Kare Kano #9 by Masami Tsuda

[populuxe]

Woo Hoo! It's finally time for the Culture Festival. I don't think I've seen one manga take so long to show just two weeks in a characters life. But none of it's wasted or filler. The events leading up the play have been well-told and well-paced. There is a tightness to Tsuda's writing that I really enjoy.

The play is four chapters long. It was fascinating, especially considering the personalities of the three performers. Another thing to take notice of is Arima's reaction to the play when it cuts too close to the bone. The relationship between Tonami and Tsubaki continues through it's ups and downs, and makes for the best side story in KareKano right now. Tonami is very perceptive in many ways, such as finally figuring out what it is about Yukino that Arima loves, yet he's still unable to properly sort his own feelings for Tsubaki.

Kare Kano is a the type of story that I devour in a flash, and it leaves me feeling good afterwards. Tsuda's writing and art are a joy. Unfortunately, the editing still leaves something to be desired, such as untranslated kanji sound effects (I'm not even talking about hiragana and katakana, which we've come to expect TP won't ever translate, but actual kanji characters), some small untranslated side dialogue, the dialogue inside a word balloon printed out of place over some black so it can't be read, etc. These are really are such small things to be corrected, but it seems like they never are. Still, poor editing can't diminish my enjoyment of this title. Good editing, though, would make my enjoyment that much greater.

[Yukino Miyazawa]

I really loved this volume. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

The play was great, and I liked how it tied into Arima's fear of revealing his true self/dark side. The symbolism of the last scene in this book was perfect, showing Yukino continuing to walk ahead of Arima, oblivious to the lack of his presence. She's so focused on the new experiences ahead of her that she doesn't realize Arima is slowly falling apart.

However, I wish that there had been a small note translating the "Love My Daughters/My Daughters Are My Life" T-shirt. It would have made it clear that Arima was blushing because he was embarrassed about wearing the T-shirt in public. The note was in vol. 8, so it should have been included in vol. 9 too.

Yeah, I really enjoyed this volume as well. Makes me wonder what would have happened had all of the recaps been phased out of the Karekano anime and the first 26 eps extended to cover up to the end of the culture festival and the 'Yukino' arc of the storyline.

The various side stories could then be covered before delving into a new arc of episodes with the return to the core storyline in a 2nd season.

But yeah, I'm stoked for more volumes now. Can't wait to see what aspect of Arima's character cracks first and how Yukino will react when reality catches up to her.

[gunsmithcat]

I have to agree with you hands down that Tsuda's writing and art are simply brillant. This is by far one of the best manga series out there. As much as I love manga.....I hope that the final volumes of this series are animated in the near future! Bring on the next volume /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[MrDisco]

well i'm going to be a dissenter and say while i thoroughly enjoy tsuda's story-telling i dont find her artwork to be as good.

the last shot of arima was pretty chilling though. i wonder if he'll go pyscho.

[Yukino Miyazawa]

[ QUOTE ]
MrDisco said:
well i'm going to be a dissenter and say while i thoroughly enjoy tsuda's story-telling i dont find her artwork to be as good.

the last shot of arima was pretty chilling though. i wonder if he'll go pyscho.

[/ QUOTE ]
I do find it hard to tell the characters apart sometimes, but I find her artwork in general to be rather beautiful.

[Njr Scrawl]

So volume 9 starts after the story used in KK animé? (I have all the DVDs + box & manga but have not watched or read any yet)

[pianocello]

While I like the storyline, the whole Arima dark side plot is lame....

[MrDisco]

Flipping through the last volume my problems were her art are:
-lack of face detail in some panels
-a reliance on SD shots
-her characters sometimes blend too much making it hard to distinguish who's who
-somtimes i have no idea who's talking as the bubbles could either be spoken dialog or internal thoughts

any how thats just my view. none of which would stop me from buying her works, but it would make me think twice about buying an artbook (if one were to be released)

[Nork22]

[ QUOTE ]
Njr Scrawl said:
So volume 9 starts after the story used in KK animé? (I have all the DVDs + box & manga but have not watched or read any yet)

[/ QUOTE ]
Vol 8 continues where the anime left of IIRC.

[Jigen_Daisuke]

Sounds good.

I'm waiting for TRSI to ship me vols. 8 and 9 on a recent order I placed during the TOKYOPOP studio sale.

[Yukino Miyazawa]

[ QUOTE ]
MrDisco said:

-somtimes i have no idea who's talking as the bubbles could either be spoken dialog or internal thoughts



[/ QUOTE ]
The thought balloons have two little bubbles at the end, one bigger than the other. Words that aren't in balloons are either small asides or inner monologue. Hope that helps. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[MrDisco]

haha

[Yukino Miyazawa]

[ QUOTE ]
Nork22 said:
[ QUOTE ]
Njr Scrawl said:
So volume 9 starts after the story used in KK animé? (I have all the DVDs + box & manga but have not watched or read any yet)

[/ QUOTE ]
Vol 8 continues where the anime left of IIRC.

[/ QUOTE ]
Vol. 8 is a mix of old material (anime) and some new material. Vol. 9 is all new material not seen in the anime.

[NefCanuck]

Kare Kano is one of those manga that never fails to impress me. It tells its story well and in such a believable way that when I saw the last shot of Arima standing there all alone the only thing going through my mind was "Uh oh..... what's gonna happen now?"

Takes a great storyteller to do that to me lemme tell ya /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

NefCanuck

Going a bit off topic.. when do volumes 10 and 11 come out? I think Lister X has voume 10 in June and 11 in July.. si that right?

[The Pirate Queen]

[ QUOTE ]
Stonecold said:
Going a bit off topic.. when do volumes 10 and 11 come out? I think Lister X has voume 10 in June and 11 in July.. si that right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Kare Kano 10 has a target date of July 6, and 11 has a target date of September 7. The Tokyopop website has the dates.

I can't tell you how happy I am to be past the stuff in the anime. Though I still enjoyed reading the previous volumes, knowing what was going to happen didn't make for as interesting reading. But this volume was so good, even the way that the show is done. I continue to love the Tonami and Tsubaki relationship. And the last few pages, with Yukino running away and the "other" Arima getting his claws into Arima were just chilling and are going to make the wait for the next volume very long.

As the story seems to be trying to take a dark turn, it makes me sad that none of this part of the story, or that following, will likely ever be animated. /images/graemlins/sad.gif

[Phfat_Laz]

I really enjoyed this volume. Tsuda's work continues to play with my emotions.

I'm really looking forward to this "dark" Arima arc, even though I know it's gonna hurt to read it. /images/graemlins/sad.gif

Phfat Laz

[michaelwb]

[ QUOTE ]
Phfat Laz said:
I really enjoyed this volume. Tsuda's work continues to play with my emotions.

I'm really looking forward to this "dark" Arima arc, even though I know it's gonna hurt to read it. /images/graemlins/sad.gif

Phfat Laz

[/ QUOTE ]

You said it. I'm looking forward to and dreading it at the same time.

Partly because I really, really like Yukino; and anything that makes her unhappy makes me unhappy. Sometimes I just really attach to characters and care about them and she's one of those cases.

[Phfat_Laz]

[ QUOTE ]
michaelwb said:
You said it. I'm looking forward to and dreading it at the same time.

Partly because I really, really like Yukino; and anything that makes her unhappy makes me unhappy. Sometimes I just really attach to characters and care about them and she's one of those cases.

[/ QUOTE ]
I know what you mean about becoming attached to characters. I usually attach to the characters I identify with. I used to identify with Yukino so I started to care about her. But as the series went on and we learned more and more about all the characters I found myself identifying more with Arima. /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

Phfat Laz

[populuxe]

[ QUOTE ]
michaelwb said:
[ QUOTE ]
Phfat Laz said:
I really enjoyed this volume. Tsuda's work continues to play with my emotions.

I'm really looking forward to this "dark" Arima arc, even though I know it's gonna hurt to read it. /images/graemlins/sad.gif

Phfat Laz

[/ QUOTE ]

You said it. I'm looking forward to and dreading it at the same time.

Partly because I really, really like Yukino; and anything that makes her unhappy makes me unhappy. Sometimes I just really attach to characters and care about them and she's one of those cases.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's the strength of Tsuda's writing. She doesn't try to manipulate the reader with cheap emotion. Everything her characters go through seems very real and honest, so we can't help but identify with and care about them.