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rainsometimesLe chien de mon patron by Rumiko Takahashi (French translation, lit. "My Boss's Dog")
This is another Takahashi collection of slice-of-life seinen short stories. In this one, we get to meet a proud ex-businessman trying to become service-minded in retail; a middleaged officeworker getting amnesia and believing he's 13-years-old, tho his wife and son's despair; a teenaged girl convinced her parents are planning a family suicide; a young housewife (who looks exactly like Akane Tendo!) getting embroiled with the influential "queen" of the women in the apartment building - among others.
I re-read this book last night to refresh my memory, and I have to say that these stories just work for me. Despite the similar themes and the even more similar character designs; despite the fact that to me Takahashi's current, very polished art is not always the most immediate and emotional one, I still can't help but be not just entertained but honestly moved by these stories. Somehow the mundane setting and the rather low-key tone really works. It makes me wonder what a longer story by her for this readership might look like...
Claymore by Norihiro Yagi
In a bleak, pre-industrial world, mankind are ravaged by frequent outbreaks of demons, who'll kill and devour humans until they're killed themselves - and no ordinary human, not even well-trained soldiers, can kill them. The only ones who have a chance of killing the demons are a special type of female warriors called "Claymores" after the great swords they carry. These women have undergone body mutation that effectively make them half-demons: their demon side gives them strength to fight but threatens to take over and turn them into monsters themselves if they lose control. Claymores keep themselves apart and ordinary people find them mysterious and scary.
I wasn't sure I would learn to like this, as it's low on humour and the characters don't seem to show much emotion at first glance - at least the central character, a Claymore named Clare, is quite reserved. But once I'd given it a try, I realised there were a lot of feelings underneath the surface - in Clare's case, it helps that we first see her from outside through the eyes of an orphaned boy who starts to follow her around; later, we get flashbacks of her pre-Claymore time. Bit by bit we meet more Claymores and see them bonding - or, sometimes, not; but generally there's a comradeship between them that grows ever stronger through the volumes.
There are intriguing plot twists and new reveals that upset what we thought we knew at the start of the story. The art gets a lot better than at the start, and while the Claymores' costumes and panels here and there are certainly fanservicey - Claymore is a shonen comic - it's not too distracting and doesn't affect characterisation.
Cross Game by Mitsuru Adachi
Ah... how do I talk about this series without spoiling something important that happens in the first volume? This is hard. *scratches head*
Cross Game is a manga about baseball, memories, comparing yourself to others, friendship, getting stronger (well, it's shonen!), perhaps a tentative romance... It's full of unsaid things and understated dialogue. Pitcher wunderkid Ko Kitamura is an unusual main character, rather elusive and sometimes downright mysterious, but not really in a common Idiot Shonen Hero way. There's a second central character that should probably be seen as a co-protagonist, whose progress as a person and her relationship with Ko I find quite engrossing - but again, I don't want to spoil. Except in white text! It's interesting how much Ko's and Aoba's similarities are constantly underlined in the narrative, without this necessarily pushing them together or apart. They even look quite alike - I don't think it's a coincidence that it can sometimes be hard to tell who is who, from a distance. I've read very little sports manga, so I don't know if it's common to see a boy taking a talented girl his own age (or actually one year younger, in this case) as a role model for his playing: to me it felt new and fresh, and well-handled. As Ko's abilities surpass Aoba's eventually, I get worried for Aoba's sake. We know what Ko's goal is, though not what he'll want to do after that - but what does Aoba really strive for? And then, how Wakaba's loss affects them both feels like the very core of the narrative. Maybe at the end of the day it's more of a learning-to-cope-with-grief than a coming-of-age story? Not that it can't be both, of course...
The actual games are certainly important when need be, and well depicted as far as I can tell. (I had to look up a fair bit of baseball lingo to fully understand what was going on at some points - since it's a very popular sport both in Japan and in the US, both Adachi and the translator must have assumed the audience would understand.)
Adachi's storytelling flows really well; I love the evocative pauses in the flow, and there's a strong sense of place in the art.
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Anime corner
Castle of Cagliostro Not one of my top Miyazaki movies, but a lot of fun! Awesome action sequences, great humour.
Castle in the Sky More primitive animation than later Ghibli films, and also in its values to some extent, with Pazu feeling he has to be the strong man to protect the timid Sheeta. But that doesn't stop her from growin in character just as she does. Beautiful imagery, great sense of wonder, and Laputa itself had a poignant tone of something exquisite, ancient, and lonely.
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Date: 2012-09-14 07:50 pm (UTC)My two recs to add to your "C" are very very different.
Ayane Yamano's Crimson Spell is, by definition, a fairly hard yaoi manga ... but it's not exactly what most might expect. Set in a lush fantasy setting, for one, it's the story of Prince Valdrigr, who, after taking up a magical sword to defend his kingdom from a demon army finds himself cursed to turn into a demon at night. ~ Seeking to have the curse broken, he goes to Halvir, a reclusive, somewhat mercenary magician. ~ Halvir soon discovers that the demon - like the prince in appearance, except for fangs and tribal tattoos -- can be "calmed" in a certain way. A way that the Prince has no memory of in the morning. (grins). ~ Yes, the story - 6 volumes and ongoing - has sex, but is mostly action-adventure-romance, as Halvir and the Prince slowly traverse the kingdom as well as a rocky road to love. ~ Aside from the gorgeous, gorgeous art, this title has humor and a refreshing lack of the usual cold seme/weepy uke trope found in so many yaoi titles (i.e., Vald is not feminized; he's a kickass Prince 90% of the time.) ~ The cast has expanded to include Rulca, a magical rabbit who can transform into a pink-haired bishonen as needed; Halrein, a dour ex-classmate of Halvir's; Marse, a jovial thief with a sketchy past; and Rimris, a magically-inclined scholar with secrets of his own. ~ Don't let the sex in early chapters make you think it's just a skinfest - this series has definitely developed a complex, intriguing plot that lifts it far above the initial classification as eye-candy.
The other "C" title I recommend is Cromartie High School, a quirky, at times surrealistic high school with robot students, gorillas, and recurring cameos by "Freddie" ( as in Freddie Mercury). Note that the anime for this is quite faithful, and the English dub is surprisingly good.
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Date: 2012-09-14 08:04 pm (UTC)So that's what Cromartie High School is about! It sounds fairly episodic?
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Date: 2012-09-14 08:16 pm (UTC)Yeah, Cromartie is very episodic. The POV is a very serious, straight arrow honor student who, for a reason I can't recall, has to attend Cromartie - a school that, in classic style, is filled with generally unteachable oddballs. (It's a bit like FMP in some ways, but ... much much odder. :p)
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Date: 2012-09-14 09:16 pm (UTC)