Urasawa Naoki - Monster, vol. 01-04 (Eng. trans.)

Dr. Tenma ends up ruining what could have been a very prosperous career and an engagement to the daughter of a very influential man when he opts to operate on a boy instead of another very influential man. Unfortunately for him, the boy grows up to be a depraved monster serial killer. Since Tenma feels very guilty about this, he tries to track the boy down.

This sounds like a very boring thriller. So far, it's not.

Tenma is the key to the entire series (or at least, what I've read); he's truly a good man caught up in increasingly bad events. Usually I don't like the heroes of thrillers, but Urasawa manages to give Tenma an innate humanity and kindness that I really like and feel drawn toward.

The eponymous monster is much more boring; I don't buy people being naturally soulless and evil, as this boy apparently is. And the series does tend toward "natural evil" as a justification for the increasingly violent measures that Tenma and others end up taking, which bores and disturbs me.

On the other hand, I like moral questions in general, and Tenma really is a compelling character, because he does try to be good and is faced with hard choices.

There is an interesting female character who pops up in vol. 2, which makes me happy, as Tenma's ex-fiancee is your standard rich bitch blah blah.

Anyway, I think I'll keep reading, though maybe this will be delegated to tachiyomi or library loans.

Links:
rilina's review (scroll down)

Also, I swear coffeeandink wrote it up because that's how I heard about it, but I can't find the post.

ETA: coffeeandink's tags

Fujieda Toru - Oyayubihime Infinity, vol. 01-02 (Eng. trans.)

I flipped through this on coffeeandink's rec, and after the first few pages, I took a chance and bought the first two volumes. I tore through them late last night, and I am very happy that I got them!

Mely recced it to me because she thought it might hit my reincarnation kink button, which it does.

But what really caught me in the first few pages was the art -- strong clean lines and round curved faces. I particularly love the character design for the heroine Kanoko, who is short and grumpy and bespectacled.

Kanoko and her sister Mayu have butterfly-shaped birthmarks on their thumbs, as do Kanoko's classmates Tsubame and Mike. Tsubame believes that the birthmarks are an indication of an oath made in a past life; he is searching for the reincarnation Edo courtesan he thinks his past incarnation committed double suicide with. Mike so far has been hanging around and looking cool (I think his name is pronounced "mee-keh," not "mike," but am not certain).

In another plotline, Mayu is actually an actress/model called Yuuki Maya, created by Kanoko and played by Mayu, who is very shy and cute and not at all cool and reserved. Both Kanoko and Mayu try to keep people from finding out that Mayu is Maya while also attempting to get Maya's career off the ground.

My favorite part about the manga so far is the relationship between Kanoko and Mayu. They have different fathers, and Mayu is beautiful and obviously the favorite of their actress mother. But instead of a rivalry springing up, Kanoko (the younger) is incredibly protective of the shy and retiring Mayu, while Mayu depends on Kanoko for emotional support. They don't just love each other; they genuinely like and respect each other. The mangaka also gives their relationship a lot of weight, which tends to be rare in the world of shoujo and shounen manga. I'm hoping that it doesn't end up being the stereotypical female rivalry, because it's incredibly sweet -- I swear, I'm not just biased because I am a sucker for sister stories.

Other things I like about the series are Kanoko and the treatment of reincarnation/soulmates/predestination. Kanoko is wonderfully grumpy and pragmatic, particularly against the romanticism of Tsubame, who fervently believes in predestination and soulmates and One True Love. Also, I like that she wears glasses and is still cute, as opposed to the magical removing of glasses that automatically makes people beautiful.

While it seems like the series leans toward reincarnation and predestination, the existence of more than two people with the butterfly birthmark complicates things. I also like that the mangaka seems to be critiquing Tsubame for his romanticized POV, since it means that he's forever looking for something and not noticing what's under his nose.

I'm hoping to get vol. 3 from the bookstore today, hee.

Holiday socializing

1. I met up with jinian and W. last last week, and we had delicious fusion Vietnamese, complete with duck spring rolls. I love duck spring rolls. Whoever thought of them was a genius. I burbled madly about quite a few anime and manga series to both of them and now must remember to mail some over, and then I dragged them over and sicced rats on them.
   
   In a nice, non-horror-movie fashion, of course.
   
   Alas and alack, dinner took so long that I was scared they had forgotten my order again (this has been happening to me quite often lately), so I wasn't able to pimp all that much to them. But! Snail mail will do as well!



2. I met up with yhlee and dragged her away from her sister a few days ago, we had delicious New Orleans food. I had a fried chicken po'boy and stole some of my sister's gumbo, both of which were wonderful. But! The best part ever were the beignets, warm and fresh and toasty from the deep fryer, liberally sprinkled over with sugar and cinnamon. They came with three dipping sauces -- chocolate, caramel, and raspberry -- and I liked each one better than the last, no matter what order I tried them in.
   
   We then attempted to watch The Collector, except my computer decided it hated Yoon's disc. So we contented ourselves with 1x02 of Spooks, because that is the one that made me decide the show was worth watching, and episode 1 of Ouran, which I hadn't actually planned on pimping. But Yoon asked for something light and fluffy, and Ouran is my favorite light and fluffy and absolutely hilarious thing ever.
   
   Even though that was the third or fourth time I've seen the first episode, I still nearly fell off the couch. The lightbulbs! The blinking arrows! The commoner coffee!



3. Yesterday I went to watch Blood Diamond with an old co-worker. It is an excellent movie and I must write it up. Soon. When I get through the book and manga backlog.
   
   Why do you mock me?!

ETA: and since I am planning on pimping a ton of stuff, does anyone have good recs for a DVD-ROM/CD-ROM burning program? Freeware is happy, but mine is so capricious that I am willing to shell out a little money (only in the two-digits range though, and the less the better). I've been using Click 'n Burn, which sometimes burns and sometimes mucks up the disc. Or maybe it's just my DVD-RW drive....