SHURIKEN AND PLEATS, VOL. 02

Great book no damage

*Shuriken and Pleats* is a manga that is a mish-mash of genres with somewhat clumsy of an execution. Yet despite this, the mangaka gives us a fun and entertaining ride with likable characters and gorgeous art.Matsuri Hino, famous among manga fans for her best-selling *Vampire Knight* series returns with the adventures of a badass, but still vulnerable for her fish out of water tendencies and harsh past, heroine. Mikage Kirio is a ninja bodyguard. Throughout the years in-universe, since the continuing modernization and other laws made them obsolete beginning with the Meiji era, the ninjas and samurai have gone underground, and found work in other ways. For Mikage's clan, it is as bodyguards.To this end, like presumably many before her, she is used as a tool by her father and employer, who does seem to love her in a way, but is abusive towards her. But her employer, Mr. Rod, through a combination of factors, comes to care for her well-being. It seems clear this was in a familial, NOT a romantic, way, due to her bringing back memories of his dead wife and daughter. When Mr. Rod is murdered, she feels she has failed him and, while dealing with her grief and guilt, is shocked to learn that her former master used part of his immense wealth to secure her freedom for life from the clan. So Mikage makes the decision to go to Japan to start a peaceful, ordinary life, just as her beloved master, Mr. Rod, said so many times he wanted her to do.Once there, well, the "call knows where you live" as tv tropes puts it. She is embroiled in a fight to save a man from a rival ninja clan, and the situation is more complicated and connected to her than she initially realized...This was a cool and fun book. Not just for the intricate and gorgeous artwork, which Hino is so superb at, but also because the heroine is so relatable. Not for her mad ninja skills - I *wish* I could fight that well - but for her vulnerability, her uncertainty over what course is the right one to take between two different duties, and her overall teenage (though greatly repressed by years of training/abuse) angstiness. Thankfully this series was quite light-hearted, and the angst was downplayed in general. The action scenes were also quite cool.The bad part is that some of the story is clumsy in execution, and that the story couldn't decide which genre it wanted to be. Is it action, comedy, romance, romantic adventure, action comedy, what? Yet somehow none of this matters, as the overall story was compelling, and just plain *fun*, enough, along with the gorgeous artwork, to keep one's interest.Of course, it would seem that, via the author's own notes in the occasional sidebars, that she was aware of, and didn't concern herself too much with, the issues I've pointed out. Indeed, Hino seems to just have wanted to have fun and tell a not-so-serious story. For that reason, it is clear she knew of the problems of the story in a technical sense, but didn't care. That it's fun to write and hopefully read this off the cuff story in and of itself, was, I believe, her attitude. For that, I can be more merciful with my review and rating, since I did enjoy the story immensely. Some might question this approach and accuse her of laziness. I don't think so. I take her at her word that it was just her having fun writing. And since I got a good story out of it, and the negatives weren't too high, why should I not just enjoy it? Indeed, one might argue that the "fun" of the story might have been lost is she had gone for technical merits and not just off the cuff writing. It would have lost it's wild mish-mash, which was part of the fun, for instance.The characters are very engaging and the story seems to be all over the place, as I said, but the narrative is tied up well at the end, which is probably all that can be expected from a two-volume manga trying to tell a complete tale.I definitely recommend this fun manga. It might be annoying a bit at first with the inability to pinpoint the genre and so forth, and the sudden twists in such a short time. Nevertheless, the charms of the story, such as that very same slide through genres, it being a fun tale, the relatable characters, a fun adventure, and the breath-taking art, more than make up for this.Rating:Vol. 1: 5/5 Stars.Vol. 2: 4/5 Stars.Rating for Series: 4/5 Stars.

If you are into this type of manga I'm sure it's great but if not, what a let down could have been so much more. Should have figured it out in the last manga, my fault for not seeing it.