Silver Diamond turned out to be a lot better than I’d expected. My review for Manga Recon is here.
I swear that I am still reading stuff to post about on this blog; I’m just not done yet. There may be a snarky one coming in a day or two, though.
The Manga Recon review team (including yours truly) weighs in with their picks on the best manga released so far this year. Check it out!
From the back cover:
In the wake of a humbling incident abord a canal boat in the Cotswolds, young Captain Horatio Hornblower arrives in London to take command of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop barely large enough to require a captain. Her first assignment under Hornblower’s command is as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson.
Soon Atropos is part of the Mediterranean Fleet’s harassment of Napoleon, recovering treasure that lies deep in Turkish waters and boldly challenging a Spanish frigate several times her size. At the center of each adventure is Hornblower, Forester’s most inspired creation, whose blend of cautious preparation and spirited execution dazzles friend and foe alike.
Review:
I am such a fan of Forester’s writing style. The Hornblower novels always have their fair share of adventure, of course, but less grandiose moments are equally riveting. This book opens with Hornblower and his wife taking a journey by canal. Through Hornblower’s fascination with the process and exhilaration at filling in for a wounded crewman, the reader is instantly drawn into the story. Later there are naval skirmishes and negotiations with nations of dubious neutrality, but it’s the efforts of Hornblower and crew to recover British funds from a sunken vessel that I personally find most interesting.
Forester is also deft at efficient characterization. Here’s an example: Hornblower has just taken command of his new ship and in the company of Mr. Jones, his new First Lieutenant, reads his orders. They contain the surprising directions to plan Lord Nelson’s funeral. Hornblower can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it. The next line reads: “Mr. Jones decided that he should laugh, too, and did so, obsequiously.” I really like how that kind of sums up Jones’ entire personality.
Speaking of supporting characters, some are almost unbearably annoying. Hornblower’s wife seems to be more shrewish than ever before, and seriously needs a hobby aside from her husband. There’s a “ridiculous doctor,” which compels to me to wonder how often that character type may be found amongst military crews in various media. Certainly Gaius Baltar is ridiculous. Bashir was a trifle ridiculous at times. Are there more I’m forgetting?
I always like Forester’s endings, too. This one is no exception, culminating in an important event in Hornblower’s personal life and kind of bringing the series full circle for me. The first Hornblower novel to be written, Beat to Quarters, also the first I read, is the next after this one chronologically. After going back in time to when he was a Midshipman and Lieutenant, now he’s finally become the man he was when I first encountered him. It’s an interesting effect, though I still intend to follow internal chronology for any rereads of the series.
In conclusion, I continue to adore the Hornblower saga and recommend it unreservedly.
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve been invited to contribute reviews to the Manga Recon section of PopCultureShock. This is my first review for them, and you can find it here.
Carlos Santos from ANN has also written a review of this title, and brings up some points left out of mine, so you may want to check his out, as well.
From the back cover:
With rent past due and a decent meal becoming an issue of some importance, Harry Dresden needs work, and soon. A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse.
Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires, while he himself is under suspicion of the crimes. One thing is certain, if he can’t stop whoever is on the killing spree, Harry will be the next victim.
Review:
I will confess up front that I spent $40 for the unabridged audio edition solely because it’s read by James Marsters. I’ll not be doing that again. Not that Marsters was bad—he was quite good, really, aside from a couple mispronunciations (I’m pretty sure that when one refers to one’s self as a “spellslinger” it’s not intended to be pronounced “spells linger”)—but because I can’t see spending that much money on a book in this series now that I know what I’ll be getting.
What will I be getting?
1. Sexay laydays. Of the six female characters (including the first victim), four were sexay. Three of those worked in the sex trade in some capacity. Scenes with them involved sentences like, “She laughed, a sound rich enough to roll around naked in.” The fifth was a client whose missing husband was into the orgy scene. The sixth was a cop, possessed of martial arts skills but not averse to using feminine wiles to extract Harry’s cooperation on a case.
2. A yawner of a mystery. I’m not sure it’s possible for me to be less interested in mob-related plots. Harry’s angsty backstory wasn’t that great, either. Oh, also, he has a total Mary Sue name: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Can I get an eyeroll?
3. An interesting magic system. It seemed that a fair amount of thought went into devising it. Standard things like spells and potions seemed the norm, but I thought the method for preparing the latter was pretty neat.
4. A talking skull. Easily the most entertaining character in the book. It didn’t hurt that Marsters gave him a British accent, so that he kind of sounded like Spike.
I am reminded of the Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom books by Julie Kenner because, though this series has some serious flaws, I kind of want to keep reading it anyway. My local library has all but one of them, though only the most recent is available with Marsters’ narration. I’ll miss the Spike-sounding skull, but he isn’t worth $40.
From the back cover:
A stylish, tempestuous dance of anguish and passion. Seduce Me After the Show contains seven short stories which take place within the artistic worlds of dance, painting, and music. Overall themes focus on the dichotomy of hope and despair as well as the relationship between pleasure and longing. In the title story, devastated by the death of his world famous dancer mother, Theo Gallardo abandons his own dancing career to become an actor and co-stars in a film with popular Hollywood idol Darren Fergus. What should have been a joking kiss shared between them takes a sudden turn when Darren asks, “So what now?” Theo answers, “That depends on the script.” As lustful passions boil over, will Theo be able to regain the fire that he once possessed and return to the dancing world?
Review:
The back of this book is doing a lot of my (self-appointed) job for me! Though, to be honest, I probably never would’ve written about the “dichotomy of hope and despair” anyway.
Right up until I read the last story, I thought my favorite tale would end up being the two-parter starring Theo and Darren (details above). It’s wonderfully told, with an ending I adore even as I wish there were more to read about these two. The final story has a similar feel and tells the story of a man returning to Kyoto after a long absence. He’s come back to attend a festival and, while there, asks about an old friend of his. Gradually, the details of their parting are revealed and, I swear, the final page makes me sniffly.
I really like the art—the use of screentone and backgrounds is minimal, resulting in a largely black and white style. Some of the character designs are quite original, too. Theo looks more like Severus Snape than he does a typical manga character. One of the couples includes a guy in his fifties, and when’s the last time you saw that happen in this genre? Lastly, I appreciate that est em takes the “artistically suggestive” route with the pair of love scenes; depicting things in exacting detail would detract from the emotional element.
Usually, I don’t notice things like paper or print quality, but the production values from Deux (the yaoi imprint of Aurora Publishing, a fairly new player on the American manga scene) are good enough to attract my notice. The translated dialogue seems natural and though I had trouble a couple of times working out exactly what Theo meant, I think that’s just a facet of his character. There was one fairly glaring grammatical error, though. “You’re work has really matured.” Nails on a chalkboard, that one.
My only real complaint is the surfeit of ambiguity. There are times when it isn’t easy to determine which character spoke a line, whether two characters actually slept together, or how one really feels about the other. I’m sure all of this is intentional, but to quote Davy Keith from Anne of Green Gables (’cos where better to do that than in a yaoi review?), “I want to know!”
Seduce Me After the Show is a character-driven collection featuring grown-up men dealing with their feelings for each other. There’s no blushing or glomping here, and though the stories may be short, they’re also original, thoughtful, and memorable. If you buy one yaoi title this year, buy this one. There’s another book by est em due in December, though, so maybe make it two.
From the back cover:
Ion Tsuburagi chants the letters of her first name as a charm to bring good luck when she needs it. Then she meets Mikado Hourai, the president of the Psychic Powers Research Society at school, and touches a mysterious substance he’s been developing. Now chanting ‘I-O-N’ gives her telekinetic powers!
Review:
I don’t normally comment on covers, but I.O.N has one of the prettiest I’ve seen. It’s all shades of green, blue, and purple, making Ion’s ginormous Ribon-issue brown eyes stand out. Her hair is blue on the cover, which prompts me to consider that I haven’t really encountered too many manga characters with oddly-colored hair (by which I mean impossible for a human and not merely improbable for a Japanese person). Maybe that’s more of an anime thing. In this case, I’m not sure whether Ion’s hair is truly supposed to be blue or if Tanemura is just having fun with the cover art. Either way, it’s purty.
Alas, it turns out the cover is really the best thing about this one-shot. Some of its problems are due to its length. Exposition gets crammed into dialogue where it doesn’t really belong, resulting in awkward sentences like, “I was wondering who that was, but what do you know, it’s Mikado Hourai, the President of the Psychic Power Research Society.” Emotional developments are also rushed, like when Ion declares that she might be falling for Hourai a mere 7 pages after meeting him.
The rest of the problems are due to the story itself, which just isn’t very cohesive. The nature of the plot is episodic, with Ion using her new-found powers to perform astonishing feats such as extinguishing fires, saving drowning kids from being struck by malicious logs, and protecting her romantic rival from a falling tree. Tanemura’s sidebars mention that her editors kept her in suspense regarding the ultimate length of the series, and it shows. She doesn’t really try to do anything substantive until the end, but even so, that mostly consists of Hourai being uncertain whether he likes Ion for herself or because she’s got psychic powers.
The artwork is typical of Tanemura’s style—lots of screentone, lots of flowers and stars—but as this is her first published manga volume, the result is a little less polished than in her later works. When seen from straight on, noses are just vertical lines and after I conceived of the notion that they looked like coin slots, I kept seeing them in the fashion. Pages do get a little overcrowded at times, but I didn’t have any problems following the story visually. I particularly like the character design for Tagosaku, who’s drawn in a different style from everyone else. The loyal henchman of the President of the Student Council, he’s essentially just a weird little dude who is used for comic relief throughout. I like him.
I.O.N is a decent read. It’s largely lacking in substance and purpose, but if one goes into it just expecting a magical girl fantasy, it’s not that bad. It might be better to procure it from a library, though, if one can.
From the back cover:
Love is never easy for our heroes. Takemoto is forced to confront his resentment of his stepfather and his own feelings of being cast adrift, while Mayama and Ayu flounder in their unrequited loves and Morita faces the prospect of being held back another year.
Review:
Reading Honey and Clover for me is similar to reading Sand Chronicles in that it induces a strong feeling of nostalgia. Rather than a protagonist looking back upon a series of memories, however, in this series Takemoto will often pause mid-experience and ponder how this wonderful moment with everyone together will one day be in the past, but how he knows he’ll remember it over and over. Maybe I’m just a sucker for that sort of reflective, bittersweet vibe, but I think it adds an extra layer of meaning to the story.
The scene to which Takemoto is chiefly referring is one of the best in the volume, where everyone ends up joining Hagu in an ultimately fruitless search for a four-leaf clover to give her beloved guardian (their favorite professor) who is going away on a trip. I also really enjoy the chapter where the characters are in a frenzy trying to get their graduation projects done on time, since it means we get to see them actually doing what they’re going to school for. And who doesn’t have some kind of parallel experience from their own college days?
The volume contains a couple of love confessions, too, as Mayama and Yamada each make their feelings known to the object of their affections. Yamada’s confession is especially moving, since Mayama bears it so calmly and just lets her get it all out. I think I’m a sucker for awesome unrequited love, too.
I also want to compliment a neat trick Umino used in the course of providing some back story for Mayama’s plight. Mayama’s in love with an older woman, Rika, who was a classmate of Hanamoto-sensei. As Hanamoto recounts the tale of how he became roommates with Rika’s now-deceased husband, we see three successive panels of said husband hailing Hanamoto first by his last name, then as Shûji, then as Shû. It’s a nifty little shorthand to chart the progress of their growing friendship.
In addition to the emotional moments, there are a lot of amusing ones as well. Umino’s art style in general is a big draw for me as I do enjoy Teh Cute. I know some object to how young Hagu looks but, really, there aren’t any pervy connotations regarding her at all. My one complaint is that I still don’t quite have a handle on her personality, but maybe that’s supposed to be the point. Hagu had a very isolated upbringing, so perhaps we’ll get to know her better as she continues to flourish in her new environment. I hope so.
From the back cover:
Ren’s acting test is about to begin, with his entire future hanging in the balance, and he’s managed to make his leading lady Itsumi mad at him. Rather than confront him directly, Itsumi decides to hit him where it hurts. Will she sabotage his test, or will Ren be able to get it together and use his legendary acting ability to lead her through the scene?
Review:
I like Ren and I like that his performance in this test makes Kyoko realize that he possibly doesn’t hate her after all, but the whole thing is quite silly. The reactions of the spectators crack me up, with multi-panel shots of everyone blushing or gasping simultaneously. I think the director even falls to his knees with squee at one point. It’s a little much.
Kyoko also doesn’t feel like her usual self this volume, since mostly she’s just watching from the sidelines. The most Kyoko-like thing she does is experience envy when Ren compliments his co-star, not because of random petty jealousy but because she wants to be good enough to receive such praise from him herself. It does seem that she may be starting to develop feelings for Ren, chiefly because she devotes a fair amount of effort to convincing herself she isn’t.
This isn’t my favorite volume of Skip Beat!, but it’s still a good read. Even when the situation they’re in is a bit goofy, I still like the characters enough to keep my snickering to a minimum.
From the back cover:
Kagura and Kazuma hotly discuss Tohru liking Kyou. With Kagura’s forceful encouragement, will Tohru be able to muster up the courage to tell Kyou how she feels? Meanwhile, Ren is determined to get her hands on Akito’s mystery box—even if it means killing for it!
Review:
I got a pleasant surprise on Wednesday when I discovered this had been released on the 1st! For some reason, I still had it on my Excel spreadsheet o’ releases (yes, I totally have one) for the 15th.
This volume started and ended with chapters about Tohru and Kyou—in the first she realized she loved him and in the last he began to tell her why he thinks she really shouldn’t. It was powerful stuff, and it was a little weird seeing Kyou look so very upset. I think I’d read the summaries for these chapters as they were originally released, but hadn’t seen the corresponding images until now.
The bulk of the volume, however, was devoted to Akito. Akito’s childhood was revealed, along with a lifelong fear of being left out, left behind. There are many subplots to Fruits Basket, and I guess the one about Akito’s family isn’t one I’m terribly interested in, because while these chapters were good, the best parts about them were when two members of the Zodiac were suddenly released from their curses! Their sudden loneliness at no longer being connected to the others was very affecting and I loved Momiji’s chapter. It felt like we’re starting to get closure for some of the secondary characters’ stories.
Akito kind of lost it near the end of the volume, leading to a fairly giant cliffhanger. I can’t tell if it doesn’t feel as menacing as past acts of violence (despite Akito being more unhinged than ever before) because I actually have sympathy for Akito or because I know how things are going to play out. Probably a little of both.
Anyway, I’m sure I’ve no need to tell anyone to read this series. It just so happens that in addition to being popular it’s also incredibly well-crafted.