Manga Village

As Hikaru hits his teens and puberty strikes, Sachiko and Masato have to deal with his growing sexual awareness and rebellious attitude. But it’s Kanon that really needs the help as her entry into elementary school leads to teasing over her brother. There’s no rest for the weary though, as on top of these problems, Masato is transferred and the decision is made to move into the Mother-in-Law’s house, which comes with its own set of problems. By Keiko Tobe Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Teen Genre: True to Life Drama Price: $14.99 Normally, problems that involve Hikaru’s disability affect him directly and in turn those around him. In these two volumes though, Hikaru isn’t affected as much as those around him. Kanon feels the effect the most at the beginning. Hikaru’s growing sexual awareness causes her unease when her friend comes over, and then she has to deal with teasing that borders on bullying from classmates who see Hikaru, but don’t understand. It’s nice to see that Kanon isn’t going to take the bullying, though she does try to hide it from Sachiko and Masato by pretending nothing is wrong. Sachiko isn’t so lucky in dealing with her bully…

Case Closed Volume 40 By Gosho Aoyama • Viz Media • Mystery • Older Teen • $9.99 Conan and his friends have more cases to solve, though only one murder in this volume. First he gets dragged into disrupting a date that ends up involving a drug deal, a suicide that looks suspicious, and a search for Dr. Asaga’s first love. After reading so many shonen, shojo and thriller titles lately, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the chase of a good mystery manga, so it was great to get back into a volume of Case Closed. The cases in this volume are mostly light fare, involving the relationships of supporting characters Sato and Takagi and Dr. Asaga. The mysteries involve solving puzzles and reading people. It’s a lot of fun watching the deduction process with Conan and the Junior Detective League. The one murder is fairly obvious about who the culprit is, it’s the way the murder is committed that is the mystery. This was a fun, light read, with three complete cases, and the last chapter being the hook for the next volume. If you need a mystery fix, Case Closed is sadly your only option at the…

Reviews are subjective things. A reviewer is drawing on many things when they write their review. Besides technical things such as story structure, character development and art, a reviewers personal preferences and experiences can affect their feeling about a book. And sometimes, even their gender can make a difference as to whether a book gets a good score or bad. In the following discussions, reviewers Alex Hoffman and Lori Henderson will look at different books and examine the similarities and differences they have over each of them. Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan Volumes 1-2 By: Hiroshi Shibashi Publisher: Viz Media – Shonen Jump Age Rating: Teen Genre: Action/Supernatural Price: $9.99 ISBN: Vol. 1: 978-1421538914 Lori Henderson: That was quite a debate we got into with Degenki Daisy. Will Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan be just as contentious? Alex Hoffman: I don’t know Lori – I guess that depends on what you think of the series. Want me to give the rundown? LH: Please do. AH: Here goes nothing. Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan is a series about a boy named Rikuo who is the descendant of one of the most powerful yokai in Japan. Being ¾ human…

Admitted to the prestigious Tokyo Space School, Asumi appears to be on track to make her dreams come true. However, enrollment was just the first of many trials she must overcome on her path to the stars. By Kou Yaginuma Publisher: Vertical, Inc. Age Rating: Tween/Teen Genre: Drama/Space Price: $10.95 As Space School starts, Asumi is still enthusiastic about it despite having several disadvantages working against her. Her family is poorer than most of the other students. She is there on a scholarship. She has to live in a 40-year-old dorm and work a part-time job in a restaurant. She doesn’t even have a cellphone. Her friend flippantly tells her to ask her parents for one since they’re only 30,000 ($300), not realizing that’s a lot of money for her father to come up with. She’s shorter than everyone else. At 4’8″, she doesn’t fit the standard gear, and will need special gear made just for her. She’s a poor swimmer. We saw in the first volume where she nearly drowned, and as a result doesn’t like swimming. Asumi works hard to compensate for as many of these disadvantages as she can, sometimes to the point of exhaustion and/or injuring…

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…

These three volumes of One Piece are about 2/3 of the way through the Water Seven arc. It’s the longest arc so far. Volume 40 has Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates racing through Enies Lobby, the court of the World Government to rescue Robin. They are joined by the Franky Family and Galley-La company who are there to save Franky who was taken by CP9. It’s mostly Luffy  plowing through with the rest coming from behind. Volume 41 reveals Robin’s childhood and why she is the most wanted person by the World Government. Volume 42 begins the battle between the Straw Hat Pirates and CP9 to save Robin. By Eiichiro Oda Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Action Price: $9.99 Rating: Volume 40 is mostly all fighting. Luffy is just punching everyone in his way and moving on, while the rest of the Straw Hats and Franky Family take on the ever-growing resistance from the marines on the island. This volume is a good example of how Eiichiro incorporates flashbacks for characters into battles, keeping them from becoming tedious. In this volume, we learn more about the King Bulls Sodomu and Gomora. They were rescued by the Franky…

Claire Lyons is the new girl at Octavian Country Day, an exclusive private school in Westchester County, New York, but this girl in GAP overalls isn’t even close to prepared for the social (and fashion) demands of her new peers. To make matters worse, Claire’s family has moved into the guesthouse of the Block family, and Massie Block just happens to be the queen supreme of Claire’s new school and hasn’t taken a liking to the new girl squatting on her estate! Does Claire have what it takes to become a part of The Clique? Written by Lisi Harrison; Illustrated by Yishan Li Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Teen Genre: Drama Price: $11.99 Yishan Li’s manga adaptation of Lisi Harrison’s popular Young Adult novel series The Clique is filled with melodramatic moments, pranks, and friendship rivalries. Claire and her family moves into the guesthouse of Massie until her family can become more financially stable. Before even getting a glimpse of Claire, Massie has already had it set in her mind that she will not like nor have any intention of becoming friends with the poor girl. Initially naive Claire tries to be chums with Massie til making a few friends…

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…

I’ll start by throwing this out there: I was a compulsive World of Warcraft player for a solid six months of my life in college.  Eventually, despite having a blast playing with my friends, I quit the game, permanently deleted my character, and haven’t looked back since. Written by Richard A. Knapp; Illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Fantasy Price: $12.99 I have a fairly good grasp of the WoW mythology up until the first expansion pack, which allowed players to travel through a portal to reach the realm of Outland.  That’s where Shadow Wing picks up and instantly crushes the reader with page after page of narration explaining why the portal is significant and why the inhabitants of Azeroth are crossing over. This could have been a great hook, if not for two setbacks.  First and foremost is the hideous, eye-straining font that the narration is printed in.  It made me cringe every time it popped up in the story and it appears in nearly every panel for the entire first chapter.  The second issue is that it spends a ton of time building the back-stories of the characters, which are both clearly established on…

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…