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What are you reading right now? Why?

Got some more manga that I've finished reading or something!

Now, I know this was published under Tokyopop's Blu line, but Shout Out Loud! actually not a yaoi. It's certainly shonen ai, but anyone going into this expecting yaoi will be disappoint, there is stuff implied, spoken of, but never shown. Shout Out Loud! follows a voice actor as the (now teenage) son from his teenage pregnancy comes back to live with him. Forced to now come up with more money, he starts to take on yaoi works because hey, a job is a job! He quickly finds out that some of his co-workers tend to take the yaoi thing outside of the workplace. Thus love triangles ensue! But there is a reference to Legend of the Galactic Heroes at one point as our mains end up doing voices for the leads in it (I love LoGH btw, Rin is even reading it in PSME! I also love other series shout outs, like Banana Fish's ref in Flower of Life! Ok, I'm getting off topic, lol). So basically, the story turns into the main doing voice work and learning what it is to be a father while he and everyone around him start to turn homosexual. It's fairly straightforward, so it really comes down to the characters. Sometimes the story jumped around a bit much, making it a tad hard to follow at times, and I can say that while there were parts I enjoyed, I found it to be overall unremarkable. However, I could see someone who likes the genre more finding more in here to enjoy then I personally did.
3/5

Finished Sanctuary! An overall good series, but it started to falter after volume 6ish where spoiler[Hojo and Asami's relationship is discovered] and that tension, which was a very interesting part of the series, pretty much had to vanish and what replaced it just wasn't quite as good. But it's still a series that made me keep reading long after my eyes cried out "We're going to bleed! We can barely concentrate on the words, why are you doing this to us?!" Well my eyes were fine in the end, lol. The series came off as being very bromance to me, Asami and Hojo are one of the most bromantic couples I can now think of. It's funny, when I see politics in America, they make me depressed and annoyed, but I would love for either Asami or Hojo to run for a government office over here, they might actually make things happen. I dunno, political thrillers are just different than actual politics and while I could see that this wouldn't appeal to everyone and there's a bit of misogyny in it, if you like political thrillers, you should go for it.
4 out of 5

Now that Tokyopop is out, one of the only manhwa publishers is Yen Press. And they mostly publish shojo (or whatever the Korean equivalent word is), and most of the shojo that they publish have characters with these huge creepy "yaoi hands" as my friend called them, where they're like twice the size of the characters face and just look off putting to me (observe). But they do publish at least a few shonen manhwa here and there, in this case I'm looking at Raiders, another thing I got the first several of out of Borders decaying husk.
Anyway, this involves undead zombies, the main girl needs to eat flesh to heal herself, and a boy who drinks the "blood of Jesus", the only potential cure from being a zombie, and become immortal. At first the zombie woman more of less holds him hostage as a form of infinite food (she doesn't like to kill, but understands that she must), but he soon goes along with her willingly (in part so that others won't have to die and because he did kinda steal her only hope at a cure). Luckily, there are four more phials of the blood of Jesus out there and they're going to hunt for them.
I do have some complaints with this series, possibly more than praises. While the premise is interesting and always moving forward, the action can often be unclear and you honestly wish sometimes that the book came with a slider to make it appear darker, as the lines can be so faint as to be damn near invisible, I seriously think the lines on some pages are thinner than a human hair. Everything seems either too white or is really black, it rarely seems to hit the right color balance inbetween that so many other manga or manhwa seem to get with little trouble.
So, it's not a particular deep series, but it's a quick and pleasant enough way to pass the time.

A while ago, I got to read I think the first three volumes of this? Well now I'm up to volume 6 of Tegami Bachi, got them all at Borders (RIP) Anyway, I really have been enjoying this series, even if it took me a while to get used to all the dark night sky in this series (it's like the exact opposite of the whiteness of Raiders). It's a monthly shonen series and one that Viz seems to kinda ignore half the time. It seems to improve with each chapter, we finally did get over if Niche will wear pants or not and we're getting onto the mystery of the series and what happened to Gauche Suede.
Now, I've heard of several complaints on this series and some of them I really don't think are deserved. For one, yes, Lag Seeing is more of a crybaby than Jacuzzi Splot and unlike Jacuzzi isn't crying so others won't have to, Lag is just a crybaby. That said, he's not the sort of crybaby who cries because he/she believes him or herself to be useless, Lag is simply easily swayed by emotion and usually cries as a result, but the instant he faces any monster, I had no problem believing that he does indeed have the skill to face it. So no, he's not a doormat and he doesn't have self esteem issues. This is honestly how you should make a crybaby, one who cries at happy endings, not because he's a wimp letting himself get walked all over like the ultimate doormat. I could see his crying getting annoying to some, but it was no problem for me because he was crying for perfectly fine reasons.
Another problem that I sorta agree with is that we do sometimes spend too much time debating if Niche will or will not wear pants for Lag's sake. Niche does kinda annoy me, Niche's emergency food supply, Steak, actually seems more useful to combat sometimes then Niche, who can turn her freakin' hair into swords. Luckily, that tones down after a few volumes and is never put there in place of the story when there's something else that could be going on.
And thirdly, some thinks it moves too slowly. I don't think it does, for one, it's a monthly series, it's rare for them to be able to just take a week off to teach Goku and Piccolo how to drive a car. It takes a bit to get going perhaps compared to other monthly shonen, but I didn't find it to be a problem because it was entertaining in the meantime. That said, Viz is being a bit slow with the release for this series, dammit! They're up to 11 in Japan, but 7 is about to come out here, but this isn't a series where big delays help it either.

And here we arrive at the OEL portion of our journey with Felipe Smith's MBQ. I've previously enjoyed Felipe Smith before with his excellent work cut too short Peepo Choo (which was made after this by several years). But you can still see that even with MBQ Smith had made a distinct style of story telling that got refined for Peepo Choo in which there are lots of fairly simple characters and scenarios that he jumps around between yet somehow all connect together in the end, kind of like a Quentin Tarantino movie or something. I could claim the story is what it says it is on the back, Omario, a struggling cartoonist, trying to have enough money to eat, but that's hardly it, there's also the perfect but mentally unstable police officer, there's the Mc BurgerQueen (hence the title MBQ) where his roommate Jeff works, and a whole bunch of other things that I can't even remember right now. But what really struck me about the series was the ending itself, which was far more realistic then most comics or movies I see about someone struggling where someone with a record deal comes out of left field and they get to do what they always wanted while making boat loads of money all because they had suffered so much before. Here spoiler[Omario finally accepts life and gets a damn job at the MBQ, despite it clearly not being what he nor really anyone would want to do], I'm not sure how Felipe Smith pulls off such epic endings, he managed to make one for Peepo Choo even after clearly getting a cancellation notice and wrapped it up within two chapters. But the ending was a high point for me for being so down to earth after all the craziness in the series thus far.
Much like Peepo Choo, the series can get violent, gory, and naked at the drop of a hat, so if you liked one, you should check out the other, but if Peepo Choo was too much for you, odds are you won't like this one either. But both series definitely enjoy the fact that they are comics and can do whatever the hell they want in comic space, it's like they both remind you why comics are different and why they're so much fun in the first place. I will easily give the nod to Peepo Choo though, I definitely liked it more, but since there is no more Peepo Choo, go for this without question.
3.5/5

Ok, so I got Mugen Spiral for two reasons: 1) Tokyopop stuff half off at Barnes & Nobles and 2) a fondness for NG Life by the same author. The cover I found for the pic is far more exciting then the omnibus cover where they seriously couldn't have picked a less interesting cover for it. I was well aware of Mugen Spiral though thanks to every freakin' volume of NG Life says "From the creator of Mugen Spiral!" on the cover (thankfully put there by someone who didn't want to ruin the artwork).
So, let's just get my complaints out of the way: 1) it's too short. Like it was clearly meant to go on for at least 5 volumes but either got cancelled or the creator got ADD (I'm betting on the former) 2) just when the series figures out what it wants to be, it ends. Luckily, the one side chapter answers the slightly more pressing of the plot threads left open, but dude, when you get axed like this, you can bet that the whole main premise of the series, figuring out the next demon king, was left wide open.
Really, I'm having a tough time determining if I should rec this or not. On the one hand, when it finally finds out what it wants to and should do, it's pretty good, and then the damn thing ends, leaving me torn since I hate rec'ing so clearly unfinished things (that aren't episodic).
2.5/5, maybe existing fans of Mizuho Kusanagi will enjoy this more.

Well my Tezuka shelf is now 20% cooler simply for having such a now hard to find manga. Took me forever to find Swallowing the Earth, that's what I get for not getting stuff when it comes out right away (and dammit, Amazon, get my copy of Book of Human Insects in right this instant!) Luckily, I only paid cover price and tax for this find, yay! So, what I say here might save some people money because look online, it's like $70 minimum. Is it worth $70? Not really. Is it worth it for non-Tezuka fans? Also not really.
Swallowing the Earth starts off with a foreward by Fred Schodt, who translated Astro Boy and Phoenix and is practically a professional Tezuka fan boy (if you could say such a thing exists) where he explains that Swallowing the Earth was one of his early moves towards his more mature works, things like Ayako, Ode to Kirihito, and half of the stuff Vertical puts out from Tezuka.
Swallowing the Earth features several women who all look identical (both to each other and the dead woman in chapter one) who plan to pretty much screw over the world, especially men, because their mother didn't like men. We then enter what is easily the most heroic drunk in any manga ever, Gohonmatsu, whose extreme drinking habits seem to give him the super powers to not get taken in my the mysterious woman (Zephyrus) when drink after drink is offered to him and has apparently taken enough LSD to be immune to its hallucinogenic effects when mixed in with alcohol. It's honestly almost comical how he doesn't have alcohol poisoning, I can't name any other Tezuka character who drinks so much liquor in damn near every scene he's in (or he's asking for booze).
Ok, so abnormally and comically heroic drunk and temptress woman aside, how does this far up next to other Tezuka stuff I've read? Well currently my least favorite Tezuka omnibus currently out is still Apollo's Song (I can't rank Book of Human Insects yet, sadly, dammit Amazon), then to order the other ones I've read: Apollo's Song < Swallowing the Earth < Ayako < MW < Ode to Kirihito, kinda like this. So You can tell that Tezuka was a bit unsure of how Swallowing the Earth would end up, but I found it had just as much intrigue as some of his later works while still suffering from some of the short fallings of his earlier works (like rushing the plot). Oddly enough, this is one of the few series I've read of his without total wimps for women, even if they do still fall in love at first sight. It's by no means an absolute masterpiece that should be read by everyone like Ode to Kirihito is, but Tezuka fans should consider this worth their time to read at least once.
3/5

I'm rereading Paradise Kiss. Snapped it all up online once I heard Tokyopop was going under. I have fond memories of borrowing this series from a friend back when I was studying fashion and I've decided I love Ai Yazawa too much to not own it. That and there's precious little josei translated as there is... I wish I'd been able to find a white copy rather than a purple one of volume 5 though, as it doesn't match and makes me sad Crying or Very sad

Finally finished Fullmetal Alchemist! I honestly feel like going over the plot would be kinda pointless, this series is more popular than god, so I won't. I'm a bit torn on this honestly, I got into FMA during the first anime like a lot of us. Since that time, and especially since Brotherhood came out, I always kept hearing how much better the manga and/or Brotherhood is then the first anime. But honestly, I think I liked the first anime more than the manga. It took me a day to mull over it, but I finally figured out why, and it's what I call the Planetes reason. I also liked Planetes' anime more and this is also a case where they're very much different shows. In the case of Planetes, the manga was more story and the anime was mostly episodic just focusing on the characters (in addition to having several anime only characters). But I rather felt like they were two sides of the same coin, the anime gave us the necessary characterization not in the manga and the manga gave us an actual plot. Combine the two and you've got the whole thing. I feel like it's much the same with FMA, the manga gave us way more story, but I feel like the first anime gave us a lot more depth to the characters. Hughes in particular, his spoiler[death] in the first anime had far more of an impact on me then the manga. It actually almost felt like the beginning of the manga was an abridged version of the first anime, which is weird since the manga came first.
Ok, so, yes, the FMA manga was good, but I'd be lying if I said it had the same impact on me as the first anime did, even if the first anime did diverge a lot, I'm willing to overlook it since it was pretty internally consistent (it's not like they put earthbenders in a prison surrounded by cliffs or anything stupid like that). Also, I have a thing for bittersweet endings, and the first anime fulfilled that far more, the manga ending was pretty much good times all around if you ask me. I almost feel like the manga played it safer then the first anime.
So I'll give the manga a 7.5 out of 10, but the first anime was a 9 out of 10 for me (ironically enough, I gave the same ratings to Planetes manga and anime, respectively). It's good, but it's not as godly as everyone says.

I also got to read Jeff Smith's amazing American comic Bone. Bone really felt more like a shonen to me, it actually was kinda made that way too on a mostly bimonthly schedule with an ongoing story for 12 years, not something that usually happens with American comics, thus reminding me more of a manga. This series has won something like 10 Eisner, 11 Harvey, and at least 20 other awards internationally, and boy does it deserve them! Bone has always been in the kids section of my library, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was really an "all ages, for realz" thing than a kids thing that got inexplicably popular with everyone else. It's more of a fantasy epic then anything else at the end of the day and I love the three Bone cousins, which look comparatively cartoony compared to everything else around them. The main character is Fone Bone, the one cousin who doesn't wear clothing and is more or less "the straight man". Phoney Bone is the swindler who loves money and Smiley Bone is the slightly stupid one hiding a few evil ideas under his skull. There are also humans, namely Thorn, the girl, Granma Ben, the badass granny (I'd love to see her vs Izumi Curtis), and Lucius Down, the bar owner of the valley. And of course other fantasy creatures like the Great Red Dragon, the Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures, Roque Ja, and others that all make Smith's incredible world come alive. He builds up the mythology of the world quite slowly, since the Bone cousins are from outside of The Valley, we often learn things as they do, Fone Bone is the outside character, much like the reader is, and despite being the "straight guy" compared to his loony cousins, he's still a blast to follow and certainly has his own quirks (like Moby Dick is his favorite book, every time he tries to talk about it, any character listening will fall asleep on cue). And Smith puts all sorts of little things here and there that are entertaining at the time or don't seem all that important, and then they come back and you go "oooh!" So paying attention is necessary but incredibly easy anyway.
This came out in a "one volume edition" for a mere $40 MSRP (bit more than half that on Amazon) and it's a black and white comic, but being a manga reader I didn't care. Scholastic re-released the series with new inking, and while it looks great, there are a few scenes that I really think the black and white makes stand out more. The paper is a bit see through in the one vol ed, but it's more than worth picking up. I'd give it a 9 out of 10, go buy this now! Especially shonen fans!

I have never been much interested in manga as I enjoy anime more (takes less effort haha), only recently I had to realize something. I had changed my ignorant view on manga as being 'inferior' to anime, instead manga is simply different. I still prefer anime but even more so, I long for a great adventure, an epic story in any medium (judging by that logic I have to recall literature... should be next step) and recently I have found it.

First, I read the 29+ volumes (181 chapters) of Skip Beat!, which is awesome. The progress might be a little slow, and there are awkward bits here and there but then it shows brilliancy too.

And now, I have just finished last available chapter of History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi (thats 44+ volumes boys and girls, 450 chapters) and goddammit I hate that there is no more available at this time! I was rather disappointed that the romance aspect of the series only showed up about 20 chapters ago (still, better late then never...) but the last 5 chapters have been incredibly intense, and they began a new major development, but.... but now I have to wait for weeks to see how it ends!!! ARRGHHH! This is why I hate watching top tier anime as it comes out in Japan, the wait is UNBEARABLE! I was naive to think this would not happen in manga...

I think I'll go on hiatus with those two for now. I'll probably do some catching up on Claymore now that I heaven't read it for a year. I'll go read something with an actual end too. Kare Kano perhaps, I've been meaning to read it for a while now. I need to recover.

Ok, some more stuff I've read since Otakon!

First up, another one from Jeff Smith! After I enjoyed Bone so much, I decided to try out his (currently) only other series, RASL. Rumor has it this should end around issue 15 or 16 (11 are out now), I got to read the first 3 chapters in a glorious oversized book. It involves dimensional travel, but since I only got to read 3 chapters, I haven't gotten to the main meat of the story cus I can't find book 2, gah! But I am going to hunt it down and vol 3 (which will have up through 11) comes out December. But man, the book is huge! I mean, the black and white artwork is glorious enough to warrant it, it's just a damn big book is all. But yeah, I do plan to get the rest of this series since I can already see the same quality story telling he brought to Bone here.

Ok, so I read most of the first volume of Sailor Moon via the library, but quite frankly got bored. Read 5 chapters. Ok, so I get that volume 1 is mostly the "gather the team" sort of thing, most every series with a team will do this, or if the team is established, they're getting their powers or something etc. But really, I thought this was honestly the most boring iteration of the gathering the team thing I've yet experienced. I'm really not sure if I should give Sailor Moon another shot or what and I know there are a lot of SM fans around here, but honestly, I jsut don't see what the big deal about this series is.

Ok, so the bookstore put these guys in their $1 bin, meaning that they will soon be pulped if not bought and it interested me enough to be worthy of a blind buy of the first three volumes of Crossroad at $1 a piece (they put stuff in the $1 bin when it's been there forever btw). But I do honestly want the last 4 volumes, and Go Comi! did manage to publish the whole series (seems it was one of their earlier ones). Basically, it's an "odd family situation" shojo, kinda like Marmalade Boy but even weirder. Basically that main's mother, who tends to go off man chasing all the time, isn't really there and she lived with her grandma until she dies in chapter 1 (hardly spoilers). So she has to find a new place to live and is joined by her two step-brothers (one her age, one 5 years older) who have no blood relation to each other, the main girl, or the mother (like I said, confusing) and shojo ensues! The girl had been writing to the younger boy, but one time wrote a really nasty letter and they stopped corresponding, she's really hoping that he'll accept her apology and forgive her. But like I said, shojo, and like all shojo with a step brother, it's like they can help but go for each other, resulting in a chapter called "no incest allowed!" (which also became a family rule).
So it's shojotastic, charming at that, and I'd like to get the remaining volumes soon!

More shojo! The ever popular Fruits Basket this time! I've never seen the anime to be honset, but what with Tokyopop out, I swear it seems like everyone is selling their Furuba manga sets online and I'm not entirely sure why unless they've had the series since it came out and are now sick of it. Anyway, it was awesome! The characters are all charming and great and it drops the romcom thing pretty quickly to be more or less pure romdram.
I must admit that my least favorite part was the student council stuff, kinda annoying and average, and there was a lot of "typing up the loose romantic ends" thing, lol. At least the main romance was never messed up though. My friend said she didn't like the ending because it "doesn't end like you'd expect it to" and I have no idea what she's talking about, it ends exactly like I expected it to. For one thing, the series starts off presenting that the hugging into animals thing is the curse, but it's really not, that becomes obvious by the halfway point easily. By the time it becomes clear that the animal thing isn't really the curse but a side effect, hardly anyone ever turns into an animal again once we know what their animal is. That's cool, that was played more for comedic effects anyway.
Must say that Furuba has the plainest covers of any shojo I've seen, I usually see more sparkly and girly. Anyway,it's a great series and an instant shojo classic, even if the student council stuff annoyed me cus it took away from more interesting characters. 4.5/5 easily!

Yay! More Osamu Tezuka! Vertical's latest offering is The Book of Human Insects, which most reminds me of MW. This follows a woman who is uber manipulative and seeing how she screwed over other people's lives. I think I definitely liked MW more, but Human Insects is a fine addition to the Tezuka line from Vertical. So now when it comes to the omnibus Tezuka out, I'm kinda like: Ode to Kirihito>MW>Book of Human Insects=Ayako>Swallowing the Earth>>Apollo's Song. That's jsut me personally anyway

Gah, this never ending list of shojo! Name of the Flower is an OOP title from CMX, but I'm glad I was able to get it at Otakon. It's a straightforward and sweet shojo about two people coming out of their shells. They're also related, which in shojo world means falling in love, lol. Still, it's a writer, Kei, who wrote some really depressing books, and....some relative girl of his, Chouko, who has to live with him due to (you guessed it) dead relatives and is in high school. They slowly seem to unlock each other's heart, her unlocking his more so, so it's a sweet series to read that doesn't seem rushed, but takes it time too.

Man, I've skipped so much stuff I should've updated before I think! Anyway, Lament on the Lamb takes loneliness in manga to a whole new level, man is it a lonely manga. Anyway, Lament follows two siblings, long lost and finally meeting again, just as Kazuna, the boy, seems to have some late and odd side effects of puberty, namely craving for blood. Chizuna, the sister, reveals their family curse of vampirism, or more craving blood, which she has been afflicted with all her life and which drove their mother insane to death. With their father recently deceased, they are the only family they have. So they start to live together, but luckily, no incest! Cus it's not shojo! Oh they certainly form an unhealthy relationship, Kazuna needs Chizuna as his caretaker, like a mother, and Chizuna uses Kazuna as a replacement for their father. Really, the blood sucking is the least creepy part here, but it's not scary or anything, just their ever evolving unhealthy relationship is creepy as anything. I'd rate it 4 out of 5, it's worth tracking down even if the ending left something lacking.

And now three from Tanemura!

Actually the second one I read, but it's also the shortest. I think the fact that ION is so short is precisely its weakness, it had plenty of fun ideas, but it had to more or less info dump on you because it's only one volume and six chapters long. It's also one of Tanemura's earliest works that's not just a one chapter thing. It's basically fluffy looking shojo with some psychic powers, if it had been a longer series, it might've been more enjoyable, but as is, it's only decent imo. Also, it was fairly evident that Tanemura was new to this as the paneling isn't the best and can come off as a bit choppy. 3 out of 5

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne was actually the first of the three Tanemura stuff that I recently read. It starts off a bit weak, more or less like a boring magical girl series. Basically, the main is the reincarnation of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc). She quickly gains a rival who it named Kaito Sinbad (presumably his reincarnation though it never fully says so). They both take demons out of possessed paintings while Jeanne's friend acts detective and tries to catch Kaito Jeanne (by the end of the first volume, a boy with a crush on the main vows to catch Kaito Sinbad). Jeanne and Sinbad also know each other outside of "work" as they live next door and I think they know each other's secret by the end of vol 2. So on the plus side, the manga doesn't spend the entire time having the characters try and discover the others identity, they kinda already know, and of course the two mains just had to fall in love despite being rivals.
But I would say that other than a shaky beginning filled with boring "capture the painting demon!" thing that starts to run out around halfway through vol 2, my main problem was that the series was just too predictable. Ok, so the audience knows some things the characters might not, but even when it came to things neither knew, I'd already guessed what had happened. It's by no means bad, it's just nothing risky or new and it makes it fairly obvious that Arina Tanemura was still new to the artform. I'll still call it a decent read and give it a 3.5 out of 5 though.

And lastly, Full Moon O Sagashite, which MAL informs me more directly means "Searching for the Full Moon" because I was looking at the "O Sagashite" part going "wtf does that mean?". Anyway, this series was oddly morbid for a shojo, death was mentioned all over the place, starting with the main Mitsuki, who has a malignant throat tumor but doesn't want it removed because she'll be unable to sing (and she's 12). She lives with her grandma who is an absolute bitch about Mitsuki wanting to sing. Anyway, Mitsuki is visited by two shinigami from the pediatrics ward (the idea of which I found to be adorable) with the intent of taking her soul. Instead, she convinces them to give her a year to try and sing, and the male shinigami transforms her into a 16 year old to achieve this (and also makes her healthy when she's 16, which only made me beg the question "why bother turning back?"). Obviously she kinda succeeds. She's also singing for the boy she loves, Eichi, who moved to America 2 years ago after being adopted from the orphanage. Ok, so we have a 12 year old with throat cancer hanging around with shinigami (who became shinigami because they commited suicide, and you can bet we find out how that happened) singing for the boy she likes spoiler[that she already knows is dead], so yeah, as far as shojo go, it's pretty damn morbid.
I found Full Moon to be far less predictable than Jeanne and enjoyed it more as a result. It also started off stronger with less magical girl bs. I think it's easily a far better series, but of course I do have some complaints. I had a bit of trouble telling one saucer eyed character from another at times and keeping up with some of the names when they suddenly changed from last name to first name without telling me their full name beforehand. And I think the ending was a bit of a copout. But overall, I certainly enjoyed it the most of the three and is the one I'd most recommend. 4 out of 5

Archonia had (and still has?) a German manga sale a while ago, so I did some blind buys. Mostly Jiro Taniguchi stuff I hadn't read yet, but also a short series called Heads. I later found out it's drawn by the same guy who does Ikigami. Different writer though. According to the text on the back it was written by a bestselling author. It shows. While the pacing is somewhat slow and novel-like, the story isn't hindred by sentimental lessons like Ikigami.

The main character, Junichi Naruse, is the first person in the world to recieve a brain transplant after being shot in the head. His personality slowly starts to change. It seems positive at first. He used to be the kind of person who excelled at disappearing in a crowd, now he stands up for himself and speaks his mind more often. His girlfriend thinks he looks a bit more manly. The doctors assure him that it's not a result of the transplant; nearly losing your life and spending two months in the hospital changes a person. It doesn't take long before things take a dramatic turn for the worse. Junichi becomes aggressive and impatient, something that might be attributed to his donor. When he starts his search for the donor's relatives, it soon becomes clear there is no one he can trusts besides himself, yet his 'self' is starting to disappear.

Psychological thriller, four volumes and I think I like it better than Ikigami. The artstyle isn't as polished (but there's some visable Otomo influence in there, so that's pretty neat), but it outdoes the later work in the story department. It kind of makes me wonder why Viz licensed Ikigami instead of Heads.

Ok, I'm going to put in a plug for a series I just started that I can't review because it has no official English release. (Or should I say "American," because you can totally get it in Canada...)

Hikari no Densetsu by Izumi Aso is a shoujo tale from 1985 that Tonkam has recently started translating. It's about Hikari, a fourteen year old girl who is ridiculously talented at rhythmic gymnastics and dreams of one day performing on the world stage with her hero, Diana Groitcheva, the Bulgarian champion. Unfortunately her school already has a rising star, the lovely Hazuki Shiina. Will Hikari be able to overcome her faults and surpass Shiina and up-and-coming Bulgarian protegee Maria Lenova? Will she ever get Takaaki Oishi, who she thinks is dating Hazuki? Will this manga inspire me to try incredibly stupid dance moves that would be infinitely more dangerous to my health than any I learned from Swan?

Actually, Swan is a really good comparison - both it and Hikari no Densetsu share a lot of themes and stylistic similarities as well as a wonderful sense of movement. Chances are that if you liked that series, you'll like this one, possibly even more because Hikari herself is incredibly likeable, whereas Masami could get annoying. If you can read French or Japanese, or heck, if you have a pretty good grasp of any Romance language (the vocabulary is pretty basic), and you like shoujo sports/performing arts epics, you should really check it out.

...or, you know, pester someone you know in the translation business to give this an English edition.

Still following Negima, and I wasn't thrilled that after the high stakes climax of the magical world arc and then the following few chapters that set up the next element of the plot and transitioned forward led to a school sports festival and WACKY ANTICS!!!! I mean, the Mahorafest arc was fun, but there was at least a little set up for that (and it built up to a pretty important plotline), and this is giving off the impression of having nowhere near that scope. Then chapters 346 and 347 come along and remind me of the worst parts of Love Hina. You know, the: 2 steps forward, 2 steps back; I really like you, but suddenly I think telling you that was a bad idea and let's just go back to being friends with this awkward unresolved sexual tension comedy.

Fortunately, 348 looks like it's starting to move past that, although still on the: beat the truth about whom Negi likes out of him, stuff. At least a couple of the characters have regained a level of reasonableness, and we'll probably get a couple of chapters of decent fights out of it. Also, granted, that there have been a couple of cool moments and Akamatsu is creative enough with the artifacts and introducing new variations and combinations of their uses to make conflicts more interesting than just whoever shoots the strongest energy beam wins.

Having had it sitting on my bookshelf for 2-3 years I finally decided to give Kurohime a go, as I wanted to read a relatively simple but fun series. Enjoyed the first three volumes, which is a plus given I got almost all of the volumes before it was dropped/license lost/whatever happened. Nothing amazing, but an amusing enough duo as the main characters, but I can see it getting old if it continues to be a villain of the chapter/chapter or two for the rest of what I have of the series.

Now up to volume three of Dorohedoro and man, I'm really loving this. The gory and bizarre (yet weirdly amateurish) art style, the ultra violent fightscenes, the out of place slapstick comedy (Time for a bully sandwich!), the likeable offbeat characters and the seemingly random story just all come together to make this series a thoroughly enjoyable read. Definetily not for everyone, but highly recommended.

Rating so far: Very Good

Just finished up Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight. I enjoyed it. It was sweet and heart-warming, though not Tezuka's best. There are some very obvious influences from Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty, but I feel Tezuka made it his own. I really liked Sapphire as a character, but was disappointed that the ending didn't seem fully resolved to me. spoiler[Why does she have to lose her boy heart? Why couldn't she keep both and maintain being the same person she has been all along, but with confidence and knowledge in herself? That would have been a much more appealing ending. Though, of course, still with Franz. <3]

Currently reading David B.'s Epileptic. Very interesting so far. I love memoir comics, and this one seems crucial to the understanding of how they work, with some interesting dark twists.

Time for another mass post! I am going to save a few things for my next mass post (because I haven't read the last two volumes of Seiho Boys' High School for example, waiting on volume 7 to come in) but I've still got plenty of manga to talk about!

First up, I did indeed finish Crossroad, as I said I would! Got the rest online for pretty cheap, well worth the money if you ask me (then again, I got the whole series for maybe $15, but I would've been willing to pay more). It's one of those series that is shojotastic in a good way! Though from volume 4 on, some more romantic shojo elments were introduced that I don't think were entirely necessary, but I guess it didn't detract in the overall scheme of things either. Still, this is a series that I am very glad is on my shelf and would recommend to most anyone! I rate it 4 out of 5

Glad I was able to get Karakuri Odette before it really got hard to find. I think TRSI still has some copies left, so yeah, go grab them! This is a series that follows Odette, a robot trying to learn about what makes her and humans different (other than the obvious drinking of oil). But she doesn't really want to become human either. She meets some other robots, not as complex as she is. And yeah, the story pretty much follows Odette. There were some parts I was annoyed with, like not really getting an explanation for a few things and under utilizing some characters, but overall, it's definitely a series you need to jump on getting before it's too late. I also rated this one 4 out of 5

Ok, manhwa time with Model. This Korean girl living in...I forget, was it America or Europe? Either way, she helps a passed out drunk but gorgeous man, and being an artist, can't help but want to draw a picture. Seems he wasn't too pleased with this as he is a vampire, but he decides to more or less commission her to paint him. The vampire is also an artist who paints people's pictures and basically she ends up living at his mansion with a serious looking maid and another bishonen who likes bats or something. Now, it starts off pretty promising, but it drops the painting thing in order to learn more about the three people living at the mansion. Sadly, they are not overly interesting and it feels like half of the reveals were totally made up on the spot or something. So as it went on, it became progressively worse and then the ending didn't really make it all worth it either. Now, the girl was trying to learn about the characters to help her with her painting, but she more or less seems to have given up on it when it could have been very interesting. The art is pretty much entirely bishonen+hot topic, I didn't mind it too much, but if you like that style of art, it does a great job, I had no trouble following it even when the story got boring. I'd rate it 2.5 out of 5

Oho but there was more manhwa! Hotel Africa volume 2, which I finally got around to reading. I didn't want to read volume 2, not because volume 1 wasn't spectacular, but because I know nothing beyond volume 2 was published. Luckily, it doesn't end on a cliffhanger, as it was mostly episodic anyway, ut most episode took two chapters. Here we got to learn more about Elvis' friend Ed with more of the episodic goodness about the hotel in the middle of nowhere Utah itself that made the first volume so good. Really, it was mostly more of the same, but when it's this good to begin with, you don't really mind. Sad to know no one has rescued this *cough*Yen Press*cough* Also, I was only able to get a used copy for this and it ended up being an ex-library book with library binding (aka hardcover), most of the non-ex library books are kinda expensive, so settle for the library book here, it's worth it to get even a tiny bit more of this "shame it'll never be continued in English" series. Still a 4.5 out of 5 from me.

Finally got around to reading/buying some of the Sig stuff. Read volumes 3 and 4 of Saturn Apartments. It's weird, I felt like volumes 1 and 2 were quite different, 1 was more episodic window washing and 2 suddenly introduced an entire cast that lived around our main character Mitsu. It was a bit jarring of a transition, but I think i finally warmed up to the idea of that with these two volumes. Mostly in 4. But yeah, I was considering dropping it in 3, but then it really found its legs in 4, so I'm likely to keep buying them (it's only 7 volumes anyway, so we're nearing the end I suppose). I think if you get into the whole "people around Mitsu" thing faster, you'll enjoy it much quicker than I did, maybe it was just a case of expecting more of what volume 1 was only to not get it, but what they've replaced it with has become pretty awesome so yeah, good!

Ah, yes, Ikigami, the sort of premise you know only Japan could come up with for some reason. Maybe it's because I haven't really seen any shows from America where characters know they're going to die. It rather reminds me of Bokurano actually. Anyway, Japan, deciding that its sick of its apathetic citizens, decides that the best way to make them realize how precious life is is to kill a random citizen between the ages of 18 and 24 every day and only give them 24 hours notice before they die. This is done by way of a nanocapsule that 1 in 1000 people will receive hidden in a vaccine they are injected with in elementary school (and it really does have vaccine in it, not just a vitamin shot) which will pretty much stop their heart at a given time. No one knows who has these until it is almost time for the capsules to expire (due to an annoying and lengthy process described in volume 2). We kinda have a main, a guy working for the department who gives out the Ikigami (or death notices). We then see how they spend their final 24 hours. Most of the time, you as the audience goes "yikes, well this person really doesn't deserve to die at all" and the main is slowly starting to wonder that himself (but he won't say anything because big brother is watching). I understand that, at least through volume 7, it's more of the episodic 3-chapter long stories, but here's hoping that they will do more with the whole system thing. I'm not quite sure why it only works on people 18-24, seems kinda unfair in terms of timing after all (being in that age range myself) but yeah, it's a pretty depressing series, just know that before going in. I've read two volumes, but would like to eventually get more methinks.

It's weird, I've tried other Natsume Ono stuff, but I feel like House of Fives Leaves is the only one I really like. Maybe it's the whole Italian thing all over half her works which I find kinda pretentious or that she's really showing that she knows how to tell a story for once here. I've read five volumes, but rest assured, I'm dying to buy the last three. Some will find the pacing rather slow, but I find it to be just about right. We mostly follow Akitsu Masanosuke, the least likely looking samurai ever, seeing how he is extremely timid. He is, however, skilled, and gets picked up by the mysterious Yaichi to pose as a samurai for a simple money exchange and Masa somehow learns about the Five Leaves, a group that kidnaps for ransom, and somehow ends up joining them. Most of the members keep to themselves, but Masa is dying to know about their pasts and we slowly start to learn more about them, as well as see some of the jobs they pull off. I really do wish all of Ono's series could grab me like this, and I especially find it difficult to get into feudal era stuff due to not really knowing the history. But yeah, this is probably my favorite IKKI series thus far!

Also read the first 4 volumes of Shugo Chara. It's definitely a pretty kiddy series, I won't lie. It only really started to get interesting to me towards the end of volume 4, the stuff before it feeling more like an after school special or something. I'm not sure if I really want to continue or not, it's not bad, but I also get the feeling that it's just not for me. I expect Princess Tutu (the anime, not the manga *shudder*) out of my magical girl stuff these days.

And last, I finished the Darren Shan manga (aka, Cirque du Freak in America, the name that Yen Press chose to use as well). I've been a bit iffy on the manga-ish adaptation of Little,Brown books that Yen Press is pushing out. I don't know if it's because I don't necessarily think James Patterson is the best thing since sliced bread and half of their adaptations seem to be of James Patterson books, but this one is different. Part of it is that it's actual manga, this was made without Yen commissioning it. Obviously the got dibs to jump all over the rights to it and they certainly did, they even pushed out the first three volumes (or first arc) for volume 3 to be out in time for the god-awful movie. I've actually read the book series, but I didn't know about it until the manga came out (which I was iffy about and rented from the library). The mangaka constantly says in the back of the book about how much of a challenge it was to fit one book into one manga, clearly some things were going to get abridged, but they had a great sense of where to do this and where not to, they really did a great job (unlike the movie). But you can tell at the start that the mangaka wasn't exactly the best at artwork as it gets progressively better as the series goes on. Having read the books, this is pretty much exactly what it should look like in comic book form (except with better artwork in the earlier volumes on par with the middle to later volumes). Do I think it could have been improved had the mangaka not had to tell each entire volume in 8 weekly chapters? Yes, of course, but seeing how I read manga one before novel one, I could barely tell. I feel like it only really suffered a bit on volume 2 where most of RV's introduction got severely truncated. But I also very much appreciate how true it was to the novels, something which the movie absolutely murdered. I also already knew that some of the later volumes would get quite gruesome, you know the movies wouldn't dare touch that, glad the manga didn't shy away from it. I also remember thinking that the ending of the novel series came off a bit cheesy, somehow the manga fixed that, so I was quite pleased at it not coming off as cheesy and adding a bit more in the end to help tie things all together.
So yeah, this is pretty much how to correctly make an adaptation from Western (in this case, Irish) novel to manga, though it also helps that I really liked the book series too (I've started reading the prequel following Larten, which I'm sure will never be made into a movie because in the very first volume Larten tries to learn and expand his alcohol limit since it's made very clear that vampires can handle way more liquor than humans), I'd also like to see that get a manga by the same guy.
In the meantime, his series ARAGO finished in Japan, hopefully if the Cirque manga sold enough, Yen Press will consider picking up ARAGO, because you know it'll have the superior art from the end of Cirque with an all new story that is the mangaka's original (ARAGO is only the guy's second series, Cirque was the first, impressively enough) Being a fan of the original novels, I rate the series 4.5 out of 5, not sure how people who never read the original novels would think of it, but this was what made me check out the original series, so yeah, if that was what Little,Brown wanted, then mission freakin' accomplished.

My volumes of Gunsmith Cats and Gunsmith Cats Burst arrived in the mail earlier this week, and I voraciously devoured them. The action is intense and well-paced, but hardly mindless. Almost all of the villains are intelligent, laying out complex traps and designs, which the protagonists in turn make efforts to outwit ahead of time. I prefer such conflict highly over standard shonen action fare where having a secret power in reserve as a trump card is a typical turning point; GSC characters tend to have significant in-universe reputations to the point where they can't do that because everyone knows what they're tricks are, and so characters actually have to be clever.

Also, Kenichi Sonoda clearly puts a lot of loving detail into the information about the cars and guns used in the series. There's even a whole chapter in Burst dedicated to Rally Vincent teaching a bunch of amateurs why the flashy gunplay used in Hollywood movies makes shooting inefficient.

That's not to say it's flawless. Chapter 6 in particular was a low point because of how indelicately it was handled, that it was especially unnecessary, and that it ended rather abruptly on a totally dissonant note.

I, however, have issues with GSC Burst. There was a 7 year gap between the two series as Sonoda was working on a different story, and while the original GSC series ended on a somewhat ambiguous note, it didn't need a continuation. Most of the plotlines of Burst weren't as involved as from the original series, and the most prominent recurring character it introduced was a morally gray character who was not only uninteresting, but outright annoying.

But that's not my big problem with it. The ending of Burst absolutely infuriates me to the point where I almost ripped up the final volume when I finished reading it. One of the major villains from the original is brought back in the 4th of 5 volumes, and then made into an even bigger threat than before. Halfway through the final volume, the protagonists are still only preparing for a final showdown, but as I got closer and closer to the end with no confrontation, I realized it wasn't happening. Not only that, but one of the protagonists joins the villain, and the more I think about the reason the character gives as to why she did, the more things I can think that were completely ignored to reach that justification. And the epilogue treats this as a good thing.

None of the happy endings from the epilogue were ones I wouldn't have guessed, more or less, from the ending of the first series, and the bad ones ruined my enjoyment of at least Burst retroactively.

Well after that large cliff hanger left on the Berserk anime, I started to read the Manga. Even though I'm not crazy about the theme, I really want Gutz to kick the God Hands ass!

I also picked up Street Fighter by UDON/Capcom volume 1 the other day but haven't opened it to read it yet Anime smile

.

Well, Negima is over. The last few chapters felt really rushed, with a particularly significant problem introduced and then solved almost immediately, and the largest issues of the series resolved almost completely off panel. The epilogue alludes to a number of other adventures Akamatsu problem planned to include at one point, but ran out of time for. I don't think the ending makes anything worse, but I'm disappointed that so many things didn't get properly addressed. Maybe a spin-off or sequel will pop up in the future, but I guess I'll just have to settle for this as it is.

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Forum - View topicWhat are you reading right now? Why?

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What are you reading right now? Why?