Mori Kaoru - Emma, vol. 01-02 (Eng. trans.)

This is a supremely quiet Victorian manga about Emma, a maid, and William, son of a prosperous merchant family, and how they fall in love. Unlike Yuki Kaori, Mori seems to have not only meticulously researched the era, but has also tried to represent it faithfully, as opposed to whatever catches the fancy of her id (I am not criticizing Yuki here, as I adore the contents of her id, but their series are very different). Like many people have already said, Emma is quiet and unobtrusive. The panels are actually very rectangular and laid out fairly simply, unlike most impressionistic shoujo layouts. The art is fairly simple for the characters; rounded faces and eyes, a stunning lack of sparklies and flowing hair and random flowers in the distance. From what I can tell, the clothes and buildings all seem to be fairly accurate. The backgrounds feel very detailed.

I read book 2 yesterday and was surprised at how little dialogue there is. Mori is very good at conveying emotion through series of dialogue-less panels; you see Emma carefully putting things away or holding her glasses. Everything is understated.

Also, Mori actually addresses some of the class issues of Victorian England, which is highly welcome.

There's also William's Indian friend Hakim, who seems to be a little random right now and an element from a slightly more cracktastic shoujo series, but I trust what Mori's doing.

I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

Links:

coffeeandink's review
kate_nepveu's review (with links to examples of the art) and art analysis
rilina's review (scroll down)

CLAMP - xxxHolic, vol. 08 (Eng. trans.)

Watch me scrabble to finish writing up manga and books!

( Spoilers )

Fujieda Toru - Oyayubihime Infinity, vol. 03 (Eng. trans.)

( Spoilers )

Hashiguchi Takashi - Yakitatte Japan, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.)

This is so, so, so on crack. It's a take off the standard sports manga, in which our hero discovers that he is very talented at [sport] and intends to take things to the top, but encounters many adversaries and must work very hard along the way.

Except it's about baking bread.

Yes! It is awesome! Also, it's apparently very punny in the Japanese. The hero keeps wanting to make Ja-pan, the national bread of Japan ("pan" means "bread" in Japanese). He makes bread that looks like Mt. Fuji. He makes bread that tastes good with rice and other Japanese food. He makes naan, which inspires a great bit in which someone keeps asking what it is ("Nan da?") and he keeps misunderstanding why they don't get it ("Naan da!" means "It's naan").

The humor is a little juvenille and the art isn't great, and I suspect a lot of the puns didn't get translated across. But it's an interesting take on the sports manga genre, and it's about baking!

Higuri You - Cantarella, vol. 01-02 (Eng. trans.)

This is the story of Cesare Borgia and how he rises to power in Renaissance Italy. However, Cesare is a beautiful black-haired bishounen (I should probably say "raven-haired"). The assassin Chiaro, also called Michelotti, has been sent to kill him. His sister Lucrezia is a beautiful and sweet girl. There are potentially incesty vibes. And his father literally sold his soul to the devil a long time ago. Literal damnation, fun!

So I read vol. 1 of this in January, and I just read vol. 2 today. So this is going to be a rather odd review.

I originally wasn't going to continue reading this after volume 1, largely because I was expecting something like Yuki Kaori's Godchild, and vol. 1 was a little too sweet and nice for me. I know, it's a weird thing to say about Cesare Borgia. But in the first volume, I have the impression that he's a misunderstood boy who loves his sister very much. Even the assassin isn't all that cold-blooded.

In volume 2, the demons start coming after Cesare, Lucrezia gets married, his father becomes Pope, and he becomes a cardinal.

I'm not putting spoiler tags here, as it is history.

Well, except the demons part.

But basically, Cesare starts acting like much more of an alpha bastard and much less of a misunderstood boy, which suited me much better. Usually I don't like alpha bastards, but y'know, when I pick up gothy manga about the Borgias, that's what I'm looking for.

I'm still not sure if I'm goign to keep reading this, but at least there's more interest now.

Links:
coffeeandink's review

Tsukuba Sakura - Land of the Blindfolded, vol. 03-06 (Eng. trans.)

This continues to be a cute, charming manga about people trying to do good things.

( Spoilers )

2006 in review

I've been doing this meme every year since 2003; it's fun and neat way to reflect back on my year.

2006 was a pretty rotten year for me. I read my entry for 2005, and I sound so happy and cheerful, full of life. This year wore me down and just kept wearing me down in nearly every manner possible. My much-adored boss left, there was work instability, my Big Project went wrong in nearly every way possible, Fitz-rat and Fool-rat died, my grandfather died, and assorted other little things just kept going wrong.

I'm so glad the year's over and really hoping that 2007 is better.

( Year in review meme )

ETA: an addendum

ETA2: ( Most-commented-upon posts of the year )