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Author Archive for Shannon Fay

Review: La Quinta Camera

By Shannon Fay on Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Manga-ka: Natsume Ono
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: July 2011

Synopsis: “An apartment in Italy. In four of the rooms live four single men with singular personalities. Into this peculiar ménage steps an exchange student, the new tenant of the fifth room. Brought together by chance, friends by choice, they pursue their dreams together as the days drift gently by.”

Over the past year I have become a big fan of Natsume Ono. House of Fives Leaves is currently one of my favourite manga and I’m happy to see more and more of Ono’s work being licensed. La Quina Camera is a solid little stand alone graphic novel which should appeal to fans and newcomers alike. It has a nice, uncomplicated atmosphere which makes it an easy read.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Natsume Ono, Viz Media

Review: Yakuza Moon – The Manga Edition

By Shannon Fay on Friday, August 5, 2011

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Manga-ka: Shoko Tendo
Publisher: Kodansha International
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: July 2011

Synopsis: “Born into the family of a wealthy yakuza boss, Shoko Tendo lived her early years in luxury. But labeled “the yakuza kid,” she was the victim both of bullying and discrimination from teachers and classmates at school, and of her father’s drunken rages at home. Then, the family fell into debt, and Tendo fell in with the wrong crowd. After the death of her parents and her own suicide attempt, she began a tortuous, soul-searching reevaluation of the road she had taken.”

Yakuza Moon is the manga adaptation of Shoko Tendo’s autobiography of the same name. In it Tendo wrote about the influence the yakuza had on her life, from growing up with a gang member for a father to how she became a delinquent herself. I haven’t read the original novel, but the manga does feel like an adaptation, moving quickly through events in order to cram everything into its new format.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Kodansha Comics, Manga

Review: Men of Tattoos

By Shannon Fay on Friday, July 8, 2011

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Manga-ka: Yuiji Aniya
Publisher: Digital Manga
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: June 2011

Synopsis: “Sweet, delicate flowers and killer animals…they spring to life on the tattooed backs of the underworld’s most infamous men. But does love have a chance to bloom in a world of sin that’s steeped in perpetual inky night? And in the midst of the crime-filled chaos, is there a passion so powerful that it can lift a soul right out if its body?”

Men of Tattoos is frustrating because of how close it comes to being great but just ends up as a mess. There are a lot of good elements: the art is pretty with a different style than your usual yaoi and the story is willing to go to some pretty dark places, fitting for a manga with a cast full of criminals. But the narrative never really comes together ultimately making this an unsatisfying read.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, DMP, June, Manga

Review: March Story (Vol. 01)

By Shannon Fay on Sunday, June 12, 2011

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Author: Hyung Min Kim
Manhwa-ga: Kyung Il Yang
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: October 2010

Synopsis: “Among the quiet villages and towns of 18th century Europe, demons known as the Ill hide within the most beautiful works of art, sparked to life by the torment of their creators. Attracted by their jewel-like allure, the unwary find themselves possessed by the Ill and driven to horrific acts of violence. Only the hunters of the Ciste Vihad can dispel the Ill. March is one such hunter, tracking the Ill from town to town to find the antiques that contain the demons before they can possess anyone. If the worst has come to pass, March’s full powers are unleashed to battle the fiendish Ill. Born of tragedy, the artifacts all have their own tales to tell, as do each of their victims. But March’s story may be the most tragic of all.”

The plot of March Story will be familiar to anyone who has read any popular shonen action-adventure series: a young teenager who is a member of an organization that fights evil goes from town to town fighting bad guys and monsters, using his special abilities to help people along the way. Oh, and don’t forget the tragic back story that ties him to the very evil he faces. That summary could easily fit Full Metal Alchemist or D.Gray-man, but in this case I’m talking about March Story. Volume one of March Story is a pleasant surprise. It proves that just because something’s formulaic, it doesn’t mean it isn’t good.

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Tags: Manga, March Story, Viz Media

Review: Oresama Teacher (Vol. 01)

By Shannon Fay on Friday, May 20, 2011

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Manga-ka: Izumi Tsubaki
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: March 2011

Synopsis: “Mafuyu is the no-nonsense, take-charge and hard-hitting leader of her high school gang. But when she gets expelled for being a delinquent, her mother, fed up with her daughter’s wayward ways, sends Mafuyu to an isolated school far off in the country. Determined to make the best of the situation and make her mother proud, Mafuyu decides to turn over a new, feminine, well-behaved leaf. But her fighting spirit can’t be kept down, and the night before school starts she finds herself defending some guy who’s getting beaten up. One slip wouldn’t have been a problem, except the guy is…her teacher?! How can Mafuyu learn to be a good girl if her teacher won’t let her forget her wicked past?”

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that manga is rarely the result of one person’s talent and hard work, that there is in fact a fleet of people (assistants, editors, publishers) who work with the manga-ka to create the final product. This is clear in Oresama Teacher volume one, a manga that has an editor’s fingerprints all over it. While there are lots of funny moments in this volume, overall the work feels like it’s being pulled too hard in different directions as the manga-ka and her editors try out different approaches and ideas. It comes off as a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Shoujo, Shoujo Beat, Viz Media

Review: Otomen (Vol. 10)

By Shannon Fay on Sunday, May 15, 2011

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Manga-ka: Aya Kanno
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (13+)
Release Date: May 2011

Synopsis: “A potion at school causes all the guys to act manly and all the girls to act feminine! Suddenly, Asuka loses interest in all the girly hobbies he loves, and Ryo is working at a bakery?! Can anything break the spell they’re under and turn them back to normal?”

Otomen isn’t a series known for its restraint. The series has never shied away from off-the-wall characters and contrived situations, but for the most part they all stayed believable (if more than a little extreme). While the series has always existed in a world of cartoonish hyper reality, it never relied on anything supernatural to move the plot forward. So when a major plot point in the book revolved around a potion (seriously, a potion?) I was just about ready to give up on this series. But something surprising happened as I kept reading. Kanno take this bizarre situation and uses it to really get at the heart of the series, going deeper into its themes than it ever has before.

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Tags: Manga, Otomen, Shoujo, Shoujo Beat, Viz Media

Review: Not Love But Delicious Foods Makes Me So Happy!

By Shannon Fay on Sunday, April 3, 2011

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Not Love But Delicious Foods Makes Me So Happy

Manga-ka: Fumi Yoshinaga
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: December 2010

Synopsis: “There is a Japanese saying that goes, “Hana yori dango,” or “dumplings over flowers.” And no one is more of an advocate of this adage than mangaka Y-naga, a woman whose life revolves around her intense work and equally intense sleep schedule. The only thing that can rouse her out of this infernal cycle of deadlines and being dead to the world? Food. As Y-naga and her friends visit restaurants around Tokyo to satisfy their appetites, their individual approaches to food add an extra dimension to their witty and comical interactions.”

Manga about food is similar to manga about music – they have to convey things through a visual medium that are pretty much impossible to capture visually. For music manga, it’s the sound of an instrument or a beautiful voice singing out, while for food manga it’s that taste of a delicious meal. But while you can’t substitute one sense for another, many manga-ka have risen to the challenge and found fun ways to convey different sensations through images. Fumi Yoshinaga only manages to make it halfway. While Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy! is a fun read, it didn’t leave me hungry, a bad sign in a manga about food.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Fumi Yoshinaga, Manga, Yen Press

Review: Right Here, Right Now (Vol. 02)

By Shannon Fay on Thursday, February 24, 2011

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Souya Himawari
Publisher: June
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: February 2011

Synopsis: “At the war’s height, Takakage and Mizuo once again cross paths. The two embrace, profess their unending love for each other, and swear mutual oaths…but there is talk of Takakage getting married. With their personal crisis and the war ripping apart the nation, how will the two men be able to stay connected?”

Right Here, Right Now is a very enjoyable time travel romance. In this volume the main character Mizuo has to decide between staying in the past with Takakage, a local lord he’s fallen for, or return to his life in the present. While it’s not the most unique dilemma (if you’ve read even a chapter of Fushigi Yugi you’ve seen Miaki sweat over the exact same problem), it’s still well done here.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, June, Manga

Review: Sand Chronicles (Vol. 10)

By Shannon Fay on Monday, February 14, 2011

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Hinako Ashihara
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: January 2011

Synopsis: “Daigo digs up the time capsule he buried twenty years ago when he was only ten. What message did Daigo leave for his future self? And what does it take to live life fully and without regret?”

There are some manga that continue even after the main plotline has resolved itself, where the series keeps going even after the main conflict is finished. An example of that can be seen here with the final volume of Sand Chronicles. At this point Ann has pretty much worked through her issues and the love triangle between her and her two childhood friends, Daigo and Fuji, has straightened itself out. But while this volume may be superfluous to the main storyline, it still delivers a bittersweet and touching story.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Shoujo Beat, Viz Media

Review: Crimson Hero (Vol. 14)

By Shannon Fay on Thursday, January 13, 2011

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Mitsuba Takanshi
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: November 2010

Synopsis: “In an attempt to stop the vicious rumors spreading at Crimson Field High School, Nobara ended her relationship with the boys’ team captain Yushin. But when she runs into Haibuki, a talented boys’ team player who mysteriously left school when he found out about Nobara and Yushin’s romance, Yushin is the first person she calls. Can Nobara and Yushin convince their heartbroken teammate to return to Crimson Field?”

A good sports manga makes it so that the game scenes and character development go hand in hand. As the characters play they are growing and changing and finding out about themselves and others through how they play the game. In this volume of Crimson Hero, the balance is a little off. There’s a lot of the characters interacting, but not enough of them playing volleyball. While character development is never a bad thing, Crimson Hero has always worked best for me when the characters work things out on the court. Any scene where they’re just hanging out slows down the manga.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Shoujo Beat, Viz Media