“I’m not special.”

I recently went on a manga buying binge, so there might be a lot of review posts coming from that.  I counted, and it looked like two-thirds of what I bought were first volumes.  So much for my self discipline and only keeping up with series I already had a lot of.  Darn those pesky manga publishers and their temptations.  For that matter, darn bookstores and their sometimes spotty selection as well.  Hm, that sounds like material for another post.

Today’s post won’t be about a first volume, rather I’m going to review the second and final volume of Beast Master.  For a refresher of what I thought of volume one, go here.

Yuiko really loves animals.  Unfortunately she gets too enthusiastic with her attentions, so animals don’t love her back.  Her animal loving ways do lead to her becoming friends with Leo Aoi, a scary looking transfer student who grew up in various wild places, like Africa.  Leo goes berserk when he sees blood and turns into a ruthless killer who scares himself, but Yuiko is able to get through to him and calm him down.

This volume was not quite as good as the first volume.  There’s a new arc introduced for a couple chapters wherein Leo is set to inherit a fortune once his birthday hits, and is consequently nearly killed by his jealous relatives.  Of course, Yuiko is thrown into the mix, but the interesting bit there is that Yuiko releases some of her own inner beast, shouting down Leo’s relatives as they tell him that he’s a freak and doesn’t deserve to live.  The whole “hey guess what? he’s rich!” thing just seems too cliche to me still.  Then Leo’s dad makes an appearance, just in time to whisk him away elsewhere so he’ll be safe from his relatives.  Yuiko attempts to convince Leo to go, and what happens after that is easily the best part of this volume.

The art remains great.  It’s clear, and there’s a lot of energy in it, which will keep me re-reading it over and over.  I will definitely be keeping a hopeful eye out, looking for more translated work from Kyousuke Motomi.

I was glad that another of his works was included in this volume, a short 4 chapter manga titled “Cactus Summer Surprise.”  I think I actually enjoyed the short manga more than the rest of the volume.

I still think it’s worth a buy, especially since the series is only two volumes.  That makes Beast Master a short and sweet addition to any manga collection.

Eyes of a Predator

Back to the promised regular anime fandom…or more specifically manga.  I recently bought a handful of manga about a week ago now, and I think I’m going to try and write reviews for all the first volumes at least.  There may come a time when I decided to re-read one I’ve been keeping up with and reviewing it volume by volume, but I wouldn’t look for that to happen any time soon.

The volume I’ll be reviewing today is Beast Master volume 1 by Kyousuke Motomi published by Viz Media in their Shojo Beat imprint in November 2009.  The original manga’s copyright is 2007.

The main character, Yuiko Kubozuka really loves animals.  Unfortunately animals don’t love her back because she tends to smother them with too much love, like the Abominable Snowman in old Warner Brothers cartoons.  She sees a wild looking boy who jumps out of a tree holding the cat she’d just scared up the tree, and then voila! he transfers into her class at school the next day.  Of course, rumors fly.  He has very scary looking eyes, which keeps everybody at a distance.  Except for Yuiko who only wants to thank Leo for rescuing the cat the day before.  She sees him on the roof, surrounded by birds, and jealous, rushes forward and scares the birds away.  When she’s asked by Leo if she’s afraid of him, she answers “No,” and is rewarded by his smile.  Turns out Leo is simply innocent and friendly; he just tends to normally have a scary expression (much like Sawako in Kimi ni Todoke).  For me, that was surprise number one.  The guy in this romance is friendly but shy.  Of course, that can’t be all there is to him.  After making friends with Yuiko, Leo’s cornered by a gang whose leader wishes to fight him.  They end up scaring Leo up a tree who confesses that he’s never been in a fight, except when a panther tried to maul him and just recently.  He also reveals that when he sees blood, he gets scared and doesn’t remember what happens afterward, he just comes to and finds his antagonist dead or severely damaged.  Chagrined, the gang leaves him alone, the leader even vowing to help Leo whenever he needs it.

Leo is lured back up to the roof to face the other people he fought with, and they proceed to beat him.  Yuiko is there also, and tells them to run, but it’s too late.  Leo’s in berserk mode and proceeds to beat the living daylights out of everyone around him.  Yuiko stops him by tackling him from behind and holding on until she’s sure he’s himself again.  Thus starts the tale of the hapless animal lover who takes a wild boy under her wing.

Leo is shown to live with a guardian, Toki, who’s a former mercenary.  His past and parents are a subject of mystery, except for the fact that he’s apparently grown up in the wild in places like an uninhabited island and the savannah of Africa.  The rest of the volume is more of Yuiko and Leo at school, and more of Leo losing control and Yuiko wondering why it’s so easy for her to calm him down.

I was surprised that Leo turns out to be friendly and innocent rather than just scary.  The fish-out-of-water wild boy is nothing new, but so far the author hasn’t used any of the situations and jokes you’d expect with that particular trope. Yuiko seems like a fairly typical shojo heroine: outgoing, friendly, overly optimistic and impulsive.  What’s particularly refreshing about Yuiko in this first volume is that her lack of fear of Leo goes all the way to Leo in berserk form.  She doesn’t hesitate, she simply grabs him and tells him it’s okay.  She even wonders why she’s not afraid then.  The gang leader is also surprising, giving up on fighting Leo after finding out he was scared and even protecting him.  The cast of characters is pretty small, and the plot seems pretty typical over the first four chapters anyway.

I really enjoyed the art, especially in some of the action scenes.  There’s great movement and energy that comes out of Motomi’s illustrations here.  My favorite scene from this volume is in the first chapter, where Yuiko tackles Leo from behind, wrapping her arms around his head and her legs around his waist in order to keep him from continuing his rampage.  There’s a good amount of detail in all the characters and their clothing, and the artist does well with both the more realistic portrayals of faces and bodies, and the more deformed and humorous expressions.

My verdict?  I’m hooked.  I’m probably going to be keeping up with the the releases of this series in the States.  The only low point might be the plot, but I require a second volume at least, before I make any judgements on that.

You might like this manga if you like Kimi ni Todoke.  Leo’s general situation (looks scary, is actually friendly) is much the same as Sawako’s.

The manga in this review was provided by the author.