Kaname and Hide were once coworkers who collaborated very closely in the police department. But an unspecified accident sent them both into the private sector, Hide as a “stalker buster” and Kaname as a sound engineer. Kaname’s abilities to hear things that most people cannot go far beyond extraordinary and into the supernatural, and not only can he identify a person’s build and life situation based on the sound of their voice, but he can also hear the voices of the dead. Hide’s brother is still among the top brass at the department, so the two get called in to consult on a case that lands them both in hot water with a crazy stalker and other supernatural oddities.

Reading the description, I thought this would have a lot more ghosts, but I was quite pleased with the story as it was told. It’s a well-structured mystery/action/thriller hybrid, with two cases that make it seem episodic but are so interlinked that the whole book reads like one story. It’s easy to get drawn into the dark, noir-ish plot, and I wound up liking it a lot more than I thought I would.

A lot of the appeal comes from the main characters, Hide and Kaname. Hide is relentlessly upbeat and is willing to stick his neck out to help complete strangers for little or no pay. His generosity leads to him sharing a living/office space with Kaname, who sleeps in a soundproof room with a noise-cancelling machine in order to override all the sounds he can hear. Kaname’s sound engineer gig is never explained in great detail, but his feats as a forensics investigator in the police labs are legendary. Kaname is a bit more pessimistic than Hide, and the two do a good job of checking and balancing their strengths and weaknesses. A relationship is implied, but more because this is a shoujo manga with two hot guys living together. The story lacks romance completely for the most part, and a short story at the end of the volume reveals that Hide has a lost lady love. They do have a strong friendship, and worry quite a bit about one another, but nothing more than friendship is ever directly shown.

There is a long introduction story that serves to set up the characters and situations before leading into the real meat of the volume, the much longer first case. The introduction story involves a case where dead young women keep showing up in odd places. The young women are linked by the fact they all attended the same high school, all received creepy voiceless telephone calls before their deaths, and all the murder scenes were discovered with a man taking photographs of the women. The man is a red herring, but he is plenty creepy and has a supernatural ability similar to Kaname’s hearing. Kaname solves the case by listening to the telephone calls, but not before Hide lands himself in a lot of trouble. The second case involves a terrorist who seems to be targeting the police specifically, and there’s a side plot involving a strange stalker abducting Kaname while Hide was led away with a phony call. Both stories were excellent mysteries, and were structured with the reader in mind. Nothing was too obvious, but the reader had just as much a chance to solve them as the characters.

It was a wonderful read, and it does a good job of going beyond the boundaries of shoujo and BL and making the story something more. It’ll be interesting to see how future volumes develop the characters.

Volume one of Otodama: Voice from the Dead is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

In this collection of loosely related short stories, we meet four couples with two stories each. The first is a pair of boys that realize their feelings for one another after one admits to having a major hand fetish. The second “pair” involves a classmate of the first two boys who must deal with his two stepbrothers fighting over him at home. A very similar situation appears between a slightly different couple in the next story, and Zaou apologizes for the copy. The final couple, whose stories are slightly more steamy than the others, comes together after one seduces the other simply by staring.

This is interesting as a look at Mikiyo Tsuda’s very early work, but she herself admits the stories are rather boring and suit her very specific tastes in boys’ love (apparently her favorite types of stories are brother stories, twincest, and couples with huge age differences). I do not share her interests, and since the stories are little more than one-dimensional characters walking through basic yaoi situations, there isn’t much for me to like here. Even the hand fetish couple at the beginning, as much as I liked the gimmick and the jokes surrounding it, doesn’t work very well due to weak storytelling and a lack of chemistry between the pair.

In its defense, this volume is more a comedy than a romance, so the romance is very tame. The steamiest parts are some kisses in dark panels that look like they lead elsewhere, an implied sex scene or two that is skipped over and not discussed, and some sex discussed between the final pair of the volume. As a warning, there is some light shota in this volume, but it’s nearly impossible to take seriously since it features an oddly persistent twelve-year-old-boy unsuccessfully vying for his new stepbrother, in direct competition with his own older brother. The story acknowledges how ridiculous that is, and doesn’t even try to make the pairs successful.

The later stories that copy the same formula (sans the brother relationship and with a boy who doesn’t look or act his age) are slightly more serious. They are still comedic: the mood remains light and little more than a kiss is ever shown (though more is implied). In both cases, there’s a four-year age gap in the couple (and one year separating the slightly older brother from the stepbrother being antagonized). I was still shocked and saddened to see that particular sub-genre represented in this volume since it’s not something I ever wanted to read.

The one thing Zaou does well is throw in variations on the dominant character types, and she occasionally mentions that she wanted the stories to play out a bit differently, which sometimes would have made for funnier results. The best part of the volume, and one of the reasons I continually read Zaou/Tsuda’s work, are her very entertaining side strips and commentary scattered throughout the volume. Her insight is always both funny and interesting. This time, it not only sheds light on the stories, but also goes into some detail about her early career. The only reason this book got a C- was because these commentaries informed the stories and made them just a bit more interesting.

Overall, I would say even most yaoi fans could give this a pass, but if the story types sound interesting and you’re easy to please, it might be worth a look. Otherwise, unless you really love seeing Tsuda’s author commentary, you’ll probably want to stay away.

Electric Hands is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Lady Briganza, a classy café, is staffed by young men who wish to convey the illusion that any young woman who walks through the door is the mistress of a mansion returning home for tea and a snack. With staff ranging in experience from the Butler (the head of the staff) to the footmen (new trainees), the stories in this volume cover customer interaction, problems with the job, and problems amongst the staff themselves.

This reads a lot like Antique Bakery crossed with Princess Princess. Since I’m a huge fan of the former and hated the latter, it put this series somewhere in lukewarm territory. It is a good read, though, mostly because it doesn’t set out to tell a story; we simply peek into the lives of the staff and customers at Lady Briganza with every chapter. For instance, the first chapter introduces the staff, then tells the brief story of a little girl who comes to the café after being told she isn’t ladylike by her parents and later making up with her father. Another chapter offers us insight into the lives of the trainees (who also live together) and how their squabbling is meant to build character and help them work better as a team. Two of the chapters are about outside interaction with customers, which is strictly forbidden, and one of these also offers more insight into the lives of two of the more senior staff.

The stories aren’t anything special, but they aren’t terrible, either, and they are entertaining. The Antique Bakery connection comes from the tone and light touch with storytelling, but the character interaction and squabbling and whatnot is what reminds me of Princess Princess—along with the fact the characters are dressing up to provide inoffensive, superficial pleasure, I suppose.

One thing I should mention is that, despite the DokiDoki label, there is little to no boys’ love in this book. If you’re looking for it, you might consider some of the fights and situations between the boys signs of… tension or something, but nothing even vaguely hints at romance between the boys. There is a gay chef, but he’s there for (terrible) comic relief rather than romance. I was definitely expecting more of this, and quite honestly, I’m very happy it isn’t present.

I wasn’t surprised when, in the author’s notes, Tateno mentioned that the book is based on a drama of the same name. It does read like it’s meant to supplement something else, and that also explains the complete lack of character development and entirely episodic stories, but I think it stands well by itself, too.

Honestly, I was expecting to hate this book. It’s got a stupid title, for one. Also, I figured it would be full of bad host club comedy with a staff of boys fawning all over each other, which is not the case at all. Several of the employees at the café are grown men, and their romantic and outside lives don’t come into the story (with one exception). But it definitely reminds me of a not-as-good-but-still-okay Antique Bakery all the way through, and while it never really takes off, it’s still a nice story to read.

Volume one of Happy Boys is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Angel Diary, Vol. 10

By Lee YunHee and Kara
Yen Press, 176 pp.
Rating: Teen

It’s been two years since the Princess of Heaven fled an arranged marriage with the King of Hell to live in disguise as a human schoolboy called Dong-Young. In the meantime, four Guardians have assembled themselves around her and Dong-Young has fallen in love with her classmate, Bi-Wal, who, you guessed it, just so happens to be the King of Hell.

Volume ten begins with one of the guardians killing a demon who threatens Dong-Young, which, in turn, prompts the demon’s extraordinarily powerful friend, Ryung, to seek vengeance. Ryung is Bi-Wal’s older brother, and the majority of the volume focuses on the two siblings as they attempt to work out their childhood issues of mistrust and misunderstanding while exchanging magical attacks and sword blows.

The end result of airing all of this angst is a confrontation that’s somewhat silly and yet somehow kind of appealing. The idea of a villain whose actions are inspired by pain is nothing new, and the story skates along so swiftly that an opportunity to make this conversation truly poignant is missed. Kara’s lovely art, which tends to focus on the characters’ expressive eyes, helps greatly in this regard, however.

In the end, although I’ve got no desire to catch up on this series from the beginning, I find that I’m actually rather interested in what will happen next.

Volume ten of Angel Diary is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Bloody Kiss, Vol. 2

By Kazuko Furumiya
Tokyopop, 200 pp.
Rating: T (13+)

Kuroboshi and Alshu suddenly decide they’d like to attend Kiyo’s school with her, and what first seems like a major headache makes Kiyo realize that she genuinely enjoys the company of both vampires. In this volume, Kiyo and Kuroboshi grow closer and closer together through sports competitions and school performances of Romeo and Juliet. But before the story concludes, Kiyo has to decide if becoming Kuroboshi’s bride is worth turning into a vampire herself.

My impression from volume one hasn’t changed much, which is just fine. It’s an okay story that manages to be a light and enjoyable read, if nothing spectacular. I was a little disappointed that such common plot devices were used in this volume (the transfer student, the sports competition with a rival, and especially Romeo and Juliet), but I really didn’t expect too much from the series otherwise. The main draw is the adorable (if shallow) romance between Kiyo and Kuroboshi. Neither really stand out as terribly developed or original characters, but the chemistry between them is believable. In a short work like this, that is often the most important part.

I actually liked the relatively mild and suprisingly un-sexualized nature of their relationship as well. While the vampire kisses are as loaded as you imagine, and Kuroboshi makes a vague try towards the end (that is promptly rejected), the tame nature makes it good for a younger teen audience, and I think teenage girls will enjoy this much more than I did. Series like this that don’t come off as completely juvenile while still being appropriate for a young teen are uncommon.

Nothing spectacular, but a cute story that’s complete in two volumes, and one that’s appropriate for younger teens.

Volume two of Bloody Kiss is available now.

–Reviewed by Connie C.

Detroit Metal City, Vol. 3

By Kiminori Wakasugi
VIZ, 192 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)

Negishi continues his never-ending battle with his other self, Johannes Krauser II, as he confronts some sex-crazed groupies, a dog with conditional love issues, the daughter of the former “Emperor of Death Metal” and an all-out brawl between the hardest metal bands from around the world! Overall, they each stand as great individual stories; the humor could not be more spot-on and I feel as though the art has gotten better overall or at least more grotesque. Negishi’s facial expressions will speak for themselves.

The aspect that I really like about this volume is that is it not just episodic oneshots; the first and last few chapters of the book push the entire plot of the series into a great story arc! The “Satanic Emperor” really amalgamates everything that is good about this book: the eccentric side characters, Negishi’s fall into his pit of despair (sometimes literally) and the great supporting cast! We’re finally getting to see DMC start its world takeover as the greatest metal band ever, so keep reading it and go to DMC!

Volume three of Detriot Metal City is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Gin Tama, Vol. 16

By Hideaki Sorachi
Viz, 192 pp.
Rating: T+

One of the things that always strikes me about Gin Tama is how it can turn around from being outright parody and bring a story that actually holds emotional weight. I’ll admit that it’s not always done in the most delicate of manners, but that doesn’t stop it from being good. Volume sixteen begins on one of those emotional punches, bringing the story of Okita’s sister Mitsuba to its inevitable end. I’ve always wondered about this universe, actually, how they seem to be so technologically advanced and yet still have characters die from what looks to be tuberculosis. I guess it’s just space tuberculosis. (I know, I know, it’s just a gag manga, I should really just relax.)

The other stories in the volume are much more along the gag side of Gin Tama, and are of varying efficacy at getting me to laugh. The zombie movie parody in which residents of Kabukicho are taken over by unibrows that turn them into old men was pretty funny, especially Otae’s contribution to the story. The noir parody, however, fell flat for me, and I was ready for it to be over about five pages into the narrative. It proceeded to drag on for three chapters. Not that there weren’t hilarious parts… the conveyor belt scene in particular had me cackling aloud.

The last arc concerns Kyube. Her servant, Ayumu, has found an advertisement for a plastic surgery clinic in her room, and is afraid that she’s considering surgery to make her more masculine. While Kyube’s father and grandfather don’t care what she does, just wanting their heir to be happy, Ayumu wants none of it. He hires the Yorozuya three to arrange a group date to help bring out Kyube’s feminine side. Events do not go smoothly, but they are funny.

Volume sixteen of Gin Tama will be available on January 5, 2010.

–Reviewed by Jennifer Dunbar

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Vol. 13

By Hirohiko Araki
VIZ, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

It’s all coming down to the wire or, rather, a few wires, as Jojo, Joseph and Kakyoin battle it out with Terrence T. D’Arby, the supposed “better” brother of Daniel J. D’Arby. The battlefield is not one of fists and fury, though, but of wit and vigor as Terrence brings out a different kind of contest…video games. The guys have their work cut out for them, as Jotaro quickly reveals that he has no idea how to play video games! Luckily, Kakyoin steps up to the plate but will it be enough to face the terror that is Terrence T. D’Arby and his auto-electronic stand, Atum?

As you know from my previous review, I am a big fan of the series but I wasn’t entirely enthralled by this book, like I have been by other volumes. The overall plot seems so close to the end that it feels like all these extra villains are just filler, making them more annoying than memorable. In addition, I was let down by Atum’s ability (I won’t reveal it); it wasn’t as devious as a lot of others and I feel like the whole video game angle could’ve been explored further. Maybe it was another instance of incorporating popular culture into his manga, but Hirohiko kind of dropped the ball here. Although this wasn’t the best of the best, the volume should still be read if you want the whole story.

Volume thirteen of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

KimiKiss, Vol. 2

By Taro Shinonome
Tokyopop, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen 16+

KimiKiss could best be described as a simple boy-meets-girl tale. High school student Kouichi is strolling across campus one day, feeling a little down that he doesn’t have a girlfriend, when opportunity—in the form of a wayward soccer ball kicked by a beauty named Asuka—strikes him. From that point on, he and Asuka start hanging out: first as practice foils and study buddies, then something more. But can the average boy admit his infatuation to the cute athletic girl, and can their love last when she’s destined for stardom?

If you’re looking for a manga that makes you think about relationships, and how complicated they are, you may want to look elsewhere. As far as I can tell, KimiKiss seems intent on making its protagonists’ inevitable hook-up as convenient as possible: half the time, Kouichi is standing around clueless, while Asuka practically gives him a road map to her heart. Of the two, she is clearly the more aggressive, and maybe that’s one of the series’ selling points. Ultimately, I can see this story appealing to two different demographics: teenage males who fantasize about being helpfully coaxed through the various rituals and pangs of love and female readers who’d like to be the more assertive partner in a relationship.

Either way, or neither, volume two of KimiKiss is mostly clean fun. There’s some fan service, and a few scenes in which the characters do what young lovers might, but it’s more sensual than sexual. In addition, the story itself is accessible; I know nothing of soccer, and it wasn’t necessary to my understanding what happens. The greater potential stumbling block might be such lines as, “Do you mean… that you’re willing to be my love coach?” delivered straightforwardly.

Volume two of KimiKiss is available now.

–Reviewed by Phil Guie

Millennium Prime Minister, Vol. 2

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

The tenor of Millennium Prime Minister is best summed up by a line on the back cover that reads, “A confused love triangle is messing up the politics of Japan!”

High school student Minori Nagashima is living with Japan’s young Prime Minister, Kanata Okazaki, who wants her to be his bride. Everyone’s in a tizzy because Sai, Kanata’s 18-year-old senior aide who happens to be in love with his boss, is missing. A menacing foe of Kanata’s gets wind of Sai’s absence, and after a tense confrontation, Kanata returns home drunk and attempts to force himself on Minori. Rather than be outraged like any reasonable person, Minori realizes that she has fallen in love with Kanata and later pledges to become the family he so desperately craves. He’s only controlling because he’s lonely, you see.

Meanwhile, Sai is staying with a reporter buddy and being the crappiest houseguest imaginable. This includes bursting into whiny tears when the eggs his host prepares are not to his liking. Upon finally returning to the minister’s residence, he overhears Minori’s promise and loses it. Because Kanata is everything to him, Sai plans to stay by his side forever and can’t understand why he’s not sufficient to quell Kanata’s loneliness. Kanata gets a taste of his own medicine when Sai uses force to make his feelings clear.

Eiki Eiki’s art continues to be expressive and the pace of the story ensures a quick read. Unfortunately, the ridiculous elements overshadow these positive qualities. I grant this series some slack because it’s a comedy, but that doesn’t excuse the unconvincing central romance or the characters who act like idiots. I have a smidgen of sympathy for Sai and his plight, but his bratty behavior makes it difficult to truly like him. Similarly, though I don’t hate Millennium Prime Minister, I definitely can’t recommend it.

Volume two of Millennium Prime Minister is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 2

By Fumi Yoshinaga
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: M

In some ways, volume two of Ooku picks up where the first left off. Instead of picking up on the characters from the first volume, however, volume two delves into the history that volume one’s new shogun Yoshimune had gone to investigate. Here we see the ramifications of the early onset of the redface pox amongst the seats of power, beginning with the unexpected death of the male shogun, Iemitsu. His death is silenced. Several years later, the new abbot of Keiko-in travels from Kyoto to Edo to present himself to Iemitsu. A young, handsome man, the abbot is coerced into giving up his religious post and pressed into service in the Inner Chambers. The former abbot, named Arikoto, is stunned to discover that instead of a 37-year-old man, the shogun he’s presented to is a teenage girl. To say that the relationship between Iemitsu and Arikoto is rocky is an understatement, but it follows a definite path. All the while, the story backfills—how the original Iemitsu came to have a daughter at all is awful, but more awful and heartbreaking still is the origin of the tradition of decapitation that nearly cost volume one’s Mizuno his head.

Ooku is not a casual read. It’s very verbal for a manga, and while I understand the choice to use formal English to represent the more formal Japanese that would have been spoken, I question some of the word choice. The term catamite is used, and I’ll be completely honest here and admit that I had to look it up. Is this just a hole in my vocabulary? If not, wouldn’t it have been just as efficacious to romanize the original Japanese term, not translate it, and give the definition in the end notes?

Volume two of Ooku: The Inner Chambers is available now.

–Reviewed by Jennifer Dunbar

Review copies provided by the publishers.

Amefurashi: The Rain Goddess, Vol. 2

By Atsushi Suzumi
Del Rey, 240 pp.
Rating: T (13+)

At the end of volume one, Sora, Gimmy, Mil, and Mel set off on a quest to retrieve the core of Sora’s tree. Volume two opens with this quest well underway, though Mil and Mel are mysteriously absent and Gimmy’s guardian is with the group instead. The volume starts strong as Sora and Gimmy face off with two other Amefurashi in order to prove Sora’s claim to the title. Sora learns the value of letting herself get to know humans and Gimmy learns to show Sora that he cares, all over the backdrop of a standard adventure as they head toward a final battle with the power-hungry Amefurashi, Ciel.

Sora and Gimmy’s adventure begins well, but what comes as a surprise as the volume nears its end is that this is, apparently, the final volume of the series. One can’t help but wonder if this was a surprise to the mangaka as well, since the beginning of the volume is paced as though it is the start of something truly epic. The final battle arrives abruptly, tying up loose ends in startling (and not quite graceful) haste. The result is rather jarring and even disappointing as things wrap up just as the story was finally finding its groove. The series’ ending is not entirely unsatisfying but there is a sense that much has been left untold, and it’s rather sad to wave goodbye to the story’s young characters before they’ve really had time to grow.

Though this volume shows great promise in the beginning, easily surpassing the strength of the first, a rush to conclusion in its final chapters keeps it from truly building on that promise.

Volume two of Amefurashi: The Rain Goddess is available now.

–Reviewed by Melinda Beasi

Aria, Vol. 5

By Kozue Amano
Tokyopop, 180 pp.
Rating: OT (16+)

We return to Neo-Venezia once again to find the season has turned to autumn, and we are treated to stories about wasting time, learning from a different gondola teacher, watching a meteor shower, and spending a day in the life of a mail carrier.

I always find myself at a bit of a loss to describe this series. It’s hard to put into words what makes reading each book a pleasure. In this volume, the best example of the nature of the series is probably the chapter where Akari decides to wait for Alicia at a cafe for several hours and ponders the nature of how one spends free time, and how even spending free time simply thinking about how to spend free time can be a joy. The narrative meanders through a meeting with a gentleman, an explanation of “shadow chasing” to preserve the taste of wine, where latte comes from, and some history about San Marco Square in Venice.

Nothing really happens, which is generally the case in all chapters of Aria. But the charm in the series lies in how the characters spend their time admiring their surroundings and take time to pause and appreciate life. It’s a breath of fresh air to read this amid fast-paced shonen or high-drama shojo series, and Aria is made even better by its extremely well-realized setting and the likable cast of characters. It’s a different kind of read, and while not everyone will appreciate the lack of narrative thrust (it’s there, a little bit, and the issue of becoming Primas promises to come up next volume), it’s great for anyone who wants to take a little extra time to savor it.

Volume five of Aria is available now.

–Reviewed by Connie C.

Boys Love

By Kaim Tachibana
Digital Manga Publishing, 200 pp.
Rating: 16+

When magazine editor Taishin Mamiya is assigned to do a profile of teen model Noeru Kisaragi, the last thing he expects is for Noeru to make a pass at him. By “pass,” I mean that Noeru gets Taishin drunk on expensive champagne and goes down on him in the men’s room. The next day, Noeru’s agency calls to complain to Taishin’s magazine, prompting Taishin to go back and see Noeru again to “fix” the article. Another pass at him, and Taishin gives up the article to someone else—he can’t deal with it anymore.

After the article is published, Taishin tries to go see Noeru and meets Chidori, a (male) childhood friend of Noeru’s. Chidori is clearly in love with Noeru, but has never told the other boy. Instead, he does things like housekeeping and shopping and sitting by while Noeru sleeps around with men as if he’s training for some sort of x-rated tournament. Taishin isn’t there for romance, he’s there for answers, but that doesn’t stop jealousy from rearing its ugly head. There’s something in Noeru and Chidori’s shared childhood, the death of an older friend, that has left a scar on both of these young men. There’s something of the dead boy in Taishin, and it pulls at both Noeru and Chidori in different ways.

The story here is told well, and I believe the journey Taishin takes as he gets to know Noeru and develops feelings for the younger man. Their relationship isn’t easy, nor is it portrayed as something blatant. Instead, it’s told through character moments and conversations, the interactions treading a line between a platonic brotherly friendship and something more. Chidori’s childish jealousy adds a complication, blaming Taishin when the real problem is that he’s not capable of relating his true feelings to Noeru until it’s too late. The biggest problem I have is with the ending, which is both predictable and lame. I’m not saying that I necessarily want happy endings on the stories I read, but when previously intelligent characters leap into moronic inaction in order for the author to exact a specific result, it leaves me feeling empty and flat.

Boys Love is available now.

–Reviewed by Jennifer Dunbar

Dark Edge, Vols. 7-8

By Yu Aikawa
Published by DrMaster
Rating: Ages 15+

With only two volumes of Dark Edge under my belt, I wouldn’t dare call myself an expert. The plot of the series, as far as I can tell, involves a school in which the teaching staff is made up of vampires and zombies, the former of whom feed upon the student body after sundown. Actually, they don’t feed on everyone since certain students are “carriers,” meaning they have an “evil gene” in their blood, and if a vampire tries to make a supper from one, they disintegrate or something. I have no idea what part zombies play in any of this.

I mention all this, not because I’m making fun, but to illustrate what new readers’ experiences are likely to be. Neither volume represents an ideal jumping-on point; there’s already an ongoing storyline involving something called the “seed,” which designates the next king of the vampires, provided the bearer dies. Volume seven does feature a character named Kikuchi discovering the school’s carnivorous, supernatural element for the first time. This brings her into contact with Dark Edge’s main cast; however, it proves less of a proper “in” than one might expect, if only because the central protagonists’ backstories are treated like common knowledge.

What newbies will likely take away is the somber atmosphere communicated by Yu’s artwork, which befits the main characters, many of whom are dejected-looking males with beautiful features and longing stares. Some of the vampires also seem patterned after the bishonen aesthetic, and there is a homoerotic subplot involving a young male student who tempts a vampire teacher with his blood in exchange for immortality. Such scenes, as well as the occasional interesting creature design—severed body parts reanimated with bat wings, in one instance—give this series whatever edge it has.

Volumes seven and eight of Dark Edge are available now.

–Reviewed by Phil Guie

Liberty Liberty!

By Hinako Takanaga
Blu, 208 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

Kouki Kuwabara, cameraman for a tiny cable station in Osaka, has been tasked with watching the garbage of a woman who lives on 3rd Street in hopes of discovering the identity of the person stalking her. What he finds in the trash, however, is not a stalker. It’s Itaru Yaichi, a young man who has stumbled drunkenly onto the pile and passed out atop it. Kouki, being only human and finding the sight of a college-age boy giggling at himself in a pool of his own vomit to be quite funny, laughs at him. This is a mistake. Itaru leaps into drunken action, tossing a bag of garbage at Kouki and breaking the $2,000 video camera he’s holding.

So Kouki takes him home, sobers him up, and informs him the next morning that he owes the station the cost of the camera. Itaru is a sweet-hearted boy—a writer who had his story idea stolen by his best friend and has run home to Osaka—and offers to volunteer for the station until he finds a job. All the while, he continues to stay with Kouki and strikes up a friendship that very quietly shifts into something more.

No, Liberty Liberty! is not the best BL manga I’ve ever read, but it’s pretty good. It has steady, energetic art and a side cast of characters who make me want to know more about them. The other employees of the station are interesting and fun, especially the anchor, a drag queen named Kurumi who passes well enough that Itaru doesn’t recognize her as biologically male until Kouki tells him. If you’re in the mood for something light and fun to read, you couldn’t go wrong with Liberty Liberty!

Liberty Liberty! is available now.

–Reviewed by Jennifer Dunbar

Rosario+Vampire, Vol. 10

By Akihisa Ikeda
Viz Media, 208 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

By volume ten, Rosario+Vampire has spiraled back into the same old schlock that is constantly peddled by the harem genre. Any semblance of deeper storytelling is abandoned in favor of several plot arcs that lead to the girls clamoring after Tsukune and losing various articles of clothing (and only the tiniest shreds of dignity) in the process.

After Tsukune’s fully human cousin, Kyoko, arrives at school with a mysterious envelope, complete chaos ensues. The campus quickly devolves into full-on monster form due the content of the envelope: a spirit and her magic mirror that breaks disguises of those who gaze into it. It turns out the mirror spirit is evil and has to be vanquished to restore order. Unfortunately, everyone in a position to do so is reduced to their base desires and hatreds. This results in all sorts of gratuitous fan service and a cat fight among the girls. The headmaster proves to be completely worthless (what a surprise!) and Kyoko is whisked away by the Bus Driver and is never mentioned again. I guess she is expected to be good about keeping secrets when it comes to the campus.

The campus has to be shut down for repairs after the mirror incident, which results in a trip home for Tsukune. His relaxing downtime quickly turns crazy, as it turns out he was followed home by pretty much all of his female friends from school. It all comes to a boiling point when Tsukune is trailed into the shower, which results in an all-out brawl in his neighborhood. All of this prompted me to say, “Hasn’t this been done before?” My reply to myself: “Yeah, actually. In the previous chapters. And several times in past volumes.”

Those of you who love Rosario+Vampire for its light tales and not-so-light fan service will find plenty to love here. Me? I was hoping Ikeda would offer something that was more than skin deep. He’s proven before that it’s possible.

Volume ten of Rosario+Vampire is available now.

–Reviewed by Grant Goodman

Tsubasa: Those with Wings, Vol. 3

By Natsuki Takaya
TOKYOPOP, 400 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

After a disappointing start and lackluster middle, Natsuki Takaya finally delivers a mostly satisfying conclusion in this, the final volume of Tsubasa: Those with Wings.

We begin with Kotobuki and friends (sans Raimon, who is prohibited from leaving the country by a bomb in his brain) in Japan, where they conveniently meet the Tsubasa’s creator and learn the secrets of its origin. After several tedious chapters featuring characters sitting around and talking, the plot picks up when Raimon is captured by the army. Kotobuki wants to rescue him but lacks confidence so Rikuro, a mysterious boy who has helped her on a few occasions, shows up and replays Raimon’s past for her so that she can see how much she has helped him already. Painful backstories are Takaya-sensei’s forte, and Raimon’s proves to be unexpectedly touching.

From there, the story morphs into an enjoyable sci-fi action tale, with Kotobuki making her way through a sprawling military complex to rescue her love and ultimately facing off against the big villain (who, of course, has angst of his own). Along the way, she lends encouragement to allies and enemies alike, showing a profound resemblance to Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket. Indeed, this quote about Kotobuki could easy apply to Tohru, as well:

She isn’t supposed to have the time to be worrying about anyone else right now. Still… her foolishness somehow always winds up becoming much-needed support for someone else.

Coming back to the same themes and character types might, in some creators’ hands, feel like uninspired regurgitation, but with Takaya it feels more like someone playing with and fine-tuning ideas. If nothing else, Tsubasa: Those with Wings is interesting as a milestone on the way to a greater work.

Volume three of Tsubasa: Those with Wings is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Brilliant Blue, Vol. 2

By Saemi Yorita
Digital Manga Publishing, 220 pp.
Rating: Young Adult (16+)

Brilliant Blue ends as sweetly as it began, offering plenty of humor and warmth along the way. At first, Shouzo continues to fight his attraction for Nanami, resulting in some nice chapters told from Nanami’s perspective in which his confusion over the way Shouzo’s treating him is both adorable and sympathetic.

Eventually, Shouzo can’t resist any longer and takes the relationship to the next level. Unfortunately, after so much internal debate over whether it’s a wise move to make, there’s not much insight into his thoughts when he finally decides to take this step, robbing it of some impact. His haste to make the relationship a sexual one is also a little off-putting; his dissatisfaction with simply spending time together seems at odds with his interactions with Nanami up to this point.

After a positive but rather anticlimactic final chapter, a side story affords us a glimpse of the couple six months on. Shouzo is trying to get used to the residents of his small town knowing about his relationship with Nanami, and is meanwhile dealing with a suspicious-looking apprentice who is also beset by people making assumptions about him based on rumors. It’s a subtle parallel, but a rather nice way to end the story. I might wish more had been made of the stigma of the lead couple’s relationship, but I can’t really fault the series for remaining relentlessly sunny ’til the end.

Volume two of Brilliant Blue is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Cause of My Teacher

By Temari Matsumoto
Blu, 176 pp.
Rating: Mature

BL doesn’t have the best reputation, and that’s not entirely fair. There are titles out there that are heartbreaking and beautiful, ones that are side-achingly funny, and ones that are sweet and genuine. Then there are manga like Cause of My Teacher, which reinforce most of the negative stereotypes of the genre. This is an anthology of short stories, some of them more skeevy than others. As the title suggests, most of them have the theme of pairing a student and his teacher.

The first of the stories is about a boy named Tohru who develops a crush on his glasses-wearing teacher. They begin “dating,” but Tohru is concerned because his teacher takes his glasses off every time they kiss. After that one gets resolved, next is a story that shakes it up a bit. In this one, high school boy Kazunari Soma is the seme, and his teacher is this quiet man named Hajime Fukuzawa. The other students call him Hajime-chan, which strikes me as more unrealistic than anything else I see in this book… which says quite a bit. Then there are a few shorts that don’t involve teacher/student relationships—one’s about a pair of childhood friends, one is about a pair of ninja, and one about a young swordsman and his ninja retainer. Then it’s back to a story about a teacher, though the boy he ends up with isn’t one of his students. The volume is rounded out by a couple of vignettes with couples from elsewhere in the book.

Of these, I was most uncomfortable with the first story and the last original story before the vignettes. Though they are set in different time periods and universes, there is something about each relationship that seems predatory. None of the stories in this volume rises above skeevy, and in fact, most of them wallow in it. The art is full of heavy, uneven lines and high contrast, and I don’t really like it much either.

All said, there is so much better BL out there. I can’t recommend this to anyone.

Cause of My Teacher is available now.

–Reviewed by Jennifer Dunbar

Crimson Shell

By Jun Mochizuki
Yen Press, 224 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

Somewhere in the southwest of England, a lone castle sits in the middle of the wild. It’s the headquarters of an organization called Red Rose, protecting the world against beings called Black Roses. At some point in the past, a mad scientist (there’s gotta be a mad scientist!) experimented on humans, implanting them with the seed of something called the “Premier Rose.” This seed filled its victims with poison, giving them the gifts of superhuman strength, the ability to turn others to their will, control over vines that come out of their body, and utter insanity. There is only one who didn’t succumb to madness, a girl named Claudia, otherwise known as the Rose Witch. She is kept at Red Rose like a bird in a gilded cage.

The plot of Crimson Shell starts with a boy named Shion and his first day at work at Red Rose. This coincides with the return of an operative named Xeno, a young man who has a special relationship with Claudia that teeters between siblingesque and crush, and his subsequent betrayal of the organization and an attack on the compound by several Black Roses. Claudia refuses to accept that Xeno would betray her, and with a group of three teenage operatives, tries to get to the bottom of the matter.

This was Mochizuki-sensei’s first work, and it shows. The art is good, but the storytelling is abrupt and doesn’t really innovate in any way. Having said that, Crimson Shell also shows promise; I did end the volume caring about what became of Claudia and the other protagonists. I’m looking forward to reading more titles by this author.

Crimson Shell will be available in November 2009.

–Reviewed by Jennifer Dunbar

Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom, Vol. 8

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

As the battle with Fall continues, Nora’s body has been put under the control of Fall’s ally, Deuce, whom Fall later kills without a moment’s hesitation when she is overcome by the combined efforts of Nora and Kazuma, an action which shocks Nora to his core. When Fall uses his power to transport their battle into the human world, Nora’s determination not to let any more of his friends die lends him enormous power, but in the end it is his relationship with Kazuma that gives him the power he needs to fight against Fall’s efforts to absorb his power.

After two volumes of action, revelation, and fairly significant character development, this volume, which consists mainly of action without all that much of the other two, is a bit of a letdown. Granted, there are some new developments for Fall, especially in terms of his relationship with the former Cerberus, Deigree, but Nora’s big declaration, “I’ll win ’cause I’ve got something worth fighting for!!!” seems anticlimactic now that his awareness of the importance of friends is a couple of volumes old. The relationship between Nora and Kazuma is still the most compelling thing about the series and there are definitely advancements made here, but they are a bit lost in the din of battle.

What would have been a pretty exciting volume earlier on in the series fails to quite live up to the new heights reached in the last two volumes, but the conclusion to this storyline is still quite satisfying in the end. Whether Kakai can continue to build on the series’ new strength from this point forward remains to be seen.

Volume eight of Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom will be available on December 1, 2009.

–Reviewed by Melinda Beasi

O-Parts Hunter, Vol. 19

By Seishi Kishimoto
Viz, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Another series that I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing here on Manga Recon ends on its nineteenth volume, making O-Parts Hunter a medium-sized but still very engrossing tale. The volume opens with our haphazard team—comprised of O-Parts Technicians, angels, devils, two talking dogs and a pickle-loving swordsman—at the bottom of the belly of a whale, finally facing the head officer of Zenom. Ruby, our intrepid heroine and resident angel, is shocked to find that Zenom’s leader is none other than her long-lost father. Due to his infusion with a pair of devils, he has promptly forgotten his past and, ultimately, his daughter. A fight escalates between Zenom, Satan (our hero, Jio, whom everyone is after) and Amaterasu Miko, a woman bent on world domination and immortality. The series ends in a rather existential way, focusing on the importance of individuality and friendship.

I still really like this book artistically (almost more than Seishi Kishimoto’s brother’s Naruto). The end is certainly a step-up from the rest of the series, providing the most detail we’ve ever seen. You can tell that Seishi really put his heart into the pen. As for the writing, there were a few “huh?” moments for me. I think that as the story progressed, there were too many issues concerning the characters (Ruby’s daddy issues, Cross’s dead sister baggage, et cetera). I understand wanting to come full circle with the story but at times, they really distracted me as a reader from the overall message. It would’ve been nice to see them solve their issues earlier on. Either way, I would recommend this series on a whole; I think it’s a creative step from traditional shonen and it’s a good great laugh factor. In short, go buy it.

Volume nineteen of O-Parts Hunter will be available on December 8, 2009.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Review copies provided by the publishers.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Vol. 2

By Motoro Mase
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)

Ikigami was an interesting double-edged sword for me. I had originally heard quite a lot about it from other reviewers and comic book owners so I had very high expectations, but I am on the edge, at least from this volume. In the volume, we travel alongside Fujimoto, an emissary of the government, delivering some extremely bad news to good people. He delivers death papers, giving the recipients 24 hours’ notice before death. Volume two follows two of these recipients, the first being a woman trying to support her recovering-drug-addict boyfriend as he makes his directorial debut. The second story follows the journey of a young man, Shoji, who works as a caretaker for the elderly and must raise his chin up and stay strong for those he cares for.

I really enjoyed the second story; it hits home on a lot of levels. The choices that Shoji makes, despite his insecurities about making a difference, are very human and not outside the realm of possibility. Also, it’s always touching to see the youth and elderly make an intensive connection. The first story is what I am shaky on. Though I appreciated and certainly felt the love between the young couple, I think the whole drug plot really takes over in a very negative way. I feel that the end of the story is predictable and seems more like a PSA than anything else.

In terms of the artwork, I am really pleased with Ikigami. The features on the characters were very human and struck the right chords, emotionally. I’d love to read the first volume and many more!

Volume two of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Love Quest

By Lily Hoshino
Yen Press, 174 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)

It was with great trepidation and reluctance that I picked up Lily Hoshino’s yaoi manga, Love Quest. My previous exposure to the so-called “Queen of yaoi” was through her better-known works My Only King and Alone in My King’s Harem. While these titles avoided the most common shortcoming of yaoi manga, mediocrity, they were instead just flat-out bad. The submissive characters were effeminate to the point of absurdity, the power dynamics in the relationships embodied all of the worst seme-uke yaoi clichés and the plot was as mind-numbing as listening to teabaggers talk about health care.

Fortunately, it turns out that the manga industry decided to get the worst of Lily Hoshino out of its system in the beginning. Love Quest is quite good for a one-volume yaoi manga. Eschewing the depth of longer series, these yaoi tomes serve as illustrated romance novels: they’re cheesy, the romance happens laughably fast, the characters’ motivations are obscure and the overarching “plot” is paper-thin. With all these caveats in mind, Love Quest delivers. The characters are both actually male, the slapstick humor serves admirably and the art is attractive. Don’t let the M rating fool you, though: the only x-rated action happens in a short afterward and a very smutty PWP one-chapter story.

There is a lot of better yaoi out there, but for a simple and cute pleasure you could do a lot worse than Love Quest.

Love Quest is available now.

–Reviewed by Isaac Hale

Maid Sama!, Vol. 2

By Hiro Fujiwara
Tokyopop, 195 pp.
Rating: T (Ages 13+)

Misaki continues her quest to straighten out the male population of her school, an overwhelming majority in a formerly all-boys high school, and make life a little more pleasant and clean for everyone, especially the handful of scared girls. She rules with an iron fist in nearly every situation, and this volume contains stories about a forced formal apology from a wealthy school, an underhanded recruiter from that same wealthy school, and sports day. It just wouldn’t be a shojo manga without a proper romantic interest, so Usui tends to appear and help out in strangely skilled ways in various situations, including as the new part-time chef at the maid cafe Misaki works at.

I feel like I should probably hate Maid Sama! , but I just can’t. It’s a manga about a tough girl who works at a maid cafe, has a typical love interest, and runs through some fairly standard episodic stories. But it’s one of those rare cases where a shojo manga takes all the old plot devices and does wonderful things with them. Misaki continues to be a really funny and strong character despite the fact she acts most of the time in stereotypical tough girl fashion. Some familiar plot devices like school sports day and mean rich kids show up, but the sense of humor and the way the characters interact help make these normally tired stories very entertaining and funny. But the biggest draw is probably Usui, who brings most of the humor by simply showing up at just the right time and, bizarrely, being an expert at whatever task is at hand. He’s very silent and only breaks his mask when he offers a few choice romantic lines to Misaki. He’s got white knight syndrome, showing up to save the day more often than not at the end of the chapters, but these moments are usually drowning in cute romance, another unexpected strength for the series.

It’s series like Maid Sama! that remind us, sometimes, that these plot devices are used so frequently because they still work wonderfully if used right.

Volume two of Maid Sama! is available now.

–Reviewed by Connie C.

Millennium Prime Minister, Vol. 1

By Eiki Eiki
Digital Manga Publishing, 190 pp.
Rating: 16+

The premise of Millennium Prime Minister is so ridiculous it almost sounds fun. Minori Nagashima, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and video game aficionado, ditches school one day and ends up at an arcade, where she takes on and defeats an opponent who’s been trouncing the other patrons. Initially angry, the young man changes his tune when he sees Minori, and declares, “You can be my wife!!” Minori manages to escape his clutches, but soon learns his identity: the newly-elected Prime Minister of Japan, Kanata Okazaki. Kanata refuses to give up on the marriage idea and easily convinces Minori’s parents to give their permission, tricks Minori into appearing on a press conference announcing their engagement, and is pretty much a domineering yet playful jerk who says things like, “There’s no going back now. You have to marry me.”

Unfortunately, in its execution, the kooky story shows signs of a paradoxical unoriginality. Of course, the story begins with Minori running late for school. And of course, she runs into a duo of lecherous cretins, the ubiquitous sidewalk-dwelling foes of the shojo heroine. And of course, because of the media frenzy that ensues after the press conference, she moves in with Kanata and promptly walks in on him in the bath. The characters don’t rescue the narrative from its mediocrity, either, since Kanata is obnoxious and Minori puts up only a token resistance to his schemes. The biggest disappointment is Sai, the senior aide who provides the boys’ love element with his unrequited love for Kanata, who initially seems cool and stern but turns out to be weepy and immature.

Eiki Eiki’s art is clean and attractive, and I’m especially fond of the characters’ eyes and their expressive faces. She does seem to have a thing for elongated necks, though; check out the cover image for a particularly egregious example.

Volume one of Millennium Prime Minister is available now.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

The Record of a Fallen Vampire, Vol. 6

By Kyo Shirodaira and Yuri Kimura
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Young Adult (13+)

The sixth volume of The Record of a Fallen Vampire really turns the tables on me with its engrossing plot points, twists, and turns. It’s hard not to enjoy the story overall and I think that volume six really clenches that feeling. The volume opens up with the ending memories of Bridget, the vampire king’s faithful assistant, as she recalls her experience handling the “corrosive moon” alongside master sorceress Saverhagen. The plot then thickens as Bridget and her mix’n'match team of humans work to destroy the fake seals Strauss is looking for. Not everything may be as it seems, however, with Strauss brewing his own troublesome toxins elsewhere.

As I mentioned before in my review of volume five, this series is beginning to grow on me. The time that Kyo Shirodaira is taking to explain each and every minute detail is beginning to pay off. The art goes along the same lines. I am not terribly impressed by it; it has a childish, bulky element to it that is hard to escape. The characters are evolving nicely, though, standing out more and more as I see them. I have to say that I am excited for volume seven and if you are looking for a vampire read, check out The Record of a Fallen Vampire!

Volume six of The Record of a Fallen Vampire is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Air Gear, Vol. 12

By Oh!Great
Del Rey, 224 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

Air Gear is a title that, to me, is driven more by its style than its plot. Volume twelve is packed full of art that really pops out of the pages, even when compared to some of the more renowned shonen titles out there. Oh!Great is also very creative when it comes to playing around with panel placement, stuffing every page with art and really blowing the reader away when he finally chooses to use a full-page spread.

Plot-wise, there’s a lot to juggle. Between discussing Regalias, Infinity Atmosphere, Roads, the Sky Keeper, air particle theory, and Ringo’s crush on Ikki, there’s a quagmire of plot points and a ton of jargon to juggle. Ikki is challenged by the leaders of Trident, Agito puts on a wedding dress, and something strange is happening with a bunch of Catholic school girls and their cigarette-smoking nurse. There is also a flashback to Ikki and Ringo as young orphans that doesn’t quite provide a satisfying explanation as to why she refers to him as her “no. 1 hero.”

You may not really care about what is going on, or who ends up victorious, but it all looks good so you will keep turning the page. It all adds up to a pretty nice ride, even though it hits the occasional speed bump.

Volume twelve of Air Gear is available now.

–Reviewed by Grant Goodman

Animal Academy: Hakobune Hakusho, Vol. 2

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

The second volume of Animal Academy is much the same as the first. Neko Fukuta and her shapeshifting animal classmates engage in low-key adventures like searching for a lost camera or deciding which club to join. There’s one chapter entitled “Hunt for the Hair Clip,” which should give you an idea of what kind of stories to expect. Some imparting of lessons about friendship is also involved—nominally for the animals attempting to pass as human but presumably for the readers as well—but is handled with some subtlety.

The transition between these everyday moments and some darker aspects of the tale is handled less well, however, making for some jerky segues. I’m actually kind of interested in the bigger mystery that seems to be brewing, but I lack confidence that it’s going to escalate in any kind of meaningful way. Still, it’s early days yet and Animal Academy might just surprise me. I certainly like it more than I’d expected to based on the premise alone.

Volume two of Animal Academy will be available on September 1, 2009.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Color

By Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki
Digital Manga Publishing, 223 pp.
Rating: 16+ (Young Adult)

Takashiro is surprised when, during an exhibition featuring one of his paintings, he finds an identically-named work (“Color”) hanging next to his own that seems to reflect his exact same thoughts and emotions. Takashiro finds a kindred spirit in Sakae, his fellow artist, and the story goes through the stages of their relationship through high school.

Now, in this case, the story itself isn’t all that remarkable. The book is composed of five chapters. Each chapter is a decent story, and I liked the dynamics of the relationship between Takashiro and Sakae, but the chapters didn’t connect well as a whole, and the last chapter in particular felt like an obligatory dramatic predicament that served only to end the book with excitement. Things like descriptions of the first kiss between the two are done quite well, but there’s nothing here that you won’t see in a thousand other yaoi volumes.

The reason I graded it so high is because it’s based on the story of how Eiki Eiki and Taishi Zaou met. They tell the events as they actually happened in the back, but that made me re-analyze the plot of the manga and compare it to the true story to find the similarities. It made the collaboration between the two artists a little more touching and meaningful. It also helped that the creative process was detailed in a number of Taishi Zaou’s hilarious 4-panel comics, which I look forward to more than the stories themselves in her manga.

Color is available now.

–Reviewed by Connie C.

O-Parts Hunter, Vol. 17

By Seishi Kishimoto
Viz, 190 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

The seventeenth volume of O-Parts Hunter continues to follow Jio and the gang, as they have been split up and now have to try and find their way out of a giant whale that has swallowed them whole. It sounds a bit outlandish, but the whale is actually one of the demon recipes, Nehema, who represents materialism. Apparently, this whale is a glutton, eating everything and anything in its path. For instance, he ate some ancient ruins that hold the final piece of an artifact… that everyone is looking for. How convenient.

Despite the disappointing development, volume seventeen is still a good book. The story starts off with all the characters dealing with the trials and traps of the ruins, bringing forth their wit and some interesting skills. After these tasks are tackled, the Zenom Big Four (a mercenary group of one of the warring factions) shows up to make sure our heroes never leave. Kirin, resident goofball and pickle lover, is met with the challenge of fighting his brother, and a gigantic backstory ensues. This part was good, fleshing out two of the more mysterious characters in the series.

All in all, I would still recommend this series to anyone who likes shonen. The evolution of characters is strong, as is the artwork. Kishimoto’s style really separates him from a lot of what you see in mainstream manga today.

Volume seventeen of O-Parts Hunter is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

Princess Resurrection, Vol. 6

By Yasunori Mitsunaga
Del Rey, 208 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

Volume six of Princess Resurrection is, at best, a mess. The stories do very little to provide any sort of development, the characters are as bland as can be, and the artwork is nothing more than mundane. You would figure that a werewolf girl, a vampiress, and a chainsaw-wielding princess would act with a little flair or house some personality, but you could easily swap any of them out for the other in any story and it would not make a difference. Each one is just as lifeless as the stock characters.

A prison tale starts things off, with Hiro and Riza locked up underground. Princess Hime is in another cell, sitting back and acting helpless, despite being billed on the back cover as “a monster slaying, butt-kicking beauty.” Riza gets picked on for being a half-breed werewolf, a fight breaks out, and all of the sudden she is elected to brawl with a vampiress. For some reason, the vampiress wears dress clothes when everyone else has to wear the traditional barred black-and-white uniforms. And she also has a knife. There’s a scheme to kill Hime that ends as quickly as it starts, and then that’s it.

The next story takes place above ground without a single reference to their time in the slammer, while jumping back and forth between two timelines for no significant reason. Then there is a clone story in which copies of Riza and Hime are made from a mysterious plant. The Riza clones attack everyone, while the Hime clone simply wants to talk. It is completely inexplicable.

Reading this volume of Princess Resurrection, just like encountering a vampire, may suck the life out of you.

Volume six of Princess Resurrection is available now.

–Reviewed by Grant Goodman

Black Jack, Vol. 4

By Osamu Tezuka
Vertical, 304 pp.
Rating: All Ages

For the past three volumes, Black Jack, from the God of Manga Osamu Tezuka, has consistently been a thrill ride. Incorporating Tezuka’s expertise in the medical field with his dynamic art and story telling, we are taken through the world of the illegal surgeon Black Jack in the form of short stories, bright and subtly moving. So did volume four live up to the precedent the first three volumes set?

While the art remained as showy and sparkling as ever, I felt that the writing was a tad lacking. A good half of the short stories this time around felt very forced. I really wanted to know more about the terrorist who planned to blow up a building, only to have it backfire and his face eaten by rats or the gigantic carp breeder whose heart can’t handle the stress of physical activity. Tezuka really knows how to set a stage but I felt let down by some of these tales.

The other half of the shorts were brilliantly done, eliciting a wide variety of emotions. One tale, “Thieving Dog,” was about a dog that is notorious for stealing and ends up injured as a result of her most recent heist. At Pinoko’s wish, Black Jack rehabilitates the dog, only to find it stealing again and again until the last time, when Black Jack’s house collapses with the dog still inside. Heart-wrenching to say the least. Other notables were “Drifter in a Ghost Town,” a tale about a criminal waiting in the wild, wild west for his freedom and “The Sea Smells of Romance,” about a young boy who regrets his tattoos in light of his new love. If you’re a big fan of the series and/or a completist, it is certainly worth owning, but I would say that it is one of the weaker volumes so far and hope that this doesn’t continue.

Volume four of Black Jack is available now.

–Reviewed by Sam Kusek

ChocoMimi, Vol. 1

By Konami Sonoda
Viz, 184 pp.
Rating: All Ages

Choco and Mimi are in the eighth grade and they are best friends, despite the fact that Choco is serious, mature, and tolerable and Mimi is spoiled, ridiculous, and irksome. The cast also includes their stern teacher, Mr. Take; Ando and Mumu, a couple of boys in their class; and several pets, who are easily the best thing about ChocoMimi.

There’s not much story to this manga, which is told in a mix of regular paneling and four-panel styles. It’s primarily just jokes and gags, most of which are unfunny (though I did have to smile at a few, mainly the ones starring Mimi’s dog, Chiffon, who wants to be a manly samurai but instead gets dressed up by his master in ruffles and frills). Quite a lot of page space is given to building fabulous outfits for any occasion, including comments like “I added pom-poms” (to yellow pumps) and “I pin earrings on my socks.” Strangely, the girls’ definition of cute also seems to include being afflicted with a tragic case of pigeon toe.

I’m aware I’m not the target audience for this manga, but I doubt I would’ve liked it much as a kid, either. A story entirely devoted to Chiffon and the other critters would’ve been much more up my alley.

Volume one of Choco Mimi will be available on July 7, 2009.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Kurohime, Vol. 12

By Masanori • Ookamigumi • Katakura
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

Kurohime is a witch-gunslinger, which essentially means that she can shoot magic out of a gun to heal injuries, beef up her own physical defenses, or conjure “witch-beasts” to fight opponents. As the volume begins, she is fighting the Kurohime Punishment Squad, a band of scantily-clad women with a grudge against her. A common enemy forces the women to work together and the previously-stoic Kurohime exhibits compassion for her reluctant allies and even helps to rescue the lover of one of them.

Kurohime definitely has some ridiculous attributes—nearly all of the warrior women are wearing next to nothing, Kurohime’s more grown-up guise looks like she has some pretty severe anatomical deformities, and one of her foes is (I am not making this up) a vampire werewolf death angel—but it somehow manages to be pretty entertaining. The story is surprisingly easy to follow for someone just popping in at volume twelve and the frequency with which some of the characters seem to undergo transformations into other sorts of creatures is kind of cool.

While I found myself distracted by all of the improbable bosoms in this manga, there are times when the art is nice to look at. Facial closeups are usually lovely and the character design for Zero, the former male lead who has now become a sort of… quasi-invisible death angel, is nothing short of awesome.

Story-wise, Kurohime is a bit crazy, and art-wise it’s bursting with fanservice, but it’s still pretty intriguing for all that.

Volume twelve of Kurohime will be available on July 7, 2009.

–Reviewed by Michelle Smith

Living For Tomorrow

By Taishi Zaou (aka Mikiyo Tsuda)
Digital Manga Publishing, 189 pp.
Rating: 18+

In typical BL fashion, Tasuku has a crush on his childhood friend and karate teammate, Ryouta. In order to hide his feelings, Tasuku constantly beats Ryouta up in practice and is just generally cruel to him. But in a strange twist of the BL formula, Tasuku finds out his late mother was a legendary ageman that brought luck to any number of now-successful people before she passed away. After this comes out, Tasuku is hounded by crowds hoping that his mother’s luck was passed on to him. Tasuku takes the news somewhat differently and decides to use his luck to admit his feelings to Ryouta,

Now, I’ve read a number of shojo series by Mikiyo Tsuda, and none of them really appealed to me. I assumed her yaoi books fell into some of the same traps as her shojo, which suffers mostly from extremely stereotypical plots with fairly shallow characters. To some extent, that was true of this book, but somehow her sense of humor works much better for yaoi, so it compensates for the weaknesses elsewhere and makes for a really entertaining read. I had to laugh at the scene where Tasuku confesses his feelings, since rather than playing out in the typical passionate way, Ryouta’s thoughts are shown to the reader, and they are an amusing mix of confusion, nonchalance, and “What the hell did I do to turn him on?!” There are still plenty of typical plot devices in use, and sometimes they get in the way, but almost everything is handled better than your average BL one-shot, including the evolution of the romance, the plot progression, and the handful of strange obstacles that appear in these types of stories.

Not bad for a book where the love interest sports a mullet/rat tail combo.

Living For Tomorrow is available now.

–Reviewed by Connie C.

Shouzo Mita had no intention of going home to the rural town where he grew up, but when his father is hospitalized with a back injury, he returns to temporarily helm the family construction business and “fix things” with his family. Shouzo’s stay is extended when his father manages to reinjure himself, and he gradually relinquishes ties to his life in Tokyo while renewing some of his childhood acquaintances. Chief among these is Nanami Ushijima, sub-contracted as an electrician for the Mitas’ projects, who has blossomed from a dim-witted and chubby kid to a slightly less dim-witted but more conventionally attractive adult. As he gets to know Nanami, Shouzo grows to understand him better than anyone else, realizing that Nanami is smarter that he seems, with a genuine talent for numbers and deciphering electric schematics, but yet so malleable that he is unable to extricate himself from an unwanted sexual relationship.

There are quite a few complimentary adjectives I could employ to describe Brilliant Blue, but I’m going to go with “utterly charming.” Shouzo and Nanami are very different—Shouzo is restrained, reserved, and responsible while Nanami is child-like and easily led—but the bond between them feels warm and genuine. You can tell a lot about someone by how they behave toward those less powerful than themselves, and Shouzo shines admirably in this regard, treating Nanami with firm kindness and helping him to end the relationship that had been causing him such distress (while keeping his own growing feelings chastely under wraps). Too, because of his obvious respect for Nanami’s talents, he manages to provide guidance without coming across as patronizing.

After Nanami is freed from the relationship—in an emotional scene in which tears of relief are shed—one might assume Shouzo would promptly declare his own feelings for Nanami. Instead, he encourages Nanami to acquire an official electrician’s license, hoping to set him on the path to self-sufficiency. Shouzo’s aims aren’t entirely altruistic—he hopes that by boosting Nanami’s professional confidence the other man will gradually become more of an adult and thus be able to consent to an adult relationship with Shouzo—but I can’t help but like him for refusing to take advantage of the imbalance of power in his relationship with Nanami.

While the characters are the chief draw, the overall tone of the story is nice, too. It’s gentle and funny and there are quite few amusing moments, mostly involving Nanami being endearing (though I could’ve done without the nose picking, personally). Brilliant Blue is published under DMP’s DokiDoki imprint, and therefore has less sexual content than other titles in the genre, which is something I appreciate. There are a few slightly disturbing scenes between Nanami and his lover, but they’re not explicit and are there to show Nanami’s helplessness in that situation rather than to titillate.

I’m also a fan of Yorita’s artwork: it’s delicate to the point of wispiness with a dearth of backgrounds, but I found that its simplicity works well for the story. It’s particularly adept at conveying comedic moments and some of the humor is amplified because it just looks so durned cute.

While I’d hesitate to call Brilliant Blue a romance just yet, it’s nevertheless a satisfying story of two men growing closer while one patiently waits for a time when his feelings might be understood and returned.

Volume one of Brilliant Blue is available now.