August manga 1

[wednesday_10_00]

I was going to cut my losses on books I hadn't reviewed over the summer (maybe come back later to a few things I really liked), but I found some old write-ups that I never posted. So...August manga (I ordered it in August, even though it was almost October by the time I got it...) + a few backlog things:

Hidoku Shinaide 3 - Nekota Yonezou (sweh!!)
I'd already read most of this in the magazine, but I think I liked it even better the second time through (I want to name a favorite scene or two, but I can't even pick. Nemugasa thinking Maya's moving to Sidney and then his instarelief when he finds out the truth ["Guess I'll go back to class now, see you tomorrow!"]! Everyone thinking Maya is bullying Nemugasa! Maya sulking when Nemugasa can't go on a date! Maya's excitement at seeing Nemugas's room! BASICALLY EVERYTHING!!)

The crossover with Mosou Elektel seemed kinda forced to me, but it was worth it to see Maya all excited over the "couple seat" (a two-person bench with a huge heart as a backrest), hee.

Also, math makes everything hotter.

Katekyo! - Moegi Yuu (meh!)
The title story (about Rintarou and his tutor Kaede) is cute enough that I'm glad there's more, but nothing super special. One of the one-shot stories was just OK, the other was not really to my taste (but maybe worth it for the baby love.)

Gotta say, though, I don't think I would trust an English textbook with the words HE IS TUTORIAL on the cover.

Katekyo! 2, 3, 4 - Moegi Yuu (sweh!)
The continuation, however, is totally freaking adorable. It's pretty impressive that the author can take a formula I don't particularly care for (perfect but aloof seme + incompetent adoraklutz uke) and make it so ridiculously sweet. But I find Rintarou's screw-ups endearing rather than annoying, and I love how open he is with his affection, and Kaede is so nerdy and hilarious in his possessiveness (being jealous of Rintarou dreaming about him?) I think it might be impossible to not love him.

Also, the scene in the last chapter with Rintarou's family = A++

Also also, I'm always sad when a series is over as soon as I find it. Noooo, I love you, I want there to be morrre ;_;

Saikyou Kyoushi ~Kyoushi mo Iroiro Aru Wake de~ 2 - Yamato Nase (heh)
I love love LOVE Kouki, but Ibuki just...isn't my favorite. I WANT to like him, because he's so awkward about everything, but though he does have his moments, he's way too pushy and violent for me to get more than lukewarm about him. I did really like a lot of the plot stuff in this volume, though.

Ryuu no Yuigon EX 2 - Kitasato Senju (meh...)
Tenran = adorable
Asagi = super adorable
Everything else = AWFUL

Seriously, ugh. Why is this so rapey? I would burn this book if I weren't already so attached to the main characters.

(I think my favorite part was the evil brother character in the last story--he wasn't really evil, of course, he was just trying to get his older brother's attention! And as soon as that was revealed, nobody seemed to notice or care whether he lived or died. Oh, the irony.)

Mobile Sweet Honey - Akiba Touko (heh!)
Collection of short stories all taking place at the same college. The title story with the computer nerd and otome seme was cute enough, but my favorite was the one with the librarian, and I was sad there wasn't more of that.

Koketsu Dining - Moto Haruhira (heh!)
Akaru is a host who moves in with Hyuuga, a friend of a friend who has a tiger face and tail. Hyuuga claims he's a wrestler who wears a mask, but though it's CLEARLY not a mask, Akaru accepts this at face (haha! I kill me) value.

So...this is cat fetish porn. Seriously. One of Akaru's clients has a cat, and they trade stories about cat behavior on multiple occasions. Although large parts of it are SUPER adorable, though, I find Hyuuga's behavior sort of annoying. He keeps brushing aside Akaru's constant declarations of his affections and...it's not really clear why? And then it's even less clear why he decides to stop brushing Akaru aside and...the resolution just leaves me feeling unsatisfied. I would totally buy a second volume if the author continued the story, though, because clearly I can't resist cat fetish porn.

Caramel - Okuyama Puku (sweh)
Kobayashi Iori is the oldest of four siblings, and used to helping out around the house since both of his parents work. So when he goes off to college in Tokyo, Toudou Roku's roommate offer of free rent in exchange for cooking and cleaning seems perfect. But Roku turns out to be a shelfish, stubborn, impatient slob, and Iori doesn't think he wants to stay there after all...until he sees Roku's more vulnerable, child-like side.

I'm glad the front cover (and back cover, and color insert) is so adorable and happy-looking, because the initial friction between the characters made me uncertain about liking the main couple. (Though I immediately LOVED Iori and his SUPER ADORABLE family.) But, like Iori, Roku's hilariously childish behavior (why is it that I find a grown man being jealous of a little girl so charming?)--including being unable to sleep alone at night because he's afraid of the dark, argh, Roku, why so adorable??--won me over pretty quickly.

Ikasama Memory 1 - Natsume Isaku (sweh!)
Nakano and Tsuda were friends in high school, but a brief sexual encounter soured the relationship and they went separate ways during college. Ten years later, when Nakano is working for Bandai Randai and Tsuda is working for a small toy company, they meet by chance on the job.

I...don't think I can say much about this that doesn't wreck the reading experience. The end of the first chapter totally surprised me, because I 100% bought into the "Nakano broke off the 'friendship' because he wasn't that interested in Tsuda" narrative. Seeing how much their breakup actually hurt Nakano was just heartrending. ;_; (Tsuda, you are a complete dumbass, past and present. All your problems would be solved if you would just tell Nakano how you really feel.) But: OMG THEY'RE SO IN LOVE GET TOGETHER ALREADY also I need the second volume of this yesterday. *checks back of book* Oh, fantastic, it runs in an anthology that's published three times a year. Awesome! OK, I'm just going to try to forget about this book for the next five years or so.

As a side note, the fact that the main characters work for toy companies means there are tons of adorable props floating around (including "Aladin-kun" who seems to have become the mascot of the series). Love love love, the chapter 3 title page picture with the toy phones.

Shizuku Hanabira Ringo no Kaori 3 - Kawai Touko (sweh!!)
OMG I LOVE THESE GUYS SO MUCH. SO. MUCH. I had already read all these chapters in the magazine, except for the hilarious extra at the end, and I was still super excited to get it. Mu-chan is hands down the world's most adorable salaryman, and Shuu makes for such a perfect foil to his boundless enthusiasm, I could seriously read about them forever. (Sadly, this is the last volume. *sniffle*) Much love also for Shuu's family, though I sort of wish they had at least told Haruna about their relationship. (I don't know that I would expect Grandpa to understand, but surely she would?)

Kimi ni Todoke 16 - Shiina Karuho
I guess I read too much (hyper-sexualized) BL, because I have a hard time reading Kazehaya's angst as anything other than "I really want to make out with Sawako [and/or have sex with her?] but that doesn't fit in with the chaste relationship she wants and everyone else expects us to have." (Though: hey, um, you can think your girlfriend is 大事 and still have sex with her, I promise.) Which...really doesn't fit in with the tone of the rest of this series, so I will be glad when we figure out what his deal actually is.

Still not sure if Ayane is getting together with Kent, argh. Also: Chizuru, STOP BEING STUPID.

Since I am posting this months after it came out, I get to check Amazon and notice that the reviews for 17 are much higher than 16, so thank god, there must be an end to this angst-fest.

One Piece 67 - Oda Eiichirou
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That is all.

No wait, I lied: I need to remember to not study One Piece covers too closely, because from this cover I figured out the really funny thing before it happened. I mean, I don't blame Oda for putting it on the cover (because it's freaking HILARIOUS), I just need to learn to not pay attention to the cover picture until I've finished reading.

Comments

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

Hey! I'm not trying to talk you out of liking volume 2. I MUST have liked it, since I think I started talking up Private Teacher then. I was more turned off by the cosplay cafe than by the stupidly jealous friend, but volume 2 does have the first hint of insightful/thoughtful Rin (the watch plot) and it's also when the narrative p.o.v turns from Rin to Kaede. Kaede's perspective is definitely what makes this series work, both for his hilarious intellectual obsession and for his vulnerability. Otherwise, he would be just another too-awesome do-S seme.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Ha, no, I just meant to clarify that if I hadn't been lazy and actually separated out those three volumes, they wouldn't necessarily have gotten the same score. It's just that they all ran together in my head when I was doing the write-up. I actually think I blocked the jealous friend plot out of my memory until I looked at the book again last night, because he really annoyed me. But I am totally with you on Rintarou buying the watch and Kaede's POV.

I forgot to talk about this:

They don't use honorifics in the translation, incidentally, which means the bonus short at the end of volume 3 makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

How...what does this short look like, then? What do they do with Rintarou's speech bubble that should only have "san" in it? How do they handle lines like "You really can't handle saying my name without "san," can you?" or "But Kaede-san, you always call me 'Rintarou-kun'"?

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

I don't have volume 3 in Japanese (which really frustrated me as soon as I realized what was going on in the "extra lesson"), so I can't precisely answer your questions.

In the first panel, the double speech bubble has "K- K-" and "Kae..." The separate speech bubble has "...de..."

"You really can't handle saying my name without "san," can you?"

I'm not sure what line this is, but I'm guessing it was translated as "No matter how much we practice, you always say my full name, hm?"

"But Kaede-san, you always call me 'Rintarou-kun'" = "B-but, Kaede, you always call me Rintaro."

As I said, it makes absolutely no sense unless you're familiar enough with Japanese to guess at the missing honorifics. Are we supposed to believe that Kaede wants Rin to call him "Kae"? This may take the prize for localization failure.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I can't precisely answer your questions.

You did, though, perfectly.

Are we supposed to believe that Kaede wants Rin to call him "Kae"?

This makes me a sad panda squirrel, but based on the translated line, I guess I would say yes. So then, when Kaede boasts that he CAN say Rintarou without "kun," in the translation he just says "Rin"? (But then, what about when he's supposed to say "or maybe...'Rin'"? Do they throw a Rinta in there somewhere or something?)

This may take the prize for localization failure.

It's definitely a contender, though I'm gonna say it's not as clunky as "Desktomu."

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

Do they throw a Rinta in there somewhere or something?

"Rin," then "Rinny." (I actually thought the latter was supposed to be Rin-chan, so this has been helpful.)

I have suppressed Desktomu, 'cause it never made sense. Chihayafuru!!

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

"Rinny."

EW EW EW EW

OK then, I will give this localization a tie with the Sekaiichi translation, since that's as bad as "Rittie."