Manga Review: 07-Ghost, Volume 3, by Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: VIZ Media (Previously Go! Comi)

Release Date: 2009

Volumes: 17.

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 2. 4.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The series' third entry leads Teito to the dark secrets kept by the man who raised him. Teito, an orphan and former slave, attends the swanky Barsburg Academy where, much to the amazement of his classmates, he aces the graduation exam. Things are looking up for the lonely orphan boy, until a chance meeting with the man who murdered his father changes his life forever. Fleeing to another empire, Teito is soon embroiled in a war between an evil god and seven ghosts. He's also in possession of a mysterious new power that could have devastating repercussions for the future of the planet -- and for Teito's own past. While Teito tries to uncover the truth about the Father and the apocalyptic Pandora's box, Ayami's faithful follower, Kuroyuri, frames Frau for a crime so heinous it could mean Frau's execution. Can Teito rescue his friend in time, or will a betrayal among the faithful lead to everyone's downfall?

Review:

I really want to catch up on this series, but it’s rather hard to find right now. Annoyingly enough. I’m also annoyed that Go Comi’s editions have colored pages, and yet VIZ’s new editions don’t. What’s up with that?

There’s a lot of serious stuff happening right now. Fighting, and running, and getting caught. New enemies being introduced, more showdowns.

I like the main character a lot, and I like his friendship with the reincarnated creature, as well as the relationships forming with the other characters. The artwork is nice, and the story is very interesting. The humor is also quite funny to me.

I want to read more, and I hope to get my hands on more of the series soon.

Manga Review: A Wise Man Sleeps, Volume 2, by Mick Takeuchi

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Publisher: Go! Comi

Publish Date: 2008

Volumes: 2

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. (Marketplace--Out of Print)

Volume 1.

Goodreads Synopsis:

More supernatural crime-solving puts Miharu to the test as she goes up against evil spirits, vengeful wives, and modern art mysteries As if that wasn't enough, there's another criminal-catching duo on the scene

Something Specific:

Quote:

• "'If you don’t have what it takes to accept those faults…then you don’t deserve to have her.’”

 

Review:

This volume was a bit of a disappointment, seeing as how it’s the last of the series, but doesn’t really resolve anything.

Granted, apparently the series took a year long hiatus in Japan (I think for publisher/licensing reasons), but still.

All this volume consisted of were more one-shot to two-shot stories. None of them are particularly memorable, although they are somewhat entertaining while reading.

I was honestly just not very impressed with this volume. The art’s fine. The characters are at least somewhat interesting, although I would have liked to have gotten to know them more. The humor was a bit weak, and didn’t really help me enjoy the book. And then it just kind of ends on a normal one-shot story, so I’m assuming that the series was canceled, which makes sense after the hiatus. 

I’m still hoping to pick up Her Majesty’s Dog, as I remember really liking it, and have the impression that it’s a lot better than this one was.

Manga Review: A Wise Man Sleeps. Volume 1, by Mick Takeuchi

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: Go! Comi

Publish Date: 2008

Volumes: 2

Spoilers?: Some.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. (Out of Print)

Goodreads Synopsis:

Miharu hasn't been having a good year. Her mother died, leaving her only a single ring to remember her by, and her father went bankrupt - leaving her with all his debts Though she'd intended to sell the ring to pay off her debts, Miharu finds herself unable to part with it... literally

Review:

I’ve had this series on my eye for a while, but hadn’t really planned to get it soon, when I saw it at my ‘local’ bookstore. I’ve read some of Her Majesty’s Dog, also by Takeuchi, and hope to get my hands on that series at some point, but it’s rather hard to find. So, this one.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, going into it. I figured it would be good, entertaining, and that’s pretty much what I got, although it was also a little slow at grabbing my attention.

Miharu, our heroine, is stuck with her father’s debt when he runs off. The yakuza are after her to get it back, and she’s trying to get by and avoid them. It doesn’t work very well. And then some strange guy, Akechi, an alchemist, comes up, claiming that this ring her mother left her is worth a lot, and he’d like to have it. She tries using this to her advantage, but that doesn’t turn out very well. In the end, her debt goes away, and she starts working for Akechi, who owns a jewelry store and is searching for jewels that have, kind of, souls to them, and that dead people’s souls attach to, whether for harm or good. And Miharu swallows her ring, and it kind of fuses with her, giving her the ability to sense the special jewels and see the spirits and stuff, something that Akechi can already do.

This leads to several one-shot chapters where Miharu tries helping, or hurting, people who have special jewels. These cases range from a little girl who lost her mother, to a psycho man who killed his family. One good thing about these one-shot chapters, in particular, is that there is some actual character development, character exploration, in them, which was nice.

Miharu seems like a pretty average heroine. She’s impulsive, barges in to help people whether she should or not, but is kind, I guess. I like Akechi—he’s kind of clumsy and awkward, but I like him. He has a double personality from his ring, one that Miharu likes, who’s very suave and powerful. There’s also a talking doll that Akechi has, a woman named Beatrice, who’s actual form, or creature, I was not expecting, but I like what I’ve seen of her. She's kind of blunt and rude.

There’s only one other volume in this series, which I have already, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the series ends, where it goes from here.

Manga Review: Bran Doll by Ryo Takagi

Genre: Action/Adventure (I'm not sure if it's shojo or shonen), mistitled as yaoi

Rating (Out of 5): ~2-2.5

Publisher: Go Comi! (Boyz Love)

Volumes: 1

Spoilers?: Minor-ish

Available at:  Amazon.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Fen has just been assigned a position in the Special Dispatch Force (a.k.a. the "SDF") protecting the King of Felamorga. When he arrives at the office for the SDF he discovers he's been accidentally enrolled in the Special Doll Force instead! Fen discover to his dismay that his new job is to search out and retrieve "bran dolls" with the help of four strange but beautiful men – who have more than just the job on their mind!
This is a one-shot (single volume) manga from the Go! Boyz Love imprint.

Review:

This was not quite what I thought it would be. I picked it up mainly because it was a one-shot from Go Comi!, mostly ignoring that it was yaoi and what the blurb on the back says. Not that that would have changed my wanting it, but still.

This was mostly a mediocre read for me.

Bran Doll is about Fen, a guy who has been working very hard all his life in order to work for the King, only to accidentally stumble upon a different secret group working for the King, and ends up being pulled into that group instead. Now, instead of working in security, he’s helping find a bunch of special dolls. He’s not very happy about it.

My biggest problem with the book was that I didn’t really feel like I got to know any of the characters well enough. It was at a pretty surface level that I got to know them at all, which didn’t make me feel very strongly for any of them.

Fen was just alright. At the beginning he seemed a bit full of himself, all ‘everyone envies me’, but that quickly went away and he just seemed like an average male main character. We meet the King and two of the people that Fen work with, and I never really got a good idea of any of them, and even had a hard time remembering who was who. Then there’s Dio, who’s actually the Princess but pretending to be a guy while working with the guys, and Fen is the only one who doesn’t know who she is. I never really got to know her much, either.

This book is under the Boyz Love group of GoComi!, but I don’t think that applies here. There’s a romance between Fen and Dio, but Dio is a girl. I also didn’t really feel very strongly for the romance; I knew it was there, but it was just okay. I didn’t really care much, either way, really. And the part where they finally got together was just alright--not immensely exciting or anything.

There are five chapters in this volume and four different missions, which means that we were introduced to a different problem every chapter, and thus different characters that we never saw beyond that chapter, and I think that’s why I didn’t get a good sense of who anyone was. There was too much time spent on other people that didn’t go anywhere. Usually you officially meet every character and get a sense for them in the first chapter, but in this book, it instead moved into a specific mission.

The last mission was the biggest and dealt with the King and Princess and their long lost brother and what that had to do with the dolls, including the reveal of Dio Is The Princess, and I guess that was the most interesting.

Again, I just didn’t really get enough of a feel for any of the characters; not enough to care very much for what happened.

It was just okay, I suppose.

Sidenote: This manga was created by the same author as TheDevil Within, which I remember reading years ago, even though I actually remember very little of what happened in it. It was a short series, only two volumes, but I do think it was better than this one.

Manga Review: King of the Lamp by Takako Shigematsu

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Publisher: Go! Comi

Volumes: 1/One-shot

Spoilers?: Some.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Be careful what you wish for Long ago, the king of a far-away land made too many enemies by expanding his massive harem. Punished and sealed away in the form of a genie, the lecherous former-king can only end his curse by helping 1,000 girls find love

Available on Amazon.

Review:

As I’ve stated before, I always hope to really enjoy these types of books. I’m always looking for one-shots, and especially for smutty ones, and always if it's from a company that I like, which I am a fan of Go! Comi, and was upset when they closed (particularly since there was no warning, they just kind of disappeared [as far as I know]). This one I wasn’t aware was smutty until I got it, nor was I aware that I had read some of the author's other series (one and two, both of which were much better than this), but I had been wanting to find it. And, after reading it, I’m a little disappointed.

Firstly, I had thought there was going to be a love story with the genie, but there wasn’t. Why wasn’t there? Instead, he got to kiss and maybe grope the girls he was working for, and I don’t see why they all let him. They’re supposed to be devoted to the guy they love, and yet they’ll make-out with the genie? That bothered me, but whatever.

My main problem with this book is how the romance was portrayed. Every time, the girl went after the guy, they got a genie to help them get his affection in some shallow or dumb or cowardly way, and there was always a scene where the guy that the girl ‘loved’ got violent or angry and pushed her around. That part annoyed me every time; it was always for some stupid reason, but the guy would get upset about something and push her down, force himself on her, and she just took it, usually weakly exclaiming 'no' or something similar. Usually it was interrupted in some way so the girl could explain to him how she felt and what had happened to calm him down, but the girl never got angry or fought back. That’s… wrong. Now, I don't know about any one else (although I don't think you should think differently), but if some guy tried forcing himself on me, whether I liked the guy or not, I would not want anything to do with him, ever again. So, to me, that’s the wrong way to react to that sort of situation.

There was also one scene from one of the stories, the first one, Ryoko’s Situation, where the girl confesses to him and he asks why he should go out with her, and she tells him because she’s more experienced and can teach him a few things. Aside from the fact that this is a lie, and lying about that it dumb, I can’t like the guy because of the fact that he asked “What’s in it for me?”, and yet she’s for some reason in love with him and trying to act more experienced. And then at the end he says that he’s in love with her and always has been; well, then, I don’t care if he was nervous, that was an asshole thing to say and he shouldn’t have said it.

Now, saying that, there were a couple of stories that I did actually like. The concept of Mayu’s Situation was interesting, even if the way she went about it, asking to be turned into a little kid to get closer to him, was dumb. Hinata’s Situation, where the boy is temporarily blind, was alright. I didn’t like how the girl pretended to be her sister, and the ending seemed cliché and/or rushed, but their relationship and their getting close wasn't too bad.

I did quite like I’ll Kill You With A Kiss; it was interesting, a little different, and I liked the characters and what happened. That one was probably my favorite, even if the girl was a bit dumb at times. The last one, Chicken That Flies in the Sky, is obviously a much earlier work for the artist, and there wasn’t much to it, but it was kind of cute.

The smut was pretty good, even if it was at times rushed, and I didn’t like the forceful parts of it.

This book was not horrible, but it was not really even close to being one of my favorites.