Excel Saga Volume 17

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By Rikdo Koshi. Released in Japan by Shonen Gahosha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young King OURS. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s another volume of Excel Saga, and Teriha still hasn’t recovered her memories. She’s clearly still influenced by them, though, as she tells Umi that she has to get a part-time job to help pay for expenses, as she feels a distressing need to work and get cash. She actually proves to be fairly good at waitressing, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise given that she no longer has the hyperactive destruction personality of old. The cafe she works at is not only more otaku mockery, but also features a character who’s a lookee likee of Karin Kanzuki from Street Fighter.

We do get two chapters which feature her amnesia, and attempts to reverse it, prominently. In the first, she’s kidnapped by goons, who mistake her for “President Excel” of ILL – a place, of course, currently being held by RopponExcel. There’s no bounty coming from ILL, who look over at their own Excel and reason she hasn’t been kidnapped. So it’s Ropponmatsu II to the rescue! Yes, Shiouji has finally managed to activate her, though she’s a lot more robot-like and less genki than she was before.

The second chapter, and one of the best parts of the book, is her dream sequence after reading about “President Excel” in a magazine. Teriha knows the name is important, but not why. She then has a dream where the sound and picture keeps flickering in and out of focus, featuring Elgala and Hyatt (whose names she doesn’t remember); Shiouji, Umi, and her new life; Menchi (who is terrified of her, which makes Teriha sad); and finally a loud, obnoxious blonde with a long braid. “Who is she? So loud… and violent. She’s intimidating… but… it feels like I’ve always known her.” And then, finally, we see Il Palazzo, whose face is black with shadow, crying out “THIS WORLD IS CORRUPT!” and she wakes. Sadly, she still doesn’t have her memories, but it’s a terrific sequence, and I’d love to see it animated.

Meanwhile, back with our friends at the government, Kabapu is not doing well. In fact, he’s pretty much dying. And he keeps getting arrested for fraud and tax evasion. Needless to say, things are looking bad, but then, a miracle! It’s the gold bar! Remember the gold bar? For those who don’t, this is the gold that Elgala retrieved from her adventure in order to pay back the money she’s taken out of an ATM in a drunken stupor. Hyatt then wanted to use it to pay back Watanabe, but never did. When the apartment complex burned down, the bar got stored with other possessions, and they’ve found it now.

This allows Momochi to gain access to Kabapu’s secret bank accounts, and restore his wealth. Now rich and (semi)-powerful again, Kabapu recovers, in a scene that is so awesomely silly and perverse I don’t dare spoil it. Carl Horn notes in the Endnotes that it’s the volume’s finest moment, and he’s right. Now the security force can once again fight as AGENTS OF JUSTICE! Yes, it’s the return of the sentai suits, only now they come with a naked transformation scene, much to Misaki’s horror and outrage. Though, with Kabapu having wealth but not power, and vowing to destroy Il Palazzo by any means necessary, it’s quickly pointed out that they are in fact terrorists now.

And like all terrorists, they need a secret base! Of course, Kabapu has forgotten the security codes, meaning they will have to break in. This is easier said than done, especially when one of the people breaking in is Iwata, who’s gotten increasingly goonier ever since he got his new robot body. Needless to say, they trigger the self-destruct, which is very difficult to countermand. We are briefly reminded of Misaki’s feelings for Iwata when she seriously asks Shiouji if he can do anything, and he (equally serious) apologizes, noting he can’t. Iwata demands that Misaki confess her love before he dies. Which she does! Granted, it’s in a sort of deadpan monotone, but with Misaki, you take what you can get.

Of course, they don’t die. A mysterious person (who is clearly Miwa) stops the self-destruct at the last second, and they now have their base. Because Miwa is no longer using it as her OWN base. I have to say that Miwa is really shaping up to be the true villain of this series, despite her large-breasted come-to-Mommy facade. At the end of this volume, she asks Teriha if she has regained her memories, and notes (staring right at the reader) that getting memories back might not be as pleasant as she thought. Is she talking about herself? Teriha? Excel? We know that the Excel we know and love ALSO has buried and repressed memories…

In any case, now that Kabapu is back in action, the story looks to step up again. Teriha is still Teriha, though, so I think we need a new chew toy for the manga to play with starting in Volume 18. Hrm… Miss Elgala? Are you free?

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 11

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By Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki. Released in Japan as “Kurosagi Shitai Takuhaibin” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Dark Horse.

This volume offers a comparatively long story for this series, taking over 3/4 of the book. But it’s all good, as this is one of the better stories they’ve done, focusing on a little girl trying to ‘start over’ after supposedly murdering her mother and sister. As Carl Horn notes in the Endnotes, the story is loosely ripped from the headlines, riffing off of Nevada-tan and using a box cutter prominently. It goes in a different direction, of course, with the girl having some supernatural abilities.

The girl herself may be a minor weak point here, as she’s shown to be very calm and unemotional through the whole sequence. Of course, this may simply stem from the shock of seeing her mother killed in front of her, and then being arrested and convicted of her murder. (Speaking of which, that mother was absolutely badass, doing her best to protect her daughter while dying of a slit throat. Major props.) The girl has a natural distrust of people from that point on, and her abilities don’t help, as they tend to show her the dark underside of humanity.

We also get more political commentary, something you don’t necessarily expect from a horror manga. Sasayama tells our heroes the girl’s back story, and notes that the girl’s conviction was pretty much railroaded through the system, especially once the tabloid press got a hold of the story. A great line here, noting “Why do you think Japan has such a high conviction rate? It sure as hell isn’t because they’re *all* guilty.” Eiji Otsuka has used this series to advance his own beliefs many times, and the beauty of the series’ setup is that it never really feels out of place. And even when it turns into a long talking-head lecture, there’s always more corpses around the corner.

As for our heroes, they do a lot less this time around, mostly being there to find corpses and let events play out as they should. They get more to do in the other story in this volume, involving a miracle swimsuit that turns out to get into doping Olympic Athletes. Readers who dislike rats may wish to stay away here, though they’re mostly just rat corpses. I also cannot help but note that both stories featured Karatsu and Sasaki staying behind while the other 3 do the ‘leg work’. Usually Karatsu would have been right there with them. This is lampshaded when Karatsu notes that it’s nice hanging out here with Sasaki, something which causes her to blush. Is she trying to make her move in her best socially inept way?

However, really this volume of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service is about Chihaya, the little girl from the first story. Her story runs the emotional gamut, and gives us plenty of gore (lotsa slit throats here) and eerie horror (page 142 is your creeeeeepy of the volume), but not in such a way that I was nauseated or wanted to stop reading. And the fanservice is higher here as well, with several pages of a bath scene, but it’s presented naturalistically rather than perversely, just like its corpses are. Really, this series is for fans of all good manga, not just horror fans. Everyone should be reading this. Highly recommended.

Walter Lantz Cartoons Part 10: Ski For Two, The Pied Piper of Basin Street, The Painter and the Pointer, Chew-Chew Baby, Woody Dines Out

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A nice variety of cartoon this time, with 3 Woodys, a very weird Andy Panda, and the last Swing Symphony we’ll be watching – there was only one more after this, sadly not on DVD, and after that Lantz turned his attention to classical music for a bit.

We get some classic Russian folk singing in the first Woody seen here, Ski for Two. Woody’s looking for food, as always, and finds a ski lodge that notes it specialized in delicious food. So he hops on a train and heads to far northern climes, then skis the rest of the way (40 miles!), while singing the folk song ‘The Sleigh’, a classic in its day. He also throws in a line or two from Ochi Chyornye to boot. Naturally, this being mid-40s Woody, the proprietor is Wally Walrus, who notes that Woody doesn’t have a reservation. Despite noting that he has tons of reservations – for other inns and sporting events – he gets thrown out anyway. (Great line when Wally calls Woody impulsive. “IMpulsive? I’m REpulsive!”.) Woody then tries to get in by pretending to be Santa. Wally does not do himself any credit by buying this, mostly as it’s only October. In the end though, Woody gets beaten up by Wally when trying to abscond with the food. Most of these Culhane Woodies have 7 minutes of him going insane at people, then briefly getting his comeuppance.

For the final Swing Symphony we get to see, it’s a barnburner: The Pied Piper of Basin Street boasts in its credits that it features Jack Teagarden, one of jazz’s most prominent trombone players of the time, as well as a bandleader. The plot is essentially your standard Pied Piper, with the rats wreaking havoc all over the town. The mayor (a not particularly good caricature of Lou Costello – Lantz still can’t do celebrity impressions that well) is far too lazy and shiftless to do anything himself, but jumps at the chance for a Durante-ish piper to drive the rats out of town. And, of course, then reneges on the deal, paying the piper in peanuts (literally) and throwing him out. So the piper turns into Frank Sinatra and lures EVERYONE out of town – from the high school kids to swinging grannies. (I note that one shot has a guy in a malt shop sharing a drink with identical twin hotties – nice work, kid.) The town ends up on a swing riverboat with Ozzie Nelson and Glenn Miller’s band. The mayor ends up with the rats. Great stuff, and fantastic music.

The next Andy Panda cartoon is rather bizarre, especially in amongst the others in the series. Andy’s been redesigned by Shamus Culhane, and looks more adult but also less like a panda. In addition, he’s apparently gotten a bit psychotic. He’s having his pointer hold a pose while he paints him, yelling at the dog whenever he tries to move. A nagging fly gets the best of the dog, who not only moves but wrecks Andy’s painting. In response, while going to get a new canvas, Andy ties a shotgun to the dog’s leg, set up so that if the dog moves, it will shoot him dead. Yeah. For fans of the cute and harmless Andy Panda, this must have been jaw-dropping. Lantz himself hated it, and the personality and design reverted in the next cartoon. The plot itself is weird even beyond this, as it involves two goony spiders who decide to forgo their usual fly menu and catch and eat the dog. Even for a Culhane cartoon, this one’s nuts, and I’d call it more interesting than good.

Back to Woody and Wally for Chew-Chew Baby, yet another in a progressively long series of cartoons where Woody is obsessed with food. He’s also a deadbeat, so we open the cartoon with Wally throwing Woody out of the boarding house he runs for eating everything and paying nothing. Woody, searching for ways to get food and revenge – in that order – finds that Wally has put an add for ‘female companionship’ in the paper, so dresses up as Clementine in order to get some more food. Another fast one-liner – “Are you refined?” “Refined? I’m 110 Octane!” The usual Woody eating and abuse follows, with some cute cartoon gags such as the stoplight breaking Wally’s fall. In the end, Woody blows Wally up AND gets away with all the food. What a jerk!

He’s even more obnoxious in Woody Dines Out, which takes a break from Wally Walrus for a bit and has Woody battle an evil-looking cat. Woody has more right to be appalling here, though, as the cat is trying to kill him. Woody, desperate for food and finding only closed restaurants, wanders by a place that specializes in “stuffing birds”. Yeah, well, Woody doesn’t have to be smart, he gets by on being loud and appalling. The cat is a taxidermist, who at first thinks Woody’s just annoying, but then recalls he has a flier offering $100,000 to anyone who can stuff a king-sized woodpecker. That’s almost 1.2 million dollars in today’s money, so the cat turns bloodthirsty. He gives Woody a soup laced with knockout drops (“Blackout borscht”), then prepares to slice him up. Woody quickly escapes, and proceeds to abuse the cat mercilessly, mostly with an elevator. In the end, the cat abandons his dreams on money, mansions, yachts, and women, with Woody invading the last one and taking the women for himself!

Some excellent cartoons, with one exception, and even that was bizarre and wrong enough to be interesting. I am hoping that we get something soon other than Woody trying to get food.