I don’t know how many regular readers I have, but any of you who might be out there have probably noticed that I’ve been quiet for the past week or so. The end of the semester is swiftly approaching, leaving me knee-deep in exam study and final projects. As a result, my reviewing has been put on a back burner.
I may or may not get more reviews done over the next couple of weeks, but I’ll definitely pick up after December 11. Just wanted to give a heads-up!
I chose to read and review Apothecarius Argentum for two reasons: first, I had heard that it was pretty good, and second, that it was a CMX title and I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the shojo titles they import. Unfortunately, this one didn’t really hold up for me.
The story is set in a small country called Beazol, which seems to be culturally based on Western Europe of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The country is at war, and the King with his troops, leaving his adolescent daughter Princess Primula to oversee the kingdom. Primula is athletic and headstrong, with a strong moral streak that only intensifies as the series goes on. She’s the sort of character I like, but nothing about her really made her stand out from the archetype.
When Primula is poisoned through her food and her usual healer cannot be found, they find the quickest replacement they can, an apothecary named Argent. As a child, Argent had been Primula’s food tester–he comes from a group of people in a different country chosen as infants and slowly fed different poisons until they’ve built up an immunity. Argent cannot be killed by poison…but as a result of this, his touch itself is poison and his hair has turned silver. He had no name when he was first bought–he started his service as a child slave–and it was Primula who named him Argent.
Primula’s father, the King, is a cold and calculating man. He truly loves his daughter (though she is rumored to not be his), and is a more complex character for it, but he also has ambitions for his country. Now that Argent is back in the picture, the King intends to use him as a weapon rather than a healer, much to Argent’s distress. Argent has reinvented himself as a healer, not a poison tester or a specialized assassin. He cannot touch people, but he can make all sorts of cures.
I can’t tell you why this manga isn’t working for me. Primula and Argent are interesting enough characters and Soda, the boy who elbows his way into becoming Argent’s apprentice, is only vaguely annoying instead of being incredibly annoying. The writer has done her homework when it comes to the sorts of medications that apothecaries would use. There’s just something missing, though if the development at the end of the second volume doesn’t go the predictable route, perhaps it’s just missing from these two volumes.
The art of this series is technically skilled. The artist’s linework is delicate and soft, and she doesn’t overuse the screentones the way some others do. It’s nothing unique, though–nothing memorable. While this doesn’t bug me, it doesn’t do anything to help my ambivalence.
In the end, I don’t know if I could recommend Apothecarius Argentum. I don’t know if I could tell someone to avoid it, either. While it doesn’t work for me, it might work for someone else.
Apothecarius Argentum is by Tomomi Yamashita and is published in the US by CMX.
Grade: C+
I squeed all over volume one of Beast Master for Manga Recon’s On the Shojo Beat column this month. It features a confident, likable heroine, a hero who’s a nice mix of sweet and dangerous, and lots and lots of me giggling at what happens. READ THIS MANGA.
Grade: A-
Did a little review of Crimson Shell for Manga Recon’s Manga Minis column this week. It’s the artist’s first title and you can tell, but there’s a lot of promise in it.
Grade: C+
I did a review of Cause of My Teacher over on Manga Recon for the Manga Minis column this week. It’s–uh. Not good.
Grade: D
Airi Hoshina, high school freshman, is the kind of girl who has her entire future planned out. She wants to find the perfect boyfriend, have the perfect courtship, then the perfect wedding and perfect domestic life afterwards. To be honest, I’ve never quite understood this mindset. When I was her age, what I wanted for my future was to be a writer and live in a converted ICBM silo. If blogging counts as writing, I guess I’ve achieved one of those goals.
In any event, she’s heading to school one morning when she drops her heirloom mirror, a seven-pointed star with a loop of ribbon tied to it. While she’s not looking, a strange little boy named Aram appears out of it. He ends up following her home. While sleeping, thanks to a spell his half-brother has placed on him, his body grows to that of a young adult.
So, basically, it’s a magical Big.
There’s a fantasy realm and princes and politics and Airi is the descendant of a member of the royal family who defected to our reality, hence her having the mirror. Aram turns back into a child when Airi kisses him on the cheek, and both versions of him cause her no small amount of hassle, especially when she’s dealing with Nakaoji, a boy in class who fits her exacting standards for a boyfriend. There’s also Jeile, the brother who placed the spell on Aram. Jiele considers himself to be a ladies man, and I suppose he is–he’s also a moron. A lot of Aram’s naiveté is due to his age and his origins in his world. Jeile…is stupid on top of everything else.
The author’s notes for this series start before the first illustrated page of the manga, and she says that at one point the working title for MeruPuri was “4 Idiots”. I believe it. They’re likable enough, but each of them needs a good smack with a clue-by-four. (In Jeile’s case, he needs to be boxed in by them and rolled down the hill.)
Hino-sensei’s art is always a treat, and this title is no different from her others. The color art on the covers of the volumes has an inviting palette of warm peach and salmon tones, muted forest greens, and silvery blues. The interior art shows a steady hand and a strong sense of who these characters are, as well as the heavy use of screentone that I’ve becoming accustomed to after reading Vampire Knight.
MeruPuri is escapism, pure and simple, but it’s a genuinely fun bit of escapism that makes me want to read more. Between the hijinks of the characters and the lush art, I can’t wait to get my hands on the final two volumes.
MeruPuri is by Matsuri Hino and is published in the US by VIZ Media under the Shojo Beat imprint.
Grade: B-
This definitely isn’t the Fushigi Yugi I remember.
Don’t get me wrong. I did like the original series, despite my dislike of the heroine and the relentless nature of the primary romance. It had the sort of epic scope that I love in a story and side characters who were interesting and fun. It’s just that this is so much more than that.
These two volumes involve Takiko searching for more of her Celestial Warriors. With her are Tomite and Hatsui primarily, though they’re often joined by Uruki. There is a growing affection between Takiko and Uruki, which I sort of adore for the gender ambiguity of it all, and yet sort of feel let down due to my inability to see any real chemistry between the two. I often find this with Watase-sensei’s couples, and have come to wonder if it’s just a difference in the way that she and I see relationships.
Each volume introduces a new Celestial Warrior. Volume four’s Hikitsu is familiar to anyone who read or watched the original series–he and Tomite play a role in an arc–but volume three’s Namame is brand new in more ways than one. In the original series, all of the Celestial Warriors were human. Well, human-ish. Ashitare and Miboshi sort of pushed at that limit, but neither was as inhuman as Namame. Namame is a creature made of rock, a tiny doll-like being in his natural state but able to expand to be an impenetrable wall. It looks like there may be hinkiness going on with the other Warriors, as well–a child oracle named Anlu tells Takiko where to find the five Celestial Warriors she’s missing. Only, she already has three (this is the storyline where she finds Namame), so wouldn’t that put her one over?
I’m interested to see how that one turns out.
Meanwhile, the political situation seems to be as unstable as ever. Uruki, son of the Emperor, is still dodging assassins sent by his father. For the majority of these volumes, he’s also still working with the assassins from the country to the south who were sent to kill Takiko and her comrades. Though it was obvious who he would eventually choose when forced to decide between them, I found his journey interesting and fun to read.
I only have a few minor quibbles about the story so far. Takiko embracing Namame and accepting him was an awful lot like the way she embraced Hatsui. I also forgot how much this series likes to kill little girls. Both the augur and oracle consulted in volume three are young girls and neither survive. I was reminded of the death of Tamahome’s family in the original–I know, I’m comparing them a lot, but as a prequel this series does invite the comparisons.
Overall, I’m still invested in Takiko’s tale and how she’s getting to where she’s going. This is a prequel story that is definitely worth telling.
Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden is by Yuu Watase and is published in the US by VIZ Media under the Shojo Beat imprint.
Grade: B
I got to review Goong volume seven for Manga Recon’s Manga Minis column this week. The romance is finally kicking into high gear in this series, but I find myself just as interested in the political machinery of the court as I am in Shin and Chae-Kyung.
Grade: A-
The public library finally got in the third volume of Vampire Knight! I’d had the fourth volume for about a week, but I wanted to read them in order. I felt that otherwise, I’d just get confused.
Volume three of Vampire Knight begins with a chapter involving Ichijo’s grandfather coming to visit the Moon Dormitory, ostensibly to see him. I’m sure that this visit and the things said will eventually be important to the overall plot of the story, but that didn’t stop it from feeling like filler. The middle of the volume improves slightly, detailing the story of how both Yuki and Zero came to be in the care of the headmaster of the academy. It also highlights something else: Kaname using Ruka, another one of the vampires, as someone to chow down on when Yuki’s trust in him tempted him almost to the breaking point. There’s a chapter about Zero going to hunt a mad vampire that’s been killing people, and then the volume closes out with a new student joining the Night Class.
All in all, volume three is full of episodes but not really all that heavy on the continuity. The last chapter does lead directly into the plot-heavy volume four, but what comes before that just seems to set certain things into motion that don’t really have a lot to do with one another. Vampire politics, backstory, Zero’s internal conflict–these things are related, but not heavily so.
Volume four, on the other hand, feels like one coherent plot from beginning to end. Maria Kurenai, the new student who joined the Night Class at the end of volume three, plays significant role in the story. Maria is really Shizuka Hio, the pureblood vampire who attacked Zero’s family and turned him into the creature he’s becoming: a vampire who has been turned from a human, destined to go mad unless he drinks from the vampire who made him. Shizuka spends the volume toying with her prey, both Zero and Yuki, pushing Yuki into a decision to either kill Kaname or give herself to Shizuka in order to save Zero from his inevitable fate. There’s a fantastic revelation at the end of the volume that makes my fingers twitch toward the next volume sitting on my bookshelf. I won’t give it away here.
Now. Let’s get down to the first thing I wanted to mention in this review. Vampire Knight’s vampires can go out in the daytime.
Look, you’re gonna have to stop running away when I say things like that. It’s okay! Really!
Even Dracula himself could go out in the daytime. I have to keep reminding myself of this when I run across vampire stories where the bloodsucker is out. (I never count Angel because they were dealing with actors, etc.) Plus, the vampires in this story are nocturnal creatures. They are extremely sensitive to sunlight…I don’t think it’s intentional, but it reminded me of porphyria, the blood disease that is thought to be the source of a lot of the vampire mythology.
Vampire Knight continues to be enjoyable and entertaining. While volume three has considerable weaknesses, the narrative of volume four more than makes up for it. The art continues to be strong as well, moody, dark, and beautiful as a modern-day vampire tale demands.
Vampire Knight is by Matsuri Hino and published in the US by VIZ Media under the Shojo Beat imprint.
Grade: B
I reviewed a how-to book called Drawing Manga Animals, Chibis, and Other Adorable Creatures for Manga Recon this week. The art inside the book didn’t impress me, nor did the lack of actual instruction. There are better how-to books out there…I can’t recommend this one.
Grade: C-
