Archive for the English Manga Category


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!





Click Manhwa, Volume 1 (English)

March 27th, 2009

You may have noticed that almost all (if indeed, not all) of the gender-switch manga and manhwa that make into English are meant to be comedy. I have some theories about that, the chief of which is that for many, many people drag is, all by itself, utterly hilarious. Add to that the whole gender switch thing, and the joke is fall on the floor hysterical.

Not so much for me. I think I have yet to see a drag show that I thought was inherently funny. zOMG! Man in dress! is not enough for me to fall on the floor laughing. Even (especially) when it was Milton Berle. Monty Python did funny drag scenes, because the funny was in the writing, not just in the drag.

So, when I’m reading something like Your and My Secret, the story has to be funny for me to find it funny. The idea that Nanako and Akira switched bodies zOMG!, on it’s own, is just not enough.

Which brings me to today’s review.

Click, Volume 1 is, without rival, the least funny “comedy” gender-switch manga I have ever read. It beats out Yubisaki Milk Tea, which I found utterly without merit, for the position. Not because the gender switch itself is preposterous (it is, but it’s still miles better than being hit by an alien spaceship), but because the characters in this story are the most hideously unlikable, unsympathetic, cretinous characters it has ever been my experience to read.

The lead character, Joonha, is a medieval-minded sexist asshole. He believes that he is God’s gift to warthogs and acts accordingly. When it turns out that his family has a genetic predisposition to switching gender, he wakes suddenly female, but no less sexist, or one jot less an asshole.

Joonha continues to remain an asshole throughout, as she switches schools, deals with the important things like periods and skirt length (sigh) and other breath-robbingly comical situations.

The truth is, I so disliked Joonha that I found myself wishing her exceedingly painful cramps for her period. Stupid git deserves the worst nature can throw at her. Although mood swings would go completely unnoticed by the people around her.

Yuri is implied when we learn that Joonha’s father was once female and her mother fell in love with him then. If he had not switched, Dad and Mom laugh, they would have had to have been a lesbian couple. Ahahahah. And the girl that Joonha rejected with the most brutality and the least class possible, has vowed to track her down and be true to her – no matter what. zOMG. So, Yuri? Yeah, I guess. I’ll get back to you in Volume 2 to see if it gets any less miserable.

It dawned on me about 1/2way through the book that I will *never* understand straight women’s attraction to men who are loathsome and that no one ever smiles happily in a manhwa. I find it utterly depressing.

This is the first Netcomics book I’ve ever read. I have no quibbles about the reproduction, but I’m sure if I asked, I’d get straight-girl responses to the misery. (Last time I asked someone I know at a BL/Hetero publisher, I was told, “Isn’t it hysterical?” I looked at the respondant like an alien was bursting out of her head. No. It really isn’t hysterical.) I will give Click this – in comparison, Your and My Secret is much, much more entertaining.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4
Characters – 5 Joonha – 2
Yuri – 1
Service- 1

Overall – 4

Welcome *another* brand new Okazu hero, Gabrielle S. for sponsoring today’s review! Gabrielle – to receive your Okazu Hero badge, email me!





Your and My Secret Manga, Volume 3 (English)

March 26th, 2009

Akira and Nanako switch bodies with the help of a machine that then immediately breaks, leaving them stranded in each other. Akira likes Nanako and Nanako likes Nanako. Shiina is Nanako’s best friend and, now that Nanako is in Akira’s body, they are going out. Senbongi is Akira’s best friend and, now that Akira is in Nanako’s body – which Senbongi knows – he wants to go out with Akira. Because Shiina is cute and girly, Akira naturally likes her too, so all that’s left is Senbongi and Akira’s body liking each other to make a complete mess.

Which is exactly what we get in Volume 3 of Your and My Secret.

The bulk of the book is taken up by Akira (in Nanako’s body) playing Juliet to an extremely amorous Senbongi. Nanako (in Akira’s body) seems to be uncommonly jealous and rumors spring up about Akira and Senbongi as a result. When Senbongi attempts to actually kiss Akira (in Nanako’s body) at the climax of the play, Nanako (in Akira’s body) jumps in to break up the kiss, but ends up kissing Akira (in Nanako’s body)instead. Nanako (in Akira’s body) jumps up and, to cover her (his) behavior confesses his feelings for Senbongi. The girls of the school respond with doujinshi immediately.

While we all wallow in this crazy, wacky, unresolvable gender-bendy love quadrangle, there is one poor soul whose soul is not having any fun at all. Shiina, Nanako’s best friend now girlfriend, is confused, hurt and upset. In the very first sign of her thinking of someone other than herself, Nanako (in Akira’s body) apologizes to her (his) erstwhile girlfriend with a kiss. Whether you consider that Yuri or not is entirely personal.

The book ends with Senbongi once again trying to argue his case to Akira (in Nanako’s body.) He doesn’t care that the girl in front of him is really a boy, he likes Akira and thinks he’s cute as Nanako. End of story for him. But Akira states plainly that, despite everything, he likes Nanako. Senbongi apologizes for being difficult and leaves the room. Where can this possibly lead? I have no idea. I can see Akira (in Nanako’s body) competing with Shiina for his own body with Nanako inside. But I guess we’ll find out next time, won’t we? ^_^

So, Yuri is in the eye of the beholder once again. If a girl in a boy’s body kissing a girl is Yuri or if a boy in a girl’s body liking a girl is Yuri for you, then you will see this as Yuri. I’m more inclined to weight emotional intent higher than physical aspect, myself. And of course, there’s apparent – and amusing – BL too, for those of you who like that.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 6
Story – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 5

Overall – 7

Today we welcome a brand new Okazu hero Elaine B. for sponsoring this review! Thank you very much, Elaine – email me at your convenience to receive your Okazu Hero badge!





Yuri Manga: Burst Angel, Volme 2 (English)

March 18th, 2009

Burst Angel, Volume 2 is a classic case of “be careful what you wish for.”

When I first read this volume in Japanese, I was touched by the tender and genuine relationship between Jo and Meg, and enjoyed Meg’s obvious desire for Jo – something the anime had set aside in favor of extended giant robot fight scenes.

And then Tokyopop licensed the series. I was very excited, because I knew who was working on it, and was reasonably assured it would not suck. Then reality hit. Take a look at the long list of people who worked on this book on the front page and you will see a story of lay-offs and process malfesance. And, in the end, the best volume of the Bakuretsu Tenshi manga has become the not-terribly great second volume of Burst Angel. It’s not crisis-level “OMG, this sucks massively!”, but I’m not singing paeans of joy accompanied by heavenly choir, either.

The good news is that the manga itself is nice. Sweet, a little funny, with a light-hearted beginning that darkens as the series goes on to a more ominous tone. Much like the anime. The Yuri-est bits are not handled well. The translation is a bit silly – in one key moment, completely utterly incorrect and it has the overall effect of diminishing the reason I am reading this otherwise merely okay series.

But what really pushes this particular volume into “fail” territory for me is the craptastic reproduction. Tokyopop is, hands down, the most inconsistent of the large manga publishers. One series will be handled beautifully, the next like they did it on their lunch break. I realize that a lot of that has to do with timing, staff and money resources, etc. What you see with this volume is what happens when a book is rushed through as the staff is being fired from underneath it. The lettering is unacceptably bad in several spots – clearly no one was left to check it. I am *very* tolerant of margin and lettering errors, because I know just how hard it is to get that kind of thing right. But this is really abysmal.

The reproduction of the art (which was terrible in Volume 1) is much improved here. And to be fair, the art is not clean, draftsman-quality lines. (This was the artist’s first professional manga.) If the translation and lettering were at least at the level of the reproduction, the book would be perfectly fine.

All that having been said, if you are a Burst Angel fan, a fan of Jo and Meg, or just like a little light-hearted Yuri and can look past the technical issues, this volume is still worth getting.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 5

Overall – 7

It is once again my pleasure to thank Okazu Superhero Eric P. for being the sponsor of today’s review!