Basara Volumes 1 and 2

November 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

When I write manga reviews for this blog, sometimes I feel like I get stuck reading only new volumes. Which is fine, because there’s plenty of exciting new manga coming out these days. But I don’t often take the luxury of time to go back and reread some of my favorite completed series, and there are plenty of manga series that I’ve enjoyed but not necessarily written about all that extensively. So I’ve added a new category of Reread Reviews for series that have come out some time ago but I feel still deserve plenty of attention. I thought I’d start this new feature by working my way through one of my favorite series, Yumi Tamura’s Basara.

Viz started releasing Basara in 2003, and as a result some volumes are out of print or hard to find. But this is one of those series that is well worth collecting, because even though it is long at 27 volumes, this is one of the few series that I think actually deserves all that space. Tamura creates an epic adventure story with star-crossed lovers, cross-dressing, fierce battles, and political revolution in a post apocalyptic Japan. Even though this series is on the long side so much happens in each volume. I never felt like I was reading filler stories or being subjected to recursive battle scenes when reading this manga.

Basara Volume 1 by Yumi Tamura

Like the best adventure stories, Basara starts by introducing the heroine in the context of her home and family and then systematically strips everything away, forcing her to rise to the occasion and assert her true self. Sarasa was born with a twin brother named Tatara, and at their birth a prophet proclaimed “This is a child of destiny…one who will grow to lead the people and be the light in the sky of our nation’s future.” The people in Sarasa’s village are a rebellious group in a post-apocalyptic Japan that has been broken up into areas ruled by petty feudal kings. Everyone assumes that Tatara will be the leader of the next revolution, and Sarasa is shunted aside since she’s a girl. She’s introduced to the reader first as a young spirited tomboy who is acutely aware of the differences between the way she and her brother are treated. She’s heedless of her own safety, heading out to the desert when everyone celebrates her brother’s birthday and ignores her. She makes the mistake of crossing a column of troops headed by the cruel Red King and her life is saved only when a desert nomad named Ageha insinuates himself into the situation, losing an eye in the process. When Sarasa gets back to her village she finds out that the Red King’s army has struck there, killing her childhood friend who identified himself as Tatara in order to save the real “Boy of Destiny.”

The Red Army returns to the village again, and this time Sarasa’s brother is killed. She’s paralyzed with fear but remembers that her brother asked her to protect the villagers if he was gone. She cuts her hair, yells that her sister is dead and orders the villagers to follow her in order to save their own lives. While Sarasa’s ingenuity allows her to rescue her village’s sacred sword from the Red Army, her next attempt at battle fails and she’s cut off from her people. Determined to rally more people to her brother’s cause, Sarasa strikes out towards another rebel village. The Red King is shown throughout the volume with his face slightly obscured. He’s covered by a helmet or his face is partially shadowed or cut off by the borders of a panel. He’s a pragmatic ruler determined to hold on to his territory despite the manipulations of his family. Sarasa meets an arrogant and rich young man named Shuri when she’s visiting a hot springs, and they feel an instant attraction to each other. When Sarasa sees Shuri for the first time, it is also the first time the reader has seen the entire face of the Red King.

Basara Volume 2 by Yumi Tamura

The second volume of Basara shows Sarasa preparing herself to be a rebel leader and not having much time for the young man she keeps running into as she follows the path of the Red King on her way to Sakurajima to locate allies. She visits the city where the Red King lives and is struck by the riches there in contrast to the way her people live. She falls in with a group of traveling show people, who are anchored by a glamorous woman with a bejeweled eyepatch who happens to be Ageha in disguise. Ageha exhibits a sort of watchful antagonism to Sarasa. He’s suspicious that Tatara really is the boy of destiny who will bring revolution to the land, but he’s occasionally helpful. Sarasa as Tatara disguises herself as a dancing girl and slips out of the city into even greater danger in the form of a decrepit tunnel that leads to Kyushu. In the tunnel Sarasa faces a classic hero’s test where she can only call upon herself to get out of a dangerous situation, and she succeeds in reaching the other side, but not before she manages to finally bond with her late brother’s horse Yato. She also has a fateful encounter with a prisoner trapped in the tunnel who gives her valuable information about the rebel village she’s questing for.

Sarasa begins to understand the political nature of rebel leadership when she meets a young boy claiming to be Tatara who is rallying people to rebel against their local lord. It turns out he’s being blackmailed to identify potential rabble rousers in his region. Sarasa is shrewd, keeping quiet about who she is until she has a full grasp of the situation. The boy Hayato ends up attaching himself to Tatara as his new right hand man. In just a couple volumes Tamura has introduced characters on both sides of the Red King/Tatara war and managed to make each side sympathetic for different reasons. Shuri is shown growing up as a young boy with a sociopath for a father who brands his own son with a slave’s mark. Shuri is about to dispatch his cousin Shido to go after Tatara, but Shido is leaving his fiancee behind when he goes on his mission. Shuri and Shido see Ageha (the former slave of Shido’s family) tortured in an attempt to give up Tatara’s location.

Tamura’s art style might take a bit of getting used to. Her men have a tendency towards triangle face, with eyes that sometimes look like horizontal slits. But she varies her character designs quite a bit, making it easy for the reader to keep track of the cast of Basara even though it seems to expand with every volume. Sarasa has covered a lot of ground in the first two volumes of Basara in both her physical and internal journey. Tamura is moving all the pieces together to tell an epic story, and I’m entertained all over again when I’m rereading this series.

Arata Volumes 7 and 8

November 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It took seven volumes, but I am finally starting to warm up to Arata. I always thought it was well-executed because Yuu Watase is such a pro, but I wasn’t feeling as much of a connection to this series just because I tend to prefer her shoujo work. But these two volumes were packed with adventure and I found myself enjoying Arata’s quest more because the emotional stakes for Arata were raised in a variety of ways.

Arata Volume 7

I skipped volume 6, but the recently introduced complication that seems like a slightly recycled plot from Fushigi Yugi is that Arata’s school enemy in Japan, Kadowaki has now journeyed into Amawakumi and has become a Sho himself in opposition to Arata. The volume opens with Arata traveling to Lord Yorunami’s land, where Kotoha promptly gets kidnapped and placed into a watery death trap. Arata’s struggle with Yorunami ends up being more of an internal and emotional struggle than a violent fight, and when Arata helps Yorunami with his mother issues the Sho promptly surrenders because he is newly at peace. While Arata is able to fight one battle without using violence, he gets some disturbing news from the Original Arata who has taken his place in Japan. He finds out that Kadowaki has jumped into his adoped world, and the Sho Harunawa has killed Arata’s friend Suguru. Harunawa has vowed that for every Sho that submits to Arata, he will find a way to kill someone precious to Arata on the other side. Original Arata vows to protect Arata’s family so Arata can continue his mission. Arata picks up a new companion, the pretty but harsh warrior Mikusa, who has a secret that is tied to his prettiness.

Arata’s commitment to achieving his quest through non-violence is a nice contrast to all the fighting shonen manga out there. His strength comes mostly from resoluteness of character. Even though he does fight with other Sho to make them submit, the battles are won due to Arata’s internal strength as opposed to an outward show of power.

Arata Volume 8

Arata and his companions travel to Lord Kugura’s area of the country where they make some disheartening discoveries. The water is stagnant, land barren, and the regular people are starving. Girls are taken to the palace as “tribute,” but they are actually hostages. Mikusa challenges Arata’s approach to his quest, calling him naive, saying “Evil must be destroyed. If you are not the one capable of destroying it, then you are the one who will be killed.” Arata loses a strong ally when Kanate finds out that the gang that he used to belong to is in the hills. His reunion doesn’t go as planned, and when he has the opportunity to become powerful himself by inheriting the weapon of a Sho, he takes it. Kanate’s response to power shows the true destructive power of a Sho, which stands in contrast to Arata’s measured actions. Arata still maintains his friendship with Kanate after he disappears, saying “I still believe in him!”

Lord Kugura’s predilection for young women of course results in some cross-dressing hijinks, as Arata and his group decide they have to pretend to be female in order to enter the palace. The tone of this episode was definitely on the lighter side, which balanced out the earlier adventures that had more emotional heft. Overall, I’m finding myself enjoying Arata much more than I was in the earlier volumes. I’m finding the way Arata is literally carrying the souls and powers of his former enemies along with him, asking them for help when he has to fight an interesting contrast to the more typical shonen hero. It almost seems like Watase is writing an anti-shonen shonen adventure, with non-violence and the bonds friendship emphasized over physical fighting. I’m more intrigued with this series than I was when I first started reading it, so I’m looking forward to the next volume.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

Itsuwaribito Volumes 2 and 3

November 9, 2011 by 1 Comment

I feel a little bit divided about Itsuwaribito. In theory I really like the idea of a shonen manga hero who gets by with cleverness instead of devoting himself to fighting and mystical power-ups. In practice, the stories that rely on Utsuho’s lying sometimes seem a bit artificial. Still, this ends up being one of the more entertaining new shonen series from Viz.

Itsuwaribito Volume 2 by Yuuki Iinuma

The second volume of this series shows Utsuho doing what most shonen heroes do after the first volume – start putting together a team. He parts ways with the acerbic medicine man Yakuma, each of them vowing never to cross paths again, only for them to run across each other one panel later. A demonic man who hates liars is stacking up bodies in a nearby forest. Yakuma thinks he hears a cry for help, but Utsuho is determined not to get involved. Venturing into the forest forces a confrontation with the mass murderer. The character design of the bad guy was genuinely creepy, as he has a rough triangle for a mouth and a grid of teeth. Utsuho is forced into a confrontation when Yakuma is cornered. They then turn to a different type of quest, visiting an island that is a place of exile for liars like Utsuho.

When they arrive on the island, it is clear that it is full of traps and trickery. They get attacked before they even reach the shore. Yakuma’s medicine chest gets stolen and they meet a faction of people on the island lead by a young girl named Neya, who promises to fetch the missing chest and comes right back. As the minutes tick by Yakuma dares to speculate that Utsuho might have gotten tricked by a girl, provoking frantic denials at the thought that the master liar was lied to.

Itsuwaribito Volume 3 Yuuki Iinuma

The third volume focuses on different types of families. Accomplished female liar Neya is actually the main caretaker for a small village of people trapped in exile on the island, defending themselves from rival gangs. If she has the opportunity to leave will she build a new life for herself and pave the way for the people she cares for, or will her sense of obligation compel her to stay in exile? The main menace in this volume comes from a man with a bandaged face who seems to be particularly interested in Utsuho’s animal sidekick Pochi and determined to bring misery to all the humans he sees. For all of Utsuho’s crafty lying and cool exterior, when one of his companions is in trouble he doesn’t hesitate to defend them.

Although I confess I had a few moments of internal eye-rolling when Utsuho ended up on an island of liars, in general I’m finding Itsuwaribito entertaining. It blends humor with the occasional poignant moment about the value of friendship, and while the general structure of the plot with Utsuho picking up a motley crew of companions on his journeys is pretty typical of shonen manga I’m still enjoying the series so far. I’m looking forward to see what happens with Neya, as she provides Utsuho with a counterpart that is equally adept at lying to react to.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

Dengeki Daisy Volume 7

November 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Dengeki Daisy Volume 7 by Kyousuke Motomi

The cover design of this volume perfectly represents the odd combination of plot lines that end up getting featured in Dengeki Daisy. Kurosaki is tenderly kissing a tearful Teru’s hand on the front cover, and the back cover features the deranged Akira with a maniacal grin and a creepy red eye. The warm and fluffy part of this volume occurs when Teru and Kurosaki A mysterious man keeps popping up near Teru and she and Kurosaki gradually realize that it is the elusive and dangerous attacker Akira.

The first part of the book shows Teru and Kurosaki fighting off a manageable foe – one of the teachers at the school has decided that Kurosaki is a bad influence on Teru and is determined to separate them. Teru vows to prove that her grades won’t suffer because of the time she spends helping out with janitorial tasks and makes an impulsive bet involving her class standings and Kurosaki’s hair, only to abruptly fall ill the night before the exam. A boy Teru saw at the bus stop and was curious about because he reminded her of her brother abruptly kisses her, and she’s devastated. Kurosaki as Daisy sends her an emotional text, then quickly backs away. It is fairly typical of the dance that these characters do, as they grow closer but still maintain the polite fiction that separates them. The kissing bandit is of course Akira, and he engineers a situation that results in Teru learning a new piece in the puzzle about her brother’s death.

Despite the fact that the central mystery behind Teru’s brother hasn’t been fully explained and the series is now up to volume seven, I’m still interested in seeing what happens next in this manga. The relationship between Teru and Kurosaki is one of the more original pairings in shoujo manga, and despite the gulf in their ages and personalities I can’t help but hope they get together in the end. I’m perfectly happy reading an almost indefinite number of volumes before that ending appears.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Cross Game Volume 4

October 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Cross Game Volume 4 by Mitsuru Adachi

Picking up and reading Cross Game feels like a mini vacation sometimes. Adachi’s slow pacing and emphasis on everyday life creates a manga with a very natural tone and pacing, where events in the character’s lives pass by without artificial emotional drama. Ko starts working on his dream of getting to Koshien in earnest, as he starts playing regular high school baseball. Aoba’s handsome and athletic cousin Mizuki starts to attend Seishu Gakuen High School, sending most of the girls in the school into a tizzy until it is clear that the focus of his attention is Aoba. One of the ways Aoba and Ko are similar is the way they are somewhat oblivious to their own skills and attraction. Aoba goes on a date with Mizuki without being aware that there might be any romantic undercurrents, and Ko’s unassuming and hard working despite the fact that key people around him think he’s a baseball savant.

Ace hitter Azuma is so funny with his extremely narrow focus. He’s discussing a batter on a rival team and recalls his name, Keitaro Mishima, but he has absolutely no memory of one of his former teammates who has transferred schools. Mishima is forced to play down his full potential in order to not show up a senior player. Ko and Aoba continue their antagonistic relationship, but they also have moments of perfect understanding. When Aoba is standing alone on the pitcher’s mound Ko quietly walks towards home base and settles into catcher’s position, saying “You wanted to pitch, didn’t you?” When the Seishu Gakuen team plays against Sannou, they’ve been thoroughly scouted beforehand. The opposing team coach sees Ko’s inconsistent pitching and concludes that there isn’t much to his game while Aoba says while she’s watching in the stands “Guess he decided that he needed a little fielding practice.” The Seishu coach watches the game unfold with perfect equanimity, because while his team might have been scouted they are so new at playing together that they can’t help but be surprising.

One of my favorite moments in this volume of Cross Game happened towards the end of the volume, when Ko and Azuma are walking together discussing their upcoming game. Ko makes the pronouncement “I just have to pitch a game that Aoba won’t hell at me about.” Azuma’s typical poker face shifts infinitesimally and Ko asks “Was that a smile?” Azuma replies “Nope…I did not smile.” These little moments of character interaction set against the backgrounds of the playing fields and sky are what makes Cross Game so special. I’m still thoroughly gripped by this story.

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