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ceruseeTo celebrate the god-knows-how-long-it'll-last return of my internet--i.e., the neighbor's unprotected wireless network, because my paid DSL? shyeah, as if--I stayed up for three hours last night downloading practically every scanlation project available at DragonVoice (they like the shoujo that I like) and then went up to bed in a manga mood and stayed up two more hours reading stuff I actually legitimately paid for. Reviews! Reviews for you! Nothing overtly spoilerly.
Kamen Tantei vol. 1:
One thing you can definitely say about Matsuri Akino is that her art looks like no other. A lot of really nice shoujo art looks like everybody else's nice shoujo art, but Akino's lanky limbs, cartoonish profiles, and occasionally anemic linework is distinct. It's also perfectly functional, expressive, and often beautiful, and I can't say I've ever read through one of her stories wishing the art looked any different than it does. Akino has a schtick--mystery with various degrees of the supernatural in each story--and she does it pretty well. Kamen Tantei is a fairly lighthearted series featuring a pair of childhood friends cum debut mystery writers named Haruka and Masako who run around getting involved in real life mysteries (usually at the imaginative Haruka's behest and to Masako's chagrin). The mysteries all take a supernatural turn, and further befuddling things is the repeated appearance of the titular masked detective who functions as something of a guide to the supernatural elements of each story--a lot like Count D in Petshop of Horrors, but (so far) without the Count's marvelous quirk (I still have hopes). Akino uses her mystery writer characters to comment, lightheartedly, on mystery stories themselves, and her love of the genre shines through in each chapter.
One of the things I love about Akino manga is that when her characters grab me, they really grab me. I picked up Genju no Seiza 1 a month or two ago, and enjoyed the art and storytelling without ever feeling totally engaged by the story, I think because though the story is interesting, there's no particular character dynamic that I revel in. Kamen Tantei made up for that with the interactions of Haruka and Masako. Masako is a gentle, forebearing innocent, able to see the ghosts and spirits that Haruka doesn't believe in (the characterizations do seem a little in flux in this volume--Masako initially came across as being a slightly jaded, cynical counterpoint to Haruka's bright enthusiast). Therein lies the real charm of their friendship. There's a scene late in the book when Masako reveals his ability to perceive a certain ghost as the explanation for his strange actions. The puppy-eyed look of reproach he gives to Haruka, as if to say, "I know you, and I knew you wouldn't believe me, but you should have," is quite affecting. These are old, close friends, and you care about their friendship.
On a side note, Haruka and Masako make up the only two members of their high school's mystery writing club, located in the manga club room. Because of this, they are frequently pressed into service as assistants to a fellow student who's aspiring manga-ka, and she is hilarious.
Hot Gimmick vol. 2:
I think I reviewed myself out on Kamen Tantei, so I'll keep my comments on Hot Gimmick short.
First of all, oh my god, I'm beginning to see why this is the manga of feminist shame. It's truly unsettling when the local bully, who uses parental rank and blackmail to try to force a girl to sleep with him, starts to look like the most viable romantic interest for her. I'm starting to warm to Ryoki (the glasses really are hot, but it's mostly that it looks like he might be less loathesome than Azusa is shaping up to be), and I hate myself for it.
Second, you may recall that I dissed the first volume for devoting its splash page to a landscape view of the apartment complex with a first-person narrator explaining the nature of the company housing she lives in. This just goes to show how dumb I am, because one thing that really leapt out at me in this volume was how omnipresent that company housing is in the characters' lives and thoughts. The first page of the series does totally showcase the theme of the series; I just wasn't observant enough to notice it.
The art is fantastic, not only in the expressive faces--Aihara does something to the shadows at the edges of people's faces that catches the eye and holds it--but most especially in the backgrounds. They almost aren't backgrounds. The rooms, the stairwells, the courtyards and trains and streets all have a depth and vitality to them. They're almost characters in their own right, and they suck you into the scene so that you are there with Ryoki and Hatsumi, sitting in the high-walled stone stairs in the middle of the night--trapped, enclosed, but still vulnerable and helpless. Wow. A lot of the power of Hatsumi's story lies in the way the landscape reflects the prison of her situation.
Kamen Tantei vol. 1:
One thing you can definitely say about Matsuri Akino is that her art looks like no other. A lot of really nice shoujo art looks like everybody else's nice shoujo art, but Akino's lanky limbs, cartoonish profiles, and occasionally anemic linework is distinct. It's also perfectly functional, expressive, and often beautiful, and I can't say I've ever read through one of her stories wishing the art looked any different than it does. Akino has a schtick--mystery with various degrees of the supernatural in each story--and she does it pretty well. Kamen Tantei is a fairly lighthearted series featuring a pair of childhood friends cum debut mystery writers named Haruka and Masako who run around getting involved in real life mysteries (usually at the imaginative Haruka's behest and to Masako's chagrin). The mysteries all take a supernatural turn, and further befuddling things is the repeated appearance of the titular masked detective who functions as something of a guide to the supernatural elements of each story--a lot like Count D in Petshop of Horrors, but (so far) without the Count's marvelous quirk (I still have hopes). Akino uses her mystery writer characters to comment, lightheartedly, on mystery stories themselves, and her love of the genre shines through in each chapter.
One of the things I love about Akino manga is that when her characters grab me, they really grab me. I picked up Genju no Seiza 1 a month or two ago, and enjoyed the art and storytelling without ever feeling totally engaged by the story, I think because though the story is interesting, there's no particular character dynamic that I revel in. Kamen Tantei made up for that with the interactions of Haruka and Masako. Masako is a gentle, forebearing innocent, able to see the ghosts and spirits that Haruka doesn't believe in (the characterizations do seem a little in flux in this volume--Masako initially came across as being a slightly jaded, cynical counterpoint to Haruka's bright enthusiast). Therein lies the real charm of their friendship. There's a scene late in the book when Masako reveals his ability to perceive a certain ghost as the explanation for his strange actions. The puppy-eyed look of reproach he gives to Haruka, as if to say, "I know you, and I knew you wouldn't believe me, but you should have," is quite affecting. These are old, close friends, and you care about their friendship.
On a side note, Haruka and Masako make up the only two members of their high school's mystery writing club, located in the manga club room. Because of this, they are frequently pressed into service as assistants to a fellow student who's aspiring manga-ka, and she is hilarious.
Hot Gimmick vol. 2:
I think I reviewed myself out on Kamen Tantei, so I'll keep my comments on Hot Gimmick short.
First of all, oh my god, I'm beginning to see why this is the manga of feminist shame. It's truly unsettling when the local bully, who uses parental rank and blackmail to try to force a girl to sleep with him, starts to look like the most viable romantic interest for her. I'm starting to warm to Ryoki (the glasses really are hot, but it's mostly that it looks like he might be less loathesome than Azusa is shaping up to be), and I hate myself for it.
Second, you may recall that I dissed the first volume for devoting its splash page to a landscape view of the apartment complex with a first-person narrator explaining the nature of the company housing she lives in. This just goes to show how dumb I am, because one thing that really leapt out at me in this volume was how omnipresent that company housing is in the characters' lives and thoughts. The first page of the series does totally showcase the theme of the series; I just wasn't observant enough to notice it.
The art is fantastic, not only in the expressive faces--Aihara does something to the shadows at the edges of people's faces that catches the eye and holds it--but most especially in the backgrounds. They almost aren't backgrounds. The rooms, the stairwells, the courtyards and trains and streets all have a depth and vitality to them. They're almost characters in their own right, and they suck you into the scene so that you are there with Ryoki and Hatsumi, sitting in the high-walled stone stairs in the middle of the night--trapped, enclosed, but still vulnerable and helpless. Wow. A lot of the power of Hatsumi's story lies in the way the landscape reflects the prison of her situation.