Girl Friends The Complete Collection, Vol. 1

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By Milk Morinaga. Released in Japan by Futabasha, serialized in the magazine Comic High!. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

I had reviewed the first digital volume of this series when JManga released it a while back, but it’s always worth revisiting things, especially in print. This omnibus contains the first half of the series, i.e. 2 1/2 volumes. It’s a chunky read, but I think that works to the book’s favor as it helps us really get to know the two heroines before we get to plunge into their new friendship and growing romance.

You’ll note the title is split into two words, and I think that’s for the best, as the author makes it a point to show us Mari and Akko bonding as friends for an entire volume before it really starts getting into the potential yuri romance. Given Mari’s shyness and insecurities, this helps keep things realistic. It also ups the stakes: Akko is Mari’s best friend, and while the romance may take all five volumes to really break out the friendship is close and endearing immediately. Mari is a sweet and sympathetic protagonist. and Akko is outgoing, impulsive and oblivious without it becoming too irritating, as many who read one-sided crushes know can happen easily.

But of course this is a yuri manga, and so Mari’s admiration of Akko soon turns into attraction to Akko. This can be tricky, as there’s a vague line between the sort of close ‘skinship’ friendships that aren’t necessarily sexual, and those what do turn into blooming relationships. Indeed, Akko’s reaction on hearing that Mari kissed her while she was sleeping is ‘oh, girls do that *all the time*’. Of course, when Mari is a little more drunk and a lot more forceful, even Akko manages to notice what’s going on.

These are teenagers, so there’s a lot of puzzlement and ‘is this what love is really like?’ on both sides, as well as yuri’s addition of ‘it will never work out because we are both girls’. Akko has a presumed sexual past with a guy (though we quickly learn that nothing happened, of course – this did run in a seinen magazine) which adds to Mari’s dread that all she’s doing is making herself miserable for something that can’t happen. So she turns to a guy from middle school who happens to like her – and manages to get Akko jealous, though she’s not quite sure why…

This is meant to feel like a fluffy shoujo soap opera, just with two girls as the lead, and that’s mostly what it does. There are also two best friends who are also very touchy-feely with each other but clearly aren’t going to be a couple, which is a relief in a genre that sometimes has everyone pairing off with everyone else. Seven Seas’ omnibus obscures the well-times endings of the first two books (Mari thinking she kissed Akko for Vol. 1, Akko boggling at Kiss #2 in Vol. 2), but that works out fine as it gives the omnibus volume a better cliffhanger, as Mari reveals she went all the way with her new boyfriend. (Does anyone really believe her? Well, except for Akko…)

This isn’t a lights out of compulsively addictive series. But it’s fun, wtih likeable characters and as realistic a yuri romance as you’re going to get in something that’s basically “Story A”, written with little consequence besides ALL THESE FEELINGS… IN MY HEART. I hope the second volume resolves said tortured feelings.

Manga the Week of 10/24

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After a third week that was honestly pretty puny, this week brings a more robust group of titles.

Dark Horse has a new Bride of the Water God, one of those manwha titles that always makes me wish I had more money so I could give them a try. it also has the 25th volume of Gantz, which makes me wish that the author’s earlier series, HEN, was licensed instead.

Kodansha Comics has Volume 8 of Bloody Monday, its action thriller conspiracy title that sadly doesn’t lend itself well to jokes or puns.

Vertical has its new shoujo series, Limit, from the author of Life (if anyone remembers the old days of Tokyopop). If you read Life you know what we get here. Only even more intense. HOT HOT BULLYING ACTION.

And there’s a pile of stuff from Yen. Black Butler hits Volume 11, but is no match for Black God, which is at Volume 17 (and just ended in Japan this August) (yes, it runs in Young Gangan, but the creators are Korean. Think March Story or Sun-Ken Rock). Nagato Yuki is still adorable and Ryoko is still not insane in the 2nd volume of Disappearance. Durarara!! hits the end of its first arc, but don’t worry: Yen already has the Saika arc lined up. Pandora Hearts hits a dozen volumes, and there’s also the debut of Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel, a manga version of Cassandra Claire’s novel.

Lastly, there’s Triage X. Which runs in Dragon Age. And is by the artist who does High School of the Dead. The cover is presented here without comment.

So, what’s in your manga collection this week?

NYCC 2012 Day 3

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The last day of NYCC is usually the quietest, and this year was no exception, as I only had one industry panel to cover. This is not to say that it was without interest, however. I got to see Masakazu Ishiguro and Masahiro Ohno at the JManga booth, and asked a question that was totally irrelevant to the panel they were at on Friday: what the heck happened to Geobreeders? For those unaware, despite dying fast in America, the manga had continued till 2010 or so, but has been on hiatus since then. it turns out that the author, Akihiro Ito, has had health issues. Indeed, he apparently can no longer use his right hand. The hiatus is because he is teaching himself to draw left-handed so he can finish the manga. I was impressed.

I then waited in a long line for the Viz Media panel. I expected this to be about 75% anime, and I was correct. But that doesn’t mean it was entirely without interest. They showed a clip from the new Inu Yasha anime, and I was reminded once again that when she’s on her game, Takahashi is simply better than everyone else at showing ‘I yell at you because I love’. Kagome and Inu Yasha are adorable. There were also some Naruto clips, both for a new game and a new movie. They were talking about Neon alley, the new Playstation Network that has now gone live with lots of new anime shows (and not just Viz Anime either – they have Funimation’s One Piece, for example).

On the manga front, they mentioned the new titles that have just started on Shonen Jump Alpha, and once again indicated others were coming soon (I expect Assassination Classroom fans will be happy to hear that). They talked about the Barrage GNs coming out, as well as the new Rurouni Kenshin series. They’re also doing 3-in-1 releases for both Dragon Ball and D.Gray-Man (I may pick up the latter, as I never read it when it first came out). Inoue fans will be ecstatic at hearing they licensed Pepita: Takehiko Inoue Meets Antonio Gaudi, an artbook that was inspired by a recent trip to Spain. There were also three other licenses of note: Sunny, a new Taiyo Matsumoto series that runs in Shogakukan’s Ikki (see, folks? SIGIkki refuses to die!), which is apparently about an Orphanage. Fans of Tekkon Kinkreet will not be unhappy at all. There was also a Tiger & Bunny manga announced. Fans of the series may know there are several manga spinoffs of it in various titles; the one licensed seems to be a Kadokawa property, and runs in Newtype A. Viz will also be releasing a doujinshi anthology (clean, of course) with various artists contributing work.

Viz also has two new VizKids series, done with North American artists. Monsuno is running on Nicktoons, and Viz is adapting it. And Ugly Doll Comics has a lot of different artists, including James Kochalka. Both sound like they should be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, as with the SJA panel, there was no audience Q&A, but I got to say ‘Excel Saga’ at the panelists again as they left, which I’m sure was met with bemusement.

After that I attended the Moyoco Anno signing, where she was professional and nice (and remembered me from the question I asked at her panel!). Then I went home, as I was so tired I decided against sticking around for the last late panel.

NYCC was a lot of fun this year, and I enjoyed hanging out with Melinda, Bridget, and the other manga bloggers. Given the sheer size of the event, I think the showrunners did a pretty good job, and there were no line issues or security gooning that I personally noticed. There were some choices I found questionable – Sir Terry Pratchett deserved better than the open-air stage he got, and was barely audible – but I will put those down to last-minute scheduling snafus. For the most part NYCC continues to be a professional, well-run con. I look forward to next year.