Archive for the English Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Zombie-Loan, Volume 2 (English)

April 30th, 2009

As the curtain rises on Zombie Loan, Volume 2, Michiru has had to face the worst crisis of her life – a life already filled with far too many crises. Left alone by the death of her parents, she is being raised by her Aunt and Uncle who, she is sure, love her more for her enormous inheritance than herself. At school she is a doormat and is walked over by even those she considers friends. Life is bleak enough that she considers dying….until she actually does.

Michiru encounters two strange, unpleasant, but somehow admirable young men and slowly, she is introduced to a world in which zombies walk. Unfortunately, it is our world. Her ability to see the markings that indicate that a person is a zombie makes her – for the first time in her life – an important person. And in that small thing, she finds meaning. When she is killed, Michiru signs a “zombie loan” contract and is ressurected, to work off her debt by identifying zombies.

On the good side, Michiru gains some strength and purpose to a previously mopey life. On the bad side, chapter after chapter is filled with OMG, WACKY, CRAZY THINGS AND VIOLENCE! to the point where I was like, enough already.

Case in point. In the last chapter, Michiru and Koyomi are sent to go buy furniture. First, Koyomi spends the money on clothes for them, then OMG, WACKY, CRAZY THINGS AND VIOLENCE breaks out and in the end, the furniture is not bought.

This kind of thing is basically every chapter. Eat lunch? No, because OMG, WACKY, CRAZY THINGS AND VIOLENCE will make sure that Michiru does not get to eat lunch. Or clean her room, or…anything. Nothing normal will ever happen because of the wall of crazy-wacky-violent that springs up like an invisible fence everytime Michiru turns around.

There is Yuri. As in the anime, Michiru’s dormmate Koyomi has within her another personality, Yomi. Yomi’s ability to call forth the sounds of supernatural beings is also unique and valuable, so despite the disinterest in Koyomi, she’s kept around as a container. Yomi is also sexually attracted to Michiru – or so she says as an excuse for some light sexual harrassment. But, you know, by the end of the volume I kinda think she actually does like Michiru.

Nothing will come of it, of course. It’s service and no more. But with OMG, WACKY, CRAZY THINGS AND VIOLENCE happening every 30 seconds the occasional warm embrace isn’t a bad thing for Michiru or for us.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7 (I’m hoping this goes up as an actual story develops)
Characters – 7 (which is up one from the first volume)
Yuri – 6
Service – 4

Overall – 7, with potential.

I didn’t hate Zombie Loan by any stretch but if you, like me, need a respite and a balm at the end of this volume, let me recommend Walking Man by Taniguchi Jiro. An adult manga for adults, about a man who takes walks. That’s it. Nothing else. It was wonderful. My deepest appreciation and thanks to Deb Aoki who sent me a copy so that I could also become a convert and proselytize this book.





Tetragrammaton Laybrinth Manga, Volume 4 (English)

April 27th, 2009

When it comes to Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, Volume 4, you may find the air redolent with the smell of lilies. But when you investgate further , this series remains mostly nioi-kei. Which is not to say that it’s not fun and games in this intensely violent and blood-spattered volume.

Angela and Meg are bound by a deep, irreversible magical and emotional bond. As long as Meg needs Angela to exist, she will. It is this and this alone that keeps Angela alive when she finally confronts the beast who robbed her of her humanity. And it is this that most readers will assign the value of “Yuri.”

The cute little girl torture continues and the the source for so much of it is revealed to be the much maligned Gilles de Rais, either a child torturer and rapist or a scapegoat for the politically motivated destruction of the Templars, depending on which side you are on. This de Rais is a child rapist and torturer sating some demonic need in the readers who like to read about stuff like that, then project their self-loathing onto the bad guy. (Just a guess, but…)

The torture continues with the story of Trude and her pathetic, half-demon, guro-fodder sister and their tragic and unfulfilling story in the middle of which is a scene that undoubtedly Angela x Meg ‘shippers point to as a “see?” moment. ^_^

The end of the volume brings no resolution, of course, but Team Us is finally together, with mostly all our body parts and we’ve got the Big Ass Powerful Weapon (TM) with which we will “uncover the secrets of this place!” I look forward to the “secrets” since this series has freely borrowed from any number of semi-legendary/semi-historical things and I’m simply aching to know what gets plundered next. ^_^

And to see more demonic blood shed, of course. That goes without saying.

…and to smell more of the scent of lilies in the middle of all that blood.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 8

Overall – 7

Today’s review was brought to you by Okazu Superhero Bruce McF. Thanks very much sir, for allowing us to wallow knee-deep in gore, pathos and Yuri.





My-Hime Manga, Volume 4 (English) Guest Review, by Jason T.

April 20th, 2009

So I was bitching rather genially about My-Hime, Volume 4 on Facebook and Twitter and got an email in reply from writer/editor/manga expert and all-around fun guy Jason Thompson.

He agreed vehemently that this was a dreadful example of manga and went so far as to graciously allow me to use his description of this series from as yet unpublished, Manga: The Complete Guide materials. I therefore offer up to you as our latest guest reviewer, the pithy thoughts of Mr. Jason Thompson:

MY-HIME (Mai-HiME, “Dancing Girl/My Princess”) （舞-HiME) • Noboru Kimura (story), Sato Ken-etsu (art) • TokyoPop (2006-2008) • Akita Shoten (Weekly Shônen Champion, 2004-2005) • Shônen Sci-Fi Battle • 18+ (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations)

Adaptation of the anime series. Yuuichi transfers to a special school where certain girls possess an awesome power: the ability to summon a “child,” a big mechanical monster, when in the presence of the right boy, called the “key.” Yuuichi turns out to be the “key” of not one but two hime girls, Mai and Natsuki, who bicker over him in endless superpowered catfights. Sloppily drawn and crammed with too many female characters to keep track of, My-Hime—hime is Japanese for “princess” but here stands for “Highly Advanced Materializing Equipment”—is a tedious manga adaptation of a cynical “high-concept” anime, mixing “harem” romantic comedies and battle manga about people who team up with mecha or monsters. Characters we don’t care about fight one another, make passes at Yuuichi and tear up the landscape, leading up to an incoherent climactic fight with the aliens from the “Princess Star” which is the origin of the himes. The books are padded out with interviews with the anime staff, one of whom tells the reader “Reading My-Hime isn’t enough, so go for the anime, the figures, and radio and become a My-Hime Ph.D!” The worst feature of the art is the slack-jawed inexpressive faces.

.5 (HALF A STAR! -_- )

Thank you Jason for stabbing taking a stab at this series. Your brevity should have been matched by the series itself. Despite the craptasticness of the manga, I would like to thank Okazu Hero Elaine B. for bravely wading in and sponsoring today’s review!





Hitohira Manga, Volume 2 (English)

April 8th, 2009

Friendship between women is a beautiful thing. Made even more beautiful to many by the relative ease with which is it distorted into hawt lesbo sexxors.

I say “relative” because when you read the gentle high school drama that is Hitohira Volume 2 hawt lesbo sexxors isn’t what leaps immediately to your mind. Not at first, anyway.

Then you notice that Nono and Mirei’s feud borders on the obsessive. And you think, “I have lots of friends, but don’t care about them *that* much.” (That presumes you have friends, of course.)

And then, Nono and Mirei get locked in a closet together and…you know…hawt lesbian sexxors isn’t really as far-fetched a thought as you’d assume.

But of course, that isn’t what Hitohira is about. It’s really about Mugi overcoming her pathological shyness, and her fear of being thrust into a lead role so soon. However, even as I type that it bores me all over again so, I for one, am sticking with watching Nono struggle with her condition and against Mirei’s suffocating love. Incidentally, if you’re actually interested in Nono’s condition, check out Scott Adam’s Blog in which he has chronicled his own experiences with spasmodic dysphonia.

Okay, okay, I’ll stick with the plot for a sec. Summer club practice, drama club drama, Nono shows her dark side, Mugi has a crisis per page and ends up doing what Nono wants anyway. Drama club vs drama club creates more drama, which ends up with Nono and Mirei locked *in a closet together* and screw the plot, it’s boring as hell. Nono and Mirei are the only reason we watched the anime and they are the *only* reason I’m reading the manga.

Technically, I think this book is very nice. Nice reproduction, nice paper, with a nice, if unmemorable font. Which is a good analogy for this nice, but unmemorable excursion into friendship between women. Or hawt lesbian sexxors. Whichever works for you. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Characters – 7
Story – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 6

Muchas gracias to Okazu Superhero Daniel P for sponsoring today’s review!





My-Hime Manga, Volume 3 (English)

March 29th, 2009

Let’s talk positives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses.

The original Mai HiME anime was good. It has some clear areas of strength – shiny, colorful action and strong, likeable characters. The intense dramatic angst could be seen as either a positive or negative depending your particular interest, but for the moment I’ll reckon it as a positive, because it definitely worked. Significantly negative for me was the fact that the ending made all my (and the characters’) emotional strain irrelevant. And, again for me, the service got pretty tiring pretty fast. I’m sure there’s someone out there for whom the implication that Natsuki has no underwear on is utterly thrilling.

The plot of Mai HiME was not simple, but it was not hideously complex. in traditional battle manga style, when one enemy was neutralized, another, greater enemy was realized and, in typical fashion, the bad guys are always one step ahead of the good guys. The plot was a weakness, but not one I hold against it, since it’s typical of it’s kind.

In stark contrast, the My-HIME manga is full of an inexplicable, overcomplicated and insensible plot, unlikeable characters and overdrawn action. Above all, it’s greatest weakness is that the dialogue frequently makes no sense at all. Sure, with time and effort, you can kind of figure out what’s going on…but screw that. *You’re* the storyteller. You tell me what I need to know, don’t make me go hunting for key pieces of information hidden in the babble.

In fact, the impression I get from My-Hime, Volume 3 is this:

Person A: I will use my super power to do something amazing and stupid!

Person B: Yes, thanks, I will have the tuna salad for lunch.

Time after time, I stare at the pages and say, “Whah?”

And before you ask – no, it is not the translation. I read the original and it was just as bad. In fact, props to the translator and adaptor who probably were forced to drink heavily to get through the constipation that passes for dialogue in this series.

There is no Yuri in this volume. Shizuru appears on – maybe – two or three pages and Haruka and Yukino barely appear either. As they are the more Yuri couple in this series, a chapter without them is a sad and lonely chapter.

So. What exactly happens in this volume? Honestly…I’m not sure. A random hot springs nudity scene suddenly turns into a cave-in and everyone runs around screaming. This is folowed by the “Mai does too much” plot side-by-side with the “Tate’s birthday” plot. The end of the manga brings a shift of focus. Mai learns that if a Child is defeated, the Key is destroyed, so she tells Tate to leave. The Searrs Foundation (and thus Alyssa and Miyu) show up, as do Shiho, importuning Tate to leave with her. Natsuki’s mother mysteriously returns as a part cyborg HiME, from ten years long absence. The Searrs Foundation stop the Orphans, Nagi is beheaded (woo-hoo! best part of the volume.) All of this followed by a completey random bathing suit service page.

The End.

You wanna know what happened, really? You read it and tell me.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Yuri – 0
Service – 5

Overall – 5

Completely accidentally, today we must again thank Okazu Hero Elaine B for her contribution to our collective confusion. Thanks Elaine for sponsoring today’s review!