Manga Xanadu

“I’m going to uncover the mystery of the ‘Blade Children’.”…World-class detective Kiyotaka Narumi’s last words prior to his sudden disappearance continue to haunt his younger brother, Ayumu.  The cheeky 10th-grader becomes equally embroiled in the mystery of the doomed “Blade Children” when he is mistaken for the prime suspect in a murder at his school.  Led by Ayumu’s sister-in-law, Kiyotaka’s wife and fellow detective, Madoka, the investigation into the murder gives Ayumu a chance to clear his name.  But in doing so, he not only uncovers ties to the Blade Children but also more questions than answers about who and what they are. Story by Kyo Shirodaira; Art by Eita Mizuno Publisher: Yen Press Genre: Mystery Rating: Teen Price: $10.99 Rating: Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning is a title that started out as a novel and was then turned into both a manga and an anime series.  This first volume introduces us to the main characters and the overarching mystery of the “Blade Children”, with individual mysteries giving us the pieces to the larger one. Ayumu Narumi is a 10th grader at a private high school, and brother to Kiyotaka Narumi, a world-class pianist in his teens and a “Great…

“On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Twelve Ecliptic Zodiac Keys,” Lucy Heartphilia has always dreamt of joining the  guild of mages known as Fairy Tail.  While searching for the guild, she meets up with Natsu Dragonil and Happy, a blue talking cat.  They are both members of Fairy Tail, though Lucy doesn’t know it at first.  They have a few adventures together, where Lucy shows him her magic.  She is a Stellar Spirit practitioner.  She collects keys that allow her to summon spirits from another world and make contracts with them.  The rarest of these keys are the gold Ecliptic Zodiac keys.  At the start, Lucy already has two; Aquarius and Taurus.  Natsu then invites Lucy to join the Fairy Tail guild, where the two are often paired together for assignments. Fairy Tail is a new series this year, and one I was hooked on from the first volume.  It’s a great action adventure title with lots of comedy as well.  Natsu is very much like Luffy or Goku.  He doesn’t care about a lot of things, but the things that he does, he cares a lot.  Lucy is very outgoing and determined.  The…

“On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Eleven Band Member Battle,” Rin Amami has a dream of becoming a singer like his mother, but it’s an impossible dream.  He has the voice of a frog.  He has all but given up on his dream until a chance meeting with a new boyband, the Beatmen and their manager rekindles his hopes.  He may possess the legendary Dragon Voice.  He begins training with the Beatmen, his abrasive personality causing problems, but some how they keep on climbing up the charts. Dragon Voice is a series I was late coming to, but I’m really glad I did!  A “male version of Jem and the Holograms” doesn’t even come close to doing it justice.  The characters have great personalities that don’t always mesh well, which only increases the fun.  The situations are a little outrageous, but with some of the Tokusatsu shows that have been seen recently, could a Voice Rangers really be that far out?  Dragon Voice also has one of the best volumes I’ve ever read.  In volume 7, there is a big battle of the bands between three groups; The Beatmen, Privee, and Baby Naked.  They…

“On the Tenth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Ten Inukami,” Keita Kawahira is from a family of Inukami tamers, people who contract with dog-spirits to vanquish evil, but he is considered a failure since he couldn’t make a contract with one.  One day, his grandmother and head of the clan, tells Keita that there is an Inukami that is willing to contract with him.  He goes to meet Yoko, a beautiful girl with green hair and a big, bushy gold tail.  He’s thrilled at first, until he finds out how difficult Yoko is to handle. Inukami is based on a series of light novels, and has only one volume out from Seven Seas so far, but I have high hopes for the manga after having seen the 2006 anime (in fansub only).  Inukami is not a harem manga.  It is closer in relation to a series like Urusei Yatsura.  It’s a romantic comedy about Keita and Yoko’s relationship.  She wants to be his girlfriend, but he has a roaming eye.  None of the other females want anything to do with Keita, not that Yoko will let him be with anyone.  She can shoot fire from her…

“On the Ninth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Nine Tails Fox Demon,” Naruto Uzumaki is a boy that lives in the Hidden Leaf Village.  He is a trouble maker and class clown at the Ninja academy he attends.  Even though he isn’t very good at ninjitsu, he is determined to become the best Ninja in the village and become it’s leader, Hokage.  But Naturo is shunned by the people of the village.  When he was a baby, a demon fox with nine tails attacked the village.  The demon was stopped and sealed inside of Naturo, but not before many people, including the then current 4th Hokage, were killed.  Naturo continues not only towards his goal of becoming the greatest ninja in Hidden Leaf Village, but to also overcome people’s prejudices toward him. Naruto is a wildly popular manga and anime.  I started reading it in Shonen Jump, though I’d seen it talked about over the internet for a while before that.  After reading a few chapters, I saw why it had garnered such a following.  It is a really well-written story.  There’s good character development, and even though this is a shonen fighting manga, the plot…

Want to know why the Japanese model of selling anthologies without back issues won’t work in the US?  This ebay auction is a pretty good indication.  With 2 hours to go, the winning bid is $91.00 for Yen Plus Volume 1 issue 2, which started out at $8.99.  Such outrageous extremes wouldn’t be happening if Yen Press had thought things through and had a plan for back issues.  I think this is a good indication of how uneven the distribution of Yen Plus is in brick and mortar stores.  I don’t think anyone in this economy would pay such a price if they were so readily available.  And Collectors want their collection complete, graphic novels coming out later or not. The auction ended, by the way, at $102.50.  That seller is going to have a happy Christmas.  I hope it was really worth it to the buyer.

“On the Eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Eight Dragon Priestess Guardians,” Akane Motomiya is walking to school, when she hears a voice calling to her from an old well.  When she goes to investigate, she is sucked into the well by Akuram, the oni leader who wants to control Akane and take over Kyou, a land that greatly resembles Kyoto of the Heian period.  Akane, it seems, is meant to be the Priestess of the Dragon God, and is given powers and eight Guardians to protect her.  Along with two her friends Shimon and Tenma, who were sucked in as well, she must protect Kyou from Akuma and his oni before they can return to their time. Yes, Haruka, Beyond the Stream of Time, another Shojo Beat title.  I really like this title, mostly because it happens in the Heian period.  I love the history and the costumes.  It also has dragons and other legendary creatures, which is another thing I love.  This title has gotten a lot of flack for being so derivative of Fushigi Yuugi, the title that originated the “girl goes back in time and is surrounded by a ton of bishonen”,…

I guess Viz has faith in their chapter books line. In the Naruto line, they already have 4 books out with more scheduled for release. And honestly, as reading material for young ages 5-8, the books haven’t been bad. They have stayed true to the manga, adding embellishments that are appropriate for young ages and uses panels from the manga for illustrations. I know this probably irks older readers who don’t like to see their favorite stories “dumbed down”, but with Naruto, and now this new series I’ve found, I don’t think it’s bad, especially as a parent. As I was searching Amazon for links for my previous post, I found this listing.  Dragon Ball (the first, actually good, half of the series) is getting made into Chapter books.  It’s not scheduled until August 2009, and there were at least 3 more set to follow this one.  Those didn’t have any cover pictures though. While Dragon Ball Z got all the hype, Dragon Ball, the part of the series that made it popular in the first place hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves.  The manga started here in the US when Viz was publishing floppy comics, before the graphic…

“On the Seventh Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Seven Dragon Balls,” Goku is a strange boy with a tail and super strength living by himself in the mountains.  One day, a girl named Bulma finds him while she is searching for a legendary object: a dragon ball.  If you collect all seven and call forth the dragon, he will grant you one wish.  Goku has one of the balls, left to him by his Grandfather.  He agrees to let Bulma borrow it, but wants to go along with her on her journey to make sure the dragon ball remains safe.  The pair then embark on a strange and exciting journey to collect the rest of the dragon balls, but they seem to have some competition. Dragon Ball (the original series, not Z) has the distinction of being the first manga I ever bought, in English or Japanese.  I was into Dragon Ball well before it became the phenomenon it did here.  And I never like Z.  I stopped picking up the manga when they started heading off into space.  The first 16 volumes are all I need.  Goku was cute and fun, with his clueless innocence. …

“On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a Six Girl Volleyball Team,” Tomboy Nobara Sumiyoshi has one passion in life; Volleyball.  Her mother, however, wants her to be the girlish hostess of the family’s ryotei (Old fashion Japanese restaurant).  Nobara runs away from home to try and fulfill her dream, but her mother tries to stop her, going so far as to try and force Nobara’s younger sister to take Nobara’s place.  The three make a deal; Nobara will play Volleyball until she graduates, when she will take over the ryotei, until then her younger siste will help out.  In the meantime, Nobara has to bring back the Girl’s Volleyball team at her chosen High School, Crimson High, and get the minimum required 6 girls to form a competitive team, all while playing dorm mother to the Boy’s Volleyball team. This is another series I found through Shojo Beat.  I wouldn’t be reading shojo manga if it wasn’t for Shojo Beat. I didn’t really like this title at first.  I’m not much for sports, and all the romantic drama that was thrown out at first didn’t really interest me.  It wasn’t until the title got…

As you can tell from my last post, I really like Saint Seiya, and not just the manga.  Saint Seiya also has an anime, and it’s where I was first introduced to the story.  One of the things that really pulled me into the series was the opening animation and music.  Here it is: Being a child of the eighties, I also really loved watching Transformers (G1 of course).  Apparently, other people share my loves, and one person, with a lot of talent (and time on their hands) has taken these two great things and made them great together!  I give you Saint Transformers!

“On the Fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Five Bronze Saints!” Long ago, the ancient Greek goddess Athena, had an army of warriors known as Saints.  They were young boys who trained to control their Cosmo, a power within, that allowed them to perform supernatural feats.  Thousands of years later, Athena has been reborn, and a new group of knights are training to earn cloths, or armor, and gain the honor to be one of her saints.  Seiya is one of these saints, who has one the Pegasus cloth and returns to Japan to compete for the prestigious gold cloth of Sagittarius.  But to win it, he must defeat the other returning bronze saints.  Shun, Shiryu, Hyoga and Ikki start out as rivals and enemies, but they soon become friends, and Athena’s staunchest protectors. Saint Seiya is an old passion from my first getting into manga and anime in the eighties.  There were no translations of either at the time, so when Viz announced the release of it in English, I had to have it!  I just had know what was going on in these stories!  Saint Seiya is a basic shonen fighting manga, with our…