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Story and Art by KAIReleased in the US by UDON
Slugline: Is humorous transformation really a manga genre?Zellos is the prince of a poor kingdom and has been told that he will marry the princess of rich neighboring kingdom. But by merely sneaking in to see his future bride, he is disgusted by her spendthrift ways, especially by her refusal to eat a rare delicacy that she was offered by her father's Prime Minister. Through a bit of silliness both Zellos and the princess's super-efficient maid Ana each take a bit of the cake with unusual consequences. Both characters are 15 years old but thanks to the magic of the cake their combined ages now cannot exceed 20 years. That means their default age is 10 years old each, but if one of them laughs/cries (depending on which one) they revert to their true age of 15 while the other is further regressed to the age of 5 but eventually revert back to their average of 10 years old. This is a problem because the Prime Minister is not happy his plan failed, the leadership of the neighboring kingdom is not happy with Zellos's wedding plans and there are some bandits out there that are far too interested in two 10 year old 'kids' wandering around unsupervised.Magical aging/transformation manga seem to be numerous enough to form their own subgenre but this manga has some clever variations on the theme. The shared ages mechanism feels rather novel (it probably has been done before, but I don't recall any at the moment) and the characters, rather than being complete opposites Zellos and Ana have strong devotion to duty. The differences between them is how they express it and will undoubtedly be the source of their personal conflict. That still is a far more believable and sustainable for characters, rather than having opposites attract. Still too early to see how the series will turn out but I am interested in the journey so far.1520, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.
- Ferdinand
By Lee Sun-YoungPublished in the US by UDON
Slugline: It is not a good sign when I tell you to skip the first 70 or so pages.I did for Publisher's Weekly a while back an article on UDON called UDON on the Upswing.Jay and Aru begin the volume as two magic students in the second grade whose magical style clash wildly. After a bunch of adventures while in second grade that show that they care for each other despite not being very similar, we suddenly jump ahead at least five years, in which Jay andAru turn from chibi children to bishonen (pretty boy) adolescents. They have to complete a year long contract with Cho -Ah, a combative student whose plans to start her life over in a new school and attract a boyfriend is derailed by the appearance ofbishonen Jay and Aru. As far as I can tell, the stories of Jay and Aru in the second grade doesn't really add anything to the rest of the story. Other than Jay and Aru, the characters in the first half of the book don't really appear in the second half of the book and the theme of Jay and Aru being mismatched does not seem to be touched upon again. In other words, the first half of the book is very skippable. Which was almost, almost a fatal flaw with this book. What pulled it back was some very attractive art spreads and a relatively solid story in the rest of the book, even if it was nothing out of the ordinary. And since I am reviewing this title based on a preview copy, I am not sure how the art will look in the final version (UDON's preview books are printed on 8.5 x 11 paper, so it is hard to judge how the page crease will affect the final version.) And I'd better end this review before I talk myself into lowering its rating even further.Magical JxR, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.
-Ferdinand
I have written a review for Street Fighter II, vol. 1, available on the Comic Buyer's Guide website. Please remember that the CBG website uses a 4 star rating. Check it out!
Street Fighter II, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.
-Ferdinand
By Baek Hye-KyoungReleased in the US by UDONSlugline: I think this is the fastest I have ever seen a manga (or manhwa) series fall apart.Note: UDON seems to prefer using the term manhwa rather than the currently more popular term for manga from Korea, manwha. And this creator has also done the series Bring it On!Eun-Yo Song has fashion designer brothers who make her fine clothes and the appreciation of most of the boys in school, but cannot make a move on the boy that she is really interested in, Chan-Kyung Woo. But after an accidental confrontation with the pop singer Nan Lee, Eun-Yo's life becomes more than a little crazy. She manages to get into a relationship with Chan-Kyung, but that is challenged when she gains a debt to Nan Lee for burning down his house, mostly by accident.This started out as a nice little wacky comedy series, but then halfway through the volume things started falling apart. First of all there is a a jump forward in time of a year that I don't really think was necessary, and it jumpstarted some things I think we should have seen, such as the beginning of Eun-Yo's romantic relationship. Several characters seem to be needlessly cruel, and make demands that one would think that any reasonable person will refuse, but because this is a manga/manhwa they will be taken seriously by other characters, to those character's detriment. Plus the debt that makes characters dependent on each other? Hasn't anyone in Korea heard of homeowner's insurance? Or perhaps using banks to schedule payments over time? Sorry, one of these days I would like to see an approach of one of these massive debts in a somewhat reasonable fashion rather than just using them as a poor excuse to keep characters together when there is no other reason to. But there was a good beginning and some effective use ofchibi art throughout the book, so if the creator can resist the urge to go all cliche, she may still pull this off. (At least I believe it to be a woman, my grasp of Korean naming conventions is need of improvement.)
Star Project Chiro, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.
-Ferdinand
Son Hee-JoonReleased in the US by Udon
Slugline: After watching or reading thirty billion adaptations of Oz, I could believe that this yellow brick road was really made of gold.A woman and her three strange companions enter a town along an endless road. The town is under attack from monsters and their military garrison has done little to stop it. It turns out that the military garrison are the monsters and that they are also experimenting on the townsfolk. But it also turns out the four are wanted criminals with the codenames Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman and Cowardly Lion in the Kingdom of Oz. The secret agent Shine seems to have his own agenda for them, but we then flashback to how a Korean girl named Mara ended up in another world called Oz, but not on how she ended up on the run or gained her companions.I was afraid this version of Oz was going to turn into a cultural Mary Sue (Click here for definition of a Mary Sue) after reading the first couple of a pages. But if it a Mary Sue, it is a well written one, which forgives many literary crimes. It transposes many of the aspects of the Oz stories onto one that is more familiar to manga/manwha readers. Now that I am thinking about it, the Wizard the Oz be one of the prototypes of otherworldly manga stories, where the character leaves an otherwise boring world, becomes important in another one, but yet still yearns to return to their old life. It is not a perfect translations of course, a cowardly lion is not much use in a title with fights so I am not quite sure how that flaw will be expressed here. But they actually set up the book in an interesting way, in that they showed Mara and her companions already on the road having adventures, and then flashing back. This shows up front how your expectations for the story will be challenged, so when you go through the origin story, you are not too anxious to rush through it because you now know it is not going in the expected directions. The strategy worked, for I have a preview of the 2nd volume here also and I will probably read it tonite.
Dorothy of Oz, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.-Ferdinand
