Review - Pluto Volume 1

I really hope Viz decides to license Billy Bat. I've become a huge fan of Naoki Urasawa. His storytelling has such a grand, cinematic approach that just makes it impossible for me to put it down. In fact, I really want to get to the next volume of Pluto, but I've got to write this review!

STORY

Pluto is a retelling of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, specifically an arc in the Astro Boy series called The Greatest Robot on Earth. It's a legendary work with anime and manga still being inspired by it today.

I've never read it.

Hopefully nobody burns me at the stake for saying that, but I never have. Therefore, I'm going into Pluto completely blank. How will it work? So far, pretty well. Naoki Urasawa seems to know that not everybody has read Astro Boy, and so he presents this story in a very familiar way. Key scenes unfold in very similar progression to Monster and 20th Century Boys. That isn't a bad thing at all, because Urasawa is a master storyteller, effortlessly weaving together several storylines.

Pluto is set in the obvious future where an unknown presence is going around destroying many of the world's most powerful and respected robots for unknown reasons. On the case is Detective Gesight, a robot in danger himself. In this future, robots coexist with humans peacefully and have thoughts and feelings of their own. It's pretty neat to see it like this, since in most sci-fi stories the robots are usually lesser than humans and are frequently discriminated against. Not so here, which is new and nice.

ART & PRESENTATION

Urasawa's style of art always hits all the right notes with me. It's realistic without losing it's cartooney charm. A lot of Urasawa manga involves a lot of talking heads because the series' themselves just don't have much action, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. 20th Century Boys had a little action, but it looks like I'll be able to see how capable Urasawa is of it here. Some of the best bits are below.

Viz's presentation is marvelous, as usual, with fine printing, a great translation, and many color pages rounding off the deal. All the spines line up well, with one slight anomaly I'll address in the review for volume 2.

CHARACTERS

Urasawa always writes great characters, even if most of them here are robots. The robots in Pluto all feel very human, and watching them go through their various trials and tribulations is great. There's only one character here that leaves an impression as a returning character, and I'll go over him here.

Our hero detective Gesicht is also a robot. He's a well made robot, though. One can barely tell that he isn't human. Being a detective and a robot makes him usually all serious all the time, but he has emotions which are shown sometimes. He also has a wife and frequently has a reoccurring nightmare, one which we don't know the details of yet.

FINAL VERDICT

I have yet to read something by Naoki Urasawa that I don't actually like, and Pluto doesn't seem to be any exception. Plus/minus below!

+ Cool sci-fi
+ Good mystery setup
+ Great art
+ Gesicht is a good lead character

A - BUY IT

Pluto has a great opening volume, and it looks to only get better from here. Next stop, Billy Bat...? Please?

(I don't own Pluto. All rights go to the author, Naoki Urasawa, and the licensing company, Viz Media).

Review - Vagabond Volume 1 (VizBig Edition)

I apologize for not putting a review up sooner. I've just really been wanting to do Vagabond. I got this forever ago and read through it, but that was way before I had my blog, so I couldn't review it. Anyway, I also just wanted to read it again, and this blog gave me the perfect chance!

STORY

Vagabond is the tale of real-life samurai Miyamoto Musashi, and Vagabond starts from before he was called by that name. The tale starts with Musashi (going by Shinmen Takezo at this point) and his buddy Hon'iden Matahachi returning to their home village after a bloody battle. They beat up some wayward enemy samurai, encounter some ladies, and get separated.

In all reality, this volume (or three volumes) could be billed more as a prologue since it deals with Takezo graduating to the name Musashi. I say graduating because this volume deals with Takezo/Musashi maturing as an individual, but more on that later.

As actual story goes, it's not super complex. This is a fairly simple story (for now) with characters having fairly simple goals. Musashi travels around challenging various samurai and honing his skills as a swordsman. As far as a biography goes, however, it's a darn good one. The simple nature of the story makes it easy to read. It took me forever to get through this volume, however, because I was too busy looking at that art.

ART & PRESENTATION

Hands down, Vagabond has the best art. Ever. It's not surprising that it takes so long for a new volume to be published, because the amount of work that goes into this manga is astounding.
Every picture is obviously drawn by hand with some fantastic brush work thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately I can't add every single picture from this 600 page volume, but I'll add a few of the very best.

Viz's presentation is spectacular, as well. The translation is solid, the printing is solid, the binding is solid, the color pages are plentiful and solid... Actually, the whole book is very solid. Seriously, this book weighs about a ton. You could probably very easily beat someone to death with it.

CHARACTERS

It was difficult to tell if any of the characters in this volume would be returning for future installments, and, as such, I'm only really going to go over the lead character, Miyamoto Musashi. That isn't to say the rest of the characters are forgettable, though. Matahachi is a dirtball, Otsu is down to earth and relateable, Takuan is interesting... You get it. Vagabond has great characters. I just don't want to wast my time with one who isn't coming back after this volume.

Takezo, as he starts out being called, is a pretty simple dude. His mission is to become "invincible under the sun", and he'll train himself and push himself to the limit to get there. He's strong in both body and mind, but he isn't unbeatable or fearless. A particularly character driven moment involves him hanging from a tree and thinking about how he ended up there. It's a great scene, even if it does draaaaaaaaag ooooooooooon. Once he becomes Miyamoto Musashi, Shinmen Takezo has died, and he becomes a new man. It's all very philosophical, but it's cool. It gives him some layers. He has goals other that to be the very best... Like no one ever was...

FINAL VERDICT

Vagabond is excellent. I don't know how much of this telling of Miyamoto Musashi's story is fictionalized, but if it's all more or less true, it's a darn good way to learn some history. Plus/minus below!

+ The best art around
+ Compelling, easy to read story
+ Real-feeling characters
+ Deep moments for Musashi

- Even if the tree scene does go on for a little too long

A - BUY IT

Vagabond is basically a staple in any manga collector's library. If you don't have it yet, go get it. Vagabond rocks.

(I don't own Vagabond. All rights go to the author, Takahiko Inoue, and the licensing company, Viz Media).

Manga Monday

Barnes and Noble always has 50 percent off select manga on Mondays. It's a bummer that I get paid on Fridays, since I always plan out way in advance what money I'm going to save and what I'm going to spend. Then again, most of the titles on sale either don't interest me or I already own, but oh well.

I always forget to account for gas in my spending money. That's why my saving is only marginally successful, I suppose! Oops! Oh well! Life goes on.

Review - Jormungand Volume 4

Where I live, we don't get a lot of snow, but I enjoy it regardless! There's a possibility for it in the next ten days. I'm excited!

STORY

Well, for starters, the story arc from the previous volume wrapped up. It ended sort of inconclusively, with Doctor Miami leaving a cryptic note for Koko before going off to chase more butterflies and Valmet letting Karen live to fight another day. I can tell that that's going to be a story that doesn't go away anytime soon, which is fine with me, 'cause I'm always up for learning a bit more about Valmet since we didn't really learn much from this arc.

Then the second half gave us a story arc that actually started and finished in this volume. What a surprise! This arc gave us an interesting story in that there was hardly any violence. It was all about business and negotiations. Pretty interesting stuff, really. The only problem with it was that it was all a bit confusing. Maybe I just didn't take my time reading it enough. I got the gist of what was going on, but it seemed like someone with knowledge on the subject probably would've enjoyed it a little more.

ART & PRESENTATION

Same old, same old. The art is okay. Unfortunately, since there was hardly any action during this volume, there wasn't much room for cool art, and there was a lot of talking heads. Still, there were enough cool bits for me to put some below.

Viz's presentation shines again. I like how the colors from the cover wrap around to the spine. It creates a really neat look.

CHARACTERS

Again, lots of characters we'll probably never see again in this volume, but we got some info on more of the crew. It seems like each character that's on the front with Koko is probably going to get a little bit of a focus in that volume, since that's been the pattern so far.

On the cover of this volume is Lutz. He's sort of a dork, but he's an expert sniper. We learn that he, while a great sniper, has moral trouble of just offing someone who happens to be in his sights. It adds some nice depth to Koko's crew, knowing that they aren't all just crazy mercenaries.

FINAL VERDICT

The fourth volume of Jormungand wasn't my favorite volume so far. As much as I enjoy characters talking out their conflicts in an educated manner, in the case of Jormungand, more action is better. Plus/minus below!

+ More character moments are always appreciated
+ Action scenes are cool

- But sparse
- Second arc was a little confusing (for me, at least)

C+ - BORROW IT

Jormungand is still worth your time, but I'd still recommend you borrow a volume or two before you go out and spend money on it.


(I don't own Jormungand. All rights go to the author, Keitaro Takahashi, and the licensing company, Viz Media).

Review - Jormungand Volume 3

My new shelf is almost finished! Maybe I won't fill this one up as fast. To be fair, I did have the other one already partially filled since I was transitioning out of an old, ugly bookshelf. Now I have a blank slate that I'll fill up with good manga. I think I've only read two series that I didn't like and donates to someone else. That would be Drifters and Switch. You'll probably never see me give a recommendation for SKIP IT, just because I usually see if what I want to buy is actually worth buying.

STORY

In this volume of Jormungand, people shoot guns at things and such things usually explode.

Actually, not really. In this volume, the action actually takes a backseat to the quieter moments, allowing us to get to know some of the crew a little better. At the beginning, there's the story of why Jonah hates Casper, which is pretty good. It's sort of cliched, but not too much.

In the second half, we get a plot involving an annoying American guy, a Chinese businessman, and an apparent grudge from Valmet's past. There's also a scientist who is obsessed with butterflies. It seems like it could be interesting. Plus, I'm always up for learning a little more about Koko's crew.

ART & PRESENTATION

The art continues to be sort of lame. Since there wasn't much action this volume, there wasn't much of a chance for the art to shine. THAT SAID... There was one spectacular scene where Koko's cargo ship mounted with mini-guns took out a squad of pirates and a helicopter. I'll show some of it below.

Viz's presentation is once again spectacular. Everything is so nice looking. Honestly, one of the best things about Jormungand is how it looks on your shelf. That makes it sound like the rest of the series is wank, which is false, but seriously. It's put together soooo well.

CHARACTERS

There are quite a few new characters here, but none of them are characterized enough for me to really go over yet, so I'll just talk about one I haven't talked about yet. All the new characters can lead to some confusion, though, as not everybody is given enough panel time to make a lasting impression.

Valmet is kind of scary. She's insane with a knife, is more muscular that most of the guys on the ship, and is crazy in love with Koko. She's crazy, but also entertaining. It's shown in this volume that she used to be with some form of military that she has some tragic back-story with, but we only get a glimpse of that this volume.

FINAL VERDICT

Jormungand is still most certainly cool, but I'm still not entirely sold on it because of the occasionally lackluster art. Plus/minus below!

+ Still cool and fun
+ Low amount of action means more time for characterization
+ That pirate take-down scene

- Meh art
- Lots of new characters is a little confusing and can leave the reader thinking "who's that?"

B- - BORROW IT

You ought to read Jormungand, for sure. It's up to you whether you want to give it a permanent place on your shelf.

(I don't own Jormungand. All rights go to the author, Keitaro Takahashi, and the licensing company, Viz Media).

Review - Akame ga Kill! Volume 1

I've been very excited to get my mitts on this release. I read the first chapter of Akame ga Kill! online and I enjoyed what I read, so I was pretty stoked when I say it had been picked up for English release (by Yen Press, no less!). Does the first volume live up to my hype..!? Read on to find out!

STORY

Country bumpkin Tatsumi is going to the capitol to join the army and raise money for his poor village. With his impressive sword skills, there's no way he won't be accepted! But alas, things in the capitol aren't as chummy as Tatsumi thinks. Essentially every young person in the capitol and surrounding villages wants a spot in the army. Alas, Tatsumi doesn't get in. He's turned away only to be taken in by a sweet girl named Aria who can't help but feel bad for him and his situation. She warns Tatsumi to be wary of the assassin group Night Raid.

But not everything is as it seems.

The well-off in the capitol are all terrible people with penchants for torture, rape, and every other vile act on the planet. They wallow in greed while the poor get poorer, and Tatsumi is one of those poor people. Thankfully, Tatsumi won't stand for it, and he winds up joining Night Raid after discovering that Night Raid is made up of people who are out to take down the capitol.

It isn't exactly a new premise. Evil government oppression is nothing new in terms of story. What Akame does well is take this well-worn premise and make it new and fresh and exciting.

It's not problem-free, though. It suffers from jarring tonal shifts between drama and comedy (example: Tatsumi mourns over the graves of his friends, when suddenly a ample-chested lady flops herself on him and drags him away). Also, the series has many dark themes that it isn't afraid to display: dismemberment, crucifixion, you name it, it's probably in this first volume somewhere.

ART & PRESENTATION

The art in this series is pretty good, all the characters look good, the backgrounds are filled out, and everyone has a vast range of expressions that are always clear. The only problem comes from the action scenes. They're fast paced, cool, and sometimes leave the reader thinking "what the heck is happening?" Also, characters' softer edges sometimes appear blocky. Regardless, there are still some cool bits I'll put below.

Yen press puts together a great book. Clocking in at a whopping 240 pages (as opposed to the standard 192), it's tightly bound with color pages at the beginning and a decent translation. I wish, and I might get criticized for this, that the translation were a little more edgy, honestly. A series that has dark themes deserves equally dark language to go along with it. I know, it's silly to want more curse words, but it would work better, in this case.

CHARACTERS

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of characterization in this volume, actually. I figured it would be pretty typical shounen-y one-note characters, but it's not. That's pretty nice!

First is obviously Tatsumi. Tatsumi's a good hero. He's got morals, he's not a snob, but not a loser, and he isn't afraid to take out the darkness. There's a bit when he cuts someone right in half after just meeting them because they've been torturing innocent people in secret. It was nice to see ma main character with no qualms about doing what needs to be done.

Next is the title character, Akame. We learn that she was raised as a human weapon for the army, which left her cold and ruthless. She joined Night Raid after realizing that the capitol was up to no good. Even though she's standoffish, she's still caring for her team members.

Last, for now, is Mine. Yep, that's her real name. Regardless, she's tsundere to a T. She's somewhat rude and makes herself out to be more important than she actually is. However, that's due to being neglected and ridiculed as a child. She hides her true feelings behind a mask of haughtiness, which can be a liiiittle grating, but not too much.

FINAL VERDICT

Akame ga Kill! is pretty darn good. It won't win any awards, for sure, but it still does what it does quite well. Plus/minus below!

+ Fresh take on an old premise
+ Chock-full of fast paced action
+ Dark, gritty, and morbid...

- ... So certainly not for everyone
- Translation skimps on harsh language
- Action scenes are occasionally confusing

B+ - BUY IT

Akame ga Kill! is sure to quench the thirst for a dark action series for fans of such things, but isn't for everyone due to some disturbing content. I'd buy it, and I did, but you may not want to.

(I don't own Akame ga Kill!. All rights go to the creators, Takahiro and Tetsuya Tashiro, and the licensing company, Yen Press).

The Shelf Life

I've never added a picture of my manga shelf, and since this is MY manga column, I'll put some up here!

Here's the whole thing! It's constantly being updated with new volumes as my wallet quietly weeps, but this is what it looks like right now. I've built all of this up over the course of about a year and a half, and I don't plan on stopping. Manga is cool! If you don't read it, give it a try! (Even my dad likes some of it).

Here's the first two shelves I have on them...
- 07-Ghost
- 20th and 21st Century Boys (Amazing series)
- Accel World
- Ajin
- All You Need is Kill
- Assassination Classroom
- Attack on Titan
- Barakamon
- Biomega (reviews coming soon!)
- Black Butler
- Black Lagoon
- Bloody Cross
- Blue Exorcist 1-4

- Blue Exorcist 5-12
- Btooom! 1-4
- Deadman Wonderland
- Death Note (Black Edition)
- D. Gray Man 1-8 (Reviews soon!)
- Dogs: Bullets and Carnage
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- Gangsta (volume 4 is currently being loaned out)
- Higurashi 1-2
- Inu Boku SS
- Jormungand 1-4
- March Story (so pretty!)
- Master Keaton
- Monster (Reprint Editions)
- Nabari no Ou 1-2

- Nabari no Ou 3-14 (Greatness)
- Nightmare Inspector 1-3
- Noragami
- Pandora Hearts (Best ever)
- Parasyte 1 and 3-5 (volume 2 is out of print?)
- Pluto volume 3 (need more of this)
- Seraph of the End
- The Seven Deadly Sins
- Soul Eater 1-7, 10, 12, 19-20 (I jump around to avoid yellowed copies)
- Spiral 1-3
- Tegami Bachi
- Terra Formars
- Umineko 1-4

And this all won't fit on the shelf. Good thing dad and I are building a new one!

- Umineko 5-9
- Until Death do us Part volume 1
- Vagabond volume 1 (Big edition, so pretty)
- World Trigger
- Yotsuba&! (absent because dad is reading it)










Well, that's all of it! It seems like a lot, but it builds up over time, really. And I know I don't even hold a candle to some out there, my goodness...

Review - Jormungand Volume 2

Floop! Back to Jormungand! I'm going to go crazy flipping between series like this, but it's all in the name of keeping up with myself! This blog, right now, is mostly serving as a testament to my will to get things done. That's why I'm trying to post every day, 'cause I'm exceedingly terrible at committing to things. Anyway, on with the review!

STORY

This volume already surpasses the last volume in terms of the story. The majority of the volume is concerned with the 'Orchestra' story. Two people, a bonkers dude who treats every gunfight like a symphony, and a young girl with *ahem* BOTTOMLESS devotion to her older buddy.

It's a pretty straightforward little story, but the villains, the young girl Chinatsu in particular, have surprising depth. It's nice to know that even in a guns 'n 'explosions series like Jormungand, there's still a bit of poignancy mixed in with all the gunfire.

The last fourth of this volume deals with an apparent unwelcome visitor aboard Koko's freighter boat. Koko's brother, Kasper. Apparently Jonah and Kasper have some sort of history, but we don't see any of it in this volume, just that Jonah reeeeaaaaally doesn't like Kasper.

ART & PRESENTATION

The art is still kind of wonky. One panel will have me thinking "wow! That was cool!" while the very next has me thinking "Um, what is up with this bloke's face?" As before, the art really only shines during the action scenes. The rest of is is all pretty 'meh'. Some cool bits are below.

Viz's presentation is just as good as it was last time. Gaah, Viz Signature makes me happy.

CHARACTERS

I would go over the Orchestra members here, but I know they won't be returning to the story at all, so I'm not going to. I'll talk about Koko's crew a little bit more instead.

Lehm is the only one we get a bit more info on here. Lehm is sort of the fatherly figure in the crew. He's got a level head, knows what he's talking about, and has a history as a mercenary. He has no problem taking out foes, both young and old, which gives him some depth as a character.

FINAL VERDICT

Volume 2 is a step in the right direction for Jormungand, featuring longer stories, more intrigue, and yes, more guns. The only thing really drawing back this series is the lack of an overarching plot and some wishy-washy art. Plus/minus below!

+ Deeper characters
+ Longer story arcs
+ Cool action...

- But the rest of the art is pretty boring
- Lack of an overarching plot

B+ - BORROW IT

I can't recommend you buy Jormungand just yet. It's a fun read, but the weird art and complete lack of a story hold this series back.

(I don't own Jormungand. All rights go to the author, Keitaro Takahashi, and the licensing company, Viz Media).

Review - Yotsuba&! Volume 1

Another day, another new series. This one being basically on the polar opposite end of the spectrum than my last review, which was Jormungand's first volume (I'll be back to that one tomorrow). Don't expect the Yotsuba reviews to fly thick an furious, because, for the time being, I only own volume one. I'll get the rest eventually!

Also, I'm getting materials for my new shelf(s) tomorrow. Woo!

STORY

 Yotsuba and her daddy have moved to a new house.

That's it. That right there is the main plot. It sounds stupidly simplistic, but for a series like this, it doesn't really need to be any more complex than that. Instead of going for an overarching story, we follow Yotsuba on her wonder filled adventures around her new house. Some of her fun includes hunting for cicadas, going to the store, meeting the neighbors, playing in the rain, and learning about the evils of household air conditioning units (no joke).

In a series like Yotsuba&!, the episodic approach works perfectly.

ART & PRESENTATION

The art is great. It actually has very simple character designs, but it's easy to tell who everyone is. The art really works with the backgrounds. Each panel is rich in background detail, which is great, because the art pulls you right into a muggy Japanese summer suburb. I'll put a couple of examples below.

Yen Press presents Yotsuba's world quite well. It's isn't really anything special, but it's just fine.

CHARACTERS

There are a lot of characters in Yotsuba&!. So far, I have identified three leads. I'll go over them here.

Fist up is, of course, Yotsuba. She's an energetic little girl who never seems to get down about anything, even a rainstorm. We learn in this volume that Yotsuba was an orphan who was adopted by her 'daddy' from a foreign country. We never learn what country, exactly. It's unclear whether Yotsuba is actually aware of this, but honestly, that isn't the focus.

Next is Koiwai, Yotsuba's adoptive father. He's shown to be sort of offbeat and sarcastic, but cares for Yotsuba like a real father. He has a job as a translator, but as to what languages he translates... Who knows.

Lastly is Fuuka. She's the middle child in a family of three girls, all of whom are next-door neighbors to Koiwai and Yotsuba. Fuuka is shown to be organized and intelligent. We don't get any character moments with her, really, but hey. It's volume 1 still.

FINAL VERDICT

Don't read Yotsuba&! if you're looking for an investing story, because it's not about that. Yotsuba&! is all about the fun in the simple things in life, the quiet character moments, and peaceful pacing. Reading Yotsuba&! volume 1 is almost a guarantee to have a good mood. We can all learn from Yotsuba, too, and do just as the manga suggests.

"Enjoy everything!"

+ Calm, pleasant read
+ Great art, especially backgrounds and objects
+ Nice subtle character moments

- If slice-of-life does nothing for you, Yotsuba&! doesn't exactly bring anything new to the table

A- - BUY IT

I gotta get more Yotsuba&!. This volume was just great, and I look forward to more adventures with Yotsuba and the gang!

(I don't own Yotsuba&!. All rights go to the author, Kiyohiko Azuma, and the licensing company, Yen Press).