Review: DETROIT METAL CITY

DETROIT METAL CITY ( Detoroito Metaru Shiti), by Kiminori Wakasugi.  First published in 2005, and first published in North America in 2009.

PLOT:
Soichi Negishi is a meek, mild-mannered musician from the countryside.  He loves indie pop, peace and quiet, and all things chic.  He yearns to write sickeningly sweet songs about walking on the beach and making cheese tarts with your sweetheart.  Instead, he makes his living as Krauser II, the maddeningly bad-ass lead singer of Detroit Metal City.  DMC is a band on the rise, but Soichi couldn't hate it more.  He wants to write acoustic songs about fluffiness and love, not heavy metal songs about dead babies, rape, and murder!  Still, no matter how he tries, he can never escape the metal.  Whether it's when he tries to hook up with old classmates, make friends with fellow musicians, or even his own family life, Krauser seems to creep his way into the situation and threaten to ruin things.

STORY:
I had high expectations for this series, as many people of my acquaintance said that it was a very funny series.  After reading it, I can say that while the set-up is amusing (as are a few images, like Krauser in full costume riding a tractor), the volume never quite ascends to laugh-out-loud funniness.

It's not for lack of trying on Wakasugi's part.  Soichi tries so hard to distance himself from his heavy metal alter ego, and he tries so hard to live up to his reputation as Krauser, and frequently he ends up failing at the former and inadvertently succeeds at the latter.  It's less of a Spinal Tap-esque take on the rock star lifestyle as it a comedy of errors about a total dork who fell into rock stardom.

So, why does this manga not ultimately work for me as a comedy?  I suspect the issue is the cast.  Soichi is fine - his conflicts and personality are well established.  Everyone else around him, though, is completely one note.  His bandmates are lunkheads.  His manager is a loud, vulgar metalhead who judges the quality of a song on how wet it makes her (and describes it in vivid detail).  His fans are a lot of punks and thugs, and Soichi's love interest, the mild-mannered magazine review Aikawa, as as meek and mild-mannered as he is.  They serve the story and jokes well enough, but they never really become characters that one can be even mildly invested in. 

Detroit Metal City is a joke with a solid set-up but a weak punchline.  It's a great set-up with a perfect nebbish for a lead, but it never quite takes things far enough to take it beyond mild chuckles.

ART:
Comedy mangas rarely feature (or demand, for that matter) any sort of complex, detailed artwork, and Detroit Metal City is no exception.  The character designs are all kind of odd, with heads that seem slightly too big for their skinny, awkward bodies.  It works fine for Soichi, because it reinforces his innate dorkiness and provides all the better visual contrast between himself and Krauser, but with everyone else it just looks strange.  There's also a lot of stiffness to the poses, and when people headbang it's drawn in a way that makes them look like they have an extra head growing from their chest.  This is one situation where I would actually welcome speed lines, because they would make the art LESS awkward. 

That stiffness pervades the artwork all over - the characters, backgrounds, panels, you name it.  Even the performances are drawn in a shockingly static manner.  I suspect it's that stiffness that also hindered the humor of the manga itself.  Without some sense of life to the art, even the funniest scenario seems to fall flat, like telling a hilarious joke in a monotone.

PRESENTATION:
This was put out by Viz's Signature line, so it's printed in the slightly oversized format usually seen in that line.  This volume actually came with temporary tattoos as an extra, but as my review copy was a library copy, those were long gone. 

RATING:
While Detroit Metal City didn't work for me personally, but I can see those more familiar with heavy metal getting a lot of enjoyment out this manga.  It's not clever, but it is absurd and fun in its own way.

This series was released by Viz.  All 10 volumes were released, and all are currently in print.

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Review: CERES - CELESTIAL LEGEND

CERES: CELESTIAL LEGEND (Ayashi no Ceres), by Yuu Watase.  First published in 1996, and first published in North America in 2001.

PLOT:
Our story begins on Aya Mikage's 16th birthday.  Sure, there have been a few weird things going on around her, but nothing can go wrong for her and her twin brother Aki, right?  Well, when they are brought over to the family compound they find that it is not cake and ice cream that awaits them, but a mysterious, mummified hand.  Aki breaks out in mysterious cuts all over his body, and Aya has visions of blood before creating an explosion which destroys both the hand and her wardrobe.  From that moment, Aya is an enemy to her own family.  The Mikages are descendants of a man and a 'celestial maiden,' and the girls of their family who manifest powers like Aya's are killed to protect the family.  Aya manages to escape the compound thanks to a mysterious man named Toya and the Aogiri family, distant relatives who know about the Mikage's little supernatural secret.  Now Aya must learn to control the terrible power within her and somehow save her brother from her own family.

STORY:
Now this is a Watase work I can get behind!  I made no secret of the fact that I hated Fushigi Yuugi back in February; I found it a dull reverse harem with an irritating, vapid lead.  Ceres is mercifully nothing like that series, instead being a supernatural thriller with a far more competent and compelling lead.

This was a fast paced story, and yet it never feels rushed.  In this single volume alone, we meet our heroine, tragedy ensued, the backstory for said tragedy given, our heroine's motivation is set, and it all ends on a cliffhanger.  Not even the brief moments of comic relief and fanservice in the second half can derail the pacing.  There are far greater stakes for the reader to invest themselves with, and far more tension for them to feel.

Aya was also far, FAR more likeable than her predecessor.  She's confident, sometimes to the point of being a smart-ass.  I only wish she didn't share that same proclivity for plunging herself into obvious danger.  Sure, she wants to get her family back and she's desperate, but after two or three attempts attempts on her life by various family members, you'd think she would learn that she might need to utilize a little strategy so that she doesn't constantly need to be saved by the Aogiris or Toya.

Speaking of the supporting cast, Watase pretty swiftly sets up the love triangle, and she's about as subtle with the love interests as a sledgehammer.  They might as well have "Love Interest" stamped on their forehead!  Yuhi, the younger of the Aogiris, is sadly a knockoff of Tamahome, right down to the fact that he and the lead fight like cats and dogs.  Toya, on the other hand, is mostly just mysterious and utterly ridiculous looking.  It's hard to take him serious when his weird, stringy hair, sunglasses, and midriff-exposing top makes him look like a refugee from a Pet Shop Boys concert circa 1985.  The other Aogiri, Suzumi, is there mostly to spout exposition and serve as a sort of psychic homing device when they need to find Aya.  We barely get to see Aki to figure out how he compares to his twin sister, and the rest of the family is just generically evil.  There's also the Aogiri's weird, fishy-looking (literally) servant, who is there solely for comic relief.

Ceres represesnts something of a step forward and a step back for Watase's work as a whole.  The plot onto itself is a step forward, mercifully stepping away from the 'girl getting sucked into magical world' crutch she so often uses.  Instead, we have a seemingly ordinary girl with extraordinary powers who must hide from and fight against her own family to regain something resembling her previous life.  Where Watase steps back is with the romance, pitting our heroine against a couple of one-note love interests that I couldn't give two damns about, leaving the love triangle they creating feeling incredibly hollow.  It's a flawed work to be sure, but an enjoyable one.

ART:
Watase's typical artstyle hasn't changed from her previous works, alas.  It's still kind of stringy and kind of generic, and Watase can't seem to stop drawing guys that look like Tamahome.  I will say there's a bit more fanservice than I expected - what, you thought there were plot-related reasons that Aya's psychic freakouts always caused her clothes to explode?  Really, aside from that the artwork is presented in a fairly straightforward manner, both panel and page alike.  There's little that's remarkable about the artwork, but it works with the story fine.

PRESENTATION:
My review copy was from the first printing, so like many older Viz works it is slightly oversized and flipped.  There are a few bits of artwork in the back, but the impact is mostly lost as they are printed in black and white.

RATING:
This is a Yuu Watase work I would actually recommend to others.  The artwork is too plain and the romance angle too dull to boost this up to a green light, but the plot is interesting and well-paced, enough so to make me want to see where it goes.

This series was published by Viz.  All 14 volumes were released, and all are currently in print.

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Review: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD! (Subarashii Sekai), by Inio Asano.  First published in 2003, and first published in North America in 2009.

PLOT:
In this anthology of stories, various disaffected young Japanese people have their lives connected by circumstance and the past.  Some go through outrageous circumstances, like being held hostage by a criminal or tormented by a spectral crow.  Others are simply suffering through identity crises, trying to figure out whether to pursue their youthful dreams or accept the steadier, less glamorous realities of adulthood.

STORY:
This is a tricky series to summarize, since it's not built around a single plotline but instead an anthology of chapters loosely tied to one another.  Many are interesting on their own, but it can be a hell of a tone shift when going from a businessman who wants to relive his punk rock past to a schoolgirl who is followed by a talking crow/shinigami who constantly urges her towards suicide.

Since this is an anthology, there isn't a lot of time for character building for anyone in particular outside of their respective chapters.  In spite of that, many of them are quite relatable.  As a young adult myself, I can relate with their struggle to resolve their childhood dreams with their adult realities.  The manga never judges them for their choices, and it doesn't give any hints if their decisions will work out in the long term.  After all, how often do any of us know how our major life decisions will work out? 

It's not an aimless work, though, as it weaves the stories together through interpersonal connections.  Some are close, like being the ex of a previous character, and other are distant, where characters will pass one another in the street.  The stories are well-paced as well, never rushing nor lingering longer than needed.  Honestly, when you consider the focus on disaffected young people, the (mostly) realistic setting, and the casual tone, this feels more like an independent American comic, and as such accessible to fans of both Japanese and American graphic novels.

ART:
You know, the cover for this seems awfully familiar.  There's something about the visual design that reminds me of something...

Oh yeah.  That would be it.  I wonder if this was how the original Japanese cover looked of this was a conscious choice on the part of Viz.  I strongly suspect the latter.

As far as the actual manga art is concerned, the character designs are a bit strange looking, with their oddly round heads and flat faces.  There is a lot of variety in the designs and they're realistic in their attractiveness - nobody is hideously ugly, but neither are they conventionally (by manga standards) attractive.  They also possess nice little touches of detail, things like freckles or day-old stubble.  I also like that Asano didn't use screentones for shading, but instead hatching, which gives it a nice, hand-drawn touch.  The panels are handsomely composed, with plenty of interesting, cinematic angles and with just enough detail - not too sparse, not too busy.  The backgrounds are appropriately mundane, but nicely rendered.

What a Wonderful World! is not a conventional looking manga, but it's skillfully drawn with some real touches of artistry and it suits the mostly mundane world of the stories to a T.

PRESENTATION:
This is presented in the larger format usually seen for Viz Signature works.  The cover does have built-in flaps, which seems like an odd touch for a book that doesn't possess a slipcover.

RATING:
What a Wonderful World! celebrates the mundane and the fantastical, the bizarre and the inspirational, and overall it's a bit strange but refreshingly different by doing so.

This series was published by Viz.  Both volumes were published, and both are currently in print.

You can purchase this volume and many more like it through RightStuf.com!

Review: STELLAR SIX OF GINGACHO

THE STELLAR SIX OF GINGACHO (Kirameki Gingacho Shotengai), by Yuuki Fujimoto.  First published by 2005, and first published in North America in 2010. 

PLOT:
Mike, Kuro, Ibe, Q, Sato, and Mamoru are six children from six different families, who own six different shops and restaurants in the Gingacho shopping district.  They have all been friends since they were small, but now as they grow older they find themselves growing apart.  They come together once more when Mike wishes to help a local bartender fix his vandalized shop through a dance contest, and learn not only the value of their friendship, but the value of the friends and family they have within Gingacho.

STORY:
Stellar Six is a rather well worn sort of story with equally well worn morals about friendship and community and such, but at least it's told competently with a little bit of charm and a lot of earnestness and honesty.

Our six leads are deep as puddles when it comes to personality.  Mike is childlike and innocent, Kuro is ...um...er...a guy, Q is a flirt, Iba is motherly, Mamoru is weird and quiet, and Sato is a wilting violet of a girl, and all of them are just the same at the end as they were in the beginning.  Naturally, if the main cast doesn't get any sort of development, neither does anyone else around them.

The plot itself is rather episodic, starting with the story about the bartender which ends in the classic, Mickey Rooney-style, "let's put on a show" manner, followed by a story about a cranky old sweet shop owner.  These plotlines don't drag, and they do have a good sense of continuity between the two, but they are predictable from the first step to the last.  There's no real drama to be found here, just a bunch of heartwarming morals about friendship and community.  They're not bad morals per se, but they're not deep or original either.  As such, it's not a great story, but instead a pleasant, simple diversion.

ART:
The art for Stellar Six is much like story: conventional, simple, but competent.  The kids are all distinct, even if the character designs are rather on the simple side.  Panels are packed with close-ups and text, and when combined with the occasional use of screentone, the whole thing can look a bit messy on the page.  Backgrounds are rare and unremarkable.

PRESENTATION:
The only extra is a bizarrely meta scrap where the kids announce the publishing of the first volume.

RATING:

While there's nothing remarkable about Stellar Six, there's nothing much to dislike either.  It's competently made and earnestly told, but I suspect that it would be better suited to a younger audience than your average manga reader.

This series was published by Tokyopop.  3 of the 10 available volumes were published, and all are currently out of print.

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Review: BACKSTAGE PRINCE

BACKSTAGE PRINCE (Kiwametsuke - Gayuka Ura Oji), by Kanoko Sakurakoji.  First published in 2004, and first published in North America in 2006.

PLOT:
Akari follows a black cat into a building one afternoon, only to discover that the building is a kabuki theater and that the cat belongs to one Ryusei Horiuchi.  Ryusei is a handsome young man who is cold and distant in Akari's class, but he is a star onstage, a descendant of a long line of kabuki actors.  Akari stumbles her way into becoming Ryusei's personal assistant, despite not knowing anything about kabuki, but soon she becomes more than just an assistant to Ryusei.  Will Ryusei and Akari overcome jealous parties and Akari's own insecurities to stay together?

STORY:
I dreaded reading this volume, knowing that comes from the creator of Black Bird, a distressingly popular shoujo series that is one of the worst manga I've ever read (and trust me, I will get to that one someday).  While I can say that this work does not feature the disturbing and highly oversexed qualities of her more recent work, it's just as bad.

Akari is lacking in two qualities: personality and backbone.  The moment she encounters any sort of negative comment, she immediately determines that she is COMPLETELY UNWORTHY OF LOVE and flees, all in the name of creating incredibly forced and utterly unnecessary drama.  She's such a passive character that she doesn't even enter into her assistantship of her own volition - she's tricked into the role by one of Ryusei's costars, who works so quickly and convienently that he might as well have been name Deus Ex Machina.

Mind you, everything happens a bit too quickly and convienently in this manga.  Ryusei goes from quiet and taciturn to declaring his love before mid-volume, and it feels utterly false.  On the other hand, he's just as void of personality as Akari, so the two becomes a well-matched pair of bland drama llamas.  You'd think he would also serve as a source of exposition on the details or history of kabuki, but the manga doesn't even go there.  The kabuki angle is mostly there to give Ryusei to wear a kimono most of the time.

Backstage Prince couldn't be more contrived if it tried.  It's got a cast completely void of personality, the romance is far too rushed and forced, and the plot moves along only by shallow, stupid drama.

ART:
The character designs are generic, simple, even a bit flat (to the point where Akari often looks like she has no nose).  They're expressive enough, but it does no good when Akari spends most of her time pouting and crying and Ryusei spends most of his time glowering.  Backgrounds are rare and mundane, instead replaced with a veritable explosion of shoujo sparkles and similar effects.  Panels are large, but assembled plainly.

PRESENTATION:
The only extra is a side story about Ryusei's childhood, which add nothing beyond explaining why he has a cat. 

RATING:
This series is contrived, overly dramatic, and lazy as hell.  This prince is nothing but a frog.

This series was published by Viz.  Both volumes were released, and both are currently in print.

You can purchase this volume and many more like it through RightStuf.com!