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Archive for June, 2010

Review: Rin-Ne (Vol. 03)

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, June 19, 2010

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: April 2010

Synopsis: “A boy from Sakura’s past appears, hoping to win a date with her. But the ghost of another lovelorn boy leads to an unexpected triple date. Can an exorcism take place at an amusement park? Does Rinne have feelings for Sakura? Compared to playing the dating game, dealing with angry ghosts and rogue shinigami may be less frightening!”

Rumiko Takahashi really feels like she’s finally found her footing with Rinne here in the third volume. With the lead introductions and spiritual-mythos in practice explained in the first book, and a gaggle of jokes tested and frankly flopped in volume two, this third volume comes on the heels of that less than blow away material to present a new reason for on the fence readers to give this witty supernatural series another run for Rinne’s money.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Rin-Ne, Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Media

Review: Sunshine Sketch (Vol. 04)

By Marsha Reid on Friday, June 18, 2010

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Reviewer: Marsha Reid

Manga-ka: Ume Aoki
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: January 2010

Synopsis: “Nothing much has changed at the Hidamari Apartments for some time: Miyako’s her usual, wacky self; Sae’s still writing novels; Hiro’s worrying about her weight; and Yuno’s still as thoughtful and adorable as ever! But believe it or not, time has been passing, and Yuno starts thinking about what the future holds for her, her friends, and her art as graduation looms ever closer. The immediate future of the Hidamari residents, however, involves two new first-year neighbors — the shy, polite Nazuna, and outspoken computer whiz Nori!”

When the cuteness of every day life reaches volume four, it falls from simple laughs to being simply repetitive. The character personalities which before were cute and humourous are exactly what they were in volume one and oddly enough this is in no way a good thing. Tossing in new characters who you feel you’ve met before fails to spice things up and Yuno’s worrying about what happens after graduation brings the whole story down.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Viz Media

Scanlation Sentiments: My Answers to Your Statements

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, June 17, 2010

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The recent press release regarding the manga coalition, which saw a slew of companies finally banding together to battle the evil that is manga aggregator sites, was met with the excepted amount of drama, assumption and protest. While the number of fans cheering the decision and understanding the positive implications of it came out in healthy force, the nay-sayers remained as always the prevalently loudest.

With the resulting week or so of virtual fandom butt-hurt across various forums and sites, I was finally compelled to finish my rough manifesto of why so many of those arguments are completely nutso. Some are sympathizable, many are wildly shared and all have been corrected a hundred times long before I decided to step into the ring of legality and logic. But, to try and take the edge off that voice in my head that constantly screams ‘do they even know what the heck they’re talking about?!’, I’ve conglomerated my brain-responses to hundreds of people’s emotionally-charged internet responses into one post of fairly-frank, honest and thus likely offensive-to-those-who-take-it-all-as-personally responses to those statements you never meant to be taken as a question.

And here we go…
Read more…

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Categories: Editorials
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, Manga, Rumiko Takahashi, Shonen Sunday

Review: 20th Century Boys (Vol. 08)

By Shannon Fay on Wednesday, June 16, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Naoki Urasawa
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: May 2010

Synopsis: “This is the story of a group of boys who try to save the world! As boys, Kenji and his friends came up with a bunch of stories about an evil organization bent on world destruction. As adults, someone is now turning their fantasies into reality! What really happened on Bloody New Year’s Eve? Kenji, Otcho and Maruo have just driven their dynamite-loaded truck under the robot…where they see what a poor relation to the giant robot they dreamed up in their childhoods it actually is: just two legs with caterpillar treads, held together by an enormous hot air balloon, with cloth hanging down to disguise the underside.

Meanwhile, at the meeting of the government’s crisis control committee, Manjome Inshu unveils the Friend’s benevolent plan to distribute worldwide a vaccine against the virus being spread by the robot. The Friends, he says, have been developing such a vaccine since the terrorist germ attacks of 1997. At the same time, the Friends will contribute a monument they were building for their headquarters to serve as a blockade against the robot. The Friends are saving the day! Or are they?”

I’ve always liked stories where the main characters are fighting to take down a corrupt system (i.e. 1984, The Matrix). It automatically puts the cast in a proactive position and paints everything in a shade of grey. To us the main characters may be heroes, but from the other side it is very easy to label them as terrorists. This issue and many others are explored in 20th Century Boys volume 8, making this instalment not only full of tense thrills but also interesting philosophical dilemmas.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: 20th Century Boys, Manga, Naoki Urasawa, Viz Media, Viz Signature

ANN Review: Otomen (Vol. 06)

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, June 15, 2010

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Continuing with some more Viz Media shoujo-goodness, I reviewed Otomen (Vol. 06) for AnimeNewsNetwork over the weekend.

Otomen continues to be a really fun series. It is getting a little repetitive though and the number of Otomen (men who indulge in stereotypically girlish hobbies) is getting to be a little larger than one would expect in a series that’s still trying to thrive off it being quirky. At least all said-Otomen are really entertaining characters. While there was still lots to laugh at (in the good way) in this sixth volume, it was a little disappointing not having the lead female, Ryo, make much of an appearance. Her tomboyish personality, and dense overall sense of awareness, always makes her an enjoyable addition to the story, especially when it triggers all of Asuka’s adorable romantic ‘advances’. Hopefully all that extra good stuff will return in volume seven!

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: ANN Reviews, Manga, Otomen, Shoujo, Viz Media

Review: Maniac Shorts Shot

By Shannon Fay on Monday, June 14, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Miya Ousaka
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: April 2010

Synopsis: “Design school students Issei and Jin, on their way home from a live concert, pick up a discarded cardboard box, only to find that it contains a pair of sexy underwear with a “special” attachment…!! Deciding to have some fun, Issei puts them on and poses for Jin, but when Jin finds when he aims his camera at Issei, his sexual desire goes through the roof!! What will happen when Jin finds he can’t hold back anymore and has to have Issei right then and there?!”

Maniac Shorts Shot is a good example of how varied yaoi anthologies can be when it comes to explicitness. The first story in the book really makes the manga earn its 18+ rating with its frequent and explicit sex scenes – in fact, it’s not so much there are a lot of sex scenes, it’s more like the whole story is a sex scene with some plot duct taping them together. On the other hand, the next story is a sweet love story with a relatively vanilla sex scene. It’s weird to see such different stories in the same book, but on their own merits each story works.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: 801Media, Boys' Love/Yaoi, Manga

Review: One Fine Day (Vol. 02)

By Marsha Reid on Sunday, June 13, 2010

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Reviewer: Marsha Reid

Manga-ka: Sirial
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: All Ages
Release Date: May 2010

Synopsis: “With No-Ah’s childhood friend/tormenter added to the mix, all sorts of new adventures are brewing at the green-roofed house. Nanai the dog, Guru the cat, and Rang the mouse have cooked up even more fun this time around: visiting the library, searching for treasure—and tailing Rang on her first date?!”

If you think of volume one of One Fine Day as a test pilot, then issue two is the smoothed out first episode. There is more time spent on showing us the world these characters live in than episodic cuteness, which is fantastic. Sirial really got it together in this second instalment starring animal cuteness beyond comprehension.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Yen Press

ANN Review: Library Wars – Love and War (Vol. 01)

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, June 11, 2010

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New review written by yours truly over at AnimeNewsNetwork, this time for one of Viz Media’s new series – Library Wars – Love and War (Vol. 01).

I didn’t have many expectations going into this one, short that a lot of fellow bloggers were really eager for its release. Had to admit though, the idea of librarians being hardcore gun-toting organized vigilantes-of-sorts charged with protecting books from censorship agents did sound pretty neat. While the characters aren’t exactly hardcore, the story still really drew me in – very likeable characters and smooth pacing. Most of this first volume follows the lead going through physical training to be an agent and I’m really forward to seeing their skills in action in later volumes.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: ANN Reviews, Manga, Shoujo Beat, Viz Media

Review: My Darling! Miss Bancho (Vol. 01)

By Andre Paploo on Wednesday, June 9, 2010

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Reviewer: Andre

Manga-ka: Mayu Fujitaka
Publisher: CMX
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: March 2010

Synopsis: “Souka and her recently divorced mother move to a new place to start over. In looking for a school to enroll in, Souka decides to leave her preppy, private high school behind and transfers into a technical high school. To her surprise, she’s the only girl student in the entire school! The first day of school is nothing like she ever imagined — boys crashing through the window, fighting for all they are worth. One day, the school’s current “Bancho” (a term for a gang leader) ambushes Souka. What Souka didn’t know was that when someone takes down the class’ leader, you became the leader of that class. This wasn’t a role she was expecting for herself, but will she be able to relinquish it?”

After all the recent goings on regarding CMX, namely its demise, reviewing this volume was a little sad. However, while the series might go unfinished, My Darling! Miss Bancho’s first volume still has a lot to offer its readers. A decidedly off beat take on the generic Cinderella “guys transform plain girl into campus princess” genre, Souka finds herself the unwanted leader of an entire school of goofy, unrefined young men.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: CMX, Manga

Manga Publishers Combine To Form Scan-Fighting Manga Coalition

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, June 8, 2010

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News travels fast in the manga-world and this is definitely news worth spreading – a press release circulated by Viz Media today outlines the creation of a publisher coalition teaming up to target illegal distribution of their work.

“Working together, the membership of the coalition will actively seek legal remedies to this intellectual property theft against those sites that fail to voluntarily cease their illegal appropriation of this material.”

Along with a list of Japanese license-holders, North American manga publishers Viz Media, Yen Press, Vertical and Tokyopop are also all on the list showing a crackdown on piracy that many had hoped (and some expected) was coming.

So what does this mean for the manga scanlation world? In some ways a lot, and in others probably not so much. While the specifics of this coalition isn’t addressed in much detail in the press release, it seems safe to say that Viz, Yen Press and Tokyopop aren’t likely to call out the big guns over things like individual scanlation groups unless they’re outright violating licenses they hold. The large aggregator sites that make money off of posting full series (many of which fully available in English) on the other hand, are something that’s been a huge eyesore in the entire industry and medium for ages, offending companies, fans and scanlators alike as they dropkick any percieved notion of nobility square in the proverbial balls.

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Categories: Editorials, News
Tags: Manga, Tokyopop, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Yen Press