Manga Minis are back and better than before, with 200% more contributors and no trans fat! This month, Erin, Ken and I team up to review a variety of titles: Flock of Angels (Vol. 1), Gon (Vol. 1), The Moon and Sandals (Vols. 1-2), Picnic, Sakura Ganbaru (Vol. 1), and xxxHolic (Vol. 10).

Flock of Angels, Vol. 1

By Shoko Hamada
Aurora Publishing, pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Shea Lipps is the very embodiment of tweenage fantasy: not only is he cute and kind to his younger sister, he’s also an aspiring clothing designer who happens to sprout wings out of the blue. As any scholar of X-Men history knows, such dramatic mutations evoke a wide spectrum of responses. Some changelings are exiled; some murdered; some exploited for commercial purposes (or worse); and a few find themselves in protective custody. Shea is fortunate. His immediate family supports him; girls continue to dig him (although sometimes for the wrong reasons); and he finds a mentor in Kanai, a kindly g-man tasked with finding and assisting people like Shea. Through Kanai, Shea learns that a mysterious virus called angelosis causes the mutation, transforming ordinary people into winged wonders. Thus begins Shea’s journey of self-discovery, as he learns how to fly, cope with his new-found celebrity (cute boy + wings = media circus), and help other people with angelosis.

I’d be the first to acknowledge the story’s glaring weaknesses, from the long-winded speeches promoting tolerance to the resolved-in-a-jiffy conflicts, which never seem to last more than a chapter. (Not to mention the very idea of “angelosis,” which sounds like the clinical name for a divine case of bad breath.) For all its limitations, however, Shoko Hamada never shies away from suggesting how violently the “angels” have been persecuted, nor does she depict Shea as a self-doubting sourpuss once he begins to discover the darker side of being different. Flock of Angels never plumbs the gritty depths of Runaways or The X-Men, but younger teens may well appreciate a kawaii take on the well-documented mutants vs. men conflict.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey-Tsuei

Gon, Vol. 1

By Masashi Tanaka
CMX, 148 pp.
Rating: Teen

A rarity in the world of sequential art, Gon is a beautifully drawn, completely silent manga. It follows the adventures of the title character, a little orange dinosaur, as he wanders a pre-human/post-dinosaur world getting into all sorts of trouble.

The first volume is made up of several stand-alone stories: Gon hunts on lion back, creates a giant dam after watching some beavers, and lives with a family of eagles and tries to learn how to fly. The only element connecting the various stories is Gon, and, despite what it says on the back cover, he’s not quite the friend to helpless animals. Sure, he helps some, but he’s just as likely to kick them around if it suits him. In the eagle story, he helps to defend the nest, but in the dam building story his construction project leaves an entire forest homeless. Still, there’s something lovable and really enjoyable about watching the little fella getting up to all kinds of mischief. He’s less a cute and cuddly hero and more of a dinosaur version of Bart Simpson or Dennis the Mennis.

The artwork here is absolutely amazing. It’s some of the most detailed black and white art I’ve ever seen. The animals look real (aside from Gon), yet Tanaka is still able to imbue them with a sense of personality that you’d expect to see in a Disney movie.

–Reviewed by Ken Haley

The Moon and Sandals, Vols. 1-2

By Fumi Yoshinaga
Published by DMP
Rating: 18+ (Mature)

Fumi Yoshinaga is the darling of the manga blogging world. Jason Thompson likes her, Shaenon Garrity likes her, and even Katherine, who doesn’t read much yaoi, likes her. So how does The Moon and Sandals compare with her other work: is it better than Antique Bakery? Not really. Is it as charming as The Flower of Life? Not exactly. Is there a lot of explicit gay sex? Why, yes there is!

There are five major characters. Kobayashi is a high school kid who falls for his world history teacher, a young man named Mr. Ida. Out of a naive bravery, Kobayashi goes to Mr. Ida’s house to make a move on him, only to be interrupted by Hashizume, Ida’s lover, who announces that he has quit his job to come live with Ida. Kobayashi runs out of the house, embarrassed. On the rebound, Kobayashi starts to fall for Toyo Narumi, a blonde boy nicknamed “Giant”. Giant hasn’t come to grips with being gay just yet. To complicate matters further, Giant’s little sister Naru has a crush on Kobayashi.

The Moon and Sandals gets a higher score from me for dealing with gay issues in a refreshing, realistic way. Hashizume must adopt Ida as his brother so landlords will rent to them. Kobayashi is not sure how to perform gay sex and buys a book from Ni-chome (Tokyo’s gay district) so he can do it with his boyfriend. Giant hurt a boy he liked in junior high just to prove to his classmates that he wasn’t gay. Characters discuss coming out to their coworkers and families. Even when Yoshinaga’s characters are standing outdoors dramatically in a typhoon and sustaining blood-drawing injuries while confessing their love, there is a certain honesty to her characterizations. Moments that would be melodramatic elsewhere are somehow believable here.

I only have a few hesitations about Moon and Sandals. Ida and Hashizume get un-officially married before they have sex, but after they’ve been living together for months. It seems unrealistic in a yaoi title with realistic elements. Darker-haired characters fall for lighter haired characters as per strict yaoi genre conventions. Yoshinaga’s character designs are all similar. That said, if you like Fumi Yoshinaga, or yaoi, or both, I think you’ll like The Moon and Sandals.

–Reviewed by Erin F.

Picnic

By Yugi Yamada
DMP, 200 pp.
Rating: 18+ (Mature)

In my yaoi reading experience, I generally have to wait until the end of volume one (or even volumes two or three for longer series) for the sex scene. Much to my surprise, the lovers start getting it on in chapter two of Picnic, an anthology of short stories. Also to my surprise, it turns out short story anthologies work rather well for mature yaoi titles. Instead of dithering on about angst and love (boring), the characters get right straight down to the man love (interesting).

Picnic contains six short stories, each of which feature a blonde guy paired with a brunette guy. The characters range across ages and professions. In “Our First Trip Alone Together,” a group of twenty-somethings plan a trip to Hokkaido that keeps falling through; in “I’ll Forget Him in Five Seconds,” a junior high kid is in love with the older owner of a mah-jong parlor; in “I Have an Excuse Too,” two college students have a lot of sex; in the disturbing “But Sometimes You’re Kind,” a homeless kid falls for a gigolo; and in “What Will Happen to Us,” a salaryman is crippled by his unspoken love for his coworker.

Picnic is definitely one of DMP’s more compelling yaoi titles. It’s a little too hardcore for younger audiences, but it’s a satisfying read for fujioshi O.L.’s like me.

–Reviewed by Erin F.

Sakura Ganbaru!, Vol. 1

By Masahiko Nakahira
UDON Entertainment, 200 pp.

The second Nakahira series to be released by Udon, Sakura Ganbaru follows the adventures of Sakura, a young school girl turned street fighter, as she attempts to become the best fighter possible while searching for “that man” (Ryu). Along the way she does everything you’d expect a shonen protagonist to do: she enters tournaments, makes friends out of opponents, and so on. Unlike the Street Fighter Alpha manga, Sakura Ganbaru has a slightly more humorous bent to it: visual gags, mistaken identies, off the wall situations being played up for humor, etc.

If you were hoping for a continuation of the plot lines from Street Fighter Alpha, well, you’ll be a bit disappointed. It seems that this series is unrelated to Alpha despite sharing several characters. (Although they did battle in the Alpha series, Dan doesn’t seem to recognized Ken when they face off.) The artwork here seems a bit rougher than it did in Alpha, but it’s still pretty good. Nakahira’s fight scenes are fun and easy to follow, and he nails the look and feel for the various Street Fighter characters that appear in it as well. Overall it’s a fun start to a short series and a must have for any Street Fighter fans. Non Street Fighter fans might enjoy it, but they’d probably miss a lot of the references and cameos.

–Reviewed by Ken Haley

xxxHolic, Vol. 10

By CLAMP
Del Rey, 208 pp.
Rating: 13+

Although I’ve found the artwork in xxxHolic ravishing from the very beginning, I haven’t always found Watanuki a sympathetic character. He whines. He treats Domeki badly. He makes a fool of himself in front of Himawari. He ignores Yuko’s advice. Yet somewhere around volume five, Watanuki began to grow up, making the transformation from a grumpy, self-pitying teenager to a resourceful young man. He’s regressed from time to time, lashing out at Domeki without cause or butting heads with Yuko. In volume ten, however, Watanuki shows us how far he’s come, as he at last learns why Yuko has repeatedly warned him about Himawari. Watanuki proves wise and compassionate in his dealings with Himawari, and mature enough to accept the consequences of his loyalty. Himawari, for her part, demonstrates both an unselfishness and a courage that her ditzy demeanor often conceals. It’s this richness of character—as suggested by Watanuki’s capacity to learn from his mistakes, and Himawari’s hidden depth—that makes xxxHolic more than just another beautifully illustrated fantasy, but a thoughtful meditation on fate vs. free will.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey-Tsuei