Manga Review: Voice Over!: Seiyu Academy, Volume 2, by Maki Minami

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: December, 2013

Volumes: 12

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A new series by the author of the best-selling S.A!

Hime Kino's dream is to one day do voice acting like her hero Sakura Aoyama from the Lovely?Blazer anime, and getting accepted to the prestigious Holly Academy's voice actor department is the first step in the right direction! But Hime's gruff voice has earned her the scorn of teachers and students alike. Hime will not let that stand unchallenged. She'll show everyone that she is too a voice acting princess, whether they like it or not!!

After their successful first lunchtime broadcast, Hime and the other Stragglers are looking forward to their next chance to wow the school and prove they have what it takes to stay in the program. But the scriptwriter they were counting on to pen their piece has lost her creative spark. Can Senri and Hime work together to jump-start her imagination?

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for teen audiences.

Review:

I was expecting this series to go much slower. Probably because her previous series had a lot of filler, but this volume actually seemed to take a step forward in plot. It makes me even more excited to read the next volume.

Maybe this is a bit weird, but it’s almost a little nostalgic to be reading Minami again. It’s been so long since I read S.A., and I really enjoyed the humor, the characters, and the side bars and bonus comics. It’s lovely seeing the puppet again, especially since this one is a character from this series, but we've also seen the one from S.A.. It’s just great, and I missed it, I guess.

This is very much a character-oriented series, and I really love the band of unique personalities. They’re all so different, shy and loud and violent and cowardly. There are a lot of characters, too, and while there’s still a lot to learn about each of them, I’m already liking most of them.

The first half of the book we saw Ume again, and she got a bigger part. I don’t really think we got in her head, but we did get to see some of her past. I like her quite a bit. And I really enjoyed her interactions with Takayanagi. Takayanagi is violent but shy with girls, and I found his shyness quite adorable. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that.

We got to see some of Hime’s family in this volume, and I wasn’t quite expecting her mother. Hime took a big step forward despite that, though, in her acting career. I wasn’t expecting this, but I’m excited to see where it goes. And I like that she’s able to keep a smile on her face, and be so optimistic, all the time.

I’m hoping to get to know the Aqua boys better, and I’m still liking Tsukino and Mitchy, and hoping to see more of their stories soon. There was very little Senri Kudo in this volume, and I really hope there’s more in the next one. I really liked him in the first one, and I want to see more development with him. Also, I want to comment on the fact that some of the characters have a different font when they talk. It really accentuates their personalities--that some are suave and some are hard-edged. It’s a nice touch.

This was a very nice volume, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes next.