In Volume 1 of Jormungand, we determined that this series is a fun, sometimes funny, light-hearted look at an occupation with is not at all funny and very definitely full of dark hearts, dealers of arms. In Volume 2, it’s more of the same.

There’s a certain amount of philosophical rambling I’m willing to put up with in stories of people with no ethical underpinnings. It’s interesting to watch authors struggle with the “why” someone would do something so awful and interesting to see that they often have to create a kind of cheerful nihilism to explain it, so that their characters remain likable while slaughtering people. It’s an interesting set of hoops that I have also occasionally jumped through – no less interesting when I have been jumping through them. How does one create damaged goods that are still charming? Well, first, you give them a philosophy that precludes selfishness. They must not just be in it for what they can get, or we won’t give a shit. Then you bond them into a team that not only takes care of one another – they must like and respect one another, so we are assured that they have some humanity left. Then – and this is the most important part – give each of them a moment of honest frailty and a sense of humor about it. Without the sense of humor about their frailty, they become a tragic figure. And the moment that happens, they must die.

Jormungand‘s cast has all these things. They are loyal, they don’t have noble ideals at all, but they are perfectly aware of what they do and why and what it really means – which is nothing at all. They don’t live in the center of their universe. They are a team that respects and likes one another and because Koko doesn’t take herself seriously, they are relived of having to take themselves seriously. Because Koko likes Jonah, they all rally around him as a surrogate family. Koko is the center of their universe and ours. They live or die by her command and we enjoy this story because she enjoys being in it. Without that, our interest would die.

I am pleased that Valmet has a delusion about being in love with Koko, because it allows me to review this manga here. I’m also pleased that she’s not shy about it, because it serves the plot that she is not. I am perfectly content that it is one-sided, because it is amusing without asking me to commit any emotional resources to it.

Like Dogs, Bullets and Carnage and Black Lagoon, the story will sometimes examine a piece of the damage that makes up the past of the one of characters, but is strongest when that’s thrown that aside for an equipment jargon- and obscenity-laced, physics-defying fight. That is why we read it. To have the  fights that we cannot – to be the hard-assed, highly-skilled killers that we can never be (and really don’t want to be, but it feels good to sometimes think about it.)

I like Jormungand and not at all despite myself. I grew up on a steady diet of action flicks and adventure books. This is the kind of stuff I choose to read when I am free from reading horrible ecchi Yuri romances that make me want to sob, because they fail on every level of storytelling. (What I would give for Komari to return to the dorm in Gokujou Drops with one of Koko’s guns and resolve the matter of the ongoing sexual harassment permanently.) This manga is a rollicking adventure story, where the bad guys are the good guys and there are no good guys and no one wins.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 3

Overall – 8

Whether you read it for the amusing attempt at philosophical discourse, the Yuri, the humor, the action or the exercise in trying to make killing people not so bad in your head for a little while, Jormungand is stupid. But it’s fun stupid and that’s all that matters.

I get it, I do.

Lucky Star is a big in-joke for the otaku audience. Look Konata games, she gets moe, she talks about dating sims and anime and ero-games. She’s one of us!

To explain why this does not hit me in the same way it hits you, let me tell you a story. I was sitting at a Druid ritual, when a woman I know came over to me with an expression of love and acceptance and joy and asked me, “Isn’t this wonderful? Don’t you remember the moment when you first felt part of a group that truly accepted you?” I looked at her very seriously and said, “No, because I’ve never looked for acceptance from a group.” This conversation actually went on for some time, her trying to ask me the same question many different ways, and me giving her the same answer – I don’t look for acceptance from other people, so I’ve never needed to feel “part of a group.” As long as I’m happy doing what I’m doing, that’s fine. She walked away after a while, totally puzzled. *Everyone* wants to be part of a group, right?

I have never once in my life referred to non-fandom people (of any kind) as “mundane.” Sports fans don’t refer to non-sports fans as “thinkies,” or anything. Why would I refer to people not in my in-crowd as something silly that they are not? And what should I call you, my non-classical music listening readers? Or my non-archeology loving readers? No, I’m not really much into “us” and “them.”

I am proud to be an otaku, and perfectly happy in my otaku life, with my fujoshi wife. My non-otaku friends are in no way “mundane.” (Understatement of the decade. My non-otaku friends are far stranger than my otaku friends could ever hope to be.)

So I don’t need that thing that Lucky Star provides, that “look there’s a media character that represents us otaku!” If you read Okazu, you’ll know that my blog is largely given over to finding those moments for lesbian readers. The idea that there is a self-referential anime and manga for otaku is great – I just don’t need that particular affirmation of self.

I’m pretty certain that those of you who are deeply engaged with Lucky Star will see this as some kind of slam, but really, I think it’s fine, really! I have no objection to the series. I get what you’re seeing.

In fact, I liked Volume 3, because it explains why 4-koma aren’t all that funny AND why so many fans think Kagami is tsundere – because the creator said so, so even though she really isn’t, and now that it has  been said, you shape your perceptions to see that. Exactly as Konata says. ^_^ What I especially like is that she said that straight to our faces. It’s so rare to see irony in manga.

So, while many of you are resonating to the “she’s one of us!” and all the in-jokes in the anime, the bit that resonates most strongly with me is the ironic (and slightly mean-spirited) meta-commentary by the creator about our otaku habits. I like when he talks about what a waste all our devotion is, and what a pointless thing us spending all that money is. I loved when he had Konata comment that getting the first volume of a manga shows loyalty – even if it’s riddled with errors. That actually made me laugh out loud. (It reminded me of something Dorothy L. Sayers has Lord Peter Wimsey say in Murder Must Advertise – that if you smile as you say incredibly mean things, people will think that you are joking.)

I would also like to blame William Flanagan for being a competent translator, as now he’s sucked the most fun I was having with the series away by replacing the challenging grammar of the previous translator with perfectly sensible English. Thanks, Bill. (-_-);

Yuri? Yes…um there’s two minor characters whose names completely escape me right now and who are always together. Perhaps they are a couple. And the girl who draws doujinshi…I’ve randomly decided that I think she’s gay. Other than that? I still think that Konata x Kagami is entirely in your head, so why shouldn’t I create other Yuri that isn’t there, too?

Ratings:

Art – 5 I can’t really respect the art. At some point you’d think it’d get better.
Story – 7 There isn’t one, really. But it is a 4-koma, so one has low expectations
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Service – 10 Not in the salacious way this usually represents. This series was created precisely to appeal to the Fanboy in all of us and is in that way completely an expression of the meaning of otaku.

Overall – 7

I’m still not charmed, but I did laugh out loud several times at in-jokes. I also find the notes really interesting because despite the fact that the series is for the hardcore otaku, the notes were for “mundanes.”

Thanks ever so much to Okazu superhero Dan P. for allowing me this foray into this representative medium of an important part of my life. ^_^

In Volume 1 of Dragon Sister!, we meet the reworked heroes of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, once again turned into women for our entertainment.

At the end of the first volume, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have sold themselves to predatory lesbian Dong Zhou in order to secure their “brother” Liu Bei a command in the Royal Army. Dong Zhou ain’t no dummy, she’s going to have Liu Bei killed in order to keep Guan Yu and Zhang Fei for her own.

However, in Volume 2 she is foiled in this by the timely arrival of Lu Bu, a young girl with breathtaking strength. Seeing something even more potentially useful to her, Dong Zhou is willing to trade Guan Yu and Zhang Fei for Lu Bu. We learn a little bit about Dong Zhou’s past – enough to understand that her obsessive drive for power is to combat a painful and difficult rise to the top, and a reflection of her constant battle against the men who did not show her respect because she is a woman.

Dong Zhou is called away to support General He Jin in the Imperial court against the Eunuchs. She tells Liu Bei that if his volunteer army does something spectacular, she’ll give them rank, expecting both them and him to die. Only he does do something spectacular(ly stupid) and she’s impressed despite herself.

Which is exactly how I felt about this manga.

Despite the stupid premise – and the bits about the switching all the women back to being the men they should have been – this manga has actually been a not terribly bad version of the Romance. In fact, if you never were able to make heads or tails out of the original text, this would not be a horrible way to get some of the major plot points. I still don’t get Cao Cao, but that is my failing, not the story’s. ^_^

The art seems to have settled down a bit. There’s still an emphasis on portraiture, rather than action, but there’s more confidence in the lines. Service is mostly confined to shots of Guan Yu’s cleavage, a sentence which makes my head hurt. lol And Yuri is mostly set aside for power, as Dong Zhou cleverly realizes that screwing with a kid’s mind is easier than with adult minds, and tosses Guan Yu and Zhang Fei aside for Lu Bu.

If you can accept the biggest handwave, that the heros are women, and the secondary one that all the heros are women except the ones that aren’t, like Liu Bei, Cao Cao, He Jin and a few others, then the rest of the story really has no extraordinary hurdles for you to leap. It does have a few ordinary hurdles, because the Romance is not the easiest book in the world to read, as it details pretty heavy politics and military strategies.

Overall, a little despite myself, I actually liked this manga. It doesn’t look like a Volume 3 will be forthcoming at any point, which is a shame, because the world really needed another version of the Romance in which Guan Yu has cleavage.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7, even if they are still caricatures of themselves
Yuri – 1 Predatory lesbian wasn’t predatory at all.
Service – 4 There’s cleavage shots and some light bathing, and females sleeping next to each other, oh my!

Overall – 7

My genuine thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. for his sponsorship of today’s review, his patience, his generosity and his excellent taste in reviewers. ;-)