I Am Here! ココにいるよ！ (Koko Ni Iru Yo!)

Just finished I Am Here! ココにいるよ！ (Koko Ni Iru Yo!) by TOOYAMA Ema 遠山えま.  Unless you’re very unfamiliar with shojo manga, you’ll probably be bored by this transparent and clichéd series.  The normal bullying  (the  way the class and eventually the main bully stop their bullying are unrealistic), best friends love triangle, mysterious person suspected to be one person when it’s obvious who the real person is, etc.  Sunflowers and internet are an integral part of this series. 

The drawings are about as bad as the rest of her manga – not that great.  I  don’t know why many shojo only mangaka don’t do well with their drawings and their characters look-alike.  You don’t seem to find it too often in other genres of manga, and it’s not just the character drawings, but backgrounds as well.  I’m not saying all shojo mangaka draw poorly (some are great and have interesting and unusual stories also – seems often to go hand-in-hand), or some don’t get much better the longer they’re doing manga, but TOOYAMA Ema 遠山えま doesn’t seem to be growing as an artist.

I can’t recommend this 2 onmibus series published by Kodansha.

Nijigahara Holograph 虹ケ原ホログラフ

Nijigahara Holograph 虹ケ原ホログラフ by ASANO Inio 浅野いにお published by Quick Japan (Ohta Shuppan) & Fantagraphics – definitely worth a read – if you don’t mind the unusual (at least for manga published in English in the US) and not a happy ending.  It’s more philosophy and impressions creating an interesting story.

Butterflies                 symbology                  murder                                          incest            cycle of violence               abusive families                Zhuangzi  莊子                 butterflies                  Mental Illness           coma              circling                                      spiraling            rape                                                seinen               bullying             Plato            monster               tunnel                   urban legend     thrown down a well                                           painting               dreams                 butterflies                  more butterflies                          school                          real meaning of Nijigahara confused and revealed                                  hospital       stars                    blood                                                                 non-linear                        darkness           violence                                  magic box                                                         end of world                                                                                                    glowing butterflies                    moonlight                               rain                   Hana Ichi Monme 花一匁                                                                                                                                            We’re so happy we won, hana ichi monme
We’re so upset we lost, hana ichi monme                                                         suicide                     butterflies                 sunset                 cyclical    kudan (cow with human face)