Matt Lowder's MARCH MANGA MADNESS Returns, Part Two

Guest column by comics reviewer (Captain Blue Hen's 10,000 Comics Pyramid Facebook page) and pop culture librarian MATT LOWDER . . . . .

TO YOUR ETERNITY, VOLUME ONE (Kodansha Comics, 217)Matt's Rating: Four Out Of A Possible Five Stars.

Illustrated with many fine line points, dots, and scratches for texture, though lacking shading and using primarily white, this is a science fiction tale told in an Inuit-feeling setting hundreds, possibly thousands, of years ago. An orb comes to earth. Spend years metamorphosing into a rock, then moss, then a wolf. It’s an alien life form, which, now as a wolf, befriends a child who’s trekking though the murderous winter to find his tribe so he's no longer alone, only to eventually die halfway through the book. 

The alien life form, who cannot die, takes over as a mimic of the boy. Quickly learning what cold and hunger and bipedal movement is. He walks for days, dies, rebuilds his body, keeps walking, doesn’t sleep, dies again, rebuilds, and continues. He gets to a village which is steeped in lore and customs and sacrifice and befriends a small girl who is kind to “it” before she is to be ritualistically sacrificed to a bear god. It’s very tribal and text light, but incredibly immersive and atmospheric. These storyboards for an anime write themselves. It’s destined for a visual medium.

SHIKIMURI'S NOT JUST A CUTIE, Volume One (Kodansha Comics, 2020) Matt's Rating: Two Out Of A Possible Five Stars.

Where’s the twist? This “romance” book had literally no character development and no plot. Slice of life is okay when it’s got something else going on. Here was 130 pages of 16 extremely short chapters that felt like a wimpy, unconfident, emasculated author drawing unconnected wish-fulfillment scenes of him with his girlfriend who is wonderful, cute, strong, talented, smart, basically everything he’s not.

Izumi is timid and constantly getting hurt and needing protection or assistance. Each chapter begins with him saying “She’s not just a cutie,” which grew tiresome. At one point, the cutie girlfriend, Shikimori, gave a really interesting look to some boys when the boyfriend protagonist, Izumi, wasn’t looking, and they grew really terrified and ran. Tonally, I thought this was a clever nod foreshadowing that perhaps before this “perfect, agile, good at everything” girl came to this high school, perhaps she was daughter of a Yakuza or an assassin or something, because she is, in fact, too perfect to be real. I thought the book would end on a clever twist like “So I’ve built her up and nothing interesting has happened for the entire book, but she’s not just a cutie, and NOW AT LAST I’m going to tell you the story of how I found out my girlfriend was daughter of an assassin and a master of personas.” 

Had the bookended on a nice cliffhanger and tone reversal, this first book of a multi-book series would earn it's boredom. Then, I’d be curious about Volume Two. There’s absolutely nothing here like that. No arc, no promises, no rising action, no climax, no kissing or even most basic displays of physical affection, anything daring or creative. Sexually repressed. I know some of that is cultural. But let the boy kiss the girl’s cheek for god’s sake. 

It’s a rom-com with no comedy, and maybe one instance of conflict in 130 pages. It was like being a fly on the wall of someone’s journal, overpraising this girl and lamenting how pathetic the dude is. I would say that this book is doing something interesting with gender norms, but there’s no character or plot development to indicate that. Only what we can infer-between-the-lines with our imagination about what this author “might’ intend to build on later. And that's a stretch, guys. It’s a terrible volume one that ends with no hooks to continue.

LAID BACK CAMP, Volume One (Yen Press, 2018) Matt's Rating: Four Out Of A Possible Five Stars.

I can’t believe I’m giving this such a high score, but I’ve never read anything like this and I’m not sure which genre to place it in. The tone and atmosphere were relaxed, cozy, and one with nature.

 

 The whole story is about two girls, and eventually four, enjoying camping. That’s it. And yet I loved it. No boys, romance, drama, almost no conflict. This was a slice of life story I really enjoyed. It was so, so different from pretty much any story in any format I’ve ever read. They simply enjoy camping, telling stories about being young, what kinds of foods they enjoy, and literally discuss manga, cooking hardware, stews, noodles, and the price of sleeping bags and wood for the whole book. 

They visit fuji at a campsite during their school’s winter break, stay warm, and share their gear in a very outdoorsy, “laid back” book that is clearly written from a passionate place in the authors heart. We watch bike rides, walks, and fire building. Music listening and sleeping. It captures this immaculately well, and I’ve never seen this in any comic form. Some are gonna hate it, but it’s incredibly different and cute. Four stars feel high for such little conflict and story, but the author achieved something special with mood here.

BEYOND THE CLOUDS, Volume One (Kodansha Comics, 2020) Matt's Rating: Four And One-Half Out Of A Possible Five Stars.

I loved this. A plot driven book which quickly defines the characters as soon as we meet them, Beyond the Clouds is a steampunk fantasy feeling book where a lonely steel-worker boy in a world of humans and talking catfolk finds an angel in a junkyard missing one wing. 

How did she get there? Where's she from? Why can't she remember? Why is one of her wings ripped off? Can the boy inventor give her a new wing? The main character has grown up his whole life wishing for adventure and reading every night, wonderful books about beanstalks, witches, dragons, and stardust magic. 

I instantly fell in love with the tone, breezy writing, and layered adventure. This is a book for fans of fantasy anime that’s somewhat grounded, and is certainly touched with Studio Ghibli whimsy, Final Fantasy side quests, fairytales, and Nemo’s Adventures in Slumberland. Really nice water color greys and fine line inks, a bit jittery for texture I’ve not seen in many other manga. It’s a winner, even if you don’t like manga but enjoy this genre. Try it.

BLUE FLAG, VOLUME ONE (Viz Media, 2020) Matt's Rating: Four Out Of A Possible Five Stars.

This surprised me, and Shikimori should take note. I purposely picked this because I don’t like high school romance Young Adult books, and definitely avoid the genre of it in manga like the plague. But in interest of March Manga Madness, I thought to push my own boundaries. I’m glad I did. 

I’ve never seen a love quadrangle before, but this is great drama. Taichi is a boy helping Kuze get noticed by Toma. But Toma is secretly attracted to Taichi. And a fourth introduced female friend loves Kuze. And then Taichi begins to fall for Kuze, who he’s supposed to be helping hook up with Toma, who's gay. It totally works, though it sounds wacky. 

The multiple lanes of straight and gay romance totally work here, and what’s worse, they were once all friends, and I don’t see how that can be the case by the end of this series. This was a great use of lettering for sounds and whimpers and implying sound and despair or joy. Faces are also typically very true to life and realistic, punctuated by restrained and expert use of heavy eyelids, cheek lines for blushing, full page portrait close ups, and eyes becoming needle-points for moments of shock. 

ONLY if you already like romance fiction, there’s something really special about this book and the dynamic of the group of friends. This is NOT a twilight love triangle for middle schoolers, but feels like something with true layers I appreciate.