Manga Review: Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge

Title: Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge
Author: Takimoto Tatsuhiko, Saiki Junichi
Release: Monthly
Status: Complete
Genre: Psychological, Supernatural, Romance, Comedy
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: Coming from the same author of “Welcome to the NHK”, this is a prior work of his that was adapted years after the NHK manga started serializing. It revolves a young aimless teenager who finds escape from his daily stress through the fantastic duels held between a tall, unkillable, raincoat-clad, chainsaw wielding hulk of a man and the super-strong, super-cute high school girl he just happened to run into after impulsively stealing some meat from a convenience store. I’m not sure if it’s intentional or just a result of me being quite genre savvy but I found the mystery behind the battles with the girl’s nemesis to be incredibly transparent. It’s got a very basic and predictable plot and the symbolism isn’t exactly subtle but it is an enjoyable enough series with some fun quirky characters. Maybe someone new to manga trying to be deep will find this to be a profound exploration of very relatable issues as indicated by most of the reviews on mangaupdates but to me it’s nothing special - in fact I felt that the symbolism was only there to make readers feel clever when it was clearly spelled out by the author. Still a decent read though so give it wouldn’t hurt to give a try. It’s only two volumes long after all.

Manga Review: Our Dear Tamura-kun

Title: Our Dear Tamura-kun
Author: Takemiya Yuyuko, Kurafuji Sachi
Release: Monthly
Status: Complete
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: A

Impression: Hahaha. It’s been a while since I’ve read a love comedy series this entertaining. I normally don’t go for pure romances but this got my attention when I was browsing some raw manga thanks to its art style and the summary that went with it. And to my honest surprise, I actually liked it a lot and seeing as Toradora is one of my favorite series I should have picked this up for a read a long time ago since they’re both written by the same authors. The story is about an average high school boy by the name of Tamura Yukisada who fell for a quiet, loopy girl that moved away the summer prior and how he tries to make sense of the chaos that is a hormonal teenager’s love life. Now starting high school, he faces another girl, an ice queen, who quickly puts the two of them at odds with one another with her standoffish demeanor and her inexplicable attempts at trying to associate with him. The fact that she conked him out with a present thrown through his window meant for his brother didn’t help in the least. They soon become close to each other, close enough to share a kiss, but he isn’t sure what to make of it as he still has feelings for that odd and demure girl from his middle school days. Quite an interesting love triangle story this one is. For most part, the first girl only appears in flashbacks showing how significant they became to one another while the other girl gets closer to the lead thanks to her active attempts at befriending him despite her very, very crude methods at doing so but neither ever actually meet the other making this love triangle one very different from the norm. In the end though, it all comes down to how devoted the main character is devoted to his first love and surprisingly enough the “losing” girl handles it very maturely at the end showing off just how well developed the characters in this series are. I do have a minor gripe about how the protagonist came to his answer as the event that triggered it could only be described as a very timely coincidence that happened during a very time critical moment. But hey, that coincidence led to a satisfyingly heartwarming conclusion so I’ll have to let it slide. After all, Shakespeare had a similar thing happen in one of his stories but Romeo and Juliet is still being remembered as a classic of the classics so it’s much more forgivable in comparison since it didn’t lead to a tragedy. Here’s the figurative bottom line, I enjoyed this series immensely for its refreshing take on the love triangle plot, the depth of the characters and its great balance of light-hearted comedy and heart-wrenching drama. Even the side stories were a lot of fun to read so I do hope you won’t try to pass this up cause you’ll miss out on a good read.

Manga Review: Sukimasuki

Title: Sukimasuki
Author: Unita Yumi
Release: Monthly
Status: Complete
Genre: Seinen, Slice of Life, Comedy, Romance
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: Well this is an interesting series by the author of Usagi Drop. It’s about this guy who has a bit of a fetish with narrow see-through gaps and peeps on his next door neighbor who just so happens to leave just enough space between her curtains to give him some flashes of her in her underwear. He feels conflicted with himself about this and knows that any normal girl would have him arrested for little voyeurism hobby. Luckily for him this is no normal girl as she herself is a pervert who takes pictures of him through that very same gap between her curtains. I really like how this short but sweet series went. Rather than the odd but otherwise straight romance manga it seems to be, this series seems to be more about the weird little things that people do in their everyday lives making it a mainly slice of life series. I actually found myself relating to quite a few of the topics brought up in here. For example, in one scene the girl is shown to be a light drinker despite liking her liquor a lot and they compare her to someone who’s allergic to crabs but still eats them. I myself am allergic to white chocolate but my inability to resist treats containing it often leaves me with itchy eyes and a runny nose so it really struck a chord with me. This particular work of the author uses a style very reminiscent of Asano Inio’s. It’s set in a realistic tone showing the good and the bad of the many unique and colorful personalities portrayed in this manga, putting them in scenes that let them play off one another and build the one main plotline with lots of entertaining little plotbits. It’s certainly a work that needs be recommend to all seinen fans alike and doubly so for those who are avid fans of Asano Inio’s style. Like me, you’ll probably find a lot of those little things that’ll have you go “Yeah, what’s up with that?”. It won’t necessarily be quite the same as my relatibility to the lead’s gap fetish is more in the area of hiding in them and taking people by the surprise. Don’t worry though, in my case it’s just for laughs and I don’t do that for any reasons that Candlejack would and doe

Manga Review: Usagi Drop

Title: Usagi Drop
Author: Unita Yumi
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Josei, Slice of Life, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: S
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This series is the story of a 30 year old man and his newfound 6 year old aunt whom he takes into his care upon the death of his grandfather as her other relatives aren’t quite as welcoming as he is. The man’s grandfather recently died at the ripe old age of 79 and much to the surprise of his family, the old man still had it in him to knock up someone less than a third of his age, raise an illegitimate daughter for six years in complete secrecy without having leaving a single inkling in all that time for his kids, grandkids and great-grandkids to find. My immediate thoughts on this old man? You are one awesome old dude old timer! Well, in all seriousness to me this manga is a breath of fresh air that I managed to take in amongst all the other foul odors that I’ve run into lately. It’s funny, has a unique premise, incredibly likeable leads and many a moment that will catch you off your guard and inject warmth and happiness directly into your hearts. It really does scare me how good the author is at doing that, almost seems sinister in a way if you ask me. The story so far is split into two parts, the first holding a great deal of the best stuff during the first year of their life together and the second which takes place a decade later when that little girl is now a teen. While the second half still makes for a pretty good read, I do hope that the upcoming anime series only animates the first half since that was the part of the story that was, in my eye, absolutely exceptional as well as the main draw and point of the series. The second half wouldn’t work without the first half and frankly, I wasn’t anywhere near done with reading about their early days when the time skip came. The first four volumes alone are definitely worth reading as you’ll absolutely be compelled to read the ones after once you're done with them.

Manga Review: Lying Mii-kun and Broken Maa-chan: Precious Lies

Title: Lying Mii-kun and Broken Maa-chan: Precious Lies
Author: Iruma Hiruma, Satou Atsunori
Release: Monthly
Status: Complete
Genre: Mystery, Psychological, Seinen
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: Based on the first volume of a seemingly obscure series of light novels, this manga is the story of a boy and a girl who go by the names “Mii-kun” and “Maa-chan”. The two share the trauma of having been the victims of a kidnapping eight years prior and because of it, neither of them have all their screws in the right sockets. This is especially so for Maa-chan as she herself has kidnapped a pair of kids for no apparent reason. Between this and the serial murders that’s been taking place in their town, Mii-kun has his work cut out for him when it comes to resolving the problem Maa-chan’s gotten herself into. The author weaves a delightfully unique story with the fascinatingly screwed-up characters, unusual plot and his masterful use of implicit and explicit information. The misdirection of the mystery actually relies on the reader’s ability to put two and two together as the author uses unrelated implicit bits of information to make us fill in the gaps in the whole picture. I myself couldn’t help but be amazed at how brilliantly I got fooled by this since I only had my own assumptions to blame for being wrong. Sure, the presentation could be blamed for a few of the points(the killer’s identity comes to mind) in the story but I’m certain that the original novel was much better about it considering how many filters the version I read went through. It’s really a shame that they didn’t go on and adapt the other nine novels in the series cause there’s a good reason why the series has won a couple of awards.

Manga Review: Release: The Emancipation of the Self

Title: Release: The Emancipation of the Self
Author: Sagara Naoya
Release: Monthly
Status: Complete
Genre: Seinen, Sci-fi
Art: C
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: C

Impression: This is an odd series that I happened to find. It’s got the makings of something interesting but it’s very hard to discern the direction the series is taking. Emancipation of Personality features an amnesiac who was said to have been living in Tokyo for the past 5 years but is unable to recall any of it. The people in his life seem pretty normal making this seem like a story of an ordinary amnesiac living in modern times who has some dark hidden depths but then he has people coming after him who kidnap and bring the guy 70 years in the future where he actually comes from. I figured it’d be more of a psychological series based on the title and it turns out it’s a sci-fi of some ex-assassin who just wants to go back to the home he’s known as far as he remembers it. I feel like the author has a particular plot in mind but threw in some unnecessary elements that just didn’t come out right in ink and paper. First volume in and three more after, I just couldn’t come to grips with how the main character was important enough to drive the plot and as such I diagnose this series with a case of messy writing and lack of a properly done setting. I would have preferred to read more about his present life than what he did before that since the sci-fi bits just aren’t very well thought out.

Manga Review: Doubt

Title: Doubt
Author: Tonogai Yoshiki
Release: Monthly
Status: Complete
Genre: Mystery, Horror, Psychological
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: D
Characters: C
Humor: C
Action: B

Impression: What do you get when you cross the Saw franchise and some paper and ink? Saw, the manga! That’s the easiest way you can describe this and I’m sticking to that. There are a number of slight differences though: 1)The victims are stuck in the same building that the schemer is and they have to figure out who it is 2)There aren’t really any of the cool murder devices like in the movies. 3)The schemer is NOT an old man in a wheelchair talking through a creepy puppet. I had high hopes for this series when I accidentally read who the mastermind was on TvTropes but when I actually got around to reading this I found that the plot falls flat on the premise. The mystery aspect of the series was poorly handled and depended on everything going right and all the victims being complete idiots. If anyone had bothered to think things through or done one thing different then no one would have died. In fact, the one person you’d expect to actually do something right stupidly ends up HELPING the mastermind’s plan succeed! The scope that the series covered was quite underwhelming given the elements that were there by the end and I would rather read more about the mastermind than the so called “mystery” that the manga provided. Seriously, the true identity of the mastermind alone was at least ten times more interesting than the actual plot and I would have enjoyed a series from their point of view.

Manga Review: Arisa

Title: Arisa
Author: Andou Nasumi
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shoujo, Mystery, Romance
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a pair of twin sisters, Tsubasa and Arisa, who have been living separately after their parents divorced and the mystery that surrounds the eponymous character and the strange game that her class plays. Shortly after reuniting with each other, Tsubasa impersonates Arisa at her school for a day and discover just how envious her school life seems compared to her own. However, a dark secret lies beneath the bright happy exterior of Arisa’s class as she apologizes her to her sister and lets herself fall out of her own window right after Tsubasa shows her a letter that was left for her in her shoe box. Wanting to know the reason behind her sister’s actions, Tsubasa starts impersonating Arisa at her school only to find that her class has been engaging in a secret game of chance called the King’s Game that rewards the winner by granting whatever wish they desire. A pretty interesting shoujo series this one. The manga starts off very strong with a mystery premise that just pulls you right in and keeps you guessing as to who the King really is. I lament the fact that this isn’t a dedicated mystery with the clues quickly being unraveled after their reveal. Though the shoujo style does add to the reading experience I would have liked a slow build up of clues to instead of using the reveals to flesh out the characters. Definitely a series worth checking out but mystery buffs might be annoyed with how the author handles their main point of interest.

Manga Review: Rave

Title: Rave
Author: Hiro Mashima
Release: Weekly
Status: Complete
Genre: Shonen, Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure, Romance
Art: C
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: Hiro Mashima’s previous long-running series had anime adaptation I truly enjoyed. I thought it pretty well-paced, had a great story and loads and loads of creativity thrown into it. And though I was disappointed that it had to be cut short at what I thought was the halfway point of the series I still thought it was an amazing series. Unfortunately, I was wrong about it being the halfway point and was thoroughly disappointed with the arcs that followed after the point where the anime stopped. Apparently the author decided to stretch things out as much as possible with subplots that really didn’t need to be there and recycle the same old set of clichés for EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN battle that I just couldn’t believe how bad the series got after that. Power levels didn’t make sense anymore, character focus was all over the place and the lacking art style didn’t help. Somehow it did all get better once the art style improved and the story shifted its focus back on the Raves and how the characters tie into the whole scheme of the universe but not after spending half of its publication on pointless subplots and characters. I would have given the story an A rating if the middle chapters were condensed and handled better but there was too much crap in between the great starting and ending arcs. Seriously, Rave would have made an overall amazing shonen series had it not been for the middle. Good thing he’s gotten better with tying plotlines together in Fairy Tail.

Manga Review: Love Allergen

Title: Love Allergen
Author: Akahori Satoru, Katsura Yukimaru
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Romance, Supernatural, Comedy
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is the story of a boy and a girl who have allergies they want to rid themselves off and the task they must complete to make that a reality. Together they meet this personification of this mystical sentient blue Sakura tree who wishes to learn the meaning of love so that she can teach the human baby it will give birth to and with that goal in mind the pair are to find that answer she seeks in exchange for doing away of their allergies. Brought to you by the creators of Kashimashi~ Girl meets Girl, this series has a pretty good cast of characters. The boy is a kid who just moved into the village this story takes place in and hates his looks because of how much trouble his beauty brings him. It caused him to even renounce the very notion of love which is obviously going to change given how the manga starts off. The girl on the other hand is basically the idol of the village with reputation for having the irreproachable manners but in actually the most hyperactive and bubbly person in the manga. Unlike the boy’s mundane pollen allergy, her allergy is love itself. Anytime she feels anything close to that emotion, she breaks out in hives and her condition gets worse the more she’s exposed to it. The chemistry between these two characters alone is the source of maybe 70% of the humor and the jokes in this series rarely miss their marks. A great series with lots of good material and a lot to look forward to. Shame that no one’s gotten around to pick up the rest of the chapters since the original scanlator seems to have gone awol.

Manga Review: River’s Edge

Title: River’s Edge
Author: Okazaki Kyoko
Release: Monthly
Status: Complete
Genre: Josei, Slice of Life
Art: F
Originality: B
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is the story of a bunch of screwed up teenagers at a school in some random town that a river runs through. The story focuses mostly on the friendship between a girl in a dysfunctional relationship with an insecure jackass and the gay boy ostracized by said jackass’s gang along with several other members of their peers. A friend recommended this to me a while back so I should tell that if it weren’t for her recommendation, I wouldn’t even be going near this series on account of the horrible artwork and the angst filled premise. A little angst goes a long way in terms of characterization but nobody actually wants to see a bunch of teenagers feeling sorry for themselves doing stupid self destructive things. Thankfully though, the angst is played off quite well here. The setting and society shown in the story certainly justifies it since the bleakness of their lives is just absolutely depressing. Nobody seems to be anywhere near the well-adjusted mark in this series so it’s a little hard for me to take this story seriously. The author probably didn’t mean for the teens’ antics to be humorous but I found myself more amused at how silly they were rather than appalled at their behavior. Things do make sense and the themes of the story are done quite nicely but I honestly just cannot take this story seriously. Still, I enjoyed reading it so maybe you will too.

Manga Review: My Girl

Title: My Girl
Author: Sahara Mizu
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Seinen, Slice of Life
Art: S
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: S+
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This story revolves around the lives of a barely out of college 23 year old office worker and his newfound five year old daughter and their days together as father and daughter. Having turned up at the funeral wake of his former girlfriend who’s been out of touch with him since she went abroad to study he learns that she been keeping a huge secret from him all these years. For the past five years she’s been raising their child all on her own without his knowledge and now their daughter comes to him to fill the void in their lives. A lovely little series that’s sure to melt the hearts of even the most hardened war veteran with its charming characters, delightful plots and adorable art style. Speaking of which, the art style on the covers and in the manga are of two completely different flavors for some reason though I do find both to be illustrations worthy of praise. Also, I’m completely aware just how corny this sounds but this manga is chock full of love. It’s basically “Clannad: After Story” under a different name sans the wretched tearjerking moments it’s famous for – so far that is and hopefully it’ll stay that way. This definitely belongs in the TvTropes under the sweet dreams fuel section and hopefully someone will get around to creating a page for this series there. A wonderful title all around and most definitely worth a thorough read.

Manga Review: Yozakura Quartet

Title: Yozakura Quartet
Author: Suzuhito Yasuda
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural, Slice of Life
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: S
Humor: A
Action: A

Impression: This story takes place in a town surrounded by seven gigantic Sakura where humans and youkai live together in peace. This peace is upheld by a foursome who run an office purposed with taking care of youkai-related issues including rampaging youkai, rampaging half-youkai as well as babysitting kindergarteners. This office officially consists of a telepathic fox youkai, a kotodama user, the town’s 16 year old mayor and an ordinary human. Quite a solid series this one. There’s quite a nice assortment of colorful characters in this series with uniquely memorable quirks and they’re all given appropriate amounts of screen time. This does hamper with the plot’s progression a little bit since the author seems to prioritize them over the overarching plot. On the other hand, it does make for excellent story arcs but the series itself hasn’t shown us anything that looks like a halfway point for the story even after forty chapters. Now that I think about it, I honestly can’t predict what might come up in future arcs thanks since it still feels like it’s missing more key characters or plot devices that would determine the ending. As of the latest chapter I’ve read, we have the heroes, the things at stake, the key villain, the imminent and eventual threats but not anything that really ties them together or any urgency to take care of things. As good as I find this to be, I still feel it’s a little too early to expect this to end brilliantly but I’m certainly going to stick with this the rest of the way.

Manga Review: Little Little

Title: Little Little
Author: Rokuko
Release: Monhtly
Status: Complete
Genre: Slice of Life
Art: S
Originality: A
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is a series done almost entirely done without dialogue and focuses on the day to day lives of a frail young girl and the little fox girl that stumbles into her garden one day. The fox girl quickly becomes attached to her and quickly becomes a resident of the girl’s household. Quite remarkably well done really. Here’s a series without a plot and only one instance of dialogue(used brilliantly by the way) that manages to tell a story that’s both endearing and enjoyable despite all of its restrictions. I was hoping it was yuri series when I first found it but as far as I can tell it’s just got fluff that comes with yuri manga and none of the actual romance. Not complaining though, I loved the tranquil ambience of the series and the innocence portrayed here so I’ll have to say it’s worth checking out.

Manga Review: The Phantom King

Title: The Phantom King
Author: Im Dal Young, Yoon Jae Ho
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural
Art: B
Originality: D
Story: C
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: If it were any other author I’d have to give this at least a C in terms of originality but Im Dal Young has rehashed the same old plot so, so, so many times now that I can’t understand why exactly he writes so many different stories simultaneously. It’s your run of the mill supernatural shonen manga set in a village where an incident involving shadowy monsters called evil took place years ago and centers around a bunch of survivors from then who came out of it with no memories of their past selves. Trouble has been starting up recently with the evil sealed up secretly in the huge rock formations just outside the village coming up one by one, possessing and killing people with significant levels of negative emotions. I found this to be the most lacking of all their works so far with the half-assed premise and storytelling so I wouldn’t be too keen on spending any time reading this if I were you. I really liked Aflame Inferno by these guys with the great characters and its atypical focus on them but I can’t see this turning out anywhere near as good as Aflame Inferno. Far too typical and shallow to even compare to it.

Manga Review: Mushibugyo

Title: Mushibugyo
Author: Fukuda Hiroshi
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural, Historical
Art: A
Originality: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This series features a main character happens to be a guy with a whole lot of spirit and the brute strength to back it up and he aspires to make it big as a warrior in Edo. One day, this guy from said city comes to scout him as a protector of the capital. He eagerly accepts and soon finds himself in said city but not quite for the reasons he believed. He’s there to protect the city alright but not from soldiers from another province, robbers from some band of ruffians or even fierce, ferocious, fearsome bears – he was brought as pest control. He is the latest in a long line of new recruits for the Mushibugyo monster bug elimination squad because of his talents in combat. Pretty mediocre really. The only thing I actually like about it is the art style. Everything else is substandard, especially the main character himself who’s only proved himself to be a one trick pony. Can’t see any reason to recommend this one.

Manga Review: Princess Lucia

Title: Princess Lucia
Author: Seo Kouji
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Ecchi, Supernatural
Art: A
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This series is about a guy who one day suddenly has the princess of the demon race appear before him in his room demanding him to take her then and there so they can conceive a child together. The guy was born at a truly auspicious moment having six 6’s lined up for his own moment of birth and it is said any child born of a person and a demon will possess the power needed for world domination. The manga itself isn’t quite as unimaginative as it sounds though. The demon race has fallen over the past thousands of years leading to the Demon King having to run a ramen shop for a living in these modern days. Their only hope of regaining their once mighty standing in the world is the child to be born between the guy and the demon princess so she decides to take one for the team and get him to copulate with her while fending off the harassment of the two guardian angels watching him. Furthermore, one of the two angels responsible for him happens to be the girl that the guy had a crush on long before the titular princess Lucia shows up. I didn’t particularly care for the mangaka’s other series(Kimi no Iru Machi) but I do like the fun he’s having with this series. Straight out romances aren’t my thing so I really did appreciate the fact that he threw in some fun elements into an otherwise mediocre love triangle story. Worth checking out but you’re only going to stick around if you’re the kind who values fun over serious storytelling.

Manga Review: Koharu no Hibi

Title: Koharu no Hibi
Author: Ooshiro Youkou
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Romance, Psychological, Seinen
Art: B
Originality: S
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: You know how love triumphs all else? How the main couples in stories would usually overcome their crisis by believing in each other and sticking to their guns now how bad things looked. Nothing is as powerful or everlasting as true love. A wonderful statement wouldn’t you agree? Well, I’d have to agree that love is a powerful thing but it’s not always as pure and innocent as romantics would make it out to be. I actually find it to be a terrifying emotion and if you feel that I’m wrong let this series show you a way in which why my opinion about this matter is perfectly valid and justified. This series is about a guy who bumps into this tiny timid girl who happens to be one of his juniors at school while riding the train back home. He helps her with her fallen books and a couple days later gets cookies from her as thanks. He then keeps running into her as if they were in a sweet high school romance story but he soon discovers that this seemingly innocent tale has a disturbing twist to it. The otherwise cute little girl is not only in love with him, she is obsessed with him. And it’s not usual kind obsession, she doesn’t have these obvious signs of mental instability so it’s all the more disturbing when she really, really, REALLY loves the guy and is taking every sweet little thing you can do for the one you love and amplify the sweetness till it gets sickeningly so. Seriously, I almost labeled this as a horror series but figured it’s more in the psychological kind of thing since the main subject matter is obsessive love. Loving the subversion this story is going for the theme of love so I personally recommend this one to those of you who love yanderes.

Manga Review: Ookami ga Kuru!

Title: Ookami ga Kuru!
Author: Nanto Hanamaru
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing (Finished/Sequel)
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural
Art: A
Originality: B
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is the story of two young men who run a branch of an organization dealing with the supernatural and the occult loving heiress who becomes their benefactor. The manga starts off with the young lady stumbling around in an old castle owned by her grandfather hoping to run into some supernatural phenomena, specifically vampires. Unfortunately for her, she runs into zombie-like ghouls instead. Fortunately though, the younger of the two slayers of the supernatural comes to her rescues and proceeds to bail her out of further trouble cause by the unexpected awakening of an unknown vampire. While this series doesn’t bring anything new to stories of this nature it does have a refreshing approach when it comes to the story. It doesn’t go full out on the secret monster extermination plot but goes about it by making work for the slayers more mundane and realistic than the usual stuff. The main goal of their activities is to protect people from the supernatural and that also happens to entail debunking hearsay and covering things up. This gives it a quite a good bit of humor to throw in there along with episodic plots that don’t always end typically which is why I find it refreshing to read. I’d even say it’s an attempt at deconstructing these kinds of stories which is always a nice thing to see, especially for those who know what to expect with this territory. No need to worry about it being short, the manga still goes on after the first two volumes only under a different name. Definitely worth checking out so I suggest you go and do just that.

On a side note, why do I keep running into German online and in the manga I read? You’d think I’d run into Japanese or Chinese more often than German but I keep running into it for some reason.

Manga Review: Manga no Tsukurikata

Title: Manga no Tsukurikata
Author: Auri Hirau
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Yuri, Slice of Life
Art: A
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is a yuri series based around two young women who are both mangaka. Well, one of them is a mangaka at the beginning of the story and the other is on a hiatus of sorts. The younger of the two is in love with the older one who happened to be her senior at their high school before she graduated. The older one doesn’t hold any mutual sentiments towards her admirer but decides to go out with her for a while so she can figure how to the draw yuri manga. This is one of those light and fluffy yuri series infused with a good dose of silliness to go with the many, many slice of life scenes thrown in there. Now that I think about it this might actually be better described as a slice of life with a dash of yuri given how much focus is put on their daily lives. The romance develops very subtly and very slowly but it’s done in such a way that you can easily tell how their relationship is progressing. In fact, you’d have to be completely blind if you didn’t realize that the pretend lovers play turned into the real thing before the older girl realized it. Seriously, you’d have to be absolutely blind to such matters if you needed to see verbal confirmation from her to know it happened. At any rate, this is a pretty good yuri series that doesn’t depend on teasing to keep the readers interested but still manages to do so with its quiet and slightly goofy storytelling.