Seraph of the End: Brothers

I read Seraph of the End, Vol. 4: Vampire Reign

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.

World Trigger: Enlist Thy Neighbor!

I read World Trigger, Vol. 4

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter and at Grumble.

Toriko: Beyond the Limit!!

I read Toriko, Vol. 26

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.

07-Ghost: Sweet 16

I read 07-GHOST, Vol. 14

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me at Twitter or on Grumble.

Kimi Ni Todoke: Giri-choco or Honmei-choco?

I read Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 20

I posted a review at ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.

Seraph of the End: Operation Shinjuku

I read Seraph of the End, Vol. 3

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.

Toriko: Festival Kickoff!!

I read Toriko, Vol. 24: The Cooking Festival Begins

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World Trigger: Befriend Thy Neighbor!

I read World Trigger, Vol. 2

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter.

Review: WORLD TRIGGER Volume 1

WORLD TRIGGER, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Daisuke Ashihara
TRANSLATION: Lillian Olsen
LETTERS: Annaliese Christman
EDITOR: Hope Donovan
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7764-7; paperback (October 2014); Rated “T” for “Teen”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

At the age of 27, Daisuke Ashihara's manga, Room 303, won second place in the 75th Osamu Tezuka Awards.  World Trigger is Ashihara's second manga to run in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump.

World Trigger is set in Mikado City.  One day, a gate to another world opens in Mikado City, and invincible monsters emerge from the gate.  They destroy much of the city and kill hundreds of citizens.  These monsters are called “Neighbors.”  An elite band of warriors, the Border Defense Agency or “Borders,” for short, co-opt Neighbor technology and now fight back against their incursions.  Osamu Mikumo, a 15-year-old high school student, is a Border trainee.

In World Trigger, Vol. 1 (Destroy thy Neighbor!, Chapter 1 to 7), Osamu meets the new student at his school.  He is a blond-haired, 15-year-old named Yuma Kuga.  Yuma is new to the ways of Japan, but he is feisty.  He is also a Neighbor.

The World Trigger manga is a typical shonen manga in that it has a boy hero.  It is atypical in that its boy hero is not really good at his chosen heroic profession.  A member of his organization's natural enemy is also his friend.  That new friend also covers for Osamu during an incident that makes Osamu look like a giant-killer, which he is not.

World Trigger Volume 1 is straight-forward and easy to follow.  Creator Daisuke Ashihara is clever in the many different ways in which he inserts back story, terminology, science, and technology that the readers need to know in order to understand World Trigger.  Lillian Olsen's breezy translation picks up on the story elements that readers need to know and also on the series' comic tone.

I like Ashihara's loose, slightly-unpolished art style and his clean compositions and storytelling.  This first volume is surprisingly and highly entertaining.  Is it fluke?  I hope not.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Seraph of the End: Black Asura

I read Seraph of the End, Vol. 2

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter.

Toriko: Four-Beasts!!

I read Toriko, Vol. 22: Four Beasts

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter.

07-Ghost: Tiashe

I read 07-GHOST, Vol. 11

I posted a review at ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter.

Review: SERAPH OF THE END: VAMPIRE REIGN Volume 1

SERAPH OF THE END: VAMPIRE REIGN, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

STORY: Takaya Kagami
ART: Yamato Yamamoto
STORYBOARDS: Daisuke Furuya
TRANSLATION: Adrienne Beck
LETTERS: Sabrina Heep
EDITOR: Hope Donovan
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7150-8; paperback (June 2014), Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
200pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S. $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign is the latest VIZ Media release under its “Shonen Jump Advanced” imprint.  The series focuses on a teen orphan who borrows demonic power so that he can battle the vampires that rule over the Earth.  The series is illustrated by Yamato Yamamoto with story by Takaya Kagami and storyboards by Daisuke Furuya.

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign is set on an Earth ruled by vampires.  The vampire reign began in 2012 after the trumpets of the apocalypse proclaimed the fall of humanity.  A mysterious virus kills almost all adult humans, sparing those younger than 13 years of age.  Vampires arise from the shadows to rule the earth and to enslave the children as livestock for food.  In 2016, the orphan Yuichiro “Yu” Hyakuya steps forward, determined to kill all vampires.

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 3) opens in 2016.  It finds Yuichiro unhappy with his circumstances as an orphan, but his foster “brother,” Mikaela “Mika” Hyakuya, won’t let Yu be alone.  Together, Mika believes, the orphans will survive their world.

Four years later, Yu is a student at Shibuya High School #2, but he doesn’t want to be a student.  He wants to be a member of humanity’s most elite Vampire Extermination Unit, the Moon Demon Company.  But he will have to prove that he is willing to work in a team, which is the last thing he wants.

I am a big fan of vampire manga (although I generally have not really cared for American comic books featuring vampires).  The Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign manga is a thoroughly enjoyable read, although I did not think much of it when I received a review copy of the first volume from VIZ Media.

From what I can tell, it seems as if the vast majority of the series’ internal mythology is still unrevealed by the end of Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign Volume 1.  Apparently, “Seraph of the End” is an actual thing or entity that may not be revealed for several chapters (or volumes).

That aside, Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign is like the television series, “The Walking Dead,” a post-apocalyptic character drama and soap opera set in a horror-fantasy scenario.  Both are filled with genre trappings or, to use new terminology, full of stuff from the horror-fantasy wheelhouse.  However, Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign works best when seen through the characters’ hopes, dreams, desires, motivations, and conflicts.  So far, all of that seems genuine and honest – in a fantasy context, of course.  Judging by this first volume, I would call Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign a success.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Kimi Ni Todoke: New Year's Eve and Day

I read Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 19

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which has free smart phone apps and comics.  The Bin is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter and Indiegogo.

07-Ghost: Mystery at the Almaaz Estate

I read 07-GHOST, Vol. 10

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which has free smart phone apps and comics.  The Bin has a call out for donations.  Follow me on Twitter and at my Indiegogo campaign.

Toriko: Chowlin Temple!!

I read Toriko, Vol. 21: Showdown at Chowlin Temple

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, and you can follow me on Twitter and donate, if you wish to my Indiegogo campaign.

07-Ghost: Lady Ouka

I read 07-GHOST, Vol. 9

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

Manga Review: RANMA 1/2 2-in-1, Volume 1

RANMA 1/2 2IN1, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Rumiko Takahashi
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Gerard Jones, Matt Thorn
LETTERING: Deron Bennett
EDITOR: Hope Donovan
ISBN: 978-1-4215-6594-1; paperback (March 2014); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
368pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $16.99 CAN, £9.99 UK

Ranma 1/2 or Ranma ½ is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi.  It was originally serialized in Shogakukan’s manga magazine, Weekly Shonen Sunday, from September 1987 to March 1996, and later collected into 38 tankōbon (graphic novel) volumes.  Ranma 1/2 spawned anime series and films and recently a live-action special.

VIZ Media is the North American publisher of Ranma 1/2 and recently began publishing the series again in its “2-in-1 editions,” which collects two tankōbon (graphic novels) in one paperback edition.  Ranma 1/2 2-in-1 Edition, Vol. 1 collects Ranma 1/2 Volume1 and Ranma 1/2 Volume 2.

Ranma 1/2 introduces a 16-year-old boy named Ranma Saotome who was trained from early childhood in martial arts.  While on a training mission in China, Ranma and his father, Genma, dive into some cursed springs at a legendary training ground.  As a result, whenever he is splashed with cold water, Ranma turns into a girl, while hot water changes him back into a boy.  His father transforms into a panda.  What happens to the life of a half-boy, half-girl?

The story really starts years ago when Genma Satome promised his old friend, Soun Tendo, that Ranma would marry one of Soun’s three daughters:  19-year-old Kasumi, 17-year-old Nabiki, and 16-year-old Akane.  The girl picked to be Ranma’s bride doesn’t seem to like him, and she also seems to have a lot of suitors – many of them being quite combative.  Plus, an old rival of Ranma’s returns looking for revenge.

A truism about the work of mangaka (manga creator) Rumiko Takahashi is that her work mostly defies easy classification.  Her manga, for the most part, don’t really belong to one genre.  If I were forced to pick one, I would say fantasy, because of the various fantastical elements that permeate Rumiko’s work.  In addition to elements of fantasy, Rumiko’s manga incorporate comedy, romance, and martial arts.  There is a bit of an edge and a small undercurrent of darkness in her manga, just enough to let the reader know that all is not fun and games.

Ranma 1/2 is a delightful concoction of martial arts comedy and comic teen romance.  It is light-hearted and free-spirited, as exemplified in the way the characters so easily leap and levitate through martial arts battles.  I found myself in flight with these characters.  Ranma 1/2 2-in-1 Edition, Volume 1 allows readers to experience this unique and classic manga in big chunks, and it still might not be enough, once you get hooked.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Toriko: Ichiryu and Midora!!

I read Toriko, Vol. 20: Ichiryu and Midora

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).

07-Ghost: Memory Quelle

I read 07-GHOST, Vol. 8

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.