Excel Saga Volume 8

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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.

This is the big one. This is the one that, when people talk of out of print manga, should be right up there in the top 10. According to Amazon as I type this, new copies of Excel Saga 8 are selling for $150.00. Old used copies are selling for $112.00. In a way, then, this review is even more of a “preaching to the converted” style than before, as if you don’t have this volume, chances are you aren’t getting it anytime soon.

This is a shame, as it’s one of the most important volumes of the series, introducing a new major character (well, fully introducing), and setting up a major plot point with the death of another major character.

After a nice opening chapter detailing a typical day in the life of Excel and Hyatt from Hyatt’s somewhat dazed perspective, things start to get rolling. Excel and Hyatt head off to ACROSS the next day, but Excel seems to feel as if someone is stalking her, though she can’t actually find the person. Grabbing Hyatt and running, she finally makes it to the secret base, only to find the dreaded third hire is finally there, as Il Palazzo had promised! The princess-curl maid from the prior volume, Mu-Chan, is now in full ACROSS uniform, and her code name is Elgala.

When I was younger (and still today), I was a huge fan of the 60s TV show Get Smart. About halfway through the run, they introduced a dimbulb agent known as Larabee. His job was to be stupider than Max, so that whenever there was a joke that was felt to be so stupid even Max would not take the bait, Larabee was there. Moreover, this let Max occasionally function as the straight man, sending exasperated looks Larabee’s way after yet another misunderstanding. This is to a large degree the function that Elgala serves in Excel Saga, though she’s not precisely stupid per se. But then neither is Excel. With Elgala in the cast, however, not only does Excel get to snark a lot more (snarking at Hyatt never really accomplished much), but she’s more sympathetic as she now has to put up with, well, Elgala.

Their first conversation is so typical of their interaction that I just have to quote it here. Elgala’s “thoughts” are in italics.

Excel: Oh yeah, her! Now I remember!
Hyatt: You were so sure about her being the third hire, don’t you remember, senior?
Excel: I can’t be bothered to remember the faces of the petit-bourgeois!
Elgala: I apologize for my earlier conduct! I, Elgala, regret that I stalked you!
Excel: Ah hah! It was you!
Elgala: I… I got lost and… I saw you walking in front of me, so… I decided to follow you back…
Excel: Uh huh…
Elgala: Then you began RUNNING all of a sudden! I became desperate, fearing that I, Elgala, would die if I lost you. I actually thought you were *very mean* to run away from me without asking who I was. I, Elgala, became deeply annoyed by your actions.
Excel: Why didn’t you just *tell* me who you were?
Elgala: Did you… did you just read my innermost thoughts?!
Excel: You were speaking aloud…
Elgala: I MUSTN’T SPEAK MY INNERMOST THOUGHTS ALOUD!
Excel: And again…
Elgala: If I say what I’m really thinking, she could get the wrong impression from me!
Excel: Technically, wouldn’t that be the right impression?
Elgala: I’ll be bullied! I, Elgala, will be bullied by this mean-looking senior!
Excel: Look, would it be easier for you if I just stuck cotton in my ears?

With her internal monologues externalized, her first person annoying way of speaking, and her free-spending tendencies, Elgala makes an immediate impression right out of the gate. She also gets to serve as a newbie for several ‘old’ gags made fresh, such as Hyatt’s coughing up blood and falling over dead, something Excel barely notices anymore.

The other major plot point in this volume is Iwata’s death. Technically, I suppose that’s a spoiler, but as his brain is put into a robot body almost immediately, it’s not much of one. This is set up very well by Rikdo, as at first we think it to be a gag chapter. Iwata’s told he has colon cancer, then it turns out the report was written by his brother, the insane doctor, and also features 97 other fatal diagnoses. Then, 5 pages later… ikt turns out the cancer was actually legitimate. (Misaki, in case you’re wondering, is mostly stoic. Iwata’s back before she can really get into a grief mode, I think.

Shiouji will be building a robot body for Iwata (against his will), but for now Iwata’s in Ropponmatsu I’s body, as Ropponmatsu II is active. This, of course, leads to Iwata fondling himself, and losing his balance and accidentally burning down his apartment building (which is, of course, also Excel and Hyatt’s). It’s not quite as top notch as simply listening to anything Excel and Elgala say (somehow Rikdo can make the line “You were almost savaged by hounds and mastiffs” hysterical), but it’s good stuff, and Iwata the robot is one of the major plot points moving forward.

Simply put, this volume of Excel Saga is a paradigm shift, expanding and altering the cast and allowing a fresh new take on ACROSS trying to take over the world. (There is also the obligatory scene of Il Palazzo, in the darkness, talking to himself and muttering about memories still lost.) It’s a must-read… except it’s very hard to get a hold of these days. Recommended anyway.

The Magic Touch Volume 7

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By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan as “Oyayubi kara Romance” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

The majority of this volume of Magic Touch is devoted to finally working out Yosuke’s past – why he’s so bad around women, and what it is that he’s forgotten. He goes back to his hometown here, and finally manages to piece things together.

The volume suffers from JUST being about this. If you don’t like Yoseuke, you’re going to struggle to get through this. I admit that I really like Magic Touch’s ancillary characters, and the lack of Natsue was especially disheartening. We do get a side-story at the end with Sanae and Tanaka, but like a great deal of this series, that’s more eccentric than actually readable.

I will admit that the flashback revelation is handled pretty well. It revolves around a younger Yosuke being kidnapped, and the woman doing so is a truly scary psycho. It’s not hard to see why he repressed those memories. There’s also a large psychological component to the entire volume, as we see Yosuke trying to analyze why he acts the way he does, and how he handled grief as a boy when his mother died. (A lot of manga mothers tend to die of unmentioned wasting away disease, sort of like consumption. Fruits Baskets is a notable exception.) Likewise, his younger brother also can’t move forward without his brother to rely on. The incident really affects the entire family.

Chiaki is also not doing much in this volume, though it is amusing seeing her twitchy clumsiness as she worries about where Yosuke is. There’s a cliffhanger ending (before the long side-story) that indicates that Vol. 8 should finally be moving their relationship forward, however, so that will be nice to see. And since the series is 9 volumes, it’s also about time.

Really, this isn’t that great a volume of Magic Touch, and I likely read it out of pure stubbornness by now. I do hope that Vols. 8 & 9 will get back to what I feel are the manga’s core strengths – humor and massage.

One Piece Volume 41

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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.

Things pick up exactly where they left off, with Luffy having polished off Blueno and standing just a building away from Robin and Franky. Franky, of course, has noticed Robin’s reticence to do anything, and decides to take matters into his own hands, in one of the volume’s funniest scenes. Unfortunately, having briefly escaped, Robin shows she is still unwilling to be rescued, and in fact merely wishes for death.

This coincides with the rest of CP9 showing up, in a huge 2-page spread that looks great. Luckily, the rest of the Straw Hats arrive at pretty much the same time, albeit in a much messier fashion, and the next chapter has their own 2-page spread. (I was a bit confused about Sniper King’s entrance, till I recalled one of the giants had told him before, “Leave it to me!” Poor Sniper King, a human fastball.) Robin is growing increasingly frustrated with all of this, and her anger is giving way to tears.

And then Spandam once again threatens the Buster Call, which leads to Robin pointing out the true horror of the thing, and leads into a flashback covering her backstory. (Of note, the only two Straw Hats who don’t get flashbacks during their initial arc are Nami and Robin… both of whom briefly “betray” the crew. Oda knows how to build up drama.) Robin’s childhood is shown to be a huge ball of sadness and loneliness, punctuated with occasional bursts of hope. She’s clearly brilliant, as shown by her passing the archeologist’s exam at age *eight*, but her joy is immediately taken from her when she realizes that her scholar friends still won’t let her work with them.

Then we meet Saul, who is a truly wonderful character, and the best Giant we’ve met to date. His influence on Robin is seen from the get-go, as we see him teaching her to smile and laugh through her despair. Sadly, the past is *their* country this time, as the Marines arrive chasing after Robin’s mother, Nico Olvia, who is the spitting image of adult Robin only with white hair (still young and beautiful, the white isn’t meant to be age here). Robin’s desperation for human warmth, love and affection wars with everyone trying to distance themselves from her so that she won’t be killed.

Of note, the Marines in One Piece have never really been a source of fun times, but we have till now met noble Marines (Smoker, Tashigi), or at least ambiguous Marines (Hina, Aokiji). This is the volume where we realize we have to assume that 90% of the government and Marines are corrupt and evil, and that it’s the people like Smoker who are the exceptions. We also get a brief hint of an Atlantis-like country that the World Government is desperately trying to hide, which apparently is the subject of the hundred missing years/true history Robin’s been researching all this time. Also, gosh, Spandine looks and acts familiar…

Thank God, Robin at least gets her mother to acknowledge and hug her one last time, because otherwise I think this volume might go beyond the despair event horizon. Everyone is massacred, with Robin being the one exception. And we see what the Buster Call entails, as the innocents who had nothing to do with the research are also killed, just in case. (The future Admiral Aikanu does this, and let me tell you, it’s pretty awesome foreshadowing. Expect much worse from him later.) The Buster Call also doesn’t seem to mind killing a few Marines too, in the process of wiping out everything. It’s One Piece’s equivalent of a nuke, only delivered by cannon. The only person on the island who has any doubts is Kuzan, which is why he lets Robin escape. (Clearly, as Aokiji 20 years later, he’s changed his mind.)

And so, after a brief montage of “Robin’s life sucks” through her teenage years, we’re back to the present. Robin admits that most of her fear is that the friends that she’s finally found will grow to hate her because of her past and the Marines constantly chasing her, and again affirms her wish for death. (Can you imagine how 4Kids would have dubbed this, by the way? The mind reels…) Spandam is loving this, of course, and points out that Robin’s enemy is the World Government itself, and too big for Luffy to try to take down.

He doesn’t know Luffy very well. What follows is the climax of Enies Lobby. Oh, sure, there’s about 4 more volumes to go after this, but that’s just the dessert. The true story ends here. Luffy calmly tells Sniper King to shoot down the World Government’s flag (which, give all credit to Usopp, he does immediately with no terror at all). He then declares war on the world government, and once more asks Robin: does she want to live? And finally, his words get through to her despair and fear and stubbornness and she screams out that she does. This is one of the best scenes in the whole manga, and the emotional climax of Water Seven/Enies Lobby. The goal of the arc is rescuing Robin, yes, but the REAL goal was getting Robin to trust her friends. Mission accomplished.

And then everyone dives in and we’re headed for another big string of fights. Whee! Fantastic, marvelous, stupendous, colossal volume of One Piece.