Quote roundup

Sometimes you just find quotes that tickle you, but they're too short to make a whole post, so you keep collecting until you have enough.  I think I have enough.

Sean Gaffney on Natsume's Book of Friends: "Natsume has gotten much better at this protagonist thing, but he still tends to be emotionally passive, and as an action hero he's fairly miserable. So there's a sense of genuine danger to the proceedings that works very well."

Kate Dacey on Qwan: "I have a bad habit of falling in love with commercially doomed series.. . .  I think narrative complexity was a factor. Though the story is a rich tapestry of political history and myth, Shimizu refuses to spoon feed information to the reader; we’re just as confused and disoriented as Qwan himself is. That kind of reading experience can be quite rewarding, but the absence of an omniscient narrator demands more of the audience, forcing us to pore over the text and make connections on our own. Shimizu’s artwork and characterizations are up to the task, but impatient readers will easily miss crucial details in their haste to get to the fight scenes."

Kate Dacey on Your & My Secret: "Yet for all the black comedy, Morinaga still allows her characters moments of vulnerability and decency, preventing the humor from curdling into pure meanness. She wisely avoids the trap of making her characters too dumb to notice the transformations in Akira and Nanako, allowing her to sustain the body-swapping premise without straining credulity or testing the reader’s patience."

Sean Gaffney on Seiho Boys High School: "Well, that was a bummer. Don't get me wrong, a beautifully told, well-written bummer. I enjoyed every minute of it. But dang. Thank goodness the volume ends with a wacky romantic farce, even though it pales in comparison to what came before.

Kate Dacey on Gun Blaze West: "Like many shonen stories, the hero is the least interesting member of the cast; he’s not much more than a reader surrogate, a collection of attitudes and skills, rather than a fully realized character."

John on Gundam: "Once again, the disabled and headless Gundam continuing to fight represents the Japanese spirit of perseverance and loyalty to one’s goal."

Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith on 1001 Nights: "Maseru, Shahryar’s dark-skinned bodyguard who has the most adorable and sad subplot concerning a sheep that I have ever seen . . ."