Story: B
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: B+ 

Fulcanelli is the greatest enchanter in the netherworld, an enchanter is some how makes magical items and weapons. But he's dead or at least without a body, his soul kept in a jewel by his buxom assistant, Yu Eukanaria. Now in the future, school boy Haruhiko Kanou is just another school boy with a crush on his science teacher and who just so happens to look exactly like Fulcanelli. Now Yu, who looks just like the science teacher, has tracked him down with the intention of putting his soul in Haruhiko's body. This more or less turns into a total disaster as a demon breaks up the party, now with the soul more or less in him, the soul talks to him much like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Haruhiko has to navigate a world of demons and high school with a wild demon at his side. Can he become the next Fulcanelli and be a great enchanter or will it all end in disaster. Wow I have seen a lot of this lately, from Bleach to Enchanter everybody seems to be some great hero in the hereafter. This is the biggest problem I have with Enchanter so far, I've seen it all before and they've really added nothing new. Yu is kinda funny but everybody else is so stereotypical it is almost sad. The best thing in this entire manga was the four panel short on the inside dustjacket flap, it was the only thing that wasn't stereotypical in the entire manga. Hopefully it will pick up and do something, I understand that this is just the first manga and they are laying the ground work for the series, hopefully it goes some where and someplace that 10 other anime or manga series haven't already been.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Well all the threats and danger that Sosuke has warned Kaname about comes true when the plane that the class is on gets hijacked by somebody from Sosuke's past. They are after Kaname because she is a 'whisperer', and she has some supernatural powers that these bad guys want. We also get introduced to the Arm Slaves, the really overly fancy name for the mechs in the series. We get to see all sorts of wild and crazy combat in and out of the Arm Slaves, shit blows up, people die, Kaname is stripped naked and experimented on. All very good but it lacks the humor of the first manga that really made it good. This was a little too serious for me, too much of the life and death. But I do like how they manage to salvage some humor in the end that involves a vase being thrown by Kaname. Now the ground work has been laid, we know now that there are evil things out there and they are after Kaname. We can assume there will be more Arm Slave action and hopefully a health dose of the humor that makes this series great.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

The Galaxy Angels, like Charlie's Angels, but more of them and no bad 70s hair. They are the special forces of space and they are given the mission to protect the prince of a royal family that was over thrown and the bad guys with a huge space fleet are after him. The group is made of a series of very different personalities that are fairly along the usual lines but they are very well rounded in their molds, gun freak, cutie with big appetitie, fearless leader, dopy naval officer, giant space cow. I really like the giant space cow, that is a real twist on events. The prince is a mysterious little stinker, I think he is a little too young to be so spooky but hey what do I know? This is a funny series but the only problem I have with it is the manga itself, the thing looks thin and light but the covers and the paper are heavy as hell, it is really hard to read to the edges of the pages that point into towards the book. Hopefully the manga will loosen over as Brocolli gets more comfortable with making manga.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

It is rare that I see such a faithful translation of manga to anime but Gantz is nearly line for line from the manga to the anime except they removed one of my favorite parts from the first episode that totally explains Kei's character as the average self involved asshole teenage. In the anime we are introduced to Kei as he is day dreaming in class and imaging all the females in the room naked and it caught when he has a boner by one of the girls. That isn't in the manga, we are introduced to Kei on the subway tracks looking at a girly magazine while it doesn't the same trick, it isn't as in your face as the anime and this series isn't about subtly. The rest of the manga follows the anime, we are introduced to Gantz, the other meat puppet characters and of course Kishimoto whose first name is also Kei. As a writer I know it is a really bad idea for two characters to have the same name unless it is vital, like a heart is to a human vital, to the story that they have the same name but so far it appears there is no reason other than to screw with me when I am trying to explain the series. This is not a light series that you can just say hey I have an hour to kill lets read some Gantz. It is more like Battle Royale were you have to prepare yourself and give yourself some time to decompress afterwards but like Battle Royale it is a good series although not for the squemish or faint of heart.

Story: A
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

The big green onion ogre had made short work of the other people in the apartment now it is up to Kei, Kishimoto, and Kato to somehow defeat him. There is a lot of running, Kato does a lot of apologizing and crying, and finally the weird middle school kid kills the creature. This is a rather weak manga after the explosive first but it does get all the required backstory and initial character development out of the way. The one thing that confused me is that they are able to return to their normal lives, wouldn't that be confusing as all hell? They really should have thought something else to do with them. Another mild little complaint, Gantz speaks in 'leet' which subsitutes numbers for letters which unless you are really use to looking at it, it is totally and utterly confusing. I dislike 'leet' it is too goofy to be real and so ridiculously esoteric it is useless, but it does make Gantz a more unique character if not a more aggrivating one.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Now that the survivors of the first round have return to their somewhat normal lives things start to get complicated. Firstly it appears everybody is treated like they never left except Kishimoto, who now has an exact copy but we have no idea why. Both Kei and Kato go back to school and have to deal with bullies at their respective schools. Kei uses his Gantz suit while Kato just beating the living shit out of the biggest guy in school while he is on the toilet. To make things even more complicated between Kei, Kishimoto, and Kato, Kishimoto comes to stay with Kei and the sexual tension is running wild in that tiny litle apartment. Kishimoto tells Kei she is his pet which really shows the psychological damage that Kishimoto is dealing with there but it doesn't stop Kei, who is still one of the most honest and believable teen characters I have ever seen. The last three chapters introduce another round of people who die and end up in the apartment where the Gantz cube is. Don't get too attached to any of the new characters, the odds of any of them surviving their first meeting with the next alien which looks a lot like Howdy-Doody but we know from the last encounter it may look simple but these aliens kick ass. Which we will find out in the next volume.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Kei, Kato and Kishimoto along with the others are up against birds who hide in human shells. In this volume we also learn that these super-human suits they are wearing have limitations, the middle school kid who was such a prick in the earlier volumes gets his due when the suit breaks while fighting the first bird-man and the bird-man d does his sonic scream blowing his eyes and ears out. Like usual most of the new characters are quickly killed off but this time a few survive including a new guy, a street punk, and a girl whose long black hair obscures her face, a conscious poke at the Ringu style movies. In the end Kei is trapped in a building full of the bird-men and the big bird-man boss who is a seven foot tall bird with a bridle. These volumes go back quicklly for me, the story is told at a swift but managable pace, nothing seems rushed, the middle school kid's demise is well played out, it doesn't feel like many of the other characters that come and go. It is nice to see Kishimoto taking a few bird-men out she is starting to be less of a victim than she was in previous volumes. This is a good, quick mature read for those who like their sci-fi dark and rough.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Kei has to defeat the massive boss bird, or he falls to a horrible squishy death. Of course he manages to survive and the group gets back to Gantz who tallies up their points. Kei and Kishimoto have an arguement and Kei throws her out, silly boy. Kei is changing, now all he wants to do is get back to Gantz and go on another mission. Kato on the other hand wants nothing to do with the missions, he still hasn't grasped the reality of the situation they are in. I really liked this volume we are starting to see Kei growing here, he is becoming a bit more gung-ho and still thinking totally of himself but he is now ready willing and able to defend himself and get those mythic 100 points to win. He is a complete antithesis of Shinji which is rather refreshing to see. This volume ends with another round of meat ready for the slaughter including a new girl who has a racy proposition for Kei. I am still liking this manga, it is fast easy to read, gory and filled with sex. I still hate Gantz because I have such a hard time reading that 'leet speak' crap. One of the strengths of this manga I am starting to notice is the subtly satire inbetween the blood and guts. The bird-men's outer shells and their strange way of speaking are jokes referring to a Japanese comedic band called the Busy Four whose front man is know for his impressions of birds and the words they chant are titles to the Busy Four's most popular songs. Then at the end of the manga, the new girl we meet who starts coming on to Kei is a dead ringer for Lara Croft, the Tomb Raider. There is more to this manga than meets the eye. I still doubt this will ever get licensed in this country, it is a little too adult to work here but hey I never believed they'd license Golgo 13 but I was wrong.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Kei and the Lara Croft look-a-like get it on in the hallway before the mission starts. This really is a manga series of extremes, the sex is real, you can feel the sweat and excitement. The violence too is very real for shortly after sex they have to go fight these two giant statues in a temple someplace in Tokyo.

Story: A-
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A 

For those that read Marvel Comics in the 80s you were often treated with covers that claimed, 'Everyone Dies!! Nuff Said' but they never actually made good on their claim. Well in Gantz, everyone dies and they really do make good on their claim. Everybody really dies and Kei is mortally wounded, losing an arm and a leg. I was surprised, and shocked by this rather gory turn of events but I was not happy with it, this is the biggest flaw of the series we have probably met twenty to thirty characters that are dead within a manga or two. You can't barrage me with all these characters, soon they just become cardboard cut-outs that come and go. But I really liked Kishimoto, her death seemed rather pointless despite the fact that she was a main character for the rest of the manga until now and she dies like the rest, oh well she is dead. I can understand why they did it, this manga is about Kei afterall but they really didn't need to kill all the characters at once. It is just such a pain to see all these characters knowing within a chapter or two they will be already dead. It will be interesting to see where the manga goes from here, if it goes anywhere other than just into another tyraid of blood and killing more characters.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

The fight in the temple meets its bloody conclusion and in the end only Kei is left. The rest have all died and now Kei it utterly alone. But he has no time to mourn the others for he has to go back to school. The day he returns to school their class gets a transfer student, a 6 and a half foot tall transfer student, in Japan that must make him insanely huge. But this transfer student knows something about the Gantz, which is really, really bad because Kei has a chip implanted in his brain that will explode if he so much as mentions Gantz. The new student goes back to Kei's apartment and shows him a website that talks all about Gantz. It was made by the pain in the ass middleschooler who died a few volumes back, the one who knew a lot about the whole thing and he had mentioned Kei's name. Kei luckily avoids answering any direct questions which would make his head go pop. While I still am unhappy with the series killing off so many of the characters I did like the turn around at the end of the manga with the finding of the website and Kei's discovery that he has to go on the next mission totally on his own. It will be interesting to see how Kei stands up to this next test in the next volume.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Mai and her classmates tell stories about the mysterious rundown classroom building. On the same day she accidentally runs into a camera and topples over several bookshelves injurying a man. The man happens to be the assistant to Shuya who runs a Psychic Research company. With his assistant injuried he enlists Mai to help him find the spirits of the old classroom building so the principle can finally tear it down. In addition to Shuya the principle calls in a priest and priestess, a TV psychic, and a Catholic priest to tackle the problem. But problems beset the group, can this ghost be too much to handle or can all of the strange happenings be explained by a scientific reason? This is a lot like my favorite manga series, the Kindaichi Case Files, except in this the ghosts happen to be real not just legends the killer uses to commit his crimes. This is a little more shoujo than Kindaichi the main character is a high school girl who is slowly developing a crush on her boss, Shuya. But this stays well within the world of the supernatural and doesn't turn ghosts into a metephor for teenage love. The Japanese seem able to use both teenage love and angst and the supernatural together but they don't mix them unlike America which seems that it can only do one at a time like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have high hopes for this I really like ghost stories and so far this series has paid off very well in delivering the goods.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

This version was compiled in Japan when Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex premeried. It was ten pages longer than the original Japanese release and twenty pages longer than the version available in America. I waited two solid years for it to be released in the US and I expected it to be edited like the last one but Dark Horse came through and release the entire 368 page version along with the four infamous pages of 'adult' content. The stories presented in this manga are excellent not just because they are great stories about a near future that seems possible but because they go deeper than a normal sci-fi story. They get into philsophical and moral questions about how far can we take technology before it gets out of control and of course the key story about when does a human end and a machine begin and can a machine become human and vice versa. The stories follow Major Motoko Kusanagi and the elite Section 9 who protects Japan from all manner of cybercriminals. She comes up against an extraordinarie foe in the Puppet Master, a hacker with no rival. The pair showdown and you are treated to a deep philisophical discussion. When I was younger I didn't like the ending mainly because I didn't exactly grasp everything that they were talking about, now that I am older and now understand more I really enjoy that because you never see that in any book with pictures. This is truly one of the greatest manga of all time, and possible even one of the greatest books of all time.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Four years and five months after Motoko Kusinagi merged with the electronic entity known as the Puppet Master is now working for the massive global corporation Poseidon Inc as a net security expert. In the past four years and five months Motoko has merged with several other beings allowing her to operate numerous protestic bodies at once all across the world. At the same time Tamaki Tamai, a psychic investigator from the Channeling Agency has been called in to investigate a strange change in the temporal universe. What follows is incredibly hard to explain, if you were expecting this to be the same story format as the original Ghost in the Shell you would be very, very wrong. There is a lot of science in this but thankfully it is explained in the margains of the pages. Sometimes the explanations take up all the available margains and the margains read like a college level textbook. This gets to the heart of the biggest problem with this manga it is meant for intelligent people. Most people who read this manga, most if not all goes straight over their heads and when this happens they immediately right it off. I agree that most people simply won't understand this manga at all, it hits you with a lot of heavy philosophy and science. If you went to a real 4 year Universtity or College, junior college, tech school, and correspondance school need not apply. You will probably be more fit to understand what is going on. I understood, with help from the liner notes, what was going on and because of that I was thoroughly able to enjoy this great follow up, not a sequel, to Ghost in the Shell. I really liked how this manga tackles complicated and tough issues it doesn't take the easy road and just fill the pages with explosions and superheroes fighting villains. This is what makes manga so truly amazing, the only limitation it faces is that of imagination.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

To start off this isn't the start of the entire 140+ Golgo 13 manga series, this is the 13 volume Greatest Hits picked by the author Takao Saito so I don't have to worry about buying a entire new room to hold all the volumes. The first volume of the greatest hits takes the tale of Iraq's super gun, the weapon in reality that was developed by a Canadian artillery genius but was never built because the British seized the parts of the barrel. This story takes the what if posture and imagines what would have happened if the gun was actually designed. It is up to Duke Togo to somehow find a way to stop the gun from firing and blowing up the Clinton White House. Pretty good, not what I would have started with, it would have been better if it started with one of the early stories, get a good feel for Golgo 13 but this story is revelant to modern times so I guess readers would have an easier time associating with it. The second story is about a mafia don's hit and run of a pretty young girl who happens to be the wife of a former cop who once tried to take the mafia don down. To get his revenge the former cop spreads the rumor that Golgo 13 has been hired and the mafia don watches helpless as all his associates desert him. It was a good story, it shows the mythos around Duke Togo and how just the mention of his name can bring somebody down. This is a good manga series, it is gritty pulp action at its finest.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Two more tales of Duke Togo and those he kills. First up Golgo is part of a plot to kill a Free Tibet leader during the Tiananmen Square, the second Golgo has to go to Corsica to navigate a complicated treacherous web of drug dealers to find the mysterious Dr Z who makes high powered heroine and kill him for the DEA. I rather like how they can use contemporary events for settings to the stories. I also like the dossier information that covers everything, from weapons to sex, you don't get this kind of background information on real people usually. A different manga for those with different tastes.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

This is a series done by a Korean Manga artist, Hyun Se Lee, who is rather famous in Korea for being their manga master. This series we follow the varied adventures of Police Lieutenant Jiran Ha and her special Violent Crimes Police Squad. The first adventure invovles a stalker who is after Jiran and she has to fend him off or end up becomming his play toy. The second adventure Jiran helps out a high school friend who thinks her husband is cheat, not exactly the kind of work a police Lieutenant heading up the Violent Crimes division should be doing, but oh well. The next is more in the Violent Crimes area, a serial killer that models himself after the Mayan God of the Underworld and War, Ah Von Puc, and Jiran starts to suspect that her old boyfriend, the one that she let get away, might be behind it. This one is a real cat and mouse game, between the killer and the police and the two sides of Jiran's brain, one half knowing full well he is the killer but the other that still carries the torch for him and can't believe he would. The final one involves youth street gangs fighting over control of a junkyard in a urban version of Lord of the Flies with the police investigating the bloodshed. Here Jiran gets drugged up and starts tripping out. This series so far has a real wide range to it, at times it is funny like Jiran interacting with the unlucky Officer Choi to the serious when they are investigating crimes. Plus the stories are varied, really they are all over the map. My favorite in Number 3, the Ah Von Puc serial killings, partially for the love interest angle, but it was also really carefully thought out and implimented by the author. This is a good and gritty series from Korea, give it a try, if you like cop stories and mysteries you will like this.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Rinne Amagane has a little accident on the way for her first day at her new school, she is hit and nearly killed by a truck trying to save a cat with a ying-yang style face, very cute kitty. Now she is in hell, but not the Christian torment for eternity constantly on fire hell, this is a very Tim Burton style hell. Rinne finds that her class is cut straight from the classic horror movie standard with a couple of Japanese touches thrown in. She quickly makes friend with a witch in class, and the girl Frankenstein called Stella who doesn't speak and has a half rotten dog called Franken, who is an exact copy of Tim Burton's Frankenwenie. The other classmates aren't exactly friendly with the only flesh and blood girl in their class, this includes a werewolf that is styled after Darkstalkers, a vampire, a mummy with four arms, a merwoman, a girl styled after Griffith from Berserk when he goes evil, and then one character that is familiar to me but I just can't figure out where she is from. The other girls intially give her a real hard time but she wins them over when Styx Academy's principle, Hellvis, the demonic elvis incarnation of Abel, the original murderer, decides the school will have a volleyball tornament and the winning class will get anything they want. Rinne's unflappable energy and positive outlook unifies her class and they win the volleyball tournament, so they get their wish, all except Rinne who can't go home. Rinne meets with the Styx Academy student council who tell her that she is very different, she can still bleed everybody else in hell can't. It is because she is still alive but in a coma. Now Rinne has to graduate from Styx Academy in order to make it out. This was a lot of fun, it has the estetic of Tim Burton and plenty of good humor. You wouldn't think hell would be so pleasant. The characters are also very cool, the situation is original and the manga is packed full of great little gags, the Mickey Mouse dorm mother, her Jason look-a-like son, this manga is full of great stuff and it is all capped off with Rinne who is a great heroine. This manga is a must read.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

The Hellsing Organization, an group set up to fight vampires in Great Britian. Their top agent is Alucard, son of Dracula. The British Isles are plagued with a rash of vampire attacks, they are causing havoc and creating ghouls everywhere. The police try to stop it but the team they send in is all but destroyed, except for Victoria Seras. At one point Alucard traps the vamp but he takes Victoria hostage, Alucard calmly asks if Victoria is a virgin and after her initial shock and horror she says yes. So he shoots her through the right lung killing the vampire and turning Victoria into a vampire in the process. Later in the issue Alucard comes up against the Catholic Church's number one vampire slayer an Irish Priest. The big problem with that is they phonetically wrote his dialogue, he speaks Irish, which unless you have had some experience with it will be totally lost. This is great, bloody, exciting with a little humor tossed in for good measure. The best is the quick little one shot at the end of the volume that involves a nun with split personalities, one who is meek, the other is a total killing machine.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

More zombie slaying fun from the get go. Two vampires and a small army of ghouls invade the Hellsing Headquarters in London and it is upto Alucard, Victoria, and Integra's Butler Walter to stop them. Those poor ghouls don't stand a chance, especially with Victoria's anti-tank rifle and Walter's silver cord of death. After the dust settles they discover there is a sinister group pulling the strings from the shadows called Millienium. Integra calls up her rival the Vatican to see if they had any evidence. The arrogant and perfectly characterized Vatican guys come and tell them that the answers they seek is in South American and rests in the shadowy world of escaped Nazis. Now we are getting somewhere, we have introduced the biggest villian of them all next to Atilla The Hun, if we can get zombie or ghoul Nazi this can only get better. This is truly great action/horror manga; blood, guts, and anti-tank rounds are flying. Again the end of the manga has a little stand alone chapter with the split personality nun, one half meek nun, other half unstoppable killing machine, and her quest to take out a group of terrorists in a building, in sort she destroys an entire level of the building, All the characters that are introduced are just great, from Integra (she is a woman although she looks a bit like a yaoi man, there is joke about that in the first manga), Walter the classic Alfred the Butler Type complete with SAS background, the crazy knife weilding Irish Vatican assassin, the arrogant snotty Vatican Representative, and of course Victoria "Police Girl" Seras and Alucard. Read and you will love it.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Alucard, Victoria, and their new mercenary team pack up and head for South America. Of course this means they have to pack Victoria up in a coffin, something she really isn't all that happy about. Once they get down to South America, they barely have enough time to get checked into the hotel and get some coffin nap time, Victoria has a vision, in the form of Harkonnen, yes the fat guy from Dune, he tells Victoria to wake up. She does just in time to see helicopters circling the building and probably half of the entire Brazilian police force around the building. They turn on the TV, yes the great informer and educator, and they learn that they are apparently terrorists that killed several hotel employees and tourists and the Brazilian special forces are moving in. But the reader quickly learns that the cops aren't doing this alone, they are simply puppets for a group of Germans. You can tell this because of Vats and Veres instead of Whats and Wheres. The funniest moment in the entire manga probably wasn't meant to be funny but when you get your first good look at the Nazi mastermind behind this far reached wicked conspiracy, the first thought in my head was Elton John, yes Elton John has been transformed into a power made Nazi. In any case the cops move in, a real big mistake because Alucard basically mops the floor with these poor slubs and kills a few squads before hurling several out of the hotel to impale on the flag poles in front of the posh hotel much like his forward spelled namesake, Dracula or Vlad the Impaler. There he meets the Dandy, a vampire that throws cards, kinda like Gambit from X-Men means the Paper from Read or Die with a healthy psychotic streak. The two battle, killing many innoccent bystanders, mainly cops and news reporters in any case. All the while Victoria and the mercenaries are trying to get to the helicopters so they can get the hell out of Rio. But when is all said and done Alucard can simply say, 'Blame It On Rio!' Of course at the end of the manga we get another installment of Heinkel and Yumiko, Vatican Wetworks Squad and another fun blood soaked adventure. I think this manga beats Berserk for just simple carnage and body counts, I mean crap they really get the bodies flying in this one. Great read, fast pace and full of blood guts and vampire action.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Nazis, Vampire Nazis, Megaglomaniac Vampire Nazis, Werewolf Nazis. Being Nazis they have a plan for world domination starting with their old enemy England. So we get the Hellsing Organization and the Vatican are joining forces to fight the Nazi threat. This entire manga is really a lot of talking after defeating the Dandy in Rio. It is amazing how much talking is in this one, and how aggrivating it can get when 90 percent of it is done by German with V for W and sometimes W for V. If you try to start speaking it you sound like you're in a bad World War 2 movie. The Vampire Nazis start their plan to destroy England at the end of the manga and with the killing of the Dandy and a couple of mindless violent moments the entire manga is nothing but talking but yet it manages to keep it interesting. This is a rather short review when compared to the others but other than stuff got put in motion very little actually happens. There is no Heinkel and Yumiko at the end. But it is still good despite not having much bloodsoaked violence.

Story: B
Artwork: B
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: B 

It is rare to find me luke warm about manga. Most manga I encounter I really like or I really dislike, so far I have been pretty lucky and have only read manga that I really am into. But there always is an exception and this is one of them. Himiko-Den is another of those end of the world, you are our only hope stories with one guy and a bunch of chicks with their own special power. While reading this first volume I felt like I was reading the Post Apocalyptic version of Tenchi Muyo. You get a lot of characters flung at you so you best be on your toes. The main character is the reincarnation of a great warrior who centuries ago defeated the demons and sealed the portal between the two worlds in a copper mirror, which is now broken, but we aren't told why, by who, or when the mirror was broken it is just introduced into the story broken. The titular character Himiko is his best friend who is also a guide, spirit, a powerful being that knows the story. Jita, the main character whose name I just remembered, teams up with four Queens of Ita, whatever that is, who each have a combat skill, kung-fu, swords, and guns. They set off to defeat the demons, reseal the mirror and so Jita and Himiko can live happily ever after. I think why I didn't like this first manga was that it was so cookie cutter, everything was pressed straight from a template. Most manga I read is very original, Kindaichi, Lupin, Gunsmith Cats, and Blade of the Immortal all have common setups but in their execution they become incredibly original, this manga doesn't do that. Maybe it will get better in future volumes and the slew of character they pile on you will become much more clear because so far I am not really impressed by this manga.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

A young boy lives in a huge house deep in the woods with his strange family. No strange isn't a good word for them, beyond bizarre is more like it. His father spends all day gathering eggs from his chickens so he can give them to his grandmother because she thinks she is a chicken complete with constant chuckling. His mother also gathers eggs to break on her grandfather's massive growth to ease the pain. The most normal of the family is his sister who likes to play with the bugs her father feeds to the chickens. Life continues it bizarre normalcy until one night when his sister is bitten by a red snake. The house devolves into madness as his sister has to drink blood because everynight the snakes return to drink her blood. In the end the family kills one another in terrible brutal ways as they slowly change into hideous beasts leaving the young boy to escape by himself. This is a very creepy and unsettling manga from the king of creepy and unsettling. It reminds me a lot of the early work of David Cronenberg in such films as The Fly, the Brood, Videodrome, or the Dead Zone that draw on our natural uneasiness of our own bodies. We don't know what really goes on inside us and when things go wrong it can be a very terrifying moment in our lives. Hino taps into that very well along with a fear of being bitten by creatures in our sleep. I have had that weird through that what if there was a snake or something nasty in my bed with me and it was just waiting to bite. Like Cronenberg's films this manga isn't for everybody, I can safely say that most otaku will not like this, it is a little too grisly and a little too scary but if you have the stomach you will probably find that you will enjoy being scared by Hidoshi Hino.

Story: A
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A 

Susumu Nakoshi is a rather mysterious guy who lives in his car but is rather well dressed and always seems to have money for booze with the other homeless guys in the park. He meets a strange tattooed pierced guy who wants to drill a hole in his skull to awaken his sixth sense and offers some good cash for it. Susumu says no but when his car is towed and he needs cash fast to get his car back. So he goes with this guy to an apartment building and lets him drill the hole in his skull. After the operation the pierced guy does a series of tests to see which sixth sense power Susumu has but after getting no results he decides to call it a day. Susumu goes for a walk and finds that he sees the entire world differentlly now. After a run in with the local Yakuza toughs I believe his power is to unleash the full force of a person's inner child. Yes that is what I think is going on because after the entire volume they really don't show their hand much. It is a strange manga that while being off the wall still can keep me interested. I did groan a little bit when his sixth sense appeared to be the ability to see into someone inner child but maybe that will turn him into a raving psychotic lunatic or something. I am really looking for a good pay off to his odd-ball manga series.

Story: B-
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: B 

Susumu attempts to understand his strange power that only his left eye can see. He goes back to the yakuza guy that nearly beat his ass into pulp and tries to figure out why the yakuza guy turns into a little robot boy in his left eye. After a rather comic mishap we learn that the yakuza guy had some trauma in his former life and became a yakuza finger cutter because of it. The series is still odd enough for me to enjoy but the whole tormented inner child stuff is starting to wear thin in a big hurry. This better pick up and pick up soon.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

Possible one of the most twisted things I have ever seen. I can't recount the story of this first volume without giving away some of the best things about it so all I will say it is about a group of nihilistic trick or treaters who are out getting candy and handing out their own brand of justice to those who give out the evil stuff of Halloween, like apples and pennies. This is weird stuff, but weird in a way that I like. As someone who loves Halloween to see it takes to this strange end is very entertaining. At first I was okay, this is pretty good but where is the hook? But as the story went further and further the more and more I was reading and wondering how far will it go and always surprised at how far they were going all the way to the end where I was just floored by how evil this is. The art is a little rough, at times stuff gets a little fuzzy to see but the lengths of nihilism this group of kids goes is insane. This is so far the best ameri-manga that Tokyopop has put out. The others are just too derivative to be worthwhile, this one is so totally original that I give it the stamp of approval but be warned this is very weird.

Story: A+
Artwork: A+
Manga Quality: A+
Overall: A+ 

This is the new and improved version of a girl falling down a well and ending up in feudal Japan. Now certain people have bitched and moaned about how they have changed the layout of the VIZ Manga. It is now a little smaller in size and they have redone the covers, but they have also dropped the price, which well makes up for a few minor cosmentic changes. Rumiko Takahashi does it again, this time with a little more ghosts and sorcery than Ranma. I really like how in this one, both Kagome and her mother have to pull Inu Yasha's ears when they first meet him. If I was Inu Yasha I would carry a large sign that says 'Don't Pull the Ears.' I am really curious to see how far the manga goes as compared to the anime. The manga is still on going in Japan as far as I know but here it is only up to 13 tankouban so far. If the manga goes as far as the anime it could be a rather ridiculous amount.