Negima!? Neo, vol. 1

Original Concept and Story by Ken Akamatsu with Art by Takuya Fujiima
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A manga of an anime of a manga

Brilliant ten year old mage Negi graduates from his British school of magic and has to go to Japan to teach at an all girl school. If that is not the set-up for a Harry Potter fanfic filled with Mary Sue overtones, I don't know what is. Negi has to help the various girls at the school deal with their problems while advancing his own magic by 'partnering' up with someone. Since he surrounded by teenage girls, guess who his partner will be? Let's not forget he has to keep his magic secret from the students even as several of the students have magical natures. This is a harem comedy, with all of the negatives that implies along with the above slugline literally being true. This is not the original manga that the TV and various OVA series are based on, but a manga based on the anime that was based on the original manga. Sometimes the multiple versions can be a benefit to a property, with each iteration allowing the story to become ever more focused and removing distractions. But there is also the possibility the story will lose focus like a photocopy, as each iteration gets further away from the core of the story. I am not sure here if the various iterations is helping or hurting the story.

My rating from Negima!? Neo comes from several different aspects of the story. Harem comedies have a hard time being believable, as in if you can believe whether or not people will act these way. Here there is not much of an attempt at believability, with everyone embracing their inner stereotype and going with it and the characters being all surface. The plot reads like a bad fanfic (yes, there is good fanfic) with a thinly disguised Harry Potter stand-in. If you already love Negima, here you get some more, but other than that, this is just not a very well done manga.

It is almost if this was the culmination of the search for the best way to deliver fan service, cutting away of everything else that can get in the way of delivering fanboy goodness but may also have other uses, like story or subtext, or even text for that matter. While that may be fine for some, there is no reason that a manga can not also deliver an interesting story because that does not necessarily have to interfere with delivering fan service, it is not an either/or equation.



Negima!? Neo, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Maid Sama!, vol. 1

By Hiro Fujiwara
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Anger and daddy issues go together is the taste great, less filling of storytelling

Misaki has dad issues, and using the toughness she had cultivated after her dad abandoned her to help keep the male dominated school body in line at her school in her role of president.. But every character in manga has a secret and hers is that to make some money she works at a maid cafe, where she has to be polite and call visitors master. This does not come easily to her but Misaki manages to keep the two parts of her life separate until Takumi, the bored and thus sexy head male student at her school discovers it. Rather than take advantage of her over it, Takumi uses it as a reason to get close to the one girl in school that is not intrigued by his natural charm, thus making Misaki the only one that interests him at all.

The intersection of the maid and high school settings gives some slightly new twists to many of the same situation that fill out all shoujo . Sometimes that is all it takes to bring a little bit of freshness to staid situations. It is also nice to see for once that the missing/abandoned parent issue being used for more than just a rationale to keep cast size manageable and for explaining why high school students can stay out for all hours. Having a missing or otherwise uninvolved parent seems to be a staple of anime/manga but it rarely seems like it drives any of the characters in a meaningful way, unlike in many types of American fiction. Here at least her father's abandonment has shaped and changed Misaki in ways that matter and if her father ever returns you have some juicy storytelling potential there.



Maid Sama!, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Ai Yori Aoshi, vols. 1-3 collected

By Kou Fumizuki
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: True Blue Boredom

Kaoru has left his abusive family behind to go to college, but a childhood friend appears one day. Aoi remembers when they were betrothed to each other, and has spent her life getting ready for that, and just because Kaoru is no longer the heir to his family fortune is no reason to change plans now. Kaoru does like Aoi, and they manage to come to arrangement that allows them to get to know each other better at the cost of keeping their relationship a secret. Of course, that means that Kaoru's friends at the college have to get involved and complicate things.

Thank goodness this was a collected edition, because the first volume went by in a blink. I have learned to appreciate, even sometimes treasure the fact that a manga story can take its time to unfold, but in this case it means that in the 2nd and 3rd volumes that are still hitting all of the shojo cliche story/settings, such as the amusement park, hot springs and school festival chapters. The characters are really earnest and all, but all I could think while reading it was boring, boring, boring. Seen it all before, over and over. There is all of this storytelling potential about Kaoru and Aoi's families, and it is not even touched upon in the first three volumes of the series. Maybe creators need to fill the first few volumes of series with these cliche scenes in order to get in the time to explore the characters and get a handle on them before heading into more individualized stories, but that just means that we end up reviewing a lot of similar first volumes of shojo titles. Is there anything bad here? No, not really, but it is very run of the mill. If you have read more than a dozen shojo titles, you can skip this volume without missing much.



Ai Yori Aoshi, vols. 1-3 collected is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Magic Touch, vol. 1

Story and Art by Izumi Tsubaki
Published in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: A happy beginning to a massage shojo

Chiaki is a shy high school student who only comes into her own when she is working with her school's massage club. Her sister always get her into trouble and her mother always takes her sister's side, soChiaki find massage an activity and place where she can help people in a concrete way without having to worry about being undercut. There is a popular male student named Yosuke whose back is so tense that Chiaki just wants to sink her hands into it, but Yosuke demands that she has to be his girlfriend first. Yosuke has confused Chiaki with her sister, who destroyd and dumped Yosuke's brother but he learns that Chiaki is very different from his expectations.

Every time that I think I have found a premise for a manga that will never work, it still manages to surprise me in a pleasant way. Let's face it, high school romance set among the massage tables just calls out for a snarky commentary. While there is still a lot to snark about, the story does manage to work. It is not very thrilling mind you, using many of the same old shojo cliches that we have seen before. Look, a character that can cook so well that everyone talks about it and a romance filled trip to the beach! But considering the topic, I expected this story to be a dog, or fall into every cliche out there, and it manages to avoid the worst excesses and be somewhat believable. And since this blog is at least in the hundreds of shojo series reviewed, yes, sometimes that is all that is necessary to be pleasant surprise.



Magic Touch, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Peace Maker: Kurogane, vol. 1

By Nanae Chrono
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Cat boys gone bad!

Ichimura Tetsuno continues to be trained by the famous Shinsengumi, with the figures that feature in almost every anime and manga set in the Meiji Restoration making a guest appearance or in a supporting role in the title. There is not much of recap of what has gone before, so who all the characters are and what their relationship to each other is not immediately clear. What makes it even more difficult is that there is not a clear plot in this first volume to distract you from the fact that you don't know much about the characters. A couple of new characters (I assume) are introduced, which means that since I have not read the first series I know these new characters much better than the stars of the series. The antagonist (I think) steps forward at the very end of the volume, so there is not much information about what his plans or goals are. The messy art style doesn't help, because while I can tell the new characters apart, the older ones that I haven't really had a chance to mentally indentify get muddled together. While this is a beginning of a new story arc for Peace Maker, the lack of recap or introduction to the main characters makes this a bad first volume to pick of the series.



Peace Maker: Kurogane, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, vol. 1

By Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka, Co-authored with Takashi Nagasaki and Supervised by Macoto Tezka with the cooperation of Tezuka Productions
Published in the US by Viz

Slugline: A re-imagining of a classic Tezuka/Astro Boy story

Gesicht is a homicide detective in a near future where intelligent robots are common. It has been only recently have robots become difficult to tell apart from humans with robots getting married and having child robots, but robots are still somewhat removed from humanity by an emotional distance. Even Gesicht, himself a robot, can't help but feel some distance from the victims he tries to find justice for. His latest case is the murder of Mont Blanc, has very little emotional distance for everyone in Europe, since Mont Blanc was a beloved and wildly popular forestry robot who was also an environmentalist, poet and former soldier from the Asian wars. Mont Blanc's crime scene is very similar to the crime scene of a human murder which cause a great deal of worry for the authorities. If the two murders are related, only a robot would have the strength to tear apart Mont Blanc but no robot has killed a human in eight years. This disturbing contradiction drives Gesicht to consult with that killer robot, who warns him that there are 8 targets, all powerful robots many with connections to the Asian war. One of them is Atom, better known to American readers as Astro Boy.

This is an authorized extension of a Tezuka's Astro Boy story arc, now told as a murder mystery starring what was then a supporting character. I was not aware of all this back story when I picked up the volume but it was easily able to stand on its own. The characters and the plot are very subtle, holding more than what first appearances would suggest. Sure, there are some silly bits, such as robots with robot children, but once you accept the premises of the story, everything else flows naturally. Knowing Tezuka's titles would deepen one's appreciation for this homage, letting one recognize the off-handed Black Jack mention, but it is strong even without that knowledge.



Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Reviews on Wednesday and Friday this week

Was busy doing some volunteer work in the first half of the week, so the reviews are going to slide to a little bit later in the week as a result.

-Ferdinand

Heaven's Will, vol. 1

Story and Art by Satoru Takamiya
Published in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: Shoujo and the supernatural clash. Cuteness wins!

Sudou is a kanki, a person with the ability to see ghosts and other spirits called oni which she has been trying to avoid all of her life. Well, unholy creatures and boys, whom she just does not understand. While trying to lose pursuing oni a local haunted house Sudou runs into Seto, a crossdressing male dressed as a goth girl and who is an exorcist willing to help her with oni if in return Sodou cooks him/her a cake a day and flushes out more oni. Seto has a sidekick vampire wolf named Kagari that helps them out but is so gruff that he often surprises Sudou. During the course of the first exorcism (which takes up most of the first volume) Seto reveals that is not his/her true name but the name of his dead twin sister. Seto's sister was an exorcist with Seto using his sister's magical fan (which contains her spirit) to perform his exorcisms. The reason for all these complications, including Seto's cross-dressing, is because Seto hopes to make himself enough of a girl to allow his sister to reemerge and take over his body, displacing his spirit but allowing his sister to live again. Despite Seto's guilt-filled rationalization that this is to make up for his sister dying while defending him, Sudou is horrified and is left trying to think of ways to convince Seto to live.

As a Viz Shojo Beat title, this is far more a shoujo than a supernatural thriller, especially with all the talk of feelings rather than planning on how to confront the supernatural. The result is while the characters are well developed the story itself is less so, with the supernatural's rules unclear. In a way, even the art reflects shojo priorities, with Seto's cute goth girl outfits fully realized while the scenes that involve the supernatural sometimes seem unclear and suffer from poor panel construction. I am not a big shojo person, so it would not be a surprise for me to say that I think that perhaps the shoujo aspects should have minimized. But I think that they spent too much of their dramatic energy will on this first case, explaining both of Seto and Kagari's issues in detail together rather than spreading it over several different cases, allowing the supernatural and the shoujo aspects of the title to play off each other rather than existing almost separately. If you are not going to use the supernatural aspects to help inform and explain the characters and the overall story, why bother having those aspects at all?



Heaven's Will, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, vol. 1

By Koji Kumeta
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Transcending cliches by refusing to let go of the gag.

Itoshiki is a new teacher, but he is anything but excited by the challenge of his school and students. In fact, on the way to the school he tries to commit suicide by hanging himself, but a student saves him from trying to 'grow taller.' Having had family members attempt to 'grow taller' is something that the student gotten used and tries to retain a positive outlook. Her positive outlook is so strong in fact that the student can't see the truth of things right in front of her. At first the story revolves around how Itoshiki and the student's different outlooks clash but the story becomes more about the class Itoshiki teaches. The class is filled with students just as odd as Itoshiki, and as each one is revealed and detailed their eccentricities build on each other.

You have to admire the thoroughness of the gags. Each students represents one of the typical stereotypes you can find in manga, and each chapter adds another one to the mix. What makes this stand out is that these stereotypes are not being used as a storytelling shorthand, but are used as if they were real continuing characters with consequences to their actions. The stalker's line of her own stalkers first show up in her story, then repeatedly show up in the rest of the volume as other characters stumble across them. The gratuitous panty shot girl continues to do them long after her gag is established. Individually the characters and their actions may not be special, but later in the volume when all of the gags start interacting and building on each other, they move past idly amusing then annoying into the land of being genuinely funny.



Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Otomen, vol. 1

Story and Art by Aya Kanno
Published in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: What every kendo champion needs for his bokken is a knitted wrap

Asuka is a kendo champion and is among the most admired male students at his high school but he has a secret. Despite his manly abilities, he finds himself attracted to girly things such as cute stuffed animals, sewing and shojo manga. When he finally falls in love with a girl, at first sight of course since that is how it happens in shojo manga, he finds it ever harder to maintain appearances. Worse yet, one of the worst girly men in the school, Juta seems to know all of his secrets. The truth is Juta is secretly a mangaka of a popular shojo series Love Chick that all of the girls and Asuka like. The reason that Asuka can relate to the series is that Juta is basing characters and the storyline on Asuka himself, and in order to give himself more material Juta encourages Asuka to get closer to Ryo, the girl of his dreams. But Ryo has misinterpreted Asuka's love confession to mean that she, Asuka and Juta are all good friends while Juta just wants things between Ryo and Asuka to move forward so he can steal material for his manga. Asuka is left torn between his own uncertain nature and his friends' differing motivations.

This has a very good inversion of the shojo roles. Ryo is a cipher and clueless while Asuka's emotions and confusions are laid bare to the reader. Juta has an interesting, distanting connection with the other characters. He wants their relationship to progress, but not to progress so fast that his manga moves too quickly, nor does he necessarily want Ryo and Asuka to be happy together, because that is the kiss of death in dramatic storytelling. By commenting on the relationship and complaining how inconvenient it can be to try to translate into manga form, Juta can diffuse the normal criticisms of shojo manga of being unrealistic by acknowledging them and moving on. I have not been very forgiving with Aya Kanno's previous titles (seen here), but here she has finally found her stride and a voice, and I hope she continues in this vein.



Otomen, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Oishinbo: A la Carte, vol. 1

Story by Tetsu Kariya and Art by Akira Hanasaki
Published in the US by Viz

Slugline: Cooking that reveals more about the characters than the ingredients.

Yamaoka is the son of a famous gourmet, but has rejected his father's life and works. Of course, he unfortunately has been been assigned by the newspaper to cover Japanese cuisine and create the ultimate menu, leading him to multiple confrontations with his father, some of which he walks away the winner others less so. But each chapter of the story talks a little bit more about aspects of Japanese cuisine in factual terms.

This is actually a compilation of the some of the best episodes of the series, which has over 100 collected volumes. Which explains for a rather esoteric topic that the stories here are rather interesting, since they had more than two decades of story to choose from. The interest in these episodes are not in the minutiae of the cooking suggestions and techniques, but in what they represent to the characters. The volume presents a view of a Japan that is far more traditional than what is normally seen in manga. The protagonist is allowed to lose and not know it all, to the primary antagonist, his estranged father. Which both reinforces the traditional values in cooking but violates traditional storytelling rules by having the protagonist being the most competent. Sure, sometimes the actual story itself is simplistic, but there is some interesting balancing between the story and characters, and traditions in storytelling and society.



Oishinbo: A la Carte, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

20th Century Boys, vol. 1

Story and Art by Naoki Urasawa
Published in the US by Viz


Slugline: What if you were kept to your childish promises to save the world?

When Kenji was young, he and his neighborhood friends had a secret club, with a headquarters in an empty field and a secret sign. Now that they are all adults, they barely remember any of it though many of them still live in the same neighborhood, taking over the stores their parents once ran. Unknown to them at the beginning of the story there is a cult, using some of the same symbols as their childish club and whose leader seems fixated on the neighborhood events of more than 20 years ago. Kenji is drawn into the mystery when one of the old gang commits suicide after seeing the symbol, something the other members of the gang who reunite for the funeral for the first time in years have a hard time believing. As the story flashes back and forward, we see the characters as children and as adults, we realize that this is now how the characters will fulfill their childish desires to save the world.

Kenji is the motivating force among the characters, the one that notices that something weird going on and drags the other characters toward figuring it out. If there hadn't been a flash forward at the beginning of the volume giving you a hint what was going on had global consequences, the story would feel like it is just a slice of life. But once you know the stakes, everything takes on more meaning, and you can spot the signs in the story. The story also speaks of the balance between adult and juvenile urges, the juvenile urge to be the hero, to have meaning, but the reality of the adult life is that you very rarely have a chance to be one, and most of the time you don't realize that the opportunity is at it hand until it past. This is a story of lost chances, and being able to take them again, and what their cost can be.



20th Century Boys, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Luuna, vol. 1

Created by Didier Crisse and Nicolas Keramidas
Published in the US by TokyoPop

Slugline: Why is the best portrayal of Native Americans I've read in a while is done by the French?

Luuna is of a tribe of Native Americans who are especially close to the spirits. As part of the rituals of becoming an adult, Luuna goes into the forest at night to find her totem spirit, but she has gone into the forest on the worst possible night. During a lunar ecilpse, the evil spirit Unkui walks the land and forces Luuna to accept two totem wolf spirits, one that reflects her good nature the other her evil nature. One night of the month, her evil totem and thus nature will take over during the darkness of the moon and cause havoc. Realizing that it would be too dangerous for her to return to her tribe, Luuna seeks out the advice of the spirit of the forest, then heads south to find a cure for her condition. Along the way she has to deal with cursed braves that are in service to Unkui and a storyteller bearing a heavy burden of despair.

This volume manages to avoid most of the storytelling traps surrounding Native Americans, though the historical accuracy of teepees in forests is doubtful, and the art depiction of Native Americans seems almost, well stereotypical. I want to say I have seen it before with a less than flattering connotation, but I can not pin it down. I guess that is a good thing, that I cannot be sure if it a negative stereotype or not. Nothing in the actual story is that way, with it working, being entertaining, and not telegraphing itself too far. It has the road movie structure, with the original 48 page volumes now serving as individual chapters of the travel south as Luuna looks for a cure for her condition. Sure, sometimes the spirit animals bit is pushed a little bit too far or are a little too cutesy, but overall this is a solid story without any major flaws. Which is a welcome change after the last few weeks.

Luuna, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Pixie, vol. 1

Story by Mathieu Mariolle with Art by Aurore
Published by TokyoPop in the US in album format

Slugline: Who is this story about?

Prince Ael is the stereotypical isolated prince, forced to watch the world from behind his castle walls, listening to the endless fairy-like tales that his tutor tells him every night before casting a spell to ensure that his sleep is 'restful.' Pixie is a wandering con man and thief that takes a job to rob the young Prince of a bracelet, unfortunately one that Pixie learns too late that does not come off. Rather than solve the problem in a direct fashion with a knife, Pixie kidnaps the suspiciously unguarded prince, much to Ael's excitement. After all, Ael is finally going to have an adventure like the ones he has heard every night. Unfortunately, that literally begins to happen whenever Ael goes to sleep, and Ael, Pixie and Elvynn (a forest hunter from another world they pick up along the way) begin to travel through the different worlds of Ael's tales, trying to find a way to stop the traveling between worlds.

Reading this, sometimes it felt like that I missed a panel, because the storyline or how the characters read seem to stutter and advance unexpectedly. There are also a couple of subplots that are just hanging out there, that don't seem to connect to the main plot in any way. Character wise, I am not sure who we are supposed to be focused on. The book is called Pixie, but it seems to be more about Ael and for the moment Ael is the one that is advancing the plot. Pixie is a bit too world weary at times to be an active protagonist and Elvynn seems to know what is going on, but was introduced late into the story and seems to have fewer character moments. Because of all that, the story seems a little unfocused with the structure of the story suggesting that they will be changing worlds every 48 pages or so (the length of the original albums) putting another constraint onto it. The art is nice, but they really need to start pulling the story threads together into something that feels whole, even if that is just an illusion.

Pixie, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Orange Crows, vol. 1

Written by James Perry II with Art by Ryo Kawakami
Published by TokyoPop


Slugline: Post-Apocalyptic Witchcraft

Cierra, in an effort to solve a magical problem that her dead mother could not, disastrously failed in a magical experiment, injuring her best friend and scarring herself. Five years later, after serving the five year exile punishment for her crime, Cierra is brought back to a city that she barely recognizes. Her best friend Natalie has changed also, broken in a way that a witch of this world cannot hide or heal from and is emotionally damaged also. Cierra's own scars have grown from strange abilities that marked her in her time in exile. These changes forces Cierra to think that she will never again be able to find a place for herself, with her friends, family or society.

Though this volume is of standard length, it does not feel that much has occurred in it. The main and supporting characters are well fleshed out in asides and flashbacks, but at least in this volume many of those character moments do not pay off. The questions about the plot that we do know about at the end of the volume, such as who is the one-eyed demon and what is the source of Cierra's abilities, those answers have yet to be even hinted at. Considering that this is an original manga, this first volume does not really stand alone, and with publishing so unstable right now, who knows when or even if the rest of the story will be continued. It is that uncertainty and the fact this volume did not tell a complete story, or even a chapter of one, that lowers the rating of this otherwise well-executed manga.



Orange Crows, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Tantric Stripfighter Trina, vol. 1

Story by Ken Faggio with Art by Fernando Furukawa
Published by TokyoPop


Slugline: Less Tantric, more stripping

Trina is the last survivor of a religious order that emigrated from Earth and it's interstellar empire to a world so they could practice their mixture of yoga, shaolin and tantric practices in peace. That was not to be, with their planet's inhabitants wiped out and Trina trying to hunt down the ringleaders that lead the attack years later. Trina has mastered the signature style of her order, 'stripfighting.' Yes, I can't believe I typed that either, but it is right there in the title, so it has to be taken (somewhat) seriously. She becomes a bounty hunter to gain the credentials she needs to track down the raiders, but has in the process picked up a follower in Abbey, a gunrunner until she was caught up with one of Trana's bounties. Abbey now wants to learn from Trina how to fight, but until Trina agrees, Abbey gets by using her cybernetics and guns. As Trina and Abbey hunt down the ringleaders, following them is the true mastermind of the story, and more mysteries for future volumes to follow up on.

Tantric beliefs are commonly thought to be about sex. While that is vast simplification of centuries old tradition, for the most part there is no need to worry about it since other than some suggestively named moves, there is no sex. But lots and lots of stripping. I never knew that there was so many ways you can beat someone up using a makeshift bra. The manga skirts on the very edge of the 16/18 age divide, with only two very small pasties that hide Trina's nipples preventing the book from being shrinkwrapped and rated 18+. On the other hand, the book's combination of brutal hand to hand violence and barely restrained sexuality, probably means it has the perfect intersection between the action and fan service fandoms. Bluntly, it is for teenage boys who play way too much video games and make crude jokes. Not that is necessarily a bad intersection, and the title hits it's target audience very well. The art and story do what they need to do, not excelling but delivering exactly what the title and the cover promises. In that way, I consider the title successful, though I admit I would feel a bit self-conscious carrying in the book around in public.



Tantric Stripfighter Trina, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Orange

Created by Benjamin
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Emotion is Color

After reading so much manga in black and white, after a while you lose sight of the potential for color to help tell the story. On the surface, this is rather standard story about a suicidal girl who cannot connect with others even though others seemingly can connect with her. A stranger that has both more and less than her makes the grand gesture she needs to see in order for her to find the value of life. In those ways this title is like dozens of other manga, pushed further than most because it doesn't have the weight of a continuing story and with a story that is free (of age ratings) to be as coarse as the characters need it, but with similar themes. But the almost impressionistic (or perhaps expressionistic, I was never too good with art terms) painting style gives heft to the main character's feelings, dragging you along with her into her depression and despair, much more deeply than just words could. The world remains blurred and out of focus to her, and even though she begins to see value to life at the end of the story, it still does not change her problems and perceptions with it.

Though this is from China, the volume physically is close to the European albums (like Biggles, which was reviewed last week. Any you thought that was a completely random choice...) though with a higher page count and glossy paper. This line from TokyoPop is an experiment in a larger format color titles. While Orange title stand alone successfully, the story itself is so depressing and bleak I find it hard to think that readers will be so excited by it to see what else is available from this line.

Orange is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Martin & John, vol. 1

By Hee-Jung Park
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Why is it in a yaoi book the most fully fleshed out relationships are between men and women?

Martin & John is an anthology about the relationships between two men named Martin and John, set at different times and settings. The names alone seem to the linkage between the stories, with the characters behaving differently, so it you can't necessarily say that these are the same 'souls' finding each other. That was part of the theme of Deja-Vu, another manwha we recently reviewed, but the first story here (which is very short) is set in some future so it is not being told chronologically. Two other stories are in this volume, but the last story is not completed. While the first story can be seen as about the redemptive power of love the second seems to be more about it's destructive power, and the characters, while active participants in the story, are in some ways helpless in the face of their own emotions. I am still waiting for the yaoi aspects for the last story in the volume to come into play, with the relationship with the Martin character to John being actually split over two different characters named Martin, John's best friend that apparently is not aware he himself is gay and a small child that has been placed into John's care.

The first story is not really more than a scene between the title characters, but in the other stories it seems that the most honest examination of the characters feelings occur when one of them is speaking with a woman. I understand that yaoi are actually written with women as the intended audience, but I still sort of feel offended on the behalf of the male characters that they need a female in order to work out their feelings. Of course, there are exceptions, but these male/female conversations are the most interesting in the book. I don't see this as a deep romance title, and there are the typical overwrought teenage emotional displays, but these conversations, how they are artistically presented and how they also can emotionally draw back are among the best parts of this title.



Martin & John, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Biggles: Spitfire Parade

Original Story by W.E. Johns and adapted by Francis Bergèse
Published in the US by Cinebook


Slugline: Down the Rabbit Hole with some World War 2 aerial action!

Today is Lewis Carrol's, writer of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, birthday. A challenge went out to make this Down the Rabbit Hole Day, where blogs and the like talk about something other than their usual topics. We thought to still make it somewhat related. We normally review manga, but we have on occasion written about OEL, OGM and American comics here. But there is a third major comic's tradition. There is the Japanese manga, American comics and then there is the European comic album tradition, which Biggles is part of.

This is an adaptation of a novel from the Biggles series, which detailed the life and adventures of a British aviator in World War 1 and later in World War 2. Spitfire Parade is set at the very beginning of World War 2, as England is under attack by German air power. A Spitfire is one of the most famous of British World War 2 fighters, and Biggles is put in command of squadron of them. This is a boy's adventure comic, so the characters are not deeply drawn and the opponents remain faceless, hidden away in the machines that they pilot. There is a lot of what could be called hi-jinks, squadrons playing pranks on each other and the like.

The album itself is sized differently, larger than even American comics, but released as just a 64 page graphic novel and in full color. But the color scheme seems to use mostly flat colors, and the art style is very, very realistic. Even in the interior pages you can see the rivets on the Spitfires. There are not many war comics nowadays, though once they were very popular in the US, before the rise of superheroes in the mid to late 60s. While it is no historical text, Spitfire Parade is a nice change of pace from manga and tells a kind of story that you will rarely find there.

Which of course means we need to review a yaoi title next to get fully back into the swing of things.



-Ferdinand

Rica 'tte Kanji!?

By Rica Takashima
Published in the US by ALC Publishing


Slugline: I've been teleported into an indy comic! What manga?!?

Rica is entering a Tokyo women's college, moving from the country and is hoping that the move will introduce her to the lesbian life she wants. If that is awkwardly worded, it is because I am finding it hard to draw useful comparisons to other "coming out" literature. That may because of the different cultural experiences of Japanese and American lesbians and some of it may be I have been reading the wrong type of 'coming out' literature. The point is, the early parts of the volume is more about Rica finding her place in this world with the second half about her relationship withMiho, her early guide to the gay and lesbian area of Tokyo, Nichōme. This book feels more like a thinly disguised indy autobiography than a more typical manga. Even the art style is a clean break from manga convention, being used to convey the feeling of first-person reportage rather than an attempt at art or telling a story. While the characters are interesting the book itself is feels without purpose. Not exactly preciselyplotless , but it feels like the characters are just wandering about and no overarching connection. While that may an accurate representation of reality, it doesn't make for an exciting story.



-Ferdinand

Deja-Vu: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

Stories by Youn In-Wan and various artists
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Love hurts. Over and over, with no escape.

This manwha has six stories that are connected by having been written by one author, using different different artist for each. Four of the stories are loosely linked together as two lovers repeatedly try to meet through history and fail to connect. It is somewhat unusual that each chapter of the Deja-Vu story is done by an different artist. One interesting story deals with the Japanese occupation of Korea during World War 2. At first it seemed like it would be a whitewash, but then it goes straight for the jugular with an unsympathetic but historically accurate note. I think the power of deja-vu, the 'repeating' nature of the love story, is oversold in the later chapters of the story, but the individual chapters can still fairly well on their own. I think the story without the love theme was actually one of the better ones, handling how behavior and philosophy interact in youth.



Deja-Vu: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Be With You

Written by Takuji Ichikawa, Art by Sai Kawashima and Script by Yoko Iino
Published in the US by Viz


Slugline: For parents, even while dead they still have to do the laundry and remind the kids to eat all of their vegetables.

Takumi has been raising his son Yuji alone after the death of his wife Mio, but to put it kindly there are a few gaps in his parenting skills. Yuji is not too worried, because of a story Mio wrote and read to him, he is under the impression that Mio will visit at the beginning of the rainy season and will leave again at the end of it. Takumi is merely accepting of his son'ss belief, until Yuji and he find an amensiac Mio in the woods. They have the rest of the rainy season to reconnect, with Mio remembering some of her memory, and the entire family relearning to love each other again. No matter what happens to her this time, her family will be better off.

This is an especially strong one-off volume of lost love regained. It undoubtedly benefited from having been a novel, movie and tv series, each showing the way, because the manga hits all of the beats perfectly, switching emotions and grabbing the high points consistently. Despite the subject matter causing one to think the manga could be a little depressing it never drags the story or the characters down. Obviously not everything is happiness and light, but at the end of the story, the experience that the characters have gained makes it all worth their while. It doesn't quite have the doomed love vibe that makes tween girls sigh, but it comes close in a manner that even I, an over 30 guy, can appreciate. In a manly way of course, no sniffling here.



Be With You is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Solanin

Story and Art by Inio Asano
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: Even after college, you can never escape high school.

Meiko grabbed the first job that came along after graduating from college and she hates it. Her boyfriend Naruo lives with her, sometimes working, sometimes not and going to the twice monthly practices of his college band. Not that the band actually performs anymore, it existing mostly now as an excuse for Meiko and Naruo's group of college friends to get together on a regular basis. But when Meiko can no longer stand her own job and quits, it starts a process in which Naruo confronts his own aimlessness and their friend's feelings towards the band. The outcome is not what one would normally expect from a manga, but still falls within manga's soap opera like traditions. Meiko has to interpret and react to these events, and uncover her own meaning of the band's song Solanin.

The slugline comes from how similar the attitudes of high school students can be to the post-college crowd, especially in this manga. It is actually no big surprise, for both groups have been put into new situations outside of their experience and often don't feel ready for it. Over-thinking things is a sin that both groups indulge in, so heavily that the reader is not sure what the character really thinks or believes anymore, after reading so many of the character's flights of fancy. But this confusion and ambiguity fits the characters in Solanin, because it has been altered to fit their post-college circumstances. Plus there is the refreshing novelty of a manga about characters who aren't in high school. These two factors help to compensate for the fact that the story is really not about anything, or even really that much about anyone despite it's apparent focus on Meiko.



Solanin is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

We Were There, vol. 1

Story and Art by Yuki Obata
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: Almost as confusing and uncertain as a real high school romance.

Nanami has just moved up into high school, and she is hoping to make new friends there. Of course, merely by worrying about it she has all but guaranteed that she will have a hard time fitting in. She can't help but notice that her fellow classmate Yano is acts so carefree and makes friends effortlessly. That begins the process of drawing her to him, and the fact that they are both part of the student government means that she get to see him often, often at his best and worst states. Best in the sense that he has leadership potential but worst in the way that he tries to run away from it and tries to create distance between himself and others. Part of the reason for that is that Nanami discovers that Yano's previous girlfriend died, in the midst of possibly cheating on him. It is the combination of Yano's romantic issues and Nanami's social insecurities that drives the story.

We Were There is a well executed story, not flashy at all, lacking characters with unusual powers or clinically strange behavioral problems. I can believe in Nanami's uncertainty and why Yano acts in turn either as a jerk or uncaring about anything, without having to worry about the characters acting over the top. I especially like one scene where two characters realize that they are talking past each other and clear up the confusion, rather than letting it linger and turn into a 'humorous' misunderstanding. The one problem with the title is that the characters and in many ways the story itself is so aggressively normal and matter of fact that, other than it's execution, there is not much that is memorable or sticks to the mind about it.



We Were There, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Gaba Kawa

Story and Art by Rie Takada
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: How did this happen? A manga with a good ending?

Rara is a demon that has come to the mortal world to cause evil in her guise as a mortal high school student so that her powers will increase. Conversely, if she does good to humans she loses her powers. At first that is not her major concern, Rara went to the mortal world to find the demon of her dreams. One relatively simple misunderstanding later she thinks that a human is her dream demon, and lets herself feel for him. When the dream demon finally shows, she is no longer interested in him. As Rara falls further in love with Retsu, her own existence becomes ever more endangered as her powers start disappearing.

First of all, this manga actually had a decent ending. Most manga (and anime for that matter) seem to me to have weak or inconsistent endings. Maybe because this was just a one volume story, it didn't have a chance to sprawl out of control, but the final chapter I think could have worked no matter how long the series ran, as long as the story kept to the same concept. Now I don't want to oversell this, the ending was good but not so good that I giving up manga now that I have read the 'perfect' ending. But considering how often manga fails at endings, this was a welcome change of pace. The relatively concise and effective writing and the okay art rounds out the package.



Gaba Kawa is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

No Posting on New Year's Day

Behold, another holiday on a post day. Miranda and I will be recovering from... something (haven't worked out the fine details yet) so there will be no posting.

Have a good holiday!

-Ferdinand

St. Dragon Girl, vol. 1

Story and Art by Natsumi Matsumoto
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: Every good town has to have a teenage demon removal service...

Momoka is a hard charging kenpo student, daughter of the master of a martial arts school, whose childhood friend Ryuga Kou is a Chinese sorcerer who often deals with the demons that plague their town. Momoka is secretly in love with Ryuga, well, not so secretly. Apparently everyone in town, including Ryuga, is fully aware of it but she refuses to acknowledge it. Even when Ryuga gets in over his head with a demon and is forced to summon a dragon to possess him, Momoka insists that rushing in to take the blast of magical energies herself is just a show of friendship. Still, that means that she is possessed by the dragon and when the dragon is not bound, she can be very powerful. That can attract all sorts of attention from demons that Ryuga has to help her with, and with her dragon derived powers she can help him with his own duties chasing down demons.

Reasonably okay story, but there is no romantic tension at all here. She knows she loves him, he knows she loves him, the neighbors down the street know that she loves him, and while he hasn't said anything (typical boy) it is pretty clear he is at least fond of her and there are no obstacles in their way. That is all that is needed for true love nowadays in most manga, so what is the point of dragging it out any further? True, he binds her dragon powers for no readily apparent reason so that he controls whether or not she is powerful, but when is that ever a problem in manga? Sure, most real people would have problems being forcibly constrained in such a way, but as manga misogyny goes, that is relatively mild. But those two in combination, and the lack of anything really interesting going in the plots, drags this title down to two stars.



St. Dragon Girl, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Christmas Break

Miranda and I will be traveling for Christmas, reassuring our respective families that anime and manga have not completely taken over our lives, so posting would bust our cover stories. Regular reviews and posting will resume on Dec. 30th!

Have a great Christmas!

-Ferdinand and Miranda

Pokémon: Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea

Story and Art by Makoto Mizobuchi
Released in the US by VizKids


Slugline: Exactly like a TV episode, and that is not a compliment.

This volume is a Pokémon single episode dragged out to fill a single manga volume. Ash gets to save the day, Brock gets to moon over a pretty girl, a new Pokémon is introduced but does not become a repeating member of the cast and there is a fantastic setting (in this cast the Temple of the Sea) that we will never see again. Of course, the cast will make some new friends and old enemies reappear. Change out the name of the Pokémon that is the focus of the volume and it's specific native environment, and I swear it is over a half dozen of Pokémon episodes that I have accidentally watched over the years. No new revelations or interesting story bits are readily apparent from my reading, though I suppose that if you are a Pokémon aficionado there may be some hidden importance over the appearance of the Pokémon Ranger or something along those lines. I was just bored for most of it, with the only reason it didn't get a lower rating is because the story didn't screw up what little it was trying to accomplish. That was because it was trying to accomplish so very, very little. This is for very young Pokémon fans who somehow haven't already watched every episode ever made.



-Ferdinand

J-Pop Idol, vol. 1

Story by Millenni+M with Art by Toko Yashiro
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Do Idol producers pay manga publishers to keep on churning out idol manga, I wonder?

The three person band No Escape wins a singing contest but only Mika is offered a music contract. Naomi is understanding about the snub but the third member of the band Kay is furious. Mika is torn over whether to accept the offer but one of her idols from her youth (all of two years ago) Ken agrees to be her manager and gives the requisite pep talk to become a star. Ken prepares Mika for her debut over a year's time, with Mika and Ken drawing closing together over that time. But Ken keeps everyone at a distance because he is sick but unwilling to take his medication because it's side effects include hearing loss and thus possibly robbing him of his music. By at the end of volume Kay is thinking of ways to complicate Mika's life.

Idol manga are a dime a dozen, well not literally (not even on EBay) but it certainly feels like it sometimes. The idea of skipping over the year or so preparation of Mika's debut is actually a useful conceit. It allows for Mika's love for Ken to grow offstage in a believable manner. Usually it happens on panel and I always snort in disbelief when it is shown that treating a woman rudely and in a high-handed manner will get them to fall in love with you. By pushing it off-panel and giving it a year, it can just be taken as given rather than dissecting the emotion growth at it's most vulnerable stage. Despite the early tension between Mika and Kay, it is overlooked for most of the volume, with Naomi drifting into the background. So despite the occasional interesting touch, there is little here beyond the standard idol manga.



J-Pop Idol, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Kyo Kara MAOH!, vol. 1

Temari Matsumoto with Original Story by Tomo Takabayashi
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Smart kid. The first thing out of his mouth after traveling between worlds was were was the princess he needed to rescue.

The toilet must represent some deep repressed fear, for once again a hapless guy is transported to another world through one. YuriShibuya meets up with angry human villagers but it is rescued from representatives from his kingdom. Yes, his kingdom, for rather than being brought to this new world to confront an ancient evil or rescue a princess, he has been brought there to be a king. Which doesn't sound so bad until he is told that it is a kingdom of demons (who look just like humans) that has been waiting for their reincarnated king (that's him) to lead them against the humans and wipe them out. Thatis not the worse of it, since Yuri manages to trample all over local traditions and gets engaged and agrees to a duel to the same person with five minutes of each other.

First of all, the yaoi subplot that is mentioned in all of the descriptions of the title is something very minor in the first volume. You may breathe a sign of relief or disappointment as necessary. This is a fairly standard 'welcome to a strange new world' story with a couple of minor twists to keep it out of the ruts that trap many other stories of a similar type. Though I wonder if the baseball references in the original version were for Japanese rather than American teams. I wish the difference between humans and demons was clearer, so that the conflict between them would be more understandable. Hopefully that will be something that changes in the later volumes but a solid foundation has already been build with some small interesting feature, it just needs something more to be truly exciting.



Kyo Kara MAOH!, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

500 manga volumes!

With today's review, we at Prospero's Manga have reviewed 500 manga volumes. Now, some reviews have dealt with multiple volumes, so that is why we have yet to hit 500 reviews, but it still a lot of reading and reviews!

-Ferdinand

Cowa!

Story and Art by Akira Toriyama
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: A main character that is half vampire/were-koala? What does he eat, the juice of a Eucalyptus tree?

Paifu is a half vampire/were-koala that lives in the isolated village of Batwing Ridge, where humans and monsters live together far from the intolerance of the big cities. But all of the kid monsters are afraid of the human that lives on the outskirts of town, Murayama. It turns out that there is a reason that everyone in town avoids Murayama, he was once a sumo wrestler who accidentally killed a competitor in the ring. So despite being called the Volcano and having been famous for being really strong, Murayama exiled himself to Batwing Ridge and even there had little to do with the rest of the village. But when an epidemic of monster flu starts to spread through the village, Paifu convinces Murayama to go with him to get the cure from the witch. Paifu bends the truth a bit along the way, Murayama learns a bit about himself and others, and all have a grand time rescuing the village.

Akira Toriyama is better know for the Dragon Ball saga (reviews here), but here he turns in a perfectly balanced one volume story. Everything here has some meaning and both Paifu and Murayama change and improve themselves and both are forced to stretch themselves. Even the fights are well choreographed, not at all over the top or confusing as it was sometimes with DragonBall, but is still not too intense for the kids that are presumably the audience for this all ages title. It even has a sense of sly, self-aware humor that is funny without ruining the story's illusions. This shows an Akira Toriyama as a creator to be reckoned with, far better than the one that did the early volumes of the DragonBall saga.



Cowa! is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Mao-Chan, vol. 1

Story by Ken Akamatsu with Art by Ran
Released in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Cuteness as a weapon of mass destruction.

Aliens are attacking the Earth and stealing our monuments, but the traditional military are helpless in the face of the alien threat because the creatures they send are so cute. Apparently the public would not stand carpet bomb big eyed critters stealing our stuff, so instead Japan uses excessively cute prepubescent girls to combat the alien menace. The story is both better and worse than that brief description would imply. It is everything you expect, being excessively cute, characters that use 'cute' phrases, weapons that deal with ouchies rather than city leveling devastation and so on. But the actual storytelling itself is rather deft. Things are foreshadowed, clever story structures (considering the genre) are used and all the characters have moments in the sun, even if the characters themselves are just cliches. Oddly enough, this is rated as a 16+ title, but the cuteness factor and the characters' youth make me think it is intended for a younger audience. Maybe it is the bunny outfits or there is some nudity in a later volume. But this first volume is an example of storytelling winning over both the characters and the plot.



Mao-Chan, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, vol. 1

Story and Art by Akira Himekawa
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: A quest manga that doesn't stop to smell the roses

Link lives in the forest under the protection of the living tree Deku, but when Deku comes under attack, Link saves the forest and learns that he has to go out into the world to fulfill the mission that Deku gives him with his dying breath (or whatever trees do.) Link meets Princess Zelda after leaving the forest and learns that he needs to collect three jewels. After collecting the three jewels, making friends along the way, he returns to see Zelda to become a Hero. When getting the Hero's magic sword, Link is put to sleep for seven years so that he will be old enough to wield it effectively. In the intervening time the evil has spread and now a young man, Link has to now free five temples. In his travels he encounters many of the same character that he did seven years previously, and by the end of the first volume he is already halfway through his search for the temples.

This almost read like a collection of traditional comics, in that each chapter tells a complete part of the overall story. The plot does not linger, with each chapter advancing the story. Normally I would have expected by the end of the first book that Link maybe would have retrieved the second jewel, rather than already be on his second quest. Maybe the quick chapter are part of it's legacy as a computer game or since this rated an all ages book, a deliberate choice in order to appeal to younger readers. Other than this willingness to buck manga convention, the story is a pretty standard “quest for the X number of magic items to save the world!” For adults, it is rather shallow but the title has been optimized for younger readers and will probably enjoy the title more.



The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

No Thursday Review

Have a good Turkey Day instead, and reviews will resume next Tuesday, Dec 2nd.

-Ferdinand