'Vagabond' #1 Review

Holy shit. This is good. I'm a fan of Takehiko Inoue, I've read a fair amount of 'Slam Dunk' and 'Real', his art is FANTASTIC. I think in terms of his artwork, Vagabond is even better than his previous series, and that's really saying something. I think Inoue is one of the best manga artists out there. I can't think of many other manga ka out there that have the same degree of realism to their art. Hirohiko Araki's (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) artwork has that same life to it in his current series, Steel Ball Run. Him and Inoue should draw each others characters (NEW FANTASTY OF MINE).



So going from reading lots of Teen Titans to this was pretty odd. These panels are just so HUGE. Right off the bat, I have to say that this series is really violent. I figured as much, but once I started reading I was pretty surprised. There doesn't seem to be any warning anywhere on the volume saying "mature readers" or anything. A little odd. I think if 8 year old Timmy is browsing through the comic book section at Barnes and Noble and starts flipping through this manga, he's gonna have problems. Honestly though, I'm a boy, I love the violence in this manga, it's awesome. It takes me back to the days of being an 8 year old in Barnes and Noble, browsing through the comic section, flipping through the manga Akira and marveling at it's violence. I turned out alright, didn't I? o.O
Moving on.


Plot Summary
Vagabond is the story of the legendary samurai, Miyamoto Musashi. This story is directly based off of Eiji Yoshikawa's famous novel Musashi. The manga begins with two young men, Shinmen Takezo and Hon'iden Matahachi, leaving a battlefield full of corpses. They've been best friends most of their lives and they start traveling together from there. The two meet up with a mother and daughter living as thieves and are given food and board. Takezo is pretty much the definition of a badass, to the point where it's scary. People keep mentioning how he has eyes like a demon, and he really does. Vagabond has bits of romance in it, but violence is definitely the main element I get. This is a Seinen series in every aspect and I loved every page. I'm very eager to read more, it's been running for some time now.

If you have any sort of interest in Japanese history, this series is for you. Also, if you just want to see how far a manga can be taken in degrees of realism, most of the panels look like full on paintings; especially the beginning pages of a chapter which Inoue colors. All I can say is this manga is great. Seeing a volume of Vagabond in a bookstore puts everything else around it to shame just from Inoue's art on the cover. I can't imagine a person reading this first volume and being disappointed.

Vagabond #1 - 9/10

'The New Teen Titans - The Judas Contract' Review

So if you were born in the early 90's like me, you loved Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Kids WB, etc. You might have gotten into the Teen Titans animated series in 2003. Personally, this show was a little too late for me, I think I could have enjoyed it if I was younger when it first came out, but I never got into it. I am a fan of the Teen Titans in general though, especially 'The New Teen Titans', the comic series by Wolfman and Perez that began in 1980. Even though I generally look down on the Teen Titans animated series for a number of reasons, I do like how they covered the Judas Contract, the most infamous arc of the Titans history.



SPOILER WARNING. After years of buying random issues of The New Teen Titans at my local comic shop, I've finally covered the Judas Contract, and it's quite a doozy. This arc marks some big changes for the Titans. Kid Flash leaving the group, Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing, Jericho joining the group, and obviously the finale leaves the character reeling from the shock of what's happened. This also marked the transition of the title 'New Teen Titans' becoming 'Tales of the Teen Titans'. Terra's death by rock crushing at the end was brutal to say the least. I remember her simply being changed into stone in the animated series.



My favorite aspect of the Judas Contract was simply the character Joseph Wilson, aka Jericho. He was just a BADASS. I really want to start hunting down more Teen Titans with Jericho in the team. He's got some of the coolest powers I've ever seen in a comic book (CONTACT!) and I just love his furious mutton chops. Those really show how dated this comic is, but in a good way! The relationship between Slade and Jericho was really touching at parts. I'm still a little disturbed by the romance between Slade and Terra. I don't blame the animated series for not going into that more, it's pretty weird. I really like how human Slade is in the comics, though. He's such a hardcore mercenary but he's still a father in some aspects. If you ever watched the show, Tara Markov was a shy, timid girl who had trouble controlling her powers. In the comic, she's a loud mouth, trash talking, cig smoking, brat with buck teeth. Slight change there.



In the climax of the last battle, Terra goes completely insane. Wolfman and Perez didn't try to give the character any hope at all, she just flew right off the handle and ultimately caused her own demise. Overall, really intense arc. Lots of drama, lots of emotion. Perez's art is fantastic, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I especially enjoyed Wolfman's writing in the final pages at Terra's funeral.

"But Joseph William Wilson isn't listening to his mother, his thoughts are elsewhere...soaring high on a warm spring wind, floating gently in a a clear, cloudless sky...and borne aloft by tomorrow's hopes and dreams that can still come true."

The Judas Contract: 8.5/10

Awesome JLA Cover

So far, I've only posted comic reviews on this blog, but I had to share this with someone, and my comic blog seems fitting. I was at my local comic book store a few days ago looking through the huge selection of 3 for a dollar comics, and came upon this gem.











Look at this dialogue ->


WOW. JUST...YES. Jive bunch of turkeys. That just says it all. Welcome to 1979. I always thought Black Lighting was hilarious. Damn. I had a good laugh over it.






That is all.

Update!!

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted anything on here! I'm sorry guys!! I really don't know how many people (if any) actually read this blog. I've been very busy with school and art and life in general lately! I really want to pick up reviewing things on here again. It's a lot of work though, all support is GREATLY appreciated!! In other news, my friend and I are starting a web comic, i'm really excited about it so i'll link that to here once we start getting things up. Hopefully i'll get some more reviews up on here soon. Lately i've been reading tons of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and The New Teen Titans! I'll probably post a new poll on here, see if anyone votes on it haha. Super special awesome hugs to anyone who reads this blog!!! :D

-Max

'Chobits' Review

More manga from Clamp! SHOCKER! I watched the anime quite a few years ago and I've been wanting to pick up the manga for comparison. As per usual, the manga is far better. Only eight volumes in all, Chobits is a great sci-fi/romance.

Plot Summary

Hideki Motosuwa is a guy (in his late teens?) going to cram school in Tokyo. Taking place in the near future, the world has been introduced to persocoms: human-looking androids used as personal computers. On his way home from work one evening, he spots a persocom in the form of a girl laying in a pile of trash outside. He takes the android home and after she has awoken, has no memory of anything. Only being able to say the word 'Chi', Hideki names her Chi and decides to take care of her and teach her as much as he can. Chi's mysterious past is slowly revealed throughout the series and Hideki begins to fall in love with her.


This series has many interesting relationships, a major one being love between a human and a persocom. More examples are a boy who has built a persocom to replace his deceased sister, a woman who is abandoned by her husband after he buys a persocom, and at the end, a developing relationship between two persocoms.

The art is Clamp, so I loved it. It's a very different style compared to other Clamp works. It's very sketchy compared to the art of  xxxHolic, which is all smooth, even lines. Also, I noticed the noses of males in Chobits are all just a few sketchy lines on the bridge of the nose. Very different compared to other works by Clamp.

One thing that really bothered me about the Tokyopop (douchebags!) translation was that the amazingly awesome persocom, Sumomo, was given the name Plum. What the hell? Everyone else has their normal Japanese names: Hiromu Shinbo, Minoru Kokobunji, etc. WHOSE IDEA WAS 'PLUM'?!

One thing I'd like to mention about the anime: There was an entire episode dedicated to Chi getting her first pair of underwear. In the manga it was about two pages. Wow.

I noticed in a bookstore recently that Dark Horse started publishing Chobits in massive volume formats. I thought this was pretty awesome. Even though it seems kind of unnecessary, I have a lot more respect for Dark Horse than Tokyopop. Overall, this series is very well put together. Not too long and not too short. Since it's only eight volumes, it moves pretty quickly. Very enjoyable series with good romance and lots of great humor!

Chobits: 8/10

Poll #1 Results

So for my first poll, 'what's your favorite kind of comic?', the time has ended and the results are in. Out of the choices there was: american comics, manga, manhwa, manhua, graphic novels, and comic strips. And the winner is..............
.......
......
....
...

...........MANGAAAAAAAAA!!!! YAY! *confetti explosion*

My personal favorite out of these choices would have to be manga, so that's cool. Manhwa (Korean) and manhua (Chinese) didn't get any votes, so I guess no one cares about them. Sorry =/

There were only eight votes in all, but considering I just started this blog, that was more than I expected. So I'll start a new poll soon and hopefully we'll get more than eight votes!

HOORAY FOR MANGA!

Here's a page from one my favorite manga, Akira.

=]

'xxxHolic' #8 Review

Plot Summary


This volume is about Watanuki trying to get his right eye back. The Zashiki-Warashi has been abducted so Watanuki goes to a different realm with the pipe fox spirit to get her back. He finds the Matron of Spiders, who has the Zashiki-Warashi up in webs. She has his right eye and a battle ensues. Later, Domeki gives up half of his right eye for Watanuki. This opens a connection where Domeki can see certain things that Watanuki sees. INTENSE!

I don't have much to say in this review. I'm enjoying this manga very much. I was reading about the anime and came upon some disturbing information. The anime aired, had 24 episodes in all and ended.
Ended?
The manga is still currently running in Young Magazine. So...that's cool. Why was that made? I love it when anime does that.

I noticed that the library has Chobits as well...I'm really tempted to review it. SHOULD I?! SO MUCH CLAMP. I don't mean to have so much Clamp manga on here but...I love them >.<

xxxHolic #8: 7.2/10

Shonen Jump #89 Review

OK SO, I have a subscription to Shonen Jump. I get it monthly and this is the first issue I've gotten since I started this blog. I've made a lot of progress in a few weeks! I have a lot of opinions about Jump and the manga serialized in it so I thought it'd be cool to review it monthly. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO...

I'll review issues of Jump by reviewing each series.

First thing I'd like to say is LUFFY IS ON THE COVER! YAY I LOVE ONE PIECE SO MUCH!! Currently, Shonen Jump only has four series running with two extra preview slots. I think this is pretty pathetic considering THAT IN JAPAN JUMP HAS OVER TWENTY SERIES RUNNING IN EACH ISSUE. Seriously. Alright, here we go. First series up is:

Bakuman - Holy shit, I love Bakuman so much. You may have noticed that there is a picture of Mashiro from Bakuman at the top of this blog! This is the first time Bakuman is in SJ. They're only doing a 3-issue preview which pisses me off. Why can't they just actually run it? Blah. So I discovered this series about a year ago. I downloaded a Jump manga reader thing from the Japanese site and they have random manga previews you can download. Bakuman had just been released in Japan a bit before and was now translated for the first time. I read it with glee. This series is, in a nutshell, about two guys trying to make it in life as manga ka. The story is by Tsugumi Ohba and art by Takeshi Obata, the same team that made Death Note (which I love). I WORSHIP TAKESHI OBATA. One of my heroes. He also did to art for Hikaru no Go. Amazing man. Bakuman is really amazing. Go read it right now.

5/5

Bleach - Oh boy. Bleach time. For the record, I really don't like Bleach. I've read so much and tried to get into it and I just find it incredibly corny. It's like Dragonball Z without the amazing humor and ridiculousness. I just don't like it. Sorry. So in this thrilling installment of Bleach, there were angry explosions and close ups of dramatic faces. Grantz was about to die and then he was like TIME TO EAT MY FRACCIONES WHATEVER THAT WORD IS! So then he was all healed and I was like HOLY SHIT, I AM SHOCKED, MORE BATTLE TIME. Then there was more talk like I'M GONNA KILL YOU. OH YEAH? NOT IF I KILL YOU FIRST. DOOOOOOOOOOOM. Then they didn't actually fight. Intense as hell. Then Ichigo was about to die and shockingly he somehow came through and survived. I didn't see it coming at all. Then there was some Orihime fan service. Then she healed Ichigo and Grimmjow was like TIME FOR A FAIR FIGHT CAUSE YOUR HEALED NOW! HOLY SHIT. Then they faced off for a battle of the century and I stared at the page in sheer amazement. Swords are so IN right now.

I would like to say though, despite my dislike for Bleach, I love Tite Kubo's art. He is amazingly talented. I really love his first series Zombie Powder. It had interesting characters that I cared about.

2/5 (just because he's a very talented artist)

Ultimo - I really like this series. At first, I thought it was a bit slow but it's really picking up now. The past few chapters have been amazing. It's turning into a really good giant fighting robot series. I was amused to learn that this manga takes place in the year 2012. I knew it was a few years in the future but it wasn't stated before. They've been talking a lot about the Hundred Machine Funeral and the end of the world in 2012. I love Hiroyuki Takei's (Shaman King) art style, it fits the story really well. Really good stuff.

4/5

Naruto - I really love Naruto. But lately...it just hasn't been the same. I'm pretty sick of Sasuke. I'm pretty sick of every word coming out of every person's mouth being SASUKE. Why isn't this series called Sasuke? I still enjoy reading it but all this Sasuke business needs to be resolved soon >.< And when is Naruto going to give up on Sasuke?! He doesn't care about you Naruto. Take a hint. Uchiha Madara is cool. I enjoy his evil monologues.

3/5

One Piece - OH MY GOD. THIS SERIES IS SO INCREDIBLE. I've come to the conclusion that One Piece is never bad. Ever. These past few chapters have been blowing my mind. Everything has been taking place in Impel Down for a while now, Luffy is trying to bust his brother, Ace, out of the prison. He's now teamed up with some amazing characters from the series, such as Crocodile, Buggy, and Bon Clay. A new character, Emporio Ivankov, is pretty much the coolest transgender of all time. His ultimate attack is the Death Wink. I love this series so much.

5/5



D. Gray Man - UM...WHY IS THIS HERE? I don't understand SJ anymore. Now they're just having random previews from random series at completely random parts far into the series. I've read the beginning of D. Gray Man and loved it. But this preview is from VOLUME SEVENTEEN. I have no idea who all these new people are, who they're fighting, what the conflict is, what the hell is going on? This new thing SJ is doing is called a SHOWCASE CHAPTER PREVIEW. Why? Previewing a series in the EARLY chapters make sense. But this? I didn't enjoy this very much considering I havn't read the previous fifteen volumes.

2/5

Overall, a good issue of SJ. Bakuman and One Piece win a gold star.

'Fullmetal Alchemist' #1 Review

So I have been wanting to read/watch this series for a very long time now. At least four years. Now I finally have! Woohoo! From what I hear, the anime and manga are very different. I decided to go with the manga because it looks much better. I'll have to watch the anime at some point. But I'm very opinionated and I think manga is almost always better.

Plot Summary

Do I really have to say it? I'm sure you know. Everyone loves this series, I swear. Two brothers tried to bring their mother back using alchemy but broke the rules and failed. It cost Edward an arm and a leg (LOLLLL) and cost Alphonse his entire body. So now they're trying to get back to normal and such.

What surprised me most about this series was that it's made by a woman. I know I'd heard this before but I guess I forgot and this really came as a surprise because the art looks completely like a normal male shonen artist. I enjoyed the mix of comedy/action in this and I definitely want to read more! The first half of the volume was a huge poke at religion which I really enjoyed.

My god, I hated Rose so much. I just despised her on so many levels while reading this. I'm sure she'll become awesome but...damn.

Fullmetal Alchemist #1: 7/10!

'xxxHolic' #7 Review

Plot Summary

In this volume, Watanuki gets his arm caught in a spider web and Domeki casually destroys the web. By doing this, he actually gets a spider curse put on him for destroying the spider's home. The next day, Domeki can't even open his right eye. All around his eye are spider web shaped patterns. Watanuki becomes very upset about this. Even though he claims to despise Domeki, he's grown less hostile towards him and doesn't want Domeki to suffer because of his carelessness.


I thought this had a lot to say about taking other perspectives into account, such as destroying a web from the spider's point of view. It may seem like no big deal to squash a bug but there are consequences to all actions. There was an amazing part in this volume about this woman who takes a photo someone she knew to Yuko, begging her to destroy the photo. I won't spoil anything, I thought it was really good though.

HIMAWARI CHAN!! GAH! It keeps being hinted that Himawari is bad luck for Watanuki, even though he's madly in love with her. The very end even suggested that Himawari might have been the cause of something that tried to attack Domeki and Watanuki. YOWZA!! I'm excited to see what happens next.

I've now gone through all the volumes I got at the library so I'll be going back tomorrow for more! I definitely want to read more so I'm going to keep with it until it gets lame. Which I don't think it will. So yay! Clamp knows how to make quality comics.

xxxHolic #7: 7.5/10

=D

'xxxHolic' #6 Review

Plot Summary

So in the beginning of this volume, Watanuki is dusting around the shop and notices a picture of a kimono-wearing cat holding a hozuki (chinese lantern plant). The cat erupts out of the picture and lands on Watanuki. Yuko greets the cat and they start to drink beer. The cat is from the spirit world and gives Watanuki the hozuki. Yuko gives him specific instruction on what to do with it. He and one other person (which turns out to be Domeki, durp!) must hold the top of the plant like a couple would hold a knife while cutting their wedding cake. They get sent to a mystical plane where demons are walking in a line all holding hozuki. At first the are like WTF but they decide to follow the line while holding their hozuki. They notice a massive spirit tree figure in the distance. Watanuki trips over a little fox like a clumsy douchebag. He loses his grip on the hozuki and as soon as he does, all the creatures notice that the two are humans. UH OH, GANG!! ARE THEY GOTTEN GET EATEN?!!

The next chapter was completely random and I thought it was amazing. It's just about Watanuki staying over at Yuko's shop and they get to talking about strange sayings such as 'never trim your nails at night.' Later, Watanuki decides to CUT HIS NAILS and a giant pair of blades appear and try to kill him which was hilarious and terrifying at the same time. The rest of the volume is about Watanuki meeting this woman who's son recently died. They become fast friends since he lost his parents long ago. Soon it's revealed that being with the woman is putting his life at risk!
Wah!


So something that happened at the end of this volume that BLEW MY MIND was Watanuki delivering this birdcage to this old guy. Once it's safely delivered, the birdcage is unraveled and there's nothing in it! The old man puts the cage on the window and the shadow of the birdcage also shows the shadows of two birds inside. THE AWESOME THING was the two birds totally looked just like animals from Clamp's manga, Clover (which I did a review of earlier in this blog). The birds had crazy mechanical wings and I swear the same birds were in Clover! I'm wondering if they'll appear again or if it was just a fun little reference.

xxxHolice #6: 7.3/10

INTRIGUING INDEED!

'xxxHolic' #5 Review

Plot Summary

This volume opens with Yuko screaming about not getting gifts for White Day (in return for the gifts she gave to Syaoran and the gang on Valentines Day). Watanuki runs into an Ame-Warashi, a rain maker. She demands that Watanuki and Domeki help her with a problem. They go to an area full of Hydrangeas and Watanuki is consumed by dark shadowy figures into the ground. He awakens in a pitch dark world and meets a little girl. It turns out the little girl is buried under the Hydrangeas and her body is disturbing the plants and turning them red. Watanuki helps free the girl's soul from the dark realm (with major aid from Domeki, which only angers Watanuki) and the Hydrangeas go back to normal, which is all the Ame-Warashi wanted in the first place. Later, Yuko reveals a pipe Kitsune spirit, which loves Watanuki. At school, Watanuki notices a girl who has tiny wings growing from her back. At first he thinks they might be some kind of fashion but later at a night festival sees the girl acting very hostile towards others. The more enraged she becomes, the bigger her wings grow on her back. The next day at school she confronts Watanuki, claiming that he was glaring at her, and orders him to apologize. She whips out a small blade and attacks them both. The wings from her back turn black and rip out of her. As they fly away, the little Kitsune spirit transforms into a massive nine-tailed beast and attacks. It's revealed that the evil wings poisoned the girl's heart, and she'll remain unresponsive for the rest of her life.


In the following chapter, Watanuki doesn't like the Kitsune spirit being massive and beastly and wants it changed back to normal pipe-size (which I don't understand at all, I'd love to have a massive nine-tailed beast for a friend). To do this, they require pure chi, using an urn, filling it with well water and putting crystals in it. Watanuki and the beast peak into the urn and it sucks them both inside. SNAP!! They find themselves in a strange flowery, river paradise place. The Kitsune turns back into pipe form. The flowers yell at Watanuki and he runs away. He meets up with the Zashiki-Warashi (the girl from the previous volume who gave him a valentines day chocolate from Domeki's stomach) and realizes there's another reason he's down here. THAT TRICKY YUKO SAN! He gives the girl her present for White Day and she tears up with joy. The angry little flying snowboard guys fly out of nowhere and attack Watanuki for making the girl cry again. JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME Yuko gets them both out of that world and into the well since the well water was their connection. YAY!

I'm going to be pretty pissed if Watanuki doesn't hook up with Himawari. She better not turn out to be a lesbian or something. There's been SO MUCH build up between them. It better happen! Himawari has really freaky hair though. Seriously. It's so massive.

xxxHolic #5: 7.3/10

:D

'xxxHolic' #4 Review

Plot Summary

This volume opens with Watanuki making valentines day chocolate. He makes some extra special for Himawari but she doesn't come to school on valentines day and Domeki eats them (lawls). A mysterious girl appears and takes the chocolate right back out of Domeki's stomach and he goes into a sleep. The girl flies away and Watanuki is forced to ride a massive death bird into the sky (complete with a Mokona pilot) to get the chocolate back and save Domeki. Later, two twin girls are introduced (their names were never stated which I thought was odd) and it's revealed they have a deeper connection. The words they speak can affect one another, such as one girl saying not to drop a plate of food and by doing so causes the other to drop it. The younger sister is often bound by her own words of discouragement. Watanuki tries his best to help her out and have her start saying 'I can' rather than 'I can't'. The final chapter involves flashbacks of Watanuki with an old friend of his. It's revealed that his friend was actually a spirit and had to leave the world and Watanuki's birthday. In current time, Watanuki starts to see random arms appearing in certain places, such as in a tree and coming out of the ground. He sees a group of kids playing near the arm. One of the children notices the arm sticking out of the ground but none of the other kids see it. This reminds Watanuki that fewer people have the ability to see spirits. Since he thinks of this ability as more of a curse, he decides this a good thing and walks away from the severed arm.


After all this reading of xxxHolic, I've come to the conclusion that Del Ray, the publisher, really kicks ass! In the back of every volume, they'll have lots of extras explaining things that people might not understand. For example, references to other Clamp series, random Japanese words that people might not understand, etc. I really like how they take the time to explain things that are strictly for Japanese audiences, rather than simply changing them in the translation to something more familiar for english readers. In situation is Yuko states that Watanuki has come crying to her, just like Nobita! In the back of the volume, they explain that Nobita is from the series Doraemon. They even take the time to explain all about the plot of Doraemon and how Nobita is a crybaby. Pretty awesome. Doraemon kicks ass.

From all the Tsubasa crossovers in the series, I definitely have to read that sometime! I have the first volume but that's as far as I've read, sadly =[
I'm also planning to start reading Clamp's X very soon! GAH, SO MUCH CLAMP!! I promise this entire blog won't be pure Clamp.

xxxHolic #4: 7.3/10

=]

'xxxHolic' #3 Review

Back to xxxHolic! Yay! I find this manga to be far more enjoyable than Saikano =D


Plot Summary

This volume opens with a Tsubasa crossover. Yuka receives a large staff from Syaoran and the gang and sends them back a cluster of spirits that Mokona swallowed in the previous volume. Himawari presents a problem going on at her school involving a game called 'Angel-san' and Yuko puts Watanuki and Domeki on the case. On this adventure, Yuko gives Watanuki a handy walkie talkie device. This device also happens to look exactly like the Persocom ears from Chobits! I thought this was AWESOME. Later, a woman comes to the shop and asks to take a little cylinder. Inside is a monkey's paw that can grant wishes. The monkey paw also comes with great risk to the one who grants wishes. She is incredibly arrogant and doesn't think anything bad can possibly happen to her (which does, durp). The final chapter is a short about Watanuki coming across a Kitsune fox spirit's eatery stall.

I would also like to state that Clamp is very good at drawing smoke. Whenever Watanuki sees spirits, there's smoky spirit mist stuff happening everywhere. It always looks so amazing. SO MUCH CLAMP GLORY ON THIS BLOG!


This manga never gets too serious which I enjoy. I'M EXCITED TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!

xxxHolic #3: 7.3/10

'Saikano' #2 Review

Well, I now have very mixed feelings about this series. I've gotten used to it's bizarre art but the story has just been bothering me. I respect this manga for the type of series that it is and I could see someone really enjoying it if they're into these kinds of dark, war-torn romance stories. But frankly, I'm just not. I really tried to get into this but I don't think I can.

Plot Summary

So this volume introduces Fuyumi, Shuji's ex girlfriend. Her and Shuji have a chance meeting and they get to talking. Her leg is injured from an accident caused by Chise shooting off into the sky. They had back to her place to fix up the leg, Fuyumi is a complete whore who wants to do Shuji. She's married and is upset at her husband for being in the army and leaving her all alone (?!!) So Shuji doesn't want to cheat on Chise because he actually has some decency. He leaves but forgets about his school bag. He goes back to get it later but promises himself he's just going to get his bag and leave FAST FORWARD Shuji and Fuyumi are laying in bed together. WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! I HAVE NO IDEA! So they're laying there and then Fuyumi decides to start making out with him and give him a blowjob. Alrighty then. Shuji breaks down and feels terrible about what happened. Later, there's a few chapters with Chise on the battlefield with the rest of the military guys. She goes into weapon mode and completely levels a city.


Anywayyyyyyyyy...
I like this manga. I really do. But honestly, I'm just not interested in reading anymore. Nothing is grabbing me about it and shaking me by the collar and screaming READ MORE DAMN YOU! I'd still suggest this manga to anyone. Hopefully if you give it a read, you'll get something more out of it than I could.

So yeah. Sorry, Saikano. You're cool but...you're just not my type-o-comic =/
Saikano #2: 6.4/10

'Saikano' #1 Review

So this manga, released by Viz, is in the category of EDITOR'S CHOICE! BOOOOOM!!
Very prestigious. I read a bit of this volume is a bookstore a few months back and liked it and now my friend is letting me borrow it so I should be reviewing the entire series! =D

Plot Summary

Two high school students, Shuji and Chise, start dating. They're both very nervous and shy so their relationship has a rocky start. Once they start getting more comfortable with each other, it's revealed that..............CHISE (the girl) IS A SUPER POWERFUL ULTIMATE WEAPON OF DESTRUCTION AND DEVASTATING DOOM!
HOLY SHIT!
Pretty random.
So they try to look past this and have a normal relationship but that doesn't work out very well.



The writer/artist (Shin Takahashi) has a very strange style. The art is very sketchbook-like and sometimes looks like it's done at very high speeds. The art takes two different styles in the manga: either the characters are fully drawn out in a typical manga-esque style or their drawn in chibi form. The chibis happen a LOT. Be prepared.

Even though I enjoyed this volume, the pacing was incredibly SLOW. It was over 200 pages and not very much happened. It was strange to me after reading The Umbrella Academy. So much can happen on one page in American comics and in manga, pacing is completely different. Even for manga pace, I thought this story moved pretty slowly. There was a lot of stuff (not trying to be rude) that I frankly, didn't care about. Events between Chise with her friends and Shuji with his friends just showing how nervous and clumsy and shy they can be. After a while it was like YES, I UNDERSTAND, LET'S MOVE ON PLEASE. Nevertheless, this manga is very interesting and I'll definitely be reviewing more.

Saikano #1: 6.9/10

'The Umbrella Academy - Apocalypse Suite' Review

Well, this comic completely surprised me. I picked this up at the library purely on the fact that it's written by Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance), whom I'm not a huge fan of. I figured it wouldn't be very good and thought it would be another reason to not care about Mr. Way. To say the least, this comic is very good. It's a modern superhero-esque story with a cast of super characters that all have personal issues.

Plot Summary

All over the world, forty-three children were simultaneously born by women who weren't pregnant. Rich inventor Reginald Hargreeves, The Monocle, tries to track down and adopt these children, only finding seven in the end. His answer for adopting these children is "To save the world". Ten years later, the children are now a super fighting force known as 'The Umbrella Academy'. Each of the seven children has extraordinary powers, except for Number 7, Vanya. The children save Paris from an evil doer but the Eiffel Tower goes flying into space. Fast forward twenty more years; each of the children has gone their separate ways to live their own life. Number 1, Spaceboy, is on the moon and gets a call that The Monocle is dead. All of the Umbrella Academy (save for one of them who has died) meet back at the old mansion for the funeral. The world is once again threatened by a villain, this time known as The Conductor, who has his own dark orchestra that is practicing to play the Apocalypse Suite. One of the children returns from the future, saying that the world will be destroyed and they have to stop this new threat before it's too late. The Umbrella Academy once again teams up for possibly another false alarm, or an actual threat to all of humanity.


This comic had some really fantastic characters. It had some intense battles, great humor, and a really awesome Chimp named Dr. Pogo. There was even a death scene that made me genuinely sad while reading it. Since this is a running series, I'm very interested in reading more. One thing that bothered me about the art was the artist contrast. The artist of the actual comic is Gabriel Ba but the cover art for each issue is James Jean. I think Gabriel's art fit the series well. It reminded of Mike Mignola's work on Hellboy. The only problem I had was that James Jean's cover art is fucking BEAUTIFUL. He creates these massive, gorgeous paintings for each cover. Frankly, I felt bad for Gabriel Ba. The reader sees James' insane cover art but then the actual comic art is a bit plain in comparison.

I HIGHLY suggest this to anyone that hates My Chemical Romance. I now see Gerard Way in an all new light. He's proven to me that he's a very skilled writer and I'm looking forward to more comics from him.

Umbrella Academy - Apocalypse Suite: 8/10

'xxxHolic' #2 Review

I like this manga! After reading the first two volumes, I definitely want to read more so I'll be going to the library very soon. This volume basically finishes up the scene of Syaoran, Sakura, Kurogane and Fai appearing. After they send them on their way, the little black Mokona is introduced to the cast. Yuko takes Watanuki to get his fortune told but finds out that her friend has been replaced with a new fortune teller who has no real abilities in divination. After the show, Yuko finds the real fortune teller woman who is an awesome old lady. Watanuki is constantly squealing about the girl he likes, Himawari. Yuko sets up an interesting '100 Ghost Story Ceremony' with her, Watanuki, Himawari and Domeki (a good-looking, archery skilled jock that Watanuki despises). They tell some pretty freaky ghost stories and a scene ensues of evil spirits trying to take away Watanuki and Domeki using his skills to exorcise them. It's revealed that Domeki's grandfather was a skilled exorcist and Domeki shares the same skills. Watanuki was meant to attract to spirits and Domeki to exorcise them. When questioning what part Himawari played in all this, Yuko is about to reveal something very important when SHE SENSES BEER CLOSE BY! The volume ends with everyone drinking beer and Yuko states that "I'm expecting fun times...from now on."


OH SNAP! FORESHADOWING!

I'm excited to see what adventures will ensue in the coming volumes. One recurring theme I really love about this manga is that if your knowledge of the world is small, then your world is small. But if you know many things about the world and even the universe, then your world is massive and unending. If you live in the same town in the same state your entire life, then that's all your world ever is. If you are a world traveler than you know how big the world really is. It seems apparent that Yuko knows not only many things about this world, but many other worlds. It's an interesting concept that I like a lot.

My rating for xxxHolic #2 is 7.1/10

I should have a review of volume 3 up soon!

=D

'xxxHolic' #1 Review

More Clamp! So I've been wanting to read xxxHolic for a long time now!! The day has finally arrived! My local library has quite a few volumes so I figured I'd start reviewing them. The first thing I want to say about this series is that you need to be familiar with Clamp's works before reading this. I mean, if you read this as your first Clamp series, it would still make sense overall but they reference their previous works all the time so it'll be far more enjoyable if you know what they're talking about.

Plot Summary

This kid Watanuki is cursed with having the ability to see spirits! Oh mah gah! So he stumbles upon this strange shop owned by Yuko THE TIME WITCH and her creepy/cute little henchmen Maru and Moro. Her shop is one that grants wishes and she strikes a deal with Watanuki to work for her and when he's done enough work, she'll grant his 'wish' to stop seeing spirits.



I'm surprised how funny this series is. There are no moments that are too serious before something humorous happens. I wouldn't call it a comedy but it has its share of tongue-in-cheek humor. The end of the volume has a direct crossover with Tsubasa #1 which was really neat. There's also references to Sakura's wand and Clow Reed (Cardcaptor Sakura), Subaru Sumeragi (Tokyo Babylon, X), and a cameo of Kazahaya and Rikuo (Legal Drug).



Since this is Clamp, we've established on this blog that the art is gorgeous. The style of art in this series is heavily influenced by ukiyo-e wood prints. I thoroughly enjoyed this volume and I'm currently reading #2! So as long as the library has them in stock, I'll keep reading and reviewing!
xxxHolic #1 gets 7.4/10!

'Tokyopop Sneaks 2005' Review

So I thought I'd review this sampler because it's got some Korean manhwa in it. This volume has 13 different series in it, each one having around 12 pages. Half of it is manhwa and reads left to right, the other half is manga and reads right to left. Here are the series being sampled:

(manga)
Alichino - Wow, I thought this one had AMAZING art (picture in the middle of review). Intriguing story about strange creatures that grant wishes. Seriously awesome artwork.
4/5

DearS - So they basically took the plot of Chobits but changed Chi into an alien. That's it. I hate to be harsh about it but it's pretty much Chobits. The only main difference I noticed was that instead of going for story they decided to go for all out fanservice.
1/5

Gundam Seed Astray R - I'm a fan of Gundam but this was just weird. The pages sampled are a good way into the series so I really had no idea who anyone was or what was going on.
1.5/5

Hyper Police - Cat-girl and Fox-girl are police officers who fight giant bugs. Yeah.
1.5/5

Liling-Po - This one had nice, big panels which I liked but I honestly could not stay interested in this at all. The dialogue was so painfully boring, I have no desire to read this.
1/5

Qwan - Really cool spin off of Journey to the West. Amazing art and really good action. The only thing in here that had an actual confrontation of some kind. I want to read more!
5/5


(manhwa)
Blade of Heaven - Some douchebag main character is in chains because the king of heaven is like YOU STOLE OUR SWORD YOU DICK! Yeah, it didn't do much for me.
2/5

Peach Fuzz - I thought this was going to be terrible but it was actually pretty interesting. Basically it shows what a little ferret is seeing through it's own eyes. The main girl is trying to pet it and feed it but the ferret sees her hands and a five headed hydra beast. I liked it.
3/5

PhD - Another comic about a person going to school and THE SCHOOL HAS DEMONS AND VAMPS AND SHIT! OH MANN!!!
2/5

Planet Blood - The title made it sound like a comedy but it's actually dead serious. Pretty cool story about a guy fighting a war in the future and he somehow gets sent to a different primitive world where a different war is happening. I'd like to read more.
4/5

Soul to Seoul - My favorite comic sample in here. Really odd story with really amazing art. No demons or blades or aliens or magic. Just normal people in New York. I liked it a lot.
5/5

The Tarot Cafe - Woman has psychic powers and she owns a Tarot Cafe and supernatural people go there to get their fortunes. More hot vamp guys. Seems like part of it was literally taken right from Interview with the Vampire...
I really liked some of the art though. Some of the panels of the vamp guys face are amazing.
3/5

Warcraft - That's right, folks! Warcraft! As in the top selling game series by Blizzard. I know what you're thinking: What the hell is this and why was it made? I'm thinking that too. THIS THING IS PURE SCREEN TONE! TOO MUCH GODDAMN SCREEN TONE!!
2/5

So there ya have it! A few of these previews were really good! And a lot of there were not. Yay for Qwan and Soul to Seoul!

'Street Fighter Legends - Sakura' Review

For starters, this was much more enjoyable than Malibu's SF adaptation. Duh. I really like Udon's SF comics. Street Fighter Legends - Sakura is composed of all four issues of the series and a bonus prelude chapter. I also have Street Fighter Legends - Chun Li, but this one was far better. One thing that surprised me about this was that it is pure comedy. The entire way through.

Plot Summary

So if you don't know anything about Sakura, she's a badass schoolgirl who wants to be THE VERY BEST! She idolizes Ryu, SF's main man, and strives to kick ass like he does. Her rival is complete bitch Karin. I seriously hate Karin...so much. She's a spoiled rich heir to a big Japanese family. I've always hated Karin and now after reading this...so much distaste. But anyway, Karin wants to kick Sakura's ass. This comic goes from the schoolyard, to a wrestling match, to a hot dog eating contest of fury. I'd like to take a minute to acknowledge the greatest character is SF history.......DAN HIBIKIIIIII!



Seriously, this man is just amazing. Dan has always been the joke of the SF series and he is so perfectly portrayed in this comic. One part I loved is when Dan is hunting down Sakura to challenge her in battle. He is hiding in the bushes with a clever disguise of part of a bush on his head. He fires an arrow with a scroll attached from his bow and it hits the side of Sakura's house. Dan emerges from the bushes and gets the attention of Sakura's bro. "This is an official challenge to Sakura Kasugano. You would do well to deliver it with haste, young one! HA HA HA HA HA!!"
Dan is so cool.

I will now present my favorite quote from the entire comic, by the character E. Honda. He is the guest judge at the hot dog eating contest.
"Made from 100% pure kobe beef produced by Shinto priests in an isolated ranch hidden in the Rokko Mountains, and nestled into heavenly light buns baked with flour milled from the royal family's private farm, they have been aptly called "The Hot Dogs of the Gods!"

Hell yes.
There isn't a whole lot to take away from this comic on an intellectual level. But it is still amazing. Thank you Udon for making good SF comics!
Street Fighter Legends - Sakura gets 7/10!

DAN HIBIKI IS LORD!