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The 13th Month

We all know the story of Sleeping Beauty, or at least the versions by Charles Perrault, The Brothers Grimm, and Walt Disney. The fairy tale known as ATU 410 tells of a king and queen desperate for a child who finally have one later in life. They invite a variety of magical beings to come to the celebration of the princess' birth but tragically leave one out. Unfortunately for them, this overlooked person bears a grudge, and she famously curses the princess to either die or fall into a deep century-long slumber. In the best-known versions, this happens when the princess pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel; many earlier variants instead have the princess get a sliver of flax lodged under her fingernail. In the more PG renditions, she is awoken by true love's kiss; in the more NSFW retellings, sex, often nonconsensual, is involved. The story has seen multiple retellings across various forms of fiction. One of them, dating to the 19th century, can be found in the novel-length poem Lucile by Owen Meredith, which has the dubious honor of being one of the first works ever prosecuted for plagiarism. Both Meredith's version and one from the 1990s by fantasy author Patricia C. Wrede (“Stronger Than Time,” in the collection Book of Enchantments) ask the question of what would happen if the prince never came to wake Sleeping Beauty. The visual novel The 13th Month takes a page out of their books, giving us a story of a sleeping princess whose true love takes a while to get there. As concepts go, it's a solid one. The story opens traditionally, with the added mythological element of the magical beings invited to the princess' party being the representatives of the twelve months of the year. They are servants of the moon goddess, who is meant to represent all of the various classical incarnations of the moon. This basis in mild classical mythology seems to be behind the inclusion of a representative of the thirteenth month; there are various theories and explanations for a thirteenth month existing, with some of the most credible relating to the switch to the Julian calendar, although it is worth noting that there isn't any academic agreement on the subject. The role of this thirteenth magical being is to enact the curse, watch over the sleeping princess, and offer instruction to any potential princesses who arrive at the castle. In this story, her name is Uruzuki, and it is primarily through her eyes that we follow the tale. Although the story is good and relatively well translated, there are some stringent barriers to the full enjoyment of the game. Primarily these come down to both the game engine and the gameplay choices made by the developers. The game is made in Unity, which does not work as well for visual novels as other engines; it is a bit less intuitive for this style of gameplay. Not everything can be blamed on the choice of the engine, however: the fact that there is no skip or fast forward and that advancing the text cannot happen until the previous text has fallen off the screen letter by letter makes this much more frustrating than it needs to be, especially if you are a fast reader. That the game only offers autosave is another issue, although in this case, it is more a matter of whether you are the sort of player who likes to save at every choice. The loading screen could be more intuitive, and to access all saved games, it is necessary to find the arrows at the bottom of the page, which is oddly more difficult than it should be. The game is voiced with a rather impressive cast; the issue is that voices often begin once the text is already entirely written on the page, making playtime drag a bit more than it ought to. Simply put, this is better in concept than in execution. On the plus side, alongside excellent voice acting is stunning artwork and quite good music. The balance of the sound is a little off, and some sound effects are much louder than anything else, but by and large, this is a delight to both look at and listen to. The art is a major draw; it is intricate and detailed, with some fascinating character designs for the potential princes. As the story unfolds over 1,000 years of slumber, various prince candidates appear roughly every century. When they enter the castle, they take on animal forms, and while these are not always immediately obvious, given the princes' identities, they are always fascinating to look at. The princes are essentially all people from history and literature. The first prince to arrive is clearly the prince from Charles Perrault's “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” which we know because of his stepmother, the man-eating ogress. Other princes include Gilles de Rais (AKA Bluebeard), Doctor Faust, the Marquis de Sade, and Frankenstein's Monster. Doctor Faust and Alistair Crowley get the most time with the princess and Uruzuki. Still, each potential prince marks not only the passage of time and cultural shifts but also something that Uruzuki must realize about her role. Their animal forms help to inform this, as well as to add visual interest to the scenes. The 13th Month is far from a perfect game. Annoyances of gameplay mechanics, choices that don't mean a lot (although there are multiple endings), and a couple of sexual moments that feel out of place detract from the overall experience. But the artwork is outstanding, and the story interesting enough that it's worth picking up on sale and it's worth mentioning that the developers are taking player feedback into account. This probably would have benefited from an early access release, so keep an eye on it, and if the developers fix its issues, it may even be worth the full price.

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Afro Samurai GN 1

I remember watching the Afro Samurai anime well over a decade ago on late-night television. The novelty of seeing a Black protagonist in anime aside, the show radiated this cool, sleek style with a fearless confidence that was very easy to get swept up in. It didn't hold your hand or try to push any big message. It just gave you a premise, handed you some popcorn, and told you to enjoy the ride. With that frame of reference, it's clear where much of this manga's appeal lies. If you are somebody whose experience with this franchise was similar to mine, this book will entertain you enough to warrant being picked off the shelf. For those who haven't been exposed to this franchise and its legacy, this might be a bit of a harder sell since what you see is pretty much what you get. This volume is the beginning of an incredibly simple narrative structure with our protagonist moving from point A to point B and all the mayhem he comes across. There is undoubtedly a charm to such simplicity, but Afro Samurai in manga form can sometimes come across as too simple. While there is an overlap in appeal between this and the aforementioned animation, the show at least had the benefits of music and voice acting to punctuate a lot of definitive moments better. All that extra flavor helps things stand out in your mind and build them up more. This manga does have some unique elements that can elicit a similar effect, but it's not nearly to the same degree, unfortunately. The manga has a very heavily shaded art style, to the point where everything looks like an array of silhouettes cramped into straightforward landscapes. This helps certain elements stand out, like focusing on a character's white eyes during moments of intensity and the red-colored blood against the stark monochrome of the rest of the book. There are moments where you can only make out the outline of certain bodies and scenes based on how the blood is spread out, which is the most striking thing about this book. I wish more comics and manga did stuff like this to punctuate certain elements of violence and destruction better. Our protagonist, Afro, is less of a character and more of a vessel for vengeance. He barely speaks throughout the book, with just one goal focused on his mind. I'm not even sure we're supposed to cheer for him as much as we are just seeing how he'll get out of the next dangerous situation that comes his way. Side characters will occasionally receive focus, but they ultimately end up as fodder to be cut through, whether it's the various assassins that enter the scene or even just random civilians that clearly have their own story going on. Sometimes it feels like characters stumbled into this book by accident and just ended up dying as a result of being left in the wrong place at the wrong time, which can be unintentionally funny, but it also highlights the problem. There's not anything to get attached to in this book. Our villains aren't present in the story long enough to be that memorable, even with little dialogue hinting more meaning behind why they do the things they do. Anytime something remotely resembling a soul enters the page, it's brutally cut down in the crossfire of the upcoming battle just three pages later. In many ways, it really makes you wonder what the point of all of it is; if the story is going to structure things like this, then why does there even need to be any dialogue at all? This could be all done to show how brutal and harsh this world is, but the book already does a good enough job establishing that within the first five pages, so reinforcing that constantly feels a bit redundant. None of this is helped by the fact that the book is much less visually interesting outside of the viscerally bloody battles. The heavy silhouette and shaded style stand out when there's something to contrast against it, like the red blood. But on its own, things look very messy, as if there are a variety of smears on the page. There were even some points where I struggled to parse what I was looking at, as the line between organic and inorganic material just started blending together. It's a shame because there are moments where the manga can get away with creating these distinctive panels and shots using things like white backgrounds, but these moments are few and far between. Overall, I find the Afro Samurai manga hard to recommend. While it is visually distinct and easy to pick up, it's equally easy to put down. There are just as many moments where the book is as cluttered as it is visually remarkable, and the narrative is so barebones that it might as well be a barely animated skeleton. This volume doesn't conclude the Afro Samurai story, and the final pages hint at more important things to come. Still, I hope the manga eventually decides what direction it wants to lean into because the direct path this book starts on doesn't feel nearly as exciting or memorable as it wants to be.

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YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record – A NieR:Automata Story GN 1

Us longtime fans of Yokō Tarō's Drakengard/Nier multiverse have long since become accustomed to the franchise's shenanigans when it comes to media that stretches beyond the main videogames of the canon, but here's a quick primer to get you up to speed: To serve as a prequel/spinoff to NieR:Automata (which is in and of itself a spinoff/sequel-thing to Nier, which was already a spinoff to an alternate gag-ending for the first Drakengard game), Yokō Tarō helped produce a small play called YoRHa. This play served to fill in some of the backstory for one of the game's breakout characters, the badass killer Anrdoid known as A2. Later on, a slightly revised version of the play's story (known as Ver. 1.05) was adapted into prose for the short-story collection NieR:Automata: Short Story Long. Then, when NieR:Automata became a smash hit on account of being one of the greatest video games ever made, Taro and Co. got an even bigger budget to produce an even more revised stage-musical-prequel, called YoRHa Ver. 1.2, which changed certain plot events and even fully deleted characters from the original YoRHA to be more in line with the canon of the games. Finally, years later, in 2021/22, artist Megumu Soramichi adapted that Ver. 1.2 variation of the YoRHA story into YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record – A NieR:Automata Story, which is the manga that I'm reviewing today. The point is that even if you have previously read the translated short story adaptation of a stage-play/musical prequel to one of your favorite sequels to a spinoff of an obscure JRPG, this translated manga adaptation of a revised version of that stage-play/musical prequel to one of your favorite sequels to a spinoff of an obscure JRPG is technically a different story from its predecessors. It might be worth investigating even if you've fully read up on your other DrakeNier lore. If nothing else, Megumu Soramichi does an excellent job of capturing the stylish YoRHa designs and fun Nier action scenes with his clean artwork, which isn't something you could expect from either the short story or even the stage version of the Pearl Harbor Descent Record narrative. Fans of just the games might also be interested in digging into this more accessible and visually-appealing version of the events, especially since A2 is one of the characters from NieR:Automata that could be said to be lacking in the development department. What about completely green newcomers to this whole DrakeNier…”experience”, though? Does Volume One of YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record – A NieR:Automata Story make for a decent jumping-on point for manga readers who might not be as video-gaming inclined? Given how obsessed I've been with the Nier games for the past five years or so, that's a difficult question to answer, but unfortunately, my gut tells me that new fans will have a hard time getting into this one volume of YoRHA as a standalone story. The biggest reason for that, I think, would be the pacing and depth of the story. It isn't as if viewers are going to be completely lost or confused; the manga gives plenty of exposition to explain who the YorHA are, what the Android/Machine war is all about in a nutshell, and so on. No, the problem more so lies in how much of the dialogue and storytelling is focused on communicating the immediate events and context of the story versus establishing a well-rounded cast that you care about. As it is arranged, the actual plot of the surviving YoRHa Androids and their Resistance counterparts only gets interesting in the final pages of this first volume. This would be fine if the characters were interesting enough to hold the story up on their own, but I don't think that is the case. Like a lot of Yokō Tarō stories, the four Androids that we follow as our squad of protagonists are little more than thinly sketched archetypes; No. 2 is the insecure heroine who has suddenly found herself in a command position she isn't ready for, No. 4 is the feisty one, No. 16 is the gruff hard ass who starts trouble whenever she doesn't see eye-to-eye with her fellow soldiers, and No. 21 is the stoic one. The different scenes and scenarios are naturally quite talky, given the story's origins in the theater. Still, all that talking mostly reinforces the familiar characteristics that the Androids all inhabit rather than revealing anything especially unique or compelling about any of them. This isn't necessarily a complaint, mind you, because a lot of the appeal of Taro's stories is how he takes seemingly straightforward archetypes and clichés and brings them crashing headlong into subversive or surprising scenarios. In a single two-hour play or a short story that you could read in one sitting, it is much easier to patiently bide your time with a tale's more familiar elements if it seems like some surprising twists or complications will eventually shake things up. Still, you only get a hint of those possibilities by the time Volume One of YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record is finished, and readers will have to wait until March of 2023 to see if the conclusion will even be worth the wait. Knowing what I know about the general YoRHa story, I think it is one that is worth seeing through, especially if you're interested in seeing where certain characters will be in the game proper. Still, I wouldn't blame newcomers for checking out this one volume only to think, “That's what all of the fuss was about? A bunch of robots dressed in sexy maid outfits shoot things and yell/cry at each other a lot?” Granted, “sad, crying robots in sexy outfits” is what takes up most of NieR:Automata's runtime, but the DrakeNier experience has always been more than the sum of its parts. If this first volume of the YoRHa story doesn't immediately grab you, consider giving the next one a chance when it drops in March. I can't promise that it'll be one of the best stories you've ever read, but I can promise that it will complete the prequel to a videogame that does feature one of the best stories ever. That's not too bad of a deal, eh?

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The Hunters Guild: Red Hood GN 1

You all know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and you may even know the tale of Peter Stumpp, an early werewolf. Both of those are brought together here in this title from one of Kōhei Horikoshi's (of My Hero Academia fame) former assistants – The Hunters Guild: Red Hood is a shounen action series rooted in werewolf lore and the fairy tale known as ATU333. It's certainly a combination that makes sense. Over the years, Red's story has evolved and been tinkered with to make her a much more active (and at times sexier) character, and the earliest European variants make it clear that the wolf is, in fact, a werewolf; in the recorded and what is presumed to be the earliest French version, the specific word used is “bzou,” a Middle French word for werewolf. Charles Perrault, meanwhile, makes it abundantly obvious that the “wolf” is simply a metaphor for a man; with both this and the fact that 17th-century French slang for the loss of virginity was “to see the wolf,” Yūki Kawaguchi is operating in sound literary territory. Both werewolves and Little Red Riding Hood also lend themselves surprisingly readily to the shōnen action formula, which in this case takes Velou, a young country lad, and sets him on the path to becoming a Hunter. It's not a role he's ever considered in the professional sense, despite his abiding hatred of werewolves. That's because of his equally developed sense of duty: after he was orphaned as a small child, the villagers banded together to raise Velou, and he feels that he owes it to them to stay in their hamlet to protect them. While no one says anything to him about this plan, a later plot reveal implies that perhaps at least one village member thought this wasn't in Velou's best interest. However, they weren't willing to say anything, possibly because Velou doesn't appear to be much older than thirteen or fourteen if that. Kawaguchi clearly understands the source material for the story, which appears to primarily be The Brothers Grimm's version of ATU333, along with German werewolf lore. This is seen in the various roles the characters play in the story: we've got Grimm herself as Little Red Riding Hood, obviously, but Granny becomes the wolf, and the inclusion of a magic axe is a reference to the woodcutter figure who doesn't appear in other, earlier, European variants of the tale. There's also a separate Big Bad Wolf in the character of Lycaon, whose name not only references a mythical Greek king who fed Zeus the roasted flesh of his son but is also the species name for a breed of wild dog, both elements that fit Lycaon's character admirably. There's also a riff on the famous “What big teeth you have!” conversation that's nicely slid into the action. The key idea is that werewolves occur when a human mutates to crave human flesh, eventually taking on a monstrous wolf-like form that they can hide in order to hunt more efficiently. While this isn't strictly part of most werewolf folklore, it does work well here, and it helps to establish the story as its own thing rather than a straight retelling of a better-known body of literature. Most of the volume's story is in Velou's tiny mountain village. This segment does an excellent job of establishing the world's mythology while allowing us to get to know Velou and Grimm in a more contained setting before he heads off to try to become a Hunter himself. Naturally, he first shows great ability, and just as naturally, he ends up in an intense training camp, which few aspirants will come out of. While it is pretty typical action fantasy shōnen, it's also well-done action fantasy shōnen, and ludicrous breast sizes aside, it doesn't lean too hard into the sexualization of the female characters. (Or the male characters, for that matter.) Grimm's gimmick – she can become an adult for a few hours after a curse damned her to a child body for eternity – mainly serves to allow her to be a more amazing Hunter. If it's a stale old trope we've seen a lot before, it's also decently used here to allow her to guide Velou on his way better. The art for the story is bustling, with many crowded pages and panels full of fiddly details. While reading can be exhausting, it isn't a deal-breaker. The way the werewolves are drawn is a major plus: they've got an almost Dr. Seuss-look to them, part Seussian nightmare and part 1940s Loony Tunes character and the few panels that are half-wolf form, half-human form are very effective. There are a few odd clothing and hairstyle choices, but even with its busyness, the art is much more of a plus than a minus. The use of folklore – and one excellent last-page plot twist – help this to stand on its own two feet. If you don't care for shōnen action, this still may not work for you, but between the Seussian werewolf designs and the nods to various fairy tales, this is an interesting start to a series that could be a lot of fun.

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The Hunters Guild: Red Hood GN 1

You all know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and you may even know the tale of Peter Stumpp, an early werewolf. Both of those are brought together here in this title from one of Kōhei Horikoshi's (of My Hero Academia fame) former assistants – The Hunters Guild: Red Hood is a shounen action series rooted in werewolf lore and the fairy tale known as ATU333. It's certainly a combination that makes sense. Over the years, Red's story has evolved and been tinkered with to make her a much more active (and at times sexier) character, and the earliest European variants make it clear that the wolf is, in fact, a werewolf; in the recorded and what is presumed to be the earliest French version, the specific word used is “bzou,” a Middle French word for werewolf. Charles Perrault, meanwhile, makes it abundantly obvious that the “wolf” is simply a metaphor for a man; with both this and the fact that 17th-century French slang for the loss of virginity was “to see the wolf,” Yūki Kawaguchi is operating in sound literary territory. Both werewolves and Little Red Riding Hood also lend themselves surprisingly readily to the shōnen action formula, which in this case takes Velou, a young country lad, and sets him on the path to becoming a Hunter. It's not a role he's ever considered in the professional sense, despite his abiding hatred of werewolves. That's because of his equally developed sense of duty: after he was orphaned as a small child, the villagers banded together to raise Velou, and he feels that he owes it to them to stay in their hamlet to protect them. While no one says anything to him about this plan, a later plot reveal implies that perhaps at least one village member thought this wasn't in Velou's best interest. However, they weren't willing to say anything, possibly because Velou doesn't appear to be much older than thirteen or fourteen if that. Kawaguchi clearly understands the source material for the story, which appears to primarily be The Brothers Grimm's version of ATU333, along with German werewolf lore. This is seen in the various roles the characters play in the story: we've got Grimm herself as Little Red Riding Hood, obviously, but Granny becomes the wolf, and the inclusion of a magic axe is a reference to the woodcutter figure who doesn't appear in other, earlier, European variants of the tale. There's also a separate Big Bad Wolf in the character of Lycaon, whose name not only references a mythical Greek king who fed Zeus the roasted flesh of his son but is also the species name for a breed of wild dog, both elements that fit Lycaon's character admirably. There's also a riff on the famous “What big teeth you have!” conversation that's nicely slid into the action. The key idea is that werewolves occur when a human mutates to crave human flesh, eventually taking on a monstrous wolf-like form that they can hide in order to hunt more efficiently. While this isn't strictly part of most werewolf folklore, it does work well here, and it helps to establish the story as its own thing rather than a straight retelling of a better-known body of literature. Most of the volume's story is in Velou's tiny mountain village. This segment does an excellent job of establishing the world's mythology while allowing us to get to know Velou and Grimm in a more contained setting before he heads off to try to become a Hunter himself. Naturally, he first shows great ability, and just as naturally, he ends up in an intense training camp, which few aspirants will come out of. While it is pretty typical action fantasy shōnen, it's also well-done action fantasy shōnen, and ludicrous breast sizes aside, it doesn't lean too hard into the sexualization of the female characters. (Or the male characters, for that matter.) Grimm's gimmick – she can become an adult for a few hours after a curse damned her to a child body for eternity – mainly serves to allow her to be a more amazing Hunter. If it's a stale old trope we've seen a lot before, it's also decently used here to allow her to guide Velou on his way better. The art for the story is bustling, with many crowded pages and panels full of fiddly details. While reading can be exhausting, it isn't a deal-breaker. The way the werewolves are drawn is a major plus: they've got an almost Dr. Seuss-look to them, part Seussian nightmare and part 1940s Loony Tunes character and the few panels that are half-wolf form, half-human form are very effective. There are a few odd clothing and hairstyle choices, but even with its busyness, the art is much more of a plus than a minus. The use of folklore – and one excellent last-page plot twist – help this to stand on its own two feet. If you don't care for shōnen action, this still may not work for you, but between the Seussian werewolf designs and the nods to various fairy tales, this is an interesting start to a series that could be a lot of fun.

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Matcha Made in Heaven GN 1

All of us reach our breaking point eventually. For Chako, it's one big thing that pushes her towards it, and more of the realization that her life in the place she's moved to isn't quite what she's looking for. In her case, that would be the big city of Tokyo, where she moved after leaving her family's tea farm following her parents' deaths. Rather than be a tea farmer, she has become a fitness instructor, and by the time we join the story, she has realized that the built-in sexism that comes with the job isn't something she needs to put up with. It is, however, something all around her, and when she thinks about it, she understands how pervasive it is. It's mainly in the form of little snide comments that men make in her hearing - remarks about how women must have it easier because they can use their purported female fragility as an excuse at any time or how their beauty makes people treat them better. It all comes crashing down on her like an avalanche when she puts those pieces together with the environment of her fiancé's family: meeting his mother and watching her do things like wipe her husband's bare feet when he comes home from work drives home to Chako just how very much she doesn't want this. In an unusually realistic nod for romance manga, it isn't necessarily easy for her to break away from the life she's built for herself in Tokyo. This isn't because she's afraid she'll appear like she's given up or because she has solid friendships that she doesn't want to leave behind in the city; it's because her fiancé is possessive to a fault, and he believes that their engagement means that she belongs to him. Although the creator of the book does not spend too much time going over what he does to her, we get enough of an idea from small panels showing us a succession of restraining orders that she has taken out against him, letting us know very clearly but without melodrama precisely what he has done to her life. Chako's decision to return to the family tea farm is less a marker of her giving up and more a desperate bid for safety in a community where she is known and hopefully better understood. But as anyone can tell you, coming home doesn't always mean returning to an unchanged world. While Chako left the farm following her parents' deaths, a piece of her probably expected everything to be pretty much as she'd left it, with her brother in charge and the farm chugging along. She is shocked when she walks in the door and finds a little girl wreaking havoc in the kitchen sink. Not only was she unaware that her brother had married, but she also had no idea that he had since been widowed and had a small child. As you might guess, that would be who is in the sink: her niece Futaba. She is floored when it is not her brother who walks in the door but a man she's never seen or heard of before. He tells her his name is Isshin, and her brother is out in the shed in the back, attempting to live out his creative dreams. While we don't know exactly what her brother's doing, it is clear that he is either writing a novel, creating manga, or something similar, which we can infer from his worries about his deadline. Why the brother and sister haven't been in communication since she left the farm is not explored in this volume, and at this point, it feels more like Chako's brother exists simply as a catalyst to create Futaba. That's not terrific plotting, but it still allows for the story to have a precocious small child character without making her Isshin or Chako's kid, which is at least a little different than we've seen in most cases. Running away from her problems doesn't work out quite as smoothly as Chako had hoped. As the multiple restraining orders attest, her fiancé does not necessarily pay attention to people who tell him to stop doing something. Naturally, he chases her out to the family farm. In a desperate bid to get rid of him, Chako jumps onto the tractor Isshin is riding and declares that she and he are married. Although surprised, he is smart enough to go along with it and take care of the whole pesky fiancé issue, but if you've ever lived in a small town, you know that their farce is unlikely to end there. Suddenly the entire neighborhood is fully aware of Chako and Isshin's supposed relationship, and the two are stuck with it. It's not what you would call romantic, but it offers a good foundation for the manga to build a romance plot. This is partly due to Futaba's wholehearted embrace of the two most consistent adult presences in her life. We don't know precisely when her mother died, but given that she isn't more than five years old, she doesn't have a whole lot of memories of her period with her father's embarkation on his creative career. We get the distinct impression that Isshin has mostly raised her, and the discovery that she has an aunt is fascinating for the little girl. The story does make an effort not to make her too terribly precocious, which helps. Instead, her love for Isshin allows us to see that underneath his gruff exterior, there's probably a heart of, if not gold, at least something goldish. Matcha Made in Heaven is not off to the strongest start. Isshin's not particularly easy to like, and there's a bit more of a sense that he and Chako are stuck with each other than that they're building anything solid together. But she's coming from a place that is believable emotionally, and the frank acknowledgment of the issues she's been facing feels like something we don't see often enough in manga. This looks like a series worth giving a chance because it has potential, if nothing else.

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Matcha Made in Heaven GN 1

All of us reach our breaking point eventually. For Chako, it's one big thing that pushes her towards it, and more of the realization that her life in the place she's moved to isn't quite what she's looking for. In her case, that would be the big city of Tokyo, where she moved after leaving her family's tea farm following her parents' deaths. Rather than be a tea farmer, she has become a fitness instructor, and by the time we join the story, she has realized that the built-in sexism that comes with the job isn't something she needs to put up with. It is, however, something all around her, and when she thinks about it, she understands how pervasive it is. It's mainly in the form of little snide comments that men make in her hearing - remarks about how women must have it easier because they can use their purported female fragility as an excuse at any time or how their beauty makes people treat them better. It all comes crashing down on her like an avalanche when she puts those pieces together with the environment of her fiancé's family: meeting his mother and watching her do things like wipe her husband's bare feet when he comes home from work drives home to Chako just how very much she doesn't want this. In an unusually realistic nod for romance manga, it isn't necessarily easy for her to break away from the life she's built for herself in Tokyo. This isn't because she's afraid she'll appear like she's given up or because she has solid friendships that she doesn't want to leave behind in the city; it's because her fiancé is possessive to a fault, and he believes that their engagement means that she belongs to him. Although the creator of the book does not spend too much time going over what he does to her, we get enough of an idea from small panels showing us a succession of restraining orders that she has taken out against him, letting us know very clearly but without melodrama precisely what he has done to her life. Chako's decision to return to the family tea farm is less a marker of her giving up and more a desperate bid for safety in a community where she is known and hopefully better understood. But as anyone can tell you, coming home doesn't always mean returning to an unchanged world. While Chako left the farm following her parents' deaths, a piece of her probably expected everything to be pretty much as she'd left it, with her brother in charge and the farm chugging along. She is shocked when she walks in the door and finds a little girl wreaking havoc in the kitchen sink. Not only was she unaware that her brother had married, but she also had no idea that he had since been widowed and had a small child. As you might guess, that would be who is in the sink: her niece Futaba. She is floored when it is not her brother who walks in the door but a man she's never seen or heard of before. He tells her his name is Isshin, and her brother is out in the shed in the back, attempting to live out his creative dreams. While we don't know exactly what her brother's doing, it is clear that he is either writing a novel, creating manga, or something similar, which we can infer from his worries about his deadline. Why the brother and sister haven't been in communication since she left the farm is not explored in this volume, and at this point, it feels more like Chako's brother exists simply as a catalyst to create Futaba. That's not terrific plotting, but it still allows for the story to have a precocious small child character without making her Isshin or Chako's kid, which is at least a little different than we've seen in most cases. Running away from her problems doesn't work out quite as smoothly as Chako had hoped. As the multiple restraining orders attest, her fiancé does not necessarily pay attention to people who tell him to stop doing something. Naturally, he chases her out to the family farm. In a desperate bid to get rid of him, Chako jumps onto the tractor Isshin is riding and declares that she and he are married. Although surprised, he is smart enough to go along with it and take care of the whole pesky fiancé issue, but if you've ever lived in a small town, you know that their farce is unlikely to end there. Suddenly the entire neighborhood is fully aware of Chako and Isshin's supposed relationship, and the two are stuck with it. It's not what you would call romantic, but it offers a good foundation for the manga to build a romance plot. This is partly due to Futaba's wholehearted embrace of the two most consistent adult presences in her life. We don't know precisely when her mother died, but given that she isn't more than five years old, she doesn't have a whole lot of memories of her period with her father's embarkation on his creative career. We get the distinct impression that Isshin has mostly raised her, and the discovery that she has an aunt is fascinating for the little girl. The story does make an effort not to make her too terribly precocious, which helps. Instead, her love for Isshin allows us to see that underneath his gruff exterior, there's probably a heart of, if not gold, at least something goldish. Matcha Made in Heaven is not off to the strongest start. Isshin's not particularly easy to like, and there's a bit more of a sense that he and Chako are stuck with each other than that they're building anything solid together. But she's coming from a place that is believable emotionally, and the frank acknowledgment of the issues she's been facing feels like something we don't see often enough in manga. This looks like a series worth giving a chance because it has potential, if nothing else.

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March 2023
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