We bring you another five titles this week! Michelle kicks things off with a review of Animal Academy: Hakobune Hakusho (TOKYOPOP); Melinda admires the storytelling in volume 27 of Bleach (Viz); Erin has some colorful descriptions for volume one of Kamichama Karin Chu (Del Rey); Phil compares Vampire Hunter D (DMP) to a John Wayne movie; and Connie checks out the incredibly bizarre The Way to Heaven (DMP).

Animal Academy: Hakobune Hakusho, Vol. 1

By Moyamu Fujino
TOKYOPOP, 192 pp.
Rating: Youth (10+)

When Neko Fukuta is rejected by every other high school to which she applies, she ends up at Morimori Academy, a school where shape-shifting animals learn to act like humans. She’s allowed to remain, under the condition that she keeps her species a secret, and proceeds to make friends with her roommate, learn about the importance of road signs, encounter a mysterious snake, and meet a boy in her class who claims to be human and who seems awfully determined to get her away from Morimori.

Animal Academy will probably appeal most to its target demographic, since most of the story consists of Neko encountering cute animals and dealing with issues like “how do I make new friends without my possessive roommate feeling neglected?” There is some superficial mystery, too, like a last-minute addition that the school is all a “big lie,” but for the most part it’s pretty lightweight fare.

This is one of those series where the protagonists look a lot younger than they actually are, probably in an attempt to help the presumed ten-year-olds readers identify with high school students. I conducted an impromptu audit of the nearest human and asked my husband what grade he thought Neko was in. “Fourth or fifth?” he guessed. When I told him that the American equivalent is actually tenth, he responded, “Pfft. Maybe she’s the runt of the litter.”

While I doubt Animal Academy is a story that adults would enjoy, it really isn’t that bad. I confess that I am actually considering picking up volume two because I want to know what that snake’s deal is.

Volume one of Animal Academy is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Bleach, Vol. 27

By Tite Kubo
Viz Media, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen

Volume 26 ended with Arrancars invading Karakura Town and everyone rushing in to protect it, including Orihime, who was forced to take her own human-friendly route back from Soul Society instead of traveling with Rukia. As it turns out, the attack was waged with the sole purpose of isolating Orihime whose unusual healing power has caught Aizen’s interest, so that she can be abducted away to his headquarters at Hueco Mundo. Orihime is given twelve hours (and an invisibility bracelet) to put her life in order before she must acquiesce, with her friends’ lives on the line. She is also allowed to say goodbye to one person, provided she is undetected, and the scene in which she does that is one of the best and most touching in the series so far. Meanwhile, Soul Society must regroup in order to face the threat of the Arrancars—which is more immediate than they’d calculated—and Ichigo and his friends are ordered to abandon Orihime, who has been labeled as a traitor, and join them in their preparation.

This really is one of the strongest sections of this entire series, and the fact that it comes so far in demonstrates more storytelling skill than Tite Kubo is generally given credit for. This volume contains even fewer outright battle scenes than the previous, but the atmosphere is fraught with tension throughout and quite a few of the main characters are given the opportunity to shine, particularly Orihime, Rukia, and Ichigo. That there are numerous (perhaps endless) battles to come over the next few volumes seems inevitable, but the stakes are high enough to promise a major dramatic payoff for those who see this arc through to the end.

Volume 27 of Bleach is available now.

–Reviewed by Melinda Beasi

Kamichama Karin Chu, Vol. 1

By Koge-Donbo
Del Rey, 176 pp.
Rating: Teen, 13+

I gave volume one of the original Kamichama Karin series an A- in an older review that sometimes gets eaten by the internet. As I kept reading the series I started to regret my grade—an A? Really? Was I on crack? (Note to potential employers: The previous sentence was a metaphor.)

The sequel series Kamichama Karin Chu is like the original series on cocaine. Reading it is like traveling through a time-tunnel vortex of ribbons and ruffles and screen tone, where doe-eyed super-deformed cat-eared characters blush at each other and bicker and make up and use magic. I’m surprised I was able to follow the plot. Apparently watching Sailor Moon obsessively when I was younger enabled my brain to wrap itself around a narrative involving past lives and 4-year-child from the future being sent back in time to help her high-school-aged mother. Reading this volume is more or less like being run over by a really cute semi truck driven by Koge-Donbo, and Donbo is swinging a dayglow-tape-wrapped sledge hammer around her head just like Ken Kesey in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests.

I’m glad I understood the bizarre time travel teen idol plot, because otherwise I would be too old.

Volume one of Kamichama Karin Chu is available now.

–Reviewed by Erin Finnegan

Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 3

By Saiko Takaki
Digital Manga Publishing, 200 pp.
Rating: 16+

As one might expect, the latest Vampire Hunter D release is a mix of action, horror and western elements. The plot echoes the old John Wayne film The Searchers, in that a young girl is stolen from a frontier town, and the main character’s mission is to either bring her back, or kill her if she has become like one of the very savages who kidnapped her.

In this case, of course, the “savages” are vampires, who are actually quite refined-looking. Meanwhile, D. isn’t exactly the symbolic protector of everything civilized, but a “half-vampire” bounty hunter seeking a paycheck. Takaki, who adapted Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi’s novel, does a good job pacing what amounts to a volume-length chase sequence, even if the action gets a bit weird at times (At one point, a vampire sucks the fuel from a large, severed android hand, which comes to life and does her bidding. This seems awfully far-fetched, even in a post-apocalyptic world where vampires run amok!). He also juggles a pretty large cast: besides the titular protagonist and the bloodsucker he’s after, there’s the captive and two groups of mercenaries with their own respective abilities.

Despite how quickly the book’s roster starts to get whittled down, most of the characters are given just enough personality to keep from being strictly cannon fodder. The recurring appearance of doubles adds depth as well: both D. and his prey are tall, dark, brooding types, and each has their own love interest. Through the vampire he pursues, D. sees exactly the kind of romance he could experience for himself, if only he were the type of cowboy ready to settle down. But given how that relationship ends, maybe it’s for the best he doesn’t.

Volume three of Vampire Hunter D is available now.

–Reviewed by Phil Guie

The Way to Heaven

By Yamimaru Enjin
Digital Manga Publishing, 196 pp.
Rating: M (18+)

Things start off with two strangers dying together when they accidentally fall off a bridge and are hit by a semi. They are… saved (?) by a woman who claims to be an alien experimenting with alternative energy sources in order to save Earth. If Moriya and Watase help her gather energy, she’ll move them back in time to whenever they want. Inexplicably, she assigns them occupations of “Vampire” (Watase) and “Werewolf” (Moriya). Watase collects energy by sucking the blood of young virgin women (?) while Moriya apparently has to collect semen (?!). They are sent to collect energy on a day five years in the past that loops back on itself every 24 hours. Watase explains to Moriya that the point in time he would like to go back to once they’ve collected enough energy would be the point at which he could prevent his best friend from being stabbed to death.

Seriously, this is just a big mess of concepts that don’t work together. I mean… time travel? Vampires? Aliens? Dead guys collecting energy via blood and semen? The rules for energy collection are not terribly clear. With the alien’s initial explanation, it sounds like they are collecting enough energy to go back a minute or two before they die in order to avoid it, so I was confused when the part with the friend was added later. There’s… kind of a romance? But not really. The relationship between the (straight) Watase and his friend is actually developed more than the one between the two main characters, who hook up at the end anyway.

It’s a surprisingly coherent story given all the weirdness, and the randomness is pretty amusing, but it’s… it’s not a good book.

The Way to Heaven is available now.

–Reviewed by Connie C.