Review: Paradise Kiss 1

I am woefully unqualified to judge fashion. Sure, I may like to restyle my hair every now and then and look at nice clothes, but my normal ensemble of clothes consists of plain tees and jeans. I do however think I'm qualified to judge a manga about people into fashion and their dramatic lifestyles.

Paradise Kiss 1
Created by Ai Yazawa
Published by Vertical Inc.

Yup, I'm reviewing another Vertical title. Variety is the spice of life, but Vertical just keeps publishing good manga. I've got a backlog of their manga that keeps growing, so don't expect me to stop reviewing their manga anytime soon.

Anyway, the story of Paradise Kiss follows serious high school student Yukari Hayasaka, who is preparing for her college exams. She's been raised to believe that nothing is important in life than getting into a good college, as what college you go to defines you. The problem is that she has no idea what she wants to do with her life beyond school, but she's given a chance to find that purpose when she runs into some students from a fashion school that want her to be their model. She initially resists these strange people, but she succumbs to their wishes when she meets their handsome leader, George, who has a way with words and women. However, this new development in her life has consequences.

Despite the strange outlandish fashion students and the occasional fourth wall jokes, this manga is refreshingly realistic in its depiction of real life. Yukari's plight with not knowing what to do with her life is something many young adults face, and while initially reluctant to join the Atelier, the little club the fashion students have,  it's no surprise she gives into the temptation to find something more in life. Sure, it brings some hardships into her life, especially when she starts falling for George, but she is ultimately breaking out of her cozy cocoon to become an adult. That butterfly metaphor surprisingly works, as butterflies are a common motif in the story, usually as part of the designs the fashion students make. It's even prominently featured on the cover of the book.

I'm sure the fashion world is an interesting place and creating fashion is a particularly deep artistic subject, but the story's not really about fashion, just the people involved in it. This is not a bad thing as these characters are definitely unique and the main draw of the story. George is of course the most interesting of the Atelier. He can come across as cold, aloof, and even a tad manipulative, but he clearly gets people. The aloof personality seems to be a result of genius fashion mind, a common trait for prodigies in any field. He definitely gets along with the other members nicely; he can be demanding, but he's an inspiring leader to them, and especially to Yukari since he's the one to get her to try something new. They eventually form a relationship, but it's a roller coaster ride for the two; George is the more experienced and distant of the two, and Yukari's more dependent and lost, and it creates a straining tension between them. They get mad each other, talk things out, fall back in love again, etc. It feels like a genuine relationship between two human beings. The beta couple of the series is Arashi and Miwako, two other members of the Atelier. They're an even more mismatched couple than Yukari and George, Arashi being a punk guitar player with safety pins in his face and Miwako being a cute woman-child, but they manage to be an endearing despite their differences.

Further illustrating the real-life qualities of the manga is the artstyle. It has a tendency to look cartoony during comedy bits, but the default style is about as realistic as manga gets. Special mention goes to the various dresses the Atelier makes. I'm not a fashion critic, but the way they're drawn is gorgeous. They're extremely detailed, and if this weren't a comic, you'd feel as if they were really there. The cartoony bits are actually not that derailing either. Ai Yazawa's strengths as an artist definitely are in drawing people, but she's got a good sense of comedic timing in her art.

This is a good start to the series, and I'm thankful that Vertical rescued this. They're releasing the final two parts, and I plan to review them as they come out. Regardless of where the series goes, I recommend buying part 1, as it works as its own story in some ways, but I definitely can't wait to get my hands on the next part.

Review: The Drops of God Volume 1

Ugh, that Fourze finale. I'm going to need a drink to forget that mess. Oh wait, I don't drink. Maybe reading about drinks will be a nice alternative?

The Drops of God Volume 1
Written by Tadashi Agi
Art by Shu Okimoto

"When world-renowned wine critic Yukata Kanzaki passes away, his will reveals that his fortune of a wine collection isn't bequeathed as a matter of course to his only son, who in a snub went to work sales at a beer company. To come into the inheritance, Shizuku must identify - in competition with a stellar young critic - twelve heaven-sent wines whose impressions the will describes in flowing terms..."







Forgive me for coming into this manga a little late. I know that many critics praised this manga as the biggest thing since sliced bread last year, but I finally bought the series during a Vertical Inc. sale on Right Stuf not too long ago and finally got around to reading it. I'm not exactly the target audience here. I'm not a legal drinker, and I've only had a few sips of wine in my 19 years of life. Am I fit to review this? Well, I can't say if the wine facts in the series are accurate, but wine lovers seem to have no issue with how wine is described in this series, so how would a wine philistine such as myself react to this?

I'll make a brief comparison between The Drops of God and Toriko. While both series are dramatically different in tone, the former being a seinen series about wine connoisseurs competing for an inheritence and the latter being a shonen action series about people getting stronger through eating tons of food, both are laudable for their in-depth descriptions of food. Both convey the feeling of taste to the reader strongly, as if the reader were able to taste the food themselves. Fitting for the demographic, Drops of God's descriptions of wine are elegant and nuanced, comparing the taste of certain wines to paintings, historical events, and even the awesomeness of a Queen concert, backing up the the descriptions with gorgeous illustrations to maximize the experience. The writing and artwork are in perfect synch during these scenes and I can't get enough of them.

The story is rather straight-forward, though it does take a few turns. Shizuku Kanzaki is the son of a world-renowned wine critic, a rock star of the wine world. Obviously he has some big shoes to fill, and has been raised from childhood to become a wine critic with as much finesse and skill as his father, being forced to smell stuff such as wine and even leather belts to help develop his senses. The problem is, Shizuku has never had a glass of wine in his life until after the death of his father. Because he was forced to train his entire life, Shizuku developed a hatred for wine and decided to work for a beer company instead. He finally does try some wine, and his first wine is good enough to inspire Shizuku to obtain his father's wine collection and find the legendary 12 wines, referred to as "the 12 Apostles". His natural talents give him an edge in the competition, but his lack of wine study holds him back. This is where Miyabi Shinohara comes in.

Miyabi is a wine sommelier in training. She's very knowledgeable on different kinds of wines, the vintners that created them, and various other wine facts that the average wine drinker might not know. She's useful for expositing information on wine to the reader, but she has some dimensions beyond that. She makes for a good companion to Shizuku's natural wine skills, and it's always nice to have a competent female lead that doesn't exist to titillate the reader.

Facing Shizuku in the competition for his father's inheritance is Tomine Issei, a young wine critic who has been nicknamed "Prince of Wine". He was adopted as Yukata Kanzaki's son a week before his death, but Issei admits he only did this to inherit Kanzaki's priceless wine collection. Issei is intentionally unlikable, very snobby towards Shizuku's layman experience with wine. He has the skills to back up his snobbery, able to defeat Shizuku in the first tasting test of the competition. He trains hard to hone his skills, even going so far as to taste dirt from different wine vineyards to distinguish their quality.

There are plenty of other characters who make appearances in this lengthy first volume, some of whom are renowned wine critics themselves. There's Mr. Fujieda, a bar owner and teacher of Miyabi's, who comes to the aid of Shizuku several times, and it's because of him that Shizuku tries wine. Another notable character is Honma, an Italian-obsessed employee of the wine division Shizuku is transferred to who antagonizes Shizuku  for his love of French wine and tries to woo Miyabi in a very creepy manner. The minor conflicts might distract from the main plot a bit, but they help develop Shizuku on his path to becoming a master of wine critique.

This manga lives up to the hype. Even a wine newbie like me enjoyed this manga, due to its enthusiasm and intelligent description of its subject. The most important aspect of any manga focused on a particular subject, whether it be sports or food, is to get the reader interested in the subject as well by making it as appealing as possible, and this manga succeeds at doing just that. If you have no interest in wine or outright hate it, you might want to skip it because so much time is dedicating to describing wine in great detail, but if you want a mature series with adult characters and a great combination of art and storytelling, I'd say check it out. It might even convince non-wine drinkers to take an interest in wine.

BUY IT!

(Explanation of the rating system: Instead of a numbered scale, I use a simple three-tiered system: buy it, rent it, and avoid it. It's fairly self-explanatory.)

The Drops of God is currently available from Vertical, Inc. The first four volumes have been released, with the fifth one coming out October 30th of this year.

Review: Twin Spica (Volumes 1-2)

Twin Spica

Created by Kou Yaginuma

Published by Vertical

2012 has been a great year for space fans. Despite the American government cutting their funding, NASA has managed to land the Curiosity rover on Mars. Japan seems to have joined the recent space craze through their entertainment. The manga Space Brothers is currently one of the more popular manga in the country, having a successful anime airing this year as well as a live-action movie, and the current Kamen Rider series is themed around space. Even shows not based around space exploration have weighed in on the theme, such as Humanity Has Declined which had a moving arc based on personifying space probes. As long as man has been able to see the skies, it’s dreamed of space exploration, and it continues to be a romantic ideal for many writers. Any fan of space exploration should check out the subject of today’s review, Twin Spica.

Plot:

In the year 2010, Japan launches a space shuttle named the Lion. However, not long after launch, the rocket failed and crashed in the middle of a city, killing and injuring several people. It’s deemed one of the most tragic accidents in spaceflight history. Our main character, Asumi, was 1 year old when this happened, and her mother was sadly one of the several people injured in this crash and later died. Despite the tragedy, Asumi dreams of one day becoming an astronaut.

Story:

One half of the first two volumes shows Asumi working hard to get accepted into the Tokyo National Space School, a high school dedicated to training students to work in space sciences. The other half shows Asumi’s childhood, further showing the consequences of the Lion crash and how it affected Asumi and the rest of the city. Despite the characters being shaken up by the tragedy, the chapters in the past manage to be very heartwarming, and at the same time are more fantastical than the chapters that take place in the present. This is because of a character named Mr. Lion, a man in a lion mascot costume who may or may not be real. He acts as Asumi’s mentor and closest friend, and it’s thanks to him that Asumi is so driven to become an astronaut.

Asumi’s mother gets a very significant chapter during the flashback chapters. Not long after she passes away, Asumi falls into a river and nearly drowns, causing her to enter a near-death experience where she’s allowed to communicate with her mother one last time. It’s very Japanese in the way the afterlife is shown, and fans of Spirited Away might know why. It’s one of the most heart-warming chapters in the entire manga.

The present-day chapters are no slouch either. An early chapter puts Asumi in a sealed box for about a week with two of the other main characters, Kei and Marika. This is actually a real training exercise that JAXA, the Japanese equivalent of NASA, puts its astronauts through, and really shows how mentally challenging it is to be an astronaut. The students are forced to live with people they might not get along with 24/7 and they have to come together as a team. A simple task such as setting up dominoes becomes a major challenge, and some students even quit because they’re unable to handle the stressful environment.

The rest of the present-day chapters are more slice-of-life in comparison. Asumi has two major obstacles in her pursuit of becoming an astronaut: money and height. Asumi’s father, now a construction worker after the Lion crash, is barely able to support Asumi on his own, and Asumi is just barely able to afford the school. And even for Japanese girl standards, Asumi is really short, which means that she not only needs to work extra hard to keep up physically with everyone else, the school has to make her a custom space suit that will fit, and it costs the school lots of money to do so. One of the teachers, who has a grudge against Asumi’s father for his involvement in the construction of the Lion, actually takes advantage of this and tries to get Asumi to leave the school, and it almost works. For what is essentially another high school manga, this one manages to stick out thanks to great heartwarming drama and realistic depictions of what it takes to be an astronaut.

Art:

The artwork is very simple and easy on the eyes. Asumi looks cute, but she’s not a terrifying moe archetype with plate-sized eyes. The artwork makes me think of Naoki Urasawa’s, except lighter and softer. By anime and manga standards, the characters look fairly realistic, with a few exceptions. The semi-realistic character design matches the tone of the series perfectly, and the backgrounds of the school and hometown of Asumi are beautifully drawn. It’s not a particularly innovative artstyle, but it gets the job done and draws your attention when it needs to.

Final Thoughts:

There is so much untapped potential in the astronaut drama genre. Space is a wonderful motivation for characters, since it is a vast frontier that scientists to this day have barely scratched the surface of. But it’s not just the thrill of space that drives the power of this genre, it’s the people that follow that dream of going to space. Like its contemporary Space Brothers, Twin Spica keeps you glued with its characters and realistic depiction of their day-to-day struggles. You are emotionally invested in what this character is doing, and even if you’re not a space junkie, you can’t help but get wrapped up in the thrill of space travel when these characters talk about it. Twin Spica has been called “Space Brothers in high school”, and although Twin Spica technically came first, that is an accurate description of the series. I have yet to finish the series, but I will eventually collect the entire 12 volumes that were released, because I want to see Asumi’s journey to the very end.

If you’re a fan of slice-of-life drama, the science of space exploration, or just want a heartwarming series, I cannot recommend Twin Spica enough. If you’re looking for stories similar to Twin Spica, I’ll once again mention Space Brothers which is still airing on Crunchyroll, and the anime Planetes, a drama focusing on space debris collectors on a space station. Twin Spica is available from Vertical, but if you want to read the series, I’d recommend picking it up ASAP, because sadly the series did not sell as well as Vertical hoped and will soon be out-of-print.