Twin Spica Volume 5

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By Kou Yaginuma. Released in Japan as “Futatsu no Spica” by Media Factory, serialized in the magazine Comic Flapper. Released in North America by Vertical.

I know that I spent a bit of time last volume going on about how much I liked the way the author uses Mr. Lion in this series, but it’s really hard not to do so again with this volume. I was expecting him to have some sort of connection with Marika’s family which explains why he’s so troubled by her, but I wasn’t expecting the connection to be as strong as it was. It’s also clearly baffling, given the time frame, and while we still don’t quite know what’s going on with Marika, we’re now definitely thinking along the lines of ‘who is she really?’ rather than just lonely rich kid. Although, especially in the flashbacks, that’s an important part. Notably, though, we actually see the origin of the Lion Head – and it’s connected to Marika, not Asumi. There’s some stunning work here.

Elsewhere, we see Asumi try to reach out once more to the boy from another school we saw last volume. There’s lots of interplaying issues here – the prejudice towars space flight, young crushes, trying to decide on a future for yourself that’s feasible as opposed to just a crazy dream – and it’s very telling of the series that there aren’t any good, handy answers. Asumi and Kiriu clearly share a connection that’s more than just ‘he looks like my old dead friend’, but I don’t get the sense that they’re going anywhere romantically, any more than I do from Asumi and her Unlucky Childhood Friend Fuchuya. That said, the final bit with the spaceship keychain was undeniably sweet.

And of course there is more harsh training. Seriously harsh – the kids, having been told they’re testing their ability to be locked in a small space capsule, and carted off into the middle of nowhere, placed away from each other in the middle of a huge forest, and told to get to a point within 5 days using the very rudimentary map provided. They do have trackers on (provided no one loses theirs), but it’s still survival training at its best. Naturally, our heroines barely blink at this, and merely go about the business of trying to get there as fast as possible so they don’t wash out of the program. Again, Asumi’s drive and abilities boggle the mind – that’s one impressive kid. We don’t see how things end up, thanks to the huge flashbacks with Mr. Lion, so I’m definitely looking forward to Volume 6.

It’s very odd to see a series have such a sense of the epic while still remaining so intimate. Heck, even the author’s ‘Another Spica’ end stories, while consisting of the usual self-deprecation I’ve come to expect from Japanese manga artists, make me wonder if they’re telling part of a larger story about the author. The scale of Twin Spica is one of the best things about it, and it continues to remain one of Vertical’s absolute best titles.

Natsume’s Book of Friends Volume 5

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By Yuki Midorikawa. Released in Japan as “Natsume Yuujinchou” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine LaLa. Released in North America by Viz.

I noted with surprise that I hadn’t actually reviewed this series since Volume 1 came out a year ago. I have been keeping up with it, and it’s quite a good title. It’s an especially welcome change of pace from Shojo Beat’s line, which tends to focus on the romance aspects of shoujo. And while this volume of Natsume may introduce its first main female character, romance is still not an issue here. Instead, we continue to look at the world of yokai, and what it means to be one in the modern world of humanity.

As always, there’s a very special love-hate relationship between the yokai we meet and the humans they’ve found themselves intertwined with. The first chapter deals with the immortality that the blood of a mermaid can give, and how it can be a horrific thing once you realize, years later, what life is meant to be like. THe best part of this chapter is likely the mermaid herself, who manages to be quite nasty throughout, but still maintains a sort of nobility towards the end.

The 2-part story in the middle introduces the girl I mentioned earlier, Taki. Much to my detriment, she’s wearing a peaked cap, which immediately makes her sexy. (OK, not really – this manga doesn’t do sexy that well – but girls in delinquent outfits are hot.) Despite her outfit, however, she’s very quiet – and we soon find out why, as Natsume gets caught up in her effort to destroy a yokai who has promised to eat the first 13 people whose names she says out loud. He being the first, of course. Natsume has gotten much better at this protagonist thing, but he still tends to be emotionally passive, and as an action hero he’s fairly miserable. So there’s a sense of genuine danger to the proceedings that works very well. It’s also good to see a 2nd student he can talk about things with, even though she can only see yokai in special circumstances.

The last main story is about Natsume’s relationship with his aunt and uncle, and their relationship with Reiko, his grandmother who started the whole story rolling with her own spiritual powers. It’s meant to show exactly why Natsume is so bad at letting people in, and that it’s not always just a matter of trust and caring – people who get closer to him ARE in more danger. However, there are also rewards. Reiko clearly judged that the risks were too great. Will Natsume do the same thing? (Also, for all that I said Natsume wasn’t an action hero, he does really well here in trapping a demon trying to destroy his relatives.)

There’s also a final mini-chapter that ran in LaLa DX (the first four volumes were in DX; starting with this volume the series moved to LaLa proper, but like many shoujo series it returns for ‘half-chapters’ every few months or so), which features Natsume’s friend Tanuma, and his ambiguous relationship with our hero. Like Taki, who can only see yokai when they move into the circle she draws, Tanuma can sort of see yokai – but not very well, and only as shadows. He’s somewhat envious of Natsume, but as the chapter shows, seeing yokai has its own huge pile of disadvantages as well. I also note this chapter reads like an apology to the yaoi fans who make up a large percentage of Natsume’s audience. “Sorry about the girl on the cover and in the main storyline – here’s some guy friendship for you!”

Technically there’s an element of horror to this series – but it’s a very peaceful sort of horror, and the whole thing feels like it takes place in a world of gauze. Not that that’s a bad thing – Natsume’s Book of Friends has created a very evocative world, and people who aren’t reading it due to the lack of romantic interplay are missing out on some excellent stuff.

Dengeki Daisy Volume 3

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By Kyousuke Motomi. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Comic (“Betsucomi”). Released in North America by Viz.

Another volume in the highly enjoyable Dengeki Daisy has come out, and the plot is moving quite fast. I was actually startled by the end of this volume, as one of the big plot points gets taken care of much faster than I expected. Except it doesn’t really, of course. More on that later.

There’s still lots of comedy here, mostly in the interaction when Tasuku decides to ramp up his ‘jerk’ side towards Teru. This is highly frustrating to her, of course, as she’s suddenly realized at the end of the last volume that she’s falling in love with him. That fact, actually, gets surprisingly little explicit acknowledgment here, even though it’s clearly influencing Teru’s actions. We can see it most in the first chapter, when Teru finally moves out of Tasuku’s apartment and into an apartment shared with her guidance counselor (and Tasuku’s old friend) Riko. There’s a lot of stuff left unsaid in this series, with many things communicated by expression rather than words, and it works well, showing also that the artist has the skill to carry it through.

There is a nice pile of drama as well, of course. A lot of it relies on the fact that both leads have low opinions of themselves, and tend to wallow in the ‘I don’t deserve to be with them’ mode that shoujo manga is so fond of. This can be justified at times – Teru being an underage high school student is brought up again and again, by both Tasuku and others, which adds a frisson of forbidden love to his actions, as it’s clear much of the time that he has trouble keeping himself in control when he’s around Teru. (We still don’t know what his actual age is.) Meanwhile, Teru is still having issues recovering from her brother’s death – it was raining at the time, and so she associated the weather with sadness – as well as her own conflicted feelings about both Tasuku and Daisy.

Teru continues to stride a fine line between cheerfully dense and savvy. She gets goaded into a stupid fight with some other girls, though it’s implied that that’s the weather’s doing, and she’d never have done that with a clear head. More to the point, at one point she’s actually kidnapped by one of ‘the enemy’, a colleague of her brother’s who’s looking for the secret data he hid. Teru even allows him to ‘charge’ her cell phone, whose batteries had run low… but then reveals that she’s totally aware that he’s searching her phone. (It’s not there, by the way.) This also allows her kidnapper to be humanized a bit – in fact, Teru’s noting that her brother told her that there’s always someone that has to do the dirty work’ manages to be both cynical AND idealistic at the same time, and probably sums up Teru very well.

And then there’s the final chapter, which gives us a big reveal. This was done very cleverly, featuring a music box (and for those curious, yes, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cyndi Lauper were in the original – in fact, Time After Time seems incredibly apropos for this couple) and a typhoon. The question now is how will Teru and Tasuku’s relationship change because of this – Teru is simultaneously delighted and devastated, and it’s another good example of the author’s ability to capture facial expressions. Also, things are now reversed in a sense so that SHE is the one with the secret. The power balance between this couple is very entertaining – it has to remain with Teru most of the time, given their ages, but that doesn’t always work out – and no doubt will shift again in Volume 4.

The shoujo romance and dramatic moments of this manga are excellent. However, I find that it’s the mystery that I’m enjoying most. Dengeki Daisy is a technological thriller in the guise of a love comedy, and it’s so far ahead of the author’s previous work, Beast Master, that it’s ridiculous. Can’t wait for the next volume.