Skip Beat! Volume 28

June 19, 2012 by 2 Comments

Skip Beat! Volume 28 by Yoshiki Nakumura

I always enjoy a new volume of Skip Beat! but I’m enjoying the most recent story arc even more than usual because there’s more emotional payoff with Kyoko and Ren being forced into more contact with each other as they prepare for their reality-tv like roles as the gothed-out Cain siblings. They still have to wrap up their current projects though, and things get dicey when Ren has a near miss with a potential accident when he is rehearsing some stunt driving. The experience puts him in a bit of a fugue state, where he relives a dramatic accident in his past before he became “Ren Tsuruga.” Kyoko is filming nearby and rushes to Ren’s set and she is the only person that he responds to after the accident. Later on, Ren indulges in an odd psychological ritual where he cooks a horrible omurice and eats it as an act of endurance. Kyoko comes along to help him out and witnesses Ren putting himself together again, despite the unfortunate specter of Death that hovers nearby as they consume their dinner.

Kyoko and Ren were really both destined to be actors because with their pasts, traumatic in different ways, inhabiting a role becomes a refuge. I think in this next story arc we’ll see how much of “Ren Tsuruga” is a role and how much is actually Ren. Kyoko’s on the verge of a change too. Everyone that she meets seems struck by the sense that she’s matured, and as she spends more time with Ren when he’s at his most vulnerable it seems like she might finally be on the verge of acknowledging her feelings. Overall, this was a very satisfying volume of Skip Beat!

Review copy provided by the publisher

Kimi Ni Todoke Volume 14

June 15, 2012 by 1 Comment

Kimi Ni Todoke Volume 14 by Karuho Shiina

It was a nice contrast reading Kimi Ni Todoke right after the latest volume of Dengeki Daisy, because while Dengeki Daisy makes a point of occasionally sarcastically commenting on shoujo cliches, Kimi Ni Todoke delves so deeply into some of the standard shoujo plot elements that it actually makes things like the dreaded school trip volume seem fresh again. Sawako and Kazehaya are going to Okinawa with all their classmates, and they are still in the early stages of feeling out their new relationship. Sawako is just overwhelmed with the idea that she’s actually accepted as part of a group, and she’s able to do simple things like take group pictures with her friends. Since her social life before was basically nonexistent, every new experience no matter how small is something to be cherished. Because Sawako cherishes the memories she’s making so much, simple panels with illustrations of her observations of her friends or Kazehaya visiting an aquarium become suffused with importance. This volume really captures the process of making memories.

The complications of young love abound, as Sawako and Kazehaya come perilously close to a first kiss, while her friends Ayane and Chizu have their own relationships to negotiate. Ayane is dating someone that she really doesn’t care for, and Chizu might finally be realizing that there might be more than just friendship between her and Ryo. While the plot developments in Kimi Ni Todoke might be a bit on the slow-moving side, the expressive art and depth shown in the character development for the series ensure that this manga is always entertaining even as it doesn’t go for cheap and easy plot tricks to propel the story forward. Instead we have a volume of summer vacation memories, capped off with the realization that things are about to change in the fall.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Dengeki Daisy Volume 10

June 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Dengeki Daisy Volume 10 by Kyousuke Motomi

The tenth volume of Dengeki Daisy has a bunch of the elements that sparked my initial enthusiasm in the series. Not that the most recent volumes weren’t good, but the ongoing storyline and the changes the characters were going through prevented some of the joking asides and meta-commentary on the shoujo genre that made me initially assess Dengeki Daisy as a good shoujo series for people who hate shoujo. Dengeki Daisy is so delightfully quirky due to the twists that Motomi will put on standard shoujo plot devices. Teru and Kurosaki are back at school and Teru is cramming for final exams. The varying reactions of Teru’s friends to their impending exam doom serves to highlight the personalities of the supporting cast. When a fellow student attempts to blackmail Teru for a favor, threatening to expose Kurosaki’s secrets, Teru tells him to do his worst and promptly reports back to Kurosaki. In a more typical shoujo manga a blackmail storyline would be drawn out over a volume or two instead of promptly resolved in a few pages. Teru’s always been a strong heroine, but this volume really showcases her maturity. When her erstwhile blackmailer confesses that he was threatening her because he was desperate to get her help studying for a Japanese Literature exam, Teru decides to give up a rare movie date with Kurosaki in order to help him.

An author with a finely honed sense of sarcasm is a rare thing in shoujo manga, so I was particularly amused when the concept of winter break “a time that makes a girl’s heart quiver with excitement,” was introduced over an impossibly idealized image of Teru and Kurosaki in a panel filled with Christmas trees, presents, and ribbon. Turning the page, instead of being confronted with Teru stressed over what to buy Kurosaki for a Christmas present, we get the blunt narration that break is over and the third semester of school has started. Teru’s clutching a drink and looking glassy-eyed and her friends are interrogating her about homework and yelling “This is a shoujo manga, how can you skip the entire break!?” Teru indulges in a bit of naval-gazing about her relationship with Kurosaki, but she manages to be very sensible and true to herself while she wonders what the next step is. The knowledge that the dangerous hacker Akira is still out there casts a bit of a damper on a relatively peaceful time in this manga, and any Kurosaki fans who have been missing out on his occasional tough guy antics will find those desires ably met by the end of this volume. Overall, this was a very satisfying volume of Dengeki Daisy. Ten volumes in and I’m not getting bored or even wanting the story to wrap up!

Jmanga in Early June

June 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I need to keep better track of what’s going on at Jmanga, because I was interested to see that they’re so far into their releases of many volumes of old Tokyopop titles.

Tactics

Your and My Secret – My previous review of volume 1

Animal Academy – volume 1 review

Good Witch of the West

Of that group, I probably read more of Animal Academy, which was an amusing take on the whole magic boarding school genre. As to what I’m intested in reading next on the Jmanga platform, there’s still an Est Em title I haven’t sampled yet, Apartments of Calle Feliz. Mo’some Sting also looks potentially interesting. There are some more Harlequin titles available too. It looks like there’s a points back promotion on food manga good through tomorrow, so that’s worth checking out if you are a foodie.

What have you been reading on Jmanga lately? Any recommendations for me?

Ai Ore Volumes 4 and 5

June 3, 2012 by 1 Comment



Ai Ore has an interesting publication history, because what is being published here as a continuous series was actually two series in Japan split between two different magazines. I think the US volume 4 is the first volume of the second series, just based on the recap incorporated in the beginning of the book and the dramatic shift in tone. These volumes really felt different than the previous volume of Ai Ore that I sampled, so much so that I’d recommend that anyone who was turned off by the angsty romance and gender politics in the first volume give the series a try again as it evolves into a pretty amusing school comedy. As the volume opens boyish girl Mizuki and girlish boy Akira are finally dating but their romance is about to be derailed by school politics. Mizuki’s St. Nobara Girls Academy is an elite school, but Akira’s Dankaisan Boys School is populated solely by juvenile delinquents. St. Nobara’s meddling student council president Ageha (is there any other kind in manga?) decrees that Mizuki must not sully the reputation of their school, so naturally Mizuki is sentenced to detention which involves being locked in a cell complete with iron bars. Akira decides that he’s going to raise the reputation of his school, so he goes along with the plans of his own meddling student council president to open a dorm, redesign the school uniforms, and raise test scores. There were a bunch of amusing little touches in this manga. I enjoyed seeing Akira’s deranged classmates debate the “cosplay ratio” of their new uniforms, and Ageha’s fainting act when she comes into contact with the Dankaisan students is melodrama in overdrive. Overall, I enjoyed this volume much more than the first over-sized volume of Ai Ore since there was less focus on romance and more focus on wacky school hijinks.

Volume 5 starts off with the introduction of a new character – Akira’s former tutor in manliness Sho Kasuga, who reminds Akira of a shameful moment of his past. Kasuga also ends up being St. Nobara Academy’s first male teacher. He manages to secure the position by mentioning that he’s gay as a cover story, but he is actually a shameless womanizer. Akira finds an unexpected ally in his new roommate, a tough yakuza guy named Bambi. Akira and Mizuki manage to have some rough times in their relationship, mostly due to Mizuki’s idiotic habit of jumping to conclusions and Akiria’s guilt-ridden shiftiness. This volume was a little less funny than volume 4, but I have to give it props if only because the St. Nobara school director used the phrase “Sex Terrorist” to describe Kasuga. As Akira and Mizuki begin to take their relationship to the next level, they face the next step in most manga school romances – planning their summer vacation. Even though Ai Ore does manage to hit upon most shoujo cliches, the lighter tone in these tow volumes made it much more enjoyable. It isn’t as frenetically funny as Oresama Teacher, but I still put these volumes down amused and entertained.
If you tried the first volume of the series and didn’t enjoy it, it is worth skipping ahead to see if these later volumes are more to your liking.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

«Older Posts
Newer Posts»