Sawako Kuronuma is the perfect heroine…for a horror movie. With striking similarities to a haunting movie character–jet-black hair, sinister smile and silent demeanor–she’s mistakenly called Sadako by those around her. But behind her scary facade is a very misunderstood teenager. Too shy to fit in, all she wants to do is make some friends. But when the most popular boy in class befriends her, she’s sure to make more than just that–she’s about to make some enemies too! By Karuho Shiina Publisher: Viz Media Genre: Romance Age Rating: Teen Price: $8.99 I liked the first chapter preview of this title in Shojo Beat, and was glad that it lasted for the whole volume. Sawako is a victim of misunderstandings, which, thanks to Kazehaya, an outgoing and popular boy in her high school class, she starts trying to rectify. Her tentative reaching out to fellow classmates meets with some success, not everyone likes the attention she keeps getting from Kazehaya. The plot of this title seems cliché. The misunderstood shy girl who makes friends with the popular boy, and suddenly she’s popular too. But that’s not the draw of this title. It’s all about the characters. Sawako doesn’t try to be…
Yokai are mysterious, troublemaking spirits and demons that have tormented Japan for centuries. Kotoko’s grandfather exorcised them for a living, but Kotoko never thought that her family lineage was an asset. Then she meets Kuro, a yokai doctor. Yokai have doctors? Now Kotoko is learning firsthand that healing the yokai is a lot more challenging than getting rid of them! Originally reviewed by Dan Polley By Yuki Sato Publisher: Del Rey Manga Genre: Action, Science Fiction Rating: Older Teen (16+) Price: $10.99 Kotoko has a famous lineage: Her grandfather exorcised yokai — mysterious, trouble-making spirits and demons. She’s a 16-year-old student who had to perform to exorcise some of those demons when word about her background got out around school. So she pretended to do so, and got an ovation from her classmates. Kotoko manages to see some of Kuro Gokokuji’s actions, and he seems to be a bit erratic to her. For everyone else, Kuro is a loner, but to Kotoko, he has some connection to the yokai; she sees that he is affected by them. Finally, she corners him on the rooftop of the school and let’s him understand that she knows that he can see the yokai….
Kenji wrote “The Book of Prophecy” in his boyhood. Now this childish fantasy has become the scenario for the Friend’s fiendish plot to destroy mankind. Kenji goes underground and waits for a chance to fight back.Meanwhile, the evil organization is closing in on a man called Shogun in the ganglands of Bangkok. The mystery grows deeper, the fear more intense, as we near the final battle at the turn of the century… Is there really any way to save the world from annihilation? Originally reviewed by Matthew Rozier By Naoki Urasawa Publisher: Viz Media-Viz Signature Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Mystery/Drama ISBN: 9781421519234 Price: $12.99 Volume 4 of Naoki Urasawa’s suspense thriller 20th Century Boys continues to chug right along, delving further into the exploits the Bangkok-residing, grizzled Japanese man known only as “Shogun.” Who is he really? What is his role in all of this? The answers are contained within. It is now summer of the year 2000. Wait, what? It is 2000 already? The world is supposed to end in December 2000, right? [The time skip from 1997 to 2000 happened in the latter stages of volume 3.] Four volumes into the series and there are supposedly only…
Weight loss is the American ideal. It stands as one of the few things that all Americans look up to, and has the same “American-ness” to it like apple pie and baseball. People are always trying to lose weight in America, because many people in America are obese or health-crazed. Weight loss tends to be an almost magical thing, and people will try all sorts of absurd things to remove pounds. They eat nothing but protein, drink soymilk and vegetable juice three times a day, and exercise insane amounts just to fit into that smaller dress size or waist measurement. By Toshio Okada Publisher: Veritcal Inc. Genre: Memoir/Health ISBN: 9781934287422 Price: $14.95 So, here it is – I received Sayonara, Mr. Fatty! at a pretty critical time. My doctor had just informed me that I needed to lose weight to keep my blood pressure down and to make sure that my organs continued to function well. He had warned me about the long-term consequences of being overweight, including heart disease and diabetes. I was at 215 lbs, and I knew that I could lose weight, but I didn’t know how. I’m not super athletic, and I don’t care for stupid…
Kekkaishi is one of the more under appreciated titles when it comes to shonen manga. With wildly popular series like Naruto and Bleach out there, it is not surprising that other quality titles will get lost in the pile, and Kekkaishi is an unfortunate example of this. With crisp, attractive artwork — some of the best artwork one will find in a shonen manga — endearing characters and a rock-solid plot, what is keeping people from giving this series the recognition it deserves? Now that Viz Media has licensed Sunrise’s anime adaptation, perhaps Kekkaishi will finally fulfill its potential to be a real hit. Originally reviewed by Matthew Rozier By Yellow Tanabe Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Shonen, Fantasy, Supernatural Price: $9.99 In usual shonen style, volume 18 picks up directly where the cliffhanger ending of volume 17 left off and quickly resolves the previous story arc. Before moving on to the next arc, Masamori assigns Sen to spy on his younger brother Yoshimori. Sen enrolls at Yoshimori and Tokine’s school. Yoshimori soon becomes concerned about Sen’s standoffish attitude, while Sen is more concerned about succeeding at his mission. Just when both of them are beginning to make the…
Asuka takes Ryo to an amusement park where he plans to confess his feelings to her. Too bad all the rides Ryo wants to go on frighten Asuka! Can he overcome his fear for the sake of love?
“Since you may die at anytime…your civic duty is to live as well as you can.” Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is a new manga from Viz, and despite the dark premise, this new series has some bright surprises. By Mase Motoro Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: M for Mature Genre: Drama Price: 12.99 USD At some point in the future the Japanese government issued the National Welfare Act. This is a three-tiered government program that immunizes all children, but one-in-one-thousand will be infected with a nanocapsule that will open up sometime between the age of 18 and 24 and kill the carrier. The thinking is this program will improve people’s value of life. As a result suicides go down and the birthrate goes up. Our “hero” is Fujimoto, a young man who has survived his 24th year and is recruited as an ikigami delivery man. An ikigami (literally “death paper”) is notice delivered to Welfare Act victims 24 hours before the nanocapsule initiates heart failure. I put hero in quotes as Fujimoto at least initially hardly questions the obvious moral ambiguity of the government program that now employs him. This first volume is divided into two stories (and it appears…
Towering above the sleepy village of Tepes are ancient ruins once erected by the Nobility. One day, four of the town’s children wander into the ruins and vanish without a trace, only to mysteriously reappear a few weeks later. But only three return, bearing no memory of what had happened to them. Adapted by Saiko Takaki; Story by Hideyuki Kikuchi Publisher: Digital Manga Publishers Age Rating: 16+ Genre: Horror ISBN: 9781569707876 Price: $12.95 Ten years later, a new breed of vampire emerges; one which can seemingly hunt during the daytime. Losing the safety daylight offers, panic and mass hysteria begins to grip the townspeople–inciting riots and lynch-mobs. Amidst the turmoil, the enigmatic vampire slayer known only as “D” is called in to investigate. Can he solve the mystery of the walking dead’s newfound powers and unravel the truth behind the missing children’s connection to the secret of the ruins? After all the action in the first volume for this series, volume 2 pulls back a little, letting D flex his brain more than his brawn. There’s a lot more talk than taking of heads, mostly about the nature of the Nobility. Those who like more variety in their manga will…
Series Description: “The son of a famous pianist, music student Shinichi Chiaki dreams of studying abroad and becoming a conductor like his mentor. Unfortunately, his fear of flying grounds his lofty plans! As he watches other classmates achieve what he has always wanted, Shinichi wonders if he should quit music altogether. “Then one day he meets fellow student Megumi Noda, also known as Nodame. This oddball girl cannot cook, clean, or even read a music score, but she can play the piano in incomparable Cantabile style. And she teaches Chiaki something that he has forgotten: to enjoy his music, no matter where he is.” By Tomoko Ninomiya Publisher: Del Rey Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Romance Price: $10.99 Several weeks ago my local comics shop finally put chunks of their older, gathering-dust manga on sale. There were boxes and boxes of manga from the last decade or so, plenty of stuff that really should be consigned to quarter bins, or given away as a promotional tool, anything just to flush them from inventory. But there were some gems there. I picked up the elusive second volume of Bakune Young, a fantastic series from Viz’s sadly defunct PULSE imprint. I also…
Black Jack is a shonen manga created by Osamu Tezuka. It’s about an unlicensed doctor what lives and works in the underworld. A “scalpel for hire”, he will take on any surgery, anytime, anywhere, for anyone that is willing to pay his price. It’s an episodic series, with each chapter being a self-contained story about some situation Black Jack gets involved in. Much like most TV shows, there’s no origin story or over-arching plot to follow. By Osamu Tezuka Publisher: Vertical, Inc. Age Rating: Teen+ Genre: Medical Drama Price: $16.95 Black Jack’s background itself is a mystery. Though, throughout these volumes, we meet people from his past that lets us start to piece his story together. The Doctor that saved him and became his inspiration to become a doctor himself. The boy that reminds him of his own rehabilitation. The boyhood friend that donated skin to Jack that gave him his distinctive facial coloring. The stories are scattered, so that in order to get the whole story on Black Jack you have to read them all. The stories aren’t linear either, as some chapters in volume 2 have Pinoko being able to cook properly, while other stories in volume 3…