In Volume 1, we met Haru who is being targeted by her classmates who are all assassins and Toukaku, the assassin who becomes her bodyguard. In Volume 1, none the questions we have were answered. This continues to be the case in Akuma no Riddle, Volume 2 (悪魔のリドル).

I have not done a word-by-word comparison of the manga and the anime, but they are extremely close enough for me to say, this is a manga adaptation of the anime, rather than a story on it’s own.

By the end of Volume 2, we have little insight into the school, the class, the reasons for targeting a student or Toukaku’s motivations. We do, however, have a few more poignant stories which highlight the motivations of the classmates targeting Haru. Some stories are ridiculous, others melodramatic, but this manga is never about Haru,  just as dog racing isn’t about the rabbit. We’re supposed to be paying attention to the hapless assassin members of Class Black and feel bad for them.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – If you like sympathizing with killers – 7, if not  – 4
Characters –  7 The violins are heavy here
Service – 2
Yuri – 1  We are told that this is a “Yuri” series but, like the anime, it’s hard to see

Overall – 7

In actuality, the only character I feel bad for is the teacher. He’s a simple creature and all this confuses and upsets him.

I like to think of my readers as friends and I know that over the years I have had the chance to actually meet and befriend many of you. (Not “befriend” Nanoha style, although I’m open to that, too. ^_^) And for that, I am very thankful.

Today I’m going to let you into my house, in a manner of speaking. My wife and I are having a bathroom ripped out and replaced. This means several things for us for the next month – loud noises while I’m trying to work or write from in my own house for days on end. Showering at the gym, and people walking in and out all day. Plus, the fascinating process of seeing nearly 100 years of cobbled-together plumbing and building choices, starting with the room not having plumbing, then having plumbing and completely different codes for building, then newerish plumbing and codes, and now…from galvanized steel to Pex.

As you might imagine, this has made my days challenging, so if I don’t write a review for a few days, it’s only because this is consuming me.

Should this kind of thing fascinate you, here’s the link to the renovation photoset on Facebook. You don’t need to be on FB to see it. Or, as I like to think of it, “what happens when an early 20th century house with World War II-era plumbing meets the demands of the 21st century?”

There is no one more amazed than I am that I am still writing reviews of Akili’s weird little manga, Stretch. But here we are and the timing couldn’t be better.

Volume 2 of Stretch (ストレッチ) carries on almost exactly as did Volume 1. We first see Ran and Keiko in various setups for stretching, a little vague Yuri-ish vibe between them, a dollop of not-vague service, followed by seeing them at their worst, then ending with some insight into their past. The order all this plays out is exceptionally fascinating, as the book starts off light-hearted and forgettable, but ends with pathos and character depth so we feel sympathy…and enough interest that we’ll tune in next time.

But, the story, as it were, is mostly motivation for illustrations of various stretches, which just happen to allow the artist a chance to focus on various body parts of the women in a pretend-not-creepy way, while, in fact, being creepy. It’s just anatomy, you see.  The actual art is decent, and the illustrations of the stretches are helpful. I try most of them out as I’m reading, just to make sure he’s not making anything up. ^_^ Also because I’m trying to do a little more running and stretching is pretty high on the list of things I want to spend time doing instead of seeing a doctor. ^_^

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In the meantime, in between stretching, both Keiko and Ran are starting to fill out as people who are rather important in each other’s lives.  There is a vibe between them, but I feel strongly that that is as much service as the crotch-eye-view during the stretching…it sure ain’t for the characters’ benefit.

Ratings:

Art – 9 Very good with moments of excellent
Story – 7 When it bothers to have one also good
Characters – 7 You have to like them, or why read this manga?
Yuri – Depends entirely on your motivation to see Yuri. I see about a 2
Service – 6 A constant presence

Overall – 7 It is a decent enough read, especially if you want to learn to stretch.

Morita-san ha Mukuchi, Volume 9 (森田さんは無口) is not a Yuri manga. It never has been. And yet, for a not-Yuri manga, it does everything it can to sort-of, kind-of, shoehorn little teeny drops of not-quite-Yuri into every corner. Like eking out the the last few bit of sugar glaze onto a crumb cake, the thing is plenty sweet enough, but if you just get a bit more on it…

This volume begins with the girl who is stalking Mayu stalking her. And then we drop that like the untenable plot point it is. Phew.

From that point on, we’re given the silliest possible set-ups, like the cover, group hugs, and Mayu’s cousin Yukino being weird to make our lizard brains think “girls touching!” If this manga was in any way mean-spirited, it would feel gross. But it never does. Mayu and her friends continue to genuinely like and care about one another, and so a group hug makes us smile.

The one (in)sincerely service-y bit was when Misaki nearly collapses in gym and finds her head resting on super-cool Yamamoto’s lap…at which she completely overheats. (The rest of the girls in lass also start feeling like they need some lap treatment, not surprisingly.) The how and why Yamamoto ended up there is vague, class president, blah, blah, but she doesn’t seem to mind either.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 3

Overall – 8

There’s no substance here. It’s cotton candy. It always tastes the same, it never tastes like anything but too much sugar, but you know, every once in a while, in the right circumstances…it’s a lot of fun. ^_^

Back in October, I was trawling through Mandarake in Nakano, Tokyo, (as all good otaku must) and I found two amazing things. The first one was an artbook by Takahashi Makoto, Akogare, which I discussed back in November. At the time I mentioned that I had found one even more amazing thing. And today, at last, I will tell you about it. “It” is a Rose of Versailles Karuta box set.

To begin with, Karuta is a card-matching game. If you’ve watched the anime Chihayafuru, you’ll be familiar with it. Cards with verses written on them are laid out between two players. A reader reads half of a verse and two participants reach for the card with the second half of the verse. Hyakunin Isshu, a game played on New Years’s Day, is one form of karuta.

In this version of the game, the lines are taken from the Rose of Versailles manga. Under the hiragana for “he” へ, we see a functionary saing “Heimindomo ha uraguchi he mawatte morau” – “Commoners go around to the back entrance.” As we can see, this is not received well by Oscar who says the 17th century French nobleperson’s version of “What the hell?”

The set box, card box and booklet are all adorned with art from Rose of Versailles, obviously.

The set box has this lovely illustration of Oscar and Marie Antoinette.

The box of cards contains two sets – one for the players with scenes depicted from the manga (as in the top picture) and another for the “reader.”

Fierce Oscar will win this karuta game!

This is the back of the card box, because of course it is.

The inside of the card box has an image of Oscar in classical armor, but I’d have to unfold the box to scan it in, so no picture for you.

The booklet includes a short discussion of key cards, with commentary by Riyoko Ikeda on them, and a CD.

I chose this page because I love you all.

This is the cover to the booklet

The booklet includes a CD with the first half of the card’s verses read by Takariesienne Shion Yuu, top star of the Star Troupe in 1992-1994. She played Oscar a few times and Fersen once in various iterations of Takarazuka’s most beloved show.

So, if you’ve ever wanted to play karuta, but with lines from Rose of Versailles instead of famous poems*, cards illustrated by Riyoko Ikeda and have the reader be  a former Takarauka top star, come on over, I can actually do that for you! ^_^

Ratings:

Too sublime for mere numbers.

I note, with some satisfaction, that I didn’t even overpay for this, because the other thing about Mandarake is that you can get reamed on prices, if you don’t know what stuff is worth.

*In 2005, when Yuricon and Shoujocon teamed up to run Onna!, we created a modern English deck for karuta. We apparently vastly overestimated the poetic literacy of the attendees, who didn’t recognize even so much as nursery rhyme phrases (no kidding “Mary had a little lamb”), much less famous poems (“How do I love thee…”.) That was a bit disappointing.