Gunsmith Cats Burst, v.1

by Kenichi Sonoda
Published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Manga

Slugline: A follow-up to the original Gunsmith Cats, this series puts the girls back in action.

This volume contains a few very short stories and a longer story that only gets more and more complicated as it goes. I'm not sure whether the author expects us to know the characters already (I managed to miss both the anime and manga Gunsmith Cats) or if he just has not burdened them with a lot of personality, but I didn't find Rally or Minnie May terribly interesting.

The short stories were light and amusing and even the detailed gun-describing episode was interesting (then again, I've been known to find Punisher's equipment issues "interesting" -- though I'm not a gun nut at all.) The longer story was, however, increasingly tedious though I will give points for a more accurate portrayal of America than I've seen in other manga. The gun-toting granny was fun and the story has its good points, but on the whole it failed to grab me.

Fans of the Cats shouldn't let me stop them from trying Burst, of course. But if you're new to it, like me, this isn't the best place to start... try to find the original anime instead, it has a good reputation from what I hear.

- Miranda

Eden: It's an Endless World, v. 1

By Hiroki Endo
Released in the U.S. by Dark Horse Manga

Slugline: Ho-hum, just another post-apocalyptic disease ridden future with killer robots. How sad is that?

Eden is a rarity nowadays: a post-apocalyptic future that was wiped out by a plague that did not turn everyone into zombies. Instead it is more about what the people that survive the aftermath of an apocalypse, admittedly one that leaves the survivors relatively intact (dying of radiation disease is not very conducive for anything but a story about a slow slide into death.) (Hey, On The Beach pulled it off -- Miranda) There is a lot of dime-store philosophy, but I am not sure if I buy it. Plus there seem to be two completely different stories going on here, centered on different children of the same man (I think.) However, the stories are told consecutively rather than being intermingled so that they could play off each other. But this jump between characters makes me wonder how much the stories are separated by time, because a robot is in both of them and I am not sure if it is the same robot or different ones. That uncertainty is not entertaining, actually, it's just confusing. Plus the big bad of the series is an organization that apparently is trying to take over the world -- what remains of it -- but for the moment it exists just as a name, nothing more. Mysterious, without having a point to it.

-Ferdinand

Trinity Blood, vol. 1

As some of you may know, I also do reviews for the Comic Buyer's Guide over on their own website. Their format is a little different from what we use here, they have a 4 star system as compared our five star system, and the focus is on titles that would appeal to the readers of traditional western comics, but I thought it would be easier if I just directly linked them from here.

First up, a review of Trinity Blood, vol. 1



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

-Ferdinand

The Twelve Kingdoms, Sea of Shadows

Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow
Written by Fuyumi Ono
Released in the U.S. by TokyoPop



Slugline: Even in Japan, the books are better than movies/anime

Yoko was the stereotypical good girl, desperately working too hard just to be like everyone else in her high school and fulfill everyone else's expectations of her, but she is swept out of this world and into the Twelve Kingdoms, with demons, flying tigers (I wonder if that is some sort of joke on the WW2 US flying unit in China) and green monkey swords. This is what the anime is based on, and you can see the hasty joints of the work where it broken apart in order for it to work in the anime format.

Because the story is basically about Yoko's journey, a solitary one, in which she first discovers what it means to be alive rather than dead to the world, then what it means to be open to others and trust once you decide that what you are and what you do mean something. The novel expands the time experienced by the characters, so that weeks and months fly by and developments that felt odd and rushed in the anime are smoother here. In the anime the solitary nature of the journey had to be overcome because it wouldn't have been much fun to run episodes where the main character doesn't even talk, so they gave Yoko companions. However, that immediately and irrevocably changes the nature of her journey. While the anime was okay, this light novel is much stronger and still is a relatively quick read with a large type on small pages.

The Twelve Kingdoms, Sea of Shadows is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Site updates and other slowness

Hey there, sorry for the slowness in updating, both of us are working like madmen at our RL work, partly to catch up and pay for that vacation a few weeks ago, add in the typical couple miscommunication, and you get a little lagging in the posting.

But if you check out along the side, you will find that we were able to accomplish something. We now have links on the side for Pocky! Necessary fuel for when you are trying to read six different manga in a row.

More posting soon!

-Ferdinand

Dragon Eye, v. 1

By Kairi Fujiyama
Released in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga



Slugline: Is there much of a difference between Dragon Eyes and Nine Tailed Demon Foxes?

In the near future, a virus that acts like the ones in zombie movies but turns the victims into Dracules -- creatures that are transformed from into something large, nasty, immortal and crazed with a desire for killing and infecting humans -- has forced the survivors of humanity to live in protected cities. They are protected by the VIUS, those that have an immunity to the virus and also have kick ass mystical martial art skills. Leila is a new VIUS recruit, wanting to gain the Dragon Eye, a semi-mythical artifact that allows one to kick even more Dracule patootie, but discovers that her new superior has it/one, but it is a curse. Plus the same superior, Issa, has recruited another VIUS, one who hates his guts, thinking he is the one who killed his sister without reason years ago.

Okay, this looks and feels a lot like Naruto, with Issa being a very close stand-in for Naruto himself. But the missing element is that despite a similar mystery around both main characters -- who and what they are -- Issa by design is in on his secrets and is party to them, while Naruto is discovering what is going on with the readers. For with Naruto it is a joint journey of discovery. With Issa and Dragon Eye it is more like trying to worm information out of someone who takes far too much pleasure in hiding it from you. Maybe if there wasn't Naruto to be such a close comparison to I would be able to rank this title higher -- it does have nice art and a clearly written story -- but it still suffers in comparison.



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

-Ferdinand

Canon. v. 1

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



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

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

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

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



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

- Ferdinand

Apothecarius Argentum, v.1

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



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

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

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

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



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

- Miranda

Brave Story, v.1

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



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

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

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

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



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

- Ferdinand

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

Princess Resurrection, v.1

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



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

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

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

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



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

- Miranda

Platina, v. 1

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



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

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

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



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

- Ferdinand

Series Update: Basilisk 4 & 5

SERIES UPDATE

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

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

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

- Miranda

King of Thorn, v. 1

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



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

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

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

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



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

- Ferdinand

Love Pistols, v.1

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



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

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

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

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



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

- Miranda

My Heavenly Hockey Club, v. 1

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



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

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

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



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

- Ferdinand

Crossroad, v.1

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

- Miranda

May vacation, 2007

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

Grand Theft Galaxy, v.1

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



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

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

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

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



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

- Ferdinand

Lovers in the Night

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



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

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

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



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

- Miranda

Warriors: The Lost Warrior, v. 1

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



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

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

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



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

- Ferdinand