It’s ComicList time! First, go take a look at the Manga Bookshelf crew’s Picks of the Week, then peruse the latest installment of Bookshelf Briefs, in which I gush about an arriving shôjo volume that makes me as happy as another makes me sad.
This week also brings the fourth and final volume of Nobuaki Tadano’s Eisner-nominated 7 Billion Needles (Vertical). I’ve enjoyed this series throughout its run, mostly for the evolution of its heroine, Hikaru, a grieving teen who’s forced out of her isolated state by the arrival of warring interstellar entities Horizon and Maelstrom. Their destructive, survival-of-the-fittest squabbling puts the people around Hikaru in danger and forces her to acknowledge the fact that she cares about them. Emotionally speaking, the conclusion is essentially Hikaru’s victory lap, her chance to prove how far out of her shell she’s come. In an odd way, that lowers the finale’s stakes and forces Tadano to inflate the science-fiction mayhem to almost incoherent levels.
It’s easy enough to ignore the twaddle about weaponized evolution, though, as Hikaru is still compelling, even though her personal journey is pretty much over before the story begins. She’s held the series together this long, and it’s nice to see her put the things she’s learned into action, even if that action doesn’t make much sense at all.
The only thing not covered above that I look forward to reading is the eighth volume of Karuho Shiina’s consistently delightful Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (Viz). The good shôjo arriving this week certainly overpowers the bad.
What looks enticing to you?
It is a month full of great releases. Hikaru no Go, Story of Saiunkoku, Kimi ni Todoke, BLACK BIRD, We Were There, Otomen, Oresama Teacher and Ai Ore!. My favorites are the first three I mentioned and I always look forward to them. Even though, I am not a big fan of some of these, I still like to get the new releases.
It is so sad that Hikaru no Go has ended but I am definitely planning on rereading the whole thing soon. One of the best shounen series of all time.
I haven’t read Hikaru no Go in ages, and I only own the first 3 or so volumes, but I may need to fix that sometime soon. I read the ending a while back, after checking out the volumes in Japanese from my grad school library and puzzling through some really awful translations – I think I’m finally recovered enough to read the English released without (maybe) bursting into tears. I had no idea a series about a bunch of Go players could be so exciting and emotional.
I haven’t kept up with Black Bird – reading that series made me feel too anxious for the heroine.
Hm…the Otomen release reminds me that I need to read more of that one. I’ve only read the first volume so far, so I don’t know if it’s worth sticking around for another 9. The Story of Saiunkoku (loved the anime) and Kimi ni Todoke are both on my list to try.
A lot of people really like Otomen. I only read the first volume and thought it was kind of blah.
Already have my copies of 7 Billion Needles, Lychee Light Club, and the Blood Alone Omnibus. I’m sure the first two will be good, despite not having opened them yet. Blood Alone was kind of a snore for the first half of Volume 1, but it started to pick up at the end. It’s pretty episodic though, without much pushing the plot or characters forward, so I’m hoping vols 2 & 3 will add some overarching plot.
I love Kimi ni Todoke, but I’m 3 vols behind right now. I still need to try out Story of Saiunkoku — the covers and synopsis just don’t draw me in, but with all the glowing reviews I know it must be better than it looks on the surface.
Oh yeah, and how could I forget — I’m currently reading through Hikaru no Go (on vol 13, I can’t check the out from the library as fast as I want to read them) and it’s easily on of my favorite shounen ever. It’s amazing how, even knowing nothing about Go, the story, characters, and intensity keep me constantly enthralled. I’m thinking once I get my next paycheck I’m going to order the whole lot of them from TRSI — I just can’t stand the thought of this series going out of print before I own a copy.
Yeah, the covers for Story don’t exactly push it off the shelves, but the characters are so, so great and the stories so nuanced that I’m totally in love with it.