Kare Kano 3 by Masami Tsuda: B+

April 27, 2008 by 4 Comments

From the back cover:
Things are going well for Yukino and Soichiro. They have accepted each other for who they are, and have truly become boyfriend and girlfriend. But they’ve been concentrating more on each other than on their schoolwork, and it shows. When the two best students in school suddenly let their grades drop, it draws the attention and concern of one of the teachers. He wants Yukino and Soichiro to break up so they can concentrate on their grades again. And he even calls a dreaded parent-teacher conference to tell their parents his concerns. Will Yukino and Soichiro split up for good?

Review:
This is as far as I got through the manga my first try, but I can’t remember whether that was due to an ebb in the story’s awesomeness or if the rest of the volumes weren’t out yet and I just got so far behind I figured I’d just wait ’til the whole series had been released.

In any case, there’s a real slice-of-life vibe to this volume that is both good and bad. Yukino and Arima share some quiet moments that are quite nice and while I like that they had to face the academic repercussions of spending so much time together, three long chapters on the topic is a bit much. Yukino is also starting to feel the consequences of the other girls in her class realizing she’d been duping them with her perfection act.

Kare Kano is still a very good read, but like any relationship, it’s moving past the opening dramatics and settling into something more comfortable. I’m a little concerned because in the anime, it was soon after this point that the focus drifted from the main couple to the supporting cast (who I found far less interesting). I hope the same isn’t true of the manga.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: ,

Love*Com 4 by Aya Nakahara: A

April 12, 2008 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Risa has finally realized that she has feelings for Ôtani and can’t wait to confess her love. But dense Ôtani won’t take her hints! With the help of all their friends and a romantic beach vacation, can Rise get her affections past his thick head?

Review:
What makes this series special to me is actually its normalcy. Simply put, it’s about a girl in love with a guy friend. Her internal agonizings and doubts over the fact are realistic and understandable.

In this volume, Risa was determined to make her feelings known to Ôtani. Hints fail, so she tried telling him outright, to no avail. His continuing cluelessness was kind of unbelievable, but he finally got the message. I was kind of bothered by all the yelling and name-calling that ensued in these chapters—I get that Risa was trying to act like her old self around him, but it just seemed more pervasive than before. I’d be glad to see this aspect of their relationship go by the wayside.

With these complaints, it might seem strange to grade it so highly, but Risa’s struggle was really well done. And there were a few great moments between them, especially after Ôtani realized it was him she liked. He thought it over very seriously, and I thought his eventual response to Risa was realistic, given the circumstances. I look forward to seeing where things go from here.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: ,

Maison Ikkoku 5 by Rumiko Takahashi: A-

April 11, 2008 by 2 Comments

From the back cover:
Godai’s New Year’s fortune comes true, but he quickly learns he should be careful what he wishes for. When Valentine’s Day arrives, Godai receives flowers from Kozue and then soon after from Kyoko—each with their own meaning.

Review:
This volume was comprised entirely of stand-alone episodes, several of which I liked very much. One thing that helped these stories to stand out was the inclusion of some fantasy sequences from Kyoko’s perspective. The best example was when she compared a future as Mitaka’s or Godai’s wife, complete with dozens of mewling babies.

I also admired the art a great deal in this volume. In addition to the impressive backgrounds during all outdoor or public scenes (like a department store), some dialogue-free panels were just wonderful. For example, when Godai’s New Year’s fortune told him to take things slow with Kyoko, he contemplated how that would work out. His ensuing fantasy ranged over three identical panels of he and Kyoko sitting around blinking at each other.

There was another great one in the last chapter when Kyoko’s mother, who’d been pressuring Kyoko about giving her grandchildren and had dragged her off to tea, got up to use the restroom. Each of those remaining at the table wore a different expression—Mitaka looked smug, Godai annoyed, Mrs. Ichinose gleeful, and Kyoko as if she were appealing for Heavenly intervention.

The one thing that continues to annoy me is Godai’s relationship with Kozue. He came close to using her for kissing practice in this volume, but was foiled by a sweet potato vendor. It’s perfectly in character for him to behave that way, of course, but I’d rather he didn’t.

Filed Under: Manga, Seinen Tagged With: ,

Maison Ikkoku 4 by Rumiko Takahashi: B+

April 8, 2008 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
How can Godai and Kyoko ever be alone when the motley crew at Maison Ikkoku are always inviting themselves to every get-together and social event? When the two finally have some one-on-one time, their housemates’ gossip and meddling leads them to learn the hard way that home is where the heart is!

Review:
I didn’t like this volume quite as much as the others.

The second chapter showed great promise because Godai had resolved to end things with Kozue. He tried, but after witnessing a messy breakup scene at a restaurant, he never managed to actually do it. This chapter ended with the text “And so, the triangle is repaired.” So, all of that simply led to a reset of the same holding pattern.

There also seemed to be a surfeit of annoying characters. The denizens of Maison Ikkoku seemed worse than usual, and there was also a particularly odious couple that Godai lived with for a while when a misunderstanding with Kyoko drove him to seek alternate lodgings. Additionally, said misunderstanding resulted in a mini-arc that was kind of underwhelming.

That said, there were some things I definitely did like. One was Godai’s attitude towards consummating his relationship with Kozue. If he has to keep going out with her, at least he actually thought about the consequences of sex and realized that it could ruin his whole life. I also liked the end of the last chapter when Godai and Kyoko were reunited and, from relief and/or drunkenness, both burst out crying in the middle of the street.

Though I had some complaints with this volume, I still enjoyed it a great deal and am loving the series as a whole.

Filed Under: Manga, Seinen Tagged With: ,

Hana-Kimi 23 by Hisaya Nakajo: C

April 5, 2008 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Mizuki’s secret is exposed… and her days at Osaka High School are numbered. Can she keep the friends she made as a boy… and does she have a future with Sano after graduation? The flowers of youth are scattered to the winds in the bittersweet final volume of Hana-Kimi!

Review:
It’s… over! Thank God.

Nakajo seemed to really be phoning it in for these final few chapters. The big event that I was anticipating—Nakatsu finding out Mizuki’s secret—was handled poorly in two skimpy chapters (a mere 14 pages each). I was annoyed that no one else was annoyed. Their friend had essentially been duping them for two years, and not a single person called her out on it. Everyone was supportive of Mizuki’s every decision.

I did like that Mizuki withdrew from the school. After the rampant acceptance, I was anticipating an ending wherein the school authorities were also totally fine with it. The ensuing farewell scene was pretty dumb, though, and the epilogue bland.

The overall feel of this volume was one of weariness. These should’ve been the climactic chapters that the series was building to all this time, but instead they were listless. I mean, what kind of drama is it when a chapter ends on the riveting decision to take some candid photographs? Although there were moments that I enjoyed in Hana-Kimi, its failure to deliver in crucial areas virtually ensures that I’ll never reread it.

Filed Under: Gender Hijinks, Manga, Shoujo Tagged With:

Honey and Clover 1 by Chica Umino: A-

April 3, 2008 by 3 Comments

From the back cover:
Takemoto, a sophomore art student in Tokyo, thinks his greatest worries in life are finding ways to eat more meat and getting to class on time. But with friends like his, life is never going to be that tame.

Review:
This series reminds me of Maison Ikkoku in a couple of ways. The main character is kind of a regular dude, and lives with an assortment of neighbors, at least one of them very odd. Hagu, a mysterious and diminutive new student, a relation of their favorite professor, enters their midst and he becomes interested in her. The other similarity is that it took me a couple of chapters before I really warmed up to the characters.

So far in this first volume, things are pretty episodic and time moves quickly. You have the chapter where the guys wonder why disheveled Morita is a chick magnet, the one where they have a barbecue by the river, the Christmas party, etc. In the later chapters, however, longer threads become apparent—Hagu’s issues with stress, another classmate’s unrequited love for an older woman, and Takemoto’s rash pledge to build something for Hagu and his obvious uncertainy about his abilities and future.

The art is neat, too. The lines are light and kind of sketchy, and there were some panels I really liked, like when an ominous cloud mass was simply drawn as a bunch of scribbles or the beatific scene of the boys enjoying the rare treat of meat in the company of friendly woodland creatures. Hagu really is adorable, though the proportions of how much smaller she is than Takemoto kind of change around a bit.

Honey and Clover manages to be cute, bittersweet, and amusing simultaneously, which is certainly a combo that appeals to me.

Filed Under: Josei, Manga Tagged With: ,

NANA 4 by Ai Yazawa: A

April 1, 2008 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Nana K.’s perfect Tokyo life is crumbling around her. She can’t keep a job, she can’t keep any money, and now it looks like she can’t even keep her boyfriend! But luckily, a tasty nugget of gossip about Nana O.’s past love life helps Nana K. keep her mind off her own troubles. If she can play the role of cupid for her best friend, can Nana K. get closer to her own happy ending?

Review:
Again, I am impressed.

The break-up scene between Nana K. and Shoji in the first chapter is both brutal and amazing. I love everything about it, and that includes the art. Yazawa uses those blurry images of real places again to great effect, as making the surroundings feel more real seems to confer the same benefit upon the events themselves.

The rest of the volume is very good, too. Nana K.’s near-obsession with Nana O. continues to grow—fueled by the feeling that she’s losing those she loves, she reacts poorly to Nana O. spending time with a groupie. Later, she finds solace from her cares in planning for Nana O.’s reunion with her ex-boyfriend, Ren.

Although I’m keen to see the reunion between Nana O. and Ren, I find I’m actually more interested in the obsession angle and how that’s going to develop. The foreshadowy narration continues to make me wonder whether something ominous is going to happen. Consider:

If only I’d been more mature back then and realized what your weaknesses were. Would things have been different now?

It’s hard to imagine now that I ever found Nana K. dispensable. I just had no idea she was going to turn out to have as much to offer as she does.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: , ,

NANA 3 by Ai Yazawa: A+

March 31, 2008 by 2 Comments

From the back cover:
Things are slowly coming together for Nana Osaki. The guitarist and drummer from her old band have joined her in Tokyo and she’s finally found a ripping new bass player to replace Ren Honjo. The Black Stones are back and they’re ready to kick some ass.

Nana Komatsu, however, can’t shake her old nemesis, the Demon Lord. She’s stuck in a dead-end job and there’s trouble brewing with her boyfriend, Shoji. He’s been working late and hasn’t exactly been the most attentive lover. Poor Nana. Life in Tokyo is turning out to be a total bummer.

Review:
Okay, now I get why everyone is so crazy for this series. It’s really hooked me for good with this volume—let me count the ways!

1. Realism. It may sound silly to say that a manga achieves this, but NANA does it probably the best I’ve seen. The relationships feel real, particularly between Nana K. and Shoji, and so do the challenges faced—job woes, learning to conserve funds, etc. Even the impromptu concert from the last volume has repercussions in the form of complaining neighbors. Come to think of it, this is probably why so many class this series as josei.

2. Nana Komatsu has finally won me over. Sure, she can still be kind of ditzy, but I really like how much she gets into helping Nana O. find bandmates. Last volume, she mentioned that her life was still missing something, and here she implies that Nana O. supplied it—a dream. Nana K. still doesn’t know what she wants to do with herself, so she’s devoting her energies to helping Nana O.’s dream come true and doesn’t notice that Shoji’s feeling neglected.

3. The narration. Is this new with this volume? I didn’t notice it before. In any case, I am a big fan of devices like this. An older (and seemingly wiser) Nana K. looks back fondly upon this time in her life and hints, too, that she might still be living in that apartment, but that Nana O. no longer is. So now I’m left wondering what happened to her—did she make it big? Did something else happen? Suggestions that the author does have a goal in mind will always be something I appreciate.

About the only complaint I could make is that the slang is still pervasive. It makes me sigh to read a line like “Don’t your ‘rents hook you up, dude?” in something so otherwise excellent.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: , ,

Skip Beat! 6 by Yoshiki Nakamura: A

March 30, 2008 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Ren’s manager Yashiro comes down with a nasty cold in the middle of an important shoot, and dares Kyoko to take over his job! Of course Kyoko accepts, but she’s in way over her head with a pack of new responsibilities and the scorn of everyone who thinks she’s doing a bad job. But the more time Ren spends with Kyoko the more he sees her kind and gentle side. Will all her hassles be worth his change of heart?

Review:
Though there’ll always be a fond place in my heart for volume 4 and its chicken-suited hijinks, this volume has usurped its place as my most favorite thus far.

The rich girl from the last volume made one last appearance, trying to injure Moko so she could not appear in the commercial. She was unsuccessful, however, and I was happy to see the girls actually complete filming without something happening to mess it up. Playing the part of a high school student made Kyoko wistful for what she didn’t have, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the president of her agency. To top it all off, Moko ended up writing Kyoko something really sweet in the stamp book in which she collects points for her Love Me Section jobs.

And in addition to all of that goodness, there was lots and lots of great interaction between Kyoko and Ren. I pretty much loved every scene they were in together, from talking about Sho Fuwa in the car, to Kyoko helping nurse Ren’s cold, to them rehearsing lines together at the end. Along the way, more of Ren’s memories of meeting Kyoko as a child were revealed, and they each made some realizations about the other, though each still believes the other hates them.

I can’t remember another manga that made me genuinely happy that two characters had finally become friends or another heroine whom I cheered on so whole-heartedly. Skip Beat! really is something special.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: ,

Skip Beat! 5 by Yoshiki Nakamura: A-

March 29, 2008 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Kyoko lands a regular role on a TV show… as a giant chicken. Not content to settle for poultry recognition, Kyoko tries out for a big commercial. At the audition she runs into her Love Me-rival Moko, who’s having rival woes of her own. With a jealous rich girl out to bring them down, can Kyoko and Moko overcome their differences and act as a team to trounce the competition?

Review:
… Poultry recognition? I think that joke might be so bad it’s good.

This volume centered on an audition for a commercial and though I didn’t like the jealous rich girl at all—I’m kind of tired of seeing imperious rich girls randomly show up in manga (there was one recently in Ouran)—it turned out to be really cool.

The best bits were the last few chapters where, after performing one audition segment by reacting to Moko’s lead, Kyoko had to conceive of a routine herself and be the one to steer the scene, something she’d never done before. She ended up thinking of something clever (of course) that not only fulfilled the requirements of the routine but also seemed to expose a trust the girls had in each other’s abilities.

I really liked seeing these two begin to become friends. In any other series, these characters would probably be cast as the villains, but here they’re sympathetic. I was also happy at the result of the audition—I love that Kyoko’s path to stardom is slow, because it really allows one to rejoice when a good break finally happens.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: ,
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