RIGHT TURN ONLY!!
Back And Hopefully Better
by Liann Cooper,
Buy It Now!  Natsuki Takaya Released by Tokyopop $9.99 US The cover of the latest Tite Kubo Released by Viz $7.95 US Okay, so I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed by the first volume of Bleach, but upon reading the second volume I it that now I'm sucked in. With its plot of spirit channeling and demon butt-kicking, the parallels between Nobuhiro Watsuki Released by Viz $7.95 US Kenshin is by far one of my most favorite series of all time. However, in the beginning of the series it stumbles a bit by taking a trip down the trail of introductory filler. Peer pressure... everyone does it, why not the swordsman? Though it's entertaining and well done filler, the reader is all but chomping at the bit to get on to bigger and better things. This latest arc – the Raijuta Arc - thankfully wraps itself up mid-volume. Sanosuke gets his moment in the spotlight in a noticeably shorter installment of the Tsukioka story and the volume rounds out with a special end story about Hiko (pre-Kenshin days) and a young farm-boy named Isshinta. Nobuhiro Watsuki has created an amazing world of swords and selflessness that make this series a must-have in anyone's manga collection. Nearly flawless in characters, storyline, and artwork, Kenshin is a complete package that can be read over and over again without ever getting old. It's not too late to jump into the series. With introductions out of the way, Kenshin's past is about to catch up to him. Man, that preview pic of Saitou got me totally anticipating the Kyoto Arc. Borrow It  Shinsuke Kurihashi Released by ComicsOne $9.95 US Alrighty, chalk another one up to mindless fun and blatant cheap shots at the anime/manga community. Maniac Road is simple: Cute girls run a dying electronics shop and the marketing genius and full-blown Megumi Tachikawa Released by Tokyopop $9.99 US Oh, to be young again. For if I was, I probably would've enjoyed Dream Saga a lot more. Dream Saga looks just like Yayoi Ogawa Released by Tokyopop $9.99 US At first glance I thought this was a manwha because of the flowy art style and disproportionate anatomy. Upon further inspection (mainly the “STOP! This is the back of the book” page), I discovered that Tramps Like Us is indeed a manga. Even more intriguing is that Yayoi Ogawa's book falls into the rarely dabbled-in genre of Ken Akamatsu Released by Del Rey $10.95 US Beware! Panty shots and blatantly exposed breasts reside within these pages. Oh wait... it's Akamatsu... to be expected – scratch that warning. “Wiz-kid” Negi Springfield's teaching adventures continue as he tries to deal with his fawning female students and meeting the principal's expectations all while hiding the fact that he is a wizard. Things get even more hectic after he gets an official order saying he has to keep his class from placing last in school rankings otherwise he won't become an official teacher. *Groan* now because it only gets b-e-t-t-e-r. I'm not a “fan” of Akamatsu by any means, but I really enjoyed the debut volume of Negima so I had high hopes and expectations for volume two. Even though Negima retains the charm from the first volume, it practically self-destructs in the second. Let's just say taking a trip to an island library where the girls have to fight rock sentries with math problems and strip in order to get an elevator within acceptable weight limits is more than ludicrous. As far as “harem” manga goes, though, Negima is actually quite refreshing. Rather than have a nerdy guy whining about a girl he can't get, Negi literally has to beat the girls off of him with a stick... er... staff. You experience zero face punches, zero “you pervert” cracks, and everyone seems to be able to think for themselves. Pros and cons balance out to give us a mediocre release from Del Rey. Despite its lackluster, gloriously shrinkwrapped, “mature audience” stickered glory, Negima is still beautifully presented and is far from being a recyclable title. From what the preview pages show us, I think we're in for a bit more action and less silly stuff in the third volume. I cross my fingers with that hope because I'd have to shoot myself if Negima got anymore ridiculous than this.  Abenobashi: Magical Shopping Arcade Volume 1 Created by Satoru Akahori & Art by Ryuseu Deguchi Released by Tokyopop $9.99 US You know how things are funny until they're the same *funny* over... and over... and over... ? Tow Nakazaki Released by Tokyopop $9.99 US Either I'm being abnormally picky, or there is an overabundance of ridiculousness in this column's books. Et Cetera sounds like it'd be a good western romp, but the stupidity of the series is evident from the very first shot fired by the coveted Eto Gun. MingChao is a young girl with ambitions of becoming a Hollywood star. Equipped with her grandfather's wok and the Eto Gun, she sets off to Tinseltown to fulfill her dreams. On her way she is ed by a wandering priest who appears to be more than just a mere priest. She and the priest manage to get themselves into many a predicament in which case the Eto Gun comes to their rescue. Here is where the story gets silly – the Eto Gun is a powerful weapon that fires spirit bullets using the powers of zodiac animals. Sounds cool, doesn't it? Cool until you discover that the pigtailed pipsqueak has to find the essence of a zodiac creature anytime she wants to fire a bullet. You want to fire the snake bullet? Find some snake blood, venom, whatever, douse the gun in it and you're good to go for one spectacular shot. Cow bullet? Roll the gun in cow dung, etc., etc – yeah, you get the picture. I'm sure there's some uber-exciting plot twist just lurking around the corner for MingChao and Mr. Priest , but I don't think I'm going to stick around to find what that twist may be. The artwork is actually fairly appealing in a comical sort of way and I found myself liking the stylized look of the book. There are just too many wrongs and not enough rights. Et Cetera isn't bad enough for me to completely trash it, but it's not good enough for me to tell you to go out and get right away. Buy it at your own discretion. Recycling It Would Be Too Kind A Fate...  Shinya Kuwahara Released by Tokyopop $9.99 US I didn't think it was possible, but I think I may have found a manga bad enough to be the companion to Evil's Return. Yes, folks... it's that bad. This baby is shrink wrapped and for good reason – to hopefully discourage you from buying it. Oh geez, where to start? There are just so many "good" parts to choose from. We start out with ugly guy #1 – Toma - who walks into his classroom only to find that there is a naked girl breathing heavily on the floor. A fight breaks out when ugly guy #2 – Karma - comes in to reclaim the naked girl and take her “back to where she belongs.” Things just start to get crazy from here on out. After Toma's right eyeball is ripped from its socket, he's transported to an alternate world, told he's part of an intergalactic gladiator competition, and now posessess strange powers because of some contraption that's been affixed over his empty eye socket. Karma is also part of this “team” of Earth Warriors, but Karma wants nothing more than to kill Toma. Toma's then given a glimpse of what would happen to the people of Earth via a virtual reality “preview” of mutated alien things that enjoy eating people; mainly the breasts of young ladies. Um... Then we're transported back to the “real” world where Toma sits in a koi pond with a blowfish firmly sucking on his manly bits. Needless to say, the fish must have performed some seriously abrasive action because Toma ends up in the hospital with his precious treasure bandaged and in traction. My mind pretty much blanked out from this point on. Probably a defense mechanism implemented by my brain in order to protect what few brain cells I had left. I think there was a battle with more mutated alien gladiator people, Toma's arm turned into a laser-sword thing, and the naked girl had many panty shots and more naked appearances. Warriors of Tao might actually sur Evil's Return in awfulness. At least Evil's Return had decent artwork going for it. Fish...manly bits...suckage (on so many levels)...*twitch* |
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