#thinking about step 4 haru living their (mostly) best life

[sunbloomdew]

WOOOOOOOO step 4 Haru (and Liz) doodles!!

the last one is the oldest, so their facial features are a bit different (and their head is so wide ksjfhskksdfksjf bruh)

meeting haru or liz in step 4 comes with inevitable sibling stories sharing and if you can't accept it you simply aren't the chosen one

[a-few-of-my-favorite-anime]

Yesterday wo Utatte (Spring 2020) 12 Episodes

I wanted to like this... ultimately it was disappointing and unsatisfying.

Basically all the the characters are in 'love' with someone who can't return their feelings.

> Recent high school drop out Haru is in insta love with recent college grad Rikuo. > Rikuo has been crushing on his college classmate Shinako for the past few years. > Shinako first love died 6 years ago, and she still can't move on. >Rou, the younger high school brother of Shinako's first love, believes he is also in love with her.

I honestly didn't dislike any of the characters, Rikuo and Shinako are 22-23yo both stuck and finding it difficult to move on, him with finding a passion/career and finally moving forward in life (low confidence, low self-esteem?), and her using her dead love as an excuse not to risk emotional love and relationships again. In the anime you do see Rikuo start to finally make changes in his life and choose a career path, and it seemed like Shinako was also willing to start to move forward and try a love relationship again... but they just couldn't get comfortable enough with each other to make it work.  

Shinako, for me was the hardest to deal with... she wants to wallow in her grief, but she also finally realizes she needs to move on, she accepts Rikuo's interest in her, even though she really isn't interested in him, only using him to help herself move on.  To be fair, Rikuo goes in fully knowing this, they are at least honest with each other. He is willing to take the risk that it won't work and it doesn't because he knows her situation is too considerate of her feelings to ever push her, and she herself admits she wants someone to push/pull her out of her rut... I don't know, I couldn't help but feel like she was really wrong to use him like that even if he was willing. What she really needed was to have her friends set her up with a few blind dates, people who she could meet casually, with no feelings or expectations, and just start getting used to dating and realizing that there are other nice guys besides her ex if she gave them a chance... and if not, no real harm done just try again.  But in taking it safe and using Rikuo, who is too inexperienced and invested to want to mess this up, it ends up going nowhere but awkward.

Haru and Rou are kinda similar as well, both are high school aged and very determined to make their feelings known and both fully expect to eventually win their loves if they just persist hard enough... I found Haku a little less grating, she is a little stalker like always popping up, but she also recognizes when Rikuo isn't having it and backs off to try again later. She is a simple girl for the most part, she is happy, independent and mostly well adjusted, she really just wants to be in love and decided that Rikuo was the one for her. Again, to Rikuo's credit I never felt like he lead her on, he was always telling her he wasn't interested, but just never strong enough for her to quit.  She even acknowledges Shinako as her rival, but never stops trying to win Rikuo over. Often it seems like Haru should just give up and find someone who is at least interested in her, she is young and cute and should have no problems finding someone better and interested, but 'love' isn't always a choice? She is young and believes if she gives it her all she will prevail, I chalked it up to youthful enthusiasm.

Rou on the other hand was quite aggressive and possessive of Shinako to a point that makes you uncomfortable. They grew up together, she sees him as a little brother that he basically has been to her. He is at least 5-6 years younger, a 17-18yo in high school, even her actual student at one point! I had to keep thinking that, he is young and it is his first crush, he might just be projecting a lot on to her, he just needs to grow up.  He just does a lot of questionable things, but then again he is quite young... I never thought his love would be returned by Shinako, that the point was for him to grow up and realize its not going to happen. It kind of happens at the end, but it seems to just work to win her over?

Just looking at Rou reminds Shinako of his dead brother, she is (unhealthly) dependent on his family, often going over to cook meals for them, even when they are not there and generally just mothering them... feels like she is her avoiding living an independent life of her own. At least that is where I thought it was heading, Rou has the least amount of screen time just finishing school and doing art (safety pin as an earring artist, like i said young, lol), and is never presented as a real viable choice the way Haru is.  Haru is ever present in the story, she wants to win Rikuo's love fair and square. Rou seems to demand and expect Shinako's love, she just needs to stop seeing him as a kid. At the end, when he is moving out to his first apartment, he chooses a place where it will also be convenient for her to continue stopping by to cook meals for him... and she agrees to it... it felt like a step backwards for her.

Shinako personality is such that, she is too nice and comfortable just being friendly to everyone, but too pretty that all of her niceness just makes all the guys around her want more from her.

Then the ending happened... this anime really didn't feel like it was setting up for the ending we got, it felt like we were following 4 rather immature and inexperienced young people having to realize some hard truths about life and love as they finally move forward in life. They teased us with a Rikuo-Shinako potential romance, but it was clear it was going nowhere after a few 'dates'. But then out of the blue Shinako breaks down and acts like she can't handle hurting Rou (by not returning his romantic love) and not being apart of that family, she is too dependent on them, like they are her own family and she misses going there and mothering them...

So does that translate to she will eventually be with Rou (at least he is not her student anymore) just so she can continue to be apart of the family that she is comfortable with? Or that she really does love Rou? Is she again deflecting and sort of combining Rou and his brother into one as a way to compromise but also stay comfortable in her bubble? I'm not sure. Honestly, I never got the feeling Shinako was ever really interested or in love or romance with anyone, she just wants to be comfortable in non-sexual relationships and mother them, imo.

Rikuo on the other hand does a 180 when he realizes that he actually does 'love' Haru.  The entire show I was at least giving him the credit for not giving her false hope. He is constantly telling her he isn't interested, that she should stop bothering with him, etc... she understands, but says it is okay, she does it for her own benefit and to not mind her. But now, after he and Shinako both realize that it isn't happening, he decides that he did like Haru and liked that she loved him so much, and that he wants to be with her now.  Of course Haru, resigned to losing gave up her pursuit, is shocked when he confesses and of course the magic words 'i love you' was all it took for her to leap into his arms.

I'm not mad at the couple, they probably would be good together, at least both want to be in a relationship now and are low maintenance enough to work it out, but the lack of buildup and romance is perplexing and annoying.  Rikuo literally never shows any romantic interest in her the entire series, the best you can say is that he isn't mean to her... and then immediatly he jumps to 'love.'

Sigh, this ending felt like to came out of nowhere, both 'couples' are paired up without a lot explanation and substance, it just felt lackluster and disappointing on the relationship and romance angle.

[eucleasays]

Dear, You.

Dear You,

How are you feeling? Bored? or Are you happy? Never been better? It’s been awhile since I talk to you.

Oh, I forgot that this isn’t word. And guess what, I just pressed the “cmnd+S”.

I’ve been waiting for finding a great time to talk to you. How have you been? Do you find anything good out there? Are you having so much fun? How’s your project of being a next great self doing? Is it working? Are you becoming a better person? I wish you a great years ahead.

How’re your parents? Are they healthy enough to go on a trip with you? I hope they’re always be healthy and happy. Anyway, how’s your trip to xxxx island? Was it good there? Ah, I find myself wondering things about your trip, I bet it’s fun.

It’s freezing here, I really can’t use the AC inside my room under 25℃. That feels like I’m in Antartica without any blankets on! I’m totally freezing. My life has been challenging. It mostly fun! Oh, and I’m trying to learn chinese words. It’s goddamn hard. My friends help,tho. Ah it’s almost midnight. Guess I need to go. See you later.

Sincerely love you, Your self in 2018

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 1, Introduction

AHOY. IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I POSTED DI TUMBLR.

That wasn’t a real message to my own self. Diatas itu cuma contoh aja, kalaupun sebenernya ada pesan yang mau aku sampaikan ke my future self, of course I keep it to myself dan ga diumbar ke media sosial macam tumblr. 

Oke, jadi yang sebenernya mau aku omongin ini tentang apa sih?

*jeng jeng jeng*

Yes, “A Letter to My Future Self”.

Apa sih itu? Kenapa sih itu? Emang penting nulis gituan? Buat apa? Apa faedahnya?

One might still ask that thing to me pas gue lagi ga sengaja kepergok nulis surat di kertas yang ditujukan ke gue sendiri. I would say “Yes, it is”. 

If you have an insecure self like I do, If you have a really bad day but you don’t want to bother anyone, If you don’t have that courage to tell your friends how you feel because you don’t want to be a burden to them, If you want to look how big is your improvement years later, well, yes.

As for me, this is the best way to set my goal. I tell it to my future self this day each year, and I’m going to see the improvement in the next mail. It’s fun. Just start by picking how many years out you want to address yourself. Writing to yourself in two or five years can be a great tool for organizing goals and specific outcomes.

This is an incredible exercise to do no matter how old you are. Think of it as a time capsule. Instead of burying some things, writing a letter to yourself gives back memories you want to be the best person you want. Set your goal, write best memories, sad memories, teaching you a valuable lessons. 

Ada beberapa waktu pas aku buka sendiri tulisan aku setelah setahun-duatahun proyek ini aku kerjain, I was blown away. blown away by how much I had changed, and how little I had changed. It’s an incredible exercise for a self-gratitude, since I am a negative-person trying to look happy all the damn time.

Ada juga beberapa waktu aku stuck in a dead-end assignments (or jobs) dan malah jadi uncertain tentang masa depan. Where will you be in ten years? Who I want to be? Semuanya aku ceritain disitu. Segala macem yang aku mau, ya setting my own goal selama setahun. Ada yang gagal, tapi ada kok yang berhasil. 

Beli piano salah satu contoh di aku. Udah sering banget aku ceritain di surat aku kalo aku pengen banget bisa main piano. Beli piano akhirnya kesampean di tahun ke-4 aku nulis surat. Main pianonya? bisa bisa dikit, baca note balok udah mulai bisa. Ga buta-buta amat lah masalah nada. Well, let’s see how good this will be.

Bukan cuma setting goals, kaya yang aku bilang juga sebelumnya, surat ini bakalan jadi memori. Pengingat. I assure you this is good. You’ll see how the past and present is SO much different. It teaches you to cherish every moments. 

You’ll only live once, well, that’s the motto. 

It’s going to be like a snapshots of your life at a point in time, but in a writing. Isn’t it nostalgic to look back and see what you were thinking at that time? “OH MAY GAT, DULU KENAPA GUE KEK GINI SIH MALU MALUIN” kinda thing.

Okay, now let’s go to the part 2.

Part 2, How to Do It

The simplest way to do it is just grab your pencil or pen, write everything in your mind on a piece of paper. Atau bisa juga sih lewat e-mail, atau ambil hape, tulis aja di aplikasi notes gitu kan ya.

First things first, you harus tau mau nulis dimana. Kertas kah? Hp kah? Laptop kah? Pilih platform yang sesuai sama kamu.

Kalo pilih kertas ya sediain amplop! Kalo platform yang kamu pilih adalah selain kertas, karena kamu adalah seorang manusia milenial yang pengen zero-waste and paper-less, YOWES! Yang penting itu siapkan mental buat ga buka surat, notes, atau e-mail yang kamu buat. Pertahun, per-lima tahun, per-sepuluh tahun, juga boleh. Berapa lama kamu baru boleh buka si surat, itu terserah kamu. Kalo mau yang gampang inget sih, misal ya, pake tanggal lahir kamu sebagai patokan. Jadi tiap kamu ulang tahun, kamu buka deh itu surat. Nah, Jadi balik ke nomor dua ini, buatlah surat. Tutup rapat. Set kapan harus dibuka. Dan yang paling penting LUPAIN SEMUA YANG KAMU TULIS. it can surprise you later. You’re future self will thank you for that.

Tiap abis kamu buka surat (dan dibaca), jangan lupa buat tulis surat lagi! Simpan lagi, dan kembali lakukan step nomor dua.

Udah. Simple kan?

Part 3, What to Write

Yang bisa kamu-kamu tulis di surat itu, ya ga beda jauh sama apa yang kamu biasa tulis buat orang. Tapi bedanya, di surat ini, kamu bisa masuk kasih saran atau ngomong yang lebih personal dan mendalam. Iyalah! Kan ngomongnya sama diri sendiri. Kamu bisa tuang segala ide kamu, goals kamu, orang yang bikin kamu kepikiran terus, orang yang nyakitin kamu, nge-rant sejahat apapun, masalah keuangan kamu, masalah cinta, masalah apapun. Biasanya the more specific you are, the more likely you are going to see your improvements.

Kamu bisa tulis hal-hal yang paling kamu takutin, your deepest nightmares. What keeps you awake at night, what have you done wrong, regrets. Atau hobi baru kamu. Buku atau drama korea yang lagi kamu suka sampe bikin kamu gabisa tidur buat tau kelanjutannya gimana, dan gimana hal tersebut ngefek ke kamu.

Atau kamu bisa cerita tentang orang-orang yang penting buat kamu, apa yang mereka lakuin sampe kamu bisa bilang mereka orang yang termasuk dalam inner circle kamu. and many more!

seru kan?

This is just a starting point. Enjoy.

With love, hugs, and kisses, Anda.

[talestoenrage]

Persona 5

Last night, I finally finished Persona 5, and...it wasn’t as good as Persona 4. Now that I have all the available facts, I finally think I can fairly unpack my reasons why. Behind the cut, for anyone else who’s still working on it and doesn’t want spoilers.

The first thing to note is that I am a huge Persona 4 fan. It’s not a perfect game (but then, nothing is); it starts off very slowly, its once-lauded LGBT content is actually not good in the cold light of day when LGBT content is (however slowly) becoming more common in video games, and it has a long, LONG day that is just...awful. Misogynist and transphobic as hell. But overall, it’s a hell of a game that I recommend to almost anyone, even with those caveats. It’s also a game that’s almost 9 years old, so why do I think it’s better than the sequel that came out this year?

Certainly, Persona 5 has a lot of gameplay improvements. There’s more variety in combat, with new types of attacks and status effects you can inflict and have inflicted on you. Adding guns as another piece of equipment gives everyone in your party additional options. Most importantly, the social links the current Persona games rely on for their flavor have added gameplay benefits, as different ranks will grant you useful skills in and out of combat, at a pace that lets you naturally integrate the new options rather than being overwhelmed by them. And the negotiation system with the enemies (imported back from the base SMT series) means that what you fight can matter beyond “this is their weakness/XP gain/possible item drops.” In every measurable way, combat in 5 is better than 4. Even the dungeons are improved, because the set designs stand out better than 4′s randomized crawling. Plus if you do want random dungeon crawls, there’s a whole huge area that calls back to Persona 3′s Tartarus. The best of both worlds, right? The problem is that while combat in 5 is a great improvement, combat is not what I loved in Persona 4 anyway. It was the writing and the story.

If you haven’t played Persona 4, the main plot revolves around a series of murders in a rural Japanese town. After the first two, the main character and his recent friends discover another world, and that it’s connected to the murders so far. When a third person goes missing, they save them, and then decide to work on stopping any further murders and figure out who’s behind them. On its own, this is a workable plot that stands out among JRPGs for being decidedly small scale. You aren’t setting out to stop an evil empire or find your missing father, but it’s a worthy goal, and the fantastical elements explain why you can’t just go to the police about it.

What makes the game sing is the writing for the other members of your group, and for the social links you make to gain power. Your party is a bunch of teenagers, and sometimes they’re, well, shitty in the way teens so often are. They care for each other and stick their necks out, but they’ll also crack inappropriate jokes or be insensitive because they’re still learning how to act like adults. It occasionally goes too far (see Teddy), but mostly it felt believable, as did any of the romance scenes if you choose to date any of your classmates. On top of that, with the exception of the main character, you gain team members by saving them from their own Shadow, which stands for the parts of themselves they don’t want to admit are real. Sure, you beat them when they become the boss, but then the character in question has to accept the parts of themselves they don’t like to admit are there, something that all of us have.

Meanwhile, the social links do the heavy lifting of making the town feel like a real place. Sometimes you’re doing real work to improve someone’s life, sometimes you’re just there for them when they hit a snag and need to process it. But it’s a reminder that outside of the fantasy elements of going into the TV world and fighting weird creatures, you live in a town with “real” people that have real problems. That’s not quite what your team member’s social links are about, but instead it’s about someone who has admitted they have issues...and then you have to help them work through that. Admitting they have a problem is just the first step, not the solution.

If this sounds more like a review of Persona 4 than 5, I can understand that. But I needed to unpack what I love about 4 first, because if I’m going to say 5 isn’t as good, I think it’s only fair to explain what I love about 4 and why. And the main stumbling block for 5 is a combination of writing and, to a lesser degree, a mixed translation job.

The translation isn’t terrible-I don’t think it will spawn any memes online due to particular lines. But some subtlety is lost, and lines that should hit harder lose impact because the sentence structure doesn’t work as it should in English. It’s hard to say if it’s just a case of being too literal or being rushed for time, or some combination.

But even with better translation, the writing just falls flat. 5 raises a lot of questions with its central premise, where your group “steals” the hearts of bad people to make them change and be good, but it’s resolutely uninterested in answering half of them. It will tell you all about the mechanics of how you do it and what happens to the person, but it doesn’t want to deal with the ethics at all for half of the game, and then when it comes up, it’s a half hearted ‘were we doing the right thing?” when people start saying bad stuff about the Phantom Thieves. Are all the villains you take down engaging in truly reprehensible behavior? Yes. Are they largely insulated from official control? Yes, and for reasons beyond general “looking the other way,” since the final human villain is revealed to be covering for everyone you fought before. But there’s never a conversation where your group, the people actually altering people’s personalities, ever ask themselves if it’s okay to be making such radical changes, or asking if you are returning them to normal versus changing a “normal” person into a different version that didn’t exist before. And even the half hearted attempts to question it get shot down by your character’s mouth piece, the fame whore, whose very questionable motivations for wanting to continue are ALSO never questioned, except very briefly near the end. I didn’t need the game to tell me I was wrong for what I was doing, but I at least wanted a discussion, even if it ended with “this may be a bad thing, but we need to do it because no one else can touch them.”

Perhaps the social links would have saved it, but almost all of them outside of the main party ones end the same way. You get up to rank 7 or 8, find out there’s a road block of someone being bad, and then you get a request to change their hearts. Rinse and repeat. This throws the question of how ethical your behavior is into even sharper relief, and adds in the issue of making every resolution to the social links be “I did magic, and then they figured out I was a Phantom Thief, but it’s okay because they said they would keep my secret.” The first few times, I found it charming. The 10nth time, I felt like I might as well stop pretending and just tell anyone who asked “Yeah, I’m one of them. Want me to change some guy’s head? I got my magic gun I can use.”

Most of the party member social links don’t involve that, but most of them also fall flat. Ryuji’s is just there, Ann involves helping her realize other models can be mean and she’ll lose out if she doesn’t put more effort in, Yusuke is having art block, and Haru needs to learn how to manage a corporation she unexpectedly inherited. None of them are offensive, but they’re mostly boring. Only Futaba (trying to reacclimate to society after being a recluse for years) and Makoto (mostly forgettable but she slaps another girl and then challenges a would be pimp to a street fight, which was great) stand out, or seem like you actually do anything to help other than be there as they talk it out on their own.

Then there’s the framing device, where you’ve already been captured and are telling a prosecutor the story of how you came to be the Phantom Thieves. It intrudes every time you hit a certain point in the plot, and whenever you start a new social link. It didn’t take long at all for me to roll my eyes every time it intruded to remind me I wasn’t ACTUALLY in May, I was just RECOUNTING what I did in May. Plus its plot hook of “someone betrayed you to us” was blunted when the person who did it joined my group last and was literally blackmailing us to quit after pulling “one last job.” Gee, wonder who could have sold us out to the cops? The shitty teen detective who talks about people as vermin? I’M SHOCKED. 

Now, I will give 5 credit, it has two solid plot twists. The first is when the framing device resolves (assuming you don’t get the bad ending), and Akechi shoots you...only to be revealed that your team was actually paying attention, realized he was lying, and used what they knew about the Metaverse to trick him into shooting a dupe. It wasn’t worth the hassle, but it was nice to see the group not be idiots. The second, that Igor was actually a fake as well and behind all the trouble, was more genuinely surprising, but it did make the voice change that we’d assumed was a weird miscast into a clue that we’d missed. 

The final boss fight being about pulling out a giant spirit gun and shooting a god in the head was goofy as hell, but unintentionally so, which is unfortunate.

Would I recommend Persona 5? With reservations. Along with all the issues I’ve noted, the game feels too long for the plot it has; I was close to 150 hours when I finished, and even taking out the grinding I did at different points, I felt like I went through a lot of filler dialogue to get there. Plus the opening to 5 is, if anything, even LONGER than 4. You show up in town on the 9nth, and it’s not until the 18nth that you have full control over your actions, with multiple mandatory tutorial sections.

At least the music is still great.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 9/17/18

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 9 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – I read the first eight volumes of The Ancient Magus’ Bride back-to-back, so it was a little weird reading this one on its own. We pick up with Chise having made a deal with Josef that ultimately involves each getting to see the other’s painful past. She eventually must agree that he’s suffered even more than she has, though this doesn’t give him an excuse for hurting people. I’m not sure if her message of understanding really got through to him, but it was pretty neat that, although Elias was prepared to do something terrible to save her, Chise essentially saved herself. Perhaps a bit too neatly, everything more or less resets in time for the next phase of the story—the “college arc”—which begins next volume. I’m looking forward to it! – Michelle Smith

A Centaur’s Life, Vol. 15 | By Kei Murayama | Seven Seas – Last time we had a lot of war and very little of the main cast; this time the main cast are more heavily involved, but only because the war comes to them. Honestly, if anything, the series gets even more bizarre, something I thought impossible, mostly thanks to the snake people and their “world in a bubble” reality generator, which makes me wonder how much of what we’ve seen has been in one of those. As for Hime, though the cover may make this look like a final volume, it isn’t—but she is almost killed by terrorists, who go after the little triplet girls as well. A Centaur’s Life has found the line between cute (and sometimes perverse) monster girls and anti-war otakudom, and is proud to step back and over over that line. – Sean Gaffney

Hatsu*Haru, Vol. 2 | By Shizuki Fujisawa | Yen Press -The concept of the playboy high school guy who ends up knowing nothing about what real love feels like is not a new plot in the slightest, but the author does a very good job of keeping us interested despite that. Kai’s attempts to force a kiss on Riko get him in deep trouble for almost half the volume, and justifiably so. But Kai is genuinely trying to understand Hiro, and understand why she continues to be in love with another man even though she knows he is with someone else and can’t reciprocate it. The series gets a bit more cliche when it moves to the other main characters—honestly, the Buddhist guy/Shinto girl pair made me groan at how cliched it was. Do we need to pair the spares already? Still, overall good. – Sean Gaffney

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon Four-Panel Comic: Odd Days of Goddess | By Masaya Takamura and Fujino Omori | Yen Press – The second volume of this 4-koma parody series is not as good as the first. Honestly, it has to be said: seeing Hestia and Lilly getting jealous over Bell is not really why fans over here read the series, and since it’s exaggerated in a parody, that makes it more annoying. This second volume came out around when Sword Oratoria was taking off, so the second half focuses far more on Lefiya and company, but the humorous tone is still the same. Oddly, the best parts of the volume are when it briefly turns serious, or at least sweet, showing off Bell and Hestia’s pure and innocent kind-of love. If you like the series, this may make you smile. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 4 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – I suspect I may love this a bit more than other manga bloggers do, but oh well. I love it. Shirogane’s sister is on the cover, and she does come to visit the student council room, though she’s on her best behavior. And there are a few classic Chika moments. But for the most part this volume is dominated by Kaguya and Shirogane and their desperate attempts to get the other to confess first so they can just GO OUT ALREADY. This includes pretending to be cold, which goes disastrously on both sides, and Kaguya then CATCHING a cold, which leads to an actual crisis when Shirogane can’t control his teenage hormones and Kaguya thinks he went too far… or not far enough. I can’t stop laughing when I read this. – Sean Gaffney

The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, Vol. 5 | By Tomoko Yamashita | SuBLime Manga (digital only) – I wasn’t exactly lulled into a false sense of security by the episodic first half of this volume, given the pervasive ominous feeling that always lingers on the fringes of this series, but I was still taken by surprise when some pivotal things suddenly happen in the back half, including Hanzawa having a run-in with Erika and readers suddenly learning some very major and disturbing truths about Rihito’s past that both render him more sympathetic as a character and provide further evidence that he’s likely a very dangerous person for Mikado to be hanging around with. I love this series so much, from the spare yet expressive art to the creepy cases to the leads and their complicated relationship. What it reminds me of the most is Tokyo Babylon, so if that’s your jam, please read this series! – Michelle Smith

Queen’s Quality, Vol. 5 | By Kyousuke Motomi | Viz Media – This volume of Queen’s Quality felt more like a shonen series, filled with dramatic battles, swords, and flashbacks of dead childhood friends in the best One Piece tradition. Fumi is getting closer to becoming a true queen, and succeeds in at least moving from the Black Queen to the Dark Grey Queen this time around (would she sing the Seven Seas of Rhye?), but she has to figure out a way to work with white as well, and it’s implied that she has to recover all her memories to do so. Meanwhile, Kyutaro is having trouble dealing with how much he’s in love with her, and even her very presence can relax and heal him. This new arc involving a spring break training trip will have trouble topping the excitement of the arc that ended here. – Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 41 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media- Kyoko’s audition for a ninja role in a samurai drama continues, and the majority of this volume can be summed up as, “She proceeds to be very badass.” Some of what happens to make her stand out was a calculated move on Yashiro’s part, but the fact is that she has prepared more than any of the other candidates, and even the fact that she’s a “talento” with LME instead of an official actress doesn’t seem like it’ll hurt her much. I love the way Nakamura-sensei depicts Kyoko when she’s in character, and her ninja persona is very cool indeed. I’d be super happy to see some serious stardom start to come her way, especially with Yashiro as her manager. The final couple of pages hint for some movement on the romance front, too. I still love this series very, very much! – Michelle Smith

Slum Wolf | By Tadao Tsuge | New York Review Comics – Although it’s the first volume by a Japanese creator to be published by New York Review Comics, Slum Wolf is the second major collection of Tadao Tsuge’s work to have been translated into English. (Trash Market was released a few years ago by Drawn & Quarterly.) Slum Wolf brings together nine of Tsuge’s short manga originally published between 1969 an 1978, most of which first appeared in the influential alternative manga magazine Garo. In addition to an autobiographical article by Tsuge, an essay by the volume’s editor and translator Ryan Holmberg which provides additional historical context for the manga is also included. The stories themselves have autobiographical influences as well. Filled with vagrants, punks, hoodlums, and other tough guys living in the shadow of the Second World War and the American occupation that followed, the short vignettes in Slum Wolf share a similar atmosphere and mood, themes, and even a few recurring characters. – Ash Brown

By: Ash Brown