On my last visit to Kinokuniya I picked up volume 3 of House of Five Leaves, Gente, and Saturn Apartments. They are, of course, all released under Viz Comics’ imprint Signature IKKI. I will review them in the order I read them.
I had been eagerly awaiting the new volume of Saturn Apartments, by Hisae Iwaoka. This is a special book, but I try not to sound like I am overselling to my friends. I think what I like about it the most is that the characters that are not individuals (like the lower levels, or the guild) are so thoroughly explored, they actually grow with the people who make them up, rather than being just an interesting “shell” that everyone interacts in.
This volume was funnier than the others, I thought, but I was happy that there were recurring characters that I had presumed would be one-shots. Also, there is one story in particular that tripped me out; I didn’t think they would be telling stories like that, so it was a pleasant surprise.
It was hard to decide which to read next, because Natsume Ono is amazing. I went with Gente. It was great!
I’ve seen the anime for Ristorante Paradiso, after having read the manga. The anime has stories from Gente to fill it out (which is amazing considering it is only 11 episodes). I was curious about what would be in this volume, because I was mostly sure that all the stories in the anime were covered in the first two.
Well, new stories! It was so much fun to learn more about the ensemble of characters, which included a new couple and three politicians (one of which is hilarious and endearing!). I teared up twice when reading it, once during a scene that pulled a sob from me for how touching it is, and the once from a scene that for some reason really made me introspective. The latter scene is interesting, I think it may just be that I need to physically emote, and that character is an outlet. I am fine with that. 
I was hesitant to pick up House of Five Leaves, because I want to stretch out Ono’s work as much as possible, but also because the anime was so fascinating, I think about it a lot. Susan and I watched it together, so I have someone to talk to about it, and that is great fun for me.
This volume covered an arc in the story that was so interesting, because until now there is this momentum, and it is like they just decided to take a break and focus on their relationships, instead. I really appreciate the manga, however, because you get these single frames that run a small gag or have a bit of internal dialog that doesn’t fit into the narrative of animation, but it makes the characters and world seem that much more alive and dynamic. And in this case, often hilarious.
Also, the volume ends trailing into an arc that I don’t think is present in the anime, though I read the next chapter on the website and see similarities. However, there are details that I just don’t understand how they would reconcile certain parts. So, of course, now I am eagerly awaiting the next chapter that isn’t coming out until… September. T_T
It was a great haul, and I am looking forward to getting my lending library website up (oh, I am building one of those, by the way), so that I can systematically get everyone I know reading these manga.