My News and Reviews
Last week was Thanksgiving vacation for me which means that I didn’t have to work but did have to do much more driving than usual. I did still find time to get some manga reading in and raided my youngest sister’s bookshelves in between visiting with my family. I even found time to post my review of the second Spice & Wolf light novel; I’m enjoying this series so far and will definitely be picking up the third volume when it’s released in December. And as a reminder, I’m currently running a boys’ love/yaoi manga giveaway, Feast of Firsts. The winner will be randomly selected on Wednesday, so you still have a couple days to enter.
It’s also time for the most recent Manga Moveable Feast, featuring Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. David Welsh of The Manga Curmudgeon is hosting, so check out his post Setting Sail and the updating index. I’ll be posting a review of the first volume, Romance Dawn, later this week. This will be the first Manga Movable Feast that I will have participated in, so I’m particularly looking forward to it.
Quick Takes
Case Closed, Volume 1 by Gosho Aoyama. After being caught sticking his nose into a crime in progress, the teenage detective prodigy Jimmy Kudo is poisoned by mysterious men in black. Instead of killing him as intended, the untested poison instead transforms Jimmy’s body into that of a grade schooler. (And quite an adorable one at that.) As cute as Jimmy, now going by the name Conan Edogawa, and the art is, there is still a substantial amount of blood and gore. The manga vaguely reminds me of Encyclopedia Brown. The mysteries aren’t particularly complex yet, but watching Jimmy/Conan’s deductions is fun.
Fake, Volumes 1-7 by Sanami Matoh. Fake was the the first boys’ love series that I ever read. I often see it listed among people’s favorites, but I’ve never been quite as taken with it as others seem to be. Which is not to say I don’t enjoy the manga, because I do. Ignoring the fact that realistic police procedure is completely thrown out the window, particularly in the early volumes, the series has a decent plot and a fair amount of humor to go along with its sexual tension. Occasionally the recurring story elements and gags can get a little tedious. I really do like the relationship between Dee and Ryo though, and the secondary characters are pretty great, too.
Sand Chronicles, Volumes 1-9 by Hinako Ashihara. After borrowing and reading the first volume of Sand Chronicles from the library, I knew it was a series that I needed to own. I also knew it was going to break my heart and it did, repeatedly—this manga is so good it hurts. The characters must find balance between love and loneliness and selfishness and selflessness. None of them are bad people, but they do have issues to work through. The main story is completed in eight volumes while volumes nine and ten consist of bonus and side stories. Sand Chronicles won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2004 and it’s seriously one of the best shoujo manga that I’ve read.
Twin Spica, Volumes 2-4 by Kou Yaginuma. I’m really enjoying this manga so far. It’s a quiet series and a bit melancholy at times, but very touching. The art is also lovely and quite good, although its cuteness sometimes seems at odds with the seriousness of the story. The students of the newly instated astronaut training program all face mental, emotional, and physical challenges as they strive to accomplish their dream of traveling to space. Twin Spica is very realistic science fiction, which I appreciate. I like all of the characters, but I think Mr. Lion is probably my favorite. I’m looking forward to reading future volumes as they are released.
Monster, Episodes 1-11 directed by Masayuki Kojima. So far the Monster anime series has been extremely faithful to Naoki Urasawa’s source material. And because the original manga is fantastic, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Both the animation and the voice acting is solid. Although a few of the voices in the English dub annoy me from time to time, the casting is very well done overall. The soundtrack is also good and I particularly like the opening theme. The anime runs for seventy-four episodes, and I’m interested in seeing how the complex, one-hundred-sixty-two chapter manga will be adapted.
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