In this edition of Manga Minis, Erin takes a look at volume nine of Beauty Pop, an enjoyable shojo series that reads like a sports manga; Chloe checks out Bound Beauty, the latest from Mick Takeuchi; Sam weighs in on the latest volumes of Kamisama Kazoku and Rosario + Vampire; and Michelle revisits Venus in Love, a pleasant shojo romance from CMX.

Beauty Pop, Vol. 9

By Kiyoko Arai
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen

I enjoyed the sample of Beauty Pop in Shojo Beat magazine enough to check out volume nine. I haven’t read two through eight, so I had a little trouble differentiating between characters at first. This series deserves a longer review on our site; I’m surprised we haven’t covered it yet.

Beauty Pop is about team “Scissors Project,” a group of junior high boys who give girls makeovers at school. Unlike The Knockout Makers, Beauty Pop isn’t makeover porn; instead, it’s more like a shojo sports/love comedy about beauticians. Our protagonist Kiri is a tomboy with a talent for cutting hair. Shogo is Kiri’s reluctant love interest/rival, a fussy Scissors Project member who’s afraid of girls.

Volume nine opens with the end of a tournament and concludes with a long romance episode involving cliché blackmail photos. I would have liked to see more haircutting and fewer accidental kisses. Much to my amusement, Kiri masters moves like “the tornado,” “the corkscrew,” and “the wizard cut.”

It’s revealed that Kiri is afraid of cockroaches. “Even Kiri has a cute side,” Shogo muses. This scene is puzzlingly identical to Haruhi’s fear of lightning in Ouran High School Host Club. Can someone explain to me why a tomboy’s girlish fears are supposed to be cute?

Arai’s art is functionally minimal; she seems to draw the characters too small, and uses large word balloons to fill the frame. The characters are cute and likeable (especially nail art specialist Kei), and behave in a way that seems true to real life junior high behavior.

Volume nine of Beauty Pop is available now.

–Reviewed by Erin Finnegan

Bound Beauty, vol. 1

By Mick Takeuchi
Go!Comi, 200 pp.
Rating: 13+

Perhaps the biggest complaint that can be voiced about Bound Beauty is that there’s simply not that much to say about it; despite a unique gimmick to give the series its own flavor, the plot seems irrevocably locked into an all-too-familiar setup. The protagonist-du-jour comes in the form of Chiko, an empowered everygirl whose brush with the supernatural makes her the fourth member in the “Tyers,” exorcists who manipulate strings. Mysterious power? Check. All-male, colorful backup crew? Check. Sure, the string imagery provides a uniting theme and the mystical Asian occultism lays a few ground rules, but ultimately Bound Beauty stacks up to little more than your run of the mill spirit-busting adventure.

It’s not particularly bad, but the premise is so over-used it practically groans under the weight of itself. Granted, there’s an effort made to throw in a few mysterious secrets to entice readers onward toward future installments (and yes, these secrets involve childhood memories/frigid familial circumstances) but when volume one is so vanilla, who can be bothered? At least Takeuchi was feeling quirky enough to throw a few more curveballs, as Chiko’s alternation between an adult body and that of a child (triggered, of course, by her power) adds a few complicating factors to the mix. Bound Beauty is a passable example of shojo, but with so much else available, why settle for more of the same?

Volume one of Bound Beauty is available now.

–Reviewed by Chloe Ferguson

Kamisama Kazoku, Vol. 2

By Tapari & Yoshikazu Kuwashima
Go!Comi, 183 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Volume two of Kamisama Kazoku picks up with the main character, Samataro, kicking things off with a hot date with his current crush, Kumiko Komori. Samataro is doing this to prove to himself and his family that he doesn’t need to be the Son of God anymore to find true love. Obviously they meddle in his date against his wishes and without his knowledge. Thinking the date went fine, Samataro then wishes to just be human forever. He casts away his Godhood and just about everything else with it. In the end, we all learn that being who you are is better than being what you aren’t.

Overall, not much has changed with Kamisama Kazoku since the first volume. The art is still the same, with its chapter breaks being the best part. The writing, however, did improve since volume one. Samataro is much more mature and a lot less whiny than he once was. He steps up in realizing that Tenko is the only one for him and thank goodness for that. Overall, volume two made the Kamisama family, as well as the story itself, a bit stronger.

Volume two of Kamisama Kazoku is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Rosario + Vampire, Vol. 4

By Akihisa Ikeda
VIZ, 200 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Rosario + Vampire has always struck me as a series that could be doing a whole lot more for itself as well as its readers. So it was no surprise to me to find volume four to be a disappointment. The story picks up with Tsukune the Human, Moka the Vampire, Kurumu the Succubus and Yukari the Witch all taking a trip to the human world. This proves to be more than they bargained for as the quartet encounter a pair of witches bent of destroying the human race.

The story felt really bland and shallow and was delivered as such. At points, it tries to be really “ecchi” and at other times, overly serious. None of this works. On top of that, the art was cluttered and confusing and the action was done poorly. Overall, I would say there is not enough build-up with Rosario + Vampire. By the middle of volume one you understand that Moka going full vampire will obviously save the day and that’s that.

Volume four of Rosario + Vampire is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Venus in Love, Vol. 5

By Yuki Nakaji
CMX, 208 pp.
Rating: Teen

Venus in Love is a cozy shojo romance that seems to firmly belong in the era of titles like Marmalade Boy, except without as much angst.

College students Suzuna Ashihara and Eichi Uozumi have been friends and neighbors for couple of years now. They both started off liking the same guy, but have gradually begun to realize that they might actually fancy each other instead. And when I say gradually, I mean it. A year ago, they shared a kiss at Christmas, and the holidays have just about rolled around again before they have their second smooch at an amusement park. And yet they still aren’t dating. They’ve both acknowledged their feelings to themselves at this point (and I do like that we also get Eichi’s perspective of this process, as well), but have not yet managed to confess and solidify their status as a couple.

The chapters in this volume are all self-contained and manage to make some progress toward official couplehood for Suzuna and Eichi. Mostly, though, they’re just cute. There’s the one where they go to the zoo and are happy, the one where they go to the aquarium and are happy, et cetera. My favorite is the chapter where Suzuna takes a job working nights at a convenience store in order to buy cavity-ridden Eichi a swanky toothbrush for Valentine’s Day. He gets wind of her job and secretly watches over her every night to ensure nothing bad happens to her.

The one complaint I really have about this series is its over-reliance on silly shojo clichés. I swear Suzuna must trip or stumble at least three times in this volume and accidentally falls asleep on a boy twice. It got so that I’d heave a great sigh whenever such an act was repeated, which detracts from the overall pleasant reading experience Venus in Love provides.

Volume five of Venus in Love is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith