Happy Labor Day! And speaking of labor, the protagonist in Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (VIZ) has got the worst job ever. Sam starts us off with a look at volume two of that title and also contributes a review of the sixth volume of The Record of a Fallen Vampire (VIZ); Isaac finds Lily Hoshino’s Love Quest (Yen Press) to be better than expected; Connie continues to enjoy Maid Sama! (TOKYOPOP), now in its second volume; and Michelle finds Millennium Prime Minister (DMP) to be strangely unoriginal, despite its wacky premise.
Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Vol. 2
By Motoro Mase
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)
Ikigami was an interesting double-edged sword for me. I had originally heard quite a lot about it from other reviewers and comic book owners so I had very high expectations, but I am on the edge, at least from this volume. In the volume, we travel alongside Fujimoto, an emissary of the government, delivering some extremely bad news to good people. He delivers death papers, giving the recipients 24 hours’ notice before death. Volume two follows two of these recipients, the first being a woman trying to support her recovering-drug-addict boyfriend as he makes his directorial debut. The second story follows the journey of a young man, Shoji, who works as a caretaker for the elderly and must raise his chin up and stay strong for those he cares for.
I really enjoyed the second story; it hits home on a lot of levels. The choices that Shoji makes, despite his insecurities about making a difference, are very human and not outside the realm of possibility. Also, it’s always touching to see the youth and elderly make an intensive connection. The first story is what I am shaky on. Though I appreciated and certainly felt the love between the young couple, I think the whole drug plot really takes over in a very negative way. I feel that the end of the story is predictable and seems more like a PSA than anything else.
In terms of the artwork, I am really pleased with Ikigami. The features on the characters were very human and struck the right chords, emotionally. I’d love to read the first volume and many more!
Volume two of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is available now.
–Reviewed by Sam Kusek
By Lily Hoshino
Yen Press, 174 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)
It was with great trepidation and reluctance that I picked up Lily Hoshino’s yaoi manga, Love Quest. My previous exposure to the so-called “Queen of yaoi” was through her better-known works My Only King and Alone in My King’s Harem. While these titles avoided the most common shortcoming of yaoi manga, mediocrity, they were instead just flat-out bad. The submissive characters were effeminate to the point of absurdity, the power dynamics in the relationships embodied all of the worst seme-uke yaoi clichés and the plot was as mind-numbing as listening to teabaggers talk about health care.
Fortunately, it turns out that the manga industry decided to get the worst of Lily Hoshino out of its system in the beginning. Love Quest is quite good for a one-volume yaoi manga. Eschewing the depth of longer series, these yaoi tomes serve as illustrated romance novels: they’re cheesy, the romance happens laughably fast, the characters’ motivations are obscure and the overarching “plot” is paper-thin. With all these caveats in mind, Love Quest delivers. The characters are both actually male, the slapstick humor serves admirably and the art is attractive. Don’t let the M rating fool you, though: the only x-rated action happens in a short afterward and a very smutty PWP one-chapter story.
There is a lot of better yaoi out there, but for a simple and cute pleasure you could do a lot worse than Love Quest.
Love Quest is available now.
–Reviewed by Isaac Hale
By Hiro Fujiwara
Tokyopop, 195 pp.
Rating: T (Ages 13+)
Misaki continues her quest to straighten out the male population of her school, an overwhelming majority in a formerly all-boys high school, and make life a little more pleasant and clean for everyone, especially the handful of scared girls. She rules with an iron fist in nearly every situation, and this volume contains stories about a forced formal apology from a wealthy school, an underhanded recruiter from that same wealthy school, and sports day. It just wouldn’t be a shojo manga without a proper romantic interest, so Usui tends to appear and help out in strangely skilled ways in various situations, including as the new part-time chef at the maid cafe Misaki works at.
I feel like I should probably hate Maid Sama! , but I just can’t. It’s a manga about a tough girl who works at a maid cafe, has a typical love interest, and runs through some fairly standard episodic stories. But it’s one of those rare cases where a shojo manga takes all the old plot devices and does wonderful things with them. Misaki continues to be a really funny and strong character despite the fact she acts most of the time in stereotypical tough girl fashion. Some familiar plot devices like school sports day and mean rich kids show up, but the sense of humor and the way the characters interact help make these normally tired stories very entertaining and funny. But the biggest draw is probably Usui, who brings most of the humor by simply showing up at just the right time and, bizarrely, being an expert at whatever task is at hand. He’s very silent and only breaks his mask when he offers a few choice romantic lines to Misaki. He’s got white knight syndrome, showing up to save the day more often than not at the end of the chapters, but these moments are usually drowning in cute romance, another unexpected strength for the series.
It’s series like Maid Sama! that remind us, sometimes, that these plot devices are used so frequently because they still work wonderfully if used right.
Volume two of Maid Sama! is available now.
–Reviewed by Connie C.
Millennium Prime Minister, Vol. 1
By Eiki Eiki
Digital Manga Publishing, 190 pp.
Rating: 16+
The premise of Millennium Prime Minister is so ridiculous it almost sounds fun. Minori Nagashima, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and video game aficionado, ditches school one day and ends up at an arcade, where she takes on and defeats an opponent who’s been trouncing the other patrons. Initially angry, the young man changes his tune when he sees Minori, and declares, “You can be my wife!!” Minori manages to escape his clutches, but soon learns his identity: the newly-elected Prime Minister of Japan, Kanata Okazaki. Kanata refuses to give up on the marriage idea and easily convinces Minori’s parents to give their permission, tricks Minori into appearing on a press conference announcing their engagement, and is pretty much a domineering yet playful jerk who says things like, “There’s no going back now. You have to marry me.”
Unfortunately, in its execution, the kooky story shows signs of a paradoxical unoriginality. Of course, the story begins with Minori running late for school. And of course, she runs into a duo of lecherous cretins, the ubiquitous sidewalk-dwelling foes of the shojo heroine. And of course, because of the media frenzy that ensues after the press conference, she moves in with Kanata and promptly walks in on him in the bath. The characters don’t rescue the narrative from its mediocrity, either, since Kanata is obnoxious and Minori puts up only a token resistance to his schemes. The biggest disappointment is Sai, the senior aide who provides the boys’ love element with his unrequited love for Kanata, who initially seems cool and stern but turns out to be weepy and immature.
Eiki Eiki’s art is clean and attractive, and I’m especially fond of the characters’ eyes and their expressive faces. She does seem to have a thing for elongated necks, though; check out the cover image for a particularly egregious example.
Volume one of Millennium Prime Minister is available now.
–Reviewed by Michelle Smith
The Record of a Fallen Vampire, Vol. 6
By Kyo Shirodaira and Yuri Kimura
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Young Adult (13+)
The sixth volume of The Record of a Fallen Vampire really turns the tables on me with its engrossing plot points, twists, and turns. It’s hard not to enjoy the story overall and I think that volume six really clenches that feeling. The volume opens up with the ending memories of Bridget, the vampire king’s faithful assistant, as she recalls her experience handling the “corrosive moon” alongside master sorceress Saverhagen. The plot then thickens as Bridget and her mix’n'match team of humans work to destroy the fake seals Strauss is looking for. Not everything may be as it seems, however, with Strauss brewing his own troublesome toxins elsewhere.
As I mentioned before in my review of volume five, this series is beginning to grow on me. The time that Kyo Shirodaira is taking to explain each and every minute detail is beginning to pay off. The art goes along the same lines. I am not terribly impressed by it; it has a childish, bulky element to it that is hard to escape. The characters are evolving nicely, though, standing out more and more as I see them. I have to say that I am excited for volume seven and if you are looking for a vampire read, check out The Record of a Fallen Vampire!
Volume six of The Record of a Fallen Vampire is available now.
–Reviewed by Sam Kusek
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