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Questions about A.I. Love You




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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:30 pm Reply with quote
Having become a big fan of Ken Akamatsu's Negima! and Love Hina, I've been thinking about buying this series, but I have a few questions.
1) I noticed in the encyclopedia that there were two releases in Japan. First there were 9 volumes released then later there were 8 re-edited volumes released. Now, my question is what was edited? Were things taken out? Is the English release the original 9 or the re-edited 8?

2) Is A.I. Love You any different in tone and style from the other series I've read of Akamatsu's?

3) Is there anything I should be aware of with Tokyopop's release of this title before I buy it? (i.e. were there any censorship issues or severe printing errors that might make it a bad buy?)

Thank you very much for any help you can give me! Happy New Year everyone!
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Wolverine Princess



Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 1100
PostPosted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 11:54 pm Reply with quote
Richard J. wrote:
2) Is A.I. Love You any different in tone and style from the other series I've read of Akamatsu's?

I've only flipped through it in Borders, but the artistic style is completely different from Ken Akamatsu's later works. It's not bad, but it's rough and unrefined, and everyone has distractingly thick eyebrows.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6921
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:21 am Reply with quote
1) I think they upped the page counts to release the same quantity of manga in 8 volumes instead of 9. Nothing felt cut or eliminated.

2) As WP says, the art style is pretty unrefined, being from 12 years ago; you can see "prototype designs," so to speak, of Love Hina characters. As far as the story goes, it is fairly similar to the feel of Love Hina and Negima! -- clumsy, inexperienced boy gets into situations with girls, with some supernatural/sci-fi elements to make things more fun. One of the most amusing things in retrospect was seeing a mid-1990s perspective on computers and the Internet, all through the fictional/manga-style lens.

And actually, as the series goes on, A.I. Love You will probably feel like an Ah! My Goddess ripoff.

3) It's been awhile since I read the whole thing, but I don't recall anything egregiously bad about TokyoPop's release. Maybe some typos, and looking at it now, a bit of misplaced text, but according to this review at AoD, the release quality is at least better than Love Hina's. No censorship that I know of.

Overall, A.I. Love You isn't an exceptionally good manga, but for Ken Akamatsu fans like you and I are, it's a good read. Things are significantly better in volumes 6,7, and 8 compared to the early chapters in the art and story departments.
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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 2:40 am Reply with quote
A big thank you for each of you!

This may sound silly, but I actually feel a little honored having my silly questions answered by you two. Both of you are great posters, Wolverine Princess for her stylish humor and Zalis116 for his anime comentaries. I always enjoy reading your posts.

You've helped me out here. I was a bit concerned about the whole 9 volumes to 8 deal and I knew A.I. Love You was an early Akamatsu series, so I was a little worried about the tone. (Glad to hear it's more prototype than disgarded mistake.)

I honestly don't get how Tokyopop can make some of the screw-ups they do with misplacing the text. It's not too severe in Love Hina so this should be okay.

Thanks again you two!
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Torhu_San



Joined: 02 Jan 2007
Posts: 133
Location: Upstate Ny
PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:40 am Reply with quote
I don't think I could add much more than what the other two have already written to you. However, I do feel that if you enjoy Akamatsu, then you will enjoy this series. I wasn't sure if I would like it myself, but after about volume 3, I was wanting to read the rest of the series.
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