Manga Sunday!

Reading comic books in bed on a Sunday morning, is there any better way to start the day? I don’t think there is :o)
Yen Press sent me a couple of books yesterday and I’ve just finished reading them. Here’s what I thought…



‘Alice on Deadlines’ (Part Two) – Shiro Ihara.

I have no longer have any trouble with starting to read Manga at the back, and finishing at the front, but there’s still a lot of stuff that I don’t get. For example, why are at least 95% of all the female characters spectacularly well endowed in one certain area? What’s that really all about? Another thing I haven’t quite got my head round yet is some of the content, I’m sure a lot of people would say different but opening this instalment with our heroes chasing after a ghost that steals women’s underwear left me feeling bemused more than anything else… To be fair though, things do pick up over the rest of the book, with the introduction of a powerful new Shibito and Shinigami (collector of souls that don’t want to leave this plane), but I almost wasn’t around to see it. And is there a love story quietly developing in the background? Maybe…
There’s a lot of action, and ‘Benny Hill like’ naughtiness, going on here and it is a fairly entertaining read. However, I found that there’s almost too much going on for such a slim book and it can be a little confusing if you don’t keep your eye on things. Some of the character illustrations could be a bit better defined as well as it is sometimes difficult to work out who’s who…
Not a bad read but hard going. I reckon I’ll give this one more book to see if things pick up.

Six out of Ten




‘With the Light’ (Part Two) – Keiko Tobe

From the ridiculous to the (almost) sublime… Last year I read Part One of this series, about the trials a mother must face bringing her autistic son, and absolutely loved it. (Have a read of my review over Here)
Time has passed and some battles have been fought and won but there are more problems that Sachiko and her son Hikaru must face. The arrival of a new daughter is a time for celebration but only serves to highlight Hikaru’s problems. Changes at school must also be faced and overcome, I was really gripped not only by what happened (favourite teacher leaving school and Hikaru getting lost amongst other things) but also by Sachiko’s resilience as well as the little things Hikaru said and did which marked his ability and development.
Both books have been amazing reads and this is one series that I will always be keeping an eye open for. If you’re after some Manga that is intelligent and well written then you could do a lot worse than follow this one as well. The only, slight, issue I had with this latest instalment was that it sometimes crossed the line from realism into idealism. Are people really as understanding and tolerant as Tobe made out? It would be nice if they were…
This didn’t stop me thoroughly enjoying ‘With the Light’ and rooting for Sachiko and Hikaru the whole way. Roll on part three, I really want to see where this one goes…

Nine out of Ten

Manga Monday!

Three more books came through the door this weekend and here’s what I thought of them all…

‘Y Square’ – Judith Park (Zen Press)

Yoshitaka is not a success with the ladies but his new classmate, Yagate, has no troubles in this area at all. However, in a strange quirk of fate, Yagate would much rather be a hit with Yoshitaka… Cue lots of unrequited love and teenagers getting themselves into trouble doing stupid things. The press release says this one is for ‘older teens’ and this is very much the case when you look at the characters (all teens) and the setting (a school). I haven’t been a teenager for a long time and school is (thankfully) a distant memory as well. Consequently, there was nothing there that engaged me at all. I read the whole thing but there was nothing there that made me want to keep reading if you know what I mean…
Might be worth a look if you’re fifteen or sixteen years old.

Four out of Ten


‘Black God: Vol 2’ – Dall-Young Lim & Sung-Woo Park (Zen Press)

Game programmer Keita Ibuki’s life is going from bad to worse now he has found himself entangled with a guardian of the coexistence equilibrium. He’s got an arm that isn’t his own, a friend who is suddenly in danger from shadowy strangers and Keita is about to find that it doesn’t stop there.
I loved the fight scenes in this (the artwork doesn’t pull any punches) but it sometimes felt like the rules were either being made up on the spot or I had come into something that had been going on a lot longer than just two books. As a result things sometimes felt confusing and this interrupted the flow of the story. The fight scenes take up a large chunk of the book (so there isn’t much room for the story itself) but you do get sense of plot progression and there’s quite a hard hitting ending!
This story is worth sticking with for one more book at least.

Six out of Ten


‘Zombie Loan: Vol 2’ – Peach-Pit (Zen Press)

Following the events of volume one, Michiru Kita now finds herself working for the Zombie-Loan office helping two undead agents (Chika and Shito from volume one) dispatch unauthorised zombies. The trio have their work cut out for them with the arrival of a serial killer who is intent on creating zombies of his own…
Despite some confusing moments, requiring re-reads, ‘Zombie Loan’ is starting to become a series where I want to see what happens next. The detective element to the tale keeps things fresh and the introduction of a new character puts an effective spin on established relationships, nice cliff-hanger ending as well! And it’s got zombies in it, what more could I want? Less of the confusing ‘did I just read that right?’ moments…

Seven out of Ten

Manga Saturday! 'Spiral (Part Two)' & 'Sundome'

'What is the mystery of the Blade Children?' When I read part one of 'Spiral' I decided pretty early on that I wasn't too bothered what the mystery was and put the book down very early on. For some reason though, I decided to give part two a try and see if I'd missed out at all. It turns out that I have missed out and I now need to see if I have part one still in the house. Narumi is still looking for his missing brother and is being drawn deeper into the mystery of the Blade Children. This is only the second book in what looks to be a fairly lengthy series so it's really all about setting up questions that will (hopefully) be answered later on. Having said that though, there are a couple of tense scenes, involving a bomb and killer bees, that really gripped me and the reasoning that went into the resolution was really clever. There was also some nice ongoing character development in Ayumu Narumi (the main character) and his trying to reconcile himself with his perfect older brother (whilst still looking for him). 'Spiral' is now looking promising and I'll definitely be around for the next couple of books at least.

Seven and a Half out of Ten


I should have realised what was coming when I opened the package to find 'Sundome' in it's own special wrapping... The 'Mature' label gave the game away but having read 'Sundome' I wonder if it should have had an 'Immature' label on it instead.
Fifteen year old Hideo completely falls for Kurumi Sahana but his 'physical reaction' manifests at very inopportune moments. Cue an entire book of Kurumi taking advantage of Hideo's feelings by getting him to do pretty much anything she wants in some kind of weird power game. On one level an interesting look at the dynamics of a relationship and the loneliness of being a fifteen year old nerd, on another level it's just an excuse to recreate 'American Pie' in graphic novel format. There's obviously a market for this but I'm not the target audience I'm afraid. 'Sundome' isn't one that I'll be reading anymore.

Three out of Ten

Manga Sunday! ‘Alice on Deadlines’ – Shiro Ihara (Yen Press)

When I reviewed ‘With the Light’, a few weeks ago, I made a passing comment about how not all Manga is about young girls with really long legs and large breasts. I still think this is true but (in what looks like an attempt to redress this balance) I’ve since been sent a Manga book that is entirely about young ‘over-endowed’ ladies and what they get up to…
As a punishment for reading ‘naughty magazines’ on the job, the shinagami (sort of like a grim reaper) Lapan is ordered to go to the Human Realm (in the body of a skeleton) to retrieve a wandering spirit. However; there’s a slip up and he ends up in the body of Alice, a student at an all girls school (she ends up trapped in the body of a skeleton). Lapan has a job to do but the lecherous shinagami also finds himself being able to act out some particularly lewd fantasies while Alice tries to limit the damage…
‘Alice on Deadlines’ is very much a cross between the ‘Carry On’ films and Benny Hill. There’s a lot of smutty situational comedy and sequences where Alice and Lapan are chased by buxom schoolgirls. This could get boring very quickly so luckily there’s also the story of the ‘wandering cannibal spirit’ to get into plus some events which are clearly there to have something ready for book two.
This is a strange one to call, there was enough there to make me read the whole way through but not enough there to keep me hooked as it were. The concept behind Alice and Lapin swapping bodies was good but the ramifications were perhaps a little too lightweight to last a whole book. Hopefully the supernatural element will take precedence as the series progresses, which could be interesting. I think there’s probably enough there to make me give it one more chance and see where it goes.

Six out of Ten

Manga Sunday!

Yen Press very kindly sent me three of their new releases, which I received yesterday. I fancied a change, from what I’ve been reading recently, so thought I’d have a ‘Manga Weekend’… All three books are fairly short so, as a result, you’ll be getting three short reviews! Starting with the best first…


‘Zombie Loan’ (Peach Pit)

A weak willed schoolgirl, who can’t say no to her friends, finds herself not being able to say no when two of her classmates enlist her in a battle against the undead. Only she can see the markings that distinguish the undead from the living. Her two classmates have a debt to pay and several schoolchildren have gone missing from their school… A Japanese version of ‘Buffy’ with a couple of neat twists. I forgot to start at the back of the book and managed to spoil the ending for myself… I liked the artwork but found myself with a strange desire to add some colour, the ‘balck and white thing didn’t quite work for me here. It was still a good read though and I think this could become one of the better series from Yen.

Seven out of Ten


‘Black God’ (Dall-Young Lim)

Keita Ibuki stops off for takeaway (on his way home) and finds himself caught in a cosmic battle between a sinister looking man and a girl with very long legs… There’s a whole philosophy behind this story that I didn’t quite get. Suffice it to say that there’s a cosmic balance that needs to be maintained. Because of the battle scenes (of which there were lots) this book seemed rather rushed (and rather like an episode of Pokemon)but, again, the seeds for some promising storylines were sown for the future. With this book I found that if you flick the pages really quickly then sometimes the pictures move!

Six out of Ten


‘Spiral’ (Kyo Shirodaira)

Have you started reading a book where you hate the main character so much that you can’t keep reading? Well, that’s what happened to me here… There’s supposed to be some serious philosophical underpinnings to this story but I never got far enough in to find out what they were. All I can really tell you is that a girl dies at school and our hero is the main suspect (his sister in law is the investigating detective). Ayumu (our hero) is far too cocky for his own good and while there’s a whole load of talk nothing actually happens.
I’m not going to rate this book as I never finished it, I think you could probably guess what the score would be though.

Well, two out of the three books (from Yen) got a decent score so things bode well for future books. I’ll be interested to see what they come out with next. In the meantime I’m getting a taste for Manga, can anyone recommend a good read?

‘With the Light (Part One)’ – Keiko Tobe (Yen Press)

This isn’t something that would normally fall within the remit of my blog but I’ve never read any Manga so I thought I’d give it a go. Having just finished it (literally just put it down) I felt I had to post something about it, it’s absolutely amazing and I defy anyone not to get something out of this read.
I used to think that Manga was all about post apocalyptic motorcycle warfare, demonic monsters and women whose legs were just a little bit too long to be believed. Well, the legs are still uncomfortably long but there was not a mutant or motorcycle to be seen in this book. Sachiko Azuma gives birth to a son, Hikaru, but it soon becomes clear that something isn’t quite right. Hikaru is reluctant to be held or hugged and his development is slow when compared to that of other children. When Hikaru is a year and a half old it is suggested that he may be deaf but a specialist reaches a different diagnosis, Hikaru is autistic. The rest of the book follows Sachiko’s efforts to raise Hikaru, and give him the best start in life, while faced with the prejudice of others (including her husband) and daily occurrences that take on new meaning when trying to care for a child suffering from autism.
I’ll admit that I don’t read many comics; a little bit of ‘X-Men’, some ‘Walking Dead’ and a teeny tiny slice of ‘Hellblazer’. I know where I am with western comics though so reading something that starts at the back, and finishes at the front, seemed like a daunting prospect in itself. Once I got into the story though, the format swiftly became irrelevant as I was gripped by Sachiko’s tale. I don’t know if Tobe has had a similar experience herself but she does an amazing job of capturing just what every little slight, setback and triumph does for Sachiko. ‘With the Light’ is a moving and poignant read throughout; I found myself empathising with Sachiko’s plight, cheering on her successes and getting irate on her behalf every time there was a setback.
Having never been to Japan, I couldn’t tell you how much of the prejudice (and indifference) that Sachiko has to deal with is accurately portrayed or if it’s overdone slightly in order to get the point across. I think the important thing is that it does make it’s point very clearly and makes positive moves to dispel some of the myths surrounding autism.
I couldn’t possibly review a Manga novel without making some mention of the artwork. It’s very simply done (black and white line drawings) but very effectively conveys what is going on and what it means, just like the story itself.
Like I said, this isn’t something I would normally post on here but after having read it felt that I couldn’t not draw people’s attention to it. I’d recommend it to anyone who thinks Manga is just demons and curvaceous ladies; ‘With the Light’ is something really special and I’m already waiting to see where the journey leads from here.

Ten out of Ten