Review: SHAOLIN SISTERS

 Our final review for the month is not just a celebration of sisterhood but also a return to a series I reviewed six years ago.

SHAOLIN SISTERS ( Fuun San Shimai Lin³ ), by Narumi Kakinouchi.  First published in 2000 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

Julin's 15th birthday should have been a joyous day, but the White Lotus clan turned it into a tragedy.  Her master was killed by their garrote-wire wielding leader Bai Weng, while her friend Kio was lost in the wilderness.  The only way she can stop them and avenge her fallen friends is to seek out her father's other daughters, each of wielding powerful martial arts of their own along with mystical bells that match the one Julin was given.  All the while, they have to prevent the very secrets of Shaolin from falling into Bai Weng's clutches.

STORY:

Back when I reviewed Juline, I praised the novelty of its premise.  You still do not see a lot of shojo manga about martial arts, much less ones popular enough to merit a sequel!  I would dare say that Shaolin Sisters is something of an improvement as its plot is more focused from the start and more emphasis is put upon the martial art actions.

Julin might have lost an E in the transition between the previous manga and this one, but she's lost none of her spunk.  In true shojo heroine fashion, she continues to be a hopeful, cheerful ray of sunshine even in the face of personal tragedy.  If anything, she's legitimately excited to meet her (previously unmentioned) half-sisters.  As for said sisters, they were seemingly conceived to be just as much to be foils to Julin as they were characters in their own right.  Thus, Kalin is demure and soft-spoken while Seilin is brash and cynical.  Neither are particularly novel concepts for characters, but they certainly do their job and there's plenty of potential for them to grow into something more.

What I find most interesting about this manga so far is its emphasis on the power of sisterhood.  This was present in Juline, but it was more of a generic 'girl power' idea of sisterhood and it was somewhat compromised by all of the ninja clan heiresses being motivated by the missing men in their lives.  While Juline has not forgotten her fallen master nor her missing boyfriend, she (and Kakinouchi by extension) is much more focused on forging a more literal sisterhood.  It's still too early in the series to determine just how it will shake out, but it's more than strong enough to compensate for the (frankly rather lackluster, passive) villains who are driving the plot more literally.

ART:

Much of what I've said before about Kakinouchi's work applies here, which makes sense considering this is only a few years removed from both Juline and that Vampire Princess Miyu manga I talked about recently.  Moreso than in those other works, her character designs really shine here.  Not only do Julin, Kalin, and Seilin manage to visually convey their personalities while similar looking enough to pass as sisters.  The same goes for the villains, as Bai Weng's long, flowing hair works is a striking look that works well with her weapon of choice.  

As always, Kakinouchi's approach to action is elegant and flowing, drawn in long, graceful, sweeping lines.  It's not always the easiest to parse, but at least once per fight there's some standout pose or movie that brings it all together.  It helps that her approach to paneling is rather free-form so she can give herself plenty of room for her and her characters to flex.

PRESENTATION:

There's a lot of ups and downs when it comes to the presentation.  It's good that the art isn't flipped as it was in Juline, but since this was released after Tokyopop standardized their books to tankobon size there's less physical space for Kakinouchi's art to shine.  The translation for this series is much better than its predecessors, thanks to the efforts of Alexander O. Smith (who usually worked for Viz, translating titles like Dr. Slump and Dawn of the Arcana.)  That being said, there's the occasional pop culture reference or similarly odd choice (like referring to Julin's identically named bird as Juliny.  I presume that in Japanese it was simply Julin-chan or something similarly diminutive) that reminds you that this is indeed a bubble-era Tokyopop book.

RATING:

Shaolin Sisters may technically be a sequel, but you don't have to be familiar with its forbearer to appreciate its elegant art and its ever-intriguing mix of shojo drama and ninja action.

This series was published by Tokyopop.  This series is complete in Japan with 5 volumes available.  All 5 were released and are currently out of print.