The eighth volume of Hot Gimmick (Viz) is another corker, and I continue to marvel at Miki Aihara’s ability to make readers root for the romance between mini-martyr Hatsumi and emotionally stunted Ryoki. A lot of it tracks back to Aihara’s care in creating the stifling environment of company housing and its crushing caste system. It’s hard not to support people bucking a corrupt system, even if they probably aren’t very good for each other. Best of all, this volume includes a flashback chapter detailing Hatsumi’s first days in company housing. If the complex is a tough place for teens to navigate, it’s worse for toddlers. And it’s riveting to see the origins of future conflicts.
I was rather surprised by the second volume of IWGP, as I thought the driving plot of the first installment would carry through the entire series. Writer Ira Ishida and artist Sena Aritou move in a different (but thematically linked) direction, and while it doesn’t have the first volume’s emotional weight, it’s still very solid stuff. For a splendid analysis of the first and second volumes, go read Immelda Alty’s review at Comic World News. (My comments are based on a review copy provided by Digital Manga Publishing.)
The Tarot Café (Tokyopop) has an interesting premise and a great visual hook, but the comic itself is kind of dull. Fortune teller and café proprietor Pamela gives tarot readings to a variety of supernatural figures – a magical cat, a self-pitying vampire, a surly faerie – helping them achieve their individual destinies. Sang-Sun Park’s art is pretty but static, featuring stick-thin, doll-like women and delicate, ethereal men. Some nice detail is undermined by visual stiffness and a rather limited range of emotional expressions. It’s kind of like a fashion spread with plot added. The faerie story – she’s got some serious miles on her, but she’s trapped in a childlike form — is the best of the bunch, as it has real energy and some O. Henry-ish comic surprises in its favor. Other than that, Pamela’s customers are a fairly dull lot, and there’s nothing particularly inventive in the ways their stories unfold.
The lead story in Yumi Tamura’s Wild Com (Viz) will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s ever read an X-Men comic. A group of young people with psychic powers are assembled by a mysterious mentor figure to do good, mostly in the form of disaster relief. Many X-tropes are in evidence – an uneasy relationship with government officials, conflicted romance, and power as a metaphor and catalyst for adolescent trauma. Tamura takes a gentle, character-based approach that’s kind of appealing, but there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done just as well (or better) elsewhere. The other stories in this shôjo anthology are cautionary romantic tales. “The Beasts of June” is a mood piece about emotional purity and its effect on a pair of teen lowlifes, and “The Eye of the Needle” is a paranoid revenge fantasy. Tamura’s darker approach to shôjo is a mildly interesting change of pace, but the stories themselves cover familiar territory. Tamura’s scratchy, stylized artwork is pretty standard, too, and not really to my taste. It’s competent but unremarkable stuff. (My comments are based on a review copy provided by Viz.)
If any title were to break through my aversion to battle manga, it would probably be Hiroshi Takahashi’s Worst (Digital Manga Publishing). It’s set in what seems to be a magnet school for thugs. Extra-curricular activities consist of picking the right gang and pounding the snot out of classmates. If Takahashi took any of this seriously, it would be absolutely lethal, but he seems to know perfectly well how absurd his set-up is. And he creates a terrific protagonist in oblivious country bumpkin Hana, who approaches the fisticuffs with such enthusiasm and bonhomie as to be utterly charming. On the down side, Hana is pretty much the only character that stands out, despite some rather strenuous efforts to make the rest of the cast visually distinct. (Seriously, these boys deserve a beating for crimes against fashion, if nothing else.) The first and second volumes follow Hana’s participation in the traditional freshman battle, his brash announcement that he’ll become top dog of the whole hoodlum pack, and the ensuing shake-out in the school’s gang-based power structure. It’s violent, a little difficult to follow, and weirdly appealing. I still don’t like battle manga, and I probably never will, but all due credit to Takahashi for his fresh, unconventional approach. (My comments are based on review copies provided by Digital Manga Publishing.)