Kimi Ni Todoke Volume 5

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By Karuho Shiina. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Margaret (“Betsuma”). Released in North America by Viz.

I must admit, I’m starting to wonder if perhaps this series is a bit TOO shiny. After reading every volume, I feel as if I’ve just had a thorough scrub with soap and water. Everything around me is brighter and cleaner, in a Ivory Soap sort of way. Even the villains in this manga tend towards the misunderstood cutie type. There *is* conflict, but it’s the sort that involves simply being unable to speak your true feelings. I’m getting to the point where I really wish that perhaps a beloved sister would die, or perhaps someone could fall down a well.

Of course that’s rather petty of me, as this series is so sweet I can’t wish badness on anybody. And to be fair, we do get some real-world nastiness, as Yano breaks up with her college age boyfriend… who then belts her across the chops. (It’s meant to look like a slap, of course, but she has a bandage over her cheek the next day, and it’s still visible a couple days later when they’re over at Ryu’s place. He really socked her.) I liked this scene if only as it added a bit of depth to Yano, who’s generally the smartest and most mature of the group. It shows that it can be hard to follow your own advice, and reminds us that even though she’s the mature older one in terms of plot beats, she’s still a high school girl capable of making horrible decisions about men.

But enough of that, back to the heartwarming and adorable. Even the angsty moments are filled with this, as we see when Kurumi finally confesses her crush on Kazehaya. She knows how this is going to go, as do we. And Kazehaya, being the perfect guy, even lets her down in the perfect way, immediately noting he likes someone else, and then when she asks if her confession made him happy, notes that it did and thanks her. I think this is the turning point for our view of Kurumi, and though she doesn’t appear for the rest of the volume (which is more concerned with Chizuru and Ryu), I hope she shows up again, if only to see if she’s abandoned her fake ‘cute’ persona.

Then there’s chapter 18, which is just one giant ‘d’awwww!’ from start to finish. Sawako’s parents’ reaction to Yoshida and Yano, the pictures where Sawako isn’t a ‘ghost photo’, Pin’s ludicrous paranoia, and of course Kazehaya’s panicked embarrassment. Moments like these are important in the series, as not only do they make it funnier and more heartwarming,. but they also humanize Kazehaya a little bit, which is necessary for someone like him, who tends to fall into ‘far too perfect’ if the author is not very careful. Sawako has this issue too, but her painful earnestness at absolutely everything takes the curse off her.

(She’s like a Yotsuba for teen shoujo. “Look, my friends are coming over! Look, photos! Look, adorable flashbacks!” Like Yotsuba, though for different reasons, every experience Sawako has is the most wonderful thing ever.)

Lastly, we have the Chizuru’s crush plot, which will extend into the next volume. Here we get some much needed depth for Ryu, who has tended to be the sensible one but not much else. He’s comfortable with his unspoken love for Chizuru, and here we see why it’s unspoken, and how difficult it is for him to try to protect her without her knowing it and without his own feelings becoming clear. It’s an incredibly difficult task as Chizuru is not the brightest bulb in the lamp, and her combination of straightforward and unthinking leads the reader on a heady course for disaster… which will presumably have to wait for Volume 6, as we end this one with a cliffhanger.

I did greatly enjoy this volume, and I wonder if I’m just being picky when I note that it’s too sweet and wonderful for its own good. Hey, sometimes you want a good meal, and sometimes you want cake. And this cake is really well made, one of the best cakes currently coming out in the North American manga community. Go get yourselves some sugar, folks.

The Magic Touch Volume 9

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By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan as “Oyayubi kara Romance” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

And so my favorite lost cause comes to an end, wrapping up all of its remaining dangling plot points that its editor will let wrap up. I had to laugh at Tsubaki’s sidebar, where she notes she wanted to end the manga with Chiaki’s bitchy twin sister again, as that’s how it started, and her editor said “Don’t do that, no one remembers her anymore.” It’s funny because it’s true.

So what do we get wrapped up here? Why, Chiaki and Yosuke’s feelings for each other! Which we actually wrapped up in Volume 8, so naturally we have both of them doubting themselves here. To the author’s credit, however, I did like the way she handled this. They met through massage, due to Yosuke’s stiff back. Now that he’s resolved his past demons and confessed to Chiaki, he’s relaxed. A fact that, when realized, sends both of them into panic. Chiaki as she fears now that he doesn’t need massage Yosuke will abandon her, and Yosuke worrying that he now has no appeal to Chiaki and her massage-obsessed self.

So Chiaki suddenly becomes obsessed with getting sexy. This is the second funniest part of the manga, as she goes around asking for advice on how to be a hot sexy thing. Considering that she’s an adorable puppy of a high school girl, most people correctly point out it would be hard to carry off, and also note that Yosuke would just be irritated with her for trying to put on a fake sexy persona anyway. My favorite part is when she turns to “Sexy Queen Natsue” for advice, who notes that she doesn’t try to be sexy. When Chiaki then turns to Harumi and asks what he finds sexy, and he wriggles and blushes, Natsue quickly notes how sexy she finds his embarrassment.

In the end, of course, the couple realize that it’s not just about massage for them, but their love of each other, and they reconcile. This leads to the final epilogue chapter, where the third-years (Natsue, Harumi and Ayame) graduate, and we get a big party to wrap it up. It’s very odd seeing a series end with the graduation of beta characters but not the leads, but this is the danger of making your lead couple first-years. (I had forgotten to note the funniest part of this volume, by the way, which was Yuna’s attempts to bake a cake. As a best-friend character she’s been really generic through the series, but her baking attempts are so bad they put even C-Ko to shame. This, combined with Yosuke’s managing to get a great cake out of her by bullying her through it, drill-sergeant style, were hysterical).

And then there’s Natsue and Harumi, my favorites. As is usual by now, they don’t get big moments, but little fun scenes. In addition to the aforementioned sexy definition scene, we see Natsue getting extensions (so her hair now looks as it did in the flashback) in order to attempt to look younger; Ayame deviously tricking Harumi into giving Natsue his second button on his coat (I love Ayame more and more with each book), and finally Natsue and Chiaki talking about the future, and future worries. This ends with Natsue turning and giving Chiaki (and more importantly the reader) a big smile. The buildup to this wasn’t perfect, but that’s irrelevant, as it’s meant to be pure service as a reward to the reader for 9 volumes of Natsue’s deadpan face. It’s fantastic. (And we get Harumi’s smile at the end as well, in a mirror to the end of their flashback from earlier volumes).

There’s lots of add-ons in this volumes, showing once again how messy and disjointed it actually is. A list of what the editor rejected in terms of plotlines, pages talking about what happens in the future to many of the minor characters, and a bunch of 4-komas to wrap things up. Really, the final volume of The Magic Touch is almost a microcosm of the series. It has a lot of massage, some cute but ultimately sexless romance, a lot of plot points that seem to go somewhere and never do, and a cast where you have to keep reminding yourself who is who. Despite this, I still am recommending it, as just because a series isn’t great doesn’t mean it does not have redeeming qualities. For one, it’s nice seeing the development of a series (and its editorial fiats) so blatantly on the page. And for another Natsue is totally awesome. Even the author agrees – she names Natsue as her final character here.

We’ll miss you, Magic Touch. But look forward to Oresama Teacher in 2011.

Excel Saga Volume 15

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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.

This is the final volume of what I like to call Part 3 of the Excel Saga manga, and ends with a major sea change for the entire series. It begins right where we left off, though, with Hyatt ‘captured’ by Kabapu’s people and posing as Watanabe’s wife, and Excel and Hyatt having been arrested by the JSDF as terrorists.

I’ve got to say I love Excel and Elgala’s double act. It works better than Excel and Hyatt, as Hyatt’s occasional tendency to get snarky to Excel in previous volumes seemed rather out of character for her. Elgala has no such issues, and the best part is that she and Excel can trade off boke and tsukkomi several times over a single conversation. Witness first Excel and then Elgala discussing how they ended up going to an all-female prison island on a rickety boat. By the way, Excel is COMPLETELY AWESOME right after this, where the warden threatens her with rape and she just goes berserk, screaming “Does no really mean no? YES!” and noting she’s saving her virginity for Lord Il Palazzo.

Meanwhile, Hyatt and Watanabe’s love-love marriage is still going on, but it can’t possibly last. Just as he’s about to finally go all the way with her (and she actually seems very willing in doing this), Il Palazzo (who had been absent for all of Volume 14) shows up and holds out his hand. And BOOM, Hyatt’s back to normal, working for ACROSS, and defending her Lord against the evil Watanabe who might try to harm him. This leads to two wonderful things: Il Palazzo and Hyatt’s stroll through Fukuoka at night, which is just a masterpiece of funny; and Watanabe’s complete nervous breakdown, which in this volume just seems to manifest itself in his playing H-games, but will get far, far worse.

Hyatt reminds Il Palazzo that he does have two other followers, something that he seems to have completely forgotten. Much is made of Il Palazzo’s on-again, off-again memory, and this volume seems to show it at its worst. Having been reminded, though, he quickly goes to rescue Excel and Elgala, who have found themselves at the mercy of an insane missionary priest, who as Carl Horn notes in the liner notes looks an awful lot like the insane priest from Berserk when he’s trying to kill both of them. Fear not, though, Il Palazzo is here to teleport them to safety!… OK, so he only teleports Elgala, leaving Excel behind. And seems to have forgotten she exists again. Such is life, however.

Excel, as we know, is not without her mad skillz, and quickly sets out to defeat the priest and run through the jungle to return to her beloved ACROSS. Meanwhile, Kabapu is starting to run into issues. It seems that a new electronics store has popped up, offering insanely high quality advanced gizmos at obscenely low prices. Called ILL, too. Gosh, who could be behind it? To make matters worse, Ropponmatsu I has been stolen by Il Palazzo. It’s heavily hinted that it’s Miwa who let this happen, so that she can advance her own hidden agenda. To make matters even WORSE, a lot of Kabapu’s political cronies are suddenly being arrested, and his stocks are starting to fall.

Meanwhile, excellent news on the ACROSS front. Excel has managed to extricate herself from the jungle, and is now ensconced in a high-rise as ILL’s president. Hyatt and Elgala, her underlings, are also living high on the hog, and everything’s coming up roses. We see how well things are going in a giant party thrown for ILL by city leaders, praising the company for its stimulus of economic growth. Kabapu is there as well, and has a complete and utter freakout when he sees Il Palazzo and confronts him about the missing Ropponmatsu. And finally, to round out the volume, Umi is running through the rain to get back to her beloved professor, and comes across a rather familiar-looking bedraggled body lying in the gutter.

Yes, that’s right. It’d be a spoiler if it was a surprise, but it’s not much of one. The real Excel is that body, and Il Palazzo has given Ropponmatsu an upgrade to create RopponExcel. Rikdo did try to fake out the reader for a chapter or so, showing RopponExcel yelling at Elgala and demanding to be called President, but there was never really any question – this Excel was simply far too cool and efficient to be our heroine.

So what now? Will we have Excel doing battle against her robot double? Will Hyatt and Elgala realize that their Senior is a fake? Will Watanabe get over the loss of Hyatt and find himself a nice sweet girl? And what of Kabapu, who by the end of this volume was starting to actually look his age, with his hands starting to tremble as he gestured? Find out in Volume 16, start of the ‘Teriha’ arc!