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…
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 the same way Sumomomo Momomo is, except, that where Chew manages to mix these ingredients up into a great comic, the result from Sumomomo Momomo is a bit more schizophrenic and pervy in its final presentation. By: Shinobu Ohtaka Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Action/Comedy Price: $10.99 Sumomomo Momomo follows the lives of Koushi Inuzuka and Momoko Kuzuryuu, two children of the greatest martial artists in Japan, and heirs to martial arts techniques of great power. Momoko’s father, fearing her to be too weak to continue the bloodline of the Kuzuryuu clan, decrees that she should be married to the son of the Inuzuka clan. Koushi, unfortunately, is no martial arts fanatic. Having given up the ways of the fist, Koushi attempts to lead a “normal” life by…
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 “healing scenes aren’t so bad, though neither are they so much innuendo. By Kanoko Sakurakoji Publisher: Viz Media – Shojo Beat Age Rating: Teen+ Genre: Supernatural/Romance Price: $9.99 Starting in volume 3, I noticed a distinct improvement in the lead characters Misao and Kyo. Misao has finally accepted her feeling for Kyo, so she isn’t so conflicted about enjoying his “healing”, which she still needs. Why? Because she’s still just as gullible as in the first volume. She’s easily lured into the Kuzunoha clan’s compound and allows the talisman that Kyo gave her be thrown away. She knows what Shohei is after, and continues to believe him when he says he’s given up on her. But her trusting nature seems to be a double-edged sword, as her…
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 might call it prejudice, or InuYasha syndrome, or whatever, but while Rin-Ne was interesting in the first volume, it didn’t sparkle like other Takahashi manga.
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…
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 to make a bigger target for even greater terrors… By: JinJun Park Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Horror Price: $10.99 Volume 2 of Raiders tried to introduce more plot and less zombie munching with a government conspiracy, some actual tomb raiding, and an attempt at character development. Unfortunately, it’s all just too little, too late. This volume picks up right where volume 1 left off, with the massive fight in the middle of London. The four-way battle is short-lived though, and ends with a realignment of several of the main players. Lamia and Irel are working together now, with Clarion joining them. Irel has decided he would rather Lamia munch on him than on innocent bystanders. They continue the search…
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. The series, at 23 volumes, is currently unfinished. Kaoru Tada had an unfortunate accident while moving in 1999, and died shortly after of cerebral hemorrhage. I use the phrase bittersweet because, while the series is unfinished and the author died at a young age, DMP is giving us the rare opportunity to experience this classic manga. I’m ready for my clouds to have some silver linings. By Kaoru Tada Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: Teen Genre: Romance Comdey Price: $16.95 Kotoko, the sweet, kinda dumb, and klutzy lead girl of Itazura na Kiss, starts out our series by confessing her feelings to the brilliant and icy Naoki, and after being roundly rejected by him in the first few pages, and I’m…
On a city night lit up by beautiful fireworks, office worker Megumi strolls the streets of Seoul without a care in the world…until she senses a stranger following her every footstep! When a greedy old woman named Gyouanja suddenly appears and tells Megumi to seek out a mysterious dancer at a pavilion, she heeds the crone’s words and finds herself in the midst of a ghastly showdown between light and darkness, shadow and substance. Does Megumi play a key part in this freakish and fantastic pageant…or is she simply losing her grasp on reality? Written by Hideyuki Kikuchi; Illustrated by Shin Yong-Gwan Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: 16+ Genre: Horror Price: $9.95 I’m not normally a fan of horror manga. I get squeamish seeing gore and internal organs spilling everywhere. But, I will make some exceptions. The work of Hideyuki Kikuchi is one such exception. I’ve been enjoying the Vampire Hunter D manga (for the most part), and this new title, Taimashin: The Red Spider Exorcist, seems to be heading in the same direction. This first volume centers on ordinary office worker Megumi, who is being pursued through the streets of Seoul. She seems to have stumbled into the…
Penny-Rose, a stone mason in the Principality of Castaliae is summoned by the Queen. She asks Penny-Rose to marry the prince… but only for one year. To succeed the throne, the prince needs to marry a woman of “unimpeachable virtue.” Startled by such a sudden request, Penny-Rose hesitantly accepts. Despite knowing he is to marry another after her, she is slowly drawn to the prince, and eventually falls in love… By Harumo Sanazaki Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: 16+ Genre: Romance Price: 400 Points eManga / $3.99 Amazon Kindle Price This manga adaptation of Marion Lennox’s A Royal Proposition is brimming with roses and all the romantic clichés one is to expect from a Harlequin title. Working to help her siblings back in her homeland Australia Penny-Rose lives up to her name as being presented to the reader as a hard-working poor woman, she may not have much money her beauty and her kind heart is a truer measure of her value. While working as stone mansion for the royal manor she is approached one day by none other than the royal highness herself! This first meeting will turn Penny-Rose’s life upside down and take her from being a…
Canary Darlberg is the princess of the Linaria kingdom, and she’s just received some life-altering news: She’s set to have an arranged marriage begin soon. Her father tells her that she is to marry Prince Heath of Gazania, but he is renowned to be, well, an idiot. Originally reviewed by Dan Polley By Asuka Izumi Publisher: CMX Age Rating:Everyone Genre: Romance/Fantasy/Comedy Price:$9.99 Canary does not think very highly of the prince, but her father insists. Fortunately, her father offers a deal: Meet him once and if she doesn’t like him, the marriage is off. But the prince, who has a pet lizard that talks, asks a favor of the lizard. He wants the lizard to take some magic medicine that would make him switch bodies with someone — the prince — and live out that person’s life. (But just for the day, the prince says.) The date went well for Canary and the lizard. But when he changes back to lizard form and Canary encounters the real Heath, Canary is less than enthused. Immediately she knows it is not the same person she met before, even if they both look like Prince Heath. But the two cannot remain separated for…