Pop Culture Gadabout
Saturday, December 18, 2010
      ( 12/18/2010 07:19:00 AM ) Bill S.  


“MPD GRADE SCHOOLER HIBIKI?“ Looking at the cover to the first volume of Hiroshi Kubota’s Summoner Girl (Tokyopop), you don’t immediately get a sense of its fantasy elements. There’s fourth grader Hibiki Saionji in her schoolgirl garb, two red yin/yang symbols behind her as she smilingly poses for the reader with some kind of decorative staff. It isn’t until you look more closely that you see the quintet of what look like hand puppets perched on her head and shoulders. These are Shikigami, elemental spirits who aid our young heroine in her duties as an exorcist.

Using her staff to call upon one of the elemental spirits (wind, water, metal, earth, fire), Hibiki battles creatures born of darkness known as Ayakashi. Trained and overseen by her snappish grandmother, she’s also been tasked to retrieve the Rikutou Jewels, six legendary gems that have been scattered around the globe. Once brought together, these jewels will cause a devastating catastrophe, but for some not fully explained reason, the Exorcist Underground has lifted its ban on seeking to unite the Rikutou. Whoever accomplishes this -- and averts the subsequent apocalypse -- will be become leader of the underground. A pretty extreme hiring process, methinks.

Hampered in her quest by a comic relief tagalong named Kenta Oda and a dark-haired self-proclaimed rival, Hibiki exorcises three possessions: a fox demon who has taken over one of her school’s teachers, a possessed temple, plus a giant spider controlling a schoolboy in a rundown mansion. None of these adversaries prove particularly nefarious -- the demon arachnid is basically just lonely, we learn -- though their actions have dire consequences on the humans in the area. In this, the teen-rated manga proves a notch less Manichean than a lot of fantasy series.

Through it all, our summoner girl remains good-natured and empathetic, true to the smiling image she presents on the cover. Between each longish chapter, Kubota wedges in more openly comic strips focusing on the Shikigami and Kenta. I personally found them a distraction from the main story, which has enough small comic moments in it on its own, though I suppose they’re not much different from the little space-filler strips that American comics used to place between stories underneath the ads.

More lighthearted than action-oriented, the opening volume in Kubota’s fantasy series proves an enjoyable entry in the magical girl sub-genre (perhaps the best-known instance of this manga and anime storyline is Sailor Moon). I can see younger tween readers getting hooked into the series’ careful dissertation on the strengths and interrelationships of the five Shikigami elements, though Kubota doesn’t play around with this as much as you’d expect in the first book. (Their personalities need to be a bit more distinct.) For adults, it will most likely make a fast read with some amusing pop culture jokes (including a reference to MPD Psycho!) and snappy art.

A promising series if the writer/artist doesn’t become too enmeshed in formula.

(First published on Blogcritics.)

Labels:

# |



Pop cultural criticism - plus the occasional egocentric socio/political commentary by Bill Sherman (popculturegadabout AT yahoo.com).



On Sale Now!
Measure by Measure:



A Romantic Romp with the Fat and Fabulous
By Rebecca Fox & William Sherman

(Available through Amazon)

Measure by Measure Web Page







Ask for These Fine Cultural Blogs & Journals by Name!

aaronneathery.com News
Aaron Neathery

American Sideshow Blow-Off
Marc Hartzman

Arf Lovers
Craig Yoe

Attentiondeficitdisorderly
Sean T. Collins

Barbers Blog
Wilson Barbers

The Bastard Machine
Tim Goodman

The Beat
Heidi MacDonald

BeaucoupKevin
Kevin Church

Big Fat Blog
Paul McAleer

Big Mouth Types Again
Evan Dorkin

Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog
Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag

Blog This, Pal!
Gordon Dymowski

Bookgasm
Rod Lott

Cartoon Brew
Amid Amidi & Jerry Beck

Cartoon Web Log!
Daryl Cagle

Clea's Cave
Juana Moore-Overmyer

Collected Editions

The Comics Curmudgeon
Josh Fruhlinger

The Comics Reporter
Tom Spurgeon

Comics.212
Christopher Butcher

Comics Waiting Room
Marc Mason

Comics Worth Reading
Johanna Draper Carlson

a dragon dancing with the Buddha
Ben Varkentine

Egon

Electromatic Radio
Matt Appleyard Aaron Neathery

Estoreal
RAB

Eye of the Goof
Mr. Bali Hai

Fred Sez
Fred Hembeck

Greenbriar Picture Shows
John McElwee

The Groovy Age of Horror
Curt Purcell

The Hooded Utilitarian
Noah Berlatsky

Hooray for Captain Spaulding
Daniel Frank

The Horn Section
Hal

The House Next Door
Matt Zoller Seitz

Howling Curmudgeons
Greg Morrow & Friends

The Hurting
Tim O'Neil

I Am A Child of Television
Brent McKee

I Am NOT the Beastmaster
Marc Singer

In Sequence
Teresa Ortega

Innocent Bystander
Gary Sassaman

Irresponsible Pictures
Pata

Jog - The Blog
Joe McCulloch

The Johnny Bacardi Show
David Allen Jones

Journalista
Dirk Deppey

King's Chronicles
Paul Dini

Let's You And Him Fight
One of the Jones Boys

Mah Two Cents
Tony Collett

Metrokitty
Kitty

Michael's Movie Palace
Michael

Nat's TV
Nat Gertler

Ned Sonntag

Neilalien

News from ME
Mark Evanier

No Rock&Roll Fun
Simon B

Omega Channel
Matt Bradshaw

Pen-Elayne on the Web
Elayne Riggs

PeterDavid.net
Peter David

(postmodernbarney.com)
Dorian White

Progressive Ruin
Mike Sterling

Punk Rock Graffiti
Cindy Johnson & Autumn Meredith

Revoltin' Developments
Ken Cuperus

Rhinoplastique
Marc Bernardin

Scrubbles
Matt Hinrichs

Self-Styled Siren
Campaspe

Spatula Forum
Nik Dirga

Tales from the Longbox
Chris Mosby

TangognaT

The Third Banana
Aaron Neathery & Friends

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

Toner Mishap
B2 et al

Trusty Plinko Stick
Bill Doughty

TV Barn
Aaron Barnhart et al

Unqualified Offerings
Jim Henley

Various And Sundry
Augie De Blieck

Video WatchBlog
Tim Lucas

When Fangirls Attack
Kalinara & Ragnell

X-Ray Spex
Will Pfeifer

Yet Another Comics Blog
Dave Carter



A Brief Political Disclaimer:

If this blog does not discuss a specific political issue or event, it is not because this writer finds said event politically inconvenient to acknowledge - it's simply because he's scatterbrained and irresponsible.




My Token List of Poli-Blogs:

Alicublog
Roy Edroso

Eschaton
Atrios

Firedoglake
Jane Hamsher

James Wolcott

Lance Mannion

The Moderate Voice
Joe Gandelman

Modulator
Steve

Pandagon
Amanda Marcotte & Friends

The Sideshow
Avedon Carol

Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy

Talking Points Memo
Joshua Micah Marshall

This Modern World
Tom Tomorrow

Welcome to Shakesville
Melissa McEwan & Friends



Blogcritics: news and reviews
Site Feed



Powered by Blogger



Twittering:
    follow me on Twitter