Are You Alice?, Vol. 1

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By Ikumi Katagiri and Ai Ninomiya. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Zero-Sum. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I have often joked in the past about how North American licensors will pick up any manga with the word ‘Vampire’ in the title. It’s now looking as if that may apply to two other genres that are exploding over here: Alice in Wonderland pastiches, and survival games. Alice in the Country of Hearts sells quite well, and BTOOOM!/High School Of The Dead/Battle Royale/Doubt stuff has been in Yen’s wheelhouse for some time. As such, this book may be one of the least surprising licenses of all time. Shame it’s so dull.

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In its favor, the book does seem to get the dreamlike atmosphere and the sense that it would make more sense if only you could figure out the rules of the world. It’s also drawn quite well, with lots of pretty boys being crafty and/or manacing while looking really hot. (This ran in Zero-Sum, one of those “BL only not really” magazines Japan has.) Unlike Alice from the ‘Country Of’ series, this Alice seems to have a very clear awareness of his past in the real world, and is quite willing to do anything to escape it. That said, he’s running into problems, mostly as everyone else in this world is so smug and aggravating.

I’ve read books that start off with everyone being unlikeable before, but never have I had such a sense that this is where they’re going to be in 5-6 books time. And Alice is 7+ volumes and still running in Japan, so that’s quite an investment to have in these guys. For a lead character, Alice sure does come across as a whiny brat. The Mad Hatter’s stoicness seems more like malaise, the Cheshire Cat is amazingly two-faced… I did like The Duchess, but not only does it look like we won’t see much more of her, but it’s somewhat aggravating that the only female character in the entire series is the one placed in peril, and indeed Alice is specifically told “Your weapon cannot protect her, it can only kill”.

But my biggest problem with the series is that 200 pages later, I’m still not really sure where this is going beyond a cat and mouse game. Alice has to kill the White Rabbit in order to stay in this land (presumably Wonderland, though the backgrounds look more like an Italian cityscape than any Wonderland I’ve seen before), but they don’t meet here, so there’s no emotional investment behind it. Indeed, Alice doesn’t seem emotionally invested in much of anything, which is fine if you’re bouncing off a bunch of freaks and weirdos in the cast (say, like the Country Of series), but in a series like this where everyone else is equally detached, it leaves the reader with nothing to grab.

If I was a BL fanfic writer, I’d probably love this series. There’s lots of hot pretty guys who could get into a relationship, and none of that pesky character development that makes writing canon fics harder. They’re just two-dimensional enough to make flesh9ing out an appealing choice. I hope that in future volumes the authors might also try to do something with them, because for now, this is all flash, no substance.

The Sacred Blacksmith, Vol. 1

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By Isao Miura and Kotaro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Seiken no Katanakaji” by Media Factory, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Alive. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

In general, the review of Sacred Blacksmith is simple. This is a fantasy manga that takes place in a world recovering from a Demon war, which features girls with swords, bandits, elf-girl companions, etc. If you like fantasy like that, this is probably right up your alley. It doesn’t seem to have too much problematic content so far – the hero completely and utterly outclasses the heroine, but she also gets her share of badass things to do. If I have any complaints, it’s that I wasn’t really ‘wowed’ by anything in it – “a pretty good read” is not a bad thing, but doesn’t add up to 500 words very often.

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There is the old standard “the anime changed things and made male fans hate the girl more” discussion, which I’ve used before in talking about Zero’s Familiar. Cecily as seen in the manga is an OK swordswoman who gets by on guts a lot, but doesn’t back away from an enemy and has a few badass moments towards the end of the volume. In the anime, I’m led to understand, she’s a lot less competent, because… well, no idea. She’s also a tsundere, and we know how much male Western fandom hates them. The manga at one point does the “it’s my fault I’m naked in front of you but I’m embarrassed so will hit you anyway” standard, and I was amused that Luke immediately called her on this.

As for Luke, he clearly has a tragic past, and does not suffer fools gladly, but at least isn’t outright horrible to Cecily, possibly as this isn’t a shoujo manga. His familiar Lisa is there to be adorable, and she is indeed cute as a button. The art is also very good at showing the awfulness of the demonic casting, and several scenes made me wince as people were basically possessed (and sometimes consumed) by monsters. There’s sort of a tense peace going on as the book begins, and the plot is no doubt going to be attempting to stop that peace.

There’s also a lot of discussion of katanas, which are unknown to this fantasy world that is no doubt supposed to be Western Europe. Lisa even has a long, mostly textual discussion at the end of the book on how they are made and why they are superior to straight Western swords. The katana is a nice weapon, but there’s just a touch of ‘and this is why Japan is better’ to the whole thing (not that this is exclusive to this series – off the top of my head, Attack on Titan is doing similar things as well). The action scenes are solid as well, which speaks well to the artist. I never had to go back and reread to figure out what was happening.

So while there’s nothing really wrong with Sacred Blacksmith after one volume, I’m not sure it has enough oomph to really excite me either. It seems like the authors are making tick boxes on a ‘fantasy anime franchise’ checklist. Hopefully a second volume will give me a bit more to chew on.

Sankarea: Undying Love, Vol. 1

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By Mitsuru Hattori. Released in Japan as “Sankarea” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

I have been running into the same sort of problem lately with many new manga, even though most of them are completely different on the face of it. They all seem to boil down to the same thing when I review them, which is “quite readable and even better than I expected, the big downside being crushing unoriginality”. This probably does the title a disservice, as originality, particularly in recent Japanese manga, is what DOESN’T sell. In general, what readers want is “something familiar with a slightly new spin on it”. And Sankarea provides that in a perfectly readable way.

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I should note that the cover you’re seeing is one created by the artist especially for the North American market. The original Japanese cover just has Rea staring at the reader in that sort of cute seductive ‘girl posing’ way, with absolutely nothing to suggest what the content within is like. Except, of course, the title, which is a play on words based off of a very popular zombie movie (seen over here as Zombi 2, and one of the most terrifying movies of the late 70s, if I recall.) Kodansha decided that they’d need more than ‘generic cute girl staring at reader’ to sell this, so asked for the more… gruesome shot. I approve. It’s a better cover.

As for the content, it’s mostly a fairly standard romantic comedy. Nice if somewhat weird hero, who has a cousin who’s busty and secretly likes him, as well as a younger sister who’s an emotionless stoic. At his all-boys school, we see him with his two friends, one of whom is girl-crazy and overdramatic, the other pleasant and unmemorable. They are most impressed by the perfect Japanese princess girl who’s going to the all-girls’ school across the river, who is gorgeous and popular. Except that it turns out she has a secret, which our hero quickly finds out.

So far so boring, but it’s the nature of the secret, and the nature of our hero’s weirdness, that perks things up. Rea’s father is not so much possessive as disturbing. We don’t see a lot of him in this volume, but given she’s talking about him taking nude pictures of her and his increasing paranoia at Rea being touched by other men, I think Daddy’s shaping up to be our main villain here, with a side of incestuous creeper. (To the book’s credit, this ISN’T played for laughs at all – after all, he’s not an older brother.) As for Chihiro, he’s trying to resurrect his dead cat using a magic potion that turns things into zombies. Which is presented as mildly eccentric – he’s a normal guy at heart, he just wants to bring back his cat. From there, things start to go desperately wrong.

Rea is probably the best part of the title – she’s written very well. Her sheltered upbringing is warring with her desperate Attempts to get away from her father’s smothering. Her immediate attraction to Chihiro could be read as romantic, but could also be read as a little bit unnerving – fitting for a title like this. Her zombification (yeah, sorry if I spoiled that for you, as if the cover didn’t) reads almost like a rite of passage – she demands Chihiro “accept responsibility” in a seductive voice, equating death/resurrection with loss of virginity.

The question is which direction this goes in. If it continues to do fanservice and comedy (and there is quite a bit of fanservice – particularly from Chihiro’s cousin Ranko), I’m not sure it would keep my attention. But there’s a lot of potential for both depth and darkness here. If it manages to mine those two veins, Sankarea could be a real winner.