Manga spotlight: Koukou Debut
Koukou Debut, also known as High School Debut, is a surprising shoujo manga that focuses on the romance of an unlikely couple and personal growth. Haruna, an athletic girl who missed out her chance at romance during middle school, decides that for her high school debut she’ll concentrate as hard on romance as she did on softball in middle school. Unfortunately, the hopelessly unfashionable Haruna doesn’t quite understand that romance isn’t something you can easily acquire by brushing up on techniques and practicing hard. Her attempts to attract the opposite sex fail miserably. Read more
Spotlight: Until death do us part
When I first saw a description for Until Death Do Us Part, my interest for this manga was almost nonexistent. The story is about a young girl, Haruka, who deliberately finds a man to protect her from the powerful crime organizations that are interested in her unique abilities. Predictably, the man, Mamoru, is wickedly powerful and able to fend off all comers even though he is blind. If I want to read a story about two dimensional powerful guys who beat up the opposition without breaking a sweat, there’s lots of manga out there that cater to this, and they’re usually uninteresting. Read more
Manga spotlight: To Love-Ru
Honestly, I loved the anime series. The anime had an overall story arc, but most of the episodes were mostly one-shots that focused on many of the zany (and often sexy) side characters on the show. However, that didn’t detract from the show much. If you liked the anime, then you’ll like the manga too.
To Love-Ru is an unpretentious ecchi harem comedy. What I mean by unpretentious is that it never pretends to be more than what it is: light hearted comedy with some rather hilarious ecchi thrown in. The plot, what there is of it, involves Rito, the male protagonist finding himself living with a lovely and sexy alien, Lala. Lala is running away home and ends up as a freeloader in Rito’s home. Conveniently, Rito only lives with his sister, Mikan, who accepts Lala right away, much to Rito’s dismay. Read more
Manga spotlight: Omamori Himari
Omamori Himari is not high art. In some ways it’s a very typical harem anime, featuring a weak but likable male protagonist and a cast of progressively stranger females who form his harem. Omamori is particularly typical in this respect because it has every anime and manga stereotype coming out of the woodwork. Let’s see you have your katana wielding school girl who’s also a cat girl, the flat-chested childhood friend, the loli, the maid and the rich girl rival. If you’ve read a few manga series and watched enough anime, these character types show up all the time. They’re all formulaic with little variation. Read more
Manga spotlight: Claymore
Claymore, the manga, is still kicking Yoma butt and going strong. A lot of attention was focused on this series back in 2007 when a 26 episode anime adaptation was made of the Nohiro Yagi manga. Arguably, it was one of the slickest anime productions that year, and looked visually unlike anything else in the anime realm. The opening and ending sequence were beautiful and stylish, a lot more rock-and-roll-ish than you expected.
Interest in the series have calmed down somewhat these days. Claymore, the manga, still looks different than anything else on the market. No lolis, no characters overdosing on moe and not much ecchi, at least the type of ecchi that seems to pander to the audience. In an anime-manga landscape where the expected standard is something like Strike Witches, Claymore stays true to its shounen roots. Read more
Naruto: actually getting good now?
If you haven’t given up on Naruto the manga series yet, it’s a good time to be a reader. The last few chapters have actually been shockingly good. Kishimoto sensei has finally started focusing on the main character again. All of a suddden, more has happened in these last few chapters than what’s happened in the last hundred. Let’s run down the list, a major character dies, several minor characters die, Kohonagakure is practically destroyed and finally we begin to see the results of all that training Naruto has been undergoing.
The Naruto you see in the last couple of chapters doesn’t resemble the Naruto you’ve seen before. He’s always been powerful, but now do we see…maturity? Also, the training has taken its course. Naruto weilds a diversity of moves that has never been seem from him. In one clear sign of Naruto’s growth, he decides to use a different type of attack when he learns his opponent in immune to ninjitsu.
I’m at the edge of my seat now and can’t wait for the next chapter. This is what Naruto should’ve been all along. I’m finally glad that Kishimoto sensei has kicked this series up several notches. The end should be epic.
Girl Friends: yuri for adults?
Yuri, or girl’s love manga, is generally considered a genre for teenage girls and young women. As such, most yuri based stories have typical shoujo type characteristics, lots of drama and a slow moving plot line that focuses on relationships rather than action. It’s why when Girl Friends started publication in Comic High, it raised a few eyebrows. Comic High, though it’s described as a ‘girlish comic for boys and girls’ is decided aimed at an audience that is 18 to 35 and predominantly male.
Five mangas that MUST be made into anime
Over the last year, I read some incredible manga. Pretty much all genres and a wide variety of categories. You could call year 2008 my year of exploration for manga. I also watched more anime last year than ever. That’s kind of embarrassing to admit since I think actually watched more cartoons as a middle aged man than I ever did as a kid. Go figure.
With this newfound manga lore, I came up with a list of five manga that are (in my opinion) just begging for an anime adaptation. My recommendations are based on a number of factors: entertainment value, good story, good art work and successful commercial possibilities. I think the possible commercial aspects of any manga has to be given strong weight in any evaluation since making an anime adaptation is a risky undertaking. Animes can fail commercially and they’re not exactly cheap to produce. So without further ado, my list…
Change 123: surprisingly fun
If you’re in the market to pick up some new manga, I recommend Change 123. If you like martial arts, a pretty protagonist who’s really four beautiful girls all in one, and some really smartly drawn artwork then this series is for you. I was immediately drawn by how likeable the characters are. Even the main male lead, who is weak, is surprisingly brave when it counts and shows a sensitive side that’s uncommon weak male manga protagonists.
Change 123 has a number of service scenes, but the ecchi is done in the context of the story. It’s not ridiculous like what you might see in Ikki Tousen. Also, the humor nicely balances out some of the more hardcore fighting scenes. It’s nice to pick up a manga and be pleasantly surprised.
