Category Archives: reviews

One Piece, Vol. 91

Leave a reply

By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Oda is very fond of writing chaotic scenes, and the last few arcs have all consisted of “start slow, then work to lots of chaos’. But the period of slow starts is decreasing, and we’re barely halfway into this volume before Luffy, reuniting with Zoro, is doing things at his own pace and upturning everything, mostly as we’re present in another country where evil bad guys are lording it over everyone while the poor and downtrodden starve. And, let’s face it, beating up those evil bad guys doesn’t really get old. It is worth noting, though, that Luffy has matured a great deal since the start of the series, and particularly in the last few arcs. Sure, he still doesn’t listen to anyone and does his own thing, and He’s still happy-go-lucky, but his reaction to Otama’s condition and the state of the country itself show a maturity that I really like seeing in him. You’re starting to see him turn into someone who CAN be the Pirate King.

This is the first time in ages that we’ve had the entire Straw Hat crew assembled, but aside from Zoro, the rest of the “missing” crew from the last few books remain missing here. But that doesn’t mean we’re not making new friends and introducing old ones. Otama is the cute and spunky little girl who made a promise with Ace years ago and now finds that Ace isn’t able to fulfill it. But that’s why Luffy is here. There’s also Okiku (get used to the O- prefix), a samurai who is gorgeous and also really tall, but does not let that get in the way of excellent sword skills and wanting to protect people. Trafalgar Law is around, still trying to achieve things quietly and sanely and still running into Luffy making that impossible. And we also have Basil Hawkins,k the fortune-telling pirate who seems to be working for the bad guys here, and who briefly gives Luffy and Zoro a run for their money till the cards say they get away.

And there are also some classic Oda scenes here. For everyone who thinks that the man is losing his touch, I urge you to take a peek at Holdem, a member of the Animal Kingdom Pirates who has a living Lion Head on his stomach, and the fact that the lion head proceeds to, when annoyed, punch Holdem in the nuts… forgetting that they are also the lion’s own nuts. That sort of goofy, juvenile gag requires a fantastic imagination. And it’s not just used for gags. The revelation towards the end of the volume as to the fate of Kin’emon and his compatriots, and where they really come from, is the sort of thing that you might protest breaks the story a bit if it weren’t handled with the deftest touch. And yes, there’s also Kaido, who really deserves that cliffhanger with an amazing two-page spread appearance showing off “I am the villain” vibes.

91 volumes in, One Piece has started a new arc that has me riveted already. I wonder how many volumes it will be? (Answer: many, many volumes.)

86 –Eighty-Six–, Vol. 2: Run Through the Battlefront [Start]

Leave a reply

By Asato Asato and Shirabii. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert.

Fans of Lena, the star of Vol. 1 of this series, may be disappointed, as this is not a sequel to the previous book but an interquel – it explains what happened to the rest of the squad between when she last saw them and the epilogue, and thus Lena only appears at the start and end in a “she’s still in the Republic” sort of way. That said, this is still a very good volume of Eighty-Six, combining the mechs and battle scenes with more look at warfare, what makes us fight, and how even well-meaning people can try to impose their own wishes on others. It’s not as unrelentingly bleak as the first book, but it’s not a laugh riot, either – Eighty-Six will always be about as serious as its male lead, Shin, who may be with a different army but still has some of the same problems. And then there’s the Legion, the enemy soldiers whose attack near the end of the book feels like they’re trying to cause our heroes to simply give up in despair. There’s a lot of them. (Well, they are Legion, after all.)

The girl on the front is Frederica, who is a “mascot” for Shin’s unit, the Federation Army’s way of getting troops to bond with each other by giving them an adorable kid to look after. It’s not clear if this is actually true or not – Frederica’s the only one we see, and her situation is certainly one where a great cover story would be needed – but in any case, she fulfills some of the role Lena did in Vol. 1, attempting to get the other Eighty-Six to think about something besides fighting until they inevitably die. At least she’s just trying to get them to consider it, though – their main benefactor, Ernst, after rescuing them from certain death, is ready to have them retire and become good little civilian boys and girls, and is appalled when they all, to a man, decide to re-enlist. The trouble is that not only have this group been soldiers so long that anything else seems deeply off, but they know the Legion better than anyone else, and won’t allow others to take up that fight.

The Federation is better than the Republic in many ways, so there’s less explicit racism here towards the Eighty-Six, but that does tend to mean that it’s implicit. The soldiers are unnerved at both the Eighty-Six’s combat prowess (particularly Shin) and their stoic demeanor, and use the word “Eighty-Six as a slur several times throughout the book. “Monster” also comes up, and it’s clearly a point of tension that the Eighty-Six could have chosen to retire and never fight again. That they’d fought enough. But is it enough? The Legion are attacking in greater and greater waves. Where do you draw a line that says “that’s fine, you can leave it to everyone else now”? Especially if you’re Shin, with his seemingly psychic connection to the Legion.

This series continues to be what it was in the first book – unrelentingly grim but not despairing, and making me want to read more even if it is depressing much of the time. As you can tell by the subtitle, this is the first of a two-parter, and I suspect by the end of Book 3 we’ll be back to where we were with Lena reuniting with everyone.

Cocoon Entwined, Vol. 1

Leave a reply

By Yuriko Hara. Released in Japan as “Mayu, Matou” by Enterbrain, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Beam. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

Hair.

I suppose I should go into a LITTLE more detail, but honestly, after reading the first volume of this new series, “hair” is going to be what everyone takes away from it. It is hair-drenched and hair-permeated, a story about a private Japanese Girls’ Academy whose very uniforms are created using the hair of their seniors, but even there you get the sense that the story is somewhat irrelevant, an excuse to simply draw hair in every possible way. Even the cover art gets into it – the front cover may look relatively sedate, but turn the book over and you can see the hair of the two leads tangling into each other, trying to be the best metaphor that hair can be. Which is good, as hair gets to be a metaphor for a lot here. In addition to hair, the story focuses on three students at the school, two of whom are what you’d expect, and one of whom seems to have wandered in from some other manga.

Saeki is the girl who crosses over into both storylines, the “prince” of the school because the school needs one, rather than due to any desire of her own, though she plays the part even as it exhausts her. She gets closer to Yokozawa, who is our “normal girl” viewpoint character, though Yokozawa’s tongue is a lot more acid than this sort of character usually is. They like each other. The third cast member is Hoshimiya, the granddaughter of the headmistress, who spends her days locked in her room and seems to have a far more casual attitude towards hair than the rest of the school (seriously, you can be expelled for your hair being too short). Hoshimiya seems to be ethereal to the point of ridiculousness, and even when she and Saeki escape the school and go all the way to the local docks, there’s no real escape.

This is, of course, meant to be a yuri manga. Yokozawa clearly likes Saeki, and the book ends with a kiss, albeit the usual “they’re sleeping but I can’t resist” sort. Saeki and Hoshimiya also clearly have doomed chemistry in that Sei-and-Shiori sort of way. That said, you could also argue that the story is horror. Aside from a few exceptions like Saeki, most of the cast is the traditional long black haired heroine, which fits the private school setting but is also a trope in Japanese horror stories. The gimmick of the student’s shorn hair being used to make the uniforms of the incoming students is milked for all its worth, with the uniforms seeming alive and described as breathing, and it is meant to be dream-like and erotic but also a bit creepy. Hoshimiya herself also makes me think of horror, and it’s worth noting that we never clearly see her face. Don’t be surprised if she ends up being a ghost or a Zashiki-warashi of some sort.

This was a riveting if somewhat baffling read. I’m definitely getting the second volume, but I’m not sure if we’ll stick with this cast or see it expand to other couples. That said, you don’t read this for the couples, you read this for the hair. Hair will definitely star in the second book.