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Reviews by Ed Sizemore

Yozakura Quartet Book 5

Yozakura Quartet Book 5
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by Suzuhito Yasuda; adapted by Nunzio DeFlippis & Christina Weir
Del Rey Manga, $10.99 US

After the major battles of volume 4, everyone is taking time to settle back into daily life. However, they don’t get long to rest before things get exciting again. Rin, the delivery girl for a popular ramen shop, is kidnapped by a mysterious figure.

Yozakura Quartet continues to be an entertaining read. The central draw is the wonderful cast of characters that Yasuda has created. They are well-rounded individuals with lots of depth, and each volume gives us new insight into one or two people. Yasuda has poured a lot of time and care into his characters, and that affection comes through to the reader.

Another impressive aspect of the series is how normal Yasuda can make this town and its citizens feel. Sakurashin Town is a place where various demons and humans live side by side. The people have all the typical worries: going to school, running a business, the bureaucratic realities of being mayor, having a job, etc. It also helps that everyone looks like a regular human being. This normalcy makes is easy to identify with the various characters.

Yasuda continues to have good, solid art. My only disappointment with this volume was the level of fan service present. In previous volumes, there wasn’t ever more than one panty shot. In this volume, there are several. Because I find the female characters so well-rounded, I don’t like to see them objectified like this. Hopefully, this trend won’t continue in future volumes.

Yozakura Quartet has the best bonus pages of any manga series I’ve read so far. This volume Yasuda tells us about the making of the anime. He got to sit in on a voice recording session and shares his observations. It an incredible behind-the-scenes look at the making of an anime.

Yozakura Quartet is a nice blend of slice-of-life, supernatural, and great fights. It’s hard to categorize this manga or come up with another series to compare it to. Even with the big fights, the series has a quiet feel to it. The best I can recommend is that you try this volume to see if you like the series. I think you’ll find it a pleasant surprise.

Minima! Book 4

Minima! Book 4
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by Machiko Sakurai; adapted by The Nibley Sisters (Athena & Alethea)
Del Rey Manga, $11.99 US

The stuffed animal Nicori has decided to take the amusement park’s offer and become one of the star attractions. He believes this will solve the problems that he has caused. Besides dealing with Nicori’s seeming rejection of her and her family, Ame also has to sort our her feelings toward Midori and Sasaki in this final volume of the series.

Minima! has been a gentle, intimate series. Even with the supernatural element of toys talking, Minima! is really about a junior high girl coming out of her shell. Ame just needed a more unusual push than most teens. Seeing her mature in these four volumes has been a satisfying journey.

Ame isn’t the only one that grows and matures in the series; both Midori and Sasaki have problems to overcome. After years of leading separate lives, Midori’s parents are getting a divorce. Sasaki’s family moves frequently, so he doesn’t want to become too emotionally connected to anyone. Seeing both face up to their situations and find constructive ways to handle them is very heartwarming.

I’ve grown to like the art in the series. The minimalism seems to suit this last volume best. It reflects well the understated storytelling, the hidden emotions, and the awkwardness of the characters. Sakurai has always been gifted at expressing emotions, and that strength serves this final volume perfectly.

I’m going to miss Minima! It’s a short series that delivers big rewards to the reader. The characters were immensely likable, and I was very fond of them by the end of the series. This volume does have a proper ending which is comforting. It’s a well-told coming-of-age story that I recommend.

Dragon Eye Books 7 and 8

Dragon Eye Book 7
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by Kairi Fujiyama; adapted by Mari Morimoto
Del Rey Manga, $10.99 (vol 7), $11.99 (vol 8)

These volumes are the beginning of a new story arc. VIUS is having its annual fighting tournament. This year, there are important dignitaries from neighboring cities attending. It seems there are lots of hidden agendas as the tournament progresses.

Dragon Eye continues to be a fun comfort read for me. Kazuma is such a fascinating character. He seems to be a walking bag of contradictions, but as you get to know him over the series, you understand how carefully he has construed his public persona. He has these wonderful layers, and Fujiyama slowly reveals each one.

Dragon Eye Book 8
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These books are a good blend of great fighting sequences and intrigue. This is our first introduction to the larger world surrounding Mikuni City. The D virus has decimated the human population, and the survivors have formed city-states. Like the ancient Greeks, each city-state has its own culture and focus on how to protect its citizens from the dracules. I’m interested to see how this aspect of the series develops.

Fujiyama’s art has gotten noticeably better in these volumes. I don’t see the awkward poses that plagued previous volumes. The fight scenes are especially good. The drawings are very dynamic and capture the energy of the combatants well. The introduction of these new characters allows Fujiyama to create some wonderful costume and character designs.

Dragon Eye continues to be a favorite escapist read for me. Volume 7 is a good place for new readers to jump in and get a feel for the series. I won’t pretend the series has deep philosophical statements about humans or technology. The is simply a well-written story and a great cast of characters. (The publisher provided review copies.)

When I heard about the premise of this restaurant-set manga, I expected that I’d enjoy it, but unfortunately, it’s one of the rare missteps of the Viz Signature line for me.

Nicoletta was abandoned at a young age by her mother, who went off to marry a man who didn’t want children. Now, Nicoletta has come to Rome to confront her and tell him the truth. Her unknowing stepfather owns a restaurant staffed entirely by older men in glasses. When one, Claudio, is kind to her, she wonders whether she’s in love with him. Things are complicated by Nicoletta’s mother working and being friends with Claudio’s ex-wife.

Ristorante Paradiso
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NIcoletta is almost a non-entity as a protagonist. She doesn’t tell off her mother or reveal the secret to her husband, although I was rooting for her to. She just sits and watches and wonders about what love is. I found her drippy. When her mother continues treating her atrociously, she doesn’t even say anything, not even a token protest, instead just thinking to herself, “Everything always revolves around her needs.” Well, then do something about it!

Or at least, get on with your own life. Nicoletta gets internal monologue about wanting to find work she can be passionate about, and that’s part of her jealousy over her mother’s independent life, but then she winds up working in the kitchen because she’s got nothing better to do (and it keeps the manga going). What we’re told and what we’re shown doesn’t always match up.

Exhibit A in that area: Natsume Ono’s art style is definitely an acquired taste. I don’t object to it, but I did find it hard to process when we kept hearing about how handsome all these waiters were supposed to be. Mostly, they look to me like skulls. At times, they appear to be holding their heads back so they can look over their own chins. They’re always unpleasant-looking, which works when they’re fighting or tortured, but not so much when they’re supposed to be happy. Instead, at those times, they look insipid.

This is also one of those manga where we’re told everything we should think, instead of the author having faith in the reader to figure some things out based on what she’s shown. When Nicoletta is told she needs a restaurant reservation because the place is always crowded, she thinks to herself, “Must be popular.” We’re shown customers with strings of hearts coming off of them, and she thinks, “they’re all drooling over the staff.” We’re reminded several times how she’s never before felt this way about an older man. Claudio is named after a saint, so there’s a full-page panel where Nicoletta tells him, “You really are like a saint.”

I also wondered why we saw no followup to Nicoletta throwing herself (literally) on Claudio one night. He awkwardly holds her off until they’re interrupted, but afterwards, they ignore it and don’t speak of it. Instead, they bond over how they were both abandoned by working women, in a conversation where they spell out their feelings in excruciating detail. I would think the clumsy physical interaction would be more worthy of mention, if only to apologize or figure out if she was still interested. (I won’t get into the psychological implications of a woman who lost her parents seeking a relationship with such an older man.)

This had such potential — young woman finding love with an older, considerate man in a restaurant — but the pieces never came together the way they should, and the character development was jumpy and artificial. Also, not enough mention of food to take advantage of the setting. If this was a series, I’d assume that character growth would come in future volumes, but it’s a stand-alone, although the characters reappear in the three volumes of Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso, starting from Viz in July, which explores the prior lives of the waiters. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

Ah, dear Pluto. What will we do when you’re gone? You’re well-respected, widely enjoyed, critically praised, and amazingly entertaining, but the next volume is your last.

And really, where else can you go? There’s only one of the seven great robots, Epsilon, left on earth, and in this volume, he has his showdown with Pluto, the grand villain of the piece. Of course, since you’re created by Naoki Urasawa, there’s a lot more to his motivation than that, and the thoughts you raise about the nature of humanity, definitions of good and evil, and which actions are “right” are thought-provoking beyond your genre and format.

Pluto Book 7
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I think, though, this time I’m most impressed by the associations you raise in my mind. For example, in the opening scene, where we see how a robot can go mad by holding six billion personalities simultaneously, you portray (in color, no less!) a series of headshots of all kinds of different people of various ages and races. I was reminded of Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video, with its end sequence of morphing heads, a visual technology so revolutionary for the time (1991).

Professor Tenma’s prophetic words in the flashback, “We may be creating a monster,” of course remind me of Urasawa’s other work of that title. Several of the concepts and images evoke classic science fiction tropes, whether the idea of trying to replace a dead loved one with a robot or the images of the dark, pipe-lined tunnels and mechanized transports they ride. The soul chips that are used to give robots their “spirits” resemble a mutant blend of futuristic key and razor blade.

Hogan, a robot cop sent to be Epsilon’s bodyguard, has a helmet that reminds me of, yes, Robocop. Uran reads Pinocchio, another story about a creation who wanted to be human. But it’s not just movies, videos, books, and comics referenced; there’s mythology and news, too. There’s a prophetic, otherwise silent child for creepiness, and war crimes underlying it all. Epsilon’s ability to glow and channel proton energy makes him a kind of sun god, like Apollo, with undertones of a nuclear bomb in his destruction and a Christ-like striving for peace and love in his care of war orphans. (Plus, in his weakness of needing enough solar energy to recharge after a great explosion of power, I saw hints of both Superman and Green Lantern.)

Most surprising to me was when we finally see Pluto, the great robot monster — the shape of his body and the markings on his rounded helmet reminded me of Spawn. Which, since I despise Todd MacFarlane, worked quite well for me in terms of connotations. Instead of sending my thoughts wandering away, these memories and allusions, whether intentional on your author’s part or not, make you a deeper work, one that connects to a grand tapestry of art and history.

I will miss you when you’re gone, Pluto, but in the meantime, I will eagerly anticipate your conclusion and reread your other volumes. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

Congratulations to the Fantastic Fangirls for making a small but significant difference when it came to a superhero t-shirt store online. The store had for sale a “Girls Rule” shirt, cut to fit females, featuring old-style illustrations of Marvel superheroes. However, the ad copy that went with the shirt was clearly aimed at men.

… this cream colored, woman’s T-Shirt features purposely faded images of your favorite female Marvel comic book characters! Well, they’re your favorite, but your girlfriend (or sister) will actually be wearing the tshirt! HUZZAH! Hmmm… Can’t decide which Marvel Super-heroine I wish to add to my fantasy harem first.

And it goes on from there, speculating on what kind of girlfriend the female characters shown would be. Sigrid Ellis takes apart the ad text in full, demonstrating just how offensive it was:

It goes without saying that the only purpose of girlfriends in this context is sexual. No conversation, intellectual challenge, humor, or mutual support is conceivable. … use her as a prop to hold up your jerk-off material.

But Sigrid did more than just sound off about this stupidity. She sent an email to the company expressing her opinion and asking about their intentions. While they didn’t answer her, they did change the ad copy to acknowledge the female customer. And they did the same on more than half of their other female-aimed t-shirts.

Next, I think they need to examine their Wonder Woman line, which includes such copy as “it covers up more of your busom than Diana Prince’s”, “Wonder Woman posing but not shaking it at all”, and “the Invisible Jet being ridden bareback! Yes, the Jet is naked!” While some still have … let’s say, less than enlightened descriptions, and while they may have made the edits just to avoid bad press, it was refreshing to see the positive change made.

After reading and enjoying Book 7 of this series, I knew I had to catch up on the previous volumes. According to an introductory author’s note, Banri Hidaka created this shojo series while working on Tears of a Lamb as a kind of mind-clearing escapism.

V.B. Rose Book 1
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It’s the story of Ageha, a high-school girl whose older sister has just announced she’s pregnant. Like many girls, Ageha dreamed of her someday white wedding, where she would resemble a fairy princess. Her big sister Hibari was always someone to be idolized and admired, until now. Ageha’s shocked, even though her sister and her boyfriend are planning to marry. She’s jealous and afraid of what Hibari’s life changes will do to their relationship, and she’s also having to face her selfishness, wanting to keep her sister to herself.

This situation wraps together plenty of young girl hopes, fears, and dreams, creating an immediately approachable character in Ageha. She’s young but fierce, full of self-determination. She’s also quite talented, making her own bags and backpacks with a designer’s flair, marked with a butterfly (after her name). They’re so well-made that she’s developed a reputation as a mystery accessory maker.

These two pieces of her life come together as Hibari plans her wedding, which brings them to Velvet Blue Rose, the bridal shop of the title. It’s run by two gorgeous men: Yukari is the designer and the darker Mitsuya makes the patterns. And they’re both fans of her work, although they didn’t know Ageha made the bags they admired.

V.B. Rose Book 2
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Aside from the fashion fun, another thing I like about this title is how people react when faced with upsetting revelations. They own their emotions, recognizing them, making changes, growing up and moving on. Ageha often backslides — after all, exploring emotion is a key part of these kinds of stories — but those who care about her know they do her no favors to indulge her.

The art is conventional shojo, lots of faces and big sparkly eyes and expressions with decorated backgrounds to add visual emphasis. It’s easy to read and does a wonderful job portraying the fashions that are so important to the story, whether fancy dresses or everyday clothes. Plus, I love Ageha’s long wavy hair and the calm maturity of Hibari’s expressions.

Yukari fascinates Ageha, and his calm, measured praise means more to her than the exaggerations of her friends. (In contrast, Mitsuya is playful and excitable.) Most importantly, Yukari doesn’t take any guff. When Ageha’s impulsiveness hurts Mitsuya, Ageha volunteers to work at the store to make up for it and be part of her sister’s wedding. Working with Yukari should be good for her — he’s strict but caring. They all work hard to give brides a happy, wonderful day.

Book two presents Hibari’s wedding. Ageha and Yukari must get her dress to her in time for the ceremony, making for a suspenseful day and a eventual happy reconciliation. Plus, plenty of gorgeous drawings of her gown.

V.B. Rose Book 3
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Ageha agrees to continue working at the store because there are hints of feelings between her and Yukari, although at first it’s on the level of simply encouraging each other. And sometimes it’s insane overreaction, providing plenty of humor. Ageha, Yukari, and Mitsuya are developing into a girly workplace comedy. Mitsuya is the wacky comic relief, hitting on Ageha in silly ways, while her relationship with Yukari is more heart-warming (or emotional in other ways).

Ageha refers to the shop as “the sparkly world”, a place all about beauty and glamor. She desires to be part of it as a full contributor, and she’s obsessed with Yukari and Mitsuya because of the way they’re obsessed with their work. Others see better than she does how much like them she is. Right now, she thinks of Yukari annoying her more than any other emotion, and he knows she’s still in high school.

Mitsuya has a younger brother, estranged from him due to his “girly” dress work, and Ageha tries to bring the two of them together, demonstrating two of the essential shojo heroine characteristics: care for others, so a desire to prevent them from being in painful situations, and pig-headedness. It doesn’t matter who tells her she might not should interfere, or that her actions could backfire. She’s going to bring them together anyway!

Also in this book, we first meet Nat-chan, the younger brother of Ageha’s best friend. He plays more of a role in books to come. I began noticing more and more the little scribbled-in comments at the edges of the panels, asides elaborating on character reactions or explaining a detail or showing the emotions people don’t say. They add another level of reading entertainment and knowledge about the cast.

V.B. Rose Book 4
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Reuniting Mitsuya with his brother takes more of a focus in book three, as Ageha continues scheming to make things work out for the best. She relates, you see, because of the lessons she learned dealing with her own jealousy and hurt feelings when her older sister moved on with her life. Mitsuya’s brother additionally has the concern about his brother’s work not being manly enough; Ageha chews him out for his generalizations because she knows just how hard the V.B. Rose staff works.

She wants badly to fit in with the two friends, because she’s found a place she thinks she belongs. When they give her more tasks to do, especially when it’s one suited to her special skills, she rejoices. She’s going to make teddy bear versions that wear the same gown as the bride customers. So cute!

She’s also warned off of her growing crush on Yukari. She’s far from the first girl to work part time and find the boss dreamy. She’s never had a relationship, and she needs to make sure she’s picking the right one, with guidance from the true love model of her sister. We learn a lot more about Yukari’s family, and how he became the way he is. I really appreciate the way Yukari encourages Ageha, both in her work and in expressing herself to others without being afraid of the consequences.

V.B. Rose Book 5
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It’s summer vacation in book four, which means more time for Ageha to work at the shop. First up is a dress-up session, as the store girls try on sample gowns to determine what to order. Banri Hidaka does a wonderful job presenting these kinds of fantasy concepts — you have to pose in gorgeous bridal dresses! — in vaguely plausible situations where they can be indulged in without seeming selfish or self-centered. Ageha is doing this task for work, as a favor to the guys who need her help in seeing what the gowns look like on a person. Then Hidaka lightens the mood, by putting in silly, girly jokes, or drops in moments of feeling, as Ageha reflects on the key characteristics of her co-workers.

This volume really dives into the mesmerizing visuals of the ceremony, as Ageha attends a bridal fair to demonstrate all the aspects and traditions of a wedding. It also advances the relationship between Ageha and Yukari, as her talk of Nat-chan’s friendly gestures begins to make her boss jealous. I adored one particular panel where Yukari sounds off to Mitsuya: “I have a complicated personality,” he states, as he grabs his head in his arms and the background is filled with spirals. Other significant events in this book include a demonstration wedding ceremony and a bowling game.

Book five has Ageha and Yukari pondering their feelings after a date together doesn’t go quite as expected. Then comes the introduction of a new character. (The author isn’t afraid to keep expanding the cast to keep things fresh.) Tsuyu is an old classmate of Yukari’s; she does beadwork for the store; and she’s something of a weirdo who says whatever she’s thinking. Visually, she’s the opposite of Ageha in every way — short, straight black hair, glasses, trim figure in sleek fashions instead of schoolgirl skirts — but they both have a tendency to act before thinking in charmingly odd ways, both are cared for by Yukari, and both make lovely craftwork.

V.B. Rose Book 6
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By this point, Ageha and Yukari are definitely interested in each other, but their feelings keep getting either confused or distracted by new characters and situations, including the birth of Ageha’s sister’s baby. The shojo is running smoothly in formula, focusing on emotional confusion with plenty of happy signals to keep the characters and readers interested and moving forward.

Book six brings another example of that formula: the school festival. Ageha takes Yukari and Mitsuya to see her best friend’s cafe. That’s an opportunity for other supporting characters to reappear and for Nat-chan to subtly insert some distance between Ageha and Yukari. (It’s a long-running series, so happiness can’t appear easily or quickly.) Yukari’s big conflict is that he loves his work so much, he’s not sure there’s room to share his life with anyone else, or that there’s enough left over for them.

The book ends with a joint birthday party for the three co-workers, which leads into the dramatic events of book seven. They all have such fun together that the series overall is a pleasure to read and enjoy. (The publisher provided review copies.)

This collection of four connected short stories by Fumi Yoshinaga has more in common with Ooku than her yaoi works. For one thing, all of the love relationships demonstrated — and there are several variants included — are either male/female, friendly affection, or familial (parent/child). For another, the setting is a kind of historical fantasy, revolving around a castle and its baron.

Garden Dreams
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Two adopted brothers wander out of the desert to become bards for the baron, where they find an unusual connection with the lord’s daughter. Many coincidences overcome a tragic biography, a condition that also applies to the second story, which gives the baron’s horrible history with his past loves and wife. She demonstrates the quiet strength of years of determination and suffering in silence, although I found some of her actions inconceivable. The historical setting helps make them more palatable, though, as it’s easy to imagine “things were different — and more dramatic — then.”

Like so much of Yoshinaga’s art, the style here places emotional faces against blank backgrounds, the better to focus on their bittersweet pain. I found myself impressed by the way she draws long hair; both the baron and his daughter are more attractive because of their flowing waves.

The bard and the baron find unexpected connections as they discuss love and fear and daring to care for another after being hurt. Finally, the full flowering of the garden of the title is seen as the two receive news they were craving and take a remarkable action that irretrievably changes their lives. Ultimately, they form a new kind of family.

There are a few sample pages at the publisher’s website. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

Well, that’s quite a switch. It’s as though someone said, “Ok, you’ve established all the characters, with their relationships and believable motivations, in book one. Now let’s just have them boink a lot.”

The Moon and the Sandals Book 2
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Seriously, this volume, in contrast to the first, has lots of sex. It’s as though the twin points of appeal of yaoi manga were split into two different volumes. The last one got the love, while this one is all about the physical. Perhaps related is the length of the stories here. They’re much shorter, some barely more than incidents.

It’s nice to see the couples still together, as they face new milestones in their lives, but there does seem to be a sameness in the “someone gets good news and has hot sex with their lover to celebrate” story structure. Then, in between, there’s a cute school story in which Naru-chan (who had a crush on a schoolboy who turned out to be gay) is taken out to eat by some classmates to make her feel better. Kind of a different mood, but I don’t mind a piece about how reassuring eating good food can be. I did wish that there were some notes about what all the different dishes were, since they’re untranslated Japanese. With its combination of food and sex, this is what some readers wished Antique Bakery could have been.

I very much liked one of the first images in the book. Yoshinaga introduces her cast by having the four men, in suits, walk in line across the page. It demonstrates through contrast their styles and body language, and it also reminded me vaguely of the cover of Abbey Road. I also appreciated how several of the stories dealt with how the men came out to co-workers. (The publisher provided a review copy.)