Silver Diamond: Volume 9: The Graveyard of Bells

by Shiho Sugiura, 162 pages

Rakan and the others make their way across the desert, planting and growing seeds as they go, determined to bring life back to the world despite the Ayame Prince's proclamations. But when they arrive at one barren, rock-riddled expanse, they encounter a volatile, angry ghost who seems to remember the clueless Chigusa less than fondly...from 200 years ago?

Rakan has his peace of mind disturbed a number of times in this volume, but most of those have little to do with his eventual confrontation with his evil twin. Rather, they're smaller, more personal concerns that cause him to doubt himself and perhaps better appreciate his evolving relationship with his companions. It makes for some nice, more direct character development in a series that usually opts for equally satisfying subtlety.

Relieved to have read that outgoing Tokyopop is letting all their English language licenses for Japanese titles revert back to the original owners, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone snatches this one up soon. Pretty please?

Eyeshield 21: Volume 34: The Last of the Deimon Devil Bats

by Riichiro Inagaki (story) and Yususke Murata (art), 211 pages

Time is running out for the Christmas Bowl dream the boys have been chasing for the last year. The tense, all-out push-and-pull up and down the field has reached a fever pitch. With mere seconds on the clock, can the Devil Bats prove to themselves, as well as to every other witness on this snowy day, that they've earned their place on the turf?

With Eyeshield 21, it's not just about the win. (Although, as Hiruma and his arsenal will tell you, the win is very, very important.) It's about constantly re-evaluating yourself and the situation and striving to be the best you can possibly (or impossibly) be. Complacency will get you nowhere. And that's why, even in the face of imminent failure, the Devil Bats refuse to let their fire go out, choosing instead to learn from every play, redrawing their limits, and surprising the pants off the competition. Their faith in themselves, and in one another, is far too great to let a little thing like statistical probability get in their way.

While it's satisfying to finally arrive at the outcome of the Christmas Bowl, I'm also sad to see the Devil Bats family have to adapt to graduations and absences. Where will they all go now? With only three volumes remaining in the series, we'll hopefully get a little off-the-field time to wrap things up and say a proper farewell as they all fly off into their futures. But they'd better stay in touch!

Eyeshield 21: Volume 33: The Devil's Mistake

by Riichiro Inagaki (story) and Yususke Murata (art), 196 pages

The Christmas Bowl is well underway and the defending champs, just as their ace running back predicted, are trouncing the upstart competition. But the Devil Bats have a history of being comeback kings. With Hiruma's leadership and everyone pushing themselves to the limit, will the Deimon boys be able to make up the point-deficit in time?

Hiruma throws so many incomplete Hail Mary passes that the floating image of the Virgin Mother they generate over the field starts to look nervous and duck out of the ball's way. But when Monta, the Devil Bat's ace receiver and all around monkey, finally completes a super special sneaky long pass, he immediately terms it a "Hail Satan Laser" and finishes a play that leaves their rivals, and the stands, gaping in shock. The boys may take their time finding viable workarounds to get through the "impenetrable" opposing offense, but they're nothing if not determined.

I never liked you

by Chester Brown, 185 p.

Written as a sort of pictorial memoir, Chester describes growing up with a crazy mother, a neighbor that loves him, and what its like to fall in love and not know what to do next.

I basically stumbled on this one day by accident.  Having polished off the other graphic novels on the shelf, this was a true delight.

X/1999: Volume 8: Crescendo

by CLAMP, 180 pages

Subaru catches up with Seishiro, but seems less concerned with the fate of the world than with exacting vengeance for the murder of his twin sister. This doesn't bode well for Kamui, who is finally getting some blanks in his end-of-the-world-prophecy filled in by the CLAMP School Detectives trio (who, along with their mission, have grown up considerably since their days of helping pretty rich girls find their lost pet peacocks). As all the pressures and predictions finally force Kamui to a decision, he chooses a side...and all hell breaks loose.

The violence of this volume ratchets up as equilibrium demands that Kamui of the Dragons of Heaven be balanced out with a counterpart Kamui of the Dragons of the Earth. The blatantly suggestive attack and apparent fratricide that follow seem to set the tone for the future, so reader be warned. If you want sunshine and bunnies, look elsewhere. This series is nothing if not dark, nearly every scene increasingly heavy with the weight of destiny and dripping with the blood of those caught up in it.

XxxHolic: Volume 15

by CLAMP, 179 pages

After failing to persuade his cooking student to taste her own food, a dispirited Watanuki dreams of losing Yûko. When he wakes, she is nowhere to be found. He tells himself she has just gone out on an errand, but he can't find Mokona or Maru or Moro, either. Still, he stubbornly carries on watching over the shop and leaving homemade omisubi (sticky rice balls with different fillings) on his student's door in an effort to gain her trust. After two weeks and no word from Yûko, Dômeki takes the initiative and moves into a guest room at the shop so Watanuki won't be alone with his fears...or when the time comes that he'll need his friend the most.

Owy. When Watanuki cries, I cry. He's losing his family all over again...only this time he remembers them--even if the outside world doesn't. I hope Dômeki's ready to throw him a lifeline, because I think he'll need it soon.

Eyeshield 21: Volume 32: Christmas Bowl

by Riichiro Inagaki (story) and Yususke Murata (art), 189 pages

Three things to know here:

1. Eyeshield 21 is all about football.
2. Football bores me to no end. Its only role in my life is as background noise to food-induced comas on Turkey Day.
3. I wish I owned the entire run of Eyeshield 21.

That's the short version. Here's the long one (with apologies for unchecked squee):

Shorty Sena has lived his whole young life protected by his big-sisterly neighbor Mamori, but when he gets to high school he decides he needs to man up and make a fresh start. As he shops around for a suitable club to join, he attracts the attention of some bullies, a species with which he sadly has much experience, having run enough forced errands and run away from enough confrontations to have developed his natural instincts for speed and coordination--gifts he's only ever seen as bully buffers. But as fate should have it, his latest successful mad dash through a bustling crowd has been observed by one with a great appreciation for those "golden legs"...and who has no intention of letting them get away from him.

Senior quarterback Hiruma is a mad, crafty young man with a dream. He and his gentle giant of a lineman, fellow senior Kurita, want more than anything to get into the Christmas Bowl. But to do that, they need a proper team, and not just the usual substitutes Hiruma "recruits" (via blackmail and / or large automatic weapons) from other clubs for game days. What he needs is a secret weapon....

And so, poor Sena finds himself the third member of the Deimon Devil Bats. To keep his identity secret from any rival sports clubs that might try to steal him away (and from over-protective Mamori, who would make him quit if she knew), Hiruma has Sena just pretend to be the team manager but wear a tinted visor and go by the name "Eyeshield 21" whenever he takes the field as a running back, á la Clark Kent. Coins flip, whistles blow.

And that's it. The boys play football. Of course, it's football with no foul rules. And hyperbole manifests as reality on a regular basis. And time-clocks must run in an alternate dimension to accommodate all the analysis from the stands and internal monologues on the field. But it's all part of the fun. They play, they train, they win, they lose, they learn. They dodge bullets and hang out in their ever-expanding club room. New players, each with unique skills and a personality to match, are recruited. Teammates become friends, feared rivals become respected mentors, and the once insignificant underdogs become a force to be reckoned with.

By this volume, the Devil Bats have made it to the center stage they've striven toward for so long. Pairing up with their counterparts from past opposing teams, the boys train up to the last moment as Hiruma shouts from his duck-taped Segue / oxygen tank combo (he's trying to speed-heal a broken arm--don't ask). Then, before they know it, it's kickoff time.

Unpredictable. Laugh-out-loud hilarious. Embarrassingly moving (I once teared up in the middle of Good Year while waiting for them to replace a blow-out--me, trying not to cry, over a football manga, in the tire shop). And drawn with such finesse that the reader can identify individual lead characters from their hands alone.

Eyeshield 21 may not make me much more excited about real world football, but it has made me cackle at the television as I think how much more fun it would be if the Devil Bats were to take the field instead (I wouldn't want the RL players to stay--they'd only get hurt). What would Hiruma do?--I would give up pie to see that. Pie.