Cantarella

Cantarella is a rare manga that follows real historic people, in this case the Borgia family. The main character is Cesare Borgia, and the narrative follows him as he grows up and takes on his destiny. I enjoyed how it tried to follow a more neutral path than many other stories about this family. For people who have enjoyed the Assassins Creed games you might find this confusing, but then Cantarella takes a lot less artistic license than the games.

The art is gorgeous.
One thing that might be a bit off putting is the amount of violence in this series, although I don't think it's excessive considering the time period. There is also a bit of mystical stuff to hinder the true historian. Cesare's father sells his son's soul to become Pope, etc. Given that this is set in medieval/ Renaissance period I think that it still fits the the story.

I haven't read much of this series yet, but I plan to finish it soon. I really started to feel for the main characters and how they were trapped and shaped by the ambitions of the people around them. Of course it's easy to enjoy if you are new to the story, or if you already know it and can see the foreshadowing. At the very least it makes reading about history fun and rich, and oh so pretty to look at.

Hikaru no Go

Now back when I was a kid and manga was new to these shores manga for boys mostly consisted of harem manga, with full fan service, and giant robots with people in them beating each other up. Things have changed since then and there are a lot more options and genres available.

One genre I see a lot of now is sports manga like Prince of Tennis, Whistle, Rebound and many others. These generally consist of one Joe average who loves the game but isn't really very good at it and often is the worst player on the team. They usually end up succeeding through some special inner skill and a whole boat lad of determination and love of the game. I'm sure you recognize the plot from any number of western sports movies.

Hikaru no Go is a little different than most of this genre; firstly because Go is more like chess then football, and secondly because Go is usually played by old men and not boys. To get around this the main character, a punk kid named Hikari Shindo, is haunted by the ghost of a great Go player named Fujiwara-no-Sai. In order to get his life back Hikari starts to learn to play Go, mostly to keep Sai off his back. He unwittingly starts to love the game and eventually finds himself playing against the strongest player in his age group as Sai. This starts a rivalry between the boys and Hikari vows to reach the other young man so that they can play as equals.

For someone who could easily have Sai switch in whenever he starts to lose Hikari is surprisingly honest. He never cheats except by ignorance of the game and often has to keep Sai from playing when he shouldn't. Unlike other boy types there is almost no violence 9other than a few school yard scraps) and no sex or other things you might like your young men to avoid. It's manga like this that proves you can tell a good story, and keep boys engaged, with out resorting to an "R" rating.

"Boy Manga"

Because I started reading manga at a young age I've found it pretty easy to narrow down my choices to things I know I will like. Because I started at a time when girls thought boys had cooties and vice versa I often choose to avoid "boy manga." I have some pretty serious stereotypes about it too, although I prefer to call it genre classification. :) Over the next little while I'm going to challenge myself to read some of the less objectionable and bring my new opinion to you. Basically it's a chance for us all to learn something new, and that's where the fun's at.

My new shiney!!

I got a smart phone for my birthday, so now I can keep up with the 23 things on the go. I haven't found apps for them all yet, but I'm still looking for them or for alternatives. I might even catch up to my peers in web connectedness (yeah, right). Come by and I'll show off. :)

Smile boxed up

I think I'm going to leave this one, at least until later, because it wanted to download something to my computer. I can't do that at work! Bad Smilebox, no biscuit. So I'll try it at home sometime, and see what I can send. Not sure I'll use it for much, I like being creative, but I think it might be too noisy for me. Yes I am a grump, and the examples just seemed too busy. Maybe for my mom, she loves singing cards etc...

Yokaiden

This is the first manga I've reviewed that's had its creative origin outside of Asia. This is mainly because I feel that these second generation manga have a different feel and tone than Asian manga and I would prefer not to blend the two. I will read Western graphic novels, but then the subject matter is usually also Western. Yes it's a horrible, horrible bias and I'm a bad girl but that's the way it is.

Yokaiden has the benefit of not only Japanese style art but also Japanese style subject matter. Namely: Japanese myths and legends. I have been interested in myths since I was quite young, I find that great stories have a habit of lasting.

I think this would be a great book to add to the collection. So far (I've only read the first volume) the main protagonist is a young boy who loves yokai (more like the old school fae than demons, which is how the term is usually translated). He wants to make friends with the yokai and teach them to co-exist with humans. Since some yokai eat people you can see why his neighbors, and especially his hateful old granny, would have a problem with this. When his granny is killed by a yokai the boy sets of to the homeland of the yokai, not to get revenge exactly, but more to find out what happened. His adventures seem to be the core narrative of the book.

With a good natured male protagonist and a lack of romance subplot I think this is an excellent book to introduce to young male readers. It has a little violence, but no sex or language and especially no sports or giant robots: the two main staples of boy manga. I also enjoyed reading it, and I'm not a boy. The back has a glossary of spirits, sort of an encyclopedia of everyone the hero meets and what they do. My fave? The spirit that eats the ring in dirty tubs. Talk about eww factor, right? Now go find a boy and explain it to him, then give him this book.

A few shelfari problems

Sorry guys, technical difficulties with Shelfari, I will try to update my shelf as soon as they are sorted out. Thanks for your patience.

Ghost Hunt

Mai is an ordinary Japanese school girl who gets wrapped up with a team of paranormal investigators led by a young man named Shibuya. The team tries to use scientific means to investigate hauntings and other forms of psychic phenomena. While the team does try to break the actual investigating into scientific terminology and uses tools like heat sensing cameras the actual getting rid of ghosts is usually done by the rest of the team: a monk, a Shinto priestess, and a catholic priest. This is an area that seems a little sketchy since they seem to be trying so hard to prove how ghosts and psychic powers could exist scientifically but don't do much to explain how the counter powers exist. It seems to be just inborn or inherent to certain people. Another thing that got me was how the Catholic priest is basically 16 years old, I'm pretty sure you need an advanced degree in Theology for that.

Some of the things I liked about this series is how very Japanese it can be when it focuses on old legends and ghost stories. It also has a section in the back where it explains things in depth for none Japanese readers. It's based on a novel so the character building is slow but also pretty deep in comparison to other series. There are many mysteries between the group members, mainly focusing on Shibuya and his assistant Lin.

While some of the stuff that happens in this book is a little dark it's no darker than your usual mystery. People do die, sometimes a little graphically but it's usually integral to the story line. It also has a romance sub plot, although that's pretty light and only seems to feature when the action isn't heavy. All in all I enjoyed this series, and I think it's the first mystery series I've read. Pick it up for it's uniqueness, or because you want to add a new genera to your manga collection, or just because it's cool.

Wrap up and sad endings

So this is the end of the 23 Things program and I'm really going to miss it. I seem to be the kind of person who needs a lot of help keeping up digitally, or at least I lose a lot between Library 2.0 classes. A side effect of taking this program that I will miss is the introduction to many people at work that I don't see daily. I got a chance as the newbie to see opinions and interests that I might not get to see on my own. I also got to sign up for book making, something I've been interested in but unable to self teach myself.

One thing I wish had been a thing was some kind of music program. I realize that it's hard to find something that shares music legally, and that it isn't directly related to libraries. I just think that with the way 99% of students seem to have their ipods turned on 99% of the time it might have a tenuous link to libraries. Maybe we could create a "study time in the library" playlist? I guess that's just because I really like music. I still think the library 23 things program was really awesome, and I'm glad that I joined and that others created and participated.

One thing I will take away from this project (other than the programs) is a new love for photography. I'm still really bad at it! But I know people on the Internet might still find my cruddy pictures a little interesting so I'll keep at it for a while.

I know that I will not blog as often now that this is done, and I know most won't blog at all but I hope some people will. I'll be going back to talking about manga, but I think I'll add posts about other things that come to mind too. I hope those of you that enjoyed me will check back occasionally, and that you'll like what's here. Thanks for reading all, and I'll see you at work.