mjj (flemmings) wrote,
mjj
flemmings
Yakumo Tatsu 1 took me two days. Vol 2 got finished in an evening. And yes, it's a fast fun read. Alas, IIRC the first two tanks are the most atmospheric-- the brooding wooded mountains of Yamane, the suffocating past of Kyoto-- grudges and ancient wrongs piling up in the unmoving air of those two valley locations. Now we're in Tokyo, out the Chuu-ou line in... Kunitachi, is it? and the mangaka is having a harder time making me believe in ancient grudges lingering here where the winds blow off the Musashi plains.

I believe we're shortly in for a dose of hysterical females with their hysterical unrequited attachments, as well as Mr Animus On Three Legs, our shaman hero's father, dazzling everyone to their extreme detriment. Ahh, how sexuality does complicate the simple love between men boys. Le sigh. Must bear in mind that shoujo manga is not written to please middle-class middle-aged white women and, oddly enough, will not reflect our cherished cultural values. (As in, pure-hearted protagonist is 21 and anguished shaman is 16, and the age difference alone would have many people's knickers in a knot, despite PhP being clearly the uke.) Still wish the series would continue to focus on getting those five swords back, because treasure hunts are fun.

Here in vol 3 a friend of a friend appears with an old photo of someone holding one of the lost swords. Friend of friend is a grad student in Ethnology, and at once I think Ah-hah crossover time! Ritsu discovers a sword in someone's storehouse and must get it into Kuraki's hands before Aoarashi sucks the power out of it and suffers agonizing stomach cramps in consequence. Only that to do crossovers one must read the whole series first, which in my case I do not have.

Last night broke down and ordered three of the missing six volumes from bk1. There *is* another site I discovered that has them all, but they up the price +300 yen (which adds up) and their shipping rates for a three book order look seriously screwed.
SAL Printed Matter ¥ 880
Surface Parcel (by Boat) ¥ 1,800
EMS (Express) ¥ 2,040
SAL Parcel ¥ 2,700
In what world does surface cost more than SAL? And the 'add to cart' button has a way of vanishing in IE, which is frustrating in the extreme. Have a feeling I may be relying on scanlations for at least one volume of this.
Tags: 100demons, japan, manga, manga_10, place, yakumo
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