Category Archives: reviews

A Devil And Her Love Song, Vol. 6

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By Miyoshi Tomori. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Viz.

This manga has been on my Bookshelf Briefs stack for the past few volumes, but it completely steps up its game here, so I feel I should do the same. We were in danger of hitting a rut and resolving things too early, with Maria’s latest antagonist, Anna, proving to be another in a series of foes that Maria and her harem… um, friends can win over with honest feelings and stubborn refusal to give up. But in this volume, we see that Anna is made of far sterner antagonist stuff, and steps up her game in a way that tries to both destroy Maria’s life *and* win the affection of Shin.

I’m quite impressed with the author, who has made Anna a villain who ruins the heroine’s life, through the usual shoujo tricks (oh dear, I threw your cellphone into the river by accident) and by things that only Anna could really utilize (telling Shin about Maria’s past). Both work quite well, but the latter really takes hold more than the former. And yet with all that said, it’s somewhat startling that I still really hope that she and Maria can work things out in the end. Maria, as we’ve noted before, *is* genuinely very hard to be around sometimes, and this would have been especially true given what happened between her and Anna. And clearly Anna is not doing this entirely out of pure hatred, given her reaction in that last scene.

Speaking of that last scene, it’s one of the best in the series to date, with Maria once again attempting to sacrifice herself in order to ‘protect’ someone else. Admittedly, this being Maria, it comes from a series of harsh truths and insults, but the heart behind it is there. And Anna can see that heart, which just makes it worse. Her final comment ‘You’re terrible at playing the devil’ is true – Maria is at her worst when she’s wallowing in her own self-hatred and trying to make everyone else see the same things she does.

And then there’s the revelation about Maria’s past that Anna shows Shin. While I’m not sure I buy the whole ‘it’s all Maria’s fault’ that was tossed in, I’m inclined to think the basic facts are true. I like that it took a lot for Shin to buy into this – actual newspaper clippings. Shin is not your typical guy who will believe anything a pretty face tells him. That said, this does affect Shin, but not in the way Anna expects – he’s now hell bent on helping Maria get over the trauma that this has left on her, and his discomfort around her stems from this. And I can see why he’s reacting this way – I mean seriously, how much more tragic can we possibly make Maria’s life?

All this plus we see Yusuke finally making his own move, even if he has to continue to couch it in ‘just kidding’ terms (which is going to come back to kick him in the ass one of these days). I think the audience now knows which pairing we’ll end up with by the end, but there’s 7 volumes still to go, so I’m fine with Yusuke showing he wants to be more than just a romantic runner-up – especially since he doesn’t have the knowledge Shin or Anna do. And by the way, the teacher from hell? Still there, still horrible. HE MUST GO. But the rest of the volume? Awesome.

Toriko, Vol. 13

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By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

Again, it’s been a long time since I reviewed Toriko on the main blog as opposed to a Bookshelf Brief. Jump series in general tend to lend themselves well to a paragraph rather than four or five paragraphs, especially when the volume in question is ‘they fight for 10 chapters’. Luckily, there’s a lot less fighting and a lot more character development here, although we do get the daily required amount of huge fictional animals, death-inducing climates, and large muscled men beating things up, all things Toriko requires for its daily nutritional value.

It seems appropriate that the Ozone Grass, the astonishing vegetable Toriko and Komatsu had spent most of last volume climbing to, turns out to be a pointer to both of the major themes of this episode. First off, it’s something that requires two people to work together to eat it properly, showing off the friendship part of Shonen Jump’s traditional motto. Toriko and Komatsu have been close since Volume 1, but there’s always been a bit of a tagalong ‘normal guy’ aspect to Komatsu, with Toriko going off on some dangerous quests on his own when he didn’t think Komatsu up to the challenge. These scenes really show off how important Komatsu has become in Toriko’s life, and that he really is perfect as Toriko’s partner. (I’d talk about the BL subtext, but I’ve mentioned that in prior reviews.)

And then, amazingly, after one of the more heartwarming scenes in the entire series, Toriko promptly misses the entire point and goes off to Gourmet World on his own, something so amazingly stupid you want to smack your head. In general, we haven’t really seen Toriko’s youth and inexperience all that often in the series to date, and indeed I sometimes forget that he’s only about 25 years old or so. But then, Toriko is always after the big experience, and notably when Sunny finds out what he’s about to do he doesn’t say anything, knowing that Toriko is the sort who is only likely to learn through bitter experience.

And bitter experience is exactly what he gets, as Gourmet World turns out to be a hellish environment straight out of nightmares. The sheer scale of all these dangers when compared with Toriko (who, as has been noted, is pretty huge) boggles the mind, and you have to wonder how he’ll get out of there. The answer is ‘saved by a stronger character’, of course, but only in order to drive home the two important morals of this volume. 1) Toriko is not ready for Gourmet World yet, and 2) Toriko, needs a partner, REPEATED FOR ADDED EMPHASIS. Luckily, this time around he seems to get the point, even if this means we are treated to a sobbing Komatsu spicing up Toriko’s food with something he really doesn’t want.

Unfortunately, Komatsu’s cooking knife is broken, and they head off to get a new one from the amazing knife master Melk. Who looks… suspiciously bishie for a character described as scar-covered and a loner. I sense a surprise coming next volume. In the meantime, this volume gave Toriko some much-needed humility, and saw him finally form what will hopefully be an equal partnership with Komatsu. All this, plus lots of weird animals getting beaten up. What’s not to love?

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Vol. 13

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By Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki. Released in Japan as “Kurosagi Shitai Takuhaibin” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Dark Horse.

I am pleased to report that this volume of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service has exactly what its readers look for each time around. There’s lots of grotesque set pieces which allow the artist to display a flair for horrible imagery. There’s wry and witty commentary between smart people. There’s genuine mystery, with our heroes being clever, and a nice use of synaesthesia as a plot point. And there’s copious endnotes from editor Carl Horn, explaining things like Karatsu’s Space Battleship Yamato reference and who Terry and Dory Funk are.

That said, there is one other development that not only surprised me but irritated me a bit. Not because of what the revelation was – yes, it sinks one of my ships, but given that this isn’t a harem manga I can deal – but because of its offhand nature. I am reminded of an earlier volume, when we saw a storyline end with Karatsu set on fire and an intense cliffhanger. Come the next chapter… and we’ve moved on, with nothing ever getting resolved. Here we see Sasaki and Karatsu get back from the Okinawa trip mentioned in the last volume, and for the most part it’s the same thing, except for that revelation. Which is laid out more to explain the deus ex machina of the story rather than for any dramatic tension. I do hope we eventually come back to it.

With all that said, it is an intriguing revelation, and also leads to some misdirection and amusement when we see Sasaki being sick and think it may be due to other reasons. Sadly, nothing quite so pleasant – it’s just the joys of being a woman. (KCDS is as blunt and matter-of-fact when dealing with periods as it is when dealing with corpses.) Sasaki also gets more to do than usual here, as she’s the focus of the 2nd case in the book, involving a jury trail where a man has already admitted his guilt. The jury system is still fairly new in Japan, and Carl’s notes help to lay out how it’s different from the U.S. The use of auras and synaesthesia manage to give it both a fantasy and realistic feeling, and the murder victims are both quite sympathetic.

Lastly, there were clearly not enough shots of nude women in peril in the series recently, so the final story more than makes up for that, combining a look at land redevelopment and harvest rituals with a good old fashioned psycho who likes to chop up young women. Luckily, the ‘karmic justice’ aspect of this series also makes a reappearance to give the reader someone to root for. Overall, this is a good but not great volume of our favorite cynical horror manga, offering some solid imagery and a few interesting revelations, even if the authors may not have figured out what to do with these revelations as yet. The series is still ongoing in Japan, so we may have a ways to go. Especially as I’m not sure when Vol. 14 is scheduled here. Fight on, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service!