{"id":3450,"date":"2013-01-12T00:01:57","date_gmt":"2013-01-12T08:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/?p=3450"},"modified":"2013-01-12T00:18:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-12T08:18:13","slug":"kaoru-mori-anything-and-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/2013\/01\/12\/kaoru-mori-anything-and-something\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something"},"content":{"rendered":"

At times hilarious, at others heartwarming, this collection of short stories penned by one of Japan\u2019s most talented artists is a perfect addition to any library! A young girl discovers that new glasses give her a whole new perspective on the world, a bunny-girl waitress learns to cope with her male customers with dignity, an introverted art student inspires her fellow club members even as she takes inspiration from them, and more! Fans of Mori will enjoy seeing concept designs and historical notes from her award-winning series, as well as Mori\u2019s own brand of enthusiastic commentary throughout.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Mori_KaoruMoriAnythingSomething_HC\"<\/a>By Kaoru Mori<\/strong>
\nPublisher:<\/strong> Yen Press
\nAge Rating:<\/strong> Older Teen
\nGenre:<\/strong> Short Stories
\nPrice:<\/strong> $16.99<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t read much of Kaoru Mori. I\u2019ve only read A Bride\u2019s Story<\/em> so far. With CMX gone, her first series in English, Emma<\/em>, is rather difficult to come by now. I do know about the series, and the praise it has received from other reviewers. What I wasn\u2019t aware of, was just how much Mori likes her maids. This short story collections really makes her obsession with maids, and other things, very clear.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been into maids, so being hit with so many at once was kind of a shock. The first short story, \u201cWelcome to the Mansion, Master\u201d didn\u2019t do anything to make me want to change my mind about them. I know it was supposed be funny, but it didn\u2019t click with me. \u201cFellows! and Me\u201d showed the magic that maids seem to hold over fans, and really just made me roll my eyes. That doesn\u2019t mean that I didn\u2019t like any of the maid stories. \u201cMiss Claire\u2019s Ordinary Daily Life\u201d was funny, and \u201cMaudlin Baker\u201d, a story about an older maid and the teenage Master was sweet.<\/p>\n

The stories that I enjoyed more were the first-person perspective stories. \u201cThe Swimsuit Bought Long Ago\u201d and \u201cBurrow Gentleman\u2019s Club\u201d are both told as if the reader were part of the story, with the characters looking directly at the reader, and responding to things not shown in the panels. I especially enjoyed \u201cBurrow Gentleman\u2019s Club\u201d, with the bunny girl handling the gentlemen expertly and its hint at a little magic at the end.<\/p>\n

Mori\u2019s modern-day stories were alright. \u201cTo Come to See\u201d is about a girl getting glasses for the first time. This story definitely reflects Mori\u2019s obsession with glasses. My experience in class with my first pair was nothing like Yucchi\u2019s. \u201cBaggy-chan\u201d was cute but forgettable, and \u201cSumire\u2019s Flowers\u201d was a different take on the connections people can make. The rest of the volume is made up of behind-the-scenes sketches and material for Emma mostly. There was a lot about corsets and English mansion fireplaces. There are a few sketches for A Bride\u2019s Story, but there were much fewer.<\/p>\n

Overall, Anything and Something<\/em> is a good overview of Kaoru Mori\u2019s work as a manga artist. The \u201cForward\u201d, \u201cMiddleward\u201d, and \u201cAfterward\u201d all give fun insights to Mori herself, and it\u2019s these little bonuses that I enjoy the most from mangaka. I love seeing that they like to do when drawing manga, what pets they have, video games they play, and troubles they have with editors. That said, this book is really for the big Kaoru Mori fan. New readers can use it to sample her work, and get to know Mori better, but fans will appreciate it more, especially all the Victorian Era background information. Yen Press\u2019 presentation of the title with a hardback cover and stitched pages also seems to appeal to the fan more than the casual reader. Still, if you\u2019re curious about Kaoru Mori\u2019s work, it\u2019s worth a read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At times hilarious, at others heartwarming, this collection of short stories penned by one of Japan\u2019s most talented artists is a perfect addition to any library! A young girl discovers that new glasses give her a whole new perspective on the world, a bunny-girl waitress learns to cope with her male customers with dignity, an introverted art student inspires her fellow club members even as she takes inspiration from them, and more! Fans of Mori will enjoy seeing concept designs and historical notes from her award-winning series, as well as Mori\u2019s own brand of enthusiastic commentary throughout. By Kaoru Mori Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Short Stories Price: $16.99 I haven\u2019t read much of Kaoru Mori. I\u2019ve only read A Bride\u2019s Story so far. With CMX gone, her first series in English, Emma, is rather difficult to come by now. I do know about the series, and the praise it has received from other reviewers. What I wasn\u2019t aware of, was just how much Mori likes her maids. This short story collections really makes her obsession with maids, and other things, very clear. I\u2019ve never been into maids, so being hit with so many at once was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[180,64,179,83,99,110,209],"class_list":["post-3450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-collection","tag-historical","tag-maids","tag-manga","tag-older-teen","tag-review","tag-yen-press"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2umma-TE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3450"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3457,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450\/revisions\/3457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}