Airgear, v. 1

by Oh!great
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey



Slugline: Gangbanger Itsuki starts to discover the magic of Air Treck and his four female roomies as a way to beat the big, bad gang in town.

There are many sound, well-known laws of physics surrownding flight and human beings. This book ignores all of them. It's easier to think of the Air Treck rollerblades (yes, rollerblades) as magic flying talismans because no amount of mumbo jumbo is going to convince me that rollerblades can give you that kind of altitude without blowing out your knees and/or leaving you with serious road rash. I don't care if you weigh 50 pounds and are made of rubber, as Japanese teens seen to be.

That said, these kids live in a fantasy world of no grownups, no responsibilities and no reality checks. Itsuki's motivations are no deeper than a puddle of testosterone, with the occasional heroic moment, and his cronies are all too eager to adore him. The four girls, like most bestowers of power, aren't inclined to tell him much about the magic rollerblades in an attempt to make them more mysterious. And the bad guys all come out of a cookie cutter, your usual gang of terrorizing sexual molesters -- which is not why Itsuki wants to beat them, by the way. He just wants revenge for his own ass-kicking.

So it's hard to take this story seriously or sympathize with anybody. There's a grand total of three interesting moments that keep this from being a Dishonorable Mention blurb.



- Miranda

Our other manga reviews

Just a reminder, I also do manga reviews for the Comic Buyer's Guide, and just posted one on Fullmetal Alchemist at the Reviews and Retroviews forum over the Comic Buyers Guide website. This is in addition to my monthly column in the newstand edition of the Comic Buyers Guide, which this month is about how manga handles traditional European style fantasy. -Ferdinand

Her Majesty's Dog, vol. 1

Story and Art by Mick Takeuchi
Published in the U.S. by Go! Comi



Her Majesty's Dog, despite the rather provocative name, is not quite the fetish-laden story that the title would make it seem. Well, no more than most other manga titles. Still, there is little fear that it will be found shrink-wrapped or up on the top rack where you need a step stool to reach it.

Her Majesty's Dog is a cross between a horror and a shoujo title. While being set in a high school, and featuring a couple who are involved, it is more than the typical high school relationship. While Amane is distant from the rest of her classmates and often bullied, she has a good reason to be a little off. She grew up in an isolated village with the power to be a powerful priestess. Still, she wanted to experience the outside world a little, and thus went to high school. Her village, concerned about the risks, insisted on sending her guardian with her. Hyoue is a typical pretty boy who is always sneaking kisses from Amane, but he is also a spirit creature that needs the energy transferred by touch to him by her to function. The fact that he has managed to convince Amane that the energy needs to be transferred by a kiss is only a bonus from his viewpoint.

The early stories of this collection are more along the lines of straight horror, including some disturbing images of a dog, but as the book progresses more typical high school concerns emerge, though they never completely submerge the horror. From my understanding, the later issues of the series does trend more toward the typical high school stories.

And as for the title, since Hyoue is dependant on Amane, he's a bit of the underdog in the relationship.

(UnderDOG, get it? I crack me up.)




- Ferdinand

Old Boy, v. 1

by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi
Published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Manga



Slugline: After being mysteriously imprisoned for ten years, our hero is set free and starts looking for answers.

I saw the Korean-made movie version of Old Boy (it's out on DVD now) so I have the disadvantage of knowing how it ends (maybe/probably.) It's not a gory movie, but it's violent and mean-spirited. (Some people compare it to Pulp Fiction... which may be true in attitude, but not much else.)

That attitude is laid out in the manga, but more dilutely. In v.1, our nameless hero is released from his captivity and only just begins to start looking for answers. Meanwhile, the bad guys are keeping an eye on him.

The movie is tightly paced and efficient, in the tradition of revenge thrillers, but the manga shows every sign of moving at a distinctly more manga-ish pace. The art and writing are perfectly competent, but it lacks a sense of urgency, for me, and the novelty of the situation can't be re-created because I've seen the movie. So my rating may be biased, but this manga just doesn't stand out enough to be above average.

If you haven't seen the movie and you like dark thrillers, check Old Boy out in manga form and give it a chance. If you did catch the movie, get the DVD and enjoy it again, with extras.



DVD:


- Miranda

Bizenghast, Vol. 1

By M. Alice LeGrow
Published by TokyoPop



Slugline: Gothic-inspired dreams challenge two friends in an old New England town that's a perfect backdrop for their adventures.

Bizenghast is the story of Dinah and Vincent. Dinah's parents died when she was very young and she is in the care of her aunt, who lives in an old New England town called Bizenghast, in a former asylum/burned-out boy's school. Needless to say, the traumas make Dinah a bit "fragile" and make Vincent protective of her, which she resents and needs at the same time. When exploring the woods surrounding the town, they come across a mausoleum, and Dinah is forced into a contract to free the ghosts from their dreams by the caretakers of the mausoleum.

Bizenghast's art is very much in the gothic Lolita style, very pretty, with intricate designs that seem very fine and detailed. As if smearing the ink with your fingers would ruin the entire page rather just a few details. My concern is the story, because this graphic novel feels disjointed, cut up into episodes dealing with various ghosts. They skip some of the challenge scenes, and it seems otherwise disconnected. It may be the continuation of the dream logic of the story into other areas, but it still rough.

Also, the timing of story seems off. At the end of the book, there is an introduction to a new character who explains the story background. It is an weird place to end the book, on a distinctly low note, and feels like it should have been at the front of the next book rather than at the end of this one.

I like the story and love the art, but I can't shake the feeling that the story logic is a aching tooth in your jaw, nagging at you when you least expect it.



-Ferdinand

Pichi Pichi Pitch, v.2

by Pink Hanamori
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey



Dishonorable Mention

Just plain sloppy writing. All else aside, it's just plain sloppy.

A series of disjointed scenes, transparently convenient coincidences, and cookie-cutter pre-teen melodrama do not a story make. I can see how it might work -- barely -- in an animated show, but television shorthand does not work in printed media, especially not black-and-white.

- Miranda

Dokebi Bride, v.1

by Marley
Published in the U.S. by Netcomics



Slugline: Sunbi, who grew up in a small town with her shaman grandmother, has to move to Seoul to live with her estranged father and his new family.

The plot isn't yet clear, or this would've been a 4-star book. Volume 1 covers Sunbi's childhood in flashback and the problems of growing up with a shaman's ability to see the spirit world. And even though no goals are laid out -- her mother died because of spirit trouble, but Sunbi doesn't seem motivated by it, and the guardian spirits of the small town are leaving, but then again so is she -- I enjoyed the story very much.

Partly because of the dragon. I haven't seen many traditional Eastern dragons in manga, strangely enough, so it made me smile when a shaman from out of town accidentally summoned the town's guardian sea dragon. We also meet traditional Korean goblins called dokebi and learn a little about guardian spirits. Maybe this is all old hat in Korea, but it's the sort of thing that makes me devour a book even faster.

By the end of the flashback, we know a bit about why Sunbi has moved in with her father and stepfamily, but there isn't any conflict to speak of. Not yet. I expect this title will be climbing in the ratings as the story continues, because the writing and the art show a great deal of promise.



- Miranda

GTO The Early Years, v.1

by Tohru Fujisawa
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Meet Eikichi Onizuka and his pal Ryuji Danma as teenage thugs desperate to get some tail. This is a prequel to Great Teacher Onizuka, but fandom of that is not a requirement.

I'll be honest -- I don't like this art style. Never have. And I'm not much for the toilet humor or the mindset that women are puzzles to be solved for a reward of hot monkey sex.

So it's a bit of a miracle that I didn't hate every page of this huge volume. (344 pages, Amazon says.)

Masturbation, diahrrea and STDs are played for laughs and there are plenty of street fights to go around. But Eikichi and Ryuji manage to do something resembling the right thing at the end of each of the storylines. Oddly, at 16 their biker days are already in their past -- they're making an attempt at finishing high school -- which makes me wonder how young biker gangs are in Japan. 15? 14? Don't you need a license to drive those gussied-up choppers?

(For a hilarious example of gussied-up motorcycles -- and a hilarious movie in general -- check out Kamikaze Girls, if you can find it.)

Eikichi and Ryuji's chances of getting laid are slightly worse than a snowball's chance in hell, but anyone who's seen GTO already knows that. It's not my cup of tea, but I'm still giving it three stars and I'll go so far as to say that the train scene after Eikichi gets a Buddha haircut was funny.



- Miranda

Summer vacation

No post tonight... it's a long holiday weekend, Ferdinand is at Anime Expo and I need a break.

There will also be no posts on July 21 and 24 because we will both be at the San Diego Comic Con (which I highly recommend if you can get to it, for both Western comics and manga, and scifi/fantasy/horror/niche genre movies too.)

No post August 4th as we will be at Otakon wallowing in manga and anime, and that will be the last scheduled day off until November.

Stay cool, everyone.

- Miranda

New Lanchester Strategy, v. 2 & 3

New Lanchester Strategy: Sales and Marketing Strategy for the Weak vol. 2
New Lanchester Strategy: Sales and Marketing Strategy for the Strong vol. 3
Written by Shinichi Yano, illustrated by Kenichi Sato and translated by Connie Prene
Released in the US by Lanchester Press, Inc



Slugline: Learning to beat your business opponents, manga style!

I thought I would try something a little different from what you are used to. A business theory manga. The Lanchester business theory deals with how to beat business opponents by focusing on their weak points and so on. This has been used in Japan as one of the theories employed in their post-WW 2 recovery. This title was translated by a small specialty press in the late 90s that focuses on Lanchester theory works.

The reason I chose to review this particular title is that it is one of the few examples I know of a non-fiction manga, showing the width and breadth of the medium. Because it's not just about which titles tell good stories, it's about what kind of information manga can be used to communicate. And the answer is anything, because stories are just information, theories are just information. This sort of manga has not reached our shores yet, but I hope this can show what other sorts manga can turn up if the market keeps expanding and demanding material, even material that we may not yet realize we want.

This is a three part manga series, but right now only the last two are available via Amazon. The story is told through the eyes of a group leader, striving to do his all for his company, facing opponents both within and without the company. He talks to friends and fellow company members, each time illustrating one particular point of the business theory in an accessible, commonsense way. Nothing really earthshattering about the theories, but it does take some interesting approaches on understanding and applying business theories, both offensively and defensively.



- Ferdinand

p.s. Now seriously, you thought manga was all sailor girls and bishonen, didn't you. As boring as this manga might sound, imagine how much more boring it would be without pictures...

- Miranda

Our other manga reviews

Just a reminder, I do manga reviews at the CBG site, and just posted one on Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days at the Reviews and Retroviews forum over the Comic Buyers Guide website. Never mind my monthly column in the paper edition of the Comic Buyers Guide.

School Rumble, v. 1 & 2

by Jin Kobayashi
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Slugline: Tenma love Oji. Kanji loves Tenma. Despite their best efforts, there's not a single clue between the three of them.

The writer has grouped the short, self-contained chapters into "sharps" and "flats" (as in the musical notations) -- the sharps are about Tenma and Kanji's wacky attempts to get the attention of their crushes. The flats are about Tenma's sister Yakumo, who is far more serious and has some psychic ability.

It's an interesting juxtaposition. Tenma's and Kenji's stories are amusing in their desperate, doomed frenzy, and Yakumo's more insightful stories about deflecting attention balance them out. Otherwise, it would just be light and amusing but prone to repetition and sympathy fatigue.

Don't expect anything to come of the romances -- everyone's far too thick-headed and hapless -- and don't be surprised that the writer uses some torturous series of coincidences to pull the jokes off. For a high school comedy romance, School Rumble keeps it light and short and funny, rather than trying to build elaborate misunderstandings that could be solved in two seconds. And I appreciate that, having sat through quite a few of the latter in both English and Japanese.



UPDATED!: Series Update for School Rumble here.

- Miranda

Devil May Cry 3, v.1

by Suguro Chayamachi
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Dante, who ought to find a new job if he hates this one so much, is set on a collision course with his long-lost brother.

Let's face it, there's a reason why video games are not known as good source material for books or movies. It's because even the most story-oriented game is required to provide the players with fight sequences, level bosses or something to do. Like a summer blockbuster, the plot structure is well established and allows only a little room for the other three elements of the story: character, dialog and worldbuilding. Like summer blockbusters, they can be amusing but they won't do much more than that.

DMC3 is very much caught in the game plot structure. Dante shows up, fights, then goes somewhere else and fights some more. Things are told to him, and the reader by extension, but he is a passive receiver of it all. Strange, perhaps, to say that the guy with the two guns and the kung fu is passive, but he only goes where the story requires him to be and does what the story requires him to do. There's a little snarking on the side and a dollop of angst, but it's not much spice, to my tastes.

The art is competent and fans of the game may enjoy reliving their favorite sequences, but for the rest of us it's just some nice pictures and rather obvious use of Lewis Carroll characters. I ought to be able to hand out yellow cards for that sort of thing.



- Miranda

Kuro Gane, v.1

by Kei Toume
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Slugline: A samurai prodigy is resurrected as a clockwork man by your friendly neighborhood Dr. Frankenstein and returns to his home town to settle some debts.

Or, at least I think he's a robot -- he gets stabbed a couple times and bleeds. (oils?)

Jintetsu was found dying and picked up by a wanna-be mad scientist (he's a bit too nice to be a mad scientist.) Waking in a very retro-robot body, he finds he has no voice, but he's alive. The scientist uses Jintetsu to get revenge, but dies in the process, leaving his creation to take a talking sword and head home to get some revenge of his own.

The art is rough and there is some allusion to Jintetsu's memories and being demon-haunted, but not much comes of that in v.1. The sword does his talking for him and carries on one-sided conversations trying to figure out the robot's motivations. (He can't be bothered to even nod yes or no, apparently.)

The plots are fairly standard, but the characters are likeable, especially Otsuki, his former girlfriend. This is very much an introduction to the world, as no long-term goals are set and each of the three stories are resolved. So I'm curious where the writer will take this idea in v.2.



- Miranda

Our other Manga reviews

Just a reminder, I do manga reviews at the CBG site, and just posted one on Angel Cup at the Reviews and Retroviews forum over the Comic Buyers Guide website. Never mind my monthly column in the paper edition of the Comic Buyers Guide.

Last Fantasy, v. 1

Written by Creative Won with Art by Yong-wan Kwon
Published in the U.S. by TokyoPop



Slugline: Two brothers try their best to be real in a fantasy world which conspires against them.

Last Fantasy is a clever little take on fantasy stories and gaming, with the characters showing all the traits of classic Monty Haulers, grabbing anything of even marginal value to be sold at the nearest town that has disreputable merchants. Tian (the magical one) and Drei (the brawny one) seek their fame and fortune, mostly fortune, yet never really make the big time. Meanwhile, a dangerous presence lurks the background, planning something not nice.

Sometimes it is hard to create real characters in a parody/humor title, since they are used for such broad purposes that you don't really need to create that much detail in them, and too much detail actually makes it hard to believe that they would act in such broad ways. But this title does play around with some of the fantasy tropes in an interesting way, and the only reason it doesn't rate higher is because I think they are setting up some conflicts, and I am not sure how those later conflicts will play out.

It is interesting that this manwha was written collaboratively, according to the end comments, in a deliberate attempt to rectify a perceived weakness in the overall writing of manga/manwha. Which to a certain extent I can understand, for there has been an interesting argument in US comics (see Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics) that the disciplines of art and writing have been moving apart, and when you try to reintegrate them together, there is bound to be problems. People tend to focus on the art, since that is what you can tell immediately whether or not it is any good, while "anyone can write." Of course, writing well is another thing.

What, did you expect a writer, even one of reviews, not to stress the importance of writing?

We may be biased, thinking that most manga is well written, but let's face it, the bad stuff never gets translated, so we are seeing the top ten percent of manga and thus may be missing the hordes of beautiful but horribly incomprehensible stories. (You can find the comic-book versions of those in any comic book store, though.)

And, oh yeah, after all that, I do think they have put together a pretty strong story. So at least that problem has been solved with them at least.



- Ferdinand

Loveless, v. 1

by Yun Kouga
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: A troubled young boy finds out that a secret world of magic duels led to his older brother's murder.

This title has virtually every aspect of a success: modern-world magic, dueling, mysterious sexy guys, lots of yaoi fanfic fodder, and, most importantly, kitty ears.

Oddly, it's the kitty ears that contribute to the more interesting side of the story. The kitty ears (and tail) are a mark of sexual innocence, apparently, so even the boys wear their purity openly.

Our young hero, Ritsuka, has his ears but everything else about him is damaged goods. His mother is abusive, both physically and mentally. His older brother was gruesomely murdered. He's emotionally detached and may be developing a set of multiple personalities -- a self-defense mechanism against severe abuse.

And then Soubi, his brother's dueling partner, appears and spouts off such an emotionally manipulative speech that it set off my sexual-abuser-alarms, and I'm not even a parent.

Between that and the fact that dueling apparently involves bondage gear, the entire story takes on tones of a metaphor for childhood sexual abuse.

I wonder if that's the writer's intention.

Either way, I guarantee you'll see more boys wearing kitty ears at your next anime convention.




UPDATED!: Series Update for Loveless here.

- Miranda

Other reviews we do...

Just a reminder, I do manga reviews at the CBG site, and just posted one on I Luv Halloween at the Reviews and Retroviews forum over the Comic Buyers Guide website. Never mind my monthly column in the paper edition of the Comic Buyers Guide.

Rebirth, v. 1 - 3

By Woo
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Powerfull vampire is re-constituted from ashes to seek revenge and/or save and/or destroy the world.

If you like big, DBZ-style magic fights, read no further and go buy this manhwa. (Korean manga, ICYDK.)

For the rest of us, Rebirth starts with a fairly standard set of characters (angry anti-hero, two girls struggling to be useful, snarky sidekick, emotionless female killing machine) and gets a bit distracted by its own massive combat sequences for the first two volumes.

(So distracted that a bunch of supposedly hungry monsters spend most of v.1 standing around with lunch in their hands -- take a bite! Up the tension! Doesn't the girl look yummy enough?)

In volume 3, the story launches into some good questions and answers, but then throws in a rather pointless fight and some unsurprising character background for the busty female "Catholic" preist/exorcist.

The characters are solidly developed, but not very interesting... dialog is good in places but mostly flat... plot keeps getting sidelined by combat... worldbuilding... well, it doesn't suck, specifically, except for the vampiric parts.



- Miranda

A Midnight Opera, v. 1 & 2

By Hans Steinbach
Published by Tokyopop



Slugline: Ancient, undead musician has taken up goth rock when his past comes a-knocking in the form of werewolves, zombies, witch-vampires, holy paramilitary orders and romantic trauma.

These two books bother me. First problem: there are some really cool sequences, such as volume 1's combat through a hospital and volume 2's introduction of Elizabeth Bathory. Second problem: the art sometimes isn't clear when it needs to be. The worst example was when a section of wall turned out to actually be a train. (This was sometimes a problem in another title that I really, really wanted to love: Poison Elves by Drew Hayes)

And never mind that I'm not clear on what part of being undead includes having children who can grow into adults. Or being a werewolf. But I'm willing to let it slide.

I suppose I should be thankful, too, that I took French in high school (a thousand years ago,) because he keeps lapsing into it (and German and Italian, once or twice.)

Steinbach's got talent, I'm not going to argue that. There's wittiness and fast-moving combat and werewolves howling atop Notre Dame. There's a beautiful moment in v. 1 when Ein says "You are safe here, my friend." He uses a scratchy-pen art style that reminds me (fondly) of the early issues of Sandman. But the storytelling is rough and sometimes unclear, and in one important place the dialog just doesn't carry the weight needed to convince me that the likes of Bathory is going to change her mind.

I want to see what he writes when he's finished A Midnight Opera.



- Miranda

Kami Kaze, v.1

by Satoshi Shiki
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Girl with mystical significance is sought by many bad guys and protected by one good guy. Both blood and guts are well represented.

You get your money's worth with this one -- 250 pages for the same price -- and a lot of solidly good combat. The characters are nothing new -- a girl who doesn't know her powers, a stern, untalkative hero -- but the plot both clips along and explains itself adequately, which is good because it also brings its own vocabulary. In some titles, like Basilisk, it can be a bit of work to keep up, but Kami Kaze doesn't bury you in new words (the master of this being, of course, A Clockwork Orange.)

Despite familiar characers and motivations, the story held on to me by sketching out an element-based power structure and a quest to summon 88 beasts. (What are the chances they'll be joining us in a few volumes?)

While not the goriest manga ever, there is slicing and dicing of innocent bystanders and enough sexual innuendo to hint at the possibility of some nasty stuff to come. Like Basilisk, I expect things will escalate quickly. Given the choice between Basilisk and Kami Kaze, though, I would recommend you pick up this one. Slightly more meaning to the gratuitous violence, if you know what I mean.



UPDATED!: Series Update for Kami Kaze here.

- Miranda

Madtown Hospital, v. 1

by JTK
Published by Netcomics



I'm going to give Netcomics this one as a mulligan. Check out some of their other titles... just not this one.

- Miranda

Secret Chaser

Dishonorable Mention:
Secret Chaser, v. 1
by Tamayo Akiyama
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Obviously, the writer being an original member of CLAMP doesn't guarantee anything. The first 50 pages turned me off so badly -- viral hypnosis! bossy 12-year-old CEOs! Look, ma, I'm Sherlock Holmes! -- that I only skimmed the rest. It didn't get better.

- Miranda

Dogby Walks Alone 1

Created by Wes Abbott
Published by TokyoPop



Slugline: When there is a murder mystery in the happiest place on Earth, only Dogby, mightiest of the mascots, can be counted on to solve it.

Dogby Walks Alone is a continuation and extension of a Rising Star of Manga-winning short from the second collection. The never-revealed Dogby is the unofficial force for justice in HappyPlace, the happiest theme park in America. Except for the ex-Russian mafia security forces, amuck mascots from rival theme park Illusion Valley and the Bondian-villain-like HappyPlace management. Despite the chaos of place, and the mass disgruntlement of the workers leading to a robbery of the day's receipts, Dogby cares about only one thing.

The Princess has perished.

And someone has to pay.

Ranging from serious to tragicomic, Dogby Walks Alone is a detective story wrapped up in homages to dozens of different works, from Chinatown/Chinatoon to video games to the Blues Brothers. But around it, though the creator tries to undercut it deliberately, is the core of the story of Dogby wanting to do justice for the Princess, even though she couldn't respond to his own caring about her. While the art and sometimes the story is uneven, the characters ring true to their own world, and if you can appreciate some ironic humor, Dogby Walks Alone is for you.



- Ferdinand

Other reviews we do...

Just a reminder, I do manga reviews at the CBG site, and just posted one on Unearthly at the Reviews and Retroviews forum over the Comic Buyers Guide website. Never mind my monthly column in the paper edition of the Comic Buyers Guide.

Platinum Garden, v.1

by Maki Fujita
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: "Indecent Proposal" meets the antiquated Japanese extended family structure, with a dash of weirdness.

Kazura's grandfather died in debt to a very rich boy, Mizuki, so naturally he offered his granddaughter as collateral. Mizuki requires her to move in and be his fiancee.

I am glad to say that some things are explained fairly soon after these odd (and illegal) requirements are announced. Some of the developments are not surprising (Kazura will be going to Mizuki's school too) and some are more interesting (Mizuki's role in the family business.) Some of the characters are stock stereotypes (the "perverted" 20something male) and some are... close to being stereotypes (Kazura puts up a bit of a fight at first, but she's softening up fast.) The dialog is well translated and the arguments are amusing, balancing out the moments that felt forced and/or arbitrary.

So it balances out to a 3, and could go either way in the next volume.

And in case you were wondering, Ferdinand will be back after his many writing deadlines ease up, including his manga column in Comics Buyer's Guide and his weekly manga reviews on CBGxtra.com.

p.s. "Oops?" It's called burnout, Ferdinand. I'm so out of opinions that Secret Chaser couldn't get more than an eyeroll out of me.



- Miranda

Oops

Mistake on our part folks, a new review was not posted last night, a new one will posted tonite and then back to the normal schedule tomorrow.

-Ferdinand

No Man's Land, v. 2

by Jason DeAngelis & Jennyson Rosero
Published by Seven Seas



Slugline: A Civil War vet hunts demons in the wild, wild west. And yes, it's partly his fault that they're there.

Pick up volume 1 of this OEL so you know that we're in the middle of a showdown with one of the bad guys. After the fight -- which is just as over-the-top as any manga -- the story pauses a bit to fill in some background.

This being a horror title, No Man's got a dark past, linked to both Lincoln's assassination and the disastrous spell that unleashed demons into the world. The incident cost him his wife and son, as one might expect.

These are story elements we've all seen before, so here's what sets No Man's Land apart from other demon-hunting stories: it's a well done "weird west," which I have a soft spot for, (doesn't everybody?) and it doesn't have the cultural misperceptions that crop up in Japanese manga. For example, the Quakers are correctly portrayed as pacifists.

(I would never hold it against a Japanese title for getting American cultural details wrong, but when Catholic nuns start waving magic wands topped with the star of David, it gets really distracting.)

IMO, Seven Seas is a publisher to watch. Everything they publish is OEL and quite faithful to the manga style, right down to the reverse-reading. I'm looking forward to watching Western and Eastern graphic literature hybridize and develop its own style.



- Miranda

Kamui, v.1

by Shingo Nanami
Published in the U.S. by Broccoli Books



Slugline: A paranormal paramilitary organization recruits a wandering stranger whose secret goal is to take back the thing that just might be giving them their powers.

The elements of this story are quite familiar: a stranger with significant powers, a group of jaded, infighting teenage "generals" (since in manga everyone turns into a pumpkin on their 21st birthday) with paranormal powers, sidekicks in the snarky and overly slavish flavors, post-apocalyptic monsters, and a lost McGuffin that will Fix Everything. However, Kamui presents it all in a fresh, energetic manner.

Atsuma is searching for Okikurumi, a spirit -- aka kamui -- and finds a city controlled by NOA, a paramilitary replacement for the previous government, which was destroyed by giant earthquakes. NOA is headed up by various angsty and otherwise preoccupied officers and their lackeys; Atsuma's arrival shakes things up a bit, and will probably soon shake it up much harder.

Not the newest storyline in the genre, but Nanami-san has a good director's eye in his artwork, doesn't fall into angsty monologues for more than a panel or two, and keeps everything relevant to the plot. That way, things click right along and he gets two volumes' worth of introductions done in one. I may be getting older, but I'm not slowing down -- I've got things to do and places to be and if a writer's stuck in the mud, I can find something better to read. Kamui is, let's see, fourth or fifth in a cluster of pretty good stuff, though. I may be getting spoiled.




- Miranda

Blame!, v.1

by Tsutomu Nihei
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Aggresively cryptic, far-future science fiction action. Killy, who is appropriately named, is looking for genes in a dying world.

This is a more difficult title to review. If you consider the four building blocks of a story -- plot, characters, dialog and worldbuilding -- Blame! does not make for an easy read. There is not much dialog. There is even less characterization. And the writer feels no need at all to explain the plot or the world it happens in.

If you like to see things go boom (mostly heads and squishy things) then you might find a little entertainment here.

Killy is looking for genes. After a couple hundred pages, that and a small handful of tangentially related facts are all I have, as a reader. I also have about a million possible theories about the backdrop of all this killing and violence, but very little to hang them on.

There are branches of science fiction prose which operate in a similar way, they force the reader to supply the worldbuilding and put a great deal of thought into what sort of architecture can support the facade the writer presents. Done well, such stories can send you down unexpected paths of thought. (One title which does this well is Girls, by Joshua and Jonathan Luna. Slugline: A small American town is suddenly attacked by naked women who do not talk. And then it gets weirder, but what the reader knows is strictly limited to what the characters know. Which is just about nothing. Website link Amazon link)

Not done well, the reader's left with "WTF?"

Blame! is right on the edge of WTF, for me. The question is, would I want to spend money on another 200-plus pages that could give me the clues to make a pattern I can see, or could just be more WTF.



- Miranda

Samurai Champloo, v. 1 & 2

by Masaru Gotsubo, created by Manglobe
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Does trouble find them, or do they find trouble? Jin, Fuu and Mugen are (at least nominally) searching for the "sunflower samurai."

Comedy is harder than drama, and translating comedy into another language has got to be even tougher. There's slapstick to be had, and that's almost universal, but the translators here have succeeded in bringing the verbal comedy to English -- with a little help from margin notes. Samurai Champloo combines tight pacing, snarky dialog, a sketchy but succinct art style and a surprisingly large body count into a series of funny stories.

Mugen is the lazeabout, Jin is the calm-cool-and-collected type, and Fuu is the industrious, practical girl of the group. They're finding their way across a non-specific historical Japan supposedly in search of a sunflower-scented samurai but mostly getting in trouble and trying to find their next meal. Maybe in a few volumes the plot will kick in, but it'll be a fun ride in the meantime.

In volume 2, their journey continues and they find adventure and/or trouble and/or dinner by battling local bad guys, spoofing and riffing on manga and pop culture as they go.

These manga made me laugh, and anyone who knows me can tell you I'm a tough audience when it comes to comedy.



- Miranda

Basilisk, v.1

Manga by Masaki Segawa, based on Futaro Yamada's "The Kouga Ninja Scrolls"
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Slugline: A dueling-contest title featuring two enemy ninja clans enlisted by the Tokugawa shogun to proxy-fight a war to determine the succession between his son and... another son? A rival's son? Oh, who cares. Wall to wall combat is what we're here for.

They say there are no superheroes in manga. I disagree. Just swap "mutant powers" for "secret ninja techniques" and there you go. Just in the first volume, just of the clearly defined abilities, I see direct parallels to Clayface, Toad, Spiderman and two different applications of Plastic Man/Mr. Fantastic's powers. Two things set manga apart from superheroes, though, novelty and gore. Toad, for example, still has both arms and legs. And Spidey has never taken a scythe blade in the head (AFAIK -- I'm not a big Spidey fan.) You have to go hunting for small-press titles for that kind of thing... or pick up some manga like Basilisk.

The contents of v.1 are as described in the slugline, plus a romance subplot. Since Yamada is better known as the creator of Ninja Scrolls, things are sure to get worse before they get... really, really ugly. And since nobody lets little things like mortal wounds slow them down, there's plenty of potential for multiple, increasingly strange and gruesome duels!

If this is your cup of tea, come and get it!



UPDATED!: Series Update for Basilisk here.

- Miranda

East Coast Rising, v.1

By Becky Cloonan
Released by TokyoPop



Slugline: In the near future, when the water level has risen, a motley crew of privateer merchants decides to go after the legendary lost horde of the last mayor of NYC.

Becky Cloonan is one of the success stories from American manga fandom, having made the transition from convention artist alleys to works such as AIT/Planetar’s Demo.

East Coast Rising is a pirate story, based in the flooded East Coast of the near future. Archer, a boy of questionable past, is rescued by the La Revancha -- the fastest ship on the Hudson River, captained by Cannonball Joe -- from pirates riding giant sea turtles.

What, didn’t you have nightmares as a kid that some snapping turtle was going to bite into your stomach while you were swimming in a lake?

Oh, just me then.

From there, Cannonball Joe and company sneak into Jersey to steal the required treasure map, leading to a confrontation with Jersey pirates and fending the Suffocating Death, a giant octopus that is a true monster of the deep, which happens to enjoy Jersey waters. The book leaves us with the Suffocating Death maimed, but now very determined to get teeth and tentacles on our soft munchy heroes.

Jersey pirates! What else do I need to tell you about the title? Okay, pirates, in an interesting near future with crazy critters. A fun, enjoyable read. The main weakness is that the characters are broadly sketched and are easily identifiable types, with no surprises or even twists in them so far. But considering that this is an adventure story, this isn’t yet a fatal flaw. Almost half of the book is merely the extended chase/battle sequence, first against the Jersey pirates, then with the Suffocating Death thrown in.



- Ferdinand

Eternal Sabbath, v.1

by Fuyumi Soryo
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Slugline: A mind-controlling man going by the name of Ryosuke Akiba meets Mine Kujyou, a woman scientist who he can't control.

Since I got serious about reviewing manga, there haven't been many titles that I'm genuinely looking forward to further volumes of -- Gunslinger Girl, and now Eternal Sabbath. (I've been reading Blade of the Immortal since Dark Horse began collecting the graphic novels.)

Volume 1 introduces us to "Ryosuke" and both his mind-altering abilities and his lack of self. Then we meet Mine, who is one of the most accurately portrayed female scientists that I've seen in manga. Then they meet each other, and I really enjoyed that a) she didn't fall for him b) she applies logic, reasoning and an open mind to figure him out, c) she's more curious than frightened, and d) doesn't launch a crusade against Ryosuke. Then, someone from his past arrives and supplies some background and a more direct plotline, namely that Ryosuke is one of two specimens created in a genetic engineering lab.

I judge manga by the same standards as any fiction -- its quality of plot, characterization, dialog, and worldbuilding. Soryo-san hits all the marks without invoking manga stereotypes, and no wonder: this is the author of Mars, one of the few romance series that I've actually finished. In this new series, the characters are clearly defined, the dialog is good, the background was filled in (but not overexplained) and there's the beginning of a plotline. So many manga need more than one volume to accomplish these things that it's practically normal... and what does it say about a writer that can't communicate such basic elements in the first hundred pages?

Eternal Sabbath sets a new quality benchmark for Prospero's Manga, I'm glad to say. I hope you readers give it a try.



- Miranda

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, v.1

By Fumino Hayashi
Published in the U.S. by ADV Manga



Slugline: A "happier" version of Evangelion reframed in an ordinary school, since everybody knows there's a terrible lack of schoolroom relationship stories in manga these days. And we didn't make enough money off Evangelion the first time around.

The press releases for this title burble on about how fans have been waiting for this version of Evangelion, a re-imagining of the story to get away from the angst and drama of saving the world.

I'm sorry... but that's what I found most interesting about the original.

So seeing the same characters -- violent, egotistical Asuka, fan-service Rei and abuse-magnet Shinji -- tossed into an average shojo with mostly the same background people and mostly the same situations isn't doing much for me. Volume 1 sets up all of the obligatory relationships and jealousies and attempts to make NERV into a "mysterious" organization where "mysterious" projects are going on. It's been a while since the original, but I'm not that forgetful.

Angelic Days gets a bump up in score thanks to above average dialog and nice, clean art. Kudos to the translators for making everyone sound like they're familiar with American English. However, that's as high as it's going to go unless the writer can pull out some genuinely novel situations and/or relationships. Given that this title is being specifically aimed at fans of the original, maybe there are some surprises coming up to turn the Evangelion world on its ear. Maybe this very average v.1 is a literary feint. I'd like to see that, to tell the truth.

We'll find out soon enough, I'm sure.



Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, v.1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Full Metal Panic, vol. 2

Original Author: Shouji Gatou, Illustrator: Retsu Tateo
Published in the U.S. by ADV Manga



Slugline: A mecha adventure story disguised as a high school relationship drama.

We have also reviewed Full Metal Panic, vol. 1: Fighting Boy Meets Girl, the light novel that this manga based on.

Kaname Chidori has had a mad stalker guy following her around. He is heavily armed, but somehow or another she writes him off as a harmless eccentric who has decided, for some odd reason, to dedicate his life to 'protecting' her.

On the other hand, this weird high school drama transforms into a mecha action adventure in the second volume when Sosuke Sagara, a merely psychotic high schooler, is revealed to be a psychotic mecha pilot so that he can rescue Kaname and the rest of the high school. Their class trip to Okinawa has been plane-jacked to the ever-friendly North Korea. The hijackers are led by Gauron, a terrorist that Sosuke thought he had dealt with by putting a round into his head.

Throw in a stealth submarine that fires ballistic mecha, mecha who have psychic attacks and defenses, and the MacGuffin that Kaname apparently has some sort of secret knowledge buried in her mind that everyone wants, and was the real reason behind the hijacking, things get interesting.

In the simplest possible way...

Things go boom, prettily.

A good action/adventure bit, with mecha to maximize property damage. Always a plus!



Full Metal Panic!, vol. 2 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Blade of the Immortal, v.15: Trickster

by Hiroaki Samura
Published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Manga



For the last 14 books, we've followed Rin, more or less, on her quest for revenge on Anotsu. In v.14, she took a pass and let him go. For a Western-style storyteller, that would be the end. But on we go, now with no clear goal in sight.
So now what? We meet new people, new opponents whose psychoses are established, or whose motivations are suitably muddled, and we revisit the vague involvement of the government in the whole situation. Maybe things will become clearer in v.16... and maybe they won't. Lose half a star for misplacing the plotline and making me wait impatiently for the next volume.

As a consolation prize, Manji gets his ass kicked but wins anyway, and Magatsu has a cool fight with Giichi and is left for dead. Again. Magatsu never gets any respect, and he keeps crawling back for more.

And Manji makes fun of Rin for worrying about him. Maybe she should just kick him in the nuts instead. He might find that charming.

OK, so I'm grumpy about the story turning around and doing a few manga-standard character introductions... again. I expected better.



- Miranda

Fullmetal Alchemist, v.1

Story and Art by Hiromu Arakawa
Published in the U.S. by Viz



Slugline: Two brothers, marked by their experimentation into the darkest uses of alchemy, now work for the government and try to reverse their condition.

For people that watch anime, Fullmetal Alchemist it is one of those ready-born hits, taking the anime world by storm, mowing down its victims -- I mean gathering fans before it was even officially released. The gray market makes sure that people know when the good stuff is coming.

And the manga it is based on is good. Not great, but the magic system is explained briefly, and then never really mentioned again but its rules stay in effect. That sort of consistency shows care. The main characters, Edward and Alphonse, have easily recognizable but not shallow characterizations.

Edward and Alphonse tried to bring their mother back to life and failed. Edward lost part of his leg, and Alphonse would have died bodiless if Edward hadn't sacrificed his arm to contain Alphonse's spirit in a suit of armor. Now, years later, Edward has been drafted into government service as an alchemist, but all he is really interested is finding a way to restore Alphonse's body.

As typical for fantasy manga, the country the story is set in is a mixture of Europe in the mid- to late-industrial age with alchemical magic thrown in. In addition, the country seems to be under a military dictatorship/a fascist state with rebellions and corruption festering on the body politic. Edward in particular is unconcerned about the world around him, but that sort of indifference never lasts. A pretty face will probably change that.

But isn't that always the how it goes, Miranda?



- Ferdinand

Blade of the Immortal, v. 14: Last Blood

by Hiroaki Samura
Published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Manga



Slugline: Revenge is a dish best served cold. With lots of blood on top.

These volumes are collections of issues that Dark Horse has been publishing for several years now... thus, they aren't released often and thus, when I picked up volume 15, I couldn't remember what was going on. So I went back to refresh my memory.

Manga storylines have a reputation for running far longer than even the most ambitious Western comic books. It's practically a selling point. One effect of their length is manga's tendency to get side-tracked into character development stories which can lead to losing focus on the central plot. Another side effect is that all the usual signs of heading toward an ending does not mean that.

Volume 14 could have been the end of Blade: Manji and Rin finally cornered their villain, Anotsu, a few of the major supporting characters turned up, and there were plenty of extra guys with swords around to make for a couple hundred pages of Samura-sensei's exquisite action sequences.

Fans of manga are familiar with the stylistic habits of combat: there are flashy poses, gritted teeth, lots of speed lines, sometimes spectacular explosions or magic. Blade's combat sequences are more like still photos taken from a movie. And they aren't the still photos you'd expect from a hand-to-hand fight -- no flashy poses, no dramatically swirling capes. Just very gritty, very real, and very messy.

Seriously, Japanese men must not get enough calcium in their diets. It's like they don't have any bones at all.

In any case, volume 14 is not the end of the story. And while I highly recommend the entire series, a word of caution: it is intense and graphic. Not just fighting -- one volume was entirely devoted to one of the female characters being raped and tortured (and her gruesome revenge.) Although set in historical Japan, the author cops to not doing his homework and having fun rather than aiming for accuracy. Which is fine, because he has invented some genuinely strange weaponry to slice and dice with.

My only quibble with the story is that the main characters do not have much life outside their quest for revenge. Supporting characters get to have motivations, and their stories are more interesting asides than other manga's main stories.

Stay tuned for volume 15!



- Miranda

Genshiken, v.5

by Kio Shimoku
Released in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Slugline: See otaku in their natural environment try to create and sell a doujinshi!

I honestly don't know how to feel about this title. Well, maybe not the title in general, but this issue in specific. The main story of this issue is about a club of otaku making a doujinshi and getting it to a convention to sell.

I've done something similar, with all (and more, since I was putting up my own money) the pain and delight that entails. Mostly pain. Which made it difficult for me to read at times, since I winced at some scenes as I mentally projected the features of the people who I had similar experiences with. Though there was one thing that happened to the Genshiken -- a sellout of their product -- which never happened to us.

I guess the discomfort is a sign that the story rings true. A couple times the layout bothered me, but the story certainly had the ring of truth, and does give one an idea of how the con scene in Japan works. And for giggles, here is one of the 'zines I was involved with: http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/tas/tsunami/index.shtml



- Ferdinand

p.s. For the record, I would've given it three and a half stars. The situations rang true, yes, but I don't think it's on par with Gunslinger Girl.

- Miranda

Oops

Delay. New review will be up tonite. New review will be available tomorrow as we get back on the regular schedule.

- Ferdinand

Sokora Refugees, v.1

Story by Segamu, Art by Melissa DeJesus
Published by TokyoPop



Slugline: A female high schooler discovers the latest in breast augmentation: timesharing your body with an elf sorceress.

Just a reminder, check back to the Pastel review from a few weeks ago to learn about fan service. I don't usually hold much against fan service, except for when it is being used as the only attraction of a book. I know I am radical, demanding a story or some other purpose to read a book than just stare are the scantily clad females, but that's me.

That being said, Sokora Refugees has the kernel of a good story in there, but it's buried in silly fan service and has a main character, Kana, that just whines and comments snarkily. And not very clever snarks, either. At the moment, the most interesting character is Tamara, one of the sidekicks who is more level-headed and aware of what is going on around her than anyone else. The sole downside is that is she is already endowed, so the comedic effect of giving her magical breast enhancements would be limited.

They use the alternate world concept interestingly, in that rather than being on the cusp of destruction, the other world seems pretty well destroyed already, full of empty villages and refugees. At the end of the first volume, the mechanism for traveling between worlds is destroyed, which is a shame. Usually in these sorts of the stories the main character is trapped in a different world and has to work her way back to her own world, for reasons that never seem quite clear because she is having a much better time there. I would have found it more interesting if the characters had to balance to the two worlds, which is the direction I thought they were going for.

To sample the book itself, check out the creator's webpages, www.sokora.com.



- Ferdinand

Steady Beat, v.1

By rivkah
Published by TokyoPop



Slugline: Sibling rivalry turns into uncertainty when Leah discovers a love letter directed to her sister that was apparently written by another girl.

The creator of Steady Beat is a pretty well known internet presence on the various manga/creator boards, with a website (www.rivkah.com) that features an earlier version of the first chapter of this story, if you are interested in a sample. As for rivkah, her reputation is well-earned, though I may have bias from briefly meeting her at the New York ComicCon.

Steady Beat is the story of Leah, who discovers a love letter written to her sister, Sarai, and immediately freaks out. Uncertain whether to confront her sister and learn the truth, she agonizes over it instead, especially aware that her mother, a Texas state senator, would not take this revelation well. As she tries to figure out what to do, she receives a call to go to a mysterious meeting at the park. She fails to make it, instead getting into an accident and meeting Elijah, a young man who seems to have two dads (hmm, I wonder what that could mean). By the end of the volume she is not certain who made the phone call or to what purpose, but she has decided, in her own mind at least, that her sister is having a gay relationship.

Yes, women in a gay relationship. Sorry, no drawings of girls kissing, so if that is all you are looking for, look elsewhere.

I like the art here, nice and clean with lots of little side bits that show that rivkah has internalized all of the manga norms and styles, such as characters going chibi at the right moments and snarky little comments on the side in non-normal lettering. I would have given this story a 4, but the ending just seemed off. Almost as if it wasn?t the ending of the volume and was altered at the last minute to make it so. But other than that, very good.



- Ferdinand

Guru Guru Pon-chan, v.4

by Satomi Ikezawa
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey



Slugline: Ponta, a golden Lab, has the ability to turn into a girl. She and Mirai are "in love."

So what does it say about the motivations of a guy whose girlfriend is a) actually a dog -- and he knows it -- b) so naive that she can't even use a telephone, c) hasn't got the common sense to come in out of the rain and d) has been a human for four volumes now and has only just figured out that being a dog might be a better deal?

Yeah, I don't know either.

Thing is, the scenes when Ponta is a dog are actually rather cute. The writer knows a thing or two about dogs. And the story got a smile out of me when Mirai-kun dreams he's turned into an English sheepdog. But otherwise it's one of those stories where the girl's ignorance and helplessness is supposed to be cute or, maybe, to some control freaks, sexy.

The two opposing forces balance each other out, and this one lands right in the middle of the scale. In the standard progression of manga romances, this one is at the "Crisis of faith, so one of them runs away and gets in trouble" stage. I haven't read the first three volumes, so I don't know if we've gone through the "Someone's ex tries to break them up" phase and I assume we're well past the "Awkward admission of infatuation". Next volume will be, I would expect, "Rescue and massive guilt trips."

I invite the author to prove me wrong, though.




- Miranda