by SangEun Lee, 179 pages When Beatrice unexpectedly turns into his human form and stays that way, his and Hee-So's bond is put to the test. What are they to one another, really? Unable to deal with the pressure and awkwardness, he runs away to the only other person who knows his secret.
This volume adds more satisfyingly complicated depth to Beatrice and Hee-So's relationship. Who knew one could feel so much sympathy for a cactus?
by Yoshiki Nakamura, 187 pages Kyoko has goofed and gotten Ren's birthday wrong (through no fault of her own), so his present will arrive a few days late...just in time for Valentine's Day. With chocolates to make for her friends and coworkers, she'd be busy enough, but she's also got a box of hate-chocolates (it's complicated) to give to one of her tormentors. The result? Misunderstandings, mayhem, and hilarity, of course.
I laughed out loud all the way through this volume. Nakamura's knack for snark and for pushing her characters' buttons continues to impress. No one is safe! Pointed asides--verbal and visual, both--keep the reader on her toes and in stitches from first page to last. Poor Kyoko! Poor Ren! (And I can't believe I'm saying this) poor Sho! The detested Beagle (he of the hate-chocolates) gleefully spawns chaos in his blackmailed crush's life; and the reader can't thank him enough, because it's so much fun. :D
by Takehiko Inoue, based on the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, 200 pages Musashi faces off against Denshichirô...and then faces the resolute, injured pride of the entire Yoshioka school.
So wonderful, this series. As the duel plays out, the reader watches with rapt attention, despite having known the outcome before Musashi even set foot in Kyoto. The reunions of this arc, whether overt or subtle, between friends or foes or kindred strangers, have all pulled at the reader's heartstrings and developed the already-believable (however superhuman they may appear) characters even further. Musashi's brief reconnection with Matahachi is particularly moving, with the marked contrast in their unequal growth suddenly, painfully obvious to both of them. Matahachi is so broken. The reader longs for someone to fix him, though she knows he must fix himself. She's just not sure that he can, and that hurts even more.
by Mi-Kyung Yun, 190 pages Soah hasn't been back in Suguk long before one crisis comes fast on the heels of another. Just as Mui throws her for a loop by suddenly proposing marriage, the desperate villagers appear to sacrifice another bride to Haebek, leaving her to the waves and the monster they believe inhabits them. Soah can't let someone else die just because she fears losing her place, so she begs Mui to save the young woman. But when he grumblingly pulls her from the water, everyone catches their breath, for she looks just like Nakbin, Haebek's beloved dead wife.
Melodrama! Yeo-Wa, the Nakbin look-alike, is a little unhinged. Is Nakbin really dead? Or is this all part of the emperor's scheming? He, himself, has gone around wearing her face before, so the reader wouldn't put it past him to take his obsessive, unsettling interference that far. What does he want with Soah? What hold does he have over Huye? Who is Tae-Eul-Jin-In, really, and why does Haebek let him stay? Who's connected to whom by the red thread of fate? Where do everyone's true loyalties lie?? Every time I read one of these, the snippets of truth revealed just generate more, eager-reader questions. Happily, the involving melodrama does not come unaccompanied by some humor, as well. And as much as Soah is at Haebek / Mui's mercy, she gives him back as much trouble as he gives her and isn't afraid to disregard orders or tell him where he can put them. Now if she would just figure out that she's already married to the man who's just proposed to her.... :)
by Takehiko Inoue, based on the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, 212 pages It's the eve of Musashi's duel with Denshichirô. While Matahachi gets beaten up (again) and Denshichirô sits down to eat with his wife and daughter, Musashi contemplates his childhood awareness of self and of the world around him and wonders where and when he lost it. When he comes across a vaguely familiar young man playing at slicing his snowman in two with a twig (and not doing too shabbily, either), Musashi realizes what he's forgotten and joins the twig-wielder in a game of reconnection and discovery.
Whenever these two share the same space, the energy just flies off the page. Musashi and Kojirô watch and evaluate one another, crossing twigs, dancing in the snow, smiling like mischievous little boys. It's joyful and funny, yet their observing host (and the reader) can't help but think of their twigs as real swords, imagining the dire wounds inflicted, the blood spilled. But we understand them both well enough now to know they're thinking the same thing--and that it wouldn't diminish their excitement one bit. In fact, the only thing that keeps them from trading sticks for steel... is the prospect of dinner. :)
Kojirô's unfettered, instinctive awareness is the ideal for which Musashi strives. As physical and mental preparation for his fight with proud Denshichirô, Musashi couldn't have asked for a better sparring partner.
