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The Seven Deadly Sins, Vol. 1

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By Nakaba Suzuki. Released in Japan as “Nanatsu no Taizai” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

This is a title that’s been getting a lot of buzz recently, so it does not surprise me that Kodansha picked it up for release over here. It has a lot of what makes a successful Shonen Magazine title. The hero is incredibly strong and also cheery and outgoing, the female lead gets involved in a lot of fanservice moments and also gets to be cute and determined, there’s a talking animal put in there for no real good reason, and a big good guys unite to defeat the bad guys plot, with the twist that the good guys *are* the bad guys of the past. Supposedly.

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This is a fairly new manga, having started last year. I note this because while reading it, the thing that struck me was how old-fashioned it felt. Meliodas is a giant pervert who tends to feel up the heroine and steal her panties, which could be out of any ecchi shonen comedy from the 70s and 80s. The trouble is he seems so blase about it – there’s no sign he’s actually aroused or anything, a la Ataru Moroboshi. It’s just his character trait. Likewise, Elizabeth does occasionally get embarrassed when fanservicey things happen to her, but compared to most heroines today, she’s strangely passive about things. Both of them clearly have more to their past that hasn’t come up yet, Meliodas especially, but there’s just that something about them here in the first book that seems like the author wants to use modern tropes, but in a 1980s sensibility.

We’re definitely in ‘shonen fantasy land’ here, what with talking pigs and giants. Diane is introduced right towards the end, and seems to be in love with Meliodas, though given their respective sizes I can’t imagine this relationship is anything but frustrating. On the other side, we meet a Holy Knight, Gilthunder, who seems to radiate an aura of smugness that just begs to be removed. Which is all you can ask of your villain, really. The action scenes are mostly well done, with a few 2-page splashes that show off the artist’s talent. By the way, Suzuki began in Jump, then moved to Sunday for his popular Kongou Bancho series (which I would love to see Viz license, but it’s a delinquent series, so no…), and is now in Magazine with his breakout hit.

If there’s anything wrong with this series, it’s stuff that seems to be ‘first volume problems’. The characters are just getting introduced and so lack the depth we know they will gain. Meliodas seems to be a bit blase for a hero, but then again this runs in a magazine where he’d be compared to Natsu from Fairy Tail anyway, so perhaps it’s best not to get him too fired up. I could also do without the panty flashes and boob grabs, but then he did move to shonen Magazine, so he has to meet their basic standards of fanservice. In most respects, however, The Seven Deadly Sins is a promising debut with two quirky but likeable leads. I’ll see where it goes.

Sword Art Online: Aincrad

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By Reki Kawahara, abec, and Tamako Nakamura. Released in Japan in two separate volumes by ASCII Mediaworks, serialized in the magazine Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I have to admit that this one took me entirely by surprise. I wasn’t really expecting much when Yen announced this. “Oh no, we are trapped in a virtual reality game where we must fight or die” is something that has become almost as overdone as “oh no, what are these strange feelings I have for my older brother” in anime/manga, and watching people cut things with swords has never been my thing. I also don’t game. It’s also based off of a light novel series, and I was thus expecting the manga spinoff to be somewhat rushed (and indeed, it does feel rushed) and filled with fanservice (actually very little of this, save one “oh no, I accidentally fell into her breasts” scene that just made me sigh loudly). However, it was the relationship between the two leads that drew me in. Because it is a genuine relationship. Wasn’t this a harem manga?

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Backing up a bit, the premise has 10,000 players in a new immersive fantasy game trapped by its sadistic creator, who wants them to get to the 100th level of the game. Oh yes, and if they die in the game, they die in real life. Our hero is Kirito, who was one of the game’s beta testers (but unaware this was going to happen), and is fairly cool and aloof to everyone he meets. Our heroine is Asuna, a nice girl with drive and purpose who wants to join forces with Kirito so they can finish this faster and finally go home. Clearly they are destined for each other, despite a rocky start. I wonder how many volumes it will take before they realize their true feel… oh, wait, OK, that was fast.

For all the flaws that occurred to me after I finished the volume, the thing I loved most was the relationship between Kirito and Asuna. There’s an immediate attraction, they both risk their lives for each other, and because there is a setting in the game for ‘let’s have sex’, they do so (non-explicitly) about halfway through the book. And then get married. And even briefly have an adopted kid, though it turns out this is more than it seems, and ends in tears for both of them. They’re just really likeable kids, and bring out the best in each other – Asuna is someone that Kirito desperately needed, particularly after his last attempt at working with others.

I’m not sure that this is the sort of relationship that will last when they end up back in the real world and aren’t dealing with adrenaline rushes and near death experiences. The volume ends with Kirito (sorry, Kazuto… damn fake names) awake in a hospital, resolving to find Asuna but it’s very open ended, and given the series is 13+ light novels in Japan, I expect it may not be as simple as it seems. I’ve also been told that future volumes of this series (or at least the anime adaptation thereof) are far more… contested, shall we say. And I will admit that Kirito does seem to have the scent of ‘boring invincible hero’ to him, though honestly, I’ve read Index/Railgun, and it’ll surprise me if anyone tops Touma. As for me, I am quite content with what I saw in this volume, and will be eagerly awaiting the light novel when it appears next month. Despite all the swords, this was sweet and romantic.

Soul Eater, Vol. 19

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By Atsushi Ohkubo. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press.

The high point of this volume for me was the flashback to Liz and Patti’s past, and how they met Kid. This was spoiled a bit by Soul Eater Not – which came out in Japan after this volume, but well before it here – but seeing Liz as an angry, cynical girl willing to take on the world as long as she and her sister find happiness – is striking given her current personality. The sequence of wordless panels showing the two of them working with Kid, realizing what an eccentric dork he is, and laughing at his obsessions is beautifully done, and leads to Liz realizing that Patti has gone from being merely crazed to genuinely being happy and cheerful. This causes her to have an emotional breakdown, as she realizes she may never get to thank Kid for everything he did for them. Luckily, Patti and Tsubaki are there to give out hugs.

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This also ties in with what’s going on with Kid, as Liz in her Brooklyn days wished for everyone else to stop existing as long as there was just her and Patti, and Kid opened up their worldview. (This is not helping my obsession with this OT3 at all, let me tell you.) Now it’s Kid who wishes for that, longing for the symmetry of nothingness. His fight with Black*Star, though it has a few cool moves, really ends up being more Black*Star talking him down, reminding him that total annihilation is the easy way out, and that trying to create balance from what’s already there, twisted though it may be, is the duty of a true shinigami. Black*Star is uncomplicated – he wants power so he can protect and help everyone, not for any ‘take over the world’ style goal.

As for Maka and Soul, the end of their arc shows what happens to those who can’t let go of their anger, as we see Giriko literally tear himself – or herself – apart with all the rage that’s been building up inside.Maka and Soul are better than that, and can accept things and move on – which is why they’re able to get out of the Sloth chapter, where moving on is the last thing it wants anyone to do. And so all our heroes unite so that Kid, stepping up and taking the leadership role he has inherited, can finally battle Noah, who has been busy punishing all the teachers who are trying to battle him in our heroes’ place. (Poor bear guy! I’ll miss you!)

Last time we had Maka unable to really get Soul because she didn’t really like Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew (she should try some of the first Quintet, such as Relaxin’). This time we have Justin’s madness work its way out by way of Radiohead songs. Ohkubo loves to bring Western music references into Soul Eater, and this one is particularly jarring – it likely just sounds like mad gibberish if you don’t know the song, but for a Radiohead fans, “Fitter, Happier” is one of the creepier songs off OK Computer, done with a ‘computer-style’ vocoder vocal. It’s a song meant to seem deeply wrong and also a bit sad, something that applies well to Justin here, who has gone into full minion mode here, determined to resurrect the evil god (even called a Great Old One here, in case the Lovecraft refs weren’t obvious enough).

Summing up: Soul Eater. Still one of the best shonen manga out there. Go get it. And it’s out digitally in 2 weeks too!