angelsinthewindow's Manga
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Alice in the Country of Hearts (manga) When I was young, I loved the story of Alice in wonderland because it was a strange storyline that grabbed my attention. Over the years, I loved almost every rendition of the story that came out. The darker the story, the better in my mind for instance, I liked American McGee’s Alice game where Alice was in asylum after her family was killed in a fire. I’m not sure why but when things are rather demented like that; it gives a really nice spin to an already overused story. This one, well, its what you would expect from a manga version of Alice with a Reverse- harem element. All the guys are beautiful men and the girl believes she isn’t work anything. We start out with Alice waking up from her ‘dream’ and seeing her sister there, reading a book. Ironically, it’s the book Alice in wonderland and so of course Alice believed wonderland to be nothing more then a dream. Even though she only had a dream about a game, she seems to be bothered by a game of cards that her sister asks about. This is where the manga gets a little hairy in continuity or just plain explaining what the hell is going on. We wouldn’t know just why Alice is so jumpy since all we get is a very small bit of her dreaming about a game. Now even more problematic is that she also talks about how her sister was probably a girl all the men would love but when she thinks of an image, we have nothing that would tell us who it is. We can suspect though that it’s a guy she likes. I have a feeling that those that might of played the games this manga was based off of would understand but as of now, I do not believe they have actually come to America and are probably not in English. As her sister leaves, we get Alice drifting off again to sleep and then she sees a normal white rabbit with clothing on. The story of Alice in Wonderland almost always had her following the rabbit on her own accord, but this one, the rabbit tells her she needs to follow him, then when he picks her up to force her to come with, he turns into a really hot white haired man with glasses! And not only that, but he forces her to drink a strange liquid as well. He calls himself Peter White…. I believe it is a play off of Peter Rabbit and this is when I facepalm because in only about 35 pages, we have a rather ‘erotic’ scene with a name pulled as a spinoff of something else. And yet, this is what Alice in wonderland was made for. The story goes really fast and really doesn’t have much time to explain what exactly is going on. This is not for people who want things explained right off the back but then again, you wouldn’t like the normal Alice in Wonderland then. Now, there are a lot of things I like about this manga though, including the little touches that the ‘Hatters’ are a family of mafia with the main Hatter as our representative love interest. (Those that seem to ship Alice and Hatter will love this manga.) I have to say this story reminds me a lot of Kobato where the main character must collect something in a bottle to get back to where she wants to go, STOP THINKING IT PERVERTS! We also have a rather interesting staker who seems to have fallen for her and wants her to stay in the world of Wonderland with him. Of course, in a harem, all the men and some women it seems want to be with Alice including an incubus that creates nightmares. I get the feeling this manga should be a hentai but it never really comes to that. Instead, we have a rather fun and witty dialog between all of the characters. Seriously, a lot of the dialog actually made me laugh at times because it was stuff that I should of figured would happen but I was not expecting it. All the characters turned into loveable characters (Even Peter White in a way) in their childish nature and fun loving self. In the end, there really isn’t an end and so it keeps on going on about the same. This sometimes bothers me but there are luckily hints that something will be changing at some point in time. The artwork is actually rather good though pretty standard for the beautiful harem boy. If you consider it against all the other Reverse-harem mangas, then the artwork is just standard. Every once in a while, a character may stand out but it’s hard for them to stand out when they look like many other characters in other mangas. As for in the manga, you can tell the characters apart except for Dee and Dum at times but they are twins. The other characters around them don’t have faces and so it really helps the main characters stand out. It was an interesting way of playing it off. |
Excellent |
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Chobits (manga) I do have to say, the manga is way better then the anime. Where as the anime was pretty much highly fan based, the manga wasn’t. We get much more in depth to the story instead of playing around with random side stories and the ---ugggg--- panty storyline. Sure we have the little bits of fan service but at least they are done artistically and mostly add to the story, it isn’t outside the storyline they are going through and isn’t for a stupid side story such as the panties thing. There isn’t much else to talk about on the storyline sadly without spoiling anything except that the build up is much better in the manga. So everywhere I looked online said that Chobits was a Seinen. For those of you that have no clue what that means, it means that this manga was targeted to 18-30 year old males… ya… I don’t get it either. I know that the manga has some rather perverted moments, and naked women but I feel that this was completely miss written. The storyline is much too sweet and gentle to be for a male audience, and I’m talking about this compared to other Seinen mangas. This story is all about finding your true love, finding the person you are destined to be with, and above all, letting no one else take what is precious to you. Normally, the precious thing they would talk about would be more along the lines of ‘virginity’ in a sense for the female android character. Unless it’s an anti-rape story for males, I see no reason for it to be written for a male audience. That’s my thought on the matter but I could be wrong. The artwork is beautiful for a shojo-style manga. I know that it’s a Seinen but seriously, the art style says shojo. Almost everything is really well detailed down to the clumps in chi’s hair and her Lolita clothing. Sadly, it makes many of the other areas that aren’t well detailed feel as though they were done in a rush or without as much love to the characters. While there is a lot of fan service in the women, the art feels a bit more modest and artistic then the stuff you would see in the anime. They did a lot of shading in those parts or had a reason behind the design of the characters and the sexual nature of them. What bothered me slightly was the large ‘ears’ that most of the persocoms had that made them look a bit like furies. I don’t know why, I just had a little bit of a problem with them though they did not mess with the story. |
Good |
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Clover (manga, CLAMP) I’m not going to lie, this is one of the most confusing manga’s that Clamp produced and I have heard that isn’t even done yet. I’m somewhat glad it’s not because as it is, there really isn’t any definitive ending to the plot or answers as to what it was supposed to be about. Nanase Ohkawa has actually explained that there are two books left that are needed to complete the story but unfortunately, there is no date to when those would be released. We follow a girl named Sue and her protector Kazuhiko as they travel the land in search of something. A running fraise that seems to always come up is ‘I only want your Happiness but I cannot be yours,’ and saying about 4-leaf clovers. To tell the truth, I couldn’t figure out very much of the story because much of it was cryptic. There was also a strange male who seemed to be rather interested in Kazuhiko. I can understand many of the stories and philosophies that clamp normally uses, but in this case, I can’t understand. It’s sad that this isn’t even done because it probably would have the answers we were searching for. Sadly, at the time of this review, it has been about 13-14 years since it came out and they still have it considered on hold. The artwork is so beautiful even if the characters look like their from xxxHOLiC in how long armed and small headed they are. It has an interesting fantasy aspect to this as well where we have talking rabbit’s dolls walking around and they seem more from the world of wonderland how they are drawn. There are a lot of steam punk cyber style images, especially how the wings are drawn. I love this style in how charming and fine detailed it all is down to some of the strains of hair. |
So-so |
| Crescent Moon (manga) | |
| ...Curtain. ~Sensei to Kiyoraka ni Dōsei~ (manga) | |
| FLCL (manga) | |
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Ghost Hunt (manga) After becoming a fan of the show, I thought I should check out the manga and as I read, I wasn’t disappointed. The manga and the anime practically start out the same way, though the manga seemed to have a bit more depth to the characters and stories. Sadly though, 10 of the 12 volumes were extremely close to the anime with only a few exceptions. Only the last two were not in the anime which makes me wonder just what they were trying to do. There are two possibilities to the reason why this is, the first is that they wanted people to read the manga so did not finish the anime and then the second is the one that I think happened, that they ran out of time or money to create the last few episodes. I do suggest though that you do read the manga and maybe even before watching the show because of the fact of only two of the books not being animated. When we start talking about characters, we have an interesting mix. John Brown is the Exorcist within the church. It’s surprising because he’s only 19 years old and is already ranked higher then a priest. In the anime though, I believe they had said that you have to be ordained as a priest for it to happen. Anyway, the manga has a bit more fun with his character because he’s a foreigner from Australia. This gets into the mindset of Japanese when they see foreigners. When someone speaks really formal or uses a different dialect, they may make fun of that person. John started by talking in a Kyoto dialect when the others asked him not to be so formal. I understand why people wouldn’t get it (hell, I didn’t get it at first either) but it gave a bit more insight to his character. Then there is Masako who is a famous spirit medium with a lot of knowledge under her belt on the spiritual realm. She is kind hearted for the most part but then can also be rather snippety and crude though still keeping her lady-like manner (mostly). Ayako is a 23 year old shinto priestess who is rather wealthy because she is the daughter of a doctor. She is rather confident and proud though I never actually saw her do much when it came to expelling spirits even though there was at least one occasion that she did. The rest of the time, she seemed to act more like a mother to the group then a priestess. Takigawa is a monk/musician who pretty much acts like a mix of a father figure and an uncle to the group of younger characters. Again, there was not much about him doing stuff in the spiritual acts besides creating barriers and once in a while dispelling evil. He does do a lot more then Ayako though. Then we have Lin and Naru who we really don’t really know much about except they are rather silent most of the time or bossy. And then Mai who might be one of my favorite characters of the manga even though she is a bit clueless. I liked her because it gave the characters a reason to explain what was going on for the reader. If we didn’t have that, them explaining would seem forced. The artwork is pretty ok though some of the characters really don’t look right. At first, I didn’t like the design of the girls but Mai’s design sort of grew on me. She looks much different then the anime though and so don’t be surprised if you don’t recognize her. I still do not like Masako Hara’s though as she seems way too dolled up compared to the others. The men have pretty much kept the style from the show (Well, from manga to anime actually) and yet Naru seems to show much more emotion then the anime and is a little more realistic. Sadly, the ghostly happenings seem to be lack luster or hard to see and many times the pages are pretty much all white making it hard to understand what is going on. That is the problem with only having white and black ink to show what is going on. |
Good |
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Kieli (manga) The story starts out 15 years after a war that depleted the planets resources and a war that created a creature called the Undying. After the war though, the church went on a mass scale killing spree of the undying, much in the same way the Vatican got read of the Knights Templar if you want to link it to our history. In that sense, it makes the manga a bit more believable even if it is talking about the supernatural. It’s interested that before we are even introduced to Kieli, we are given a back story on this world they live on which isn’t earth, it’s a different planet they live on that the church founded itself on. Then it jumps to 80 years, and then another 7 to the time in which the story really does start. I can see somewhat why Kieli is pretty much a outcast and I don’t think its just because she can see ghosts. She seems to also have a belief that is not the same as the teaching of the church that runs her home. A church with soldiers that will kill someone right in front of a mass amount of people, calling it a justified killing. Her grandmother seemed to try and protect her from them by telling her not to speak of seeing spirits and her beliefs but when her grandmother died, she was left in a care of a church boarding school. Becca, her ‘roommate,’ sadly doesn’t stay throughout the manga. She is only there during the first chapter and it’s a very heartwarming story with her when she leaves us. A young girl who died from a train accident and then became best friends with a girl who never had any other friends. I could really feel for her and for Kieli when she is leaves. Harvey on the other hand is a reanimated corpse, the Undying as they are fully called. He has to be very careful because of the church wanting to kill his kind so he seems a bit cold sometimes. Sometimes even, his hunted radio seems to have more tact then he does in the ways of people’s emotions. Even though, Harvey has a bit of a heart and does show some times where he is gentle to Kieli. Another surprising trait is that he is actually warm to the touch. Kieli actually talks about this at one point in the first book and yet, he is supposed to be pretty much a zombie. The last person I have to talk about is Corporal. Corporal has no other name then his rank but he knows so much from the time before the church had so much power including different types of music and how to understand a persons feelings. I consider him somewhat a big brother or adult to Harvey and Kieli because he does seem to take interest in the two and care for them slightly. Becca called him an evil spirit when she first met him but I only see him as a spirit just trying to find a place to go. He does have a wicked temper at times that he shows in the first chapter but I have my suspicions that it was more on the line of trying to protect Harvey, even if in the flight of rage, he ended up hurting him. The artwork is actually rather beautiful with large blotches of ink to show blood. The characters are rather detailed but don’t feel as though they stand out of their world. Even the ghosts look as though they are still alive most of the time except for Corporal when he is in his static form. In the end, this is a very heartwarming manga that will probably make you cry. |
Excellent |
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(The) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (manga, S. Ishinomori) Sadly I did not like this one as much as I did the other. The writing is rather poor as they try to explain everything so fast that they will say an item multiple times in one sentence. They added characters that were not really part of the actual game, there are times when main points of the story are left out or changed to show up in different parts of the manga then where they should be, link sounds like a whiny kid at times, the little navi character is only there for link to whine too, and so on. It just was really really boring besides the artwork which of course was rather nice. Battles seemed also rather bland. How can I say this without coming out rather rude but I would not be reading this one again. The art style is really reminiscent of the times. Large ears and rather Osamu Tezuka characters. I actually liked, not to mention that its pretty much all colored. I have not read the other two renditions of A Link to the Past but I have a feeling this one may be low on my scale. |
Weak |
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(Le) Portrait de Petite Cossette (manga) I have to say that this manga, even though created after the anime was done, actually has much more depth to it. The story starts out with the main character drawing a image of a girl he saw in a painting in the antic store and it feels much more realistic then him seeing the girl in a piece of glass. Not only that, but it’s a painting that was painted with her own blood after Marcello killed her. The painting actually has a background that whoever owned the painting died so it gives a bit more depth to it. It gives the realization that Eiri wasn’t actually chosen out of thin air, although he is still mesmerized by the painting for no real reason. The manga dives much deeper into these then the anime and Cossette actually seems to have a heart instead of a heartless bitch. She seems to feel sad for the things that her items have done rather then just want to torture Eiri with there pain. And sadly, even though they have a bit more depth to them, I can’t find myself to care about these characters because of the artwork. Throughout the whole book, we have a sort of Narrator-ish chat going on without any real way of knowing whether its Eiri or Corssette talking. Sometimes it’s a mix of the two though can be just a little hard to figure out how who is. It dives much into psychology of obsession and love with almost a surreal feeling. And yet, it also goes into a rather depressing thought about what it really means to be alive, of course, the only answer this gives is that we live to one day die. That nothing we do means anything in this world because we will all end up the same. The Artwork is actually really bland compared to the anime, and sometimes feels blotchy. Cossette is the only one that actually is well detailed where as everyone else is bland and uninteresting. The items and background look much more like scribbles a lot of times or are much to detailed for a black and white manga. It’s hard to see many things and so it makes it inconsistent. I half the time have problems figuring out what is supposed to stand out and what isn’t because things that should be in the back, are much more detailed and interesting then things in the front. For a manga where the main character is going to a art school, the manga has a lot of problems with the art. |
Weak |
| Tarot Cafe (manhwa) | |
| xxxHOLiC (manga) |