Manga Minis, May 2007
Posted by: Katherine Dacey on May 22, 2007 at 7:52 am
 Pistol packin’ mamas. Chibis gone wild. Vampire knights and vampire-slaying princesses. Yes, it’s time for another batch of Manga Minis! This month’s column examines the first volumes of four brand-new series—Canon, Hoshin Engi, Platina, and Princess Resurrection—as well as the second volume of Vampire Knight and Junko Mizuno: Pure Trance. Canon, Vol. 1By Chika Shiomi
Though I enjoyed Canon, I had two reservations about this volume. First, Shiomi’s action sequences are sometimes hard to parse. There were several close-up panels that left me utterly mystified: just what the heck was I looking at? Second, Fuui is more of creaky plot device than a character. As several other reviewers have observed, Fuui’s primary function seems to be intoning expository dialogue. To some extent, such passages are unavoidable in a series with a complicated mythology, but Shiomi doesn’t integrate them gracefully. That said, I have a feeling that future volumes will be more enjoyable now that Shiomi has laid the foundation for her story. I’ll be tuning in, if for no other reason than to catch a glimpse of Rod. Volume one of Canon is available now; volume two will be released in July. Hoshin Engi, Vol. 1By Ryu Fujisaki
Though the set-up has great potential, I found Ryu Fujisaki’s storytelling uninspired. Taikobo is a generic shonen hero—all action and no reflection—while his sidekick/vehicle Reiju Supushan is a classic fuss-budget foil who questions the wisdom of Taikobo’s decisions. The first two chapters are a slow read, as Fujisaki tries to cram as much exposition into those early pages as possible. Once he’s dispensed with the basics—names, realms, spells, and such—the story quickly falls into a predictable pattern: Taikobo engages a demon, feigns oafishness, then gains the upper hand. No doubt Hoshin Engi would make a terrific RPG or anime, but I didn’t find it a compelling read. Volume 1 of Hoshin Engi will be available in June. By Junko Mizuno Junko Mizuno: Pure Trance is available now. By Yeon Joo Kim Volume one of Platina is available now. By Yatsunori Mitsunaga Whether or not you warm to Princess Resurrection will depend on how funny you find the principal joke, as the plot and characters are wafer-thin. I enjoyed the Disney-does-Dawn-of-the-Dead premise, but found one of the series’ running gags less amusing. In his recent review at Comic World News, David Welsh coined a memorable phrase for this weird and distasteful bit of fanservice: mood boobs. He explains, “You can tell when the sister [Sawawa] is preoccupied, as her giant breasts don’t jiggle as vigorously.” So if mood boobs don’t distract you from comically gruesome goings-on, you’ll probably enjoy this smartly illustrated series. Volume one of Princess Resurrection is available now; volume two will be published in August. To read a short excerpt of volume one, click here. By Matsuri Hino On the plus side, Matsuri Hino seems to have found her footing with the material. She adopts a more appropriate tone for her story, dispensing with the shojo slapstick of the early chapters in favor of supernatural suspense. She also fleshes out the vampires’ backstory, explaining why they have enrolled at Cross Academy, delineating a hierarchy within the vampire world, and introducing a new character, Yagari Toga, a vampire hunter who packs heat, talks tough, and has history with Kaname and Zero. On the minus side, I couldn’t distinguish the male vampires from one another, as most of them look like members of Duran Duran (at least to this child of the 1980s). And I still found Yuki a less-than-compelling character. Not all heroines need to administer karate chops to be powerful—or empowered, for that matter—but Yuki seems incapable of tying her shoelaces, let alone subduing vampires. Unless she engages in some serious slayage in volume three, I’m probably going to focus my energies elsewhere. Volume two of Vampire Knight is available now; volume three is scheduled for publication in October. To read a short excerpt from volume one, click here. 
8 Responses to "Manga Minis, May 2007"1 | Jen December 5th, 2007 at 11:37 pm How can you trash Vampire Knight? The latter chapters get better, and Yuki can to defend herself. She is just helpless when Kaname is around, for some convienent reason. It has many plot twists if you read more, jus not those you would expect. Yuki is too kindhearted to do any actual slaying. PS it is good to know that I’m not the only one who can’t keep all the guys straight. December 6th, 2007 at 12:53 am Thanks for your comments, Jen. I hadn’t given much thought as to why Yuki had so much difficulty dispatching her duties, but what you say makes sense. I’ll have to see what develops in volumes three and four. I’m also glad to know that I’m not the only one who’s having difficulty distinguishing the male vampires from one other. Maybe if they didn’t all have the same hairdo…? 3 | China February 17th, 2008 at 2:12 am Actually the weak part of the series is the female lead, Yuuki. She’s simply not good enough for the male casts of the series. I’ve read till chapter 36 and we never see her once dispatch any vampire threat. If anything, she always ends up being the one who needed saving. Suffice it to say, Vampire Knight would’ve been more worthwhile without Yuuki’s presence or had there been a more strong female character in her place. 4 | Clay I also found it a bit difficult distinguishing between the male vampires, it only seems that Kaname is the only vampire that Hino either wanted to be distinguished or something else you know. Volume 3 made a good impression on me and you may like it as well. And if you want some serious books how about the Forgotten Realms books with Drizzt Do’ Urden or Artemis Entreiri in them. Yes I am a tentative fan of the manga, I will buy volume four and anymore that come out. Yuki is definately the OMG MALE VAMPIRE LOOKING AT ME YAY kinda chick who falls way short of the expectations of all of us who read VK. 5 | Katherine Dacey I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one who had trouble figuring out who’s who among the male vampires–I thought it was a sure sign of my age. 6 | LynFay what?! How do you have trouble telling the male vampire apart?! Shiki is dark haired and has a more round face than Kaname. Ichijou (second in command) is blonde and straight hair (it curves around his face, sort of) Aidou, nicknamed “Idol” has blonde spiky/ wavy hair that goes every where, he’s also shorter than all the rest and Kain is a wavy ginger haired tall guy with a “I’m bored” look on his face the whole time. 7 | Anime Lover Actually, by the time you get to oh, say chapter 35, the story gets REALLY interesting… Hino-sensei’s about to make a major twist, though threre are implications prior hand. Believe me. 8 | mary sue November 25th, 2008 at 5:39 am yes, how could you confuse the characters??? although when you get later in the series, and they all suddenly start sporting the same expression… confusion is inevitable. At the same time, i agree with a lot of people here, it’s plot gets REALLY engrossing later on. the only peeve i have is that why didn’t Matsuri Hino give us the good stuff a little earlier?? it would have salvaged more time and chapters… but oh well. |
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The eponymous heroine of Canon is a smart, tough-talking vigilante who’s saving the world, one vampire at a time. For most of her life, she was a somewhat sickly but otherwise unremarkable human—that is, until a nosferatu decided to make Lunchables of her high school class. Canon, the sole survivor of the attack, was transformed into a vampire whose blood has an amazing property: it can restore other victims to their former human selves. She’s determined to rescue as many human-vampire converts as she can, prowling the streets of Tokyo in search of others like her. She’s also resolved to find and kill Rod, the vampire who murdered her friends. (Uh, Rod? Was Vlad taken?) She’s aided by two vampires with agendas of their own: Fuui, a talking crow who’s always scavenging for blood, and Sakaki, a handsome rogue who also loathes Rod. 
In the Hoshin Engi universe, real Chinese emperors co-exist side by side with a group of demi-gods called Sennin, who normally reside on a higher plane of existence than humans. The story begins when Dakki, a female Sennin, uses her power to usurp the Chinese throne. She then embarks on a campaign of wanton destruction and self-aggrandizement that rivals only the modern-day antics of Kim Jong Il. Taikobo, a young shepherd, is one of Dakki’s many victims, losing his entire family in a raid on his village. To avenge his family, Taikobo becomes an apprentice of Genshi Tenson, a Sennin elder. But Taikobo lacks the discipline to attain demi-god status. Frustrated by Taikobo’s slacker antics, Genshi devises a novel training regimen for his underachieving pupil: kit Taikobo out with a fancy ride and a cool weapon, then dispatch him to the human world to round up 345 dangerous demons.
Junko Mizuno’s first published work could best be summarized as a post-apocalyptic meditation on celebrity, pornography, and eating disorders. In the brave new world of Pure Trance, humans get all their nutritional needs from a multivitamin pill called—you guessed it—Pure Trance. Pure Trance has some nasty side effects, however, causing addiction, binging and purging, and other forms of self-destructive behavior. There’s not much plot or genuine social commentary here; instead, Mizuno uses her futuristic set-up as a pretext for cute illustrations of women doing ghastly things—hey, look at this picture of girls whipping each other and puking! Though Last Gasp has done a superb job of packaging Mizuno’s work, Pure Trance is better suited to the hardcore fan than the first-time reader. For novices, I’d recommend her subversive retelling of Hansel and Gretel instead. It’s a better showcase for her storytelling style, as her taboo-busting cutesiness brings the more perverse elements of this famous fairy tale to the surface.
As best I can tell, the plot for Platina goes something like this: Auna is a former aristocrat whose family suffered a disastrous reversal of fortune. As a result, Auna has been reduced to scrubbing floors at Princess Vellotte’s palace. For reasons unknown, Vellotte entrusts Auna with Jinen, an adorable little fox with a very big secret: he’s actually a handsome human thief who, thanks to a curse from the princess, transforms into a kitsune for twelve hours each day. No matter what form he takes, however, Jinen has a knack for getting into trouble. In the short period of time that Auna has custody of him, they endure kidnapping attempts, shoot-outs, and a stint in jail. What makes Platina a fun—if sometimes confusing—read is Yeon Joo Kim’s decision to dispense with the fourth wall, allowing her characters to poke fun at her, discuss events from previous chapters, crack wise about comic clichés, and speculate about how the story will unfold. With so many digressions and meta-jokes interrupting the narrative flow, events don’t always have a logical connection, but Platina’s kitchen-sink humor and stylish visuals compensate for its shortcomings.
Meet Princess Hime. She’s equal parts Cinderella and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, dispatching werewolves, vampires, zombies, and creatures from the Black Lagoon while clad in a tiara and crinoline. Her entourage includes Flandre, a cute robot with Hulk-like strength; Hiro, a nebbish that Hime resurrected after an unfortunate traffic accident; Hiro’s older sister, Sawawa, a none-too-bright maid; and Riza Wildman, a brash werewolf girl who favors mid-riff baring tank tops and rides a motorcycle. Together this improbable team fights armies of the undead, transforming a variety of objects—SUVs, chainsaws, cardio paddles—into lethal weapons with MacGuyver-esque ingenuity.
When I reviewed the 
