Eyeshield 21 Volume 31

Leave a reply

By Riichiro Inagaki and Yusuke Murata. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume of Eyeshield 21 finishes off the final between Deimon and Hakushuu, and it’s a nailbiter that allows a big moment to most of the cast. Sena shows that he can stand up to Marco’s defense, Kurita defeats Gao thanks to his years of training and his dreams of the Christmas Bowl. (This is shonen, of course dreams are more important than strength). And Hiruma reads situations and changes the plan so fast that your mind simply boggles.

There’s a key bit here where Sena tosses a weak wavering lateral that Monta of course picks right up. Marco notes that he’d assumed that Deimon’s strength is their trickery, and Hiruma’s tendency to do the unexpected and come up with wild ideas. Hiruma does do all that, but the true strength of Deimon is the number of hours they all spent practicing. They can almost read each other’s minds now. This is important for a sports manga because you have to show that the winning team gets there through honest to goodness hard work, just like YOU, young Japanese boy, can!

And so Hiruma is able to tell at the final handoff that his broken arm won’t alloiw him to hand off perfectly to Sena. Sena, who also has a strained arm, notes this as well. So they improvise, and rely on Kurita to ensure that whoever runs the ball in will get into the end zone. Which they do. Deimon wins, they’re going to the Christmas Bowl!

The last scene with Marco was very well done. He’s a mirror to Hiruma, except that another reason for his wanting to win everything was to impress his girl. Well, that’s gone to hell. Still, he underestimates Maruko, who had been watching his dedication the whole time, and notes that if she really hated the way he was doing anything to win she’d simply have quit. So they’re happy, and it’s nice to see one tiny romance in the otherwise chaste Eyeshield 21. (Hiruma may be a mirror to Marco, but he and Mamori won’t be getting together anytime soon.)

And so we get to the awards ceremony, and we see a lingering presence who is identified as Teikoku’s QB. The evil one! The new enemy! And look, he’s a jerk as well, having abandoned his teammates the Spiders just do that he could be on the winning side! And abusing his meek, shy girlfriend! What sort of plot will we…

Oh wait, big fakeout. Yes, the guy is a jerk, but to his frustration, he’s not even fourth string. Teikoku’s QB? It’s the meek little girl. (I assume that you threw your disbelief out the window a long time ago if you’re still reading ES21.) This was a great revelation when it first came out in Jump, a bit less so in the volume itself. It’s just surprising that Sena and company didn’t know Karin was the quarterback, especially since it’s shown they HAVE been researching Teikoku (we see Mamoru cutting all the bits about Honjo’s WR son from press clippings so Monta doesn’t see it and stress out). Especially since Takeru notes Teikoku’s strength is that they’re so good they have nothing to hide.

Still, seeing a meek and shy girl on the football team is interesting, and she’s clearly meant to remind us of Sena. In the end, Teikoku is built up to be unstoppable, but we all know what happens with overconfidence. And Sena ends up proving no slouch either, easily defeating the jerk 4th-string QB in a practice scrum. Oh yes, and Takeru, their star RB? He’s the ACTUAL Eyeshield 21 who was at Notre Dame, and this Christmas Bowl will be about who can keep the title.

A good volume, wrapping up another long game sequence. We should have only a brief breather before the Bowl begins in Vol. 32. As always, the strengths of this series are the shonen spirit it embodies, and the outrageous ideas it contains. And its weakness is the fact that sometimes the writing can’t quite convey these ideas as well as it wants to. Still, definitely recommended.

I Hate You More Than Anyone! Volume 9

2 Replies

By Banri Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Sekai De Ichiban Daikirai!” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by CMX.

At long last, I have caught up with IHYMTA. Volume 9 came out in North America last month, and Volume 10 isn’t due till July. Not to worry, for those who enjoy seeing me ramble on enthusiastically about titles no one else reads; there’s still a lot of Excel Saga to go.

This volume (and isn’t that just a fantastic cover, btw? One of the most striking I’ve seen in a shoujo manga) finishes off Maki’s long flashback detailing his past with Saki and the tragic backstory therein. Saki, of course, rather than being an evil villain, turns out to merely have been a lonely teenager lashing out in an effort to get attention and love. Unfortunately, this leads indirectly to a suicide attempt by Maki’s crush, Azumi.

I still don’t *like* Saki at all, but there are some things that temper my dislike a bit here. First of all, other characters are clearly trying to show forgiveness and allow him to try to move on, namely Kazuha and Maki’s mother Karen. If they can show kindness, why can’t I? Secondly, we get our first big look at Maki’s father Kichii, and oh my God what a louse. He’s clearly a fantastic and devoted hairstylist, but his inability to keep it in his pants has ruined several lives, and his incessant whining about things in his discussions with Karen makes you wonder what the hell she sees in him. Still, we have 4 books to go after this, so I’m sure we’ll see more of him, especially if the blurb for Vol. 10 is any indication.

As for Saki, the whole thing with him and Maki reminded me a bit of Fruits Basket, which was running at the same time as I Hate You in Hana to Yume. Saki sees Maki as having the loving family and friends that he never got, leading to a repressed hatred. It brought back memories of Yuki, watching Kyo the ‘wretched cat’ end up making friends and getting along with people far more easily than he was able to. The grass on the other side of the fence is always greener?

We then get a brief flashback (yes, again) detailing how Maki first ‘met’ Kazuha, when he was in his car waiting outside Mizushima’s day care and saw her coming to pick up Rei. It’s a very good sequence, as it shows off the difference in upbringing between Maki’s multiple fractured families and Kazuha’s loving, huge one. Seeing her with love and support, and having a hideously obvious crush on Mizushima, who he knows is engaged, makes Maki feel angry.

Luckily, Mizushima (who will apparently not get the character backstory I was waiting for, apparently by editorial fiat as things were running too long) is able to convince Maki that, as we know from reading this series, very strong feelings for someone does not always equal dislike. This last sequence is very sweet, finally ending the epic series of flashbacks. And so now, after 9 volumes, the two are dating.

Of course, things aren’t over yet. The fashion show is almost on us, and Senko has now agreed to model. When Kazuha tries to find out more, a mortified Senko pushes her out of the 4th story window where she plunges to her death. The end. Oh wait, I forgot this is still cartoon violence central. Kazuha is back upstairs in about 10 seconds, merely bleeding excessively from the forehead. The expressions on the rest of the class (who react as you would if you saw one friend push another out of a high window) are a stitch. Hidaka-san is really starting to parody herself now:

Senko: Welcome back, miracle survivor!
Kazuha: Thanks, bashful murderer.
Asako: You guys are scaring us. Hurry on back to your own country.

After this the rest of the volume isn’t as good, but that’s mostly as the high point came early. Everyone’s getting ready for the fashion show (and thank God Honjo has stated he’ll merely style Senko’s hair – I totally agree with him, cutting it would be horrible), and we get to see Maki and Honjo looking sweaty and bishie. The whole family’s here as well, as Maki’s parents and Saki both show up, and stepmother and prodigal son have a muted if touching reunion.

As for the fashion show itself, we’ll have to wait till Volume 10. In July. Waaaaah! I need my fix!

Maid-sama! Volume 4

Leave a reply

By Hiro Fujiwara. Released in Japan as “Kaichō wa Maid-sama!” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine LaLa. Released in North America by Tokyopop.

There’s not much forward motion here in this volume. Misaki is still tsundere (count the blushes on her face here – you’ll lose count after the first hundred or so), Usui is still a smirking hero who dotes on her, and there are no major new characters introduced.

So much of this manga seems to be driven by trying to make Misaki realize that she doesn’t have to take everything on herself all the time, and can let others be there for her. It’s surprising, then, that the best moments are where Usui is not trying to get her to show feelings and be protected by him, but instead showing her being an utter badass. The whole hypnotist arc is built around a guy who thinks that women are weak and defenseless, and Misaki and Usui showing him the error of his ways, not just by Misaki beating people up (though she does), but by the other girls in the school merely being strong and competent.

Speaking of which, Usui’s methods of keeping Misaki awake towards the end of the first chapter is probably the best moment of the book. We’ve seen him, on occasion in previous volumes, get upset with Misaki for taking on fights she can’t win, and not letting him protect her. He knows how much this ‘I will save you from the evil baddies you can’t defeat’ thing pisses her off. So seeing him whisper “It’s OK, master’s here” is both hysterical and brilliant, guaranteeing that she’ll stay awake out of pure rage.

After that it gets a bit more traditional, with Misaki being afraid of ghosts and unable to admit it, and her valiant attempts to help Aoi in a beach volleyball competition (while failing to see the overall picture). These are less good, in that they remind us of the utter possessive streak that Usui has. As smirking shoujo guys go, he’s near the lighter end of the scale, but I’m still bothered by this on occasion. Admittedly, he’s also dealing with frustration as Misaki won’t get that he really does love her. He tries to be more honest and less perverse towards the end, but it ends up in failure as always.

There’s two extra chapters at the end, one a fairy-tale AU with Misaki as a demon hunter being assisted by Mad Hatter-type Usui, and the other dealing with the three idiots and their POV. Which no one cares about, which is probably why the fairy tale is a full-length chapter and the idiots’ omake is about 4 pages.

This is pretty decent if not spectacular shoujo, with the artist trying to present strong women kicking ass while still going for the princess being swept up by her loving prince plot. Watching them clash is the point of the manga, but can also be a weakness. Still, as long as we get to see Misaki’s well-drawn expressions of determination, frustration, and humiliation, it’s still well worth reading.