Yōkaiden, vol. 1

By Nina Matsumoto
Published by Del Rey Manga


Slugline: Be careful for what you wish for, because sometimes you will get it. Too bad you don't know any better.

Hamachi is living with his gruff (and not in a kindly way) grandmother after the death of his parents when he comes across a yokai, a Japanese demon/spirit that can have any number of origins or attitudes. The fact that there are so many of them means that there are more for Hamachi to learn about, much to his grandmother's disgust. Her disgust is so great that she lays a trap for one which Hamachi secretly rescues. When Hamachi learns that his grandmother laid the trap, he tries to overlook it, but the yokai that was trapped by it steals her soul while he is away. Upon his return, he decides to go to the yokai homelands through a portal to recover his grandmother's soul, or at least talk to the yokai that took it. Once in the yokai lands, he begins to make friends and enemies, but is still a long way off from confronting the yokai that has his grandmother's soul by the end of the first volume.

The manga at first starts fairly serious and straightforward, but as the volume continues, the story becomes more meta and self-referential. I don't think that is a good way to go, how serious one should take the story needs to be consistent, otherwise readers may feel that they are being manipulated (in a bad way.) To a certain extent, Hamachi is too naive and idealistic. He claims that he has read the books about yokai, so he knows that some are good, and is open to those but he seems to refuse to believe the truthfulness of those same texts in that some yokai are harmful and dangerous. Some amount of caution and learning from the dangers he is exposed to should be expected, but he seems impervious to them. After nearly having his own soul stolen, he just laughs it off. That sort of fits with the more metatextual aware Hamachi from later in the volume, when he seems to be more aware that he is in a story, but not so much in the beginning of the volume. It is this uncertainty over what the nature of the story is that robs it of tension and storytelling power.



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

-Ferdinand

Vagabond, VIZ BIG vol. 1

By Takehiko Inoue, based on the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: More masterless samurai and random violence than you can shake a wooden bokken at.

The beginning of the Edo period was a time of transition from the chaos of the Warring States period to one of relative peace. One of the results of that was a lot of out of work soldiers and samurai were left wondering what to do to fill their time. In Vagabond the answer seems to be that a lot of them are destined to be shish kebabed by Miyamoto Musashi, the new name that the character Takezo is given during the volume. Takezo begins the volume, with his friend Matahachi, as a survivor of the Battle of Sekigahara, the battle that ended the Warring States period. To say that Takezo has rage control issues is to put it mildly, and it takes the middle third of the volume and a visit to his hometown for Takezo to gain some control and lose the name Takezo and to gain the one Miyamoto Musashi. The final third of the volume is Miyamoto's confrontation with a school of swordsmen ito show his strength.

Vagabond has brutal honesty to it, reflecting the time period, with fighting and violence not especially pretty or filled with people shouting out their moves at each other. The fighting here is done by people who have lived it and are usually broken in some way because of it, though they are broken in different ways. Takezo begins the volume as death dealing beast and though he improves as the volume continues, killing people in order to get the title of strongest isn't something that normal people do. Takezo's big character change is merely giving a focus to his destructive tendencies. Other characters show their injuries in different ways, such as one of his opponents hedonism in the face of the destruction of his sword school. While this is a fighting/combat manga, it is one that understands that what it depicts is not and never will be pretty or polite.



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

-Ferdinand

Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom, vol. 1

Story and Art by Kazunari Kakei
Released in the US by Viz Shonen Jump Advanced


Slugline: Death Note lite

Nora is a demon of an underworld army that is dedicated in maintaining control over demons and making sure that they do not bother the world of mortals. Unfortunately he has an attitude problem and so the demon general Dark Liege sends Nora to be bound to a human to teach him humility. Bad for Nora, good for Kazuma Nagari, a bored student president who is also a genius that has been given the mystical 'leash' for Nora and decides that he is going to teach his demon some manners. That is going to be an interesting challenge because Nora's natural form when he is not sealed into a human one is Cerberus, the giant hound better known as the guardian of the very gates of hell. But Nora is not very bright or very respectful of humans, leaving Kazumi to show Nora how smart but weak humans can defeat rogue demons and the demon Resistance.

This series is not anywhere as harsh as Death Note was, but Kazuma shows some of Light's casual cruelty and being too smart and controlled for his own good. Still it is nice to see any character in a manga reacting intellectually rather than emotionally. While to a certain extent these sort of plots rely on not having anything random happening to prevent the intellectual character's plan from going off without a hitch, the way Kazumi handles himself helps keep the story on this side of believable rather than moving into ludicrous territory. There is also the genre aspect of waiting until the last moment to unveil the character's power (in this case Nora) and trashing the opponent. Having Kazumi holding onto the keys of Nora's power and having his own agenda beyond just defeating the bad guys gives a rationale for that genre staple and makes it more interesting. It gives a solid reason for Nora to become more reliant on Kazumi and more sympathetic to humanity in general, even as it begins to cost Kazumi to do so. This all gives the manga an interesting and different spin from others than follow the same basic formula.

For those that are curious, here are our reviews for Death Note 1-6 and 7-10.



Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Gankutsuou, The Count of Monte Cristo, vol. 1

Manga by Mahiro Maeda, Scenario by Yura Ariwara and Planning by Mahiro Maeda and GONZO
Released in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Good even for those allergic to reminders of high school English classes

Though I managed to miss reading The Count of Monte Cristo in my journey through high school I remember enough that it is story of revenge. This is a leisurely adaptation as the Count only begins moving his pieces into play in this volume against the three that conspired against him by gaining the friendship of their children, who of course are innocent of their parent's crimes. This is a science fiction adaptation, with spaceships and the like, but it is not too terribly updated, with the sense of old Europe, of nobility and tradition overwhelming any other aspect of the story. This manga is connected to the anime of the same title that was released a few years ago, and shares the same design sensibility, though the full effect is lost in the translation from a full color anime to a black and white manga. Not quite sure who is the protagonist here, the Count is a bit alienated from it seems humanity itself while the children of the villains are a little clueless, naive or distracted to really do that work. So there is no real single character to follow through here, but that just may be just the fault of the original material. I did like the character work, the understated bits and expressions, that work is what makes this interesting, not any newness of the story or the actual characters.



Gankutsuou, The Count of Monte Cristo, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Yumekui Kenbun Nightmare Inspector, vol. 1

Story and Art by Shin Mashiba
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: More horror with a twist in the EC Comics tradition

In the Taisho era of Japan (think late Victorian England) there is a baku who eats dreams, and he makes his living by offering to eat the dreams of people having nightmares, solving their problematic nightmares and gaining sustenance at the same time. This is an episodic series, with no continuing storylines, except for the last chapter of the volume which ends on question mark, which is a good way to encourage people to check out the next volume. The stories are all horror edged, with a strong bit of the old EC Comics tradition of having a twist or reveal at the end of the story that is ironic or over the top. The stories are all well constructed and the art clear, so will it does not thrill or scare me to no end, by the same token it does not disappoint. It is just okay. Not sure if that is damning by faint praise or not.



Yumekui Kenbun Nightmare Inspector, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Wanted

By Matsuri Hino
Published in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: Sure, it's pirates, but no ninja or samurai pirates? Not even a single zombie pirate?

Armeria is a young singer associated with a traveling troupe that is performing at an aristocrat's dwelling, but the only aristocrat that she likes there is Luce. Of course, that means he is kidnapped to be a hostage by a pirate band, named after their leader Skull. She spends the next six years chasing after them until she manages to become a cabin boy on the pirate Skull's ship, and even though she is quickly revealed to be a girl in pursuit of the 'dead' Luce, the pirate leader Skull treats her relatively gently. It is quickly revealed that the pirate leader is actually the older Luce, who had long gotten tired of his aristocratic relatives' cruelty and now acted as a maritime Robin Hood. Armeria tries to rekindle the feelings she and Luce shared with the much changed Skull, while trying to help him in his piracy/acts of kindness. There is also a one chapter backup story of love in Meiji-era Japan.

This is a fairly traditional light shojo, with the only reason I think this being rated 16+ is the one-panel of Armeria's rather modest busom when she is revealed to be a girl. Matsuri Hino is far better known for her work on Vampire Knight, so this may of interest to her completists. Oddly enough, though this is an earlier work, I think that Armeria is a stronger female lead than Yuki of Vampire Knight, but then it may be because she doesn't have to do as much in the story. But it feels very much like a plug and play shojo, well-executed, but lacking in real dramatic tension or any surprises. Pirates are popular at the moment, but this is a straightforward story that doesn't use the pirate elements or mix it up much.



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

-Ferdinand

Mixed Vegetables, Vol. 1

Story and Art by Ayumi Komura
Released in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: More revealing about the state of marriage and relationships than of cooking.

Hanayu is the daughter of pastry chef that has his own shop with an expectation that she will take over the shop. Because if she wanted to accept that there would be no conflict, Hanayu instead has the desire to be a sushi chef, and has decided to get married into a sushi family so that she can legitimately follow her desire without disappointing her parents. Fortunately in her cooking high school there is a son of a sushi chef family named Hayato whom she decides to pursue. She is rather successful in that pursuit, so successful that she debates with herself whether pursuing a boy for his family connections is right, and trying to understand how her own parent's arranged marriage can serve as a model for her.

Ignore the cooking aspect, and here is a very interesting story about marriage as a transaction. Marriage for love is a western tradition, but it is still a relatively recent one, otherwise it would not be held in such high regard in romantic fiction or in manga. Most of the time in manga we see the rejection of the arranged marriage in order to pursue the marriage for love, but here we see someone trying to arrange her own marriage, not out of the search of good provider or compatible families and social rank, but to pursue her own dreams. An interesting subversion of the arranged marriage story, as she tries to fall in love after selecting her husband to justify her choice after the fact. Now, the back cover text talks about how Hayato really just wants to be a pastry chef, but that complication has yet to arise in the actual text, which could turn this story into a farce (in the comedic sense) rather than a subversion of the arranged marriage. Hayato so far has been rather unassertive, which may turn this story around once he starts pursuing his own dreams and desires, but the first volume is amusingly subversive.



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

-Ferdinand

Shinobi Life, vol. 1

By Shoko Conami
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Not just another time-travelling ninja love story. Really, I am not being sarcastic!

Beni wants to die especially if it can be her dad's fault. Her father feels no guilt over Beni's mother death/suicide and only haphazardly remembers to hire bodyguards to protect Beni from kidnapping attempts. But the latest one is foiled when a ninja literally falls out of the sky to rescue her. Kagetora has been swept through time away from Beni Hime-sama to his princess’s near identical descendant Beni. Uncertain about the strange world he finds himself in, Kagetora knows his duty is to protect Beni. Beni is confronted with two problems as a result, one is how to keep up the illusion she is Beni Hime-sama with the modern world is just some of grand deception and also how to resolve the growing feelings between Beni and Kagetora, especially considering his awareness of their ‘social rank’ differences.

For once, the central conceit of the story is tackled straight on and now allowed to linger. Often, series seem to hang on hilarious character misunderstandings long past their expiration date, being dragged out for so long that it ends up making the characters look clueless or deliberately stupid. Beni's attempt to keep Kagetora in the dark about his time travel and refusing to acknowledge their attraction could get old fast, and had already started to. It would have been better off if the situation had been resolved because of Beni's deliberate decision, though once they were on the path of that part of the story being resolved, the characters did not shy away. It's not like that all of the barriers to their relationship are now gone, or that Beni does not still need protection, though the remaining visible complications to their relationship come from Beni's life, which remains anything but simple.



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

-Ferdinand

Suihelibe!, vol.1

By Naomi Azuma
Released in the US by CMX Manga


Slugline: Alien gamekeeper after school club

Tetsu is looking to join a school club and decides to join the biology club. As soon as he checks it out, he has to defend the club's existence to the school council, along with helping Lan, an schoolgirl alien, recover some alien animals around the school. Tetsu manages to convince Lan to join the biology club so that it will continue, and over the course of the volume gathers another three members to reach the minimum size of the club of five members so that it can continue to exist in spite of the school council’s opposition. Of course, along the way Tetsu and the new members of the biology club help Lan recover some of the alien animals that she has been sent to Earth to recover.

This is definitely a kid’s title, since it is so very, very mild. The art style is very open and rounded so all the characters look and feel very young and wide-eyed. The challenges that the character face are not that, well challenging or dangerous, which fits the intended audience. The characters are only lightly sketched out, with Tetsu being the most with Lan the alien all, well, surface. The other three members of the club are pretty much stereotypes. Just because this is a kid's title doesn't mean it shouldn't have any depth, but despite that lack it is solid and not bad. Just the story has all the dramatic tension of overcooked pasta and thus not very enticing.



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

-Ferdinand

Gun Blaze West, vol. 1

Story and Art by Nobuhiro Watsuki
Released in the US by Viz Shonen Jump


Slugline: More character background than actual story.

Viu is nine years old but can't wait to head out into the Old West. But he lacks a goal until the failed gunslinger Marcus comes into town and tell Viu of Gun Blaze West. This is a place where the strongest test each other every ten years with the winner get the finest gun made. This sets up a fairly standard shonen desire to be the very best style story, but as Marcus and Viu train, outlaws move into the area and after several skirmishes their bioss is defeated by Viu but at the cost of Marcus's life. This drives Viu to train hard for the next five years until he reaches the goals that Marcus laid down before dying. With his goals met, Viu starts his journey west to find the Gun Blaze West, and almost immediately finds someone else who is looking for the same place, much like many other shonen where the hero starts acquiring allies on his travels.

What is odd is that the whole section with Marcus, which is really a background character piece, which is normally handled in flashback, took about 3/4 of the volume. So at the end of it we truly feel Viu's connection with Marcus and his desire to search for the Gun Blaze West, but we have already spent the majority of the first volume and we have yet to begin the main story. I don't want to say that this wasted time, because good character work is never really wasted, but the timing of it, frontloading it all, makes it almost like it should be a prequel book on it's own or something, rather than going into the main story of the search for Gun Blaze West in the middle of the book. The book ends at a good point, but still the Marcus/Viu subplot probably could have accomplished what it needed in half of the space it eventually took up, without upsetting the flow of the story as much.



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

-Ferdinand

Blank Slate, vol. 1

Story and Art by Aya Kanno
Released in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: This is supposed to be a shojo title?

Zen is a serial criminal, committing wanton murder and mayhem just because there is nothing else better for him to do. He wanders through people's lives, upsetting the rich and powerful to the point that even though he is in an occupied country, he is considered more of an threat than the native rebellion. He is destructive for reasons that he himself cannot fathom, for being without memory he acts without repercussions. The first companion he acquires is a bounty hunter intent on understanding Zen but dies in the process. The foreign doctors lasts longer, still with him at the end of the volume, probably because he may solve the mystery of Zen's own existence and abilities.

This is not an approachable title by any means, not because of gore or violence but by the meaningless of Zen's actions. After reading it I still have no idea why this is considered a shojo title, except perhaps that is by Aya Kanno who is better known for titles that fall more squarely in the shojo genre. That or it will be revealed that several of the characters are really girls (don't even chuckle, far stranger things have happened.) For a main character, Zen has no real character to hang the story on, which leaves most of the work of the story having to be done by the supporting cast. Considering the chaos that Zen causes and attracts, you can understand that there is a bit of a turnover in those characters. While there is an attempt to hand a mystery in the character in the last chapter of the volume, it is easy to believe that this was originally intended as a one-off that was later extended into a series, so it took a while for the creator to figure out what to do with the character over the long term. I suspect the 2nd volume will tell us more about where the series is going then the first volume did.



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

- Ferdinand

Slam Dunk, vol. 1

Story and Art by Takehiko Inoue
Released in the US by Viz Shonen Jump


Slugline: There has to be easier ways of impressing girls.

This is a motivation I can understand, getting involved in a sport because the girl you like likes it in turn. Hanamichi is desperate enough to do or try anything to attract the attention of a desirable girl. Trust me, he didn't have to suffer through 50 rejections first in order to be in the proper frame of mind to try anything to keep a girl's attention. Fortunately, his attitude toward basketball doesn't change overnight, and Hanamichi focus is more on his two main rivals within the team for Haruko's attention, her brother Takenori that Hanamichi battles for respect and acceptance, and Kaede who is a more traditional romantic rival. Though Kaede at the moment does not seem to be doing much other than being a far-off target for Haruko's sighs. Hanamichi manages to get on the team after demonstrating a slam dunk in a competition with Takenori, but then is forced to do fundamental drills. Of course, Hanamichi wants to impress Haruko, which involves actually being in the game and that causes the conflict that the volume ends on. Never mind that it would be normal for drills to be switched up to help keep the the attention on the drill rather than letting the mind wander after prolonged periods.

Why bother reviewing a 100 million manga selling title? It's not like this review is going to cause people to discover an otherwise overlooked gem or that people will learn that Slam Dunk is the basketball manga that they were looking for. But I think I can share with readers a reason why I think it was successful as compared to other sports/fighting shonen manga, which I think comes from Hanamichi himself, especially his motivations. Normally in these manga the main character's has already begun his quest to be the best, to excel. Here, Hanamichi has the potential to be great but at the same time he does not see basketball as an end in itself or a way to express himself, but a way to achieve a selfish goal, to get the girl. Undoubtedly, that will change over the series, but that makes it an interesting progression to watch out for. Sure there is the unavoidable silliness that seems to be part and parcel of all shonen manga, but I find that redeemed by the interesting characters work with Hanamichi.



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

- Ferdinand

Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney

By CAPCOM Games
Released in the US by Del Rey Manga


Slugline: I hope the game is much, much better than the manga.

Game based manga have a tough time of it, and sometimes I snark on them on them a little freely. This time, I can not snark on this mess enough. It bills itself as a prequel to the game, but the volume was such a confused mess that I had to research in order to figure out what was going on with the volume. There are 20 shorts in the volume but they are widely varying in tone and in art style. There are some fairly serious stories, silly ones and ones that barely qualify as a story, breaking the fourth wall freely. None of the characters are introduced, with the apparent assumption that the reader is already familiar with them. What I discovered is that this actually a collection of dojin, so the stories in this volume were not necessarily intended to be presented together. Which explains why there are two separate 'lost kitten' stories in the volume. At the end of the volume I have virtually no idea who the characters were and this was despite the volume being thicker than the standard. This is for game completists, and even then save yourself the headache and just shelve it with the rest of your collection without punishing yourself by reading it.



Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Papillon, vol. 1

Created by Miwa Ueda
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A shojo that only has one bit of wackiness? How novel!

On the face of it the brief description makes Papillon sound like an rather unremarkable shoujo, but underneath it all there are some interesting subtext running through it. The story itself is rather off the shelf, two identical sisters raised separately so that one is shy and the other outgoing compete over the same guy, that being the one bit of wackiness of the title. But there are some interesting bits...

The guidance counselor , the voice of authority of the book, rather than enforcing wa, the tenets of social harmony that the school system reinforces in Japan, is instead encouraging competition for the sake for oneself.

The prettier twin sister had a reason to be pretty and loved, to be the center of attention, rather than receiving it as her natural due.

The plain sister's 'friend,' stabs her in the back, showing that just because people find themselves in similar circumstances do not naturally get along, and that the friendship was based on convenience/proximity rather than anything else.

The failures of the shy sister is not due to wacky circumstances or deliberate sabotage, but the type of self-sabotage that the shy and uncertain all partake in.

Now, neither does this manga cover new ground, not really, but the characters and how they interact is interesting and not just according to the standard fill in the dots plot. I feel the characters' pain, their discomfort but I am not moved by them, not yet. This is one of those series that I almost wish I had the next volume already in my hands, because how that is executed could radically improve this series rating up to a four, easily.



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

- Ferdinand

Dororo, vol. 1

By Osamu Tezuka
Published by Vertical Publishing


Slugline: The demon version of the game Operation.

It is hard to honestly review Tezuka's titles. His presence looms so large over the history of manga it's hard to separate the work from the creator, something that can be hard to accomplish even on less notable creators. Dororo is from Tezuka's later period, when he was transitioning to more mature works and exists at the juncture of horror and action. The main character, Hyakkimaru , is trying to recover the 48 body parts that his father gave away before his son's birth for power. Born alive, the remnants of the child kept mystically alive without the missing body parts grew up, using prosthetics and other artificial devices to appear human. But the various forms of death stalks him, and the only way he can become whole and get death off his trail is to hunt down the 48 demons, each time killing one having one of his body parts regenerating. The title of the series Dororo comes from the child thief that is following him, determine to steal Hyakkimaru's valuables (but the most valuable bits of him, his very body, has already been stolen) even though it seems to be more of an excuse for Dororo to follow Hyakkimaru's quest.

The other hard part of reviewing Tezuka is the fact that while he uses many genre conventions, that is because he is often creating those conventions. His art has not aged well, being very cartoony by modern standards. But while some of the characters seem thinly sketched, what is going on conveys a world that is terrible and cruel with people with even the best intentions inevitably being get punished. Even the main characters, Hyakkimaru and Dororo cannot afford to trust each other despite their 'friendship', because that is how this world works. I assume that this period is intended to evoke one of the civil war periods in feudal Japan, and at this time the only thing that makes sense is Hyakkimaru's search to reclaim itself. Each piece he reclaims is a gift he appreciates, which in turn reflects on the world around him. So despite the cartoony and simplistic veneer on top of the story, something deeper is going on, about how seeking oneself is more than just a selfish quest.



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

- Ferdinand

REAL, vol. 1

By Takehiko Inoue
Published in the US by Viz


Slugline: Definitely not a continuation of Slam Dunk!

Nomiya has a bit of a guilt problem, since a girl he picked up and took riding on a bike, there was an accident and she is now in a wheelchair. He was well on his way of flunking out of school before this, but this only confirmed his status as a dropout and as he tries to assuage his guilt by helping the girl. However, the only thing that seems to attract the girl's attention is another wheelchair bound basketball player named Togawa. Thus starts an odd little friendship between Nomiya and Togawa, that is cemented by both of their intense love of basketball, letting them challenge Nomiya's former schoolmates for use of their gym to practice basketball. Later, they use their skills to hustle rich kids, until they meet a challenger that they cannot defeat, forcin Nomiya to directly face his fear of driving while Togawa goes back to his basketball team to increase his skills. Meanwhile, the head of the school's basketball team that Nomiya and Togawa humiliated, Takahashi, is showing off for his girlfriend and gets into an accident, so that he no longer has any feeling below his waist.

Inoue is far better known for his more famous work, Slam Dunk, a basketball sports manga. But while basketball is nominally the topic of REAL, the true topic is about what people will throw themselves into in order to avoid dealing with their real problems. Basketball is both their escape from reality and their salvation that leads back to it for these characters. Nomiya is isolated and alone, driven by passion for basketball but it is that same passion that drives him back towards interacting with others again, while Togawa being beaten at a one on one game is the catalyst for him to embrace his old team. Takahashi on the other hand has a long way to fall yet before he can start to climb again. While this is not the most subtle of works, by the same token some of the directions are interesting and each of the characters are unique and for the most part have enough rough edges that they don't feel like cookie cutter creations.



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

- Ferdinand

Astral Project, vol. 1

by marginal and Syuji Takeya
Released in the US by CMX Manga


Slugline: Jazz that literally produces an out of the body experience.

Masahiko is living in Tokyo doing odd jobs, escorting former idols to prostitution meetings when he learns that his sister has died. Dodging his parents, he returns to his childhood home to get a momento of his sister, and choses to take the unmarked music CD in her player, the last thing she listened to. Once he has returned to Tokyo, listening to the jazz music on the disk, he has an out of the body experience, as his astral form wanders over the city. The rest of the first volume is taken up by Masahiko trying to understand just how his sister died, who else is wandering the astral space over Tokyo and trying to origin of the jazz music on the disk that his sister left behind.

This is a mature title, not for any reason that I can tell in the first volume. Probably the naughty stuff starts kicking in the later volumes, but here we have profoundly isolated character, Masahiko, who can literally float above it all. But as the volume progresses, the mysteries that his sister have left him drive him to interact with others, both in the real world and the astral world. The Japanese fascination with jazz music and musicians also rears it's head, but it is tied into the mystery in a natural way, and provides an additional point of confusion/contention for the characters. The characters' are being pulled out of their normal patterns, and the storyline timebomb dropped at the end of the volume was a good change of direction.



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

- Ferdinand

Fate stay/night, vol. 1

Manga by Dat Nishiwaki with original story by TYPE-MOON
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Cross platform marketing doesn't have to suck

This is another entry in the Fate stay/night marketing colossus, which spawned out from visual novel, including an anime and now a manga. It seems that the manga is based mostly on the anime, which selectively chose specific storyline elements of the visual novel to bring to screen. In this incarnation Fate is mostly a fighting manga, as 7 magi and their servants battle over the grail. In comparison to other fighting manga, the storyline is not too far out of the way of standard fight manga, with the characters so far falling into many of the standard archetypes. That said, it is being well done with not too many gratuitous power-ups, everyone is acting reasonably intelligently (though I understand that will change in later volumes) and considering the heavy presence of Fate stay/night in anime/manga fandom already, most readers will already have a good idea if they will like the basic story and characters. What I can say is that as a manga, this version of Fate stay/night is reasonably well done and executed version of the anime.



Fate stay/night, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted

Written by Yamashita and Johnson with Art by Delk, Lorenzo, Shelfer, Watson and Steinbach
Published by TokyoPop


Slugline: Just which version of the Ghostbusters are we dealing with here?

With a new Ghostbusters video game there has been efforts to revitalize the brand. There are six stories in this anthology, with the inner four chapters having linked subplots culminating in the fifth volume with unrelated stories first and sixth. It is a strange arrangement, with 2/3 of the book culminating in a final scene, then throwing something else there at the end. The art is not cohesive at all, and there are only a couple of stories where the art matches the story being told. The sad thing is the best story of the bunch in chapter 4 is completely undercut in subsequent chapters. Plus, it feels weird in that the creators are drawing inspiration from the various different incarnations of the Ghostbusters, from the two movies, the long running cartoon series and finally the ground breaking role playing game that was made based on the movies, that was infamous for it's bad puns. And for all I know, they may also have drawn upon the depictions in the recent video game. If they had drawn equally from all the sources, it wouldn't be so bad, but the different chapters seemed to draw on different aspects, so that the tone of the characters and story changed chapter to chapter. There are some nice moments, Winston gets a chance to shine in a way he so rarely got to, but the diverging creators of the volume seem to be unable to create a single version of the Ghostbusters that you can enjoy throughout the volume.



Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, vol. 1

Story and Art by Yoshio Sawai
Published in the US by Viz


Dishonorable mention
Slugline: There is no story here just a really long line of sight gags.

Okay, I admit failure here. I only managed to read about half of this, because there is no sense of logic, storytelling or even what the hell is going on other than an endless line of sight gags. It could be a parody of fight manga. Look, one of the biases we admitted, in the side column in fact, is that we are older readers. I do not require a story, I understand that there are valid experimental manga that are more abstract, but this is just a long line of bad and stupid jokes that would only appeal to a 10 year old. Think of the worse stupid/raunchy movie you've ever seen, and then using that same attitude to make a manga. If you like that, all the more power to you.



Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Black Lagoon 001

Story and Art by Rei Hiroe
Released in the US by Viz


Slugline: Nice explosions, bad panel to panel storytelling

Rokuro is having a bad day. Asked by his company to take a disk to Southeast Asia by a transport ship (what, suddenly there were no flights between Japan and Thailand? I thought there were Japanese businessman specials to there?) he ends up kidnapped mostly by accident when mercenary pirates in an World War 2 era PT Boat take his disk. Revy, a short tempered woman with a fondness for handguns and explosives decides to take him along, but it turns out that the information on the disk is more important to the company than Rokuro's survival, leaving him to join the mercenaries on the PT Boat including the crazy one Revy, and he now calls himself Rock. But you can take the salaryman out of the corporation, but you can't take the suit and tie away from the salaryman as Rock tries to find his place in the criminal and mercenary infested world of Southeast Asia.

First off, the manga is in a slightly larger format which is nice to show off the art. And the art is nice, but there are more than a few places where it is impossible to follow the action because the panel to panel transitions are just a mess and so are hard to follow. If I hadn't seen the anime episode based on a manga chapter, where Revy goes jumping amongst the pursuing boats, I would have had very little idea what was actually happening. The series is like an early 90s style action/shoot-em up, with Russian mafia and a love of random excessive and inappropriately used firepower (torpedoes that take out a helicopter!) that make my heart glad merely reading it. If only the mechanics of the storytelling were done better! Hopefully that will continue to improve, because I want to see if they can use a depth charge to take out a jet fighter in the next volume....



Black Lagoon 001 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Sugar Princess: Skating to Win, vol. 1

Story and Art by Hisaya Nakajo
Released in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: How to make what is basically a sports manga a shoujo, make it about skating!

Maya is at the local skating rink with her younger brother after winning a free trip there when in a fit of energy she launches herself into a spinning jump, which she doesn't land but still manages to do well enough to attract the attention of a professional coach. He's hoping to train her and pair her with his star, Shun. Maya appreciates Shun's form and grace, but Shun has very little desire to do pairs skating anymore, after the loss of his last partner. Maya takes to training, under Shun's reluctant guidance and works hard to be his equal in grace and style, but the potential closing of the skating rink that they practice at throw a wrench into her plans.

This is like a lot of other sport stories, they tend to be either underdogs who manage to win, or newbies whom everyone underestimates and manage to succeed. Notice there is a very fine line between the two, but right now the story is about a newbie, though it looks like that it is all going to be about the underdog. But it is still very much a shoujo, with the blending of the sport/shoujo aspects working better than I thought. Shonen sports is sort of the default, but the inherent grace of ice skating and the shoujo pretty boy aspects work together. It still has all the shoujo genre trappings, but adding the sport elements makes it somewhat more interesting.



Sugar Princess: Skating to Win, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Time Stranger Kyoko, vol. 1

Story and Art by Arina Tanemura
Released in the US by Viz Shoujo Beat


Slugline: Have a sister who is annoying? Just timestop them for a decade or two.

We have previously reviewed another Arina Tanemura title, The Gentleman's Alliance Cross, vol. 1.

Have a twin sister that has been trapped in time since your birth that you desperately want to know, and whose father is the king of planet Earth? Well, you may as well wait to do anything until you have a desperate need for a stand-in so you can continue to go to high school without any realizing who you are. But wait, the moment you accept the mission to find the twelve mystical doohickies to release your sister (how did she get into the time trap in the first place? And if she is timestopped, why does she look the same age as her non-timestopped sister?) you still end up leaving the school? Never mind the two hunky guys who protect you are from a mysterious dragon clan, the best fighters evah, who were wiped out years ago but for some reason no one has ever bothered finding out who or why?

Your dad really needs to start paying attention to his kingdom, the whole planet Earth, a little bit more. Or at least let the bureaucracy do, umm, something useful. Like help you or something.

This story is a mess. You can tell that this is early Arina Tanemura, because while her magical girl stories have been a little bit flaky in my opinion, they have never been this flaky. The story is just all over the place, with rationalizations and takebacks all over the place. The only thing that is good about this is that Tanemura had already matured as an artist when she had done this, so the nice art is the only thing that is saving this from a lower ranking. But unless you are a die-hard Arina Tanemura fan, I find it hard to find any reason to give this title any attention.



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

- Ferdinand

Bratz: Super Bratz

Written by Christine Peymani and Art By Anthony Tan

Published by TokyoPop

Slugline: Why do I find their lack of noses the most disturbing thing about the Bratz?

The All-Ages rating for this title is a little misleading. The rating really should say "Aimed at Pre-Tween Girls, All Others May Suffer Saccharine Poisoning." Not because the title is particularly bad, but because the pre-tween target demographic is the only one that the book really cares about. If other types of readers happened to pick up the book, that is fine, but having something that could appeal outside of that narrow demographic seem unimportant. Which is a shame, for I can easily see that this title could have been a successful really All-Ages title, but because it is linked to the Bratz property, it is limited to a certain approach and attitude to fits within that.

The girls of Bratz learn that their special skills that have made each of them stand out before were only the beginning manifestations of their superpowers. The cheerleader that could do high leaps now flies, the athletic type is a speedster, the social butterfly is a mind reader, etc. The Bratz discover that there is local school that teaches people how to use their superpowers, which apparently means road trip! The Bratz decide to go to school there, but discover that other students have their own selfish plans. Which the Bratz, after one failed attempt, discover the ways to use their new abilities to uncover what the not-so-nice students are planning and present proof to the teachers, who take care of the problem.

So yeah, this is X-Men lite with a side of the Bratz brand. I assume what minor character touches there are is from whatever character bible the Bratz brand managers gives out. I also assume that is why there are so few character flourishes for each Bratz, so that the property can be extended into as many different venues and forms as possible, without having to worry about keeping track of multiple character facets that may not work in any particular media. The response to that challenge is to minimize the individual characters.

What was nice is all I know about the Bratz is what I learned from the trailer of their rather horrible movie I was unfortunate enough to see twice. I didn't even need to know that much to pick up the book and go right into it, because you could learn most of that in the first chapter, along with the fact that they enjoy all the normal tween activity even though one of them was old enough to drive a car. It took me a little longer to keep all the characters straight, and the fact that the characters didn't have noses threw me far more than I thought it would. The character's characteristics, such as they are, are hard to tell apart other than by their special ability, but the Bratz are not credulous and are willing to entertain the thought they are not trapped in a simple, straightforward plot (which they are, but at least they consider otherwise).

Ultimately, this is not a book about the characters, it is about making sure that the property of Bratz exists in manga form. Which is a shame, because I think without that intent, and inherent set of boundaries that purpose imposed on the title, the core concept and the creators could have done more with it. But that would require taking risks that one does not allow with a multi-million dollar brand, especially in a particularly low profile manga (in comparison to the rest of the brand). So it is what it aspires to be, competent, rather than anything more.

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

- Ferdinand

Goth (the Manga)

Story by Otsuichi with Art by Kendi Oiwa
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: More Schizo than Goth

Yoru Morino is the stereotypically tortured high school student who has scars on her wrists showing how dangerously out of control she is, while Boku is that wonderfully nice neighbor boy next door that no one ever realizes ate a half dozen co-eds and did even worse things to their remains. But Boku has yet to descend truly that far into madness, and may never really do so, but he is still macabre to say the least, and fascinted by death and especially the pain of death. He seems to revel in Yoru almost becoming a victim in each chapter, but at the last moment something pulls him back. Maybe it is because he sees a chance for a better, darker experience, much like how some individuals would take torturing a puppy over pulling off a bug's wings. It is a dangerous relationship that Yoru and Boku both seem to actually need.

This is a dark series of stories, that isn't quite sure what kind of horror it truly is. Perhaps that is actually that is more of a strength than a weakness of the series, because some of the book feels like it is psychological horror, descent into one's own madness while other bits feels more supernatural. Still, Yoru's sense of victimhood is perhaps the most interesting part of the book, with the death of her sister giving her the chance to change roles, but still wanting to create sequences where she is the victim and the target. In that way, her wrist scarring was probably not an actual attempt to kill herself, but instead a way to mark herself further as a victim, so that others will see it and seek her out. Heck, it worked for the other character of the manga, Boku, his vulture like relationship with her beginning once he sees the scars and realizes how that would interact with his own interests and the hand taker's own ones. In a way, Yoru the victim is the true focus of the story, as what she does that attracts the attention of killers is the active role, while Boku merely circles, waiting for the right moment to absorb what he needs from the situation.

This story almost, almost manages to get four stars, but story construction messiness in a couple of the chapters was the only thing that holds it back, and even then it was a close call. Catch me on another day I may have easily given it four stars and debated going higher.



Goth (the Manga) is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Faust, vol. 1

Edited by Katsushi Ota
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Maybe it is Japanese language not the people that is in love with convoluted sentences and recursive thought processes

Faust is actually an prose fiction/manga anthology that is originally published in Japan as a mook (with magazine dimensions with book-like thickness) in a US format more akin to a traditional paperback. Faust has a reputation of a showcasing new voices and cutting edge fiction in Japan. For the most part the stories were in the modern magical vein, in which the stories happened in the here and now, but there is something just beyond the normal human sight going on.

Is this anthology good in the traditional sense, as in having engaging stories and characters? It is sort of hard to tell. I think that there must several inherent levels of the Japanese language that simply don't exist in English, perhaps how the kanji is written can affect it's meaning? And when you translate those texts into English, unpacking those concise kanji that can have multiple layers and meaning results in long sprawling English sentences that seem to wander about. This problem does not appear as strongly in manga, because at least part of the story is being carried by the art. In short stories, the English tradition has been towards efficiency of word and action, dating back to Edgar Allen Poe who created the western short story. Every word needed to have meaning and carry forward the story in his work, and his successors have followed in Poe's trail. Reading the stories in Faust in comparison, they all seemed very meandering. Unpacking the plot sometimes took work and in one particularly surreal example I gave up and just went along with the ride. The characters would think aloud so much it was hard to determine what if any internal lives that they had. Because that is another example of the difference between the languages, the Japanese language contains so many different meanings in the same words that English speakers just pick up the dictionary meaning and so miss the rest of what is 'said', which would be unspoken and part of the character's internal life in an English short story. But in translations all this has to be laid out otherwise the meaning of the text would be lost.

I think. One of these days I will sit down and have a long talk with translator about this process.

That being said, Faust is worth reading, even if it seems difficult and meandering. It is an attempt to do something different and new in the American manga industry, even more so than the other light fiction that have been published. Only one short seems directly connected to anything already in the US (an xxxHOLic short) while 'Drill Hole in My Brain' seems to ferociously cling to surreal jumps and ignoring the niceties of plot. But the rest of the stories can stand alone without too much work on the part of the reader. There are also some interesting behind the scenes shorts, talking to writers in an odd format. I don't understand why some of the manga is repeated in color and black+white, but the color versions drew a deeper emotional response from me, while the manga that was presented only in black+white showed the excessive talkiness that seems to be the hallmark of Japanese fiction. While the plots are hard to decipher, it is the characters that are the anthology's strength, even if the most interesting and revealing of them tend to be not the one that you expect.

I also feel like I need to bring this up. Putting age guidelines on books that are mostly prose offends me on a basic level. Reading and learning is perhaps a fundamental right, and one should read what interests them and what one has the capability to understand. By placing arbitrary age limits on a prose title, you are inherently limiting people to that arbitrary category. It is an accident of legal history that we can place age restrictions on images but not on words (free speech is free, but free expression through art is not) but even though there is some art here, the majority of the work is prose and should be treated like prose rather than the age-limited art. If you want to see the damage of what even well intentioned age rating can do to a comic industry, just look up the history of Frederic Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent and the Comics Code Authority.

And yes, this is a picayune infraction, but this is one of the areas that I care deeply about, about everyone's right to read and write what they wish, and even the best intentioned limits should be pushed back against.



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

- Ferdinand

Speed Grapher, vol. 1

Written and Illustrated by Tomozo and Yusuke Kozaki, Based on the story by GONZO
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Not about a guy who can draw real fast.

Speed Grapher is about war photographer Saiga's new job as a freelance political paparazzi in a near future Tokyo suffering from another major economic crash. After an injury forces him to take a less 'strenuous' job photographing corrupt politicians and dodging their security details, Saiga confronts one of the corrupt politicians that he had revealed as he is being killed by a man who literally stretches like rubber. Escaping through the use of his wits, Saiga traces the politician trail to an underground club that is using an unaware student named Kagura to grant some people strange abilities and to kill others. In the confusion of confronting them, Kagura gives Saiga the ability to destroy anything he takes a picture of, and they them flee as Kagura awakes, trying to avoid others that Kagura has given abilities to and trying to uncover what is going on.

The background of this manga feels a little odd, with the special abilities of the world relying on neither magic or science. The powers depend on the receiver's psychological state, where the power derives from the character much more than in other titles. The war photographer Saiga takes pictures of things and places in the process of being violently destroyed. But rather than capturing that moment in a photograph, Saiga now causes that moment to be forever lost, showing an internal conflict of Saiga. There is also the inherent subtext of Kagura, the overlooked and forgotten student, being able to give powers to people who want them, but the powers she grants are never exactly what the people need. But through it all Kagura is able to maintain her own detachment and 'innocence' from the consequences of the abilities she grants. Even though these subtexts are not fully explored in this volume, it does set up some interesting character bits to be followed up later. I have not seen the anime that the manga is based on so I do not know how closely the manga follows the anime's plot, but at least it seems implied that these points will be dealt with. Not only is there depth to the story and how the powers work and how they reflect the characters, Saiga shows cleverness in using his environment and his own abilities to even up the odds in otherwise difficult situations. The fact that the characters and story show such signs of thought and consideration, for the moment at least, gives me hope for the series and makes me half interested in seeing the anime.



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

- Ferdinand

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, vol. 1

By Kou Saskura
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Another entry in the why did they bother? category

Hector and Isaac are both generals in Dracula's demoniacally enhance army. They are wiping out all resistance ahead of them until Hector disappears. Isaac is sent to retrieve or kill Hector, depending on what Hector has done. But Hector has just been sunken in depression in a church, doing nothing but still Isaac unleashes a werewolf to find him, uncaring of the consequences. One of those consequences is the murder of the father of Ted, a boy in the village where Hector is hiding, and it is he who drives Hector to do something about the danger that is coming, no matter what the price will be to Ted.

I do not play video games, so I have no idea how much fidelity that the manga has with the source material. The only thing I can tell you that two disciples of Dracula with uncertain powers seem to be heading toward a confrontation whose reasons I can barely understand. I mean, we need to have a fight, otherwise why bother, but the reason why they fight is a lot of hemming and hawing, along with Dracula standing next to a window for the entire manga looking dangerous. Supposedly the main character of the manga is someone for the time being just seems to be a supporting character, maybe as witness type character who is supposed to tell others of the action. But it is just such a half-assed way to tell a story. Even the church's nun Rosalee seems more important to the story, and we do a lot of character work on her, but then she just drops from the story. This seems to be something that only fans of the videogame would enjoy, but considering it's haphazard nature it is hard to tell whether or not even video game players would get it.



Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Burst Angel, vol. 1

Story and Art by Gonzo and Minoru Murao
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: When is a sequel a prequel?

Jo and Meg are freelance troubleshooters in a near future Tokyo where violence is common. Even in Takeru's private school, far from the dangerous parts of Tokyo that Jo and Meg live, there is violence in the form of school bullying. The two types of violence converge as Jo and Meg's pursuers (who were trouble they had earlier shot at and now were interested in returning the favor.) discover them hiding in a randomly chosen apartment, which just happens to be Takeru's. Even after Jo and Meg leave Takeru's life (after causing a lot of property damage in the apartment's parking lot) he cannot forget them, and after some other cases manages to catch up to Jo and Meg, just as someone from Jo's past also catches up with them.

From some poking around online, it seems that this manga is a prequel to the animated series. It focuses on two characters from the anime, Jo and Meg, with a recurring role for Takeru, a student who is bullied often. Takeru seems to be counterpart of Kyohei in the anime, the ordinary guy drawn into the world of violence that Jo and Meg live in. Considering that later the threats that they face are more epic in scale, here the array of thugs and enforcers that are the majority of the opponents of the volume don't really seem like a threat. About half of the volume have chapters that Takeru appear in, as he tries to understand the world he has been drawn into while the episodes that feature Jo and Meg show off their relationship, dysfunction and all. Some of the fight scenes are a little muddy, especially the ones that feature opponents that Jo actually have trouble with, so it is hard to compare the intensity of the fights. Jo has the standard thousand yard stare/PTSD symptoms that so many of the 'tough' women in manga/anime have. Which makes me wonder what is/was the source of the yuri undertones between Jo and Meg, since I doubt Jo is mentally capable of reaching out to begin one. It is also sad the only way that I could determine that this was prequel was from wikipedia, not the actual book itself.



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

- Ferdinand

Update to Blog Frequency

As one can imagine, things are tough all over, and the number of review copies I have been receiving have been dipping. I cannot afford to purchase that much new manga out of pocket, so for the time being Prospero's Manga will be dropping to 2 reviews a week, posted on Tuesday and Thursday. Sorry about this!

-Ferdinand

Seduction more Beautiful than Love, vol. 1

Created by Lee Hyeon-Sook
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Korean schools still have corporal punishment? Another important safety tip for manga fans who go abroad.

Daoun is a new teacher at a high school and temporarily takes over the homeroom of a class with one of those quietly tortured pretty boys the clutter up manga/manhwa, Ryumin. He barely pays any attention to schoolwork but enjoys twisting her head about over whether or not he is trying to seduce her, drawing her out emotionally then (apparently) feigning disinterest. But both have their own other romantic interests, Daoun has an old college friend Hyunwoo who never managed to tell her how he felt before and has become a new teacher at the same high school that Daoun teaches at and Ryumin has a girlfriend (of a sort) that seems to be able to manipulate everyone but him.

This is a fairly low key title, no big or broad character traits or actions. Daoun is a little clueless, which is best shown by how her mother manipulates her into a blind date but also because she can't seem to make head or tails of Ryumin or Hyunwoo . Why is it in real life (or at least western fiction) that it seems women can see right through guys (not that it is all that difficult) but in manga/manhwa/eastern fiction women never seem to have the first clue on what is going on men's minds, or even can decipher the most blatant of actions? I realize that the truth is probably more in the middle (and that fact would destroy whole buildings of the Library of Congress) but it just seems that Daoun would have at least some clue Hyunwoo likes-likes her, even if she doesn't acknowledge it out loud. Most of the other character's confusions are more or less believable but having the main character being so clueless is just annoying and let's you see the hand of the author pushing the characters around like chess pieces just so that he can have story that lasts longer than an episode. And more importantly make sure to have lots of moments filled with sexual tension. Nice art though, easy to recognize the characters and each is attractive in their own way.



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

- Ferdinand