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The Wallflower, Vol. 27

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By Tomoko Hayakawa. Released in Japan as “Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Friend (“Betsufure”). Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Every time I review a volume of this manga, I feel the need to explain my continued enjoyment of it. I enjoy the romance, while acknowledging it will likely never be satisfactorily resolved. I enjoy the comedy, which admitting that a lot of it is the exact same situation written over and over with variations. And I like the art, despite the author’s complete lack of attention to backgrounds and Sunako still being superdeformed much of the time. Despite all these flaws, I enjoy this manga as it’s a classic example of an artist knowing she has a narrow range and using that narrow range to her best advantage.

Since about Vol. 15 or so, the series has gotten into a pattern. The majority of the stories feature the stormy friendship/something more between grumpy Kyohei and twitchy Sunako, and yes, after 27 volumes, she’s still occasionally freaking out about his “brightness” and wanting to be a creature of darkness. Generally once every two volumes or so she will throw in a chapter about the stoic Takenaga and his gorgeous yet lacking in self confidence girlfriend Noi; or playboy Ranmaru and his far too tolerant fiancee Tamao. Once every 5-6 volumes we may see a chapter devoted to cute and sweet Yuki, who’s the guy on the cover of this volume, but generally not; the author doesn’t know what to do with him, really, as he’s far too normal. His own girlfriend is notably also very normal.

No one reads Wallflower stuff for normal. You read it for things like Sunako deciding that after the events of last volume she’s leaving the mansion again and working at a maid cafe… with the creepy otaku therein. (Word of warning: otaku are portrayed entirely negatively here.) Or Sunako getting possessed by a ghost – again, the others note – who wants to satisfy her desire to pick flowers with an incredibly handsome man (read: Kyohei). Or Sunako getting the flu and Kyohei being forced to take care of her, in what might be the most fanservicey chapter this story has had to date. Or even for the token Ranmaru story, where he is kidnapped by an S&M club and held for ransom.

The little things in each volume are what keep bringing me back. We actually see Sunako transform from superdeformed to her normal self (in three poses) in the first chapter, which once again makes us wonder about how this works in the ‘real world’. The chapter with the ghost shows off Kyohei’s reluctant caring side, as this particular possessive spirit isn’t as selfish as prior ones have been, and he can’t simply tell her to get out and give Sunako back. The chapter with Ranmaru is fun and horrible at the same time, as he blows off his fiancee, who is there to learn from Sunako how to make him delicious food, to date more cheating wives. Tamao is clearly ready to sacrifice a pile of money for his well-being, and though he is grateful, and seems to have some feelings for her (note she’s probably the only woman he won’t actually sleep with, and we all know what that means with playboys), we still question why she puts up with his assholish tendencies. (Luckily, Sunako is there throughout to make these points, as she gets kidnapped as well.)

Then there’s the flu chapter. I’m not the audience for this shoujo material. 18-19 year old girls are. And boy howdy, does this chapter deliver. Kyohei’s half-naked throughout, but that’s not the type of service we’re talking about, for once. No, this is all about the torrid sexual tension between these two epically stubborn people. Sunako’s flu-ridden fever dreams are about Kyohei kissing her, and it’s driving her insane. Kyohei, meanwhile, just wants her to change and get better, but she refuses to do anything she tells him and is generally a horrible patient. This culminates in his blindfolding himself and stripping her naked so he can change her sweaty clothes, which she finally acquiesces to. (It’s very noticeable that for almost 25 pages or so, she’s not superdeformed in the least). And then she runs out into the rain, and he’s going after her screaming that she’ll get more sick, and then they trip and fall on top of each other…

…and then a lightning bolt comes down from the sky and strikes the both of them, ending the chapter. It’s like the hand of God, but more accurately it’s the hand of the author, reminding us all that the manga is still running in Japan and she really does not want to resolve it at all. Sigh. Oh well, in this manga filled with frustrating characters and situations she has now rewritten at least five times each, we still find little oases of awesome. That’s why we keep coming back to this even after 27 volumes.

Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Vol. 32

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By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan as “Mahou Sensei Negima!” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

After two or three volumes of a giant fight/massacre, a break is much needed. You can’t simply have nonstop fighting in every chapter. And so this Negima is devoted to Negi attempting to gain more power and learn what he really wants from the fight, and for several of the others to get powers of their own. There’s lots of plot and character development to enjoy here.

First off, a great deal of time is dedicated to the four ‘sports girls’ who stowed away to the Magical World and are now having to deal with the consequences. We’ve followed Ako’s arc more than the others, so it’s good to see the other three getting equal time. This is not to say that Ako gets nothing to do – her pactio is quite sweet, and I liked the fact that she’s aware of her feelings for Negi and is stamping them down as being wrong – this is a constant theme in this manga, given Negi’s age, and it helps to remind fans that in reality, it *is* squicky. She’s also still crushing on Nagi, even now that she knows he doesn’t exist, and this is a reason why she refuses to pactio with an ‘aged-up’ Negi. Her Pactio is also hilarious, though we don’t know what it does yet.

The other big revelatoin is regarding Yuna. We’ve known for some time that her father and mother were mages, and that Yuna had been kept in the dark about it. Now Takane feels they’re in a situation where it’s too dangerous not to know, and reveal the truth to her. Yuna, being of the ‘spunky take life as it comes’ variety, is seemingly okay with this, and notes she’d worked most of it out beforehand. She’s also reasoned this through to the end, and asks Takane if her mother’s death was really an accident like she’d been told. Takane’s response, and Yuna’s reaction, shows how well Akamatsu has mastered subtlety when the situation calls for it. We don’t see Yuna’s face when she reacts to the news, and that makes it all the more sad.

As for Makie and Akira, they aren’t quite as heartwarming, but still well done. Akira is first and foremost concerned for her friends, and tries to help Negi realize the situations he’s gotten himself into while not overwhelming him. Makie, who gets one of the best lines of the volume “I don’t understand men or women…” is as always a fairly simple girl, in a good way. She admires Negi and is happy to pactio with him, and that’s all that matters. So now three of the four girls have magical abilities (Akira is too shy/nervous to try), some of which, as Ako quickly notes, are more badass than others. (Yuna’s guns are implied to be special in particular – I have a feeling they may have been her mother’s.)

Negi, meanwhile, has finally broken free of the mental wall that’s been keeping him from using his full abilities – he realizes that he’s basically becoming something that isn’t human, and is okay with it if it’s to protect his friends. And what’s more, he’s leveled up in his thoughts on Fate as well – it used to be “I want to beat him”, now it’s “I want to be friends with him”. Well done, Negi, you’ve recognized you’re in a shonen manga. Now if we can just get Fate, who’s acting like an impatient boyfriend waiting for his date, to realize the same.

Speaking of which, I would be remiss if I did not mention Tsukuyomi. She made the transition from goofy villain to terrifyingly insane villain some time ago, but she really shows off her chops here. She goes toe to toe with Fate for a while, apparently because she’s bored, and forces him to actually have to get serious briefly. Then, bored again, she goes off to kill a few of Negi’s friends, starting with Colette, who is another ‘wooden doll’ in this world. Luckily Negi is there to stop her, but then we get her reaction to his newfound magical strength. I’m sorry, but it’s really hard to say anything other than “she sees his power and has an orgasm”. It’s that blatant. Then when Negi suggests that, as a hired mercenary, he could buy her off, she comes out with the chilling “There is no meaning in this world. All I want is blood and battle.” Something tells me we will not be befriending her like we will Fate.

Finally, we get everyone in position. Things are moving more rapidly than anticipated due to Tsukuyomi leaving behind a horde of demons to attack them, but Negi’s party gets to the Gravekeeper’s Palace with minimal fuss and is ready to go. And then they’re stopped. By… well, I’ll say who it is when I review Volume 33. I’ll just note that when this chapter came out in Japanese, it was generally regarded as the biggest surprise of the entire series to date. No one guessed this.

(I will note briefly that Kodansha’s lack of editors has done it again – the character bio and cover design is missing from this volume. The Nibleys said they did translate it, so it’s all on the editors. Sigh.)

There’s actually minimal fanservice in this volume as well. It’s straight ahead storytelling, with no detours in hot springs, and the pactios we get are mostly serious business. Could this be the manga’s final endgame we’re heading into? Will we ever get an entire chapter of Negi sneezing everyone’s clothes off again? Tune in next time!

Codename Sailor V, Vol. 2

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By Naoko Takeuchi. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Run Run. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

(This review contains spoilers for this volume, as well as Volume 2 of Sailor Moon.)

It is possible that I implied in the review of the first volume of Sailor V that the second volume would be a lot more serious and dramatic. Which it is… in about the last 30 pages. I was going by hazy memories of reading the series years ago using raws and online text translations. But no, 85% of this manga is just as fast paced, wacky and fluffy as the earlier one, and Minako goes to even more over the top heights.

This is the final volume, and the reissue is almost 300 pages, so there’s a lot to take in. One thing I noticed right away is that Minako’s secret is exposed, something that the Sailor Moon anime experimented with quite a bit, but usually it was villains discovering their identities only to be killed off before they could tell anyone else. Here it’s the Inspector General of the police department, who happens to be a giant Sailor V otaku, and she manages to put two and two together by simply being in the right place – she sees V disappear behind a corner, and Minako reemerge two seconds later. The senshi’s ‘disguise magic’ has never really been gone into in great depth, and this is the closest we’ll get to it. Of course, everything ends up working out for Minako in the end.

There’s also Artemis, who gets a bit more focus here. As most of these chapters were written during or after Sailor Moon proper, there’s a lot more crossover and references to the other series. As a result, we can not only contrast Usagi and Minako, but also their animal guardians. For all that he desperately tries to get Minako to grow up and respect her duties as a senshi, Artemis can be just as impetuous and overreacting as his charge. At one point he feels so unappreciated by Minako (who really is callous in the chapter, the closest she gets to being a jerk in this series) that he runs away – then is stunned Minako never even noticed. More to the point, the chapter where he falls for the ‘puppy’ Luna is entertaining but also enlightening. We see that his memories are NOT as hazy as Minako’s, and that he definitely does remember Luna – and misses her a lot more than he lets on. Again, some nice detail that we can get now that the other series has been planned out.

(Speaking of which, one way you can tell that these chapters are written well after the Moon manga is the shot of the fictional manga artists’ 10 heroines – it’s clearly a silhouette of all 10 senshi, complete with the Outers and Chibi-Usa.)

For those who enjoyed the humor in the first volume, there’s some hysterical stuff here. Minako’s speeches to the enemy alone are worth the price. And fans of the best Minako anime episode (and one of the top 5 episodes of Sailor Moon period) will be delighted to here of the chapter where she gives blood – including using the disguise pen to age herself up and lie about her age! There’s a ton of side comments by the author in the dialogue boxes or in narrative form, which is highly cute but can also be a bit messy – I think this manga shows Takeuchi sort of unfettered, and we see a lot of chatter that the Moon manga didn’t have. (Josei manga Codename Sailor V!)

And of course there’s the finale. Minako has spent two volumes crushing on (and then abandoning or getting rejected by) any number of hot guys, and the start of this volume shows the up and coming young actor and possible ally, Phantom Ace! Of course, readers of Sailor Moon will see the word ‘Phantom’ and raise an eyebrow. Not that it’s meant to be a big secret, but surprise, Ace is actually the villain of the piece. His final battle with V involves more property damage than we’ve ever seen before (and V has had a LOT of property damage!), and it’s in the midst of this that she regains her memories of the Moon Kingdom, and her past life as Venus. It’s a radical shift in tone – Minako’s regaining her memories looks horribly painful, and it’s not clear if it’s due to the sudden inrush or simply having to relive her failure to save Princess Serenity.

The most fascinating part of the manga for me is the final pages after Minako has defeated Phantom Ace (or ‘Danburite’, as he is actually known). He’s occasionally told love fortunes with a pack of playing cards in previous chapters, and now he really hits Minako hard with his final one – she will never find love, and will always choose duty over it. Given Venus is the senshi of love, and Minako’s basic vivaciousness, this is quite a blow… or so one might think. I am recalling that this guy also professed to be madly in love with her in their past life. Minako’s issue throughout the 2 volumes has been focus – Artemis can’t get her to take her V duties seriously because she keeps running off after guys. Now she’s basically told, Venus is what you do as well as who you are. You never have to worry about having to make a difficult choice. It’s sort of heartwarming in its callousness, and will also be touched upon towards the end of the Sailor Moon series, where we see that Minako has come to terms with and accepted that being a Senshi and protecting her princess is her highest priority.

And so we come to the end of Sailor V, as Takeuchi briefly ties in with Minako’s appearance in Sailor Moon by implying she’ll be working with the Inspector General to fight crime for a bit (which the other manga noted she did before joining the others.) You don’t have to read Sailor Moon to understand Sailor V, but there are lots of cute references and in-jokes you’ll appreciate if you do – I liked Ami’s appearance towards the end, as if Takeuchi realized she was the only Inner she hadn’t written in yet. But really, Sailor V is much like its heroine, Minako Aino. A bit hyperactive, dizzy, gets off the point a lot, and talks constantly, but is filled with energy and life. I thank Kodansha Comics for picking it up after so many years. And now we can read Minako’s further adventures in future volumes of Sailor Moon.

(Hey, who was their boss anyway? It can’t have been Luna… Queen Serenity’s sentient recording again?)