Thrust in the middle of a family feud, Jae-Gyu reluctantly accepts Whie-Hwan’s proposal (he may be a jerk, but he’s loaded!). For the next month, she’s agreed to pose as his live-in girlfriend and obey his every command! It’s been less than a week since she moved to Seoul, and already she’s in way over her head! And small-town life has done little to prepare her for the dark deeds of city nightlife. When Jae-Gyu’s ignorance lands her in a roomful of eager playboys with money to burn, will it be her millionaire “boyfriend” or her rock star admirer who comes to the rescue? By GooGoo Gong Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Teen Genre: Drama/Romance Price: $10.99 This next installment of Gong GooGoo’s Sugarholic picks up right where it left off in the first volume. The seemingly ignorant Jea-Gyu ends up staying at rich boy Whie-Hwan’s apartment and agrees to his demands of being in a fake relationship with him in an attempt to fool his guardian and to atone for the ordeal she caused in the previous volume . In a plot twist this will end up being to Jea-Gyu’s advantage as staying at her brother’s place turns out…
Publisher’s info: All penniless college student Taiga Mutou wants is a cool job and a cute older woman as a girlfriend. So when he spies a Help Wanted sign outside an office and a hot girl inside, he applies for the job, no questions asked. After a few bumps at the beginning, things start going Taiga’s way, prompting him to steel his courage and ask out Yuiko, that hot girl he spied through the window, on a date. And when she later asks him if it’s okay that she’s a fujoshi (a very, shall we say, distinct kind of comics/animation geek), he tells her it’s fine out of sheer excitement. But poor Taiga has no idea how much trouble he’s just gotten himself into! By Rize Shinba Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Romance Price: $11.99 Last week, I reviewed Peepo Choo, by Felipe Smith, a manga that viciously, but hilariously rips into otaku culture (among other). It seems that getting geeks to laugh at themselves in manga is on the upswing, because this week’s book, My Girlfriend’s a Geek Vol. 1, pokes fun at fujoshi, or the girl fan of boys love (bl) anime and manga. However,…
When two mysterious young men walk into the café to declare war, Uru’s passion gets the best of everyone, and they accept the challenge—with one condition: the loser will have to quit the industry for good. However, just before the contest, Shindo sprains his wrist! And when Uru’s mother shows up at Bonheur, will she convince Uru to go back home? Café Bonheur will have to survive through some turbulent times if it’s to stay happy—and in business! By Kou Matsuzuki Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: Teen 13+ Genre: Comedy/Shojo Price: $9.99 In Kou Matsuzuki’s second volume of Happy Cafe the story picks up right where it left us in the first volume with Uru cheerfully serving customers delicious sweets made by the hands of a seeming-not-so-sweet Shindo. In Café Bonheur things heat up when the Abekawa brothers present a challenge that puts their business on the line. Within this second volume of Happy Cafe the setting of the story began to evolve outside of Café Bonheur as it brought in new characters from a rival cafe. As a reader I felt that it expanded the cafe from being the main focal point and fleshed out the personalities of the main…
Crown Prince Shin and Crown Princess Chae-Kyung are the picture of happiness as they celebrate their first wedding anniversary in a lavish, high-profile public display…but all is not well behind those loving gazes and wide smiles. With the tension between her and Shin growing, Chae-Kyung can’t help but look for a way out of her situation. But when the Queen, who is with child, decides to have Chae-Kyung be her proxy, the pressure is on for Chae-Kyung to keep herself and her marriage together. Will she look to Yul for guidance, even if his advice could spell disaster for the royal family that Chae-Kyung is growing to love? By So Hee Park Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Teen Genre: Drama/Romance Price: $10.99 Things aren’t getting any easier for Chae-Kyung in this volume of Goong. News that the Queen Mother is pregnant causes complications for everyone in the palace. For Chae-Kyung, it draws her further into the affairs of the palace, when all she wants is out. For Shin, it causes him to become serious about being the Crown Prince, and that means divorce may no longer be an option for him and Chae-Kyung. The possibility of a new heir in…
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…
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…
“I also highly recommend the strawberries-and-white-chocolate mousse. The strawberry compote filling will melt in your mouth as the genoise soaked in lime syrup sings in perfect harmony with the milky flavour of the white chocolate mousse.” By: Fumi Yoshinaga Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Genre: Slice of life/drama/comedy/food Age Rating: YA/young adult/16+ Price: $12.95 What a joy! What a delight! What a treat! Like the cakes and pastries it depicts, Antique Bakery is so exquisite that it’s tempting to swallow it all in one go, but with enough layers that it’s worth lingering over, to savour the interplay of different elements and the way minor details later prove to be essential. It’s clear that it’s been crafted with care and loving attention, and the skill of an artist at the peak of her career. Set in and around a pâtisserie-café that opens late and features antique silver cutlery as well as an immensely skilled pastry chef, Antique Bakery comes across at first as an episodic, slice-of-life series; as with the bookshop in Kingyo Used Books, the bakery seems to be less the setting for an ongoing tale and more a focal point where a diverse cast of minor characters can have…
“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…
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…