Manga the Week of 2/22

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The fourth week (but really the 3rd) of February gives us quite a few titles to choose from. And for once, none of them are from viz – it’s the other publishers that get a look in.

Dark Horse gives us the 20th volume of Oh My Goddess, which means they have now caught up with the ‘unflipped’ editions. Honestly, it’s a sign of how popular this series is with their fans that they even went to all the trouble of this giant re-release, and I’m impressed. As ever, Carl Horn supplements the releases with letters and endnotes. Going forward, starting with Volume 41, it’s all heading forward into the future, rather than reliving the glorious past.

As always, DMP’s yaoi publications always end up with the best titles. This week we have ‘Gentlemen’s Agreements Between A Rabbit And A Wolf’, which sorely needs a tiger in there as well, but I won’t quibble as I know it would destroy the beautiful seme/uke balance the title provides. And in more sedate titles, we also have the 5th volume of the deluxe reissue of Kizuna.

Kodansha gives us the 4th volume of 24-style thriller Bloody Monday, and the 4th volume of fantastic dinosaur art series Gon. Two series that really are unlikely to ever cross over. (Gon doesn’t appear in Cage of Eden, does he? Cause that would just make my year.)

Seven Seas is giving Midtown the 3rd volume of A Certain Scientific Railgun, which many other Diamond customers – including me – got this week. There is still no sign of the parent series, A Certain Magical Index, but Railgun is entertaining enough.

That’s right, it’s my blog, and so Higurashi gets the image again. The Atonement Arc hits Volume 3, and no doubt will feature increasing paranoia and bloodshed. Can the ircle be broken, or are we in for another depressing reset? Well, we won’t find out yet, but certainly this will ramp up the tension. Also from Yen, we have new volumes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (the normal manga version, not the SD one); ninja manga Nabari no Ou; ecchi harem fantasy catgirl samurai… thing Omamori Himari; the awesomely insane Soul Eater; and a new volume of Sumomomo Momomno, which is still going, to my surprise. it’s hit Volume 11 too! Sheesh, kids these days…

All this and the debut of Soulless: The Manga from artist REM! What interests you this week?

Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 19

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By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

Hayate has reached the point now here, popular and enjoyable as it is, its cast is simply too large to use in one complete plot. So while I said last time that the cast was all going to wind up on a holiday in Greece, there are exceptions. And so Wataru, Saki and Sakuya end up in Las Vegas, which coincidentally has its own subplot waiting in the wings for them! This would be highly unrealistic and a detriment to any manga that is not as silly as this one, but (even after the Athena arc) the reader still has a tendency to say “Yeah, OK, whatever.”

The Las Vegas chapter introduces Wataru’s mother, who is… not a nice woman. Oh sure, on a scale of one to Hayate’s parents she’s still small time, but it’s clear she loves gambling and is not above humiliating her son and his friends just to show off how lucky and powerful she is. (You get a sense of where the manga is going with her when we see a flashback where Wataru hands her a doll he has made. It appears to be Nezumi Otoko from the children’s series Gegege no Kitaro. Oh kid, little do you know your mother is more like that doll than you think… In any case, the cliffhanger for this volume involves Wataru’s mother gambling with Saki (who doesn’t know how to play cards) for Wataru’s fate. It also includes Sakuya as a fanservice magnet, something that I think started in Japanese fanart circles and that Hata might have picked up on. Unlike those circles, Sakuya stays (mostly) decent, though.

Meanwhile, earlier in the manga, we get a chapter devoted to one of the Idiot Trio, Miki. She’s arguably the most intelligent and perceptive of the three (given she got a 36 on her most recent exam, this is very arguable), but that’s not really why we get this chapter. For a manga where every single woman seems to be in love with the hero, it is refreshing to see someone who isn’t. And, Ayumu’s teasing of Hina aside, we haven’t really had any yuri in this manga to date either. Now we get both – Miki is not interested in Hayate, mostly as she has her heart set on someone else. It can be a bit disheartening to hear Miki say she knows she’ll be rejected so has no plans to confess… but, knowing Hinagiku like we do, Miki’s probably correct. Oh well. Maybe she’ll get lucky if Hayate ends up with someone else! (By the way, notice how Hayate immediately makes the connection between Miki’s vague allusions and Hina. He’s very perceptive in anything not involving himself.)

Other than that, well, there’s plenty of humor in this volume. Which is good, as folks read Hayate for the gags. For those who worried that we’d be returning to the mood of the previous 2 volumes, that’s not happening right away. Of course, not much else is happening right away either. By the end of the book, half the cast are either in Greece or Vegas, but our hero and heroine are still stuck at home. The main flaw of this book is that, for everyone except maybe Maria fans, very little happens in this volume. We left off with the cast getting ready to go to Greece (where Athena awaits, let’s remember), and we’re still waiting here. Ah well. At least we haven some ominous foreshadowing with Hayate’s ‘King’s Jewel’ given to him by Nagi’s jerkass grandfather. Foreshadowing of dark, terrible events is always welcome in comedy gag manga.

A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 1

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By Miyoshi Tomori. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Viz.

I must admit, when I first started reading A Devil and Her Love Song, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Maria. Sure, she was blunt, and I quite like blunt heroines, but she seemed just a bit too stoic for me. Was she really going to be able to carry a 13-volume shoujo manga. Also, the genki blonde male co-star was really getting on my nerves. Then within a couple of pages she shows us how much of that ‘get on my nerves’ attitude was a facade (hint: all of it), and does a head tilt that must easily be seen to be believed. You’d think she was totally mocking him if she weren’t so deadly serious and incapable of understanding sarcasm. That was when I began to love Maria Kawai.

Speaking of those two guys, there not nearly as reverse harem as I might have expected. Shin is likeable right away, especially for long time readers of shoujo manga, and I’ve a feeling that he and Maria will be the main couple. Yasuke is perhaps more interesting to me personally, however. I noted that he annoyed me at the start, and that really didn’t precisely go away as the volume went on. I did like the growing sense of unease that he feels, especially as Shin notes that his act isn’t really working as well as he thinks. Maria is simply the only one willing to call him out on it. His best moment is right at the end, where he opens up to Maria and reveals how much of his life is a deliberate lie. Usually the “broken bird” type in manga like this is someone like Shin – grumpy, cynical, worn down by past events. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Yusuke in future volumes.

Back to Maria for a bit, as I wanted to discuss something else that separates this series from most other generic shoujo mangas with a blunt, in your face heroine – her faith. Japan has a very casual relationship with Catholicism, and its depictions in shoujo manga tend to simply involve the Catholic School as a setting – the strict nun teachers, praying to the Virgin Mary about someone’s love life, etc. Maria, however, seems to have a genuine faith. Not in an active, religious sense, but more a faith in the good in man, and belief in oneself. It’s a very personal faith, and one I can easily identify with. Of course, that faith also brings with it a great helping of sin, and Maria certainly seems to have a low opinion of herself – something that’s helped along by everyone around her.

For Maria is highly empathic. Which unfortunately, combined with no social filters, leads her to tell everyone exactly what she thinks, and point out the obvious walls that everyone puts up to protect themselves from being hurt. Maria has no such walls, and so is hurt all the time, to the point where she almost seems dulled to pain. Almost, but not quite – her “date” with Shin not only shows us that she can be passionate about something (even if it’s goth-loli shoes), but that she is aware of how she is to other people. She holds herself to impossible standards, and when everyone around her says she’s a horrible person (usually for calling them on their shit), it only reinforces her lack of belief. Back to faith again – Maria wants to believe in herself, in a Maria Kawai who she can love and be proud of. But since she hates herself, this faith has nowhere to go. Except into singing “Amazing Grace”.

The old hymn appears a few times throughout this volume, sung by Maria, who has a beautiful angelic voice. When I grew up, I didn’t realize that I was taught a “censored” version of the song – the lyrics in the 2nd line that I learned were “that saved and set me free”. The original, of course, carries a far greater sense of self-loathing – “that saved a wretch like me”. It is this version that Maria sings. She believes herself unworthy of being saved, but desperately wants to be. (I will note that this manga does feature a cast of female classmates who all hate the heroine, a peril in many shoujo manga. But Maria doesn’t exactly warm the heart. I’m hoping as the series goes on, we’ll get her some female friends.)

I could keep writing – I found a lot to talk about with this series. Probably a sign of how good it is. Go and get the first volume.