This has been a slow summer for me anime-wise, with not much new that has kept my attention. So, I’ve been using this chance to catch up on some of my backlog, marathoning older shows and reading lots of manga. If you read our fall preview, you may have noticed that I have recently become a huge, HUGE Clannad fan, and seeing as how I have this new love and lots of free time, I have been working my way through the manga.

As you may well know (I am a bit late to the party ), after Key did the Clannad visual novel and the after story, they let their designers kind of run free with the universe, and one of them created another VN set in an alternate world where Tomoya ends up with Tomoyo, aptly calling this VN “Tomoyo After.” The manga that I want to talk about is a short work based on that VN, called Tomoyo After: Dear Shining Memories.

Premise

This manga is only 4 chapters long, and is basically a retelling of the VN, with the 3 major events of the story each getting their own chapter plus a brief intro chapter. The first three are relatively short, and the fourth – the ‘main’ arc – is twice as long as the rest.

The story is told from the perspective of Tomoyo, and it is revealed in the fourth chapter that the first three chapters are glimpses into her memories of the past. The first is more a snapshot of their life together, and the second and third revolve around the two new additions to the cast – a young girl named Kanoko who used to date Tomoyo’s brother, and a small child that has seemingly been abandoned on their doorstep.

The final chapter is where the drama really steps in. Tomoya falls ill with cancer amnesia memento syndrome an unknown rare disease that erases his memories every few days. He gets a really bad headache, and all his recent memories are wiped. So, of course Tomoyo sticks with him, and retells their love story to him every few days, while remembering the good times herself. In the end, they learn about a risky operation that would allow Tomoya to regain his lost memories, but there is a chance he won’t make it through…

First Impression

Who cares? You're 12!

I get the feeling that the target audience was people who have played the VN, and as someone who has not, I was very lost for the first 3 chapters. The writers really did a poor job of explaining the setting in a way that newcomers from the anime, or simply the first VN, could understand.

It felt very rushed, and it’s glaringly obvious that it was just a retelling of a story with which the reader is expected to be familiar. The fourth chapter is where it gets interesting, but the taste in my mouth was so sour by the time I got there, it ended up being very anti-climactic.

I did go back and re-read, which helped tremendously, but I still think that the story was thrown together for a quick cash-in, missing out on what could have been – and should have been – a moving experience.

Thoughts

An accurate representation of me after reading

Like so many others, I am holding my breath waiting for the Clannad TV After Story, and when I stumbled upon this manga, I could barely contain my elation. I felt it criminal how little time was given to Tomoyo in the main episodes of Clannad TV, and I was fond of the Tomoyo After OVA, if only because we got to see more of Tomoyo and her personality. I was expecting more of that, I suppose, which is why this manga ended up being such a letdown.

Being the huge fan of the source material that I was, I went into the reading of this with some pretty high expectations, and perhaps that is partly why I am so disappointed, but in truth, I am quite forgiving when reading “extra” stories about something I already like; for me to dislike it as much as I do says volumes about the quality of the work.

None of the charm of the series made it to the manga; none of the themes of family were present in any noticeable quantity. The strong focus Clannad put on the notion of what it means to have a family resonated very strongly with me, especially the notion that even if the hand you are dealt by fate is not the best, you still have a deep-seated need for a family - even if it means you have to create one yourself. After all – isn’t the reason people fall in love and get married that they want to have a family of their own choosing?

So, rather than expand on those universal themes – themes that are ripe for the picking by the writers since they were so brilliantly laid out in the first series – the writers of Dear Shining Memories chose to simply thrust new characters on us, and tell us point blank that we need to start caring about them, and about what they have to say about Tomoya and Tomoyo.

The chapters that dealt with Kanako, the girl that used to date Tomoyo's little brother, were so hurried that I barely had time to piece together what was happening. All of a sudden, she just appears in their lives and goes about telling Tomoyo that her "eternal love" is something that can never last. Is this a Naruto villain? Seriously, why the writers thought they could just thrust this child on me and expect me to care what she has to say is offensive. Furthermore, can I really be expected to believe that the thoughtless words of an insane child have to power to reduce Tomoyo to tears? She may be moe, but there are limits. At the end of her chapter, she is off again, out of their lives with as little explanation as to why she came.

The next chapter's addition is even worse. Some toddler wanders into their house, and rather than try to find where she was lost, Tomoyo and Tomoya just kind of adopt her:

How is this even legal?

After trying halfheartedly to find this abandoned child's parents, the mom comes around looking for her, apologizing for leaving her and asking for her back. For some unknown reason, Tomoyo tells her no, and then changes her mind and has to race to the train station to give this kid back. Oh no! The train station is 30 minutes away and they only have 20 minutes! Will Tomoyo's power of the ninja love be strong enough to see them through this tragedy?? I guess you'll have to suffer through 2 panels of intense running to find out.

The last chapter, where Tomoyo reveals that the first three chapters were her memories of her past life with Tomoya, before the accident/illness, was by far the most compelling; If I had known that these were snapshots of memories to begin with, I might have been a little more lenient of the story, but it did make a terrible first impression. I know that the chapters were called "memory 1" and such, but that was hardly clear enough to help. Since chapter four ended up being something besides just a mish mash of “memories” from Tomoyo’s life with Tomoya, it was actually interesting, but the emotional finale the writers were hoping for fell flat, due mostly to the horrible lead-up.

There was more than enough happening in the last chapter to expand upon and create a believable, interesting story, perhaps even taking things in a direction the VN did not. Unfortunately, the laziness of the writers won in the end, and we are left with half-baked plots and characters, as well as the the knowledge that this could have been so much more. In the end, this was really written for those that have played the VN. If you are like me and simply loved the anime series and wanted more, you should avoid this like the plague. I suggest spending the time we have left until October trying to find a copy of the VN and experiencing the story first hand, which is what I am going to do, rather than waste any more time with these terrible mangas.

The Horror of Horror
Well-executed horror stories are rare gems. I’ll admit that I’m no authority on the subject (ergo a quick departure from anime and manga as the centerpiece of discussion), but these days it’s just so damned hard to find a good horror movie that I practically trip over myself on the way to the video store when one is actually released. Nowadays, horror flick screenwriters and directors rely almost entirely on shock value to produce a film. The modern rendition of a good thriller is little more than a visual rollercoaster ride that keeps you physically gripping the armrests rather than mentally gripping your sanity. Armed with multi-channel bass stabs and macabre imagery, producers struggle to conquer the horror genre’s unassailable canon — psychology; intoxicated by their newfound digital capabilities, they easily forget that terror is not just high-definition buckets of gore and cheap scares, but that it’s also engendered by the grotesque thoughts that creep into your brain and remain festering there hours after the screen has gone blank or the last page has been turned — psychology. This is why I am obsessed with Doubt. It’s an excellent reminder that a comic with a minimum of visual effects can be just as creepy as a movie. Many thanks to Manga King Extrange for recommending this one, as I’ll be taking a short break from Natsume Yuujin-chou to decide whether or not I want to continue blogging it.

Rabbit Doubt
Doubt reminds me of a few successful contemporary iterations of the horror genre for two reasons. The first and more obvious of the two is that the story is constructed around a twisted game of wits called ‘Rabbit Doubt’. At first impression it appears to be another incarnation of the Saw franchise, but takes little time to distinguish itself as strong concept in its own right. The second is that Yoshiki Tonogai forgoes most of the token background story in order to focus exclusively on this heinous mindfuck of a game. The manga dumps you right into the action after only a chapter of preparation, and the remaining chapters are spent creeping around dark corners in search of the Wolf. Thrillers are often best served without the trimmings, with no time wasted harping on and on a boring sidestory. This is especially accurate if you are the type to not require highly plausible circumstances to put you in the mood. Remember, it’s horror; it’s not supposed to make tons of sense. Doubt is just that—a lean, mean rabbit-crunching machine, and thankfully not much else.

The game is almost insultingly simple: a Wolf infiltrates a group of Rabbits by pretending to be one of their own and slowly picks them off one-by-one while keeping the Rabbits confused about its identity. The Wolf’s goal is to trick the Rabbits into suspecting and sacrificing the wrong Rabbit, while it continues its conquest unfettered. As stated, it is a game of wits to see whether the Wolf or the Rabbits will survive in the end. According to the story, Rabbit Doubt has become insanely popular in Japan, and students identify each other as potential players by carrying rabbit-shaped cell phone straps or other conspicuous insignia. Yuu Aikawa meets up with his usual crew at a karaoke bar to start another game of Rabbit Doubt when [SPOILER] happens and they all awaken to find themselves in a darkened, abandoned building, partitioned by a maze of magnetically locked doors. What was only supposed to be a game has suddenly become reality.

Six people may seem too few to craft an impenetrable whodunit, but it is not. In reality, it is an ideal number of participants—too few to keep you confused, but one too many for you to easily deduce the identity of the Wolf. Tonogal gets genius points for meticulously weaving each of the characters into an actual game of survival. They are not marionettes dancing insipidly toward certain doom, but real people who, due to minor slip-ups or inconvenient lapses of mental stamina, make poor choices that gradually hammer the game into place as each chapter passes. Instead of depending on elaborate traps created by a mythical super-sicko with too much time on his hands (the building notwithstanding), Rabbit Doubt relies mostly on the characters’ fear-crazed imaginations to set itself into motion. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that comes true simply because the rules of Rabbit Doubt are still fresh in their heads, requiring only a few well-placed rabbit masks, cryptic text messages and bloody murders to keep itself going.

Final Thoughts
What is truly interesting about Doubt, besides trying to guess the Wolf’s identity before everyone is murdered, is observing the psychological and emotional changes in Yuu and his friends, as well as the way their interactions change; for instance, the way Hajime consistently relies on coolheaded observations even in the face of mortal danger, or Haruka’s abrupt descent into batshit so deep that she ties up her childhood friend and tries to beat a confession out of him after she discovers that he lied about his barcode. Each of the characters ultimately arrives at the gruesome realization that their alliances rest on shifting ground, as just enough clues are available to label each person a legitimate suspect, but not enough to tip the scales in anyone’s favor. The dialogue is sagging with subtext and subtle hints, making for immense replay (reread) value.

But enough said. Just read it (alone and in the dark, like I did). It flows smoothly and will go by quickly. Only two volumes of Doubt have been completed so far, and the manga is still being serialized. Shocking revelations can be expected in Chapter 14, which is scheduled for release on August 12th. I’m interested to hear speculations on the identity of the wolf from those who have already read up to Chapter 13. Please use spoiler warnings!

Life is a fragile thing. We often procrastinate and think that something that can be done today can be done tomorrow. Time, to most of us, is an object that is hardly precious since we have so much time that we can afford to lose part of it. However, when time is the one who will govern your life, how do you live that life?

There is a girl you love a lot. You have loved her ever since you know about love, and wishes for her to stay with you forever. If you know you are going to live up to 20 years old, what would you do? That is the question asked by Takuma, a boy with a heart failure that means that he might not survive beyond twenty summers. He loves Mayu, a childhood lover, but he knows he cannot give her eternal happiness. The happiness he can give to any girl only lasts one-fifth of a century. What will you do if you are him?

This is Boku no Hatsukoi o Kimi ni Sasagu, or in English “I’ll Give You My First Love.”

The two main characters

Takuma is a outwardly energetic boy that does not allow the pain in his heart (pun intended) to surface. He hops in and out of a hospital due to his heart condition, but he never wavers in confidence that he will be cured. He always smiles to everyone, despite the fact that he knew that his biological clock will cease to exist faster than anyone that surrounds him. Nonetheless, he bears the pain alone, not daring to love anyone. No one wishes to let the person they love to see them die, and leave them with plain loneliness. Mayu’s father is one of the doctors that is caring for him, and knows his true condition.

Mayu is his childhood friend that loves him dearly as well. She always protects him, just as he will always protect her all the time. Despite visiting him often in the hospital, she never knows about his condition (until a further date in the manga) that he will die before the age of 20. Her father is a specialist in heart dysfunctional issues, and is hiding the truth from her.

Thoughts

It has been a while since I cried while reading a manga. For some reason, anime tends to evoke more feelings in me due to the animation that provides more tangible expressions and the ambiance that has to be imagined in a manga. I lack creativity for imagining and absorbing the tension between the characters through visual dialogue of a piece of paper. Nonetheless, the extremely realistic and powerful rendition of these extremely likable characters just makes you wonder why they have to endure this cruel twisted hand of fate.

However, it is hardly surprising that this manga series is such a tearjerker. The mangaka is Kotomi Aoki, who is famous for her work in Boku wa Imōto ni Koi o Suru. Some of the characters in her previous work also appears in this series, as the two main characters here are in fact side characters then. I like her previous work as well, and I do not exactly like incest themes since I find them generally disgusting.

Due to the fact that I do not want to reveal any spoilers, I will not mention too much of the plot. Nonetheless, I have read up to the second last volume of this series, and I really find that despite some of the rather melodramatic plot themes, the combination of humor and drama is very intrinsic. It has been a very long while since I read such a beautiful drama/romance manga, and I urge you to pick it up as well.

Why a Kotomi pic? Because I can.

Daily, the manga market gets spammed with new works, ranging from one-shots, serializations or volumes; some will have some success, some will be best sellers and some will die, forgotten in the middle of the works that surpass them. A few years back, who thought that mangas like One Piece and Naruto would last more than 10 years and become references outside Japan?

That’s why I’m always eager to check the new releases created each year: 2008 has been so far an interesting year in that matter. So I wrote this list of works to pay attention along the year , because I think they have potential to become great works.

ONE-SHOTS

A good deal of mangas start as one-shots; a completed story with one chapter only and can be serialized or not in the future( kinda like a pilot chapter to see if has a good reception by the readers). I was particularly interested in these two:

Urooboe Uroboros!

This one-shot was made by the artist of Death Note, showing that he can make a Fighting manga as he did a Psychological Seinen manga, while incorporating a similar dialogue style to his previous work.

Jamais Vu

TANAKA Yasuki, the newcomer mangaka who made the short manga Hitomi no Catoblepas, has also made this one-shot. It is very similar to Parasite but with a Shounen content instead of Seinen. It still has some flaws but shows that the mangaka has some skills with the Shounen genre.

SERIALIZED MANGAS

These mangas are quite fresh, having only a couple of weeks of age. Even so, they have grabbed my attention due to their unique story plots and premisses.

Double Arts

Now, this is the manga I’m more interested at the moment (it is also known as Double Ertz). A story about a world filled with a mortal disease called Troi which spreads through touch and the Sisters, girls who can temporary heal it by absorbing it into their own body. in spite of having strong immunities, the Sister will end up dying from Troi at a very young age. Elrene is one of those sisters, and she has reached her limit.

She starts having a seizures in the middle of the street, the sign that her death is near, when a young painter called Kiri tries to help and touches El, making her seizures stop. Kiri seems to be the person with the total immunity to Troi that every Sisters is looking for. but to keep herself alive, El can’t let go Kiri’s hand forever even when bathing or sleeping. With this hassle, they travel to the Sisters HQ, while avoiding the Gazelle Association, killers that are after the sisters.

Nurarihyon no Mago

This manga revolves around Riuko Nura, a typical wuss looking high school student. But Riuko has a secret: he is 1/4 yokai and his house his filled with yokais belonging to the Nura clan and his grandfather, a shameless old guy yokai. Riuko can awaken his yokai half for one quarter of the day, which he does when one of his friend are threathened. How he will manage concealing his yokai heritage and keep the normal life of a human, while dealing with the yokai world?

UPCOMING MANGAS

Even before they are released, some mangas are already expected with anxiety because the mangaka is already known or the story is based in some other work.

Monster Hunter Orage

Hiro Mashima, mangaka of Rave Master and Fairy Tail, will start a new manga based on Capcom’s series of games, Monster Hunter.
It will be serialized in the new manga magazine Monthly Shounen Rival, which will be released in April 4th. I will be eagerly awaiting for this one….

A sadist, a con man, a tsun, a wuss and a crazy chick…the usual.

I hate you Sony. Why you allowed Final Fantasy 7:Crisis Core and Wild Arms XF to be released at the same time!Do you realize how many lives (and free time)have you destroyed?

Game whining apart, this time I present to you readers a manga which breaks my latest trend of Ecchi. This time it’s a Seinen manga where a 14 year old kid, Ganta, is wrongly accused of mass murdering his schoolmates and he’s sent to Deadman Wonderland, Japan’s only prison which is private managed and a theme park as well. There, Ganta finds out that the prison is more wicked and sadistic than it seems and the lives of the inmates are gambled everyday. He also finds out that the real killer of the crimes who have condemned Ganta is also there: the Red Man.

Summary (from Wikipedia)

Ten years have passed since the ‘Great Tokyo Earthquake’, a massive natural distaster that sank over 70 percent of Tokyo into the ocean. Ganta Igarashi is an unassuming 14-year old middle school student in Nagano Prefecture. Ganta is an ‘escapee’, a Tokyo survivor of the earthquake, but he has no memories of the disaster and simply wishes to play soccer and live a normal life. All that changes one day when a mysterious man covered in blood appears outside his classroom window. The ‘Red Man’ slaughters Ganta’s classmates, but strangly leaves him alive after imbedding a crimson crystal in his chest. Ganta’s life goes from bad to worse when he is blamed for the grisly murders and sentenced to life imprisonment in ‘Deadman Wonderland’.

This what happens when you run around with scissors.

Deadman Wonderland is Japan’s only publically operated prison, build after the earthquake as a tourist attraction to help revive Tokyo. The prisoners serve as staff and ‘entertainment’ for visitors. Due to the heinous nature of Ganta’s crime, he is give DW’s ‘death sentence’. A metal collar around his neck slowly injects poison into his body. The only way to delay his ‘execution’ is by consuming a special candy-like antidote every three days. Shortly after arriving at the prison, Ganga meets a mysterious girl named Shiro, who seems to know Ganta from the past. He also befriends a prisoner named Yoh, a kleptomaniac with a talent for locating things.

Strong Points

Deadman Wonderland is written by Kataoka Jinsei and illustrated by Kondou Kazuma, the same pair who made the manga adaptation of BONES anime, Eureka Seven. It’s being serialized at Shonen Ace and has 3 released volumes.

If you have read/seen Eureka Seven, you will notice that the character design is very similar with E7, specially Ganta and Shiro, who could be confused with Renton and Anenome. Even the personalities are similar, but with some quirks unique to Deadman Wonderland. Even so, the characters are interesting, with unique backgrounds that makes the readers get even more interested as the story progresses. The plot itself isn’t predictable and is original, a detail which is very important in a manga.

Careful…she means it.

The artwork comes again straight from E7 and has it’s strong points on how the more violent scenes are drawn; without showing directly, they can strongly hint the raw violence embedded in them. For last, the female cast is moe enough to make some fans of this manga for themselves.

Last Comments

You silly Ganta, if you died there would be no more manga…

Even if I mentioned E7 several times, I must warn that the manga is more action oriented than E7, and it has way fewer quiet moments. But expect instead a lot of plot twists and climax moments, with a visible evolution of the characters. Argh, it’s another manga in my endless list of “Currently Reading”. Anyone wants to donate a new pair of eyeballs? (pun included for those who have read the manga.)

School has not been always the most favourite place to go, but I’m ‘forced’ to because it’s for my sake and future. I’m quite busy with school, music lessons, school, writing fanfictions, projects, school, school…wait a minute, did I say school 4 times? You know how school is like, someday I’ll rename school into an Overload. I should announce that school is making my everyday life miserable, especially when it rains every single Wednesday. (Ok, that was a lame joke. It’s something personal.) and my back is aching.

SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAD NOT READ CHAPTER 38!!! If not, click ‘more’.

Coming back to chapter 38 (I’m not outdated, I’m always on the lookout of anything new for the Spring season, and yes, I’ll be co-writing the VK anime posts with Impz). Moving on, the chapter starts with going back into time, 10 years before Haruka and Juuri went X.X, the stage is focused more about the Kuran bloodline (Showing how Rido looks like 10 years ago was added in the chapter too.) rather than what happened to Yuki after she was back to her vampire self.

In this chapter, it indicates that purebloods has quite a long life which twist the story even further and after exchanging a few words with Juuri, Haruka went on with the fight with Rido (And his servants, who does not contribute to the story and all the hack and slash.) and more fighting (with 110% more blood added!!!)

Rido looked as if he was playing a game of peek-a-boo at Haruka. Go back to reality, yeah?

More lengthy speeches occupy the entire chapter (With no specific explanation why Rido called Yuki his ’sacrifice’.) with more fights going on, but with our little young Kaname entering the battlefield, Haruka didn’t expect a surprise attack from Rido. Using the sword that could be only used by vampire hunters, Kaname took over the fight after Haruka exchanged more words with Kaname before he shatters into something that looked like glass pieces.

Kaname took over where his father had left off and using the hunter’s sword, but indicates that:

KANAME: I WILL KILL YOU ONCE AND FOR ALL!

He knew that he could not finish off Rido (The reason is on the next stanza.), his uncle began his last words before disappearing before Kaname. Kaname has ‘killed’ Rido, and we go back to the present, with Ichijou seeing Kaname using Ichiru’s sword piercing through his hand, dripping some of his blood to the Rido body that has not been awaken yet. Ichijou stops Kaname from killing Rido, but ignoring his warning, Kaname let his blood to infect into Rido.

Before leaving, Ichiru asked why he had not completely killed Rido off, and guess what:

Wow, fanciful words, Kaname. Then I am the queen of all vampires.

You’ll see Ichijou’s grandfather and the head of the Hunter’s Association having a small conversation who await for Rido’s revival (Uh oh@!). Shifting to where Zero and Toga is, Zero was held prisoner in the Hunter’s Association, with Toga unable to help him with the tight situation (As mentioned in chapter 37 which I’ve not written.) and the only thing that he does to help him was passing him the Bloody Rose before he left. Leaving Zero with a confused (And probably a clouded mind) mind, that chapter concludes.

Thoughts:

After reading the chapter (Maybe 4 times, that is.), I would say I pity Zero just by looking at the last pages. I had a hunch that now Yuki too is a vampire, he’s now a boy who is lost in the middle of nowhere, and no one to turn to.

Lately, my friend and I had been discussing the chapter regularly, and here is what she predicted:

I would have to break this down into choices on what happened to Zero, either he is brainwashed and then later sent off to kill Yuki, or kidnap Yuki and bring her to Rido. But I think the first option is probably out, since I don’t want to see Yuki die. But I would be happy to see Yuki wearing the Night Class uniform. The second choice is Zero will be blackmailed by the Association or the Council and is forced to be with Yuki for some time. I too pity Zero, but this is how the story goes

I would have to disagree with what my friend said in a certain extend. I like Zero very much, and not wanting to see him being brainwashed than being blackmailed. We’ll just wait and see what the next chapter will bring us. Life have to be unfair sometimes, right? And that gives me more inspiration to write my 2nd VK fanfic (Which is in a planning process currently.) which Kaname-lover fans would hate. Not continuing the post, review on what you think about this chapter. Maybe your ideas would be posted in the next post writing about chapter 39.

A ghost is fine too.

Whenever you read a manga which is tagged “Slice of Life”, it’s almost guaranteed that you will learn a lesson about life. That happened with me when I’ve read Aqua/Aria and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. Now, the same thing happened with My Lovely Ghost Kana, a ecchii romantic manga by Yukata Tanaka, the mangaka of Ai-Ren (another great work of art). This is the story of Daikichi, a guy who hits the bottom when he loses his job and house and Kana, the ghost of a girl who committed suicide years before on the abandoned apartment Dakichi is currently living. The manga follows their story as they become lovers and live together on that apartment.

Ecchii pics were reduced to the minimum, unless you guys are persistent asking for them…

You can be loved, even after death

As I said in the previous lines, Daikichi is in his worst moment of life, even if his name literally means “Good Luck”. He has lost his job and place to live and was swindled to like in a ruined apartment who was rumored to be haunted. But the ghost living there is completely different from the rumors: her name is Kana and seems to have suicided in that apartment 10 years ago during a sunset, by stabbing her chest several times. She can’t leave the premises of the apartment, so asks Daikichi to buy some beer for her (seems she can drink and eat, but not because she needs to.) Kana also is intangible, so normal people can’t touch her. Later that night (and several beers drunk), Daikichi thinks of committing suicide like Kana did, but Kana scolds him, and with a smile tell him to keep living, no matter how hard life seems to be. Then, by accident, Dakichi reaches for Kana and surprisingly he can touch her. From there, they fall in love for each other.

Can’t think of a joke without mentioning boobs…

The rest of the manga revolves around the daily routine Kana and Dakichi live, their hopes and dreams, and the research of Kana’s past by Daikichi.

It’s Ecchii, so what?

One point about this manga that everyone notice: It’s ecchii, with some sex scenes (but nothing very explicit or hardcore). The first reactions I’ve seen about this manga was usually the same as Winsonkoh from Konpaku no uta : “LULZ, he’s Fscking a ghost!” but sincerely, I think it’s being short-sighted. Yes, you see Daikichi having sex with Kana, but it’s portrayed in such a innocent and pure way that you will see it as natural (after all, they are lovers…)

Nipples!…Nipples!…

The whole story is portrayed in a style similar to Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and the artwork is detailed, specially with outside sceneries such as the sakura tree in the apartment’s garden.

It’s not a Fap manga, I’ts a love manga

My Lovely Ghost Kana is in it’s essence a manga about love and hope. The way the mangaka portrays Dakichi’s days with Kana makes you contemplate and realize that life is worth living, even when it’s hard go go forward.So, if you are a sucker for romance, it’s still only on it’s second volume, so it’s a good time to start following it. It’s also being serialized by Bamboo Comics.

Lucky bastard…

This isn’t Shana. Notice she doesn’t have a melon-pan.

Some mangas are missleading. For example, Elfen Lied manga looks dreadful at the first sight but his subpar artwork is offuscated by the storyline and appeal of the characters. Others, like 666 Satan, looks like a decent shounen but it reveals itself at a lame clone of Naruto with jumbled with a broken coherency.

So, what to say of a manga that looks like Hentai but infact it isn’t Hentai? We have a guy called Amakawa Yuuto who lives alone and has a nasty cat allergy, that when he reaches his 16th birthday, earns an ecchii samurai cat girl spirit bodyguard to protect him that speaks in ancient Japanese dialect and want to hump him madly? And let’s not forget that the mangaka’s previous works were all Hentai…

Warning: Extreme Ecchii pics after the jump.

Ecchii Samurai Cat Girl Spirit Bodyguard…and there is still room for more fetishes.

A short summary of the plot: Seven years ago, Amakawa Yuuto’s parents died leaving him living alone without a single relative. Ever since then, his childhood friend, Kuzaki Rinko, has waken him up, cooked for him and generally taken care of him. The only thing he has from any relative is a mysterious charm, a red ball, given to him by his grandparents as a good luck charm (an omamori).

Poems kill.

On the day of his 16th birthday, this charm mysteriously disappears, and into Yuuto’s life walks Himari. A cat spirit-samurai girl and demon hunter who swears to protect Yuuto. There is only one small problem. Yuuto has a severe allergic reaction to cats!

The plot then revolves around Yuuto, Himari ( the cat girl) and a whole cast of harem girls including a childhood friend, a mizuchi (water spirit), a english tea service spirit (don’t ask) and a whole bunch of demons trying to kill Yuuto, since he is the last descendant of one of the 12 demon hunting families.

Danger: This manga can make you nosebleed to death

One of the strong points of the manga is the balance between story, fanservice and comedy relief. The typical shonen plot is good enough to generate appealing story elements, the humor isn’t exagerated and the fanservice doesn’t flood the pages. But be careful, as I said before, the mangaka’s experience comes from drawing Hentai and it reflects on the fanservice and poses the girls assume.

She is always glad to help her master.

The art itself is solid and consistent, but that is expected nowadays; the action scenes are fluid and attractive; in general, has the normal qualities any manga should have.

A Cat is Fine Too

I won’t lie, one of the reasons I read this is because the ecchii scenes, but I don’t judge the manga just with that factor alone. It’s all the other good points combined with this that makes it enjoyable to read. The worse part is this being serialized in Dragon Age, a monthly magazine, which can deter some readers. But I’ll keep reading, since I like the sarcastical attitude of Mizuchi and her loli look ( even when she has that drowned body look).

…I have no comments…

I wouldn’t be surprised if Shinji shoots his head and summons Eva-01…

This was the year of ‘96. I barely had entered my teen years and the only decent stuff on public TV was Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin) and animes like Tenchi Muyo and Lost Galaxy. Then, without any kind of advertizing, a new anime starts to air at Saturday at 10 am. That anime was Neon Genesis Evangelion and changed the way I was looking into anime.

From those times to the current days, there was alot of spin-offs of the main serie ranging from OAV’s like End of Evangelion to high school romance versions like Angelic Days, showing the trend that when japanese like one thing, they will milk it until it runs dry, similar to what happened to Doraemon, Pokemon and Gundam.

Now, we have the most recent “milkage” of the Evangelion branch, a manga called Shinseiki Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku, which can be better described as “Persona 3 setting meets Evangelion cast”. Is this actually a fresh and decent adaptation of the Evangelion universe or a lame attempt of exploiting a bit more the name of Evangelion?

High school is such a dangerous place these days.

Ikari Shinji is your typical student at the NERV Foundation Academy, the top elite academy in Tokyo. But his peaceful days end one night with 2 events: the finding of a odd marble on the ground and the sighting of classmate Rei Ayanami with a mysterious guy, which is later revealed as the new transfer student, Kaworu Nagisa.

He looks even dumber than before….

Perplexed by the indiference that Kaworu and Rei show for each other and the apparent interest that Kaworu reveals for Shinji, he decides to stalk both of them. Then he gets involved in a fight between them and a misterious guy, Ramiel, who has black wings and calls himself an angel…

My Impressions

Because NGE was one of the animes that marked my adolescence, I tend to view the spin-offs as lower quality material. But this new manga has managed to pick my interest in several points. Being a recent manga (in only has 5 chapters so far), there isn’t many details of the plot revealed so far, but we can already apprehend some aspects, like the high school warriors thematic, similar to Busou Renkin and Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchō: Tō. The elements of NGE universe are well transplanted into this story, such as the weapons they use (lol at Rei using the Lance of Longinus) or several terms like EVA, AT-Fields and Lilim.

But one of the best conversions of those elements are the Angels itself: they are portrayed as bodyless consciences, similar to a viral mind, who take over the body of other creatures, killing the original mind of the host in the process. When they are in human hosts , they can spawn black wings, making the term Angels even more litteraly in this manga. They seem to possess powers derived from the mythological angels they are named from (Ramiel, which litteraly means Thunder of God, is able to produce electric based attacks)

An Angel that is an angel. How ironic.

Also, the concept of Yggdrasil is a smart plot element added; deriving from the Multiple Universes theory, the World Tree is portrayed as the physical manifestation of the boundariess that split this version of the universe from the others. If you know the details of the Instrumentality Project from NGE, you can see how that conversed to a time-space equation.

Speaking about the artwork and design, it’s kinda akward adapting ourselves to these new versions of the characters; Shinji even looks more of a wuss than his NGE counterpart. But in spite of this detail, they have a solid design and it helps the manga differenciate from the original. The rest of the artwork is normal, although it doesn’t have anything that it’s remarkable to comment.

Read It or Drop It?

This was a nice start, considering it has the handicap of having some raised expectations due to the fame that NGE has. If they keep this plot reminiscent of Persona 3, this could turn into a fairly nice story, so I’ll keep reading it. And i’m alsy dying out to know if Kaworu is gay for Shinji…again.

Don’t mind the eyepatch guy trying to seduce you.

Mihai, the retired hitman looking for peace; Badou, the freelancer and nicotin addict coward; Naoto, the blade maiden looking for revenge; Haine, the immortal and albino guy tormented his past. In a world haunted by the mistakes inherited from “the golden age of technology”, these four stray dogs will cross their paths while they search for the entrance to Down Below, where monsters and nightmares are created.

Story Synopsis

The world is a different place. This generation has inherited the sins of mankind’s pride, and live in a world without seasons. In the underground city, 4 stray dogs live their life; each one with dark past to atone for.
Mihai is a retired hitman who works at a cafe, trying to stay apart from anything related to his former life. He’s often in a mild depressive state, but still has the sharp instincts and handgun handling skills he developed during his former job. Badou is your typical coward guy, with long red hair and a eyepatch over his right eye. He’s also a compulsive smoker; he’s so addicted that when he doesn’t get his nicotin supply he goes into a berserk state, shooting around with his dual Mac 10 (a fact that his friends exploit during confronts.). Naoto is a deadly maiden trained in the arts of swordmanship and is searching for the man who killed her parents, made her amnesiad and left a huge cross shaped scar between her breasts. Haine is the most peculiar of the bunch: he’s albino and has regenerative powers who allow him to survive wounds that would kill normal men. Because of that skill and also the fact he’s tormented for having killed his “sister” Lily, he has a suicidal stance during gunfights, while using his trademark white Mauser pistol and black Luger.
This bunch of assymetrical characters cross their paths when they involve with the swellers of Deep Below, a rumoured lower underground where beasts and abominations are being created and tamed for unknown ends.

That’s how we greet Impz.

About The Manga

Dogs – Bullets & Carnage and is a Seinen manga created by Shirow Miwa, who also created the Devil May Cry novel. The manga started as a one shot volume called Dogs and published in 2001. After that, in jumped to serialization on Ultra Jump magazine in 2005 under the name of Dogs – Bullets and Carnage. To link both works, a special one shot chapter was created called Dogs – Hardcore Twins. Currently, Dogs – Bullets & Carnage has 3 published volumes in Japan.

This move helped win the silver medal of figure skating of ‘88 Olympics.

Reasons To Read This Manga

1) The characters are extremely appealing, both their personalities and by their looks. And one look an Naoto showing off her scar will make you a fan. ( Girls will probably prefer seeing Haine, though.)

2) The flow of the action scenes is intense, made in a style clearly inspired on Holywood and Hong Kong action flicks like Hard Boiled and Kill Bill.

3) The drawing style is very graphic and dark, using solid black and white shadows and with no use of tones, giving the overall manga look a heavier sense of tension.

This is another Seinen manga that I follow closely among the endless list I have of series to read ( I seem to read an awfull amount of Seinens, do I? ) The first thing I thought when I read the one shot was “…I want to see this realized by Quentin Tarantino”, since like said above, the manga has a great cenematographic sense on how to make action scenes… and also the fact that I can’t stop comparing Naoto with The Bride of Kill Bill. Another detail is none of the main characters can be considered a “good guy”, another trademark of Quentin’s movies.

The only thing that spoils down the quality is the release of chapters being mensal, so it breaks the flow a bit. And that doesn’t help mangas who rely heavily on action as this.

He saw a Narutard nearby.

Naruto is one of the most frustrating and at the same time enjoyable Mangas I’ve ever read; frustrating because of its weak lead character, Naruto, and enjoyable because of its amazing storyline, character development and battles. I didn’t know where to start on this one. As you all know Pein-sama is fighting Jiraya so naturally I must talk about that but the same time Sasuke-Deidara fight was wonderful and I really want to talk about that one as well. Having that in mind, writing about that would require me to delete the Pein-Jiraya part since both have huge materials; so what do we do?

Sorry Deidara but I’ll have to go with your boss in this one!

Introductions are such pain in the ass. So I’ll do it my way. You know Pein and Jiraya? Yes? So let’s get in the chapters without me writing character bios! This review will cover chapters 365-379; almost 15 chapters.
As you all should know by now, I love falmes, flame-wars, flame-traps…Basically anything flamish so don’t hesitate to write about pretty much whatever you like in Naruto world in here ^___^
By the way, due to some tragic events, my highest quality scans are not in English! It is really hard to find a HQ Manga chapter that does not require membership to download them. In any case, let’s get to pein sama!

The first chapter starts after the Deidara Sasuke fight. Sasuke is injured and as you well know based on the logic of “bandage heals everything”, he is ready to start another fight by simply sleeping for a short time…
Anyway, Naruto is on the quest for Sasuke’s ass, to find him and bring him home. Sometimes I really wonder is Sasuke deserves a friend like Naruto. Naruto, as usual, uses one of the only three Jutsus he knows; his shadow clone to find Sasuke. However, it seems someone is in his way; Itachi.

Naruto’s strength
Before we go further it is time to evaluate Naruto’s strength. Arguably a source of great controversy and a never ending battle between Naruto fans, his strength has never been defined clearly in the Manga. After the supposedly 2.5 years of training under one of the best ninja’s out there, having a 9 tails beast inside, being the leading characters in the Manga(Manga is named Naruto for a reason!), you would think he has some type of especial power, that he is ready to face his enemies, that he does not rush to enemies like a retard, that he can prove himself. But NO! Not yet for some goddamn annoying reasons which are not clear to me. I seriously don’t get this logic. Why on earth should he be so goddamn weak? No speed, no battle plan, no especial Jutsu; Nothing. He completed (read advanced) a jutsu his father made in the first place. I want to see something that distinguishes him from the rest. His 9 tail beast was surpassed by Sasuke, his speed has been surpassed by almost everyone and his plans, well such thing don’t exist.

Now, after all that how is he going to fight Itachi? He sure should have some kind of a plan, right? He trained with Kakashi too. He should at least make Itachi move, make him a little surprised, right…RIGHT?

X____X

Ah well, itachi is too powerful for him, I understand. What about Sasuke? He can at least make some new moves right? I mean he trained for this day, he can at least make him stop for a moment, right?

X___________X

Ah fuck. I give up.

Uchiha Madara and Yondaime

When I first saw this picture, I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my chair! “Who would think of such things?”(a quote form C&C!) He even ordered pain! Since the Sasuke-naruto’s first encounter after time skip, I always wondered who this Madara guy was. In this chapter, one of the greatest mysteries in Naruto was solved, and then comes the second one; Pein is revealed and yet another one! Naruto’s father is also revealed!! Is there any mystery left in this Manga? Does Kishimoto really want to finish this as soon as possible?!

Since the very first chapter that introduced Yondaime, I wanted him to be somehow related to Naruto. He looked cool, badass, intelligent, brave and powerful, and well, basically everything his son is not! (Poor Naruto I’m really picking on him today!)

Side note, did Tsunade threw up because of the alcohol or is she pregnant? I’m probably thinking too deep!

God of War

Left: Your growth has indeed been stunted

Right: You’re as clumsy as ever.

And here Ladies and Gentlemen, comes my favorite character of this entire Manga, Pain/Nagato; the ultimate villain. He looks cool, his position is cool, the girl that accompanies her looks good, his hair style is cool(!) and above else he is the leader of Akatsuki. He orders Itachi around! That alone says a lot.

How can a child so innocent with such a great ideology (protecting his friends at all costs) suddenly turn evil? What happened to Yahiko, how did Konan transformed? We have to wait for those answers. But first lets talk about Nagato’s eyes; the ripple like pattern. It is said that among the three great eye techniques, those eyes are the greatest. But can they really surpass sharingan?

They created everything in the first place so they should! That being the case, why does Pain get his orders from Tobi then?? What the hell does this eye do anyway?

The last battle

Pein is just amazing; I really REALLY love him! Having said that these last few chapters hasn’t really shown us anything great about him. Yes he does summon big ass monsters, but that’s pretty much it. The only impressing thing so far has been the human summons, the same as Orichimaru. Do you get my point? Nothing especial for Pain as of yet. He is THE greatest ninja so please give us something extraordinary not just some half ass “he is great” speech by Tsunade. You see, that’s the problem I have with Naruto as well. There is only talk about his ability yet in reality he sucks. I want to see action not preach, for that I’ll go to church not the Manga. It seems the next chapter will be Pein-sama’s revenge, better yet pein-sama’s awakening; whatever you call it. I Want Him To Kick Ass No Matter Who His Opponent Is.

Overall, the recent chapters have been some of the best I’ve seen in Naruto! I hope the Manga continues this amazing style.

Btw, did anybody else notice this, Pain’s ring was on his right thumb but here it is on his left! What the hell…?!

It was originaly on the Right:

But now:

I tried really hard not to talk about details because doing so would make this really long and you know it, people don’t read long posts! I didn’t talk about Naruto’s mother being from the same country as Pein, Itachi Sasuke encounter, the softness in Jiraya when it came to torture, Jiraya’s especial Jutsu(which was pretty cool btw) and everything before these chapters! So feel free to talk about these as much as you like.

Do you think Pein-sama is going to win? Do you hate sasuke? Do you think Sakura is as useless as French Army in WWII? Do you think Naruto will ever grow as strong as his father? Do you think Assassin’s Creed is a piece of shit?!

Well, let us know what you think about Naruto. Let the conversation start \m/ d(-_-)b \m/

Btw, the artist of the nice Pain portrait is “Dynamic Dragon” from Mangahelpers.

Köinzell may look emo, but he prefers to slit your throat than his wrists.

When Wischtech threatened to invade the Empire of Szaalanden, the Emperor formed a party of 14 young warriors, armed them with Holy Lances and dispatched them on a mission to stop the invasion. 3 died on the way and they were called the Precious Departed; 4 betrayed the Emperor and were killed for it, they were named the Lances of Betrayal; the remaining 7 sucessfully completed the mission and were dubbed with the title of the 7 Heroes.

20 years have passed and the winds of war begin to blow again across Szaalanden .The Four Lances of Betrayal who were supposely dead reappear to launch a civil war right in the border lands. In the midst of these conflitcs appears a mysterious young boy with a scar over his left eye and a overwhelming swordmanship skill. Who is this kid who can slain whole regiments and has strange unnatural skills? In his eyes lays a dark past more old than his appearance betrays.

Story Synopsis

The frontier fiefs of Szaalanden are being threatened by a rebel army lead by the Lances of Betrayal, 4 traitors of the Empire who were though to be dead 20 years ago, The Spears of Betrayal. Near the position of one of the Spears, Kfer, a troop of 100-men was killed by a mysterious guy with a black sword and a scar on his left eye, so a hunt for that man begins. Later during a raid of a small village where that man was rumored to be, Kfer is killed by Köinzell, the young boy with a faint scar over his left eye, a swordmanship never seen for years and 4 black tentacles shaped as swords who come out from his right arm.

Will it Blend? – Army of Soldiers

During that incident, he is found by a party of the private army of Glenn, leader of the Seven Heroes, who wants to take him to the capital. The Emperor’s astrologer has foreseen that the Empire and the Seven Heroes would be threatened by a catastrophe and a hero would rise at the frontier. They think that Köinzell is this hero.

The rest of this arc revolves around the slaying of the remaining Lances of Betrayal and a revelation about Köinzell’s past, who may be the prophetized catastrophe.

About The Manga

Übel Blatt is a Seinen Manga serialized in Young GanGan by Shiono Etorouji, a recent mangaka who only has made a couple of One-shots. The manga starts by the Volume 0, which is acts as a set up introducing Köinzell’s past and motives. Excluding this volume, the manga has already 5 volumes released.

This ain’t no loli.

Reasons To Read This Manga

1. The Dark Fantasy genre of this manga is very appealing. Mix that with the fluid action scenes and the small breaks between them and you god a great story who doesn’t get boring.

2. A detail you will notice is the extreme violence and the very ecchi scenes. This isn’t really a reason to read but it is unusual to be so explicit in a japanese manga, so you may like the way those scenes are portrayed.

3. Köinzell’s past is revealed little by little during the manga and shows several aspects of his former life which makes us want for more info so we can connect all the events.

Übel Blatt it’s really hard to define or say why I like it (this post took me a whole week to make it and I’m still not satisfied on how I described Übel Blatt…). One thing is certain, not everyone will like it and some aspects of it can make you not like it at first sight (the first time I showed the manga to Impz, he was screaming “HENTAI, HENTAI, HENTAI!” ). But Übel Blatt has his own charm because it is this rough. The drawing style is solid and smooth, the plot is great if you enjoy tales of revenge and the supporting characters ha teir own appeal too. If you read Berserk or Claymore and liked it, you will probably like this too.

Slash and Dash.

Never provoke a girl armed with scissors.

“Open your mouth.” , says Urabe, the new girl in Tsubaki’s class. And then she licks her finger and sticks into Tsubaki’s mouth.
This is the daily routine that Urabe and Tsubaki have, the oddest couple you will see.

That’s because Tsubaki is addicted into her saliva and the fact she has some strange skills involving her drooling and a pair of scissors she has tucked in her panties.

Story Synopsis

Tsubaki Akira gets a new classmate, Urabe Mikato. This girl is very anti-social and a oddball: she sleeps in all the class breaks, has short ruffled hair covering her face and laughs for no reason during classes. One day, in the end of classes, Tsubaki goes back to classroom to fetch his bag and finds Urabe still sleeping and drooling over her table. He wakes her (and catches a glimpse of her cute face) and after she’s gone, he unconsciously tastes the drool on her table.

Girls that drool is my new Moe.

Two weeks pass from this incident and Tsubaki falls down with high fever during P.E. class. Later, Urabe comes visit the bed-ridden Tsubaki and asks him if he tasted her “drool”. Then she reveals his sickness it’s a withdrawl from tasting her saliva and forces her saliva smeared finger into his mouth. Tsubaki recovers almost instantly but then questions Urabe why her saliva has that kind of effect and managed to heal him. That was because…

“Your sickness was just love sickness.”

From that day, everytime they come from school, Urabe shares a bit more of her saliva to Tsubaki; a ritual and a unique bond between them.

About The Manga

Mysterious Girlfriend was originally a one shot Seinen manga published in Afternoon magazine in 2006, but reached serialization in 2006, having 2 volumes published. His author, Riichi UESHIBA, is know for Yume Tsukai and it’s prequel, Discommunication, the manga series about “dream masters”. The plot of MGX revolves around the strange relationship between these two characters, who become boyfriend and girlfriend. Urabe reveals more and more of her odd skills, like her uncanny ability with the scissors she wears tucked in her panties, which she can use them at a lighning speed, and her other saliva related skills (like drooling alot when she’s happy or being able to convey feelings through the saliva.)

Escher X Dali X some very horny guy.

Reasons To Read This Manga

1. Urabe. One of my main Moe factors is short hair girls and Urabe hits 12.5 on my Moe Meter. Her oddballness and carefree attitude really maker her shine like a lighthouse on a sea of generic moe characters. You can’t just stop wondering about the mystery behind this girls actions and skills.

2. This is a love story, which deals with the awakening of emotions and feelings between a guy and a girl starting their first sexual experiences. The way the mangaka shows those feelings are impressive, ranging from the Freudian dreams Tsubaki has to the saliva bond both have.

3. In spite of having several naked scenes and other erotic scenes, like the constant panty flashes of Urabe when she uses the scissors, these scenes are well used and not just some free fanservice. They actually add up to the tension of the plot.

This image was Churuya’fied for your own safety.

I knew the one shot version from a couple of years ago but I just recently found out that it is now serialized. . When I showed this to my fellow bloggers the general first reaction was “WTF?”, but after the initial shock, they praised the originality of the manga. This manga falls into the category of mangas such as Mirai Nikki and SWWEET, so if you liked any of them , you probably will like MGX too. Until I get hold of the 2nd volume (I only got hold of the first volume), I’ll wait eagerly for the continuation of this odd love couple .

Sweets between lovers.

A face that hides scars that can never heal.

“When I was in junior high I was sexually abused by my stepfather, I got pregnant, and then I had an abortion.” These words were engrained in the mind of the high schooler Suwa Daisuke. Wasn’t bad already he heard then by chance, when he hid inside a confessionary, but he heard them from the mouth of Aikawa Hinako, a schoolmate who’s just barely 16?

His perception of the world is twisted around and Daisuke will never look at Hinako the same way. This is a burden that both will carry together from now on.

Story Synopsis

Suwa Daisuke is your regular high school guy who dreams to leave the small boring town where he lives and to move to the big city. He also a bit of a playboy and keeps a lookout on all the girl around him. All expect one: Aikawa Hinako, a fragile and shy girl with a extreme horror for men which Daisuke interprets as being an simple act of “sweet virgin”, a thing that he hates. After doing his deliveries for the family’s restaurant, he goes to rest inside a abandoned church that’s supposely haunted (actually, he spread that rumor in the village so he could have a quiet place.) But on that day his rest is disturbed by the presence of Hinako, so he hides in the confessionary trying to avoid her. Hinako confuses the guy inside with a real priest so she starts making her shocking revelation: that when she was in junior high she was sexually abused by her stepfather, got pregnant, and then had an abortion. Even so, she got abused and pregnant again, but had the son, who was delivered to adoption, one year ago.

The secret she carries.

This confession catches Daisuke unguarded and gets branded in his mind. From this point, he makes a resolution to support and protect this girl who suffered so much already. Even if he doesn’t realize, there are also feelings of affection for Hinako rising up inside him.

About The Manga

Bitter Virgin is a Seinen manga serialized in Young Gangan magazine and was created by Kei Kusunoki (she also made Girl Saurus DX and 100 Ways Of A Exorcist.)It’s still ongoing and up to date has 3 published volumes. The manga revolves around Daisuke and Hinako’s relation, her past and other female classmates who have Daisuke as the target of their love.

Reasons To Read This Manga

1. This is the seinen with the most heavy plot I’ve ever read. Stuff like rape, pregnancy, abortion are aborded here and compel us to care even more for Hinako.

2. It’s impressive how they express Daisuke’s feeling and all the emotions that emerge from him along the manga. You get involved on the swirl of thoughts he has about him and Hinako.

3. The mangaka has a great drawing style. The look of the characters is nice , with a bit on emphasis on their eyes and the manga has alot of memorable one page scenes and close-ups, which adds up to the drama of the plot.

This is a good alternative if you don’t like your typical mainstream shonen manga. This isn’t your Bleach or Naruto, noone have special powers or it’s a goddess or can kill people by writing their name on a book; this is about the drama of a girl with a tragic past and the feeling of a guy for her. You just can’t avoid to cheer for them and wishing they will overcome all adversities. When I’ve first heard about this manga and saw the mangaka’s name, I though this would turn out another silly love comedy as she is used to make ( just think about Girl Saurus DX.) But I’m glad she changed , because she’s doing an excellent job with Bitter Virgin. We now have to see how it will develop in the next chapters.

Watching her from afar.

Bleach 283

After taking 5 shots – which Grimmjaw demonstrates to be extremely powerful – in the back, Ichigo’s mask cracks, and Grimmjaw begins to dominate the fight. Orihime tells herself that she can’t be afraid, but Vaizard Ichigo reminds her of her brother, and she fears that she has no place in this Ichigo’s heart.

Nell watches as Ichigo gets overpowered by Grimmjaw, and she’s shocked that Vaizard Ichigo could be losing, as he had previously overpowered both Ulqiorra and the Hundred. Nell cheers for Ichigo, and urges Orihime to do the same. Orihime is momentarily taken aback, and Nell asks her “Why are you scared of Ichigo?” The Ichigo who is only human, but takes on the roles of a Shinigami and Vaizard, so that he can protect others. The Ichigo who braves Hueco Mundo to save Orihime, who battles until his body is covered with scars, so that he can protect those dear to him. “Why are you scared of him? How can you not cheer him on?”

Orihime realises that Ichigo is in Hueco Mundo for the same reason that she is – so that they can protect others who can’t protect themselves. Orihime realises that her fear is unfounded, and she cheers for Ichigo. “Don’t die!” She says, “It doesn’t matter if you lose, it doesn’t matter if you don’t try so hard. So please… don’t get hurt anymore.”

Upon hearing this, Ichigo becomes filled with power and strikes back at Grimmjaw.

Thoughts

“No Ichigo you can’t die!” “You heard the lady.” *OMNISLASH BITCH*

What more can I say?

Oh and the brother thing. Completely slipped my mind until now. It must be shocking for her to see two of her most precious persons become hollows. Duly noted.

Naruto 362

Both Sasuke and Deidara are on the verge of collapse, having used up most of their chakra in the battle. They both collapse on the ground, unable to move, but Sasuke’s gaze remains unwavering in the face of possible defeat. Deidara hates that gaze, the unwavering, confident gaze of the sharingan, and how, despite the fierce battle that just took place, Sasuke doesn’t seem to care about anything other than getting information on Itachi. Deidara despises the Sharingan, and how the Uchiha brothers don’t care at all about his “art”. He decides to show off his ultimate art, a true suicide bomb, an explosion that has never been seen, one that will leave a rift in the land, and one that will gain his art unrivaled praise. He silently apologises to someone, and an explosion 10 kilometres in radius blasts up and outwards from where Deidara’s heart used to be.

Thougts

Talk talk talk *KABOOM*. Deidara’s vendatta against the sharingan is perhaps understandable. As a self-proclaimed artist, it must feel terrible to have his art completely overlooked.

One Piece 463

Luffy fights against Moria, but finds it difficult to get past his indefeatible shadow puppet.

Sanji arrives at the church and rescues Nami, but starts performing manzai with Absalom. Absalom underestimates Sanji, thinking that, as someone who was only given an animal zombie body, he can’t be too strong, but is quickly proven wrong as Sanji sends him flying with a kick. Sanji repeatedly attacks Absalom in his anger over how Absalom treated Nami and Robin on the Thousand Sunny. Additionally, it seems there’s some sort of old grudge between two.

Thougts
This arc of One Piece, at least as far as I’ve seen, feels a little different from previous arcs. Despite the fact that they’re fighting one of the Shichibukai and his subordinates, the mood is so light and the humour so ubiqutious that there is no tension at all. I’m getting the feeling that this arc is going to really highlight how strong the Straw Hats have become, as they walk all over Moria’s ship.

And damn, is Sanji kicking (literally) ass.