Tell Me Who to Kill by Ian Rankin

Originally published 2003 in Mysterious Pleasures; this edition 2004, 2005 printing

Publisher: Allison & Busby Limited

Collected in: The Best British Mysteries 2005 (ed. Maxim Jakubowski)

PG

Parental Guidance recommended for audiences under 15 years of age

(D, V)

Drug Use {PG} (G: pre-story beer consumption; coffee; paracetamol. PG: viewpoint character smoking cigarettes; whisky (on-screen, plus POV character's consumption of the listed items adding up); acquisition and drinking of a lager 4-pack)

Violence {PG} (set-up is accident victim; no sense of ongoing threat or menace, but surrounding character portrayal invites us to regard the victim and the driver's humanity, a personal rather than abstract tragedy)

Representations

Gender:

Women present in relationship roles - distraught wife, non-distraught wife, absent girlfriend. Tension of the "husband angry at idea of wife spending 'all his money'", 'passionate relationship' sort.

(had thought a woman was present as a nurse, but checking back that was my presumption, not Rankin's. although the surgeon is gendered male.)

Sex:

Only heterosexual relationships depicted and driving the story

Race & Ethnicity:

A black couple (male-female relationship) play a role later on, described "Not just coffee-coloured, but as black as ebony" to emphasise their blackness. POV character thinking his visit as a police officer may have unintended negative social consequences for them due to neighbourhood prejudice. The man in this relationship is a star soccer player.

One character marked as white, but seems safe to assume all others were also.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

Only in that a character was a physiotherapist.

Awards

Not found

Notes

Detective Inspectors with business cards. I keep being surprised, but it makes sense when I think about it.

Hadn't read any Inspector Rebus stories previously, but had been meaning. Since this opening tale was one of my favourites of the entire collection I've definitely no changed my mind on that. Nicely detective-oriented short piece, despite several moments toward the end when details noticeably kept from the reader to drag it out a little longer.

Usagi Yojimbo Book 5: Lone Goat and Kid: 4. The Way of the Samurai by Stan Sakai

Originally published July 1990 in Usagi Yojimbo Volume 1, Issue 23; this edition August 1992, July, 2008 printing

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

PG

Parental Guidance recommended for audiences under 15 years of age

(V, H)

Some violence {PG}

Some supernatural references {unweighted}

Representations

Gender:

Significant and speaking characters all male, women present in background only.

Sex:

No presence.

Race & Ethnicity:

Characters are all anthropomorphic animals in a culturally Japanese (Edo period) setting.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

A character is terminally ill, seeks honourable death by blade rather than face disability before death.

Awards

None found

Notes

Many of the stories in this volume have been varying degrees of bittersweet, concerning death and satisfaction in life, and this is one of them. Leads into and sets up the next story.

Usagi Yojimbo Book 5: Lone Goat and Kid: 2. A Kite Story by Stan Sakai

Originally published February 1990 in Usagi Yojimbo Volume 1, Issue 20; this edition August 1992, July, 2008 printing

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

PG

 Parental Guidance recommended for audiences under 15 years of age

(V)

Some violence {G}

Representations

Gender:

All characters male.

Sex:

No relationships or sex depicted.

Race & Ethnicity:

Characters are all anthropomorphic animals in a culturally Japanese (Edo period) setting.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

None noticed.

Awards

None found.

Notes

I want to say this story was simpler than the last one, but plot-wise it is not a lot simpler. If it is simpler, it is simpler emotionally, with a kite-maker's ambition to make the best kite he can temporarily thwarted by a rampaging mob.

The Prodigal Spy by Joseph Kanon

Originally published 1999; this edition 2000

Publisher: Abacus 

RC
Refused Classification; not for sale

(D, L, S, N, V)

Drug Use and References {MA15+} {Alcohol; Coffee; Marijuana; Smuggling (personal quantities of) marijuana across international borders; Smoking marijuana while driving}

Coarse Language {PG}

Nudity {MA15+}

Sex Scenes {X18+}

Violence {M}

Representations

Gender:

Mix of male and female roles. Active roles mostly to men, but not exclusively. Thematic focus on father-son relations.

Sex:

Heterosexual relationships only, within or without marriage, but no 'infidelity'. A relatively graphic scene depicting oral and PIV sex.

Race & Ethnicity:

Characters almost exclusively white American or white Eastern European. At least one character African American, but no speaking role.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

A character is terminally ill.

Awards

None found.

Notes

I got this book because I'd noticed it on the shelf at the library where I work, and it seemed potentially interesting, and then a couple of weeks or months later it got weeded, so I claimed it. Caught my interest strongly from the beginning but then never delivered. Found the plot overall too forecastable too far ahead.

Rating this was a bit tricky, especially with the sex scene. Ended up asking myself "If this were filmed as-written, what would have to be shown? Could it be filmed with actors simulating sex, or would there need to be some degree of actual sexual contact going on?" Came down on the side of an accurate representation of the scene requiring sexual contact, which means by the rules there can be no violence coexisting in the story so it has to fall into Refused Classification.

The drug rating was idiosyncratic. Technically any rating from PG to MA goes to "Drug use should be justified by context", which I find so ambiguous as to be almost useless. For socially acceptable, legal drugs like coffee or alcohol I weight those to the low end of the rating scale, raising it as the behaviour depicted becomes less socially acceptable. Mostly illegal drugs would go under R18+ where "Drug use is permitted", unless the depiction is some manner of 'drugs are bad for you'. Since marijuana is in a fuzzy position of being almost socially acceptable and either legalised or experiencing a big push for legalisation in many jurisdictions I went for a compromise and treated it like a legal drug, but starting the scale at a higher rating than those get - the existence of marijuana in the story makes for an automatic PG, stepping higher for what I judge would be regarded against society-at-large as more severe or less-approved uses. In this case the characters enjoy the drug on multiple occasions, transport it across national lines despite express concern for severe consequences if caught (from England to Soviet Czechoslovakia), and indulge while driving a car. So I put that at MA, while if they'd got in trouble for their usage it might have only been an M rating since even though I personally don't care if folks use the stuff, I'm trying my best to interpret and apply a classification scheme written for films, to books, in a nation where marijuana is illegal.

Which is why I end up taking a book on which my opinion was 'meh' and evaluating it as "technically too racy to be sold in Australia".

Usagi Yojimbo Book 3: The Wanderer's Road: 6. The Shogun's Gift by Stan Sakai

Originally published October 1988 Fantagraphics Books in Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 1 Issue 12; this edition August 2010

Fantagraphics Books

PG

Parental Guidance recommended for audiences under 15 years of age

(V)

Some violence {PG)

Representations

Gender:

The return of Tomoe as a prominent character, female samurai from a multi-part plot in the first book. Women in background shots around town, a married couple woodcutter team.

Sex:

A pair of woodcutters are husband and wife.

Race & Ethnicity:

Characters are all anthropomorphic animals in a culturally Japanese (Edo period) setting.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

No presence noted.

Awards

None found

Notes

Villainous plot thwarted by good fortune of the heroes compounded by cunning. Feels almost as if it were two separate stories on the same events, with how the two main good characters - Usagi and Tomoe - only meet briefly and once. Setting up for future events, feels like. Or maybe just the on-going feud between Lords Hikiji and Noriyuki.

Usagi Yojimbo Book 3: The Wanderer's Road: 4. Blade of the Gods by Stan Sakai

Originally published July 1988?* Fantagraphics Books in Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 1 Issue 10; this edition August 2010

Fantagraphics Books

{*official website says July 1987, but that would be a year prior to the preceding issues, although if 1987 that would put it in the same month as the previous issue too.}

PG

Parental Guidance recommended for audiences under 15 years of age

(V, H)

Violence (PG)

Supernatural Themes (no weight)

Representations

Gender:

Only male characters present.

Sex:

No presence

Race & Ethnicity:

Characters are all anthropomorphic animals in a culturally Japanese (Edo period) setting.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

Villain of this episode regarded as mad by others.

Awards

None found

Notes

Usagi seeks shelter from a storm with Jei, who turns out to believe he is chosen by the gods to execute the evil - and who seems to conclude sooner or later that all who cross his path are evil. The resolution is ambiguous. Mostly a fight episode but I believe there are to be long-term repercussions; it is left uncertain whether Jei is indeed supernaturally guided or protected.

Usagi Yojimbo Book 3: The Wanderer's Road: 2. A Mother's Love by Stan Sakai

Originally published May 1988 Fantagraphics Books in Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 1 Issue 8; this edition August 2010

Fantagraphics Books

M

Not recommended for persons under 15 years of age, but no legal restrictions

(V, T, D)

Violence {M)

Themes (M) {Corruption; Domestic Violence, Murder}

Drug Use (G) {Tea}

Representations

Gender:

Major guest character is an old woman; story focuses on relationship between her and her son.

Sex:

Heterosexual marriage-relationships / descent indicated, only.

Race & Ethnicity:

Characters are all anthropomorphic animals in a culturally Japanese (Edo period) setting.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

Infirmity due to age. 

Awards

None found

Notes

This was... a lot darker than the previous story. Our itinerant protagonist (along with Spot) gets caught up in an intrigue of corruption that ends with kinslaying and a character begging to be executed.

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Excel Saga Volume 1, Mission 4: Everyday Living Permissible by Rikdo Koshi

Originally published 1997 by Shonengahosha Co.. Ltd, Tokyo; this edition July 2003, September 2003 printing

Publisher: Viz 

M

(L, V, D)

Coarse Language (PG)

Violence (M) {This time Watanabe is doing the off-screen beating up of Iwata, although Iwata gets his revenge}

Drug Use (M) {Once again Hyatt getting buzzed from an assortment of pills}

Representations

Gender:

I think this is the first story in Excel Saga to actually pass the Bechdel Test, as Excel and Hyatt are finally in the same place and talking to each other. Gender representation is split about 50/50 in this one.

Sex:

Watanabe gives Hyatt some of his excess stuff, possibly because of his interest in her.

Race & Ethnicity:

Back to an all-Japanese affair.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

We also find out Hyatt's eyesight is quite bad.

Notes

Almost a single-room story. Excel and Hyatt spend the entire time in the flat they now share. The rest is Watanabe and Iwata's interactions in two adjacent flats and just outside. I suppose it is a further characterisation sort of episode.