After releasing two volumes each of the Saturday Morning Cartoons series for the 1960s and 1970s, Warner has announced the 1980s version.

There’s no volume number in the title shown in the image, so this may be the only one planned. The two-disc set will have 11 cartoons and one extra feature for a total of over four hours running time. The extra “Lords of Light! Thundarr the Barbarian” will “explore the animated origins of this timeless hero”. The set will be available for sale on May 4.

From the image, in addition to an episode of Thundarr, it looks like we’ll get to sample The Monchhichis, the Mister T cartoon, The Flintstone Kids (part of a trend of making cuter, baby versions of existing brands), and others I don’t recognize.

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.)

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.)

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.)

… 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.

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.)

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.)

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.)

Issue #11 has the couple, Mark and Abby, preparing for their upcoming marriage. Abby’s having problems finding the right wedding dress. When she does find the perfect gown, there’s a catch … it’s connected to Mark’s ex-girlfriend, Amazonia. That’s a bit of a stretch, but it does allow us to see a lot more of the superheroine than her previous, more limited role as jealousy-maker.

That’s one of the characteristics of this series that I really appreciate … Thom Zahler takes the cliches of both the superhero and romance genres, plays jokes with them, and then dives into them to make them something more. It all stays very funny, but with meaningful emotions underneath the jokes. The emphasis is on male/female interactions that most everyone can relate to.

Ok, maybe every guy didn’t date a superpowered Wonder Woman type, but there’s always an ex-girlfriend who seems more impressive in some ways. Yet in this case, Zahler takes the time to give her concerns and feelings of her own, as she wonders if she’ll ever find her own true love. You can’t hate Amazonia, even with the amazing body and royal bearing, when she’s trying her best and demonstrating her own humanity (and struggling with a difficult mother).

I’m also impressed that Zahler has kept up the paneled pacing through all these issues, too. Each page has two sets of four panels, and each set has some punchline or element that lets them work as a strip. Yet read in sequence, they make up a much longer story. It’s a skill to balance both lengths so well.

Issue #12 brings the moment we’ve all been waiting for — the wedding. But first, there’s a storyline I could never have predicted but perfectly suits the characters: Abby wakes up on what she thinks is her wedding day only to find that she has no boyfriend, she’s living with her sister, and the Crusader (Mark’s heroic identity) died three years ago. It’s got everything a superhero wedding should have — friends, family, romance, danger, and heroism. It beautifully demonstrates just how well-suited she is for her larger-than-life beau.

You can preview issue #13, which will be out as part of Free Comic Book Day in early May, as part of this interview with Zahler about his goals for the series.

Simply post a comment here naming your favorite pirate, real or fictional. The winner will be selected by random drawing on Tuesday, February 9.

U.S. entries only, please. Winner will be emailed for their physical mailing address. If email is not answered or a valid email address is not provided, a replacement winner will be selected. Thanks for participating!

Otomen Book 5
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The first story features one of those shojo standards, the embarrassing school contest. Somehow, martial artist and “eccentric beauty” Ryo has been selected by her grade to compete in the “Ideal Woman Contest”. Since the areas of evaluation are cooking, flower arranging, tea ceremony, and kimono dressing, she doesn’t seem to have much of a chance … especially since her competition is the perfect girl, who’s won the contest the previous two years running. Just to complicate things further, that girl has a crush on Asuka, since she thinks he’s the ideal man. She doesn’t know about his girly habits, which ironically make him perfectly complementary to Ryo.

I know these competitions are ridiculous, but they bring into sharp relief the core struggles that define the characters. I see them as exaggerated symbols of the conflicts that the teens face: is Ryo a desirable woman even though she’s physically skilled but can’t cook? Of course she is, and the validation of her peers, even through unexpected avenues, affirms that. That her classmates have no question about her ability to win is a comforting reassurance, as is the way she’s praised for having both beauty and strength.

I also found it hilarious that, as a throwaway gag at the festival, there’s a “Bespectacled Butler Cafe”, playing on a couple of fan obsessions. It’s a very specialized eye candy. More thought-provoking is the way that, in the first chapter, Ryo’s competitor only smiles once, and that’s when she’s pretending to be a good sport. The rest of the time, she glowers or looks stern. Is that a comment on how males are attracted to women they think are too good for them? Or a fantasy that they would be the only one to see her softer side? I much prefer looking at the happier Ryo. (Especially since the other girl has the weird idea that a clumsy person who can’t cook can’t be loved by anyone.)

Enjoyable as that story was, my absolute favorite chapter of the series so far is the one where friend Juta, who’s secretly a manga artist, wins a major award for his series Love Chick. The problem, of course, is that he works under a female pseudonym. As he tells his sister when begging her to pretend to be him,

I’m the author of a heartwarming shojo manga about pure love … My fans will be shocked to find out I’m actually a frivolous, womanizing ladies’ man.

But the story is about a lot more than just that — although that part is pretty funny as Juta gets more and more desperate. Juta acknowledges his idol, the author of several romantic series that inspired him from a young age, and several of the characters talk about how meaningful manga is to them. It’s both touching and hilarious.

There’s also one other chapter, about the Beauty Samurai, one of whom is Asuka. A magazine promotes them as a recurring feature, mysterious men with amazing makeover skills. Working behind masks allows them to indulge their girly hobbies without restraint, but building up a secret makes them vulnerable to the potential reveal.

From a great interview with Phil Foglio. I’m a fan of Xxxenophile, the porn comic for everyone, myself. He also talks about successful webcomic business models (and the caveats involved), such as his Girl Genius, and why he put Myth Adventures online.

High School Debut Book 13
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Yoh’s about to graduate, since he’s ahead of Haruna in school. She wants him to follow the path that’s best for him, but she’s conflicted, because that means him going to Tokyo and her being apart from him for at least a year. Should she support his happiness or hers?

It’s so refreshing seeing the two talking honestly about their feelings, compared to where they were at the beginning of the series. Yoh’s overcome his stoicism, and Haruna has learned to think about and express her emotions instead of letting them run away with her. She’s still got her overwhelming enthusiasm and determination, keeping her awkwardly adorable, but she’s also confident in her love for Yoh and the strength of their connection.

I admire the way Kawahara relies on the art to carry key moments. Haruna has a revelation while helping a student learn to vault properly, working out her thoughts through physical exertion, reminding us of the gawky tomboy she started as. Later, the couple goes to karaoke, and an important moment is shown wordlessly, as one sings to the other. There are some really potent moments throughout the book.

For all the realism of the feelings on display, there’s also plenty of humor to keep things light. A powerful encounter is followed by the participants uncertain about how to back out of it, just like real life. As last moments before graduation, the gang goes snowboarding and has a Christmas party at Yoh’s house, providing an opportunity for his mother to finally meet his girlfriend (and plenty of comedy!).

Yoh also gets one last chance to teach Haruna a lesson about love and interaction between boys and girls. This is a fine conclusion to the series, reminding readers of what attracted them to the story and characters in the first place.

The newest Peanuts DVD release, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, is a bit of an oddity.

It’s a 1985 adaptation of the 1967 stage musical of the same name. The animated characters perform comedy sketches and songs from the show, only without the framing of a stage. There isn’t a continuing story, just a string of skits, and the two-hour-plus show has been cut down to 48 minutes, so some songs have been omitted. Musical numbers on this DVD are:

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
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• The title song, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”.
• “Schroeder”, in which Lucy hits on the piano player, to the tune of “Moonlight Sonata”. It’s one of my favorites because it so sums up that particular outdated view of how women set out to catch a man.
• Charlie Brown tries to fly “The Kite”.
• “Snoopy”, the dog’s description of his simple day.
• Various characters complain about having to write “The Book Report” about Peter Rabbit. Schroeder has this amazing-looking single-unit computer that produces pixellated animation while resembling something from the stone age, relatively speaking, and he plays it as he does his piano.
• Lucy teaches Linus about nature in “Little Known Facts”. Great comedy, since she gets everything wrong!
• The whole cast sings “T-E-A-M (The Baseball Game)”. Kind of weird seeing the cartoon kids do dance numbers and chorus lines.
• “Glee Club Rehearsal”, which incorporates “Home on the Range”.
• The well-known “Suppertime”, in which Snoopy sings about how much he loves eating, and “Happiness”, where the whole cast shares what happiness is for them.

The voices don’t sound quite right to our ears, but we’re guessing that that’s because they needed to cast more professional kids (not the more natural voices used in the earlier specials) in order to handle the singing. Even so, occasionally hearing them reach for some of the notes made us say “ow”. (The stage show was cast with adults.) Particularly weird is hearing Snoopy have voice-overs. With words, I mean, not just sounds, and an adult voice (Robert Towers, who played the character on stage in 1967).

During the numbers, we see various fantasy sequences, which is unusual for the Peanuts characters (with the exception of Snoopy’s daydreams). Also unusual to long-time Peanuts viewers is the way the characters have to be reintroduced to the viewer and summed up in terms of their best-known traits.

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
(Original Cast Album)
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Fun bit of trivia: Charlie Brown’s closet contains shirts in all different colors, but they all have that zig-zag bar pattern. Also, if you keep your finger on the pause button, you’ll get to see the round-headed Charlie Brown drawn in three-quarters view, during the Valentine sequence, which makes him look like his features were scribbled on a balloon. Not good. The character, like the rest of the cast, works much better in either full-face or profile views, the way Schulz designed all of them for the newspaper strip.

Quibbles aside, this is a neat way to capture the musical, especially for kids who like the characters but don’t have the attention span to sit through a real-life staging. It’s an interesting, unique approach to the characters compared to the other animated specials. The 15-minute bonus feature, “Animating a Charlie Brown Musical”, gives a history of the stage show, including its beginnings as a concept album by Clark Gesner. This DVD is a great artifact to have, especially since there’s no easily available filmed version of the show, and there’s nowhere else you can see the cartoon characters singing their songs, since you didn’t even get that on stage.

(The studio provided a review copy.)

Jormungand Book 1

Jormungand Book 1
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by Keitaro Takahashi, adapted by Stan!, Viz Signature, $12.99 US

Koko Hekmatyar is an arms dealer who has assembled a team of highly skilled mercenaries to help her when problems arise with a client. The newest member of the team is a boy of indeterminate age named Jonah, whose sharpshooting skills border on the inhuman.

There is a scene in Jormungand where Koko gets hit with a coffee pot. At first, I couldn’t tell what was going on; it was unclear what Koko was struck with. In none of the prior panels had a coffee pot been shown in the background, but a water carafe was. This scene is a perfect analogy for the entire book. The stories have no set up. We are simply dumped into the middle of events without any explanation or background information. The events move forward, come to a conclusion, and we’re off to the next story.

Takahashi’s storytelling doesn’t allow any time for characterization. Each of the central cast comes off as simply a two-dimensional collection of odd character traits. Takahashi’s focus is more on mood and action sequences. The gritty reality of arms dealing and the situations Koko finds herself in are expected to be the focus of the reader’s attention. The book is all slick, hip surface with no depth.

The artwork is competent but feels a bit incomplete at times. Occasionally, Takahashi leaves out a small detail that makes the panel feel off. For example, in one scene, Takahashi doesn’t draw Koko’s bottom lip, and it makes her look like a poorly constructed rag doll. It’s a shame because there are some truly great panels filled with lots of details and excellent linework. The problem panels occur often enough to be distracting to the overall visual flow of the book.

Jormungand reads like a rough draft of a series. The plot and locales have all been mapped out, but the characters still need work. Usually, Viz Signature books are great reads, which made my disappointment at this book that much greater. Readers would do well to skip this series and pick one of the other books in the imprint.

Vampire Knight Book 9

Vampire Knight Book 9
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by Matsuri Hino, adapted by Tomo Kimura, Viz, $9.99 US

The Cross Academy was created in hopes of bringing understanding between vampires and humans. However, an old evil has been resurrected, and a war is breaking out among the vampire students. The events at Cross Academy could determine the fate of the world.

Vampire Knight is a soap operatic work. The pasts of all the main characters are deeply intertwined, and people are concocting plots and counterplots. Alliances seem to always be shifting as new revelations uncover hidden motivations or friends find themselves suddenly on opposite sides. To give a sense of how complicated the series is becoming, there is a summary of the plot, a chart of the connections between characters, and a summary of the major revelations thus far. This was my first exposure to the series and I was lost and unable to catch up. This is not a criticism of the series, but a warning to first-time readers.

The art is acceptable. I found all the male faces were exactly the same. I had to use hairstyles and clothes to tell the male leads apart. Otherwise, the art is a perfect compliment to the writing. Hino is able to convey moody and dark emotions well.

I’m not a fan of goth soap operas. I can understand the appeal of Vampire Knight, but it simply doesn’t work for me. Fans of contemporary vampire fiction, i.e. Twilight, will enjoy this series tremendously. Fans of traditional vampire fiction, i.e. Dracula, will do best to stay away. My teenage niece is the perfect audience for Vampire Knight.

One Piece Books 23-28

One Piece Book 23
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by Eiichiro Oda; adapted by Lance Caselman, Viz, $9.99 US each

Luffy is on a quest to be the king of the pirates, gathering an eclectic crew along the way. Together, they are searching for adventure and the legendary treasure One Piece. These volumes focus on the crew’s exploits on the island of Skypiea.

Although Luffy and his crew are called pirates, they are actually your traditional heroes. They embody all the classical virtues: honor, duty, friendship, defending the weak, doing what’s right regardless of the cost, self-sacrifice, etc. The central cast are all good-natured, likable characters. Luffy’s boundless energy and optimism is infectious. You quickly find yourself rooting for Luffy to discover One Piece and become the pirate king.

One Piece is a quick-moving manga with lots of variety to keep the reader interested. Oda knows that readers expect an adventure series to be filled with exciting locations, seemingly impossible challenges, and powerful villains. He doesn’t disappoint his fans. The series has an excellent blend of humor; you have slapstick, character-based jokes, puns, and just outright absurdity. Oda also knows when to allow the series to take on emotional and thematic depth as the plot progresses in each story arc. However, the series never becomes maudlin or self-important.

One Piece Book 24
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Oda’s artwork is well-done. The drawings are as kinetic as the characters and the pacing. His art is as versatile as his storytelling; he does humor, action, and drama all equally adept. For the most part, Oda does a wonderful job with the character designs. The one weakness in his art is his female body types. Most women share the same curvaceous figure. They are busty on top with no waist and full hips. They look like Barbie dolls with 36-18-32 measurements. Thankfully, the most egregious fanservice is simply Nami in a bikini.

These volumes were my first exposure to the One Piece series. I found the books very accessible. Volume 23 is actually the end of the Alabasta storyline. It was easy to catch up with what was going on and who the major players on each side were. I’m sure there were some nuances I was missing, but it wasn’t obvious. New readers should feel free to start with volume 24 and pick up older volumes at their leisure.

One Piece is a great escapist read and proof that genre fiction can be original and imaginative. The series is a wonderful addition to the action-adventure genre, fitting in perfectly with works like the Doc Savage books and the Indiana Jones films. Fans of these works should reward themselves by picking up One Piece. It’s easy to see why this series has such a large following not just in Japan, but in every country it’s translated.

(The publisher provided all books as review copies.)

Lisa Jonte! She wanted the Hulk to carry out a vendetta against Cyclops and all of his kin.

My thanks to everyone who entered for the many creative, funny, and thought-provoking suggestions of comic book mayhem. The variety of characters suggested astounded me, and I very much appreciate your contributions.

When the comic story started, I thought it was a good idea to get Hulk into a different environment, one where they could use the character’s strengths and weaknesses to their fullest without worrying about how he fit into the Marvel universe (not well). That’s even more true here, where we’re watching a different world full of alien species, a distinction played up well in the animation. (Note that we only see the Hulk; Bruce Banner doesn’t make an appearance. I don’t know why he doesn’t revert; his psyche knowing that the human would die on this new planet, maybe?)

Planet Hulk
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After struggling to adjust to his new situation, Hulk eventually joins with a motley band of outcasts and prisoners to overthrow the tyrant. This allows him to smash a lot, which is the core of the character and presumably what Hulk fans want to see. Unlike DC’s direct-to-DVD animated films, this Marvel movie uses unknown voices cast for their suitability instead of star power. I liked that, since I didn’t get distracted from the story wondering whom I was hearing.

While the plot is promising, the script is horrible. The dialogue seems to have been written by the Cliche-O-Mat, assisted by Hulk Mad Libs. The story is lots of fighting, which is of little interest to me, and random deaths, which I’m tired of. In an early scene, we’re supposed to get emotionally involved in the death of one of the characters, whom we’ve only seen for five minutes and I’m not sure he even has a name. Never mind that several bug-like characters’ deaths were just minutes before being played for comedy.

The emotions are broadly painted, obviously captured, and conveniently forgotten to move the plot and/or fights along. Some fans have been upset that the Silver Surfer has been replaced in this version of the story by Beta Ray Bill, due to licensing restrictions. (The Silver Surfer is used by Fox, not Lionsgate, who put this out.) I couldn’t tell how or when he was replaced, since I haven’t read the comic. Honestly, by 25 minutes into the 80-minute film, I was nodding off. It’s perfectly fine for what it is, but it’s not really my thing. I’m not a fantasy fan, especially when it’s all about the fighting. We skipped ahead to the end, where surprise surprise, the bad guy was defeated and a voiceover spouted more cliches. If you liked the story, or if you like epic struggle or the character, I’m sure you’ll like this as a relatively faithful moving adaptation.

Planet Hulk is also available on Blu-Ray or a single-disc edition that lacks some of the special features and the digital copy. Those special features here include two commentaries — one by supervising producer Joshua Fine and screenwriter Greg Johnson, the other by director Sam Liu, character designer Philip Bourassa, and key background painter Steve Nicodemus.

Planet Hulk comic
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The featurette “A Whole World of Hurt: The Making of Planet Hulk” amusingly starts with Joshua Fine talking about he didn’t want to do this because he thought they’d already done the Hulk to death (I assume with last year’s Hulk Vs.). However, this story showed him new things about the character because of the emotional arc and complexity of the story. The animators also discuss how they couldn’t capture everything about the story (because it would have been a six-hour miniseries) so they opted to choose some of the big fight set pieces. Which sums up why I’m not the target audience. I would have rather had the emotional moments and fewer fights. But they’re playing to the appeal of the character, who isn’t exactly a deep thinker. The rest of the 22-minute featurette is the usual process review — sketches, computer animation demos, art used to inspire the animators, voice casting, etc.

The 12-minute “Let the Smashing Commence!: The Saga of Planet Hulk” explores the comic story through interviews with writer Greg Pak and artist Aaron Lopresti. This kept my attention best of any of the disc’s features, especially when Pak gave the list of items he got from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada as springboard for the story (it included “alien planet” and “battleaxe”).

The special edition also includes a Wolverine and the X-Men episode where Wolverine battles Hulk and two motion comics. Plus, there’s a preview of the next direct-to-DVD animated movie, Thor: Tales of Asgard, the story of young Thor and his friends, coming 2011. More fighting, plus British accents. Even though I didn’t care for the movie subject, this special edition is a good package for the film, with plenty of supporting and related material. (The studio provided a review copy.)