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Posts Tagged Viz Media

Review: Solanin

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Manga-ka: Inio Asano
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: October 2008

Synopsis: “Meiko Inoue is a recent college grad working as an office lady in a job she hates. Her boyfriend Naruo is permanently crashing at her apartment because his job as a freelance illustrator doesn’t enough for rent. And her parents in the country keep sending her boxes of veggies that just rot in her fridge. Straddling the line between her years as a student and the rest of her life, Meiko struggles with the feeling that she’s just not cut out to be part of the real world.”

With its hefty size and simple, yet eye-catching, cover design, Solanin drew my eyes to it with ease sitting on the store shelf. I’d read a few things about it here and there in recent weeks throughout the blogosphere, some good, some bad, but ultimately enough that I knew this coming-of-age story was just the kind of low-key, thought-stirring piece I was looking for.

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Review: Blank Slate (Vol. 01)

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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Manga-ka: Aya Kanno
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: October 2008

Synopsis: “Zen’s memory has been wiped and a lot of people will do anything they can to keep it that way. Zen’s unearthly charm attracts a veritable rogues gallery. A bounty hunter becomes obsessed enough to become his new partner, while the daughter of a general him like some sort of guru. But when he meets a mysterious doctor who may know him from the past, Zen learns that the secret of his lost memory is definitely more sinister than saintly.”

After reading the synopsis of Blank Slate and seeing it sport the Shoujo Beat Manga logo, I had to pick up this first volume and see what it was. I’ve long since associated Shoujo Beat’s line-up as ones that tend to focus on romance and subsequent drama so finding a series that was clearly of a darker vein, and starred an amnesiac assassin, I knew this was something that would intrigue me. Seems I was right!

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Shoujo Beat, Viz Media

Review: Hana Kimi (Complete Series)

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, November 1, 2008

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Hisaya Nakajo
Publisher: Viz
Volumes: 23
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: September 2004 – April 2008

Synopsis: “Mizuki has transferred to a high school in Japan, but not just any school! To be close to her idol, high jumper Izumi Sano, she’s going to an all-guys’ high school and disguising herself as a boy! But as fate would have it, they’re more than classmates…they’re roommates! Now, Mizuki must keep her secret in the classroom, the locker room, and her own bedroom. And her classmates must cope with a new transfer student who may make them question their own orientation…”

Coming to its conclusion on English shores, Hana Kimi has run 23 volumes in total, spanning from September 2004 to April 2008. A charming shoujo story that’s spawned two live action television dramas and numerous drama CDs, fans around the world continue to show their love and support for the cross-dressing heroine and her friends.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Viz Media

Review: Nightmare Inspector (Vol. 04)

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, October 27, 2008

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Shin Mashiba
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Teen (13+)
Released: October 2008Synopsis: “For those who suffer nightmares, help awaits at the Silver Star Tea House, where patrons can order much than just Darjeeling… Dreams on the menu in this volume: a man and woman trapped on a malevolent streetcar, a mysterious woman with a possible key to Hiruko’s past, letters in a bottle that aren’t the usual call for help, a young girl who dreams of a miserable future, a boy being chased by shadows, and a nightmare in which Hiruko himself disappears!”

Nightmare Inspector returns for another set of episodic chapters, telling the tales of patrons coming to the Silver Star Tea House to have their nightmares explored. Fortunately for the growing sense of repetitiveness, for which this series just narrowly lacks the charm to offset, an underlying story, previously foreshadowed, returns to bring the plot-device Hiruko to a more engaging position as the series’ lead.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Viz Media

Review: Black Cat (Vol. 16)

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, October 6, 2008

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Manga-ka: Kentaro Yabuki
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: September 2008

Synopsis: “Train and River put aside their differences as they face off with Shiki, one of the most powerful members of the Apostles of the Stars. Shiki is determined to show that the Tao is the ultimate form of power, and he’s going to take down Train, his friends and all of Chronos to prove it!”

Black Cat continues its bout of stereotypical badguy-to-badguy fight scenes in this sixteenth volume as the characters battle their way through enemies to find Creed. Train and his partner-by-circumstance, the punching machine, River, are this volume’s star players. After defeating their last opponents, they now find themselves matched against the powerful member of the Tao responsible for stranding them all here on the island in the first place.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Black Cat, Shonen Jump, Viz Media

Review: Wanted

By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, September 28, 2008

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Manga-ka: Matsuri Hino
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Teen (13+)
Released: July 2008

Synopsis: “In the Mediterranean at end of the 17th century, former songstress Armeia disguises herself as a boy and boards the ship of the pirate Skulls, the man who kidnapped Luce, her first love. Captain Skulls is arrogant, violent, and a skirt chaser! And unfortunately for Armeria, he discovers she’s a woman…”

As a child, Armeia sang for Aristocrats with her beautiful voice. But one night she watched as pirates kidnapped her first love, Luce, and took him out to see. For years she was determined to find that ship and the Captain responsible for Luce’s abduction. She finally finds the ship and, disguised as a boy, makes her way on-board. She’s determined to save the kind-hearted Luce she remembers, only to find out he may no longer exist, if he ever had at all.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Shoujo Beat, Viz Media

Review: Bleach (Vol. 24)

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, September 22, 2008

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Manga-ka: Kubo Tite
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: September 2008

Synopsis: “Ichigo and the Soul Reapers wage a furious battle against the Arrancars who are attacking Karakura Town. But this enemy is unlike anything they have ever fought before, and these aren’t even the strongest of the Arrancars! If Ichigo and his friends can barely face them, how can they hope to fight off the elite Arrancar warriors, the dreaded Espada?”

The fighting must go on in this twenty-fourth volume of Bleach. A sudden assault from the enemy leaves those protecting the town caught unawares and everyone is pulled in different directions to defend themselves and those around them. It’s kill or be killed as Renji, Matsumoto and Hitsugaya face off against some nasty opponents.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Bleach, Viz Media

Review: Fairy Cube (Vol. 02)

By Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, September 2, 2008

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Manga-ka: Kaori Yuki
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: August 2008

Synopsis: “Ian and Rin used to just see spirits. Now Ian is one. Using the Fairy Cubes, Ian must figure out how to stop the lizard-spirit Tokage from taking over his life and destroying any chance he has of resurrection. Tokage has troubles of his own when he gets involved with the Gotoh Group, conspiratorial fairies aiming at world domination.”

As if contending with Tokage for his body, and Rin’s safety, wasn’t enough, now a global organization called the Gotoh Group aims to take over the world and return it to a state suitable for fairies, and fairies alone. Tokage continues to ruin what’s left of Ian’s life, taking his evil nature out on Rin and Ian’s father, and while Ian’s determination is strong as ever, his new body seems a little less than up to the task.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Viz Media

Review: Skip Beat! (Vol. 01)

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, August 28, 2008

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Manga-ka: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Teen (13+)
Released: July 2006

Synopsis: “Kyoko knows she’s not plain and uninteresting, no matter what Sho says. With the help of a little makeover, Kyoko’s ready to exact her revenge. But first she needs to land an audition, and she sets her sights on the agency where Sho’s lead rival works. Her persistence pays off, but her broken heart turns out to be a disadvantage. Kyoko has lost the will to love anybody, let alone fans she’s never met. Can the agency see past this problem to Kyoko’s true star potential?”

Skip Beat, volume one, begins the story of Kyoko, a small-town girl who follows her childhood friend to Tokyo as support on his road to fame. While her friend, Sho, steadily reaches his goal of success and popularity, Kyoko discovers that she was asked to tag along as a housemaid over any sort of emotional or romantic support. Heartbroken and angered, Kyoko decides to get vengeance on Sho in the only way she thinks would really hurt him: become a celebrity and become more popular than him.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Skip Beat, Viz Media

Review: Nightmare Inspector (Vol. 03)

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, August 21, 2008

1 Comment »

Manga-ka: Yumekui Kenbun
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Teen (13+)
Released: August 2008

Synopsis: “For those who suffer nightmares, help awaits at the Silver Star Tea House, where patrons can order much more than just Darjeeling. Dreams on the menu in this volume: an amnesiac with a misplaced sister, a voice actor who can no longer be heard, a wall that blocks true love, an author with a mythical case of writer’s block, and a boy who literally masks his feelings.”

Tales of trial and salvation continue here in volume three of Yumekui Kenbun’s Nightmare Inspector. The Silver Star Tea House receives more patrons seeking help from Hiruko to rid them of their nightmares, from a young man trying to reach an X on his mind’s map, to a boy whose emotions are trapped behind a mask.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Viz Media