Manga Reviews
Review by: Sean "Pants" Mitchell
Story & Art by: Atsushi Suzumi
Distributed by: Del-Rey
Rain's reign's gone away. Yep, that pretty much sums it up.
Del-Rey brings us the latest work from the creator of Venus Versus Virus; however, those expecting girls, ghosts, and guns should know this is a very different story. Not necessarily a bad thing, considering Amefurashi appears to be directed at somewhat younger target audience.
King of RPGs Vol. 1
Review by: Sean Russell
Written by: Jason Thompson
Ilustrated by: Victor Hao
Publisher: Del Rey
Jason Thompson is no stranger when it comes to manga. His magnum opus on the subject, Manga: The Complete Guide, put him through a hellacious schedule of reading and writing about close to 5,000 individual manga. It only makes sense that the next step in this borderline-insane obsession is to pen his own original series titled King of RPGs.
This series takes a comical look at the lives of a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) fanatic and his friends. The main character’s obsession in combination with a Dissociative Identity Disorder creates a series of amusing misunderstanding in the multi-faceted world of role-playing.
Review by: Jd Banks
Created by: Yuki Sato
Released by: Del Rey
It’s a typical formula: people meet, they become great friends within the spanof a day, and they triumph over any folly because through the power of friendship.It doesn’t give readers any satisfaction, and Yokai Doctor does little to notirritate my mild allergy to that type of manga.
Author Yuki Sato preps an unusual story but it flat-lines due to lacklustercharacter development and unexciting occurrences. The popular Kotoko Kasugagets swept up with Kuro Gokokuji, a perverted teenager with a side professionas a doctor. Unfortunately, his patients aren’t even human. Rather, they’reyokai: demons and spirits invisible to the human eye. Though Kuro tries to hidehis true nature, Kotoko decides to become his assistant. As they try to helptheir demonic patients, Kotoko finds her perspective on the world challenged,having thought yokai were evil and humans were good.
Review by: Jd Banks
Story: Dave Roman & Raina Telgemeier
Art: Anzu
Released by: Del Rey
It's great that the X-Men franchise has made its way into the manga world again after a brief brush in Wolverine: Logan. However, seeing it re-packaged in such a cheap fashion leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
Granted, re-making any story from popular source material is a difficult task, especially when it’s re-tooling an action-drama like X-Men into a shojo drama. No one can expect to get there without bumps along the way, but this X misses the spot.
Zone-00
Review by: Fernando Ramos
Author: Kiyo QJO
Publisher (US): Tokyopop
Publisher (Japan): Kadokawa Shoten
Manga gained much of its reputation in the West for having a considerably dynamic style when compared to Western comic-dom. Stylish, round-eyed character designs, minimalist backgrounds and engaging free-flowing panel layouts told fantastical stories in a cinematic manner.
Zone-00, written by Kiyo QJO, manages to at least get the dynamic style of manga right. Aside from that, it is the single most incoherent piece of dreck masquerading as a comic that I have ever reviewed.
Shoujo Art Studio
By: Yishan Li
Review by: Jd Banks
Publisher (US): Watson-Guptill Publications
Publisher (UK):
ILEX Press
It’s easy for any aspiring artist to get sucked into the vortex of studio software, many of which are promising the fastest and latest technology to create excellent comic strips, manga, and digital artwork. Though most of the advertised promises are held as hearsay, Yishan Li’s Shoujo Art Studio might be embellishing on their own pledge: Shoujo Art Studio does not have “everything you need to create your own shoujo manga comics”.
The visible CD-ROM gives the perception that it will hold a manga creation software similar to Manga Studio or TAB Manga. Unfortunately, upon popping the disc into the computer, disappointment floats between the artist’s eyes and the screen. “Folders?” The only properties lining the window of the disc are folders holding Photoshop (PSD) formatted files with different background scenes, tones, and accessories for creating manga. There are no executable programs awaiting the artist. Instead, Shoujo Art Studio is dependent on the artist already owning Photoshop 7.0 or higher on their computer.
Orange Planet
Review by: Jd Banks
Created by: Haruka Fukushima
Publisher (US): Del Rey
Publisher (Japan): Kodansha Ltd.
I remember my days in middle school when the most important
thing was getting your crush to look your way. Even a simple greeting would
send you scurrying to your friends, squealing with excitement, “Oh my gosh, he
totally likes me!” Unfortunately, shojo manga appeals to the genre of girls grinning
like cats at a simple glance from their crushes.
“Welcome to Shojoville. You have just reached Del Rey’s
doorstep and only Orange Planet is
home right now.”
Orange Planet embraces the shojo spirit with Rui Nagasaki, a simpleminded middle school girl living by herself. In shojo fashion, Orange Planet throws Rui a snowstorm of males who want her or want to help her, along with a side cast of female friends with the impeccable ability to intervene.
Momogumi Senki Volume 1
Review by: Jd Banks
Created by: Eri Sakondo
Publisher (US): Tokyopop
Publisher (Japan): Kadokawa Shoten Publishing
Teenagers look forward to their parental and juvenile
freedoms by age eighteen. Before that precious debut into adulthood, teenagers face
the whims and drama of adolescence. Unfortunately, for Yuuki Momozono, the only
aspect of the future he can look forward to is accomplishing his past life’s
mission before turning eighteen.
Cursed by many demons before his untimely death, Yukishiro is reincarnated into Yuuki of today’s lifetime. Thanks to the curse, Yuuki has an impressive case of Disaster Attraction Disorder. It takes an unlucky spin on Murphy’s Law: “If anything can go wrong, it will.” In Yuuki Momozono’s situation, the law holds fast to the sixteen-year-old’s unusual life as his future looks busier than ever. If Yuuki cannot find and defeat all of the demons that cursed his past life by his eighteenth birthday, Yuuki will die from one of the disasters that haunt his everyday life. I would not call the premise of Momogumi Senki unusual, but it runs in the same theme as a backward Ayashi no Ceres.
Worst Volume 1
Art and Story by: Hiroshi Takahashi
Publisher (US): Digital Manga Publishing
Publisher (Japan): Akita Shoten
Review by: Jd Banks
Buy from Amazon.com
High school isn’t easy, especially living in the age of
computers, cell phones, and the Internet. Unfortunately, a school like Suzuran
High definitely tops the list of having students likely to hit the “Most Wanted”
rather than the Dean’s list. Thankfully, the first volume of Worst, by Hiroshi Takahashi, focuses on
an easy-going high school student, Hana Tsukishima.
Volume one of Worst
is humorous from the beginning to the end as it is interlaced with solemn
moments and fights. Worst follows
Hana’s arrival into an all-boys boarding house under the Umehoshi Family.
Though his arrival is belated due to his awful sense of direction, Hana makes several
memorable impressions on his roommates.
The character development of the first volume is strong at the very start of Worst, giving readers a glimpse into the personalities of the main boys inside the boarding house. Ironically, all of the boys under the Umehoshi Household have reputations of fear and violence. The first person Hana meets, however, is Toranosuke Tominaga, a walking gang encyclopedia with zero fighting ability and a one hundred percent heart of gold. Although Toranosuke is the only boy lacking in strength, Hana befriends his other seemingly delinquent roommates, Takefumi Sakota, Takumi Fujishiro, and Renji Mutou.
