Our reactions range all over the board this week. Chloe suggests alternative uses for volume two of Captive Hearts (Viz), Sam compares volume nine of Kurohime (Viz) to the Power Rangers but has nice things to say about the fifth and sixth volumes of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (Yen Press), Melinda finds the comedy in volume one of Main Street in Elysium (Netcomics) to be mean-spirited, Phil points out some flaws with volume four of Switch (Viz) but concedes that the cops are pretty, and Michelle really likes volume three of Two Flowers for the Dragon (CMX).

Captive Hearts, Vol. 2

By Matsuri Hino
Viz, 210 pp.
Rating: 13+

It’s never a good sign when the second volume of a series could (more or less) stand in for the first, and the latest stateside series from Vampire Knight ubercreator Matsuri Hino is nothing short of an exercise in banality. The series’ gimmick—a couple trapped in a master/servant dynamic because of an ancient curse—feels tired from the beginning, and the relative total lack of plot or character development does little to alleviate the situation. With all of the volume devoted to tangential, one-hit stories, one could at least hope for a central couple with some chemistry; alas, lead boy Megumi is all flailing limbs and overused tropes while his other half Suzuka is a bland slice o’ shojo heroine. No plot, no character, no atmosphere, not even a central narrator—why was this series allowed to exist beyond its first volume?

Perhaps the only redeeming feature that can be found in this plotless wonder is its art, as Captive Hearts clearly served as a chance for Hino to hone a talent for whipping up angst and pulling together a well-thought-out mise-en-scène. Solid skills at paneling and rendering emotion manage to make her paper-doll characters seen slightly more enlivened, albeit no less tolerable in the long run. Diehard Matsuri Hino fans may be more obliging when it comes to Captive Hearts’ second volume, but unless you have a dearth of kindling material for a fire, you are otherwise encouraged to keep far, far away.

Volume two of Captive Hearts is available now.

–Reviewed by Chloe Ferguson

Kurohime, Vol. 9

By Masanori • Ookamigumi • Katakura
VIZ, 195 pp.
Rating: Older Teen, 16+

Altogether, I have overall mixed feelings about the entire Kurohime series, and I feel that volume nine is an especially good portrayal of this. Volume nine followed not one or two story arcs, but I think three or four at once, which left me a little frazzled from reading it. Apparently, Kurohime is helping to fight a snow witch, while looking for mystical spirits and avoiding other mystical spirits, and fighting her ex-lover. It felt just jam-packed like a Saturday morning cartoon and, quite frankly, the dialogue read as such. Think really bad Power Rangers mixed with Speed Racer. I understand that as shonen, it’s not always about the writing, but more about the action and Kurohime follows through on that front.

The art has also caused a bit of a dilemma for me, becoming quite a double-edged sword. At times, Kurohime has also come off as oversexed fan service, sometimes mixed in with cutesy drawings of Kurohime’s toned down form. On the other hand, some of the drawings of the weaponry as well as character design are top notch, rivaling a lot of what is on the shelves these days.

Volume nine of Kurohime is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Main Street in Elysium, Vol. 1

By Masahiro Nikaidou
Published by NETCOMICS
Rating: 16+

Main Street in Elysium is a four-panel comic strip based on the idea that there is much humor to be found in women’s hatred of their in-laws. There are a few other running jokes (one, for instance, in which a pretty woman observes the mistreatment of a less pretty woman, each time confessing, “I’m glad I wasn’t born ugly”) but the vast majority of the strips concern women who hate their in-laws, often to the extent of becoming homicidal. One woman, for example, keeps her father-in-law outside in a doghouse. She serves him week-old leftovers or scraps from the garbage, and sometimes takes him out for walks on a leash, pointing out important landmarks like the funeral home and the cemetery. Another woman, Noriko, repeatedly attempts to murder her bedridden mother-in-law by means such as strangulation, poisoning, drowning, or pushing her wheelchair off a cliff.

This comic strip has won awards in Japan, but it’s difficult to reconcile that fact with its overwhelmingly mean-spirited tone. None of the in-laws appear to do anything to warrant their treatment. They accept their children’s abuse without complaint (though Noriko’s mother-in-law at least defends herself in order to stay alive), and seem to do little else outside of occasionally asking to go for a walk. There is some humor in the extreme politeness with which they address each other, as well as in the physical extremes to which the women will go in their attempts to do away with their hated relatives, but those jokes get old quickly, leaving the reader with a handful of characters who are just not very likable.

Nikaidou’s art is quirky, fun, and quite expressive at times. Unfortunately, the comic’s dark humor too often misses the mark.

Volume one of Main Street in Elysium is available online at NETCOMICS.com.

–Reviewed by Melinda Beasi

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Vols. 5-6

By Kyo Shirodaira and Eita Mizuno
Yen Press, 195 pp.
Rating: Teen, 13+

Things heat up in volumes five and six of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning. Volume five opens up with the intensive end to the explosive (pun intended) battle between Ayumu Narumi and Rio Takeuchi. Both survive the firefight but Rio is taken back to the hospital, where she and Narumi are met by Eyes Rutherford. He informs them that a “Hunter” is coming to kill all of the Blade Children and that he must start recruiting for the fight. Sadly, the “Hunter” is none other than his beloved friend, Kanon. The rest of the volumes lead up to the big Kanon entrance as well as his tussle with some of the Blade Children and Narumi himself.

Spiral has always struck me as a very interesting Manga. On the surface, it appears to be rather light and fluffy, most due to its art style; however, the actual story is much deeper. The tale of the Blade Children and their struggle seems rather complex but the book does a nice job of managing its characters and storylines so nothing gets lost; the focus of the story arc remains consistent throughout the book. It reminded me a lot of Brick, with its film noir aspects and complex, menacing character.

Volumes 5 and 6 of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning are available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Switch, Vol. 4

By Naked Ape: Saki Otoh and Nakamura Tomomi
Viz Media
Rating: T+ for Older Teen

There are a lot of characters in Switch and almost all of them are surprisingly attractive cops. Luckily, that’s not all this series, which centers around a special narcotics task force, has to offer.

Although it may not be readily accessible to new readers, Switch does boast crime-related tales told at a steady and efficient clip. They’re not fast-paced by any means, and not a single explosion or gunfight—or even a foot chase—is to be found in volume four, but the stories are sufficiently involving, alternating between the nuts and bolts of investigative work and the depths of drug addiction.

Despite the overall serious tone, some humor is supplied by the ensemble of heartthrob cops, who run the gamut of character types and amount to a male harem, minus the love interest. Uninitiated readers may have trouble telling them all apart at first, but it’s a good thing they’re there; without the occasional wild facial expression, the series’ anti-drug message would be as overwrought as the worst after school special. Creators Naked Ape try to touch on issues faced by society regarding drug addiction—at one point, a junkie’s mom withholds vital information because she doesn’t want her daughter going to jail with her supplier. But Switch mostly preys on the worst of our fears: dealers and users are uniformly depicted as shifty-eyed and zombified abusers of women and young girls, or worse. At least the investigators are pretty.

Volume four of Switch is available now.

–Reviewed by By Phil Guie

Two Flowers for the Dragon, Vol. 3

By Nari Kusakawa
CMX, 192 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Shakuya, the heir to the dragon clan that rules an important desert oasis, has a rather complicated life. Not only does she turn into a dragon when her feelings grow too strong, but she also has two fiancés since the original one, who was missing for five years, suddenly returned with most of his memory missing. This third volume finds Shakuya being sent to a neighboring oasis to help regulate the flow of water that allows their crops to grow. Both fiancés and a bevy of squeeful handmaids, who delight in their mistress’s love triangle, accompany her.

The regulation of the water and the attempt to dispel a dangerous sandstorm takes a back seat to more personal drama, as Lucien encounters the woman who took him in when he was lost in the desert, who might also be the person with whom Shakuya’s father had an affair that resulted in his banishment from the dragon clan. The ultimate outcome of this meeting is kind of predictable, but it also introduces some new mysteries about Lucien’s time away from the village and the extent of Shakuya’s dragon powers.

I find Two Flowers for the Dragon to be a very fun read. The art is cute, the characters are likable, the women aren’t helpless, and the dialogue is great. In addition to that, it’s funny. Not so much in volume three, perhaps, with all its action, but I typically giggle several times per volume. Also, I think Kusakawa has some of the most amusing sidebar material I’ve ever seen.

Volume three of Two Flowers for the Dragon is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith