Category: Manga

 

By You Higuri, & Spray (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 1-59816-708-5

Now that the western world is more generally accepting of the Japanese Manga phenomenon, and there is solid commercial base to work from, publishers are generally becoming bolder in what they make available to the public.

Gakuen Heaven, subtitled ‘Boy’s Love Scramble’ is the first “Yaoi” title I’ve seen translated and although superficially very similar in appearance to other tales of school days there are significant differences the casual purchaser might want to be aware of.

Yaoi are stories created primarily for female audiences in Japan, and the genre concentrates on love, affection and relationships between beautiful young men. The difference between Yaoi and the more common “Shonen-Ai” tales of boys’ mutual affection is the degree of graphically explicit, erotic, homoerotic or sexual content. Yaoi stories, especially in the West, are for Mature Readers Only.

Kieta Itou is a high school student who suddenly and mysteriously wins a scholarship he didn’t apply for to the most exclusive Boys School in the country. Afraid and unsure, he slowly settles into his new life, but is riddled with self-doubt. All the other boys are beautiful and masters of some talent, skill or ability. How can he fit in? And why do the glorious and wonderful school glitterati spend time with someone so unworthy as himself?

This is a classic Cinderella-style school-romance, and were it not for the graphic sexual scenes that form the book’s denouement, this would be a much shorter review. But since it does deal with Gay Sex and Schoolboys, I felt it necessary to be more verbose than usual.

This is a romantic, not pornographic or sexually exploitative story, beautifully drawn, from a culture that views sex and love in a different way to the general population of Britain and America. It won’t be to everybody’s taste. It is not meant to be. If such content is liable to shock you, don’t buy it and don’t read it.

If you are more broadminded, less prone to apoplexy, and looking to see a different sort of romantic mystery – and with a happy ending – this might be a good place to start.

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

© 2004 You Higuri, & Spray. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2007 BLU

 

By various (TokyoPop)
ISBN 1-59816-493-7

Here’s a particularly Japanese aspect of comics publishing that’s just making its way into Western Culture. Many Manga properties have vociferous and energetic fan-groups and unlike the American system of suing anybody who produces art and/or stories of their favourite strips, the Japanese print the best of them in Official Fan Books (the phrase to Google is ‘Manga-Ka’ if you need more information).

This volume contains strips from fans of the series DearS as well as material from its creator, Peach-Pit, and examines, with varying degrees of discretion and decorum, some of the odder aspects of the property. The original is a boy-meets-alien-girl tale of the sort much loved in Japan. Takeya, a high school boy, does an alien girl a favour, only to have her publicly declare herself his slave, with the usual embarrassingly slapstick consequences.

The work here ranges from the very good to excellent, although the fascination with bedroom secrets, whilst expected, gets a little tiresome. Still if you like looking at semi-clad women drawn in the oddly innocent soft-core Manga manner, it is quite engaging, but strangers to the parent series might be a little confused at times.

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

© 2005 PEACH-PIT. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2006 TOKYOPOP Inc.

 

By Kazuya Minekura (TokyoPop)
ISBN 1-59816-327-2

This is an intriguing and fast-paced action adventure that best displays the – to western eyes – oddly skewed sensibilities of Japanese storytelling.

Toki, Nobuto and Kazuo are three young men with exceptional abilities and a desperate need for money. So when these strangers are recruited to compete as a unit in an illicit and covert competition called the “Biz” Game they jump at the opportunity, without really considering the consequences.

The game is played by Japanese corporations, which pit their teams in secret, no-holds-barred duels involving espionage, strategy and combat. The stakes are the industrial secrets of the parent company. Losing a match could mean the life of a contestant, but the destruction of a mainstay of the Japanese economy.

As the neophytes score success after success, with increasing awareness of just how dangerous their lives have become they realise that perhaps some things are more important than winning.

Kazuya Minekura has mixed Mission: Impossible and Wall Street to captivating effect and this is a great little read. The series was originally serialized in Japan, but scheduling changes prevented its completion. The creator has resorted to radical measures, however.

Adding three unpublished chapters, he has released this story without an ending (although the narrative end is crafted to culminate a prologue rather than just leave the reader hanging) in the hopes that this will generate enough money and interest to complete the tale. I hope he succeeds, because he certainly has mine.

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

© 2003 Kazuya Minekura. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2006 TOKYOPOP Inc.

 

By Haruko Iida – story by Red Entertainment/Takamura Matsuda (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 1-59182-792-2

This slight fantasy manga features the trials and tribulations of Mahiru Shiraishi, a young girl who seems to have the peculiar ability to lend luck to whoever asks for it. Perhaps as a consequence of this, she leads a sad unlucky life herself.

All this changes when she meets the mystical ‘Lunar Race’ – kids who are actually demons in the shapes of Werewolves, Vampires, Foxes and Bats. They reveal that she is the descendent of a human princess who once loved and betrayed a demon boy, and enlist her aid to recover the source of all their power – the “Teardrops of the Moon” which have been stolen. Can she help these wonderful beings and expiate the sins of her ancestors and race before it’s too late?

Gently blending schoolgirl drama, romance, real world adventure and high fantasy, this is a charming fairytale in the traditional manner, and suitable for older kids of all ages.

© 2000 Haruko Iida. © RED 2000. English text © 2004 TokyoPop Inc.

 

Vol. 1: BLUE BLUE GLASS MOON, UNDER THE CRIMSON AIR ISBN 1-59796-075-6

Vol. 2: BLUE BLUE GLASS MOON, UNDER THE CRIMSON AIR ISBN 1-59796-076-4
By Sasakishonen/Type-Moon/Tsukihime Project (DrMaster Publications Inc.)

This dark and stylish modern horror-adventure series tells the tale of Shiki Tohno, a troubled young man with an awesome gift. Ever since a childhood accident, he has had the ability to see the hidden lines or weak points in all things, organic or otherwise. By striking or cutting along these normally invisible stress lines, he can literally slice through anything, as if through hot butter. As he matures, along with this power comes a growing and irrepressible urge to kill.

When he succumbs to the demonic call and literally dismembers a young woman the pressure of his rich, dysfunctional life temporarily eases, until she turns up at his front door, hale, hearty, and quite keen to recruit him into a little project of her own.

The tale moves into a higher gear in the second book as the mysterious and beautiful Aoka Aozaki explains just exactly what kind of creature she is to our troubled young hero, and how his awesome power might just be a blessing, not the curse he has always feared.

She explains that she is an immortal vampire who refuses to drink human blood, embroiled in a war with her much more traditional descendents, and she desperately needs his aid if she is to win, and perhaps even survive, against more or less unstoppable monsters who simply want to slaughter humans and breed more bloodsuckers.

This is an intriguing spin on the over-used vampire-hunter genre with lots of action and a genuinely sympathetic (anti)hero. It stands out well in a veritable sea of similar material. I just wish the title wasn’t so much of a mouthful.

© 2005 Sasakishonen/Type-Moon/Tsukihime Project. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Rivkah (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 1-59816-135-0

This teen comedy-drama tells of Leah Winters and her shattering discovery. Leah is a well-to-do sixteen year old who accidentally finds a love-letter hidden by her oh-so-perfect, truly obnoxious older sister, Sarai. Giving in to temptation, Leah reads the letter and is shocked to discover that not only is it a love-letter, but it is signed “love, Jessica”.

This revelation absolutely rocks Leah’s world. She should be concentrating on soccer practise and test scores but all she can think about is how their fearsome dragon of a mother will react. Confused about how she feels and how she is supposed to feel, she decides she must know, one way or another and decides to track down the mysterious writer. When an ominous phone-caller claims to have the answers she needs Leah foolishly agrees to a clandestine meeting in an isolated park. When that appointment goes wrong Leah is rescued by a charismatic boy and his decidedly odd father and her quest becomes even more convoluted…

The creator, Rivkah, is a relative neophyte to the world of manga, but her charmingly drawn romantic tale of teen insecurity and awakening independence is engaging and well-paced, although probably skewed less towards an overtly female readership than many more traditional Shojo or Girl’s books. There is plenty that should appeal to boys here, and they might even catch a clue as to how to conduct themselves better in social situations. Or not.

This volume also includes a large selection of preparatory sketches and notes and a large preview section from the dark fantasy “Mark of the Succubus” by newcomers Irene Flores Ashly Raiti.

© 2005 Rivkah & Tokyopop Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Kazuya Minekura (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 1-59816-025-7

This fetching blend of martial arts and supernatural thriller is actually a sequel to a previous series wherein a small band of heroes, or more properly anti-heroes, journey to discover the origin of “the Minus Wave,” a phenomenon that has driven all the magical creatures – the “Youkai” insane. The foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, gun-toting and murderous priest Genjyo Sanzo is accompanied by the child-like Son Goku (the legendary Monkey King), a lecherous and vulgar Kappa (water spirit) named Sha Gojyo and the mysterious martial artist Cho Hakkai as they wander the land searching for answers and generally getting in to trouble.

The mix of gangster chic, mystical fantasy and Martial Arts drama is occasionally a little forced though the art is powerful and engaging, but I must admit, as I haven’t seen the first series, to a need to extrapolate a lot of the back story, and I’m not sure that I actually “got” everything that was going on.

Worth a look, and the back-up feature, an extensive comparative sound effect chart for manga and English (I know that manga’s not a language, but you know what I mean) is something worth the price of admission alone. Perhaps I’ll warm to the travails with later volumes, and, of course there’s always places to pick up back issues, no?

© 2002 Kazuya Minekura. All Rights Reserved.
English script © 2005 Tokyopop Inc.

 

By Jason Henderson, Tony Salvaggio & Shane Granger (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 1-59816-269-1

This punchy science fiction manga from a US creative team deals with much-loved traditional themes and concepts as a future war tests attractive yet socially accessible young heroes in a crucible of hi-tech ordinance, combat mecha (robotic suits of armour) and deadly psychic abilities.

Both sides in the war – business corporations, rather than countries – use young Psychic Commandos not just as frontline weapons but also as telegenic marketing tools, beaming their exploits into the living rooms of their customer-bases, turning the conflict into the ultimate reality-TV show.

Against this backdrop Precognitive Mark Leit’s personal tragedy unfolds. Obsessed with the loss of his comrade Raven six years previously, he becomes derailed by the resemblance of enemy Psy-Comm Snow Lucente, whilst on a mission. Amidst the carnage he captures her, and deserts the field. Now he is on the run with an unwilling enemy hostage, and pursued by his partner, the psychotic telekinetic David Jerold, who has taken his abandonment as a personal betrayal.

This is standard adventure fare, well-crafted, unchallenging and uncomplicated. If you like this sort of story you’ll like this story, although you ought to be aware that the book ends on a cliffhanger. You might want to pick up volume 2 at the same time. I wish I had.

© 2005 Granger/Henderson/Salvaggio and Tokyopop Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Ako Yutenji (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 1-59532-519-0

The eponymous anti-hero of this series is the greatest thief in the World, and his capture is a major achievement. So what possible crisis could induce the government to release him? When arrested he had in his possession the legendary and mystical “Eight Great Treasures” which the authorities gratefully reclaimed. Now after a mere three months in prison, the Treasures have once again been stolen and Liling-Po is possibly the only person who can find them again.

For reasons of his own, the master thief accepts the proposition and eagerly prepares for the near-impossible task ahead of him. Naturally, as a professional thief, Po cannot be trusted, and in an effort to ensure that the Poacher keeps to his new role of Game-keeper, he is assigned two assistants, a scholar – Mei-Toku – and a warrior, Bu-Cho, with whom he must wander the medieval landscape, ever seeking and encountering new villains and old friends, whilst trying to accommodate his own new secret agenda. This volume contains not only the origin adventure but also the tale of the first two Treasures, a necklace and a piece of artwork.

The theme of secrets and subterfuge is thoroughly explored as the various characters, all initially hostile to each other, are forced to bond to further their quest, although whether there will ever be full trust or friendship between them is always doubtful when the goal is the ownership of objects that can grant a persons every wish.

The characters are all introspective, moody, determined and disturbingly, preternaturally beautiful in the manner of heroes in Shojo (or story for girls) manga, and often this wistful androgyny intrudes into the basic story-telling, whilst another minor quibble is the sheer amount of art-work obscuring word-bubbles in this book, not a thing I ever expected to say about a manga tale.

All in all, though this is an enjoyable, if slow-paced tale that combines crime-caper, historical adventure and buddy yarn to good effect.

© 1997, 2005 Ako Yutenji.
English script © 2005 Tokyopop Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Keith Giffen & Benjamin Roman (TokyoPop)
ISBN 1-59532-831-9

Are you sick? Are you depraved, demented or just plain ‘not right’? Then it’s not necessary – but it won’t hurt either – if you pick up this darkly wicked little tome to reaffirm your skewed view of reality.

Every Halloween, Finch, Moochie, Pig Pig, Li’l Bith, Mush and the rest get together for their annual sugar-coated loot-fest. But this year it’s all botched up ’cause the very first old lady just gave them fruit, and everyone knows if you don’t get candy right from the start it’s nothing but rubbish all evening. Drastic steps have to be taken, or else this Halloween is ruined! Along the way meet also that friendly old policeman, the vicious, bullying older kids and that really stacked chick who lives next door – see their ultimate fates!

Comics veteran Giffen flexes his comedy – and bad taste – muscles in an irresistible confection that would win nodding approval from Charles Addams and the producers of Shaun of the Dead. The jovial malice is uniquely captured by the totally enchanting art of Benjamin Roman, whose inexplicably charming grotesques are the stuff of any animation studio’s dreams. Toys based on these sick puppies will sell and sell and sell.

If you have no fear of the dark, if you love a gross joke, and especially if you don’t care what your immediate family or the clergy think of you, then you really want to read this book.

© 2005 Keith Giffin & Benjamin Roman. All Rights Reserved.