Bookshelf #36

This week's bookshelf is a small one, and thus a relatively simple one. Here we move to a new wall, and start a new shelving unit, this one being one I found in my mom's house and turned into a place to hold books; I'm pretty sure it was another old entertainment center (The top two shelves have glass doors that close over them, and there's a huge, spacious shelf below, which I assume was meant to hold a television set, but now hold some art books). 

This top shelf belongs almost exclusively to the work of manga-ka Ken Akamatsu. Let's start in the middle, with the series which introduced me to his work: Love Hina. I believe this is what is known as a "harem comedy."

Aspiring college student Keitaro is trying to get into Tokyo University, mostly in order to fulfil a childhood promise made to a little girl on a playground...whose name he has forgotten. Nevertheless, he endeavors to make it into the prestigious school, in the hopes of meeting her there.

With his parents no longer willing to support him, he plans to move into an apartment building owned by his grandmother, but there's a couple of catches. First, it has since become a female-only building. Second, he is the new manager.

Among the young women who live there—at the outset, five of them, in a variety of shapes, sizes, ages, styles and personalities—is Naru, who is also trying to get into Tokyo University, and eventually agrees to help our hero. Could she be the little girl Keitaro had once made his promise to? And, regardless, could she be the love of his life, the woman he is meant to be with?

The answer will seem clearer to readers than to the characters, of course, despite plenty of complications. Much of the humor, as I recall, revolved around various misunderstandings, with Keitaro often accused of being a pervert and one of the women or another reacting with over-the-top slapstick violence, like Naru punching Keitaro so hard that he flies up into orbit and becomes a star. Despite this, he and all of the young women eventually become good friends, even something of a family, and most of them, at one point or another, seem to develop feelings for him. 

I liked it well enough that I read the whole series and sought out Akamatu's other work. (There was also a Love Hina anime. I never watched it. Just the opening on YouTube; the theme song is pretty upbeat and catchy though and gives you an idea of the various characters, as well as the physical punishment Keitaro takes.)

Prior to Love Hina, and thus shelved to the left of it here, Akamatsu had created a manga called A.I. ga Tomaranai!, which Tokypop imported as A.I. Love You, which was a pretty solid title in 2003 ("A.I.", obviously, stands for artificial intelligence, while "ai" also means love in Japanese). In 2026, not so much, as the term "A.I." no longer evokes a far-off, fantastical future, but is no associated with making Internet searches less reliable, making phone calls to customer service more unbearable than ever and the production of shitty art.

According to the Internet, A.I. Love You was collected into nine volumes, and Tokyopop published eight...although, as you can see, I only got the first four. It was about a high school programmer whose computer program comes to life in a freak lightning streak. The program is, obviously, a beautiful young woman, and high jinks ensue. I barely remember it and obviously didn't like it as much as Love Hina, as I dropped it midway through. 

After Love Hina, and thus to the right of it here, Akamatsu created Negima! Magister Negi Magi, which featured more girls than Love Hina by a factor of ten or twenty, and many of them more colorful than those in that series (I remember a vampire and a robot, for example). This beautifully drawn series had a rather weird-ass premise, basically What if Harry Potter was a teacher at a Japanese all-girls school? 

Here are the first eight volumes of the series, which I had kept up with for a while. I later found a bunch of future volumes for sale at a Half Price Books and bought those, assuming I would catch up with the series at one point, but those are currently in the piles we looked at in a previous installment of this series. 

Akamatsu seems like a pretty interesting guy. After his obviously quite successful career in manga, he became a successful politician. His Wikipedia page is a pretty good read. 

I honestly don't remember when, where or why I acquired those volumes of Jin Kobayashi's School Rumble. Given that I have volumes 6, 12 and 13, plus a three-volume collection numbered 14-16, I am guessing that I had read the series via the library, and that these are ones I acquired at a sale somewhere...? At least, a cursory look around my "library" didn't reveal any more volumes of it anywhere. I guess we'll see as I continue to explore my bookshelves.

Anyway, this one is a fun, somewhat silly high school romance involving a love triangle of sorts. Recovering juvenile delinquent Kenji Harima (who has a goatee, longer hair and always wears sunglasses) has a crush on Tenma Tsukamoto, his cute, petite classmate, but Tenma has a crush on Oji Karasuma, a weird, listless boy who has a crush on...well, he doesn't seem to have a crush on anyone, but he does love curry, which seems to be his main personality trait. 

I can't remember how far I made it into this series now, but as I don't remember the resolution, I am assuming it wasn't very far. I suppose I should try rereading it while I wait for new installments of the ongoing manga I'm currently reading——Zom 100, Skip and Loafer, Now That We Draw—to come out...

Finally, see that small object atop of this entertainment center-turned-bookshelf....? What do you think that is...? Certainly, it can't be anything comics related, can it...? 

Sure it is!

It's a tiny little bottle labeled "Super Spy Mint Flavored Cyanide Capsules", with a drawing by Matt Kindt. This must have come with a review copy of Kindt's 2007 Super Spy from Top Shelf. Jiggling it, it seemed to still be full, and lightly trying the cap, I don't think I opened it when I received it, um, 19 years ago now.

I assume that it actually contains real mints, rather than mint-flavored cyanide capsules, but I wasn't so sure that I ever tried one...