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-
Sometimes, I want to read some adventure shojo. Sure, adventure shonen is fun as well, but it usually focuses on a boy as the main character and any romantic subplot is fairly downplayed. Adventure shojo, though–well, the plucky heroine is important. In all aspects of her life, including the pretty boy(s) who are seeking her heart. Two Flowers for the Dragon definitely fulfills my need for adventure shojo. It’s fast-paced, set in an interesting fantasy universe, and has the sort of plucky heroine I can’t help but like.
Shakuya is the heir of the Dragon Clan, rulers of the largest oasis in an expansive desert. The title Dragon Clan isn’t just a name, but rather a description of the family–they are descendants of the original founders of the oasis, a dragon and human who must’ve made an interesting love match. This means that Shakuya isn’t completely human, and in fact is one of the stronger members of her family to come about in some time. Not only does she transform into a magnificent dragon when she’s upset, she also has powers over water. It’s tradition that the members of the Dragon Clan find spouses from amongst the powerful families of the oasis, and it was no different for Shakuya. When she was a tiny child, she was to be married to a man named Lucien.
Unfortunately, Lucien disappeared when Shakuya was ten, soon after he suffered a broken rib during one of her transformations. In time, Shakuya was betrothed again to a police officer named Kuwan. Kuwan is eleven years her senior, stoic, and missing an eye, but she still comes to love the man. The story begins five years after Lucien’s disappearance, when he shows up on the oasis again. He doesn’t remember anything from his life on the oasis, and only has the tattoo on his hand and a letter that Shakuya wrote him as clues to who he was.
There are these tattoos, you see, to symbolize the engagements. On her right hand is a rose, mirroring the one on Lucien’s. On her left is a bellflower, mirroring the one on Kuwan’s. Due to her mystical bloodline, the tattoos grow as her affections do. Shakuya doesn’t really want Lucien around when he returns, but it’s decided that in one year, the man who has captured Shakuya’s heart (that is, the tattoo that’s larger) will be the one to marry her.
This would be where the jealousy and rivalry starts. I’m really tired of this plot device in my media, but I’m guessing that the target audience isn’t as picky as I am. The men do team up when Shakuya is kidnapped by a troupe of snake-charmers (dragons being distantly related to snakes and therefore weak against snake-charmer music), but they snipe at each other even then. I suppose they might do this even if they weren’t rivals for Shakuya’s affections–Lucien is warm and personable while Kuwan is protective and stoic. They’re very different men.
I have some questions about the plot–ones I’m supposed to have, I’m sure. Why was Shakuya’s father really told to leave? Was he really having an affair? What does this have to do with Lucien’s sword-dancing teacher? What’s the secret behind Kuwan’s past? Is one of these men responsible for or at least co-conspiratorial with the people who are making attempts on Shakuya’s life? Why doesn’t he remember anything? These are great questions to have, ones that push past my irritation at the argumentative boys and make me want to get the next volumes.
Two Flowers For the Dragon is by Nari Kusakawa and is published in the US by CMX.
Grade: B
This may sound odd, but I almost wish that Kaze Hikaru weren’t so historically accurate. I’m a history major. I want to teach history. In particular, I find the details of day to day life to be one of the most fascinating things to study. Not just the gentry, either–I want to know how commoners lived, how life was for the average person. The best part of Kaze Hikaru is how it’s trying to paint an accurate picture of the time period in which it is set. It’s also the most distracting part, at least for me.
Kaze Hikaru is set in the bakumatsu, the very end of the Tokugawa shogunate. This is the period of time between 1853, when Commodore Perry famously arrived in Japan, and 1867, when exclusionism officially ended and the Meiji government started to form. This is a period that’s frequently covered in Japanese media.
What interests me in particular about this manga is how Watanabe-sensei tries so much to keep things accurate. She mentions in one of her sidebars that she doesn’t use any foreign loan words in the dialogue. She also keeps the characters’ appearances more sedate than I’m used to seeing in a shojo manga. Everyone has dark hair, and while the facial features are stylized, they’re still more naturalistic than most other titles in the genre.
The story begins when Tominaga Sei–the names in this series are kept in their Japanese order, so I’m echoing that in this review–witnesses her father and brother’s murder at the hands of pro-Imperialist men. She’s young, not fifteen yet, but she decides to get her revenge. She shaves her head, takes on the male name Kamiya Seizaburo, and goes to join the Mibu-Roshi, a group which will one day be known as the Shinsengumi.
In time, she’s accepted as one of the boys. Only one of the men, her superior Okita Soji, learns her secret. She pleads with him to let her have her revenge, and he agrees. Sei finds herself falling for him and not quite understanding what these feelings are. She also finds that he challenges her position when she finds that killing someone is difficult, when she breaks a sword, when she wants to stay after her family is avenged. He makes her come to concrete decisions, to fight for the right to do something she believes in, and she’s stronger for it. There’s also the indication that he cares for her as well, though he never says so.
I find it hard to describe the story beyond that. The first three volumes are an introduction to these people, most of whom are based on actual historical personages. It’s a glimpse into everyday life of this period in Japan’s history, and of a group of people who have something to protect and something to believe in. It can be pretty episodic, but I have a feeling that there’s a good story arc somewhere down the road. It’s also interesting to note that the translation leaves several honorifics and titles romanized, but untranslated. It’s not something I’m used to seeing from VIZ, but it fits the story.
Kaze Hikaru is by Taeko Watanabe and is published in the US by VIZ under the Shojo Beat imprint.
Grade: B+
I reviewed Minima 4, as well. It’s over at Manga Recon’s Manga Minis column for this week. It was a bittersweet, satisfying conclusion to a beautiful little series.
Grade: A-
I’m not really sure of where to begin with this review. Yes, this is a manga about a seventh grader with a talking stuffed animal. Yes, that’s not exactly groundbreaking in the field of shojo manga. And yet, this is a manga about something else. Minima is about the end of childhood. Minima is about having the faith to break the rules and step out in the open to have something more than the existence everyone expects of you. It’s all framed in a story simple enough to appeal to a younger audience–Del Rey rates this as 13+, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to a friend of mine who has a daughter that age.
The plot is fairly simple. Ame Oikawa, a seventh grader, unwittingly finds herself in the possession of a talking stuffed toy named Nicori. He speaks to her in public, causing a media storm–how is this toy talking? What’s so special about this girl? If one asked her classmates, they’d probably hear that she was shy and withdrawn, keeping to herself. This toy, though, he sees something in her. It seems just a moment’s kindness–the class is at an amusement park, and when some other girls drop him on the ground, Ame picks him up and puts him back in the display–but it’s enough. When those same girls start mocking her for liking one of the park’s other mascots, a chicken, Nicori sticks up for her.
These girls, these bullies, fancy themselves to be more grown up than Ame. They’ve already started in on the behavior patterns of teenagers, crushing on the class cutie Sasaki and ostracizing girls they consider to be beneath themselves. It’s half-formed, still seeming like these girls are practicing rather than confident in their meanness, but it’s enough to hurt Ame. In her own quiet way, Ame also harbors a crush on Sasaki. It’s new to her, and she finds it difficult to even put words to it to Nicori.
Sasaki, for his part, keeps his distance from the rest of the class. He has a couple of people he talks to: Midori, a personable boy who grew up across the street from Ame and is one of her only friends, and Kei, a tomboyish girl who has a warm, outgoing personality. He holds himself back from them, though, not willing to make friends with them. He knows what they don’t, that his family will be moving after this school year, and he’s afraid of befriending them only to lose them. This angers Midori, who lashes out and punches Sasaki, then later starts arranging outings for the group: Ame, Kei, Midori, Sasaki, and sometimes Nicori. Others of the class join in as well–they’ll make memories of this year, be a group of friends, and Sasaki will have this warmth to think back on as he adjusts after his move.
Nicori throughout this, as well. Toys are not supposed to talk to their owners. There’s this rule that they’re not to be seen, to be passively loved. Nicori doesn’t want this, he wants to be active in this relationship, but he doesn’t quite understand human interaction. He doesn’t understand the difference between the love he has for Ame, for instance, and the crush that she has on Sasaki. He does understand loyalty: when Ame is kidnapped to get to him, he and Midori run off together to go save her. This lesson is learned to an even deeper example later, when he gets lost and finds his way into the home of a stray cat. This cat’s family packed up and moved without him, due to the illness of one of the children. The cat was given to new owners, but it kept returning back to its old home, where things still carried the scent of its old owners.
Through these relationships, Ame changes. Nicori brings her into the spotlight in a way that makes her uncomfortable, but his earnest desire to be his own being, to be active in the child-toy relationship, brings her confidence. So too does her friendship with Kei, and the little nucleus of friends that the two boys and two girls comprise. She stays a thoughtful sort of girl, but there’s something about the acceptance she feels that starts pushing her toward maturity.
The art of Minima is adorable. It’s a shojo standard for characters to have enormous eyes, but Sakurai-sensei draws enormous eyes with expression. When Ame is hurt, it’s obvious. When she’s startled, happy–she doesn’t have to say it, because her face says it for her. Nicori is cute as well, though he looks nothing like the meerkat he’s supposed to be. (This could be on purpose; the kids talk about how they don’t know what a meerkat even is.) The only complaint I have about it is that Ame’s dad and Sasaki look a lot alike. It’s mentioned by one of the characters that Ame’s dad has a similar personality to Sasaki, but I do think that such a thing could have been accomplished without making them resemble one another so much.
Minima is heart-achingly sweet, full of situations that seem familiar to me even through the fantasy of the story and the cultural barrier. It’s worth picking up.
Minima is by Machiko Sakurai and is published in the US by Del Rey.
Grade: A-
I reviewed the first two volumes of Sugarholic at Manga Recon. I enjoyed this manhwa’s flawed characters for the most part, except the whole part where one of the romantic leads is being stalkery.
Grade: B
I reviewed Love Full of Scars for Manga Recon’s Manga Minis column this week. While the second half is a pretty standard BL story with some entertaining side characters, the first half is full of dumb, boring, and ick. In that order.
Grade: C-
I reviewed volume 4 of Bride of the Water God for Manga Recon’s Manga Minis column this week. It was more of the same confusing story, and just as pretty as it’s always been.
Grade: C+
