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...
“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 ...
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 mysteri...
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 sch...
There are some comics that defy example and expectation. Take for example, Chew, an American book written by John Layman with art by Rob Guillory. It has a fairly simple premise, but it manages to be a book of suspense, mystery, action, and sometimes a bit of horror. And it’s freaking hilarious. All these different traits make it a great comic book, but don’t necessarily make it easy to classify. In some sense, that’s...
I think I’m forming a love-hate relationship with this series. I didn’t care for the first volume. I thought the characters and story were too stereotypical for a supernatural romance to ever really get interesting. And some of the scenes of Misao and Kyo bordered on obscene. But one volume later, things seem to have really changed. I found the characters and story getting a lot more interesting, and even some of the “...
It’s hard to not expect great things from Rumiko Takahashi. Ranma 1/2 and InuYasha are some of the most well-known manga series around, and her fame for these series doesn’t even touch how awesome some of her more romantically inclined work like One Pound Gospel, Mermaid Saga or more importantly, Maison Ikkoku is. So, when things weren’t automatically awesome in the first volume of Rin-Ne, I get a little fidgety. You m...
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/H...
Now that the terror of their first meeting has subsided, Irel begins to wonder if his fear of Lamia is unfounded. Despite her troubling diet, she doesn’t seem to relish the experience of gnawing Irel’s flesh any more than he does. Both share a common goal: to uncover the mysteries surrounding the blood of Christ. If they work together, they might be able to find the answers they seek. But traveling as a pair might only serve...
It’s been a bitter few weeks in the manga industry here in the USA. CMX and GoComi! were closed up, and Viz laid off 40% of its workforce. It’s a tough economy, and while some of this is definitely expected, it hits sort of hard. Likewise, Itazura na Kiss is something of a bittersweet story. DMP managed to get the rights to it and start publishing it after news of the author’s death was delivered to American fans. Th...