Gatcha Gacha Volume 4

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By Yutaka Tachibana. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Melody. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

After the serious drama that enveloped much of the last volume, it’s good to see Gatcha Gacha ease back and have some relaxing chapters with people actually being happy. Well, except Hirao, of course. And, well, Yuri is plagued by self-doubt. And so is Yabe. And Motoko? You’d think she’d be happy watching all of the screwups around her, but it doesn’t seem that way.

Yes, Yuri’s gotten what she wants, and is now dating Yabe. And proceeding to tell THE WORLD! We are reminded again of one of the main reasons why Yuri keeps getting dumped, as she has a tendency to overdo things, and smothers Yabe with affection and bentos. He’s unnerved by all this attention, and tries to get her to stop, but to no avail. And as the volume goes on, and Yuri keeps trying to get Yabe to say that she’s pretty and cute, and that he loves her, we realize that Yuri is still convinced deep down that she’s going to get dumped. 12 ex-boyfriends can do that to a girl.

Balancing this out we have Hirao, who at least manages to be a little more aggressive in this volume, but still gets nowhere. (The author notes in a sidebar how this manga features all strong women and weak guys. She’s right.) It’s interesting seeing Hirao from the perspective of Hanada, the council VP who’s crushing on him. The flashbacks we see show that whenever Hirao’s not dealing with women, he really is the perfect guy. Unfortunately, the end of the chapter, showing him seeing Yuri unconscious in the nurse’s room and trying to steal a kiss, show that women make him a complete idiot.

The wild card in all of this, of course, is Motoko. Even though this volume (for once) doesn’t focus on her, she’s still present throughout, manipulating situations for her own amusement. She’s certainly not confident in Yabe, saying point blank that he’ll make Yuri cry. “100% guaranteed.” There’s also a very intriguing scene where she tells Hirao that he is her “insurance policy”, saying there’s a time limit to all of this, and that either a) Hirao needs to make Yuri fall for him, or b) Yabe needs to genuinely fall for Yuri before that time is up.

Onward to everyone’s favorite shoujo plot, the school festival! Yuri is running around all over creation taking photos. Yabe and Hirao are dressed as old-school samurai, with Yabe even getting a shave and having his hair dyed back to its natural black. And Motoko is dressed up as a guy, pretending to be a seductive waiter in order to get more girls to buy ramen from their class’s booth. Motoko makes a very handsome man, needless to say. Yuri, for one, is intensely attracted to her dressed like this, and reminds herself that it’s just Motoko. (She actually seems terrified when Motoko gets too close – a reminder once again that it’s Yuri’s relationship with Motoko, even if it’s not romantic, that is the main pairing in this love comedy).

Yuri is twitchy in general – one of her ex-boyfriends is trying to get her back, and has decided that the best way to do this is by stalking her desperately and threatening her little brothers. Luckily, to her rescue comes both Motoko, pretending to be Yabe, and Yabe himself, both of whom threaten the guy within an inch of his life. Of course, Yuri doesn’t actually need all that much protecting – she shows up and decks the guy, swearing that if he comes after her family again she’ll kill him. I have to admit, Motoko may be the reason people read Gatcha Gacha, but Yuri’s no slouch either.

The confrontation leads to more Yuri and Yabe love-love, and even Motoko is starting to wonder if he’s actually serious about this. Clearly we need some sort of hideous plot complication. Oh, there it is! Hirao sports someone familiar wandering around the festival. It would appear to be Motoko’s sister Kanako. The trouble, as Motoko helpfully notes, is that Kanako is in fact dead. However, that’s not stopping her showing up in a classroom right as Yabe and Yuri are about to kiss… and Yabe spotting her. To make matters even more confusing, she doesn’t recognize the man she once stabbed. Is this really Kanako, or just a lookalike coincidence?

The last 6 pages of the book focus on Sekine (dressed as a cute girl for the festival) and Motoko (dressed as a hot guy) and Sekine’s unrequited crush. Even the author’s side comments note that Motoko is in denial about her sexuality (most likely as she associates those feelings with Kanako.)

So we’re now halfway through this series, and this volume continues to do what Gatcha Gacha does best – provide us with broad, trashy soap opera of the finest kind. Complete with Motoko’s violent boots to the head. Certainly the cliffhanger of this volume promises more and more complications for Volume 5.

One Piece Volume 50

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By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

And so at last we come to the end of Thriller Bark, and the fiftieth volume of One Piece. That’s quite a lot. I think it’s now the manga with the most volumes released in North America, though I may be wrong. There’s no special anniversary aspect to it, though, it’s just taking care of business as always.

But first, we have to take care of Moria. Luckily, Moria seems to have sown the seeds of his own destruction by trying to take in just a little too much power, which means that all that needs to happen is Luffy kicking his ass a bit. Seeing everyone’s shadows return is a lovely montage, especially coming right after the nightmarish image of Zoro, Robin and Sanji’s bodies burning to ash. I particularly liked seeing Margarita (who’s “gotten over” her hatred of plates) – Cindry may be genuinely dead now, but at least the shadow attached to her was saved.

Unfortunately, before anyone can celebrate, Kuma shows up. Now this is really unfair. Luffy’s knocked out after dealing with Moria, and everyone’s exhausted. Doesn’t Kuma know the most basic rules of shonen battles? He basically tells the crew that they can all live if they let Luffy die. This goes about as well as you’d expect. And then Kuma basically takes out everyone. Well, almost everyone.

I have to say, the chapter with Kuma and Zoro is possibly one of Zoro’s finest moments, and it’s not for his swordsmanship. Zoro’s unswerving loyalty to Luffy has always been one of his best qualities, and here we see him literally sacrificing his life for Luffy’s. Of course, as he’s hella tough, he does not in fact die, but I think the intent was there. Some nice interaction with him and Sanji as well.

And so now with Kuma gone (for the moment), we actually do get a celebration, and we finally hear Brook’s backstory. And it’s very sad, if only as it’s not nearly as spectacular as Robin’s or Franky’s. This is not the story of some pirates up against formidable enemies, or the World Government. This is a pirate ship, filled with enthusiastic crewmates, brought down by sickness and plague. This is the sort of thing that happens to pirates on the Grand Line *all the time*. The ones we never see. Only now we have Brook, with his revive fruit, who can show us. And his reward is to be alone, on a ship with his dead crew, for 50 years.

But now he has the Straw Hats! And yes, Brook joins the crew, which should surprise no one. And off we go again on more adventure! … except that Ace’s life is apparently in danger. Um, yikes? This must be why Kuma asked about Ace in the previous volume. Oh well, Luffy thinks Ace can take care of himself. So yes! More adventure! And they reach the other side of the Red Line, showing they’ve sailed halfway around the world. (Oda has said that this is about the halfway point of the manga, so that makes sense).

Unfortunately, they’re having a little bit of trouble getting to Fish-Man Island. Luckily, they manage to rescue a pretty mermaid to help them! And this time she genuinely is a pretty mermaid. In fact, she seems a little familiar… I’m sure we’ve seen her before, perhaps in one of the cover arcs. But anyway, she’s cute! And a bit of a ditz. And her friend Hachi is in danger! Hachi… hrm, that seems familiar too.

This volume wraps up an arc which proved more solid than I recall, probably as it read much better in volume format. In Volume 51, we deal with the masked man we see at the end of this volume. Who is he, and why does he hate the Straw Hats?

Butterflies, Flowers Volume 3

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By Yuki Yoshihara. Released in Japan as “Chou Yo Hana Yo” by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Petit Comic. Released in North America by Viz.

OK, yeah, I’m starting to get that Hot Gimmick feeling a bit here. Just a *bit*, mind…

Oddly enough, Masayuki isn’t the problem. He continues to be the world’s worst boyfriend, constantly giving out mixed signals, vacillating between sweet and caring prince and horrible asshole. But the author is at least trying to show that she knows he’s being an ass. Both times he’s at his worst, Choko calls him on it and stomps off, leaving him devastated. As with Volume One, he has no idea how to behave around her, and thus falls back into easy patterns. Unfortunately, neither of those patterns are healthy.

But they’re funny. Oh god, they’re funny. If there’s anything that’s keeping me reading this series like a madman, it’s that Masayuki’s abuse of Choko is so ridiculously over the top that I can’t help but laugh. I will try to avoid spoiling the best lines, but he really takes sexual harassment to a new level. Your jaw will drop several times as you leaf through this volume, and as you double check to make sure it says ‘Shojo Beat’ on the spine still. Likewise, Choko’s morning after conversation with her two ‘girlfriends’ is hilarious if only as it’s far more accurate than we’d expect from romantic manga, with Choko harping on the painful aspects of losing one’s virginity.

Yeah, sorry, have to give that one away. There is sex in this volume. Not that this should be a surprise, as Yoshihara said in the last volume that she’d never gone two volumes before without her heroes jumping into the sack. They came close last time, but manage to go all the way here. It’s handled pretty well here, with Masayuki being on his best behavior (well, aside from his tendency to scale small buildings with Choko draped over one shoulder…), and it’s explicit while not being crass, just as you’d expect from a mainstream josei title.

However, one of the main problems of the series (like so many other shoujo series that I complain about) is its heroine. Choko needs to take charge more, not of her boyfriend but of her life. She looked fine standing up to Masayuki in the two scenes I mentioned earlier, but both times she then went off and immediately got herself into trouble, which of course required a rescue. (At least the second time she manages to escape on her own, but the implication at the end is this will be more problematic in Volume 4.) So the manga is sending a bit of a mixed message, showing that in the end she really *does* need the big strong man to come rescue her, and keeps her in a default mode of meek and helpless.

I enjoyed Volume 1 so much because it showed that both Choko and Masayuki have personality issues that needed to be overcome before they could be a good couple, and seemed to imply that the goal of the series was seeing them get to that point. 3 volumes in, I worry that the point of the series is that Choko just needs to sit back and let Masayuki take good care of her (and give her great sex), and all her problems will be solved. And while that sounds like a female fantasy, it’s not really one I want to see in a shoujo manga, especially one of the few in North America that stars sexually active women *over* 18. And yes, I know this is a josei manga in Japan, but Viz is marketing it (albeit shrinkwrapped) as a Shojo Beat title. Marketing is important.

I will still be buying the series, because I love the over the top humor. As I’ve noted before (and this is slightly hypocritical), jerkass guys work better for me if they’re being very silly, and Masayuki’s jerk moments are so ridiculous that I actually want to see more of them. I think the author has good characters, and my hope is that we’ll see Choko grow into a strong woman. It doesn’t happen here, sadly.