Ah, nothing more satisfying than starting two brand-new, promising manga series. I ordered the recently released first volumes of these two babies from CMX, and I'm very satisfied with my purchases. These two series are very different from each other, and they each present fresh and interesting-seeming premises even within their own individual genres.
The Name of the Flower, by Ken Saito, falls somewhere in the middle ground between shoujo and josei, relying more on the strengths of its story and characters than on the standard devices and trappings of either genre. The art is rich and appealing without being gratuitously fantastical, and the story is poignant and reflective, but with enough touches of genuine humor to keep things from getting too slow or heavy. The main characters are both misfits in their own ways: flawed, damaged, but desirous and deserving of love.
Chouko is a girl who's sustained severe emotional and psychological damage after losing both her parents in a car accident. She completely shuts herself off out of grief, unable to connect with the people around her, or even to speak at all. After being passed around rather unceremoniously from relative to relative, she's finally ended up in the care of her father's cousin, Kei. Kei is a successful but gruff and reclusive author, and a man twelve years her senior. He brusquely tells her he'll pay her college tuition in return for her cooking and house keeping, and that she must above all refrain from moping around like some kind of melancholy lost soul. In order to keep her active and occupied, he casually suggests she tend his neglected garden, but for the most part he lets her alone. Slowly, gradually, in caring for the flowers and for her surly and cynical guardian, Chouko begins to emerge from within herself, to smile, and to speak. What I especially like about Chouko is that while Kei is instrumental in her recovery, she ultimately pulls her own self out of whatever dark, destructive place she was in. He silently watches over her and provides her with the necessary tools, but she is the one who must use them. She sort of learns that nobody can help you if you're unwilling to help yourself, which I thought was kind of cool.
Kei, meanwhile, has his own issues. He's achieved a degree of literary success and acclaim, but his dark, almost disturbing work seems to hint at a deeply troubled soul. He gives off the vibe of someone who doesn't feel like he deserves love, but his feelings manifest themselves as curtness and standoffishness rather than melodramatic moaning and groaning. He's gruff and anti-social, but he does genuinely care about Chouko. In fact, he cares a little bit too much. Painfully aware of the huge age difference between them, of Chouko's own inexperience, and the inappropriateness of his feelings given his role as her guardian, he does his best to keep his distance and to care for her from the background. Overall, I love this series already. I love both main characters, and I even love the comic-relief-friend Akiyama. There's lots of love; I can't wait for volume two to come out.
The first volume of Fire Investigator Nanase (story by Izo Hashimoto, art by Tomoshige Ichikawa) wasn't quite as much of a slam-dunk for me as TNotF, but it still promises to be a very enjoyable and entertaining series. I was initially drawn to it because it was likened by reviewers to one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Silence of the Lambs". The comparison is pretty apt, at least as far as the premise goes. We've got the young, driven female rookie in a male-dominated crime fighting organization who's got talent and guts, but is often held back by her self-satisfied superiors. We've got the brilliantly insane criminal who alone seems to recognize her potential, and who enjoys guiding and coaching her in solving crimes. At the same time, FIN is manga, so it's a whole different kettle of fish.
As the title would suggest, Nanase is a trainee in the section of the fire department that investigates the origins of fires, identifying and solving arson cases. As she sifts through various cases of mysterious fires, Nanase receives helpful hints (and some brutal trials) from the still-at-large serial arsonist known to the authorities only as Firebug. This Firebug character is pretty certifiable, but he knows his stuff better than anyone on the other side of the law. His motives for helping Nanase remain as of yet unclear, but we do seem to find out that he was the arsonist responsible for the fire that killed her parents. One can only imagine the mixed-ness of Nanase's feelings on receiving help from him. (I actually just now realized that both TNotF and FIN feature orphaned heroines. It just goes to show how different the two series are that I didn't notice such a huge similarity right away.)
I thought FIN was exciting and entertaining, and I think it'll be a great series, but I did have a few reservations about it. I didn't really like how it toed the line between fantasy and realism. It would start off seemingly grounded in a very realistic world, but then suddenly something really far-fetched would happen to make me question the parameters of the characters' reality. Maybe once I get a little more used to the series I won't find it so jarring, but it felt a little weird on the first reading. The author also relies pretty heavily on some scientific fire jargon that flew right over my head. It's kind of difficult to evaluate a scenario's plausibility when I can't even understand the language used to describe it. So maybe I should just stop trying to figure out how realistic FIN is supposed to be and just go with the flow.
I really liked the whole theme of the investigation of fires. I think it's a very mysterious and intriguing subject, but then again that might really be because of my lingering associations from reading the Lemony Snicket books. And while Nanase's department is a far cry from the cultish Volunteer Fire Department of those books, she's certainly got enough unsolved mysteries (both private and public) to be getting on with.
Now for the wait until May when the second volumes of these two titles will be released by CMX. Sigh.
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