I haven’t read that much manga and what I have read so far has been mostly unfinished series or a few volumes long. I say that as a disclaimer – maybe there are many great long manga series out there and the heaps of praise I intend to write for Battle Royale would be an expression of my relative inexperience as a manga reader. But I can’t help it, this manga has affected me too much, so I have to write down my impressions.

The premise of Battle Royale is simple, if extremely brutal and disturbing. In a totalitian ruled Japan the greatest entertainment show is simply called The Program. Every year a random (or not so random as it turns out) school class is picked, delivered to a certain location and told the rules of the game. Every student receives a random weapon, they are all in a restricted area and they have three days to win the game. How does one win? By being the last man standing. Literally. So the choice is kill or be killed. And if they don’t want to fight – they all die. So we have 42 ninth-graders (or third year middle school students if you want the Japanese system) battling it out to the death, TV ratings soaring with each juicy murder or rape attempt, plot twists are in abundance – treacheries, alliances, plans, detailed action scenes with their own twists – it’s not easy to guess what comes next, even for people like me, obsessed with guessing exactly that. And now I know why the final third of Mai-HiME is so often compared with Battle Royale and as much as I love Mai-HiME, I think Battle Royale is better, not least because it doesn’t have the an ending that ruins everything but also because it is even more brutal to its characters.

As great as the plot and art of Battle Royale are (more about them later), I think what I like the most is the emotional intensity. It makes you hate certain characters with a passion (sure the boss of The Program is a way too one dimensional villain but he still made my blood boil with anger) and hope agaisnt hope that your favourites will somehow survive against all odds. Sadly this did not happen to my favourites and not surprisingly the manga is full of sad scenes, of people mourning their dead friends and people losing their lives in all kinds of ways – from heroic to so absurdly trivial and random that it makes the loss of life even sadder. A lot of times I was unable to continue reading despite the gripping plot because I was overwhelmed by a feeling of sadness for a character who had just kicked the bucket.

But as much as one is inclined to despise those of the teenagers who kill their classmates in cold blood, the big issue in the manga, in my opinion, is what kind of society can be so full of miserable voyeours that something as monstrous as The Program is seen as pretty much the best entertainment show – people even bet who will win. With the rising popularity of all kinds of “reality” shows and films or games full of violence, I can’t help but wonder whether something very similar to the game depicted in the manga will not appear in the near future. Yes, it does not seem likely but even the slim possibility is chilling. We can try to explain the popularity of The Program with the dictatorship but I doubt any dictatorship would bother forcing people to make bets, so I guess a lot of people actually di like The Program.

As far as deeply moving, even to the point of being traumatising, events in the manga go, I think the lighthouse massacre tops them all. Things go from joyful reunion to a horrible sequence of deaths in at an appallingly fast rate and in a hauntingly absurd, yet ghastly logical fashion. And to make things even worse, you can’t point out the real culprit among the direct participants in the events, it’s basically a horrible misunderstanding with disastrous consequences. Of course, the root of the disaster was the suspicion that everyone playing this horrible game had to live with, the suspicion that his friends just wait for the best moment to kill him and increase their chances of victory.

Battle Royale really manages to make one care for characters who have only recently been introduced…and then kill these very characters right when you want to read more and more about it. Yet, this rarely seems to be a crudely manipulative trick to sadden the readers, I see it more as a way to really emphasise the horror of The Program – any participant can die any minute. No one can feel safe, even among people he regards as his or her best friends. It’s actually a bit unbelievable the teenagers trust each other as much as they do in the manga, even considering the paranoia and distrust are rampart. But it would have been an extremely boring action if everyone just played for himself, exactly like in some multiplayer deathmatch shooter PC game., so I am more than willing to accept this as a bit of suspension of disbelief. Plus, I am no psychologist, maybe people would actually behave like this, deny the reality that tells them only one is going to leave the island and stick with their friends.

The plot concentrates on several main characters, who not surprisingly last until the late stages of the deadly game. But the mangaka has tried to give enough background for virtually every character and has done that with a heavy use of flashbacks showing moments of the students life prior to being forced to fight for their lives. This is wonderful for the character development, of course, because the game lasts less than three days and it’s much easier to see the changes in personality by comparing the character in the flashback with the present version, so to speak. However, sometimes this does get repetitive and slows down the break-neck pace of the “non-flashback” plotlines. Also, sometimes the flashbacks seemed forced since the situation does not seem suitable for a character to reflect on his or her past. But since he or she is going to be killed next and not have much screen time overall, I guess the mangaka (or the author of the book) did not really have that much choice.

Due to the extreme nature of The Program there are many plot twists. The problem is that it’s not difficult to perceive the most skillful characters early on and guess that most of them are there to stay up until the final volumes. That said, Battle Royale is full of small surprises – for instance one characters defeats an opponent after a protracted and painful battle, only to be shot like a sitting duck while still catching her breath after the previous deadly duel. This comes as a total shock to the reader – in mainstream manga or anime you’d expect almost any character of some importance to have a chance to do something, even if even he understands it’s impossible, not to be shot just like this. I guess one could feel cheated by such a death but even though the character I am talking about was one of my favourites (more in spoiler section of this review), it served to prove that the game was not fair at all, it was simply a terrible, pointless waste of wife. Also it hinted that anyone could die but sadly this was subverted later and some characters were saved by “plot shield” or Deus Ex Machina a number of times. Mind you, this is not really over the top like in a stupid shonen series where the hero survives against all odds so often that you’d think he should use his luck and win the lottery, but nevertheless I can’t help but feel cheated when Kiriyama seemed like an indestructible force of nature while my favourite characters were dropping like flies. But overall the plot is simply addicting, I read the entire manga, which is fifteen volumes long, in a few days. It actually took me more tiem to write this review than to read the manga. Of course, I am talking about the number of days passed since I first started writing it, not actual writing time but still, this serves to prove how addicting and good the manga was – I just had to write a very long entry about it.

I think one of the main flaws of the manga is that there are just too many extraordinary persons in that class. I guess the author of the book on which the manga is based wanted to depict the class as a miniature Japanese society but it just had too many geniuses, heroes and psychopaths. Kiriyama especially is just out of this world, not only he is a genius who can put Einstein to shame, he is also fast as lightning and dies harder than Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzeneger. And let’s not forget lucky as the devil himself. It makes you wonder why is he losing his time in that public school, with these skills he should have already been rich and famous at the age of 15 and making his first steps towards conquering the world.

Mitsuko, Takako, Shuuya, Sugimura, Mimura, Kiriyama, etc are simply too extraordinarily gifted in certain areas – it’s quite the coincidence that they have all ended up in one class, a class that’s also full of many other interesting people. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome that every character has a distinctive personality and is interesting in his own way but I think the manga goes too far, I would have expected to see more similar characters, even some characters who are so plain and unmemorable that they are utterly boring. We have so many nutjobs in this class – Mitsuko, Kiriyama, Yuko, the girl who was obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons (forgot her name), Kaori and some milder cases, too. Yes, the situation was insanely tough but most of these people seemed to have already been quite mentally unstable even prior to their arival on the island. Unfortunately, I have to describe the characters in detail in the spoiler-full part of this article due to the nature of the manga but I can say that the effort to create interesting cast has been largely successful and every reader should find at least a few characters to be partial to. And of course, it’s better to have too many extraordinary people in the cast than too bland cast full of walking cliches and boring people.

Let’s move on to the art – as far as I am concerned, there were no real flaws here. The backgrounds are detailed enough but what I loved was the character design. It’s realistic and it is also rather beautiful, something that I haven’t seen that often in manga. Also the faces do reflect the personality of the respective characters rather well – from the lizard eyes of of the psychopath Kiriyama to the wide-eyed hopeful expressions of Noriko which reveal her naivety. And with 42 people in this class, most of whom are in the spotlight at least for a chapter, being able to differentiate between them is crucial, especially for people like me who tend to have difficulties keeping track of Japanese names. With the realistic-looking faces this was easy to do, while I often have difficulties with anime or manga with characters who mainly differ only in their hairstyle or height because of the stylised facial features. The action scenes are good, not great but good. I usually find it hard to keep track of things in manga action scenes but this rarely happened while I was reading Battle Royale.

The realistic approach, combined with the rather graphic violence and sex will probably turn off a lot of people from Battle Royale which is totally understandable. But I have to say that I don’t like graphic violence either, yet I was only really disturbed once or twice while reading this manga (the eyeball scene was nauseating, indeed). I think the point of all this was to show us what the viewers of the Program were watching – bullets piercing skulls, broken bones, poisonings, stabbings, rape attempts and so on. And to paint an exact picture of the terrible plight of the participants in the game, not to make this some “sport” we watch and root for this or that character, detached and not caring about the ultimate price that was being paid so very often in the process of the game. The sex is also very graphic and it features child abuse, prostitution, murder of the one partner by the other while they were having sex, etc so if you are a puritan you’d better find something else to read. And of course, the characters having sex are some of the nine-graders and because of their age things are all the more disturbing and potentially scandalous, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

SPOILER ZONE! READ ON YOUR OWN RISK!!!

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YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
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The ending could, no – it should have been better. There – I said it! Don’t get me wrong, even I don’t like the deaths of many characters that much as to demand that only one student survives in the end and not two as it is in the manga. But things just ended a tad too easily for Shuu and Noriko while Shogo was portrayed as pretty much a superhuman who was pathologically obsessed with revenge. So far so good but instead of trying to kill the dictator or some politicians or the organizors of The Program he deliberately transferred to the class he knew would be chosen for participation in it. Talk about masochism – the man who was so traumatised by his victory put himself in that hell again and yet kept his cool throughout all the tribulations of the devilish game. And let’s not forget that the manga followed one of the most common cliches – everything, even top secret stuff, can be found the Internet by hacking. What a disappointing plot device. Furthermore, Shuu not only somehow defeated several soldiers on that ship but he even did it in a Kira Yamato fashion – without killing them. Gimme a break, I am so tired of protagonists who are so gentle and loving that put Jesus Christ himself to shame. It was so unfair that Shogo who did 95% of the work had to die while Shuu, the idiot and Noriko, the damsel in constant distress, survived in the end. I think I would have liked an ending without the final twist in which Shogo kills those two and then turns against the Program people or the authorities or even one in which he is a cruel bastard who has simply used Noriko and Shuu as means to achieve his goal. Oh, well, at least it was not a reset ending, so I am not that unhappy with it.

I have started listing things I don’t like so I might as well continue with Kiriyama’s invincibility. It was bad enough that he was an incredible genius who didn’t really have a place in a realistic manga but the bastard was more or less invincible and immortal until the author decided he had had enough of him and killed him off. He survived a massive explosion, dozens of bullets in his bulletproof vest which should have in the very least caused bruises and injuries, stayed alive for a time after being shot in the head and hit by a metal blade in the eye and won a martial arts duel by learning something that had taken his opponents years to develop in a matter of minutes. And the icing of the cake was that his character development can be summarised in two words “brain injury” – that is to say he suffered from a condition that prevented him from having any feelings and emotions. Boooring…

Continuing with the villains, Mitsuko was a lot more interesting. What I loved about her was the way she used the romantic notions of her classmates to her advantage – even after knowing a lot about her, some of them still tried to believe she was innocent girl who had to be protected. In volume 8 she played the role of innocent girl, so typical for anime and manga to perfection which allowed her to get out of nearly impossible situation. The combination of childish antics and powerful sex appeal just proved to strong for the two boys which I think was a very good subversion on the Japanese obessession (at least in their popular culture) with girls who look young and innocent. Even after trying to kill them they were reluctant to see her as a psychopath or at least a murderer. And the contrast between her innocent words and ultra-cynical thoughts was simply superb. The problem with Mitsuko is that she is too cliched too – is it only me or something like 70% of female character with mental problems in popular culture have been sexually abused as kids, often by their fathers? Yes, sexual abuse of children is an appalling thing but surely there are myriads of reasons for a descent to insanity? Why use abuse so often? That said, the strugle of Mitsuko was portrayed well and I felt some pity for her which is a lot than what can be said for Kiriyama, the robot. And of course, Mitsuko is sexy as hell which is always a bonus, especially for psycho-bitches.

Shogo Kawada was one of my favourites. He shined especially in contrast with the idealistic fool Shuuya. OK, I am not as cynical as Kawada and in the flashbacks he often went over the line with his rational approach to everything but in a desperate situation like the one in Battle Royale, you need competent cynics, not naive do-gooders. If it wasn’t for him Shuuya and Noriko would have been one of the first victims. Shogo tried really hard to redeem himself for what he did in the previous edition of The Program and did it in the end, against all odds.

Yukie took part in just several chapters but really managed to make me like her. She was the one who had the guts to go back to the school and assemble a group of friends in order to find safety in numbers. And by had the guts, I mean she showed amazing bravery – she trusted her friends at a time no one knew who will pull the trigger, who will play the game and who won’t. Of course, the reason for going back was kind of silly – her infatuation with Shuuya of all people, but still I liked her from the start. Her saying “We could be dead tomorrow” and jumping on Shuuya to kiss him was so moving! And then the seeds of distrust, in other words Shhuya’s presence, disprupted the balance among the girls because of all the suspicion in the air, Yuko made a horrible mistake, the lighthouse massacre occured and Yukie died. She could not even live until “tomorrow”. I think it was the best example of the utter cruelty of The Program, along with Takako’s death.

Talking of Takako I was really rooting for her against the bastard who tried to rape her and then she died immediately after a hard won victory. This was an insane twist – I really wanted to scream “NOOOOOOOOO!! Don’t you dare kill her!” but I guess that would have been useless. She had the spirit and determination her friend Sugi missed so much and he got on my nerves so often for that very same reason. Don’t get me wrong, Takako’s death was not only a very sad moment for me but also the moment when i decided that this manga is awesome because anything could happen, and yet it would have been better if she had stayed alive for longer, a final duel between her and Mitsuko would have been a lot more interesting for me than the awfully protracted battle between Sugi and Kiriyama. Furthemore, Takako’s character design is just perfect – her utter determination is obvious in her sharp features and yet she is also very beautiful and can be caring and tender – but only for the right people.

Mimura was quite interesting, the rebel playboy, who suffered from somewhat excessive pride but was human enough to see his errors from time to time. I think I would have preferred the final climactic scene to have involved Mimura’s bomb, rather than Shhuya and Noriko capturing that ship, it would also have stretched my suspension of disbelief to the limit but not as much as the actual ending and Mimura was a lot better character than Shuuya. But sadly he was relegated to the role of ghost who helped the latter make up his mind in critical situations. What a tragic fate…

The same Shuuya who needed so much contemplation even to kill Kiriyama because “no one is born evil”. I am a coward who really values human life and is agaisnt the capital punishment but Shuuya’s indecisiveness was simply stupid – this same Kiriyama had killed many of his friends and was threatening to kill him and his last surviving friends. And the idiot still hesitated and when he finally pressed the trigger, he even tried to revive Kiriyama. I mean, how stupid can you get?

Most of the supporting cast does not disappoint either – even the rest of the lighthouse girls, who had a very short life after appearing for the first time had distinct personalities. The rich kid who hated his classmates, the girl who was forced into prostitution by Mitsuko, the homosexual who was stalking Kiriyama, etc – they all managed to keep me interested in their story, in seeing the world through their eyes. I love it when detailed plot and character development can coexist – sure there are some flashbacks which are stopping the flow of the story in the worst moments possible but they are not that many and most of the drama depends on knowing the characters better. If you know only the names, the deaths are mostly just stats. The different way the students reacted to the miserbale situation was one of the highlights of Battle Royale – we had all kinds of reactions – denial, madness, suicide, sticking with friends, going on a killing rampage, lurking, hiding and so on.

Last, but not least, the manga is full of scenes that are so memorable that are more or less haunting – Mimura’s final missed shot, the whole lighthouse sequence of events, Shogo killing his girlfriend by mistake, the boss of the program killing a girl simply for talking in class, Kiriyama crippling that martial arts instructor and so on.

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SPOILER END!

Yes, Battle Royale is a manga that is definitely not for everyone – it is often unbearably sad, not to mention full of violence and sex; the plot has few but rather annoying flaws, the art might be considered to be too realistic and boring by some. But it is also one of not so many mangas that have made me think, it is full of quality suspense and plot twists and it has many characters that managed to stir my emotions time and again. I value such moments, not least because they tend to get rarer and rarer. So if you can tolerate graphic, violence-full mangas and do not suffer a mental breakdown when your favourite character dies, you can try reading Battle Royale. I doubt it will succeed to impress you as much as it impressed me but even if the odds are low, I think it’s worth a try.

Iono the Fanatics, along with Strawberry Shake, is in my not so humble opinion the best manga I have read from the sadly not so popular genre of yuri comedy (not including some rather fun oneshots). It’s so hilarious that I suspect it even might just appeal to the poor souls who dislike yuri. And unlike the Strawberry Panic manga, so far it has not taken a nose dive in quality, nor does it have annoyingly childish characters. In fact, the only kid character is probably more mature than most of the SP characters…not that this is that big of an achievement.

The plot revolves about Iono, who is the young queen of some country whose location is not too clear. Her obsession is acquiring sobame. For those of you who are not masters of Japanese or have read the manga – sobame can be translated as lady in waiting but also as a concubine. This ambiguity is crucial so the translator has left it as “sobame”. Anyway, back to the adorable Iono. When I said obsession, I really meant it. In just a year she has apparently added more than a thousand sobame to her harem…I mean court.

Nevertheless, the queen wants more to the despair of her financial advisor. They strike a deal to go to Japan in search of “black haired cuties”, if I am to quote Iono. But the queen can only add five girls to her humongous court. Poor Iono…A myriad of funny situations ensue, including sobame audition, fits of jealousy from some of the sobame escorting the queen and so on. Iono even has the audacity to publicly announce her sobame recruiting audition. I can just picture the outrage if some sheikh in the real world decided to buy some ads in a major Western newspaper, asking for girls willing to enroll in his harem…

Not surprisingly, the driving force of the manga is Iono. You know those archetypical rich bitches that seem to be angry with the whole world and yell at everyone? Well, she is nothing like them. She can and does behave like a spoiled child from time to time but she can also be very smart when it comes to handling the various issues arising between her retainers. She also has the rather disturbing tendency of not accepting negative answers when it comes to convincing some beauty to join her harem but rest assured, this is not an S&M manga and Iono does not try to rape anyone. Just some good old-fashioned glomping. In short, Iono is like a force of nature and is one of the most easy-going and fun characters ever. She speaks in a rather odd way, with many exclamations, mostly “Why!” and it seems to me that if she existed in reality she would be able to convince many democracies to revert to monarchy just to have her as a ruler.

Now, I shall describe her retinue. Let’s start with Aida – she is the royal beautician. Not surprisingly she is very busy – the Queen has to look pretty and Aida is more than willing to do that. She loves her job because it gives her excuse to stay around her beloved Queen all day. Aida’s relaxed and calm approach to everything often stops the quarrels among the sobame. To balance things, there is Kass. She always worries about something and Iono’s antics drive her crazy very often. But of course like everyone else she is too smitten with the Queen to quite her job. The arguments between Kass and Aida are often highly amusing, the latter can really teas the former even better than Iono. The biggest worry for Kass is the fact that the Queen loves to shirk from her duties and go in search for new sobame. And much of her frustration comes from the fact that the Queen has been ignoring her romantically despite her hard work. Thankfully this is resolved without unnecessary amount of angst.

The first new sobame is introduced in the first chapter (although there is a bonus chapter which is chronologically before this one), so writing about her is not exactly a spoiler. Her name is Hachibe Eto, also known as Careless Eto or Careless Hachibe. She tends to act impulsively and also tends to forget thing like keys or to check whether the gas in her home is turned off. Of course, that only serves to attract Iono to her even more. Her first duty as a royal attendant is to hold Queen’s head in her lap while Iono takes a nap. Who says there are no romantic types these days? Eto is also quite beautiful, especially if you happen to like girls with glasses. A lot of the funny situations in the manga revolve around Iono trying to finally have sex with Eto but something always getting in her way, literally or not. Talking of sex, there is nothing explicit, even the kisses aren’t as much shown as implied (you see the characters faces getting near, ready to kiss and then in the next panels it shows something different) which is a bit annoying. Therefore it’s remotely possible for some yuri haters to enjoy this. Saying that, I am not sure I would read yaoi manga even if everyone assured me it was really hilarious, but I had to mention it.

Arge is the Queen’s bodyguard. She is just a kid but following the manga cliches in a rather twisted way, she can beat up grown men with ease. Arge knows the Queen pretty well – when she “innocently” offers Eto the task of reading her fairy tales at night, the girl remarks “Horny Queen”. Her Mother, Freshe is also in charge of security and Iono’s driver. Unfortunately so far she has not been in the spotlight too often which is too bad because she seems to be a rather interesting lady.

The art, while not spectacular in any way is nice – the characters are pretty and easy to distinguish and the expressions on their faces in a lot of situations are simply priceless. To make things funnier, often the characters are shown as chibies and Iono with a huge head, weird expression and a very small body is absolutely hilarious, at least for me. The only problem is that there are some action scenes (apparently the Queen has a lot of enemies) in which it’s very difficult to keep track of what’s going on. It must be noted that I often have this problem with action scenes in various mangas, so maybe the problem lies with me, not the manga.

The great thing about “Iono the Fanatics” is that it not only makes me laugh but it’s generally very much a feel good type of manga that I love to read after I have had a bad day or just finished some annoying task. There is jealousy among the characters but no stupid angst, no annoying characters, no dumb plotlines, not much stupid fanservice. It’s simply a must if you are into yuri or just comedy but you can tolerate some yuri.

What is cotton? A kind of fabric? A plant often asscociated with the the south areas of the USA? All true but it’s also the title of the manga I am going to write about. It’s sweet but not damned cheesy or childish, short (just four chapters) and without filler, it has gorgeous looking characters who are also interesting and get quite a lot of development. And (shock and horror!) it doesn’t go over the top with the amount of angst. What’s not to like? Wait, did I mention the yuri undertones?

Of course, if you are a die hard yuri fan you will probably be disappointed by the relationship between the two leads which at least to me seemed to be more of a “normal” friendship as opposed to anything romantic or sexual. But then again, if you are a die hard yuri fan you are probably used to such ambiguity. So clearing this issue, we can move to the story.

It’s simple almost to the point that we can hardly talk of a real plot. It’s just the story of a friendship. An accidental meeting between the two main character seems to be almost forgotten when they meet again and realise that by virtue of a recent wedding they are now sisters in-law. Yes, good old concidence. The younger woman, Michiko, who is still in high school seems to be inexplicably drawn into spending more and more time with Natsuki, her new sister in law. And they learn a lot about each other, then we have a bit of angst and drama between them and then game over, I mean end of the story. Boring, huh?

But since the focus of the manga are the characters and their relationships I can live with such a plot. Let’s take a look at the main characters. Natsuki’s pretty much fits with one of the types of characters I’d like to see more often in manga and anime, namely the seemingly timid girl who is a bit weird and a loner but can use her brain and is not a helpless damsel in distress. For some reason the last two requirements are met by a very small number of characters, at least from what I have seen and read. Natsuki also has a temper that is not easily angered but unlike some sorry excuses for a character who can bear any humilition like the submissive morons that they are, she can and does reach the breaking point and shows the fury of her anger. Last but certainly not least she is just beautiful and in a non-loli-like sort of way, mind you.

Michiko is a highschool-girl-with-a-problematic-behaviour. Run the cliches are attacking! Despite being a walking cliche, Michiko manages to be relatively interesting, too. She is spoiled and self-centered but her teasing of Natsuki is often quite fun and I never got the feeling that she really meant any harm, she was just being a bit childish. When I say childish, I don’t mean as “anime childish” considering the trend which forces 16-18 year old character to look dumber than elementary school brats. I mean the normal amount one could expect from a spoiled teenager. The main sourse of anything that can be described as suspence is the question whether Michiko’s virtual stalking of Natsuki is anything other than a fun way to waste time teasing her new relative. And of course, Michiko is strikingly beautiful, a few seconds after seeing her I decided that I will read this manga to the end. Yes, I can be this shallow.

The art is somewhat minimalistic, the background not detailed and few things drawn in dark colour but the character designs are top notch. Maybe that’s just me getting tired of huge eyes and “cute” faces but it’s refreshing to see characters who would be instantly recognizable as humans even to people who don’t know what manga is. Yes, a terrible exaggeration, I know. Let’s just say I find them very appealing. A highschool girl who looks like a grown woman and not liке a child with big boobs? Somebody call the police please, that cannot be manga! I am kidding of course but that statement is not far from the truth. Anyway, I think that the mangaka also did a superb job in making the characters emotions be clearly seen in their facial expressions. Natsuki especially is so expressive yet manages to keep the timid loner image.

Anyway, since my motif in this review seems to be the lack of certain cliches let’s continue with it – the two main characters have never met as kids and their first meeting in the manga is their actual first meeting. No childhood promises and all that jazz. Also, we have a character who is still goes to school and no scene that takes place in the school. Considering the apparent Japanese artists obsession with school life that is not exactly common.

OK, enough about cliches. “Cotton” is just a simple story about friendship with a few hints about how to not raise kids and what is the difference between adult and a child. Absolutely nothing grand or pretentious. There are some really poetic moments, there is a bit of comedy, a bit of drama. It’s a manga that can make you feel all nice and warm inside. But I suspect it can also inspire someone to write a hardcore yuri fanfic so it’s a win-win situation. Although I have been told there are fanfics full of sex for all kinds of innocent series\mangas so understand the last sentence as you see fit.

]]> http://diefanboys.wordpress.com/2006/07/30/cotton-sometimes-simple-and-short-can-be-the-recipy-for-success/feed/ 3 matrim cotton_01-michiko.jpg cotton_02-both.jpg cotton_03-both.jpg cotton_06-both.jpg cotton_05-both.jpg cotton_03-natsuki.jpg http://diefanboys.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/saiunkoku-monogatari-the-manga-ch03/ http://diefanboys.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/saiunkoku-monogatari-the-manga-ch03/#comments Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:35:48 +0000 Alexis https://diefanboys.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/saiunkoku-monogatari-the-manga-ch03/ ]]>

The chapter starts with Shuurei waking up to find her royal husband lying on her and of course they are seen, but we know this from the anime. What is different in the manga however is the breakfast after that not so memorable first wedding night.

Shuurei is not sure what happened and desperately wants to hear that nothing took place, but Ryuuki acts nasty and …

… teases her to no end, but Shuurei being Shuurei is not fooled and sees right through him that nothing actually happened, which in turn causes the Emperor to sulk cutely.

Then our beloved concubine takes a long time to explain all the ways to love and how exactly she loves different people including telling her husband that he doesn’t make her heart go doki-doki (ouch, that must have hurt).

Next are some scenes from ep four – the talk between Ran and Seiran and the consequent sparring battle of the latter with the bearded councilor Sou.

The difference here though is that right after the end of the battle Sou talkes about what happened to the exiled prince Seien thus reveing straight away that Seiran and Seien are in fact the same person.

While I like the fast pace of the manga as well as the way the characters are much more seriously treated giving them mature and not so frilly personalities as in the anime, I think a bit more mystery about that one would have been a good idea. The anime also revealed that secret in one ep and even without it, it had enough subtle hints to the double identity of the lilac-haired bishi, but they did a better job of the revelation in my opinion.

Ok then there’s reference to one of the few things Shuurei fears (we get a glimpse of that in ep 9 of the series). Then follows some interaction between Shuurei and her father. It is annoying to no end, but he has his eyes constantly closed in the manga as well as in the anime. I don’t see why, it just gets on my nerves, big time!

And we have Ryuuki going to his concubine’s room to sleep there again, while we get all this in the eps, what is new here is the part Kourin plays. She gets some attention and we are shown that she harbours some romantic feeling towards her Emperor. She blushes sweetly when he takes the dinner she had brought for the two husbands.

Ryuuki drinks Shuurei’s tea and this angers her, but what I am more interested in, since it is not shown very clearly is if he does it because he considers it poisoned. The tea was in a silver cup, so after the hints that silver would change colour when filled with poisoned drink, it is a possibility. On the other hand unlike the case in the anime, where that was at an official gathering, here there were only the two of them, so he could very well spill it somewhere making it look like he did it unintentionally, like slip or drop it, or whatever.

Then follows a bit different way for Kouyuu to realize that the emperor is not the fool he makes of himself, but the difference is not that important. The only additional info we get is that Ryuuki’s teacher at swordsmanship was Sou, who’s legendary for his excessive expectations from his students. I guess that this would either be a substitution of the tournament from ep four or just some info that would make sense later. I guess the next chapter at the latest will show us the Emperor realizing Seiran’s true identity. I am most impatient to see how this is handled in the manga.

Interestingly, the last panel of the chapter is dedicated to Kourin, a character one would least expect to be treated with such an honour. It can even be said that she was given a lot of personality in this chapter, more that in the anime till ep 5.

The art of the manga remains absolutely gorgeous and the guys in it are so yummy that fangirls should have a napkin to prevent the drool from falling on their keyboard. I really hope that the manga will remain as beautiful and well passed. I am happy that through it I can have a view on the story form a different angle.

On another note, I’d like to point everyone’s attention to the great chibis on the cover. An especially to the fact that while Shuurei is alone in the top half of the sheet, Seiran ane Ryuuki and together in the bottom part and looking towards one another. And yes, I am perfectly aware that there is close to zero chance of any actual BL interaction between those two, but I can’t refrain myself from noting this small detail and go moe over it. I mean what kind of BL fangirl would I be, if I don’t comment on it?

Ok, I have not seen it done on another blog (which doesn't mean it has not happened, just that I am not aware of it), but that would hardly be a reason why I shouldn't do it, so I decided for now to try blogging the chapters of Saiunkoku Monogatari manga. I know that most people would blog episodes or just say a few words about a volume of manga or even the whole manga, but since I like Saiunkoku too much for the time being I'll do it like this.

Chapter two roughly covers some of what happened in eps 2 and 3 of the anime, but there's another meeting between the Emperor and Shuurei (before they officially know who is who).

Ryuuki considers the woman he has met to be some servant at the harem and is surprised to find out she is actually his a concubine.

There were some nice jokes in this that I really liked. And especially the lurking Ryuuki who tries to secretly see who's in the harem, as if he has no right to enter it.

I am glad that the manga is not too close to the anime or it would have been too boring and predictable. In this way readers can get a different view on the story and the characters and this will help them get a better idea of what is going on.

Another difference is that Shuurei doesn't take the Emperor out for a walk around the town and later for a visit at her home, but instead tells him the story of the sakura trees in her yard while they are in the royal garden.

Otherwise we have the emperor waking up and grabbing Seiran then offering him a sleepless passionate night, which is an offer sadly turned down in the manga as well , (now, why wouldn't they indulge me with some Seiran x Ryuuki BL fanservice is beyond me).

Then Ryuuki goes to Shuurei with roses, gets his hands treated and he falls asleep while she is telling him the Bara-hime story, which is once again cut short and I don't find out what happens in it (damn!).

But what is more memorable is the absolutely stunning beauty of the art. I mean Ryuuki is just like a candy waiting to be devoured by the best seme around *cough* Seiran *cough* and the same goes for Seiran, but the truth is, in this chapter it is the Emperor, who is the bishi of the day.

Feast on the bishis, for they deserve it as much as every naughty fangirl does.

Just a few words on the Saiunkoku Monogatari manga. Yesterday was provided the first chapter by one of the scanlating groups and I grabbed it right off.*

While I would really love to actually read the novels which are bound to give a better knowledge of the world and the characters, I am not passing on the manga too. Plus there are not many groups willing to start translating a novel.

What interested me the most was to see to what extent would the manga match the character designs in the anime. And my, oh my, are the bishounen even prettier! I mean I still have troubles to decide once and for all if I prefer Seiran or Ryuuki, but here they both are pure gold on the bishi side. Even if Ryuuki is a bit disturbingly beautiful in quite the feminine sense of the the word. But Seiran is just perfect.

I like the way the hair of the guys is drawn in the manga, looks much better and I am a sucker for long-haired bishounen.

Chapter one covers the first ep of the anime and if the scanlations manage to go ahead of the anime, or at least ahead of the subs this would be good as my understanding of the raws will rise a few notches. Considering however that the anime has already gone into volume 2 of the novels, I am not sure if the scanlations would be able to catch up with the anime, but as I said, even if they manage to go ahead of the subs I'll be happy.

* Please don't ask for links, if you are a fan, you'll know where to look for it