Sakura of DOOM

Angel's Coffin: This has been released by GoComi, and sadly, is nowhere near as cracktastically awesome as the title indicates. Seto is a demon who's been imprisoned in a book, only to be released by the unknowing and innocent Marie Vetsera. Seto promises Marie to grant her heart's desire, which is to have Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, fall in love with her. Those of you who know history (which I didn't) and who know You Higuri (which I did) will know this does not end well. Alas, Marie is totally boring and rather vapid to boot, Rudolf is a complete blank slate, and while Seto could be awesome in his demonic anachronistic way, he is instead unconvincingly in love with Marie.

Also, there may be a demon trying to seduce Seto to the dark side. Or... more of the dark side? Extremely boring, pass.

Lost Angel: Now this is more like it! (Also, a warning that I read this in Taiwan and have waited so long to write this up that I've forgotten most of it.)

Gunta is a mysterious, dark-haired new student at some school.... but secretly he is Lucifer! Or a powerful demon. But I'm pretty sure he is Lucifer, because why would you make someone a powerful demon when you could make them Lucifer?! Anyway. He is trying to redeem himself, so he goes about battling demons... with his skeleton hand! And the magical sword he wields! The sword, alas, does not have a secret identity, but that is probably just because the role of Lucifer has already been taken.

He investigates occult Satanic occurences, and while he is doing so, he meets the angelicly light-haired (or dyed, who knows) Z, whose name I have completely forgotten and cannot find after ten minutes of Googling, even in Japanese. Z finds himself strangely attracted to Gunta, as one is wont to do when confronted with someone who is... Lucifer!

Sorry. One day I will get sick of typing out the ellipses and "Lucifer!" but so far, not yet!

Gunta abandons the school, but he gets involved in several other cases that lead him Z's way again. One, of course, involves the innocent, beautiful, and totally doomed woman, although honestly, I have no idea why Higuri even tries to pretend Z is even vaguely interested in her. Instead of adding vapid love interests to nominally prove their heroes are heterosexual (HA), I feel mangaka should instead write in women who are... Lucifer!

In conclusion: Lucifer!


Given that GoComi licensed the horribly boring Angel's Coffin, couldn't they release Romaesque Mask as well? I have never read it, but it looks like it's based on the Takarazuka version of Dangerous Liaisions! How could it be bad?

(Original title: 愛すべき娘たち)

This is a collection of interlinked short stories, all of which have some connection to the main character, whose name I cannot remember and now cannot look up because I returned the book. I think it is Makimura Youko? Anyway, the first story is about her and her mother, who has recently battled cancer and is now marrying a man a few years younger than Youko. The second is about a high school student who sort of and sort of doesn't force herself on her high school teacher (a friend of Youko's), the third is about another friend who has been told to treat all people equally, the fourth is about two of Youko's middle school friends, and the last is about Youko and her mother again.

I cringed my way through most of the second story, although it's not quite as bad as the premise (I am very squicked out by teacher-student relationships, particularly those below college level). Even though having the student decide on the relationship instead of the teacher makes it slightly more palatable in terms of power differentials, I still find the depiction problematic, especially since the threat used ("I'll tell people you forced me!") is one so often used as an urban legend to discredit rape victims.

The third story ends on a rather odd note, which is too bad, because I liked the exploration of a relationship between two very nice people, one of whom just happened to be differently abled. I liked that it wasn't a big deal to the main characters, even though it was still discussed, particularly in terms of marriage potential. It felt fairly realistic and not heavy handed. And then there was the ending, which was... odd. The heroine takes her grandfather's advice to treat all people equally to heart, so much so that she realizes she can't truly be in love with any one person, as that would mean she values that person above other people. So she decides to... become a nun! As one does? This would have been so much more believable had the heroine actually been religious or thought about taking vows before or if there had been some sort of foreshadowing whatsoever.

The stories that contain Youko are excellent, and I now have much more faith in Yoshinaga as a feminist author. I love how she examines the relationships between mothers and daughters and how they harm and heal, how Youko's mother was hurt by her own mother constantly calling her ugly, how Youko's grandmother did so because she didn't want her daughter growing up vain like the girls she hated most when she was young, how sexism and systemic misogyny is passed down from generation to generation, always taking different forms. And I love that Yoshinaga understands that understanding does not always mean forgiveness or healing, nor does it make wrongs right. I love that Youko's mother (I think her name is Mari) has found love with a much younger man and that despite some initial awkwardness with Youko, the relationship looks like a healthy one that will continue.

I love the fourth story in particular, which has a recently-married Youko examining her attempt to be a working woman and a wife. I would have cheered just for the mention of the fact that women are expected to do the housework and that when they do, they are rarely acknowledged for it, whereas if a man does, it's a big deal, and how the amount of work men and women put into keeping house is respectively overestimated and underestimated. But no! There is more! There's the story of Youko's middle school classmates, one of whom was full of feminist zeal while the other two were not, and what happens to the three of them. It's sad and bitter and lonely and heartwarming at the same time.

This isn't my favorite Yoshinaga (Ooku takes that spot easily), but I enjoyed it a lot. Also, it's so rare to find manga centering on female relationships, much less overtly feminist manga, that I desperately wish someone would translate this into English so I could make people talk about it with me.

This is an adaptation of the anime of the same name, although I can't tell if Shinkai Makoto mostly came up with the original storyline for the anime and Sahara Mizu did the adaptation, or if Shinkai wrote it and she illustrated it.

I've been a fan of Sahara Mizu's art for a while (she also works as Yumeka Sumomo); she's particularly good at bittersweet wistfulness and empty spaces and words left unsaid. This adaptation is no different.

In the future, humans have discovered the existence of alien life in the form of the Tarsians. No one knows yet if they're hostile or not, although missions are already being sent out to fight the Tarsians and to find new worlds. Mikako, a middle-school student, has volunteered to be the pilot of one of the missions' mechas. Unfortunately, this means that she has to leave behind her good friend Noboru. They try to keep in touch via text messages, but as Mikako is sent further and further away, the messages take longer and longer to arrive, until they're over eight years apart.

Normally I'm not one for stories that posit someone's One True Love is found in middle school, but Sahara and Shinkai handle the material with such delicacy that I found myself rooting for Mikako and Noboru. It also helps that both Mikako and Noboru are unsure of each other as well; Mikako is torn by the knowledge that years are passing by on Earth while she remains the same age, and Noboru tries and tries to move on with his life and not wait for increasing infrequent text messages. But the lack of resolution keeps both of them from moving on.

I loved the overall tone of this manga, the uncertainty and doubt, the simple and sweet flashbacks to Mikako and Noboru riding bikes or hiding from the rain, all of which distinguish it from all the other giant robot series that have middle-school students battling aliens. While there is some action when it comes to the giant robots and the Tarsians, the bulk of the story is about Mikako and Noboru and how they're separated by time. And though the ending is somewhat unresolved, it worked for me. There's no guarantee that anything will turn out all right; in fact, I'm fairly certain there will be more pain to come, but that's what makes the story work for me.

Saikawa Kanade and his half-Japanese, half-French cousin Anais solve three perfume-related mysteries. I feel this plot seems deceptively simple compared to the tangles in Angel Sanctuary and Cain Saga/Godchild, but given that it's only a one shot, what can you do?

I was bored a little by Kanade, despite his angsty backstory rivalry with a fellow perfumer, but I love Anais. She is half-French so Yuki Kaori has an excluse to give her blond hair and blue eyes*, and amazingly, there are no incestuous vibes between her and Kanade, despite the fact that they aren't actually related by blood (she's his aunt's stepdaughter). She is grumpy and tall and beats people up and glares sullenly from the cover. I wanted to get more backstory about her childhood bond with Kanade, but only tidbits for me.

Sadly, the crack is not quite up to normal Yuki Kaori levels, though there are goth girls, dead bodies galore, lots of evil women, and an evil MTF to boot. Oh Yuki Kaori, why?

Still, the art is gorgeous and there are enough cracktastically insane bits to please me, but it's definitely not among her more memorable pieces of work.


* I do not understand all these half-Continental-European characters running around in manga and anime and how they all have blond hair and blue eyes. I mean, obviously there is no set way to look if one is half-Asian and half-European, but it'd be nice if one of these half-Continental-European characters had brown hair and brown eyes for once.


ETA: I am going to the comic book store tomorrow, so tell me what in Yuki Kaori's backlist I should get! (Besides the rent boy serial killer one, which is, uh, already on the list.) Bonus points for letting me know if the plot involves crazy terminology like "organic angels," which will be a little confusing in Chinese.

And still not all the manga I read all weekend!

Kouno and Naomichi are next-door neighbors; Kouno's dealing with a drunken night of passion with his friend Natsu, and Naomichi has just had his roommate Kei confess to him. What happens isn't unexpected, dramatic, or brilliant, but there's a depth of character to this that I like.

Fujiyama not only sidesteps the normal shounen-ai tropes that I hate (non-con, exaggerated uke/seme), she ends up with four people who feel very real. I like that her characters do things like dash up the stairs when they finally get a message they've been waiting for, or nervously joke around before having sex for the first time. And I particularly like how her characters work through what would normally be a stupid misunderstanding.

There still are stupid misunderstandings, but they feel driven by character rather than plot, and the other partner reacts very realistically -- frustrated, but also unwilling to let the entire relationship go down in flames because of it. In fact, the general sense that I get from her is that there are no meet cutes or zany switcheroos; relationships here actually require work and effort and trust.

This may make the manga sound like the most boring thing ever, but it's not. Recommended.

Why yes, yes I am trying to catch up on writing up all my weekend reading!

I really like Konno's yaoi series Kawaii Hito, which is very PWP, but also very sweet, with the additional bonus of an ex-girlfriend who doesn't make me want to strangle the mangaka. Star is a one-off about the antisocial Sudou and the friendlier Hirokawa.

The neat thing is that Sudou is the shorter, more feminine-looking one and Hirokawa's older and taller. Even neater is the fact that they're both working. I.e. manga about people older than teenagers! Amazing.

The manga ends up being about Sudou's attempts to get used to interacting with people, as opposed to his usual brusqueness. He's got a reputation for seducing and abandoning women, but he's not much of a ladies' man. Rather, he's more a person who uses other people without emotionally connecting to them, man or woman. I would dislike Sudou except the mangaka clearly portrays his antisocialness and his antagonism as a flaw, not a virtue. Also, I have a thing for grumpy ukes. It's a nice change from the usual oblivious cluelessness and mad protestations.

Hirokawa is much mellower, which is again a nice change from the usual aggressive, alpha-bastard semes.

I didn't like the way Konno portrayed some of the women in the beginning, but she makes up for this by having a secondary female character who has slept with Hirokawa and doesn't villainize her, shunt her to the side, or make her unsympathetic. Instead, she's a character who values her work and her relationships and keeps sex separate from love.

The only problem with this was that I didn't quite buy the Hirokawa-Sudou relationship. I'm not quite sure why -- I think Sudou protests a little too much in his mind for me. There's just too much back-and-forth about the relationship; I tend to like stories that start after the relationship is in place, rather than stories that are about getting to the relationship.

Still, Konno remains on my list of mangaka to look out for.

(yes, the lack of a hyphen in the title is still bugging me)

This is a really gorgeous collection of BL short stories. The stories themselves don't have much plot: two high school guys, one shy and one not as much, have a relationship and discuss their future. An angel gives up angelhood to be with someone. Two high school students who enjoy being alone find that they enjoy each other's company in the attic.

Guess which one was the one that made me pick up the book?

There's this sense of wistfulness about all the stories, which are all about people who might have drifted through the world if it weren't for finding the other. The art and the panel layout echoes this: the art is spare and sketchy and sometimes seems to disappear into the page; and the panels are open, lots of white space and open-ness. I love just looking at it. Also, part of the aesthetics may have been enhanced by the good paper stock; it's thick and white and the blacks stand out superbly.

Also, vom_marlowe! It uses lots of wordless sequences! And I love how the panels focus on the small details -- a hand reaching out to another, someone bending down to kiss another person and then deciding at the last minute not to. I just love how spare and lovely it all is; there's so little dialogue, and yet, the mangaka nails the moods perfectly.

I am going to hunt down her other translated manga now.

Like Emma, this is set in Victorian England. There are four short stories about Shirley Madison, a 13-year-old maid, and her employer.

Since I read this in Chinese, I have absolutely no idea what her employer's name is. The scanlations said "Cranry Bennett," but I'm pretty sure "Cranry" is her last name, not her first. Anyway, I guess I'll refer to her as Ms. Cranly.

Ms. Cranly owns a small coffeeshop; she's single and self-employed and decides to take on Shirley despite Shirley's young age. They have a pseudo-familial relationship: Ms. Cranly gives Shirley a doll, Shirley watches over Ms. Cranly.

Part of me had small squidges related to the fuzziness of the master-servant relationship and the power differential, but really, the stories are so small and sweet that I didn't want to be too grumpy.

I adore Mori's art and her panel layout so much. I found out that Emma, and presumably Shirley, was published in a seinen magazine (? because of the maid fetish thing?), which explains the boxier panels and the more structured layout. But there's this great little sequence where Shirley gets her new maid outfit. She stands in front of the mirror, than slowly discovers the swirly skirt, and a small smile starts to blossom on her face.

It's about two or three pages, all wordless, but you know exactly how she feels.

There are two other maid-related short stories in this volume, "Mary Banks" and "Nellie and I," but my favorites are still the Shirley ones.

This is one of Viz's very first forays into the world of shoujo manga. I suspect Matt Thorn, the translator and shoujo manga scholar extraordinaire, picked the stories that would be included.

The four shoujo stories consist of Nishi Keiko's "Promise" and "Since You've Been Gone," Hagio Moto's "They Were Eleven," and Sato Shio's "The Changeling."

I was rather disappointed by the Hagio, given that she's a near-legendary shoujo mangaka, but I suspect her better work is in her longer series, like The Heart of Thomas. "They Were Eleven" is an SF novella in which Galactic test-takers are aboard a ship, in which there is an unknown eleventh member. There's some interesting bits on gender, but all in all, it was rather predictable, with too many info-dumps for me. Also, it took me a while to get used to the very early seventies art (stiff figures, large sparkly eyes, giant curly hair).

I had similar problems with the Sato, though the art there was more early eighties (I think). There were too many info-dumps as well, and having read a lot of SF, the surprise twist wasn't very surprising at all to me. There were some poignant bits regarding Sephiloth and his relationship with his ward, and for some reason, I kept thinking that it'd be a take on The Tempest.

Nishi's stories though... I ran out and bought her short story collection Love Song based on the strength of her stories.

The art is still a little dated, but it's wonderfully sparse and evocative. I can't quite say exactly why they caught me as much as they did. "The Promise" is on a girl trying to deal with her mother's new boyfriend, with the help of a mysterious friend, and "Since You've Been Gone" is on an adulterous husband and his wife during an earthquake. Neither of the stories are particularly surprising or go to unexpected places, but there's a certain wistfulness to both that struck me, and that, combined with the quality of the art, really made me fall in love.

I think I liked them because they were so unlike the Hagio and the Sato; Nishi's stories are very realistic, very small in scope. There aren't any grand worlds or twists, just people and their emotions. All the realizations are such small ones, and yet, so large.

Also, I am very glad I found Nishi via this book, particularly because I can hoot even more about finding this at cover price in a small corner of a small comic book store, since it's woefully out of print.