We all know that Elizabeth and Manga are like peanut butter and bananas, you can’t separate them in a sandwich no matter how hard you try (did you have those as a kid in your lunch? I also had peanut butter and cucumber sandwiches – try trading that!). Manga is both Cheryl and Beth’s pain control, allowing them to take a mental break from the constant pain.
They also are a good media form for depression because while they have multi-layers (sometimes), they are fairly easy to read. So when you have a chronic illness which REQUIRES constantly monitoring of yourself for oxygen, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, liquid intake, excretion, food intake, core heat, extremity heat and frostbite, and mental functions, it is hard to be allowed to express being depressed. One cannot ‘shut off everything’ because the consequences are too high, but manga allows that indulgence and escape which the mind needs for its’ good health.
Thank you to every single person who has helped me by getting a manga, or a gift card (from Amazon). Cheryl or Linda puts post it notes on the manga so every time it is read or re-read, even if that is 4 a.m. with pain or in the bathroom with G.I. problems, I can be thankful to you. And I am. It is like having a room of friends as I see the names on the front of the covers. Friends here to help me though the dark times.
But, for those who would like to start into manga, I am not going to go on about how it is an important and growing form of book, or how it can accommodate those who have problems reading close text (like me now), I am going to give four reviews. Last time I reviewed some of the manga for the serious or literary minded. This time I want to review four books for ‘light’ reading. Almost a guarantee that there will be no life changing reading going on here, unless you have never tried ‘escapism’.
Tsubasa: Those with Wings – this is by the Creator of Fruit Basket and is a hefty 400 pages of short manga stories all tied together around the Kotobuki, a female short nimble thief and Raimon a military commander who has a mysterious past (and present). This is your basic fun fantasy, which like Nephilim involves plucky determined girls and teasing yet oddly super-capable guys. For instance in Nephalim, she lives in the jungle and is seen naked by him. According to village law he must die by her hand.
So for the rest of the book, while he is going to rescue a princess (she assumes for money) she tries to kill him with her knife by dropping out of trees, throwing daggers, etc. He on the other hand always seems to know and for example blocks the daggers with a book he is reading and says, “Hey, I wasn’t finished with that!” or “I thought I told you, no killing during meal time!” In Tsubasa, Raimon is ‘supposed’ to catch Kotobuki but he prefers to watch her antics as she leaps and bounces avoiding the other military. When she decides to quit the thief life and work a job, he quits the militiary and gets a job near her. “Why?!” she demands.
“You are fun to be around.” He says while she fumes and stomps her foot.
Each manga story in this volume is about 40-60 pages long, some shorter. And as they travel through a post-apocalypse world the stories loosely revolve around Tsubasa, a legendary device that grants any wish, and everyone from the military to greedy rich people want it.
Meanwhile, Raimon and Kotobuki go from place to place, some towns, some houses, to help people, create justice or just survive themselves, all the time bickering with Kotobuki both angry at the way Raimon doesn’t take her seriously enough and lonely when he isn’t teasing her. I am not sure why I am attracted to stories of nimble 5 foot 2 inch girls who do backflips and all sorts of leaping about with knives. Or why I like the romance of her hanging around a 6 foot guy who holds her up off the ground while scolding her for scaring him by almost getting killed. Maybe it is because the six foot woman are usually some sort of villian who bash things. Not to mention there is no being swept up into anyone’s arms, not when EMT’s discuss how many people have to carry you (“She a big one!”). So this is TOTAL fantasy for me and the stories were drawn before Fruit Basket in volume 1, a bargain for $10 at Amazon, light action stories with a tingle of romance. Raimon is of course a leech who never touches her but is always suggesting things or who will only save her if she kisses him (he works out this theory that if she can learn to kiss him once a day, they might finally sleep together). Good for 15 year old and up. The second book, also $10 at amazon and 400 pages is out in a week and I think is drawn after Fruit Basket. I am curious to see how the whimsical fantasy of a 20 something manga artist changes after the experience of several major series. I hope the light humor leech of Raimon and the ‘I don’t need anyone’ attitude that is being worn down by Raimon still exists in Kotobuki.
You will fall in Love is Boy Love Boy love are two adult males who are in love and means that there is a kiss, or maybe some implied activity but nothing is graphically shown (is is often called Yaoi). A lot of females find that romance is romance and nice looking guys falling in love romantically is still romance. And so do Cheryl and I, two lesbians, enjoy this award winning book. So this a good introduction to this particular artist, whose art and style is highly regarded.
The story is both fluff and universally complex: a love triangle over time. Haru is a teacher who ends up back at the school where he did Jyudo, or Japanese Archery as a high school student. This is painful for him as he was a brilliant archer who competed nationally with a beautiful style of archery but left archery suddenly. The reason was never told, and it was because he had fallen in love with Reiichiro, his competitor at school. He felt that his love was shameful, never told anyone and that it was destroying the purity of archery. He returns only to find that the younger brother of Reiichiro, named Tsukasa, is not only leading the archery club at school but has been carrying a crush for him, Haru all this time. Tsukasa knows why Haru left archery as he could see the love in the face of Haru but declares his own love. Though the book, Haru struggles with his feelings of shame and Tsukasa with is insecurity that he will always be second place to absent older brother Reiichiro. The students meanwhile are trying to get Haru to be the club advisor and get him back into archery.
Finally Tsukasa confronts Haru and demands to know if he cares for him. Haru won't answer and says that he will not destroy Tsukasa’s chance to go to the nationals by responding. Tsukasa says that love is love but Haru believes that his archery became erratic due to this ‘forbidden love.’ So Tsukasa tells him that he will prove him wrong, that he loves him and he will win the next tournament, DUE to thinking of his love of Haru, and if he wins, then Haru should kiss him. Haru (the uke, though older) sort of is pushed into agreeing. But during the tournament, who shows up but the lost love and older absent brother Reiichiro, and Tsukasa looks over to see them close together in coversation during his shooting. Can he still win or will he be distracted, and if he does, will it only be to find that Haru loves Reiichiro? It is a highly entertaining book with great art and a good depiction of the sport of Jyudo including a scene where he goes home to find his brother practicing in their own archery range with the lights off (the idea that the zen of pure form means the target is hit whether you see it or not), much like I asked at Sakura-con. Oh dear, does that make me a raving fan-girl? I honestly like the sport of Jyudo and want to try it, just as a sport.
For those who enjoy this book there is a follow up, You will Drown in Love.
Here the loser in love in the previous book takes over as manager of the family kimono cloth business (and is horrid at it to start), but finds that the person who he annoys the most is maybe interested in him. Is there love for both brothers? A highly enjoyable series and a good introduction to the non-comedy style of romantic boy love/yaoi books.
If any action readers have made it past all the romance, the next manga is the manga adaptation of Vampire Hunter D. I have Volume one while Volume two and three are on my wish list, going for $9-$10. Each book is the DMP oversized volumes (higher and longer) and 200-250 pages, so a good value of reading. The artist Saiko Takaki has done a great job of making a stand alone series where no previous knowledge of the anime or books are needed.
In a different post-apocalypse world with radiation mutations teamed up in the wild lands and vampires are now the nobles of the civilized land, and keepers of the technology. Humans live simple lives and are like serfs to the vampire nobles, who occasionally require an offering. A select few who are well trained take up the job of Vampire Hunter, those who will eliminate those who are wild vampires preying on a town to the nobles themselves. We follow the adventures of Vampire Hunter D who is a Damphir,. A damphir is a long living offspring of a vampire and human, an outsider despised by both. Some vampires have lived 1 year, some 100, and some over 1,000 or 3,000 years in this long period, being the only people left to remember the ‘pre’ earth of today. In Volume 1, D agrees to help a woman freshly bitten by the noble who vows to make her his bride. She is a beautiful woman and the son of the town’s bully sheriff is determined to force her to marry him. D has to play both diplomat and warrior as he is between the townspeople who want to use the woman to appease the noble; the sheriff and son, and the vampire lord and his daughter. Towards the end of the book, we finally get a clue as to what D might stand for, or who D’s vampire father really was. An exciting action book and I am looking forward to the next two in the series.
The final book is another yaoi, but this is not only a romantic comedy but also one for animal lovers, or furries called Part Time Pets. It is by Deux books and a collection of short stories. Deux have book that look like they have more explicit sex but often just imply it and have great romantic stories. For example Ruff Love, by the same company is just as fun.
While Idol Pleasures by Deux is another comedy romance about an idol who doesn’t smile and a stuffy man out of work who is made his manager by his sister (he finds out later to make him an eligible catch for dating and marriage). To give you the idea, the serious faced Idol has a room full of teddy bears but the manager doesn’t make him feel bad about it (while all others did), so the next day, all but one teddy bear is gone and when the manager questions why the idol says with a very serious face, “I have you” and then leans on his shoulder. This seems to be the manager’s job and meanwhile the photographers are going, “Did he almost smile? He’s never done that before, on or off camera.” You can see where this is going.
Back to Part Time Pets which is not only a funny take on temp agencies but a wonderful romance of seme’s and uke’s (uke’s are the more compliant ones, who are openly affectionate). The people with cat, dog, or rabbit ears are pet/human hybrids and the book starts out with the advertising pamphlet given to offices which advertise how they can be very efficient in the workplace but also need to be taken care of as a pet.
The ‘sales pitch’ has full picture accompaniment of the pro and cons including the humorous warning, “Some of our pets are not fully office trained” picture.
After the intro there are three stories (a bunny, a cat and a dog) about the part time pets. Each is endearing, particularly Tama, the ‘wild cat’ who never keeps jobs, but ends up working with an author who is stern and a good match for Tama’s wild ways. The middle of the book has a two part story about Koimoko: the Love Shrine. Our hero Enishi is the Koimoki, an inherited god-gift from the temple keepers. Anyone who touches the Koimoki increases beauty, anyone who kisses the Koimoki gains success in love and if you have sex with the Koimoki then you WILL be with your true love. It is sort of implied this used to be a job of a female miko (shrine maiden) but Enishi got the gift and hates having it. He hates love and he hates how love makes people crazy, always trying to touch or kiss him, or have sex with him. The story quickly become much more complicated and multi-layered as Enishi himself finally feels the yearning and pain of one sided love (he goes to the doctor to have his heart checked from this pain). However, Enishi’s gift has a dangerous side, which Enishi ignores because he believes that the Koimoki, (he) is only able to bring love to others……never to themselves. Can the Koimoki find love?
We end with a bonus part time pet story of Tama again (the ‘wild cat’) which is the favorite of the author and most readers. Then there is a section from the author about how the book came to be. It was a fun read from beginning to end, and my only wish was it was twice as thick or had a sequel already out. I really can’t emphasis enough how enjoyable this book is (Cheryl liked it too!). If you read Yaoi and want it hot and heavy then maybe this will seem tame, but if you want relationships with humor, love, romance, and some of the cutest Uke’s around, I heavily recommend this book. Mature teens and above though.
So there are the reviews of four of the manga which were bought for me (well I bought Vampire Hunter D 1 but I live in hope for 2 and 3!!!). I hope you find something there that will interest you. I do recommend that only who likes a good summer read or light romance to give one of the yaoi books mentioned here a try as 70% of romances sold in Asia to women are yaoi. Now from teenage girls (and boys) to adults more and more North Americans are buying yaoi or boy love – it has been added to most libraries and is on every major publisher’s lists. The guys are nice to look at, the romance is tense and gives a bit of a thrill, or funny and gives a laugh. Perfect escapism.
I hope you have a good weekend, I am off to a medical appointment so ug, but once that is over it is postcard creation time!
It was my birthday yesterday, or the day before - they became one long day (shudder!). I did not know until a few days before that I HAD a birthday until people started talking about it. And I still don’t know my age, Linda isn’t telling. Oh, also, Cheryl wrote a brilliant and insightful post on Girls' Gotta Fly about Constants, Changes and Boundries, which turned out to be SO applicable.
The thing is, that due to the exhaustion and the long hours of work I do, we have taken to assuming a sort of 10 year old to 12 year old default (going down to eight depending on how many hours awake and working). So the young me was excited about a birthday because I never had them when I was young and wanted to know what would happen;
and Linda kept giving hints and the older me couldn’t remember exactly a good birthday celebration.
It turns out that my birthday is also my Friday the 13 sqaured. It was a disaster; like one of those days when you say at 3:00 pm after crying for an hour and all the other stuff that ‘thank goodness this day will be over soon.’ At 9:00 pm after 2 more hours of counseling people when Linda drops by to tell you that she and Cheryl talked and couldn't decide so, sorry no present, then I concluded that we will spread out the birthday as no day THIS bad and exhausting can be my birthday. While at 4:00 am after you are so exhausted you think there are rakes stuck in your eyes and so emotionally drained that you think it can’t get worse you whisper hoarsely, “At least it is over!” 
So when at 7:30 a.m., you are still working after you still have only gotten a total of ONE present it is the Hell Day which does NOT END!
The present, well due to my code, I kind of gave it my nephew because my 12 year old person realized that your nephew must have had a birthday too (this was confirmed) and the adult Elizabeth didn’t know that, didn’t remember, and so I needed to be better late than never. 12 year old Elizabeth wasn’t that happy with giving up only present (gift cert.) but understood that Family Comes First and If There are Only a Few Pieces of Cake you pass it around and If There is Cake Left, THEN you Can have some (proper manners and all).
After Hell Day I am literally rolled into bed. I wake up and get an email from Sis to say that I DID have a present sent, an gift card at Akadot from the day before which….disappeared. So many emails about that between naps today. Because when I get that bad, not only do I regress but Linda has to pick up the pieces (and the manga books),
which, with little sleep she had, she did, having everything I needed to survive, including cuddles.
Akadot is a good place for me as right now (if the present gift cert arrives....oh, it just did!) 
as they are doing the ordering for the LA Anime Expo and want to make a good impression so taking LOTS of out of stock items which the manager has been ordering in long lists in hopes of finding them in some warehouse. She doesn’t know what is going to arrive until it does, so she has been finding books I asked for weeks and weeks later, usually 2 weeks AFTER I ordered or got it elsewhere (frustration!). But I did, after such a horrid day, with Linda’s permission make a order of a few books. I searched for slightly older art books (as in Japan, art books are not reprinted, even if they go out of print in hours, as often happens making a book printed 11 months ago, a RARE and old book!), I found some and got them, and now, four out of the five that I ordered were the LAST copy (so they are listed for others as ‘Special Orders’). As more stock of single books of older stock comes in, I will use the gift card to try and get one or two before others realize what is happening (also that they are hidden amongst over 1500 import books helps!).
I have found out that in a lot of ways people want the OLD Elizabeth, the one who can disassociate herself to help others, the counselor, the friend who listens. The problem is that has a huge cost because that really isn’t ME anymore. For example, how do I disassociate in order to comfort someone who is upset because their career seems stalled when I am talking to them on the phone in bed? Or feels like they aren’t getting out enough, getting enough exercise or interaction when I can only leave the apartment once a week with assistance?
I can still do it, it just costs a LOT on me emotionally and physically (sometimes, I just have to wheel into a room after a session, close the door and just sob and sob over what I have lost: what they are so passionate about, and I am there to hear and help with).
So when, on my birthday I did that kind of hard core 'super couselor Beth' for five to six hours, along with a few extra disasters, it literally put me in bed, where I am and will be for another day.
I am trying to set a boundary that says, “I might not like it, you might not like it, but this is ME now. And if you force ME to be crushed down in order to channel my energy to be the brainy helpful Elizabeth because you NEED me, I will still answer that call, but it is shortening my life, and reducing my quality of life."
I am not sure yet how to say NO, but I am learning that there is a very literal and physical cost to giving what for me is as much support as possible; it is literally my life for theirs; in many different ways. Part of that quality of life was that today was to be my first 'cat visit' 
for those who are unable due to medical conditions to go out to see cats, they bring cats to you. It was my first chance to hold a cat in I can't remember how long and I had to cancel that because I was just too ill today.
I don't know when they come around again.
So I am trying to get more people to want to get to know ME, the ME of now (the me who is a little cautious, a little lonely, a little bookish),
and so SHE has friends and people who want to get to know her, and then maybe there will be more of a balance in my life and less days of disaster and weeks of recovery.
But, with the time in bed over the last um, time of Deer, Sheep and Wolverine and beyond (see post on Brain Board for reference), I wanted to recommend some of the manga which I have bought myself or has been gifted to me by some really kind people.
And to get a gift that I can read in recovery which makes me feel that good is a great gift indeed, so thanks to all those who get me manga, it actually does make a difference in helping me heal. There is no book or path to follow on my disease and we just go day and week at a time, try not to do stupid that often and work slowly toward treatment in hopes that works for a time. Whether it is my last week, which I spend in bed or just one week in my last year, I still appreciate the kindness and the joy someone who never met me brought to me. Thank you. Because I not only get to read the manga, I get to share them with others!
So, here they are, for teens, straight people, girls into a bit of boy/boy love (or boys), literature, feminist and gender study majors, cat lovers, and everyone else. In brief.
Top recommendation for everyone is: Maid Sama!
which despite the cover, is about a STRONG and independent woman, Misaki is the coolest toughest girl in manga; top grades, student body president in a boys school where girls are a minority and she is trying to stop the boys from doing the usual antics (streaking, being rude, violent) in order to attract a more 50/50 percentage to the school. Plus trying to keep it all together, she needs to help her single mother with expenses including school tuition while dealing with the day to day hassles of boys who bully, etc. So she has a job where she doesn’t need to think (tired after studying) and gets good money: but it is at a maid café where the males come and are told, “Welcome Home Master” 
– she does it at a town over from her school in hopes it is never found out. Of course the ‘cool’ guy who seems disinterested in everything but gets good grades DOES find out (because she is literally working herself to passing out exhaustion). He doesn’t tell anyone, but he comes every day. At work she must be oh SO nice to him and can’t find out WHY is he doing this? Not only that, now he is interested at school at when the class gets rowdy at a school festival he dresses up as an officer and does a theme café, saying, “Oh my mistress, what can I do for you.” (essentially what she does), showing that who you are, and what you have to do to survive, or what you might wear is not the same. And while some students get suspicious of her always leaving with him (to go to her job), he tells them, “She is MINE!” and they envision her as his bodyguard!
It is funny, it is a turnabout (like when he watches the café because she doesn’t understand that she is a GIRL and needs to be careful at night – only SHE catches two guys who want to ‘play’ with her and turn them over to the police while he is left slack jawed). This is not your damsel in distress, but he isn’t giving up on being her equal or more. It is a great read and as the second book comes out in a month I recommend buying it now!
Second would have to be the new release from DMP, Utahime the Songstress. 
I would say this is one of the top 10 manga of the couple hundred I have read this year!
A delightful book that is a long one shot (complete in one book) 200 pages, with another one shot after it (30 pages). It has our beautiful lad, Kain who has to face not only that he is the first male songstress (literally Song Princess), but that no one can know, as the village only prospers if the female songstress sings to protect the land. The villagers virtually lock the family (he and his twin sister) in a tower, fawn over the sister while they ignore him; after all – he is a boy and cannot be born with the gift of the songstress (ah ha!). Meanwhile, Thomas, a local cute lad with glasses who is the son of the chief finds out the truth that if the songstress does not sing, the law is that the village is killed, and that the village is in fact keeping the mother and children prisoners. Meanwhile, the King of this kingdom ONLY have males….except now there is a female born and after checking back and forth, yes, this is the offspring of the king. So as the book jumps forward and back with ease of story telling we have a female monarch and a male songstress; it seems the times are a changing, slowly. When seeing how happy his sister is with Thomas, Kain, the male songstress runs off at 12, leaving Thomas to protect sister. He returns when he realizes she is only imitating the sound of a songstress, which is damaging her. There are questions about love, about dependence and the capital T: Traditions, that any culture follows. It is a super read and I recommend it to anyone who likes excellent reading, which transcends simple story telling into literature without you even noticing. It is great as a gift and a way to get people into manga who might not otherwise, and would interest anyone in feminism, gender roles, the SCA, as well as romance, and a hint of beautiful boys. Seriously, grab it!
9 Lives, I mention this because this book may be going out of
print and ANYONE with a cat or loves cats and the way they think should get a copy. In the future aliens who are cat-boys and girls and call themselves 9 lives come to earth for reasons no one knows but are soon collared pets because having a 9 life means if you die, the ‘pet’ can give you one of theirs. Except what do the cat boys think of this, living as slaves and giving their lives away? We meet a feral young 9-life, Conri, who has run away and lives with a ‘fake collar’. He is helped by a human named Adrian: who gets him food better ID and a better fake collar. Conri is SURE that no human would help a 9-life (after all, anyone who catches him has extra lives!) simply because and follows him. Conri wants to be free, but he also wants to be loved, and he can’t admit even to himself that Adrian could just CARE about him. Conri follows Adrian, steals his food, makes a mess, is essentially a feral cat. He agrees to stay until he pays off the food, but he is NOT a pet. Fine, Adrian tells him, I don’t want a pet. Conri can’t believe a 9-life would ever love a human or vice versa as all he has know are people exploiting those he knows. But staying (not LIVING since he so NOT a pet, and stop calling him ‘kid!’ he is a um…teenager!) with Adrian, Conri starts to see things a little differently in himself and with is 9-life friends. And while he will never have a ‘master’ but maybe, just maybe, he will admit there can be love between a 9-life pet and the owner. A great book for those who have a cat, or have owned a feral cat in particular, as if cats could talk and walk around, I am sure Conri would be there. Rated ages 13 and up, it is a great book for teens who love cats as well. This HINTS at boy/boy love but for those who don’t read between the lines, and see the attraction that is unmentioned, they won’t see it at all. Highly rated by me, Cheryl and one of our cat and pet experts.
I want to do three more but I will stop with the next one as I am exhausted, sorry. This is a hetero romance across time which has two lesbians (Cheryl and I) giving it top thumbs up: Shinobi Life 1 which was written as a one shot (complete in itself) until it was turned into a series by popular demand. 
It also seems to be going out of print so grab it while you CAN (seriously – you can get it for under $10 but used prices are already going up to $40). In the Japanese historical past Kagetora, a ninja, has sworn to protect Beni Hime (Princess Beni). In an attack on the castle, he is thrown into a lake and through time to wake up to OUR Beni, who is a tough, take no nonsense, girl whose mother died early and whose father seems only interested in the money of the family house and estate. Kagetora, confused by the difference of things, vows to protect Beni Hime now that he has found her, and Beni, unsure what to do, accepts (OH NO!). She thinks he is a guy who is a little strange and bumped his head, but he gives her an ivory comb that the family has had for generations. Wha? Could he be telling the truth, and meanwhile, Kagetora sees through the oily boyfriends who try to engage themselves to Beni to get the money. These are two tough and independant individuals. 
It is a story we have all heard one way or another but this somehow makes it fresh and exciting, particular when Beni and Kagetora accidentally enter the portal and end up BACK in time, where Kagetora finds the real Hime, who has hidden herself and her past…for love. Can this Ninja give up his vow and be with this odd girl from the future? Or will he keep to tradition and send her back to the portal alone. Will he accept the position of ‘bodyguard’ (no wink-wink there!)? Read it and see! It has continued on to book 2 and soon book 3 but if you want just book 1 it is a great teen romance (or 20’s romance, or for those older, hey, whatever!), and rated 13+ (for violence I think).
As for me, if you have any ideas of how to save my birthday then both the adult Beth and the 12 year old (and the 6 to 8 year old) Beth would love to know too
(I have a lot of different emotions when I am younger it turns out!).
I have learned that a year is not just words but rather a string of events, of things done with friends, of lessons learned, of good and bad but of growth so that one returns to the same day or dates the same but a different person. I accept that birthday’s are important, as I never though I would see this one, and yet, I have learned so much in this last year. What I need to learn now is how to manage my limitations and yet still love openly and care for those who ask or need caring. Yet I need some limit so that I can survive more than one or two days a week doing that and then spending the rest in bed. I apologize if I have not emailed you back, I am trying to but find that my pain and my condition which if purple is a good color for a human then I would be well, but it seems I am not. I considered going to ER this morning due to my heart and I think I will soon, as I need to assess whether it is electrical or structural failure which is causing me to wake, which makes a –bump-bump-bump-gurgle/splot sound. Taking chances of, “I’ll get to it later, if I am still alive” because so much of your body is in partial or mixed system failure is not really the right way to live. Um, happy birthday!
The first part of this blog will be a manga reivew of five top manga, followed by that classic and tragic experience and pain we all have felt, ‘when your girlfriend goes straight…’ Wow, a pang of pain just in writing that.
But first, a lot of great people have been gifting me with manga from the wishlist. So these are five titles I have been given that we (Linda, Cheryl and I) have all read and enjoyed, 
all rated as top notch. And when you have three lesbians saying, “Go read these heterosexual romantic manga!” then you know they are good. The first, The Name of the Flower 
is more about healing and how we bond as humans than it is a simple romance. The story starts with a girl whose parents have died, and she has been passed every few weeks or months from one family to another until she ends up with her uncle the writer. He is a total grouch. She hasn’t spoken or cried since the funeral.
So the uncle tells her, ‘You clean and cook and you can stay here.’ And she does, and when he sees her one day he says, “If you have extra time, you can garden.” So she goes to school, comes home and cooks, cleans and works in the garden.
And after a time, seeing the plants she has planted as seeds grow up and then bloom, for the first time in a long time…..she smiles. She made something grow. And over two years, she joins the community gardening society (she is the favorite of lots of old men) and cooks and eventually the grouch, who used to speak to no one, starts to speak to her. He asks her the name of a flower. He actually reaches out of himself and asks her something.
With the garden, in some way, she learned to grieve and then learned to go on with life and put it all into her garden so it was a pleasant place to sit.
It has joy. This manga is the highest recommended from all three of us. There will be a book two but this volume can stand alone. Also, this, Heaven’s Will and We were There 1 & 2 should all be available on the 4 for 3 Amazon promotion, which means it has free shipping and you get all 4 for about $26-27.
The next one we recommend is Heaven’s Will,
I have talked about this manga before but this was a book that was SO good, we were all disappointed that it is listed as a ‘stand alone’ (meaning just one volume) book and we want MORE. There is a girl Sudou who has a really bad fear and experience with boys. She can also see ghosts and runs because she is scared...a lot. Sudou is running from a ghost when she meets Sato who is a beautiful goth girl who with her man-servant Kagari (who happens to be a vampire), can exorcise ghosts. Sato and the vampire have a deal; but it will take a lot of trust before Kagari will explain why he is with Sato, even when Sudou walks in on Kagari feeding on Sato in her long black negligee. Oh, yeah, and Sato is technically a guy, but since he is ‘keeping his body perfect until he can have a sex change’ it is sort of easier to think of Sato as she. The good thing is that Sudou now has a friend, who while technically a guy, is sort of a best girl friend
and is teaching her how to be strong and stand up for herself. And while Sato is helping Sudou to be strong, Sudou is trying to help Sato with Sato’s pain, and complicated past (COMPLICATED!). I don’t want to give anything away but this is a great goth loli, best girlfriend, vampire, adventure, friends helping each other and learning to accept each other AND themselves manga I can recommend. We all want more! So write and draw fast Satoru Takamiya (the author), please!
We Were There 
is a story complete in two volumes. This along with the other manga listed have all won awards. This manga is about a boy who has his girlfriend die (only, of course, it is more complicated than that!), and shuts off his emotions
and about the girl who falls in love with him. He uses a smile and an air of ‘I don’t care’ to keep everything emotionally away. It is not like she wants to be, and he shuts her down a bunch of times but... she IS in love with him. 
He soon knows it, they talk about it, he teases her but they become friends but the past is always between them. Is there ever a way for him to move beyond what happened in the past and live in the present? Is that possible for any of us? And this is no simple ‘love wins out’ western story but a Japanese story which leaves the complexities of repressed emotion, falling in love and how even two people who want to care for each other can still hurt each other, and then....maybe love. Again, if lesbians are recommending romances between guys and girls – top recommmendation!
Object of Desire is part of the Luv Luv series 
and is for adults, or at least mature 17 or 18 year olds. It is about the sex that is going on NOW (with girls from 17 and up). I liked it because I heard the kind of statements I used to hear at work in Cardiff, “Oh, I am going down to club xxxxx tonight and having some sex.”
Me: “Are you looking for a boyfriend?”
Her: “That would be nice, but I just want to have some sex for now.”
Or statements like, “It wasn’t great, but the sex felt good afterward.”; or thoughts like, “Do I stay with him, or let him have sex with me just so I have someone?” – these are the statements in this book too! Like I said, this manga is about real life. There are five stories ranging from a virgin who is known as the Ice Princess who is hounded by a dope she finally accepts as her boyfriend and her first time. Then a story about a girl with large breasts who always has boys after her; wanting to be her boyfriend but really, they just want to have sex. She wonders, will anyone be honest, will they stop using these stupid pick-up lines and just say, “I want to have sex?”
Amazingly, one guy does, and it turns out that she ends up, not with just throw-away sex but a boyfriend, in this clueless wonder of a guy. The favorite story of Linda and mine is called 'Maid for Love' and it is about a girl who works at one of the Maid café’s. 
She likes her job, she likes pretending to be a maid and while she is sexualized by lonely men at work, she knows how to cut them off in a polite (and if she has to, not so polite way). She likes to fantasize that she is a maid for her boyfriend, and goes to a work party with him. It turns out to be the house of a rich woman and she volunteers to be a maid for the night saying, “I’m a professional!” But when the other wives and girlfriend find out where she works, they talk trash about her, and when some husbands find out, they come and ask her to ‘service them’ – her boyfriend arrives to take care of her. She just wanted to be a 'real maid' for once, which is what she likes being (what difference between that and the SCA?), so she could dressing up as one. Also her boyfriend watched out for her, made sure she was okay, protected her, because she was a bit of a klutz. As he says while she is sleeping, “You make a better fantasy maid than a real one!” But he accepts what she likes to do. And he helps her do it. The whole book was so interesting (five stories in all), that I put two more of the ‘luv luv’ seres that were recommended on my wish list (they said “if you like Object of Desire try….). I know, I am getting manga with five hetero stories to read? Oh no, is Beth going straight? That will soon be answered!
So go off and try those manga (the last one only if 17 or 18 and above) and see what you think.
This is a brief pause in order to insert a cat girl picture. It is like looking at the Sakura Blossoms. 
Is there a need or reason for the picture beyond its beauty? Would an Elizabeth McClung blog be complete without one?
I finish this post with a common scenerio, in fact one so common that two of the three of us were shocked, maybe a little hurt when they found out that X, a good female friend was…oh, it sounds so wrong…..STRAIGHT. There I said it. Yes, she turned out to be straight. She had the vibes, she had a lot of cues, but in the end, out comes the man. And how do you deal with that?
So a quick survival guide for what is becoming almost an epidemic: girls going straight. I know they say they can’t ‘choose’ their orientation, but…not to MEN, try harder? Nevermind, not going to debate that. We all know that there is a natural order and beauty to the world….lesbians.
I mean, it is what high school romances, and crushes are all about right, finding the right girl, hoping this lasts beyond high school, that special bond, those ‘special sleepovers.’
Now, the thing is, you have a best girl friend and a really close friend, the kind of person you can run up to and give a surprise hug when you see them on the street. 
That kind of close friend, and you are pretty sure you have all the signs down, I mean, they are lesbian! Or at least bisexual, and while you may hook up with your own girlfriend you are completely comfortable around them. You are there, giving your special greeting hug (you are the one with blue hair!)
sort of just huggig each other while you talk and gossip (you are there for each other hugging when times are bad..or good! And often like today you just hang out). Then she starts talking about some guys butt.
This is the great mystery; apparently hetero women can SEE a butt on a guy while lesbians just sort of see the back of a pair of jeans. But a butt on a girl? Oh yes, getting hot now! So she talks about a guys butt or worse, some actor’s chest (it is flat, with hair…what is to get excited about?). So you think “Okay, she’s bisexual!”
Only next time, you are talking to her, she comes out with this story about a guy who ‘totally saved her’ (turns out he caught some oranges – how is that ‘saving her?’) and how cute he is.
You are kind of in shock and miss the next part. Which is probably for the best because it turns out she, for his KINDNESS, invited him out on a picnic. Yeah, it’s a DATE. OMG!
So they go out on this picnic and he is apparently so kind and considerate and she talks about him and everything he said and what he wore, and how afterward he came home and helped her take in the laundry? 
And how he is man enough to do housework, how sweet is that? You don’t answer in case the gagging noises are audible.
And then the next time you see her she talks about how they have taken it to the NEXT LEVEL which is kissing 
and how sometimes it is just great to be hugged and embraced. You think to yourself, as she is lying in your lap; Oh I know some great embraces and they don’t involve GUYS!
But see you DON'T say that because you went and got a out a BOOK from the library and read some Heart columns and you now know that your friend is 'coming out' as straight. What do you do? Here are some tips from the book (Taken from actual help sections): “Try not to think of her being straight as good or bad but more like just being left handed.”, “you may disapprove of what she is doing but accept who she is.” Plus, “It is okay to express surprise, just not TOO much surprise.” And most important, “Do your research to understand what straight means.”
You have followed the book: “Hugs are encouraged”, as well as, “Take them out for a celebratory meal” and “as long as she’s happy.” You did that, which to you is sort of looking like a date but she is clueless and you end your date/time out on the lawn and she looks for four leaf clovers.
“You like this guy” you say, trying to be supportive.
“Oh yes”, she lies in your arms and twirls the four leaf clover she has found and continues, “I wonder if this means I’ll get lucky tonight!”
You are glad she can’t see your eyes as they bulge out: get lucky? Oh my, this is NOT like being left handed at all. You remember the book, “take the opportunity to learn about what it is like to be straight” and restrain yourself and manage to choke out a, “um…ah….what about size and that?”
She twirls the clover the opposite direction, “I guess that doesn’t matter….oh I mean it DOES, but I have the Rabbit for that, I just want to know that I am special and feel that glow and him inside…”
“Um isn’t that a tornado?” You say desperately trying to cut her sentence off.
But that is what she wants and that is what she gets, (she virtually attacks him!)
and you have to hear the blow by blow the next day about how he was great and afterward she wrapped herself around him and ahhhhhh.....(try not to claw out eyeballs)
Okay, she’s straight. You have to deal with it. You have to meet him, as the book says, “Love is love no matter who you fall for (apparently this includes men), and the whole, “If you love them, then I love them” It just can’t be avoided, maybe after a while, like two or three seconds you can tell her that the sexual blow by blow can be toned down (or eliminated) because you have to eat later. But you are all for him and if he makes her happy (you are envisioning yourself nine months in the future with her sobbing in your arms about what a bastard he is!)…
So the thing is, most females like female friends. It is sort of natural, in the same way guys get together to play games with game stations and grunt or hoot, or they go bowling, females get together and talk and share and sometimes just hang out.
But, here are some tips to help you next time, so you aren’t SO surprised, that your friend just might be straight (or a femme which would be cool since you need someone to go shopping with):
1)She wears high heel shoes and claims they are ‘comfortable’ even for eight hours.
2) She likes wearing panty hose
3) She can actually SEE something when looking at a man’s butt (all I see are jeans, what does she see?) and likes it.
4) She says,“He’s so cool!”
5) She says, “Do you think I should act less smart so he isn’t intimidated?
6) She talks about how she watched sports with a guy….and enjoyed it (but can’t name any of the rules)
7) She starts praising a guy for things like: Carrying a 20 lb BBQ (“You are so strong”), lighting candles, “I never could have done that” – apparently this isn’t a lobotomy, it is called straight dating rituals, aka, getting laid.
8) She tells you she wants to get ‘lucky’ as she hold a condom.
Just because your friend is straight doesn’t have to stop you being their friend, indeed you can become stronger friends, but that brief pang you feel as you realize, “Oh no, not a bunch of drunken men over you! You are special, you are precious, don’t you get that?” 
But apparently it is like being left handed.
They also are a good media form for depression because while they have multi-layers (sometimes), they are fairly easy to read. So when you have a chronic illness which REQUIRES constantly monitoring of yourself for oxygen, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, liquid intake, excretion, food intake, core heat, extremity heat and frostbite, and mental functions, it is hard to be allowed to express being depressed. One cannot ‘shut off everything’ because the consequences are too high, but manga allows that indulgence and escape which the mind needs for its’ good health.
So for the rest of the book, while he is going to rescue a princess (she assumes for money) she tries to kill him with her knife by dropping out of trees, throwing daggers, etc. He on the other hand always seems to know and for example blocks the daggers with a book he is reading and says, “Hey, I wasn’t finished with that!” or “I thought I told you, no killing during meal time!” In Tsubasa, Raimon is ‘supposed’ to catch Kotobuki but he prefers to watch her antics as she leaps and bounces avoiding the other military. When she decides to quit the thief life and work a job, he quits the militiary and gets a job near her. “Why?!” she demands.
Meanwhile, Raimon and Kotobuki go from place to place, some towns, some houses, to help people, create justice or just survive themselves, all the time bickering with Kotobuki both angry at the way Raimon doesn’t take her seriously enough and lonely when he isn’t teasing her. I am not sure why I am attracted to stories of nimble 5 foot 2 inch girls who do backflips and all sorts of leaping about with knives. Or why I like the romance of her hanging around a 6 foot guy who holds her up off the ground while scolding her for scaring him by almost getting killed. Maybe it is because the six foot woman are usually some sort of villian who bash things. Not to mention there is no being swept up into anyone’s arms, not when EMT’s discuss how many people have to carry you (“She a big one!”). So this is TOTAL fantasy for me and the stories were drawn before Fruit Basket in volume 1, a bargain for $10 at Amazon, light action stories with a tingle of romance. Raimon is of course a leech who never touches her but is always suggesting things or who will only save her if she kisses him (he works out this theory that if she can learn to kiss him once a day, they might finally sleep together). Good for 15 year old and up. The second book, also $10 at amazon and 400 pages is out in a week and I think is drawn after Fruit Basket. I am curious to see how the whimsical fantasy of a 20 something manga artist changes after the experience of several major series. I hope the light humor leech of Raimon and the ‘I don’t need anyone’ attitude that is being worn down by Raimon still exists in Kotobuki.
The story is both fluff and universally complex: a love triangle over time. Haru is a teacher who ends up back at the school where he did Jyudo, or Japanese Archery as a high school student. This is painful for him as he was a brilliant archer who competed nationally with a beautiful style of archery but left archery suddenly. The reason was never told, and it was because he had fallen in love with Reiichiro, his competitor at school. He felt that his love was shameful, never told anyone and that it was destroying the purity of archery. He returns only to find that the younger brother of Reiichiro, named Tsukasa, is not only leading the archery club at school but has been carrying a crush for him, Haru all this time. Tsukasa knows why Haru left archery as he could see the love in the face of Haru but declares his own love. Though the book, Haru struggles with his feelings of shame and Tsukasa with is insecurity that he will always be second place to absent older brother Reiichiro. The students meanwhile are trying to get Haru to be the club advisor and get him back into archery.
Here the loser in love in the previous book takes over as manager of the family kimono cloth business (and is horrid at it to start), but finds that the person who he annoys the most is maybe interested in him. Is there love for both brothers? A highly enjoyable series and a good introduction to the non-comedy style of romantic boy love/yaoi books.
In a different post-apocalypse world with radiation mutations teamed up in the wild lands and vampires are now the nobles of the civilized land, and keepers of the technology. Humans live simple lives and are like serfs to the vampire nobles, who occasionally require an offering. A select few who are well trained take up the job of Vampire Hunter, those who will eliminate those who are wild vampires preying on a town to the nobles themselves. We follow the adventures of Vampire Hunter D who is a Damphir,. A damphir is a long living offspring of a vampire and human, an outsider despised by both. Some vampires have lived 1 year, some 100, and some over 1,000 or 3,000 years in this long period, being the only people left to remember the ‘pre’ earth of today. In Volume 1, D agrees to help a woman freshly bitten by the noble who vows to make her his bride. She is a beautiful woman and the son of the town’s bully sheriff is determined to force her to marry him. D has to play both diplomat and warrior as he is between the townspeople who want to use the woman to appease the noble; the sheriff and son, and the vampire lord and his daughter. Towards the end of the book, we finally get a clue as to what D might stand for, or who D’s vampire father really was. An exciting action book and I am looking forward to the next two in the series.
While Idol Pleasures by Deux is another comedy romance about an idol who doesn’t smile and a stuffy man out of work who is made his manager by his sister (he finds out later to make him an eligible catch for dating and marriage). To give you the idea, the serious faced Idol has a room full of teddy bears but the manager doesn’t make him feel bad about it (while all others did), so the next day, all but one teddy bear is gone and when the manager questions why the idol says with a very serious face, “I have you” and then leans on his shoulder. This seems to be the manager’s job and meanwhile the photographers are going, “Did he almost smile? He’s never done that before, on or off camera.” You can see where this is going.
The ‘sales pitch’ has full picture accompaniment of the pro and cons including the humorous warning, “Some of our pets are not fully office trained” picture.
