Vampire Knight Volume 10

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By Matsuri Hino. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine LaLa. Released in North America by Viz.

Plot and continuity continue to be the main weakness of this manga, but I’m not sure it matters much when you have this much style. Much of this volume is taken up with big fights that don’t actually happen. Yuki and Zero’s confrontation is interrupted by Kaname, Kaien Cross’s fights are either offscreen or aborted, Kaname and Zero are stopped by Yuki… and this takes almost 200 pages to happen. And yes, I’m still flipping to the cast list at the back constantly, trying to determine which brooding bishonen is which.

I was amused by the cover, which features the four main females of the series. Yuki and Sayori’s pose is reminiscent of so many other shoujo (and boy’s love) manga that I can only regard it as parody now, and luckily they have two cool-headed vampires to protect their yuri tease. Not that Vampire Knight has any yuri tease. But at least we have the cover.

The pacing is glacial in this volume, which, while a bit frustrating, also allows you to admire the artist’s craft as she draws her gothic nights and sensuous killers. The last chapter was the most interesting to me, as it showed a flashback to the vampires’ childhood and gives us the explanation for Ruka’s crush. And no doubt it dashes the hopes of many fans by showing that Kain has a crush on Ruka, also unrequited. Silly Hino-san, keep your vampires ambiguously gay!

Meanwhile, I found the omake chapter with Yuki and Kaname’s parents incredibly funny as well, if only as it was so utterly normal. Walking in the rain after school, grumpy tsundere girl, smirking teasing guy… and seeing them as lovey-dovey adorable parents makes you wonder how many of the other shoujo couples that we follow end up like that. (And then there’s the last panel where Yuki says she wants her and her brother to grow up to be like her parents, but then if you’re reading Vampire Knight you’ll have come to terms with the incest by now.)

In my previous review I noted this was a series for people who likes to moon over attractive vampires, and that hasn’t really changed. Nothing of consequence happens here besides everyone retreating and Zero saying that he’s going to kill Yuki the next time they meet. Yeah, somehow I wouldn’t bet on that. But Yuki still makes a better heroine than most, and the series still holds that guilty pleasure attraction.

Soul Eater Volume 3

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By Atsushi Ohkubo. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press.

This volume of Soul Eater proved to be much better than the previous one. Then, I could only recommend it for the insane art-deco style art and backgrounds. Now I note that the characters seem to be developing, there’s a great bad guy who’s incredibly terrifying in places, and some of the battles actually hold my interest (a rarity for me; I tend to skim any fight in shonen manga).

That said, the art is still the best thing about it, but that’s cause the art is really fascinating. As a brief example, check out the final page of Chapter 7, with Tsubaki and her brother squaring off inside the sword. The grinning moon, the shadow stick figures, the ground that appears to also be a sea… it all combines to give an utterly unsettling feeling, which is absolutely appropriate for this scene. Of course, the whole manga has a frisson of this, as the entire world of Soul Eater is slightly off, and you NEVER feel completely at ease reading it.

Some of the characters help there as well. Medusa is a fantastic villain, managing to give off that wonderful evil villainess vibe, and back it up with deeds. Possibly my favorite creepy moment was her grabbing the mouths of Erika and Mizune and sticking her fingers down their throats. It’s utterly vile, and also foreshadows an even more utterly vile moment later. I can’t wait for this woman to be taken down, though knowing shonen manga as I do, it may take a while.

I admit to being wary when I saw that the main storyline in this volume would involve Black*Star, who I found the most annoying of the main cast by far in the first two volumes. And he’s still a bit annoying here as well, but he’s starting to grow a little bit. We learn about his background, and some of what drives him to show off. More to the point, we begin to see what Tsubaki sees in him – which, since she’s so sympathetic and likeable, is important to make the reader not think she’s an idiot.

And for those who like Soul Eater’s sense of goofy humor, the entire chapter about Excalibur will be right up your alley. I particularly liked the expressions of disgust in this one.

Soul Eater is still finding its feet, and I’m still not totally sold on it. But this volume was a big improvement, and it actually managed to hold my attention with something other than the artwork. I look forward to another.

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Volume 4

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By Yoshio Sawai. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume of Bobobo is, like its predecessors, difficult to review. There’s no plot as such, except ‘defeat boss, move on to next boss’. There are technically characters, but they aren’t going to grow or change. And there’s no real subtext here. There’s just the gags. Pure gag manga, unfettered by anything connecting it to reality. Gintama can get this goofy for maybe a page, but it has actual things going on. Jaguar and Kochikame are pure gag comedy as well, but those two are situational. In Bobobo, the situations bend to whatever the artist wants to draw next.

Anything can change to become anything else mid-panel. This is part of why I describe this manga as exhausting, and say it works best in weekly 14-page chapters. There’s just too much thrown at you at once, and the volume is LOUD all the time. And there aren’t even different gags. It’s the SAME gag, repeated. Bobobo, Poppa Rocks or Jelly Jiggler will do something insanely silly and random, and another character (usually Beauty) will point out how stupid it is, usually with a bug-eyed look of shock.

So why do I keep reading it? Well, in a series with this many gags being thrown at you this often, some of them have to hit. And when Bobobo is funny, it just makes me laugh hysterically. As with everything else in Bobobo, I may not be able to explain why I’m laughing, but I know it’s funny. Poppa Rocks’ farting sheep, the incredibly silly backstory for Rem (a human with futon parents), All of Bobobo and Poppa Rocks’ Super Fists. Best of all, a totally random gag where Bobobo unleashes tiny little clones of himself on Rem, saying that it’s Super Fist of the Nose Hair Great School Trip. The tiny Bobobos all emerge grinning and shouting “Yaaaay, Kyoto!” This made me laugh almost till I cried.

A lot of this manga is simply the author mocking other Jump manga, particularly the older ones such as Fist of the North Star (obviously) and Saint Seiya. But you really don’t have to know about them to enjoy Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. You don’t have to know much of anything. You just have to have a high tolerance for in your face comedy, and be aware that you’re seeing 10 gags thrown at you every minute in hopes that one or two stick. They usually do.