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Author Archive for Shannon Fay

Review: Knights (Vol. 02)

By Shannon Fay on Wednesday, September 29, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Minoru Murao
Publisher: Digital Manga
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: August 2010

Synopsis: “In this second instalment of the exciting medieval tale, Mist’s lady-friend Nina goes missing, while dark memories from his tortured past are brought to the surface. Unexpected help comes from a former adversary, and the self-confessed “true” witch Euphemia is always by Mist’s side, but will they be help enough for Mist to overcome a new assault from the Saints and win the battle within himself?”

Knights isn’t going to change the way you look at manga. It will never be a huge juggernaut like One Piece or Naruto. But what it is, is a solid, fun shounen manga with likable characters and an interesting plot. While for the most part it’s your standard action adventure, the way it deals with things like sex and race sets it apart from other hack-and-slash fantasy stories.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: DMP, Manga

Review: Your Love Sickness

By Shannon Fay on Saturday, September 25, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Kuku Hayate
Publisher: June
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: September 2010

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?”

Your Love Sickness is a yaoi anthology where every single one of the stories is good. There are some stories were I would have happily read a whole volume or series based on the characters. As it is, the short stories are crafted so well that even when I wanted more, I was still satisfied with what I got.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, June, Manga

Review: Tale of a White Night

By Shannon Fay on Wednesday, September 22, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Tooko Miyagi
Publisher: Digital Manga
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: September 2010

Synopsis: “In a small quiet village – There is a folk story of a beautiful female demon; nobody knows who she is but the locals calls her “Oni.” The story has it that she killed people and collected parts of their body to make a perfect human figure. A young man named Sho, is spending his summer with his grandmother and meets Oni while he’s taking a walk in the woods. Blinded by his beauty, he is lured into Oni’s house… nobody can hear him crying for help…”

Tale of a White Night is a collection of short stories: four horror tales and one fantasy story. It’s a strange collection in that the fantasy story sticks out like a sore thumb. Not only is it a different genre from the rest of the book, its tone is totally different and the style so dissimilar from the other chapters that I wondered if the same manga-ka actually drew it. It’s not a bad story, but it’s just strange to cap off a series of horror shorts with a high fantasy piece.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: DMP, Manga

Review: Romeo x Juliet (Omnibus)

By Shannon Fay on Friday, September 17, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Author: William Shakespeare/GONZOxSPWT
Manga-ka: COM
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: July 2010

Synopsis: “For fourteen years, Neo Verona has lived in terror of Lord Montague’s iron rule. But in their despair, a light shines forth! Donning the guise of the Crimson Whirlwind, Juliet Capulet has chosen the path of the mercenary, opposing Montague on behalf of the people. When she falls for a noble who seems sympathetic to her cause, Juliet is devastated to learn he is a Montague!”

It’s always tricky reviewing manga that was based on an anime. It’s tempting to give flaws a pass, as in the back of your mind there’s a voice whispering “Well, maybe they handled it better in the anime.” But eventually, like anything and not just manga, you have to look at it on its own terms and not in relation to something else. With that in mind, Romeo and Juliet is a fun manga. There are certain rushed plot points, but maybe they were handled better in the – oops, sorry, won’t happen again.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Yen Press

Review: Brilliant Blue (Vol. 01)

By Shannon Fay on Wednesday, September 8, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Saemi Yorita
Publisher: DokiDoki
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: May 2009

Synopsis: “When Shouzo Mita left home, he thought it would be for good. Although he followed his father’s career path as a construction manager, Shouzo never wanted to enter the family business – that is, until dad got laid-up with an injury. Forced to return home and oversee his father’s company, Shouzo finds that a lot of things haven’t changed, but some things have. Nanami, a childhood acquaintance, has gone from being an awkward fatty to a sparkling pretty-boy straight out of a shojo manga. As an electrician contracted to work for Mita, Nanami’s simple, naive charm and healthy appetite manage to flip Shouzo’s switch. With the choice between remaining independent and accepting responsibility for his family even more complicated, what will Shouzo do?”

Brilliant Blue is an interesting yaoi. While the focus is the relationship between Shouzo and Nanami, it’s barely even romantic at this point. The two spend time together and grow closer over the course of the volume but things like work, family and the dynamics of living in a small town make theirs a far from straight forward romance. The drama in Brilliant Blue is refreshing in that it’s the kind of drama that arises naturally out of life.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Boys' Love/Yaoi, Doki Doki, Manga

Review: Black Blizzard

By Shannon Fay on Friday, August 27, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Yoshiro Tatsumi
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: March 2010

Synopsis: “Susumu Yamaji, a 24-year-old pianist, is arrested for murder and ends up handcuffed to a career criminal on the train that will take them to prison. An avalanche derails the train and the criminal takes the opportunity to escape, dragging a reluctant Susumu with him into the blizzard raging outside. They flee into the mountains to an abandoned ranger station where they take shelter from the storm. As they sit around the fire they built Susumu relates how love drove him to murder.”

Black Blizzard is an important work in manga cannon, but luckily it’s more than just a dusty piece of history. Even today it is still an engaging thriller worth reading. Susumu is a piano player who’s down on his luck. When he falls in love with a circus performer named Saeko, it leads to a series of events which end with Susumu killing a man while in a drunken rage. When the manga starts he has been arrested by the police and is on a train, handcuffed to a fellow prisoner.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Drawn and Quarterly, Manga, Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Review: One Piece (Vol. 51)

By Shannon Fay on Tuesday, August 24, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Eiichiro Oda
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: June 2010

Synopsis: “Camie the mermaid offers to take Luffy and the crew to Fish-Man Island if they’ll help rescue her boss Hachi from the notorious Flying Fish Riders. Ignoring all of the warning signs (hint: her boss sounds suspiciously like an old enemy!), the crew agrees to help their mermaid friend, only to end up losing Camie to the kidnappers too!”

An alternative title for One Piece vol.51 could be “How to Write a 50+ Manga Series.” In this volume Oda reintroduces characters from over a dozen volumes ago and also weaves in new ones who have strange but important ties to the main cast. It’s amazing how easily both the old and new characters are able to slip into the story. The huge cast highlights how big and real the world of One Piece feels. While of course the main cast is always caught up in some adventure, the side characters have lives and goals of their own that continue even after they’ve left the main story.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, One Piece, Shonen Jump, Viz Media

Viewing Things Digitally – Some Thoughts on Manga Online

By Shannon Fay on Friday, August 20, 2010

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Written by: Shannon Fay

Reading manga online isn’t for everyone. Looking at any screen for hours can make your head hurt and your eyeballs fell like they’ve been dipped in bleach. Luckily, I was designed in a lab specifically to avoid those symptoms. I love reading manga online. I love that I control the vertical and the horizontal, that I can sharpen a single image to crystal clarity. I love that no trees were killed in order for me to enjoy a particular volume. I love that I can read the many works of Makoto Tateno and not worry about where in my tiny house I’ll fit them.

But while I like reading manga on my computer screen, that doesn’t mean I give every manga company that posts their wares online a pass. In fact, because I enjoy it so much, I want to see it done right. For the most part there’s not a big difference between publishers’ online manga viewers. It’s a pretty basic concept: it’s manga, and it’s online. This article is to point out the tiny details that differentiate them, the little things that either makes reading manga online a pleasure or a pain.

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Categories: Editorials
Tags: DMP, Makoto Tateno, Manga, Tokyopop, Viz Media

Review: Skip Beat! (Vol. 21)

By Shannon Fay on Thursday, August 19, 2010

2 Comments »

Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2010

Synopsis: “Kyoko is basking in the glow of working a Christmas miracle and getting some birthday booty of her own. But she’s so unused to this kind of joy that she ends up late to the script reading for her new drama. Now her whole day is a mess and Ren is mad at her! Can Kyoko balance revenge, a career and her own happiness?”

I find I enjoy Skip Beat most when the characters are pretending to be other people. That’s not a dig at the main characters. I really like Kyoko and Ren and find them a nice change from usual shojo leads. But,when they’re acting, or at least working on their craft, that’s when it feels like the manga is firing on all cylinders. This volume brings the focus back to show business world, making it one of the better volumes in the series in a long time.

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

Review: Knights (Vol. 01)

By Shannon Fay on Friday, July 30, 2010

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Minoru Murao
Publisher: Digital Manga
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: July 2008

Synopsis: “It is an age of paranoia, superstition and religious fanaticism and the kingdom of Excludo is being engulfed in flames. The people are under the thrall of witch hysteria and burnings and executions have become a common sight. But the witch trials and inquisitions are a fraud and countless innocent women, falsely accused as witches, are being burned at the stake. Just when all hope seems lost, along comes the Black Knight-Mist, and his sidekick Euphemia, a “true witch” to avenge the innocent and force their own brand of justice on the wicked!”

Knights is a throw-back to the sword and sorcery anime of the nineties such as Slayers or Record of Lodoss War. It wasn’t until I read this manga that I realized how much I missed the genre’s appearance in anime and manga. Knights has a little bit of everything: sword fights, interesting characters, and a unique magic system. Even if you’re not a fan of medieval fantasy though, it’s still worth giving volume one a try.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: DMP, Manga