Manga Reviews, Post Yours Here.

[anti_sk8r]

[b]Hot Gimmick[/b]

Aihara Miki, Viz Media, $9.95 USA/$16.50 CAN, Volumes 1-12, Mature

[img]http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/4137/hotgimmick9ho.jpg[/img]

[u]Storyline[/u]: Meet your protagonist, Hatsumi. Your regular teenage high school student. One day, she gets caught trying to cover for her little sister's pregnancy scare. Unfortunately, the person who catches her is the one person she hates most: Ryouki, who is the son of her father's boss and terrorizer ever since she was in Kindergarten.

She begs him not to tell anyone, knowing the problems it would cause her family in the apartment building community they live in, if word got out. He promises to keep it a secret, as long as she becomes his slave in exchange for his silence.

[u]My Review[/u]:To tell you the truth, I was a tad turned off when I first saw the cover of the first volume of the manga. Hot pink with a teenage girl dead-center. After a thorough (and I mean [b]thorough[/b]) check of the library it was obvious there was no other manga available. In desperation, I picked it up.

Two hours later, my nose was glued. I borrowed it without hesitation, even enduring the weird looks the librarian was giving.

I wasn't, and i'm not, a big fan of the artwork. It's definately nothing special. For me, it was the characters that got me hooked. You [b]wanted[/b] to find out whether Hatsumi would be alright. You [b]wanted[/b] Azusa (sorry, have to read the manga to find out about this character) to be there for Hatsumi. They have a bizarre sense of depth with a delicate personality system between each and everyone.

The only thing I found unsuitable for younger readers is the strong sexual prescence drifting in the novel. But even so, it's still not enough to bring it to the Mature rating, that Viz gave it. I think a more sensible rating would've been 16+.

[u]Final Thought[/u]: Easily likeable characters, good storyline, unnecassarily high rating and mediocre artwork deserves a solid: B
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[SilentSoul92]

[b]The Candidate for Goddess[/b]

Tokypop 13+ $9.99

[b]Storyline[/b]: In the year 4099, Earth is no more. The last planet left for mankind is planet Zion, the lost paradise. To protect this planet, pilots for the Goddesses, machines made to protect Zion, are trained at the academy. However, the Geisha attacking Zion are more than they seem, and the goddesses are not just machines

[b]My Review[/b]: I find the artwork very nice, but that's just me. Also, the storyline is a bit confusing, but in a understandable way. (does that even make sense?) There are many times when something seems wrong about the big picture and you just really, really want to find out what, not to mention that Paradise may not be what it seems.

And the characters are all very interesting. A-

The minus is for the fact that the storyline skips around from the planet to the academy at times and it confuses me.

[img]http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a271/SilentSoul92/goddess1.jpg[/img]

[Andy_and_Nicky]

Legend of Chun Hyang
Clamp, Tokyopop, $9.99 U.S., volume 1(only), Teen

Storyline: Based on a ancient Korean legend, in an era where people are persecuted against mercilessly, Chun Hyang a young 14 year old girl fights against the main oppressor, the Ryan Ban. A story of martial arts, adventure and fantasy is presented in this one volume graphic novel by clamp.

My Review: The art is everything you'd expect from clamp, there is murder, suicide, and attempt of rape...yeah. Anyways if you want to get a quick manga series with out wasting a lot of money get Legend of Chun Hyang, its only one volume. The story line is pretty good, the book contains 3 stories, all are fairly well presented but rushed, the entire book doesn't seem to have an ending, the reader is left wondering. If you're into clamp, or just want an easy manga collectible Legend of Chun Hyang is the perfect choice.

Ratings: Art would be A- and plot or storyline would be a C because it has no real ending.

[Kokuro]

[b]Busou Renkin 武装錬金[/b]
[img]http://man3k.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/busourenkin.jpg[/img]

[b]Author:[/b] Watsuki Nobuhiro(Creater of Rurouni Kenshin)
Viz Media will release the English version on August 1st.

[b]Story:[/b] Average High school student Muto Kazuki was killed by a monster one night in order to save a mysterious girl--Though it was just a dream. Kazuki realizes that it wasn't a dream and he was really kill when a supernatural creature attacked his sister and him. Later Kazuki meets the girl, Tokiko, that he saved last night, and she explained that the creature that just attacked him was called a 'Homunculus', and that Kazuki was the one who sacrificed his life last night in order to save her. So Tokiko brought him back to life by placing a Kakugane metal in place of his human heart. Thus this life of an average high school student changed ever since...

[b]Opinion:[/b] If I could compare the artworks with Rurouni Kenshin, Busou Renkin would be much better. However, by characters and plotlines, Kenshin is better. The idea of alchemy and homunculus is kinda like Fullmetal Alchemist, though a bit different in some ways. It's an OK manga, but I have to admit it did caught my eye.

[b]Rating:[/b] B
A would be for the artworks, and about C for the plotline.