Archive for 2023


Pension Life Vampire

June 9th, 2023

The first thing that must be said about Pension Life Vampire by Shouichi Taguchi, is that it is available to read in English, for free on the Shueisha Mangaplus app. I like this app, because it has all the popular Shonen Jump comics, and some from Ultra Jump and other Shueisha mags. It is completely free to use and read, but there are time embargos on some chapters of some series. (For instance, if a volume is on shelves now, those chapters are not available.) Many series are completely free to read – once. Once you open a chapter and read it, it is no longer available to be read. As compromises go for free, this is perfectly fine for me. I’m following a number of series on this app.

The second thing that must be said is that Pension Life Vampire by Shouichi Taguchi is a lot of fun. You may recognize the art style or Taguchi’s name, because he is the creator of Futari Escape from Comic Yuri Hime.  Volumes 1-3 are available in English, Volume 3 came out this week in fact. Volume 4 is slated for 2024 English release. Like Futari Escape, Pension Life Vampire is goofy, Yuri-adjacent and worth reading if you like that kind of stuff.

Eri was part of an elite force of teens, the Rewriters, who were tasked with hunting legendary monsters. When the war is over and the Rewriters disbanded, Eri starts a new life as a student in a regular school. She really gives it her all, and actually figures out this making friends thing, which was refreshing. She also discovers a cute little vampire who is running a boarding house (the “pension” of the title) close to the school. Eri ends up working for Veronica – call her “Nica” – and having a life still filled with monsters and mayhem, but also with ice cream parfaits and friends.

There is a warm heart at the center of this story. Even as shouty and full of hijinks as individual chapters are, the jokes are only slightly groan-making and generally sweet, rather than mean-spirited. Nica is kind to Eri, who is learning to be a person after having been a soldier for most of her life, and new characters quickly become friends.

I said that this series is Yuri-adjacent, and I stand by that. Much like Futari Escape, (in which there’s no way to know that the protagonists are a couple, except that we are told they are,) Vampire Pension Life is filled with hijinks and jokes, some of which are based upon the idea that Nica actually like-likes Eri.I would dismiss it entirely but in a chapter where Eri thinks she is about to lose Nica, she becomes upset far out of proportion to losing the acquaintance of someone she hardly knows. To her credit, Eri understands that she’s overreacting and implies that…maybe…her feelings are not just friendship. Then the hijinks continue.

If light-hearted vampire x vampire hunter comedies are your thing, I think I can actually recommend this one. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6 It’s Taguchi, so the focus is on ebullient rather than good
Story – 7 Amusing, occasionally laugh out loud funny
Characters – 8
Service – 1 on principle, but it’s not the point
Yuri – …probably a 2, but let me have my fun.

When a vampire hunter needs a new life
A mysterious vampire think she’ll make a good wife
Monsters great and small
Walk up and down the hall
But in this monster’s house there’s no strife

A vampire story I can enjoy. Woot.





Mejirobana Saku, Volume 3 (メジロバナの咲く)

June 8th, 2023

Two girls in flower-like green school uniforms, pass another girl in the same uniform, on a brick path.It was summer 2021 that last time we visited this manga by the insanely hard-working Nakamura Asumiko. When I initially encountered it in the pages of Rakuen Le Paradis in 2018(!) I did not expect it would keep going as it has. But as I spend time with the characters, I find myself more interested in them.

In Volume 1 we met Ruby Canossa, a young lady at a private school for girls and Steph, the engimatic older student who fascinates and terrifies her. In Volume 2 a crisis pops up when it appears that means that Ruby may have to leave school. Ruby’s reluctant and resentful roommate Liz rises to the occasion and helps out, but don’t assume she’s a friend!

Now in Volume 3 of Mejirobana Saku (メジロバナの咲く) our attention is turned towards Liz…and Steph. The circumstances of Steph’s injury, Liz’s complicated feelings for the older girl…and a teacher’s grooming of Liz are all entwined in a way that makes this volume compelling, incredibly hard to read and emotional. Content Warning for off-screen violence and implication of intended sexual assault. It wasn’t an easy volume.

Now, at last, we understand the undercurrents that wrap around Ruby. And now, a new plot has appeared. There are rumors of a ghost are starting to appear around the school and small items are going missing…! <shiver>

Nakamura-sensei’s art is so distinctive and so evocative. When a scene is getting intense, it’s really intense. Because the magazine this series runs in is quarterly, we’re only getting a volume every other year, but every volume has been a delight. It’s impressive to see Nakamura-sensei do such an interesting and pretty unique Yuri story, given that the setting is pretty Class S and she’s best known as a BL artist. That said this is a really great story.

Nakamura-sensei’s art is so distinctive and so evocative. When a scene is getting intense, it’s really intense. Because the magazine this series runs in is quarterly, we’re only getting a volume every other year, but every volume has been a delight. It’s impressive to see Nakamura-sensei do such an interesting and pretty unique Yuri story, given that the setting is pretty Class S and she’s best known as a BL artist. That said this is a really great story.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Nothing overt, but the implications were dark
Yuri – 7

Overall – 9

Great stuff and I always look forward to more. We’ll be getting this volume in English as A White Rose in Bloom, Volume 3 in January 2024.





If I Could Reach You, Guest Review by Luce

June 7th, 2023

A woman stands looking out onto a purple night sky, holding a sitting girl's hand.Welcome once again to Guest Review Wednesday! We have a whole bunch of guest for the next few weeks, so let’s this part started! Today we once again welcome back Luce, who will be taking a look at a completed series. Take it away, Luce!

I’m Luce, collector of books and sometimes I even read them. I come bearing a review of a series that’s been out for a while and is complete, If I Could Reach You by tMnR. Enjoy!

The very first pages of the manga, tinged with blue, show us the exact moment Uta realised that she’d fallen in love – the exact moment her sister-in-law became her crush. A year later, Uta is in high school and is living with Reiichi, her older brother, and Kaoru, the aforementioned sister-in-law. No matter how she tries, she cannot get over this love, her ‘too late’ love. If I Could Reach You is the examination of this binary star system of Uta and Kaoru, and how they keep circling each other, never quite able to clear that distance, nor leave.
 
A tragedy, to me, is a story in which fate cannot be fought. It marches on, tramples over all in its path, and death seems the only escape from it. Is this a tragedy? No, not really. But I think it shares some similarities. It is circular, somehow, an invetability to the telling of it. Uta loves Kaoru. Uta knows it’s hopeless, but cannot give it up. She knows that Kaoru sees her as a sister only, which only makes it worse – Kaoru wanting to be closer in a familial way speaks to what Uta wants, but not for the reasons she wants it. The manga is seven volumes, so it’s not so prone to the endless circling that some romance manga seem to get into, but it’s certainly not decisive in its action. It moves quite slowly, building up layers of paint onto the canvas, until you finally get the whole picture – or is it? Some things are left untold even by the end, left to our imagination.
 
The drama felt pretty realistic and down to earth. It’s fairly obvious that Kaoru and Reiichi’s relationship isn’t quite working even at the start – the blurb of the first volume tells you that – but the actual reason is kept right until the end of the manga, as the issue comes together. The fall out is realistic. It’s not so much a soap opera of a shoujo manga, but a more melancholic tide of no one quite being happy, but none are able to address it, nor particularly face it, so it continues.
 
Having said that, I don’t see this as a depressing manga. It doesn’t feel hopeless, to me. It feels like a snapshot of lives not my own, just watching them play out, unable to impact them in any way. There are plenty of moments of levity, and characters that change the tone, not interested in dwelling in pity. Kuro, and her relationship with Miyabi, is an interesting aside, and Konatsu, although she has her own regrets, has her own unique way of dealing with things too. I think this manga is about uneven relationships, really, where feelings don’t quite match each other, and the strain that can put on them – and whether they can survive it. I’m not so keen on the portrayal of love as some unending emotion, unable to be shaken or swayed, but I can forgive that, as I do with many manga.
 
The art is fairly simple, but gives itself space to breathe – the emotions come through clearly. There was a panel in the first volume, where Uta has a dream in class about Kaoru kissing her – the panel of her jolting awake is the thing I remember most. The despair, the horror, perhaps the relief that it hadn’t actually happened, or the disappointment. It was this panel that really caught me, and made me carry on with it. There are lots of big panels and expressions which made me stop – if I had one complaint, it would be that everyone is a little stretched, with long limbs. It’s not unusual for manga, but does make me wonder about everyone’s heights, sometimes.
 
Although I enjoy this series, I’m having trouble with who to advise might like it. It has a little of the realism of How Do We Relationship? But isn’t so swift in its story-telling. It doesn’t really have the clear narrative of many shoujo, and it’s neither a wholly happy story nor a big drama. Perhaps if you like stories with something of an open end, this might appeal. If I had to compare the mood of it, it would be to Solanin by Inio Asano, in its relatively mundane, melancholic realism in depicting messy and imperfect relationships.
 
Story: 6
Art: 6
Yuri: 5
Service: 3 (the odd bath scene, not done salaciously as far as I recall)

Overall: 6

E here: Fantastic review, Luce. “…this manga is about uneven relationships” really puts it all into perspective for me. Terrific. Thanks so much!

 
 




Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Deluxe Edition, Volume 2

June 5th, 2023

A green-haired android poses in the middle of a busyish street. Her hands are clasped as she faces us. Some of the passersby look at us as well. The words "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Deluxe Edition," the number 2 and "Story and Art by Hitoshi Ashinano" are in prismatic rainbow colors.In Volume 1 we met Alpha, an android who runs a small coffee shop in what once was Musahino, and is now a wind- and sand-swept landscape. Alpha’s owner left years ago, now she spends her days making coffee for the occasional guest at her cafe, and experiencing the world around her.  In Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Deluxe Edition, Volume 2 we get to know more about Alpha and the people around her…and a tantalizing little bit about the twilight of humanity.

Alpha’s every day is filled with something, but it’s the somethings that fill a life when there is nothing particular to do. She goes to Yokohama to buy coffee beans (there aren’t that many left for sale), she meets the local ojisan, and the only remaining two children, Takehiro and Makki. Even so, Alpha can see that Takehiro is growing up, as time passes.

We get to see Kokone at work, and learn more about her, and then see her obsess about Alpha. They visit each other and pass the time together. Everything is quiet, here at the end of everything as we know it.

This is one of my favorite volumes, because we are introduced to Alpha playing the Moon Lute. In the second Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Drama CD, which I reviewed on Okazu back in 2007, we were able to hear Alpha vocalize to the Moon Lute and at that point, I had pretty much fallen in love with this series – much like Kokone, I had been completely charmed by Alpha.

But time passes here, and we get some tidbits from the old professor – and the ship that floats gracefully above the planet – about the fate of the people living on it. There is a soft melancholy that pervades this story and allows us to hold on to the high points as Alpha does, enjoying those ephemeral moments more than we might in our busy lives.

This is such a beautifully drawn book and so well-handled by Seven Seas. With all that space on the page, letterer Ludwig Sacramento is able to do retouch on the s/fx – something that I actually feel quite strongly about for this series. It is a series of silences, and few noises, so those noises are important. Daniel Komen’s translation and Dawn Davis’ adaptation make for a story that reads so smoothly, I had to slow myself down to savor the moments. Nicky Lim’s cover design is just beautiful. Thanks to everyone who worked on this at Seven Seas. It is one of my favorite series of all time and I am so glad it is getting the treatment it deserves.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 1 on principle, but for me, the pinup images of Alpha and Kokone are 10
Yuri – Kokone’s feelings about Alpha are certainly Yuri-adjacent

Overall – 9

If only the end of humanity was this gentle and quiet.

 





Suizou Ga Kowaretara, Sukoshi Ikiyasuku Narimashita. (膵臓がこわれたら、少し生きやすくなりました。)

June 4th, 2023

Presented in an orange and white palette, a woman sits on a bed crying, while a doctor listens. In her last book about her physical health, My Alcoholic Escape From Reality, Nagata Kabi-sensei explained the circumstances that landed her in the hospital with alcoholic pancreatitis.

We have followed Nagata-sensei through any number of trials. Like many of you, I find myself invested in her well-being. And that reader’s need to see her “get better” has become visible in the style of her comic essay work. The story is told from a crisis point, then we back into causes and effects, then she show us what she has done to move forward, leaving us feeling positive about the future. But Nagata-sensei’s life is vastly more complex than any one manga might cover. And it’s a sobering thought (no pun intended) to realize that Nagata-sensei is balancing a number of serious illnesses that are not likely to “get better.”

In Suizou Ga Kowaretara, Sukoshi Ikiyasuku Narimashita. (膵臓がこわれたら、少し生きやすくなりました。) we learn that Nagata-sensei had developed an addition to alcohol. Her look at the emotional and developmental origins of this addiction are a also look into her current state of mental health. I’m fascinated by her use of those pages as a kind of journal of self-awareness. But this book has a much more leavened perspective than previous books, ending with a recognition that the things that make up Kabi Nagata aren’t going to disappear and magically make her a new person. It’s not so much sad or resigned as it is mature. “One more thing to reckon with in this life” she’s saying and those of use who have had similar lives are just nodding. “One more thing to deal with.”

In her previous book, Meisou Senshi – Kabi Nagata, I wondered how her parents took what was in that book. In this volume, she focuses on the positive influence her parents were for her, especially her father. She comments again that she’s sorry her first book hurt her mother, so clearly that is a really sensitive wound between them.

I appreciate Nagata-sensei’s candor. I know that this isn’t necessarily what she wanted from herself, but there is tremendous value in people being honest about what it takes to survive.

No ratings, except to say her art style is, again exuberantly destructive. It’s incredibly powerful.

 

I note that this book is published by East Press, not Futabasha. I have no insight to what that might mean, I just found it interesting. Seven Seas has licensed the book as My Pancreas Broke, But My Life Got Better, which is slated for a November 2023 release. Thanks waffle for the correction!