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add to memoriesAdmin note: Still v. behind on everything. Am reading things, but haven't had a lot of energy to follow closely or comment or reply to people, apologies.
Alex's sister Sarah works at the Nightschool, a school for witches, vampires, and assorted other supernatural beings that exists in the same place as a normal public school. When something starts acting up at the school, Alex ends up enrolling to try and get to the bottom of things.
This is an extremely bad summary of the series. Alex is a witch, as far as I can tell, with an inky familiar (called an astral) who can shapeshift. And for some reason, she's involved in some rather dire prophecies. There are also Hunters in this world who I think target supernatural creatures even though some of them may also have powers. And then, of course, there are the kids in the Nightschool, all of whom Alex is slowly meeting. I still have very little idea who is who and how the world works; Chmakova introduces an extremely large cast in volume 1, and most of the people are on different sides.
Still, I've been really enjoying the two volumes. Chmakova's chibis are, as always, absolutely adorable, and the series often makes me laugh. The very meta sequence in volume 2 was especially awesome. And although Alex is white (I think), Chmakova has a very diverse world without making anyone a token so far. I do wish more of the characters of color had depth to them, but since even Alex is a little lacking in that aspect due to the large cast, I think it'll come with time. I already have some favorites from the snippets of hobbies and personalities Chmakova's shown us.
While the concept of the Nightschool isn't exceptional in and of itself, Chmakova's putting some new twists in there. Nothing is absolutely jaw-dropping so far, but the feel I get is that she's taking a while to set up the very complicated world. And given that I like many of the characters, the art, and the worldbuilding, I'm definitely hanging around for more.
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Wed, Sep. 9th, 2009, 01:06 pm || Passing it on...
add to memories![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wintersweet asks:
Should Vertical look into licensing some classic shoujo manga they might have an opportunity to license? @Vertical_Ed on Twitter is looking for yeas or nays (NOT recommendations, mind you) and isn't getting many yeas. I think that's because the shoujo manga fanatics are mostly over here, not on Twitter.
So either post here and I'll send him a link later or go follow Ed and @reply him with a YES on classic shoujo manga!
(Yes, you can pass this on.) (Go to her post to comment) Me: OMG Magnificent 49ers PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. Comment | Read Comments (  ) | Link
add to memoriesShirayuki (Japanese for "Snow White") is an ordinary girl, except for her head of bright red hair. Because of this, she attracts the attention of the prince of her country. In order to escape becoming his concubine, she runs off and meets Zen, the second prince of another country.
So far, I am not actually sure what the plot of this is. The first volume is largely about Shirayuki getting used to her new place in Zen's palace, while the second is more about her becoming a royal pharmacist. Then again, I'm not sure it'll actually matter that much as to what the plot is; the joys of this manga are the cute and sweet art and the extremely cute and sweet interactions between Shirayuki and Zen.
Zen is one of those rare shoujo heroes, someone who is genuinely nice. He rescues Shirayuki a few too many times for my taste, but he's never meanly possessive of her, he gives her room, and he trusts her to do what she needs to do. And he does sweet things like make sure she gets enough sleep without being a jerk about it!
Shirayuki may be a more standard sweet shoujo heroine, but I don't particularly care right now because she and Zen are so adorable!
Overall, this is immensely cute and sweet in the best of ways, with two very likable leads, nice art, and situations that so far don't depend on the leads acting irrationally. I really hope this gets licensed, because good sweet shoujo is actually fairly difficult to find.
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add to memoriesIchihashi Nanao has just transferred into super preppy Mehabia Academy, where one of the strange traditions is having a student judiciary club pass judgment on cases brought before them. She ends up being roped into the club by the charismatic Hanegi Reika, who plays the judge.
The series is largely very mystery of the week, looking into cases like a student accusing a teacher of sexual harassment to a case of possible plagiarism. As with all mysteries, nothing is as straightforward as it seems, although the sexual harassment case was actually extremely typical and not surprising at all considering the percentage of sexual harassment cases in fiction that actually have someone culpable, as opposed to IRL.
There are bits and pieces of character development scattered throughout the cases, from Reika's Angsty Background to Nanao growing into herself as a member of the club, but overall, I wanted more of the club members and less of the mysteries. I also felt that the series often fell prey to the Ordinary Girl Amongst Gorgeous Guys trope (see: Fushigi Yuugi, Ouran, etc.), although thankfully, the gorgeousness of some of the other guys in the club isn't emphasized as much as Reika's, as Reika is the capricious judge with a tragic background who is so beautiful he's probably more gorgeous than most of the girls. There is, of course, cross-dressing and a maid cafe involved.
Overall, this is not bad, and the art is clearly morphing between Mizushiro's older style and her newer one in After School Nightmare; you can see faces and chins getting less round, hair getting slightly less poofy. But it's not overwhelmingly awesome, and I wish it had more of an arc.
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add to memoriesIt is a new Yuki Kaori series! With gender bending!! And killer dolls!!! Called Guignols!!!!
ILU YUKI KAORI ILU.
The Galatea virus somehow turns people into flesh-eating dolls who roam around trying to catch prey; people mostly live in walled cities to avoid them. A mysterious court rules the land. It's not quite sure what they do yet, but given that it is an authoritative figure in a Yuki Kaori series, i am certain they are corrupt and morally bankrupt.
Lucille, Kohaku, and Gwindel compose a (very tiny) orchestra whose music somehow destroys the Guignol dolls.
Right now, it looks like the series is fairly episodic, a la early Cain Saga/Godchild, but we're already getting very brief glimpses into Lucille's Sekrit Angsty Backstory.
( Spoilers as only Yuki Kaori can do )
Also, there is a pet hedgehog that lives in a hat. And offering your flesh to be eaten as an expression of true love.
And did I mention the FLESH-EATING DOLLS who can ONLY BE DEFEATED BY MUSIC?
So far, no zombie doll fetus armadas, but I am confident they (or something of that ilk) will be in future volumes! I'm also hoping that this is a nice long series with room for many, many cracktastic plot twists, because while Fairy Cube was fun, it was too short for me to get very attached to the characters. Also, the ending was largely incomprehensible, but that seems par for the course. I feel the solution to that is to just have more awesome middle so no one cares if they can't figure out the ending.
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add to memoriesThis continues to be an excellent series touching on many of the same themes as Fruits Basket, albeit without making me think that Takaya is simply repeating herself. Some of it is because the metaphor of being an alien to the planet is an actual metaphor, as opposed to the metaphor-turned-fantasy of the curse in Fruits Basket. But much of it is that even while Takaya has similar character types, she's a good enough writer to distinguish them as individual characters.
( Spoilers have entirely earned angst )
Part of me is almost afraid to keep reading this because of how emotionally invested I was in Fruits Basket—it broke my heart a little when it ended, but only because it was over, not because of any dissatisfaction with the ending. But most of me just wants more about the characters, because I know Takaya will do good by them.
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add to memoriesHabara Takami and Sasaki Akira are childhood friends, and Takami has always thought of Akira as her little sister because he's so feminine and delicate while she's not. Akira, however, has decidedly non-sibling-like feelings for Takami that mostly go unnoticed by her.
I picked up this series largely because I was interested in the older girl/younger guy set up (she's two years older) and the possible gender play, but was mostly disappointed in that respect. Although the series does have some romance in it, most of it is about Akira's piano playing. Takami plays piano as well, but he's the genius while she is mostly the muse that makes him play with emotion, as opposed to mechanically.
Although there are a few good moments throughout the series re: Takami taking the lead in certain aspects, the series largely falls prey to the standard shoujo problems of making the heroine the warm shoulder for the hero to lean on, prioritizing the hero's angst over the heroine, and making the hero's story and development the main narrative.
Added to that, there are a few moments of "let us have Takami wandering about in a possibly tempting fashion to make Akira's control break and do the whole 'you are a girl and you must remember guys cannot control themselves' thing to further the romantic plot." I am not picking on this series in particular, as it is in a ton of shoujo and romance novels, but it annoys me because it feeds into the rape myth that men cannot control themselves when aroused, that women are responsible for controlling that, and that this is a good method to demonstrate romantic regard.
Some of me was disappointed in less romance, especially because I think the mangaka could have put in more gender role play there. Some of me might not have been so annoyed by the focus on piano had it not all been on Akira's piano playing and Takami as inspiration, along with the frequent assertion that Takami was just not as good.
Overall, the focus on the music is nice, but the series has too many episodic bits and in the end, it doesn't distinguish itself from many other shoujo series for me.
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add to memoriesMore shoujo fluff! I read volume 1 of this nearly a year ago, so I don't remember much, save that Nakajo had awesome sketches of figure skaters in the chapter breaks.
I'm also a little confused as to the status of the series. I thought it was a 2-volume series, and I'm fairly sure the Taiwan version has a "fin" character on volume 2, but Wikipedia hints otherwise.
So, Shun and Maya are working to save their rink! There is, of course, a nefarious plot against them, plus obstacles such as Maya's lack of money for a new skating outfit to surmount. Overall, nothing surprising happens, but I was still charmed by Maya's youth (she's 13, younger than most shoujo heroines I read) and Nakajo's knowledge of the sport. There isn't a ton of figure skating in here, but I enjoyed what I saw.
I think I mentioned it in my write up of volume 1, but I very much appreciate that the scope of this is so small, that it's not Maya turning into a figure skating prodigy and going to the Olympics or something. My impression is that Nakajo's figure skating fannishness works for her in that respect; she knows what's more within the realm of possibility. Although I still laughed when we find out Maya's Sekrit Power, because it wouldn't be a sports series without one!
I also found the lack of romance refreshing.
Cute but probably not interesting to people who don't care about figure skating, although it's possibly suitable for a much younger audience than some of the shoujo I read.
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add to memoriesDoes anyone know the origins of "プリン" (flan)? I know パン is from Portuguese, but I remember being confused by プリン when I was there.
Now that Najika's in the prestigious Seika Academy to find her Flan Prince (as one does), she must battle all the people who think she has no place in the special class! Sadly, the battles are not literal, although there are a few cook-offs involved.
And then there is a plot twist at the end of volume 5/beginning of volume 6 that was extremely unexpected. It briefly made me think this would not be quite as typical of a shoujo cooking series as it seemed, but things appear to have gone back to normal by volume 7. Maybe.
( Spoilers are actually surprising )
I'm not reading for deep characterization or surprising plot. The assorted food battles and espousing of food philosophy—"Best ingredients! Fancy plating! Exquisite taste!" vs. "COOK FROM THE HEART!"—are what make the series for me, and as the series continues to talk about food a lot, I will continue to enjoy.
Also, I am now so hungry for omurice and Japanese curry! And Japanese-style Italian pasta with an egg on top!
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add to memoriesAnd somewhere down the line, the art stopped being horribly crowded and hard to read and became really gorgeous.
This series always makes me a little wary, even though I love it, largely because of the abundance of male characters and male angst. I very much love the series' acknowledgment of the female id in the entire host club set up, but I just wish there were more women.
( Spoilers grow into themselves )
In conclusion: more Haruhi! (And I wouldn't mind more Kyoya or Mori either.)
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add to memoriesThis continues to be a fun albeit typical high school shoujo series, although the past few volumes have a few too many moments that make the characters act stupidly for the sake of the plot for me.
( Spoilers worry about entrance exams )
In conclusion: fluffy and cute (I will never get tired of Risa and Otani geeking out about video games and Umibouzu together) but a little like spun sugar. I think I would have enjoyed it much more had I not read it after the emotional depth of Fruits Basket.
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add to memoriesOh, I cannot believe it is over (even though I know it has been over for two years now)!
First, I've extremely grumpy at TokyoPop for the lousy quality of the final volume. The paper for the cover and the pages are much flimsier compared even to volume 22. Yes, there's a nice color insert, which I appreciated, but seriously! I shouldn't feel like I can tear the pages by accident when I'm turning them.
But overall, this is a lovely grace note to the series. There isn't much plot movement; mostly it's tying up loose ends and giving the characters a proper send off.
( Spoilers pile on the years )
I love this series so.
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add to memories(The "mostly" is for vol. 22, which is a first read.)
Wow, it's been a long time since I've read Fruits Basket. I started in 2006 and got through the first chapter of vol. 22 before deciding that reading multiple chapters in Japanese meant poor reading comprehension on my part, and then tried to carefully reread in 2007. Now that the last volume is out, I am finally getting the chance to finish the series!
I was going to do detailed posts for my rereads, but when I attempted writing up my scribbled notes, I didn't actually have a post, just... random scribbled notes.
( Spoilers should be themselves )
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add to memoriesThis was a good shoujo weekend for me; first High School Debut 9, then Sand Chronicles 5 (I read 4 a few months ago and never wrote it up).
( Spoilers think about first love )
Everyone who likes shoujo is reading this, right? Because it's really good, with a depth of characterization that reminds me of Yazawa Ai.
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