Sasameke Volume 1

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By Ryuji x Gotsubo. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Shonen Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I had responded online to a review of this manga by Alexander Hoffman, where he not only commented on how bad he felt it was, but actively told Yen Press, the publisher, to cancel the title and leave Volume 2 (its final volume) unpublished. I felt this was imprudent, and noted that even if the publisher did listen (which I doubted), that there was bound to be a fan of Sasameke somewhere who would be upset at their title being headhunted like that. I try to pimp out enough poor-selling titles (coughExcelSagacough) that I always get twitchy at any work being discontinued mid-run.

However, this reminded me that I hadn’t actually been able to get very far into Sasameke, and it was sitting on my pile of ‘get around to that sometime’ books. So I girded my loins and forced myself through it, and I feel that I can now safely say that I was merely defending the manga in a hypothetical sense, as a title that Yen publishes, rather than of its own merits. As it’s hard to find a merit in this. This manga is *horrible*. I don’t say that too often, as those who recall my Magic Touch reviews know. I’ve often said that I feel ‘worst manga ever’ is doled out too much, and that people seem to get enraged by books that are merely average, mediocre, or boring. I noted that ‘bad’ should only be doled out to works that actively offend me as well as having obvious story/character flaws, such as Qwaser of Stigmata.

I am now prepared to back off that position slightly for this title. It’s bad. There’s nothing actively offensive about it, except perhaps its slapdash inattention to any of its characters, but nevertheless; it is bad. And this is an omnibus. The original was 5 volumes in Japan (with two sequels that give us 5 more volumes in total – as yet unlicensed, thank God), and this volume has the first 2 1/2, similar to Yen’s release of Dragon Girl, which was flawed but much better than this. The omnibus format makes this even harder to read, as you keep looking down to see if you’re done and realizing there is oh so much still to go.

I should actually talk about Sasameke itself now. It is, essentially, a sports manga – soccer, to be precise. The lead is Rakuichi Nagahama, who has just returned to Japan for high school after 3 years in Italy. As a kid, he was a brilliant player, and everyone believes that he went over there to make it big in Europe. Now he’s back, strangely grumpy and truculent, and wants nothing to do with soccer. His childhood friend, Inae, is the manager of the school’s soccer team, and tries to recruit him. The book then loosely follows him as he slowly begins to regain the love of soccer he once had, and introduces us to a broad cast of eccentric characters.

Let’s start with the leads. Rakuichi is a grumpy jerk, and anyone waiting for him to grin in happiness as he rediscovers the joy of the sport will be left wanting by the end of this volume. Even when he gets back into the game, he’s still a complete ass, with the other teammates even lampshading this, wondering if that’s why he failed in Italy. He’s a showboat and a slacker, and would clearly be a horrible match for Inae even if she wasn’t an obsessed stalker trying to watch her sempai’s every move (which she is).

Then there’s Maiko, the blond beauty we meet early into the volume. I was all set to obsess over here – she hit a lot of my fan buttons, being a cool long-hair beauty who kicks guys into oblivion – but then the manga slowly unfolds, and we get to know her… and she’s dull! She seems to enjoy writing up weird gossip-y newspaper articles, and has a broken family life that I’ll get to in a moment, but the chemistry I was expecting her and Rakuichi to share given that they’re on the cover together is completely absent.

Leaving characters aside for now, we move to the plot. It reads like a hyperactive animal of some sort. Ostensibly about soccer, it can’t resist jumping off at tangents, leading to the ridiculous climax of this omnibus where we meet Maiko’s mother Catherine, who seems to be a Russian ninja of some sort. Maiko is the result of an affair her mother had with Touzan’s father (Touzan is the sempai Inae obsessed over), and apparently there are still unresolved issues over it, as her mother is fleeing from prison (or is it a hospital? By this time things were almost totally incoherent, so I may have missed it), and apparently seeing her mother turns Maiko into a goopy mess. She’d been avoiding her mother earlier, possibly as she knew she’d turn into someone completely different.

Saving the worst for last, the art. Ah, the art. I sometimes complain about Hana to Yume’s shoujo titles being too messy and busy, but they have nothing on this. Every page is crowded with signs and effects (which Yen translates right there on the page, which I’d normally approve of but simply looks messy here, possibly as there are so many of them), lending a haphazard quality to the whole thing. When the artist does close-ups or dramatic shots, they can briefly be effective, but they’re undercut by shots of his extras, which are not so much ‘superdeformed’ as ‘ugly’. The artist seems to revel in drawing his characters poorly for comedic effect, but since the jokes aren’t that funny, it just comes off as sloppy. The whole thing has a cumulative effect of looking like a lazy first draft, only this is happening with every chapter.

Are there any positives? I suppose the title has a certain manic gonzo charm to it. Sometimes the chapters fly so far beyond common sense that you have to admire the sheer gall of the creator. Clearly Kadokawa likes him, as he not only had the two sequels to this but draws for Shonen Ace to this day, his current title being the otaku-centred ‘Anikoi’. This was written a good ten years ago, so I hope that he’s improved, or at least gotten a better editor. But as for Sasameke? Even the gonzo energy gets exhausting by the end. It starts as a dull sports manga where you want the lead to just suck it up and stop grumbling, and somehow ends with ninjas doing spinkicks and family drama. It’s 460 pages of almost total incoherence.

I had recommended people read ‘How to Draw Shojo Manga’ from Tokyopop even if they didn’t draw, as I felt it gave a good idea of how to *read* the manga as well as write it. If people want to try the opposite tack, pick up a copy of Sasameke, which is in almost every way a fantastic example of what NOT to do.

Book Girl And The Famished Spirit

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By Mizuki Nomura. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen Press.

When I was reviewing the first Book Girl, I noted that its main plot drew on the novel No Longer Human. This second book also draws on a novel, but actually knowing what it is might give away spoilers, so I will avoid mentioning it.

The first Book Girl novel had its dark and creepy moments, but overall was a light, fun read. This second book was also an excellent read, but was not remotely what I’d call light and fun. We’re dealing with some horrible themes here, including a mental, physical and emotional torture that surprised me by its ferocity. Usually when someone talks about someone being ‘tortured’ in a manga or novel these days, they don’t mean it literally. Not here – this is torture of a young girl, plain and simple, and we see its effects play out before us.

As for our regular cast, they go through a bit as well. Konoha, our hero, is still attempting to get over the tragic events of his past, and despite Tohko’s calming presence, he’s still prone to constant self-doubt and panic attacks. As the novel goes on and he discovers more of Hotaru’s backstory, he starts to realize certain similarities between his own thoughts and the plotting of the main villain. Konoha is haunted not only by his friend Miu, but also by Miu his alter ego author, whose book seems so idealistic and innocent to him… and disgusts him now. As with the first book in the series, we don’t get a sense that he’s resolved much of his inner turmoil, but at least here he sees a mirror to himself that shows what not to do.

Nanase has another small role in this book, and continues to be such a stereotypical tsundere that I am wondering if it’s a false front. Either that or she’s the one character written in to get the typical anime fan reading. Maki, however, has a much bigger and more vital role in this novel, and even manages to go beyond being the ‘information broker’ type that she usually embodies. Indeed, the epilogue to this story is written by her, and unlike the first book, Tohko does not get to read and eat it – this epilogue is private, and meant for only one other person. Oh yes, and speaking of the typical anime fan, I have no doubt that Maki (offscreen) getting Tohko to dress up as a cat waitress and going meow led to 87 billion fanart pictures in Japan.

Tohko, meanwhile, is the detective, though she’s far less successful here than she was in the first book, and leaps to a lot of misunderstandings. Tohko seems far more like a normal teenager here than she did in Suicidal Mime, and it’s too her benefit. Her fight with Konoha is filled with easily cleared-up misunderstandings that aren’t cleared up as neither party talks with each other. I’m still not sure if there’s going to be a romance here – she displays some jealousy towards Konoha supposedly seeing other girls, but I’m not sure how much of that is fueled by Nanase and how much is her own feelings. Also the addition of Ryuto to the cast (and I’m not sure what to think of him at all – I hope he shows up in future books) allows us to see some of her thoughts and actions from a POV other than that of Konoha, and reveals how much she depends on him.

And then there are the stars of this book, Hotaru and Kayano. Really, it’s hard to go into their characters without giving too much away, but they are the highlight of the book, and give the climax a stunning power even though if you analyze it it’s just a bunch of people shouting at each other. You want Hotaru to be saved – indeed, the lengths that Maki goes to trying to do just that are impressive – and yet at the same time you see the yawning chasm that separates this book from the happy, fluffy ending that Konoha’s alter ego would once have written about.

It’s always hard to recommend a book when there’s so much you don’t want to give away. Still, this is a great book. The characters have an excellent depth (mostly, Nanase is still a bit of a caricature), the plotting is nerve-wracking, and Yen’s translation is excellent. Definitely recommended, though I’d avoid reading it on a cold and rainy evening.

Amnesia Labyrinth Volume 1

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By Nagaru Tanigawa and Natsumi Kohane. Released in Japan by ASCII Media Works, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

In general, I tend to review books right after I read them, giving a very fast, right off the top of my head impression. This can be a strength, as most of my feelings are raw and there to be written down, be they good or bad, but it can also lead me to make snap judgments on things that need a little more time to sit and simmer. At the moment, however, I have a bit of a backlog, and thus some books are sitting waiting for me to get to them. And it’s too bad for Amnesia Labyrinth, which I quite liked as I first read it, but now upon reflection I find is not as good as I thought it was.

The basic premise works, and is designed to be a bit creepy. Young man returns from a boarding school to the bosom of his rich estate, to be welcomed by his three friendly sisters. VERY friendly sisters. He appears to be vaguely indifferent to everything (almost a given, this is written by the author of the Haruhi Suzumiya books, but luckily as the story goes on Souji proves to be quite different from Kyon) and is dwelling on past events that we are not privy to beyond the occasional suggestion of what has happened. Meanwhile, at his new school, there have been a string of deaths, and a slightly eccentric girl tries to get his help in solving their mystery.

I’ll touch on the good points first. The story unrolls itself very well, with the revelations being integrated quite well while preserving the air of mystery and horror that surrounds it. Having Souji as the ‘hero’ is quite interesting, and our sympathies wax and wane as we learn more about him and what he chooses to hide from everyone. That said, he’s a horrible hero to identify with, mostly as he’s sleeping with at least one of his sisters, and his family also appears to have supernatural abilities. This means that we start to empathize with the heroine, Yukako, who may be searching for clues simply because she’s bored (shades of Haruhi), or due to a misplaced crush on one of the victims, but otherwise gives the impression that she’s the only one who may live through this story.

The air of menace and horror is pretty good as well. The few flashbacks we see to Souji and his sisters as normal, smiling children just make their present-day smiling menace all the more unnerving. The use of doppelgangers is also intriguing, and makes us think back to the history Souji told us at the start of the book, and wonder how much of that we can take at face value.

That said, there’s a few problems here. The art is non-distinctive, which is my polite way of saying incredibly dull. Sometimes this adds to the creepiness, but more often it makes you wonder why this even needed to be made into a manga at all. This ran in Dengeki Bunko, which is primarily a story and novel excerpt-driven magazines for Media Works, but has a few manga scattered throughout. Now, Tanigawa has held up his end pretty well – there aren’t huge chunks of text in the manga that make you think they adapted this by simply having the artist read the book as he drew. At the same time, the art ADDS very little – it’s just there to make it a manga, giving us just the basics.

And this affects the story as well. I keep talking about the matter-of-factness of the revelations, but this means that we have very few highs or lows. There’s no shocks or bits of terror here – just mild people reacting with mild emotions to creepy things. If you’re going to have the lead hero committing incest, you can certainly make it boring for HIM, but don’t make it boring for the reader as well! The reason Haruhi succeeds so well is because Kyon’s bland delivery is counteracted by a) Haruhi’s over the top antics, and b) his angry retorts to those antics. Souji may have a tragic backstory, but this has closed him off to emotions, and Yukako is not a strong enough costar to make us care about her either.

So all in all I think the first volume of this is a mixed bag. I’m not certain whether it’s still running in Japan – the 2nd volume came out there over a year ago, but various web sources don’t list it as complete. Perhaps it went on hiatus while Tanigawa finally wrote the 10th Haruhi novel. In any case, if you like mystery, horror, or family secrets, you may enjoy this, but you may also find that on reflection it’s shallower than you thought.