Honey and Clover – The End

Honey and Clover (ハチミツとクローバー) is about five art school students who become close friends for one reason or another. The three guys – Morita, Takemoto and Mayama – all live together in a crumbling apartment, while Yamada lives with her parents on the local shopping street and Hagu – the shy, tiny art prodigy – lives with her cousin, a teacher at the school.

It wouldn’t be a group of young folks without a few love triangles, but the relationships of the students and their interests are realistic and very easy to relate to, even for those of us who have long since become jaded adults.

Mermaid Saga

If you say Rumiko Takahashi in the presence of an otaku, the older ones think of Ranma 1/2 and the younger ones think of Inu-Yasha. The hardcore completists think of Mermaid Saga.

Mermaid Saga (人魚シリーズ) is a series of darker stories that follow a young man named Yuta in his quest to find a mermaid. Legends tell of the flesh of the mermaid granting eternal life, but the reality is far uglier – both literally and figuratively. Along the way he rescues Mana, who ends up following him in his search.

The stories in this series are darker than anything Takahashi-sensei has written since Laughing Target, with murder and frightening creatures being the norm.

Yumekui Kenbun – Nightmare Inspector, The End

After what felt like an eternity, I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of the final volume of Nightmare Inspector. I was almost afraid to finish it because I really love the series and hate to see good stories end, particularly when so many similar titles continue to meander through mediocrity for years.

Hiruko the baku is still at the Silver Star Teahouse, eating the nightmares of unhappy patrons and living a fairly peaceful existence with Mizuki, Hifumi and Naamu the cat. What none of them could have expected was for Tsukishiro, a rival baku, to be tracking down the bits of Hiruko’s human memories in order to use him to open the Door of the Delirium and send the city into madness. Episodic though it is (mostly), you should probably read it from the beginning to understand the majority of this volume.

Fushigi Yuugi, Part Two

Back in high school, when I first was obsessed with Fushigi Yuugi, there was no translation available. For the most part I relied on the dial-up version of scanlations: panel by panel translations of the manga that I read side-by-side with the tankous. When it came to the second half of the story (volumes 14-18) there were far less translations available, mainly because people felt like a second part was unnecessary and tacked-on. Luckily for me I had learned enough Japanese to get the gist of the story, thanks to the furigana.

I just finished the 5th volume of the VizBig reprints where the second half picks up and while I’m enjoying revisiting the story – and seeing how much of my translation was correct – I’m beginning to see why the people who gave up on the second half did so.

Manga Recommendation: Bunny Drop

Defying the odds by writing another post this week! This time it’s because I simply must tell you about Yumi Unita’s Bunny Drop (うさぎドロップ).

Admittedly, I wasn’t even planning to read it when I first saw the advertisement in the back of With the Light because it sounded far too shōjo-y. The world really only needs one Aishiteruze Baby, after all. But after picking it up at the store based on the classy cover I was intrigued. Apparently the “bunny” isn’t just any little girl, it’s his late 79 year-old grandfather’s illegitimate love child.