Knights Of The Zodiac (Saint Seiya), Volume 1 by Masami Kurumada (amazon)
Long long ago, when I was a wee lass in high school the only way I could watch anime was to go to the nearby university’s anime club. And there I saw a truly awesome show, filled with random references to astronomy, Greek mythology, and lots and lots of punching. It also had a hilarious Japanese pop metal opening song:
Sure, it probably looks primitive now, but in the late 1980s Saint Seiya was a pinnacle of awesomeness.
In the first volume of the manga, Seiya is a lone Japanese boy training in Sanctuary, a training ground for the warrior Knights of Athena. Seiya’s trainer is a masked woman named Marin. By defeating his rival Cassios in battle, Seiya obtains the Pegasus cloth, a type of armor that can protect its wearer and magnify his powers.
After lots of punching in Greece, Seiya returns home to Japan where the reader learns that a powerful family was recruiting one hundred orphans to fight in order to bring cloths back to Japan so a crazy tournament between knights can be staged. Seiya was one of those orphans, and only nine others survived. Now, they all get to fight each other!
Knights of the Zodiac is great because:
Sometimes I get all nostalgic for chunky 80s manga art, where everyone had big eyebrows
The Knights’ cosmic power gives them the ability to punch someone 100 times in one second. That’s a whole lotta punching!
It has lines like “I sense a terrible Cosmo flooding this whole area” and “Taste my Pegasus Meteor Punches!”
Yumekui Kenbun Nightmare Inspector Volume 1 by Shin Mashiba (amazon)
There are plenty of manga that fit into the “spooky magical shop” genre like Time Guardian, Petshop of Horrors, and xxxHOLiC. Yumekui Kenbun Nightmare Inspector joins this group, as Hiruko is the proprietor of the Silver Star Tea House, a baku who eats dreams. His abilities as a nightmare inspector seem to be well-known, as his shop attracts a variety of clients. The entire volume is set up as a series of short episodes where people seek Hiruko’s help, he puts them to sleep with his magical cane, and he enters their nightmares in an attempt to give them some resolution. There’s usually a surreal, twilight zone like twist at the end of the stories, and many of the tales deal with death or lost love.
While the manga was satisfying as a book of short stories, I wish it spent a little more time on character development. Hiruko seems a bit of a cipher. He sometimes makes an extra effort to help his clients while pretending that his actions are solely in his own interest. Hiruko also enjoys nightmares with blood because they taste better. The dream sequences of his clients are inventive and surreal - a girl walks through a broken landscape picking up her lost body parts in a bid to regain lost memories, a boy envisions a shed where his father locked him up as a series of Chinese characters, and an ardent fan tries to connect with the actress he’s obsessed with through the film of a silver screen.
The art is exquisitely detailed, with fine lines and the extensive use of screentone serving to illustrate the historical background of the Taisho era when this manga is set. The short storylines and lovely art made this a nice refresher volume for me as I was working through my stack of long-running series manga. Although there are plenty of spooky shop manga series out there, the historical setting and the art makes Yumekui Kenbun Nightmare Inspector stand out.
Ryoko has a crush on Ryunosuke, the bespectacled boy she sits next to in class. He’s very reserved at school, so she assumes that he’s the quiet and studious type due to the fact that he always seems to be hauling around tons of stuff in his book bag. Her friends are nonplussed by Ryoko’s crush, pointing out that he could be stashing porn in his bag and she doesn’t really know anything about him. One day after school she observes him standing around with a couple of sleezy looking guys. Suddenly, a woman jumps out of a car and starts kissing him, and tries to force him into her car. Ryunosuke protests, so Ryoko runs up and grabs his arm, towing him away until they are clear of his companions.
When Ryoko asks him to explain what was going on, Ryunosuke reveals that he makes money after school by working as a host. Ryoko is shocked that the studious boy of her dreams is working that type of job. Ryu gives Ryoko his business card and tells her that he’ll give her a discount. She replies with a fierce uppercut to his jaw, vowing revenge.
Back at school the next day, Ryoko is tempted to reveal Ryu’s deception to the other students. She doesn’t, because she still has a soft spot for Ryu when he wears glasses to school. He thanks her for not revealing his secret, saying that he’s forced to work as a host because his Dad left, the mortgage on his house is high, and he has to take care of his little sister. Ryoko is immediately sympathetic, and Ryu starts laughing because she’s so gullible. Thus begins a love-hate relationship, as Ryu finds Ryoko amusing and announces that he likes her. She says she would never date a guy like him, so Ryu vows to win her heart.
The character designs for B.O.D.Y. are cute, with all the characters looking like adorable shaggy-haired moppets. The storyline is fairly typical, and I have to admit that at this point I have read far too many manga where two characters become closer because one of them comes down with a fever. Ryoko goes to take care of Ryu when he gets sick, and learns that he has nothing in his apartment other than a TV, video game system, and a stack of books. B.O.D.Y. fits in well with the rest of the Shojo Beat imprint, but it isn’t as strong as other recent series like High School Debut or Monkey High. Still, I was amused by Ryu’s facility at lying and Ryoko’s propensity for physical violence, so I’ll probably check out the second volume of this series to see if the storyline becomes more interesting.
Gun Blaze West , Vol. 1 by Nobuhiro Watsuki (amazon)
I probably have a bit of a soft spot for shonen properties by Watsuki, because Rurouni Kenshin was one of the series that got be back into manga and anime after a long hiatus. Kenshin had a near perfect blend of adventure, romance, drama, humor and many many fight scenes. While the first volume of Gun Blaze West might not reach the heights of Kenshin, I found it extremely entertaining.
Nine year old Viu Bannes has grown up in the mountainous state of Illinois, not very far from some canyons and river gorges. As someone who was born in Illinois I can only wish that it had such rugged scenery in reality. Viu lives with his older sister Cissy, the schoolteacher for the town of Winston. Viu is pretty much the stereotypical shonen hero. He throws himself into an arm wrestling match far above his age bracket, and wins a gun belt. He’s determined to become a gunslinger and head west.
When Viu captures “Underdog Marcus”, a broken down gunman who tried to steal some food, he ends up finding a friend who encourages him to train to achieve the goal of reaching “Gun Blaze West”, a mythical land that exists past the frontier. Viu and Marcus attempt to fight off an evil gang of bandits and Marcus dies, bequeathing his gun and partial map to “Gun Blaze West” to Viu.
One of the things I really enjoy about Watsuki’s manga is the strength of his character designs. The villians all look appropriately grotesque, but all the characters have distinctive looks including the townspeople fleeing in the background. There are a few fart jokes and pratfalls thrown in to break up the action and training scenes.
Several years later Viu is 14 years old. He completes his training and starts on his journey, heading towards St. Louis. Is Viu going to assemble a group of intrepid fellow travelers? Will the travelers all have specialized ways of fighting? Will there be many dramatic gun battles? Is there really any reason to ask these questions? The first volume of this story is really an extended origin tale, I expect Viu’s quest will begin to gel after the second volume. Gun Blaze West is shonen manga at its most shoneniest. Sometimes after reading so much love and angst filled shoujo manga, all I really want as a refresher is a series like this where someone will clench their fists and exclaim, “When you absolutely have to fight, fight absolutely!”
I liked the first volume of Sand Chronicles so much, I decided to check out this book of short stories by Ashihara. “SOS” is a longer work with a couple chapters. Yu is a popular girl but she always seems to fall into the trap of becoming platonic friends with the boys she has a crush on - to the point of helping them get together with other girls. She’s noticed by Raku, an upperclassman who thinks that she’d be the perfect go-between for his high school dating agency, which operates out of the abandoned library club room. Yu and Raku are joined by Nono, a beautiful girl who is determined to use the cash from the dating agency job to open her own business because she doesn’t ever want to be dependent on a man. Since this is an Ashihara manga, it has the heightened, more serious melodrama that sets it apart from the typical shoujo title.
Raku and Nono are old friends and Raku has a crush on her, but Nono hasn’t recovered from an assault attempt from a man when she was younger. Yu starts getting more and more invested in the lives of her dating agency clients in an attempt to escape her own problems - giving an underconfident girl a makeover and encouraging her to date a guy who ends up being a total sleezebag. When the students’ history teacher finds out about the agency, he threatens to expose them if they don’t find a man to distract the woman who’s stalking him. Yu desperately tries to help but her involvement in her client’s lives doesn’t turn out well. Despite herself, Yu finds herself more and more attracted to Raku, even knowing that she’s trapped in her typical pattern of falling in love with a guy she thinks is unattainable. The “S.O.S.” in the title of the story refers to Yu’s silent call of distress as she wishes to connect with someone.
“Sweet Organ Song” is a sentimental story about lost love set in the backdrop of the Kobe earthquakes in 1995 and 1922. “The Easy Life” details a relationship that isn’t the type of happily ever after scenario often found in shoujo manga. Mami is going out with Yohei, who she’s always had a crush on. Mami finds out that since Yohei’s been totally spoiled by his mother, he treats his girlfriend like a servant. Gradually Mami begins to stand up for herself, but it might be too late to salvage her relationship.
Ashihara’s expressive, polished art effectively dramatizes the emotions of her characters. While some one-shot manga seem incomplete, with stories that were canceled before they had a chance to fully resolve, SOS is a great self-contained book of short stories. SOS is definitely worth checking out if you’re going through withdrawal while waiting for the next volume of Sand Chronicles to come out.
I’ve been reading all three of Shiomi’s series that are available in English; Canon, Night of the Beasts, and Yurara. I somehow missed volume 3 of Canon, and I was disappointed when I picked up volume 4 of that series to find that it was devoted to a rather incoherent climatic battle between warring vampire clans. I haven’t picked up the final volume of Night of the Beasts yet, but I’m glad I have a few more volumes of Yurara to look forward to.
In the third book, the love triangle between spirit hunters Yurara, Mei, and Yako is more explicit, as Mei has proclaimed his love for Yurara (and many of the other girls in their class) while it is clear that Yako is in love with Yurara’s “older sister” - her spirit guardian. Yurara starts to come into her own, controlling her possession by her guardian spirit, and exercising more will over her spirit vanquishing powers. There’s also a new element of comic relief - the wacky grandpa. While wacky grandpa characters are very common in manga and anime, I thought the spirit of Yurara’s grandfather was particularly amusing as he comes back from the dead to check on his granddaughter, sees that she’s hanging out with cute guys, and promptly changes over to a younger version of himself with horrible fashion sense in order to fit in with the high school students who can’t even see him. Yurara is much more light-hearted than Canon or Night of the Beasts, and it is a very enjoyable example of the people who can see dead people shojo genre.
Sand Chronicles Volume 1 by Hinako Ashihara (amazon)
Just what I need, a new shojo addiction! I’d read good things about this new series and I caught a chapter in Shojo Beat, so I was looking forward to the first volume. Ann’s parents have just gotten divorced, so she moves with her mother Miwako to the small town where her grandmother lives. Moving to Shimane causes some problems. 12 year old Ann has a hard time adjusting to the gossipy nature of the small town, where everyone knows everyone else’s business. She makes friends with a boy named Daigo, who is the son of an old friend of her Mom. Ann also makes the acquaintance of a couple of the rich kids in town, Fuji and his sister Shiika. When family tragedy strikes, Ann’s new friends are more important to her than ever.
It’s clear that Ann and Daigo are destined for romance when she gives him a black eye during their first meeting. A love triangle involving Fugi, who has a legitimate case of poor-little-rich-boy-itis, also seems inevitable. Where Sand Chronicles stands apart from a typical shojo title is the life issues it explores at the same time it chronicles budding romance. Everything is not OK in the small town of Shimane, and tragic events continue to have an effect on Ann several years later. The book starts with a framing story of grown-up Ann packing to move overseas with her fiance. I’m curious to see who she ends up with. Sand Chronicles starts with the characters during the winter when they are 12 years old and then moves further ahead to the summer when they are 14. Ashihara’s art captures the transition from childhood to the gawky early teen years. Seeing Ann, Daigo, and their friends age through a single volume of manga is another appealing aspect of Sand Chronicles, since so many other shojo titles just keep their lead characters in perpetual high school.
Be With You by Takuji Ichikawa (amazon)
Be With You is a one volume manga based on a novel that has also been adapted into a movie and TV show. At the start of the rainy season widower Takkun and his young son Yuji are muddling along a year after Mio’s death. She left behind a picture book about a planet where people who’ve passed away live as long as someone on Earth remembers them. Mio promised to come back to see her son and husband during rainy season. Takkun struggles with his job at the library and his relationship with Mio’s mother.
As soon as it starts raining Yuji runs to the woods to see his mom. Takkun follows him and they find Mio, but she’s completely lost her memory. They take her home and start living life as a family again. Yuji doesn’t understand why his mother doesn’t remember some of the things she did for him before her death. Despite her memory loss, Mio throws herself into the role of Yuji’s mother, although she isn’t quite sure what to make of her husband. Takkun begins to tell Mio stories about how they met and started dating. They begin to function as a family again, but Takkun knows that Mio will vanish forever when the rainy season ends.
The art is attractive, but not particularly distinctive. Some single volume manga have stories that are cut short, but Be With You seems complete in one volume perhaps because it was adapted from a novel. There are a few details that might have been expanded on, like the role of Mio’s mother and Takkun’s difficulty in coping with life. Be With You is a little different than the typical Shojo Beat title since it focuses on family life, it really is an old fashioned tear jerker. So if you’re in the mood for a little bit of sadness mixed with romance, check it out.
I’ve read the first volume of Tanemura’s Gentlemen’s Alliance, and I’ve been slowly working my way through her magical girl/phantom thief series Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne. I noticed that Viz has licensed a ton of her titles for upcoming release; I.O.N. is coming out in April.
Ion Tsuburagi is a happy go lucky girl who chants the letters of her name whenever she’s in trouble or needs something good to happen. She has a tendency to leap out of windows in order to escape the relentless romantic attentions of Kouki, the fan-waving student council president. One day Ion’s interrupted in mid-jump by Mikado, the resident school genius and founder of the Psychic Powers Research Society. Ion is impressed with Mikado’s dedication to research, because she always thought she’d fall in love with a boy who is dedicated to pursuing his dreams. When Ion investigates the shed where Mikado does his research, she finds a mysterious substance and causes a reaction; now whenever she chants her name she manifests psychic powers.
I have to admit, I was a little surprised when Ion started levitating and using telekinesis because I expect that type of thing from superhero comics, not shojo manga. Ion’s psychic powers cause Mikado to be very interested in her as his new favorite test subject. Mikado is much more serious than Ion, she often manages to cheer him up with her carefree attitude towards life. Ion’s disappointed that Mikado doesn’t seem to relate to her as a girl, but she’s determined to wait until his feelings change. The situation is complicated even further when Mikado’s spoon-bending ex-girlfriend Ai shows up. Will Ion and Mikado get together? Will she manage to control her new powers? And most importantly, will Kouki stop waving his fan around?
Tanemura’s art is fluid and expressive, with the huge eyes and flower-bedecked panels that you’d expect in a magical girl manga. Although I usually enjoy reading long-running series, sometimes it’s nice to pick up a manga that’s complete in a single volume like I.O.N. I’d imagine it would also be handy for librarians needing to add new titles to their collection but not wanting to set aside the shelf space for a longer running series.
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?
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