There it is, Plain as Daylight

Nabari No Ou, Vol. 2
By Yuhki Kamatani
Published by Yen Press

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In the aftermath of the first volume’s attack by the enemy clan Grey Wolves, Miharu and his companions recover in care of the Fuuma, many of whom were lost in the conflict. With the Banten shinobi having no official leader, Kotarou Fuuma, leader of his clan, assumes control and assigns teacher Kumohira and his young charges to retrieve (or steal, if necessary) the forbidden arts belonging to each of the other remaining clans. Though revelations about the motives and methods of the Fuuma leave Miharu even less sure of who to trust, he eventually finds himself feeling some sense of responsibility and even friendship towards would-be samurai Ramei and classmate Koichi. This volume’s major drama, however, is left for its final chapter, in which Miharu is offered alliance by an extremely unlikely source.

After the suspense and high action of this series’ first volume, the second begins slowly, churning out additional exposition without quite enough momentum to sustain it. Fortunately, this volume’s final chapter is thrilling enough to make up for early shortcomings, bringing real tension back into the story as well as highlighting the complexity and pathos behind Miharu’s carefully practiced apathy.

This volume takes pains to deepen the backstories for much of the series’ supporting cast, though most of these characters remain weak in comparison to the story’s most compelling characters–Miharu and deadly human weapon Yoite. Both of these characters possess potentially lethal abilities that endanger their own lives in one way or another, and it is fascinating and sad to witness the blatant sense of entitlement their respective shinobi clans appear to feel regarding their powers. That the clans have gravely overestimated their ability to control these two boys seems obvious, but it is yet unclear just how dearly this miscalculation might cost them or the boys themselves.

Though pacing is a weakness in this volume, even the least urgent chapters succeed in terms of dramatic content, thanks to Kamatani’s frequent use of close-ups and full-page images which give just the right weight to exactly the right moments. That a sense of stillness would be one of the greatest strengths of a manga that is ostensibly intended as an action series may sound a bit strange, but that is absolutely the case here. This quality plays a great part in creating the dark, moody atmosphere of the series, which remains one of my favorite aspects of it overall.

With its complex anti-hero and melancholy feel, Nabari No Ou’s second volume ultimately overcomes its somewhat uninspired early chapters to maintain its position as my favorite new shonen series so far this year.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

I’m finally back from NYAF, though it’s off to work straight away! I’ll be writing up coverage over the next couple of days but in the meantime, you can check out my review of the third volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei in yesterday’s Manga Minis column. This is a series many people have issues with in terms of how well it translates due to frequent in-jokes and obscure cultural references that are unlikely to be understood by western readers. Though this volume is probably the most difficult so far in that sense, I still found it readable and extremely enjoyable.

I had a great time at the convention and I have a lot to say about it, so stay tuned!

Things are going to get quiet here again for a few days as I’ll be boarding an early morning (very early morning) train tomorrow to head out to the New York Anime Festival. I had a great time last year and I anticipate more of the same! NYAF is my kind of con. It’s conveniently located, reasonably sized, and attracts a decent number of manga publishers (though I weep at the lack of Yen Press representation this year!) and since this is its last year alone before teaming up with New York Comic-Con, there’s no way I’d miss it. It’s also close to my old stomping grounds, so I’m usually able to catch up with a friend or two while I’m in town.

If you’re also attending, please stop and say hello to me over the course of the weekend! I’m very much looking forward to meeting up with other manga bloggers, reviewers, and readers, so please don’t be shy (and try to ignore the fact that I am).

I’ll be back next week with news and stories to tell!

I’ve made quite a few manhwa-heavy posts in the past six months or so, starting with Let’s Talk About Manhwa, in which I declared my love for Korean BL comics and asked for recommendations for all kinds of manhwa. The comments to that post were fantastic–filled with recommendations upon recommendations, only a fraction of which I’ve managed to get to at this point. I’m reading as fast as I can!

The truth is, I’ve really fallen in love with manhwa. It has many of the traits I most love in Japanese manga–lots of epic, dramatic, character-driven, single-creator stories with lovely art and well-paced, finite plots–but each these traits has its own particular quality unique to manhwa. I believe that even if I was presented with flipped manhwa (reading right-to-left like Japanese comics) I would be able to tell at a glance that it was made in Korea–something that has been proven to me already, actually, in the case of one of my favorite single-volume Korean BL stories, U Don’t Know Me. Some of this has to do with the art, particularly the character designs which favor a a particular kind of cheek and chin, full lips and heavily lined eyes, but the storytelling has its own flavor too, with its spunky, outspoken (often even violent) girls and arrogant, swaggering boys.

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