Category Archives: reviews

Toradora, Vol. 6

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By Yuyuko Takemiya and Zekkyo. Released in Japan by ASCII Media Works, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

Given how impossible it is for most mass media to avoid cliches and tropes, the question often becomes “how well does this work manage the cliche”? This volume of Toradora! handles this in both a comedic and serious fashion. The Culture Festival rears its ugly head, and though thoughts of a maid cafe drift through our male classmates’ heads, what we end up with is far sillier, particularly after it’s subverted midway through. It’s the more serious plotline that folks will take with them, however – Taiga’s father is back in her life again, and wants her to come live with him. Something which a projecting Ryuuji can’t help but assist with.

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Ryuuji is not helped by the cover art for the volume, showing a tear-filled Taiga and Ryuuji looking askance. This clues the reader in that we are meant to be in her side in the matter. Things are not helped by the appearance of her father himself, who seems far too contrite and meek to be true. Of course he’s playing right into Ryuuji’s hands, though I don’t think that it’s deliberate on his part – her father isn’t genuinely evil, he’s just monumentally selfish. What he doesn’t know, but we do, is that Ryuuji’s lack of a father figure looms incredibly large in his life. And so naturally Ryuuji is going to move heaven and earth to see Taiga and her father reunite, just as he can never do.

On the other side we have Taiga and Minori, who have experience with her father doing all this before and know the truth. Crucially, however, neither of them tell Ryuuji that full truth. In meta terms, this is because the plot has to happen. In the story itself, though, Taiga is more understandable. She gets the reasons why Ryuuji wants this to happen, she’s in love with Ryuuji and doesn’t want to disappoint him, and she really does love her father despite everything, so she opens herself up to him one more time. Minori, though, I’m rather disappointed in, as you’d think she’d be the one to sit Ryuuji down and say ‘Hey, let me give you a timeline of the times this guy has tried this with Taiga before.’ Instead, she just gets angry, saying it’s obvious he’s being a selfish ass. And so they fight, which, Ryuuji still having lingering feelings for Minori, devastates him.

Luckily, Ami is there to be the voice of reason and get Ryuuji out of his funk. Unluckily, Taiga’s dad *is* everything they say he is, and therefore things come to a head at the culture festival with a devastating text sent to Ryuuji. And, once Ryuuji sees for himself what’s going on, he gets it all IMMEDIATELY – a sign of his maturity, even as he backslides here. Sadly, resolution will have to wait – this is the end of the volume, and so we get the horrible cliffhanger with Taiga’s appearance on stage waiting for parental acknowledgement that will never come. How is this going to be resolved? Well, Toradora! comes out about every year and a half in Japan, so we’ll likely have to wait till summer 2015 to find out. See, and folks wonder why publishers don’t want to catch up to Japan…

Blood Lad, Vol. 4

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By Yuuki Kodama. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press.

In the new Blood Lad omnibus, a lot of big things happen. We finally see what’s going on with Braz and what he’s planning; Wolf meets up with his human mother (an ex-Yanki, to boot!) and is told he may have to be the hero that saves the demon world; Staz is captured by the authorities and later reunited with Braz, who gives himself up; and a major confrontation seems to be what Vol. 5 will be all about. Despite all this, it’s the small character moments of Blood Lad that are the best, the funniest, the most heartwarming, and keep me coming back for more.

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Let’s take a look at Fuyumi. If nothing else, she continues to be the most problematic character in the series. Staz is trying to get her to be more of her own person, but this seems to have devolved into a basic shonen “I will protect you” stance that isn’t really helping. (Also, putting a rope around her and dragging her around is probably his low point. Naturally, Fuyumi points out how humiliating it is but doesn’t really object.) She does get a nice moment later on, where the cowboy outfit and accessories Staz bought her prove useful to getting her out of a perilous situation. But probably the most striking scene is seeing her addiction to Staz’s blood, and how this is shown to be VERY BAD for her and yet at the same time the most erotic scene in the entire volume. I suspect I’m reading too much into her each time, but what else am I supposed to do? Ogle the boobies? Let’s keep overanalyzing.

We meet up with a superhero team in this volume as well, who are shown on the cover. As with most superhero teams, they’re a collection of eccentric weirdos with bizarre powers that seem to bond together as a unit when the chips are down. And, as with Wolf and a number of other people, they’re pitted against Staz, who remains the “bad guy” even as he’s the hero. Can you be a good guy when the entire world views you differently? Later on, when Staz and Fuyumi are captured by the police, we see something similar. Staz is a vampire overlord with massive amounts of untapped power (so much it can apparently be used to resurrect the dead), and now is the best time to stop him, before he discovers that potential.

And then there’s the climax of the volume, which I will walk around and try not to spoil. It should be a very emotional, heartwarming moment, but it seems filled with a sort of impermanence, a sense that this isn’t going to last long. Braz seems to get this too – his open affection for Liz reads very much as a “I’m about to die and will never see you again” gesture (poor Liz, by the way – there’s some great in-text analysis of her character and how she’s starved for affection from her brother). In the end, I have a suspicion that the confrontation that is the cliffhanger to this volume will be dealt with swiftly and anticlimactically before long when we get to Volume 5.

Overall, this remains a great read. You breeze right through it, it’s filled with good humor, some creepy horror, and occasional character development. Plus the obligatory fanservice. It’s everything you could want in a shonen manga (well, except it’s seinen, running in Young Ace… shh, don’t talk to me about demographics).

Gangsta, Vol. 1

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By Kohske. Released in Japan by Shinchosha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic @ Bunch. Released in North America by Viz Media.

One of the things that most manga fans who follow publishing closely have found is that manga readers tend to be loyal to genres rather than authors. Sure, Natsuki Takaya may have written Fruits Basket, one of the best-selling shoujo manga of the last ten years, but other similar titles have proven less stellar, and there’s no rush on anyone’s side to license Hoshi wa Utau or Liselotte to Majo no Mori, her post-Furuba work. On the other hand, when you see a title with vampires that sells, manga publishers go and find other vampire titles. (Oddly, this doesn’t work with other non-Naruto ninja titles, which tend to bomb. I wonder why.) In any case, Dogs and Black Lagoon have done quite well for Viz, but both have ‘caught up’ to Japan. Dogs is now a yearly title, and Black Lagoon is at the mercy of its author’s ‘whenever’ schedule. Clearly another similar title is needed. And so we have Gangsta.

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Gangsta apparently takes place in “Ergastulum”, which judging by the decor seems to be somewhere in Southern Europe – my guess is “fantasy-world Italy”. Our heroes are mercenaries for hire, who do bad things but have good hearts deep down. Which does not stop them, however, from doing bad things. Each has a tragic past – Worick seems to have been from a rich family at one point, till he was kidnapped and lost one eye. Nick, meanwhile, has it worse – he’s a Twilight, which gives him superior strength and agility, but at the cost of lifespan and getting close to anyone – he’s a pariah. Oh, and he’s also deaf, which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with his Twilightness. The manga starts when they’re hired to wipe out a gang in town, and end up sparing one of the prostitutes in it – Alex, who becomes their new secretary. She’s the naive newcomer in this manga, needing Worick to explain things to her. Indeed, her lack of knowledge about ANYTHING in the town is suspicious in itself.

Gangsta has a very solid first volume. Its art is decent, its plot is better than its art, its characters are better than its plot, and its aesthetic is best of all. The series tends to hit all the right beats. As I noted before, its weakness may be Alex’s need to have the plot exposited to her, which can come across as blunt exposition at times, but it’s so odd I’m prepared to reserve judgment till I see more volumes. Of the two mercenaries, I’m possibly more sympathetic to Nick, but that could just be because he doesn’t speak much – while Worick’s constant chatter always seems to hide darker undertones, as we see towards the end when he brutalizes another prostitute with his harsh words. I also liked Nina, the teenage nurse at a local clinic, who shows that this isn’t just an ‘everything is awful’ world, but is allowed to have happy, innocent kids – even if they are under constant danger of being threatened and kidnapped.

This seems to be the first major work of its author, Kohske, who is female, by the way. I always like to note female creators, especially on titles like this and Dorohedoro where it may not be immediately obvious. In any case, Gangsta is definitely an M-rated title, but if you enjoy titles of this ilk, it’s definitely worth a try, and I will happily get the second volume.