Yu-Gi-Oh GX Volume 4

From a Little Free Library in Rindge NH USA.

Title: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Issue: Volume 4
Publisher: Viz Media / Shonen Jump
Date: 2010
Writer: Kazuki Takahashi, Naoyuki Kageyama
Artist: Naoyuki Kageyama
Editor: Mike Montesa, Jason Thompson

I picked this up from a Little Free Library, and might not have given it a try were it not for the fact that I just read the Yu-Gi-Oh Official Handbook (also from a Little Free Library, and reviewed here), which gave me some idea of the backstory.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX takes place years after the original series and features a next-generation scenario with a group of aspring duelists attending a Duel Academy, one of several such schools around the world dedicated to the Duel Monsters game.

This is the fourth volume, so we're in the middle of things, in this case, a tournament for the honor of dueling legendary champion Zane "Kaiser" Truesdale. The semifinals have come down to Jaden Yuki against Bastion, and Chazz versus David Rabb.

Jaden has to deal with an opponent who has constructed his deck specifically to beat Jaden's strategy, while Chazz finds himself up against dark magical forces as David engages him in a shadow duel where damage causes real pain.

A flashback to ancient Egypt gives a bit more background on the long-term storyline as the stage is set for the finals. Meanwhile, Duel Academy teacher Ms. Hibiki suspects something unusual is happening involving David, but David's sister, Reggie, is aware of her suspicions.

This exceeded my expectations by a lot. First of all, I was impressed with how interesting the book managed to make the card duel sequences that were at the heart of this issue. Even with my (extremely) limit knowledge of the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG, I was able to follow the action and ended up really enjoying these scenes. 

The flashback sequence did a nice job of building up some of the lore. This had, admittedly, a lot of characters to keep track of, but I found it surprisingly accessible considering I was jumping in at Volume 4. 

Rating: 7/10 

Shonen Jump Special: Free Comic Book Day 2009.

The second of two Shonen Jump Free Comic Book Day specials that ended up in the random stack of unread comics. I reviewed the 2008 special here.

Title: Shonen Jump Special: Spring 2009 Edition
Issue: Vol. 2 Issue 1
Publisher: Viz Media
Date: May, 2009
Writer: Stan Lee, Hiroyuki Takei
Artist: Hiroyuki Takei
Editor: Elizabeth Kawasaki, Yuki Takagaki, Grant Lowery, Joy Ma, Alaina Yee, Urian Brown, Michelle Pangilinan, Joel Enos
Cover: Hiroyuki Asada, Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Eiichiro Oda, Kazuki Takahashi, Hiroyuki Takei, Yoshihiro Togashi

Unlike the previous year's sampler from Shonen Jump, this special focuses on just one series: Ultimo, the collaboration between Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee and manga artist Hiroyuki Takei. As with most Stan Lee collaborations from this time period, he is given "original concept" credits rather than having a hand in the detailed script.

Ultimo is the story of a pair of shapeshifting robots, awakened in modern Tokyo after a thousand years in limbo, and emerging to do battle. The sample pages are well executed action scenes that have a familiar feel to them, with similar sequences seen in the introduction of many, many super-powered beings in various stories over the years. I can see the Stan Lee influence in the style and pacing of the story, which wouldn't be out of place in an early issue of Fantastic Four, or one of the old Marvel monster books from the 1960s.

The artwork is definitely manga, though, and the shapeshifting gimmick of the two robot characters is visually interesting, especially in a sequence where the evil robot sees a modern gun for the first time and responds by simply copying it, and then some.

In addition to the sample story pages, this volume contains a brief interview with Stan Lee, conducted by Hiroyuki Takei, as well as checklists and descriptions for Shonen Jump's separately published manga volumes.

Ultimo looks like it could be fun, but it will need to find some ways to be more original to distinguish it from the rest of what's out there.

Rating: 6/10

Shonen Jump Special: Free Comic Book Day 2008

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Shonen Jump Special: Spring 2008 Edition
Issue: Vol. 1 Issue 1
Publisher: Viz Media
Date: May, 2008
Writer: Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Takahiko Inoue
Artist: Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Takahiko Inoue
Letterer: Mark McMurray, James Gaubatz
Editor: Marc Weidenbaum, Yuki Takagaki, Grant Lowery, Joy Ma, Urian Brown, Michelle Pangilinan, Pancha Diaz, Joel Enos, Kit Fox
Cover: Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Takahiko Inoue

Formatted as a standard comic book (bur right-to-left), this freebie samples three popular ongoing manga series that are being reprinted in Shonen Jump magazine.

Naruto, the very popular ninja series, is up first. The scene that's presented is a glimpse of fighting training. We get a sense of the type of action involved in the series, but not much in terms of character or plot.

Bleach is the second feature, and this was the most intriguing of the three to me. A conversation (and possible big revelation) between Ichigo and his sister is interrupted by the arrival of some rather nasty villains. This segment did the best job of selling the series.

The last series was Slam Dunk, a high school drama/comedy centering on the school's basketball team. This had a lot of typical high school story elements: bullying, nerves about asking a girl for a date, trying to fit in, the cred that comes from being a "jock". It looked like it had some potential, but I didn't find the characters all that appealing (possibly just my dislike of some of these exaggerated high school stereotypes).

So, one for three in terms of getting my interest in reading the actual series.

All of the artwork is quite good, and the book also provides short blurbs on other Shonen Jump titles, including those that are serialized in the magazine, and those published as stand-alone volumes.

Rating: 5.5/10

Rurouni Kenshin Volume 1

Bonus review! I spent today selling paperback books at the Wellfleet Flea Market, and read this manga during my downtime.

Title: Rurouni Kenshin
Issue: Volume 1
Publisher: Viz
Date: 2004
Writer: Nobuhiro Watsuki
Artist: Nobuhiro Watsuki

A period romantic adventure, Rurouni Kenshin is set in the early years of Japan's Meiji Restoration. It tells the story of Himura Kenshin, once a feared assassin, who has now renounced killing and wanders as a vagrant swordsman.

In Tokyo, he encounters Kamiya Kaoru, a young woman who is running the sword dojo that her father founded. When an enemy tries to extort Kaoru into giving up her deed to the dojo, Kenshin intervenes, and when Kaoru loses her students to hard times, Kenshin enters into a partnership with her to get the dojo up and running again.

Kenshin is a pretty interesting and quirky character, a fighter who makes every possible effort to avoid a fight. He's a bit of a manipulator, and comes off as slightly odd, especially with his habit of referring to himself in the third person as "This One".

The dialogue and character interactions are great. The fight scenes suffer a bit from Kenshin coming off as so invincible that outcomes (at least in this volume) never feel like they're in doubt. There is also a tendency to make the fights very stylized with sword-slashes and blood flying around. And then after giving every visual clue short of decapitation to indicate that the outcome is lethal, it gets revealed through dialogue that the bad guys only suffered broken bones. The whole thing feels a bit like it's saying "Dead! Oh... Just kidding."

Aside from the handling of the fight scenes, I liked just about everything else about this book. Good dialogue, good plot with some interesting twists, good character development, all combine with a nice historical perspective and some political intrigue.

Rating: 7/10