Vampire Knight, v.1

Story and Art by Matsuri Hino
Published in the US by Viz Shojo Beat



Slugline: For once I would like to see some vampires that are not ethereal and hauntingly beautiful. Some pimples would be nice.

Vampire Knight is not sure whether or it is a shoujo or action title. Cross Academy has two classes, Day and Night, with the Night Class being vampires and the Day Class being normal humans not aware that the Night Class are vampires. This is so that vampires and humans can learn to live together, though how they are supposed to do that if the humans do not believe that vampires are real? Anyway, Yuki and Zero, both students who have lost their parents to vampire attacks, are on the Disciplinary Committee that tries to maintain the separation between the two. Yuki was saved from the vampire attack that killed her parents by Kaname, a powerful vampire who now leads the Night Class, but the vampires of the class still have to battle their own natures.

In order to pull this off, Yuki needed to be a strong character, even if she is infautuated with Kaname, but it doesn't come across that way. It is implied that you need something more than strong language to convince a vampire to do something he doesn't want to, but whenever she needs to convince someone to do something, either Kaname or Zero do it for her. Now at the end of the volume something has happened to Zero that forces her to be more take-charge, but I don't know if she will rise to the challenge. If she does so, this book's rating can easily improve, but at the moment it is just another shoujo with a female lead that should be strong but isn't.



Vampire Knight is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Gravitation EX, v.1

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



Slugline: Seriously, who needs a plot when you've got insanity, robot pandas and boys in bunny suits?

A caveat: I did not read the original Gravitation, though I did hear the squeeing from afar. This is a sequel to that story, so there's little in the way of introductions of characters. But for the observant reader, it's no worse than any other fast-paced manga.

And I do mean fast-paced. Hang on to your kitty ears because this book doesn't let up from page two till the end. If you're ready to roll with the insanity (familiarity with Monty Python non sequitors may help), it's a fun book that did get a couple LOLs out of me (which is a respectable accomplishment.)

The story, as I figure it: Yuki and Shuichi, yaoi lovers who already have a colorful history, have not quite mastered the art of communication (though there are attempts) and are still romantically targeted by other boys. Oh, and there's a kid thrown into the mix for extra angst. In a world where a kiss is as good as a wedding band, these two are hamming up every slight misconception into robot-panda-level disasters... and it's funny and it all makes sense, just barely.

This is a boy love title, but it is not porn. Not even a little. It's all about the crazy.



Gravitation EX is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Series Update: Basilisk 2 & 3

SERIES UPDATE

Action-packed ninja-fest Basilisk continues apace, pulling out some downright strange "secret ninja powers" (which I still say are on par with any Marvel or DC mutant superheroes, though stranger) and racking up the body count as the two ninja families settle into their grand duel. By the end of v. 3, the two families have evened out the number of remaining combatants (Or have they? Nobody's really dead until you see the body, and even then... just like superheroes, right?)

Basilisk vol. 2 and vol. 3 are both available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Series Update: School Rumble 3 & 4

SERIES UPDATE

I'm sorry to say that School Rumble has, by volume 4, developed a problem. It's trying to be serious. And it's starting to set up elaborate misunderstandings based on the fact that nobody can actually speak to anybody else in a meaningful way. And even the side stories about Tenma's sister are suffering.

I'd still recommend v. 1 & 2... and maybe 3. But if you're looking for laughs, never mind v.4

School Rumble vol. 3 and vol. 4 are both available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

StrongArm #1

Written by Steve Horton with art by David Ahn
Published by Image Comics



Slugline: In media res of the future still proves that no one understands Latin

I usually do not review single issues, but the creators of this title were looking for reviews from manga sites, and there is a manga in the title here. Hopefully they won't come to regret their decision too greatly.

StrongArm is by western creators, and falls into the Guyver genre of anime/manga: hapless guy gets possessed by the ultimate weapon that takes him over and he struggles to control himself. Or at least that is what I think the story is about, since there is very little of it explained here, thus the In Media Res joke in the slugline. You are very much dropped into the story, and while you can follow it, exactly what the characters are doing, why you should care, and what else is going on in the world around them, is lacking. These are not insurmountable problems, but if you don't give a reader some idea of what is going on in the first issue, when you are going to? The main character, Rob, prisoner/bearer of the StrongArm, is barely given a chance to sketched out.

The art is very nice, clean, with good tones, but I would have given up some of those nice looking splash pages to be further drawn into the world and the characters. This is an average title, one that most manga readers would recognize, the one weakness of the story being that the background and characters are not fully fleshed out. But that is something that could easily be fixed in a following issue.

Visit Image Comics to find out more about the title and local comic book stores. To find one, try the Comic Shop Locator Service.

- Ferdinand

Free Collars Kingdom, v. 1

By Takuya Fujima
Released in the U.S. by Del Rey



Slugline: Catboys and Catgirls in a way that almost makes sense. Except for the being otaku part.

Most stories featuring cat boys and girls have them being just like humans, but here this is just how the cats look at each other, while when people look at them they are just cats. Makes sense and is not overly cutesy. Put that together with the cats fighting over territory because some places have better otaku-friendly stores. But once you get beyond those two interesting ideas, there is not much there. At times it seems like this is going to be a fighting story, other times it seems like it will be a more relationship-based one. I think even the characters in the story are confused which one and what they are supposed to be.

But to show just how otaku-focused the title is, the character who is a gifted natural fighter learned all of his moves by watching video games. If that isn't an otaku dream come to life, I don't know what is. And there is a character which they even call Moe, as in the Three Stooges. So while there are some interesting ideas, and at first glance the story seems novel, some of the some tropes and other stylistic devices that you see all over other manga start showing up. There were a couple times the art of the story was handled in a confusing manner. Still, if cat-people are your thing, this is certainly a different take from most.



Free Collars Kingdom is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.


- Ferdinand

Mushishi, v. 1

by Yuki Urushibara
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey



Slugline: Ginko diagnoses and cures strange, supernaturally-caused diseases.

Ferdinand compared this to the good old days of X-Files, and I can see why. Ginko knows a lot about mushi (primitive supernatural critters) but not everything, and he travels a very traditional Japan helping the afflicted. Where he's from and why he wears modern Westernized clothes isn't explained, nor does it need to be. These stories aren't really about him.

The afflictions are strange and in their way nasty, the way fairy afflictions are in traditional Western tales. There's no gore or big magical battles, only riddles and hope. It's a bit like a medical drama too, in that way. It's a welcome (for me) break from the teenage melodrama, the cute animal sidekicks and the current obsession with scythe-based weapons. The ties to Japanese folklore are a big plus for me, too.

So kids, if you want to convince your parents that manga isn't all gigantic eyes, short skirts and gay boys, offer them a copy of Mushishi. And if you're looking for a change of pace, definitely pick up a copy. I'm adding this to my short list of titles to follow closely.



Mushishi is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

My Dead Girlfriend, v.1

by Eric Wight
Published by Tokyopop



Slugline: Finney Black, doomed to die bizarrely, finds out his girlfriend is a ghost.

Eric Wight comes with a creative pedigree longer than his arm and this book is covered with endorsements from people whose work I've enjoyed, so I expected good times from Girlfriend.

Um. Yeah. This is awkward.

We're introduced to Finney, a 10-to-12-year-old (or is he younger?) scion of a family noted for bizarre deaths. He's persecuted by most everybody at his monster-themed school. He has one lovely day with a girl at a carnival. Turns out she died soon after and still wants to be friends. Good thing she has ghostly superpowers because he's in trouble with the local bullies.

Did I just spoil it? Trust me, this book is so chained to the Misfit Template that only a newbie would be surprised by any of these plot points. It's all presented with standard-issue snarking and pranks. The only distinctive point is Mr. Wight's artwork, which is completely his own and deserves better than this.

And the pseudo-sexual-ghostzap she gave him toward the end pushes more of the wrong buttons the more I think about it. I have no idea what plot plans there are beyond beating up on bullies, in v.2, but I can't say I'm eager to find out.



My Dead Girlfriend is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Kitchen Princess, v. 1

Manga by Natsumi Ando, Story by Miyuki Kobayashi
Released in the U.S. by Del Rey



Slugline: The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And for once this is not a sword technique

Poor girl is saved as a child by mysterious stranger who gives her a token, and years later as a teenager she goes to the school she thinks said stranger attends, only she is hated by the other girls and thinks that one of the two hottest guys in the school may be her long lost savior.

Quick, which manga have I described?

Yeah, twenty at least. The special skills that make Najika stand out, because the female leads always have something "special" about them, are her tasting and cooking abilities. The book actually has some recipes in the back for people to experiment with if they feel like it. The story is executed by the numbers, there are no real surprises other than for once the female lead is not always relentlessly upbeat, and has doubts to the point of almost leaving and not coming back. But other than that, this feels just like other shoujo titles, competent but nothing that I would go out of my way for.



Kitchen Princess is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Council of Carnality Unlimited

Council of Carnality Unlimited and all other explicit titles have been moved to Prospero’s Manga – Mature, a review blog for explicit manga titles. Please check there for reviews of such titles.

Series Update: Loveless, v.2 & 3

SERIES UPDATE

Loveless v.1 surprised me with its complexities and the dark characters, and I made the effort to follow the series (and see some anime) rather than coasting on review freebies. Volumes 2 and 3 introduce some more typical anime aspects (some clueless females, some unfounded use of the word "love") but remains compelling through Soubi's deep manipulation of Ritsuka, clever use of word magic and a few calculated scraps of info about the organizations behind all this. I could write a huge essay on the use of "love" as a shackle rather than as freedom, because of Loveless. (but I don't have time to, don't worry.)

Loveless vol. 2 and vol. 3 are both available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Series Update: Kami Kaze, v.2

SERIES UPDATE

I gave Kami Kaze, v.1 a decent review, but there was a considerable gap before I picked up the second volume. A combination of factors gave me a bad initial reaction to v.2, such as: similar-looking characters, people being conveniently "weak", unimaginative rituals and a lot of big names for too many different groups of people. After reviewing v.1, I've modified that dislike to "no comment." Though I still get a laugh from the fact that 88 ravening, massively powerful "beasts" were unleashed upon the world... and nobody seemed to notice. In the next scene, literally, the two girls are talking some months later about how nice their new sailor uniforms are. WTF?

Kami Kaze vol. 2 is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution, v. 1

By Hiroyuki Tamakoshi
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey



Slugline: Someone finally gets to see a woman's breast in a sauna!

It just seems that I am reviewing a lot of adult material lately. The next title in this trend is Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution from Del Rey. It is an ecchi title, which means it features lots of skimpy clothing and teasing, but what earns this title its M rating is the artist's courage to show the characters topless. Usually that's a no-no, but it's actually a relief for me after years of transparent cowardice and the fact that the story is actually willing to draw a simple female breast makes it bold!

Well, maybe not really, but I am willing to give them points for breaking the rules. I do like the art, and the character designs and costumes are very nice. But it does suffer from the old "guy turns into a girl in order to be close to a girl he likes" tropes. Now, not all of his desires are lewd, he wants to be friends with her, but by the same token he does enjoy the moments when he physically gets close to her. So it's not irredeemable, but neither is it particularly exiciting, just an above average ecchi title, which is still a damning with faint praise sort of thing.



Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Calling You

by Otsuichi, art by Setsuri Tsuzuki
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Two stories, both intended to be tear-jerkers of the first water but also showing some cleverness.

Both of these stories, "Calling You" and "Kiz/Kids" follow tear-jerker templates but do have their better details. Those details stem from consistency of character (don't want to spoil anything, though) in the Shakespearian tragedy sense (that these character aspects mean there could be no other outcome,) so I approve.

There are mild fantasy elements -- psychic "cell phones" in the first and wound transferrence in the second -- but otherwise these stories are set in the here and now, focused on realistic people and problems. Angst, anguish and alienation are plentiful and described at length. But the dialogue is good, the plots are sound and the characters consistent, so I won't say too much and spoil anything in case you don't see the twists coming.



Calling You is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Good Luck, v.1

by E-Jin Kang
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: They say Shi-Hyun's bad luck, so she's singled out... and she's actually tough enough to handle it.

Sadly, most of the manhwa we've reviewed here has been a disappointment. (notable exception: Dokebi Bride) They've mostly been rehashed mediocre manga with a too-small dash of Korean flavor.

Good Luck is different. The dialog pops and snarks and the art is both pleasantly clean and developed beyond merely manga standard-issue. Shi-Hyun and her brother are character types we've seen before, but she actually has a tough shell (Rather than either just smiling now and crying later, or breaking out into comedic violence, which are what pass for "tough girl" in a lot of manga. Neither of which, I would say, treat female anger with much honesty.) And her brother isn't quite a cross-dresser... yet.

There are several small tweaks to the staple new-girl-at-school story, all of them refreshing even when they're a bit confusing. I was just so glad to meet a female character who wasn't aspiring to be a door mat for the Cute Boy and so charmed by the art that I'm overlooking the lack of plot (it will probably be a series of small episodes, loosely tied together) and recommending this one, especially to middle-school girls.



Good Luck is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: White Maze

Written by Junichi Fujisaku
Published in the U.S. by Dark Horse



Slugline: Guns go boom. It's Ghost in the Shell, what else could happen?

Ghost in the Shell manga (this is a novel) that are released by Dark Horse have an interesting sense of hyper-reality to them as they attempt to illustrate some concepts of science fiction/futurism in a more concrete form, such as the idea of augmented reality. But in this novel only the very basic concepts are used, making it no more than another cyberpunk tale. Not that it is a bad cyberpunk tale, but it is a fairly straightforward and not a very complicated one.

Bad man makes a virus with vampiric overtones that is quickly lost, and Motoko Kusanagi finds the bad man, who turns out, surprise, surprise, to be not so bad. But some even worse folks want to use him for worse ends. Look, I am not trying to be snarky; it is executed decently and there are some interesting character moments, but if you are looking for some hardcore cyperpunk/action or a big Ghost in the Shell post-modern metaphysics brainstorm, this may be disappointing. I suspect I will forget most of the plot of this book within a week.



Ghost in the Shell: White Maze is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Trinity Blood, v.1

Story by Sunao Yoshida, art by Kiyo Kyujo
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Goofy-but-dangerous Abel Nightroad takes out a vampire plot to destroy Rome.

Great art can carry mediocre writing, and great writing can carry mediocre art. This is an example of the former.

Maybe not "mediocre" so much as just sloppy -- it's nothing a good editor could not have tightened up or nudged them to be clearer, more precise. But it's the kind of lovingly detailed, uber-manga art (influenced by Geiger, I'd bet) that makes you forgive vagueness. And unlikely weapons. And standard-issue characters. And... well, you get the idea.

Abel Nightroad is the sort of goofy-when-he's-not-deadly guy that comes from the same mold as Vash in Trigun (right down to the glasses). Sister Esther is the usual victim/window dressing girl, so far. Dietrich, Iqus, Radcon and Gyula are decently sketched, character-wise, even amusing in some ways. The plot does have one unexpected bit of treason to flavor the melodrama.

But the strong point is most definitely the art and the costuming that throws down a big gauntlet to cosplayers. My first anime convention of the year is only a few weeks away, and I'm wondering how many Nightroads I'll see.



Trinity Blood, Vol.1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Anyway I Want It…

Anyway I Want It… and all other explicit titles have been moved to Prospero’s Manga – Mature, a review blog for explicit manga titles. Please check there for reviews of such titles.

Last update

And for the last bit of blog updates for the foreseeable future, we have updated the Amazon Astore, so it is organized, and has ratings attached to the entries. For instance, we have a section where just our 4 and 4 1/2 star titles are listed, and so on. There has also been some neatening up here and there, and corrections/editing of some old reviews. Nothing that like changing ratings, but basically splitting up entrees that were posted together in order to make it easier to search, and things like that.

And tomorrow we go back to posting reviews again!

-Ferdinand

More blog improvements

Some more improvements...

Some people asked us to add a google search, and after a couple hours of fiddling, no google search is better than just the search function on the navbar on the top of the page. Just reminding everyone that sucker is works better than you think.

We are going to add Right Stuf, Intl., links on some of our reviews. Some of the reviewed titles (okay, the adult ones) do not have a Amazon.com presence, but do on Right Stuf., and probably vice versa. We are going to add them in to give everyone the best chance to get the titles we mention, if they want to.

We have added a donations button on the right hand side. Are we paid to do this site, no. We have no site-specific advertising (those google ad clicks are certainly not adding up), the only thing we promise companies who give us material is a review, and you can see we are not afraid to give bad ones. So if you feel generous, feel free to help keep us in manga/anime. But don't worry if you don't, we are in this for the long haul.

-Ferdinand

Blog Improvements

Added some more functions here, including a handy dandy feedburner button and creator links. Any creator who is published, or has at least been solicited, and want their webpage linked, contact us and we will make it happen.

-Ferdinand

Imadoki! v.1

By Yuu Watase
Published in the U.S. by Viz



Slugline: What else can bond a boy and a girl but a love of horticulture?

I don't know why I do this myself. Yuu Watase's Fushigi Yuugi was like junk food. You know it's bad for you, but you can't help scarfing it down anyways. In my case, it was her female lead. After a while, the lead was so clueless I was hoping that the male leads competing for her attention would decide to dump her and go yaoi. But I still watched the whole series, and this was back when there wasn't a legit copy of it circulating in the US.

Imadoki! has a similarly relentlessly cheerful heroine, Tanpopo, who has transferred from a rural high school where everyone was her friend to an elite Tokyo school. She manages to almost immediately alienate everyone by claiming the standoffish Koki as friend, for they had a brief conversation about a flower the day before school started. It turns out Koki is connected to a wealthy family and has to hide his true nature, which gets Tanpopo in trouble immediately. Her relentless cheerfulness is nice at first, but by the end of the book I was getting annoyed by it. But I still want to read the next book.

Like I said, it's like candy. Bad for you, but you can't stop reading.



Imadoki! is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

When Worlds Collide

by various artists
Published by Iris Print



Slugline: Anthology of yaoi romance titles themed on the "opposites attract" principle.

As with any anthology, some are better than others in this collection of short stories. The art is of varying quality but generally good, and the writing is necessarily condensed and requires a few leaps of faith from the readers. On the whole, it's a pretty decent book.

My main point to make is that this is not a porn anthology. There are a few explicit frames, but the emphasis here is clearly on the romance. There's nothing new about explicit romance, of course, but if you're expecting porn this isn't it.



- Miranda

Akira v. 1 - 6

by Katsuhiro Otomo
Published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Manga



Slugline: Tetsuo rides the psychic-power rollercoaster amid chaos, apocalypse, and his ex-best friend trying to kill him.

I haven't read Akira in at least ten years, and I was a bit worried it wouldn't hold up after so long in the otaku world. But it does, and I know exactly why it converted me to the fandom.

- Crystal clear action. None of those big, vague, swooshes, no wondering whose ass that weapon came out of, no fudging of geography, physics, or biology.

- Excellent application of psychic powers. It's still some of the best telekinetic combat on paper. Makes Obi-Wan look like a noob.

- Consistent, if limited, characters. Especially Kaneda, who is not only an ass, he's too clueless to realize he's clueless and is the kind who brings a knife to a gun fight. A butter knife.

- Lovingly rendered military equipment. No roses or sparkles in this one, and a couple ass-kicking ladies that I can root for.

- Mass destruction. Tokyo gets flattened, and more than once.

- Plot never loses focus, even in the chaos of a freshly ruined city. We don't get sidetracked into tangential flashbacks. Everyone's relevance to the story is quickly established and we keep moving.

All these qualities are a bit unusual for a manga, in that they are rather Western and much closer to what Hollywood et. al. have trained Americans to expect. But it's Japanese enough to stand well apart from them, too. That's what makes Akira such a good "conversion" manga (and anime) for action/scifi/apocalypse fans.

If you have a friend who's curious about manga, I'd recommend Akira unless your friend's into sensitive romances (try Utena on those friends.) And I think the bridge can work both ways: read Akira and then pick up Dark Knight Returns,
V for Vendetta, Sin City or Crisis on Infinite Earths.



Akira is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Mai, The Psychic Girl, The Perfect Collection, V. 1

Story by Kazuya Kudo with Art by Ryoichi Ikegami
Published in the U.S. by Viz



Slugline: You really wouldn't want to get this schoolgirl angry.

Mai, the Psychic Girl was one of the first manga that was widely released in the US. Originally released in floppies in the late 80s, it was a title that showed me, regardless of what Miranda says about Akira's influence, of just how nasty and explodey-heady psychic combat could be. Mai Kuju, daughter of a line of shrine guardians, has telekinetic ability on a truly high order, and is pursued by an international conspiracy for world domination called the Wisdom Alliance. The first book of the perfect collection reads very quickly, for most of the story is either kung-fu action or extended chase sequences, as Mai and her father realize the danger that they are in. Actually, I remember that being a problem at the time that it was being released, but the 22 page issues went by so quickly that it didn't make it really worth the time to pick up individual issues, and at the time the idea of collections were still very new.

The plot is rather straightforward, and at times it seems to be relying on the power of coincidence to make things flow, but this is not a story that asks for much deep thinking, merely that one sits back and enjoys the pretty explosions, bashed bodies and the downhill ride. It does have a couple bits of unnecessary but not really exploitative nudity, and a couple of places where if you stop and think you may say "ick," but nothing too bad, at least in this first volume of the perfect collection.



- Ferdinand

Angel Cup, v. 2

Written by Dong Wook Kim and Illustrated by Jae-Ho Youn
Published in the U.S. by TokyoPop



Slugline: Girls hit hard, especially against boys. A little while ago I suggested folks to check out my other reviews over at CBGxtra, which reminded me of one of my favorite books to review, Angel Cup, a Korean manwha about girl's soccer. I waxed pretty lyrical about it, but I really thought it was a good title and fit in well with the comic shops' attempts to do outreach to readers other than the normal comic store readers. (My Comic Buyer's Guide reviews are centered around that, oddly enough.) So when I got a chance to pick up Angel Cup vol. 2, I did so.

But the last half of a soccer match took up virtually the entire volume. Some sub-plots were moved forward, and some things were confronted, but there was nothing really surprising or that I wasn't expecting, except for the final score. Underdogs can win without winning, and with the odds stacked up against them, the girl soccer team made a good showing, with the implication that once they pull together and get organized, a rematch's result is far from certain.

I am half-tempted to tell you to skip this volume, but I'm loathe to suggest that for fear that one or two details may end up really mattering, so while the big game is a cliche‚ in sports manga, I am still more interested in the stuff before and after the game, and that intrigue was lacking in this volume.



- Ferdinand

O-Parts Hunter, v. 1

Story and Art by Seishi Kishimoto
Published in the U.S. by Viz



Slugline: Repackaged, extruded fantasy by-product never tasted so good!

One thing right out of the gate, O-Parts Hunter was created by the brother of Naruto's creator, so artistic and stylistic similarities are to be expected to a certain extent.

On the face of it, this is a story that we have seen a hundred times before. Boy who has a terrible force within himself tries to compensate by becoming more powerful, along with a girl who has to be cheerful to make up for a family secret. Ancient unknown civilization has left weapons of unimaginable power lying about for anyone to find.

But at the moment when everything is about to fall hopelessly into cliche, they draw back. The darkness that is within Jio, the main lead, is not potential but actual, with a real bodycount, and it's implied that along with not-so-nice folks, some actually random folks have been killed by his darkness. True, the character has some distance from his dark acts, but by the same token he is still doing it, a far more difficult choice to pull off. And his goal of world domination is quickly and ruthlessly undermined and laughed at, and what he really wants is revealed.

Sure, the female lead is not as well drawn as I would hope, at times the action is hard to follow, and there is one case of deus ex machina that is really close to the traditional god coming down of the sky to take out an offending foe, but I see that there are some interesting character bits that hopefully the creator will explore in later volumes.




- Ferdinand

Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School, v. 1

Story by Reiji Saiga and Art by Sora Inoue
Published in the U.S. by TokyoPop



Slugline: It's a sad day when a story about hot girls in school uniforms that kick ass makes me just go "eh."

A school with too many martial arts club ends up holding special fights in order to mediate the conflicts between the clubs, with the head ass kicker being a new transfer student who wants to take on all the highly skilled martial artists at the school and has arranged the fight system in order to do so. Our heroine is Ryoko, who loves samurai movies and thus has learned how to kick ass with a sword, and lusts after the head of the kendo club but has a strange attraction to the mysterious newcomer.

There are some interesting fights, but that's about it. Silly, over-the-top opponents, the fight formula, the love/hate relationships, the competent girl that still needs help on occasion in fighting yet is not confident in herself and so on.

I've seen all of these elements before. Admittedly, Real Bout is sort of shameless in the way that all of them have been all shaken together into a single pot, but while the art is nice, unless you really want another school based fight manga, eh.



- Ferdinand

IC in a Sunflower

by Mitsukazu Mihara
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Another anthology of varyingly dark stories from the Gothic Lolita creator.

The costuming is not as elaborate as in volumes like RIP, which will be a disappointment to the costuming fans. The individual stories are up to par with Mihara's other works so far as dialog (good) and structure (good) and worldbuilding (quite good and efficient) but the characters are similar to others he's written and there is not really a unifying theme. Except maybe the "mature" elements like sex and murder, but those certainly aren't unique to this volume.

This still makes for good reading if you like stories with a dark side. There are some mild science fiction elements, but Mihara generally focuses on modern complications of old problems and the jaded modern people who run into them. Mihara is also one of the few manga writers who has both a fair volume of material published in the US and it is all of consistently good quality, so look for his name. I enjoy his gothic-modern writing, but I also hope to see him tackle other styles, someday.



- Miranda

Mugen Spiral, v. 1

Created by Mizuho Kusangi
Published in the U.S. by TokyoPop



Slugline: Look, you can see the female lead's spine disappear before your eyes!

Yayoi is a female mystic who has to fight off and capture demons, which includes Ura, son of the Demon King. She is strong, powerful and has her own agenda.

She is, of course, doomed to irrelevance.

Because Ura is a hottie, he gradually takes over the story, becoming more powerful (or more properly, recovers to his true level of power), directing the course of the story so it is about him and what he wants to do, and while Yayoi does not suffer a depowering event, for some reason her abilities are just not as effective as the story goes on, eventually rendering her by the end of volume 1 as the helpless hostage.

Look, a woman does not have to be weak and rely on the man in order for there to be a valid romance. And I am not just saying this because Miranda would go off on a rant about it. It just would be a refreshing change of pace if once, just once, the female who starts the series competent ends the series just as competent. For once!

I actually had hope for this volume because it started out so strong, but it managed to sink very quickly into the normal tropes/tripes, and so despite being competently executed and not bad on the face of it, I give it a kick a little further down on the rating scale because this title has no reason to exist. We've seen it all before, and before, and look, over there, here is the same damn plot line of the romantic female lead becoming marginalized!



- Ferdinand

What else we do...

It's been a while since we talked about our other projects that are manga and anime related.

Every two weeks I put a manga review up CBGxtra review forum so just look for all the reviews there that have the Manga Review title. This week I put up a review for TokyoPop's upcoming title Phantom.

I write a monthly manga column for the Comic Buyer's Guide, a print publication you should be able to find on better newstand. This month's column in issue 1626 is a mixed bag about Shinto, the academic study of manga and yaoi. You can find some of my back columns on my general website. (Along with our RPG and other gaming work)

And I have anime/manga related articles and reviews for Comic and Game Retailer and Newtype USA.

Check out some of the other stuff we've done!

-Ferdinand

Pearl Pink, v. 1

Created by Meca Tanaka
Published in the U.S. by TokyoPop



Slugline: A tomboy in love that remains a tomboy by the end of the volume? Miracle of miracles!

Ah, the stories of young love, people promising to get married when they are 3 and 7. Do you actually remember much of what happened to you when you were that age? I admit, I am older than the typical age of the characters in these sort of books, so technically have more stuff to remember and some of the early stuff may have been misfiled, but really, how strong are your memories from that age? I only have a handful, and most of them are random bits. Only a couple of them are confirmably real and not imaginings.

But these sort of life-changing promises are routinely made, and worse yet, routinely remembered in manga and are expected to be honored. Tamako, the tomboy of the slugline, received a promise from Kanji that if she was strong, he would marry her. (Why is it that the girls remember these promises in manga, but rarely the guys?) She defined the strength as physical, assertive strength, while he is strong in a quiet, understated way. (See, females and males can both be strong in manga AT THE SAME TIME!)

When the story actually talks about love, relationships, and knowing/liking each other, that rings mostly true. And Tamako has several really good moments with her mother. But then you add in the fact this is set at the ever-popular idol agency, the rampant and actually detracting silliness of the story/characters at times, and could have been a very good romantic story has been reduced to merely average.



- Ferdinand

Revolutionary Girl Utena, v. 1 - 5

by Chiho Saito, Created by Be-Papas
Published in the U.S. by Viz



Slugline: Utena duels to save the prince she met years ago, save the Rose Bride and to claim "the power to revolutionize the world" (whatever that means.)

This is the manga version of the classic anime, and being condensed to five volumes suits the story quite well. With less time to wander, the story gets right down to the dueling and the slapping and the explaining what's going on.

Utena is a classic shojo manga because it goes so far above and beyond the stereotypes of the genre -- not breaking out of them, but amplifying them to blinding brilliance. Everyone's a drama queen, there are cute, strange pets, magic costume changes, vaguely defined powers that are never used, a crossdressing heroine, temper tantrums, and everyone gets slapped at least once. It's a tribute to the power of visuals, too: roses, wrought iron and long hair don't have to work as hard to carry it all as they did in the anime, but they are there.

Utena set the bar for the shojo that followed, and most of them fail to capture half the passion and obsession and melodrama of this series. This is a must-read for any serious fan. Love it or laugh at it, I guarantee you will not forget it.

p.s. Yes, it's complete in 5 volumes -- less, actually, and there are several short stories to fill out the volumes. They're fun too.



- Miranda

R.O.D. Read or Dream, v.1

Story by Hideyuki Kurata, Art by Ran Ayanaga
Published in the US by Viz Manga



Slugline: For a detective agency, there sure is not much detecting going on here.

I am just in the mood for revealing my weaknesses lately, and this time I will admit that I have a weakness for reading. As in, whatever promotes it, is good for it and so on, I am usually in favor of. Thus I am fond of the original R.O.D. anime, though I do believe that the first episode of it was the best.

I understand that this series is supposed to be related to the first one in some way, but only the barest sketches of it are apparent here. Sure, in the first story they use the ability to control paper, but then for the rest of the book, their abilities are completely immaterial. There are the standard three females: the hard nosed one, the friendly one, and the distracted, abstract one. Though I do appreciate some of the funny bits about book storage (which reminds me I need to get another bookshelf for my manga), but this is really not a funny book. The book is rated for older teens, but I really do not see why -- maybe something happens in later volumes -- because this volume, with its short simple stories, would make a decent tweener book.

Maybe this is intended for other audiences, and if I read more volumes things would be different. But as of this first volume, this is merely a slightly cliche story about three sisters who like to read, and that love of reading gets them involved in strange adventures (ghosts, aliens). The stories are competently executed and clearly drawn, but neither do they strike me as especially well done or original.



- Ferdinand

Patchwork

Patchwork and all other explicit titles have been moved to Prospero’s Manga – Mature, a review blog for explicit manga titles. Please check there for reviews of such titles.

Punch!, v. 1

Story and Art by Rie Takada
Published in the U.S. by Viz Media



Slugline: Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" has never been so true.

Elle is a typical high school girl, pining away, hoping for romance. Unfortunately, her family is filled with martial artists, runs a gym that trains them, and she has already been promised to the grandson of her grandfather's greatest rival, who also trains at the gym. Whenever she finds someone she likes, the gym attendees manage to find some way to convince that person that it would be better for his health to stay far, far away from Elle. Up until the day that the street tough Kazuki walks into her life.

For a story that is about a girl balanced between two boys, there is a not a lot of balancing. Ruo, Elle's fiance, is a cardboard character barely developed past the fact that he loves Elle despite her rejection, and like most manga guys he has serious problems with impulse control. Kazuki, once you get past the fact that he is often covered in blood not his own, has all of the soft bits that make teenage girls go all squee-ish.

Sorry, not sure what the adjective form of "squee" should be.

Other than some interesting story bits, this is just an competently executed shoujo story that has very little conflict to drive it, at least by the end of this volume.



- Ferdinand

Updates to the Blog

With the influx of new readers, we've just finished a labeling project. You will notice a whole slew of new labels on the right hand side of the site. I think we got most of the useful types, but let us know if any come to mind.

As you can see on the label list, several companies are well represented . That's because they send us review copies. If you want your company's products reviewed, please consider adding us to your comp/review list. And if you want your favorite company's products reviewed, email them to add us to their review list.

Hopefully we will continue to add content and aids for Prospero's Manga over the upcoming weeks and months.

-Ferdinand

Aoi House, v. 2

Written by Adam Arnold with Art by Shiei
Published by Seven Seas



Slugline: Harem girls who know that they are in harem, and know enough to mock the whole situation.

The second volume of the OEL Aoi House, I feel, suffers from its legacy of being a webcomic and being printed by Newtype USA. Sure, everyone and their cousin has either been exposed to it (heh, sorry, feeling the sophomoric humor, exposed to it, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more) via the reprints or the webcomics, but the fact that it has to be continually up, always funny, always grabbing people's attention, means that it never has a lull in the action. When you read it as a graphic novel, you need those lulls for character bits, so that the characters hit more than one note. While a couple of the harem girls did so, I think the majority of characters were more obviously one-note than they were in the first volume. I am not sure whether that is just me, the side effect of writing for graphic novel or webcomic, but it was just not as surprising as the first one.

What did take me almost completely out of the story was the Final Fantasy riff in the middle of the volume. Apparently, I am the only anime/manga fan whose knowledge of Final Fantasy is gleaned solely from AMVs I have watched over the years. So I recognized a couple of the outfits, but the whole joke just went right over my head. Not necessarily its fault.

I still like the central conceit of a couple of hetero fanboys trapped in a harem of yaoi-crazed fangirls. There was some movement toward an overriding story arc, but this volume just didn't get to me the same way the first one did.



- Ferdinand

Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~, v. 1

Story by Satoru Akahori with Art by Yukimaru Katsura, original character design by Sukune Inugami
Published in the US by Seven Seas



Slugline: A guy who is a girl, who turns into girl, gets more action then when he, no she, no whatever, was a guy.

First off, I will have to beg the reader's indulgence. I, the bitter old anime/manga fan, who first saw Ranma 1/2 from a tape off Japanese TV with someone the room yelling out relevant plot points since there was no such thing as subtitles, have a singular weakness. It's yuri. Romantic titles with all-female leads. Not to say my brain completely turns to mush, but I notice that I am lot more forgiving of these titles than most others. I think I have managed to be impartial here, but take what you will with a grain of salt.

Hazumu, a guy, likes Yasuna, a girl, and thought the feeling were at least appreciated, but when he confesses to her she does not take it well. His feelings squashed, Hazumu takes to the surrounding hills, where he is squashed by a falling spaceship. The aliens, feeling bad squishing someone, decide to do some repairs, but there were only so much genetic material left (when they squish someone, they really squish someone) and they could only rebuild him as a her.

Thus, the main conflict of the series. Hazumu as a girl manages to connect to Yasuna in a way he couldn't as a boy, and discovers a new connection to a childhood friend Tomari (a tomboy neighbor) and she isn't quite sure how to handle it. Is a boy in a girl's body a hetero girl, a lesbian, or what?

These sorts of questions could have been really delved into, but they are only explored in connection with the main characters' relationships. I would have liked to see more about Hazumu wrestling with his/her own questions of identity. That would have been a much heavier title than the light, fluffy romantic fare we have here, which I still find it interesting, though some of the supporting characters are sillier than they need to be.



- Ferdinand

Soul Rescue, v. 1

Created by Aya Kanno
Published in the US by TokyoPop



Slugline: Another entry in my list of proof that Japanese creators don't know the difference between angels, fairies and Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Sorry, it is my genetic Catholicism expressing itself, but the portrayal of angels and God here is just so, well, generic. They could have called them spirits, aliens or even Muggles and it wouldn't make a difference. I'm sorry, there would have been one difference -- they wouldn't have had all that cool wing imagery. I'm no dogmatic, but I do ask that if a creator uses an archetype, they do some basic research. If I did a story featuring Kabbalists, I would have done as much research on Jewish beliefs as I could.

But it's not like the creator spent a lot of time coming up with the story. It is a basic "got to save X number of people/souls/hamsters" storyline. Main character begins with an almost immediate change of heart, no real resistance, even though he proclaims his so-called resistance every change he gets. There is one good plot twist, the failure-in-success bit, which usually shows up later in these type of series, but it is still fairly standard.

Art is okay, but occasionally hard to follow. Not very much to be excited about either way. It's just an overwhelmingly average book, and not very well executed.



- Ferdinand

Little Queens, v. 1

By Yeon-Joo Kim
Published in the US by TokyoPop



Dishonorable Mention

My brain hurt after reading this. The story tone and the actual flow of the plot, what exists of it, jumps all over the place. I kept on thinking they had accidentally forgotten to include some panels, pages, heck, a whole chapter. Not sure why they're queens in training, and by the time they kind of gave half an explanation I didn't care. Characterizations seemed to change page to page, sometimes panel to panel. Sometimes the story took itself very seriously, other times it became very metatextual, which that is a difficult feat to pull off and the story failed in that regard. And honestly, I spent first couple chapters trying to connect the intro text to the story I was reading, and it was only after the headache started that I realized that it wasn't worth bothering. Time jumps around without explanation.

So yeah, not loving it. If the art was truly spectacular I might have rated it better, or if the story was an ambitious failure I could forgiven the attempt, but it is neither, merely average in both respects.




- Ferdinand

Kamiyadori, v.1

by Kei Sanbe Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop





Slugline: Jillald and Vivi fight a war of attrition against a nasty disease in a dystopian world.

Back when I reviewed Blame, I said something about writers not having to explain everything -- but there's a certain minimum that has to be put out there. Blame fell a bit too short on that, for me. Kamiyadori is an example of one that falls on the "just enough" side.

Of course, only so much explanation is needed when the primary goal is to shoot big guns at nasty mutant sick people and have as much casual female nudity as you can get away with. Too much exposition just gets in the way. However, there is enough to hint at an underlying world that might be interesting if the writer can bring together the elements -- some of which seem kind of random.

("The holy is coming." The holy what? And why does it seem to be making things worse?)

Jillald is a Right Arm, an elite commando, who may be losing his edge but he's still got his improbably ass-kicking shotgun. Vivi is his sidekick and a poorly socialized indigent, which gives her license to not say much, cause all kinds of trouble and go bare-assed frequently.

The two of them shoot infected people, traumatize small children, and deal with those trying to capitalize on the plague. Volume 1 ends mid-storyling, giving it somewhere to start in v.2, but I do wonder how many volumes you could do before this all gets repetitive. Maybe v.2 will introduce a larger story arc.



- Miranda

Someday's Dreamers, Spellbound, v.1

by Norie Yamada & Kumichi Yoshizuki
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Magic-user Nami fumbles her way through high school and meets Ryotaro, motorcycle boy.

Nami is the basic puppy-eyed manga girl -- prone to screw-ups, ambitionless, miserable. Ryotaro is the basic gruff manga boy -- snappish, defensive, yet harbors a "soft side." That they are going to fall in love and overcome various obstacles is a foregone conclusion. The story is set in a carbon-copy Japan with one little hook thrown in to make it different -- except it rings hollow.

Nami is a magic user. A screw-up, but a magic user. The other characters treat this as only mildly unusual, so one must assume that there are a fair number of magic users in the population. So it's odd that the world does not seem to have any real support structure for her ability. There are self-help books, apparently, but no special magic class at school, no magic social clubs, no magical version of team sports -- and considering that she's supposed to get a certification to practice, you'd think there'd be as many magic-test-prep courses as there are SAT-prep-courses. We don't even see one other magic user, in v.1.

It's as if the writer threw in Nami's trouble with her magic just to give her something to feel bad about. Which is a mighty shallow reason to include magic and all the implications that magic brings with it. There are plenty of odd problems Nami could have without even leaving the bounds of modern-day Japan.

That her getting a handle on her skill is a part of the story is obvious -- it's poor writing, though, that in the whole first volume there's no sign that magic has been integrated into the world the writer has created.



- Miranda