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 What I Reviewed: April 2005 (Part Three: The Conclusion)
Written by Barb Lien-Cooper
Back in the day, there was a site that my wife Barbara used to review manga for... they became defunct, but I found some old manga commentary that Barb wrote way back then that never got used, and I thought it could be cool to open this little manga time capsule... with “whatever happened to” commentary after them from me (well, if needed)... So come with me now BACK... BACK... BACK in the time machine to that era when this Naruto thing was really starting to catch on:
APRIL 2005.
Kare Kano v13
by Masami Tsuda, from Tokyopop
I never expected that I would become all that much of a shoujo fan, but I am unashamed to say that I'm a big fan of Kare Kano. Part of the reason was I saw the excellent anime version of it (called His and Her Circumstances) awhile back. Done by the same people who did Neon Genesis Evangelion (of all things), His and Hers was a tight, crisp, funny, and heart-touching slice of life romance comedy. Problem was, the anime ended in a weird place (about 1/2 through the manga series) and I wanted to find out how it ended. While Kare Kano lags in pacing in places and it's got a weird structure (the most important characters are hardly featured at all in the middle volumes), it's still a joy to read. The reason comes down to the characters. We can easily identify with the teenaged lovers, Arima and Yukino. We root for them and want their romance to succeed.
Kare Kano also succeeds by never sugar-coating the characters. For instance, in this volume, Arima, who comes from a seriously dysfunctional family background, starts losing it big time. He's always been tightly wound up; a cute, serious time bomb waiting to go boom. You'd think it would be a bit of a relief to see the boy finally let go of the anger. But, it isn't, as you know things will only go from bad to worse.
If you're interested in reading (or writing) shoujo, your first stop should be your local comic book store to pick up Kare Kano.
(Editor’s note: This was before Barbara quite grasped that some comic book stores do not carry manga, let alone every manga in print...)
Kare Kano v14
by Masami Tsuda, from Tokyopop
In this volume of Kare Kano, the popular teenage romance manga, things really start hitting the fan. Arima, the too-serious but still cute male lead in our drama, is starting on the road to mental colapse. Yes, he's hurting inside. Matters are only worsened by the arrival of his manipulative estranged mother. Arima's problems are distancing him from his smart, loyal girlfriend, Yukino.
Now, I'm not big into romances, unless Bette Davis soapers count, but I like romantic comedies. I got into Kare Kano because of the humor factor. It can often be a quite funny book. But, what really made me stay as a reader was the deft characterizations in the work. It's not a perfect series, by any means. Sometimes the pacing is a bit off. Sometimes, a plotline falls flat. But, the characterization makes the whole thing work. Because we care so deeply about these characters, Kare Kano stops being a comic book series and starts being a chance to hang out with some cool people.
While I'm eager to find out how the series ends, I know I'm going to miss it when it's gone.
(Editor’s note: Actually, the ending was so disappointing, we don’t miss it that much—we just miss the wasted potential for a good ending.)
Tuxedo Gin # 11
by Tokihiko Masuura, from Viz
Tuxedo Gin is one of the many children of Ranma 1/2 in terms of plot. A teenager turns into an animal and sit com hilarity ensures. Where Gin is a bit different is that it's about a teenaged boy who dies and returns as a penguin. Yup, a penguin. A cute, darling, hard-to-hate aquatic mammal.
You'd think that Tuxedo Gin would not be that good of a read, therefore. I sometimes think to myself, "Why'd I buy yet another volume of a cute little story about a cute little penguin?"
Well, it's because it's funny. Very funny. It's also because the characters are just such nice people. And, the plots have some genuinely original twists and...
That durned penguin.
It all comes down to how damned cute he is.
Couple v1
by Jae Sung Park/Sung Jae Park, from CPM Manhwa
Manhwa is Korean manga, simply put. I haven't read tons of it, but it sort of has its own flavor to it, although I can't point to specifics. Maybe it's a little sweeter or prettier or gentler...but I can't say that for a fact.
All I know is that Couple, a CPM manga, was an entertaining read. The plot: a young, naive college girl with nowhere else to go moves in with a fellow student---a slightly older male who is desperate to keep his hormones in control. See, he's a nice guy and she's a cute little thing, so his desires interfere with doing the right thing of keeping his hands to himself.
Sure, we all know from the title where this manhwa's eventually headed, but there's still something to the work, light as it is. I think the thing to it is the young man's fight with his own nature. Sure, he'd like a girlfriend. And it's sure hard for him not to look at this girlie with anything but lust. But, she's sort of the kitten to his bulldog from the Warner Brothers cartoons. His protectiveness is sort of nice to see.
So, it's not an earthshaking story. The characters are nicely realistic and likeable.
(Editor’s note: Couple v2 turned out to be a little too fanservice-y for us, so we stopped there. But 1 isn’t bad.)
Those Who Hunt Elves v7
by Yu Yagami, from ADV Manga
When I watched the anime of Those Who Hunt Elves, I wasn't impressed. It was too much of a silly, one-joke concept for me. The setup: A troupe of misfits stranded in another dimension of fairies and elves can only get back if they find the pieces of the spells, which are now mystically tattooed onto the bodies of random elves, to get them back to Tokyo. In order to do so, therefore, they have to strip elves (which are almost all cute females, of course) to find the spell fragments. Think of it as a silly Inu-Yasha with more fan service. In fact, the nicest thing I could say about the series was that it wasn't half as fan service-y one would think it would be.
Cut to reading Those Who Hunt Elves, the manga. Yeah, sure, it's goofy and often silly, but this is a rare case where the manga outshines the anime. The reason why has something to do with Yu Yagami's unique imagination, which makes the experience of reading Elves kind of like reading fairy tales on laughing gas. Whether it's Santa Claus or a handsome prince, these stories are about as light and fluffy as you want a funny fantasy manga to be.
But, there's another reason these stories work better on the page: we sort of learn more about what's in the characters' hearts in the manga than in the anime.
I think that's what makes all the difference.
(Editor’s note: actually, after that, we came across a few more examples of the manga outshining the anime—it’s not THAT rare of a phenomenon. But it was for us, at the time...)
GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka v23
by Tohru Fujisawa, from Tokyopop
I've always liked stories about problem-solving and problem solvers. From Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Gregory House, I've always liked stories about people who may be hard to like at first, but are admirable because they'll move heaven and earth to help people in trouble.
In his own insane way, 22-year-old former-gang-member-turned-teacher Eikichi Onizuka is one of the world's great problem-solvers. The humanity of this manga series comes from the fact that Onizuka believes that teachers must always help their students, no matter what it takes or who they piss off in the process. The humor comes from the fact that Onizuka always takes things a step or ten way too far. For instance, in this volume, for complicated reasons, Onizuka decides that only way to make a girl's father admit he loves her is to fake her kidnapping. Soon, the "kidnapping" becomes the biggest news story of the day. SWAT teams are called. It looks bad as bad can be. Yet, it works out for the best, as it always does, for the great teacher and his students.
With more balls than a pawn shop sign and more lives than a stray cat, Onizuka may not win any Teacher of the Year awards. However, he's still one of the most memorable and strangely admirable characters in manga today.
I give this series my highest recommendation.
Naruto v6
by Masashi Kishimoto, from Shonen Jump/Viz
My husband sponsors an anime and manga club at the school where he teaches. I got to meet his club at a local convention. It was great to talk to young high-school-aged manga and anime fans. When I asked them what their favorite manga was, they kept mentioning Naruto.
After reading the first volume, I knew what they were talking about. Naruto is almost impossible not to like and is very easy to love. Six volumes later and I still haven't gotten enough of the books.
The setup is really quite neat: Naruto is a young man with an extremely dangerous (if it wasn’t sealed inside him) nine-tailed fox spirit stuck inside him (it was shoved inside the poor kid to save his village). Well, because of this thing inside him, the villagers are always kind of distrustful and cold to him. Rather than let it get him down, he tries with all his might to become a ninja. Actually, he's not exactly the best student at the ninja school, but he's got a lot of guts and determination. We want him to succeed.
In these exciting, battle-filled books, characterization is what separates the great books from the mediocre ones. Characterization is what makes Naruto a great series. As we get to know the character's back stories, we cringe a bit when they're in danger (which they are...a lot). The trials they have to go through are more exciting than superhero comics or what have you because these are just kids with special abilities (and many weaknesses) going up against almost unstoppable foes. Sure, you got your magical abilities, your "powers", your big confrontations, just like in comics from the non-manga mainstream of comics. However, unlike mainstream American comics, Naruto's creator has taken the time to make us care about the characters before putting them in danger. He also made them vulnerable, often scared creatures, just like any kid would be in a super-challenging, even life-threatening situation. The fact that these kids aren't perfect and aren't all-knowing and all-powerful is exactly Naruto is such a page-turner.
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