Reading 2007 - November 1-30 Part 2
Here's the second part of my November reading post, focusing entirely on Manga. To remind you of what I read, here's the official list:
14 Graphic Novels - 2637 pages (8 new)
Tramps Like Us 8 by Yayoi Ogawa
Tramps Like Us 13 by Yayoi Ogawa
Dramacon 1 by Svetlana Chmakova
Dramacon 2 by Svetlana Chmakova
Kaze Hikaru 7 by Taeko Watanabe
Bleach 21 by Tite Kubo
Nana 7 by Ai Yazawa
Skip Beat 6 by Yoshiki Nakamura
Skip Beat 7 by Yoshiki Nakamura
Aishiteruze Baby 7 by Yoko Maki
Crimson Hero 5 by Mitsuba Takanashi
Wild Adapter 3 by Kazuya Minekura
Kamen Tantei 2 by Matsuri Akino
Suppli 1 by Mari Okazaki
The Tramps Like Us and Dramacon were sort of a 'follow-on' to my shoujo-fest from the end of October. I picked up number 8 as part of 'filling in' missing books and number 13 because it had just come out. Dramacon was just me wanting more light fun and a bit of reviewing because I knew the final volume would be coming out in December.
Tramps Like Us 13 is the penultimate volume in this series, and it truly shows. Much of the focus is on Sumire's changing relationship with Takeshi. We get to see the way they adjust to love as equals and the extreme distance between them and, ultimately, the choices they make to stay together. These are reflected throughout the volume by the actions of the secondary characters, not the least of which is the Hasumi/Fukushima pairing. All in all, it was beautifully handled and I'm very much looking forward to the denouement in Volume 14.
Kaze Hikaru and Bleach were both excellent as always, as was Nana. I'm going to focus, instead, on a couple of titles that I don't talk much about, Skip Beat and Aishiteruze Baby.
Skip Beat is not a book I've gone out of my way for. I read the first several volumes in scanlation and it's on my 'to pick up eventually' list rather than at the top of my must haves. The series on the whole is pretty decent and it puts a nice spin on the stereotypical 'shoujo idol' subgenre. I like that Kyoko isn't always a particularly nice or even, sometimes, sympathetic character. I like that her motivation is as much about revenge as it is about succeeding for herself.
In these volumes, we see a lot more of the nice side of Kyoko. We see her working hard for herself as well as for Ren and even doing pretty well at things. The darker side doesn't come out again until she's directly faced with the object of her ire and her identiy is fully known meaning she must prove herself through her work.
I admit to not fully understanding the extent of all the relationships, but it feels like a balance is maintained as she manages to impress and piss off the male leads in pretty much equal parts throughout both volumes. For a series that can go a bit over the top, it has a very solid storytelling base and I'm considering actually going out of my way to get more.
Aishiteruze Baby is one of my secret, guilty pleasures. I read the first chapter in Shojo Beat approximately forever ago and hated it. Then, for no very good reason, I began to download the anime and very quickly became sucked in by the story. What at first seems like a very over-the-top cutefest is actually a much richer story of love and family -- both the family you are born with and the family you create.
This final volume can only be described as bittersweet. Just as Kippei manages to bring his relationship with Kokoro to a satisfying place, the rug is ripped out from under him when Yuzuyu's mother returns. The resolution is not reached easily and the sweetness of the ending only serves to mitigate things so much. It's the depth of feeling in these later chapters that make the overall, overbearing sweetness of much of the series palatable for me.
Crimson Hero is a series I can pretty much skip over as it's a very straightforward shoujo sports story. Wild Adapter I can sum up with a simple LOVED IT because if I try to explain why I'm probably not going to be very coherent. Kamen Tantei is bland enough that I don't feel a pressing need to go over it for you here. My only comment is to not judge Matsuri Akino by this series, she's capable of so much better.
That leaves Suppli. I picked this up after a brief review that basically said 'it's josei and it's good' which is pretty much all I needed. I've been looking for a good josei fix for after Tramps Like Us ends and I was more than happy to try this out.
I'm very glad that I did, because this has everything I've been wanting in a romance manga. It's got emotional relationships that I can, well, relate to, along with the dilemmas of balancing your work identity, your personal identity and how to fit a relationship into that mix. All of it rings true and is much more in line with my experiences than the idealism of shoujo. If you're looking for a good romance that fits in with adult experience rather than teenage idealism, this is the book to pick up.
Seriously, it's excellent. Go. Buy it. Now.
COMING SOON!
My December commentary with year-end review and wrap up to this little experiment of mine!
