KOBATO, vols. 1 & 2 by CLAMP
Yen Press, 2010, 163 pages, 978-0-316-08536-6, Paperback, $11.99
Yen Press, 2010, 160 pages, 978-0-316-08536-6, Paperback, $11.99

Genre: Manga/Shoujo

There’s somewhere that Kobato Hanato wants to go. Ioryogi-san, an aggressive and demanding dog that looks, conveniently, like a stuffed animal is willing to help her get her wish, but Kobato must follow his directions in order to earn it. She must fill a bottle to the brim with wounded hearts by helping those who have been emotionally hurt. However, Kobato finds this task more difficult than expected, particularly since her straightforwardness and frequent lack of sense sometimes scares people away. Still, she has a good heart and the best of intentions, so it’s inevitable that some things will go her way, even if she isn’t on the quickest path to success.

I stumbled upon Kobato by accident, to be honest. I’ve been so out of the manga loop–far too focused on trying to get one or two series finally finished–that I didn’t know there was a new CLAMP title out. Shame on me–despite it all, CLAMP is still one of my favorite manga groups, and I’d at least like to keep up with what they’re doing.

Style-wise, this manga is reminiscent of Cardcaptor Sakura. But don’t mistake Kobato for Sakura at all. Kobato, while sweet, has very little common sense and, at this juncture, is naive beyond measure. Much of Ioryogi-san’s grumbling and yelling is in direct response Kobato’s air headedness, yet he doesn’t abandon her, and he tries to steer her in the right direction. If anything, I’d like to know how the two of them came upon each other.

Reading the first volume, I wasn’t very clear on where the plot was going. As Kobato became involved with the kindergarten in volume two, however, it became more obvious. Whether or not she’ll remain with these same characters throughout the entirety of the story, I don’t know. If she wants to fill her bottle to the top, I can’t imagine that Sakaya and Fujimoto would provide sufficient wounded hearts. But how do I know? CLAMP always surprises me.

This manga is meant to be fun and silly–obviously a comedy. Parts of it become more serious–particularly as the story with Sakaya develops–but I’d say that, at this juncture, it’s certainly more lighthearted than, say, Wish—and Wish was pretty lighthearted at times. Still, there’s some intrigue going on. It seems that Ioryogi-san has a long time rival, Sakaya is in trouble with a loan shark who seems weirdly familiar with her, and Fujimoto has some deep-seated mistrust of other people. All of these things have yet to be explained, and seeing how Kobato’s influence will affect them should be interesting.

As with most CLAMP titles, part of the fun is seeing whether or not there will be any appearances by known characters. So far, it looks like Kobato will be living next door to Chitose Mihara, mother of Chiise and Chiho, characters which I’m sure most CLAMP fans will recognize. Will there be more? I suppose we’ll see.

Overall, Kobato was quick to read, pretty fun, and I’m curious about how it will play out. Since the specific place that Kobato wants to go remains a mystery, I’m interested in finding out exactly what a girl like her would wish for.

~

20TH CENUTRY BOYS by Naoki Urasawa
English Edition – Viz Media
Japanese Edition – Shogakukan

Genre: Manga/Science Fiction/Mystery

I doubt whether this can seriously be called a “review,” and as such I’ll be titling this sort of thing “Mini-View” in order to emphasize that it’s short, to the point, and doesn’t go particularly in depth about the story itself. But I’ll be happy to discuss anything further in the comments should anyone be curious about my take on things.

Today I finished reading 20th Century Boys and 21st Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa. I’m afraid I got tired of waiting around for the volume by volume releases, so I borrowed someone else’s translations. Frankly, I wanted to get to the point already. This is a wonderful series, but after a while, the complete lack of clues as to the identify of Friend gets absolutely maddening.

Of course, having already read the series isn’t going to stop me from buying all the volumes as they come out. But it was all I could do short of reading spoilers which, you know, I wouldn’t.

So, having gotten to the end of 20th Century Boys, all I really know is…Urasawa has a twisty turny mind. I have serious doubts as to whether I could create such a complex story. In fact I doubt that most people could and still have it come out coherently.

So, the two obvious questions:

Was it good?

Yes, it was quite good. Of course it was good. We are talking about Urasawa. His stories are epic. This one spans almost 20 years in 22 volumes (plus however many volumes are in 21st Century Boys, which functions as the conclusion of the series).

Did I like it better than Monster?

Actually, no. I still like Monster best. This has nothing to do with the quality of one story over the other. It’s just a personal preference.

You’re still my favorite, Johan!

So, here are a few things I’ve noticed about Urasawa stories based solely on Monster and 20th Century Boys (sadly, Pluto doesn’t really fall into this same pattern, but then Pluto isn’t solely an Urasawa work):

1 – Everything is about your childhood. If you turn out to be the most evil person on the planet, it’s because someone did something to you in your childhood that probably made you feel unwanted or unloved. And oh…you remember. You remember for a loooonnggg time. And you get your world takeover plans started early. If you don’t have it worked out by 6th grade, you’re slacking. In fact, you’re not even a proper Urasawa villain. Get out.

2 – Even if we start out with a male protagonist, there’s going to be a formidable female protagonist coming along anytime….

3 – Regular old bad guys can be turned into good guys. They’re not really bad if they don’t have Questionable Childhood Memories.

4 – Ordinary dark-haired protagonists get a power-up halfway through the story and become UBER.

And that’s about the gist of it.

Well, no, not really. That would be giving 20th Century Boys WAY too little credit. So much happens in this story that it’s near impossible to summarize in a reasonable length. It, along with Monster, would make great fodder for some kind of analysis paper. If only I felt like writing one….

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ŌOKU, vols. 1 & 2 by Fumi Yoshinaga
Viz Media, 2009, 205 pages, 978-1-4215-2747-5, Paperback, $12.99
Viz Media, 2009, 235 pages, 978-1-4215-2748-2, Paperback, $12.99

Genre: Alternate History/Historical Fiction/Manga

I have yet to mention this here on TRE, but I was recently asked to join the review team over at BSCreview. I’m quite excited about this, as you can well imagine, and I’ll be dedicating some of my reading and review time to my contributions there.

For my first submission, I have reviewed volumes one and two of Ōoku by Fumi Yoshinaga (manga-ka of Antique Bakery). It’s a great manga so far, and I’m marking my calendar for the next two volumes that will be coming out this year.

Keep your eye out for my next BSCreview contribution, which should be coming along very soon. In the meantime, go visit the site if you never have before. It’s full of great material on books, comics, television, and movies, among other things.

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What’s all this? I won something? That never happens. The last contest I won was in high school—for neatest handwriting on a set of collegiate applications.

That’s not a joke. The college gave me a T-shirt.

No, really–I can’t even choose between two sealed Netflix packages to guess which one is the DVD I want to watch first. You would think that, eventually, the odds would fall in my favor, but no. Even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern didn’t have this kind of trouble.

All of this is leading up to my announcement: I’m one of the winners in the 365 Days of Manga giveaway offered via Suvudu.(!!!)

For this contest, the odds are actually really good. There’s a new name chosen every day, and that person receives five free manga from the writer of the 365 Days of Manga reviews, Jason Thompson (author of Manga: The Complete Guide).

I said I’d post a photo of myself with the manga I received, so here it is:

This is probably the only time you’ll ever see my photo (unless I end up at a convention somewhere, and I simply have to post about it). Call me camera shy if you like, but we all know it’s really just paranoia. ;D

The titles that I received include the following:

Speed Grapher
Category: Freaks, vols. 1 & 2
Flesh-Colored Horror: The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection
Tomie 2: The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection

Having seen half of the anime earlier this year, I’m somewhat familiar with Speed Grapher, and now I’ll be able to see how closely it follows the manga. Category: Freaks is a title I’ve never seen, and I’m definitely looking forward to trying it out. As for Tomie 2 and Flesh-Colored Horror, I think I was just surprised to see a ComicsOne manga show up at my door. I haven’t had one of those in years. I’m pretty sure the last ComicsOne title that I owned was Maico 2010 (wow, why don’t I just keep dating myself?).

Thanks, Jason! I’m really looking forward to reading them.

Additionally, I picked up 20th Century Boys, vol. 5 over the weekend. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet (deadlines will prevail over my pleasure reading) but I’m absolutely itching for the chance to get started.

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