Recently I find myself with less and less time to read manga reviews, let alone write them, as more and more manga hits our shores in a tsunami wave of publishing. To this end I will begin writing micro-notes from the field, your at-a-glance manga briefing.

Only the Ring Finger Knows: The Lonely Ring Finger, Vol. 1 (Novel)

By Satoru Kannagi and Hotaru Odagiri
Published by DMP
Rating: 16+

Only the Ring Finger Knows (Manga)

By Satoru Kannagi and Hotaru Odagiri
Published by DMP
Rating: 16+

In Ryokuyo High School wearing rings as a signal to others whether one is available for dating or not has become a fad. Wataru loses his awesome favorite ring. The most popular boy in school, Yuichi, has an identical ring and starts harassing Wataru. As yaoi goes, it’s just one step from loathing to making out.

The book is long and drawn out, even for such a short work. Once the happy gay couple gets together halfway into the book there’s not much to keep them apart (unless the work were based in reality, then social pressure, parents, and authorities might have proved a source of conflict). A scheming school girl works to break them up for several chapters, unconvincingly. Wataru vows not to sleep with Yuichi unless he gets top scores on his college entrance exams. It’s all very artificial conflict; no climax, no plot, no point – just what the acronym “yaoi” really means.

The manga version is just one volume long, but the the light novel series continues for three volumes, all of which were released by DMP. Book two is called Only the Ring Finger Knows: The Left Hand Dreams of Him and book three is The Ring Finger Falls Silent. The manga was on a list for the Young Adult Library Services Association’s Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults under the “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered” category.

The manga is shorter and steamy. Seeing hot guys making out works better than having the author assure you the characters are hot. It’s a cute manga based on a dull book. Better than Don’t Worry Mama but not quite as amusing as The Man Who Wouldn’t Take Off His Clothes, I recommend Only the Ring Finger Knows exclusively to yaoi fangirls, and only as manga.

Both the novel and the manga are available now.

Claymore, Vol. 2

By Norihiro Yagi
Viz, 195 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

I only read volume 2 since Midtown west didn’t have volume one in stock (*cough* *cough*).

There may be a more compelling story arc later on in Claymore, but as of volume two is hasn’t started yet. Claire, a half-demon witch called a “Claymore” battles some demons in what some people have called a female version of Berserk. The art is not as detailed as Berserk, but Claymore has it’s own unique and compelling style compelling.

Claymore is one of the few shows of the new anime season which I’ve taken the time to watch. As of volume two the anime and manga are running parallel. This volume covers an episode or two of the anime.

The anime is a series that I can watch with my boyfriend; it’s a seinan title so older boys (guys age 17-35) will enjoy it. Personally, I like seeing chicks with giant swords kick some ass, and I enjoy the social commentary. Claymores are total social outcasts, feared by humans. Even the victims of demons in the series bear a horrible social stigma.

The manga comes off as extremely short, with few words. It took me only half an hour to read this volume. Not great, not terrible, and just long enough and amusing enough to cover a single commute. Be sure to buy it two volumes at a time.

Recommended. Volumes one through nine of Claymore are available now; volume ten will be released in October.

Vision of the Other Side, Vol. 1

By Yu-Chin Lin
DramaQueen, 176 pp.
Rating: Teen

I bought Vision of the Other Side on the basis that it is a Taiwanese fantasy shojo comic. I’d never read any Taiwanese shojo (Taiwanese anything, really), so I thought I’d give it a try. Regrettably, I feel this was a mistake, and a $12 mistake at that. All of DramaQueen’s books are slightly pricier than the average manga – usually you get superior print quality, but in this case I bought a discounted book with a printing error. It was still more expensive, and still not worth it.

Vision of the Other Side is the predictable and trite story of a princess who runs from her arranged marriage only to end up with the leader of a gang of barbarians to whom she was originally beathroved. The chief Barbarian usually wears a mask, so the princess doesn’t realize that he’s the same hottie she ran into in her wacky peasent-disguised adventure in the marketplace a few days prior.

I might be able to tolerate the plot if the layouts were better. Vision of the Other Side is author Yu-Chin Lin’s first comic, and perhaps because she’s new at it, it’s difficult to follow action across the page. The dialog often seems bizarre, almost to the point of being nonsensical.

Yu-Chin Lin has gone to great lengths to draw detailed hair and costumes, but as of volume one, she can’t draw a sword.

Pass this one up, unless you’re a really hardcore fan of Fushigi Yugi and Basara – and even then, you may wish to read Vision of the Other Side in the original Chinese (at least it would be cheaper).

Volumes one and two of Vision of the Other Side are currently available. Theoretically volumes three and four should be currently available, however, they are listed as “on order from manufacturer” and not available on DramaQueen’s webpage.

Puri Puri, Vol. 1

By Chiaki Taro
DrMaster, 192 pp.
Rating: 15+

Masato is an orphan raised by a Catholic priest. His adoptive father is such a role model that Masato decides to become a priest as well. He enrolls in the local Catholic school with a catch – he will be the first male student to enter a previously all-girl school.

I am interested in reading a manga about a boy going through training to become a priest, unfortunately, it’s not this manga. Despite the original premise, Puri Puri is a paint-by-numbers “squish squish” manga. The “squish squish” genre is anything with a scene where a girl’s breasts squish into an adolescent boy’s back in a non-sexual context, usually by accident. The boy is embarrassed and turned on, and the girl is unaware of the boy’s arousal. The sound effect is usually included: Squish squish. As an American girl I don’t have time for the squish-squish genre, since I find it cliche, unfunny, unsexy, unoriginal, feature unrealistic female characters.

Puri Puri has other anime/manga tropes – like the absurdly powerful student council. For whatever reason, a group of super rich girls on the student counsel run the school like puppet masters. For unknown reasons, they really have it in for Masato, and work to get him into as many squish-squsih scenarios as possible.

DrMaster has very nice covers, with Japanese-style cover flaps (called French flaps). However, the paper quality is lacking.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher. Volumes one and two of Puri Puri are available now; volume three will be released in October.

Heroes Are Extinct!, Vol. 1

By Ryoji Hido
DMP, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Reviewed by Katherine here. Unfortunately I would rather have worked on this manga than read it. The author explains in the afterward that Heroes Are Extinct is published in a weekly magazine. It has a grueling production schedule, so there is a large staff of extremely geeky manga artists. As they work, they sing old anime songs and watch old tokusatsu shows on TV.

On impulse I bought the book Tokyo: A Certain Style on amazon.com’s recommendation. Most of the book is available on google here. It’s a photobook of very small apartments in Japan. Although not specifically related to anime/manga/nerdom it so happens that several of the photos of the book are of the homes of manga-ka. Manga-ka often work from home, and each of the home-studio apartments featured a desk where the assistant sometimes sits. And by “desk” I mean, “there’s a space on the floor between stack of manga with a bed for the assistant to sleep on right next to a desk.” Because that’s how much work goes into manga. You wake up and you draw, and you sleep under your desk.

Because Heroes Are Extinct is the author’s first manga, and because it’s weekly, and perhaps because it was originally pitches as anime instead of manga, the art suffers – a lot. A flip-through wouldn’t convince anyone to buy this, I’m afraid. There is a lack of tones, and the backgrounds are not details. The number of panels per page is also low, giving the most of the pages a rather blank look.

I enjoyed the script, even if I didn’t get all the tokusatsu references it was still quite funny. Heroes Are Extinct was also exceedingly short, perhaps a 35 minute read. Weirdly, the exclamation points on the cover are a horrible font that make it look like volume one might be volume two.

This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher. Volume one of Heroes Are Extinct!! is available now; volume two will be released in October and the third and final volume will be released in January 2008.