Gin Tama Volume 21

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By Hideaki Sorachi. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

I’ve mentioned before how Gin Tama likes to snap back and forth between goofy comedy and gripping drama. But what makes it even more interesting is when it manages to do both at the same time. The big story in this volume is a good case in point.

If you recall, at the end of last week the majority of the cast (basically the non-Shinsengumi) were transported to the Dragon Palace island, only to instead find a machine that made Gin and Katsura into old men. This is milked for as many ‘old people gags as you can think of, with creaking joints, forgetfulness, grumpiness in general. It gets even better when, over the course of the plot, the others get ‘aged’ as well – Kagura and Kyuubei being my particular favorites. “Have you seen my eyepatch?” “You’re wearing it!” And yet it *also* manages to show off that old people can be totally awesome as well, and should not be belittled.

The villainess in this is, as you might have expecrted given the story Gin Tama is mocking this time around, Princess Otohime, whose insecurity and jealousy have led to her deciding to make everyone old and ugly so that she can be the most beautiful. Her confrontation with Otae is epic, and allows Otae (once she’s gotten over being insulted) to show off her fierce and proud side, something we haven’t seen as much of recently given Sorachi found she’s far more fun to write as a psycho. But Otohime is not Ito, and does not need to die for her sins – this time around, we get everyone saving her and showing her that sacrifice is not the way to go in order to redeem oneself.

After this, we get a chapter devoted to re-introducing Tama, the robot girl last seen as a severed head back in Volume 17. She now has a body, and is employed being Otose’s maid and rent collector. Unfortunately, she’s still a robot, and so has trouble figuring things out when people tell her to take a day off and relax. Gin, who is not comfortable with treating her as a real person, reluctantly goes around town with her and tries to define “cutting loose”. It’s sometimes easy to forget that Gin is a survivor of horrible combat, and we occasionally see his reluctance to let new people (or robots, in this case) into his heart. Luckily, by the end Tama seems to have figured out what she wants to do with her free time, and Gin seems a little happier as well. (If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands! BOOM! BOOM!)

The last chapter is simple a starter for the next big arc, as we see Gin, Shinpachi and Kagura brought in to try to get a yakuza warlord’s son out of the room where he’s shut himself for the past several years. It looks like it’s going to be an amusing look at NEETs in Gin Tama’s society, but ends up proving to be more sinister.

So, another great volume of Gin Tama, combining crude comedy (“Zura, our target is the howitzer’s anus.”) with heartwarming drama, and still finding time to hammer repeatedly on Shonen Jump’s three big mottos, Friendship, Perseverance, Victory. And yes, Otsu is on the cover but doesn’t actually appear – the covers are clearly just random characters by now. (But not Yamazaki.) Can’t wait for the next volume.

One Piece Volume 56

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By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

Oh boy, where to start? First of all, this review contains big spoilers for this volume of One Piece. Seriously big spoilers. Only read this if you know what gets revealed at the end.

I’d mentioned the cover arcs in my last MMF piece, so I should note that starting here we do begin to see what the rest of the crew are doing while Luffy is busy rescuing Ace. These range from the funny (Sanji, Usopp) to the serious (Robin) to the mysterious (Franky), but each are only two ‘cover pages’ long. I suspect Oda had to be thinking of the anime here, and was suggesting what happened in order to allow the filler that must inevitably come to stretch out and tell a relevant story.

I also rarely mention the SBS questions, but they’re always fun, and two here are particularly relevant. First, someone asks Oda to draw the Straw-Hats gender-reversed, which he does. This led to a fanart EXPLOSION in Japan, which is still ongoing in many ways. Secondly, Oda was asked what ‘Nationality’ the Straw Hats were, should they be in our world. His answers actually make a lot of sense and work very well. Except for Brook being Australian, which… whuh?

In any case, the manga itself. There’s a lot of things happening here, so I’ll just touch on a few points. Mr. 2 has never been more awesome than we see here, and his final sacrifice to allow the others to escape is incredibly moving both on and off the page. Blackbeard gets to show off his evil crew here, and I was pleased to note that we once again see what a total wuss he is when it comes to pain, something that has come up before and will again. Of course, when you have his powers, that’s not necessarily fatal.

Buggy and Mr. 3 both semi-reluctantly join the breakout, and both have oddly similar arcs, in that they spend the entire time whining and bitching, but tend to step up at odd times with their own strengths (and they do have some). Mr. 3’s wax powers can slow Magellan, even if only for a little bit, and seeing Luffy wearing wax boxing gloves and legs is, as he notes, awesome. Meanwhile, Buggy is a failure on every level, as is lampshaded by the entire cast. He was on Roger’s crew, but has amounted to only a minor pirate. And yet he has a guile that, once it can overcome his basic cowardice and petulance, is a terrific force. When Buggy decides a course of action can benefit him most, he can be an amazing leader. And he now has a huge crew of criminal pirates who, thanks to various misunderstanding, think he’s the Messiah. Yes, this is a comedic plot, but it’s handled realistically – I really enjoy it.

And so we finally pull away from Impel Down, and head for Marineford, where Ace is about to be executed. This execution is, oddly, being simulcast all over the entire world, to all four Blues and the Grand Line. (Gotta love transponder snails, which seem to be able to do more every time they appear.) It’s beginning to be slightly ridiculous that the World Government is devoting so many resources and so much time to executing Ace. And then Fleet Admiral Sengoku tells us why it’s so important that Ace be executed in so obvious a fashion. Because of Ace’s father, Gold Roger. This blew every fan away when it first came out, and even now the impact is tremendous. Leaving aside the realism of a woman carrying her baby an extra year to throw off suspicion (seriously badass, I might note), this means that Ace is not merely a pirate, or one of Whitebeard’s crew, but a symbol of piracy itself. THIS is why everything is so public.

And of course, we aren’t done yet. Ace has been insisting, even as he kneels at the execution place, that Whitebeard is his true father. And naturally, this means that Whitebeard shows up, right in the middle of everything, to save his son. To be continued. And yes, now we wait some more. THe speedup spoiled us all, I think, and it’s very difficult to wait for May for our next One Piece fix. But I have no doubt whatsoever that it will be epic.

Seiho Boys High School! Volume 4

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By Kaneyoshi Izumi. Released in Japan as “Men’s Kou” by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Bessatsu Comic (“Betsucomi”). Released in North America by Viz.

I have to feel bad for Maki here at the start of this volume. Much as we’d all like our relationships to be honest and above board, when his new “girlfriend” Erika discovers a picture on his cell phone of his old girlfriend, he just can’t bring himself to say “That’s actually a picture of my old dead first love who I’ve been unable to get over and who shares the same name and personality as you, but it’s a TOTAL coincidence that I’m trying to date you now.” I probably would feel awkward too.

And so the quasi-relationship between the two of them vacillates back and forth here. They’re clearly a great couple, and there’s a wonderful moment when she’s teaching him how to surf when they both briefly drop all the baggage they have and are adorable and sweet… but it’s balanced by Maki’s utter inability to open himself up, which is not something that can just be dropped. The end of the chapter here does feature Maki and Erika kissing fiercely, and would seem to indicate resolution of some sort… but for some reason it just feels temporary, and indeed when we next see Erika the text labels her as temporary girlfriend again. This is going to take time.

Chapter 2 deals with Arata, a minor character who seems to br the dark, strong, lone-wolf type… but is really just bad at expressing himself. This has led to his girlfriend breaking up with him, as she simply never got any sense he had any feelings for her at all. Sadly, she is trying to get over him by dating a known two-timing jerk. Maki and company to the rescue! Since their school is nowhere near anything, of course, they fix this by arranging a ‘mixer’ with the school of Arata’s girlfriend, and manipulate things so that he finally is able to admit… reluctantly and quietly… that his ex-girlfriend is super cute. Interestingly, the ending remains ambiguous here as well, and we’re not sure if the two get back together.

The last two chapters take us back to Miyaji and her crush on Rui. She’s starting to get a bit obsessed, apparently having gotten over Rui’s stunning rudeness to her a volume or so back… but Rui still isn’t taking the hint, and she lacks confidence in herself, thinking that hot guys like Rui are ‘A’ guys that a ‘C’ girl like her could never hope to catch. She ends up turning to Hanai for advice (nice timing given he’s on the cover), but ironically all she learns to be good at is wearing a mask to hide her real self, something that all the boys who star in this manga are masters of. Rui is, of course, not fooled.

So Miyaji seemingly gives up, and tries Hanai’s approach with other guys, but kinds keeping up the act exhausting. And then… oh dear. I had thought that the faux incest plot would be one and done in Volume 1, but no, Mana’s back, and she’s still desperately in love with her brother. She ends up coming to Seiho with Miyaji, and Rui naturally tries to fend her off by saying Miyaji is his girlfriend. (This makes approximately the 40,000th fake girlfriend/boyfriend in these 4 volumes alone.) As things heat up, and Mana comes on stronger, we remember that, just like Maki, Rui has a past he’s trying to overcome. Unlike Maki, his past is throwing herself at him. He’s mature enough to know it’s bad for both of them, though, and stands firm. Mana may be back, though…

And so at the end Miyaji, now that she knows Rui’s past, suggests they try dating for real. Does he accept? Who knows? This volume of Seiho was excellent, but felt incredibly uncertain. Every relationship we see seems to be on rocky footing (even Nogami is hinted to be having another fight with his nurse girlfriend), and half of them are created by false pretenses. Of course, we see this sort of thing in shoujo manga all the time, but it’s rare to see it with every character, and it almost seems like the main plot of the series. Love is awkward, requires a lot of work, and a lot of the most passionate love ends up being bad for you. Still, we’re halfway through the series, and I suspect at least one of the couples we see here will actually get a happy ending. Probably.