Arisa, vol. 1

Story and Art by Natsumi Ando
Published in the US by Del Rey Manga

Slugline:  A real psycho high school drama

Tsubasa has not seen her identical twin Arisa in years, and upon meeting her after all that time they decide that Tsubasa will replace Arisa for a day at school. She does so and finds that her sister’s life seems just as good as Arisa had said in her letters. When Tsubasa tells Arisa so, Arisa reveals her deep depression and tries to commit suicide. As her sister lies in a coma, Tsubasa decides to find what hidden secrets in the schoo are resposible for Arisa’s attempt. Tsubasa discovers out her fellow students send texts to someone named the King, and those texts come true.  With that power, the students’ cruelty has come out and Tsubasa needs to discover who the King is, even as she becomes a target.  She may have an ally, the standard bad boy of the class, but his real allegiances are more complicated.

At first this reads like the typical high school shoujo, with Tsubasa being the violent girl that has trouble controlling those tendencies while her identical twin having the perfect life that Tsubasa wishes she could have.  The fact that Tsubasa would be given the chance to live Arisa’s life in the manga was given, but the fact that she would get that chance by Arisa attempting suicide is not.  From there the story takes a darker turn than most shoujo as the class is revealed to have a dangerous secret, and the manga is less about Tsubasa trying out Arisa's perfect life but about uncovering secrets.  Rather than her violent self being a liability, it may be the only thing that lets her survive to find out what is going on.  While the story does not get as dark as others, it quickly moves into the shadows that most shoujo never venture towards even as its visual style remains unchanged.  This is a story that has more meaning than it first appears.



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

- Ferdinand

Fairy Navigator Runa, vol. 1

Story by Miyoko Ikeda with Illustrations by Michiyo Kikuta
Published in the US by Del Rey Manga

Slugline: In the original legends, fairies were anything but nice.

Runa was left at an orphanage as a baby, never knowing her parents but told by a teacher that Runa's kindness was her strength and that she needed to be careful or the weight of it would crush her. Runa never really understood what her teacher meant until two strangers that could transform into animals approached Runa and told her that she was the fairy princess. Her parents gave her up to protect her but now there was an open portal to the fairy realms so other fairies will come since Runa is the only one who could freely travel between the worlds. However, for Runa to use her powers makes her cold and distant, so she needs all of her friends from the orphanage and the fairy realms in order to keep her on an even keel and remind her that kindness is what makes her powerful, not fairy powers.

Runa comes across as another sweet and gentle story intended for younger readers, but then towards the end shows a bit of bite. When Runa loses her cool and wants to harm another fairy (for admittedly perfectly valid reasons) her dark side emerges that is genuinely disturbing in contrast to her earlier behavior. While she quickly gets herself back into under control, the fact that her dark side is so clear cut brings extra meaning to the story. The fear that she could lose control of herself is meaningful, rather than her just being a light and fluffy character that says she has to be good, or else. The supporting characters don't seem to know who they are, with their decisions furthering the story but not making much character sense. Still, for a children story it seems to be more willing to show the consequences and costs of power than most.

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

- Ferdinand

King of RPGs, vol. 1

Written by Jason Thompson with Art by Victor Hao
Published by Del Rey Manga

Slugline:  We will deny any similarities between the reviewer and the manga's characters

Shesh had a problem with computer RPGs, but after the therapy, shock treatment and lifetime wireless ban he goes to college and can act somewhat normal.  There are temptations at college but when Shesh goes to a RPG club he discovers they have pen and paper RPGs rather than the computer games he once abused.  As he considered leaving he is challenged by the gamemaster Theodore and after his friends ask him to, he decides to play just one game.  What he doesn't know is Theodore is his match in obsessiveness but to pen and paper RPGs.  Theodore discovers a talent to provoke Shesh into unleashing his frenzied player persona that therapy had supposedly tamed.  After dealing with the repercussions of his first gaming session, Shesh's attempt to find a gamemaster to safely game with brings him into conflict with a gamer that takes advantage of the collectible games and a student officer who is convinced of the evil of playing games.

This manga hits in the middle of my two loves (well, the ones that are not real people at least) manga/comics and tabletop roleplaying games.  I may not have been as obsessive and as Theodore, but my college room (my house now) was filled with just as many game rulebooks as it was graphic novels and manga.  While my time in college predates World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs that broke Shesh, other computer games were just as effective on people I knew, in fact I knew people similar to all the characters.  So all of the characters ring true, but are overlaid with a shonen filter.  This includes that no one is really bad, they are misunderstood or victims of circumstance and everything devolves into a personal challenge.  Still, it has enough gaming in-jokes to satisfy the gaming crowd (such as the culmination of the final story arc of the volume harking backing to a gaming urban legend) but does not need in-depth gaming knowledge to get the humor and the story, which was the problem with the review earlier this week of .hack//4koma.

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

- Ferdinand

Only One Wish, vol. 1

By Mia Ikumi
Published in the US by Del Rey Manga

Slugline:  Why do people like monkey paw stories so much?

Students believe in an urban legend that if you text under the right conditions you will get an angel to make one wish come true. But things are never that simple. Here, as in many other monkey paw-like stories, getting exactly what you wish for leads to the worst possible outcome.  The angel will fulfill only one wish, there is no chance to take it back, no matter how much it is needed. In this volume, a trio of friends tear themselves apart from jealousy and anger over who will wish a boyfriend to them. A dead girl has to find the wrong boy to kiss to bring herself back to life. A boy and girl who are so alike have blindly to find each other across the city. A girl shrinks a boy down to doll size until he loves her. In all of these, what can go wrong with the wish does often without any recourse.

This seems like a monkey paw in search of a good story to grasp onto. At first, having wishes go wrong seems like a good foundation for a series but variations of it has been done so often it is hard to find a new take. Plus if the story is always about wishes going wrong, reading it gets depressing as people keep on destroying themselves despite the best of intentions. This problem is realized as while the first story has a very traditional 'be careful what you wish for' story the later ones depart from that strict formula. The angel is a like a ghost character which helps prevent readers from blaming her for the evil that befalls the other characters but there is nothing emotional linking the stories together. The manga feels well written but empty. There is a short Tokyo Mew Mew! story included for the creator's other fans.

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

- Ferdinand

Panic X Panic, vol. 1

By Mika Kawamura
Published in the US by Del Rey

Slugline:  Why are the bad guys always more interesting than the good guys?

Mitsuki and Kakeru have grown up across the street from each other, her the heir of a Shinto shrine while Kakeru the son of a priest, while their fathers were in constant competition.  That competition has spilled over to their children's relationship so that they do not get along either in school to the surprise of their classmates.  They usually just annoy each other but now demons that have been kept out of the human world for hundreds of years have been released and only Mitsuki and Kakeru can stop them.  Until they find the seals to permanently seal away the demons, they have to work together to convince the demons that have entered the world to behave themselves. 

What a surprise.  The most popular boy and girl in school can't stand each other despite knowing each other since childhood now they have to save the world from a threat that no one else can perceive.  While the plot aspects of this manga are interesting and show some originality the characters themselves do not.  If anything they show very cookie-cutter characteristics, especially in that despite Mitsuki's supposedly equal power in dealing with demons she is instead acts helpless and deals mostly with the demons by talking and making friends with them.  Considering how cliche it is for the girl to be the one to fulfill that role in a story, the characters need to be really interesting in order to overcome that and none of them are up to the challenge.  This is a case where the formulaic approach overcomes everything else and makes this an easily forgettable manga.

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

- Ferdinand

Night Head Genesis, vol. 1

Story by Georgbe Iida and Manga by You Higuri
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: More veterans of the Psychic Wars

Naoto and Naoyo are brothers who were taken from their parents at an early age because of their psychic abilities. The older brother Naoto has more physical powers to move and destroy objects while Naoya the younger brother has visions. They were studied at a research center but escaped in their teen years though without realizing it was with the assistance of a female psychic of their own age. While outside Naoyo has a vision of the extinction of the human race through the accidental creation of a super-virus by an unknowing researcher. Another psychic has seen that but has decided that the researcher has to die while the brothers want to keep her alive but stop the research while . Lurking in the background is a far more powerful psychic with his own agenda.

This is another psychic powers manga with teens caught between a secretive organization and powerful psychics. Fortunately the book focuses on the brothers using their abilities rather than them trying to have a life on the run. Their powers are strong but are not building-shattering (no Akiras in other words.) The virus apocalypse storyline was not dragged out with the challenge of it is matched with the characters' abilities as they were introduced and the storyline sets up rising difficulties later on. Some of the character interaction was a bit stiff and suffered from "professional woman who is really just a girl" syndrome, but that is a common problem in manga. This is a very good first volume, introducing the characters, their major opposition and possible future storylines in a way that you do not feel that the rest of the story has been given away.



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

- Ferdinand

Moyasimon, vol. 1

By Masayuki Ishikawa
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Who knew that E. coli were so cute?

Tadayasu and Kei are childhood friends that grew up on farms and have decided to go to an agricultural college. Tadayasu has a mysterious talent to literally see microbes and identify them that the agricultural college can enhance. Since both of theirfamilies rely on fermentation in their agricultural products, Tadayasu's ability means that both could thrive. An old friend of Tadayasu's grandfather teaches at the college and has heard of Tadayasu's ability. The professor hopes to use it further his own research while some of the upperclassmen think that Tadayasu could be useful in their get rich quick schemes. Despite all of the confusing attention Tadayasu and Kei just want to get through and enjoy college.

The major problem with this manga is that is filled with major info-dumps making it read as something between a love letter to Japanese agriculture and a microbial science textbook. Despite that concern the info-dumps are handled well, reminding one of the technical asides that are found on CSI or Numb3rs. The manga can be really disgusting as it show faux food products that people are willing to eat once they have been fermented or pickled, but it isn't too gory. In spite of these concerns the manga was still enjoyable. The characters were fun, the manga managed to give microbes a sense of personality and none of the plots were overwhelming silly. I'm not sure over how manga episodes that this premise could be stretched, but here at least it works.



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

- Ferdinand

Four-Eyed Prince, vol. 1

By Wataru Mizukami
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Cruel to be kind... No, it's just cruel

Sachiko is attracted to one of the princes of her school, Akihiko. Part of her attraction is due to his stylish glasses while the rest is from his kindness to her when her father died, but when she approaches him she is rebuffed. Later that daySachiko has to move in with her mother, meeting her for the first time but making her day a complete nightmare Akihiko is her mother's stepson (no blood relation of course) and that they will be living together. Akihiko tries to ditch her, but she discovers that he works as bartender to get extra money, but protects his identity by going by a different name and without wearing his glasses. Since girls seem to want him irrespective of name or appearance, he has a poor opinion of them and of love in general. That makes him the target ofSachiko's desperate romantic assaults for the rest of the volume, while which he claims to be softening his positions but his actions would drive away all but the most lovelorn teen girl. Which, fortunately for him and the story, Sachiko is.

This is another entry in the "What do they think a relationship is?" sweepstakes. Akihiko pulls a stunt halfway through the volume, to 'help' another couple, that shows how little respect and empathy he has for Sachiko. Everything after that scene basically made me wonder why Sachiko was sticking around despite the offers of a full mountain spa vacation. While Akihiko is not a 'bad boy' in the traditional sense, Sachiko reacts as if he is, as she tries to 'change him.' That is something that only works in cookie cutter made romance novels.



Four-Eyed Prince, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Ninja Girls, vol. 1

Created by Hosana Tanaka
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Resisting making the horn/horny puns here.

Raizo has a little problem in that he has a horn on his head, which makes the local villagers fear him and call him demonchild. It is that same deformity that marks him as the last scion of a noble house. Only four ninjas remain to protect Raizo from the enemies of his previously unknown ancestors so inevitably they bicker with each other over the best way to protect him and reestablish their house. The ninja fall into easily recognizable stereotypes such as the cross-dresser and the silent one, while as usual the bubbly one, here named Kagari, wants to get 'closer' to Raizo.

Scantily clad ninja girls protecting a younger hapless guy should be its own genre because I swear I have seen this plot before many times. The only question I have after reading the title is whether or not the ninja girls are color coded in the colored art of the series. Sure, some of the details are different such as what makes the male character 'special' which here is his horn. But the characters and the story itself are so familiar that I can feel the story beats coming by merely looking at the chapter heading art. While the manga by itself is well executed the manga itself doesn't yet offer anything interesting other than for collectors of fan-service as they marvel at the ridiculous situations created to give the fan-service a veneer of plausibility.



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

- Ferdinand

Amefurashi, vol. 1

By Atsushi Suzumi
Published in the US by Del Rey Manga


Slugline: More little kids who exist to force the plot along.

Gimmy is a mechanic of a desert village that depends on a nimbus tree, a giant magical tree that provides the village's water. In exchange for water, the tree's goddessAmefurashi asks for dolls. Gimmy as the village's handyman is asked to make the doll, but is so caught up in the details that he blows the deadline for the doll's delivery. Gimmy's younger siblings Mel and Mil run off and pretend to be dolls to appease the goddess, with Gimmy climbing the tree to recover them. On the way he finds an annoying young girl named Sora and discovers too late that she is actually the Amefurashi. Gimmy tries to make a deal to get his siblings back, but while working out the deal Ciel, another amerfurashi without a tree steals Sora's tree's heart. Without it, the village will no longer get water so Gimmy decides to help Sora get back her tree's heart.

For once none of the characters are stupid. While they make mistakes, there are mistakes that are believable and match their character traits. Gimmy is a little too perfectionist for his own good, Mel and Mil are impetuous and Sora has a hard time understanding what the heck the humans want or are even actually are saying. The only concern is with the plotting, with the story first looking like it will be about howGimmy is going to convince Sora to return his siblings and only later it being about Gimmy and Sora teaming up. Ordinarily it would be better if the story didn't feel the need to switch tracks, but this feels like a mostly organic change rather than desperate flailing around to find something to do.



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

- Ferdinand

Orange Planet, vol. 1

By Haruka Fukushima
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: One of each shojo cliche

Rui has boy problems that many girls in junior high would love to have. There is the neighbor boy who has long liked her, the school's hottest boy who is returning her interest and a playboy student teacher that has invited himself to live in Rui's apartment. Rui is pushed and pulled between the boys and the young man through humorous and embarrassing situations. But Rui's childhood memory of a boy who comforted her after the death of her parents continues to haunt her.

Gah. This has all of the annoying shojo cliches concerning potential boyfriends wrapped together into a single manga. Childhood loves, lack of parents or any adult supervision and college students being friendly with junior high girls does not improve the final result. I like the fact that Rui is human enough to try weasel the answers for an exam from her live-in teacher, but other than that she acts like one of the saints that only exist in manga, setting completely unrealistic expectations of behavior for girls. Technically, the work is fine and the story holds together (such as it is) but it just jams together too many of the shojo cliches to put up with.



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

-Ferdinand

Yokai Doctor, vol. 1

By Yuki Sato
Published by Del Rey


Slugline: Even spirits need housecalls

Kutoko is the granddaughter of famous exorcist, but other than the ability to see spirits (called yokai) she has no other exorcist abilities. That doesn't prevent her from using what she does have to become accepted in her school by performing fake exorcisms. Kuro is an outsider in the school, believed to be a pervert but actually reacting to the spirits that only a few can see. Glad to see that someone else has her ability, Kutoko befriends Kuro but is surprised to learn that he is a yokai doctor, one who tries to treat and cure the yokai. From Kutoko's perspective yokai have always been hassle and harmful, but after Kuro rescues her from some trouble by helping not harming a yokai she decides to be his assistant, though not to wear any nurse's outfit. But she hasn't learned all of Kuro's secrets, he is not only a yokai doctor but a yokai himself.

This volume has an interesting beginning with the first two chapters being retold from the perspective of a different character before moving onto original material. This was the result of the first few chapters intending to be one-off story but being successful and the creator starting a series based on it. There are some minor changes to smooth things out for the continuing story, but it is interesting to look at things from another perspective, especially it is in the process we learn character traits. Other than that interesting opening, most of the characters and situations are unfortunately fairly standard and it remains to be seen whether the unusual opening was the result of more than just happy accident.



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

-Ferdinand

Maid War Chronicle, vol. 1

Presented by Ran
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: At some point perverts stop being cute.

The Prince of Arbansol is about to go through his coronation and become king. Cacao, one of his six personal maids is hoping that will encourage Alex, the prince, to show some maturity because currently he is a major pervert who enjoys ordering his maids around way too much. Cacao is the only one of the maids who pushes back, having grown up in a circus and being a featured attraction there gave her self-confidence with the only reason for she currently being a maid is to save enough money to start her own business. But she is forced to flee with her fellow maids and the prince when the kingdom of Nowarle invades. Prince Alex claims that all he needs to retake his kingdom are beautiful women around him, well beautiful women armed with legendary magical weapons that usually are wielded by the realm's knights. Prince Alex's way around that little restriction is by creating an order of maid knights and immediately inducting all of his maids. Cacao gets a claymore sword and being the only one of the maids that has half a clue and any fighting experience, works to keep her fellow maids and Prince Alex alive.

This manga feels very old school, with a traditional pervert with a heart of gold and a whole array of characters named after food items. Those elements have been merged with the modern manga tradition of fan service via the use of maid uniforms whose skirts magically shorten when convenient. This is a light story, even by the normal standards that piece of fluff stories are measured by. The fight scenes are set up nicely and the fan service seemed mild, even with the gratuitous nudity. Or it could just be that I've been numbed by reading so much fan service. Still, the prince, despite the attempts to make him a funny and harmless pervert still makes my skin crawl and requires a major personality transplant to become tolerable.



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

-Ferdinand

Wolverine: Prodigal Son, vol. 1

Story by Antony Johnston with Art by Wilson Tortosa
Published by Del Rey and Marvel Comics


Slugline: Sort of the Wolverine you've seen.

Logan is the best fighter at the Quiet Earth Academy, a martial arts school in the northern woods for troubled teens. But Logan was not sent there by parents tired of his antics, but was found on its doorstep without any memory of his past other than his name. Add in his strange ability to quickly heal from any wound and claws that pop out from his forearms, Logan is isolated along with having grown an attitude problem that dwarfs the other students' problems. In an attempt to give Logan some peace the school's sensei takes Logan to New York City, but it only serves to make Logan even more disappointed. Just as the sensei is about to reveal a hint to Logan that there may be others like him, they are attacked by paramilitary types lead by Lady Silence, who can speak directly into one's mind. His sensei is captured, but Logan runs back to Quiet Earth, only to find it in flames and all of the students dead except for the sensei's daughter. Defeating the former student that destroyed the school who was allied with Lady Silence, Logan gains a clue about his origin and who is responsble for hunt for him.

This is a reimagining of Wolverine's origin, who is one of the most popular mutants of Marvel Comic's X-Men. Logan is not a person inclined to deep thought, so he, and thus must of the story is involved in kicking ass. That actually works well, for whenever the story slows down to think or talk about what is going on, the emotional responses of the characters seem shallow. There is not much of that, because most of the scenes are setting up for the fights or cleaning up after the fights, but it was still a block to my enjoyment. There are some shoutouts to other versions of Wolverine's origin, but he has had so many over of the years it is hard to pick them out. The art does show off the fights and their kinetic style well, but some of the details need a little bit of work, for it took me far too long to figure out that Lady Silence was actually a woman. Still, this is a nice action story that doesn't rely on its brand name to carry it.



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

-Ferdinand

Gakuen Prince, vol. 1

By Jun Yuzuki
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A beautiful story about the cruelty and ugliness of teens

Mizutani has transferred into a new high school which was formerly an all-girl school and is only recently become co-ed. There are very few boys there, and Mizutani learns rather quickly that the boys are a commodity that the girls use and abuse as they wish. One of the few ways out for boys is to be in a relationship with a single girl, and in desperation Mizutani finds the first girl that doesn't seem to be interested in hunting him down and dragoons her into being in a relationship. Okitsu has spent most of her time in high school trying to avoid attention, but with Mizutani's announcement, she is now in the sights of every girl in school who thinks they deserve a chance at Mizutani. She is bullied and even set up to be sexually abused, despite Mizutani's various attempts to protect her. He eventually releases her from their 'relationship' but Okitsu, upon seeing Mizutani being cornered and threatened with being tasered into sexual activity, restarts their 'relationship.' But there are more traps that remain for them.

I was ready to take one for the team here, because the back cover text made me expect that this was going to be some piece of painful fluff. But within a few pages, when the girls decide to 'initiate' the new boy in the school with some sexual abuse, and the boy is smart enough to realize he may not like it, this manga showed it understood human nature. Sometimes it can be very impersonally cruel, and the manga shows how the bullying culture in Japanese schools can tear people down just because they are in someone's way. Or simply because they merely appear to want to change, irrespective of what their true plans are. Sure, some of the set-up of the situation is a stretch, but how the characters acted spoke almost brutally true. Especially the moment where Okitsu remains suspicious of the other girls motives, but wanted to believe for a few moments that maybe, just maybe, they liked her. There was no happy fluffy shojo happiness here, or people searching for true love, but teenage hormones running amok and an attitude towards sex that is both envious and dehumanizing. It is a honest look of what would really happen if some of the silly situations that seem to proliferate in shojo would actually happen, and so needs to be read by everyone who sighs dramatically over shojo. Sure, most shojo is written as an escape from the reality of teenage romances, but in this someone can see what happens in the real world and emphasize more with it.



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

-Ferdinand

Samurai 7, vol. 1

Original Story by Akira Kurosawa and Manga by Mizutaka Suhou
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A classic story written down for the shonen crowd

In the far future, after a war that raged across the solar system, the samurai that helped end it are left without a purpose with some having been reduced to pillaging to survive. One village, afraid of what will happen when the bandits return when the crops are ready, decides to hire samurai to defend them. Katsushiro is a young man pretending to be a samurai, equipped with a powerful sword, and he decides to help when he runs across the villagers' representatives that are recruiting the samurai. Katsushiro is eventually revealed as being an impostor, but manages to convince six samurai to join with him to defend the village. On the way to the village they meet and defeat an group of the bandits, but not before the bandits manage to send word to their leader that the village is getting samurai defenders. The battle also reveals aspects of the various motivations and personalities that are driving the samurai to help defend this village.

Samurai 7 is quite upfront of it's inspiration, Akira Kurosawa's famous movie The Seven Samurai, though this version of the story is set in a science fiction future. But the biggest changes to the story are not because of the change of setting but are the result of a radical shift in the tone of the story. The original version had a dark tone, with samurai hired because they are hungry and the fear of the villagers of the samurai that they have to rely on being very palatable. In comparison, what we have here is a tone that would not be out of place for any shonen story, in that they are looking for true samurai who have brave and kind hearts. That is just one example of tone shift that I think does no credit for the manga, and I think misses the point of adapting The Seven Samurai. That being said, after the first 2/3 of the manga being all touchy-feely, they managed to make up for it by blowing stuff up pretty. For many sins can be forgiven for good action scenes. But if you are looking for something that has the same emotional impact and resonance as the original movie The Seven Samurai, it hasn't made it's presence known here in this manga.



Samurai 7, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Negima!? Neo, vol. 1

Original Concept and Story by Ken Akamatsu with Art by Takuya Fujiima
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A manga of an anime of a manga

Brilliant ten year old mage Negi graduates from his British school of magic and has to go to Japan to teach at an all girl school. If that is not the set-up for a Harry Potter fanfic filled with Mary Sue overtones, I don't know what is. Negi has to help the various girls at the school deal with their problems while advancing his own magic by 'partnering' up with someone. Since he surrounded by teenage girls, guess who his partner will be? Let's not forget he has to keep his magic secret from the students even as several of the students have magical natures. This is a harem comedy, with all of the negatives that implies along with the above slugline literally being true. This is not the original manga that the TV and various OVA series are based on, but a manga based on the anime that was based on the original manga. Sometimes the multiple versions can be a benefit to a property, with each iteration allowing the story to become ever more focused and removing distractions. But there is also the possibility the story will lose focus like a photocopy, as each iteration gets further away from the core of the story. I am not sure here if the various iterations is helping or hurting the story.

My rating from Negima!? Neo comes from several different aspects of the story. Harem comedies have a hard time being believable, as in if you can believe whether or not people will act these way. Here there is not much of an attempt at believability, with everyone embracing their inner stereotype and going with it and the characters being all surface. The plot reads like a bad fanfic (yes, there is good fanfic) with a thinly disguised Harry Potter stand-in. If you already love Negima, here you get some more, but other than that, this is just not a very well done manga.

It is almost if this was the culmination of the search for the best way to deliver fan service, cutting away of everything else that can get in the way of delivering fanboy goodness but may also have other uses, like story or subtext, or even text for that matter. While that may be fine for some, there is no reason that a manga can not also deliver an interesting story because that does not necessarily have to interfere with delivering fan service, it is not an either/or equation.



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

-Ferdinand

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, vol. 1

By Koji Kumeta
Published in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Transcending cliches by refusing to let go of the gag.

Itoshiki is a new teacher, but he is anything but excited by the challenge of his school and students. In fact, on the way to the school he tries to commit suicide by hanging himself, but a student saves him from trying to 'grow taller.' Having had family members attempt to 'grow taller' is something that the student gotten used and tries to retain a positive outlook. Her positive outlook is so strong in fact that the student can't see the truth of things right in front of her. At first the story revolves around how Itoshiki and the student's different outlooks clash but the story becomes more about the class Itoshiki teaches. The class is filled with students just as odd as Itoshiki, and as each one is revealed and detailed their eccentricities build on each other.

You have to admire the thoroughness of the gags. Each students represents one of the typical stereotypes you can find in manga, and each chapter adds another one to the mix. What makes this stand out is that these stereotypes are not being used as a storytelling shorthand, but are used as if they were real continuing characters with consequences to their actions. The stalker's line of her own stalkers first show up in her story, then repeatedly show up in the rest of the volume as other characters stumble across them. The gratuitous panty shot girl continues to do them long after her gag is established. Individually the characters and their actions may not be special, but later in the volume when all of the gags start interacting and building on each other, they move past idly amusing then annoying into the land of being genuinely funny.



Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga

-Ferdinand

Mao-Chan, vol. 1

Story by Ken Akamatsu with Art by Ran
Released in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: Cuteness as a weapon of mass destruction.

Aliens are attacking the Earth and stealing our monuments, but the traditional military are helpless in the face of the alien threat because the creatures they send are so cute. Apparently the public would not stand carpet bomb big eyed critters stealing our stuff, so instead Japan uses excessively cute prepubescent girls to combat the alien menace. The story is both better and worse than that brief description would imply. It is everything you expect, being excessively cute, characters that use 'cute' phrases, weapons that deal with ouchies rather than city leveling devastation and so on. But the actual storytelling itself is rather deft. Things are foreshadowed, clever story structures (considering the genre) are used and all the characters have moments in the sun, even if the characters themselves are just cliches. Oddly enough, this is rated as a 16+ title, but the cuteness factor and the characters' youth make me think it is intended for a younger audience. Maybe it is the bunny outfits or there is some nudity in a later volume. But this first volume is an example of storytelling winning over both the characters and the plot.



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

-Ferdinand

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