What I Read in June: Digest Version, 3 of 3

b Rebirth 6: Flashback city!  Oh, yeah.  This series was pretty awesome before it mostly descended into tournament fighting mode.  Bring on the vampire misunderstanding and melodrama!

b Saturn Apartments 3: Still mostly a quiet series with flashes of commentary on class conflict and the nature of work.  If slow and steady slice of life is your thing, you might really adore this series with its sketchy, nos-standard art and quirky science fiction future subject matter.  There's some political turmoil and tension thrown in to this one, too!

b Shaman King 32: I put off reading this because I knew this was the crappy Shonen Jump ending, not the expanded, better ending that got told later, but, aside from it, you know, not really concluding, there was a very peaceful sense that if it ended here, all was peaceful and would somehow end well.  Very Buddhist.  :)

b Skip Beat! 24: Ah, Skip Beat, how I love thee.  Kyoko's unpredictability, misunderstandings, and amazing vengefulness make this a gleeful ride every time. It makes me happy to read for reasons that are hard to describe.  Maybe it's the innocent joy that is as much a part of Kyoko as her pure hatred.  Maybe it's the way she's still working hard and learning despite all her disadvantages and the crappy people around her.  And tha Beagle chocolate?  Priceless.

b Suppli 3, 4&5:  Wow.  I read these even after I found out I would never know how it ended.  There's something compelling about watching someone you would never be friends with stumble half-asleep through life with her focus on wrong things.  It's an eye-opener.

b Twleve Kingdoms: Skies of Dawn: Yarg!  Whoa.  Exciting.  I liked them enough to put them on my book, writing, and story blog.

b Twleve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas: Well, finally.  Yoko grows a spine!  As much as I am super sad that this will likely be the last book we get, this was actually an okay place to end.

b Twin Spica 7: Cutthroat competition and sad, gentle melancholy.  And always, eyes on the future, eyes toward space.  I love this series.

b Yakitate!!  Japan 26: Most hilariously inappropriate use of a turtle bread ever.  Also, I will never again see fighting devil bread with Chopin's head.  "No matter how strong you have become, I am bread.  You cannot defeat me with physical attacks like kicks and punches."  "There's no way you could match up against a bread made with pure dreams and hopes."  Also, bread that stops global warming.  A properly outrageous ending to a ridiculous (and ridiculously entertaining series).