I-Doll, Vol.1

By Mi-Ae Choi
Tokyopop, 184 pp.
Rating: 13+

Ji-Yoo Lee is caught gambling illegally. Na-rae is busted for a concert brawl. Hyung-Goo Kang is put down for street fighting. One night, three police writeups and a few phone calls later, all three students find themselves caught up in a decidedly different reform program: starting a rock band. The brainchild of their beleaguered principal, the band is supposed to build friendship and civility amongst its participants, but brash attitudes, blood enmity and a few killer right hooks are hardly conducive to great music. Can an obstinate group of delinquents pull together a group? Or perhaps more importantly, can they afford not to?

Oh, the plot indulgence—because community service is clearly too old school for the new breed of delinquency. All willing suspension of disbelief aside, I-Doll proves a moderately enjoyable title that is much better than it looks. Granted, the main leads are hardly groundbreaking, with Na-rae as the obligatory obstinate girl and Ji-Yoo Lee and Nyung-Goo Kang filling out the roles of “troubled prodigy” and “prickly fighter” respectively, but there’s a touch of originality here that pumps some substance into them. The majority of volume one is dedicated to setting up the character dynamics for the next installment, primarily by introducing various side characters with conflicting designs on the leads and, of course, forming the band.

Most surprisingly, the title seems to have an almost shojo bent—something you’d never guess from its dark cover graphic and categorization as “comedy.” The primary speaker is Na-Rae, the resident girl, and a flashback to past trauma in her life coupled with sisterly troubles seems to indicate that her baggage is the first up to be unloaded. Having seen plenty of shojo, the makings of future love polygons seem at hand, which (when coupled with the disproportionate number of attractive males floating around) seem to have all the trappings of a title with a more girl-oriented lead. Conceivably it appeals to a male audience, but the closest parallel is undeniably seoung-jun manhwa.

The art seems to agree with this, as the polygonal sparkles and lighter screentones are out in full force. The art has much in common with other Korean titles, from sharper character angles to its generally unobtrusive vibe. There’s no reason to linger, but the art never detracts. The primary beef should be with Tokyopop’s handling of the title, as the cover design does it no favors. (It’s one of the chapter pages retouched with a rather glaring aqua blue digital brush.) Tokyopop: this title could sell with girls, but not if you hide its nature so thoroughly they’d have to read it to figure that out!

I-Doll may not be a masterpiece of creative wit, but it does engage and entertain on a basic enough level to be worth a read. Tokyopop’s catalogue can be a bit of a downer, making I-Doll stand apart if only because of its perfectly readable, perfectly likeable nature. There’s the promise of more tension and plenty of drama in future volumes as the band progresses on its path to success, and while the ending is predictable already, this doesn’t per se make the journey irredeemable. This may be one to watch—although it would help if they could make sure the right demographic is watching it…

Volume one of I-Doll is available now.

Demons who snack on dreams… vampires who suffer from split personalities… cougars who run major corporations. These are just a few of the characters you’ll encounter in this month’s column, as Chloe Ferguson and I post a fresh crop of shojo and seinen reviews that includes volume two of Metro Survive (DrMaster), volume two of Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun (Viz), volume one of Red Angel (DMP), volume one of Two Flowers for the Dragon (CMX), and volume one of Ultimate Venus (Go! Comi).

Metro Survive, Vol. 2

By Yuki Fujisawa
DrMaster, 208 pp.
Rating: 15+

The second volume of this balls-to-the-wall disaster drama pits Mishima and his ragtag band of fellow survivors against a posse of hooligans under the spell of two charismatic host club owners. And what a pimp-tastic pair they are: one sports a fur that would be the envy of Joe Namath, the other a white suit pilfered from the Superfly prop trailer. (Both look freshly pressed, despite the rivers of gasoline, sewage, and blood flooding the basement levels of Exopolis.) Artist Yuki Fujisawa doesn’t waste a panel as he steadily escalates the conflict between these two groups to a point of almost unbearable tension. Though Fujisawa attempts a few curveballs, the basic plot is fairly predictable, with expendables meeting gruesome ends while principals take turns demonstrating hidden reserves of selflessness and courage. Fujisawa wisely brings the story to a close at the end of volume two with a final act that will please—if not surprise—readers. As I noted in my review of volume one, the big drawback to Metro Survive is the art. Frankly, it’s ugly, with too many speedlines, too many muddy backgrounds, and too many characters drawn in a cartoonish manner. If you’re not a stickler for pretty pictures, however, you could do a lot worse than this brutally efficient two-volume thriller, which reads like a Quentin Tarantino remake of Earthquake.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun, Vol. 2

By Shin Mashiba
Viz, 184 pp.
Rating: 13+

Nightmare Inspector is an exceptionally good retread, filled with lush visuals. The premise—a tea house with a resident baku, or dream eater, that will attend to customers’ supernatural needs at a price—calls to mind obvious comparisons to xxxHolic, but the series’ artistic tone strikes a different note. Fans of the latter may identify similar story strengths and weaknesses with the former, namely in the dark, one-shot nature of each anecdote and the generally cynical take on human nature. The stories are small, deliciously well-done tales of human viciousness and supernatural personification, in which everyone from the dead to ordinary household objects may show up with a request. That said, Nightmare Inspector’s dogged adherence to single, thirty-page tales must ultimately diversify if the series wishes to sustain readers’ interest beyond a single volume.

Even if the plot setup doesn’t compel you to pick up a copy, the art alone should prove enticing. Striking an Art Nouveau balance between Far East and Victorian West, the swirling colors and dreamy screentones create an ambiguous world in which menace hides behind the fantastic. Manga-ka Shin Mashiba turns mediums and styles into key story elements, generally to impressive ends. A middle story in which charcoal drawings play a key role is one of most ingenious uses of art to further story seen in quite a long time. Nightmare Inspector’s formula may have been done before, but this stylish series still manages to prove its shelf-worthiness several times over.

–Reviewed by Chloe Ferguson

Red Angel, Vol. 1

By Makoto Tateno
DMP, 176 pp.
Rating: YA (Young Adult, 16+)

Mika and Eru are twin vampires with an unusual arrangement: the two share a body, variously manifesting themselves as a comely girl (Mika) or an androgynously beautiful boy (Eru). The two use their good looks to lure victims into their web—or at least, that’s how the volume begins, with a suitably creepy, faintly erotic story told from the perspective of one of their conquests. None of the subsequent chapters live up to the promise of the first, however. Manga-ka Makoto Tateno reduces Mika and Eru from actual participants in the stories to passive observers of other vampires’ tortured (but not very interesting) relationships. The final chapter takes the cake for sheer absurdity, suggesting that Tateno should spend less time trawling New Age sites for angel lore and more time actually consulting a Bible for the low-down on Satan’s heavenly exile. Though some reviewers have praised the art, I found it paradoxically busy and plain, with too much attention lavished on costumes and hair and not enough on backgrounds, faces, or basic anatomy. (All of the characters have the kind of razor-sharp chins and beanstalk necks I associate with CLAMP’s debut work.) I give Tateno credit for trying to put her own stamp on the gothic vampire romance—her vamps have beautiful red wings, for example—but wish she’d spent more time developing Mika and Eru into genuine characters instead of allowing them to remain blood-sucking ciphers.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Two Flowers for the Dragon, Vol. 1

By Nari Kusakawa
CMX, 192 pp.
Rating: Teen

Shakuya, the plucky protagonist of Two Flowers for the Dragon, belongs to a powerful clan boasting both human and dragon bloodlines. As a child, her parents selected a fiancé for her. When he went AWOL, Shakuya cast her lot with a new suitor, only to have her original husband-to-be resurface with no memory of his past. You don’t need to be a folklorist to guess where this old-as-the-hills story is headed: Shakuya announces a contest to determine which of her two beaus will become her husband.

The plot mechanics are a little creaky, especially the contrast between Shakuya’s amnesiac fiancé—a dashing rogue with flowing locks and the kind of cocky demeanor that rankles and intrigues at the same time—and her new man—a Dudley Do-Right who can be as stiff as Al Gore on the 2000 campaign trail. The art, too, is so-so. Readers of The Recipe for Gertrude and The Palette of 12 Secret Colors will quickly discover that Nari Kusakawa has a limited repertoire of character designs in her arsenal. Yet Two Flowers of the Dragon leaves a fresh, vibrant impression. Part of the story’s appeal is attributable to Shakuya, who’s smarter and more self-possessed than most shojo heroines; one of the series’ running jokes is that she’s actually more powerful than either Lucien or Kuwan. (She can transform into a badass dragon, capable of smoking anyone in her path.) The series’ other great strength is the way Kusakawa uses slapstick and supernatural intrigue to reveal her characters’ true emotional states. Even a gambit as shameless as introducing two button-cute tiger cubs serves a genuine dramatic purpose, showing us how protective and solicitous Shakuya really is. The bottom line: Two Flowers for the Dragon surprises and delights, even when it follows shojo formula to the letter.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Ultimate Venus, Vol. 1

By Takako Shigematsu
Go! Comi, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Sometimes promotional copy can be misleading. After reading the back cover of Ultimate Venus, for example, I concluded that Takako Shigematsu had updated Pygmalion for the shojo set by making the Henry Higgins figure young and sexy, rather than fussy and middle-aged:

Poor Yuzu is an orphan who’s too clumsy to hold a job. She’s reduced to living in a playground—until a handsome stranger named Hassaku informs her that she’s the heir to a fortune, and whisks her into world of wealth, power, and more hot suitors than she can shake a scepter at! But there’s a catch: Hassaku must turn this klutz into a lady of refinement, or Yuzu will lose everything!

While the blurb is an accurate summary of the volume’s first thirty pages, the story takes an abrupt detour from the “Street Where You Live” to Knot’s Landing, as Yuzu discovers her extended family will stop at nothing to prevent her from inheriting her grandmother’s corporate empire. Hassaku morphs from etiquette coach to bodyguard, trailing Yuzu everywhere she goes to prevent an unscrupulous aunt or cousin from nabbing her. Making his task more difficult is Yuzu herself; earnest and naïve, she’s quick to judge and even quicker to fall in love, traits that guarantee she’ll need rescuing at the end of every chapter.

If the main story line is strictly paint-by-numbers, the subplot involving Yuzu’s grandmother is not. Shigematsu portrays her as a sexy business woman in her forties, the kind of sleek, powerful character that Barbara Stanwyck or Ellen Barkin was born to play. Throughout the volume, Shigematsu dangles the possibility that Hassaku and Yuzu’s grandmother have a more intimate bond than employee/employer—a pairing that’s supposed to make the target audience feel sympathy for Yuzu. For those of us entering cougar territory, however, the scenes with Yuzu’s grandmother are a blast of fresh air: funny, outrageous, and a potent reminder that confidence is much more sexy than fumbling, self-effacing naivete. If Shigematsu ever does a spin-off project featuring Yuzu’s grandmother, I’ll be the first to buy it.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Enchanter, Vols. 5-8

By Izumi Kawachi
Published by DMP
Rated: YA (For Young Adults 16+)

On the one hand, Enchanter features a sensitive male character, Haruhiko, who spends a lot of time dwelling on his romantic feelings. He believes there’s one true love for him, which causes much frustration as he’s constantly surrounded by shapely beauties and sexual come-ons.

Yet Enchanter isn’t as tacky as it sounds, mainly because the sexual elements are done for laughs. Indeed, this series is gratuitous to the point where it borders on parody; if I had a quarter for every flash of underwear by Eukanaria – a voluptuous demon and the lead female character – all four volumes I read would have paid for themselves. But I will admit that by the time I was finished, I found I had developed a genuine affection for Enchanter, which had nothing to do with cheap titillation as much as the interesting relationships between characters.

Haruhiko is both a high school student as well as an “enchanter,” a crafter of magical weapons used by demons. In the world of the series, demons constantly contract with humans presumed to have enchanting potential, exchanging them mystical power for their services. These close bonds frequently lead to the two parties becoming lovers, as was the case with Eukanaria and a human named Fulcanelli.

Unfortunately, Fulcanelli met with an untimely demise, leaving Eukanaria searching for a new host for his soul. Haruhiko seems like the perfect vessel, but the rules of soul-transfer require him to have sex with someone first, so Eukanaria is constantly trying to help him win over Yuka, his crush and slightly-older teacher. He claims to only have eyes for her, despite comely demons and fellow enchanters repeatedly piquing his interest. Further complicating the picture is some tension between him and Eukanaria, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Yuka, as does he to Fulcanelli (The personalities between doppelgangers are totally different, of course; otherwise there’d be no obstacle keeping Haruhiko and Eukanaria from simply ending up with each other).

Basically, Enchanter takes high school soap opera clichés – Boy A likes Girl B; Girl C likes Boy A; Boy A takes part in a craft fair to impress Girl B; etc. – and splices them with magic and occasional monster-fighting. Those looking for non-stop action may be disappointed, but the slapstick humor does get kinetic at times. The series actually works better as comedy, since Haruhiko’s raging hormones, romantic uncertainty, and seemingly-relentless fantasy life about Yuka help keep the tone light.

But what makes Enchanter especially interesting is the use of the demon/enchanter contract to reflect the entire spectrum of interpersonal relationships. There’s a demon and enchanter who both have trouble expressing how much they really care about each other; a character who contracts with a demon to try and make Haruhiko jealous (which only results in her constantly berating the demon, who acts thoroughly morose in response); and a diametrically-opposed demon and enchanter couple whose incompatibility literally causes them to bump heads. However, like any storyteller skilled with metaphor, writer/artist Izumi Kawachi knows how to effectively disguise the subtext so casual readers are only seeing cool fight scenes.

I also liked how Eukanaria, who could have been depicted as a mere sexpot, is quite possibly the most complicated character in the series. True, she’s frequently crass, but shows a surprisingly vulnerable side in volumes five through eight, in which we also learn how different her relationship with Haruhiko is from hers with Fulcanelli. Some readers will be impressed by the different sides Eukanaria shows. Others won’t be able to turn their eyes away from the gratuitous panty flash, and that’s probably okay, too.

Volumes five through eight of Enchanter are available now.

Real, Vol. 1

By Takehiko Inoue
Viz, 224 pp.
Rating: T + (Older Teen)

From Takehiko Inoue, creator of Vagabond, comes Real a series in which the lives of three boys, their trials, triumphs and failures are chronicled. The three heroes come from three different walks of life, but find their lives intertwining due to two common threads: a love of a basketball, and incidents that leave them (or a friend) without the use of their legs.

The story starts off a bit oddly, focusing on Nomiya, a huge goofball with a deep passion for the game of basketball. Unfortunately he ruined his chances with school and within the sport after getting into a motorcycle accident. While he walked away virtually unscathed, his passenger was not so lucky. He knows next to nothing about the girl, Natsumi. He just picked up on that unfortunate night, but since then he’s dedicated himself to trying to help her out and to be there for her. During one of his frequent visits to her at the hospital they encounter the wheelchair-bound Kiyoharu practicing basketball at a nearby gym. From there things start to happen fairly quickly: the encounter with Kiyoharu leads to an interest in wheelchair basketball, partly because Noyima is amazed at how good Kiyoharu is and partly because his one-on-one match with Kiyoharu ultimately resulted in Natsumi smiling for the first time that he can remember. (Unfortunately, it’s also the last time he gets to see Natsumi as she moves away shortly after.) As his friendship with Kiyoharu slowly grows, Nomiya begins to cook up various schemes to earn money so that he can go and visit Natsumi.

The plot feels a bit disjointed at first. It takes a little while before the two characters really click with each other and before their goals are made plain, though towards the end of the volume it seems like Nomiya is using his desire to visit the girl he crippled as an excuse to hang around with Kiyoharu more than anything.

The third major character, Hisanobu, actually starts off at the periphery of the story. When we first see him, it’s as an antagonist or supporting character, you might even think he’s a one off-character as he vanishes towards the middle portion of the book. When he reappears towards the end of the volume, Inoue uses this rather unlikable character to show a formerly athletic person going through the early stages of paralysis. Whether or not it’s enough to make him sympathetic is another question completely, it almost feels like karmic payback for his jerkish behavior earlier in the volume, not to mention his criminal behavior shortly before his own accident. Still, it’s an interesting move and it does give us a glimpse at the paralysis situation from another angle–the beginning–as opposed to Kiyoharu, who’s been in a wheelchair for quite a while.

The artwork is lovely and is just about everything I’ve come to expect from Inoue thanks to his work on Vagabond. While it’s a little rougher around the edges, it’s not enough to detract from the work or the storytelling at all. The same attention to detail, the expressive characters and their distinct facial features are all here and it’s all depicted wonderfully. Some might find the wheelchair basket ball bits a little lacking though, Inoue doesn’t really spend much time with them, giving the reader only the barest of glimpses instead. Personally, I rather hope that he gives more space over to them as the series goes on. I’d be curious to see how he’d handle a match that takes place over more than a couple of pages.

In the end, Real is another strong first outing from Inoue, and a nice addition to the Viz Signature line as well.

Volume 1 of Real will be available on July 15th.

Fancy a bit of the ultra-violence? If so, you’ll be thrilled to learn that Gantz (Dark Horse) arrives in stores this week, complete with shrink-wrap and parental warning sticker. This much-anticipated sci-fi series is really a video game in disguise, as it consists primarily of elaborately choreographed combat scenes (usually resulting in baroque bodily mutilations). Not exactly my cup of tea, but the art looks sharp. At the other end of the spectrum is the ultra-cute Kamichama Karin-Chu (Del Rey), yet another Koge-Donbo comedy starring a saucer-eyed moppet with hidden powers. I’m finding the middle ground a more congenial place to be this week, as stores stock up on new volumes of Cat-Eyed Boy (Viz), Nodame Cantabile (Del Rey), and Pumpkin Scissors (Del Rey). My top picks for Wednesday, related in haiku form for no particular reason other than my personal amusement:

Apple, Vol. 1 (UDON Entertainment)
Korean comics
In glorious full color
Kind of like Robot.

Dororo, Vol. 2 (Vertical, Inc.)
Hyakkimaru
Is missing forty-eight parts
That has got to hurt.

xxxHolic, Vol. 12 (Del Rey)
Poor Watanuki
Should make out with Domeki
And give up on girls.

SHIPPING THIS WEEK
Alive: The Final Evolution, Vol. 5 (Del Rey)
Apple Anthology Vol. 1 (UDON Entertainment)
Cat-Eyed Boy, Vol. 2 (Viz)
Don’t Blame Me, Vol. 2 (DMP)
Dororo, Vol. 2 (Vertical, Inc.)
Flock of Angels, Vol. 3 (Aurora)
Gantz, Vol. 1 (Dark Horse)
Great Place High School (DMP)
Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 2 (DMP)
I Shall Never Return, Vol. 3 (Aurora/Deux)
Kamichama Karin-Chu, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)
Le Chevalier d’Eon, Vol. 5 (Del Rey)
Love Recipe, Vol. 2 (DMP)
Moon Child, Vol. 11 (CMX)
Nodame Cantabile, Vol. 14 (Del Rey)
Oh! My Goddess Authentic Edition, Vol. 9 (Dark Horse)
Pumpkin Scissors, Vol. 3 (Del Rey)
Suzuka, Vol. 8 (Del Rey)
Tomcats (DMP)
Tower of the Future, Vol. 11 (CMX)
xxxHolic, Vol. 12 (Del Rey)

ES: Eternal Sabbath, Vols. 1-8

By Fuyumi Soryo
Published by Del Rey
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

The vivid images that haunt us when we sleep seem like perfect fodder for art. Yet we often produce dream-inspired work that’s much goofier and far less potent than our nocturnal imaginings: think of Salvador Dali’s unabashedly Freudian dream sequence in Spellbound (the one false note in an otherwise great thriller), or John Fuseli’s heavy-handed symbolism in The Nightmare (in which a Rubenesque sleeper is tormented by a ghostly horse and an incubus, the ultimate Romantic two-fer). These images fail to shock because they seem too mannered, too staid—in short, too neat, failing to capture the subconscious mind’s ability to juxtapose the banal with the fantastic. In ES: Eternal Sabbath, however, manga-ka Fuyumi Soryo steers clear of the clichés and overripe imagery that reduce so many dreamy works to kitsch, producing a taut, spooky thriller that reminds us just how weird and terrifying a place the mind can be.

The first volume of ES introduces us to Shuro, a young man with the ability to read thoughts. Shuro uses the information he gathers from other people to impersonate their friends and family members, wiping their memories clean when he tires of the situation. One afternoon, Shuro bumps into neuroscientist Mine Kujyou just as a man is being bludgeoned to death in front of a dozen horrified onlookers. Mine is shocked when no one remembers seeing Shuro saunter past the crime scene in a state of utter indifference, as if he knew what was about to transpire. Her researcher’s instinct piqued, she begins to track Shuro’s movements, initiating a game of cat-and-mouse that quickly escalates into psychological warfare.

In a plot twist that would surely please Fox Mulder, a researcher from a clandestine government laboratory arrives on the scene, Smoking Man style, to explain that Shuro is, in fact, a clone, created by scientists on the hunt for the “eternal sabbath,” a.k.a. eternal youth, gene. (The psychic powers powers are a happy by-product of the experiment.) Shuro escaped from his creators with fellow clone Isaac, an even more powerful, less scrupulous mind reader with a destructive agenda. Mine must then decide whether to assist Shuro and Isaac’s creator in re-capturing the wayward clones, or to allow Shuro to disappear back into the shadows.

To be sure, many of ES: Eternal Sabbath’s themes are science fiction staples: do scientists have an ethical obligation to treat engineered life forms with the same care as humans? Are there realms of knowledge and experience that cannot be quantified or explained through modern science? That such tried-and-true questions resonate with us is testament to Soryo’s storytelling skills. She never offers pat answers, nor does she use her characters as mouthpieces for condemning genetic research. Instead, she creates a small, intimately linked cast whose conflicting desires, insecurities, fears, and friendships dramatize the series’ overarching theme, what does it mean to be human?, while underscoring the horror and poignancy of the clones’ liminal status.

Soryo’s artwork is up to the task of telling her ambitious story. Her character designs, though a little blank-faced, are refreshingly realistic, as are her detailed backdrops. (Mine and Shuro both look preternaturally calm most of the time, as if they’d OD’ed on tranquilizers.) Where Soryo really shines, however, are the dream sequences, which are visceral and unsettling. In volume one, for example, there’s a brief scene in which a large insect emerges from a disturbingly organic mass that suddenly shatters into hundreds of living, moving pieces. The strangeness of the image, the abrupt shift in mood, the blurry line between inanimate and animate objects—these feel like an authentic product of the subconscious, and not a Freudian rebus to be decoded by the audience.

I could cavil about a few details, but on the whole, this eight-volume series has few wasted pages. The story moves at a brisk clip without sacrificing characterization or common sense; the art suggests the workings of the subconscious mind without silliness; and the ending is genuinely moving and surprising. Science fiction fanatics will find much to like here, as will horror buffs, josei aficionados, and readers who like the idea that women can kick butt in the sciences, Lawrence Summers and evil clones be damned.

All eight volumes of ES: Eternal Sabbath are available now.

One of the first manga I ever read was by Masamune Shirow. I came across a volume of Appleseed in a CD store one day and was absolutely ecstatic! Prior to this, I had only seen the anime OVA and actually had no idea that a manga version existed. Hell, at that point I wasn’t even aware of the term manga at all.

Since then I’ve been hooked on Shirow: Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Dominion. Love his work. The highly detailed artwork, the reoccurring themes of technology and how it changes our relationship with the environment and what it means to be human, the incredible depth and thought he puts into crafting the world for each of his works—I can’t get enough. Nowadays, though, he almost seems to be overlooked and forgotten. Seinen isn’t “in” anymore—it’s all about the shonen, so hopefully this little guide will introduce him to some new readers. It’s the perfect time for this too, what with Dark Horse re-releasing all of his work in the unflipped and unedited format for the first time. Well, all of his work except for Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2:

• Black Magic M-66 (1983)
• Appleseed 1 (1985)
• Appleseed 2 (1985)
• Dominion (1986)
• Appleseed 3 (1987)
• Appleseed 4 (1989)
• Ghost in the Shell (1991)
• Orion (1991)
• Dominion: Conflict 1 (No More Noise) (1995)
• Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface (2001) (released in collected form in America on January 19, 2005)
• Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human Error Processor (2003) (original version of Ghost in the Shell 2, scrapped when Ghost in the Shell 2 was collected in a single volume, but recently rereleased in Japan)

Sadly, for the past several years Shirow hasn’t been quite as active a creator as he has been in the past. Several announced books have yet to materialize, and in some cases these are projects announced in the mid 1990s such as Dominion: Conflict 2 and Appleseed 5. One can only hope.

A fantastic Shirow resource on the web is the Masamune Shirow Hyperpage. It has news and pictures on various new Shirow related products ranging from movies to toys, from art books to USB Tachikoma’s. (Continued)

Aria, Vol. 1

By Kozue Amano
ADV Manga, 174 pp.
Rated: All Ages

If you can’t afford that trip to Venice this summer, you can still pick up “Aria,” which takes place in a city with very similar waterways. Starring a young gondola rower and tour guide-in-training, this enjoyable series explores Mars in the year 2301, but is mostly set in Neo-Venezia, which like its Italian forefather is partially underwater.

The first volume introduces us to Akari Mizunashi, an Earthling who relocated to the Red Planet to study the art of being an undine. She’s lived on Mars for almost a year, gone from new recruit to trainee, and has a number of friends including President Aria, the blue-eyed cat of the company employing her.

Akari can’t take on a passenger without an instructor present, but there’s still plenty of room for funny hi-jinks. Meanwhile, writer/artist Kozue Amano does sufficient world-building in volume one, explaining how the Red Planet became the “Water Planet” and throwing in other details. Apparently, Mars circa 2301 is considered backwards compared to Earth, but interestingly, that only means it’s slightly more advanced than the Earth we all know.

“Hi-jinks” might have been the wrong word, since the action is as sedate as a voyage on calm waters and all developments are age appropriate. A typical Akari adventure is encountering a lost vacationer, scrubbing the barnacles from her gondola, feeding ducks off a bridge, or taking part in Neo-Venezia’s annual boat race. The only tonal shift might be in “Sun Shower,” a chapter in which she visits a traditional-style Japanese shrine. Here, the canals of Neo-Venezia are traded in for lush forestry and textured stone, but there’s also a procession of masked figures and an atmosphere of quiet mystery.

If there is an underlying message throughout this first volume of Aria, it’s that life is full of magical moments and people should enjoy them. Akari seems to teach that to somebody in almost every chapter. She also embodies that sentiment; whether lost on vacation, performing manual labor, or being stood up by a friend, she’s one of those relentlessly-upbeat life forms spotting the silver lining in every dark cloud. Ultimately, your tolerance for this type of main character will probably determine how much you enjoy this manga, even more so than Amano’s bright, clean artwork and painstakingly-realized architectural details.

In the end, Aria is no space opera featuring good and bad guys, more like the journal of a young woman who is developing as both a professional and a human being.

Volume one of Aria is currently available through Tokyopop in a new translation. For additional perspectives on Aria, please see Erin F.’s review from 2006.

Croquis Pop, Vol. 1

Story by KwangHyun Seo, Art by JinHo Ko
Yen Press, 208 pp.
Rating: Teen

“The word croquis comes from French and means simply “sketch”.” - Wikipedia: Croquis.

Da-Il is the latest assistant to famous comic creator Ho Go, but, sadly, he’s not much of an artist. Still, that’s not the kind of thing that’ll keep him from attempting to fulfill a dream that he and his deceased mother shared: to draw the hopes and dreams of everyone! Of course, not being able to draw does get in the way, but as it turns out that’s the least of his worries. During his first night on the job he encounters Mu-Huk, a spirit who informs Da-Il that he’s a Croquis, a person with ability to give life to his drawings and ideas in the form of ghosts, and it’s Mu-Huk’s job to dispatch these other spirits. Thus begins one of the oddest books I’ve ever come across.

I’m really not sure where to begin. The mechanics behind the plot are just amazingly convoluted, yet incredibly interesting as well. Da-Il can bring to life the images he draws. These then become ghosts that inhabit their own lil’ sphere, a realm that sometimes crosses over with the real world trapping Da-Il inside of it… but Mu-Huk’s a spirit that battles these spirits and who was also given form by Da-Il’s power! To make things even more confusing, he apparently doesn’t need to actually draw anything to create these spirits. We quickly learn that simple stray thoughts and subconscious desires can create them as well. D’oh. Things get even more complicated when Mu-Huk reveals that he then takes these little adventures and feeds them into the minds of other artists (painters, etc) as inspiration, so… yeah. It’s a bit complex and confusing. There’s also a weird connection between the spirits and realms that Da-Il creates and the real world, as at least one or two things are altered in the real world following these otherworldly battles. It’s just mind-bendingly complicated at times, especially since Da-Il seems to create these things at random with little to no warning. He literally runs into a ghost in one part of the story, and actually encounters one that was created by another Croquis at another point. It’s… confusing.

Thankfully, once you get past all the confusing mechanics behind his powers Croquis Pop is kind of fun and there are some interesting directions that the story could go. The encounter with another spirit created by a different Croquis is a nice glimpse at the possibilities, as is the idea that everything he does could pop up elsewhere in some other artists creation. Of course it’s not all just supernatural weirdness, Da-Il is the newest and youngest of Ho Go’s assistants, and the other assistants make up the supporting cast and provide some relationship oriented drama as he gets on the bad side of one right off the bat. There’s also a mysterious museum curator who is some how connected to Mu-Huk and the whole Croquis phenomena as well. Plenty of different hooks and characters floating around and the story is just so wild and out there that you get the feeling that anything could happen.

JinHo Ko’s art isn’t too bad and he does a nice job at rendering some of the more bizarre occupancies. The first-time spirits Da-Il encounters are essentially stick figures he scribbled in the dust. JinHo switches his style to render them in a rough sketchy style which contrasts heavily with the cleaner and more detailed style he uses for Da-Il. Unfortunately ,after this one encounter just about every other spirit is drawn in the same style as everything else. Still it’s a nice effect and something that might turn up again. It would be kind of fun to see Da-Il and Mu-Huk doing battle with an spirit drawn in an impressionist style, or perhaps something done in a more classical bent. His renderings of the action sequences can be a bit confusing at times, but for the most part he does a great job depicting Mu-Huk’s various attacks and the odd abilities that some of the other Croquis creations wield.

Croquis Pop is definitely an interesting title, but I’m a little worried that the complexity of the powers mechanics might be a bit of a turn off. There’s really no clear rules by which these things are created and they seem to happen at random or when the plot requires it. Outside of that it’s an OK teen hero series.

Volume 1 of Croquis Pop is available now.

This month I’ve been catching up on reviewing later volumes of long-running series. Below are my reviews of the adequate Reborn! Vol. 7 and the fantastic Hikaru No Go Vol. 12.

Reborn, Vol. 7

By Akira Amano
Published by Viz
Rating: Older Teen

I heavily mocked Reborn volume 1 in my 2006 review, but I was more of a greenhorn then, and I had not yet attended Comiket. At Fuyu Comic Market 2006 I realized Reborn is a force to be reckoned with. It is a Shonen Jump title with an attached anime property, therefore, it commands a huge army of fangirls who are all in love with Tsuna, the protagonist. I had assumed that Reborn was meant for junior high kids high on sugary breakfast cereal, but it’s actually meant for girls writing slash fan fiction.

I read volume seven on the heels of reading some really bad manga (In the End and Wild Ones vol. 2). Reading Reborn volume seven had me on my hands and knees kissing the ground and thanking god for Shonen Jump’s high production values. My god, Reborn has actual backgrounds and plots that make sense (insomuch as comedy plots make sense) and characters that easy on the eyes! Some of the jokes are actually funny.

Reborn volume seven consists of independent chapters featuring Japanese-summer-paint-by-numbers plots. The characters go to the pool, participate in the Tanabata festival (you might remember from Nana) and go on a ghost-hunting walk (kimodameshi, a popular Japanese summer pastime). A lot of manga do not handle summer story arcs very well, giving the impression that all Japanese people have the same summer experiences (or at least the fictional characters do). But Reborn manages to pull off the same set of summer chapters without being boring or feeling derivative.

The humor in Reborn grows gracefully from the characters. Tsuna’s friends try to teach him to swim, but due to character flaws, they are all terrible swim coaches. In a weaker manga, a pool plot would be nothing more than a weak excuse to see the characters’ bathing suits.

In the kimodameshi chapter, only Tsuna and Lambo agree to be scared, while the rest of the cast insist on dressing up like ghosts. Even though I’ve seen/read similar episodes elsewhere, Amano sets it up with good gags, nice character moments and solid artwork.

Reborn isn’t so awesome that I’m going to run out and buy volumes two through six, but I’m willing to give the series a second chance based on volume seven. It doesn’t set my life on fire like Yakitate!! Japan, but I was never bored reading it.

Volumes 1-7 of Reborn! are available now. Volume 8 will be available July 1st, 2008.

Hikaru No Go, Vol. 12

By Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
Published by Viz
Rating: All Ages

I have not kept up with the Hikaru No Go manga series, but the anime is very near and dear to my heart, ranking among my top ten favorite titles of all time. Unfortunately, the anime series release has been stalled in North America while Viz decides what format in which to continue it in (along with Prince of Tennis).

Since the manga follows the anime so closely I was able to pick up volume 12 without missing a beat. I am surprised at how engrossing the manga is. I was immediately drawn into the world of competitive Go - so much so I was worried I would miss my subway stop. The art (by Takeshi Obata of Death Note) and the storytelling (Yumi Hotta, thank got it’s not by Death Note writer Tsugumi Ooba!) is so solid that the book completely shuts out reality. Truly, that is a sign of great manga - possibly one of the best titles I have ever read. (Hikaru No Go won a Tezuka award in 2003.)

Before the manga series began publication in the U.S., I started watching the anime series as a joke. How could a series about a chess-like board game be interesting? But after episode four I was completely taken in and involved with the characters (I cannot say the same of mah-jongg anime Akagi). By the end of the series I was inspired to learn how to play Go, and I even started my own short-lived Go Club. After being walloped by three ten-year-old boys in the Hoboken Go tournament, I lost my interest in Go, but I still love Hikaru No Go, and this volume made me realize how much I need to go back and read the entire series.

Volume 12 takes place after the end of a major spoiler event in volume 11. The series is 23 volumes long, and volume 12 marks the beginning of foreshadowing of the events to come at the end. [Spoilers from here on out.] Hikaru lets Sai play a very exciting game, but how much longer can he keep Sai a secret now that Hikaru is a professional Go player? The later chapters of the book were adapted into filler-like episodes of the anime series, but HNG is so delightful to read these chapters don’t feel like filler at all, particularly in the manga. Instead, after the stress of Hikaru’s first professional match, the silly chapters are a welcome relief. Hikaru and Sai thwart a shady Go board dealer at a convention, and even though that sounds terribly lame, Hotta still manages to introduce a low-ranking professional who becomes an important character later. The overweight Kurata-sensei is a 6-dan, and he is worried about the “new wave” of young Go players like Hikaru.

Volumes 1-12 of Hikaru No Go are available now. Volume 13 will be available in October 2008.