Manga Maniac Cafe For the Geek in all of us

I will be hopping on a plane tomorrow and heading out to the Grand National Futurity and World Championship Morgan Horse Show, so here is a feeble attempt to tie up any lingering reviews before I leave.  Posting will probably be sporadic for the next week.

 

Togari Vol 4, Yoshinori Natsume

Viz, 9781421515274

I have been enjoying this shounen action series, mainly because it features a not so run of the mill hero.  Tobei is not a likeable guy, he is so warped that he can’t function in regular society, and he just spent a couple hundred years in Hell.  A ruthless murderer, he’s been given a final chance at redemption, and if he can defeat 108 sins in 108 days, he will win a get out of Hell free card.

Previous volumes were pretty much whack the sin of the week variety of storytelling, and didn’t contain much depth.  This volume tries to branch out with a story arc featuring a nasty guy who can help people call out the evil power within them.  He has a weird control over toga, and even Tobei is slightly taken aback by the guy’s overwhelming aura of badness.  To give Tobei a hard time, he unleashes a hoard of toga over Tokyo, before fleeing in a helicopter and leaving Tobei and the Togari to duke it out with them.

I actually liked the series better before the longer story arc was introduced.  There is nothing here that is unique or terribly exciting, instead leaving a feeling of having seen it all before. The underdog hero forced to battle it out against impossible odds is usually a favorite of mine, but here, it falls flat.  One dimensional villains with no real motivation for their dastardly deeds don’t help matters much.  I’ll stick around for a few more volumes, mainly because I want to find out what happened to Itsuki’s dad, and because I wonder what will happen to Tobei if he does manage to defeat all 108 sins.  It’s not like he’s the type of guy who can just slip back into polite society.

Grade:  C+

 

Flower of Life Vol 4 by Fumi Yoshinaga

DMP, 9781569700556

This was a wonderfully written series, populated with fun, fresh characters you can’t help but like.  Even the occasionally odious Majima wormed his way into my affections.  This final volume was a little more serious than the rest, as Haru learns that his family has been keeping a secret from him about his illness.  Their deception hurts him deeply, causing him to lose his trust in them.  It also alters his friendship with Shota and makes Haru reassess his goals for the future.

I can’t say enough good things about this series.  It was like a breath of fresh air, using a simple premise and wonderfully expressive illustrations to build a story all about friendships, social interactions, and growing up.  Fun, witty, touching – Flower of Life was all of these, and at only four volumes, you can’t afford to not read this.

Grade:  A

Zombie Loan Vol 1 by Peach-Pit

Yen Press, 9780759523531

Zombies may be all the rage right now, but this take on the undead just didn’t hold my attention.  Wimpy Michiru can tell when people are going to die by the color of the rings around their necks.  When she sees black rings around the necks of two of her classmates, she wants to warn them that they are going to die soon.  Instead, she gets caught up in their job of banishing the living dead, using her shinigami eyes to find their quarry.

Michiru is one of those timid, passive girls that I really don’t care for.  She lets everyone walk all over her, including Chika and Shito, her new co-workers.  Michiru doesn’t want to rock the boat, but since she’s met Chika and Shito, that’s all that life is about.  The two young men are dead, which I’ll admit is a bit intimidating, but it’s not like their flesh is falling off in gross globs of goo.  Their second chance at life is costing them a fortune, and they have to hunt down wayward dead things, but they’ll do anything to stay alive a little longer.  They bully Michiru into helping them out, and now it’s open season on zombies.

The  story just didn’t grab me, and I think it’s because I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters. The boys may look pretty as they pose and primp through the book, but their personalities are dull and not very intriguing.  The action didn’t feel particularly suspenseful, and the zombie battles lacked intensity.  There wasn’t much about the book that compels me to read more, and overall, it was as dull and lifeless as a zombie.  Disappointing.

Grade: C-