The Renegado

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By Philip Massinger. First published in 1630 (six years after its first performance) by John Waterson, bookseller. Current edition published by Arden Shakespeare in 2010.

So I’ve been reading a lot of Shakespeare lately. The Arden Shakespeare is a series that’s been around since the early 1900s, putting out critical editions of Shakespeare for scholars. These editions usually take years to compile, and each book has its own separate editor. The Second Editions came out from the 1950s to the 1980s, and the Third Editions are coming out from the mid-90s to the present. The third editions have done very well, and are about 2/3 through Shakespeare’s catalog. They’re updated for modern scholarship. For example, they can now discuss various homoerotic subtexts that were frowned upon in the old days. Likewise, we’re seeing the first Arden editions of plays like The Two Noble Kinsmen, and even plays-once-removed such as Double Falsehood (based off the lost Cardenio).

With this in mind, Arden has decided to expand its brief a bit and put out a separate line of ‘Early Modern Drama’, devoted to the Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration plays that don’t get as much attention as a Shakespeare would. This began in the Fall of 2009 with 4 plays; The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster; an omnibus of Everyman and Mankind, two medieval morality plays, and Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster, one of the better known Tragicomedies. Now they’re also doing Massinger’s The Renegado, another tragicomedy, but one with a thrilling blend to draw in modern readers. Turks, harems, eunuchs, and pirates! No ninjas, alas.

The Renegado is a pretty decent play, especially considering all it’s trying to cram in. Like most plays of its period, it has 5 or 6 plots that all converge. And, despite my joking about the play’s modern sensibilities, it’s also very up to date for 1624, when it was first performed. Piracy was a big issue then, with the glamor of the pirate king gradually giving way to the reality that most of them were utter scoundrels and murderers. Likewise, Turkey was another common topic to write about, as they were a fresh new ‘other’ to vilify and be fascinated by. Sure, they’re heathen savages who will all burn, but damn, what impressive armies!

Most startling, though, are The Renegado’s views on religion. Not Islam, necessarily – Islam is still shown to be on the losing end of religious beliefs, and the nice Catholic girl gets to keep her chastity while the heathen Mahometian girl (as they were then known) is converted and betrays her people. No, the real surprise here is the way it treats Catholics. The play came at a time when King James was trying to marry his daughter off to a Catholic, and was thus trying to soften opinion. It wasn’t softening much. Parliament was still vehemently against the Jesuits.

It’s stunning, therefore, that not only does the play feature a sympathetic Jesuit priest (the presence of Jesuits itself is not stunning as the non-Turk cast are from Venice), but he manages to get Grimaldi, the turncoat pirate, to repent and regain his faith. There is even a baptism! I’m impressed that a copy of this play managed to survive. And yet apparently it was really not all that controversial in its time, or at least little controversy about it has survived.

The play’s not all melodrama, of course. You know it has a happy ending as it has the label ‘tragicomedy’, but for plays of this period, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s FUNNY. (Remember, Merchant of Venice is a comedy too.) Luckily, we have a wacky comedy servant, who gets some great lines, and the chief Eunuch, the one Englishman in the play, who amuses himself by trying to trick the servant into ‘gaining access’ to the harem. The servant does not know what a eunuch *is*, of course, leading to much wordplay. “All you need to do is part with a precious stone or two…”

I greatly enjoy these Arden critical editions, both Shakespeare and non. Not only are they lovingly footnoted, with text annotations and context, but they have long, historical introductions discussing the life of the author, the play, and the performance history. You’;re not just reading a play, you’re getting a history lesson. It’s only out in the UK at the moment, but Amazon’s US edition will be released in 2 weeks. If you’re only going to get one… well, get The Duchess of Malfi, which is stupendous. But this is great too.

Kimi Ni Todoke Volume 4

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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.

Everyone has that character. You know the one. It’s never the MAIN character, or at least it very rarely is. Usually one of the supporting cast. And they aren’t the only reason you read the manga, certainly. But oh, you love them to bits. You prowl through every volume that comes out, eyes skittering around the page, searching for them so that you can spot their moments. They’re your addiction.

For me, with Kimi ni Todoke, it’s Ayane Yano. I’m not sure why. She doesn’t hit any of my usual buttons, while all the other main girls do. Chizuru is the loud and clueless tomboy girl. Sawako is the earnest yet ostracized construction project. And everyone hates Kurumi, so naturally I must love her. But no, it’s Yano that makes me jump up and down.

Take this volume, which is mostly devoted to Kurumi’s ongoing war trying to get Sawako away from Kazehaya. Yano’s instincts immediately tell her what’s going on, and she does her best to help Sawako without manipulating things. She reminds Sawako to keep a clear head and not overthink things. She confronts Kurumi with a few caustic remarks and veiled threats, all delivered with a smile. And when she’s ready to break Kurumi, and Sawako tells her not to, she immediately realizes why, and knows that it’s not what Sawako would want. In a high school shoujo manga with a bunch of idiots, she (and Ryu) are there to be the smart ones.

And yet she’s also hysterical. Her ‘Libby’ persona gives her fuller lips than the others, most clearly seen in Super-Deformed mode, and it makes her expressions very funny. I love every time she gets irritated with Chizuru for missing the point. And of course, there’s the growing realization that, as much as this is to help Sawako, it’s also due to finding someone who’s not only prettier than Yano, but it’s a more natural beauty as well. Her victory pose screaming about how she’ll find out what facial lotion Kurumi uses is a triumph.

Mostly, though, I like Yano as she’s the one character here who *isn’t* the stereotype. Among the wallflowers, tomboys, and quiet guys, she’s someone who in any other manga would be, if not the villain, at least one of those selfish girls harassing the heroine. In Kimi ni Todoke, though, she’s one of the heroine’s best friends. Gotta love that.

Oh yes, speaking of that villain, I do indeed love Kurumi. Not for the usual “Sean always loves characters fans hate”, though I guess there’s a certain amount of that. But Kurumi is a very well fleshed-out villain. You never really doubt that she’s going to fail – this stars Sawako, after all – but she’s actually very clever in the ways that she tries to break Sawako. The rumors never got back to her as she was using the ‘cute nice girl’ persona she’s spent years crafting. When that didn’t work, she tried sweet-talking the socially crippled Sawako into thinking she might like Ryu (nice of Ryu to immediately kick that in the head – and with a secret confession he likes Chizuru, too!). Nothing, however, seems to work. And what’s worse, she finds her real personality coming out around Sawako without even thinking.

I never doubted for a moment that Kurumi would be ‘redeemed’, as she is at the end of this volume, mostly for the exact same reason Sawako did. She used her correct name, always. Someone ashamed of her own first name would notice another’s being misused, and just as Kurumi is unthinkingly nice around Sawako, she also can’t seem to be cruel to her in the way everyone *else* is – she can’t be unthinkingly cruel. She has to work at it.

The best scene in the book is the final one, with Sawako confronting a broken Kurumi after stopping her friends from ruining Kurumi’s life. She tries to point out that Kurumi actually confessed her feelings to someone, even if it was only Sawako, and that it must have felt good. This works, but when Sawako tries to point out that Kurumi is also incredibly cute, Kurumi loses it.

“I know I’m cute. That means nothing! If Kazehaya doesn’t like me, it doesn’t mean anything!”

This series is a potboiler, but it’s a potboiler whose default mode is fun, which I always prefer to the default-earnest potboilers. Even as this volume ends with two girls sobbing at their unresolved feelings, you know the next volume will bring good cheer. Or at least more SD-faces.

V.B. Rose Volume 8

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By Banri Hidaka. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

So much of shoujo romance manga is about how to read a person’s feelings. I can’t possibly confess to him, I’ve no idea how he feels about me! Look at the way that he jerked away when I touched him – he hates me! That sort of thing. And it’s all over V.B. Rose 8 as well, even with the fact that we actually get the most plot development yet.

The Sakashita siblings are a good case in point in terms of how to play with an audience’s expectations. With Yukari and Ageha, they can’t read each other’s feelings for each other, but we can. It’s incredibly obvious to us how they feel. Mamoru and Nagare, though, are another story. I wouldn’t say they’re villainous – this is not the sort of shoujo to have nasty villains – but their smiles make us uneasy. It doesn’t help that Hidaka-san parodies this by having them both join in a round of crazed maniacal laughter midway through.

In fact, much of this volume seems to be Hidaka riffing on her previous works. Ageha and Tsuyu go over to Kana’s apartment for a heart-to-heart, and Ageha asks point black about Kana’s past with Yukari. We then get an extended flashback to their fragile history together, done fairly straight. It’s at the exact same point we got a flashback in I Hate You More Than Anyone – mid Volume 8. Then we cut back to Kana, staring off into space, and we realize that this was all in her head, and she never actually said anything to Ageha! Nice take-off on shoujo convention of “let me tell you about my past”.

(I have to wonder if Hidaka-san had been reading One Piece while she was writing this. Not only does the extended tragic flashback that we’re never sure is actually stated out loud remind me of Robin’s flashback in Enies Lobby, but when asked about when she told them about her past, Kana replied, “In my heart.” Kana is a person who definitely knows where Sniper Island is.)

There’s another cameo from the two leads of I Hate You More Than Anyone! here, and again you don’t really have to read the previous series to get it, but it’s fun. There’s a coincidental bit of timing here in North America, too, as this volume of V.B. rose namechecks one of Maki’s friends who’s a designer, and we see a little SD-picture of her. It’s Fujisawa Eiko, who we are currently seeing doing a fashion show 12 years earlier, in the 9th volume of I Hate You More Than Anyone, just out last month! It’s enough to make one an obsessive geek, I tell you.

However, the big story here is that Ageha and Yukari get together at last (again, her series parallel – Volume 8 was where Maki and Kazuha got together). It’s sweetly done, showing Yukari’s awkwardness and Ageha’s uncertainty, but ends up being very sweet. Of course, there are 14 volumes in this series, not 8, so I’m sure there will be complications. From Nagare, if no one else.

The art here, by the way, is utterly gorgeous – and that is something that’s different from the competent but not outstanding art in IHYMTA. Hidaka-san has really polished her skills, and of course a manga about a wedding dress shop is going to want to show off the fashion. Chapter 45 is almost purely gratuitous – between the pages of nothing but fashion AND the Maki and Kazuha cameos – but you never mind, because it just looks great.

We’re now into the second half of this terrific series, and I love that we can see the way that Hidaka-san improves her craft with every volume, as well as the subtle ways she manages to not only poke fun at manga conventions but also her own past. Highly recommended.