manga: Shion no Ou
Shion no Ou is an eight volume seinen manga about shogi and murder. No, really.
The main character, Shion, is 13 and hasn't spoken since she witnessed her parents murder nine years ago, and was found literally surrounded by blood, the only clue being several shogi pieces lined up in a way that suggested the killer placed them there, and might be a shogi player. In addition to losing her voice, Shion was left with a fear of blood strong enough that her first period go catatonic from shock, and she doesn't have clear memories of the incident. After her parents' deaths, Shion is adopted by her neighbors, her piano teacher and her teacher's husband, a shogi teacher. (In case you are like me and alarm bells start going off at "murderer is shogi player and adopted father teaches shogi," rest assured that the series never even acts like it might consider going there.)
The main plot begins when Shion enters the women's shogi league to become a professional player. There she quickly befriends two slightly older teenaged players-Saori, a girl from a privileged background more interested in pursuing shogi than her family probably cares for, and Ayumi, who is actually a boy, but pretending to be a girl because female players win smaller rewards in tournaments than male players do larger rewards, and he has to pay for his mother's medical bills. She also get the attention of the current meijin (top male player) who wants to see how she does. Not long after Shion starts entering tournaments, she starts receiving threats, which make the police think that her parents' murderer is someone close to Shion in the tournaments who fears recognition.
A large chunk of the series takes place during a large tournament open to all shogi players of both genders, both professional and amateur. There are a lot of shogi details in the series, some of which went over my head, but not so much that I couldn't follow the sports parts. For the most part, I really really liked it and thought they did a good job balancing the sports, crime and psychological parts. I was disappointed, though, that most of the investigating is done by the men, with Shion doing little investigating herself. Most of her plot related to the mystery of her parent's death is her realizing that some of the things she had associated with her adopted father and/or her biological parents may have been things the killer taught her, as he was apparently alone with Shion for several hours after killing her parents. But Shion does figure out who it was on her own without actually actively investigating, so that redeemed that part for me a fair bit. The series is also largely light on fanservice (there are several shirtless scenes for Ayumi, but they're mostly "in case you forgot, this really is a boy") but for a couple volumes, Saori's breasts start...well, ballooning. She isn't particularly drawn more provocatively in general, her breasts were just suddenly each the same size as her head, and then they returned to normal after a while.
It's a very good series, but probably one that will never be licensed.
The main character, Shion, is 13 and hasn't spoken since she witnessed her parents murder nine years ago, and was found literally surrounded by blood, the only clue being several shogi pieces lined up in a way that suggested the killer placed them there, and might be a shogi player. In addition to losing her voice, Shion was left with a fear of blood strong enough that her first period go catatonic from shock, and she doesn't have clear memories of the incident. After her parents' deaths, Shion is adopted by her neighbors, her piano teacher and her teacher's husband, a shogi teacher. (In case you are like me and alarm bells start going off at "murderer is shogi player and adopted father teaches shogi," rest assured that the series never even acts like it might consider going there.)
The main plot begins when Shion enters the women's shogi league to become a professional player. There she quickly befriends two slightly older teenaged players-Saori, a girl from a privileged background more interested in pursuing shogi than her family probably cares for, and Ayumi, who is actually a boy, but pretending to be a girl because female players win smaller rewards in tournaments than male players do larger rewards, and he has to pay for his mother's medical bills. She also get the attention of the current meijin (top male player) who wants to see how she does. Not long after Shion starts entering tournaments, she starts receiving threats, which make the police think that her parents' murderer is someone close to Shion in the tournaments who fears recognition.
A large chunk of the series takes place during a large tournament open to all shogi players of both genders, both professional and amateur. There are a lot of shogi details in the series, some of which went over my head, but not so much that I couldn't follow the sports parts. For the most part, I really really liked it and thought they did a good job balancing the sports, crime and psychological parts. I was disappointed, though, that most of the investigating is done by the men, with Shion doing little investigating herself. Most of her plot related to the mystery of her parent's death is her realizing that some of the things she had associated with her adopted father and/or her biological parents may have been things the killer taught her, as he was apparently alone with Shion for several hours after killing her parents. But Shion does figure out who it was on her own without actually actively investigating, so that redeemed that part for me a fair bit. The series is also largely light on fanservice (there are several shirtless scenes for Ayumi, but they're mostly "in case you forgot, this really is a boy") but for a couple volumes, Saori's breasts start...well, ballooning. She isn't particularly drawn more provocatively in general, her breasts were just suddenly each the same size as her head, and then they returned to normal after a while.
It's a very good series, but probably one that will never be licensed.