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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Kairi Yura (Art) Sai Yukino (Story)
Publisher: Viz Media, Shojo Beat Imprint
Type: Series
Genre: Shojo, Romance, Comedy

Synopsis:

Shurei Hong, destitute but of noble birth, has always dreamed of working as a civil servant in the imperial court of Saiunkoku, but women are barred from holding office. The emperor Ryuki, however, refuses to take command, leaving everything to his advisors. Shurei is asked to become a consort to the emperor to persuade the ne’er-do-well ruler to govern.

There’s way to many characters to do individually, so I wont even bother trying

I was seriously torn over this series, on the one had it was a conversion, from anime to manga, and it was from Viz. Those two elements on their own would have been enough for me to give this series a wide birth. Yet, despite that, I LOVED the anime. So I decided to take the plunge.

Before I get into this I want to set something straight, when I say I loved the anime I mean I loved the fansubed version, not that bastardised piece of garbage that was foisted off on us, which yes I did buy.

Anyway, I loved the anime so decided to give the manga a try. And to be fair it has won me over and I will be picking up the remaining volumes.

This series is very character heavy, we have the three main leads, Shurei, Seiren, and Ryuki. Then there’s all the other half mains: Shuei, Koyu, Shoka, Shusui, Kourin, the 3 sages, and those are just from the first series. You can’t really class them as secondary characters either, since they do play a huge role in the series.

There is one other thing which makes this series well worth picking up, this  conversion was done by the original creators. The series was originally a series of light novels (currently at 22 volumes) and was then an anime and finally a manga. Since the original creators do the conversion the character designs tend to be faithful, not to mention the story remains almost true to the original.

Admittedly there are some differences, and if I’m honest these differences do tend to rub me the wrong way, though they’re honestly only small differences.

The manga is an adaptation of the anime, and it is a fairly good adaptation. However I have to admit I don’t like the pacing, which is faster than the anime. I don’t like this since it moves their relationship along at to fast a pace and skips certain events that help to build their (Shurei and Ryuki’s) relationship. The manga version simply “tells” you the relationship and doesn’t really give it a chance to breath and grow. This is also true for the relationship between Ryuki, Shuei and Koyu, which is a disappointment.

There are several other changes as well, though until the series is over it’s going to be hard to judge whether these were good or bad changes. As a fan of the anime my initial reaction is that all change is bad hehe but I’ll try to hold my resentment till it’s over.

The story doesn’t do so well in manga  however, it lacks the comedy, both raw and situational, that made the anime series so good. In part this is due to the VA’s in the anime bringing the series to life. You don’t get this in a manga, which makes it a bit flat, some of the comedy is lost as well.

Viz did an okay job on the editing I have to admit. A good choice of fonts for the different things being said, as well as narration and thought boxes. They also have good placement for the most part. Though I found it very frustrating they placed the translation notes in the in the spice of the manga, meaning I was having to damage the spine to read them.

Where they really failed for me was in the translation though. The anime is quite clear that the lead girl is called Kou Shurei (or Shurei Kou if you want to go the Viz route). However they decided in all their wisdom to rename her Shurei Hong, and that is something I find unforgivable. You do NOT go renaming characters, especially when their real name is already known. It just means the reader will always be wondering what else has been changed.

What really surprised me however, and it was a pleasant surprise, is that the volumes contain their original colour pages. While Kairi’s art looks amazing in black and white, it takes on a whole new lease of life in colour and becomes stunning.

Despite my miss-giving’s over the way Viz handled this series, I do think it’s worth a read if you’re into shojo with a comedy twist. Sadly it doesn’t seem to be getting published all that fast, taking an entire year for Viz to publish just five volumes. Which given how fast they churn out Naruto and Bleach volumes it’s ridiculously slow. Hopefully Viz will ramp up the releases a bit in time to a more speedy schedule.

I’m also still living in hope that someone like DMP (or their new DMG imprint) will pick up the Light Novels!!

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ISBN-13: 9781613130643
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 163
by: Yuhki Takada
Publisher: Digital Manga Guild
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Romance, Yaoi

Synopsis:

Trey and Paul are up-and-coming programmers with their minds set on fame and fortune! However, they need to actually finish writing a program first. The two decide to make a program that can play tic-tac-toe, but all their hard work is destroyed by the clueless yet smooth-talking MJ. In spite of their rough first meeting, MJ turns out to actually be useful to Trey and Paul. He even manages to land them the intimidating job of making class-scheduling software! Misadventures and romantic tension abound in this adorable comedy that’s set in the 1960s.

When I first sat down to read this volume I was a little biased. From what I’d seen already the art was bad and the story didn’t have anything to make it worth reading. However I was pleasantly surprised when I actually sat down to read it. The story was mildly funny, and was able to carry it past the failings.

This one shot has a huge failing though, the art is bad, and it feels like someone just scanned the pages in from a manga, rather than working from the digital raw’s. This was compounded by the art style, light and airy. At times the art just looked horrible. In a print release, this would be less noticeable I think, however on the eManga site the flaws are all the more noticeable.

What’s more is that the characters themselves aren’t very memorable, individually. And that’s where this volume does get it’s strength. The banter between the three characters is rather funny to watch.

Sadly though the setting doesn’t really do the story justice. In fact you could have set this story in any age and any setting without it impacting the story. the fact Yuhki chose this time (60’s) and set in a computer setting is rather bizarre.

Character wise, as I said, they aren’t very impressionable. In fact it’s now been a little over 20minutes since I read the volume and I’ve already forgotten so much about it I have to keep going back and refreshing my memory writing this. Truth be told the sole saving grace is the banter between MJ and Trey.

Although this is considered a yaoi volume, it’s not really. There’s no sex or anything even close to it. It’s all very soft innuendo. At best I’d say this was shounen-ai, but more like shounen. Overall, it’s an average volume that I did find mildly funny for a while.

This is the first release I’ve seen from Digital Manga Guild, DMP’s answer to scanlations, and I have to admit so far I’m not to impressed. Quality wise the translation was pretty solid. The editing was average, but at times very hard to read due to them being to faint, or small. I also think the quality side of things, the art raw’s, needs to be improved greatly in the future. Hopefully it’s just one of those things that gets fixed over time.

There’s no print release for these titles at the minute so they’re only available on the eManga site. Not sure if it’s worth double paying to permanently rent, but it is worth renting once to read and throw away.

Once I’ve read a few more of their releases I’ll give my thought’s on the DMG as a whole.

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ISBN-13: 9781935548072
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 472
by: Doton Yamaaki (Husband & Wife team)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Seinen, Romance

Synopsis:

A battle ensues over life and death, machines or clones, create synthetic hearts or grow them? Two boys, Sei and Oishi, fall madly in love for Yuko. Her loss wreaks havoc in their young lives as relentless memories cease to fade. As a result their tender hearts are dedicated to a dream that no one will ever suffer their excruciating pain again. But, is what they had thought been a lie? Is there still a chance that their suffering may end? Will mercy and love prevail?

Character Musings:

While there are several characters who play important roles in this manga it all boils down to the three leads.

Yuko, the heart of the story (no pun intended). Yuko is both the foundation and the driving force force behind the story. As such she needed to be a good character with a even better personality, Doton Yamaaki pull this off spectacularly. From the outset Yuko is a character you can’t help but love and feel immense pity for. She’s dealing with the fact she’s dying, and yet also tries to build bridges between the two people she loves the most; despite what it does to her.

Sei, the first love interest we get introduced to is a genius, and like a lot of geniuses he has some social issues. Yet he gets on well with Yuko, and their relationship feels right, smooth and free flowing. He does have the arrogance, and over-bearing personality, but Yuko manages to handle it well and stop it from smothering the other characters.

Oishi is the second love interest. He’s the complete opposite of Sei, and initially feels threatened by him. He’s a little menacing at first, his inadequacy issues come through great, as he’s barely done basic schooling.

As lead characters I feel Doton Yamaaki gave created a great balance of characters.

Story Musings:

I have to admit that this was a hard read, the science involved in this story is rather complex but thankfully never gets to in-depth.

There are loads of medical styled manga out there (Team Medical Dragon and God-Hand Teru being two of the best), but I don’t think there are any others dealing in stem cell versus morality. Also the others tend to have a bit of a comical undertone to them, where as this one doesn’t. It’s serious all the way through out, which helps make it all the more interesting.

I loved the way the story develops and the way the characters grow. Yuko’s death has a huge impact on the main characters, and results in them becoming ‘enemies’ of a sort. Sei becomes an expert in using polymers (plastics) to make artificial organs, where as Oishi becomes an expert in stem cell research.

The battle between the two is frankly, amazing. The way they’ve gone from being friends to hating each other, not to mention becoming leaders in their own fields (sorta); was done spectacularly. For Sei this was not unexpected given his genius intellect. I love the way the death of Yuko turns him even colder and remote than he was originally. His dispassionate and disconnected attitude cause problems though-out and cuts him off from those around him. They tolerate him however because he brings in the results.

For Oishi the journey was harder and frankly all the more amazing. He starts with going to night-school and ends up competing equally with Sei’s intellect. However like Sei he has a lot of issues along the way. Due to his beginnings he’s not accepted by those around him, and ends up having to become manipulative to win his seat at the table. However even when he gets there and finally confronts Sei again, Sei knocks him down by casually giving the answer to a problem that he had spent a long time coming to, adding salt to their still open wounds.

The roles end up reversed with Oishi taking the leading roll from Sei, who doesn’t seem to really care, until a major plot twist. (I’ll try to word the rest of the review so as not to reveal this).

The focus of the story does go through a rather drastic change which is a bit disconcerting, since the story up until now had been focused on Sei and Oshi’s development and rivalry.

The new focus takes a little time to get used to, but it does get interesting. The story goes from a relationship manga to a science manga, as the science we’ve been reading about until now comes into play.

We also get some revelations about Oishi, which frankly blew me away. While they were unexpected, they made sense and the time of the revelation was done perfectly.

Then just when you think you understand and have a sweet ending, we get another plot twist that just blew me away. The ending was totally out of the blue and made for a very interesting and though provoking ending.

The art style of the series is interesting, and took some getting used to. However once I settle on the art I found I liked it’s style. The way it goes from dark and bold for there here and now to the soft and faded style for the past made following the time changes with ease. As the story went buy I found the character designs to be both right, and at times bloody funny.

Doton Yamaaki have clearly done their research both on stem cell science and on artificial organs. Since the story uses that as the back drop the research is well used and what’s more makes the story believable. At no time during the story did I get the impression this was pure fantasy, it’s easy to believe that these sciences, and story were happening now, or in the not to distant future.

Publisher Musings:

One Peace aren’t really new to publishing Japanese books in english, but this is only their third manga.

The first one “So I need to lose 15pounds” wasn’t a good release, both because of it’s content ( I mean come on a diet manga >.<) and it’s style of release. Flipped and more comic book style. The Second Tenken went to more traditional styled manga releases (and will be reviewed as soon as I get my damn copy from Amazon), and this one. However they do have a lot of experience in bringing Japanese books (novels, both fiction and non-fiction) over to the west.

Frankly I think they did an excellent job of the release. It is a bit larger than your normal manga, but is left un-flipped. The translation is done really well, and I found it free flowing and smooth. The editing was done perfectly, the use of fonts was well chosen, the placement of translation note both as a glossary and inline were done right and neither to small or to large. Frankly I think this is the first time I’ve ever not had an issue with a publishers editing in some way.

Overall this was an excellent story that I really enjoyed and got into. I’m looking forward to seeing what One Peace release as their next manga.

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Here’s the official statement:

Hello from Digital Manga!

We are a small American publisher and retailer of manga (Japanese comics). Two years ago, we published an incredible piece of sequential art by "god of manga" Osamu Tezuka (the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Blackjack and many others) called Swallowing the Earth. It was the first book he meant strictly for adults and it had never been published in English before. Unfortunately we printed too few copies, and the book is no longer available anywhere (except on eBay for exorbitant prices). Fans are constantly asking us to print more of the book, but simply put, we’re a small company, this is an expensive book and we can’t afford to put up the cash for another print run. Because we love this book so much and we want Tezuka to be around in English for everyone to enjoy, we are hoping to raise funds for another printing of this important book through Kickstarter instead. All of the licensing and production work is already done, and printing and delivery should take just 30-60 days (our delivery estimate listed on our rewards is as conservative as we can possibly be).

We’re here because we believe Kickstarter can be a new way to fund niche manga titles in the United States. If this campaign is successful, you WILL see more, including premium editions of other older books and even new titles that would NEVER make it over to the U.S. without fan support.

Why this target and what if you raise more?
We selected this target because it’s the bare minimum we need to bring back the book, in terms of printing, shipping and royalties costs. If we make more, we will be able to print more! It’s that simple.

If you haven’t heard of Swallowing the Earth, here’s a summary with some review excerpts.

Amidst the chaos of World War II, two Japanese soldiers hear of Zephyrus, an utterly captivating woman rumored to exist on an island in the South Pacific. The tales of this bold enchantress seducing men to their dooms are both chilling and fascinating. Over twenty years pass, and Zephyrus resurfaces in Japan, seemingly unchanged, to wield her mysterious power over men once more. The one man immune to Zephyrus’ charms is simple drunkard, Gohonmatsu Seki, son of one of the wartime soldiers. Employed to spy on Zephyrus, what will Gohonmatsu uncover about her ultimate plot to create international discord and consume the world of men? What brought this woman to conspire for decades against patriarchal society – against an entire gender – and can anything be done to stop her plans?

Frankly I think this is a brilliant idea. Unlike previous attempts, where the fans pre-paid and hoped the project went forward, this one dosen’t charge you until the project goes forward, a big difference, no more fighting to get a refund for dead projects.

The rewards being put on offer make this a project hard to resist. The top 2 teirs of pledge’s are $250 and $155, but what you get for your money makes it well worth it IMO.

$150 pledge:

Everything in the reward above (even the signed Kikuchi novel!) PLUS: Five MORE volumes of manga or another copy of Swallowing the Earth (a total of 20 manga from the list to the left or up to four additional copies of STE), AND a copy of the hardcover Speed Racer manga box set SIGNED by the late Peter Fernandez, beloved voice actor and producer of Speed Racer in America, and author of the forward to this edition!

$250 pledge:

This is it… the "Zephyrus Package," for the ultimate manga fan. It includes everything above and more: $20 to spend on eManga.com, a total of 25 volumes of any manga from the list to the left (or up to five additional copies of STE), signed Vampire Hunter D novel 1, signed Speed Racer, signed Vampire Hunter D manga Vol. 1, a thank-you note from DMP, AND an original Vampire Hunter D manga T-shirt, a tour of the Digital Manga offices next time you’re in the Los Angeles area, VIP treatment at ALL future convention events we run — that means you can cut in line for guest signings and guaranteed front-row seating at our panels! AND most exciting… One Japan-only hardcover full-color Osamu Tezuka art book – Choose either "Romanesque," a beautiful collection of Tezuka’s drawings of his female characters – heroines, femmes fatales and more – or "SF Heroes," a dynamic collection of Tezuka’s robots, aliens, samurai and more. We have only one copy of each, so these are first come first served!

The titles being offered come from all genres released by DMP and are a great way to fill out your collection, as well as getting some rather juicy additions.

There is a downside to this though. Firstly the timing. While i’ve no doubt they’ll hit the target, I’m miffed I wont get in because well, it’s xmas and this months pay check is all taken. Having a 2 month window would allow people more time to budget. Or make the announcement that a new project is starting two months before it starts. Let people get the money needed to support the project.

The other downside is aimed specifically at us brits, shipping costs. While the costs aren’t overly high (60$ if you go for the big pledges) it can limit the pledge level. That said even with the shipping, the cost is still less than the what it would cost to buy all these books, so it is a good investment. So long as it Doesn’t run afoul of customs when it arrives in the UK.

A good counter for that would be to offer either kindle or eManga copies of some of the books, which would cut the costs of shipping considerably.

I am excited about this though, I can see this becoming a new way of getting not just niche manga, but also niche light novels reborn. Kino no Tabi, Scrapped Princes anyone? Fans have always claimed there’s a market for these titles, Kickstart would be a way for fans to PROVE there’s a market to publishers without it costing the publishers to much.

Good luck with this guys!!

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Takako Hashimoto (Art), Rebecca Winters (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: One-Shot 
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Cesar de Falcon is the star of the F1 racing world. With an unparalleled skill behind the wheel, he captivated his fans and was the object of women’s desires around the world. This was how Sarah remembered her ex-lover. But now, after a horrific accident, it appears he will not recover from his injuries and he sinks into a pit of despair. When Sarah visits Cesar in the hospital, he is less than happy to see her. He is still angry that she left him with no explanation. But Sarah has come to explain things to him, because what she has to say might give Cesar a reason to live again…

I found this one a little on the weak side, as I was reading the volume I didn’t really feel anything for the characters.

Cesar fails to be an involving male lead. Rather he comes off as dull, cold and frankly rather pathetic. Over the course of the volume I did warm to him a little, as the back story was revealed, but by then to much of an impression had been made on me, so he never really grew on me.

While the reasoning behind things was pretty clear, and even understandable, something about him just made me want to lock him in the cellar and throw away the key.

Sarah was pretty much the same as well, though she wasn’t the usual ugly girl whose actually pretty. While I never really hated the story, equally there was nothing special to make it memorable.

Harlequin have come a long way since their first bumbling efforts into digital manga. This release show cases the fact that they listened to feed back and learned. The editing was clear and crisp, as was the formatting. Overall a very credible effort.

Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Natsue Ogoshi (Art), Vicki Lewis Thompson (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: One-Shot 
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Enjoying a gorgeous single lifestyle with lots of encounters in the big city! That was Trudy the country girl’s reason for coming to New York. To have metropolitan romances with all the men that aren’t around in her small town. To keep her from getting into trouble, her friends introduce Linc as a "bodyguard" until she gets used to life in the city. As a playboy who’s grown tired of the romantic chase, he’s the perfect practice boyfriend who’ll make her into a confident, sophisticated cosmopolitan!

I have to admit my initial reaction to this was not good. Something about Trudy’s design made me cringe. However, her personality shone through and more than made up for this. Over the course of the volume I found myself getting dragged along by her bubbly outgoing adventures, and even rooting for the relationship to work out. Some of her one liners were just hilarious, and so perfect for her to say, and the setting. While her “bumpkin” status was prevalent through out the volume it was never over used, and frankly added to the hilarity.

Linc made for an excellent counter point to Trudy, and she needed it. Because of her personality, she needed someone to add a counter weight to her, and he does it perfectly. Like Trudy his “rich boy” status is played really well, and the little rivalries between the two characters was just amazingly well done.

The resolution was a bit clichéd but I can live with that, because I loved reading it!

I wasn’t keen on Natsue’s character designs, especially for Trudy, her hair just made me want to send her to a salon, she reminded me of a female Hagrid at times, but that’s just a minor thing, overall I like the way she drew the other characters.

Once again I didn’t find anything wrong with the formatting or editing of the volume, it was easy and smooth to read.

Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Yukako Midori (Art), Cathy Williams (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: One-Shot 
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

"Your father embezzled company money. Marry me if you don’t want me to disclose it." Four years ago, Isobel married a man she didn’t love without telling the truth to Lorenzo, who she truly loved. Soon after her husband dies in a traffic accident, Lorenzo appears! He went to the U.S. after they broke up and has achieved great success. He now offers to acquire Isobel’s father’s company, which is in financial difficulty! "I rejected him four years ago. Is this his revenge?"

I wasn’t sure what to make of this one. It had potential, but Yukako never really brought it out. Characters wise I can’t really remember much about them, which says it all IMO.

The characters never really had a personality, and frankly Lorenzo needed a kick in the arse. It was easy to understand why he was the way he was, but the way it was dragged on was just to much. Better flow, and more emotions would have made for a better story.

Isobel was a fairly decent character, but her personality was smothered by Lorenzo’s. Just when you get into her, along he came and ruined the atmosphere.

Overall, not one of the better releases, and probably the worst of the four here.

Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Marito Ai (Art), Diana Palmer (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: One-Shot 
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

It is McKenzie who consoles Natalie at Age 17 when the devastating news of her boyfriend’s death strikes her. Seemingly indifferent to her until then, her older neighbour makes her lose herself with a strong embrace and a hot stirring kiss! That one kiss leaves her in a shock as if her entire body has been seared with his seal. Then he says, "Don’t forget. I am going to show you what comes next."

If the previous volume was the worst of the four, this is by far the best of the four.

The characters in this volume had everything they needed. Good personality, free flowing story, and a fairly decent art style. Natalie is a great character, she has a bit of naivety, but it’s not annoying or oppressive, rather it’s at a level that actually fits perfectly with her personality.

While this is a love story, that aspect takes a semi-back seat for most of the volume. Instead it seems to focus more on the personalities of the characters and their relationships.

Natalie and Vivian’s relationship is a great focus, over the course of the volume we see them fight, fall out and become enemies. Yet always in the back ground is the relationship between Natalie and McKenzie. I loved the balance and flow of the story, and when things started to come to a conclusion I was fingers crossed the guy would save the day.

McKenzie made a great male lead, and I liked the way he acted and reacted to things. Learning about his past, and why he’s sworn never to marry was a great way of stopping the rising feelings of annoyance over the way he did a few things. Once the history is revealed though it was done at just the right time.

I have to admit I think Harlequin are doing really well with their releases these days. It’s great to see a company listening to feed back and adapting for the better, rather than being arrogant and pretending nothings wrong. Now they just need to do the last jump and release them on eBook form as well. Would love to have a Harlequin collection on my kindle.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: (Script) Kazuo Koike (Art) Ryoichi Ikegami
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Type: Series 
Genre: Seinen, Action

Synopsis:

He is Yo Himomura, deadly assassin for the 108 Dragons, the Chinese Mafia. But to the criminal underworld who fear him, he is known as Crying Freeman, the killer who sheds tears at the fate of his victims. Young, handsome, sensitive, an artist, Yo has been hypnotically programmed by his Dragon masters to kill on command: he cannot resist his masters’ commands to kill, his masters cannot stop his tears of remorse.

Character Musings:

Yo is an intriguing character, he starts off as a happy guy who is an up and coming character. Because of his sense of right and wrong he ends up falling foul of the 108 Dragons, and ends up being hypnotized to be an assassin. I liked the way his personality went through subtle changes over the course of the series, though even at the end he was still changing.

Emu Hino is even more interesting than Yo, in that she starts out as a target he has  to kill, and ends up his wife. Ay first she comes across as a timid woman, a typical traditional Japanese wife sort of feel. But almost immediately we see her bloom into something that’s quite astounding. Her relationship with Yo is amazing as well, given the way he is, I was expecting conflicts, especially since his life style appears to conflict with her personality. However rather than conflicting it actually works really well.

General Musings:

This is most assuredly one of my all time favourite manga. Yet despite this it isn’t without it’s flaws, though I can overlook those purely on the fact that Koike really has written an amazing story

One of the biggest flaws of the story is the sudden shift in focus of the 108 Dragon’s. At the beginning of the story they’re introduced as this major evil drug smuggling torturing cultish group. However over the course of even the first volume, the focus suddenly shifts.

The drug smuggling, torturing, evil aspect never really comes up again, it’s almost as if that aspect was used simply as a plot device to kill off the first target. however I loved how Emu was introduced to the story, there was no doubt of the emotions felt between the two characters, nor that they would be together.

Essentially this series ends up being a telling of their life together, how they adapt to ach other and the work they live in. The action and story is used to tell a rather simple love story and, frankly it does it really well.

While Freeman does go through a lot of personality changes, after all he goes from a reluctant assassin at the beginning, to one taking the kill orders towards the end. It’s Emu that seems to go through the most changes.  I loved how she seems to bloom after meeting Yo. She goes from a timid woman, to being a sword wielding killer, yet she still manages to retain not only her innocence, but her normal personality.

The trust she has in Yo is amazing, and yet a bit freaky. This is emphasized early in the second volume when Yo is swimming in shark infested waters and calls for Emu to jump in, which she does immediately. Nothing major you May think, but it turns out she couldn’t swim, she just dove in because he called for her.

This trust becomes a core aspect of their relationship due to Yo usually ending up sleeping with other women in the course of his assassinations. And he in fact ends up with several lovers as well as his wife.

The story arc dealing with the Muramasa sword was done amazingly well I thought, and it did address a bit of an imbalance between Yo and Emu. While it was made clear early on that she was a better strategist than he was, by adding the Muramasa into her mix she becomes more equal to Yo, and in fact even rivals him at times. Such as when she dances with the Muramasa sword in the second volume.

The weird thing the assassination thing never really comes up again, per say. Sure he goes out killing, but it seems more like he’s just defending the 108 Dragon’s from attack, or fighting a war against another organisation. Whether this was due to the fact that Yo became the new head of the 108 Dragon’s and as such shifted focus, or for some other reason, it’s never really made clear, but it is something that bugged me a little.

The ending of the fifth volume while being “complete” it’s also incomplete. When you get there you can’t help but feel there should be more afterwards. Sadly this is a flaw with all series like this, no matter where you end them it’s always going to feel incomplete, because there is no end. Rather than trying to keep the story going indefinitely they end it at a good point, though I do wish we had some more volumes, if only cause I want more of the awesome story.

Art wise, I’ve no complaints either. I find the art style really fits this type of story, and the attention to detail given by Ikegami is frankly amazing. The tattoos are frankly stunning, the character designs are done amazingly well, with the traditional clothing looking amazing. There were a few times I found Yo’s design to be a bit off, usually on the face when he’s doing something, it looked a bit weird, out of synch? maybe? It’s hard to actually describe what was wrong, since it was mostly a feeling than an actual flaw. However these minor flaws were in no way able to hinder the enjoyment. Rather the opposite, Ikegami’s art fitted perfectly with the series and as a result we get a series that is damn near perfect!!

One other thing I have to mention is that there is a lot of sex in this series, and one rape scene later in the series. However it’s all handled in a good way, though the censorship is a bit annoying. The censorship isn’t, I believe, done by Dark Horse though, they were done by Ikegami in the original art. I don’t really like the blank censorship used, that’s where they simply leave a white space with nothing drawn in. Personally I would have preferred some of the other forms of censorship, since this style really does hinder the art and setting a bit.

Publisher Musings:

The release I have is the Dark Horse Manga version, and I find it to be the best version. I wasn’t keen on the Viz Edition, which was flipped, and had some rather off translations. Dark Horse’s version is un-flipped and doesn’t translate the SFX’s, rather we get a little box with the translation. I like this style as it doesn’t interfere to much with the art, like the english SFX’s can do.

I have to admit I was surprised that choose to release this in oversized volumes, with an average of 400 pages, but I’m glad they did. The over size really works well making for a great flow in the reading, there’s no need to break the story mid flow due to page counts. Though admittedly this did happen in the first volume, but that’s understandable given the first volume and part of the second is basically setting the stage.

Overall, this is a series I think most people should read, and I think most people would enjoy.

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ISBN-13: 9781569702079
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 72
by: Nao Yazawa
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Shojo

Synopsis:

Sayaka is in for quite a surprise. Sitting at the family breakfast table one morning is a handsome stranger, a boy named Kai. And he has come to stay, at least, temporarily. Though she’s never met him before, the aloof and ill-humored boy is supposed to be a friend of her father’s. Having him at home is one thing, but to have Kai show up at her school too, well, it’s turning out to be more than what Sayaka can handle. With her interests piqued, Sayaka begins to wonder exactly what it is that links Kai to her family, and where does he disappear to every night? Plus, there’s the matter of the mysterious cat… Nao Yazawa, of Wedding Peach fame, tackles paranormal romance in Moon and Blood. Prepare to be mesmerized!

Due to the shortness of this volume I’m not doing this in my usual format.

I emailed Yoko over at DMP to find out why it was being released in the way it is, but I’ve not had a reply as of yet.

Okay, first thing you’ll notice is that the volume is titchy. It actually feels and looks smaller than usual manga, but it isn’t, it is considerably slimmer though, since it’s only 72pages.

The story, so far, seems to be a sort of day in the life with a vampiric twist. Kai is a newbie vampire wanting to live a normal human life. So, Ai, the vampire that made him, uses her abilities to get him into a family. Commence love and hate.

The characters in the volume are okay, Sayaka is the love interest, the daughter of the family. She’s your typical shojo girl, and in fact reminds me of Kotoko from Itazura na Kiss. The way she reacts, the way she interacts with those around her is like Kotoko. Hell I could swear Sayaka was really Kotoko playing as Sayaka as a part time job hehe. Kai is essentially Naoki as well, aloof, perfect at sports and studies etc etc. These similarities hit me extra hard because I’d only recently just read the Itazura na Kiss volumes.

This volume doesn’t really tell us anything major though, it lays out the current situation, as well as Kai’s past; which I have to admit is interesting. The ending of the volume was interesting, and I liked the tactful placement of Vampire Hunter D manga.

The art is okay, and I do like the character designs. Ai isn’t the best looking character, but it does fit her personality, and her kitty persona is just cute to the max. The other character designs are pretty much bog standard, though there’s nothing wrong with them there’s nothing special about them either.

The downside is it’s only 72pages long. You just start to get into things when you’re at the end of the volume, then you have to wait ages for the next volume. The only way I can see this sort of release working is if it’s released every 2 weeks, or at the latest every month. Waiting three months just to get the next chapter isn’t something I want to do, mainly because I’ll lose interest.

I’ll be interested to see how this style of releasing works. It’ll be another two volumes before I can make an real sense out of this, since that will bring it to one normal manga volume

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ISBN-13: 9781569702215
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 200
by: Makoto Tateno
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Shojo

Synopsis:

Sowil continues on in his journey to find his father, accompanied by the two child oracles who channel the voices of angels and demons. Each encounter with a new angel or demon yields yet another clue about who his father is, and lifts a bit more of the seal that is laid upon Sowil’s memory. The wheel of fate is turning and it is quite evident that Sowil, the children, and the supernatural beings they meet, are but cogs in the machine of destiny. Or are they? The fate of the world may rest in their hands!

Character Musings:

This volume introduced yet more characters, and for the most part they all have a roe to play. Only Anita leaves me wonder what her role is, though she does add some light relief. Frankly though she really only seems like a little filler content.

Mushussu seems to be nothing but a mount, though he has the potential to be something interesting as well.

Sagan, Taurus’s master makes a rather impressive entrance. And I felt that he was the main force in this volume. He’s an interesting character with a well formed personality. He has a slightly superior attitude, that at first makes him come across as obnoxious, but over the course of the volume he grew on me.

Story Musings:

The story this volume takes a more fast paced flow, with Sowil moving towards finding the truth about who he is.

As last time we get a few cute moments with the twins, but they mostly take a back seat in this volume. Though we do get to see more of their demonic and angel aspects, which look awesome.

I do like the way Makoto allowed the story to flow. We get to see Sowil going through the obligatory “face his fears” bit, and I did like the way she brought in his mother. I felt it was really well scripted and had a great ending.

As the later half of the volume comes to a close we finally learn, some of the truth about Sowil. It’s then we get hit with a whammy, which made me cry a little (in remorse hehe). After a brief reunion we finally get the full hard hitting truth about Sowil. The climax is amazing with the final showdown between Loft and Sowil.

Art:

As I said in my previous post (on volume 1) the art is pretty awesome. The only thing in this volume I didn’t like was the design of Mushussu. In his designs I found it looked bad, this was due to the different mix of creatures making it up. When he was in his little form he looks like a chibi Chihuahua.

As usual the other character designs are well done, I loved the designs for the angelic and demonic Allueh & Erudite.

Publisher Musings:

I actually have the book this time (last time I read it on e-Manga), and I have to say I’m impressed. The issues I had with the previous volume aren’t present in the book format. The fonts are easy to read and follow.

Both volumes are the oversized you usually attribute to manhwa, but I do think they do well in this size. Although realistically there’s no difference, the setting fits an oversized volume, it feels open and airy. That said I don’t like the pink covers, I hate pink on covers, especially when the entire cover is pink like these are.

Overall what we have here is one of the few manga that EVERYONE needs to read, I am devastated now that I have to wait for the next volume. This be the down side of enjoying current running series *sigh*

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Given how late they are venturing into the online reader scene I would have thought that they would have spent more time researching their competitors, looking at how they did things, where they went wrong, and where they were right.

Apparently though they seem to have just stuck a few things together and decided to release it in the hopes people will like it.

Frankly, I’m not impressed.

Any sort of official read is a good thing, it helps kick the illegal ones in the goonies. However what we get here is a rather broken and confusing site that drives people towards the illegal site if only for their simplicity of use.

The initial website is well designed, it’s bright, well laid out and how’s off everything you need.

At first pass it looks rather stunning. We get the fours main Seven Seas titles in the middle with nice banner adds. Underneath we get links to the Pixie Trix ones. The drop down menu lists all the comics currently hosted. The update feed  also acts as an RSS Feed which is great for keeping track of new listings. There’s a hidden comic that isn’t listed, but I’m not going to spoil it by saying how you get to it

This is what the “About” section of the site has to say:

“These days, people want their content free and they want it fast,” says Seven Seas president Jason DeAngelis. “Zoom Comics will provide high quality free comics to readers online instantaneously. By partnering with Pixie Trix Comix–a site already famous for running Gisele Lagace’s hugely popular series such as Eerie Cuties and Ménage à 3 and Holly G’s School Bites–we hope to tap into an existing web comic readership as well as reach out to brand new readers.”

Not sure I agree about the fast and free comment though. the way I see it yes fans do want the content fast, so in that regards I like the idea. However wanting it for free was a bit of a no brainer. If someone comes upto you and says which would you prefer, to pay 25p a chapter, or have it for free. Which do you think people will jump for?? The vast majority of fans are willing to pay price for thier stuff, but if offered it free they’ll snap your hands off hehe. As for Pixie Trix being famous, i’ve never heard of it, or any of their famous titles. Nor has anyone here I’ve spoken to, but that’s nit picking, we all know advertising is about making yourself bigger and bolder than you actually are.

The big question is, does Zoom Comic live upto it’s bluster? And sadly that would be an emphatic NO.

When you click on the Vampire Cheerleaders tab you get taken to an all new website, that frankly looks like it was put together by someone with a bare understanding of web-design.

Usually on sites like this you expect it to take you to the first page of the comic/manga. Seven Seas however decided to take a unique turn, and start you off on the very last page, no idea why. Also it’s not immediately clear it’s the last page until you go all the way to the very bottom of the site and find that it not only drops you on the last page, but also on the last chapter. What’s more because of the layout and the way the comic is embedded into the site, you have to faf around to read it. No easy progression from page to page or volume to volume.

What would have made more sense was to have dome something similar to the other official sites out there. The main page of the comic would hold all the pertinent information on the series, creators, release dates, ISBN numbers and costs. Then you would select your chapter from a drop down menu and a new flash window would pop up. This new window would be your reader window, with controls such as forward, back, resize the window and auto or manual page turning. Most other publishers follow this medium because it works.

Sadly as you can see in the above screenshot half the page is obscured from view, what’s worse is that on double page spreads it’s small cramped, and damn near impossible to read.

So, when all is said and done this is a fail from Seven Seas. Hopefully they’ll tweak the sites and make them more user friendly and less fafing around

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ISBN-13: 9781934876985
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 560
by: Masayuki Takano
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Type: Series
Genre: Shounen

Synopsis:

Witness the touching relationship between young vampiress Misaki and her human companion, the former vampire hunter turned investigative author, Kurose Kuroe, whom she’d die to protect. For recently turned vampire Minato Misaki, vampirism and the beastly powers that come with it are something that she wouldn’t wish upon her worst enemy, let alone her beloved Kuroe. But Kuroe’s supernatural investigations make him a regular target of not only vampires but of all sorts of undead creatures of the night. The only way to save him from these deadly threats may be to do the one thing that Misaki fears the most: to turn Kuroe into a vampire for his own protection.

Character Musings:

Misaki Minato is our ten year old heroin, of a sort. Recently turned into a vampire she lives under Kuroe’s care. She’s for the most part an a-typical 10 year old girl and frequently acts like it. However at the same time she’s a vampire, and at times when she’s in dire trouble the demon within her surfaces and takes over. For some reason however this demon tries to minimises that so as not to destroy Misaki’s personality. She’s in love with Kuroe and becomes very jealous and jumps to conclusions when she sees him with other women.

Kurose Kuroe our dashing knight…..vampire hunter. Kuroe is a jack of all trades, respected author, guardian Misaki, and a prolific vampire hunter. Although he has calmed down since taking charge of Misaki he earned a reputation for being ruthless and unforgiving when it came to hunting vampires. His sole purpose was originally to find his sister whom he loved, and was kidnapped by a vampire. However after being tasked with caring for Misaki he calmed down and became an author, though always looking for his sister.

Sayaka Sainome a college friend of Kuroe’s, and a daughter of a respected and wealthy, though now deceased doctor. She also possesses a special ability, the ability to see the last few minutes of a persons death. She woks in the police forensics lab and uses her ability to help solve crimes, usually murders. She also seems to have a bit of a dark nature which surfaces from time to time. Sainome also seems to have feelings for Kuroe and is in a semi-battle with Misaki for his affections.

Higure a strange and apparently 10 year old boy. However he’s one of the Aruhiek, one of the few elder vampires. Several times he shows just how much power he has, both physically and as a Aruhiek. His power is such that one of the oldest assassin guilds decides to let a matter drop rather than confronting him. He does however seem to have homosexual undertones, surrounding himself with handsome men for renfields (slaves), and several times makes a comment about wanting Kuroe.

Maria a young renfield who was turned so as she could be used to kill her real father. Misaki and Kuroe rescue her, and with the help of Higure set her free, sort of. She ends up living with Higure and becomes friends with Misaki since they’re similar ages. She seems to have feelings for Kuroe, but struggles to hide them for Misaki’s sake.

General Musings:

This is a weird manga. I picked it up purely because it was from Seven Seas and I am loving their releases I’ve read so far.

Unfortunately this series failed to grab me initially, in fact I pretty much yawned my way through the three volumes we get here. I found the story lacking in so many areas, not to mention it just meandered through the plot without seemingly any set destination. Takano’s art didn’t grab me and when it was finished I felt like letting out a sigh of relief.

Thankfully however I got busy here with work and stuff, so to do this review I had to re-read it. I have since re-read it five times and find I’m loving it more and more with each read through. Takano has hit upon an excellent series that, while at first pass is lacking, is rather deep, intriguing and well developed.

I was not keen on the initial story, I felt it had to many holes in it. For example why would Kuroe, who loves his sister on a very deep level, just stop his search and settle down to guard Misaki. For that matter why would he settle down with a vampire when he’s gone out of his way to hunt and kill them?

These seemed like big flaws to me, nut when I sat down and properly read the volume I found most of the questions were answered. I also found  that I really liked the characters. Takano brings Misaki to life really well, her personality is well formed and distinct, when she fumbles around trying to tell Kuroe she loves him it’s easy to forget what she is. That is until of course her vampire personality pops out and we get a dose of what it really means, and then your chin hits the floor. We don’t really get to see Misaki’s vampire  state often, but when she does come out it leaves a large impact on you.

Takano has a good hand when it comes to her characters. The way they interact with each other is just perfect, as is the way they develop. Over the course of the volume we get to see the characters all develop in different ways, some subtle others more blatantly.

I also liked the she used black pages, simple things like that can make a whole lot of difference to the feel of the manga.

However the aspect I loved the most was the vampire lore. there are some changes to the standard which make this really interesting. I’m really looking forward to how this will play out, and to how Kuroe’s and Misaki’s relationship will end.

Unfortunately this is only six volumes long, so already at the half way point I’m concerned about the way it will finally come to an end, though it’s going to be fun finding out.

Seven Seas did a pretty good job with this release. I love the cover design, it just oozes atmosphere and sets the tone of the manga really well. The translation is really well done as is the editing. My only complaint is they removed all the honorific’s, that’s one of my pet hates. I also wish that they had given us the additional two covers in colour. They really look horrible in black and white, lacking life, depth and feel.

Overall though I do think this is well worth picking up and following. I’m eagerly looking forward to volume four.

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Language: English
Original Developer: EasyGameStation
Publisher: Carpe Fulgur
Type: J-RPG

Five years ago, a witch’s curse beneath the red moon turned Chante into a fairy. Now she and her sister Elise search for a way to transform her back into a human, and in their travels they come across a particular town, which is home to a number of nearby ruins, as well as a peculiar shopkeeper named Aira, and a strange, mercurial fortune-teller who calls herself Elma. Could this place hold the key to returning Chante to normal? Or will it lead to more answers than our two sisters ever wanted to know?…

This is one of the games I’ve been eagerly awaiting this year, and sadly it doesn’t really live upto my expectations.

Carpe Fulgur brought us Recettear, which was quite frankly awesome, and a game I’m still frequently playing (in it’s endless mode). So I was really looking forward to Chantelise.

I did at one point have the original western version of the game which came from a now defunct company called DGM (I believe, can’t quite remember lol). Their version had a few bus in it, and their translation tended towards the worst forms of engrish, primarily I think because it was a double translation. Japanese to french, to english.

However despite that I can’t help but feel that the translation was closer to the original japanese version. After playing for a few hours the Carpe Fulgur version screams re-write. This isn’t bad per-say, on the one had I wish they’d just translated the original japanese version, and tidied up the engrish a bit. On the other hand some of the comments that come out are bloody funny. But again I don’t like over westernising stuff. If you’re going to the trouble of brining a game, anime, movie, manga whatever over it’s because you think it will do well. So sell it on it’s merits, don’t rework it just because you think it May sell better with a western tint to it. While this May be true, it will also cause the loss of sales as people (like me) who prefer to keep things original as possible, will look elsewhere.

When Carpe licensed the game EGS went back to the game and tweaked some of the mobs and bosses in various ways. Which leads to the question, why didn’t they fix the bugs?

I haven’t encountered any game breaking bugs, just a few annoying ones that on one occasion got me killed, but mostly just annoy the hell out of you. There’s been a lot of complaints about certain elements of the game, one of the biggest is the low health beep. Think of a high pitched repeating beep, going on and on and on and on and on. After a few seconds I went and got my self killed just so it would be over hehe. The Steam forums were filled with people wanting either it removed or the pitched lowered which resulted in SpaceDrake (one of the minds over at CF) to respond with:

Psh, have you people never played Zelda or something
The Beep™ stays in, end of discussion

This, as far as I could read, was a tongue in cheek response, however as usually happens on the net some people decided he was being malicious and opened up on him. Never played Zelda, so no comment on that from me, but I tend to have iTunes blaring at the same time now so it doesn’t bother me

The price tag on this game is half that of Recettear, coming in at £6.10, though it has 10% off at the minute so until 5th August it’s £5.84 (yeah a huge saving there lol). This was a wise decision on CF’s part, since if they’d put it out at Recettear’s £12.99 this would never sell, at it’s current price tag it’s an okay buy. I say this because while I’m dissatisfied with the game itself, Carpe Fulgur are a company worth supporting.

So what’s wrong with the game? Well firstly it shows it’s age. The environments you run around are rather jagged, and at times remind me of my old SNES games, even to the pixilated look of the environment. The characters are rather well done, though that’s to be expected given the type of game it is. However there is a lot of graphics issues in the game. One of the ones I noticed is the “wave”. This is where the characters stand in the environment, there’s a line running horizontal to Elise’s feet that moves with her, creating a wave in the environment. I’ve also noticed a bit of tearing at times though these aren’t frequent and don’t last for very long.

The game itself is short, and I do mean short. According to Carpe Fulgur the game should take you about 10hours to complete, however the average being reported on steam seems to be closer to 4.5/5hours.

The other aspect that this game lacks is replayability. Once you’ve completed the game that’s it. Recettear has endless replayability with it’s various modes, Chantelise has nothing to it. You could replay it if you have OCD and want to find every treasure chest in the game, and there is a time trial option, but frankly I found this rather uninteresting. After you’ve finished the game it ends up bring relegated to a time filler game, as in if you have a few mins spare; load up a time trial.

Carpe Fulgur are already working on a patch for the game which will fix a number of issues, none are really critical, but some are rather misleading and a bit confusing, such as the first and second upgrade messages being totally wrong.

EGS are also apparently considering adding steamworks and achievements to the game, and I have to ask, why? Both would be excellent in Recettear, especially with achievements and cloud saves. In Chantelise though it’s pointless, there’s no open environment for achievements, and cloud isn’t really needed. Steam forums are full of people asking for achievements, but lets face it, in a game where you literally go from point A to point B with nothing to do in-between other than killing everything, there’s no need for achievements. The only one that could really be added are the hidden treasure chests, but that seems like a waste of effort to me. Especially in a game this old. Did I mention this game predates Recettear? Recettear could do well with achievements, but not this game.

Carpe Fulgur come through on their promise in some regards however. As with Recettear this is a DRM free game, purchasable from Gamers Gate, Impulse and a slew of others. Also available on Steam, with their DRM, ie: you need a Steam account to play it.

A demo is available from Steam, also from the Chantelise website, and other Digital stores. The lack of a website for Chantelise is a bit of bad timing on their part IMO. The stark white page with a bit of text is not the best introduction to the game.

Overall the game is okay, nothing more or less. But it’s worth picking up just to support Carpe Fulgur. Hopefully the next game will be better.

Now for some screen shots of the game:

Welcome to your home base, you’ll be seeing a lot of it!!

     This be the woman that tortures you with food made from your kills, and sells you your gear

This big brute is the first boss, ready to pound you into a pancake!!

Just in case you’re easily confused this grimoire has pretty pictures!!

Run girl run!! It be after you!!

Who’s that smoking back there??

So…..the treasure is over there?

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ISBN-13: 9781604961126
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 153
by: Kagami Yoshimizu
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment
Type: Series
Genre: Shounen

Synopsis:

Effects of Lucky Star:  With comic strips of “loose” stories, you will find yourself giggling involuntarily. When you want to relax, or feel lethargic, or spend your time leisurely, is especially when we recommend this. Especially recommended for: People who are stressed, People who are fretting, People about to start some competition.

General Musings:

I’ve finally finished reading this volume, and frankly as I sit looking at the other six sitting here I want to cry.

This is the second 4-korma title that I’ve picked up, the first being Azumanga. Since I liked that I was hoping that this series would be just as fun. Sadly however this fails on so many levels, and I can’t help but think it was all Bandai Entertainment’s fault. Though I have to admit something about the story was a bit lacking.

Kagami’s art style is pretty similar to that of Azumanga, though with several differences. I get the impression this style is standard with most 4-korma titles. I do like this style, and I also liked the character designs. They are varied, and distinctive with good personalities that, for the most part don’t clash.

I do feel some of the other characters could have done with some more variety, such as the teacher and cop. While they were distinctive, I felt they looked a little close to some of the other characters running around. I also liked the chapter start pictures, they’re great looking, and have at times a bit of comedy in them which did make me smile.

One thing I noticed though, unlike Azumanga Lucky star doesn’t make me feel like there’s a lot going on. Since a lot of the panels just have the characters in, no back-grounds or scenery, the dialogues and characters have to make the reader feel like those things are there; this manga failed to do that for me.

The colour pages of the volume I have to admit were nice, and had a different feel to the rest of the volume. In a way it’s a shame that the entire volume wasn’t done in colour, as I think it might have been more enjoyable that way. I also felt the colour panels had more depth and life in them than the usual black and white ones.

The story is also rather weak. Day in the life type of stories can be weak, but Lucky Star takes it to an all new level. There’s nothing to get your teeth into, it just meanders along pointlessly with no destination in mind. For me this made it hard to read, as there was nothing really keeping me interested.

I like to read volumes of manga in one go, and if given the chance I’ll read entire series of manga in one sitting (biggest single sitting was Project ARMS at twenty-two volumes lol). However I found reading this volume hard, and that I was having  to force myself to complete it. This is the first time I’ve come across a series I couldn’t finish in one sitting. Reading just the first volume took me a total of six sittings over four days.

Publisher Musings:

This has got to be one of the worst handlings of a manga I’ve come across. I’ve read some bad releases before, but they’ve usually come from small/new publishers that were just learning the ropes so to speak. Considering Bandai is a large well established company, and considering the past few titles of theirs I’ve read, I am devastated by the way this series is handled.

Now, in all fairness the cover designs are great, and the fact they left the colour pages in is a huge bonus. However Japanese is a hard language to translate into english, especially when it comes to the humour, usually revolving around play on words. Sadly the translators and editors over at Bandai don’t seem to have considered this and as a result we get quite a few sentences that frankly make no sense in English. they May have been funny in Japanese, but in english they senseless.

The other thing I noticed was the glossary at the back, we get a rather in-depth glossary of terms. One of the things I noticed was that it explained one-chan and sensei. So here I was thinking we’d be getting a decent translation with honorific’s and titles intact. However that wasn’t really the case. While it’s notable that they did keep the –san and –chan honorific’s, they were also removed at times as well. One-chan was used once, and sensei was never used, despite it being in the glossary, can you say confusing!!

The one time one-chan was used it comes off as an after thought, and to make matter worse it’s put in the speech bubble:

pg7 vol01. Right sis(one-chan)

What a horrendous way of using translation notes. You never put them right in the speech bubble full size, and never a reverse translation. What was the point of translating it to english, but then putting the Japanese right next to it.

Finally we have the printing itself. When I picked up the volume I thought it looked gorgeous. A glossy cover that both looked and felt nice. a decent size making it easy to read and hold; added to a good grade of paper. Not the best, but still a good grade. However, the printing was horrendous. Have you ever seen a printer running out of ink? When it goes from nice vibrant black and white and slowly goes to patchy grey and white. That’s what we  get here. Some of the pages are so faint I almost felt the need to get my scanner out, scan the pages and the level them in Photoshop so as I wasn’t getting eye strain trying to read them.

Sadly this is the case throughout the volume, it goes from bad to worse, and then recovers. At a few points it’s actually the perfect tone, but quickly fades off again.

All told this is a depressing title and effort by Bandai. I bought it because of the hype, everyone I know goes on about how great Lucky Start is, how it’s one of the best series ever. Now I wish I’d not bought it and put my money to better use else where. If you haven’t read this series yet but are thinking of it, take my advice, don’t, save your money for something you’ll enjoy and finish.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Tsutomu Nihei
Publisher: Viz Signature 
Type: Series 
Genre: Seinen, Horror

Synopsis:

Zoichi Kanoe plunges into the depths of 9JO–an island city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean–in search of Eon Green, a girl with the power to transmute the N5S virus. He’s not the only one looking for her, though… Agents of the Public Health Service’s Compulsory Execution Unit are also in hot pursuit. Zoichi and his transhuman allies have no time to waste; the countdown to the zombie apocalypse has begun!

General Musings:

I found this in my local comic shop, and after reading the synopsis on volume one; and giving it a quick flick through I decided to take a gamble.

Admittedly this is not my usual type of manga, while I like the genre, I do find them  a bit to repetitive and uninteresting. However Biomega actually appealed to me with it’s story synopsis. The art I saw when I flicked through also had something that appealed to me.So off I trot but didn’t make it home, instead I went to Starbucks, but a venti hot chocolate and sat reading the first volume.

I got hints of issues in the first volume, however it also showed a lot of potential. The story isn’t really played out in the first volume, just hints and snippets. Though over the course of the volume we do garner enough to get a feel for what is to come.

After reading the first volume I decided to take a risk and ordered the remaining five volumes, which I have to say I do now regret a great deal. The problem lies in two areas, the way story is handled, and the way the art is done, so lets look at the two areas.

The story has a lot of potential, however it’s not given time to really unfold. Rather there’s pages and pages of nothing, just art. I’m all for letting art drive the story, but Nihei took it to extremes.

The other problem with the story is the way it’s written. By the end of the series I was still as clueless as to what was going on as when I started, if not more so. The story starts off as one guy’s journey to recover a girl, namely Eon Green. The first volume does a good job of establishing that, and setting what should have been the story for the series. However it kept changing focus as the volumes progressed.

One of the worst points came towards the end when the entire story seems to change completely. We get a huge time slip of some two-thousand years with no explanation, we’re just told. I can understand this to a certain extent, after all for the characters it was supposed to have been instantaneous. However the reader’s should have been given some sort of explanation. The story gets interesting once again, then suddenly stops and jumps forward another couple of hundred years, with no explanation again.

There are also elements that frankly made no sense  at all, and really felt more like filler chapters more that actual story pages. However these filler chapters only vaguely attached to the story. In fact the only thing I found was the setting, beyond that they were unrelated.

The art is just as haphazard as the story sadly. Most manga, while being black and white, use different grey scales and hatching to show shadows, light and darkness. So while being black and white they convey a  sense of light and colours. Nihei seems to have gone for a far extreme. He uses purely black and white throughout the series.

I found this hard on the eyes, in that at times we get art that resembles nothing more than black blots on the pages. One of the side effects of this is a fatal flaw in this genre, it’s not scary. This is a horror story, so it should scare the reader, make them jump, or scared to read it in the dark. Much like horror movies in the past have done, and other horror manga do. This title sadly doesn’t have that, though it did have a couple of bits that made me want to puke.

The other side effect of this is that the two tone art fails to drive the story because at times it’s impossible to understand what’s happening. However when he uses colour it’s a different story all together and what we get is an amazing set of art. Though I have to admit that even if the series was done all in art it still would have suffered badly.

Publisher Musings:

Viz released this series under their Signature line up, so it’s not usual manga size. Rather it’s the over sized manhwa size, and it works really well. The other aspect I like was the cover design, it worked really well and did look rather nice, and fitting for the volumes. I was also rather happy to see they left the colour pages intact rather than bleaching them. Overall I was rather impressed with the way they handled the series, though I regret the series wasn’t able to live upto Viz’s handling of it. Like a lot of the other Signature line this series carries a “M” for Mature rating, and it does warrant it.

Reception Musings:

This series was badly received in the UK and is on  the Libraries “do not buy list” for many libraries. Officially this has been stated as being to expensive a series to buy in a time when library budgets are being cut. However unofficially it’s been stated that it’s banned due to it’s content which does include (apparently) rape, and necrophilia. Sadly the way the art is is what caused the issues surrounding the series. Waterstones, one of the UK’s largest book chains refuse to carry certain volumes of the series and will only order them on request. Again this is due to the perceived rape and necrophilia in the series. Granted, it’s literally three panels in two volumes where this is, however libraries and book stores have apparently decided to avoid the problems that comes from carry such titles, such as what happened with Berserk.

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ISBN-13: 9781935429852
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 248
by: Yu Kinutani
Publisher: Kodansha Comics 
Type: Series 
Genre: Shounen, Action

Synopsis:

Stand Alone Complex takes place in the year 2030, in the fictional Japanese city of New Port. The story follows the members of Public Security Section 9, a special-operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives. The manga presents individual cases that Section 9 investigates, along with an ongoing, more serious investigation into the serial killer and hacker known only as "The Laughing Man."

When a high-ranking government official is kidnapped, the Prime Minister must call in his top crime fighting force known as Section 9.  Lead by the beautiful (and deadly) Major Kusanagi, the cybernetically enhanced squad must use all their skill to take down the kidnappers and rescue the hostages.  But that’s only half of the mission; can Kusanagi and company find out who’s behind the kidnapping, and, more importantly, just what they’re after?  Find out in this thrilling first volume of The Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex!

Character Musings:

Chief Aramaki runs Section 9. He’s a career police man who believes in getting the bad guy regardless of their station in life. He’s devoted to the law of the land, but doesn’t mind bending it a little if it means the objective is achieved. He’s a man of few words, but is devoted to his staff and goes out of his way to protect them when things go bad.

Kusanagi Motoko, more commonly known as “Major”, leads the front line force of Section 9. Not much is ever really revealed about who she is, though we do get some snippets now and again. The Major is like the Chief in that she always gets the person she’s after, however she Doesn’t mind breaking laws in the process, especially if the people she’s after are hiding behind their money and station.

Bato is the Major’s second in command and has a very odd relationship with her. At times it’s blatantly obvious that he has feelings for her, but then at others it’s nothing more than “friendship”. This gives for some great interactions between the two. Like Motoko he’s a full cyborg, though in his case he had his done by the military. He’s got an interesting sense of humour, as well as few odd traits. For example he’s a habit of spending his money on weight lifting equipment even though he’s a full cyborg and doesn’t need it. He also has a strong relationship with the Think-tank’s they use, mobile tanks with built in self aware and adapting AI. His relationship with them leads to a few problems.

General Musings:

I don’t care what anyone else says, this is how you adapt anime into manga. Usually when they decide to adapt anime into a manga they do so in a horrific way. Trying to milk the cash cow for as much as they can, we get a series of maybe two or three volumes. The content is generally only loosely related to the anime, and highly unsatisfying.

This time however Production I.G, the company behind the manga, have hit on a winning format. They threw the usual method out the way and seem to be going for a one episode one volume approach. If they follow through on this, and do both season (both the First and Second GIG), we could potentially end up with a series running for a whopping fifty-two volumes, though I don’t really see it doing so.

This first volume of the series covers the first episode of the anime, and does it spectacularly. Yu’s art in the volume is perfect. Granted there are some subtle differences in the character designs, but you’ll get those always when different people do the same drawing.

However in general the art is superb!! The settings are all recreated really well, with the flow taken into account. It’s clear that Yu has actually watched the anime to get a feel for the style and settings, and used it frequently as a reference tool.

The story is also pretty much a carbon copy of the anime, though, I have to admit to a minor niggle here. The manga does change certain things, nothing major or enough ruin the story. However if you’ve watched the anime recently you will be left with a frown at times. The story of the first volume does however work well.

One bit I found a little frustrating was the repeating panels. Since the series (I’m guessing), originally was serialised the last page of each chapter is basically copied over to the first page of the subsequent chapter. This works well in serialisation, since it lets you get right back into the story. However in a completed manga volume this would have been better edited out. Since manga volumes usually do end up having some editing and changes over the serial, it wouldn’t have been that much of a stretch (I thinks lol).

The other bit I have a qualm over is possibly the way it was edited. In the anime there’s a lot of informality and banter between the characters. A lot of this is lost in the formal way they talk to each other. This also means some of the humour used isn’t as funny as it was in the anime.

However that’s really just a small thing, it’s not a show stopper. Their use of fonts was well chosen and handled with no issues at all on the reading front. Each font is clear, and easy to understand, as well as easy to differentiate between speech and cybercoms.

Another aspect is something I’m in two minds over as well. When Kodansha re-released the original Ghost in the Shell it was huge, way oversized. This was both good and bad for different reasons. This volume however was released as normal manga size, and I now wonder if an oversized version wouldn’t have been good. Weird isn’t it, when you get something one way you want it another, but when you get it that way you want it back the other lol.

The final thing I noticed is the price is a little higher than you’d usually pay for a manga. Though it’s not overly priced, and still a well worth investment.

All told this is the first anime adaptation I’ve read that I can honestly say it’s amazing. Well worth getting into and investing, and one I’m hoping will run for fifty-two volumes of epic Stand Alone Complex goodness!!

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ISBN-13: 9781569701157
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 200
by: Mikami Akitsu
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing 
Type: Mini-series 
Genre: Shounen, Action

Synopsis:

Tatsumiya Island is a small, idyllic haven for those lucky enough to call it home…until a surprise attack by a savage enemy shakes the water-locked paradise to its core. With Festum on the warpath, it’s up to the island’s dedicated inhabitants to pilot powerful Fafners and fight back! Before the gun smoke clears, illusions will be shattered and lifelong friendships will be stretched to their limits. Will this peaceful island survive the chaos of all-out war? Fafner – Dead Aggressor is a full-throttle fight in the name of defending peace and defeating evil! When a group of friends gears up to take on vicious Festum attackers, there’s no telling who will become a hero…and who will be sacrificed to the ravages of battle. Life as they know it is on the line, and these brand-new soldiers learn to trust their instincts (and one another) in order to man their Fafners with fearless skill. Man and machine unite to take down all invaders…and save the homeland!

ISBN-13: 9781569701164
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 216
by: Mikami Akitsu
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing 
Type: Mini-series 
Genre: Shounen, Action

Synopsis:

The never-ending clash between Fafners and Festum rages on…but new confrontations are stirring behind the scenes. After a shocking conversation with Soshi, Kazuki decides to risk his safety and explore the outside world for himself. But will the newfound knowledge that he and Soshi must communicate in order to help humanity evolve eventually lead to reconciliation…or total chaos?

General Musings:

If like me you’re a fan of the anime series this manga will most likely disappoint on some levels. This is because like with a lot anime to manga conversions the purpose is to maximise the cash cow of the series, rather than to be a real adaptation. Hence they usually only run for two or three volumes, and can be very unsatisfying.

Sadly this manga is also like that. Spanning two volumes it cover almost the entire series, ending just before the final fight in the north pole. Which, frankly I think was a horrendous idea, given how close it was they should have just finished the series.

The manga starts off in the same scenario as the anime, and does follow the series fairly well.Though right from the outset there was something not quite right about it for me. It’s the art, for some reason they went and sort of chibified the characters. They are full chibi’s, but enough to make them look a little disturbing at times.

In general though I do think Akitsu does a good job with the art. The characters do look like the characters they’re supposed to. The settings all look nice, as do the mecha and festum.

Also, as  you can imagine with it being a short series certain elements are cut out to condense it. The way they did the cutting seems a little arbitrary to me, with elements that I would really consider essential being cut out.  It’s weird in the way it builds to a climax then suddenly swaps to another aspect of the story leaving you with a highly unsatisfying feeling.

However, if you’ve never seen the anime this does make a good introduction to it. It covers all of the main points of the series, allows you to get a feel for the story and make a decision if you actually want to invest the time into watching the series.

For those of us that have watched the series it’s a good refresher on the series, though it doesn’t add anything to the series.

Publisher Musings:

DMP did a pretty decent job on the translation and editing. The choice of fonts used was excellent, with normal fonts used for the speech and thoughts, and the spiky text used for the festum. This does give the series a good feel as you’re reading, it’s a good effect. The text placement was done perfectly with all of the text being easy to read.

The ultimate question though is, is this worth buying? This is hard to judge really, I feel that it is. While I don’t really like the character designs it’s a good read even for those of us that have seen the series. Also given that it’s only two volumes long it’s not that big of an investment. I did enjoy the series though.

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Any way the first week of competitions is here and we’re off with a bang. I’ve got a number of titles up for grabs and they are:

• The Completed Wicked City novel series.
• The Complete Pita Ten light novel series.
• Blood Alone omnibus Vol 01
• Strawberry Panic manga omnibus
• Strawberry Panic novel omnibus.
• Gunslinger Girls manga omnibus 1&2
• Avalon: Web of Magic 1-3 Novel & Manga omnibus
• 1 Mystery Prize which will be revealed at the drawing

To be in the draw simply follow me on twitter, retweet the original tweet for this post and leave a message on this post with your twitter handle. That is it!! Winners will be declared on Friday 10th of June.

Retweet the following, copy and paste everything within the [] [RT @RyuSheng: New Post: Competition Week 1 – Seven Seas Entertainment Goodies!! EXTENDED TILL 17TH - http://tinyurl.com/4436uwv]

Rules:

1. Must be a minimum of 15 entrants for the competition to go ahead
2. Open word wide, but prizes May take upto 12 weeks for delivery based on location of winner.
3. One entry per person only, and only one prize per person.
4. All prizes are shipped Royal Mail Registered Mail and must be signed for on delivery (for insurance)

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Some of the prizes up for grabs:

• Blood Alone Omnibus V1
• Gunslinger Girl Omnibus V1
• Pita Ten LN
• Death Note
• Kenshin Manga and Novel
• Yukikaze
• Rocket Girls
• Vampire Hunter D Novels and Manga
• Angelic Runes V1&2
• 1 Lucky winner will win a 2000 point E-Manga card
• And a slew of other titles that I’m keeping secret for now :p

Each week will have a different competition requirement, and competition will run Friday to Thursday, the first being posted tomorrow and 8pm GMT.

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ISBN-13: 9784596950802
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Marito Ai (Art), Sharon Kendrick (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-series, One-Shot 
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Seduced by Matteo, a world-famous actor, the once-innocent Jennifer marries the superstar and starts her own acting career. But at the height of their popularity, their busy lives tear them apart and they go their separate ways. They thought it was over, until they bump into each other on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. Although at first tempers flare, in a moment of passion in the elevator they make love once more. A few weeks later, Jennifer starts to notice changes happening within her body…

 

ISBN-13: 9784776714262
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Misuzu Sasaki (Art), Violet Winspear (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-Series, One-Shot 
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Yvain has been working as a maid in the Sandell household since she was 15. One day she accompanies her employers on a luxury cruise ship. Who would have thought the ship would sink! Yvain is swept away by the strong currents of the sea… When she awakens, she finds herself on the Island of Lions, where the mysterious yet alluring marquess, Juan, lives…

 

ISBN-13: 9784596950932
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Ayako Shibata (Art), Margaret Mayo (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-Series, One-Shot  
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

A job offer from the UK’s largest advertising agency comes totally out of the blue for Celina, so she decides to take the job interview out of interest. There, she meets an outstandingly gorgeous man, Luciano, who is president of the company. Celina is alarmed by his irresistible charm and wants to refuse the job, regardless of the unusually high salary. But she has no other choice but to accept Luciano’s offer in order to finance her sister’s tuition. It is too late when Celina realizes that she has made the wrong choice. She has already been trapped deep in his risky scheme.

This is a first for me, what we have here are two manga volumes i’m glad i’ll never see again. And one I actually started out disliking, but found a growing liking for on it’s second and third read through.

Marriage Scandal, Showbiz Baby!

This first one was okay in a way. The basic story is solid however it’s the characters I just couldn’t come to like. In fact I found everything about them irritating. Stories like this usually work because the leading girl Is usually a so called commoner, dragged into the light of high society. Watching her try and come to terms with her new status, and he ridicule she gets, is all part of the experience.

When your lead has already passed all that and is now part of the high society, it loses all most all of it’s feeling. What we’re left with is two spoiled rich folks going at each other.

Sadly thats what we get initially in this volume. Jennifer initially comes off as a stuck up cow that, frankly, needs a tanned arse. Her personality is a bit. no a lot, warped, and I hated her almost from the outset. It certainly doesn’t help that her character design makes her look like a stuck up bitch as well.

Matteo is yet another character I disliked. Once again every thing about him screams arrogance and stuck up pig. His personality is just as warped as Jennifer’s, and his character design is just as bad.

The story itself doesn’t have anything to make me interested either. Sure we get a bit of tension right at the end of the volume, but by then it’s to little to late, and it’s so you know how it’s going to end before it’s even fully started.

In the end what we have is a an unstatisfying story that I was glad to be finished with.

Pilgrim’s Castle

When I initialy read this I hated it, Like the previous volume everything about it rubbed me the wrong way. the art is horrendous, the story is weak, and the characters even weaker. However when I re-read the volume a second time before doing this review I found I actually rather liked it this time around.

Misuzu’s art is not that good, frankly at times I think it’s plain old horrid. Sometimes she leaves faces incomplete, and at others it looks like the lead girls face is a ball of putty. As for the Marquees, my inital reaction was one of “I wanna smack him”. However on the second and third read though I got the impression that that was the feeling that Misuzu was trying to give us.

The story isn’t a great one, a true rags to riches story in a way. But as with all these short mini volumes it leaves a feeling that there was so much more to be explored if there was more pages to it.

I never did like Yvain, her character design changes so much and is so inconsistent it’s hard not to wonder if we’re getting different characters. I think this, tied with my initial reactions to the Marquees were what caused my initial dislike.

If you try and read past this though, it’s not a bad love story. It has all the elements you expect, an evil witch *cough*house-keeper*cough*, beauty, and a beast hehe.

Powerful Persuasion

This was my second volume that I didn’t really like. I tried to read it all the way through, but I just couldn’t be bothered. Everything about it was weak and unexiting. I usually try to read everything fully when i’m asked to review it, but I genuinely couldn’t be bothered to read this through.

I think the story had potential. However when you have a complex story like this trying to cram it into a 120pages is just impossible. We have to much information, to much going on and to be explained, and to much intrigue. The story is rushed, disjointed, and wasn’t adapted very well.

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However the UK has abysmal language learning centres, unless you want to learn French, Spanish or German. My nearest Japanese centre is 500 miles (each way) away. So not going to be going there lol.

I have been told that while there are other Japanese courses and centres closer, I really want to study for the JLPT N5 and N4, since if I do anything else I’m only going to end up having to do the N4 and N5 anyway, so may as well do it right from the start.

So, how do I get started? Given the vast number of books and texts available could someone point me in the right direction as to which books I need to help me get started?

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ISBN-13: 9784596951069
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Sara Nakayama (Art), Kim Lawrence (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-series, One-Shot 
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Lost during a vacation in Italy, Erin meets an astonishingly handsome man riding his black horse. The two fall in love instantly, and they marry after only 5 days. She only knows him as Francesco, but he is, in fact, Europe’s wealthiest banker! The dramatic changes in her life leave Erin confused, and she ends up accusing her husband of infidelity. Francesco is of no help as he refuses to console her, and their marriage slowly deteriorates…

 

ISBN-13: 9784596951038
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Kako Ito (Art), Martha Ann Ford (Original Story) Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-Series, One-Shot  
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

"You’ve been chosen to date a billionaire!" Beth is startled to receive such a phone call. It appears her neighbor entered her in a competition without telling her! The prize is a date with Kane, a famous billionaire, but Beth is not interested and rejects this golden opportunity. The news reaches Kane and his heart is ignited�no woman could ever reject him, could she? His pride hurt, Kane vows to win over Beth’s heart!

 

ISBN-13: 9784596951236
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Sami Fujimoto (Art), Metsy Hingle (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-Series, One-Shot  
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Jacque and Liza were once deeply in love. They shared many happy moments until she discovered she was pregnant. Jacque had never wanted to have a child and always told her, "What I can give you is passion and friendship, no more than that." Therefore, she decided to raise the child alone and left Jacque without telling him anything. Three years have passed since then, when Liza unexpectedly meets him again. Knowing nothing about what happened to her 3 years ago, Jacque tries to seduce her, full of passion and irresistible charm. How can Liza keep hiding their child from him?

Claiming his Pregnant Bride

I neither liked nor disliked this particular volume. There was noting about it that really got me laughing, crying, or relating to the characters.

That’s not to say the volume was bad, because it wasn’t. As far as these style of mini manga goes I found it to be fairly decent. However it lacked anything to set it apart from the others Harlequin have released of late. In fact giving the large number of Harlequin titles May be what caused the lack of interest in a way.

Sara’s art is okay, and pretty generic for the genre. However that generic style helps to contribute to the problems. In fact there was only two part panels where I thought “she looks cute” the rest were just “meh”. Given how short these volumes are (128pages on average), art is one of the few areas where they can unleash their potential and reel in the readers.

Francisco really got to me to be honest. Over the course of the volume I found him to be irritating and a bit over-bearing. I also felt the way he treats Erin, his so called “life love” was rather disappointing. Sure he does get his act together at the end, but then it’s Erin who flops around like a landed fish. I found her not so much as unlikeable, but rather just plain to the point of depressing. Then towards the end I found her annoying. Though I have to admit that the very end did make me smile a little, since it was a little funny.

Harlequin have adapted the story fairly well, with all of the main elements there I guess. Though I have to admit the best part of the volume was the editing. They (Harlequin) have come along in leaps and bounds since they first arrived on the scene. the fonts and editing in this volume were done pretty well, only a few small speech bubbles with kanji left behind, with the english translation next to it. In this situation I think it would have been better to completely remove the bubbles and just leave the english text on it’s own.

Overall it’s not a bad volume, just not an exciting one.

A Date with a Billionaire

I loved this volume, I found it funny and really well drawn. The two leads of this volume, Kane and Beth are two characters easy to like. Kako draws them really well, but their design is just a part of it. Kako’s art style mixed with the personality the characters have brings out an exciting story that’s funny as hell to read.

The art is perfectly done with a lot of comic moments where it was hard not to chuckle. I really liked Kane as the lead, while he has the arrogance you expect in a mega rich guy he also has moments which really do make you laugh. His expressions and reactions to Beth are just so funny it’s hard not to laugh at them.

The same is true with Beth, though I wasn’t sure about her at first. While I liked her character designs, and the art comedy scenes were funny, I wasn’t sure she was strong enough to carry the story. However, I’m glad to have been proven wrong. I really liked how she changed  over the course of the volume, and the “Cinderella” style ending worked really well, and again it was hard not to chuckle over it.

Once again Harlequin do a decent, but not perfect job. Once again we have kanji with english translations left together. Just remove the kanji guys! However this time we also have some missing translations, though these were just some minor SFX the lack of the translations was noticeable due to all the others been done.

However in the end I do like this volume, well worth the read and a good attempt to bring life to the story.

Lovechild

This one was rather weird, in that I can’t make my mind up whether I like it or not. On the one hand the characters were likeable and well drawn. But on the other hand there was nothing really exciting about the volume.

Sami’s art is pretty much what you expect for the genre. Jacque is a well drawn character who looks the pretty boy womaniser he’s supposed to be. I do like his character design and it’s pretty stable throughout the volume.

Liza is an interesting character, in that she’s a good looking woman who knows it. Usually the women are usually “commoners” who don’t understand their own beauty, or try to deny it for some reason. Liza therefore makes a refreshing change from the norm.

Their relationship has a pretty decent flow throughout the volume, but it’s hard not to feel the ending is rushed. Especially the very end where he goes from running away from Liza and his son, to proposing and publically announcing his love for her.

I have no complaints with Harlequin this time. They hit the nail on the head with their editing in this volume. Good size fonts, well placed, and no left over kanji or un-translated bits. Frankly it’s as perfect as it needs to be and I hope this is their new standard from now on.

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ISBN-13: 9781934876343
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 480
by: Sean Lam (Art) Thomas R. Hart (Story)
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Type: WebComic/One-Shot
Genre: Shounen

Synopsis:

Nobody has been inside Manhattan for the past three years, and with good reason. It’s become a place of wild, dark magic, where technology and the laws of science do not work. And it’s at war with the United States–a dark kingdom that seeks to spread across the river to the rest of the world, with armies of trolls, goblins, imps, ghouls and harpies gathering under the command of a dark sorcerer: Everett Winterthorn.

Isaac Silverberg is his former apprentice who is plucked from Death Row and given a final chance to redeem himself. The US Army gives him an offer he can’t refuse: his life, in exchange for the rescue of the New Jersey governor’s daughter, apparently kidnapped by Winterthorn’s minions and taken into the depths of the Magic Kingdom.

It’s a mission that can only be accomplished by the most powerful mage there is. Unfortunately for him, the government believes Isaac Silverberg is that man. In fact, they are quite sure of it. But is he…?

While i did sort of enjoy this volume, i have to admit that at times i found it confusing. Several time’s i felt it was missing pages from the volume since the characters would be saying something, then suddenly in the next page we’d be somewhere else.

I’ll be honest, i don’t think much of Sean Lam’s art. He most certainly has his moments, and  i did like the designs of the monsters and Hope. However i found Isaac to be a bit of a strange looking character. I noticed over the course of the volume he went through several different designs. Usually manga-ka try to keep the general character designs the same throughout the volume. Lam however fails to do this, and as a result Isaac looks differently at times. Granted the changes aren’t huge, but they are noticeable.

Where Lam really did an excellent job was with the monsters. Initially i wasn’t to keen on them, but the more i read the more i liked. I initially felt they weren’t monster enough, but given the style of series this was,i realised the designs actually fit. I became rather fond of a couple of them, and was a little sad when they died.

I also found that the settings for the most part were really well done, though some of them felt a little to thick, as in the pen nib used to draw them was too thick. However on the flip side the settings and skylines we get treated to are really well done and look awesome.

I also really liked Hope and Lars, her little demon friend. Hope looked really good, her design fits her personality well. Unlike Isaac she doesn’t go through the changes so much, though there are some. I also found i liked her more than Isaac, who frankly i felt needed a swift kick in the arse.

One aspect of the art i found really frustrating however was the action lines. Lam couldn’t seem to draw an action scene without smothering it in action lines. While the lines are needed at times, i felt he over did it. At times it felt like there was more action lines than actual action.

The story, as i said, is a good story. I think it could have been an excellent story if Hart had spent a bit more time developing the how and why of things.

On the surface of it there’s nothing wrong, but as you continue to read the volume more and more little issues with what’s being said crop up. I found the sudden loss of dialogue to be really frustrating as well. At several point the story literally stops mid sentence, and then shifts focus leaving a huge “what the hell” feeling.

I also felt the ending was a huge let down, we get all this build up and then suddenly it’s all over with nothing really having happened. I was hoping, and expecting, a big confrontation between Isaac and Everett, instead we get a tea party and group hug. Sure it has to end that way, but you don’t go from a big build up to the group hug without any sort of confrontation, it’s anti-climactic.

Yet, i have to admit despite all of it’s flaws i did enjoy the volume. If you’ve got some spare cash l would say give it a whirl. However i would also recommend you read the online version of it first. Seven Seas have the entire volume up on their website in a low-res version, it’s a good way of seeing if it’s what you want without actually buying it.

They also released it in various other digital formats, such as the Kindle, Nook, and iTunes (for iPad/iPhone).

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ISBN-13: 9781569701928
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 328
by: Kaoru Tada
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Shojo, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

High school senior Kotoko Aihara has had a crush on Naoki Irie since freshman year. Unfortunately, there a few things are discouraging her from to him: he’s a member of "Class A," the top ranking class in school, whereas she’s in "Class F"; he gets the top score on every exam; and he’s so smart, popular and handsome that he’s been class president every year. When Kotoko finally musters up the courage to present him with a love letter, though, Naoki outright refuses it, telling her point blank–with a look of disgust and boredom—that he doesn’t like "stupid girls." Poor Kotoko’s worst nightmare! Her heart is broken, but then a change in circumstance forces Naoki and Kotoko to be together every day…!?

Character Musings:

Kotoko Aihara is the heroine of the series, she’s not the brightest bulb in the pack. But what she lacks in smarts she makes up for in determination and her happy go lucky personality. As a character she’s well developed, personality wise, and while she does grow over the three volumes she starts off well rounded.

Naoki Irie is the complete reverse of Kotoko, he’s one of the smartest students in Japan, but also a rather apathetic person who has closed himself off. This does cause some problems for Tada, trying to bring out his personality well is very hard due to his cold nature. If it’s done wrong we’d have a character that just didn’t work. Thankfully Tada pulls it off perfectly.

Sahoko Ooizumi is introduced this volume, she’s the perfect house wife, skilled at cooking and house chores, but doesn’t really think much of anything else. She seems to have been raised to be the perfect wife. She seems to be intelligent and almost a match for Naoki.

General Musings:

When i first started this volume i found myself getting bored. Nothing really changed from the previous volumes. Their relationship was the same, as was the family.

As i continued to read i found myself longing for something to shake up the series. We are five volumes into the series, it needed to move forwards otherwise it would just get stagnant.

As the volume progressed there were a few moments of interesting things, and one of the girls was shot down, it was an interesting end to things. But without her on the scene anymore i was wondering how the momentum would be maintained.

It wasn’t long after this point that i was on the verge of giving up on the volume for the night. However the interesting stuff came along and i kept reading. Towards the end of the volume the story takes an interesting set of turns. with Naoki who had finally started to follow his dreams faced with a hard choice.

Then we get his second choice which threatens to split his family. With the arrival of Sahoko, a potential bride of Naoki’s own choosing, Kotoko finds herself facing the reality that she may have lost Naoki. Just when she thinks it can’t get any worse Kin-chan proposes to her, and her father suggests they leave the Irie household.

The end of the volume was absolutely amazing, and manages to reignite my flagging interest in the series. I’m hoping the next volume will have some interesting character developments.

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ISBN-13: 9784596951335
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 12
by: Marito Ai (Art), Susan Fox (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Marla and Jaicey are twin sisters. They were separated at birth and reunited 24 years later, but Jaicey asks Marla to keep it a secret. She doesn’t want her loving adopted family to know about Marla yet. Jaicey’s brother, Jake, regards his sister’s new "friend" with suspicion and is mean to Marla, but she is just happy to have a family of her own, after years of loneliness. How could she have known that more suffering awaits her…?

A husband to belong to:

This is by far my favourite Harlequin release so far. Unlike the others there’s no romance as such, though we do get a wedding. However unlike other harlequin titles this one has holes the size a truck could drive through, yet i still love it.

Lets get the holes out the way, the synopsis alone is full of errors. Firstly, in the synopsis her name is spelt as Jaicey, but in the manga it’s Jaycee, minor difference true, but it’s there. Next we have them stated as twins separated at birth. Yet this is shown as untrue during the story, also doubt is cast on them actually being twins.

These are some rather large glaring holes in the story, however they aren’t killers. If you can ignore these flaws you get a really good and touching story of loss, reunion and loss again.

Marito does an excellent job of creating the characters, and i found i was really attached to them. The bond between the two girls is clearly visible, and also very touching. As we start to learn more about them, and the different lives they had lead, it’s hard not to feel something for them.

Marla especially was an excellently portrayed character. The way her life had effected her, both in the subtle ways, and the overt ways. Jaycee was also well done, with her softer upbringing coming to the fore in subtle ways, the way they come into conflict, but also together was done perfectly.

After Jaycee’s accident, the changes are perfectly done. However as you would expect with a limited page count, her recovery is rather fast. There’s very little time for the angst and emotions to build up, which is a shame.

I would have liked to see a counter to the girls earlier attachment, as well as how Marla handles the separation and rejection. However given the low page count the way it was done was for the best.

The art of the volumes is pretty decent, i liked the way the characters were designed, and the settings were developed and varied. Marito does a good job with drawing the expressions of the characters.

I would love to say Harlequin did a great job, and don’t get me wrong, on the editing side of things I’ve got no complaints. Yet i do wonder how much of the issues i mentioned were down to bad translations.

Still, i love this story and highly recommend it.

Jake took a little longer for me to grow to like, and it wasn’t until half way through the story that he grew on me. While he does end up marrying  Jake, the focus of the story is on

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Milan Matra
Publisher: Yen Press
Type: Series
Genre: Shounen

Synopsis:

Severely allergic to felines, Yuuto Amakawa spends his mornings nursing a drippy nose courtesy of his friend Rinko’s cat. But on his sixteenth birthday, it’s not just Rinko’s pet that’s riling up his allergies (to say nothing of his hormones)! Appearing before him is Himari, a buxom, sword-wielding cat spirit in human guise, who has sworn to protect Yuuto, now the target of vengeful spirits! It’s clear that Yuuto’s allergies are the least of his problems — he’s gonna need Himari’s help if he wants to live to see his seventeenth birthday!

Character Musings:

Yuuto Amakawa, a normal kid with cat allergies. He wears a talisman around his neck that his grand parents gave him. He’s also a descendant from a demon hunter line. He’s not really athletic, and doesn’t really understand the situation he’s in. He lost his parents a few years ago and now lives alone in their house.

Rinko Kuzaki, is Yuuto’s childhood friend and neighbour. She’s interested in him, but hasn’t told him. She wakes him up every morning, usually by jumping on him, she’s athletic, full of energy, very protective of Yuuto, and gets jealous rather easily.

Himari Noihara, a cat ayakashi who has been tasked with protecting Yuuto.  She’s totally devoted to him, and seems to enjoy teasing him by climbing into bed with him. She wields a katana and will do anything to protect Yuuto. However she hides a darkness that could threaten them both.

Shizuku is a ayakashi who was initially bent on killing Yuuto for several reasons. Partly for revenge for the murder of her family centuries before, and partly to prevent him from becoming a demon slayer. She’s a small girl, who starts to have feelings for Yuuto. It’s made clear that she’s a little unstable.

General Musings:

What can i say. I’ve been a fan of this series for ages. Technically it’s a harem show, but i don’t really see as such since only one girl is in with a shot really. However the fun comes in watching the various situations Yuuto gets into.

The basic story is rather enjoyable. Yuuto is descended from a long line of Demon Hunters. However his parents had decided to leave that line behind, and to forge a life in the human world. To protect Yuuto his grand parents gave him a magic talisman to protect and hide him. However on his 16th birthday that talisman finally expires. Enter Himari, a demon whose ancestor had been spared by the Amakawa ancestor and then devoted themselves to protecting that line. Himari has come to protect Yuuto until such times as his power fully awakens and he’s able to defend himself.

There’s a few problems though. Firstly the talisman he was given was apparently to strong, and now his power seems to have withered away, and Yuuto himself doesn’t have an interest in demon hunting, rather he’d prefer to get along with them.

The first two volumes basically focus on the girls and Yuuto coming to terms with the fact that they’re there to stay. This was especially hard for Rinko who not only has a thing for Yuuto, but also finds  her usual place usurped.

As you might expect in this sort of series, the story isn’t very deep or anything really. But then you have to bear in mind that these first two volumes aren’t about story. Rather they focus on setting up the characters, revealing some of their personalities and exploring their relationships with the other characters.

Towards the end of the second volume we do start to get more involved with the some story. We get to see the darkness that dwells with Himari start to come out. This makes for an excellent cliff hanger.

I can not complain about the art, which frankly is stunning. Cover art for the two volumes is beautiful, and the original Japanese ones. Sadly the colour insert is spoiled a little by the fact it’s a double page spread, so we get the spine going through it. However it still doesn’t stop Himari looking cute in a kimono.

I loved the way that Milan draws Himari, and flips between the cat eared version, and normal version. The balance between the two styles is handled perfectly, and both look amazing.

She also does an excellent job on the all important facial expressions. This series has a lot of close ups of the faces of the characters, so this is an important area. They actually look like they’re feeling the emotions they’re trying to convey. Which makes for an easier read.

I also liked the details in the costume designs, for example the maid outfits in the second volume, or the kimono’s and other traditional clothing we get to see. All of these were handled and drawn really well.

Publisher Musings:

I’ve only read a few of Yen Press releases, Spiral, Black God and Sundome. All of these however were handled extremely well and were enjoyable reads. So i was hoping i could say the same about this release. However i can’t. In fact i can’t help but feel that they totally destroyed this excellent manga with the half hearted way they did things.

Firstly, according to the original Japanese version Yuuto was supposed to be 16 years old. However in the Yen Press release he’s referred to as being both 16 and 17 years old.

Next we have Himari, she speaks in an archaic and formal manner. The best way to have handled this would have been to use old archaic English (thou, art, etc etc). However initially she speaks no different than the rest of the cast. Which does leave you scratching your head when Yuuto comment on her archaic speech. Then, for some stupid reason they make a half hearted attempt at archaic speech when she goes to the school. Then they chop and change the style, so one minute she’s talking normally, the next she’s making some attempt at archaic language.

This whole thing was done rather haphazardly. Either pick one style ore the other, don’t try and mix and match, it doesn’t work.

Shizuku is next, or loveable little water demon. She has (in the Japanese version) a cute little way of ending her sentences. Rather than doing the sensible thing, and leaving it intact and adding a glossary entry, they translated it as “you know”. So now instead of a cute Shizuku, we have a damn annoying one. There is such a thing as over translating things, and this is definitely one of those.

I also wonder why they gave this a mature 18+ rating. Yes it has a lot of fan service, but mostly those are panty and bra shots. I don’t recall anything in the series going beyond that. At best this should have been an Older Teen 16+ title.

They do however leave in the honorific’s for the most part, the –chan and –kun are all there which i do like. Shame they couldn’t do a better job with this series. It’s definitely sub par to their usual releases. I will however, probably, continue to get the series if only ‘cause I’m a huge Himari fan. Though i do hope this isn’t a sign of things to come from Yen.

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Anime-on-Demand is the new UK based legal anime streaming site. Unlike sites such as  UK Anime News who basically syndicate Crunchy Roll, this is a dedicated UK streaming site. When it was all announced I was (like a lot of people) dancing for joy and getting ready to whip my card out to pay a subscription.

What we have however is a site that frankly looks like a 15 year old slapped it together in their bedroom.

So, lets take a look at the website……

Main home page

First thing i noticed was the site design itself, is well, crap. Talking with the MangaUK staff on twitter i commented on the fact that the site looked crap (@MangaUK it’s nice to see us brits getting a streaming site finally, but gods is it ugly!! and @MangaUK no to mention it looks like a dodgy illegal site >.<). At the time my comment was a bit of a throw away one. I’m definitely glad to see the UK get a dedicated streaming site, but even so i wish it didn’t look cheap and tacky.

MangaUK responded with two comments that really set my teeth on edge, the first: @RyuSheng I think it’s sleek and clean. Not ugly at all. Shame on you  for saying otherwise. And a follow up of @RyuSheng Why do some fans do nothing but complain when we (the industry) do something to improve the service we give. U r killing us.

Can you say over reaction much. Okay back onto the site before i comment on the comments.

Notice that big red box, that’s meant to be a flash advertisement for the anime, only it doesn’t work properly. After doing some digging i found the site isn’t multi browser friendly, it worked fine in Firefox and sort of fine in IE, but in Chrome and Opera it had various troubles requiring me to tweak the settings a bit. For sites like this you want to make it look and work as much as possible in all of the main browsers.

I finally got it to work, sort of, but with just the Japan Quake and Tiger & Bunny add it looks a little woe begotten.

Then there’s all that vast white space, and we aren’t just talking a little here almost three quarters of the home page is nothing but white space, while i don’t like adverts much, even having some of those in there would have been better than nothing. Or better yet syndicate the ANN UK news there. Come on people use that grey matter living between your ears!!

Next we have the actual anime on offer, a whole whopping one show!! Okay yes they announced that they had licensed six shows, but so far all of those have been available on Crunchy roll already, with the exception of Tiger & Bunny.

Anime List

This is really how the home page should have looked, not so much white space, but still some. The show list is, pathetic though. We have one and a half of the older Gundam shows on there. The first, Mobile Suit Gundam is complete, but sadly dubbed, the second Zeta Gundam is only the first twenty episodes, though thankfully dubbed.

And finally we have the new Tiger and Bunny series. Not really a lot on offer, and frankly nothing that would inspire me to subscribe. The site also plays host to the ANN TV archive, and a slew of trailers from both old and new anime.

Next we have the cost involved. I don’t really like their pricing method. Crunchy roll have better terms, and frankly feel like better value for money.

  Subscription Details

Firstly you need to remember that these are promotion offers, which means the price is going to go up when the offer ends. Speculation around my local club is that the season sub will rise to somewhere between £19.99-24.99 where as the annual one will rise to £49.99-59.99. Please note that that is OUR speculation, based on other services that have tried this in the past, and not a price gotten from AoD.

For me however, even the offer price feels like a rip off. I currently subscribe on an annual basis to Crunchy for $59.95, which is roughly £37 a year. Granted the current annual price is slightly cheaper, but the real value of it wont be known till their final prices are announced.

The question here isn’t which is more expensive, it’s which is more value for money. Since all of the shows I want to watch are on Crunchy roll as well, what reason is there for me to spend another £35 for a another subscription service? Especially since Crunchy have now started to license more titles for UK airing, and only a bare few of their titles aren’t available here yet.

They do need to fix their payment system as well, though the system is better than the Crunchy Roll one. Both sites use PayPal, however AoD allows you the option to pay without having a PayPal account, something CR doesn’t allow. However AoD does make one mistake here, when you click the pay button it takes you to the French PayPal site, which if you don’t understand French is intimidating and confusing. They need to fix this so that when you click on the payment button you get taken to the British PayPal website.

For me of course the bigger question is, can i really afford to be paying two companies who offer the same service, and almost exactly the same shows? Sadly the answer is no i can’t.  So it comes down to a choice between the two. So you look at the pro’s and cons, and frankly Crunchy comes out on top every time.

I’m one of those that has wanted a UK based Digital streaming site, but i won’t support it unless it’s worth supporting, which frankly right now it isn’t. It has a haphazard feel to it like the site was launched in a rush because they wanted to launch it at the same time as Tiger and Bunny launched. If that’s the case, then that’s their problem.

They should have waited for all six of their shows to have been ready for the site, worked on the site a bit more, and then have launched. Forget the simulcasts for this season, instead work on getting a good looking site up for launch, and go with the simulcasts for next season. We’ve waited years for a site already, do you really think an extra season would have been to much?

They also need to have gotten some of the older shows licensed for UK broadcasting. Even if it meant you were airing the same titles as those aired on Crunchy. What matters is that you have the content to stand up beside Crunchy and look like a valid alternative. No one is asking you to become Crunchy over night, but launching with a pitiful two one and a half shows from the 80’s and two episodes from a current season, and expect the fans to support you? Come on guys give us some credit!! Especially in this cash strapped environment, where do you think fans are going to go. You or Crunchy Roll?

Now, onto the comments made by Manga UK. I got the impression from the first that i was “betraying” British fandom because i wasn’t all google eyed over the new website. Well guess what, tough. I didn’t think much of Crunchy when they launched but the won me over. At least their site was better designed and while i hated the colour, didn’t have vast amounts of nothing on it. The AoD site looks horrid, mainly because it’s all red. Use a different colour, mix colours, add content even if it’s just trailers or AMV’s. I mean come on guys you have a vast catalogue of trailers, not to mention loads of news that could be used to fill in the white noise. Also at least try and make it as browser friendly as possible. No one expects you to have a site that works in every browser under the sun, but you could at least get it to work properly in the main ones, IE, FireFox, Opera and Chrome.

As for the second comment, why is it that whenever a fan criticises the industry we’re only doing it to harm the industry? All to often I’ve seen publishers get all holier than thou on fans and take the attitude of “just take what we offer you and shut the hell up”. Well, sorry but not with me. If i think something is crap I’ll tell you it’s crap. I’ll also tell you WHY i think it’s crap and offer my opinion on how to improve it (as i have tried to do here). Criticism isn’t always about demeaning the industry, the simple fact is we criticise because all to often the industry NEEDS the criticism so as it can learn where it’s ballsed up and improve itself.

Conclusion:

Anime on Demand is pretty much in Alpha status, it has a long way to go before it can really be considered live, and even longer before it will win people away from Crunchy Roll. It will be interesting to see however if the UK Distributors of Anime actually do pull their fingers out and give AoD the support it needs. If they do we’ll have a pretty damn good site here.

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ISBN-13: 9784596951441
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Rin Ogata (Art), Stella Bagwell (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-series
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

The happiness of the royal family of Edenbourg, waiting for a baptismal ceremony of the king’s first grandchild, is broken by bad news – the king has been in a traffic accident. Princess Dominique runs to the site in search of her father, accompanied by the family’s High Counsel, Marcus Kent, who offers to escort her. Her heart races, as she has admired Marcus since childhood, but he abuses her respect with harsh words. This is the first of a four-story miniseries, The Stanbury Crown: Royally Wed!

ISBN-13: 9784596951458
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Miho Tomoi (Art), Martha Shields (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-Series
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

King Edenbourg’s traffic accident turns out to be an abduction. Under orders from Princess Isabel, lady-in-waiting Rowena investigates the king’s disappearance by playing nanny to a son of the primary suspect, Jake Stanbury. While living with Jake, Rowena finds out he is a man of faith. She begins to be attracted to him as she becomes convinced of his innocence. However… This is the second of a four-story miniseries, The Stanbury Crown: Royally Wed!

ISBN-13: 9784596951557
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Masami Hoshino (Art), Valerie Cassidy (Original Story) Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-Series  
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Was I kidnapped by an angel? While Edinburg kingdom is rocked by the disappearance of the king, Ben, a marine acting as a double for his cousin, Prince Nicholas, is kidnapped. As he lies strapped to a bed, he is met by a beautiful woman smelling of roses. Seeing guilt in her eyes, Ben is sure she’s taking part in this kidnapping against her will. Whatever her circumstances, Ben vows to protect her! Part 3 of the "Wedding of the Century Kingdom of Edinburg" 4-part miniseries!

ISBN-13: 9784596951632
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Megumi Toda (Art), Carla Cassidy (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: Mini-Series 
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

The Kingdom of Edenbourg is shaken with the king’s disappearance. Princess Isabel decides to rescue her abducted father on her own. She plans to slip into a pub to find clues, posing as a married couple with Lieutenant Adam. "I will count on you when I get into trouble," the princess says to Adam, who tries to stop her because it is too dangerous. Adam prepares himself for the mission instead. On the day of the investigation, at the pub, Adam finds Isabel dressed so luscious that she looks like a loose woman! This is the final tale of a four-story miniseries, The Stanbury Crown: Royally Wed!

My second attempt at writing this, my computer crashed just as I was about to post it, and for some reason none of my drafts saved. Oh well, starting over from scratch again.

These four volumes form a mini-series revolving around the kidnapping of a King, and the trials and adventures of the various people looking to find him. This series is rather different as far as manga goes, in that the original stories, and the manga versions were all done by different people. The original series of novels were all written by different novelists, and the manga were all done by different manga-ka.

Right lets get stuck in then. The first of the series is called The Expectant Princess and is a good start for the series, though I have to admit to disliking the male lead, Marcus.

Dominique is an great leading lady she’s got a lot of personality. While trying to hide her own secrets she tries to find out the truth surrounding her fathers disappearance. I like the way her romance unfolds and plays out, her past coming to the fore, and the resolution was great, though expected. I liked her character design for the most part, though i do think she was a bit to childish in her design, given her past.

Marcus however for some reason never really sat right with me. Everything about him from his character design to the way he handles Dominique throughout the volume really just irritated me.

Rin does have a deft hand at the art though, and while I wasn’t totally happy with the character designs, you can not say she isn’t an excellent artist. The settings are all extremely well drawn with a lot of attention to detail, especially in the clothing’s and buildings.

This is a good start to the series and also works well as a stand alone volume.

The second in series, The Blacksheep Princes’ Bride, is i think, my favourite of the series, for several reasons. Character wise we have two lead characters that i really liked, Rowena our leading lady, and Jake or lead man.

Rowena is a great lead character, asked by her best friend to spy on the prime suspect in the king’s kidnapping, she reluctantly agrees. She goes in as the nanny to Jake’s child, Sammy. However Jake isn’t an idiot, and suspects that she was sent in to spy on him, and is fully aware of the fact that he’s the prime suspect.

Both have haunted pasts, and both distrust the other. This makes for an interesting relationship, and the way they develop over the course of the volume is really enjoyable to watch.  Sammy, Jake’s child is what becomes the glue for them, he becomes the bond that helps them over come their mutual distrust, and dark pasts. However this is short lived as Jake finds out that Rowena lied to him, and things look all set to fall apart.

The way the relationship plays out over the course of the volume is really well scripted, and I loved the way it was resolved. The ending was really powerful, not so much of the content, which in and of itself was awesome, but rather the way Rowena and Jake acted. It was so perfect for them.

Of the four volumes this was by far my favourite, and probably the only one I’d keep.

The third volume by contrary is the one i hated the most. Code Name: Prince, has got to be one of the worst titles I’ve read from Harlequin. However while i hated everything about it, it dose play a vital part in the story as it sets up everything for the final volume.

The female lead, Meagan, is just so damned irritating. Her personality is so damned wishy washy it’s hard not to want to slap some sense into her. I get that Masami was trying to get the characters personality across, but I think she failed big time.

Though i do think the character design was pretty good, though i do wonder if the design was really the right one for this character. Since it’s revealed not long after we first meet her she’s a mother, I feel that the design was to childish, a lot of the time she comes off as being a teenager more than anything.

Ben, the lead this time, was equally irritating. He’s supposed to look like Nicholas, but he doesn’t, which is a huge flaw in the setting. The way he acts with Meagan also just doesn’t sit right for me, he’s to willing and accepting help her. It really just didn’t feel or flow right for me.

The love aspect falls by the wayside for me in this volume, and instead i look at the facts that are revealed about the King’s kidnapping and the way those events unfold. While they’re far from being great, they are a good set of events which lead well into the next volume.

The final volume, An Officer and a Princess, was again a bit weak with the romance side of things. Though the story side of things was a bit better this time around.

After sifting through the list of names given by Meagan from the previous volume Princess Isabella decides to investigate on her own, with a little help from her bodyguard.

Isabella is a typical princess, and even when she’s slumming it it came out, resulting in a none to believable character. Her personality was a bit better defined this volume, though i found her advances on Adam to be a bit pathetic.

Over the course of the volume i kept wondering how she was never discovered, given the way she acts.

Adam, a man trying to prove that his father wasn’t a traitor, seems to be more focused on doing his job than on relationships. As a result i found his personality to be a bit flat. The way the main story progressed was rather well done, especially the red herrings and stuff. I loved how the series came to a conclusion, though I’d already figured out the bad guy way back in volume three. But that was because he just radiates evil in that volume.

The ending of the series was well done, and there’s nothing like the dramatic (if cliché) ending to get the blood pumping.

The big question however is, is this series worth getting? Personally I think that’s a yes. Despite my issues with the individual volumes, if you read them as a whole story they’re actually pretty decent, you get love, mystery, thrills all in one. You also need to remember that given the page counts, four volumes isn’t really all that much, works out around two normal volumes.

Harlequin did a really good job putting this series together, good choice of fonts, and no empty boxes this time. However i did notice a few spelling mistakes crept in, in one volume a prince was referred to as a princess, in another a child that in one page was called “he” was called “she” on the next. These are minor mistakes that should have been picked up on in the Quality Checking phase.

Having said that though, Harlequin have come along in leaps and bounds considering their first few releases. I am really looking forward to seeing how they grow, and am still hoping we get a few collected omnibus paper book versions.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Ei Itou
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Type: Series
Genre: Seinen/Yuri

Synopsis:

When darkness falls on the foggy streets of London, demons and monsters emerge to prey on human life. But demons aren’t the only ones prowling the streets. Two women have picked up the fight as humanity’s frontline defense against the darkness–a young gun-toting nun named Sister Meg and her mysterious, eternally youthful partner Angela. Together, they have made it their life’s work to spend their nights hunting the vile demons that stalk mankind.

Character Musings:

Only going to cover the two main characters in this section, I’ll cover the other in the general musings bit.

Margaret Cross (prefers the name Meg), a nun in a small church in the heart  of London. She’s bright, lively and always seems to be happy. However she’s not only a nun, he’s also a demon hunter. She takes her role very seriously and is determined to exterminate all of the demons. She works for the “Organization” a secret department of the Church of England. She’s a gun specialist, and also a specialist at using christian prayer rituals. However despite her dedication she holds a dark secret that could threaten to destroy her and those she loves.

Angela, at first appearances she’s a young girl of around fourteen. She’s quiet, reserved, and almost always a bit gloomy. In fact she’s the polar opposite of Meg. She lives with Meg in the church, and also helps out in the demon hunting. Angela is actually over four-hundred and is neither dead or alive, and can not be killed. She doesn’t really care much about people, except for Meg, whom she’s totally devoted to. Like Meg she has a dark past that will eventually threaten the bond between them.

General Musings:

This manga had me in tears, twice, and left me a little confused. I love this series however, and have now read it through twice in a row. It starts off as a simple demon hunting story, in a lot of ways reminiscent of Chrono Crusade.

However the relationship between the two lead characters is different, as are the personalities and story progressions.

The art for this series is amazing, Ei draws  some excellent art especially on the cover designs. The inner colour panels are equally stunning as well, and manage to convey a lot of feelings.

As the volumes progress the art comes off really well, ranging from the dark and cramped streets of London, to the open grasslands of Germany Ei pulls of some really stunning visuals that help to both entice and freak out the readers.

We get introduced to to two support characters early on, the first being Detective Wise. The way he’s introduced to us was a bit heart wrenching, and i did get a lump in my throat over it. Ei plays the story out perfectly, mixing the various elements of fear, love, anger and hate in perfect order. I was a bit sad to see him leave originally, but was glad to see him return later in the series. The way he was later on was just perfect, the way Ei drew out his emotions and the way he ended was just so perfect, and again a bit heart wrenching.

Hisame was also introduced early on, coming from Japan in search of stolen treasures. Initially she’s an enemy, and the battle between her, Meg and Angela, was a rather interesting battle. However i found it a little unsatisfying the way it ended. Though i do love the way she looked and acted.

Volume three was the first time i actually cried reading this series. This is the volume where we get the back story of Meg, how she met Angela, and how they ended up as partners. I found this part of the series to be amazing, and heart wrenching.

It was also at this volume where things started to go a bit weird. After this volume both Detective Wise and Hisame return. Detective Wise is understandable, his return is easy to understand after what happened early on. However Hisame’s return is never really explained, and doesn’t really make much sense (but who cares, she looks damn sexy in that Miko outfit!!).

Volume four gets even weirder, since it changes the history we just learnt earlier on Meg and Angela, it’s handled really badly i feel. However it’s no where near as badly handled as the Kurtz sisters. Frankly i found them to be very disturbing and more than a little distasteful.

One of the weirdest things in the series however has got to be the main villain, Gilles de Rais’ motivations. I liked the twists since it changes the usual stuff of just an evil guy doing evil things. I also liked his relationship with Angela, and as this is explained a lot of things do click together.

The last volume of the series was basically one long fight culminating in the showdown between Angela, Meg and Gilles de Rais. I have to admit that i found this showdown to be handled amazingly well, and the ending to be stunning. This was also the second time i cried, the ending is just so cute and heart wrenching.

Seven Seas for the most part did an excellent job with the series. They released it as an  oversized series, however after volume three they stopped using the colour panels inside the series, and bleached them. Which is a damn shame, my favourite has got to be a young Meg in volume three, she looks so darned cute!!

I also noticed a few missing words from sentences in some volumes. They weren’t major issues, but i do think they were easily spottable and should have been fixed. They do leave all the extras in the series, and damn do we get loads of them. They also provide a glossary of terms in each volume, which is always a good move.

Overall i love this series, problems and all, i highly recommend it. Oddly though there seems to be some debate over the demographic. According to seven Seas it’s a Yuri title, and that’s how it was sold to them, as a Yuri. However according to the websites I’ve researched the manga-ka classed it as seinen, and it was serialised in a seinen magazine. While there are subtle hints of the yuri aspect between Meg and Angela, it isn’t until the last volume that it becomes more open. Either way, this series is well worth reading!!

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Hiroyuki Asada
Publisher: Viz Media Shounen Jump
Type: Series
Genre: Shounen

Synopsis:

In Amberground, a dangerous terrain where a man-made star casts a permanent twilight, young Lag Seeing aspires to become a Letter Bee: a postman entrusted to deliver the hearts of people separated from the ones they love.

Character Musings:

Lag seeing is the child lead of this story, and I have to admit initially I didn’t like him. Always whining and crying, he got on my nerves. However over the course of the first volume he goes through some rather significant character changes which make him more likeable. His cry baby attitude, which was initially irritating, suddenly comes off as being endearing. I also loved his attitude and willingness to help anyone and everyone. I also especially liked how Hiroyuki makes the past have an impact on Lag, and then keeps that impact up so it’s always there. It makes him an interesting character.

Niche, Child of Maka. Niche was found sitting in a niche, and for some reason Lag decides to call her that. She’s a good compliment to Lag who is frankly weak as hell. She makes up for his lack of combat skills. She’s got the ability to make swords out of her hair, and has animalistic abilities, such as speed, jumping etc etc. She decides to become Lag’s dingo (partner) after he rescues her twice, and calls her cute.

Gauche Suede, the Letter Bee that delivers Lag to his aunt. Over the course of the journey they become friends, and he tells Lag about his desire to become the Head Letter Bee so he can look after his sister. He’s a standoffish sort of person when he first appears, but is utterly dedicated to his job, and believe in what he’s doing very strongly. When he and Lag part after reaching their destination Lag tells him he’ll become a Letter Bee and see him again.

Sylvette Suede, is Gauche’s sister, she’s the same age as Lag, and as much a cry baby. In the five years since Lag and Gauche parted Gauche has gone missing and Sylvette claims to have given up on him. Initially she comes off as a very bitter about the event, however after lag hits Gauche’s gun with his shindanju the truth is revealed. She ends up becoming Lag’s landlord, and is in a constant battle of wills with Niche over things like, brushing her teeth, wearing underwear etc etc. I find her to be a very likeable character and a great counter to Lag.

General Musings:

I bought the first three volumes of his purely on spec. I was in my local comic shop and the manager was griping about how a girl had ordered them and never picked them up. I wasn’t overly impressed with the anime so i wasn’t interested in the manga. That of course changed when i saw the cover designs.

The three cover designs are truly stunning, looks like they were done with pastel colours and frankly i think they’re some of the best cover designs I’ve ever seen on a manga. Since he had them up, and i was looking for something new to read, i did the worst thing you can do, judged a book by it’s cover and bought all three volumes

Frankly i don’t regret it in the least and it’s now on my continuous order with the shop hehe. The beautiful cover work is carried on into the actual manga, and this is where i got my first surprise. A lot of manga i get from Viz usually has the colour bleached from the pages (i assume to cut down on costs). However this series doesn’t follow that. The first few pages are in luscious colour, in all three volumes.

Hiroyuki’s art is just amazing in colour, and the settings he draws are even more alive due to the colouring. Shame the double spread wasn’t made a pull-out though, since having it on a normal page does spoil it a bit, but we can’t have everything Thankfully it isn’t just the colour pages that were well done. Hiroyuki brings his story to life with some really amazing drawings and stunning sceneries.

Over the course of the three volumes i found myself really getting into the story. Given the way the story is set up, it would be very easy for it to fail. Since there’s only a man made sun, and the light is only brightest in the centre and gets darker the further away you go from the centre, it would be so easy not to be able to pass the sense of darkness over to the reader.  He manages to pull it off perfectly though, using excellent art and excellent story telling he draws the reader into the setting.

Not much is revealed in the first three volumes, however we do get some excellent insights into the characters, as well as some laughter and tears. Since this is a fairly long series (i believe we’re upto volume twelve at the minute, with the series on-going), this is a great start to the series.

I’m looking forward to seeing how future volumes play out and how Lag and Niche work out. Initially i was thinking that it would end up with Lag and Niche in a relationship or sorts, then i changed to Sylvette and Lag, and now back to Niche. Really looking forward to seeing how it ends up.

Viz did an outstanding job with this release, the luscious covers, to the glossy colour pages, all the way to the editing. I didn’t find anything hugely wrong or rewritten in these volumes, which is always a bonus. Though sadly they did censor it, in the original Japanese versions Niche doesn’t wear underwear, and when she jumps we get bare ass on display. Viz cover these up with SFX. I’m guessing this was so they could go with the lower Teen rating thus get more readers. I’m in two minds over this, on the one hand the censoring isn’t to bad, and doesn’t have any impact on the series. So it means more people can enjoy it. On the other hand I’m a bit of a puritan so wish it wasn’t censored.

Overall though this was a bloody awesome start to a series that I really enjoy and can highly recommend

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ISBN-13: 9784596951366
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 120
by: Junko Okada (Art), Cathy Williams (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Lisa was having a vacation in sunny Spain when she was involved in a car accident. The owner of the car, Angus Hamilton, takes her to the hospital. Angus turns out to be a man of high society – someone whose path Lisa would never have crossed if it wasn’t for this accident. Even after her wounds are healed, she cannot stop thinking about the man she only met once. Then one day, Lisa receives an invitation from Angus to join him on a cruise ship. She would normally decline, but something makes her accept this surprising invitation….

ISBN-13: 9784596951212
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 120
by: Megumi Toda (Art), Milanda Lee (Original Story)
Publisher: Harlequin K.K
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Josei, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

Blessed with brilliant beauty and abundant wealth; Lena used to be a prince of the fashionable society until an accident took everything away from her, leaving only ugly scar in her leg. Her husband despised the car and dumped her. "I never trust a man…" Since then, a smile has disappeared from her face and she has withdrawn and lived a quiet life. She never expects that her extremely sexy boss is determined to make her his own.

Accidental Mistress:

As with most of Harlequins releases this is a story about a girl from the wrong side of the tracks getting lucky and marrying a dream prince.

You know what your getting when you pick up a Harlequin release, and this is no different, no better, and no worse. This means that the volume suffers from all the usual failings of a Harlequin title, the main one being it happens way to fast.

Since we only have 120pages of story it moves at a break neck pace, almost feeling like it’s to fast. However on my second read through i actually found the speed to be okay.

I’m coming to believe that unlike normal manga in the shojo/josei genre, the Harlequin titles are moving from being character drive, to situation driven. This means there’s less focus on the characters, but more on the situation they find themselves in. In this case I think it was pulled off rather well.

The rags to riches story is nothing new, but it doesn’t have to be new to tell a good story. Junko catches the essence of the original story, and brings it to life in a short manga. However that isn’t all she manages to do, she also brings the characters to life. Lisa isn’t just a character in the story, Junko brings her to life and manages to give her a personality that does shine a little.

Angus is also brought to life rather well, and their differing personalities clash well, helping the story along rather well. Though i have to admit i do find the name Angus to be a bit over used in Harlequin titles, how about some variety guys!!

The art for this volume is typical shojo, light, airy, feels like a sneeze would blow it away. The character designs are pretty decent, and the settings are just as nice, some of them even stunning.

Sadly it does have a single failing, the support characters aren’t established, and have a tendency to feel as though they were just thrown into the mix. This is especially true with Paul and Caroline. I was disappointed with the way they were used in the volume, but as i said earlier, due to the limited page count this was to be expected.

One aspect i will praise Harlequin for is the editing. Since i first started to read them they’ve improved loads, and are now doing a pretty decent job with it. They could do with a bit better formatting, and a better choice of fonts (IMO of course!!) but overall this volume was a huge improvement over the first one of theirs i read.

The Billionaire Boss’s Forbidden Mistress:

I actually really loved this one. The cover and title are a bit misleading and it turned out to be something other than what i was expecting.

Again as with all Harlequin titles this is a short, 120 page story. However i found the pacing to be spot on. That’s not to say it wouldn’t have done well if it was longer, because it would. However i also felt that the story played out well in the short space of time.

Like the previous title, this one is situational rather than character driven, the situation this time is more believable, and does have the added bonus of being a bit comical.

This time around we aren’t getting a rags to riches story, but rather a riches to riches story, since our lead, Leah is pretty well off all ready, but due to events in her past she’s closed off and no longer wants to have relationships.

Jason (thank god it’s not another Angus) is the same. He’s had a sort of, tragic past that has resulted in him not only closing himself off, but also being greatly misunderstood. I liked the way Megumi portrays him in the manga. Both he and Leah have a good strong personality that came off well and helped to bring the story to life.As with the previous volume however the side characters are pretty much dead, which was as always a bit disappointing, but not unexpected.

Megumi does an excellent job of getting the back story quickly, without ruining it. She set the stage, then carries the reader through to the end without ay hiccups.

While we all knew how it was going to end, the journey to get there was well executed.

Unlike the previous volume we don’t get the exotic scenery, so the character have to carry more of the story, and the facial expressions and postures of the leads really did a great job of explaining the story. The art of the story is well done as well, with  great character designs, and use of expressions (or lack of them at times).

The editing was superbly done in this volume, with a great choice of fonts and great placement. Harlequin are coming along in leaps and bounds with their work. Though i now hope for a Omnibus paper release with say four or five titles per volume. I’d love to own some of these!!

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Actors: Rick Yune, Naomie Harris, Rain, Sho Kosugi 
Directors: James McTeigue
Language: English
Subtitles: Arabic, English, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Dutch
Classification: 18
Studio: Warner Home Video
Release Date: 17 May 2010
Run Time: 95 minutes

Ninja Assassin follows Raizo (Rain), one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them, and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge.

In Berlin, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has stumbled upon a money trail linking several political murders to an underground network of untraceable assassins from the Far East. Defying the orders of her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles), Mika digs into top secret agency files to learn the truth behind the murders. Her investigation makes her a target, and the Ozunu Clan sends a team of killers, led by the lethal Takeshi (Rick Yune), to silence her forever. Raizo saves Mika from her attackers, but he knows that the Clan will not rest until they are both eliminated. Now, entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse through the streets of Europe, Raizo and Mika must trust one another if they hope to survive, and finally bring down the elusive Ozunu Clan.

Ninja Assassin stars Korean pop star Rain (Speed Racer) as the central character, Raizo; Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) as Europol researcher Mika Coretti; Ben Miles (V for Vendetta) as Europol Agent Ryan Maslow; legendary martial arts performer Sho Kosugi (Revenge of the Ninja) as the ruthless leader of the Ozunu Clan; and Rick Yune (Die Another Day) as Raizo’s rival, Takeshi.

(Preview vid below the cut)

General Musings:

I have to admit that I was in two minds over this movie. A lot of western made ninja style movies usually end up being more cheesy than their Japanese counter parts, and painful to watch. However this movie had several things going for it that made me willing to give it a try.

Firstly, it has Rain in it, I’ve seen a few of his films and have found him to be an excellent actor who excels at bringing his part to life. Secondly, and probably more importantly for me, it has Sho Kosugi as the baddie. I don’t think I’ve yet seen a movie where he fails to impress. Finally, it’s screenplay was done by J. Michael Straczynski, of Babylon 5 fame. When all of these elements are mixed into a movie how can one not buy it.

The movie is rated 18, but i think that’s just them being cautious. There’s no sex or nudity, just loads of fighting. I’ve seen worse in some 16 titles, but after watching it through a few times it’s easy to see why they gave it the 18 rating.

Like a lot of films I’ve seen lately this one seems to be going back to the olden days of the 80’s, in one respect at least. However i have to admit that unlike the 80’s movies, this one works well.

All the elements needed to make a great movie are here, we have a lead character who not only looks awesome, but also fits the role he’s playing. Rain makes a perfect rogue assassin, everything about him screams deadly intent, and when we see him training in his apartment it’s easy to see why he’s feared.

The special effects are…..a matter of taste. For what they are i thought they were done really well, they fit the story well, and don’t look crap. However at times i though they were over used, and at other times i thought they were miss-used.

This was especially true when it came to the throwing stars, which were bloody huge, and frankly looked like they were shot out of a canon rather than thrown by hand.

The fight scenes in this movie are bloody amazing, martial arts fights in just about every place you can think of, from cramped and cluttered rooms, to streets to warehouses. The way Rain and his attackers adapted and used the surroundings was really well choreographed.

One of the best things about this movie is that it uses bullet-time, and uses it a lot better than when it was used in Matrix. The way it changes from fast action, to the slow mo and then back again is handled really well, and only helps heighten the atmosphere.

Naomie Harris’s character did take some getting used to. She starts off as a researcher for Europol, and initially her character is great. I liked how she stumbles upon the clans, researches them and does all the grunt work to find out about them. But over the course of the movie i found i was liking her less and less, something about her just seemed off. I finally realised what it was on my third watch, it’s the way she changed over the course of the movie. She goes from being scared all the time, to being G.I Jane running around saving the lead. This rather drastic change just doesn’t sit right with me, and while i won’t say i hate her, I was a bit disappointed. That said i liked her more than Ben Miles’ character who frankly feels like nothing more than an extra, thrown in there to give a slight change of pace.

Another aspect of the movie i found a bit disappointing was the way they handled the flash-backs. While i understand the need for them to be there, given how short the time of a movie is, the constant back and forth did break the atmosphere at times. However it does give a lot of insight into Rain’s character and makes the ending all the more touching.

So, what was the bit that was a throw back to the 80’s? It’s the way they handled the fight scenes. Whenever he cut something we’d get buckets full of blood gushing all over the place. It did make the fight scenes look awesome, especially when they went into slow mo at times. Yet at the same time you can’t help but think if people lost that much blood when they lost a foot or arm, then the word population would be a lot less.

Also as i said, the shuriken used in this movie are a bit insane. In every movie, anime, and manga I’ve seen they’ve always been fairly small things. Only a very few were large oversized ones, mainly because these are supposed to be stealth weapons. Nothing stealthy about throwing around dinner plate sized shuriken, not to mention running around carrying thousands of them, since the number used in the fight scenes is rather insane as well.

But, who cares about that, several scenes where they’re used (such as the car chase) looks absolutely mind blowing with the stars flying everywhere.

All told this was an excellent movie that i thoroughly enjoyed and will most likely watch again from time to time. What’s more the movie is rather cheap for us brits, costing only £6.99 at the minute (or cheaper on Amazon), and comes in three forms. The standard DVD, Blu-ray and digital download coming from iTunes and BlinkBox.

I also think this has the potential to make an excellent TV series, or possibly a few more movies, since in this movie Rain and Europol only actually take down one of the nine clans, it leaves eight others to play around with. I hope we get to see more at some point in the future.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Nao Yazawa
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shojo

Synopsis:

Mizuki just wants to be a normal teenage girl, however, she has one problem. Whenever she gets angry she transforms into a devil! She was born into a family of devils and now it is her mission, along with her partner Sekito, to transform into a devil and fight monsters. What is a girl to do when all she really wants is to be normal! Like any teenage girl, Mizuki has a school crush. The one secret she can never let anyone know is that she can transform into a devil! When the school is under attack and her partner Sekito wants her to fight, how will she defend the school, save her crush, but not reveal her secret?!

General Musings:

No character musings, since this is essentially just two chapters and frankly not enough for me to make a proper thoughts on them.

The art in this series looks and feels dated, but for me it worked really well for me, but then it’s a shojo series so the art sort of makes sense. I have to admit that reading it through the second time I found the art reminding me more and more of the old Sailor Moon styled series.

The same is sort of true with the story, though i have to admit i do like the twist this time. Rather than being an angel or super-heroine, she’s a devil saving the day. these sort of twists do breath life into an old genre.

The story is rather fast paced, jumping in at the deep-end right from the start. There’s little in the way of an explanation as to why a devil would be doing what she does, but then, again, as it’s only two chapters there’s room to grow.

It’s hard to judge a new title after only two chapters, but I will admit i enjoyed reading it. Hopefully future chapters will be just as enjoyable, but a bit more revealing.

I do like Mizuki as a character, her reactions to things was just funny as hell. In the second chapter i actually did got a little lump in my throat and had to swallow a few times.

I’m looking forward to the following chapters, or an official volume release.

Publisher Musings:

This seems to be a first for eManga who seem to be taking a leaf from NetComics and releasing the series in a chapter by chapter basis. I’m in two minds over this to be honest, mainly over the costs involved. NetComics charge around the 25c a chapter, where as eManga is charging a staggering $2.75 a chapter. That’s a huge jump in price, and i have to admit seems a bit over priced, hopefully they’ll find a cheaper price model to use.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Masamune Shirow
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Type: Series
Genre: Shounen

Synopsis:

World War III is over, and nomad soldier Duenan Knute and her cyborg partner Briareos struggle to survive in the abandoned cities and demilitarized zones of the post-war wasteland, the "Badside." Matters appear on the upswing, however, when they are found and brought to Olympus, an urban utopia and centrepiece for the reconstruction of civilization. Duenan and Bri join the Olympus police, a force that seems hardly necessary in such a paradise. But, like in most pretty pictures, perfection is an illusion, and Olympus’s peaceful facade hides a dark secret, a violent struggle between human and cyborg that could once again plunge the world into war . . . and genocide.

Character Musings:

The heroine Duenan Knute. is everything I love in a character. She’s strong (physically), strong willed, and a little bit insane. I also like how her strengths and weaknesses balance out, with  neither one over powering either her, or her personality. I was however a bit disappointed with the way they softened her later on with love, but i still like her.

Briareos Hecatonchires is Duenan’s partner, and also her lover. He’s more down to earth and thoughtful than Duenan is and tends try and be a temporising force on her. He’s dependable, and dedicated, as well as one tough guy. In the third and fourth volumes he does go through some changes, which make him less likely, but still an interesting character.

General Musings:

Appleseed is an excellent manga series that, quite frankly, could have been amazing. The first two volumes of the series have an amazing flow. Shirow introduces an excellent story with two really likeable characters. The characters are introduced really well, and as the story passes their personalities come across without stifling the supporting characters, or the story.

Post-apocalyptic stories aren’t usually my cup of tea, I’ve always preferred either high fantasy type stories, or josei, yet it’s hard not to like this series. Personalities wise Duenan and Briareos are great match, their personalities don’t clash, to much, nor do they come across as forced.

The first two volumes are dedicated to setting up both of the leads in their new roles. Taking them from the “Badside” to their new homes. Introducing them to the new way of life, and setting them up in their roles as SWAT officers.

I liked the way this was done, though, as I’ve found often in short series, it does feel a bit fast. They go from newcomers to major characters so fast it’s unbelievable.

Sadly that’s where a lot of my enjoyment ended. Volumes three and four were an excellent read and i did enjoy them. However the changes in the characters really didn’t sit well with me. The sudden change in both the character personalities, as well as the physical changes (Duenan suddenly becoming a cyborg), really didn’t mesh well.

The story is also a little harder to follow as the location changes aren’t explained very well. However the biggest disappointment for me was Athena, who for the first two volumes was acting one, when the suddenly does a 180 turn and acts the complete opposite, with just a shrug off explanation.

Both Duenan and Briareos go through some personality changes which doesn’t really sit well with me. I preferred them the way they were in the first two  volumes. I understand that characters do go through changes as time goes by, and i can usually embrace and even enjoy them. However when the character go to bed one way and wake up another, it’s a bit annoying.

The story also goes off in wild tangents and loses it’s focus. I’m guessing this was due to the core story being resolved in the first two volumes. Though i have to admit that while the focus shifts, the story we do get is not un-enjoyable. For me though i found it hard adjusting to the new personalities and characteristics of the leads.

When all is said and done though, i did enjoy the series for what it’s worth. I do love the art style of the series, and it does showcase Shirow’s art style off well. This series also shows off his interesting sense of humour as we get little commentaries and side notes throughout the series. I was lucky in that i got this series for a discounted price, and have to admit i don’t regret buying it. Now if only i could get my hands on the other few Appleseed books out there!!

Publisher Musings:

I wanted to comment on a few things done by Dark Horse. Firstly this series is oversized compared to normal manga. It’s rather the size of the manhwa titles we see. Also the colour pages were all left intact, which makes the series look exceptional. Also they left the series un-flipped, so it reads right to left in true manga style.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Okuse Saki (story) & Meguro Sankichi (art)
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Type: Series
Genre: Shounen

Synopsis:

Ghost Talker’s Daydream is a horror anime created by Okuse Saki and Meguro Sankichi . It tells the story of Misaki Saiki, a young woman with a troubled past, who is a professional dominatrix in one of Tokyo’s most exclusive S&M clubs. However, her real money is something she likes even less than being a dominatrix. Ever since childhood, Misaki has had the ability to see and communicate with ghosts, and that talent is put to use by the Livelihood Protection Agency, who pairs Misaki with Souichiro Kadotake, a martial artist who happens to be deathly afraid of ghosts. Using her gifts, Misaki is able to help troubled departed spirits resolve what is troubling them and allow them to move on to the afterlife. If all THAT isn’t odd enough, Misaki is an albino AND a virgin.

Character Musings:

Misaki is the lead of the story. She’s a dominatrix, albino, virgin, AND she  see’s dead people. She hates both her job as a dominatrix, and as a ghost talker, but can’t give up either because they pay so damned well. She’s strong for the most part, but very self conscious over the fact she’s got no hair down below, and that she’s still a virgin.

Souichiro is Misaki’s assistant, he’s there to handle all of the physical side of things, such as beating up the bad guys. He’s a career civil servant, and a closet pervert whose got a small fixation on Misaki. He does have one small issue though, he’s deathly afraid of ghosts, and tends to freak out when he has to confront them.

Mitsuru, a high school boy with several issues making him a reclusive and hard to deal with person. He also happens to be a total stalker, his target: Misaki. He frequently breaks into her apartment to steal her panties, as well as following her taking photos, and occasionally offering her a bit information on her cases.

Ai, originally one of Misaki’s clients (ghost talker that is). She’s coming to terms with her families death and suffers from PTSD leading to some weird situations, especially when she starts to awaken as a Ghost Talker. She’s quiet and grown introverted, yet comes across as determined and strong at times.

General Musings:

I love this series!! But lets get one thing straight before we get going. Despite it’s official demographic classification, this is not a shounen title, it’s very much a seinen, this title also comes shrink-wrapped and covered in the obligatory “parental advisory” stickers.

The mixture of dominatrix and ghost talking works really well I felt. Misaki is an excellent character who really does bring the part to life. I have to admit when I initially read the blurb about her (19 year old albino dominatrix) I wasn’t sure about her. It looked and felt that Okuse was trying to put to many elements into one character. However by the end of volume one I was in love with her.

Okuse took a risk with his character concept in that she was over powered in so many areas. However he balanced this by adding elements of not so much weakness, but naivety and softness, these balance out her personality perfectly.

Meguro’s art also works well with Misaki, for the most part. I don’t like the comic aspects that crop up now and again, but i can live with those since they don’t happen very often. The character designs in general are perfect, and Misaki does look awesome in normal clothes, and damn sexy in her work clothes.  Over the course of the five volumes currently available the art stays stable and doesn’t change much.

Souichiro makes a good match for Misaki, he’s not only her point of contact for her government  work, but he also acts as the rough stuff guy, which considering his personality and the way he looks and acts is bloody funny. He also of course adds the comic relief, a lot of the embarrassing situation Misaki finds herself in are caused by him. I really like how he reacts to the ghosts in the series, and how he reacts to the girls in the series. He takes closet perverseness to the max.

His actual character design is pretty good. His civil servant attitude is emphasised by the way he’s always portrayed, in a suit, sleeps in his car to save time etc etc.

The best thing about the series though is the character interactions, they all work so well together.

However it is worth pointing out that even after five volumes there’s no real sense of a story to the series, it’s, so far, a “day in the life” sort of feel, or ghost of the week if you prefer. While it is true there is an underlying story (finding out who Yuo is), there’s no really powerful story. While it’s possible for one to develop, it’s going to be hard for it to really be a good flowing one with the series half over. I am hoping the focus shifts to Yuo, since that will be a good story to tell.

Another thing I’m interested in learning about is Kinu, who appears to be some sort of demon pet of Misaki’s. It wraps itself around her, and looks like it’s made of fish-net stockings at times. So far there’s not been an explanation of what it is, or it’s place in the story so I’m hoping we get one.

All told this is an excellent series with a killer story, one that keeps you hooked from the start. However it does have one down side, so far there’s no release date for the last five volumes of the series. All the Dark Horse site has is a pre order option, no due date or anything.

One other thing worth pointing out is that the title for the series isn’t official, in fact the official title of the series is Teizokurei Daydream, which translates as Vulgar Ghost Daydream. I’m guessing they changed the name slightly to make it more appealing…

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Shizuru Hayashiya
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Type: Series
Genre: Seinen, Comedy,

Synopsis:

The all-girls boarding school Tenchi Academy isn’t just known for its quality academics–it’s also known for training the top sword fighters in the country. Students in the special "Sword Bearer" program compete in a school-wide battle known as the Star Stealing, striving to win both money and fame.

Enter Kurogane Hayate. With her sister Nagi recovering from a lingering injury, the spunky and cheerful Hayate must take her place at the Academy until Nagi is well enough to return. When Hayate learns of the mountain of debt her old orphanage, the Dandelion Garden, owes to Yakuza loan sharks, she decides to become a sword-bearer and win the Star Stealing.

There’s just one problem…she needs a partner to compete and the one girl Hayate has her eye on wants nothing to do with her!

Character Musings:

Kurogane Hayate, our rather absent minded air headed heroine. She takes enthusiasm  and guts to the max, never really thinks things through, and pretty much always ends up annoying the hell out of her friends. However she doesn’t do it maliciously, it’s just she gets over enthusiastic about things and over does them.

Mudo Ayana, the partner for Hayate and pretty much ends up regretting it. She refuses to fight initially because of past events, but is won over when she learns of Hayate’s reasons, and then later to confront her own past. She’s a dark character, brooding and move than a little violent. However she hides several dark secrets that she’s afraid of confronting.

Amachi Hitsugi, the current dean of the school, and also the top of the sword fighters, and the target of the rest. She’s your typical rich girl, in so much as she is whimsical to the point of lunacy, yet she’s also dedicated to her own ideals, and defends the traditions of the school vehemently.

Miyamoto Shizuku, partner of Amachi. Like her partner she’s a bit of a loony toon, and has monstrous strength and speed, to the point she’s able to ring the huge school bell (think church bell in a tower!!) by hitting it with her fist. She’s utterly devoted to Amachi, who she’s been with since she was a child. However she’d now concerned over a comment made by Amachi over who is faster, her or Hayate.

There are a few other pairs i was going to go into, but these two are the main ones, so i don’t see the need to go into the other pairs.

General Musings:

I ordered this series after a recommendation by someone on twitter (i think it was @ShroudedDancer). Initially I was a bit reluctant, since frankly I didn’t like the cover art, but I do try to not judge a book by it’s cover….to often. The series is a pretty fun one to read though, and well worth investing the time in to read through.

You learn fairly early that this isn’t going to be a serious manga, rather a mick-take, and from early on you get a few giggles over the way things play out. Given that a lot of what I’ve been reading of later are dark, deep and serious, this made a rather nice reprieve. However that is not to say that this series isn’t without it’s flaws, it has several; though thankfully none are game breaking ones.

One of the flaws, or rather, one of the sticking areas, is the art. I don’t think it’s fair to call it a flaw, rather it’s a clash of styles. While reading the first volume I found I didn’t like the way the art was handled, at times it feels to much like it’s a literal two tone comic, pure black and white. But at the same time this does sort itself out as the volume continues, and while it does creep back in at times, it never really becomes a huge problem, more an annoyance.

The other aspect I find a bit off putting is the time span and pacing of the the series. There’s not real sense of time passage in the story, we suddenly get told ‘x’ amount of time has passed, but with nothing to show for it. This is especially true with the main characters. By the end of volume six there’s no sense of change to their relationship, true we do get a some changes, but they’re minor and don’t really have any feel to them. One of the biggest things I found annoying was the way Ayana handled telling Hayate about her past partner. It had a feel of “oh we haven’t explained this yet, get it in now” to it, which made it feel rushed. This was exasperated by the fact that the explanation was short, and only a partial one, because of Hayate’s nature and her response. Those bits aside, I really enjoyed the series, especially the antics that Hayate gets upto trying to save the orphanage she grew up in.

The story does lose it’s way a little as time goes on and I’m not really sure what the story is anymore. It starts out as being Hayate just filling in for her sick twin sister (who so far has not appeared). It then goes on to saving the orphanage from the loan shark, and while this does provide for some interesting elements, it’s dropped rather suddenly and no longer seems to be impacting the story. Finally we don’t really have a story anymore, no real goal for the characters to be aiming for, or driving force.

However when all is said and done I did enjoy this series, there wasn’t a volume I didn’t get to chuckle over, and I don’t regret buying the series. While it’s not on my instant buy list, series I buy as soon as they’re released, it is one I will pick up as time goes by.

Publisher Musings:

Both praise and criticism for Seven Seas sadly. Firstly the volumes are handled amazingly well, the covers are nice and glossy meaning they’ll last a while before falling a part (*cough*Tokyopop*cough*). I also loved the fact that they left the original naming conventions, rather than westernising them, and leaving all the the honorific’s and titles in as well. Each volume also has a well equipped glossary of terms explaining things really well, made it easy to read, follow and understand.

Sadly, the criticism part comes in not with the individual volume releases but rather the omnibus release. While I do like the covers of the omnibus, the timing of the release, and the way Seven Seas handle their omnibus’s make me want to pull my hair out (if I had hair hehe). Firstly the content. While it does contain the first three volumes, and in that regard it’s excellent value for money, it’s also missing the glossary, and all the extras of the first three volumes. So suddenly the excellent naming conventions, titles, and other original conventions that weren’t westernised, suddenly could become a hindrance. This is because Seven Seas seem to have a decided to put all the extras and glossaries at the end of the last omnibus, so you won’t get them until the second volume is released in April. It was the same for their omnibus release of Kashimashi sadly.

Also the timing is abysmal, all of the original volume are still readily available and relatively  cheap to pick up. So there’s no need for an omnibus, I can’t help but see this as being a stop gap measure. Hayate x Blade moved publishers and they haven’t been able to license the series for the new publisher (yet). But rather than just admit that they say they’ve shifted focus to the omnibus version. Sadly this seems to be a bit of a repetition with Seven Seas, when something goes wrong or unexpected happens, they blame everything else rather than just come up and admit.

My personal views on this is that it’s well worth spending the few extra quid and getting the individual volumes rather that the omnibus, i consider them to be better value for money, and easier to read.

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ISBN-13: 9781569701911
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 360
by: Kaoru Tada
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Shojo, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

High school senior Kotoko Aihara has had a crush on Naoki Irie since freshman year. Unfortunately, there a few things are discouraging her from to him: he’s a member of "Class A," the top ranking class in school, whereas she’s in "Class F"; he gets the top score on every exam; and he’s so smart, popular and handsome that he’s been class president every year. When Kotoko finally musters up the courage to present him with a love letter, though, Naoki outright refuses it, telling her point blank–with a look of disgust and boredom—that he doesn’t like "stupid girls." Poor Kotoko’s worst nightmare! Her heart is broken, but then a change in circumstance forces Naoki and Kotoko to be together every day…!?

Character Musings:

Kotoko Aihara is the heroine of the series, she’s not the brightest bulb in the pack. But what she lacks in smarts she makes up for in determination and her happy go lucky personality. As a character she’s well developed, personality wise, and while she does grow over the three volumes she starts off well rounded.

Naoki Irie is the complete reverse of Kotoko, he’s one of the smartest students in Japan, but also a rather apathetic person who has closed himself off. This does cause some problems for Tada, trying to bring out his personality well is very hard due to his cold nature. If it’s done wrong we’d have a character that just didn’t work. Thankfully Tada pulls it off perfectly.

These two characters are the main characters, and frankly, the atmosphere  between the two of them is amazing. It worked splendidly and I found myself being drawn more and more into their relationship.

General Musings:

An other excellent volume. The story flows at a bit slower pace in this volume, but doesn’t lose any of it’s style or feel.

I loved the first part of the series, dealing with Yuki’s hospital stay. Primarily because we get to see Kotoko mature a little bit, and start thinking of things beyond her desire for Naoki. And we also get to see Naoki thawing a bit more due to the plight of those around him. Yuki was another character I found myself liking more and more. In the previous volumes he was never quite right for me, but in this volume he comes into his own and becomes a very interesting, if a bit twisted character.

The first part of the volume also included some comedy scenes, such as the ghost of the hospital. I really enjoyed reading this part of the volume, it started off great with humour and laughs and went from strength to strength.

The second arc in the volume starts off with a reused image, with Kotoko doing her fright impression. Though I have to admit I didn’t mind it so much this time, for some reason it did fit the setting.

Sadly this second arc didn’t really work out that well, and I feel it was rushed and not really given a chance to bloom. This arc deals with Kotoko getting a confession, and how she and those around her deal with it. Personally I think this would have been an excellent arc if more time had been spent on it, but it’s short and to the point, and a bit disappointing in a way.

The next few arcs of story were predictable and while i got a few laughs from it, I also ended up feeling like this volume was a bit “scenario of the week” or rather scenario of the chapter. While they did all interconnect, it also felt weird, to many events being thrown together.

The arc where both Naoki and Kotoko finally go to work at Naoki’s dad’s company was rather funny, some interesting revelations along the way, as well as getting to see just how much of a genius Naoki really is, as well as just how much of an idiot Kotoko is. What I really liked those was we got to see Naoki reaffirming his statement from an earlier volume about how he envies the way Kotoko looks at things. The way this arc worked out was very well scripted, though the ending was sort of obvious.

The last two arcs were probably my favourite for this volume. The first deals with Christmas, and while nothing major happens, it was a nice change of pace, and a bit touching. The final arc though was amazing, and that’s all I’ll say on it ‘cause anymore would be a spoiler Needless to say the last arc was totally out of left field and unexpected, I’m eagerly awaiting volume five now to see the after effects of the revelations!!

All told i really enjoyed this volume, and i have to admit that i didn’t mind the art so much. In fact I’m really getting into this series now. Guess this proves that art doesn’t make a series

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ISBN-13: 9781427815545
Language: English
Direction: Left to Right
Pages: 192
by: Yui Hara
Publisher: Tokyopop
Type: Series
Genre: Shounen

Synopsis:

Before his death, Kazuki’s father told many stories about Artemis, a magical star not unlike their own, Planeto. Now an orphan living with his brother, Kazuki daydreams constantly about Artemis, despite his brother’s warnings that the planet doesn’t actually exist. Then one day, Kazuki runs into a girl from Artemis…who disappears and is quickly replaced by another girl…who puts a curse on him that he can’t remove unless he finds the witch of Artemis…who happens to be the first girl he saw! But when he finds her, he discovers she’s much more than just your typical sorceress. Magic and the struggles of growing up intertwine in this tale of learning to follow your instincts in spite of your best – or worst – intentions.

Character Musings:

Kazuki our lead is, well, frankly a pathetic character. He’s generic in every so much so I wanted to smack him one by the end of the first volume. He has no personality to speak of, and I’d lay odds he’ll suddenly change in a later volume.

Marie is as generic as Kazuki, though at least her generic tsundere personality gives her a more vibrant feel. Though again there’s nothing really special about her to really make a great character from.

Viora, or protagonist is the character of the series (so far). She has a sweet personality, but does apparently evil things, and does come out with some interesting comments. Though admittedly we do only get a few scenes with her, those scenes leave the deeper impact on me.

General Musings:

Sadly this series failed to impress, though granted it was just the first volume, and yes there were a few things I did like about it. The way the title is displayed, and the actual cover art, is a bit misleading. It looks like a shojo series, but it isn’t, or at least not on a level I consider shojo, rather it’s a shounen.

So, which elements did I enjoy? Firstly we have the way Yui has laid out her art, there’s a reduction in actual panels and the panels we do have are larger and more detailed. This does mean there’s less story, but it also means what story we do get can be displayed bigger and better. Sadly though this isn’t always the case, and I will admit to finding Yui’s art a bit lack lustre at times.

However the art can and does occasionally live upto it’s space allotment. Marie on the cover looks stunning, and on a few occasions within the volume in the larger panels, the characters and back-drops look and feel perfect. Of course there’s also times when they look plain old crap as well. Over the course of the volume the art really did fail to impress, as a whole. I loved the fairy and also Viora’s outfit and designs and sadly little else.

The story is even more generic than the characters, so much so that i could probably write out the story myself with little effort. Generic stories aren’t a bad thing, since lets face it, given the number of manga out there someone will always (pretty much) have done the story before. So a generic story isn’t a necessary negative. However to overcome this you need to have several other elements to cover it. An excellently written and laid out plot, excellent art, and excellent characters. Yui sadly doesn’t have these.

So what other elements did i like? Honestly, none, the other thing that caught my attention was the possibility of one panel, where Marie and Viora meet. That encounter gave me hope that the series could grow into something beyond plain and boring, which is what I’m hoping for.

Though whether this will be the cases isn’t known, as the series is no longer listed on either Tokyopop’s web site, other on their web-shop. Though you can google directly to the page.

On the up-side there’s a few pages of extras, which are appreciated. Concept drawings and character introductions. We also get a a full page drawing of the fairy, which is just so damned cute and I’m hoping we get to see more of her in the future.

This isn’t a series i will actively follow, but I will pick up the next volume or two, if/when they’re eventually released. Just to see if it turns into a decent story, or stays monotone and boring.

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ISBN-13: 9781600092510
Language: English
Direction: Left to Right
Pages: 184
by: Kimijin
Publisher: NetComics
Type: Series
Genre: Shounen, Drama, Romance, Historical

Synopsis:

An epic fantasy and vivid re-imagination of ancient Korean history, made possible by painstaking historical research combined with breathtaking mythological visualization!

Kingdom of the Winds tells the legendary story of King Yuri (Goguryeo’s second emperor), King Damusin (Muhyul, Goguryeo’s third emperor), and Muhyul’s son
Hodong. This tale fills in the personal details of their lives, their ideals and human emotions as they struggle with an unavoidable fate that intertwines and
tangles their lives with that of their nation.
You will meet the heroes of the Kingdom of the Winds; heroes afflicted and lost, opposed to each other, and bound together on their epic journeys to achieving their diverse ideals that actual history had only hinted at

So, what is the story about?

The first volume focuses on the Crown Prince of the kingdom of Gogureyo (try saying that when your drunk!!) by the name of Muhyul. He, along with the rest of his siblings live in fear of his father, who has already killed their older brother; the former Crown Prince.

Muhyul tries to protect his siblings from his fathers wrath, as well as deal with a wife whom he loves dearly, and soon to be born child. However things are take a turn for the worse when dark powers take a hand in affairs looking to topple the kingdom. Leading to the disappearance and murder of Yeojin, Muhyul’s younger beloved brother.

General musings:

This was a hard series to get into, in fact I had put it down several times purely because I struggled to follow the story. There were several reasons for this, and since I feel they are important, I’m going to go through all the problems i had with the volume:

Overly dark art work that makes it hard to see who is talking all the time. This isn’t a huge problem, since it’s only really bad a few times in this volume.

NetComics left in all the original Korean terminology, which isn’t a problem per say. However the problem occurs when they use side notes to explain the terminology, however these notes are so faint, and/or obscured by the art (lacking a white border) that at times I found I was needing a magnifying glass to read them.

Finally, I found it very easy to get confused on the story, as it flows like molasses up-hill. Elements of it didn’t make sense, but i think that was due in part to the point i just mentioned, about text being obscured at times.

Yet I did persevere and finally get through the first volume, and I’m glad that I stuck with it.

The first volume, I feel, is really a stage setter. Introducing the various characters, showing off their personalities, the usual stuff. And, despite the problems mentioned above, I found it an interesting read. Also after the first part of the book things seemed to settle down, and become easier to follow, which made the story easier to get into and to enjoy.

By the end of this first volume I was hooked. The characters have a lot of interesting things about them, and I liked how little is actually revealed about them, and yet at the same time loads of stuff is revealed. It makes for a unique perspective on the lead characters, since while we now know a lot about him, little of it is mind blowing stuff; so we have mysteries within mysteries.

The first volume is a good introduction to the series, but you do have to sit with it, and if you’re looking for a light read, this is most definitely not one to pick up. However if you want a story that has the potential to be an epic fantasy, this is worth giving a try.

This is my first paper volume from NetComics, I’ve read their stuff on the online reader of course, but this is my first actual paper volume; and on the whole I am impressed with the release.

My only complaint on their work is that a lot of the thought and glossary text needs a bigger border to make it more readable. Beyond that they get a huge thumbs up from me. I was especially impressed with the amount of extras we get in the volume, from character descriptions, through to how the story fits in historically. Kimijin obviously put a lot of attention into this, and I’m really glad that NetComics decided to leave them in, rather than cut them out to save costs.

The paper of the volume is about average, same quality I’d say as you would have found in CMX titles, which while not the greatest, isn’t the worst. I feel that NetComics found a good balance between quality and cost. I look forward to reading some of their other materials (and still live in hope of getting Yodong’s Vampire as a actual book).

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Kaoru Tada
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Shojo, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

High school senior Kotoko Aihara has had a crush on Naoki Irie since freshman year. Unfortunately, there a few things are discouraging her from to him: he’s a member of "Class A," the top ranking class in school, whereas she’s in "Class F"; he gets the top score on every exam; and he’s so smart, popular and handsome that he’s been class president every year. When Kotoko finally musters up the courage to present him with a love letter, though, Naoki outright refuses it, telling her point blank–with a look of disgust and boredom—that he doesn’t like "stupid girls." Poor Kotoko’s worst nightmare! Her heart is broken, but then a change in circumstance forces Naoki and Kotoko to be together every day…!?

Character Musings:

Kotoko Aihara is the heroine of the series, she’s not the brightest bulb in the pack. But what she lacks in smarts she makes up for in determination and her happy go lucky personality. As a character she’s well developed, personality wise, and while she does grow over the three volumes she starts off well rounded.

Naoki Irie is the complete reverse of Kotoko, he’s one of the smartest students in Japan, but also a rather apathetic person who has closed himself off. This does cause some problems for Tada, trying to bring out his personality well is very hard due to his cold nature. If it’s done wrong we’d have a character that just didn’t work. Thankfully Tada pulls it off perfectly.

These two characters are the main characters, and frankly, the atmosphere  between the two of them is amazing. It worked splendidly and I found myself being drawn more and more into their relationship.

There are a number of other characters but they aren’t that important, and I’ll cover them in the next section.

General Musings:

When i first ordered this series from the Book Depository I have to admit I wasn’t sure what to expect. What i got wasn’t what i was expecting though.

The art in this series is literally all over the place, and i do mean all over the place. The character designs especially seem to change from page to page. To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if people did give up early on because of the art, and the fact the story starts off a bit on the slow side.

However over the course of the three volumes the art does improve, and at times I found the style rather endearing, and it did produce some rather funny looking scenes. Though at the same time i also found it rather sad that the art wasn’t better done.

This was especially true of the first page of the first volume. We get both of the main characters and they both look, well, freaky. Naoki looks like he’s just gotten out of bed, and then hit in the face with a frying pan. Right under him we have Kotoko, who looks like she’s just had the fright of her life, and used at least a dozen cans of hair spray on her hair.

Initially for me this was a killer, and i put the volumes away ‘cause i didn’t want to deal with it; shame on me!! If you give the first volume a chance the story really does grow on you. Sure the story is cheesy as hell, but at the same time i found i couldn’t help but laugh at the stupid events that take place. Not to mention how those around the pair react.

Both families mix an excellent element of zany into the mix, creating a truly comical story.

Of course this would only carry the series so far. Eventually it would be come dull, and then we’d have nothing but a horrendously drawn series with no story. Tada however introduces elements to the story that keep things interesting. They’re all based around the relationships, friendships and rivalries that come about.

One thing i did find a bit weird though was the love interests for Naoki, we get two new ones in the first three volumes, and they aren’t really well developed. I was rather disappointed at how fast the relationships were discounted, but at the the same time i loved the comic elements that came about because of those relationships.

Naturally the core of the story is about Naoki and Kotoko coming together, and the way that Tada slowly builds the relationship works really well. Rather than having Naoki change over night it takes time, and the changes are at first subtle, and then more and more pronounced. I was really impressed with the way the two moved forward in their relationship, and the way they handled the events around them.

By the end of the third volume I no longer cared that the art is horrid, it no longer mattered. All that mattered was that the story was awesome, and I’m now eagerly awaiting the next volume.

The various characters add some colour to Kotoko and Naoki’s relationship, as well as giving them a back drop to interact with. The Irie family is with out a doubt one of the best sources of laughter for the series, especially with Naoki’s mother, who has always wanted a daughter and goes a mile to far. I did find her personality a bit over the top, but Tada keeps it to just the right level and frequency, resulting in a good blend. She loves Kotoko and goes out of her way to bring the two of them together, and on a few occasions goes a little to far.

Kinnosuke is the main male love rival, but i was saddened by how little impact he has on the two characters. He seems to be there more for the comic relief than anything else. And while he certainly does give us a lot of laughs, I wish he could have been more of a rival, would have been more interesting i think.

Reiko is the main female love rival in the first three volumes, and she does it really well. Though sadly it’s pretty obvious from the outset that she has no chance. We do get some interesting elements and scenarios, especially when Naoki uses her to make Kotoko jealous.

Publisher Musings:

I was a bit reluctant at buying this series originally, since it was more expensive than usual. When it arrived this was made worse by the fact that the manga was smaller that the usual manga DMP put out, being more inline with normal manga sizes, rather than the over sized ones I’ve seen of their other titles. They do keep the honorific’s of the series, and give inline notes and translations for cultural references.

All told this was an excellent read, and a series I’m going to be following faithfully from now on.

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Firstly i finally married my fiancé Megan, rather she decided she was sick of waiting on me to set a date and took matters into her own hands hehe. She, along with some of our friends and her folks set it all up and put me on the spot so i couldn’t run away.

Also, we bought a new house, so we ended up moving….again. We now have our own house, which is costing us a lot less than it would have in rental.

And to top it off, we both got promoted at work, so we’re getting more money coming in. Not to mention I’m now on full flexi-time which makes my life a hell of a lot easier.

The down side was of course when we went to her folks for Christmas. The UK got hit with the worst snow in recorded history, and we got cut off. So we went through hell of having to live in a romantic cottage, with open fires and bottles of wine for a while. Can you say double honeymoon

Anyways, I’m now back and getting started into my posts again, the first of which will be up in a few hours or so.

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The Prizes:

1st Place: Itazura na Kiss Volumes 1-3

2nd Place: Jyu oh Sei Anime

3rd Place: She the Ultimate Weapon (Saikano) Anime Box set, including the OVA

Runner up: Yashakiden 1-2 (runner up prize because they’ve each been read twice by me for my reviewing, other wise they’re as new).

So what do you have to do to win these prizes, well it’s a multi purpose competition and you have to complete ALL of them to win.

Firstly, read through my blog and write me a comment telling me what you think of it. I’m still learning about blogging, so all feedback is welcome, just keep it civil folks.

Second, tell me which of my reviews is most likely to influence you into buying the title reviewed.

Thirdly, follow me on twitter 

Finally, give me three titles that are licensed, but you haven’t bought and give me a good reason what you haven’t, and I’ll pick the top three out of the entire list and buy and review them. I’ll also then forward the copies I buy to one of the winners after I’ve reviewed it.

Contest runs from today, November 16th, until 8pm GMT December 2nd. Winners will be announced the next day, 3rd December. Hopefully prizes will reach reach winners before Christmas, but that’s dependant on your own countries mail.

Rules:

1) No country limitations, if it can get to you by post you can enter. But i can not be held responsible if it gets held up by your countries mail service. All prizes will be sent recorded (signed for)

2) If you already own Itazura na Kiss 1-3 you can pick ANY 3 Digital Manga Publishing titles as a replacement (Some restrictions based on the cost, no individual volume can cost more than £10).

3)Anime Box Sets are the UK region, so if you’re outside the UK you will need a multi-region player.

4) If i think of something i’ll add it

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ISBN-13: 978-1-934876-76-3
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 480
by: Satoru Akahori (Story) & Yukimaru Katsura (Art)
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Type: Series
Genre: Shojo-ai

Synopsis:

Being a girl is harder than it looks…
For Hazumu, this couldn’t be truer, because just the other day, she…was a he.

Shunned by the girl of his dreams, Hazumu loses himself in the mountains and is promptly squashed by an oncoming space ship. The alien inside, feeling guilty, rebuilds Hazumu’s body…but as the wrong gender!

Now Hazumu must learn how to be the girl his parents always wanted while dealing with the trials and tribulations of being caught in a love triangle between two girls–his childhood friend, Tomari, and Yasuna, the girl who rejected him but is now strangely attracted to him/her!

Character Musings:

I’m only going to go into the main three character this time, I’ll cover the other characters in the next post.

Hazumu is an effeminate guy in the beginning. Or rather he’s a girl in a guys body, thought even his body looks more like a girls. His personality reflects this, he’s soft, scares easily, indecisive, and yet caring, dedicated and loving. This is shown by the way he treats the flowers in the school, talking to them, rather having conversations with them. His struggling to decide whether to ask the girl he likes out, and the way he reacts afterwards.

Even after he gets turned into a girl there’s very little difference personality wise. In the manga he adapts to his life as a girl with only a few hic-ups (such as buying the wrong size bra, offering to show Asuta her boobs and stuff), but these are overcome rapidly. Pretty much everything else about him remains the same.

Yasuna is most definitely one of the most interesting characters of the volume. She’s beautiful, but has a stand offish, aloof and cold personality. Throughout the volume she practically ignores all the male characters, though not Hazumu.

After Hazumu changes things take an unexpected twist as Yasuna changes subtly. She becomes more forceful and determined to catch Hazumu’s heart. Over the course of the volume more and more of her personality is revealed, and I found I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She feels she has to be alone because of the way she is, however when Hazumu changes she learns what true loneliness is and longs for change.

Tomari is the tom-boy of the series, rather she’s the boy that Hazumu was supposed to be. She’s decisive, athletic and determined. She frequently does stuff that frankly I would balk at (like jumping down flights of stairs), and she also pushes Hazumu into confessing to Yasuna.

After Hazumu’s change Tomari Is the one who has the hardest time coming to terms with it. This gives her an excellent chance to go through some subtle personality changes. These changes soften the tom-boy feel and give her a more feminine touch. I wasn’t sure it would work at first, but after the first volume I think it worked out well, with Tomari having a good feel to her personality now.

General Musings:

I finally got around to reading my copy of this second omnibus. Kashimashi is a great gender-bending story with excellent art and for the most part, a great story.

As with the first volume the art is pretty stable throughout, and i have to admit i found some of the art really funny. However some of the art was really heart rending in this volume, and I feet that Yukimaru did a superb job of catching the emotions of the characters. Especially with Tomari’s heart breaking scene in the rain. I had a huge lump in my throat and really felt for her.

The art of the characters doesn’t change much in this volume, but what it does do is flesh out the characters. Jan-Puu has a more solid feel to her in this volume, where as in the previous volume she was more wispy.

Where this volume really gets you though is in the story. Since this volume focuses more on character development and relationships. We get to see the characters rebuilding friendships, trying to come to terms and accept their love, and to move on. This is then shot down by the revelations of the later volumes. Suddenly the focus changes and we’re left watching the characters struggling to come to terms with the new reality that’s just been dumped on them.

I loved the way that Satoru built this story, the way it flowed and the way it ended. I was also glad to see one of my main pet hates change. Hazumu loses the false girly personality/feel altogether and becomes a more realistic girl. Oddly this does mean an increase in his feminism, but surprisingly this doesn’t come off as wrong.

the only character i would have liked to have gotten rid of completely is Asuta, who frankly doesn’t really fit in anymore. He’s simply there, and wouldn’t have been missed if he had been removed from the series completely. This is a shame in a way, since he was supposed to be Hazumu’s closest friend (after Tomari), but he’s pretty much relegated to a zero supporting role. I would have liked to have seen him used more, and more involved with the story.

The ending of the story is perfect, Satoru ties up the lose ends perfectly and writes an ending that’s both touching, and a bit sad. Yukimaru then works his magic and brings the ending to life with yet more stunning art.

A few people i know haven’t wanted to read this because it’s yuri(ish), however i found that the yuri elements are very small. Sure we get a few kisses through out the series, but nothing overt. Rather i found this series to be a light relief, a true love story with some yuri undertones. Either way though we have a series i thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Publisher Musings:

I liked the cover design of the volume, and all the more liked that it was a glossy cover. All to often when I see omnibus volumes the covers are barely a step above paper, in a bid to keep costs down. Glossy covers increase the life time of the volume, and are better value for money from a customer point of view.

As with the previous volume there was a drop in paper quality, but you’re going to get that with any OOP reprint really. I do wish that Seven Seas had done a proper job on splitting the extra chapters though, as we do get some in the main story, which left me with a “WTH" feeling due to the sudden change in focus and direction. Since they already split most of the extras, i don’t see why they didn’t split them all.

The extras we do get though are rather funny, and for the most part focused on Ayuki. These had me rolling with laughter they were so funny.

Also in this volume is the translation notes, glossary and covers. Some of the notes and glossary items needed to be in the first volume IMO, since that’s where they were relevant, but having them here is better than not having them at all.

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ISBN-13: 9781569701836
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Kuku Hayate
Pages: 208 
Publisher: June
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Yaoi
Synopsis:

The Shrine Inari is protected by two divine-being foxes – Unka and Aura. Unka, a red fox, is the serious one and born into a lower social class. Aura, pure-bred white fox, is the reckless and irresponsible one. Can opposites attract? Would they play nice to each other? Unka, who is unable to express himself honestly, and Aura, who always goes all-out to get what he wants, really fall in love!?

General Musings:

Since this is a collection of one shot stories I’m not doing a character section this time, would be to big and pointless.

I have to admit that when I started to read this I wasn’t expecting a lot from it. While I don’t mind yaoi, the frequent raping of characters does get on my nerves a bit, not to mention it’s always seemed so pointless to me.

Your Love Sickness was a breath of fresh air and a pleasant change. Instead of the usual rape stories we get a series of what i suppose you could class as true love stories. I found these stories to be well written, fun, and touching.

The first story is a love sto5ry between two fox demons of differing stations. While i didn’t really like the character designs of the adult wolves, the kids, or rather half human/cubs were just so damned cute. They’re really well drawn and just looked so adorable.

There’s no real story to it, rather just two lovers trying to come to terms with their feelings. Some of the scenarios they get into are funny, and some i couldn’t help but laugh at.

Then we have another story with a god seducing a human, again it’s a romance story with a good twist of two guys coming to terms with their feelings. I have to admit that I loved the character designs this time. Especially Kugira, who while looked a hell of a lot like one of the guys from the previous story, did have a rather cool appearance.

Again there’s no real story to the chapter, but it does have a good flow to it. Boy meets god, gets seduced, goes home a month later, and wants to meet god again. Predictable as hell, but still a good read. Made all the better by the fact there’s once again no rape involved.

The next two stories shift up an age to the modern day and age. For me I love the olden age feel of the original stories, and I also prefer the atmosphere and characters of olden Japan. Samurais and their like always make for an excellent read.

The last two stories were okay, but truthfully i didn’t like them. There was nothing really wrong with them, but for me i would have preferred an older age setting like the rest of the stories.

My version was read on the eManga website, so no comments on the quality of the paper release. The eManga release though was a good read. The editing was excellent and easy to read.

Overall it was a good read, and one I liked because it has all of the elements of Yaoi that i like, but none of the ones i hate

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Tou Ubukata (Story), Kiriko Yumeji (Art)
Publisher: Del Rey
Type: Series
Genre: Seinen, Gender-Bending
Synopsis:

A mysterious cult is sacrificing beautiful young women to a demonic force that has promised them the kingdom of France in return for the blood of their victims. Only one man can save Paris from chaos and terror – the Chevalier d’Eon!

Character Musings:

d’Eon Beaumont is in a word, scary. He’s one of my favourite characters out of all manga and anime. He’s one of the most well rounded and developed characters I’ve come across. Initially he comes across as a washy washy guy who can’t do anything, other than get into trouble. His hidden side comes across perfectly, as does the way he makes his decisions. His character design took some getting used to though, he has to much of a boy band feel to him at times, especially when he’s used on the cover of volume three. Yet at other times he has an awesome design that really fits the situation.

Lia de Beaumont is d’Eon’s older sister, she was killed by a mysterious man and is now out to get vengeance. Considering she’s dead Lia’s personality is pretty awesome, like her brother she’s totally dedicated to her cause, and seems a bit over bearing initially. Yet over time we get to see her softer, tender side which can be really touching at times. Her character design can be signed in only one way, sex on legs!!

Robin was initially Lia’s servant, and now helps d’Eon. He’s a young boy who at times has doubts about his future now that Lia is dead. Yet despite the doubts he remains loyal and steadfast. I love his character design, which manages to incorporate his youthful innocence with his brooding side, after losing the woman he looked up to and seeing so much death.

General Musings:

This series is one of my all time favourites, it shares the number one spot with another title I’ll review later on

The story is awesome, Tou has obviously done a lot of research in not only the historical aspects of France, but also the various religious origins of tarot and other bits. The amount of research comes into the fore in the mid to late part of the series when we start to see explanations of things. These are well conceived and well written, some were only minor changes from their true origins.

One of the best things about this story is without out a doubt the character developments and bonding. Reading this story is one of the most exciting, but also one of the most sorrowful.

Watching Lia and d’Eon fighting and then parting is one of the most harrowing pieces of writing I’ve ever seen. This is complimented by Kiriko’s amazing art, she manages to show all the pain that they feel. It’s not just Lia and d’Eon that show such excellent emotions in their character designs, all of the characters, including the supporting characters have varied and diverse emotions as well.

Over the course of the eight volumes we get to see some excellent character designs, though i have to admit that the ‘serpent’ forms weren’t all that varied and did have a samey feel to them at times.

However the way that Kiriko uses them to bring out Tou’s story easily makes up for the lack of variety.

The art has been condemned as being overly graphic, but i don’t think so. The story is a rather graphic story, you can’t not understand that from the outset. And while the art is rather graphic, blood, dismemberment etc etc, I’ve never found it to be overly graphic. Rather i found it to be just right, it conveys the darkness of Tou’s story while being a bit creepy and un-nerving, but doesn’t go to far.

The are a slew of characters in this series, i only listed the main ones initially, but i find i want to talk about some of the others as well, so here we go.

Madam Pompadour is a superb character, who quite frankly is a total babe. What i loved though was the dedication she shows towards Louie. Her dedication is quite frankly a bit scary, just like d’Eon’s dedication. The things she decides and the actions she takes are all fuel to protect that which she loves, France, but the lengths she goes to are scary. Yet at the same time we get to see the other side of her personality, the suffering she goes through. She’s devoted to her cause, but suffers greatly because of the choices she makes, but still makes them.

Princess Sophie, is the darling of the series. I instantly fell in love with her when she first appears. She’s a total cutie, in a good way. Young girl who can only say the word Palms, and uses letter cubes to talk in riddles. The way she is through out the series is heart rending, especially when you watch her with her dad, King Louie.

The other characters to note are some of the bad guys. I loved their designs, especially the goth loli twins. The way that they were handled, and the way they progressed was awesome, and i loved how things ended up.

Del Rey did an excellent job on this series and i have no major complaints. In fact i only have one complaint and that relates to how close some of the panels were to the spine. Guttering like that makes it hard to read the story properly, and spoils some of the art.

The volumes are crammed full of translation notes, which while they aren’t essential, if you want to understand some of the religious terms it’s a great help.

For me though i have to admit that what attracted me to the series originally was the covers. The full colour art on the covers is just stunning, they sexy, cute, and yet heart rending. The pain that can be seen so clearly in some of them is amazing, and once again Kiriko creates some awesome art.

Sadly the story is incomplete, in a way. The eighth volume feels more like the end of the story arc. The stage is set for the next part of the story that will take place in Prussia. The end of volume eight is such an awesome ending for the arc, I’m hoping that at some point we get a second arc.

I don’t like recommending titles on my blog really, but i really have to recommend this series. It’s well worth getting.

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ISBN-13: 9781569707906
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Hideyuki Kikuchi, Saiko Takaki
Pages: 242 
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Seinen, Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-fi
Synopsis:

In a secluded village void of the dangers that come during the night, there lies an ageless sleeping beauty once bitten by a vampire 30 years ago. She is the key that holds the delicate balance in the village in which mortals and the Nobility can coexist. But when the wandering vampire known as “D” is drawn to the town by recurring dreams of the mysterious girl, the town will stop at nothing to protect that tranquil balance and stop the vampire hunter’s in his tracks.

Character Musings:

Sybille Schmitz, a vampire victim who has been asleep for thirty years, unchanging and un-aging.

Nan Lander, a young girl of the town who has had multiple dreams of D. Lively, vibrant, and full of life. Yet envious of Sybille.

Krutz Bogen, the town sheriff and one time lover of Sybille. A fair man, but unable to forget his past love.

General Musings:

This was an interesting volume that was both fun, but also a little confusing to read. The confusion though was a good one making for an interesting read.

The volume starts off with a superb colour panel. I’m not a fan of the art style, but I have to admit that when done in full colour, this art style looks awesome. Likewise the cover of the volume looks superb as well.

I’ve read a few of the Vampire Hunter D novels, but don’t remember this one so it was a nice change of pace for me, not knowing what’s happening. The story this time was rather interesting, since there was no vampire this time.

Rather than having a “evil” vampire to be slain this time we have Sybille, a young girl who was bitten and then slept for thirty years. That’s pretty much the crux of the story, D trying to find out why she’s been asleep for so long, and why she called him to her.

I liked how the story played out, with the true events being hidden until the very end. The ending of the story was very sad, probably one of the worst I’ve read so far. Worst as in heart wrenching, not bad.

Art wise this is a very hard series to judge objectively. I don’t feel the art does the characters justice, and I especially don’t like how the men of the series almost always look evil, even when they aren’t. Though I will admit that I like the way the girls look, with the exception of both the male and female characters having huge black marks around their eyes.

Yet, I have to admit that the art does manage to get across the feel and atmosphere of the novels. DMP did an excellent job as always with this volume, the editing was done perfectly with great placement and choice of fonts.

As with all Vampire Hunter D manga this was an excellent read well worth investing in.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Yun Kouga
Publisher: Viz Media
Type: Series
Genre: Shonen, Gender-Bending
Synopsis:

In the legendary past the gods battled for supremacy and cast out the demon god whose name cannot be spoken. Banished to Earth, the demon found refuge on the mysterious and dangerous island known only as "G."

After experiencing a crisis of faith, Father Olivier of the Vasaria Order decides to go to G and find out the truth behind the legends. Olivier’s journey is unsanctioned, and the head of the Order engages the dark elf Suzu to stop him. As he begins his quest, Olivier encounters Ouri, a young girl from the south who cannot speak. But Ouri reveals another side of herself when Suzu catches up to them!

Note: I’ve tried to keep the spoilers to a minimum but as I talk about key elements and story hooks there are some spoilers in this post.

Character Musings:

The number of characters in Gestalt is insane, so I’m only going to cover the main ones here. Some of the others I’ll cover in the general musings sections.

Father Olivier, our so called hero of the story, is a fun character. He’s naive, friendly, dedicated and all ways willing to help. His personality was well defined and went well with his character design. His naivety did get a bit annoying at times, but this was countered by his darker side, which made for some interesting developments.

Ouri, the err love interest. Ouri is interesting in that she has a dual personality, as well as having a third weird personality. We first see her as a slave who is freed by Father Olivier, she’s a lot more worldly and tries to keep Olivier’s naivety in check. Over the course of the series she changes a great deal. The mysteries surrounding Ouri are just as interesting as Olivier’s.

Suzu is a dark elf hired by Father Messiah to recover Olivier. She’s the character I didn’t like in the series because Yun changes her personality part way through the series. She starts off as a determined girl, powerful, with an interesting history. However later in the series she gets turned into a wishy washy doormat.

Father Messiah raised Oliver when he was found as a baby, he’s immensely powerful, and a very determined character. His character design was interesting, and I did like the developments we get from him later on in the series.

Shazarn, a mysterious fortune teller who decides to come along because he’s curious about who or what Ouri is. He’s a bit standoffish, but loyal and has a very strict moral code that he follow. Like most of the characters he has a dark secret that will ultimately come to light.

General Musings

I first encountered Gestalt years ago in it’s two episode ova  incarnation, and I loved it. The manga was both a revelation, and a disappointment, yet still enjoyable in it’s own right.

One of the elements that really grabbed me was the gender bending , I’m a huge fan of these types of stories. The story does take a bit to get into, and I know a few people who started to read it but gave up when they encountered the old RPG game styled character descriptions. Personally I liked these, since I also love RPG games.

As the series progresses the story starts to get explained and the histories get revealed. Things really start to get interesting as the various characters come into their own. Each of them get some solo page time as their history is explained, and the secrets revealed. I liked this approach since it means the revelations aren’t just dumped into the story.

Unfortunately the great story starts to flounder after a while, and then it just gets lost all together and takes on a meandering approach going all over the place before finally getting to it’s destination. The problem here I think is that Yun took so long to complete the series, taking near ten years with breaks all over the place. When a series is this fragmented, it’s hard to keep things consistent and flowing properly.

For me the biggest disappointment was the way the story disintegrated. Originally it was supposedly one mans journey to a forbidden land, mixed with a sibling battle for ruler-ship. Unfortunately the way Yun handles the story is disappointing. Ouri’s siblings come along one after the other and end up getting defeated, then pretty much just disappearing.

Then Ouri does a runner after a mistake, and the story shifts focus a bit between her and Olivier, this isn’t bad, just a bit weird. What was really weird however was that when she finally returns she’s been “upgraded” and there’s no story on as to how she got the power ups. So when she stars using them it’s total confusion.

Things get even more confusion with Ouri telling everyone about Gestalt, and I have to admit that I ended up wondering what the hell was going on at one point.

When they finally reach Gestalt the story changes again, and what we get makes no sense, and yet does. The story changes and suddenly Olivier isn’t the important character, rather Olivier holds the spirit of a god who comes out and does his thing. Naturally we get the other gods involved, and then suddenly the story is over. I’ve reread the final volume a few times and the ending is still weird to me.

The build up of Ouri being a guy seems to have been forgotten, and he’s last seen running away with Olivier. Everything in the series was about the end game result, but suddenly that’s no longer relevant.

The art ranges from average to good, but nothing really stands out as excellent. The character designs tend to change a lot at times, and some of the characters look like other characters, and nothing really excited me. Yet equally nothing that really makes me think it sucks. It is worth noting that the series does have some individual nice art pages.

Viz for the most part did a good job with the release even including all the extras. There were a few points I didn’t like however, firstly there’s all the extra story chapters. I don’t mind extra stories, in fact  I love them. However Viz placed them at the weirdest places in the volumes. Usually right in the middle of something exciting. We get some big build up chapter that ends with a cliff-hanger, then suddenly we’re treated to a comic scene destroying the atmosphere that had been built up. This destroys the flow of the story, and when you consider you can get two or three of these per volume, it’s impossible to have a consistent feel to the series. These would have been better placed at the end of the volume along with all the other extras.

The other thing I didn’t like was that after the first volume, Viz bleached the colour pages. While I can understand this, since Gestalt is published at the lower price of 5.99, I would have preferred to have paid the full 7.99 a volume and have had the colour pages.

Despite the issues, and the way the story flies all over the place I did enjoy reading it. This is also the type of series that easily inspires fan fic writing because of the way it ends.

Yun is famous for her shonen-ai stories, Earthian and Loveless, and while this also has hints of shonen-ai (the fact that Ouri is a guy), nothing is ever made of it. It’s also easy to just ignore that part and see Ouri as just a girl.

I personally don’t regret reading this series, I found it an enjoyable, if confusing read.

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There is a new for sale app aimed at the iPhone and iPod called MangaShelf. It’s a application that gives you access to MangaFox, Manga Volume and Manga Toshokan, arguably three of the largest illegal sites still alive.

What’s more apple sees nothing wrong with this, which I find laughable. They go nuts over an adult orientated app, which is legally made and owned, but find an app promoting piracy perfectly fine. I emailed Apple to try and get an official comment, but I haven’t heard anything back as of yet.

I also found this funny since Apple are one of the most vocal anti-piracy companies around, though it seems to be only if it applies to their own material. I’ll update this post when I hear back from both Apple, and from the creators of the App (who, like Apple haven’t replied as of yet).

Description of MangaShelf (as it is on the iTunes Store)

Mangashelf is the premier Manga reader for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Manga are japanese comic books or graphic novels. With their distinct style and diverse set of genres, Manga appeals to all ages and genders, with readers across the globe. Mangashelf utilizes the popular bookshelf and catalog design pattern, to make finding and reading Mangas, simple, and intuitive.

First, browse or search through 1000+ Manga from popular Manga websites such as Manga Fox, Manga Volume, and Manga Toshokan. Second, add anything you like to your shelf, and start reading immediately. As you read a chapter, it is automatically downloaded to your iPhone or iPod touch, allowing for reading even when no internet connection is available. Finally, move through pages with a swipe or drag gesture, for a smooth reading experience, in either landscape or portrait orientation.

Features:

- Read 1000+ Manga from Manga Fox, Manga Volume, and Manga Toshokan.

- Browse for Manga by site and category.

- Search for Manga by name, artist, or author.

- Automatically download chapters while reading for offline viewing.

- Reader settings to lock orientation, and set page margins.

- App settings to change color schemes for a customized look and feel.

Note: All Manga content is provided by Manga Fox (http://www.mangafox.com), Manga Volume (http://www.mangavolume.com), and Manga Toshokan (http://www.mangatoshokan.com). Users should abide by each site’s respective terms of use, available on each individual website for reference. No Manga content is stored on Mangashelf servers. Mangashelf solely provides a custom user interface for viewing content served from the aforementioned Manga websites on your device.

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ISBN-13: 978-4-596-95063-5
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Sophie Weston (Original Story), Kaori Himeki (Adaptation)
Pages: 128 
Publisher: Harlequin K.K./SOFTBANK Creative Corp.
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Romance, Josei
Synopsis:

Natasha lives to work. Her bitter experiences in the past mean she is disinterested in relationships or marriage, but she agrees to be a bridesmaid at her best friend’s wedding. At the engagement party, Natasha meets a man who rudely treats her with suspicion, infuriating her. This arrogant man is Kajim, an Arab sheikh, and best man to the groom. But as their paths continue to cross, and danger lurks in the Arabian desert, Natasha finds her true prince.

Character Musings

Natasha Lumber takes on the role of our heroine. She’s bright, bubbly, but strong willed and determined. She’s dedicated to her work, and to her friends, but also hides a dark past that still haunts her today.

Kajim Al Salak is the hero, and what a hero. He’s a bit arrogant, over cautious, and funny as hell. He also hides a dark past that haunts him causing him to be a bit over zealous at times.

General Musings

I loved this volume. The chemistry between our two leads is perfect, giving them a vibrant and glowing feel.

The story, like all Harlequin titles, is short and to the point. Yet despite that this time we have a short story that works really well, Though I will admit I wish it was longer (if only to read more of their interactions).

The thing that makes the story work so well is the bond and chemistry between Natasha and Kajim. They’re perfectly matched and their banter is always light and funny. Even the sad bits that crop up worked really well and impressed me with the way Kaori gets the emotion over.

Art wise is have no complaints, the character designs and settings are all perfect. Sure, it’s a clichéd story, but who cares ‘cause it’s been done so well.

The way that Kajim hides his identity at first is a cliché true, but it works really well. As does the development that he and Natasha go through once it’s revealed. I loved how even after it was revealed they still bantered back and forth. I found it a really enjoyable read.

Publisher Musings

Another good one from Harlequin, good editing and choice of fonts. However just like the last one I reviewed the fonts were a tad to big. However I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing, considering the medium these releases are for (digital/kindle/eBook), having larger sized fonts makes it easier to read. Looking at it from that point of view, it works really well.

Short post I know, but it’s hard to write a medium to large post on a volume of manga that’d do short hehe. I do think however that if your a fan of pure romance styled stories, that Harlequin are a publisher you want to look at more. Some of their early titles are pretty atrocious, but even those are worth reading. Hopefully we’ll see some collected editions with a discounted price, such as 5 volumes for say 800points rather than 1000points.

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ISBN-13: 978-4-596-95077-2
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Renee Roszel (original Storey), Kako Ito (Manga Adaption)
Pages: 120
Publisher: Harlequin K.K./SOFTBANK Creative Corp.
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Romance. Josei
Synopsis:

Hannah threw her letter of resignation at her boss, who called her "below average." Still full of hurt, she visits the Blue Moon Inn, where the inn owner suggests she take a walk in the garden. That night was the night of the blue moon—the second full moon of the month. Under the magical moonlight reflected on the derelict stone-walled church, a rude yet sexy man suddenly appears. To Hannah’s astonishment, it is her offensive former boss, Roth Jerric! Why would fate punish her like this?

Character Musings

Hannah Hudson, our heroin. She’s a typical Mills and Boon girl. She gives everything to a guy she likes, realises she’s been used and leaves. Everything about her is ‘typical’, with nothing special. However this character is the staple of Mills and Boon romance novels, so you expect it. As such it’s easy to grow to like her.

Joan Peterson, out motherly figure for the volume. I really liked her absent minded personality. Though I do wonder if her getting Jerric’s name wrong all the time was deliberate. She brings a sense of fun to the volume and acts as a counter to all the fighting that goes on. She’s bright, loveable, and the type of granny everyone (well, me at least) wants.

Roth Jerric, our male protagonist. He’s got a whole rich brat vibe going on, which he earned the hard way. He’s brusque, secretive, and initially a fairly decent character. However I didn’t really like the way he was used in the series, it lacks polish and direction at times.

Deacon Vance was, I feel, supposed to be a rival for Roth. Sadly he was never really built up on, and while he starts of being a rival he ends up just fading into the background. Which was a bit disappointing. Personality wise he was a good character, bright, happy and willing to help others. Dedicated to his job as sheriff, but still able to help out and feel others pain and happiness. This was shown towards the middle of the volume, and I really wished he was the love interest.

General Musings

The story starts off pretty well, with an interesting introduction to our heroine, Hannah, though a bit cliché. The story is extremely fast paced with no real sense of time passage. The only way we know time has passed is because we get told it’s passed/ Given how short this manga is that’s to be expected, though I prefer time passage to be shown.

The problem with this manga is due to it’s length. If we had a more standard sized volume, running to 190 or so pages, things could have been handled better. However as it is the character developments of Roth is horrendous. he flips back and forth between likeable and hated.

Also the way he acts and reacts through the volume just doesn’t make much sense to me, he never really acts like a loveable character, or a character a girl would fall in love with. Rather I got the impression that he’s likely to get women to hate him the way he acts.

Deacon however is everything you need in a love interest. He was well built with a handsome character design, polite and courteous, and willing to help where he can. Yet at the same time he’s strong, determined and dedicated, it’s a shame he was just abandoned in the story, especially after he was built up to be Roth’s love rival. I think they realised he would have a bigger following than the lead.

Despite Roth being a bad character, I did enjoy the story, tit makes good use of the genre cliché’s and while they should be tired, I found I did like the the story. Hannah and Joan are what saved it for me. Hannah going from the wishy washy rug she was, to being a strong and dedicated woman out to help people. The way she changes is handled really well in the volume, and while it is done a bit to fast, we at least get to see her change.

Joan doesn’t change really, but then she isn’t meant to. She’s the catalyst that changes Hannah and gives her change direction. I really liked the character Kako captures the feel of loveable grandmother perfectly.

The other area I liked was the art, which does have some stunning settings in it. Kako really spent time drawing the garden which I found beautiful. Only one thing would have made it better, if it had been in full colour.

Publisher Musings

Harlequin have obviously listened to what reviewers have said since the editing of this volume is greatly improved over previous volumes I’ve read. Gone are the to small or to large text, gone are the over justified text boxes. The text this time has a more natural flow to it.

The font used is a bit to big still, and as a result it overruns the bubbles a lot, but that’s a minor issue I think and one they can easily fix. My only real gripe with Harlequin is that the volumes are to short. These really are ‘Bite Size Manga’, that you can read in a few minutes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I just feel that titles such as this one, could have been better if they had been longer.

While this wasn’t a great read, it is a good one and worth reading. Also since it’s bite sized it’s one you can read when on a coffee break or something. Harlequin do seem to be learning the western manga market well, and I’m looking forward to what they come out with in the future.

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ISBN-13: 9781569707319 & 9781569707319
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Tatsuo Yoshida
Pages: 299 & 331
Publisher: DMP
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Shonen, Racing
Synopsis:

Now in the U.S. for the first time in its complete form, DMP is proud to present Tatsuo Yoshida’s masterwork. Painstakingly restored and collected into this hardcover, 2-volume set in celebration of Speed Racer’s 40th Anniversary, Speed Racer: Mach GoGoGo introduces these beloved characters and stories to fans old and new. Included in this Platinum edition is a special introduction by the voice of Speed Racer, Peter Fernandez! Whether this is your first trip around the course, or a nostalgic return lap, the exciting adventures in this collection are sure to bring out that familiar cheer: Go Speed Racer, go!

Character Musings:

Speed Racer, our ‘hero’ for the series. Sadly there’s nothing that makes him stand out from the norm. Throughout the two volumes I found him a bland and flat character. While it’s true he has a bubbly personality, it doesn’t feel real. Towards the end I was hoping someone would beat him, just to get rid of his ego, and to add some spice to the series.

Racer X could have been the character to add the spice the series needs to make it interesting. Unfortunately he never really lives up to the build up he was given. He ends up being just as flat as Speed.

There are a few other characters I was going to mention, but they don’t appear much so I decided against it.

General Musings:

The series starts off pretty generic, but in a good way. While it’s nothing new you can feel that Yoshida has the foundations of a good story. in fact as I was reading it I was put in mind of another anime series, GPX Cyber Formula, and I wonder if GPX was based on the ideas of Speed Racer.

The first chapter is pretty awesome, it introduces the characters, the story, and perfectly sets the stage .

Pops Racer leaves his company after they refuse to let him build his super engine, but it seems that someone within the company wants the engine themselves and sets out to secure the design plans.

Naturally we get all the cliché’s  you’d expect in this sort of story, and for it’s time frame. The bad guys all look evil, walking around in trench coats, swishing their capes as they lurk and skulk. All in all it uses pretty much ever cliché under the sun, and uses them well.

After I’d read the first chapter I had this idea of what was to come. Their misadventures as they tried to gather the money needed to build the super engine. Naturally they get the money by entering races, so we get a lot of high speed events.

Sadly though this isn’t what we get. What we get is a series of repeating chapters that frankly are the shame of the mangaverse. I don’t care what anyone says, Yoshida coned his fans by reusing story over and over, just changing settings and characters.

What irked me a little was that the super engine that was the huge focus of the first chapter, and the cause of the whole story, disappears and never returns, at least not in the form it was.

Speed is pretty much the ultimate driver right from the outset. Sure he gets into scraps, and a few accidents, but when he’s on the road in the car, he’s pretty much unstoppable. Racer X, the only one who was supposed to be a challenge, was never a challenge, in fact he feel and looks like a limp lettuce throughout the series.

He’s built up as this super evil driver who does what ever it takes to win the race he’s in, and as a result people die a lot. this build up would have made an excellent character. However as soon as he arrives on the scene he becomes a limp noodle and goes out of his way to help speed. There are reasons for this of course which get revealed at the end of the series. though anyone with half a brain figures out at the end of the chapter he first appears.

And that, is where this character fails. His actions are so blatantly obvious that there’s no mystery involved. Frankly there’s nothing to get excited about, since it becomes obvious that Racer X has no intention of winning anything.

The first volume has a “race of the week” feel to it, where each chapter is it’s own mini story revolving around a certain race. This isn’t necessarily a bad way for a series to progress. However none of the chapters have depth, and none of them have any follow up, so some of them end rather bland and unsatisfying.

What I found really bad though was volume two. Manga-ka and fans get all bent out of shape over plagiarism, but apparently it’s perfectly fine when it’s their own stuff they’re ripping off. Yup, that’s right. After reading volume one there’s no need to read volume two since it’s almost a carbon copy of volume one. In fact parts of it  are a carbon copy. There’s entire pages that are exactly the same as in volume one. Most notably when Racer X reappears. Yoshida has taken the pages he used in volume one and added them to volume two, and altered the text a little. But then there’s some where there’s been no editing at all. Reading it initially I wondered if DMP had made a publishing mistake, but it’s not the case.

The second volume was a huge disappointment to read story wise, but even worse on character development wise. We go from Speed driving a decently fast car, with a few gadgets, to a car that would give both the Knight Rider and Inspector Gadget cars a run for it’s money. I mean, have a car with a jumping boost is one thing, but suddenly his car has buzz saws, remote control drone missiles, turns into a submarine and even gets wings and can fly.

We go from a racing manga into a James Bond Jnr manga (anyone remember the James Bon Jnr cartoons??).

Finally the end, when Racer X’s identity is finally revealed. The way it was done was just pathetic. It was: “yeah, I left because I was a secret agent working under cover, but it’s all over now and we can be a family again”. I had to read that a few more times because I was WTH is going on.

This was made all the more frustrating over the elements that were raised in some of these stories. One being some super secret evil group known only as QQQ (Spectre!!), who are supposedly super evil. They’re there for one chapter and never mentioned again.

Remember the super engine from the first chapter? well it re-emerges again. Only this time it’s a super engine that was designed by Henry Ford. Again it’s used for one chapter then disappears.

There were to many convenient bits in this story. From his girlfriend (who like him is a kid) being able to fly, and owns a helicopter), to his car being revamped in a way to allow him to win, despite the revamping never being mentioned before.

I wouldn’t have a problem with the way this series had gone if it had been done properly. Unfortunately Speed Racer is a directionless story that tries to go in several different directions, and fails at them all. If Yoshida had spent some time thinking out what he wanted from his story, and how to get there, it probably would have ended up as a good series.

I read this series on eManga, and I personally think if you’re interested in reading this you go there first. DMP released this as a collectors edition box set, which in the UK is around £20-30, which I think is a waste of money. You can rent it on eManga for a fraction of that. Read it there and see if you want to buy the paper edition.

Though I think the paper edition will really only appeal to fans of the series, and those looking for a trip down nostalgia avenue. DMP release a lot better (Vampire D) that you should be buying.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by Mikiyo Tsuda
Publisher: DMP & DokiDoki Books
Type: Series
Genre: Comedy, Shojo, Cross-Dressing
Synopsis:

Why has Kouno received such an overly warm welcome at his new all boys school?!? Little does Tohru know about the secret Hime (Princess) system in effect at the school. At events, boys are chosen to dress up as girls to provide a touch of femininity in the sea of testosterone. By the time Kouno finally catches on, he discovers he’s been chosen as the newest cross-dressing candidate! Lured by the “benefits” of being a princess, Kouno takes on the job with two other recruits, Mikoto and Shihoudani – and the chaos begins!

Character Musings:

Kouno Toru, our lead hero (or is that heroine lol) is well developed as a character. He has a  strong personality which comes through straight away. His determination and desire to save money does initially make him seem greedy. I liked the way we get hints into a darker secret. His character design is okay, but I wasn’t happy with it, it felt a bit wrong to me. The designs however come into their own when he’s in drag as a princess, at which point he looks hot.

Yuujiro Shihoudani is the only character that doesn’t seem to have any issues with cross-dressing. He’s got a very forceful personality and loves to tease Mikoto, the reason for which is revealed as a bit of envy over the way Mikoto was raised. Like Toru he has a secret, though unlike Toru’s his isn’t as dangerous or dark. I loved his character designs both in and out of drag, it fits him perfectly.

Yutaka Mikoto is the most out spoken, animated, and hating the whole cross dressing of the three. He tries to come across as a macho guy, but always ends up as being the most girly of the three. The way he acts around the school is a source of a lot of amusement in this series, made all the more funny when his girl friend comes to visit. I’m not really sure about his design though, something about the way he looks both as a princess and normally just doesn’t sit right with me.

Sakamoto Akira is a bit dense to a lot of things that happen around him. He’s quietly forceful and is the reverse of the current student president Arisada. He’s friendly, but mildly introverted. We learn as to why he is the way he is early in the series when we get to learn more about his family. I like his character design, which fits his personality perfectly. He’s, for the most part, a friend of Toru and Yuujiro, quietly offering advice and guidance.

Arisada Shuya is the character I hated the most in the series. While he plays a pivotal role, I found his overly aggressive, overly confident, in your face attitude annoying. It’s true that his personality was needed to drive certain parts of the story, but I just couldn’t like him. Thankfully he isn’t a main character, and only pops up now and again. Any more than what he was would have smothered the series.

General Musings:

I both liked and hated this series. It started off great, establishing the trio of characters, hinting at darker pasts, and flowing well.

Toru transferring schools was handled really well, and the way he initially tries to avoid joining the Princess’ was done really well. I also liked how he was won over, literally by bribing him.

Toru and Yuujiro are excellently developed characters that have great chemistry between them. Their relationship has a genuine friendship feel that caries on throughout the series. the relationship becomes the basis for helping both of them overcome their pasts.

Art wise I tended to drift between liking and disliking. Initially I didn’t like Toru’s art, but over the course of the series he really grew on me. However where he really came into his own was when he was cross-dressing. Mikiyo drew some stunning designs that frankly made me do a double take. I had to keep reminding myself that Toru was a guy, cause frankly I thought he looked pretty damn cute at times.

Yuujiro was the same, though I found his general art more appealing that Toru’s. Similarly when he’s cross-dressing I found the art was exceptional. Though I found him more ‘imposing’ than cute. He’s always telling Mikoto to be a Queen, and that’s how he comes across when he’s cross-dressing.

Their relationship with Akira was another aspect I found I liked, though it was more funny. I couldn’t help but laugh when they (Toru and Yuu) went to his house for a visit and they met his family. I have to admit I think getting a complex about the way you look would be normal in that family hehe.

Sadly, this is also where the series falls down a bit. Mikoto. The way he’s handled is a bit of a let down, since frankly he feels more like a support character. Sure he does add some excellent comic relief to the series, and I will admit to chuckling. However this was supposed to be a story about the three of them, and I couldn’t help but feel he was always outside. This became more evident later on when the Student Elections are on going.

The only time it feels he’s a real part of the story is during the cultural fare, when his girlfriend and sister come to visit. I felt that aspect was really well done, though a bit short. thankfully Mikiyo expands on it in an ‘extra’ chapter.

The other bit I found lacking was Toru’s dark past. When it comes to light and starts to have an influence on the story I found it wasn’t handled well. Initially it felt like it was just thrown in for a kiss scene. After all the build up we get for why he transferred, it’s suddenly dropped. And the next time we see her she’s all, ’yeah it’s fine I’ll give him to Yuu’.

I wish that Mikiyo spent more time on building up the tension with the whole relationship. It would have made the series exceptional. Unfortunately I can’t help but feel that it was rushed just so they could do the Mitaka story, which I frankly found misplaced. It was suddenly a change in story focus from the Princesses to Akira.

Also, while I’m the first to compliment extras, and this series has extras by the bucket, I felt there were to many. It feels like if you were take all the extras of the series you’d have enough material to release a volume on it’s own. While it was certainly nice reading them (and seeing some of the other designs), I feel that the space could have been better used.

This was released by DMP, and I have to admit I loved the covers. High Quality glossy slip covers with stunning art on them. The covers of the actual books have a mini-manga on them called Prince Prince, which is basically the reverse of Princess Princess. An all girls school where the girls end up as Princes. Though no cross-dressing is shown there. I actually think Prince Prince would have made a good story in it’s own right.

There was only a few minor issues with the editing. For some reason at one point the Student Council was referred to as Officers, which just didn’t fit right. I also found that in some of the volumes it suffered from bad guttering* which made it hard to read. Overall though this was a good buy and a funny series to read. However contrary to what I was told this is NOT a shonen-ai or yaoi story, it’s probably a pure shojo, though personally I consider cross-dressing to be it’s own genre.

Now, onto the debacle that is Princess Princess Plus.

I actually considered not adding this to my review, because I don’t really like to bad mouth a series in it’s entirety. But in the end I decided to add it. Sorry DMP but this is one story you probably should not have licensed.

There are several problems with this single volume add-on to the series. Firstly it’s a single volume, it tries to do in one volume what the original series does over three. And it it suffers for it. Mikiyo’s story is badly written, flows to fast, and frankly I found the characters irritating.  Mikiyo goes for the generic rich boy & pauper, and throws every other cliché you can think of into the mix. We did get another Prince Prince bit, which I did like. But the overall feel of this volume was bad and rushed, not to mention had some not so subtle shonen-ai elements.

Also this volume was moved from DMP to their imprint Doki Doki Books. This was a huge mistake. I like continuity in my manga, and we don’t get it here. We go from five stunning over large volumes to a single titchy (by comparison) crappy volume. Yeah I like the cover art, but it would have looked so much better on a over large slip cover.

I understand that Doki Doki do things differently from their parent, but for a single volume that was a direct continuation of a DMP series, you would have thought common sense would have come into play and they would have matched the format. So that it looks all nice and smart when lined up on the book shelves.

Frankly this volume really failed to impress me, and while I loved the original series, I regret buying Plus, since I felt it was a waste of money (and I got it for free lol).

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ISBN-13: 9781569707234
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 208
by: Maguro Wasabi
Publisher: June
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Drama, Romance, Supernatural, Yaoi
Synopsis:

Sakuya is a noble vampire and a master of seduction, but there’s one detail that truly sets him apart from his neck-biting brethren…he no longer craves blood! Sadly, the lone object of his lusty affections — the elusive dhampir Atsumi — loves to bait his prey and run away. Is Sakuya’s loss of appetite really a matter of the heart? When the hunter and the hunted decide to make love and war, there’s no telling how the tug-of-war will end!

Character Musings:

Sakuya, our love struck vampire who can’t drink humans blood. He’s violent, moody, and determined. Except where Atsumi is concerned. I do like the way his personality was drawn out in the volume, and while it’s true there’s nothing new to him, he was a good lead.

Atsumi, the man that  neutered Sakuya. He’s equally as determined, manipulative and loves to torment Sakuya. Again we have nothing new in the personality of the character, and while I don’t like certain aspects of it, he did make a good counter to Sakuya.

General Musings:

While I liked the general story I was disappointed with the way things flowed out. In fact at one point the story appears to end, then seems to go back in time again. Rather frustrating and makes it hard to follow.

For me this volume fails on so many levels. The basic story is a pretty interesting one, and could have been made into an interesting story. It has everything a good story needed, including well placed humour and well defined supporting characters.

Sadly the story sort of just meanders through without any sort of destination in mind.

One of the bits that really got to me was the way that Atsumi was brought back in to the story. It’s established that Sakuya has spent a fortune looking for him, as well as having the ‘Kin’ looking as well, all to no avail. Then to just have him walk into the place with ‘Yo’ attitude really didn’t work well for me.

Then later on we have another scene where Sakuya leaves the hotel and leaves a note for Atsumi, basically telling him it’s his time to hunt and find him. This would have been a great plot development, except suddenly everyone’s back in the hotel and right back where we started, and I’m left scratching my head wondering what the hell is going on.

Up to this point the story had been pretty much a rolling comedy, but then Maguro tries to inject some serious aspects with Hellsing. Honestly I found this weird, the sudden change really just didn’t work right. Also the comedy aspects of Hellsing just didn’t come off right.

Of course when it comes to Yaoi the corner stone is usually the sex scenes, and sadly these are disappointing as well. We do get a few scenes, but they’re quick and have an almost after thought feel to them. What’s more I didn’t feel anything from them, no passion, no love or anything. It was nothing but flat sex, and rather disappointing at that.

This story could have been a great one if it was more than a one shot though. Sakuya and Atsumi have a great bit of chemistry, and if their relationship had been allowed to grow a bit more slowly it would have become a great yaoi comedy.

Publisher Musings:

This comes from the June imprint of DMP, and the overall formatting has no issues. The translation flows well and doesn’t get bogged down, nor does it feel fake. The font’s used through out the volume were a good choice, with none really hard to see. Sadly they removed the honorific’s as well, which is a bummer.

All told, while the characters are likeable and have a load of potential, the volume never really delivers and ends rather disappointingly.

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Title: Project X – 240z
ISBN-13: 9781569709573
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 208
by: Akira Yokoyama
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Shonen, Slice of Life, Educational
Synopsis:

The Japanese automobile was seen as the inferior “second-class” vehicle in America during the 1960’s. During this time, there were men in Japan who dared to dream of the impossible: to build a Japanese sports car that would be popularly accepted worldwide. Through the zeal and innovation of Yutaka Katayama, now known as “Mr. K”, and the designing genius of Yoshihiko Matsuo, their dream was made real in the form of the legendary sports car, the Nissan Fairlady Z. Known as the Datsun 240Z in America, this sports car became an unprecedented success, and is still loved by fans today.

Project X is an educational series telling the success stories of three different companies which are iconic even today.

I have to admit I’ve been a bit of an idiot over this series to be honest, firstly when I saw the cover image of the 240Z volumes, I assumed it was part of Initial – D and discounted it since I’ve never read Initial – D. Then when I learned of that mistake I discounted it again because it was an ‘educational’ manga, something  I’ve never really been interested in.

Yup, idiot that’s me What we have here are three excellent stories covering the development of three industries in Japan. However rather than focusing on the actual products that were developed the manga looks at the driving forces behind the developments, the people and their motivations.

So, getting onto the first one, simply called the 240Z. This volume is devoted to the development of the Fairlady Z, made by Datsun. Ironically I had only just recently finished watching Wangan Midnight, which as a Fairlady Z as the main car so I really got into this.

The story covers how the car idea came about, and how the companies involved initially weren’t responsive to the development of a sports car. Akira really manages to pull the sense of pressure, desperation and happiness out of his art.

Over the course of the volume I found myself getting drawn more and more into the story and rooting for the leads.

Of course, since this is a success story, the out come was obvious. However this didn’t hinder the enjoyment of the reading. Following the trials of Mr K and the team in the development of the car, the problems they had breaking into the american market, to the final re-birth of the supposedly dead car. I followed all and was impressed by the depth of detail that Akira had obviously gone into.

The art isn’t that great, but only in character designs. on the cars and sceneries it looks pretty stunning, but the character designs really didn’t appeal to me. Some of them had those horrid exaggerated western look and feel to them, and others just didn’t look like the person they were supposed to be. However the story, atmosphere, feeling and power all more than make up for the arts let downs and more than carry the volume.

The volume is just crammed full of extras as well, which alone made for an interesting read, as did the included time line of events.

DMP did a almost perfect job on this release, and it would have been perfect but for one flaw. The fonts used in this volume were nice and large, easy to read and follow, even for digital reading. Rather than adding a glossary we get inline explanations for things, which really works well in this volume. Also the translation was handled well, with a good smooth flow without it getting bogged down and feeling forced. The only thing I didn’t like, was the lack of honorific’s. Yeah I can hear people screaming it’s a minor thing, but for me it’s a big thing and tells me that the publisher is keeping things pure as possible.

The lack of them in this volume was surprising, since DMP do usually leave them intact.

Title: Project X – Cup Noodle
ISBN-13: 9781569709597
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 208
by: Tadashi Katoh
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Shonen, Slice of Life, Educational
Synopsis:

In a time when the Japanese food industry was struggling economically, a man named Momofuku Andou sought to turn the tide. Seeking a new type of food for a new era, he ordered the development of a “cup noodle” – a revolutionary idea for a convenient instant noodle. Overcoming public skepticism as well as doubts, even from those within their own company, Andou and his staff of young developers constantly challenged convention to create this new product. Behind the now familiar cup o’ noodle, which has sold over 8.2 billion worldwide, lies a dramatic story of the struggles of the men behind its success.

Of the three stories this was the one I liked the least.

The story didn’t really have the power behind it the the 240Z one did, and on the second read through I realised why. The motivation of the cast is different, drastically different. In the 240Z story all the crew are passionate about building the car, and are devoted to the development in a big way; Akira pulls out that passion and infects the reader with it.

The motivation of the crew this time is different, with the exception of the director the rest are focused on one thing, a wage increase. So while it’s true that the story is is interesting, it lacks the passion and devotion to really draw the reader in.

This was true all the way through to the near end where they started testing the product in Ginza. It’s only then that we get to feel any real passion for the product coming from anyone other than the director. While the story was interesting, and I’m guessing there was more to the characters, Tadashi fails to bring them to life or show them as being really into things.

I also wonder about Toshiko, given the prominent placement she gets in the character profiles at the beginning of the volume I was expecting more out of her. Unfortunately we only see her briefly, and then she disappears and never returns. Why was she added at all? She wasn’t a main character but rather a supporting one with barely a page or two of appearances.

Art wise I rather liked this volume honestly. Gone are the weird western style faces and heads and we have a normal manga art. This really works well and I have to admit the character designs really worked well for me this time around.

DMP did another great job with this release, though just as with the 240Z release, there’s no honorific’s in the volume.

Overall sadly it was a disappointing read, and even with the extras we get it didn’t really grab me.

Title: Project X – Seven Eleven
ISBN-13: 9781569709580
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 192
by: Tadashi Ikuta (story), Naomi Kimura (art)
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Shonen, Slice of Life, Educational
Synopsis:

In a time when giant department stores and supermarkets dominated the Japanese retail industry, two businessmen, Toshifumi Suzuki and Hideo Shimizu, discovered a new type of small retail store flourishing in America – the Seven Eleven. Called a “convenience store,” it was a concept new to the Japanese. Intrigued by this new idea and convinced that it would succeed in Japan as well, the two men put together a project team of fifteen members, all virtual novices to the retail trade, to bring this venture to their land. Staking his entire livelihood, young storeowner Kenji Yamamoto volunteered to convert his family-owned liquor store into the first Seven Eleven in Japan. The hardship of negotiations, the oil shock, the struggle to cope with inadequate space were all met with resolve and innovation, culminating in what is now called the retail revolution!

I loved this volume!!

This volume chronicles the birth of convenience stores in Japan. Hardly a riveting story you’d think, and frankly I was expecting another dull Cup Noodle story. What we get however is a story that really caught my attention and drew me into the story.

Tadashi takes a dull story and makes it interesting, and draws the reader along on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Watching the team form, then battle the odds against the companies of both Japan and America was amazing.

Like with the 240Z volume this one chronicles the birth of the idea through to it’s winning success. We see the trials Shimizu has to go through as he gets demote, then goes to america to find a new concept.

I liked the way the story flowed, it was good and fast paced, yet didn’t rush to tell the story. Rather it allowed the story to come out naturally. The way the story comes a full circle was equally interesting, and I have to admit I had a bit of a chuckle over the way it ends up.

The down side of this single volume story was that the team, fifteen strong, doesn’t get a lot of page time. One of the characters, Tomiko, barely gets any time. Yet she’s listed as being one of the leading members of the team. Though given that they only had a single volume it’s not unexpected.

Naomi draws really well, and the art looks okay. It’s not stellar art by any means, but the style does grow on you. The character designs are likewise okay, but some of them (such as Tomiko) look really freaky at times.

DMP, like in the other two volumes, does an excellent job with the translations and font choices for the volume. Though like the previous volumes it lacks honorific’s, so minus for that.

Overall though these are a good read, despite the Cup Noodle one. While I’m not sure why they’re classed as educational, they are a fun read. In the case of the 240Z volume it’s a simple joy to read as the characters are so personable and alive. They infect you with their enthusiasm and you feel the lows and highs with them.

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This was a purely impulse buy because it was on sale, and the image of Recette was just so damned cute it would have been a crime not to buy it hehe.

Initially I wasn’t expecting much from the game since it was listed in the indie section, and my experience with indie games hasn’t been good. So when I finally sat down to play my initial reaction was crap.

There were a number of issues when I started out. Firstly the game didn’t install right, in fact the install froze my system and I ended up having to reboot. Second time trying to install resulted in a missing .exe file. set in windowed mode with no option to go into full screen mode.

Next, and this caused me a load of frustration, there’s no mouse control. In fact the game doesn’t register the mouse on any level. The usual keys for movement (up/down/left/right) all worked, but the other obvious keys didn’t. For example when you finally moved to the option you wanted hitting enter or the space bar did nothing. It was only through pressing each key on the keyboard one by one did I find the right keys.

What was really frustrating was that there was a hidden manual which explains everything. In my installation It was in a folder called ‘man’ of all things. Once you find it however the manual is pretty well laid out, and does explain pretty much everything.

The manual even goes on to explain how to change the keys and various setting (including getting to full screen), as well as other system performance options.

However, personally, I think it would have been better if the installer for the game added a shortcut for the game to the desktop (cause it doesn’t, you have to do it manually), as well as shortcut to the manual. It would make users lives a lot less frustrating.

On a side note, Steam do do this. If you buy the game from Steam they give you a shortcut to both the game and config tool, which makes life a lot easier. However, all said and done this game is better played with a game pad (which is how I play it). Lot easier and you aren’t fafing around with your keyboard.

Right, onto the game itself *ahem*

This game flipping rocks!!!

Right now I’ve got that out my system back onto my review hehe. I started playing it a day or so ago and all my manga reading has come to an abrupt halt and it’s all this games fault. I’ve been playing it in five to six hour sessions, the longest being a eighteen hour session that left me a little wired from all the coffee hehe.

The game itself is simple in every way, graphics, playability, and story, yet it’s also highly addictive and a lot of fun to boot.

The story, which admittedly is so flimsy if you hold it up you’d see right through it, revolves around Recette. She’s a young girl who is pretty much a scatter brain. She’s lived her life without a care in the world until now, when her dad takes out a huge whopping big loan and then skips (Hayate no Gotaku style!!). Unfortunately Recette has to repay the debt.

Enter Tear, the debt collecting fairy. She gives  Recette a choice, either lose her house to pay off the debt, or open an item shop and make weekly payments on it. This is where we enter the game and take over as Recette, we basically have to run the store, find the items to sell and find the customers to sell to.

The game is split into two parts, the main part of the game is the item shop, where you sell pretty much everything and anything.

Initially your shop is pretty small but as you earn merchant levels you can expand the store, and even get vending machines to sell things.

You set out items on the counters, then click the stool by the till to open the shop. Customers come in and offer to buy things, at which point you commence haggling. You want to sell your items for more than what you paid for them, but you don’t want to drive the customer away by putting your prices to high.

If you get the prices right straight away you get a bonus, so getting it right is in your best interest. It is worth noting that initially it’s better not to haggle at all, and just sell everything at the base price. Sure you wont get much profit (except on items found in the dungeons), but you will rack up merchant ranks.

Your merchant rank dictates what you can buy, and what perks you can get from the guild hall. Higher ranks allow you to access fusion, which means you can make higher quality items which sell for more, thus increasing your profit margin.

The game itself is split into four periods of time, so it does have elements of time management. For example going to a dungeon uses up two periods of time and you can only go in the first or second period.

A lot of the store related stuff is dealt with inside the store, and everything else is dealt with on the town map:

You can access anywhere In the town and only lose one period of time, so visiting as many of the places as you can is a wise move. However also watch out for any of the name that are flashing, since these areas have a cut scene, which from time to time are funny as hell.

The market is self explanatory, you buy your food stuffs, treasures, books, shop fixtures and jewellery from there. The town square is same as any other town square hehe. Merchant Guild is where you buy upgrades to your shops size, as well as weapons, clothing, armour, hats and helms. It’s also the place you go to for fusion. Fusion is where you mix an item you buy from either the Guild or Market (or find in a dungeon) and fuse it with ingredients you find while dungeon crawling. The resulting item can be worth a lot of money, or it can be worth nothing, the end result is random. Depending on your merchant level, you get access to different levels of fusion, as well as learning new creations and ingredients.

The Guild Hall is also a good place to stop for in game help, it has a series of FAQ’s that explain a lot of what goes on. Tear is also a place to go for help, if in doubt talk to tear (when your in the store), she can tell you a lot, including going over past tutorials again, but more on her in a bit.

The Pub is only accessible in the last two periods of the day, and some of the characters have to be encountered there before you can hire them, again watch for the flashing name. It’s also worth going there just to hear the comments that Tear makes on alcohol hehe I found them to be hilarious. The Chapel, has no use, or none I’ve seen yet, beyond a few comedy cut scenes. The Adventure’s Hall is where you go to hire an Adventurer, and to visit the various dungeons.

Dungeon crawling is the second part of the game, since on it’s own the item shop aspect would get dull pretty fast I think. So you basically hire an Adventurer for a fee, which raises depending on their level, and then follow them through the dungeon. For the crawl itself you swap focus, rather than playing as Recette you play as which ever hero you hired. Recette and Tear follow along picking up all the loot carefully hidden by magic. Since you’re limited with what you can carry you also have to judge which items are worth carrying and which aren’t worth it, which can be a pain in the arse at times.

Like the rest of the game the graphics are simple, but easy on the eye, not to mention that the chibi characters just look so damned cute!! The monsters are pretty much nothing special graphically, from the blobs in the pic above, to knights in armour, to tentacle monsters, mushrooms, eye-ball’s with death rays, and giant mice. This is why I prefer the game pad for this game, it’s easier to move around and fight than it is on a keyboard.

There are a number of characters that you can hire, some are hidden others only appear after certain events happen. Louie is you first hero, and you get him right away, he’s used as the introduction character, you help him get his guild accreditation, he teaches you about the dungeons. He’s your a-typical fighter, with shield and sword, hit things till they die.

Every five levels you get the option to carry on or portal back to town. Make sure you choose wisely, since if your hero looks like he’s going to die (cause no one really dies in this game) Recette and Tear rescue him and run away. But they have to leave all the loot they’ve picked up so far behind. This also includes any items you equipped on them, which can be quite costly. You can bring one item back initially, but this does seem to grow as well. Not sure if this merchant level or character level based though.

Back to the store with all your swag and put it up for sale, and wait for someone to come buy it. The negotiation is done on a simple interface:

Basically you’ve got the item, and it’s base price (in this case a cake with a base price of 3500pix), you want to sell it for a profit by increasing the radial numbers. Rather simple really, up and own moves the price up and down, left and right changes the row. It tells you how much your current percentage of base price is.

You have to be careful however as the market tends to fluctuate. Over the course of the game prices for various things go up and down, so you have to account for that as well. I’ve sold some stuff for as much as 180% when it’s prices were up. The best thing is to buy a load when they’re low, and sell when they’re high, but be careful, selling stuff when their prices are low can cost you a fortune.

All said and done this game is highly addictive, though I do wonder where the 30+ hours to finish the story comes from, since I did it in near 12. However after completing the main story several new options open up for you. Firstly is the endless mode, which is pretty much that. You carry on playing and the game doesn’t stop. New dungeons and characters open up and you just keep going, though thankfully there’s no more debt hanging over you.

Survival Mode really should be called Nightmare Mode, since that’s what it’ll end up as lol. Basically it’s the Endless Mode with one other added feature, your weekly debt remains and it grows exponentially. How long can you last before the debt kills you off hehe.

New Game+ means you start all over again, but with the items and merchant level you have from any of the save games.

The only thing I hate about starting a new game is you have to go through all the tutorials again. Would be nice if it remembered you’d already done it, but oh well.

Over all though, I love this game and think it’s worth every penny I paid for it, which wasn’t all that much. There is a demo of the game, which you can download through Steam, or directly from the Carpe Fulgur website. You can buy it from Steam, Impulse Driven, or Gamers Gate.

The game itself is DRM free, and doesn’t install anything in the registry. this means you can actually run the game from a USB Pen Drive. this I was one of the goals that Carpe Fulgur set themselves, an open non-invasive installation. Which considering the rampant piracy made me wonder, but I do like their take on it so I’ll just quote them :

taken from the Recettear website:

Does Recettear feature any form of copy protection?

Recettear does not feature copy protection (or "DRM") of any kind. Neither Carpe Fulgur nor EasyGameStation believe in compromising the user’s privacy and freedom to use their computers as they wish.

Once you purchase the Recettear client, you are free to do with it as you wish (though don’t torrent it, thanks) – you may copy it to any location on your hard drive, you may make as many backup copies as you wish, you may even run it from an external hard drive or a USB thumb drive if you so wish (and your thumb drive has the capacity). Recettear is install-agnostic and makes no hooks in your system registry. It has no DRM and no "restrictions" on where and when it can be installed.

But doesn’t that mean I can just pirate your game?
or
But aren’t you afraid of getting pirated into oblivion?

Well, we’ll say this: Recettear would be pirated regardless of whether we used copy protection or not. We’re adults and we understand that our work will be stolen by someone who doesn’t want to pay for it; that’s how the Internet works in this day and age. Any prospective pirates who enjoy our work, however, must realize that we can only continue to produce localizations for games – and possibly help foster new projects on our own – if we make enough money to make a living at it.

If you like the game even a little bit, please purchase it. We respect our customers enough to not put any invasive DRM programs into Recettear – we hope the respect will be repaid in kind.

The localization of the game has been done really well IMO, the comedy aspects were handled really well, one of my favourite lines comes early on: “Louie passes bad check at the cafe and goes on the lam”.  Louie of course being the hapless hero we hired initially, who is always cash strapped and looking for his next meal.

As for how true this is to the original, I’ve no idea, but it is pretty funny, so I don’t really begrudge them altering any text. Especially since we don’t really get to see much text. They also leave the original japanese voices in, which I do like. Though apparently some people find them annoying. given that the voice over’s are very infrequent in this game I don’ really see how. What I did find annoying though was the music, it was okay at first but after a few hours it got on my nerves.

Definitely a game worth buying though IMO, it’s cheap, it’s fun, cute and will keep you going for hours!!

Sadly I had hoped to include a Q&A with the three guys from Carpe Fulgur, but they never responded to my emails. All I can say though is keep up the great work guys!! Bring us more of these awesome games please!!

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
by: Fumi Yoshinaga
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Shoujo, Comedy, Drama, Slice of Life
Synopsis:

Forced to enrol one month late after recovering from a serious illness, Harutaro does his best to remain optimistic about enrolling in a new school. The other students try to make Haru feel welcome – especially his chubby, loveable pal, Shota – but Kai Majima, president of the manga club and all-around hard case, seems intent on making Harutaro’s high school life a living nightmare. Join Harutaro as he makes new friends, learns to draw manga and discovers surprising facts about his “kinda gay” teacher!

Character Musings:

Haru is an interesting character, he’s recovering from a severe illness, and as such has been held back a year at school. His forthright and bubbly personality wins over the class, all the more than his bombshell announcement. Over the course of the series he grows only a little  bit, before having a big splurge of development in the final volume.

Shota, is an overweight semi-recluse at the start of the series. He gets on well with Haru,  and while he isn’t the bubbly personality of Haru, he isn’t unhappy. His personality meshes well with Haru and over the course of the series he changes the most, becoming more open and less reserved.

Majima in all honesty is the character I hate the most. He’s reserved, obnoxious and arrogant to the max. He doesn’t get on well with anyone, except for Shota. Over the course of the series he doesn’t change at all and when things go pear shaped for him in the end I was all “take that ya SOB”.

Shigeru, the class teacher, who for ages I thought was a gay guy lol. Her personality is that of a door mat. She pretty much lets people walk all over her, and frankly I found her to be an annoying useless character. Though she does have her moments later on in the series. Though they just heighten the “door mat” feeling.

General Musings

This series is weird, good, but weird. There is no real story  to it, no deep and meaningful hidden secrets, or anything that jumps out to startle you (with one exception).

The first thing I noticed about the series was the bombshell that gets announced right away. Haru, our lead, drops a huge bombshell, but the way he does it I  couldn’t help but laugh over it.

Over the course of the series you come to realise that nothing major is going to happen, so instead you focus on the smaller side of things. This means the relationships, and little mini events that are going on around the lead come to the fore. Usually these would have been lost, or obscured by the main story, of Haru and his return to school, but now are given plenty of time and space to breath and strut their stuff.

Sadly though this does give the series a feeling that it lacks direction. With no set course it just drifts through the story. This is further heightened by the way the story sort of jumps around. It’’ spend a chapter building something up, then jump to another in the next chapter leaving a sort of cliff hanger ending of the previous chapter.

This happens a lot in this series, and after a while you get used to it, realising it just the way the series is also helps a lot.

The sad thing is the final volume does get really amazing since we get two very different plot developments that are never really explored and built upon. First is a revelation about Haru, which is handled awesomely, and really made me feel for the guy. But then the next day it’s all done and dusted as though nothing major had happened. We do get a few references to it, but nothing really that builds upon the revelations, or shows how everyone comes to terms with it.

The other development is with Majima. throughout the series I was hating him, wanting him to get struck by lightning or something. Well I got my wish, and my initial reaction was “HELL YEAH”, but then I started to feel sorry for him. We get some interesting moments between him and Haru, but again it’s not really built upon.

Given that volume four was the last volume I don’t see how they could have built upon it,  but the final volume was screaming for more volumes to carry on.

The art isn’t that appealing, I’ve recently read a few other series with art that’s similar. However I really don’t like the style. The characters designs are fluctuating all the time, nothing major, but I find it irritating.

Though I have to admit Majima’s character design does look good, and it works for me. And the same is true for the other characters. They have their moments when they look awesome, especially Haru at the end of vol four when he stops dying his hair.

Publisher Musings:

I read this on eManga, so that does have an impact on my review of how DMP handled the releases.

One of the big things I noticed was that the thought/out of balloon text was done in light grey (as is usual), however this is bad on a digital release because they become hard to read and follow. Usually this isn’t an issue with paper editions, but it’s something that needs consideration for future digital editions. Other than that though the fonts were handled well, with no major issues.

They keep all the honorific’s intact, which was a nice touch. I was especially glad to see they kept the “sensei” in, rather than just trying to replace it with teacher or some other variant.

My overall thoughts on this series were that despite it lack of direction, I really got into it and enjoyed reading it. The characters were interesting enough to keep me interested. It has a great feel to it, and while I wasn’t happy with the ending it was still worth reading and one I’ll be re-reading now and again.

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ISBN-13: 9781569701454
Language: English
Direction: Left to Right
Pages: 279
by: Hideyuki Kikuchi (story), Jun Suemi (art)
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series, Novel
Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Sci-fi, Supernatural, Seinen
Synopsis:

After a devastating earthquake that left most of Japan in ruins, the district ward of Shinjuku in Tokyo has opened up a doorway into another dimension—becoming the halfway-house suspended between the mortal world and the supernatural. Setsura Aki, undercover P.I., is considered the best "man hunter" in the business. He allies himself with friend and rival, Doctor Mephisto—a wizard of physical and spiritual surgery. Together, they battle the evil forces that overrun the city. Coming from the deepest and darkest parts of China, four immortal demons, led by the Princess of vampires, have surmounted four thousand years of space and time to seize control of Shinjuku and make it their own. It is up to Setsura and Mephisto to uncover their new formidable foes’ dark plans for the city. Can the duo stop them before they plunge the living populace into a new level of fear and slavery none can escape?

Character Musings:

At the moment there are two main good guys, Doctor Mephisto, and Setsura Aki. Both unique, freaky, and frankly awesome characters in their own right.

Doctor Mephisto, also called the Demon Doctor is, supposedly, able to heal any injury or illness. Whether it’s physical or mental. He runs the main hospital and has a very weird set of morals. He’s a very prideful person who is more than willing to kill somebody to hide the fact that he screwed up. He’s supremely beautiful, and women have a tendency to pass out just from looking at him.

Setsura Aki is just as as weird in his own right. Equally as handsome as Mephisto he runs a Senbei store by day, The rest of the time he run’s a detective agency and is considered the best P.I. around, who is both respected and feared by everyone. Also like Mephisto there’s more to him than meets the eye, as he has a mysterious split personality that comes up from time to time.

On the big evil side of things we have a mysterious quartet, three vampires and another.

The three vampires, Princess, Ryuuki and Shuuran. The Princess is given a rather interesting, if vague and in-depth introduction, as we’re told all the names she’s used through out history, empires she’s destroyed etc etc, yet we never really get to learn anything of substance about her. She’s totally evil, on a scale never seen before, totally beautiful and debauched. That’s pretty much all we learn about her this volume.

The same applies to Shuuran and Ryuuki, though we do get some more personality information. Ryuuki is considered “old school” in that he follows the age old traditions of vampires. He’s also, after reading the first volume, the weakest of the big evils. Though this seems in part to be because he sticks to a moral code. Shuuran however seems to do whatever she likes so long as she gets her fill of blood and sex.

KiKiou is, by appearance, an old man. While he’s not a vampire it’s not revealed as to what he really is. He’s extremely powerful, and while we don’t get to see the full extent of his abilities in this volume, what we do get to see is rather frightening.

General Musings:

Okay lets get the warning out of the way, If you’re expecting another Vampire D style story, forget it. Kikuchi takes Yashakiden to all new highs (or lows depending on your view), as such it’s most definitely not a book for youngsters or young adults.

Here in the UK a lot of store have been reluctant to carry the series because of it’s graphic nature, which includes violence and sex, in both story and art. Most stores only order it in, in my case I found volume one in my local store after the person who ordered it never picked it up. In short, if your easily offended, don’t like sex being thrown in your face, or masochism, you may want to consider skipping this.

Okay, lets get on. All I can say is HELL YEAH!!! This volume was awesome on so many levels. I’ve read a few Vampire Hunter D novels, as well as the first volume of Wicked City, so I thought I had a grasp on Kikuchi’s writing style. Yashakiden blows all my preconceptions out of the water. It’s darker, grittier, sexier, and more spooky than anything else of his I’ve read to date.

The basic premise is of four ancient demons coming to take Shinjuku as their own, and of Mephisto and Aki’s battle to prevent it. The way that Kikuchi starts the story is stunning, and grabs you right from the outset.

All of the characters we get introduced to are awesome, well developed and thought out before they were put to paper (or that was my impression). Unusually, almost from the first page, the big evil is introduced. Usually creators spend some time setting up the heroes and settings. Kikuchi opted to introduce the big evil, and then to build up the characters over the course of the volume.

As a result of this we get an interesting blend, since we don’t have a real idea of the characters when things first hit the fan, we learn about them at the same time as we learn about the evil guys.

I like this approach, it gives the novel a unique feel to it that further heightens the sense of unease I felt reading it. What I mean is that while I knew that Aki and Mephisto were the heroes of the story, it’s not until later on that this is confirmed. Rather at one point I thought that they were going to be fighting each other.

Kikuchi does have a bit of a problem though, and it’s one I first noticed in Vampire Hunter D. He does tend to suffer from what I call Tolkienitis, that is he gets bogged down in descriptions much like how Tolkien did in Lord of the Rings.

This means we do get places that are overly wordy in their descriptions. While I understand the reason for this, Kikuchi  is wanting to paint a picture that’s as clear as possible for the readers, it does mean that readers can feel trapped in the environments. Thankfully this only happens a few times in Yashakiden.

The main thing I love though is the story and the way that it flows. Kikuchi  pulls no punches, at times it’s crass, at others sexy and at others both together. It’s like he took of the limitations on his creativity and just decided to write the story he wanted to, regardless of the audience. As a result we get one of the best fantasy/sc-fi novels I’ve ever read.

His writing doesn’t feel forced or strained, something I noticed in a few Vampire Hunter D novels, it flows free and fast.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have it’s flaws, ‘cause it does. For me, the only one of a major issue is the way he handles Aki and Mephisto. Both Aki and Mephisto have bizarre demonic split personalities that come to the surface at times and have “confrontations”. However the way these are written it’s very hard to discern that the personality change has happened, and can leave you wondering what the hell is going on for a bit, especially when it first happens.

I’m hoping that future volumes of the series will not only carry on with the story, but also delve into the history of Aki and Mephisto. I really want to know more about them. Either way I’m looking forward to reading volume two and three.

Suemi’s art is one aspect of the novels I’m not so sure about. Sometimes the art is okay, and other times it looks horrible. Though I will admit I like the cover design. Though I really don’t see Aki like that, the impression I got from the novel was different to Suemi’s version.

Publisher Musings:

*bows to DMP* Congratulations Digital Manga on a near perfect release for Yashakiden volume one. Near perfect because there are a few minor things I didn’t like (and lets be fair there’s no such thing as perfect hehe).

Firstly the bit’s a I didn’t like. The map at the front of the book is badly positioned and frankly it’s mostly unreadable. This would have been better as a pull out page. Also, a minor thing, a glossary of terms would have been nice, if only to tell me what the hell a Senbei Store was. That was bugging me for ages lol, but there were a few other regional terms and things that could have done with a glossary entry.

Beyond this however (and yes, those are minor quirks of my own), DMP did an absolutely freaking masterful job. One aspect I can not praise enough is the size of the volume. It’s a little bigger width wise than normal novels, and as a result DMP opted to use a larger font with wider spacing. This was a god sent that made for an easier reading experience. However it also just looks so much better.

The other thing I have to give them high praise for is the lack of censorship. Earlier on I said Kikuchi let his writing run free, and I can easily see the temptation of DMP to alter the text so it’s less graphic, all in a bit to increase sales (as we frequently see happening with other publishers). Thankfully they don’t, and leave Kikuchi’s story in it’s unadulterated, and graphic form.

Excellent work DMP, the result is a novel that I love and have already recommended to people.

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Language: English
Direction: Left to Right
by: Youjung Lee
Publisher: NetComics
Type: Series
Genre: Fantasy, Shonen
Synopsis:

At first glance Moolchi is just another shy, unassuming boy whose greatest talents are running away from bullies and binging on vitamin supplements. Then one day, seemingly out of the blue, Moolchi’s absentee father sends him a most unusual gift–a stunningly-proportioned ‘girl’ who may or may not be made of flesh and blood. She calls herself ‘Six’ and mumbles incoherently about having a ‘prime directive.’ This strange and exquisite creature quickly turns the boy’s life upside-down, violently disposing of junior-high hooligans and anybody else who gets in his or her way, all while wearing a getup that would make Barbarella blush. In the midst of these baffling occurrences, Moolchi just can’t seem to stop worrying about his German homework. The word ‘oblivious’ barely does him justice as Moolchi remains blissfully unaware of his father’s dangerous double-life, or the cute hall monitor who harbors a crush on him, or the intentions of this mysterious femme fatale who insists on bathing with him. Meanwhile, ominous storm clouds gather on the horizon, and one lingering question looms above the others…who is this so-called ‘Zero’ that everybody is looking for?

Character Musings:

Moolchi is a dweeb, pure and simple. He’s always the victim of bullies, gets pushed around by the teachers, and ignored by the girls. He’s always popping vitamin pills and longs to be strong so he can have his revenge.

Jong-E is a machine, supposedly. She’s been sent to protect Moolchi but seems to cause more trouble than she resolves. She’s supposed to listen to his orders, but tends to ignore him at the weirdest times.

There are a couple of others I considered adding here, but since they died rather quickly, or just didn’t leave an impact, I decided against it.

General Musings:

I had high hopes for this series after reading volume one, and for a little while it sort of lived up to them. However it falls short in several areas.

One of the biggest issues  have with this series Is that so little is really explained, we’re expected to accept that ‘x’ happens for no apparent reason.

Before I go on lets get one thing clear, I liked this series. Despite it’s many flaws it was a fairly decent read.

So lets explore the flaws. The biggest one, and the one that  cripples the series, is it’s length. Youjung started off with a fairly decent pace, but I’m guessing one of two things happened, He either realised he was running out of pages to tell the whole story, or the publisher cut the page count. Either way we suddenly go from a free flowing series to one that’s disjointed and leaves so much unexplained.

The way the story plays out makes sense, on it’s own. However the way Youjung tries to explain it makes it all the more confusing, because he simply just dumps all the information. Although he does attempt to straighten out Moolchi’s past, it’s done in a similar matter. However he changes his mind at the end and basically says something different.

Usually this wouldn’t be an issue, since if it’s done right we have an excellent plot twist. However this is an example of how not to do it, all we have is confusion.

The way the final fight plays out is just a total mess, we get more information dumped, leading to more confusion and questions, and then the fight just ends. Tie into that the way Youjung ends the volume and it’s hard not to frown at it.

Jong-E goes through so many changes over the volume, and almost none of them made any sense, and then at the very end it’s like everything that had happened previously (regarding her and her personality) suddenly didn’t happen, and all we have is teenage girl. Which does give the ending a bit of an “ewwww” factor.

The art is another thing that goes through some changes. Youjung’s art does improve a lot over the course of the series, but at the same time some of the characters go through some design changes.

The settings are okay, but some didn’t feel natural to me, rather they felt like stock art that had been bleached of colour then drawn over.

Yet in all fairness, if you can buy without getting bogged down in trying to figure out the who, what, where and why of things, it’s a fairly decent series. The ending is predictable, but it’s a series that’s worth buying for nothing but a brainless read.

Publisher Musings:

NetComics went with both the digital and print release of this series. The print run is heading towards OOP judging by the levels of stock availability in the UK. The digital version can be rented for a 48hour period, the full set of five volumes costs just $5, thats a mere $1 per volume.

As with all of their other releases the SFX’s are translated, edited out and replaced with the english versions. Personally I don’t like this, but credit where credit due, they did do a good job with it.

Also on the digital version the fonts used were a fairly decent size, making them easy to read and follow. So you wont get tired eyes reading all 5 volumes in a single sitting (which I did).

One thing to remember however is that you only have 48hours to read them, after this they expire and you have to re-hire them again, so I advise you to rent them on a volume by volume basis.

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ISBN-13: 9781569708651
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 184
by Izumi Kawachi
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Romance, Shonen
Synopsis:

Haruhiko is 100% head-over-sneakers for his sweet, shy science teacher Yuka. After all, she’s a total brainiac…and incredibly hot! But what’s he supposed to do when an enchanted vixen named Eukanaria suddenly falls into his lap (in a tiny miniskirt) and demands Haruhiko’s help? Demonic battles, powerful sorcery, and a busy bee who can’t mind her own business…what will happen when magic and mayhem mix?

Character Musings:

Fulcanelli, a once human, once demon, now a soul. We don’t really get much information about him this volume, beyond the fact that he has a strong sense of right and wrong, doesn’t mind scaring the hell out of people, and is currently double dead. As in he was once a human then died and became a demon, then some how dies again.

Eukanaria is Fulcanelli’s lover, at least that was the impression I got. She’s a clone of Yuka in looks, and almost in personality. She’s a bit of a bimbo, but she’s dedicated to the guy she loves and is doing everything she can to bring him back. She’s a bit on the violent side, and very decisive about some things, but nonchalant about others. She also seems to lack a sense of morality and decency, and pretty much tortures Haruhiko.

Yuka is, well, an air head. Totally accepting of everything and anything. She’s a teacher (which really does say something about the level of teaching in that school lol), but can’t handle electronics.

Haruhiko is our hero, sort of. For the most part he seems to be a generic seventeen year old guy with a crush on his neighbour and teacher, Yuka. He tends to jump into things without thinking, but also has the determination and strength to stand firm when the crap hits the fan.

Mercurio is by far the the character that has left the biggest impression on me. She appears to be a cute, but highly clumsy girl. She’s an enchanter who specialises in engraving. Her bubbly out going personality is matched only by her desire to help people. She’s also the first of ‘other’ world not to see Haruhiko as a Fulcanelli clone, but rather as an enchanter in his own right. However she holds a dark secret that she longs to tell him off, but is also afraid to. It all comes to a head later in the series and the end results leave a bitter after taste in everyone’s mouth.

Adolf initially seems to be just a clone of Haruhiko. In fact initially I just thought that Izumi had moved Haruhiko’s personality over to a new body. Thankfully over the course of the series he fleshes out and becomes more his own man. While his basic personality is the same as Haruhiko, he’s more determined. He’s also more practicable and able to draw the plans for things he wants to make. Though he has trouble coming up with the initial ideas. He’s exceptionally good at creating things, and at mastering new skills, such as learning how to make a piano for a little girl.

Lavoix is Adolf’s demon, and has a lot of hatred towards Eukanaria. She hates humans, and hates being in the human world and is doing everything she can to get back to her own world. However she ends up staying when Adolf as she turns out to be in love with him.

General Musings

Over the course of the nine volumes I’ve read there were several characters introduced, such as Mana and Navy. However they only cropped up briefly after the initial introduction. So I didn’t add them to my character musings.

The first volume really grabbed my attention, we had a interesting story decent art, and likable characters. However after the first volume it sort of falters a bit.

I got the impression that Izumi was focusing to heavily on the fanservice, in fact almost every pages has some sort of fanservice on it. This is an issue for me, since I found it  distracting. Fanservice has it’s place, and in manga like this you can certainly expect to see more of it. Characters are frequently falling over, sleeping in next to nothing, or simply running around in clothing that would a S&M Queen blush. For me the fanservice does get a bit much, and a bit distracting from the core story.

Sadly, the exciting story we got introduced to in volume one falls by the way side straight away, and I found volumes two through seven to be pretty uninteresting. We get some fights, and a bit of character development, but mostly it seems to be about showing off boobs and arse.

We do get some interesting bits, namely early on with Adolf and Lavoix, but those end  rather swiftly. Mana the next enchanter we get to see has no depth to her, everything about her feels forced and that she’s doing everything just to be close to Haruhiko. She’s also pretty much abandoned after her arc, only popping up now and again.

It’s not until Mercurio comes into play fully, and we start to explore her arc that things pick up again. Though sadly her arc is barely a volume and a half long. Despite this it’s by far one of the most heart wrenching one in the series so far, not to mention a bitter sweet ending.  I really enjoyed how this arc plays out, and the ending was just perfect.

The next arc that came along is a bit weird, and I’m not really sure what to make of it. It has the potential to be another good arc, but at the same time it also has the feel of another “filler arc”. When will we finally start to get into the main story of Fulcanelli, why he gave his powers to Haruhiko, why he’s been silent since, what’s his relationship with Yuka and a slew of other questions that were posed early on in the series but never answered.

The other thing I found worrying is that after ten volumes there’s no really progress on any level. Granted we do get little bit of character development, and in the Mercurio arc we get some of the biggest developments to date. Yet at the same time it’s like three steps forward then two back. Considering that the series is now over the half way mark we still haven’t been introduced into anything staggering.

While it’s certainly been an interesting read up to this point, and with the last arc it did get interesting. I feel a bit lost reading this series, where is it going? When is it going to get there? Why is it even trying to get there? Sadly at the moment the series feels like a set of  disjointed but joined mini-stories, disappointing to say the least.

I have to admit that if I were to have been buying the volumes at release I probably would have ceased buying after the third or fourth volume. Since I bought all ten volumes together I ended up reading them all, which means I read them all. I felt it would have been stupid to buy them all and not read them after all hehe.

As I was reading up on the net for this series I found some interesting stuff, which when I read it suddenly gave me an “ahhhhh that’s why” moment. One of the things that had been bugging about the series was the content of the fanservice, which seemed to focus on an older sex bomb demon beating up the guys. Apparently, in an interview Izumi said she drew this style of fanservice because she has a desire to be treated like that by a sexy older woman:

Izumi Kawachi comments that she often has young boys being belittled as "useless" and "no good" due to her desire to be treated in such a way by an domineering, cute, older woman.

I think that says all we need to know about Izumi right there hehe.

On the art side of things I’m pretty torn, a part of me wants’ to condemn it for being stale and dull. But in fairness the character art ranges from good to excellent. One of the areas that Izumi really excels in is in the characters faces, their facial expressions are all over the place. The various emotions and attitudes we read about in the manga are perfectly depicted on the characters faces through out the volume. I found I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at some of the expressions.

The character designs for the women of the series, especially the demons, is also pretty damned amazing. Though the prevalence of skimpy clothing, string bikinis, huge boobs, kind of spoils it a bit. Though I have to admit my favourite out of the all the demon girls is Mercurio, both of them. The original clumsy sweet girl had an endearing quality that makes you want to help her. After the arc ends and we have the new Mercurio, who is basically an S&M Queen (who doesn’t allow safety words hehe), I still found I liked her more than the others.

Sadly the scenery art is where this series fails. There’s hardly any, oh we get the odd line here or there to show a wall, outside scenery and stuff. But the inside scenery feels generic, there’s no presence to it, and frankly while I was reading the series I tended to blot out the scenery. The only exceptions to this were Paracelsus’ and Fulcanelli’s workshops, which were mildly better. The first time I saw them I was impressed, but that faded away rather quickly since it felt like every time after the first was a carbon copy of the original.

Publisher Musings:

This series rather surprised me in a way. DMP stopped using glossy slip covers to save on costs. This effected a lot of manga (including the Vampire D ones), but they kept the slip covers for this series. As a result the covers are without a doubt gorgeous. Some of them are a little fanservicey but they’re all okay IMO.

The paper is a bit of a let down, I bought mine from the Book Depository and the paper has not aged well. Rather it’s already going yellow, and the ink has faded on some of the volumes. Volumes eight and ten were especially hard to read at times because the ink had faded so much. This could be down to how they were stored in the Book Depository warehouse, but I do wish publishers would take things like storage and longevity into consideration during production.

Another aspect that caused me some concern was the use of honorific’s. It feels like the editors couldn’t decide on whether to use them or not, as a result we get a split. When they’re referring to the girls we get some honorific’s, such as Yuka-chan, but the rest of the time it’s Mr this and Mr that, it just doesn’t fit right for me. While I like my manga to be kept as close to original as possible, including the honorific’s, I don’t mind them being changed or removed. However I think common sense needs to come into play here, how many school kids do YOU know that go around calling their friends Mr or Miss? I know I never did, and none of the guys in my school did. I also think if you are going to change it, change them all not just bits and pieces.

Granted sometimes the original manga-ka mixes western titles with the japanese ones, but again I think publishers should use common sense. Does the way it’s been used really work? Not all manga-ka or their editors, know how or when the western titles are used so they can and do get used out of place a lot of times.

The big sad thing about this series is that DMP seems to have ceased releasing the volumes after volume ten. Which is rather sad since there were only nine volumes left to go in the series. I’m hoping that they’ll add the full series to eManga so I can finish the series.

I do think this is a series worth persevering with, it’s fun and sexy. Despite the cliff-hanger ending I don’t regret buying it. But I can easily see it not appealing to everyone with the heavy fanservice.

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Manga in the UK can be a nightmare to buy, mainly because most publishers don’t actively release in the UK. So we end up having to rely on imports an over charging comic shops. But that isn’t the best place to go, here’s a list of the places I use, and why I choose them.

Book Depository – http://www.bookdepository.co.uk

This should always be your first stop. The Book Depository sell pretty much every manga that’s ever been released, and can even get some of the original japanese releases. Almost all of their titles are reduced usually anywhere from 10-35%, and they occasionally do voucher periods which can gain you an extra 10-15% off of your total order. Finally, and probably their best selling point, is they do free shipping. Whether your order is a single volume or thirty volumes, it’s free postage.

Sadly that is also their biggest failing. They rely on Royal Mail standard first class delivery, which is usually within 2-3 days. My experience is usually 3-4 days. I usually order Monday afternoon and they’d arrive Friday/Saturday. also sadly the mail service isn’t what it used to be, and so far 1 in 15 books ordered will not arrive. While BD can not be held responsible for that, they’re very slow at processing replacements and refunds, taking upwards of 3-4 weeks.

Overall though BD is always my first stop, and it’s only ever been a few things I haven’t been able to get from them.

Play.com – http://www.play.com

Is usually my second stop after BD. While their range isn’t as broad, they do tend to carry most new releases. They also have a market place for selling second hand copies, and also like BD offer free postage.

Unlike BD though they only take payment when your item is ready to be shipped, which can lead to confusion over the payments. Also the marketplace is very easy to manipulate, and you need to be careful when using it as the safeguards aren’t that safe.

Waterstones – http://waterstones.co.uk

Depending on your manager the local Waterstones can be a good port of call. However bear in mind Waterstones have a dodgy charging system. Rather than working out the cost of a title in the UK, they simply replace the $ for £, so if a volume is $9.99 you’ll be charged £9.99. However they frequently do 2 for 3 deals which soften that some.

Forbidden Planet – http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/

Forbidden Planet (or any other comic shop) are a fair to average shopping experience. Since they get their supplies through Diamond, rather than a distributor, there are pros and cons. Firstly Diamond gets the manga quicker, so it reaches you more quickly. However it can cost you more, since it goes through several hands before getting to yours. Also price fluctuations are annoying since the price you were given at the time of the order can change when you pick it up, depending on the exchange rate at the time of shipping

Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk

I don’t like Amazon, I’ve never had a good experience with them, though I know others swear by them. Their range is almost as good as BD, and they also carry a lot of older and hard to find titles. Like Play.com they have a marketplace for second-hand copies, but their safeguards are a lot stronger, making it safer to buy on. Though as a rule of thumb you never want to buy anything from anyone with les than a 90% rating, and never from a new seller.

Unlike BD or Play.com their shipping is charged, and it’s worth paying the extra to get the priority delivery which will usually get to you the next day. The standard delivery is exactly the same as Play.com and BD’s free one, where as the priority one at least offers security.

Personally though, I’d only ever use Amazon as an ultimate last attempt. I’ve found their customer services to be abysmal, and they frequently charge for titles they know they don’t have.

There we have it, a list of the places to buy manga in the UK. Book Depository will have 99% of the stuff you want, and a reduced price, with free shipping. What more do you need? There are other stores of course, and this list is not meant as the be all and end all, rather these are the places I’ve used and found worth using again and again.

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Publishers published the licensed stuff, scanlators stuck to the unlicensed stuff. Sadly as of this morning my stance has changed and I’m giving up all my scans (which scarily has freed up close to a terabyte of hard drive space).

So what’s happened? Well, I recently started to review titles for NetComics, they’re a small publisher that has an online reader. You rent manga by the chapter, for $0.20-0.35 a chapter, which I frankly think is exceptionally good value. Though I do wish the rental time was longer, 72hours would be better than 48.

Anyway, I was looking around the net and came across a group that frankly has proved to me that scanlators have lost all their moral credibility. This group has been stealing NetComics stuff directly from their viewer. They have the gall to rent the chapters, use a screen capture and then post them as their releases.

What’s really ironic is that all of these images carry the NetComics logo, which kinda puts their statement that it’s their work to be a lie. What’s really pissing me off is that there’s no reason for it. You can rent an entire volume of manga from NetComics for a mere $1. With manga costing that much there’s no reason possible for not supporting the publisher and buying from them.

Sites like this make me sick.

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ISBN-13: 9781933664033
Language: English
Direction: Left to Right
Pages: 192
by: Yamila Abraham (story), Studio Kosaru (artist)
Publisher: NetComics, Yaoi Press
Type: Series
Genre: Fantasy, Yaoi
Synopsis:

When three ruthless fire demons come to terrorize the monk Hakuin’s village he’s forced to seek help from Fuyu, the snow demon who tormented him a year ago. Fuyu is thrilled to see his beautiful monk again. He’ll defeat the fire demons only if Hakuin becomes his willing slave. Fuyu realizes too late that the fire demons are out of his league. Even worse, the lead demon thinks the fey Fuyu would make a nice slave in his own right. When Fuyu is put in the same position he put Hakuin a year ago he starts to realize the error of his ways. Maybe, in time, he can even be redeemed to his beloved monk.

General Musings:

Again no character section this time, this was due to the characters leaving no impact on me. The volume wasn’t bad as such, rather it leaves no impact on me, five minutes after reading it I’d forgotten what it was about.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t mind yaoi titles, and I don’t mind OEL titles. However after reading several of these OEL yaoi titles I’ve found I can’t help but hate them. They seem to bring the worst of art and the worst, or perhaps flimsiest of stories. Truth be told I got the impression that these stories were nothing more than a lame excuse for two guys to get together.

Winter Demon was the first of three titles I’ve read that have been lauded as excellent OEL yaoi, and I’m sorry but I just don’t see it.

The story for Winter Demon sounded great, and I was eager to get into it. Sadly it doesn’t deliver.

The first chapter was certainly interesting, but a bit skimpy. Reading it on NetComics I was interested enough to carry on with reading the volume (thank you NetComics for the review copy).

That’s where things start to go down hill a bit. The first chapter doesn’t flow right, rather the order it comes across makes no sense and should have been shifted a bit. The way Hakuin’s history is revealed just doesn’t mesh right. Thankfully this is only the case with this chapter.

The second chapter the story settles down and starts to make more sense. Sadly though the story feels rushed and it’s hard to feel anything for the characters. Rather, as I said earlier, it feels like the story  is nothing more than a pretext to get the guys screwing. Also, as seems to be the norm in OEL yaoi, it’s all about rape.

The art of the story isn’t great by any standard, but it is of a decent quality. I liked the character designs of the two leads, Hakuin and Fuyu. I also found I liked the designs of the fire demons, though they did look a bit weird.

The main area I have a problem with is the is the hands of the demons. I get that they demons and all, so claws and stuff are normal, but I think the claws were to weird and just didn’t look right on the characters. Especially since in one case they looked more like the hands from Edward Scissor Hands rather than just claws.

Several reviews I’ve seen of Winter Demon criticise the art of the volume. Mainly that they changed artists. Frankly I don’t agree with that complaint, not in the way it was being used at least. This volume has the main story and two separate ‘extra’ stories. The main story is done by one artist and the other two are done by other artists. I honestly don’t have an issue with this, I would have if the core story had had different artists, but not as it stands.

In the end this is a mindless story, in other words it’s perfect if you want to read something simply to fill some time and aren’t interested in the long lasting impressions of the series. I’m not sure if I’ll be getting the other volumes of the series.

Publisher Handling:

I find it hard to judge OEL series, this one is all the harder since I read it online. I’ve never read anything from Yaoi Press before and overall I don’t think they did a bad job on this release.

The only thing I wish was different is that they had removed the extra chapters. Extra’s are always a great thing, but this time they took up far to much of the volume. Considering this is a five volume series there was no reason to skimp on the core story. It would have been better with an extra chapter or two of the actual story. I mean people buying this want to read the Winter Demon story, not a couple of one shot stories.

Winter Demon has a good premise, but it’s not allowed to spread it’s wings and fly. I may pick up volume two at a later date to see if it gets any better.

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ISBN-13: 9781600090202
Language: English
Direction: Left to Right
Pages: 176
by: Youjung Lee
Publisher: NetComics
Type: Series
Genre: Fantasy, Shonen
Synopsis:

At first glance Moolchi is just another shy, unassuming boy whose greatest talents are running away from bullies and binging on vitamin supplements. Then one day, seemingly out of the blue, Moolchi’s absentee father sends him a most unusual gift–a stunningly-proportioned ‘girl’ who may or may not be made of flesh and blood. She calls herself ‘Six’ and mumbles incoherently about having a ‘prime directive.’ This strange and exquisite creature quickly turns the boy’s life upside-down, violently disposing of junior-high hooligans and anybody else who gets in his or her way, all while wearing a getup that would make Barbarella blush. In the midst of these baffling occurrences, Moolchi just can’t seem to stop worrying about his German homework. The word ‘oblivious’ barely does him justice as Moolchi remains blissfully unaware of his father’s dangerous double-life, or the cute hall monitor who harbors a crush on him, or the intentions of this mysterious femme fatale who insists on bathing with him. Meanwhile, ominous storm clouds gather on the horizon, and one lingering question looms above the others…who is this so-called ‘Zero’ that everybody is looking for?

Character Musings:

Moolchi is a dweeb, pure and simple. He’s always the victim of bullies, gets pushed around by the teachers, and ignored by the girls. He’s always popping vitamin pills and longs to be strong so he can have his revenge.

Jong-E is a machine, supposedly. She’s been sent to protect Moolchi but seems to cause more trouble than she resolves. She’s supposed to listen to his orders, but tends to ignore him at the weirdest times.

General Musings:

This was the third title I picked up from NetComics by Youjung Lee. The first was the awesome Yodong’s Vampire, the second we wont talk about (it was so bad), and now this one.

After the second series, Let’s be Perverts, I’d sort of lost heart. However the first chapter of 0/6 had something that caught my attention and made me want to read more of the volume.

The plot is nothing new, it’s as generic as they come. However I liked the way Lee brought the story to life in the first volume. Granted it takes a while for the story to actually get moving, but once it did it seems to be going down an interesting route.

Unfortunately due to the amount of time it takes to get going it’s not until the last chapter of the volume that things get interesting. The revelations in that chapter more than make up for the slow starting.

Much like Yodong’s Vampire the art of this volume isn’t that great, frankly I found it lacking in pretty much every area with regards to the art. The girl character designs have clearly had more time spent on them the guys, and it shows. Since the girls are pretty much the only one that I’ve seen so far that are done consistently through out the volume.

Moolchi himself went through several designs in the volume, and while it’s not as bad as in other volumes, it does lack consistency.

I have to admit however that I rather enjoyed this volume, and I will be picking up the subsequent volumes.

Publisher Musings:

Once again I read this on the NetComics website in their eReader, I’ve added the paper ed to my to buy list so will update this when it arrives.

Once again NetComics decided to edit out the SFX of the volume, so minus points for that. The fonts used this time are sharper and bolder, making them easier to read and follow. It’s a good value for money as well, considering you get the first chapter for free, and the others for $0.20 a chapter.

In the last chapter there was a phrase that really didn’t sit right with me. One of the bullies refers to someone as ‘senior’ which really just didn’t sit right for the setting. I don’t usually agree with re-writes, but I do think if you’re going to translate everything, you need to do selective dropping of words, so they fit both the character and setting. For example in this case I would have dropped the ‘senior’ since I don’t know anyone who’d call a friend by that.

It’s an interesting start to a series however and one I’m looking forward to following through on.

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ISBN-13: Online Only
Language: English
Direction: Left to Right
Pages: 232
by: Youjung Lee
Publisher: NetComics
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Fantasy, Shonen
Synopsis:

Meet Mr. Yodong Lee, a timid 27-year-old virgin who spends his days in a dull office job and quiet nights at home with the dog. In one day Yodong’s life is turned upside-down when he takes in a poor orphan girl who magically transforms into a vampish vampire. Losing both his virginity and his dog to his new lover’s voracious appetites, our protagonist is catapulted into a radical new world of danger and excitement. Faced with an oversexed boss who accuses him of sexual harassment, a sadistic ex-con with a pair of fang marks on his neck, and a lover with a strong aversion… or risk being sucked dry by a vampiric world.

General Musings:

No character section again, this time I figured for the 3 characters involved it wasn’t worth it, since the entire story revolves around their personalities, and naturally merges with this section.

Firstly special thanks to @ShroudedDancer for recommending this volume. I probably wouldn’t have gotten to it for ages, if ever. Though when I read NetComic’s “vampish vampire” comment in the synopsis I knew it was going to be one to read.

What really surprised me is just how much I loved this volume. It was funny, has a great story, interesting characters, and an ending that had me giggling all over (not to mention getting funny looks from the missus).

I was looking around for some info on the series and found most sites list it as containing graphic sex, which sort of contradicts the age rating (it’s a 16+). After reading it through I figured the 16+ is about right. While it does have a lot of sexual innuendo, some nudity and stuff, I didn’t see anything that would really make it worthy of a “graphic sex” label.

There’s only really three characters in this volume, and I’ll be upfront and honest and say all bar one are pretty crappy designed. Some reviewers have criticised the volume for this bad art, but I can’t do that. The art, while far from being great, adds to the comical value.

Though that’s not to say the art is perfect, because it isn’t. In fact several times I found that character designs changed from page to page, which is a bit annoying. Lack of consistency in the designs is a problem, but it’s not a big one.

The story is simple. and that’s why I think it works so well. Rather than getting into all the ins and outs of vampire lore it simply focuses on the relationship between Yodong and the Vampire (we sadly never get a name for her). I liked how this relationship was built up, and how the manager was intermixed into it.

The manager’s attentions are funny as well, the way she reacts after rejection, what she tells Yodong to do, and then setting him up for sexual assault, are all done in a comical way. It’s a refreshing change to see such a situation being used for comedy relief. These days it’s all Political Correctness and it gets in the way of humour.

The ending of the volume was just hilarious, and was perfect for the volume. It’s a shame that Lee never carried on and made another volume or two for this. I’d love to have seen more of Yodong as he comes to terms with having a vampire for a lover.

Publisher Musings:

Sadly NetComics have not released this in a print form, only through their online reader. However you can rent the entire volume for a mere $1, which I find to be excellent value for money.

They decided to edit out the SFX’s in this volume, which bugs me a bit (I firmly believe in keeping things as close to original as possible), but that’s just something I don’t like and has no real impact on the story.

I can highly recommend this volume if you’re after a laugh. It’s a novel twist to the vampire lover plot that’s been over used to death. Go buy, enjoy, and die of laughter

Now you can join me in living in hope that they release it as a print copy, or at least as a kindle/PDF

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ISBN-13: 9781600090547
Language: English
Direction: Left to Right
Pages: 180
by Kimijin
Publisher: NetComics
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Shonen
Synopsis:

Mazda Hun is a soldier caught in a web of political and military struggles beyond his comprehension. Captured by the government, they sentence him to Lethe. Society doesn’t believe in the death penalty anymore. They’ve modernized the paradigm of punishment.

Lethe has many names: mercy, treatment, repair, reformation and rehabilitation. Some even call it justice. The Lethe procedure inflicts no pain and is over quickly, but its victims consider it a fate worse than death.

Lethe is the execution of a person’s soul. They make room for a new personality that will remember nothing of the old. Those who undergo the process don’t seem quite human ever again. And Mazda Hun’s time is running out fast.

General Musings:

No character section today, cause there’s only the one character and frankly I’ve no idea what to make of him.

Lethe is the weirdest and most confusing manhua I’ve read to date. The way it flows is fragmented, yet it does have a sense of consistency to it. The characters we get are not so much interesting, rather intriguing. Mazda Hun for example, our lead, doesn’t really have anything special about him other than the situation.

The biggest flaw I found in the volume is that it doesn’t explain why things are happening, or how they even came about. Considering this looks over Mazda’s life up to I was hoping for more explanation as to how he got where he did, and perhaps more importantly, why he got where he did. Everything I read in the volume sort of contradicts the situation he ends up in.

I found I was having to go back a few pages and re-read bits because they didn’t make much sense to me, which was a bit frustrating after a while. At the end of the volume I was no more aware as to what was going on than when I started the volume.

Where this volume excels however is the art. Kimijin creates a stunning, vibrant and alive world that is further brought to life in full colour. However rather than using a computer to digitally paint, she (I’m assuming Kimijin is a she cause I’ve no idea) paints the art with watercolours. As a result the art is more fresh and has a better genuine feel to it.

Some of the art we get in the volume is really stunning, though a little on the weird side.

My main issue with the volume is the cost, I’m not sure it’s worth the elevated price costs. Though if you consider it an art book, and like to collect those, then it could well be worth it.

Publisher Musings:

I’ve only recently found NetComics while doing my review of online readers. I’d never read any of their releases or even seen any in my local stores. So they’re a completely blank slate with me.

I rented this volume from their online reader, and frankly I recommend you always try out a volume or two there  before you out and out buy them. Better to spend dollar or two on their first, rather than 15-20 on a couple of volumes and finding you don’t like them. Lethe being a prime example of this.

The reader needs a few tweaks IMO, it gives error messages every chapter that mean nothing. All the pages are double spread and seamlessly joined together, which frankly makes the art look all the more stunning.

The use of font’s are a bit off for online reading, they needed to be clearer and larger, but over all it looked fine.

In the end this is a title I would recommend you get once or twice from the eReader just to look at the art.

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ISBN-13: 9781569708668
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 184
by Izumi Kawachi
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Romance, Shonen
Synopsis:

Haruhiko is 100% head-over-sneakers for his sweet, shy science teacher Yuka. After all, she’s a total brainiac…and incredibly hot! But what’s he supposed to do when an enchanted vixen named Eukanaria suddenly falls into his lap (in a tiny miniskirt) and demands Haruhiko’s help? Demonic battles, powerful sorcery, and a busy bee who can’t mind her own business…what will happen when magic and mayhem mix?

Character Musings:

Fulcanelli, a once human, once demon, now a soul. We don’t really get much information about him this volume, beyond the fact that he has a strong sense of right and wrong, doesn’t mind scaring the hell out of people, and is currently double dead. As in he was once a human then died and became a demon, then some how dies again.

Eukanaria is Fulcanelli’s lover, at least that was the impression I got. She’s a clone of Yuka in looks, and almost in personality. She’s a bit of a bimbo, but she’s dedicated to the guy she loves and is doing everything she can to bring him back. She’s a bit on the violent side, and very decisive about some things, but nonchalant about others. She also seems to lack a sense of morality and decency, and pretty much tortures Haruhiko.

Yuka is, well, an air head. Totally accepting of everything and anything. She’s a teacher (which really does say something about the level of teaching in that school lol), but can’t handle electronics.

Haruhiko is our hero, sort of. For the most part he seems to be a generic seventeen year old guy with a crush on his neighbour and teacher, Yuka. He tends to jump into things without thinking, but also has the determination and strength to stand firm when the crap hits the fan.

General Musings:

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this series, I’d heard of it, and it was on my to read list. DMP offered it to me to be reviewed which I was more than happy to oblige, but I was also able to get my hands on the paper release; so my musings here cover both.

The cover for this volume really was a bit of a disappointment, at first. After reading through the volume the cover rather appeals to me. However I do think it’s a bit skimpy and not really a good introduction for the story.

From the get go this volume is full of funny things that made me smile. There was no out and out laughter, but it was funny enough to keep me interested. The humour is a bit on the crass side at times and usually revolves around fan service. However other times it’s genuine humour that worked really well.

The other thing I liked was the way the volume started, it has a good start and kept it going throughout the volume.

While this volume focus a bit more on the action side of things we do get some interesting character developments. As well as some subtle hints that I’m really looking forward to seeing play out in future volumes.

The art for this volume ranges from average to pretty good. The characters are clearly defined and easy to see and follow. Which I found a refreshing change after the last two series I read.

The character designs, for the guys at least, are a bit rough around the edges. There’s definite room for improvement. The women (Yuka, Eukanaria, and Ai) are pretty well done, though like the men there’s room for improvement.

The settings for the volume, especially the Enchanters Workshops looked really well done, and I thought they were the better designs of the volume. Though admittedly since this volume was pretty heavily focused on the action, it’s hard to really judge.

Plot wise we get some interesting hints this volume, some of which are rather easy to miss on the first read through. When I read it through a second time I found some other hints that made me think.

Publisher Musings:

I had planed to talk about the eManga version first, but I wont be after all, as Enchanter is not currently available for all on eManga, only to reviewers. Hopefully this will get on their fully at some point.

The paper edition was a huge let down, though that was due in part to the expectations I had for the volume. First thing I noticed was that this volume had some really bad guttering. Guttering is where the white space between the spine and the art isn’t big enough, and as a result the art and text in the panel ends up in the spine.

This happened a lot in this volume, and on a few occasions I couldn’t read the text fully no matter what I did. Very frustrating, and distracting. Also the paper hasn’t handled the aging well. You need to remember that the first volume was printed back to 2006, the paper hasn’t aged well in four years. The copy I have has turned a bit yellow and the paper feels a bit brittle. 

On the up side though this was released when DMP where still doing their High Quality slip covers. While I don’t like the actual design, it is of an excellent quality and looks pretty great. They also get props from me for leaving the original SFX’s intact and just adding smallish (I think they’re a good size actually) translation next to them.

In the end I thought this was a great start to the series, and I’m looking forward to volume two. Guttering and paper quality aside, it’s been a good read.

Word of caution though, the first volume has a lot of fanservice, and I got the impression it’s only going to get worse (or better depending on your view hehe) as the series goes on. So I do think you need a high threshold for it, or at least the ability to ignore the pointless bits.

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ISBN-13: 9781934876701
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 496
by: Satoru Akahori (Story) & Yukimaru Katsura (Art)
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Type: Series
Genre: Shojo-ai

Synopsis:

Being a girl is harder than it looks…
For Hazumu, this couldn’t be truer, because just the other day, she…was a he.

Shunned by the girl of his dreams, Hazumu loses himself in the mountains and is promptly squashed by an oncoming space ship. The alien inside, feeling guilty, rebuilds Hazumu’s body…but as the wrong gender!

Now Hazumu must learn how to be the girl his parents always wanted while dealing with the trials and tribulations of being caught in a love triangle between two girls–his childhood friend, Tomari, and Yasuna, the girl who rejected him but is now strangely attracted to him/her!

Character Musings:

I’m only going to go into the main three character this time, I’ll cover the other characters in the next post.

Hazumu is an effeminate guy in the beginning. Or rather he’s a girl in a guys body, thought even his body looks more like a girls. His personality reflects this, he’s soft, scares easily, indecisive, and yet caring, dedicated and loving. This is shown by the way he treats the flowers in the school, talking to them, rather having conversations with them. His struggling to decide whether to ask the girl he likes out, and the way he reacts afterwards.

Even after he gets turned into a girl there’s very little difference personality wise. In the manga he adapts to his life as a girl with only a few hic-ups (such as buying the wrong size bra, offering to show Asuta her boobs and stuff), but these are overcome rapidly. Pretty much everything else about him remains the same.

Yasuna is most definitely one of the most interesting characters of the volume. She’s beautiful, but has a stand offish, aloof and cold personality. Throughout the volume she practically ignores all the male characters, though not Hazumu.

After Hazumu changes things take an unexpected twist as Yasuna changes subtly. She becomes more forceful and determined to catch Hazumu’s heart. Over the course of the volume more and more of her personality is revealed, and I found I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She feels she has to be alone because of the way she is, however when Hazumu changes she learns what true loneliness is and longs for change.

Tomari is the tom-boy of the series, rather she’s the boy that Hazumu was supposed to be. She’s decisive, athletic and determined. She frequently does stuff that frankly I would balk at (like jumping down flights of stairs), and she also pushes Hazumu into confessing to Yasuna.

After Hazumu’s change Tomari Is the one who has the hardest time coming to terms with it. This gives her an excellent chance to go through some subtle personality changes. These changes soften the tom-boy feel and give her a more feminine touch. I wasn’t sure it would work at first, but after the first volume I think it worked out well, with Tomari having a good feel to her personality now.

General Musings:

I liked this series for several reasons, but mainly because it mixed my two favourite genre, gender bending and yuri.

Initially I was disposed to dislike it, mainly because I felt that Hazumu was to girly, and he irritated me a bit. Thankfully he changed over the course of volume, and while he kept the soft feminine aspects, he lost the irritating girly aspect.

What I really like in this series is the relationships between the characters. While they all start off as friends they slowly change, and getting to watch the change is pretty much what the series is about.

It’s easy to forget the specifics of the story, Hazumu once being a boy, alien intervention and stuff, and just get entranced by the relationships. This is especially true for our trio of girls. Their relationship is amusing, and yet a bit bitter sweet. Watching them struggling to gain Hazumu’s affections, and Hazumu’s own indecisiveness over which she loves and even if she can love either of them now; makes for an excellent story in it’s own right.

The supporting characters are where a lot of the comedy comes from, and while on the surface they don’t seem to be necessary, I wonder if the series would be as good without them. They make for a reprieve in the relationship building, which I think would get stale after a while.

The way the supporting characters interact with the main characters is just as funny, for example Sora the alien, who is researching love and relationships for his dying race (who sort of remind me of the Asgard from SG-1), who frequently puts 1 + 1 together and gets 10 hehe. His events, such usually add to the comic relief, but also build on the secondary story of him trying to save his race.

I was a bit disappointed that this was never really expanded upon, we get a few hints and bits, an explanation as to why he’s there, but nothing really expands on it. I found this a bit of shame, since I thought it would have made a good addition to the series. But I suppose I can understand why it wasn’t made more of, in case it detracted from the main trio’s love story.

The only element I really hated was Hazumu’s attempt to get into a bath with her. It was supposed, I think, to be a comic element. Especially with the way Hazumu’s mother always intervenes and beats him up. However I felt it went a bit to far, and I found him a bit annoying. Frankly the series could have worked just as well without him.

I had some trouble deciding on how to classify this series, since the magazine it was in doesn’t fit it. The original magazine that ran the series is shonen, called Dengeki Daioh. As a result it’s officially classified as a shonen, which I don’t agree with. To me this is clearly fits into either the Yuri or Shojo-ai demographic. Unfortunately official demographics are set by the magazine a title is in, rather than it’s content. After thinking it over and chatting with a few colleagues I’ve decided to move it from the shonen demographic to the shojo-ai one, it fits in more there than in shonen.

Publisher Musings:

As an omnibus you expect some loss of quality, and sadly that’s the case here. While getting any OOP title as an omnibus release is great news, I was disappointed by the lack of colour panels, probably removed to reduce costs. This is fine and understandable, but still a bit disappointing.

The paper quality is a bit of a down grade as well, I have  volumes one and five of the original release and they seem to have a better paper grade than the omnibus. Again probably to reduce costs, but once again disappointing.

Also when you think of an omnibus you usually think two or three volumes put together into a single volume. This isn’t the case here, rather Seven Seas literally split the series in half and put half the chapters in volume one, and the rest into volume 2. The cover is a decent quality, much like the original ones were. Sadly unlike other omnibus’ that add the covers as an extra at the end, we don’t get them in this one.

Also missing from this release is a glossary, which I found really annoying. this volume has a number of japanese terms and play on words, which frankly needed explanations. Without the glossary I was a bit lost as to the connections, and having to look up a term in a online dictionary took away my reading time.

What we did get, and frankly I found to be a waste of space, were descriptions of the flowers; pointless having those rather than a proper glossary. If the glossary had been there I would of praised them for adding an interesting extra, as it is I wonder why they even bothered.

Over all I think it’s a great series and one I enjoyed reading, even with the few niggles.

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ISBN-13: 9781569708200
Language: English
Direction: Left to Right 
Pages: 266
by: Tow Ubukata
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing 
Type: One-Shot
Genre: Sci-Fi, Shonen, Drama

Synopsis:

Kazuki Makabe was never an ordinary boy; whatever the sport, he always dominated his peers. He never realized the reason for his superior athletic abilities—a calling that would be revealed only under the direst of circumstances. Based upon the anime, from the producers of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Fafner-Dead Aggressor is the story of a group of children thrust into extraordinary circumstances under the threat of impending war, and the life and death decisions they must make when their talents are put to the test.

General Thoughts:

No character thoughts this time, mainly because for the most part the entire novel is taken from Kazuki’s perspective, and deals with his personality. So both this section and the character section would have over run together, so I’m just merging it for this post.

The one thing to remember about this novel is that you don’t have to have seen the anime. When Tow was commissioned to create this novel he was given everything and basically told to do whatever he wanted with the material. Usually this can be a bad thing, with the end product being an absolute pile of trash. This time however we got an excellent, but highly character driven novel.

Sadly, the fact that it spends so much time exploring Kazuki’s emotions means that it gets hardly anywhere, barely covering a few episodes. I wish (and still hope) that Tow will return and write more novels finishing off the series.

Another thing is that the characters have been changed slightly, some of them getting a darker personality, and some are missing completely. Frankly I prefer the novel characters over the anime ones, they’re more real in the novel.

I liked the way that Kazuki develops over the course of the volume, we get to see him coming to terms with the changes in his world, as well as having to learn to bear the pain of losing friends.

It’s a shame, but one of the bits I was looking forward to reading wasn’t really done very well, that was Shoko’s death and the consequences of it. The way the novel handles it is certainly a great way, but we don’t learn how she dies, only that she does. I was also hoping for more interaction between Koyo and Kazuki, but it doesn’t really come about. Though we do get to see Kazuki having a break down over it, which really does show his character off perfectly.

The other thing I found interesting was the changes in relationships, in the novel Kazuki and Soushi haven’t spoken in near five years. As a result their initial relationship is a bit strained, and  we get to see them work their way through, overcoming the cause of their estrangement, yet always still a little awkward.

Kazuki gets introduced to death a lot sooner in the novel, which I think makes his changes and the way he reacts all the more potent and powerful.

The way things are revealed is a lot more sinister, and feels more secret agent style than the anime. Such as how the system knows where everyone is. This was used several times in the anime, but it was never really explored, where as in the novel it does.

Ultimately though it comes down to the character development of Kazuki. He’s a lot darker and unstable in the novel, he’s basically everything Shinji from Eva should have been.

One of the things I also noticed was that the ‘adults’ were hardly ever brought into it. It’s pretty much always just the kids. I found this rather interesting since the adults were the driving force in the anime, usually being the reason the kids fight (revenge, love, protection etc).

The novel is very description heavy though, which for some people will be a bit much. When I first read through it reminded me of Lord of the Rings, with how wordy and descriptive it got. Looking back on it again I find I actually appreciate that aspect. Understanding the emotions of those involved, and their reasons for doing things, is all laid out and explained making for a story that draws you in.

There are a few manga style images, as you would expect, which while aren’t anything special, do make for a nice addition. I did like the cover art, as well as the Kazuki x Soushi panel.

Publisher Thoughts:

Released by Digital Manga Publishing I had high expectations, and I think over all they delivered. I don’t like the slightly smaller format, it doesn’t sit in the hand very comfortably. The cover is a good thickness and makes for a good protection, as well as a firm hold.

Editing wise I found a few spelling mistakes, all of which were missing letters from words (bee instead of been, wer instead of were), only minor issues though. They also left all of the honorific’s in place, which I think was a great, since the honorific’s the kids used to talk to each other were indicators of the way they feel towards each other. It changes the way I saw them

Note: Currently you can buy this off of Book Depository for £1.89, which is where I bought mine

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ISBN-13: 9781595821966
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 512
by: CLAMP 
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga 
Type: Series (originally released as 4 volumes)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Shojo

Synopsis:

Kazuhiko is a young, but already deeply wounded black ops agent of a baroque, retro-tech future-pulled out of retirement to escort Sue, a mysterious waif, to a destination she alone knows. Sue and Kazuhiko have never met . . . yet she knows him, having grown up since the age of four with her only human contact two distant voices: that of her elderly "grandma," General Ko, and of Kazuhiko’s dead girlfriend, Ora. And Sue has been kept in that cage all these years because of what she is, and what the Clover Leaf Project found her to be — a military top secret, and the most dangerous person in the world.

General Thoughts

This is by far the weirdest of the CLAMP titles I’ve read, so much so I’ve re-started writing this post ten times and re-read the volume four times. And truth be told, I’m still confused on some points in it.

This admittedly isn’t a bad thing, since it means I have a desire to keep reading the volume again and again until I figure everything out.

CLAMP brought their usual art to the series, and like Adachi, re-used character designs from other titles in this one.

There are several unique elements in this series, that I haven’t seen used in other manga (or not to this extent at least). One of the main ones is the lack or art. Quite frequently the art panels reduce and become little more than buttons, with vast white or black space surrounding it. Initially I thought this was a bad waste of space, but I’m not so sure now.

The story flow is a bit weird as well, the first part being the present, and then the last part jumping to the past, which explains the first part more. While I understand the reasoning behind this, and I can even agree that it works, it still feels a bit weird.

The one aspect of the series I hate is that there’s no end, not really. The ‘end’ if we can call it that, comes in the middle of the book, and the end we get at the end of the series feels like it should be in the middle, this ties in with my previous comment really.

The other thing I found a bit weird, is that there is no real story, it’s more a journey through art than through story. And frankly the art CLAMP came up with this series is mind blowing perfect. I’ve read a lot of manga that try to tell the story through the art, none of them do it as well as this one does.

Publisher Handling

I was reluctant to buy this volume, since I figured it would be just another generic omnibus, and given it’s price tag I wasn’t sure it was worth it. How glad I am I actually did buy it. Dark Horse have done an excellent job on this release and published something that’s worth every penny.

Like a lot of omnibus releases it’s larger than average, which means the art has a lot of space to spread it’s wings. This is the first time that Clover has been released in it’s original right to left format, it was previously released by Tokyopop in a flipped, left to right, format. That version has since gone out of print and is now hard to find.

Where this release excels is in the paper used for the volume. It’s high grade glossy paper, giving the pages a silky sexy feel. On the down side this does mean they get dirty a bit more easily, but who cares!! the art looks all the more superb on this paper.

The frequent full colour pages are exceptional as well, and frankly I felt I was reading a double release, the Clover manga and a Clover Art Book.

I don’t really want to get into recommending books for people, but this is one I have to recommend because it has everything an excellent manga needs. Not to mention that Dark Horse went all out with it’s production, even including promotional art that was not included in the original releases from either the original japanese or original Tokyopop versions.

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ISBN-13: 9781421531847
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 220
by: Tsutomu Nihei 
Publisher: Viz Signature 
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Seinen

Synopsis:
Zoichi Kanoe plunges into the depths of 9JO–an island city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean–in search of Eon Green, a girl with the power to transmute the N5S virus. He’s not the only one looking for her, though… Agents of the Public Health Service’s Compulsory Execution Unit are also in hot pursuit. Zoichi and his transhuman allies have no time to waste; the countdown to the zombie apocalypse has begun!

Characters:

Zoichi Kanoe is a really hard character to judge, because he hardly speaks though out the volume. The hints we get about him are that he’s somewhat cold and aloof, he doesn’t come off as very friendly or personable, but he has a softer side to him. He isn’t the type where the mission is the mission is the mission.

Fuyu Kanoe, another hard one to judge. Initially I thought she was just part of the AI used to control Zoichi’s bike, however I’m not so sure anymore. She comes across as a cheerful and bubbly person, who will make up for Zoichi’s lacking.

Eon Green is the one character I haven’t got any sort of reliable feel for. She appears to have a similar personality to Zoichi, but since we hardly ever see her this volume it’s impossible to form any true conclusions. Though I’m laying odds that she becomes Zoichi’s lover at some point.

General Thoughts:

This is the second manga I’ve had a hard time writing about, the other being Clover (which I still have to finish). The problem with this volume is that it’s a very bad first volume for a series. We get a lot of stuff going on, but nothing really happens.

I really don’t like the art for the series, it’s to dark and as a result a lot of the scenes are hard to really follow or at times even to make out. The character designs I found myself chopping and changing my mind. On the one hand some of the characters, the drones for example, and Fuyu, are okay. However I really didn’t like Zoichi or Eon’s design, both had a weird feel to them that stopped me from connecting with them. This could just be because we don’t really get to see much in the way of personality from any of the characters this volume, so they all have a slightly robotic feel to them.

The last chapter of the volume had more in it than the rest of the entire volume sadly, and while it did increase my interest in the series a bit, I’m not sure it’ll be enough for me to buy the three other currently released volumes, especially at their asking price.

The other major problem with this volume is that there was no real beginning, no introduction to what’s going on. The way the story was introduced and explained was half hearted, as though Tsutomu was more interested in just introducing the two main characters, and getting to the story at a later date.

Sadly this means we have a volume where we never really understand anything, and the half hearted attempts to give some information just make that feeling worse.

Publisher Handling:

Viz are one of the most frustrating publishers I’ve come across to date. The quality of their releases changes so much from line to line, and even volume to volume.

When I ordered this I ordered it at the same time as Yukikaze, and All You Need is KILL, thinking it was a novel. Even when it arrived it looks like a novel. And for me there in lies one of their biggest flaws, size consistency. They chop and change their volumes sizes almost (seemingly) on a whim. Some novels are one size, others are another, and others are yet another.

Their other problem is the number of sub groups they have. Sure the likes of DMP have several sub groups, DMP, Doki Doki and June for example. But these are clearly defined and follow a set of rules. With Viz it’s out of hand, they have a whopping 10 sub divisions for their releases. If there was need for this I could understand, but a lot of the releases could and do fit in several groups, so what was the point?

Anyways, onto their handling of the volume. Firstly I liked the feel of the cover, the embossed title gives it a nice touch. I do think the glossy pages went to waste, since it was almost all black. It would have been nice with some character art or something on those pages.

Viz have a tendency to heavily edit their releases, especially the SFX’s which they completely remove and then replace with english equivalents. For me this is a big no no, I’m buying manga not comics.

Sadly that’s it. For such a big volume there’s very little to comment on, or even enjoy. Personally I would have looked at introducing the first two volumes as an omnibus to increase interest. One thing I will give them praise for is that this one seems to have been given a UK release (at least there’s a UK price on it). However I don’t like the increased price tag, it’s gone up £3 compared to the usual Viz release.

Not to sure I’ll get the other volumes, much rather buy some other needed stuff first.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-080-8
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 216
by: Ai Tenkawa
Publisher: DokiDoki
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Drama, Supernatural, Shonen

Synopsis:
Young Kyounosuke has wolf blood running in his veins and a life-changing mission to complete! The “alpha” in his family is about to die, and his long-lost brother Kokuyou is the rightful heir to the pack’s top-dog position. Kyounosuke must hunt high and low throughout the dirty alleyways of Tokyo in order to sniff out his sibling, but there are plenty of people (and other beasts!) who can’t wait to stir up trouble for the courageous boy. Can Kyounosuke save his family’s name and solve the mystery of his brother’s disappearance?

Characters:

Kyounosuke is an interesting character, since he seems to have a split personality. When we first get to see him he’s a funny, lively and determined guy. He takes his responsibilities seriously, and is a funny character. Later on though he seems to have a split personality moment where he goes all uber evil, an interesting twist to things.

Koyoki is out love interest (or one of them), possibly. She sort of rescues Kyounosuke (I think I’d kill my folks for giving me a name that long and complex lol), and looks after him. She does it initially because it looks fun, but then because she likes him. She’s got a normal personality, with a bit of bubbly mixed in for good measure. It works really well I thought, and her reactions at the end of the volume were classic.

Mitsuru is Koyoki’s older brother. Like Kyounosuke he comes across as a nice older brother just out to look after his sister. But I got the impression several times that there was a darker side to him. As a character I think he’s a good one, with the potential to be a good nemesis.

Kanosuke is an interesting character, he’s strong, determined and has a very high opinion of himself. He’s Kyounosuke’s cousin, and resents the fact he’s in the branch family rather than the head family. The impression we get from the volume is that he hates his cousin because of this.

General Thoughts:

I’ve read this through three times now and can finally put my thoughts into writing. On the first read through I hated it with a passion, in fact the only reason I read it through to the end was because it was a review copy. After reading it through though I felt compelled to read it through a second time and found that I didn’t actually hate it at all, third time through I really liked it.

Looking back over it now my issues came from the art and the way it was used to progress the story. Initially I found the constantly change art, from comic to normal a bit over the top, and irritating. On the initial read through when I was trying to focus on the story I found the art got in the way, but on the second where I was just looking to enjoy it I noticed a lot of things I missed in the first read though, most of them made me laugh.

The chibi characters are a bit annoying, but that’s because I’m not a huge chibi fan, especially used this way. I did find it very funny at times though, such as the way that Koyoki handles Kyounosuke.

The part of it I really enjoyed though came in the extras, we get a short back story of Kyounosuke and Kanosuke. While it was short, it manages to show of their relationship so well, and it totally changed the feel of the exchanges that happened in the volume. I can understand why it was made an extra, and not incorporated into the volume, since it’s such a story changing chapter.

The problem I have with this though is that I’m worried that’s how it’s going to be for the series. Disliking the volumes on the first read through, then getting to like them. I’m hoping that the art will become more smoother over the course of the series.

Publisher Handling:

The copy I read was on the eManga website, so my comments here are going to be limited by that. Also, as with all of DMP (and it’s imprints) getting new releases in the UK is a pain in the arse. This is on my order list and I’ll update the post once I get a paper copy.

Anyways off we go. First off, there’s an odd mix of honorific usage, one minute it’s there the next it’s not. I’m sure it was like that in the original, but it feels really weird to me. Not really sure how it could have been fixed though.

Great use of font’s, especially with the SFX’s, with a simple translation next to the original japanese ones, but with it’s own font that sort of matches the original. Makes for an easy read.

This is also true for the actual text, which is easy to read, neither to small or to large. Though there was a few small words that were hard to read. Those were just the odd SFX though, so it’s not a huge issue.

In the end, I’m not really sure about this series. While I did end up liking it, I also have some reservations about the way it’s going to flow, but I don’t like judging a new series only on it’s first volume.

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ISBN-13: 9781593077488
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 464
by: Kenichi Sonoda
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Adventure, Seinen
Synopsis:

Rally Vincent and Minnie May Hopkins are experts in their respective fields of marksmanship and explosives, but they’re so cute you’d never know. Neither would the perps unlucky enough to be their hunted. Presented for the first time in the authentic Japanese format, these giant-sized volumes are action-packed, un-retouched, and sure to please the gun-nuts, auto buffs, and manga maniacs!

Characters:

First off we have our two heroines of the series, Rally Vincent and Minnie May Hopkins. The ultimate poster girls of women with power hehe.

Rally run’s a gunsmith shop in Chicago, but makes her real money from bounty hunting. She’s a total gun freak, who apparently gets a little bit more pleasure out of her guns than the average person. She’s an excellent developed character right from the outset, with a strong personality. She doesn’t have the usual ‘softer’ aspect we usually see in these types of characters, but she does have a more normal feel to her.

Minnie is Rally’s partner, and like Rally she a bit of a freak. Though with Minnie it’s things that go boom, anything explosive gets her a little hot and bothered. Like Rally she has a strong personality, which leads to a few clashes between them. What’s unique about Minnie though is that she’s a minor, being only 17. So while she has this strong personality she can be strangely childish. She’s perfectly matched with Rally.

Becky, our info gatherer. We don’t get to see her much this volume, but the few times we get to see her really do put her personality into perspective. While she appears to be all about the money, she  also doesn’t like it when her services are abused. I liked her character, but she’s not around enough in this volume to really judge her.

Bean Bandit, the hardest character to get a grip on. Like Becky he isn’t around much, but it’s pretty obvious he’s going to be a central character. He’s an awesome character with a character design to match his personality. He’s a veritable walking wall, with a weird sense of right wrong. His personality is hard to judge due to the limited screen time he gets, but he has a unique presence that really made me like him from the outset.

General Thoughts:

I have some of the original releases, and while I did like them, I found the series a bit weak. Part of that was probably due to the fact I was missing bits, and the rest due to the way Dark Horse released it, heavily edited, in both text and art, and flipped.

So it’s taken me a while to get around to picking up the Revised Editions, because I never saw the point. I gave in recently though and bought both series, and I am glad I have.

Dark Horse decided to release an omnibus of the volumes, so each volume has loads of pages, volume one alone has 464 pages, over double your average manga. Reading through it for the first time I really got into it, and found the bits I hadn’t liked in the original release weren’t so bad anymore.

The general story of two bounty hunting girls works really well. Sonoda does an excellent job of bring the Chicago setting to life, and mixing it with the mob, drugs, and general all round action scenes.

Truth be told the more I read the series the more it reminds me of classic 80’s shows, such as Cagney and Lacy, TJ Hooker and a slew of others. They all have the gritty feel to them and Sonoda manages to bring that to his manga.

Sonoda doesn’t hold back with Minnie May, she’s a total nymphomaniac and it’s used several times throughout the volume. For some people this may be a bit off putting, but IMO if you can flow past it you’ll find an interesting and griping series.

Many people (including myself) see this series as being genre setting, it sets the way series like this should be done, but sadly there aren’t many other titles done as well as this one is.

The only thing I don’t really like in this series is the art, it’s got to much of a cartoony feel for me. This is especially true where Minnie May and Rally are concerned, they feel out of place when compared with some of the other characters in the series.

However I tend to see past the art because I find the story and characters themselves to be epic. This is one series I’d love to see done as a anime, the OVA we got years ago doesn’t do it any justice.

Publisher Handling:

Dark Horse did an excellent job on this revised edition. They seem to have removed all the editing of the original releases, and put Minnie May back at her right age. The translation is okay, but there’s no honorific’s. However given the setting (Chicago) they may not have been any in the original japanese. Good use of font variations for the special effects, leaving the original japanese with a smaller translated effect next to it. For the most part it actually worked well I thought. We do get some localisation in the way they talk, which while I don’t really like I can live with. I’m guessing Sonoda used something similar in the original and they looked for an equivalent american version. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work.

I love that they decided to release it in a sort of omnibus edition, with the equivalent of two normal manga, and the price isn’t to bad either, only costing a little more than the normal manga.

I liked the cover design, which I honestly find a bit odd since I’m not keen on Rally’s character design in the actual story lol. But then for me Rally and Minnie May are the ultimate in heroines, no super powers (though from the first volume Minnie comes close to super sex powers hehe), just two gal’s kicking (well, shooting and blowing up) arse.

It also has an 18+ Mature rating, which frankly I’m not so sure I agree with. On the one hand I understand why it has that rating, it’d head off any complaints such as what we’ve had here in the past. But I also think that Gunsmith Cats (this volume at least) is really more a 16+ rating, we see more sex and violence in the likes of James Bond.

All said and done though I don’t regret buying this series, it was worth every penny.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-789-0
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 250
by: Hideyuki Kikuchi, Saiko Takaki
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Supernatural, Seinen
Synopsis:

The City, a tiny metropolis of a few hundred sheltered citizens floating serenely on a seemingly random course a few feet above the ground, has long been thought safe from the predation of marauding monsters. It seems like a paradise. A paradise shattered when an invasion of apparent vampire threatens the small haven. While the Vampire Hunter known only as “D” struggles to exterminate the scourge, a former denizen of the city, the attractive Lori Knight, and the brash John M. Brasselli Pluto VIII seize control of the city, lurching it onto a new and deadly course. D’s travails are just the beginning.

Characters:

The Knight family, which consists of the father and daughter.  The father is never named (that I noticed) but it’s revealed he was a chemist under the protection of the mayor. His daughter, Lori, is rescued after being attacked by the wild animals, though her father is dead. She loses her voice, but under D’s tutelage learns how to survive on her own. She has a strong and wilful personality, much like a lot of the girls who are used as hooks in the novels.

John M. Brasselli Pluto VIII is introduced as the rescuer of Lori Knight, he’s a bit of a wild man, with the looks to match. As the volume progresses we see he has a darker personality that comes out more and more as the time passes.

The Doctor, well, he’s the doctor of the town but he seems to have a strange connection with D, as well as some impressive fighting abilities. I liked his personality and the way he acts, he’s a great character and frankly I thought he out shone D a lot of the time.

General Thoughts:

I didn’t like the Vampire D novel this is a conversion of, so I was expecting not to enjoy this. Much to my surprise though I found that while it has all the elements I hated in the novel, I still enjoyed the manga version.

I found the novel didn’t really explain things properly, and the manga has this fault as well. To much is left unexplained which leads to a bit of confusion. The manga I felt made this worse, since it it didn’t really explorer Lori much, something the novel did a bit more. This is an essential element since it explains why she did what she did, and the way she is.

The story did flow a bit better in this version, with certain elements being cut out and others explained a bit better.

The core story has been carried over pretty well, and it does flow well. Though I felt it flowed a bit fast. Things moved along at a break neck pace from the moment D enters the town till he leaves happens really fast.

I really liked Brasselli’s character in this volume, and I re-read it a few times just to read his character again. The way he acts in the volume is fun to watch unfold, because we get three different versions of him. Firstly we get the rescuer, when he rescues Lina, then we get the happy go lucky guy that pulls pranks and brings flowers to the injured Lina. Next we get the traitor, when he puts a plan into motion, the personality he shows here is really a drastic change, and then finally he ends up as the rescuer again. He’s a really unique character that’s hard to judge and follow, which is why I like him.

Lina is an interesting character as well, and I really wish we’d been allowed to see her grow properly. The novel handles her character a bit better I feel, the manga version goes from struggling to come to terms with the loss of her voice to being a telepath. While the change was essential to the plot, I wish it could have been handled a bit better.

I also found the Mayor to be a weird character, and frankly I felt he was the weakest character of the volume. When the truth started to come out I was expecting a bigger impact, but it was lacking anything resembling impact.

We did get some more hints towards D’s sire, but those really don’t make much sense, which is pretty much the way I feel about the entire story this time, it doesn’t make much sense.

Oddly, one of the things I found least offensive this volume was the art. Sure I still don’t like the way D is portrayed, but for once I couldn’t find fault with anything else. Rather I was really impressed with the vast majority of the characters. Lina for example made a stunning character, with a lack of caterpillars surrounding her eyes. While she was drawn as a beautiful woman, she also has a strong presence to her that made her one of my favourite character designs of the manga so far.

The Doctor and Brasselli were also perfect. the Doctor has a good feel to him, and when we get to see him fight he looks awesome. In a lot of way’s he has a similar feel that D has, though without the cold and aloof feel. Brasselli is perfect, out of the four volumes of manga release so far he’s by far the most perfectly drawn. His design matches his personality and it comes out rather funnily at times.

Yet, despite this, I can’t deny that I enjoyed reading it, but it could have been been adapted better.

Publisher Handling:

This was released by DMP on their eManga website, and in print and kindle format. I read it on the eManga site which always makes manga look better. The font’s used are the same ones as in the previous volumes, and don’t have any issues.  The text flows reasonably well though the bits I didn’t like were probably due to the adaptation format. The volume contains extras and previews of other titles.

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ISBN-13:978-4-596-95066-6
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 128
by: Leigh Michaels, Ritsuka Amane
Publisher: Harlequin K.K.
Type: One Shot
Genre: Romance, Josei 
Synopsis:

Millionaires Kathryn is preparing for what is being called the wedding of the century. It is not a marriage of love, but her father believes they are a good match. Everything is turned upside down, however, when she finds out her husband-to-be is only after her fortune! Her father is still none the wiser. Throwing off her wedding dress, Kathryn decides to run away from her wedding, with the help of Jonah, a man she meets in the garden. She offers Jonah a deal – "Marry me" – and their strange but thrilling elopement begins!

Characters:

Only two characters in this volume, Katie and Jonah, but then in such a short title that’s to be expected.

Kathryn Mae Campbell, aka Katie, is a pretty well developed character. Her personality is well developed and shines throughout the volume. I liked that while being rich she doesn’t fit into the usual stereotype character. She isn’t a bitch, nor is she weedy soft touch. She does have soft sides to her, but at the same time she’s a gung-ho character one I really liked.

Jonah is a pretty typical “hero” style character, though I do like his personality and the way he acts. While he certainly isn’t anything special, character wise, he has a good solid feel to him. I liked the way his character is portrayed in the volume, he fitted well with the scenario and especially with Katie.

General Thoughts:

Sadly like all of the Harlequin I’ve read this one is ridiculously short. While I will admit that the conversion is a pretty decent one, it’s nothing more than ‘okay’. Novels can carry a lot more information than manga can, so short novels can still carry a wealth of information that help develop characters and relationships.

The manga version could have explored this more, and built up the relationship between Katie and Jonah.

Yet, despite it being fast paced there’s no sense of the relationship being forced along, just to get it done. Over the course of the volume the relationship is allowed to blossom naturally, and the feelings and emotions we see have a genuine and natural feel to them.

The ending, while as clichéd and generic as they come, has a nice feel to it. It takes the ‘fairy tale’ ending to a new level. Also, while the revelations at the end of the volume aren’t unexpected, and frankly were predicable, I liked the way it was played out. It has a nice feel to it, and when I was finished reading it, I wanted to read it again. That re-readability is what makes manga great.

Publisher Thoughts:

I liked the art of this volume, it was clean and crisp, and the characters were alive and vibrant. This was especially true of the support characters towards the end of the volume. The characters in the town such as the mayor, and the hotel owners Sam and Jenny. Usually support characters tend to be a bit inflexible, but I found the ones in this volume to be really well done.

The font’s used in this volume are still a bit off, resulting in a release that still looks like a bad scanlation. This further exasperated with the way they handle the SFX’s. Rather than either fully editing them, or putting simple and small translations close by, they decided to put larger translation right by the japanese ones. At times this means the panel looks bad due to the clutter.

Hopefully in time as they listen to feed back from readers they’ll adapt, though any publisher looking to get into the manga field should at least look at how the current publishers do things. The best way to learn something is to look at someone else, and ten mimic them.

All said and done though, I do like this story. But it’s not a hard sell for me, since I’m a love story fan and I actually read the Mills and Boon novels these volumes are based off of.

This volume was read on DMP’s eManga website, at the current time that’s the only place to read it.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-788-3
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 266
by Hideyuki Kikuchi, Saiko Takaki
Publisher: DMP
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Supernatural, Seinen
Synopsis:

The vampire hunter know only as D is now on a race against time—this time, to hunt down a vampire lord who’s kidnapped a daughter of a wealthy village elder. D must also contend with a notorious band of bounty hunters also hired to track down the abductor, and hell-bent on eliminating anyone or anything in their way of their bounty. D is faced with obstacles every corner he turns…can he reach the damsel in distress before she becomes one of the undead?

Characters:

There are a few characters of note in this volume, though I wont bother introducing D again.

The love interest in this volume is rather unique, in that we never learn of her name, I like this since it adds to the mystery around her. We don’t get to see her very much, or hear her talk, which is a shame. She has a slightly timid personality, but she’s also devoted to the man she loves.

Mayerling, the “evil” of this volume is an amazing character, who is nothing like the vampires we’ve had so far. He’s almost as reticent as D is, he also exudes a powerful aura that frankly rivals D’s. I love the way he act’s, he’s a bit misguided in what he’s doing, but it’s made clear through out the volume that his love is genuine. He’s the best vampire I’ve seen, though not very vampire like.

The Marcus Clan, who frankly end up looking more like the bad guys than the vampire does. The clan consists of four brothers, Borgoff, Kyle, Nolt, and Grove, and a sister, Leila. Leila is the only one who really has any personality and any sort of presence in the volume. She’s a well formed and designed character with an excellent personality that really shines through. Sadly the brothers, for the most part, are just cannon fodder. The only one of note is Borgoff, and everything about him screams evil. In fact at the end of the volume I was happy he got his just deserts.

General Thoughts:

This is my favourite volume because like it’s previous volume it shows a softer side of D that we hadn’t seen before now.

When you get down to it this is a story about to lovers from different races who love each other, and are battling the times to be together. The way it starts out is amazingly well done. With the usual D hunting a vampire to save a lost girl, but along the way several things come into play that aren’t expected.

First is the Marcus Clan, especially Leila, who is rescued by D early on. Up till then it’s hinted that she’d lead a life of blood and betrayal. We even get to see how badly she’s treated when she’s abused by her brother. Yet after being rescued by D she starts to change, and we get to see some excellent personality changes from her.

Then we have the mystery girl that was taken from the village. The revelation surrounding her are astounding as it’s revealed she left willingly (sort of) and that she is genuinely in love with the vampire Mayerling.

As the volume carries on we get to see how much she loves him, as the truth about her destination is revealed, but she already knew  about it. I found the bond’s between Mayerling and the girl to be really well portrayed, and were converted from the novel exceptionally well.

We also get some more hints about D this volume as well, first we get the events that take place in the village of Barbarois, and again when he’s hit with the sunlight syndrome. While no one really doubt’s who he is, it’s still not been revealed, and all these subtle hints make for an excellent story full of suspense and mystery.

The ending of the volume made me cry though, the truth is finally revealed and the depths of their love is put to the test. The way they end though is truly breath taking, and one of the best tragic endings I’ve seen. I did like the way Leila ends in the volume, and was happy to see at least one of the girls get a reward.

The Anime Version:

This volume was also used to make the second anime movie, Bloodlust. However it’s probably closer to say it was used as a ‘base’ for the movie, as a lot of elements are changed. Most especially the ending for the love birds and Leila. While these endings are okay, I found they cheapened the actual endings we see in the novel and the manga. But it’s still worth a watch though.

Publisher Handling:

This volume took me by surprise since in a way the quality is both better and worse than the previous two volumes. Firstly we lose the slip cover, at first glance it’s not a big thing, but the cover we get this time is flat and uninspired. We’ve lost the embossing of the title and and it just doesn’t look as vibrant as the first two volumes. However it is worth noting that the cover is a nice one in it’s own right, it’s just lacking compared to the previous volumes.

The side flaps pull out revealing several of the characters from the volume, and I will admit they look awesome.

Apparently the removal of slip cases was done across the entire DMP line up as a cost saving feature. While it’s understandable, I think removing the covers mid series was a bad idea, and would have been better applied to just new series, but that’s just me.

One thing I found absolutely stunning this volume however is the colour panel, of Mayerling and his love. It’s vibrant, alive and beautiful. It shows perfectly the theme of the story.

I’m not keen on the general art though, which at times is great but at others is bad. D just doesn’t look right for the way he’s described, and the eyes of the characters just look freaky, they look like they haven’t had any sleep in a month. Forget bags under their eyes, they’ve got suit cases. That said, at times the art can be stunning, with more than a few times the art has really impressed me.

The general editing of the volume is great, easy to read and follow with no issues. I really like the font’s used for D’s mysterious left hand as well, it makes it easy to know when it’s talking.

As far as the conversion goes I’m really impressed and love it. It carries the core of the story and conveys it really well. Not to mention it manages to bring the characters to life in a way you don’t really get in a novel.

There are three versions of this manga available, the print version that this post is based on, the kindle version available from Amazon, and the eManga version.

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 157
by: Kazuko Fujita, Marie Ferrarella
Publisher: Harlequin K.K./SOFTBANK Creative Corp.
Type: One-shot
Genre: Romance, Josei
Synopsis:

"Do you know who I am?" Rebecca, a girl with no memory and a missing shoe, arrives at Angus’s private detective agency. She found his business card in her coat pocket, but Angus does not know who she is. Angus invites the shivering and frightened girl into his warm home where he lives with his young daughter. Soon they become powerfully attracted to each other, but on the morning after they first make love, a man claiming to be Rebecca’s fiancé appears…!

Characters:

Three characters of note in this volume. Firstly we have our damsel in distress, Rebecca.

As a character Rebecca is hard to judge. Given the way she is at the moment (as in memory loss), it’s hard to actually decide if she’s done badly or not. Character design wise I do like the way she’s done.

Vikki, the little girl of the story (she is little, only 7 years old), I like the way she is a good mix of being a child but also mature. She’s cute and has an excellent design, I really liked everything about her, she has a well defined personality that is well matched with her character design.

Angus, our knight in shining armour sadly is a bit ‘meh’. There are reasons for this which I’ll get into in the next section. What I do like is his character design, which has a good strong feel to it.

General Thoughts:

I both liked and disliked this volume. Art wise I don’t really have any complaints, the settings are well thought out and are well drawn. Also the supporting characters are fairly well drawn, though nothing special. Yet at the same time they’re a bit comical, such as Al, the cop.

The story, for what it is, was well covered and it does get the main points of the story across. However this is also the bit I dislike, the story hasn’t been adapted very well, resulting in a overly fast paced manga.

Some of the character relationships change to fast to be really feasible, though I do like Rebecca and Vikki’s relationship. While  theirs isn’t a pronounced relationship, they have a good bond and excellent chemistry.

Sadly, the main relationship, of Rebecca and Angus suffers badly from the speed of the volume. Reading it through it’s hard not to see Angus as a ‘bad guy’, since he goes from being all concerned and worried over her loss of memory, to sleeping with her.

The end result isn’t the bad thing, it’s the pace the volume goes to get there, as well as the actual size of the volume. The average manga runs for around 190 pages, this one ran for 160, even those extra thirty pages would have made a huge difference I think.

I also think the adaptation could have been handled better, with more tension added with the hunt of finding who she is and who tried to kill her. We also could have seen more love and romance building between Angus and Rebecca, and bonding with Vikki.

Granted it’s a generic romance story with nothing new in it, but stories such as this do have a role to play, and a place in people’s collections. While I’m disappointed with it’s length and the way it was adapted, it’s one I’d still buy, but then I do love titles like this.

Publisher Handling:

Although I read this on DMP’s eManga site, it’s not one of their releases, which I can honestly say I’m thankful for. The way this has been edited feels like a quick fix scanlation. While I’ll admit the translation looks fine, the editing, the choice of fonts and sizing of the text, are all off. Giving the volume a cheap feel. If this was a print volume, I wouldn’t touch, no matter how much I like the story, I don’t consider it worth buying. However, since it’s only being released as a digital manga on eManga, I’m more inclined to buy it. Though I will admit that I wish the publishers had done more with this.

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Basically give me nominations for what you consider to be the best manga to make you cry, it can be licensed or unlicensed, just either list them in the comments or drop me an email through the Contact page at the top.

2 weeks from today I’ll make a poll out of all the titles I’ve been given which will itself run for 2 weeks, at the end of it we’ll have the Top 10 Manga to Make You Cry.

Here are my nominations:

• Tetragrammatron Labyrinth
• Glass Mask
• Hoshi no Koe – The Voices of a Distant Star(one of my all time fave weepy titles)
• Arcana Soul
• Lament of the Lamb
• Wish
• Jyu oh Sei

Lets see who can claim the #1 Spot. Also when the Top 10 is confirmed I’ll do a series of special reviews looking at them, as well as contacting those that nominated them to see why they did (if they want to talk that is hehe)

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Yen Press announced some time ago they were moving their anthology off the newsstand and onto the website. Yet information beyond that was scarce on the ground with no revelations on formatting or costs, until now.

Now I find myself thinking: “For f**k sake, can’t they do anything right?’”. As a brit getting hold of Yen Plus was a nightmare at the best of times, so you would think moving to a digital format would make things a lot easier. Well, it doesn’t, the way they’re doing it is the worst way possible.

On the face of it it’s a nifty system, using a flash interface to deliver the anthology for a small fee of $2.99 a month (about £1.92). Like a lot of people I got happy over this, thinking I could get the best of both worlds. Get my anthology every month, and get it all tucked away nice and tidily. Sadly due to the way they’re doing it, that wont be the case. In fact your monthly subscription buys you next to nothing. Sure you get access to the issue, however they stated that they’ll only be keeping two months of issues. The current issue, and the previous issue.

This is a half arsed attempt at digital distribution, just like the original magazine distribution attempt was half arsed.

A better way to have set it up would be to charge a larger fee, and then allow members access to the issues they have paid for; regardless of the time that’s passed. Currently there are three titles running in the anthology that I only read because they’re in there, and wouldn’t buy as a manga. In it’s current format Yen Press are taking away the choice of their readers of whether to buy or not to buy.

Will I be one of those that buys a subscription? More than likely, since Yen Plus does carry a number of titles I love to read. And they do get points for at least using a decent payment service, PayPal, rather than trying to set up their own card billing.

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With the demise of of One Manga some bizarre things have been going on in scanlator land. Many of the scanlators have been taking One Manga’s side and condemning the Coalition for heavy handedness. What’s more a lot of the people saying this are those who only a few weeks ago were crying over the fact that One Manga carried their releases, despite being asked not to.

Many of them now see the Coalition as being the RIAA of the manga world and are vowing to do what ever they have to do to win. They’re taking their blogs to private subscriber only, and turning off search bots. Which I have to admit made me laugh, since most of these have been around for years and you can’t make years of data just disappear.

Frankly I don’t see the problem with killing off sites like One Manga, who frankly flaunted their actions in front of everyone and are now surprised they got busted. Sure it has a lot of unlicensed material on it, but it also had a lot of direct scans from licensed releases as well. Several times  I was surprised to see Viz or Del Rey credit pages, as well as warnings against illegal distribution.

These sites also generated huge monies from ads, donations and/or subscriptions. When you’ve got sites like this it’s only a matter of time till the publishers take action. I actually expected this sort of action to happen years ago.

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Finally, we get the one that I personally found the funniest, and the hardest to understand.

While talking on twitter with @Yuricon the publisher of Yuri manga, we got onto the subject of fan fiction. I’m a very pro fan-fic person, having written loads myself over the years (all of it bad hehe). My school as a kid used fan-fic as a way to get us interested in english. Rather than using the classic plays and stuff we got to use books and comics we loved, and work up from there. In fact the very first bit of fan-fic I ever wrote was my english homework, based on the Beano comic, a Denis the Menace & Gnasha story. I loved writing it, then going over it with my teacher and learning where my mistakes were.

According to Yuricon, I’m a hypocrite (she seems to love calling me that) because I hate blog scrapers, and people who cut and paste my work without crediting it, but am pro fan-fic. Thankfully she’s in the minority, with many authors actually espousing fan fiction. Whedon, creator of Buffy, went on the record as actually telling fans to make and read fan fiction of Buffy and Angel, as have many other authors. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter has also stated she doesn’t mind fan fiction, with the exception of the erotic kind that did the rounds for a while.

In fact only a bare handful of authors have said they’re anti fan-fic, and most of those had valid reasons. For example Fiest, one of my favourite authors, doesn’t like fan-fic of his Rift War series. The reason being the series is still ongoing and he wants to avoid accusations that any new work is actually stolen from someone’s fan-fic.

I had the pleasure of meeting David Gemmell, another favourite author of mine, and he was very pro fan fiction as well.

For me, it comes down to the intent of the writing, if someone is writing a piece of fan-fic because they loved the original and wanted the story to carry on, that’s fine and dandy, go have fun. If you’re out to write a piece to make money off it, then you’re crossing the line and you deserve anything and everything that happens to you.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-787-6
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 236
by Hideyuki Kikuchi, Saiko Takaki
Publisher: DMP
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Supernatural

Synopsis:

Towering above the sleepy village of Tepes are ancient ruins once erected by the Nobility. One day, four of the town’s children wander into the ruins and vanish without a trace, only to mysteriously reappear a few weeks later. But only three return, bearing no memory of what had happened to them. Ten years later, a new breed of vampire emerges; one which can seemingly hunt during the daytime. Losing the safety daylight offers, panic and mass hysteria begins to grip the townspeople—inciting riots and lynch-mobs. Amidst the turmoil, the enigmatic vampire slayer known only as “D” is called in to investigate. Can he solve the mystery of the walking dead’s newfound powers and unravel the truth behind the missing children’s connection to the secrets of the ruins?

General Thoughts:

This volume is physical proof that some conversions can be done amazingly well. This and the subsequent volume are two of my favourite Vampire Hunter D novels. As such any conversion would have high expectations to live up to, and it does so spectacularly.

A few people have reviewed this and called it a bitter sweet story, but after reading both the novel and the manga I have to disagree. This is nothing more than a sad story through out.

I don’t like the art in any of the Vampire Hunter D novels, or manga. The characters for the most part don’t look right, and at times It looks like Saiko did his drawing with a marker pen, it’s so black. It’s cramped, crowded, and to much going on in a small space. This is especially true in certain fight scenes, where the over use of action lines, flowing cloaks and things spoils the setting.

The character designs never really seem to fit the way I imagined them, after reading Hideyuki’s description. For example for the most part I usually find D to be looking rather creepy and sinister, rather than the unearthly handsome character he’s supposed to be.

This isn’t all ways the case however, in all the four volumes I have read so far there are always times when the art really looks stunning, including in this one.

In this volume, for me at least, the most stunning bit of art comes at the end of the volume where Lina is giving her speech. I found the art there to be really powerful and to really carry the setting well.

The story of this volume is of course one of my favourite, it’s a very powerful story of friendship, betrayal, and loss. Sadly the manga doesn’t convey it as well as the novel does, but it manages to pull of a very passable attempt.

The secrets are kept to the very end, and even then only slightly revealed, with a lot of them still being kept hidden. For me this was a excellent revelation, since at the end of a volume like this we would normally get it all dumped on us. However this time since it’s part of a larger series, we only get small bits making us want to keep reading the series.

The ending of this particular story really got me, I found it very sad since none of them had control over what was happening. I was also a bit disappointed at the end since a key bit of the story was missing. At the end of the novel D rides off with a slight smile, which is relevant because it was Lina’s prediction he would. In the manga version though he rides off with a flat expression.

Characters:

Do I really need to introduce D?

D is a dhampir, a half human half vampire hybrid, though due to his suspected heritage he’s a little special. He’s grim, flat expressioned, yet a deeply caring person. He’s a very interesting character, but due to his nature keeps everything very close. I don’t really like his character design, since he looks creepy a lot of the time.

Lina is the girl of interest this time around and I loved her. Her personality was so open and honest, rather refreshing. I loved the way she acts around people. When I read the novel and found she was a victim of sexual abuse I found the way she acted all the more interesting. I was also rather surprised that this was included in the manga, I expected that to be cut.

Cuore I never really figured out, and even now after reading it in the manga form he still confuses me. He’s one of the abducted children (like Lina), who when he was returned was deranged. So he goes through the volume literally like a raving loon, popping up now and again to do something that doesn’t match his supposed deranged state. The way he is just doesn’t really work for me, his apparent changes just don’t make sense, and the way he is at the end just left me scratching my head in frustration.

Lucas is an interesting character, he comes across as nothing more than a teacher. However over the course of the volume other elements seem to crop up that aren’t explained till the end. I liked this aspect since it keeps you wondering over who he really is.

Tajeel is never really introduced, even at the end, he literally only crops up for a brief time and then dies. I would have liked to have seen more interactions with him over the course of the volume, but I suppose they couldn’t really do that since he’ was supposed to be missing.

Publisher:

DMP once again released this with it’s own slip cover. Unlike the first volume it’s actually weathered well, and the cover still fits nice and snugly. The cover is delicious, no other way to describe it. It‘s one of the few times I actually love D’s character design. The cover itself is vibrant and bright, the embossed  foil title is amazing, and really eye catching, just as it is on the spine. It perfectly grabs a readers eye.

The colour panel of Lina is just stunning, no other word for it, and frankly is the best single piece of art in the volume.

The translation seems to have been handled really well, and flows nicely. There are no honorific’s in the volume however, and I do wonder if that was a decision on DMP’s part or like that in the original japanese version. I liked the font choices in this volume, nice and easy on the eye with no problems following them.

In truth my only issue was the coloured paper, this time it was blue, and the paper just doesn’t look right.

On a related note I also read this on the eManga site and found that I liked the version on their better, Since it was clearer, sharper, and generally a better read. This I think was due to the paper, in the book it’s blue, where as online it’s brilliant white. However online you don’t get the amazing cover or the stunning colour insert.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-044-0
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 232
By: Aki
Publisher: DMP
Type: One-shot
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Shounen
Synopsis:

For centuries, a far-off kingdom has been protected by the nightly singing of the Utahime. This powerful voice is passed down from one female songstress to another within the Utahime’s bloodline. Then the impossible happens…a male songstress has been born. What follows then is a bitter-sweet and tragic tale revolving around this reluctant Utahime.

General thoughts:

I’d been wanting to read this for a ages, and when I finally got to I was all hyped up. Sadly, while I enjoyed it, it was also disappointing since it didn’t really live up to my expectations.

The core story is really amazing, a country that has a male ruler and female songstress, whose song protects the country. It had always been male for the rulers and female for the songstress. Until now, suddenly things are different and we have a female ruler and male songstress.

The potential for this story is off the charts, it would have made an excellent series, sadly all we get is single volume.

I like the cover of the volume, it’s not fancy or anything, but it’s well drawn and looks nice, basically it does what it’s supposed to. Catches the readers eye, and makes them interested in looking at it further.

Art wise, I tended to flip between liking and disliking. At times the art is beautiful, well drawn, and looking perfect. Yet at other times the art has a rushed feel to it, making look, well, a bit naff. I got the impression that Aki was trying to inject humour into the story, but the art just doesn’t come across as funny.

The other area this volume fails to impress is in the way the story is told. The chapters are split into time frames, but they’re all over the place which means to really understand everything you have to read it out of order

So, after what I found bad we get to what I found good. The characters. Despite everything I disliked about this volume the characters are the one thing I loved and really got into.

Characters:

Kain is the main lead of the story. He’s a male Songstress who secretly cross dresses as his sister and sings to protect the country. I wasn’t to sure about him at first, I found him to be annoying and frankly not a very good character. However over the course of the volume as more of his history and motivations are revealed I found myself warming to him. Especially the lengths he goes to. Although sadly, even at the end, his is a rather sad character I couldn’t help but feel a lot of pity for

Thomas our love interest and some of the village chief. Initially I just wrote him off as a wishy washy dull character, doomed to spend his life being insulted by Kain. Yet as with Kain, over the course of the volume his past and personality are fleshed out. Also the bond he has with Kain is investigated and brought to life. Also like Kain I couldn’t help but feel pity for him.

Maria, the doomed songstress. Like Thomas I didn’t think much of her when we get introduced to her in the story. The reason being we’ve had no time to come to know the character and to feel anything towards them. So when it’s revealed she’s dead, I sort of just went “meh” and moved on. In the subsequent chapters which go back to the past we get to see Maria for what she is, a beautiful and vivacious young woman who loves everything and everyone. She doesn’t really understand the role she has, so is easily mislead. When I read the volume a second time I got a lump in my throat when it came to her death, which for me is how it should have been the first time.

Publisher Handling:

Firstly, I still haven’t got a paper copy of this (waiting on the Book Depository to deliver it grrr), so I read this on eManga (many thanks to DMP). The art looks crisp and sharp, with no over levelling. The font’s I had a minor problem with, because I found that on a few occasions the font was to small to really read, especially when you add in the faded grey colour which makes it almost invisible. On a paper copy this wouldn’t be an issue since you’d just move the book closer to see it better.

Over all though I liked the fonts used in this volume, which for the most part were easy on the eye, and was to follow (with the above exceptions).

Closing Thoughts:

While I most definitely enjoyed this volume, it’s not what I was expecting. If you’re looking for a solid story about the changes that happen when roles are reversed, you wont get it here. However if you can accept that conce3pt as nothing more than the back drop for the story, it can be an enjoyable read.

It would have been an even better read if the chapters had been made more time consistent, starting in the past and working up to the present. Yet at the end of the day we still have an enjoyable manga that is a good time killer.

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ISBN-13: 9784344800120

Language: Japanese, French, Russian, Polish

Direction: Right to Left

Pages:

by: Usamaru Furuya

Publisher: Gentosha

                             Type: Series (Two Volumes)

                             Genre: Shojo, Romance, Mecha

                             Synopsis:

Marie floats above her world, giving comfort and protection to all who see her. Her land is peaceful and calm, and none who live in it are hateful or violent. Below her, the boy Kai grows into manhood, and as he does so, he begins to hear the subtle music of Marie, inaudible to others. This music will lead him on a journey of discovery, and grant him a startling realization about the nature of Marie and of the world.

I love this series and would love to see someone pick it up for mainstream western release. I think this is a prime target for either DMP or Vertical, both of whom pick up niche titles.

Characters:

Pipi is our lost damsel in this volume. She’s in love with Kai the lead, and has been since they met when they were 10. She’s got an interesting personality and talks in a childish way despite being 18 (she talks like: “Pipi is tired” or “Pipi loves Kai”). She’s a great character well developed and she has an amazing character design.

Kai, the so called hero and the object of Pipi’s desires. Kai’s personality is weird and I have to admit I wasn’t sure about him even at the end. It wasn’t until the last chapter that things all clicked together. Sadly while he see’s Pipi as a close friend, he only has eyes for Marie.

Marie, the weirdest of the triangle. She’s the ‘goddess’ that floats around in the sky protecting the world. She seems to have some sort of connection to Kai. Hard to describe her since she doesn’t say or do anything until the very end. Yet she has such a huge impact on the story.

General Thoughts:

I really lucked out with this series recently, an old colleague of mine who now lives in Japan  found me the two volumes and offered to ship them to me. It was expensive, but I couldn’t resist the temptation for long (well, I lasted nearly a minute hehe).

The story feels rushed, but it really isn’t. It just takes place over a short space of time. The first volume does an excellent job of setting up the atmosphere . It starts of lightly with some humour, and slowly shows the way life is on the island.

It also establishes the love triangle fairly well, showing how much Pipi likes Kai. Yet at the same time it shows that Kai is fixated on Marie. Furuya also drops loads of hints about Kai and his special abilities.

Reading about how he disappeared  and returned changed was amazing.

At the end of the volume Furuya starts to set things in motion for the fast paced volume two.

The second volume is different from the first, in that it moves from setting the stage, to the events itself. The way the second volume unfolds, is really done well. It starts with Kai having to figure out what’s happening and then the big finale playing out.

I love how these events play out, since it deals with Kai having to come to terms with who he is, and also having to decide whether ‘god’ should continue to exist or not. I like the way that Furuya leads Kai through his turmoil and to his ultimate decision.

The last bit of the volume is what I really loved though. It sets you up with a bitter sweet parting, with a mildly sad ending. Which on it’s own I would have been satisfied with. However just when you think it’s over we get the real ending, an ending that really hits you over the head with surprise and makes you cry with the sadness.

The other aspect of the series that really made my day is the art. Furuya is an excellent artist and she draws some stunning settings. I wasn’t keen on the character designs at first, but that changed by the end of the first volume. I was also impressed with the attention to detail she gives the machines and scenery.

Sadly this two volume is unlikely to ever get licensed because it’s to much of a niche title. It’s not your typical shojo story. Though I hope someone will pick it up at some point and give it a real HQ release. I’d line up to buy it!!

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Actors: Ekin Cheng, Qi Shu, Kristy Yang, Nicholas Tse, Biao Yuen

Director: Wai-keung Lau

Producer: Manfred Wong, Barbie Tung

Studio: Golden Harvest

Publisher: M.I.A Video Entertainment Ltd

Format: Dubbed, Full Screen, Widescreen, Subtitled

                                   Language: Cantonese Chinese, English

                                   Subtitles: English

                                   DVD Count: 2

General Thoughts:

I loved this movie, there’s no other word for it other than awesome. The concept behind the series is actually a manhua series of the same name, which has been released by DrMaster (though the version they released was heavily edited and altered to cover the anti-western elements).

The movie starts off nice and softly, and you think your in for an easy ride, then wham, it hits you over the head.

The story does have it’s flaws, naturally when you try to cram a large manga series into a single movie it’s going to suffer. In this case Hero (our lead) goes through some rather insane power ups over the course of the movie, none of which really make any sense since we never get to see him practicing martial arts. In fact the only time we get to see anything like practice is right at the beginning when he’s displaying his stuff for his new teacher, Pride. After this we never see him practice, which is a bit disappointing.

The fight scenes in this movie are awesome, and only beaten by the high cheese factor. We get rolling rain, exploding earth, and finally a destroyed Liberty Tower. Yet I have to admit despite the cheese I really liked the fight scenes, they were fun and uncomplicated. Though admittedly the big fight of the movie on the Liberty Tower has some issues. They used green screen for it and a few times we see them standing in mid air.

The way the movie unfolds is a bit confusing, since it tries to mix present day telling with the past. At times it works well, and at others it feels forced and not done well.

What I found surprising however was that I really liked the english dub of this movie. As I was watching it I did wince a few times, but I generally found the actors doing the voices to be doing a great job. It was clear they were not only liking the roles they were playing, but also were trying their hardest to bring them to life with their dub.

This works really well at key times, such as the deaths, meetings and farewells in the movie. I got a genuine sense of grief, loss, and reunion from the actors. Something that’s lacking in dubs these days.

The one bit it does fail on is that it does not build up on the story. At the end of the movie you get this big impression of things to come, as Hero has defeated one enemy, but has still yet to find his missing kidnapped daughter.

Given the build-up the movie gives his daughter I was expecting a sequel movie to tie it up, but as far as I know there has never been one (guess I will have to buy the manhua to find out the end!!)

The version I have comes on two discs, the first disc has two versions of the movie on it. One being the full screen english dubbed version, the other being the original wide screen Cantonese version with optional english subs.

I actually had some issues with the Cantonese version, the subs tended to go out of synch quite frequently which I found annoying, but since I liked the dub it was not such a big issue for me.

I also found the subs were a bit different from the english dub, they made more sense, compared with what the dub was saying. The dub wasn’t wrong, it just feels like the subs had a better flow to it.

The second DVD contains all the extras, and wow what a lot of extras. Two separate trailers for the movie. The US and Hong Kong theatrical trailer (did this even go to the movies in the US??), the music video, making of featurette, cast biographies and filmographies, and finally a production stills gallery. Here is the US trailer :

The music video is the cream of the crop for me. I love the music of the movie and the song in the video is amazing. It plays out using elements from the movie, which frankly make it sound all the better.

I found a copy of the original Cantonese version of the music video, but this is slightly different from the one on the english release, but almost as good. Note the quality is a bit bad hehe.

The making of featurette, is well a featurette it’s a good watch but it does spoil the cheesy special effects and make you laugh hehe

I really regret taking so long to watch this movie now, and wish I had been able to get the proper DVD releases, rather than simply the discs that I have. Now it’s a rather hard movie to find since the distributor M.I.A seems to have died.

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Currently the theme will work best in Google Chrome, which is what I use primarily. I hope to have it working properly in other browsers (at least IE and FireFox) soon, or at least as soon as I figure out just what the issue is.

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SKU: MANG3019

Director: Hiroshi Nishikiori

Producer: Reiko Yoshida

Studio: Bones

Publisher: Funimation

Distributor: MangaUK

                            Genre: Shounen

                            Price: £7.99

                            DVD Count: 2    

                            Episodes: 11                   

                            Synopsis:

It’s survival of the fittest. To survive, it’s kill or be killed.

Two young twins, Thor and Rai, live on the space colony Juno. One day they arrive home to discover that their parents have been murdered, and suddenly for unknown reasons they themselves are kidnapped and abandoned on Chimera, a penal colony. Chimera, also known as the "Planet of the Beast King" (Jyu Oh Sei), is a harsh world which is populated with giant carnivorous plants and sparse groups of criminals and outcasts. Thor and Rai are faced with a desperate fight for survival by whatever means necessary whilst they attempt to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that has ruined their lives…

Characters:

Despite how short this series is there are a number of characters to be noted. In total there are seven, all of who play a huge role in the way the series progresses.

Thor

Voiced by: Minami Takayama (Japanese), Alison Viktorin (English) (Child)

Voiced by: Koichi Domoto (Japanese), Sean Michael Teague (English) (Adult)

The main lead and strongest of the twins. Of the two he has the strongest personality and sense of presence to him. Later on in the series his personality goes through some subtle changes that make him into an excellent lead.

Rai

Voiced by: Minami Takayama (Japanese), Alison Viktorin (English)

Rai bows out early in the series sadly, but he goes out with style. He has a huge impact on Thor. He’s the softer of the twins, and his personality is that of a limp lettuce. Yet I couldn’t help but like him and was a bit upset when he leaves the series.

Tiz

Voiced by: Nana Mizuki (Japanese), Trina Nishimura (English)

Watching this series you can not help but feel sorry for Tiz. As a character I loved her bubbly personality and the way she acts with those around her. Her devotion to Thor is only masked by her love for him, but she sadly plays the lost lover in this series, and her love is never returned.

Third

Voiced by: Shun Oguri (Japanese), Duncan Brannan (English)

The hardest guy in the series to judge. While it becomes obvious he’s plotting something the way he plays it out is really amazing, and it’s not until the very end that the truth is revealed.

Zagi

Voiced by: Kazuya Nakai (Japanese), Eric Vale (English)

Zagi is a great opposite character for Thor. He’s essentially the mirror opposite of Thor and while the two are really friends, ultimately it all comes to blood after a betrayal.

Karim

Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Jamie Marchi (English)

Like Tiz, Karim plays a huge role in the series. The impact she has on both Zagi and Thor is staggering, especially considering how brief her time is in the series. Like Tiz she loves Thor, but she also loves Zagi and a betrayal leads to a misunderstanding, leading to blood between Zagi and Thor.

Chen:

Voiced by: Rika Fukami (Japanese), Clarine Harp (English)

I almost didn’t add Chen to this list because she does not really have an impact on Thor directly. However she does play an important roll and thus I added her to the list. I like her personality and the way she acts, strong and confident. I also liked the way she changes later in the series.

General Thoughts:

This was a series that really didn’t have to try hard to win me over since I was a fan from the outset.

However lets get the bad out of the way first, the english dub. I had planned to watch all the way through in english, and then again in japanese, but I could barely get past the first episode in english.

Alison Viktorin fails big time to pull of the voices of Thor and Rai, in fact they sound more like a pair of spoiled girls than anything else. Take my advice, do not listen to the english dubbing, stick with the japanese and subs.

Oddly enough the japanese dub sounded a lot better, despite being in 2.0 (where as the english is 5.1) sound.

The extras in this set are rather skimpy, and run to only three previews, Black Blood Brothers, XXXHolic, and for some insane reason Jyu-Oh-Sei. Yup that’s right there’s a preview of the series you are about to watch, and that’s it for the extras.

Eleven episodes split over two DVD’s make for an excellent value DVD set, especially if you get it from HMV who seem to have a constant anime sale on. As a result I got this for £5.99 rather than £7.99.

I like the simple aspect of the set, normal DVD case holding both disks, nothing else in the way. Though I have to admit I would have liked a art box as well, but at this price I can not complain

FUNimation did the subs for this series and I must admit that I loved them. I think this is one of the last titles of theirs I liked since their recent ones have been pathetic.

Anyways, the subs flowed well and were perfectly times to come and go. Something lacking in past releases. Also I only noticed some minor issues with the translations, but those could just be different ways of translating things. They also did not change any names in the series, something they’ve been doing a lot more of lately which is depressing.

I do have some issues with the video, several times I noticed tearing in the video, also the sharpness comes and goes at times leading to some weird after imaging and fuzzy bits.

Now for the important stuff, how well was it adapted?

Frankly it’s freaking amazing. Sure I would have liked to have seen it go for twelve or thirteen episodes, since there was more than enough material in the manga for it. I do not think it could have gone for a twenty-four or twenty-six episodes though, it would have ended up stretched and not as good.

While we do get some minor re-writing in the anime to cover the condensing, it only minor bits that are not really necessary.

I loved the art for this series (with the exception of the noses, which were off at times), the characters were perfectly copied from the manga. The characters themselves were also amazing, with their personalities being really brought to life by the VA’s.

The story is transferred perfectly as well, and it’s one of the few conversions I have seen that does really well in both formats. For me seeing the characters in full colour was amazing. Karim was especially stunning and I fell in love with her all over again.

The music for the series is amazing as well, and I really wish it we could get the OST’s over here as well, as it’s a set I would definitely buy. The opening is nice and has a good feel to it, but the actual music video for it is awesome and brings the OP to life in a big way.

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The titles in this post are: An Ideal World, The History of the West Wing, and Toxic Planet. All are released by Yen Press.

An Ideal World

ISBN-13: 978-0-7595-2942-7

Language: English

Direction: Left to Right

Pages: 176 (Single volume)

by: story – Weidong Chen, art – Chao Peng

Publisher: Yen Press

                            Type: One-shot

                            Genre: Shounen

                            Synopsis:

Time and again, A You finds himself chasing a mysterious rabbit through his dreams. But before he can reach out and grab it…his mother is shaking him awake for another day of work. A You’s not exactly thrilled with his job at the factory, so when a persistent streak of bad luck leaves him unemployed, it seems like a great opportunity to start over. The trouble is, A You doesn’t have anything to move on to. With no goals or aspirations, A You roams the city searching for direction. Deep in thought on one of his strolls, A You suddenly rouses himself only to discover he’s lost in the woods. He catches sight of a rabbit, and in desperation follows it through the forest. But this scene seems familiar…Is it a dream? Or could there truly be an ideal world within the darkness?

General Thoughts:

If I am to be honest I did enjoy this volume. Of the three titles on this post it was the one I enjoyed the most.

A You is a funny character that I could really get into. I loved hi personality and the character designs. Just as I liked the personalities and designs of the other characters through out the volume. The art is stunning, with some really amazing settings and lush sceneries.

So if I liked it so much why did it fail to really impress me? Sadly it suffers from the fatal flaw of a lot of one shot series, it’s to fast, cramped, and ends to predictably.

This would have been excellent spread over two or three volumes allowing time for the characters to be established better. This is especially true for A You, we literally get his personality dumped on us and then off to change it. There’s no chance or time to build up an impression of his personality.

The story hook for his change, a Alice in Wonderland feel, works well. But again there’s not time for the characters to be established, or for A You to go through the changes. He changes from the depressed, pathetic kid into a regular go get’em in the space of a few chapters. The change is just to fast.

The extras of the volume are nice, the character designs and colour covers from the french version look amazing. In the end though I was left feeling a bit disgruntled, wishing more time had been spent on building the story and characters.

Considering it was considerable more expensive than normal manga I had high expectations, which it fails to live up to. I don’t feel it was worth the extra.

The History of the West Wing

ISBN-13: 978-0-7595-2992-2

Language: English

Direction: Left to Right

Pages: 112 (Single volume)

by: story – Sun Jiayu, art – Guo Guo

Publisher: Yen Press

                            Type: One-shot

                            Genre: Shojo

                            Synopsis:

Lavishly illustrated in full color and based on the classic Chinese play Xixiang Ji by Wang Shifu, The History of the West Wing tells of the illicit romance between the daughter of a Chinese government official and the roaming scholar who seeks to win her hand. But before he can turn his attentions to his ladylove, the young man must win the heart of her mother! When it seems even heroic deeds in the face of murderous bandits will not please the strict matriarch, the young man goes off to become a civil servant. Will he return in time to marry his true love?

General Thoughts:

I had high expectations for this volume, the cover design is superb and definitely one of the best I have seen on a manga (manhua). When I flipped through it I found the art throughout to be equally lavish. I also liked the feel of the paper. Sadly that’s where the quality ends.

History of the West Wing fails to bring the characters to life despite the lavish art. I found the characters to be dull and uninteresting with no real personality to them. This volume is even shorter than Ideal Word, and as such it’s even faster, giving the story an even more jerky feel to it. The sad thing is this could have been an excellent one-shot if more time, and pages had been spent on it.

The original story this is based on is a single volume 300 page novel, which leaves loads of room and scope to make a single volume manhua. However no matter how lavish the art is, if the story and characters do not work, then it fails. Again considering the cost of this volume to a normal manga, I find myself wondering if it really is worth the cost.

I will say that the extras are even more stunning. We get over 20 lavish full colour panels that are really breath taking. However I would have rather seen all that extra space to expand the story a bit more

Toxic Planet

ISBN-13: 978-0-7595-2928-1

Language: English

Direction: Left to Right

Pages: 192 (Single volume)

by: David Ratte

Publisher: Yen Press

                            Type: One-shot

                            Genre: Shonen

                            Synopsis:

In Sam’s world, pollution is such that everyone is forced to wear gas masks at all times. He lives with a lovely young woman whose face he has not seen in years. Though pollution still poses a few (arguably) negligible problems here and there, Sam finds the state of his world…normal! At the factory where he works, everyone seems resigned to live in such putrid surroundings; “It’s just how things are!” “It’s not dangerous!” they say.

This was another that looked interesting at the time of buying, but when I got home was lacking.

This volume is pretty much a mickey take on the whole global warming issue, and I will admit I found the volume mildly amusing. But it feels like nothing more than a collection of newspaper cartoons. Sort of like the Garfield and Marmaduke strips we get in mainstream newspapers.

I do not have anything against these collected volumes per say, I just don’t see them being worth what they sell for. This collected volume does have it’s moments where I found myself chuckling, but nothing that really jumps off the page at me.

The other thing I found a bit disappointing was that there is no real story to the volume. It literally just a series of pokes at global warming. Some people I think will probably like it, but for me I found it boring after a while, and barely made it through half the volume before I went off to read something else.

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ISBN-13: 9784088563237

Language: Japanese

Direction: Right to Left

Pages: 193 (Single volume)

by: Ikeno Koi

Publisher: Ribon Mascot Comics

Type: One-shot

                            Genre: Shojo, Romance

                            Synopsis:

One day university student Suzune suddenly meets her cousin Yuuma again, who has become quite a man in recent years. Their grandmother has told Yuuma that he must, “protect” Suzune, therefore he now wants to live together with her.

Characters:

We have a total of three characters of note in this one shot love story. Harada Yuuma, Harada Suzune, and Kannazuki Junpei.

Junpei is the leading guy for this story, he has a good if slightly forceful personality. He’s the living embodiment of a knight in shinning armour character. I love the way he talks to people and put’s them in their place, without being condescending.

I was also happy with his character design, which really fits his personality perfectly. Though initially I have to admit I did not like the overly pretty boy look to him, though there’s a good reason for his looks which comes out later on.

Harada Suzune is our damsel in distress this volume, and she seems to be in distress a lot hehe. Her personality is a bit wishy washy and I found her a bit irritating. Her personality does not really change much over the volume and it shows.

Her actual character design though is perfect, I really liked the way she was drawn and the subtle changes we get over the volume.

Harada Yuuma, is a weird guy. His personality is sort of bookworm, but also a bit on the forceful side. His personality is the least changing, but then that’s to be expected since he has the least page time.

His character design follows his personality pretty well, opting for a bookish look. He’s small and slim, but not unfit, he just looks it compared to the like of Junpei.

Story:

The basic premise is a love triangle, Suzune’s mother goes to look after her father who is working away from home, leaving Suzune home alone. While walking home one night from work a boy rescues her from a stalker, it turns out that it’s her cousin who she used to torment as a kid.

He tells her that he had a dream of their grand mother telling him to protect Suzune, so he moves in with her. He rescues her yet again from a stalker, and makes a few rather bold statements, including embarrassing her useless childhood friend.

Enter a friend of Yuuma’s, Junpei and things start to get a little more complicated. Things come to a head when the truth finally gets revealed, and Yuuma and Junpei return to their own homes. However return to the Harada house a final time, and just in time to rescue Suzune from yet another terrifying ordeal. What was the truth? Yuuma was really Junpei who was helping his friend out because Yuuma (the real Yuuma) had trauma from the bullying as a child. Junpei however fell in love with Suzune the first time he saw her photo, so was more than happy to help out.

this is where the first part of the story ends, and the second starts. With the truth revealed the two guys return to the Harada household as tenants, so they could attend a school close by.

This time the focus changes to Junpei, who has a secret identity, which gets revealed in a rather spectacular way….

General Thoughts:

the down side of this title is it’s a one-shot, so it’s very fast paced. At times the changes are sudden and feel a bit out of place. This was especially true in the second part of the story, which I felt was rushed. Rather than a one-shot it would have been better as a two volume series with each arc having it’s own volume.

Yet even with this flaw I really enjoyed reading this volume. I am a sucker for love stories, and setting where we have damsels in distress and knights in shinning armour sort of thing really get to me.

The story itself is interesting and flows well, and sure it’s cliché. but it’s shojo so that’s allowed

The ending was not the best I have seen, even by one-shot standards, but I have to admit I did find it funny and had a bit of a chuckle over it.

Why License, Why Isn’t It?:

This hasn’t been licensed I would guess because it’s a one-shot. Not many shojo single volume titles get licensed, which is a sad thing since there are some excellent ones out there.

I think this would be a good addition to any publishers shojo line up, it’s a good filler manga that could easily help fill the time between two other series. And lets face it, there’s always room in the world for more shojo titles!!

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Book Information:

ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-827-9

Language: English

Direction: Right to Left

Pages: 228

by Hideyuki Kikuchi, Saiko Takaki

Publisher: DMP

                            Type: Series

                            Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Supernatural, Seinen

                            Synopsis:

The year is 12,090 A.D., and what little is left of humanity has finally crawled out from the ashes of war and destruction. From the darkness of fallout, mutants and a race of vampires known as the Nobility have spawned. They rule the weak with no remorse. Once bitten by a Nobility, one is cursed to become a member of the undead. Villagers cower in fear, hoping and praying for a savior to rid them of their undying nightmare. All they have to battle this danger is a different kind danger – a Vampire Hunter. Enter D – a lone, mysterious vampire hunter, sought out by the desperate Doris Lang. Bitten by the vampire lord Count Lee, Doris is destined to her unholy fate… Can D deliver her from her curse and bring her to salvation, or will she forever be part of the unholy dead?

Characters:

There are several characters of note in this volume. D of course, the main lead of the story. Doris and Dan Lang, the brother and sister who hire D this time, The main evil this volume is Count Magnus Lee and his daughter Larmica. There are a few other minor characters, but I will cover those separately in my general thoughts section.

Vampire Hunter D, our reticent lead. His cold stand-offish character is perfectly formed. Over the volume he does not change at all, since he’s a fully formed character. Rather he acts as a catalyst for the characters around him.

I am not all that keen on his actual character design however. D is supposedly this late teen looking man with unearthly beauty (due to him being a Dhampir). Yet for the most part I did not get that feeling from the design. Rather he looks like a walking plague victim, with huge lines under his eyes, pale, gaunt, and looking like a strong breeze will blow him over. However at the same time there are some really amazing bits where we get to see the real D, and the unearthly aspect comes through perfectly.

Doris Lang is the damsel in distress this volume. I loved her personality which is a mixture of the weak and vulnerable, but also strong willed and determined. These two supposedly disparate traits mix into a character that is perfect for the setting.

Sadly I am again torn over the character design. Doris in this manga version is more of a mature woman, into her mid to late twenties, and does not real fit the description we get in the novel. Though I will admit that like D she has her moments.

Dan Lang, Doris’s little brother, and as wild as Doris ever was.He looks up to D as an ideal sort of man, and is unafraid when D’s dhampir origins are revealed. Rather he’s convinced D will save his sister. Dan is probably the character that changes the most over the course of the volumes, despite not being a lead character. He goes from a cry-baby to a more resolute and determined character.

Count Magnus Lee, our arch nemesis this volume really lives up to his role. His personality like D’s is fully formed from the outset. I liked the way he acts, playing the bad guy out to the max from beginning to end. There’s no grey area at all in the character.

His design I thought was a bit off, and also feels a bit inconsistent. Over the course of the volume he grew fatter, and his fangs well, they stopped looking like vampire fangs and more like a wolf jaw. He also does not exude an aura that a elder vampire like him should. Rather I never felt any sort of fear from him.

Larmica on the other hand creeps me out on so many levels. Her personality is amazing, and goes through subtle changes over the course of the volume. When I first read the volume I have to admit I didn’t like her. The first time we get to see her it looks like she’s got a Weeping Willow sprouting out the top of her head, and does not really look good.

Over the volume though my thoughts changed, and while she was never beautiful. she has the feel of regalness and poise that Magnus Lee lacks. At the end of the volume I actually felt really bad for, but also proud of the way she ended things. It has a very noble and regal feel to it.

Story:

Doris Lang needs a vampire hunter, but not just any, she needs the best. So much so that she attacks those that look like hunters trying to test them, going so far as to go naked to distract them.

Finally D arrives, and after effortlessly defeating her agrees to help her hunt and kill the vampire, Count Magnus Lee.

Things aren’t going to go as easy as that though, as the Count is one of the older nobility and powerful. Also his daughter has decided to kill Doris rather than allowing a human to pollute the bloodline.

As if that was not enough to contend with the mayors son has his sights set on making Doris his woman, and will not accept no as an answer. And another man, a dangerous criminal with a gang of thugs to back him up, has decided he likes Doris as well.

In the end it’s a four way battle with Doris Lang and her sanity as the prize.

General Thoughts:

While I feel that this was a good adaptation of the novel, I do feel it could have been better done.

The art of the volume is pretty bad at times, with some panels resembling lumps of black, rather than action panels. However I will give a thumbs up to the colour panel at the beginning of the volume. In it we see Doris as I envisioned her, sexy, fiery, and dangerous/ Sadly the same is not true of Larmica, who looks like a guy with serious fatigue for some reason.

The characters do mesh well together in this volume, with each of the active characters complimenting the other characters.

Greco is one of the supporting characters, he’s the mayors son who has his eye set on Doris. However he isn’t a ‘nice’ guy out to woo a girls hand, he’d rather force her.

I liked the role he plays in this volume, though it never amounts to much. We do get a sense though that his father is just as bad and sadistic as him, which makes sense given the way he (the mayor) talks to Doris and Dan.

Rei-Ginsei is another of the supporting characters who sets his mind on having Doris. However in his case it starts off as lust, but turns into a quest to simply beat D by having her after he saves her from him.

The way all of these characters fight amongst themselves, form alliances and betray each other makes for excellent reading. The ending, while a bit clichéd and cheesy works really well.

While I admit I have a few issues with the way the conversion was done, including a bit of fumbling by Digital Manga Publishing, I still none the less enjoyed it. It’s also worth noting that the eManga version is a lot easier to follow and understand. See the next section for why.

Publisher Handling:

DMP have released three versions of this title so far, an eBook version for the Kindle, the afore mentioned eManga version, and of course the print version. I’ve not seen the kindle version, but I have the print version and the eManga version.

Firstly lets talk about the print version. I got this on the day it was released in the UK, and at the time I loved it. The pages were tinted a reddish colour that at the time looked awesome. The slip cover was well designed and drawn, though the under covers sucked. Finally like a lot of DMP titles it’s a bit oversized. All in all it was a good volume that looked and felt great in the had.

Sadly the inner workings were not as good as the outer ones. Because the pages had been dyed a reddish colour it makes the art look ugly, and at really ugly. The copy I have was tight bound, and when I say tight I mean tight. The pages creak when turned and it’s hard to open the manga fully to read the side panels.

Sadly it has not aged well, in fact it’s aged very poorly. The reddish tinge has faded and now some of the pages look like they a Dalmatian dog, only with red spots. Also the slip cover has shrunk and no longer fits snugly onto the book, causing the covers to bend. It’s a bit disappointing really, since I have manga from the 80’s and early 90’s that have aged better than this.

The eManga version however is immensely better. Gone are the icky reddish pages and in it’s place we have a nice white page. Also the double spreads look awesome and seamless, something you can not get in a manga, unless you do a pull out page.

The effect of the different format is staggering as well. The crisp white background I found made the art look a lot better. This was also true of some of the art that I hated in the printed edition. It made the art look cleaner, sharper and just generally better. This was true with several scenes of Larmica and Magnus Lee that I had hated in the print version.

The editing of the manga was done really well, with no issues reading the text in either format. And as I said, overall I enjoyed it.

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Book Information:

ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-056-3

Language: English

Direction: Right to Left

Pages: 516

by Osamu Tezuka

Publisher: DMP Platinum

                            Type: One-shot

                            Genre: Action, Mystery, Sci-fi, Seinen

                            Synopsis:

Amidst the chaos of World War II, two Japanese soldiers hear of Zephyrus, an utterly captivating woman rumored to exist on an island in the South Pacific. The tales of this bold enchantress seducing men to their dooms are both chilling and fascinating. Over twenty years pass, and Zephyrus resurfaces in Japan, seemingly unchanged, to wield her mysterious power over men once more. The one man immune to Zephyrus’ charms is simple drunkard, Gohonmatsu Seki, son of one of the wartime soldiers. Employed to spy on Zephyrus, what will Gohonmatsu uncover about her ultimate plot to create international discord and consume the world of men? What brought this woman to conspire for decades against patriarchal society – against an entire gender – and can anything be done to stop her plans?

Characters:

There’s really only two characters of note in this huge volume, which I found surprising. Gohonmatsu Seki, and Milda.

Gohonmatsu Seki is an unusual character right from the outset. His personality is well defined from the beginning, and while he does not change much over the volume, he does change those around him. In this way he’s more of a catalyst character. I love his character design, and the way Tezuka envisioned him. I was also impressed with the way Tezuka is able to keep the design consistent through out the volume.

Milda our heroin of the volume…sort of. She goes through a lot of personality changes over the course of the volume, and I found it fun following her changes. I was especially happy with the way she first experiences love, and has to come to terms with and the repercussions.

Her character design for a huge part of the volume is static and a bit off, but this was deliberate. As a result we tend to focus a lot more on her personality, and building up another image of her in our minds. When her real character design is finally revealed I found I liked it, more so than her original one. Though she does end up reminding me of Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Story:

The story is nothing more than a simple quest for revenge. Milda’s mother finds out her husband wasn’t the nice man she thought he was. He married her just to get to her father’s research, which he promptly started to sell to the Nazi’s. When he tries to move her father to a Nazi laboratory he kills himself.

She runs off with her children and ends up on a island where they remain the rest of their lives. As she lies dying she begs her daughters to do several things, Destroy the worlds economy, Destroy the Laws, and Destroy Men. What follows are the years of the daughters putting that request into practice.

The actual story takes place in the final stages as things finally come to a head, and then the final culmination.

General Thoughts:

This was my first Osamu Tezuka title, I have refused to buy any of his works previously for a simple reason, they’re to expensive. His works are published by both Digital Manga Publishing, and Vertical, and both publishers give his releases a higher than average price tag.

DMP’s release of Swallowing the Earth has a price point of £18.99, which can get you three or four normally priced manga. Vertical’s releases have a price point of £14.99 which is double the normal price of manga. Sure you can get the manga cheaper online, but not from your local book stores.

The other reason I did not buy any was that I did not want to take a gamble on an unknown manga-ka that was so expensive to get. What if I had hated it? I would have been stuck with an expensive manga I most likely would never read again.

What a shame I wasted so much time in getting around to reading it!! Thank you to Kim (aka: ShroudDancer and The Kimi-chan Experience) for giving me the push to read it. And a HUGE thank you to DMP for letting me review this title on their eManga site.

I found the initial editorial pages an okay read, and extras like this always show just how much love the editorial team has towards their project. Though I only read stuff like that once, then skip over it from then on.

The manga itself starts off on an interesting turn, setting up the character of Zephyrus. It then fast forwards and picks up at a fairly good point.

The characters we get introduced to from the outset are interesting in several ways. Firstly they look more like olden american comic characters rather than manga characters. In fact if they flipped it and switched a few location names you would most likely never know any difference.

It also starts with the story well underway, and almost completed. This does mean for a bit of pondering as to what’s happening at first, but I like the way the back story is revealed.

Seki is an excellent lead character, the way he goes through the story blindly unaware of things was just hilarious. However what was really amazing (for me at least) was the relationship between Milda (Zephyrus) and Seki. When they first meet Milda has nothing but disdain for Seki, but over the course of their interactions she slowly falls in love with him. However at first she’s unaware that what she feels is love, and struggles to come to terms with it.

Seki meanwhile does not seem to feel anything towards her, other than that she’s a con artist. His only desire is to drink all the liquor in the world. Yet after agreeing to look in Zephyrus for a friend of his fathers, and for 300,000yen. He discovers that things aren’t what they appear to be, and ends up being chased not only by Zephyrus, but also the man that hired him.

What follows are a series of adventures (or miss-adventures) that see him ending up travelling world trying to stop what Zephyrus has planed.

As the story progresses Milda is considered a traitor by her sisters for loving Seki, and ends up imprisoned. We last see her lamenting her situation and wanting to be with Seki.

However we get several other mini stories that while on the surface seem unrelated, really set to help reinforce the feelings of the women involved. I really liked the mini that dealt with the oil well, which showed that Milda was not alone among her sisters, others of them could and did fall in love.

I was a bit disappointed with the way Tezuka suddenly brought Milda back into the story. The was no explanation as to how she escapes from a supposedly escape proof prison, on an island in the middle of the sea, and gets to Japan. The sudden from Zephyrus to Milda was also not explained, again a flaw in the story.

However Tezuka does recover fairly quickly for me, with the way the story develops from there. The way the story ends up, with Seki and Milda living together, and getting married was really touching. I especially loved the way the remaining sisters returned. I won’t talk about the last part of the manga since it would spoil I but I really loved the way the story goes a full circle, and the way it ends made me laugh.

At the end of the volume I realised several things, the volume is a one-shot that’s worth every penny it costs to buy; especially when you consider the page count. Also, I had just read an amazing manga that I had not been able to put down once I started reading.

I do not like recommending manga really, since what I like is what I like, and not everyone will like it as well. However if you’re looking for a Osamu Tezuka manga to start off with, this is definitely the one you should try.

Like Utena, this is a manga that is ageless, despite having been created in the late sixties, it is still entertaining and enjoyable.

Publishers Handling:

I like the cover design of the volume, considering the age of the manga, it makes sense for it to have an old school feel cover to it, DMP got the design spot on.

The editing of the manga was really well done, with inline notes on cultural or technical terms. The text was easy to read and follow, the font’s used were not hard to see, and were of a good size and colour. This was especially true of the out of bubble and thought text, which are usually the bits hard to read.

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Series Information:

Title: Revolutionary Girl Utena

By: Chiho Saito (Story & Art) Be-Papas (Original Creator)

Publisher: Viz

Type: Series

Original Run: January 1997 – March 1998

Volumes: 5

Synopsis:

To Rescue the Fair Prince-To-Be

One day, a little girl learns that her parents have died. The grade-school-age girl wanders the rain-soaked streets of her hometown with no distinct purpose. Drenched in rainwater and tears, she find herself by a river and throws herself in. Suddenly a man appears–her prince–and he rescues her, banishes her tears, and tells her to grow up strong and noble. From then on she strives to grow up to be a prince just like him!

Utena is one of the few series that has named volumes rather than simple volume numbers. The names are all gardening related, and are:

Volume 01 – To Till
Volume 02 – To Plant
Volume 03 – To Sprout
Volume 04 – To Bud
Volume 05 – To Blossom

There was an aditional volume called Revolutionary Girl Utena – The Adolesence of Utena, but I am not including it in this post as I feel it is a seperate one shot/re-telling.

Characters:

Juri Arisugawa is the only girl among the student council, and, after Utena, my favourit character. She’s a good looking, strong willed and capable girl. Though, her personality means she’s feared by both students and teachers.

Her personality is pretty well defined, though sadly her motivations  arent really  explained an explored until the side stories in the extras of volume five. I think this could have made the character all the more interesting if it had been worked into the main story. This is especially true because of the love aspect, between Ruka (the previous fencing captain who only makes an appearance in the extra) and Kiryuu.

The anger she directs towards Utena before their duel is a little over the top, and while the reasons for it make sense. It’s not until the extra story is brought in that her real feelings and personality comes to light.

Sadly, she is one of the characters that changes the least over the course of the series. This is because despite being a member of the student council, and one of the duelists, she isn’t a lead character. In fact after her duel with utena she all but disappeares from the series, only making brief appearances, though important ones.

I loved her character design, traditional rich girl/spoiled brat, but without all the emo just that goes with it. Though, if they’d added more emo stuff to her she’d have been to much hehe.

Miki Kaoru is the character I hated the most. Nothing about this character was needed and it feels like he’s nothing but an extra used to build up Utena more. His personality is pretty well developed, though he has several flaws that I didn’t like. Firstly, his personality itself. I hate this type of character, the soft, weak but obsessive character really rubs me the wrong way. It’s almost like he’s a stalker with the way he is.

I was also disapointed with the way his love of Utena just sprang up. You literally turn the page and there it is. No hints or build up, and no explanation. However his saving grace was his twin sister, I loved how Saito introduces and uses her in the build up to Miki and Utena’s duel. Sadly like Juri he dosen’t grow all that much, and he dosent appeare much after the duel. When he returns in the final volume it’s like the whole situation with his sister didn’t happen. While this was probably due to space constraints, I did find it spoiled him a bit, since it pretty much reset the character.

His actual character design wasn’t to bad however. Like the rest of the characters in this series I liked the feel of the character designs. His was soft, yet refined and consistent.  Though I have to admit it didn’t quite fit his personality, also like Juris he’s on the fencing team and is also one of the stars of the team. And this does fit his some what soft feel.

Touga Kiryuu, the council president and one of the  main(ish) characters.  From the start of the series right upto the end he’s one of the characters I had the hardest time judging. His personality was perfectly blended, a womaniser but almost chivalrous knight feel, matched with his samurai, cut everything down to get his goals feel. As I was reading through the series again I noticed that in a lot of ways he reminds me of James Bond, not the gizmos and stuff, but Bond’s personality.

He’s also one of the characters that appears most frequently, and changes the most. The changes he goes through aren’t anything really special at first, but they’re the pebble that starts the avalance. I liked how he changed because at first he wasn’t a ‘human’ character. However over the course of the volumes he became more human, and likeable. At the end of the series he was probably one of my most favourite characters.

Kyouichi Saionji is the only character I hated, but loved as well. His personality was pretty much apparent from start. He’s aggressive, possesive and initially a really bad guy. I liked his character design and even, if i’m honest, his bad boy boy attitude. The way he carries on in this series is pretty generic bad boy, but it’s done really well. He dosen’t change much over the course of the series, but we do get a lot of insights into how his personality came about and why he acts the way he does.

Utena Tenjou our lead character, and by far my favourit. From the outset Utena is a strong and capable character. Her personality is perfect, tom boy with a hint of femmininity. Her actual character design is perfect as well, though she is a bit skinny for my liking. Weirdly I also felt she was one of those that didn’t really change much, rather as the series progresses she becomes more firm in her personality, more resolved. While this is certainly a change, it’s not a huge personality change.

Anthy Himemiya is the character that changes the most over the series. The changes though aren’t obvious, rather they’re slow and subtle until the end, when the changes suddenly rise up. I like the way this is handled, and the way it mixes well with her personality.

She starts off as a robot, with no real personality, but over the course of the volumes it slowly changes. We see her becoming more and more human. At first this is because it’s what Utena tells her to do, but later it feels like it’s what she wants. The end personality we get is a total reverse of her initial character.

Design wise she is also the character I loved the most. Her princess styled atmospher and designs work really well with her personality. This is especially true since we don’t get to see her in anything but casual and muted clothing. Yet she still pulls off the vibe. And the times she is in full regalia it’s stunning.

Akio Ohtori is weird. After reading it through everal times I still can’t decide whether I like him or not. He makes Saionji look like a saint with his domineering personality. Character design wise I do like him though, he has the whole prince of darkness vibe to him, which is good considering the role he plays

Story:

the basic story of Utena is a simple story of love and betrayal, with no real embelishments, yet that’s why it can be so good. Simple stories can be made into excellent stories if they’re worked right. Utena is simply about a young girl wanting to become like the man who saved her, and the journey she takes to get there.

During the journey she has to overcome both trials from outside, within, and betrayal by those she was closest to.

General thoughts:

This series is generally considered to be either Yuri or Shojo-Ai, but to be honest I found it to be firmly in the Shojo genre, it’s a pure love story. Sure it has the elements of a yuri series, especially with Utena and Anthy’s relationship. However at the same time it dosen’t show itself to be yuri. In fact it shows itself to be a true love story between a man and a woman.

At the very end of volume five the truth is revealed when Utena says she’ll kill the man she loves so as Anthy can go free.

Reading the series through I also got the feeling that the story was about the bond of friendship between Utena and Anthy. How it starts from nothing and grows into a full blown very close friendship. Not the sort of relationship that croses into a sexual one, but rather a very strong friendship.

At the beginning of the post I said this is one of the few short series that actually worked for me. This is very true, while it’s a fast paced series everything was really well wrapped up in the end with no lingering questions.

Yet at the same time it’s also true that the series could easily have been spread over more volumes. So what would they have included? For the answer to that you just need to read the extras, especially the ones in volume five that include a new duelist in the form of Juri’s original love interest and former captain of the fencing club.

Then of course there’s the whole Black Rose side story, which was made into a whole arc in the anime. This could easily have gone for another three or four volumes. Yet as it stands it still works, and still feels great.

Publisher Handling:

The first print run was abysmal, I have a set of the first run and it has some of the worst translations ive read in manga, and to make matters worse it was flipped!!

The second print run had a slightly modified translation but was pretty much the same as the first. Sadly this means all the ‘Lord’ and ‘Lady’ titles are in there. This really dosen’t fit the setting, school kids just don’t go around calling each other lord or lady.

The -sama sufix that gets translated as lord or lady, is  just a formal mode of address, depending on how and and the context of it’s useage. In a series like Utena I doubt it means lord or lady.

There are also some inconsistencies with the names, especially Utena’s. Several times I came accros her being called Tenou rather than as Tenjou. Though considering this is one of Viz’s earlier releases it’s to be expected.

I’m hoping that it gets the Viz big treatment, and that they fix the translation and names.

Despite it’s age, this is a series that is well worth getting and enjoying.

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The entire thing stems from a brief talk on Yen Press’ almost dead Yen Plus anthology.

I’m going to post the entire log of the conversation so you can see for yourself what was said.

1. 1. @Yuricon i loved yen plus shame it didnt last long
   2. @RyuSheng It’s not gone – just shifting to digital
   3. @Yuricon true, but it’s still a bit dead at the moment, also they dont seem to be in a hurry to give details such as costs
   4. @Yuricon and availability. whether you have to buy in blocks or can go month by month
   5. @RyuSheng You’re asking for an end product, while the benchmarks are still shifting. Chill. It’s coming.
   6. @Yuricon thats why it never really took off over here. they launched something without understanding how to reach their audience
   7. @RyuSheng Never took off…? You’re mistaken. This is new technology, new business models.You’re impatient – and deluded.
   8. @RyuSheng You’re at the VERY first stages of a new thing and you want it to be developed. Oh well. It’s not. Get used to things shifting.
   9. @Yuricon wow talk about swift judging. do you know anything about yen plus in the uk? have you looked at how it was handled?
   10. @RyuSheng We’re talking about two different things. You’ve got an ax to grind with @YenPress, perhaps you should address them directly
   11. @Yuricon again your’re assuming, who said i have an axe to grind? just because i ask pointed questions dosent mean i have an axe to grind

And that was that. This really managed to get under my skin for several reasons. Firstly, we have an American commenting on the british aspects, but what’s more irritating is that after just a few posts she decided I’m deluded and have a grudge against Yen Press.

I’ve always loved that saying (though for the life of me I can’t remember what movie it’s from) “Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups” excuse the language please.

This is especially true when you’re dealing with twitter which doesn’t really afford you the space to really say a lot, that’s not what it was meant for, though it’s fast heading that way.

So. I’ll get back to Yuricon in a minute, first lets look at the facts surrounding the collapse of Yen Plus in the UK.

In short Yen Plus has had the following:

• Four different prices
• Four Distributors, then finally NO distributor
• Dodgy and over priced subscription, with no refunds
• No set release date
• No promotion

Okay now into the long bits. Yen Plus over it’s life time has had four different prices in the UK. At it’s release it was sold for the ridiculously cheap £3.99, this price was doomed to be changed. Considering that Yen Press were shipping the magazines from the US to be sold, a £3.99 a copy cover price would mean that there was no profit in it.

So no one was really all that surprised when the price almost doubled up to £6.99. Which put’s it on par with the average manga volume. Then suddenly the UK price was removed from the covers of the volumes, giving the first hints of Yen’s pulling from the UK market.

After the cover price was removed it went up again to £8.99, this was due to the new distributor. Finally after yet another distributor change, the price changed again. Now depending on where you go to buy it, you can expect to pay anywhere between £8.99 and £12.99 an issue, and chances are the prices fluctuate month from month.

For you Americans that’s around $13.45 to $19.42 at today’s exchange rate.

Now, the distributors, this was fun looking into. When Yen Press came to the UK they looked for a distributor, and choose what they thought was the big guns, a company called Comag. In a way they are the big guns, however they only distribute to major cities.

When we went and talked to Comag they were rather forth coming about it. Apparently Yen Plus was getting a limited distribution in three cities, London, Manchester and Birmingham. What’s more it was limited even further with less than sixty stores being able to order the magazine. When asked why the limited distribution, their reply “It was the instructions we were given by the client”. Oh joy of joys.

Next distributor was the Magazine Cafe. They are sort of tied to Comag, but the link is kinda weird and I could never get my head around it lol. However Magazine Cafe did the subscriptions for Yen Plus in the UK. When this was announced I like a lot of people got really excited and rushed to subscribe. Only to find that they were ripping us off in the process.

Usually when you subscribe you get a cover price reduction as a sort of thank you for subscribing. Not with Yen Plus, in fact with Yen Plus you had to pay a premium to subscribe. Yup, you had to pay more than the cover price, it worked to be about 13% extra on top. Nice subscription service guys!! But wait it gets better!!

Yen Press decided that Comag wasn’t working and switched to Diamond UK. Diamond of course being the US and UK’s largest comic book distributor. This had the knock on effect of killing the subscription service as well. So did all of the fans who subscribed get their money back? Did we nelly!! Although some people did apparently in the end get a refund on the outstanding amount most of us were told the balance would be transferred over to a subscription to a new magazine, and no refunds were being offered. So not only were we over charged for the subscription, we also ended up having to buy the magazine twice (first with the subscription and then again from the new distributor).

Diamond UK were the distributor for all of two months before it was finally passed back to the US Diamond. Which now means there is no UK distributor and because comic shops in effect are paying twice as well, prices increased. However because of the currency exchange costs are shifted even more. Hence the now fluctuating prices.

It is worth noting that if you order it monthly from your local comic shop, then they do usually tend to stick to the single price. Some don’t however.

The release date in the UK was fluid as hell, with some months it being released early in the month and others later, and on two occasions no releases for a month and the next month two.

And finally, no promotion what so ever in the UK. If you didn’t know it existed already or found it by chance, through a friend, you’d never have known it was released.

So, with all of that going on, is it any surprise it never really took off in the UK, or that UK fans are wary about new announced digital versions? I’d say we earnt the right to be cautious after being screwed over as much as we have.

Now, back to Yuricon:

• @RyuSheng Never took off…? You’re mistaken. This is new technology, new business models.You’re impatient – and deluded.

Okay, last I checked Yen Plus was not new, it’s what, almost two years old now? That’s not new by any standard. As for it not taking off, I think that’s covered above, and I don’t see how that makes me deluded.

I then asked if she knew anything about the UK market, which she didn’t answer, which probably means no. So we have an american who knows nothing about the market here, or how the releases were handled, calling me deluded……

• @RyuSheng You’re at the VERY first stages of a new thing and you want it to be developed. Oh well. It’s not. Get used to things shifting.

No I don’t want it to be developed, I never said that. What I said was I wanted information. Yen didn’t just announce the change to digital version on a whim, they must have looked into it (I’m hoping so at least, but looking at the UK events I wonder >.<).

However the information is pretty important now since the last print version of Yen Plus is due out shortly. So asking for information on how it’s going to be handled from now on isn’t a big issue. And given the way subscriptions in the UK were handled previously I think it’s a valid question to ask how that will be handled this time round.

As for me having an axe to grind, wow i’d love to know how in my few 140 character tweets she came to that assumption. Do I have an axe to grind? Nope, i’m not happy on the inept handling of Yen Plus i’m not going to deny it. But in the long wrong I like a lot of other fans reported the dodgy subscription as credit card fraud, since in effect it was. We paid for a service that wasn’t delivered. Some of us (me included) eventually got our money back, but it depended on the credit card company.

However this is a PR nightmare for Yen Press since UK fans are going to be cautious over any offered subscription, what if it gets cancelled on them again? What’s the costs? etc etc. All questions that are solid and need answering IMO.

I don’t have a grudge against Yen Press, I neither like nor dislike them. I only have like two or three titles that they publish so how could I judge??

I can’t help but wonder though if Yuricon’s defence of Yen Plus and apparent hostility towards me, above, isn’t down to the fact that she herself is a publisher, and that it’s an “all publishers stand united” sort of thing.

I do think it’s sad that people can take a few sentences and then jump to assumptions and start name calling. Especially when they themselves don’t seem to know about the topic in question.

Just because someone asks questions doesn’t mean they’re deluded or have an axe to grind, it just means they have questions.

Also, for the record, I most likely will buy Yen Plus in it’s digital form, since the few Yen Press titles I get are serialised in it

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This short three volume series is one of a bare few that actually do well as a short series. What’s more the story and characters are well developed and fun to follow.

by: Miyaochi Saya

Publisher: Kodansha

Genre: Shojo

Original run: August 2004 – January 2005

Volumes: 3

In My Dreams is a new feature that covers titles that are unlicensed and will, most likely, remain so, and I’m sad to say that Akkan Baby is a perfect example of that.

As a three volume series you’d think it would be a perfect grab for a publisher, however due to it’s content it’ll probably never see the western shores.

The series follows a teenage couple who, frankly, are pretty dumb. They fool around and she ends up pregnant and they now have to decide whether to have an abortion or to raise the child.

As you can imagine that’s why this series will never be licensed. Teenage pregnancy is a bit of a taboo in the west, and a manga that seems to promote, it in any form, would never be licensed.

The two leads, Shigeru and Yuki meet at a indie group’s live and impress the band by following their speeding car on a push bike (no you’re not reading that wrong).

They end up as friends of the band, following them around and generally having fun. Things go well until our hapless leads find Rui and Nina from the band having adult fun behind the bushes

Naturally since Shigeru and Yuki idolise the band so much, especially Rui, they decided to mimic what they were doing. And well, our two hapless leads experienced sex for the first time, in a rather awkward way.

Unfortunately since they are pretty dumb they don’t  really understand what they’re doing and it does get out of hand. Ultimately the big thing happens, Shigeru ends up pregnant and all hell breaks loose.

Initially Nina and Rui are the only ones that know, and Rui shows his adult side by talking to Yuki, while Nina talks to Shigeru. (A bit late on the advice IMO hehe).

Things start to get  worse however when they finally build up the courage and go to tell Shigeru’s parents. More hilarity ensues when her father turns out to be as emotionally immature as Shigeru and pulls a runner.

Yuki’s dad arrives right in the middle of this, seems he’s an absent parent being away for long periods of time for his job. When he finds out what his son was up to, he beats the hell out of him.

However in the end things get resolved, sort of, and while reluctantly both sets of parents settle down to support the kids.

Life being what it is though things don’t get easier. A new headmistress takes over the school and she’s a strict disciplinarian. When she finds out that Shigeru is pregnant, she expels them both.

What follows is a battle of wills between Shigeru, Yuki and their parents against the headmistress. The older students decide to take advantage of the situation to run riot to drive the new headmistress out. And…..for the ending you’ll have to read it

So what made this series appeal to me?

It’s simple really, a lot of manga these days are high fantasy, sci-fi, and even the normal, slice of life sort of stories don’t really get into the nitty-gritty real life sort of stories. Only a few really do, most tend to skirt around romance and the results.

This was the first series I’d found that took a very serious topic, teen age pregnancy, and explored it. Sure it has a lot of comedy in it, but it needs that so as to act as a release for a lot of tension that builds up.

I was especially impressed with the character development that the two leads go through over the course of the series. They both go from idiots, to a couple really trying to make it right and work.

they don’t suddenly become super parents, rather their changes are hard earnt and I loved watching Yuki learning how to make formula and stuff.

Both Shigeru and Yuki go through a lot of hardships trying to come to terms with their screw up, but I felt it was handled really well.

The art of the series is pretty basic, and well, wild. But then the entire three volumes are really wild and fast paced. The art fits it perfectly.

Yet even while being wild, there are times when elements of serious art are used. These moments have all the more impact because of it’s nature. and at times all the more touching.

Sadly, because it’s dealing with a huge taboo it’ll ever be licensed and will most likely all ways be an “In My Dreams” title.

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The second will be a “Series of the Month” sort of thing. It’ll be looking at completed series only both old school and relatively new. The post will be spoiler heavy at a guess, since I’ll be looking into plot developments, character developments, as well as other general comments on the series. I’ll also be looking at how well the series ends, whether it’s a good or bad ending.

I also hope to have an irregular posting as well. This will be interviews with various people from the manga publishing industry……that’s if I ever get a reply to my emails hehe

The first of the In My Dreams posts will be up this evening, and hopefully the series post will go up tomorrow. Just need to find a good starting series.

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Otodama: Voice From the Dead Vol. 1

by Youka Nitta

Publisher: DokiDoki

Type: Series

Genre: Action, Drama, Supernatural

Kaname Otonashi is gifted with a super-hearing ability, so much so that he can even hear voices from the "other side"…the dead. Having once worked as a top notch detective specializing in Sound Engineering Investigation, Otonashi resigned to work as a private investigator. His partner, Yasuhide, aka Hide, collaborates with the police department to take on unsolved and mysterious cases. Surrounded by a string of mysterious deaths, the police turn to Kaname’s findings to identify suspects…but can Kaname handle the non-stop screaming of the dead? From Youka Nitta, creator of The Prime Minister’s Secret Diplomacy.

Characters:

There are several characters of note in this volume, the two main leads, and two support characters.

Kaname Otonashi is an interesting lead character, with a good strong personality and well developed character design. These are backed up by his special ability, which adds an element of mystery to his character.

The way that he is portrayed in this volume works really well, and is best described by Hide the other lead. He’s physically weak but mentally strong. This is proven several times during the volume. I will admit I’m not overly happy on his character design, he has a weird feel to him that rubs me the wrong way. Though it does grow on me over the course of the volume.

Yasuhide on the other hand really got me with his character design. As the volume plays out I couldn’t help but root for him. His personality isn’t as strong or complete as Otonashi’s is, but I think that’s a good thing since it gives him room to change and grow. His character design really worked for me though, he has an ex-police feel that helps him to pull off his role. Out of the two leads he’s by far the one that grew the most in this volume.

Superintendent Nagatsuma is Yasuhide’s brother. Again I liked his personality and design, he has a strong and forceful personality that comes across well. I loved the way he acts to his superiors and family, the way he genuinely wants to change things comes through perfectly. His character design is also like Hide’s, a perfect cops design. Everything about him from the way he stands and talks, to his clothes screams cop.

Superintendent Tadashiki is the other supporting character, but I don’t really like her much. Personality wise she’s okay, not perfect by any means, but decent. I liked the lofty, high and mighty attitude she has, as well as the way she talks down to Nagatsuma. The rivalry they have leads to some interesting personality developments. It’s her character design I don’t really like. For some reason when ever we get a strong female character like this she’s drawn like nun. I’d love to see a strong female character who has a nice design to her as well. However she does fill the cop role well.

Art:

The art of the volume was really well done. A lot of detail in the various settings made them look complete and realistic. Yet in some places it was the very lack of detail that added to the atmosphere making for a tense feel which perfectly fits the story.

Most of the characters were well drawn as well, though as I said I wasn’t keen on Otonashi. I felt that while he was supposed to be a physically weak his design over did it. A few of the other minor characters also had a bit of an off feel to them that I didn’t really like. However these were all minor issues, and really a matter of taste. To many pretty boys spoil the book for me

Story:

The story is really interesting however, and more than capable of carrying the series past my issues. It’s intriguing and keeps the reader wondering, which is essential to being a good story. What I was really impressed with though is that while we get a lot of story, very little is really revealed, just hints. Otonashi’s ability should have been the focus of the story, but for some reason it wasn’t this time. Rather he was used as a catalyst for the later story and his ability was more of an after thought. This means that we had a volume that set up both lead characters, and the two supporting characters, with good stories. It showcased their personalities and their limits, yet at the same time didn’t reveal to much of the deeper underlying story. Hopefully this means that from volume two things will get knocked up a pace and we’ll start to get into Otonashi’s history and learn more of his ability.

Publisher Handling:

Doki Doki did an excellent job on this release. Unlike the other eManga titles I’ve looked at this one doesn’t have any major issues with the fonts and editing. Rather the opposite. Reading through I had no problems following the text, which was sharp and bold and easy to read. Even the thought and out of bubble text was easy to follow. The sole exception were the notes in the margins, given that these were rather in-depth notes these would have been better after the volume as a glossary of terms. But they don’t hinder the volume, and understanding what they mean doesn’t really matter much to the story, so it’s easy to just ignore them.

General Musings:

A good read that was able to get past it’s issues and keep me interested enough to finish the volume. I was also interested enough to order the volume. Sadly volume two isn’t listed anywhere, including the Doki Doki Books website. So I’m guessing this is an ongoing series in Japan and volume two either haven’t been released there, or that they haven’t licensed it yet.

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For this post I choose four different streaming sites, all of them are legal and the official sites. However when I got into looking at the sites I was disappointed, since in the end the four sites were reduced to one.

First off lets go with the worst out of the lot, drum roll please…..

Funimation, congratulations on winning the worst streaming site in the world!!

This is why they’re the worst, for over a year now anyone from the UK who visits the Funimation video site gets a nasty note telling them to take a hike cause they aren’t american. I think most of us British fans have given up on Funimation ever sorting their site.

So moving on, next up we have the best of the sites…..

Crunchyroll, congratulations on winning the top prize!! But that’s not really saying a lot considering your competition ha-ha.

Crunchyroll as we all know started life as a fansub site who then went legal. I’m not a huge fan of the site, but there’s no denying that they’ve improved loads of late.

The general design of the site is horrendous, though it is memorable.It’s bright orange through out, which usually makes my eyes hurt. At the moment though they’re doing background adverts for the new Airbender movie which mutes it a bit.

The free account is really annoying (which I think is the purpose), it’s covered in pointless ads. The video quality is pretty bad as well, I found it a bit blurry at times and the subs seemed a bit flaky.  You also have to wait a week for the latest episodes. Though I suppose without those annoying bits there’s no incentive to pay for the premium services.

Crunchyroll offer three separate services: Anime, Drama and All-Access, naturally with differing prices.

The Anime and Drama passes both cost $6.95 a month, or $4.99 if you buy them in 12 month blocks. Which in all fairness isn’t to badly priced which considering most of the illegal sites costs between $5-20 a month. Though admittedly there’s is a download service.

The All-Access pass is $11.95 a month, and combines both the anime and drama sides. However for us brits shouldn’t get this due to it not being cost effective since there’s only a few drama shows available to us. The Anime pass however really is worth it.

While it’s true that there are a lot of anime currently unavailable, these are reducing over time. Also the list is region checked for your account, so if you login from the UK you’ll only see the UK shows. You can still get to the other shows, but all you’ll get is a message saying it’s not available in your area.

The quality of the videos is considerably better as well. Of course it has the crappy version free accounts get, but it also has what they’re calling enhanced definition and high definition streams. I used the trial to check them out, and frankly there’s a huge difference in the quality. That alone makes it worth the couple of quid to get the anime pass.

Then of course there’s the added bonus of not having those damn annoying adds at the beginning and middle of the episode your watching.

The subtitles are far from perfect, but a I said previously they’ve improved a hell of a lot of late. For example when I first started using them the subs were abysmal, worse than even the worst speed subs, or the worst HK-DVD. They’ve come along in huge leaps of late and the subs quality has gone up a lot.

I have a lot of issues with Crunchyroll (mainly personal experience), but if I ignore those I have to say that it’s well worth buying a subscription.

Next up we have the UK Anime Network, the only UK streaming site. When this was announced I got all excited about it, thinking we had a UK version of Crunchyroll in the making. Depressingly that’s not the case.

In truth it’s nothing more than a partnership with Crunchyroll. On the one hand it’s a boon since I hate the designs and layout of Crunchyroll, but it’s also a bit depressing that it’s not a new venture.

While the site itself isn’t plastered in adverts, you do need a Crunchyroll account first, and you will get the adverts at the beginning and middle. I also find their statement:

Welcome to UKA’s streaming anime section – this is where you can watch all the latest anime direct from Japan thanks to Crunchyroll.

In order to watch this content, you need to have a Crunchyroll account. You can sign up for an account (which includes a free trial!) by clicking here.

So why browse for your anime on UKA? Simple – we’ve already filtered the content available for the UK, and assigned our own genres to each show, making it even easier to find and watch legally streamed anime on your PC!

So sit back, relax and enjoy the very latest shows right here on the UK Anime Network ^.-

A bit miss-representing since Crunchyroll also filters the content so you only see what you can access. The only thing they did that was worth it for me was fixing the categories. Crunchyroll’s categories are bit screwed up, UKAN fixes them a bit.

In the end they’re nothing but a Crunchyroll branch office, but it does mean if like me you hate the main site you can give your eyes a rest

The layout for the video area is okay, but I think it would have been better to leave it as an alphabetical list like CR had originally. Making the list a page of screen captures just looks crowded and a bit messy.

I also noticed some really bad lagging at times with the few test streams I watched.

Anime News Network is the last streaming site I looked at, and like the previous one it was a disappointment.

Truthfully ANN was the site I would have laid money on making a streaming site. For a little while they did go that way, however for what ever reason they threw in the towel and basically bought a Crunchyroll franchise.

The way they handle the streams is a bit different from UKAN and I have to admit I do prefer it this way.

As you can see in the screen shot above they list their series alphabetically, then have a synopsis of the show with link to the ANN entry. Finally they have the episodes they have screenshots in a line from one to what ever. If you look at one of the entire, just under the last image to the right, you’ll see a slider. This is used to bring the other episodes of the series into view.

Sure it’s a gimmick, but it’s a good one that’s functional. Sadly though ANN hasn’t gone into full streaming like UKAN did. Rather they only have a limited number of shows on their site. There’s nothing on the site to say if they’re only keeping those titles or rotating them.

As with the UKAN site the streams all have those adverts at the start and middle of the episodes, which can be bloody annoying if it starts at a crucial moment.

In the end it’s only worth going with CR, even with their horrid site designs. The anime pass giving you access to the HD and ad free versions of the streams makes it worth while.

Before you ask, yes there are three notable sites missing from my list. Hulu, YouTube, Bost TV.

Hulu is only accessible from the US so I can’t get anything from them, and they aren’t a dedicated anime streaming site, rather a normal TV streaming site, much like Joost used to be.

YouTube isn’t listed for several reasons. Firstly it isn’t a dedicated anime site, and secondly the quality of the streams usually worse than the SD version on Crunchyroll.

As for Bost TV, again they weren’t listed for several reasons, primarily, they’re dead. By dead I do mean dead. The website has gone and there’s been nothing from them since they lost out to Crunchyroll after Strike Witches and Blassreiter (which admittedly were a lot better than Crunchyroll’s versions).

Secondly, the way you bought the shows from them was enough to make me cringe. You had to buy points which you then used to buy episodes or season passes. In the end though you always had to buy more points than you needed, which to me was a kind of theft so I would never have used them.

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Book Information:

Twilight of the Dark Master

by Saki Okuse

Publisher: DMP

Type: One-shot

Genre: Action, Horror, Mystery, Shonen

Crime is big business in the city, but even the worst of Chinatown are forced to run for cover when crazed demons mysteriously mangle and devour girls in the street-sex industry. A wave of mutilation unlike anything in history has officials and civilians asking questions with no answers… and because strange times call for even stranger measures, the elusive Shijo Detective Agency takes up the reins. Will the enigmatic, powerful Tsunami bring an end to the madness… or will the quest stir something even deeper within his own soul?

Characters:

There’s really only the one character of note in this volume and that’s Tsunami Shijo. Sadly he isn’t that much of a character.

I’ve read a lot of manga over the years and encountered a lot of bad characters, but this is the first time I’ve come across a character that had so much potential just abandoned.

His personality is so flat it’s wafer thin. Yet at times during the volume he does manage to show that he has some inside him. I also found his character design to be really bad mainly due to it changing every few pages.

Story:

This actually has a fairly decent story, though it’s not until the very end of the volume that it starts to be revealed.

The core of this volume follows Shijo who is hired by Shizuka Tachibana to hunt down, and kill, her boy-friend. He’s become an ‘Oni’ and is doing a lot of raping and murdering. She also reveals that she was raped and ravaged by him after he had turned and as a result now had an almost total artificial body.

The way the story plays out is a bit confusing, and I did have to re-read a few bits a couple of times. Yet the story is an intriguing one that would have made an excellent first volume of a series.

Art:

The art is atrocious however, right from the outset is some of the worst art I’ve ever encountered in a manga. The ‘settings’ as in the cityscapes are pretty decent looking, however the characters are horrid. The inconsistencies in the character designs are really frustrating.

Publisher Handling:

No major comments to be said about this volume. DMP handled it rather well. Though as with Angelic Runes the text was hard to read at times due to the choice of fonts. In a normal manga this wouldn’t be a big issue, however on a reader like eManga it becomes a big issue (for me at least, since I have bad eyes anyway and wear glasses)

General Musings:

This is a sad tale since this has so much potential. The bad art could have been easily over looked if it was a longer series. The story would have been allowed to spread it’s wings and really grow into something interesting. This was made all the more evident by the revelations at the end of the volume. Sadly since it’s not a series, it falls short of being anything other than a filler read.

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Book Information:

Angelic Runes Vol. 1

by Makoto Tateno

Publisher: DMP

Type: Series

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Shojo

A traveler in search of his father chances upon a pair of twins about to be buried by their village. The villagers claim the two are cursed but he rescues them. He soon finds out what makes the villagers fear them: the siblings have the power of angels and demons. But he has his own secrets as well…

Characters:

This volume introduces three main characters and two supporting characters.

Sowil, the main lead is an interesting and compelling character. I was impressed by how powerful a character he is. His personality is well developed and comes across perfectly.

The way he acts, and talks shows his inner turmoil over his past pretty well. I was especially impressed by the way the initial story was handled.

The way his magic is handled and revealed was also very well done, and has a lot of potential. The mystery surrounding it wasn’t to little, or over the top, it was just the right amount to keep the reader wondering.

I did find his character design a bit off at times though that may just be down to my own personal preferences rather than anything else.

Allueh & Erudite, two walking bundles of cuteness. These are the twin children that Sowil ‘rescues’ at the beginning. They’re perfect in every way. Their personalities and art designs fit to a T. The way that Makoto introduces them is done in just such a way that you can’t help but love these two. The crowning moment of cuteness in the volume though had to be them falling over in unison. It was just so perfect in every way.

I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop, but I am hoping that we get to see more of their children’s own personalities, since at the moment all we seem to get are the angels and demons. Ideally this needs to be balanced a bit better I think.

Those are the three main characters introduced in this volume. The two other supporting characters didn’t show up until later on.

Taurus, Sowil’s teacher is an interesting character, and while nothing much is revealed about him he has a strong presence. When he was introduced in this volume it was almost like he suddenly became the leading character. This isn’t a problem at the moment since he isn’t around to much, but I can see him overshadowing the others.

Personality wise we don’t get to see much about him in this volume, but he does come across as a strong character. I also found myself thinking that if this was a yaoi title, he would be one of the love interests. I’m not overly keen on his character design though, he’s to handsome and it felt a little weird reading it.

That said, I don’t think he’ll ever be anything more than a supporting character, cropping up now and again so it wouldn’t get to bad.

Loft is the other character that was brought in during the last part of the volume. He’s hard to judge since he isn’t around for long. However I get the impression that he will be the main antagonist for the series. His personality is a bit flat at the minute, mainly due to the limited scope we’ve seen him in. I also felt that he was a bit like Taurus, to handsome, almost as though Makoto was trying to bring in as many pretty boys as possible.

It’ll be interesting to see how Loft and Sowil’s relationship develops.

I purposely haven’t listed Sowil’s missing father, since while on the one hand I do see him as a supporting character; he also has next to no page time this volume. At the moment he’s nothing more than a hook that’s driving the story forward. Hopefully this will change.

Story:

The story is both interesting and yet simple as well. It revolves around Sowil simply trying to find out who he is, why he was born, and who his father is. Simple story hooks like this can lead to the best stories. Due to their simplicity the story teller has loads of room to flesh It out and make an intriguing story. Of course it can also fall flat on it’s face

Thankfully, so far at least, Makoto has  created a well developed and interesting story that has progressed well this volume. I was loving the angel and demons aspects, and how listening to the angels seemed to get Sowil into trouble.

It’s hard to judge a story based only on it’s first volume since that’s the volume that’s usually the weakest link. However I feel Makoto has a first volume she can be proud of.

Art:

As I’ve said above, Taurus and Loft did make me cringe a bit, I felt it was over the top with the pretty boys. However I can’t really complain about the art in this volume. The settings were really well drawn, with only one exception. I found the sand worm monsters from the first part of the volume to be a bit, well, crap. They looked bad plain and simple.They didn’t have any presence to them, nothing to fear or anything, I just found them flat, dull and uninteresting. Monsters should make you at least go ‘oooo’ or ‘eeek’ or something.

The twins make up for all though. Their facial expressions through out the volume are just hilarious and cute, and compliment Sowil well.

The other characters, such as the villagers, and other nameless characters were all rather well drawn, though they did make the pretty boy aspect of Loft and Taurus stand out all the more.

Publisher Handling:

this was another eManga title, so no comments on the actual book. I did order it today and will update the post when it arrives.

I only have a few minor niggles with this volume. Firstly the choice of wording at times in this volume made me wonder what the original japanese version said. There was nothing majorly wrong, but it did make me wonder a bit.

Secondly the editing, especially the font choices I thought were bad. Mostly on thought and out of the box text. Several of these were hard to read due to them being small and a faint grey. While it certainly doesn’t hinder the main story, it does mean you miss some of the comic responses from the characters, which is a shame.

Notes:

I loved this volume, it has an interesting story and characters. All of my issues can be overlooked simply by the volume being an excellent read that keeps the reader hooked and laughing. Makoto balanced the humour and seriousness of the story well.

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Earlier this evening I was having a chat with @allaboutmanga (sorry don’t know your name hehe) about manga publishers in the UK.

After we were done I figured it would be nice to put what we talked about into an actual post.

Over the years I’ve seen a growing resentment towards publishers from british fans because of the lack of love we get over here.

While I agree, and understand the resentment, I also understand why the american publishers don’t show us british any love. There’s no money in it.

It’s a sad fact, but that’s what it boils down to. Most manga licensed these days is licensed for the UK as well as the US, however the costs involved in releasing to the UK market make it all but impossible to turn a profit here.

What a lot of british fans tend to forget (understandably) is that the UK is small potatoes. In fact most states in the US are larger, and a few are so large you can fit the UK in a few times over.

That in itself is just part of the problem. The biggest problem is the cost of shipping the volumes of manga over to the UK.

If a publisher was looking for dual release those costs would be sky high ferrying them over from the US to the UK and then to the stores. I don’t know of any publisher that does dual release across their range these days.

Having the volumes printed within the UK is an option, however the cost issue comes up again, as does the loss of quality control that would accompany it..

The big issue is the £ versus $ fluctuations, profits would rise and fall like a yoyo making it hard to justify running a UK branch.

Everyone says manga is a niche market, the UK market is smaller than that. Why would any american company want to take the risks for such a small profit margin?

Of course it doesn’t help matters, or feelings, when the publishers rub salt in the wound. For example, Viz will ever few years, do a release in the UK. Last time they chose Flame of Recca and Buso Renkin for their ‘test’ run.

Naturally these titles didn’t sell well, why? Well who would buy a series they already own? Viz never seems to take into account the fact that when they pick a series that is complete, or almost complete in the US, it’s all but guaranteed that the brits are going to be complete as well.

This happens because british book stores have ties and partnerships with american stores, which makes importing titles easy(ish), if a bit costly.

They also seem to fail to understand that the US and UK can not be marketed and promoted the same way.

In the US comic shops are pretty common place and easy to find. However in the UK they’re a dying breed. So the US standard of promoting manga through comic stores just wont reach many people.

Also, the Previews catalogue is fast becoming a rip off for british manga fans. For example, I ordered both volume 1 and 2 of Cactus’s Secret from my local comic store using previews. When they arrived I picked the up and checked the price. They’re marked as being £6.99 a volume, but because I ordered through Previews in my comic shop, I was charged £7.99 each. £1 extra because without that the store would have made next to no profit. It comes from the title going through three hands before it reaches the customer.

The odd thing is if I ordered it through my local book store, it would have been £5.49-£5.99 (depending on store). This is due to the buying power behind the companies. Comic stores may only order a few copies of a volume, so they get charged more. Where as book stores, especially national ones, will buy in bulk, thus get charged considerably less.

And that’s the point publishers don’t seem to have learnt yet. In the UK it’s not comic shops that get manga to fans, but the book store chains.

Book stores don’t push manga because it’s such a small source of revenue for them, and publishers seem to want to push manga through comic stores which are dying off.

Since both sides of the equation can’t seem to grasp things, and don’t seem to want to change, then manga sits in limbo.

One of the things that @allaboutmanga  suggested was a british publisher that licensed only for the UK. It’s a great idea in theory, but sadly it can never work. Any british only publisher that starts up in the UK would eventually end up in a bidding war for titles. Unless they were started by someone with very deep pockets they’d always lose because they wouldn’t have the financial backing to stand against the big american companies. It’s sad, but it’s the truth.

Ultimately it all boils down to the fact that the british market is to small for publishers to care about or invest in, there’s no profit here for them, or that’s how they see it.

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So here we are, my first DMP review, and my second manga review!!

Book Information:

Alice the 101st Vol. 1

by Chigusa Kawai

Publisher: DokiDoki

Type: Series

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Shojo

Mondonville Music Academy attracts thousands of elite musician applicants from around the world, but only 100 students are accepted into the program each year. But this year, Alistair Lang-who has no formal music training and is unable to even read a music score-is somehow accepted into the program as the 101st student! His classmates wonder how he even made it into the program, and proceed to treat him like an outcast, calling him, “the 101st”. One day, during a violin lesson, Alistair steps up and begins to play his violin…

I was a bit confused over this volume truthfully. Initially in the email Yoko sent me she said the vast majority of the titles were yaoi, and I was told elsewhere that Doki Doki was DMP’s yaoi imprint. So I just assumed that Alice the 101st was a yaoi title. After reading it though it didn’t feel like a yaoi. Sure it has the potential, but something about the confrontation between the lead and a girl convinced me it was going to be a romance series. So I looked it up, and sure enough it’s listed as a shojo.

Either way the first volume was interesting and kept me interested.

Characters:

There are several characters of note in this first volume. There’s our lead of course, his room mate, the rival, the love/bully interest, and the pervert

According to the synopsis above the lead is Alistair Lang, but according to the manga itself it’s Aristide Lang.

Aristide is a good character, I liked his design, which reminded me of another character from an other series (whose name I can’t for the life of me remember). I liked his personality and the way he interacted with those around him.

His happy go lucky attitude does go through some changes over the course of the volume and they’re good changes. I loved his range of emotions which really were all across the spectrum.

He has a good well rounded feel which is essential for a lead character. And yeah it helps that he does look sort of cute

Theophile Maier however didn’t really appeal to me. In fact for most of the volume his presence was really weak. I got the impression that Kawai was trying to give Aristide a character that would be both a supporting character, but also one that could grow with him.

Unfortunately he’s just weak, and could honestly have been removed with almost no impact on the story. However I do think if he’s given a stronger personality he could do well.

Richard de Diamant the supposed rival. Richard is a bit flat as far as characters go at the moment. His design is a bit rigid, but it does fit the characters personality. I won’t pretend to like him, because I don’t. Something about him makes me want to beat him to a bloody pulp (and I’m a pacifist lol).

Though I have to admit as the generic ‘bad guy’ of the series he does have potential. And while I got the impression he’ll always be Aristide’s rival, I got the impression they could also become sort of friends later on. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how their relationship progresses.

Maximillien Brant the series pervert I loved how he was introduced and nearly woke the littleun laughing at it.

Max has the potential to be a huge impact on the series for several reasons. Firstly, he’s a strong forceful personality, and secondly he’s tied to Aristide and Richard.

I do think his personality is a bit to forceful at times, he tends to be a bit smothering, and in the case of Theo this is a really bad thing. Whenever they’re around together Theo is pretty much destroyed by his overwhelming personality.

I also got the impression he knows more about what’s going on than what is revealed, which sort of makes sense when you consider the few things he does let slip this volume.

He also seems to be the force pushing the story along, giving it a nudge by revealing something or setting up characters. I think if his personality is toned down a bit he’ll be a good character.

Finally we have Clair, the cello girl. She is what I believe to be the love interest. While she isn’t in the first volume for much, I thought she was a brilliant character and would be a good match for Aristide. He’s easy going whereas she’s more structured and focused. As such they could complement each other well.

Unfortunately because she doesn’t show up much in this volume there no real ‘feel’ for her, and me calling her the love interest could be totally wrong. But the way she looks at Aristide in the later half of the volume really made me think she was the one.

Story:

The story, as far as I can tell, seems to be focusing on Aristide finding his father. He’s (apparently) a genius violin player who gets into a prestigious music school despite sucking at pretty much everything other than playing a single piece of music. That and the recommendation of a teacher.

The first volume focuses on him settling into his new life, and finding out just how little he knows, and getting hit in the face with some truths, and a cello (which I found hilarious).

The volume flows well from the outset with no sticky points. as in it didn’t get bogged down as the volume progressed.

I really liked how the story plays out because it allowed the characters to spread their wings a bit and settle into their rolls.

I was especially pleased with Aristide’s revelation to Max. It took me a bit by surprise, though I was expecting something like it, just not that particular revelation

It’ll be interesting seeing how Aristide’s story plays out, as well as the larger relationships unfolding.

Art:

I liked the art initially it was clean, crisp and vibrant. The character designs were nice looking and had a good feel to them. However over the course of the volume I noticed more and more cartoony like versions of the characters. I don’t mind this style of art, but I thought it was overused and didn’t always fit the setting. Overall though I like the art, it has a good feel to it and I’m looking forward to reading the next volume when it’s released.

Publishers Handling:

I was surprised to see this was released by Doki Doki, since I was under the impression that Doki Doki was a yaoi line.

Since this was read on eManga I’m not able to comment on the quality of the paper.

Translation wise I liked this release. The translation was free flowing and made sense. No engrish on even worse, hippy speech, which always makes my teeth hurt.

The editing was great, with good choice of fonts for the text and SFX’s, and good placement. As a result it was easy to read and follow without having to squint or peer.

All told I was impressed with the release

Note:

One thing to note is that there seems to have been some sort of mix up in the translation or editing. As a result the main lead has three variations of his name.

On the back cover synopsis he’s named as Alistair Lang, however when he first introduces himself in the actual manga he does so as Aristide Lang, and finally in the manga-ka’s notes he names the character as Alistide.

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So, I want to hire someone to make me a theme from scratch. Colour scheme doesn’t matter much, so long as it looks nice. Only thing I really want in it is a dragon motif in the design, like the dragon head on this current one.

Chinese dragon style would be especially welcome

So if your able to make one drop me a line please and we’ll have a chat.

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This morning I got up to find a new list of books for me to review, a lot of them were yaoi titles. I don’t like or dislike yaoi, since I’ve only read a few mild yaoi titles. I haven’t read enough of the genre to form an opinion of it.

I actually thought that would be a good place to start, since I wouldn’t be bias towards the titles I was reviewing, I’d either hate them cause I thought they were crap, or love them cause I thought they were good.

Not a genre I’m used to, and I wasn’t sure how to go about writing about it, do I just tackle it as I normally would, or in another way.

One of the circles I belong to has a strong yaoi group in it, so I thought “lets ring Jenny, she’s the local yaoi guru”. I was expecting a pleasant talk on the aspects of yaoi, and the differences between the different elements and between yaoi and shonen-ai (since apparently they mean different things).

What I got though was an hour long rant on how I shouldn’t review yaoi since I’m not part of the “community”. As someone who doesn’t know all that much about yaoi I shouldn’t write about it because I won’t be able to understand it.

I was also told that if I wrote a review of a yaoi title that the “community” didn’t like that backlash from it would be pretty harsh.

The crux of it was simple, I should stick to writing about anything non-yaoi

This really bugged me, since previously me and Jenny had gotten on rather well. The way she was today though you’d think I’d stolen some sacred jewels she had or something.

I spoke to an old colleague of mine who writes about japanese culture for magazines, and he said that was the pretty normal response I got. Apparently only those in the yaoi community can write a yaoi review because anyone outside of the community is an outsider and wouldn’t understand it.

That was the bit that got me, what’s to understand? If the manga (or anime) was good then understanding isn’t required. The series would explain itself and whether I was a yaoi fan or not would be irrelevant.

Surely if I (or anyone for that matter) enjoys a story, whether its yaoi, shonen, shojo, or yuri, is more important than if they’re a part of the “community”?

So if I don’t like a story and write a review saying I don’t like it, am I suddenly the enemy of all yaoi fans? Where’s the logic in that?

I’ve known for years that the manga community as a whole was odd, possessive, and a bit nutty, but I never thought it was to this extreme.

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So what did I think of these two volumes?

Volume 1 Cover Synopsis:

Miku Yamada has a long time crush on classmate Kyohei Fujioka. But no matter how many times she tried to show him how she feels, clueless Kyohei just doesn’t get it. Frustrated, Miku gives up on him, only to have him start calling her "Cactus" for being prickly when he’s around. Will Kyohei ever figure out Cactus’s Secret? Miku decides to try telling Kyohei her feelings by giving him chocolates for Valentine’s Day. But Kyohei, unaware that he’s the object of her affection, offers himself up as a practice partner for her love confession. Can Miku get through to him that he’s the one she loves?

As far as shojo titles go it’s a perfect examples of the genre. The covers of the volumes are bright, glossy and typical girly style, and I hated them. Though I have to admit by the time I finished volume one I was thawing over them.

From the first volume we have two main characters, Miku and Kyohei. During the first volume the story progresses in a typical shojo style, Miku likes Kyohei but she’s a plain girl. So of course she goes off and trains and remakes herself all to try and get the guys attention.

Miku as a character is pretty generic and doesn’t really have a personality that jumps out at you. Sadly I couldn’t like her, she was to generic for me, to much a girl of the genre.

Kyohei was a bit better, and while he is a generic character he has more presence that Miku. I’m actually thinking that part of the problem is that both Miku and Kyohei were similar personalities, but Kyohei was the more pronounced and forceful. As a result Miku feels weak

The next character to come up is Itsuki, who seems to be filling the generic love triangle role. Though truthfully I actually preferred him out of the three. While we don’t get to see much of him in these two volumes, he has a good feel to him. I liked his personality and the way he acts towards Kyohei. Though I’m laying odds  that it turns out he’s related to the girl that Kyohei dated and dumped after three days and is hell bent on revenge or something.

I was a bit disappointed by the fact that nothing has been revealed over the two volumes, in fact it’s not until the last few pages of the  second volume do we even get hints of something going on.

by the end of volume two I was glad to be finished and done, nothing really appealed to me and I’m not really likely to buy future volumes.

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