Category: Ongoing Investigations

Ongoing Investigations: Case #064

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I already loved the second Professor Layton game merely because so much of it takes place aboard a steam train! And quite nicely the scope of the mystery is much broader than the first though there are still some strange towns and townsfolk about. All the great things from the first game are in tact with some nice new additions. Once again I don’t find myself overly concerned about the mini-games but they are fun. However, it can’t be denied that I have done a small bit of complaining about this game. Most annoying is how the game treats you like a complete and utter moron. There are literally times when you look at the map and it says in big letters “GO HERE” and this combined with the constant conversations about “let’s go such and such” or “now let’s go back to so and so” takes a toll. The only other big trip up I’ve had so far is that a major puzzle required me to look at the instruction booklet. This is a portable game for crying out loud, how many of us carrying the instructions with us? But these things aside, I am finding it quite enjoyable and look forward to solving this mystery.

Deka Kyoshi is a manga Kindergarten Cop with a twist of the supernatural. Toyama Narita is a gentle giant of an undercover cop sent in as a new homeroom teacher. The teacher he is replacing committed suicide and the police feel that it is linked to something more sinister happening at the school. On Toyama’s first day he finds that one of his student named Makoto is being bullied. It seems that Makoto can see demons that make people do bad things has become labeled as a liar and a weirdo. Toyama helps Makoto and comes to believe that Makoto has an odd form of synethesia that lets him see emotions as physical forms. So Makoto starts to help Toyama with his investigation but is there a simple scientific explanation or can Makoto see actual demons? The formula for manga seems to be that someone in the class will be emotionally distressed with a after school special problem. Makoto will see the demon that is haunting them and Toyama and Makoto work together to help the student who is in trouble. There also seems to be a sinister boy who is promoting the growth of said demons and is most probably tied in with all the problems at the school. The art feels like a 80s Shonen Jump series despite the fact that it came out in 2006 in Flex Comix. I don’t mind it but I know that is a turn off for some people. The stories themselves are cute and entertaining thanks to Toyama and Makoto being a good team. Toyama comes off as bad-ass when he needs to be and we are slowly seeing Makoto grow as he works with Toyama. The series is not a must read but it is an excellent choice if you want a light supernatural mystery.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #063

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And so ends Kim Dong Hwa’s Color series with the Color of Heaven. The series proves itself to be a classic Shakespearean Comedy despite the fact that it is not an Elizabethan play. That means that it ends on a positive note with a wedding of a couple that has been separated. We begin with Duksam having to leave the village after the events in the last book. Now Ehwa must, like her mother, wait patiently for the man she loves to return to her. It is also her mother’s turn to support her daughter. But all is well that ends well. Ehwa resolves any lingering feelings she has for past loves before her wedding and we end with a consummation scene that is mostly symbolic but does not shy away from being tastefully graphic. Overall the series has been consistently solid. The Color trilogy has maintained its highbrow feel while still having a graceful humanity. With its relatively short but substantial length and its more mature narrative the Color series is a manhwa to show to people who might not necessarily give your standard manga a chance.

The beginning of The Color of Heaven starts very somberly as Ehwa is separated from Duksam and knows not when he will return. The first two book build up to this point of falling truly in love, so the third has a lot of quiet moments of introspection and realization. Also about half of the book involves waiting and waiting. However, that isn’t to say it is boring, much to the credit of the author, the growth between mother and daughter is subtle and beautiful. Ehwa’s mother is a woman who knows through maturity the power of longing and waiting and she imparts many important lessons on Ehwa in this final volume. In fact, much of this concluding story seems to be as much about her mother as it is about Ehwa. But perhaps even more telling is Ehwa’s ability to understand these lessons while still maintaining a hint of her naivete when it comes to the relationships between man and woman unlike her moments in the first two book. What becomes increasingly obvious through various conversations with her friend and mother is Ehwa’s ability to emotionally understand herself and her love but not to physically understand the relationships between the sexes. The finally moments of the book play out between Ehwa and Duksam while being interspersed with her mother and the picture man and also a set of neighbors. And you feel her education while not complete has finally gotten to a new plateau. The Color series has been both artistically unique and calmly enthralling and as such is a series that needs to be read and experienced.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #062

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Read through Palette of 12 Secret Colors books 2-5. This series is just delightful, it never fails to make me smile. Things progress quite nicely between Cello and Dr. Guell through a series of mostly humorous incidents about town and involving the birds of the island, random students, and old friends. There are some particularly hilarious chapters focusing on Yoyo, Cello’s bird, and Olga, Dr. Guell’s companion, both of whom have it in for their masters budding romance. Also, Olga takes it upon herself to sort of boot camp Cello in studying to be a palette. From this I learned the saying “Four pass, five fail,” which is apparently a very common saying in Japanese schools by which it means four hours of sleep (spending the other 20 presumably studying) and you will pass your tests. I also found the friendship between Dr. Guell and Cello’s dad ceaselessly amusing. Besides these sort of trip ups on the road to love, I am pleased to say there haven’t been any love rivals. Looking forward to book 6, which is in the mail, to the surely funny but sweet conclusion.

Saki has been a fun little series with varying degrees of mahjong and yuri fanboy relationship fanservice. I think Narutaki summed it up quite well with, “Men are so easy.” I still stick by my guns and state that I liked Saki more for it’s mahjong than for it’s pandering but part of me wonders if almost everyone who watches Saki says that. And how many of them are lying? That being said the mahjong is usually pretty fun in Saki. It is not the crazy intense madness of Akagi but sucks you in. If Akagi is all about the razors edge life and death struggle of the professional gambler taken to a melodramatic extreme then Saki is about the friendships and passions of team mahjong taken to a melodramatic extreme. The fact that most of the characters are pretty well fleshed out for the amount of screen time they get helps this as well. Since you care about all the characters playing the games they become that more more intense. Unsurprisingly this seems to be popular among the otaku crowd in Japan so there are hints that a sequel is in the works provided Gonzo does not go out of business before that can happen. The ending is full of scenes from later in the original manga filled with hints that the mahjong only gets crazier. I will admit I always get the urge to eat tacos after watching Saki. And that is hardly a negative. Still it was a fun ride and I would easily watch a second season. Continue reading →