Category: Manga

By Kyungok Kang (NetComics)
ISBN: 978-1-60009-116-2

This is a rather gentle suspense – and potentially, horror – story for older kids which has a lot to offer adult readers. Jina is a young Korean Girl with all the usual problems of the comfortable modern miss, but her family is keeping a big, dark secret from her.

Hundreds of years ago her ancestors were rulers and one vain and foolish king ordered the death of a magical serpent called Imugi, just as it was preparing to ascend to Heaven. It cursed the family for eternity, decreeing that in every generation one of them would die, because of the actions of two people close to them. The fear, distrust and misery of this most subtle pronouncement has blighted the family through the centuries and for all their attempts to forestall their doom with priests, fortune tellers and exorcisms, nothing has worked. Long ago they decided to keep all knowledge of the curse from the children, only revealing the secret when – or if – they reach a certain age.

Jina doesn’t have many friends but as her birthday approaches her school rivalry with that obnoxious boy Jaesuk looks to be turning into something more, the girls in class seem less aggressive and distant and her cousin Myunghyun has returned from America after three years, bringing with him a gorgeous and enigmatic young man named Yoojin Lee. As the days progress she grows closer to them all but her new relationships are troubling her parents. The latest soothsayer has determined that Jina is the most probable target of this generation’s curse which means that two people close to her will cause her death…

More teen-soap than thriller, this undemanding manhwa fantasy has a subtle undercurrent to it which promises much. I for one will follow this pretty eye-candy to see if there’s a bitter bite beneath all the saccharine…

© 2007 Kyungok Kang. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2007 NetComics.

By Hiroki Endo (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-502-6

After the deadly ‘Closure Virus’ decimates the world the survivors have to cope with the global power-grab of the paramilitary secret society Propater. Elijah Ballard is one such survivor, searching for his mother in the ruins of a still un-pacified South America. Falling in with a rebel unit lead by the ominous Colonel Khan, Elijah is unaware of just how important he is, and just what part his mother now plays in the bloody new world order.

This volume of Hiroki Endo’s gripping, brutal post-apocalyptic thriller splits the action between the contemporary battle with a disturbing back-story origin for the compelling young rebel Kenji; a cold, psychotic killer who seems as alien and inhuman as any cybernetic monstrosity devised by the world-devouring Propater forces. By exploring Kenji’s violent past and unconventional relationship with older brother Ryuichi, the author also offers a glimpse at the origins of the Conquerer’s technology. It appears that the Closure Virus is the basis of the Cyborg technology now decimating Khan and his unit…

Eden is a brutal, savage epic, meticulous and compelling: This volume ends with a seemingly unconnected vignette showing what’s happening to Mana, Elijah’s missing sister – absent since the first book. How this sweet, innocuous interlude will fit into the dark, apocalyptic mosaic of this drama is something for another time…

And you really should stick around for it. This book is printed in the ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.

© 2007 Hiroki Endo. All Rights Reserved.

By Kosuke Fujishima (Titan Books)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-509-5

When geeky engineering student Keiichi Morisato dialled a wrong number one night and connected to the Goddess Technical Help Line his life changed forever. A gorgeous, powerful goddess named Belldandy materialised in his room, and offered him one wish. He jokingly asked that she would never leave him…

Trapped on Earth and unable even to move too far from his physical proximity Belldandy became part of his life. Unfortunately her life increasingly became part of his, too. All Keiichi wants is to pass his exams and live a quiet life but as more and more of Belldandy’s powerful and weird family turn up and move in, life keeps on getting more wild – and dangerous!

In this volume mischievous sister Goddess Urd has been possessed by the Lord of Terror and has activated the celestial Ultimate Destruction Program. The Great Fenrir Wolf is free and the World is about to end unless our hapless goof does something about it!

Although the trademark humour is still in evidence, this is a more action-oriented adventure, with moments of genuine suspense and the mandatory massive destruction one expects from manga thrillers. All of which shows just how adaptable this series can be, and the book even has room for a delightful and poignant change-of-pace tale to close. ‘Urd’s Fantastic Adventure’ is a bittersweet tale wherein the depowered and diminutive Urd reverts to a child’s body and experiences a doomed first love with a lonely young boy.

In a structured society like Japan there’s plenty of scope for comedy with fantasy and gender role-reversal. It’s a sign of Kosuke Fujishima’s great story-telling ability that this comic take on Bewitched travels so well in our less strictured world, and remains one of the most readable and engaging of manga properties. It’s great but you will need to read them all.

This book is printed in the ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.

English language translation © 2008 Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

By Hiroki Endo (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-501-9

Following a worldwide pandemic, society has fragmented into warring factions. The Closure Virus decimated the global population, leaving religious society Propater in a position to conquer the remains of humanity. Young survivor Elijah Ballard is searching for his mother in South America when he becomes involved with a group of resistance fighters using the most modern tech and the most ancient tactics to halt Propater’s advance. Led by the ruthless Colonel Khan, the group are making their way to Cuzco City when they encounter a heavy Propater force, including a detachment of seemingly invincible cyborg Aeon Soldiers.

Starting with a pitched battle this tense volume is one long engagement that escalates into all-out war. As Kachua, an Indio girl, and the cybernetically augmented spotter Wycliffe try to make their way to safety through the ancient Inca tunnels, Propater forces run wild above them. Elijah’s devoted robot bodyguard Cherubim is the group’s only advantage but even he is outmatched in the carnage that follows.

The bigger story is largely sidelined in this volume as the all-consuming combat takes its toll on the cast. This cyber-punk, post-apocalyptic tale is by turns viciously graphic and deeply philosophical, but this book is all action as the bleak and brutal, terrifyingly savage saga moves toward a harder look at the politics of survival and the value of ideologies.

These Titan volumes are printed in Japanese format – reading from back to front and right-to-left, but don’t let that deter you. You’ll easily adjust and the minor effort is worth it. Blending beautiful drawing with breakneck action and strong characterisation, this series will appeal to fans and casual readers alike – as long as they’re over 18.

© 2007 Hiroki Endo. All Rights Reserved.

By Kosuke Fujishima (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-506-4

This is a classic example of a Japanese story genre which uses a fantasy framework and derives humour from embarrassment and loss of conformity. Nerdy student Keiichi Morisato dials a wrong number one night and connects to the Goddess Technical Help Line. Beautiful and powerful Belldandy materialises in his room, offering him one wish, and he geekily asks that she never leave him. This traps her on Earth, and in fact she is even unable to move too far from his physical proximity.

The college society he pledged to – the Nekomi Institute of Technology Motor Club – are a bunch of maniacs, always spending his money and getting him into trouble, his little sister is always nosing around, the campus queen, Sayoko, inexplicably has the hots for him, and to top it all, Belldandy’s sister Urd – an even more powerful goddess – has decided to make him her pet project.

This volume sees yet another milestone in Keiichi’s inevitable descent into madness, ulcers and baldness when not only the demonic and sexy Mara but Urd too attempts to sabotage Belldandy’s Valentine gift. Then the obnoxious younger sister Goddess Skuld moves in, almost ending the World with her Celestial programming glitches and accidentally turns the hapless boy into a Black Hole.

But nothing could prepare him for the cataclysmic events when wicked Urd turns full-on EVIL…

When you’re a lazy slacker who just wants a hassle free life, you should be careful what you wish for. This fifth collection of Kosuke Fujishima’s brilliant and beautiful comedy of errors is a frantic yet gentle miracle of quality entertainment that can’t fail to bring a smile to a jaded comic palate.

This book is printed in the ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.

English language translation © 2007 Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

By Katsu Aki (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-4278-0536-2

If you are offended or embarrassed by graphic cartoon nudity and sexual situations, or if you have any problems at all with the oddly coy forthrightness of manga, skip this review and move on. Otherwise this peculiar blend of soap opera and sexual self-help manual might pique your interest…

Billed as “the best-selling sex guide from Japan” this is more accurately a sweet but explicit soap-opera love-story – albeit related in a staggeringly clinical-yet-chatty manner.

Makota and Yura are just married and unbeknownst to each other, both virgins. In short narrative episodes we see their stumbling first steps to a healthy sex-life, peppered with diagrams, statistics and a disturbingly jolly commentary. The act and techniques themselves are almost of secondary importance to the telling of a RomCom story, with vamping co-workers, interfering, know-it-all siblings and inquisitive parents always making an embarrassing situation worse…

There’s lots of nudity and oddly graphic-yet-(self)-censored copulation on show (neither male nor female primary sexual organs are ever depicted – it’s assumed you already know what they look like; moreover, the Japanese consider them to be in poor taste) but in no way does this resemble the Western style of manual where the emphasis is on dispassionate, clinical education and task-oriented elucidation (of course I’m just guessing here – I’ve never needed a manual or even a map in my life, no, not me, nope, Nuh-Uh…)

Seriously though, this isn’t so much a “how-to” as much as a fascinating and beautifully drawn insight into the acceptable face of Japanese sexuality, and as such has lots to recommend it. Which I do, as long as you’re old enough and promise to stop sniggering…

© 1996 KATSUAKI. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2008 TOKYOPOP Inc.

By Yasushi Suzuki (DrMaster Publications)
ISBN13: 978-1-59796-070-0

Yasushi Suzuki is a world-renowned commercial artist and game-designer. Purgatory Kabuki is his first venture into graphic narrative. This first volume (of three) drops the reader right into the eerie action with no preamble.

In the underworld a mysterious samurai wanders, seeking battle. Despite the maxim that a samurai’s greatest honour is to die in battle, Imanoturugi is desperate to leave this place of mist and conflict. He roams the land of the dead fighting warriors and demons whenever he finds them. When they are defeated he takes their swords. He has been told that if he wins one thousand swords he will be able to leave this misty fastness…

Moody, action-packed and visually enticing, this very traditional tale owes as much to the fantastic scenario Suzuki has created as the folk lore it is derived from. This Hell is a bleak cold place of swirling grey menace. The Great Gojou Bridge is a tremendous iron structure that stretches from one end of the underworld to the other, and beneath it warriors fight and die. Across this wasteland Rashomon, a huge flesh-eating gate and a home to seven demons randomly travels. The gate is constantly moving because it is pulled by a savage pack of Chimeras…

Painfully short on plot and dialogue (which might actually be to its advantage) this is a pictorial delight that promises much. Hopefully when all the mysteries are revealed and the quest concludes the story will live up to the promise of the art.

This book is printed in the ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.

© DGN Production Inc./ Yasushi Suzuki 2006. All Rights Reserved.

By Kazuya Minekura (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-59816-978-2

Despite a definite homoerotic subtext this tale of modern gangsters can be read as a crime story with the lone protagonist as the proverbial alienated outsider. Makota Kubota is cool. A High Schooler, he seems immune to all the pressures of a teenager’s existence. He only comes alive when playing Mah Jong.

When he is sought out by a local Yakuza boss to take charge of the local youth gang he goes along with it. He is told to keep all other gangs out of his area – he successfully complies. Makota is extremely capable, and can handle himself in a fight. There seems to be nothing he can’t do. And still, nothing seems to penetrate his aloof exterior…

Slowly though he establishes a relationship – almost a friendship – with another young Yakuza, Nobuo Komiya, and learns about a semi-mystical mutagenic drug that’s just reaching the streets. Wild Adapter is not just another narcotic. Some of the addicts are turning into strange animals and dying.

What is happening and what does Makota’s uncle, the famous detective, know about all this?

In this first volume, almost a prologue, Kazuya Minekura lays the groundwork for a fascinating adult crime thriller, but that’s all. The threads and settings are in place but there is no real narrative here yet. Engaging and intriguing, dripping with Gangster Chic and wonderfully drawn, it will still take a few more volumes before we know what’s going on and whether or not it’s worth pursuing.

This book is printed in the ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format, and carries a parental advisory notice of explicit content.

© 2000, 2001 Kazuya Minekura. All Rights Reserved.
English text © 2007 TOKYOPOP Inc.