S.A. Volume 14

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By Maki Minami. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume of Special A has, in many ways, the same issues that Love Com Volume 16 did in my previous review. The couples have mostly gotten together, and we’re mostly stringing things along until the editor says “OK, you can end it now.” This means that there are some plot twists that seem obvious and unnecessary.

Enter Iori Tokiwa, the new “number Two” and rival to Kei for Hikari’s affections. Of course, we know he doesn’t have a chance in hell, but that’s OK, because he’s not there to make us believe Hikari might choose someone else. He’s there to make Kei go insane as he bonds with Hikari. Iori and Hikari share a lot of the same interests, and seeing the “drive to succeed” that Iori has reminds you that this is one thing that Kei definitely lacks.

Finn is still around as well, but Finn at least brings a bit more to the table. Her identity is still a secret to everyone except Ryu, and she’s also clearly fallen in love with Ryu, leading to a nasty rivalry with the twins. This chapter was actually pretty good, showing how a deep family bond (which is what Ryu and the twins have, despite not being related) can be fractured all too easily by newcomers. The way Ryu solved the problem was absolutely perfect.

And then there’s Hikari, our clueless heroine. She’s probably the reason I enjoyed this volume more than Love Com, as I simply enjoy watching her be dense. She goes way past other clueless heroines on the dense-o-meter, reaching some of the highest levels I’ve ever seen. Great Hikari moments in this volume include seeing how much she loves to study (again, something Kei simply doesn’t really do with her), and the last contest between her and Kei, which she throws and then demands Kei tell her to stay away from Iori.

Kei won’t do this, of course. He can be a frustratingly smug hero at times (witness his caveman-like entrance into Iori’s apartment and forced kiss earlier in the volume), but he is much better at self-analysis than Hikari is, and notes that he won’t ruin her budding friendship because of his own jealousy. He also gets a rare instance of misreading Hikari in this volume, where he thinks she was offended by the aforementioned forced kiss (she was merely happy, but communicating poorly, as she always does).

Akira and Tadashi fair the worst. They’re the simplest couple, and were the first to hook up, so they now get almost nothing to do at all.

Special A is still fun, but there’s an air of ‘what the hell can I do to mark time next?’ to these last couple of volumes. The series ends with Volume 17, though, so perhaps we’ll be seeing the endgame showing up soon.

Negima!? Neo Volume 4

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Story by Ken Akamatsu, Art by Takuya Fujima. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Comic Bom Bom, then in Magazine Special. Released in North America by Del Rey.

Alternate Universe spinoffs are a staple of Japanese anime and manga, ranging from Tenchi Muyo to Haruhi Suzumiya. When a series is a hit, people want more of it. And when there’s only one creator, and he’s drawing as fast as he can, what’s the solution? Do a cute AU spinoff by another artist!

This had already been going on with Negima for some time. The first anime wasn’t a hit, and had an extremely tacked-on wrap-up ending at the last minute. They then made another, much cuter anime for younger readers, which is sort of strange when you think about all the fanservice that goes into your average Negima. This was at least a mild success, so they decided to make a manga of the spinoff anime or the original anime of the original manga.

Naturally, Akamatsu was going to be doing busy drawing the real Negima, so they brought in Takuya Fujima, who has the ignominy of being the creator of, in my opinion, the worst manga ever to be licensed for North America, Deus Vitae. I can only imagine that he got this gig after they saw his work on Free Collars Kingdom, which is much cuter. It must have been a hit, as he’s currently drawing the manga spinoff Nanoha ViViD for Kadokawa Shoten’s Comp Ace.

Negima?! Neo debuted in the elementary school magazine Comic Bom Bom, and was initially clearly meant for much younger readers. Unfortunately, after a year the magazine folded and the series was moved to the more teenage Magazine Special, home of fellow Del Rey series Gacha Gacha and Pastel. The fanservice that had been missing was added back in (though still not quite to the extent the original takes it), though the design remained the same ‘cute and round’ style.

This volume sees the debut of Negima’s childhood friend, Anya, as a classmate. I have to say that, if this manga is meant to pander to Negima fans who want more (and really, by the time it got to Magazine Special it certainly was), then they went in the wrong direction here. Ask any Negima fanboy which girl in the series deserves to be the focus, and Anya would rank about 32nd. At least. All she brings to the table is childhood friend, as ‘angry tsundere’ is taken by Asuna and Chisame, and ‘fortune teller’ is, in this series, taken by Konoka.

Kotaro also shows up here, but he’s pretty much had his edges shaven off as well, looking for a good rival to bond with in a shonen style. There’s a vague hint as to his real origin, but really he doesn’t come across as a villain at all. Which is annoying, because it simply means that the manga isn’t even trying to tell a story, and is just coasting on fans knowing who everyone is. Kotaro’s not a bad guy anymore because he reformed in the original, not because of anything that happens here in this remake.

I will admit that it’s almost impossible to break Nodoka Miyazaki, one of the better and sweeter characters in Negima, and though this version makes a valiant effort with various clones running around and ruining her life by being ecchi, we do still get the nice scene where she admits to Negi that she loves him (and then asks him to not answer her until he grows up, being a brief acknowledgment of Negi being ten years old).

The worst of the characters losing what little edge they had comes in the final chapter, featuring the three cheerleaders. In the original manga, Akamatsu did his best to give them all different personalities. Sakurako is the genki one with the good luck, Misa is the vaguely disturbing girl ‘with experience’, and Madoka is the sensible one who gets irritated at people being idiots.

Since this manga believes in filing off edges, I was not particularly surprised that the cheer girls were made to basically be the same. What did irritate me is that they were all basically Misa. Her “Reverse Hikaru Genji Project” is easily one of the creepiest things in the original manga, which mostly tries to make you forget Negi’s age. The other two going along with it and posing for Negi is revealing skimpy outfits is horrific, and no amount of occasional sweatdrops on Madoka’s face will make up for that.

Look, in a manga with a cast as large as Negima, you have to make up for it with characterization. In the original, Akamatsu does that. Despite having similar types, no one would mistake Asuna and Chisame, or Konoka and Sakurako. But this manga doesn’t even bother. The cheer girls are always together, so they’re the same. The twins are identical in personality as well as appearance. This way you can do your wacky fanservice plots without having anyone be able to say “Hey, this is really stupid.” (I note Chisame, who would do this, is pretty much absent from this volume).

I do note Del Rey does a very good job here, with endnotes explaining things like Gyudon and Wabi-sabi, and the translation is generally clear and unobtrusive.

To sum up, if you’re making a tie-in alternate universe work, try to at least give the appearance that it’s more than just a cash-in. Nothing about this manga, from the art to the storyline to the characters, makes it seem like anything but Kodansha saying “Hey, Negima fans, here’s something with its name on it. Give us your money.” Not only is that appallingly cynical, but it ruins the original brand. Negima, the original in Shonen Magazine, is a well-crafted shonen fighting/harem manga. This retread is simply hackwork.

Tears Of A Lamb Volume 7

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By Banri Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Hitsuji no Namida” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by CMX.

I’ve always felt a bit guilty when I think of Tears Of A Lamb. I’m a giant fan of everything Banri Hidaka does, but I spend most of my time trumpeting either I Hate You More Than Anyone!, the work she created before this, or V.B. Rose, the one she wrote afterward. I enjoy TOAL, but I’m not over the moon about it.

For one thing, it’s not a love story. There’s a love story *in* it, and this volume sees Kei and Kanzaki declare their love for each other (I’d call this a spoiler, but in a shoujo manga, is the hero and heroine admitting love ever a surprise?), but it’s not the point of the manga. IHYMTA! and VBR are about the couples and their travails in love. But TOAL is a mystery, and is at heart about how memories trap us and keep us from moving forward – even if you can’t remember anything.

This is the final volume of TOAL, so all the various plot threads that have been scattered are woven together here. Kei regains her memories, and meets Suwa. Everyone finally starts to talk about what happened before, with the accident that led to Kei and Suwa’s memory loss. And Kei finally learns that focusing on her goal to the exclusion of all else doesn’t work. She’s told herself this before – a lot – but telling yourself something and actually understanding it are two different things.

This manga is very subtle and sedate, with little of the frantic mood swings that characterize IHYMTA!. The ‘villain’ of the piece is simply a petulant teen who’s frustrated at Kei’s cluelessness about his own feelings. Kei being Kei, when she finds out he was behind the whole thing (well, the ring part, at least), manages to forgive him.

I kind of which we’d had a couple of punches thrown, though. Not that I hated Shinogu or anything, but this manga is sooooo talky. Yes, you can argue that’s true of a lot of shoujo, and especially true of Hidaka’s other works, but it’s more noticeable here. IHYMTA! and VBR both have their cartoon violence to fall back on (the former more than the latter), and IHYMTA! also has its frenetic pace. The pace here is glacial, so it’s simply a matter of sitting back and waiting for Kanzaki to slowly discover what most everyone else already knows. Which involves finding the right questions to ask.

The other main flaw of this manga is, of course, that after you find out what happened you want to throttle everyone involved for keeping quiet. Seriously, the sheer amount of “I didn’t say anything as it would hurt her” and “we thought we already knew what you were thinking” involved in this series can drive you insane. For a manga where everyone keeps telling each other bits of the plot, they’re very good at justifying not saying the right things. Even the smarter characters, like Choko-sensei, fall prey to this.

(And a quick note to CMX’s editorial department: I get that you have different translators/adaptors on your series, but at least get them to know the names of your other works. Page 160 talks about “I Hate You More Than AnyTHING”.)

However, it all works out in the end (even if it could have worked out a whole lot faster), and at 7 volumes this is a smaller investment in the world of Banri Hidaka than IHYMTA! (13 volumes) and VBR (14 volumes). The ending with Kei and Kanzaki is very sweet. And the final postscript, with Suwa’s text message, puts a happy lump in your throat. For those who want a nice sedate angsty shoujo, and don’t mind a lot of people not telling important things to other people, this is a great series to pick up.

And Suwa’s book is trememdously cute.