New review of mine up on AnimeNewsNetwork, this time for the third and final volume of Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo.
“This final volume doesn’t make up for the series’ often slapdash execution, but it does bring Peepo Choo’s stronger points to a predominantly satisfying finish by continuing to explore the culture shock they share.”
In my look back at 2010, I named Peepo Choo as the title I had the most Love-Hate relationship with and that’s definitely accurate to how I feel about it, though leaning more to love than hate. I really loved what Felipe Smith did to tell the tale of culture shock to the extreme but I found the overuse of violence and sex, while not anything much worse than what I’ve read elsewhere before, still too over the top in context of the story. What really got me in this final book though was how quickly the yakzua plot line was wrapped up though. It didn’t feel very satisfying and was too rushed, feeling like the story was forced to a close instead being given the chance to play itself out.
Peepo Choo was memorable for all its own reasons, to say the least, and while I think despite how unfortunately rushed the ending felt, it still did well to end at three volumes. It was definitely a fun ride at parts but one I was good and ready to get off.
Absolute favourites of the week were definitely the newest volume of Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo (Vol. 08) and Black Butler (Vol. 04). Both star enigmatic pretty-boys with hidden powers and a whole lot of random happening around them. I was disappointed that the new volume of Black Jack wasn’t shipped here yet but these two definitely did a lot to brighten my mood. Retailers are listing this volume of Pet Shop of Horrors as the last one though – I really hope that’s not the case!
And lastly I picked up a new boys’ love one-shot from BLU – Stray Cat. I’ve already read this one and really liked it. Great release quality from Tokyopop, fun characters with a nice art style and some really hilarious comics about the creator’s pets at the book’s end. BLU books don’t come out often but I’ve been pretty impressed with their selection overall these days.
But wait – there’s more! Vertical announced the license of Drops of God by artistic team Tadashi Agi. The series is about a man who must find 13 wines outlined in his deceased Father’s will in order to earn his inheritance. Thus he begins his quest to drink for the first time and use his genetically gifted talents for taste and smell to discover the wines he needs in rivalry against his Father’s adopted son.
Also criss-crossing time and fashion-space is the second book of the light novel series, The Twelve Kingdoms. The first book blew me away as a detailed and believable fantasy story about a girl ripped from her world and dropped into one of demons, Gods and people hatched from egg-fruit.
