Manga Review

Tsubasa: Those With Wings

Volume 1

Natsuki Takaya

1996, Hakusensha, Tokyo

Phuah Hwee Mian (English Adaptation)

2008, Chuang Yi, Singapore

Romance/ sci-fi

6 ½ /10 stars

            On a desolate 22^nd century Earth, food is scarce and work is even rarer.  That doesn’t stop sixteen year old Kotobuki from hanging up her thieving ways and search for a proper job.  Nor does it prevent the handsome and elite military man Raimon from quitting his position in the army and traipsing after Kotobuki.

 She may be a thief, and he an ex-policeman, but don’t get the wrong idea: all Raimon wants from Kotobuki is romance.  He’s willing to wait, while the two pair up in this war-torn wasteland of a world, and go in search of work.  Unfortunately for the budding couple, virtually everyone on Earth is searching for the “Wings”, legendary devices said to be able to grant any wish.  Seeing as Raimon is ex-military and a self-proclaimed genius, many Wing hunters figure he knows the location of the Wings and how to summon them, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to convince him to help.  Ah, foo.  Romance will have to wait.

 Those With Wings is, at its heart, a tale of young love in a world devastated by war.  Well, when I say “devastated”, what I really mean is “hard hit”.  The world doesn’t actually seem any worse than a drought stricken rural area.  Themes present here are reinforced by Natsuki’s über later work, the international phenomenon Fruits Basket. Especially notable in this category are the themes of true love, and the unrelenting desire to be independent.  This latter manifest itself in Those With Wings as Kotobuki’s drive to find a job.  She’s not willing to be a burden on Raimon, no matter how often he says he doesn’t mind, and that desire to prove one’s self is the driving force behind this series.

 The world itself isn’t the harsh, loveless wasteland you may expect.  Technology is plum with our current state – computers, wind turbine generated electricity, motorbikes (although there’s only been one so far), and remote detonators.  Horse and cart is a popular way for rural folk to travel, which is fantastic, because Natsuki Takaya can’t draw horses to save herself.  Oh, how I laughed.

 There are both good and bad features in this volume.  The bad on Natsuki’s behalf is the lack of flow to the story.  The author’s apparent reluctance to draw backgrounds and intermittent frames means the action often leaps from one location to another (and once, even back again), with no explanation attempted for the mean time.  The other element in need of improvement is the length of the long, long chapters.  The good is the entire bonus story towards the back.  Knockin’ on the Wall predates Those With Wings, and provides an interesting insight into Natsuki’s early art style.

 There’s action, there’s comedy, there’s drama and a whole lotta romance, plus a touch of sci-fi and western.  But so far, no Wings.  Not even a solitary Wing.  If Kotobuki keeps the ball rolling and beats those dastardly Wing hunters to the punch, I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

Blood +

Volume 1

Asuka Katsura

2005, Kadokawa Shoten, Japan

Camellia Nieh (English Adaptation)

2008, Dark Horse, USA

Horror

9 ½ /10 stars

                At first glance, Saya Otonashi is an ordinary school girl with an extraordinary appetite.  But look beyond the outermost layer of this cheerful track team star, and the truth soon becomes apparent: terrible nightmares, inhuman cravings and shaking dé jà vu are symptoms of her bloody, veneered past.

 Trying to fit into a new school, not to mention a new family, is tough, and Saya isn’t helped by her inability to remember anything prior to the past year.  She’s in for a rude awakening.  She alone is capable of defeating the Chiropterans, monstrous creatures which lust for the blood of the living.  To do so she must first embrace her own brutal nature, but unfortunately for Saya, it’s not a role she’ll have time to get comfortable with.  The Chiropterans, the U.S Army, the leader of her high school theatre club...everyone wants a piece of Saya. Hopefully her friends, bad-boy Kai, fellow track star Kaori, and the mysterious cello player Hagi can help Saya hold onto her peace of mind.

 Asuka Katsura’s Blood + manga is one face of a new range of media spinoffs of Production I.G’s Blood: The Last Vampire short film.  While the recent anime series is undoubtedly the most prolific of these spinoffs, there are also light novels which compliment the anime and manga.  A preview of said novels was included in this first volume of the manga, and I can attest firmly from its few pages that if you’ve managed to read this far into the review, you’ll find these novels far too “light”.  The manga, however, is a different story.  It’s fantastic, for starters.  I cannot praise the art enough.  The graphic style, while typical manga and not particularly stylish, adeptly encapsulates the essence of Japanese comics.  The characters, backgrounds and objects are beautifully rendered; the pages of a high quality that you’d frankly hope Dark Horse would manage given its generally exorbitant prices and incessant boasting.

 In all honesty, the Blood + manga was less devastating on the pocket than I had expected.  A copy of Dark Horse’s Hellsing will set you back AU$25.00, while Blood+ was under $20.00.  It’s definitely worth it.  It’d be worth paying $25.00.  While the story is initially clichéd – amnesiac girl, violent past, heroic older brother – it quickly becomes utterly engaging, bloody and beautiful, and very much leaving the reader wanting more.  It’s not really true horror: the gore is comparable to Hellsing, while the teenage drama is closer to Fruits Basket.  Dialogue from kid vampire Charles adds spice to the story, and emphasise the sexy side of Saya and her eternal follower, Hagi.

 Lastly, I guess the majority of readers will not appreciate this consciously, but I definitely think it’s worthy of a mention; the composition.  The layout of panels and the arrangement of graphics within them is beyond excellent.  I would say that the composition in Volume 1 is by far the best use of this technique that I’ve ever seen.

 My goodness, you’re still here?  Volume 1 of Blood +: read it now!

Manga Review: Nana Volume 1

Ai Yazawa

1999, Shueisha, Japan

Allison Wolfe (English Adaptation)

2005, VIZ Media, USA

Romance/ drama

8.7/10 stars

            Nana Komatsu thinks she’s cursed.  She might be named for the “lucky” number seven, been when it comes to love, luck has never been on her side.  First there was her crush on the art teacher, then the video store worker, then the chef, then the baby-faced pizza boy, then her ill-fated affair with a married man.  Now, broken hearted and with no ideas for the future, Nana must once again rely on a helping hand from her best friend, Junko.  However, it’ll take more than Junko’s help to teach Nana what really matters, and a lesson in life and love may come too late to save her.

 Nana Osaki is totally opposite – she’s never needed a boyfriend to know who she is.  It might be fate that brings her and ultra-cool bassist Ren together, but it’s talent and a love of music that makes their band, and their relationship, work.  It is fate or love then that takes Ren away from Nana, to find success with a new band in Tokyo?  Nana will once again only have herself to depend on, if she’s to make a life for herself without Ren…but fate hasn’t finished with her, either.

 Nana is the separate stories of two twenty year old women who share the same name, and who both dream of leaving their mundane lives behind for the glamour and opportunity of Tokyo.  Volume 1 provides the prologue to their meeting where, apparently, the number seven has an important hand in deciding both their destinies.

 As a story, it is compassionately written and superbly executed.  The Nanas are nothing alike – Nana Komatsu is a typical boy-crazy girl, Nana Osaki is passionate and headstrong.  Though friends play an important role on both sides, their name is really the only thing the title characters have in common.  Both stories have high and low points, just as both Nanas have good and bad traits.

 Ai Yazawa’s story-telling is mature and engaging, well-paced, with an almost lyrical rhythm.  The twists are sharp and the emotion intense.  Artwork is as detailed as the lives of the girls it depicts.  Hair, fashion and character design are excellent.  While Nana has a definite shojo style, with the long, slim, beautiful characters, Ai Yazawa has ensured each one is distinct; no doubling-up of pretty boys or girls.  The boys look like boys too, which is a rare thing in shojo manga, and they’re no less sumptuous for it.

 While I thoroughly enjoyed this volume, I thought it needed a more generous supply of humour.  With so much drama and tension, Ai Yazawa really needed to crack a joke more often.  Maybe she’ll lighten up once the serialisation begins in Volume 2, but for now, the story is a bit too intense.

 That’s my only complaint, however.  Nana Volume 1 is brilliantly written, engaging and heartfelt, and damn good to look at to boot.  I’d recommend it to older readers who like a more realistic approach to life and romance than most shojo manga provide.

Manga Review

Mushishi

Volume 1

Yuki Urushibara

2000, Kodansha, Tokyo

William Flanagan (English Adaptation)

2007, Del Rey, New York

Supernatural/ horror

10 /10 stars

            Ages ago, when the first life forms were crawling from the Primordial soup, all living beings were virtually identical.  But as time moved on and plants, insects and animals began to develop, one life form remained the same – the mushi.

 More bacteria than fungus, the mushi have co-existed with humans for so long that we’ve practically forgotten them.  Yet the forms mushi can take are endless, and it’s not always in our best interest to look the other way.  That’s where Ginko comes in.  A young man who’s less than ordinary himself, Ginko is a Mushishi, a mushi master, who travels from town to town acting as a mediator between humans and mushi.

 When mushi come into contact with man, the result is usually either pestilent or terrifying (or both), causing quandaries such as a man who dreams death upon his village, a young girl whose eyes are eaten by darkness, or a woman who is melting into a living swamp.  Ginko’s advice is usually right, and he’s often the only Mushishi within shouting distance anyway – but just how capable this self-assured mushi master is remains to be tested.  His patients can rest assured of one thing; Ginko is no more on their side than the mushi’s.

 Mushishi is a fantastic, thrilling story that you should read, even if it’s the last thing you ever do.  Even if you must use up your death wish, say, “Bring me Mushishi, Gilberto!”  Not the Mushishi Ginko himself, of course, unless you’re plagued by the semi-existent mushi, but the manga.  Volume 1, to be precise.  I can’t vouch for the rest of the series, unless it’s as good as Volume 1, and in that case, go for it.

 Rarely is a debut manga so perfect.  Yes, Mushishi has its flaws, but in total it’s so great that any score less than 10 would be selling it short.  When I first began reading, the thought struck me that Yuki Urushibara can’t actually draw.  Not so, I realised later.  Her characters are often roughly, simply drawn, but as to capture flawlessly an expression or sentiment.  Yuki pays equal attention to the mushi, plants and animals as she does her characters, and her backgrounds, usually stunning mountain views, snow-clad villages or deep forest, are lush and engaging.  The art allows the story a smoothness all too uncommon in manga and other comics.

 The story itself ranges from exciting to nerve-wracking, chilling to haunting, sorrow to relief.  It’s a bonza story, full of folk lore horror in the fashion of xxxHolic.  There’s ten volumes all told, and they’re fairly fat to look at (230 pages apiece), but this is a series packed to the glass eyeballs with content.

 While the folklore horror/ supernatural genre isn’t for everyone, Yuki’s gentle, resounding story telling is sure to woo the harshest of critics.  Doctor, doctor, I’ve got these chills – give me a prescription for Mushishi Volume 2?