The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 6

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By Nagaru Tanigawa and Gaku Tsugano. Released in Japan as “Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press.

And here we have another volume of the Haruhi manga, this time finishing off the 2nd novel, and featuring the story Live A Live from the 6th novel. This is, I believe, the first manga volume to not only come out after the anime that North American fans saw before it appeared, but also after the novel itself, which Yen released in November 2009. As such, it’s running at a double deficit. Triple for me – the 2nd novel is my least favorite, as I think it has Haruhi at her worst, with no redeeming qualities.

This is especially noticeable in the most notorious scene from Sighs, where Haruhi behaves so appallingly that Kyon actually moves to hit her. In the book, it’s a startling moment, with an illustration devoted to Haruhi and Kyon facing off. Unfortunately, in the manga it’s far too rushed, merely looking as if Kyon is feeling especially violent that day.

To contrast this, we have a great example of the manga fixing something where the novel was lacking. After this blow up, Kyon is reminded that he needs to stop Haruhi from getting angry/depressed enough to remake the world, so he goes in and basically says to her, “Let’s do this movie, yeah!” It’s utterly unconvincing. The manga, on the other hand, has him trying to think what would make more of an impression, and getting Mikuru to film a new promo for the movie (one without commercials) to air. This galvanizes Haruhi into doing a mega hyper voiceover, and all is well. It’s the best moment in this volume.

The less said about Live A Live, the better. The anime took this story and turned it into the highlight of the entire first season (and possibly the second as well). Without sound, and rushed into a single chapter, it’s just mediocre as all get out. And the cute side-story about Kyon’s sister sneaking into the festival reeks of filler.

However, as ever we are redeemed by the larger original to the manga story, in which Haruhi and the others head to a lake that is rumored to have a Water God. For once, Haruhi doesn’t seem to believe that there’s actually something to this. So why is a boy missing, and why is the fog rolling in? The purpose of this story, besides creating a tense mood while tracking down the missing child, was to give Nagato some depth, and I thought it worked very well. It’s especially nice to see Nagato acting on her own for her own reasons, as opposed to merely interacting with Kyon and doing what he says.

The manga has the same strengths and weakneses as the prior volume, and again I suspect will only be bought by hardcore Haruhi-heads. The next volume should be very interesting, though… it’s the start of Disappearance, which is thought of as the best of the novels, and recently had a kickass anime movie filmed of it. Can the manga rise to its material and make it a trifecta of awesome?

Fairy Navigator Runa Volume 1

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By Miyoko Ikeda and Michiyo Kikuta. Released in Japan as “Youkai Navi Runa” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Del Rey.

We’ve been seeing a lot of Nakayoshi titles from Del Rey recently. They had a decent success with Kitchen Princess, and I think felt they could get a similar audience with these stories. Plus the artist on this series had already done well over here with Mamotte! Lollipop. A nice cute magical girl series seems right up there alley.

And it is nice and cute. The series knows its audience, which is to say girls of about 7 to 8 years old. (This is to say, what its audience SHOULD be. The rating on the back of the cover says Ages 13+, for reasons I can’t remotely fathom. Maybe due to the violence, as we do see two characters get bloodied towards the end. I guess they have to note it, but really, it’s losing them their biggest market, which is the 2nd to 3rd graders that Japan is marketing this to.)

The heroine is a 10-year-old spunky ditz, like many Nakayoshi heroines, but still very likeable – the niceness is meant to be her trait, not the ditziness. She worries about her grumpy best friend, who’s been avoiding her lately. She wants to fit in and make friends. And she’s promptly swept up into an interuniversal struggle and told that she’s really a princess with magical powers!

So far this series has more of a Sailor Moon vibe than a Card Captor Sakura one, if only as she’s not immediately given a male counterpart to get angry with and have spunky elementary-school crushes at. At least not yet, as the series introduces a couple of very good candidates for this role in Volume 1. However, it does show our heroine coming into her powers fast and dropping the smackdown on the villains.

In fact, the best part of the volume is the ending. After seeing her best friend kidnapped, and her two animal/human mentors beaten and bloodied, Runa calls upon her magic powers of whoopass and goes to town on the villain. She notes coldly that she won’t forgive him, and the villain is clearly begging for mercy. And then she’s called back from the brink, and reminded, basically, that magical girls don’t kill their enemies with a cold fury. It’s a great moment, making you realize that Runa is meant to only be 10 years old, and may not have the serene maturity many of her kind do. Of course, she recovers and bathes the villain in healing light of pure love. I mean, it is still a magical girl series.

This is pretty good at what it does. It’s not spectacular, and there’s nothing in it that makes me want to pick up the remaining 5-plus volumes. But then, I’m not an 8-year-old girl. For its target audience, this gives young girls exactly what they want. A normal girl who is promptly told she’s a Princess and has a magical brooch that grants her awesome animal-oriented powers to beat up vague bad-guy creatures. Go for it, Runa.

Excel Saga Volume 13

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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.

And at last, we have the final piece of the Excel Saga puzzle, as our last major character is introduced. We’ve had hints as to her identity for some time now, but we finally get to meet Shiouji’s mother, Miwa, in the flesh. And there’s certainly a lot of flesh to meet. Rikdo is having to pay for gradually introducing more and more busty women, as he needs Miwa to be bigger than all of them. Her proportions verge on the unrealistic at times, even for manga. But her personality stands out just as much as her bosom.

Miwa is an unrelenting force on this manga. She’s cleverer than her son, she knows a lot of answers but refuses to give them away… and she also used to be a shy and meek woman, and ‘changed’ after her husband disappeared 20 years earlier. There are many amusing fan theories about this. She makes everyone uncomfortable – her son, Dr. Kabapu, Umi. Heck, she even grabs Misaki and crushes her face to her chest. Misaki! Certainly she makes a more convincing evil mastermind than Kabapu or Il Palazzo, even without actually doing anything evil other than suggest she has secret knowledge.

Of course, Il Palazzo is stepping up his game as well. As we saw in the last volume, he seems to be letting the ‘evil’ personality (as opposed to his default ‘deadpan’ personality) take over, and now starts to actually do things himself, utilizing the awesome secret technology at his disposal. Appearing as a giant hologram over the entire city is a way to make them sit up and take notice, even if they think it’s just a movie.

And speaking of secret technology, Kabapu finally decides the time is right to tell his team the big picture. That’s right, we finally get backstory at last! … Can we take this backstory seriously, though? Certainly Misaki and company seem to regard it as ludicrous (you know your secret origin is silly when even Iwata stares at you blankly). That said, certain flashbacks we’ve been privilege to thanks to seeing Excel and Il Palazzo’s memories imply that the kingdom of Solaria might not be ENTIRELY in Kabapu’s head. (Though it’s certainly enough to try to get Misaki to flee the country, and realize that she can’t.)

The most important scene in the entire book is Misaki’s meeting with Shiouji in the park. First off, aside from a few token mentions, Shiouji’s pedophilia is quietly dropped about now. Secondly, the two of them form an alliance of sanity that not only helps when one needs a break from the zany antics of the other, but also let Rikdo do giant infodumps with relative ease. His description of how Ropponmatsu’s stunningly advanced abilities are not so much due to a superior robot brain as a superior POWER SUPPLY are fantastic. And help to tell us that there is still a lot we don’t know about Solaria/Kabapu/Il Palazzo. Kabapu notes that Ropponmatsu’s core is, in fact, the RULER of Solaria… something that will become far more important in a volume or two. (You must be bored with me saying that.)

The volume isn’t *just* an infodump, mind you. Although there’s not as much action as usual, we have our usual dose of hysterical Excel Saga humor. All of Excel and Elgala’s attempts to capture Ropponmatsu. (“It’s a miracle! She must have remembered to bend her knees!” “Yeah, a lot of people would forget that after the first twenty stories…”) The director of the idol show that Excel and company end up working for (who is clearly a parody of someone). Everyone’s reaction to Kabapu revealing he’s thousands of years old and part of an ancient civilization. Umi’s reaction to Misaki arriving at Shiouji’s lab (and her outfit). The only letdown, humor-wise, is the side story AU at the very end, a parody of hospital drama and Resident Evil that allows him to draw Dr. Iwata being appalling, but isn’t as much fun as previous side-stories. It does have an “Acchon-burike!” for Black Jack fans, though.

An essential volume for information, and I’m sure that next volume will get us back on track regarding breakneck action. There may also be some gratuitous nudity.