For this week’s column, Phil, Michelle, Sam and I look at four very different titles: volume three of Gimmick! (Viz), a series that might be best described as F/X: The Manga; volume one of Kyo Kara MAOH! (Tokyopop), a goofy “bishonen sausage fest” based on a popular anime/novel franchise; volume two of Time Stranger Kyoko (Viz), a sci-fi/fantasy from the prolific Arina Tanemura; and Tomcats (Aurora/Deux), a manga about catboys and the humans that love them. We think.

Gimmick!, Vol. 3

Story by Youzaburou Kanari, Art by Kuroko Yabuguchi
Viz, 210 pp.
Rating: Mature

The appeal of Gimmick! is that the main character must rely on his own resourcefulness to defeat the bad guys. Indeed, special effects wizard Kohei Nagase would be no match for anybody in straight-up fisticuffs, but give him some gomme syrup, gelatin, and turmeric, and he’ll rig up an illusion that’s sure to stop criminals in their tracks.

In volume three, Nagase and his team find themselves in more fast-paced, high-stakes adventures, and things aren’t any easier this time. Instead of working on low-budget movies, they have a knack for getting involved with assassination attempts and yakuza power struggles. But even after two volumes, the series is showing its legs, thanks to writer Youzaburou Kanari and artist Kuroko Yabuguchi’s willingness to take characters out of their comfort zones: the last sentence in the previous paragraph, you may have noticed, contained three items that can be found in any industrial kitchen. At one point, they’re all Nagase has to work with after his usual cache of tools and materials is disposed of.

The creative team also seems to understand that a hero is only as good as his nemesis. As such, volume three hints at a criminal SFX artist, who bears a tool very similar to Nagase’s own “Sacred Silver Spatula.” Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing the two go head-to-head, and not just because they each have the ability to alter reality; in previous volumes, there have been numerous shout-outs to great special effects moments in film history, so as a movie geek, I expect the references to come fast and furiously.

–Reviewed by Phil Guie

Kyo Kara MAOH!, Vol. 1

By Tomo Takabayashi and Temari Matsumoto
Tokyopop, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

The opening scene Kyo Kara MAOH! may remind you of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (or perhaps Trainspotting), as hapless teen Yuri Shibuya is sucked into an alternate realm via a toilet in the girls’ bathroom. Waking up in the middle of a field, Yuri is astonished to discover himself in a vaguely European country where the locals think he’s the next Maoh, or demon king. A team of dashing men rescue him from the clutches of a fearful mob, whisk him off to a castle, and begin grooming him to be the leader of the Mazokus, a race of supernatural hotties who view humans as their mortal enemies. Making matters worse: Yuri inadvertently proposes to the hot-headed Wolfram von Bielefeld, a Mazoku nobleman who questions Yuri’s right to the throne.

Despite the homoerotic hijinks, Kyo Kara MAOH! is, in fact, closer in spirit to Fushigi Yugi than Alone in My King’s Harem. Like Yuki Miaka, Yuri is an unremarkable teen in modern-day Japan; it’s not until he arrives in the Great Demon Kingdom that he discovers his special powers. True, Yuri is surrounded by impossibly handsome men, some of whom take a keen interest in him. But these suggestive moments are played for comic relief, not titillation, as homosexuality is no big deal among the Mazokus. (Wolfram’s mother is thrilled when Yuri “pops” the question to her son.)

Volume one is a quick read with crisp, if slightly generic, artwork. The characters bear a strong resemblance to their anime counterparts, right down to their military dress coats, artfully tousled locks, and unnaturally elongated bodies. The backgrounds are a little spare; I wish that Temari Matsumoto had invested more effort in bringing the story to life instead of relying on a few generic images–a castle, a rural landscape–to establish the setting. The translation, like the artwork, gets the job done, though I found the substitution of American pop culture references for Japanese ones quite jarring. On the whole, however, I enjoyed Kyo Kara MAOH!, and look forward to volume two.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Time Stranger Kyoko, Vol. 2

By Arina Tanemura
Viz, 210 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

This volume finds Princess Kyoko and her bodyguards on the search for more of the god stones required to awaken Princess Ui from her sixteen-year sleep. After the first two stones are found in the possession of the leaders of the dragon and flower tribes, the hunt is on for the rest of the tribe leaders in the hope that each of them will have one of the powerful jewels, too.

Each new psychic or “Stranger” that Kyoko encounters has some silly obstacle to overcome before they can join up with her, like nearly being sold at auction or being tricked into relinquishing their god stone to a member of the demon tribe. These stories are painfully boring and have absolutely zero depth, especially the one in which the leader of the fish tribe tells her sibling, “It doesn’t matter if we are brother and sister… I love you!” Arina Tanemura, you’re no Kaori Yuki. Just don’t even try.

Kyoko’s also preoccupied by the fact that someone kissed her while she slept in the last volume, so there’s much tedious speculation over who it could’ve been. This combined with everything else results in a muddle so mind-numbingly bad that I very nearly awarded this volume a D. A sudden twist in the final chapters provides the bare minimum of interest to avoid that fate, but I still can’t recommend slogging through the rest of it to get there.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Tomcats

By Mashiro Minamino
Aurora/Deux Press, 175 pp.
Rating: Mature

I really didn’t understand Tomcats. Not one bit. It’s apparently about humans and humanoid cats who live in a desert together, grow talking plants, catch sandfish, and have “fun” with each other–that much was clear. But there was no common thread flowing throughout the book; the chapters didn’t hang together. (Oddly enough for a yaoi title, there was almost no boy-love. It happened once, but it was very subtle and was played for laughs.) Though I didn’t “get” the plot, I did think the art was pretty solid and the characters were dynamic. I just get frustrated when manga doesn’t really have a set story or the manga-ka doesn’t bother to explain the set-up in a reasonable manner. Maybe I’m just being difficult because I’m not used to yaoi (I’ve never read any before), so I’d be willing to see where Tomcats goes in future volumes… if there were any. Maybe they’d be purr-fect.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek