Catching Up With Some Manga

I look at my “to review (maybe)” shelf and realize that there are a lot of “next volume in a manga series” taking up the front half of it.  You’ve probably noticed there’s a certain trend to when I review manga on this site and it’d take me a solid month to get through some of these titles before I get to the ones that I really do have stuff to talk about.  Not that any of these volumes are bad (well, one has kind of been trending that way for some time..), but I kinda want to at least give some indication that I’m still reading these titles and why.  So click on the link below to find out which titles are still good, still chugging along, and are still in their “Get off my lawn you damn kids!” phase.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride has found a nice little routine for its stories as we roll into its seventh volume.  Font of magical power in human form Chise is confronted with some strange new challenge and pushes herself to overcome it while Elias and their friends handle the fallout from her actions.  The fact that this series has developed its own formula isn’t a bad thing as it provides a good framework for mangaka Kore Yamazaki to reveal new aspects of this fascinating world she has created.  Such as the underground dragon poaching operation we learn about here.  It also leads us to surprising new insights regarding the ostensible villain of this series, Cartaphilus, and back to the auction house where the series began.  The volume ends on a somewhat creepy, “What did she do to herself NOW?” moment as Chise tries to save a dragon that should stoke your anticipation for the next volume even further.

I was honestly expecting Pandora in the Crimson Shell:  Ghost Urn to wrap up with this, its eighth volume.  Most of what we get here is wrap-up as Buer’s threat is extinguished, the cyborg Fear is taken care of, and Col. Kurtz is dealt with in a satisfying fashion.  There’s also a cameo appearance from someone we haven’t seen for a very long time as the series pivots towards the new and bigger threat of the Poseidon organization.  While some series have struggled after their original threat has been dealt with — lookin’ in your direction “Wolfsmund” — that doesn’t look to be the case here.  “Pandora’s” mix of cute and funny action has been playing by established rules from the start, but the execution has sharpened up as mangaka Koshi Rikudo has settled on the story he wants to tell with this series.

Gone are the days when I could expect my months to alternate with new volumes of “Assassination Classroom” and One Punch Man.  With the U.S. release of Saitama’s adventures having caught up to the Japanese schedule, we can expect two, maybe three new volumes each year now.  The good news is that even if it looks like we’re getting substantially less of this series now, it still remains as entertaining as ever.  It has also built up a surprising head of steam after dialing back the scope of things from the epic climax against alien forces back in vol. 7.  Vol. 12 continues the multiple storylines of Saitama’s rise through the ranks of a martial arts tournament, the Monster Association’s attack on the city, and Garo’s own villain’s journey too.  Writer ONE and artist Yusuke Murata continue to demonstrate a mastery of the superhero genre in ways that both excite and surprise even if the outcome of certain fights is never in doubt.

There are some incredibly gripping sequences in this seventh volume of Inuyashiki that also come off as disturbing and frightening in light of recent events.  Hiro’s massacre via cellphone and video screen is the main offender here, while the scenes of people living through an airplane crash in real time are downright gut-wrenching.  These are great examples of mangaka Hiroya Oku’s skill as an action storyteller, yet the main conflict in this series remains stubbornly black and white.  You’ve got the downright evil Hiro orchestrating all this chaos on one side and the saintly Inuyashiki on the other trying to save everyone.  It still feels like Oku is pandering to all of the fears of Japan’s older generation regarding the new, with enough action to satisfy all of the fans who followed him from “Gantz” to here.  As I mentioned at the beginning this is the “Get off of my lawn you damn kids!” sentiment personified as manga and it really drags the whole thing down.  Unless Oku has some really clever twist planned for the end — it wraps up with vol. 10 — I don’t see that changing before then.