Manga Monday: Does love have to be unplanned?

The truth behind Shiro-sensei's behavior finally becomes clear to even Hina in Suki: A Like Story Volume 3.

Note: Suki: A Like Story Volume 3 is the final volume in a series. For Volume 1 click here, and for Volume 2 click here. Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: Does Hina's goodness prevent her from seeing others clearly?

Hina's sweet nature and love of those around her may make her blind to the dangers around her in Suki: A Like Story Volume 2.

Note: Suki: A Like Story Volume 2 is part of a series. For the review of Volume 1 click here. Otherwise, read on.

Manga Monday: Getting to know a loved one all over again

Mio and Takumi were high school sweethearts...of a sort.They met in high school, but circumstances kept their relationship from developing until after they had graduated. Eventually, though, they finally come together, and a year after they marry their son Yuji comes along.

In most manga, this would be where the story ends. But here, the story is just beginning.

"Archive is a planet of memory. People who have passed away continue to live there as long as someone on Earth remembers them."

So says the picture book that Mio wrote for Yuji before passing away. She promises to come back when when the rainy season starts, and this is where we pick up, in Takuji Ichikawa's Be With You.

It's been a year since Mio has passed away, and her son couldn't be more excited. She promised to come back at the start of the rainy season, and as the weather forecast predicts cloudy skies, Yuji runs outside to find her. His father follows, glad that his son has so much faith in his late wife but not expecting to find anything.

Imagine his surprise when he finds Mio, sitting on the steps of Lab 5. But the discovery is bittersweet, as they realize that she has no memory of her family.

The manga follows the six weeks of the rainy season, as the family slowly  learns about each other again. Yuji turns seven, Takumi has another health scare, and sleeping arraignments have to be renegotiated. Mio might not remember that Yuji is allergic to strawberries, or that her first dates with Takumi were hours of simply talking, but the family was one built on love, and that love can transcend whatever strange magic has brought Mio back to them.

Be with You started out as a novel, and has become a manga, a tv show and a movie. The theme song of the movie was the highest selling single of 2005, which shows some of the love that Japan has for this story. A melancholy, sweet look into the life of a family that is hurting - and healing - Be With You is a lovely one-shot manga to spend an afternoon with.

Highs: In the last chapter, as we see the events from the mother's point of view, is much more of a payoff than I'd expected from a story like this.

Lows: The fact that Yuji calls his father by his first name was extremely confusing at the beginning, but things made more sense as it went.

Verdict: One-shot manga are hard to find, so this is an even better buy than usual.

Further Reading: Be With You (novel), Bunny Drop, The Girl From the Well

Manga Monday: A sunny girl with an overcast life

Alongside magical girls and androids named Chi, CLAMP told the story of a lonely girl with a cheerful disposition in Suki: A Like Story Volume 1

On the outside, Hinata Asahi's life seems happy enough. She does well at school and has friends that care about her. She sees the sunny side of every situation and is always trying to cheer up the melancholy people that she's around. Nothing seems to faze this girl.

But a closer look reveals that perhaps her life isn't as perfect as it could be. Every night, Hina goes home to an empty house, with only her teddy bears waiting at the door for her. It's alluded to that she's moved out of her father's home because she wants him to be happy, but how could such a wonderful girl be bringing him sadness?

Early on in the volume, Hina gets a next-door neighbor. The house has been standing empty for awhile, so Hina is curious to see who might be living there. Shiro Asou is a young man who has just moved into the area, and as a matter of fact, is taking over for Hina's homeroom teacher. Hina is elated to have found a new friend, and promptly starts inviting him over for meals and the like. But a few side conversations we overhear Shiro having leaves us wondering if there's more to him than meets the eye.


Suki: A Like Story Volume 1 follows a lot of what has become traditional manga tropes. You have the perpetually cheerful girl, her retinue of friends, the older man to have a crush on, and the mystery of their backstory. The art is very 1990s shojo, and has many of the expected traits of a CLAMP title. In many ways, it's exactly what one would expect.


What you have to remember, though, is there's nothing wrong with that. The reason that titles like Dragon Ball and Yotsuba&! come back again and again is that they are the comfort food of manga. You know what to expect when you start it, and it's a welcome break from titles like Attack on Titan and Berserk. CLAMP consistently delivers a certain level of excellence in each title they do, and Suki is no exception.


Highs: Hina getting excited about her favorite author's new book is a feeling we're all very familiar with.


Lows: The mystery around why she lives by herself is going to get old quickly.


Verdict: A traditional shojo romance that is very well done.


Further Reading: Bunny Drop, Yotsuba&!, Chi's Sweet Home

Manga Monday: Like mother, like daughter

Osamu Tezuka revisits the realm of Silverland from his beloved shojo classic in The Twin Knights.

The Twin Knights is the sequel to Princess Knight. Although it takes places years later, there are a few spoilers from the first series. The review of Princess Knight Volume 1 is here. Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: Can Ryukku rise to the challenge of protecting his teacher?

Palace intrigue - and Shurei's temper - really flare up in The Story of Saiunkoku Volume 2.

Note:  The Story of Saiunkoku Volume 2 is, of course, the sequel to The Story of Saiunkoku Volume 1. The review of The Story of Saiunkoku Volume 1 is here. Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: Is everyone who can see yokai so very odd?

Takashi puts everything on the line to protect the Book of Friends and the yokai in his care in Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 3.

Note:  Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 3 is, of course, the sequel to Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 2. The review of Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 1 is here, and the review of Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 2 is here. Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: Perhaps Lydia needs to listen to her cat more often

A kidnapping, a betrayal and a death follow Miss Lydia to the Isle of Manan in The Earl and the Fairy Volume 2.

Note:  The Earl and the Fairy Volume 2 is, of course, the sequel to The Earl and the Fairy Volume 1. The review of The Earl and the Fairy Volume 1 is here. Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: How far will a young scholar go to win the hand of the maiden?

A beautiful girl, living in a monastery with her mother and maid, spies a travelling scholar in the orchard in the manga based on a classical Chinese play, The History of the West Wing.

Pianpian, the beautiful daughter of a government minister, has been promised since she was young to the son of imperial secretary Du Heng.  Being the obedient daught er she is, she seems content in this, spending most of her days embroidering or making stationery.  She also takes the occasional walk through the monastery's courtyards with her maid Hong Niang, which is where all the trouble starts.

Being a small village, without much to keep the young men busy, they've all heard of the young maiden who lives in the monastery.  It's even become something of a hobby for them to try to catch glimpses of Pianpian over the wall as she reads in her rooms or walks around the grounds.  And when Chen Yuqing, a wandering scholar, arrives in the village, the men are quick to tell him about her, and invite him along on their daily viewing sessions.

But fate would have it work out another way, and the two both meet face-to-face and fall in love. Now, Yuquing has to find a way to earn the respect of Pianpian's mother to gain her hand in marriage.

Most of the manga-style work that makes it to the US is from Japan.  There, they have an abundance of folklore and traditional stories, from Dororo to Natsume's Book of Friends to draw from.  Sun Jiayo and Guo Guo, both from China, do a beautiful job with The History of the West Wing, using their Chinese traditional stories and evoking both the delicacy of the sheltered noble girls of the era, as well as the way in which women are at the mercy of the men in their lives, be it fathers, husbands or their betrothed.

Yen Press did a fantastic job with the North American release of this book, keeping a slightly larger format than most manga, and printing in color as well.  Large frames, as well as full-panel scenes at the back of the book show a masterful use of watercolor techniques, as well as attention to both the composition of the frame as a whole, and the details such as the drape of fabric or the twist of hair.  Certainly one of the more pretty manga to be released by Yen Press, and one that can be enjoyed many times over.

Highs:  As the forward informs us, Hong Niang has been immortalized in Chinese language as  part of the term for 'matchmaker,' and her deviousness here is reminiscent of many an interfering character in fiction.

Lows:  It must be a bit hard to translate a play into a manga, and a few of the transitions between acts were hard to follow.

Verdict:  A beautiful, delicate story that makes me wonder what else ought to be brought over from Mainland China to Western audiences.

Further Reading:  A Bride's Story, The Story of Saiunkoku

Manga Monday: Can a naive girl help a young man reclaim his title?

As the world forgets about the magical, those that bridge the two are left behind in The Earl and the Fairy Volume 1.

Miss Lydia Carlton is a fairy doctor.  Able to see fey folk when most humans cannot, she learnded to help the two live together peacefully from her late mother.  She treasures the time they spent together, and as soon as she was old enough, she put up her shingle and opened shop.


Unfortunately, Victorian Britain has no place for fairies anymore.  Ad science gains traction, fewer and fewer people believe in creatures they can't see, and business isn't what it was a generation ago.  More and more people are starting to wonder about the girl with the red hair and green eyes that talks to the air.


On a trip to London to visit her father, all this changes.  After some very frightening situations, she ends up in the employ of one Edgar J. C. Ashenbert.  He is the rightful heir to the legendary Blue Knight, but as a child he lost his title and the Merrow Sword that would prove his lineage.  He's willing to do whatever it takes to reclaim his rightful place, but he needs someone like Lydia to facilitate his dealings with the fey.


Lydia has one being in her corner.  There's a fairy called Neco who plays the role of protector to our too-trusting Lydia.  While normal humans see him simply as a cat, he can speak perfect English to Lydia and can write, too.  While he plays the cat in public, he demands to be treated as a proper gentleman by those who know his true nature.


There's quite a lot going on here, and it's easy to get lost.  Raven and Ermine, with the names of common animal familiars, are almost certainly more than they appear.  The ability that Lydia and  her mother have to see fey isn't explained.  But some shojo readers wouldn't be tolerant of the slow build that other audiences expect, so we're tossed into the thick of things.  Still, the premise is promising, and with light novels, a visual novel and an anime as part of the franchise, there's certainly promise here.


Highs:  The reaction of the mailman when Lydia starts scolding the fairies on his mailbag is priceless.


Lows:  It's hard to tell where the plot is going at first, but things get cleared up a bit eventually.


Verdict:  A guarded recommendation, at least to see where we go in Volume 2.


Further Reading:  The Story of Saiunkoku, Soulless

Manga Monday: Natsume finally starts to warm to some humans

Natsume frees more spirits - and deals with more humans too - in Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 2.

Note: Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 2 is, of course, the sequel to Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 1. The review of Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 1 is here.  Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: Can someone raised as both a boy and a girl ever be comfortable in her own skin?

Princess Sapphire comes up against pirates, goddesses, and even Satan himself in Princess Knight Volume 2.

Note: Princess Knight Volume 2 takes places after the events in Princess Knight Volume 1. The review for Princess Knight Volume 1 is here.  Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: Instead of fighting spirits, this boy gives them peace

It's bad enough to be orphaned at a young age.  It's worse to be shuttled from distant relative to distant relative, always a burden that no one wants to deal with.  But to see yokai wherever you turn and to be thought of as crazy because of it?  That's just plain unfair.

That's the life that Natsume Takashi has been given in Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 1.  Poor Natsume's a pretty good kid, considering everything that he's going through.  True, he's a little tired and spaced-out at school, but you would be too if your second job was to deal with the apparent infestation of yokai that Japan is plagued with.



In the first chapter, a lot of Natsume's life starts to make more sense.  His grandmother Reiko, who he bears a striking resemblance to, and who was also a loner, saw yokai as well.  Because she was always alone, she started interacting with the yokai more.  Eventually, she started tricking them into writing their names in her book, and as long as she had their names, she had power over them.


The years went by, Reiko passed away as humans tend to do, and her book was packed away and forgotten.  But the yokai she deceived longed for their lost names.  And when a new person comes to town who looks so much like Reiko, the yokai make their presence known like never before.


One yokai in particular, named Madara but called by Natsume 'Nyanko-sensei,' has taken a particular interest in Natsume.  Originally intending to steal the book - and thepower to control the other yokai - from Natsume, he eventually falls into a sort of teacher-protector-pet role.  He helps Natsume learn more about his abilities, and how to release the yokai from the binding.


Because the series started as one-shots, each story is much more self-contained than other manga.    Along with releasing spirits that have been bound by his grandmother, we see other spirits in the area, many of which are simply going about their business.  Some of the stories are truly touching, especially when Natsume takes care of the spirits that just gather in a town.  The episodic nature, and higher page counts than typical manga chapters, makes them very nice to read one story at a time.


The artwork is fitting of a shojo book, but still better than most.  While many of the yokai are wispy and undefined, it simply adds to their ethereal quality.  Character designs are well done, and characters are easy to distinguish from one another, which is sometimes all you can hope for.  And it's nice to see a kid like Natsume every once in awhile, who tries his best to fix his little part of the world, when he's done nothing to deserve the job.  Natsume's Book of Friends is quickly becoming a title that I'll be anticipating on its drop dates.



Highs:  The author Yuki Midorikawa gives us plenty of sidebars and endnotes that make the title even more endearing



Lows:  Because this title was not a regular title in its manga, the reintroduction to Natsume each chapter gets frustrating.



Verdict:  A shojo series with blessedly little romance makes this a great read.



Further Reading:  A Story of Saiunkoku, Dororo

Manga Monday: Another plucky young girl saving her noble family from poverty

There are many stories out there in which a semi-noble family falls on hard times and ends up living a life of genteel poverty.  Oftentimes, it is left to a plucky young girl to go out into the world and either make her way by herself, or help her family rise again.

Our plucky young hero is Shurei Hong, and the book is The Story of Saiunkoku Volume 1.  Shurei was born the daughter of the Imperial librarian.  That's certainly a proper job for a nobleman, but it's also one that doesn't pay particularly well.  Shurei has been tutoring youngsters to help make ends meet.  She dreams of taking the Imperial exams and take a post in government, to help make a difference in the empire.  As women are forbidden from taking the exam, she sees tutoring these kids as her way of making a difference by-proxy, as well as help put food on the table.

Even with her outside work, and their only remaining retainer staying on despite not being paid as an act of loyalty, rice tends to be a 'special occasion' food in their household.

When the Emperor's Grand Advisor gives her the opportunity to make a very large amount of money in just six months, Shurei jumps at the chance.  The mission seems simple enough on its face.  She must train the new emperor to lead.

This new emperor, though, doesn't seem at all suited to the job.  Ryuku Shi, the 6th son of the former emperor, is only the heir due to his father's dying wish, as well as the fact that the rest of his brothers all either killed each other off or are living in exile.  As the youngest of a pack of rather devious and brutal boys, he was often beaten by both his siblings and his mother, and locked for days in a dark storage room.  He has no desire to lead, and still hopes that his exiled brother - the only person to ever show him any kindness - would return to lead.  He believed that the best way to make sure that his brother would be able to take the throne if he came back would be to seem so incompetent that he wouldn't seem a threat.  He wandered aimlessly through the compound so that his advisors and tutors could not find him.  He even spread the rumor that he preferred men to women, giving people the impression that he would not be able to produce an heir to the throne.

So Shurei certainly has her work cut out for her.  But she's not one to take a challenge - or the prospect of a payday - lying down.  She's headed to the Capitol, and she's going to make something out of this young Emperor if it's the last thing she does.

High:  The shojo genre is full of plucky young girls determined to get some goal or another accomplished, but the layers of palace intrigue and a possible assassination plot give this story more depth than others.

Lows:  The art, while well done, has a very generic, feminine fell to the men, to the point that it can be a bit hard to tell people apart.

Verdict:  Better than many shojo titles, but still firmly of the genre.

Further Reading:  Rin-Ne, Princess Knight

Manga Monday: A young angel's slip-up causes all sorts of trouble

It's a great time to be a manga reader in the US.  Even though recent years have seen the demise of both CMX and Tokyopop, and now even Bandai is pulling out of the DVD anime business, other publishers such as Vertical and Yen Press have really stepped up to bring us a variety of manga that has never been available before on Western shores.  Vertical especially, with both the Osamu Tezuka classics as well as current gems like The Drops of Gods and Twin Spica, has added tremendously to the depth and spectrum of the genre.

There's also been a resurgence in the shojo genre on store shelves.  The most prominent series would, of course, be the Kodansha re-release of Sailor Moon in the original, unflipped format and with the Japanese names intact.  Beyond that, both Magical Knight Rayearth and Cardcaptor Sakura have received the omnibus edition treatment.  Tezuka, as is often the case, wrote one of the earliest entries in the genre with the 1950's Princess Knight series.  Serialized in Shojo Club, it is where many of the common themes of shojo manga first appear.  Vertical, in its recent trend of releasing Tezuka's manga in the US, has split the series into two volumes

In Princess Knight Volume 1 we learn about the terrible predicament poor Princess Sapphire has found herself in.  Before her spirit was sent down to be born, a mischievous angel-in-training named Tink causes the poor princess-to-be to receive both the wild heart of a boy and the refined heart of a girl.  So Tink is sent to follow the Princess to Earth and retrieve the misassigned boy heart.

To make things worse, Princess Sapphire was mistakenly announced to her kingdom as PRINCE Sapphire With a throne that can only be inherited by a male heir, and an evil uncle waiting in the wings to steal the throne for his son, the King and Queen make the heartbreaking decision to keep up the charade, keeping Sapphire's public presence strictly princely.

But Sapphire has a girl's heart as well, so along with the fencing lessons and horseback riding, Sapphire's mother makes sure that she has plenty of time to follow the more gentle, womanly pursuits of reading poetry beneath the trees and dancing lessons.

Eventually, though, her uncle becomes determined to steal the throne for his son, and he and his cronies work to show 'Prince' Sapphire for the young woman that she is.

There's all sorts of stories tied together in Princess Knight.  There's the Cinderella effect of Princess Sapphire going to a ball in a dress and falling for a handsome prince from the next kingdom over.  There's an evil witch who wants to steal Sapphire's girl heart for her own daughter.  There's the fact that Sapphire and her parents are truly worried about what would happen to their kingdom if their nephew comes into power.  And there's poor Tink, the angel-in-training who caused this whole problem in the first place.

At its heart, Princess Knight is just like its titular character.  It has a sweet, romantic side, as well as an action-packed, royal intrigue side.  It helped work out the formula used even today in countless shojo and shonen manga, from Ranma 1/2 to The Story of Saiunkoku, balancing the romance with action.  While not perfect by any means, Princess Knight Volume 1 is worthy of shelf space next to so many of Tezuka's books that formed the manga that we enjoy today.

Highs:  Tink is such a sweet little sidekick to Princess Sapphire, and even as you want Sapphire to keep both of her hearts, you still want Tink to earn his place back in Heaven.

Lows:  It's a little bit insulting how all of Sapphire's bravery and strength is tied to that boy heart of hers.  And why does no one notice that a certain swan has human legs?

Verdict:  Besides the boys' role vs girls' role mess that a book like this is almost certain to provoke, Princess Knight Volume 1 is a fun read, especially if the reader keeps an eye out for all the standard manga themes of today.

Further Reading:  Dororo, A Bride's Story