RIGHT TURN ONLY!!
Set Phasers To Fun!
by Liann Cooper,
Buy It Now!  Imadoki! Volume 1 Story & Art by Yu Watase Released by Viz $9.99 US Yu Watase's name is synonymous with Jun Sasameyuki Released by ADV Manga $9.99 US Funny manga is hard to sell to me. I'm not prone to laughing at silly things, and laughing at books almost never happens. However, Louie the Rune Soldier is delightfully funny and I found myself chuckling at it a couple of times. If Gourry had a brain, I'd imagine him to be a lot like Louie. Louie the sorcerer has just made himself a self-proclaimed adventurer. Together with his gaggle of gorgeous babes, Louie embarks on action-packed journeys. Volume two has the gang dealing with a backstabbing elf, a dunce knight named Conrad, and the final adventure pits Louie against his own comrade, Genie. I absolutely adore the characters in this book. Sure they're exaggerated and predictable, but they're not so over-the-top annoying that you'll want to rip the pages out in aggravation. Artwork is clean and crisp and the action scenes/sound effects don't come across as cluttered. The strong point to this novel is its flow – the stories may be episodic, but they're entertaining enough that you don't see them as “Louie and crew complete an adventure: END: Begin new adventure.” So far, there doesn't seem to be much to the story except for the group going around looking valiant, but are other volumes, and I expect a story to come crawling out soon enough. Borrow It  Chie Shinohara Released by Viz $9.95 US Yuri is your normal every day teenager. She's flying high after her first “lip-lock” with her boyfriend and has just ed her high school entrance exams. Things start to get a little strange when she begins to notice that water “reacts” to her presence. However, things go from “a little strange” to completely surreal after a pair of arms sprout from a puddle and pulls her into the 14th century. Set to become a human sacrifice in a crazy queen's plot, Yuri is rescued by the handsome Kail – who acts like he wants to be more than just her knight in shining armor! “Daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise!” Yessiree, we have ourselves one time-traveling shoujo manga with all that and more. No beasts, though... unless you want to call the queen one. And that may be a little harsh, even for her. The beginning of the manga is a bit rushed, as Yuri is almost immediately sucked into an alternate world. Events continue to domino up to the very end where we're left in a very “Miaka” situation – Yuri pleads to save the life of a person who not 20 pages earlier tried to murder her. So far, the characters' personalities are the strongest aspect of the book (character design could use some work); they make me want to get to know them better. Hopefully things will slow down a bit in the following volumes so that they'll have a chance to be fleshed-out more. We're off to a good start- nice art, lively characters, and an interesting – even if a bit cliché – storyline. Keep your eye on this one, though no dancing candlesticks, talking clocks, or Shuri Shiozu Released by Tokyopop $9.99 US Who doesn't love a good, wholesome CLAMP Released by Tokyopop $9.99 US It's all about the characters in Tokyo Babylon as Subaru, Seishirou, and Hokuto's spiritual assignments continue. This time it's up to Subaru and Seishirou to help an old friend and Hokoto is on her own as she tries to rescue a girl using her own brand of magic. Lovers of the Subaru/Seishirou pairing will need to snatch up this volume as the duo's mysterious relationship is hinted at even more by use of playful, yet ominous banter. CLAMP always does a great job with their relationships and it's great fun to try and figure out just how deep Subaru and Seishirou's “love” goes. Hokuto is less annoying than she was in volume one and seems to have made a jump in maturity between the two volumes. Questions still remain unanswered, and even more seem to have arisen – what is the deal with Subaru's gloves anyway? Distinct CLAMP art, CLAMP boys, and a supernatural story... yeah, I dig it.  Hiroyuki Nishimori Released by Viz $9.95 US Let's say your greatest wish was to be the “manliest man on Earth.” Then imagine you're given the chance to make that wish come true. Unfortunately, your granter of wishes is a putz and interprets your wish as wanting to be the “womanliest woman on Earth.” I know, don't ask me how you can confuse those, but it happens. This situation happened to nine-year-old Megumi. Six years after the ill-fated wish rendering, [s]he's making guys fall all over themselves with her beauty. Still determined to retain as much manliness as possible (and hopefully discourage male irers), Megumi talks trash and beats up as many punks as possible. As with all good stories, Megumi's macho act backfires, causing Genzo Soga to fall in love with her. Cheeky Angel is quite funny and charming, but it's not funny and charming enough to cause me to pine for volume two. I mean, the artwork is alright, the concept is amusing, but there just didn't seem to be that *spark* that really did it for me. Filled with many, many slapstick and predictable moments – a prerequisite for all gender bending manga – Megumi's situations get old. There just seemed to be too much focus on how Megumi was trying to avoid Soga, rather than actually trying to form a plot or give the characters more depth. Give me more storyline and I may be more interested, but for now I'm finding Cheeky Angel only mildly entertaining.  Comic Party Volume 2: Another Round Story & Art by An All-star jam of Japan's hottest up-and-coming artists Released by M Manga $9.99 US Not to be confused with Tokyopop's series “Comic Party,” M Manga's Comic Party is an anthology collection of stories involving the “Comic Party” cast drawn by various Takuya Tashiro Released by ADV Manga $9.99 US If I were a guy, I'd be in bosom/booty heaven. Not only are their curvaceous figures to die for, these babes pack a punch and they don't take crap from anybody! On the surface Najica is a prodigious perfumer at a cosmetics plant but underneath she's an undercover agent for a secret intelligence organization. Her partner, Lila, is a super strong being known as a Humaritt. Together they complete their assigned missions with plenty of ass-kicking and gun-shooting action. Najica Blitz Tactics was surprisingly entertaining. The women are gorgeous, the action is awesome, and the mystery surrounding the missions and the origins of the Humaritts is intriguing. Since this is only the first volume, the missions are fairly episodic and really serve to introduce the reader to the main characters. Foreshadowing of Humaritt/Lila involvement is evident in the missions and for now I'm taking the bait and want to see what happens next. There's not a lot to this book, but who can resist undercover female agents kicking some bad guy butt? Yeah, you know you can't.  Kaishaku Released by ADV Manga $9.99 US Mrmphh... dribble..drool... brain ceasing function... . Picture Hitoshi Tomizawa Released by M Manga $9.99 US Do not be fooled by the “From the creator of Alien Nine” blurb at the top of the cover. Treasure Hunter is no where near as good as Alien Nine was and resembles nothing of the cute alien series. This looks like something you'd expect to see on TV in the early afternoon for kids. Jubei is a turban sporting, Treasure Hunter/adventurer with a trusty sidekick named Carpet... who strangely enough is a flying carpet. Sent on a quest to retrieve the powerful Figurehead of Souls, Jubei, Carpet, and a young exorcist named Pipilotta must fight their way through the hoardes of tormented spirits on Jelly Island to retrieve the ancient artifact. Man, it's like a bad Duck Tales episode without Uncle Scrooge, Launchpad, or the three nephews. Had Treasure Hunter had the addition of those web-footed heros, no doubt it would've been much better. The artwork isn't bad; it's just an acquired taste- very detailed but really dated. Maybe it's the fact that Carpet has some weird body-like extension resembling that of a goblin or Jubei totes around a satchel called “Toad Mouth”; whatever it is, the artwork and the story are just too... weird for me. I was thinking that had I been eight-years-old I would enjoy this series better, but I read the book again and decided that age really isn't a factor. The book is just too cheesy, too boring, and too “non-exciting” for this adventure novel to be good. Sorry Treasure Hunter, but I'll take Duck Tales over you any day. Get out your handkerchiefs now because I know you'll shed a tear or two after reading this announcement. Right Turn Only will be taking a one week hiatus so that I can move myself, my bunnies, and my enormous amount of crap to a new place of residence. After I get settled, the period of mourning shall end and the column will resume its regular schedule. Thanks for reading guys! ^_^ |
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