Weekly Shounen Sunday #9 (2018)

We're already 9 weeks into Sunday's 2018 year and the magazine is changing right before our eyes. I mean geez, how many series have ended this year --and it's still January? Though due to the way the issues are numbered, this is in fact a February issue. There's another ending in the works down below, but with it a breeze of "freshness" comes with spring....maybe.

Major 2nd is up to bat on this week's cover, and for good reason --more details of the anime are here! Along with Daigo is Sawyer and Komi who seems to be around quite often lately. Kind of wondering when she'll get an anime of her own, but for now let's enjoy what we have.

And what we have up first is the TOC.

Major 2nd by Mitsuya Takeda (Cover/Lead Color, Chapter 125)

Komi-san wa Komyushou desu by Tomohito Oda (Chapter 121)

Sokyuu no Ariadne by Norihiro Yagi (Chapter 6)

Dagashikashi by KOTOYAMA (Chapter 175)

Marry Grave by Hidenori Yamaji (Chapter 5/ Color page)

Amano Megumi wa Suki darake! by Nekoguchi (Chapter 107)

Daiku no Hatou by Michiteru Kusaba (Chapter 36)

Maoujo de Oyasumi by Kagiji Kumanomata (Chapter 84)

Tantei Xeno to nanatsu satsujin misshitsu Story by Kyouichi Nanatsuki/Art by Teppei Sugiyama (Chapter 7)

Shinobi no by Rokuro Ogaki (Chapter 26)

Hoankan Evans no Uso ~Dead or Love~ by Mizuki Kuriyama (Chapter 38)

Maiko-san chi no Makanai-san by Aiko Koyama (Chapter 52)

Tenshi & Akuto!! By Aya Hirakawa (Chapter 149)

Souboutei Kowasubeshi by Kazuhiro Fujita (Chapter 86)

Hatsukoi Zombie by Ryou Minenami (Chapter 109)

Aozakura daigakkou monogatari by Hikaru Nikaido (Chapter 75)

Shinigami bocchan to Kuroi maid by Koharu Inoue (Chapter 4)

K.O.I King of Idol by Tamaki Wakaki (Chapter 31)

Yuugami-kun ni wa tomodachi ga inai by Jun Sakurai (Chapter 66)

Zettai Karen Children by Takashi Shiina (Chapter 493)

Meteor Girl by Reach Ishiyama (Chapter 34/End)

Youkai Giga by Satsuki Satou

Tokaichi Hitoribocchi nouen by Yuuji Yokoyama (Chapter 7)

Not in this issue are the following:

RYOKO

Detective Conan

Be Blues

The newbies are really stirring the pot I think. Evans has moseyed along into the middle of the magazine now that he's no longer the new kid on the block (Though I'm not sure what determines that --a year of serialization? He's close, but not quite there yet.) Meanwhile K.O.I is showing signs of weakness --it's sales dropped a bunch with it's second volume, and now it's polling position isn't too great either. It's looking like Evans is the only true winner from the last serialization round (Not counting Pops shinobi-ing in on his own later.) Daiku is higher up, but at this point I think the editorial staff is letting it continue because things are ending quickly and they need to fill space --and why not do it with a veteran artist? It might be cruel for me to state it that way but the truth is the truth. Otherwise things look normal aside from Aozakura being pretty low, though like Daiku I don't see it going anywhere unless it flatlines out of nowhere.

So with a color page advertising the Major 2nd anime,  you'd be well within your rights to assume that we'd get new anime info, and yes, yes we do. --The adaption will begin airing Saturday April 7th on NHK, at 5:35pm. Natsumi Fujiwara will play Daigo, and Koutarou Nishiyama will play Hikaru. Showtarou Morikubo returns as his Dad Goro, while Toshiya Satou will be played by Masakazu Morita. The series will be directed by Ayumu Watanabe, though oddly enough the actual studio animating the show hasn't been revealed yet, hm. I wish Major 2nd all the best, though I doubt it needs it, since the first anime ran for several years without a hitch!

Shougakukan's approach in dealing with Conan's main manga being on hiatus is to double down and play harder what Conan they have left it seems. The last movie will be receiving a new serialization in Sunday Super starting with it's third issue, and there will be lots of prizes and little giveaways concerning the new movie hitting theaters in April. Hanzawa-san is also running in super so if you've wondered what a criminal's been up to then read up! Also, in an interesting turn of events, the "prototype" to Evans will run in Sunday Super's January issue. Not sure why they'd run it there rather than the main magazine or in the volumes as an extra, but I guess the cross promotion works both ways. 

By now you all know I don't really keep up with Major, but a color page is a color page, and you also know I cover series that get them even if I don't read them. Takeda's baseball epic has been going for some time now --not including this sequel so his storytelling chops must be up there if people are still reading more than a decade later! I've already said I really like his artwork and how smooth it looks --especially characters expressions and eyes. There's something very "classic" about them that I quite enjoy. 

Since I don't have much to say about content, I just picked the pages that looked coolest to me, hah, and that's the thing --sports manga do have to look a smidgen better than their contemporaries in other genres because the authors have to depict movement and action without the assistance that animation provides. I dare to say to be a sports mangaka one has to be better than average, since often times you're not only drawing what comes normally in other manga, but what comes in action, drama, and other genres sometimes all in the same chapter! Takeda pulls it off in these pages I've selected with some great panel work and effective use of perception and lines. With good cut-in panel work. It's an exciting time for sports fans in general with so many anime starting (In April no less!) I dont' count myself among them, but nothing wrong with sharing in that happiness. In any case the chapter ends with a deafening hit that ascends into the heavens, but who knows where that'll take the story next? 

As a sign that it's not going anywhere anytime soon, Komi-san introduces a new girl --or well, not so much "introduces" as much as shines the spotlight on as she's apparently friends with Ren Yamai. Meet Akako Onigashima! And yes her family name is indeed taken from the popular "Island of Ogres" that Momotarou visited in the famous story. With her cute little fangs and hair she does kind of look like a oni doesn't she? I think I'm always going to have a soft spot for Oda (not that one)'s punny names that he then turns into character designs. Onigashima is an upbeat and energetic girl as Tadano mentions, though she's a bit of a clutz, tying her shoes just for them to get untied moments later, and getting her head-bud chords hopelessly tangled just for Komi to easily untangle them as seen in the last page linked. She has a little bit of a temper too as Yamai quips that she's not sure what'll happen if Onigashima gets angry. 

Komi fixing her head buds brings her to tears, and she sort of forcefully asks her come do some batting at a sports center later. The whole group of friends goes and by the end it seems Komi's got herself a super energetic friend! I really like that Komi is a drama free zone in the magazine. With all the battles and drama going on in other parts of the magazine it's nice to come to this (and Maiko-san) and know that one can kick up their legs and take a break. 

Chapter 6 of Ariadne is heating up as Rashil finds himself in a fight against a mysterious stranger in his pursuit of the pilfered princess. Yagi's an old pro so I'm not surprised by how dynamic the action scenes are here, including the entry of the new challenger, but it's still wonderful to behold. It's also worth mentioning that the pacing for this chapter has really stepped up it's game, but I'll discuss that a bit more below.  

Leana finds herself in the company of a stranger named Rev/Reeve, who seems to know that she isn't just any old damsel in distress as he outright calls her "princess". He mentions that there are many after her, and that he's surprised that the king's personal envoy is also out to bring her back. Turns out this whole set up --her being brought to him was part of a plan that he concocted and paid off the people of the city to enact. He also speaks of how it's illegal for people of the sky to visit the ground countries, which seems to surprise Leana, but the scene quickly changes to Rashil who's got his hands full with an opponent who can apparently use photon powers like him. 

My contractual obligation to bring dual page spreads dictates I upload this, and what a spread it is. The use of paneling and speed lines is wonderful but it's actually the SFX and props that really deserve a commendation. I really like that this brings a sense of atmosphere to the fight --we know that Rashil and his mysterious attacker are fighting in an alley, and Yagi ensures this by dotting the ground with trash and other debris, as well as having SFX dictate how the character running Rashil down jumps upon the wall by drawing the "Ton" SFX bigger at first and then smaller as they rush him down. It gives the sense of movement on an otherwise still page. 

Rashil is totally at a loss in this fight, and it's not just enough that this person take back the princess, (though it isn't clear if they're working with Reeve at this point), but Rashil also needs to die? What could all of this mean? We'll have to find out on the next chapter of Ariadne which I'm thinking might return to regular status in the blog if it can continue being artistically marvelous! 

Our first time seeing Rozalie in color --something I hadn't thought of until now, and I'm glad that Yamaji gave us such a present! Her colors not only go well with Sawyer's, but are wonderful on their own as a passionate young woman out to bring her deceased husband back to life. Jean is also represented well in this color page, though her colors are less of a surprise. So as we left off last time, it seems Jean met up with Rozalie back when she was looking for the ingredients to bring Sawyer back to life, and Jean isn't sure what to make of this giant in her midst. 

Another thing that only occurred to me when I read this chapter is that we don't really know much of Rozalie's personality other than "grieving widow" so this was a real treat. Turns out she's almost exactly like sawyer right down to the boundless optimism, which is probably why Jean was unconsciously so annoyed with Sawyer. Like husband like wife, I suppose! Sawyer's got a good eye though, as Rozalie's smile illuminates every page she's on. She needs a bit of Jean's fairy powder for the recipe, but the fairy is in no mood to help and tells her to get lost. Rozalie is just as stubborn as her late husband and won't leave, though she acknowledges to suddenly show up at her home and ask for things is a bit uncouth, so she instead offers her hand in friendship instead. 

Jean immediately thinks back to all the others in her life who promised the same thign just to die of old age and leave her alone, and declines once again. Undeterred, Rozalie sets up camp and decides she'll just stick around until Jean changes her mind --ah the range of expressions Yamaji is able to pull off with his deft yet energetic artwork --it's all so good. Moreover Rozalie herself is a joy to watch --I couldn't include the whole montage of her annoying Jean with her precense and overbearing sense of upbeat happiness, but it's easy to see why Sawyer married her --opposites may attract but in their case they're exactly the same. Which is the second time Yamaji has betrayed my expectations in character depictions --in a good way! Sawyer looked like a brooding badass type, but he's actually a big sentimental goofball, and his wife while looking prim, proper and passionate is only the last of these things, heh. Eventually Jean can't help but get sucked up into Rozalie's pace and they end up having a conversation where she gushes over Sawyer and explains why she won't leave --but it's more than getting what she needs, no, she wants Jean to open her heart to her.  

No offense to Sawyer but man, I would have loved to read this story from Rozalie's point of view. Look at her gush over her man so happily. Though she is sporting that dead mom hairdo, foreshadowing?  This one chapter has done so much to endear me to her character, and it's done a lot for Jean too who accepts her friendship and the promise that when she revives Sawyer, she'll bring him back here to meet her. The ladies shake on this promise and Rozalie assuredly goes on her way to collect the rest of what she needs to revive Sawyer. 

In the present, he's overjoyed to know he came to a place and met a person his wife did, even if Jean tries to convince him that she thought of him as unreliable. Jean can believe they're a couple after having to deal with him for a few moments, and acknowledges to Rozalie that she's met her husband just as she promised she would. Meanwhile in town the goblins have appeared and their leader is feeling up to the challenge of breaking down the fairy barrier and feasting on some people. I don't think I embellish when I say this was probably the best chapter of Marry Grave since it's strong opening only a few weeks ago, and I desperately hope it does well and has a future in the magazine. The artwork, the storytelling, and the characters are all wonderfully done and I really do believe it could be the next big thing in the magazine if it can keep this up. 

Daiku no Hato rides the waves that sunk it's partners in arms. I really believe the series remains at this point because there are so many other series ending that the editorial staff needs something to fill up space and as such keeps it around. I think Kusaba is trying to reevaluate what the series is about as lately the romantic subplot (and Nagiko's appearances) have all but ceased and we're focusing way more on Minato's training to be a man of the sea. This week he and other students are practing oaring which looks just as hard as it sounds. Though Kusaba's artwork really makes those tendons pop, huh? A lot of the focus is on a character named Furuzono who wants to prove his manliness for reasons....

Though it looks like for all intents and purposes he's worse for wear. Though a girl who's been walking the beach often in recent chapters has taken notice of him --could she be the reason why he wants to show off his manliness? Wouldn't be the most original of reasons, but it's extremely understandable! Good luck Furuzono, but don't push yourself too hard. 

Xeno opens up strong with a panel that looks like it could be the storyboard for a prospective anime. I can see the transition happening as Xeno rises from his seat and confirms he's solved the mystery presented to him of the soldiers on the battlefield. Xeno's barely a volume's worth of material in, and he's already managed to solve a case without actually going to the crime scene. Is his deduction on the mark? Let's find out! Xeno goes through what we know --that the leader of the squad --Scott died of blood loss, and he was the first to go. The second who died is the sniper Hoang, who without a doubt was killed by enemy gunfire. Though Xeno points out that Hoang was near a window when he was shot waiting for some kind of signal. So that'd make him the traitor right? Wrong. It's because he was getting wise to it that he was killed. Next to die was Jeff who was terrified and tried to run but was shot down before he could get anywhere. Last was Leon who came in with a knife, but he's not the traitor either. So whodunnit? Turns out it was the first to die --Scot. 

Scot told each man a slightly different version of events that lead to each one of them being killed --that's why Hoang was right where he needed to be to get shot, why Jeff ran out of the building in fear to be killed, and why Leon was brandishing a knife --he basically told them of the traitor and each one of the men reacted in a way that limited their overall lifespan. Scott was the traitor, but he messed up and got injured so the only option he had was to act as a decoy of sorts and get his fellow-except-not soldiers killed so that the enemy soldiers that are actually on his side could come in and save him. Yabuki points out that Scott died before all of them so there's no way any of that makes sense, but Xeno reveals the sad truth...it's Yabuki who inadvertently got everyone killed. 

Scott only enacted his dastardly plan because Yabuki said --as a means of encouraging his superior that he'd survive and he only has light injuries. Scott had mostly resigned himself to dying without doing anything until he said that and he --Scot decided to act quickly in order to save himself before the others realized what was going on. Yabuki doesn't believe it, but Xeno has proof --the gun Yabuki is currently pointing at him was given to him by Scott two years ago wasn't it, which is to say the bullets inside are also two years old. If Yabuki fires the gun he'll know immediately whether Scott was on the level or not --and Yabuki quickly realizes that the gun is a ploy --due to a lesson Scott himself had taught him --never pick up guns on the battlefield cause they could be rigged to explode. He realizes too that Leon who had left the scene realized everything Scott was up to and backed out so he wouldn't kill his friends. Yabuki gives in and says he'll go find Leon --even though Xeno says he's probably dead by now. Still, Yabuki wants to find him and thank his friend for sparing his life. 

After all that Xeno still wants to hear Ayla's answer --will she become his assistant? Ayla weighs her options --this is a guy who knows what she does for a living --one she's failed to kill several times due to seen and unforeseen circumstances --and she takes the job, citing that perhaps she isn't supposed to be an "assassin", but "something else" --something else she might be able to find if she joins with Xeno. I had wondered how long the "assassin who hasn't assasinated anyone" shtick would continue and I guess it ends here for now. Ayla is still by far the character I'm enjoying the most in the series, but far more intriguing than that is when the inspector appears and asks if Xeno is alive since he was just called in for a case where the victim is....him! Xeno's at it again, keeping me glued to the magazine for yet another chapter, so he and I will be back next week. 

After the main "plot" of Shinobi no came to a conclusion last week, one might wonder just what else is in store for Pops and his new student Toudou Heisuke? I present to you -- a training arc! Training for what specifically is unknown but I like that the shougun's words last chapter had a profound effect on Pops --what the old can do in the face of new era is to train the ones who will encounter it head on. Except, Heisuke really doesn't want to be trained by pops, even if he has seen how awesome he is. Still the backdrop of the Takao mountains in Hachiouji are beautifully rendered by Ogaki as Heisuke turns the old man down. I mean to be fair he wants to be a samurai not a shinobi, and he's strong enough as we've seen. Also he comments that he's tired from climbing the mountain, so he's quitting before he even starts, heh. 

Pops just sort of ignores him and commences the training anyway by playing "hide and go seek" as Heisuke complains that he only followed Yoshida because he acknowledged his strength with the sword and had the connections to get him into samurai-dom without all the training and such. Pops hands him a bag of...stuff, snatches his sword and absconds into the woods without a further thought, so Heisuke's got no choice but to play his game if he wants to get out of this situation alive. Pops watches from above as Heisuke runs around for a bit, gets tired and collapses, and then eats all of his rations in one gulp --except that's not what they were and the poor kid is knocked out by the effects of the sleeping drugs in them. He then wonders if Heisuke really has what it takes to be a shinobi, as the boy lapses back into a dream of his past --where he's ridiculed as being a poor kid who only has a sword --Kaneshige who he calls his partner, and that if any of the other kids even think of stealing it from him, he'll kill them all. Heisuke wakes up from his dream to see a boar staring down at him, and as Pops watches from above he runs for his life. 

Heisuke seems to be trapped but then he realizes the bag --more like a scarf pops gave him isn't just a thing to hold stuff in but an actual weapon in it's own right when wet --so he well, pees on it and then hits the boar for all it's worth, passing Pops' first test and leading into his second --in three days Heisuke has to hunt pops down and kill him. Things just escalated a lot in this shinobi lesson, and we'll have to see if Heisuke is up for the grade next week. 

It seems like the cowboy ends up following or being followed by the Shinobi often in my write-ups, weirdly enough. I guess it's weirdly appropriate in a "adventure genre" sorta way. In any case Evans is under the scrutiny of Melissa who's under the mistaken impression that he's cheating on his "wife" Phoebe with a movie star or well, at least he attempted to at any rate --though if you've been following the blog the last few weeks, you know this is all a ploy to save little Mattie from a kidnapping plot. If it sounds weird that I'm recapping everything now well, it's what Kuriyama did at the start of this chapter as well, so I'm just following suit. 

Things are getting really dicey now as a bunch of bad guys are running about on the train. Has the happy family been discovered? It doesn't seem that way at first when Evans stops one of the guys and asks about the situation and the guy doesn't seem at all aware that the child he's looking for is on the train. He does say he's jealous of how happy they all seem and Pheebs uses this opportunity to state they're just a happy family and she with her loving husband. She's really enjoying this whole situation and it's adorable, let me be quite upfront about that. Meanwhile Melissa who's listening in is beginning to feel worse about not saying anything, but overhears the situation between the bad guys and learns of the kidnapping plot. The bad guys are getting desperate that they can't find Mattie and one stops, demanding that the child sitting with Pheebs show her face. Pheebs tries to play this off, but they are in no mood for shenanigans, and threaten her if she doesn't comply. 

To Evans and Pheebs credit, they play it up even harder rather than buckling under pressure, but Mattie cant take being treated like a child or troubling the two any more and speaks up, willing to sacrifice herself if it means no one has to die for her sake. The two refuse to back down and Pheebs has a heartwarming and pretty badass line..."You're 10 years too early to start worrying about mommy". Ah It's great how seriously she's taking this while still being the gunwoman who runs this series. Neither she or Evans are too concerned with the situation unfolding before them, because dealing with stuff like this is what they do before breakfast, and they're easily able to take down the bad guys without breaking a sweat. 

The family that guns down bad guys together stays together, apparently! Though this show of family bonding makes it harder for Melissa to step in and say something, hah. Though she may not get the chance to as Evans finds out from one of the guys he's taken down that there's a whole swath of baddies following the train --way more than he and Pheebs can feasibly handle. This arc has been the best thing Evans has offered so far in it's short run, and while it isn't an outright action manga at this point, it shows it has the chops to be more than just an "almost romantic comedy", and this is exactly why it's managed to stand apart from the other series that serialized with it at the same time. 

Well, I was wrong. I thought something would happen this week in Tenshi & Akuto that would keep Akuto's confession from happening, and for a good chunk of the chapter, that something was Akuto dancing around the issue himself out of embarassment, but it happened, and right in the pages above this paragraph --he says it to her face and without holding back that he likes her. Although he usually calls her "Marumushi" which literally means "round bug" but for this confession he says her name and asks her to always be by his side. Even if you can't read Japanese, the lack of BG in the left page should tell you all you need to know about how important this confession is. It's happened, romance fans, and Hirakawa didn't disappoint! 

Nari accepts, and they are now an official couple. As someone who generally has little to no interest in the romance genre, I'm not sure where things go from here. The series is getting a color page next issue (spoilers!) to commemorate it's 150th chapter so as much as I'd think after a confession like this that we'd be headed toward an ending, that doesn't seem likely. So then what now? I personally hope we'll get back to voice acting --that's what I really came to this series for, and it has been noticibly absent in recent weeks. I do understand why since it is a good time to develop the characters during their downtime, but I hope Hirakawa has higher heights for Akuto to rise to in his career if she's not planning on ending the series quite yet. 

Takoha's been trying to leave the Souboutei for weeks now, but who would have thought he'd get his wish in a rather unusual way? Rather than walking out the house he's floated out --as a ghost. The chapter title suggests that he is on another planet filled with black water swirling around. Though that's not the strangest thing, no, what's really strange is he can swear he hears a voice somewhere...and yes, yes, the artwork is top notch here. Fujita is so consistently amazing that I've just run out of things to say and run with it. Maybe they don't animate his works regularly because it's just impossible to match his skill? I'm probably wrong about this but I think it's a plausible reason. 

The person calling Takoha is actually his relative? I don't think I've ever had the chance to explain, but you all know Seiichi, right? Kid with spiral power Gurren Lagann reference fully intended,  he's actually Takoha's relative --or well, he's the child of his grandfather's older brother, who was tossed through time and space thanks to the uninhibited power of the Souboutei. Yeah, it's a lot to take in, and I do wish I could go more into detail but now's not the time. Anyway this relative of his has a bit of explaining to do. Meanwhile Rokurou and Kurenai are striving to save Takoha from his actual death experience while confirming that they've both met the man before. (I hadn't realized that while they both are friends of Takoha, they've actually met him on separate occasions.) 

The thing inside of Takoha seems to respond to Rokurou moving around his finger which was injured during the fight with Shino. Which is to say that they can actually control and predict where it will be, so they might just be able to cut it out of him and save his life!

A great panel set up here and I like how the biggest one is seen from overhead, adding a sense of dynamism --makes it feel like Kurenai is actually moving up out of the page --which wouldn't have been possible if Fujita had done this straight on. The thing polluting Takoha's body is now out and his life should be saved! Though, what is he up to at the moment? 

Due to his body being that of a spirit, Takoha is able to directly experience the memories of his relative, a message of the invaders of the Souboutei and what they're trying to do. The souboutei is a sort of gate --or more specifically the pictures inside of the manor connect to this world where the invaders who are made of dark water reside. However one person has control of these gates and keeps them closed...and if the picture above didn't make it clear I'll just tell you --It's Sakamaki himself. With one move he could open the "gates" inside the house and flood the world with the aqueous invaders, dooming everyone. Takoha now knows the truth of the matter, but he's kind of busy being dead, so how on earth will he tell everyone? Just as he says this however, he suddenly finds himself becoming solid again...the effects of Kurenai and Rokurou's hard work. He's now a man with a mission as he returns to the manor --but is it too little too late? 

I'm a bit surprised that Shinigami only got one chapter this week opposed to the three it got last week. Though there's no need to worry, it's still very charming in an almost lewd way as Alice tries to feed her young master during tea time without actually touching him, and manages to even get an indirect kiss from him as well. I could easily see this making it over to the main magazine, as it is like many other series a slice of life with a cute girl, but in a way I hope it doesn't as Webry needs the exposure and this magazine is already filled with series like this all vying for attention. That being said these two are adorable and I really hope Inoue finds success with this work. The sense of loneliness is never overbearing but still very much present --and while Alice's antics are meant to titillate, they also come off as sincere to cheer up her charge. It's a series of halves and as far as I've read they really add up to a wonderful whole. 

It's every teenager's dream in this installment of Yuugami. Chihiro's Dad is overseas for business, and her mom decides to go see him which is to say --she has the house to herself! Her Dad's messages home are incredible --they start off pretty normal --Dad hates overseas food and wants to have his wife's cooking, but when the girls call him he plays it off like he's fine. When Chihiro checks the online messages again he's saying cryptic things "For what reason are we alive? For our work? For our families? All of the answers are in the wind..." Dad's clearly not doing well, and I got a great laugh out of his misery, poor guy. Back to the plot at hand --Chihiro is home alone and while her Dad is lonely, she most certainly isn't! 

Meanwhile on the baseball field, Yuugami's seeing a slump, and his manager is none too pleased. In fact the entire team is unable to focus, and Kuzumi (no first name given) tries to pep them up by sorta using her feminine wiles in an effort to get them to take her to the Koushien, but that fails miserably when the whole time promises to do it --if she gives them a kiss once they get there which she vehemently refuses. I like Kuzumi's design hair buns forever! Though I haven't really been paying that much attention to her --I glanced up at her character profile which is on the side of the page on the left, and aside from not having a first name, all that's written is she's Chihiro and Yuugami's classmate and finds Yuugami to be a pain, heh. Meanwhile Chihiro has freed herself of her parental restrictions, turns up the AC, takes out her games and manga and lives it up. Ah how I'm jealous of her. I had to skip the page due to time/space constraints, but she's playing Mario Kart as evidenced by an utterance of "Mama Mia!" from her switch console.

Meanwhile back at his place, Yuugami's family is really cramping his style from his mom serving him food he can't stand to his Dad eating his snacks and his Grandma wearing his shirts, it's all too much to bear, and he starts to consider moving out. His cousin Suzune hears this through the grape vine, and since she's working at a grocery store where Chihiro shops, she soon finds out the news as well. She ends up running into Yuugami who confirms this and although she asks how he'll manage, he commits to getting a part time job and living somewhere on the cheap. Except it's pretty clear he's got no idea what he's doing and is cruising to end up homeless if he's not careful. Chihiro sort of mocks him for thinking that living alone is so easy --since y'know she's doing it so she must be an expert, and leaves Yuugami stupefied as to when she became so haughty.

But then she runs into a little snag. She's never actually had to live alone for an extended period before, and now feels lonely in the silence of her home pierced only by the sounds of an ambulance speeding through the neighborhood as seen on the left. Chihiro is distraught enough to call out for her mom as she sits in solitude --it's all a weird mix of sad and a little funny. Oh how the tables have turned, huh? Artistically I do find the technique Sakurai used to establish her loneliness well done on the right, from the large panels filled with nothing to the whispiness of Chihiro's hair (though hair has always been a strong point in Sakurai's art) it's all a lot of space --too much for Chihiro who yearns to no longer be alone...so much so that when the doorbell rings she dashes off to get it expecting Suzune, who had said she'd stop by for a bit, but...

It's Yuugami. See, Suzune suddenly got called away for work, and Yuugami came with the food she was to bring instead. Now things are escalating --a young maiden and gentleman in a house unsupervised?! Say it ain't so! We're gonna have to wait till February 21st to see what kind of heart racing situations the two will end up in, but I'm positive it'll be well worth the wait. 

It's the final chapter of Meteor Girl --and Tetto is falling down the side of a building with Chihiro like the series' namesake. Although he came with the preparedness to kill Chihiro, he can't let her die alone because despite everything she is an important person to him. 

Chihiro then says for the first time she's glad to have come back as a MG if only because she got to meet him again like this, but she doesn't want him to die. Tetto is confused and says he wants to be with her together even in this moment because she's so important to him. Hane has also jumped off the building, and as if they had planned it together, Chihiro tosses Tetto with her enhanced strength to Hane and...

Gender roles be damned. It's a nice two page spread and makes Hane look good --and I've become a bit attached to her, honestly so I'm fine with this heh. 

Unfortunately this is pretty much the end for Chihiro as even her mechanical (alas this was never really explained) body, she's not going to come out of a fall like that unscathed. They see another MG falling from the sky but Chihiro's eyes which were damaged by the fall aren't functioning properly anymore and she takes it to be a shooting star --the very thing she wanted to see with Tetto before everything went so wrong. Tetto doesn't have the heart to tell her she's mistaken and plays along with her misconception a cruel, but kind lie as Chihiro fades in his arms fast. 

With Chihiro's death, the other MG's manufactured around the same time cease functioning --including Ryoko's sister Sachi, poor thing. And it seems the world will go back to what it was before, with MG's falling...except now because of Chihiro's actions people fear them --something Tetto and Hane try to change with their actions. Though for the most part the MG's don't move anymore after the Chihiro incident there was one special case....

A woman calls Hane by her first name --Aiko, and seems genuinely relieved that she's okay. I guess I had gotten so used to calling her Hane that I hadn't considered that it may not be her first name. IN any case, Even if it is only a temporary comfort, being able to reunite with someone you never thought you'd meet again is a wonderful thing --which is what Tetto and the editoral text say, bringing the series to a good, if not abrupt ending. It's clear Ishiyama really didn't get to convey all the things in the story that may have been worth addressing, especially since several characters barely figured into the ending at all, but I'd like to say at the very least Meteor Girl stayed pretty interesting through it's run, and it was great seeing Ishiyama's art go from amateur to pretty polished by the end of things. The note at the end does say that like Arai, Ishiyama is indeed working on something new, so we may see them back sooner rather than later which is great as I think with a little fine tuning Ishiyama could be a mangaka to watch out for. Like the characters in the series hoping to see their loved ones again, I do hope we'll be reunited with Ishiyama, as I did enjoy Meteor Girl from time to time --evidenced by it being a series I covered from start to finish --my how time flies. 

This week's Youkai Giga features a fairly popular youkai this time around --The Yuki Onna, or Snow Maiden/Woman, thought to be the spirit of someone who perished in the snow and known for her pale skin that almost blends into wintry landscapes. I feel like this youkai has transcended language barriers and anyone who's seen at least a little bit of Japanese media is aware of her, which is nice since it means I don't have to go into background nearly as much as I usually do. The Yuki Onna in this tale however is suffering from a cold --which she says is pretty normal for any being, heh. The man she's with is one she saved from the cold and got sick in the process, though it's their first time really interacting with each other's species, which leads to a funny conversation of how a Yuki Onna is supposed to act, and how human food is supposed to taste, etc. She even opens up a "manual" of sorts that dictates what Yuki onna are supposed to do in situations like these. Except it's filled with stereotypical sort of "doom and gloom to humans" type things which is counter what her normal personality is. In the end she leaves before dawn as dictated by the scroll, leaving us and the young man wondering what could have been....it's weird since it claims if humans hold them in good favor they'll burn to death. I guess in a way it can be seen as a parallel to how old traditions can be broken by something as simple as conversation, but I don't think Satou meant anything that deep...right?

And that's it for issue 9! As I mentioned above, Tenshi and Akuto will receive the lead color page for it's 150th chapter in issue 10, Dagashi will get a color page for it's anime, a manga called "The Show man" with art by Hiroyuki Sakuda and supervision done by Kouhei Uchimura will run --this is a manga from Sunday Super, so it'll be taking a guest spot sort of like Shinigami for the last two weeks. Also, Birdmen will be in for it's monthly visit so there's a lot to look forward to! Until the next Sunday on Tuesday, be well!