D.Gray-Man ch 175-178

( spoilers )

And apparently, the series is now on hiatus due to Hoshino's health. Didn't someone tell me a while back that there was a six month hiatus before because drawing the exorcists' uniforms caused a nervous breakdown?

Given how this left off (mid-arc, building to climax) I hope s/he (?) gets better soon.  And, you know, also for his/her own good.

Gintama Vol 6

I like the original character designs in this volume. That Gin and Kagura originally started out Hijikata and Okita explains a lot.

( spoilers )

X/1999 Vol 7-8

( spoilers )

manga: Shinobi Life Vol 1

Beni is the heir of a very rich and very old Japanese family, which has resulted in many kidnappings during her life. During one of these kidnappings, a young man literally falls from the sky and knocks her off the roof. A ninja, he saves them and announces that he is Kagetora, a ninja sworn to protect Beni, who he calls Beni Hime. Thinking he’s a new bodyguard hired by her father, who she blames for her mother’s death, Beni takes him home, but soon learns he’s from the past and thinks he serves her ancestor, Beni, who really was a princess.

I’m pretty sure this manga exists purely to make sure it caters to every rich girl/bodyguard and ninja kink out there. He hangs from the ceiling in her classroom! He must be called off from overprotective tendencies! He is warned off by her father! She objects to this. He thinks going to school in samurai gear is less obtrusive than going in ninja gear! She tazers people to save them! He angsts much about forbidden love! She’d rather he got over that. There is also tripping over carpets resulting in being sprawled on the bed and accidentally kissing.

This manga is very devoted to its youth-friendly boy/girl fanservice.

I was uneasy about the mistaken identity part at first, but it gets resolved well by the end of the volume. There’s an ongoing joke regarding “loincloths” that I could do without, but it isn’t enough to really get in the way of my enjoyment. I can’t believe I’m going to say this (mark your calendar) but if these two ever grow up, get their acts together and stop angsting, this book will probably get dull. But the “Woes! Our love is kinda-not-really-forbidden and we are from different time periods!” bit is very entertaining for now.

Fairy Cube Vol 3

(I originally typed "Angel Sanctuary" into the subject line...)

Though wonderfully cracked out and charmingly demented, this never really took off like Angel Sanctuary. Then again, I think Kaori Yuki tried to cram about 2/3 of the plot of Angel Sanctuary’s 20 volumes into a 3 volume series.
( spoilers )

Not that I don’t still have eleven volumes of Count Cain/Godchild to go, but does anyone know if any more of Kaori Yuki’s titles have been licensed?

manga: Wanted (complete)

When Armenia’s friend, Luce, is kidnapped by pirates, she vows to grow up and rescue him. Years later, she disguises herself as a cabin boy and joins the crew of Captain Skulls, the pirate who kidnapped Luce. Naturally, Luce is now Captain Skulls, and Armenia’s disguise is soon discovered. And then they go have piratey adventures around the Mediterranean with the crew chortling as they insist that no-no-no-they-do-not-like-each-other-and-are-not-involved-and-stop-naming-our-future-babies-already!

The book is light fluff, but fun. It’s the kind of book where, as soon as you realize the cute naval officer hunting Skulls isn’t evil, you go “you know, if this were longer than one volume, I’ll bet he’d be Skulls’s childhood friend, or the long lost brother of one of them” only to learn that he is, indeed, a childhood friend about five pages later. And since it’s by Matsuri Hino, you know it will cater to every kink she can think of, despite her normal “OMG no bad wrong!” aspects not being there. (For the best, really, as apparently heroes who really are little kids and the entire cast acting like the heroine is the property of a character who creeps me out even before he’s a potential love interest exceed my “OMG no bad wrong!” capacity when Kaori Yuki, Clamp, and Higuri You can’t.)

Kekkaishi Vol 12-13

( spoilers )