Pigeons, pearls, and flute
19 December 2007 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerHikkatsu! Strike a Blow to Vivify aka "Raised by Pigeons!" volume 1, by Yu Yagami, is as doofy and silly as reported. 'Course, if you start off a manga with a teenage boy, Shota, trying to perfect a karate blow that repairs appliances run amok, add a girl who, yes, was raised by pigeons (and wears a pigeon friend on her head) who falls instantly in love with him, and toss in a small-time con-man out to use his imperfect Repair Blow to make a few quick yen, you're not exactly in the Territory of Sane Plots. To my surprise, some thought has been put into the sci-fi premises, at least to first consequences, and I'm looking forward to traveling through the intercity wilderness peopled by "special interest enclaves" like origami cultists and go-playing fanatics. My main problem is that while Shota gets a lot of screen time, we don't get a lot of him -- aside from his lengthy, angsty backstory, there's very few of his interior thoughts. He's an impassive cipher with a monomania, which needs cracking if he's going to develop a second joke.
On the other hand, it has pigeon kung fu for the WIN. "Secret Fist of the Pigeon! Flying Pigeon Violent Kick!"
Pearl Pink volume 3, by Meca Tanaka, continues Tomako's struggle to mature enough to be worthy of her childhood crush, Kanji. He being the slightly older son of the owner of the talent agency that manages her mother's show-biz career. A large part of this volume is taken up with Tomako's audition for the part of her mother's character's little sister on a hit TV show, which makes for nice tensions all over the place. I'm glad to report that Tomako grows up a little more, while still remaining her fierce, athletic self (we don't get enough of her pet monkey, though), and that Kanji learns something about not being overprotective. Also, nobody's a jerk. (Well, there's the bitchy audition rivals, but they're plot-points-without-names, not people.)
Tanaka is firmly entrenched on my buy-everything-in-English list.
Followup to the dawn flute: apparently the player makes them, and he has a couple CDs out of him playing.
Heh.
---L.
On the other hand, it has pigeon kung fu for the WIN. "Secret Fist of the Pigeon! Flying Pigeon Violent Kick!"
Pearl Pink volume 3, by Meca Tanaka, continues Tomako's struggle to mature enough to be worthy of her childhood crush, Kanji. He being the slightly older son of the owner of the talent agency that manages her mother's show-biz career. A large part of this volume is taken up with Tomako's audition for the part of her mother's character's little sister on a hit TV show, which makes for nice tensions all over the place. I'm glad to report that Tomako grows up a little more, while still remaining her fierce, athletic self (we don't get enough of her pet monkey, though), and that Kanji learns something about not being overprotective. Also, nobody's a jerk. (Well, there's the bitchy audition rivals, but they're plot-points-without-names, not people.)
Tanaka is firmly entrenched on my buy-everything-in-English list.
Followup to the dawn flute: apparently the player makes them, and he has a couple CDs out of him playing.
Heh.
---L.