Weekly Recon, 10/10/07

Two manga bibles arrive in stores this week: Manga Messiah (Tyner House Publishers), another attempt to spice up the Good Book with chibis and action sequences, and Manga: The Complete Guide (Del Rey), Jason Thompson’s exhaustive survey of over 900 manga available in English. I haven’t had a chance to peruse the former, but I have read some of The Complete Guide. Our very own Senior Ninja Consultant Erin F. will be weighing in later this week with a more formal, thoughtful appraisal of Thompson’s book, but if you’re dying to know, Should I buy it?, the short answer is yes. The summaries are written in a lively, accessible style that respects the reader’s intelligence without assuming that she has an encyclopedic knowledge of, say, cooking manga or seventies shojo. Other noteworthy arrivals this week include a new edition of Aqua, one of several series rescued from ADV licensing limbo by Tokyopop; Presents and Variante, two horror titles from CMX; a spiffy second edition of Gyo, courtesy of Viz; the fifth volume of the utterly charming Yotsuba&!, from ADV; and the first volumes of Black God, Spiral: Bonds of Reasoning, and Zombie Loan, three action series from Yen Press. And if you’re jonesing for a Naruto fix, you’ll be relieved to hear that volumes 19, 20, and 21 are at last on store shelves.

REVIEWED THIS WEEK:

• Black God, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)

• Hikkatsu!, Vol. 1 (Go! Comi)
• La Corda d’Oro, Vol. 5 (Viz)
• Shakugan no Shana, Vol. 2 (Viz)
• Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:

• Aqua, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
• Baku (Tokyopop)
• Black God, Vol. 1 (Yen Press; reviewed below)
• Blade of the Immortal, No. 130 (Dark Horse)
• Boys Over Flowers, Vol. 26 (Viz)
• Canon, Vol. 3 (CMX; click here for a review of volume 1)
• Cheeky Angel, Vol. 19 (Viz)
• Cipher, Vol. (CMX)
• Elemental Gelade, Vol. 5 (Tokyopop)
• Fruits Basket Ultimate Edition, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
• Gyo, Vol. 1 (Viz)
• InuYasha Ani-Manga, Vol. 23 (Viz)
• King of Thorn, Vol. 2 (Tokyopop)
• Law of Ueki, Vol. 8 (Viz)
• Magic Moon Novel, Vol. 2 (Tokyopop)
• Manga Messiah (Tyndale House Publishers)
• Manga: The Complete Guide (Del Rey)
• Missile Happy, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
• Naruto, Vol. 19 (Viz)
• Naruto, Vol. 20 (Viz)
• Naruto, Vol. 21 (Viz)
• O-Parts Hunter, Vol. 6 (Viz)
• Oh My Goddess, Vol. 27 (Dark Horse)
• Once Upon a Glashma (ADV Manga)
• Portus (Viz; click here for a review)
• Presents, Vol. 1 (CMX)
• Princess Ai Ultimate Edition (Tokyopop)
• Red River, Vol. 19 (Viz)
• Rozen Maiden, Vol. 6 (Tokyopop)
• Rure, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
• Shinshoku Kiss, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
• Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Vol. 1 (Yen Press; reviewed below)
• Street Fighter II Manga, Vol. 1 (UDON Entertainment)
• Vampire Doll, Vol. 4 (Tokyopop)
• Vampire Knight, Vol. 3 (click here for a review of volume 1)
• Variante, Vol. 1 (CMX)
• Welcome to the NHK Novel (Tokyopop)
• Witchblade Takeru Manga, Vol. 2 (Image/Top Cow)
• Yonen Buzz, Vol. 3 (Tokyopop)
• Yotsuba&!, Vol. 5 (ADV Manga; click here for a review of volume 4)
• Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist, Vol. 23 (Viz)
• YuYu Hakusho, Vol. 3 (Viz)
• Zatch Bell, Vol. 15 (Viz)
• Zombie Loan, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)

Black God, Vol. 1

Artwork by Sung-Woo Park, Story by Dall-Young Lim
Yen Press, 222 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (language, violence)

Keita Ibuki is, to put it bluntly, a loser. He’s a mooch and a dreamer, cheerfully accepting handouts from his childhood friend Akane while cooking up a get-rich scheme with his video gaming pals. His routine is upended by a chance encounter at a ramen stand, where a fight between a disheveled young girl and a large thug erupts. During the ensuing chaos, Keita faints. When he regains consciousness, he finds the girl crouched on the floor of his kitchen, devouring the contents of his refrigerator with animalistic gusto. Pressed for an explanation of what happened, the girl introduces herself (her name is Kuro), insists that Keita lost his arm in the fight (even though he appears to have two perfectly good limbs), and informs him that she’s a mototsumitama, a god-like being with super-human strength and lizard-like powers of regeneration. (And a penchant for dogs; Kuro keeps company with a miniature dachshund named Punipuni.) None of these revelations sit well with Keita. He banishes Kuro from his apartment, only to be dragged into another brutal showdown when she’s ambushed by a gang of mototsumitama just outside his door.

If the story itself isn’t particularly original, there’s still much to like about Yen Press’s first seinen offering. The pace is brisk; the artwork, though heavy on the speedlines and screentones, flows nicely; and the characters are more fully developed than their counterparts in many action series. The editorial team has done a fine job of preserving the original sound effects while offering discrete translations, sometimes within the panels, and sometimes in the horizontal gutters. That editorial meticulousness extends to the dialogue as well, which is generally rendered in a fluid, idiomatic style.

My primary reservation about Black God is the artist’s shameless pandering to teenage male tastes. Kuro dresses like a graduate of the Paris Hilton Finishing School for Young Ladies, sporting a jacket and scarf but no pants for most of volume one. Akane eventually purchases a proper wardrobe for Kuro, but that scene is milked for all its panty-shot potential as well. Oy vey! Even Misty May and Kerri Walsh—two of the most scantily-clad athletes in modern Olympic history—had the good sense to wear bottoms, for Pete’s sake. Here’s hoping that Kuro has a similar epiphany in volume two.

Volume one of Black God will be available on October 10th.

Hikkatsu!, Vol. 1

By Yu Yagami
Go! Comi, 196 pp.
Rating: OT (16+)

I’ve read many sci-fi stories that pit men against machines, but none quite like Hikkatsu!, a story set in a future where household appliances run amok on a daily basis. The hero, Shota, is an obtuse twenty-something who has developed a martial arts technique he calls the “repair blow”: a strong karate chop designed to knock a busted TV or bulldozer into working condition. Though his success rate is abysmally low, Shota dedicates himself to perfecting his form, oblivious to the damage he causes or the repair blow’s true value as a self-defense technique against toasters on the fritz. His percussive skills bring him to the attention of two people: Momoko, a cute tomboy who, for reasons never satisfactorily explained, walks around with a pigeon on her head, and Kanji, a skateboarding hustler who views Shota’s repair blow as a ticket to riches.

Although the set-up promises wacky sci-fi antics, volume one quickly runs out of gas. Yu Yagami establishes a basic plotline in chapter one that he doggedly follows in each subsequent story: Shota breaks things, causing headaches for Momoko and Kanji, only to redeem himself at chapter’s end by actually fixing something with his fists. If I hadn’t read the dust jacket copy beforehand, I’m not sure I would have realized that the story unfolds “in Earth’s distant future,” as Yagami’s landscapes look suspiciously like twenty-first century Japan and his household appliances seem to be of an even earlier vintage. I’m also not sure I would have grasped the significance of the “geomagnetic abnormalities” that cause machines to act up on a daily basis; Yagami doesn’t represent these “abnormalities” visually, nor does he offer an explanation of what causes them (or when they began occurring, for that matter). It’s a shame that Hikkatsu! doesn’t make more of its premise, as Yagami’s loose, sketchy linework is a refreshing departure from the overly screen toned, anime-influenced art in many licensed shonen series. But Yagami never develops his more interesting ideas; he’s as fixated on the repair blow as Shota is, and fails to see that the joke is stale by the end of chapter two.

Volume one of Hikkatsu! is available now.

La Corda d’Oro, Vol. 5

By Yuki Kure
Viz, 190 pp.
Rating: Teen

From reading La Corda d’Oro, one might reasonably conclude that beneath the Mozart-loving exterior of the average violinist beats the heart of a Russian mobster. To wit: volume five begins with an act of sabotage designed to prevent Len, the top-seeded musician at Seisou Academy, from performing in the second round of the school’s annual competition. But his enemies don’t hide his rosin or sheet music—no, they kidnap Len, trapping him in a closet (feel free to insert your own R. Kelly joke here) until the competition is over. Lest you’d forgotten that this series owes its inspiration to a dating simulation game, Len’s kidnapping is quickly eclipsed by the introduction of a new character—Shinobu Osaki, a Seisou alumnus, former competition winner, and hottie to boot—and a subplot requiring Kahoko to pose as Azuma’s fiancée. Neither of these developments make much sense given the events in previous chapters; both feel like clumsy attempts to integrate storylines from the video game. What redeems volume five are the extras, which include a short story explaining why Kazuki quit the track team to take up the trumpet (hint: it involves a cute girl, though in a refreshingly unexpected way) and a thoughtful glossary of musical terms for the classical n00b.

Volume five of La Corda d’Oro is available now. Click here to read a review of the previous four volumes.

Shakugan no Shana, Vol. 2

Story by Yashichiro Takahashi, Art by Ayato Sasakura, Character Design by Noizi Ito
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

The first volume of Shakugan no Shana was disorienting. In the span of about twenty pages, Yuji, a seemingly ordinary teenager, died, was partially resurrected, learned that he was a pawn in a multi-dimensional power struggle, and inherited a flame-haired bodyguard named Shana. Volume two positively dawdles in comparison. The first six chapters document Shana’s not-so-successful attempts to go incognito in the human world by impersonating a high school student. Much to the delight of her classmates (and Yuji’s consternation), Shana can’t tame her warrior instincts, confronting her teachers with near-lethal force whenever they irritate her. Near the end of chapter 13, the inter-dimensional action resumes as a demonic figure (or “Crimson Denizen,” in the series’ parlance) attempts to capture Yuji, touching off a lengthy battle sequence on the school playground.

Although the artwork is competent and the fight scenes rendered with flair, Shakugan no Shana has a paint-by-numbers feel, from the inclusion of a moe love interest—yin to Shana’s overbearing, uncouth yang—to the bad guys’ snarling one-liners. None of the characters rise above the level of archetype, nor does the story deviate from that tried-and-true formula of “boy saves world after he discovers that he is THE ONE.” Unless you’re a hard-core otaku who’s been dying to see what makes this series so popular in Japan, I’d suggest skipping Shakugan no Shana in favor of Kekkaishi, Kurohime, or Togari.

Volume two of Shakugan no Shana is available now.

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Vol. 1

Story by Kyo Shirodaira, Art by Eita Mizuno
Yen Press, 192 pp.
Rating: Teen (language, violence)

As any student of Agatha Christie knows, a good murder mystery keeps the reader guessing whodunnit? how? and why? until the final pages of the story. A poorly written mystery, however, simply confounds the reader with illogical plot twists, half-baked characters, and clues that require too much explanation to shed light on the killer’s methods or motives. Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning is a prime example of the latter. The basic structure is sound: Ayumu Narumi, a tenth grader, becomes embroiled in a murder investigation after one of his classmates dies in a fall from the school roof. Suspicion quickly falls on Ayumu, who was the only person in the vicinity when her body was discovered. Eager to clear his name, he begins sniffing out clues with the aid of his sister-in-law, who just so happens to be a homicide detective. The two discover a connection between the girl’s death and a mysterious group known only as the “Blade Children”–the very people responsible for the disappearance of Ayumu’s older brother several years earlier. If my plot summary sounds straightforward, the actual story is anything but: flashbacks and tonally off-kilter comedic scenes routinely interrupt the narrative flow, making it difficult to piece together events. More frustrating still is the author’s decision to toss logic out the window from the very first panel: would the police really allow one of their own detectives to continue living with the prime suspect in a murder case, especially if she were in charge of the investigation? Even Miss Marple would have a hard time explaining that one.

Volume one of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning will be available on October 10th.