Manga the week of 5/11

Leave a reply

After a huge first week from the folks at Diamond, things calm down considerably for Week 2. Good, because my wallet needs a break.

Dark Horse has Volume 38 of Oh My Goddess. I’m sort of running out of ways to joke about this series. It’s a comfort manga, and I won’t stop buying it after 15 freaking years of buying it merely as the current arc is boring. Plus I hear there is an awesome arc soon to come. Sadly, the current arc *is* boring.

Viz has its second week, and there’s more meaty stuff here. Biomega gives us a final volume. Inu Yasha has Vol. 7 of its VIZBIG Edition, presumably containing Vols. 19-21. There is a new Jormungand for readers who like to watch cool people kill things. Kurozakuro hits its halfway point. And Maoh: Juvenile Remix hits its halfway point as well. Fans of the latter are in for a treat, as I understand this volume’s remix was done by Richard D. James. Given how the Death In Vegas remix of Volume 3 turned out, I expect good things.

And there’s a Shonen Jump. What interests you?

Higurashi: When They Cry Volumes 11-12

Leave a reply

Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Yutori Houjyou. Released in Japan as “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Meakashi-hen” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Wing. Released in North America by Yen Press.

So at last we come to what are known as the “Answer Arcs”. Each of the first 4 main arcs of Higurashi (Vols. 9 and 10 were a manga-only side story) set up the basic situation, watched it descend into paranoia and death, and had us confused and trying desperately to figure out what the heck was going on. By the end of the “Time Killing” arc, we sensed we were getting closer to solving things. And now we get this, the “Eye-Opening” arc, which (like all the answer arcs) is much longer than its predecessors, and hopes to let those who have not played the games figure out what’s behind this.

Despite the manga beginning with the Rena-focused arc, this set actually is the “answer” arc for the Mion set of books, the “Cotton Driftijng” chapter. It’s drawn by the same artist, so manages to give even more of a sense of deja vu than anticipated. It stars Mion’s twin sister Shion, and purports to tell the events of “Cotton Drifting” from her own perspective. Purports being the right word, as we quickly come to realize that Shion, like Keiichi before her, is descending rapidly into paranoia and madness.

The plot actually begins a year before the main events of the other arcs, as we see Shion escaping from the private Academy she’s been exiled to and returning to a town near Hinamizawa. Shion has issues from the start, being the younger twin of a family that is essentially the Yakuza. As a result, Mion is being groomed to be the next head of the family, and Shion gets the short end of the stick, as the family has sent her off to school hoping she4’ll quietly disappear. No such luck, as not only does Shion start “twin switching” with her sister, but she also runs into a young boy named Satoshi, who we’ve only ever met before in flashbacks or backstory told to Keiichi.

Satoshi’s similarities to and differences from Keiichi are both deliberately played up, and unfortunately we get another heaping helping of the child abuse that plagued the earlier volumes of the series, as Satoshi and Satoko’s aunt and uncle as as horrible as ever. Shion is trying to cheer him up, but in the end, it doesn’t seem to be enough. And then comes the night of the cotton drifting…

I’d spent the past few reviews laying into Keiichi as a horrible hero, so I feel I should say that the series is keeping up that tradition, as our sympathies with Shion slowly vanish as the series goes on. Clearly whatever happened to Keiichi and Mion in the earlier arcs, be it “Hinamizawa Syndrome” or what have you, is happening to her here, and Satoshi’s disappearance only helps to send her further into the spiral. Interestingly, we also get a more in-depth portrayal of Mion – while her crush on Keiichi has been heavily implied in previous volumes, here when she can open up to her sister without anyone else around it’s outright stated – as is her jealousy of Rena, who is more feminine and so gets the doll that Keiichi has.

We also see the side of Mion that we’re more familiar with from “Cotton Drifting”, which is to say the inheritor of power. The scene in which Shion is ordered to tear off three of her own fingernails by her grandmother is horrifying, and easily the most disturbing in these first two volumes. (On the other hand, seeing later on that Mion has done the same thing is also possibly the most heartwarming moment.) Mion has always been my favorite character, so I was very pleased to see all of this. Shion, on the other hand…

Shion has to date been played as a bit of a tease who was in love with Satoshi. Here we manage to see the depth of that love goes well into obsession territory, and also that she would seem to be the main ANtagonist so far, as well as the PROtagonist. And, as these volumes end with their grandmother dead by Shion’s hand, Mion locked up in the Sonozaki Family torture chamber (what, doesn’t every family have one?) and Shion giving the famous bug-eyed hysterical Higurashi laugh, we’re starting to realize that all the twin switching and “which one is really Mion” of the previous 10 volumes (especially after the last manga-only arc, where Mion literally possessed Shion’s body), we’re now left with a big question: Was that really Mion we saw at the end of “Cotton Drifting”?

By the end of the second volume, we’re exhausted and Shion is insane. It’s a bit difficult to see how much further down she can go, given we have two more full volumes to go. But, having said that, I feel that the author will show us how much worse things can get. After all, Keiichi and company are all still alive. In the meantime, we get a month’s breather from all this start horror with another one-off manga-only arc, this one complete in one large volume. Good thing, too, I need a break from Shion as protagonist.

V.B. Rose Volume 12

4 Replies

By Banri Hidaka. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

Another bittersweet post, as I rave about another Banri Hidaka series that will likely never be finished in North America. Tokyopop is dead, and so, like I Hate You More Than Anyone!, we’re locked out again from knowing the outcome of a wonderfully fun fluffy shoujo series. Ironically, Kazuha makes another cameo appearance in this volume, and I can imagine her consoling Ageha, saying that she knows the pain of having an American company collapse and leave readers hanging.

Luckily, I have copies of the last two volumes in Japanese. I’d gotten them long ago in order to spoil myself about the ending, as, well, that’s the sort of reader I am. Still can’t read Japanese, but I can make educated guesses about things based on the art. So, at the end of the review, I’ll give a quick summary of what comes after.

This particular volume resolves the long-standing tension between Mitsuya and Tsuyu. As we guessed from Vol. 11’s lame cliffhanger, Mitsuya is home sick, having caught a bad cold. This allows him to sleep and dream even more flashbacks about his past. Luckily these are the last ones, as this series has been particularly flashback-drenched, a habit of Banri Hidaka’s works. We see a younger, less evil Mitsuya falling for Tsuyu right off the bat, and the devastation that hits him when she breaks up with him and leaves. This in turn leads him to harden his heart, and to a certain extent to his current personality. This is unfortunate, as when Tsuyu returns, Mitsuya reacts like “a little boy”, as Ageha noted, making her feel extreme guilt and torturing her with it in order to keep her mind on him.

Fortunately, his fevered flashbacks are interrupted by the actual Tsuyu, who shows up after a call from Yukari, who notes that they need to sort things out by themselves but he’ll give them “a little push”. What follows is a short bit of awkward, followed by Mitsuya finally snapping. Yukari is quite clever here – Mitsuya with a high fever is far more open and vulnerable then he would ever let himself be when he’s well, and this allows him to be blunt and direct to Tsuyu. It’s my favorite scene in the volume, as he finally just says what he thinks about the arranged marriage meeting: “Why would you do that to me? Do you want to see me run around in circles again? Don’t leave me… I’ve always loved you.”

Tsuyu, of course, doesn’t really want to do this, but she’s so shy and passive she’s lost the ability to tell people no (possibly as the one time she did so was the worst moment of her life). Luckily, Mitsuya’s reassurances, and a few hot kisses (seriously hot… the kissing between these two in this scene is really sexy!), she returns his love, and he now feels confident enough to come up with a plan to sabotage the arranged marriage.

That’s right, the second half of the volume is a ‘caper film’. Yes, you could argue that she COULD simply announce to her father and aunt that she’s actually in love with Mitsuya, given they seemed to arrange this for her own benefit rather than any malice, but where’s the fun in that? The fun is in seeing Mitsuya be EVIL! So once they’ve recovered from their colds (you kiss like that, you’re bound to catch a cold, Tsuyu-chan…) and break the news to Ageha and Yukari. Ageha’s reactions are hilarious – she’s still the funniest part of the series, and there’s lots of cute art here showing her hyperactive joy at the news. (Well, OK, the funniest part was Kana’s text message reacting to the news. Oh Kana, never change…)

And so Mitsuya announces his plans to sabotage the meeting, and enlists Ageha an Yukari to help… by manipulation and guilt tripping. Yes, in case you worried he’s straighten up and be nice, fear not. Admittedly, it helps that the guy that Tsuyu is meeting seems to be pure scum, so we’re allowed to cheer as they ruin everything. There’s disguises, there’s secret documents, there’s Yukari dressed as a woman, anjd there’s Mitsuya and Tsuyu together and happy at the end… and her father and aunt are OK with it. Yay!

…and that’s the end of the series here in North America, 2 volumes short. Volume 13 consists mainly of Ageha, after a Mitsuya-centric 12. Mitsuru and Tsuyu are getting married, and Ageha wants to be a part of all the prep, but her grades were pretty bad last midterm, something noted by her teacher. Given her teacher is Saki Sugimoto from I Hate You More Than Anyone, and he’s still pure evil (probably best that he and Mitsuya don’t meet…), this is not going to fly, and she’s banned from the shop while her grades improve. This, of course, also leads to another fight with Yukari. So Ageha frets, and panics, and has discussions with Mamoru and Nagare, and her head falls off and floats away at one point. No, really. Hidaka-san loves her ‘breaks from reality’. And finally she and Yukari make up.

So with Vol. 14 we get the wedding… which is traditional Japanese. Aheh. So much for V.B. Rose. There’s lots of prep anyway, though, and it has to be said that Mitsuya and Tsuyu look like they SHOULD have a Japanese wedding – Tsuyu is the very definition of a Japanese doll, and looks fantastic in her wedding kimono. Also, at some point, Yukari dresses up as a woman AGAIN – by now I think it’s become clear that Hidaka-san knows what her readers like. Shizuya is at the wedding as well, by the way, and though he’s jealous of his big brother being “taken” from him, he eventually accepts Tsuyu. Then Yukari and Ageha spring a surprise on the couple as they’re about to leave for their honeymoon – a mock Western wedding, complete with dress by Yukari, accessories by Kana, and bag by Ageha. (I was amused at the dress, which is, for a wedding dress, almost a miniskirt – it doesn’t even hit the floor!)

Then we get the final chapter, which takes place 4 years later. The majority of it is shot from ‘camera-eye-view’ – Ageha is recording a movie, and everyone gets to do a ‘where are they now’ 2 or 3 page bit. Mitsuya and Tsuyu are happily married with two kids, 4 and 2. Mamoru is in college, and still torturing Shizuya – presumably they’re officially a couple by now. Nagare is still trying to get over Ageha, and in his final year of high school. Shizuya is angry,and frustrated, and shouting at the world – no changes there. Rei is fine, and looking more like his sister than ever before. Speaking of whom, we also see Kazuha and Maki, with their daughter. Sadly, it would seem Maki is still being teased and tortured by his half-brother Saki – Kazuha advises those who are confused to go find copies of I Hate You More Than Anyone 1-13. Ageha’s sister and her husband are also fine. Ririko is preparing Sakura, Yukari’s brother, for grade school. Sekiguchi is, um, still trying to seduce every woman he runs across. We see Kana doing some work on accessories, and she seems as happy as she’s ever going to get. And finally, we see Yukari and Ageha walking down the aisle, with Ageha in a V.B. Rose creation. (This one has a 15-foot-long train *and* a miniskirt look. But I like the hat.)

And that’s it! Happy endings for all! Well, did you expect anything else? I really wish we had seen this finished here, and worry that future Banri Hidaka projects may not be licensed due to the two incomplete series (it doesn’t help that her current project is a next-gen sequel to I Hate You More Than Anyone…). But I’m very happy with what we did get, and thank Tokyopop for its attention to this marvelously cute shoujo series.