Chaotic Kiss Book Three

Another Anime Boston purchase.

Title: Chaotic Kiss
Issue: Book Three
Date: 2011
Publisher: MKT Productions
Writer: Michelle Pinard
Artist: Michelle Pinard

This holiday-themed volume of Michelle Pinard's transgendered geeky romance starts out with a departure from the Boston-based nerdy fun of the previous issues. Syd is heading home for Thanksgiving to face a family who has never come to terms with her gender identity. This is a really emotional scene, and definitely the most intense and dramatic so far in this series.

When they get back to Boston, Syd and Mariko find themselves in the midst of the holiday season, complete with a cute series of tributes to favorite holiday tropes. Meanwhile, Yujiko's beginning relationship with Noah continues to grow and Lander is trying to work up to courage to confess his feelings for Syd.

There is the maid cafe, and video game action, of course, and some fun local flavor. I enjoyed seeing a glimpse of First Night Boston.

There is a lot of silliness in this volume, but my favorite moments were among the more serious: The confrontation between Syd and her father, and a really tender scene involving Yujiko and Noah.

Rating: 7.5/10

Chaotic Kiss Book Two

I actually bought this at the Free Comic Book Day festival last year, but since Michelle Pinard was at yesterday's Queen City Kamikaze, I figured I would feature it as today's review. This will be all for convention-related comics from this weekend. I attended Boskone today, but purchased only a couple of prose books. I also got to meet the editors of Fat Girl In A Strange Land, an anthology that debuted this weekend which includes a story I wrote!

Back to the New 52 tomorrow!

Title: Chaotic Kiss
Issue: Book Two
Date: 2012
Publisher: MKT Productions
Writer: Michelle Pinard
Artist: Michelle Pinard

Michelle Pinard's geeky transgendered soap opera returns with more drama, more plot twists, and a lot more geekiness.

It's the geeky elements that are the real fun for me with this book. The intrigue and plot twists are complex and engaging, and writer/artist Michelle Pinard does a great job of incorporating the unique challenges and struggles of her transgendered protagonists in a way that stays hopeful and never gets too angry or preachy.

But it's the geek culture elements that really make me smile when I read Chaotic Kiss. In this issue, we've got a Halloween cosplay ball (complete with a Cinderella-flavored romantic moment), a viewing of Rocky Horror Picture Show ("What the hell does this 'V' mean?" HA!), a video game tournament, and a maid cafe. Plus plenty of cosplay, corsetry, and goth-lolita fashion.

The plot focuses primarily on Yujiko, who is still transitioning and is in an emotionally abusive relationship, and Syd, who decides that even though Halloween is approaching, it's time to play cupid.

Subplots abound, although there was one bit of plot that seemed to get dropped without explanation (a character who was angry with another character, and then things were normal between them without explanation; small in the overall scheme, but it did have me scratching my head).

A lot of the characters in this are rather over-the-top, but that is intentional and very much part of the fun.

This was a thoroughly entertaining follow-up to the first volume and it leaves plenty of story potential for Book 3.

Rating: 7/10

Chaotic Kiss Book One

Title: Chaotic Kiss
Issue: Book One
Date: 2010
Publisher: MKT Productions
Writer: Michelle Pinard
Artist: Michelle Pinard

Manga-format collection of the first five issues of Chaotic Kiss, a comic about transgender relationships set in Boston. Chaotic Kiss follows the adventures of Sydney, who has finished her male-to-female transition, and is embarking on a new start in life in Boston. There's a whole cast of otaku, fanboys, t-girls, nerds, and gothic lolitas, and a complex plot with a well-developed backstory. The Boston locations are fun, as are all of the subculture references. This comic is essentially a humorous soap-opera, and it succeeds at having plenty of twists and turns to keep the plot interesting while delivering some funny moments and clever dialogue. MKT Productions is very clear that they are doing this book to fill a need for transgender stories in manga, but while transgender issues are central to the story, they are never handled in a heavyhanded or preachy way, and this is first and foremost a good comedic drama.

Rating: 7.5/10

I met Michelle Pinard earlier today at the Queen City Kamikaze convention in Manchester NH and picked up Book One of Chaotic Kiss, which she signed for me. This was my only comic purchase at the convention, so it's back to the unread comics box tomorrow. We had a great time at QCK and enjoyed showing off our comics to all the fans in attendance.