High School Debut 9 by Kazune Kawahara: A-

April 27, 2009 by Leave a Comment

It’s sports festival time, giving Haruna and Yoh the chance to work together on the same team. Alas, the plans for togetherness don’t work out, as Yoh is elected grade captain and has to work hard to master his ceremonial duties and not disappoint those who elected him. Haruna, of course, is very encouraging and does things like make him foul-tasting radish juice to help his throat (since he has to yell a lot). Meanwhile, Haruna receives some encouragement herself from Yoh’s friend, Asaoka, who seems to be in in her vicinity quite often. Yoh figures out that Asaoka has feelings for Haruna and tells him not to confess, as doing so would only upset her.

I’ve read about sports festivals and romantic rivals before, but somehow High School Debut is able to take these familiar manga staples and make something new out of them. The sports festival, for example, provides many opportunities for sweet interaction between the two leads, from Yoh’s embarrassment at his own sentimentality to their inability to vote for other people in the captains’ election, even though they had agreed to do so.

Also, because so much time has been spent on developing the supporting characters, it doesn’t actually feel out of left field that Asaoka, who has seen how being with Haruna has changed Yoh for the better, might come to wonder what might’ve been. He’s an intriguing character, the kind who jokes so often that it’s impossible to tell when he’s serious, which has the additional benefit of pushing normally cool Yoh’s buttons in very entertaining ways.

Are there really only four volumes left of this series? How time flies!

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: ,

High School Debut 8 by Kazune Kawahara: B+

April 26, 2009 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Yoh’s worried that a freshman seems to have the hots for Haruna, but Haruna is as oblivious as ever. So when the boy in question makes a move on her, how will she respond? More importantly, how will Yoh react?

Review:
Ah, High School Debut. How I love you so.

Only this series can make it palatable when the heroine receives an unsolicited smooch from some other guy and then goes absolutely bonkers trying to disinfect herself, pondering ways to turn back time, et cetera. While I didn’t enjoy Haruna having a “too stupid to live” moment, there were still a few scenes and comments that made me giggle, so it was okay in the end.

I really liked the story about Haruna’s birthday, though. Yoh’s under a lot of pressure to make it a special one, and even condescends to buy a massive shoujo-looking tome of birthday ideas. Haruna has actually purchased the same thing, and there’s a great pair of pages where the same ideas that mortify him make her all giddy.

In the end, she tries to help him out and relieve his stress by giving him suggestions, and they end up having a wonderful time. Volumes in this series usually end on wonderful moments between the main couple, and this one is no exception, as Yoh spells out for Haruna why he likes her and how happy she makes him.

This series makes me laugh, sniffle, and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: ,

One Piece 6 by Eiichiro Oda: B+

April 22, 2009 by 8 Comments

From the back cover:
Luffy’s pirates thought they were just stopping in for a quick bite… but now Luffy’s been made a busboy on Baratie, the oceangoing restaurant, and it turns out some of the worst-mannered pirates on the Grand Line are just dying for a meal.

Always one to look on the bright side, Luffy sets his sights on Sanji, the smart-talking, skirt-chasing assistant chef of the Baratie, as the Merry Go’s new cook. But it’ll take more than a vicious pirate battle and a little sweet talking from Nami to convince him to leave the Baratie and join Luffy’s team. His oath to feed any and all pirates in need keeps getting in the way. The question is: what do you do when the very same pirates you just fed now want to serve you up for dinner?

Review:
Is this the part people meant when they assured me it would soon get really good? There’s so much good stuff here I need to make a list!

1. We get some fun, ominous hints about the Grand Line from someone who’s actually been there.

2. Don Krieg, the leader of a pirate armada of 50 crews, is introduced. He’s got some specialized weaponry, but aside from that, he’s not silly and cartoonish like the other villains we’ve seen so far.

3. Turns out the head chef of the oceangoing restaurant is a famed pirate who sailed the Grand Line and kept a log book.

4. Hawk-Eye is awesome! He’s a master swordsman who took down Don Krieg’s ship with just his sword. Zolo’s been looking for him so that he could challenge him for the title of greatest swordsman, so they have a great fight and Zolo loses spectacularly. Still, Hawk-Eye sees potential in him and tells him to live and keep improving and come see him again someday.

5. Nami steals the Merry Go! I’m sure she’ll come back, but I like this anyway. Plus, I think we may be starting to see an inkling of her past.

6. Sanji, the cook that Luffy wants to join the crew, is kind of annoying but with the powerful kick he displayed at the end of the volume, could it be that he’s the head chef’s son and that’s why he doesn’t want to leave the oceangoing restaurant?

So, there were awesome fights, some character revelations, some hints about the future, and even one nice bit of continuity when Luffy referenced a character we haven’t seen since volume one. If it stays this good, I’d be happy.

Filed Under: Manga, Shounen Tagged With: ,

One Piece 5 by Eiichiro Oda: B-

April 21, 2009 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Once upon a time, Usopp was just a local boy with a talent for tall tales. Everyone in his little seaside village knew him as the joker who claimed to be a pirate captain and woke people up in the mornings by shouting “Pirates are coming!” But then real pirates landed on the beach…

Now Usopp’s village is under attack by the Black Cat Pirates, one of the most legendary and feared crews on the high seas. And three young would-be pirates have joined him in defending the village: Nami the thief, Zoro the swordsman, and Luffy, the straw-hatted pirate captain with incredible rubber powers. Usopp is about to find out how an imaginary pirate stands up to the real thing… and what it means to be a real pirate. His neighbors will never believe this in a million years…

Review:
The beginning and ending of this volume are pretty typical shounen fare. Luffy and friends continue to fight the Black Cat Pirates, culminating in a fairly cool fight between Luffy and the pirates’ captain. Unfortunately, with the cartoonish art and villains, it never approaches the realm of a truly badass battle like one might relish in other series. In the ending of the volume, the crew has come to an oceangoing restaurant in search of a cook, and there’s a lot of random fighting amongst chefs and naval officers and it’s all sort of crazy at this point.

The middle, though, had some really good moments. For one thing, the rich girl who was to’ve been the victim of the pirates’ plot is so grateful to our heroes that she gives them a really swanky boat. It’s just like leveling up in an RPG or something! For another, Usopp shows some surprising maturity. He’s long been known as a liar in the village and habitually declared “the pirates are coming!” even when it wasn’t true. Now, rather than brag about his bravery in helping to repel real pirates, he wants the villagers to go on thinking of him as a liar so that their peace of mind won’t be compromised. After he leaves, his little band of followers carries on his “the pirates are coming!” tradition. I think I actually got a little verklempt!

Filed Under: Manga, Shounen Tagged With: ,

Click 3 by Youngran Lee: B-

April 21, 2009 by 3 Comments

From the back cover:
Joonha, the transgender headcase, and Taehyun, the hotshot rich kid, are actually becoming buddies—so much so that they even team up to take down a card shark at the casino Taehyun’s family runs. Is the friendship about to turn into something… more?

Meanwhile, figures from Joonha’s past keep popping up—and stirring up real trouble. His old friend Jinhoo, now a star piano player, is back in Seoul and not going anywhere. And former nice girl Heewon: is she really as nasty as she acts, or is it all a front? Could she be the reason why brainy Jihan suddenly isn’t wearing his glasses anymore?

Review:
I’m not sure what it is about Click that makes it so addictive. I think perhaps the emphasis on character relationships over anything else is partly responsible, because the plot itself is pretty much just day-to-day things, even though what passes for day-to-day in Taehyun’s life is his stepfather accusing him of being gay, plotting business takeovers, winning at high stakes poker games, et cetera.

Also, now that the mechanics of Joonha’s gender change are out of the way, the uncertainty of the other characters regarding her true gender is pretty interesting. Taehyun’s definitely attracted to her, but unable to really convince himself she’s a girl. Heewon, despite Joonha telling her outright that she’s a girl (though she made up a story about having been a girl all along) is in denial and insists to her friend that Joonha’s a guy. And Jinhoo is completely clueless, though the volume ends with a cliffhanger in which he seems poised to find out (or to at least spot Joonha in a girl’s uniform).

I also love the wordless reunion between Jinhoo and Joonha and the fact that when Joonha tells Taehyun she’s starting to like him, she doesn’t mean romantically (at least, I don’t think so), but rather means that she wants to be like him, a cool badass kind of guy. I can almost like Joonha now, but her nasty personality emerges once again when confronted with Jinhoo’s girlfriend. I also can’t stand Heewon, with her profanity, violence, and propensity for ordering people around like they’re her servants.

I think of a B- as meaning, “I enjoy this despite its flaws,” which fits Click pretty well.

Filed Under: Gender Hijinks, Manhwa Tagged With: ,

The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa: B

April 21, 2009 by 13 Comments

Ehwa and her mother, a young widow, live in the village of Namwon. Ehwa’s mother runs a tavern and bawdy local fellows often attempt to convince her to go to bed with them. When seven-year-old Ehwa overhears a couple of villagers insinuating that her mother is loose, she begins to wonder about the differences between men and women.

As the years go by, Ehwa matures. She sees firsthand how a man’s attentions bring out liveliness in her mother, and meets two local boys that catch her eye. Chung-Myung, a monk in training, returns her feelings but chooses his religious vocation over pursuing a relationship. Sunoo, a refined and educated boy, is polite to Ehwa but leaves town without a backward glance.

Stories of first love can be poignant and affecting if done right, but The Color of Earth unfortunately fails in this regard. The problem is that instead of dealing with Ehwa’s growing emotional maturity, the focus is almost exclusively on sexual maturity. From practically the first page, more time is spent on charting landmarks of sexual discovery—oftentimes rather crudely—than on any other aspect of Ehwa and her life.

Women are consistently compared to flowers throughout the book, and not in a way that is complimentary. A woman’s burgeoning sexuality is likened unto the bloom of a flower, and comparisons are made between the way a flower waits for a butterfly to alight upon it and the way a woman waits for a man to bestow his attentions upon her. Sometimes this metaphor is used well, though, as when Chung-Myung uses the camellia—a flower that blooms only in the winter and therefore never sees a butterfly—to make Ehwa see that it would be better if she didn’t care for him, as he must devote himself to his training.

There are two warring styles in evidence in the art, which features realistically drawn landscapes but almost cartoonish people. While this style works well for the cuter and/or cruder moments, ultimately it bears some of the responsibility for why the story lacks emotional resonance. It’s difficult to take Ehwa’s feelings for Chung-Myung seriously when he always looks so bumbling and childish.

The story does have its good points, the relationship between Ehwa and her mother chief among them. The volume’s final pages also ratchet up the drama, which may bode well for the second and third books of the trilogy. As it stands, though, this first installment is a bit of a disappointment.

The Color of Water and The Color of Heaven, volumes two and three in the trilogy, will be released in June and September 2009, respectively.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Historical Fiction, Manhwa Tagged With:

Silver Diamond 4 by Shiho Sugiura: A-

April 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

When some mysterious visitors from another world suddenly appeared in his garden, Rakan learned that he possesses the valuable skills of a sanome—someone with the ability to make plants grow—and that he originally came from the other world himself. After spending several volumes getting to know his houseguests, Rakan has decided to return with them to their blighted and desolate point of origin. There, he’s mistaken for the prince, his older brother, by bandits who aim to capture him.

The plot of Silver Diamond moves at a leisurely pace—most of this volume involves the group of bandits and their hopelessness—but is still a pleasure to read because the characters are so great. They’re warm and funny and easy to root for. When Rakan steps up at the end of the volume and declares his intention to make the world green again, one is actually proud of him. He seems to be on the verge of collecting a motley group of followers, and the parallels with my favorite manga, Basara, in which a kind-hearted revolutionary leader strives to make a withered world bloom again, are not lost on me.

One other nice tidbit is that the translation retains the Japanese name order of the characters, which means that when Rakan’s protectors finally start addressing each other by their first names, the moment retains its proper significance. Though the packaging—now both floppier and thinner—may bear signs of cost-cutting measures, the material within is as good as ever.

Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Fantasy, Manga, Shoujo Tagged With:

You Will Drown in Love by Hinako Takanaga: B+

April 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Part companion volume to You Will Fall in Love and part sequel, You Will Drown in Love gives Reiichiro’s perspective of events as he reconnects with his long-lost best friend, Haru, and learns of Haru’s relationship with his younger brother, Tsukasa. After Haru rejects his confession of love, Reiichiro talks it over with his employee, Jinnai, who’s been giving him advice on a variety of topics ever since Reiichiro came on board as the manager of the fabric store where they both work. When Jinnai tells Reiichiro he loves him, both men must overcome some of their own bad habits if they’re going to be able to make a relationship work.

You Will Drown in Love is the kind of sequel that enriches rather than cheapens the original. Although Jinnai does not appear at all in You Will Fall in Love, by dovetailing the two storylines together, his friendship with Reiichiro is allowed to grow while the events of the first book play out and develop into love when Reiichiro’s involvement in the tale of Haru and Tsukasa comes to a close. As a result, he didn’t feel like an afterthought, but rather as someone whose opinions informed Reiichiro’s actions in the earlier work.

Like the first story, this is one of the more romantic boys’ love stories I’ve read, free from outside obstacles to the relationship or angst that makes no sense. The problems Reiichiro and Jinnai face arise because of their natures—Reiichiro is both naïve and sensitive while Jinnai uses humor as a defense—and are far more difficult to conquer than a mere lusty rival. My one real complaint is that Reiichiro’s naïveté is overdone to the point of unbelievability—what grown man would utter a sentence like, “Guys don’t normally kiss each other, right?” I do, however, adore his final line of the volume, which I will not spoil.

With its emphasis on communication and trust, this boys’ love romance is a cut above the rest.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga Tagged With: ,

Bleach 26 by Tite Kubo: B

April 18, 2009 by 5 Comments

From the back cover:
Ichigo and all his friends are training like mad, spurred on by the looming threat of Aizen’s wicked plans. But while Uryuu and Chad increase their powers, Orihime finds out that she has to sit out the coming fight, leaving her friends without her protection. And Ichigo, despite his intensive training with the Vizards, can’t control his Hollowfied self long enough to battle. With the war against the Arrancars ramping up, can the team afford to have two fighters on the sidelines?

Review:
Aside from some mercifully brief “comedy,” this is a very strong volume. We actually see each member of the main cast as they are working on increasing their powers—Chad is battling with Renji, Uryuu (seems like ages since we’ve seen him!) and his dad finish their fight, Ichigo is working on extending the length of time he can remain Hollowfied, and Orihime is determined to fight even after being cautioned that she may not be cut out for combat. I particularly love Orihime’s determination and the fact that Rukia decides to help train her. The scene where a bunch of powerful folk are intimidated by her is pretty great, too!

The villains and their plot are still rather hokey, but since the focus is squarely on the characters, that doesn’t matter much. There’s a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about how some device has a hitherto-unmentioned ability to produce an Arrancar or something, and so a new, child-like opponent is introduced who is kind of neat. Also, the last few chapters are pretty great, since nearly everybody ends up in peril of some kind.

So, yeah. The plotting and the comedy are not really doing much of anything for me, but mild-mannered characters growing the determination to fight and Ichigo showing signs of genuine badassitude offer enough entertainment value to make up the difference.

Filed Under: Manga, Shounen, Supernatural Tagged With: ,

Crimson Hero 10 by Mitsuba Takanashi: B

April 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The six members of the Crimson Field High School girls’ volleyball team have come a long way and are now participating in the Newcomers’ Tournament, an important stepping stone to their ultimate goal, the Spring Tournament. They win their first two rounds handily, but are faced with a tough opponent for the third round. Meanwhile, Nobara and Yushin are still keeping their feelings for each other a secret.

Even though I am far from athletic myself, there is something about sports manga that I adore. Crimson Hero does particularly well at giving each teammate a moment to shine and in recent volumes, each of the supporting girls has improved her skills in some way or another. The matches are also a lot of fun and easy to follow. Frankly, I wish there were more of them.

I’m a little frustrated on the romance front, though. Nobara has liked Yushin for a long time, and was firm about this even when she realized that another boy, Haibuki, had feelings for her. Now, when Yushin has finally reciprocated, Nobara’s suddenly starting to be affected by Haibuki, thinking things like, “These days your smile messes with my heart.” I was really hoping this series wouldn’t go down this road; the fact that it seems poised to do so is disappointing.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »