OhHaiDer :]
Good afternoon all~ (I think I'm in a sugar rush since I needed to retype afternoon 5 times.)
Today I present to you..
Ai Kora!
Ai Kora
Story & Art: Kazurou Inoue
Publisher: Shogakukan
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Synopsis: (onemanga.com) The plot centeres around Hachibe Maeda, a 15 year old teenager who idolizes women's individual parts. When he moves to Tokyo to attend high school, he finds himself living in a shed near a girls' dormitory which has 5 girls ladies that each possess one of the ideal physical features he desires. The story revolves around Hachibe's quest to indulge in his fetishes and his growing relationships with the other characters.
Art Review: 4/5
I enjoy Inoue's style of art. Very pretty, and humorous when it needs to be. She has a pretty adept control over facial expressions. What I find in a lot of manga is that the facial expressions don't really give too much to the actual emotion of the story. However, other male fetishists look mildly creepy, and I was also never a big fan of Ootori's face. No offense, to anyone who does.
Story Review: This is just another one of your run-of-the-mill harem manga. A miscommunication lands one helluva lucky dude into a women's dorm/house/apartment complex, where they will be studying in elementary/highschool/university, where there are many panty shots, half nude scenes, the hero getting the shit beaten out of him by blushing girls, only to miraculously survive every time, and ends up getting every girl to fall in love with him, despite him being an unattractive loser in most cases. What does separate Ai Kora from other harem mangas is this: the border of creepiness. The basic plot and concept of this manga is creepy, firstly. Fetish for only PARTS of women? That could share the same concept as a horror manga. Where the murderer CUTS OFF the desired parts of women, and creepily cuddle them while sitting in the dark recesses of said person's house, laughing eerily while listening to a song track which consists of slow tempo piano/violin spammery. Not sure if that manga even exists to begin with but if it does, I'll say it again; I'm not surprised. Moving along, it's not even just the basic concept of the "parts fetish" that is creepy, it's what happens in the manga because of these fetishes that make it so odd. At one point, I can't exactly remember why, but Ayame gains 100 pounds and turns herself into a giant sack of fat waste, and Hachibe, for whatever reason, decides to "protect her" by eating himself into obesity as well. It's not that fat people creep me out, it is simply that the amount of food they were eating nearly made me consider being anorexic for a while. Mangas don't usually affect me but until you see it for yourself (which I don't suggest you do), you won't really understand why. Another thing that strikes me as odd is the shared leg fetish Hachibe and the old man (I forget his name ._.) share. They both, at one point in time, come up with the most idiotic ways to have Tsubame step on them with her desired "Sunny-Chan" legs. Another thing that astounds me in this manga is the repeated plot device they use in this manga: Hachibe wants Ootori to sing, Hachibe concocts stupid plan that one should not fall into more than once if you're sharper than a butterknife, Ootori, for whatever reason, falls into the scheme. This not only happens once but many times in the manga. It just makes me want to scream at it and throw it at a wall, but unlike some people I know, screaming at inanimate objects doesn't do anything except make you seem like a spaz and frustrate you even more that it won't change itself just because you want it to. What I also don't like about this manga is the way it turned out. I know, I know, a lot of people don't like the endings because so-and-so didn't end up together. However there are TWO reasons as to why I dislike this ending. Firstly, ok, I'll be honest, I wanted Hachibe to be with Yukari, not Sakurabo, because Sakurabo is pretty irritating for the heroine Hachibe is evidently supposed to fall in love with. Secondly, the ending is general is stupid. I think it would take more than 4 months to hitchhike back to Japan if you accidentally got onto a plane sent to England. I know Hachibe is pretty much superhuman, but that's a little unrealistic. Additionally, usually by the end of the series, the hero is supposed to be a changed man, and everyone's supposed to be happy, super cheesy-ass ending. But no, while hitchhiking back to Japan, he saved a bunch of girls who all have his ideal parts and somehow they all show up as Hachibe and Sakurabo's tearful reunion began. I don't know why, but the ending irritated me to high hell. Overall, this manga was typical, weird, and a little creepy.
6.5/10
OhHaiDer :]
Wroaaaaaar meh internets live again!!1!cos(0) (Yeah, I'm that nerdeh :B)
Anyways~
Today I bring you (a somewhat whored out series if I don't say meself) Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days! *exhales* A mouthful as well~
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days
Story & Art: Fumino Hayashi
Publisher: ADV Manga
Rating: Teen (13+)
Synopsis: (Wikipedia) As in the original anime series, the first four volumes of the manga deal with the Angel invasions, but from a much different angle. Asuka and Shinji are childhood friends, but both are reluctant to risk their friendship and form a deeper relationship. Nonetheless, Asuka becomes jealous when Rei is attracted to Shinji. Kensuke has an unrequited crush on Asuka, but is afraid to act because of Shinji's possible feelings. Rei is in a parallel position, with the roles reversed. Toji and Hikari date, even though the invasions threaten both of their lives. Kaworu is also a childhood friend of Shinji. However, their friendship originated from childhood incidents when Asuka abandoned Shinji, and he and Asuka never got along. By the time of the manga, Kaworu has failed to form intimate relationships with anyone besides Shinji, and resents Shinji's closer relationship with Asuka, and also tries to prevent Rei from getting closer to Shinji. Gendo Ikari's work schedule and cold personality alienate Shinji, who in turn resents his father's attitude towards his mother, Yui. At the end of the fourth volume, the main characters, as Evangelion pilots, are broken up and posted to different spots around the world, although they plan to (and, with one exception, do) meet up after the Angels' threat is over and they grow too old to work as pilots anymore. The fifth volume is a flashback to Gendo and Yui's youths. This flashback presents Gendo as a violent juvenile delinquent in high school, abandoned by his parents, who hates the world. Yui is introduced as a star student who is attracted to Gendo and helps him overcome his problems. The sixth and final volume returns to the main story arc after the Angels' defeat, specifically the actions and fates of the characters as they grow up. The volume attempts to tie up loose ends, including:Rei and Ritsuko, who are stationed together, both realize their romantic feelings will remain unrequited - Rei's feelings for Shinji, and Ritsuko's feelings for Gendo.Misato and Kaji, who dated in college and remain good friends, review their relationship. Although they seemed to break up soon after college, they realize that they never "officially" broke up and still have feelings for each other. They agree to keep their relationship going, but not to rush anything.Hikari and Toji endure a long distance relationship, made complicated by the constant dangers in Toji's job. Shinji and Asuka are forced to deal with strains in their relationship on their own, especially since Kaworu is (apparently) no longer around to defuse their arguments.
Kaworu's true identity, goals, purpose, feelings, and eventual fate are hinted at during both story arcs, but are never explicitly identified. (On a side note, I fully apologize for the NOVEL of a synopsis but as Neon Genesis Evangelion fans know very well, this series is ridiculously complicated and this is brief compared to other summaries.)
Art Review: 4/5
I've always liked the art of this series, all pretty and dramatic and such. As you all know I'm still picky about eyes and tiny details like that, and there were some little things that stuck out to me, but overall still a good showcase of manga.
Story Review: As I've mentioned previously, this manga is ridiculously complicated, even the summary of the series states itself that several characters in the manga as of yet don't really have an explained purpose amongst it all. I wonder if Hayashi, or whoever originally came up with the storyline starts writing these series out and even forget how this was supposed to end up partially because it gets so ridiculously complex that you have to keep notes on your OWN manga or you just think that the fans will come up with explanations and disputes amongst themselves and you don't even need to intervene. If I find somewhere on the internet that people follow this series as a bible, I'm not going to be very surprised. I find it interesting that in these series someone always has a serious mental disorder or thinks very controversially. It does get tiring, eventually, but with this series, it has this magical trait makes this series shiny and new every time someone decides to branch off a new series from an episode in the original manga. I don't really understand this manga, nor do I have the time or effort to actually attempting to understand it. I liked this little branch off series though, it had its dark moments but it still manages to have its cute moments. Although the fast forwarding makes this manga come off as a bit.. odd, one might say. I know they need to condense the story so that they are not killing 20 trees in the making of one book, but going from hatred, to like, to love, to getting knocked up in one novel, and it's not even a one-shot manga, seemed a bit abrupt to me. As confusing as this whole goddamned series is, I liked the volume I read. The story seemed to flow pretty well, despite me not knowing much background about this series. If you like being sucked into a complex manga, this is something not bad to pick up.
7.5/10
OhHaiDer :]
Waha, my internet got cut down
And will stay down for a couple days most likely
I'm sitting in a library doing this for you D:
Anyway, today I bring you..
Hellsing~
Hellsing
Story & Art: Kohta Hirano
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Rating: Teen (13+)
Synopsis: (Back Cover) After Alucard's triumphant return, the streets of London were filled with the blood of vampire Nazi soldiers and crazed Catholic warriors. After the dust settled, only the Hellsing order of Protestant knights were left standing. Now it's up to the earthly agents of divine punishment to save the souls of the innocent. However, chaos soon engulfs the streets yet again. As it turns out, now all the Nazis were vanquished after all. Will Alucard and his allies have what it takes to save what is left of the city? Earth-shaking destruction and gore-soaked supernatural battles fill the pages of this dark and creepy-cool manga.
Art Review: 5/5
This manga truly is filled with gore and blood. Almost every other panel someone's getting their brains chopped in half, most likely because these people are vampires and immediately heal after being literally grated like cheese. The style of art adds immensely to the dark theme of this manga, although at times with all the action going on one gets confused as to what the fuck is going on. Doesn't take much away from it, the detailing is amazing, although I don't suggest reading it if you are even queasy about manga.
Story Review: This manga has to be read in its entirety to be enjoyed. Vampire mangas like this are most enjoyed animated, anyway. (Except for Vampire Knight, that piece of tripe cannot be enjoyed no matter how you put it. No, not even in the cookie form.) The concept of Nazi zombies.. I find that rather interesting. Unfortunately when I read the words Nazi zombies I immediately thought of this shit. Collegehumor's gone to mediocrity, anyway. Not the point. Nazi zombies. As if living ones weren't bad enough. Or the prospect of CRAZED CATHOLIC WARRIORS. MAY THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPEL YOU! Anyway.. This manga, I find interesting. The WW2 references are not that bad, and I find the different vernaculars used by the characters interesting to read. The fight scenes are indeed epic, and I'll say it again, if you throw up in your mouth from the sight of seeing your favorite shoujo character getting a paper cut while trying to deliver a letter to her first love, I don't think you should be reading this manga, because I'm pretty sure you will hurl your own esophagus out if you do so. I'm just saying. Another thing I notice, there is a significant lack of female characters, and this time I'm letting it slide because not a lot of women were allowed on the battlefield anyway, but why is it that the female characters that do appear have seriously huge boobs? Are you really out to get viewers that badly to increase testosterone by giving some small form of fanservice? I'm no feminist here but that's a little annoying when every shonen manga you come across there are F-cups everywhere. No matter, no matter where you go there are huge tits anyway. So idealistic, this world~ Overall, I did enjoy this manga, considering I like to stay away from vampire mangas (because no matter how much you hate to admit it, Dracula and co. have been ruined by the sparkly menaces that are the characters in Twilight. You knew that was coming, didn't you? Here are some tits as a reward~) Sometimes it's hard to follow cause there is detailing EVERYWHERE and you don't know what to look at cause it's all so SHINY (or maybe it's just me and I have a seriously bad attention span) but I thought it was a good manga. If you like gore, enjoy n.n
8/10
OhHaiDer :]
Afternoon, all
What?
It's going to snow again in Canada?
Bollocks D:
Anyway
Today I bring youuuu.
Crescent Moon
Crescent Moon
Story & Art: Haruko Iida
Publisher: Tokyopop
Rating: Teen (13+)
Synopsis: (Wikipedia) The plot deals with Mahiru Shiraishi, a young woman with the ability to grant others good fortune by touching them. She herself does not benefit from this good fortune, and occasionally laments that this is because she has given all of her luck away to others. Mahiru begins to have recurring dreams of a demon, and these dreams soon lead to her becoming entangled with the "Lunar Race" — a collection of creatures of folklore such as vampires, werewolves, kitsune, and tengu. These creatures' powers are related to the phase of the moon, strongest when the moon is full and weakest when it is new. Mahiru learns that she is the "Descendant of the Princess" and that the members of the Lunar Race she has encountered, known as the Moonlight Bandits, need her help to recover the "Teardrops of the Moon," the source of their power. In the process, she attempts to heal the rift that has developed between humans and the Lunar Race, and bring the two closer together.
Art Review: 3/5
I didn't particularly become fond of Iida's art style. The proportion of the bodies are a bit off at times, the angles are awkward, but some of the detailing in the panels are somewhat nice. The eyes (as usual) are buggy. I'm not even being picky this time, Mitsuru's transformed state looks mildly creepy, and even the normal eyes are just weird looking to me. It appears Iida tried to make her style seem real and attempted to combine realistic eyes with a taste of manga-style eyes, but that evidently didn't turn out too well. The only character design I liked out of this whole series was Misoka, and his eyes were shut for majority of the series.
Story Review: Crescent Moon looked promising but turned mediocre. The plot is somewhat oddly paced, however at times the backstories provoke some deep thought. The fight scenes are confusing, and short. I didn't know who was attacking what or what was being said and in which order attacks were being fired, and when random people decided to crash the party. Being a minor detail, I tended to ignore the fight scenes but there isn't much compensation in this series. Mitsuru and Mahiru are stereotypical, 2-D, annoying characters; Mitsuru, the typical demon who hates everyone else, believes he is super strong, and wants to fight alone but ends up hurting himself and have his selfless friends help him out and he still acts like a little snotty brat about it. Mahiru; Print and press copy of the original heroine: kind, gentle, cute, determined, wants to help everyone, falls in love with the stereotypical male hero and all that garbage. The main goal in general, "Collect all the Tears of the Moon", sounds like any other fantasy manga where one has to complete a certain item to save the world and they don't end up doing it anyway, or they do, but some other villainous idiot decides to present something else to destroy the world. In general, this manga seems to be like an aborted love child between Inu-Yasha and Sailor Moon, what with all the moon references. This manga was tolerable, but nowhere near good reading material.
6/10
OhHaiDer :]
Whoooops.
I'm a bit late ^ ^;
Better late than never, yeah?
Oh well
Here I present Alice 19th.
Alice 19th
Story & Art: Yuu Watase
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen
Synopsis: (Wikipedia) The story follows Alice Seno, a fifteen-year-old girl forever in the shadow of her older sister Mayura, who achieves in everything she undertakes. At her school Alice becomes known as "Mayura's little sister". Older girls, judging Alice too meek to retaliate, torment her relentlessly.
Art Review: 5/5
I always enjoyed Watase's style. It's cute, feminine, charming and generally matches the general style of stories she produces. Her style is very clean and well executed in all her works.
Story Review: It would be arbitrary and untruthful of me to say that I enjoy all of Watase's work. This manga, contrary to a lot of opinions, is not one of the ones that I enjoyed. There are a number of problems with this manga, the first being just the plot in general. Watase's work generally has a shoujo/action theme that is heavily intertwined with a lot of Chinese culture and legends, but for this manga, Watase has decided to integrate a western theme in it, which is obviously Alice In Wonderland, due to the fact that the heroine's name is Alice and she does in fact meet a white rabbit in the beginning of her adventure. I usually am appreciative in change in manga and an incorporation of western stories into manga are usually refreshing but nearly ripping off Alice In Wonderland is a terrible attempt to bring depth to a story. Another aspect of this manga that I find terribly irritating is just the method of defending oneself employed in this manga. From all that I have read of this manga and all that I care to understand, one strives to be (or already is) a Lotis master who casts spells simply by saying a single word. I've read other fantasy mangas and novels and know how ridiculous those can get but this is pushing it in many ways considering there is no compensation in other aspects of this manga. At least for other mangas it can be ridiculous as you want it to be but the main character is hot, or the story is good or some other, but clearly there is nothing to fall back on for this type of drudgery. What I find the most irritating about this is that in the ending (and I don't CARE if you've read the whole thing or not, it's bloody terrible, so reading this will get you over and done with this series) after all the characters one would develop a kinship with dies, and Alice is pulled into a sort of purgatory state of mind, where the White Rabbit tells her that if she says a certain word, the monster that just killed off all the supporting characters and threatens to destroy the rest of the world will instantly die. So Alice does go back to reality, says this word and lo and behold, the monster loses his shit and dies. Looking at this logically, Alice got a cheat code. Probably one of the worst endings in manga history, and yes I am including all the sappy shoujo mangas who end shittily no matter how you end it. The plot wasn't that great either, the "little sister envies big sister but it actually turns out that big sister was afraid of little sister" bollocks really doesn't cut it anymore when everyone uses that plot device. As you can tell in general I was widely disappointed of this manga, a rarity for reviews as of yet. For once I plead you, don't read this manga, you're going to get a headache if you think about it too much.
5/10, because no matter how dreadful I think this manga is, it's apparently in good quality enough to make it past the bloody editor.
OhHaiDer :]
Konban wa~
Today I bring you..
Ranma 1/2 (Rumiko Takahashi? How retro!)
Ranma 1/2
Story & Art: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Viz
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Synopsis: Being a teenaged martial artist isn't easy, especially for Ranma Saotome, who went through a major transformation on a training mission with his father. Ranma now changes into a girl every time he's splashed with cold water. That would be enough to complicate anyone's life, even without the arranged fiancee who doesn't like him (or says she doesn't) and the constant stream of rivals and suitors for both his male and female forms. What's a half girl, half guy to do?
Art Review: 4/5
I always had a fondness for Rumiko's style of art, because it makes one feel like you're reading one of the classic mangas. Then again, I would be saying this because some of my first mangas was indeed from Rumiko Takahashi.
Story Review: A lot of mangas say that they are funny, but turn out to be completely dry. Maybe it's my sense of humor, but I find that this manga says it's funny, and delivers. Despite the fact half of this manga is NSFW, because there are boobs everywhere, and I mean everywhere (Rumiko, you so dirty :B), this manga is light and refreshing, yet funny, and somehow, still slightly romantic. Akane and Ranma make the most priceless couple, even though they are almost always killing each other throughout the whole series. I also like the P-chan character; the fact that Akane is totally oblivious to who P-chan actually is makes this all the more cute. Even the ending was good, even though I hate endings that kind of aren't really endings. Overall, if you like classic manga, this is something you should pick up.
8/10
OhHaiDer :]
Good evening all~
I told myself I wouldn't do this
But I'm going to do it anyway
Today I present to you..
Fruits Basket!
Fruits Basket
Story & Art: Natsuki Takaya
Publisher: Tokyopop
Rating: Teen (13+)
Synopsis: (Wikipedia) When high school student Tohru Honda's mother died in a car accident, Tohru begins living in a tent and supporting herself. That is, until she finds a home in the least likely of places, inhabited by her classmate Yuki Sohma and his cousins Shigure and Kyo. The Sohmas however, live with a curse. Thirteen members of the family are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac and turn into their zodiac animal when hugged by the opposite gender or when under stress. When Tohru discovers the Sohmas' secret, she promises not to tell and is allowed to keep living with them. The Sohma's curse, however, is deeper and darker than Tohru realized, but her presence soon becomes a large, positive influence on those possessed by the zodiac. She sets out to break the curse, and on the way, meets and discovers each of the Sohma's vengeful zodiac spirits. Each has a different personality, just like the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. Tohru's existence changes the Sohma clan's lives forever...
Art Review: 4/5
I always thought Takaya's style of art was cute, but the eyes bug me out a bit; a minor fault. What stands out to me, unfortunately, is the crampiness and amount of reading needed for this manga. A lot is covered, and that results in a lot of dialogue, and at times its hard to pay attention for someone who isn't a rabid fan. Despite that, it's a very cute manga.
Story Review: I always thought this story was cute on the outside, deep on the inside, and I still do. This manga is cute, funny, romantic, dramatic and deep all at the same time. I have watched and read this series and I enjoyed both. Again, I never appreciated the horrendous amount of reading and patience needed, but that doesn't present much of an issue against how great this series turned out. But I know all of you out there, like myself, are kind of scared of Akito. I also love the cute spin taken on the Chinese Zodiac, and Tohru's reaction to it in the beginning, but I also love how it eventually takes a serious turn, as most things do in this manga. For those who catch on, this manga is a brief description of human nature, and possibly of religion, that I've seen throughout. I love the ending as well, however I shall not even stick in a spoiler alert because from my understanding, people become gutted once teased with the possible ending. If you have the time, another good series to check out.
9/10
