philippos42 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
philippos42) wrote2010-07-31 04:41 pm
philippos42) wrote2010-07-31 04:41 pm
Land of the Blindfolded vols 4 & 5
After much delay, my attempt at a review of Land of the Blindfolded vols. 4 & 5.
I scribbled notes on volume 4, but I don't think I've posted on it. And now I've lost the notes. I was going to reread volumes 1-3 & refresh my memory, but I haven't yet.
Volume 4 is all LotB (chapters 11-15). Previous volumes had fewer than 5 chapters; they filled the page count with extra backups about other characters. No backup short story in this one. It's basically the "Student Council President" arc. I don't think we learn her name, actually. The student council president tells Arou (the sole member of the Gardening Club) that he has to cut back his garden on the school lot. He eventually gets her to allow him to keep the vegetables growing until harvest.
Tsukuba may have gone for an innocent feel to this series, but she knows what she's doing.1 There's a serious sensuality to the series, however innocent the things portrayed. The way things are framed, the way things are associated, creates implications. All those zucchini!
That said, I also found my reactions were "wrong," being used to fantasy stories with more expansive time scales. When Kanade (Arou's girlfriend who sees glimpses of the future) saw a vision of Arou in the future, looking at a picture of a woman who looked like the student council president but also like Arou, my mind went to, "It's their future daughter!" Well, no, not in this series. Kanade doesn't see that far ahead. The picture is of Arou's mother, who the president just sort of looks like. Which is meaningful.
One episode is a cute little digression with Namiki & his dog--who meet the Student Council President outside of school. At one point I was struck by how old my eyes are & how little one panel was. :sob!: In the "Sakura Mail" Tsukuba asked if we'd noticed the ostriches--I had to go back & peer.
-- - --
Land of the Blindfolded vol. 5 (chaps. 16-20). The word for this volume is "akebanatsu," to throw open the door. So far we'd seen Arou with sort of passive seeing powers, but in this one it seems like something weirder happens. And we meet his junior high friend Honma Eiichirou,2 who's definitely a strong personality & with an emotional nature almost opposite to Arou's in a way. Honma thinks this manga should be more superheroic. Arou disagrees. So, yeah, the power level & possibly the stakes go up in this volume.
Again, Kanade may be innocent, but Tsukuba isn't really avoiding sexuality, just writing a virginal character. Kanade's friend Eri is doing rather more with her boyfriend3 than Kanade is doing with Arou. Kanade considers sharing a room with Arou overnight & then sabotages that.
And Tsukuba is having fun drawing half-naked guys in the beach scenes. The guys are a bit gangly here. The artist had been covering them up to this point, & with their shirts off, their torsoes are clearly a bit idealized--narrow waists & broad shoulders. (This sent me back to Tsukuba's later series Penguin Revolution to compare. I think she did get the hang of shirtless guys more in time. Still idealized, just more expertly drawn.)
The first episode this volume (chapter 16) is going to be creepy to a lot of American readers, with its attempt at a justified crush on teacher. I think it's a relationship with cute elements, & the guy doesn't try dating her while he's in her class. But it could be a trigger.... So, yeah. Just get past that & go on.
I love the way Namiki relates to Arou. He's still trying to be Arou's rival forshort plain girl Kanade, but he also comes to Arou's defense when people call Arou a monster. Back & forth, more or less in the same scene.
The collection also adds a tiny (6 p.) backup story about Namiki's dog, showing Namiki's adoption of the dog from the dog's perspective.
...
When I tried to get these on the library's shelves, the library was happy to comply (they'd already started the series), but then we were told that these 2 volumes are permanently out of stock. I don't really know about CMX in general, but at least these two specifically. That was about when CMX's shutdown was announced, & they'd gotten volume 3 not so long before, so I gave up on ordering any CMX. I borrowed these through inter-library loan so I could read them, but I'm not making CMX even a little bit of money now, I suppose now practically no one is.
So, that said, if you're interested, you can read some scanlations through chapter 20/volume 5 here. It's not as good, as they don't translate all the 'Sakura Mail' panels, but it can give you a taste.
1 Of course she does. It is a Love Manga.
2 Whose character design reminds me of the "rebel" guy in Whistle!
3 (Just how much more seems undefined in the English script.)
I scribbled notes on volume 4, but I don't think I've posted on it. And now I've lost the notes. I was going to reread volumes 1-3 & refresh my memory, but I haven't yet.
Volume 4 is all LotB (chapters 11-15). Previous volumes had fewer than 5 chapters; they filled the page count with extra backups about other characters. No backup short story in this one. It's basically the "Student Council President" arc. I don't think we learn her name, actually. The student council president tells Arou (the sole member of the Gardening Club) that he has to cut back his garden on the school lot. He eventually gets her to allow him to keep the vegetables growing until harvest.
Tsukuba may have gone for an innocent feel to this series, but she knows what she's doing.1 There's a serious sensuality to the series, however innocent the things portrayed. The way things are framed, the way things are associated, creates implications. All those zucchini!
That said, I also found my reactions were "wrong," being used to fantasy stories with more expansive time scales. When Kanade (Arou's girlfriend who sees glimpses of the future) saw a vision of Arou in the future, looking at a picture of a woman who looked like the student council president but also like Arou, my mind went to, "It's their future daughter!" Well, no, not in this series. Kanade doesn't see that far ahead. The picture is of Arou's mother, who the president just sort of looks like. Which is meaningful.
One episode is a cute little digression with Namiki & his dog--who meet the Student Council President outside of school. At one point I was struck by how old my eyes are & how little one panel was. :sob!: In the "Sakura Mail" Tsukuba asked if we'd noticed the ostriches--I had to go back & peer.
-- - --
Land of the Blindfolded vol. 5 (chaps. 16-20). The word for this volume is "akebanatsu," to throw open the door. So far we'd seen Arou with sort of passive seeing powers, but in this one it seems like something weirder happens. And we meet his junior high friend Honma Eiichirou,2 who's definitely a strong personality & with an emotional nature almost opposite to Arou's in a way. Honma thinks this manga should be more superheroic. Arou disagrees. So, yeah, the power level & possibly the stakes go up in this volume.
Again, Kanade may be innocent, but Tsukuba isn't really avoiding sexuality, just writing a virginal character. Kanade's friend Eri is doing rather more with her boyfriend3 than Kanade is doing with Arou. Kanade considers sharing a room with Arou overnight & then sabotages that.
And Tsukuba is having fun drawing half-naked guys in the beach scenes. The guys are a bit gangly here. The artist had been covering them up to this point, & with their shirts off, their torsoes are clearly a bit idealized--narrow waists & broad shoulders. (This sent me back to Tsukuba's later series Penguin Revolution to compare. I think she did get the hang of shirtless guys more in time. Still idealized, just more expertly drawn.)
The first episode this volume (chapter 16) is going to be creepy to a lot of American readers, with its attempt at a justified crush on teacher. I think it's a relationship with cute elements, & the guy doesn't try dating her while he's in her class. But it could be a trigger.... So, yeah. Just get past that & go on.
I love the way Namiki relates to Arou. He's still trying to be Arou's rival for
The collection also adds a tiny (6 p.) backup story about Namiki's dog, showing Namiki's adoption of the dog from the dog's perspective.
...
When I tried to get these on the library's shelves, the library was happy to comply (they'd already started the series), but then we were told that these 2 volumes are permanently out of stock. I don't really know about CMX in general, but at least these two specifically. That was about when CMX's shutdown was announced, & they'd gotten volume 3 not so long before, so I gave up on ordering any CMX. I borrowed these through inter-library loan so I could read them, but I'm not making CMX even a little bit of money now, I suppose now practically no one is.
So, that said, if you're interested, you can read some scanlations through chapter 20/volume 5 here. It's not as good, as they don't translate all the 'Sakura Mail' panels, but it can give you a taste.
1 Of course she does. It is a Love Manga.
2 Whose character design reminds me of the "rebel" guy in Whistle!
3 (Just how much more seems undefined in the English script.)