You know I think I did this exact same thing last year, ran out of manga to talk about, looked at Yuki Midorikawa's (Natsume Yuujinchou) other works and then proceeded to read one of them from start to finish in an embarrassingly short amount of time. Oh well, in case people haven't figured out by now I've always been a rather voracious reader, and a fast one, so it should be no surprise that one of my favorite pastimes is to devour a large book/comic series in a pretty short amount of time, it's just that rarely I find a complete manga series that I like so I don't review them here very often (especially since I haven't figured out a better method for reviewing on-going manga, even stuff that's currently being published in the US).
Akaku Saku Koe by Yuki Midorikawa
Summary: Kokubu has a crush on a guy in another class, Karashima, and notices one day that he's going in the same direction she is and she decides to be proactive and follow him, follow him into a crime scene apparently. Karashima has an almost supernatural voice that let's him persuade and command other people and uses it to help out the police
The Good: There was a side note translated somewhere from the manga-ka which said something along the lines of "Kokubu is my favorite kind of heroine to write" and I can see why. While not physically strong or the fastest thinker she's determined and quick to improvise if needed (somebody grabs your friend? Throw a show at them, don't even think about it!) so, even if the story is never very clear WHY she developed a crush on Karashima, she's a pretty likable character (just like the leads in Natsume Yuujinchou and Hi-iro no Isu). I also liked how Karashima's secret was treated, the characters treat it almost casually, freely discussing it when other people aren't around, and that was a nice change of pace. Casual is actually a really good word to describe this series, it's not exactly slow paced or easy going and does have it's dramatic moments but still manages to feel rather laid back over all.
The Bad: It's pretty easy to see that this is Midorikawa's first work because, to be blunt about it, at least half of the stuff in here has appeared in some of her later works and has been refined since then. Kokubu's crush, while certainly cute, feels a little random especially early on, the pacing is a bit strange given all it's timeskips and how slowly the characters change, the art has it's own issues, and there never ends up being one unifying idea/plot thread/theme that ties together the entire story. Sadly these problems also appear in her later works, for me none of them were deal-breakers but they certainly do make it a bit harder to recommend.
The Art: Yeah, this is another area where Midorikawa has improved over the years (although, don't kill me folks! but I still think that her art is a bit too basic and could be refined a bit more). In fact I can't really blame Karashima for not recognizing a lot of the criminals he's helped catch in the past, god knows I wouldn't have been able to tell a lot of them apart if they had all been lined up next to each other. Background are still kind of weak as well, basically you can tell this is her first work from the art alone, it's just not as strong as it could be.
In the end, if you really, really like Midorikawa's other works and want to read more, go for it, try this out, you'll probably like it. If you're more of a lukewarm fan, or haven't read/seen any of her work at all, look at Natsume Yuujinchou or Hotarubi no Mori E since they are stronger works. If I was to ever come across these books (in Japanese since I can't see this work ever being translated) I'd pick them up but that's because I'm a pretty big fan, otherwise I'm not going to lose much sleep over it.
So Yuki Midorikawa's better known work (in the West) Natsume Yuujinchou just got released in the US but, since I mentioned to my mom that I was sad I couldn't afford to get it right now so instead I'm getting it for a Christmas present. To cheer myself up (I got a bit jealous seeing everyone else posting photos of their cool boxsets) I decided to watch Brain's Base apatations of one of her other works. Then again, considering the kinds of romance that Midorikawa writes are at the best bittersweet, cheering myself up might have been the wrong reason to watch this.
Hotarubi no Mori E (To the forest of Firefly Lights)
Summary: Six year old Hotaru has gotten lost in the forest near her uncle's house and the mysterious spirit Gin leads her home again. He has a rather fragile existence, he will disappear if he ever touches a human, but seems happy enough to play with her. As the years go by though their relationship begins to change and Hotaru wishes that she could see him more than just every summer.
The Good: For a story that eventually ends up being a love story with a large age difference (Hotaru grows from 6 to 15 and Gin ages very slowly so he's easily decades old) it never once felt creepy which amazes me. Of course, the relationship started out as friendship and didn't become romantic for a very long time which probably helps, but I can't remember the last time I saw a relationship like that where there wasn't a little voice in the back of my head going "but she's ____ and he's _____! Ack!" It's also quite well paced, I almost hesitate to call it a film since it's only 45 minutes long, but regardless it's designation it flowed well and the parts that were added/expanded upon were worked in seamlessly.
The Bad: It would have been nice if some of the other manga from the same volume (there were four one-shots all published in the same volume with this title, Hotarubi is also the title of this specific work) had also been animated and made the movie longer but I'm not crushed that they weren't.
The Audio: I didn't notice much about the background music in this short film, except for one section early on which was much more upbeat and cheerful than I expected. Other than that, slightly dissonant, moment everything else sounded the way I expected and it worked. Don't have any real comments on the voice acting either, more because this film was only 40 minutes long and that's not long enough for me to really get a feel for the acting, it certainly wasn't bad or anything like that!
The Visuals: Yet again there are a lot of similarities to Natsume here, the characters have the same, cleaned-up-sketch look to them but the backgrounds are much more detailed than Natsume's were, probably due to a bigger budget. Just look at that poster, true it's promo art so they'll put even more work into it but I was surprised at the level of detail in the props and backgrounds.
With something so short it's hard to say much but this was sweet in the way Midorikawa's works often are, something that makes you sad and happy at the same time. I can easily recommend this to fans of Natsume and non-fans who like romance or supernatural elements quite easily, with such a short length it won't take time to watch yet you still feel satisfied by the end.
Earlier in the month I was browsing some of the submissions to the Natsume Yuujinchou group on deviantArt and came across a piece of fanart with some characters I didn't recognize. The artists comments explained that they had drawn the main characters from three of Yuki Midorikawa's works, Natsume Yuujinchou, Hotarubi no Mori e (both of which I had recognized), and then a third character from another work of her's Hiro no Isu. I hadn't really done any searching to see if Midorikawa had done any other works besides Natsume and Hotarubi, turns out she's been published since 1998 and has done seven series of various lengths and this one was her longest one before Natsume at 10 chapters over three volumes. It's never been released in the US and the scans were rather easy to find so I decided to give the story a shot and ended up immedately falling in love with it.
Hiro no Isu (The Scarlet Chair/Throne) by Yuki Midorikawa
Summary: Setsu is a girl from a small town in the countryside and has traveled to the capital to see an old friend. She was one of the few who knew that her childhood friend Luca was actually the illegitimate child of the king and years ago he was summoned by one of the retainers to become the new king and take the scarlet throne since he was the only living descendant left. But when Setsu comes to the city she's in for a surprise, there's an impostor in his place and he seems to have been expecting Setsu to come someday.
The Good: This series is clearly a shojo manga, it has a female protagonist and was published in Hana to Yume based on the cover, but it doesn't feel like a typical shojo series at all. There's a bit of romance but not much, it's more implied than anything else*, the main character isn't that girly but this is never a reason for teasing or angst, she just doesn't seem to care, and she's proficient with a sword which never seems to raise any eyebrows. Actually, there are several female characters who are skilled fighters and no one ever questions this, I'm so used to seeing series where female characters have to fight their way to the top to be accepted that it's always odd when there isn't sexism, I certainly prefer it this way though. And I also prefer the lack of romance, there is a big focus on friendship instead and I really liked seeing those grow and develop between all the characters. The series ended a bit differently than I expected and was a bit bittersweet as well but I felt satisfied with it once I was done so I'm happy.
The Bad: The series is an odd length and I wonder if this was originally going to be a one-shot story that was approved for a full series or a full series that was cut short. Perhaps it was only intended to be a short story from the start but occasionally the pacing felt a little odd and made me wonder. While I don't think the story could have worked if it was any shorter I do think it could've also worked as a longer series which would have been nice, some of the reveals towards the end came too quickly and felt too messy. Overall though the plotting is strong enough, it just feels like it could've been even better.
The Art: I know this has surprised some people before but I'm actually not super-fond of Midorikawa's art style, it's a bit too sketchy and inconsistent for my taste. It does work surprisingly well for action scenes, of which HnI has many, but it can become difficult to distinguish the characters from each other. I found it interesting to compare her art here to her work in Natsume, she's certainly improved but there is still some charm to the art here.
If this was ever to be licensed in the US, highly unlikely but hypothetically, I'd buy it for sure and squee over it all over again. It's shojo, which I love, but different from other shojo titles which I love even more. Wonder if I can find out more about any of Midorikawa's other works now....
*something interesting however, apparently the reason there has been so little romance in Natsume, this is all at least third-hand information, is because Midorikawa's editors made her put in more romance than she wanted in her previous work so she's really trying to avoid it this time. Chronologically this would have been the work right before Natsume so I wonder if the editors made her put in the hints in the end, no way to know however.
