I thought I’d get around to putting a column together on Sunday, but roughly 13 hours in airports or on planes left me incapable of coherent thought. Things will be back on schedule next week.

To ease myself back into society, I turned to shôjo, catching up with some reading that I didn’t have time to get to before I left (and didn’t think to pack).

I strongly suspected I’d like Chica Umino’s Honey and Clover before I ever picked up an issue of Shojo Beat, and I do, but the real surprise is always Hinako Ashihara’s Sand Chronicles. It’s really so lovely and perfectly pitched, and I hope it doesn’t get lost in the wave of titles from this imprint. It’s equally effective in its portrayal of big, life-changing moments and small-but-telling ones. I hope lots of people give it a look when it comes out in digest form.

The seventh volume of Ai Yazawa’s Nana arrived somewhat belatedly at the local comic shop, and it comes as a surprise to me that something was actually missing from the previous six: Jun and her boyfriend sitting in bed and talking trash about the main characters. I didn’t realize this before, but I could read three or four volumes that consisted of nothing but snarky pillow talk between these two. Don’t get me wrong – I love the Nanas and the bands and their respective hangers-on, but it was lovely and funny to see people look at them with something resembling perspective.

Part of my weekend reading included the 14th volume of Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist (Viz). It’s a really entertaining series, and if you’ve avoided it because it’s really popular, you might reconsider, because it’s also very, very good.

That said, the latest installment left me feeling a little at odds.

(Spoilers after the cut.)

So pretty much everyone knows everything about the big government conspiracy, largely because the big government conspiracy basically decided to tell them. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. It doesn’t precisely raise the threat level, which was always fairly high, but it transforms it into something rather different.

It seems like Arakawa was ready to shake up her toy box and fuel the next big chunk of narrative. In fact, it kind of reminds me of the big mid-series development in Death Note (Shonen Jump Advanced), and while it opens up all kinds of new plot twists, there’s also the vague sense of the air being let out. On one hand, the good guys were too bright and tenacious to be in the dark forever; on the other, it’s going to take some doing to reposition all of the major players in their new, murkier moral landscape.

The series is up to its 17th volume in Japan, though I have no idea if Arakawa has set an end point on it as yet. This does seem like the beginning of an endgame to me. That doesn’t mean it won’t be protracted, obviously. Does the news of a new series from Arakawa indicate impending closure on Fullmetal? I don’t know.

I have to note that Arakawa does some of the funniest extras in manga. They’re like excellent petit fours after a really good meal.

I’m going to have to stop saying things like “I don’t like comics about dim-witted lowlifes,” because every time I do, something like Hideaki Sorachi’s Gin Tama (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced) comes along to contradict me. In my defense, I think Gin Tama is an uncommonly good comic about dim-witted lowlifes.

The second volume builds smartly on the virtues of the first. Gin and his cohorts run through another round of decidedly odd jobs that range from the weirdly romantic to the disturbingly creepy. Sorachi’s aggressive approach to comedy ties everything together, and his cast (disarmed samurai Gin, scolding four-eyes Shinpachi, and adorably violent alien Kagra) really start clicking as a unit. (Okay, they don’t function well as co-workers, but they make quite a comedy troupe.)

It’s fairly episodic, but there are enough recurring elements and hinted-at secrets to give it a little more heft than it might otherwise have. Gin’s uneasy relationships with both the local cops and the hometown terrorist cell have lots of promise for future stories; both factions are about equally morally iffy, which is interesting in its own right.

And it’s very, very funny. Underlying all of the low-brow antics is some real wit and perceptiveness. There’s a very high rate of return on even the throw-away gags. The art is just right for the material, too.

About a third of the way through the second volume, I said to myself that this is one of the best new shônen series I’ve read all year. For a book whose kanji title can be read as “Testicles,” this is quite a surprise, though it’s certainly a pleasant one.

(This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.)

I’m not a regular reader of Viz’s Shojo Beat magazine, but I had to pick up the anniversary issue (July 2007) because of the excerpt from Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight (which is accompanied by some very nice text pieces on Tezuka).

I hope that, beyond just celebrating the milestone with something special, Viz is testing the waters and seeing if there’s sufficient reader interest to release the series in digest form. Just judging by the short, disconnected chapters shown here, it looks like a treat. It always amazes me that Tezuka’s work can seem classic and immediate, timeless without being dated or stuffy. I’d love to read more of Princess Knight.

Other random thoughts about the issue: