Stepping on Roses Volume 7

March 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Well, seven volumes in and I think that now I’m finally willing to forgive Stepping on Roses for not being quite as effortlessly cuddly and charming as Rinko Ueda’s series Tail of the Moon. Stepping on Roses still manages to be entertaining due to its historical setting and the romantic foibles of its characters. One of the reasons why I never warmed up to the series before is because the hero Soichiro is so much of a jerk to Sumi. While there was a similar relationship dynamic at play in Tail of the Moon, overall I found the ninja protagonists much more sympathetic than the Meiji era couple in this series. But circumstances change in this volume, showing Soichiro to be much more supportive of Sumi and flexible in his way of thinking than before. Shoichiro’s enemies have executed a series of successful maneuvers that end up ousting from the presidency of his family’s company. Faced with the choice of giving up his bride of convenience to maintain his lifestyle or sticking with Sumi and living in poverty, he chooses Sumi. They move back into the shack with Sumi’s brother and her adopted siblings, and Soichiro has to adjust to living in an entirely different way. He tries to find work and fails while Sumi is holding things together at home. Eventually he realizes that one thing he can do is teach all the children in the neighborhood who can’t afford school fees.

There are plenty of funny scenes with Sumi’s family as everybody tries to adjust to their changed circumstances. Unfortunately there is absolutely no way for Soichiro and Sumi to come to terms with their feelings for each other when they’re surrounded by all of her relatives. As a villain, Nozumu has turned absolutely psychotic, maneuvering himself to take over Soichiro’s company, adopting a slicked-back hairstyle of evil, and showing up to give Sumi money, flowers, and random proposals of marriage. I’m sure Soichiro and Sumi will find a way to get out of their impoverished circumstances, even with Nozumu acting like he’s gone off his meds. Overall, this was a pleasant and diverting volume to read, mostly because Soichiro was so much more interesting when taken out of his familiar surroundings that I found myself rooting for this couple for the first time.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Skip Beat Volume 27

March 21, 2012 by 1 Comment

Skip Beat Volume 27 by Yoshiki Nakamura

I feel that the latest volume of Skip Beat can usually be summed up as “Skip Beat – still great!” In many shoujo series around the 27th volume we’ve seen some plot recycling, the introduction of a sudden fiance or evil male model, or random fights that break romantic couples apart only to bring them closer yet again. The current Heel siblings arc in Skip Beat is enormously entertaining just because it places Kyoko and Ren in close physical proximity all the time, and seeing how they each deal with their unexpressed feelings for each other while maintaining their steadfast commitment to their roles as freaky goth siblings makes the whole series seem new and fresh.

Every experience Kyoko and Ren undertake is a method acting exercise. The relatively simple act of shopping for clothes becomes a tangled transaction involving sibling manipulation and far too many pairs of pants. When Kyoko gets hit on by some random guys, is Ren’s violent reaction due to his character’s feelings for his sister or his own feelings for Kyoko? Ren seems to be approaching an emotional breaking point, but his attempts to send Kyoko away are futile. While Nakamura might draw her characters with freakishly long limbs even by manga standards, her mastery of facial expressions really helps her add more nuance and layers of meaning into the story of Skip Beat. In the more emotionally intense scenes, the reader sees not only the reaction of the character the protagonists are portraying but also the internal feelings and struggles of the actors behind the characters. Ren shifts from shock to fury almost instantaneously when he thinks that Kyoko is threatened, and his posture and aura shift so completely when he’s in character that it is easy to see how his dedication to his craft brings out the best in Kyoko’s acting as well. I’m looking forward to more emotional torture with the Heel siblings in the next volume!

Dawn of the Arcana Volume 3

March 16, 2012 by 1 Comment



Dawn of the Arcana Volume 3 by Rei Toma

I feel like with the third volume things really started to come together nicely in this manga series. The first two volumes were promising, but the third one really has a nice mix of romance, politics, magic, and danger. Nakaba and Caesar start to warm up to each other, but things are even more strained between the red-headed princess and her faithful servant Loki. Things get even worse when Nakaba is instructed to dye her hair before some visiting dignitaries arrive. She chops off her hair instead in a gesture of defiance and Ceasar promptly does the same. The newlyweds now have identical ragamuffin hairstyles. Nakaba is ordered to be confined to her quarters, but she runs into the vising Prince Akhil, the fifth prince of Lithuanel. Akhil recognizes that Nakaba has the power of Arcana and drops some hints about the long-lost tribe that may feature in her origins. He wants her to come back to his country, but Caesar steps in to prevent it. Unfortunately when Caesar steps away later on he’s not able to prevent Nakaba and Loki from being locked up in a dungeon. Nakaba flashes back to Loki’s feelings and experiences when he was all alone trying to protect her when she was an infant and she realizes the depth of his lover for her.

One of the things that intrigued me the most about Dawn of the Arcana when I first picked it up was the situation of a reluctant princess facing down a hostile court. Nakaba had plenty of run-ins in this volume, and the secret passage leading out of her dungeon leads her to discover that her new country has weaponry that will upset the balance of power between nations. Loki immediately sees the weapons as a source of danger for his people, because when humans have better arms and armor, they will no longer need to rely on the strength of the Ajin. Nakaba and Caesar realize that their marriage was a ploy to ensure plenty of time for weapons construction, and Nakaba is determined to do what she can to save the Ajin like Loki. Her power doesn’t seem suited to such a task though, and she doesn’t know what to do.

Nakaba continues to be an engaging heroine, and seeing glimpses of her past with Loki helps the reader understand the deep connection between the two. From being a jerk, Caesar has grown to be a credible match for Nakaba. Part of what makes him more endearing than jerk-like after three volumes is that he doesn’t have the cunning to hide his character flaws. He’s impatient and possessive, but he lights up whenever Nakaba shows him a tiny amount of affection. Even though he isn’t the most well-mannered prince around, it is clear that he actually cares for the bride that he’s so eager to please. The displays of cruelty by the other nobles and the dangerous situations Nakaba finds herself in whenever she leaves her room continue to deliver plenty of dramatic tension. This series keeps getting better.

Oresama Teacher Volume 7

March 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Oresama Teacher Volume 7 by Izumi Tsubaki

This was another entertaining volume of Oresama Teacher. I was happy that in the first chapter we finally got some solid information about Takakomi’s mysterious past and the reasons why he changed from a delinquent to a teacher. It turns out that his grandfather used to be connected with the school, there was some nefarious paperwork from the current principal that involves a land-grab scheme, and Takaomi’s solution was to bet that he would be able to turn around the school in three years in order to return control of the school to his family. This seems like an improbable and misguided plan, but when Mafuyu hears Takaomi’s story she starts to tear up and decides that she’s going to help her former mentor in beat downs and bullying.

Mafuyu and Hayasaka are studying for the first time in an attempt to bring up the school’s test average, aided by spy/highschool ninja Shinobu. Mafuyu isn’t very strong on brainpower, but she does have an odd ability to memorize, which results in several funny scenes where random facts start to spill out of her because her brain has overfilled its capacity. Takaomi uses his dark powers of intimidation to force other slacking students to study. Everybody survives exams, and it is time to head home for the summer. Mafuyu has trouble fitting in with her old gang again, but she ends up spending time with them and learning more about the feelings of the juvenile delinquent comrades she left behind. Oresama Teacher is an excessively silly series but it switches up plot developments that move the story forward a little bit, with more character focused bits. Even when Oresama Teacher might rely on a very standard plot element like going to a summer festival, there’s always a little twist that makes it interesting and ridiculous as Mafuyu attends her summer festival with a crossdressing rival gang leader. Oresama Teacher always goes to the top of my reading stack when I’m looking for a fun distraction.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Story of Saiunkoku Volume 6

February 21, 2012 by 1 Comment

I’m always happy to see a new volume of this series, which features one of the most sympathetic heroines of shoujo manga. Here we see that while Shurei might pass her civil service exams, her troubles are just beginning. This volume picks up in the middle of a gang fight in a brothel, as Shurei and the young scholar Eigetsu fight the Blue Scarf Gang that has been running around stealing and ransoming examination tokens. Eigetsu turns out to be an unwitting master at drunken boxing, because when he gets splashed by alcohol he turns into the deranged fighter Yogetsu, making him a desirable recruit for anyone in the underworld needing a strong ally.

Ryuki shows his strong promise as a leader when he turns up to extract his future civil servants from gang fighting, striking an amiable deal with the underworld syndicates that control the black market in his city. Now Shurei and Eigetsu are ready to tackle their exams, and they pass while setting records. Eigetsu is the youngest student ever to pass first, Shurei passes in third place, and the eccentric Ryuren Ran passes in second place. Egitsu and Shurei are singled out for the type of harsh hazing that only lifetime bureaucrats would be fiendish enough to survive. While being able to take the exams as a woman was Shurei’s ambition for so long, now she has new tasks to endure if she’s going to fulfill her dream of being a civil servant. One of the things that makes Shurei such a pleasant heroine to root for is that even though she’s suffering, she isn’t held up as a model of saintly behavior. She has a temper and she rants about the horrible treatment she has to endure plenty of times before deciding to stick it out just a bit longer. Ryuki continues to do what he can to protect her, although his role is limited to just watching over Shurei without intervening. Seeing him watch Shurei work out her own problems shows how much he’s evolved as a character since the start of the series, when his previous impulsive tendencies would probably have botched Shurei’s attempts at carving her own path. He’s happy for her success, but ambivalent about her eventual role in government because it will naturally set her at a greater distance from him. Seeing these paradoxical feelings develop as Shurei and Ryuki grow as adults is part of what makes Story of Saiunkoku so entertaining.

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