Looking over this week’s shipping list, I’m convinced that manga publishers are like movie studios, reserving their best material for the final weeks of the year. Tokyopop, for example, offers readers a new “ultimate edition” of Mizuki Hakase’s fantasy The Demon Ororon, the final installment of Queenie Chan’s mystery The Dreaming, and the first volume of Jo Chen’s gritty drama The Other Side of the Mirror, as well as something I’m hoping to find under the tree this year: the ninth issue of CLAMP no Kiseki, which explores X/1999 and Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales. Viz also brings an A-list line-up to your local Borders, with new volumes of The Drifting Classroom, Golgo 13, Full Metal Alchemist, Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs, Monster, and Uzumaki. And if you can’t get enough of teenagers in knee socks, DrMaster reissues volumes one and three of fan favorite High School Girls.

Last-minute shoppers will find plenty of websites offering advice on what to buy for manga lovers. The best recommendations come from Chloe Ferguson of Shuchaku East and David Welsh of Comic World News, both of whom have impeccable taste. You can’t go wrong with any of their suggestions, whether you’re buying To Terra for an old-school shojo fan or Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms for a discerning otaku.

One final note: Weekly Recon will be on hiatus until the New Year. In the interim, you can find out what’s shipping to your LCS by checking the Midtown Comics manga page. The hard-working guys at Midtown update the site every Friday, giving you a good idea of what you can expect to see in the “New Arrival” spinner rack the following Wednesday. You can also purchase titles directly through the website if lousy weather or Yuletide merry-making prevent you from leaving the house.

From everyone here at the Manga Recon crew, have a wonderful, restful holiday!

REVIEWED LAST WEEK: Vagabond, Vols. 1-6 (Viz)

REVIEWED THIS WEEK: Gakuen Alice, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop), The Guin Saga: The Seven Magi, Vol. 1 (Vertical, Inc.), Japan-Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan (Go! Comi), O-Parts Hunter, Vol. 7 (Viz), Wild Ones, Vol. 1 (Viz), Yurara, Vol. 3 (Viz)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:
AI Revolution, Vol. 1 (Go! Comi)
Category Freaks Omnibus, Vols. 1-3 (DrMaster)
Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword, Vol. 4 (DrMaster)
CLAMP no Kiseki, Vol. 9 (Tokyopop)
The Demon Ororon: Ultimate Edition (Tokyopop)
The Dreaming, Vol. 3 (Tokyopop; click here for my review of vol. 2)
The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 9 (Viz; click here for my review of vol. 2)
Duetto (DMP)
Full Metal Alchemist, Vol. 15 (Viz)
Gakuen Alice, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop; reviewed below)
Golgo 13, Vol. 12 (Viz; click here for Ken’s review of vols. 1-6)
Gunsmith Cats Revised Edition, Vol. 4 (Dark Horse; click here for Ken’s review of vol. 1)
Hana-Kimi, Vol. 21 (Viz)
High School Girls, Vol. 1 (DrMaster; click here for Erin’s review of vol. 7)
High School Girls, Vol. 3 (DrMaster)
Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs, Vol. 6 (Viz; click here for my review of vol. 3)
Invisible Boy, Vol. 2 (DMP)
Kanna, Vol. 2 (Go! Comi; click here for my review of vol. 1)
Kilala Princess, Vol. 4 (Tokyopop)
Megami DX, Vol. 1 (DMP)
Missing: Kamakakushi no Monogatari, Vol. 2 (Tokyopop)
Moon Child, Vol. 9 (CMX)
Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, Vol. 12 (Viz; click here for my review of vol. 9)
Noise (Tokyopop)
Oh! My Goddess Authentic Edition, Vol. 7 (Dark Horse)
Ordinary Crush, Vol. 2 (DMP)
The Other Side of the Mirror, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
Peach Fuzz, Vol. 3 (Tokyopop)
Pick of the Litter, Vol. 2 (Tokyopop)
St. Lunatic High School, Vol. 2 (Tokyopop)
Takumi-kun Series: Barefoot Waltz, Vol. 2 (BLU Manga)
Uzumaki, Vol. 2 (Viz; click here for Ken’s review of vol. 1)
Words of Devotion, Vol. 2 (DMP)
The Young Magician, Vol. 10 (CMX)

Gakuen Alice, Vol. 1

By Tachibana Higuchi
Tokyopop, 182 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Mikan, a naïve, bubbly girl, is joined at the hip to her classmate Hotaru. When Hotaru abruptly transfers from their small town’s school to an elite, invitation-only academy in Tokyo, Mikan takes the drastic step of running away from home to be with her pal. Mikan attempts to enroll at Hotaru’s new school, a.k.a. Alice Academy, even though she seems to lack the most basic criterion for admission: a special talent. (The school’s students are all exceptional, manifesting powers such as extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, and “control of human pheromones.” Didn’t Batman fight a villain with this power?) A teacher allows Mikan to attend the academy on a provisional basis, giving her one week to befriend her fellow students and prove that she, too, has an ability worthy of the name Alice—no easy task, given her classmates’ fondness for elaborate hazing rituals.

Aside from the button-cute character designs and a few scenes of weird, inspired slapstick, there isn’t much here to engage the reader’s interest. Tachibana Higuchi introduces a dark subplot early in the book, suggesting that the Japanese government created the academy to monitor and exploit the Alices’ gifts. But her characters are such an unpleasant lot it’s hard to muster much sympathy for them; Mikan, in particular, is the kind of shrill, ditzy heroine that gives magical girl manga a bad name. The artwork is an assault on the eyes, filling every page with extreme close-ups, awkwardly posed bodies, visually interchangeable characters, and large patches of screentone that sometimes obscure the dialogue. By the end of volume one, I wished that I had an Alice of my own: the ability to wipe my memory clean of this frantic mess.

Volume one of Gakuen Alice will be released on December 19th.

The Guin Saga: The Seven Magi, Vol. 1

Art by Kazuaki Yanagisawa, Story by Kaoru Kurimoto
Vertical, Inc., 172 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Lest you think this week’s column focuses exclusively on teddy bears and frilly dresses, let me direct you to a pure, unadulterated slab of manly-man manga: The Guin Saga. This three-volume manga retells one of the numerous side stories from the long-running fantasy series of the same name, now at 117 volumes and counting. If that last sentence gives you pause, don’t worry—you don’t need to know anything about the Guin universe to enjoy The Seven Magi.

The story begins with the leopard-headed King Guin returning home after a prolonged absence. He finds Cheironia’s subjects gripped by fear, as a terrible plague ravages the population and undermines the social order. Determined to save Cheironia from the devastation, Guin trawls Magi Alley for a sorcerer skilled enough to help him uncover the plague’s true cause.

Kaoru Kurimoto dispenses with the explanatory speeches and voice-overs found in the early pages of many fantasy series, tossing the reader headlong into the action. The effect is both exhilarating and frustrating: exhilarating, as the reader is on an equal footing with the characters, trying to make sense of events as they unfold, and frustrating, as the lack of background information leaves readers with more questions than answers. Kazuaki Yanagisawa’s muscular character designs, richly detailed backgrounds, and expertly executed fight scenes breathe life into Kurimoto’s story while drawing attention away from The Seven Magi’s two biggest weaknesses: wooden dialogue and laughably over-sexed female characters. As with all Vertical titles, the production values are first rate, from the slick cover design and 6″ x 8″ trim to the heavier paper stock, making The Seven Magi an ideal stocking stuffer for the seinen fan on your shopping list.

Volume one of The Guin Saga: The Seven Magi is available now. To read an excerpt from chapter one, click here.

Japan-Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan

By Aimee Major Steinberger
Go! Comi, 184 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Japan-Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan defies easy categorization, straddling the fence between manga and travelogue. In ten charmingly illustrated chapters, animator and avid cosplayer Aimee Major Steinberger documents her recent trip to Japan, where she visited otaku hotspots from the manga shops of Akihabara to the back door of the Takarazuka Revue. Steinberger’s simple but evocative art does a beautiful job conveying both the essential strangeness of being a tall American woman in Japan and the sheer joy of being a fangirl in the otaku motherland.

In an effort to make Japan-Ai accessible to a wide readership, the editorial team at Go! Comi has included a glossary of terms that run the gamut from the familiar—Chobits, cosplay—to the more obscure—furisode, Tokyu Hands. The book also includes a list of Japanese retailers mentioned in the chapters “Otaku Tokyo” and “Fashionable Tokyo” and hand-drawn maps of the Harajuku and Shinjuku districts. The only drawback to Japan-Ai is the packaging: the sparkling pink cover and bubbly font—presumably derived from Steinberger’s handwriting—may deter male readers from purchasing a book that for all intents and purposes looks like a SnoBall. That’s a pity, because Steinberger’s narrative is funny and informative, filled with the kind of interesting digressions on kogal fashions, Takarazuka fan culture, and onsen etiquette that any budding Japanophile would find enlightening. If you’re not man enough to flip through a copy at the local bookstore, visit the Go! Comi site, where you’ll find a generous preview of chapter one, as well as deleted pages, author commentary, and other ridiculously cute extras. Then go buy it. (Hey, that’s what the Internet is for, right?)

Japan-Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan is available now.

O-Parts Hunter, Vol. 7

By Seishi Kishimoto
Viz, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

O-Parts Hunter is a paradox. On the one hand, the series’ Judeo-Christian-Shinto cosmology could inspire a college course (or at least a term paper) with its sheer complexity and numerous allusions to Kabbalah. On the other hand, the story is as basic as they come: boy and girl seek coveted treasure, fighting off bad guys who want to use said treasure for wicked purposes. Since manga-ka Seishi Kishimoto never quite resolves the tension between his elaborate set-up and simplistic plot, O-Parts Hunter often reads like a novelization of Super Mario Brothers or Dungeons and Dragons, with jargon-heavy dialogue and long-winded speeches interrupting magically enhanced action sequences. The chief redeeming factor of the series is its stylish visuals. Like his more famous twin Masashi, Seishi Kishimoto excels at drawing spiky-haired heroes and leering villains. Jio Freed is Seishi’s best creation, equal parts Naruto and Black Jack with his mismatched eyes, streaked black hair, and abbreviated cape. Jio is a welcome presence in any scene, bringing a badly needed dose of mystery and edginess to an otherwise tame, predictable story.

Volume 7 of O-Parts Hunter is available now.

Wild Ones, Vol. 1

By Kiyo Fujiwara
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen

Fifteen-year-old Sachie Wakamura believed that she and her mother Yukie were alone in the world. After Yukie’s death, however, an elegant, nine-fingered gentleman appears at Sachie’s door claiming to be her grandfather. Before she can so much as yell, “Crying freeman,” he whisks her away in a stretch limousine to a life of luxury… and secrets. Her grandfather, she learns, is the head of a powerful yakuza family. (Hence the missing pinky.) To protect his granddaughter from harm, he assigns handsome high schooler Rakuto to act as Sachie’s bodyguard and tutor. Setting aside the sheer preposterousness of the plot—would Tony Soprano or Michael Corleone really entrust his granddaughter to the care of a fifteen-year-old boy?—the biggest problem facing Wild Ones is the lack of romantic tension. Kiyo Fujiwara paints Sachie and Rakuto as textbook opposites—she’s impetuous and flouts the rules, he’s disciplined and lives by them—but there’s precious little chemistry or hostility between them. What saves Wild Ones are the yakuza gags. In one truly inspired scene, for example, Asagi’s henchmen try finding the perfect birthday present for the boss’s daughter, gravitating to merchandise that only the 108 Dragons could love. I wish there were more scenes involving the rank-and-file gangsters, as they seem to have parachuted in from a volume of What’s Michael? instead of the pages of Hana to Yume, rescuing this anemic, yakuza-princess-meets-foot-soldier tale from terminal shojo blandness.

Volume one of Wild Ones is available now.

Yurara, Vol. 3

Volume three of Yurara is available now. Click here for a review of volume one.

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