Eagle: The Making Of An American President Volume 5 By Kaiji Kawaguchi Publisher: Viz Media Genre: Political Drama Age Rating: Older Teen (16+) Price: $22.95 Rating: The final volume of this series starts out with Yamaoka and his team trying to find a way to turn the leaders of the World Machinists and Aerospace Union into his supporters. The President of the Union, Michael Kozlov, has a chip on his shoulder about Yamaoka, and any other immigrant who had it “easy”, and is determined to back the Republican Grant. By playing Kozlov against the Union Secretary Zamal, both men break the other with secrets they had been keeping, and in the end, Yamaoka is able to win another supporter in Kozlov and in turn, the Union. Then, the series finally turns to the great white elephant in the room. Racism. With Yamaoka winning so much support, the question starts to turn if a non-white can really become president. All the kooks come out, such as neo-nazis, rallying against Yamaoka, and violence breaks out in the south, which culminates in not one, but two assassination attempts on Yamaoka, neither of which succeed, and ends with Yamaoka winning more widespread support.
This month’s Shonen Jump, January 2010 marks a lot of changes for the manga magazine. Yu Yu Hakusho, one of the few remaining titles from the magazine’s launch (One Piece is the only other one left), finishes it’s 7 year run. It was quite a ride, and I will miss Yusuke and friends, but not all that much. Yu Yu Hakusho has become a typical fighting manga with characters I lost interest in. I was glad to see none of the big demons won in the last tournament, but in the end I was just “meh” about it. The series ends with a whimper instead of a bang. The last few chapters were actually kind of a let down and really pointless (IMHO). It seemed like they were just thrown together to tie up loose ends.
Yu* Must Go The January 2010 issue of Shonen Jump USA marks another change in the magazine. Yu Yu Hakusho, one of the first 5 titles to debut with the magazine ends in this issue. This makes it the only other title from the debut line up to complete it’s full run. Sandland, a single volume title by Akira Toriyama was the other. Yu-Gi-Oh GX “graduates” from SJ this month as well, going graphic novel only now. So much for “there’ll always be a Yu-Gi-Oh title in Shonen Jump.” And of course, the long awaited One Piece jump starts in this issue. I haven’t cared for some of the changes to SJ in the past, but a natural end like Yu Yu Hakusho is the way it should be.
Gareth writes: Hi, I am a library assistant from the UK (Liverpool), and I would be very happy if you could answer a quick question for me. I had a couple of ten-year olds playing in the library yesterday, and one of them, a young girl, said she only reads comics. My question is, is all ages Manga suitable for a 10-year-old, or if not could you perhaps recommend some graphic novels and comics for 10 year olds. Having read the recent Carol L. Tilley study finding that comics have no disadvantage compared to traditional prose, I am really keen to develop Manga and graphic novel resources especially for younger children.
In the last years of the 20th century, a cult has been growing in power and popularity, led by a mysterious man known only as “Friend” This has little bearing on convenience store owner Kenji, until a childhood friend of his seemingly commits suicide. A closer look into it reveals that there may have been more to it, and it could have something to do with the cult. As Kenji looks further in, he finds that the cult and it’s leader is following a story he and his friends wrote when they were just kids, about an evil power trying to take over the world and the heroes who stop them. Kenji decides to try and stop The Friends with only the help of his childhood friends. By Naoki Urasawa Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Mystery/Thriller Price: $12.99 Rating: [May contain spoilers] 20th Century Boys is a mystery/thriller story, something of a specialty for it’s creator, Naoki Urasawa. The story spans 45 years, from 1969 to 2014. These first five volumes cover mostly the 1969-1997-1999, and only touch on 2014 at the end of the fifth. The story isn’t told linearly. It jumps from 1969 to 1997…