Category: Drama

Manga of the Month: November

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Honey and Clover by Chika Umino

If Honey and Clover was always sepia toned it would never seem horrifically out of place. Honey and Clover is a joyful if melancholy tinged looked back on college life. It looks at the lives of 5 students at an art college in Tokyo. The main theme is trying to figure out where you are going. Everyone is trying to discover where exactly they are headed with their lives before they enter the “real” world. Of course being college students there are also messy and mature relationships do deal with along the way. Everyone’s story is a mixture of joy and sadness like the bitterness and sweetness of a honey and clover sandwich.

Yuta Takemoto is effectively the main character of the story. He is a directionless art student who falls in love with with Hagumi Hanamoto, the niece of one of his professors. His friend and super senior Shinobu Morita falls in love with her at the same time. But Hagu is a shy and extremely sheltered young genius and finds it hard to interact with others. Takumi Mayama is a also their friend who is poised on graduating. Their mutual friend Ayumi Yamada is in love with Takumi but he only has eyes for Rika Harada a young widow whose soul is a broken as her body. We see all of them go through school and try desperately try to find where they need to be after college.

I think one of the biggest appeals for Honey and Clover is it’s more mature setting. We get so many high school anime but it is a nice change of pace to see a solid dramedy set with some older protagonists. I think these older characters who eventually have to deal with jobs and more mature relationships is refreshing while still having the vibrancy of the college experience. All of the characters are very relatable and amusing. You will feel triumph at their successes and heartbreak with their losses. The comedy is extremely well done and prevents the series from being gray colored slice of life quagmire. Shinbou could get his own spin off series and all the women and most of the men reading would probably buy two copies each. Honey and Clover is a amazing series that captures the highlights and low points of being young enough to have the world before you but old enough to know how scary that is.

Palette of 12 Secret Colors by Nari Kusakawa

I have absolutely fallen in love with the work manga-ka Nari Kusakawa does. My most recent passion is for Palette of 12 Secret Colors which takes place on island that houses the most beautiful birds in the world. Cello a “palette” in training (and many others) use the birds’ bright colors to change ordinary things, like cloth and rocks, into precious treasures that are sought the world over. But Cello’s magic doesn’t work like anyone else and usually manifests itself best when she is in danger but her unique abilities get her into some interesting situations. Cello is positive, funny, passionate, and easy to love. As the story goes on we see Cello struggle with how she wants to use her palette skills after her training is complete. However, most things take a back seat to the budding romance between her and the school nurse. She often turns to Dr. Guell, he is blunt but funny and caring, so much so you can’t help but root for these two to come together. Things between these two move along at a brisk but believable pace through a series of mostly humorous incidents about town involving the birds of the island, random students, thieves, and old friends. While the majority of time is spent on Cello or Dr. Guell, there is a colorful side cast that liven things up constantly from Cello’s rambunctious dad who forms an amusing kinship with Dr. Guell to Yoyo and Olga’s scheming to keep their masters apart that ensures funny happenings both in the background and foreground of this manga. Palette of 12 Secret Colors is a charming combination of fantasy, romance, and a huge helping of comedy. And with a mere 6 books to collect, it shouldn’t be missed!

Manga of the Month: October

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Swan by Kyoko Ariyoshi

I know nothing of ballet, in fact I have zero ability to dance but I am consistently drawn to ballet manga. There is something about how it looks on the page that makes it very beautiful and very dramatic both of which Sawn has in spades. Japan’s ballet is a baby compared to its history in the rest of the world, but there is plenty of young (and old) talent. Great dancers from all over the nation are invited to compete, the top chosen will receive private lessons from famous dancers all over the world. This is done in hopes to expand Japan’s ballet reputation internationally. We follow Masumi, who is unexpectedly invited to the school for private lessons after being eliminated early on in the competition. She has had poor training but her staunch supporter, famous Russian dancer Alexei Sergeiev, sees great potential in her. Masumi is uneasy and has self-doubt but she is determined. The many people swirling around her add wonderful contrasts to her style and outlook as well as creating tension and of course sowing the seeds of love, friendship, and competition. All of the rivalries so far have been fair, on the level, but fierce and make each push themselves harder than before. However, they have not leaped into sabotage or foul play which is a easy direction to take such things especially in a series that is as highly melodramatic as Swan is. It is rather amazing how much emotion, suspense, and progress Ariyoshi Kyoko packs into each volume. Each character is given the ability to improve and grow which only seems to get more dramatic as the series goes on. Swan a beautifully rendered story with some of the most dynamic page layouts I’ve ever encountered. You will also learn tons about ballet. Swan is a highlight of shojo manga that shouldn’t be missed and that I can’t personally put down.

Hyakko by Haruaki Katou

I believe that most of anime and manga fandom is always looking for the next Azumanga Daioh. While I will not be so bold as to say that Hyakko is just that, I will claim that it will hold you over until you find the next Azumanga Daioh. It is as if you made Tomo the main star of Azumanga making sure to keep her energy at 11 but turn down her skill at getting under your skin to a more reasonable 5. Beyond that, you get what made Azumanga great: releatable high school characters with all their quirks exaggerated just enough for comedic effect; a focus on relationships to create a natural flow of comedy; but unlike Azumanga there are actually male students who are regular characters. Shocking, I know.

Torako Kageyama is a hurricane at Kamizono Academy, a co-ed private high school. She is an energetic spitfire that is constantly getting involved with other people’s lives. She has no great altruistic streak but instead just wants to shake things up. By hook or by crook she has three other friends who usually get involved with her shenanigans as well. Suzume Saotome is Torako’s very peculiar childhood friend, Ayumi Nonomura is a mousy but cute girl, and Tatsuki Iizuka is a straight-laced lady who is often strong armed into participating. Fortunately for Torako there are many a strange student at Kamizono Academy so she is rarely at a want of what to do next.

Hyakko is an excellent comedy manga set in high school. The main appeal is the characters and how they relate to each other. Torako’s brash nature is amusing and I especially like her antagonistic friendship with Tatsuki. We have a wide variety of odd students from the bisexual class president, a child prodigy, a delinquent, and a man with a crush on Torako who play off each other very well. There is no overall plot it’s just a different day in the life of Torako and her classmates. It’s a fun little series that will not change the way you look at life or manga but it will make you laugh and that is all it needs to do.

Manga of the Month: September

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Team Medical Dragon by Akira Nagai and Taro Nogizaka

I have to give credit where credit is due, it was actually Narutaki who discovered Team Medical Dragon and an excellent discovery it was. Team Medical Dragon is basically what happens when you take Say Hello to Black Jack and make it an insanely over the top critique of the Japanese medical institution. Or if you want a western analogy take Gregory House and make him sexier and crazier. It seems like crazy talk, I know. I will let you try to imagine that and then come back.

Asada Ryuutarou was a genius surgeon until politics and apathy forced him out of his medical profession. Katou Akira gets him to come out of retirement as the first step in having him help perform her radical new heart surgery technique. So Asada returns to medicine in Japan but insists on practicing his way causing him to be too good to get rid of easily but too brazen to get along with anyone conservative. Ijyuuin Noboru is an intern that Asada recruits whose main purpose is to whine about how they have to follow the rules so Asada can kick logic to the curb and do the impossible. Oh, and he is also sort of there to learn to be a great doctor but mostly the first part. Miki Satohara is a hot nurse who is mostly there to be hot and bad arse (which is a good combination).

The first chapter will tell you right off the bat if you want to continue reading this manga or not. If you read it and think that guy is cool I must read more of his insane medical madness then continue on because it only goes up. If you think that the first chapter is too crazy then stop right then and there. Those mere 40 pages or so have sex, action, over the top but well researched medicine, character conflict, political drama and just plain fun. As it goes on the fun just continues, I mean Asada jump starts a patient’s heart in the street with a car battery. He gets audience commentary during surgery like he was playing Mahjong or participating in a fighting tournament. It is just good crazy with a healthy dose of valid Japanese medical criticism.

Kagen no Tsuki by Ai Yazawa

This short 3 book story may be a bit unusual if you know Ai Yazawa’s more popular works. This piece combines the supernatural, friendship, love, mystery, redemption, and tragedy into a striking tale. One day, a girl named Hotaru chases after a cat, which she has mistaken as her own missing one, into a beautiful but abandoned house. After she realizes her mistake, she is drawn by a haunting melody which she follows to its source. There she discovers the house isn’t so abandoned after all and meets Eve a pretty young woman who says she is waiting for her boyfriend to return. Hotaru and Eve become fastly acquainted but when Hotaru brings her friends to meet Eve it becomes apparent that only Hotaru sees the mysterious woman. The rest of the story centers around these 4 friends as they uncover the mysteries of just who Eve is, why Hotaru sees her, and what exactly caused it all to happen in the first place. Hotaru is spunky and determined which plays off her friends who are in turn earnest, intelligent, and carefree. Through the increasingly strange information they unearth their bonds of friendship strengthen and young love blossoms. The story has a very dark undertone that only gets more pronounced as it goes on to the point of being spine-tingling at moments. Ai Yazawa’s signature style is ever present here with some added spice and doesn’t fail to intrigue to the very last page.