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shoujo

Happy Marriage, Vol. 3 & Demon Love Spell, Vol. 5

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Happy Marriage Volume 3

I continue to enjoy Maki Enjoji’s series about an office lady who abruptly finds herself married to a seemingly cold and domineering company president. Chiwa and Hokuto have gradually grown closer over the first two volumes of this series, and the relationship continues to develop further in the third volume. Chiwa finally deals with Hokuto when he’s in a vulnerable position when he suddenly becomes ill, and she has to tend to him at home. One thing I enjoy is the way Enjoji slips into showing action without words or thought balloons in order to show events with more emotional impact. When Hokuto wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Chiwa sleeping by the side of his bed, he looks absolutely shocked, then silently pulls her over so she can sleep more comfortably beside him. There are still some slice of life humorous moments in the manga, like when Chiwa deals with Hokuto’s hidden slovenly habits at home and her tendency to become an “Octopus Woman” when she sleeps.

The big emotional breakthrough in the volume occurs when Chiwa and Hokuto have to go visit his family, and Chiwa sees how poorly he’s treated by his relatives. This explains a great deal about his personality and motivations, and Chiwa gets so angry she is more emotionally honest about her feelings for her husband as she’s sticking up for him than she’s ever been when talking to Hokuto directly. I’m looking forward to what happens next! It is a bit odd to root for a married couple to get together, but Enjoji manages to pull this situation off with an engaging story and sympathetic characters.

Demon Love Spell Volume 5

This volume will be particularly fun for any fans of Mayu Shinjo’s series Sensual Phrase. Demon Love Spell can be depended upon to serve up plenty of humor and paranormal romance hijinks, and this volume picks things up with a funny plot device. Incubus Kagura and priestess Miko decide that they’re going to move out of Miko’s family home/shrine and her father promptly agrees! But before they go Miko’s father uses his priestly powers and puts a curse on Kagura so that he will be utterly incapable of romancing Miko in any capacity. The young teenager and incredibly old incubus struggle with finding an apartment. Miko starts working a part-time job to support them. They barely ever see each other, and it seems like their new apartment may also be haunted!

In any romance manga, misunderstandings get in the way of true love, and when Kagura decides to go into showbiz in order to make some money to support Miko, she promptly becomes jealous and concerned that he’s getting “powered up” from other women. Kagura’s demonic hotness ensures overnight success as a male model, and he soon becomes a pop sensation as well. Much is made of Kagura’s resemblance to the hero Sakuya from Sensual Phrase, and I found it hilarious that Shinjo’s habit of drawing her male heroes in a very similar fashion was acknowledged in this manner. All in all, this was another fun volume of this series. I’m definitely enjoying Demon Love Spell much more than Ai Ore, and I hope that more of Shinjo’s series get translated over here.

Sweet Rein Vol 1

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Sweet Rein Vol 1 by Sakura Tsukuba

I had totally forgotten that Sweet Rein was coming out, so when I saw it I got to be pleasantly surprised all over again. Sakura Tsukuba had two series published by CMX, Penguin Revolution and Land of the Blindfolded. Both of these series fit well into the low-fi, cozy vibe that was characteristic of many of CMX’s fantasy series. I was very happy to read Sweet Rein, and I’m calling it now – this is the perfect feel-good shoujo for the holiday season.

Sweet Rein has the sort of premise that is most enjoyed when the reader doesn’t think about it too hard. Kurumi is walking along alone when she bumps into a boy. Kurumi and the boy are suddenly tethered together, and he rushes up to her and yells “Master!” He then proceeds to explain “I’m your reindeer and you’re my Santa Claus!” It turns out that mystical reindeer with the power to take human form are bonded forever to a human Santa Claus, who is the only person who can release the reindeer’s magical powers. Kaito comes from a family of magical reindeer, and he cheerfully and happily fulfills all of Kurumi’s commands. Kurumi is extremely dubious about the invisible tether that connects them and also is very uncomfortable with the idea that she has any form of power over another being. Kaito is just happy that his Santa Claus is a nice and cute girl who is so concerned for him.

Kaito being at Kurumi’s beck and call is played more for gentle laughs than anything else, as he shoots away from her in the air when she yells “Get off of me!” and promptly appears outside her window when she wishes for his presence. Kurumi is genuinely kind, and Kaito’s presence eases her loneliness. She’s extremely careful not to get entangled in a romantic relationship with him, because she doesn’t want to abuse her power over him. In the meantime, Kaito’s enthusiasm serves as a counterpoint to Kurumi’s introspection, and it is clear that he’s fallen in love with her almost immediately.

For a manga dealing with Santa Claus and reindeer, it is actually a bit surprising how many stories in this volume take place in the spring or summer. Kurumi does deliver presents on Christmas Eve, but much of the manga is centered around Kurumi fulfilling a wish for a sick boy she encounters while on summer vacation. Readers also get a glimpse of Kaito’s extended magical reindeer family. I was actually a bit disappointed that a there was a lengthy vampire back up story, not because it was poorly executed, but I wanted to read a bit more of the main story. Tsukuba’s light and playful illustrations complement the story, ably depicting Kaito flying through the air or swooping in to comfort Kurumi. In the hands of a creator with less of a deft touch, the master/servant relationship in the manga might have seemed a bit off-putting or odd, but here it just seems like a way for two people to slowly discover how much they care about each other.

Red River, Vols. 1-7

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When manga publishers first started their digital programs I was hoping for more backlist titles to become available, especially from Viz. I was particularly happy when Red River started coming out in a digital edition. I’ve long regretted not just buying this series when it was coming out, because I suspected I would really like it. At the time though I was buying a ton of other manga and I was leery of committing to a 28 volume shoujo series. I’ve been piecing together volumes of this series here and there, and I have a decent amount of both the first several books and a few concluding volumes, but nothing in the middle. I was glad I could switch back and forth between print volumes and my iPad to give the first part of this series a try. The arresting cover image of the first volume provides a nice overview of the series. A girl in modern clothing is being menaced by a bunch of people holding daggers, against a backdrop of a blue sky and stone buildings from another era.

The girl who is about to get stabbed on the cover of Red River is Yuri, a cheerful high school student who had just received her first kiss from her classmate Satoshi. Yuri goes to school and hangs out with her younger sisters, but a number of odd things seem to happen when she’s close to water. A glass bubbles over and hands reach out to her from a school fishtank. The incidents get worse and worse, to the point where Yuri is carried away in the middle of a date when she steps near a puddle. Yuri finds herself in a bathhouse in the capitol of the Hittite empire. Chased by armed men whose language she doesn’t understand, Yuri runs into a courtyard and encounters a handsome man who promptly sweeps her off her feet and kisses her. Prince Kail distracts the men and sends them on their way, claiming he knows nothing about a woman in strange clothing running through the city. Yuri can suddenly understand the language of the place she’s in, as princely kisses seem to serve as a universal translation device. Kail offers to swap Yuri in for the woman he was originally waiting for. Yuri concludes that he’s a jerk and runs off in the strange city yet again, only to be captured by Kail’s extremely evil stepmother.

Kail’s evil stepmother wants to use Yuri for a virgin sacrifice to work some strange magic to place her son as heir to the empire instead of Kail. Kail is an extremely quick thinker and prevents the sacrifice by showing up at the last minute to announce that due to his masterful powers of seduction, Yuri is no longer a virgin, and thus not suitable to be a sacrifice to anyone. Throwing her over his shoulder, Kail announces that he’s going to remove his “sullied baggage” from the room. Kail and Yuri start gradually falling in love, as he begins to appreciate her articulated moral sense and intelligence. Yuri soon realizes that Kail is doing the best he can in an extremely hostile court environment where his stepmother is doing whatever she can to plot his demise.

While there are a few references to magic here and there, Red River is much more of a historical adventure than it is a fantasy story. Yuri doesn’t really have magical powers, but she might as well have them due to the effect she has when Kail decides to announce that she’s the incarnation of the goddess Ishtar and uses her to inspire his troops as a gambit to protect her from his stepmother. While Kail gives Yuri the position of his concubine and they sleep in the same bed every night, she still remains a virgin, since he backs off when she mentions her boyfriend back home. The “will they or won’t they” tension that appears in the first few volumes is mainly due to Kail keeping his distance from Yuri because he knows he needs to send her back to his own time, and Yuri is determined not to care for Kail too much when she has to go back to her family.

While Yuri seems to have an unfortunate habit of getting kidnapped fairly often, she’s also extremely level-headed and pragmatic. Kail rescues her, but she also uses some quick thinking to rescue him a number of times. She throws herself into training when she’s given the role of Ishtar to play, determined not to embarrass herself and Kail. When she’s stolen away by a prince from a rival country, she spends her time improving the sickroom for prisoners of war that are deemed near death, and her introduction of modern sanitation helps the prisoners heal as well as providing herself with a slightly sick troop of soldiers inside the enemy walls.

Shinohara’s art has a bit of an old-school feel to it. This series was first published in 1995, so the character designs might look a tad old fashioned. But the many action scenes and the historical settings and costumes are handled with great clarity. Even when the paneling might focus more on the character’s emotions and interactions, there’s usually an architectural detail or background element that grounds the reader in the scene. Yuri believably shifts from tomboy to gorgeous depending on the situation and clothing she finds herself in, and Kail transforms from a slightly arrogant prince to a person who is much more kind and concerned.

I read these volumes over the weekend, and was very entertained! I think Red River is one of those series that benefits from being able to read many volumes at once, because the story lines are fast-paced and interesting, with plenty of cliff-hangers at the end of most volumes. While Red River is certainly a romance, it focuses much more on the expansion of the Hittite empire and the political machinations of the royal family. Yuri and Kail are a sympathetic couple, even if some of their issues would be solved if they were only able to sit down and have an honest conversation about their feelings. Fending off witchy evil stepmothers, dodging kidnappings, and dealing with bronze age military tactics do take up quite a bit of time. One thing I did miss in these volumes was author’s notes. I don’t know if there just weren’t any attached to this series, or if there was a decision made not to include them, but I would have found it interesting to hear about the author’s research. It seems like most of the historical shoujo manga that gets translated for English audiences tends to focus more on Japan as a setting, so Red River is certainly unique in that aspect. While there’s certainly enough romance to keep most shoujo fans happy, the setting and emphasis on action and adventure make this a very appealing series for readers.

Adventures in the Key of Shoujo: Sailor Moon, Vol. 8

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sailormoon8Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 8 | By Naoko Takeuchi | Kodansha Comics | Rated: T (13+)

And the hits just keep on rolling in this volume. After the hellfire brought down by the destruction of, well, the whole district, the Sailor Senshi find themselves facing down the remains of Hotaru’s body as it takes on the form of one of Pharaoh 90’s creatures. Meanwhile Chibi-Usa’s body remains in a critical condition. If they’re not going to be destroyed by this creature, then the newest member of the Senshi, Sailor Saturn, will finish them off.

On one hand, I’m fine with this volume because we finally get to end the ridiculous Pharaoh 90 story arc. I know I should expect these arcs since they are the meat and potatoes of the whole gig. But I find myself trying to invent reasons to be excited about them. I suspect it’s the fact that, after eight volumes, I want something else to happen. I want some kind of overarching villain to appear; I want some kind of “There’s a reason all of this is happening.” But every time, the Senshi just battle just another group who want to suck the energy/emotions/blood/flesh or whatever other substitute the story requires out of people to go to Valhalla/Eden/7-Eleven or whatever other substitute the villain requires. I swear to Jiminy nobody even says out loud that it’s awful suspicious that all these groups keep attacking the girls and don’t seem to have an overarching agenda.

I don’t know, readers, I feel like I am not skilled enough to figure out the appeal of watching the same fight happen to the same team in every volume. Yes, the appeal is that the gang gets to have an adventure, but it’s getting kind of repetitious. I want to know more about the team—yes, even Usagi. We do get snippets, but for the last few volumes there seems to be some kind of attempt to answer the question of what happens when Chibi-Usa goes back home to the future? Takeuchi is going for an idea of domesticity between Mamoru, Usagi and Chibi-Usa. But it only comes out when there’s no fighting going, so you can pretty much guess how often this happens.

What is weird about reading this volume, and indeed the rest of the volumes, is that I want something closer in tone to Codename: Sailor V than what’s presented here. In Sailor V, when Minako had to fight a different foe, at least it wasn’t relentless. Foes, who are about as thin as anything that Sailor Moon comes up with, were dispatched, sure. But at least it was over and done in two volumes. This has been going on in Sailor Moon for eight volumes and I really hope that things change in the run up to the end.

So at the halfway point in the volumes, am I happy? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, I’ve gotten to watch as Takeuchi paints a pretty epic canvas taking ordinary girls and making them responsible for people’s safety, even those they don’t know. I never get a sense that they don’t take their duties seriously. As they struggle to beat every adversary that stands against them, they have their moments of indecision but they always overcome them and find inner resolve to succeed. I’m a sucker for story dynamics like these. Plus for all her insufferable points, Usagi is a good leader who cares about her flock.

Where the series lets her down is when she reverts back to type and becomes an airhead after saving the world. I could buy that for the first couple of volumes but now I have to wonder if the author is deliberately sabotaging her lead because if she became more confident then there wouldn’t be much tension. The only way to stop that would be if the author actually wanted to make the kinds of changes that would simultaneously improve and ruin the tempo already set. Heaven and hell, I suppose.

On the other hand, the series seems to be incapable of letting the story go out on a limb and have more serious stakes. When the characters risk their lives, I’m never in any doubt they will make it through. When Mamoru was facing against his old friends, there was a real sense of danger and the gang had to fight to save themselves from being destroyed. But now it’s become so par for the course that I’m not even worried about them.

The team really must work on their tactics because they get hit again by the bad guys and spend a good portion of the initial battle—you guessed it—knocked unconscious. I shouldn’t be surprised, but still I have to stare at the page and say “What, again?” The promise of the Outer Senshi returning for the next volume intrigues me as their departure from the roster is not done with any finality, but in a manner that suggests when they do return it will be interesting to see how the Inner Senshi treat them.

Again, I find myself locating genuine problems that I have with the series, but they are not enough to stop my enjoyment of the proceedings. My worry is that when the final volume comes, it will be another cases of fighting yet another unknown boss and then that’s it, we’re out of time here folks.

Basara, Vols 13-16

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Whenever I pick up and read a few volumes of Basara, I’m always struck by how much story and emotion Yumi Tamura is able to pack into a few pages. I’d started rereading Basara last year, but got distracted by having too many volumes of shiny new manga. The Manga Moveable Feast seemed like a great excuse to dig up these volumes again. These volumes cover Sarasa’s journey as she escapes from prison and wages war on the desert city of Suo, only to encounter the Red King. The battle doesn’t go the way either of them planned.

Sarasa is able to escape Abashiri prison with her comrades, but she doesn’t have time to settle back and appreciate freedom again. It is time to head south and take up the struggle to determine the fate of Japan. Ageha leaves Sarasa, saying that he can’t become a crutch to make things easier for her. She has to execute her plans on her own, based on her convictions. Shuri heads to his precious desert city of Suo, but things have changed there for the worse as the administrator there Momonoi attempts to remake it in the image of Kyoto by displacing the poor and blowing up buildings. Asagi prevents a reunion between Sarasa and Shuri in a southern market, because he thinks if they each find out the truth about each other now, it would be “too dull.” Sarasa and Shuri both head to Suo with drastically different purposes.

The struggle in Suo is portrayed in mental as well as physical terms. Sarasa meets up with Hozumi, Momonoi’s son who his a non-violent artist. His girlfriend Renko runs an underground newspaper in the city. Sarasa starts unsettling the city by plastering notices that “Tatara was here” on the walls, and even flying the message from a kite. Sarasa starts to reflect a bit about what it means to be both a strong and feminine woman after spending some time with Renko. Hozumi stages his own form of protest by painting elaborate pictures on the walls of buildings slated for destruction, so people hesitate to blow them apart.

When Shuri sees the wreckage of Suo, he’s angry at what it has become. Momonoi brutalizes both Hozumi and Renko. Sarasa and Shuri both go after Momonoi for different reasons. Sarasa is nervous about being in close proximity to the Red King, the man who destroyed her village. Shuri sees that he’s not welcomed as a savior in his treasured city, and begins to reflect that his previous philosophy about a good leader inspiring fear was mistaken. Sarasa’s reinforcements come, but her plan to use Momonoi’s own explosives to cut off the palace kills the water supply for the city. The Red King’s army executes a tricky sneak attack, and the star-crossed lovers seem like they are headed towards mutual destruction. Sarasa is devastated when she realizes that she’s bring more destruction to the people of Suo. A horrible sandstorm prevents the battle from progressing further, but rather than regroup with her comrades, Sarasa runs off and finds Shuri in the chaos.

It is a little unbelievable that Sarasa and Shuri have managed to keep their identities from each other for so long, especially considering the way they both tend to show up and meet each other right around the time that Tatara and the Red King have a skirmish. It is clear now that part of reason is that they honestly don’t care, and they are both blinded by love for each other so much that they aren’t going to stop and ask inconvenient questions when they could just enjoy each other’s company. This idyll is very short, and the Red King and Tatara’s army clash the next day and Shuri and Sarasa finally get a glimpse of each other from across the battlefield.

What follows is one of the most emotionally devastating scenes in the series, as Sarasa and Shuri react to this newfound knowledge in different ways. Sarasa slips into a fugue state, forcing out commands to kill the Red King, while Shuri mechanically tries to kill himself at the suggestion of his followers because his group is so clearly outnumbered by the rebel forces. Both armies flee the battle as King Ukon’s army approaches and Ageha takes Sarasa away in an attempt to bring back Tatara. Ageha thinks “Was he…that good? Why not just take me instead?” Ageha concludes that Sarasa isn’t his “woman worth dying for” and decides to leave. Sarasa ends up finding shelter with a local priest and his family, but her destiny isn’t going to let her sit back and do nothing.

Sarasa strikes up an odd friendship with Kikune, one of the White King’s spies. Sarasa and Kikune end up befriending Lady Purple, the Black King’s estranged wife. Lady Purple ends up being another type of mentor to Sarasa, but Sarasa’s emotional healing really begins when she’s reunited with her mother. In a very nurturing way, Sarasa’s mother asks her some pointed questions about the reasons why she was fighting and what she wants the future of Japan to be.

There’s some funny yet poignant exchanges happening as Asagi has rescued Shuri, who is undergoing his own emotional rehabilitation. Asagi is all but twirling his non-existent evil mustache in an attempt to get Shuri to have some sort of emotional reaction to him, but Shuri calmly accepts the prospect of being sold into slavery by his half-brother.

Overall, these volumes server as a great emotional climax to the first half of the series. The central mystery about what would happen if Sarasa and Shuri would find out about each other has been answered, and now they have to pick up the pieces of their lives yet again. While Ageha might have given up on Sarasa, it is clear that her destiny as Tatara will not allow her to just retire into the countryside and life out the rest of her life peacefully. Shuri has his own set of trials ahead, and it will be interesting to see how both of these powerful leaders manage to build a new Japan with such strong and well-connected enemies lining up against them. One of the strengths of Basara is the way Tamura will intersperse shorter, more personal adventures into the larger struggle with the extended cast. Having Sarasa and Shuri both on their own a little bit, without their customary support systems allows them to grow more as individuals, making the battles much more human. I’m glad I set aside the time to get back with my Basara rereading program, and I’ll likely finish up rereading the rest of the series outside of this week’s manga moveable feast.

License This! 7 Seeds by Tamura Yumi

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Well, since everyone’s talking about Tamura Yumi and I just recently finished reading the newest volume of 7 Seeds, I think I will talk today about how some US company really, really, REALLY needs to license this awesome manga!

7seeds 22I’m sure many of you have read Basara, so you know Tamura Yumi can write amazing long-form post-apocalyptic adventure series. The cool thing about 7 Seeds is that it is also a long-form post-apocalyptic adventure series, but at the same time is completely different from Basara. Basara is set sometime long after humanity has recovered from their apocalypse and has regressed to a sort of feudal society. The actual apocalypse and aftermath don’t play any role in the story and to be honest, it could be set in a fantasy feudal Japan and not really feel any different.

7 Seeds, on the other hand, tells the story of five groups of young people who were cryogenically frozen in a government plan to assure humanity’s survival after Earth’s collision with a giant meteor. It’s a survival story and the apocalypse and the affect it had on Japan is constantly felt. There’s also lots of intrigue as we learn more about the 7 Seeds Project and what happened to everyone else on Earth after the meteor hit.

The manga starts off with Natsu’s POV, as she wakes up in an unfamiliar world with a bunch of strangers. No one told her or the other people in her group that they were chosen to be part of this project. The only person who knows anything is their guide, Botan. Later the POV switches to Hana, a girl on a different team, who also had no knowledge of the project, but is far more prepared than anyone else, having had a lot of wilderness training from her father. Occasionally the POV switches to other characters (like when we meet Aramaki, the sole survivor of his group, who thawed out fifteen years earlier than Hana and Natsu’s groups, in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido, or when Hana finds the journal of Mark, a guy who lived in a doomed shelter directly after the meteor hit, or when we meet the team whose members trained their entire life in order to be sent to the future as humanity’s great hope but who ended up being emotionally and mentally scarred by the experience), but for the most part it’s shared between Hana and Natsu.

This series has so many angles of appeal. Do you like adventure? Do you like post-apocalyptic stories? Do you like large casts with lots of great female characters? Do you like found/chosen family? Do you like intrigue and mystery? There is romance, too, as these are (for the most part) teenagers with lots of emotions and hormones and all that jazz. But romance plays even less of a role than it does in Basara, so if that was your main interest in a story then this probably wouldn’t be the story for you (but then again, it might, since there are loads of people to ship and at least one pairing that’s set up as the “main romance”). (I do love shoujo romance, but I’m also always really happy to find good shoujo series that aren’t primarily romance, because while there’s more of them in Japan than available in English, even in Japan it’s still a minority compared to romance-focused manga.)

One thing that really hit me in reading the most recent volume is that the theme of 7 Seeds seems to be “don’t look back.” No one knows how long it’s been since the meteor hit. Even the guides, who were prepared for this, know only that they were set to thaw when the computers sensed that the world was once again able to sustain human life. The flora and fauna and even the landscape of Japan, everything is alien. But the lesson seems to be that it’s humans who are the intruders, and in order to survive, they have to adapt to this new world, rather than clinging to the past. This is really driven home every time they encounter one of the abandoned shelters where those few survivors who weren’t part of the 7 Seeds project lived after the meteor hit.

I know some people don’t like her art and feel it’s dated (personally I think it’s unique and helps it stand out from the crowd), but she’s such a great storyteller that even if it had the worst art ever, I would still recommend this series to everyone because it’s that great. I don’t want it to end, so when it seemed like the groups were getting closer to finally all coming together (which will surely be the beginning of the end) in this most recent volume, I found myself cheering when they were separated even further as that meant the series wasn’t as close to the end as I’d feared. (There’s still so much to discover! So much I want to know!)

The longer this series goes on without being licensed (the most recent volume was #24 and it’s been running for over ten years now), the more I worry it never will be, since publishers are always more hesitant about picking up a long series (especially when it’s not shounen), but I really, really hope that someone will take a chance on it. As much as I loved Basara, I love this many times more and I want more people to be able to enjoy it!

Kare First Love Vols 1-6

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Kare First Love Volumes 1-3 by Kaho Miyasaka

I was excited to see the first volume of Kare First Love pop up on Viz Digital. I thought this would be a good excuse for me to reread the series. I checked out most of Kare First Love from a library a long time ago, and since then I’ve been slowly acquiring my own copies. Kare First Love was a shoujo manga released before the Shojo Beat imprint came into being. In terms of content, it would skew a bit older than some of the titles in the Shojo Beat line, although Miyasaka doesn’t straddle the josei/shoujo line the way I feel Ai Yazawa sometimes does.

Kare First Love sticks fairly close to standard shoujo plots, but it executes them in an engaging and sometimes slightly more realistic way. Kare First Love also piles on the drama. While there are humorous moments, there’s much more angst as the protagonists navigate their budding relationship. Karin Karino is a shy girl who hides behind her glasses and doesn’t stick up for herself at school. She’s thinking slightly snarky thoughts to herself as she endures her morning bus ride when she’s approached by Kiriya, a handsome student from a nearby boys’ school who is interested in the photography book that she’s reading. A mishap on the bus leaves Karin thinking Kiriya is a pervert, and she slaps him and leaves her book behind. Like many shoujo heroines Karin’s outward actions contract with her inner thoughts, as she meekly gives in when her frenemy Yuka demands her class notes while thinking of what she’d actually like to say in response. All the mean girl shenanigans are deflated a little bit by Nanri, a girl in Karin’s class with a worldly and cynical air about her. Nanri holds herself apart from the rest of the class, but she points out to Karin that she does have the ability to stop being taken advantage of if she would only speak up.

As much as Karin would like to go back to her simple anonymous life Kiriya will not go away. He shows up at her school to return her photography book, and they immediately start bickering. Yuko decides that she’s going to use Kiriya’s odd interest in Karin to pursue him and his group of hot friends. Karin finds herself maneuvered into a series of awkward group dates, and it becomes apparent that instead of being obnoxious, Kiriya is almost saintly for a 16-year-old boy. He goes out of his way to look after Karin, maneuvering her through awkward social situations. Karin can’t believe that Kiriya is actually interested in her, but around him she actually says what’s on her mind without her customary filter of shyness.

As Karin and Kiriya start to spend more time with each other, she learns that he’s estranged from his family and supports himself by working a series of part-time jobs. His main ambition is to be a photographer. There are plenty of misunderstandings and incidents where Karin is swept off her feet while Kiriya says things like “Let me take care of you…or I’ll do something horrible like kiss you again.” Kiriya encourages Karin to rediscover her love for music, which is something that she dropped due to the extreme pressure her parents placed on her studying for school.

One of the things that sets Kare First Love apart from other shoujo manga is the way Miyasaka details the trials and tribulations associated with Karin and Kirya developing the physical aspect of their relationship. The manga goes into more detail than is typical, with Nanri sometimes functioning as a peer counselor for the Japanese equivalent for Planned Parenthood because she keeps handing Karin condoms to ensure that when she does have sex, it will be safe sex. Karin is as scared and timid as you would expect a socially isolated girl to be, and Kiriya is about as patient as one would expect a 16 year old boy to be, which is not very patient. One difficult element of the characterization that Miyasaka manages to pull off is that for several volumes Kiriya is basically pressuring Karin to have sex, but he doesn’t seem like a jerk. He might attempt more physical intimacy in their relationship, but he always backs down when Karin appears uncomfortable.

Teenage romance is always both intense and complicated, and in short order the couple have to deal with Kiriya’s tragic past (the most important accessory of any shoujo hero), Karin’s overbearing parents, Yuka’s bullying, interfering photographers, and Kiriya’s attractive older sister-in-law. In addition to these outside complications, Kiriya and Karin’s relationship turns stormy due to their own lack of communication and misunderstandings with each other. The dynamic of the main relationship in Kare First Love reminded me a bit of Fuyumi Soryo’s Mars, but with much less psychological torture.

Miyasaka’s art is attractive, but most fluid and natural when she’s drawing teenagers. Karin’s father often looks a tad on the robotic side, but that could also be a function of his less than great personality. Karin is believable as a stunning shoujo heroine when she takes off her glasses, and Kiriya’s larger frame and shaggy blond hair contrasts with her more conservative look. Miyasaka does a good job alternating between the outward action and Karin’s thoughts, making all the scenes of breaking up and making up dramatic enough to satisfy any shoujo fan.

I’m very happy that Viz is making their backlist available on digital platforms, and I hope this series finds a new group of fans!

Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble

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Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble by QuinRose and Hazuki Futaba

I have a weakness for romance titles with ridiculously long titles in either manga or prose format. There’s something about the inherent ridiculousness of a title like “The Sicilian’s Ruthless Marriage Revenge” that makes me want to read it! If a romance title has five words or more, I’m usually entertained if I’m in the mood for some light reading. My decision to pick up Crimson Empire was largely due to the title, combined with the fact that it is another Quinrose title. I enjoyed the first Alice in the Country of Hearts manga adaptation well enough, so I was curious to see if I’d also like a different manga title from the brand without the literary connection.

Crimson Empire has a potentially amusing protagonist in Sheila the former assassin turned royal bodyguard and head maid, but the story in the first volume isn’t all that compelling as it mostly involves Sheila meeting an endless progression of handsome men. This is only what one could expect in a manga based on an otome game, but there were enough interesting elements that I would probably check out the second volume. This manga opens in a very dark way as one of the turning points of Sheila’s childhood is portrayed when her assassin trainers tell her to kill a random man. She does fulfill her duty, but not without a lot of trepidation. Years later Sheila is ready to accept her first official assignment, and she ends up as a bodyguard to the royal Prince, instead of joining the assassin league that has served as her foster family.

Prince Edvard is blond, charming, and the target of frequent assassination attempts which Sheila foils. He also might be a bit of a sociopath, as his outward personality masks an inner emptiness and pathological self-regard. Edvard’s older brother Justin is the tall, dark, handsome, and tsundere hero of many a female protagonist’s dreams. His outward hostility towards Sheila leads her to wonder if he’s behind all the attacks on his brother, but Justin always seems to be in the right place at the right time if Sheila needs a bit of help. There’s an almost too-large cast of supporting characters that Sheila meets as she goes about her duties. While the art is capably executed, it doesn’t have much of a distinct style. Fortunately the character designs are all very good, which helps the reader distinguish a little bit between the Brainy One, the Mischievous One, the Sorcerers One, the Demonic One, the Well-Dressed One, and the always essential Guy Wearing Glasses.I’m being a bit snarky, but overall I did like reading this manga, and I would follow the series if the next volume shows signs of a more interesting plot. If any more characters are introduced I might give up on the series because I can barely remember everybody! Fans of reverse harem manga would likely enjoy Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble, and at least Sheila’s bodyguarding duties give her a more interesting background than many of the heroines of the genre.

Adventures in the Key of Shoujo: Sailor Moon, Vol.7

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sm7Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 7 | By Naoko Takeuchi | Published by Kodansha Comics USA | Rated: T, Ages 13+

What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours! I was going to write down a red hot review after finally, FINALLY getting through volume 7 of Sailor Moon. Then sleep and fatigue set in and I had a think about it. So now I’ll temper my steel as some of my thoughts last night don’t make a whole lot of sense the day after. So let’s begin!

We find our heroes recovering from their last battle and wondering about the mystery behind the Mugen Academy—specifically why the new Sailor Senshi Sailors Neptune and Uranus are so antagonistic toward the rest. Meanwhile, Chibi-Usa is starting to worry about her new friend Hotaru Tomoe, a girl whom we met briefly in volume 6. Hotaru is the daughter of Professor Tomoe who runs the Mugen Institute, which is part of the Mugen Academy. Are you following me so far? Because I can help matters by telling you that Mugen Academy is evil. We know this because Master Pharaoh 90 and her/his (I don’t want to guess at this point) minions, the Death Busters, are in cahoots with Professor Tomoe. See, the ol’ Prof is attempting to build the perfect life form, and he thinks the best way of doing this is by bonding life energy onto creatures of Tomoe’s design. What Chibi-Usa doesn’t know is that Hotaru is hiding a secret. I like how Hotaru clearly understands that her father’s work and she herself are dangerous, and that she tries to shield Chibi-Usa from the truth while trying to have a life. The poor girl just wants to be normal, but because of who and what she is, anyone innocent around her is in danger.

The thing that annoyed me about the last volume is the change in tone for Neptune and Uranus. Before, they were playful and a bit mysterious but now they are openly hostile toward Usagi and the rest of the team. They believe as protectors of Silver Millenium (the kingdom on the moon that Usagi and the rest once lived on) that they have to go ahead of Usagi who, as the future Queen, is in their care. They want to stop the ascension of Sailor Saturn who is only supposed to arrive on the scene when the world must be destroyed. This presents me with an interesting conundrum: if the two Sailor Senshi wish to prevent the destruction of, well, everything then they have to kill another Sailor Saturn before she can become a Senshi, then doesn’t that mean that they knew they would have to kill her from the get go? Plus, wouldn’t killing her go against being a team? It’s not really explained, so I’m left with these questions. Thankfully, Takeuchi doesn’t confuse the issue by having them explain the whole nature of the Silver Millenium and the pre-destiny of the Senshi. Still, Usagi’s constant cries of “Let us help you and work together!” and the Outer Senshi’s replies of “NOOOO! WE have to do this on our own! IT’S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!!!” are confusing, as they are unnecessary.

One of my favourite characters from earlier volumes is Sailor Pluto. Sailor Pluto met her end in a previous volume and I missed her, because while she came across as very formal, her love for Chibi-Usa allowed a crack in her armor; she became my secret favourite Senshi (don’t tell Sailor Venus). Now, we spotted her in a reincarnated form at the end of volume six, and here she turns up again as Setsuna Meio, a researcher of all things. That’s not important because she’s back as Sailor Pluto as well. Strangely, while the other Senshi all became their alter-egos after coming into contact with Usagi, Pluto, along with Neptune and Uranus, already know that they are Sailor Senshi. This means they already know their jobs better than the others and they sometimes come across as older sister types despite being the same age. Pluto’s personality isn’t as full-on as the other two, but she’s not the same Pluto as the original version. The formality isn’t quite there yet, and she does love the other Senshi, but she feels as Neptune and Uranus do and wants to deal with the Mugen Academy without the Inner Senshi.

As for the fight with Mugen itself, the team receives a new power level and Usagi becomes Super Sailor Moon and lays a Chuck Norris-style beatdown on the minions of Master Pharaoh 90 (what’s with these ridiculous names!?). The others do try and fight against Mugen but they are quickly overwhelmed by the bad guys and Professor Tomoe (who goes all Dr. Jekyll and becomes a monster using his own research). He gets put down in the blink of an eye, so there’s something to be said for planning ahead. The greatest danger the team and Usagi are up against is something that I’ve been meaning to talk about since the character of Chibi-Usa was introduced. Hotaru goes mad with the creature that is inside of her and the creature, in lashing out, accidently absorbs the crystal energy that Usagi and Chibi-Usa both share. Chibi-Usa, being Usagi’s daughter, carries this ’round in the form of a crystal avatar. When it is removed, Chibi-Usa becomes fatally ill. Mamoru stays with her while Usagi goes to bring the smackdown on Mugen and get Chibi-Usa’s energy back. Now, this leads to said point of order. How does Usagi view Chibi-Usa? She and Mamoru ARE Chibi-Usa’s parents in the future so Mamoru clearly has paternal instincts toward his future daughter. But Usagi seems to fight for Chibi-Usa at every turn without showing any sign that she sees her as a daughter. It’s not like when she fights for the other Senshi—she fights for them in her own way. When Chibi-Usa is threatened, Usagi pulls out the big guns and not in a proactive way. When Usagi powers up and saves Chibi-Usa, she finds strengths and powers that she didn’t realize she had. Maybe this is her way of saying “this is my daughter, evil-doers, and I will kick your arse if you threaten her!”

The end of the manga calls for a showdown between the remains of Hotaru and Usagi. Whatever is left of Hotaru’s physical body is under the direct control of Master Pharaoh 90 and has destroyed the lab, the buildings and the academy. I don’t know how they’ll cover this up come the morning! Something happened to Hotaru’s spirit which leads me to believe she will be quickly resurrected in the next couple of volumes. I know I’m giving somewhat short answers here but this stuff literally comes up at the last second in the volume so I have no information to go on. Whatever happens, Sailor Moon is as always a mixture of the good, the bad and the unexplained.

The Story of Saiunkoku, Vol 9.

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The Story of Saiunkoku, Vol. 9 by Sai Yukino and Kairi Yura

It is rare for a manga series to end leaving me wishing that it was twice as long, but that is exactly what happened as I was reading the final ninth volume of Story of Saiunkoku. The eighth volume was a natural stopping point, and this volume has some side stories that help shed some light on the histories of selected members of the supporting cast. This volume might not be totally necessary to round out Shurei’s main story, but fans of the series will enjoy visiting with the extended Hong clan and the amazingly eccentric Ryuren.

The first story, “So Began the Fairy Tale” focuses on Shurei’s father, giving greater background into the more ruthless personality behind his smiling exterior. While he’s an amazingly gentle and wonderful father, his past as an assassin gives a bit of an edge to all of his actions in the manga. Here we see the beginnings of his ability to plot as he takes action to make sure that the Hong clan isn’t endangered. “Hurricane Ryuren Strikes the Capital” flashes back to the examination period, where we see Shurei and Eigetsu start to cement their friendship with the eccentric Ryuren despite his crazy clothes, horrible flute playing, and tendency to make odd pronouncements. This story ends up serving as a meditation on the nature of friendship, even as Shurei and Egitsu’s overtures to Ryuren wind up taking them on a detour through the gambling underworld. The final story focuses on the Hong family again, with “Someday I Will Come to You (Though I Love You, How Far You Are From Me)” focusing on Shurei’s uncle Reishin Hong’s bizarre psychological hang-ups. This volume featured plenty of humor, as a series of masks duplicating the expressions of Shurei’s father are put to an unorthodox use, and the reactions Ryuren accidentally provokes from the people surrounding him are always funny.

It does make me a little sad knowing that there’s a very long light novel series containing more adventures of The Story of Saiunkoku that we’ll never see translated here, but the manga adaptation of the story was certainly fun to read. This is going to be a “keeper” series for me, as I can see myself wanting to reread this every few years. It is so unusual to find a shoujo ending where the happy ending for the heroine is a life of civil service as opposed to everything wrapping up nicely with a romantic interest. Many things combined to make this an entertaining manga – the clear art, fun supporting cast, and the blend of humor and drama made this manga very enjoyable.

Please Save My Earth, Vols. 1-5

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One of the things I was most excited about when Viz launched their digital store was the possibility that some of their backlist shoujo titles would get released in digital format. The one series I was most wanting to experience again was Please Save My Earth. I read the first few volumes of the series many years ago, but dropped it. At the time I was a bit frustrated about the lack of forward movement in the story, even though I thought the manga was interesting and well-constructed. I know that plenty of people have read the whole series and consider it a favorite so I was anxious to give it a second try.

The first volume opens by introducing the slightly strange heroine of Please Save My Earth. Alice has just moved to Tokyo from Hokkaido, and she’s having a hard time adjusting. She has an affinity towards plants and feels cut off from nature in the big city. Alice is tormented by an oddly precocious neighbor boy named Rin. As she’s excaping the stress of school she happens upon an oddly intimate conversation between two of her male classmates, Jinpachi and Issei. At first Alice thinks that she’s stumbled across a moment from a yaoi manga and concludes “this is what manga fangirls are supposed to weep with joy over!” Later, Jinpachi and Issei explain the meaning behind their conversation – every night they share the same dreams where they are male and female scientists marooned on the moon.

Rin has an accident while Alice is babysitting him and is in a coma for several days. When he wakes up, the bratty boy seems to be taken over by a much more cynical and manipulative personality and he begins to exhibit an obsessiveness over Alice that would be even more disturbing in a grown man. Alice has a dream where she’s a woman named Mokuren, on the moon with Shion, the man she loves.

As the early part of the series progresses, Alice, Jinpachi, and Issei start tracking down other people who share their alien moon dreams by placing an ad in a kooky paranormal magazine. They start having regular meetings, trying to piece together the history of what happened to the alien scientists. Many of the feelings of the adult scientists tend to transfer over to their female incarnations, as Jinpachi starts to exhibit signs of the unrequited love his counterpart Gyokuran had for Mokuran/Alice and Issei/Enju remains on the sidelines.

Hiwatari’s art shifts back and forth from a cartoonish classic 80s style showing the schoolkids to a much more lush and detailed way of portraying life on the moon. One thing that I’d forgotten that I noticed much more the second time around were the touches of humor included in the story such as a random Saint Seiya reference and the occasional mention of shoujo magazine publishing conventions. Jinpachi is congratulated on his emotional conviction when he’s so stirred that he has to be portrayed in a two page spread.

A manga that focused only on characters sharing their dreams about being teeny tiny aliens on the moon might not seem to be very compelling reading on the surface, but there’s plenty of dramatic tension in the way the Moon and Earth stories intersect. The aliens are the last outpost of a dying race, spending their remaining time observing the Earth. But some events show Mokuren and Shion together after all of their companions have died off from an unexpected disease. The mystery behind the final days of the aliens is tricky to put together, as the events shown in the dream flashbacks shift forwards and backwards in time.

Rin is Shion reincarnated, and it is difficult to tell if his scheming is a desperate attempt to put things right or a form of revenge for being left alone on the Moon base for so long that he went insane. Rin is able to manipulate both the adults and high school kids around him, tagging along with Alice and coming up with an elaborate scheme to hide his true reincarnated identity. There’s a bit of a race against time element at play, as the other reincarnated high schoolers start to piece together more and more information about their previous lives, Rin may be able to manipulate them into revealing some information that would allow him to access the dormant alien technology from Earth. Rin also has developed psychic powers, which makes him quite terrifying as a hidden antagonist to the story.

With the digital availability of this series it is very easy to read several volumes at once, and I think that will end up being the most rewarding option for most readers. I wonder if part of the reason why I was starting to grow impatient the first time around was due to delays between volumes. The story of Please Save My Earth progresses in a very compelling way, with past lives informing the reader of the character’s current motivations. I’m interested to see if they are going to play out their tragic fates again, or if free will and the changed personalities of Alice and her gang are going to cause their lives to take a turn for the better. I’m happy to have the chance to revisit this series.

Adventures in the Key of Shoujo: A Kiss on Tearful Cheeks, Vol.1

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A Kiss on Tearful Cheeks | By Tsumugi (Story), Yukie Sasaki (Art) | Published by JManga.com | Rated: Teen Plus

Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying might be the perfect anthem for the heroine of A Kiss on Tearful Cheeks, Iori Narazaki. She is constantly upset by the little things, not the big things. She’s never been in love because her feelings never lasted. Mam and Dad are abroad so big sister Shiori takes care of her. Shiori works in a publishing company and Iori, 17, goes to school. One day she is crying after being dropped off at school when a young man named Yusuke Izumi asks her if she’s alright. After revealing that he works in the same company as Shiori, and also knows her, Yusuke gives her his card and says if she’s ever crying again to call him. Iori toys with the idea of contacting him but doesn’t, and after being set up on a date by her best friend, Megu, seems to like the guy Megu set her up with. Unfortunately, the date turns out to be a lesser example of the male sex and when things look bad for Iori, Yusuke suddenly turns up and rescues her. So, Iori begins to think that this feeling she has when she thinks of Yusuke might not be so bad.

The best thing about this title for me upon starting it is that it is a million miles away from my usual fare for the column. It’s entirely contemporary and set in the here and now. Iori is a bit of a crybaby but she isn’t helpless. She has a bad case of poor self-esteem, that’s all. She really wishes that people wouldn’t have to worry about her. She always wonders why she isn’t like her sister, for example. But when Yusuke comes into her life, it really does transform things around her. He wants her only because of her not because he grew up with her, or is best friends with her or is related to her. And Yusuke, aside from one or two odd bits of behaviour, doesn’t want to pressure her into doing something she doesn’t want to. Simply put, he is enchanted with her and she’s smitten with him.

Now, as I said, there are one or two quirks of behaviour on Yusuke’s part that I don’t get as they seem slightly at odds with the rest of his makeup. One, he gets intensely jealous whenever other boys Iori knows pay attention to her. He’s only known the girl a wet week and already he’s jealous? Second, after he and Iori decide to get together, he keeps leaving love bites on her body. And refers to them as his mark. Hmm, I don’t understand that. Now, if he didn’t have positive attributes like not wanting to push her into having sex with him (every bloke worth his salt should come with this way of thinking as a standard part) or explaining himself when he does get jealous, this would be a different kind of story. One thing about the way Iori is written that doesn’t sit very well with me is she, twice in a row, gets into a situation where really creepy lads try to maul her (thats’s the best way I can put it) and twice Yusuke rescues her. Does she really need him to rescue her? So little of her psychological makeup is described in this first volume, I worry that it will become an “Oh, no! I’m being attacked! Save me, Yusuke!” trope of the story. The authors are not helping matters by using Iori in this way, because they have a person she barely knows attack her and then has a person she has known all her life attack her. What does that say about girls in Japan? No matter what they say, you can have your way with them? I really worry about that kind of message.

Maybe I’m projecting too many of my own insecurities about messages like that in this review. If I am, consciously or unconsciously, I apologise as the series has a lot of potential. The best bits in this are the moments when Iori and Yusuke are with each other and we hear Iori’s innermost thoughts. These are the thoughts of a person who doesn’t know where she and he are going but after living a life of uncast doubts, she wants this feeling she gets around Yusuke. Wants it more than anything. Come hell or high water. Come laughter, scares and yes, even the tears. I think some of us can relate to this feeling. Hell, I know I’ve been in throes of such a feeling and having and wanting no way out. It could all turn to cat poop in five minutes. Iori doesn’t seem to care. Much like the lyrics of the above mentioned song, Iori doesn’t mind crying now because now she’s not crying about nothing, she’s crying about a feeling she’s got and that’s not a bad thing.

Yukie Sasaki’s art is somewhat refined but the joy here is the long delicate features of her characters, their huge expressive eyes, and the unfinished look to things. It makes for a uneven mess, but it’s a lovely mess for my money. Tsumugi, the author, really needs to decide where her main characters mental tics should settle. Plus the mixed messages thing about Iori being a target for every guy that’s not Yusuke needs to end, full stop. Other than that, I’m happy to keep going.

This is my first review for Manga BookShelf using the JManga platform, though I would humbly ask that you check out the rest of the writers on Manga Bookshelf for a better view of the service as a whole. I like JManga, not enough to say it’s a perfect system because it’s not. There are parts of it I would change. They are starting to address the pricing problems of the original setup of the website. And yes, universal access to all titles, regardless of geography, is an absolute must. But for titles like A Kiss… there is simply no way it would ever be released by a print publisher. Sadly, the market just won’t support it. So, I am looking forward to buying more of A Kiss… but I would ask the people at JManga to bring over the rest of the series as there are only three volumes of nine available. Incomplete series make no money no matter how loyal their readers are.

Question time: Given how much fun I had with JManga, would you like me to take a break from Sailor Moon more often and do stuff like A Kiss…? I know that a few of you had said initially that doing Sailor Moon alone was not the end all and be all of shoujo and I do see that. Seeing as I can’t spend all that much on manga these days (Google: Irish economic problems. Not being sarcastic here.), what would you like more of? Stuff like A Kiss… and Skip Beat or more fantasy stuff like Sakura Hime or Sailor Moon? With it ending in 7 or so more volumes and I’m having so much fun on the column that I don’t want to dry up when I finish on SM. Comments and emails are welcome in this endeavour.

Story of Saiunkoku, Vol. 8

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Story of Saiunkoku, Vol 8. by Kairi Yura and Sai Yukino

I enjoy the meditative pace of Story of Saiunkoku. By the end of this volume plucky heroine and trailblazing civil servant Shurei Hong is finally launched at another stage of her life, and the fact that it took eight volumes for her to experience a new adventure doesn’t bother me at all. The main reason why I enjoy this series so much is the fact that the manga features such a rich variety of characters, all of whom are sympathetic and interesting in different ways. As the first and only woman to pass the civil servant exam, Shurei has been accused of cheating and must clear her name. It is always a bit heartwarming how all the people that surround Shurei come together to support her. She’s a very capable young woman, but the path that she’s chosen is so incredibly difficult that it is a good thing that she has so many friends and relatives who work behind the scenes to make sure that she can succeed on her own terms.

It turns out that the burdensome paperwork that Shurei and Eigetsu were processing also not so coincidentally included the clues to major financial irregularities in the Ministry of Rites whose head was determined to prevent Shurei from becoming a civil servant. Shurei and Eigetsu’s hazing resulted in their peers becoming more sympathetic to them, and the duo was also able to research and create a report that contained very damning evidence about an enemy that they didn’t even know they had. Supporting cast members that come to the forefront in this volume include Shurei’s uncle Renshin Hong and Minister Ko, whose devastating beauty ends up being a weapon for Shurei when he actually takes off his mask in court to force a confession from the Minister of Rites. There’s plenty of humor in this scene, as the onlookers are warned that if they look at Minister Ko’s face they will lose their ability to concentrate on work for years, their home life will collapse, and “in the worst case, you may lose your mind.”

There’s a great scene between Shurei and Ryuki towards the end of the volume where he demonstrates his trust in her by appointing her as a civil servant even though he would prefer that she stay as his bride. Shurei and Eigetsu embark on a new phase of their lives as civil servants together, but life can’t be boring when they are about to be sent to govern the most rebellious province in the land, aided mainly by the roguish Ensei. This volume also features a very lighthearted story about a cross-dressing contest that Shurei tries to make her male friends participate in because she’s so enthusiastic about the grand prize of many bales of rice. I think we’re catching up to the Japanese releases of this manga and the next volume is the final one. I’ll be a bit disappointed since I believe the light novel version of the story covers much more than the manga. Still, I’ll be happy with whatever I can read from this series.

Demon Love Spell Vol. 1

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I ended up liking Mayu Shinjo’s Ai Ore a bit more than I thought I would after reading the first omnibus volume. The second series settles in as more of a straightforward comedy series, without some of the problematic gender dynamics that were present in the earlier series. Still, Ai Ore didn’t inspire much rereading or long term affection from me. One of my problems was that the male lead of Ai Ore looked nothing like Sakuya from Sensual Phrase. Shinjo has a somewhat limited set of character designs, but when she does hit on a design she does execute it very well. I experienced far too much cognitive dissonance in Ai Ore expecting a Sakyua clone to pop up, only to be disappointed. Fortunately in Demon Love Spell, the demon in question looks like a typical Shinjo hero half of the time!

Miko is a shrine maiden (ha ha!) who isn’t very good at her job. She can’t sense the demons that she battles, so her technique is limited to chanting random spells and hoping that one of them works. She sees all the girls in her class crying over a faithless boy named Kagura. One of the victims jokes that Kagura has to be a demon because no human boy could go through women that fast. Miko makes up for her lack of skill with enthusiasm and she decides to rush off and exorcise the womanizer. Miko fins Kagura kissing yet another girl and starts lecturing him about the dangers of being possessed by an incubus who preys on the sexual desire of women. Kagura finds Miko extremely hilarious until she casts a spell on him and he actually disappears. Miko starts crying because she thinks that she accidentally killed someone when she hears an angry voice yelling at her from the vicinity of her shins, saying that it is impossible that someone like her could bind his powers.

Kagura wasn’t possessed by an incubus, he actually is one of the most powerful incubi around, and now he’s trapped as a powerless chibi version of himself only a few inches tall. Miko and Kagura end up developing a symbiotic relationship. When she’s in contact with him she can actually see the demons she wants to battle. If Miko gives Kagura a tiny amount of affection, his powers kick in and he’s able to help her. Kagura in appearance and demeanor is very much a typical Shinjo alpha male. He’s imperious and demanding, which doesn’t always play very well when he looks like a three inch tall cherub. One of the reasons why I wasn’t able to enjoy Ai Ore as much is that the relationship between the protagonists was a bit unbalanced. Even though this was deliberately done to contrast with the character’s outward appearances, Mizuki was too tremulous and Akira too demanding for me to really root for them as a couple. The personalities of the characters are much more balanced in Demon Love Spell. Miko might not be the best shrine maiden in the world, but she has no problem torturing Kaguya in his chibi form by dressing him up in clothes belonging to an old doll of hers. She decides to fasten Kaguya to a chain and hang him on her handbag to take him to school with her, and she starts lecturing him on proper behavior, saying “Bag mascots aren’t supposed to talk!”

Kaguya is still able to use manifest his regular form and power up when he visits Miko in her dreams, but she doesn’t remember anything the next morning. The incubus helps Miko fend off all the demons that are gathering around her, drawn by the fact that she managed to capture him. As the story develops, it seems like Kaguya is starting to feel genuine concern and affection for Miko. Or perhaps he’s just comfortable with the fact that he’s able to hang out in her cleavage when they enter battle together. Demon Love Spell was a fun comedic version of paranormal romance manga. While the comedy explored in Demon Love Spell is on a bit of a similar wavelength as Ai Ore, I found the characters much more interesting and sympathetic. I think readers who tried Ai Ore and didn’t care for it should give this series a try. I still tend to prefer Shinjo when she is in serious and dramatic soap-opera mode as seen in Sensual Phrase, but Demon Love Spell was quite enjoyable.

License This! Aozora Yell by Kazune Kawahara

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Hi! I guess I should introduce myself. My name’s Travis and I’ve been reading Manga Bookshelf since it was just MJ’s blog, and have known her for even longer. I’ve never thought of writing here, since I don’t read manga in English, but then when MJput out her most recent call for contributors, I thought, well, maybe I could write about stuff I really love that I wish were published in English so that more people could enjoy them, and so License This! was born. For right now, I’m going to aim for a monthly column, because I don’t want to overcommit (a bad habit of mine), but I could also see possibly doing twice a month, so we’ll see where that goes.

As for what type of manga I’ll be writing about, the answer to that is pretty much “everything.” If pressed, I’d probably choose shoujo as my favorite genre, but I read very, very widely. And while I’ve chosen a currently running series for my first post (mainly because I didn’t have that much time to prepare and thus wanted something fresh in my mind, rather than an old favorite I haven’t read for years and may have to reread in order to remember it well enough to write about), I’ve been reading manga for almost twenty years, so I have a lot of favorites that are long since over.

Cover of Aozora Yell 10 And now with that out of the way, on to the first title! I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with Kazune Kawahara from her series High School Debut (also one of my favorites), but I am sad to see that nothing besides that one series has been published in the US. Admittedly, she only has two other long series, and the rest of her stuff is one-shots or single-volume series, but it’s all really great. I know that her art style is not to everyone’s tastes (especially anything that came before High School Debut), but the stories more than make up for it.

Kawahara is one of my favorite shoujo authors, but I think her sweet/innocent style may not be what US readers want to see (or at least what publishers think they want to see). It seems like a lot of what’s published in English is more edgy/gritty or else has fantasy elements (or both), but I really like this sort of heartwarming slice-of-life stuff. It’s just cute! Another thing Kawahara does well that I like in my shoujo romance is female friendships. So many romances (not just in manga, but western media as well) are all about girls fighting over guys, and while my favorite authors may include a rival sometimes, they also make sure to give their heroines good friends as well.

Aozora Yell (aka Yell for the Blue Sky) is Kawahara’s current series. With volume eleven just released yesterday in Japan, it’s looking to be quite a bit longer than High School Debut, maybe even as long as her first big hit, Sensei! (also a favorite of mine), which clocks in at twenty volumes total.

Our protagonist is Tsubasa, a first-year high school student who has enrolled in Shirato High because of their brass band. After seeing the brass band play on TV during a Koushien game (the high school baseball championship), she decided that’s what she wants to do…the only problem being she’s never played an instrument before. When she joins the band, she finds that everyone else has way more experience than her, having been playing since middle school or even longer.

Unlike many stories that start off this way, Tsubasa does not turn out to be a genius at the trumpet. In fact, as of the most recent volumes (which have reached the beginning of her second year), she is still the worst player in the band. However, she is working hard and slowly getting better. One of the things that keeps her going is that her dream has become more personal. It’s not just the idea of playing for a generic baseball team anymore, or even for her school. It’s a specific person she wants to cheer on, a boy on the team named Daisuke whom she has become good friends with. More than friends, in fact, but although she told him how she feels, he rejected her, saying he wants to focus on baseball for now. They’re still good friends, though, and encourage each other to practice hard and get better.

While I would definitely categorize this series as romance, the focus is just as much, if not more, on the band (and if you’re tired of school stories that focus on the same old annual events, at least band competitions are not something that’s been done to death) and on relationships in general (with friends, and with bandmates both friendly and not). You can’t help but root for Tsubasa as she struggles to be, not even great, but just good enough to be allowed to play with the rest of the band rather than sitting out a competition.

As I mentioned above, this doesn’t seem to be a genre that US publishers are all that interested in, but I think High School Debut did fairly well (certainly it seems like I know a ton of people who liked it), and I know that Kimi ni Todoke is quite popular, so I’m hoping that maybe this one has a chance.