One Piece Volume 55

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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.

Another volume of One Piece where there’s just so much happening I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s try to hit the high points. (This review will contain spoilers for the volume.)

First off, Luffy quickly ends up battling Magellan. And gets his ass handed to him. Not since Smoker have we seen Luffy so defeated, only here there’s no Dragon to interrupt things. This doesn’t feel like a temporary setback, mostly as Magellan doesn’t feel like a Big Bad – he’s a jailer trying to do his job, even if his job is sending Ace to be executed. And so Luffy tries all his attacks, and is simply poisoned to near-death. It’s awe-inspiring.

Luckily, Mister 2 finds he cannot desert Luffy in his time of need, and impersonates Hannyabal to rescue him and try to get him to safety. Which involves a lot of wolves and ice-covered forests, but they eventually get there… New Kama Land. This leads us to our next big character introduction, that of Ivankov. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised at his appearance. Given Oda based a villain off of Eminem, it goes without saying that he’d base a hero off of Tim Curry. Sort of. And with the Hormone Fruit, we get another Devil Fruit which is both scarily appropriate and utterly ridiculous.

Two more things here: First, even though the transgenders and transvestites in this volume are clearly treated with an air of over the top comedy, it’s also clear that Oda has no disrespect for them at all, and they are in fact rebel heroes. I like this. Second, at one point Ivankov transforms an angry radical trying to kill him into a cute girl, showing he can switch people’s genders. This idea took Japanese and North American fandom by storm, leading to fake spoilers where we see female Luffy ready to break out of Impel Down, to Oda responding further in Volume 56. And let’s not even get into the ‘Crocodile was originally a woman’ theories…

Ah yes, Crocodile, aka the reason I put up the spoiler warning. I have to say, Oda loves to delight us with the unexpected, and nothing is quite as unexpected as perhaps the most popular Big Bad teaming up with our heroes, even if it’s just for a chance to get at Whitebeard. Unlike the cover page arcs, showing the minor villains learning the error of their ways, Crocodile is not particularly sorry or repentant – he just wants a fight, and freedom. Luffy is understandably unmoved, but Ivankov points out they need all the big guns they can get – and he’s right. Even better, this also means they free Jimbei, the Worlord and Fish-man who was imprisoned by the World Government for not going along with their plans.

And with this, we prepare to bust out of Impel Down. But that will have to wait for the next exciting installment of One Piece! Coming in February!

Maid-sama! Volume 6

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By Hiro Fujiwara. Released in Japan as “Kaichō wa Maid-sama!” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine LaLa. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

I’d actually forgotten about the initial premise of Maid-sama!, so it’s refreshing to see it brought up again in the first chapter. The premise being that this formerly all-male school is now co-ed, but the boys vastly outnumber the girls, and are, well, high school boys. And so this chapter shows that they need to clean their club room, as it’s gotten completely disgusting. Misaki and the others try to give a little bit of carrot by making them riceballs for snacks, but it’s mostly stick, with Misaki’s rage powering things. (Misaki’s riceballs being round shiny globes remind me of Special A, again, and the two series really do share a lot of gags.) Sadly, we get very little Usui teasing, and it’s the weakest chapter in the book.

But don’t worry, we get a new rival on the horizon, who will carry the next three stories. Yes, shoujo fans, it’s the long lost childhood friend, now all grown up! Hinata is the ‘aw, shucks’ country boy type, and once he realizes that Misaki was his childhood sweetheart, he tries his best to win her. Which really pisses Usui off, mostly as Misaki, being essentially a nice person, and also totally oblivious, won’t simply tell Hinata to go away. This leads to a great moment where Usui, never one for hiding his feelings for Misaki, notes point blank to her that he’s jealous. Cue blush.

Yes, teasing Misaki, aka the reason we read this manga. I have to say, I like tsunderes a lot more when they’re a) above the age of 13, and b) strong and dynamic female leads. As Misaki fits both, I can deal with the essential stammering denial. This leads to the best moment of the book, as Usui has watched Misaki deal with Hinata the same way she’s dealt with Usui – she regards them both as annoying problem kids she constantly has to watch out for. But when he presses her on it, she blushes more, knowing what he means, and indicates that Usui is “MORE trouble”. For a manga like this, that’s practically a confession.

This is very much of a snack manga, and will never wow you with its deep themes or amazing plotting. It’s shoujo-by-numbers. But the numbers are really pretty and the leads are dynamic, and there’s a great helping of humor. Lately Maid-sama! has been on the NYT bestseller lists, and it’s easy to see why – it’s cute romance with a healthy pile of humor.

NYCC/NYAF Day 3

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The final day of NYCC/AF was much milder and relaxed, and while there was still a crush of people, especially on the anime end of the building, it wasn’t the nightmare it was sometimes on Saturday.

After buzzing around the DR (I’ll append my swag list at the end of this post), and dropping by Kodansha USA’s room to reassure myself that yes indeed, they aren’t there, I ducked into the Miyazaki panel. It was well-done, with slides and everything, even if a bit rushed. I think all the panels I saw with cards and slide presentations (as opposed to just sitting and jabbering) felt as if they were pressed for time the entire panel, though their preparation also insured the panels were excellent.

Ducked out early as I had to walk clear over to the other side of the Javits to go to the Archie creators panel. Who decided to make the convention center 6-7 blocks long? In any case, this panel was a lot more informal than the corporate one on Friday, but was just as fun, with lots of discussions of what’s coming up next, followed by Q&A.; Alex Simmons, one of the Archie writers, hosted both panels and was probably the best moderator I saw all con, keeping things moving despite his notes being rather messy, and with a healthy dose of humor.

I commented on enjoying Archie characters when they show their flaws, and talked about my love of “insane Betty” stories. They all agree that playing up the flaws is what makes them want to write Archie, as otherwise it’s just a bunch of nice kids. Dan Parent, who was also on the panel, talked about how much he liked to play up flaws when writing Jughead fighting Veronica. The inevitable ‘what’s the S on Jughead’s shirt stand for’ question came up, and it was noted they played with this in several Archie Comics over the years, but only Bob Montana likely knows the answer. Best moments of the panel were the mild-mannered, deadpan replies from Victor Gorelick in the audience, who got more awesome the more I saw of him. Someone asked when we’d see Betty’s sister, which flummoxed the writers on the panel. “Betty has a sister?” the asked. “Betty does have a sister,” Victor answered. Long pause. “Betty also has a brother.” I laughed.

After this, I debated lunch but instead went over to Artist’s Alley, where I got a doujinshi that a friend had asked me to look for. Then off to Culinary Manga, Erin’s spinoff panel from her unusual manga genres. It was fantastic, not only talking about all the many, MANY cooking manga out now, both licensed and non, but also showing examples of attempting the recipes they have in the back of many volumes, and how hard they are to actually manage. I definitely hope to see more of these at future cons.

That was it for me, even though the con kept going till 5. Back to the New Yorker to get my bags (the room was tiny but otherwise it was quite a decent hotel), then off to an Irish pub for dinner and football watching (eating beer-battered fish and chips while watching the Cowboys self-destruct is something I recommend to anyone), and thence home.

There was not as much news as I had hoped this con, I will admit. What, still no Sailor Moon reprint? Stop teasing! And where was my Durarara!! manga and A Certain Magical Index manga announcements that I was sure in my head Yen would make? (Many things happen in my head that bear no resemblance to reality.) But I hung out with many old friends, met many new ones (introducing yourself by your name and Twitter handle was the hot new thing), and generally had a blast. Can’t wait for next year.

Swag list:
November’s Betsuhana
A back issue of Evening
Berry Berry 2 & 3 (Banri Hidaka, Hana to Yume)
Moteki 4.5 (from Kodansha’s Evening)
Ecce S 3 (aka Kono S wo Miyo!, aka that hypnobutt manga, from Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits)
Holy Brownie 2 & 3 (from the creator of Excel Saga, Shonen Gahosha’s Young King Ours Plus)
Haruka 17 Volume 1 (from Kodansha’s Morning)
Hetalia Axis Powers DVD 1
Buddha Volume 1 (Tezuka, ran in Ushio Shuppansha’s Comic Tom)

and stuff I got for free:

Black Butler Vol. 3 (Square Enix, GFantasy)
Daniel X (Yen original)
Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (Del Rey proof edition)
Bloodshot by Cherie Priest (Del Rey proof edition)
The Bobo, starring Peter Sellers (1967) (Warner Archive DVD)
The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) (Warner Archive DVD)