Crossroad Volume 3 (amazon)

This was a good reminder of why it is sometimes best to follow the “2 volume rule” when evaluating a manga series. I liked the first volume of Crossroad well enough, but I thought that the second volume was much funnier, and the third volume sets up some interesting complications in the romantic lives of its characters. Kaijitsu embarks on a romance with her charmingly misanthropic substitute calligraphy teacher Akai, knowing she’s only using the situation to escape from her feelings for her adopted stepbrother Natsu. And Akai knows that aijitsu is really in love with Natsu, but he takes her out on a date anyway, and promptly quits smoking when she tells him that she doesn’t like it.
Kaijitsu is jealous of all the attention Natsu is getting from the other girls in school, and Natsu is jealous when he finds out that Kaijitsu has gone out on a date. In the midst of all the drama, Kaijitsu’s friend Tokihito aka “The Feudal Lord,” is rethinking his feelings for both Kaijitsu and her closest female friend Mano. Where Crossroad excels is the way it captures all the nuances of friendship between the characters. Mano is reminded about what a survivor Kaijitsu is when Kaijitsu runs away from home and promptly ingratiates herself with Mano’s mother. Kaijitsu tries a flying leap to prevent Natsu from running away from her. Kaijitsu’s talks with Akai are unconventional - perhaps because she thinks he’s only going to be a temporary presence in her life, she feels free to be open and honest with him about her feelings. Natsu negotiates Kaijitsu’s outpouring of affections, and they decide to try to stay siblings for the time being. This volume of Crossroad had a bunch of back-up pages featuring Taro and Satsuki, the other members of Kaihitsu’s unconventional family.

I thought I’d take some time to sit down and make a list of which manga series I’m actively following:

Viz

Nana - Consistently awesome.
Boys Over Flowers - One of the nice things about following a long-running series is being able to see the art evolve. The later volumes of this series are so much better than the first few volumes.
Hana Kimi - My favorite girl disguising herself as a boy with wacky hijinks + romance ensuing series.
Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden - I’m a sucker for Yuu Watase, and in many ways I’m enjoying this prequel series to Fushigi Yugi more than the original. It is a more mature work, with better characterization and a more complicated plot.
Skip Beat - I can see why the main character might be annoying to some people, but I like Kyoko’s relentless desire for revenge combined with her gradual awareness of her love for acting.
Fullmetal Alchemist -Sometimes I tend to let my volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist pile up, and then I’ll read them in one big chunk and wonder why I’m waiting to read each volume. One of the most intelligent action series out.

Tokyopop

Queen’s Knight - I like fantasy series, this one is pretty decent. From the author of INVU.
Suppli - I’m so happy there’s a new josei series to read.
Fruits Basket - Naturally.

GoComi

Cantarella - Borgia + Manga is a potent combination.
Her Majesty’s Dog - Consistently good series about a girl and her spirit animal companion.

Del Rey
xxxHolic - Gorgeous CLAMP art.
ES (Eternal Sabbath) - Great blend of suspense and sci-fi.

ADV

Yotsuba&!

CMX

Canon - Vampires!
Penguin Revolution - This series about a girl manager and her aspiring actor client/roommate is a little more consistent than the author’s other work Land of the Blindfolded.
Emma - Maids and thwarted love.
Venus In Love - I really liked the first volume of this series set in college.

Any other new manga coming out that I should be trying? Or are there any older titles I need to check out?

Hikkatsu! Strike A Blow to Vivify by Yu Yagami (amazon)

It is good to start the new year off right, which is why I heartily recommend this manga about punching household appliances. Shota takes his karate master’s advice to use martial arts for the benefit of mankind as an order to develop a special Repair Blow that will fix vending machines, TVs, and refrigerators. The futuristic world he lives in is plagued by electromagnetic storms, so appliances are constantly on the fritz. Unfortunately most of the time Shota’s Repair Blow results in the object he was trying to repair being smashed into little pieces.
Shota is joined by Momoko, a sheltered girl who was raised by pigeons. She leaves her feathery family behind to embark on a quest to find the love of her life. When Shota destroys a broken vending machine in front of her, giving Momoko her money back and a bunch of ramen, she decides that he is her destined husband. She wears a pigeon named Hatoko on her head most of the time.
Shota’s quest to perfect his Repair Blow meets a few hurdles in the form of a skateboarding con man and an enemy from his past. The art has a great deal of energy, as you might expect with all the punching of inanimate objects that is necessary to explore the premise of the series. Yagami also created Those Who Hunt Elves. If you’re looking for some comedic shonen manga to brighten up your January, check out Hikkatsu!

Shoujo heroines need their love triangles. One common way of setting up this situation is for the main female character in a manga to suddenly find herself forced to change her living situation so she’s in close proximity to a bunch of boys. Today I’ll look at a couple books from GoComi that share this premise, but express it in different ways.

Crossroad by Mizuki Shioko (amazon)

Kaijitsu has an extremely flighty mother, who seems to get a new husband every other year. Kaijitsu lives with her grandmother, but after her grandmother dies she’s thrown into a household with her two step-brothers Taro and Natsu. Taro is the oldest, and Natsu used to be one of her closest friends, but when Kaijitsu meets him again he seems oddly cold. Kaijitsu’s mother decides to abandon yet another child, 6 year old Satsuki. The kids make the best of their improvised family, with Taro bumbling as he attempts to take on a paternal role. He tends to pop up whenever Kaijitsu and Natsu are together in order to remind them “No Incest Allowed”. Kaijitsu begins to open up a little as she begins to rely more on her new family. Crossroad is a mildly amusing dramedy, with art that is attractive but not very distinctive.

The Devil Within by Ryo Takagi (amazon)

This manga was truly weird, and not in a good way. It had the most unsavory mishmash of plot elements I have yet to encounter. Rion is psychologically traumatized from a film she watched in childhood; as a result she detests men and focuses her attention on boys. She calls all men “devils” and her nickname for her father is “Big Devil”. This is oddly appropriate since his name seems to be Satan. Her father announces that he’s picked three fiancees for her, and they move into her building. Of course she wants nothing to do with them, as her focus is on Tenshi, a mouthy boy who appears to be 5 but is actually 15 - he has a convenient medical condition that has stunted his growth. Somehow the three boys have angelic wings, but Rion has batwings. So there’s some sort of war between good and evil that is being played out with Rion and her relationships? This book was incoherent.