Cross-dressing Frenchmen. Wallflowers. Frankensamurai. Tall women and the short men that love them. No, we’re not talkin’ Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes—it’s this week’s new manga shipment! Arriving on shelves this Wednesday are two new series from Del Rey, Dragon Eye and Le Chevalier D’Eon, the final volume of Kei Toume’s criminally underappreciated Kurogane (also from Del Rey), and the first installments of Coyote Ragtime Show (Broccoli Books), Love*Com (Viz), and Togari (Viz). The Chika Shiomi festival continues with volume four of Night of the Beasts (Go!Comi), offering readers another generous helping of handsome bad boys, butt-kicking heroines, demons, and costumes inspired by Pat Benatar videos. (Well, I don’t know for a fact that Shiomi’s heroines take their fashion cues from Love is a Battlefield, but those outfits and hairdos scream MTV circa 1987.) And Kazuma Azuma, the holy fool of bread baking, continues his quest to make the perfect loaf in volume six of Yakitate!! Japan (Viz). Dammit, when is someone going to publish a companion cookbook for this series?

Reviewed This Week:

• Brave Story, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
• Dragon Eye, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)
• Love*Com, Vol. 1 (Viz)

Shipping This Week:

• 500 Manga Characters (Harper Collins)
• Bastard!!, Vol. 15 (Viz)
• Challengers, Vol. 4 (DMP)
• Cheeky Angel, Vol. 18 (Viz)
• Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword, Vol. 2 (Dr Master)
• Chun Rhang Yhur Jhun, Vol. 3 (Infinity Studios)
• Coyote Ragtime Show, Vol. 1 (Broccoli Books)
• Dragon Eye, Vol. 1 (Del Rey; reviewed below)
• Firefighter Daigo of Fire Company M, Vol. 19 (Viz)
• Ghost Hunt, Vol. 8 (Del Rey)
• Gold Digger, #86 (Antarctic Press)
• High School Girls, Vol. 8 (Dr Master)
• InuYasha, Vol. 30 (Viz)
• Kage Tora, Vol. 6 (Del Rey)
• Kurogane, Vol. 5 (Del Rey)
• Le Chevalier D’Eon, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)
• Love*Com, Vol. 1 (Viz; reviewed below)
• Monster Book of More Manga, Vol. 3 (Harper Collins)
• Naruto, Vol. 15 (Viz)
• NewtypeUSA, July 2007
• Night of the Beasts, Vol. 4 (Go!Comi)
• Pastel, Vol. 7 (Del Rey)
• Red River, Vol. 18 (Viz)
• Shonen Jump #56, August 2007
• Togari, Vol. 1 (Viz)
• Wallflower, Vol. 12 (Del Rey)
• Witchblade Takeru, Vol. 1 (Bandai)
• Yakitate!! Japan, Vol. 6 (Viz)

Brave Story, Vol. 1

By Miyuki Miyabe and Yoichiro Ono
Tokyopop, 192 pp.
Rating: 13+

The plot of Brave Story will be familiar to fans of “magical girl” manga such as Fushigi Yugi or Red River: a plain jane teenager is mysteriously transported to a fantasy realm, only to manifest heretofore undiscovered powers that hold the key to that realm’s future. In place of a wallflower or a plump misfit, however, authors Miyuki Miyabe and Yoichiro Ono have substituted Wataru, a middling junior high student whose only noteworthy attribute is his skill at the video arcade. (That’s right—Brave Story is a magical boy manga!) Wataru accidentally stumbles through a portal to an alternate dimension called Vision, where he makes a terrifying discovery: hungry demons have been slipping through the portal in the other direction. As one of a handful of “Travelers,” humans with the fighting skills and magical acumen to kill demons, Wataru must master his new powers quickly to prevent Earth from becoming an all-you-can-eat buffet for monsters.

Though the artwork and basic plot are stock, Brave Story distinguishes itself from dozens of similar series by fleshing out Wataru’s personal life. Wataru is no swaggering shonen stereotype: he’s insecure, hesitant, and crushed to learn that his dream girl has the hots for someone else. Nor are his parents the usual one-note comic relief characters. In the most compelling chapter of volume one, we see their marriage come unraveled, leaving Wataru to comfort his dumbfounded and grief-stricken mother while coming to terms with his own sense of loss. These scenes add an unexpected emotional depth to the story, demonstrating Wataru’s essential decency while providing him with a powerful motive for saving the world: he loves his mother.

Volume one of Brave Story is available now; volume two arrives in stores in October.

Dragon Eye, Vol. 1

By Kairi Fujiyama
Del Rey, 208 pp.
Rating: 13+

In the not-too-distant future, a terrible virus sweeps the globe, transforming its victims into hideous, snarling creatures called Dracules. To keep the Dracules in check, a select group of humans with super-charged immune systems have formed VIUS, a paramilitary organization whose primary function is to exterminate plague victims. Leila, a new VIUS recruit, has joined the group with an ulterior motive: to locate the Dragon Eye, a weapon of tremendous power, and use it to avenge her murdered parents. She’s aided in her quest by Issa Kazuma, her squad’s trash-talking team leader, and Sosei Yokimura, a VIUS operative with some family baggage of his own. Although it occasionally bogs down in explanatory detail, Dragon Eye offers readers plenty of pow! and splat!, some nifty-looking monsters, and a fierce heroine who’s handy with a sword. It’s the manga equivalent of a summer popcorn flick, with all the weaknesses—stock characters, cliche dialogue—and strengths—brisk pacing, exciting action sequences, bodacious demon roosters—of the genre. Best enjoyed with a bag of Sour Patch Kids and a 64 oz. Mountain Dew.

Volume one of Dragon Eye will be available on June 27th; click here to read a short preview.

Love*Com, Vol. 1

By Aya Nakahara
Viz, 192 pp.
Rating: 13+

If you’ve ever slouched or worn flats so that you didn’t tower over your date, you’ll immediately identify with Risa Koizumi, the heroine of Love*Com. Risa, you see, is the tallest girl in her class. Naturally, her teachers and classmates think it would be hilarious if Risa hooked up with Atsushi Otani, the shortest boy in the class. The two violently resist the idea, exchanging insults and right hooks at the slightest suggestion that they might be perfect for each other. To nip the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes jokes in the bud, Risa and Otani cook up a plan: they’ll play matchmaker for each other, date other people, and prove their classmates wrong. What they discover in the process, however, is that they might just make a great couple after all.

Aya Nakahara does a terrific job of capturing Risa and Otani’s conflicting emotions—Love*Com is one of the few manga I’ve read where the lead couple’s bickering feels essential to the story rather than a contrivance for keeping them apart. To be sure, there’s plenty of slapstick and shouting, but there are also many quieter moments as Risa and Otani find common ground in shared interests and shared feelings of insecurity. These scenes transported me back to my own high school experiences, reminding me just how awkward and confusing platonic friendships could be at that age. I do wish Nakahara didn’t feel the need to tell us what her characters are thinking (i.e. “Wow, why am I jealous? Am I falling for him/her?”), as her cartooning style makes their emotional states readily apparent. Narrative interventions aside, I found Love*Com charming, funny, and truthful, and look forward to reading volume two.

Volume one of love*com will be available on June 27th; volume two arrives in stores in September.