When I reviewed the anime for To Aru Kagaku no Railgun I said that the overall impression I had of it was that it was “entertaining.” This holds true for Volume 1 of the To Aru Kagaku no Railgun manga as well.

The main thing that made the anime so watchable is maintained in the manga – the characters are all people I’d have over for lunch. Mikoto might be one of the seven most powerful people in the city, but she likes cute pajamas and stuffed frogs and is a very down-to-earth person. Saten and Uiharu are not wallowing in their lack of skill, they are living within their limitations. Do they wish they had more – of course. I wish I had more energy, more time, more money. Does it depress them – of course it does! But they aren’t wallowing in it, as we see others do.

And then there’s Kuroko. She’s manic, undisciplined, a little crazy. She’s an ojousama at a powerful school, she’s got a high level of skill – and she’s nice. She’s a hard-working member of Judgement. She’s kind to those who are powerless, and a good friend to people she could easily treat like dirt and get away with it. She’s in a hopeless, pointless lust for Mikoto and despite the fact that it’s played for laughs, there’s no reason to think that her feelings aren’t legitimate.

There is nothing about this manga that is not the same as in the anime – plot, character, everything. So basically all my impressions of the anime are the same for the manga. The *only* thing that disappointed me about the manga is that it is *exactly the same* as the anime. We enter the manga in the middle of the Graviton case and head right into the Level Upper situation. It was a bit rushed, but it makes me hope that maybe later volumes will branch out into something new, if only because the manga is moving so fast.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 3

Overall – 7

I’ll keep an eye out for more of this – it’s enjoyable enough to keep reading even if it goes nowhere new.

No Yuri today – I have to be in NYC to do some stuff today, and while I’m there, I’m meeting Rica Takashima to visit the Center for Book Arts and take in their exhibit of Garo manga magazine.

Garo is, if you will excuse my mixing and matching of memes, the Dadism phase of manga. It focused on breaking the boundaries, and socio-political commentary which, as you know, every single generation of young artists does and thinks they are unique and groundbreaking. :-) (In many ways every generation is unique and groundbreaking – except the part where they think “no one has ever done this before” and are self-righteous and angry about things. lol.)

For most US fans, names that will be most recognizable from Garo is Yoshihiro Tatsumi, creator of A Drifting Life and  Usamaru Furuya, creator of Short Cuts. 


I’ll be doing a write up of the exhibit for another website, I’ll let you know when it goes up. 


Can I just tell you how amazing it is to be alive right now? We have the best of all possible worlds – the past and present are as accessible to us as we want them to be, no matter how obscure our interests. And we have an opportunity to create the future. It’s pretty spectacular.

Thank you Center for Book Arts – and every Library in the world that celebrates the printed word and image!

Hana and Natsu share an apartment. And food. And a budget. And lives.

Hana and Natsu have very little money for extras…like dinner.

Hana and Natsu make up silly games for themselves to pass the time, since they don’t have books or TV.

Hana and Natsu get to the beach by hitchhiking.

Hana and Natsu are very hungry.

Hana and Natsu play with the kid downstairs, whom they call “Doctor.”

Hana and Natsu make newspaper armor.

Hana and Natsu sometimes whack each other for making bad jokes.

Hana is the boke and Natsu is the tsukkomi unless it’s the other way around.

There is no reason to think that Hana and Natsu are a couple, except all of the above.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 5
Character – 6
Overt Yuri – 0
Implicit Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 5

Flat & Flow (ふら・ふろ) is not a 4-panel comic, but it might as well be one. It’s silly, easier to take in small chunks than large ones, full of poverty-stricken-slice-of-life gags.

This is not everything we brought back – much of this is in piles and the kitsune collection is separate, but it gets the idea across.

You may notice a prominently placed Strike Witches item. This is a limited edition windbreaker that was a gift from Ana. As you might guess if you know anything about my tastes, Strike Witches the series holds little interest for me – too many things that don’t appeal – but I love the logo. I will proudly wear the windbreaker to venues where the logo is unlikely to be recognized.

Now I must eat, then sleep.

It’s nice to be back.

Oh, last random junk food item of the trip was a Pukapuka Tai – a taiyaki shaped wafer cookie with melon flavored cream. It was tasty, as long as you like melon-flavored stuff.