I know I said I wasn't going to read chapters, but I couldn't resist... /o\

( Spoilers have already reread certain chapters three times )

(original title: 夏目友人帳/Natsume Yuujinchou)

(OMG posting about BOOKS YAY!!!)

Natsume Takashi has always been able to see strange things, and because of this, people think he's lying, and he's been passed around from foster family to foster family. Currently, he's been living happily with his distant relatives the Fujiwaras, but because of that, he doesn't want to let people know about his spirit-seeing abilities and get kicked out yet again. Unfortunately, he's recently found a book of names. Apparently, his grandmother Reiko was also a bit of an outcast because of her spiritual abilities; to compensate, she basically enslaved spirits by writing their names in her book.

So far, I like this series, but I'm not in love with it. I like Natsume and the looks at his distance from everyone else, and I find Nyanko-sensei particularly amusing, but I keep comparing this to Mushishi, which is a bit more otherworldly, though Ginko is less sympathetic. I suspect things will improve once we stop getting a "This is what the Book of Friends is!" every. single. chapter.

Also, unsurprisingly, I wish there were more girls and women, especially since the one major female character (Reiko) is both dead and not a great model, given that whole enslaving of spirits thing.

That said, I really like the looks at Natsume slowly reaching out to people, and unlike Mushishi, I very much like that the spirits of the week aren't just cases to be solved. I also like that Natsume seems to have more of a connection with the spiritual world than the human one, and I especially like his sympathy toward the spirits, particularly when contrasted with the other exorcist guy.

Pretty, and I will keep reading it, but it is not on my best-of list yet.

Oh manga, how I have missed reading you!

I read vols. 1 and 2 of this over a year ago, so I was worried I would not be able to follow the plot at all. However, looking at how confused I was even back then, I suspect having read 1 and 2 more recently wouldn't have helped that much anyway!

Surprisingly, the quick summaries provided at the beginning of each volume proved sufficient in terms of plot memory, and I suspect Takaya's pacing improved as well, as the jumble of characters and terminology and whatnot that I remember from the first two volumes was nowhere present in these three volumes. Instead, the secondary characters I vaguely remember from the first two volumes get much more depth, and Eiji ended up being my favorite of the bunch.

I also found it useful to think of the series as "Takaya Natsuki does X," although the resolution of the series very much foreshadows the work and themes of Fruits Basket.

(Hopefully this spoiler cut text is not spoilery, considering the comparison to X. Also, small spoilers for X.)
( Spoilers are reincarnated, have heroic sacrifices, and pine a lot, but do not have disturbing entirely-too-Freudian scenes with swords )

Overall, this series ends much, much better than it begins, and it's especially interesting to chart how Takaya starts by taking cues from the epic fantasy shoujo of the mid-1990s, then suddenly deciding halfway through that while the epic-fantasy-ness is great for creating angst and conflict, she could really just take the elements of abusive parents and pariah children and not have to worry that much about the worldbuilding.

Whoo, Hagio Moto!

For people who don't know, Hagio Moto is one of the big names of shoujo manga who rose to prominence during the 1970s, when female mangaka began to take over from male creators in shoujo manga. She was also one of the first people to write shounen ai. Also, ever since writing my undergrad thesis on shoujo manga, I have been dying to read more of her, but it's hard to get hold of her stuff outside of Japan, much less translated into English.

This is a sampling of her short stories throughout her career: the stories range from 1975 to 2008. They're translated by Matt Thorn, and the book includes an introduction to her work by Matt Thorn and an interview that were both previously published in the special Comic Journal issue on shoujo.

Normally I don't pay that much attention to the physical bits of the book, but the production values on this one are really spectacular (thankfully, given the $25 price tag). Blown up comic panels introduce each short story, one short is entirely in color, and there are lovely color excerpts of Hagio's work in the interview. The one thing I am a little sad about is that it is too big to be shelved next to all my other manga, but that's really a minor nitpick.

I have had a problem getting into older manga before because of the art style. Although that held a little for this collection, it wasn't as big of an issue as I thought it might be, possibly because I was reading Rose of Versailles and started Hagio's "November Gymnasium" prior to this.

As expected, the short stories from the early part of her career are more cliched and have less depth to them. Even so, the art style of "Girl on Porch with Puppy" read more indie-style and less shoujo to me. And several of Hagio's shorts have little twists to them or are about subjects that are not expected. I particularly liked how she dealt with the love triangle in "Marie, Ten Years Later."

My favorites were probably "A Drunken Dream," which is a gorgeous fantasy/sf story of love and reincarnation (reincarnation! I was so there!); "The Willow Tree," a lovely, melancholy short that is nearly all image and very little dialogue; and "Iguana Girl," which hits rather close to home with its topic of a mother who thinks her daughter is an iguana. "Iguana Girl" in particular does a great job at making metaphor real.

I am more on the fence with "Hanshin: Half-God," which I think is one of Hagio's more famous shorts. On the one hand, the ending is great. On the other, I feel I've seen the use of conjoined twins in fiction before to demonstrate that divide between beauty and brains, in which one twin is physically and physiologically supporting the other. I was going to say that I dislike the use of conjoined twins as metaphor, but on thinking about it, I'm not sure how much of it is metaphor. And yet, I'm still very uncomfortable with the what I've seen of conjoined twins in fiction. So... YMMV.

All this said, the collection makes me want more of Hagio's full-length work even more. I'm not the best audience for short stories in general; I usually want longer work and find that a lot of short stories go over my head. I'd especially love more of her sf/fantasy, since the bits I loved most in the collection usually had a fantastical or sfnal bent to them.

... and now I am regretting not snatching up even more of her stuff when I was in Japan, even though it probably wouldn't have fit in my suitcase!

In conclusion: gorgeous book, some shorts I really liked, please put out more!

I am kind of amazed at the relative lack of genderfail in this series so far (relative as compared to some of Yuki Kaori's other series), though given Yuki Kaori's track record, I expect this to change at any second.

( Spoilers (though I feel you can never truly be spoiled for Yuki Kaori) )

(transliterations taken from Wiki, as doing the Chinese-to-Japanese-to-English transliteration is a bit beyond me)

Do I even need to do a plot summary for this? Anyway. Tsukino Usagi is your normal 14-year-old girl: perpetually late for school, not too studious, and a bit of a klutz. Until one day she finds a talking cat, who then informs her that she is Sailor Moon, defender of love and justice, or some such.

I read bits of this back in eighth grade in the dentist's office when I was getting my braces tightened; the dentist only had pieces of the series, so all I remember is picking up whatever volume had the prettiest cover and reading it that way. I also used to watch episodes when they were on right after school. Even though my sister and I made terrible fun of the Chinese dub, how much of a cry baby Usagi was, and how boring the monsters of the week were, there was still enough to it to make me look up fanfiction back in high school.

Now that I've read the entire thing, I think it is a flawed series, but I can also see why it had such a following. The characterization is nearly non-existent; the inner guardian sailors outside of Usagi and Chibi Usagi are basically collections of random traits. Ami is smart and likes blue, Makoto loves baking, and etc. When we meet the outer guardians, things are much more interesting, although they still don't get as much time as I remember them getting in the anime.

And yet. Takeuchi has created an extremely compelling world and not fully filled it in (which is why I think it is so great for fic). There's reincarnation and flash forwards, and each additional story arc continues to expand the universe, both in terms of what we know of the past and what will happen in the future. I also forget how female-centric the series is when I'm reading; there are extremely few male characters, so much so that you don't even notice how female-centric it is because female is so much the default. There's also remarkably little about romance and much, much more about wanting to protect your most important people and the world.

( Spoilers for the first three arcs of the anime and the manga even though I feel a bit silly spoiler protecting for something this well known )

Overall, the series is both cool and frustrating; cool for all the ideas and concepts, and frustrating because I keep wanting characters and situations to be explored much more than they are.

(note: all names taken from the Wiki article because figuring out the Chinese transliteration of the Japanese transliteration of names is beyond me)

I am so happy there is a new Yuki Kaori series! Also, much like Cain Saga, this seems to start with individual mysteries of the week (only involving nuns and deadly zombie dolls and court intrigue!) but will probably end with a ton of angst, backstory, and more zombies. I love it already!

Also, it helps that it is already 100 times more comprehensible than Fairy Cube.

Here, we get more of Lucille's backstory, in which we discover he is the most beautiful, talented person EVAR. It also involves a Trio of DOOM, a cold-hearted queen (I love her already), a deadly cousin, and a lot of love and hate for your sibling. It's not quite incest, but pretty close.

And did I mention that the queen is dressed in loligoth Victorian kimono?

Then, there is an individual mystery which involves a villain in a cat mask wielding a giant tuning fork (!), a nun who dies via crucifix impaling (!!), swords hidden in a giant organ (the keyboard-and-pipes kind, not the kind Jezebel Disraeli keeps in jars) (!!!), secret staircases (!!!!), revived zombie nuns (!!!!!), and a flower called something like "the Madonna's tears" which is also deadly poison (♥♥♥). It is awesomesauce!

Also, Lucille crossdresses as a nun. Of course.

Also also, there's some nice development of the Lucille-Eles relationship.

( Spoilers are the only ones who can touch your scars! )

In conclusion: ILU YUKI KAORI, ILU!



Also also also, in a moment of strange real life coincidence, after I read this and shoved awesome Yuki Kaori art featuring a girl stepping on an angel in Rachel's face and cackled loudly about the entire nun story, we ate lunch with a giant group of people... in which Rachel was seated next to what we thought were two nuns! (They were Mormon missionaries.) It was particularly awkward, as they asked Rachel where she grew up, and she desperately tried to avoid any discussion of religion while I giggled helplessly in my soup. Rachel elbowed me under the table to try and get me to stop, unsuccessfully.

In this, the sports festival continues and Yoh goes to prep school.

( Spoilers still love Haruna )

Shirayuki (Japanese for "Snow White") is an ordinary girl, except for her head of bright red hair. Because of this, she attracts the attention of the prince of her country. In order to escape becoming his concubine, she runs off and meets Zen, the second prince of another country.

So far, I am not actually sure what the plot of this is. The first volume is largely about Shirayuki getting used to her new place in Zen's palace, while the second is more about her becoming a royal pharmacist. Then again, I'm not sure it'll actually matter that much as to what the plot is; the joys of this manga are the cute and sweet art and the extremely cute and sweet interactions between Shirayuki and Zen.

Zen is one of those rare shoujo heroes, someone who is genuinely nice. He rescues Shirayuki a few too many times for my taste, but he's never meanly possessive of her, he gives her room, and he trusts her to do what she needs to do. And he does sweet things like make sure she gets enough sleep without being a jerk about it!

Shirayuki may be a more standard sweet shoujo heroine, but I don't particularly care right now because she and Zen are so adorable!

Overall, this is immensely cute and sweet in the best of ways, with two very likable leads, nice art, and situations that so far don't depend on the leads acting irrationally. I really hope this gets licensed, because good sweet shoujo is actually fairly difficult to find.

(eta: changed series title to match licensed one)

It is a new Yuki Kaori series! With gender bending!! And killer dolls!!! Called Guignols!!!!

ILU YUKI KAORI ILU.

The Galatea virus somehow turns people into flesh-eating dolls who roam around trying to catch prey; people mostly live in walled cities to avoid them. A mysterious court rules the land. It's not quite sure what they do yet, but given that it is an authoritative figure in a Yuki Kaori series, i am certain they are corrupt and morally bankrupt.

Lucille, Kohaku, and Gwindel compose a (very tiny) orchestra whose music somehow destroys the Guignol dolls.

Right now, it looks like the series is fairly episodic, a la early Cain Saga/Godchild, but we're already getting very brief glimpses into Lucille's Sekrit Angsty Backstory.

( Spoilers as only Yuki Kaori can do )

Also, there is a pet hedgehog that lives in a hat. And offering your flesh to be eaten as an expression of true love.

And did I mention the FLESH-EATING DOLLS who can ONLY BE DEFEATED BY MUSIC?

So far, no zombie doll fetus armadas, but I am confident they (or something of that ilk) will be in future volumes! I'm also hoping that this is a nice long series with room for many, many cracktastic plot twists, because while Fairy Cube was fun, it was too short for me to get very attached to the characters. Also, the ending was largely incomprehensible, but that seems par for the course. I feel the solution to that is to just have more awesome middle so no one cares if they can't figure out the ending.