Massive Manga Review Dump
Jun. 29th, 2006 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessThe Massive Manga review dump
With the sudden surge of manga in all the major bookstores I can now return to one of my earliest obsession, manga and now it’s completely translated and the art panels unflipped so you can read it in the way the Japanese author’s intended their works to be read. This dump I’m about to embark on is hardly a dent in all that I’ve been reading as of late, just the last several weeks.
Fake by Sanami Matoh. I was very excited to see this since I was fond of the anime when I came across it a decade ago so I picked this up for my birthday. Now the anime brought me into Dee and Ryo, two police detectives, lives mid-stream so as far as I was concerned Dee, self-professed bisexual, has always been after his partner and their should we-shouldn’t we deal was part of the package.
With #1 I got see them get together...and it was simply awful. It was such a let down. I’m no fan of love at first sight stories and I find it even less convincing when you take one straight guy and lead him into a homosexual relationship. There’s absolutely no development here, not time to build a relationship and it ends up totally unbelievable (liked it far better coming in mid-stream blind to this aspect of the story).
Worse, the police portions of the story were equally unbelievable. Ten years ago this would have bothered me less but when it comes to police stories people have become more sophisticated and knowledgeable. It doesn’t help that Ryo takes home and keeps not only Bikky a boy of about eight who’s drug runner dad was killed and Carole, same age, who also has a criminal dad, with no signs of social services ever stepping in. Sadly this story I had remembered fondly just didn’t gel into anything likeable in manga form. It looks like bad slash fanfic.
X-Tai by Asami Tohjoh, is a strange one, with the very pretty boy (boy? You’re sure that’s not a girl?) Art work. Kaito is a florist by trade, well one of them. His true business is assassination but he is an assassin with a conscience (oddly this trio of traits appears somewhat frequently in manga/anime) He kills to help take care of his sick brother. I can’t say much more that wouldn’t spoil the stories. It’s one of those stories where you don’t love it, don’t hate it and that makes it all the more difficult to review. I wouldn’t mind seeing more but it’s not one I liked enough to shell out the price.
Ghost Hunt by Shiho Inada & Fuyumi Ono This one has such a huge cast that it was almost easy to get lost. The basic idea was a building next to Mai’s school needs to be torn down but it’s so haunted that it curses anyone who tries, or so the legend goes. The Principal really wants it gone and to that end hires ghost hunters to help out. Mai accidentally destroys very expensive equipment owned by Shibuya, a young ghost hunter who has all the expensive gadgets and I want to disprove hauntings attitude (think Taps from Ghosthunter ), and has to work for him to pay it off. He’s also known as Naru-chan because he’s so narcissistic, Ayako a Miko priestess and Takigawa a monk, both there to exorcize the place and as adults are very amused and off put by the teenagers being involved, John Brown a catholic priest from Australia also there for exorcism (ignore that he’s only 19), Hara a psychic medium from the TV and Kuroda, Mai’s classmate who claims to be psychic round out the group. They don’t get along, they don’t agree on anything and their energy carriers this book well.
Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki. This is set in Kyoto in the Meiji period just as Americans are starting to visit Japan in a time where the samurai is passing out of favor and carrying a sword is against the law. A former samurai now turned Rurouni (wanderer) who goes by the name Hitokiri Battosai (manslayer), comes into town where Kaoru, a young girl, is trying to run her family dojo and is being forced out. While this is filled with Meiji history, the story doesn’t flow well and Hitokiri’s way of calling himself ‘this one’ very effacingly and his other odd ways of talking and doing things as he helps her rebuild just didn’t work for me.
Basara by Yumi Tamura is set in a post apocalyptic world (centuries after the destruction) in Japan which is at feudal tech level. We have the Red King, ruthless and works for his father, pretty much the over king. We have Sarasa, twin sister to Tatara who was the prophesied Boy of Destiny who was to save Japan. Tatara is dead and she is going on in his name. Other outstanding characters include Nagi, the blind prophet, Ageha desert nomad and ally to Sarasa, rather pretty and able to disguise himself as a woman and former slave to Shido, the Red King’s very intelligent cousin, Yato Tatara’s faithful horse who won’t let anyone but Tatara ride him and finally we have Shuri, the young man who is falling in love with Sarasa and she with him. Only one problem, he’s actually the red king. It’s an interesting tale so far and I’m glad the library has more of this one.
Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. This is one of the most popular Shojo mangas going...and I’m not exactly sure why. Don’t get me wrong I like the story for the most part, or I should say I like the guys. It’s the females I don’t care for and that’s the problem. The premise is the Sohma family is under a curse. They are imbued with the spirits of the Chinese zodiac and when hugged by someone of the opposite sex outside the family, they transform into their sign’s animal. Neat idea.
Enter Tohru Honda, a young orphan girl that everyone loves. She was camping homeless on the Sohma property and is recognized as Yuki (the rat) and Kyo’s (the cat) classmate. The Sohmas give her a home and in return she’s pretty much their maid. Yuki and Kyo, who I adore, hate each other because the rat tricked the cat into missing the zodiac leaving him cursed among the cursed. The idea is that by knowing sweet Honda the boys and later the rest of the Sohma family will be healed...and herein lies the problem. Everyone who meets her loves her? Sounds like a Mary Sue story? If handled right no, but...again, in many ways this is like bad fanfic. Tohru wins over almost everyone by doing absolutely nothing (she seems clueless 90% of the time).
If she did things to make positive changes that would be one thing but she just bubbles around like Mentos in Diet Coke. Her unwavering optimism is...annoying, unbelievable and a real detraction for me. I want to like this. Luckily the library has it so I don’t have to spend a dime to read about the Sohmas who I do like. Occasionally as in bound volume #6, Honda finally does something heroic and noble and worthy of the blind adoration everyone gives her (we immediately lose this growth in #7 sadly). I just wish Honda would do more, to give us reasons why everyone falls in love with her but sadly so far, that hasn’t happened. Also for those who get squicked easily, there's a strong incestuous and oft times homosexual vibe from the Sohma family
Her Majesty's Dog by Mick Takeuchi is yet another supernatural tale set in high school (well manga is aimed at the YA market). This one I really liked (probably because of the whole leashed man idea). We have Amane, a powerful yet naive psychic, a manatsukai, who leaves her cloistered life in a country village to go to school in the city. They see her as the ice queen who flaunts the rules by publically kissing her fellow transfer student, the silver haired, purple eyed, Hyoue. In truth, he’s exactly what she calls him in front of her new found friend, Takako, her beast. Hyoue is a Koma-Oni, a guardian demon dog who must be fed from his master’s life force and he’s convinced Amane the only way to do this is via a kiss (we learn later he’s tricked her). At 500 years old, he feels guilty because he’s in love with her. That doesn’t mean their relationship is smooth. It’s in fact quite tumultuous and while I’m not usually one for romances, this one has enough of the supernatural going on that it doesn’t feel like a romance.
With the sudden surge of manga in all the major bookstores I can now return to one of my earliest obsession, manga and now it’s completely translated and the art panels unflipped so you can read it in the way the Japanese author’s intended their works to be read. This dump I’m about to embark on is hardly a dent in all that I’ve been reading as of late, just the last several weeks.
Fake by Sanami Matoh. I was very excited to see this since I was fond of the anime when I came across it a decade ago so I picked this up for my birthday. Now the anime brought me into Dee and Ryo, two police detectives, lives mid-stream so as far as I was concerned Dee, self-professed bisexual, has always been after his partner and their should we-shouldn’t we deal was part of the package.
With #1 I got see them get together...and it was simply awful. It was such a let down. I’m no fan of love at first sight stories and I find it even less convincing when you take one straight guy and lead him into a homosexual relationship. There’s absolutely no development here, not time to build a relationship and it ends up totally unbelievable (liked it far better coming in mid-stream blind to this aspect of the story).
Worse, the police portions of the story were equally unbelievable. Ten years ago this would have bothered me less but when it comes to police stories people have become more sophisticated and knowledgeable. It doesn’t help that Ryo takes home and keeps not only Bikky a boy of about eight who’s drug runner dad was killed and Carole, same age, who also has a criminal dad, with no signs of social services ever stepping in. Sadly this story I had remembered fondly just didn’t gel into anything likeable in manga form. It looks like bad slash fanfic.
X-Tai by Asami Tohjoh, is a strange one, with the very pretty boy (boy? You’re sure that’s not a girl?) Art work. Kaito is a florist by trade, well one of them. His true business is assassination but he is an assassin with a conscience (oddly this trio of traits appears somewhat frequently in manga/anime) He kills to help take care of his sick brother. I can’t say much more that wouldn’t spoil the stories. It’s one of those stories where you don’t love it, don’t hate it and that makes it all the more difficult to review. I wouldn’t mind seeing more but it’s not one I liked enough to shell out the price.
Ghost Hunt by Shiho Inada & Fuyumi Ono This one has such a huge cast that it was almost easy to get lost. The basic idea was a building next to Mai’s school needs to be torn down but it’s so haunted that it curses anyone who tries, or so the legend goes. The Principal really wants it gone and to that end hires ghost hunters to help out. Mai accidentally destroys very expensive equipment owned by Shibuya, a young ghost hunter who has all the expensive gadgets and I want to disprove hauntings attitude (think Taps from Ghosthunter ), and has to work for him to pay it off. He’s also known as Naru-chan because he’s so narcissistic, Ayako a Miko priestess and Takigawa a monk, both there to exorcize the place and as adults are very amused and off put by the teenagers being involved, John Brown a catholic priest from Australia also there for exorcism (ignore that he’s only 19), Hara a psychic medium from the TV and Kuroda, Mai’s classmate who claims to be psychic round out the group. They don’t get along, they don’t agree on anything and their energy carriers this book well.
Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki. This is set in Kyoto in the Meiji period just as Americans are starting to visit Japan in a time where the samurai is passing out of favor and carrying a sword is against the law. A former samurai now turned Rurouni (wanderer) who goes by the name Hitokiri Battosai (manslayer), comes into town where Kaoru, a young girl, is trying to run her family dojo and is being forced out. While this is filled with Meiji history, the story doesn’t flow well and Hitokiri’s way of calling himself ‘this one’ very effacingly and his other odd ways of talking and doing things as he helps her rebuild just didn’t work for me.
Basara by Yumi Tamura is set in a post apocalyptic world (centuries after the destruction) in Japan which is at feudal tech level. We have the Red King, ruthless and works for his father, pretty much the over king. We have Sarasa, twin sister to Tatara who was the prophesied Boy of Destiny who was to save Japan. Tatara is dead and she is going on in his name. Other outstanding characters include Nagi, the blind prophet, Ageha desert nomad and ally to Sarasa, rather pretty and able to disguise himself as a woman and former slave to Shido, the Red King’s very intelligent cousin, Yato Tatara’s faithful horse who won’t let anyone but Tatara ride him and finally we have Shuri, the young man who is falling in love with Sarasa and she with him. Only one problem, he’s actually the red king. It’s an interesting tale so far and I’m glad the library has more of this one.
Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. This is one of the most popular Shojo mangas going...and I’m not exactly sure why. Don’t get me wrong I like the story for the most part, or I should say I like the guys. It’s the females I don’t care for and that’s the problem. The premise is the Sohma family is under a curse. They are imbued with the spirits of the Chinese zodiac and when hugged by someone of the opposite sex outside the family, they transform into their sign’s animal. Neat idea.
Enter Tohru Honda, a young orphan girl that everyone loves. She was camping homeless on the Sohma property and is recognized as Yuki (the rat) and Kyo’s (the cat) classmate. The Sohmas give her a home and in return she’s pretty much their maid. Yuki and Kyo, who I adore, hate each other because the rat tricked the cat into missing the zodiac leaving him cursed among the cursed. The idea is that by knowing sweet Honda the boys and later the rest of the Sohma family will be healed...and herein lies the problem. Everyone who meets her loves her? Sounds like a Mary Sue story? If handled right no, but...again, in many ways this is like bad fanfic. Tohru wins over almost everyone by doing absolutely nothing (she seems clueless 90% of the time).
If she did things to make positive changes that would be one thing but she just bubbles around like Mentos in Diet Coke. Her unwavering optimism is...annoying, unbelievable and a real detraction for me. I want to like this. Luckily the library has it so I don’t have to spend a dime to read about the Sohmas who I do like. Occasionally as in bound volume #6, Honda finally does something heroic and noble and worthy of the blind adoration everyone gives her (we immediately lose this growth in #7 sadly). I just wish Honda would do more, to give us reasons why everyone falls in love with her but sadly so far, that hasn’t happened. Also for those who get squicked easily, there's a strong incestuous and oft times homosexual vibe from the Sohma family
Her Majesty's Dog by Mick Takeuchi is yet another supernatural tale set in high school (well manga is aimed at the YA market). This one I really liked (probably because of the whole leashed man idea). We have Amane, a powerful yet naive psychic, a manatsukai, who leaves her cloistered life in a country village to go to school in the city. They see her as the ice queen who flaunts the rules by publically kissing her fellow transfer student, the silver haired, purple eyed, Hyoue. In truth, he’s exactly what she calls him in front of her new found friend, Takako, her beast. Hyoue is a Koma-Oni, a guardian demon dog who must be fed from his master’s life force and he’s convinced Amane the only way to do this is via a kiss (we learn later he’s tricked her). At 500 years old, he feels guilty because he’s in love with her. That doesn’t mean their relationship is smooth. It’s in fact quite tumultuous and while I’m not usually one for romances, this one has enough of the supernatural going on that it doesn’t feel like a romance.
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