Title: Vagabond Vol 1 Vizbig Edition
Author: Takehiko Inoue
Based on Eiji Yoshikawa’s Musashi
Publisher: Viz
ISBN:9781421520544
May Contain Spoilers
Holy crap, this was a great read. How did I miss this series the first time around? It’s got everything in the first volume – drama, suspense, action, betrayal, and loads of splurting blood. It’s also a massive book, weighing around 2 lbs, so it will also strengthen those weak arms of yours! I couldn’t put this down, and that’s saying a lot considering the girth of its 600+ pages.
Takezo Shinmen and his childhood friend Matahachi have somehow managed to survive the battle of Sekigahara. Too bad for them that they are now fugitives, having backed the losing side. They are discovered, near death, by Akemi, and nursed back to health. An encounter with a gang of bandits has Takezo on the run again, this time back to his village. Instead of a warm welcome, he is greeted with betrayal by Matahachi’s family. Soon he’s fighting for his life against soldiers and fellow villagers. Will he survive to chase his goal of becoming the strongest swordsman in Japan?
Takezo has it rough. Nobody can stand the kid, and he hasn’t really done anything wrong. Ok, ok, there was that incident when he accepted a challenge from a traveling swordsman and emotionlessly cut him down in front of his fellow villagers, but the other guy was looking for a fight. Shunned by almost everyone, called demon and a beast, he became what he was accused of. There was no softness in his life to temper his sharp edges, and the only goal he had for himself was to survive and become as strong as he could be.
Takezo isn’t an easy guy to like. He’s brutal and unyielding, and will do anything to live another day. Life for him has always been about survival, about fending for himself, about never quite being able to trust anyone else. There were two people that he thought he could count on, Matahachi and Otsu, Matahachi’s betrothed. They both end up betraying him. This guy has got nobody at all but himself to rely on, and that gave me a touch of sympathy that allowed me to forgive him some of his faults. He’s just trying to crawl forward and live, but circumstances keep casting him in a very poor light.
The art is phenomenal – it’s detailed and Inoue’s exquisite line work creates some stunning illustrations. The action flows convincingly, and the characters’ emotional turmoil is easy to understand. Vagabond is a great package, and at twenty bucks, it’s a steal. It’s even got some color pages!
Grade: A
Rated for Mature
I just posted a review of Duo Brand’s Shards of Affection over at MangaCast. Please drop in if time permits. Please click here for the review.
Title: Moon Child Vol 12
Author: Reiko Shimizu
Publisher: CMX
ISBN: 9781401217464
May Contain Spoilers
Events are heating up as the finale approaches. Teruto, as Gil Owens, has carefully set all of the wheels in motion in his plan to destroy Benjamin. He has sent Seth home to Shonach, pesky Rita has been taken care of, and Benjamin is starting to fall apart, thinking that she will be the cause of a great catastrophe. What Teruto doesn’t know is that Shonach and Seth are both in Russia, and they are determined to stop his plans from becoming reality, even if it means sacrificing their own lives.
Lots and lots of angst flow through the pages of this volume. Rita is not reacting well to Gil’s betrayal, and now she’s become a bit unhinged. She’s got plenty of company in that department, because Benjamin is so tormented by visions of the impending nuclear disaster that she’ll do anything to prevent it. Including goading Art into killing her! Art is already half ready to do it, so how long before a slight push becomes the shove that forces him to lose control of himself?
Maybe I have been placing an unfair amount of blame on Art. He is not my favorite character, and he never will be. He is weak, cowardly, and selfish. It is brought to light that he is not alone to possess these faults. His father is a nutcase, too, and he’s been institutionalized because he tried to murder his wife with an axe. He was convinced that she was a witch. Yeah, Art and Benjamin are doomed.
Shonach and Seth get a little too close for comfort, especially for Seth. Shonach looked a little scary, in fact, as he all but forces himself on a frightened Seth. Emotions just explode in this volume of Moon Child, and it’s going to be a long, long wait until the last installment hits store shelves in June. Whatever happened to those quarterly releases??
Grade: B+
Rated for Teen
Title: High School Debut Vol 7
Author: Kazune Kawahara
Publisher: Viz
ISBN: 9781421521893
May Contain Spoilers
Haruna just doesn’t learn. She gets so wrapped up in other people and their problems that she doesn’t stop and think before she does something that she will regret later. She might even give a passing thought to how much she’s going to regret something, but she goes ahead and does it anyway. She is the ultimate friend – her impulsive nature guarantees that she will leap to anyone’s aid whenever she sees a need for her help.
When Asa gets frustrated with Fumi, she decides she needs a little more excitement in her life. What she really, really wants is for him to display some emotions, instead of always being the super nice, self-restrained guy that he is. Instead of telling him this, she tries to push him over the edge by going out on a group date with some guys from another school. Haruna is just horrified that Asa would treat Fumi so carelessly, and she’s determined to make her come to her senses. So what if Yoh told her to mind her own business? She’s not going to just stand there and watch Asa make a huge mistake!
I didn’t enjoy this story arc very much because I can’t stand Asa. She is such a little snot, and Fumi is too good for her. You can bet that if Haruna needed a little backup, Asa wouldn’t go out of her way to provide her with any support. She is self-indulgent, self-centered, and just plain nasty. Even Yoh, her own brother, is willing to stand by and watch her self-destruct. When will Haruna learn that sometimes it’s ok to just mind her own business?
I enjoyed the beginning of the book, where Haruna tends to a sick Yoh, and the end, where Haruna is left feeling unsure of herself when the new school year begins and the school is flooded with a new group of freshmen. Most of the girls seem to have their sights set on Yoh, and Haruna starts to worry that one of them might just steal him away from her. It’s especially humiliating to her that even though she spends so much time with Yoh, none of them seems to be able to accept that she’s his girlfriend. After feeling sorry for herself and stressing out about something that she can’t really do much about, Haruna finds her own unique solution to her problem, winning Yoh all over again. There is something to be said about the power of positive thinking.
Grade: B-
Rated for Teen
Title: Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls Vol 1
Original Story: Futaro Yamada
Manga: Masaki Segawa
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 9780345482700
May Contain Spoilers
Basilisk is a roller coaster of action and violence. The Iga and Kouga ninja clans have been enemies for generations, but an eternal truce forged by Hanzo Hattori has put a stop to their rivalry. Oboro of the Iga and Gennosuke of the Kouga have overcome their clans differences and have fallen in love with each other. When Ieyasu Tokugawa comes up with a plan to the determine which of his sons will become the next shogun, he sets into motion a murderous competition between the two clans. Will any of them be left alive when it’s over?
I enjoyed this book better than Segawa’s other series, The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls, because it has all of the action of that series without all of the unsettling violence against the female characters. Basilisk takes off with a bang and never lets up. The hatred between the two clans is instantly reignited after Ieyasu voids the truce between them, and it’s but a few panels after that the blood begins to flow. The ninja are nasty and deadly, and they don’t waste any time before they start targeting their enemies.
Gennosuke and Oboro have to be the only ones who don’t know what’s going on. The Iga clan intercepts the Kouga scroll outlining the competition, and they go out of their way to make sure that the two love birds don’t find out about it. Luring Gennosuke to their village, they plan on his swift demise while his defenses are down. I think it’s cheating that don’t let him know what’s going on, but I guess all is fair in love and war. Especially the war part of it.
The character designs have got to be the most grotesque in any manga that I have read, with the exception of Yagyu Ninja Scrolls. The bad guys are really, really ugly, like mutant muppets on the prowl. All of those misshapen heads and bodies make for some bizarre reading. No wonder these guys are so nasty – their personalities are as warped as their appearances. This is one of the few titles that I have space after a meal, because I get so grossed out by how these guys look. Gennosuke and Oboro are about the only normal looking individuals to be found in the pages of this book.
Grade: B+
Rated for Mature
Title: Skip Beat! Vol 16
Author: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz
ISBN: 9781421520407
May Contain Spoilers
Yoshiki Nakamura is so cruel! How can you play with our emotions so ruthlessly, and then end this volume with such a deep longing for more pages?? This was one of the best installments of Skip Beat! to date, and the last page came far too soon. My feelings were toyed with from the start of this book, and it’s going to seem like a long wait until March, when the next volume will be released.
Ren’s feelings were really the focus here, and he has to face the fact that Kyoko and Sho have a long history that he’ll never be a part of. Sho still has a tight grip on Kyoko’s heart and she just can’t let go of her feelings for him. She may think that she hates him, but Ren sees her reactions to her foe as deep and genuine emotions that he can never hope to understand. He begins to fear that their fate is to be reunited, and he can’t just stand by and let that happen.
Though Ren is terrified that he will lose Kyoko before he ever wins her over, he won’t be content to let Sho just walk away with her. Sho understands a challenge when it’s presented to him, but Kyoko is totally oblivious. What a dense girl she can be! She is still so consumed with Sho and achieving her revenge against him that she can’t even entertain the thought that someone else might be interested in her. She had truly walled off her heart, and it frustrates Ren to no end that she can’t see what’s in front of her. Will he ever be able to pull the blinders from her eyes?
The illustrations of Ren were drool worthy in this volume. He is put through the ringer here, and there is never a doubt as to how he’s feeling. Angry, betrayed, hopeful, his emotions are reflected on his face for everyone but Kyoko to understand – why can’t she see him?? OMG! Kyoko, you are killing me! When will you be able to see what’s in front of you, instead of what’s behind you?
Grade: A
Rated for Teen
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Title: Higurashi: When They Cry Vol 1 Abducted by Demons Arc
Story: Ryukishi07
Art: Karin Suzuragi
Publisher: Yen Press
ISBN: 9780759529830
May Contain Spoilers
Keiichi has just moved to a hick town in the mountains, and he couldn’t be happier. He’s made some great new friends and the one-room school means that things are constantly chaotic. He’s even joined the school’s club, so every day after school they hang out and play games. Things take a more sinister turn when he learns about a mysterious murder that happened years before. Why does everyone lie to him and tell him that nothing happened?
Higurashi had a hard time holding my attention until the end of this volume. The mix of stereo-typical characters just didn’t do much for me. There’s Rena, the cute, timid girl who just moved to Hinamizawa a year before Keiichi did, Mino, who is energetic and constantly thrusting her large breasts in Keiichi’s face, and Satoko, who makes it her life’s mission to set traps for the unwary Keiichi. With all of these cute girls around, no wonder he never thinks about homework.
Things are peaceful and idyllic until he meets Tomitake, a freelance photographer. Tomitake fills him in on a little tidbit of the village’s history – there was a grisly murder a few years before, when a construction company was trying to build a dam in area that would have destroyed the town. He also discovers that there is a new murder every year during the cotton drifting festival. When he asks his new friends about these unsettling events, they immediately claim to know nothing about it and change the subject.
Keiichi is disturbed by the girls’ reactions, and he is soon obsessed with finding out the truth behind the rumors he’s heard. When the story focused on the mystery, I thought it was interesting and slightly creepy. When it drifted back to Keiichi and the gang’s daily activities, I just didn’t find it all that intriguing. The mesh of personalities didn’t carry the story for me, and the pacing felt very uneven. The last chapter did make up for much of the shortcomings from earlier in the story, and it piqued my curiosity enough that I want to know what’s going on.
Grade: B-
Rated for Older Teen
Title: Go West! Vol 1
Author: Yu Yagami
Publisher: CMX
ISBN: 9781401220273
May Contain Spoilers
Yu Yagami is a pretty funny guy. I don’t usually enjoy comedies, but after reading Hikkatsu and now the first volume of Go West!, I think that Yagami has a great sense of humor, and he manages to take ordinary characters and insert them into some incredibly extraordinary circumstances to give his stories a kick. In Hikkatsu, it was all about the allure of appliance repair. In Go West!, the name of the game is family reunions. What makes it funny is the heroine, Naomi, has never seen her parents and the only thing she knows is that they are somewhere in the west. She thinks.
Naomi arrives from the Far East with one goal in mind – tracking down her parents. That’s going to be pretty tough goal, since she’s never even seen them. They were separated when she was an infant, and she hasn’t heard from them since. She has no clue what they look like or even what their names are. With the only goal being to head west, she finds herself a horse and hits the road.
Now, to make things really hard on herself, the horse she ends up with has a few problems. Red Bullet doesn’t go anywhere but in a westerly direction. That’s it. Backing up, turning, or heading off in any other direction just doesn’t do it for him. He will only travel to the west, and he won’t even veer off of his path if there is something blocking it. I have always been told that horses aren’t stupid enough to walk, trot, or canter into things. Red Bullet has never heard that, because he goes through anything that’s in his way. Buildings, cactus fields, mountains. He gives new meaning to the phrase “Blazing a trail.”
Before too long, Naomi has another problem – two different men claim to be related to her. One is white and the other is black. Naomi is Asian. Her potential father and brother both have fairly plausible scenarios for how they could be related, but Naomi is having a hard time buying into any of it. Especially when the two men feel the need to try to blast the other, and everything about them, to kingdom come whenever they encounter each other.
Yu Yagami’s characters will never be considered bright, but they each have a fierce determination that drives them forward through any situation. Like Red Bullet, they can only move towards their goals – veering off path is unthinkable for them. Mix in a series of silly events, and the results usually earn a few laughs.
Grade: B
Rated for Teen +
Title: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Vol 1
Art: Gaku Tsugano
Story: Nagaru Tanigawa
Characters: Noizi Ito
Publisher: Yen Press
ISBN: 9780759529441
May Contain Spoilers
I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up this title. Anybody not living under a rock or in a deep dark cave has heard of Haruhi Suzumiya. Other than that, I didn’t know what to expect. I found certain elements of the story very appealing, but thought that the momentum was bogged down in the middle of the book.
Kyon has just started high school, and he’s pretty much resigned to the fact that he has a long life of drudgery to look forward to. The magic is gone, heroes only exist in manga, and Santa Claus is just a dream. When he meets Haruhi Suzumiya, everything that he’s come to believe in gets turned upside down, and he learns that it’s far easier to get caught up in the whirlwind that is Haruhi than to fight against it.
I loved Haruhi’s character. Here is a girl so caught up in herself and making the world a more interesting place for her benefit that she causes chaos everywhere she goes. She has a powerful personality that makes people cave in to her whims, and she just seems to get things done. When she needs a computer for her SOS Brigade, no problem – she shysters one from the computer club. When she needs members for her club, she forces people to join. Kyon is one of her first victims, and try as he might, he just can’t break free of the typhoon that is Haruhi.
Haruhi wants to find mysterious things in life, and she just knows that aliens, time travelers, sliders, and espers are just waiting to be discovered. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and hapless Kyon is soon doing her bidding, searching for the magical and the make-believe. What he discovers has him doubting his sanity, and also has him wanting to strangle Haruhi. He’s just too terrified of her to confront her directly.
The fan service moments slowed things down for me, though not enough to turn me totally off the title. Some of the chapters felt a little weighty - the title works best when it focuses on Haruhi and her ability to make things happen. She is someone who didn’t forget how to believe in her dreams, who doesn’t know how to compromise, and that gives her an incredible power over the people around her. I am looking forward to the next volume.
Grade: B
Rated for Older Teen