Titles from VIZ and Del Rey make up this week’s menu. Michelle starts us off with a look at volume 41 of InuYasha (VIZ); Melinda’s up next with her review of volume five of Kamichama Karin Chu (Del Rey); Phil contributes his opinion of Negima!’s 21st volume (Del Rey); Connie weighs in on the second volume of Orange Planet (Del Rey); and Isaac eloquently plays us out with a look at the fourth volume of Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka (VIZ).

InuYasha, Vol. 41

By Rumiko Takahashi
VIZ, 190 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

In the past few volumes, it’s begun to feel like the final confrontation between Inuyasha and the evil Naraku is drawing nigh. First, however, Inuyasha and friends must defeat Moryomaru, a living demonic armor constructed by and to protect the scheming infant that houses Naraku’s heart. Unless the heart is destroyed, Naraku will never truly die. Naraku, for his part, wants Moryomaru dead, too, and is seemingly content to let his enemies fight each other without getting involved.

Moryomaru absorbs powers from other demons to increase his offensive and defensive capabilities, so he’s a tough opponent. Luckily, Inuyasha has just acquired a handy new power for his sword, but it’s one that he’s having trouble controlling. Still, if he’s to have any chance at all against Moryomaru, he might have to use it.

Pretty much this entire volume is about Inuyasha trying to master his sword’s new power while Moryomaru causes a reanimated turtle demon to wreak havoc. Later, the gang and their goodish allies reunite to beat on Moryomaru for a bit, but he escapes. For fans of the series, this actually qualifies as progress, but even speaking as someone who really likes InuYasha, I rather doubt anyone else would enjoy starting here.

Volume 41 of InuYasha will be available on October 13, 2009.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Kamichama Karin Chu, Vol. 5

By Koge-Donbo
Del Rey, 176 pp.
Rating: T (13+)

Karin, Kazune, and Michiru are cast as the Three Musketeers in the school play, which Karin hopes will be her chance to bring Micchi back into the fold as a noble god. Things don’t quite go as planned, but thanks to some help from Jin Kuga, who steps in as an understudy at a crucial moment, and the somewhat fortuitous appearance of a chaos seed, Micchi eventually realizes his true place is as a god. Reunited, the three young gods are lured to the beach by their enemy, Kirio Karasuma, where Suzune reveals an unexpected new form during a close call with a swarm of jellyfish. Unfortunately, that’s not the only surprise waiting at the beach, and the second is much darker, both for the gods and for Jin.

This volume gets off to a weak start with the Three Musketeers storyline, which brings Micchi back into the group much too quickly and easily to be believed. The second half of the book is much stronger, however, moving the plot forward and stressing the urgency of the gods’ unity, as well as providing some very touching moments between Karin, Kazune, and their future son, Suzune. The way this story plays with time—the strong glimpses these young characters are given of both their past lives and their future selves—is what maintains its emotional core, and it is incidents like the one with Suzune in this volume that most touch the heart and make the story into something more than its many clichés might suggest.

At its best, Kamichama Karin Chu is a delightful marriage of magical-girl formula and true pre-pubescent fantasy, straight out of the mind of any imaginative young girl. Though this volume falls just short of its best, its strong final chapters prove that this fantasy is still alive and well.

Volume five of Kamichama Karin Chu is available now.

–Reviewed by Melinda Beasi

Negima!, Vol. 21

By Ken Akamatsu
Del Rey, 192 pp.
Rating: Ages 16+

Negima! is most likely to please fans of shonen manga, as there is plenty of action, as well as a scene of male bonding facilitated by a magical fistfight. That’s quite a contrast from the recently-reviewed Negima!? Neo, which is like a reimagining of Negima!’s origins seemingly aimed at female audiences. If you enjoyed that one, you might not necessarily feel the same way about the original, and vice versa; however, that hardly means Negima! cannot be successful on its own terms.

This volume is part of a larger story arc involving Negi’s quest to find his father, which gets interrupted by a mysterious platinum-haired kid with great magical powers. Neither storyline gets resolved here, but like many serials, there are self-contained arcs which are: after watching his friends get scattered to the four winds, Negi becomes all emo over not being strong enough to protect them. Luckily, he realizes that finding them is more important than dwelling on his personal shortcomings. As is the case in Negima!? Neo, the lessons learned by Negi aren’t necessarily the deepest, but they make for a stand-alone volume, and they’re appropriate ones for a ten-year-old wizardly student to learn.

Meanwhile, the quasi-sexual moments in Negima! seem more sinister than the fan service in Negima!? Neo. For example, there is a scene in which a female character gets attacked by a monster whose tentacles dissolve her clothing, and while there is supposed to be a punch line, there’s nothing all that funny about tentacle molestation. I’m not accusing Ken Akamatsu of misogyny, but in general, Negi’s girl pals get stuck as either sex objects or passive prisoners, while the two male characters beat people up. It’s just one volume, but a little more equality of the sexes would make this series more enjoyable.

Volume 21 of Negima! is available now.

–Reviewed by Phil Guie

Orange Planet, Vol. 2

By Haruka Fukushima
Del Rey, 170 pp.
Rating: T (13+)

In this installment, Rui’s classmates find out that Eisuke, the student teacher, is living with her, and things turn out badly. Eisuke is leaving, but Rui realizes that perhaps he isn’t the thorn in her side she thought he was. In fact, he leaves and gives her the same comforting words as her mystery boy from the funeral all those years ago. The story then skips ahead two years, and we begin to find out how things are going between Rui and her next-door neighbor Taro.

This is just a big mess. In addition to the first volume leaving absolutely no impression on me, the pacing is so manic and the characters so numerous and similar-looking in this volume that I had a hard time following the story. The volume opens with a confession between Rui and Kaoru, the boy Rui has a crush on, and I’m pretty sure Kaoru reappears throughout the volume, but unless he is addressed by name, I couldn’t tell when he was playing a role. The madcap pace set by Eisuke makes things especially hard to understand. So little of substance is actually going on (most of it is just Taro deciding he’s going to stick next to Rui and Rui dealing with her emotions) that following isn’t especially worthwhile.

About the only thing I really like about it, aside from the unusually upbeat heroine, is the love triangle between Rui, Taro, and Kaoru. It has a strong Venus in Love vibe since Kaoru actually loves Taro and not Rui. This plays almost no role after being mentioned, however, and you’d be better off reading Venus in Love or almost any other shojo manga, really.

Volume two of Orange Planet is available now.

–Reviewed by Connie C.

Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Vol. 4

By Naoki Urasawa
Published by Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen

In the fourth installment of Naoki Urasawa’s masterpiece Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, any fears that the series has nowhere to go but down are assuaged. Every time I think the series can’t get any better it cranks the dial up to eleven. As the twelve greatest robots in the world continue to be killed off one by one, we are still left with an overwhelming sense of helplessness in the face of a mysterious and seemingly invincible enemy. This volume also sees massive character developments for our lead character Gesicht, as we learn more about his backstory and motivations.

What’s far and beyond the best part of volume four is the new level to which it takes the series’ questions of humanity. Tezuka, who by all measures was a massive humanist, constantly made an argument for the expansiveness of human identity in Astro Boy, and Urasawa doesn’t shy away from similar assertions in Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka. The beginning of this volume features an extremely moving vignette involving Dr. Ochanomizu and a broken dog robot. No matter how hard Ochanomizu tries to save the robot dog, he cannot cheat death. The robot dog dies in Ochanomizu’s arms. Though the pet dog is “only” a robot, the connection between the doctor and the dog is incredibly real. For Urasawa and Tezuka’s stories alike, the message of love across preconceived identity barriers is strong and heart-moving.

To wrap it up: this series is awesome. Pick it up today. Even the art, which I haven’t mentioned, is incredibly detailed. Best of all, this volume contains a massive twist that you won’t see coming. This twist defines the series for me, and makes this perhaps Urasawa’s best work to date.

Volume four of Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka is available now.

–Reviewed by Isaac Hale

Review copies provided by the publishers.