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

Yōkaiden, vol. 1

By Nina Matsumoto
Published by Del Rey Manga


Slugline: Be careful for what you wish for, because sometimes you will get it. Too bad you don't know any better.

Hamachi is living with his gruff (and not in a kindly way) grandmother after the death of his parents when he comes across a yokai, a Japanese demon/spirit that can have any number of origins or attitudes. The fact that there are so many of them means that there are more for Hamachi to learn about, much to his grandmother's disgust. Her disgust is so great that she lays a trap for one which Hamachi secretly rescues. When Hamachi learns that his grandmother laid the trap, he tries to overlook it, but the yokai that was trapped by it steals her soul while he is away. Upon his return, he decides to go to the yokai homelands through a portal to recover his grandmother's soul, or at least talk to the yokai that took it. Once in the yokai lands, he begins to make friends and enemies, but is still a long way off from confronting the yokai that has his grandmother's soul by the end of the first volume.

The manga at first starts fairly serious and straightforward, but as the volume continues, the story becomes more meta and self-referential. I don't think that is a good way to go, how serious one should take the story needs to be consistent, otherwise readers may feel that they are being manipulated (in a bad way.) To a certain extent, Hamachi is too naive and idealistic. He claims that he has read the books about yokai, so he knows that some are good, and is open to those but he seems to refuse to believe the truthfulness of those same texts in that some yokai are harmful and dangerous. Some amount of caution and learning from the dangers he is exposed to should be expected, but he seems impervious to them. After nearly having his own soul stolen, he just laughs it off. That sort of fits with the more metatextual aware Hamachi from later in the volume, when he seems to be more aware that he is in a story, but not so much in the beginning of the volume. It is this uncertainty over what the nature of the story is that robs it of tension and storytelling power.



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

-Ferdinand