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 What Ysabet's Reading - October 2009
Written by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane
What I'm Reading - October 2009
It's time again for another round-up of quick reviews! I'm taking a look at vol. 19 of Skip Beat! (Yoshiki Nakamura), vol. 11 of La Corda d'Oro (Yuki Kure), vol. 7 of B.O.D.Y. (Ao Mimori), vol. 6 of Haruka -Beyond the Stream of Time (Tohko Mizuno), vol. 3 of Honey Hunt (Miki Aihara), vol. 8 of Wild Ones (Kiyo Fujiwara), and vol. 14 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs (Yukiya Sakuragi), all available now or coming soon from VIZ. All reviews are based on copies provided by the publisher.
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Skip Beat! vol. 19 (Yoshiki Nakamura)
Translated and adapted by Tomo Kimura
One of the first words that comes to mind when I think of Skip Beat! is "expressive". (Close on its heels are "high-energy" and possibly "overwhelming".) Kyoko takes wearing her heart on her sleeve to such an extreme, and her every mood is illustrated in such detail, that I sometimes find it a bit hard to get lost in the story. Yet most of the individual volumes aren't over-packed with events, so I'm usually able to get back into it fairly quickly even if Kyoko's abrupt mood changes throw me out a little. (Is that a contradictory response? You bet.)
Having said that, volume 19 isn't all that focused on Kyoko. She continues to apprentice herself to Koo, a veteran actor visiting from his home in the U.S., but most of the volume's attention is on Koo and his relationship with Ren, who almost no one knows is his son. But even when Kyoko isn't front and center, the story feels very fast-paced, especially given that almost all of the characters have flairs for the dramatic that would be pretty notable if Kyoko's theatrics didn't leave them all in the dust.
This far into the story, I'm not feeling much edge-of-my-seat suspense over the main character relationships, but I'm enjoying the process of seeing how things play out. And as subplots go, I really liked Kyoko and Koo's connection and how it's developed since his introduction. Underneath all the layers and factors that Kyoko isn't aware of, it comes across as a very sweet, sincere relationship.
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La Corda d'Oro vol. 11 (Yuki Kure)
Translated and adapted by Mai Ihara
A lot of the magic has gone out of La Corda d'Oro by this point in the series--and I say that in the literal sense, not as a criticism. Having gotten a taste for what it's like to be a gifted musician, Kahoko desperately wants to be able to play the violin herself, without supernatural assistance. Her newfound love for music feels very authentic, as do her feelings of uncertainty and determination. She knows that it won't be a quick or easy road to becoming a real violinist (although she's got the dual advantages of knowing what it feels like to play beautifully and of being a manga heroine), and feels awkward with some of the new friends she met through the school's music competition, but she throws herself at the challenge with all she's got.
This volume also introduces a new character, Aoi, who transfers into Kahoko's class and seems to know her. Kahoko has no idea where she might know him from, but that doesn't deter him from following her around while she hangs out with her friends, or from suggesting that the two of them (and Ryotaro) sneak over to the all-star music camp two of the other characters are attending.
One of Kure's sidebar notes mentions that Aoi is a character from the second La Corda video game, which got me thinking about how strange it must be to create a manga based on a game. But it's just an idle thought--I have no idea how closely the storyline follows the game's, or whether Kure has a fair bit of flexibility with what happens in the manga. Aoi's appearance feels a bit out of the blue to me, but there could be any number of reasons for that.
I generally really like fantasy stories, but I find I'm liking La Corda d'Oro better as it moves further into the real world; Kahoko's intense love for her instrument is much more compelling to me than the magically-assisted competition was.
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B.O.D.Y. vol. 7 (Ao Mimori)
Translated by Joe Yamazaki
B.O.D.Y. just moved up in my estimation for the second volume in a row, which may be a record for it--usually I like one volume better than the previous one, but then the next one frustrates me again.
Volume 7 deals with two plot threads: Ryoko meets Ryunosuke's glamorous, prickly mother and unorthodox father, and the new substitute teacher at school turns out to already know Ryunosuke--perhaps better than Ryoko is comfortable with. In my vol. 6 review, I said that a new B.O.D.Y. volume gets bonus points from me if Ryoko doesn't tell any lies, and this is the second consecutive volume where she's pretty honest. That doesn't mean Ryunosuke is above bending the truth, though; like Ryoko, he does it with good intentions, but it doesn't go any better. Now, I don't much like it when he lies, either, but his deception here is slightly more understandable.
The storylines in this volume don't really have surprising twists, but are handled in a fairly realistic way. Ryoko and Ryunosuke's relationship is growing on me more with each volume. They're still a little rocky (there has to be some relationship drama, after all), but they're trusting each other more and more, and clearly want to do right by each other, and that goes a long way with me. It also helps that the things they're dealing with in this volume are much more plausible than earlier events often were: Ryoko very much wants to make a good impression on Ryunosuke's parents and for him to have a happy home life, and Ryunosuke doesn't want to upset Ryoko unnecessarily. All in all, this still isn't my favorite type of shoujo, but it's continuing to grow on me.
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Haruka -Beyond the Stream of Time vol. 6 (Tohko Mizuno)
Translated by Stanley Floyd (HC Language Solutions)
Volume 6 of Haruka has a more tightly-plotted feel to it than volume 5 did, which makes it much easier to be caught up in the story. (This may or may not have something to do with the fact that about a third of the book is devoted to side stories, which I found quite readable, especially the second one.)
In the main story, Tomomasa has gone missing after a conversation with Ran, who's still dealing with what happened to her when she was under the demon clan's control. Akane and the Guardians set out to find him, but days have already passed since his disappearance. Readers are shown two parallel stories for most of the volume, since Tomomasa's whereabouts are revealed to us immediately, so the book is more about the developing relationships between the various Guardians as they work together to find him, the changing relationship between Akane and Ran, and Tomomasa's handling of his situation.
There's some nice character work in this volume, which is refreshing for me after not really clicking with any of the characters before. I'm still not precisely attached, but I'm glad to be liking the series more.
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Honey Hunt vol. 3 (Miki Aihara)
Translated by Ari Yasuda (HC Language Solutions) and adapted by Liz Forbes
The third volume of Honey Hunt is much less focused on Yura's acting career and her desire to compete with her celebrity parents (particularly her mother) than the first two volumes were. Instead, a lot of the focus is on her relationships with the two male leads, Q-ta and Haruka. With Q-ta away for a month, Yura finds herself obsessively waiting for any contact from him, while also trying to figure out if he has any interest in her for herself or if he's still only paying attention to her because of her father. At the same time, Haruka, whose attitude towards Yura has been much more antagonistic, has taken enough of an interest in her that he wants her to come to his upcoming concert, but it's unclear whether or not he mainly wants to distract her from his brother.
It's a fairly unsurprising love triangle, and Aihara is apparently incapable of writing male characters who have any idea how to express their feelings to a girl, but the guys in this series continue to be a huge step up from the male characters in Hot Gimmick (to which I will apparently never stop making comparisons. Forgive me--Hot Gimmick was kind of traumatic, if also apparently unforgettable). She has a real knack for getting readers hooked, though, and that combined with the simple fact that I don't hate the characters means that I find Honey Hunt very readable. And despite the increased focus on Yura's relationships with the twins, her career goals aren't completely overshadowed--she's trying hard to improve as an actress and to deal with the challenges thrown in her path, like the confrontational, established actress who's very vocal about not liking Yura's work. Yura's trying to grow and change, and she's already doing a decent job of it. I find myself looking forward to more of this series.
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Wild Ones vol. 8 (Kiyo Fujiwara)
Translated and adapted by Mai Ihara
The new volume of Wild Ones is very much about family. First, Sachie and Rakuto's friend Azuma's grandfather has been hospitalized, and Azuma, who's trying to deal with the possibility that his grandfather may not be long for the world, finds himself befriending a little girl in a similar situation. I don't usually connect very strongly with Wild Ones (one of a handful of series I've read several later volumes of without having had a chance to read them from the beginning), but this particular story made a very good impression in me, with its look at how different people react to the possibility of their own deaths or a loved one's.
I'm still piecing together Rakuto's family history, never being quite sure how much has already been revealed and how much is new information, but his family ties take front and center later on in the volume. That particular storyline looks like it'll be continuing into the next volume, so I'll hold off on much commentary.
Wild Ones has been very hit and miss with me, but vol. 8 was a pleasant surprise. I think this is the first time I've really felt that I'd like to find a full set and read it through from the beginning for my own sake, rather than in the name of better-informed reviews.
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Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs vol. 14 (Yukiya Sakuragi)
Translated by Maya Robinson (HC Language Solutions) and adapted by Ian Reid (HC Language Solutions)
Volume 14 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs is all about puppies--specifically, puppies that don't even exist yet. Suguri really wants Lupin to father some puppies of his own, and that dream takes center stage when her manager, Teppei, takes his purebred dog off to be bred. Suguri is crushed by Teppei's opinion that breeding a mutt like Lupin is an entirely different prospect than breeding purebreds, what with the potential difficulty in finding good homes for the resulting puppies, and she accepts his challenge when he tries to scare her off in the name of not bringing unwanted pets into the world.
There were a few things in this volume that made me wonder if there's a cultural gap interfering with my reading. (The most significant is probably Teppei's insistence that breeding mutts is risky because of potential health risks, which is an argument I've only ever heard against purebreds here in Canada, where the attitude seems to be more than purebred dogs are at much higher health risks than mixed-breeds.) I'm also a little confused by Suguri's fierce desire to have her male dog bred (although I don't think this is a cultural thing gap?), since presumably the resulting puppies would live with the mother dog and her owner, not with Suguri and Lupin, but...okay. That's not the point of the volume; we're supposed to be empathizing with Suguri's hopes of a) letting Lupin have the best possible life by following his instincts and letting his genes carry on, and b) deepening her own created-family connections with both Lupin and the staff at Woofles. The book does a good job of that--as always, Inubaka's appeal lies it its realistic depictions of the relationships between the characters and their dogs.
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