Phantom Dream 4 by Natsuki Takaya: B-

March 7, 2010 by 2 Comments

From the back cover:
Eiji’s life hangs in the balance as factions once again shift and realign. Asahi struggles with her new powers and guilt over what happened in the past, while Tamaki strives to control the continuing outbreak of chaos in the present. And a mysterious new figure emerges to join the battle, but is he an ally or an enemy?!

Fruits Basket creator Natsuki Takaya delivers a story of love, loss and the redemptive power of forgiveness in this heartbreaking story of star-crossed lovers bound by a responsibility that may destroy them.

Review:
Say what you will about shounen manga, the fact remains that they know how to stage a battle. Even conflicts with minor foes tend to last a couple of chapters, allowing one to fully appreciate the scope of the event. Contrast this with Natsuki Takaya’s treatment of the showdown between our hero, Tamaki Otoya, and King Hira, the villain with a grudge against humanity for murdering his true love a thousand years ago. Here’s how the fight goes down:

1. Someone holds a glowing finger aloft.
2. King Hira falls down.
3. The end.

Despite the fact that this is entirely underwhelming, the series still could and should have ended here, as we get some nice scenes of Hira-induced chaos and decent resolution regarding Asahi’s motives for defecting to the other side. While not technically dead, Hira is left with only two attendants, one of whom is more devoted to her fellow servant than to the king himself.

Unfortunately, the story will continue for one more volume. It’ll probably be padded out with more of Takaya’s attempts to get us to care about the one-sided loves of the supporting characters, but events just move too swiftly in this series for any of these people to make much of an impression.

In the end, Phantom Dream is a decent story with occasionally compelling moments, but is overall more notable for what it could have been than for what it really is.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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

One Piece 16-18 by Eiichiro Oda: B+

March 6, 2010 by 5 Comments

If there remains anyone who doubts that One Piece is something special in the world of shounen manga, they need only read these three volumes to be convinced.

Volume sixteen begins with Luffy and Sanji on their way up a treacherous, snowy mountain to deliver a feverish Nami to the only doctor (Kureha) left on Drum Island. They’re waylaid by some giant killer bunnies, but an avalanche puts a stop to their conflict. I have never loved One Piece so well as in the first two chapters here, in which Luffy demonstrates his lack of antagonism towards those who’ve done him no real wrong by helping free a trapped bunny. This act earns him the respect of the pack, who then come to his aid as the evil former monarch of Drum Island attacks. Yes, I know this is probably the single most sappy moment in the history of this series, but that doesn’t change the fact that Oda executes it really, really well and that I loved it to pieces.

The whole Drum Island arc is excellent, really. We meet Chopper, a blue-nosed reindeer who ate the human-human fruit and can now perform a variety of human/reindeer transformations. He’s studying medicine under Kureha and entranced with the idea of pirates, but weighed down by a lifetime of being shunned for his oddness. His backstory is sad, as they usually are in this series, but Luffy’s unbridled acceptance (and demonstration of his own bizarre abilities) finally convinces Chopper that he has finally found the place he belongs. A good bit of fighting is involved, too, but these warm and affecting character moments are really the highlight of the series for me.

After a touching resolution, the gang is ready to set sail for Alabasta, Princess Vivi’s homeland, which is in the midst of rebellion. Awesomely, quite a few others are converging on that destination as well, and volumes seventeen and eighteen focus on introducing more of the elite agents of Baroque Works as well as explaining the organization’s hierarchy. Baroque Works is shaping up to be a wonderful enemy, with quirky characters (like Mr. 2 Bon Clay, who likes nothing so well as a good pirouette), cool resources (like transport turtles), and internal rivalries. I’m much more interested in them than the plight of Vivi’s people, actually, though I did enjoy learning more about her past.

Unfortunately, Alabasta’s desert climate brings out some of the worst in Luffy, who, despite valiantly helping some villagers and taking up Vivi’s cause as his own, is nonetheless extremely stupid when it comes to keeping a low profile or rationing supplies. Yes, I know, I should simply believe that everything will work out fine for his crew, because it always does, but I can’t help being frustrated by his occasional idiocy.

While I’ve truly enjoyed One Piece, these volumes got me excited for what’s to come in a way that’s new. In fact, I couldn’t help splurging at the library the other day and came home with a veritable armload of volumes. It really is that good. If you’re looking for a shounen series with heart, look no further.

Filed Under: Manga, Shounen Tagged With: ,

Adolf 2: An Exile in Japan by Osamu Tezuka: A

March 3, 2010 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Japanese reporter Sohei Toge returns to his homeland, where he finally learns the secret that led to his brother’s brutal murder at the hands of the Gestapo. But now the Japanese secret police are on his tail, and the SS officer who tortured him in Germany has followed him to Japan to hush him up—permanently!

As fate would have it, Yukie Kaufmann, the Japanese widow of a high-ranking German Nazi, is Sohei’s only hope for survival. Meanwhile, Yukie’s son, Adolf, is being brainwashed by his teachers at an elite German school for the Hitler Youth. Why are they trying to make him hate Jews, including his best friend, Adolf Kamil!?

Review:
As the second volume of Tezuka’s masterful Adolf begins, two years have passed since the death of reporter Sohei Toge’s brother, Isao. Isao was in possession of documents that he believed would bring down Hitler, and Toge is trying to fulfill his promise to ensure that it happens.

Toge finally succeeds in locating the documents in the beginning of the volume, but his life rapidly deteriorates from there as Nazis, secret police, and foreign agents converge on him to try to claim the papers for themselves. He’s tortured, watched day and night, fired from his job, ousted from his residence, and ends up a destitute day laborer who experiences periodic visits from one especially determined investigator named Akabane.

All of this is quite riveting, but the accumulation of bad luck as hardship after hardship is heaped upon Toge makes for a painful read. When he’s mistakenly arrested for arson after losing the documents, his spirits are finally broken and he doesn’t even care if he’s charged and sent away. Of course, no rest waits for Toge, and after a brief interval in jail, he returns to a life of running, train-hopping, deserted islands, and shootouts, though with a kindly police detective on his side.

Most of this volume focuses on Toge, whose action-heavy story reads like a thriller and can be enjoyed extensively on that level. More disturbing and subtle are the glimpses we get of Adolf Kaufmann, whom we last saw as he was being unwillingly shipped off to the Adolf Hitler Schule to learn to be a good Nazi. While Adolf is doing exceptionally well academically, his tolerant attitude toward Jews doesn’t sit well with the school administrators. His top grades entitle him to receive an award from Hitler himself, and after a brief time in that charismatic man’s company, he comes out a changed boy, writing to his mother of his desire to shed blood for Germany, and beginning to parrot the rhetoric he’s read and heard about the inferiority of other races.

It was inevitable that Kaufmann’s innocence would be corrupted in this way, and there’s really nothing else he could do in such circumstances, but his transformation is, to me, a greater tragedy than the death of Isao or all of the misfortunes Toge endures. With his depiction of Kaufmann, Tezuka seems to have some sympathy for the regular citizens who were swept up in Nazi fervor, not unlike Americans who oppose the war but still support the troops who are waging it. We typically think of Nazis as the personification of evil, but the real truth is not so black-and-white.

My one regret with this volume is that it does not further the story of Adolf Kamil, the Jew living with his family in Kobe, at all. We know little of him, compared to Toge and Kaufmann, so perhaps he is not meant to be a star in his own right, but rather to represent a constant about which Kaufmann’s feelings will radically change through his experience in the Hitler Youth. The volume’s introduction does mention the racism he experiences as a non-Asian living in Japan, however, so perhaps there will be more to come later on.

I would not hesitate to call Adolf a manga classic. Like the best classics, it’s not only required reading, it’s also absorbing and unforgettable.

Filed Under: Historical Fiction, Manga, Seinen Tagged With: ,

Cheeky Angel 11-13 by Hiroyuki Nishimori: C+

March 2, 2010 by 3 Comments


In my review of volumes 1-10 of Cheeky Angel, I wrote, “Sometimes I’m not a fan of episodic storylines, but Cheeky Angel pulls it off because Nishimori-sensei never loses sight of the most important aspect of the story: Megumi’s struggle to choose between accepting her current femininity and finding a way to return to what she once was.”

Unfortunately, this no longer holds true for this trio of volumes. Since the end of volume ten, when Megumi learned that the curse would eventually wear off and she’d revert to boyhood, the series has spent very little time occupying her head. Instead, she is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of other characters, and comes off as extremely changeable, so much so that it’s impossible to know what she’s thinking or feeling about her predicament. Without this unifying focus, Cheeky Angel becomes a string of mostly dissatisfying episodic stories.

That isn’t to say there are no cohesive elements, however. In volume eleven, the idea of a manliness contest is proposed, with Meg and her pals judging each other on how they behave in various situations. Genzo becomes obsessed with the idea of being a man and shrugging off adversity, which comes in handy when he becomes the victim of the curse that had formerly plagued Meg. His stoic acceptance of his fate earns him Meg’s admiration, and his change in attitude also helps him mature. Unfortunately, this also means we’re in for many, many scenes wherein Genzo is challenged by random thugs and must refrain from fighting back.

Many, many scenes.

Focus on the manliness competition fades in the next volume, however, when Meg’s nemesis, Keiko, proposes a womanliness contest, which Meg also agrees to enter. Here’s where some annoying glimmers of sexism arise. Initially, Meg is convinced that the womanliness contest will involve cooking, and she and Genzo agree to participate in a bento-making competition to give her some experience. When Genzo wins, he is berated by the ladies present for not allowing Meg to win. What? Girls need to be coddled so you don’t hurt our pwecious feewings?

Keiko’s got something bigger than cooking in mind, however, and in volume thirteen the idea of a treasure hunt is proposed. Meg’s devoted maid, Yoriko, wants to have some input on the rules, including an evaluation by judges on how well the candidate encourages her male partner. In her effort to convince Keiko, she says, “Drawing out the best in any man is the essence of being a woman. And hasn’t that always been the ultimate measure of womanliness?”

I averted the terrible tragedy of having flames shoot from my eyes by telling myself that perhaps Yoriko doesn’t mean this. It is later revealed, after all, that she stacked the deck in the partner-choosing lottery to ensure Meg would be paired with someone from her group of slightly loserish male friends, whom she would no doubt be called upon to encourage in the course of their adventure.

The treasure hunt starts promisingly but devolves, as all things must do with Cheeky Angel, into a conflict with random thugs. Aside from a few really nice moments—Genzo saving a chick at a summer festival and Yasuda’s clever attempt to get to the bottom of the genie’s wish-granting methods, which may prove important later—these three volumes are extremely disappointing. The series can do better than this; I hope it turns itself around soon.

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

Skip Beat! 20 by Yoshiki Nakamura: B

March 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Kyoko takes a break from acting jobs in this volume to focus on throwing a fabulous non-birthday birthday party for the boss’s granddaughter, Maria, who refuses to celebrate the occasion since it’s also the date of her mother’s death, for which she feels responsible. What follows is possibly the most shojotastic volume of manga ever, filled with warm expressions, bright smiles, avalanches of flowers, swarms of shimmering butterflies, an emotional reunion between Maria and her absentee father, and a surprise celebration for Kyoko’s 17th birthday.

While I don’t like Maria enough to find the easing of her family troubles particularly moving, it’s still nice to see Kyoko at her best, giving her all for the benefit of someone else and wishing hard for their happiness. We also get a really sweet, if unfortunately curtailed, moment between Ren and Kyoko when he gives her a rose for her birthday and she goes all sparkly over it, which I suppose could be counted as progress.

In the end, this is a rather non-essential volume in Kyoko’s journey toward stardom, but it’s worth it to see how she unknowingly wins hearts just by being herself.

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

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: ,

InuYasha 45 by Rumiko Takahashi: B

March 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment

A running plot in InuYasha involves the fact that the villain, Naraku, can never be wholly vanquished because he has secreted his heart away and as long as it exists elsewhere, he can’t die. It’s been dozens of volumes, so my memories of his methods are hazy, but his heart has resided for some time in the body of an infant, which has constructed itself a living fortress in the form of an armored demon called Moryomaru.

The evil baby has been plotting a takeover (what fun that phrase is to write!) for a while, and volume 45 features the climactic confrontation between Moryomaru and Naraku. It’s pretty riveting, I admit, although I am unclear on exactly why Naraku does a certain thing other than that it will be convenient for our heroes down the line.

The worst part about their battle is that it reduces the main cast to spectator status for a time, watching a ball of commingled demon flesh going “sqwch sqwch” and “slthr slthr.” They do get in on the action eventually, though, and the volume ends with a portent of future doom for one of them.

In the end, a bunch of stuff happens but true resolution continues to be evasive. Par for the course for InuYasha.

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

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

X-Men: Misfits 1 by Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, and Anzu: C-

February 28, 2010 by 4 Comments

Having fortified myself with some small exposure to Marvel-style Kitty Pryde, I felt equipped to tackle the first volume of Del Rey’s X-Men: Misfits for Manga Recon. Whether you’re an X-Men fan or a shojo manga fan, you’re bound to be disappointed (if not dismayed) by this hybrid.

In this shojo-style X-Men “remix,” Kitty Pryde is a fifteen-year-old girl who is an outcast because of her mutant abilities. When Magneto invites her to attend Xavier’s Academy for Gifted Youngsters, she accepts. Apparently, she’s the first girl to qualify as a gifted youngster in quite some time, because when she gets there she finds herself surrounded by members of the opposite sex.

Kitty quickly falls in with the wrong crowd: a group of boys calling themselves “The Hellfire Club.” Fans of the comic series will recognize this name as belonging to a band of villains, but here it’s more like a host club of rowdy hotties with disdain for normal people. Kitty starts dating Pyro and ignores many signs that he’s a creep until he finally gets in an altercation with humans while on a school trip to New York City.

Some scant attention is paid to Kitty learning to control her powers and accept her mutant identity, but it’s all very shallow. Some important things happen without any insight at all into her feelings (her first kiss with Pyro, for example) and other moments are too on-the-nose to carry much weight (“But am I really ready to accept this part of myself?”). The best thing that happens is that she quietly befriends Nightcrawler and Gambit, both of whom treat her much better than her so-called boyfriend does.

Kitty is rendered here about as vapidly as possible. She has a tendency to sprout cat ears and a tail when flustered or when she spots cute boys and is often depicted in the act of flailing her limbs around. She’s also extremely dumb where Pyro’s concerned—evading him for an afternoon after he breaks into her room then engaging in smoochy times with him at the next available opportunity. One wonders what Iceman, who leaves her a token of his affections in the final pages, could possibly see in her.

Anzu’s art has been described by Publisher’s Weekly as “shojo parody.” I wouldn’t have come to that conclusion myself, but I hope it’s true, because these pages are positively slathered in screen tone. Her artwork wouldn’t be bad if it were less cluttered; some of the guys genuinely look quite studly and even if Beast does bear more than a passing resemblance to Pokémon’s Snorlax, he is still kinda cute.

Coming on the heels of the incredibly kickass Kitty I just read about in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, this incarnation is downright lame. Also lousy is the implication that this is what someone thinks shojo manga is all about. The preview for volume two promises a fashion show and a cooking showdown. Gee, I can hardly wait.

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

Filed Under: Graphic Novel, Sci-Fi Tagged With:

Astonishing X-Men 1: Gifted by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday: A

February 28, 2010 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Dream-team creators Joss Whedon and John Cassaday present the explosive, all-new flagship X-Men series—marking a return to classic greatness and the beginning of a brand-new era for the X-Men!

Cyclops and Emma Frost re-form the X-Men with the express purpose of “astonishing” the world. But when breaking news regarding the mutant gene unexpectedly hits the airwaves, will it derail their new plans before they even get started? As demand for the “mutant cure” reaches near-riot levels, the X-Men go head-to-head with the enigmatic Ord, with an unexpected ally—and some unexpected adversaries—tipping the scales!

Review:
While I’m by no means an X-Men aficionado, I can at least claim that I was familiar with the characters before the movies came along, courtesy of a high school boyfriend with a small comic collection. I remember reading some of his X-Men issues with genuine, though ultimately fleeting, interest. I’d never considered buying any for myself until Joss Whedon got involved. I cannot, therefore, attest to whether this volume achieves “a return to classic greatness,” but I can say that it’s excellent.

A small group of X-Men have reopened Xavier’s school and taken up positions as professors. This includes Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), who is returning from a long absence to teach a computer course and serve as a student advisor. Also on staff are Scott Summers (Cyclops) and his girlfriend Emma Frost, which guarantees much inter-team conflict when Logan (Wolverine) is around, owing to their extensive personal history. Rounding out the quintet is Dr. Hank McCoy (Beast), who provides some conflict of his own when he expresses interest in the new mutant cure that has just been announced.

If the notion of a mutant cure sounds familiar to you, that’s probably because this arc was one of the inspirations for the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand. Besides the cure and the doctor responsible, however, very little remains the same. There’s no Phoenix or Magneto here. Instead, the story focuses on how and why the cure was created, what it represents to the mutant community, and how to keep it out of dangerous hands. There are some terrific scenes in which McCoy must weigh the potential to have an ordinary life with the message it would send if one of the X-Men should opt out of his powers. Too, there’s a lot of emotional goodness for Kitty as she struggles with her distrust of Emma (a former villain) and Scott’s seeming compliance with her suggestions.

That’s not to say that all is drama and tension. This is Joss Whedon, after all, who is adept at injecting humor into such moments. I giggled more than once and, even though I don’t know these characters near as well as the Buffy cast, I’d argue that this is better written than the Buffy comics.

Speaking of Buffy, a Twitter conversation about Kitty Pryde revealed that some feel her characterization here is too similar to the Slayer. I must admit that Kitty has several lines of dialogue that I could easily imagine coming out of Buffy’s mouth, and the way her grim sense of purpose gives way to raw emotion in a pivotal moment is also similar. The thing is, though, that I like Buffy (possibly more than many fans do) and I like Kitty, and if they both happen to be extremely strong, sad, and lonely young women, I think I’m okay with that.

I am more than okay with John Cassaday’s art, which is the most gorgeous comic book art I have ever seen. In addition to being markedly consistent, it’s also extremely expressive and he does marvelous things with perspective and shadow. What really blew me away, though, is his depiction of Emma Frost in her diamond state. I swear I marveled at one particular panel for a solid minute. Can this guy draw the Buffy comics, too, please?

I’ll definitely be reading more of this series, and it’s got me intrigued about the franchise as a whole. Could it be I’m becoming an X-Men fangirl? What else should I read?

Filed Under: Comics, Sci-Fi Tagged With:

InuYasha 42-44 by Rumiko Takahashi: B+

February 27, 2010 by 2 Comments

I had determined some time ago not to get excited about any seeming progress in this series until the last couple of volumes, but I broke my own vow with these volumes, in which our heroes get closer than ever before to defeating one of the chief obstacles standing in their way.

These three volumes focus on two things: swords and defeating Moryomaru, a creation of Naraku’s who has rebelled against his maker. The sword fixation begins in volume 42, with Sesshomaru receiving an upgrade to his blade thanks to his newly acquired ability to grieve for others and Inuyasha getting some unexpected assistance from Naraku in mastering his sword’s new power. Of course, Naraku then turns around and presents Moryomaru with a way to improve his armor, hoping to empower both of his enemies enough that they’ll finish each other off for him.

Some pretty awesome battles follow. The first occurs in volume 43, with Inuyasha making more headway than ever before in penetrating Moryomaru’s armor. It’s a gory affair, with Moryomaru attempting to assimilate the bodies of a couple of feuding demon brothers, but mighty cool, as well. After this bout, a very brief training arc ensues in which Inuyasha rather quickly acquires the ability to see demon vortices. “What’s a demon vortex?” you may ask. A detailed explanation isn’t offered, but suffice it to say it manifests as swirly energy in the air and when Inuyasha cuts it, it’s a good thing.

This prepares him for the second awesome battle, this time in volume 44. It’s very satisfying to see Inuyasha and Koga working together for a change (I love the comment from the peanut gallery: “Pretend you’re adults!”) and, again, they come verrrrrry close to defeating Moryomaru. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up because there are twelve more volumes to go, but I did, anyway.

In between these more climactic battles, the group still travels around and helps the downtrodden. Now, though, each of these episodic encounters seems to yield something that will contribute to the final battle, even if it is only a chance for our heroes to hone their new abilities. While nothing much has been developing on the personal front lately, each member of the team seems to be contributing a good deal and there have been some nice comedic moments, as well.

While these volumes don’t move the plot along monumentally, they do a good job of maintaining the tension and delivering a slightly more action-packed story than we’ve had for a while. There aren’t any resolutions, but the promise of resolution is reinforced, and that’ll have to be good enough for now.

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

Black Butler 1 by Yana Toboso: B-

February 26, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Twelve-year-old Ciel Phantomhive is, through as-yet-unexplained circumstances, the head of his aristocratic family. He lives in a beautiful manor house near London with his servants, led by the impressively capable Sebastian, and runs a company that manufactures confections and toys. In the first chapter, we witness Sebastian’s skill as he whips up dinner for a guest (hindered by the ineptitude of the other servants), and in the second, Ciel’s shrill and petulant fiancée arrives to dress everyone in cute outfits and break Ciel’s signet ring. Then she cries when he’s mad at her for it. Charming. This inauspicious beginning is tempered somewhat by the likable and enigmatic Sebastian and his relationship with Ciel, who is by turns acerbic and vulernable.

The story picks up the pace in the third chapter, when Ciel is revealed to have been given some sort of policing responsibility by Queen Victoria that makes him a target for an Italian fellow looking to sell drugs in England. When he learns his master has been kidnapped, Sebastian springs into action, easily defeating all of the thugs standing in his way (earning extra badass points for doing so with silverware!) and ultimately revealing more details on the nature of his service agreement with Ciel. This results in a second half that is much better than the first.

Black Butler has a lot of fans, and I can certainly see why. Although I gave this first volume a B-, I did enjoy it overall and feel that the series has a lot of promise.

The first, and most important, step the series can take towards achieving greatness is to jettison the completely unfunny household staff. I’m not even sure why they’re there. Am I actually supposed to find their painfully stupid antics amusing? At one point, I thought one of them might get killed by a sniper and I thought, “Oh, so that’s why they’re there!”, but alas, it was not to be. You know you’ve created some annoying characters when three chapters in I’m rooting for them to die.

I’d also like to see the series develop a plot worthy of its central character. Sebastian is both urbane and lethal, a fellow whose appearance and manner—“You’re nothing more than a romeo swanning around in a swallowtail coat”—bely his true intentions, and he deserves better than whiny fiancées and two-bit drug dealers.

I found Toboso’s art to be kind of generic, but attractive. The action scenes are easy to follow, even when Sebastian’s doing impossible things like throwing bullets into his opponent’s foreheads and slicing their guns in half with a serving tray. Yen’s packaging is also nice, with a couple of color pages and some substantial translation notes.

On the whole, while Black Butler falters some in this first volume, there are enough appealing elements to ensure I’ll be back for the second. I’ll be especially glad if the “comic relief” meets an untimely end in the interim.

Black Butler is published in English by Yen Press. They’ve released one volume so far. The series is up to eight volumes in Japan, where it is still ongoing.

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

Filed Under: Manga, Shounen, Supernatural Tagged With:
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