Yumeka Sumomo - The Day I Become a Butterfly (Eng. trans.)

Completely unrelated PSA: Loretta Chase's new book is out!

I read the mangaka's Same Cell Organism yesterday, which was so gorgeous that I ended up reading this one and buying it. I need to go back and acquire Same Cell Organism as well.

Like Same Cell Organism, The Day I Become a Butterfly is also a collection of short stories; some are BL and some aren't, but they're all infused with the same wistful, quiet melancholy and joy. The titular story is on the dying Uka and somewhat psychic Mikami, who apparently can sense when people are about to die. Cue gorgeously understated and quiet angst! Others are on childhood friends and a girl who fears change (het); a girl trying to disentangle herself from affairs and draw; and two 16-year-old boys, one of whom purports to be an alien. The last one is sweet and funny and a nice look at being different; I didn't expect to like it, but it made me laugh with the ending:

Ulala Nakazawa (16), currently residing in Tokyo, is still, as always, an alien.

Yuzuru Yoshimoto (16), currently residing in Tokyo, this day transfers citizenship to a nation in space.

And from the childhood friends one: "The lonely war. Hailing bullets of happiness. Yellow flowers. / And next to me -- you."

A small warning: some of Yumeka's boys look just like girls. Or, er, even more so than manga boys usually do. I stared at the het story and decided that since the character had long hair (not so telling) and was in a girl's school uniform with skirt, she was probably a she. Though really, even with the school uniform, you can never be sure in manga. (She was a she in that one though.)

I have clearly gone from simply enjoying these to wanting people to read them. This collection and Same Cell Organism are more BL than yaoi; this one also has non-romantic character studies as well. The art and paneling are gorgeous, spare and clean and evocative. The sensibility of the mangaka reminds me a little of the Nishi Keiko shorts that I've read.

Nothing really happens in any of the stories; it's the art and the minimal prose that I love.

Wann - 100% Perfect Girl (Eng. trans.)

So sometimes I hit the jackpot when I randomly pick things up at Borders, and... sometimes I don't.

It started out promising though, referencing a Murakami Haruki story I really like ("On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning"), which is one of the few stories of falling in love at first sight that strangely doesn't drive me absolutely insane.

And it even begins with quotes from the story, only to segue to J. snatching the book out of his secretary's hand, protesting that it's stupid.

Meanwhile, Jay Jin must struggle to keep pursuing her passion, art; her mother tells her there is no money in art, and she must give up her dream to support her brother in his ambition to become a doctor. Amazingly, there is actually some critique of this that almost borders on a critique of sexism as an institution, but not quite.

J. and Jay accidentally bump into each other in a hotel lobby. They spend a lovely day together that's unfortunately ended when he goes into anaphylactic shock, courtesy of a chicken kebab. And then, since he's the prince of a small, rich, French-speaking and completely imaginary European country (actually king, but the manhwaga wants to call him prince just because, and I know this because it says so in the author's asides), he starts a multimillion dollar advertising campaign to look for her.

I think this would be cute and somewhat amusing -- the art is pretty, the random small rich European country royalty bit is cute (though somewhat overdone), and Jay doesn't seem to be too stupid to live. And then the manhwaga decided to throw in your standard "You make me lust for you and therefore I will attempt to force you to have sex with me, oh sorry, I didn't meant it, why are you angry at me now?" storyline.

At which point I nearly threw the book at a wall, except I was in the Borders cafe and didn't want to kill anyone.

Just in case you couldn't tell, I don't recommend this series.