Excel Saga Volume 7

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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.

(Quick note: This volume and the next are the hardest volumes of Excel Saga to find these days – they’re out of print, and used copies don’t come cheap. I checked prices for Vol. 7 earlier, and it’s selling for about $35. Just FYI. This is why people buy stuff when it comes out.)

This volume of Excel Saga has a bit of a transition feel to it. You sense that Rikdo knows where he wants to end up – he’s been foreshadowing a new member of ACROSS for a while now – but is not quite clear on how to get there. As a result, the end of the volume has what amounts to a false start.

But hey, at least we get the Manager introduced. The Manager is clearly meant to be a straight-up parody of Emeraldas from the Harlock series, and now that she’s arrived the Owner, who we last saw handing Excel machine guns and rambling about the war, is also free to become more like Harlock, complete with eyepatch. Still bald, though. The two chapters here don’t quite work as well as they should, possibly as he has too many things going on at once – the Manager/Owner and their Harlock parody; Excel and Hyatt being insane as always; and Excel’s trying to figure out who the third member of ACROSS that Il Palazzo sent them to fetch is. Most likely it’s the Maid with Princess Curls, but she barely acknowledges them. In the end, Menchi ends up accidentally burning everything to the ground anyway.

The best part of that chapter is seeing Il Palazzo, back at base, staring at cardboard cutouts of Excel and Hyatt, and dropping the Excel cutout into the pit. Poor Il Palazzo -so lonely!

The standout chapters in this book deal with a local glider building contest, with everyone at the beach trying to build a better aircraft. The comedy potential here is obvious, and it gets explored beautifully – from Ropponmatsu 2’s sad immediate crash, to Hyatt’s ecstatically happy face as she flaps her little fans, to Menchi sailing off into the sunset never to be seen again, and finally Excel’s desperate and powerful attempts to get the winning distance, complete with breaking the actual laws of physics. All this, plus swimsuits! (Though tasteful swimsuits – Excel Saga in the early days had little to no fanservice. This will change soon.)

The other chapters here are slight, but amusing. I liked the short 8-page special on Menchi running around town, right as the TV news comes on about an experimental dog gone missing – who looks just like Menchi. After much terror, Menchi realizes that being trapped as Emergency Food in Excel’s apartment is better than the alternative. And, in the biggest tragedy of the volume, Ropponmatsu’s power needs completely wipe out Sumiyoshi’s porn games. And another Geobreeders cameo on page 174 – plushies!

Still, this volume overall gave a sense of marking time. Luckily, it’s followed by one of the best volumes in the series, where we finally officially meet the third member of ACROSS.

The Eleventh Hour

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By Steven Moffatt. Original airdate on BBC1: April 3, 2010.

This post contains massive spoilers for the new episode of Doctor Who. Reader discretion is advised.

I have to admit, it started out poorly for me. Or at least highly variable. The bit over the skies of London was pure RTD spectacle, though it dawned on me that that was pretty much the point. Especially once we went to the quiet country village. It picked right up with Amelia praying to Santa about the crack in her wall. Just the right amount of cute, foreboding, and sense of wonder. And then the new Doctor lands, and we get regenerative crisis. Oh dear. The entire scene with trying the various foods grated on me, and if I was Amelia I’d have smacked him right about the bacon.

Oh, and like every other reviewer I’ve read, I too would like to note the new titles and theme remix were horrible.

However, right about the time the Doctor settles down with the fish fingers, the show takes off and never really lands again. “Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall.” Yes, thank you. The rest of the scene is filled with dread and anticipation, as we know there’s gonna be something creepy there. We chuckle with the Doctor at his “Everything’s gonna be fine.” We’re… not really all that scared by the big ol’ eye. (Scares were rather lacking this episode, but I won’t cry. I don’t like shocks.) And then that hideous feeling in the pit of the stomach when he says he’ll be back in five minutes, because we know the new companion is 22-year-old Karen Gillan, and the pieces click together.

This Doctor, as played by Matt Smith, is indeed “still cooking”, as he notes, but is a lot of fun. It’s a very physical performance, and he seems a little bit unhinged. There are moments when he reminded me of David Tennant, but not many. I liked his trying out various personality bits and then rejecting them. “I’m worse than anybody’s aunt.” and “Who da man!” are blissfully left by the wayside, and he finally seems to come together in the lovely final sequence with his past selves flickering past on the screen. Still getting used to his very square face – he’s more striking than handsome. I do like the professorial look, as well as his lack of body shame.

Then there’s Amy Pond, who I found fascinating. Part of this is Moffatt going back to a plot we saw in Girl in the Fireplace, with the Doctor’s time travel becoming a liability. The Doctor clearly has done a number on poor Amelia’s life. She makes light of it in her anger, but “four psychiatrists” implies a very unhappy childhood into teen years. And then, to top it off, he does it again at the end! Amy, if she’s realistic at all, should have hideous trust issues which I hope are explored more in future episodes. Amy is the “everyday” companion, but seems a little broken, and I love that. Check out the final shot, if nothing else, with the pictures of her and the Doctor scattered around her room, clearly more important than the wedding dress we also see.

There are other characters, but they’re mostly irrelevant to this episode, which is about the Doctor meeting Amy. I really didn’t care much about the escaped prisoner schtick, as it was basically just a plot for the Doctor to hang his hat on. It served that purpose well. Rory struck me as rather pathetic, but then I recalled feeling that way about Mickey 5 years ago, and realized he’s likely to be back so he can better himself. (Poor guy, his childhood friend dressed him up as her obsession. He even became a nurse…)

3rd favorite line: “You’re Scottish — fry something!”

2nd favorite lines: “Why did you say six months?” “Why did you say five minutes?!?!”

Favorite line: “Amy Pond, there’s something you better understand about me, ’cause it’s important and one day your life may depend on it. I am *definitely* a madman with a box!”

I had been suffering Who fatigue all last year, mostly due to the absolute thrashing RTD gave to Donna, who I adore. (The End of Time did not help – do not buy me off with lottery tickets.) But now it’s like when I saw Rose. Or back when I entered college, on seeing Remembrance of the Daleks. Or when I was 6 years old, seeing The Stones of Blood. Everyone has their favorite Doctor (mine is Sylv), but best of all, every Doctor gets a chance to take you by the scruff of the neck and make his case about why he should be your new favorite. Matt Smith made a great start. I’ll be looking forward to more. Can’t wait till next week.

Hayate x Blade Volume 6

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By Shizuru Hayashiya. Originally released in Japan by ASCII Media Works, serialized in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. Currently released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ultra Jump. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

This is, above all else, a very funny manga. I can think of dozens of places in this volume where I laughed, mostly as the humor can come from any character. There’s a lot of Osaka-style boke and tsukkomi humor (in fact, literally in one chapter – Riona and Ouka perform a theatrical Osaka routine, complete with bow ties), but the beauty of this series is that anyone can be funny at any time. There are no straight men in HxB – just different levels of comedian. Even Akira, she of the huge fan club devoted to worshipping her, can get away with one of the best punchlines in the volume just by taking off her coat.

Of course, it helps that the characters are all very likeable and interesting. We want to follow them, want to laugh at their predicaments. Even if there’s more and more of them with every volume. (I will admit I do think a drawback of the series is that it introduces too many people too quickly – there’s a lot of named characters, all of whom wander in and out of the action continuously – and that you have to consult past volumes to jog your brain.) There was a lovely bit in one chapter where Yuho, Jun’s partner from previous volumes who is still battling illness, spends most of the time cringing at Jun’s antics and sweatdropping at all the stupidity going on around her. Yet when Jun’s dad asks about her friends, Jun smiles brightly, and notes she can’t wait to come back here.

This being Hayate x Blade, there is also lots of swordfighting. The first half continues the comedic effect, as to try to keep things ‘balanced’, Hitsugi has the good swordfighters fight with… ladles. Even so, it’s 80 bad fighters with swords vs. eight fantastic fighters with ladles, so you know what’s going to happen. (Great joke where Ayana is far more confident when it’s 80 vs. 2. After it becomes 80 vs. 8, the odds are much WORSE for a miracle.) The end of the volume is deadly serious, though, as Ayana’s old partner Yukari and her current partner Maki take on the violent and evil (respectively) Ensuu and Meiko. (Well, OK, no one in HxB is genuinely evil. Ensuu is more of a crazed animal than anything else. Meiko does come off as a callous jerk so far, though.) The fight is well-choreographed, and goes beyond the rules pretty quickly – Maki gets her wrist broken. Things end on a cliffhanger, unfortunately.

Sadly, it may be a cliffhanger we never see resolved. When Seven Seas announced they had bought the rights to Hayate x Blade, they noted they had the rights to the first 6 volumes, with an option for more. This is very typical licensing for series over here, especially ones that are ongoing. Right after this, Hayashiya left ASCII Media Works and took Hayate x Blade to Shueisha, where it began serialization in their seinen title Ultra Jump. Shueisha has reprinted Vol. 1-8 in Japan, and now has 3 more volumes to add to that.

Now, I’m pretty sure that Mediaworks still has the rights to their own Vol. 7 & 8, and it may theoretically be possible to license the last two Mediaworks volumes to come out here. I’m not sure, though. HxB doesn’t sell well (I’m guessing at this, but it was one of the titles dropped by Diamond Comics as it didn’t hit their ‘sales threshhold’), and it is unlikely in the extreme that Shueisha would work with Seven Seas to get out future volumes. Nor is it likely that this is a series that will move to Viz. So, Hayate x Blade is stuck in a particularly nasty form of licensing hell, one due to various factors.

If this is the final volume in North America, it’s ended at a poor place. But I’m very happy that Seven Seas did put out the first six. It’s a fun, funny title with lots of great fights, and dozens of strong, kickass female characters. I highly recommend catching up to it, mostly as if it sells a little better Seven Seas might try to option the final two Mediaworks volumes.