Yayoi – the 78th Head of Household of the Suzuka Clan – is a mystic with a tremendous power over the spirits. Of course, along with great power comes those with the desire to steal it! Enter Ura, who wants to become the King of the Demons. He comes to the human world to challenge Yayoi, but ends up stripped of his powers – and is sealed away as a black cat instead! Although Ura is still hell-bent on “eating” Yayoi’s power, the unlikely pair find themselves caught up in an adventure they never imagined! By Mizuho Kusanagi Publisher: Tokyopop Genre: Fantasy/Romance Age Rating: T (13+) Price: $14.99 A fantasy series for teen girls, Mugen Spiral is composed mostly of one-shot stories that involve Yayoi defeating demons with the help of Ura, a demon she seals away in cat and/or human form until he needs to bail her out. It’s better than it sounds, since the stoic and very powerful Yayoi isn’t the type of heroine that needs to be rescued often, and Ura is a very unlikely white knight. It’s also mercifully light on both zany gags and dark melodrama, two extremes that fantasy series tend to get caught…
“I don’t know what kind of history you two have got… but Anzai was really happy at the thought that he was going to get to play ball with you, Wakamiya.” By Nanao Okuda Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Genre: BL/yaoi Age Rating: M/Mature/18+ Price: $13.95 Ah, sports: hotbeds of drama, competition, and sublimated homoeroticism. Name a sport, and there’s probably a manga about it, if not more than one; in the case of basketball, one of those manga is The Object of My Affection, though as you might have guessed from the genre label, the basketball is less the focus of the stories than an excuse to bring the main characters together. The collection begins with four linked one-shots, “Desolate Days”, “Favorite”, “Cellular Trap” and “Another Day With You”. These stories cover the beginnings of a romance between Wakamiya, an eager freshman and new member of Kanan University’s basketball team, and Anzai, a junior who was Wakamiya’s idol back when he was in middle school due to his outstanding basketball skills. Wakamiya discovers that Anzai never turns up for practice, and learns from Anzai’s childhood friend that Anzai has suffered an injury that will prevent him from ever playing basketball…
For all Kyousuke’s resistance to Tena and her bossy ways, he seems to have settled in quite nicely to being a sort of househusband to her and the other tuners. But while Mezzo and Sopra have agreed not to collect Kyousuke’s viral notes, there’s no telling what might happen if he meets yet another tuner! So when Kyousuke runs into Arun, an elite tuner at the top of her class, could this spell the end of his musical aspirations . . . and his life!? By Sesuna Mikabe Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Seinen Price: $10.99 Sesuna Mikabe’s Tena on S-String revolves around a tuner named Tena and her “slave” Kyosuke. Tena is a spoiled and bossy tuner that has Kyosuke wrapped around her little finger. Kyosuke is Tena’s “slave” and essentially takes care of her and two of her other tuner friends. Kyosuke, the male lead, is an aspiring musician and composer. In this 2nd volume of the series just when Kyosuke thinks he has enough dealing with tuners 24/7, dealing with the bratty Tena both in and out of his home, he runs into another tuner! Despite what the quick synopsis may claim I didn’t…
Being a guy that’s aging, and probably faster than my inner-child would like to admit, I enjoy it when a comic book caters to me as an adult. While this is rapidly becoming the policy in mainstream comics, where the entire readership is a bunch of 30 year-old man-children, manga published in the USA generally tends to hit the 13-18 crowd. The most popular titles are from Shonen and Shojo anthologies, weekly magazines that target younger children. Let’s just say that Naruto, while interesting, isn’t written for 23 year-olds. By Housui Yamazaki Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Age Rating: 18+ Genre: Horror Price: $10.95 Seinen manga, or manga for men, is a little scarce, but Dark Horse is one of the few publishers that bucks the trend; the majority Dark Horse’s manga in print are seinen works. Thankfully, the publishing house does an admirable job with their manga. Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Oh! My Goddess, Eden, and Gantz are all for mature readers, and they’re all great series. One of DH’s shorter manga installments is a three-volume horror collection by mangaka Housui Yamazaki (the illustrator for Kurosagi). In it, he tells the story of the vengeful dead, delivering their hate as…
“Ha! As if you could keep from causing trouble!” “Urk! Y-you’re right… but I can promise you a life full of excitement, though!” By Kaoru Tada Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: T/Teen/13+ Genre: Shoujo/romance/comedy Price: $15.95 Itazura na Kiss sounds like it would be very much the opposite of my kind of thing. Shoujo romantic comedies tend to bore me unless they have some extra element in the mix (like, say, vampires, or ninjas, or robots, or… well, you get the picture). I get impatient with characters who are too dim to figure out what’s going on when it’s obvious to the reader. What’s more, I have a low tolerance for vicarious embarrassment — when a fictional character is humiliated or embarrassed, I get embarrassed right alongside them, and it often gets so bad that I can’t keep reading or watching because I’m cringing too hard. It seemed from the reviews that the plot of Itazura na Kiss mostly revolved around the main character being hideously humiliated again and again, and that made me think it would be painful to read. But despite all those reservations, so many people were so enthusiastic about the series that I decided to…
Global warming, animal rights, organic foods, military conflict, school funding, balanced national budgets, urban development; all of these buzz word topics cause a lot of discussion and argument in political circles. I imagine that many others, like me, have said, “What would I do differently if I were in charge and could make decisions?” It’s a daydream that I visit constantly. The struggle for power is one that dominates people’s lives and fills their imaginations. As Tears for Fears so eloquently puts it, “Everybody wants to rule the world.” By Megumi Osuga Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen+ Genre: Mystery/Drama Price: $9.99 But what would you do to rule the world? What is right and wrong, and what sacrifices will you have to make to ensure your vision reaches completion? That question is the central theme that runs between the covers of Viz Media’s latest Shonen Sunday book, Maoh: Juvenile Remix. Longtime residents of Nekota City are troubled by rapid modernization. It threatens old ways, promises to destroy current businesses. Progress is correlated with corruption. Up until now, though, no one has stood against the strip-mall building, profits-checking businessmen who threaten to destroy the traditional Nekota City way of life….
“If there really are two minds inside his body, then they’re both the real one. Saying that one is fake is twisted.” By Tooko Miyagi Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Genre: BL/yaoi Age Rating: YA/young adult/16+ Price: $12.95 Il Gatto Sul G deals with topics so often covered in manga as to be virtually clichéd: childhood abuse, multiple personalities, youthful ambitions, love triangles. It could very easily have turned into a godawful melodrama or a trivialisation of some very serious issues; indeed, I’m so used to certain issues being trivialised in manga (especially BL manga, where artists often dispense with realism the better to indulge their whims) that I tend to let it slide, filtering out the more offensive elements in otherwise satisfactory stories. Throughout my reading of Il Gatto Sul G, I held back a little, leery of trusting Miyagi to handle the difficult subject matter with enough delicacy and respect; but I needn’t have worried. Miyagi approaches her story with all the care necessary to do it justice, and the end result is deeply moving. As befits its title, Il Gatto Sul G is a stray cat story, beginning when college student Atsushi Ikeda finds a teenage boy unconscious…
Kaname Otonashi is gifted with a super-hearing ability, so much so that he can even hear voices from the “other side”…the dead. Having once worked as a top-notch detective specializing in Sound Engineering Investigation, Otonashi resigned to work as a private investigator. His partner, Yasuhide, aka Hide, collaborates with the police department to take on unsolved and mysterious cases. Surrounded by a string of mysterious deaths, the police turn to Kaname’s findings to identify suspects…but can Kaname handle the non-stop screaming of the dead? By Youka Nitta Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: 16+ Genre: Drama Price: $12.95 Otodama: Voices of the Dead is a detective buddy story with a supernatural twist. It’s premise of the voices of the dead remaining behind long after the deed has become a staple in ghost investigations, but to this title’s credit, the voices of the dead don’t solve the cases as much as Otonashi’s abilities and Nagatsuna’s determination do. Otodama is about two men. Kaname Otonashi is a former researcher at the National Police Research Institute where he specialized in aural forensics. He analyzed sounds and recordings for clues to help in cases. Otonashi has very acute hearing. He can hear things others…
Souka and her recently divorced mother move to a new place to start over. In looking for a school to enroll in, Souka decides to leave her preppy, private high school behind and transfers into a technical high school. To her surprise, she’s the only girl student in the entire school! The first day of school is nothing like she ever imagined — boys crashing through the window, fighting for all they are worth. One day, the school’s current “Bancho” (a term for a gang leader) ambushes Souka. Determined to protect her, Yu, one of the classmates, comes to her rescue, but Yu ends up in a struggle. Trying to help, Souka swings her book bag and ends up taking down the Bancho herself! What Souka didn’t know was that when someone takes down the class’ leader, you became the leader of that class. This wasn’t a role she was expecting for herself, but will she be able to relinquish it? By Mayu Fujikata Publisher: CMX Age Rating: Teen Genre: Romance/Comedy Price: $9.99 Mayu Fujikata’s debut manga My Darling! Miss Bancho is a lighthearted high school comedy that takes place in a technical high school. Souka moves with her single…
Darren and Mr. Crepsley embark on a dangerous trek to the very heart of the vampire world. Will a meeting with the Vampire Princes restore Darren’s human side or turn him further toward the darkness? Only one thing is certain — Darren’s initiation into the vampire clan is deadlier than he ever could have imagined! Written by Darren Shan; Illustrated by Takahiro Arai Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Teen Genre: Action/Horror Price: $10.99 Cirque Du Freak is based on a series of young adult novels of the same title. It’s a vampire story, but with a difference, it’s geared more for boys than girls. So there’s more action and adventure, and next to no romance and angst. This volume gets into the background of the Vampire race; their history, politics, and the Vampaneze problem. This volume doesn’t waste much time in getting to the action. It’s been six years since the last volume, and Darren and Mr. Crepsley, his mentor, are on a perilous journey to Vampire Mountain, the home of the Vampires, where the leaders, the Vampire Princes meet once every 12 years. The trek is difficult, and must be done with no tools, simple clothes and not even…