Category Archives: reviews

Ekiben Hitoritabi, Vol. 1

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By Kan Sakurai and Jun Hayase. Released in Japan by Futabasha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Manga Action. Released in the United States by Futabasha on the JManga website.

Given that JManga is trying to release various types of manga that would not normally be licensed in North America, it was inevitable that we would get a manga devoted to food. Yes, we’ve seen over the top titles such as Yakitate!! Japan and Iron Wok Jan, and Viz even managed to punch out a few volumes of Oishinbo, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Japan loves its food, and loves to read manga about people talking about it. And with Ekiben Hitoritabi, we get cross-pollination with another Japanese obsession… trains.

Our hero, Daisuke, has just celebrated his 10th anniversary, and is quite happy running a bento shop with his wife Yuko. She has noticed, however, that he gets a wanderlust in his eyes when he reads train magazines. And so for an anniversary present, she buys him a railway journey – a trip around Japan, on various slow trains (many of which don’t exist anymore, which shows how fast Japan is modernizing, as this manga began in 2006) which will allow him to see the countryside, obsess about trains, and eat various specialty bentos made by the locals.

Train bentos are genuinely famous in Japan, and each station stop tries to make theirs unique and appealing for the weary traveler. Of course, Yuko is not going with him on this trip – someone has to stay behind and run the business. So we see Daisuke set off alone to marvel at scenery, engines and food. About three chapters in, the author recalls what magazine this runs in, and adds a cute girl reporter, Nana, who is tracking down a story and runs into Daisuke on the train. Coincidentally, she also runs into him later in the volume, and serves the purpose of being the designated female in this manga – as well as being equally obsessed with food. She’s not as obsessed with trains, which allows Daisuke to spout the odd bit of history throughout.

Most manga like this run the risk of being dry, and indeed there were several times in this volume that I wanted something to happen other than talking about trains and food. There’s not really a plot here beyond seeing Daisuke going from station to station. And though he occasionally eyes Nana while sweating slightly, or begs forgiveness of his wife in his head for doing so, there’s honestly no indication that he and Nana are destined to have an affair – a good thing given he’s on an anniversary trip given to him by his wife! No, we aren’t heading forward, we’re meandering.

On the other hand, if you are interested in trains or Japanese train bentos, this is a treasure trove. The food is lovingly depicted and described, and you can tell that the authors had a ball researching this. Enthusiasm for the food is tempered by a melancholy nostalgia when discussing the trains, as invariably they start talking about various trains and lines which are defunct, or have been replaced solely by high speed rail. When we do see a unique train car, it’s drawn with the same attention to detail as the food – there’s honestly quite a good balance between the two obsessions here.

Artwise, aside from the food and the trains, things are fairly stiff. The faces aren’t quite as hard to get used to as Oishinbo, to be fair. Daisuke is a stocky, bearded guy, very appropriate for his profession and love of food. (Another manga by the author in the 1990s, about fishing, also featured a stocky bearded guy with a hot wife – methinks I can guess what the author looks like.) Nana is cute rather than sultry, and I’m hoping in future volumes the two develop a brother-sister type bond – though this does run in Manga Action, which features at least three series I know of with lovingly depicted adultery in them, so who knows?

I enjoyed this manga, but let’s be honest – unless you’re really interested in bentos or trains, you won’t find much here. It’s a narrow market, but plays to that market with all the strength it’s got. And yes, after reading it, you WILL be hungry.

Cage of Eden, Vol. 1

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By Yoshinobu Yamada. Released in Japan as “Eden no Ori” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Sometimes, when reading yet another shonen manga, I do wonder why authors keep going to the same bag of tricks. The same character types, the same plot beats, all cliches. Then you read a title like Cage of Eden and it makes sense. It’s because they’re proven winners. People have succeeded with this plot and these types of characters over and over again. So while originality is totally lacking here, no one is reading Cage of Eden for that. You’re reading it to see how the heroes will possibly get out of this one.

And so we meet our cast: our hero and ‘class clown’ Akira, who acts up in order to cover for his feeling inadequate against his smarter, more handsome friends; his childhood friend Rion, who has grown up to be gorgeous and busty, and he is absolutely not in love with nope uh uh no way; our hero’s cool friend (I bet his teeth glint when he smiles); the computer nerd type who doesn’t want to socialize with people not in his intellectual league; the vaguely psychotic punk looking for a fight; and the useless adult figurehead.

After a brief ‘here is a class returning from their summer vacation school trip’ scene, we get into the plot proper, as the plane crashes. Our hero wakes up in the midst of a seemingly deserted island, quickly meets up with the geek kid and the crybaby stewardess, and sets about trying to figure out where they are, where everyone else is, if they can ever get home, and… wait, why are there prehistoric monsters here?

I should mention first off that the fanservice is really out in force here. Cute teenage girls, hot naked stewardesses, panties flashes galore. Of course, it’s not just sex. There’s a heaping helping of gore and violence here as well, and a large number of cool looking extinct or imaginary animals. If you define fanservice as giving the fans what they want, then the whole volume is basically this.

As for the rest, it’s nice seeing Akira take on the hero role that he clearly owns so early on. Given the situation they’re in, a lot of “Eh!… No way!” is here, but when it’s life or death, Akira proves surprisingly competent, while still remaining a realistic ‘normal guy’ trapped in a horrible situation. As for his companions, Shiro may be a nerd, but his smartness isn’t limited just to books; he looks to be a long-term planner as well. And Kanako, the stewardess… well, she’s the type who will either get killed off next volume or suddenly show she’s been badass all this time. I’m not sure which right now.

The title is rated OT by Kodansha, and with good reason. There’s a scene towards the end that shows mob mentality and panic in action, and not only is there a lot of blood, but several graphic rapes are hinted at. This is clearly meant to show that the heroes are completely cut off from civilization, and it works; it’s quite disturbing.

So this is manga candy, a page-turning thriller that you won’t be going back to over and over to get the hidden depth, but which is a lot of fun as you’re reading it. Hopefully in the next volume our heroes will continue to discover other classmates, battle large animals, and try to discover what the heck is going on. Well, assuming our hero wasn’t just killed on the last page of Volume 1…

Oh My Goddess!, Vol. 39

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By Kosuke Fujishima. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Afternoon. Released in North America by Dark Horse.

At last we seem to have finished with the dojikko maids and the fluffy pointless cuteness, and are ready to get deep into another heaven vs. hell arc. As has always been the case, Fujishima’s manga excels whenever it’s not actually focused on the romantic comedy it’s supposed to be, either by showing everyone’s love of motorbike racing, or by giving the series’ cosmology a fresh new twist. This is definitely the latter, and leads to a very strong volume.

(I note the cover image above is not quite the one I have on my cover – Dark Horse must have redone it at the last minute. It’s the same image, just less of a close-up.)

When we left off, Hild had been overthrown from her position in Hell by her treacherous underlings, and is now (in chibi form as she prefers) trying to get help from Belldandy and company. Hild is, honestly, one of the best characters in this book, and anytime she’s in the story the quality shoots up. Her scenes with Urd in particular are fraught with that sort of love-hate dichotomy you get when the mother you love is also a demon and trying to get you to turn evil. But by far the best part is how Hild requests Belldandy’s help, getting down on one knee and humbly bowing. As Hild notes, not only does pride NOT come before everything she’s lost, but she has enough pride that she can humbly bow to Bell a hundred times and not have it affect her in the least.

As if that weren’t enough, we then get the discussion of entering the demon realm to fight Hagal, and why Keiichi, against all possible logic, needs to be there. As I noted, K1 and Bell’s best moments tend to be when the series is only obliquely focusing on their love, and that’s what we get here. Keiichi understands his goddess better than anyone, and therefore known that if it’s a true crisis, she’d end up going all out… even if it meant her death. His presence on the trip will mean she has to hold back to protect him and therefore is far less dangerous. As we’ve seen throughout the series, Urd or Skuld on a rampage is as nothing compared to Belldandy when her limiters are off, and it’s to her credit that she immediately gets this, and agrees to let Keiichi come with them.

As always with this series, there’s also some terrific laughs. Lind’s ability to break things, and subsequent inability to reconstruct them, is used to great comic effect throughout the volume, and she also makes a good boke when teamed up with Peorth. (Given Lind’s general stone-faced seriousness, she’s even more amusing than most bokes.) Anytime Mara appears guarantees laughs, of course, and I was highly amused with her explanation of how she got the crap beaten out of her – no, she didn’t lose a fight, she’s just an idiot. I was less amused with the presence of Aoshima, and Hasegawa’s crush on him – yes, it was another demon wish gone bad, but really, I don’t need tit jokes in Oh My Goddess, and Aoshima is a loathsome jerk, so even seeing him knocked out doesn’t quite help.

And so we’re ready to travel to hell – yes, believe it or not, that whole volume was setup. This is a large arc that we’re moving into – it’s still underway in Japan a good 2 years after these chapters appeared – and Fujishima is not about to sacrifice his leisurely pace just because it’s a battle. However, that means we also get lots of great character moments, and shows that Fujishima really knows his characters better than anyone. Everyone was absolutely dead on this volume (even Hasegawa, I will admit, who probably would fall for an ass like Aoshima). Volumes like these are why I’ve been reading OMG for 17 years now. Let’s hope it stays on a high for Volume 40.