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MANGA REVIEWS

SUNDAY cover
Shonen Sunday
1999 Issue 10
Published by Shogakukan
Update by Eri Izawa

What is SHONEN SUNDAY? SHONEN SUNDAY is one of the largest weekly manga magazines in Japan. Containing some of the latest and hottest boys' manga series in Japan, SUNDAY has hosted such notables as RANMA ½ and the currently popular MEITANTEI CONAN.

Last issue's SHONEN SUNDAY update (1999 Issue 4)
Selected Overview:

LOVE
by Ishiwata Osamu

Overview: Takagi Ai ("Love") is a girl who, in a bid to have a re-match with her old tennis rival, has entered a high school tennis club disguised as a boy.
  This issue features the last of LOVE, the finale and wrap-up of this long-running series (the 30th and final tankobon volume comes out March 18th). Last week's Sunday had the ending of Ai's long-running bid to face her friend Kujiraoka Youhei, in which she barely lost. Youhei, for his part, attributed his win merely to the difference in their ages, not to any gender disparity, and he declares his dream of sweeping Wimbledon with her some day. He then went on to lose the next day, and was happy to blame it on the previous day's match.
   This week fast-forwards rapidly through time, stopping briefly at a point six months from the inter-high school match, where Ai has already grown taller and much more feminine. It then speeds on to her first Japan Open win, her ascendance into the world top 10, and her struggle and triumph as she wins throughout the world. Finally, more than five years after the fateful inter-high match, Ai and Youhei fulfill their old dream of conquering Wimbledon, as they win both the singles divisions and the mixed doubles. Unfortunately, Ai doesn't win the women's doubles, but she goes on to win all of the Gland Slam singles.
   The next year (recounted by Sazanami), Ai disappears from the public eye, following the footsteps of her father. Five years later, she marries classmate Segawa Tsuguru, who, forced from tennis by an accident, has become a doctor ministering to the poor around the world... exactly the kind of "amazing" person that Youhei predicted would capture Ai's heart. Sazanami visits them in New York and sees that Ai, holding her little baby boy, looks happier than she ever has. But alas, Segawa is killed three years later by a land mine in Africa, and, aside from a congratulatory card from Ai for Sazanami's own marriage, there is no more word from her.
   Ten years later, on a certain ship, Youhei is traveling with his daughter from his own failed marriage. As he searches for her on the ship, he remembers a certain incident from long ago. He finds his daughter teaching a boy how to play tennis and exclaiming about how good he is. "My mother played tennis here on this ship once, too," the boy says, and Youhei stops and stares, wondering if it could be... "Is that fun?" a woman's voice says from behind him, and suddenly it is more than twenty years earlier. A young boy named Youhei teaches a young girl named Ai the basics of tennis...
  So ends this long-running series. This last episode, covering so many years so quickly, seemed a bit fast-paced for a manga where a single tennis match often took many issues worth of story-telling. From the close-up and slowed-down, the story ended with the far-away and fast-moving. Still, the sobering look at the future of the young people of the story, and the reminder of natural cycles of death and rebirth, seems a fitting ending for a manga which, from the "dolphin" shots that Ai perfected to her training in the pristine wilderness, had long played along the boundaries of nature. Not a bad way to end.


Selected Brief Updates:

INUYASHA
by Takahashi Rumiko

Overview: Kagome is a modern student teamed up with the strange boy Inuyasha in 15th or 16th century Japan, seeking to retrieve the fragments of the magical Shikon No Tama, and trying to stay one step ahead of the evil Naraku.
  This issue: Naraku has shown Sango that her younger brother Kohaku is apparently still alive—Naraku is keeping the boy alive with a fragment of the Shikon No Tama and using him like a trained dog. He tells her that if she wishes to save her brother, she must take the magical Tetsusaiga sword from Inuyasha and give it to him. Afterward, Sango refuses to tell the others what happened. Later that night, as the others sleep, Sango thinks long and hard, wanting to free her brother from Naraku. She reaches for Inuyasha's sword, but Inuyasha awakens and asks her about what really happened. Meanwhile, Kohaku is approaching, leading a host of demons and monsters...


ME GUMI NO DAIGO
by Soda Masahito

Overview: Asahina Daigo is a young firefighter with the "Me" Company, who has an unusual ability to find and rescue people in danger.
  This issue: Daigo and Amakazu are still in Sumatra. They are arguing with the local firefighters about why they aren't in the hills fighting the fires and trying to rescue trapped villagers, and why they seem to be relying on foreign help. The local who had tried grabbing Daigo's impulse last issue watches silently. Meanwhile, in Japan, Gomi has been asked to lead the Japanese fire-fighting contingent to Sumatra. But there are mutterings about the criminal activity of Daigo and Amakazu. Gomi suddenly declares that he deliberately sent the two ahead as part of a great plan, thereby saving them, for the moment, from the officials' wrath. Back in Sumatra, the local firefighter has a gun and tries to force Daigo and Amakazu to give him the impulse, saying he can't trust foreigners to stay through thick and thin and that he'll go rescue the trapped villagers himself. Somehow, despite the language barrier, Daigo manages to convey that he's just here to save the woman he loves. Under a strange, uneasy truce, the three set off toward the hills.


JAJAUMA GROOMING UP!
by Yuki Masami

Overview: Although originally a city boy, young Kuze Shunpei has taken to working as a farm hand at the Watarai racing horse breeding farm; he also has taken to Watarai Hibiki, one of the Watarai daughters.
  This issue: Shunpei had at long last arrived back at the ranch in the middle of a storm, and he and Hibiki wound up sleeping together. Now, in this issue, Shunpei and Hibiki pick up after themselves. Shunpei says his father told him that he should treasure the support she gives, and that now he wants to be a support for her too. Hibiki says all he has to do is stay by her side, as always. And so Shunpei sneaks back to his room. The next day everything is almost (but not quite) back to normal, except for the usual problem of the very nosy, very sharp, very observant Ume.


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