My News and Reviews

Obviously, my biggest news for the week was the launch of Experiments in Manga. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m very excited about it. Probably no one else really cares all that much, but it makes me happy. You can read about the release here: Announcing Experiments in Manga!

Also, the site’s search bar only seems to return results for posts published after August 18, 2010. This kinda defeats the purpose of having a search and so I’m working on getting this fixed as soon as possible. Fortunately, everything posted before August 18, 2010 can be found linked to from the Review Index.

Reviewed this past week was Miyuki Miyabe’s novel Brave Story. It’s a great story, if a bit long, with a very good translation from Alexander O. Smith. I also talked a bit about my 365 Days of Manga Loot. The contest is still running, so if you live in the United States you should go enter.

Quick Takes

20th Century Boys, Volumes 1-2 by Naoki Urasawa. Urasawa is one of my favorite mangaka so it was a no-brainer that I would pick up his most recent series to be translated into English. The plot is slowly revealed and it’s hard to know where he’s going with it, but its good. There are also some wonderful bits of nostalgia as characters reflect back on their childhood. I particularly like the character of Kenji and his design. Obviously this very normal guy is going to be caught up in whatever happens to unfold.

Gravitation Collection, Volume 5 (equivalent to Volumes 9-10) by Maki Murakami. Up until now I’ve really enjoyed the craziness that is Gravitation, but for whatever reason this volume just didn’t do it for me. The insanity is still there but it seems to have lost its originality and is knowingly repeating itself. A slew of new characters have been introduced while older characters have unfortunately been left by the wayside. The artwork is more polished than in previous volumes, but I’m not sure that necessarily is a good thing. I almost prefer the earlier, more spastic style—it fit the story.

Rin!, Volumes 1-3 written by Satoru Kannagi and illustrated by Yukine Honami. Originally intended as a single volume, the story ended up becoming three. I’m not sure if it’s because of the translation, but the first volume feels really disjointed and fragmented but the subsequent volumes improve. It’s a sweet story, more about Katsura learning to have confidence in himself than the boy/boy romance, although that’s there too. Honami’s art is lovely and her layouts are wonderful. I love kyūdō (even if I hardly know anything about it) so I like the series for that if nothing else.

Kurau: Phantom Memory, Episodes 1-9. I first learned about this anime series while perusing the TV Tropes Bifauxnen entry. It’s good science fiction with believable relationships. I have developed a huge crush on Kurau (as to be expected) and Christmas is adorably cute without being annoying. The two of them are wonderful together. It’s nice to see a competent, likeable over-twenty woman as a lead character. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen of the series so far and am looking forward to watching the rest.