manga roundup

[liri]

Get Backers volumes 9, 10, and 11 - Still making Yami no Matsuei look straight in comparison, what with all of the taking stabbings for each other and the completely heterosexual buddy-glomps and all. In addition, I now understand the fandom's great love for Akabane. And I've come to see Himiko as reasonably cool - it's not like it's her fault her clothes get ripped off so much and that Ban stole her glory in her own showcase fight. Unlike Hevn she at least tries to be dressed appropriately... Also, Shido and Madoka are SO CUTE. See, there are a couple of straight people in this series.

Rurouni Kenshin 17 - At last we have countdown to Jinchuu Arc!

Maison Ikkoku 12 - Cripes, how many volumes did this series run? I don't mind the latest plot device - I actually like crazynuts Asuna, so having her joining Kyoko's tennis class is fine by me - but I really thought it was close to a conclusion a couple of volumes ago...

Ayashi no Ceres 12 - Made me cry. I blame the PMS. More details in a spoiler section later.



Kaze Hikaru is really wearing on me. It's a series about the Shinsengumi and it pretty much sucks. How is that possible? Yes, okay, they're almost all really cute and they're all gay except maybe Okita because he has to romance the Mary Sue, we get it, DO SOMETHING COOL NOW. That's what the Shinsengumi is FOR. I dread the day Saito turns up in this.

Baby and Me is not much to post about - it's not that well-drawn or eventful but it's cute and likable. I'd be sad to see it go.

Godchild provides further proof that Kaori Yuki is Japan's answer to VC Andrews! She also commented, in an interview, that in Japan her manga's seen as too crowded, which is almost the exact criticism I had, so I guess it's not just me...

Crimson Hero - The series about the girl who wants to play volleyball but is stuck at a school without a girls' volleyball team, and is now the unofficial dorm mother in the boys' volleyball team dorm. In this chapter she tries without success to promote girls' volleyball to field a team, and the guys, including the one she inadvertently poured boiling water on, are showing grudging respect for her - gosh, do you think she'll end up playing on the boys' team for a while, only to wind up on a girls' team later and play against the guys in a climactic match that'll take, like, five volumes and defy the laws of physics repeatedly because determination is stronger than gravity? I think the playing-on-the-guys'-team thing is almost a certainty, at least, and I can already tell who'll be in the love triangle with her...

Absolute Boyfriend is still funny. I liked the idea that it might be like reverse Chobits - "your robot is your one true love!" - but it's looking now more like Riiko's going to end up with the neighbor guy. Kind of a disappointment, I mean, why shouldn't she have a mindless husband-bot? It works in reverse! But I don't so much want it to be creepy, I just wanted manga justice. Oh well. The snarky neighbor's cute and doesn't look like a Tamahome/Tooya clone.

Nana still pwnz all that stand in its way.





For real, spoilers.


Okay, well, the plot is too cracked-out to be fully summarized - Tennyo might be aliens! People have impassioned arguments about whether or not it's okay to have sex when you're not in love! Creepy tennyo women in league with the Mikage! Abduction! Forcible extraction of ova! Teen pregnancy! Gunshot wounds! Angst! - so I guess I'm more posting this in the vague expectation that other people will know what I'm talking about. Anyway... Toya's bizarre origin just raises more questions than it answers. Multiple levels of amnesia, wtf? Infant washes ashore and grows to adulthood in ten days, wtf? But that's why I'm not moved overmuch by his death; we know he came from the ocean, and while his death seemed pretty conclusive, Howell drops his corpse in the sea. Gosh, do you think he'll be back? The only real suspense is whether he'll have amnesia yet again. I did, however, get kind of sniffly when Aya went back to their place and had her montage. I mean, her boyfriend knocked her up and then went and got shot in the head, she's sad! And pregnant! She can't be expected to know she's in a Yuu Watase manga and true love always triumphs over plausibility. I guess you can say "plausibility" and "Yuu Watase manga" in the same sentence, since I just did and the world didn't explode... Anyway, Chidori's death was the thing that really got me, not just because of the likely permanence of it but also because of the way it was presented, and poor Yuhi's been through enough as it is.