Welcome to the NHK

By Tatsuhiko Takimoto
Published in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Look into the darkness long enough and the darkness may just sit you down and tell you the way of the world.

This is a novel, so I am not going to give it an age rating, but it does have an Parental Advisory for Explicit Content, mostly for drug use and suicide, I suspect. Use your own discretion.

Satou is a hikikomori, the Japanese name for the tendency for people to withdraw from the world and spend most of their time isolated in their homes. While the back cover blurb says that Satou undergoes a hilarious journey out of his shell, the journey is anything but hilarious, filled with pain, confusion and backsliding. I suspect that this is a lot darker than the manga or anime, neither of which I admittedly have see . But it is a very raw look at depression expressed in several different ways, and the stumbling attempts to both survive and get out from underneath it.

I look at this and see that there is a mirror deep within it. Fortunately, I don't see myself in the mirror, but at times in my life I suspect I came uncomfortably close to doing so. Within fandom, there exists the possibility of self-destructive urges. Not that I believe that fandom is the cause of these urges, but by sinking deep enough into fandom one escape from these self-destructive urges merely at the cost of everything else. This can expressed by the stereotypical view of the comic fan as college age person hiding in his mother's basement surrounded by comics. Before the current rise of manga and anime in the US, back in the 1990s, replace the comics with bootleg tapes of anime and porn manga. But it is no more the fault of comics, manga or anime than it is the fault of the NHK. It is simply because people, and the characters in the novel, have become so hurt, so damaged, that no longer have the strength to face the world on its own terms. But even in their apartments trying to face the world on their own terms, surrounded by anime, religion or in the case of Satou nothing at all, the world still bears down. They are not crazy or weak, but they have made the only rational choice that seems available to them.

Read this if for no other reason to get a view into that world, of the people that seem to not have a life, that are willing to debate the fine points of a manga for weeks at a time and realize that there is more going on that you may be willing to realize.



Welcome to the NHK is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

CBG Review: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, vol. 1

I have written a review for Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, vol. 1, available on the Comic Buyer's Guide website. Please remember that the CBG website uses a 4 star rating. Check it out!



Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Hot Gimmick S

By Megumi Nishizaki and Original Concept by Miki Aihara
Released in the US by Viz Shojo Beat


Slugline: Thanks to this book, I will now avoid other Hot Gimmick titles.

This is an alternative ending to the Hot Gimmick story, in which Hatsumi chooses to have a relationship, of a kind, with her adopted brother Shinogu rather than Ryoki. The story diverges after Ryoki decides to the leave their apartment complex so that in this version Hatsumi does not meet him in Ryoki's hidden spot at the top of the stairs and so instead is drawn to Shinogu.

The slugline perfectly captures my feeling about this series. The first third of the book is basically a quick condensation of the original series, and while Ryoki may be damaged, and I feel bad for him, but he is also an abusive misanthrope that Hatsumi should have pushed down the stairs. The fact that the implication of the title is that Hatsumi ends up with Ryoki in the original series makes me want to make a long distance call to Japanese Social Services (something I also wanted to do over The Devil Within). Maybe the condensation does not paint a fair picture of Ryoki, but I unless the books fall into my lap, neither am I driven to find out whether or not it is the truth. That is because the condensation of the original series is presented in such a distant, unemotional way that I unengaged with the story. Then there is a flashback to Hatsumi's and Shinogu's mothers about how Shinogu ended up in their house, so by that is finished and the story begins in earnest, almost half of the volume is over. By then it is far too late to care about any of the characters in any but the most superficial of ways. As an intro to the series, it fails to make you care about it, and if you are interested in the series, the first 40 or so pages are just recap.

I understand that they have chosen a difficult path here, but at the same time I think they should realized this needed some more work to be attractive to both fans of the series and new readers. Maybe if you are a major Shinogu fan you can overlook these problems, or a Hot Gimmick completist wanting the 13 new pages of the manga in the back, but otherwise I would say stay away.



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

-Ferdinand

Aventura, vol. 1

By Shin Midorikawa
Released in the US by Del Rey Manga


Slugline: A school that teaches kids how to use swords and magic. Yeah, nothing can go wrong here.

The Gaius School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has two tracks, one for magicians and one for swordsman. Of course, since this is a manga the swordsman can cause earthquakes with their swords, but that is besides the point. Lewin has been accepted into the school despite not having any magical ability, so he decided to go into the swordsman track. But he longs to be in the magician track despite his claimed inability, for he can make very small fires even without magic. One day in the library, looking for ways to clean his old and somewhat rusty sword, he makes friends with some students that are on the magician track. They sneak him into the magician side of campus a few times, and during one visit unknowingly release reanimated skeletons into the magician campus, where the neophyte underclass magicians do not have the skills yet to take care of them, leaving Lewin and some of the teachers to deal with them.

Aventura does feel inspired by the Harry Potter books, but it is merely an inspiration and the title does have a definite Japanese twist to it, such as the importance of the swords. The art does have the problem that in the action sequences of being a little too busy, so that all the speed lines serve to slow the comprehension rather than convey the power of the blows, but that is just one of my general problems I tend to have. The story also does itself no favors by claiming that Lewin is without any magical ability, because it is so blatant that he does have some, so that it is hard to give credence to the teacher's and Lewin's own lack of faith in their existence. It only serves to undercut the eventual reveal of his abilities, whenever that will be, because by the time it happens the readers will be anxious to get it over with rather than being in the moment. I also lost the story thread about the elf supporting character, over why some of his actions seem to have a deeper meaning that is what is first apparent, but these are relatively minor flaws in an otherwise satisfactory title.



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

-Ferdinand

Tears of a Lamb, vol. 1

By Banri Hidaka
Published in the US by CMX Manga


Slugline: I wish they had chosen something other than Anorexia to be the mystery disease du jour

Banri Hidaka has also done I Hate You More Than Anyone, which has also been reviewed here on Prospero's Manga. TokyoPop is going to launch another title by Banri Hidaka, V.B. Rose, and the titles will be cross-promoted.

Kei is determined to get into the new boy at school, Kanzaki's apartment. She lost a ring belonging to the previous owner of the apartment and wants to search it to make sure she did leave it there. Kanzaki has moved away from his old school because of his shame over his growing disability and escape a truly epic choke in his old school's very last basketball game. Kanzaki doesn't want to let Kei into his apartment, because he took the apartment over from his sister and in his mind still looks very girly. Thus the situation is set up for the two to help each other with their problems.

One of the challenges of being a reviewer is knowing when to be offended. In this volume they describe and use anorexia incorrectly. In many science fiction manga, they get the science wrong also, so why should they getting a disease wrong ina drama manga raise any more concerns in me than it would otherwise. Could it be because anorexia is a real disease affecting mostly young women now, rather than some abstract scienctific principle, and young women are among this manga's intended audience? I don't know if it should affect people's decision to read this or not. I have not known anyone with anorexia (that I have been aware of), so I can afford to be intellectual about it, while someone who has may have had a more personal experience with it would not be as forgiving. I am going to just rate it as best as I can, with this disclaimer up front.

Kanzaki's disability is dealt up front rather quickly, which is good, and for once a female's lead problem is one that can't be just solved with a five minute conversation. The problem with the ring, on the other hand, is a lot more thorny. Forgetting where you hid something something you hid deliberately is a little hard to believe. One would think one would remember the act of hiding. I do it all the time, I tell someone for instance, that I am putting keys or something down in a specific place, and so I remember telling the person where I put it. So by spending the time to hide something, something with a high value such as the ring, one would think Kei would never forget where she hid it. Unless, of course, she forgot where she put it on purpose, which opens a whole different can of worms. Other than some basic problems of the underlying situation, the art and storytelling are fairly strong.



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

-Ferdinand

Just My Luck

By Temari Matsumoto
Published in the U.S. by Blu


Slugline: More yaoi about confused, lonely boys falling prey… um, I mean, finding true love.

“Just My Luck” is a three-part story and the remainder of the volume is shorter yaoi stories. The main story has its interesting elements, involving Asahi’s bad luck and an anti-jinxing kiss, but does not have time to do much with them while filling out a standard-issue series of events involving a mildly competitive friend and a few past mysteries. “Mechanism of Love”, one of the short stories, also has some interesting elements and gets in more character work even though it’s shorter.

But on the whole there’s nothing exceptional about this volume. All the tops have gigantic shoulders and creepily long fingers. All the bottoms are waifish, lonely, and some have memory problems.



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

-Miranda

CBG Reviews: Pumpkin Scissors, vol. 1

I have written a review for Pumpkin Scissors, vol. 1 , available on the Comic Buyer's Guide website. Please remember that the CBG website uses a 4 star rating. Check it out!

Here is an array of Pumpkin Scissors merchendise



Here is the link for just the manga.



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

-Ferdinand

Other Stuff: Small Press Expo and Manga

Sometimes I will talk about other things here which are somewhat manga related.

I have done an overview (with pictures) of the Small Press Expo, one of the alternative comics conventions in the US for TokyoPop Online.

You can find it here.

-Ferdinand

Heaven!!, v 1

By Shizuru Seino
Published in the U.S. by Tokyopop


Slugline: The “god of good times” starts skin-riding the school’s “yankee” and turns him into a bishonen – while the yankee watches from the body of a stuffed monkey. Wackiness ensues!

The story is nominally supposed to be about Rinne, who can whack spirits with her magic paper fan, but she’s really only a prop. It’s Keiju and Uzaki’s story.

When Uzaki gets hit by a truck and dies, Keiju hops into his body and his godly aura makes an instant heartthrob out of the troublemaker. When Uzaki complains about Keiju “ruining his reputation” as a badass, he gets turned into a stuffed monkey. This does not stop the complaining, but it does make it more interesting. Spirits and bodies trade places a few times and everybody’s well on their way to confusion and comedy.

Amusingly, I find the “yankee” version of Uzaki cuter than the bishie version… probably because when I was in high school, guys did their hair that way. Yes, I’m old. Anyway, this book did get some laughs out of me even though the deck was stacked against it – the art is mostly rough and flat, and the dialog is nothing to write home about – so maybe I will look for volume 2

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

- Miranda

Princess Ai: The Ultimate Edition

By Misaho Kujiradou, Courtney Love & D.J. Milky
Released by TokyoPop


Slugline: If half the effort that went into design of cosplay friendly costumes went into the story, this would have been truly epic.

All three volumes of the original Princess Ai series are collected into this single volume. The story in volume one is pretty feels pretty different from the others, in which an amnesiac Ai arrives in Tokyo, met her friend Kent and is discovered in a club singing, with Ai's rival of this volume disappearing its end. The second volume is about Ai's preparation for pop stardom culminating with her first live performance on TV while the last volume is the increasing success of Ai and her world tour, culminating in a final stadium show where all of the story threads come together.

I didn't mean to snark so heavily on the costumes in the slugline, but each of Princess Ai's outfits are shown clearly, almost always full page. And they are pretty interesting so that you can understand why in the back of the volume there are photos from the Princess Ai cosplay contest that TokyoPop had. But the costume visuals, they are confined to the main character Ai with none of the other characters having such distinctive looks, and the art, while nice, failed to excite me. The story, with its subtext about the other world, the slavery, the torture and so on, well it remains in the other world of the main action of the story we see, so we never see the real stakes or truly feels why Princess Ai is chased and considered dangerous, so it becomes abstract and a distant threat. Even the scenes in the other world are shadowy and dark, so all you see is the characters in the other world, not their environment. We really needed to see more, to understand the stakes that are driving the characters. The main opponent of the first two volumes converts to being an ally rather quickly, even for manga. And the threat from this world that Ai faces, she is never even really made aware of it so she can't really struggle against it. There are some good scenes, such as the killing of supporting character who stays dead, but they are countered with the utter predictability of another character's survival, Ai's leaving at the end of the story and the true nature of Ai.



Princess Ai: The Ultimate Edition is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Dorothy of Oz, vol. 1

Son Hee-Joon
Released in the US by Udon


Slugline: After watching or reading thirty billion adaptations of Oz, I could believe that this yellow brick road was really made of gold.

A woman and her three strange companions enter a town along an endless road. The town is under attack from monsters and their military garrison has done little to stop it. It turns out that the military garrison are the monsters and that they are also experimenting on the townsfolk. But it also turns out the four are wanted criminals with the codenames Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman and Cowardly Lion in the Kingdom of Oz. The secret agent Shine seems to have his own agenda for them, but we then flashback to how a Korean girl named Mara ended up in another world called Oz, but not on how she ended up on the run or gained her companions.

I was afraid this version of Oz was going to turn into a cultural Mary Sue (Click here for definition of a Mary Sue) after reading the first couple of a pages. But if it a Mary Sue, it is a well written one, which forgives many literary crimes. It transposes many of the aspects of the Oz stories onto one that is more familiar to manga/manwha readers. Now that I am thinking about it, the Wizard the Oz be one of the prototypes of otherworldly manga stories, where the character leaves an otherwise boring world, becomes important in another one, but yet still yearns to return to their old life. It is not a perfect translations of course, a cowardly lion is not much use in a title with fights so I am not quite sure how that flaw will be expressed here. But they actually set up the book in an interesting way, in that they showed Mara and her companions already on the road having adventures, and then flashing back. This shows up front how your expectations for the story will be challenged, so when you go through the origin story, you are not too anxious to rush through it because you now know it is not going in the expected directions. The strategy worked, for I have a preview of the 2nd volume here also and I will probably read it tonite.



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

-Ferdinand

Multiple Warheads, issue 1

By Brandon Graham
Released by Oni Press


Slugline: This is the sort of title where a character's name of Sexica does not raise any eyebrows...

Sexica has just returned from an organ smuggling run with some primo organs, such as the midas tush, which turns you know what into gold. She stops by the place she shares with her boyfriend, Nikoli, who she gave a present of a wolf organ for his birthday and he still he wolf dreams. They both share a waking dream, of leaving the Dead City and going to Impossible (City that is), and this last organ run may be what puts them over the top. But the city does not alway let people leave easily.

Multiple Warheads is in a hard format to love, a 48 page floppy. Not something that you can find in most bookstores and most comic shops would not stock it long term. That being said, I think it is still worth the effort of tracking down. Brandon Graham has a sort of mad genius for inventiveness for the future, twisting stuff so they are just outside of the bounds of credulity, but so close to that line you have to think and ponder it. And in pondering it, appreciate it. Plus there is a couple that have a relatively normal relationship when surrounded by craziness, despite being just as weird as the world that surrounds them. When Sexica is worried about Nikoli, you can feel it. Brandon Graham has also done King City for TokyoPop, (reviewed here) that shares a lot of the same impulses, a strange world that you can believe along with characters that are fully share the weirdness but also feel real. There is some sexual nudity here, so it is rated 17+, but despite the difficulty of finding it and the rating, it is worth finding. We would suggest starting with the One Press website. (www.onipress.com)



-Ferdinand

CBG Review: The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori Clan, vol. 1

I have written a review for The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori Clan, vol. 1 , available on the Comic Buyer's Guide website. Please remember that the CBG website uses a 4 star rating. Check it out!

This title is done by the same team that was responsible for the manga Basilisk. Check out our previous reviews on Basilisk 1, Basilisk 2 & 3 and Basilisk 4 & 5.



The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori Clan, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Manga Publishers Aiding California Wildfire Victims

The folks that put on Anime Expo, SPJA and many manga publishers are aiding the Red Cross in helping California Wildfire Victims. The full announcement can be found here, but here are some of the important points...

The SPJA and Industry companies urge those who can assist monetarily to do so by calling the Red Cross at 1-800 HELP NOW (1-800-435-7669) or Donate Online at www.redcross.org. In-Kind donations are also welcome by calling 1-800-746-5463. More information regarding relief efforts and shelter status/locations can be found online at www.redcross.org.

-Ferdinand

New Posting Schedule

Some of you may have noticed, but we have switched some stuff around, and we are now posting one new review every weekday, with the Friday review being on the Comic Buyer's Guide website and being linked to from here. In addition, we are also reposting one review a week on TokyoPop Online, with our reviews here and the brand new articles we have written here.

-Ferdinand

Me2, v.1

By Sho Murase
Published by Tokyopop

Slugline: (cue Queen music) She’s going slightly mad… she’s going slightly mad… it finally happened, happened…

Nominating this one for “OEL That Looks Most Japanese, 2008”. Even though it reads left-to-right, this volume is full of goth-y sensibilities, ornate details, Japanese names, and mean bullies. Like Boogiepop Phantom or Chevalier d’Eon, there is a channeled protector and/or budding multiple-personality disorder in Aki, school outcast who recently lost her older brother. Thanks to the bullying of the mean girls and semi-clueless parents, Aki is starting to experience “lost time” when her ass-kicking, suave and mysterious defender starts appearing.

The volume looks great, reads well, and had me stopping and asking “Is this a backwards manga? A manhwa? It’s really an OEL?” even though the story and the characters are rather familiar. Some people don’t read OELs because they’re not “authentic” – well, this one sure does feel authentic.

Me2, v.1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Miranda

Atelier Marie and Elie: Zarlburg Alchemist, vol. 1

By Yoshihiko Ochi
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: There is no such thing as a slice of life/high fantasy hybrid

Marie is an adventuring alchemist that has decided to return to the city of Zarlburg, where she originally trained at the Royal Magic Academy. Elie is a recent graduate that is determined to get some real world experience before going back for her advanced studies. When they meet the teacher who taught the both of them she puts them together. Elie doesn't mind much being paired with Marie because she discovers that Marie was the alchemist who cured her of a disease when she was young and is the reason Elie chose to become an alchemist in the first place. They set up a shop, acquire some apprentice elves, and help save the city from a jello like thing.

I think the way that the series betrays its origins as a video game franchise is in its apparent uncertainty over what kind of story it wants to tell. At times it reads very much like a slice of life while at other times more like a traditional high fantasy action story. But it is hard to balance to different needs of those genres simultaneously, so you end up with a story that satisfies neither set of genre conventions. It is far too mild to be exciting but it doesn't delve far enough into the day to day events of life to be interesting or illuminating of the characters. It's not bad, and I can see that maybe in the future volumes if the series decides what kind of story it is, it could improve, but I am not holding my breath.



Atelier Marie and Elie: Zarlburg Alchemist, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Missile Happy, vol. 1

By Miki Kiritani
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: A boy and girl, who love each, plan to get married and live together right now, only occasionally smooch. I'm sorry, I am willing to suspend my disbelief for a lot, but even I have my limits.

Mikako loves her sister so much and is so sure that the marriage matches that have been set up for her sister are wrong, she tries to get the dirt on the men. In one case, she shows up at the door of one of the matches, and bluffs her way into living with him, Rou. Mikako and Rou fall in love, Rou's brother falls into love Mikako's sister, and a whole bunch of really improbable coincidences and improbably personalities clash to set up a completely unbelievable premise for the series. Unbelievable not as in, 'wow, what a coincidence', but unbelievable in a way that makes me think the creator had an editor demanding that the story cram in every conceivable shoujo cliche. The second half of the book is rather run of the mill with solid writing, but the entire setup is just too, well, not stupid, but still requiring a generous amount of ignorance of how people deal with each other. Maybe if the world was a little abstract, a little more crazed, as in not set in Tokyo but somewhere else so that the story had some tinge of fantasy and unreality already in it, maybe I could I buy the premise. But I can't.



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

-Ferdinand

Psycho Busters, vol. 1

Manga By Akinari Nao and Story by Yuya Aoki
Released in the US by Del Rey


Slugline: A main character in a manga who has brains and is on occasion is clever? Pardon me as I go check the Book of Revelations for signs of the End Times.

Kakeru is alone in the house, the rest of the family off on a family vacation. Like any teenage boy, he looks at his dad's hidden porn stash and leers at the naked ghost girl that shows up. Well, maybe not every boy has a naked ghost girl show up when they read porn, but he discovers that there are a group of psychic teens on the run and their badly injured leader who for some reason thinks Kakeru, who craves some excitement in his life, is going to save the world. Kakeru does go along with this, if for no other reason to stay close to Ayano, the formerly naked ghost girl who is now solid (which Kakeru likes) and clothed (which he doesn't.) Despite being sure that he doesn't have any psychic powers of his own (an assertion I doubt) he helps the three teens find their missing fourth member, and by using his head contributes to defeating the two psychics that were after the group.

The beginning of the volume, I was prepared to be heartily disappointed by this. There are some cliches and genre conventions that seem to pop up over and over in manga, and the beginning of the volume had them galore. But then the main character,Kakeru, when under pressure started to use his brain. He isn't Light from Death Note (check out our reviews of Deathnote 1-6 and 7-10) who is so preternaturally intelligent that is almost beyond belief. But he does surprise, relying on more than just willingness to absorb ludicrous amounts of punishment, to show that he is worthy of being the main character. It is this willingness to surprise the reader that makes me want to follow the series, because I want to see where the next surprise is going to come from.



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

-Ferdinand

CBG Review: The Baby-Sitters Club: The Truth About Stacey

I have written a review for The Baby-Sitters Club: The Truth About Stacey, available on the Comic Buyer's Guide website. Please remember that the CBG website uses a 4 star rating. Check it out!



-Ferdinand