Anima

Story, Art and Letters by Dany & Dany
Published by Yaoi Press


Slugline: A setting that has nothing to do with the story

Patrick Owens is a burned out political reporter that has seen nothing but the worst of humanity with his one weakness being an appreciation for the ballet star Danya. Of course, Dany has secrets of his own as an illegally modified android masquerading as a human. But despite Patrick's own despair and Danya's secrets they are drawn to each other. Danya's 'teacher,' the former ballet star Nikolaj is using Danya to act out his dreams of greatness, becomes the main obstacle between the two lovers. To resolve this conflict will cost both Danya and Patrick part of their own sense of belonging.

I am a big fan of steampunk, which is why I pulled this out volume out of the review stack. Imagine my disappointment as I read it to find that there was a very few steampunk aspects. What little advanced technology that was in story was not especially steampunk inspired, and the clothing seemed to be draw more from French fashions than Victorian. Patrick's occupation as a reporter did not figure much into the plot, and Nikolaj's connections to the mafia and corrupt politicians remained in the background. Whole swathes of the setting could have been changed without affecting the story. I usually prefer the characters and the setting/environment to interact more, so that the characters are part of the world rather than existing apart of it. Separate from that, the back cover text is especially important with Anima since it is shrinkwrapped, but it gives an impression of a far more nuanced and dark story that what the title really is. But for yaoi fans, the title delivers on its promises, barely avoiding being pornography but showing everything else.



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

-Ferdinand

Gakuen Prince, vol. 1

By Jun Yuzuki
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A beautiful story about the cruelty and ugliness of teens

Mizutani has transferred into a new high school which was formerly an all-girl school and is only recently become co-ed. There are very few boys there, and Mizutani learns rather quickly that the boys are a commodity that the girls use and abuse as they wish. One of the few ways out for boys is to be in a relationship with a single girl, and in desperation Mizutani finds the first girl that doesn't seem to be interested in hunting him down and dragoons her into being in a relationship. Okitsu has spent most of her time in high school trying to avoid attention, but with Mizutani's announcement, she is now in the sights of every girl in school who thinks they deserve a chance at Mizutani. She is bullied and even set up to be sexually abused, despite Mizutani's various attempts to protect her. He eventually releases her from their 'relationship' but Okitsu, upon seeing Mizutani being cornered and threatened with being tasered into sexual activity, restarts their 'relationship.' But there are more traps that remain for them.

I was ready to take one for the team here, because the back cover text made me expect that this was going to be some piece of painful fluff. But within a few pages, when the girls decide to 'initiate' the new boy in the school with some sexual abuse, and the boy is smart enough to realize he may not like it, this manga showed it understood human nature. Sometimes it can be very impersonally cruel, and the manga shows how the bullying culture in Japanese schools can tear people down just because they are in someone's way. Or simply because they merely appear to want to change, irrespective of what their true plans are. Sure, some of the set-up of the situation is a stretch, but how the characters acted spoke almost brutally true. Especially the moment where Okitsu remains suspicious of the other girls motives, but wanted to believe for a few moments that maybe, just maybe, they liked her. There was no happy fluffy shojo happiness here, or people searching for true love, but teenage hormones running amok and an attitude towards sex that is both envious and dehumanizing. It is a honest look of what would really happen if some of the silly situations that seem to proliferate in shojo would actually happen, and so needs to be read by everyone who sighs dramatically over shojo. Sure, most shojo is written as an escape from the reality of teenage romances, but in this someone can see what happens in the real world and emphasize more with it.



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

-Ferdinand

Samurai 7, vol. 1

Original Story by Akira Kurosawa and Manga by Mizutaka Suhou
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A classic story written down for the shonen crowd

In the far future, after a war that raged across the solar system, the samurai that helped end it are left without a purpose with some having been reduced to pillaging to survive. One village, afraid of what will happen when the bandits return when the crops are ready, decides to hire samurai to defend them. Katsushiro is a young man pretending to be a samurai, equipped with a powerful sword, and he decides to help when he runs across the villagers' representatives that are recruiting the samurai. Katsushiro is eventually revealed as being an impostor, but manages to convince six samurai to join with him to defend the village. On the way to the village they meet and defeat an group of the bandits, but not before the bandits manage to send word to their leader that the village is getting samurai defenders. The battle also reveals aspects of the various motivations and personalities that are driving the samurai to help defend this village.

Samurai 7 is quite upfront of it's inspiration, Akira Kurosawa's famous movie The Seven Samurai, though this version of the story is set in a science fiction future. But the biggest changes to the story are not because of the change of setting but are the result of a radical shift in the tone of the story. The original version had a dark tone, with samurai hired because they are hungry and the fear of the villagers of the samurai that they have to rely on being very palatable. In comparison, what we have here is a tone that would not be out of place for any shonen story, in that they are looking for true samurai who have brave and kind hearts. That is just one example of tone shift that I think does no credit for the manga, and I think misses the point of adapting The Seven Samurai. That being said, after the first 2/3 of the manga being all touchy-feely, they managed to make up for it by blowing stuff up pretty. For many sins can be forgiven for good action scenes. But if you are looking for something that has the same emotional impact and resonance as the original movie The Seven Samurai, it hasn't made it's presence known here in this manga.



Samurai 7, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

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