Fairy Idol Kanon Volume 1 By Mera Hakamada Publisher: Udon Entertainment Age Rating: All Ages Genre: Magical Girl/Fantasy Price: $7.99 Rating: Can a regular girl become a superstar celebrity? Kanon is an ordinary fourth grader who loves to sing more than anything else. When a magical fairy princess named Alto meets Kanon and decides to help start her singing career, their journey to fame takes off! Friendship and magic combine in this cute musical story! Fairy Idol Kanon is another title aimed directly at girls. Singing, fashion, stardom and fairies all make this the perfect title for young girls. Almost too perfect. It’s a safe story with all the messages that parents and teachers will love, while the girls will love the magic and bits of drama.
Lunar Legend Tsukihime is about Shiki Tohno. Eight years ago, he was in an accident that left him weakened, and with a mysterious power. He can see the hidden lines, or death lines, in all things, organic or inanimate. By cutting along these lines, he can destroy or kill anything, or anyone. While in the hospital he meets a woman who claims she is a magician, and gives him some special glasses that make it so he can’t see the lines as long as he wears them. After recovering, Shiki was sent away from the main Tohno family home to live with relatives. Now, after the death of his father, his younger sister Akiha has asked him to live in the big house again with her. Shiki accepts, but on his way home from school the same day he is to move in, he sees a woman in the park. Something seems to take over him, and he cuts the woman into several pieces. Then he faints. He awakens the next day, in his new home. Believing the events from the day before a dream, he goes to school, and meets the woman again, who then berates him for killing her….
Mamotte! Lollipop Volume 4 By Michiyo Kikuta Publisher: Del Rey Manga Age Rating: Teen Genre: Romance Price: $10.95 Rating: The Magic Exams have arrived and changes are on the way. Nina will no longer have the cute boys Zero and Ichi to look after her. What’s a girl to do–perhaps go out for a lollipop? But which flavor should she choose? It’s the end of the Magic Exams, and everyone and their brother (or sister) is after Zero and Ichi. Nina finally gets the potion to remove the Crystal Pearl, but because she doesn’t want to be separated from Zero and Ichi, chooses not to drink it. She has second thoughts as the competition stiffens. She stays with them to end though, with new complications arising. The light-hearted romance of the last volume gets tossed out the window, as the final days of the Magic Exam grow closer. The first half of this volume shows that the Magic Exam isn’t supposed to the game the first three volumes made it out to be. Examinees get tougher, and no one is pulling punches. The entire end of the Magic Exam feels completely different from the story so far, and very out…
Phantom Volume 5 By Ki-Hoon Lee/Seung-Yup Cho Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Action/Mecha Price: $9.99 ISBN: 9-781598-167740 Rating: K and his team, after their all-out battle against Iron, are left battered and bloody. Dison calls in the Solbalow, Athena’s flying aircraft carrier to evacuate the crew when they’re suddenly under attack by Iron forces. They barely manage to escape to their base in Guam. Once he awakens, K is told where his power came from, apparently the Meteor Shower wasn’t actually a meteor shower, it was a shower of alien nano-symbiotes that invade the human body and grow in the brain. Those who cannot handle their symbiote die, the others can develop special powers, like K’s ability to imitate or react to anyone else’s battle tactics. Dison and Eaimi, on the other hand, are products of Iron’s Ice Project, altered human beings just like the female cyborg found by Eric. We jump ahead one year and the tide has turned against Iron. Repeated attacks by Athena and Rynus Corporation have cost them not only land but public opinion but Iron has a few tricks up it’s sleeve. First, the return of Colonel Kas Stein, now a cyborg in his…
The Big Adventures of Majoko Volume 1 By Tomomi Mizuna Publisher: Udon Entertainment Age Rating: All Ages Genre: Fantasy Price: $7.99 ISBN: 1897376812 Rating: While cleaning her room, a young girl named Nana finds a mysterious diary. As soon as she opens it, out pops Majoko, a rambunctious wizard girl from the Land of Magic! Together, these two girls explore a fantastic world full of magic spells, wondrous creatures, and endless surprises. Every day is a big adventure when Majoko is around! The Big Adventures of Majoko has ever thing to please a young girl; easy to relate to characters and stories that are filled with fun and adventure. The simplistic and self-contained stories are perfect for the emerging to chapters reader, but don’t expect to see it in the hands of many over the age of 10.
Gimmick! Volume 1 By Youzaburou Kanari Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: T+ (Older Teens) Genre: Action Price: $9.99 ISBN: 1-4215-1778-7 Rating: In 1986, the movie F/X, starring Bryan Brown as special effects maestro Rollie Tyler and Brian Dennehy as Lt. Leo McCarthy came out, followed by F/X 2 in 1991. It was so popular that they made a TV series out of it in 1996 which ran for 40 episodes. Now we get the manga adaptation… wait, it isn’t? Could have fooled me. Gimmick is the story of Kohei Nagase and his crew at Studio Gimmick, a small special effects house that seemingly does work for just about everyone. Kohei is a makeup wizard that can do just about anything with his silver spatula and people come to him from far and wide for his expertise. Kohei and his sidekick, stuntman Kannazuki, move from job to job, and rescue the odd actress along the way, as Kohei tries to become the ultimate special effects man. It’s really impossible not to compare Gimmick to F/X, especially when in the back of the manga, Youzaborou Kanari tries desperately to take credit for the whole idea. He says he came up with the…
Mamotte! Lollipop Volume 3 By Michiyo Kikuta Publisher: Del Rey Manga Genre: Romance, Comedy Age Rating: Teen 13+ Price: $10.99 ISBN: 0-345-49667-6 Rating: Nina’s in love – but who’s the lucky boy? After all, what girl could choose between Zero and Ichi? They’re both wizards, and they’re both supercute! When a matchmaking witch slips Nina a love potion, will the magic spell help Nina choose her soul mate? It’s almost been six months since Nina swallowed the Crystal Pearl and the end of the magic exam is fast approaching. Examinees are still popping in, and Nina still can’t decide between Zero and Ichi. But it’s not like everyone isn’t trying to help her along… This volume starts with a staple of romance plots; the love potion. Nina accidentally pours it into lunch and everyone but Ichi falls for her. Only the kiss from someone who’s had the potion can break it, so she has to kiss Zero? Then Zero’s “fiancé” becomes an examinee just to try and get Zero to love her and puts a spell on him and Nina that will turn them into animals unless Zero agrees to go back with her. The last chapters have Nina getting…
Being carried around everywhere and having handsome Megumi act like a slave may seem ideal, but Suzuka just wishes he would stop. Can anything be done about Megumi’s captive state? Or is Megumi doomed to see Suzuka as his master…forever? Captive Hearts Volume 1 By Matsuri Hino Publisher: Viz Media – Shojo Beat Age Rating: Teen (13+) Genre: Romance/Comedy Price: $8.99 Rating: Long ago, a thief named Kuroneko-maru stole a family heirloom of a samurai family, the “Scroll of the Rising Dragon”. When he tried to read it, the guardian dragon appeared and cursed Kuroneko and all of his descendants to a life of servitude to the Kogami family. Megumi Kuroishi, a descendant of Kuroneko, has lived most of his life not knowing about the curse, as the Kogami family was believed dead in China while on a trip. But, the daughter of the Kogami, Suzuka, appears and returns, and the curse kicks in, making for much comedy and the stirrings of some romance…maybe? Captive Hearts is first and foremost a comedy. Megumi’s sudden “Manservant fits” can be funny, hitting him suddenly, and making him obsess over Suzuka even when he’s not with her. Reverting him back to normal usually…
St. Lunatic High School Volume 1 By Majiko! Publisher: Tokyopop Rating: Teen Genre: Horror/Comedy Price: $9.99 Rating: ISBN: 1-59816-944-7 Forced to attend the prestigious St. Lunatic High School, Niko Kanzaki discovers a haunting secret in her demon-filled night-classes! She applies higher learning to find out the differences between humans and demons, but the handsome and mysterious Ren shows her that the races also share some things in common… When I read in Previews that the mangaka of this series also wrote the manga adaptation of Code Geass, I was excited to read this series. Code Geass is an awesome story. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it sure wasn’t this… Tokyopop once again uses the genre horror for this series, very inappropriately. There is nothing horrific about this series. It might have helped if it had. Niko and her brother Atchan are poor. But Atchan gets a job teaching at the prestigious St. Lunatic High School, so they think their worries are over. Think again. One rundown apartment is skipped out on for a rundown shed on the school’s grounds. And the night classes that Niko gets to attend? Full of demons. None of them look normal, except…
Orange Crows Volume 1 By: James Perry II and Ryo Kawakami Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Fantasy Price: $10.99 Rating: Five years ago, a young witch named Cierra broke the one unforgivable law of the witch society: attempting to create her own magic. Her unlawful tampering burned down a research room and injured the Mayor’s daughter, Cierra’s best friend. As punishment, she was exiled to the Wilderness, a barren wasteland crawling with witch-devouring Fairies and the bloodthirsty Forsaken…After surviving for five ruthless years, her exile has now ended, and she has been ushered back to civilization, only to discover that the world around her has changed greatly. Will Cierra be able to adjust back to a society that abandoned her? And if her freakish new ability that links her to the terrifying Fairies is discovered, she may not be let off with mere exile this time… Orange Crows is a new OEL manga from Tokyopop. I really knew nothing about it, and the cover didn’t intrigue me in anyway, but with a link to read the whole volume for free coming in my email, I decided to check it out.
Being a reviewer isn’t as easy as it sounds. Sure, anyone can write “That manga sucks”, or “This manga totally rules!”. But to thoughtfully read a book and then put down into words not just your feelings about the book, but do it in an interesting and intelligent way that people will want to read is a lot harder than it sounds. Being too subjective: Yes, I am writing a review and giving my personal opinion about the title. But at the same time, I don’t want to go all “fan girl” either, and just go on and on about how much I like the title. I want to give enough information for readers to have a basic idea what the title is about, while at the same time expressing my likes and dislikes. If I really like a title, I will go on more about what I consider it’s good points, but it’s hard some times not to become a cheerleader for a title. That’s appropriate for a blog post, not a review. On the other side of the coin…
Zombie Powder Volume 2 By Tite Kubo Publisher: Viz Media; Shonen Jump Advanced Rating: T+ (Older Teen) Genre: Action Price: $7.99 Rating: We meet Wolfina Lalla Getto, a self-described “journalist of justice” who has been responsible for toppling various criminal organizations in her illustrious career. She’s got a peculiar choice of weapons, a camera tripod, with which she is very effective. However, when Gamma Akutabi rescues her from a camera-shoot gone wrong, he gets the idea that she might know where one of the Rings of the Dead might be, especially when he finds out that her younger brother Emilio lies in a coma, the sure sign, he thinks, of their knowlege of the rings. Supposedly, the Rings of the Dead can turn innocent victims into mindless vegetables by feeding off their life force.