Canon. v. 1

By Chika Shiomi
Published by in the U.S. CMX Manga



Slugline: A story about vampires that aren't vampires. You can sense my thrill through the computer screen, can't you?

Canon is requisite lucky student who survived a mysterious attack on her entire class by a vampire -- albeit a vampire who seems to operate under strange rules completely inconsistent with ones that we are familiar with, and whose minions can be cured of their vampire state with some willpower. Once cured, they are fortunately completely unaware of what they did while under the vampiric bloodlust. This is fairly episodic: the situation is set up, her sidekick is fleshed out (a vampiric crow!) and we meet the hot guy who will be a mysterious figure of assistance and hotness in the story glides through. I could go on describing it, but it is like so many other stories of its ilk.

I tried to find some aspect of originality or interest, but everything I found in this manga reminded me of at least a dozen other manga. The art is okay, and the story structure is functional, so it's not bad. It is just completely uninteresting and aspects of the vampire's nature that would normally create tension and danger are so waterd down that becoming a vampire is, well, like a headcold that can be easily cleared up. So there is not even the ambiguous moral choices of what to do with the innocent driven to bloodlust. Ho hum.

Though if someone can point toward any folklore references (Japanese or otherwise Asian, since these definitely aren't Western-style vampires) which explain these vampires, please do.



Canon, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Apothecarius Argentum, v.1

By Tomomi Yamashita
Published in the U.S. by CMX



Slugline: From enslaved food taster to free apothecary -- but things only get more complicated for Argent.

At last, an explanation for the hair color of "platinums" -- it's a side effect of being acclimated to poisons. Argent is a "basilisk", a slave raised on toxins until he's toxic himself (a story idea explored long ago by, believe it or not, Nathaniel Hawthorne in "Rappaccini's Daughter"), used as a food taster for a young princess, Primula, whose kingdom is under a great deal of pressure.

Escaped and/or freed by the princess (there's some difference of opinion), he returns as a healer to help rather than kill. But it's never that simple for a basilisk.

The art is fairly standard. The plot has some non-surprises but also some good, unpleasantly realistic moments. The same can be said of the characters. It's set in a generically European fantasy world and the violence is indeed mild as noted on the cover, so I'm interpreting their age rating as 13+.



Apothecarius Argentum, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Brave Story, v.1

Story by Miyuki Miyabe and Art by Yoichiro Ono
Released in the U.S. by ToykoPop



Slugline: For once, a manga about a video game player whose game has not come to life (yet) .

It's a sad situation when I read the outline for the story on websites and they talk about this epic journey on the part of the main character Wataru, which I presume is the main thrust of the series? I say presume because there is not a single hint at the end of the first volume that Wataru is even thinking of, let alone packing for, an epic journey. I know manga takes some time to get going, but if that is going to be the main arc of the series, at least drop some hints by the end of the first volume. Yes, there is some need for setup, but by same token one of the tenets of writing is to start as close as possible to the main action of the story. Sure, there is action in this volume, but now I am not sure if it really was there for any particular reason other than that you need to beat something up in every episode of a shonen story.

The one bit of the story I found interesting was the conflict within Wataru about his parents' unfolding breakup, divorce, and his father's apparent abandonment of him. It is the process of currently trying to deal with those tragedies which is interesting, rather than it being some abstract tragedy in his past. Everyone has a tragic past in manga; it is watching the present that is engaging. Interesting contrast between the two main characters here: one has a father who can't let go and the other has one that can't hold on.

Maybe in the next volume things kick in and the 'real' story begins. You know, I have often found stories which go immediately into a lost world, so that the main character leaves his life, sort of annoying in that we don't see the character in his more normal state before he is thrown into the deep end and we don't have anything to compare his behavior to. Here, the fact that we get to see the character in his normal state makes it feel like a lie since we know (thanks to the outline) that it is soon going to all go out the window. If they had timed it better, maybe so it kicks in at the end of this volume so we are building up to it, I would be more forgiving. Despite this being a solid title with some interesting character bits, I am still pretty annoyed at it.



Brave Story, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

(That's too bad. I like the cover design. - Miranda)

Princess Resurrection, v.1

By Yasunori Mitsunaga
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Slugline: The children of the night... they make such beautiful music... (chainsaw revving up).

The cover may be trying to pass this off as a horror, but it's a comedy. It's honest about the chainsaw, though; Hime ("Princess") does seem to favor the chainsaw over the rapier. She has recently added Hiro, a classically clueless abuse magnet, to her stable of servants, and keeps him alive and useful by feeding him her blood. We also have a classically clueless older sister to Hiro as a housemaid and a classic chibi sidekick/superstrong robot/only-says-one-word girl. Plus a half-werewolf angry-and-violent-stereotype girl who will be the backup asskicker for the series.

They're not the most original group of characters. And the storyline is not shaping up to be too unusual either - Hime and her siblings are trying to kill each other, and I'm sure we'll be regaled with stories of mutual trauma soon enough. And sadly, the artist had a lapse of physical plausibility when Hime delivered a strong upward slash to an enemy standing in front of her and the next frame depicted the rapier stuck through his forehead. Skewered upward through his chin, I would have bought, but I'm sorry. Yes, I am picky.

Still, it's got chainsaws, and that counts for something around here.



Princess Resurrection, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Platina, v. 1

By Yeon Joo Kim
Published in the U.S. by CPM Manhwa



Slugline: I am not sure that there is a story here, but it is amusing to read.

Auna was a rich girl whose family lost everything, and was forced to work for the government and her kingdom's demanding princess to maintain the old family home which was foreclosed on. The Princess gives Auna a fox cub, who promptly turns into a boy thief with a mother complex that defies easy description. Needless to say, the transformations from fox cub to boy and back again, are half of the humor of the book. All of the characters have hidden depths, but it is hard to actually pick out a coherent storyline here. We have secret pasts, but also an awareness that they are in a manhwa since they reference things that they know will not happen until the next chapter. Evil background characters are evil because they are in the background, and they know it. But hidden in the midst of all this frivolity there are the character's secret pasts. And what the hell is the Princess up to? Is she supposed to be a sympathetic character or not?

So as long as you don't mind being purposefully confused and seeing the structure of the story laid bare to you, this is a pretty good read. I rank it above stories that are confused because the author thinks that is the best way to be mysterious, or the author just can't tell the story coherently, which are sins of commission, whereas I think the omissions here are very purposeful.



Platina, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Series Update: Basilisk 4 & 5

SERIES UPDATE

The series wraps up in volume 5, after much bloodshed, much anguish, and some really bizarre death scenes. I haven't mentioned Segawa-sama's lovely artwork, which makes his women look soft and lush even while they're dishing out the pain. Needless to say, this war of attrition between superpowered ninjas comes to a very Japanese ending (or Shakespearian tragedy, if you prefer) and in the end, despite some serious contenders, I have to give the award for Most Bizarre "Ninja Technique" to the superpowered nose hairs. Yes, you read that right.

Links to reviews of v. 1, v. 2 & 3

Basilisk vol. 4 and vol. 5 are both available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

King of Thorn, v. 1

Created by Yuji Iwahara
Published in the U.S. by TokyoPop



Slugline: A good zombie movie, probably because it has no zombies.

The Medusa virus is sweeping the world, painfully turning its victims into chalky statues after a incubation period of weeks. Without a cure, one sibling of a twin sister set, Kasumi, wins a lottery to be put into suspended animation until a cure is found. After an unknown amount of time, she along with a number of the other lottery winners awaken to discover that their animation center is now overgrown with vines, and there are unknown creatures right outside the chamber waiting to eat them. Kasumi, the shyer of the twins, is left wondering why she was spared, what happened to the world, and how long she has left until the Medusa virus claims her and the rest of the survivors. Tensions among the small group that manages to escape, for the time being, only rise.

This is a horror title that feels very reminiscent, but still different from, of the isolation and paranoia of the best zombie movies. But instead of the infected losing their identity to become just another zombie, here, the Medusa virus strips everything but their identity away, leaving a statue. The shy Kasumi has to find meaning in herself, no longer relying directly on her sister, to make her way in a strange world that is familiar like a badly remembered echo.

Not sure if the later volumes will keep up with this book's quality, but for setting up a situation and immediately placing characters into jeopardy, this book is very good. In addition, this is second book we have reviewed here on Prospero's Manga from Yuji Iwahara, the first being Chikyu Misaki released by CMX, but now I am going to look forward and for any other works by this creator.



King of Thorn, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Love Pistols, v.1

By Tarako Kotobuki
Published in the U.S. by Blu



Slugline: Monkeys and leopards and bears, oh my! Let's get it on!

Norio turns out to be a special critter in a previously unknown world of spirit-critters and he spends most of his time freaking out amusingly while various giant-shouldered guys hit on him. It comes down to two guys, quickly, and my one complaint is that the guy who's trying to be nice about seducing Norio is obviously losing out to the one who's being an ass about it. I've never bought the whole "jerks are sexier than nice guys" thing, personally.

But for a yaoi, this story contains an unusual amount of world-building to explain these alternatively evolved human-animal-spirit beings amung us -- which I like, because porn deserves just as much effort as any other story, in my opinion. It goes a long way toward making the "must breed! don't care if it's male!" situation feel less contrived. Plus, it's a good excuse for people to turn into animals.

There's a parallel story about another romance in development, one that will take more work and may be more interesting in the long run. In the meantime, everyone's fantasizing about hot, non-explicit monkey sex (kinda literally) and I'm sure we'll get around to the real thing eventually.



Love Pistols, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

My Heavenly Hockey Club, v. 1

Created by Ai Morinaga
Published in the U.S. by DelRey Manga



Slugline: For once, the boy and the girl are both incredibly ludicrous.

Hana has worked long and hard to get into a prestigious local school. But for once it was not to prove something to her parents or to meet up with a cute guy that she had a crush on ever since she was a small child. No, she wants to sleep in, and the closest school just happened to have the hardest standards. But on the way there, she is accidentally hit by the car of one of the most powerful students at the school, Izumi, who decides upon meeting her that her indestructibility would be useful to have around in the Hockey Club. A club of course, that doesn't know how to play hockey, but they do go very far during away games, stay at nice resorts and indulge in food. All of which seems to be ideal to Hana, but unfortunately the morning practices involve learning which end of the stick is up and mean that she has ended up not getting any extra sleep. And despite all of their practice they never actually get to play a game, despite their best efforts to at least end up on the field to play.

Do Izumi and Hana have something going on between them? Yes, but it's overshadowed by the fact that their obsessions blind them to, well, reality. Usually one of the main characters in a manga is the voice of sanity or reason, but fortunately here that character seems to be relegated to a minor supporting role so he is easily ignored. It is the story's fidelity in taking itself not very seriously, but never pushing the characters in areas of insanity, that walks a fine line. Why the characters do crazy things is never unbelievable, but what they do they is. Despite being over-the-top, I still felt that the characters were real. The subject of the story is fluff, nothing out of the ordinary and one may even say it is less important than most other such stories, but the writing is such that you never really notice that the story is really about nothing. Well, less than the nothing that most relationship manga seem to fall into.



My Heavenly Hockey Club, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Crossroad, v.1

by Shioko Mizuki
Published in the U.S. by Go!comi



Slugline: "Blended" families are unusual, in Japan, and here we see a little of why.

In the US, the scenario would be sad but not strange at all: three kids were dropped off at various times at Grandma's house after their footloose mom fell in and out with various men. They go their separate ways, but are drawn back together by Grandma's death -- including Mom, who ditches yet another child with them and takes off for parts unknown.

Ranging from the 20-year-old, delivery-man eldest brother to the newest, elementary schoolgirl sister, they decide to make a go at being a family. The standard-issue transfer-student dramas and the teens awkwardly attracted to each other are well and humerously written, but it's the mundane problems of getting a place to live, getting themselves into school at all, that make this title stand out. In many shojo, these things are glossed over or handled by grown-ups, if they are even mentioned at all. As a grown up who has to worry about these things, I find it fascinating to see how it's done in Japan. And since our heroine is just a teenager, she's learning the ropes right along with us.

This title was first published in the U.S. in 2003, but it's worth looking for.

We have also reviewed Crossroad vols. 2 & 3 and Crossroad vols. 4-7.



CrossRoad, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

May vacation, 2007

We will be away on vacation, so no posts on May 15th, 17th and probably not on the 22nd either. Enjoy!

Grand Theft Galaxy, v.1

Written by Tricia Riley Hale, Illustrated by Jim Roy N. Jimenez
Published by TokyoPop



Slugline: "Intergalactic gentleman thieves" is not a good thing to put down on your pre-law application undr "parents' occupation."

A college student (at last, a college student, as compared to a high school student) is finally the lead in an OEL. True, how it is treated in the manga is not much different from high school, but I will take my little victories where I can. Samantha is an exceedingly and proudly normal girl just trying to get into pre-law when she discovers that her parents are actually intergalactic thieves of the first order, and that some detectives with rather big, planet-busting weapons are going to blow up the planet Earth unless they get a cube that Samantha's parents can't remember stealing and don't know where it is. Samantha, if she wants her romantic date with her boyfriend to ever happen, needs to save the planet.

The is a nice action fluff. Even the destruction of the planet is treated rather lightly, with the sort of over-the-top humor and action that one would expect from a Teenagers From Outer Space story (a classic RPG.) Good art, fun action, but nothing that will probably stick out of my mind after a couple of days. Not saying it is bad, but it is not going to be in the same place in my library as Earthlight is, a title that I remember more of now than I do from Grand Theft Galaxy which I read just a couple hours ago.

And no, this has nothing to do with the Grand Theft Auto series.



Grand Theft Galaxy, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Lovers in the Night

by Fumi Yoshinaga
Published in the U.S. by Blu



Slugline: There's just something about frilly shirts and yaoi, isn't there...

Like Yoshinaga's Gerard & Jaques, this collection of short stories is set in Revolution-era France and involves a master and butler relationship. Of the two, I would say Lovers in the Night is more developed and rings true -- the repartee is wittier, there's good back story, and even if Antoine is sometimes clueless as only a pampered aristocrat can be, he isn't nasty.

Set partly in Versaille and partly in German exile, there is a slight attempt at tension over Antoine and Claude's feelings for each other, but it's not like there's any real doubt. As a slice of "upstairs-downstairs" life, it never really addresses the differences between server and served. The story glides mainly on dialog, character, and a bit of porn (which is much better integrated into the story here than it was in Gerard & Jaques.)



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

- Miranda

Warriors: The Lost Warrior, v. 1

Created by Erin Hunter, Written by Dan Jolley and art by James L. Barry
Published by TokyoPop



Slugline: When in doubt, assume your cat is plotting escape and your downfall, in that order.

I have heard that Warriors is a popular young adult series, with something like 12+ books released since 2003. But fortunately this book explains everything you need to know about the world of Warriors without having to read the whole series, and not in a boring, infodumpy way. Graystripe is a warrior of a clan of cats who, in the effort of freeing them, is captured himself and ends up in a human home. He suffers a crisis of faith, so to speak, but thanks to his dreams of the passed-on cats of his clan, and a local pet cat named Millie, he begins the trip that will hopefully reunite him with his clan.

This is a nice, solid piece of story. It is whole upon itself, it has both internal and external struggles, along with a love interest. It is nothing specutular, once you get it is about the story of a cat trapped in the world of man, but it works. I get the feeling that Graystripe is an older cat, almost world-weary but still willing to shoulder his burden of being a provider and defender of his extended family. There are some tantalizing hints about the rest of the world of Warriors, which I am sure will please fans of the series. I find myself particularly driven to find out more about them since we have three cats, so I'm feeling a need to understand what is going on in their minds and make sure that they don't kill me in my sleep. The art is okay, nothing too exicting, but I never got confused over which cat is which, which a nice touch.



Warriors: The Lost Warrior vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Series Update: OldBoy 2 & 3

SERIES UPDATE

In the original review, I mostly talked about the movie version of this story. To give the manga a fair shake, it's well written and drawn, but it's still slow-paced (even for a manga) and our hero's revenge still depends entirely on those he is pursuing. He hasn't become proactive, yet.

Goto, our hero, pursues his revenge with great deliberation, and it's only when the enemy reaches out to contact him that things start happening. The artist also spends a great deal of time -- too much, actually -- establishing the mood and the surroundings and how many cigarettes everyone is smoking. I think I'll stick with the movie, mean-spirited as it was.

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

- Miranda

Rhysmyth, v. 1

Story by Anthony Andora with Art by Lincy Chan
Published by TokyoPop

Slugline: The best sign that the fans have taken over the kingdom is when they start writing about the fan-intensive stuff.

I have to admit a cardinal sin. Despite being in the prime demographics of my life, I have never owned a Nintendo, PS2, XboX, or even an Atari for that matter. It was a matter of acknowledging my sucky hand-eye coordination and the fact that I would spend time I didn't have in the fruitless pursuit of improving it. So my appreciation of Dance Dance Revolution is at best an cerebral one. But now here is a manga about a souped-up version of it. If that isn't a sign that we have arrived, nothing else is.

But once you strip out the DDR, all that is left is another underdog sports story, which in the first volume doesn't seem to move forward much and not much out of the ordinary happens. Elena can't get into any sports even though she clearly shows grace under pressure, a grace that she somehow has never shown before despite numerous chances and attempts on her part. There is the queen bee of the school putting her down, the jealous guy, the dark and mysterious guy, the wise sensei, and so on. All of the components are there, but they are not meshing together well. Maybe I have just read one too many sports manga recently, but other than the DDR aspect, I felt a little jaded by it, and since I don't play DDR, that failed to excite me.

So maybe for some fans this is exactly what they are looking for. I feel it needs something more.



Rhysmyth vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Shugo Chara, v. 1

by Peach Pit
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Slugline: Amu recieves not one, not two but count'em three guardian character eggs, simply by wishing for them. Nothing unusual about that, is there?

Well, of course it's unusual. Who'd read a manga about a girl with just one guardian character, like everyone else?

And not only does she get three guardian characters who can power her up (complete with costume change), they're an athelete archetype, an artist and a domestic goddess. I suppose that's as feminist as we're going to get in a Japanese elementary-school drama. Amu's new alternate personalities qualify her for the elite cliques of private elementary school politics and guardianship -- yes, this story is a direct descendant of Revolutionary Girl Utena, and I'll admit it could be worse.

While there are a lot of typical magical girl elements in the story, some of the characters show signs of growing beyond their initial impression. The art is a bit better than your average tweener shojo and while the artist's chibis are roughly sketched, they are used quite effectively to convey shock and anger.

There are, of course, also overtures of romance. I'm not quite sure that I believe they've cured boy-cooties in fourth and fifth graders yet, but this is Japan. Who knows?



Shugo Chara! vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Gothic Sports, v. 1

By Anike Hage
Published in U.S. by TokyoPop



Slugline: For a German title called Gothic Sports, I expected more pillaging and violence on the field.

More evidence that the manga phenomenon is worldwide: this title was an OGL (Original German Language) mangaput out by TokyoPop Germany. I had seen the title and some cover art pieces, but even with little information I was looking forward to this series just from the title. It immediately conjured up images and a style that, while it is part of this manga, was nowhere near as strong or as important as I hoped.

In fact, in this first volume there is little to tell you that this was first released in Germany. Perhaps that's proof of the saying that there are no new stories, so far as this story is unfolding much like other sports stories do. There is the plucky new girl at school, Anya who wants to be on any sports team she can get on, the mysterious boy Leon from her past who wants to be on her team, and the school's already-existing soccer team that doesn't want any girls on it for fear it would harm their chances of winning.

There are a couple of character mysteries, such as why Anya is so desperate to go to school and be on a sports team despite not having any sport in particular in mind, Leon's role, and what is the deal with Delia, a member of the basketball team. But the reason the series is called Gothic Sports is because in order to attract attention the team wears Gothic-Lolita inspired uniforms. Funny, but I thought the Gothic connection would run deeper than that. This is not a particularly bad series, but I think it is missing opportunities by being, for the current volume at least, just another inspirational sports manga.



Gothic Sports vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Inubaka (Crazy for Dogs), v. 1

by Yukiya Sakauragi
Published in the U.S. by Viz



Slugline: A competent story about a girl who is especially good with dogs.

Suguri is a high school grad who loves dogs and wants to move to the big city. Like many manga girls with a special ability, she is otherwise inept, overly optimistic, and not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Through a series of misadventures (and one tasteful scene of her mutt humping a purebred bitch) she lands a job at a dog boutique in Tokyo.

As a dog owner myself, I was a bit disappointed by the attitude of the store owner and love interest is that mutts are worthless. That tends to lead to the attitude that some dogs are "good" and some are "bad" when the truth is that any dog can be a good dog -- whether a mutt, a pit bull, Chihuahua or Great Dane -- and any dog can be a bad dog. It all depends on what humans teach them, or fail to teach them.

Suguri does run into some realistic problems, such as dishonest roommates, in Tokyo, but on the whole Inubaka is a lightweight story with lots of cute puppies and dogs.



Inubaka (Crazy for Dogs) vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Series Update: The Devil Does Exist, v. 2 & 3

SERIES UPDATE

Wow.

I was sorta expecting after the first volume for the series to take a sharp turn downhill, into the land of suck. Because often that is how stories end up, that the girl would go crazy and start debating back and forth, or what have you. I am not saying that the series breaks bold new ground -- they do have the mandatory so-sick-with-a-cold-he-passes-out storyline, and the everyone-goes-to-an-amusement-park-storyline -- but what happens are events I can sorta see happening, in that time of your life when everything seems so important and life as you know it hangs by a thread. And the problems people have don't just come from everyone not talking to each other and refusing to even attempt it, but make some sort of sense. You do not have to completely suspend your disbelief to follow this series and enjoy it. You just need to take it out for a night on the town and ply it with sake for a little bit.

Kayano and Takeru move closer together, but Takeru has severe mother abandonment issues which I sense are going to come up, and may turn into a wedge because no girl likes being compared to her mother. Ignore the covers, they are attractive but meaningless and do not represent anything story-wise.

I know people gave CMX in general a bad rap, but if you want a shoujo series that treats the creepy guy who professes love at the drop of a hat as actually creepy rather than annoyingly cute -- which seems a little more connected with reality and with a girl that seems almost normal and sane -- try this.

style="font-family:verdana;">such a way that you don't really think about it until you try to break it down. The secret of Neo is revealed -- and it's something more complicated and more reasonable than just a prehistoric creature -- and how this ties into Misaki's own background. The series ends with a mild recommendation. I wanted to give it a stronger recommendation due to the story and the characters, but the lack of background is holding it back.

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

- Ferdinand

Mamotte! Lollipop, v. 1

By Michiyo Kikuta
Published in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Dishonorable Mention

The way our heroine (Nina) keeps going on about wanting a boyfriend who would protect her, you'd think she was living in Iraq. The story goes on to hit every shojo stereotype: she's swept up into a competition, there's two guys competing for the lead role, they suddenly transfer to her school, several people are clinically insane and obviously unqualified for the powers they're wielding, we go to a hot springs resort and play towel games, people keep asking about Nina's hairstyle, and on an on and oh, wait, this all happened because she accidentally swallowed the magic pearl. You know what? It should only take about 24 hours for this problem to fix itself.

This book is rated for 13+. I'd like to think that 13-year-olds are smarter than this.



Mamotte! Lollipop vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

The Gentleman's Alliance Cross, v 1

Story and Art by Arina Tanemura
Released in the U.S. by Viz Shojo Beat



Slugline: Is being sold really that fun for tween girls?

Okay, bankruptcy laws in Japan must be horrible, because so many of the characters in anime get into their situations because of debts and so on. Either that or lawyers in Japan have an even worse reputation there than I thought. Plus, Japan must have not only imported European school systems, but also European concepts of nobility (despite having their own already.) Though their nobility is a very American one, you are rich because you are good, therefore if you are rich you deserve to be in charge. Ugh.

The only somewhat redeeming feature that the main character Haine has is that she can occasionally kick ass. But it's a aspect of her sordid past, something I wish she would have kept because she has every right to be angry at her situation, even angry at the boy she likes because he pretended to be gay to avoid entanglements.

The details of the world are well constructed and the art is nice, but it is like a building with no rules, or asking "How did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?" There is no real point. Maybe it cleans up later in the series, but this is one of those manga that I had to force myself to finish, and whose details immediately started fading from my mind as if to protect itself as soon as I put it down.

I don't give out Dishonorable Mentions like Miranda, but this is as close as I have ever gotten to giving one.



The Gentleman's Alliance Cross vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

King City, v.1

by Brandon Graham
Published by Tokyopop



Slugline: The future of slackerdom is full of strange tech and cool cats.

The art has a retro feel and it's set in a future that is weirdly different, yet the characters are completely human and familiar. Joe and his cat, and his friend Peter who wears Mexican wrestling masks, hack their way through life doing errands and odd jobs on the fringes of organized gangs and larger evils. Joe's ex-girlfriend Anna and her new boyfriend make cameo appearances that are sure to be a set-up for later adventures.

The cat in particular is a bit of strange, unexplained fun that must be taken at face value or not at all: the cat is alien, smart, and with a juice injection can do almost anything. In fact, a great deal goes unexplained in King City, but since our characters are so easy to get along with, I'm quite willing to wait until later volumes.

This is an OEL book, left-to-right reading, and the art is a funky manga-by-way-of-R. Crumb that contributes to this book's quirky science-fiction flavor. I'm pretty annoyed that Amazon doesn't have a cover to show you. Hey, T'pop, fix that!



King City vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

The Devil Does Exist, v. 1

By Takanashi Mitsuba
Released in the U.S. by CMX



Slugline: A girl chooses between two guys and makes her intentions clear to them?!? Is this even a manga?

Kayano is about to admit her feelings to Yuichi in the standard shoujo form of a letter when the school bully, Takeru, intercepts said message before delivery. Takeru is untouchable in the school because his father is the principal. (Which makes me wonder about Japanese schools: is there any particular reason a school principal would need Men In Black?) Unfortunately, Takeru's father and Kayano's mother are dating and have become engaged, which will make them siblings. Start the hapless confusion music here, as the standard romantic triangle follies begin. But Kayano admits to herself that while they may be fun to read about in manga, they suck when you are living through them and she makes a decision and starts implementing it by the end of the first volume.

Yes, the girl makes a solid decision. Like I said, is this even a manga? I'm glad they skipped the endless vacillations that are often the whole point of shoujo and make the girls seem weak-willed and the guys like saps for putting up for it. And then making decisions that cause just as much tension, if not more, than not. Now we get to see what the characters are really made of, how driven they really are, when what drives them is not some genetic imperative (like how some girls in manga are always perky no matter how depressing the situation) or constant indecision. There are some interesting little artistic devices, but the author is trying something interesting here, which bumps this above most other shoujo in my opinion.



The Devil Does Exist vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Tactics, v. 1

by Sakura Kinoshita and Kazuko Higashiyama
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop



Slugline: Kantarou and his enslaved spirits try to pay the bills by... well, they actually only do one exorcism, if you can call it that...

The back of the book says this manga "influenced the popular anime" so I'm guessing whoever wrote the anime had a better grasp of story structure and somehow managed to make Kantarou sympathetic. Because one bishonen tengu isn't going to carry loosely plotted stories with annoying and/or cardboard characters very far.

The tengu himself, Haurka, is the only real bishie in the book and he spends all his time either throwing hissy fits or whining about his tea bowl. Kantarou has no qualms about manipulating these spirits that he has enslaved, and he claims that he is trying to help spirits as a whole. But as I said, he really only helps one person -- maybe two, if you overlook all of the religious flimflam that was involved.

What saves this from a Dishonorable Mention is folklore content, even though it's revealed in awkward bits in between awkward plotting. The translator's footnotes at the end are especially informative, to the point where I have to assume the dialog is crummy because the translator didn't have much to work with.



Tactics vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Murder Princess, v. 1

By Sekihiko Inui
Published in the U.S. by Broccoli Books



Slugline: For a title called Murder Princess, she is not doing a lot of murdering, and technically she isn't even a princess, she is a queen.

Murder Princess does suffer from one really silly conceit in the beginning: that by falling and bonking their heads together, a tough-as-nails female bounty hunter and a princess fleeing a coup would end up exchanging souls. Sure, I am willing to take some weirdness, but it is just there, dropped into the story. If we can get past that, there is an actually a not-half-bad story here, though for some reason it does feel more like a Saturday afternoon special than anything else. You have the recurring villian, a mad scientist who has created two incredibly cute but incredibly deadly robots disguised as children to do his bidding. Whenever we need a random threat to illustrate some aspect of a character's personality, said trio conveniently show up to wreak some destruction before having to flee.

There is some sort of prophecy being floated that Falis, the bounty hunter in Alita's body, is going to destroy the kingdom, but it doesn't really seem to drive the plot, and how she ends being paid to help protect the kingdom is a little threadbare. The action scenes, on the other hand, are decent, and if you are willing to overlook the plot holes, it is reasonably entertaining.



Murder Princess vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Paintings of You

By Mia Paluzzi and Chris Delk
Published by Iris Print (Release date: June 6, 2007)



Slugline: Claude likes Ben likes Beatrice likes Hero likes John likes Honey who is actually a bizarre rag doll... okay, that part's a little strange...

Everybody knows the standard relationship-misunderstanding trope: our overwrought hero/ine overhears and/or misunderstands something the Lust Object says, mentally blows it all out of proportion and silently flagellates him/herself for dozens or hundreds of pages because they can't possibly say anything to anybody.

Imagine my shock when not only was the relationship misunderstanding extended to every member of the cast, but our hero (Claude) actually gathers information from Ben's friends (but since they misunderstand too, it's the wrong information) and realizes there's been a misunderstanding.

All this plus good art, snappy dialog and some insightful, honest portrayal of the inner agony of artists (someone is speaking from experience, methinks.) I'm giving this four stars and I don't even like straight-up romances, as a rule, since they all end the same.

Porn content: two boy-on-boy kisses, both well earned. There's no rating on this promo copy, so I'm basing the rating tag on the fact that there's nothing remotely nasty in this book unless you're violently homophobic.



- Miranda

Series Update: Chikyu Misaki, v. 2 & 3

SERIES UPDATE

For a manga, this seems to be a rather short series, done in three volumes. Something I would like to bring up is that the lettering at times seems to have been poorly done, making it hard to read, though that might have simply have been the limitations of the panel layout. The story pulls together the separate storylines into an ending that seems to wrap up most of the major plot points, and at the same time doesn't really answer a lot of questions but handles them in such a way that you don't really think about it until you try to break it down. The secret of Neo is revealed -- and it's something more complicated and more reasonable than just a prehistoric creature -- and how this ties into Misaki's own background. The series ends with a mild recommendation. I wanted to give it a stronger recommendation due to the story and the characters, but the lack of background is holding it back.

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

- Ferdinand

Pleasure Dome

by Megumu Minami
Published in the U.S. by Kitty Media



Dishonorable Mention

This dishonorable mention has little to do with the yaoi rape and torture in this volume of short stories. I'm not into that sort of thing, but I'm sure there's someone out there who is. And it's not the art, because the art is good except for the complete lack of genitals on anybody.

(So actually it's a bunch of well-dressed Ken dolls raping each other.)

The stories are rushed, disjointed, and juxtapose surprisingly dull dialog with images of coerced sex. Good art can carry a mediocre story -- but it can't carry this mess.



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

- Miranda

Chikyu Misaki, v. 1

by Iwahara Yuji
Published in the U.S. by CMX Manga



Slugline: Is this manga about the Loch Ness monster or Ranma 1/2?

This book is not what I expected it to be, and that was a refreshing experience. Misaki moves to the remote village where her mother grew up and learns there is a legend of a Loch Ness-type monster called Hohoro. Like all manga, said mother is dead, but Misaki quickly makes a new friend at the local school named Sanae, and on the way home they comes across the Hohoro, who they name Neo after a movie character. Hohoro is rather small, but can transform with the aid of a kiss into the form of a ten-year-old-boy that promptly follows them home. Meanwhile, there is a subplot of a rich girl, Tokuko, who has been kidnapped and then returned for the ransom. The kidnappers, including her piano teacher Reiko who was in on the plot, are getting away but crash near the lake, sending the ransom money to the bottom of the lake.

I wish that there was some way I could convey that this plot, in comparison to other manga, fairly bustles along. Things are happening, and no one is truly stupid. For instance, Neo, the human form of Hohoro, is accepted without question by the adults in the story for a day or two before they demand some sort of explanation. It is almost an American- stylestory, which is probably why CMX picked it up. Giving it a rating that reflects that is hard, because it is a competently done story, so far, but by the same token it is doing something that is different to manga readers but not to American readers. That is not to say there are not elements of manga here, such as the lonely rich girl who pushes everyone away, but I suspect that there are more familiar elements here than otherwise.



Chikyu Misaki, vol. 1 is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Thanks for the year

Yep, Miranda noticed this week we have been posting a year, and if you look on the side of the blog here we have very nice stats, with tons of reviews for virtually every company.

...

Okay, back to work we go. Thanks for sticking with us for a year, and we hope you all stick around for many more.

-Ferdinand

The Dark Goodbye, v. 1

Written by Frank Marraffino, Art by Drew Rausch
Published by Tokyopop



Slugline: Noir vehicle takes a right on Lovecraft Ave and hits the gas hard so as to fly over the potholes.

This is a really mixed bag, for me, so I will just list pros and cons.

Pros: It's darn hard to find good Lovecraftian horror, and this is pretty good. The art fits perfectly with the mood. Lots of fast-moving action and flying body parts. The ancient noir stereotypes fit in well, too. And did I mention how hard it is to find decent Lovecraft?

Cons: The speed of the action hides some real plot holes. This is a manga, guys, you can slow down a bit and fill in those holes, don't be shy. And endings are always a problem in Lovecraftian stories, because chanting in made-up languages just doesn't have the impact you need to make a big finish.

So it's enjoyable if you don't pay too much attention to how we got from A to B, and if you know how to pronounce apostrophies. (F'tgh! F'tgh! W'TF?) And I very much hope to see a volume 2 where the writer isn't in such a hurry.



The Dark Goodbye vol. 1 is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Series Update: Aishiteruze Baby v. 2 & 3

SERIES UPDATE

You know how I said the first volume of Aishiteruze Baby did stuff that I had rarely seen in manga? Well, never mind that. In the second and third volumes they didn't forge new ground or keep up the inventiveness, but instead just started using all of the cookie-cutter plot points that I have seen before in manga, especially in shoujo style titles. In retrospect, the relationship between the two now seems to spring up fully formed, and this odd relationship that Kippei and Kokoro have now seems to be based on Kokoro's trauma of a lost mother and since her father is moving away with his new wife, well, remember what I said about how most manga characters don't seem to have a full set of parents? True, it has become rarer in real life, but I am not asking for happy shiny people. Still -- maybe Miranda said this -- it appears that the most dangerous occupation in Japan is parenting, since they seem to die with unusual frequency. Does no one get divorced? I know it is infrequent in Japan, but it has to be less infrequent than this...

Short version: what was interesting and special about the first volume of Aishiteruze Baby gets covered up with standard shoujo fare in the following two volumes.

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

- Ferdinand

Love Circles

by Laura Carboni
Published in the U.S. by Yaoi Press (on sale May 28, 2007)



Slugline: Nerdy boy is transformed into a hottie by the meathead who's secretly nice, and then they fall in love.

Oddly, this has to be the most Western-style title we have reviewed here on Prospero's Manga (short of Making Comics) and it's another Italian import (like Wishing for the Moon). This sort of "ugly duckling to swan" story is not anything new and there are no surprising twists, but it is solidly written and stocked with characters within the confines of its template.

I'm not entirely sure why, but the art just does not appeal to me in this story. I'm a long-time reader of Marvel and DC so I'm no stranger to uber-muscular men, but these guys have such well defined butts that they could lose TV remotes in there. And really, guys whose necks are as wide as their heads have never been my type. Despite the explicit muscles, this is not a hardcore porn and there is no full-frontal nudity.

In its defense against myself, the use of chibi is frequent, effective and generally cute -- and you know, I could have enjoyed the whole story with the chibi versions of these guys.



- Miranda

Series Update: The Drifting Classroom, v. 2 & 3

SERIES UPDATE

Umezu-san's characters react to their extreme situation in realistic ways: some freak out, some keep a cool head, some commit suicide, some act selflessly. And many are willing to follow the lead of a strong (or brutal) personality. The body count starts rising quickly and the sixth graders have to begin taking on leadership roles and dealing with some dangerous grown-ups in their midst. Some discoveries are made about what seems to have happened and exactly how dire their situation is.

And back home, our hero's mother is, understandably, losing her mind. Or is she?

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

- Miranda

Aishiteruze Baby, vol. 1

Story and Art by Yoko Maki
Released in the U.S. by Viz Shojo Beat



Slugline: Cute kids remain cute no matter the language and country, damn their scheming, innocent eyes!

Kippei is that guy you hated back in high school, the one that all the girls fell in love with even though he didn't do anything worthy to deserve it and treats them casually and interchangeably. That all changed one day when Yuzuyu, his female five-year-old cousin moves into their home since her mother left her after Yuzuyu's father died. Kippei is given the job of taking care of her. Okay, besides the point of who in their right mind would make the primary caregiver of a five-year-old a seventeen-year-old who seems barely able to take care of himself, never mind someone else, this is actually a fairly affecting and sweet story.

Kippei doesn't immediately make himself over in order to become the world's best caregiver, but by the same token his attempts to help Yuzuyu are believable and just confused enough to seem reasonable. I am not sure if the whole situation behind getting Yuzuyu is believable, but once she is part of the family, Kippei starts making changes. Not big ones, and not ones he himself realizes he is making, but changes nonetheless. The supporting female character Kokoro has a very reasonable desire to stay the heck away from Kippei, if for no other reason than he seems to use women up like -- well, how can I say this without seeming mean or getting an R rating -- like they weren't real, more like they were masturbatory devices that thankfully did not require much care.

Plus, this is an attempt to show an actual parent-child relationship, not the fake ones that seem to proliferate in manga where one parent is dead and the other is never around. Not exactly the woe-is-me stuff of more typical manga, but still very interesting.



Aishiteruze Baby vol. 1 is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Series Update: Eternal Sabbath, v. 3 & 4

SERIES UPDATE

Their first encounter with the enemy having gone badly, our three main characters fall back, regroup, and get subjected to Issac's ability to unhinge people a few more times. This costs them a few friends and allies. But they start doing their homework (rather than relying on a magical revelation/weapon/asspull) and trying to formulate ideas of how to strike back.

Still enjoying this series very much and looking forward to more.

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

- Miranda

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, v. 1

Adapted by Shiro Amano
Released in the US by TokyoPop



Slugline: Wanting better stories than this is what got me to stop watching Disney movies.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is a follow-up to the best-selling Kingdom Hearts, which incorporates Disney characters into a manga story. Sora, an original character, leads a rescue party of Jiminy Cricket, Goofy and Donald Duck to find King Mickey. I wish the story explained the title's popularity, but after reading it, I am afraid that I am going to ascribe its popularity to having Disney characters and being based on a video game.

This title is a continuation of the original Kingdom Hearts, drawing directly from the previous series often and without clear explanations, meaning that despite this being the first volume, it still would be better to read Kingdom Hearts first. And if the reader has watched Disney movies before, scenes from the movies are repeated rather than expanding on them.

The title earns a low ranking because while it is technically well executed, if you are not a young Disney fan or looking for a gift for someone who is, there is very little to draw one in. This is rated all ages, but in this case it really means it is best suited for only its target ages, 9-12.



Kingdom Hears: Chain of Memories vol. 1 is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Series Update: Kamui 2 - 5

SERIES UPDATE

Long overdue, yes. Had very mixed opinions about the next few volumes... they seemed so... limp... so flat... and then I... realized... that it wasn't the dialog... it was... too many... ellipses... draining... the passion... from the text... I know... English doesn't fit well... in Japanese word balloons... but come on guys... everybody... sounds like... they're sighing... and hopeless... and it's hard to keep reading when you're fighting the urge to call the waahmbulance.

And the sad part is, the art's nice. The plot isn't bad. There's decent worldbuilding, too. The pacing of the dialogue is a major problem for me, though, and I think the blame lies with the translation and the layout. Can anybody who has read the Japanese confirm/deny this for me?

Kamui vol. 2, vol. 3, vol. 4 and vol. 5 are all available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda