Black Butler Volume 1

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By Yana Toboso. Released in Japan as “Kuroshitsuji” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine GFantasy. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Black Butler was doomed to be a hit in North America the moment it was licensed. And everyone knew it. Sure enough, it’s at the top of last week’s New York Times bestseller list for manga. It has a handsome bishonen butler on the cover! This is to female readers what maids are for guys, one would imagine.

I think the key to understanding this story is in the author’s notes at the end, where Toboso-san notes that she wanted to draw a cool butler, but had no ideas beyond that. And indeed, one of the strengths of the manga is that the butler *is* cool. If you’re going to brag about your manga with an awesome butler, you better back it up. Sebastian is quick-thinking, clear-headed, fights like a pro, and is basically the butler of your dreams, provided you don’t mind selling your soul.

Unlike the other major butler manga coming out here, Hayate the Combat Butler, this series is for the most part action-oriented, with occasional forays into angsty drama. What comedy there is comes from the rest of the staff of the house, who are all goofy ditzes who could probably have their personalities swapped and you’d never know. Their goal is to be the Greek Chorus, screw things up so that the butler can fix them, and be goofy. They succeed. I’m not fond of them, but they succeed at what they need to do.

As for Sebastian’s master, Ciel, he’s a grumpy loli. Yes, he’s male, but that merely makes him a grumpy male loli (a shota). He’s 12 years old, but his maturity level ranges from 6 to 35 depending on what the plot requires. There is an element of not-quite-yaoi here that I choose to ignore, even though I know it’s a major reason this title is as popular as it is. But hey, if I can read CLAMP I can read this.

Not sure I will continue to read this, though. There is one major problem I had with this first book. It reads like the author is connecting the dots of an evil-butler picture book. Every single plotline is so calculated, so designed to do what it does, that you can almost see each piece slot into place. The revelation of what Sebastian really is, towards the end of this book, is no surprise whatsoever. In fact, nothing here is a surprise. Everything happens the way that it was laid out, and while it looks pretty, there’s nothing that made me go “Ooooh, WOW!”.

It’s a good manga. There’s lots of pretty boys, and fights, and the promise of more evil leering grins in volumes to come. But if someone was to write a manga that would be designed to hit #1 on the NYT bestseller list (and indeed on Japan’s bestseller lists)… well, it would be Vampire Knight. But this would be a close second. If you can get past that, you’ll probably enjoy Black Butler a great deal.

I Hate You More Than Anyone! Volume 1

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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.

Generally speaking, when I start to like a series or title, I really fall for it in a big way. Online research, buying other Japanese works by the same author, pasting into Excite’s translation engine – that sort of thing. And I talk about it a lot online, be it Livejournal, Twitter, or here. And while for the most part I’ve started this blog ‘in media res’ and do not, for example, plan to go back and review the previous 5 Magic Touches, there are three series that I feel I should eventually go back and review properly, as they continue to be my obsession today.

Two of them are Gatcha Gacha (no, the other one) and Excel Saga. I’ll be getting to those later. The other one is Banri Hidaka’s first multi-volume series, I Hate You More Than Anyone! This was also her debut work in North America, coming out from CMX in 2007.

This leads to one of the first big problems with the work – it’s a sequel, of sorts. Yes, it can be read as a stand-alone work. In fact, by necessity, it is in North America. But if you pick up a copy of the book, and open the cover, the first thing you see are teenagers you don’t know talking about Kazuha, our female lead, and a note saying that the characters’ ages are from the manga ‘Let Me Hear Your Song’. I wouldn’t blame someone for putting it down and looking for the earlier work.

Banri Hidaka debuted in the pages of Hana to Yume with various one-shots and short series, as do most manga artists these days. As she wrote them, she began to depict some of the protagonists as coming from the same family, the Akiyoshis. A family of father, mother, and 6 children, we gradually meet the family over the course of two one-shots and 4 series ranging from 3 to 6 chapters, which were subsequently collected into 4 volumes of various titles. (They’ve now been released as 2 chunky tomes, called The Akiyoshi Family series – this is the easiest way to find them on Amazon Japan.)

Kazuha, the heroine of IHYMTA!, was first introduced in a short one-shot dealing with her sister Momoka. It showed her as a successful hairstylist, and also commented on her mannish looks. After a 6-chapter series dealing with the eldest brother, Chizuru, and his delinquent high school days, Hidaka-san presumably thought she’d wrap things up with a look at the eldest daughter and her own high school life.

Of course, the series ended up being her first really big hit, and it ran for 13 volumes before finishing. The characters proved so popular that the series spawned an occasional spinoff, As You Like It, which runs in Bessatsu Hana to Yume whenever the author feels like a new chapter; and Rei and Kazuha are minor supporting characters in her 2004 manga V.B. Rose, which Tokyopop is currently releasing.

What all this amounts to is that there’s no way that a North American reader can approach this manga the way that it was written for the Japanese Hana to Yume fan. The series is filling out the plot beats that regular readers already read about in the earlier series. And since CMX is translating it accurately (which I give them credit for), the constant footnotes to prior works and explanations for characters being 6-8 years younger than readers are familiar with can be wearing.

Now, all that having been said, I Hate You More Than Anyone! is the story of Kazuha Akiyoshi, a tomboyish oldest sibling of six, and her relationship with the eventual love of her life, Maki Sugimoto, a fey-sounding hairstylist who’s creepily obsessed with her. As you can guess from the title, she can’t stand his attention. As you can guess from the fact that this is a shoujo manga, they’re totally meant for each other.

Hidaka-san is clearly feeling things out as she goes, and this first volume of the manga is quite uneven, especially compared to later volumes. Maki’s feminine speech (Kazuha calls Maki ‘that gay guy’ at one point) is toned down quite a bit as the series goes along, and the parenthetical asides absolutely litter every panel, cluttering up the already cluttered art. (This last is something that has almost become a trademark of hers – you can still see asides littering the panels of V.B. Rose, for example.) And the entire style is far more broad and cartoonish comedy than we’d seen in her earlier works. Kazuha frequently headbutts, punches, kicks, and ties to ceilings her friends and family, something that will continue as the series goes on, culminating in our heroine being thrown through a 3rd-story window and stomping back into class with a bloody forehead 3 seconds later, no worse for wear.

The last major flaw of this volume is that Tohru Honjo isn’t in it. We’ll have to wait for Volume 2 to meet the best character in the series. And Maki, in this volume, gives the impression of a creepy staker guy at times. This is fairly common with manga that start with the hero already totally in love with our heroine, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Luckily, there’s a chapter showing he can be just as stressed out and flawed as the rest of us, which helps to make him more likeable.

Since I’ve spent so long going on about its weaknesses, I should probably talk about why I love this series so much. Kazuha is a fun lead heroine. She’s an emotional roller coaster, vacillating between hot-headed anger and girlish adoration (she is, in fact, an excellent tsundere example, several years before the type became overdone). But she’s also the eldest of a huge family, and we get to see her be the capable older sister as well. In fact, the last chapter is about her having to stand up Maki as Rei falls ill and she has to rush him to the doctor. She angsts briefly about date vs. family, and quickly realizes it’s no contest – family wins.

She’s also blessed with two strong female friends, although Senko appears to be more of a rival in this first volume. She and Senko clearly come to blows so often because of their similarities – both are pretty girls adored by their underclassmen, both have huge tempers that go off at the slightest provocation, and both are at this point falling for the same guy – even though Kazuha refuses to admit this. (The title of the series no longer applies to Kazuha by about Volume 6 or so, but that’s fine, because by then Senko can take up the reins with HER relationship denial.) And we also get Senko’s spirits, which are the ghost-like things that come out of her mouth. A lot of anime and manga use these when a character is beaten or ‘dying’ in a comedic fashion, but Senko goes so far as to be able to control and strangle Kazuha with them!

And we have the Akiyoshi family, who are allowed to provide humor while still being quite realistic. Having six kids means that both parents are working basically all the time, so the siblings all have to step up and take responsibility. (Well, mostly – Ichihisa is a little brat, though a hilarious one. And he and Tonami, along with their mother, are the only ones in the entire family who AREN’T tsunderes.)

Mostly, I enjoy the manga because it’s fun to read about these people. There’s some angst, but usually it lasts only a page or two before being undercut with a comedic moment. The characters have immature temper tantrums, but are also allowed to act like adults. Despite the cartoon violence, Kazuha feels like a high school girl discovering love for the first time, and realizing how it can make you crazy. We laugh at her antics but root for her. And everyone turns out to be correct – she does look more feminine with the short haircut.

I’ll review later volumes of the series when I can as well. Likely they will not be as long as this one was. I did mention the obsessed thing, right?

The Magic Touch Volume 6

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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.

Looking around the web, it would seem there are several positive reviews of this series. However, what I most remember it for is a convention at a panel, when a group called it one of the worst manga currently being released.

In my opinion, one should save the ‘worst manga ever’ label for things that are truly offensive, appalling, or are poorly adapted. The Magic Touch is just regular old shoujo. Sure, it’s not great. The cast is too big, the art if very odd-looking at times, and the plot is scattershot and unfocused. But it’s very funny, and has a lead couple that are cute and a beta couple that I find fascinating.

It’s possible the mere massage club premise upset some people. I know that there is a cliche when you see young women giving massages of thinking that it’s a front for something else. This isn’t that. People haven’t even kissed in this manga, much less sold their bodies. But one reviewer said it was very hard to get past the premise’s ‘sordid implications’. I’m not seeing that.

In any case, we’re about 2/3 through the series now, and the lead couple are starting to realize that they can’t simply be cute at each other forever. Chiaki is dealing with her growing feelings for Yosuke, and trying to figure out a man who reveals very little about himself. To her credit, she does confront him directly about what he’s hiding, but when he tells her “It’s all right”, in that ‘don’t ask’ tone, she backs off.

Yosuke, meanwhile, is clearly haunted by something in his past, and is afraid to move forward with Chiaki because of that. I’m going to guess we’ll get a big flashback arc in the next volume or two that will help to resolve that.

There’s two other subplots in this volume as well. One involves Ryo, the tomboyish girl from a rival school, who has just lost an arm-wrestling match to her male classmate and is now panicked. She thinks she makes a horrible woman, and if she can’t defeat her fellow males she has no idea what to do. When she hears Chiaki being described as ‘the strongest women I know’, she goes off to challenge her. Of course, we find Chiaki’s strength is her honest and refreshing spirit, etc. This was probably the weakest story in the volume, as there were few surprises.

Then there’s Harumi and Natsue. I’ve noted on Twitter before how much I love this beta couple. I have a weakness for Natsue’s type of character anyway (deadpan snarker females), and seeing her try to subtly get Harumi to confront the future he doesn’t want but feels he has to accept can be rather bittersweet. Harumi’s smile at the end of the volume is heartbreaking, and the art is well-done here, as it really conveys how false it really is.

Luckily, this is offset by some very funny comedy. Chiaki’s general personality leads to humor, as her brain doesn’t quite work normally like everyone else. So she can be imagining Yosuke in various uniforms, or debating the legality of riding on his bike, and a truly indescribable sequence where she and Harumi are talking about his future plans and segue into… something, even they’re not sure what they were talking about. It’s a broad, fun comedy that helps to balance the occasional angst in this series.

Again, this isn’t great. It’s the author’s first long shoujo series, and she’s already shown improvement over it with her current one, “Oresama Teacher”, which is as yet unlicensed. But I think its faults are exaggerated. The massage club is simply meant to be goofy rather than sordid, and the likeable characters and comedic situations make this a perfectly serviceable title. Recommended for those who like lighthearted shoujo with some massage obsession.