Chobits Omnibus Volume 2

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By CLAMP. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Young Magazine. Released in North America by Dark Horse.

Well, I have to admit, they got me thinking about the concept of sexbots. Which I presume was one of the things CLAMP wanted to do with this title. There’s a whole lot of philosophizing in this 2nd volume of Chobits, and it would be interminable (it verges on it already) were it not for the fact that the quartet do make me succeed in pondering whatever it is the characters talk about, at length, in the 2nd half of this series, be it the nature of humanity, what love really means, or simply how much of this is a metaphor about otaku and their love for toys.

As I noted in the review of the first omnibus, this was an experiment for CLAMP, their first seinen series geared towards young men, and as such it’s a bit of a flawed success. I think they realized their strengths and weaknesses, as their 2nd, far more successful seinen series was xxxHOLIC, a series that may appear in Young Magazine but is clearly meant to have lots of female crossover readership (notably in the relationship between Watanuki and Doumeki). Chobits really doesn’t invite female readers as much, and even though the fanservice lessens in the 2nd half, it’s still there. (This is especially true of Dark Horse’s version, which has about 30 color pictures at the end, mostly featuring Chi in various innocent-yet-provocative poses.)

The buildup to the climax of the book is pretty good, balancing out between long-winded explanations and trying to figure Chi out. You get a bit frustrated with Hideki for not realizing what he feels for Chi sooner, but honestly he’s much quicker about this over the course of 8 volumes than most harem leads would be. And I do wish that while Chi is evolving by leaps and bound, that we’d see a little more of her moving beyond the childlike baby-talk Chi we got for most of the book. But then, having her talk like an adult would likely make the ending even more uncomfortable than it is.

Looking at the internet, I see I am not alone in finding the ending of the Chobits manga somewhat annoying. The anime chose to alter the ending as well. I suspect CLAMP were deliberately going for these feelings of irritation and discomfort, forcing the typical Young Magazine reader to think of what the relationship he has with his otaku fantasy is. But in the context of the story, I don’t think it works. First, though the placement of Chi’s ‘reset switch’ and subsequent need to avoid sex make sense before she finds Hideki, as her parents and sister want to avoid having her going down the road of anyone wanting a quick lay, there’s no sense whatsoever that Hideki is like this. What’s more, everyone agrees this is the case. And yet Hideki is explicitly told, “You win, you two are in love – but you have to stay chaste forever, as if you have sex Chi will ‘die’.”

I think this makes me MORE uncomfortable with them as a couple. It gives their love that unreal feeling, making her seem more like an object than we otherwise would. Which is not what you want to see from a series that’s been showing Persocoms having real, human feelings the last 8 volumes. Secondly, I think sex is a natural part of a loving relationship, and that denying it is denying part of what does make people human… or indeed a Persocom. Chi may never reproduce, but that’s not the only reason people have sex. And honestly, once Freya and Chitose have determined that Hideki is indeed Chi’s one true love, there’s no real reason they can’t do a quick redesign and move her reset button elsewhere. Chi may be more special than the Persocoms used for some as sexbots, but she doesn’t have to be the Virgin Mary.

So Chobits certainly made me think, and in that CLAMP succeeded. But I don’t think it’s a series I’ll go back to over and over again the way I do Card Captor Sakura or Reyearth… or heck, even X. CLAMP try to have their cake and eat it too here, presenting Chi as a fetishistic fantasy object (just look at every color insert, not to mention the numerous nude pics), but one that’s look but don’t touch. Which unfortunately reminds me of today’s modern-day otaku, decrying any cute anime female who is shown to have had a boyfriend before. Chobits is a cute love story with a dash of creepy. Sadly, the creepy is what stays with me.

Manga the week of 10/20

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There’s enough manga out in the third week of October that it reminds me of the bad old days when Viz and Tokyopop used to release 25-30 titles in the same week. This time, though, it’s Yen getting into the act, as they drop 14 new manga on us.

First up, though, Dark Horse has Volume 1 of the new Card Captor Sakura in its new omnibus edition. The first of what appears to be four planned volumes, this will have Vol. 1-3 of the original shoujo classic. Even the grumpiest of CLAMP fans, weary of their hijinks, tend to love this one to death. And rightfully so, it’s fantastic. (It’s also rated 12+, which makes me cry, but given that I think this is the volume with THAT engagement ring, I can sort of see it…)

Fans of the just-released Baseball Heaven might be interested in a new yaoi title from DMP, Double Cast, which has the same artist. And there’s also the Wings title Alice 101st, Wings being Shinshokan’s ‘non yaoi titles for yaoi fangirls’ shoujo magazine.

Vertical has the adorable Chi’s Sweet Home, while Viz has the gritty samurai drama Vagabond. Both, of course, run in the same magazine. Viz also has the Vampire Knight fanbook, telling you more than you ever want to know about Yuki Cross and her collection of vampire hangers-on. March Story is a Korean writer/artist who is being serialized in the Japanese Sunday Gene-X, so will inspire label debate. And more Kingyo Used Books, which will never get the blogosphere chattering, but is relaxing and makes me nostalgic for old manga titles I will never see here.

And then there’s Yen. For yaoi fans, there’s a new Black Butler (not technically yaoi, but come on…), and Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution is a reverse harem. For the guys, Omamori Himari is a plain old normal fanservicey harem manga. We get another volume of the Haruhi Suzumiya manga, and the first volume in its much, much better gag spinoff, Haruhi-chan. We get the first of a new 2-volume Higurashi set, the first one not adapted from one of the games – it’s an original to the manga storyline. And intriguingly, we get a 500-page omnibus of a manga from the magazine Princess, Dragon Girl. This is by the author of CMX’s Oyayubihime Infinity (which also came from Princess), and involves a female Ouendan! Only in Japan would a female cheerleader be an intriguing and unusual idea…

Cross Game Volume 1

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By Mitsuru Adachi. Released in Japan in 3 separate volumes by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

It feels like this has been a very long wait. Not just since Viz announced they’d licensed the manga, but long before that. Despite the presence of Short Program here several years ago, there was always a lack of Adachi here in North America. I imagine many manga fans, reading the back pages biography talking about him being one of the two artists most associated with Shonen Sunday (the other being his contemporary, rival and friend Rumiko Takahashi) are blinking and going, “Really?”

Yes, really. And now with Cross Game out you may have a chance to see why. The first volume (that is, the first third of this volume) sets things up nicely. A bratty but likeable young protagonist, whose main fault seems to be his inability to apply himself. His cute girl next door not-quite-girlfriend, who clearly already has his life planned out ahead of him, whether he likes it or not. And her younger sister, who’s a grumpy but athletic tomboy who resents our hero for taking up all of her sister’s time. A cute coming-of-age story with a potential love triangle, it’s clear that Wakaba has Ko wrapped around her little finger, and it’d take a lot to change that.

Then we get ‘a lot’ at the end of Volume 1. Without spoiling, I will note that I was worried the impact would be lost coming in the middle of Viz’s thick omnibus, but my worry appeared unfounded. Ko’s reaction is picture perfect, and the whole thing shows Adachi’s craft in drawing huge wellsprings of emotions from small, realistic details.

Cue Part 2 of the manga (the chapters even reset), and a jump ahead 4 years later, to where Ko is about to enter high school. He’s still pretty unmotivated – at least in public – and Aoba is still a grumpy tomboy, but the rest of the world has grown up a bit, and baseball is on the horizon. (Note: this being a Viz shonen manga, there will be no footnotes or explanations, so if you don’t know what the Koushien is, go here.) Ko joins the team, but is relegated to the second squad, mostly as he hides his talent.

I can’t help but note that Aoba notes she has no faith in Ko to take charge of his own destiny, and in many ways she has the right idea. Ko can be so laid-back he risks being uninvolving, but that’s also what makes him so intriguing. (Someone I know describes Ko and Aoba as ‘Ranma and Akane on lithium’, which is not quite accurate, but…) There’s only one time we see him get upset in the entire manga, and it’s rather startling; he grabs Aoba’s collar after she says something unthinking to her younger sister Momiji, and looks like he might even hit her, but instead backs off. It helps show that Ko DOES get upset, he’s just not naturally demonstrative.

In fact, Ko and Aoba almost gender reverse the usual manga types, with Aoba being the one trying to figure out what Ko is thinking, and his own emotions and needs being hard to read and fairly well buried. Their relationship is fascinating, not being like brother and sister (Ko gets that from Momiji, who seems to have become the sister he bonds with the most), but something almost deeper than that; it’s noted how similar Ko and Aoba are.

One other thing I wanted to note is the old-school 4th-wall breaking that occurs throughout the manga. It calms down a bit as the manga continues, but will never go away entirely. Ko hawks the re-release of Touch, Adachi’s early 80s baseball classic; his friends read H3 and H4, parodies of another baseball manga H2 which Adachi did in the mid 1990s; mentions Short Program, which is the only one of these to be released in North America, if long out of print; and also discusses Katsu, the boxing manga Adachi had written right before this. Adachi himself cameos to lampshade some things or make a bad gag; and characters speak to the reader and talk about their character introductions. This is a habit of Adachi’s (Takahashi used to do it as well; check out any volume of Urusei Yatsura), one I think they both got from Osamu Tezuka, who used to do things like this as well. It can take getting used to, but I found it cute.

Cross Game is not the type of shonen manga we’ve seen here before. Most of the sports manga that has come out here has been from Shueisha’s Jump line, and features a lot of manly tears, screaming, and overreactions. Sunday’s sports manga tends to be subtler (and just as long; H2 ran for over 30 volumes, and another Sunday baseball manga, Major by Takuya Mitsuda, ran for over 70), but no less involving. Viz noted that Cross Game started slow (and yes, also that it likely wasn’t a NYT bestseller – I’d love to be proved wrong on that) and decided to release this 17-volume series as 8 omnibuses instead. It helps here, as you get further drawn into the story, which picks up speed once the manga jumps ahead 4 years. Even if you aren’t a baseball fan, I’d still recommending getting Cross Game, showing Adachi at the height of his creative powers, and dealing with ‘growing up’ issues in a way that appeals to young boys just as much as Super Saiyans or ninjas. Highly recommended.