The Shipping News, 1/13/10

If your New Year’s resolutions include reading more shojo, then this week’s shipping list should make your heart sing, as an all-star line-up — Crimson Hero, Love*Com, NANA, Sand Chronicles, and We Were There, to name a few — will be arriving at a bookstore near you. Only one new title debuts this week, but it’s a goodie: Natsume’s Book of Friends (VIZ), a lovely supernatural drama about a young man who sees demons. Before you say, “But wait — I’ve already read this manga!”, let me assure you that artist Yuki Midorikawa breathes fresh life into the concept with an intergenerational story about a young man who shares his grandmother’s unwanted ability:

Takahashi Natsume’s short life has been a hard one: orphaned at a young age, shuttled from family to family, cursed with a “gift” that allows him to see demons and ghosts. When distant relatives invite him to live in the town where his grandmother grew up, Takahashi agrees, only to discover that the local demons are keenly interested in him. Or, more accurately, in one of his possessions: a book that his grandmother Reiko used to enslave yokai by tricking them into revealing their names to her. With the aid of Madara, a cat-demon whose ceramic exterior belies his powerful true form, Takahashi sets out to liberate the yokai by purging their names from Reiko’s book.

What makes Midorokawa’s book so distinctive is the way in which she dramatizes the relationship between Takahashi and the spirit world; Takahashi is a kind of Dian Fossey of demons, observing and interacting with them while trying to disentangle them from the human world. As Danielle Leigh explains in her review of volume one, this approach to the material prevents the story from falling into a predictable pattern:

Although there is a certain structure to each chapter — Natsume comes in contact with a spirit or demon and must resolve some issue — it is very loose one which allows for a variety of interactions between Natsume and his spirits.  This is because each spirit is quite unique in their history, in their desire to have their name “freed” from the book, or even in their desire to simply express certain feelings to Natsume.  I love the balance of Natsume’s practicality and sense of wonder — he may approach each new spirit straight on but that isn’t to say he isn’t occasionally charmed and moved by their circumstances.  Importantly, the ethereal art and lightly defined figures nicely reflect the mixing of the spirit and human world, so much so it is almost impossible to distinguish between those realms — and therefore Natsume’s perception of the world — in this work.  The art and story complement each other beautifully and I highly recommend this thoughtful exploration of one boy’s experience of the beauty, dangers and possibilities of the supernatural world.

If you’re still on the fence about Natsume, I encourage you to read Melinda Beasi and David Welsh‘s reviews, as they share Danielle’s (and my) glowing opinion of Midorikawa’s work.

If you’re more partial to pulse-pounding, testosterone-soaked adventures, you’ll find a sprinkling of those on the new arrival shelf this week, including volume twenty-two of Blade of the Immortal (Dark Horse) and volume two of Silent Mobieus Complete Edition (UDON Entertainment). And seadogs will rejoice at the sight of five — count ‘em — new volumes of Eiichiro Oda’s bestselling One Piece (VIZ), one or three of which are sure to appear on the NY Times Manga Bestseller List next week.

The full shipping list is below; recommended titles are highlighted with an asterisk.

NEW SERIES/ONE-SHOTS

• Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 1 (VIZ)*

CONTINUING SERIES

• The Big Adventures of Majoko, Vol. 3 (UDON Entertainment)*
• Blade of the Immortal, Vol. 22 (Dark Horse)
• Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion, Vol. 7 (Bandai Entertainment)
• Crayon Shinchan, Vol. 10 (CMX)
• Crimson Hero, Vol. 12 (VIZ)*
• Gin Tama, Vol. 16 (VIZ)
• Gundam-00F, Vol. 2 (Bandai Entertainment)
• Gurren Lagann, Vol. 4 (Bandai Entertainment)
• Hunter X Hunter, Vol. 26 (VIZ)
• Inukami, Vol. 5 (Seven Seas)
• Love*Com, Vol. 16 (VIZ)*
• NANA, Vol. 20 (VIZ)*
• Ninja Baseball Kyuma!, Vol. 2 (UDON Entertainment)
• One Piece, Vol. 24 (VIZ)
• One Piece, Vol. 25 (VIZ)
• One Piece, Vol. 26 (VIZ)
• One Piece, Vol. 27 (VIZ)
• One Piece, Vol. 28 (VIZ)
• Prince of Tennis, Vol. 35 (VIZ)
• Red River, Vol. 28 (VIZ)
• S.A. Special A, Vol. 14 (VIZ)
• Sand Chronicles, Vol. 7 (VIZ)*
• Shaman King, Vol. 26 (VIZ)
• Silent Moebius Complete Edition, Vol. 2 (UDON Entertainment)
• Strawberry 100%, Vol. 11 (VIZ)
• Switch, Vol. 12 (VIZ)
• Tears of a Lamb, Vol. 7 (CMX)
• We Were There, Vol. 8 (VIZ)*
• Whistle!, Vol. 24 (VIZ)
• Yakitate!! Japan, Vol. 21 (VIZ)
• Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Vol. 4 (VIZ)