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Author Archive for Lissa Pattillo

ANN Review: Crimson Cross

ANN Review: Crimson Cross

Missed this when it was originally posted to the site but mid-August my review of Crimson Cross was posted over on AnimeNewsNetwork.

What to say about this one… well, it wasn’t bad, persay, but I’d felt like I’d read a near-exact story a hundred times before. It’s a vampire story about the son of Van Hellsing who is turned half vampire and thusly spends his grim days hunting the uber-power vampire who turned him. Along the way he meets carbon-copies of the same female archtype to give him some sort term angst. He broods, he reflects and generally fails at defeating the vampire. There’s a werewolf in there too somewhere. It’s just really stereotypical, unfortunately, and I found myself bored half way through when I realized it wasn’t going anywhere different than the usual.

This book was also another case where I was really underwhelmed by their graphic design decision for the front of the book. The thick flat-colour maroon border just suffocates the artwork – I don’t understand why they wouldn’t use a full-bleed of the art itself.

Overall, it’s as my review says, I can only really recommend this book to “those entirely new to the concept, or those so smitten that they must have all there is to do with the undead-leeches.” Sadly it’s a been-there-bit-that experience.


Review: Seven Days – Monday to Thursday

Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo
Seven Days

Author: Venio Tachibana
Manga-ka: Rihito Takarai
Publisher: June
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: August 2010

Synopsis: “It is rumored that Touji Seryou, one of the more popular boys at school, would go out with anyone who asks him out on a Monday morning. But on this particular Monday morning, the first person he meets at the school gate is no other than Yuzuru Shino, Seryou’s sempai at the archery club. On a whim, and well-aware of Seryou’s reputation, Shino asks Seryou to go out with him. Thinking that it will be treated as a joke, they’re both guys after all, imagine Shino’s surprise when Seryou takes him up on the offer!”

Touji is on a quest for true love – or any love really. Half-scorned and left dangling mid-affection by his brother’s girlfriend, Touji has spent his school year dating a different girl every week. But only for one week. Date them on Monday, break up with them on Sunday – it’s a seven day ritual that he’s yet to find reason to break. Until he gets out a by a guy anyway – cue Monday to Thursday!

Read more…


ANN Review: A Drunken Dream and Other Stories

ANN Review: A Drunken Dream and Other Stories

My recent review of Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories has been posted over at AnimeNewsNetwork. This is Fantagraphics’ first manga release and they did it in style – hardcover and everything.

When I first read this compilation of stories, I was a little underwhelmed. I liked it well enough, I enjoyed reading it but it didn’t leave much impression. I waited a week and read it again and suddenly it seemed completely different. It goes to show the importance of rereading, especially for these more subtle series. Too often I fly through a new book and more time is spent simply on absorbing what happened instead of how or why. A Drunken Dream is definitely more about the hows and whys. I was entranced the second time through as I picked up lots of little things I missed the first time.

The review tells what I liked how the book in more detail but summed up I’d really recommend it, not once but twice (and more times for extra charming effect) – it’s a beautiful book.


Super Savings: RightStuf Battles DC Denial with CMX Sale

DC Comics may’ve done their darnedest to wipe their manga imprint off the face of the internet after shutting it down, but the knowledge of the books and the love of the imprint’s offerings still lingers with its fans. Now thanks to RightStuf the lovers and newly curious alike can scoop up some more of the now out-of-print books for their bookshelves with this week’s sale:

From now through August 19, the “your price” listed is the price you pay – no coupon code required – and these new prices represent a savings of at least 33% OFF the retail prices of all titles from DC Comics and CMX Manga! (This includes items that are in stock, on order and special order!)**”

Lots to choose from and with a certain added sense of urgency since these remaining pockets of stock may not last long. Of those I’ve read, I’d highly recommend Key to the Kingdom, Kiichi and the Magic Books, King of Cards, Land of the Blindfold, Oh! My Brother, and my favourite – Stolen Hearts.

Going through the lists just reminds me how many other series I have yet to finished or start that I’ve meaning to though. Eep, time to start budgeting for some extra manga spending this month…


Swag Bag – Talking Cats, Female Shogun and Making Manga

Another week, another slew of new releases! I was too late to get a hold of a copy of 20th Century Boys (Vol. 10) but there was still plenty of other good titles to pick up (now with some pictures):

Voice or Noise (Vol. 03)BLU, the boys’ love imprint of Tokyopop, had a couple of new titles out this week. The most exciting of which was the third volume of Voice or Noise. The second volume was released in February 2008 so it’s been quite a wait for this follow-up. None the less I’m as excited to finally purchase a copy now as I was looking forward to it after finishing the last. Great boys’ love series!

The other title I picked up from them is Scarlet, a one-shot by the same creator who did Cute Devil. Honestly, I don’t have much interest in this artist or this premise but I bought the painfully overpriced book all the same because it marks a new (potentially continued?) book style and I wanted to check it out/support it. It sports a larger-than-the-norm trim size and colour inserts at the front. I flipped through it and it was actually a bit disorienting reading a BLU title suddenly notably larger, though snazzy all the same. It’s great to see, especially since it takes a step closer to almost justifying the $18.99 price tag.

Continuing on the semi-boys’ love trend, I was amazed to see a whole slew of DokiDoki titles on the shelf of Chapters (the B&N/Borders equivalent to you Americans out there). They’ve only ever carried sparse copies of Vampire Hunter D from Digital Manga so seeing them branch out to this varied imprint was exciting, plus very promising to the local boys’ love fanbase who are too timid to special order. Though not boys’ love, I purchased a physical copy of Alice the 101st which I reviewed earlier in the month for ANN.

Butterflies, Flowers (Vol. 04)Moving onto other genres, I picked up a copy of Bakuman (Vol. 01) – the team of Death Note makes a manga about making manga – and the fourth volume of Ooku in which it feels like the faux-Shakespearean speech that I really dislike seems more toned down (or is that just me?). In the mail I got a copy of the newest volume of Butterflies, Flowers which is hilarious – I am completely enamoured with the mature silliness of this series and I hope many others are too.

And lastly, thanks to my local library, I’ve been reading the Manga Guide to Databases. After reading the Manga Guide to Statistics last week and being impressed with how much I actually retained from it, I sought out this one as I’ve been wanting a basic introduction to databases. Yay for learning?


Review: Moonlit Promises

Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo
Moonlit Promises

Manga-ka: Souya Himawari
Publisher: June
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: April 2010

Synopsis: “Roh is an outrageous orphan who has survived on the streets relying solely on his own strength. When he is taken in by a loving grandfather and grandson, Roh begins to believe that life may not be that bad. But when Seishin’s grandfather dies unexpectedly, Roh finds himself responsible for more than just himself!”

A one-shot collection of short stories, Moonlit Promises easily surpasses the mediocrity of other similar collections. Visually pleasing artwork and tender stories that vary from a genetically-engineered song-bird to a genie trapped in a ring and two boys becoming mercenaries to make a living, this trio of stories is worth having on any boys’ love readers’ shelf.

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Review: Garden Sky

Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo
Garden Sky

Manga-ka: Yuko Kuwabara
Publisher: June
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: August 2010

Synopsis: “When happy-go-lucky Shiro is suddenly murdered by a jealous lover, he finds himself summoned to heaven by the teeny-tiny (and totally bored) God Kami-Sama. The two soon hatch a plot to form a “family” featuring the beautiful ninja Kuro…but little do they know that Kuro has his own troubled past! Will these three lonely misfits find a way to overcome their differences and forge a lasting bond?”

Garden Sky is another of the books I question the validity of labeling boys’ love, especially when Digital Manga has their Doki Doki line-up which fits this one-shot like a tailored glove. There’s the potential for boys’ love here but that’s about as far as it goes. The book is split up into two different stories, each one building itself up like your average tale of boy-loves-boy but then stops just before the point where you’d officially deem it one. This isn’t to say the book will really appeal to those who aren’t fans of the genre, but even those who are will likely find themselves a bit disappointed in more ways than one despite some polished art and likeable characters.

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Swag Bag – Culture-Shock, Doctors and Yuri

My local comic shop Strange Adventures is having a 20% off everything sale this month – hopefully that means lots of new books in the coming weeks!

While there this week I picked up a few different books:

Peepo Choo (Vol. 01) – This book was insane. I read it on the way home on the bus (for which thankfully I was sitting in the back because this is not the kind of book you want to think people are reading over your shoulder). Very 18+ material and pretty mean too. I liked it over all because of the sheer amount of ridiculous energy but the creator is definitely out to make a statement by being pretty insultive. But though over-emphasized, it’s still based on nerd-dom truths so you can’t hate it for that. The stereotypical anime fans versus comic fans scene is pretty entertaining and hits the nail on the head. The amount of sex and violence really surprised me though but I did very much find myself wishing it’d stick to those parts and leave the ‘weeabo’ drooling, shiney-eyed main character behind.

Black Jack (Vol. 12) – One of the series that I just cannot wait to pick-up – when I know it’s out, I must have it! This volume continues the trend of never disappointing. I do find each time I read a new volume I always think ‘this is darker than before’ in regards to how the stories end but since I have that thought every time, I think it just proves how much continuing good shock value some of the stories have, not that they’re actually getting more grim or serious over time.

And from the wonderful bargain bin I picked up volume four of Me & My Brothers and volume two of A Tale of an Unknown Country. I haven’t read either of the series before so reading through these volumes should give me an idea of if I’d like to hunt out the rest of the volumes.

And arriving in the mail for me this week was two volumes of Yuri Montogari which are really uniquely varied stories of lesbian-love stories (some with definite twists in some stories) and a copy of Moto Haigo’s Drunken Dream and Other Stories from Fantagraphics Books. I was really surprised to see Drunken Dreams is a large-trim, hardcover book with glossy decoration work.

And as a little birthday present for myself I picked up an artbook by Ken Mizuki titled Sarasa. It’s a pretty small artbook compared to the others in my collection (small page count) but the cost was cheap and the art inside still very pretty. I think this artist primarily does doujinshi so while I’ve never read any of their manga, it was neat to see some artwork in here that I remember seeing scattered across fan-forums back in the days of Gundam and Saint Seiya fandom.

And lastly, thanks to the public library, I’ve been reading the Manga Guide to Statistics. It’s admittedly weird reading something that makes me feel like I’ve been dropped back in high school yet at the same time I really have to give the book credit for being such a good teaching tool. I had to reread some parts a few times to grasp the more involved stuff yet the fact that it makes me want to learn this stuff enough to do so is impressing me in itself. I’m definitely planning on reading the other books in this series.


ANN Review: Alice the 101st (Vol. 01)

Happy Birthday to me! I’m 24 today which I’ve been warned means I’m only one year away from being five years to thirty – this is scary now I’m told.

On a completely unrelated note (and one considerably more post-relevant), I’ve got a new review up over at AnimeNewsNetwork – Alice the 101st (Vol. 01).

I was really excited for this book as a fan of the artist’s previously-released-in-English series, La Esperanca. Alice the 101st is thus far considerably less melodramatic but that’s not a bad thing; there’s some interesting different plot elements coming together and a fun amount of humour in this one as well. I thought things fell into place a little too easily though so there’s room for improvement in volume two in regards to handling the plot it has a little better. What I liked the most though was the artwork which looks really sharp, especially the stronger use of black. Snazzy stuff and fun to see how her art’s evolved since the last series I read.

A digital copy of this book was provided by eManga.com for review purposes


Review: Brain Camp

Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Authors: Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan
Artist: Faith Erin Hicks
Publisher: First Second Books
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: August 2010

Synopsis: “Neither artistic, dreamy Jenna nor surly, delinquent Lucas expected to find themselves at an invitation-only summer camp that turns problem children into prodigies. And yet, here they both are at Camp Fielding, settling in with all the other losers and misfits who’ve been shipped off by their parents in a last-ditch effort to produce a child worth bragging about. But strange disappearances, spooky lights in the woods, and a chilling alteration that turns the dimmest, rowdiest campers into docile zombie Einsteins have Jenna and Lucas feeling more than a little suspicious… and a lot afraid.”

(Editor’s note: Sharing something a little different today, a review of Brain Camp to commemorate it’s release this week. Sure manga’s the proverbial bees-knees for most of us, but let us never forget how much other fun, quality stuff is on shelves to check out also. Now and again I’ll be having these special reviews to show some other titles that I think readers here would be interested in as well. Enjoy!)

Read more…


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