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Archive for December, 2009

Review: Kurashina Sensei’s Passion (Vol. 01)

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, December 3, 2009

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Natsuho Shino
Publisher: June
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: September 2009

Synopsis: “Welcome to the renowned Shoei Acadamy, a school which prides itself on educating young men from respected families from kindergarten all the way through senior high school. When new teacher Reiji Kurashina transfers to the academy right in the middle of the school year, he proves to be the star all of the senior high boys have been waiting for! But who has a shot at being the special someone to this cool and beautiful teacher…?!”

One manga niche that is sorely lacking in titles is yaoi harem series. There are dozens and dozens of series that feature a guy surrounded by beautiful girls (Love Hina possibly the most famous example) or even a girl surrounded by handsome guys (Ouran Host Club) but hardly any where both the main character and his/her numerous love interests are the same gender. While there may not be a ton of titles with that premise, there is Kurashina Sensei’s Passion.

Artist Call for Dragon Girls and Nightschool Students

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, December 2, 2009

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Dragon Girl and Nightschool

Two new contest calls are out for artists so sharpen your pencils and dust off those tablets (though may you artists out there keep your tablet much better dusted than mine!).

First off Viz Media is looking for fan art submissions for upcoming volumes of St. Dragon Girl. Via Twitter (@viz_media): “AM: Calling All Artists! Fan Art needed for future volumes of St. Dragon Girl manga.” The most recent volume of St. Dragon Girl is volume five and it’s available on store shelves this week.

Meanwhile over on her DeviantArt journal, Svetlana Chmkova is holding a contest for fan art to potentially appear in the next volume of her currently running series, Nightschool. Winners will be published in the third volume of Nightschool, due out from Yen Press in April 2010, and will be sent signed copies of the book when it’s released. All entries must be submitted to Yen Press by the fast-approaching deadline of December 28th along with a fanart consent form available on their webpage.

Categories: Contests, Manga, OEL/GlobalManga, Viz Media, Yen Press |

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Review: Love Skit

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, December 1, 2009

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Rie Honjoh
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: May 2006

Synopsis: “Aoto’s life has been filled with tragedy. First he loses his parents, and then his older sister dies. Now he lives with his brother-in-law, Takashi, whom he’s in love with. But he’s too scared to admit his feelings! To make matters more complicated, Takashi’s friend Masayuki is in love with Aoto. Will Aoto decide his heart actually belongs with Masayuki, or will he stick with Takashi?”

Tended for by his older sister after losing his parents, Aoto is left without a family after he loses his sister as well. With Aoto’s sister having recently married, her widowed husband Takashi takes Aoto in and the two live together as they tend to their grief. But as a one-sided love begins to form, a friend of Takashi’s appears with his own attentions on Aoto… and thus you have Love Skit: a one-shot graced with a pleasant art style and quirky side characters but irrefutably marred by the leading plot that ties them together.