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

Wow this one is a weird one, I mean I have a taste for weird and thus my tolerance is rather high but this one was even weird to me. The story is about a girl, Takako, who is cruelly abused by her classmates, they call her Octopus Girl and then one day she becomes an octopus with her head on it. She seeks out her revenge on the girls who had teased her but then she realizes she can have much more fun now that she is half human, half octopus. She goes on all sorts of misadventures, rigging an American Idol contest, fighting off a vampire granny, befriending a girl who is half human, half eel who unlike Takako can't turn herself back into a person. They also have to watch out for the foot of the creator in a very Monty Python like crushing action or the outraged hands of the reader. It is this truly bizarre sense of humor that keeps this series from just falling into the shadow of grotesque Japanese horror like Hideoshi Hino. The only thing I wasn't totally happy with was the art, it was okay but felt a little rough around the edges for some reason. Probably just a minor triffle on my part, if you really like weird read this, it tops the weird chart with ease.

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

The quest for Monkey D Luffy to become King of the Pirates begins. He first needs a few things, a ship, a crew, a map to the Grand Line where Gold Roger had hidden his vast fortune in One Piece, and a clue how to navigate the ocean. What he has going for him is a straw hat and his body is made of rubber. Luffy sets off in a dingy which gets sucked into a giant whirlpool and ends up in a wooden barrel. He ends up on the secret island of the massive female pirate captain Alvina and her meek cabin boy Koby. After defeating her and her entire crew they go to Navy Town to free Rorona Zolo so he can become part of Luffy's crew, not a bad idea, have a pirate hunter be part of your pirate crew, yes it is Luffy Logic but it always has a way of working out. The end of the volume finally introduces Nami, the best character in the series at least from my perspective. I did like how in the anime they do introduce her a little earlier seeing how she is one of the three main characters along with Luffy and Zolo. I love pirates, my favorite LEGOS were the pirate LEGOS so this series is right up my alley, it is a fantastic take on piracy which when you look at the reality of it there was nothing romantic or dashing about it. This is a series that I know I will continue to like through the volumes and have nothing but praise for it as it goes on. So let's set sail for One Piece.

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

Luffy and Zolo meet the third member of their crew, Nami, and in the process meet Buggy the Clown. Buggy is a clown pirate who like Luffy ate the Devil Fruit and now can seperate himself into many different pieces to avoid being attacked. But before they get to fight Buggy Luffy has to escape from a cage, fight off a giant lion and his trainer, and Zolo has to defeat an acrobatic swordsman. With those troubles out of the way it is now clear for Luffy to have a showdown with Buggy himself but it also makes for a great cliffhanger ending so the manga ends here. What can I say I liked One Piece, it is a pirate story mixed with lots of creativity and Nami, who can argue with Nami?

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

Luffy has his showndown with Buggy and Buggy tells him about his past with Luffy's idol Red Shanks. After dealing Buggy a sound defeat it is time for the crew, now with Nami as navigator to set sail once again for the Grand Line, in two little dingies along the way they go to an island where a man in a box has created all kinds of wild animals to guard his treasure which has a special surprise when Luffy actually goes up there and finds it. Another great manga, Luffy's fight with Buggy was wild and invenitve then again two magical men would be an inventive fight. Sail on for more pirate action.

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

Luffy, Zolo, and Nami assist Usopp defend the island against Django and the Black Cat Pirates. Things are going well-ish, Luffy tore the bow off the Black Cats' ship before falling asleep under it. Zolo has defeated the Cat Brothers but now Khaladore is on the scene and is gunning for a showdown with Luffy with the stake of Miss Kiya's life on the line. This is my least favorite story arc I have seen thus far in the animation but in the manga is seems to go much quicker and is much more violent. Usopp is my least favorite character, too much pendantic running and screaming but in the manga you don't hear it so it does down much easier. Fantastic pirate fun.

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

Luffy and Captain Kuro sqaure off, can Luffy's indestructability defeat Kuro who is faster than a speeding bullet? Yup, it takes a few hits but Luffy manages to finally best Captain Kuro. I call him Captain Kuro because it is easier to type than Khaladore. Usopp saves Kaya of course he would and for their troubles they get a ship, a caravel to be exact, which was a one masted sailing ship found mainly during the Renaissance, I looked it up on Wikipedia. So now with a navigator, a swordsman, a flag and a ship Luffy is finally starting to look like a real pirate. All their missing is a cook. As their odd luck will have it they run into a floating restaurant where Luffy accidentally trashes. Now facing a year worth of chores Luffy and the ships captain/chef square off and we are introduced to another member of the wacky crew the kung-fu cook Sanji. The Usopp Story Arc I think went a little long, Usopp is the weakest of the One Piece characters but now it is over with and we can get one with more destruction of the restaurant kind.

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

Benkyo Tamaoki hits us with another twisted sexual tale, albeit short. I will always think twice whenever I got to the barber ever again. He really has a gift to make the average really twisted. Not for the squemish or the easily offended, and absolutely not for children, they'll never get their hair cut again.

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

Short one chapter adventure from the guy who did the manga series Blame. There isn't much story but plenty of action between the bad guys, a group of pro cyberization totalitarian cyborgs and our hero, a lone wolf with a big blade that really reminded me of the comic book character Grendel. The rest of the story is all about killing cyborg baddies. It was entertaining enough for just a short Blame style story. Lots of action, very little conversation. Basically you like Blame, you would like this.

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

A girl purchases a monkey's foot that grants wishes, it came from the same monkey as the monkey's paw, and wishes her boyfriend back to life. So he comes back as a zombie. Not one to let something like that slow her down she happily brings him back into her life. Until she learns something about him and her sister. In the end she learns something and is able to heal. This is probably the first zombie story I have ever encountered that the zombie wasn't eating human flesh and the story with the zombie didn't have some ironic twist ending. It had a zombie and a happy ending, truly something that doesn't happen.

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

The Aliens have invaded in their giant fish shaped ships and make short work of the Japanese Defense Forces that go up against them. But Tetsuya a lazy slacker of a photographer, manages to get in the disaster area and snaps some picture of a hot green haired babe, right before she tries to chop his head off. But he manages to save his ass with a piece of rebar and the hot green haired lass loses her sword. He takes the sword and becomes embroiled in the galactic potboiler between an alien empire and the secret human government run by a giant head named Neo, many, many years before those crappy Matrix movies mind you. Our green haired babe is Princess Kahm, a rebellious teen who is the daughter of the Emperor who just so happened to have snuck on board this recon mission. Now she hijacks a goldfish, yes giant space born goldfish to get her sword back as her best pal, Rou takes his ship down to bring her back which leads to the ship blowing up Japan, not just Tokyo but Japan, take that Godzilla, a giant space fish did in twenty seconds what you never could accomplish in like twenty movies. This is one of the original manga that was brought over here for American Consumption back in the late 80s. The OVA of this series was one of the first anime I ever watched, while the OVA is much more slapstick this too is just as good but with a ton more characters and much more going on. Fun stuff ahead.

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

This is a collection of short manga stories by the pioneer of alternative manga from the 60s, Yoshihiro Tatsumi. These are truly ground breaking 8 page stories, each is totally independent of each other and cover a wide range of personal demons from impotence, to voyeurism, to obession and hatred. The stories are told in a frank, stark, and shockingly real way, usually stories told in pictures often take the simple and easy course of fantastic stories and outlandish places but these don't pull any punches or shy away from anything. It is even more amazing when you realize these where made in 1968 but they are still as valid and honest as when they were written. Some are rather Japanese, the story of the Push-Man being one of the most Japanese, a Push-Man is a guy whose job is to push people onto train so they pack everybody they possible can into a train. One of my favorites has to be Obession where an auto mechanic falls in love with the host of a late night TV show and what his obession leds him to. This isn't for everybody, there is a frank explicitness to it all and the hard often downbeat endings the stories take can leave those more accustom to brainless American comics truly dazed but if you are in the mood for something much more serious and thought provoking you need to give these a try. You will be happy you did.

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

The craziness continues, now with more characters. Basically in each manga they add three or four new and unique characters. This time they introduce Kodachi, the Black Rose. Also they introduce Ryoga's horrible secret. He followed Ranma to China and fell into one of the cursed pools and becomes a small black pig. Now he has an alter-ego, P-Chan, Akane's favorite breast pillow (lucky bastard). The majority of this issue revolves around combat rhythmic gymnastics between Kodachi and Akane/Female Ranma. I love how everything that they seem to get into revolves around kung-fu insert name here. I think that is one of the things I love about this series is how they always seem to be able to make any contest into a no-holds barred fight to the death.

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

We open on the Charlotte Cup, the ice skating battle for possession of P-Chan/Ryoga. After a twisting and turning battle that finally ends with Ranma and Ryoga going at it for Akane's hand. The battle ends with as Akane falls into the water and after she wakes up in the infirmary a new character smashes through the wall with the simple mission to kill Femal Ranma. It is Shampoo the Chinese Amazon battle queen who encountered Ranma in China and defeated her. This prompted Shampoo to give Ranma the Kiss of Death and chase them all across China, now she is in Japan and again is defeated but this time so now she has to marry Ranma, which angers Akane just a bit so Shampoo gives Akane the kiss of death. They battle and Akane loses her memory to a Chinese brain washing technique. Can Ranma get Akane's memory back and defeat Shampoo without marrying her? I love Shampoo, she is a really great character and cute has hell too. This volume was a little light on the introduction of characters by only introducing Shampoo but she is so important she really counts as the three you normally find in a volume of Ranma.

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

Reiko Himezono is a Necromancer for Hire. She uses her powers to bring the recently dead back to impart the dead's last message to their friends and love ones, but often this message is not what they want to hear and the recently dead become rather violent. Ah the dead, never can trust them, that is why Reiko carries several feet of chain with her. After bringing back three dead girls, twy who committed suicide, the other died in what looks like an accident, each of course having a twist and the zombiefied person takes revenge of those that deserve it. Then Reiko is called in to assist in the investigation in a small town called Shiraike where 29 school girls have been murdered. With nothing but dead ends they call in Reiko to bring one of the dead girls back to find the killer. This of course leds to more zombies and a lot of knife slashing at the local hospital. The ending is a very good cliffhanger for the first volume, it will be very interesting to see where they take the series from here. This is a little bit different from the standard school girl sorceress story even from a Japanese perspective, the serial killer is killing grade schoolers not high schoolers and it isn't the usual cut away, scream maybe some blood splatter, nope the kids are getting their heads cut off in full view for the readers discomfort. I liked that bold choice, I mean nobody does that and if they do it is once, there are three child deaths in the manga which each was very shocking. I think it was the rather frank child-kill made the manga much more suspenseful because you keep seeing little kids in this manga and you start to genuinely fear for them. I also like Reiko she is a good necromancer. The only problem I had was with Zombie Shop, it isn't a place it is her job title. Even the other characters in the manga are confused by the job title. This is a great horror manga series, they need more of this style in manga I have yet to find a horror manga that I didn't like yet.

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

Reiko is a girl without a body, which is really doesn't stop her from having her own manga series. Reiko's twin sister Riruka who wants to use her powers to bring about a zombie apocalypse so she can reign over a world of re-animated corpses. Reiko get a new body and with the help of several other necromancers she goes to stop her sister and her sister's own army of necromancers. This part of the manga I liked to call Undead Pokemon because each necromancer has their own undead servant who does battle for them. It is a really creative lot, one has a giant undead snake, another a War of the Rose era English Knight, another as a doctor and nurse who are fused together. It really like the creativity and carnage of using undead monsters to do your battles, I was also impressed by the attrition of the good guys, this series doesn't pull any punches and you never know who is going to die next. I also liked how they explain a few particulars of Japanese society, one of them was the urban legend that inside hospitals are swimming pools full of preserved bodies that were never claimed and somebody job is to push the bodies under the water with a stick. Now that is an urban legend if there ever was one. This series really is very good, it has its funny moments but most of it is just good scary horror action.

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

Reiko and Riruka have their final showdown which involves necromancing heads, undead fighter pilots, and a giant monster made up of zombies. Can Reiko triumph over such impossible odds? Hell yes, she is Reiko, she is the Zombie Shop, still can't get over that it is a title not a store. After stopping her twin sister's dreams of world domination she gets back to work, she probably has a lot of bills to pay after being gone for so long. She first goes to work in an all girl's school in Hungary where a werewolf is on the loose and only Reiko had bring back the head of one of the dead girls so they can know who did these awful crimes. Next we have a real weird one about a twin sister who is living inside her sister, and has she had the other twin's face on her side, that she has to feed. The last is about Reiko's little sister? who has built an elaborate replica of town and Reiko adds a scary killer who is heading for their door. I liked the last one, very Twilight Zone, but the best story of the manga was the one about the werewolf, I would have liked to see that one go on for a couple more chapters but after such a big story like Reiko v Riruka it wouldn't have worked as well. This is a great, gory, and creative manga that will be appreciated by all horror fans whether they like manga or not.

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

Our favorite necromancing teenager is back and back in the center of trouble, whether it be mad bombers, this is one of the reasons I love this series they have a mad bomber, nobody does mad bombers except this and black and white serials from the 40s, and then they have to cut open the mad bomber but the group that runs these mad bombers have other ideas. Then Reiko gets caught up in a kidnap plot were the kidnappee gets killed and she needs to bring her back, but she accidentally raises some extra dead bodies. Reiko finds out that house cleaning androids can get you in real trouble when she decides that to make sure the house stays clean she has to kill everyone, whoopsie. Then another great, gory and somewhat stomach churning horror when Reiko, and her classmates go to a camp ground where a chubby camp owner uses the girls to make her look beautiful, and by the looks of her, man she better start killing men too because she has a long way to go. Finally Saki Yurikawa's younger sister has been in a mental hospital for years and when she wakes up from her coma, she starts to attempt to intergrate into the same society where her sister committed her crimes, which really isn't a good idea, maybe she should have been moved, to like Alaska. After taking nothing but abuse from the locals she goes one toke over the line and starts carving people up. You know I felt really, really sorry for her, it was rather amazing how sorry I felt for her. I really think she got the short end of the stick and then snaps. Another fabulous volume of guts, gore, and chibi Reiko.

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

Further adventures of Fuu, Jin, and Mugen, the wandering trio who are looking for the samurai that smells like sunflowers. Aside from the first chapter all of these chapters in the manga are original. You had to have the first chapter which isn't a straight translation they took a lot of liberty with it. The rest of the chapters are leaned much more towards the comedic side of their exploits. From the shogun that likes a good time and his ninja cadre that is desperate to protect him, which is by far my favorite story of the entire manga. To the inn where the okami, or female owner of the inn spend the entire time chasing Jin. Another nice thing about this manga is they give you little translations to some of the stuff in the manga that you may or may not know. This manga has a lot more of the anachronistic stuff in it than the anime but in does fit in a weird way. While this isn't the follow up to Bebop, nothing will ever really be the genre builder that it was, but on its own merits it is a different take on the Rebel Samurai genre that was prominent in the 60s and 70s and is still very good.

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

Sexy Voice is a plucky 14 year old girl who in addition to being a sex phone operator, is a special private investigator who works for a mysterious old man who seems to live in a fancy restaurant. Sexy Voice, whose real name is Niko, is an expert on voices, she can pick out the small nuance from the way some speaks, even can describe a person's physical descriptions. She teams up with Robo, a video store clerk who likes giant robo toys. She teams up with him mainly because he has a car and she soon takes a liking to him for being a big dumb sap. They investigate all manner of less than typical cases, Sexy Voice has to make sure a guy is okay for his parents who live in a different city, she has to save a kidnapped child whose ransom involves not turing on Christmas lights in Shinjuku, or trying to clear Robo whose been framed for trying to kill one of Japan's star soccer players, those foriengers and their soccer.

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

The cute sorceress Lina Inverse and her trusty but thick partner Gourry are back for another round of hijinxs, mishaps, and a healthy dose of devistating magic. Their first misadventure happens over fish, specifically Milsar, a rare fish that can only be served once a year and is incredibly delicous. Of coures the local noble is hoarding it all and that is something Lina and Gourry won't stand for, especially when hungry. The only problem, Leon, an old friend of Gourry is protecting the noble. In the next chapter a mysterious thief called the Black Fox says the next thing he is will steal is a kiss from Lina something Gourry is determined not to let happen. Aaahhh ain't that sweet. The beating Lina eventually gives the Black Fox is everything short of using the Dragon Slave on him, that will hurt. Chapter Three Lina is entertaining the reader by spending her afternoon in the bath tub, those aren't my words they are Gourry's words when he finds her to inform her that they have a job. They have to carry a box through town, doesn't seem to hard but when Lina and Gourry are invovled there is always trouble. The package is believed to be plans for overthrowing the kingdom. So now everybody wants to take it from Lina and Gourry, the king's men, and the men working for the two conspiring princes. How ever are they going to survive? Oh yah blow everything up. The next is a two part adventure spoiled Princess Isabella takes a liking to Gourry and wants to make him one her bodyguards but Gourry turns her down and like all spoiled princesses she gets pissed because nobody turns her down so she resorts to kidnapping Gourry. It is up to Lina to rescue Gourry and defeat the straneg shadowy monster who does the princess' dirty work. The final misadventure involves Lina and Gourry on a werewolf hunt. Basically if you liked the anime Slayer this is right up your alley. I personally have always loved Slayers and finding more misadventures of Lina Inverse is always a good thing. My favorite story was probably the Black Cat, there is nothing more funny than somebody trying to kiss Lina. It is nice once and awhile to find a manga that doesn't lead into another twenty volumes like so many others

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

Lina Inverse and her partner, and rival Naga the White Serpent, are on the road getting into trouble all the while looking for their next massive meal. They help a rather inept swordsman defeat a dungeon full of monsters, they have to battle a wily sorcerer who has taken control of the nearby town's entire stock of Red Marimo, the local delicacy and you know that Lina won't stand for anybody hording local delicacies. Then Lina and Naga take possession of a stuffed frog which a little sorceress is very interested in getting back and is willing to drop meteorites at Lina and Naga to get it back. It of course is more than a just a stuffed frog, it is a mighty magical item that a bunch of really scary guys are after. Of course you think they are any match for Lina and Naga? Of course not. This was a great manga, it really feeds my joy for Slayers, it really helps that the writer of the 15 Slayers novels also wrote this and the artist really captured the feeling of Slayers perfectly. True I am a little biased towards Slayers but hey it is a great series that deserves respect.

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

Lina and Naga are back on the road, eating and getting into trouble. First up Lina is hired by their charge to help him win the heart of... Naga, yes that is right Naga. He falls in love with her after she blows him up, talk about masocist in all senses of the word. The second adventure Lina and another sorceress are trying to gather up rare ingrediants for a very top secret potion, a breast growth potion, even today something like that would be an absolute fortune but they have to keep it a secret from Naga, god knows why Naga would want some of that, they get any bigger she wouldn't be able to walk. Then Lina and Naga are hired to help design tourist attractions for a secret ninja village because their skills are no longer needed in a land where peace has broken out. I'd love to go to the Ninja Disneyland, it would be a lot fun to throw ninja stars and climb on ceilings. While trying to recover/steal a powerful magic mirror the owner/original thief uses on our intrepid pair and makes copies, just in reverse, they are kind, sweet, easily brought to tears which is incredibly amusing, especially when they come up with the solution to fix all of this and break the mirror. Next up our dynamic duo assist a swordswoman to regain the sword her father lost, probably the weakest of the series. The next is all about mistaken identity when Lina and Naga venture to a town where everyone calls themselves Lina Inverse talk about idol worship. The volume comes to a close with a two part adventure where Lina and Naga both go undercover in a mansion supposedly the home of very wealthy bandits and run a gauntlet of ever increasing insanity. Always good, Lina Inverse is one of those excellent characters that any adventure you put her in she manages to make it her own. Naga and the support cast are all strong too, there really aren't any cheap throw-away characters here, each was made very well. Another great Slayers read.

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

A violent tale of two assassins, Spine and Guts, and the people who want them dead. The story isn't all that spectacular, this is something I would have expect to star Steven Segal or maybe be made by John Woo in America. The artwork is really rough as well, I had a very hard time keeping everybody straight, and the manga is only 4 chapters and about 280 pages and I had a hard time figuring out who was who. I was pleased with how it ended, but it ended too quickly. The Transporter guy and his pals really just come out of the blue but there is very little time to introduce anybody in this story so it can be overlooked. The Yakuza's woman was probably the best character in the entire story and she was woefully under developed. The artist over did the blood in several of the torture scenes so that I swore the person's entire head was ripped off not just giving them a bloody nose. I was not impressed by this at all, although I had high hopes from reading the description of Yakuza Thugs, Hired Assassins, Corpse Carriers and other weird people you meet on this trip into the Japanese Underworld. You do take a trip into the Japanese Underworld and you do meet all the described characters but the trip is so short you don't have anytime to appreciate the journey and the art is so low quality you aren't even sure what you saw.

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

53 girls leap on the train tracks in Shinjuku and only one survives in this bizarre mass suicide. The story centers around this girl and her friend. Her friend is very well rounded and happy girl but the survivor is seriously messed up. She is a cutter, she cuts on herself to alleviate the pressures inside her, and she sleeps around a lot. All in all she is a very disturbed girl but now she is the survivor and is starting to gain other friends and moving away from her good friend. The story is told through a series of flashbacks as the good girl attempts to understand what happened on the train tracks. The more she digs into the background of the club the more disturbing it becomes. It centers around a figure named Mitsuko, who has arranged numerous of these mass suicides and everytime one girl survives to build a new club. Can she stop her friend before she gathers more students to commit mass suicide. This is a rather disturbing manga and not for the squemish but if you can look pass the gore you get a tense psychological thriller. I didn't intend to read the entire thing in one sitting but once you start you just can't stop. I like how it looks into psychological trauma and how it manifests itself with girls. In the US it would be cheap throwaway Made for TV movie about the girl's issues but never actually look at the meat of the issue, but the Japanese are able and willing to get into the meat and show it in all its disturbing realism. This isn't for the squemish, it is gory but the story is very excellent and worth a read.

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

Three extremely different people from Japan, a military freak, a karate expert, and a world famous actress are trapped in a bizarre alternate dimension full of elves. Well the head elf is trying a spell to send them back, but the bonehead Karate Expert screws up the spell and it is scattered to the four winds. Now they have to retrieve it, but there is a catch, there always has to be a catch. The catch is that they have melded into elven women's flesh. So they have to strip busty hot elves all over the place trying to find the parts of the spell. The Elf Queen joins the group in teh guise of a dog, but after they recover the first part of the spell it lock her into her dog form. Added to this motely bunch is a cat spirit that has possessed the groups T-74 Tank. The manga is very hilarious, especially all the stripping of the hot elven women. We have just laid the foundation for the finding of the spell parts. I expect much more silliness from this as it goes on. Really great, especially all the naked elf chicks.

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

Magical Kung-Fu, Elf Maiden Who Are Moustached Dogs, Love Triangles, and Mandrake Elves. Junpei is struck by the urge to become a wizard out of the blue at the same time a seemingly unstoppable karate expert. Junpei has a great scene where he tries to use his 'new found' magical skill on the leg breaking karate expert and then learns he real magic is in his karate. Then they travel to a field of flowers where a great city of Elves should be. They pluck one of the flowers and find that the flowers are in fact Mandrake Elves and the Elf with spell tattoo has buried herself in a rock because she is embarassed about her tattoo. So how to do you get any woman to come out from under her rock? Get her drunk of course. But to Celcia's horror the tattoo they recieves adds a moustache to her dog form. Horrified she runs off where she encounter an old friend from her wizard academy days, her best friend and most bitter enemy who is now running a side show with the man they both had a crush on. The pair again fight over him until he turns out to be a complete creep, readying to sell Celcia to another side show and Cecil's rival to slave traders but Junpei, Airia, Ritsuko and their trusty cat possessed T-34 tank appear ready to stop them. I loved the Mandrake Elves and how they had to get the elf drunk to get her out of the rock. Hopefully more elf stripping to come in the next volumes.

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

Without a doubt one of the most amazingly totally absolutely original and disturbing manga I have ever seen. I don't want to give any of this manga away at all, it is so absolutely out of left field I don't want to give any of it away. Nothing in this series is normal, and that is really the best thing about it. It takes something, Little Red Riding Hood, and totally puts it on its ear. I loved it, I seriously doubt most others out there will be able to handle this series, it is incredibly intense and very adult. Western audiences will have a definite visceral reaction and will immediately make people rather judgemental about Japan. As much as I loved this series, unless you are very open minded and understanding of other cultures do not read this it will cause nothing but trouble. If you are open minded, adventerous and with a strong constitution you should give this a try, it certainly is like nothing I have ever seen.

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

The plot thickens fast and our heroine faces off against another cute powerful assassin this time with a monster stitched together from many corpses, and an anti-tank rifle. This series continues to suprise, shock, and most importantly impress. This volume really expanded the series and proved to the reader that it isn't just about cheap shocking thrills but there is a detailed and rich storyline behind all of this. The creativity is all over this manga series and it is still breaking new ground on the second volume. I really am waiting for number 3 on pins and needles the great cliffhanger ending.

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

Wow, talk about truncating a story to fit into a large volume of manga. Vash meets his arch-enemy Legato who tells him some killers are after him, namely the Gung-Ho Guns. Vash defeats two of them and then we meet Wolfwood, then the big final battle with Legato, story over. Yes it goes about that fast, it really feels like they had to wrap it up in one volume or else and did just that. The only characters that get anything more than just a brief moment are Vash and Legato, I'm really not sure why they bring in Wolfwood at all, he does nothing, same with Meryl and Millie, they are just there to fill space between plot points. Rather disappointing rushed ending to the series of all two volumes. I think it was rushed to a close so that they could put out Trigun Maximum so that readers would have a place to start from so that Trigun Maximum wouldn't need to spend time covering the backstory.

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

It has been two years since Vash the Stampede and the world has continued on. Wolfwood is traveling about when somebody calling himself Vash the Stampede is terrorizing a little town. Wolfwood finds that Vash is alive and well but not the Vash who is the leader of the gang. Wolfwood has a message for Vash, Knives is back. So now Vash and Wolfwood set off to find Knives. At the same time Meryl and Millie are again working at the insurance company when the word that Vash is back but this time somebody else is put on the case, but the new guy isn't interested in keeping Vash out of trouble, he is going to kill him. But Meryle and Millie stop him and go back on their vacation. Then Vash meets up with his equipment maker and redons his trademark red coat and with Wolfwood in tow attempts to find Knives and make sure that all the trouble that is committed along the way is non-lethal. This is pretty good so far, but I want more Meryl and Millie, I like them a little more than Vash and Wolfwood. I hope this goes longer than the first manga did of two manga and the story is fleshed out. We shall see.

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

After the Battle of Sekigahara when Oda Nobunaga was defeated in his attempted to unify Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate began to rise to power. The story follows two men who were on the losing side are now trying to return home, one of them is Shinmen Takezo who is destined to become Musashi Miyamoto the greatest samurai of all time but right now he is just a feral fugitive trying to survive. Takezo and his partner Honiden reminded me a bit of the two guys in Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress until Takezo beats a samurai first with a stick, then a rock then the broken stick until he kills him. The beatings in his manga are rather severe and long taking several pages to beat somebody to death. On their travels they encounter two women who make a living as battlefield collectors, after the battle they gather up all the weapons and armour they can find and sell it, not a bad living if you ask me. Only problem is that they are plagued by a bandit chief and his men, who come a calling while Honiden and Takezo are there, of coures Takezo just starts a beating, and gives the chief a beating to remember. In the end Honiden runs off with the two women and Takezo returns to Miyamoto, their village they set out from a year before. The only problem is that Honiden's family was the prominent family in the area and they aren't none too happy about him returning without Honiden and don't believe he ran off with the two women, to make matters worse he killed some soldiers while crossing the border. So Honiden's old grandmother sets Takezo up and in the end is surrounded by a bunch of samurai, those poor bastards don't stand a chance. This is a good historial action yarn, it is a great read if you have any interest in Japanese history this is a manga for you.

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

Takezo is being hunted like a wild animal by the citizens of his village. A wandering monk and Otsu, the former financee of Honiden, are the only ones able to capture Takezo after he has been on the run for awhile. Instead of killing him they tie him to a branch of a tree and leave him to starve to death, not exactly the way Takezo wants to go. Takezo finally escapes with the help of the monk and Otsu. The monk wants to shape Takezo into something other than a wild killing machine. Not much goes on but a lot goes on, there is a lot of character development, but Takezo has grown very little, all the minor characters are growing, Otsu, the monk, the swordsman who is looking for vengence. I really love the art in this manga, it is so realistic it almost feels like photographs. I really want to see where this manga goes I am thoroughly enjoying this manga.

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

A skilled Japanese pilot during the closing days of World War 2 has a strange encounter with a giant ball of light which he manages to shoot down. When it crashes it destroys everything in a two mile radius and he gets sucked into a strange world of scientist and military intelligence who think he has shot down a UFO which were called Foo Fighters by American Pilots in World War 2. He begins to exhibit strange symptoms and begins to believe the aliens aren't done with him yet. The second story is a Japanese take on Apocalypse Now, colonel goes crash takes his troops into the hinterland, and it is upto a lone soldier to go and kill him. But it has a unique Japanese twist with all the honor, duty to the Emperor and the whatnot that you don't have when dealing American troops. There also is a lot more behind why the colonel went native in the first place that gives more meat to it, he isn't just crazy. Finally is a short retrospective about tanks in the 20th century that is too teasing, I wanted more but I assume it was short due to spacial issues. I really like this, completely atypical manga stuff. The stuff is very realistic and well researched the planes, the tanks, the gunboat are all incredibly real almost like you're looking at pictures rather than drawings. My favorite was Heart of Darkness, I really like that story concept for some reason, there is something there that makes it really interesting to me, whether it is set during World War 2, Vietnam or 1890s Colonial Africa, I think it speaks to the insanity in all of us. Who Fighter is very good too, reminded me a bit of Akira even down the artwork I just kept thinking Akira, Akira, Akira while reading it. I really liked this, it is incredibly atypical and I'm always up for well made stuff that defines conventions.