Pam's Book Log

16 January, 2004

The last entry was all about comics I read over the last few months from series I don't want to read any more of. Now, for the ones from series I like. I am still not caught up, but I am a lot closer!

When we last saw Tsukushi Makino, her summer vacation had been interrupted by a yachtful of her snooty classmates, led by her arch-enemy Tsukasa Domyoji. Worse, during a party, she accidentally tripped and "kissed" Domyoji. Naturally, the poor girl is traumatized--she'd dreamed of having her first kiss with the dreamy Rui Hanazawa, and now the whole school thinks she's put the moves on a guy she hates. Domyoji's reaction is completely different--he's secretly got a crush on her, and he's so conceited that he takes it as a sign that she's desperately in love with him.

That simple accident sets a whole mess of stuff in motion. When Domyoji is forced to realize that Tsukushi likes Rui and not him, he's devastated (his poor inflated ego can't handle it). It doesn't help the situation when some nasty girls convince him that she was deliberately jerking him around, and he goes into a black, violent rage, and physically attacks our innocent heroine.

Domyoji continues to develop into a really interesting character. I know I should hate him--he's a psychopathic dickhead, after all. But. Kamio keeps giving us little glimpses which indicate that he has the potential to be a really decent person. Similarly, the mostly-decent Rui is revealed to have a rather nasty, cold streak. In fact, this volume is chock full of characters revealing themselves as not being exactly what they seem. Tsukushi's dorky friend Kazuya shows his mettle by confronting Domyoji over how he treats her. Tough-girl Tsukushi shows that she has vulnerabilities after all. Most interestingly, the fabulous Shizuka Todo (wealthy heiress, beautiful fashion model, girl who has everything) decides to drop it all and pursue her real dream-- to move to France, go to law school, and become an advocate for the poor. Naturally, this shocks everybody at the party where she announces her intention. (To be continued in the next volume.)

(Previous volumes of Boys Over Flowers)

More tales of the bizarre from Count D's magic Chinatown pet shop. While all the stories in the first volume were centered on D's customers/clients, and the results of their often ill-fated pet purchases, these two volumes mix in a few about the main characters--D himself and Detective Orcot. (Orcot is a police officer who has connected a series of strange deaths to D and his shop, and is determined to find out what's really going on.)

In American horror stories, the "horror" is often a matter of violence and fear for one's survival. The characters' lives are threatened by some overpowering, often supernatural force (Freddie, Jason, zombies, vampires , Jack Nicholson ), and they have to fight, run, and do whatever else it takes to survive. The horror in Pet Shop is not like this at all. Although things do occasionally get gory, it's really all about mysterious and spooky goings-on, things of which Man Was Not Meant to Know, and so forth. The degree to which I find such things horrifying varies. I found the first story in Vol. 3, "Diamonde," to be the most disturbing, even though (or more like, because) it lacked any element of supernatural horror, just outright violence and some mystical confusion. Did D really kill all those people? Were they people, or birds? Or both? And how could he be so nonchalant about it, anyway? Is he even human? (I have my doubts.) And, given all the weirdness, it struck me as really macabre when he served the egg to an unsuspecting Orcot.

The story I liked best, OTOH, was "Dice," in Vol. 2. Here, a down-on-his-luck gambler is befriended by a cute little kitty-cat/girl from D's shop. She brings him good fortune, wealth, and happiness, but like most of D's customers, he overplays his hand and loses everything. Unlike most of D's customers, however, he doesn't end up dead; his little kitten friend doesn't desert him, and he finishes better off than he was before. It's a really sweet, touching story.

In these volumes, we get a better idea of what D's shop is all about. In D's world, the line between humans and animals is blurry; creatures move from one side of it to the other, and back again. D himself cares a lot more for the animals than he does for people. The relationship between D and Orcot is developing in an interesting direction. Even as Orcot works to uncover D's secrets and bring him to justice, he's become friends with the weirdo-- they regularly meet for tea and conversation. Orcot's not the type of guy who'd let a criminal go just because he's his friend, so this is bound to go in an interesting direction. ('Cause D is definitely not on the side of angels.)

I've been borrowing these from a friend, but I think I may end up buying the series for myself; it is really growing on me.

I was kind of disappointed in the second Blue Monday collection, but not so much that I wasn't willing to check out the third one. I'm glad that I did, 'cause it's good.

This is a series of holiday-themed stories. In "Dead Man's Party," the gang tells horror stories at a Halloween party--basically, it's an excuse for Clugston-Major to re-cast several "classic" stories with the Blue Monday crew--Return of the Living Dead, Dark Shadows, and Rocky Horror. "Love Cats" tells the story of how Bleu, Erin, Clover, Victor, Alan, and Monkey-Boy first became friends, and it has Clover and Victor getting smoochy. They're so cute! I especially liked "Everybody Plays the Fool," in which Victor goes all Goth-y and relives his Cure/Depeche Mode/Bauhaus-loving days (it's an April Fools' joke). Lots of high school flashbacks for me, there. There are also stories about Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, and Arbor Day.

It's a return to the good, clean fun of the first book. Good stuff.

(Previous volumes of Blue Monday)

After the momentous events and startling revelations of Vol. 6, it was inevitable that the series would quiet down a bit. So, this one is nowhere near as exciting as the previous volume. There are three stories in this volume. The first introduces yet another cursed Soma--Hiro the Sheep. Hero is a sharp-tongued 11-year-old who is best friends with Kisa (who was introduced in Vol. 5). He's terribly jealous of Kisa's attachment to Tohru, and sets out to torment Tohru. He is really a little pissant, and most people would justifiably smack him for some of what he does or says to her. But, Tohru is a saint, so she deals with him the hard way-- by trying to befriend him She even succeeds to a certain degree; Hiro doesn't exactly fall in love with her, but he does eventually realize what everybody else sees in her, and is nicer to her for Kisa's sake.

The second story gives us a break from the Soma family, and relates the history of Tohru's friend Arisa "Uo" Uotoni. Uo was in a gang during middle school. Her idol was "the Great Kyoko," a legendary motorcycle gangster from years past. Imagine her surprise when she met Kyoko's daughter, a friendly, happy, nice girl, and her further surprise when she met Kyoko herself--a working mother, quite unlike the wild gangster of her youth. At first, Uo was disappointed to see how boring and conventional her heroine had become, but she came to see Kyoko and Tohru as a welcome refuge from her own troubled home life. Eventually, Kyoko helped Uo get out of the gang. This story shows how close Uo had been to Tohru's mom, and how much she was affected by her death. It's nice to get some insight into a character who's been something of a one-note personality thus far. Hopefully, Takaya will give us a similar story about Tohru's other friend, Saki Hanajima.

The final story is a short vignette featuring the freaky leader of the Yuki Soma fan club, and her realization of and reaction to the changes in her idol's personality since he started spending time with Tohru Honda. Who are the two mysterious students who appear at the end, discussing Yuki and Tohru? Totally new players in the drama, or are they connected to the Somas somehow?

(Previous volumes of Fruits Basket)

It's been a while since I've read some Lone Wolf and Cub. Koike and Kojima continue their exploration of medieval Japan via the travels of wandering samurai Ogami Itto. There are five stories in this volume, four of which are more about the people with whom Ogami and Daigoro interact than about the main characters themselves. We have a lady Yakuza who helps Lone Wolf and Cub evade the authorities, a group of bounty hunters who compete with one another for Ogami's head (of course they all fail), a former student of Ogami Itto's who is now faced with the task of capturing his mentor, and a village of peasants who conspire to get the bounty through guile and strength of numbers. The final story is all about Ogami, as he goes through hell and high water to get food for a feverish Daigoro. It's the usual mix of drama and bloodshed.

(Previous volumes of Lone Wolf and Cub)

Beth accidentally lent me Volumes 3 and 4, instead of 1 and 2, so I don't have the clearest grasp of the overall plot. From context, the basic idea is that, back in ancient history, the Vampire King Duzell was defeated and destroyed by the hero Phelios. Now, Duzell has been reincarnated as a cute, fuzzy cat. His goal is to find the reincarnation of his nemesis, Phelios, for a rematch. (This isn't quite as silly as it sounds; cat-Duzell has magic powers, and can shape-shift into human form.) As an added twist, cat-Duzell has been adopted by the vacuous Princess Ishtar, who's a descendant of Phelios.

In these two volumes, Duzell, Ishtar, and her retinue are involved in a gladiatorial contest. Three of the contestants are potential Phelios-reincarnations, and Duzell hopes to use the contest to figure out if any of them are the object of his search. Moreover, Ishtar has somehow managed to make herself the prize in the game, promising to wed the champion. There's also a wannabe vampire king (that is, a vamp who wants to rule the world) who's interfering in events. Where's Buffy when you need her?

This isn't exactly the most intellectual or original manga; but it's fun. Gives me happy Dungeons & Dragons flashbacks. It also has lots of cross-dressing jokes.