Tena on s-string review: volume 3
Alright, a long time coming but here we go, volume 3. Here the
plot comes fully into play, we get some actual villains rather than just
rivals, Sopra and Mezzo get a bit more focus ready for their spotlight arc next
volume, some major foreshadowing comes into things. But most importantly
Servant A, B and C get their names revealed! Still waiting on Awesome McBadass
though. So without further delay grab your batons and let's take a look at Tena
on s-string volume 3.
So we open the book to a colour pic of Tena in the bath - OK, so one page in and we already have more fan service than the first two volumes put together. Something I haven't mentioned so far is that each volume has a colour shot before the contents that has nothing to do with the story, kinda like a second cover. But why Tena? Did Mikabe just really want to push the whole lolicon thing? Cause I'm really not interested in Tena, as Kyousuke told Stalker Von Lolicon last time she doesn't have much "dream power."
Anyway the story itself starts with Tena and Kyousuke getting to a spot where he heard viral notes to find nothing there. This has apparently been happening often recently so they conclude that another tuner is in the area since, I guess, Sopra and Mezzo aren't collecting anymore, well it makes sense since Kyousuke's data keeps them fairly busy. So it's fairly obvious that the new tuner is Arun but Tena doesn't know she's here and Kyousuke is unaware of her being a tuner.
At this point the arcs are a bit harder to separate but the first two movements are fairly self contained and so the next arc deals with servant A, B and C (no names, not even in their own spotlight arc? These girls really are getting the short end of the stick here aren't they?) and the fact that they are music therapy students and volunteer at the hospital. Apparently it's a choice between having a name and having back story and motivation for side characters in this manga. The premise of this story is that the hospital where the trio volunteer is letting them put on a show and they want Kyousuke to do the arrangement and play with them.
Awesome McBadass takes this moment to catch Tena before she goes inside after them to let her know she is going to be very busy for a while and will probably have to close Adagio for a while. Now at this point I'm still not sure what side McBadass is on, it looks like she's against Forteo but that could change now he's backed her into a corner or she might be helping Kyousuke from behind the scenes. Hell, she could even be working for a third, as yet, undisclosed faction. McBadass also mentions a woman who wants the best for Kyousuke who I'm guessing is either his mother or more likely his music mentor. Anyway as a result of this convo Tena offers to help Kyousuke on his arrangement and he reacts pretty much the same as with the book fiasco.
OK so Kyousuke heads to the kitchen to get some tea for the two of them when - holy crystal dragon Jesus Mezzo wearing nothing but a towel! Now that's what I call 'dream power' - and sexy posing too? Did I accidentally pick up a copy of Negima or something? Let me see, no, this is right, well that awesome scene does actually have some plot relevance in that Mezzo just took a shower and so her hair is still down but when Kyousuke comments on this saying it makes her look like a princess she reacts with shock but quickly covers it up. Gee I wonder if she is/used to be a princess/high ranking member of society.
So Kyousuke and Tena finish arranging the piece and Tena says that as thanks breakfast has to be 5 times more elaborate than usual tomorrow before going to bed. Kyousuke goes out to get some air before bed, absentmindedly touches a soul score and it bends almost as if he was tuning it. The only explanation we get is a cut away to Sopra and Mezzo (still sans clothes ^.^) at the computer and it turns out Kyousuke's score has been altered in the past for unknown reasons, this plot element is one I'm really looking forward to even if I saw it coming from the moment I read the blurb of volume 1 in the store. In fact, I know I mocked the obvious foreshadowing only a paragraph ago but I can't wait to see how far they go with Mezzo's past as well. How much power will Kyousuke get? Will he get better than any other characters? Will this prompt them to take a level in badass? Will he get the normal power set or something different? Why is Mezzo not embracing her heritage? Will this be plot important or just character development? Who else knows about this?
But wait there's more, cut to the tuner HQ and we meet the leader/vice leader team of the first orchestra (Kinda like the squads in Bleach as far as I can tell.) Chord and Claves who, in my head anyway, speaks with the same voice as Tara Platt used for the Eternal Sonata character with the same name. So hope any anime made in the future gets her for the role. Moving on, Chord is a slacker but considering he is the leader of the first orchestra he must be hiding something. Claves however is strict and organized, oddly this is what Arun looked to be becoming in her first movement or two, before the comedy OCD aspects of her character were added in. Back when she looked to be a really flat and boring character, Claves my dear the chance of me liking you does not look good. Forteo is also there and it is revealed the he is the head of the third orchestra. We also meet Gloria the Governor-general (a dude despite his girly name), Venna the head of the second orchestra and Bell Lyre head of the fifth orchestra that seems to by the spy network. No real characteristics on these three other than being evil. Oh and Bell has some real ‘dream power’ with the added advantage of being of a legal age. It soon becomes quite clear that this group, while the might not be villains, are the antagonists of the series as they are using the tuners for something and the competition is just smoke and mirrors to keep them from noticing.
One movement change later and Arun is also unable to find notes she was hearing a second ago, huh, well I guess it wasn't her that was catching them before, oh well can’t be right every time. So Arun calls Kyousuke up so he can show her around a bit and it turns out she has spent the night studying how to speak Japanese and other than the confused word order, since Japanese is grammatically backwards compared to English, she has picked it up surprisingly well. Unfortunately this made me think at first that the translator had got bored half way through the job since Japanese, French and English are all rendered in English and sure English has those triangle bracket things but no differentiation is made between the French the pair had used up till now and the Japanese they start using from here on out. Moving on Kyousuke and Arun talk about the arrangement he put together and the conversation gets to Tena's assistance and they never talk about her name because we need to milk the dramatic irony for all it's worth.
And so cut to Kyousuke, Tena and the girls at the hospital and we get introduced to the reason the girls volunteer at the hospital. Their childhood friend Nozomi Hoshiko who has been hospitalized since the start of middle school and her only joy these days comes from her friends’ visits and listening to music. Tena, who will be conducting, runs through the others roles but Kyousuke isn't listening and is instead thinking about the time he spent hospitalized at the start of the story and how depressing it was. OK so we do hear the girls’ names as they are introduced but since it gives no indication which is which I won’t start using them just yet. The group starts playing and the doctors along with Nozomi comment on how perfect it is, Tena is also giving an internal monologue to this effect. Kyousuke however is thinking back to some advice his teacher gave him, music shouldn't be perfect it should be alive. He then starts playing randomly and the girls soon follow his lead, Tena gets annoyed and then confused when the crowd seems to like this more and the doctors pass out instrument so they can play along.
Now here Dr Nagaoka, the hospital director who it seems pertinent to note has a distinct character design, says something really interesting. Now I could just be reading too much into this but given the amount of foreshadowing going on so far I think this could be important. She says “The notes are gathering, someone needs to direct them.” Now this could just be overly flowery language from a musically inclined character but to me this sounds like something a tuner or at least someone who can see soul scores would say. As I said a lot of work seems to have gone into the design for a one-shot minor extra but we will have to wait and see.
Nozomi then says good bye to the others telling Kyousuke that she always enjoyed hearing about the lessons the other three have with him and has wanted to learn from him as well. He promises that when she gets out of hospital he will be there to teach her. This is a really sweet scene and shows that Mikabe knows how to handle one shot characters. Also as a big reader of manga I have a prediction or two on how this well come back later; either the ending sequence will be showing her first lesson or when Kyousuke is about to die in battle he will think about all the people counting on him and Nozomi will be included on the list. I’m most likely wrong on both counts but whatever.
OK so Kyousuke, Tena and the three girls have a victory party in the park but thanks to Tena being Tena she knocks over Kyousuke’s tea and it goes all over him so he rushes over to the water fountain to clean off. We now get a flashback to Kyousuke’s days as part of the music industry and find out he got dissatisfied with how it is all about making money and not about making people happy. Usually someone writing this message into their story doesn’t get the fact that in this day and age you need a job to survive so that fact he became a teacher works really well since he can pass on what his teacher taught him plus what he has learned and watch the world of music evolve right before his eyes. Then back in the present Kyousuke being Kyousuke drops the ring while he was washing under it and it goes right down the drain.
After noticing his score, no longer hidden, Attacca and Vis from the fifth orchestra head to his location and get ready to capture him. When he runs they alter the trees to reach out and grab him, although Vis say roots when it is clearly the branches and in fact Attacca says branches not two pages later. Clearly Vis is a little slow and it does explain how she isn’t the leader in their partnership. Anyway the root/branches reach for him and he reflexively throws his hands up and tunes the trees back to normal. This shocks everyone assembled including Tena who arrived having heard the commotion of the fight and the movement ends with the words “he has the powers of a life tuner.”
As I said the last half of the previous movement was actually the start of the second arc in this volume. So we join our heroes were we left them; shocked and confused at Kyousuke’s tuning. We also see a shot of Arun reacting to his score being revealed. Now something I want to mention here is how I hate colour pages, don’t get me wrong I love a well done page if it’s actually in colour but the volumes reduce it to greyscale for cheep publishing so it looks murky and at times it gets hard to see what’s going on. This isn’t really important since I’ve only ever seen the colour reproduced in my Chobits omnibus edition and credit to Mikabe I can still tell what is happening.
Back to the story at hand; tense greetings are exchanged by Tena, Attacca and Vis before Tena gives the story that she found him and is going to turn him in. Attacca says that they will take him for there and that since he is rare Tena might get a special reward and praise for the big wigs, she then tries the branch capture again. Here we get one of my favourite moments from this volume and possible the series so far. Over three pages we see Tena’s internal struggle with her past and what she wants even if she doesn’t really know what that is herself. Tena unconsciously stops the branch and thinks “I want to change. I’m going to change but the time I spent with Kyousuke I don’t want that to change.” Now over the next few movements and the next volume Tena starts to grate on my nerves for the most part but it’s during these scenes where we see her struggling with herself that I am reminded that she can be a good character and not just a brat that likes to torture Kyousuke for fun.
Attacca tells her that if she resists any more then her tuner career will be over. To stop her having to decide between two things she wants equally Arun shows up to save the day. As an elite Arun has enough sway to at the very least make it so she can transport Kyousuke to HQ. Attacca and Vis try to resist until they realise that Arun’s older brother Forteo has a notorious sister complex and if they denied her then he would do something bad to them. It’s never stated what he would do but going by their reactions it would be somewhere between death and rape; so watching the movie that will not be named then? Attacca and Vis leave by the classic manga method of jumping from rooftop to rooftop and the three servants are seen at the edge of the clearing. Annoyingly we never get really get a scene of our heroes explaining it to them or even any confirmation of how much they saw.
Instead we have a cut so hard I get mental whiplash. Arun is brought to Kyousuke’s house and we see the most over the top scene of Mezzo and Sopra panicking at her arrival. Their hair is all sticking out like they are being pumped with static electricity, their eyes are little more than circular scribbles and their mouths are wide open boxes. Mezzo runs to hide behind Kyousuke and starts talking in a “tough guy voice” according to the caption. Arun being the master detective she is sees right through it and is about to call her by name before she gets past what we already know. This says several things: A) an elite like Arun knows Mezzo by name but since the line is delivered as a question she either knows her in passing or hasn’t seen her for a long time. B) the idea that Mezzo is some kind of elite is looking more and more plausible. C) something happened that means Mezzo ditched her title/rank for some reason and she doesn’t want people to find out. Once again I have to say I am loving Mezzo’s story and can’t wait for the next volume where we find out her backstory.
So the group sits down and pools the information about what Kyousuke’s situation is and what Mezzo and Sopra found out from analyzing his score. They reach the conclusion that he has a power that was suppressed for whatever reason and he has no idea what or who that could have been. They then get onto the subject of transporting Kyousuke to Arun’s family villa in France so as to buy time and gather info while still making it look like she is taking him to the HQ in the French mountains. Tena doesn’t trust her since she is an elite but Arun says she wants to hear more of his melody and then the subject is abruptly drop for them starting their travel arrangements.
So with one evening left Kyousuke goes to Adagio and asks the trio to meet him there so he can say good bye to everyone but he finds it closed like Awesome McBadass told Tena it would be. The girls show up and after telling them that nothing is wrong but he needs to take a break from teaching he promises he will be back and gives them homework for the meantime. So here we go; it’s naming time! We have strong, assertive and blond haired Umikage who needs to work on her pianissimo, shy and retiring Tsukishima who needs to speed her pedal work up and the ever stoic Sorachi who needs to put more feeling into her performances. But wait a moment, they are staying in Japan and Kyousuke is taking the plot with him to Paris so why are they getting named now of all places? Oh right Tsukishima starts seeing notes surrounding Kyousuke as he walks away. Blatant Chekhov's Gunman set up if I ever did see one.
So Mezzo, Sopra and Arun are packing up and Mezzo asks Arun to keep what she knows a secret from Tena and Kyousuke. Arun agrees and warns Mezzo that eventually she will have to face the commanding officer of the fifth orchestra who, in a spot of dramatic irony, happens to be listening to the conversation on a pair of headphones back at HQ. The final scene then shows the bad guys talking about the plan, whatever it is, and how most continents are finished and a silhouette in a field says that all the preparations are done and all that is left is to wait for the curtain to rise on the grand performance. I love the mysteriousness of this scene and on rereading the silhouette is rather familiar but I’ll get to that later. On the plus side we in England don’t have to worry about the tuner organisation since they don’t even know we exist! Seriously their world map doesn’t have the British isles on it and don’t say it’s a scale issue since there are land masses on it that are smaller than the UK would be.
Movement 15 opens in Paris with the characters on a 6 hour layover on the way to Arun’s villa. the exposition shot of the city is like most of the background art for the series; if you examine it close up it’s really simplistic blobs but looked at as a whole it tells you everything you need to know and looks really good. Kinda like if you got right up to the Mona Lisa it would just be smudges that don’t look like much of anything let alone a woman. I, personally, like this style a lot, don’t get me wrong super detailed like One Piece or Negima is good too but this way it doesn’t get distracting from the action and characters. I suppose Mikabe could have done this one more so since the background is the main focus of the shot but then it would look out of place.
So Kyousuke gets his pocket picked as a way of showing that Paris isn’t the nice friendly place Tokyo is. Now never having been to either city I can’t judge on the realism of this scene but it does look like a bit of favouritism considering the author’s Japanese and not French. Again I could be wrong but this is what it seems like to an outside observer. Also . Our heroes go sightseeing and after a few shots of famous landmarks culminating on the Eiffel tower. At the top Kyousuke catches Tena staring at him and she clumsily says she was worried he might be depressed at having to come to a strange city but he looks at it as an advantage since he got the chance to see such a beautiful place. Now considering it’s obvious that Tena and Kyousuke will end up together I want to mention that, as I said before, I don’t mind a relationship with the age gap or anything like that as long as it is written well and isn’t just an excuse to appeal to Lolicons. Same goes for lesbians and so on; as long as it’s a relationship and not a cheap plea for popularity. We will have to wait and see where this one goes in later volumes.
Next we cut to the villa in Nice (you probably know this but if not then it’s pronounced like niece since it’s a French place name.) Kyousuke’s comment is “Geeeeez! It’s freakin’ huge!!” and he is certainly right about that. Tena is totally jealous right up until she hears that each of the many, many rooms has its own bath at which point she loves it. Arun tries to hire a 5-star chef to cook for them but Kyousuke stops her and says he will cook she then tries to order top class ingredients but Kyousuke says he will do all the shopping at the farmer’s market. I like this scene since it shows the leads reactions to money; Tena is overawed by it, Kyousuke refuses to be swayed by it and Arun doesn’t know how to live without it. We don’t see Mezzo or Sopra’s reactions but they do seem fairly laid back by the whole affair in their little one panel appearance in the scene.
So at the farmer’s market Arun is panicking about the cheep food not being top quality and worrying if the money will cover what it costs to gather the food and what not. Kyousuke won’t accept this and makes a feast for her and the others purely from the stuff he bought at the market. Arun was tentative but she does try a bite and we see a shot of her eyes sparkling and the light of heaven shining down on her while a pair of chibi angel Mezzos fly around her and play trumpets. Kyousuke spending all this time with Arun gets Tena all steamed and they have a fight where Arun points out that since Tena owns the note but not Kyousuke then it’s not up to her who he spends time with. This confuses Tena since she has yet to come to terms with exactly how she feels towards him. Oh and one of her arguments is, probably, unintentionally funny as she says “He is MY pet and I won’t have him used for this and that.” For those not in the know this and that is a Japanese euphemism for sex.
So the plan is to bum around the villa for a week and if they can’t contact Tena’s teacher by then they will try to reach her by foot. Mezzo suggests that they teach Kyousuke how to use his new found tuner powers so he can at least defend himself. Hands up who thinks this is going to go flawlessly; oh no one? Well you would be right there; Arun tunes a flower to be a different colour and Kyousuke tries to turn it back but only succeeds in creating a monster plant that heads towards town. Is epic fail to strong a phrase? So the others tune it back to normal just in time to save the person it was attacking and we see a familiar face; Duon from the end of volume 1. We end on a shot of Tena’s teacher, Kokyuu, being delivered the letter from the main cast and she gives the post girl a death glare when she hears about who it is from. The scene also gives us a glimpse of Mister Canta who was caught up in his research. They both get more focus next volume so we’ll cover them later.
This volume is really good in that it jumpstarts the main plot and while I don’t mind slow openings I do always prefer the later chapters when things are getting going at last. The love triangle between Tena/Kyousuke/Arun is really starting to be solidified and the interactions are always fun to watch. Mezzo and Sopra make big impressions despite their very backseat roles. On the subject of Mezzo I’m starting to think she is the author’s favourite character; she has the most detailed and interesting back story of everyone as of volume 4 and most of that volume does centre on her, she is the most mature and capable of noticing Tena and Kyousuke’s feelings towards each other and also I believe I mentioned the pair of chibi angel Mezzos. Not much happens towards the themes but Tena is fast approaching the moment she realises her own feelings combine that with Arun’s new experiences with Kyousuke and you get the idea that the one you love will help you be a better person and fill in all the pieces you alone are missing. The back also contains some 4-koma, background sketches, translation notes and a small diary about Mikabe’s research trip to France.
I’m thinking of doing ‘my girlfriends a geek’ vol 1 for the next volume by volume review and then come back to Tena 4 in a week or so. Then it should still be done by the time vol 5 comes out in December. Whatever I do decide I should have something out soon so look forward to it.
So we open the book to a colour pic of Tena in the bath - OK, so one page in and we already have more fan service than the first two volumes put together. Something I haven't mentioned so far is that each volume has a colour shot before the contents that has nothing to do with the story, kinda like a second cover. But why Tena? Did Mikabe just really want to push the whole lolicon thing? Cause I'm really not interested in Tena, as Kyousuke told Stalker Von Lolicon last time she doesn't have much "dream power."
Anyway the story itself starts with Tena and Kyousuke getting to a spot where he heard viral notes to find nothing there. This has apparently been happening often recently so they conclude that another tuner is in the area since, I guess, Sopra and Mezzo aren't collecting anymore, well it makes sense since Kyousuke's data keeps them fairly busy. So it's fairly obvious that the new tuner is Arun but Tena doesn't know she's here and Kyousuke is unaware of her being a tuner.
At this point the arcs are a bit harder to separate but the first two movements are fairly self contained and so the next arc deals with servant A, B and C (no names, not even in their own spotlight arc? These girls really are getting the short end of the stick here aren't they?) and the fact that they are music therapy students and volunteer at the hospital. Apparently it's a choice between having a name and having back story and motivation for side characters in this manga. The premise of this story is that the hospital where the trio volunteer is letting them put on a show and they want Kyousuke to do the arrangement and play with them.
Awesome McBadass takes this moment to catch Tena before she goes inside after them to let her know she is going to be very busy for a while and will probably have to close Adagio for a while. Now at this point I'm still not sure what side McBadass is on, it looks like she's against Forteo but that could change now he's backed her into a corner or she might be helping Kyousuke from behind the scenes. Hell, she could even be working for a third, as yet, undisclosed faction. McBadass also mentions a woman who wants the best for Kyousuke who I'm guessing is either his mother or more likely his music mentor. Anyway as a result of this convo Tena offers to help Kyousuke on his arrangement and he reacts pretty much the same as with the book fiasco.
OK so Kyousuke heads to the kitchen to get some tea for the two of them when - holy crystal dragon Jesus Mezzo wearing nothing but a towel! Now that's what I call 'dream power' - and sexy posing too? Did I accidentally pick up a copy of Negima or something? Let me see, no, this is right, well that awesome scene does actually have some plot relevance in that Mezzo just took a shower and so her hair is still down but when Kyousuke comments on this saying it makes her look like a princess she reacts with shock but quickly covers it up. Gee I wonder if she is/used to be a princess/high ranking member of society.
So Kyousuke and Tena finish arranging the piece and Tena says that as thanks breakfast has to be 5 times more elaborate than usual tomorrow before going to bed. Kyousuke goes out to get some air before bed, absentmindedly touches a soul score and it bends almost as if he was tuning it. The only explanation we get is a cut away to Sopra and Mezzo (still sans clothes ^.^) at the computer and it turns out Kyousuke's score has been altered in the past for unknown reasons, this plot element is one I'm really looking forward to even if I saw it coming from the moment I read the blurb of volume 1 in the store. In fact, I know I mocked the obvious foreshadowing only a paragraph ago but I can't wait to see how far they go with Mezzo's past as well. How much power will Kyousuke get? Will he get better than any other characters? Will this prompt them to take a level in badass? Will he get the normal power set or something different? Why is Mezzo not embracing her heritage? Will this be plot important or just character development? Who else knows about this?
But wait there's more, cut to the tuner HQ and we meet the leader/vice leader team of the first orchestra (Kinda like the squads in Bleach as far as I can tell.) Chord and Claves who, in my head anyway, speaks with the same voice as Tara Platt used for the Eternal Sonata character with the same name. So hope any anime made in the future gets her for the role. Moving on, Chord is a slacker but considering he is the leader of the first orchestra he must be hiding something. Claves however is strict and organized, oddly this is what Arun looked to be becoming in her first movement or two, before the comedy OCD aspects of her character were added in. Back when she looked to be a really flat and boring character, Claves my dear the chance of me liking you does not look good. Forteo is also there and it is revealed the he is the head of the third orchestra. We also meet Gloria the Governor-general (a dude despite his girly name), Venna the head of the second orchestra and Bell Lyre head of the fifth orchestra that seems to by the spy network. No real characteristics on these three other than being evil. Oh and Bell has some real ‘dream power’ with the added advantage of being of a legal age. It soon becomes quite clear that this group, while the might not be villains, are the antagonists of the series as they are using the tuners for something and the competition is just smoke and mirrors to keep them from noticing.
One movement change later and Arun is also unable to find notes she was hearing a second ago, huh, well I guess it wasn't her that was catching them before, oh well can’t be right every time. So Arun calls Kyousuke up so he can show her around a bit and it turns out she has spent the night studying how to speak Japanese and other than the confused word order, since Japanese is grammatically backwards compared to English, she has picked it up surprisingly well. Unfortunately this made me think at first that the translator had got bored half way through the job since Japanese, French and English are all rendered in English and sure English has those triangle bracket things but no differentiation is made between the French the pair had used up till now and the Japanese they start using from here on out. Moving on Kyousuke and Arun talk about the arrangement he put together and the conversation gets to Tena's assistance and they never talk about her name because we need to milk the dramatic irony for all it's worth.
And so cut to Kyousuke, Tena and the girls at the hospital and we get introduced to the reason the girls volunteer at the hospital. Their childhood friend Nozomi Hoshiko who has been hospitalized since the start of middle school and her only joy these days comes from her friends’ visits and listening to music. Tena, who will be conducting, runs through the others roles but Kyousuke isn't listening and is instead thinking about the time he spent hospitalized at the start of the story and how depressing it was. OK so we do hear the girls’ names as they are introduced but since it gives no indication which is which I won’t start using them just yet. The group starts playing and the doctors along with Nozomi comment on how perfect it is, Tena is also giving an internal monologue to this effect. Kyousuke however is thinking back to some advice his teacher gave him, music shouldn't be perfect it should be alive. He then starts playing randomly and the girls soon follow his lead, Tena gets annoyed and then confused when the crowd seems to like this more and the doctors pass out instrument so they can play along.
Now here Dr Nagaoka, the hospital director who it seems pertinent to note has a distinct character design, says something really interesting. Now I could just be reading too much into this but given the amount of foreshadowing going on so far I think this could be important. She says “The notes are gathering, someone needs to direct them.” Now this could just be overly flowery language from a musically inclined character but to me this sounds like something a tuner or at least someone who can see soul scores would say. As I said a lot of work seems to have gone into the design for a one-shot minor extra but we will have to wait and see.
Nozomi then says good bye to the others telling Kyousuke that she always enjoyed hearing about the lessons the other three have with him and has wanted to learn from him as well. He promises that when she gets out of hospital he will be there to teach her. This is a really sweet scene and shows that Mikabe knows how to handle one shot characters. Also as a big reader of manga I have a prediction or two on how this well come back later; either the ending sequence will be showing her first lesson or when Kyousuke is about to die in battle he will think about all the people counting on him and Nozomi will be included on the list. I’m most likely wrong on both counts but whatever.
OK so Kyousuke, Tena and the three girls have a victory party in the park but thanks to Tena being Tena she knocks over Kyousuke’s tea and it goes all over him so he rushes over to the water fountain to clean off. We now get a flashback to Kyousuke’s days as part of the music industry and find out he got dissatisfied with how it is all about making money and not about making people happy. Usually someone writing this message into their story doesn’t get the fact that in this day and age you need a job to survive so that fact he became a teacher works really well since he can pass on what his teacher taught him plus what he has learned and watch the world of music evolve right before his eyes. Then back in the present Kyousuke being Kyousuke drops the ring while he was washing under it and it goes right down the drain.
After noticing his score, no longer hidden, Attacca and Vis from the fifth orchestra head to his location and get ready to capture him. When he runs they alter the trees to reach out and grab him, although Vis say roots when it is clearly the branches and in fact Attacca says branches not two pages later. Clearly Vis is a little slow and it does explain how she isn’t the leader in their partnership. Anyway the root/branches reach for him and he reflexively throws his hands up and tunes the trees back to normal. This shocks everyone assembled including Tena who arrived having heard the commotion of the fight and the movement ends with the words “he has the powers of a life tuner.”
As I said the last half of the previous movement was actually the start of the second arc in this volume. So we join our heroes were we left them; shocked and confused at Kyousuke’s tuning. We also see a shot of Arun reacting to his score being revealed. Now something I want to mention here is how I hate colour pages, don’t get me wrong I love a well done page if it’s actually in colour but the volumes reduce it to greyscale for cheep publishing so it looks murky and at times it gets hard to see what’s going on. This isn’t really important since I’ve only ever seen the colour reproduced in my Chobits omnibus edition and credit to Mikabe I can still tell what is happening.
Back to the story at hand; tense greetings are exchanged by Tena, Attacca and Vis before Tena gives the story that she found him and is going to turn him in. Attacca says that they will take him for there and that since he is rare Tena might get a special reward and praise for the big wigs, she then tries the branch capture again. Here we get one of my favourite moments from this volume and possible the series so far. Over three pages we see Tena’s internal struggle with her past and what she wants even if she doesn’t really know what that is herself. Tena unconsciously stops the branch and thinks “I want to change. I’m going to change but the time I spent with Kyousuke I don’t want that to change.” Now over the next few movements and the next volume Tena starts to grate on my nerves for the most part but it’s during these scenes where we see her struggling with herself that I am reminded that she can be a good character and not just a brat that likes to torture Kyousuke for fun.
Attacca tells her that if she resists any more then her tuner career will be over. To stop her having to decide between two things she wants equally Arun shows up to save the day. As an elite Arun has enough sway to at the very least make it so she can transport Kyousuke to HQ. Attacca and Vis try to resist until they realise that Arun’s older brother Forteo has a notorious sister complex and if they denied her then he would do something bad to them. It’s never stated what he would do but going by their reactions it would be somewhere between death and rape; so watching the movie that will not be named then? Attacca and Vis leave by the classic manga method of jumping from rooftop to rooftop and the three servants are seen at the edge of the clearing. Annoyingly we never get really get a scene of our heroes explaining it to them or even any confirmation of how much they saw.
Instead we have a cut so hard I get mental whiplash. Arun is brought to Kyousuke’s house and we see the most over the top scene of Mezzo and Sopra panicking at her arrival. Their hair is all sticking out like they are being pumped with static electricity, their eyes are little more than circular scribbles and their mouths are wide open boxes. Mezzo runs to hide behind Kyousuke and starts talking in a “tough guy voice” according to the caption. Arun being the master detective she is sees right through it and is about to call her by name before she gets past what we already know. This says several things: A) an elite like Arun knows Mezzo by name but since the line is delivered as a question she either knows her in passing or hasn’t seen her for a long time. B) the idea that Mezzo is some kind of elite is looking more and more plausible. C) something happened that means Mezzo ditched her title/rank for some reason and she doesn’t want people to find out. Once again I have to say I am loving Mezzo’s story and can’t wait for the next volume where we find out her backstory.
So the group sits down and pools the information about what Kyousuke’s situation is and what Mezzo and Sopra found out from analyzing his score. They reach the conclusion that he has a power that was suppressed for whatever reason and he has no idea what or who that could have been. They then get onto the subject of transporting Kyousuke to Arun’s family villa in France so as to buy time and gather info while still making it look like she is taking him to the HQ in the French mountains. Tena doesn’t trust her since she is an elite but Arun says she wants to hear more of his melody and then the subject is abruptly drop for them starting their travel arrangements.
So with one evening left Kyousuke goes to Adagio and asks the trio to meet him there so he can say good bye to everyone but he finds it closed like Awesome McBadass told Tena it would be. The girls show up and after telling them that nothing is wrong but he needs to take a break from teaching he promises he will be back and gives them homework for the meantime. So here we go; it’s naming time! We have strong, assertive and blond haired Umikage who needs to work on her pianissimo, shy and retiring Tsukishima who needs to speed her pedal work up and the ever stoic Sorachi who needs to put more feeling into her performances. But wait a moment, they are staying in Japan and Kyousuke is taking the plot with him to Paris so why are they getting named now of all places? Oh right Tsukishima starts seeing notes surrounding Kyousuke as he walks away. Blatant Chekhov's Gunman set up if I ever did see one.
So Mezzo, Sopra and Arun are packing up and Mezzo asks Arun to keep what she knows a secret from Tena and Kyousuke. Arun agrees and warns Mezzo that eventually she will have to face the commanding officer of the fifth orchestra who, in a spot of dramatic irony, happens to be listening to the conversation on a pair of headphones back at HQ. The final scene then shows the bad guys talking about the plan, whatever it is, and how most continents are finished and a silhouette in a field says that all the preparations are done and all that is left is to wait for the curtain to rise on the grand performance. I love the mysteriousness of this scene and on rereading the silhouette is rather familiar but I’ll get to that later. On the plus side we in England don’t have to worry about the tuner organisation since they don’t even know we exist! Seriously their world map doesn’t have the British isles on it and don’t say it’s a scale issue since there are land masses on it that are smaller than the UK would be.
Movement 15 opens in Paris with the characters on a 6 hour layover on the way to Arun’s villa. the exposition shot of the city is like most of the background art for the series; if you examine it close up it’s really simplistic blobs but looked at as a whole it tells you everything you need to know and looks really good. Kinda like if you got right up to the Mona Lisa it would just be smudges that don’t look like much of anything let alone a woman. I, personally, like this style a lot, don’t get me wrong super detailed like One Piece or Negima is good too but this way it doesn’t get distracting from the action and characters. I suppose Mikabe could have done this one more so since the background is the main focus of the shot but then it would look out of place.
So Kyousuke gets his pocket picked as a way of showing that Paris isn’t the nice friendly place Tokyo is. Now never having been to either city I can’t judge on the realism of this scene but it does look like a bit of favouritism considering the author’s Japanese and not French. Again I could be wrong but this is what it seems like to an outside observer. Also . Our heroes go sightseeing and after a few shots of famous landmarks culminating on the Eiffel tower. At the top Kyousuke catches Tena staring at him and she clumsily says she was worried he might be depressed at having to come to a strange city but he looks at it as an advantage since he got the chance to see such a beautiful place. Now considering it’s obvious that Tena and Kyousuke will end up together I want to mention that, as I said before, I don’t mind a relationship with the age gap or anything like that as long as it is written well and isn’t just an excuse to appeal to Lolicons. Same goes for lesbians and so on; as long as it’s a relationship and not a cheap plea for popularity. We will have to wait and see where this one goes in later volumes.
Next we cut to the villa in Nice (you probably know this but if not then it’s pronounced like niece since it’s a French place name.) Kyousuke’s comment is “Geeeeez! It’s freakin’ huge!!” and he is certainly right about that. Tena is totally jealous right up until she hears that each of the many, many rooms has its own bath at which point she loves it. Arun tries to hire a 5-star chef to cook for them but Kyousuke stops her and says he will cook she then tries to order top class ingredients but Kyousuke says he will do all the shopping at the farmer’s market. I like this scene since it shows the leads reactions to money; Tena is overawed by it, Kyousuke refuses to be swayed by it and Arun doesn’t know how to live without it. We don’t see Mezzo or Sopra’s reactions but they do seem fairly laid back by the whole affair in their little one panel appearance in the scene.
So at the farmer’s market Arun is panicking about the cheep food not being top quality and worrying if the money will cover what it costs to gather the food and what not. Kyousuke won’t accept this and makes a feast for her and the others purely from the stuff he bought at the market. Arun was tentative but she does try a bite and we see a shot of her eyes sparkling and the light of heaven shining down on her while a pair of chibi angel Mezzos fly around her and play trumpets. Kyousuke spending all this time with Arun gets Tena all steamed and they have a fight where Arun points out that since Tena owns the note but not Kyousuke then it’s not up to her who he spends time with. This confuses Tena since she has yet to come to terms with exactly how she feels towards him. Oh and one of her arguments is, probably, unintentionally funny as she says “He is MY pet and I won’t have him used for this and that.” For those not in the know this and that is a Japanese euphemism for sex.
So the plan is to bum around the villa for a week and if they can’t contact Tena’s teacher by then they will try to reach her by foot. Mezzo suggests that they teach Kyousuke how to use his new found tuner powers so he can at least defend himself. Hands up who thinks this is going to go flawlessly; oh no one? Well you would be right there; Arun tunes a flower to be a different colour and Kyousuke tries to turn it back but only succeeds in creating a monster plant that heads towards town. Is epic fail to strong a phrase? So the others tune it back to normal just in time to save the person it was attacking and we see a familiar face; Duon from the end of volume 1. We end on a shot of Tena’s teacher, Kokyuu, being delivered the letter from the main cast and she gives the post girl a death glare when she hears about who it is from. The scene also gives us a glimpse of Mister Canta who was caught up in his research. They both get more focus next volume so we’ll cover them later.
This volume is really good in that it jumpstarts the main plot and while I don’t mind slow openings I do always prefer the later chapters when things are getting going at last. The love triangle between Tena/Kyousuke/Arun is really starting to be solidified and the interactions are always fun to watch. Mezzo and Sopra make big impressions despite their very backseat roles. On the subject of Mezzo I’m starting to think she is the author’s favourite character; she has the most detailed and interesting back story of everyone as of volume 4 and most of that volume does centre on her, she is the most mature and capable of noticing Tena and Kyousuke’s feelings towards each other and also I believe I mentioned the pair of chibi angel Mezzos. Not much happens towards the themes but Tena is fast approaching the moment she realises her own feelings combine that with Arun’s new experiences with Kyousuke and you get the idea that the one you love will help you be a better person and fill in all the pieces you alone are missing. The back also contains some 4-koma, background sketches, translation notes and a small diary about Mikabe’s research trip to France.
I’m thinking of doing ‘my girlfriends a geek’ vol 1 for the next volume by volume review and then come back to Tena 4 in a week or so. Then it should still be done by the time vol 5 comes out in December. Whatever I do decide I should have something out soon so look forward to it.