Five Underrated Shojo Manga

Earlier in the week, I sang the praises of Kaze Hikaru, my all-time favorite shojo manga (and one of my all-time favorite manga, period). Today I shine the spotlight on five great titles that haven’t garnered as much favorable notice as they deserve. Sadly, all but one are officially out of print or will be soon, owing to publisher closings, lapsed licenses, and so-so sales. If you can’t find them through retailers such as Amazon, Buy.com, or Right Stuf!, you might wish to cast your net wider to include sites like Robert’s Anime Corner Store (a good source for older titles) and eBay, or try your local library for copies.

5. PHOENIX, VOL. 12: EARLY WORKS

Osamu Tezuka • VIZ • 1 volume, complete

Carl Horn Talks CLAMP

Dark Horse editor Carl Horn just posted a lengthy essay tracing the company’s publishing history from Oh! My Goddess to Bride of the Water God. It’s an interesting piece, both for what Horn has to say about DH’s recent collaboration with CLAMP on new editions of Clover, Chobits, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Cardcaptor Sakura, and for what he has to say about Bride, surely one of the most beautiful and inscrutable comics I’ve read in some time. It’s also interesting to note that Horn’s stated theme of “Love & Wonder” is at odds with most fans’ perception of the DH catalog as a festival of blood, boobs, and bullets; for folks who wondered how books like Clover took their place alongside Lone Wolf and Cub, I think Horn’s remarks will be a revelation. Click here for the full text.

Short Takes: Black Butler, Kobato, and One Fine Day

Continuing the theme of my previous Short Takes column, I’m taking a second look at three Yen Press series that got off to a strong start. First up is Black Butler, a supernatural thriller about a manservant who’s frighteningly good at his job; next is Kobato, a comedy about a clueless girl on a mission to heal wounded hearts; and last but not least is One Fine Day, a collection of short stories about a magician who lives with three feisty animals. But will the second time around be as sweet as the first? Read on the for the scoop.
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Kobato, Vol. 1

Kobato Hanato has a job to do: if she can fill a magic bottle with the pain and suffering of people whose lives she’s improved, she’ll have her dearest wish come true. There’s just one problem: Kobato is completely mystified by urban life, and has no idea how to identify folks in need of her help. Lucky for her, Ioryogi, a blue dog with a foul mouth and fierce temper, has been appointed her sensei and guardian angel, tasked with helping Kobato develop the the street smarts necessary for completing her mission.

It’s perfectly possible to read Kobato as a story about a sweet, clueless girl who teams up with a gruff but lovable animal to collect wounded hearts. That book is beautifully drawn, but isn’t terribly interesting; most of the stories follow the same template so, well, doggedly, that even the most committed fan of cute would find Kobato too repetitive to be much fun. A more productive way to understand Kobato is as a moe parody, a gleeful skewering of an entire genre in which the cute, underage heroine’s primary role is to endear herself to readers with her mixture of enthusiasm, naivete, and sensitivity.

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