Saving the Best for Last!

Well, here we are, readers: the final one of the nine manga I promised I’d review before the end of the year.  And what a manga!

This offering is called “Kamo” (or, more properly, “Kamo: Pact with the Spirit World”), named after the protagonist, Kamo Mitchell.

Born with a weak heart and slowly dying, Swiss native Kamo (I’ll explain later) is approached in the hospital by a spirit named Crimson.  This skull-faced individual asks that Kamo help him consume the souls of twelve other spirits, in order to prolong both their lives.

Kamo accepts, in order to keep on living for both himself and his parents.  But then reality sets in and Kamo must flee the hospital and live for a time on the run, lest his miraculous recovery be found out and researched clean into oblivion.  He vows not to return home to his loving parents until all twelve spirits have been defeated.

The first volume works to set the stage and introduces us to their first adversary, Thunderbolt.

But, before you say anything, he is more than just a lightning bolt attack user, he can also consume electricity, change the weather and travel through power lines.  He starts off small, but then quickly grows into something resembling one of the Hollows from Bleach.

Kamo fights Thunderbolt using Crimson’s magic flute as a held weapon, along with some musical magic tunes from Crimson himself.  Thunderbolt escapes, but, during the fight, Kamo saves a man named Enno, who takes him in for a while.  And his daughter is friends with the mysterious occult expert Shokola.

She becomes an ally of theirs, but doesn’t ultimately do very much aside from providing support and information.  (Hopefully, that will change.)

In the end, Kamo is forced to forever enjoin his soul with Crimson’s, creating a form that more resembles one of Bleach’s Arrancars.  Thunderbolt is defeated by this new form and we end with Kamo feeling drained and, I guess, trying to recover in time for their next spirit battle mission.

This series feels unique to me, and not just because it’s set in Switzerland and done by Swiss native Ban Zarbo.  (FYI, sah-weet name!)  Speaking of which, the names are fun, and the cast shows more than just the usual standard Japanese white-bread characters.  Shokola is Latina and Kamo is, I guess, Japanese.  It feels almost like an American superhero comic, in that way.

(Although, I must admit, having Shokola liberally pepper her speech with Spanish words and expressions may smack a bit of maybe trying a little too hard.)

The art style is realistic and the concept, while done pretty often, is not handled badly at all.  Crimson is basically Ryuk, in that he finds a human to give his powers to and to aid his own life, but he still gets to keep his secrets and is under little obligation to actually help Kamo.  Initially, he lies about only being able to lend the hero character so much power, but then he’s forced to admit his lie and help Kamo to hold his own against Thunderbolt.

Oddly, there is no visible mention of a curse, or a price to pay for Kamo’s acceptance of Crimson’s deal.  That’s kind of a nice touch and an interesting twist on the typical story, in my opinion.

Kamo himself is typical in some respects, such as his desire to go to a normal school and live like a normal, not-sick kid.  He is also very selfless, running away so as not to get too many innocents involved, as well as forbidding Crimson from killing anyone after finding out what he did to a doctor at the hospital who tried to stop him.  Kamo is also sick and dying, but he’s not calmly accepting and ready to throw in the towel, nor is he fighting out of a selfish desire and a hunger for more life the way Crimson is (at least, not yet).

Finally, let’s talk about Thunderbolt, this volume’s first villain.  His power set is interesting and his design is unique, but what’s really great about him is his personality.  We learn after the fight that Thunderbolt has been around for years now, killing tons of innocent people just for fun.  He doesn’t even seem to get anything out of it other than sheer joy: no battle experience, no sustenance, no visible reward for it that he must return to some evil master or something.  Nothing.

He’s also smug and a jerk, laughing to Kamo about all the innocent people he’s killed and trying to manipulate him into making mistakes in battle.  He also mocks Kamo’s ability to do anything against him and his battle strategies.  And, like a lot of such characters, he actually has the strength to back it up.

I, for one, would love to see this series continue and thrive here in the US.  Sadly, the manga is probably all the world is ever going to get.

You see, this title is being put out by Tokyopop, people I haven’t really heard from for many, many years now.  These days, it seems they’re mostly focused on Ameri-manga and graphic novel adaptations of Disney movies (including the horrendous Alice in Wonderland remake that forced me to really take a look at my life and I hate).

You’ve got to admit, such a history doesn’t really bode well for any big sort of media release, does it?  Let’s hope it doesn’t just end after a few volumes like Sokora Refugees and Peach Fuzz did.

And, while we’re at it, let’s all hope that Kamo at least makes it to the level of “forgotten cult classic”.

That’s probably about the best we can hope for.

See you all in 2019!

I Hunger for Endo Yasuko

One day, penniless high school student Makioka Shizue happens to see Endo Yasuko doing...something to another girl.  As she tries to get away, Yasuko corners Shizue and does the exact same thing to her.  Yasuko proclaims herself "a crazed killer" and that Shizue tastes good, leading them into a food-for-food agreement (that is, Yasuko pays for Shizue's meals if Shizue gives Yasuko her blood now and again).

But, before Shizue agrees to their "commitment kiss", Yasuko goes to prey on another student by the name of Akari Agawa.  The terrified Akari then goes on to hire a cheap American vampire hunter named Ashley Nelson to exterminate Yasuko.

And, while all of this is going on, several girls from the school have gone missing and a dippy detective is running around asking questions.

But, don't go getting me wrong: this manga is nowhere near as serious as the preceding Spartan summary would have you believe.  It has its funny parts, both within the main story and (much more frequently) in the bonus 4-koma that we see after every chapter.

All of the characters have really unique designs and the art is good.  And it has a nice dose of realism to it.

It's never explicitly said that Yasuko is a vampire, just heavily implied.  For a while there, it looks like she just might be a normal human, until a blood hunger causes her to grow into a giant.

Speaking of Yasuko, I love the fact that this supernatural love interest (Yes, it's a yuri!) is by no means an "Ace" character who's good at everything, nor is she completely stupid like Youko Shiragami from My Monster Secret.  (Although, to be fair, she is just as slapdash as Shiragami-san.)

And, on Shizue's side, when I first started reading the manga, I initially thought she was a boy.  She has short hair and doesn't look all that feminine or attractive, so you can forgive me for thinking so.  Shizue reminds me of Haruhi from Ouran, not only in terms of appearance, but also because she initially decides that the vampire feeding she witnesses is none of her business and tries to run away.  (Though this is also tempered with a nice dose of everyday-Joe cowardice.)

Akari Agawa, by the way, is more of a nuisance tsundere than a true threat to our heroes.  Plus Ashley can't speak Japanese, leading to her learning it, which is one of those nice touches of realism I mentioned earlier.

But what really drew me into this manga, before I even knew it was a yuri, was how the back blurb was written.  It mentioned the missing girls (if I recall correctly) and questioned whether or not Yasuko was a vampire.

This intrigued me.  I came in fully expecting a lot of cryptic sentences and avoidance of the topic, leaving us to wonder for quite some time until the big reveal (which there has not been yet).  But wouldn't it have been something if Yasuko was just a freak with a biting fetish or your run-of-the-mill everyday serial killer.

What if there was no vampire at all?

But it's still pretty cryptic and interesting, so I'll keep reading. (Plus, we're given a scene of Shizue taking her top off to feed Yasuko, and the next volume promises a bath scene.  And who can honestly say no to yuri, vampires and sweet, sweet fanservice?)

Kenka Banchou Otome Review

Hinako Nakayama and Hikaru Onigashima are long-lost twins, separated at birth.  While Hinako was raised in an orphanage and learned to fight for her own survivial, Hikaru was brought up as the heir to a powerful yakuza family.

Unfortunately for him, being the next head of said family means Hikaru must take control of a high school full of thugs as their top fighter, as is family tradition.  But Hikaru hates to fight.  That’s where our protagonist Hinako comes in.  Her brother uses their family ties to guilt the dutiful Hinako into posing as him and going to his all-boys high school (while he, of course, does vice-versa).

This is the basic story of “Kenka Bancho Otome” or, in English, “Love’s Battle Royale”.  (I have no idea why it’s called that.  I speak Japanese and, more literally, it would mean something like “Battle Squad Leader Maiden”.)

Right up front, this story pings several shojo manga and gender bender tropes.  What do you want to bet that we’ll soon run into a pretty girl who either wants to fight Hinako, learns her secret or else falls in love with her?  Or a guy who thinks “Hikaru” is cute and suddenly starts questioning his sexuality?  (Oh, wait: we might already have that.  I forget.)

And, of course, Hinako was saved in her youth by a mysterious hottie, who just so happens to be fellow student Rintaro Kira.  Although one problem I have with this series is that Rintaro looks a little bit too much like fellow hottie Takayuki Konparu.  This became a problem early on, as I quickly got the two of them mixed up.

Also present is teen idol Yuta Mirako, who instantly sees through “Hikaru’s” disguise and has a dark past.  (Ooh, shocker!  Right?)  And then there’s Totomaru Minowa, the strongest and hottest guy in the school, who we all know will eventually end up with Hinako.

One downside to this series is that we never see any of the real Hikaru’s adventures playing pretend in the girls’ school.  And, let’s face it, that would probably be more fun.  I mean, changing clothes for gym, upskirt shots and tons more female eye candy than we’re currently getting.

Apparently this manga is based on a Spike Chunsoft video game dating thing.  And I think there’s an anime.  Maybe it’s better in one of those incarnations (or possibly both).

On the upside, one interesting thing about this manga is Hikaru’s servant Sakaguchi.  He’s a man, and yet he bows and scrapes and drools over Hikaru as if he were a pervy old man after “the young mistress.”

You definitely don’t see that every day.

Fluffy Protags, Fluffy Manga

For some unknown reason, female animals all over the world have begun transforming into cute humanoid girls.  One such girl is big-horned sheep Youko.  For a time, she lives with her flock and master in relative peace, long enough to learn how to talk and wear clothes and help out on the farm.  But, one day, Youko finds herself abducted by strange men, at her master's request, and taken away to a place where she can learn to be more human and eventually blend into society.

That place is the school Animalium.

Youko begins making friends at Animalium, such as the beautiful and airheaded Merino sheep Fuwako.  Our girls set about learning how humans do things and how to control their new human bodies and so forth.  But Youko, at least initially, while friendly enough, thinks mainly of learning how to be human quickly so she can go back to her master.

This series is basically, long story short, a very fanservice-y Japanese school slice-of-life thing.

Not only are all of the animal girls, or "Arcoids" (Animals Reformed and Cultured to be HumanOID) female, but they also run the risk of turning back into their animals forms during times of stress.

Anyone else remember Fruits Basket?  This is sort of the inverse of that...No, wait: not really.  They're animals turned human that turn back into animals; the Sohmas were humans that turn into new animal forms.

Oh, forget it.

The fanservice part comes not only from the tendency of Arcoids to burst or shrink out of their clothing when they become animals, but also from the quite frequent uses of all-girl Japanese bath scenes.  Plus, since they're all girls, we may run into some more yuri-ish scenarios.  (And you all know how much I love yuri.  Sexy yuri, that is.)  We've already seen something like that in Volume One, where we meet a wolf who wants to get close to a rabbit.

Needless to say, we have yet to see any real serious story or any enemy threats or anything, but this series isn't too bad for what it is.

And no, it is not just another T&A-fest like that Daily Life with Monster Girls one.

One gripe I do have with "DNA Doesn't Tell Us" is the names.  "Fuwako" isn't so bad, if a tad on the nose, because it obviously has roots in "fuwa fuwa" or "fluffy" in Japanese.  But some of the girls have much dumber names based solely on what they used to be.  Examples include Rilla the gorilla, Roo the kangaroo and Harry the hedgehog.  (Although the last one is a tad more forgivable than the others because it is based on "harinezumi" or "hedgehog.)

I will probably keep reading this series until I grow bored with its lack of action.  The adventures they have are reasonable and down-to-earth and the characters are pretty standard for a slice-of-life manga such as this.

The last few pages show us the un-domesticated animal girls side of things, where we see several half-dressed half-animal girls crawling around on all fours with no sign of speech or sentience.

I doubt they'll be evil or like the hard-to-teach special needs kids, but with any luck they'll make things interesting moving forward.

"Magical Girl Raising Project" Review

Somehow, it seems that lately no genre is more open for parody or skewering than the “magical girl” manga.  I think the last one I ever read was “Tokyo Mew Mew” for god’s sake!  Puella Magi Madoka Magica combines it with angst and ennui and a Deal with the Devil.  Magical Girl Apocalypse and Magical Girl Site (another big fave) combined it with ecchi, gore and some intricate storylines.

Magical Girl Raising Project seems like a mix of both and, for once, that doesn’t seem like a bad thing.  And it even feels like it’s thrown in a bit of Game of Thrones.  Game of Thrones Lite, if you will.

(Author’s Note: For the sake of saving space on the page and having you guys have to read less, I will use some acronyms from here out.  You can probably tell what they mean from the context, if you’re smart.)

In this series based on a novel (or maybe even a series of novels), magical girls like La Pucelle and Snow White gain their special powers by playing the titular cell phone game.  In the game, you can gain points in the form of Magical Candies for beating up the bad guys.  IRL, you gain said MC by doing good deeds…and you can freakin’ DIE if you don’t have enough!  We see this fate befall La Pucelle and Snow White’s mentor Nemurin on page.

The site admins of Magical Girl Raising Project claim that this is being done because they accidentally made more MGs than they can handle, so the number must be cut in half.  They had sixteen, so that means eight of them must die.

And die they do.  What ensues are several chapters of brutal betrayals, risky alliances and deep looks into some of the MGs’ pasts.  (Spoiler Alert: La Pucelle is a BOY!  Granted, there’s a male MG in Magical Girl Site, too, but still…  At least that explains the slightly yuri-ish feels I got in the first few chapters.)  It doesn’t help that, in addition to helping people, one can also steal someone else’s MC to gain their points.

Lots of people die off fast in the first volume, so logically that might mean that the remaining 10 girls die off much more slowly, leading us into more character depth and longer, drawn-out battles.

Fingers crossed.  I, for one, fully intend to keep reading.  We’ll see just how long this series manages to hold my interest.

No ideas for my next couple of series.  But the year’s still young.

Any suggestions?

"Beasts of Abigaile" Review

Normal Japanese high school student Nina Tsukishiro moves to a small country called Ruberia to live with her uncle.  Along the seemingly Italy-inspired beaches and fine stone architecture sit groves and groves of different rose flowers, apparently each with their own uses and capabilities.

When she notices a strange boy pulling a robbery and he bites her, Nina transforms into a furred humanoid not unlike the boy was.  This leads to her being shipped off to the titular Abigaile prison, where creatures like her and the boy, known as Luga, are trained to serve humans as slaves.

There Nina encounters the boy from before, the hot and mean guy with a heart of gold Roy Balfour and the Luga/slave guard (in that he is all three) Gilles.  As you can imagine, he is the hot and kind guy.  (I know, it’s clichéd, but frankly it seems a small price to pay for this series.)  The fair-minded Nina joins a clique (or “home”) full of funny lovable gay guys and dedicates herself to fighting the injustices within the prison.

And there we have a basic overview of Spica Aoki’s “Beasts of Abigaile”, Vol. 1.

Now, I myself am a writer and I’m writing a werewolf story, so Beasts of Abigaile is practically a goldmine of ideas.

The story itself seems basic enough on the surface, but there are serious racial tensions between the humans and the Luga, which have left many of them embittered against their captors and the entire human race in general.  This combines with some jealousy from the other female Luga due to Nina’s getting so close with both Roy and Gilles.

So, naturally, a big plot point is that Nina must use a special perfume to hide her human identity (and smell) from the school’s Luga.  (Even though it is hinted now and then that Nina herself is not, or at least isn’t entirely, human herself.)

And I’m sorry, all you fans of Kelly Armstrong, Vicki Lewis Thompson and Molly Harper: there is little to no nudity here.  The Luga are pretty much werewolves in name only, in that their only hints of a bestial nature are their fluffy ears and tails (and, I think, red eyes).  They have claws and sharp teeth and can become even larger and furrier, but they don’t seem to be able to become full wolves, or even those bipedal wolves with boobs and pecs that you see now and again.

So, basically, at the risk of sounding sexist, “Beasts of Abigaile” is basically a werewolf story written by a woman (I’m assuming), and thus naturally focuses more on story and relationships than on nudity and transformation fetishism.

But, for once, I’m not complaining about that.  I just want to see where it's going, because one problem this series does have is that, if there even is an over-arcing story in here somewhere, it seems awfully slow to move anywhere.

Oh, well: more time to focus on the characters.