Kaze Hikaru Volume 20 by Taeko Watanabe

July 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

A new volume of Kaze Hikaru is always refreshing, so I was happy to see what happens next for cross-dressing Kamiya and her adventures in the Shinsengumi. Kamiya and Okita endangered her not very convincing masculine disguise when they were photographed together as a man and a woman. Kamiya wants to destroy the photograph and Okita tells his pupil not to because she looked “so cute.” When Okita looks at the photo he remembers his impulse in having it taken in the first place – that it might be a keepsake for one of them and it would be nice to leave something behind. Okita suddenly realizes that the photo looks like a portrait of a young married couple and he’s suddenly embarrassed. They decide to hide the photo for protection at Yamanami’s grave, but the vice-captain finds it and concludes that Kamiya’s convincing feminine appearance will make him the perfect spy to detect an assassin as a woman! So Kamiya is in the unenviable position so immortalized in the movie Victor Victoria, where she is a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman.

Kamiya sees this mission as a confirmation of her manliness in a way, since she is finally being sent on a mission like a real Shinsengumi. Okita is worried that he won’t be able to protect her when she’s on her mission. Kamiya manages to integrate herself into the group of people that run the inn where the suspected assassin Sakamoto Ryoma is staying, but is the odd man with glasses that hangs out with the family actually a cold-blooded killer? Kamiya is able to observe more of the interpersonal relationships between men and women at the inn, and that causes her to reflect a bit on her own life. The tension grows as Kamiya is unable to signal her backup contact and Okita grows more and more anxious, causing the vice-captain to question his feelings for Kamiya. As always, the romance in this manga is moving forward very slowly, but the rich historical detail and crisp illustrations always make Kaze Hikaru a pleasure to read. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next, because if Kamiya and Okita are separated, they are going to have a more difficult time maintaining Kamiya’s secret.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Ouran High School Host Club #18

June 21, 2012 by 1 Comment

Ouran High School Host Club Volume 18 by Bisco Hatori

I was happy to read the final volume of Ouran High School Host Club, a series that manages the tricky feat of simultaneously making fun of shoujo reverse harem scenarios while embracing the whole reverse harem concept in its story of a girl named Haruhi who is forced to cross-dress as a boy to attend an elite school with its own over the top host club. I read the first fiver or so volumes of this series but it didn’t make it into my regular reading rotation. It was still fun to see how the story wrapped up for Haruhi and her host club companions.

After 18 volumes, Haruhi finally admits to Tamaki that she loves him, and they go out on their very first date. What follows is the typical Ouran High School Host Club type of story that manages to be both sweet and ridiculously demented. Tamaki’s typical overreactions to the possibility of a date with Haruhi cause the other host club members to stalk the new couple, ready to swoop in at any opportunity to save their feckless leader from embarrassment. When Tamaki decides to take advice from his Grandmother on what to wear he shows up for the date in ceremonial robes. He is is whisked away and changed in seconds, as they brought along a spare set of clothes. Tamaki’s idea of date preparation is to show up with a bunch of magic tricks in case Haruhi gets bored, and she’s almost fatally embarrassed a couple times. For all of Tamaki’s theatricality, he basically has a good heart as seen when the date concludes by a visit to the grave of Haruhi’s late mother, where he promises to support Haruhi in achieving all of her dreams. It wouldn’t be a volume of Ouran High School Host club without some elaborate events, and in this volume the reader gets a Greek-themed host party as well as a masquerade ball. Tamaki is (of course) Apollo, and the twins enact the story of Castor and Pollux to demonstrate their “brotherly” love.

The ending of the series is satisfying but a bit open-ended, but that never bothers me much in a comedy manga. There is a fun bonus story after the concluding chapter about the Host Club set in Spain that features Kyoya maneuvering through a complicated plot involving his family while Haruhi eagerly experiences Tapas and the rest of the club is overcome by Spanish architecture. Another bonus for readers is getting a quick glimpse of Haruhi and Tamaki in a more established relationship at the very end of the manga. I enjoyed seeing how this manga concluded, even if I didn’t collect every volume.

Review copy provided by the publisher

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!

« Previous Page
Next Page »