Results tagged “365 days of manga”

HIKKATSU! (Hikkatsu: Strike a Blow to Vivify!) (ヒッカツ！) • Yu Yagami • Go! Comi (2007-2008) • Media Works (Dengeki Comic Gao!, 2005-2006) • 3 volumes • Shônen Postapocalyptic Martial Arts Comedy • 16+ (mild language, crude humor, violence)
In a semi-lawless future where electromagnetic waves are causing rampant mechanical breakdowns, one man wanders the Earth bringing order out of chaos—Shota, a driven young martial artist whose master technique is the “repair blow,” based on the time-honored principle of banging a broken TV to fix it! On his quest he encounters Momoko, a girl martial artist raised by pigeons, Kanji the money-grubbing slacker, and a variety of obsessed weirdos from the “enthusiast clans” (i.e. “prehistoric lifestyle enthusiast clan”, “bean gun enthusiast clan”) who dot the countryside. Much like Yagami’s Those Who Hunt Elves parodies fantasy manga, the story combines physical comedy and parody of the postapocalyptic sci-fi genre, as the characters wander around fighting mutants, robots, gangs and assorted idiots. In the final volume, things settle down a little for a melodramatic closing storyline. While not nearly as sophisticated and dense with jokes as Koji Kumeta (Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei!), Yagami’s work has a similar absurdist feeling, and at three volumes it ends before the one-note characters get too old. The art is clean and precise, with memorably weird images.

I•O•N (イ・オ・ン) • Arina Tanemura • VIZ (2007) • Shueisha (Ribon, 1997) • Shôjo Psychic Romance • 1 volume • 13+ (nothing offensive)
Teenage Ion Tsuburagi has an accident in the school laboratory and develops psychic powers. Soon, when she speaks the trigger word “Ion”, she can fly and use telekinesis—but does Mikado, the head of the school psychic club, really like her, or does he just see her as an experiment? Arina Tanemura’s debut manga, I•O•N is much more visually restrained than her later screentone-crammed works, for a plainer but altogether more readable look. Tanemura’s taste for turgid melodrama gives the story a little tension, making it one of the more entertaining “believe in yourself” shojo superpowers manga for young readers (despite Viz’s unnecessary 13+ age rating).

Today we have a double manga review because I accidentally re-posted an old review a few days ago. Moving on, today’s winner is Matt R. of Michigan. Congratulations, Matt!

Continuing the King of RPGs pre-launch hype… Deb Aoki of manga.about.com recently posted an interview with me and Victor Hao in which we talk about King of RPGs, video games, RPGs, manga and just about everything we could think of. Please take a look!

Over the course of “365 Days of Manga,” I’ve mailed out over 500 manga to random winners, and there’s still more than 250 days to go.

But now I’ve decided that manga giveaways are too important to be left to random chance. The “365 Days of Manga” contest will continue, but I also want to give a WHOLE BUNCH of manga at once to people who exhibit the most important trait of a mangaka: creativity. And since my second biggest love after manga is RPGs, what better way to show your creativity than by telling me about a character you created for a role-playing game — a MMORPG, messageboard RPG, tabletop RPG or any other imaginary avatar created by YOU!

Announcing… the KING OF RPGS “Tell Me About your Character” Contest!!!

King of RPGs is a graphic novel, written by Jason Thompson and drawn by Victor Hao, coming in January 19 from Del Rey Manga. It’s the tale of one college student’s quest to become the Greatest Game Master in the World… and another student’s quest to overcome his “World of Warfare” addiction. It’s an epic comedy mashup of shonen manga, Japanese RPGs, “Mages & Monsters,” collectible card games and way, way too many 20-sided dice.

To win this contest, you must prove to me that you, like the characters in King of RPGs, are worthy of the title… THE WORLD’S GREATEST ROLEPLAYERS. Send me a description of a character you have created for a roleplaying game! It can be a character from a MMO (like World of Warcraft), a messageboard/forum RP, a tabletop RPG (like Dungeons & Dragons), a live-action RPG, or anything you can think of, as long as (1) you play that character and (2) you made them up.

The full contest rules are available here, but here are the basics:

THE RULES
(1) Email me and tell me about the character you play!
(2) Your character must have a name (even if it’s something like “The Nameless One”)
(3) You must include your mailing address in your email
(4) You must tell me what kind of manga you want (shojo (girls’), shonen (boys’), seinen (men’s), yaoi or a mix)
(5) You must tell me your age (no seinen or yaoi manga will be given as prizes to people under 18)
(6) Your entry must be between 100 and 1000 words long.
(7) Plagiarism is grounds for immediate disqualification. Don’t do characters based on anyone from novels, movies, TV shows or video games, unless you disguise ‘em so well that we can’t tell who they’re based on.
(8) You can only submit one character per email address.
(9) On JANUARY 11, 2010 I will choose the four most original and interesting characters and announce them on suvudu.com and kingofrpgs.com. Each of the 4 winners will receive the grand prize!

4 GRAND PRIZES
* 30 graphic novels from my personal collection (you choose what kind: shojo, shonen, seinen or yaoi!)
* PLUS 5 role-playing game books (also from my collection, including Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Vampire, Mage, Ars Magica, and many others)
*AND a set of role-playing game dice! (one 20-sided, one 12-sided, one 10-sided, one 8-sided, one 6-sided, one 4-sided)

So, when you’re ready, tell me about your character (before January 11!) for a chance to win 30 manga! And check out www.kingofrpgs.com for more information, including tips on how to win, and how to send in your character!

Jason Thompson
www.kingofrpgs.com

TOGARI (トガリ) • Yoshinori Natsume • VIZ (2007-2008) • Shogakukan (Weekly Shônen Sunday, 2000-2002) • 8 volumes • Shônen Occult Action • 16+ (mild language, frequent violence, partial nudity, brief sexual situations)
Tobei, a snarling murderer from Japan’s Tokugawa Era, is let out of hell on a mission: if he can kill 108 “Toba” (bug-like spirits which inhabit sinners) in 108 days, using the magic wooden sword named Togari, he can live again. His glee at being free again is dampened when he finds he is forbidden to hurt mortals or do any bad deeds at all, despite his scary appearance (“He’s more than a sinner! He’s evil incarnate!”) and callous worldview (“I don’t care about anyone’s life except my own!”). For a manga in which a villain gradually turns into a good guy (as in InuYasha), Togari makes a stronger than usual effort to show Tobe’s gradual socialization process. Tobei, who was raised in feudal slums, must deal with two baffling new things: (1) altruism and trust and (2) modern technology such as TVs and cars. These scenes are well-written and only rarely preachy (and the technology scenes are funny), but the plot becomes more typically fight-oriented in volume 4, when the Toba develop superpowers, and a “big bad guy” enters the story. The story also ends abruptly. Still, it’s an above-average character piece for a kids’ action manga, and the art, while not nearly as scary as the premise suggests, is clean and chiseled, similar to Ryoji Minagawa.

Today’s winner is Helen M. of North Carolina. Congrats! And here is a photo from one of our previous manga winners, one of the 365 prophesied manga recipients, Emily B.!

So did you like your manga, Emily?

Ah, yes…. sorry, Emily… Ghost School is not the greatest manga. But I hope you enjoy its accompanying manga, Kia Asamiya’s Steam Detectives! Together they make an intruiging mix of manga flavors! Steam Detectives is one of Asamiya’s better series, although I still don’t mourn the fact that Viz canceled it at the point when it switched magazines in Japan. As for the Hino Horror manga, they too were canceled in midstream, but since they’re all one-shots (and there’s a BIG drop in quality from the first couple of books to the later ones like *cough* Ghost School) it’s not such a big deal. Thanks for sending such great photos!

See everyone tomorrow, when I will have a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!

WALKIN’ BUTTERFLY (ウォーキン・バアタフライ) • Chihiro Tamaki • Aurora Publishing (2007-2009) • Kodansha (Vanilla, 2005-2007) • 4 volumes • Jôsei Modeling Drama • 16+ (language, nudity, sexual situations)
Michiko is a grease-monkey, motorcycle-riding high school dropout, an excessively tall tomboy who’s too shy to tell her friend Nishikino she loves him. When she accidentally stumbles backstage at a fashion show and is mistaken for a model, she has a fleeting taste of a different world, but is dismissed by aloof designer Ko Mihara, who tells her “You won’t last one step on that catwalk because you can’t see your true self.” Vowing to show Mihara, Michiko ends up working at a modeling agency run by a fortysomething alcoholic ex-model, and struggles to get her foot in the door of her new chosen career. The result is a fast-paced story of ups and downs, half comedy and half serious, like its mood-swinging heroine. The hyperactive tone, more than the pretty art, recalls Moyoco Anno’s Happy Mania, but Michiko’s virginity, and the romantic tension between her and designer (which in a sense devalues her goals of becoming a model) makes it seem more conventional and aimed at a younger demographic. Nonetheless, the fast-paced plot makes it an entertaining mixture of humor and melodrama.

Today’s winner is Paul U. of Missouri. Congratulations, Paul!

WAGAMAMA KITCHEN (Wagamama Kitchen, “Whimsical Kitchen”) (わがままキッチン) • Kaori Monchi • DMP (2007) • Biblos (2005) • 1 volume • Yaoi Romance • 18+ (nudity, graphic sex)
Tiny high schooler Takashi (often confused for a girl) is looking for his childhood tutor Wakana. Wakana, emotionally damaged, tries to stay away from Takashi. But when the only person who has ever loved him won’t take no for an answer, Wakana doesn’t have a chance. In the second story, Wakana’s coworker Natoto finds unexpected love with a straight colleague. Despite short lengths, both stories do a good job fleshing out the characters, and the simple plots are pleasing. The art isn’t polished, but the facial expressions, particularly the happy ones, are well done. (Review by Hannah Santiago)

A manga cover with two guys hanging out like very close friends… that’s how you know it’s Yaoi Sunday on 365 Days of Manga! And today’s winner (no relation to yaoi) is Chris B. of New York!

We also have a photo from a previous winner, Raven

Thanks for entering the contest, Raven! I’ve had those copies of “Rumic World Trilogy” since I first picked them up in the old VIZ warehouse between games of Counterstrike and Quake: Urban Terror with the warehouse employees in 1998 or so. Sorry that you already had copies of “xxxHOLiC”. I’ll do my best to make sure that your next five manga are greater than your wildest dreams! Your dreams of MANGA!

METRO SURVIVE (メトロ・サヴァイブ) • Yûki Fujisawa • DrMaster (2008) • Akita Shoten (2006-2007) • 2 volumes • Survival Thriller • 15+ (mild language, graphic violence)
Mishima, a blue-collar maintenance man who works in a Tokyo skyscraper, is working overtime one night when a massive earthquake traps him, and a few other survivors, in the subway system beneath the building. As food runs out, a few yakuza-esque thugs start to lord it over the other survivors, and Mishima must find the strength to somehow survive and get back home to his family. Metro Survive is a straightforward, tightly constructed “what if it happened to you?” disaster story with some good characterizations. However, compared to great disaster manga like Dragon Head and The Drifting Classroom, the crude art takes it down a level; the sniveling salarymen and obnoxious otaku look like the stock characters they are, and the collapsed skyscraper looks like a mass of hasty scribbles.

Today’s winner is Cynthia D. of Ohio. Congrats, Cynthia! We also have a photo of one of our previous winners, Anthony!

Glad you like the monster vs. monster action of Princess Resurrection, Anthony! I’ll try to send you an equally awesome manga for your next five!

MITSUKAZU MIHARA: IC IN A SUNFLOWER (Shûsekikairo no Himawari, “Integrated Circuit Sunflower”) (集積回路のヒマワリ) • Tokyopop (2007) • Shodensha (1994-1997) • 1 volume • Gothic Science-Fiction Drama • 18+ (language, violence, nudity, sex)
This collection of Mihara’s early work is hit-and-miss in the story department, although her high-contrast, heavy-black artwork and scrawny Gothic-Lolita character designs already show her characteristic style. Mihara’s debut story, “Keep Those Condoms Away From Our Kids,” depicts a world in which young people have lost all sexual desire and pornography and live-action sex ed are mandatory. “The Sunflower Quality of an Integrated Circuit,” the best story, is a film noir-esque drama about a spoiled young woman, her much older husband, and his robot maid. “Alive” is a science fiction tale about clones raised for use in organ donation. The art is attractive and the best stories are darkly satisfying, but in some cases the ideas go nowhere, or the twist endings are predictable in their grimness.

Today’s winner is Marian S. of Michigan. Congratulations, Marian!

MUGEN SPIRAL (Mugen Spiral, “Dream Spiral”) (夢幻スパイラル) • Mizuho Kusanagi • Tokyopop (2007) • Hakusensha (Hana to Yume, 2004-2005) • 2 volumes • Shôjo Occult Fantasy • 13+ (mild language, violence)
In one corner we have high-schooler Yayoi, a tough, self-sufficient girl who uses her inherited mystical powers to protect people from malevolent spirits. In the other, the handsome but evil demon Ura, who aims to gobble up Yayoi’s power so he can succeed his father as the king of the demons. But Ura’s not so scary now that he’s been transformed into a little black kitty-cat, is he? Lacking either a beginning or an ending, Mugen Spiral starts in media res and ends unsatisfyingly, and ultimately serves as nothing more than 400 pages’ introduction to a group of not very original characters. The heroine exorcises spirits, Ura’s rival for the throne (looking a bit like Sesshomaru from Inu-Yasha) shows up and fights him, and very little happens. The art is undistinguished, although the cats are cute. (Review by Mark Simmons and Jason Thompson)

Today’s review originally appeared in Manga: The Complete Guide as a short teaser summary by Mark Simmons. Mark, who is an excellent artist as well as a translator and America’s foremost Gundam expert, did a bunch of work for me on MtCG when I was under a tight deadline. In 2008 I came back to Mugen Spiral and read the whole thing, and behold, here is the final review! ….Admittedly, in the case of Mugen Spiral, it might have been better if I hadn’t read it.

Today’s winner is Brandi S. of Virginia! Congratulations, Brandi! I’ll be sending you some manga real soon. Soon you’ll be just like Gopakumar, who received the first five volumes of CLAMP’s xxxHOLiC:

Thanks for entering the contest, Gopakumar, and thanks for introducing me to your excellent blog. It’s a busy season for me — on top of the January launch of King of RPGs and all the manga continually piling up on my desk, I’m getting engaged to an amazing person and moving to a new city. But I’ll still be here to send manga out into the aether, to read and write and continue “365 Days of Manga” with all you wonderful folks.

ICARO (Ikaru) （イカル) • Moebius (story), Jiro Taniguchi (art) • Ibooks (2003-2004) • Kodansha (Morning, 1997-2000) • 2 volumes • Psychic Science Fiction • 18+ (graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations)
The collaboration of famed French sci-fi artist Moebius and manga artist Jiro Taniguchi, Icaro is a beautiful but ultimately insubstantial work. Icaro, a boy born with the power of telekinetic flight (as a newborn infant, he hovers around the delivery room), is raised as an experimental test subject in a remote scientific facility. When he falls in love with a girl, he tries to escape, but a mad scientist wants to perform brain surgery on him to discover the origin of his powers. Moebius’ script is little more than a clothes horse for Taniguchi’s artwork, with splash pages of machinery and architecture more detailed than Katsuhiro Otomo’s, and memorable images of the human body, such as a poignant scene of Icaro trying to fly while being held down by armed stormtroopers. The manga’s best feature is its inventive expression of psychic powers, tapping into a Hayao Miyazaki-esque love of flight, rather than the usual giant explosions (although they’re here too). The plot works entirely on a visual level; most of the dialogue is redundant. The sudden ending and the presence of extraneous characters—a sexy Lieutenant Colonel, and Tanaka, a mind-blasting psychic government agent—suggest that the series was cancelled abruptly. The ikaru of the title is a Japanese transliteration of the mythological Icarus. The English edition splits the one-volume Japanese version into two smaller volumes.

Today’s winner is Nicholas Q. of Tennessee. Congrats, Nicholas! We also have a new photo from a winner, Ellen P.!

Thanks, Ellen! I’m glad you liked Tenshi Ja Nai and Peach Girl. Peach Girl is a great little shojo manga series of the “extreme melodrama over who is kissing who” sort. Jyu-Oh-Sei is good, too, if you can get into the retro science fiction shojo style. I’ll be sending you some more manga ASAP, I hope I can help you discover more stuff that you like!

TOKYO IS MY GARDEN (Tokyo est mon Jardin) • Frédéric Boilet (story and art), Benoit Peeters (story), Jiro Taniguchi (tones) • Fanfare/Ponent Mon (2008) • Casterman (1996) • 1 volume • Romantic Comedy Drama • 18+ (nudity, sex)
Drawn in Japan by European artists for a 1993 Kodansha International Morning Manga Fellowship, this marginal “manga” combines Boilet’s focus on seinen-style relationship stories and Peeters’ obsession with cities themselves (à la the Cities of the Fantastic series). The hero, a 33-year-old French cognac salesman living in Tokyo, has spent a year going to endless drinking parties and dreading the approaching visit of his boss, who will surely fire him when he sees that he hasn’t sold anything. But even though doom looms closer, he is distracted by a relationship with a Japanese woman, as well as by kanji studies and other gaijin distractions. Boilet’s photorealistic, rather impersonal Eurocomics art documents Tokyo with realism, while non-titillating sex scenes alternate with prosaic and humorous details of everyday life. In the end, it all adds up to a tidy story of warmth, charm and melancholy. As in Yukiko’s Spinach and Mariko Parade, Boilet’s obsession with Japanese women raises questions about the possibly autobiographical nature of the work, but for insights into the tourist-in-Tokyo experience, it beats Lost in Translation hands down.

Today’s winner is Ileen D. of California. Congratulations, Ileen!

TWO FLOWERS FOR THE DRAGON (Ryû no Hanawazarai, “The Dragon’s Two Flowers”) (龍の花わずらい) • Nari Kusakawa • CMX (2008-ongoing) • Hakusensha (LaLa, 2005-2009) • 7 volumes • Shôjo Fantasy Romance Adventure • 13+ (infrequent violence, infrequent partial nudity)
Shakuya, the heiress of a clan which rules a desert oasis, is engaged to Kuwan, a handsome swordsman 11 years her senior. But when her former fiancée, Lucien, returns from five years in the desert, Shakuya’s feelings for him start to return, reflected by two sets of flower tattoos—one representing Lucien, one representing Kuwan—which magically blossom on her forearms. But Shakuya is no mere princess in need of rescuing—she’s part dragon on her mother’s side, and she can command water and transform into a great flying snakelike creature. Evil magicians, martial artists, and gossipy handmaidens abound in this lush, original pseudo-Asian fantasy. The setting is well fleshed out, and the art abounds with detail, from the lilies on the pools to the heroine’s crocodile-like dragon form to the central image of the flowers growing on Shakuya’s arms. The story is sexy but not pandering; Shakuya’s clothes rip off when she transforms, and the men are hot, or perhaps cute, in Kusakawa’s cartoony way. The most impressive feat, however, is the balance of action, mystery and romance, which keeps the story rolling along as the reader seeks resolution for both the love triangle and the mysteries surrounding the oasis.

Nari Kusakawa is an amazing mangaka. Check her stuff out! On an unrelated note, today’s winner is Jackie S. of Nevada! Congratulations, Jackie!

I love seeing the people who win “365 Days of Manga.” However, it’s not strictly necessary for you to show me your faces when you send me your photographs; I just want to see your love for manga burned into photographic form. You could, for example, show me a picture of your newborn infant sleeping in a crib made of manga, batting its pudgy baby arms at a mobile of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Or you could send me a photograph of a mysterious shape in the darkness with some manga in the foreground, like a screengrab from “Paranormal Activity” or “The Blair Witch Project.” Or you could just send me a photo of your manga. On that note, we have a photo from one of our previous winners, Jennifer!

Jennifer, if you don’t like Kingdom Hearts, never fear, I’ll send you five much awesomer manga! As for everyone else, I hope you all win!

SUNFLOWER (Teppen no Himawari, “Top of the Sunflower”) （てっぺんのひまわり) • Hyouta Fujiyama • DMP (2007-2008) • Frontier Works (2005-2006) • 1 volume • Yaoi • 18+
Plotless even by yaoi standards, Sunflower idly follows several cute young guys through junior high and high school. At the rough center of the narrative is Ryuhei, a cheerful boy who comes to terms with his sexuality in junior high and then moves on to Kinsei High School, “the boys’ school where it’s rumored that 90% of the students are gay.” There, Ryuhei befriends the uptight Kunihisa. Low on sex scenes, heavy on talking heads, Sunflower is at its best when not taking itself seriously. The most entertaining chapter involves a school quiz bowl in which the losers have to strip for their classmates, a penalty they take with plenty of enthusiastic gyrations. Unfortunately, the raucous comedy scenes are few and far between; instead, much space is spent discussing characters’ relationships and setting up laborious plot devices to bring them into quasi-romantic contact. Fujiyama draws attractive characters and funny reaction shots, but the material needs a less labored, more manic touch. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

It’s “Yaoi Sunday” (okay, very early Monday morning) with another amazing review by Shaenon Garrity! For technical reasons, I’m not able to announce today’s winner yet, but I will post that information ASAP on Monday! Until then, stew in the suspense of wondering just WHO is the 75th winner of “365 Days of Manga”!

WORLD’S END • Eiki Eiki • DMP (2007) • Shinshokan (Dear Plus, 1999) • 1 volume • Yaoi Drama • 16+ (language, violence, sex)
The sequel to Dear Myself reaches new depths in Eiki Eiki’s glorification of pathological behavior. Four years after the events of the previous book, Hirofumi is living with his troubled partner Daigo, who keeps sabotaging Hirofumi’s efforts to get a job because he wants him all to himself. Scared by memories of childhood neglect, Daigo locks Hirofumi in his room and repeatedly rapes him, in mostly offscreen encounters which manage to be disgusting without showing any explicit nudity (Eiki Eiki doesn’t have the artistic ability to draw appealing sex anyway). The serious tone and generally high quality of the writing makes the material more troubling than a frivolous “LOL rape” yaoi story such as Love is Like a Hurricane or Selfish Love. The closing author’s notes express the opinion “I think it’s a happy ending…speaking for myself, anyway.” Uh…no.

Yeah, it’s Yaoi Saturday! Time again to celebrate the awesomeness of yaoi manga!…. Er…. well…. anyway.

Today’s winner is Erik H. of Massachusetts. Congratulations, Erik! Prepare to receive manga!

NEW ENGINEERING • Yuichi Yokoyama • PictureBox Inc. (2007) • Various Underground Magazines (1999-2004) • 1 volume • Unrated (mild violence)
“Conventional manga is entertainment and my work is not,” says Yokoyama in the interview in the back of New Engineering, a rare counterpoint to the aggressively commercial nature of most translated manga. These narrative-free, almost dialogue-free pop-art comics are described by Yokoyama as “serialized paintings” which “start with a single image.” In some of the stories things are taken apart, as featureless men with random objects for heads fight each other and smash up their surroundings; in others, things are put together, “engineered,” as machines and men build artificial landscapes out of cement, astroturf and artificial trees. The mechanical, ruler-traced artwork shows physical processes stripped to their simplest forms, but on the whole the flat, depthless pages are impenetrable to the eye; color artwork (like the book’s pleasing cover) might have given a more three-dimensional feel to this world of shapes. There are a few arresting sequences, and Yokoyama provides an excellent explanation of his concept, but judged as a reading experience rather than a coffee-table book or a gallery show, I can appreciate the idea but not enjoy the result.

Today’s winner is Richard D. of Indiana. Richard, I hope you enjoy the package of manga that will shortly be rocketing towards your house like a micrometeorite streaking from the Oort cloud to earth!

As someone who loves action manga, I often wonder things like “how does the hero get repeatedly beaten on the head with an iron mallet and survive?” or “how can someone cough so much blood out of their mouth and carry a 500-pound weight up 100 flights of stairs immediately afterwards?” The intense, self-flagellatory agonies of shonen manga characters have always fascinated me, and recently I’ve written an article on the subject for comixology, A History of Horrible, Harmless Violence. Please check it out, particularly if you don’t mind photos of manga characters pulling their own tendons out of their bodies!

MY HEAVENLY HOCKEY CLUB (Gokuraku Seishun Hockey-bu, “Heavenly Youth Hockey Club”) (極楽青春ホッケー部) • Ai Morinaga • Del Rey (2007-ongoing) • Kodansha (Bessatsu Friend, 2005-ongoing) • 9+ volumes (ongoing) • Shôjo Sports Comedy • 13+ (mild violence, comic nudity, sexual situations)
The most conventional of Morinaga’s several slapstick comedies (Duck Prince, Your and My Secret), My Heavenly Hockey Club is the story of Hana, a grouchy middle-class girl who ends up joining the school hockey club together with five rich, good-looking guys. The running jokes are that Hana’s only desires in life are sleep and food—the manga is loaded with food references—and that the team hardly ever plays any hockey, since handsome sophomore Izumi only founded the club so he’d have an excuse to travel to away games in exotic destinations and eat local delicacies. They go to the hot springs, get lost in the jungles of Okinawa, get harrassed by wild animals, force Hana to pretend to be Izumi’s fiancée to scare off another suitor, etc., etc. Strictly silly and episodic, and light on sex humor with a few exceptions (“I’m saved! I thought I’d touched her breast again, but it was her stomach! She’s gotten so fat there’s no difference anymore!”), Hana and Izumi’s cynical personalities seem to embody the attitude of the artist towards the material. Still, the art is cute and the better stories have an absurd sense of humor. Morinaga’s style is as much shonen as shojo, with very clear layouts, and a mixture of pretty faces (for the main characters) and gag-manga caricatures (for everybody else).

A very appropriately food-obsessed manga for Thanksgiving (for our American readers). And today’s winner is Jennifer H. of California! Congratulations, Jennifer! We also have a new photo from a previous week’s winner, Shana!

Shana, I hope “W Juliet” keeps you warm on the cold winter nights with its heartwarming crossdressing antics. As for the rest of you, see you tomorrow!

GRAVITATION EX （グラビテーションEX) • Maki Murakami • Tokyopop (2007-ongoing) • Gentosha (Spica, 2004-ongoing) • 1+ volume (ongoing) • Yaoi Performance Comedy Drama • 16+ (language, violence, mild sexual situations)
This sequel to Gravitation was originally drawn for Gentosha’s online comics magazine Spica; the first print volume made history as the first manga released simultaneously in America and Japan. The drama begins when pop star Shuichi and his lover, temperamental novelist Eiri Yuki, go to America to see the grave of Eiri Yuki’s first love and tormentor Kitazawa…whereupon they discover that Kitazawa had a toddler son, and he’s still alive! The heroes end up forced to take care of the boy, and the addition of a child causes strain in their relationship, tempting them to stray…and on a lighter note, generating lots of “two gay men with a child” media attention. Just like the original series, EX mixes “high tension dangerous love comedy” (to quote the Japanese version) with wild visual gags and free-association, including the familiar panda robots, guns, animal suits and so on. It’s good stuff, but with the high number of in-jokes and references to the original manga, it’s best viewed as Gravitation volumes 13+ than as a separate series. As usual in Gravitation, there is little onscreen sex, having directed all her sexual energies towards producing smutty untranslated dôjinshi based on her own characters.

Today’s winner is Emily B. of Oregon. Congrats, Emily! For those of you who were wondering why Gravitation EX wasn’t included on “yaoi sunday” instead of a weekday, it’s because I consider Gravitation EX a “mainstream” yaoi title rather than a specialty yaoi title like most of the offerings from Deux, June, BLU and 801 Media. Also, honestly, yaoi can show up here whenever it wants, so look out! See you all tomorrow for more manga!

FREE COLLARS KINGDOM (フリーカラーズキングダム) • Takuya Fujima • Del Rey (2007) • Kodansha (Magazine Z, 2002-2004) • 3 volumes • Shônen Furry Adventure • 16+ (mild language, violence, infrequent nudity, sexual situations)
This slick but original manga is a sort of nerded-out version of Cats, based on the assumption that household felines see themselves as anthropomorphic cat-eared boys and girls. (We see them as cats in just a few panels.) When his master falls ill, Cyan, a young cat, is thrown out by his master’s family and must live with stray cats, the “Free Collars,” in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district. But the Free Collars fight endless turf wars with the sexy Siam and her feline minions, defeating each other with video-gamey “ultimate cat attacks” such as a deadly cat bell, or by scratching each other in just the right spots. Although the Ikebukuro-district otaku references are fairly irrelevant (turns out that cats are dojinshi-reading anime fans too), the catty details are charming and the silly, melodramatic story has a nice ending. Fujima’s slick, screentone-overload art is full of busty, big-eyed women and action poses.

I know, I know… Takuya Fujima wrote one of the worst manga I’ve ever read, “Deus Vitae.” And “Free Collars Kingdom” is a manga about catgirls and Akihabara. But despite these handicaps, it’s a really cute execution of a good concept, so I give it a thumb’s up.

Today’s winner is Raven J. of Texas! Congratulations, Raven! We also have a picture of one of our previous winners, Mona!

Mona, thank you for sending us a photo of yourself with “Chrono Crusade.” (No relation to “Chrono Trigger.”) I hope you will enjoy… THE REMAINING VOLUMES OF CHRONO CRUSADE WHICH I’LL BE SENDING TO YOU ASAP! Full of angel-devil-nun Gothy retro sci-fi action! I’m glad that this manga, like a kitten in a box, has found a good home. As for everyone else reading this, my “adopt-a-manga” service will pair you up with the manga of your dreams ASAP.

CANON • Chika Shiomi • CMX (2007-2008) • Akita Shoten (Mystery Bonita, 1994-1996) • 4 volumes • Shôjo Horror Drama • 13+ (mild language, violence)
When a vampire massacres students at her school, young Canon is mysteriously spared, and she embarks on a quest for revenge against the “silver-haired vampire.” Accompanied by a talking vampire crow for comic relief (“I gotta say, Canon, as a vampire, you got a screw loose!”), Canon uses her newfound vampiric powers only against other vampires, turning them human and making sure she never drinks blood (“I’m not going to let anyone be killed!”). In short, this isn’t exactly the grimmest vampire story, although Shiomi does a good job of maintaining suspense throughout most of the manga, as Canon finds herself caught between two handsome, brooding guys. The vampire “rules” seem made-up-on-the-spur-of-the-moment, and the plain art looks exactly like Shiomi’s Yurara, albeit with more action scenes. Lots of cross imagery.

Ah, Chika Shiomi, master of PG-rated shojo horror….

Today’s winner is Lori H. of Calfornia. Congratulations, Lori! Time to head out to the post office to send off another volley of manga!

MY PARANOID NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR (Tonari no Heya no Paranoia, “The Paranoia of the Next Door (Neighbor)”) （隣の部屋のパラノイア) • Kazuka Minami • 801 Media (2007) • 1 volume • Yaoi • 18+
Childhood friends Yukito and Hokuto are reunited as teenagers when Hokuto moves into Yukito’s house for exam season. Sparks fly, and soon the boys are running for the bedroom every time they’re left alone. Hokuto, the clear seme (tall, dark hair, supposedly an experienced player) makes all the moves, but Yukito (small, blonde, virginal), who’s had a crush on Hokuto since childhood, puts up only token resistance before admitting that he’s gay and going for the gusto. A very minor roadblock to the couple’s happiness is introduced in the form of a lecherous student and teacher who claim to be Hokuto’s “sex buddies,” but even this is only good for a little angst between frolics in Yukito’s empty house. A sweet, pleasantly sex-positive manga, with generous sex scenes, lots of romantic tension, and relatively little gloominess or pain. The major weakness is the art, although the sex scenes are effectively drawn. Slight but enjoyable. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

Another “yaoi sunday” review by the amazing Shaenon Garrity, my former coworker and fellow comicker.

Today’s winner is Anna C. of California, who will soon be receiving a smorgasbord of manga delights. Anna, I hope you can handle the sumptuous repast of manga which is even now being cooked up by my sous-chef in my special manga kitchen! Today’s meal is a delicious manga in red sauce with green peppers, accompanied by a wild rice and goat cheese risotto with Serrano ham “mangette” canapes. A soup of shredded manga pulp, coriander and chives will be served to you before the main dish, and we also have a salad of tossed romaine lettuce and manga drizzled in laserjet printer ink with infusion of marionberry. For a beverage, we have sangria with frozen cubes of graphic novel, lemon and persimmon.

It’s time for lunch! See you tomorrow!

KIELI (Kieli: Shishatachi wa Arano ni Nemuru, “Kieli: The Dead Sleep in the Wasteland”) (キーリ死者たちは荒野に眠る) • Yukako Kabei (story), Shiori Teshirogi (art) • YEN Press (2008) • Akita Shoten (Mystery Bonita, 2006) • Occult Science Fiction Drama • 2 volumes • 16+ (brief language, violence)
Adaptation of Yukako Kabei’s Kieli light novels. Kieli, a young girl who can see ghosts, lives a lonely life at a boarding school in a conservative religious state on a sandy planet. Then one day she meets Harvey, a man who looks about her age but is actually one of the “Undying,” bio-engineered immortal soldiers who have been hunted down by the Church since the great war ended 80 years ago. Kieli joins Harvey on his mission to put to rest the ghost of a fellow soldier (a ghost who speaks through messages on Harvey’s handheld radio), and together they wander the world. A tight story in two volumes, this is a surprisingly well-written, and decently drawn, story of ghosts and adventure. The ghosts Kieli encounters are scary and sympathetic at the same time, diverging from the manga norm, and Harvey’s dilemma—he’s reluctant to get close to people because they age and die faster than he does—seems real, not forced. The story’s message of atheism, or at least skepticism for a thinly disguised Christianity, is explicit even by manga standards (“God…you can just drop dead.”)

Today’s winner is Ashley H. of Louisiana! Congratulations, Ashley! Come back tomorrow for Yaoi Sunday at 365 Days of Manga!