wussifying him, if you will—and acknowledging his deep disappointment that no one appreciates his gentle, sensitive side.

Nowhere is the tension between the Swedish pop star and the Japanese metal god more evident than in chapter twelve. While hanging out in a trendy boutique with Yuri, Soichi lands an opportunity to play a small, intimate gig in the store. Soichi jumps at the chance, performing a saccharine tune called “Sweet Lover”:

When I wake up in the morning
You’re there making cheese tarts.
Sweet baby, that’s what you are.
My sweet, sweet lover
Let’s go
Let’s dress up and go to town.
With cheese tarts in one hand,
You’re romping around.
Cut through the crowds
Let’s go to that store we love.
To buy those matching rings
I promised you.
Sweet sweet sweet sweet lover…

The song’s god-awful lyrics, however, meet with indifference, prompting the boutique owner to eject Soichi from the store. Dazed and wounded, Soichi goes on a drinking binge, his embarrassment slowly curdling into rage. He then dons his DMC outfit and performs “Bad, Bad Lover,” a darkly humorous re-working of his much-reviled love song:

When I wake up in the morning
You’re there frying your parents up!
Let’s go
Kill everyone dressed up in town.
With chainsaw in one hand
You’re slashing around.
Slaughter the crowds
Let’s go to that store we love.
To get those matching weapons
I promised you.

As one might imagine, there are only so many scenarios in which Soichi can transform into Krauser (and vice versa). Mid-way through volume one, I worried that the joke was beginning to wear thin, as Soichi once again found himself trying to explain to Yuri why, exactly, he’d suddenly started acting like a loud, foul-mouthed boor. Thankfully, Wakasugi finds some odd and marvelous ways to spin the story—none of which I’ll spoil for you—including a contest between DMC and an Ozzy Osbourne-esque rocker, and a visit to Soichi’s hometown, where his cheerful, clueless parents grow mushrooms and raise livestock.

All of these scenes are rendered in a crude yet energetic style; if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say Wakusagi didn’t do very well in life drawing, as his bow-legged figures sit awkwardly in the picture plane. Yet the very clumsiness of the art works perfectly with the story’s over-the-top premise, capturing both the intensity of DMC’s performances and the sheer stupidity of their on-stage antics. Were the art any slicker, many of Detroit Metal City’s most outrageous moments just wouldn’t work, as their verisimilitude would elicit a “That couldn’t happen in real life!” response from the reader.

Fans worried that Viz would sanitize Detroit Metal City for English-speaking audiences can breathe a sigh of relief. The script abounds in f-bombs, anatomical slang, and crude sexual humor, suggesting that Viz made every effort to preserve the tone and content of the original script. Translator Anne Ichii deserves special mention, as she did a terrific job of making the song lyrics funny in English, a task akin to translating “Big Bottom” or “Stonehenge” into, say, Czech or Chinese. (Just how does one say “mud flaps” in Czech?) The production team merits praise as well, both for their snazzy cover design and for their inclusion of 2009’s coolest extra: temporary DMC tattoos.

If you find South Park offensive, it’s a safe bet that Detroit Metal City won’t be your cup of tea. But if you can look past the swear words and lewd behavior, you’ll find a surprisingly funny, touching story about a musician on a quest to discover his true voice — crank up Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to eleven, and you have a pretty good idea how this crude, goofy story reads. Highly recommended.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC.

DETROIT METAL CITY, VOL. 1 • BY KIMINORI WAKASUGI • VIZ • 200 pp.  RATING: MATURE (18+)

We Were There, Volume 4

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We Were There, Vol. 4
By Yuki Obata
Published by Viz Media

wwt4
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“Why do people make promises they can’t keep?”

After hastily announcing that she was ready to have sex with Yano at the end of volume three, this volume opens with Nana in a state of abject terror as she’s faced with actually doing the deed. Reassured by Yano’s unexpected sweetness, she shakily plunges in only to be interrupted by the return of Yano’s mom before anything can really happen. Though this is somewhat of a relief for Nana, Yano immediately begins trying to raise money for a love hotel which Nana manages to stall by suggesting they save up for something nicer. The volume’s charmingly awkward beginning becomes more troubled in later chapters when Nana finally persuades Yano to tell her the truth about his association with his ex-girlfriend’s sister, Yamamoto. Yano’s past with Yamamoto, however, is not nearly as difficult for Nana as the discovery of his lingering feelings for his deceased ex, revealed in a stunningly poignant scene at the end of the volume.

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Gakuen Alice 7 by Tachibana Higuchi: B

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gakuen7For the most part, Gakuen Alice is a fairly episodic series about the adventures of spunky ten-year-old Mikan as she acclimates to attending a mysterious school whose students all have special powers known as Alices. Beginning in volume six, however, its first multi-volume arc, involving an organization that’s opposed to the Alice Academy and is responsible for infecting Mikan’s best friend, Hotaru, with a virus, gets underway. In volume seven, Mikan and friends are pursuing the organization responsible through a forest beset with dangerous traps.

The strong point of Gakuen Alice is the way it mixes darker revelations about the nature of the Academy and the uses to which it puts certain students with warmer scenes of Mikan and her friends. In this volume, this balance is somewhat thrust aside due to the “we’re journeying along a spooky trail, watch out for that laser beam” action that’s going on, but occasional nice moments shine through, mostly involving the sweet romantic triangle going on between Mikan, gentle animal-loving Luca, and Luca’s best friend Natsume. Natsume’s one of those tortured, self-denying characters who, rather than seek his own happiness, instead nudges Luca and Mikan together, because Luca being happy “is enough.” In other words, just the kind to win a shoujo fan’s heart.

While all of the journeying gets a little tiresome, the cliffhanger ending suggests that we might soon get some facts about Mikan’s mysterious origins, which would certainly be nice after all of the cryptic hinting that’s been going on. I’m looking forward to it.

Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Moon Child, Volume 1

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Moon Child, Vol. 1
By Reiko Shimizu
Published by CMX

moonchild
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Art is an aspiring Broadway dancer, struggling to live up to the expectations set for him by family and friends who viewed him as a child prodigy. Deep in the middle of a slump, things are made worse when he ends up in a car accident that injures him. Also involved in the accident was a young boy who, while otherwise uninjured, appears to have lost his memory. Feeling responsible for the boy’s condition, Art takes him in, but it soon becomes clear that the boy (named “Jimmy” by Art) is not normal. Jimmy can move objects around with his mind, frequently involuntarily, and his presence sometimes causes people to see strange apparitions.

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Gakuen Alice 6 by Tachibana Higuchi: B+

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gakuen6From the back cover:
A series of mysterious incidents in which Alices lose their powers strikes close to home when Prez’s abilities suddenly disappear! As if that isn’t bad enough, an encounter with “Z,” the Anti-Academy organization (who might be behind the missing Alices), leaves Hotaru sorely wounded. A cure may lie outside the school, but how will Mikan and her friends get past campus security?

Review:
Well, this is certainly an action-packed volume and more Potter-like than ever, involving several instances of students defying rules and taking matters into their own hands (and sometimes making things worse).

We’re probably supposed to admire the plucky bravery that makes Mikan declare she’s going to fight Z and help Hotaru, but seriously, how?! Still, I liked the reasons that made both Luca and Natsume decide to help her. Too, I like learning more about Hotaru—turns out she’s the kind of seemingly detached person who secretly relies a lot on the steady happiness of those around her, a personality with which I can completely identify.

While the plot to thwart the invaders and save Hotaru is the main focus, there are a lot of other questions and tidbits floating around, too. Things like Natsume overhearing some faculty talking about Mikan and also shirking an assignment from headquarters in order to help her, some mysterious girl who once lived with Luca and Natsume, Hotaru resolving to investigate the Academy’s treatment of Mikan, some possible recognition of the invaders from Z, and the fact that one of them may’ve recognized Mikan… At times, it can actually get to be rather too much, and part of why I’ve ennumerated all those things here is to help me keep track of them and see whether they’re adequately resolved in the future.

So far, this series has been pretty episodic, though there’ve always been some continuing threads woven throughout. Are we finally coming to the start of something more epic, or will this all be resolved tidily in a volume or so and we’ll be back to watching Luca frolic with woodland creatures?