tragedy ↘↖
MangaLog: Hotel
From the same mangaka that brought us Sun-ken Rock, Boichi, comes a collection of five oneshots.
In general these oneshots have amazingly detailed drawings. Seeing how most of these oneshots have a sci-fi theme to them pictures can become quite grand, to have such images as detailed, crisp, and clear as these is quite the accomplishment. The facial expressions on the people here are of the most expressive I have ever seen in a manga. Boichi-sensei also shows off his ability as a writer. Together, the drawing and the writing act as an efficient conductor of emotion. The emotion Boichi-sensei put in is the emotion you receive, no less but everything more.
Click the break to read a summery of each oneshot and my thoughts on them.
I started making a post about every chapter of manga chapter I read. I called it MangaLog and I started off strong with a collection of oneshots.
Manga Review: King of Thorns
People often ask: “If you could have one superpower what would it be?” One day I decided to sit down and plan out what would be the best superpower so that I would be prepared should someone ask. After brainstorming I came up with two superpowers that were tied for my favorite. One of them is turning what I imagine into reality. Just like any superpower this one has flaws. This manga explores what happens if someone tries to utilize this great power in order to take over the world. In this manga the so called, “Medusa virus,” has started to infect humans. The result? People slowly turn in stone. Huge power awaits those who can control the Medusa virus.
Manga Review: Edens Bowy
Available here
“In a world with floating cities know as Eden, a young boy named Jorrne attempts to return to Eden to be reunited with his mother. Born with the destiny of bearing god-killing powers, he is the object of Eden’s attention—both as something to study, and something to destroy. Aided by a young magic-wielding girl named Elisiss, her sister Enefeaa, and a swordsman sent from Eden, Jorrne travels to find his way home and to discover the truth behind his power.” - Mangafox.com
Manga Review: Hana no Akuma
Available Here
“From Mangaupdates:
17-years-ago Vivi, the demon, decided to leave the demon realm and come to the human world. There he found an abandoned baby and on a whim decided to keep it. Since then he lived together with Hana…but having a 14 year-old girl around you, is it really as simple as you think it might be?”
Manga Review: SaiKano
“Shy Chise and nervous Shuji are high school seniors in a small town and have just started dating. But everything changes when Shuji discovers that Chise has been engineered by the Japanese Self Defense Force to transform into the Ultimate Weapon! Soon Chise is torn between realizing her potential as a devastating fighting force and her desire to share a bowl of ramen with her new boyfriend!” - Mangahere.com
The Record of a Fallen Vampire
“There is a legend that tells of how the world was almost destroyed thousands of years ago by the vampire queen after she unleashed her latent powers. Despite their efforts, the humans were unable to defeat her, and thus resorted to sealing her away until the time came that they would be powerful enough to destroy the seal and kill her. However, the humans are not the only ones after the seal. Having cast aside his kingdom and betraying his own race and the dhampirs (half-vampires), the vampire king is persistantly searching, even to this day, for where his queen has been sealed away so he may break the seal and free her before the humans do. Fearing that once the king and queen are reunited, they shall continue to destroy the world together, the humans and dhampirs hunt the king, using any method possible.” - Mangareader.net
Trying to convince you to read this manga may be extremely hard. This is not because this manga is bad, on the contrary this is a mind blowingly awesome manga. But the trouble lies in the fact all the awesome things that I want to say are huge spoilers. Because of this, please read this review knowing that there so much more to this manga then what I write here.
Within the first chapter we learn that the character we are following, Akabara Strauss, is the Vampire King. Only a slight glimpse into his background is revealed at first, as it should be. As the manga goes on more and more about Strauss is revealed. Strauss is one of the deepest, most well written characters I have ever seen. Strauss’ past adds a huge amount of depth and explains the entire plot. Also, what is interesting is that Strauss (to the best of my memory) never gets any stronger than he was at chapter one. This is one of the few mangas that has a main character like that. Of course, Strauss changed mentally but he was still restraining himself in the beginning as not to damage human settlements as he battled the dhampirs* who are pursuing him. Besides the dhampirs he also has to worry about the Black Swan which is a spiritual parasite that attaches to girls who have strong spiritual energy. The girls are imbedded with the spiritual energy and memories of their predecessors. They are also forced to kill Strauss with the condition if they don’t within five years of their “infection” they will die.
The Record of a Fallen Vampire has an amazing plot with more twists than maze. The characters, especially, Strauss, are so well written that they are at the point of feeling alive… well almost. The art is good, not great but that is more than made up for in every other category. Also, this manga does something which is called a Genre Shift. As the name implies, the Genre Shift is when there is a shift in the genre. In this case we have the shift from supernatural to sci-fi supernatural.
*Dhampirs are half-human and half-vampire.
Source: [tinypic.com] [tenmanga.com] [manareader.net] [manga.animea.net]
Elfen Lied
Available here
“The story involves human mutations called “dicloniuses”, who grow horns on their heads and possess telekinetic powers, in the form of invisible “arms” called vectors.
The tendency for violence among dicloniuses varies among characters. Certain scientists contain them in a Facility in cells where they are subject to inhumane experiments to test their abilities or where they await execution for being too dangerous.
An infectious virus is also associated with the mutation. This virus is spread through non-lethal contact with the vectors of a diclonius.
The main non-mutant character in the story is Kouta, who ends up becoming increasingly involved with these dicloniuses, as they seek refuge from the scientists.
The main diclonius character is Lucy/Nyuu a killer whose alter ego is a hapless, and very cute child whose vocabulary and intelligence is quite limited.
{Corrections from Silvermagic.}
After a large amount of choice occurences the lives of these two characters becomes inexplicably intwined…” -Mangafox.com
I don’t think I have misjudged a manga as much as I have this one. Normally, I judge a manga by its artwork. This is a bad habit and I am trying to work myself out of it. To fix my habit I generally read a chapter or two so I can accurately judge weither or not I think I will enjoy reading this series. Normally that is enough to get a good feel of the manga. But it wasn’t enough for this manga. There was so much blood and gore right off the bat I felt like I could not continue. And I didn’t continue, until many months later when a friend of mine highly recommended reading it. Since we have similar tastes I decided to give Elfen Lied another try, and I do not regret it.
As it turns out my original assessment was not untrue but simply it overlooked too much. You see, there is a lot of a gore in this series, in fact that is an understatement. You see so many people dyeing in such gruesome ways that you think everyone will die and, in fact, everyone is in danger of dyeing by the end. By there is much more to that. There is love, hate, sadness, happiness, hopeless, hope, betrayal, forgiveness and just about every other emotion you can think of. If you can get over the gore there is a lot this manga has to offer. The characters for one, are very lovable. The plot is extremely good there is never a dull moment and the ending was just absolutely golden. When I reached the ending I was so flooded with emotion I almost had to take a break to collect myself… almost.
A warning to all potential readers: If you do not like gore or can not stomach it DO NOT READ THIS MANGA. It is very common to see heads, limbs, and bodies flying everywhere, the innocent are not spared. Also nudity is fairly common, this is basically a manga you want to read in privacy. You have been warned.
Sources: wordpress.com, mangareader.net, mangafox.com
Manga Review: Bitter Virgin
“Suwa Daisuke is the ladies man of his small town high school, and he has his eye on almost every girl, except for one. Aikawa Hinako isn’t his type, but when he overhears a deep dark secret of hers, he finds himself thinking of her more and more.”-MangaFox
Available here
This is one of the most touching mangas I have read. I have said it before and I will say it again. I read manga for the feelings I get when I read. Those emotions the mangaka embeds into the story are what makes manga worth while to me. Whether it be joy or sorrow I love it all. This manga has more emotions packed in its thrity-two chapters than most mangas do in a hundred! The emotions you feel from this manga are sorrow, empathy, and a hint of joy. This manga uses emotionally charged themes so feeling something while reading isn’t too surprising. But since they are emotionally charged themes are used the mangaka could have made a wrong move and upset many people. Due to either skill or luck (which in some cases is a skill) no body was upset, or at least I wasn’t upset nor were any of the other people who read it on various forums I traverse. The summary above does a good job explaining the initial plot without giving too much away. If I said anymore I would spoil the plot. But I will say the beginning is a bit slow, and seeing how the manga is short, the time lost building up was unaffordable. Perhaps it was necessary though because once Hinako’s past is revealed everything is already set up and things start to get good. Also it is important to know that this is a Drama/Romance. If this turns off anybody I suggest they read it. This is one of those must reads. The story is very relatable especially in today’s world. I suggest everybody at least tries to read it.
Battle Royale
Available here
“Remember reading Lord of the Flies? Battle Royale is Lord of the Flies on crack. Don’t believe me? Then read about the 42 classmates that are forced onto an island all armed with weapons. The goal is simple: kill everyone else and be the winner, the last survivor. Be sure to heed the warning below… Warning: This series has gore/nudity and is not suitable for anyone under 18! ” - thespectrum.net
The summary above makes things sound pretty straight forward. You can already guess a lot of what will happen, those who were once friends will turn on each other, people will go insane, the innocent will die, alliances will be formed, betrayal will be common place and by the end nearly everyone will be dead. That much is obvious, does that sound like the whole story? Well that is the bare skeleton of what will happen. Even though you know generally what will happen the mangaka does a great job of keeping things new, interesting and emotionally charged. By emotionally charged, I mean you will feel every emotion between anger and fear to happiness and sorrow. You will feel emotion in every scene. But this may also be a bad thing. The feelings may be too intense for some. I felt like crying often. And as I mentioned before people die. People die often and in very gruesome ways. I wouldn’t be surprised if readers would threw up at some of the scenes. What makes things worse/better is that each character has great development, you feel a bond with each character and as they die, one by one, each death hits you hard. I don’t think this manga needs anymore explaining. Things may seem straight forward in the long run but in actuality things are the opposite. You will have no idea what will happen next. If you have the stomache for it I highly recommend this manga. For those of you who are worried, this manga has a great heartfelt ending that will leave you more than satisfied.
WARNING: THIS IS FOR A VERY MATURE AUDIENCE
Chrono Crusade
Available here
“Chrono Crusade is set in the height of the Roaring Twenties, where jazz is king, bootleg liquor flows freely, and the mob rules the streets. It is a time of prosperity, luxury and decadence, and the division between rich and poor grows even wider in the wake of the First World War. It is at such times of great change and upheaval that the dark things that lurk below the world of man can come to the surface. In the world of Chrono Crusade, a fictional organization known as the Order of Magdalene (or more specifically, the characters of Sister Rosette Christopher and her soul-bound demon partner, Chrono) exists to fight the demonic threats that appear with increasing regularity across America. Both Rosette and Chrono are revealed during the course of the story to be driven by a shadowy past, centered around a search for Rosette’s lost brother, Joshua. Joshua is shown to have been taken from her by the sinner, Aion, a demon who shares a dark and bloody history with Chrono. He seeks nothing less than to overthrow the delicate balance between Heaven, Earth, and Hell…though he’s driven by far more than his inherent demonic need to destroy.” -Wikipedia
At first I was rather put off by the fact one of two main characters was a nun. But after a few chapters in any negative preconceived notions I had about the characters disappeared. Like magic! No, not really like magic, there were reasons why they disappeared. That characters were like able, understandable and relatable. Well as relatable as you would expect from a nun and demon, which is surprisingly a lot. The demon, Chrono, is surprisingly humanlike which, with much skill by the mangaka, does not take away from his overall “demonness”. Another thing which I must commend the mangaka on is the ending portion of the manga. The final battle was a pure stroke of genius! I grew more and more excited each page, my adrenaline was flowing my heart was pumping, and I simply could not stop. But that is not to say that only the ending part of the manga was amazing, I felt the same feeling throughout the manga but it was most concentrated at the end. Now I spoke about the final battle but chapter and half after the battle was something you don’t see often. The reason why I read manga is for the feeling I got after I read those 30odd pages. This manga isn’t very long, only 56 chapters, and for those 56 chapters you get an experience worth far more than the time you put into it. Please, for your sake, read this manga, this is something you will not regret.
