Archive for the English Manga Category


Steel Fist Riku Manga, Volumes 1-2-3 (English)

January 6th, 2017

Today’s review was brought to you by the kindness of Okazu Superhero Louis P, and I have to really commend him for his patience and perseverance, finding all three volumes of this obscure little series. Many thanks Louis!

And when I say “obscure” I mean that it was published by CMX, the manga imprint run by DC Comics. They were primed for success – really talented editors and some strong titles out of the gate, but. With a number of early controversies and DC’s strategic shift away from all their innovative ways to branch out into new comics and manga into making movies about the old characters, CMX was just one of a number of heads on DC’s chopping block in 2010.

The basic premise of Steel Fist Riku is something any older manga fan might instantly recognize – it’s a classic “perpetually hungry martial artist action-comedy.” In this iteration, we meet Riku, who lives with her adoptive father running a celebrity photo store, while training with him in his family style of martial arts.

In the course of the story, Riku is given a male rival who could be a love interest if they wanted, but thankfully they don’t. And she has, in the course of three volumes, more than one female friend, which goes a really long way to making this manga readable. Riku is herself a likable enough character. She’s very strong, always hungry and prone to getting involved in situations that just happen to need her fighting skills to resolve. As one does.

The only truly negative thing about the series is the main, often repeated, joke. Riku’s martial style is triggered by breathing and to do that, she has to pull off the binders from her chest. Aha.ha.ha. Ha.

Despite this not-terribly-funny joke, the manga is generally quite enjoyable. Riku’s nickname comes from her mysterious ability to turn her left arm to steel, a technique that would naturally come in handy in a fight.

This skill is so mysterious, Riku herself has no idea where it comes from . In fact, she knows little about her own history, as she was a foundling. When she encounters another person with the same skill, she’s excited to meet someone who can tell her about herself! Unfortunately, he’s a criminal and not willing to divulge any information. Nonetheless, Riku finds something even more important – her mother. So the series comes to a happy conclusion, despite the somewhat abrupt end.

I quite liked the village, in which animal-people lived side by side with humans with no apparent tension. 

But why, you must be asking by now, did Louis send you this pleasant, but obscure martial arts comedy? Thanks for asking! In one scene Riku picks up some side work as security at rich man’s mansion. In between resolving some family drama and fighting off thieves, Riku is quite dashing in her suit…regulation wear, according to the boss.

And when Riku and her childhood friend Oguri meet again and get past their issues, one could easily see them being very slashable if one was inclined.

Steel Fist Riku had a lot of things to like about it, especially if you were a Ranma 1/2 fan, as it steals quite heavily from Takahashi Rumiko’s formula.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Adequate, if not quite up to the fighting
Story – 8, Cute with moments of very decent
Characters – 8 Better than one might expect, given the premise.
Service – 4 Not quite as bad as one might expect, given the premise.

Overall – A solid 7. This might be something to ask Global Bookwalker to pick up for us. It’s not going to be reprinted, and probably not worth all the effort Louis put into getting it for me, but still was a fun read. ^_^





Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 2

August 9th, 2016

t_x200In Volume 2 of Kannazuki no Miko we come face to face with a centuries old prophecy meeting self-inflicted homophobia of a young woman. Through no effort of the creative team, we recognize that should Chikane have had a single person to speak with who was gay, very little of this story would have happened.

But, as Chikane’s desire is meant to represent “forbidden,” and therefore dangerous, love, instead of finding solace and acceptance in Himeko’s arms, Chikane nearly destroys the world.

Luckily for everyone, Himeko ignores all of Chikane’s behavior, and sees through the emotional and physical abuse, for what it really is…

..no.

Nope.

I just can’t do this.

This *could* have been a good love story, but it’s really just not.

Kaishaku had no interest in understanding this relationship, or “love” in general. They just handwaved away all the many horrible things in the name of “love.” But Kannazuki no Miko is just not a good love story. Its just a list of fetishes, clothed in names, and handwaved past what would have been a decent ending into another fetish they could shove in there.

I wonder if this book had been written 10 years later, would it have been different? I think it might, honestly. Yuri still wasn’t regularly getting happy endings in the 2000s. Would it have ever been “good”? I don’t think so.

Mad props for the Viz team. The story makes sense, the dialogue makes sense, the motivations, (while still super-duper annoying) make sense. They deserve a “Soup out of Stone” award for their work on this manga.

And, if you lovelovelove this manga and always wanted to read a decent English-language version of it, Viz Media and Global Bookwalker have finally given you that opportunity. Take it, before this slips back into the oblivion it so richly deserves once more.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Yuri – 8
Service – 9

Overall – 6

Giant Robots who are ancient Gods of Japan and Yuri. What a fantastic series this might have been.





Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki (English)

May 12th, 2016

SFLII know you know that I don’t really game all that much, but even living under a gaming rock as I do, I know Street Fighter. I remember seeing the first versions of this in arcades in my youth and I’ve seen, although never played, any number of the iterations since. ^_^

Well, when Okazu Superhero Louis P offered to sponsor today’s review, he made a very charming pitch. Warning me about the art, he suggested that the characters make up for the visual pandering. I find him to be pretty spot on about that kind of thing, so I took him up on his offer and here we are talking a look at Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki,  put out in full glossy color by our friends at Udon Press.

The premise is a bit similar to DC’s Super Hero Girls series, (which follow key DC female characters as teens at school. Never been done before, you know.) in which we see the private life of teenage ninja Ibuki. Ibuki is balancing ninja training and life as a “normal” teenage girl and that balancing act is, for the most part, the bulk of the story. We meet Sarai, her utterly non-powered friend, and transfer students Makoto, a martial artist with a chip on her shoulder, and Elena, a not-at-all African looking African princess. I found Elena’s portrayal endlessly fascinating as a foil to the issues around casting Scarlet Johansson as Major Kusanagi in the Hollywood remodel of Ghost in the Shell. It does not comfort me particularly to note that we are not alone in erasing ethnic identity and un-darking skin. If I had been drawing Elena she’d have looked more like a young Grace Jones, ala Red Sonja, sans bullshitty fur bikini. But no one asks me.

Ibuki is herself an admirable heroine, working hard at both school and fantasy ninja training, even with an entire rival ninja clan after her, tests of courage and will and college exams in front of her. The main point – one that I actually appreciated – wasn’t whether she won, but that she tried. The culture of “trying” is still seen as weak in many parts of the world, and while sincerity isn’t always a valid replacement for competence, we also have to learn how to deal with failure.

Of course our rivals become our allies and the cute guy ninja is at the college she is going to attend, so bonus!

The story reads very tween-aged audience, and even the pandery gallery art isn’t explicitly oversexualized, but it still is pretty pandery. Apparently Capcom thinks 12 year old boys and girls will both be able to enjoy this book. Girls can, but they have flip past some of the pics to be able to do it. As usual. Sigh.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7, +1 for lessons that make sense
Characters – 8 Definitely the strong point
Yuri – 0
Service – 2 Mild by the game’s standards

Overall – 8 More enjoyable than expected, you were right on the money Louis!

…sometimes I fantasize about a media and entertainment complex that didn’t compulsively sexualize women, an industry that cast black-skinned and Asian people in roles without controversy. It’s not just a fantasy. All we have to do is be a little less lazy and we could change this.





Seven Seas Licenses “Yagate Kimi ni Naru” for Valentine’s Day

February 15th, 2016

YKNN-275x390As a Valentine’s Day present, Seven Seas announced that they have licensed Nakatani Nio’s Yagate Kimi ni Naru, Bloom Into You.

Seven Seas is planning to release the ongoing series as single volumes (as opposed to omnibus volumes), the first of which will be available in January 2017.

Here is the Okazu review of Volume 1, which I both enjoyed quite a bit and had one mild concern about the story itself. ^_^

The Japanese edition is available on the Yuricon Store.

I’m far more positive about this license than recent previous additions to their catalog. I know that a few of you already really like this series – now you can look forward to getting it in English!

 





Time Fiddler, Volume 1 (English)

November 20th, 2015

tumblr_nxbmj6UwXa1so0o5uo1_1280Samantha is a relatively normal girl who one day follows a stray cat into an abandoned building. What happens to Sam is not normal at all, as she is thrown through a rift in time to the late Cretaceous Age, where she meets Caroline, a girl who claims to be a time-traveler.

The tagline for this series is “Time Travel Girls Love Feels” so, as you can imagine it interested me greatly. And, as it’s currently in the middle of a Kickstarter, I thought it suitable to mention it on the Yuricon Facebook Group, right after I supported it myself. In return, creator Ellis Kim has kindly sent me an advance PDF to share with you. ^_^

There’s a fair amount of Dr. Who-esque hijinks in Time Fiddler, and the Whovian in me thinks that’s perfectly cool. Sam is a companion-type character (you know, nice kid, seemlingly normal life) who suddenly gets dragged into a time-traveling adventure that involves dinosaurs. Only – and this is a big sell for me – instead of being just another companion, Sam becomes a time traveler herself. Very little time is spent in explicating what “The Agency” does or why or how or…anything. The specifics of pretty much every plot point must be accepted as such with no discussion so far. Even the repeated line “read the manual” is given to Sam without an actual manual. (Which blew the chance for an old-school RTFM joke, but Kim seems too young for the reference anyway. Oh well, guess I’m just old. ^_^)

On the less-good side, the plot is uneven, with TV pacing, (you know, spurts of action followed by explication while we wait to run some more) and a few odd throwaways, like Caroline’s “boyfriend” Ulysses, who was introduced clearly wearing “I’m a future plot complication” expressions. When we suddenly have a confession from Caroline that she likes Sam, it becomes even more crystal clear Ulysses was introduced to be broken up with and get pissed off, which is wholly unfair to him. The art is manga-inspired. It has moments, but still Kim’s style is still evolving. One sees it more in his color art his black and white pages thus far.

On the positive side, the next adventure takes place in 1880s California and Sam and Caroline are cute, so final judgment will remain reserved until volume 2.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story -7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 0

Overall – 7

Time Fiddler is a fun webcomic that I hope will take itself to a more sophisticated level of writing and art, but which is worth throwing the price of a cup of coffee at in order to help it do so.

Thanks Ellis for the advance copy and best of luck to you!