Tag Archives: shojo

Review: Limit, Vols. 1-2

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Limit, Vol. 1Limit, Vols. 1-2
Written and Illustrated by Keiko Suenobu
Genre: Shojo/Survival/Horror
Publisher: Vertical Inc.
176 pages | $10.95 US, $11.95 CND
ISBN-13: 978-1935654568 (vol. 1)
ISBN-13: 978-1935654575 (vol. 2)

Seeing Vertical get into shojo was a bit of a surprise. Princess Knight, a Tezuka classic, was a highly demanded piece of work from the Tezuka fan-base that Vertical has cultured, so it wasn’t a surprise to see that published, but Limit is arguably their first attempt to break into a vampires, glitter, and flowers market (I say this endearingly, since the majority of manga I read is shojo).

Please note that this review may contain spoilers. Find out how to win the first two volumes of the series here!

Despite the genre it has been lumped into, Limit certainly follows Vertical‘s edgy, indie ethos. The story follows Mizuki Konno, a self-described “popular girl” who hangs with the right people in school and does the right things to stay popular. On the outside, she is bubbly, careless, but cute, hiding a calculating and stone-cold personality. Her clique picks on a few people, but none more than Morishige, a tarot otaku, making her the brunt of jokes and putting her in situations that embarrass her. The beginning of the book is very Mean Girls, but things suddenly change when the school trip to a week-long camp-out crashes deep into the Japanese forest. Suddenly, the matriarch of Konno’s clan is dead, and the girl at the bottom of the heap, Morishge, now controls the group of survivors with social manipulation and by wielding a scythe (a “tool” brought a long to the camp to cut long grass).

The power twist and destruction of social order in Limit is very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies. Controlling the one weapon gives Morishige all the power, and her rage at being tormented by her peers corrupts her decision-making. There are survival things going on here too, like catching fish and collecting other food, but the real action is Morishige’s maniacal leadership. Seeing how Konno and the other girls in the group react to Morishige is the strength of Limit, and its real draw for me in future volumes (plus a major plot twist I won’t reveal here at the end of volume 2).

Limit, Vol. 2Keiko Suenobu has had another piece of work published in the USA (Life, which was published in 2006 by TOKYOPOP) and her art seems to have improved substantially since that time. Limit is gorgeous. Great shading, dynamic panels, and some of the best power and action lines I’ve seen in shojo manga (or any manga for that matter) to date. Suenobu’s characters are well drawn and well conceived. Morishige as a tarot otaku is a great touch in the middle of volume one; the creepiness of the girl sitting in the middle of a pentagram performing tarot ritual is almost unbearable after seeing some of the proceeding scenes.

One thing that I don’t understand about Limit is its proposed audience. While Vertical claims it is a shojo manga (Limit was published in Bessatsu Friend a manga anthology for teenage girls, and the original publication place of The Wallflower, My Heavenly Hockey Club, Othello, and Mars) it doesn’t seem to fall in line with any of the shojo trends that are currently popular. This doesn’t mean it’s not good manga, just that I find it hard to accept that the target age group is going to really dig Limit. I expect that Limit is more likely to be read by horror fans, josei/seinen fans, and less by those looking for a standard rom-com.

For my money, Limit is one of the better series released in 2012. It has amazing art, really interesting social power interactions, and a riveting storyline. 2013 is going to be a great year of manga because of Limit.


For Fans Of: The Lord of the Flies, Mean Girls, revenge thrillers, any survival story ever
Final Verdict: Highly Recommended

Review: Soul Eater Not! vol. 1

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Soul Eater Not!, written and illustrated by Atsushi Ohkubo
Publisher: Yen Press
Genre:  Slice of Life/Action/Fantasy
|203 pgs|$11.99 USA| $12.99 CDN|
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-21362-2

It makes sense to me that one of the most cutting edge manga in Yen Press‘ manga collection is Soul Eater Not! The series is published on the same day and date in the USA as it is in Japan, and is the only series that Yen Press releases with that schedule. In Japanese comics, it stands beside Rumiko Takahashi’s Rin-Ne from Viz Media as the only other mainstream* comic that is released day and date in both Asia and America. The reason why this makes sense to me has quite a bit to do with the characteristics of Soul Eater Not! - it is neither shojo, shonen, or moe, but rather a strange mix of all three.

The best way to describe Soul Eater Not! is that is not the same manga as Soul Eater, another popular release from Yen Manga. Written and illustrated by the same author and set in the same world, it even uses some of the same characters to tell a much different story. Tsugumi, our main character, is a girl enrolled in the DWMA, a international organization in charge of training meisters and “weapons” in order to make sure they are able to control their abilities and support the greater good. Think of it like a Tim Burton-flavored Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Students are categorized into two different groups – the EAT group, full of characters from the regular Soul Eater and badassery, and the NOT group, the mostly nonviolent portion of meisters and weapons at the school.

While Soul Eater is firmly in the camp of shonen with its ridiculous battles and the odd wars with witches (as far as I was reading at last mention), Soul Eater Not! is more slice of life fare, wherein its three female characters fit neatly into three separate manga tropes, do very cute things like work at a café, and go to class together, and more actiony things like decide what two people are going to be meister/weapon partners, fight some zombie-like interlopers, and protect each-other from marauding dorm-room evils. The tropes that the girls fall into are recognizable from manga like K-On!, but the action and potential love interest business also push it into both shonen and shojo territory. Frankly, it’s a bit of a everything, and because of that, it’s a pretty fresh read.

Ohkubo’s art is quite similar here when compared to Soul Eater, albeit a bit more refined. The volume itself has a lovely matte cover with glossy illustrated overlays. The pacing works for the odd mix of comedy and action, and the page layouts flow seamlessly from goofy moe-style humor to extreme action scene.

While I am not certain where Soul Eater Not! will head after this initial volume, I can say that it a fun, lighthearted popcorn read that offers a well formed fantasy world and hints of darkness lurking underneath a metric boat-load of cuteness. I found Soul Eater Not! fun and amusing, and having read some of the original Soul Eater, it’s a nice complement to Yen Press‘ more shonen-oriented flagship title.

For Fans Of: Soul Eater, a softer side of your favorite shonen beat-em-up
Final Verdict: Recommended

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*GEN Manga‘s releases are all same day and date, however the GEN Manga Anthology
 purposefully represents itself as cutting edge doujinshi manga.

Quick Picks: Jiu Jiu, Vol. 1

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Jiu Jiu, Vol. 1

Viz Media is releasing a new title through their Shojo Beat line up next week; Jiu Jiu is a 5 volume series serialized in Hana to Yume, the same anthology as Fruits Basket, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it. The two posing in  front are werewolves who have been adopted by the sword-wielding main character;. It sounds like a lot of fun. Check out Brigid Alverson’s advance review at MTV Geek.

Review: Sand Chronicles, Vol. 1

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Sand Chronicles, Vol. 1
Publisher: VIZ Media Shojo Beat(January 1, 2008)
Language: English
Genre: Shojo/Romance
Rated: OT for Older Teen
US $8.99, CAN $10.99
ISBN-13: 978-1421514772

I have read some comics that have been melancholy, sometimes even downright depressing. They are generally stories that show how people act towards personal tragedy or how they deal with atrocities. Comic books like Maus and Years of the Elephant show us personal pain and tragedy, and do it in a very unique fashion. Sand Chronicles may not be the most unique setting (the first volume focuses on school age Japanese students, like so much other shojo), but it is remarkably poignant and oftentimes saddening piece of fiction.

The story focuses on Ann, who starts the manga as a 12-year old who has just moved back to her mother’s rural Japanese hometown after her father and mother divorce. Ann meets other neighborhood kids, Daigo, Fuji, and Shika, and things seem to be going well for her, until the unthinkable happens – Ann’s mother commits suicide.

I feel torn by this turn of events. In one hand, the possibility of her suicide is hinted at, and her breakdown is a slow, gradual process in the beginning chapters of the book that makes it believable. But it is unequivocally the most depressing moment I have yet to read in a shojo comic.  I think that this is the general point of Sand Chronicles – it is a sad book, and it intrinsically deals with how people deal with sadness. Ann is dealt a pretty terrible hand in this first volume, and I think that she makes some very understandable mistakes, especially regarding her relationships, because of how her mother’s death overshadows her thoughts. It seems apparent that the relationships built in the first volume of Sand Chronicles cannot last, at least not in the forms in which they exist at the end of this volume. That would be making something very complicated far too simple.

The drama of these events, their effects on the human psyche, and the way that people deal with them, is a core feature of Sand Chronicles. Another is the way that Ashihara defrays her most serious situations with one-note jokes. And trust me, while I have dismissed other writers in the past for this same tendency, it works much better here, thanks to a well written adaptation, and for the sole fact that Sand Chronicles DESPERATELY needs these jokes. They are what keep the story from wallowing in the murk of despair and self-pity.

The art in Sand Chronicles is pretty standard fare, but it conveys all of the necessary emotion. I am reminded of We Were There and Monkey High!, but maybe with a little less fish-eye than We Were There and not quite the fluidity and bounce of Monkey High (all three series were/are published in Shogakukan’s Betsucomi, so this similarity may be on purpose).

Sand Chronicles is dramatic, and marked by sadness and worldliness that other shojo manga from Viz Media’s Shojo Beat line don’t manage to achieve. This is both a blessing and a curse; the series has the emotional gravitas to work out a mother’s death by suicide, but this gravitas also keeps the reading experience somber and heavy. Whether or not Sand Chronicles can stand out as a series past the first volume depends on its ability to develop a meaningful and reflective story that continues to acknowledge the drama and gravitas of the first volume. It will be interesting to see how volume two plays out.

Review: Otomen, Vol. 7

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Otomen, Vol. 7
Written and Illustrated by Aya Kanno
Publisher: VIZ Media Shojo Beat
Genre: Shojo/Romance/High School
Rated: Young Adult
200 pages, $9.99 US
ISBN-13: 978-1421532363

My first review of Otomen was also sort of a look at the digital manga content on Viz’s manga app for iPad. I am talking quite a bit about digital comics these past few weeks, but I wanted to go back to Otomen on the iPad and reexamine the series. I have been really enjoying the volumes between 1 and 7, but I think now is an appropriate time to follow up.

Otomen, for those who don’t follow this series, is a comic about a boy named Asuka who appears to be the manliest of men, but secretly loves shojo manga, cooking, sewing, and other “girly” activities. He is paired up with a “manly” girl named Ryo, and manga author named Juta who uses the relationship between the two as the basis of his best-selling manga series “Love Chick.” This pairing is sometimes interrupted by other people, such as a girly-looking boy who admires Asuka’s manliness, a flower-obsessed hunk, and one of Asuka’s rival martial artists who loves makeup. This diverse group all has one thing in common – they appear to be something, but deep inside they are the opposite of what everyone thinks they represent.

I think that there is a lot of truth in this seemingly little message, but I feel like that now that we have reached the 7th volume of the series, the same old plot constructs are getting a little stale. It seems as though the same plot point is used in every major arc in the series. Otomen uses this character technique again and again, and by the time we meet the hard rocker playboy in book 6, it’s almost guaranteed that he is going to be a giant softie. Not that this is bad – it’s actually quite fun to read. Still, I am looking for the series to develop a bit and it has instead stayed mostly the same.

There are some interesting things that happen in this volume despite its overuse of the “don’t judge a book by its cover” thing Otomen loves. We see Juta get into drag once again in order to do an autograph session for “Love Chick,” and meets his first high school sweetheart (the girl who got him into shojo manga in the first place) and a ghost story that Asuka solves despite his reluctance and fear of the supernatural. There is a huge cliffhanger based out of the last chapter that I won’t spoil here, but threatens to change the entire dynamic of Otomen. I doubt that this event will actually happen, because if it does, Otomen would have to be about something more serious. Otomen is mostly just a one-note comedy, so I would imagine whatever happens resolves in a status quo sort of way, but I’ve been wrong about this sort of thing before.

The art in volume 7 is not the best we’ve seen in the series, but it does plenty of good for the stories in this volume. Kanno definitely has the chops for the emotions, the rough action, and the cutesy bento, arts and crafts, and anything else that Asuka gets his hands on. Kanno is especially good at inserting little touches into her art – a good example is when Juta is busy writing manga – he likes to clip back his hair to keep it out of his eyes. This adds to what you know and understand about the character with very minimal talk, and some artists would miss opportunities like this.

While I’ve griped about Otomen in this review a bit, I truly love it to death. The formula, despite being present in essentially every volume, is a good one – Otomen has proven it can be a mine of comedy silver and gold. If you haven’t gotten your hands (or your mouse) on a copy of Otomen yet, do yourself a favor and get it. You won’t regret it. Just make sure you check your normal “this has to happen in shojo manga” expectations at the door.

Rescue Me! The Stellar Six of Gingacho

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I know what you all are thinking – Alex hasn’t been updating his blog lately, so he probably forgot about some of his ongoing series of articles. Well, dear reader, I am happy to prove you wrong this week with an update to my Rescue Me! series, where, for the new reader, I talk about some of my favorite and incomplete manga series published by now defunct publishers. I try to explain the reasons I liked the series and the reasons why I think the series should be rescued (and sometimes even suggest what publisher might benefit from licensing the series). This week, I am taking a look at a really low-key shojo slice-of-life series, The Stellar Six of Gingacho (Kirameki Gingachou Shoutengai, キラメキ☆銀河町商店街).

For anyone interested in looking at older entries in the series, here are the links!

1. Stolen Hearts
2. The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko
3. The Stellar Six of Gingacho
4. Skyblue Shore
5. Happy Café
6. Argentis Apothecarium
7. The Lapis Lazuli Crown
8. Suppli

The Stellar Six of Gingacho is a shojo manga series from author Yuuki Fujimoto, and it ran for a total of 10 volumes published in Hakusensha‘s Hana to Yume. It was part of Tokyopop‘s last wave of releases and licenses before Stu closed up shop and took the business out behind the woodshed. They managed to print two of the ten volumes en masse, and the third volume is somewhat of a manga rarity – copies do exist, but finding them is somewhat of a difficult proposition.

The series follows the lives of six friends whose parents all work at the Gingacho Street Market; each of the characters is a unique piece of a giant friendship puzzle. All together, they conquer their fears and the problems of the Street Market in their own way. As the group moves into middle school, they start to drift apart, but Mike (pronounced “Mee-kay”) is bound and determined to keep the group together. Mike is the lead of the series, and she is a food obsessed, emotional girl who is a lot of fun to read. Each of the other five street market kids is also really fun to read, and each has their own little quirks.

Other shojo “group of friends” manga certainly exists, but I have yet to come across a series that does it as well as The Stellar Six of Gingacho. It is a fun romp that still manages to capture a healthy dose of mono no aware and not be too dramatic about it. The Stellar Six of Gingacho is a great “growing up” story, and it’s a definite comfort manga – nothing too deep, but it certainly evokes a feeling of peace and contentment.

I would certainly love to continue reading this series, and I am certain a publisher like Yen Press would benefit from having this series in its stable. If no one bites to do a physical print run, I could certainly see JManga bring this to their digital storefront. It is a fun series that needs to find a new home.

Rescue Me! The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko

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Here at Manga Widget, we’re taking two solid months to look at abandoned licenses of great shojo and josei series from the late Tokyopop and CMX. Last week’s entry into the series was a feature on Stolen Hearts, a traditional shojo high school romance story from CMX with a lovely kimono twist.

Here’s the list of the series (and links back to previous articles in case you missed one).

  1. Stolen Hearts
  2. The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko
  3. Skyshore Blue
  4. The Ginkacho Stellar Six
  5. Happy Café
  6. Argentis Apothecarium
  7. The Lapis Lazuli Crown
  8. Suppli

This week’s rescue request is The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (笑うかのこ様, Warau Kanoko-sama), which is a three volume series originally licensed by Tokyopop in a wave of really fun licenses in the Winter of 2010/Spring of 2011. Written and illustrated by Ririko Tsujita, the series was originally published in LaLa DX, a shojo anthology from Hakusensha, which is a bimonthly sister publication to their LaLa anthology. LaLa DX generally debuts new series or one shot stories which can be turned into series if they are popular. Such is the case with The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko.

Hakusensha, as I have mentioned before, is now one of the mid-list major publishers who do not have any real publishing partners in the USA.

The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko is critically lauded in the manga community in the USA for its spunky heroine, a girl much like Harriet from Nickelodeon’s Harriet the Spy or Nico from Sexy Voice and Robo, who declares that she is the impartial observer of all her classmates antics; she records activities and personalities, and unearths particular traits, forbidden relationships, and sour relationships with gusto. The catchline of “objective observer” is more of a running joke, however- Kanoko always manages to get herself dragged into problems and manages to bring justice (or her version of it) to those deserving using her particular skill set to its advantage.

One of the most interesting points to The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko is its format; because LaLa DX is a bimonthly publication, most series have to reintroduce their running storyline in the first few pages of each chapter. While this could get tedious when transferred to the collected tankoban format, The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko uses this reintroduction to its advantage, having Kanoko transfer school at each new chapter (friends from the first chapter pop back into the storyline from time to time and help her out). This allows her to revisit her “objective observer” ways and really let her start dissecting problems at each new school, allowing her to get messily involved.

Tokyopop managed to get two of the three volumes published before their sudden closure, so we get to see most of the series in print from them. Still, having read the first volume, I want to know how the series ends. Being so close to completion is really disappointing, and there are other Tokyopop series that are stuck in this “one and done” mode, so close to being finished, but never completed.

Another strong point for this license (besides its small size) is that it has an apparently successful sequel currently running in LaLa DX (恋だの愛だの, Koi Dano Ai Dano) which is currently at 2 collected volumes in length. One point regarding this sequel which a few bloggers have mentioned is the second volume of Koi Dano Ai Dano and its fairly steamy cover, so perhaps we will get to see Kanoko give up her school hopping and start making some real and lasting relationships.

Two series with a total of 5 volumes is really small and affordable, so it would be great to see this manga revisited; an omnibus from Yen Press might be just the thing for this fun and quirky little series.

Moving Review: Otomen, Vol. 1

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Otomen, Vol. 1, Written and Illustrated by Aya Kano
Viz Media Shojo Beat
ISBN 9781421521862, 208 pgs.
$4.99 US digital (iPod & iPad only); $8.99 US

If you haven’t seen one of my moving reviews, please give a look at my last review of Monkey High, vol. 1. The results of a review are the following:

Keep: I liked the book enough to pack it up!
Donate: I liked it or think that others will like it, so I will donate it to the local library system
Trash: I didn’t like this book, and I wouldn’t donate it (eeek!)

One of the great new things about technology is the ability to have your books wherever you like as long as you have your digital device with you. While I certainly appreciate having a physical book and feeling the paper, smelling the ink, and experiencing the raw, unfettered joy of reading, I also enjoy being able to slip multitudes of books into my pocket, and the ability to read during downtime, long bus and car rides, and basically wherever I want. That is why when the Viz Manga App first hit the iPad shortly after the tablet’s debut, I was extremely excited. I would be able to take a whole stack of manga with me on the road. Now, with the iPod App, I can keep all my books between both devices and reread manga whenever I like.

Another good thing about the Viz Manga App is that allows me to check out series that I haven’t read or seen before at a discount price from their retail selling points, and that was good enough for me to check out the first volume of Otomen. Even more exciting, I picked up the volume during Viz‘s March Madness sale and got the first volume for a dollar; you can’t beat that price!

Otomen is a shojo manga about a high school boy named Asuka who is proficient in kendo and other martial arts and spends most of his time at school trying to be the manliest man possible – except that on the inside, he loves crochet, sewing, and cooking. In this first volume, we see him fall in love with Ryo, a girl who is fairly manly.

The premise of Otomen is really quite cute, but, without proper management, could have been pretty terrible. We’ve seen other manga with reversed gender roles (Ai Ore comes to mind) that have been schlock, and others (W Juliet, anyone) that weren’t really that… well, interesting. The whole premise would be fairly predictable, but a third main character, Juta Tanibacha, spices things up nicely as a mangaka who writes Asuka’s favorite manga series Love Chick (which is obviously based on Asuka and Ryo’s relationship, except their genders are reversed).

Despite previous attempts at this type of story, I think that Otomen is probably the best crafted that I have read. The characters are very well developed and the events in the plot, while a bit episodic, are also very basic and don’t try to complicate the general plot line. The first whole volume we see Juta crafting his manga while Asuka sputters about trying to work up the courage to ask Ryo out on a date. Seeing Juta help Asuka work through his problems and try to maintain friendship with his “muse” is really quite amusing, and still stays true to the idea of the story.The whole mangaka writing a story about two characters inside a manga is enjoyable meta-humor that I think is something rarely seen in shojo published in the US, and it is what makes Otomen such a great read.

The art is also wonderful – and yes, I realize that while I normally hate on the hearts, flowers, stars, and glitter, they are quite appropriate given the subject matter, and their use is never cloying, so I can put up with it in Otomen. The art is a subtle mix of shojo and shonen characteristics, which I liked, since there is plenty of “cool tough guy action” as well as stuffed bunnies and ornate bento lunches. I also appreciated the fact that Love Chick, the fictional manga-within-a-manga has completely different art than Otomen, which seems obvious, but is a nice touch.

As far as the digital delivery, Viz Media has done an excellent job with their manga app on the iPad and iPod. Books are easily downloaded and purchased in-app, and also easily read. While I dislike the fact that other tablet users and PC users are unable to access this content, it is a great delivery system for Apple devices. The cost per volume is also very acceptable, since at $4.99 I feel as though I am getting a pretty good deal for my entertainment dollar. Free samples allow you to view the first chapter of the fist volume of any series on the app, which is a good choice, and helped me decide to start reading Otomen. The advent of the Viz manga app will definitely not change my love for the written page, but I will most likely begin to follow specific series on the iPad because I am not necessarily that rushed to get them and I really like the price point. I am glad that Viz has entered the fray with this iPad/iPod app, and hope that they will continue to expand their offerings to other platforms.

As far as Otomen goes, I think it is great fun – it is whimsical and breezy and still has enough depth to satisfy those with tastes for more complicated stories. I am interested to see how the series will continue, especially with some of the hints at what could be some messy/complicated plot lines. I’m also interested in how Juta will play out as a mangaka – this part of the book is what really makes it tick, and I hope that we continue to see his progression as a character. Overall, Otomen is a great read that is cerebral enough to approach gender roles and identity and still has time for a “standard” shojo love story, an unusual mix that makes a really entertaining comic book. Highly Recommended.

Mover’s Ranking: Keep

It’s not hard to convince me to keep my iPad, and that’s one of the strengths of this type of content, but at the same time, even if I had the paperback books, I would be packing these up for my move. This is a manga you really need to read!

Moving Review: Monkey High!, Vol. 1

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Monkey High, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Shouko Akira
Viz Media Shojo Beat, 192 pgs
ISBN 9781421515182
US: $8.99, CAN: $11.99

One major thing after another is coming up this month, and for me, part of that is moving to the great snowy north of Cleveland. My manga collection is certainly a big part of my possessions, and in order to pack things like, well, clothing, I have to decide whether or not to keep or donate books that I have accumulated over the past 6 years. My shojo section is the first to be thoroughly scrutinized, and I’m going to be doing “mover’s reviews” with the end of the review being one of three options:

Keep – I pack it and bring it with me
Donate – I like it but I’m giving it away to our local library system
Trash – I don’t think it is good enough to donate to a library (…ouch!)

Cliche is a large part of manga writing. It makes sense, financially, to continue to produce similar products because your audience enjoys the similarity between one product and the next. That’s all well and good when you are making toasters, but with manga series, it tends to create books that are eerily similar to one another. Finding a shojo series where the girl finds the guy that is thoroughly unique is about as hard as can be. Writers tend to acknowledge these cliches by either avoiding them, trying to modify them slightly, or my favorite, subvert them. Monkey High! understands the stereotypes and the cliches, and tries to subtly subvert one of the underlying principles of almost every shojo manga – the heartthrob high school hottie always wins over the stubborn, stoic girl with some combination of charm, wit, sensitivity, and that winning smile.

Monkey High! is absolutely… not that. Instead of the hottie, our heroine, Haruna falls for the class clown, a short guy Macharu (who looks/acts like a baby monkey). She’s recently gone through some trouble since her politician father has fallen out of favor due to some political scandal. Its the same, “bad things happen, school transfer, meet the new kids, find a new boyfriend” storyline that is familiar to most shojo manga readers. Haruna is an interesting main character because of her initial misgivings about her new classmates. She likens students to monkeys, with their cliques and fighting, and aggressively does not want to build friendships and romantic relationships. This is a different style of character that lends itself more heavily to introspection and reflection than most shojo leads. Atsu, Micharu’s best friend, is the heartthrob of the series, and attempts to woo this cute new girl, but finds his suave moves incapable of winning her over. Instead, it’s Macharu, with his honest smile, simple acts of kindness, and forthright charm that catches her eye, and we get to see the two of them begin their relationship together after a long school field trip involving hiking and group cooking. The rest of the cast is mostly classmates who fade in and out of existence to facilitate some of the major scenes in the book, but don’t necessarily have names.

The art of Monkey High! is mostly serviceable, and comes from the same vein as Yuki Obata’s We Were There (although the eyes in Monkey High! look less fishy and more human). Nothing out of the ordinary here, besides some pretty nice panel composition. Shading and toning are all fairly standard, and while the lanky shojo character is the norm here, it is nice to see that both Haruna and Macharu are at least drawn slightly out of range of that normal “tall, skinny, and cute” shojo illustration palette that I am so used to seeing. Another change is the lack of glitter, flowers, and starbursts in the toning of this manga, which is generally a given in this type of shojo story. I for one, am quite grateful.

The best part about Monkey High! is its strength of character and pacing, which are natural and also (sadly) somewhat unique to popcorn shojo manga. This book has the tendency to make you think a bit more than its fluffier counterparts and for its troubles, Monkey High! ends up being quite an enjoyable romantic comedy. Where others have failed, Monkey High succeeds in its subversive attempts to reshape the shojo story, and delivers a well timed and appropriate coming of age story. While it is not the most breath-taking manga, readers will certainly enjoy this well illustrated, well written romantic comedy, and even readers weary of the genre can find a lot to like.

On a lighter note, if ever o’ ever a tagline were to be printed on a back of a book that could make me cringe, “Going bananas for love!” is definitely one. Really Viz?

Mover’s Ranking: Donate.

While I enjoyed Monkey High! I don’t have a lot invested in the series (I only own one volume), and it wasn’t great enough to make me want to read it again. Still, it’s a fun title and I enjoyed it, and I’m sure patrons at the local library would love it.

Rescue Me! – Stolen Hearts

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It is hard to for me to think about Tokyopop’s closure with any sense of finality, although their gigantic yard-sale has already come and gone. The company has been a part of the manga publishing market for as long as I have been reading comics on a weekly basis, so Tokyopop’s abrupt disappearance from the market is a bit unsettling. Tokyopop, for all its faults, was a champion of comics from some of the “mid-list majors,” manga publishers that don’t have an international imprint like Viz Media or Kodansha USA, but still publish plenty of manga in Japan. Another one of these “mid-list majors” champions was CMX (part of the parent company DC Comics), and now that both are gone, there are some excellent shojo titles that are both in limbo and deserving of continued publication.

When I originally started reading Tokyopop manga, I was reading harem comedy (aka Love Hina, Ai Yori Aoshi) which is essentially for guys, but once I stopped reading Tokyopop content in 2008, I stayed away from their shonen manga until picking up the first volume of Deadman Wonderland in December of 2010. I was disappointed with the series they were releasing, and wasn’t willing to pay money for the sleezy junk they were putting out for guys. What I did keep on reading was their shojo content, which, especially recently, has been quite a bit of fun. Here are some shojo and josei series that are currently unfinished from Tokyopop (and CMX) that I would love to see completed here in the USA.

1. Stolen Hearts
2. The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko
3. Skyshore Blue
4. The Ginkacho Stellar Six
5. Happy Café
6. Argentis Apothecarium
7. The Lapis Lazuli Crown
8. Suppli

Each week, for the next eight weeks (or more if I come up with more entries to add to my list), I will feature the series, and talk about my experience with the title and why I think it deserves to see completion.

1. Stolen Hearts

Stolen Hearts has been on my reading list for a while, but I never managed to track down both volumes of the series until my silent month of April when they sprung up on eBay. Although I had to pay higher than retail price for the books, I was happy to get copies to read. The story of Stolen Hearts features two high-schoolers, one, a towering behemoth that everyone is afraid of (Koguma) and a petite 4’10” girl named Shinobu who accidentally spills milk on a kimono in his backpack. Koguma’s grandmother is a dealer in antique kimonos, and to pay back Koguma, Shinobu agrees to model the kimonos and pass out fliers to get more business.

Along the way, the two become a couple and go through the little missteps and awkwardness of a new relationship. Koguma’s brothers interfere with their relationship, which is a simple, sweet, and not too complex love affair that buds in these first two volumes, and appears as though it will bloom into the third or fourth volume. What makes Stolen Hearts stand out (since this is a fairly ordinary shojo story) is the setting in which the events take place – mostly, in a kimono shop. The historic and complex formal dress of the Japanese woman is drawn in beautiful detail, and make the comic, in its black and white dressing, look positively stunning with cute, fun patterns and well designed outfits. The kimonos and the detail about Japanese dress add flair to a well-worn path, and to be honest, it feels as though this addition makes the “first love” shojo cliche into a whole new story.

Additionally, Stolen Hearts is a great shojo comic because not only does it reuse the shojo cliche events like the school festival, it does so without pretension, and I would say celebrates the genre with solid writing, undeniable charm, and a bit of a kimono twist. Not many books can do that, and for that reason, I feel that everyone who likes shojo should be able to read Stolen Hearts.

One of the saddest things about Stolen Hearts is the second volume – not the story, but the back-page insert, advertising a third volume of the series in October of 2010 (CMX was shuttered in the summer of 2010). I was more than willing to pay a little extra to get both volume 1 and 2 together and in good condition, and I am glad I did – the series has stolen my heart.

At 6 volumes total, Stolen Hearts is an easy rescue. It is a nice, small series that has charm in spades, and its short length makes it less costly to pick up and release. Stolen Hearts has a lot going for it, and definitely needs to be completed here in the USA. A smaller company like Digital Manga Publishing (EDIT: or JManga!) could pick this up without much difficulty and finish it here in the USA. I would even be happy with a digital-only release. This is a great series! Someone please rescue Stolen Hearts!