Not much going on today, I’m getting over my Cold of Doom. My landlord came by and unearthed my car with a snow blower, so that was VERY nice. I spent most of the day watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reading, and napping.

Some recently read manga:

Othello vol 1 and 2
What teenager doesn’t feel like she has multiple personality disorder sometimes? Shy Yaya is picked on by her friends at school, and her only outlet is cosplaying with fans of the band Juliet in Harajuku. A bold alternate personality named Nana emerges, avenging all of the slights that Yaya experiences during the day. Nana also isn’t afraid of expressing her feelings for the boy Moriyama (who Yaya has a crush on) and she isn’t afraid of singing in public! Yaya gradually starts becoming concerned as she keeps blacking out and waking up in strange places wearing outfits that she didn’t knew she owned…
In-depth review at Comics Worth Reading. This was a cute manga, and I’m glad I picked it up at ALA.

Joan vols 1-3
This is some historical fiction set in Europe, for a change. Emil is a girl, but was raised as a boy by her foster father. She is haunted by visions of Joan of Arc, and soon finds that she has a role to play in the events that are shaping France. This manga is in color, and the watercolor look of the art creates some interesting effects — frequently a page is saturated with a shade of blue, yellow, red, or grey and this highlights the events that Emil lives through on her journey to support the King of France.

xxxHOLiC
I do usually end up liking Clamp series. This one is no exception. First of all, the art looks like the Clamp ladies went on an absinthe bender in a room filled with William Morris wallpaper, surrounded by Aubrey Beardsley drawings. There’s a gothic art nouveau quality to the art that I enjoyed. Watanuki Kimihiro is trying to walk down the street, but he is tormented by visions of giant spirits. After he touches the gate surrounding a mysterious house, his feet force him to walk to the door, where he is greeted by a pair of elaborately dressed children. They lead him to their mistress, Yuko, a strange woman with an imperious manner who tells him that it was his destiny to come to her house. It turns out that she’s a witch who runs a shop where wishes are granted. She has a number of mysterious objects in her possession, including some things (a wand, a pair of Mokona, etc) that reference other Clamp series. Watanuki wishes to be free of his spirit visions, and finds himself turned into Yuko’s servant as she forces him to do household chores until she considers him to have paid for his wish to be granted.
There seems to be a bit of a crossover with the other Del Rey manga title, Tsubasa, as Sakura and Saroyan make an appearance. Although I’ve read a few other Clamp titles, I have no idea about the backstory of Sakura so I’m not sure if that will be a problem following along with later volumes. My impression is that Tsubasa has more references to other Clamp series and in-jokes, so I might not be picking that up.