Bleach vol.26 The Mascaron Drive

After the mostly Ichigo-centric volume 25, 26 gives us a look at what everyone else has been doing to get ready for the coming war. In the midst of this all, Urahara tells Orihime that she shouldn't get herself involved and isn't fit to fight. Later on, a group of Arrancars come to town much earlier than expected, but their true motive for this visit is not what any of our heroes are expecting.

Orihime is the true star of this volume. She and Chad have always been the anomalies in Bleach because of the their powers, so I'm glad that the story (and the characters) are taking notice that Orihime's powers are freaking weird. Unfortunately for Orihime, the wrong people are taking notice. As for Chad, Urahara wonders to himself about the nature of his powers for a brief moment.

There are quite a few interesting moments in this volume, starting with Hitsugaya and Momo's chat at the beginning of the volume, where we find out that she's kinda damaged since we last saw her (which was...getting stabbed in the gut by the man she loves). She still thinks there's an explanation for the betrayal!!! Kubo does a nice job of making her look frazzled: sweaty, shaky, bags under her eyes, and stroking her arm like a scared child.
Other intesting scenes include everyone's favorite Quincy archer (he hates you!), Uryu, training with his dad. I like how's he had to fight with gadgets ever since losing his powers, though he probably won't need them much longer. The training in this arc has been handled well. Ichigo got a chunk of chapters devoted to his, and that was necessary because he had to do a lot, but Kubo has done a good thing in reducing everyone else's training to a only handful of scenes where we don't really know (or need) the specifics.
I also really enjoyed seeing Rukia and Orihime being friends. It's always been clear that they get along, but we rarely see them interacting together while not in the presence of Ichigo, so it was nice seeing them having fun together and Rukia giving her a good ol' pep talk.

As for the villains' side, we get to witness the creation of an Arrancar, Wonderweiss, through a loophole in the Hogyoku's seal. That bit really needs some more explanation, and there also needs to be more explanation about the Arrancars. Are they all made from the Hogyoku? If not, what's the difference? Hopefully, we'll get these answers soon.
Other new Arrancars include Luppi, the girl...err guy on the cover, who's taken Grimmjow's spot in the Espadas. I'm more intrigued by Wonderweiss, though, who's just plain weird.
Both of the newcomers get involved in the fight at the end, but the highlight of these battles is Ichigo's rematch with Grimmjow, where he gets to show some of the results of his (unfinished) training, and it's pretty darn cool, let me tell you. Then we get a short tease of Urahara getting involved as well!
The volume ends with a cliffhanger, with Orihime having a very unfortunate run-in with someone.

The art, as always, is great, and the characters are super stylish. (Really, who the hell trains in a suit and fancy shoes? The Ishidas, that's who)

Overall, this was a good volume with some neat character moments, but it still has that in-between feeling. We know a new arc is about to begin, so this volume, especially the ending, left me more with a feeling of anticipation for what's to come.

Katekyo Hearts Reborn?

Something about Katekyo Hitman Reborn! has always reminded me of Kingdom Hearts. I don't know why. It's kind of based on nothing. Maybe it's Tsuna and Sora's brown spiky hairdos? Or maybe the "KH" in "KHR"?
But maybe Akira Amano would also agree?


The second picture was for the recent 5th anniversary of the series in Weekly Shonen Jump. I instantly thought of the first image when I saw it. The Vongolas, in particular, look rather Kingdom Hearts-y, which is certainly not a bad thing.

Karakuridoji Ultimo Chapter 1

I don't plan to review every individual chapter, but I thought I'd give my thoughts on the first chapter from the recent Shonen Jump.

In case you don't know, this is a collaboration between comic book legend Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King). It's something of a big deal, and it's getting one of the quickest releases of any manga ever. It started just 2 or 3 months ago, and now it's already here in the USA!

The one-shot from a few months back took place in the present day, and was simply a big fight between the main character, Ultimo, and Vice. This first real chapter takes us back into the past, not quite to their origin, but to the first time they wake up. Dunstan (Stan Lee's past life?) is an old man traveling with a cart containing two large boxes. He gets stopped by a group of bandits who want to steal whatever he has. They open the boxes and they contain two karakuridoji (they're like mechanical puppets...basically robots) one which is ultimate good (Ultimo) while the other is ultimate evil (Vice). They awaken and fight each other. The end of the chapter jumps forward to the present and we see characters that look a lot like the bandits from the past, and it seems like, for whatever reason, their destinies have been tied with Ultimo since that day in the past. Well, they don't say that exactly, but that's the conclusion we're meant to assume.

This chapter showed some potential, though I'm not quite sold on it just yet. It's definitely better than the one-shot since this actually gives us a plot. And gone are the old school narration text boxes that were in the one-shot. They were nifty as a throwback in that one story, but it would have been grating if it were throughout the entire series. One thing that I really didn't like in this chapter was how they kept repeating the "ultimate good" and "ultimate evil" thing. They laid it on a little thick. It's the only place where I can sense Stan Lee's hand in this. Otherwise, I'm dubious as to how involved he is in this project beyond the core concept. Also, the motivation for their creation was a bit iffy (just to see whether good or evil ulitmately wins). Vice seems like ultimate evil, but Ultimo seems to be more a judge of goodness, rather than ultimate good himself, otherwise he wouldn't have been so quick to threaten Vice's life. I didn't get the sense of him being the kindest person ever.

The most interesting part was the ending in modern times. The idea of the bandits being reincarnated and tied in some sort of fate with Ultimo and Vice is interesting, and that's the aspect I'll probably be looking forward to as the series goes on. It'd be cool if we see them reincarnating several times throughout history and always getting involved in Ultimo and Vice's struggle. There's a lot of potential for a nice twisty plot with that kind of thing, so this could turn out interesting.

Takei's art doesn't seem to have changed all that much since Shaman King. If you've read Shaman King, you pretty much know what to expect of the art style, which is nice, unique, angular style. The action was pretty neat, and I really like their designs when they fight. Vice undergoes a full-body transformation while Ultimo's gauntlets (which have a cool pattern) transform into various weapons. Hopefully there will be several different types of transformations they can do.
The one thing that really bugged me was Ultimo's design. The fact that his face is slightly androgynous doesn't bother me one bit. I've seen enough anime to be more than accustomed to that. It's that shirt(?) he wears. No, it's not a shirt. It's a slutty club top! It's ridiculous. Takei could have chosen so many different things for him to wear on his upper body. Anything. The top could have a back, and that alone would make it slightly more masculine.

So yea, this is definitely more of a prologue since it seems like the real story will take place in the modern setting, but it was interesting enough that I'll keep following it.

Excelsior!!!

Nabari No Ou vol.1

From the basic summary, this might sound a lot like another series. Boy ninja with a secret power sealed within him. With two teammates, a boy and a girl, one of whom has someone they've vowed to kill. And a silly teacher to mentor the three of them? Yes, Naruto. But really, that's as far as the similarities go. Miharu Rokujou has the Shinra Banshou sealed within him, a secret art that can grant one's desires, and many in Nabari (the secret world of ninjas) want that power for themselves to become Nabari no Ou (king of the hidden world). Ninja action ensues. However, Miharu doesn't want anything to do with this world, whatsoever.

A, perhaps, slightly better comparison would be Harry Potter. Ninjas (instead of wizards) exist in the modern world alongside everyone else, though normal civilians are oblivious to their existence. Miharu (Harry) is taken out of his regular life and discovers that he (well, the Shinra Banshou) is known to everybody who's a part of this secret world, and is in danger because of that.

This is an action/adventure series, but one of the things that stood out to me the most was not the action, but that it's pretty darn funny. Every chapter had at least one moment that made me laugh out loud, and the main character is the reason. To put it simply, describing Miharu as apathetic is an understatement. There's a line in the anime's opening song that says (in English) "I don't care, I don't care, I don't caaaaare", and I know exactly who they're talking about (he's Pierre!). In one scene where his teacher is making a heartfelt speech about protecting Miharu, we see Miharu's thoughts are "Sensei's words" being skewered by his "indifference". He's also a bit of a trickster, often using an uber-bishonen face to get what he wants (after which he is usually depicted with devil horns). That's one of my favorite gags, actually; Kamatani (the mangaka) knows her audience and that Miharu is fangirl-bait, so Miharu himself using that aspect of himself to his advantage is just hilariously clever. The rest of the main cast is just as entertaining, each with their own silly traits.

The actual meat of the book isn't comedy, though. I just wanted to touch upon it because it stood out to me. As for the rest, there's a good balance between the amounts of action and story (I'd say there's a bit more story than action). Considering this is a ninja story, I expected a bit more action. There is a fair amount of it at the beginning and the end, but the middle chapters are more plot and character oriented. For a first volume, it does a good job of setting up the world and planting the seeds of what's to come (in terms of villains and such), we even get an interesting revelation in the latter half of the volume. The middle section is lighthearted, but it's not all fun and games, as it takes a darker turn near the end.

Art-wise, it's solid, though not great. This is just the first volume so I'm sure it will improve as it goes on. (She could also work on making people look their age; there's one scene where Miharu's grandmother looks like she's in her 20s for goodness sake!) Most of the character designs are appealing, especially the designs involving Miharu's power. When it activates, his body is covered in kanji-like writing, and it just looks great. Some of the characters are a bit on the bishonen side, but not in an off-putting way. The action scenes all flow well and are pretty cool so far, especially near the end; in the space of one chapter all four main characters get involved in a very exciting fight, each getting a moment to shine.

The main cast all seem interesting except for one weak link: Kouichi. Miharu, Tobari (their teacher), and Raimei (samurai girl) all show signs of having a larger story to tell as the series progresses, but Kouichi is the only one who's just...there. He doesn't really have any role other than being another member of their group. Hopefully Kamatani will be able to give him an interesting role in the story.

As for extras, there's a couple of gag strips, a character profile, and a preview of volume 2. I also want to mention the physical quality of the book. I'm no expert on paper quality, but the paper felt fine, not as in "adequate" but as in "luxurious"(although that might be too strong a word for paper).

On the whole, I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. At first, I thought it'd be a series I'd only casually read, something to read while waiting for, say, the next Bleach volume. But now here I am super excited for volume 2 in October. The long wait is understandable, though, since the volumes come out slowly in Japan as well.

I saw several episodes of the anime a while back, so I have an idea of what direction the story takes, and I remember enjoying it, and I'll probably enjoy it more in manga form as this volume showed me. This volume left me with a lot to look forward to. It looks like it will be quite an enjoyable shonen series. The concept might not sound that original, but sometimes execution matters more than originality, and this book is proof of that. This is my first Yen Press book, but it looks like I might become a regular customer, especially with some other interesting series approaching.

Trigun Maximum vol.14 "Deep Space Planet Future Gun Action!!" comes to an end

This is my first review here! But first, a preamble of sorts regarding Trigun:

When Trigun first came out on DVD here, I had been an anime fan for a while, mostly through Toonami and such, like many current anime fans. Trigun, however, was the first series I ever actually bought. I don't know what attracted me to it, but it just seemed cool. I remember seeing ads for it in gaming magazines, and Vash just seemed like an awesome character. So I bought it, and loved it (and got the McFarlane Vash figure), and I guess that was one of the things that led to my otakudom! Years later, the manga came out, but by then I was somewhat over Trigun. I bought the first big "Trigun" volume and later on I bought the first volume of "Trigun Maximum" ( I skipped the second "Trigun" because they didn't have it at the store). They both entertained me (it was Trigun after all), but since they were similar to the anime I simply assumed that the rest of the manga was pretty much exactly like the anime. Manga was still relatively new to me at the time, so while I did enjoy Trigun, I guess I didn't want to read a story that I had already seen.
A few years later (maybe 2 years ago), I randomly decided to pick it up again (and I'm pretty sure the reason was because the spines looked nice on the shelf at the store)....and then I realized how wrong I was. This was a similar story, yes, but it quickly diverged and became a completely different story set in a very familiar world. And my love for Trigun was multiplied several hundred times.

Before I finished volume 14 I decided to reread the entire series, one volume a day. It really helped since there were a lot of references to earlier characters and such in 14 that I couldn't quite remember. It also helped me notice how certain themes and quotes were echoed several times throughout the series (blank tickets to the future, etc.). I also remember the first time around feeling like Meryl and Millie didn't have enough of a role in the story, but this time I noticed they were along for the ride throughout most of the series (only really disappearing during the Wolfwood/Livio arc). Another thing I reevaluated was Nightow's action scenes. The most common complaint about the series, hands down, is that the action scenes are drawn confusingly. I remember there were a lot of scenes that were REALLY confusing, but a lot of time you only had to go ahead a page or two to get the bigger picture and realize what was going on. As the series progressed, they got less confusing, or maybe I just got used to his style. Anyway, when I reread the series I didn't encounter the problem a single time! The solution to the confusing action scenes is merely to reread them!
Okay, this isn't meant to be a review of the entire series so:


The actual Volume 14 review

I'll be vague to avoid spoilers, as this is the final volume. The volume begins with the end of the Vash/Legato fight, which ends with a moment calling back to an important scene way back in volume 1 of Maximum. After that, we get to the meat of the volume, which is the conflict between Knives and...everyone else. The Earth forces in space want to attack Knives and the fused entity(regardless of the danger it would pose to the people below), while the group down below is actually trying to communicate with the fused plants. In the midst of all the action the fused plant sheds feathers which show the onlookers the history of the planet as seen through the plants' eyes, both good and bad. Then....we get the Vash/Knives confrontation we've all been waiting for and learn the ultimate fate of our hero and his friends. (And we also get the lovely bonus of a color spread at the end.)

As I mentioned above, Nightow's art became more understandable as time went on, but in this volume he kind of went back to his old ways. The first time I was reading it, the fight between Knives and the Earth forces just seemed like a collection of lines and flashes (but again, rereading gave me a better idea of what was going on). Also, a small complaint which is likely limited to my copy: page 69 was upside down. I didn't notice right away because it's a page of ships descending, but upside down it just looked like rockets rising. It wasn't until I noticed the clouds and sound effects were upside down that I realized what was up. Or down. The fact that I didn't notice instantly is an indication of how ambiguous the art can sometimes be.

What I really want to talk about is the ending...and the fuzzy feeling I got in my heart. The final conflict doesn't really end up being all that much of a conflict. There is some fighting...but it's not long at all. Considering how long the past several fights had been, I was expecting something along those line for the final Vash vs. Knives fight. BUT, on the other hand, the way the event plays out is very well done, and the little bit of fighting we do get was drawn awesomely enough (Knives!) that it satisfied me. If there had been a longer fight, it would've made the end as it unfolded less meaningful somehow. In this case, the action didn't matter as much as the interaction (that was cheesy, sorry).

Now to give you fair warning SPOILERS AHEAD!
The end of the final battle was great because it stayed true to the characters of Vash and especially Knives. Vash would never kill Knives, that's a given, but Knives would never kill Vash either. This was his one redeeming quality. As twisted as he was throughout the series he never wanted his brother to die. I loved that Knives got a small bit of redemption in his ending, and that it didn't play out as a complete 180 in his personality. He didn't all of a sudden see the error of his ways, he just wanted to help his brother. Knives was actually my favorite characters, so I was pleased. As for Vash, I'm SO glad he didn't die. I think main characters dying at the end is just as cliche as a happy ending, if not more so. The story had gotten pretty serious, and considering how this story started out, it would have just felt wrong to end it on a bittersweet note. I'm big on epilogues, and Nightow gave us a great one that showed us the state of the world, the people, and Milly, Meryl, Knives, and Vash. I feel like other mangaka would've ended the series on the semi-ambiguous note of the second to last chapter, and I'm happy Nightow decided to give us a happy epilogue that brought things full-circle.
SPOILERS OVER!!!

Okay, one final note to make. The gag cover on the inside. This is my favorite one out of all of them because it's a Dr. Slump parody. I've always thought that Dr. Slump image was so cool ever since I first saw it.

I wonder how many people got the reference?

I'll try not to be so long-winded next time.

LOVE & PEACE!!!!

An Introduction!

Hey! I'm Bahamut and this is The Shooting Star Project. I plan for this be a manga blog with reviews and such, or just talk about manga in general. I read manga on a regular basis, so I figured it might be fun to try something like this out.
Other stuff like anime (and any related otaku things), comics, TV, etc. will probably be mentioned here from time to time...but hey, it's my blog so I can post what I want!! But I'll try to keep it focused to manga.
What else? I guess a little bit about me...or my manga interests: I like manga! I tend to lean more towards shonen, but I also enjoy seinen often, and in general I'm open to anything with a good story and nice art.
If the blog title and URL both seem familiar to you...well then you've probably read Bleach. I wanted a good title for my blog, and I wanted it to be somehow related to the content while sounding cool at the same time. Bleach is one of my absolute favorite manga, and Tite Kubo always comes up with such funky sounding titles, so I decided I'd pay homage to Bleach and use two of its chapter titles for my blog's name and url...The Shooting Star project was already taken in various forms for the URL, so I went with Quincy Archer Hates You. I'm sure it might cause confusion somewhere down the line, but confusion be damned! I'm content with the names I chose.

Anyway. If you're reading this, stick around. I'll try to keep things interesting and worth reading.
Tell a friend!