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Review Archive

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

Review: Alive (Vol. 03)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, July 16, 2008

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Author: Tadashi Kawashima
Manga-ka: Adachitoka
Publisher: DelRey
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: February 2008

Synopsis:
“Taisuke and Yuta are searching for their kidnapped friends when they are ambushed by the wind-weiling Morio. Can Taisuke use his burgeoning powers to escape? Whom can Taisuke and Yuta trust?”

Taisuke and Yuta continue their blind trip North in the hopes of finding their friends who’re in the hands of the ‘comrades’. Assassins are now being sent after Taisuke, to stop him before his powers awaken any further, and some with powers unlike anything Taisuke has ever imagined. The pair suddenly find themselves in the company of a boy and his younger sister, who’re running from their homicidal father whose powers are quite possibly the strongest any of them have seen yet.

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Review: Cantarella (Vol. 09)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, July 15, 2008

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Manga-ka: You Higuri
Publisher: Go!Comi
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: December 2007

Synopsis: “Driven apart despite their desperate efforts to stay together, Chiaro and Lucrezia continue to love each other from afar. Balancing Cesare’s dark scheming and Lucrezia’s second forced marriage are a deep secret, a surprising ally and the faintest glimmer of hope for the future. Will Chiaro return to Italy to save his love – even if it means killing Cesare?”

Quite a bit happens here in volume nine of Cantarella. Having escaped from his torments, Chiaro roams injured through the woods seeking salvation while Lucrezia carries his child within her, but is told by her brother, Cesare, that Chiaro is dead. That’s only the tip of the iceberg in this event-filled volume.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: GoComi

Review: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Vol. 04)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Monday, July 14, 2008

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Author: Eiji Otsuka
Manga-ka: Housui Yamazaki
Publisher: Dark Horse
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: September 2007

Synopsis: “A country town’s got more than crop circles to claim UFOs… they say they’ve got the extraterresrtial’s body! It’s going to be a different kind of alien autopsy when the Kurosagi crew investigates their oddest client yet. And there’s more strange visitors from afar when an American entomologist drops in – not to mention a crossever appearance by Reiji Akiba, the gun-toting exorcist of Mail!”

The fourth volume of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service offers up a healthy dose of the creepy and bizarre. From an alien corpse discovered in a small town, to missing Japanese tourists ending up in museum exhibits, there are lots of things to keep readers turning the pages. But perhaps most interesting of all is the continuing reappearances of a mystery spirit haunting Karatsu.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Dark Horse, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

Review: XXXHolic (Vol. 12)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, July 13, 2008

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Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Teen (13+)
Released: June 2008

Synopsis: “Lately Kimihiro Watanuki’s dreams have been pleasant escapes that have given him the chance to talk to his new friend, Haruki Domeki. But now he’s falling asleep a lot – and starting to think that his entire life with the witch Yuko might be talking place in some kind of dreamworld. Then one night his dream is visited by a pretty princess name Sakura…”

If volume eleven left you craving more, than twelve will leave you begging. Watanuki’s life is unravelling, along with his grasp on reality, as his dreams begin overlapping into his consciousness.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: CLAMP, Del Rey, XXXHolic

Anime Review: XXXHolic (DVDs 1-3)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, July 12, 2008

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While my time watching anime is a mere fraction of my time reading manga, I realized I still have things to say about it! Go figure? So expect some sporadic updates like these as I share some thoughts on some recent viewings. Let’s get started with random-sporadic anime update number one shall we?

With releases that couldn’t get here fast enough for me, I’ve recently been enjoying the first three discs of XXXHolic, as released by Funimation.

Based on the manga by CLAMP, XXXHolic is a story about a boy named Watanuki who can see spirits. After trying to escape an especially persistent batch, he winds up in a mysterious shop run by the beautiful but equally mysterious, Yuko. She makes a deal with Watanuki: she will help him with his problem of seeing spirits and he in turn will work for her to pay off the debt.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Anime, CLAMP, XXXHolic

Review: After School Nightmare (Vol. 07)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Friday, July 11, 2008

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Manga-ka: Setona Mizushiro
Publisher: Go!Comi
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: April 2008

Synopsis: “This dream draws blood… Alliances form as friendships fade, and soon the nightmarish dream-world becomes preferable to the turmoil in Mashiro’s everyday life. With Kureha spurning him and Sou ignoring him, Mashiro has no coice but to seek the answers he needs from a most unlikely source…”

Mashiro’s struggle between acceptance over his male and female selves continues to take centre stage here in volume seven of After School Nightmare. Fed up with the roundabout emotional mess that they feel Mashiro has led them on, Sou and Kureha seek to have Mashiro out of their lives. However the time they’ve spent together has rumours swirling around the school about them dating and Mashiro’s emotions resume spiralling out of his (or her) control.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: GoComi

Review: Love Mode (Vol. 08)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, July 10, 2008

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Manga-ka: Yuki Shimizu
Publisher: BLU
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: February 2008

Synopsis: “Delve into the past as we find out more about the Aoe household! The Aoe brothers are doing pretty well for themselves these days, but hidden in their past are a slew of dark secrets. Kiichi and Haruomi seem like a caring couple, but what forces brought them together many years ago?”

Love Mode, volume eight, is a look back at the pasts of some of the story’s most relevant characters. Readers are taken back to the teenage years of Aoe Reiji and his older brother, the doctor Aoe Kiichi, as well as the childhood of Kiichi’s housekeeper and lover, Haruomi. Through tragic events, the characters are brought together and experience anguish at the hands of Reiji and Kiichi’s abusive father, setting the stepping-stones for their personalities and lifestyles later in life.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: BLU, Boys' Love/Yaoi

Review: Very! Very! Sweet (Vol. 01)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, July 9, 2008

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Manhwa-ga: JiSang Shin & Geo
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Released: July 2008

Synopsis: “A spoiled brat from a wealthy Japanese family, Tsuyoshi is unceremoniously shipped off to Kora by his strict grandfather who tells him the family secret – they’re Korean! Sparks fly when the resentful high schooler arrives at the airport and shares an impromptu cab ride with Be-Rei Kang, a plucky girl who happens to be his new neighbour. Will the two ever get past their differences? And will Tsuyoshi learn to accept his new identity?”

Tsuyoshi is a spoiled teen from Japan who is told by his grandfather that he’s a Korean descendant. To curve his spoiled ways and teach him some long-lost heritage, Tsuyoshi is sent away to live in Korea. Already there, is a Korean-born-and-raised Be-Rei Kang, a spunky teenage girl with an eye for money and a hundred and one ways to save it. These two teens meet when sharing a cab on the way home from the airport, only to discover they’re next door neighbours and classmates.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Manhwa, Yen Press

Review: Kieli (Vol. 01)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, July 8, 2008

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Author: Yukako Kabei
Manga-ka: Shiori Teshirogi
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: April 2008

Synopsis: “…a race of immortal soldiers called “the Undying” fought a bloody way for their human creators. When the war ended, they were eradicated in the name of God… Eighty years later, an orphaned girl named Kieli questions if that God even exists. When Kieli runs into a young man named Harvery who can also see ghosts, Kieli thinks she’s finally found a friend among the living.”

Kieli is a young girl with the ability to see spirits of the dead. After the death of her Grandmother, her last living relative, Kieli is put into a boarding school where her only friend is an enthusiastic girl named Becca. Then one day she meets a boy named Harvey, who not only see ghosts like she can, but he’s also one of the legendary “Undying”.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Yen Press

Review: Zombie Loan (Vol. 03)

Posted by Lissa Pattillo on Tuesday, July 8, 2008

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Manga-ka: Peach-Pit
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: June 2008

Synopsis:
“Though Chika and Shito manage to extract the girls from the clutches of the Butterfly Killer’s fans, the case takes a shocking turn when an unexpected betrayal is revealed! With heavy hearts, the members of Z-loan close the case, but they still can’t shake the blues. So the Chancellor sponsors a group trip to the hot springs, which starts out all fun and games but ends with… a howl?!”

The story here in volume three of Zombie Loan picks up where volume two left readers off: Chika and Shito, adorned in maid girl outfits, find themselves cornered by the Butterfly Killer’s fans. While the men race to save them, and they all then chase the supposed target, the true Butterfly Killer ends up being one of their own.

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Categories: Reviews
Tags: Yen Press