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Review Archive

To see a list of reviews in alphabetical order, please see our review index.

Review: Goong (Vol. 04)

Posted by Marsha Reid on Sunday, June 21, 2009

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Reviewer: Marsha Reid

Manhwa-ga: Park SoHee
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: February 2009

Synopsis: “After the king grants his late brother a posthumous coronation, the status quo shifts dramatically as his widow, Yul’s mother, gains power in the palace. And she definitely has it out for Shin and Chae-Kyung! When the newlyweds are invited to go abroad, it seems like they might be on the road to romance… but with Yul’s mammy dearest determined to make the couple miserable, will they even get off the ground?”

With drama around every turn, Shin and Chae are still finding the time to fall in love (though Shin will be hard pressed to ever admit it). His royal mood swings and possessive personality cause tension between them as he begins to suspect she’s falling for his cousin, Yul. Little does he know, she’s far to much in love with him to even consider it.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manhwa, Yen Press

Review: Jack Frost (Vol. 01)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, June 20, 2009

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manhwa-ga: JinHo Ko
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: May 2009

Synopsis: “Any high schooler on a nerve-wracking first day at a new school is apt to lose his or her head a little, but in Noh-A’s case, she literally does! When she wakes up in one piece with a little help from a mysterious doctor, Noh-A quickly realizes that nothing is as it seems at Amityville High, where paranormal creatures battle for supremacy. Caught in the crossfire, Noh-A may have to rely on the unlikely aid of the most sinister student at Amityville… the deadly Jack Frost!”

Zombies, vampires and a school of super-powered teenagers fighting each other in a high school? Already the stuff unique stories are made of, I know. While the story takes off on a fairly interesting note, when a young girl finds herself the living victim of a beheading, what follows is a visually sharp but ultimately underwhelming first volume that fails to find substantial footing in both its plot and art.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manhwa, Yen Press

Review: Live For Love

Posted by Shannon Fay on Friday, June 19, 2009

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Jun Mayama
Publisher: June (DMP)
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: March 2009

Synopsis: “Yasuie runs the Kiryuuin Detective Agency in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Nichome neighborhood. With no clients and no money, it’s a constant struggle just to live and pay the rent. For the past seven years, Yasuie’s assistant and partner Yoshiyuki has been willing to suffer through all the good and bad times with him – even considering Yasuie’s playful advances, which approach sexual harassment – but life has a way of changing things. Faced with his family’s ultimatum, Yoshiyuki must choose between a penniless future with Yasuie and a more traditional lifestyle. Can Yasuie convince Yoshiyuki to stay with him? Even if Yasuie does confess the true reason he brought Yoshiyuki into the detective business, will it be enough to change his partner’s mind?”

Yasuie and Yoshiyuki follow a long line of other yaoi characters that run a detective business, though their occupation isn’t a big part of the plot as they do very little detective work. They could be astronauts-in-training and it still wouldn’t affect the story all that much.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: June, Manga

Review: Mixed Vegetables (Vol. 01)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, June 18, 2009

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Ayumi Komura
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: September 2008

Synopsis: “Hanayu Ashitaba is the daughter of the celebrated Patisserie Ashitaba, but all she wants to do is be a sushi chef. Hayato Hyuga is the son of the prestigious Sushi Hyuga, and all he wants to do is be a pastry chef! Hanayu knows that it will break her parents’ hearts if she defects from the bakery to become a sushi chef. But if she marries into a sushi family, they’ll have to understand her decision. Now she just has to get Hayato Hyuga interested in her, and what better way than to wow him with her cooking skills?!”

Hanayu Ashitaba is set to inherit her father’s business, a bakery that specializes in all things cute, sweet and delicious, and yet Hanayu’s culinary passion lays elsewhere. Instead of icing cakes she’d rather be filleting a fish. But with her future career decided for her, what’s a girl to do? Marry into a sushi family and join her future husband in sushi-making bliss of course! Conveniently for her, a fellow classmate offers up just such a perfect opportunity, but when she discovers he likes her under more romantic pretenses, can she go through with her plan to use him for a fishy future?

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manga, Viz Media

Review: His Arrogance

Posted by Shannon Fay on Wednesday, June 17, 2009

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Takashi Kanzaki
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: December 2008

Synopsis: “Ryou is helping out at his father’s modeling agency. But, his classmate and rising rookie model at the agency, Kazuto, is openly antagonistic to Ryou’s older brother, a very charismatic model. Kazuto finally corners Ryou and demands that he looks at him only! After a passionate kiss, he promises that crossing him will incur punishment! Kazuto may be an arrogant boy who does nothing but give orders, but Ryou is undone by his forceful and dominating approach!”

His Arrogance is the story of Ryou, a cute teenage boy who helps handle the affairs of his father’s modeling agency. Naturally, this brings him into contact with a lot of handsome young men, including the ambitious new model Kazuto. Kazuto goes after everything he wants with a disarming arrogance, whether it’s a modeling job or Ryou’s affections. But before Kazuto can have Ryou all to himself he has to deal with Ryou’s hero-worship of his older brother, top model Tomohito.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: 801Media, Boys' Love/Yaoi, Manga

Review: Black Jack (Vol. 01)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, June 16, 2009

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher: Vertical
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: December 2008

Synopsis: “Black Jack is a mysterious and charismatic young genius surgeon who travels the world performing amazing and impossible medical feats and refuses to accept a medical license due to his hatred and mistrust of the medical community’s hypocrisy and corruption. This leads Black Jack to occasional run-ins with the authorities, as well as from gangsters and criminals who approach him for illegal operations. Black Jack chronicles the travails of an enigmatic surgeon-for-hire who is more good than he pretends to be.”

It was all in truth when I was told you don’t need to read Black Jack in order to enjoy the story. Each chapter sits alone as its own episodic medical tale. Volume one does have a lot of explanatory material to it however, such as the ‘birth’ of Black Jack’s assistant Pinoko, and more about the doctor’s disfiguring past. Truth be told though, I was actually a little disappointed in a way by the new information since I found the added mystery of not knowing, which again causes no boon to the story, was much of its allure when I initially took volume five as my starting point.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Black Jack, Manga, Osamu Tezuka, Vertical Inc

Shannon Fay Joins Kuriousity, Minor Review Changes

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Monday, June 15, 2009

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Hello readers, I want to take this post to let everyone know of some small review changes here on Kuriousity and, even more exciting, a new face joining our review team!

On the review format-front, future reviews will no longer see the distinction of Guest Review and Reviews in their titles. The info bar beneath the headers will now include the reviewer’s name and a link to their bio so you can easily see who’s written the review. Also, Kuriousity will no longer have my so-called Mini Reviews either, which started out as a good idea until I finally had to come to terms with the fact that they were rarely ever very mini! Plus they lacked the book information that came with full reviews, which always bothered me, so now, no more!

I’d also like to give an official on-site welcome to Kuriousity’s newest reviewer! Already a manga reviewer at Manga Life, and the now defunct AnimeFringe.com, fellow Haligonian, journalism grad and manga lover Shannon Fay joins the Kuriousity crew. You can check out her bio on the About page and read her first review for the weirdly sci-fi yaoi, The Way to Heaven.

With lots of books to be reviewed and even more to be enjoyed, readers please join me in welcoming Shannon to the team! I’m super psyched to have her and I hope you are too. Until next time, readers, keep fulfilling your Kuriousity :)

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Categories: Reviews, Site Updates

Review: The Way To Heaven

Posted by Shannon Fay on Friday, June 12, 2009

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Reviewer: Shannon Fay

Manga-ka: Yamimaru Enjin
Publisher: DMP/June
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: February 2009

Synopsis: “Cruel fate claims the lives of former boxer Moriya and former yakuza Watase off the edge of a busy freeway overpass. But the end for these two is just the beginning. Rescued from “ground zero” by a mysterious alien woman with magical powers, Moriya and Watase find themselves trapped in a world almost like the one they left – yet completely different! Appeasing the whims of their alien overseer seems to be the only hope Moriya and Watase ever have of returning to their former lives. Will the time traveling events Moriya and Watase find themselves in bring them closer together… or will they alter the past so much, it dooms any hope for a relationship?!”

This one-shot yaoi manga throws a sci-fi monkey wrench into the usual boy-meets-boy story. Watase and Moriya are saved from certain death by a female alien who needs their help. The alien wants the two men to go back to Earth and collect human energy. For Watase, that means basically becoming a vampire and sucking the blood of virgins. Moriya on the other hand, must collect seman by sucking off men.

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

Review: Emma (Vol. 01)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, June 10, 2009

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Kaoru Mori
Publisher: CMX
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: September 2006

Synopsis: “The saga begins. In Victorian England, a young girl named Emma is rescued from a life of destitution and raised to become a proper British maid. When she meets William, the eldest son of a wealthy family, their love seems destined. But in this world, even matters of the heart are ruled by class distinctions.”

As far as we’ve gone here in volume one, Emma is the story of a maid of the title name who works under the charge of a stubborn, yet kind, older woman. A previous student of the older woman comes to call one day and is immediately smitten with Emma, something that is no uncommon occurrence for the timid but attractive young woman. Though she has long since become accustomed to politely declining the advances of men, in this case Emma can’t help but be rather charmed in return.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: CMX, Manga

Review: Black God (Vol. 06)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Monday, June 8, 2009

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Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Author: Dall-Young Lim
Manhwa-ga: Sung-Woo Park
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: June 2009

Synopsis: “Kuro opens up about her life before she came to Earth, that of a carefree princess in her family’s haven of pure tera. But factions emerged among the mototsumitama, and now the violent betrayal that destroyed her clan drives her search for the head of the Shishigami family. The mutual tragedy of their pasts draws Keita and Kuro closer together — this fight has become personal for both of them. But will their bond of trust give them the strength to take on the Kaionji Group as Kouei’s sinister plot unfolds in Okinawa?”

Most of my proverbial prayers were answered here in volume six. The previous book had left me discontent with the direction of the story, or lack there of, and I was quick to learn it’s hard to muster interest in a story that seems to be failing at even interesting itself. Thankfully the first half of this volume seeks to give the story a more solid direction as it takes readers back to Kuro’s life before she arrived in the human world.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manhwa, Yen Press