Ghost Hunt 1 by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada: B+

October 23, 2008 by 2 Comments

From the back cover:
The decrepit building was condemned long ago, but every time the owners try to tear it down, “accidents” start to happen—people get hurt, sometimes even killed. Mai Taniyama and her classmates have heard the rumors that the creepy old high school is haunted—possibly by ghosts from the Second World War. So one rainy day they gather at the old school to tell ghost stories, hoping to attract one of the suspected spirits.

No ghosts materialize, but Mai and her friends do meet Kazuya Shibuya, the handsome young owner of Shibuya Psychic Research who’s been hired to investigate paranormal activity at the school. Also at the scene are an exorcist, a Buddhist monk, a woman who can speak with the dead, and an outspoken Shinto priestess. Surely one of them will have the talent to solve this mystery…

Review:
I ended up enjoying this volume quite a lot. I’m not sure which of the creators should receive credit for the semi-spooky atmosphere throughout, but I thought it was well done. Actual creepy occurrences were pretty low, though there was a nice bit where a chair moved on its own. Mai was a fun lead character, spunky and level-headed, and I liked all of Shibuya’s gadgetry for monitoring the paranormal, too.

The basic plot boiled down to—are there really evil spirits here, or is one of these slightly suspicious so-called experts actually a fraud? It didn’t pan out the way I thought it might, but it wasn’t exactly surprising, either. Shibuya (dubbed “Naru” by Mai because of his narcissistic tendencies) was set up in an “ultimately, he’s going to be the one who’s right” kind of way, so we’ll have to see whether that continues in future volumes. He did have a distressing habit of making digs at Mai about her ignorance, but I guess we’re supposed to excuse that because of the single angsty panel in which he declares that he hates himself.

Clearly, I can find negative things to point out, but on the whole, I found Ghost Hunt to be a lot of fun and recommend it for some mildly creepy Halloween reading.

Ghost Hunt is published by Del Rey, and the first nine volumes are in print and available. The tenth will be released on April 7, 2009. The series is ongoing, but there was a two-year gap between volumes 9 and 10 in Japan, and no volume 11 has been published there yet, so it’ll probably be a long wait for anything else after April.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo, Supernatural Tagged With:

Banana Fish 1 by Akimi Yoshida: B+

October 21, 2008 by 8 Comments

From the back cover:
Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of crime lord “Papa” Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him. But the hideous secret that drove Ash’s older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into Papa’s insatiably ambitious hands—and it’s exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okumura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to make Ash Lynx’s acquaintance…

Review:
After frequently hearing about how good this series is, I decided to check it out. Unfortunately, the volume gets off to a start so slow that I twice fell asleep while reading it. The backstory is important—Ash’s brother had some kind of involvement with something called “Banana Fish” while he was serving in Vietnam and ended up opening fire on some fellow soldiers—but not exactly riveting.

The second half of the volume is far more exciting. A pair of Japanese journalists researching youth gangs is introduced, as is a plan by a disgruntled gang member to lure Ash (the gang leader) out and kill him. Brawling, capture, sharpshooting, and daring escapes ensue. In addition to this, there are plot threads involving the deaths Ash’s former benefactor seems to be ordering as well as the police investigation into same. A lot is going on, but it is well-balanced and easy to follow.

The characters are okay so far. I like Eiji, because he’s naive but brave, and Ash is still quite the enigma, which I’m sure is the point. The dialogue is good, with plenty of smart-alecky remarks from Ash, and I also like how the Japanese characters’ imperfect English is rendered. I do have to snicker at some of these names, though. There’s one hulking male bodyguard named Angie and also a black teen gang member named… wait for it… Skip. How intimidating.

I’m not a big fan of the art. Looking dated is one thing, but many of these guys look similar, particularly the soldiers in the opening scene. After that, I kept thinking every blond-haired white dude I saw was the lone caucasian survivor of Ash’s brother’s shooting spree, but I was wrong each time. Black characters are shaded with lines rather than tone, which looks a little odd, and I don’t like the way their mouths are drawn; it would probably be offensive to some.

Now that the story has picked up the pace, I am interested to see how it develops. Even now, I get the sense that Yoshida knows exactly where the tale is going. I shall place myself in her capable hands.

Banana Fish is complete in 19 volumes and has been published in its entirety by Viz. The second, unflipped edition is still in print and qualifies for the 4-for-3 promotion at Amazon, which is how I gradually acquired the series for myself.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With:

Time Stranger Kyoko 2 by Arina Tanemura: C-

October 20, 2008 by Leave a Comment

This volume finds Princess Kyoko and her bodyguards on the search for more of the god stones required to awaken Princess Ui from her sixteen-year sleep. After the first two stones are found in the possession of the leaders of the dragon and flower tribes, the hunt is on for the rest of the tribe leaders in the hope that each of them will have one of the powerful jewels, too.

Each new psychic or “Stranger” that Kyoko encounters has some silly obstacle to overcome before they can join up with her, like nearly being sold at auction or being tricked into relinquishing their god stone to a member of the demon tribe. These stories are painfully boring and have absolutely zero depth, especially the one in which the leader of the fish tribe tells her sibling, “It doesn’t matter if we are brother and sister… I love you!” Arina Tanemura, you’re no Kaori Yuki. Just don’t even try.

Kyoko’s also preoccupied by the fact that someone kissed her while she slept in the last volume, so there’s much tedious speculation over who it could’ve been. This combined with everything else results in a muddle so mind-numbingly bad that I very nearly awarded this volume a D. A sudden twist in the final chapters provides the bare minimum of interest to avoid that fate, but I still can’t recommend slogging through the rest of it to get there.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: , ,

Silver Diamond 2 by Shiho Sugiura: B+

October 18, 2008 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Rakan’s normal life has been turned upside down thanks to strangers from another world suddenly appearing in his backyard! Chigusa and Natsushige are starting to become more comfortable with their new surroundings, but coming to disrupt the peace is an assassin sent by the Prince. Will Chigusa save the day again?

Review:
Ever since I unexpectedly enjoyed the review copy of the first volume of this series, I’ve been looking forward to reading the second. So much so that I did something I never do and began reading it the very day it was delivered to my doorstep by the kindly UPS man.

This second volume isn’t quite as funny as the first, though there are several amusing scenes that would be cute without the talking snake, but which he manages to make even better. A group hug scene comes to mind. Mostly, the focus is on fleshing out the plot and the characters.

We learn how the prince in the other world came to power and how he secretly derives his nourishment from the land around him. When he sends an assassin after Chigusa in the real world, said fellow blabs some gossip about Narushige and Chigusa’s backgrounds in an attempt to discredit them in Rakan’s eyes. When that backfires, Rakan shows some grit that’s not exactly unexpected but still nice to see, and the volume ends with that fellow being held prisoner.

In addition to all this, there’s the characters’ internal struggles. When Rakan learns that his new friends can return to their own world whenever, he realizes he’s become too comfortable with their presence and resolves not to get any more involved with them. Meanwhile, Chigusa is realizing he likes Rakan too much to simply drag him back to the other world, and so seeks advice on how to get him to come “gently.” This last bit yields some comedic moments as well.

I’m enjoying this series a lot at this point, and though it’s a bit low on wow moments, it’s still very solid and very good. I was worried about its fate, given the recent changes at TOKYOPOP, but it seems like it might be one of the series that will emerge unscathed. At least, solicitations for volumes 4 and 5 have shown up on RightStuf and Amazon, though the lack of information for volume 3 at TOKYOPOP’s website is a little troubling. I guess we’ll know if it’ll be coming out once the expected release date of December 30th rolls around.

Silver Diamond currently has 15 volumes in Japan. The series is still ongoing.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Fantasy, Manga, Shoujo Tagged With:

Fairy Tail 4 by Hiro Mashima: C+

October 17, 2008 by 3 Comments

From the back cover:
S-Class quests are so dangerous that one false move means certain death! Now loose cannon Natsu, rookie Lucy, and nearly powerless Happy have embarked on a stolen S-Class quest, setting out for the Demon Island. Can anyone stop them before they get themselves killed?

Review:
Sigh. Well, the resolution to the cliffhanger of Erza’s arrest was completely lame, as was the conclusion of her duel with Natsu. It felt like the mangaka suddenly lost interest in that plot line.

The S-Class quest wasn’t all that much better. I’m definitely not the ideal shounen audience, since I tend to get very annoyed with characters who do things they’re not supposed to and then get into perilous situations as a result. The lack of foresight also bothered me. It was bad enough Natsu hatched this hare-brained scheme, but Lucy continued to go along with it even after learning it would likely result in her expulsion from the guild she had been so desperate to join back in volume one. And evidently felt hardly a qualm about doing so!

Ultimately, their quest lead to various angsty revelations about Gray’s past which Mashima admitted including in an attempt to lure more female readers. About the only good thing in this volume was the introduction of a cool new guild member, Mystogan, whose power is to put everyone to sleep. Ironically, that was the one bit that didn’t have me yawning.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Manga, Shounen Tagged With: ,

Blank Slate 1 by Aya Kanno: B-

October 17, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Zen has no memory of the last twenty years, and doesn’t much care. The back cover, with its line “he can’t remember if he’s a killer or a hero,” erroneously leads one to anticipate a story of an amnesiac’s quest for identity. In reality, Blank Slate is all about the action.

The story takes place in the country of Amata, which was invaded and conquered in a war two decades earlier. The occupying government honors justice and order and employs a fleet of bounty hunters to eradicate all manner of undesirables. Zen is a notorious criminal and has committed every kind of crime imaginable. His philosophy is, “I do whatever I want. If it gets in my way, I smash it.”

I had a really tough time getting into the first chapter. It’s the stand-alone tale of a bounty hunter sent to kill Zen who instead joins him on a murderous spree of destruction and ruin. It wasn’t the best introduction to the setting or characters, and I found it very dull. The real serialization of the story commences in chapter two, and the improvement is immediate. From this point, there is a continuous plot focusing on the tensions between the native Amatans and the occupying Galayans and featuring kidnappings, prison breaks, and lots of guns. It’s pretty interesting, and I was surprised by several twists in the story.

Aside from the abundant bishonen, there’s nothing stereotypically shojo about Blank Slate. Zen is as heartless as they come and kills casually. Most of his victims are aggressors or authority figures, but he’s not above threatening the life of a child who could expose his hiding place. His companions are more sympathetic, particularly Hakka, a righteous doctor who has fallen into evil to protect something important to him.

The art style is visually clean, a necessity in a title like this where the story is enough to be puzzling over. Most of the character designs aren’t anything special, but Zen is really quite spectacularly pretty. This isn’t achieved through any gimmick of flowing hair or sparkly eye but simply with a beautifully drawn facial structure that’s quite stunning. I’ve reviewed a lot of manga, and never before have I devoted three full sentences to how pretty some guy is. Trust me on this.

Blank Slate certainly isn’t the best thing I’ve ever read, but the story it’s spinning is entertaining enough that I will surely be returning for the second and final volume due out in December.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: , ,

Touch 1 (Japanese) by Mitsuru Adachi: B+

October 15, 2008 by 3 Comments

Book description:
The Uesugi and Asakura families have been neighbors for years and their children have grown up together. The kids are now in their third year at Meisei Junior High. The Uesugi brothers, twins Kazuya and Tatsuya, could not be more different. Kazuya is a serious and clear-headed baseball star who scores first in his class on exams while Tatsuya is a slacker who can never measure up to his younger brother. Their neighbor, Minami Asakura, is also a good student, and gets on well with the studious twin but is perpetually annoyed by the other.

Everyone assumes that Minami and Kazuya will end up marrying, but he may not be the only twin with feelings for his pretty childhood friend.

Review:
I really love the first chapter of Touch and the way it introduces the three main characters, but things go a bit downhill from there.

It’s still a very pleasant slice-of-life story, purely episodic at first but with more connected chapters later on, but some aspects of it are already wearing thin. In just this first volume, the twins impersonate each other several times and most chapters involve Tatsuya messing up or performing ineptly in some way. I get that the idea is to show him in contrast with his talented brother, but the point gets made many times over.

Adachi’s art is clean and cute. There’s an uncluttered, almost airy, feel to the panels that I like a lot. Facial expressions are mostly simplistic, but that just contributes to an overall mellow feeling.

This was a good start to the series, but I am already ready to see some growth from Tatsuya. Thankfully, it does seem like he might have potential to make something of himself, and I’m hopeful that the story will continue to move in that direction.

Filed Under: Manga, Shounen Tagged With:

Akira 3 by Katsuhiro Otomo: A+

October 15, 2008 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
In the 21st century, the glittering Neo-Tokyo has risen from the rubble of a Tokyo destroyed by an apocalyptic telekinetic blast from a young boy called Akira—a subject of a covert government experiment gone wrong now imprisoned for three decades in frozen stasis.

But Tetsuo, an unstable youth with immense paranormal abilities of his own, has done the unthinkable: he has released Akira and set into motion a chain of events that could once again destroy the city and drag the world to the brink of Armageddon. Resistance agents and an armada of government forces race against the clock to find the child with godlike powers before his unstoppable destructive abilities are unleashed!

Review:
Holy crap! Where do you go after a finale like that?!

Each volume of this series seems to have a central location of sorts. Last time, it was the military facilities, while this time it’s the streets of Neo-Tokyo. The whole plot can be summed up as: a lot of people want Akira, and different folks manage to nab him at different times. There are four or five sides in the conflict, and possession of Akira shifts back and forth between them all multiple times. There’s shooting in the steets, tanks rumbling through malls, kids flying around, and spectacular yacht crashes into bridges.

Otomo’s art continues to be amazing, with nice big panels (aided by nice big pages) to keep the pace feeling brisk. At the end, there are fifteen dialogue-free pages depicting the effect of a cataclysmic event, which enforce a kind of silent solemnity to mark the immensity of what has just happened. I also love that one of the resistance fighters, the extremely badass Chiyoko, is depicted as overweight. She also has dialogue like:

Kei or Kaneda (can’t tell): Chiyoko, can you drive a tank?!
Chiyoko: Yup.

The best thing about this ending is that I really do worry about the fate of some of the lead characters. In most series, I’d know that they’d come out of it okay, but with Akira I’m not sure, and it’s awesome.

Filed Under: Manga, Sci-Fi, Seinen Tagged With:

Akira 2 by Katsuhiro Otomo: A

October 13, 2008 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Neo-Tokyo has risen from the ashes of a Tokyo obliterated by a monstrous psychokinetic power known only as Akira, a being who yet lives, secretly imprisoned in frozen stasis. Those who stand guard know that Akira’s awakening is a terrifying inevitability. Tetsuo, an angry young man with immense—and rapidly growing—psychic abilities, may be their only hope to control Akira when he wakes. But Tetsuo is becoming increasingly unstable and harbors a growing obsession to confront Akira face-to-face. A clandestine group including his former best friend sets out to destroy Tetsuo before he can release Akira—or before Tetsuo himself becomes so powerful that no force on Earth can stop him!

Review:
Elsewhere on the back cover, it says that Akira is required reading for any enthusiast of science fiction, manga, and the graphic novel. I tend to agree.

This volume consists almost entirely of people escaping from or sneaking into military installations and it was freakin’ awesome. I love Otomo’s detailed art—from city skylines to the underground warrens of secret military bases, there are amazing images in abundance. I’m a geek for buildings, so seeing the characters dash through a cavernous room of generators, for example, is the sort of thing I adore.

The story moves along as well, though not quite as much happens this time, since the focus is more on the action. Well, I say that, but perhaps the biggest thing happens at the end, which kind of surprised me, since I thought they’d leave that for volume six. I think my favorite part is when Kei (from the resistance group), who along with Kaneda was captured after the big biker gang battle from the previous volume, suddenly seems to develop psychic powers and attacks Tetsuo.

There’s more humor in this volume, though sometimes it feels out of place, like when Kei accuses Kaneda of trying to cop a feel when they’re in the middle of running for their lives. Other bits do amuse, though, like this exchange between some workmen discussing the food they’ve been given for lunch:

Workman #1: What’s with this crap?
Workman #2: Well, what do you expect for free?
Workman #1: Better crap.

Lastly, I must give kudos to Dark Horse for their extremely thorough ‘Story So Far’ page. Because I’m reading these from the library, I don’t have my own copies to refer to, so it was very helpful. Happily, I’ve already secured a copy of volume 3, so I’ll be able to plow on ahead without delay this time.

Filed Under: Manga, Sci-Fi, Seinen Tagged With:

High School Debut 2 by Kazune Kawahara: A-

October 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Hapless Haruna needs help finding a boyfriend! After failing to win the eye of any guy in high school, Haruna enlists the help of cute upperclassman Yoh to coach her on how to make herself more appealing to the male species. Yoh agrees, with one catch: Haruna had better not fall for him!

Haruna begins to develop feelings for Fumiya, Yoh’s friend. Yoh talks her through her first-date jitters, but is Fumiya the right guy for Haruna? Especially when they walk in on Fumiya and Yoh’s sister Asami… kissing?!

Review:
I think I might actually like this more than Love*Com! It has the same sort of “I think I love my friend but I don’t know how he feels about me” stuff going on, but without the sniping, yelling, and namecalling that sometimes bothers me in the other series.

In this volume, Haruna goes on a Yoh-assisted date with Fumi, and things seem to be going well, but Fumi is perhaps too easy-going of a guy and is handily manipulated by Yoh’s sister into becoming her boyfriend instead. I like how Asami’s devious ways are not manifest from the start, and that she only gradually reveals herself for what she is.

Haruna’s discovery of what has happened prompts a very, very sweet scene between her and Yoh. Her handling of the situation—not falling to pieces the way he thought girls always did—seems to impress him, and soon he’s telling her she has her good points, and that maybe it’s okay if she’s really athletic and sporty after all. I’m glad he reversed his opinion on this, since it was the one major thing that bugged me in the first volume.

If it isn’t clear by now, I really like this series and will be continuing to follow it.

Filed Under: Manga, Shoujo Tagged With: ,
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