The Qwaser of Stigmata Volume 1

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By Hiroyuki Yoshino and Kenetsu Sato. Released in Japan as “Seikon no Qwaser” by Akita Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Champion Red. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

It’s been a long time since I’ve actually spent money to purchase something I knew ahead of time that I’d dislike. I picked up this title, however, feeling that it’s possible that my blog was getting too positive, and that I was only reviewing titles I could enthuse over. And I knew that this title would be talked about the moment Tokyopop announced it. So I decided to get Volume 1 and struggle through it.

Imagine my surprise when it managed to be even worse than I’d anticipated! The blatant fanservice was pretty bad – I mean, the writer says in the first line of his author’s notes, “Hello, do you love breasts? I love them very much!!”. That tells you exactly what you’re getting into. The plotline of the heroes needing breast milk – pardon me, soma – from your handy big-breasted girl is perhaps not one that I’d expect in a mainstream manga (no, not even from Champion Red), but certainly would not be out of place in any number of hentai doujinshi, so we can’t even claim that as an innovation.

(As a side note, when I think of the word ‘soma’, I naturally think of Blake’s 7, as my youthful memories are filled with Vila whining about how all he needs is some soma to keep him going. This makes me imagine Avon offering his breast to Vila to suckle, something which I’m amazed slashers never came up with. But I digress…)

Then there’s the rest of the plot that’s not about breast sucking, which manages to be just as predictable. Private school, lots of bullying of the poor heroines. Shy meek girl turns out to be a sneering villain all along, very typical of these sorts of shonen manga for guys series. And speaking of secretly evil girls, we also have the Goth Loli. I’m surprised that he didn’t work in animal ears in some way… oh wait, that’s right! The nun Teresa just HAPPENS to have hair that falls so that she looks like she has dog ears. I will admit, the sheer gall of piling all these things together is somewhat impressive.

If only it made a lick of sense. It is possible that my lack of knowledge of the Russian Orthodox church might be forcing me to miss some important plot points, but I suspect even a Patriarch would stare at this manga in confusion. The second half, which is essentially a giant fight scene of the “Fool, you thought that was powerful enough to destroy ME?” variety, would work just as well with no dialogue whatsoever, and I actually wonder if the art was drawn first, and Sato just gave this to Yoshino and said “Fill this in with words.” I’m used to shonen manga, especially ones built around fights, where the plot is irrelevant. But the way it’s used here, with its religious iconography and metal symbols, is almost completely incoherent.

I have no desire to get another volume of this, but I suspect I don’t need to. The hero and heroine will work hard to protect the pure purity pureness girl with huge breasts from various villains that get more powerful. No doubt by Volume 2 or 3 our hero will need to suckle on our heroine’s breasts to get a powerup. This will be presented as titillating but will not actually lead to anything remotely resembling romance, as the action is totally divorced from any love or romance. No doubt she will hit him at some point. And no doubt they will gain allies who will also provide their metal powers – and associated breasts – to help out.

This is still running in Japan at 9 volumes, so no doubt it’s popular. But man, what mindless entertainment it is. You can do better if you’re looking for shonen fighting series. Hell, you can even do better if you’re looking for women with big breasts. Not recommended.

Code: Breaker Volume 1

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

I have to admit, sometimes a series can surprise me. I’ve become so used to generic fighting shonen that when I see something out of the ordinary (at least for what’s licensed over here), it really draws my attention. And for a first volume, Code: Breaker (from the author of Samurai Deeper Kyo) gets off to a great start.

It has several things going for it. Our hero is tortured, but not in a typical “wait till you learn of my tragic past” way, or even a “I am a complete ass to hide my sincere love of all humanity” way. Ogami is seen here killing several people throughout, painfully, by burning them to death. He seems, from what we’ve gathered so far, to regard himself as something less than human, and very much believes in vigilante justice. Of course, we suspect he DOES have a sincere love of all humanity, mostly from the little things. Killing a dog painlessly as he knows her injuries are irreparable. Going nuts on the yakuza thugs after seeing the adorable family photo of the man they’ve addicted to drugs.

I am not sure, however, that we’ll ever see him gradually turn towards the light. It’s a rare shonen series that has as its second cliffhanger the hero trying to KILL THE HEROINE. It’s implied he was simply messing with her, but the whole thing is played deadly seriously. It’s especially compelling as we genuinely like this heroine. Sakura is a girl who has the unfortunate luck to look just like a quiet, shy Japanese doll, even though she’s a martial arts expert, freakishly strong, and somewhat of a busybody. She’s spunky and likeable, yet at the same time we can see how irritating she would be to someone like Ogami.

It’s not all burning flesh horror, of course. The school scenes are quite funny, mostly due to the interplay between the guys’ image of Sakura and the misunderstandings of the interaction between her and Ogami. Basically any time Ogami has his eyes closed and is smiling happily is comedy gold, as seeing him being a jerk *is* fun here, mostly as he’s not being presented as a hot romantic lead. In fact, I suspect what romance this series has will be small and vague.

Now, to be fair, I know of many shonen series that start strong and then turn into a series of suspiciously similar sidebattles. (That was far more alliterative than I’d planned.) I’ll definitely get Volume 2, but much of my enjoyment will likely depend on how Sakura continues to be portrayed. Despite being a martial artist brawler, she’s barely seen fighting here, and the author’s previous series started with a strong female character then sidelined her. Shonen series, especially ones with lots of fights, depend on characterization and development to keep me going, as I don’t really care about seeing 150 pages of fists flying and Secret Techniques.

Still, Volume 1 totally did its job. Characters I want to know more about, an evocative mood, and some cute humor to offset it (love that puppy!). Definitely recommended.

Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei Volume 7

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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.

For my ongoing war with Del Rey’s lack of an editorial department, see the reviews of Volumes 5 and 6. Again, endnotes are chosen almost at random, with many relevant things left unexplained. This is especially noteworthy in the chapter on inappropriate names of books, as the chapter clearly depends on knowing the books in question (that they’re parodying) for the gag. Also, saying that Dice-K pitches for the Yankees? You fail forever, Del Rey.

This is, however, a very strong volume of Zetsubou-sensei, featuring a greater than usual amount of topics that make sense to both Eastern and Western readers. And, to be fair to David Ury, translator/adaptor since Vol. 5, some of the adaptation is excellent. My favorite story in the volume, which features Nozomu going on about how people say ‘half-‘ something when they don’t mean exactly half, is a great example, as it works in both straight translation of the original (when relevant) and adaptations of hard-to-translate gags (when needed). In particular, Chiri is at her scary best here. My favorite is when she confronts the student about being half asleep, and just says “No.” over and over as he tries. She actually said “No.” in English for the anime, making it even creepier.

There’s a lot of disturbing, weird and creepy in this volume, as you’d expect from a gag manga. I was expecting the naked guy’s full-frontal nudity, sketched and indistinct as it was, to be censored – very happy that it was not. Even if it’s the exact opposite of fanservice. Chiri’s half-crying makes even Meru gibber, and justifiably so. However, the prize has to go to the giant 50-foot Nozomu made entirely of people, which just makes my flesh crawl. Naturally, Chiri loves it.

There are a couple of things in this volume that will become important later, or at least as important as it will ever get here. We discover that Harumi is skilled at far more than just manga, but how she uses her God-given talent is somewhat questionable. We meet the one character whose punny name might actually be recognizable to Western readers, Jun Kutou’s rival Kino Kuniya. He doesn’t actually do much, but then few of the male classmates do. We also meet another main female character here in the girl who’s the library aide, though she’s been around silently since Volume 1, and we won’t get her name and quirk till Volume 8. She’s funnier with her quirk. :)

And of course there are the gags. Which are hit-and-miss, as you’d expect, but with far more hits than misses. Some of my favorites are Nozomu’s red strings of fate (shades of Ataru in the 3rd UY movie), all of the Matoi robots stalking the Nozomu robots, “I was only half-joking”, Harumi’s reaction to the soccer ball being kicked at her head, and using before and after pictures of Michael Jackson to show things deviating from the original idea. My favorite gag, though, as to be Chiri’s ‘authentic witch’ costume. Koji Kumeta has mocked Ghibli before, and he will again, but this is one of his subtler and better timed jokes.

If you can get past some questionable editorial practices (one more example: Chiri saying “Goodbye, Zetsubou-sensei” at the climax of Chapter 69. Come on, Del Rey, you even begged Kodansha to let you keep the original title! If you’re going to tell a joke using your title, TELL THE JOKE), but is still a strong comedy manga with striking art, laughable mocking of various habits, and the biggest set of sociopathic classmates you’ll see this side of a horror manga. Recommended.