Reviews by Ivan the Terrible

When one sees or hears the name Hideo Azuma, one either immediately thinks of lolita manga or simply asks, "who in the hell is that?" He's known as being the "father of lolicon," with many of his works being pornographic in some way. One would not expect this man to have much interest in drawing things outside of science fiction and lolicon, though he certainly has an impressive list of manga titles to his name.



So an award-winning book like Disappearance Diary comes as a bit of a surprise; it's neither pornographic nor science fiction, and is in fact an autobiography of sorts, told in a very humorous way.



Azuma features himself as a short, fat, goggle-eyed character in this recollection of his days as a hopeless alcoholic and as a homeless person. A story that would otherwise be painful, gut-wrenching and difficult to read is made entertaining and more pleasantly poignant through his use of humor and cartoony artwork. He isn't afraid to tell us the truth, and his sometimes frank presentation is almost as hilarious as his rather dry commentary.



At first we don't really learn what drives him to do this to himself. The book is not presented in chronological order and we are introduced to him when we are thrust into his first experience of being homeless. We do know that his homelessness is a choice rather than an unfortunate circumstance. We come to learn of his dependency on alcohol and cigarettes and his massive workload as an artist as the book progresses, as well as his rather pushover nature and the fact he even as a wife (largely unseen until the second half of the book).



The book is divided into three main sections, each dealing with a different time in his rather lengthy exile from the stresses of his life, and focus on the primary concerns he had during each period. In his first homeless experience, it was worrying about having enough to eat. In the second, it was dealing with certain individuals he worked with, and the ridiculous things he had to put up with from them ("YOU DIDN'T DRAW FEATHERS ON THE ARROWS!"). In another, it was his attempts to avoid difficult fellow patients in a hospital, along with the staff.



Azuma himself says that the manga "has a positive outlook on life, and so it has been made with as much realism removed as possible." It's very likely that some of the things he presents are indeed fictional, comedic twists on his experiences, but some appear to be very honest recollections, such as the threat of cirrhosis hanging over him like the Sword of Damocles, or his first capture by the police, who initially believe him to be the murder suspect they were after. His story is a fascinating one, and upon learning of his stressors and what he had to deal with as a professional artist, we can't really blame him for wanting out, even though his circumstances were largely his own fault. A person can put up with only so much, and it's easy to sympathize when he does everything he can to escape from what feels more and more like a prison to a life that, while certainly not easy, feels manageable by comparison. The dialogue is often as funny, if not funnier, than Azuma's stark narration (during a sequence in which Azuma has a severe coughing fit, a nurse says, "Oh, Doctor, there's blood!" to which the doctor simply responds, "THAT'S not good!"), and his cartoony visuals turn disgusting things into visions of hilarity (it's difficult to not laugh at his frequent vomiting, or the rather blunt depicition of him defecating in the forest). He even indicates that there was more, but that he'll save it for another time, leaving us to wonder if he might really provide a sequel, or if his parting words are another dose of his dry humor.



Disappearance Diary is an engaging, extremely funny manga, and a surprisingly quick read for a 200-page book. One doesn't have to be a fan of Azuma (or even familiar with him at all) to enjoy this story, but it may turn one into a fan before the final page is turned.

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rating: 5 of 5 starsInitially I was hesitant about trying the Negima! series out. Ken Akamatsu's previous series, Love Hina, ultimately underwhelmed and disappointed me. I love the man's artwork, but his writing left a lot to be desired.

So it was with a bit of apprehension that I approached Negima!, even though a couple of my friends insisted it was pretty good. I bought the first two volumes and read them back to back, and while Volume 1 was simply okay, Volume 2 was good enough that I decided to give the series a bigger chance and kept reading. With Volume 3 the series continued to improve, and Volume 4 was fantastic. While 5 didn't quite reach 4's lofty height, Volume 6 certainly does.

Akamatsu has improved as a writer. Negima! is a much more solid read than Love Hina, and Volume 6 is not only amusing, but actually exciting, with a lot of solid action and a very generous helping of cheesecake. Akamatsu is known for including quite a bit of fanservice in his manga, and this volume has it in spades. And I'm certainly not complaining. It helps to have the main character surrounded by thirty very cute girls (especially when so many of them are such good fighters), as well as competent villains. The baddies he's been facing lately are intriguing. It's always better when the villain of the hour is harder to best than your average egomaniac.

Put simply, I'm glad I decided to stick with this series. I'm looking forward to Volume 7.
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rating: 5 of 5 starsAfter Volume 7 ended on one hell of a cliffhanger, I knew it was going to be difficult to wait until I had a chance to read the final volume, so I picked the very first opportunity I had. In an earlier review I listed Volume 6 as the best of all the series so far, and now I can say Volume 8 ranks right up there with it.

It would be kind of pointless to go over the story at this point; if you don't know what Chrno Crusade is all about, you need to go back and check out Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 8 is the end of the line, and in more than one sense.

With the world on the brink of chaos and her soul almost completely consumed, Rosette uses what little time she has left to track down her brother and convince him she really is who she says she is. Plenty stands in her way, including a major battle between Aion and Chrono, and of course, death itself looms close. It's kind of funny that a volume so packed with action could still have time for wonderful, emotional moments between characters (one reason why I ranked 7 lower than 6 and 8), but Volume 8 has enough of them, and by the time I arrived at this part of the story I cared so much about Rosette that every panel depicting her in tears made me all misty-eyed. Things don't really turn out the way she expected them to, and it's only through her sheer willpower that things take the turn they do. There's no cop-out here, though.

Without actually telling you what happens, all I will say is that the ending is the best possible ending this series could have had. Even in the epilogue there were a couple of surprises I did not see coming, which were effective enough, but the epilogue's overall presentation, showing the aftermath out of sequence and saving the most dramatic moment for the very last pages, effectively sucked me all the way in, made me teary-eyed, and left me in such a state that, even after I was done reading, a few minutes passed before I could even put the book down. I've read plenty of stories that go for the darkest possible ending and plenty of stories that cheat and go for an artificially happy ending, and even stories with endings that, while they made sense, were still disappointing in some way, either because they favored unhappy events or were just anti-climactic. Chrno Crusade's ending was none of the above. The ending was exactly what it should have been, a mixture of happy and sad, and was enormously effective and moving. The only thing I'm sorry about is that such a charming series is over.

I will very likely reread this in the not-to-distant future, and will probably choke up as much over the ending then as I did now. Rosette Christopher jumped right off those pages and into my heart, and she'll stay there evermore.
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