Nephilim, Vol. 1

By Anna Hanamaki
Aurora Publishing, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Screwball comedy? Gender-confused bodice-ripper? Homage to Moto Hagio? In a word, yes—the very silly but totally entertaining Nephilim is all those things. All it needs to put it over the top is a mangafied likeness of Fabio on the cover.

The story focuses on Gai, a studly soldier, and Abel, a waifish creature who’s male during the day and female at night. The two meet cute, manga-style: on a moonlit night, Gai spies Abel bathing in a spring. In a vain effort to restore her compromised honor, Abel grabs a knife and lunges at Gai without pausing to grab a towel or a kimono. (Not to worry—Abel never flashes more than a bellybutton at readers, thanks to some strategically places tresses. Janet Jackson might find Nephilim instructive.) After failing miserably, Abel begins trailing Gai everywhere he goes, vainly waiting for another opportunity to strike. Gai, for his part, finds Abel’s unwavering commitment to killing him a sure sign that they’re meant for each other. As their romance blossoms, Abel confesses the real reason she must kill Gai: if she fails to do so, she’ll die from The Curse, an affliction that befalls Nephilim who’ve been seen in their true, i.e. nocturnal, form.

I’d be the first to admit that Nephilim isn’t a good manga in any conventional sense of the word. The art, for example, is uneven. Manga-ka Anna Hanamaki draws handsome faces and gorgeous hair, but has difficulty creating visually distinctive backdrops—or even deciding in what century the story takes place. (Some scenes are set in what looks like feudal Europe, others in what appears to be a modern American city, complete with its own Holiday Inn.) The characters, too, leave something to be desired. Though Gai seems smitten with Abel, the pairing isn’t convincing. We never learn what he sees in her—frankly, she seems like a pain—nor do we learn enough about him to guess at the attraction: does she remind him of his mother? his first love?

I still liked it.

To get in the right frame of mind to read Nephilim, I strongly encourage you to recreate the summer camp experience: find a few giggly friends, turn off the lights, bust out the flashlight and the contraband candy. You may discover, as I did, that Nephilim reminds you of the tawdry paperbacks that everyone stowed under their mattresses—books filled with overripe dialogue, ridiculous plot twists, and steamy encounters (or what passed for a steamy encounter in the estimation of an inexperienced fourteen-year-old). Yes, my inner snob is embarrassed to admit just how much I enjoyed Forever and Sweet Valley High: Playing With Fire back in the day. But boy, were they fun to read, offering unadulterated escapism in a neat little package—just like Nephilim.

Volume one of Nephilim is available now.

Apologies for the belated posting! After several days of turkey-induced torpor, I finally mustered the energy and brain cells necessary for this week’s column.

Whether you crave steamy man-on-man manga or prefer wacky comedies, you’ll find plenty of reasons to part with your hard-earned pennies this week. DMP and Seven Seas offer a robust selection of yaoi and yuri titles, from the zero-g angst of Ai No Kusabi: The Space Between (DMP) to the pistol packin’ nuns of Tetragrammaton Labyrinth (Seven Seas). Fans of I, Otaku: Struggle in Akihabara can tide themselves over with yet another comedy about a closeted otaku, Kyouhaku Dogs (Infinity Studios). Harry Potter junkies will find solace in the beautifully illustrated Aventura (Del Rey), a new fantasy-adventure series that takes place at an academy for young wizards. And older souls will thrill to the superb draftsmanship and lyrical storytelling of Jiro Taniguchi, whose long-awaited anthology The Ice Wanderer (Fanfare/Ponent Mon) finally arrives on American shores this week.

By the way, both Midtown Comics and Right Stuf are running major promotions this week. Midtown is offering a 40% discount on all manga and graphic novels until midnight tonight (11/27; website only), while RightStuf is offering a 30% discount on almost all merchandise until December 2nd. Hop to it or you’ll miss some sweet deals!

REVIEWED LAST WEEK: ArtRage (Ambient Designs Ltd.), The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori Clan, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)

REVIEWED THIS WEEK: The Key to the Kingdom, Vol. 2 (CMX), Nightmares for Sale, Vol. 1 (Aurora Publishing), Pumpkin Scissors, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:
After I Win (DMP)
Ai No Kusabi: The Space Between, Vol. 1 (DMP)
Air Gear, Vol. 6 (Del Rey)
Amazing Agent Luna, Vol. 4 (Seven Seas)
Aventura, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)
Berserk, Vol. 20 (Dark Horse)
Chun Rhang Yhur Jun, Vol. 4 (Infinity Studios)
Coyote Ragtime Show, Vol. 2 (Broccoli Books)
Cute Beast (DMP)
Dash (DMP)
Destiny’s Hand, Vol. 2 (Seven Seas)
ES: Eternal Sabbath, Vol. 7 (Del Rey)
From Up Above (DMP)
Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution, Vol. 5 (Del Rey)
Genshinken, Vol. 9 (Del Rey)
Glass Sky (DMP)
Gunslinger Girl, Vol. 6 (ADV Manga)
Harvey and Etsukos’ Manga Guide to Japan (Japanime)
The Ice Wanderer (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Invisible Love (DMP)
Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno (Chronicle Books; click here for a review)
Ka Shin Fu (DMP)
The Key to the Kingdom, Vol. 2 (CMX; reviewed below)
Kyouhaku Dogs, Vol. 1 (Infinity Studios)
The Last Uniform, Vol. 2 (Seven Seas)
Laugh Under the Sun (DMP)
Let’s Make Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo: Cute Dolls (Vertical; click here for a review)
Let’s Make Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo: Fun Dolls (Vertical; click here for a review)
Little Darling Novel (DMP)
Love Bus Stop (DMP)
Mamotte Lollipop, Vol. 4 (Del Rey)
MPD-Psycho, Vol. 3 (Dark Horse; click here for a review)
My Heavenly Hockey Club, Vol. 3 (Del Rey; click here for a review of volume 1)
Newtype USA, December 2007
Nightmares for Sale, Vol. 1 (Aurora Publishing; reviewed below)
Orfina, Vol. 1 (CMX)
Pumpkin Scissors, Vol. 1 (Del Rey; reviewed below)
Shaman Warrior, Vol. 5 (Dark Horse; click here for a review of volume 1)
Sugar Sugar Rune, Vol. 7 (Del Rey)
Suzuka, Vol. 6 (Del Rey)
Tenjho Tenge, Vol. 16 (CMX)
Tetreagrammaton Labyrinth, Vol. 2 (Seven Seas)
Unbalance Unbalance, Vol. 2 (Infinity Studios)
Vanilla, Vol. 1 (DMP)
Venus Versus Virus, Vol. 2 (Seven Seas)
Witchblade Takeru Manga, No. 10 (Image/Top Cow)

The Key to the Kingdom, Vol. 2

By Kyoto Shitou
CMX, 168 pp.
Rating: Teen Plus (violence, language)

After the king and elder prince of Landor die in combat, the country teeters on the brink of collapse. The next in line for the throne, Prince Astarion, is a young teenager, unable and unwilling to assume the responsibility of leading his people. Determined to prevent Landor from falling to its enemies, the late king’s advisors announce a competition: whoever finds an ancient relic known as the Key to the Kingdom will become Landor’s next ruler. A motley assortment of nobles declare their intent to locate the Key, fanning out across the country in search of clues. At the urging of his older brother’s closest friend, Astarion reluctantly joins the quest, trading his pampered existence for a life of camping, trekking, and dragon-taming.

Let me be candid: The Key to the Kingdom has its share of truly silly characters and moments. A womanizing protagonist answers to the name Baddorious, or “Badd” for short. (And yes, he wants to sex you up.) All of the characters have perfect, just-stepped-out-of-a-salon hair, even after clashing with firewyrms (a.k.a. dragons) and knaves. And the dialogue tacks between Arthurian formality and 1950s hokum. (Sample: “So even in the face of death, you wouldn’t change your libidinous ways?” “To be honest with you, I really don’t have time to chew the fat with a dragon!” Right on, Daddy-O!) But if you can overlook—or, better yet, embrace—these cheesy touches, you may just realize that The Key to the Kingdom is a tightly plotted fantasy tale with an appealing cast and rich, detailed artwork that evokes such early CLAMP titles as RG Veda and Magic Knight Rayearth.

Volume two of The Key to the Kingdom will be available on November 28th.

Nightmares for Sale, Vol. 1

By Kaoru Ohashi
Aurora Publishing, 224 pp.
Rating: OT (16+)

Nightmares for Sale is yet another example of what John Jakala calls “comeuppance theater.” In exchange for having their dearest wishes granted—in this case, by the proprietors of Shadow’s Pawn Shop—foolish, vain, or mean people receive their just desserts. For this old-as-the-hills premise to succeed, three basic conditions need to be met. First, the audience needs to understand the subject is unrepentantly cruel (or stupid, greedy, conceited, etc.) and not merely flawed or misguided. Second, the audience needs to see the chain of decisions that lead to the subject’s downfall (i.e. making a pact with a demon, accepting a gift from a stranger). And third, the punishment needs to fit the crime.

Alas, manga-ka Kaoru Ohashi doesn’t satisfy these basic criteria in Nightmares for Sale. A few characters get what they deserve: an overly ambitious model grows uglier and uglier, a bully is reincarnated as her victim. But many of the stories are sloppily executed; we don’t learn how or why the subject is being punished until Shadow appears at the end of the story to tell us. By far the worst chapter is “Children of Darkness,” in which a woman is tormented by the spirit of her unborn child. No matter what your personal convictions on abortion, the story is both macabre and misogynist, and shows an astonishing lack of compassion for the subject’s situation. Not even the artwork can redeem this anthology. The awkwardly drawn characters are so nondescript as to be interchangeable, and the panels are a riot of clashing screentones and Photoshop patterns.

The verdict: boycott this pawnshop and seek thrills elsewhere.

Volume one of Nightmares for Sale will be available on November 28th..

Pumpkin Scissors, Vol. 1

By Ryotaro Iwanaga
Del Rey, 212 pp.
Rating: OT (16+)

Given the current situation in the Middle East, Pumpkin Scissors couldn’t be more timely. The story focuses on a military squadron tasked with restoring order to a war-torn country. Lead by the headstrong Lt. Alice Malvin, Section III of the Imperial State Army goes head-to-head with rogue soldiers and noblemen-cum-warlords while trying to win the hearts and minds of civilians whose villages were decimated in the conflict—in short, performing the same kind of work as US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Timely as it may be, I have two reservations about this series: the goofy naming conventions and the lackluster artwork. The Imperial State Army refers to Section III as “Pumpkin Scissors” for reasons never satisfactorily explained, leaving the reader to wonder if the name honors Ryotaro Iwahara’s favorite vegetable or simply sounds cool to Japanese speakers. Other names are giggle inducing as well, including a cease-fire agreement known as The Treaty of Thin Ice (between the Empire and Republic of Frost—get it?), and two top-secret military units known as Krankheit Jäger and Gespenster Jäger, so called because German sounds… cool? martial? sinister? (Or perhaps Iwanaga just fancies umlauts?) I also found the artwork wanting. For an action-oriented series, the backgrounds are surprisingly plain, conveying little of the Empire’s landscape or people; too often, speed lines and screentones serve as backdrops for the action. The character designs are fine, but their appearance varies considerably from panel to panel, especially when Iwanaga employs more cinematic perspectives (i.e. low-angle and high-angle shots).

That said, the three stories that comprise volume one are well-crafted and suspenseful, touching on such topical issues as chemical warfare and civilian casualties while offering action junkies what they crave most: combat and cool-looking military gadgets.

Volume one of Pumpkin Scissors will be available on November 28th.

Manga Minis are back and better than before, with 200% more contributors and no trans fat! This month, Erin, Ken and I team up to review a variety of titles: Flock of Angels (Vol. 1), Gon (Vol. 1), The Moon and Sandals (Vols. 1-2), Picnic, Sakura Ganbaru (Vol. 1), and xxxHolic (Vol. 10).

Flock of Angels, Vol. 1

By Shoko Hamada
Aurora Publishing, pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Shea Lipps is the very embodiment of tweenage fantasy: not only is he cute and kind to his younger sister, he’s also an aspiring clothing designer who happens to sprout wings out of the blue. As any scholar of X-Men history knows, such dramatic mutations evoke a wide spectrum of responses. Some changelings are exiled; some murdered; some exploited for commercial purposes (or worse); and a few find themselves in protective custody. Shea is fortunate. His immediate family supports him; girls continue to dig him (although sometimes for the wrong reasons); and he finds a mentor in Kanai, a kindly g-man tasked with finding and assisting people like Shea. Through Kanai, Shea learns that a mysterious virus called angelosis causes the mutation, transforming ordinary people into winged wonders. Thus begins Shea’s journey of self-discovery, as he learns how to fly, cope with his new-found celebrity (cute boy + wings = media circus), and help other people with angelosis.

I’d be the first to acknowledge the story’s glaring weaknesses, from the long-winded speeches promoting tolerance to the resolved-in-a-jiffy conflicts, which never seem to last more than a chapter. (Not to mention the very idea of “angelosis,” which sounds like the clinical name for a divine case of bad breath.) For all its limitations, however, Shoko Hamada never shies away from suggesting how violently the “angels” have been persecuted, nor does she depict Shea as a self-doubting sourpuss once he begins to discover the darker side of being different. Flock of Angels never plumbs the gritty depths of Runaways or The X-Men, but younger teens may well appreciate a kawaii take on the well-documented mutants vs. men conflict.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey-Tsuei

Gon, Vol. 1

By Masashi Tanaka
CMX, 148 pp.
Rating: Teen

A rarity in the world of sequential art, Gon is a beautifully drawn, completely silent manga. It follows the adventures of the title character, a little orange dinosaur, as he wanders a pre-human/post-dinosaur world getting into all sorts of trouble.

The first volume is made up of several stand-alone stories: Gon hunts on lion back, creates a giant dam after watching some beavers, and lives with a family of eagles and tries to learn how to fly. The only element connecting the various stories is Gon, and, despite what it says on the back cover, he’s not quite the friend to helpless animals. Sure, he helps some, but he’s just as likely to kick them around if it suits him. In the eagle story, he helps to defend the nest, but in the dam building story his construction project leaves an entire forest homeless. Still, there’s something lovable and really enjoyable about watching the little fella getting up to all kinds of mischief. He’s less a cute and cuddly hero and more of a dinosaur version of Bart Simpson or Dennis the Mennis.

The artwork here is absolutely amazing. It’s some of the most detailed black and white art I’ve ever seen. The animals look real (aside from Gon), yet Tanaka is still able to imbue them with a sense of personality that you’d expect to see in a Disney movie.

–Reviewed by Ken Haley

The Moon and Sandals, Vols. 1-2

By Fumi Yoshinaga
Published by DMP
Rating: 18+ (Mature)

Fumi Yoshinaga is the darling of the manga blogging world. Jason Thompson likes her, Shaenon Garrity likes her, and even Katherine, who doesn’t read much yaoi, likes her. So how does The Moon and Sandals compare with her other work: is it better than Antique Bakery? Not really. Is it as charming as The Flower of Life? Not exactly. Is there a lot of explicit gay sex? Why, yes there is!

There are five major characters. Kobayashi is a high school kid who falls for his world history teacher, a young man named Mr. Ida. Out of a naive bravery, Kobayashi goes to Mr. Ida’s house to make a move on him, only to be interrupted by Hashizume, Ida’s lover, who announces that he has quit his job to come live with Ida. Kobayashi runs out of the house, embarrassed. On the rebound, Kobayashi starts to fall for Toyo Narumi, a blonde boy nicknamed “Giant”. Giant hasn’t come to grips with being gay just yet. To complicate matters further, Giant’s little sister Naru has a crush on Kobayashi.

The Moon and Sandals gets a higher score from me for dealing with gay issues in a refreshing, realistic way. Hashizume must adopt Ida as his brother so landlords will rent to them. Kobayashi is not sure how to perform gay sex and buys a book from Ni-chome (Tokyo’s gay district) so he can do it with his boyfriend. Giant hurt a boy he liked in junior high just to prove to his classmates that he wasn’t gay. Characters discuss coming out to their coworkers and families. Even when Yoshinaga’s characters are standing outdoors dramatically in a typhoon and sustaining blood-drawing injuries while confessing their love, there is a certain honesty to her characterizations. Moments that would be melodramatic elsewhere are somehow believable here.

I only have a few hesitations about Moon and Sandals. Ida and Hashizume get un-officially married before they have sex, but after they’ve been living together for months. It seems unrealistic in a yaoi title with realistic elements. Darker-haired characters fall for lighter haired characters as per strict yaoi genre conventions. Yoshinaga’s character designs are all similar. That said, if you like Fumi Yoshinaga, or yaoi, or both, I think you’ll like The Moon and Sandals.

–Reviewed by Erin F.

Picnic

By Yugi Yamada
DMP, 200 pp.
Rating: 18+ (Mature)

In my yaoi reading experience, I generally have to wait until the end of volume one (or even volumes two or three for longer series) for the sex scene. Much to my surprise, the lovers start getting it on in chapter two of Picnic, an anthology of short stories. Also to my surprise, it turns out short story anthologies work rather well for mature yaoi titles. Instead of dithering on about angst and love (boring), the characters get right straight down to the man love (interesting).

Picnic contains six short stories, each of which feature a blonde guy paired with a brunette guy. The characters range across ages and professions. In “Our First Trip Alone Together,” a group of twenty-somethings plan a trip to Hokkaido that keeps falling through; in “I’ll Forget Him in Five Seconds,” a junior high kid is in love with the older owner of a mah-jong parlor; in “I Have an Excuse Too,” two college students have a lot of sex; in the disturbing “But Sometimes You’re Kind,” a homeless kid falls for a gigolo; and in “What Will Happen to Us,” a salaryman is crippled by his unspoken love for his coworker.

Picnic is definitely one of DMP’s more compelling yaoi titles. It’s a little too hardcore for younger audiences, but it’s a satisfying read for fujioshi O.L.’s like me.

–Reviewed by Erin F.

Sakura Ganbaru!, Vol. 1

By Masahiko Nakahira
UDON Entertainment, 200 pp.

The second Nakahira series to be released by Udon, Sakura Ganbaru follows the adventures of Sakura, a young school girl turned street fighter, as she attempts to become the best fighter possible while searching for “that man” (Ryu). Along the way she does everything you’d expect a shonen protagonist to do: she enters tournaments, makes friends out of opponents, and so on. Unlike the Street Fighter Alpha manga, Sakura Ganbaru has a slightly more humorous bent to it: visual gags, mistaken identies, off the wall situations being played up for humor, etc.

If you were hoping for a continuation of the plot lines from Street Fighter Alpha, well, you’ll be a bit disappointed. It seems that this series is unrelated to Alpha despite sharing several characters. (Although they did battle in the Alpha series, Dan doesn’t seem to recognized Ken when they face off.) The artwork here seems a bit rougher than it did in Alpha, but it’s still pretty good. Nakahira’s fight scenes are fun and easy to follow, and he nails the look and feel for the various Street Fighter characters that appear in it as well. Overall it’s a fun start to a short series and a must have for any Street Fighter fans. Non Street Fighter fans might enjoy it, but they’d probably miss a lot of the references and cameos.

–Reviewed by Ken Haley

xxxHolic, Vol. 10

By CLAMP
Del Rey, 208 pp.
Rating: 13+

Although I’ve found the artwork in xxxHolic ravishing from the very beginning, I haven’t always found Watanuki a sympathetic character. He whines. He treats Domeki badly. He makes a fool of himself in front of Himawari. He ignores Yuko’s advice. Yet somewhere around volume five, Watanuki began to grow up, making the transformation from a grumpy, self-pitying teenager to a resourceful young man. He’s regressed from time to time, lashing out at Domeki without cause or butting heads with Yuko. In volume ten, however, Watanuki shows us how far he’s come, as he at last learns why Yuko has repeatedly warned him about Himawari. Watanuki proves wise and compassionate in his dealings with Himawari, and mature enough to accept the consequences of his loyalty. Himawari, for her part, demonstrates both an unselfishness and a courage that her ditzy demeanor often conceals. It’s this richness of character—as suggested by Watanuki’s capacity to learn from his mistakes, and Himawari’s hidden depth—that makes xxxHolic more than just another beautifully illustrated fantasy, but a thoughtful meditation on fate vs. free will.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey-Tsuei

I’m fresh out of snappy intros this week, so I won’t mince words: you won’t find much on the new arrivals spinner rack at your LCS or Borders this Thursday. But if you didn’t bankrupt yourself buying all three installments of Naruto last week, you’ll find a few manga worth your hard-earned money.

Your best bet is the final volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix. Deftly interweaving sci-fi episodes with period drama, Tezuka’s unfinished masterpiece inspires an SAT-worthy set of adjectives to describe its superb artwork and pointed commentary on human nature. If Tezuka isn’t your cup of tea, you might want to investigate Go! Comi’s newest series: Kanna, a seinen action title in which ferocious monsters pursue an adorable moppet across multiple dimensions, and The Devil Within, a shojo romance about a girl forced to choose a husband from a handsome trio of demon bachelors. (Sort of like Love Connection without Chuck Woolery.) For those who fancy a bit of the ultraviolence, Dark Horse offers the second installment of MPD Psycho. And for those facing PSATs this fall, Kaplan introduces an alternative to flash cards and vocabulary lists: test prep manga. Part OEL, part study aid, these enhanced graphic novels feature over three hundred of the most common words from the verbal section of the SAT in context. (Or should that read “in action”?) I’m curious to read the revised scripts for the three Tokyopop titles that got the “score boosting” treatment, as I’m having trouble imagining the Van Von Hunter crew uttering “aesthetic” or “syberite” under any circumstances.

REVIEWED THIS WEEK:

• Walkin’ Butterfly, Vol. 1 (Aurora)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:

• Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Vol. 9 (Viz)
• Devil Within, Vol. 1 (Go! Comi)
• Excel Saga, Vol. 16 (Viz)
• FLCL, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
• Go Go Heaven, Vol. 3 (CMX)
• Great Adventure of the The Dirty Pair (Dark Horse)
• Gunsmith Cats Revised Edition, Vol. 3 (Dark Horse)
• Hunter X Hunter, Vol. 16 (Viz)
• Kanna, Vol. 1 (Go! Comi)
• Kaplan SAT ACT Psycomm, Vol. 1 (Kaplan/Tokyopop)
• Kaplan SAT ACT Van Von Hunter, Vol. 1 (Kaplan/Tokyopop)
• Kaplan SAT ACT Warcraft: The Sunwell Trology, Vol. 1 (Kaplan/Tokyopop)
• Lovers’ Flat (DMP)
• MAR, Vol. 15 (Viz)
• MPD Psycho, Vol. 2 (Dark Horse)
• Ninja High School Yearbook 2007 (Antarctic Press)
• Oh My Goddess, Vol. 6 (Dark Horse)
• Outcast, Vol. 1 (Seven Seas)
• Phoenix, Vol. 11 (Viz)
• Pieces of a Spiral, Vol. 9 (CMX)
• Project Arms, Vol. 17 (Viz)
• Shonen Jump (October 2007)
• Togari, Vol. 2 (Viz)
• XS Hybrid, Vol. 2 (Dark Horse; click here to read a review of volume one)
• Yakitate!! Japan, Vol. 7 (Viz; click here to read a review of volume four)

Walkin’ Butterfly, Vol. 1

By Chihiro Tamaki
Aurora, 154 pp.
Rating: OT 16+ (Older Teen)

When we first meet Michiko, she’s a foul-mouthed, foul-tempered nineteen-year-old with no career prospects, no friends, no money and, thanks to her reckless driving, no ride. A brief stint at a pizza parlor, however, proves life-changing. While making a delivery, Michiko finds herself backstage at a showing by Mihara, the enfant terrible of Tokyo fashion. Mistaken for one of Mihara’s models, the six-foot-tall Michiko is dolled up, decked out, and sent down the runway in a tight dress and a feather boa. The experience is humiliating, as both Mihara and the audience receive Michiko’s wobbling performance with jeers: can this ungainly creature really be a model? Yet after fleeing the stage in tears (and crashing the pizza parlor’s moped), Michiko finds new resolve: she’ll become a model and demonstrate to Mihara that she possesses the grace, confidence, and self-knowledge to dominate the catwalk. More importantly, she’ll transform herself into the kind of independent yet feminine woman that will wow her long-time crush Nishikino.

I’ll be honest: fashion seems like a disastrous career choice for the vulnerable Michiko, who hopes to redeem her poor self-image by becoming Japan’s Next Top Model. (Perhaps she didn’t get the memo about eating disorders and body dysphoria?) I also found it improbable that she’d never considered modeling before that fateful pepperoni order; in a country where the average woman just clears five feet, surely someone would have suggested to Michiko that she was tall enough to grace the runway. If you’re willing to overlook these minor details, however, Walkin’ Butterfly has much to offer the josei reader: a heroine who’s a believable mixture of public bravado and private anguish, a worthy love interest, a terrific villain, and a memorable cast of supporting players. (My personal favorite is Ryo Tago, the chain-smoking, hard-drinking agent who dispenses wisdom with the same lethal accuracy as some countries deploy missiles.) The artwork is also a big plus. Chihiro Tamaki has an energetic, sketch-like style that reminded me of Yayoi Ogawa’s. Like Ogawa, Tamaki favors characters with huge, expressive eyes and mouths; Michiko might be a distant relation of Sumire Iwaya, the long-suffering salarywoman of Tramps Like Us.

A few folks may grumble about production values—e.g. the unattractive font used for voice-overs and interior monologues—but most readers will be pleased to see the care with which Walkin’ Butterfly was packaged, from the high-quality paper stock to the appealing omake. My only bone to pick with the publisher is the inconsistent approach to pop-culture references; some are preserved from the original, sans explanation, while others are replaced with American equivalents. I would have preferred celebrity names, song lyrics, and movie titles to be left intact with footnotes or a glossary to explain more obscure references. That said, Walkin’ Butterfly has the hallmarks of a great guilty pleasure, provided our uncouth heroine doesn’t lose too many edges in the process.

Volume one of Walkin’ Butterfly is now available.

The “new arrivals” rack at your local comic book store will be as empty as a bachelor’s refrigerator this week, as fewer than twenty titles are scheduled for shipment. The cream of the crop is 10, 20, and 30 (NETCOMICS), a slice-of-life comedy documenting the professional and romantic travails of three women. With a distinctive visual style and an appealing cast of characters, 10, 20 and 30 offers readers something not found too often in the teen-centric American market: a story with a grown-up sensibility. (Click here for our full review and sample pages; click here to read the first chapter at NETCOMICS free of charge.)

Two other noteworthy arrivals this week are Aurora Publishing’s new series Flock of Angels, about humans who sprout wings (no word on whether Red Bull consumption is to blame), and the September issue of Shojo Beat. If you’ve let your subscription lapse, this month is a must-have, as Honey and Clover replaces Nana, and Baby & Me ends its run in the magazine. (Never fear: Viz will continue to publish Nana and Baby & Me in tankubon format.) The September issue is also noteworthy for its extras—fans will get a sneak peek at new series Fall in Love Like a Comic—and for the original cover art by Absolute Boyfriend manga-ka Yuu Watase.

One final tip for the bargain-conscious otaku about a Barnes & Noble promotion. From now until September 5th, use PayPal for a transaction worth $40 or more and receive a $10 discount. The coupon code is D9U3D3W. Click here for the fine print. Pssst… don’t tell the guys at Midtown Comics I mentioned this!

REVIEWED THIS WEEK:

• Fumi Yoshinaga’s Truly, Kindly (BLU Manga)
• Heroes Are Extinct!, Vol. 1 (DMP)
• Pine Kiss, Vol. 5 (NETCOMICS)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:

• 10, 20, and 30, Vol. 1 (NETCOMICS)
• Akira Club (Dark Horse)
• Biowulf Pocket Manga, Vol. 1 (Antarctic Press)
• Boogiepop Novel Volume 3: Boogiepop Returns vs. Imaginator Part 2 (Seven Seas; click here for a review of another novel from the series, Boogiepop and Others)
• Can’t Lose You, Volume 6 (NETCOMICS)
• Final Girl, #4 (Antarctic Press)
• Flock of Angels, Vol. 1 (Aurora Publishing)
• The Great Catsby, Vol. 5 (NETCOMICS)
• Gunslinger Girl, Vol. 5 (ADV Manga)
• In the Starlight, Vol. 2 (NETCOMICS; click here for a review of volume one)
• Land of Silver Rain, Vol. 6 (NETCOMICS)
• Oyayubahime Infinity, Vol. 6 (CMX)
• Pine Kiss, Vol. 5 (NETCOMICS; reviewed below)
• Shojo Beat, Vol. 6, No. 3 (September 2007)
• Sky Sharks, #1 (Antarctic Press)
• Spring Fever (Aurora Publishing)
• Street Fighter Sakura Ganbaru, Vol. 1 (UDON)
• Vampire Hunter D Novel Volume 8: Mysterious Journey to the Dark Sea Part 2 (Dark Horse)
• The Young Magician, Vol. 9 (CMX)
• Yu-Gi-Oh Millenium World, Vol. 6 (Viz)

Fumi Yoshinaga’s Truly, Kindly

By Fumi Yoshinaga
BLU Manga, 192 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)

Though I’m an enthusiastic champion of The Antique Bakery and Flower of Life, I’m less excited about Fumi Yoshinaga’s straight-up yaoi. Gerard and Jacques, for example, struck me as an ungainly hybrid of not-very-sexy sex scenes and speeches cribbed from Rosseau for Dummies, while Ichigenme: The First Class Is Civil Law seemed like a poor girl’s Paper Chase. Truly, Kindly falls somewhere in between Antique Bakery and Ichingenme on the steaminess scale, but suffers from many of the same problems found in Yoshinaga’s more explicit titles.

Her most recent publication (in English, anyway) is an is an anthology of seven stories, from a coming out tale set in present-day Seattle to a going-straight (as in abandoning a criminal past… ahem) story set in Meiji-era Japan. Despite the diverse array of historical backdrops and storylines, Truly, Kindly induces déjà vu with its recycled character designs, clumsy socio-political lectures masquerading as conversation, and the “I didn’t realize how much I liked you until you forced yourself on me!” epiphanies that her uke characters experience. The last three stories—all of which take place in the years leading up to the French Revolution—exhibit another of Yoshinaga’s shortcomings: her inability to integrate tidbits on Versailles and Voltaire into a narrative without stopping it dead in its tracks. Still, there’s something endearing about her insistence on creating characters with real emotional lives and realistically handsome faces in a genre known primarily for its man-on-man action—it’s as if someone forgot to tell her she was writing porn, for pete’s sake.

Fumi Yoshinaga’s Truly, Kindly is available now.

Heroes Are Extinct!!, Vol. 1

By Ryoji Hido
DMP, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Imagine, for a moment, that you live in the far reaches of space with no first-hand knowledge of Earth. What might you conclude about its inhabitants from watching stray television broadcasts? For Great Galactic General Cassiel, leader of the Imperial Bazue Army, the answer is obvious: Earthlings are a race of noble warriors that look suspiciously like the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Cassiel salivates at the prospect of meeting these heroes in combat, and readies an invasion force. But when he arrives, he’s deeply affronted by the Earthlings’ meek acquiescence. Determined to level the playing field, he gang presses a reluctant group of teens into service as the new Earth Terra Force, teaching them the superhero ropes from action poses to catch phrases in preparation for their showdown with the Bazue.

I can’t decide if the staleness of the target is a sign of an impoverished imagination or of scientific inspiration—after all, those MMPR reruns take a long time to reach neighboring galaxies—but Ryoji Hido manages to wring a surprising number of laughs from his thin premise, poking fun at the costumes, gadgetry, and forced camaraderie that were the show’s hallmarks. The artwork is crudely serviceable in a B-movie sort of way, with a cheesy-looking spaceship, a scantily clad princess (in a bikini, no less—paging Captain Kirk!), and a hero whose sole “alien” characteristic is his exceptional stature. (A cynic might conclude that Hido ran afoul of the same financial problems that bedeviled Roger Corman and Ed Wood, forcing him to skimp on the backdrops and props to save a few dollars.) Planetes it’s not. But if you’re looking for the comic book equivalent to Spaceballs or still own a pair of Power Rangers Underoos, you might just cotton to this goofy, three-volume series.

Volume one of Heroes Are Extinct! is available now; volume two will be released in October.

Pine Kiss, Vol. 5

By Eunhye Lee
NETCOMICS, 192 pp.
Rating: 13+

Reading Pine Kiss reminded me why I’ve never been an avid General Hospital fan. I’ve always found soap operas’ admixture of dead-serious dialogue and over-the-top storylines tough to swallow. To be sure, murders, kidnappings, unwanted pregnancies, and eleventh-hour reprieves from terminal cancer provide the grist for countless serial dramas, from Battlestar Galactica to Bones. But in the world of daytime television, no one ever sees these events as extraordinary or even noteworthy, as if having an amnesiac identical twin was as common an experience as, say, being Catholic or liking Twinkies.

Pine Kiss unfolds in this same alternate universe of Guiding Lights and Passions, with a cast of beautiful characters whose enormous eyes, long lashes, and snub noses make them look like American Girl dolls (at least when viewed front-on). Its central character, Orion, is a charismatic young math teacher whose flowing locks and warm smile camouflage a tragic past. He attracts the attention of two very different students: Sebin Jo, the angry, entitled daughter of a powerful gangster, and Dali Nam, a fiercely principled girl whose poverty forced her to abandon dreams of becoming a professional marimba player. (No, that’s not a typo.) Sebin and Dali both have more age-appropriate suitors in the form of Sanghyung and Rocky, two friends who never seem to be in love with the right girl at the right time. Further complicating matters are the characters’ deeply intertwined histories (of the “my uncle used to date your mother before he was killed by yakuza thugs” variety) and close ties to the Korean underworld.

All of this would be much easier to take if Pine Kiss wasn’t so earnest. I longed for a character to break the fourth wall and admit to being a little embarrassed by the melodramatic storylines, or for Sebin to embrace her inner Alexis Carrington and do something truly trashy. (The one fist fight between Sebin and Dali is disappointingly tame—no fur flies, no mud splatters.) Heck, I would have settled for a voice of common sense among the series’ many cast members, as no one seems to think Orion’s interactions with Sebin or Dali are the least bit unprofessional, nor does anyone wonder how Sanghyung, a clean-cut honor student, ended up in the hospital with life-threatening injuries from a baseball bat. Pine Kiss is at its best when artist Eunhye Lee focuses on her teenage characters’ romantic lives, revealing their insecurities and hopes with beautifully restrained artwork and fervent voice-overs that sound like something a real sixteen-year-old might commit to her diary. These brief interludes provide a welcome respite from the As the World Turns plot developments, and suggest that with a less sensational topic, Eunhye Lee might be a graceful storyteller.

Volume five of Pine Kiss will be available on August 22. For a preview of the series, click here.