A taste of a fantastical world that manga lovers will adore.
Depressed teenager Hanasaki Ayumi is dragged into a magical realm.
Ayumi is dissatisfied with her life when a letter from her estranged dad arrives, inviting her to meet up with him. Instead of finding her father at the waterfront, however, Ayumi is blasted off the pier by an explosion as a mysterious hooded figure looks on. When she wakes up, Ayumi finds herself in a strange place where some humans, known as saigami, have the supernatural ability to control a single element. In search of answers, Ayumi joins saigami Sean and Reyji on a journey to the city of Zaosz. On the way there, the trio are ambushed by incarnations—summoned creatures that have been consumed by magic—and during the ensuing fight, Ayumi discovers her powers as a fire saigami. Despite her lack of training, Ayumi must now take the saigami exam once they reach Zaosz—or face limited citizenship rights. To help her succeed, Sean suggests they take the exam as a team. Beautiful full-color pages are mixed with traditional grayscale manga panels. Ayumi is richly characterized through both the text and the usage of cracked lines over the artwork to represent her feelings of depression. The use of well-known manga tropes creates a nostalgic “greatest hits” album feel while still possessing enough creativity to be fresh and exciting. Names may cue characters’ ethnicities.
A taste of a fantastical world that manga lovers will adore. (Manga. 12-16)Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7603-7685-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Rockport Publishers
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A timely and well-paced story of personal discovery.
Time travel brings a girl closer to someone she’s never known.
Sixteen-year-old Kiku, who is Japanese and white, only knows bits and pieces of her family history. While on a trip with her mother to San Francisco from their Seattle home, they search for her grandmother’s childhood home. While waiting for her mother, who goes inside to explore the mall now standing there, a mysterious fog envelops Kiku and displaces her to a theater in the past where a girl is playing the violin. The gifted musician is Ernestina Teranishi, who Kiku later confirms is her late grandmother. To Kiku’s dismay, the fog continues to transport her, eventually dropping her down next door to Ernestina’s family in a World War II Japanese American internment camp. The clean illustrations in soothing browns and blues convey the characters’ intense emotions. Hughes takes inspiration from her own family’s story, deftly balancing complicated national history with explorations of cultural dislocation and biracial identity. As Kiku processes her experiences, Hughes draws parallels to President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban and the incarceration of migrant children. The emotional connection between Kiku and her grandmother is underdeveloped; despite their being neighbors, Ernestina appears briefly and feels elusive to both Kiku and readers up to the very end. Despite some loose ends, readers will gain insights to the Japanese American incarceration and feel called to activism.
A timely and well-paced story of personal discovery. (photographs, author’s note, glossary, further reading) (Graphic historical fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-19353-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking.
Sixteen-year-old Mandy considers herself the anti-Starfire: Unlike her scantily clad superhero mother, she doesn’t have superpowers, can’t fly, and doesn’t even own a bathing suit.
Mandy dyes her hair and dresses in all black to further call out how different they are. Mandy’s best friend, Lincoln, whose parents were born in Vietnam, insightfully summarizes this rift as being down to an intergenerational divide that occurs whether parents and children come from different countries or different planets. Mandy tries to figure out what kind of future she wants for herself as she struggles with teenage insecurities and bullying, her relationship with her mom, and her budding friendship (or is it something more?) with her new class project partner, Claire. Yoshitani’s vibrant and colorful stylized illustrations beautifully meld the various iterations of Starfire and the Titans with the live-action versions of those characters. Together with Tamaki’s punchy writing, this coming-of-age story of identity, family, friendship, and saving the world is skillfully brought to life in a quick but nuanced read. These layers are most strongly displayed as the story draws parallels between cultural differences between the generations as evidenced in how the characters address bullying, body positivity, fatphobia, fetishization and sexualization, and feminism. This title addresses many important concepts briefly, but well, with great pacing, bold art, and concise and snappy dialogue. The cast is broadly diverse in both primary and secondary characters.
Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking. (Graphic fantasy. 14-16)Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77950-126-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2021
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