Manga Monday 32
This week, two quick reviews of books illustrated by Takeshi Obata...
Death Note (Volume 11)
Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
The latest installment of one of the best manga out there presently sees many pieces being set into place before the endgame between Light and Near. I believe there are two volumes left of the series, but I've heard from other sources that there is only one more, because they were published differently in America. Either way, the ending is going to be tense with what we've seen leading up to it thus far. The art is beautiful as ever among a few surprises and high tension between all of the players. Unforunately, this particular volume felt like it was leading up to something big with little in terms of memorable scenes. It's great in the context of the bigger picture of the series, but on its own, it hardly stands as something spectacular. B+
Hikaru No Go (Volume 9)
Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata
Takeshi Obata also does fantastic work on the new Hikaru No Go, where our protagonist Hikaru works hard over the summer to become a better go player in face of the pro test. Fortunately, Hikaru's confidence is built up as he makes progress toward becoming someone to reckon with, without the aide of his ghost Fujiwara-no-Sai, who becomes a little awed at his progress. The next few volumes are sure to be tense as Hikaru barely scratched the surface of the pro tests in this book, but is sure to get noticed by his rival Akira Toya in the coming weeks of the tournament. B+
Death Note (Volume 11)
Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
The latest installment of one of the best manga out there presently sees many pieces being set into place before the endgame between Light and Near. I believe there are two volumes left of the series, but I've heard from other sources that there is only one more, because they were published differently in America. Either way, the ending is going to be tense with what we've seen leading up to it thus far. The art is beautiful as ever among a few surprises and high tension between all of the players. Unforunately, this particular volume felt like it was leading up to something big with little in terms of memorable scenes. It's great in the context of the bigger picture of the series, but on its own, it hardly stands as something spectacular. B+Hikaru No Go (Volume 9)
Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata
Takeshi Obata also does fantastic work on the new Hikaru No Go, where our protagonist Hikaru works hard over the summer to become a better go player in face of the pro test. Fortunately, Hikaru's confidence is built up as he makes progress toward becoming someone to reckon with, without the aide of his ghost Fujiwara-no-Sai, who becomes a little awed at his progress. The next few volumes are sure to be tense as Hikaru barely scratched the surface of the pro tests in this book, but is sure to get noticed by his rival Akira Toya in the coming weeks of the tournament. B+
Comments
The Japanese vol. 13 of Death Note is apparently some kind of supplement (probably mainly text rather than comics?) -- vol. 12 is the end of the comic proper in both languages.