Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei Volume 8

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By Koji Kumeta. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Del Rey.

As always, pretend I took a while here to bitch about the shoddy editing job on these volumes. I don’t blame the adaptor, who mostly does a pretty good job, but it’s clear the series (and Del Rey’s manga in general) has no editor at all. They get Harumi’s last name wrong. One of the main characters. That’s sad.

Moving on, it’s another funny observational humor volume of Zetsubou-sensei. Even though we’ve evolved to the point where the characters aren’t really that relevant except as stock gag pieces, we still get another ‘regular’ introduced here. In fact, Manami has been around since the very first chapter, she just hasn’t done much. This happens a couple of times throughout (Mayo was also around at the start), and we’ll see it again in a much later volume with Kanako Oora. And of course, because Zetsubou-sensei is now observational rather than character-based, she doesn’t even get a full-blown intro. She shows up, reveals her quirk, and leaves.

Her quirk is that she’s a married high-school student, which is possible in Japan but generally frowned upon. The ‘attendance list’ picture at the end notes that she’s working to pay off her husband’s debt, neatly giving us far more than we got within the actual chapter. We never do meet her husband, which is likely a good thing, as from what we can work out, he’s rather scum-like. In any case, Manami is there now if people need jokes about being either married, working 8 jobs at the same time, or being very gullible, all of which she excels at.
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As for the others, they all do their part. We don’t get any major Chiri freak outs or mass murders here, but perhaps she’s taking a brief break after the last few volumes. Seeing Abiru’s other eye was rather startling (and, as Nozomu notes, creepy). Kiri’s utter devotion to caring for her teacher, even if he’s taking advantage of her, is sad in its very true to life aspects. I laughed with recognition at Nozomu pointing out Harumi’s infection with ‘pointy chin’ syndrome, wherein her characters get more elongated faces with pointier chins as the months go by. And Chiri does get a wonderful spotlight where she is told by a Brain Age parody that her brain is 28 years old, and so decides to live like a ‘Christmas Cake’ OL, listening to Miki Imai and riding strange exercise machines.

This volume does very well in having things discussed that are fairly universal, rather than just relevant to Japanese culture. We’ve all gotten presents that we don’t want but don’t quite have the heart to simply toss. I can identify with self-imposed duties myself, feeling a need to post a review a day even though people probably don’t care as much as I think they do. And I loved the whole chapter about being an extra in someone else’s life story, which was one of the few chapters from this book that was used in the anime series.

Zetsubou-sensei will never be a big seller – I suspect the third volume hitting the NYT list was an aberration – and in fact it even reads like a cult hit rather than a mainstream shonen manga. But it’s a lot of zany fun, and the characterizations are broad and yet likeable for the most part. Certainly I hope that Kodansha USA continues it with Volume 9 when they start up their own line, though I do hope they add a copy editor to staff.

Gatcha Gacha Volume 8

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By Yutaka Tachibana. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Melody. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

As many may have noticed, I’ve had a lot of reviews lately where I’ve had to apologize for the fact that the work I’m reviewing is, at its core, shoujo by numbers. I point out the various fun, interesting things about it, but note that people who want the shoujo equivalent of Ikki are not going to find it here – it doesn’t wander outside the box.

Gatcha Gacha may reside within the box – there are many shoujo tropes here – but it’s not afraid to go way outside what’s considered acceptable in a shoujo magazine. Tachibana-san herself notes in a sidebar in this final volume that she had a discussion with her editor regarding Motoko, and put her foot down, insisting that Motoko be as crude and violent as she is. She’s absolutely correct, as it’s one of the things that makes this series such a refreshing change from more generic shoujo manga – the characters are all horribly imperfect people, and therefore seem alive.

As I noted on Twitter, it’s rare I can write about a cute shoujo manga “and then we cut to the heroine tied up on a table being menaced by a gay gang leader and a man in a gimp mask”. Gatcha Gacha, in its eight volumes, has dealt with abuse (physical and mental), rape, prostitution, homosexuality both male and female, underage sex, attempted murder, suicide, and adultery. This may have the Hana to Yume imprint on it in Japan, but it’s the sort of series that could only have run in Melody, Hakusensha’s gateway magazine between older teens and adult women.

The final volume is not perfect. The plotting tends to read as “we need a final crisis, please invent one”, and tries to fool us into thinking we’re meeting a new antagonist before dragging out the old favorite. Also, as I’ve noted throughout, the author uses negative stereotypes of gay men, here talking about taking young men and “fixing them”, i.e. turning them gay (it’s implied through rape and beatings). This just doesn’t work well, especially as it’s presented half-comedically (we just can’t take the villain seriously) and half-dramatically.

That said, there’s lots this volume does right. Hirao has been a very weak character through much of this series, so it’s great to see, now that he’s resolved his feelings and confessed to Yuri, that he’s trying to do his best to keep himself in her thoughts. He’s not content to simply wait while Yuri pines away for Yabe, and for once when misunderstandings happen he immediately takes all steps to correct them. One of the best gags in the volume is a metatextual one involving him spotting the ‘angry’ mark on Yuri’s head. Hirao is a nice guy. He’s caring, thinks well of others, he’s responsible… he’s most people’s perfect boyfriend.

It’s a shame Yuri is not most people. She’s warring with her feelings throughout this volume, and she certainly does have some for Hirao. She notes at one point that if she saw Hirao going out with another girl, she’d deck him… but she’s still not sure if that’s love. Hirao is nothing like anyone she’s ever fallen for. Notably, after a couple of dreams where she imagines herself being rescued by an unseen prince (who is clearly Motoko, only Yuri doesn’t get this), she decides that Hirao is… her princess. And that she needs to protect him. This is what leads, at the climax, to a pleasant role-reversal, where Yuri arranges Hirao’s escape from their captors, so that he can get away, while she takes his place. Because “she’s used to abuse”.

There’s a point towards the end of the manga where Yuri is thinking this, and we get a brief flashback showing what her life was like before she met Motoko. It reminds you how stunning it is that she’s still a loving, warm-hearted person. We see her boyfriends begging her for money, selling her to guys making porn, or just plain hitting her. And now she’s trying to use that as her own strength in order to save Hirao. That’s a huge journey for a girl who was ‘the slutty one’ at the start of this series.

Of course, there comes a time when strength can only take you so far, and you need to rely on others. Yuri has a discussion with Hirao earlier in the manga about what it’s like to be too kind to someone, which leads to a discussion of Motoko, who is well aware of the innate problems that entails, and firmly believes that too much sympathy is a bad thing. As Yuri talks about this, we see Hirao noticing her expression and tone of voice. He’s questioned it earlier, but I think this is the point where he realizes that Yabe, and Yuri’s past crush on him, is NOT his biggest rival for her heart.

Speaking of cliches, I was amused to see one of the biggest in manga right at the end. Our heroine is in trouble, being taunted by the heroes. Where’s your savior now? We’ve seen earlier that Motoko and Yabe are being ambushed by over 100 guys miles away, armed with bats and knives. All a diversion so that our villain can get his revenge. There is no possible way that Motoko could ever escape that ambush and arrive here in time. Go ahead and call for her, it won’t do any good.

And so Yuri, who has been saying “Kagurazaka-san” for 7 volumes now, gives in as she’s about to be tortured and cries out. “MOTOKOOOOO!!!” And boom, there she is. No matter where the heroine has been taken, if you call their name, the hero will come. It’s good, as Motoko doesn’t get as much to do here as previous volumes. Her main arc was resolved in Volume 7, and she has made peace with both her grandfather and sister. She’s also the most emotionally mature of the cast, and the most intelligent, immediately able to put two and two together when she realizes who Hirao’s “cute girl” really is. And so she’s free to do what she’s done best the entire series: Kick people in the head, then beat them when they are down. Even among badass shoujo women, Motoko is just badass. She’s a callback to the old days of shoujo, characters like Saki Asamiya from Sukeban Deka or Tsukasa Kozuki from Tokyo Crazy Paradise.

That only leaves the final scene. Motoko’s cut her hair, having had it caught in a nailbat during the brawl. But as she notes, the reasons she kept it long are now resolved – Kanako is with Yabe, and though she’s still yelling at him all the time, it’s clear she’s meant to be more of a ‘tsundere’ type rather than the jealously insane evil she was in Volume 3. This allows Yabe to give in to anything she asks, which he clearly loves (though as with most ukes, it’s clear he holds the actual power in their relationship). So now she’s back to looking like a hot guy – something Yuri clearly notes, saying Motoko makes her heart skip a beat.

Gatcha Gacha has played around with this since the start of the series. Motoko likes looking at the bodies of young girls, and has never shown any interest in men. Despite this, she’s constantly denied that she’s a lesbian. Much of this may have stemmed from Kanako’s obsession with her, and her association of that with the feelings. But now that this has been resolved, I have to wonder if Motoko will come to another realization. We’ve seen her ambiguous feelings about Yuri being in relationships with either Yabe and Hirao before, and when Sekine asked her what she thought of them, Motoko was only able to say “Dunno.” Here, when she hears Yuri talking about making her heart skip a beat, she turns, smiles,and says “You bet I do” in just the right way to fluster Yuri.

This is not accidental at all. While this is happening, Sekine point blank tells Hirao he has to win Yuri – and keep her won – or else he will lose her to Motoko. And then the narration notes “Maybe it’s already too late…?” Tachibana has amused herself by noting how all the girls in this series kick everyone’s ass, and the guys are all weak. So really, it makes perfect sense that the volume end with the implication of Yuri and Motoko as a couple. They have the closest bond, and Yuri doesn’t have to worry about her feelings being love or not. After all, she subconsciously already knows Motoko is her prince.

Despite its faults, in the end this is still one of my favorite shoujo series. Not best, necessarily, but one that simply hits all the right buttons for me and knows exactly how to keep them hit. What’s more, the author writes strong female characters of several different types, always welcome in a genre that sometimes features young teens who end up being whipped back and forth by the manipulation of hot guys. They’re all horrible role models, but they’re definitely people I would love to go out drinking with. It may have taken 2 1/2 years, but Tokyopop has finally finished this, and I thank them for it. I’d love to see more from this author – perhaps the 4-volume Kana, Kamo that was plugged by Tachibana at the end?

Manga the week of 12/8

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At least I theorize it will be. As I’ve noted before, I get this list from a New York based comic shop called Midtown Comics, who post it (usually) on Thursday afternoon, well ahead of any other online retailer, and a full 4 days ahead of Diamond Comics. The problem is that Midtown frequently uses distributors other than Diamond for their manga. Sometimes this means they get it in sooner… and sometimes it’s stuff like this week.

Midtown lists two manga for this week. Both from Digital Manga Publishing, they have the 5th volume of seinen vampire thriller Vampire Hunter D, and the 2nd and last volume of a yaoi manga called Yokan Premonition. That’s it. No Viz whatsoever.

I’m fairly sure that Diamond, which already shipped Bleach this week, will have the rest of its giant pile of Jump/Beat releases on the 8th. I am therefore making an executive decision to include them here.

So… let’s see. In Jump manga, we have Vol. 33 of Bleach, which as I said before shipped to many this week already. It continues the Hueco Mundo arc, which is in no danger of ending anytime soon. No matter how much you beg. They have Hoshin Engi, a story inspired by Chinese Mythology that I never heard much chatter about, even though it’s at 21 volumes. Slam Dunk hits lucky Number 13, and Toriko hits Number 3. In a MANLY way!

Speaking of Manly, we see Volume 16 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It ends the 3rd ‘arc’ of the giant JoJo’s series, and is billed by Viz as the final volume. JoJo’s continues to this day, of course, though it sort of morphed into Steel Ball Run in Ultra Jump. On the other hand, it’s about 100 volumes long, and sells poorly here. So normally while I bitch about Viz writing ‘final volume’ when it isn’t (i.e. Shana), I can’t blame them at all for cutting ties here at a logical stopping place.

That’s not all for Jump, as we have its spinoff, Jump Square. There we find Rosario+Vampire, an immigrant from the Weekly Comic, which has Volume 3 of its 2nd season reboot. We also have the 3rd volume of the Stan Lee penned Ultimo, which many of my friends have given praise to. It is also, in case I had not mentioned it, written by Stan Lee. As I found at NYCC, this is a Big Effin Deal.

On the shoujo side, we have piles of new stuff from Hakusensha. On the Hana to Yume front, we have Volume 1 of Kamisama Kiss, the current title from Julietta Suzuki, the author of the popular-with-bloggers Karakuri Odette. We also get Vol. 22 of Skip Beat!, which finds Kyoko wrestling with finding the ‘character’ of her latest role, as well as dealing with the usual infighting. In its monthly companion Betsuhana, we also get Volume 7 of Rasetsu, the supernatural sequel to Yurara.

And in the big monthly magazine, LaLa, we see new volumes of huge sellers Ouran High School Host Club and Vampire Knight. As well as Vol. 3 of Library Wars: Love & War, which doesn’t have enough library combat for some, apparently.

Shueisha’s entry in the shoujo stakes this week consists of just one: the final volume of Cactus’s Secret, a cute 4 volume manga from Ribon that succeeds very well in being cute and only 4 volumes.

As for the more mature-skewing titles from Shogakukan, we have Vol. 3 of Seiho Boys’ High School (Betsucomi), which has proven to be an excellent title for me. We have the 6th, and possibly last, volume of Honey Hunt (Cheese!), which is currently on hiatus in Japan. And skewing even older, we have the 5th volume of the smutty yet utterly silly josei comedy Butterflies, Flowers.

What suits your fancy?