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Review: Heroman, Vol. 1

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Heroman, Vol. 1Heroman, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Tamon Ohta | Original Concept Stan Lee + BONES
Genre: Shonen/Science Fiction
Publisher: Vertical Inc.
203 pages | $10.95 US, $11.95 CND
ISBN-13: 978-1935654582

Imagine, for a moment, that you could turn a toy robot into a hulking super hero, just by wanting to be special. In a nutshell, that is the premise of Heroman, an anime from studio BONES, in coordination with Stan Lee. Tamon Ohta’s adaptation of this  television show into the medium of comics has its high and low points. Let’s run it through. Joey Jones is a pretty average kid who ends up finding a toy robot that’s been smashed. He uses his scientific know-how to fix it up, but when a strange calamity strikes, Joey finds out that his toy robot can transform into Heroman, a powerful semi-sentient robot.

First, without getting too specific about plot, Stan Lee’s influence is immediately visible. From the setting, the stereotypes (the nerd, the blonde cheerleader, the football jock, the supportive minority friend), to even the names of the characters, its clear that Stan Lee’s influence is pervasive. For those of you who don’t read American comics, Stan Lee is the creator of comics like The Amazing Spiderman, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and more. Lee is even featured in some of the panels of the comic (much like his walk on appearances in most of the Marvel movies). And while Lee can construct some interesting fantasies, he requires that your suspension of belief be at maximum – and that’s not something that generally works for Heroman for an analyzing or critical reader.

Most stories in manga are implausible. Psyren for instance, is about a game where people travel back and forth through time, called forth by a mental psychic program called Nemesis Q. Not exactly believable. But what makes these implausible stories interesting is how characters interact, how the fantasies are called forth, and if the world created by these fantasies is cohesive. While Heroman certainly has its own breed of storytelling, I can’t say that it works for me as a critical reader. I find the characters to be what are essentially one-note stereotypes (our hero, Joey Jones is especially so, being nothing but a characterization of faith and doubt), and their interactions are then doomed to be similar stereotypes (the jock vs. the nerd, the hottie defends the nerd vs. the jock, etc.). The fantasies constructed are interesting enough (bug creatures invade the Earth, Heroman is our only hope, “with you, I can fight!”) but the way that they are constructed is haphazard.

More interesting is Joey Jones’ internal struggle in the later half of the book, although it ends in a very spectacular, over-the-top manner like the beginning of the book. We see him trying to come to grips with Heroman and his abilities, and his responsibilities (a la Peter Parker). Our hero manages to come out of his slump and successfully battles more bugs – with a bit of a twist ending that is certainly going to escalate the action in Volume 2.

Dispite my misgivings about the story construction, Heroman feels great for younger readers. There are a lot of messages about hope and friendship that we often see in shonen manga, but they are amped to 11 in Heroman. Younger readers who are more likely to suspend their disbelief, will find this bug squashing, ghost busting beat-em-up to be a real thrill, and it has a typical shonen ethos. I like this comic a lot in the traditional shonen age group, because it looks good, there is a lot of action, and it doesn’t bother getting technical about the fantasy. It’s all POW and WOW, and very little else. This is an untapped audience for most manga in the USA, Chi’s Sweet Home being a notable exception.

The production value on Heroman seems a bit lower than Vertical‘s regular releases. I assume this is because they are trying to fit into a price slot controlled by Viz Media, Kodansha, and Yen Press, but I am used to cleaner, whiter paper and higher-quality inks. This type of production is also present in releases of The Limit, which I will likely review next week. (of note, josei works like Sakuran and Paradise Kiss both have beautiful production, Vertical‘s standard).

Overall, I recommend Heroman to younger readers, but find that if you want your science fiction to be better explained, you aren’t going to enjoy Heroman. If you are turned off by stereotypes, Heroman again might not be your thing. Slightly lower production quality keeps it in an affordable price range, and this book (plus or minus a Heroman DVD) would be a great present for a 8-12 year old.

For Fans Of: The Amazing Spiderman, One Piece, “Friendship, Hard Work, and Victory”
Final Verdict: Recommended with reservations

Review: Barbara

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BarbaraBarbara
Written and Illustrated by Osamu Tezuka
Genre: Geikiga/Seinen
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
440 pages | $19.99 US
ISBN-13: 978-1569702826

I’m giving away a copy of this book as part of a series of holiday giveaways (check out the details here!)

Barbara has a very unique story as far as manga published in the West. The simple recap is that is it is the first volume of manga to be successfully published using Digital Manga Publishing‘s Kickstarter initiative. This has included 4 seperate Osamu Tezuka titles, with Barbara being the first, and UNICO, Astrocat, and Triton of the Sea being the others. DMP has also used Kickstarter to reprint Tezuka’s Swallowing the Earth.

Barbara is the story of Yosuke Mikura, an up-and-coming writer who, while in the tunnels of the Shinjuku station, finds a drunkard who can recite French poetry. He takes her home, and the rest of the volume are tales of the two together (and apart).

In some ways, Barbara shows the progression of Tezuka’s craft. In this comic, the beginning is rather segmented. The first five chapters might as well be short stories played with the two actors Barbara and Yosuke. Chapter six is where things start to get interesting. An old friend of Yosuke’s, an African writer, reveals to him that Barbara is a Muse who takes a suitable form to inspire artists and writers. Yosuke is originally incredulous, but things become more and more strange – and as the book progresses, the writing improves. Instead of being segmented, the story becomes continuous, and you don’t feel like you can read one or two chapters and set the book down.

While there are definite colors of “The Tales of Hoffmann” here (a muse visits and inspires an artist and has him fall in love with her), I can’t help but feel that Tezuka was also pulled into writing about an ongoing occult craze. The beginning of the book is much more classically oriented, and as it progresses, we see voodoo dolls and sacred witchcraft ceremonies. The two halves are disjointed. This doesn’t make it bad – the last section of the book is a real page-turner. But people looking for a straightforward story are likely to be disappointed.

This manga certainly falls in line with some of Tezuka’s crazier work (Swallowing the Earth being the prime example here) but isn’t quite as unrestrained, and while it is heavy handed with its discussion of art, the spirit of production, etc. it doesn’t seem to push the themes of moral decay and humanity the way that some of his other adult works have (Ayako, MW, Ode to Kirihito). Yosuke is presented as a sexual deviant in the first chapters of the book, and that theme of deviance could have been critiqued or used as theme in a fuller way, but it seems to have been abandoned for voodoo dolls and a black mass.

Overall, Barbara is fascinating and bizarre. While it isn’t as structurally sound or thematically deep as some of his other adult works, it certainly stands up as a piece of fiction. Tezuka lovers will find this an indispensable part of their collection, and casual readers can find a lot to love, provided you are ready for the crazy.

For Fans Of: Swallowing the Earth, Osamu Tezuka, The Venus of Willendorf
Final Verdict: Recommended

Review: Pupa, Vol. 1

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pupa, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Sayaka Mogi
Genre: Horror/Fantasy/Science Fiction
Published online in English by JManga
Originally published by EARTH STAR Entertainment
599 points ($4.80-5.99 based on points plan)

Horror, in all its forms, isn’t exactly my favorite thing. Half way through Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I decided it would be a better time if I watched the wretched film The Replacements, (happily, even Keanu Reeves was better than Chainsaw). I’ve never watched SAW, and I’m not big on any of the scholocky horror of the mid-80′s either. So pupa, a horror manga about a little girl who turns into a monster and eats human beings, isn’t really my cup of tea to begin with. Still, the price point was fine, and every once in a while, I try to things I have previously not enjoyed.

pupa is the story of Utsutsu and Yume Hasegawa, two children practically orphaned after the death of their mother and the negligence of their abusive father, who encounter a strange woman warning them of red butterflies. The two do not heed the warning, and tragedy soon follows.

The following chapters show us that Yume and Utsutsu have been infected with some unknown virus that causes people to mutate into gigantic monsters with a lust for human flesh. Utsutsu has not awakened as a monster, but can spontaneously heal any wounds, making him the perfect snack for his sister Yume.

Despite the horror elements of pupa (which are darkly drawn, bloody, and violent), I dislike Yume and Utsutsu’s relationship even more. Utsutsu’s friends comments make it clear that she is an obvious object of affection, and no one is enamored more with her than her brother. This was icky at first, but got worse when she is literally eating his flesh saying lines like, “Big brother your meat is so good!” and he is somehow relishing it. Creep signal, activate!

Other issues with the series is its fairly inconsistent artwork. I’m not a big fan of the way that Sayaka Mogi illustrates the darkest scenes. Likewise, character illustrations are disproportional in certain scenes, and profiles of each character a real sore spot. The character designs don’t have a whole lot of reasoning to them either – having your main character have a dark scar running down one of his eyes and things that are supposed to look like cigarette burns on his arms makes him stick out, yes, but he looks like a garbled mess.

The story also leaves a lot to be desired. The opening (the abusive father, the tragic family history illustrated with teddy bears) really has no bearing on the rest of the story. It feels superfluous. I can suspend some of my disbelief regarding the whole monster thing, but there are a lot of questions left hanging from the first chapter that aren’t ever mentioned again (why red butterflies,etc.) Ultimately, the mystery of the horror, and the tension of the unknown is just so dull that it doesn’t really work in the context of the rest of the comic.

There is one scene in the entire volume that really hits home for me – it’s a scene with a cocoon that’s been smashed – a character calls it a “sloppy mess.” My only thought was – yep, this scene, and every other one in pupa. I’m sure there is an audience for this kind of “entertainment,” but that audience isn’t me. The lack of consistency in art and storytelling, the big brother little sister relationship, and other factors make this a no go for me.

For Fans of: Attack on Titan, Those skeezy little sister anime shows
Verdict: Not Recommended

Review: Cousin, Vol. 1

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If you are like me, and you are constantly asking publishers like JManga, Yen Press, and Vertical to publish josei manga, you have to put your money where your mouth is. If any of my readers is a fan of josei manga and isn’t purchasing what’s available, then you aren’t voting with your dollars. And, luckily, JManga has a small, but nice selection of josei titles that are currently available to purchase. One of those titles is Cousin by Ryou Ikuemi, a three volume title which was originally published in Shodensha’s Zipper anthology.

The story revolves around a girl names Tsubomi (everyone calls her Bon for short) and her struggles with relationships and her weight. After graduating from high school, she takes a part time job at a video rental store and meets a few different guys – Shiro, a guy who works most of the same shifts with her at the store, and Nasukawa, a customer at the store and a friend of Shiro’s who owns a late night dive restaurant. Tsubomi’s relationship with Shiro starts when he compares her eyes to those of a famous model, who happens to be Tsubomi’s cousin.

Tsubomi, the main character of Cousin, a josei manga published by JManga.

The first thing you notice as you read Cousin is that the main character, Tsubomi, is not your typical shojo/josei girl – she’s chubby, and she has image issues. She doesn’t wear makeup and she hasn’t really figured out how to talk with boys. However, this atypical presentation works very well for the story Ikuemi is attempting to tell. Her artwork is, like most josei, fairly realistic. This is a big change compared to how most overweight people are drawn in manga – generally they are big fluffy caricatures of someone who is overweight, and not realistically proportioned at all. Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution is a title I have reviewed previously which has a great example of how not to draw overweight characters.

This is not an overweight person. This is a caricature       of an overweight person. Published by Yen Press, Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution.

The tone of Cousin sets it apart from the large majority of manga in English; there is a wistfulness and at the same time a playfulness that flows throughout the story. Tsubomi is attempting to make up for the things she didn’t accomplish in high school, and there is an abundance of humor (most of which is self-depreciating). The interaction between Tsubomi and Shiro is really fun, and there isn’t an abundance of male/female friendships in manga, which makes it all the more interesting. There isn’t any romantic overtone to their relationship either, which is a stark contrast to most josei and shojo titles.

The pacing for Cousin is the right type of steady – in a story about personal growth and development, Ikuemi finds a way to make things move in an organic way, and in a way that’s not really predictable. It’s exciting to see Tsubomi move through her small crises and work through her issues, and it feels natural. The art, while fairly standard for josei manga, expresses emotion very well, and the different settings are well illustrated. The story works in such a way as to potentially introduce some big changes in the next volume, but it’s hard to determine what will happen.

At 499 JManga points ($3.99-4.99 based on points plan), each volume is a steal, and at 3 volumes, it’s a relatively small investment for a good story. The JManga platform has its bugs (can’t be accessed on an iPhone or any other Apple device, Flash-based – with planned Apple and Android platforms to be released in the future) but overall it is a good reading experience very similar to that at VizManga.

I liked Cousin quite a bit for its unique main character, good pacing, and smart delivery. It is easily one of the better titles on JManga, and supporting josei on the platform means more josei in the future. Recommended.

(JManga titles are currently available via the JManga website, which is a digital only portal for Japanese comics. You can find more of their content at www.jmanga.com and can follow them on twitter at @JManga_official)

Some Initial Thoughts On Barrage

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One of the most interesting developments of the past year is Shonen Jump Alpha, and more specifically, the end of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s Bakuman. While the comics running in Shonen Jump Alpha are all of the long running variety (Bakuman, one of the shorter works in the magazine, finished at a  measly 20 volumes), they are bound to end at some point, and when they do, the question of what to add in their place is an issue.

In Japan, this is not a problem. New comics are being released all the time. New one-shots and new series are being debuted at every corner, so if a comic goes out of an anthology, it’s not a big deal; there are plenty of backups to work with the missing space. However, in the one major shonen anthology, Shonen Jump Alpha, losing a series means finding a replacement, and using a replacement that is likely to be a long-term success.

When Bakuman ended, the powers that be at Shueisha/Viz decided that the newest manga for Shonen Jump Alpha would be Barrage, by Kouhei Horikoshi.

Barrage is about a young boy named Astro who lives on the streets. After the planet’s prince finds Astro and determines that they are exact look-a-likes, he forces Astro to take his place, and become Prince Barrage, with all the rights, priveledges, and responsibilities therein (including using the Orgue, something like a magical spear of destiny that can only be wielded by someone with the power to become king). What follows is a battle/adventure manga with sci-fi elements rooted in the notions of the power of family that is not your typical shonen manga and the stock bravery and guts that are oh so typical. The story pulls deeply from The Prince and the Pauper, although character designs, especially the alien in the first chapter, seem like something straight out of a Final Fantasy Tactics game. Industrial landscapes and rundown cities and towns show the decay of a ruler unable to lead his people and the ruinous results of an alien invasion.

While the content is overly similar in the first few chapters, things start to brighten up and expand as the manga moves into later chapters. We are starting to see what motivates Astro, the intricacies of the Orgue, Astro’s mystical weapon, and the struggles of the people of Astro’s home planet. The supporting cast is small at this point – only Tiamat, the royal retainer/bodyguard has become a main fixture in the cast, but like most adventure manga, I am certain that we will be collecting more characters very soon.

Barrage is like a good chocolate chip cookie. It is warm, familiar, and satisfying, but not particularly original. While the originality may Barrage start to show itself in future chapters, we are still seeing what is assuredly a mostly stock introduction, and until the series really comes into its own and builds the cast, I expect that’s what we can continue to see. Overall, Barrage makes up for its lack of immediate inventiveness for a certain amount of technical prowess; the images are sharp, the illustrations are clean, and overall it’s a fun reading experience. I am reminded quite a bit of Toto: The Wonderful Adventure by Yuko Osada, which had a similar style and flavor. We shall see how Barrage differentiates itself in the months to come.

When I first started subscribing to Shonen Jump Alpha, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I did not read scans, so hopping into these series this far advanced was very strange to me. Seeing a new series from the get-go has been an excellent eye-opener to what Shonen Jump Alpha can be, and I hope more new series are in the pipeline for Viz’s digital anthology.

Review: The Book of Human Insects

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Blogging seems to be one of the things that goes to the wayside quickest in times of high stress – and with my residency moving into high gear for the beginning of 2012, I doubt that I will be able to get much accomplished in the way of writing as I mentioned late last week. I did find some time to finish up a review that I have had percolating in the background of the site, but I had planned to release this review as part of the Manga Moveable Feast for Osamu Tezuka. As you might have noticed, I missed the release date by a fairly wide margin (seeing as how we are done with the Jiro Taniguchi MMF as well!). That’s the life of a pharmacy resident, and I’m certainly looking forward to having some of my free time back once I finish the residency in June.

Tezuka continues to fascinate me with his adult-oriented comics. The Book of Human Insects is a tale similar to other Tezuka fiction (MW) but in this story, the protagonist is a sly and brilliant celebrity named Toshiko Tomura. She is apparently gifted in the worlds of theatre, directing, design, writing, and more. She confounds the media and is a complete starlet and popular darling, all because she is actually most adept at leaching the creative life-force of her mentors and stealing their best works, claiming them all as her own.
One of the things I find so interesting about The Book of Human Insects is its female protagonist – in many Tezuka titles, the male gaze is often the only one that matters. Female characters are often characterized as doormats, harpies, the innocent, or the promiscuous.  But here, in The Book of Human Insects, Tomura’s decisions are what drive the novel and her power as a character are what make The Book of Human Insects into the work of fiction that it is. It is a stepping point away from the usual Tezuka female, and while Tomura may not be a moral human being, she owns her choices. That’s more than I can say for characters like Ayako in previous Tezuka work.
The plot of The Book of Human Insects is essentially a noir tale wrapped around the excesses of a generation. The communist and capitalist sentiments of Tezuka’s time are displayed with gleeful abandon for Tomura to consume and destroy, while Tomura’s excessive childishness dominates the book, punctuating it like the repeated line of a villanelle – gone for a moment, and then back to remind us of what this character is actually like.
While no member of the case of The Book of Human Insects is a complete saint, there are those few innocents that do manage to get trampled under foot in this manga, and I think it is interesting that Tomura seems to spend most of her emotional output on one specific man, Ryotaro Mizuno, the one who has the highest capacity for love and grief.This may again be her chameleon-like nature taking over, trying to mimic his high emotional state and perhaps a desire for his love for another woman, I love she will never be able to have because of what she has done to him. Its a very unique relationship that twists the what would otherwise be completely heartless Tomura into something a little more fragile.
I wonder what The Book of Human Insects says about Tezuka’s thoughts on the world at the time of this book’s writing. In one distinct passage, Tomura exclaims, almost surprised at Mizuno, “Why don’t you steal too?” After the confrontation, she calls him a coward as he walks away. It’s a very emotional passage, and I think it carries most of  the weight of Tezuka’s message – in this world, the just do not always win. The thief can triumph over the lawful. Perhaps, Tezuka is saying, that this is the way that society is forcing people to engage one-another.
Tezuka’s penmanship and drafting are, as usual, stellar. He mixes his cartoonish character style with stark realistic backgrounds and does it in a way unlike any other mangaka currently published in English. The style is unmistakable, and while at first I was not attracted to it, I have grown to realize the strength of his craft. His page compositions are ahead of their time, and the pacing of The Book of Human Insects is perfect.
Overall, I find The Book Of Human Insects a fascinating read with a unique and singular vision. While this book is not quite as dark as some of Tezuka’s other work, it still asks hard questions about society and the individual’s role in it, and on the surface, is a really interesting noir-thriller. All in all, I am delighted with the book, and recommend it to Tezuka fans and any mature comic book readers looking to give the “god of manga” a go. The Book of Human Insects does not disappoint.

Review: Mardock Scramble, Vol. 1

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When Kodansha Comics popped onto the scene, replacing Del Rey and making huge plans for increased frequency of releases and new series making it to print, I was fairly excited. Obviously it was upsetting that Del Rey had mostly been cut from the picture, but it was my hope that this change would lead to some great new content being released. For the most part, I have been underwhelmed, due in large part to the fact that I am not the average manga consumer, and I still don’t have new volumes of Nodame Cantibile (which, face it, is a lost cause).

Kodansha has made a lot of safe bets with the titles it is currently publishing (besides the ever-befuddling Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei!) and one of these safe bets is Mardock Scramble, a manga based of a 700-page “cyber punk noir thriller” novel recently published in English by Viz Media‘s Haikasoru imprint. Importantly, both the manga and book were written by the same person, so the hope is that the transition from novel to illustration would at least be faithful to the original book. I had all but decided not to purchase the title when a few bloggers I follow fairly closely said that it was a fun read – so I decided to bite.

Mardock Scramble follows a young girl named Rune Balot (the most irritating name for a protagonist ever) who has been forced into prostitution and is inexplicably found, revitalized, and subsequently murdered by a man named Shell. Rune, in the hands of the reaper, is saved by two private detectives, Dr. Easter, and a shape-shifting weapon that calls itself Oeufcoque and takes the form of a yellow mouse. She is saved by a mostly illegal experimental procedure called “Mardock Scramble 09″ (yes, I realize this gets more ridiculous as I type), and now has the power to interface with all manner of electronic devices. The main focus of this first novel is whether Rune feels that her new life is worth living, after being broken down so thoroughly by her past, or if she should help Dr. Easter and Oeufcoque deliver Shell to justice.

If I had to describe Mardock Scramble in one word, that word would be “fluffy,” which is an odd word for describing a gritty sci-fi action thriller like Mardock Scramble. We see Rune run through the ringer, only to be brought back to life and made into some sort of superhuman weapon, and it’s all very cheery and “wow, look at how much power she has,” in a typical shonen way. Rune is a victim of poor circumstance, and her trials and tribulations are laid out to give her excuses to do certain things, but the pain or the sadness is very gimmicky. As a reader, I want well developed characters to go with my action, and Rune is a few clichés pasted onto a black-haired girl. The content of Mardock Scramble takes a backseat to cool explosions and artistic flourishes, and while that can be entertaining, it certainly isn’t compelling. It is this “style over substance,” storytelling that turns me off to works like Mardock Scramble.

To add to that mix, Rune is a doormat character, and her trauma and sadness are not well explained, so she ends up looking like a broken doll rather than a person battling with depression and issues of self-worth. The book is so busy with its upgrades that it essentially overrides Rune’s emotional crisis after a few short scenes. The other main character, Oeufcoque the mouse/weapon, is played as both comic relief and a Yoda-like benevolent teacher, leading Rune through her problems while enjoying a good pistachio. It’s not really clear what roll Oeufcoque and his friend, Dr. Easter, play in this series, but they break the action up a little bit, and that’s a welcome change from the rest of this first volume.

The art of Mardock Scramble is fairly well done, but there’s an unpolished feel to it that nags at me. The style, which is grungy, a little dirty, and futuristic, hits the right tone for the story, but there are some inconsistencies with the way people are drawn (faces with misaligned eyes, abnormally long arms and legs) that seem to get less and less noticeable as you progress through the book. Page layouts in Mardock Scramble are excellent in comparison to other books in the same genre, and Mardock Scramble reads very easily because of it. If anything is this book’s saving grace, it is that it is a quick, well composed read, so unless you are looking specifically to evaluate the work in a critical, some of the misgivings I have about it may be easily overlooked.

Overall, I think Mardock Scramble will be a great read for teens who like action and sci-fi, but I think those who are looking for a bit of manga popcorn to munch on will like Mardock Scramble the most. For my tastes, I want Mardock Scramble to have more substance than it currently has. This may change in the second volume, but from the parting scenes of volume one, I would have to sit through another chase scene, and to be honest, I have seen enough of those to last a lifetime. While Mardock Scramble isn’t the worst work I have read in the genre, and certainly manages to get the pacing and flow of reading absolutely right, I doubt I will be back for volume 2.

Review: Breathe Deeply

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Breathe Deeply
Written and Illustrated by Doton Yamaki
Publisher: One Peace Books (October 1, 2011)
Language: English
Genre: Seinen
Pages: 474 pages
US $16.95
ISBN-13:978-1935548072

As a medical professional, I sometimes have a hard time reading medical dramas or watching medical shows on television.This is especially true with shows like House, where the way the series is set up forces it to be completely technical and still be somewhat accessible for the layperson. As part of a long-standing studying stress reliever, my friends and I would gather around the television during pharmacy school and analyze all of the things that were going wrong throughout a given episode of House. I remember running through lists of ways the medical team could have accurately diagnosed the patient and not half-killed him or her throughout the show.

It was this same sort of trepidation that I came into my reading of Breathe Deeply, a hefty volume of manga written by Doton Yamaaki, the pen-name of a husband and wife creative team who have been serialized in Kodansha‘s Morning, among other titles. This particular title seems to have been published by Sanctuary Publishing in Japan, which is a publisher I don’t have much information on; according to the One Peace Books website, the English publisher is a joint international venture of Sanctuary Publishing.

Regardless of the source of this piece of fiction, Breathe Deeply is a deep and sometimes dark look at one of the great medical debates still plaguing the medical community; the use of stem cell research to save lives.

Sei and Oishi are two young men in love with a sick girl named Yuko, a girl with an incurable heart condition that requires she receive a heart transplant in order to survive. She does not receive the necessary treatment in time, and passes away. The story of Sei and Oishi is one of heartbreak and stubbornness as each of them try to find their own way to a solution to Yuko’s illness after her death. Each of the men has a different outlook on the use of stem-cell research based on their interactions with Yuko. Sei, a brilliant chemical engineer, has created a polymer that can mimic heart cells and be applied to the failing heart to help massage it and keep it working, while Oishi struggles to have his research accepted as a major mode of inquiry into stem cell research (he has potentially discovered a unique way to create a new heart out of stem cells). The battle between them is one that weaves through the convoluted issues surrounding stem cell research – is transplant medicine ethical, is stem cell research murder to save future lives, and other modes of a morality vs. scientific progress argument.

Even when each character is at their highest point in the volume, each has to deal with the guilt and sorrow they’ve been grappling with for the past 15 years. It makes their struggles and fights more personal, their victories more bitter, and sets the stage for one of the most well-written “friendships” in manga for 2011. The way that Sei and Oichi play off of each other makes Breathe Deeply into a real interpersonal drama, where it otherwise could have been a sermon. Doton Yamaaki have an excellent eye for dialogue, and interactions in the lab seem very true to life, while the interactions between Sei, Oichi, and Yuko are a convincing mix of hormones, anxiety, and longing.

Doton Yamaaki have done an excellent job presenting both sides of the argument in this book, and it is clear that the only agenda the pair has is to write compelling fiction. In this area, they succeed, and do so with aplomb.  Breathe Deeply is a brilliantly written and illustrated piece of fiction that allows the reader to be drawn into personal fights and relationships while simultaneously asking the deepest questions and expecting no answers.

While I would not recommend Breathe Deeply to every manga reader (its often sketchy visual style and some adult scenes will not suit some readers), I do think that it is an excellent medical drama. The relationships are complex and human, and moments that could have been preachy or despicable are cast in that same human light. Overall, Breathe Deeply is a surprise success, and one of the better manga published in 2011.

A copy of this work was provided by the publisher for this review.

Review: La Quinta Camera

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La Quinta Camera: The Fifth Room
Written and Illustrated by Natsume Ono
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; Sig IKKI
Language: English
Rated: T for Teen
ISBN-13: 978-1421532196

Natsume Ono is one of my favorite creators in comics today. Her distinct style and charismatic writing have filled many of my evenings with beautiful imagery of Italy and feudal Japan, and her characters have sparked my imagination and wanderlust. When Ono’s first works were brought to the USA, we started somewhere in the middle – Ristorante Paradiso and not simple were a progression of sorts from La Quinta Camera, which is some of Ono’s earliest work. The series started as a webcomic, and was brought to print in one volume through Viz Media’s IKKI COMIX imprint. Of all the creators popularized by the IKKI format from Viz, Natsume Ono is the most complex, and most wonderful. La Quinta Camera is certainly an expression of that – but Ono has learned much between her initial comics debut in 2003 and her currently running series House of Five Leaves.

La Quinta Camera is a series of vignettes focusing on four men who live in a five-bed apartment in Rome, and how they use that fifth room; or rather, who they rent it to. The book opens with a female Danish foreign exchange student named Charlotte and the strange circumstances by which she meets all the men who live in her apartment. Ono drops the girl in the middle of town, and she finds that each of the interactions she has ends up being with one of the four men who live at the apartment: Al gives her a ride, Cele insults her in a crowd, Luca plays music and sings with her, and Massimo cooks her dinner at his café. It is a fairly natural progression, and Ono lets the scene do a lot of talking.

Throughout the rest of the book, the short stories fall around with the men (and ladies) of the fifth room. Screenwriters and American students stay in the fifth room, and the four men learn, live, and grow. These characters are unique and easily identifiable, and Ono does a good job differentiating between the four in looks and attitudes. The cast is likable and interesting, which in turn creates an excellent reading experience, because character studies that Natsume Ono is so fond of often live or die by how well their characters interact and attract the reader.

Another attractive feature of La Quinta Camera is its unique art style, which, if I gather from other conversation on the internet, has not been very well received. I suppose that some readers are put off by the illustration style of La Quinta Camera because of how different it is than the style Ono uses for Ristorante Paradiso and House of Five Leaves. The art in La Quinta Camera is sketchy, some might even say “cartoony,” as if it were an insult, because they don’t like the style comparative to her other work in English. Certainly La Quinta Camera does not use complex illustration like Natsume Ono’s other work – but it honestly doesn’t need it. The book breathes and lives through these sketches, and it’s obvious that the style is not a lack in cartooning skill, but rather a conscious choice.

Natsume Ono is not for every manga reader – people who don’t like slice of life will find La Quinta Camera insufferably boring, because honestly, not much happens. If you need someone to shout out the name of a hidden move or punch a guy in the face every chapter, this is probably not a series you are going to like. You won’t find action or true suspense with La Quinta Camera. What you will find is an excellent character study and a lovely set of stories based on some of Ono’s experiences in Italy. That’s the joy of the series, in my mind, and certainly those who love films like Lost in Translation or The Kids are Alright will love Ono’s quirky and gentle peek at the lives of four Italian men and their varied houseguests.

Moving Review: Monkey High!, Vol. 1

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Monkey High, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Shouko Akira
Viz Media Shojo Beat, 192 pgs
ISBN 9781421515182
US: $8.99, CAN: $11.99

One major thing after another is coming up this month, and for me, part of that is moving to the great snowy north of Cleveland. My manga collection is certainly a big part of my possessions, and in order to pack things like, well, clothing, I have to decide whether or not to keep or donate books that I have accumulated over the past 6 years. My shojo section is the first to be thoroughly scrutinized, and I’m going to be doing “mover’s reviews” with the end of the review being one of three options:

Keep – I pack it and bring it with me
Donate – I like it but I’m giving it away to our local library system
Trash – I don’t think it is good enough to donate to a library (…ouch!)

Cliche is a large part of manga writing. It makes sense, financially, to continue to produce similar products because your audience enjoys the similarity between one product and the next. That’s all well and good when you are making toasters, but with manga series, it tends to create books that are eerily similar to one another. Finding a shojo series where the girl finds the guy that is thoroughly unique is about as hard as can be. Writers tend to acknowledge these cliches by either avoiding them, trying to modify them slightly, or my favorite, subvert them. Monkey High! understands the stereotypes and the cliches, and tries to subtly subvert one of the underlying principles of almost every shojo manga – the heartthrob high school hottie always wins over the stubborn, stoic girl with some combination of charm, wit, sensitivity, and that winning smile.

Monkey High! is absolutely… not that. Instead of the hottie, our heroine, Haruna falls for the class clown, a short guy Macharu (who looks/acts like a baby monkey). She’s recently gone through some trouble since her politician father has fallen out of favor due to some political scandal. Its the same, “bad things happen, school transfer, meet the new kids, find a new boyfriend” storyline that is familiar to most shojo manga readers. Haruna is an interesting main character because of her initial misgivings about her new classmates. She likens students to monkeys, with their cliques and fighting, and aggressively does not want to build friendships and romantic relationships. This is a different style of character that lends itself more heavily to introspection and reflection than most shojo leads. Atsu, Micharu’s best friend, is the heartthrob of the series, and attempts to woo this cute new girl, but finds his suave moves incapable of winning her over. Instead, it’s Macharu, with his honest smile, simple acts of kindness, and forthright charm that catches her eye, and we get to see the two of them begin their relationship together after a long school field trip involving hiking and group cooking. The rest of the cast is mostly classmates who fade in and out of existence to facilitate some of the major scenes in the book, but don’t necessarily have names.

The art of Monkey High! is mostly serviceable, and comes from the same vein as Yuki Obata’s We Were There (although the eyes in Monkey High! look less fishy and more human). Nothing out of the ordinary here, besides some pretty nice panel composition. Shading and toning are all fairly standard, and while the lanky shojo character is the norm here, it is nice to see that both Haruna and Macharu are at least drawn slightly out of range of that normal “tall, skinny, and cute” shojo illustration palette that I am so used to seeing. Another change is the lack of glitter, flowers, and starbursts in the toning of this manga, which is generally a given in this type of shojo story. I for one, am quite grateful.

The best part about Monkey High! is its strength of character and pacing, which are natural and also (sadly) somewhat unique to popcorn shojo manga. This book has the tendency to make you think a bit more than its fluffier counterparts and for its troubles, Monkey High! ends up being quite an enjoyable romantic comedy. Where others have failed, Monkey High succeeds in its subversive attempts to reshape the shojo story, and delivers a well timed and appropriate coming of age story. While it is not the most breath-taking manga, readers will certainly enjoy this well illustrated, well written romantic comedy, and even readers weary of the genre can find a lot to like.

On a lighter note, if ever o’ ever a tagline were to be printed on a back of a book that could make me cringe, “Going bananas for love!” is definitely one. Really Viz?

Mover’s Ranking: Donate.

While I enjoyed Monkey High! I don’t have a lot invested in the series (I only own one volume), and it wasn’t great enough to make me want to read it again. Still, it’s a fun title and I enjoyed it, and I’m sure patrons at the local library would love it.