Dragonball, Big Volume 1

Story and Art by Akira Toriyama
Released in the US by Viz Shonen Jump


Slugline: There is way too much interest in balls here.

Son Goku has been alone in the wilderness for years, ever since his grandfather died. Well, he was probably not Son Goku’s real grandfather, since he did not have a monkey tail like Son Goku. His grandfather had dragonball, which the inventor (and cute girl) Bulma discovers that Son Goku has by tracking it to him. She convinces Son Goku to accompany her on a quest to acquire all 7 Dragonballs, for once you find all seven of the dragonballs you can summon the dragon who will grant one wish. Bulma is certain that she will need some protection in her quest and guilts Son Goku into accompanying her. Son Goku goes along with this with the understanding so that he can keep the DragonBall that his grandfather had after the wish. But Bulma did not mention that after the wish the dragonballs disappear for a year and have to be gathered up again. In order to prevent a dictator from gaining control over the Dragonballs, a wish was wasted and the dragonballs were scattered for a year. While waiting for the year to end, Son Goku decides to train with the turtle master Kame Sen'nin, and thanks to a brutal several month long training regimen (well, not training per se, but abuse with a purpose) Son Gokue and friends are able to compete in the ultimate martial arts tournament, the Tenka'ichi Budokai.

Eh, I understand that this is one of the gateway anime/manga and thus people may have fond memories, but it is still a very sketchy story, with a lot of knowing winks to the audience. Despite the supposed difficulty of finding the dragonballs, it is a relatively easy task without significant challenges, except for the deus ex machine opponent that suddenly no one can defeat.

At this time the story is very juvenile, with fart, nudity and underwear jokes galore, with a humor fantasy bent. It is not much of fighting title yet, the fighting doesn't really start kicking in until the end of the volume, with the search for the dragonballs not having much in the way of meaningful fighting as compared to someone challenging Son Goku and immediately being beaten down. Toriyama is still finding his feet on this series, and while the dragonballs give the series its name, the story doesn't seem click until the martial arts tournament starts up.

Now this may be blatantly obvious to people that have been grown up with the series, but the majority of my experience from this series actually comes from watching anime music videos that have used DBZ footage, rather than watching the anime or reading the manga. So my nostalgia on this is really low and thus not very forgiving.



Dragonball, Big Volume 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

In Odd We Trust

Created by Dean Koontz, Written by Queenie Chan and Dean Koontz with Illustrations by Queenie Chan
Published by Del Rey Manga


Slugline: Not that odd

Odd Thomas is a fry cook specializing in pancakes and the ability to see ghosts. Well, seeing ghosts is not usually a skill required in most diners, but it sometimes is useful when there has been a murder. In the California town of Pico Mundo there has been a child murder, and considering Odd's previous assistance to the town's police, he is asked to see if there is anything he can do with new case. Odd would have probably helped anyways, if for no other reason that the housekeeper that discovered the child's body is a childhood friend of Stormy, his girlfriend. But Sherry, Stormy's friend, has a deeper connection to the killer than just being unfortunate enough to find the killer's first victim.

Dean Koontz has written four novels featuring Odd Thomas, but I am not sure exactly where this falls into the series. Maybe this story does not show off the character of Odd Thomas to the fullest, but it did not impress me very much. Odd Thomas seems like so many other psychic detectives that I read or seen on TV before. Plus, it seems that the central mystery of the volume is just not very mysterious or challenging. Maybe that is reflective of the series and the fact when you have a real psychic whose answers to their questions just come to them, it is hard to maintain a sense of suspense. Still it felt flat. Even the art at times felt stiff. This feels more for the fans of the Odd Thomas series than anything else.



In Odd We Trust is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Gimmick, vol. 1

Story by Youzaburou Kanari with Art by Kuroko Yabuguchi
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: FX that are not fake, really.

Kohei Nagase is a FX artist working under the name Studio Gimmick, specializing in make-up. He is one of the most talented make up artists in the world, using a silver spatula that was given to him by a Hollywood master to apply his makeup. But despite his skills, he very rarely actually works in the movies, spending more time helping people. Episodes in this volumes have him and his friends helping a film star escape an abusive manager, a horror theme park under threat from a mad bomber, a model who needs to hide scars from an accident and retrieving movie monster animatronics that is being used in jewel thefts.

There is actually a sub-genre of adventure fiction that focuses on FX and makeup artists using their skills to mislead others and help people outside of the movies. Maybe it started because TV and movie creators wanted to make stories that made people like them heroes. Once some of those were made, the inspiration spread out from there. The stories seem to be grounded in the real world, but are then gee whiz factor is pushed too far with the FX for it to be the turning point of the story. Since it is drawn you don't even get to see FX work, since it is too easy to show anything without having to worry about real world limitations. It is a silly, fun and light story, but it is feels more pure fantasy than something along the lines of the Lord of the Rings.



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

-Ferdinand

Rosario + Vampire, vol. 1

Story and Art by Akihisa Ikeda
Published in the US by Viz


Slugline: Not another doomed vampire romance. Just a harem.

Tsukune is an average student that has the worst luck in applying to high schools being rejected to all that he applied to. At the last moment his parents manage to get him admitted to a boarding school, but after he arrives Tsukune discovers that it is a school for monsters. It teaches them how to stay hidden among humanity. To do so the students have to remain disguised as humans allowing Tsukune to remain unnoticed amongst them. But the first student he meets, Moka, is a female vampire that was attracted to his... blood. Moka is such a powerful vampire that her power is restrained by a magical Rosario she wears on her neck. Because Moka is such a powerful presence in the school and Tsukune is always around her (because of her attraction to his blood) they often get into trouble, with Tsukune having to pull off her Rosario, releasing Moka's alternate personality that controls most of her vampiric powers.

This is a harem story, though rather than being a comedy/drama, it is more action oriented. It is the nice to see the sweet and 'innocent' girl also getting to be the ass-kicker, though who knows how long that will last. The other thing about harem stories is that they have a lot of fan service, and Moka when her vampire powers are unleashed seems to enjoy kicking the snot out of her opponents. Of course the school has a short skirt as part of their uniform so you can easily figure out where they sneak in the gratuitous panty shots. The episodes in this volume are fairly repetitive, which is wait until things get hairy and Tsukune gets beaten up a bit, then Tsukune manages to pull off Moka's Rosario. She then beats up the antagonist of the episode rather easily. With all that said, the fight scenes are staged entertainingly and there is some silliness in the character motivations (which is inevitable in harem stories, because how many girls can really maintain interest in a guy without giving up or otherwise changing their mind?) But as these things go, it is okay. Maybe because I have seen so much fan service that I don't even really see it anymore, though for other people that are not as desensitized as I am, it may be too much.

And no doomed romances here, at least not yet.



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

-Ferdinand

The Record of a Fallen Vampire, vol. 1

Story by Kyo Shirodaira with art by Yuri Kimura
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline:A vampire story that isn't about a doomed love with a human (yet)

Akabara is the vampire king of a long vanished kingdom. He has been searching for his queen for a thousand years, with her being magically sealed away because her magic almost destroyed the world. Akabara still loves his queen and has searched for her amongst all the fake magical seals that have been strewn amongst the world, trying to avoid the dhampires (half human/half vampires) that are hunting him down to prevent the release of his queen. His worst pursuer is the Black Swan, a woman with the ability to negate his magical abilities. But the Black Swan is more than just one woman but a curse that is passed from pursuer to pursuer, each time one Black Swan being killed another taking her place with all of the previous ones knowledge and abilities. Despite gaining assistance from a dhampire, in a modern looking city Akabara meets the 50th Black Swan who manages defeats him. But despite being cursed to destroy him, this Black Swan decides to bargain with him.

I was actually pleasantly surprised here, in that while the vampire has a doomed love, it is not a doomed love that normally hunts and kills vampires. Or even human. Another character who I didn't expect to get killed was killed pretty quickly. This is not a radical reinvention of the vampire story, but it has enough of a twist on it that I am not really sure what is going to happen next, which is pleasant. While I am not sure exactly what Akabara's rationale and self-guilt over his queen's abilities is coming from, I can get it exists and is what drives him. His dhampire's companion motivation is a little more ambiguous and the Black Swan's is completely unknown, but the volume ends at a good point, drawing you in to check out the next volume. So while I am not dancing in the street, I am actually somewhat interested in seeing what comes next and what is driving the characters.




The Record of a Fallen Vampire, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Kamichama Karin Chu, vol. 1

By Koge Donbo
Released in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Eyeballs bleeding from the cuteness

The continuation of the Kamichama Karin, with a new threat facing Karin and Kazune. Karin has been having dreams in which is she needs to gather the three gods. Gods in this case means humans that wear special rings that transforms them into a god mode with special abilities, including the ability to avoid the sight of normal humans. The first of the three gods is actually Karin and Kazune's child from the future, which is a bit of a shock to Karin, since they are both in grade school (I think, the Japanese infatuation with prepubescence always screws up my expectations.) There is a seed of a threat growing now that will bloom into evil in the future, so Karin and Kazune must recruit the other two gods. One of them of course is am idol that is attending their school. By the end of the first volume all three of the gods have been found, but their opponent has already started making moves against them.

I haven't read the predecessor series, but I have read some of Koge-Donbo's other series (not here on Prosopero's Manga though), and she is a creator that focuses on the cute. Karin certainly falls into that, with expressive eyes and cute outfits. But it also makes if feel that she is not very much in charge of what is going on around her, with things just falling into her lap. Her partner, Kazune is excessively macho. Karin realizes that he is that way but still looks forward to the day that they will have the child that shows up from the future. There is also the fact that there seems to be a bridging episode from the previous series at the end of the volume rather than the beginning. It does not have a prominent label so I had to go back and make sure when things seemed all out of order. Despite being all silly and cute, the book is still rated 13+, which feels weird because of how the material is approached. I just really can't take the title very seriously and to certain extent, I don't even think it takes itself seriously, which I suspect is most of the problem I have with it.



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

-Ferdinand

Two Flowers for the Dragon, vol. 1

By Nari Kusakawa
Released in the US by CMX Manga


Slugline: A threesome with a dragon is not as kinky as it sounds

Shakuya is the heir of the ruling family of an isolated desert city built around an oasis. The ruling family has had a tradition of having arranged marriages with the sons of important families of the city, but Shakuya's was lost in a sandstorm when they were both very young, and a new betrothed was chosen for her. A magical tattoo of a flower was placed on her arms, and as her love for her first betrothed grows, her tattoo grows. Unfortunately for her original betrothed had survived the sandstorm and returns five years later, having only just then regained enough of his memory to return. Now she has two flower tattoos, and whichever grows the most in the next year, the betrothed that flower represents will marry her. Shakuya has fallen in love (or what she thinks is love) with her current suitor Kuwan, but Lucien, her first one is back and is far more attentive than what she is comfortable with. Plus, there is the little problem that her family is descended from water dragons and she retains the ability to transform into one.

Okay, this feels like a real choice in the romance department. Kuwan and Lucien have different personalities and different schemes to attract Shakuya, none of that will he or won't he fall in love with the girl that you always know is just an excuse to draw out the story, because if there wasn't any conflict over whom the characters were attracted to, well, there wouldn't be much of a story now would there? Shakuya is not immediately torn between the two, she doesn't want to have a fickle heart, but she is still a romantic young girl, and she overreacts (I think at least) to the slightest change. The addition of her having dragon and water control abilities gives her own power base, so to speak, so that she is not overshadowed by the boys. Now, the previous work from this creator, The Palette of 12 Secret Colors, I was not very impressed by, but I feel the the characters here are far more grounded and real, despite their abilities.



Two Flowers for the Dragon, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Kiichi and the Magic Books, vol. 1

By Taka Amano
Released in the US by CMX Manga


Slugline: Reading is more than Fundamental, it's magical

Kiichi has had a hard time in his village every since his mother died and it was revealed that he had a horn on his head. That showed that he had some oni parentage, and there are many superstitions and legends about oni, none of them good. But when a traveling librarian came to their village, his books have drawings that come alive and he has a young traveling companion who may have been brought to life from a book herself. Wanting to learn more about his parentage and race,Kiichi decides to join them as Mototaro is returning to a local book depositary, because at the book depositary there are likely to be researchers and books that can help him with his questions. But there is a long way from Kiichi's village to the book depositary, and many things can happen along the way.

While this is a teen book, at least this first volume feels all ages. Nothing too frightening or over the top, but still effective. All three of the characters have emotional as well as physical journeys going on, especially the ones that doesn't look like they have one. That being said, well this is a well constructed story, it doesn't feel like it has that extra something that could turn the story into something great. It is just good, and it is shame when you call something just good you are only giving it modest compliment. But while I enjoyed it, I doubt I will remember much about it in a week or two. But that might just be because of how many manga a week I read...



Kiichi and the Magic Books, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

After School Sex Slave Club

After School Sex Slave Club and all other review of explicit titles have been moved to Prospero’s Manga – Mature, a review blog for specifically for those titles. Please check there for reviews.

Hotel Africa, vol. 1

By Hee Jung Park
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Is it a memory or a dream?

Elvis is living with two friends, in the post college uncertainty that so many graduates face. But so much of their interaction with each other and theworld triggers Elvis's memories of growing up in the Utah desert. As the half black child of an unmarried white mother, many of his memories are of the time when his mother Addie turned their large home in bed and breakfast called the Hotel Africa. One of their first guests was named Geo, who decided within a day that he will marry Addie. But that is not the first bit of oddity, as strange folks come through Hotel, and there is Elvis and his friends own activities in the present.

Oddity here is the sort of human oddity that you can believe in, the sort of everyday strangeness that can happen, not that it is likely too. It does feel like a slice of life, but there is an undercurrent of something more, that bit of magical realism touch. Considering that Elvis and his friends are involved in the film industry (on the very outskirts) the feeling of superrealism , more real than real, permeates the stories. At the end of the volume, I am left feeling unsure about what the volume is really about, but it is an interesting meandering journey getting, umm, nowhere in particular. And the format, larger than the typical manga format, does help it stand out.



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

-Ferdinand

Fairy Cube, vol. 1

Story and Art by Kaori Yuki
Released in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: Bad Fairy! No crushing people's hopes and dreams!

Ian and Rin were old friends, despite the fact that Ian claimed to see fairies. One day he managed to show them to Rin, but Ian's jealous and powerful father forcedRin's family to move away. Ian's gotten more depressed over the years, especially since he has a dark shadow named Tokage. But when Rin's returns when Ian is in high school, they begin to plan to escape. But the plan is interrupted when Tokage seizes control of Ian's father and kills Ian. Ian ends up as a spirit and is consigned to the otherworld with the fairy Ainsel, where they come to an understanding that Ainsel will help Ian. Ian makes a deal with Kaito, a dealer of fairy cubes, taking over the body of a dead boy and discovering took over his dead body and moving on Rin. Ian, asEriya, tries to get Rin to realize Tokage's true nature, but it is only when Tokage destroys another fairy masquerading as human than Rin discovers what is going on and flees with Ian/Eriya house, where Eriya's grandmother realizes that something is up

And I forgot, there are fairy like murders, strange people that seem unusually interested in Ian's success or failure, fairies possessing people after they die using fairy cubes and there is elderly blind woman that has far greater idea on what is going on than what it first appears.

For a manga, this the plot is very dense, with several major changes in the characters and setting in the single volume. I've not even seen this dense plotting in US comics for a while. The denseness does present a problem now and then when they just dump some information and keeps on going without really giving you time to digest it, so when you read this you have to be willing to read it carefully, since it will not be repeated and hammered into you like many other manga. But that makes this a rarer, more interesting read. I believe that there is a market out there for meatier manga, that has more story whereas manga traditionally has been stronger in conveying mood and emotion, I just hope that the readers for this title will be able to find it. There is nothing obvious about Fairy Cube that shows how it stand out a different in structure from other shojo titles. I haven't read Kaori Yuki's other titles, Angel Sanctuary (though I think Miranda was less than impressed by it) and Godchild, so I am unsure if Fairy Cube is representative of her works. This level of dense storytelling has its problems, since sometimes things whip by too fast or seem to be dropped too casually, but it is something different as compared the run of the mill flood of manga titles.



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

-Ferdinand

Flight Explorer, vol. 1

Edited by Kazu Kibuishi
Published by Villard Press


Slugline: Not that much flight or exploring, but still enough of both along with pitch perfect tone to make if perfect first graphic novel for any age.

Well this is not manga per se though some of the creators of the anthology come out of the US OEL/OGM movement. Flight Explorer is the younger skewing version of the Flight anthology, an award winning series that has released 4 volumes so far. So despite this being the first volume it already has a great pedigree. As a anthology it's themes are fairly loose, with flight being only incidental in many stories, or being at best a metaphor. Most of the stories are slice of life, with humorous undertones, though the cover illustration is for the big action adventure story of the volume. The stories are fairly straightforward and connect on an emotional level, which is what a volume like this needs to hit its aimed audience. A couple of times some of the flow between panels is not very clear, so I think it may be a little confusing at times for newcomers, but it is only a few moments distraction. The full color art of the stories is the major draw of the volume, with each story and it's creator working in their own distinctive style that fits the need of each story.



-Ferdinand

Maid Machinegun

"written by" Aaliyah with illustrations by Suzuhito Yasuda
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: There is a very few machineguns here.

First of all, this is a novel. Which at first purports to be the experiences of a maid at a maid cafe. The first half of the book feels mostly like a slice of life tale, as Aaliyah, our viewpoint maid, trying to be a halfway decent maid while fully immersing herself into otaku culture. Especially when the maids decide to do a photobook for Comiket. I suspect their fear filled experience would be closer to what would really happen if an American went to Comiket without serious prep work and a native guide. But halfway through the book some other details about Aaliyah start coming to light, and the story takes a right turn away from slice of life into more conspiracy laden territory.

An interesting look at maid cafe culture along with an amusing look at Comiket from a non-hardcore's fan perspective. Aaliyah is cringeworthy, but that is the way she is written and the slice of life is rather solid, but when you hit the conspiracy bits towards the end the story starts to fall apart. The internal logic of it at least, so it feels like something that feels rather grounded right into super-deformed territory. That being said it's an okay read if you know what it is going into it.



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

-Ferdinand

Haridama: Magic Cram School

Story and Art by Atsushi Suzumi
Published by Del Rey Manga


Slugline: Is it a surprise that a Japanese manga would have swordsmen being more powerful than expected?

Kokuyo and Harika are old friends that go to a magical cram school together. The school is especially difficult for them because most magic is done by the controlling the flow of yin/yang, but they both do not have a balance of it but instead has mostly have one or the other. They have to compensate for this by using swords and obsidian to do so. But by working together they can be more powerful than any single magician. (What a surprise that.)

This is an one-off story by the creator behind Venus Versus Virus (reviewed here). Now, it has some of the typical character archetypes, the slacker student who has hidden talent and the studious female sidekick. And despite being very studious, the female student is not curious at all over how they overpowered the big bad of an earlier adventure, leaving it to a deus ex machina to explain things to them at the end. Which is reasonably clever, not so clever that makes you marvel at it, but still fits. I am not sure if the concept would hold up for more than one volume without getting derivative, but at one volume it holds up and it is a decent read.



Haridama: Magic Cram School is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

The Reformed, vol. 1

Story by Christopher Hart with art by Anzu
Published by Del Rey Manga


Slugline: A vampire looking for redemption? What would surprise me is a vampire that thinks redemption is for sissies.

Giancarlo is a vampire that is hunting in the city, but comes across a woman Jenny with whom he immediately bonds (and doesn't take a drink from.) Jenny is taken by him also and gives up her previous occupation but realizes that Giancarlo is a complicated man, but not a vampire. Another vampire shows up to make Giancarlo's life difficult and attracts the attention of police detective. I am not sure if Giancarlo and Jenny really have a romance, but the book is about how they deal with their attraction for each other and how Giancarlo uses that attraction to escape his vampiric past and apparent destiny.

Some interesting bits character-wise, mostly around Jenny. Rather than with a wink and nod that Jenny is walking the streets for completely pure of heart reasons, it is admitted that she was walking the streets, though admittedly not for very long. And the end of the volume was actually a shocker, though considering her profession it doesn't seem very logical. But those interesting character bits have to compensate for a fairly standard plot and a lot of details that it is just assumed that the characters will know or accept. So that the flow of story doesn't feel smooth, with short sharp little bumps on the way. And yes, this is an OEL, Christopher Hart is known for doing a series of learning how to draw books.



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

-Ferdinand

B.O.D.Y., vol. 1

Story and Art by Ao Mimori
Released in the US by Viz Shoko Manga


Slugline: A story about host clubs that manages not to show one

Ryoko feels attracted to Ryonosuke, but despite Ryonosuke's quiet and unassuming manner, he reveals that he works at a host club. This revelation does not endear Ryoko to him, especially since he is willing to use his greater experience with, well everything, to trick her. And after pulling her leg a few times, she is completely unwilling to trust him, especially since his hard luck stories that make her sympathize with him turn out not be true.

Ryoko is not especially clever and has the over-enthusiastic gene that a lot of manga characters suffer from, but neither is she an idiot. She struggles between trusting Ryonosuke and having his too clever by half comments making her question everything she learns about him. The back and forth in Ryoko’s mind feels real as she tries to balance her suspicion and her vulnerability. Ryonosuke is a more of a cipher, but I am impressed that even though we quickly learn he works at a host club, at the end of the first volume we have managed to avoid going to it. Considering once you bring that up, the temptation to set some scenes there must be overwhelming. The story avoids the common paths and the expected scenes which helps sets it apart. Ryonusuke’s attraction to Ryoko is not clearly explained at first, though it is hinted that it starts mostly out as a challenge. It is nice to see that people admitting to having motives other than romance or sex.



B.O.D.Y., vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Haruka, vol. 1

Story and Art by Tohko Mizuno
Released in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: Rather than traveling back to a fantasy China, this alternate reality romance has the heroine traveling back to historical Japan! Oh, how novel.

Maybe my slugline is a little harsher than it needs to be, but while this is a competently churned out story, it doesn't seem to go over any new ground and does not create much excitement. Think of this as another entry into the Fushigi Yugi genre, with time traveling Japanese schoolgirls being hidden priestesses that will save everything. Or make everything worse, it is so hard to tell it apart. She needs to find her guardians, which include some of her fellow students that all time-traveled to medieval Japan along with an assortment of bishonen boys that have pledged to their lives to her and find themselves attracted to her. And there is of course a pretty boy that is the main antagonist, who is considered a demon/foreigner because he looks different from everyone else and if he is a bad guy is not a very competent bad guy, giving Akane (the said time-traveling priestess) the time to find her guardians so that she can be a challenge. Sorry, can we ever have a bad guy who thinks that using any advantage that they can get is fair, rather than waiting for the odds to stack up against them?

While some of the character bits are well handled, others are not, and I don't really see where it adds anything new and different. If you read Fushigi Yugi, you have pretty much reach this, so unless you just love the concept to pieces, it is hard to recommend this. It is another of the not bad but not interesting titles.



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

-Ferdinand

Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure! Vol. 1

Story and Art by Shigekatsu Ihara
Released in the US by Vizkids


Slugline: It's Pokémon, it delivers exactly what you expect.

Much like porn, all-ages titles have a slightly different set of review criteria simply because you can't expect subtle characterization or complicated plotlines. Not to say if one managed to accomplish I would give it a lot of credit (and the corresponding stars.) So three stars here means slightly different than it would a typical teen romance manga, which is how well it succeeds as an all-ages title.

Okay, now that I have that out of the way, feral child Hareta that has been raised in the wild with Pokémon and who considers them his friends has been convinced to go look for a legendary Pokémon, Dialga. The professor that has been keeping an eye on Hareta has given this mission, and assigned one of his assistants, Mitsumi to go with him. Hareta has as his main Pokémon Piplup, a prideful Pokémon that Hareta eventually convinces to ally with him and they have to continually face the challenges of Team Galactic, a group of selfish Pokémon trainers who want to capture Pokémon for their own purposes.

Like the slugline says, this is Pokémon, so you can say that the plot is basically predetermined. We have a boy trainer, a girl sidekick, a slightly older trainer and their Pokémon traveling the world, facing off against a nefarious team and gym trainers from cities with dubious names. That being said, within that framework, everything it solidly constructed and it works as a Pokémon story. If you even watched a commercial for the show, you know what you are getting and it fulfills that expectation. The art is straightforward and depicts things clearly, even in the midst of the action scenes. So it is a good first or early manga, but if one wants to show off some of the more creative or offbeat stuff that manga is capable off, something else would be better.



- Ferdinand

Winter Demon, vol. 3

Story by Yamila Abraham with Art and Letters by Le Peruggine
Published by Yaoi Press


Slugline: Oh, those sensitive, tortured gay demon boys…

I have not read the first two volumes and I’m glad to say it’s not necessary to if you can’t find them. For a porn series, this is both well written and well drawn. Life does not revolve solely around sex, for these characters, though there isn’t any skimping on that part either. Everyone is terribly sensitive and considerate and nice, but the story manages to not get bogged down in metaphysical hand-wringing. Nothing too surprising happens, but it’s well presented and the visual storytelling is both clear and nice. That has been a problem with some of the OEL books I have read lately. I’m curious to see what else this creative team has done, and what they will do in the future.

-Miranda

Despite Miranda calling it a porn title, I went through the title to make sure after the problems the blog had earlier, and the title is not explicit. I wouldn't give it to a five year old, but it is R rather than NC-17

-Ferdinand

Winter Demon, vol. 3 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

SERIES UPDATE: Kashimashi, vol. 4

Check out previous reviews of Kashimashi vol. 1 and Kashimashi vols. 2 and 3.

After the story wandering around uncertainly for a while, Kashimashi vol. 4 finds it metaphorical feet in the revelation that Hazumu's near-death experience of volume 1, the one him to a her, was fated. Fate is not something that can be denied, and Hazumu's death is approaching once again. With that sort of ticking clock in the background, suddenly the characters have something that drives them, so that things matter. True, there is a bit of soap opera business where all of the characters know that Hazumu has a month left to live but no one knows that everyone else knows, but it prevents everyone descending in maudlin crying. I do wish that the characters had handled the revelations at the end of the third volume a little better, especially the potential 'cure' for Hazumu that was introduced at the end of that volume that wasn't really followed up in this one. Overall, the introduction of the ticking clock has pushed the series back up in the 3 1/2 stars category.



The Kashimashi vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3 and vol. 4 are all available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Devil's Bride, vol. 1

By Se-Young Kim
Released in the US


Slugline: A devil is always ready to make a deal for his yaoi love.

Devils are more like a powerful spirits, vampire and low level god all wrapped in one. The unnamed devil of the story is trying to live more like humans, because his nature is destructive and he wants to be creative. He lives near some human villages and thinks that by having a bride, he will become more human. A poor family basically sells off one of their children to him, and takes off before he discovers that the child is a boy, not a girl. Not that it really matters that much to him. Now, that I cansorta buy, because he isn't really human, so I get he can be omnisexual rather than being an yaoi pretty boy. Ley , the boy, dies, not sure if it accidental or deliberate, but the devil decides to keep him alive, but in order to do so he need human parts to returnLey to humanity. As a devil, he has decided to offer his serves to mortals, not for souls which is normal payment, but in body parts. Meanwhile a blind heir elsewhere in the world has been forced to prostitute himself to soldiers to save his kingdom, and his boyhood companion has to be take some harsh actions.

It is an interesting set-up for an anthology story, with the ability for their to be one-off stories to that tie in devil's search for parts to help Ley recover from being a little bit dead, but it is the framing device is far more meaningful and involved that the usual ones. So the setup for the anthology structure takes up enough time that the first anthology story is not finished in this volume, though we do seem to have hit the first turning point on the last page. Of course, it is has a yaoi focus, with a tall lanky pretty boy and the younger, more effeminate looking 'junior' member of the partnership. Which is one of my major icks here, in that it seems that one half of the pairings are inherently in the inferior position. Yeah, it may be typical how yaoi is arranged but that doesn't make me feel any better. But the story is well structured, the characters have some depth and the art is 100% pretty boy, so that assuages my other concerns.

Devil's Bride, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

White Night Melody, vol. 1

By Selena Lin
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: This would be a good second volume. Unfortunately it is the first.

Two living dolls are playing with their owner's son when good luck beads fall into a fish-tank and they turn human. Yeah, that is a horrible first sentence. Living dolls as a given? What, living dolls are so normal that we don't even have to introduce them? Never mind the fact that you can't tell the difference between the living dolls and the human child until someone says that one is human and the others are dolls. The living dolls don't really seem to have a long term memory, but there are half dozen questions that immediately come to mind. Where are the living dolls from? How did the family get them? Do they remember how they become dolls? How can you tell they are dolls in comparison to the human children? They want to be human, but it doesn't seem they have any problems living as dolls? Where are the good luck beads from? I would settle they were found in some mysterious shop, but apparently they have been in the house as long as the living dolls.

All these questions popped up within the first ten pages, and they weren't answered. At all. Now, it probably would have taken a single chapter, 20 pages, to set up all of these questions. But without that, I spent the first half of the book wondering what was going on, wondering if I missed something, and trying to refocus on what was actually going on. What was going on was sorta of interesting, but I was left at the end of the book wondering why I should care about the characters,because there were this big gaps in their background. I think there is a good story in there, but you are just thrown in the deep end without knowing how to swim here.



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

-Ferdinand

Foxy Lady, vol. 1

Story and art by Ayun Tachibana
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: It's titles like this that makes me think one of the requirements for Japanese editors is the serious need for therapy

I am not sure I want to destroy what little faith my readers may have left in the quality of manga. That manga editors signed off to publish this makes me think the creator had something on them, or that the editors really had faith in the creator's art. But the story that comes with the art...

Jin is a shrine heir and one day his cousin Kagone, a half fox demon/human shows up at the shrine dorm where he is living, asking to mate with him to turn her human and stay in the human world.

Yeah, my reaction also. But of course Jin, despite looking at magazine telling him ways to determine if a woman is attracted to him, meets a woman that tells him exactly what he wants to hear, he suddenly decides to be all noble and such. For a few moments he shows a spine, but then it reverts to being a wet noodle as he gets bossed around by virtually everyone. Despite the fact they live in the same dorm, nothing at all happens between Jin and Kagone, surprise, surprise. Jin has a couple of, well friends is a little too strong a word, but they can't be called anything else due to the rules of manga, who are just creepy. There is the slightly older guy who wants to take pictures of Jin's female classmates and a childhood friend that seems to have been pretending for as long as they have known each other that he was a girl. At least he/she is honest, and is planning to build a harem at the new school that is his attending, which just happens to be Jin's. No faux respectability or kindness here. That desire, to actually recruit a harem, I can actually believe. I mean, how difficult can it be when it seems virtually any guy can get a harem? Virtually everything else in the manga requires unnatural amounts of suspension of disbelief.

I could go on with all the unnatural and unrealistic character motivations and actions here, but ugh, thinking about them just makes me want to rant more about them. It feels like the author knows what the reader's expectations are, so he just skipping over the sections that don't interest him (not that they are not important to the characters.) Only a few moments of interesting character work save this from becoming a dishonorable mention.



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

-Ferdinand

Shoulder-A-Coffin Kuro, vol. 1

By Satoko Kiyuduki
Released in the US by Yen Press


Slugline: A 4-koma non-comedy title

Kuro is a black clad girl (who does not look very girlish) that carries a coffin on her back, a flock of talking bats and two children who follow her that has strange abilities. Kuro is apparently looking for a specific witch, has been injured in some way and carries the coffin on her back because she believes she will need it on her travels, for her that is. The exact nature of her travels isn't really revealed, though it can be pieced out from the book. The title seems to vary a slice of life to a supernatural quest style story.

I haven't read that many yonkoma, Japanese gag strips which are four panel, usually one on top of each other. It's an odd format, because despite having a continuing story and discrete episodes, the four panel structure makes it full very choppy. Like a movie reel that is missing some frames, it just doesn't flow smoothly. A whole lot isn't explained, and there is the requisite cute kids, but they seem to have a mystery attached to them that won't go away. The book has several color pages scattered throughout, probably as a legacy from original publication (presumably in 4 panel sections) which shows a subtle sense of coloring. At the moment, it's parts are charming and work well enough that I gave it 2 1/2 stars despite the fact as a total package you can see the joints and gears trying to mesh between its parts.



Shoulder-A-Coffin Kuro, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Toto!, vol. 1

By Yuko Osada
Released in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A take on The Wizard of Oz that doesn't read like one.

Kakashi has grown alone on an isolated island, his father having left on a voyage of exploration many years before and never returned. He has also wanted to go out and explore the world, but it is not until he manages to stow aboard a zeppelin that has landed on his island for repair that Kakashi manages to get off the island. He quickly makes friends with the bandits that have taken over the zeppelin, finds a pet dog, gets blown off the zeppelin by military ground fire,steals a girl lunch, gets his dog named and dognapped. Let's just say his dog, Toto, is more than what he (I assume he is he) appears.

The story and art has a very loose, almost cartoony look, reminding me a lot of early One Piece in style and tone (at least at the moment). I actually didn't see the Wizard of Oz (WoZ) elements, until Dorothy showed up a little past the halfway through the book in a cornfield. And named the dog Toto. At which point I promptly smacked myself, since while the title of the series is Toto! I didn't connect it with the WoZ. But so far this is really the same story. Yes, they are taking elements of WoZ, but at the moment they are appear to be just set dressings rather than story elements. So I (and thus the readers) don't really know what is happening next. The story is solid if not very deep, but at the moment this reads like a book that appropriate for younger readers. Though I am not sure how much I like that WoZ has turned from a girl-centric story to a boy centered one. Depends on how Dorothy is treated, but so far okay.



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

-Ferdinand

Heavenshield, vol. 1

By Ryu Blackman
Published by TokyoPop


Slugline: What a horrible, over the top mess.

I wish I could tell you the basic outlines of the plot, but the few facts that I managed to glean from the title doesn't seem to match the back cover text at all. And what I did glean, I literally gleaned, sifting through the pages to try to pull out from the chaff some relevant bits of the story. I can sorta tell you that there is a religious/military conflict, that someone is trying to kill political leaders, that there is a maniac general of some sort, and that there is a top flight freelance protection squad out to protect a politician, but that is about it. And after trying to unpack what is going on, who is doing what, what everyone's motivations are, or at least what they say they are, I find that I don't really care. At the end of the volume I know about the same that I knew from the back cover text from before I even started. It just feels like such a mess. And I feel no urge to try figure it out.



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

-Ferdinand

Kannazuki No Miko, vol. 1

By Kaishaku
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Sluglines: It's hard to tell whether or not I like this in the midst of all the storytelling mess.

This story suffers from, something. Compression? Many readers have said the strength of the manga is it's decompression, that it allows for stories to unfold at it's own pace. Here, whole whacks of the story seem to skimmed over. The female lead Himeko was raised at a orphanage apparently, but that is revealed in a side note. How it is presented makes you think that is important, but it is not followed up on. People love each other but with the revelations of live are handled oddly. Plus, the whole supernatural/sci-fi element remains unexplained. Not that I expect that somehow they provide some sort of pseudo -science but I am unsure of why any of the supernatural characters or elements are acting the way they are. Other than destruction for its own sake.

Some people would call this yuri and it is explicit at times, thus it has the plastic wrap of evil. Having not seen the anime, I am not sure how yuri the manga is in comparison to the anime, but I suspect since this is just a two volume set, there is a not lot of chance for relationships in the manga. As it is, Himeko, the female lead seems far too passive to maintain a relationship and Chikane's motivations are fuzzy. The way Chikane solves the 'problem' of the attacks on Himeko at the end of the first volume feels so guy and callous, removing Himeko's choices and doing it without explaining the why to her.



Kannazuki No Miko, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

HellGate: London, vol. 1

Story by Arvid Nelson with Art by J.M
Released by TokyoPop


Slugline: For a video game tie-in, I didn't have to hold my nose.

I spend my time reviewing manga, so I don't play video games (or watch anime) so the game that this is based on is completely unknown to me. From what I understand, timewise, this is an early prequel that details some of the events leading to the rise of the demons in London. Focused on the antagonism between the Knights Templar and the Cabalist factions, it tells the story of John and Lindsey Fowler, siblings that are descendants of a Knight Templar family, who had an ancestor who went bad. Needless to say, that ancestor was a little bit miffed and has decided to come back in the run up to the HellGate incident where the demons return to Earth, with the end result of the siblings being forced to operate in two separate factions by the end of the volume.

Fairly straightforward action/horror title, competently done, with a couple of emotional twists that while I wasn't too surprised by, neither was I expecting. While the characters are not all that smart, they are consistently not all that smart, which makes it sorta okay. The art is on the realistic side, so you know who everyone is and what they are doing, which sometimes can be difficult in an action title. So the title makes 3 stars for not screwing up and not being too cliche. Not sure if that is damning by faint praise or not...



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

-Ferdinand

Mamotte Shugogetten, vol. 1

By Minene Sakurano
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Sometimes you have to shoot the puppy.

Mamotte Shugogetten is another entry into the accidental goddess category, where a schmuck guy manages to get a goddess (or some other mystical creature that happens to look like an age appropriate girl) that is so innocent that even the boy that has no social skills whatsoever will inevitably have a chance with her. It also manages to give her such a sufficient weakness that even though she has the power of a goddess she still dependent on him.

There is the festival chapter, the beach chapter, the hot springs chapter, another goddess-like woman appearing that is a sex-pot as compared the original one's sweetness, and so on. It is so very earnest and trying to be deliberately sweet, so that saying back things about it is like kicking a puppy in the head. But I am sorry, I do not have a heart of stone, but even so there is only so much that I could take. It means well, it tries to be sweet and caring, but it just seems so Oh My Goddess-lite, and considering how lightweight Oh My Goddess can be, calling it lighter than Oh My Goddess involves violating the laws of physics. There is not much reason, that I have determined, to read Mamotte Shugogetten if you have read any of the Oh My Goddess genre titles before.



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

-Ferdinand

New York Comic Con delays

This weekend is New York Comic Con, the show two years ago where in the midst of discussing manga, it was said Miranda and I should start a manga review blog.

So we have to return, if for no other reason to hunt down those folks that gave us that suggestion and 'thank' them.

With that said, we will be gone to the con Friday thru early Monday morning, so we posted a review today for tomorrow, and we may be late in posting on Monday.

-Ferdinand

SERIES UPDATE: Eternal Sabbath (ES), vol. 8

You can read our earlier reviews of Eternal Sabbath vol. 1 here, vol. 2 here vols. 3-4 here and vols 5-7 here.

The series draws to a not-terribly-surprising end, though there's a decent twist or two along the way. After all that's happened, it's no surprise that it comes down to Shuro and Isaac to duke it out, and the end result of the fight is interesting but ultimately not a surprise either. It's a mild disappointment after such a strong start, but on average this is still a four star series aimed at the non-teenaged reader. I will be looking forward to Fuyumi Soryo's next manga.



ES vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3 vol. 4, vol. 5, vol. 6, vol. 7 and vol. 8 are all available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Miranda

Label Update

We've found out that we are tripping some filters by even having a category named porn. Attempting to get those filters to realize that we are not publishing the porn has led us on a merry chase without much success.

So, we have renamed the category as 'Explicit.'

Hopefully that clever ruse will let the filters realize we are not Hustler or Icarus Publishing for that matter.

-Ferdinand

Psycho Busters, the novel, vol. 1

By Yuya Aoki
Released in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Breaking the rules of how source material is better than adaptations once again is painful. To me, that is.

We have previously positively reviewed the manga Psycho Busters (link here), so when the novel version of it arrived in out review box, it jumped to the top of the pile. I have so few titles that turn out to pleasurable reads that when I see something that looks like a good bet, I go for it.

Why do I torture myself so? The usual rule is that adaptations are never as good as the original work, so that the novel that the manga was adapted from should have been better. Yet another thing in which manga breaks all the rules in doing, but this time in not a good way.

All of the cleverness and intelligence that Kakeru had in the manga is gone. Here he is just a dopey teenager who needs to be whacked around with a clue stick for a bit. Especially since he doesn't use any of the clever ploys that he used in the manga to help defeat the rogue psychics, the fact that he still beats them makes it implausible for anyone to believe something is not happening through Kakeru. Eh, just stick with the manga.



Psycho Busters, the novel, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Honey and Clover, vol. 1

Story and Art by Chica Umino
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: Why is the title relationship the most boring and shallowest in the book?

Takemoto is a second year student at an art college who is still not very sure what he is planning to major in, but falls into love with Hagumi, a new 18-year-old genius student upon meeting her. Why? Because we need to have a central focus of the overall story, and Takemoto seems have been elected to do so at the beginning since he seemed the most hapless and clueless of the introductory characters, so logically enough he has to be the focus of the story.

Please notice Hagumi is almost incidental to this, which is a shame but that is what is reflected in the book. She is a cipher that is loved because she is childlike, acting almost like a 12 year old, and looking almost that young, which does not reflect well on any of the characters that are pursuing her because it just looks like they prefer women who look and act too young to make an informed decision on relationships. More than a touch of the lolita urge there. The side-relationship involving one of the students, a professional woman that he helps and whom he knows that he has no chance with and the fellow student who loves him despite her intellect telling her to get far away from him, that is far more interested and tense that the supposed main relationship of the story. And far less creepy.



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

-Ferdinand