bookblogging

Manga:

Watase Yuu: Ceres: Celestial Maiden vol. 3
(this is the only major Yuu Watase work I never made any progress on, and I'd really like to finish it, even though m00nface says it broke her heart and ripped it into shreds and then taped the shreds back together and ripped them up again and stomped all over them for good measure, or words to that effect. I just can't help it; I'm a Yuu Watase fangirl, and I will be until I die.

This manga is more frighteningly violent than I remember it being. I think when I read the first two volumes, several years ago, I took this level of violence in comics a little bit more for granted. There's a deep sense of menace in the regular, eerie, spontaneous combustions, helicopter attacks, mind-controlled assaults, and telekinetic attacks. Aya's naive in trying to live a normal life despite everything that's been revealed to her, but it's the disruption of normality that makes this violence so scary, the way trustworthy elements of her daily life are gradually revealed to be corrupted. Coupled with that is the way her family has been destroyed--all Aya has left of that is her brother, who is in the hands of her enemy--this is not something she can really run away from.

Even though Watase's famous, or so I have been told, for reviving epic fantasy shoujo, this is a recurring motif in her works--no matter how far you go, or where you travel, there's no running away from danger. It always, always comes home to you in the end, and that's where you have to fight it. Watase's battles are always domestic, and that makes them rather horrible.

Speaking of Aya's brother, I really like the kid, and that fills me with forboding, because another recurring motif in Watase's manga is the loved, trusted, dear friend who is loyal and well-meaning, but becomes corrupted and turns into a deadly enemy. I can feel my heart getting ready to break already.

The art, as always, is spectacular. Watase excels at creating the impact page, visually interesting and emotionally evocative, although I tend to need to take a break after an action sequence, or I stop being able to absorb what I'm reading.

Side note: I love Suzumi, who is a neat-o character all around, but I am constantly distracted by the fact that she looks exactly like Count D from Matsuri Akino's Petshop of Horrors in a kimono).



Kanari Yozaburo, author, Sato Fumiya, artist: Kindaichi Case Files: House of Wax
(this was no less ridiculous than the other volumes of Kindaichi Case Files I've read, but I enjoyed it more, I think because Akechi figures prominently in this one.

( Read more... )

The murder methods were also engagingly gruesome, which of course never fails to entertain).



Ohba Tsugami, author, Obata Takeshi, artist: Death Note vol. 1
(reread. I just wanted to refresh myself with the manga so I could compare it better with the godawful movie, and as I replied to a comment in a different entry, it's a much better execution of the concept (and not just because it originated the story).

( It is a problematic work. )

bookblogging

Graphic novels/cartoons:

Kim, Derek Kirk: Good As Lily
(Minx title, the second I've liked. I freakin' loved this. Kim comes highly recommended, but I'd read a review that lowered my expectations of this book, so I feel I approached it from a balanced viewpoint).

Addams, Charles: My Crowd
(it took me, like, five minutes to read this, since I've read several Addams collections already, and this was drawn partly from those).

I don't know if it counts, but while I was in the library, sitting next to one of the graphic novel shelves and reading, I was approached by a five-year-old who pulled a volume of JLA Year One off the shelf and, after identifying The Flash for me--as I learned later, his favorite superhero--asked me to name the other people in the picture (as in, he didn't know who they were; it wasn't some kind of geek identification ritual; the kid was pre-literate. He's going to need at least another five years before he learns to hang out on those kinds of message boards). I did so, and somehow this led to him pulling Spiderman: House of M off of the shelf and having me coach him through it. I didn't get a chance to read any of it, per se, but I think I followed the plot well enough based on the art. He, thank god, did not appear to absorb much of the dastardly tale of lies, violence, MPD, and suicide. Have you ever tried to explain burning in effigy to a five-year-old? It's not easy.


Manga:

Mashima Hiro: Fairy Tale vol. 1
(I liked this so much more than I ever expected to. It's not revelatory anything, but it's sort of gosh-darn fun).

Toriyama Akira: Dragonball vol. 2
(I always swerve back and forth between being highly amused and deeply bored with Toriyama, often in the same chapter. I like to keep myself entertained by comparing this to Minekura's Saiyuki).