Happy New Year! I hadn’t planned to take such a long hiatus from reviewing, but the end of 2007 found me feeling a little burnt out after reading one too many generic shonen adventure series. Now that I’ve had a chance to read the books I bought at New York Anime Fest (not to mention a few of the old-fashioned kind—you know, the ones without pictures and sound effects), I’m ready to tackle the ever-growing stack of new releases sitting on my bookshelves.
You don’t need to be a manga pundit to realize that this week’s yaoi-heavy list doesn’t offer the most varied or interesting selection of books. Still, there are a few excellent titles mixed in with the man-love: King of the Lamp (Go! Comi), a one-shot comedy by Tenshi Ja Nai!! creator Takako Shigematsu; volume two of Walkin’ Butterfly (Aurora), a josei drama about a pizza delivery girl trying to break into runway modeling; and volume two of Gyo (Viz), Junji Ito’s horror classic about a scientific experiment that transforms thousands of fish into hungry, land-roaming monsters. As a wise man once said, “History shows again and again/How nature points up the folly of men.”
One quick tip for the bargain-conscious manga lover: from now until January 20th, Right Stuf is running a promotion on Viz manga and DVDs; selected titles are 33% to 40% off. The coupon code is takenote.
REVIEWED LAST WEEK: Aventura, Vol. 1 (Del Rey); Bombos vs. Everything, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop); Crimson Hero, Vol. 7 (Viz); High School Debut, Vol. 1 (Viz); Love*Com, Vol. 4 (Viz); Mamotte Lollipop, Vol. 1 (Del Rey); Mamotte Lollipop, Vol. 2 (Del Rey); My Heavenly Hockey Club, Vol. 2 (Del Rey); My Heavenly Hockey Club, Vol. 3 (Del Rey)
REVIEWED THIS WEEK: Kamikaze Girls (Viz); The Manga Bible (Doubleday); Tears of a Lamb, Vol. 1 (CMX)
SHIPPING THIS WEEK
BTX, Vol. 14 (Tokyopop)
Cantarella, Vol. 9 (Go! Comi)
Cipher, Vol. 10 (CMX)
Crushing Love (DMP)
Final Girl Pocket Manga, Vol. 1 (Antarctic Press)
Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, Vol. 6 (Viz)
Gyo (2nd ed.), Vol. 2 (Viz; click here for Ken’s review of vol. 1)
Heroes Are Extinct!!, Vol. 3 (DMP; click here for Erin’s review of vol. 2)
Hikkatsu!, Vol. 2 (Go! Comi; click here for Kate’s review of vol. 1)
I Hate You More Than Anyone, Vol. 3 (CMX; click here for Kate’s review of vol. 1)
I’ll Be Your Slave (DMP)
King of the Lamp (Go! Comi)
Love Share (DMP)
The Manga Bible (Doubleday; reviewed below)
Party (DMP)
Strawberry Panic Manga (Seven Seas)
Walkin’ Butterfly, Vol. 2 (Aurora; click here for Kate’s review of vol. 1)
Kamikaze Girls (Novel)
By Novala Takemoto; Translated by Akemi Wegmüller
Viz Media, 219 pp.
Rating: 16+
If you missed Kamikaze Girls’s initial hardcover release, fear not—Viz is reissuing this coming-of-age story in a smart-looking paperback edition. The plot follows a fairly standard template for young adult novels, with seeming opposites finding common ground in their shared feelings of alienation. The principle characters—Momoko, a Lolita with a passion for expensive, frilly fashion, and Ichigo, a Yanki with a equally intense passion for her tricked-out bike—meet cute when Momoko attempts to unload counterfeit couture in their small rural town. Through numerous sales (Ichigo loves fake Versace, the gaudier, the better), idle conversations, and trips to pachinko parlors, the two forge a strong bond.
The best part of Kamikaze Girls is Momoko—she’s a deliciously unreliable narrator whose lacy petticoats and feminine airs conceal a tough, independent spirit. Novala Takemoto creates a distinctive voice for Momoko that, thanks to the superb translation by Akemi Wegmüller, registers as knowing and savagely funny. Consider this passage in which Momoko describes Rococo style for the uninitiated:
In art history terms, Rococo refers to the period that appeared after the Baroque—which lasted from around 1715 to 1770 or so and possessed a stateliness and majesty based on Catholic beliefs—and without giving it any deep thought whatsoever, started using curves for no other reason than, hey, round is cuter than square! and, just because the solemn, masculine dynamism of Baroque was sort of oppressive, plus all serious and boring, came up with a decorative style that was fancy, ornate, and feminine—which sounds very nice, but actually it’s just terribly frivolous. After enjoying its heyday, Rococo—derived from rocaille, or “misshapen pebble” in French (pardon my going academic on you right off the bat; bear with me a little longer, you slower-witted readers out there)—was treated as a blot on the history of art due to its complete lack of thought (“Shall we just pretend it never happened? It’s so stupid.” “Yes, let’s ignore it.”) and buried in oblivion.
If I had any criticism of Kamikaze Girls, it’s that Takemoto sometimes allows brand consciousness and pop-culture allusions to substitute for real characterization. Teenagers certainly define themselves in terms of what clothes they wear and what pop stars they idolize, but the author has a responsibility to dig a little deeper to show us who his characters really are beneath the posturing, something Takemoto doesn’t do as well as ventriloquizing Momoko’s thoughts about the relative merits of Vivienne Westwood and Yanki manga. That said, Kamikaze Girls is nothing less than entertaining, even if you aren’t a regular shopper at Baby, The Stars Shine Bright.
Kamikaze Girls will be available on January 15th. For reviews of the movie and hardcover edition of the book, as well as a primer on Japanese schoolgirl fashion, see Erin F.’s 2007 essay Three Goth-Loli Must-Haves.
The Manga Bible
By Siku
Doubleday, 216 pp.
Throughout Western history, Christian leaders have sought innovative ways to bring the Good News to new audiences: stained glass windows for illiterate medieval peasants, vernacular Bibles for Martin Luther’s followers, Hollywood spectaculars for twentieth-century moviegoers. The Manga Bible is the latest attempt to tailor the Good Book to contemporary tastes, this time aiming for the hearts and minds of Naruto nation. In the foreword, the editors explain that their graphic novel “does not claim to tell all the stories or cover all the teachings of the Bible”; instead, it is meant to provide readers “a taste of the most important themes and characters, and a basic idea of what it’s all about.” Readers with an urge to read “the official version” of these famous stories will find discrete sidebars listing the chapters and verses for the corresponding passages in the Bible.
While I found the goal of the project laudable, I found the execution wanting. The narration, for example, seems plucked from the pages of the New Standard Edition, while the dialogue sounds like something uttered by characters in Troy or The 300, at once colloquial and stilted. I also found the book’s emphasis on the Old Testament rather odd; the first 136 pages—nearly two-thirds of the entire book—are devoted to the Hebrew Bible, while a mere 64 chronicle the life and death of Jesus. Odder still, the creators chose not to tell the Christmas story—a grievous omission, considering the Nativity is one of the most important mysteries of the Catholic faith.
Most disappointing, however, is the lack of reflection. The book’s emphasis falls squarely on high-speed camel chases and battle scenes, leaving precious little space to contemplate the actual teachings of the Bible. An ill-advised attempt to illustrate one of the Psalms demonstrates why the pow-n-splat approach to this material doesn’t work: the verses of Psalm 18 (”The Lord is my rock and my fortress…”) are accompanied by tiny drawings that capture the poem’s imagery without evoking the feeling or meaning of the words. Siku’s rough, sketch-like artwork is better suited to dynamic scenes that showcase his innovative use of space, rather than these literal-minded thumbnails.
My final verdict: if the Good Book has survived the indignities heaped upon it by Cecil B. DeMille, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Mel Gibson, it will also survive The Manga Bible.
The Manga Bible will be available on January 15th.
Tears of a Lamb, Vol. 1
By Banri Hidaka
CMX, 198 pp.
Rating: Teen (suggestive situations)
The first two chapters of Banri Hidaka’s Tears of a Lamb seem like a fairly conventional shojo comedy about an introverted boy and an extroverted girl brought together by improbable circumstances. Kei Hasumi, the heroine, is a perky freshman who lives with her two older brothers, Sai and Rihito. On first day of school, she accosts newcomer Kyosuke Kanzaki and demands to see his apartment, offering no explanation for her out-of-the-blue request. Kanzaki immediately rebuffs Kei—he’s embarrassed by the way the apartment is furnished (it belonged to his older sister, who stipulated that he couldn’t change anything if he lived there) and eager to preserve his privacy. Undeterred, Kei continues to badger Kanzaki for access. Over time, the two form an uneasy friendship. In the process, each discovers that the other harbors a secret: Hasumi lost something that belonged to a former occupant of Kanzaki’s apartment, while Kanzaki’s former classmates ostracized him for blowing a big basketball game.
When Tears of a Lamb takes a more serious turn in later chapters, the elements of the story don’t quite gel. Comedic moments bump up against revelations of anorexia, broken homes, and broken engagements, making for a very choppy read. The few scenes in which characters break the fourth wall to crack jokes are especially distracting, coming on the heels of serious revelations about Hasumi’s mental health.
Still, Tears of a Lamb has the potential to be an engaging, if melodramatic, read. The artwork is a marked improvement on Hidaka’s earlier series I Hate You More Than Anyone; her layouts are cleaner and easier to follow, and the figures are modeled more realistically. Hidaka also conducts an interesting experiment midway through the book, when Kanzaki replaces Kei has the narrator of the story. The switch gives us fresh perspective on Kanzaki’s feelings about Kei, showing us the contradiction between his speech and his actions, and demonstrating that Hidaka has some neat storytelling tricks up her sleeve. Let’s hope she surprises us with more twists in volume two.
Volume one of Tears of a Lamb is available now.
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