Kekkaishi Volume 1

Here’s a manga that flew under my radar for the longest of time. Bloodline abilities, spiritual combat and warm humour are some of the things that pop into my head here, and while it’s not one of those mangas that you’ll notice because it’s so damn outrageous in some way, you’ll probably be like me in simply enjoying it.

One thing that should be noted is that while the manga is really nice, it’s got a massive fundamental problem that I won’t bother trying to cover up; it lacks the zest of other mangas that I’ve mentioned earlier. It lacks the outrageous battles and humour of One Piece. It lacks the flow and scope of Full Metal Alchemist. It’s not ridiculous fun like AIKI, but thankfully(!) it doesn’t fall in the traps that Bleach and Naruto does. At least not yet. There hasn’t been any defining moments yet, moments that make you go “WOW! BLOODY AWESOME!”, fall over laughing, or simply “Awww…” (though some have been acceptably close). It’s weird how a manga can be so good (in my opinion) without being as exciting as many of the alternatives.

Maybe that’s why I like it. After having read a bunch of mangas that does things in various ways I keep thinking I’ve seen before, or just getting stale because it tries so hard to be special, I finally found one that decided to take a relatively original path (compared to many others). That’s not to say that it doesn’t walk the path of a lot of mangas, hell no, it borrows from most of them! Bloodline abilities (Naruto), Spirit stuff (Bleach), freaky creatures (One Piece), nice but slightly dim main character (… all of them?), hints of a calamity going to happen (… all of them?). The list is long, and it works!

It’s gotten to chapter 257, and even though I think the main story’s looking really interesting, it’s slow in developing. While the author is good at dropping hints at things to come, I think the mangaka could cut down on some of the filler-moments, even though that’s probably half the charm, leaving me wanting more and more.

An oddity with this series, compared to a lot of the mangas I enjoy is that the character roster is pretty damn bland. There’s the family, sure, they’re cool enough, but nothing special. There’re the friends they pick up as they go who’re marginally interesting at best. I suspect a reason I like it is because the characters just make sense, if you know what I mean. If I didn’t like any of the characters I wouldn’t be reading the manga at all, probably.

So while it’s a manga that appears fairly bland it’s incredibly charming and makes some sense. The art is pretty fantastic, and the warm humour in it adds to the aforementioned charm. Oh, and relationships actually look like they’re moving somewhere, and if they don’t, it’s not because of some half-vague daft gimmick added to stretch it along another 50 chapters. The story so far has been a fun ride, and it hints at more fun to come, so while the manga might seem unimpressive, and I seem unimpressed by it, I still recommend checking it out because it’s simply an enjoyable read.

Oh, and it’s made by a woman. Maybe that’s why it’s so odd? While it’s not unusual with female mangakas, it’s unusual for me to read them since women usually dabble in the shoujo (young girls) demographic.

Scanlated by Franky-House – Wikipedia description:
Five hundred years ago, a feudal lord was attacked by demons wanting to retrieve his mysterious inner power, the invincible power that can help them take over the human world. The famous mage, Tokimori Hazama, was called upon, and with his 2 students, managed to save the whole land. But they fell ill, the feudal lord was killed, his power was also buried with him at a site called Karasumori.

In the present day, Yoshimori Sumimura and Tokine Yukimura, heirs of the Hazama clan, became the kekkaishi protecting the land and the power. They use a technique called Kekkai, a form of magical barrier, used to capture and destroy Ayakashi (monsters/demons) that are drawn to this land. Any demons that come near the power will become stronger and therefore Yoshimori and Tokine are to guard the land from intrusion of the Ayakashi.

But some of the demons form a powerful organization to take over that mysterious power. Yoshimori plans to destroy not only the demons, but also to gain the power to completely save the world from being controlled by demons. To do that, he first needs to know what the power actually is, and also strengthen his poor kekkai skills.

So there’s this relatively new manga out, Veritas (Wiki Link), that’s quickly fallen into my good graces. Thus far it’s turned out to be fairly interesting, no shark-jumping, and a few principles introduced there, like focusing and distilling the “power” already within a person, and skill, instead of pure volume, and stamina. That’s pretty neat. The main character comes across as a bit of a douche, but strangely enough he’s likable. He’s not too big of an asshole to be disliked (Black God), and he’s not dumb enough to be Naruto.

The art’s fantastic, like most of the manhwa I’ve seen, and I have to admit I’m falling more and more for the Korean drawing style. Not entirely sure what’s up with it, probably the cross between lines and shading, with a greater focus on “realistic” looks. Basically it looks like the artists spend more time drawing than most japanese artists. Maybe it helps to have one person on story, and one on drawings.

I’m not too sturdy on the main story, but it’s hinting at weird plots and so on that I don’t really care for much at the moment (it’s not that I don’t like it, as in actually don’t care about it. Not yet at the point where it’s getting awsm), and the abilities and powers look fairly interesting. It’s a martial art manga that focuses on the main character anyways, and I’ve always been a character-driven reader.

Kangryong is a high schooler unlike others. He has always had a dream of being the strongest. One day he meets Youcheon, who teaches him a powerful skill. One year later, people come to see him and announce that his “master” is dead. Because he was his only student, Kangryong has to follow them and go to a school where everybody has supernatural powers.

So, up to now, chapter 29, it’s been a really awesome ride thanks to helz0ne. I’m hoping it’ll continue for a while longer. At least it’s something to read while waiting for more AIKI… ;P

Edit: We’re now 10 chapters later, and the story is progressing really fast, and it’s actually getting seriously exciting. Things happened that I didn’t, in a million years, expected to see, and the potential in this story is just increasing at a ridiculous rate. The fate of Honse actually upset me! And the masked guy, wow, I’d be burning to kill him.

You know how every damned action manga out there has a hero. Every freakin’ one of them has a dream, all of them are bloody paragons of virtues, and they’ve ended up being lonely for daft reasons we struggle to care about. They’re all so damned special for some unique aspect of their being, and in the beginning they all suck so much we groan.

Not to mention that they’re always presented as shy little kids and teens with no hope in hell of wooing women. Forever have we been presented with these characters that endlessly drag on about tired and old conventions, littering the landscape with drab and boring creations whose sole redeeming feature was being appealing to us poor addled creatures because they were slightly more exciting than the girly NANA and (blood-)sucky Vampire Knight.

Then came Isutoshi, the genious behind Slut Girl and Tende Freeze, forth from the darkness to give us AIKI. Joukyuu Kunitoshi, the anti-hero that struggles to care, tries to have sex with any female with breasts and doesn’t feel particularly lonely. He’s fucking awesome at martial arts, is far from shy and unlucky around the girls, and a superspecial asshole martial arts prodigy with a handicap created by his father in a fit of paternal worry and anger through devious means.

Confused because there cannot possibly be such an amazing piece of work out there, and I have to be making it up? Fear not, for S.A.S stepped up to the plate to deliver unto us that which is awesome!

What more to say to truly do this series justice in words? Imagine King Leonidas screaming: “Go! Read! It!” and kicking you in the nads for not being on your way already. Take the hint, read the damn thing.

Right now I’m listing my favourite mangas like this:

1. One Piece
insurmountable gap between the awesomeness that is One Piece and the rest
12. AIKI
13. Full Metal Alchemist (still writing about this one :) )

With lots of on and off loveable series onwards. The fact remains that One Piece and Full Metal Alchemist are the only two mangas that manages to not only be awesome all the time, but getting increasingly so.

AIKI is a relatively new addition to my list at all, so longterm quality and fun can still be questioned. The thing is though, Isutoshi’s known for his strong cast of characters and focus on fun, and since I love a good cast of characters I think I’m justified in having high hopes for this series. While I know that reading a manga that a (primarily) hentai-mangaka’s writing can be offputting for some, I sincerely think that any reservations of that kind should be cast off to give this one a chance. It’s got it’s moments of ecchi, and quite a lot of raucous humour, all of which I love in the story. It’s not a hentai (drawn porn :P), like Isutoshi’s previous work either, though it contains nudity and the aforementioned ecchi stuff. Oh, and it’s a bit haremish, though it might be a bad definition in the story so far. You’ll understand if you read it.

Edit 12.06.09: IT STILL ROCKS! \o/

I don’t really know how to describe it in words to do it justice. It’s sweet, direct and simple. Nothing complicated. A girl that is a ghost, and a guy that’s very much alive, are living together in a rundown house. They fall in love, and has an uncomplicated relationship (as far as you can have an uncomplicated relationship with a ghost…) where they explore things together and push each other to discover new aspects to themselves and life.

Normally I’d say “… uh, dude, she’s a dead girl, wtf are you doing?” in my head, which is what I thought when I read the description, but seeing who the author was made me check it out anyways. See, the author’s a genious – or atleast borderline genious – as he’s able to make any situation and moment emotional or eerily beautiful, unless they’re highly amusing. As with Ai-Ren the story has a slightly bittersweet tone to it. You read on and you keep cheering for this innocent and beautiful couple that seem so impossibly happy.

I’ve read to chapter 11, that’s all that is scanlated so far, and I’m really impressed. The beginning contained carrot-amounts of sexual situations (to lure in the unsuspecting reader I guess), but the happy go lucky tone of the series was prevalent even there, and it seems the happy stuff just keeps pouring in. It’s nice to read a manga that puts a smile on my face like this, it hasn’t happened since Yokohama Kodaisha Kikou. It’s cute, it’s simple, it’s endearing and loveable.

I know, I know, it’s only 11 chapters so far, but if you want to read a manga that makes you feel a bit better, this is the one.

It’s being scanlated by Solaris-H.

So what makes a normally uninteresting, interest-changing idiot that can barely latch his interest onto something for over a month into a fan? I had trouble putting it into words, and for some things (make that most) I still do. Then the other day I discovered why One Piece manages to reinvigorate my interest over and over again.

Chapter 502 was again about things that’re wrong. Things that’re very very wrong. Not nail-polish being in the wrong colour, the wrong tone, or whatever the hell I can spam this sentence with. No, nothing like that. To freely quote myself in a previous post about chapter 502:

This time around it’s about slavery and oppression, abuse and discrimination. Topics that really whips my chords around until there’s a knot in my stomach.

One Piece picks up human suffering and shoves it in your face, pointing out that there’s something wrong, and that this kind of shit happens. Does injustice happen in the real world? You can bet your ass it does, we just do like the ostrich supposedly does, shove our heads as far into the ground as possible – hoping to never know.

One Piece rips our heads out of the ground to point out that there’s crap going on, injustice happens, and the further you get the more shit you see, the deeper you come the deeper the pile of shit. That description’s depressing as hell, it really is, and the manga wouldn’t really amount to much if it was depressing 24/7, if every single issue spent all it’s time shoving your head full of depressing abuse of commoners and everyday people trying to get by.

Here’s where One Piece goes from a gritty tale about unfairness and injustice to downright awesomery and kickassing, where it makes fanbois jump in joy because asses are getting kicked (almost literally). It’s awesome to see Luffy kick ass in the most impressive and spectacular ways, it really is. It’s so gratifying to see your hero whip out his arm (literally) to smack the bad guys right where it hurts the most, in complete righteousness. Fighting for justice, avenge the wrongs that’ve been done, pony up some hurt in return to those who would hurt and exploit the weak.

That’s where One Piece really shines. It dares to show that the world sucks in strangely realistic ways. Rich people abuse the poor, the strong prey on the weak, the weak banding together to be strong, then preying on the weaker, things like that. Then it shows us that there’s hope and a bright light at the end of the tunnel through Luffy and his crew.

Luffy and the crew’s travelling through their world in a crusade to gain fame, notoriety and fulfill their dreams, however weird or awesome they are. From Luffy’s famous dream of becoming the Pirate King, to Usopp’s dream of becoming the bravest man in the world. They’re dreams, childish, simple, and so easy to relate to in so many ways. It’s hard to explain, it really is, but every one of their dreams can seem ever so ridiculous in the beginning, until you see the determination that Oda’s portrayed in their eyes.

See, the crew has dreams. Simple dreams, awesome dreams, impossible dreams (read: Usopp… ). They’re not afraid of pursuing them either, and they support each other in the quest. Support and friendship being one of the most important aspects of the series, an ongoing theme about relating to those you cross paths with, befriending new people – as well as protecting new people, new friends. Even going as far as declaring war for their friends. Friends who have been wronged in some way, because they’re weak, too kind, or just unfortunate. I suppose it doesn’t matter since it’s a friend in need, or just someone in need of help.

That’s when you get to watch Luffy and his crew turn from the jolly gang that can’t stay serious for a moment into a manifestation of righteous fury that makes your knotted guts unwind because justice will be served, that the wrongs will be right. You get to watch their vaunted abilities come to light, see the awesome and impressive moves and whatsitnots that comes romping through the issues.

The fights are spectacular, awesome, well thought out, and most importantly; meaningful. I could go on and on about all the details in the fights, their abilities, weaknesses and so on. I don’t see the point in that, you’ll see it for yourself if you pick it up, and you can run around talking about all the abilities at any time you want. What really matters to me in the end is that the stories and themes in One Piece are meaningful, they invoke feelings, they matter.

To me, that’s what makes One Piece epic and it’s the reason I’m a huge fan. One Piece tells a compelling and serious story about amazing and funny characters that’re willing to walk through fire and fun for that which matters and doesn’t in a world that feels all too real despite it’s surreal setting, invoking glee and sadness like no manga has ever managed to do for me before.