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Manga Reviews

Shojo Beat Quick Takes – Oresama Teacher #10 and A Devil and Her Love Song #4

Oresama Teacher #10 by Izumi Tsubaki

Oresama Teacher has settled into a bit of a predictable formula, but Tsubaki’s particular brand of ridiculous idiocy never fails to cheer me up. This volume focuses on Yui, the ninja and erstwhile spy on the Public Morals Club for the fiendish school council. He decides that Mafuyu and Hayasaka have to endure his particular brand of ninja training, with hilarious results as his modern substitutes for traditional ninja training apparatus never seem to quite work out. Mafuyu has to struggle to get certification for the Public Morals Club, which involves tangling with Hojo, a student council lackey with a major crush on Yui. It is amusing, because while Mafuyu is incredibly dense when it comes to her own feelings, she quickly figures out the undercurrents between Hojo and Yui while Yui remains absolutely oblivious. Deranged ninja antics are always good for a laugh, and while it was nice to have the focus of this volume on a different character, I’m hoping that the next volume swings back to feature more scenes with Hayasaka and Takaomi. I’d also like to see some more scenes that show Mafuyu’s emotional development as she works through her issues with juvenile delinquency. Also, I feel like there was less face-punching in this volume than I’ve come to expect from Oresama Teacher.

A Devil and Her Love Song #4 by Miyoshi Tomori

Ordinarily I would start to get a little frustrated with a series where characters spend a large chunk of time discussing their feelings and interactions, but in A Devil and Her Love Song Maria’s forthright pronouncements and abrasive personality put her into some interesting situations. I might not feel as much of an emotional connection to this story as compared to some of my other favorite shoujo manga, but I do enjoy seeing how Maria’s presence seems to force the people around her to change and grow. In this volume, we are still dealing with the Machiavellian shenanigans around a school concert that the media is about to film. Maria’s evil teacher is planning on using her alleged “reformation” as a way of bringing favorable publicity to the school, and Hana is going along with the plan so she can show herself as a saintly angel of forgiveness. The only problem is that Maria is totally aware of the plan and decides to participate willingly just due to her desire to sing with her classmates. Maria encourages her previous bully Ayu to express her true feelings, with the result that the entire set-up gets derailed when Ayu can’t stand the blatant hypocrisy and lies around her. Maria faces even more obstacles, but she ends up putting “a lovely spin” on the whole situation, managing to salvage the concert. It’ll be interesting to see the fallout resulting from this volume, since various classmates have had emotional breakthroughs and learned more about themselves. I’m predicting that Maria will never be popular, but I’m guessing that her circle of friends will grow a bit and she’s going to treasure the loyalty of the people who actually appreciate her forthright yet slightly odd personality. Overall, this was yet another strong volume for this series.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

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Manga Reviews

Dawn of the Arcana Volume 5 by Rei Toma

Every volume of Dawn of the Arcana usually has a few quirky moments that keep me hooked on the series. In volume 5 we see the continuation of the trip that Nakaba and her group of friends embarked on in order to warn the Ajin of the upcoming attack from Prince Caesar’s unscrupulous relatives. Before the Ajin that we’ve seen have looked mostly human with some slight animal characteristics, but the ones who live in the Ajin village are much more like beasts walking upright. The feline Leo and Gadi great the humans with suspicion, but the group of adventurers gets taken to the cute and fluffy village leader to deliver their warning. Seeing the different forms of the Ajin was intriguing, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of their culture revealed in future volumes. The other aspect of this volume that I was amused by was that so far Nakaba has been dealing with having an Arcana, or magical power, all on her own, but suddenly we see more people with Arcana popping out of the woodwork. Lemiria reveals that she has a power that might explain why her older brother Bellinus has managed to survive so well in a hostile court environment. Although Nakaba and her companions came to warn the Ajin about the destructive power of new weapons of war, the suspicious Leo thinks he can defend the village all on his own with the Arcana of Fire.

The other thing I enjoy about Dawn of the Arcana is that it is so character-driven. With so many people having magical powers, it would be easy to fall into the trap of featuring a bunch of magic-centered action, without much character development. Nakaba’s journey to meet the Ajin causes her and Loki to reaffirm their friendship. Caesar’s support furthers his relationship with Nakaba as well. Knowing that Lemiria has a magical power as well makes her almost the perfect girlfriend for Nakaba, someone who hasn’t had many friends in her life before. Much of the volume focuses on Nakaba’s attempt to save the Ajin, and when she is thrown into the company of Caesar’s older brother Cain, at first she sees an opportunity to bond with him because they’ve both been judged harshly for their appearance in the past. Nakaba’s growing powers of observation combined with Lemiria’s advice cause her to navigate the situation with greater insight. I just wish that the artwork had slightly more detailed backgrounds that would contribute more to giving the world the characters navigate through more depth. Five volumes in, and there are still too many panels of characters talking to each other with just white or minimal backgrounds, and fewer illustrations that really serve to show how the Ajin village is all that different from the other places that Nakaba has visited. Overall, this volume was another solid entry for this fun fantasy series and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next as Nakaba becomes a more self-assured princess.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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Manga Reviews

Viz Quick Takes: Slam Dunk 23 and Ai Ore 6

I can’t think of two series more dissimilar than the shonen basketbal Slam Dunk and the shoujo soap opera with gender role reversals Ai Ore, so of course I will write about them both at the same time!

Slam Dunk Volume 23 by Takehiko Inoue

I throughly enjoyed being able to read six early volumes of Slam Dunk, so I was excited to get a peak at the most recent release. While there are a few new characters, the core message of the manga is the same and moving forward to this volume I can see that Inoue’s art style has evolved to look much more similar to the more recent series Vagabond, particularly the character designs. One of the interesting things about the art in this volume of Slam Dunk was that while it still retains a certain level of simplicity that I would expect from a shonen sports book, there’s so much more detail in the characters’ facial expressions and posture, which pulls me in to the emotional arc of the story.

Shohaku heads to the nationals, and while they’ve been training hard and racked up some impressive achievements they can’t face their current opponents without a struggle. Hanamichi is his usual charming self as he almost gets into an altercation with the captain of their first opposing team as they travel to their next match. As always, Inoue’s treatment of the physical aspects of basketball is a treat. He blends the mental struggles of the athletes as they try to figure out their opponents with some great scenes of passing, stealing the ball, and generally great athleticism. Hanamichi is always the emotional core of the story and his earlier bluster doesn’t live up to his initial prowess on the court, as he gets so nervous he manages to throw the ball into the stands instead of making a basket. The Shokahu team makes the mistake of getting into a running game with Toyama, and they have to focus again on playing at a different pace. Akagi comes alive as center when the game is slowed down. After all of Hanamichi’s training, he begins to appreciate how amazing Rukawa really is as a player. His coach tells him to watch Rukawa closely, steal everything he can, and practice three times as hard, because if Hanamichi doesn’t “you’ll spend your whole high school career playing and never be as good as he is.” Slam Dunk is so much fun compared to other sports titles that I’ve read, largely because the characters of the whole team are so well defined and it is interesting to see the interpersonal dynamics in play both on and off the basketball court. Hanamichi really is a classic manga character, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he’ll do in the next volume if he’s allowed off the bench.

Ai Ore Volume 6 by Mayu Shinjo

The more comedic later volumes of Ai Ore continue to be a fun summer read, although I expect I’m going to enjoy her forthcoming series Demon Love Spell a bit more. This volume focuses on a shoujo staple plot as the boys and girls head out to a beach vacation. Mizuki’s self-conscious behavior threatens to spoil her enjoyment of some time alone with Akira, but Akira’s unscrupulous friend Ran is even more of a problem as he manages to force Akira to cross dress at the beach. Later on, Mizuki and Ran find themselves alone in a hotel room and what happens in this series is exactly the opposite of the type of seduction scene one would expect from a Mayu Shinjo manga. Ran comments to Mizuki that she’s overreacting to everything that he says and he “might make the mistake of thinking you’re aware of me as a man.” Mizuki is absolutely bewildered and says that she knows Ran’s a guy and “I’d never think of you as a girl! Don’t be an idiot!” Later on, when Ran’s seduction techniques don’t work out the way he was expecting, Mizuki announces that he has the eyes of “a dead sardine.”

For all of Mizuki’s tremulous behavior about Akira, her innocence and direct way of speaking basically provides her with an invisible shield that most Shinjo heroines lack. Anybody other than Akira attempting to get close to her is going to get resolutely shut down, and it is nice to see Mizuki and Akira so secure in their odd relationship. There a certain lack of angst overall in Ai Ore, even though there’s plenty of flailing and tears with Mizuki and Akira dealing with young love the humor in this manga makes it fun to read. I think there are just a couple volumes left for this series, and it looks like after this vacation idyll there’s going to be a return to some more music/entertainment industry centered plots, so that will be fun.

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Manga Reviews

Jiu Jiu Volume 1 by Touya Tobina

Jiu Jiu Volume 1 by Touya Tobina

I’m always curious when a new title is added to the Shojo Beat imprint, since Shojo Beat titles make up a majority of my reading list. I’m also happy to see that in Jiu Jiu we have a title with a quirky heroine, a general trend I am happy to see reflected in many of the recently translated manga series. Jiu Jiu looks like a promising shoujo twist on the monster hunting manga genre.

Takamichi is born into a family of Dark Hunters. When her twin brother is killed, she’s the sole heir. For companionship, she’s given a pair of Jiu Jiu – familiars who can switch form from wolf to human. In human form, Snow and Night are handsome teenage boys, but they’re really only three years old. Takamichi’s life becomes even more complicated when Snow and Night decide that they are going to start attending school with their mistress. As a heroine, Takamichi is harsh and guilt-ridden. She’s haunted by her brother’s death and often deals harshly with Snow and Night because she doesn’t want to get close to anybody. Takamichi also has a strong sense of duty, fulfuling her duties as a monster hunter while not wanting her Jiu Jiu to come along with her because she doesn’t want them to get hurt. This is the source of the main tension in the book, because Snow and Night want to be with their mistress at all times. Their names reflect their appearance and personalities, with Snow being pale with a bright and playful personality, while Night has a darker complexion and is more reserved and intuitive.

Visually, Jiu Jiu is dense with sometimes little transitions between scenes. It required more of my concentration to read than usual, and might have benefited from being a tad more sparse. The art style made me wonder if Tobina was somehow a Frankenstein mangaka created from mashing together Arina Tanemura and Hakase Mizuki. It was an interesting contrast reading Kaze Hikaru right after Jiu Jiu, because the two manga couldn’t be more different in terms of the art. One of the things I always appreciate in manga is an artist with an individualistic style, and Tobina’s thin line and the stylized spindly limbs of her characters emphasizes the animalistic nature of the Jiu Jiu. She switches back and forth between kawaii howling wolf pups and the demons that Takamichi faces. The first volume of Tobina’s other manga, Clean Freak Fully-Equipped had a similar focus on a protagonist with psychological issues. The combination of haunted heroine, stylized art, and a potentially interesting twist on monster hunting manga has me looking forward to the next volume.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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Manga Reviews

Kaze Hikaru Volume 20 by Taeko Watanabe

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.