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Review Archive

To see a list of reviews in alphabetical order, please see our review index.


ANN Review: Black Bird (Vol. 07)

ANN Review: Black Bird (Vol. 07)

It’s more trashy shoujo time (which is not always a bad thing!) as I review volume seven of Black Bird over at AnimeNewsNetwork.

Oh, Black Bird. Seven volumes in and I still keep buying and reading. Rarely reviewing though since I don’t find I have anything new to say past creepy. Sometimes it manages to be endearing, and there’s always that ‘what’s going to happen next?’ vibe to keep you reading, but the voice in my head telling me to give up on it just keeps screaming louder and louder. I can fully admit I can gloss over some non-con in manga (The Tyrant Who Falls In Love was my pick of the month for January after all), but in Black Bird there’s so much emotional and mental manipulation. It actually bothered me more rereading the series again before this review. Watching the lead character get slowly molded into this weepy docile dependent on her demon-‘lover’ is so… geh.

On another note, one of the comments on the Black Bird review also got me thinking how people perceive the way reviewers post things on ANN. While I can’t speak for everyone as,well, I’m obviously not them, I can say that I choose what I want to buy, read and review for ANN so there’s no ‘choosing the right critic’. I read Black Bird, had something to say, and said it – so… yeah? Just thought it was worth clearing up that I’m not assigned books or anything. The more you know!


ANN Review: Peepo Choo (Vol. 03)

ANN Review: Peepo Choo (Vol. 03)

New review of mine up on AnimeNewsNetwork, this time for the third and final volume of Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo.

“This final volume doesn’t make up for the series’ often slapdash execution, but it does bring Peepo Choo’s stronger points to a predominantly satisfying finish by continuing to explore the culture shock they share.”

In my look back at 2010, I named Peepo Choo as the title I had the most Love-Hate relationship with and that’s definitely accurate to how I feel about it, though leaning more to love than hate. I really loved what Felipe Smith did to tell the tale of culture shock to the extreme but I found the overuse of violence and sex, while not anything much worse than what I’ve read elsewhere before, still too over the top in context of the story. What really got me in this final  book though was how quickly the yakzua plot line was wrapped up though. It didn’t feel very satisfying and was too rushed, feeling like the story was forced to a close instead being given the chance to play itself out.

Peepo Choo was memorable for all its own reasons, to say the least, and while I think despite how unfortunately rushed the ending felt, it still did well to end at three volumes. It was definitely a fun ride at parts but one I was good and ready to get off.


ANN Review: My Bad!

ANN Review: My Bad!

New review of mine posted over at AnimeNewsNetwork for a one-shot boys’ love called My Bad!, published by June manga:

“This book’s title speaks for itself like an apology from the artist. Either stagnant and predictable, or unnerving and unpleasant, there’s little to recommend about this boring batch of tropes that falls short of even making fun of itself.”

I’ve often found boys’ love one-shot collections mediocre but this one took it to a new level because even when it did try to step out of BL-bounds and be quirky, it was just gross or poorly executed. And some of the artwork, on the chapter illustrations in particular, were so disproportionately drawn! I get to wonder how those make it past editors sometimes. I’ve heard good things about the manga artist, Rize Shinba, so I hope My Bad! is an anomaly.


Review: Crimson Hero (Vol. 14)

Reviewer: Shannon Fay
Crimson Hero (Vol. 14)

Manga-ka: Mitsuba Takanshi
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: November 2010

Synopsis: “In an attempt to stop the vicious rumors spreading at Crimson Field High School, Nobara ended her relationship with the boys’ team captain Yushin. But when she runs into Haibuki, a talented boys’ team player who mysteriously left school when he found out about Nobara and Yushin’s romance, Yushin is the first person she calls. Can Nobara and Yushin convince their heartbroken teammate to return to Crimson Field?”

A good sports manga makes it so that the game scenes and character development go hand in hand. As the characters play they are growing and changing and finding out about themselves and others through how they play the game. In this volume of Crimson Hero, the balance is a little off. There’s a lot of the characters interacting, but not enough of them playing volleyball. While character development is never a bad thing, Crimson Hero has always worked best for me when the characters work things out on the court. Any scene where they’re just hanging out slows down the manga.

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ANN Review: Ouran High School Host Club (Vol. 15)

ANN Review: Ouran High School Host Club (Vol. 15)

New review of mine over at AnimeNewsNetwork this afternoon, this time for the newest volume of my newest manga-love, Ouran High School Host Club (Vol. 15).

I marathoned the entire series (released so far) in about a week leading up to reviewing this newest volume and I’ve easily found one of my favourite manga series. I’ve already seen the anime a few times (for which Funimation and all the VAs did amazing work, by the way) but I never felt compelled to read the manga. Thank goodness for the cheap up-to-date set that I was able to buy from Strange Adventures!

The series overall is really cute and silly in the best of ways, and I was really glad to see the art improve so much over the duration of the story. The amount of character development slipped in over time was impressive, though it did start beating readers over the head by around volume twelve. How can people be so in love with someone but not realize they’re in love?! It boggled the brain. But in the fifteenth volume, a lot of these emotional elements are resolved and now it’s up to the final few volumes to show us what comes of it. I’m eager to find out!


Review: Crown of Love (Vol. 04)

Reviewer: Shannon Fay
Crown of Love (Vol. 04)

Manga-ka: Yun Kouga
Publisher: Viz Media
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: November 2010

Synopsis: “Rima begins to question her feelings for Ikeshiba after the night he kissed her. Finding herself shocked that it wasn’t what she imagined it would be like, her thoughts turn to Hisayoshi. But Hisayoshi, frustrated with Rima’s constant rejection, has gone missing. Will his absence finally make Rima realize how much he means to her?!”

Crown of Love is a shojo manga about an ordinary teenager who decides to become a superstar in order to impress a certain someone. In this past month alone I’ve read two manga with the very same plot (Honey Hunt & Skip Beat) but while those series manage do something new and different with the idea, Crown of Love plays it straight, delivering a clichéd story with very few surprises.

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Review: Only the Ring Finger Knows (Vol. 01)

Reviewer: Jaime Samms
Only the Ring Finger Knows (Vol. 01)

Author: Satoru Kannagi
Manga-ka: Hotaru Odagiri
Publisher: June
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Release Date: March 2006

Synopsis: “It’s the ultimate expression of love to wear matching rings with your significant other, showing the world that you are a couple. High school student, Wataru Fujii, also wears one even though he is single. When he accidentally switches rings with a popular and handsome senior, Yuichi Kazuki, they discover that their rings pair up! Since that moment, Kazuki – who is known for being kind to all – becomes strangely harsh to Wataru. They alternate between hot and cold, as in between clashes they begin to sort their feelings for one another. Are Wataru and Kazuki the worst of enemies or are they actually soulmates?”

This is most assuredly your typical boys’ love high school romance, with the harsh seme protecting his feelings by trying hard to hide them and the confused uke denying he even has them. What isn’t typical about Only the Ring Finger Knows is the way in which Kazuki secretly falls for Wataru and all out stalks him long before they ever even meet.

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ANN Review: Ghost Hunt (Vol. 11)

ANN Review: Ghost Hunt (Vol. 11)

One of the more disappointing books I’ve read lately, I reviewed the eleventh (and possibly last) volume of Ghost Hunt for AnimeNewsNetwork.

This book was disappointing for a number of reasons but acting as pinnacle for the issues I’ve had with the series in this later half would be the jist of it. The art looks lazy and the word bubbles are haphazardly tossed around and the cast of characters feel so… flat. Mai was alright which is good since she was the only one really relevant in this one. Alas this wasn’t how I wanted my last manga-experience with this cast of ghost hunters to go.

Regarding the existence of a twelfth book, I really don’t know what to expect for the fate of this series’ final volume. Del Rey marketed this volume as the last but there is one more out in Japan, with this volume’s cliffhanger leading into it. Of course I’d love to read it – it looks like it would go into Naru’s backstory – but I’m not holding my breath. I am looking pleadingly at Kodansha Comic’s direction though. Please give the series one last chance to remind me why I loved it so much before, okay?


Review: No Touching At All

Reviewer: Shannon Fay
No Touching At All

Manga-ka: Kou Yoneda
Publisher: June
Rating: Mature (18+)
Release Date: November 2010

Synopsis: “On his very first day at a brand-new job, shy Shima is trapped in the elevator with a hungover mess of a guy…who turns out to be his boss! Togawa’s prickly exterior definitely puts the rookie recruit on-edge, but it doesn’t take long before Shima’s every waking thought is invaded by his overbearing yet totally thoughtful superior. Will Shima put aside a history of disappointment in order to take a chance on a complicated relationship?”

From the summary No Touching At All sounds like plenty of other workplace yaoi where an overbearing boss harasses his shy subordinate into some after-hours hanky-panky. But No Touching At All is a less a sordid office scandal and more of a laid-back love story. The slow pacing really helps sell the realism of the characters and the world. If you’re looking for a yaoi where the characters are going at it from page one, this isn’t it. The characters spend more time working at their cubicles than they do making out (another touch of realism).

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ANN Review: Genkaku Picasso (Vol. 01)

ANN Review: Genkaku Picasso (Vol. 01)

Boxing Day already? Amazing how long we plan, purchase and pace waiting for Christmas and then it’s over in a flash! I hope everyone who celebrates it had a Merry Christmas and enjoyable time spent with family and friends. Maybe even some manga under the tree perhaps?

With the new year coming up in a little under a week, it’s a good time for me to get caught up on posting to my AnimeNewsNetwork reviews here on Kuriousity (which as a reminder you can now find at kuriousity.ca!).

Back at the end of November my review for the first volume of Genkaku Picasso was posted. Overall I liked reading it, having fairly high expectations of all the things I’d heard of and read of Usamaru Furuya’s works before. The premise is really interesting – a boy granted the ability to help others by manifesting their inner-selves in his artwork – but it suffers from a very cut-and-dry episodic execution. A neat plot and generally entertaining characters balanced out with the tedious pacing well enough to make me look forward to the next volume, which should be out early February. More creepy in-story artwork and their androgynous artist to come!


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