In Volume 1 of Noboru Segawa’s series about a rap battle club at an all girl’s school, we focused solely on painfully shy Satsuki. In Catcher in the Rhyme, Volume 2 (キャッチャー・イン・ザ・ライム), we spend time with her fellow club members.  

Rich girl Anzu and the girl who got her into trouble, Ren were enemies, until they were friends We meet Ren’s childhood friends, and learn her troubled background  and the meaning rap brought into her life. 

We spend a lot of time with Utsuki, our transgender club member, and help her learn to be better at being herself, even as she meets a former schoolmate whom she had a crush on. He turns out to be a really nice guy and we are able to forgive the fact that he has what seems to be a lovely girlfriend. We get to see him be very encouraging of Utsuki.  Utsuki is allowed to be transgender and female freely in the context of the story, without either of those being awkward, although she has a couple of truly awkward scenes, In the end we watch her walk away with her pride intact.

And finally, we learn about Kaede and her history, and help her walk away from the family that is her club – and welcome her back when she’s free to do so.

Throughout the volume, we learn about bringing rap into normal everyday conversation – how the rhyme and rhythm of words exist with or without structure. Rap is poetry and poetry can be rap. From common phrases to Hyakunin Isshu verses – it’s all rap.

This was a lovely manga, much finer than I expected. Segawa-sensei does an exceptional job of uncovering the inner lives of young women without fetishizing them, always focused on the words; the feelings, the meter and sound and how rap allows them to express themselves when they have no idea what to say or how to say it.

Ratings:

Art – 6 
Story – 8  
Characters – 9 
Service – 2 
Yuri – 0
LGBTQ – 8

Overall – 8

It’s Okazu’s birthday month and we have a set of Lucky Boxes with Yuriten goods and other items I picked up in Japan special for you. So these boxes have Japanese goods and DVDs/Drama CDs and manga and doujinshi (and the good candy!) and items from the Yuriten, the Sailor Moon Store and other Tokyo shopping. You’re also getting some cool stuff from our friend Bruce’s collection, because he had a lot of stuff. ^_^;

Thanks to everyone who bought a Lucky Box today!Enjoy!

*****

This set we’ve got 3 Medium size boxes and one large Premium Box with extra cool stuff.

Premium Box – $60

Medium Box 1 – $35

Medium Box 2 – $35

Medium Box 3 – $35

These are listed out so I can cross them off as they go.

I can 100% guarantee these boxes are filled with absolute pure stuff, with no guarantees of any other kind.

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How to be eligible to buy a Lucky Box: Follow these instructions carefully. Please. Thank you. Failure to follow all these instructions will disqualify you. It’s not personal, they go fast and I don’t have time to track you down for a piece of information.

1- You must live in the Continental USA (contiguous 48) only, no APO/FPOs – sorry about that, really. 

2 – You must be over 18, I am not policing which books you get and since these boxes have a ton of doujinshi, I really don’t know what you’re getting.

3 -Email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject “Lucky Box”. Use an email you check regularly.

4. *****Please include your name, age, mailing address. ***** Tell me which box you want. 

5- I will contact you at that point and give you details about payment by Paypal. Please be prepared to check your email and get payment out so this post doesn’t linger. Thanks in advance.

This whole process will be handled with utmost capriciousness. ^_^ 

Ready? Get your Lucky Boxes!

Years ago, I kept running into a book in Animate in Tokyo. I’d pick it up and put it down over and over, in every store. Eventually I got home and learned I had been staring at a book I actually did want to read, Miniskirt Space Pirates, Volume 1 (ミニスカ宇宙海賊パイレーツ). I’m trying to go with my guts more these days so, when I was in Tokyo last time and I kept picking up a book and putting it down, I just bought it eventually. Which is how I ended up reading Toji no Miko, Volume 1 (刀使ノ巫女), grossly translated as Katana Maidens by people without an ounce of elegance in their souls.  

Eto Kanami wants, more than anything, to fight. She is suited to be and wants to be an amazing sword fighter, to protect her world from monsters. And, she wants to do it side-by-side with her friend and partner, Yanase Mai. Mai is the honor student Kanami will never be, but together they are a formidable pair. Together, they make their way to the all-school fighting competition, where only the best will move on to become a Toji no Miko, a priestess of the sword. 

Kanami defeats Mai and moves on to fight a mysterious girl named Hiyori who, instead of attacking Kanami, attempts to assassinate the woman who presides over the competition, but is stopped by her champion, a previous winner. Kanami saves Hiyori and runs off with her as the first volume comes to a close. 

The story is redolent of the Mai HiME series, with girls being used as fighters/weapons by and against a foe and powers that be whose objective they don’t understand. And, like Mai HiME, it’s got pointlessly placed service for those readers whose attention cannot be kept without it. This is a fast-paced action story with likable characters and it really doesn’t need service. In fact, it detracts from the pacing as the story screams to a stop while we all bathe or change or whatever sad scene sad men added to make other sad men happy. Thankfully, as a manga, I can skip quickly over the bits written for the lowest denominator.

The art is competent, and I like the inhumanoid designs of the monsters, the idea that battle spirit is a technique that the girls practice and the fight scenes, which make up a large chunk, but not a majority of the narrative.

There’s no Yuri in Volume 1, but the relationship between Mai and Kanamei is nice. They are good friends who like each other’s company and root for one another. When Mai loses, she says she’s glad it was Kanami who was the one who beat her – and she means it. Hiyori, however, is the Heathcliff of this story and clearly Kanami is going to revolve around her and her brooding in subsequent volumes.

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 4
Yuri – Not really, maybe not ever

Overall – 7

I didn’t have much time or energy to read while in Europe, but I did manage to finish this volume during my downtime and I was a little surprised to find that I enjoyed the book and probably will read Volume 2. I’m less sure that I’ll watch the anime (streaming on Crunchyroll, free and legally) because of the service issue. I know how this works, we’ll get 8 minutes of bathing for every 2 of fighting. Otherwise, this is a solid Kadokawa offering, with a mix of action, friendship and tediousness.