Apologies for the very belated posting! I have been sick as a proverbial dog this week, and am finally emerging from a state of complete mental fuzziness. I’m going to beg off my usual opening gambit and simply direct you to David Welsh’s excellent recommendation list for this week. (Hint: it includes PCS staff favorite Gon, the “tiny terror from the Jurassic Era.”)

By the way, if you’re a die-hard shojo fan, Go! Comi is running a promotion after your heart: buy all seven volumes of Crossroad or all eight volumes of Tenshi Ja Nai!! and pay nothing for the final two volumes of either series. To sweeten the deal, Go! Comi is offering free shipping on all orders placed through their e-store, regardless of size. No word on when either deal expires, so hop to it!

REVIEWED LAST WEEK: Appleseed: The Promethean Challenge, Vol. 1 (Dark Horse); Gackt: The Greatest Filmography, 1996 – 2006 Red (Viz); Two Will Come, Vols. 1-2 (NETCOMICS)

REVIEWED THIS WEEK: Cantarella, Vol. 9 (Go! Comi); The Guin Saga: The Seven Magi, Vol. 2 (Vertical, Inc.); Hikkatsu!, Vol. 2 (Go! Comi)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK
Berserk, Vol. 21 (Dark Horse)
Gold Digger II Pocket Manga, Vol. 3 (Antarctic Press)
Gon, Vol. 3 (CMX; click here for Ken’s review of vol. 1)
The Guin Saga: The Seven Magic, Vol. 2 (Vertical, Inc.; reviewed below)
Kagetora, Vol. 8 (Del Rey)
Mischief & Mayhem Pocket Manga, Vol. 1 (Antarctic Press)
Trigun Maxium, Vol. 12 (Dark Horse)
Vagabond, Vol. 26 (Viz; click here for Ken’s review of vols. 1-6)
Zombie Fairy, Vol. 1 (CMX)

Cantarella, Vol. 9

By You Higuri
Go! Comi, 196 pp.
Rating: OT (Older Teen, 16+)

Someday I’d like to visit You Higuri’s Europe—a place where hot guys wear gorgeous period costumes in public and poofy, unbuttoned shirts in private; where chaste young women are forced to marry handsome rogues; where everyone lives in palatial splendor; and where every love affair violates some sort of taboo. Until Mario Perillo offers Gorgeous Carat tours, however, I’ll have to make do with Higuri’s shamelessly addictive Cantarella, a highly romanticized view of papal politics in fifteenth-century Rome.

The story follows the rise of the real-life Cesare Borgia (1475 – 1507), the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI. Higuri adheres faithfully to the facts of Cesare’s life, from his appointment to the College of Cardinals at the tender age of fifteen to his conquering of Imola and Forli, two city-states that had once been the stronghold of Caterina Sforza. In and of themselves, Cesare’s assignations, backroom negotiations, and small-scale wars need no fictional embellishment to make them compelling, but Higuri can’t resist adding a few flourishes to this Machiavellian operator’s biography: demonic possession, incest, and a whiff of shonen-ai. Given the Borgias’ reputation for decadence and ruthlessness, however, most of Higuri’s gambits work, transforming Cesare’s life into a beautifully illustrated, overripe tale of unrequited love, overweening ambition, and a pact with Satan himself—in short, the perfect material for a Donizetti opera.

Volume nine of Cantarella is available now.

The Guin Saga: The Seven Magi, Vol. 2

Art by Kazuaki Yanagisawa, Story by Kaoru Kurimoto
Vertical, Inc., 170 pp.
Rating: Ages 16+

Though I enjoyed volume one of The Guin Saga, I found volume two downright confusing. I suspect that if I’d read the novels on which the manga is based, many of my lingering questions—why did Queen Sylvia marry Guin if she found him so repulsive? what did Guin do bring such a terrible plague upon his kingdom?—might have been answered. But the manga doesn’t bother to explain anything about Guin’s past, leaving a dramatic hole at the center of the story. The sexual politics of The Seven Magi, too, are amusingly retrograde: Kaoru Kurimoto’s main strategy for differentiating the female characters is to vary the strength of their libidos from frigid to muy caliente. Considering how many fantasy authors have used their otherworldly settings as an excuse to subvert gender norms by creating strong, interesting female characters, Kurimoto’s cast of scantily-clad fembots are a disappointing, uninspired lot. With just one more volume in the series to go, however, I feel compelled to finish The Seven Magi, if only to see if any of my questions are answered.

Volume two of The Guin Saga: The Seven Magi will be released on January 23rd.

Hikkatsu! Strike a Blow to Vivify, Vol. 2

By Yu Yagami
Go! Comi, 180 pp.
Rating: OT (Older Teen 16+)

In the first volume of Hikkatsu!, we were introduced to our principle trio: Shota, a martial artist who uses a special technique—a.k.a. “the repair blow”—to subdue rampaging machinery; Momoko, a love-struck tomboy who was raised by pigeons; and Kanji, a hustler who sees potential profit in Shota’s skills. Volume two addresses some of the lingering questions from volume one, explaining why the Earth is besieged by electromagnetic storms, for example, and reassuring us that Shota has never actually used his repair blow on people. (At the end of volume one, Asuka, the daughter of Shota’s karate instructor, accused Shota of killing her father with a chop to the chest.) Volume two also presents a new subset of characters: the Enthusiast Clans. Our heroes encounter three such groups in their travels, including one that loves digging holes and another that adores pea shooters.

Though Yu Yagami labors mightily to make these scenes funny, the zaniness feels forced, with too many scenes of characters shouting, running, and trading predictable insults as they try to escape the clans’ Byzantine traps. The chief redeeming feature of volume two is Yagami’s art. He relies almost exclusively on rough, energetic linework to create volume and motion, applying screentone sparingly. As a result, his action sequences and landscapes have a clarity that’s rare in shonen manga, as the characters’ bodies aren’t buried beneath an avalanche of speed lines, explosions, or fight technique names. (You know… “Wind scar!” “Super duper iron fist!” “Dragon lotus of death!”) Too bad Hikkatsu’s story isn’t as fresh and understated as the artwork—it might earn a spot on my pull list.

Volume two of Hikkatsu! is available now.