With the Light 3

With the Light 3

A little effort goes a long way – that’s what Sachiko Azuma, her fellow parents, and the teachers learn as they struggle to work together to make life a little easier for the children in the Special Education class. With the help of innovative gadgets and the support of more people than meet the eye, Hikaru and Miyu become better able to communicate with the world around them. but when a teen idol classmate sends some mothers into a flashbulb frenzy that causes Hikaru to panic, other parents begin to question his presence alongside “normal” students in the classroom. And when Hikaru’s first school trip also leads to chaos, Sachiko begins to worry that Hikaru may be losing his hard-fought place in society. Will bad news from her husband Masato’s workplace shatter the delicate harmony the Azumas have worked so hard to achieve? (from the back of the book)


I’m starting to think the summaries on the books are trying too hard to create reader intrigue. A school trip that leads to chaos? Bad news shattering the delicate harmony? Flashbulb frenzy? I hate to disappoint people, but all of that are kind of exaggerations. Sometimes bad things happen to Hikaru and his family, but nothing so bad that I would call it ‘chaos’ or ‘harmony shattering’.

Hikaru is in the fifth grade now. He definitely come pretty far since the first volume. He can use helping technology to communicate, he reads kanji now, he’s interacting more with the people around him, and he’s becoming more and more independent.

Even though Aoki-sensei is no longer there, Hikaru’s time at school is still full of wonderful experiences because he’s there with his friends and other teachers who support him, including Gunji-sensei, who is really starting to come around although she still has a long way to go (at least she’s listening to the parents’ requests now… most of the time).

Technology is briefly touched on in this volume. Hikaru can use a VOCA, a machine that speaks pre-recorded messages when buttons are pressed, now and he uses it a few times here. The quarter hour watch, a timer, from the first volume was mentioned, and almost every adult character has a cell phone that sends pictures and text messages as well as calls.

Also in this volume: The Crayfish Experiment. That’s something that’s apparently been happening since Hikaru’s first year of school, but is probably only being mentioned now because Gunji-sensei refuses to do it when Hikaru first brings it up. Time to overcome obstacles! Gunji-sensei is grossed out by crayfish, so she doesn’t want to do it. That’s when some of Hikaru’s classmates and other teachers step up. Nishiwaki-sensei, Hikaru’s mainstream class teacher; Gori-sensei, who doesn’t seem to have his own class but is always there, and Wakabayashi-sensei work together with Gunji-sensei to make the experiment possible.

The experiment is also where the ‘flashbulb frenzy’ from the book’s summary comes in. Hikaru’s friend Kanata, his example for the Mouse March, is an idol now (he’s a singer or an actor, or something) and he’s pretty famous. When Hikaru goes to his mainstream class to join in on the presentation on the crayfish experiment there are parents there who are loud and wanting to take pictures of Kanata. All the noise they make bothers Hikaru and then about two or three camera flashes go off and Hikaru has to leave the room. Later on Sachiko overhears some parents saying mean remarks about Hikaru being included in the mainstream class.

After that scene Nishiwaki-sensei starts calling Aoki-sensei for advice about Hikaru. He learns some things that eventually help Hikaru to be able to stay in the mainstream classroom for longer periods of time without panicking or covering his ears.

Masato’s mother also shows up in this volume, and this is really the first time that we see her starting to favour Kanon over Hikaru. She visits Sachiko at home and talks to her about Kanon’s schooling. She basically says that Sachiko and Masato should enrol Kanon into a private school near her house and that she could take Kanon in and raise her. She insinuates that Sachiko cares more for Hikaru than she does for Kanon because of all the trouble Sachiko went through to find a good school for Hikaru. Masato soon puts a stop to that kind of talk, but I doubt we’ve seen the last of this attitude from Azuma-san (his mother).

Not much else out of the ordinary happens in the first half of the volume other than Hikaru and Kanon both get the chicken pox at two different times. Both instances present different problems. When Kanon is sick Sachiko has to stay home with her, so she can’t take Hikaru to and from school. From this she learns to rely more on outside support for help with Hikaru by getting involved with the Sunshine House. Not much is shown about Hikaru dealing with his chicken pox other than Hikaru not being happy about being sick. Dealing with the itchiness and not being able to leave the house was probably especially hard for him.

The second half of the volume was all about Hikaru’s school camping trip, which is my favourite part of Volume 3. This is a totally new experience for Hikaru because he’ll be gone for four days and three nights without his parents.

This is a big step for Hikaru. He’ll be going to a lot of new and different places in the space of only a few days with only his best friends and teachers to help him (he also gets his own personal support teacher). Hikaru has a great time on his trip, and it was a great opportunity for his teachers and support staff to learn new things about how to make life a little easier for him. Principal Kouda, however, learns nothing.

Aoki-sensei is also on this trip since his elementary school is also a part of the trip. He’s there with his new student, Tomoya-kun. He and Hikaru don’t really interact, but Hikaru does remember him.

Now for the ‘chaos’. On the first night at the hotel/resort thing everyone is staying at, Hikaru gets lost.

Well, he doesn’t really get lost; he just disappears for a bit. On a hiking trip earlier that day, everyone passed through a tunnel, which Hikaru enjoyed but had to leave before he was ready to. He wanted to go to the tunnel that night but couldn’t express it to anyone and ended up going to look for it himself. He wasn’t missing for very long and was found right next to the building. After that Nishiwaki-sensei and the support teacher sat down to try to figure out what happened (while Principal Kouda just yelled at them). That’s really all that happened surrounding the ‘chaos’.

Like I said, the second half of the volume was all about Hikaru’s trip, except for one little part where Masato got arrested.

Yeah. That was the ‘shattering harmony’ part. I’d hate to disappoint everyone, but Masato was only in police custody for a few hours late one night because he got drunk and got into a fight with another man. The reason for all of this was that Masato got a transfer because the higher ups at his workplace are trying to get him to quit without outright firing him. I think that only starts to really impact the story in the next volume.

So that’s Volume 3. Things happened, obstacles were overcome, and most of the characters grew as a result.

I don’t think I ever talked about the art in this series, so I’m gonna do that right now: the art in this series is pretty simple. The character designs are all quite cute, and Tobe-sensei did a good job in giving each character a different design. The characters all look different, even the background characters sometimes, and it’s easy to tell one from the other. There’s not much going on for backgrounds most of the time, but when they’re there they’re done well. There are also some patterns, mostly on the clothes, that are often reused.

Another thing is that Hikaru and his friends are babies at the start of this series and they age as the story goes on. This is done very well. The children all look their ages (the adults never really seem to age, but that’s not important). I point this out because a lot of the other manga I’ve read have some odd designs for children, usually making them tiny and chubby. That’s cute, but not very realistic. With the Light has some very realistic children (that goes for how they behave as well).

Next is Volume 4, where we’ll probably learn more about how Masato’s transfer affects the family.

DoraaAAAHH! (also, relatives)

So I was babysitting my baby cousin and we were watching Dora the Explorer.

I'm really starting to greatly dislike Dora (and most of the other kids shows... and people say anime is weird). I know I'm not the target audience for Dora, but that show just annoys the hell out of me.

I suppose that it's an interesting concept: to watch a show that looks like a computer game being played. Of course, actually playing the game would be a lot more fun. But I watch my cousin watch it and she seems to be learning something from it, she sometimes answers Dora's questions so I guess that's worth something.

But that show just grates on my nerves.

And now for the obligatory arsehole complaint: the language.

Now, I have no problem with teaching children second languages (I am bilingual, myself, and have been since I was a baby, speaking two languages is awesome). Nope, my problem here is that the second language in question is Spanish.

There's nothing wrong with the Spanish language. In fact, I actually tried to learn it when I was younger (I've since switched to Japanese). But there really isn't any need to know Spanish in the area where I live. As far as I know, no one around here really speaks it (unless there are some people that do and I just don't know, totally possible). My family is French, Acadian to be more specific. So that means that my cousin is Acadian, so if she should learn any language other than English, it should be French.

Problem is that I don't think there are any shows that teach French, just Spanish Anyone is free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen any shows teaching French. The closest I can think of is Madeline, but from what little I can remember, that show just had French words spoken here and there, no French was directly being taught like in Dora.

I'm done now.

...

And now for relatives.

The older I get, the more I seem to really dislike most of the people on my mother's side of the family. My mom has three brothers, and they all have families and I have no complaints with them. They're awesome, nothing wrong there (except maybe with the middle's brother's family and how I can't really connect with them, but that's probably due to the fact that I don't really know them all that well, so, moving on). And I love my Nanny (Mom's mother) and my cousins from America, fucking awesome the whole lot of them. And I love my dad's side of the family (those that I've actually met anyway, love 'em all).

But a lot of my mother's cousins are assholes, or I just don't like them for whatever reason.

We just had some of her cousins stay with us for a week or so, her cousin and his two kids. Her cousin is an arsehole. Every time we were together in the same room he kept teasing me about my smiling problem (also known as The Smile That Keeps Happening at Innapropriate Times) that I can't control. It annoyed the fuck out of me, and even when I tell my mom about it, she just laughs it off and tells me that I'm overreacting.

They left on Friday, and now we have other cousins staying with us. A husband and wife pair I've known since I was very young. The husband is constantly teasing me, or just annoying me. Sometimes he's funny, most of the time he isn't. And the wife is just... odd. About a half-hour or so ago, she came in to see what I was doing on my laptop (I was downloading something), and then she just sat next to me on the couch and stared at my computer screen saying nothing for about two full minutes. It was awkward to say the least, and weird. And my mom knows that I'm annoyed and made uncomfortable by this, but, again, she just laughs and says that I'm overreacting. And she once told me that when I'm irritable about the husband and don't laugh, or whatever, at his jokes that I'm hurting his feelings.

*headdesk*

Y'know what actually, my mother's an asshole.

... and now I'm pissed. Especially because I'm being kicked out of my room because Mom's cousins sleep in it. I sleep in my brothers' room.

My brothers, by the way, have been sleeping in the living room for the past week or so until Friday (because of the other cousin and his kids). And yes, we have a pull-out couch bed thing. But this happens every single fucking time.

GIVE THOSE TWO THE FUCKING PULL-OUT BED, YOU FUCKWIT!!!

... okay... now I'm really pissed...

With the Light Volume 2

With the Light 2

Sachiko and Masato Azuma have overcome numerous obstacles in dealing with their firstborn son Hikaru’s autism. Having saved their marriage from ending in ruins, the young couple has welcomed a healthy baby girl, Kanon, into their tight-knit family. But with the obvious differences between Hikaru’s and Kanon’s developmental abilities, it becomes apparent that social prejudices against Hikaru’s disability are never far away. As Hikaru moves into the fourth grade, Sachiko encounters a new student, Miyu, whose mother has completely given up on her daughter’s life and her own. With the help of Hikaru’s beloved teacher, Aoki-sensei, Sachiko aims to bring hope back to Miyu’s family. But when Aoki-sensei transfers to a different school and Hikaru’s special education class is thrown into upheaval by yet another tragedy, can Sachiko continue to hold on to her own hope for her son’s future? (from the back of the book)


A lot of things happened in this volume, and this volume only spans maybe less than two years of Hikaru’s life.

At the beginning of the volume, Hikaru is almost in the fourth grade and his little sister Kanon is two years old and in daycare, which is pretty much where we left off in Volume 1.

Hikaru is the same as ever. He’s about nine years old now and is pretty set in his every day routines and still continues to make strides in his development. Kanon is just adorable and is probably as spontaneous as her brother is not. She’s also pretty easy to deal with, as Sachiko points out at one point.

This series doesn’t really have much of a plot, it’s just a slice-of-life series about Hikaru’s life so there’s no long story per volume, just a lot of short arcs. There are two at the very beginning, and one is where the ‘Hikaru Newsletter’ is introduced. The Hikaru Newsletter is something that Sachiko does up on the computer to hand out at Hikaru’s school to help people better figure him out. This particular newsletter focuses on the fact that Hikaru is able to put together a puzzle flipped over (because he was looking at the shape of the pieces and not the picture) and challenging the readers to try to do the same.

The second arc includes Kanon and some Hina dolls (some kind of Japanese doll set). Some of the mothers of Kanon’s daycare buddies are invited to a Hina doll party and Sachiko is invited and has to take Hikaru along with her. Hikaru is pretty well-behaved for the most part; while he occasionally gets into things Sachiko is able to divert his attention with no problems. Everything is proceeding smoothly until Hikaru wets his pants because he wasn’t able to make it to the bathroom in time. This shocks the other mothers there and they make some pretty mean remarks. One of them even insinuates that the reason Kanon was born was so that she could take care of Hikaru when Sachiko and Masato eventually die.

And that was chapter one.

Chapter two starts with Hikaru entering the fourth grade and some clunky foreshadowing about not wanting Aoki-sensei to transfer schools.

There’s a new student in the Special Education class this year: Miyu Honda, who is in first grade and is has autism. Like Hikaru, Miyu has low functioning autism. But unlike Hikaru, Miyu’s never received any kind of therapy, so her development is way behind (she isn’t even potty trained). Miyu’s mother, Honda-san, is young and headstrong and has never had any good experiences with schools, so she’s practically given up on Miyu’s education at this point. We don’t actually see too much of Miyu and Honda-san unless Sachiko and/or Hikaru are around at the same time. Miyu is probably what Hikaru would’ve been if Sachiko had never been to the welfare facility. Under Aoki-sensei’s guidance, Miyu flourishes, but all that mostly happens in the background of Hikaru’s story arcs.

Speaking of Hikaru, he’s become quite the gardener. It wasn’t mentioned in the first volume, but Aoki-sensei has been taking the Special Ed students out to work in the school garden every spring and fall. Hikaru has been working in the garden for almost four years now and he’s learned to pull weeds, water plants, and harvest them. He can even tell which vegetables are which just by looking at the leaves. All of this gives Aoki-sensei an idea that opens up to another story arc.

Wakabayashi-sensei is teaching the Buddy System class this year. The Buddy System is when another student (usually from a specific class) volunteers to hang out with the Special Ed students. Daisuke Ishida becomes Hikaru’s buddy for The Tomato Project. His job to go out to the garden every day at recess with Hikaru so Hikaru can water the tomato plants and take a picture of them. This is to teach him the passage of time.

The Tomato Projects gets off to a rough start but everyone eventually gets themselves sorted out and Hikaru makes a new friend in Ishida. There’s also another breakthrough in Hikaru’s development: he calls Ishida, someone he’s only known a few months, by name. (Wakabayashi-sensei is so jealous, haha.)

After The Tomato Project is over, there’s some kind of school recital where the Special Ed class, along with Ishida, makes a presentation about it. This is when Ishida’s character gets some development. Before he met Hikaru, Ishida was a soft-spoken boy who got teased a lot but, for whatever reason, couldn’t do anything about it. During the recital, someone makes fun of Hikaru and Ishida gets angry and calls the kid out.

Speaking of the kid making fun of Hikaru, his name is Oki-kun, and he’s in Moe’s class. He’s also a brat. He’s been abandoned by his mother and neglected by his father. But he turns out to have a kind heart, which he proves in a part of the volume I like to call ‘Hikaru’s Adventure’.

Hikaru’s always had a tendency to wander off. He walks home from school on his own now, so it was probably only a matter of time before he managed to get himself lost. Apparently, he’s been going to Oki-kun’s home recently, and this is where his adventure begins. He and Oki-kun are chased out of the house and, one bus ride and one train ride later; end up in Hachioji (which is about two hours away from home). This is all very emotional because when the readers aren’t with Hikaru and Oki-kun, we’re with Sachiko, who is beside herself with worry and fear. She blames herself for Hikaru getting lost because she allowed him to walk around on his own. It Keiko Tobe is good at anything, it’s portraying emotion. I was scared for Hikaru while reading this, and I knew that he was fine the whole time.

The second half of the volume is when a lot of changes happen.

Everything begins when Aoki-sensei and Wakabayashi-sensei get married, which comes straight out of nowhere. Dead serious, not even a hint of romance between those two until now. As nice as all that was and as much as I liked it, I think that the only reason it came up was because there needed to be a reason for Aoki-sensei to be transferred out. Which is the next major thing that happens.

Sachiko and Honda-san find the transfer hard to accept. Sachiko knows that Aoki-sensei is the main reason why Hikaru has been able to come as far as he has, and to Honda-san Aoki-sensei is the first person other than her to see Miyu as an actual human being with potential and feelings. They try to fight the transfer, but they can’t really change anything and Aoki-sensei moves on to another school.

It really isn’t the end of the world just because Aoki-sensei is gone. Principal Yoshizawa had everything sorted out so that Shichigatsu Elementary (Hikaru’s school) would continue to be a safe and welcome learning environment for all its students, including those with special needs. Then a tragedy happens and all that planning goes down the tubes.

Now the school goes through some major changes. First there’s a new principal, Principal Kouda, a man who cares more about image than about creating a loving environment for all of his students. Second there’s a new Special Ed teacher, Gunji-sensei, who is looking for a free ride for her last year before retirement and has no patience for Hikaru and Miyu and their needs. Gunji-sensei is also the teacher who accidentally locked Hikaru into a storage shed in his first year, so Sachiko is pretty worried about this.

This brings up a totally new set of problems that Hikaru and Miyu have a hard time overcoming. Right off the bat, Hikaru has the first big tantrum he’s had since he started school, and Miyu starts wetting her pants again. Both children are practically regressing while under Gunji-sensei’s care, and neither she nor Principal Kouda will do anything about it.

Not without a fight at least.

Hikaru is still continuing to grow and develop in this volume, and he’s making great strides into expanding his world even more. He’s meeting new people and learning more about the world he lives in and how to navigate it.

Like the first volume, Volume 2 doesn’t hold back with the emotional punches. Every up and down in the Azuma family’s journey is felt by the readers as well as the characters because of the way it’s done up in the manga. It also helps that the characters are easy to get attached to, especially the children because we get to see them as they’re growing up, so we genuinely care for them.

OMFG YES PLZ

Has anyone read/seen the latest chapter of The Tyrant Falls In Love?

Anyone who hasn't has to get on that, like, right now! Go!

As far as I know, it hasn't been scanlated yet, but there are summaries and RAWs out there if you look hard enough.

It is an awesome chapter, probably one of the best ever. It's definitly the one everyone was waiting for. It's just so sweet and lovely and OMGFINALLY!

Fucking awesome.

According to Takanaga-sensei, this is the last chapter of the main story... and it ends on a cliff-hanger (... yeah, thanks, Sensei). But this chapter is supposed to be followed by an epilogue chapter (coming out in Japan on October 7th) and some extras (fucking awesome).

So I for one can't wait until October, or until the scanlation comes out. But I've read a summary and seen the RAWs and they are awesome and pretty much everything I was looking for in an ending for this series.

I wish the series wasn't ending, but there really isn't much else that can be done with the main story that wouldn't ruin it. Extra chapters are a good idea because they can just be contained one-shots about the characters without major plot lines.

But yeah, loved this chapter, can't complain, everyone who is a fan should definitly read it (and even those who aren't fans should read it too 'cause it's just that awesome).

Dragon Ball Volume 1

The Monkey King

Before there was Dragon Ball Z, there was Akira Toriyama's action epic Dragon Ball, starring the younger version of Son Goku and all the other Dragon Ball Z heroes! Meet a naive young monkey-tailed boy named Goku, whose quiet life changes when he meets Bulma, a girl who is on a quest to collect seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and Bulma needs Goku's help (and his super strength)! With a magic staff for a weapon and a flying cloud for a ride, Goku sets out on the adventure of a lifetime... (from the back of the book)

Here is the first volume of Akira Toriyama's epic Dragon Ball series.

In this volume, Goku and Bulma start on their quest to search for the Dragon Balls. The Dragon Balls are seven magical balls (that appear to be made of glass) that, when all gathered together in the same place, summon a magical dragon that will grant the collector one wish. Bulma wants to gather the balls to wish for either a lifetime supply of strawberries or a cute boy, Goku just wants to see the dragon.

Their quest takes them from the forest, to the desert, and through small villages. Each new location brings about new friends and shenanigans, mostly involving humour that really lets the series ear its 'T' rating (nudity and sex jokes, yo). (Incidentally, the 'dragon's balls' joke only comes up twice this whole volume.)

I laugh out loud every time I read this volume. The first time I read it I immediately became attached to the characters. I love the characters from this series, they're so colourful and hilarious... not to mention strange. I first met these characters in the Dragon Ball Z TV series when I was a kid, so it was pretty interesting for me to see where they had all come from.

First there's Goku. He's a young boy who lives alone in the forest... he also has a tail, a monkey tail to be specific. He's also got super strength and seems to be a complete idiot. He is in possession of the four-star Dragon Ball (the ball with four stars on it), which he seems to think is his recently deceased grandfather; he talks to it like it is anyway. He's a very carefree and happy boy and pretty much just does what he wants. He also knows martial arts, having been taught by his grandfather before his death.

Bulma is the second character we meet. She's a 16-year-old genius from the city who is searching for the Dragon Balls during summer vacation. She built a radar to search for the balls and she manages to get Goku to join her on her search... after a weird misunderstanding where Bulma tries to shoot Goku in the head, and where the readers find out that Goku is pretty much indestructible.

Other characters that appear in this volume are Turtle, the sea turtle; Master Roshi, your friendly neighbourhood perverted turtle hermit; Oolong, a perverted and cowardly shape-shifting pig; Yamcha, a desert bandit who's afraid of girls (including Bulma); and Pu'ar, Yamcha's floating shape-shifting cat friend.

It's really the characters that make this story what it is. The story (so far, in this volume) is just your basic 'search for magical items' story. But the characters in this story are far too silly to go on a serious adventure. Bulma is a teenage girl searching for magical artifacts while on vacation from school, Goku just stumbles along behind her accidentally offending and surprising everyone he comes across, Oolong is a complete coward and is only staying with Bulma and Goku under threat of bodily harm should he leave (and he's tried to run), and Yamcha couldn't be sabotaging himself more if he tried. It's great.



The art is pretty simple. The children are short and chubby, the women are tall and thin (except for nameless background characters), and the men are usually pretty muscle-y (except for nameless background characters... and Master Roshi, who is old... very old...). A lot of the characters' eyes are pretty big, but not overly so, and the over exaggerated facial expressions are awesome and used to great humorous effect.

Dragon Ball is an action series and there are a lot of fights, which are drawn very well. Every attack has its own name and every character has their own signature move. The fight sequences read pretty quickly and are very entertaining, especially with the characters' personalities shining through everything.

Along with being an action series, it's also a fantasy/sci-fi type series. It has dinosaurs, futuristic technology, talking animals, flying clouds, and of course, the Dragon Balls.

This was an awesome first volume with an engaging story line, lovable characters, and genuinely hilarious humour. There's even somewhat of a cliff-hanger at the end, which promises that this hilarious adventure will continue.