These mini musings are meant to be quick reviews of manga of ongoing series, mostly titles I follow on a regular basis and don’t really need the full analysis I usually give a volume. Enjoy. Reviews after the cut.
Nana From: Viz Pictures Directed by Kentaro Otani Running Time: 114 min Rating: Not Rated/PG suggested Japanese Language/English Subtitles Rating: Based on the popular manga by Ai Yazawa, NANA follows the adventures of two girls both named Nana. While they share the same name, they couldn’t be more different. Nana “Hachi” Komatsu follows her boyfriend to Tokyo in the hopes of making a new start, while Nana Osaki, who arrives in the city at the same time, is a punk rock beauty who has the ambition of making it big in the world of rock and roll. Although these two young women come from different backgrounds, they quickly become best friends while chasing their happiness and dreams. I wasn’t feeling well last Friday, and took a rare day off from work. Fortunately for me, I had received the Nana the Movie DVD just a few days before, so I had something to help while away the time between medicines. Review after the cut.
Well, I said I wasn’t going to read my Shonen Jumps until I got caught up with Naruto, which I did. So, I felt it was time to catch up with the issues that were piling up. Reviews after the cut.
I thought I’d point out some things in the latest Previews catalog that might slip through the cracks, but are of interest to the mangasphere. Previews after the cut.
Gon: Volume 2 By Masashi Tanaka Publisher: CMX Genre: Action/Adventure Rating: Teen Price: $5.99 Rating: Storyline: Gon meets many animals, which were a Giant Tortoise, a Shark, Buffalo, a Hard Tick, a Warthog, Baboons, an Elephant, a Hedgehog, a Squirrel Monkey, a Tamandua, an Ocelot, and a whole bunch of Penguins! What I liked: I liked it when Gon chased the squirrel. I liked how angry Gon was drawn. I also liked how Gon played with the Penguins. What I didn’t like: I hated it when Gon gave one piece of a banana to the Shark and how he behaved. It was a bit violent. Would you recommend this to kids your age? Yes. It’s not too violent and Gon is cute!
Dragon Drive Volume 4 By Kenichi Sakura Publisher: Viz Media Genre: Fantasy Rating: All Ages Price: $7.99 Rating: Storyline The three heroes are in Yaudim, the most dangerous place in Rikyu, eating. Reiji is ready to go into the first round in the tournament when they meet Taiyo. He’s the Reigning Champion Sun Wols, and he’s waiting in the second round. After saving Maiko, they head back to their hotel. The next morning, a team of rookies have beaten Taiyo. Reiji gets extremely pumped. Review This one was awesome. I liked Taiyo and the way Reiji and Hikaru battled. Rokkaku was also funny, how he loved to drink and party. The flashbacks got me looking at them again and again. What I liked about it It was cute. Rokkakku’s flashback was so funny as his friend picked on him. Taiyo was pretty good as well. What I didn’t like Not even uno. (one, for those who can’t read Spanish.) What you could do to make it better Nada. (nothing) Is this suitable for children? There’s blood in it, but yes, yes it is.
Eagle: The Making Of An Asian-America President Volume 1 By Kaiji Kawaguchi Publisher: Viz Comics Genre: Political Drama Age Rating: Teen+ (16+) Price: $19.95 Rating: With the 2008 Election coming up, I thought it would be interesting to read Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President and see how the Japanese view of our election system stacks up to the real thing while it’s going on. It’s turned out to be an interesting comparison with the way the Democratic side has shaken out. Eagle follows the Senator Kenneth Yamaoka, a democrat from New York, as he decides to throw his hat into the ring before the New Hampshire Primary. Takashi Jo, our protagonist, has been asked by the Yamaoka campaign to be the Japanese correspondant, and follow the campaign. This volume follows Yamaoka from his declaration to Primary night. There is some drama involved in this as well, and I’ll get to that in a moment. What I want to do first is to look at Yamaoka as compared to the current Democratic candidates, particularly Barack Obama. Kenneth Yamaoka and Barack Obama are both young senators of mixed heritage. Yamaoka is a Japanese-American, and Barack is an African-American. Both are…
Manami doesn’t know a thing about “Chaos”, a popular trading card game at school. Wanting to learn more about the game, she purchases a beginner’s set that contains “Sahgan the Sorcerer”, rarest of all Chaos cards. Now, not only does every fanatical Chaos player around challenge her, but she also starts having visions of Sahgan himself! King of Cards Volume 1 By Makoto Tateno Publisher: CMX Genre: Fantasy/Romance Age Rating: Teen Price: $9.99/OOP Rating: There are a lot of manga titles about games available, but this series differentiates itself from the rest by relying more on its characters than on the mechanics of the game. Manami just wanted to learn to play “Chaos,” so she could play with her cousin Tamotsu. But things become more complicated when her beginner’s set come with the rarest card in the game, Sahgan the Sorcerer. And as you might expect from a game series, she is then beset with challenges from players that all want to win Sahgan from her. And like all those other manga, she wins all the challenges. But what makes this series different is that Manami stays true to why she started playing Chaos; to have fun. Being a beginner…
I don’t know if it’s just me, or if I’m the only person left reading this manga, and I don’t want to beat on CMX, since they have been making inroads for bringing out new, good manga, but this has really been bothering me. One of the series’ CMX is releasing is King of Cards, a kind of shojo version of Yu Gi Oh!, but not really. It’s a good series, with enough tweaks to make it different from the other card game manga. Well, I finally got around to reading Volume 2. I got about 2/3 of the way through the book, right at the climax of the main game of the book. It’s the page where the heroine stands up, proclaiming “I Win!”, but her opponent just smirks and…it immediately repeats the last 20 pages, coming back to that same page, but on the next page the action picks up several more pages in! I have no idea what happened! Why Manami didn’t win! Why she and her cousin were looking at playing her opponent again!!! Why?! Why right there?!?! King of Cards: Volume 2 I stopped reading, since is seemed kind of pointless to go on without…
Zombie Loan Volume 1 By Peach Pit Publisher: Yen Press Genre: Supernatural/Action Rating: Older Teen Price: $10.99 Rating: Michiru Kita’s a weak-spirited girl who has a hard time saying what’s on her mind. One day, she notices mysterious, ring-like markings around the necks of two of her classmates, Chika Akatsuki and Shito Tachibana-two boys who miraculously survived a horrible accident six months ago. Michiru, possessing the rare ability to see these rings, knows that they warn of impending death. Thinking that, perhaps, she can do something to save her classmates’ lives, she approaches them…but it seems the boys have already make a different kind of deal and garnered themselves a heavy debt. Shinigami eyes, black rings that appear around necks that foretell of impending death, zombies that eat human flesh, two hot guys, one with a sword and the other with a gun, that hunt the zombies and release their souls. Sounds like an exciting story, right? Too bad this volume didn’t play out that way.
When Soah’s impoverished, desperate village decides to sacrifice her to the Water God Habaek to end a long drought, they believe that drowning one beautiful girl will save their entire community and bring much-needed rain. Not only is Soah surprised to be rescued by the Water God-instead of killed-she never imagined she’d be a welcomed guest in Habaek’s magical kingdom, where an exciting new life awaits her! Most surprising, however, is the Water God himself…and how very different he is from the monster Soah imagined. Bride of the Water God Volume 1 By Mi-Kyung Yun Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Genre: Fantasy/Romance Rating:Teen Price: $9.99 Rating: It’s a journey through Wonderland, Korean style, as we follow Soah’s adventures in the land of the gods. Will she find happiness with her new husband, the Water God Habaek, or does a worse fate await her? As serious as all that sounds, Bride of the Water God is a good mix of comedy and drama. Although the romance hasn’t really started yet, you can see it in filtering through slowly. Habaek and Soah are essentially strangers that have been put together in this “arranged” marriage. There are plenty of missteps and misunderstandings, some humorous,…
I was going to do this as “11 Naturo Volumes in 11 Days”, but so much goes on in these volumes, it was really hard to stop. I had to keep finding out what was going to happen in the next volume, so after reading 5 volumes during the week, over the weekend I finished the last 6. And, I said I wasn’t going to read any Shonen Jumps with the new arc until I finished the first. My Shonen Jumps are piling up now. It wasn’t as difficult as it sounds. The last 6 volumes, 21-26, is really one big chase. Volumes 17-20 was the set up for next 7. Naruto and Jiraiya are searching for Tsunade, the last of the Legendary Ninja. So is Orochimaru. After a lot of posturing, the Legendary Ninja face off, and though Orochimaru is thwarted, he is far from defeated. He decides it’s time to replace his body, and his chosen replacement is Sasuke. Sasuke becomes easy pickings for Orochimaru, as he first fails to even come close to defeating his older brother, and then sees how far Naruto has progress under Jiraiya’s teachings. So when Orochimaru’s underlings offer him power, he takes…