This week’s column features tales of gender switching, bishounen robots, and demonic action. Michelle starts things off with a review of volume five of A.I. Revolution (Go! Comi); Melinda looks at Live for Love, a one-shot from DMP; Ken remains underwhelmed by volume five of Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom (Viz); Grant finds volume seven of Rosario + Vampire (Viz) to be flawed yet intriguing; and Connie checks in with the latest volume of Your & My Secret (TOKYOPOP).

A.I. Revolution, Vol. 5

By Yuu Asami
Go! Comi , 208 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

Sui Makihara’s father makes robots and has brought his two most advanced creations, Vermillion and Kira, home to learn about humanity from his daughter. Inspired by Makihara’s achievements, but far less scrupulous, his former colleague Sakaki has created AT-6, a robot who lacks the programming that makes it taboo for him to kill humans, to eliminate those people who get in his way.

In volume five, Kira is hired as a bodyguard for a journalist who is investigating a series of killings that he recognizes as AT-6’s handiwork. He ends up confronting Sakaki and nearly killing kim—the penalty for which would be disassembly—but is prevented from doing so by the timely arrival of Vermillion. Other chapters involve the (boring) kidnapping of a visiting foreigner’s daughter, a new scientist at Makihara’s company who thinks Kira is his dream girl, and an unrelated bonus story that’s a tweak on “Cinderella.”

A.I. Revolution is an episodic series, not unlike InuYasha in that most of the nefarious doings can be traced back to the same culprit. Some recurring characters have been introduced and their histories revealed, which is all well and good, but the story seems to be drifting farther and farther away from its original focus. When the series started, Sui was clearly the protagonist. Now she’s been overshadowed by the robots to such an extent that we know more about AT-6 than we know about her. No longer does she impart any lessons about humanity to the two robots; instead, they mostly appear in solo adventures foiling terrorists and kidnappers. It’s pretty disappointing, really.

Volume five of A.I. Revolution is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Live for Love

By Itsuki Sato
Digital Manga Publishing, 200 pp.
Rating: M (18+)

Seven years ago, just as his life was falling apart, Yoshiyuki Nomura was approached out of the blue by a small-time private detective, Yasuie, who offered him employment and, more importantly, escape. Yoshiyuki agreed and the two have been working together ever since, though they have more work shampooing cats than anything else. Their relationship with each other is easy and playful and Yoshiyuki has never thought much about Yasuie’s touchy-feely nature and frequent sexual teasing, but when Yoshiyuki’s estranged adoptive parents seek him out to schedule a marriage interview, Yasuie freaks out and rapes Yoshiyuki, claiming afterwards that he’s always loved him and begging him to stay with the agency. Being raped, of course, only makes it easier for Yoshiyuki to leave and he returns to his family, ready to go through with the marriage interview.

It’s really difficult not to become weary of the overabundance of rape in yaoi manga and in this case it really is a shame, because Live for Love is otherwise an extremely charming story. The relationship between Yoshiyuki and Yasuie is frankly adorable and unusually well developed for a yaoi one-shot, filled with playful banter and obvious affection. The humor, too, really hits the mark, as the men resign themselves to the fact that their business has devolved into a cheap cat-grooming salon. Even the art is charming, with attractive character designs and an ease of expression that matches the story’s off-the-cuff feel. What’s saddest is that the rape serves no real purpose other than to hasten Yoshiyuki’s departure from the detective agency, which could have easily been achieved by other means that might have also made his eventual return to Yasuie much easier to believe.

For those who can stomach the nonconsensual sex, Live for Love is smart, engaging, and fun, with good humor and endearing characters who deserve better treatment than they get.

Live for Love is available now.

–Reviewed by Melinda Beasi

Nora: The Last Chronicle Of Devildom, Vol. 5

By Kazunari Kakei
Viz, 200 pp
Rating: T + (Older Teens)

Nora’s tale continues as he attempts to track down the Demon Liege Soul Jewels, powerful artifacts that make up the Demon Liege’s soul, before the Resistance can find them for their own nefarious purposes. Unfortunately for Nora, he has to do without Kazuma, who has gone missing.

Honestly, I’m not sure what to say about this series. It’s middle of the road, cliché-ridden, shonen action fare. Nora wants to become stronger and talks about it almost non-stop. Just about every fight scene in this volume comes complete with Nora delivering speeches about how he has to be the strongest and he won’t give up no matter what and all that other jazz. Unfortunately, the artwork here matches the story: bland and uninspiring. The action sequences look incredibly stiff and awkward and they usually take place in a white void that is occasionally broken up by speed lines or splotches of toning. The characters designs are nothing particularly special, either, though Kakei does give one character a very nifty-looking mask. Besides that one glimmering moment of hope, everyone else is immensely forgettable.

Sad to say that I can’t find anything particularly remarkable about Nora in one direction or the other. It’s not amazing in any area, but at the same time it’s not exactly gouging your eyes out horrid either. No, instead Nora has fallen into the unenviable state of being bland and forgettable.

Volume five of Nora: The Last Choronicle of Devildom will be available on June 2, 2009.

–Reviewed by Ken Haley

Rosario + Vampire, Vol. 7

By Akihisa Ikeda
Viz Media, 200 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

Rosario + Vampire is a harem manga. You’ll find everything you’d come to expect: girls crushing their breasts against the main character’s face, girls getting their clothing shredded in battle, and panty shots that blemish otherwise good manga moments. (I sometimes try to imagine what was going through the artist’s mind at these points: “Hey, this is a really great action scene. While this girl is getting kicked in her face, I could do it from an up-skirt angle and show her underwear, too. That’s super classy and super hot.”)

Despite these flaws, I still found an intriguing story. Tsukune (whose humanity is fading day by day) is more than the traditional milquetoast male, who manages to deal quite well with the aftermath of being attacked by his vampire-girl crush, Moka. Those chapters, in particular, put a well-placed dark cloud over the story. Blood flows, classmates fall, and it all takes place during what should have been a regular high school day. While the series stumbles back into predictable comedy, Ikeda still slips in the occasional scene where Tsukune begins to thirst for Moka’s blood. Tsukune’s struggle with this desire is well done, especially considering series such as Hellsing explored this territory years earlier.

A few moments had me scratching my head in confusion. For instance, the foreword states that humans who discover Yokai Academy must be killed, yet later on one of the characters stresses that Yokai Academy wants peaceful coexistence between humans and monsters. Even with this express taboo, the resident “monster” girls are all obsessed with obtaining “peaceful coexistence” with Tsukune, if you catch my drift.

Fans of Twilight will find a lot to like about Rosario + Vampire. It’s a teenage tale of forbidden relationships and making dark deals to satisfy deep desires.

Volume seven of Rosario + Vampire will be available on June 2, 2009.

–Reviewed by Grant Goodman

Your & My Secret, Vol. 4

By Ai Morinaga
TOKYOPOP, 192 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

After some awkward situations between Senbongi and Shiina are resolved, Akira finally has everything he wants in his life (save for his old body back): his best friend has stopped hitting on him, and he can finally go back to chasing after Momoi in his own quiet way. But pursuing Momoi will only hurt Shiina’s feelings since Shiina and Momoi are dating, and it turns out that Akira actually liked Senbongi’s extra attention. After Momoi makes it more than clear that she will never have any romantic interest in Akira, he decides he might as well go out with Senbongi.

As much as I like Ai Morinaga, as funny as her stories are, they don’t really go anywhere. So I was actually kind of surprised by the character development in this volume. Akira and Momoi are nowhere near getting their old bodies back, but it seems like Akira has finally given up on Momoi ever sharing his feelings. Akira isn’t really crazy about dating Senbongi, but it even seems like there is slight progress towards those two becoming a real couple. They do go out on a date here, which of course involves Akira freaking out at every opportunity and an interruption or two from other sources, but Akira seems like he is beginning to accept his new body.

The problem is that, as encouraging as the minimal character development was here, the relationship between Sebongi and Akira isn’t really a solid subplot, and the main plot of the series is still nonexistant. To be fair, there’s still some really, really funny stuff in this volume, but I’m not sure how much longer this series can last on wit alone.

Volume four of Your & My Secret is available now.

–Reviewed by Connie C.