Irel Clark is a professor’s assistant whose latest find is the “Holy Grail” for members of his profession — literally! But when it turns out that some decidedly unholy individuals are also after the blood of Christ, Irel must drink from the chrism bottle he’s recovered to save his own life. Immortality leaves something to be desired, though, when undead cannibals walk the earth in constant need of human flesh, and Irel’s newly immortal body is nothing short of an all-you-can-eat buffet! By: JinJun Park Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Horror Price: $10.99 Zombies don’t always make a story better. What starts out looking like a roller coaster action adventure in the vein of Tomb Raider instead becomes an all-you-can-eat buffet, and not in a good way. A lack of likable characters make the directions the story may be going in less than interesting. This title starts out deceptively cool. Professor Langhem and his assistant Irel are trying to get past several armed guards around an old church. They are searching for the Holy Grail, but what Irel finds is a chrism bottle. The first two chapters of the volume follow the heist and subsequent escape, but…
Publisher’s description: Complex, powerful, and emotionally wrenching, not simple is a novel told in visual form by one of the most acclaimed creators at work today. R to L (Japanese Style). Ian, a young man with a fractured family history, travels from Australia to England to America in the hope of realizing his dreams and reuniting with his beloved sister. His story unfolds backwards through the framing narrative of Jim, a reporter driven to capture Ian’s experiences in a novel: not simple. A story within a story, a book within a book, a tale about the search for family, for an emotional home. By Natsume Ono Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating:Teen+ Genre: Drama Price: $14.99 I found this book very affecting, yes, but neither as brutally disgusting as Tucker Stone, nor as frank and “phenomenal” as Christopher Butcher seems to have. Instead, I fall somewhere in between. When I first saw the cover image, I fell in love. Seriously, I probably drooled a little. And the look of the book is gorgeous. It’s a great size, with subtle colors and line work on the cover unique among it’s manga brethren. In fact, the interior art, the pacing, the characterization– it has…
I’ve got… nothing to say. Huh. Who knew? Being a manga artist is pretty darn hard…
Ann’s junior high school reunion is coming up, and she hasn’t seen Daigo in two years. How will their reunion go? Then finally the story behind Ann’s engagement. Who is her fiance…? By Hinako Ashihara Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Romance/Drama Price: $9.99 This volume picks up where the series left off in Shojo Beat. It covers just two time periods in Ann’s life; at age 20, and 26. At her junior high school reunion, she and Daigo have a heart to heart that leaves her as cold as the winter weather. And then when she is proposed to, she finds out she more like her mother than she ever thought. At age 20, Ann and Daigo meet at their junior high school reunion. Ann is nervous about seeing Daigo again, but he doesn’t seem any different. They meet after the reunion, and Ann confesses she wrong to break up with him, but Daigo thinks it was right. Even though it probably wasn’t what he meant, but Daigo’s words live Ann cold and more alone than before. She makes a promise to herself that sets her on a dark path, though that isn’t apparent yet. The next…
One of the most used, and possibly most cliché phrases in the English language is “Hindsight is 20/20,” that is, that everything is clearest when looking back on it. There are parts of a situation where you have missing information, where decisions that seemed like good choices turned out to be catastrophic. Even more frustrating, there are scenes, moments of our lives where we’d like to use our perfect hindsight to change. That fight in elementary school, that comment in high school, that one night stand in college. These moments that changed who we are for better or worse are some of the most vivid in our minds, and are the ones we’d most like to manipulate. By Jiro Taniguchi Publisher: Fanfare/Ponent Mon Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Drama Price: $23.00 While this idea has been toyed with in film (most notably, in the dreadful Butterfly Effect), nothing brings the concept to life more realistically than Jiro Taniguchi’s A Distant Neighborhood, a two-volume affair that has been co-published by Fanfare and Ponent Mon. In this sweeping childhood tale, we meet Hiroshi Nakahara, a middle-aged man who, under the influence of a nasty hangover, misses his train from Kyoto to Tokyo…
Ayu still can’t give up on her love for Mayama, even though his relationship with Rika seems to be deepening. Nomiya’s growing interest in Ayu might be a balm to her broken heart, but he’s moving to Tottori for six months! Is Ayu cursed to suffer hopeless love affairs forever? By Chica Umino Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Romance Price: $9.99 This volume is all about the love polygon of Mayama, Ayu, Rika and Nomiya. Ayu seems to be deliberately torturing herself by working with Mayama and Rika, and seeing their relationship grow. Rika is preparing for the Valencia Art Museum Annex, a project she and her late husband submitted for and won, and seems prepared to also make it her last, something Mayama’s not prepared to let Rika do. And Nomiya, the player, finds himself doing something he never thought he would, falling for Ayu. There’s a lot of drama going on in this volume, especially with Rika. She still haven’t been able to get over her husband’s death, no matter what kind of face she puts on. A flashback from Hanamoto shows what a difficult time she had after the accident, and how she became…
I’ve been reading a lot of shojo lately, and I have to say that while a lot of it has been quite good (Boys Over Flowers, Honey Hunt) and some has been spectacularly bad (Magic Touch). I’d heard that We Were There was good, but I was skeptical. When I picked up the first volume, I approached the series with some reservation. After the first chapter, I had mixed feelings. Still, We Were There surely was different from what I’d been used to. By Yuki Obata Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Romance/Drama Price: $8.99 As a breath of fresh air, the characters of We Were There are intriguing, but not too complicated, at least initially. Nanami (or Nana, for short) is that same sort of shojo heroine you’re used to. As a brand new high school student, she hopes to make a few new friends. Instead, she ends up not fitting in, which, in shojo manga, seems to be the norm, and not the exception. Left alone by the girls, she winds up talking with the super-popular Yano, the love interest of the series who has a bit of an unexplored past. The intro volume gets us…
Being haunted by spirits seems to run in the family 0 this time, it’s Rasetsu’s mother who need help! Can Rasetsu dispel the spirits successfully with her own personal family issues weighing her down? By Chika Shiomi Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Supernatural/Romance Price: $9.99 While we do get a glimpse into Rasetsu’s personal life and past, the focus of this volume is really on the invisible love triangle of Rasetsu, Kuryu and Yako. Even with the new twists introduced, it still hasn’t become a traditional shojo triangle, and that’s refreshing. There is also a side story that tells how Aoi came to work with the Chief. Yurara, the prequel to this series, set up an unusual love triangle, and Rasetsu seems to be following in its steps. The love triangle between Rasetsu, Kuryu and Yako is obvious to the reader, but not to the characters. Yako, who was slow in realizing his feelings for Guardian Spirit Yurara, hasn’t caught on to being part of the triangle here. It’s nice to see that he hasn’t changed much over the intervening years, and is still clueless about relationships. This fact makes Kuryu feel better since he thinks it…
Brave Sowil wields the power of mysterious runes that can bend nature to his will and even fill his pockets with unlimited riches. But can the cryptic tiles help him unlock the many secrets surrounding the identity of his long-lost father? He’ll have to contend with both angels and demons as he winds his way through desolate deserts, a hidden spring and shape-shifting forests on his quest. Who will help Sowil discover his lineage…and legacy? By Makoto Tateno Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: 16+ Genre: Fantasy/Drama Price: $12.95 Angelic Runes seems like your typical “on-a-quest” story with the usual “monster of the week” challenges and a search to find a long-lost father. But with delicate art and well conceived and written characters, the story becomes something more and well worth the time to read. The basic story is straight forward enough. Sowil is a mage of sorts. He uses an ancient magic that has been all but forgotten in the world. He is searching for his father to find out how and why he has this power. In the first chapter, he comes to a village that is about to sacrifice to children in an effort to save themselves. …
A police detective goes undercover in this series, but he becomes a fifth-grade teacher, replacing the role left when the previous fifth-grade teacher was murdered. Now he is set to investigate what happened. Originally reviewed by Dan Polley By Tamio Baba Publisher: CMX Age Rating: Teen+ Genre: Drama/Suspense Price: $9.99 However, the plot is pretty fun and interesting. Toyama comes into the classroom and finds fifth-graders with some interesting quirks. But one in particular is Makoto, who is shunned by his classmates and left alone in social circles. He’s a target for the other kids’ mockery, and he takes it and doesn’t engage back with any of the other students. Toyama ponders whether the bullying of Makoto could have a connection to the murder case, and he begins to investigate. When he begins to investigate, he finds out that the young boy Makoto has previously said he could see visions of monsters. Eventually, Toyama comes to understand Makoto a little bit better, and the two of them form an alliance of sorts to help sort out the mysteries of the murdered teacher. Despite that set-up, there are quite some hiccups. For one, Toyama, the detective, is quite the chatterbox when…