Sexy Voice and Robo by Iou Kuroda

It is the first installment of the Manga Moveable Feast, and the book picked was Iou Kuroda’s unique manga about a teenage adventuress named Sexy Voice and her older otaku sidekick, chauffeur, and occasional bodyguard Robo. Nico Hayashi’s part-time job is talking with random people on a telephone dating line. But her real goal is to be either a spy or a fortuneteller. Ichiro Sudo is a lonely otaku who works in a video store and collects classic toys. He calls in to Nico’s phone line and she quickly singles him out as a person she can use to move through the world as an adult, since a fourteen year-old can’t drive.

Nico encounters an old man with ties to the underworld who starts using her as a fixer. She’s tasked with tracking down a kid who stole dirty money, tries to intervene in the life of a young man who is hopelessly in love, and meets an amnesiac with a unique profession. There’s something almost invulnerable about Nico. It helps that as a character she’s firmly put in superhero mode by introducing herself as “Codename…Sexy Voice!” as if she is a pint-size Charlie’s Angel. One of the things that I like about Nico is that her character is more complex than the typical precocious child you’d expect to see investigating human behavior. While she might be worldly enough to manipulate Robo in order to get help her whenever she wants, she still maintains an element of innocence and a childlike point of view. I thought this was best expressed in the story where Nico goes to check up on a young man who is headed down the wrong path with love. When Nico meets his lover, she immediately thinks the older woman is cool because men everywhere just fall in love with her, to the point where she goes around collecting random money from would-be lovers. When Nico sees the result of love sick obsession she realizes that the world can be a scary place.

Nico manages to capably deal with assignments from the Old Man. Sometimes her adventures will at first seem like a random chain of events, but at the end everything connects. One of the things I like about Sexy Voice and Robo is the subtle way the relationships between the characters are explored. There might be a hint of romance in the way the unlikely duo relate to each other, as Nico dresses up like an older woman in her spy gear to meet Robo. He remarks to a friend that he won’t touch Nico because he has standards about messing with kids and also a vow to never date a girl below a certain cup size. In a lesser manga there would be some sort of conclusion or their friendship would be the main focus of the stories. Here, everything is open-ended and unspoken. Nico meets an old woman who has fulfilled her ambition of becoming a spy. Is Nico talking to a version of herself? Is a perpetually missing watch a symbol of fate? So much is left to the readers’ interpretation, making this manga particularly rewarding when it is reread. I definitely felt I appreciated this work more the second time I read it.

I was struck again by how much I liked Kuroda’s art and how unique the style is compared to most manga being published today. He uses a thick black line to draw his characters’ faces and backgrounds. The reader can see the brushstrokes in a characters’ hair, which gives the art a feeling of calligraphy. Some of the images in the manga are iconic. I think I’ll always remember scenes of a woman kissing an aquarium worker through glass, an open air haircut on a scooter, and a fateful reflection in a woman’s eye. Usually I get a little annoyed with unfinished series. Sexy Voice and Robo might be unfinished, I found I didn’t mind the lack of conclusion at all. It was illuminating to spend time in Kuroda’s world, and just knowing that there are literary creations out there like a wannabe spy and her hapless sidekick is rewarding enough for this reader.

I previously enjoyed Asano’s Solanin. What a Wonderful World is an earlier work, but I didn’t realize until I read Shaenon Garrity’s review over at about.com that Asano was only 22 when he started working on this manga. It is unusual to get such a polished and accomplished work from such a young creator. In some ways What a Wonderful World seems like a proto-Solanin. The lives of twentysomethings are explored in short stories in this work, while Solanin focused more closely on a small group of interconnected characters.

A girl named Toga has always been “the reliable one” among her group of friends, but she drops out of school and struggles with the idea of reactivating her musical ambitions. A schoolgirl engages in a dangerous contest to win social capital. A man briefly visits his daughter and ex-wife in a park. Aimless ronin studying for their college entrance exams have a memorable encounter with a basket case they meet in the street. Some of the characters are seen again briefly in other stories, making the lives of the different people in What a Wonderful World seem interconnected. The elements of surrealism that I enjoyed in Solanin are also present in this manga. Toga’s pet turtle talks to her, and in one of her dreams he slips out of his shell and goes off to live his own life. Crows offer life advice, and the men in plush bear costumes inexplicably appear in at least two stories.

While reading about the lives of people who haven’t figured out what they want to might seem like an invitation to wallow in ennui, this manga lives up to its title. Asano captures the small moments that people use to define themselves. A change in hairstyle, the realization that the reliability of a relationship can be a comfort, and the loss of an apartment each contribute to a moment of realization that lets someone move on with their life. As I was reading the manga and enjoying the combination of the prosaic and surreal in Asano’s art I realized that I was especially struck by the pacing and paneling. There was frequently a small jolt or surprise right before I’d turn the page to read the conclusion of a story, and this lent a dynamic feel to the manga even when some of the stories were just short sketches.

It is probably unfair for me to compare this manga with Solanin when I’ve only read the first volume, but I think if I were to recommend only one Asano work, I’d go with Solanin just because the focus of the single volume lets the reader feel more connected to the characters. What a Wonderful World is still very good. I wish it had been packaged the same way Solanin was, instead of being released in two separate volumes. Now I really want to see more of Asano’s work translated!

Ôoku: The Inner Chambers Volume 2 by Fumi Yoshinaga

I could see why people were annoyed with the choice for the characters to randomly speak in Elizabethen English in Ooku. For whatever reason it didn’t bother me that much in the first volume, I think because I was taking in all the details of Yoshinaga’s alternate history. There were a few paragraphs of exposition in the first few pages of volume two where all the “forsooths” and “thous” just didn’t seem like they were scanning right to me, and this took me out of the book a little bit. As I went along I was able to settle in and enjoy the story. After setting up the details of the red pox that attacks only young men and the reverse harem society of the inner chambers volume two of the manga is a flashback to the founding of the Ooku.

The red pox has just started to decimate Japanese society and when the shogun dies a former nursemaid named Kasuga rises to prominence as the power behind the throne. She installs the only heir of the former shogun, an illegitimate daughter, in his place. The girl has is allowed no name other than her father’s, Iemitsu. Kasuga founds the Ooku as breeding stock, to ensure that Iemitsu is able to get pregnant with a son and carry on the Togugawa bloodline. Iemitsu is a young girl who is ill equipped for the life of court intrigue that she’s thrown into. Kasuga also puts in place the restrictive rules that withdraw Japan from the rest of the world. We can see how this ties in to the Shogun Yoshimune’s experience in the first volume as she begins to realize all the rituals about what she wears and the rules for interaction with foreign visitors all serve to hide her actual identity as a woman.

Arikoto is an incredibly attractive monk and the third son of a noble family. When he travels to greet the shogun after just being made abbot, Kasuga decides to recruit him to the Ooku against his will by taking extreme measures to ensure that he will renounce his vows and grow his hair long. Arikoto resists at first, but as he begins to learn the circumstances of the Shogun Iemitsu he realizes that he can fulfill his Buddhist vows to relieve suffering even in the Ooku.

This volume seemed a little more focused than the first, perhaps because the situation and societal differences of Yoshinaga’s alternate Edo era were set up in the first volume, and the reader is just able to focus on the characters. I enjoyed reading Arikoto and Iemitsu’s story, but I’m hoping that volume three switches back to the shogun Yoshimune. I feel like I was just getting to know her in the final pages of volume one and I’d like to see her character developed more in this series. Since this volume is part of an extended flashback as Yoshimune and by extension the reader learns the reasons behind the customs that hide a female shogun’s gender, I’m wondering if Yoshimune’s storyline will show the unraveling of the barriers and an opening up of Japan to outside influence. While the plot of Ooku might seem to be inching forward at a leisurely pace, Yoshinaga’s fascinating alternate world and facility with character development ensures that the series is entertaining while it explores Japan and gender roles.

One of things I’ve become aware of as I link reviews on Manga Views is that I haven’t written about some of the series I really like. This is due to my tendency to focus more on first volumes of series and now I’m realizing that I haven’t written much about some of my favorites like Basara, Hana Kimi, and Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden.

I decided to reread Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden. This series serves as a prequel to Fushigi Yugi, with a couple of characters having already crossed over to the earlier published series. I think that this story can stand on its own though. There were very long publishing gaps between volumes, and I was surprised at how quickly paced the story seemed when I read a bunch of volumes back to back.

When reading the first volume again I was struck with how efficiently Watase set up her heroine and backstory. In a dozen pages we learn these basic facts about Takiko:

She’s a school girl in the Taisho era with a hair-trigger temper and martial arts skills.
She’s disappointed in love, as her crush on her father’s former student is unrequited.
Takiko takes care of her terminally ill mother and hates her father, a novelist who routinely disappears to research his books.
Takiko’s father returns from a research trip to China with a transcribed document called “The Universe of Four Gods”

When Takiko’s mother dies, Takiko confronts her father about his behavior. She’s always felt like an unwanted child since she wasn’t a son. Her father essentially abandoned his family for his work, and in anger she snatches his latest book out of his hands and runs outside. When she tries to destroy it she’s transported to snowy mountaintop. Her father picks up the book and he sees that the story has changed. He’s now reading about the adventures of his daughter in a hostile world. Takiko appears before a girl who is tied to a pillar. The girl tells her to run, but when snow monsters appear Takiko grabs a stick and prepares to defend herself. The other girl decides to activate her wind powers, sending a powerful gust that destroys the monsters. The wind girl collapses from fever but Takiko manages to transport them to a hotel room in a nearby village. When she wakes up the next morning she is surprised to find out that she’s sharing a bed with a guy who accuses her of being very forward! The man is named Limdo in his male form but he switches to his female form Uruki when he uses his powers.

Takiko fills the role of priestess of Genbu, the woman charged with summoning the guardian spirit of the strange country where she now lives. Limdo is one of the seven celestial warriors that she must collect before fulfilling her final duty as a priestess. The plot of Genbu Kaiden will be very familiar to anyone who has read Fushigi Yugi or any quest-type manga. But I found it a much more satisfying read than Fushigi Yugi simply because when returning to the world she created years earlier, Watase brings better storytelling skills, pacing, and a more refined art style. Genbu Kaiden gives her a chance to improve on the story in a number of ways. Takiko is a much less annoying heroine than Miaka. She’s more capable and even though she has plenty of problems of her own to deal with she finds her own meaning in the idea of being needed by the people of the country she was abruptly transported to. Although it seems obvious that Takiko and Limdo will end up falling in love, there isn’t a huge emphasis on romance. Limdo uses his convenient gender switching to serve as a double agent with Takiko’s potential enemies, and she spends most of her journey with the celestial warrior and ex-bounty hunter Tomite searching for their destined companions.

Many of the celestial warriors are ambivalent about their fate. The populace of the country is split in opinion about the idea of the Priestess of Genbu. Some think that she’ll be their savior and others think that she heralds the destruction of the world. I always thought that Watase had a flair for action scenes, and in many ways there is so much fighting and adventuring in this manga that it doesn’t feel like a typical shoujo book. One of the things I liked about Genbu Kaiden was the greater variety of character designs for the celestial warriors. Miaka was surrounded by a harem of handsome men, and while plenty of Takiko’s warriors are cute there are some interesting oddities like Hatsui who shoots deadly quills out of his body and spends a great deal of time rolling around in a spherical cage. Naname takes the form of a doll-sized stone man and there’s even a woman warrior which is a refreshing change.

Within the major story of Takiko’s quest each celestial warrior has their own story arc. Limdo is a rejected prince, hunted by his former kingdom due to a prophecy at his birth that he would grow up to kill his father. His only companion has been his faithful retainer Soren who acts as an older brother to him. Takiko and Limdo’s romance is overshadowed by the knowledge that they will eventually part and their roles as priestess and celestial warrior don’t permit the type of relationship they both want. Tomite is able to get some resolution to his past when he meets the lost warrior and his former friend Hikitsu. Inami moves on from a life of prostitution and the warrior Urumiya carries a secret. Seeing relationships develop between the warriors is fun, as friendships start appearing between unlikely characters like Inami and Hikitsu.

Opposing armies march through Takiko’s adopted country and the populace is afflicted by famine and plague. Anyone familiar with the previous Fushigi Yugi series knows that the ending to Takiko’s story will not be happy. As the celestial warriors come together as a team and begin to fight for their country an element of melancholy hovers over all the super-powered action. The characters gradually realize that summoning the god Genbu might not be the solution to everyone’s problems.

The most frustrating thing about Genbu Kaiden is that it has been on hiatus in Japan. So there will likely be another long gap before the story is concluded and translated over here. But the first nine volumes are an effective fantasy adventure. I’m looking forward to and dreading the conclusion to the story because I think the conclusion of Takiko’s and Limdo’s romance will be bittersweet.