12 Days

By June Kim
Tokyopop, 208 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

In the abstract, 12 Days sounds like something out of a forgotten Tennessee Williams play: a young woman mourns the loss of her lover by drinking her lover’s remains. Yes, you read that right—when Jackie’s ex-girlfriend Noah dies in a car accident, Jackie decides that the best strategy for coping with her grief is to consume Noah’s ashes in the form of a daily smoothie. Over the course of twelve days, Jackie punishes herself with this gruesome ritual while confronting painful memories of Noah and sparring with Noah’s brother Nick.

The problem with the smoothie conceit is that it feels self-consciously literary. (The fact that Jackie’s ash-drinking ritual has an analog in classical antiquity only affirms its preciousness.) No one in their right mind would choose to remember a loved one this way, yet we’re never asked to question the wisdom of Jackie’s decision or, frankly, her sanity. That’s a pity, because June Kim’s book is filled with lovely, quiet observations about the way we grieve, the way we define family, the way we express desire, and the way we remember moments of hurt and betrayal. She dares to fill up pages with nothing more than close-ups of faces and hands, allowing us to experience the characters’ emptiness for ourselves. And those faces are beautiful—not in a shallow, shojo sort of way, but in their realism and attention to small details.

I’m of two minds about the overall quality of the artwork. Though the characters are drawn with a refreshing degree of naturalism, the backgrounds have a stiff, perspective-drawing-exercise feel about them. The plain, ugly font doesn’t help matters—it looks as if someone pasted the dialogue straight from the word processor into PageMaker. Like the smoothie premise, these design shortcomings detract from an ambitious, thought-provoking, emotionally stirring story. Despite my reservations about plot details and design elements, I highly recommend 12 Days. June Kim is a gifted artist and storyteller. Let’s hope Tokyopop has the good sense to publish her future projects.

The Dreaming, Volume 2

By Queenie Chan
Tokyopop, 190 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

In the first volume of The Dreaming, manga-ka Queenie Chan introduced us to identical twins Jeanie and Amber Malkin. The two girls enrolled at Greenwich Private College, a boarding school located deep in the Australian outback. With its Gothic architecture and period furnishings, the school is a character itself, filled with walled-off chambers, mysterious paintings, apparitions in Victorian dress, and a headmistress harboring a terrible secret that may explain why 23 women have vanished from Greenwich’s campus over the past 50 years. Volume 2 finds Amber hiding in her room, paralyzed by fear and boredom, and Jeanie investigating the death of their classmate Millie and the background of the school’s sole remaining teacher, Miss Anu.

There’s much to like about The Dreaming, from Chan’s atmospheric backgrounds to her Picnic at Hanging Rock-meets-The Others premise. The artwork is crisp and unusually detailed (though some may object to Chan’s heavy use of toning). Chan manages the difficult feat of distinguishing Jeanie and Amber through subtle touches: the more reserved Amber tends to slouch and scrunch up her face, while alpha twin Jeanie appears taller and more physically robust. At times, however, I found the characters’ facial expressions odd, as if they’d all had Botox treatments. Jeanie, Amber, and their classmates look mildly astonished no matter what befalls them: ghostly visitations, power outages, math tests.

My chief complaint about the second volume is that many of its key developments unfold in flashbacks or newspaper articles. While these revelations give the manga a pleasantly spooky vibe, I found this installment a bit too talky. I would have liked to see more happen, and to have learned more about Jeanie and Amber’s classmates. That said, The Dreaming is a solidly crafted, consistently entertaining series that should silence skeptics about the quality of Tokyopop’s OEL line. Look for the third and final volume of The Dreaming in 2007.

A tip for Drifting Classroom fans: be sure the read “The Haunted Linen Cupboard,” a mini-manga that appears at the end of volume 2. There’s some nice little in-jokes just for you.

Trinity Blood, Vol. 1

Story by Sunao Yoshida, Art by Kiyo Kyujo
Tokyopop, 178 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Let’s face it: Trinity Blood isn’t the most original manga to arrive on American shores. One could make a list of character types and plot elements that it shares with dozens of other vampire-themed stories. But there’s something to be said for a well-executed bit of formula, especially one with such gorgeous artwork.

Anyone familiar with the anime may suffer a touch of déjà vu reading volume one of Trinity Blood, as the plot conforms roughly to the two-episode “Star of Sorrow” storyline. Abel Nightroad, a seemingly inept emissary from the Vatican, arrives in the city of Istavan to assist the local parish in combating the despotic overlord Count Gyula, a vampire (a.k.a. “Methusaleh”) with a grudge against humans (a.k.a. “Terrans”). Abel’s disguise, one should note, is about as convincing as Superman’s “I’ll just wear glasses and pretend to be a wimp” front; fans know that Abel is actually a supremely powerful vampire who just happens to have sided with humans in the ongoing Methusaleh/Terran conflict. As Abel begins to unravel the mystery behind several gruesome murders, he forges an alliance with a feisty novice named Esther. Together, the two blunder into a dangerous face-off with Gyula and his minions. Bullets, meaningful glances, and one-liners ricochet off the pages as we hurtle to a satisfying conclusion that gives closure to the story arc while leaving the door open for future developments.

As for production values, Trinity Blood is one of the sharpest-looking manga in Tokyopop’s catalog. The characters are elegantly drawn, the action scenes vividly rendered, and the cover design eye-catching and rather sexy. Some readers may find the drawing a little too feminine for their tastes; were I to compare Kyujo’s style to another manga-ka’s, I might mention the languid bishonen found in Kaori Yuki and Kazuyo Minekura’s work. Other readers may find some pages too busy for their liking. Kyujo seldom confines his images to neatly defined panels, allowing his artwork to fill almost every inch of some pages. (Think of Hinoto’s dream sequences in X/1999, and you’ll have the general picture.) Still, it’s hard to resist Trinity Blood’s heady mix of vampirism, Vatican intrigue, romance, and over-the-top action sequences. Nuns with guns and hotties of the cloth… if only CCD had been this exciting!