Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Family Complex by Mikiyo Tsuda review


Family Complex
Author/Artist: Mikiyo Tsuda

Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing

Rating: T - 13 and up

Genre: Shojo, Comedy, Slice of Life

Grade: B+

The Sakamoto family is known for being exceptionally beautiful with the exception of Akira. He feels out of place because he sees himself plain looking. This book contains stories following all members of the Sakamoto family. We first see how Akira handles being the ordinary member of "The beautiful Sakamotos." We then follow Harumi, a 17-year old high school and Akira's older brother, through a day in the life and how his beauty makes him feel like an outcast. After Harumi we are introduced to Natsuru, a 16-year old high school student and Akira's older sister. She attends an all-girls school and is showered with gifts constantly. She looks like a young teenage boy and so she attracts a lot of attention from the girls. Her story involves her past and how she has a hard time relating to both boys and girls. Fuyuki, 10-years old, is Akira's younger sister. She has the tendency to over think things and so she has a hard time relating to those around her. We finally arrive at the parents story, Nanami and Hidetoshi, both age 41. The opportunity to see how the two of them met is quite the story. Towards the end, in the afterwords, we get to see how things are going with all these characters that we have grown to love.

The main stories are quite enjoyable. The story for Natsuru has a yuri twinge to it, which isn't quite my thing. Tsuda-sensei could have done without the Detatched Retina Diary. There were a few humorous anecdotes but with it in the middle of manga was kind of a let down. For the most part this is an enjoyable manga. I saved the best part for last. If you remove the dust cover (this is a DMP publication) there are bonus panels printed on the front and back covers!

***Review Copy purchased at Borders***

Monday, March 24, 2008

Love Recipe 1 by Kirico Higashizato review

Love Recipe 1
Author/Artist: Kirico Higashizato

Publisher: Juné Manga

Rating: M - for those 18 and up

Genre: Yaoi, Comedy, Romance
Grade: A+

To kick off my reviews, I thought that I would focus on one of my favorite manga of all time.

Tomonori Ozawa, fresh out of college, landed a job at a large publisher. His job ends up being an editor at RoseBoy, a boys' love manga-zine (tee-hee, I crack myself up!) His first major job is to fetch manga from the famous Sakurako Kakyoin-sensei. Come to find out, Kakyoin-sensei is a guy. Not only is he a guy, but he uses Ozawa as real-life inspiration. Kakyoin-sensei is constantly sexually harassing Ozawa and using work as an excuse to do so. Throughout the manga, explanations of publishing is focused on in a clever way. Will Ozawa fall under Kakyoin-sensei's spell?

I love this manga. It is beautifully drawn and very clever. All the characters are very attractive and quite funny. The chief editor at RoseBoy is a scheming devil of a boss, but she definitely knows what she's doing. Kakyoin-sensei's assistants are very, very shojo-ish. Ozawa is very cute and Kakyoin-sensei is terribly handsome, even with his stubble. I love the use of the angel bunny and demon bunny (and the ears on both Ozawa and Kakyoin-sensei.) This is definitely a very fluffy story. But that's why I love it so much. The sex is not graphic, but is still very steamy.

I totally recommend this manga. If you are looking for something more angst filled, this isn't the book for you. Because this is published by Juné, it is larger than the usual manga. It also has a dust cover and is printed on a higher quality paper. It also costs a bit more, but I love this manga so much I don't mind paying the higher price. I am anxiously awaiting the release of the second volume (waiting for the month of June to arrive, and it is taking much too long!)

***Review Copy purchased through Borders***

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Manic About Manga!

Welcome to the Manic About Manga blog written by the uncomparable verygorgeous! I decieded to start this blog to write my own reviews of different manga and manga series that I have read. Often times when I hit my local Borders or Barnes and Noble to pick up some new manga to read, I never know much about the manga sitting in front of me. I try to find out information on the numerous titles that I see but there aren't many places that I can go to to get the reviews that I am looking for. Have no fear my other clueless manga readers, I will slog through titles that sound interesting to me and post my reviews here on my blog. I hope that you will enjoy my musings!

The reason that I chose to use the word Manic in by blog name is I am truly obsessed with manga. I love to read all styles but by far my favorite is YAOI/BL/SHONEN-AI. I intend to read and review all types of manga here but be aware that much of it will be in the previous mentioned genres.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am verygorgeous, and you better believe that I am! I am female and am in my late-20's. I live in the Western United States. I have a full-time job and am a freshman in college. It's hard to work full-time and go to school full-time! Now for those of you not familiar with the bear that I have as my picture of me, that is Kuma-chan from the Gakuen Heaven franchise of BL games/manga/anime series. The Chairman of Bell Liberty School keeps his identity a secret by using Kuma-chan as his surrogate. I am trying to keep my identity as anonymous as I can here in the world of the internet.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions, concerns, or anything you feel like and I'll do what I can!