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Manga Reviews

Shojo Beat quick takes: Kimi Ni Todoke, Oresama Teacher, and We were There

Kimi Ni Todoke #15

One of the reasons why Kimi Ni Todoke doesn’t seem to be getting stale even at volume 15 is that there are so many rich and emotionally charged stories that center on the supporting cast. If the manga only focused on the lead couple, I could see myself getting a little weary, but being able to stop every now and then and see a relationship explored that has a totally different dynamic keeps everything interesting. As one would expect from the cover to the volume, the relationship between Chizuru and Ryu is given the spotlight here, and this resulted in one of the most gripping shoujo manga that I’ve read recently.

Ryu has confessed his feelings for Chizu, and she isn’t sure what to do. She’d been nursing an unrequited love for his older brother for a long time, and always thought of Ryu as her brother. Now, she doesn’t want to face him and the fact that their friendship won’t be the same. Ryu’s relieved that he’s finally no longer hiding how he feels and he’s actually feels calm even if Chizu is avoiding him. She’s sad, but still drops off rice balls at Ryu’s house and he reveals to Kazehaya that she’s been bringing him food since the winter of third grade. One of the things that I enjoyed most about this volume was the way it delved into the reasons behind the character’s feelings. Kazahaya ends up serving as a sounding board for both of his friends, and he attempts to find out why Chizu is so upset. With the revelation of Ryu’s feelings, Chizu thinks that their sibling-type relationship was a lie, and everything that she valued “never existed.” Kazehaya asks if knowing that Ryu loves her makes her a little bit happy and she thinks that it never occurred to her. She’s crying because she can’t hang out doing goofy stuff like playing video games and eating ramen anymore because he’s not her brother. Chizu thinks back to the beginning of their friendship when they were little kids and constant companions. When Ryu’s mother died, their friendship developed a deep bond when Chizu vowed to be Ryu’s sister.

Kimi Ni Todoke delves into some pretty serious issues as Chizu works through her feelings, but everything is explored in a very natural and unaffected way. While there are plenty of scenes of the characters working through their feelings, much more is expressed through the portrayal of everyday actions like bundling up before a walk to school in the winter, or the neighborly way Chizu and Ryu’s families trade food back and forth. The act of eating home cooked food takes on a ritual significance when Ryu’s life changes so we see why Chizu’s act of dropping of snacks and Ryu’s habit of preparing lunch for her means so much more than just making sure that a friend has something to eat. Kimi Ni Todoke is such a standout shoujo series, and I become more and more fond of it with each volume.

Oresama Teacher #11

I can always count on this manga to make me smile, and I was particularly delighted that this volume featured the always entertaining plot line of Mafuyu trying to defeat a new enemy. But first, the reader is treated to what might be one of the most ridiculous Christmas dates ever to be portrayed in a shoujo manga, as Hayasaka goes on a date with his hero Super Bun. Mafuyu trying to negotiate the date while still wearing her Super Bun ceramic mask was quite a sight, and it was fun to see a comedic twist on this shojo plot staple. A new enemy appears in the form of the rather sickly student council stooge Ayabe, who goes everywhere with a guitar case on his back. He decides that he’s going to take Mafuyu down, but his methods are a bit odd as they involve actions like shutting himself in a locker and sending out death vibes when she walks by. Ayabe challenges Mafuyu and he actually manages to defeat her, leaving her to decide that she’s going to figure out everything about him in order to beat him next time. Her resolute stalking of him throughout the school makes some bystandars assume that she has a crush on him, but she’s really trying to know her enemy the best she can.

Oresama Teacher‘s formula of exaggerated behavior and ridiculous situations might be a bit predictable, but Tsubaki’s storylines always seem to have a bit of a weird and unexpected twist that maintains my interest. The source of Ayabe’s delinquent fighting powers was incredibly goofy, but I would expect nothing less from this series. I hope the next volume swings back to feature a bit more Takaomi and Bancho, because I’ve missed them. They make brief appearances in this volume, but not quite enough to satisfy me.

We Were There #15

This is the next to last volume of We Were There, and as much as I admire this series I think I am ready for it to be over. I could see how things were starting to wind down in the last volume, and that continues in this volume as Yano begins to realize the continuing depth of Nanami’s feelings for him. One of the things that We Were There really excels at as it shows the characters age from high school to young adulthood is portraying the burden of their shared history. Yano’s relationship and sense of obligation to the Yamamoto family finally reaches a stage where he may begin to move forward with his life, but I’m still wondering if Yano and Nanami really should end up together just due to the weight of their pasts. If Yano actually gets past all the guilt he’s been carrying around, he might actually be a whole human being once again, and it is clear that there is no other person that Nanami can be with. I’ve said before that this series reminded me a bit of Sand Chronicles, in the way both of them go for absolute melodrama in the way the plots unfolded. This isn’t a bad thing, but I think the emotional trauma has me looking forward to the final volume of this series while at the same time I’m very happy that Kimi Ni Todoke is up to 17 volumes and still going strong.

Review copies provided by the publisher

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Manga Reviews

Record of a Fallen Vampire Volumes 1-3

When I picked up the first volume of this series, I was a little worried because the first chapter mainly seemed to be concerned with characters talking to each other in long paragraphs of exposition. After reading the first three volumes, I found myself enjoying the series a bit more, but in a “I’d pick it up from the library” if I had nothing else to read type of way. Part of my lukewarm reaction is the way Record of a Fallen Vampire reminded me of other series that I enjoyed much more, and part of it is undoubtably due to the fact that I have better things to read in my stack of unread manga. But I do think that inexhaustible vampire manga fans could find something to enjoy in this series.

The manga starts out with an appropriately emo backstory about a Vampire King whose Queen was about to destroy the world with her magic. Shut away and disguised by hundreds of decoy magical seals, her King has to roam the world destroying the seals until he finds the true one that has entrapped his queen. He’s hunted by both dhampires (human vampire hybrids), and a powerful mystical force known as the Black Swan who keeps being reborn generation after generation as a human girl. Akabara Strauss is the Vampire King. He’s joined in his quest by Laetitia, a dhampire who is trapped in a childlike form. Anyone who has been around for hundreds of years builds up quite a past, and Strauss’ main dhampire enemy is Bridget, a powerful warrior who at one point led his army and was treated by him as an adoptive daughter. The incarnation of the black swan retains the memories of her predecessors, who were all killed by battling Strauss. A dhampire named Renka was in love with the 49th Black Swan, and his determination for revenge causes him to be reckless in battle.

Strauss and his enemies battle each other in safe zones in cities, hidden from humans. This reminded me a bit of X/1999, but the art in Record of a Fallen Vampire isn’t nearly as good. The character designs are all somewhat feminine but generic, and the battle scenes are sometimes a little difficult to follow. There’s no extra visual flair in this manga to make it more interesting. Most of the three volumes contrast reality with the semi-fable of the King searching for his lost Queen. It is revealed that love might not be Strauss’ main motivation. Renka is destroyed when he sees that the latest Black Swan Koyuki is a dead ringer for his long-lost love. Bridget continues her efforts to hunt down her former mentor, and Strauss can’t get rid of Laeti even if he tries. The pace of the revelations at the end of each volume does serve to keep the story moving forward after a fashion, but there are still a bit too many scenes of the characters telling the story instead of showing it – as plot developments are often revealed through various discussions as opposed to action.

I did enjoy the new Black Swan Koyuki, as she acts in unpredictable ways and thus totally confuses the dhampires. She temporarily allies herself with Strauss even though they’ve been enemies for hundreds of years. She’s pragmatic and a little cynical, and she might be the most powerful Black Swan yet. She’s smart to wait and see what might be going on instead of throwing herself into battle and dying almost immediately like many of her predecessors. Koyuki is one of the few people in the manga that have a more distinct personality. Most characters with the exception of Laeti are either tormented, sad, wistful, or filled with a burning desire for vengeance. There’s not very much to lighten the mood in Record of a Fallen Vampire, but it isn’t quite gothically over-the-top for me to enjoy all the angst for the sake of angst.

SPOILER SPACE!!!!

The third volume ends with a revelation that in a manga I was enjoying more would have filled me with delight – aliens are headed towards Earth and the humans, dhampires, and vampires must join together to fight an extraterrestrial menace. Believe me when I say that I would normally read anything featuring vampires fighting aliens quite happily. But Record of a Fallen Vampire just seems so serious, I don’t have much faith that the fun aspect of vampire/alien conflict will be explored at all. If any of the characters in Record of a Fallen Vampire had more of a sense of humor, I’d be sticking with the series past the first three volumes.

If you’ve read the series and think that it gets better, please let me know. I’m a little intrigued by the arrival of aliens, but I have so much higher quality manga to read that I’m not going to invest the time in this series unless someone tells me that it is worth it.

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Manga Reviews

Jiu Jiu Volume 2

I’ve been meaning to write about the second volume of Jiu Jiu and decided to finally sit down and do a post this week because it is during the Vampire Manga Moveable Feast and there is a new vampire character in this manga! Here’s my review of the first volume. I found the art in the first volume a little bit hard to decode, but for whatever reason I thought the second volume was much clearer. Either I was more used to the drawing style, or the layouts got a bit easier to follow. In any case, I had a much easier time reading this volume. For those people who enjoyed the first volume of the series, the second is much the same as Takamichi and her Jiu Jiu Snow and Night spend a fair amount of time exploring their feelings for each other in between episodes of demon-hunting shenanigans.

Things get shaken up a bit with the sudden arrival of an imperious vampire pig bat, who initially looks like an elementary school student when he switches to humanoid form. Takamachi thinks that it is adorable but Snow and Night are sensibly suspicious of any new addition to the menagerie. Meru has fixated on Takamichi for a ritual involving his first time taking blood from a human. He reveals that he’s actually 17, but can only reach maturity with the addition of blood. The contrast between Meru’s various forms was quite amusing, with the ungainly pig-bat being quite the caricature. Jiu Jiu flashes back and forth from scenes exploring emotional abandonment to more typical shojo manga staples like trips to the beach. Themes of maturity and growing up are explored, as the contrast between Snow and Night’s actual ages and their appearance sometimes gets the quasi-family group into trouble. Meru serves as a contrast to this dynamic since he switches between younger and older forms.

Jiu Jiu is still very episodic in nature. While the two volumes released so far explore the same themes, it doesn’t have the narrative urgency that would come from a more involved storyline. Still, I found myself enjoying Tobina’s unique art style more in the second volume just because it was more comprehensible, and there are elements in Jiu Jiu that are really quite odd, with all the cages and the characters’ tendencies to sleep together like a pile of puppies. I’d likely recommend this series to any fan of supernatural shojo who was looking for something a little offbeat.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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Manga Reviews

Kamisama Kiss Volume 10

Kamisama Kiss volume 10 by Julietta Suzuki

Kamisama Kiss continues to be one of the most consistently charming shojo manga being published today. I need to fill in the gaps in my collection, because I tend to read random volumes here and there, but it is very fun to read. I was delighted to discover that shrine goddess in training Nananmi and cynical fox spirit Tomoe’s relationship has progressed somewhat. Of course in shoujo manga land, relationship progression means making overtures of affection or declarations of love when the object of one’s affection is unconscious, but I’ll take whatever I can get.

Nanami finds herself entangled in a rengu succession battle, as she has to sneak into Mount Kuruma and determine what is happening to the hapless Tengu under the rule of the overly strict heir Jiro. She also needs to track down the reasons behind the mysterious disappearance of the ruler of Mount Kuruma, Sojobo. Nanami gleefully comes up with a reckless infiltration plan involving a variety of disguises and the aid of the youngest and most vulnerable tengu. The interaction between the characters in Kamisama Kiss is always fun to see, and it was interesting to see Nanami’s newfound confidence as she dons the disguise of a male tengu and then proceeds to boldly run through the entire hall inorder to set up her own magical shield. Tomoe detects Jiro’s fascination with Nanami and assumes her form in order to provide a necessary distraction, and Tomoe’s version of Nanami is hilarious to watch in action because his body language of languid flirtation stands in such contrast to Nanami’s usual open enthusiasm. Not many artists could pull off a scene like that very well, and I always put down each issue of Kamisama Kiss with renewed appreciation for Suzuki’s illustration skills.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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Manga Reviews

Library Wars: Love and War Volume 8

Library Wars: Love and War Volume 8 by Kiiro Yumi

I knew that this volume was going to be dangerously adorable when I saw Iku and Dojo in an over-the-top romantic pose, complete with a ribbon in a heart shape proclaiming “Prince and Princess.” I’m always in favor of shoujo manga featuring prominent ribbons. Iku’s administrative woes are revealed to be caused by the machinations of Tezuka’s big brother – the evil library futurist. He asks for a meeting with Iku, hoping to win her to his side and use her to influence Tezuka. This meeting is where Iku’s so-called simplemindedness comes in handy, because she just flatly rejects him and his evil plans even when she has the opportunity to save herself from an administrative witch hunt. She says “If Tezuka learned that his big brother did something so shameful, he would be hurt. I mean how could I be so selfish? Tezuka is my friend.” Dojo shows up in a dress uniform halfway through the meeting and drags Iku away. What then follows is a totally cute scene where Dojo forces Iku to sit on a park bench because he can’t pat her head to praise her when she’s standing due to her high heels. Iku begins to ponder Dojo’s prince-like behavior, but when she gets a letter from Tezuka the Elder pointing making insinuations about Dojo and Iku’s princely ideals, she finally realizes that Dojo was the library officer who helped her save her favorite book from censorship when she was in school.

Iku spends the rest of the volume in full freakout mode as she attempts to process her own emotions and understand Dojo’s current feelings for her. There is a nice sideplot that shows Tezuka saving Shibazaki from unwanted male attention. It took eight volumes for Iku to finally realize her feelings for Dojo, but I have to say that as a fan of the series, it was worth the wait. There was much more focus on the emotions of the characters and their shifting relationships in this volume, as opposed to the usual library crime of the week. While I do enjoy all the paramilitary exercises about library books, I found this volume much more gripping than the past few volumes of Library Wars. It looks like this series is up to ten volumes in Japan, and I’m guessing it will get wrapped up in a little bit now that the central romance is finally starting to move forward. I’m looking forward to Dojo’s reaction once he knows that Iku knows he’s her prince.

Review copy provided by the publisher.