Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Volume 3

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By Yoshio Sawai. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s a bit difficult to know where to begin with a review of this title. I mean, it’s not as if I can talk about plot or characterization!

The history of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo in Japan is fairly straightforward. It’s a shonen gag manga that began in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2001. It ran for 21 volumes, not bad for a gag manga, and also had a popular anime. There was then a 2nd ‘New Bobobo’ manga series, that was not as successful and ran for 7 volumes. Even for a gag manga, Bobobo is over the top, with non-sequitur gags and overreactions almost every single panel. It had an anime in 2002, that was quite popular. (I was introduced to Bobobo through seeing the anime at Otakon one year.)

In North America, the history is a lot more complex. In late 2005, Viz published a one-off Bobobo volume, which comprised half of Volume 9 and half of Volume 10 of the original Japanese version. This was likely done for 2 reasons; to test the waters to see if it sold anything, and because Yu-Gi-Oh made a cameo in one of the chapters. Toonami then bought and dubbed the anime in 2007, and it was a mild success on television, though the redubbing almost reaches a Samurai Pizza Cats level.

So in 2008, Viz decided to serialize Bobobo in their monthly Shonen Jump magazine, likely as the magazine needed a gag comic to offset all of the FIGHT TRAIN GROW STRONGER! manga that litter it most of the time. (Admittedly, Bobobo is one long fight scene most of the time, but you can’t really call it similar to, say, Bleach or Yu Yu Hakusho). After a while, Viz quietly dropped the manga from the magazine and began putting it out to graphic novel only. They’ve started with Volume 11, so the first 8 1/2 volumes have never been released in America (rumor is the artist dislikes them).

To be honest, I can’t imagine this sells well at all. I’m going to assume that this title is being published in North America at the request of the Japanese publisher, which sometimes happens over here. Volume 4 is solicited for June 2010, so apparently whatever caused this volume to be delayed for 10 months is fixed.

And so we come to this, the Japanese Volume 13, being released here a mere 9 months after Volume 2 (Japanese 12). In it… things happen. Honestly, sometimes you hear the word ‘indescribable’, but rarely is it actually true. You can’t really sum up Bobobo except to say ‘wacky stuff happens’. Heck, I can’t even describe most of the gags themselves! Viz has opted, with this new ‘reboot’, to translate all the signs and Japanese, which was not done earlier (Jelly Jiggler’s ‘nu’, for example). It doesn’t really make much of a difference.

I’ll admit, I like this series. In small doses. It’s so over the top stupid and insane, and was basically perfect in little 14-page snippets for Weekly Shonen Jump. It also, I felt (though I am apparently in the minority) worked well in Shonen Jump over here. Unfortunately, collected into a 200-page volume, it’s just too much. You get burned out, and then irritated. If you are going to read this series, I recommend sticking it by your desk, reading a chapter a week, then putting it back. Then you can let the insanity wash over you, and won’t drown in it.

One Piece Volume 31

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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.

Well, it’s been a couple of volumes of huge epic fights, so it’s about time for a breather. As Luffy and Nami get ready to take on Eneru once more, most of this volume is devoted to a huge flashback.

At least we do see that Conis has succeeded in getting the Skypeians to evacuate, and just in time, as the cloud island is getting vaporized by Eneru. Wyper wakes up to see everything around him being destroyed, and starts to recall the legends of his boyhood.

This leads us into the real tale of Norland from 400 years ago, and how he became known as a liar. Naturally, Norland is pure awesome – this is One Piece, after all. The story of Norland is a classic one of Science vs. Superstition, as he arrives to stop the island’s sacrificing of virgins and shows them that they can cure the blights of their country through modern medicine. Unfortunately, the blights of the country turn out to be fixable by destroying ancient holy trees, which doesn’t go over well.

We also get the backstory of the golden bell, and the promise made to hear it ringing out. Sadly, things go as expected. The island ends up being blown into Skypeia via the Knock-Up Stream, and Norland is executed for his pains. It’s a sad story where a scientist and a warrior reach out to become great friends, but circumstance forces them apart.

Now we want Luffy to find that bell more than ever, and sure enough he’s climbing a giant beanstalk despite having tons of gold still attached to his right arm. Luckily, Nami arrives with her waver, and after hearing about his determination to show Norland’s descendants that he wasn’t wrong, agrees to help him reach Eneru.

How much you like this volume will depend on how much you can tolerate flashbacks taking up most of it. It deepened the Skypeia story, however, and sets up the giant Luffy/Eneru Round 2 that’s coming up. Recommended.

Vampire Knight Volume 9

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By Matsuri Hino. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine LaLa. Released in North America by Viz.

(Note that if you don’t know the ‘twist’ from Vampire Knight 8, the previous volume, that it gets spoiled later in the review.)

As I spent the other day savaging Black Bird, a popular supernatural manga which has hit the New York Times bestseller list, I thought I’d follow up with its closest comparison, an even more popular supernatural manga which always hits the NYT bestseller list.

You can see a big difference between the two titles just by looking at the covers. Rather than BB’s ‘I am raping this girl’ construction, VK’s simple goth-styled cover says “We are hot, sexy yet utterly unthreatening vampires.” The two guys are gazing at the (female) reader, but are both kneeing at the feet of our heroine, dressed in a pretty ballgown.

The demographics of the titles are also different. Shogakukan’s shoujo manga, with the exception of titles that run in Ciao, tends to skew older. From my experience, Shoujo Comic and Betsucomi have more sexually explicit or suggestive titles than any of the other companies. By contrast, Hakusensha has been skewing younger over the past 10 years (if you compare Hana to Yume from the mid-90s to today, you’ll see this wasn’t always the case), and LaLa is definitely a magazine for teenagers. Whereas Betsucomi, despite Japan’s sales charts labeling it as shoujo, is clearly geared for young women.

Back to Vampire Knight. I have often called this title a guilty pleasure, and I think that still holds up. The art is pretty enough, and the battles between vampires actually look pretty cool. The character design is unfortunately more of the ‘I draw the same face but with different hair’ school that we see in manga constantly, and I find myself always flipping to the back while reading this book to see which one is Aido and which one is Cain. (Viz has a cast of characters glossary at the back of every volume, which continues to be helpful).

The plot, of course, is mostly irrelevant. Vampires scheme against other vampires, and vampire hunters try to scheme against both vampire sides. Someone’s getting resurrected and possessing bodies. Things can get very, very confusing if you try to work it out. Luckily, this is not really a manga you read for the deep, subtle plot. This is a manga which you read and scream “Kyaaa! Vampires!” There’s brother/sister incest, and bishonen twin brothers sacrificing themselves, and lots of hot guys protecting innocent girls because though they are vampires, they’re the GOOD vampires.

That said, there’s also Yuki Cross. She’s our heroine, and unlike Misao in Black Bird, she actually has a character. Misao is a reader stand-in, someone to imagine yourself as while hot brooding demons lick your wounds and fondle your breasts. Yuki has an actual character and real development. She started off as a normal girl with slightly unhealthy obsessions, but she’s always been shown as having inner strength. Now that we know of her pureblood origins, of course, things are very different… except they aren’t, as she refuses to do what Kaname tells her, and manages to wield a weapon that hates vampires through sheer WILLPOWER, turning it into a badass scythe.

The fight that takes up the last two chapters of this book is really impressive considering how little actually happens. Yuki sends her vampire protector off to protect others, then proceeds to try to take out the big bad. She’s joined in this by her love/rival Zero, himself now a human-turned-vampire, who manages to snap out of his self-loathing long enough to tell Yuki to stay back like all good heroes… except not because she’d get hurt, but because this is *his* kill.

The big bad ends up being taken out (supposedly, I doubt he’s really dead) by both Yuki and Zero, the former with a behind the back scythe chop while the villain is saying he wants to take her just like her mother. And then there’s just her and Zero, standing off against each other, with Zero declaring that he will kill all the purebloods – including Yuki. (To be continued, a fact that generated a hilarious omake at the end of the volume.)

This is the difference between a guilty pleasure and just guilt. Vampire Knight has sexual situations (the incest is right up front), and some nasty violence, but the heroine isn’t meek and shrieking, and shows she can hold her own even after her ‘origin story’, mostly due to the compassion she gained in the 10 years prior. It may have a messy plot and pander to gothic vampire lovers, but it’s also genuinely worth your time.