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Review: Skip Beat! (Vol. 21)

By Shannon Fay on Thursday, August 19, 2010

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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: Can’t Win With You (Vol. 02) – eManga Edition

By Jaime Samms on Sunday, August 15, 2010

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Reviewer: Jaime Samms

Author: Satosumi Takaguchi
Manga-ka: Yukine Honami
Publisher: eManga
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: November 2007

Synopsis: “When class president Sango Tsutsui and the other student administrators end up sequestered away at a director’s meeting, Yuuhi-kun is left back at the school, alone and defenseless. Will Yuuhi’s naive, country ways make him fair game for the Ezaki trio? Or will Tsutsui-san return in the nick of time to save him? Could it be that absence truly makes the heart grow fonder – are Yuuhi and Sango ready to take their strange relationship to (gasp!)… the next level?!”

Now this was an interesting instalment. I liked this second volume of Can’t Win With You for the most part, because Hayate and Kanya are by far my favourite couple in this series so far and there was a lot of development in their story. This strikes me as slightly odd, since the story is about (or is supposed to be about) Yuuhi, and, by extension, Sango. It makes me wonder a little just exactly which story the author wanted to tell.

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

Review: Moonlit Promises

By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, August 11, 2010

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

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

Review: Garden Sky

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, August 10, 2010

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

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

Review: Can’t Win With You! (Vol. 01) – eManga Edition

By Jaime Samms on Monday, August 9, 2010

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Reviewer: Jaime Samms

Author: Satosumi Takaguchi
Manga-ka: Yukine Honami
Publisher: eManga
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: August 2007

Synopsis: “Yuuhi-kun planned to build a soccer field on the piece of mountain land that was his inheritance, but when his brother’s elite Shuuiku Academy needed a new campus, Yuuhi was forced to reconsider. Now he finds himself both the landlord, and a student at the school! Needless to say, the other students are none too happy about being shipped out to the boonies, so Yuuhi – AKA “chicken-head” – has become the object of their collective ire. But there’s something about the country bumpkin that has many students eyeing Yuuhi in a different way…a way that makes him very uncomfortable. Seems there’s a lot more than “book-learnin’” going on at this school, and Yuuhi’s about to get a whole ‘nuther kind of education!”

I used to think I was not a fan of the school boy stories, however, I keep reading them, so I guess I must see something in them after all. This one uses the typical excuse of a school full of hormonal boys to explain why they are constantly all over each other.

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

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

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, August 7, 2010

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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

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: ANN Reviews, Doki Doki, Manga

Review: Taimashin the Red Spider Exorcist (Vol. 02)

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, August 3, 2010

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Author: Hideyuki Kikuchi
Manga-ka: Shin Yong-Gwan
Publisher: DMP
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: March 2010

Synopsis: “In a serendipitous moment, a young girl meets Akamushi, finds him so beautiful and unforgettable, falls in love with him at first sight. Turns out her grandfather and mother are haunted by a “Waraigao” demon – a demon that attacks living human bodies from inside the body to erode and eventually deteriorate their nerves that kills them. Akamushi senses that her family is in danger, follows her home, only to discover that she is being attacked by her own family member that was fully possessed by “Waraigao.” Can Akamushi eliminate the demon and save her life?”

The story that made up the entire first volume ends fairly swiftly here in the second. It comes as a bit of a surprise since the first volume felt as though it was setting up what would be the continuing plot throughout the series. Turns out to the story’s benefit however that this isn’t the case.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: DMP, Manga

Super Savings: RightStuf Offers Stellar Vertical Savings

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, August 2, 2010

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New sale over at RightStuf.com! It’s so tough when they have manga sales back-to-back to one another – the Viz Media sale likely put a good dent in many manga buyers’ wallets. Hopefully we still have some bookshelf space left as they offer up to 30% from Vertical Inc series for the rest of the week!

Lots of great titles there to suggest. My personal recommendation is definitely Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack – a brilliantly executed episodic manga about an unlicensed surgeon performing medical miracles around the world in a variety of situations ranging from the reality-grounded feats of skill to the unbelievably-out-there (tumour child anyone?). If you’re looking for something on the darker side, I recommend another Osamu Tezuka title: MW – it’s creepy and fantastic, plus a one-shot.

For the more light-hearted reads, I recommend one of their newest (and already bestselling) series – Chi’s Sweet Home. If you like cats, this one’s for you. If you don’t like cats, it still manages to be pretty cute. There’s also Twin Spica which is a surprisingly gripping but still inherently optimistic story about a girl who wants to be an astronaut.

Sales like this are also a great time to pre-order some upcoming titles such as Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako which with this sale goes from $29.95 to $18.06.

As always I’m curious to know, what Vertical titles would you recommend or are planning to purchase?

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Categories: Features, Super Savings
Tags: Black Jack, Manga, Vertical Inc

Final Manga Notes of SDCC 2010

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, August 2, 2010

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Continuing with my streak of being very behind with convention news this summer, here’s a quick finishing round-up of manga news at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Links in the article will direct you to AnimeNewsNetwork where their on-site staff shared all the details from the panels.

The company Top Shelf announced one new manga license: Cigarette Girl by Masahiko Matsumoto and also expressed the hope to license the manga artist’s auto-biography series Gegika Freaks to “complement to Tatsumi’s own autobiographical manga A Drifting Life.” And speaking of which, the ginomrous auto-biography manga A Drifting Life won two Eisner awards at the event – Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia category and Best Reality-Based Work of the Year. (Note: Though I never wrote a complete review on this book, I did read it and got completely swept away in the story. It’s a very inspiring non-fiction story and makes for a fantastic (plus satisfyingly lengthy) read.)

Viz Media didn’t have any new licenses at SDCC (saving them for NYAF I hope?) but they did announce a re-release of the popular series, Death Note. Titled Death Note: Black Edition, this new edition will be released as omnibus books (multiple volumes in one) with new covers and larger trim sizes than the originals. Viz Media also announced that there will be a new layout for their manga magazine, Shonen Jump, upcoming in their December issue.

Vertical Inc. had a new license, Lychee Light Club by Usamaru Furuya who had another work licensed by Viz Media (Genkaku Picasso). The plot of Lychee Light Club definitely sounds unique (from Robot6): “The students at an all-boys school create a robot to track down beautiful women, a robot that for some reason runs on lychee fruits. Everything gets complicated when the machine develops self-awareness, however, and stops being quite so compliant.” Neat Vertical fact extra: Chi’s Sweet Home, released just a few weeks ago, has already become Vertical Inc’s best selling release. Wow!

And lastly in this SDCC round-up comes from the Canadian company Drawn & Quarterly who had a couple new titles to share at the event: Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths and NonNonBâ both by Shigeru Mizuki. Both are older titles by a manga artist known best for their work GeGeGe no Kitarō (which hasn’t yet been released in English).

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Categories: Licensing
Tags: Conventions, Drawn and Quarterly, Manga, Vertical Inc, 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