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Library Wars
Jan. 22nd, 2011 10:40 am
Library Wars by Kiiro Yumi. In the Japan of a not-too-distant future, libraries are at war. The central government-run Media Betterment Committee has been fighting for control of library collections, which are protected from their censorship by the Library Defense Force. As a young teen, Iku Kasahara had a longed-for book taken out of her hands at a bookstore by the Media Betterment Committee, then returned to her by an LDF agent. Now she’s joined the LDF as the first female agent. Does her supervising officer’s gruff exterior conceal a soft heart, or is he really just a jerk? Will she make it in the Defense Force? Who was her mysterious hero, and can Iku ever find him? This is written as a shojo, or girl’s manga, so romantic concerns take up most of the space for the first book and a half, with the censorship plot slowly gaining importance. Book 4 is due out in March 2011. The art is on the realistic side for manga. This is a fun and frothy read, with underpinnings of serious issues. Crossposted to http://sapphireone.livejournal.com and http://library-mama.dreamwidth.org .
Hikaru No Go by Yumi Hotta. Art by Takeshi Obata And now, for a change of pace, some manga. Hikaru is a fun-loving, not too serious middle school student. One day, he finds an old go board in his grandfather’s attic. It turns out to be haunted by the ghost of an old and really good go player, Sai, who then takes up residence in Hikaru’s consciousness. This is somehow not creepy, and we are also assured that Sai is male even though has long purple hair, earrings, and a delicate face. Anyway, prompted by Sai, Hikaru starts playing Go. He joins his school’s go team and goes to go salons. At first, he lets Sai tell him where to put the stones. Doing this, he attracts the attention of Akira Toya, the best player from the best middle school go team in town. But before Akira can track him down for another game, Hikaru decides that he wants to play for himself. Over the course of the series (17 books out in America so far), Akira and Hikaru, coached by Sai, climb higher and higher into the go world. Even though this has an improbable premise and is centered on a complicated game I don’t even try to understand, the characters are so well done that the story doesn’t feel silly. Hikaru and his friends are genuinely likeable characters, and the honorable rivalry between Hikaru and Akira Toya is compelling. It’s good story-telling, with large numbers of impossibly innocent-looking wide eyes and a few adorable girls in mini-skirted uniforms thrown in for good measure.
Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya This is the most popular series of shojo or girls manga so far. Tohru Honda is a Japanese high school girl. Recently orphaned, she finds herself unofficially adopted by an isolated household of the large and wealthy Sohma clan. While everyone knows of the Sohmas, only a very few know of their curse: every generation, one person will represent each of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, plus the cat, who was tricked out of attending the banquet. When they are hugged by a person of the opposite sex, these cursed people transform into their animal selves for a while. Tohru, despite the many misfortunes that have befallen her, is relentlessly optimistic and always believes the best of everyone. (How does she sound too good to be true and yet remain absolutely appealing? Her struggles to pass class must be part of it.) Now she’s living with the older Shigure, the dog, as well fellow high school students Yuki the rat and Kyo the cat. Naturally this situation gives ample opportunity for suggestive but chaste humorous interludes as people bump into Tohru and transform. But the character drama is what makes this really addictive. The otherwise quiet and polite Yuki and the rude but soft-hearted Kyo are constantly getting into fights – but find themselves spending more time together to spend it with their adored Tohru. Tohru just wants to get to know them better, and meet the other members of the Zodiac. The fan letters published in the book are always asking if Tohru will choose Yuki or Kyo. It’s not going to happen. The beauty is in the attraction, where a slight and otherwise innocent gesture carries more tension than your average explicit scene. Somewhere in the volumes I haven’t read yet – I think it’s up to 20 or so now – they might try to break the curse. For right now, it’s mostly personal drama, with the occasional drops of information about the curse slowly accumulating in the background. I could say more, but I have two more books to read tonight.
