PrettyKitty$$$$$'s Manga
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| 07-Ghost (manga) | I found the first volume of this entertaining enough, but lost interest while reading subsequent volumes. The set up is interesting: Teito attends a military academy and accidentally overhears a conversation that gets him imprisoned. He escapes and ends up at some sort of church which is guarded by 7 powerful spirit dudes. Teito finds out that he himself bears some sort of great power as well. The problem with this manga is that it just keeps piling stuff on, so much so that it bogs down under its own weight. The plot is easy enough to follow, it just tries to include too many characters and elements and doesn't slow down to explain any of it, so by volume 3 I found it hard to care. The art is great though. Sure, some faces look a little too much alike, but they're clean and well drawn. In the end though I didn't like this series enough to keep reading it. I have the three volumes that Go Comi! published, but I'm not clamoring for this one to be continued. | |
| 13th Boy (manhwa) | Hee So has just been dumped by her 12th boyfriend and vows to get him back. As of the first two volumes, she hasn't yet succeeded in changing his mind. I predict that instead she'll end up with his friend, Whie Young (who was probably also the first boy whom she can't remember). Yep, this manga makes use of tired cliches such as the forgotton childhood friend. Also, I'm turned off 99.9% of the time by mascot characters, so Beatrice the talking cactus wasn't adding to my enjoyment. Overall, this manga read a little young for me. It's cute for a little girl, but I can't get into it as a grown up. So, dropped. | |
| A.I. Revolution (manga) | I read all five volumes that Go Comi put out before going kaput. I thought it was mediocre overall. I was expecting a cheesy "fake boyfriend" story a la Absolute Boyfriend, and it was still cheesy, but it lacked the entertainment value of a Chobits or AB. The plot sort of meandered. If it had picked a direction and went with it, i would have enjoyed this much more, but by the end of the fifth volume, there was still no clear direction in the story. The characters also were kinda flimsy. Asami's art was a sort of generic shoujo style. The faces were attractive enough, but everyone looked the same. Backgrounds were sparse as well. Overall the series was pretty generic and I'm not sure I'd have continued with this even if Go Comi had kept releasing the books. | |
| AEGIS (manhwa) | I wanted to like this, as the premise is really interesting: a story about two orphans forced to be child soldiers. However, the writing was so disjointed and nonsensical. It would hop time periods and jump from one character to another with little explanation or transition. Other than the two leads, the characterization was lacking. Nothing was really explained and the story in general became super vague. I read up to volume six, the last one Netcomics put out, and I'm not sad to have to stop here. | |
| Afterschool Charisma (manga) | The premise of this series is interesting, in which a special school creates clones of famous historical figures in order for them to take their place in society in whichever field their original excelled at. It quickly becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. The problem I had with this manga is that the art and actual plot aren't as good as the premise. There are so many clones and with different generations of the same clones running around that characters look a lot alike, which makes sudden point of view shifts sometimes confusing. The characters themselves aren't developed beyond one character trait: i.e. the smart one, the pretty one, etc. I've read up to volume seven and at this point, I'm losing interest, so it's best for me to stop here. | |
| Air Gear (manga) | While I didn't hate Air Gear, it clearly isn't for me. There is a very juvenile tone to the story, not that the story itself is a shining masterpiece either. It was clearly written for teenage boys. Our lead character is a spiky haired teenage boy who is parentless and living with four sisters. Your standard fanservice cliches are present: the accidental boob grab, the naked chicks in the shower talking about each others boobs, the walking in on of said girls, etc. The plot (at least so far) is your basic fighting shounen, with all the corny cliches that entails. About the only positive thing I can say is that I really like Oh!Great's art. It's clean and attractive and his action scenes are easy to follow. I couldn't get into the story or characters though, as I couldn't stop my eye rolling. The one volume I read was entertaing, I'll give it that, but also really really dumb. I'm not going to read more. | |
| Angel Sanctuary (manga) | I read the first volume of this a couple of years ago and put it off as I was on the fence about it. I had the first five volumes and just now decided to give it another go. Honestly, it's still not doing much for me. Kaori Yuki's art is amazingly detailed and beautiful, but her plot is a convoluted mess and full of holes. Neither the incest angle nor the butchering of Christian mythology bothered me. I was done in by too many plot threads and too many characters, some of which were hard to tell apart. In the end, I'm giving up on this hot mess and selling my copies on Amazon. | |
| Appleseed (manga) | I just finished "Ghost In the Shell" and I decided to pick this up. First, artwise, this looks like an earlier work. It's not as detailed and the character designs look a little older (and thankfully, the stripperiffic elements of GITS are absent here). Unfortunately, the writing is not as good either. I saw a lot of 'splosions and not much substance. Also, this manga is very silly in tone. I expected something much more serious in a sci-fi action story, but the characters mostly behave in a goofy way. It's sorta offputting actually. I only read volume one and I don't plan on continuing. After reading this and GITS, I guess I'm just not a Shirow Masamune fan. (Don't shoot!) | |
| Arata: The Legend (manga) | I usually like Yuu Watase's manga, but this one was kind of a dud, It sem to follow the standard shounen formula: average kid gets sucked into a fantasy world and is the "chosen one" who has to learn to fight with his powers and gather allies. Honestly, I found it dull. The only points of interest were the all too brief flashes to the present day with black haired Arata. Most of the focus though seems to be on blonde Arata, who is painfully boring. I've read three volumes of this and I think I'm gonna call it quits. | |
| Arm of Kannon (manga) | Based on the first volume, Arm of Kannon is a cheesy gore fest with a nonsensical plot involving monsters and genetic experimentation, with Buddhist mystical trappings. I can see how one could enjoy this for the camp factor, some of the scenes were unintentionally hilarious and or creepy. Naked dismembered woman in the fridge? Check. Out of left field hand job scene? Check. Demon rape? Incent undertones? It's all there. Honestly, this series is terrible. For some, it may be so bad it's good, but for me, I need shit to make sense. I don't think I'm missing much by declining to read any further. | |
| At Full Moon (manga) | @ Full Moon is the sequel to Until the Full Moon. A bunch of new characters are intorduced and it's broken up into short story arcs. We get new rivals for David and Marlo, David and Marlo get kidnapped, Marlo is stuck in female form, and etc. Unfortunately, none of this is particularly compelling. The original series was only two volumes long, with not much in the way of plot or characterization. Therefore, there's not much to build upon for a sequel series and it ends up being this bland under-cooked offering. This series is currently on hiatus (I think) so this is a prefect place to stop reading. I doubt this is going to get any better at this point. | |
| Awkward Silence (manga) | This is a high school set romance by Hinako Takanaga. It's about as bland as it looks. Shy Tomo is asked out by his crush yet has trouble making his feelings known. The characters are cardboard slabs, and the "plot" is repetitive as hell: Tomo has something he needs to say but fails and misunderstanding occurs until Tomo clears it up. Rinse and repeat. I've read all 4 volumes available and it doesn't really seem to be going anywhere, so I quit. | |
| Basilisk (manga) | I read the first volume of Basilisk. It was pretty much a rehash of the anime, frame by frame, which doesn't really add anything to my enjoyment of the story (which was predictable in the anime and doubly predictable now that I've already seen it). So, I'll drop this and if ever I feel the need to revisit Basilisk, I'll just watch the anime. | |
| Black Bird (manga) | Bad | This series is problematic in many ways. The most glaring is the really creepy relationship between Masao and Kyo, culminating in the most unsexy sex scene ever in volume 8. The imagery of the Bird of Prey ripping into it's meal during the sex scene really brings it home how unnatural and unbalanced this relationship is. Masao is a crying nonentity of the worst sort, a doormat heroine with absolutely no personality. The plot is the second big glaring flaw in this series, as it's really shallow. Basically, Masao is "food" for demons and demons are after her to either eat her or sleep with her to gain power. Even the plot treats her like a "thing" for these demon dudes to fight over. Her whole goal is to sleep with Kyo. The narrative seems to support some sort of sex=love message, which had me rolling my eyes. I really can't recommend this series to anyone, especially not teenage kids who don't know how relationships are supposed to work, as this send all the wrong messages. As for myself, I refuse to read any more of this dreck. |
| Black Butler (manga) | This did absolutely nothing for me. I struggled through two volumes and failed to find the point. As far as I read, there didn't seem to be any sort of overarcing plot to follow. It was mostly episodic. The characters weren't very interesting to read about. The only mild point of interest was Sebastian and Ciel's master/servant deal, of which had not been explained by volume 2. The rest of the characters, such as the inept servants were of the wacky for wackyness sake variety. This sort of humor leaves me cold. I'm hoping the anime is a lot more fun to watch than this was to read. As of now, I'm dropping this. | |
| Black Knight (manga) | Weak | I read all four volumes that BLU released, and I know it continues, but I have no desire to track this series down. While the art was beautiful, I had trouble maintaining an interest in the super generic fantasy world and the cookie cutter characters.There was an attempt at making a plot out of the struggles of various factions vying to gain power, but it's all very lukewarm. Game of Thrones this ain't. What it boils down to is prince Chris Jeremy (stupid name) gets kidnapped and dueled over a lot. I found it boring. So yeah, I'm done. |
| Blood Alone (manga) | Meh. This one didn't do much for me. The premise is a cute loli vampire lives with a man who is a writer. They have an odd sibling/sorta romantic relationship and slowly more is revealed about them. There is no real overarching plot. It's not bad, I just don't care to read more as it's not for me. | |
| Blood Sucker: Legend of "Zipangu" (manga) | I'm a little burnt out on pretty boy and loli vampires, so coming across a series where they are portrayed as monsters and the bad guys was like a breath of fresh air. It starts out a little rocky, with some confusing time line skipping, but soon finds its bearings. Depite being a pretty gorey action heavy series, the characters are interestingly written and I wanted to know more about them and how their story unfolds. Unfortunately, Tokyopop only got to volume 7 before putting the series on haitus, and now that they are gone, I don't expect to see anyone else to release this. The series is pretty solid action/horror fare and I'm wondering if it didn't get a little lost in Tokyopop humungous catalog. This is more like something Dark Horse would release, right alongside Blade of the Immortal, Hellsing, and Berserk. | |
| Bloody Monday (manga) | This could've been cool; a story in which a teenage hacker foils an evil organization bent on releasing a supervirus on civilians. Instead, it's not very good. The characters are flat and uninteresting. The lead character, instead of being a genius hacker is TSTL (too stupid to live), casually outing himself as the Falcon and blindly confronting the big bad all on his own. For a hero who's supposed to live by his brain, he doesn't do much thinking. From the reviews I've read, he gets dumber and the plot gets more farfetched as the series goes on, so I'm out after volume one. | |
| Bokurano: Ours (manga) | I read the first six volumes of this manga, all I had on hand, before deciding to drop it. it starts out with a group of kids who are recruited to pilot a giant robot and fight monsters. The twist is that when a kid is chosen to be the main pilot for each individual battle, his/her life force is used to pilot the robot, and that person will dies at the end. So what it boils down to are chapter focusing on a character and their problems up until their battle, and then they die. It a very unpleasant, pessimistic series, as the prevailing message seems to be "life sucks, and then you die". I can imagine that it ends with all the pilots dying and the destruction of the human race or something and the only surviving organism being a cockroach. Either way, I don't care enough to purchase the rest of this series to find out. | |
| Bride of the Water God (manhwa) | The art in this is absolutely beautiful, but the story, while interesting at first, quickly grew tiresome. Soah is sacrificed by her village as an offering to the water god in hopes of rain. She ends up in the realm of the gods, betrothed to the water god. Learning about her new home and the gods along with the wonderful art was great. Unfortunately the plot begins to get bogged down with the machinations of the various gods and it starts to get dull. Also, too many characters with barely there introductions who look similar with the same face make it somewhat confusing at times. This is a long series but I stopped at volume 11. I just stopped caring at that point. | |
| By the Sword (manga) | This reminded me alot of Matoh's other fantasy series, "Tenryu: the Dragon Cycle", except the art in "By the Sword" is a bit more polished. They share a lot of the same plot elements as well, and the story for both can be summarized as "party of characters goes on a quest", which is like a fantasy cliche at this point. ADV only published two of the three volumes for this series, and based on what I read, I'm not clamoring for anyone to relicense "By the Sword". It's mediocre at best and really only worth it for hardcore Sanami Matoh fans. Her art has really evolved from her early ninties style and I really like it. Her action sequences are clean and easy to follow and her character designs are pleasing. I haven't been impressed with any of her storytelling/plotting though. | |
| Cage of Eden (manga) | I am a fan of survival horror stories. I loved Dragon Head and Battle Royale, and I've read and liked Hunger Games. Unfortunately, while I thought the premise was interesting, I didn't like Cage of Eden. I could get past the paper thin characters, the lead is your standard "short spunky boy" shounen hero, and all the other characters introduced were nothing more than cardboard cutouts. What ultimately turned me off was the really juvenile tone of the story, in which logic was thrown out the window in favor of a fast pace and gratuitous cheesecake shots. Seriously, if I crash land on a strange island with deadly creatures all over the place, my first instinct is not going to be getting naked and bathing in the nearest stream. The fanservice seemed to serve no purpose other than the mangaka randomly put in panties at intervals because the target audience of 12 year olds expects it. Secondly, this thing was full of holes. Of course the nerdy looking short kid has a laptop with all the answers in the wilderness, and the adult flight attendant would naturally let a school boy take the lead. What it comes down to is that the series has imagination, but it's not all that well written, and for that reason, it's not for me. | |
| Captive Hearts (manga) | I picked this up because I am a fan of the author's other work, Vampire Knight. Big mistake, because Captive Hearts is pretty bad. The author admits that the story is silly, but I think it flew past silly into just plain stupid. I read in the sidebars that this is Hino's first serialized work. It shows, since the art isn't as polished as in VK either. Since after reading this, I felt like I wasted my half hour, there's no way I'll continue. | |
| Chi's Sweet Home (manga) | I picked this up because I really like cats, so I thought this would be a no brainer right? Wrong. I didn't like it. It was just too cutesy and precocious. The "baby talk" dialog didn't help. What I did like? The scenes without any dialog, when Chi was just being a cat, doing cat things and body language and expression were used instead of cheesy dialog. This is just not my kind of manga, so I'm going to drop it. | |
| Chobits (manga) |
I watched the anime a few years ago, so I was already familiar with the basic premise of Chobits. What I wasn't prepared for was the creepy way that the persocoms are sexualized. The persocoms are basically computers in the shapes of females, I didn't see any males. I found the favorable comparisons to real girls a bit unsettling in a "Hey guys, here's a mindless fembot to serve your every need! Who needs real girls!" kind of way. The double entendres along the lines of "hehe she makes a good 'lap top' " were pretty bad too. Also, the fanservice was just creepy. For instance, in the opening chapters, Hideki invites his friend over to check out Chi because he thinks she's broken. The friend proceeds to pull up Chi's shirt and fondle her prepubecent breasts under the guise of "inspecting" her. The panels focus directly on her nipples. It's weird and I felt it needed a Pedobear warning. I don't remember Chobits being quite so loli pandering, so I think this was toned down a bit in the anime. I ended up finishing the whole omnibus, and I was relieved to see the "creep factor" lessened as the series wore on. The art is absolutely beautiful. I've always loved CLAMP's art. Too bad I couldn't get into the plot. I don't think I'll be finishing this one. |
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| Chocolat (manhwa) | Very good |
This is a fun little romance series. Kum Ji is a superfan of the boyband DDL and gets mixed up with another boyband group in her attempts to get closer to them. Hijinks ensue. The characters are interesting and decently developed instead of one note stereotypes. Kum Ji is a plain, plucky sort who doesn't take any crap and is very easy to root for. Unfortunately, the artists are no longer working on this series so it doesn't have an ending. I hope that they someday go back to this one because I really liked it and it would be nice to know how the love square turns out. It's been a few years and I recently tried to go back to this as Yen published the final three volumes as an omnibus. Unfortunately, it has not aged well, or maybe my tasted have changed, or standards grew a bit, as this series now reads impossibly juvenile to me. I no longer care how it ends as I have no more interest in revisiting it. |
| Chunchu (manhwa) | Dark Horse only released three volumes of this manhwa before dropping it. Its plot is kinda cliche; twin brothers are born to a clan, one is said to be the son of a demon, but due to some trickery, the demon's son is the heir and the other son is discarded. So the outcast must stay alive through adversity and fight his enemies, blah, blah. Despite the been there done that story, it is really entertaining. The action is copious, fluid and well drawn. I can see why Dark Horse picked it up, as in spirit, it's quite like BotI or Berserk, where the lead is constantly fighting and killing people in bloody bloody ways. Unfortunately those series have a much better story than this one, and ChunChu didn't appear to sell all that well. As it is unfinished, I'll just drop it now. | |
| Claymore (manga) | After reading the first five volumes of Claymore, I was only "in like" with the series. I find the world interesting, and the action entertaining, but I don't love long running shounen battle manga, which is what this boils down to. Even after just five volumes I was beginning to find my interest waning, so I'm going to stop here. If this were a short series with a more cohesive plot, I might have kept going, but not at 20 volumes and no end in sight. | |
| Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (manga) | I aquired two volumes of this manga when I bought the limited edition Code Geass DVD sets. I watched the anime almost a year ago, and now I finally had a chance to read the manga. Too bad it wasn't good. The plot in the manga feels very disjointed and underdeveloped. The characters also feel very flat and lack depth. I think this manga is for super fans of the show who are already familiar with the characters and plot. Otherwise, it's tough to give a damn when events that took place over the course of a few episodes are condensed down to a chapter or two, and the characterization relies too much on prior knowledge to fill in the many blanks. So to sum it up, I thought this manga sucked and I'm not going to read any more. | |
| Couple (manhwa) | So-so | The now defunct CPM manga published the first three volumes of this. It reminded me of you typical shounen romance a la Kimagure Orange Road, with the immature perverted lead character and the girl he likes. I was somewhat entertained, but the whole thing was so juvenile in tone despite the fact that the lead characters were in college, that I really don't have the desire to read any more. It seems like it was written by someone without much experience with actual live women. Boob jokes stop being funny after junior high. |
| CROWN (manga) | CROWN is a blatant wish fulfillment shoujo for younger girls. A poor orphan girl finds out she is actually a princess and she meets two handsome men who are to be her bodyguards to protect her from the evil queen who wants to kill her. It's incredibly simplistic and as shallow as a puddle. Characterization is nonexistent. About the only thing it has going for it is You Higuri's art, but honestly even that is not enough to save it. I quit after two volumes. | |
| CY-Believers (manga) | This was pretty generic shoujo. No plot, cardboard characters, juvenile humor that fell completely flat, lifeless art, the list goes on. I could'nt believe this was written and drawn by the same manga-ka as Crossroad, which I loved. (Although, it was one of the first manga I ever read, I wonder if it would hold up as well if I were to reread it?) Anyway, I really can't recommend Cy-Believers and I won't be continueing past vol. 1. | |
| D.N.Angel (manga) | Decent | This was a fairly decent story. The characters, art, and plot were all fairly mediocre in execution. It does end on a cliffhanger and I am curious to see how it all wraps up. Vol. 11 was published back in 2006, but there is a teaser for Vol. 12 in the back of the book, so I'm guessing that this was supposed to be continued. |
| Dance in the Vampire Bund (manga) | I quite liked the first volume. I thought the set up was interesting, as was the character, Mina Tepes. However, subsequent volumes really didn't seem to go anywhere. Mina and/or Akira are under attack by a rival of some sort, which they must fight. Rinse and repeat. I found myself becoming bored the more I read. So, I'm bowing out after volume five. | |
| Dazzle (manga) | While this manga is a bit of a mess, I find it mildly appealing. The plot, such as it is, is almost nonexistant. Rahzel is kicked out of her home in order to see the world. She is joined by a couple of companions. They essentially travel around and encounter random shit. There is very little linking these random adventures and the setting is very vague. I have no sense of the when or where that this thing takes place in. The only thing holding it together and making it somewhat readable are the three leads. They are all mysterious individuals with hints of a darker past. They also have a likable chemistry together that makes them interesting to read about even when their adventures are not. Tokyopop has stalled out at volume ten of this series and I'm not sure if it'll ever be continued. Really, I don't care as this is a pretty mediocre series and since it doesn't have much of a plot, I'm not upset at the lack of an ending. | |
| Deadman Wonderland (manga) | Decent | In this series, Ganta is sentenced to the Deadman Wonderland prison for killing his classmates. He's innocent of course, and the prison is a cover for some sort of research facility. I read up to volume five before being forced to stop. There really is no good stopping point for this series, as the plot is fast paced and never lets up. The twists keep on coming too. It's unpredictable and I never know what to expect when I pick up a new volume. I do wish someone would rescue this and finish out the series, but I'm not holding my breath. Perhaps somebody will license the anime so I can find out how this story ends. |
| Dengeki Daisy (manga) | So, I'm three volumes into this and I can already feel it beginning to drag. The whole "Daisy" schtick is pretty much played out, and the hacking subplot is undeveloped and boring. I can see this is one of those shoujo manga that will take forever to get anywhere with the romance as well. Reading reviews is telling me that it is not worth my time to continue either, as my problems with the series thus far are not resolved in later volumes. On the plus side, the characters and the humor are cute, but not 13 volumes worth. | |
| Detroit Metal City (manga) | I know ths one is popular, but I didn't like it. The humor just rubbed me the wrong way, and I usually laugh at crude humor. I think it just went over the top and crossed a line for me into bad taste. The premise was funny enough, pop music loving Negishi ends up being the frontman for death metal band DMC and he switches between his regular persona and his alter ego. Krauser II. I do admit that I did chuckle a couple of times. I didn't think the manga was bad, but some things, such as most of those rape jokes, fell completely flat for me. I just can't laugh at that sort of thing. I don't find misogyny funny. So, I'm dropping this. It obviously isn't for me. | |
| (The) Devil Within (manga) | This manga was a hot mess. The plot...WTF! I was a little grossed out by Rions love of young boys also. I won't be picking up the second volume, that's for sure. | |
| Dog X Cat (manga) | This is a story about childhood friends who find themselves in a relationship as adults. It's generic as hell. There is no real plot, just romance checkpoints and lots of boring sex. Characterization is minimal. One point in its favor: both characters in the story are adults, with the series starting with them in college and by volume 4 graduated with jobs. However, these people and their relationship were predictable and boring with no real conflict/plot. In the end this is a perfectly forgettable romantic comedy that I will not remember tomorrow. Four volumes and done. | |
| Dogs: Bullets & Carnage (manga) | Good |
This manga is all style and little substance. There's a plethora of action, in fact action scenes dominate the narrative. Fortunately, the cast is populated with memorable characters. So, even if I forget the gist of the plot, as long as I remember who's who I shouldn't have a problem sorting it out. I've read up to volume six now and I'm on board for more. So, it's been a while since I finished volume six, almost a year, and I just now read volume 7. I have complete forgotten whatever plot this thing is supposed to have and only barely remember the characters. All that's left is the stylish art and well drawn action scenes. I'm sorry to say I have pretty much lost interest. My initial impression of the manga, that it is style over substance, stands. I'd prefer to read style with substance, so I'm dropping this. |
| Dorohedoro (manga) | Good | Great art. I read through volume 14 and don't know if I wanna buy anymore. I kinda lost interest after Caiman got his head back. |
| (The) Drifting Classroom (manga) | I usually like survival horror type stories. I really liked Battle Royale and I thought Dragon Head was great, but Drifting Classroom failed to capture my interest. First, it doesn't establish the characters well enough. Other than the little boy, the rest of the students and the teachers are not introduced until after they all start going crazy, so I never felt invested in what happened to them. Secondly, they all seem to go off the deep end very very quickly, and when contrasted with other disaster type fiction, Drifting Classroom seemed to take a perverse delight in showing the worst of people. The art too seemed a little cartoony for the subject matter. Dramatic moments and expressions ended up looking a little comical as a result. So in the end, i just couldn't get into this one. I read the first volume and I have no interest in this plot or what happens to these people, which is a sure sign to stop reading. | |
| Eden - It's an Endless World! (manga, Hiroki Endo) | Very good |
This is a big and complex sci fi tale with the main theme being a fragmented society after a virus is unleashed on the world. I've read up to volume 13, where Dark Horse has left off so far, and I still have lots of questions. The characters themselves took awhile to grow on me as well, but the series slowly revealed their back stories and motivations and I want to see what happens to them. The art is super detailed; backgrounds, characters, expressions and action scenes are well drawn and support the narrative perfectly. Needless to say, I'm going to keep reading this. It has been years since Dark Horse released vol. 14. I have completely lost interest in this story. I just tried to read 14 and while it was well crafted, I just don't care anymore. I read some spoilers for the ending to see if it is worth it to wait and it doesn't look like it. So, dropped. |
| Fate/stay night (manga) | I read the first volume of this. It was not good. From the lackluster art to the rushed and paint-by-numbers plot, there was nothing here to compel me to keep reading. Somehow, the manga managed to make the characters appear flat and lifeless and Holy Grail War premise sound really dumb. I originally picked this up because I am a fan of the anime, but I will not be continuing. | |
| Finder (manga) | Very good |
The Finder story only takes up half of this first volume; the rest is a bunch of shorts. Fortunately, this title has been picked up by DMP, so I don't have to track down those super costly out of print CPM volumes. I'm happy to be able to read more of this as the art in particular was stunning and I'm interested to find out where this story is going. Unlike Crimson Spell, Yamane's other series, Finder is pretty much porn. It really doesn't start to develop a story until volume 4/5 or so, when Akithito starts to investigate the missing woman. The stuff with Fei Long in volumes 2/3 was pretty much an excuse for porn. Hope fully these characters are developed byond that as the series continiues. The art still continues to be beautiful and I am definitely on board for more. I can't wait until volume 8. Its been several years since I read this and I decided to revisit it "the great BL purge of 2020". It has not really held up. Sure, the art is still pretty, but the characters are shallow as hell. Even the porn wasnt interesting any more. I've gotten a lot more discerning with my entertainment over the years, and flimsy plot and characters as an excuse for copious sex scenes does not cut it. Time to release this series to eBay. |
| Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden (manga) | I think I've grown out of Fushigi Yuugi. I just couldn't get into this story, as it seems so juvenile to my adult self. Granted the original is worse, and I do think this work is better (so far), but I can't bring myself to read the rest of it. Maybe it's Yuu Watase's work in general I've outgrown. I'm afraid to reread Ceres b/c what if it's not as good as I remember? Either way, dropped after three volumes. | |
| Future Diary (manga) | Good | This series reminds me a lot of Higurashi:When They Cry, most likely due to the psychotic axe wielding character, Yuno. It shares a few other elements too, like when seemingly ordinary situations end up in murder. The premise goes like this: "God" is about to die and bestows 12 humans with the "future diary" and declares that they must fight to the death to become the new God and remake the world. The story is fast paced and fun to read. The art is clean, attractive and easy to follow. I only wish that Tokyopop had survived long enough to publish volume 11, which wraps up the main story. I can pretty much guess the ending, but there were a few loose ends, such as Yuno's identity, that I was curious about. I did enjoy the ten volumes that I did read thuogh. |
| Gakuen Alice (manga) | Overall, I liked the six volumes I read of Gakuen Alice. It's cute, it's whimsical, and I like the characters. I just don't like it enough to follow it for 30+ volumes. I found the story itself to be only mildly interesting, so I just don't want to invest the time and money on a series this long when I'm only "in like" with it. | |
| Ghost Hunt (manga) | I've already seen the anime, so maybe that's the reason that I felt the manga version of Ghost Hunt was lacking. The first volume adapts the first arc of the TV show, but without the acting, music,and sound effects, the suspense was nonexistent. While I was genuinely creeped out by the TV show, this manga feels gray and lifeless in comparison. I stick with the anime and not waste any more time reading this. It isn't doing anything for me. | |
| Ghost Talker's Daydream (manga) | Decent | I actually like Ghost Talker's Daydream. It follows an albino dominatrix who can communicate with the dead. She works for an agency that deals with cases involving suicide and accidental death via ghost. The cases are seemingly unrelated at first, but enough clues are scattered in that they seem to be forming a bigger picture. I'm not so keen on the art, as characters look too much alike and proportions are all wrong. Anatomy class, stat. The problem with this series is that I don't like it enough to keep up with it. Dark Horse seems to have stalled out on it, and I don't care enough to track down a scan. If the rest of the volumes were to appear in front of me by magic, I would read them, but I don't like it enough to put forth any effort in obtaining them myself. |
| God of Dogs (manga) | I enjoyed this, but it was a bit confusing. Nothing is explained. There are a lot of characters and the plot is pretty expansive. I felt like I''d been dropped into the middle of a story, which turned out to be the case. There is a prequel that introduces the characters and kicks off the plot which hasn't been published by June. There's also a volume 2. Apparently, this was a poor seller for DMP and there aren't any plans to print the rest. The series is pretty rough, art in particular, but also the writing which is jumpy and confusing. However, the series had potential and I'd have liked to read more as this was a bit different sort of BL, violent and action oriented with almost no actual BL content. | |
| (The) Good Witch of the West (manga) | This series is a fairytale style high fantasy story. I can see a lot of classic fairytale influence here, starting with the princess who grows up in a farm village ignorant of her purpose. The plotting occasionally felt a bit made up as it went along. Elements, such as the dinosaurs and the unicorns, would be added seemingly without much thought. Like: "Oh! And then there were these {insert thing}". Despite the rocky writing, I did find the series mildly enjoyable. Tokyopop never printed the last volume fo this series, but I can sort of guess how it ends. I'm not upset that it will remain unfinished, as it is just a mediocre seres. | |
| Great Place High School: Student Council (manga) | Here we have yet another generic boys' high school BL with the student council being the focus. There are a lot of characters with one note personalities and I had trouble telling them apart. Naduki Koujima's art style doesn't help. Her panels are super busy and her character designs, while distinctive, all look alike. I really dislike her big eyed shouta-ish style as well. Because these characters are so bland and look the same, I couldn't get into the labyrinthine relationships between them all. I've read 4 volumes and that is enough for me. I'm out. | |
| Hana-Kimi (manga) | I've read ten volumes of this and it's really beginning to drag. Where is this story even going? The premise is flimsy; girl crossdresses and attends an all boys school because she likes a guy. The characters are likeable enough, but not so interesting to sustain a series 23 volumes long! At volume 10 the plot is already dangerously close to jumping the shark. I'm not sure I want to keep reading. I can predict that the mangaka will just keep making up new obstacles to keep the lead couple apart and it will just drag on and on. Maybe if it were just a few volumes longer, but it doesn't have 13 volumes worth of plot left in it so...I'm out. | |
| Hellsing (manga) |
This is the very first manga I ever picked up. I had just finished watching the anime and really enjoyed it and wanted to find out how it really ended. Unfortunately, this manga left me cold, but thankfully it didn't turn me off manga alltogether. I've always wanted to give this series another go, just in case the unfamiliarity of reading manga in general was the cause of my "meh" reaction. Now that its been just under an handful of years later, I managed to read both volumes one and two. I still couldn't get into it, despite my love for the anime and now I know why. This series is all over the top action and absolutely no substance, which makes for fun brain-free viewing, but tedious reading. The plot is super simple, with events whipping by too quickly to make any sort of impact, and the characterization is non-existant. Even the art started out a little rough, with oddly proportioned faces and mismatched eyes. There is a marked improvement in volume two, as the jarring "off model" faces came less often. (Hirano's new series Drifters looks fabulous, his art has improved so much.) After dropping this series twice, I'm going to stick to the anime, as the manga is simply not for me. |
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| Hetalia - Axis Powers (manga) | I like history, but I have a hard time maintaining interest in Hetalia. Honestly, it's just not funny. I read the first three volumes, and while the historical tidbits were mildly interesting, they were overwhelmed by a torrent of "stupid" humor, my least favorite kind. This series clearly isn't for me. | |
| High School Debut (manga) | This is yet another high school romance shoujo. In this one, Harumi, an awkward tomboyish girl seeks "coaching" from popular guy Yoh in order to become "cute" and get a boyfriend. The premise is enough to make me puke. Especially during one scene where Harumi is proud of her muscular calves and she's told to hide them "because girls shouldn't have muscles". Triple barf. Anyway, Harumi eventually begins dating the surly Yoh, and as is her nature, she tries way too hard. It's actually frustrating to read. I finally decided to quit the series after volume four, when Yoh kisses Harumi for the first time. She's so embarassed that she not only refuses to talk to him, but actively avoids him for days. That's way too much drama over a peck on the lips. I'm too old for this shit. Dropped for annoying characters, irritating sexism, and too much melodrama. | |
| Higurashi When They Cry: Abducted by Demons Arc (manga) | I've been watching the anime and since I had the first volume of Higurashi: Abducted by Demons Arc sitting on my shelf, I thought it the perfect time to test it out. This volume adapts roughly the first couple of episodes of the anime, even down to lines of dailog. If you've seen the anime, this is redundant as hell. The manga does seem to play up the moe angle a little more, putting the characters in fetishy costumes for kicks. I have a low tolerance for that kind of otaku bait, so it didn't do anything for me. The creepy aspect didn't come through as well on the page as it does on the screen either. So I'm just going to keep watching the anime, as the manga adaptation isn't offering me anything new. | |
| Hitohira (manga) | In Hitohira, a shy girl with low self esteem is roped into joining the theater club. It's a very quiet sort of series, with soft looking art in the big eyes small mouthed "moe" style. Frankly, the book about put me to sleep. Cute girls doing cute things is not enough to get my attention. Aurora released three volumes of this series before going kaput. Fortunately, I don't plan on continuing with the series anyway, so I'm not sad. Too bad about Queen of Ragtonia though... R.I.P. Aurora | |
| House of Five Leaves (manga) | I've seen the anime, so reading this felt redundant. I actually preferred the anime, as such a character based story really benefits from voice acting. And, the be perfectly honest, Natsume Ono's art style never really did grow on me. It's awkward and blob-y and looked better with some movement as in the anime. It's a shame, but I should really stop trying to force myself to like things because I "should". This is a quality manga, just not one for me. | |
| I Hate You More than Anyone (manga) | I read the first volume of this and it was kind of generic. There was nothing to differentiate this from the many other shojo romances I've encountered. I wasn't really bad, but I'd rather take the time to read something better instead of something so utterly forgettable. | |
| I've Seen It All (manga) | So-so | This is a pretty typical BL with a totally ridiculous premise. Dr. Saikawa is a penis doctor and having become tired of seeing diseased members becomes obsessed with the "perfect penis". He runs across Ayumi on the street and instant knows he's found the one. He follows him around (stalks) him a bit before they begin a relationship. What follows is two silly volumes of Sensei trying to convince Ayumi that he really loves him for more than his penis. This is the kind of story that so, so dumb, yet isn't really meant to be taken seriously. Don't expect deep plotting or nuanced character writing here, just over the top dialog and contrived reasons for porn. I found it mildly entertaining and that's it and I'm content to stop at two volumes. |
| Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (manga) | I'm on the fence with this one. On one hand, the volume I read was well written and interesting, the art was clean and attractive, but the story is not one that particularly appeals to me. I want to read more to see how it all plays out. Does our lead eventually grow more frustrated with his job? Does anything happen to shake up the Ikigami system? On the other hand, I know this is something I'd only ever read once and never revisit, so I have no desire to buy the books. Unfortunately, my Library doesn't appear to have them in the system, so no luck there. I'm not interested enough to track down a scan either. I hate reading on the computer anyway. So, I guess this one will remain unfinished. | |
| In the Walnut (manga) | There's no real plot here, it's just slice of life about an art gallery owner and his boyfriend. The series starts out with the couple already established, so there's no real development there, and the art aspect was only mildly interesting. I really didn't find much of a hook for me to keep reading this, in fact I found it a little ho-hum, so: dropped. | |
| Invisible Boy (manga) | One word: Bland. I think I read this before, when it was called "Gakuen Heaven". I'm sure I've encountered other student council based BL too, but it all congeals together as one big blur of mediocrity. This is supposed to be a series, but I'm not going to read any more. | |
| Itazura na Kiss (manga) |
This series is where all those shoujo cliches, like the sorta dumb "everygirl" heroine and the cold but perfect hero, got their start. For that reason, I had a tough time getting into it at first, as it does read as a bit of a cliche fest. However, by volume four the characters had really grown on me, even Naoki's super pushy mother. One thing I do like about this story is that it follows the characters through high school, college, and beyond. Marriage is not the end of the story, more like the beginning, as it happens earlier in the series. On the other hand, I had trouble buying Naoki and Kotoko's relationship a lot of the time. As he is so cold and stingy with his affection. The art in this is super dated too, very early nineties looking. Even still, this series is a lot of fun. I've made it through volume eight and now I'm in for the long haul. It's been at least a year and I've finally gotten around to volume 9. I must say that my interest in the series has diminished quite a bit. The characters haven't changed. Kotoko is still an idiot and her husband is still a cold fish. I didn't laugh this time around either. I'm guess that this series has just worn out it's welcome with me and I'm dropping it. |
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| Junjo Romantica (manga) | Decent | I like the series but it isn't a favorite of mine so i don't feel the need to have it in my collection. Nakamura's art never did anything for me and the story wasn't anything special. I also own and enjoy the anime, so need need to keep this around. |
| Kabuki (manga) | Eh, I tried to start this series twice now and I just can't get into it. The story is basically about reincarnation. The book didn't work for me on many levels. First, I don't know whether or not I should take this series seriously. There's not quite enough humor to make it a comedy, yet too much for me to find the drama convincing. Second, the characters are rather flat. Also, Hashida's art is really wispy and feminine, which I don't like in a BL story. I only read one volume of this five volume series and I'm gonna stop here. | |
| Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ (manga) | Not really good | This was a rather cheap yuri series in which the main character, a boy, is abducted by aliens and magically transformed into a girl. Fortunately for him, his love interest is into girls more than boys. Unfortunately for me, my suspension of disbelief was completely broken by this series. Especially when his childhood friend (a girl), who previously had a crush on him as a boy, suddenly turns gay. Yeah, I don't think so. His parents are strangely all for the gender switch as well. All around, the series just failed. I read the first omnibus and I'm done. Stick a fork in me. |
| Kingyo Used Books (manga) |
This is a manga for people who love manga and books in general. It centers around a used manga store and the people who work and shop there. Each chapter is a self contained story. I've honestly never heard of many of the series discussed here, but even so I find this series interesting. I suppose I just like reading about books. I doesn't hurt that the art is clean and attractive as well. This is released slowly, about two volumes a year, but I end up reading each new volume as soon as I get it. It has been several years since Viz has released a volume of this, and I've completely lost interest in it over that time. I highly doubt that this sold well for them, so the odds of them finishing it are very low. |
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| A Kiss for My Prince (manhwa) | This sunjeong manhwa features your standard Cinderella plot in which the housemaid dreams of being a secret princess. She ends up working in a household with three handsome princes. The housemaid is a vain twit. For that, it was interesting. It's not often that you run into such a dislikable lead character. Usually, they tend to be likable in some way so the audience identifies with them. Also, the art was quite lovely. Infinity Studios printed the first two volumes with several color pages and dustjackets. Their quality was excellent and I'm sad that they're gone. | |
| Knights of Sidonia (manga) | Blame! is one of my favorite series, so I was really expecting to enjoy this one, but it was only "ok". This series has the cool sci-fi plot, but it also has a lot of characters that interact (and look alike), which would be fine, except they are cardboard slabs. I guess well written characters is not Nihei's strong point. Blame! hardly had any dialog, so that wasn't an issue, but there are relationships in Knights of Sidonia that one is supposed to care about, but since the characters are flimsily constructed, it sort of falls apart. I was mildly entertained by the plot, but not enough to continue buying the volumes, so I'm out after volume 4. | |
| Kurashina Sensei's Passion (manga) | This is yet another creatively bankrupt BL set in an all boys school. Kurashina is a new teacher and finds himself meeting a gaggle of cute school boys of various types on his first day. First, a lot of characters are thrown in at once, and they are all as thin as paper. Second, this thing has no real plot, just "encounters with schoolboys and their teacher who is indistinguishable fro them". Third, the art is kinda terrible. It's off proportion, with characters faces even changing model from panel to panel. The only real way to tell them apart is the hair. I'm not keen on reading any more of this, so I'm out. | |
| Kyo Kara Maoh! (manga) | I read one volume of this and it didn't really capture my attention. I've seen the anime and liked it, but the manga feels too much like a rehash as this point. Kyo Kara Maoh! is pretty stupid in a fun kind of way, and having the silliness portrayed in black and white is a bit of a let down after seeing it with color and sound. I'm not sure if I will bother reading any more. I may just stick with the anime. | |
| Lady Snowblood (manga) | I really couldn't get into this manga, but I didn't hate it. In fact, at times I found it interesting, such as when it focused on the historical aspects. What turned me off was the exploitative nature of the series. Oyuki is always fighting naked, and someone is always getting raped. Oyuki is pretty much a blank slate in terms of characterization. She's not any more interesting to me when she ends up naked either. I don't mind violence and nudity doesn't offend me, but this is just schlocky. Entertaining schlock, but schlock nonetheless. I only read the first volume, but I'm not going to bother reading any more. | |
| Legend (manhwa) | This is yet another average girl gets sucked into fantasy realm story. I'm ambivalent to these types of stories, sometimes they can be excellent, like The Twelve Kingdoms or Saver. Legend falls into the "painfully mediocre" part of the spectrum though. It doesn't help that the overall tone and the comedy are geared to a much younger audience than myself. If I were ten again, I'd probably be more forgiving. Since I'm not, the story utterly failed to engage me or capture my attention in any way. | |
| Library Wars: Love & War (manga) | The premise of this manga is a bit ridiculous. The idea that people will kill each other for the chance to check out library books is really over the top. It also doesn't hold up to scrutiny. For example, if the gov wanted to form a task force to raid libraries and bookstores of "harmful" books, why don't they just regulate the publishing industry. It would cost less and generate less animosity, what with less invading and killing and all. Anyway, the main character is a sort of gong-ho but inept sort, who joined the task force in order to emulate her prince, but ends up being rescued a lot by her commanding officer. The relationship between them is cute, but unbelievably unprofessional. In the end, I really had a difficult time taking this story seriously. It's a little too "shoujo", a little too hearts and flowers and melodrama to be believable. So, I'm out after 7 volumes. | |
| Limit (manga) | I am a fan of survival horror stories and I like shoujo manga, so you'd think I would like Limit. Unfortunately, no. I actually found it rather stupid. Reading about a pack of self absorbed high school girls trapped in a forest was extremely tiresome. I get that the manga is trying to say something about bullying and the effect that it has on people, but I just found it hard to care. I did not care what happened to them and I wanted all of them to fall off the nearest cliff. Needless to say, I won't be reading any more. | |
| Love Attack (manga) | This is basically a run of the mill high school set romantic comedy shoujo. Even Shizuro Seino's humor can't pull this one out of the pit of mediocrity. Not that it's bad, the characters are fun and the humor is humorous, but the plot is one we've seen a million times already. The main couple start dating at the end of volume one, with contrived plot elements popping up in subsequent volumes to challenge their relationship. The crazy dad interferes, the old female friend pops up, annoying misunderstandings occur, and at the end of volume six, there appears to be a male rival as well. In fact, as the series wore on I was beginning to take more interest in a couple of the secondary characters. The series doesn't look like it has the plot to drag on for much longer, but regardless, it was only published up to volume six in the US. If Kodansha decides to finish it someday, I may pick it up, but I'm not going out of my way for it. I liked the series, but only marginally. | |
| Love Recipe (manga) | Weak | Once again, I'm not interested much in the manga industry, I just like reading the manga, so this story about a yaoi manga-ka and his editor kinda bored me. Second, I didn't care for the lead character at all. I get that he was supposed to be helpless and clumsy and "moe", but I never really understood "moe" characters in the first place. I don't think moe should be sexualized either. It just feels wrong. This was definitely not for me. |
| Love Stage!! (manga) | I read the first 5 volumes, and the first three are a solid romantic comedy. After that, Izumi makes his showbiz debit, and it gets really dumb. The whole amnesia subplot was enough for me to throw in the towel on this series. | |
| Loveless (manga) |
I almost don't know how to describe Loveless, as it was very strange. The cat/dog people, the ambiguous genders, and the unexplained magic all combined into a manga that is somewhat unique. I enjoyed it very much. Unfortunately, I got to the end of volume 8 before I realized that this series is unfinished, as it just sort of stops there. I hope TokyoPop publishes more as I really want to see what happens. Loveless contains some of the more memorable characters I've encountered in manga recently and I'd really like to see how their story ends. Many years after I wrote the above, I finally got around to rereading Loveless, this time up to volume 12, where Viz left off. It is currently on hiatus again and like the last time it left off, it is a cliffhanger. I'm not nearly as enamored of it as I was before. Soubi and Ritsuka's relationship is unhealthy and creepy. Seimei is super creepy and his motivations are still completely unexplained at this point. The word battles and "Septimal Moon" are also unexplained, i.e. their purpose in the first place. Ultimately, the heart of this series are the psychological relationships, the rest is just window dressing. So, at this point I think I'm gonna stop here. I don't think this can end in anything but tragedy and I feel sorry enough for Ritsuka as it is. |
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| Maka-Maka (manga) | Decent | My experience with yuri manga so far has been this and Kashimashi. I must say, this is far better than Kashimashi, however, I still wasn't into it. The good: characterization. Both of the characters felt like real people and not one note stereotypes. Based on their personalites, their relationship was believable. The bad: this manga was utterly plotless. The girls used sex as a way to get closer since they weren't able to find that closeness with their boyfriends. As a result, they have sex all the time. This whole volume was pretty much all sex. There's nothing wrong with that, but as a very hetero female, naked chicks sexing leave me absolutely cold. Since that's the main draw of this, I couldn't really get into it. As a yaoi fan, I definitely understand it's appeal, but it's not for me. |
| (The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (manga) | After reading the excellent novels and watching the equally as good anime, this manga series comes off pretty poorly. It's basically yet another watered down adaptation. It seemed rushed, with several scenes skipped so the character development felt a little stunted, especially for Kyon, who also narrates here. Except here he doesn't seem to have much personality. Also, the timeline was messed with a bit, which created some plot holes. Finally, the art was very generic. The artist attempted to mimic Noizi Ito's character designs, but sadly fell far short, so the whole thing looks amateurish. I struggled through only one volume before giving up. I'll stick with the far superior novels | |
| (The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (light novel) | So far, I've only read the first book. I thought it was excellent. It is written in first person, with Kyon as the narrator, much like the anime. Kyon's sarcastic tone conveys well through the translation. The anime is a very faithful adaptation, so fans of that (like myself) should definitely read this. | |
| Millennium Prime Minister (manga) | The set up for this story is mind numbingly stupid. The new 25 year old prime minister plays hooky and heads for the arcade. He's beaten at a game by Minori, a 16 year old girl. He likes her pony tail and declares that she'll do and he tells her that she's going to be his wife. Minori objects, but she really has no say in the matter and is just sort of swept along with the tide. Kanata, the new prime Minister, is laughable. He looks and acts like a high schooler and he's never shown doing any actual work. We're not supposed to take this series seriously are we? Is this a comedy? There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of humor and I didn't laugh. It comes off as a wish fulfillment romance for teenage girls, where the hot powerful dude inexplicably falls for the average Jane. But, because it's so ridiculous, I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to get into the romance, not to mention the power inbalance between the two and the ways that Kanata manipulates Minori were a little disconcerting. I really can't find a single reason to keep reading this series. It's bottom of the barrel shoujo at it's worst. | |
| Missing: Kamikakushi no Monogatari (manga) | This paranormal mystery failed to capture my interest. I read one volume. I didn't find any of the characters particularly interesting, and the plot fell flat for me as well. | |
| Moyasimon (manga) | I found this to be a charming and creative manga about a subject that I sadly have no interest in. The lead character is a freshman at an agricultural college and has the unique abilty to see microbes with the naked eye. It isn't plot heavy, more like a slice of life with an empasis on nerding out to germs. While I can appreciate this manga as something different, the subject matter leaves me cold. Therefore, I'm going to stop where Del Rey stopped, at volume 2. | |
| Mugen Spiral (manga) | I read the first volume last month and I can barely remember anything about it. Were there demons maybe...? All I do remember is that it wasn't good. I think I graded it a 2 out of 5. Needless to say, I have no desire to read the second half of this two volume series. | |
| My Darling! Miss Bancho (manga) | CMX put out only the first volume of "My Darling, Miss Bancho" before closing up shop. I thought it was cute but I'm not clamoring for more. It was a bit too silly and saccarine for me. Miss Bancho is written for 12 year old girls and reads like it too. It's not a bad series, but I usually do not enjoy series that are obviously written for younger readers as they tend to be too simple and not entertaining for me. | |
| My Heavenly Hockey Club (manga) | This feels a bit like an Ouran Host Club rip off. The premise is the same, a tomboyish girl gets roped into joining a club full of pretty rich boys. Even the love interest is a little similiar to Tamaki. Unfortunately, Hockey Club pales in comparison to Host Club, mostly due to inferior characterization. The only characters that get any meaningful dialog are the lead couple. The other members are more like wallpaper. They get a decent amount of screen time, but I can't even remember their names. The humor isn't quite as spot on as in other Morinaga works either. I read a few volumes of Duck Prince right before picking this up and the difference is clear. Hockey Club is definitely not one of her better efforts. Maybe that's why this hasn't sold for Del Rey? They dropped it after publishing only eight volumes. I did find this manga to be mildly amusing, but since it's not finished, I have no desire to read any further. Consider this dropped. | |
| Nabari No Ou (manga) | I was hoping for more from this manga, but I found it deadly dull. Honestly, I can't even remember the characters names and I just put it down an hour ago. The lead was so expressionless that I just couldn't care about him or his plight. I realize that indifference was his "thing" but it did not endear me to him. Even the side characters aren't interesting enough to save this thing. I'm going to drop it, as the first two volumes just about put me to sleep. I do have the anime in my backlog, so I'm going to give that a looksee instead. Maybe some color and sound will give a much needed jolt of life to this story. | |
| Never Give Up (manga) | So-so | This is a rather mediocre story about modelling and "never giving up". The lead character is a boyish girl, who's in love with her childhood friend who's a girlish boy. I don't know why I keep reading, as it's a very run of the mill love story. Maybe I just want to see how it ends. Unfortunately, TokyoPop has put the series on haitus after 8 volumes. I hate leaving things unfinished. |
| NG Life (manga) | I think this is a case of "it's not you, it's me". I just couldn't get into this manga. The premise was really intriquing, a high school boy is reincarnated with his past memories and his former best friend is now a girl while his past wife is a boy. I did find Saeki mildly amusing, he's a spastic sort of character and his (over)reactions were sometimes quite funny. Unfortunately though, I found the manga to be dead boring. Despite the interesting premise, the story with the weird love triangle did nothing for me. I coudn't get into the characters either, so I found reading about them to be a chore. By the end of volume 3, I found myself starting to skim. This wasn't a bad manga, I can appreciate the comedy at least, but it's just not doing it for me. | |
| Night Head Genesis (manga) | So-so | I've already seen the anime this is based on, so I was already familiar with the characters and the plot. Unfortunately, it is not a very good adaptation. The pace is way too fast and nothing is explained. Most of what was crammed into the first volume took place over several episodes. On the plus side, You Higuri's art is excellent as always. This series was never finished, as Del Rey only printed the first two volumes. It's no great loss in my opinion, as it just wasn't very good. |
| Nodame Cantabile (manga) | Chiaki is a music student and meets Nodame a classmate whose apartment is right next door. Both are studying piano. I read three volumes and Nodame is a clear "manic pixie dream girl" trope and the story seems to be continuing with that cliche, where hanging out with her froces uptight, rigid Chiaki to learn lessons about music, people, his goals, and WTF-ever. Honestly, it's super cliche to the point where I'm not all that interested in reading any more. I'm guessing that Chiaki will eventually fall for her and being with her will help him achieve his dreams and etc. Whatever, I'm done. | |
| Oh my god! (manga) | I didn't like this one at first. I read the first volume and was put off by the silliness. For some reason, I had the second volume and forced myself to try it again some months later. I really liked it the second time around. The art was great and the humor got a couple of chuckles out of me. Unfortunately, Deux only printed the first few volumes before disappearing so I'm not holding out much hope for seeing the rest of the series. I really hope they prove me wrong though. | |
| Old Boy (manga) | This here is a case of "it's not you, it's me". I should like this, the mystery is interesting after all, but for some reason I don't. In fact, I couldn't care less why Goto was locked up in a cell for 10 years. The game of cat and mouse he plays with his jailer after he is freed almost feels pointless. Therefore, reading this feels pointless, so I'm going to bow out after 3 volumes. | |
| Oresama Teacher (manga) | After reading the phenomenal Skip Beat, a cutesy shoujo like Oresama Teacher isn't doing it for me. Mafuyu transfers to a new school after being kicked out of her old one for fighting and she runs into a teacher who happened to be the next door neighbor boy she idolized back in the day. She of course makes some new friends while trying (and failing) from getting dragged into silly brawls and the like. This is a comedy. I have a feeling that it'll turn romantic sooner or later, but the focus is definitely on silly hijinks. The problem is the characterization at this point is one dimensional and the story is sort of plodding along with little in the way of plot. The humor is sometimes funny, but not enough to hold up this house of cards. I don't think I'll miss much if I bow out now after 5 volumes. | |
| Pet Shop of Horrors (manga) | I've read the first volume of this manga and I'm not sure if I want to bother to continue. It's set up as an episodic series with the only recurring character being Count D and possibly the detective. The stories themselves are interesting enough, but short stories generally aren't my thing, and a whole series of them isn't getting me excited to read. If I knew that they would have some significance to an overarching plot, I'd be much more inclined to keep reading. Also, Count D and the detective just aren't very interesting at this point. Count D sells a dangerous animal, the detective comes to the show wanting to know what it was and the circumstances, story is told. Rinse and repeat. At this point, I doubt I'll come back to this, as it's long out of print and I don't feel like tracking down volumes of a series I'm ambivalent about. | |
| Pita-Ten (manga) | #1 most irritating manga award goes to Pita-ten. All those cutesy-wootsy characters and their annoying baby talk made the one volume I managed to struggle through an absolute chore. FAIL. | |
| Platinum Garden (manga) | I had to give up on this. I read three volumes. The story wasn't memorable at all and the lead was pretty annoying. Pass. | |
| Portrait of M & N (manga) | This is a cute shoujo about a girl and a boy with secret fetishes. They find out about each other and become friends. I would have liked to see how it ended as there were only two volumes to go before Toykopop closed up shop. I am a fan of Tachibana Highuchi's other series "Gakuen Alice" as well. Her art is nothing special, having a typical "Hana to Yume" look to it, but I do like her stories. | |
| Princess Princess (manga) | Tohru is chosen as a "Princess" at his new all boys school. The Princesses crossdress for the entertainment of the rest of the student body. I was expecting more laughs than I got from this. I read the first volume, and it wasn't bad, I was just expecting more. The characters didn't click with me, nor did most of the humor. Boys in Goth Loli don't do anything for me either. I'm not sure I will keep reading this. | |
| Pumpkin Scissors (manga) | I've already seen the anime and these five volumes I've read cover absolutely no new ground. Granted, the pacing is much better here, but a lot of the side missions are still uninteresting. The art is passable. The story is sort of spinning its wheels, but it does have potential. Unfortunately, Del Rey put this one on hiatus, and a new volume hasn't come out for several years. I don't find this series interesting enough to go looking for translations, so I'm dropping it. It's mediocre at best and there are much better things I could be spending my time reading. | |
| Rabbit Man, Tiger Man (manga) | I had the first two volumes sitting on my shelf for years. The premise is Uzuki is a doctor and runs into an injured Yakuza with a gunshot wound. He fixes him up and next the guy shows up at his hospital looking for him. This is a BL so of course the doctor falls for him. There's also some yakaza drama ba that I didnt find that interesting. What annoyed me most about this was Uzukis character design. Hes the "rabbit man", but hes drawn all big eyed and shoujo and looks like a 12 year old. Its looks wrong since pretty much all the other men in the story look like grown men. The trope of making the submissive bottom dude super young and girly looking has got to be my number one most hated. The story itself is nothing special, and some of the comedy was passable, but I just can't with girly looking Uzuki. | |
| (The) Record of a Fallen Vampire (manga) | I wasn't entertained by this. First, the art was beautiful, but where was the plot? I saw a lot of fight scenes and a lot of dialog, but nothing actually happens. Boring. | |
| RG Veda (manga) | I read two volumes of this. The story does nothing for me. It reminds me of a rough draft for X/1999. Same basic plot. It's a shame, because the art is really beautiful. | |
| Romance Papa (manhwa) | This is my least favorite of Youngran Lee's manhwa. Not that it is bad, just meh in comparison to Click and Something About Sunyool. I read three volumes and that is enough for me to call it quits. | |
| School Rumble (manga) | I've seen and loved the anime, but reading the manga feels redundant to me. The anime is a faithful adaptation, and the jokes are funny, but they lose some of their sparkle without the color, sound, and voice acting. This series is not exactly big on plot either, so I don't feel as if I'm missing anything by declining t read further and just sticking with the anime. | |
| Shinobi Life (manga) | The first couple volumes of this were rather ho-hum. Kagetora is a ninja from the past who timetravels to the present day and meets Beni, a girl who looks just like the hime that he was assigned to protect. The beginning of the series is all about them exploring their feelings and having obsticles thrown in their way: an arranged marriage for Beni and Beni's dissaproving dad for Kagetora. It feels really contrived actually and I wasn't really into the story at this point. However, when Beni and Kagetora finally decide to be together, the story really takes off. The timetravelling is more important to the story and more time is spent in the past. The Ninja politics are far more interesting than the present day. Too bad volume seven, the last one that Tokyopop published, ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. I've warmed up to this series considerably and would have liked to continue. | |
| Silver Diamond (manga) | This is a mildly enjoyable fantasy shoujo in which this time a boy is spirited away to an alternate world to be its savior. Rakan has a special power that causes plants to grow and the world he finds himself in is a barren wasteland. I thought the use of seeds to grow guns, clocks, bridges and etc. was interesting and imaginative. This is also one of those subtext heavy BL series, where a more than friends relationship between the Rakan and his one guardian is implied pretty heavily. Tokyopop published up to volume nine, which unfortunately ends on a cliffhanger. If they were still in business, I'd finish the series, but I'm not too bothered by it's incompleteness. | |
| Spice & Wolf (manga) | I've seen the anime, and I've read a few of the novels. Reading the manga after that is redundant. This is not a bad manga, but it pales in comparison to the anime and novel. I do not feel the need to buy and read any more. | |
| Spice & Wolf (light novel) | I've seen the anime, and it's a very straightforward adaptation of the novels. While I can objectively appreciate these books, as they are rather good for light novels, subjectively I don't find them that interesting. I appreciated the cast and world much better in the anime, as the subject matter benefits well from livening up with acting, color, and music. I'm just going to hope more of this gets animated rather than try to keep up with these books, as it is quite a long series and too expensive to collect when I'm only lukewarm on it. | |
| Stepping on Roses (manga) | After enjoying Tail of the Moon I thought I'd enjoy Rinka Ueda's next series, but I have to drop it after three volumes. It's just not good and I can't take any more. The story makes use of several hoary old romance tropes: the marriage of convenience + the rich bossy jerk hero + the crazy obsessed stalker rival + the poor down on her luck heroine. It takes some great characterization to pull off a been there, done that story like this, but you will not find it here. The characters are about as shallow as they come, with absolutely no chemistry together. They can pretty much be summed up as "the douche", "the doormat", and "the stalker". This is the kind of bottom of the barrel shoujo I can't stand, so I'm not wasting any more time reading this. | |
| A Strange and Mystifying Story (manga) | June put out three volumes of this (were there more, maybe?) and honestly volume 3 is a good enough stopping point. The main story is about a young man who inherits the family curse after his grandfather dies. The only way to cure it is with the help of the family guardian spirit which is a fox/dog/man. They fall in love. Whoop-de-do. Volume 2 is mostly about main character-kun's coworkers. Honestly, I found that one a lot more interesting. Volume three introduces yet another fox/dog/man who is pledged to the daughter of some house in exchange for prosperity, except the "daughter" ends up being a boy. Yawn. This series is pretty much a "meh" at this point and I on't have any desire to continue. | |
| Tactics (manga) | I read the first volume of Tactics and I wasn't impressed. There really wasn't much plot to begin with, and what story there was felt rather disjointed. The character and costume designs were rather pleasing though. | |
| Taimashin: The Red Spider Exorcist (manga) | More weirdness from Hideyuki Kikuchi. This time it's mostly horror, with fighting monsters and grotesque creatures of the dead. The two volumes I read covered one and part of another story arc, seemingly unrelated except for the presence of the spider exorcist himself. it didn't really catch my interest, so I'm done. | |
| Takumi-kun Series (manga) | Weak | Ugh. This is yet another ho hum boys love series set in an all boys school, complete with a the requisite cliches that go along with that. The characters are all cardboard cutouts and the "plot" was poorly paced and uninteresting. I could barely summon up the enthusiasm to read the three volumes that I had. I see now why Blu never finished this series, it's just not very good. |
| Tenjo Tenge (manga) | I started reading this because I enjoyed the anime and I really like Oh!Great's art. Seriously, his art is awesome. Too bad his writing isn't. It's basically your typical battle shounen, only with lots of tits. It requires a heavy suspension of disbelief in order to read, or just ignore the nonsensical plot and appreciate the art. I made it through eight volumes before the plot became too much bullshit and dropped it. | |
| Toradora! (manga) | Honestly, this is a watered down version of the anime (and probably the novels too-never read them). It's still pretty good, but since a better version exists, I'd rather stick to that. Reading this manga feels redundant, like I'm wasting my time.. | |
| Trinity Blood (manga) | Good |
I still haven't read the novels that this manga is based on, but I did watch the anime. I must make note that the manga is far superior to the anime. The story is set in a sort of futuristic yet still kinda historic Europe in which the Vatican is at odds with a neighboring country ruled by vampire aliens. It sounds convoluted but somehow all these elements work together to build a rather unique world. The cast is very large, yet the characters are all so interesting to me that I can't help but keep reading even through a less interesting story arc. The art is absolutely beautiful, with attractive and unique character designs dressed in elaborate costumes. Fortunately, this series is also being published in English in Singapore, so I don't have to rely on Tokyopop to collect this manga. As soon as volume 14 is available, I will import it. It's been some time since I've revisited this. My opinion is about the same. The world is interesting, the characters are cool and memorable, but the story is kinda crap. But that art though! Pretty much the one thing singlehandedly keeping this on my shelf was the art. Now I have artbooks and I can let this series go. I really have no desire to ever read it again. I just liked looking at it. |
| Two Flowers of the Dragon (manga) | I have a hard time getting into comics for younger readers, which isn't surprising since I'm an adult. Two Flowers for the Dragon is a shoujo fantasy romance aimed at young girls. The main character is a princess who turns into a dragon. She is betrothed to one man until her original fiance comes back from the dead, and then she has to make a decision via a couple of tattoos on her arms representing each man that grow with her affections. Because this is aimed at kids, it's all very lighthearted. The romance is also often brushed to the side in favor of episodic adventures. Honestly, I found it rather trite. Clearly, this is not for me so I'm gonna leave it after 3 volumes | |
| Ultimate Venus (manga) | I found this to be a pretty run of the mill reverse harem shoujo. Our heroine, Yuzu, goes to live with her wealthy grandmother after the death of her mother. She's immediately surrounded by a gaggle of handsome dudes, and her gramma is plotting to marry her off. I couldn't get a handle on Yuzu, her characterization is all over the place. One moment she appears to be a fairly strong heroine, and the next that is undermined as she is a weak whiner. I've only read up to where Go Comi left off at volume five, but I'm thinking I'm not missing much by stopping now. The series is pretty mediocre and I'm only finding it mildly entertaining. | |
| Until Death Do Us Part (manga) | I read the first volume and found the premise of this action series, a young girl with precognitive abilities teams up w/ a blind swordsman and a military organization to take out bad guys, interesting enough to pick up the second. After reading the second volume though, I found myself becoming bored. This series is virtually all action and very little substance. Yes, the action scenes are pretty and very well drawn, but for me that is not enough. It probably didn't help that I read the second volume after finishing 20th Century Boys, a manga both well drawn and amazingly well written. Until Death Do Us Part is not even in the same galaxy quality wise, so I'm not going to waste any more of my time on it. | |
| V.B. Rose (manga) | I've tried twice to read this series and I never get past the first volume. In fact, I've tried all of Banri Hidaka's manga series published in English and I couldn't get into any of them. So I guess I'm not a fan. Her art is in the Hana to Yume "house style", which is to say it's rather generic. She tends to write slow slice of life-ish romances, with little romantic tension and bland characters. V.B. Rose is no different. It's cute and undemanding, but that's it. Why waste my time reading something that's only passable when I could be reading something great? So, I'm dropping this and passing on Banri Hidaka's manga for good. | |
| Voice or Noise (manga) | I read the first three volumes, all that Blu had published, and I found it "meh". I liked that the mangaka allowed for quite a bit of time to pass before the lead characters actually acknowledged their relationship, as one of the leads was underage in the first two volumes. I liked the art as well. What I didn't like was the gimmicky "talking animals" thin. The writing was also kind of choppy and disjointed, jumping from one thread to another randomly. The story had a disorganized feel to it. I was mildly entertained while reading it, but it's not good enough of a series for me to care how it ends. | |
| (The) Wallflower (manga) | I read four volumes of this, and while the premise was interesting, it's starting to wear a little thin. There doesn't seem to be much else to this other than the "weird scary girl living with four pretty guys" set up. It's like a one trick pony, and it rides that horse for 25+ volumes. If this were a 5 or 10 volumes series I'd have stuck with it, but 25 volumes (and still counting!) of this paper thin plot is too much for me. So, droppity drop. | |
| Wild Ones (manga) | This is a high school set shoujo about an orphan who goes and lives with her grandfather who turns out to be a yakuza boss. This is a Hana-to-Yume series, so none of this is serious in the slightest. I wanted to like this more than I did, however, it's overreliance on the same old tropes and situations pretty much made it a bore. I read through yet another beach episode, the school trip, the school festival, a matsuri, and I wouldn't be surprised to find a sports fest and the pool episode in future volumes. The characters don't have enough depth for me to keep reading either. It's your typical good hearted average girl type and a protective pretty boy surrounded by the typical rival type and a bunch of comic relief characters. The art is also pretty generic and I'm recognizing that Hana-to-Yume series all sort of look the same. The mangaka's eyes in paticular threw me off, as they seemed to have a sort of glassy eyed stare. Just look at Rakuto on the covers. He looks pretty lifeless. I read two volumes of this and it's not worth my money or time to continue, so consider this one dropped. | |
| With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child (manga) | Despite having no interest whatsoever in the subject matter, I found this manga is very readable. It begins when Hikaru is a baby and follows his development as he grows. I've only read the first two volumes, so Hikaru was still in elementary school when I left off. I like that HIkaru's world was rather fleshed out, as his classmates, teachers and the neighborhood around him all contribute to the story. On the other hand, this manga is mainly about children, Autistic ones, normal ones, school activities, etc, a subject I have zero interest in. Therefore, no matter how well written it is, I can't really get into it. I'm donating my copies to the library, as they absolutely should be read, just not be me. | |
| xxxHOLiC (manga) | I've already seen and loved the anime, so maybe that's why I didn't get into this as I thought I would. The characters seemed to lose their sparkle when reduced to black and white and without the excellent voice acting. To be fair, I've never really been hooked by CLAMP's writing, but I do love their art. I thought the cross over with Tsubasa was a neat little gimmick, but not one that really kept me interested in either story. Of the two, Tsubasa skewed a little young for me. I much prefered xxxHolic, so when events started to focus on TSubasa happenings, I started to skim. A long series like this is a big investment and I'm not going to bother since I'm only lukewarm on it. I'll stick with my anime box set. If they ever release an artbook though, I'm so there. | |
| Yubisaki Milk Tea (manga) | Despite a unique and interesting premise, I began to lose interest in this series quickly. It starts with a boy, unsure of his identity and not quite ready to become an adult, taking up crossdressing in order to escape. The cross dressing quickly takes a backseat to the love triangle between the main character, his childhood friend, and a classmate. I couldn't find it in myself to care about these characters at all. The lead is one of those bland wishy washy sorts who is unable to choose between two girls who obviously are madly in love with him. I've seen Maison Ikkoku and Kimagure Orange Road. Both of those do this theme much better, by having memorable characters you could empathize with. I quickly grew tired of the indecisiveness of Yoshinori, since he knew he had to choose but kept throwing signals at both girls, who were understandably upset and confused. There was also a lot of fanservice here, which really isn't my thing. Especially since a lot of it centered around the younger Junior high aged girl next door. It had a bit of a lolicon tone to it that put me off. In the end, I've discovered that this series is obviously not for me. Tokyopop never did finish this, but I'm not sad, as I'm putting it down after volume 3. | |
| Zone-00 (manga) | Kiyo Qjo seems to have a sort of "everthing but the kitchen sink" style, both in plotting and in art. In the art it works, as every panel is so packed full of details and little dialog asides that it kept my interest thorugh the nonsensical and convoluted plot. From what I can decipher, The lead character is a mysterious transfer student who meets an eccentric boy in his new class who gets beheaded early in and manifests as some sort of demon lord. Somehow his head gets put back on and he goes back to being an ordianry boy. Add in a whole lot of paranormal elements and lots of fanservice, and you got yourself Zone-00. The main problem with Zone-00 is that it could have been interesting if it had some sort of direction. For example in one chapter, the characters (Kujo, a couple of buxom witches, their shape shifting animal/human guardians, a couple of shape shifting bikes {?!?}, the transfer student, and some other characters I had trouble distinquishing) go to the beach, Why? Who knows. What do they do there? Get in thier swimsuits while the male characters work at a host club. Not much made any kind of coherent sense in this manga. It's not worth the energy to puzzle it out either, as ultimately, this is a cheap fanservice fest. It is pretty to look at though, I'll give it that. |