Things No One Cares About: Mr.Flower Bride

I spent an entire month talking about Arina Tanemura so let's move on to someone different,Lily Hoshino. She's been featured here a couple of times before for her yaoi collections and after last months heterosexual extravaganza, I could use a shake up. Mr. Flower Bride is yet again a collection of yaoi stories though the volume neglects to mention the other stories instead focusing on the titular story. I can forgive it though since the other stories are far less interesting and take up space that could have been used for the better main story.

The Mr. Flower Bride chapters focus on Aoi and Shinji as they get swept up in Shinji's family tradition of marrying the youngest son off to a guy to prevent succession disputes among the children. While this could be an interesting jumping off point for dealing with people forced to love a person of a gender they have no interest in,this is never explored. It does however take a short time to show Shinji coming to terms with his attraction to Aoi despite his worry of getting Aoi involved in a tradition that people view as a punishment in someway.

The remaining chapters detail their wedding night and a few other isolated events and it works well to develop their relationship and how it affects others. I wouldn't call the characters fully developed but they work well enough for the short time we see them. Like My Only King there is the starting of something rather interesting here but it fails to follow through. The story right after that is a role reversal of the main couple's archetype and actually lends a little more to building up the setting with more insight into this tradition. Letting this run alongside the main story would actually be interesting as a way to expand the setting. However, my hopes for this story will have to wait for the sequel as it's pushed aside for more one shots.

The other two side stories are just sort of sitting there. One's about a bodyguard who needs protecting and a pretty boy in a brothel finding his true love. It's well trod ground for yaoi and seems to be struggling for a reason to exist outside of fulling a boy sex quota. The latter story breaks the mold that the book set by again putting a girly uke in it. Up till now the manga-ka had stopped drawing her ukes too girly. They were just feminine enough to work and the role reversal chapter works better because of the style. However,here he's back to being a borderline trap,and while not a bad story, it's was done better in The Seabed of Night. On there own these would be okay stories but here they are interrupting a better story and lack the interesting aspects and developments of the main story..

Like Mistress Fortune, the main story is going along with the sillier bits with a wink and a nod. Unlike that however it does try to build a setting that works and examine different facets of this relationship. The more stand alone style of the chapters could form an interesting tale given the time but this was a story shot in the legs and left for dead. Overall not worth it,unless all you want some nicely drawn guy loving.

Things No One Cares About: My Only King

 I”m going to take you back to a simpler time, when my jokes made some sense and I actually had a semblance of a schedule, to remind you of that time I talked about Yaoi. More specifically the forgettable Alone in My King's Harem by Lily Hoshino. I mention that book again because Night Circus section of that book is still pretty great. Oh, and because today’s subject,My Only King, is yet another collection of yaoi shorts by the same manga-ka.

My Only King drops the more fantasy based art and feel of Alone in My King's Harem(AMKH) in favor of a more realistic feel. All the stories take place in what can be considered the real world outside of the last story which is more fantasy like. It seems to be the opposite of AMKH,which ended with the more real life based Flesh chapters. My Only King carries over some of the other titles problems while also improving on a few. The art is still down right beautiful even if the uke characters are even more girly than before. It lacks the dream like aspect that kept the first book from being totally forgettable but in turn improves the story telling quality to an extent. My Only King manages to give the stories some more depth and delivers a more solid collection.

The book begins with the titular story that takes up half of the book's eight chapters. The plot is a a simple set up with a normal guy getting the a crest meant for a king of another world and the boy sent to find it. The set-up is rather interesting and the whole time I felt like it was establishing a world with it's own rules for magic. Then it does nothing with it,apparently just an excuse to get our two leads into some mildly steamy kissing. This could have been so much more,the world and characters are there to make this into a half way decent comedy or even action series. Heck,this would have been a perfect way to start a reverse magical girlfriend show. Nope they kissed so might as well call it a day. What's that about magical crests,probably not important. It's a fine story but it wastes it's potential in an infuriating way.

Twinkle Twinkle Horoscope and The Ghost in the Bath take the idea that brevity is best and run with it. The former concerns a boy recently broken up with falling in love with his male friend. As the story plays out the boys are in a constant struggle with why they are exactly doing this,mind you mostly through sub text. Are the boys using each other to stop their own loneliness or just using the pretext of the horoscope to make the love they have acceptable in there mind. It ends after a kiss,which seems to be a connector for these stories. This is probably one of the stronger stories and the uke actually looks like a guy and not just a rejected Prunus Girl lead

The Ghost in the Bath sort of comes and goes so fast that I'm not sure what quite went on. A business man is haunted by a ghost possessing his bathtub. It plays out like a scene from a much larger work yet manages to feel like a complete work in way. The scene is the two talking about how they came to this and what there feelings are. It's adorable and feels like it could be expanded if the manga-ka wanted to. However it feels like a complete story regardless. The fourth story Mixed Chocolate is an extra episode to another series not featured in the book and is short and fluffy. Not worth talking about due to lack of knowledge and depth so I'll skip to the final stop,King and Rune.

This one is the second longest and while going with a three way relationship between two guys and a girl leaves no impact asides from some minor squik factor. We watch the main boy grow up as he is sold off again and again by a king he claims to hate. Yet he keeps getting sent back to the king's home to see an albino girl who no one wants to buy. However the eventual pairing ends up with the two guys together-in a yaoi manga,shocking I know-with the girl being a platonic third party. The younger boy's actions are trying to vilify the king so he doesn't have to admit the loves him and the king plays along with it. However once they do do the deed, it has this squiky feeling of raising yourself a young husband. It's not too bad and the actual relationship dynamics are interesting. It's saved from being the weakest story by Mixed Chocolate but even if it was it's still pretty great.

So another set of stores that were beautifully drawn with most of them on about the same level as Night Circus. It is a marked improvement outside of the Mixed Chocolate story that is rather out of place. It's an interesting collection that is more focused on the love aspect and not just sexy boy/boy action. Definitely worth checking out unless you have some personal vendetta against yaoi.

Till Next Time:Stay Positive

Things No One Cares About:King of Wolves

Last year I looked at the team-up train wreak that was Japan and realized I wasted like five dollars and a few hours on writing more unsubtle than mine. While looking up some info for it I did come across it's big brother King of Wolves. I decided to read that and then didn't so that's why I'm just now talking about it. Relevancy is clearly not my strong suit,anyway lets get on with King of Wolves.

As mentioned above this is the big brother of the red-headed step child that is Japan. Published in 1989, a year after Buroson's Fist of the North Star had completed it's run and a year before Miura's Berserk would begin it's own . It is paced better with a stronger story but  lacks the fangs that Japan had. Not to say it was really that bad either it's just insubstantial.As before Buroson is on story duty while Miura is doing the art Anyway, I like talking about plots so lets do that.

The story follows Iba and his girlfriend Kyoko as they both get pulled into a never explained portal of sorts that takes them back to the thirteenth century Mongol Empire. Her entrance to this realm happens a year later and is used as a way to introduce everything. It follows their efforts to one return home and two keep history flowing as it should. History having a very loose definition here,in that Genghis Khan was apparently a Japanese hero that fled his homeland to start anew in mainland Asia. The book tries to use actual dates to explain it away and I can not tell if it's being serious or not. The plot is driven by a string of wholly uninteresting fights that Iba wins using his kendo techniques and his odd sword that he just seems to have. It does make sense that no one would really be used to his style of fighting so they do lose easily. It doesn't make them any less boring though.

The time line that Iba and Kyoko try to protect seems pretty lax about events. As long as Genghis lives to his recorded death it doesn't seem to matter who has his name. Because I'm pretty sure that Iba's fighting style and sword may cause some things to change but nope it's fine. The whole idea of it is more Stein's Gate and less Sound of Thunder.

Speaking of lax the tone and message are not sure of themselves. The aforementioned origins of Genghis Khan are ridiculous but again I do not know if it is be serious or not. There is a almost bro like relationship between Iba,Genghis and his general but it still plays Genghis as a bit loony and blood thirsty. His desire to have a pure Japaneses baby comes the hell out of no where and pushes him into cartoon villain territory with his attempt to steal it from Iba and Kyoko. It is hard to discern if this is some tragic love story or a zany gorefest.

The characters themselves they are all bland and uninteresting. Iba has no personality outside of we must preserve history. I guess him and Kyoko bond over there lack of personality because they have the chemistry of wet paper bags. Kyoko stops doing anything remotely interesting once she reunites with Iba. Her only real contribution to the plot is having a baby,because that's all we ladies are good for I guess. Everyone else is just a jerk,that wants to murder and /or rule the land. Yes I realize that the period of time was fairly violent but just because it was doesn't mean everyone was a blood thirsty lunatic.

Lets give Buronson a break and start talking about the art,it is okay. I don't know if Miura just really like drawing Casca or what but Kyoko is basically her without her likability. The Mongol empire was apparently a precursor to the bad future of Japan everything is barren taking place primarily in deserts and on plateaus. I realize that those places would be kind of sparse but you could still make them look interesting. However if barren was the intention then they did hit it right on the nose. Genghis's right hand man is a giant in his first appearance then normal the rest of the time,go go action perceptive. I don't mean to bash Miura but this wasn't his first dog and pony show,he should know better.

When I first read this manga I was pretty okay with it I figured it's better than Japan but now that I've had time to think about it,it is almost worse than Japan. It has a better structure and is not as ham-handed as Japan but that's all it really has going for it. Japan had some train wreak qualities that made it somewhat memorable but this is the Seinen equivalent of shojo fluff. Nothing really wrong with it but completely forgettable.

Till next time Stay Positive

Things No One Cares About: Tomorrow's King

Sorry for the slight delay,I promise to flog my self and get the next review out on Wednesday.

I was riding a train from the land of Shojo to see my childhood friend,Otona Ni Nuts, Otona for short. Yes my childhood friend is a manga,shut up. As I rode alone through the flower fields, I was approached by a middle aged woman selling Gokult. I politely declined but she slipped me a small package which contained 6 volumes of a manga. Bored, I figured I read it to kill time and to my surprise it was quite enjoyable. So in the spirit of killing time let's talk about Tomorrow's King.

Tomorrow's King is a 1996 Josei manga by Emiko Yachi and the only of her works to see any kind of translation,so no I won't be making a fool of myself like I did with Glass Wings. It concerns the life of Sasaysa Yuu and her journey through the world of acting. If your getting Glass Mask vibes stop that now, the series does have a similar start but quickly comes into its own. So before I end my fictional train ride,we'll determine if Tomorrow's King is worth your time.

The main theme of the work is that dreams can often change and you should pursue this true dream. Yuu herself goes from wanting to be an actor to being a playwright. Her love interest,Touya,goes into TV acting despite earlier protests. This theme really does bring the series to life,grounding it in believability. Most of the characters flit in and out depending on their relationship to Yuu. It's akin to real life with people not related to your endeavors being forgotten for a while because your busy. It's all firmly grounded in reality and makes Yuu's struggles and triumphs all the more fun to read.

The books also deal with the world of acting and the almost symbiotic relationship between the actor and the director. Most of the strife comes from the cut throat nature of the business though it is interspersed among the rivalry between Yuu and fellow director, Rin. To it's credit,the drama takes a backseat to said rivalry and never feels melodramatic. No one is secretly evil nor does a script some how bring about the end times.. Again it's firmly grounded in reality and that's where it's comfortable.

One could argue that this does take many notes from shojo juggernaut,Glass Mask(GM), but that's be unfair to both works. They both have a person in the field of theater,who has a talent for their craft and their struggles in life. However Yuu is not portrayed as a genesis playwright and has different goals and priorities than Maya from GM. The beginning sets you up to believe Yuu will some how be an acting prodigy but then she's terrible at it. When she tries to do Maya's schtick of perfect mimicry,she fails miserably. After that the story just moves on to doing it's own thing and I stopped making the comparisons.

This being a manga with good looking guys and girls who work closely together means love will eventually bloom. The book works love in a beautiful and mature way. It's very subtle till the end where the sexual tension is think enough to cut with a guillotine. In fact all the relationships are done very well and are clearly defined with out shoving it in the readers face. I could say the love triangle is semi useless because you know from the beginning who she'll end up with. However the other guy does serve to make the finale more personal,so he's fine by me.

My only real problem with the story is pacing. The story will gloss over things that seemed like they should have warranted a chapter. This gets really obvious near the end when the big play that's been hyped up seems to be mostly happening in the background. This may have been because the book wasn't doing well, I don't really know.

This being a bit of a character study of  Sasaya Yuu,it's probably be good to talk about her and the cast. She is an earnest and kind person with a fiery passion. Her character is used to play with the main theme about dreams but also the concepts of identity and self worth. She grows from a naive girl fresh from the farm to a confident playwright. She isn't a perfect person,she can be selfish and slightly sadistic when it comes to her scripts. However that just serves to highlight the passion she has for the scripts. As she does grows more confident that passion does intensify. During her first foray into TV writing she uses her determination to overcome her hate at seeing her serious scripts become comedies. It's her passion and kindness that make her interesting and increases the desire to see her do well.

The rest of the cast go through their own little arcs in relation to Sasaya's and this does bring up a minor problem with her love interest Touya. He's not particular interesting as a character,his with his only qualities being that he's good looking and is an exquisite actor. However his interactions with Sasaya are great and it's clear why he eventually falls for her. The rest of the main cast stands on their own and usually gets some nice growth if they need it. All those mini-arcs go towards the main theme of pursing your true dream. Except for Yuu's mentor,Shougo, who serves as the motivator for Sasaya.He is the end result of following your dreams.Even Kina who plays the role of the snooty girl antagonist gets her own arc that makes her more sympathetic. We see what motivates her and therefore understand why she is this way.

I'll ask you dear reader this are you a fan of a more realistic style because that's what your getting when you read this manga. It can be jarring for the first few chapters especially with the author's love of inking in the lips. It's very weird but once things get going you start to see beauty in the designs. The chapter splash pages are delightfully cheesy but are still well drawn.

As the train reached my hometown on the outskirts of the land of Shojo I reflected on Tomorrow's King. I thought that it was a great story that handled it's themes in a mature way and was quite enjoyable despite it's flaws. As I got off the train Otona greeted me in the way she normally did with a big hug and then some events happened. That is a story for next time.

As always comments,requests and death threats are always welcome.

Things No One Cares About: Berserk: The Egg of The King

Originally published February 3rd 2013

Hi Ulty here, you may remember me from such classic reviews such as Therme Romae and Baki the Grappler, among other. Well I'm back to review thing people may or may not care about and on the stand today is Berserk: Egg of the High King. Sadly though if this movie was on trial it'd be found guilty on a charge of being awful and a few counts of amateur animation.

First a little background,this is the first of a trilogy of movies meant to tell the story of Berserk's Golden Age arc with hopeful attempts to move on to the arcs after that. It covers our main character,Guts, as he meets with the band of Hawks and ends shortly before the battle of Doldrey (I.e the main focus of the second movie). This is where the movie hits it's first major problem.

See what I just described is not the true beginning of the story, it really starts with Guts kicking some ass/world building then starting the big flashback that is the Golden Age arc. So the movie either skips it(in the case of pre flashback events) or hastily explains it( as in Guts' childhood). This trend carries over into the rest of the movie as well. Many minor events that build up the characters and what not are skipped just to rush to the next battle scene. The movie has no sense of pace and feels rushed. It doesn't help that they only had an hour and ten minutes to cover a massive amount of material.

This ties into the next problem,the characters are bad. Without all of the nice character moments to build things up everything just short of happens. Relationships change with little warning and it's jarring . We have no real understanding of the characters and therefore can't get behind them. With no reason to give a shit about them, we can't really care about the narrative either. So in this two legged race both story and character fall flat on their faces at first hurdle.

Okay so maybe the story/characters lost their event to make this a good movie,maybe the animation can win it's event and help at least take home the silver. Well unfortunately, someone put laxatives in it's sports drink and it is just soiling it self all over the course(and with that I've done to metaphors what Guts does to people). What I'm trying to get at is that the CGI is awful. It's like some one was trying to make a PS2 game and then they decided to say screw it and made a movie. There is some better looking animated scenes that only serve to make the others look even worse. To somehow make it even stupider, the changes between the two are clunky enough to give you whiplash. One moment Casca looks fine then the next she's a monstrosity.

Now this is where I saw some nice things about the movie:umm,hold on. Oh yeah, it's mostly uncensored,which is nice because the source material is extremely violent(for a reason). Also Griffith's eyes are still terrifying. Yeah that's about it.

So if you just skipped to here for a simple yes or no, then shame on you go read it then come back down here. My recommendation is skip this garbage and go read the manga or watch the TV series,rage at the ending, then read the manga and enjoy one of the best stories ever written. Until next time,don't die.
As always comments, criticisms and death threats are always welcome.