[book post] Some manga I read lately
Dec. 10th, 2020 01:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenluaGo With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest vol. 4 by Akie Irie
Alas, this series really does not want to deliver on the incredible promise that volume 1 had.
Certainly, the first half of this volume was fabulous. The main mystery of what’s the deal with Kei’s brother? was finally coming to a head, and Kei was going to have to see his brother’s monstrous tendencies for what they really were, and some of the magical-mystery-tension in the air was finally going to resolve in some deliciously dissonant chord—
—and then they just have the brother disappear? Like, we see the dude wander off, and the text on the page says “and that’s the last anyone saw of him,” and you’re just staring like what the hell? Why would you build up all that tension just to deflate it? Maybe if you’re planning to take a sharp right turn in the plot, do something surprising—but instead of continuing with that plot, they just bring out the B plot, and the B plot, alas, is the most grating part of the series for me (“dumb jokes about how the female character has boobs & related content,” sigh).
I’ll read the next volume, on the off chance that Irie remembers to do the actually compelling plot wtf; and of course the art is still gorgeous; I could roll around in these pages forever. But it’s so weird to see a mangaka with such a compelling start stagger in such a weird way.
Ran and the Gray World, vol 1-3 by Akie Irie
I was so in love with that first volume of Go With the Clouds, in fact, that I decided to find other stuff by the same author—maybe she sticks the landing better elsewhere?
Though Ran and the Gray World is an earlier effort of Irie’s, it’s no less gorgeous than its successor. I mean, check some of these spreads out:
And the worldbuilding/setting has so much of what I adored about Go With the Clouds—the sense that magic lies just beneath the surface of everyday reality. The primary conceit is, “Ran is a ten-year-old sorceress who’s impatient to grow up; when she puts on her magic pair of sneakers, she turns into an adult (physically), and gets into various mishaps”—but I actually found all the magic surrounding the main storyline more compelling. All these little masterful little twists on reality, metaphors made real.
For instance, there’s a scene that made me gasp with the sheer pleasure of it: a bunch of sorcerers referred to as the “black crows” are gathered, and they’re told they need to move urgently against a magical threat in the city. Then: they all transform, and the next page is a full-page spread of hundreds of cacophonous crows, clustered on power lines and rooftops and treetops, a storm brewing in the air. It evoked so precisely the wild, creepy energy I feel whenever I see a massive flock of crows somewhere in the city, and somehow made the whole thing even more magical:
Or: her older brother’s worried because Ran hasn’t come home yet; he throws on a fur coat and—transforms into a wolf, using scent to track her down in the city. Totally unexpected, totally not-foreshadowed, and the visual fluidity of the coat-to-wolf transition delighted me:
However. The main plot focuses on Ran’s relationship with Otaru, and I’m... so very confused by what the author’s trying to do with that.
To put it bluntly: Otaru’s an extremely rich playboy who has one encounter with Ran (in her adult form), briefly says “oh you’re too young for me, I don’t fuck with that,” but then changes in his mind because damn she’s hot, and proceeds to doggedly pursue her. Of course, based on her appearance, he thinks Ran is more like eighteen than ten, but uh, you get the distinct sense that Otaru might not particularly care. And while he hasn’t yet technically crossed any lines yet, I’m just sitting here like... where is this train going? why exactly are we toeing this line? what even?
It’d be one thing if this felt like an id-y wish-fulfillment thing targeted at preteen girls, or if it went for a deliberately skeevy/horror/uncomfortable vibe (e.g. “okay, you’re being edgy, but at least it’s obvious you know you’re being edgy”). But the tone mostly waffles between “teehee it’s so funny when Ran doesn’t realize she’s being hit on” (sigh, eyeroll, this is so dumb), and... romance played straight, I think...? (Er, what?)
This whole setup was already shaky in volume 2, but I kept pushing on because I was still enjoying the subplots, and I was desperately hoping they’d eventually just drop the Otaru thing. But around volume 3 they amped up the “unnecessary/weird gender stuff” with both Otaru’s plot and the subplots, and, yeah, I think I’m out. I do not know what the mangaka is trying to do here but I am not feeling it.
Which is a damn shame. Did I mention the art is gorgeous? It’s so gorgeous. Someone assign Akie Irie a writer who doesn’t suck 2k20
Alas, this series really does not want to deliver on the incredible promise that volume 1 had.
Certainly, the first half of this volume was fabulous. The main mystery of what’s the deal with Kei’s brother? was finally coming to a head, and Kei was going to have to see his brother’s monstrous tendencies for what they really were, and some of the magical-mystery-tension in the air was finally going to resolve in some deliciously dissonant chord—
—and then they just have the brother disappear? Like, we see the dude wander off, and the text on the page says “and that’s the last anyone saw of him,” and you’re just staring like what the hell? Why would you build up all that tension just to deflate it? Maybe if you’re planning to take a sharp right turn in the plot, do something surprising—but instead of continuing with that plot, they just bring out the B plot, and the B plot, alas, is the most grating part of the series for me (“dumb jokes about how the female character has boobs & related content,” sigh).
I’ll read the next volume, on the off chance that Irie remembers to do the actually compelling plot wtf; and of course the art is still gorgeous; I could roll around in these pages forever. But it’s so weird to see a mangaka with such a compelling start stagger in such a weird way.
Ran and the Gray World, vol 1-3 by Akie Irie
I was so in love with that first volume of Go With the Clouds, in fact, that I decided to find other stuff by the same author—maybe she sticks the landing better elsewhere?
Though Ran and the Gray World is an earlier effort of Irie’s, it’s no less gorgeous than its successor. I mean, check some of these spreads out:
And the worldbuilding/setting has so much of what I adored about Go With the Clouds—the sense that magic lies just beneath the surface of everyday reality. The primary conceit is, “Ran is a ten-year-old sorceress who’s impatient to grow up; when she puts on her magic pair of sneakers, she turns into an adult (physically), and gets into various mishaps”—but I actually found all the magic surrounding the main storyline more compelling. All these little masterful little twists on reality, metaphors made real.
For instance, there’s a scene that made me gasp with the sheer pleasure of it: a bunch of sorcerers referred to as the “black crows” are gathered, and they’re told they need to move urgently against a magical threat in the city. Then: they all transform, and the next page is a full-page spread of hundreds of cacophonous crows, clustered on power lines and rooftops and treetops, a storm brewing in the air. It evoked so precisely the wild, creepy energy I feel whenever I see a massive flock of crows somewhere in the city, and somehow made the whole thing even more magical:
Or: her older brother’s worried because Ran hasn’t come home yet; he throws on a fur coat and—transforms into a wolf, using scent to track her down in the city. Totally unexpected, totally not-foreshadowed, and the visual fluidity of the coat-to-wolf transition delighted me:
However. The main plot focuses on Ran’s relationship with Otaru, and I’m... so very confused by what the author’s trying to do with that.
To put it bluntly: Otaru’s an extremely rich playboy who has one encounter with Ran (in her adult form), briefly says “oh you’re too young for me, I don’t fuck with that,” but then changes in his mind because damn she’s hot, and proceeds to doggedly pursue her. Of course, based on her appearance, he thinks Ran is more like eighteen than ten, but uh, you get the distinct sense that Otaru might not particularly care. And while he hasn’t yet technically crossed any lines yet, I’m just sitting here like... where is this train going? why exactly are we toeing this line? what even?
It’d be one thing if this felt like an id-y wish-fulfillment thing targeted at preteen girls, or if it went for a deliberately skeevy/horror/uncomfortable vibe (e.g. “okay, you’re being edgy, but at least it’s obvious you know you’re being edgy”). But the tone mostly waffles between “teehee it’s so funny when Ran doesn’t realize she’s being hit on” (sigh, eyeroll, this is so dumb), and... romance played straight, I think...? (Er, what?)
This whole setup was already shaky in volume 2, but I kept pushing on because I was still enjoying the subplots, and I was desperately hoping they’d eventually just drop the Otaru thing. But around volume 3 they amped up the “unnecessary/weird gender stuff” with both Otaru’s plot and the subplots, and, yeah, I think I’m out. I do not know what the mangaka is trying to do here but I am not feeling it.
Which is a damn shame. Did I mention the art is gorgeous? It’s so gorgeous. Someone assign Akie Irie a writer who doesn’t suck 2k20
no subject
Date: 2020-12-11 06:28 am (UTC)the sense that magic lies just beneath the surface of everyday reality
That transformation scene was pretty dope!
no subject
Date: 2020-12-11 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-11 03:19 pm (UTC)