Manga Review: solanin

This is a comic I've seen in bookstores and wanted to read for years (since, goodness it must be high school if I was actually in a bookstore on a regular basis) but didn't want to just blind-buy it, despite the fact I knew that several of my friends had enjoyed it. So as soon as I saw it at my new local library system (and convinced them to give me a library card) I immedately checked it out and got to reading.

solanin by Inio Asano

Manga Review: Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep

Continuing with me "well it's not licensed in the US and it's rather niche so it probably won't but it's finished and I want to share it with other people" manga reviews, this was a title that was recommended by someone, I forget exactly who, on my twitter feed and I follow people on twitter because they have tastes that generally match up with mine so when someone recommends something I take a look at it. Plus, I've noticed lately that I'm not reading nearly as much yuri /GL as I would like as I would like so why not take a chance on a one volume story and hope for the best?


Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep by Mizutani Fuka

Summary: There are two Kakimoto Imaris, the tall, more tomboyish "Big" Imari and the cuter looking, artsy "Little" Imari and not only do they share the same name and almost identical birthdays but they also end up at the same hospital with the same injury. What's different about them are the secrets they keep and the ways they deal with them.

The Good: There are two things I don't like which keep me from enjoying a lot of BL and Gl, too much angst and explicit sex and happily for me this story has neither of those things. The Imaris have a relationship that's more like friendship than a romance for most of the story and while they do have some issues to move past they do move past them so the story isn't drowning in tears and sadness. Both of them are reasonably well-fleshed out by the end of the story, which a few (I feel almost obligatory by this point) twists on stereotypes and the story is paced well also making for a short yet sweet read.

The Bad: A small complaint that is rather unsurprising for a one volume story, things just worked out a little too simply for them especially when it came to resolving their problems. I call this a small problem because hey, life isn't always angst filled and while both Imari's had problems they both also were unhappy about them and did deep down have the desire to fix them, plus who knows exactly how much time passed between several of the events. I didn't like how Rika ended up being rather two dimensional by the end, she's much more of a plot device than a character, but in a weird way the story didn't even need a character for her, what it needed was an event and she did fulfill that role perfectly fine. 

The Art: Normally I don't post a spread of a cover like the one above but it was just too adorable to pass up and seeing the characters in color makes me wish the entire book had been in color too. The art is a bit simple, there's a lot of white with little screentoning and nothing has a lot of detail in it but I think the feel of the art fits in well with the feel of the story, short and sweet with no additional fuss.


So I give this 3.5 out of 5 stars and would certainly buy it if it became available in North America (either in print or digitally). Actually, considering it's only one volume I wouldn't mind buying it in Japanese but, since I live at least a few hundred miles away from a store that sells books in Japanese in the US and have no time to figure out how to buy books on Japanese websites I'll just cross my fingers and hope this one gets released in the US so I don't need to worry about that. 

Movie Review: Eden of the East, Paradise Lost

It's been pretty close to a year since I first saw the tv series for Eden of the East and, while I would have loved to see the movies right after I saw the series, that's actually a fairly fast turn around and kudos to Funimation for doing that. As a quick note, I try not to put spoilers in my reviews but the fact is that this movie is the direct sequel to another movie which is the direct sequel to the original tv series, it's nigh-impossible to say what's going on without mentioning something, possibly spoliery, that happened in one of the earlier installments. So, here's my review on the tv series, here's the review for the first movie and read carefully if you haven't seen either of those before (and my footnote gets a bit spoilery so read that at your own risk). 

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost

Summary: Starting up mere hours after The King of Eden concluded, Takizawa and Saki have returned to Japan where the Selecao game is about to wrap up and all the players are making their final moves. Takizawa has a plan but he's going to need the help of the Eden of the East group to pull it all off.

The Good: While some people have complained about how much screen time the other people in Eden of the East (the company Saki and her friends started) I've always liked how the show had quite a few people who were completely unconnected to the game but who play important supporting roles, it provides a nice bit of grounding. Also, considering that a main theme of the series is the role of NEETs/what should the NEETs really be doing with their lives it makes a lot of sense to see characters who are actually in this situation and simply struggling through young adult life. Yes the movie could exist with those characters having less screen time, the other selecaos would make their moves, there would be confrontations, all the lingering secrets from the show would be answered (all of  which were done well) but I just really sympathized with those characters and was happy that they were in the show. There was also a nice conclusion to Saki and Takizawa's sorta-kinda romance which also worked well with the mood of the whole series which left me feeling satisfied. 

The Bad: Before I saw the movies, some people were suggesting that the movies be watched back to back so that the action in the second movie balances out all the talking in the first movie. The thing is, there isn't a ton of action in the second movie either which is how all of Eden of the East has been, it's a show that has some action but for people to complain by this point that it doesn't have enough action is a tad ridiculous. I'm surprised I haven't heard that much complaining about Takizawa's plan to save Japan since it was a bit confusing and not action-y at all*, although perhaps the audience has realized by this point that there is a limit to how great any of the selecao's plans can be in a realistic setting.

The Audio: Like the previous movie, Paradise Lost has it's own opening song (which is visually very similar to the opening of the tv series) but it's performed by School Food Punishment instead of Oasis (who did the tv series, the show's most well-known song). School Food Punishment has already done the ending songs for the other two installments (and does the ending song here) so it's a nice touch to use the same performers and it adds extra continuity between them. The song is softer than the other theme songs, a bit odd since the show is reaching its climax, but thanks to that continuity the music doesn't feel out of place. 

The Visuals: Many of the cars are still conspicuous CGI (is this one of Production IG's weak points?) but other than that nitpicky detail the show still looks just fine. The new character designs fit in well with the existing ones (even though some of the characters still look a bit too young), the characters look distinct, and there's plenty of details. This is a show I watch more for the plot, not the visuals, but nothing on screen drew me out of the story which means that everything was working fine.

So, I really did enjoy this whole series, not entirely sure why people thought that the movies were such bad endings (maybe they wanted more action? Guys, I know that the first episode was action filled but this isn't actually that kind of action show, y'all should've realized that by this point) although I can see where the people who wish this had been a second season (instead of two movies) are coming from. But the reason I really loved this franchise (other than the politics, I was literally squeeing at points because of that) was because the characters are my age/a few years older and I could sympathize with them, that's just a really rare thing. I WANT more shows (/stories in general) that deal with these "new adults" who are coming into the world and realizing that they don't understand everything, no one understands everything, and they aren't thrilled with some of the things they do get, basically I want more shows that are like the original noitaminA shows. And that's why I went ahead and bought both of these movies before I saw them, something that I very rarely do, because I'm happy that these shows do exist and dammit, I want more and not just in anime! 


*in fact, I didn't get Takizawa's plan until about a day later when I was watching the news with my mom and ranting about how it didn't seem fair that the generation before me was doing more and more stupid stuff that I didn't agree with but yet would have to live with it and clean it up later on and then Takizawa's plan finally clicked with me. I was a expecting a grander plan than "let younger people have more of a say in their country," considering this is Takizawa, so I think this will disappoint a lot of people (even though I agreed with it and found the eventual outcome to be rather realistic).