Categories
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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Giveaway

Wish Giveaway Winner

So the random winner of my Wish Giveaway is commenter number 3, Sakura who said that if she was trapped on Earth like Kohaku and could only take nourishment in the form of a beverage, she’d go with Vienna Vanilla Coffee. Congrats!

Categories
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.

Categories
Giveaway Manga Reviews

Wish by CLAMP review and giveaway

Wish is an older four volume series by CLAMP that has languished unread on my bookshelves for a few years, so I figured the CLAMP Manga Moveable Feast was a good excuse to finally read it.

Shuichiro, a doctor with magnificent eyebrows, is walking home one night when he sees a cherub stuck in a tree being attacked by crows. He rescues the tiny being only to discover that he’s been saddled with a new companion. Kohaku is an angel who has been sent to earth on a mission from heaven, but since Shuichiro saved her she is determined to return the favor and grant him a wish. Unfortunately the stoic Shuichiro doesn’t seem to have anything he wants to wish for.

Kohaku draws her power from the sun, so at night she’s in chibi form. When she introduces herself to Shuichiro the next morning as a statuesque woman, he turns around and goes back to bed because he assumes he’s having visions due to sleep deprivation. Shuichiro steadfastly refuses to make a wish, so Kohaku decides to stick around until she has a real opportunity to help him. Wish isn’t a manga that focuses only on the charming domestic scenes one might expect from a story of a doctor with a literal angel in his house. Kohaku’s devilish nemesis Koryu promptly appears on earth to torment her.

As Kohaku and Shuichiro spend more time together, she keeps attempting to help him but never manages to quite pull it off. They develop a certain amount of companionship and familiarity with each other. He keeps her supplied with milk, the only substance she can consume on earth. Kohaku shares some of the details of her mission, she is charged with finding a lost angel named Hisui. It turns out that Hisui has found herself caught up in an unconventional romance with Kokuyo, a son of Satan who also looks like he could be Shuichiro’s long-lost older brother. Shuichiro seems to have a rather laid-back attitude about house guests, as soon Hisui and Kokuyo move in with him as well.

Kohaku learns more about Shuichiro when his grandfather shows up to visit. It turns out that the good doctor has has plenty of tragedy in his past due to his mother disappearing and his father dying a year later. Koryu baits Kohaku into time traveling to view Shuichiro’s past, and she observes his relationship with his mother, which seems more than a little bit creepy. Shuichiro’s mother is a young, doll-like woman who can’t see and she relies on her son to carry her around and dress her. Kohaku finds out that she wasn’t Shuichiro’s first encounter with non-human beings.

Kohaku puts off going back to heaven as long as possible, but she soon can’t dodge the issue any longer. She leaves and she and Shuichiro aren’t ever able to discuss their relationship, whatever it is. In heaven she finds herself missing him, and she starts using her angelic powers to check in on earth. In the meantime everyone’s favorite denizens of Hell begin to expect that Shuichiro isn’t exactly what he seems. Kohaku starts acting in a most non-angelic manner when she decides to return to earth. There’s a confrontation about both Kohaku and Hisui, and while Hisui’s punishment for falling in love with a devil is actually somewhat manageable, Kokaku is stripped of her spells and sentenced to remain in chibi form for 100 years.

As all of Kohaku’s friends deal with the aftermath of heaven’s judgement, the truth about Shuichiro is revealed and so is the reasoning for Kohaku’s punishment. Wish is a rarity for CLAMP in that it is short, self-contained, and has a somewhat coherent and satisfactory ending. While the art isn’t as developed as CLAMP’s later series, Wish shares with Cardcaptor Sakura a way of depicting innocence in a absolutely charming way. The extended cast of characters from heaven and hell was entertaining, and even though many of the characters were on opposing sides, they all came together to support Kohaku and her budding romance. This wasn’t the most profound CLAMP series that I’ve read, but it was a pleasant series to read to finish out my weekend.

And now that I’ve read Wish, you can win the whole series from me. Since Kohaku was only able to consume milk on earth, comment here with the name of the beverage you would consume if you were trapped on earth as an Angel. I think I would have to go with coffee. Giveaway will be open for one week!

Categories
Manga Reviews

Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus Volume 3 by CLAMP

This volume starts the second major story arc for Cardcaptor Sakura, and since I had only collected a few of the early Tokyopop volumes it was all new material for me. Since in structure Sakura’s main mission was ended when she collected all the Clow cards, I was curious to see how CLAMP was going to move on to the next phase of the series. For as light and fluffy a series as Cardcaptor Sakura is, there are some hints of darkness and suffering that make it a bit more sophisticated than one would think of a manga geared towards the younger set. Syaoran is struggling with the feelings he now realizes he has for Sakura, and things are complicated further with the sudden arrival of a new transfer student, Eriol Hiiragizawa. Sakura immediately thinks that Eriol looks familiar. With his glasses, polite nature, and gentle smile, the boy reminds her of her father. But it turns out that Eriol is actually Sakura’s mysterious antagonist who seems to be Clow Reed reborn in younger form. Most of this manga concerns Sakura’s investigations of the strange phenomena that occur after Eriol’s arrival. While she has the cards and can use them, now her own innate magic is changing their forms. Unfortunately Sakura’s lack of magic is starting to cause problems for her guardians. Yue in his human disguise of Yukito grows progressively more and more fatigued, and as Toya attempts to have a serious talk with him over and over he gets interrupted by one of Eriol’s interfering familiars.

Fans of the earlier volumes of this series will find plenty to enjoy here. Sakura is gradually becoming more self-reliant, although she still treasures the help of her friends. There’s a little bit of resolution to the tension between her father and great-grandfather, and seeing Syaoran struggling with first love inspires both comic relief and sympathy. I really enjoy CLAMP’s art in this series. It is just ornate and girly enough to satisfy my inner 12-year-old, without being overly decorated or difficult to follow. CLAMP is good at developing ambiguous villains, and since Eriol’s plans and motivations aren’t entirely clear there is plenty of dramatic tension as the events unfold. As always, the battle scenes are balanced with the school life and hijinks of Sakura’s friends. Cardcaptor Sakura is such a feel-good manga. I always put it down feeling a little better after immersing myself in plenty of flowers, friends, and sparkles. Dark Horse’s manga omnibus volumes are always the best in terms of production quality and extras, and there are plenty of color illustrations here to appeal to any CLAMP fan.