Keep The Circle Going 'Round

The last time I was at Barnes and Noble, I saw this series on the shelf, but I didn't have time to sit and read it.  I've been looking forward to reading it and posting my review for you ever since.

(There haven't been that many new manga series coming in to my local bookstore.  Sorry.)

"Spirit Circle" is a new series by Satoshi Mizukami, creator of "Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer" (which I have not read).

Mysterious girl Kouko joins Fuuta Okeya's class one day, along with a handsome spirit that he thinks only he can see.  That same day, Fuuta has a dream of what looks like a past life, where he is named Fortuna and Kouko and her ghost are also there.  Later, Kouko tells Fuuta that he looks like someone she hates.  He makes the mistake of bidding farewell to both her and the ghost, causing her to reveal his mysterious birthmark, which she claims is a mark of shame.  Producing a magic flaming wheel weapon called a Spirit Circle from somewhere, Kouko hits Fuuta down the stairs, leading him into another dream where he is a boy named Fone who has a girlfriend named Rei.  When Rei is offered as an unnecessary sacrifice to the gods, Fone/Fuuta dies trying to stop it, slain by a woman named Stona. 

When Fuuta wakes in the hospital with Kouko next to him, he sees that she has the same face as Stona.  Kouko then pledges to make him die seven more times.  The next day, the two of them meet on the roof.  Kouko reveals that the dream was indeed a past life and that Fuuta must relive at least six more deaths before she can kill him and break the reincarnation cycle

Thus begins an unusual series that loosely connects a series of 1-2 chapter vignettes with an over-arcing story that attempts to tie everything together.  Little things from each "past life" bleed into other "past lives" and into the over-world itself from time to time, but I fear that this will only serve to alienate newcomers and only make sense to those who've been following since the very beginning.

Not that the past life vignettes are bad, far from it.

 There seems to be a reoccurring theme in the past life stories of Fuuta's desire to be a hero and protect everyone, as well as a healthy contempt for organized religion and primitive superstition.

That being said, one can't help wondering where the over-story is really going.  The back cover and the first few pages all seem to imply that this will be a battle manga, not some vignettes that fall more into slice-of-life.  We see that Kouko and Fuuta will eventually battle it out by clashing their Spirit Circles together like weapons, but the first volume gives us no clues of how exactly things will come to that.

The art style is okay, if a tad cartoony for the subject matter.  And the characters aren't horrible.  We'll probably see why Kouko acts the way she does.  But Fuuta is at once both a lot like and nothing like a lot of the major manga protags that I've seen.

He doesn't want this madness that's taking place in his life.  He values his normal day-to-day life and wants this whole "past life" business to stop, but he accepts this as something that needs to be done and doesn't whine about it like some people.

Fuuta also really seems to want to become friends with Kouko, despite her wanting to kill him (several times, in fact!) and not even for any kind of physical relationship.  But, again, he's not all pushy and obnoxious about it, like some people.

Long story short, though I do like the surprise of this being not entirely like the back cover of the manga said, I don't think I'm going to become overly invested in this series any time soon.  Perhaps it will stroke my heart and emotions, but I will probably just read the entire series once and then never touch it again.

Sorry for not being quite as friendly or eloquent or upbeat as usual; it's been a long day and I'm just tired.

Peace out.

Mostly An Average Love Triangle

Hello again, everyone.

Sorry for not posting for so long.  You know how it is: I hadn't started a new series, necessarily, until recently.  (And, while I'm at it, I'm also sorry that tonight's blog title didn't have a pun or a reference in it.  I just couldn't think of anything.)

In truth, I saw the first volume of this manga on my second-to-most-recent B&N visit, but I didn't have time back then to pick it up.  It seemed, from the blurb on the back, to be relatively ordinary, perhaps too ordinary for me.  But a few days ago, I had the time to read all I wanted, so I decided to pick it up.

Anyway, here's the basic premise: The world is one not unlike modern day Tokyo, but there's one big difference (God, I love using colons and semicolons.  Have you ever noticed that?): Due to a currently low birth rate, people at the age of 16 are genetically screened and matched up by a government computer with someone else of compatible material.

Enter our hero, Nejima Yukari, male.  Ever since he loaned her half of his eraser back in grade school, he's been in love with fellow classmate Misaki Takasaki.  Sweet, isn't it?  I bet they wind up getting together and live happily ever after.

They actually may or may not, that's how non-standard this story is.

But, anyway, Nejima, for some reason, decides to confess his feelings to Takasaki on the very eve of his sixteenth birthday.  And, as it turns out, she's always loved him, too.  But enter the wild card character: Nejima's chosen genetic mate, Lilina Sanada.

Initially, Lilina comes off as a generic tsundere character, but it's later revealed that she's like that to everyone, not just Nejima.  And, what's more, she even genuinely tries to support Nejima and Misaki's relationship.  Lilina is friendly enough towards the both of them, and it doesn't quite feel like it's turning into love, so who knows on that front?

There's also a hot male character named Nisaki, who, as it turns out, is gay for Nejima.  Who would have expected it?  That alone makes this feel like "not your ordinary rom-com manga", let alone the friendship and lack of competition between the two girl characters.

(And, as an added bonus for all you pervs out there, we do get several pages in Volume One of Lilina pantsless with a half-buttoned shirt.  But it's not too much, going so far as to completely eclipse a flimsy excuse for a story, like it would in My Life With Monster Girls or something.)

I stopped reading Horimiya and Say You Love Me after only one volume each (I think) because they just struck me as too boring or ordinary.  But this story changes around a few things and doesn't feel too much like it's following the same old tired formula.  Who knows whether Lilina will grow to love Nejima?  Who knows if Misaki is ever going to let him go and give him a sad, schmaltzy, tear-filled farewell?

All I knows is, it's probably not going to end with a Nejima x Nisaki pairing.  Sorry, buddy. :P

Update and Rules

Dear Readers,

Getting that Jojo's Bizarre Adventure post in before work this morning (and having a lot of free time) has led me to average out my number of postings, as well as to count them all.  I have done the following 25 series, and, with them, I also have my updates on how I'm doing on them and my final thoughts.

1.     JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE (still reading, great)

2.     CELLS AT WORK (still reading, above average)

3.     BLACK CLOVER (still reading, average)

4.     TORIKO (stopped reading, slowly degrading)

5.     SCHOOL JUDGMENT (finished, became silly and weird at the end)

6.     REAL ACCOUNT (still reading, above average)

7.     TOMODACHI MONSTER (finished, above average, save for dumpster fire ending)

8.     MY MONSTER SECRET (still reading, average)

9.     AKUMA NO RIDDLE (stopped reading, enjoyed anime, average)

10.   MY HERO ACADEMIA (still reading, great)

11.   PRISON SCHOOL (stopped reading, bad)

12.   KARNEVAL (never read, watched anime, bad)

13.   NURSE HITOMI’S MONSTER INFIRMARY (stopped reading, average)

14.   GUN BLAZE WEST (finished, average)

15.   NO GAME NO LIFE (stopped reading, bad)

16.   MANGA DOGS (stopped reading, meh)

17.   NO. 6 (finished, meh)

18.   MAGICAL GIRL APOCALYPSE (stopped reading, too complicated)

19.   FOOD WARS (still reading, great)

20.   ATTACK ON TITAN (still reading, average)

21.   DEADMAN WONDERLAND (finished, meh)

22.   SWORD ART ONLINE (stopped reading, never watched anime, meh)

23.   NISEKOI (still reading, average)

24.   SEVEN DEADLY SINS (still reading, above average)

25.   UQ HOLDER (still reading, meh)

 

I’ve been running this blog from 2014 to 2017.  I’ve done 25 series so far.  Averaging that equates to 8.33 repeating series per year.  I’m going to seriously try from now on to cover 9 a year to get a nice, round average.  That means I have to do two more series this year.

 

Come 2018, I’ll 100% do nine series, so as to keep the streak alive.

 

Ora Ora Ora!

With the recent release of the new anime season (Stardust Crusaders) on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, the timing just seemed perfect to talk about one of my latest anime/manga obsessions: the perennial hit Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Years aback, when Shonen Jump was still being put out in English translation in America, I think there was a preview chapter of the famous Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Manga, and I think I might have picked up the first volume of Stardust Crusaders when it came first came out, again years ago.  (Which was odd, because Stardust Crusaders was the third arc, not the first.)

I don't recall too much of what I thought of it at that time (around ten years ago, if not more), but my poor young mind must not have been mature or experienced enough to really appreciate it or want to follow it seriously.  (Which was odd, because I still follow One Piece, which was already well up and running at that time.)

But, since my local library began carrying the series from the very beginning, I have developed WAY more of a taste for it.

Boy. where to even begin with this series?  The stories are phenomenal, the art is gritty and realistic, the characters are usually memorable and the battles are just...God, is there a even a word?

All it's been missing so far (my having read through only Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency and a fair amount of Stardust Crusaders because that's all that's been released in huge thick English volumes so far) is hot chicks and fanservice.  But, with the first-ever female Jojo in Stone Ocean's Jolyne, that's right up there on the horizon in a few years.  Not to mention the Higashikata family in Jojolion.

Our story arcs over the decades and generations, following the Joestar (and later Kujo) families as they face various supernatural threats, many of which were either directly or indirectly spawned from their family's past enemy, Dio Brando, the vampire.

And did I mention that he survived for 100 years after Phantom Blood by attaching his freaking SEVERED HEAD to the body of his deceased enemy Johnathan Joestar?

Go ahead, tell me that isn't epic.

There have been around eight arcs so far since the series inception in the 1980's (two of which take place after the freaking universe COLLAPSED and remade an entirely new reality!):

1. Phantom Blood
2. Battle Tendency
3. Stardust Crusaders
4. Diamond is Unbreakable
5. Vento Aureo
6. Stone Ocean
7. Steel Ball Run
8. Jojolion

 So, if you like manly fist-fights, crazy superpowers, deep rich stories, character legacies, intricate battles and, hell, even learning a thing or two here and there, pick up Jojo's Bizarre Adventure today!  Just be prepared for the long haul.

PS: There are few gory discretion shots in this series, and I haven't yet seen how they handle nudity.  May not be the best for your kiddies, unless they are very mature.

Cells At Work Review

Hello once again, blog-reading people.

Now, I'll be the first to admit: I'm lazy.  I'm self-absorbed.  I get distracted and I have no follow-through.  But, now and again, I remember that this blog exists, and, hopefully, those two of you who still stuck with me even though I haven't posted for nearly half a year will appreciate and accept that.

I have picked up Murcielago Volume 1, plus this, but, frankly, I'd much rather enjoy the sexy, violent adventures of state-commissioned executioner Kuroko Koumori on my own time, without having to share them with you.  (That being said, pick it up!)

But here I'm going to talk about-you guessed it-Cells at Work.

Does anyone here remember The Metal Men?  They're this crappy chemistry-based superhero team made up of shapeshifting metal people.  I never liked them, because all their adventures get broken up with tons of crap about what different metals are made up of and how they react with this and that.  And who wants a freaking science lesson from their comic books?  Batman and things are fine, but it always seems like The Metal Men do more talking and teaching than actual fighting.

(That being said, also avoid Federal Department of Physics.  Now, if it was Federal Departments of Psychics, it might be a completely different ball game.)

So sorry for rambling.  If you can't already tell from my previous verbosity, I am writing this post while buzzed on Mike's Hard Lemonade.  (I didn't even need to tell you that; that's how buzzed I am.  I guess alcohol makes me more loquacious in my writing voice, as well as in my speaking voice.  Now who's teaching, huh?)

Anyway, I get into The Metal Men because Cells at Work is sort of like that, only more "anime" and more fun.  The series follows a cute, moe Red Blood Cell girl as she travels around the body delivering oxygen.  However, this body, like all of ours, is constantly under attack by a "Monster of the Week", be it a mere pimple, the mumps or a deadly cancer.

Our action protagonist, a White Blood Cell (referred to by some long science-y name that I can't remember) does physical battle with these threats, all of which are portrayed as grotesque, occasionally humanoid monsters.

And, despite being mere cells, the cast of characters we follow from time to time all have their own unique personalities (or at least quirks) that save this series from being just another walk through a biology textbook.  And, yes, it does cut away into little dialogue boxes full of science-y stuff, but a lot of it is stuff we all learned in school years ago.  And the stuff that isn't is, at least, interesting to read.

It's more of a "Monster of the Week" series, as I said before, in the vein of something like Sailor Moon or whatever-the-hell-Power-Rangers-we're-up-to, but at least it's a fun, simple art style and concept that's fun to read.

(Even after three volumes, which I sadly can't say for some of the other works I've read through.  Usually, I only post after reading only the first volume of a series, but sometimes I think I should go back and return to the series I've already reviewed, to give some insight now that I've read more or have finished them.)

(I think the only one I've really reviewed the whole way through was "No. 6", way back in who-knows-when.  So maybe I will.)

But I'm rambling now, and I think, at this point in time, we could all use some shut-eye.  Don't want ourselves straining our eyes by staring at a bright, mostly-blank screen for too long, now do we?