Gunslinger Girl: Finale

 

The final volume of the Gunslinger Girl manga arrived today.

The first surprise were the words “heartwarming conclusion” in the blurb on the back cover.  The second surprise was that Yu Aida really did pull it off (perhaps the third surprise is seeing Jean finally treat Rico as decently as she has long deserved). God, I’m a softie, and I’m sure all the Kool Kids will snicker, but I found this final volume to be a fitting conclusion — the complete opposite of the carnage and mayhem of the previous volumes. Yes, it has its melancholy aspects, and many beloved characters do not survive the series, but it really does end on a note of hope as the weeks of bloody terrorism give way to a peace movement with echoes of the one that emerged in Northern Ireland, and the Social Welfare Agency takes on a new role.

This volume, called “Finale”, brings the series to a close, showing the fates of the survivors, and laying many ghosts to rest, giving each a witness to recognize their passing.

I’ll agree that the epilogue lays it on way too thick, but for Triela, I’ll forgive almost anything.

I’m so glad that Seven Seas picked this series up from ADV Manga, and saw it through to its conclusion.  In twenty years of manga reading, this series stands out in the way it breathes life into its characters as it tells their stories.

 

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Ohikkoshi – Hiroaki Samura does comedy in a modern setting

by dm00

Ohikkoshi is an anthology of short stories from Blade of the Immortal‘s Hiroaki Samura.

Blade of the Immortal has always looked too violent for me, so I’ve never looked into it — though I can appreciate the artistic talent of the creator.

Ohikkoshi, published by Dark Horse, is a collection of three comic short stories set in the contemporary world.  The title story is about a collection of college-age ne’er do-wells drinking, forming bands, encountering Italian assassins, and missing connections when it comes to love.

He asked that it be spelled “Moyasimon” so…

…he could use Google to find commentary on the English-language version of the manga, instead of the anime.

by dm00

Stare at it for a long time, then look at a white wall

Volume two of Moyasimon arrives with many, many margin notes from Ishikawa-sensei, including a plaintive comment that he can’t find any reactions to the English language manga on the net. Perhaps now we know why he asked DelRey to spell the title “Moyasimon” instead of the “Moyashimon” romanization that we’re more accustomed to.

In among the sometimes-trivial, sometimes-educational, and often amusing marginalia is a story about college life and fermentation.

Zetsubou Sensei GN v2

by dm00

 

More Zetsubou-sensei? Yorokobusu shita!

 

(I sure hope I got that caption right.)

Volume two of Del Rey’s translation of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei arrived a couple of weeks ago, and, if anything, it’s better than the first volume.

Del Rey’s designers have done a good job paying respect to Koji Kumeta’s color work with their simple cover designs (which contrasts with the busy-ness of Kumeta’s pages — see below).  This volume, like the last, comes with many pages (10 this time) of notes at the end, including a few in which the translator admits defeat (“Unfortunately, analyzing this map in detail would take as much space as the entire volume…”). But all is not lost — along the way the reader is learning about many running jokes in the series.

But they do an admirable job, despite missing an opportunity to put Kumeta’s under-the-dust-jacket Komori joke (“Hey! Don’t open it, okay?”) on the “Stop! This is manga! You’re going the wrong way!” page.

Zetsubou-sensei GN v1 review

by dm00

 

Cover of Del Rey's translation of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

 

The first volume of Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei from Del Rey has been on the bookshelves of American bookstores for several weeks now.

I’d pre-ordered it as soon as it was available for pre-order, and I’m generally happy with my (discounted) purchase.  When I first heard about this series, it struck me as one that would be nearly untranslatable.  Joyce Aurino, the translator, has taken on a thankless job and done perhaps as well as anyone could.

Nomad’s Super Awesome Manga Review part Two + Genshiken!!!one111

By Nomad “I can’t belive I’m writing this with a headache when I’ve got three problem sets and a research presentation due next week” Otto

Alright, folks, I promised another chapter of the endless manga review cycle that is my life, well, not counting the research, the teaching, the ass-kicking, and the being a murdering kill-bot. Not many volumes of stuff this time, and the only reason why I’m writing now, as opposed to, say, later, is because I just got a whole huge stack of new crap, mostly Black Lagoon and Cloth Road, which will suck up my time and are not really that interesting to review. In the event that fat stacks of cash drop on my lap, and if I suddenly have a bunch more time, I’ll read and/or write more about series I haven’t previously covered. Anyway, on with the show: